Classics

Last week an internal Microsoft demo video leaked. It showed an, ahem, agentic AI-first superbitofantastic concept shell to the Windows environment created in 2024. To be specific, they referred to it as a web-based agent OS.

Here is the video. Please keep in mind that this is from 2024:

My heartrate increased as I watched the video. I'll tell you why.

But first, I want to recognize the effort behind this. There are many interesting technical bits such as the specialized Edge runtime, handoffs across different Windows environments, task-based window grouping, dynamic task-chat window tiling, and possibly more that we outsiders do not see. If this video was meant to be a technical-only demonstration, it is a great video with interesting technical concepts.

However, the user experience shown in the video is beyond horrendous. And no, the visuals aren't the problem. Even if you skin it in the best Aero Glass, it still won't fix the issues in the experience.

Things I couldn't unsee when I first watched the video:

• So everything is tied to this master omnibox, which is always at the bottom of the screen. Once a task window opens, the main interaction is always at the bottom of the window, which is universally at the lower part of the screen. Has anyone thought about neck strain?