Microsoft Finally Does Something Useful

Hey, welcome to the first issue of The Default State.

I'm starting with a story about Microsoft doing something boring. And why that's actually interesting.

For years, Microsoft has been shoving AI into everything. Your notepad needs it. Your paint program needs it. Every update promises to change your life, but mostly just adds buttons you'll never click.

This week was different.

Microsoft took a tool called Sysmon and built it directly into Windows. No fanfare. No AI assistant. Just a practical tool becoming more accessible.

If you're not in IT, Sysmon probably means nothing to you. But here's what it does in plain English.

Windows keeps logs of what happens on your computer. Programs opening, files changing, connections being made. But these logs are incomplete and messy. Like a security camera that only records every fifth frame.

Sysmon fixes that. It watches more carefully and takes better notes. Security teams use it to catch hackers. IT admins use it to investigate problems. Forensic people use it to trace what went wrong after an attack.

The problem? You had to install it separately on every machine. Imagine managing 5,000 computers. That's 5,000 installations to maintain and update. And Microsoft never officially supported it. If something broke, you were stuck.

Now it's just built in. Turn it on, configure it, done.

This sounds small, maybe even obvious. But that's the point.

Microsoft has spent years chasing what looks good in presentations. AI features nobody asked for. Solutions to problems nobody has. Meanwhile, people actually using Windows kept requesting simpler things. Better logging. Fewer bugs. Tools that make their jobs easier.

Someone at Microsoft finally remembered those people exist.

Mark Russinovich, a technical lead there, described Sysmon plainly: it helps catch credential theft and investigate security incidents. Not exciting. Just necessary.

The timing makes this interesting too. Microsoft just wrapped up a month of buggy updates and quality issues. Everything lately seems designed to push cloud subscriptions or AI services. Then suddenly, here's something practical with no upsell.

The Register nailed it with their headline: "Microsoft actually does something useful." That word "actually" says everything.

This is what I want to focus on in this newsletter. The stuff that stabilizes after hype fades. Tools that stick around because they solve real problems. Updates that matter more than they trend.

Microsoft will go right back to cramming AI everywhere. But for one week, they shipped something that just works.

Sometimes boring is exactly what we need.