It's PC Gamer's Gripes Week and you know what Windows 11 is… mostly fine. But it sure ain't perfect

I'll be honest, I really thought we'd have more gripes about Microsoft's pervasive operating system as a team. For all the excitement about SteamOS and the still-raw potential of Linux as a gaming platform, pretty much everyone on the PC Gamer team is still running Windows on their main systems. There are certainly some complaints about the big M's latest operating system, and some common complaints, too.

Audio is a regular pain in the rear when it comes to Windows—though the same is certainly true of Linux distros, too—and the many, many different settings and control panel screens in the OS is another regular complaint.

But as much as there are frustrations with the software itself, and its propensity to upgrade you without asking, especially if you're still rocking Windows 10, it really seems the groupthink is the operating system itself is actually kinda fine. Most of us are alright with largely ignoring its various foibles and just getting on with playing our games, and it's just the idea of the dominant force of Microsoft (and its less-than-stellar current ethical policies) that's maybe irritating the back of our brains.

As I say though, we do have gripes, so allow us a moment of cathartic expression of our collective Windows-based grievances. Let us know what your biggest Windows gripes are in the comments.

They got rid of WordPad for no good reason

What the hell, man? I'm just supposed to forget decades of muscle memory that sees me type "word" into Windows search whenever I want to jot something down? And for what? Because the ability to make text bold is too advanced for software packaged with Windows? [*cough* Notepad *cough* -Ed.] Gotta sell those Microsoft 365 subscriptions?
—Tyler Wilde, Editor-in-chief, US

So. Much. Legacy. Crap.

One of the biggest boons and pitfalls of Windows as an operating system is the sheer amount of legacy—for want of a better word—crap baked into it. On the one hand that allows us to still play games from the '90s on a modern gaming PC, sometimes to lesser or greater degrees of success, it must be said. But on the other hand there is so much old stuff still floating around in the background that it can feel a little bit like going back in time trying to find that one specific setting toggle you know is in there somewhere.

You'll sometimes find yourself in some sort of Windows 2000-era backwater of your OS, with the desiccated corpse of Clippy slumped against the corner of your desktop, covered in cobwebs, just trying to figure out how to disable a network adapter.

Seriously, why does the Control Panel still exist in a world where Windows 11 has a settings area where all that stuff should exist? Mostly because the little applets still work and no-one in Microsoft can be bothered to create updated versions in its Fluent Design UI. And because they're all very busy figuring out new ways to jam AI into our daily lives to amaze and annoy in generally unequal measure.

Still, it does give rise to some amusing bugs on occasion, such as the one where the Vista startup noise appears on Windows 11 machines. That jump-scare has been known to engender some real PTSD-like symptoms in those who actually had to suffer through arguably Microsoft's worst operating system, ever.
—Dave James, Editor-in-chief, Hardware

Total Start Menu and Taskbar downgrade

Windows 10 had its problems, but the taskbar and start menu were really good, with search based architecture that made finding things a breeze. Somehow, Windows 11 has thrown out all of that good work. The Start Menu earns my ire about 5 times a day

For the taskbar: you need to do some serious tweaks to return the Start button to its correct spot on the bottom left of the screen. Once that's done, it's hard to work out which apps are running and which apps are merely pinned for quick access. The taskbar buttons also show less information than the Windows 10 buttons, making this a flat downgrade.
—Jake Tucker, Editorial Director, PC Gaming Show

Windows Wi-FI weirdness

Why won't Windows 11 ever install Wi-Fi or LAN drivers when you're on a fresh install?!

Every time I go to build a PC, the darn thing requires manually installing the correct drivers, or circumventing the whole 'connect to a network' screen altogether with some command line shenanigans. This never seemed a big issue on Windows 10—I suspect due to the fact it was much more easy going on the install requirements than the newer OS and didn't require access to a network. But Windows 11? No, you have to first have a panic about your motherboard being broken, the Wi-Fi not working properly, and then realise it's all a big driver facade.

The command line prompt that used to get around this was OOBE\BYPASSNRO. This bypass has since been 'patched' (if that's even the correct term for removing a handy workaround). Don't worry, you can still use this new command line workaround for Windows 11. Though you can always try to install the drivers from a USB stick on the set-up screen, I just find it doesn't always work.
—Jacob Ridley, Managing Editor, Hardware

Windows unhides my taskbar all the time and I'm sick of that shit

For some 25 years I have been setting my Windows taskbar to autohide, like my father before me. And for some 25 years Windows has tried to unhide my taskbar every couple weeks for some bullshit reason or another while continuing to offer the feature through what I assume must be bloody gritted teeth

— @wes.readonlymemo.com (@wes.readonlymemo.com.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T13:39:05.033Z

I am a taskbar auto-hider. Always have been, always will be—at least as long as I'm using Windows. I'm more and more tempted to ditch it for Linux by the year, though, as gaming on distros like Bazzite become so much easier to use and Microsoft makes itself one of the least appealing companies on earth by doing things like firing its own employees for bravely criticizing it supplying technology to the Israeli military.

I suppose that's a bit heavy for a gripe! Aside from the whole "financially benefitting from a genocidal regime" thing, boy is it sure annoying when Windows 11 decides that my main monitor taking a few seconds to wake up means it should scramble every window I have open and pin the taskbar to screen. Here's an idea, Windows: just don't change any of my settings by yourself, ever, and maybe I'll keep you installed for another couple years.
—Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor

It's 2025 and my PC still has no idea what audio devices are connected to it

I join three standup meetings per week. On paper, these video calls are where we check in, discuss what we're working on, and assign stories for the immediate future. In practice, it's a thrice-weekly Sisyphean gauntlet for my audio configuration, during which I'll frequently discover that Windows has lost track of what input and output devices are plugged into it despite the fact that nothing has changed since the last meeting.

What's particularly maddening about it is that Microsoft's diligent mangling of its own menu conventions has turned an annoyance into a Lovecraftian cognitohazard. Settings that used to be tucked into a single control panel directory have been disarticulated and scattered under compounding layers of UI revision; they're usually still there, somewhere, but the specific sequence of menu selections to find them have probably changed four times in as many years and could be gone entirely next month.

I don't know if this will ever improve. I don't know if it can. I would cry for help, but I can't be sure my mic would pick it up.
—Lincoln Carpenter, News Writer