Gaming: Microsoft Says Windows 11 Now Has One Billion Users, 'up 45%...

It's not like we had too many other options. Yes, I know, Linux.

Microsoft released its 2026 second-quarter earnings report yesterday, and it turns out it made lots and lots of money. The tech titan reported revenues of $81.27 billion, although its shares reportedly fell 4% after the announcement of slowing cloud growth. Swings and roundabouts, ey?

But enough about the financials. The news I was most interested in came in MS CEO Satya Nadella's opening remarks, in which he revealed that its current OS has reached a significant milestone: "One billion Windows 11 users, up over 45% year-over-year".

It's not difficult to see why this might be the case. After all, Windows 10 experienced something of a slow death in 2025, as Microsoft turned off the lights and pushed the majority of users over to Windows 11. Sure, there's the Extended Security Updates program for those that really want (or have) to dig their heels in, but otherwise it's unsurprising that vast numbers of regular PC users have eventually made the switch, reluctantly or otherwise.

Not that Windows 11 is a particularly bad OS these days, at least in my opinion. It's had some seriously shaky moments, for sure, but as someone who uses it every day, I'd say it's currently in a reasonable state. Certainly, it's no Windows Vista or Windows 8. But it's the future of Windows overall that has me worried.

Currently, it's relatively easy to ignore the AI-ification of Windows 11. Sure, Copilot likes to plonk itself on your taskbar in a fresh install, and I'm not entirely happy with suggested AI prompts popping up in the settings search bar.

There's nothing wrong with the size of my mouse pointer, thanks. But while there are still a myriad of ways to tweak Windows to your liking (including this handy tool that scrubs Windows 11's AI features off the face of the earth), it's clear that Microsoft is going all-in on an agentic OS future, and Nadella's opening remarks were littered with the company's AI achievements.

If any of us were under the impression that more and more AI integrations weren't the future of all of Microsoft's offerings, now's the time to reconsider.

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Windows is changing, slowly but surely, and if all you want is an OS that gets out of the way and allows you to use your machine in a traditional fashion, I think that's likely going the way of the dinosaur in the next few years. Unless the

Source: PC Gamer