New Microsoft Reorganization Doubles Down on Windows

A new decision effectively undoes a 2018 move

Laptop with Windows
Microsoft's latest move suggests a renewed focus on Windows.
Takeaway/Creative Commons

In 2018, Microsoft made a decision that surprised many observers of the technology and business worlds. That maneuver? It broke up the responsibility for Windows into two different units within the larger business. At the time, Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet put this move in perspective. “Microsoft is making these moves because the PC market is no longer growing much, if at all,” Foley wrote. “Its cloud and subscription businesses are growing, however.”

Two years have passed since that decision, and things have changed — both for Microsoft and for the tech industry at large. Which makes it less of a surprise to hear that Microsoft is changing things up with respect to Windows again — and this time, they’re reassembling what they split in two in 2018.

At The Verge, Tom Warren reports that Microsoft has placed even more of Windows under the control of Panos Panay — specifically, areas of the business related to development. For those of us without a good sense of Microsoft’s internal workings, Warren offers a concise explanation as to what that means:

Specifically, that means the Windows fundamentals and developer experience teams have been returned to what we traditionally call the Windows team. It’s an admission that the big Windows split didn’t work quite as planned. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of that with a messy development experience for Windows 10, delayed Windows updates, a lack of major new features, and lots of Windows update issues recently.

It’s another big shift from the software and technology company — and a reminder of how important Windows continues to be to Microsoft.

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