Windows 11 Turns 5: From TPM Requirements to the 2026 Redesign, Amid Criticism and Corrections

Windows 11 turned 5 years old on June 24, 2026. It was on the same day in 2021 when Microsoft officially announced the operating system, presented with the promise of bringing users closer to what they love.

The debut was eventful. The first rumors about a possible successor to Windows 10 had been circulating for weeks, then a preview build ended up online even before the official announcement, allowing anyone to get an idea in advance of the upcoming news. Only after these incidents did Microsoft publicly confirm the project, presenting it as the next step from Windows 10 rather than just a simple annual update.

Five years have passed since the launch of Windows 11. The early versions promised a lot: a renewed interface, a new Start menu and a new taskbar, improvements to virtual workspaces and window snapping, support for Android apps, Teams integration in the taskbar, widgets, and a redesigned Microsoft Store, along with strengthened security.

The reception was mixed. In addition to missing features in the taskbar and Start menu, many users criticized the stricter hardware requirements that excluded perfectly functioning PCs. TPM and Secure Boot, which became mandatory, drove up sales of dedicated TPM chips for motherboards. Additionally, inconsistent graphics in context menus across various screens of the operating system were unpopular and remain an issue that Microsoft has yet to fully address.

Over time, some exclusive features have been removed: Teams integration was taken out, and support for Android apps was discontinued. Features that were presented as integral parts of the original vision for Windows 11 have thus disappeared over time, a sign of a strategy revised multiple times on the go.

In the early years, Microsoft showed little willingness to listen to the most common criticisms. After four years on the market, amidst leadership changes and increased competition from Apple, the company decided to revisit the project to address user feedback that had been noted for some time. The Start menu is being redesigned, the taskbar is receiving the functions that were still missing, Windows Update is being reworked, and context menus are being made quicker and more configurable.

This change in direction comes at a pivotal moment for Microsoft: with a renewed leadership and Apple exerting pressure again in the PC space, ignoring the requests from the most loyal users would have been a hard-to-justify risk. Some believe that all this revision work deserves a leap to a new Windows 12, but for now, Windows 11 seems destined to remain the foundation of Microsoft's operating system for quite a while longer.