Windows 11 has too many full-screen pop-ups. There’s one for Microsoft Edge, one for Copilot, and also for OneDrive. But is that really enough? I believe it is, but Microsoft has other plans. It’s now testing a new feature called SCOOBE screen (Second Chance Out of Box Experience) to show full-screen Microsoft 365 expiry prompts.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the idea of “reminders” or pop-ups with a positive intent. I often come across these alerts on my phone, but there’s a difference between the pop-ups we have on our mobile devices and our desktops. Windows pop-ups look similar to the out-of-the-box experience.

Some people get the wrong idea that their computer has been reset when they reboot Windows and land on the out-of-the-box-experience screen. Now, take a look at this new pop-up on Windows 11.

It says that Microsoft 365 subscription has expired. “It stopped working on 8 September 2025 because the payment didn’t go through. To keep using the premium apps and features, you need to update your payment details in your Microsoft account,” the pop-up reads.

“If you don’t, you won’t be able to save files to OneDrive anymore,” it added. It also tries to convince you to renew Microsoft 365 by offering a break down of your cloud storage.

The pop-up says I’m using  2.90 GB out of the 1 TB cloud storage. The subscription is not being shared with anyone, but I can share it with up to 5 people.

At the bottom, you have two options: “Remind me later” or “Update payment method.”

SCOOBE screen (Second Chance Out of Box Experience) will show the details of the current subscription and even reminders to renew the payment, if required.

But how does that happen? Well, Microsoft now forces you to sign in to your Microsoft account in the OOBE setup, and you cannot proceed to set up without it.

Since your MS account contains all the data, including your subscription details, it’ll use it to load up the service and subscription stats before booting to the desktop. If your subscription is expiring soon, you can choose to renew it to continue using the services.

So, you’ll be able to take action before even booting to the desktop. While Microsoft is making this useful change to the SCOOBE setup, we would appreciate it if it eased up on the promotional stuff that delays the PC setup.

As I mentioned, Windows 11 has several other annoying alerts. For example, there’s a Let’s back up your files alert that reminds you to sync Windows 11 to OneDrive, but the catch is that these backups are too large and you’ll be asked to pay for a OneDrive paid plan. That’s the core idea behind these pop-ups, and why Microsoft wants you to use OneDrive.

It’s frustrating to avoid and skip all the promotional content. Turning off suggestions in Windows 11 Settings does not help.

Before this, the most effective OOBE change we liked was the ability to restore a PC from backup during the OOBE setup. After you enter your account credentials, you’ll see an option to restore from a previous backup.

If you use a single Microsoft account on multiple PCs, it gets a little confusing. But I’ve yet to find such a useful feature in any OS, if you’re comfortable sharing your data with the Microsoft cloud storage.

Restore also reinstalls all the Microsoft Store apps in one click, and prepares your desktop exactly like before.

New advanced settings page, emojis in Windows 11

In addition, there are several other improvements coming to Windows 11.

Windows Latest spotted a change in one of the settings pages a few months back. Microsoft was trying to rebrand the For developers page to “Advanced settings.”

It already had a toggle to reduce the limit on extra-long file names that would otherwise throw an error. This page was previously removed in the preview builds, but is available again with today’s update. And it’ll begin rolling out to everyone in the next few weeks.

There’s also support for Emoji 16, so you can express yourself better during social media chats and Teams calls.

Here’s the list of the emojis:

• Face with Bags Under Eyes
• Fingerprint
• Root Vegetable
• Leafless Tree
• Harp
• Shovel
• Splatter

We understand why some of you may want to try these emojis, like showing exhaustion with bags under the eyes or a fingerprint. Some will be less useful, like the harp and leafless tree, but at least you have more options now.

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