Can you identify one single, solitary, success Microsoft had in 2025? Think exhausting. It certain ain’t straightforward.
In the years that PCWorld has catalogued Microsoft’s wins, failures, and head-scratching “WTF” moments, there’s all the time been a mixture of excessive factors and lows. I went by our record or tales, polled colleagues, even queried Copilot, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT. Microsoft’s strongest victory? It made cash, and quite a lot of it, even when few preferred what it was doing.
Boy, doesn’t that sound apropos for 2025?
If you’re a Microsoft hater, seize a fork and dive in, for there’s sufficient steaming schadenfreude for all. For everybody else, higher go trying to find some crumbs of the vacation’s desserts. There’s not a lot right here to have fun.
Xbox Game Pass worth hike: FAIL
Microsoft has made some dangerous choices, however aiming a Halo plasma rifle at its foot after which pulling the set off needed to be one in all its most consequential. That shot was fired Oct. 1, when Microsoft determined to raise the price of its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $19.99/mo to $29.99/mo, with a worth enhance to the Game Pass PC as effectively. And it got here solely months after the “Xboxalypse” noticed Microsoft jack up prices on Xbox consoles and {hardware}, too.
Microsoft
Fans went berserk, with many swearing after which swearing off Game Pass entirely. (It sounds very very similar to what occurred after Microsoft gutted its money-saving Microsoft Rewards in 2023 — which the corporate later backed off of.) Still, whereas Microsoft has raised its worth, Amazon is still selling Game Pass at the old price on the time I used to be scripting this, weeks after Microsoft’s worth enhance. So not less than there’s a loophole?
Microsoft’s politics comes underneath hearth: WTF
Politics continues to paint almost each side of public life, and Microsoft’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and Build convention grew to become two very public venues to criticize Microsoft’s actions on the world stage. Protesters broke in twice to the Seattle anniversary celebration, with one worker, Ibtihal Aboussad, claiming that Microsoft was profiting by promoting AI merchandise to the Israeli army, and contributing to the genocide in Palestine.
In August, Microsoft employees were fired after a sit-in at Microsoft’s headquarters with an analogous message. Protesters disrupted a Build keynote by CEO Satya Nadella as effectively. But pro-Palestinian teams continued to make their voices heard through November at varied Microsoft occasions. It was a WTF second within the true sense of the phrases, as tech’s relationship with authoritarian governments got here underneath scrutiny.
Meanwhile, co-founder Bill Gates and Nadella kissed up to President Trump at dinners on the White House, a show of obeisance to a president who tried and succeeded in deporting even naturalized residents like Nadella himself. Still, Microsoft couldn’t (and didn’t) actually do something in regards to the Trump tariffs, which panicked American taxpayers, companies, and buyers alike.
AI exhaustion: FAIL
In 2025, Copilot was in all places…and that was simply an excessive amount of for many individuals. Microsoft needed to justify its monumental funding into AI and responded by, er, “encouraging” customers to make use of Copilot in virtually each side of their day by day lives. Of course, Copilot is now within the Office apps, Edge, and even the Xbox app. Is it helpful as a productiveness device? As a author, I are likely to keep away from it — however to be truthful, there are examples of Copilot being used productively.
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Nevertheless, it’s exhausting to attempt to even doc the methods during which Microsoft has tried to inject Copilot into our day by day lives. Here are a number of, ridiculous examples: Do we’d like Copilot to have a face? Do we wish Copilot (or Teams) in our cars? Did we’d like Notepad to have Copilot type letter by letter? Who desires an “agentic Copilot” which might store for you? “No one asked for this,” certainly.
It was dangerous sufficient that we even wrote a narrative on how to turn off AI inside your PC.
Recall is simply too dangerous: FAIL
Politics apart, Microsoft additionally navigated a pointy, elementary divide on whether or not AI was really protected, not to mention useful. On one hand, Microsoft injected Copilot into nearly every little thing it may, from apps and companies, even when customers actually weren’t benefiting from it. But that was AI within the cloud; Microsoft additionally needed to provide you with some option to persuade shoppers that AI made sense on the PC, too. Recall, which stored searchable snapshots of what was stored on your PC, was the reply.
Mark Hachman / IDG
But Recall was delayed whereas Microsoft labored out privateness points, which then reserved it completely for Snapdragon processors earlier than laptops powered by AMD and Intel chips lastly acquired Recall, too. But by that point, the injury was accomplished: an authoritarian authorities had come to energy, shoppers had been suspicious of AI and resentful of Microsoft’s relentless Copilot advertising and marketing, and privateness points had been merely a really actual concern. I recommended you remove Recall and I’m glad I did, however even then Microsoft’s AI efforts on the PC weren’t significantly spectacular.
Windows 11’s 2025 enhancements: FAIL
Recall apart, what was Microsoft’s biggest AI accomplishment on the PC for 2025? In October, I requested Microsoft technical fellow Steven Bathiche what it could be. His suggestion: Semantic search. And that could be proper…nevertheless it’s not an actual show-stopper, both.
Both Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2 (whose variations had been nonetheless complicated) launched a revamped Start menu and tighter integration with Phone Link. To be truthful, Microsoft added various smaller options to Windows, too: Click to Do, enhancements to Windows Share, some tweaks to the Widget display and so forth… whereas removing more loopholes that allowed local accounts. Again: largely forgettable.
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Microsoft did take some massive swings: Copilot Vision did handle to assist me by some unfamiliar purposes, and my hope is that it continues to enhance. But Copilot Vision and Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot each sounded a lot better in idea than what they really achieved in apply.
Windows 11 Insider Program: FAIL
ZDNet’s Ed Bott spelled out what I’ve felt for many of 2025 however by no means really put pen to paper: the Windows Insider program is a mess, and that’s being beneficiant. There are 4 channels to roll out code, and none of these provide ensures that the code they check will arrive in your PC in a well timed style. Half the time it’s a coin flip over whether or not you’ll really get it. That leaves everybody concerned uncertain whether or not Microsoft’s announcement of latest options and new builds may even be examined.
Both Ed and I’ve additionally famous that principally your complete Windows Insider staff, the people who helped discovered and form this system, have lately moved on to different positions inside Microsoft. With the oft-cited rumor that Microsoft axed its quality-assurance groups many moons in the past, the truth that Microsoft’s beta groups have now given up (?) signifies that {that a} essential user-facing group is being led by who, precisely? At some level Microsoft goes to have clear this up earlier than shifting on to Windows 12.
I’m not going to mark Microsoft down for Windows 12, by the way. Users expected it, however Microsoft stayed silent. It additionally seems to be like Windows 11 26H1 won’t be testable unless you’re on a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, which means that Windows 12 could not land in 2026, both.
Copilot+ PCs: FAIL
Microsoft started with the AI PC, then moved to Copilot+ PCs. Neither significantly mattered, as sales of Copilot+ PCs plunged in early 2025 and Intel publicly acknowledged that customers were interested in older hardware, somewhat than their newest processors with NPUs inside.
The causes, although, look like nuanced. Laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors inside them offered poorly, although Qualcomm’s market share was all the time far behind AMD and even Intel. For its half, Intel by no means actually specified if prospects most popular older processors due to poor “Arrow Lake” gross sales, or in the event that they didn’t see the attraction of both the Core Ultra 100 or 200-series processors. Either method, it’s not like shoppers have a selection in relation to laptops; if just about all laptop computer processors include NPUs, finish customers will find yourself shopping for Copilot+ PCs anyway.
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Still, the Copilot+ model doesn’t have a lot to supply. AI options like Microsoft Recall by no means had a lot influence, and Microsoft pushed options like Copilot Vision, to all PCs, not simply Copilot+ customers. The biggest impact may come from Windows ML, designed to route “AI” duties to a CPU, GPU, or NPU — no matter’s out there and is greatest for the job.
Windows 10 transition: WIN
I’m giving Microsoft a win right here, partly as a result of what was marketed as a pointy, main transition between the (comparatively) beloved Windows 10 and the (comparatively) mediocre Windows 11 wasn’t the exhausting touchdown Microsoft initially made it out to be. Microsoft provided numerous avenues to remain on Windows 10 for another year, from paying a small price to establishing Windows Backup, to, effectively, being forced to by the European Union. It may have been worse.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
You may argue that Microsoft simply delayed the inevitable, pushing out the Windows 11 transition to a different 12 months. But in a way, it already occurred. If Microsoft is lifeless set on you utilizing AI, however doesn’t care that a lot about AI past Copilot, and Copilot is already half and parcel of Microsoft 365 in addition to the Copilot app, then it doesn’t actually matter which OS you really use.
Microsoft’s “Handheld Xbox”: FAIL
This was a troublesome name. I consulted my colleagues Adam Patrick Murray and Michael Crider for this one, each of who’re extra in contact with the hand-held gaming scene than I’m.
Adam: “The handheld itself was awesome, but the Xbox fullscreen experience was a fail.”
Crider: “Also, Microsoft already spread that UI to other handhelds, giving up its one actual benefit immediately.”
Michael Crider/Foundry
Adam: “Other than the fact that this is not an Xbox, it just doesn’t have the basic usability of either an Xbox or SteamOS, which is the real issue here.”
So, to recap: Microsoft’s “handheld Xbox” really turned out to be third-party {hardware} (the Asus ROG Ally X) made by the Asus ROG staff. Since the {hardware} was formally credited to Asus, I’ve to offer them the victory right here, whereas sort of questioning what all of the Windows UI fuss was about. Bringing in other storefronts’ games was definitely good, although, as was Microsoft’s try to streamline shaders in games.
Microsoft’s Surface desert: WTF
For the primary time in effectively over a decade, I didn’t personally evaluation a Surface machine in 2025 — probably as a result of I grew to become fed up with Microsoft’s pricing technique and called it a ripoff, not less than the place the Surface Pro is anxious. To be truthful, Microsoft suffered a self-inflicted Surface scarcity: first refreshing the otherwise stellar Surface Laptop 7 as well as the Surface Pro 11 with Intel Core Ultra 200 (“Lunar Lake”) processors to appease companies, after which providing smaller, fanless variations of each units with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Plus chips inside. Our Swedish colleagues merely determined to buy the smaller Surface Pro and test it somewhat than look ahead to Microsoft’s provide to evaluation it. Smart resolution.
Then there was the revamped Surface Laptop with 5G, which felt like an afterthought. And adios, Surface charger — most likely not the worst factor on this planet.
Matthew Smith / Foundry
I don’t actually know what to make of Microsoft’s Surface technique in the meanwhile. I completely favor an X86 chip for gaming, however Microsoft’s dedication to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips appears completely justified. The drawback? I’m one of many few who believes it. With Panos Panay now drafting new units for Amazon, and Microsoft completely fixated on AI software program and companies, Surface appears to be in limbo. Memo to Microsoft: begin telling the world what Surface stands for in 2026.
Microsoft Making Money: WIN
The backside line (ahem) is that Microsoft continues to rake within the money, partly by upselling each group it may well into Azure and associated companies contracts. As you may see from the chart beneath, Microsoft annual income and internet revenue continues to extend, and Microsoft’s share worth (which we don’t care about, however others do) completed larger than when it started. In the previous ten years, Microsoft’s share worth has elevated about 9 occasions versus 2015.
It have to be famous, nevertheless, that I generated the above chart utilizing Anthropic’s Claude AI, not Copilot.
Copilot drew me a pleasant line graph of Microsoft’s quarterly outcomes, then crashed after I requested it for a bar chart as an alternative. The ensuing chart (beneath) seems to be good, till you zoom in; Microsoft made $76.4 billion within the fourth quarter of 2025 on $27.2 billion of internet revenue. That’s method off from what Microsoft supplied. It does make you surprise what individuals are paying for.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Let’s hope that 2026 isn’t worse
Insiders have been saying for years that Microsoft has stopped caring in regards to the client, and is targeted on companies as an alternative. Keep in thoughts that PCWorld focuses on the tip customers and primarily shoppers. (Our sister business-to-business purposes like Computerworld dive deeper into Microsoft’s successes there…and its failures, too.) Microsoft’s gross sales groups have satisfied enterprises to pay massive bucks for its cloud companies, and people cloud companies are price excess of a bunch of cranky shoppers.
Really, although, does anybody assume that Microsoft is headed in the precise course? No one appears to be proud of Microsoft’s plans, choices, and rollout schedule. The PC market is coping with ongoing part shortages and worth hikes, and the all the time looming menace of tariffs. In years previous, initiatives like Surface have been the torch that Microsoft carried, illuminating the best way ahead. This 12 months, evidently Microsoft was as misplaced as everybody else.