4 New dark patterns added to Windows 11 in 2025
Another year, another long list of changes to Windows that “nudge” you into making choices or behaviors that are not in your best interest. At some point, it really feels like Windows stopped existing to make actual PC users happier and now serves a different master. I think these changes are the most worrying.
Help to use AI
AI is the new bloatware and Windows is leading the charge to insert technologies like LLMs into every nook and cranny of its operating system. Even the bad Notepad is getting an AI upgrade and despite widespread resistance from Windows users when it comes to doing things like having an AI monitoring your screen 24/7, the company is moving forward like the Titanic late for a rendezvous with an iceberg.
In my home country of South Africa, Microsoft was accused of using dark templates to hide that its Microsoft 365 subscription actually had a CoPilot-free tier.
As Reuters reported, in October 2025, Microsoft began integrating AI features into more aspects of Windows, connecting and integrating actions and tasks to interface with the company’s AI. Even though the options are generally “opt-in”, you are always informed that you could use CoPilot with a wake word, or use CoPilot Vision or CoPilot actions. This is all part of transforming Windows into an “Agentic” operating system and includes redesigning the taskbar.
So expect lots of little pop-ups and “helpful” nudges to let you know you might be able to participate. fabulous AI features.
File Explorer menu in Windows 11 gets worse
Nobody likes clutter.
“Recommended files” in File Explorer that push you to Microsoft/OneDrive items
Windows 11 November 2025 Update includes a subtle but important change to File Explorer. The “Quick Access” section that showed you recent files you used on your local drive will now be replaced by a “Recommended” section. This shows more content types, including cloud-based content.
You can still get Quick Access back, but this is clearly a big boost to shift your attention to cloud-based content and away from focusing on local data in Explorer.
Windows 11 is about to get a lot more confusing
Who asks for this stuff?
Settings screens with bold “accept defaults” and vague “customization” options
You may have noticed that after some major updates to your Windows computer, you see a screen very similar to the one you encountered when you first set up your computer. This original setup screen was known as OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) and this new one is known as SCOOBE or Second out-of-box change experience.
You see, the first time you said you didn’t want to use the Edge browser, or sign up for OneDrive, or subscribe to anything Microsoft currently offers, it wasn’t enough. Maybe you’ve changed your mind in the meantime, but you just haven’t had the energy to change those settings. So here’s another questionnaire not asked first thing in the morning when you really want to start your day.
Well, as Tom’s Guide reports, Microsoft is “improving” this by condensing it onto a single screen, but the dark pattern here is that the “Keep current settings” button is disabled and hidden in plain sight, while the “Accept default settings” option is big and bright, ready for an impatient user to click on it and later wonder why Edge is the default browser. Again!
Look at that! Literally, as I was writing this (on my Mac), I restarted my Windows laptop to check if the latest updates were applied, and the first thing that hits me is a full screen message to restart my OneDrive.
Yes, there has been a lot of noise in many media outlets about how Microsoft is cracking down on creating local accounts, but I personally think we can’t complain about it enough.
The company offers the possibility of installing Windows without a Microsoft account. It’s now so hidden that you have to go through obstacles and even use special commands or tools like Rufus to make it simple.
Well, get ready, because Microsoft is really cracking down on all the loopholes that still allow a local account. Insider builds of Windows have changes that now require both an Internet connection and an MS account to complete OOBE. Several media outlets cite that Microsoft was removing “known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup Experience (OOBE).”
Our friends at XDA view this change as a de facto removal of privacy-only local login, arguing that ultimately the only simple path to a local account is After configuration – and even that can leave traces of linking to the cloud.
While this is just my personal opinion, I think the direction Windows is going is on the wall, and if you care about control of your data and your computer, there’s never been a better time to consider an alternative.
