Windows Central readers don't seem excited about Microsoft's refreshed apps

By Sean Endicott
last updated

Our readers aren't that thrilled about the new Clock app for Windows 11, but the improved File Explorer turned some heads.

Windows 11 Storenew Dark Surfacebook
Windows 11 Storenew Dark Surfacebook (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

Microsoft refreshed several of its apps for Windows 11. The company also rolled out some new apps, including the Chat app powered by Microsoft Teams. We wanted to know which apps excite our readers, so we ran a poll over the weekend. It turns out that most of our readers that voted aren't that excited about new default apps on Windows 11.

The winner of the poll with over 31% of votes is the File Explorer. The Microsoft Store came in second place with almost 27% of the votes. Almost 12% of participants said that they aren't excited about any of the new apps for Windows 11. The rest of the apps listed brought in 5% of the votes or less.

"I just hope they keep improving the Explorer until Windows 11 releases. It would be nice to have it completely modernized, not just [its] ribbon and context menus," says MSZik in the comments section of our poll.

Ad47uk says, "None of them get me excited to be honest, I may use file explorer for quickness, but if I am doing a load of file stuff I use a third party file manager."

The new Chat app from Microsoft got a bit of love as well, though "aFloppinPhish" is holding out for support for SMS messaging, "If the chat app improves and supports sending sms from linking a phone like Skype did it'd be great."

Perhaps the most exciting app on Windows 11 is the new Microsoft Store because it could open the door for many improved apps. Microsoft showed a new commitment to apps on Windows alongside its new OS, and that's already led to some big-name apps coming to the Microsoft Store.

We'll keep the poll open to see if it trends another way.

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
  • They need to update the Photos app. I love it, but it is very broken
  • It certainly has problems. It acts like a phone app from 2011 sometimes. But I have to say, that build-in video editor has been a lifesaver for quick jobs. It's so dead-simple to use. A totally underrated Windows 10 feature.
  • It's terrible. Buggy, heavy on resources and is centred around displaying your OneDrive photos but does such a poor job if it who would bother?
  • I'm really hoping they remove the Windows Photo Viewer and refresh the Photos app in Windows 11.
    I do like the changes they are making to Paint but I wish they did more to it.
    The clock app seems like it will be a lot more useful.
  • Why on earth do you want Microsoft to remove such a basic feature???? Asking for improvements makes more sense. I am going to extremely and brutally blunt. People like you who suggest basic features to be removed seriously need to step out of your bubble of entitlement.
  • He's not. Windows Photo Viewer was the default photo viewer in Windows Vista and Windows 7. It's been disabled by default since Windows 8 when the Photos app replaced it. So chill.
  • Maybe try to read and understand rather than jumping down people's throats.
  • Windows Photo Viewer has been disabled by default since Windows 8. It remains for Windows Server where UWP aren't really designed to be used. But its not a default app on Windows 10 anyway. Agreed on fixing Photos. Kill it and start again.
  • I have been updating since 3.1 always. Now I will skip 11 until they have proper Start organisation features.
  • I cant wait to try out 11
  • Unsurprising. I fully expect MS to waste time making Voice Recorder's UI pretty and calling it a big win.
  • Is anyone excited about Windows built-in apps? It's not why we use them. Most are to basic to be excited about, they've always been basic. The power of Windows is it's platform, not built-in apps.
  • As is so often the case, it depends on definitions. I think that it would be an exaggeration to say that I'm excited about built-in apps in Windows 11 but I do look forward to any improvements they make in them.
  • They need to name the Chat app Microsoft Teams. Seriously about to **** up the marketing big time
  • Petition to bring back MSN Messenger.
  • To be honest, I'm not excited about any of the new apps because it's due time they get a refresh--heck, some even need to be rebuilt from scratch, like Photos, File Explorer (yes, the "new" Explorer in 11 looks good on the surface but it's lagging so much I ended up disabling the Mica header, even then it's still a bit laggy), and Mail (basically broken for any email other than basic HTML one). A new version of Mail is already in development, though, so here's hoping it'll be good.