THEY say when one door closes, another one opens. But I woke up this morning feeling like all the doors were swinging shut at once, and someone had already changed the locks. There was this restless hiss under my skin, a jitter that made my fingers twitch even before I reached for my phone. My brain wouldn’t slow down.

Because the world didn’t pause while I slept, it sprinted ahead. And suddenly I was standing there in yesterday’s shoes, trying to catch a moving train. And that unsettled energy? It came from what my laptop was running on.

There’s something funny about the way technology shifts—as it moves without warning. One morning, you turn on your laptop, sip your coffee, and everything feels normal. Then bam — the next day, Microsoft declares the news: How to prepare for the end of Windows 10 and that it’s rebuilding the very bones of Windows 11 around AI, with the promise of a different kind of ‘normal’. 
The brains at Microsoft say this reboot is serious. According to Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, said that turning your PC into a talking, thinking computer is “as transformative as the mouse and keyboard.”

I blink at the screen, thinking, wondering… wait—what just happened? Do I upgrade? Do I resist? AI is now baked into every click and scroll I make, ahh? Amazing, but also confusing. Mehdi adds, “Just like when the mouse came out, people have to figure out when to use it, what’s the right way, how to make it happen.”

I cannot shake the feeling that Microsoft is making the boldest move it has attempted in years. Rewriting an operating system—especially one as ingrained as Windows. And of course, I can’t stop thinking about how we, Tanzanians, meet digital transformation: we have a way of welcoming change with a raised eyebrow; half-curious, half-guarded.

We like to test things with our hands first. We ask our friends. We wait for that one cousin who “knows computers” to confirm whether something is worth the trouble. And now I can almost hear him saying, “AI iko kila mahali sasa. You might as well accept it.”

Microsoft’s top Windows exec, Pavan Davuluri, now calls Windows “an agentic OS.” In simple terms, he means Windows is becoming more of a helper; a system that actually does things for you instead of waiting for instructions. They are embedding it with small AI assistants throughout. You can talk to it (“Hey, Copilot”). It can look at what’s on your screen and explain it or act on it. It can help you find files, clean up your documents, or make sense of something without dragging you through menus.

But here in Tanzania, urban tech culture is a patchwork of ambition, improvisation, and raw survival — solar-powered kiosks selling bundles. Youth are editing entire TikTok careers on mid-range phones. Freelancers working from cafés that lose power just when deadlines are closest. We adopt tech quickly, but we do not tolerate nonsense. The OS has to be practical. It has to respect our time.

Will the OS help the young developer in Morogoro who is learning Python on a machine his older brother bought second-hand? If AI features run offline—thanks to local processing—they could be surprisingly empowering. If they rely too heavily on cloud calls, the experience will become fragile, unreliable, and mismatched to our realities.

So when Microsoft says it is rebuilding Windows 11 around AI, I test the idea through a Tanzanian lens. How does this “AI-powered OS” perform where bandwidth is shaky, electricity is inconsistent, and devices are modest? The promise of AI is exciting, but its value depends on whether it adapts to the real world we live in.

There's a personal dimension to this, too, one I cannot just ignore. My life with Windows has felt oddly like a long, complicated romance, full of highs, lows, and moments where I wonder if I was the one doing something wrong. I think back to Windows XP, the first love you can't really forget — simple, sophisticated, dependable, and comforting.

You knew exactly what to expect, and it delivered without drama. Sure, every so often, it threw a blue screen of death at you, but you forgave it. Then came Windows 8, and suddenly it felt like a betrayal. It looked pretty, even promising the world... but using it left me spinning, confused and a little frustrated. It just didn’t feel like the Windows I knew; it didn’t feel like home. And yet, I kept coming back, wishing for something familiar, that something would just work.

Now Windows 10 felt like coming back home, a long-awaited reconciliation. They finally got it right. They won me back after the confusion of the past versions, re-earning my loyalty. And now, as it reaches its official retirement, I feel that strange, bittersweet tug of saying goodbye to an old friend who shaped a part of my life.

So, what’s coming to Windows 11 exactly? With the November 2025 update, Windows 11 gets a revamped Start menu. It now adapts to screen size, is larger, and combines “Pinned” and “All” apps into a single interface — making it easier to find what you need. You can switch the “All apps” view between category based groups, a simple grid or a list; and there’s now a toggle to show or hide a sidebar for your phone when your mobile device is linked with the PC. If you dislike the “Recommended” section that shows recent files/apps, you can now hide it completely via Settings.

The biggest upgrades come if you’re on a Copilot+ PC — a PC with a special chip (NPU) that lets it run AI features fast and cheaply, right on your machine, no internet needed. According to Navjot Virk (Corporate Vice President, Windows Experiences), “Copilot+ PCs are the most performant Windows PCs ever built, now with more AI features that empower you every day.” On Copilot+ PCs, you get  a smart overlay called Click to Do that lets you click on any text or image and instantly ask Copilot to summarise it, blur the background, remove objects from a photo, or run a visual search.

On those PCs, search has changed a lot: you don’t need to remember exact filenames or settings — you just type what you remember (“holiday photos 2025”, or “budget spreadsheet”) and Windows will still find what you want. Then there’s Microsoft Copilot. It’s built into Windows 11, so you launch it from your taskbar or press Win + C. You can type or speak to it — ask questions, get help, control apps, or even ask it to open something for you. Also, built-in apps like Snipping Tool get smarter — when you take a screenshot, the tool can suggest better crops, or pick colours from the screen easily.

Microsoft Teams gets smarter, too. Copilot can make meeting summaries, pick out important points, and help write messages. As Microsoft says, during a meeting, you can ask Copilot questions like: “Where do we disagree?” “What are the action items?”, or “Summarise what [person] said.” This helps businesses save time and stay organised.

Microsoft says they’ll keep adding new features at no extra cost: new tools, updates, improvements — this “continuous innovation” is part of their commitment.

When Windows 10 support ends, millions of people will move on because time has run out, not because they want to. In many places, like Tanzania, people still use older computers; money is tight, and every upgrade hurts. So the big question is simple: can we afford the jump to Windows 11, or should we stay on Windows 10 and expect the security updates to keep us safe?

Microsoft does offer extra security updates until 13 October 2028. For home users, it costs roughly around 80,000/- – 85,000/- per year. For businesses, it is around 160,000/- – 170,000/- per device, per year. It sounds helpful, but it gives only basic protection. No new features. No improvements. No fresh life. Just living on borrowed time.

Microsoft has been very open about the shift. In recent statements, the company said Windows is now “moving into the AI era” and that Windows 11 is the focus going forward. One Microsoft leader said the company is “building Windows around AI to help people do more with less effort.” Another official said 2025 will be “the year many people refresh their PCs” because Windows 10 is reaching its end. Their message is clear: Windows 11 is the new home, and everything new will be built there.

And this is where the real questions start. What does an AI-powered Windows actually mean for us?

We’ve got the youth editing TikTok careers on mid-range phones; freelancers working from cafés, and a young developer in Morogoro teaching himself Python on whatever machine he can get. The simple truth is this: if you want the new tools, the smarter features, the AI that listens and helps you get things done, you need Windows 11. And to get Windows 11, a lot of people will need new machines.

So, as Windows 10 prepares its final bow, I find myself sitting in my usual coffee spot, realising the old saying might be partially right, even if slightly annoying. Maybe one door really does close. Maybe another one really does open. But sometimes, the new door is not grand or dramatic. Sometimes, it is the quiet door to a system upgrade that most people will ignore, even though it changes the entire neighbourhood of how we compute. And as for me? I think I’ll embrace this upgrade.

By Joshua Mabina 

The author can be reached at mabinajoshua@gmail.com | +255 783 787 166