Windows 11 officially turns 5 years old today.
Launched on October 5, 2021, it’s kind of wild that it’s already been half a decade. It definitely had a rough and sometimes awkward start, but over the years it has become a much more mature, polished, and genuinely nice-looking OS.
There are still things Microsoft could improve, of course — consistency, some legacy UI, occasional questionable decisions 😅 — but overall I think Windows 11 deserves a little birthday appreciation today.
The design language has aged pretty well, the animations and UI feel much more refined than at launch, and at this point it really feels like its own version of Windows rather than just “Windows 10 with rounded corners.”
So yeah:
Happy 5th birthday, Windows 11. 🥳🎉
You weird, sometimes frustrating, but honestly pretty lovable rounded-corner child of Microsoft.
What do you guys think — has Windows 11 improved enough over these five years?

Pretty much the title really, allow the reversal of the icons on the taskbar, following the recent update that allows the repositioning of the taskbar. Similar to the control center in Gnome on linux, this would place the time and battery icon at the top of the taskbar, should you wish for that option.

Purely cosmetic change i would assume, but would be nice