There are a lot of things Windows 11 has been criticized for, but some of the big problems are with seemingly basic features. Even years after they were implemented, these four Windows features are still giving me trouble.
Windows Update has had trouble on Windows 11
It isn't just the content—updating is broken
Windows 11 has had a rough few years. Hardly a week goes by where there isn't an emergency patch to fix something that broke after an update, and many updates have pushed features that have been roundly criticized by Windows enthusiasts and casual users alike. It has become enough of a problem that Pavan Davuluri, the Executive Vice President of Windows, published a rather lengthy post on the Windows Insider blog.
Beyond the content though, Windows Update itself has some glaring issues.
The single biggest is related to automatic restarts. If it worked as intended, Windows would silently download Windows updates in the background and then perform an automatic restart when you're not using your PC .
However, that sometimes isn't the case. A few times a year, Windows will decide that a pause in my writing to collect my thoughts is a great time to drop everything and perform an update.
Similarly, when you click the power button and select Restartrather than Update and restart,you're going to get the update anyway, whether you want it or not. Most of the time, this is just a nuisance, but if I need to perform a restart while I'm in the middle of something, stopping for an update is a very unwelcome break.
For better or worse, there is no good way to get around this feature—Microsoft tells me to update, and whether I like it or not, I'm getting the update.
Widgets feel more like a social media feed
Another widget failure for Windows
Windows has a long and tumultuous history with widgets. Windows Desktop Gadgets was arguably the best attempt, but eventually, security vulnerabilities led Microsoft to abandon the Gadgets entirely.
Windows 11 tried a totally different approach and added a large Widget panel instead of Live Tiles or helpful miniature applications that float on your desktop.
By default, it includes a huge amount of information that I don't really care about, and it reminds me of a social media feed in all the worst ways. The default setting shouldn't be a deluge of information that probably won't be relevant to most people.
Windows 11 has a decent foundation for widgets, but it needs to be easier to customize and feel less like looking at a billboard. Thankfully, we've already seen some improvements since Windows 11 was released, and it looks like Microsoft has more planned for the near future .
OneDrive is a bit of a wild card
It has deleted my files more than once
Microsoft really pushes you to use OneDrive. Unless you go out of your way to stop it, it'll be installed and set up as a default part of the Windows installation process. In theory, its great. You get built-in cloud storage that ensures you don't lose your most important files to a random hard drive failure.
There's just one problem: OneDrive is a bit erratic.
The most common problem I run into is related to syncing. For reasons I can't explain, sometimes a folder will just not sync. A restart usually fixes it, but it shouldn't happen at all. In testing other cloud services, I never ran into this problem with Proton, Google Drive, or even NextCloud.
OneDrive also occasionally deletes things without much warning. If you search the web, you'll find a huge number of complaints about this. Some of it results from unclear settings in OneDrive; more rarely, the problem is an actual glitch that deletes your files.
Whether the issue is dubious user interface choices or software glitches, software that is enabled by default—and actively pushed on your—should be easy to use and bug-free.
The Settings App still seems like beta software
It's been ten years, why is it still incomplete?
Microsoft has been moving Windows away from the old Control Panel for more than 10 years now. Despite the length of time, and despite the fact that the Settings app and Control Panel are absolutely essential utilities, the process is still incomplete.
The biggest issue now is feature parity.
Some of the settings have been moved to the modern Settings app, while others are still buried in a legacy menu that has been around since Windows 98. Worse yet, sometimes you wind up clicking through the "new" Settings app only to find that the final step actually just opens the legacy menu that is on the first page of the Control Panel.
Even areas that have been moved, like Audio or Sound settings, don't have all the options moved over yet.
Unfortunately, it also isn't particularly easy to determine if something has been moved over or not. The search bar helps some, but it isn't perfect.
It also suffers from a slight usability problem. The user interface has a lot of empty space, which is great if you're using it on a touchscreen. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of Windows PCs don't have a touchscreen, which just means there is a conspicuous amount of empty space.
It isn't a dealbreaker, but I'd rather have more information front and center and fewer things buried in submenus.
Microsoft is moving in the right direction
Despite Windows 11's rocky launch and updates, Microsoft is taking steps to fix many of the major complaints. In March 2026, there was a long blog posted on the Windows Insider blog that outlined several changes and improvements coming to Windows 11.
If Microsoft can actually manage to enact their plan, it'll solve most of Windows 11's problems.
