By Chris Hoffman
Publication Date: 2026-05-09 12:00:00
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company is focusing on its consumer products and “doing the foundational work required to win back fans.” If the company is serious about this effort, it needs to improve the default Windows apps that people associate with the core OS experience because most have fallen far behind third-party alternatives. I don’t use much Microsoft software on my Windows 11 PC anymore because I prefer competing services, and I doubt I’m alone in that opinion. To win people like me back, Microsoft has to build apps that work even better than the ones I use every day, starting with the 10 below.
1. Edge: Feature-Heavy, AI-First, and Losing Its Simplicity
Mozilla Firefox, with its streamlined interface and privacy features, is my current web browser of choice. I’ve spent a lot of time using Google Chrome and Brave, too. I first used Edge years ago when it was codenamed Project Spartan, thanks to its minimal interface. However, over the…
