Why is Windows becoming more and more annoying?

Microsoft's internal documents recently revealed what the Windows giant is doing. The documents were made public for a short time, and the company had to submit them to the court in the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit to block the company's plan to acquire video game maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.

The contents of the document, dated June 2022 and published by The Information , include a heavily redacted 50-page PowerPoint presentation titled “State of the Business,” along with two lengthy memos from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to the company’s board of directors and senior leadership team.

According to the memo, the company has detailed plans to generate more revenue from its massive Windows installation base. Microsoft increasingly views Windows as a giant billboard where it can promote and cross-sell other products. Nadella summarizes the initiative in a memo titled “Microsoft’s Growth Strategy: A Plan for Achievement.”

Microsoft CEO said there are now more than 1.3 billion active Windows devices, with nearly 750 million owned by users. Microsoft's priorities are to maintain the competitiveness of the Windows ecosystem and increase adoption, engagement, and monetization of applications that rely on its ecosystem.

Adopting Windows 11 not only delivers a better user experience but also helps monetize its apps and services more effectively. Microsoft has many opportunities to improve adoption and monetization of key high-value services on Windows PCs, including Game Pass, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 end-user subscriptions, and in-browser and feed advertising.

This may not come as much of a surprise, Microsoft is a giant software company selling products in a market that is no longer growing and has significant pressure to lower prices, so it will start looking elsewhere for revenue.

The company has taken the same approach it has with Office, moving Windows from a one-time license to an annual subscription service. Microsoft is also aggressively pushing Windows to the cloud, with Windows 365 available for business customers who want to give their employees a full Windows PC experience through a browser. The current target may be consumer businesses, but it will be years before a cloud-based version of Windows is ready for mass adoption by the global consumer market.

So in the meantime, it's launching Microsoft Plus—a collection of consumer services it wants to upsell and promote through Windows PCs, which it lists under the heading "Current Priorities" for its Modern Living solutions area.

The document says that in the current PC era, Microsoft envisions serving more than 1.5 billion people every day through productivity devices, software, and services for work, entertainment, and education through an integrated and personalized Windows Plus experience.

Vì sao hệ điều hành Windows ngày càng trở nên phiền toái? - Ảnh 1. — Microsoft is looking to increase revenue from Windows operating system

There are multiple instances in the document that point to greater integration between Windows 11 and Microsoft Plus services. This is part of the Search, Ads, News, Edge group. The company says the main goal is to create differentiated and personalized content, search and shopping scenarios to drive higher usage from its hundreds of millions of existing users.

Microsoft will increase Bing and Edge usage by differentiating the products to meet the needs of high-value consumers (e.g., making Edge the best browser for shopping). In addition to improving differentiation, the company hopes to create more usage and attract new consumers through enhanced integration into the Windows shell as part of Windows 11.

Many users have already seen Windows 11 widgets that include news headlines and ads from Microsoft's ad network as non-removable options. Microsoft Teams is also being embedded into Windows to counter the threat from Google's Chromebooks.

Of course, Microsoft isn’t alone—Apple has been aggressive in pushing its own services on Macs and iOS devices, and it makes a lot of money from advertising in its App Store. Google services and advertising are a big part of the Chromebook experience, but this is relatively new territory for Windows.

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