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This article was published on June 24, 2021

Microsoft’s big Windows 11 announcement screwed up by a lagtastic livestream

Microsoft is worth 2 trillion dollars, but it can't get a livestream right


Microsoft’s big Windows 11 announcement screwed up by a lagtastic livestream

I was pretty hyped about Microsoft’s big Windows 11 reveal today. I’m a self-proclaimed Windows fanboy — we exist! — and after the company claimed Windows 10 would be the “last version of Windows,” the news of Windows 11 hit like a nerdy Christmas. So I fully expected my first article of the day to be a straight piece about the new features coming to the OS.

Instead, I’m writing this one. I’ve barely learned anything about Windows 11 yet, because the official livestream was a lagtastic mess.

Soon after the stream began on Microsoft’s event website, the video would buffer every few seconds, until it stopped working altogether. This was true of both the public stream and a separate link created for journalists.

Of course, I thought it might just be me at first, but the rest of the TNW team has been unable to watch the stream either. Journalists around the web are complaining about the connection as well.

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After a while, Microsoft instead redirected reporters to watch the livestream on Twitter. Which… well, is not a great look. Why wasn’t there a YouTube stream? Even Apple does that these days.

It should be noted that we’re still in a pandemic and the company would almost certainly have hosted an in-person event otherwise. And of course, the livestream says nothing about the performance of Windows 11 itself.

Still, it’s a shame that what is arguably Microsoft’s biggest software reveal in six years got off to such a clumsy start. It’s kind of baffling that a company worth 2 trillion-dollars couldn’t get a livestream right for such a major event.

Of course, the livestream issues were ultimately fleeting, and those interested can now watch a recording or read the press release instead. But there’s something a little magical about watching a major product announcement live, and that was lost on Windows fans today.

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