Microsoft stream to announce Windows 11 crashes before company unveils OS

By Sean Endicott
published

Microsoft chose to not use YouTube to stream its own event, and it didn't go well.

Windows 11 Start Surfacepro Lighting
Windows 11 Start Surfacepro Lighting (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft's stream to announce Windows 11 buffered and crashed for many.
  • The Twitter stream for the event still seems to work.
  • Microsoft did not stream the event on YouTube.

Microsoft's stream to announce Windows 11 crashed before it got rolling. Panos Panay's face buffered and went away entirely for many trying to watch the stream. Notably, Microsoft decided to stream the event on its own platform and decided to not use YouTube.

While Microsoft's stream on its website stopped working, the Twitter stream still works.

Microsoft teased Windows 11 for weeks, sending out tweets and videos to get people excited. The livestream crashing is an embarrassing mistake that happened when Windows 11 was at center stage. At the time of publication, almost 42,000 people are watching the livestream on Twitter, but it's not known how many people are aware it's being streamed on that platform.

This is a developing story, and we'll add more details as they come in.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

16 Comments
  • Holy Moly.. Just had to happen to Microsoft. Lol 🤦🏾‍♂️
  • When will they learn that they should use Google products whenever possible?
  • Which Google products exactly? Apart from YouTube in this context of video live streaming?
  • Google troll confirmed 🙄
  • Yeah I'm watching it through Engadget https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8rckejTi60
  • Ha ha ha… Says it all really...
  • That was a very early explanation of why they went Amazon Store instead of Google Play - they obviously don't play well with Google...
  • Or Google doesn't play well with others.
    MS and Google have had a cold war for years and years dating back to when Google first released Google Docs, pretending to displace OFFICE with "free" ad supported betaware.
    It hasn't gotten better just because MS uses Chromium. If anything, that gives MS coders a chance to show up the Google gang.
    Plus don't forget that part of the pressure on the politicians to go after Google on antitrust is from MS, quite openly.
    Folks like to play up MS vs Apple but MS can live with Apple (they make tons of money off tbeir hardware) and they (used to?) make tons of money off Android which Google hates. Putting apk support on Windows without the google apps is adding to the friction.
    No love lost.
    There is no telling the private catfights we don't hear about.
  • The stream from their site was the WORST. But let's be honest, it happens every time for Microsoft's releases the past 2 years. It's time they change something there. It truly was miserable to watch. Ended up finding the stream on youtube, and it was semi-jank. They should have used Resi to stream. No dropped frames, no buffering. https://resi.io
  • @Cody Patterson You know Microsoft has the aptly named Microsoft Stream... which is used to Stream recorded videos on Teams... 😶
  • Yes… I know :). And they have Azure as their back bone. Yet year after year, this happens to them. Something’s gotta give.
  • Yeah... It does happen YoY lol... Funny that. I agree something's gotta give. Shame, they shutdown Mixer... would have been the ideal platform for showcasing event streaming. Some folks don't understand asset leverage do they lol... damned bean counters.
  • They should have used Mixer / sarcasm. or you know... Microsoft Stream? 🤦‍♂️
  • Truly inexplicable, how a company that spent who knows how much money to obtain Beam/Mixer's amazing streaming technology can't even do an in-house stream without it being an unwatchable, buffer-fest. I really don't get it. I tried watching for the first 10 minutes and just shut it off entirely. Felt like the Internet in 1999.
  • Right.. I bet this is the last time it happens.. Streamed perfectly on Twitter.
  • The power of azure..?