Chris Hoffman, IDG
Microsoft keeps putting its Windows division under new management
You can’t really understand what’s going on here without turning your eye to the corporate machinations inside Microsoft. If it seems as if the company’s Windows 10 strategy keeps shifting as the management in charge of Windows keeps changing. Microsoft has had three different people in charge of Windows over the past year.
Until September 2023 — shortly before the announcement of Copilot — Panos Panay was in charge of Windows (and Surface hardware) at Microsoft. Panay left just before the Copilot launch. After that, Microsoft split up Surface and Windows, putting Mikhail Parakhin in charge of “Windows and web experiences.” Then, in March 2024, Microsoft put Pavan Davuluri in charge of Windows (and Surface hardware).
It’s interesting how these dates line up with shifts in the Windows 10 strategy. Under Panay, Windows 10 wasn’t getting new features and the focus was on Windows 11. Then, under Parakhin — who was in charge of both Windows and web experiences like Bing — Windows 10 feature development began once again, with more web-based features added to Windows 10.