Microsoft’s wins, fails, and WTF moments of 2024

Microsoft’s best and worst of 2024, not surprisingly, centered around AI. When Microsoft was trying to force Copilot upon us, it didn’t go so well. But when it used AI to enhance what was already working, the results were much more successful.

For the last few years (2021, 2022, and 2023) we’ve recapped what I call Microsoft’s wins, fails, and WTF moments: Microsoft’s highs, lows, and the moments where you wondered what in the world that this company was up to.

We’re not going to try and piece together the company’s enterprise strategy (Azure and Copilot, basically). Instead, we’re sticking to the fun stuff: Surface, Game Pass, and the madness that is Microsoft’s AI. If you’re upset, write us a nasty email and then use Copilot to rewrite it in a “professional” tone. We’ll get to it…sometime.

Windows on Arm: WIN

When I reviewed the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition this past June, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, I tested the application compatibility, too. Certain apps like Slack, Google, Drive, VPNs, and some games have all either refused to run or simply struggled, while the experience of using an old printer on a Snapdragon X platform just hasn’t been all that great.

But by the fall, Google Drive had been ported to Arm. Slack runs flawlessly. VPNs including Nord now run natively on Arm. AMD and Intel offer full x86 compatibility, of course, and I can’t see PC gaming migrating to Arm for quite some time — unless Nvidia delivers on a rumored Arm chip, possibly. I still see myself hauling out an x86 laptop if I need to print something on my old Brother printer, but the Windows on Arm ecosystem looks more and more like the future of productivity PCs. Right now, my daily driver is the Arm-powered Surface Laptop, even with an Intel Lunar Lake laptop sitting on my shelf.

You actually listened! You did something about it! Bravo, Arm ecosystem. Whether you end up winning or not, competition is one of the most powerful market forces available. And we’ve all benefited.

Microsoft Recall: WTF

It’s hard to call Microsoft’s Recall anything but a fiasco, however it eventually plays out. Recall was supposed to be the one feature that drove consumers and businesses alike to Copilot+ PCs and Windows 11’s 2024 Update. I liked the concept, though I pointed out it would gobble storage by the truckload. Privacy advocates freaked out. Recall met with delay after delay while the concept was reworked to include opting out and the ability to remove Recall entirely.

Instead, Microsoft ended the year by seeding developer builds to either Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs or (in December) PCs powered by Intel Lunar Lake/AMD Ryzen AI 300 PCs. Surprisingly, Recall sort of faded from public view while the holiday season ramped up.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Microsoft appears to have done a decent job making Recall opt-in. In my Recall hands-on, though, I found Recall’s crime was inconsistency: It would snapshot some things, and not others. That left me unsure of whether I wanted to depend on it or not. At this point, “who knows” should be Recall’s slogan.

Windows 11 2024 Update: FAIL

Between the four Microsoft Windows Insider release channels, plus the differing timelines for both Windows on Arm (June, with the release of the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11th Edition) and x86 (October, with release of the Windows 11 2024 Update) and the varying timelines of individual Windows apps, this year has been a nightmare as far as understanding what’s coming out and when. And that even assumes Microsoft holds to the timetables.

Now, after dictating that users absolutely must adhere to the Windows 11 hardware requirements, Microsoft is now publishing guides to upgrade to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware? Between that and the consumer version of its Extended Security Updates plan for Windows 10, it feels like Microsoft is beginning to panic.

Surface Pro (2024): WIN

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 11th Edition has had over a dozen iterations to get it right, so the fact that the Windows tablet succeeded isn’t surprising. Here’s the way I see it: The Surface Pro 9 (5G), its predecessor, was an Arm tablet with a Qualcomm Snapdragon SQ3 chip inside that performed well when running Microsoft’s core apps. This year’s superb Surface Pro 11th Edition continues to expand the 9’s competencies into more mainstream apps.

Mark Hachman / IDG

This tablet wasn’t perfect — the OLED display needs tweaking, and the new Wireless Flex Pro keyboard offered maybe too much range? But if you’re the type of person who prefers a Windows tablet, the Surface Pro delivered. Even the occasional app incompatibilities have received prompt attention, which was refreshing.

Surface Laptop 7: WIN

Because of Microsoft’s unexpectedly compressed review schedule, I didn’t have a chance to try out the Surface Laptop 7 until after my colleague Matt Smith praised it to the skies. I think he’s right. For now, the Surface Laptop 7 is my daily driver, if only because the original Surface Laptop Studio may have crapped out on me.

For me, 2024 was the year that manufacturers gave up on supplying charging ports at press events, meaning that hauling around a power-sipping laptop was a must. Right now, the Surface Laptop 7 offers the best mix of long battery life, a great screen, and a comfortable keyboard. Do I want to use something with total x86 compatibility? I would, but the Asus “Lunar Lake” laptop on hand is just a little too laggy right now. For general office work, the Surface Laptop 7 has been a star.

Chris Hoffman / IDG

Game Pass tiers: WTF

My colleague Michael Crider summed it up neatly: Microsoft’s Game Pass just got Microsoft 365’d. What was once a relatively comprehensible two tiers of gaming goodness now is essentially four, or five, and now some plans offer you free games, and others don’t. I’m just lucky that I have accumulated points in Microsoft Rewards over the past few years and don’t have to think about it.

Surface Studio 2+, RIP: FAIL

No one loved the Surface Studio’s inexplicable choice of mobile parts, but people fell hard for its mammoth, swiveling touchscreen that invoked pure technolust in whoever viewed it. And now Microsoft has discontinued it.

Microsoft

Farewell, Surface Display. We weren’t the first to ask for it, but we won’t be the last. What an opportunity, now lost.

Microsoft Copilot: FAIL

Wait, the foundational AI tool that Microsoft reoriented its entire company around is a failure? From a consumer perspective, yes, it is.

Copilot is now an app, and a crappy one at that. Copilot’s attitude, thankfully, has evolved from a prissy assistant to something a bit more straightforward, but gone too are the options to set the tone as creative or informative. It’s just not especially helpful. Bing has also removed Copilot-driven results from its Bing results pages, and I can’t decide whether that was driven by user backlash or as an opportunity to save some money. Copilot can’t even control your PC any more.

Mark Hachman / IDG

What is Copilot at this point? Is it nothing more than a business subscription, Copilot Pro, which is already being bundled into some consumer plans because it can’t sell? While it’s probably fair to say that Microsoft is still figuring out who will use Copilot and for what purposes, “innovations” like Copilot Vision just go to show that Microsoft seems to be reinventing features that Copilot offered previously, for free. I’d like to say that I “get” Copilot, but right now it’s just a sticker slapped on whatever Microsoft wants to sell you next.

HoloLens 2, RIP: FAIL

The HoloLens has been effectively dead for years. However, Microsoft confirmed to UploadVR that it’s now really dead as a commercial product, even as the U.S. Army continues to futz around with the militarized HoloLens IVAS. Even if the HoloLens is dead, Microsoft is teaming up with Meta and the Meta Quest 3/3S to stream Windows to them.

IDG

The original debut of the HoloLens was one of the greatest demos I’ve ever seen. If only Microsoft could have got it right.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: FAIL

I’m not a flight simulator fan, but Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020 felt like a meditative tour of a world I could never visit, especially during the pandemic. Its real strength was that Microsoft set out to create a “digital twin” of the real world.

Flight Simulator 2024 takes that to another level, and that’s not always great. Microsoft only loads 50GB of data onto your PC, even though it shoots for a digital Earth that’s as photorealistic as possible, down to individual car traffic and even animals. That leaves tons of data to be streamed from Microsoft’s servers, which buckled under the load. (I barely made it out of the launch screen, myself.)

IDG

Yes, the result is apparently close to phenomenal. But for me, MSFS2024‘s experience didn’t impress, especially as reports say just playing the game sucks up 81GB of data per hour. For players with data caps, that makes MSFS2024 virtually an impossible proposition.

Microsoft Copilot+ PCs: WTF

A new processor, a new Windows feature update, a flagship Windows feature — all of the planets seemingly aligned for a new, powerhouse PC branding initiative? Well, Recall bombed. PCs with Intel’s Lunar Lake and AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 didn’t receive the Windows update which would deliver them Copilot+ PC features — and they still haven’t, Recall aside. Copilot?

It’s not all bad! More and more applications have been ported to Arm, which makes Copilot+ PCs that more powerful. But when we’re writing stories about how to fix Copilot+ PCs, you know you’ve failed.

Generative AI within Windows: WIN

If I were inventing a suite of creative apps within Windows, I’m not sure I would put all my chips on the legacy Paint app. But with innovations we saw this year in Paint (Cocreator) and Photos (background erase and generative remove) Microsoft is showing that there’s still room for smart, creative expression within Windows. Paint, Photos, and Clipchamp strip those creative processes down to their essences, then build up.

Microsoft

AI is used to good effect in things like Paint’s Generative Fill and Erase, without going too crazy (the exception is Cocreator, whose real-time AI generative art doesn’t really work). But even Clipchamp is getting AI-generated templates. AI, and local AI, represents fertile opportunities to improve the Windows core apps.

Personally, I wonder if Microsoft doesn’t have something up its sleeve for Windows Sound Recorder. We already have images and video — enhancing audio editing within Windows with some AI goodness seems like a no-brainer, right?

Windows95Man Paperclip: WIN

Sure, this might have nothing to do with Microsoft per se, but how can you not root for Teemu Keisteri, the Finnish representative for Eurovision 2024? Windows95Man caps off our list of the best wins, fails, and WTF moments of 2024 with the smash hit (?) “Paperclip,” which celebrates Microsoft’s iconic icon, Clippy.

We’ll see you in 2025!