Transcription
You boot up your PC to game with friends. Windows forces an update. 45 minutes later, your Discord is blowing up and you're still staring at this screen working on updates. 73%.
Now, just a few weeks ago, Microsoft's first update of 2026 brricked thousands of PCs. We're talking black screens, boot failures, Outlook not wanting to open. Microsoft's official solution: uninstall the update and wait for the next one.
Also, side note, they gave the FBI Bit Locker encryption keys. Your encrypted data, and guess what? They have the keys.
Also, try installing Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. You can't anymore. They killed almost all of the workarounds. October's update cut Nvidia gaming performance in half. Your GPU didn't get worse. Windows made it worse.
Oh, and Windows had 11,000 security vulnerabilities in 2025. That's an 845% increase from 2024. 845%. And if you think that's insane, hit subscribe because guess what? It gets worse.
Now, this isn't a coincidence. This is a pattern, and it's accelerating. KB5074109 rolls right off the top. That's the January 2026 update that broke everything. And it's not an outlier. It's just this month's entry in what was already a catastrophic 2025 for Windows updates.
December of 2025, that update wouldn't install on brand new computers. Endless install loops. Factory resets didn't even fix. October of 2025, that update destroyed gaming performance on Nvidia GPUs. Frame rates cut in half. Nvidia had to release an emergency driver to fix what Microsoft broke. Users went from 30 fps to 71 FPS after the fix. November, Windows broke MSMQ, that's enterprise messaging software on an OS they're no longer even developing. They broke old features without touching them. July of 2025, systems taking 30 minutes to boot after an update. People were saying it was like watching a Nokia tried to run GTA 5.
Microsoft's own security response center. 11,791 security vulnerabilities in 2025. 2024 had 1,393. You do the math.
Now, you might be thinking security vulnerabilities getting patched is a great thing, right? Sure, if the patches worked, but Microsoft's patch quality has completely collapsed. Windows Central called 2025 Windows 11's "worst year yet." Non-stop bugs, broken updates, unwanted features pushing users to the breaking point. One update literally broke Windows recovery. That's the tool designed to fix Windows, and it couldn't fix Windows.
Now, the issue isn't that Windows needs security patches. The issue is that the patches are the problem. You're choosing between security vulnerabilities and a broken operating system. You guys remember monthly Patch Tuesday? Well, guess what? That's gone. Updates drop constantly now, multiple times a week, and each one is rolling the dice on whether your PC works tomorrow. And the silent part that Microsoft won't say: you're not getting better software. You're getting worse QA.
So why? >> Like, I don't want to use OneDrive, Microsoft. >> Well, it's because Microsoft engineering isn't where Microsoft's money goes anymore. They gutted QA teams to chase AI, Copilot everywhere, Recall, Paint with AI, Notepad with AI. The foundation is crumbling while they paint over it with chatbots.
So, let's talk about what Windows actually is in 2026. You don't own Windows. You're renting access to Microsoft's surveillance apparatus.
This is Microsoft Paint. You know it. You love it. It's been around since 1985. It's only a few years older than me. Microsoft added sign-in prompts to it. Not for the basic drawing tools. Those still work offline, but for their new features. But here's what's kind of revealing. The sign-in UI, it doesn't just pop up naturally. Yeah, I had Linus from LTT who had to click through a couple AI prompts to trigger it. And Microsoft is so desperate to get you logged in that they're adding account prompts to Paint for optional features that nobody asked for. And you know what? That's the tell. It's not about making Paint better. It's about getting you signed into their ecosystem so they can track what you do, when you do it, and tie it to your identity.
>> Microsoft collects more data from these activities than its users may realize. >> From a Windows Recall that records everything you do on the computer to new telemetry that can potentially track your interactions over the internet.
It gets even weirder because according to people who dug into it, Windows now tries to open Paint sometimes through the Microsoft Store app framework by default. When that fails to connect to their servers, that's when you can see login prompts for Paint. So, either A, their architecture is so broken that opening Paint on your own computer tries to phone home first, or B, this is intentional and they're really, really bad at hiding it. And you know what? Neither of those things are good, Microsoft. They're not.
And you can't install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. What are we talking about? There used to be a command. It was `obeyass nro`. That's where you could get to skip it. Well, Microsoft killed that in 2025 for "security." But people found other workarounds. And guess what? Microsoft's killing those, too.
>> Microsoft is blocking more ways to set up a Windows 11 local account. >> They're not making Windows better. They're making it impossible to use Windows without giving them your data. Windows 11 Home literally can't be installed without either registry hacks that they keep patching or creating a Microsoft account and uploading everything to their cloud.
Which actually, you know what? Speaking of which, January 2026, it's from Forbes. Microsoft gave the FBI Bit Locker encryption keys. Now, Bit Locker is Windows' disc encryption. It's supposed to protect your data and make it unreadable without the key. Except Microsoft has your keys. By default, when you enable Bit Locker, your recovery keys upload to your Microsoft account. Most people don't know that this is happening. The FBI shows up with a warrant, Microsoft hands them over. Apple's FileVault is end-to-end encrypted. Apple cannot access your keys even if the FBI demands it.
Microsoft: "We believe customers are in the best position to decide how to manage their keys." Yeah, that's cool. Except you buried that choice during setup and defaulted everyone to cloud backup. Microsoft gets about 20 requests a year for Bit Locker keys. They can't fulfill all of them because they're only when users uploaded their keys. But here's the thing. Windows 11 makes Microsoft accounts mandatory. Bit Locker is enabled by default on new PCs. Beginning with Windows 8.1, Bit Locker device encryption is available and turned on by default for all Home or Pro devices capable of modern standby.
>> Now, that 20 requests per year, I would imagine it's about to explode. You're not just giving Microsoft your data for ads and AI training. You're giving them the keys to decrypt your entire drive. And they will hand those keys to anyone with a warrant. If that bothers you like even a tiny bit, throw a like on this video because apparently we're the crazy ones for thinking that that's kind of messed up.
Every Windows 11 update gets bigger. 2019, the average update was 300 to 500 megabytes. 2025, many exceeded 4 GB. That's not security patches. That's telemetry, Recall, screenshot scanning, Copilot integration, infrastructure to track which apps you use, when you use them, and what you're doing. Microsoft's not selling you Windows. They're selling you. your data, your habits, your privacy to advertisers and AI models. And guess what? You don't get a choice.
Now, here's the fairly insulting part. Microsoft has a completely different update system for enterprise customers. Businesses can defer updates. They can test them first and block ones that break their infrastructure. Now, you consumer tier, you're the QA team. Microsoft ships updates without knowing if they work. It seems like hundreds of millions of PCs get them simultaneously. Microsoft waits to see what breaks. Then they fix the fix, then fix that fix, and then 3 months later, maybe your PC works. You find threads with thousands reporting the same bug. And Microsoft's response: "We're looking into it." "Working as intended." "Have you tried taking your PC to a repair shop?" Dude, your PC worked before your update, but sure, go pay someone to fix it.
This is exactly why MetaPC's does things differently. Yep, that's right. Sorry, it's an ad. Got to keep the lights on. When you buy a PC from us, you get actual humans. We're US-based who know your build. If a Windows update breaks your system, we help you fix it or roll it back. You've got a lifetime support guarantee. Not 90 days, lifetime. You bought the PC from us, we support it. Period. Ready to ship gaming systems or custom builds. And they're built right here in Arizona and shipped across the US. Supported by people who actually care if your PC works. You shouldn't need to be a Windows update expert to play games. So check out ready to ship PCs or custom builds at metapcs.com.
Anyway, and then there's the quiet part. Windows updates make your hardware feel obsolete through engineered bloat. Let's look at October 2025. KB5066835 drops. Crazy update. Nvidia gamers see performance tank. 30fps in games that ran fine yesterday. So what does Nvidia do? They released an emergency driver and performance jumps from 30 FPS to 71. So that means a Windows update cut gaming performance in half. Your graphics card didn't break, Windows broke it.
Your 5-year-old PC ran Windows 10 fine. Now Windows 11, you've got arbitrary requirements. TPM 2.0, specific CPU generations. Windows 10: 1 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM. Windows 11: eighth gen Intel, second gen Ryzen, 4 gigs RAM, TPM 2.0. It's the same OS but double the requirements. Now the official reason: security. The real reason: Microsoft had partnerships with Intel, AMD, and OEMs, who wants you buying new PCs. Your 6-year-old i7 is still capable. Microsoft declared it unsupported.
Every update adds weight. You've got more background processes, more telemetry, more Copilot that you didn't ask for. Your PC isn't slow because it's old. It's slow because Windows treats it like an AI training data center.
People are asking some new questions now. Not "how do I fix this update?" but "what else is out there?"
Now, 5 years ago, gaming on Linux was it was kind of a joke. You had Wine configurations, broken dependencies, and also most AAA games didn't work. Today, 90% of Windows games run on Linux out of the box, one click, as ProtonDB. ProtonDB tracks compatibility. Over 15,000 games rated gold or platinum, meaning they run perfectly with zero tweaking. Valve's November 2025 Steam survey says Linux hit 3.2% of Steam users. It's an all-time high, growing monthly, actually.
So, what changed? Proton. That's Valve's compatibility layer. Translates Windows DirectX to Linux Vulkan in real time. It's built into Steam. Click install, click play, that's it. Even the Steam Deck runs on Linux. Every Deck verified game works on Linux desktop. That's over 21,000 games. Cyberpunk 2077 works. Elden Ring works. Baldur's Gate 3 works. Doom Eternal runs better on Linux in some benchmarks.
>> Bazzite is definitely destroying Windows on Doom Eternal. Compared to Windows, this is a heck ton smoother and way more enjoyable. >> Games often run faster on Linux than Windows. And why is that? Because there's no telemetry overhead, no Copilot in the background, no forced updates mid-session, no OEM bloatware. It's just hardware running the game.
Okay, but which Linux distro? There's like a thousand versions. That's fair. Here's what people are actually using right here in 2026.
First, you got Bazzite. That's the breakout star. It's built on Fedora. It acts like Steam OS. It's immutable system means that you can't accidentally break it. Everything gaming is pre-installed. You have HDR support, VRR, controller support, GPU drivers that are all out of the box. And I would say that's probably best for beginners or anyone who wants console-like simplicity. Steam Deck fans, myself included.
Then you've got Pop!_OS. That's made by System76. It's a PC company. Fantastic Nvidia support, clean desktop, and it works great for gaming and productivity. Also would probably be considered best for Nvidia GPU owners who want a like traditional desktop experience.
And then you've got Nobara OS. That's an Arch-based. It's maximum performance. It's optimized for gaming with low latency kernels. And you've also got access to bleeding edge updates. I would say it's best for performance chasers who want absolute maximum FPS.
Then you got Linux Mint. That's the "just works" option. Easiest transition from Windows. Stable, polished, massive community. And I would say best for complete beginners, people who want like a familiar experience.
So, for most gamers switching from Windows, I would personally start with Bazzite or Pop!_OS. If you have some other solutions, too, drop them in the comments down below. Those two solutions have great communities. They've got excellent hardware support and gaming works right out of the box.
But let's have some real talk for a second about what you give up. Real talk about limitations. Kernel-level anti-cheat games don't work. Valorant, Fortnite, some competitive shooters, about 10% of games are blocked. As Steam Deck users are aware, some anti-cheat software flat out refuses to run, which means the games can refuse to run. We dropped F124 immediately for this reason.
>> Primarily play competitive multiplayer with kernel AC, Linux just quite frankly isn't there yet. But if you play single player, non-kernel AC multiplayer and want a PC that actually works, Linux is legitimately viable.
Now, let's talk about like Adobe Creative Suite. It's not native. Wine is janky. Microsoft Office, same deal. LibreOffice or Google Workspace exist, but specific pro software I would personally check first. Now, I'm not saying that Linux is perfect. What I'm saying is it crossed the threshold from enthusiast hobby to actual Windows alternative.
Now, let's talk about that 6-year-old i7 that Microsoft says is too old. Well, guess what? Linux runs it beautifully, faster than it ran Windows 10. Actually, Linux doesn't force hardware obsolescence. You've got modern distros that run on decade-old hardware. Well, today we're installing the latest version of Tiny Core Linux on this 30-year-old Packard Bell Penny of One. And a personal observation, I've seen business PCs headed for the trash because Windows is too slow. You throw Linux on them and suddenly, wow, they're responsive again. Turns out the hardware was never the problem.
Listen, I'm not telling you to delete Windows and install Arch unless you want to. What I'm saying is Windows update dysfunction is so bad that people who would never consider alternatives are actually exploring them. Listen, Microsoft relied on inertia for decades. "Sure, Windows has its problems, but everything runs on Windows. Where else will I go?" Guess what? That's not true anymore. Gaming lock-in is largely solved. Linux is too hard problem? Well, Bazzite, Pop!_OS are easier than Windows 11. Driver support, AMD and Intel are excellent. Even Nvidia has improved. And for the first time in decades, Windows is vulnerable. Not because Linux got aggressive, but because Microsoft stopped caring about making Windows good and started caring about extracting maximum value from users.
Every time you see "installing update 1 of 47," someone always asks, "Does it have to be like this?" And the answer quite frankly is no.
Now, here's my actual advice. If Windows works for you and these issues don't affect you, you know what? Just stay. Don't fix what isn't broken. But if you're tired of updates breaking your PC, forced features you didn't want, being treated like a beta tester, Microsoft holding your encryption keys, you've got options. Try a Linux USB stick. Boot it, test it, see how it feels. Most distros will actually let you try without installing. I would check ProtonDB for your games and see what the compatibility is like. Worst case, you spend an hour experimenting and you go back to Windows. Best case, you find an OS that respects you as a user. Microsoft spent 20 years convincing you that there was no alternative. They were wrong.
Drop a comment. Let me know. Linux gaming horror stories. You got any of those? Windows update horror stories? Whatever. Let's commiserate. As always, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.