"We have bigger hopes, higher aspirations for Windows," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on Wednesday, standing on a stage above a secret room filled with crazy holographic technology. "We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows, to loving Windows. That is our bold goal." He's right: love is a problem that Microsoft needs to solve.

Microsoft's last decade has been filled with missed "opportunities" and punctuated by occasional brilliance. Sometimes the future slipped through Microsoft’s fingers and was caught by someone else; it took five years for the company to come up with an answer to the iPod, and its first response was a brown brick called the Zune that pretty much everyone laughed at. And sometimes Microsoft shot itself in the foot; instead of fully committing to the bold ideas for the future it showed us in Windows 8, it retreated to the comfort of the desktop and released a compromised product called Windows RT that was more of a garbage fire than an operating system.

Microsoft's zealots aren't helping it sell many smartphones

Microsoft definitely has loyal fans, but it’s not loved like other tech companies are loved. Microsoft is not loved like Apple is loved. Hell, it might not even be loved as much as Samsung is loved these days. Microsoft’s tribe of admirers may be more zealous than others at times, but what is that really worth? It hasn't been enough to make a dent in the mobile market. Meanwhile, most people are experiencing the internet through iOS or Android, and some of them are trying to forget about that cheap laptop they had years ago with Windows Vista.

The best consumer technology companies, the ones people love, give us a compelling story about what our future looks like. That love is not earned when a CEO recites contrived jargon like "mobile first, cloud first," or when a company launches tacky attack ads. It's earned when companies consistently show us how our lives can genuinely be better than they were before, and then deliver on that promise. At its Windows 10 event, Microsoft started to deliver.

Sometimes progress can (and should) feel invisible or mundane. For instance, having a program that can work seamlessly across any device isn’t flashy, but it’s still a great idea that many of us have wanted for a while now — and it’s one of the things Microsoft just showed us in Windows 10. Continuum, a feature that smooths the transition between touch and non-touch interfaces, appears to fix some of the half-baked ideas from Windows 8. Microsoft is even closing the gap between gaming consoles and computers, by letting anyone stream their Xbox One games to their Windows 10 devices. And Cortana, Microsoft's competitor to Siri and Google Now, closes the gap between us and the metal. Speaking to our computers and devices naturally is a classic vision of the future that's finally getting smart enough and good enough to be meaningful, and Microsoft's take on the technology seems more present, and more flexible than its rivals. Taken individually, it’s easy to say this is all just the same stuff various companies have aimed at for years — but taken as a whole it shows vision.

Microsoft is taking risks, getting excited about what it can do, and even showing off a little

Other times we want to be excited by something that seems, well, downright crazy. Maybe even a little silly. And after showing us what it wanted to do with Windows, Microsoft did just that — it surprised us all with a totally bonkers augmented reality system called HoloLens that looked more like science fiction than something we could actually get our hands on. It’s partnering with NASA to let people explore Mars. It’s bringing Minecraft into the real world. Microsoft is taking risks, getting excited about what it can do, and even showing off a little. The best part is that we get to feel like the future is awesome, and that it’s going to be in our hands soon.

The genesis of technology is hope. What we create might be used for cynical purposes, or it may fall short of its promise, or it may be the butt of a joke from a jaded reporter — but its creation is fundamentally a hopeful act. It is both ethereal and corporeal: a remarkable collision of dreams, sweat, and chance. Inspired technology makes our world more ergonomic and molds our consciousness. At its best, technology elevates us and helps us thrive. It can be exciting. It can even make us feel love.

What Microsoft showed on Wednesday wasn’t just another sermon for devotees who chant words like "legacy" and "enterprise." It was audacious, and full of conviction, and even a little vulnerable. Because the premise of admitting you are needed and yet want to be loved is that you are not loved. And for a corporate giant that’s offered a lot of half-measures and doublespeak over the years, that recognition shows a refreshing sense of self-awareness.