Windows Weekly (Audio)

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Behind the headlines about skyrocketing revenues and AI investments, the actual costs and future risks for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are shrouded in strategic accounting moves. Plus, Paul finished rewriting and adding new chapters to the Windows 11 Field Guide - mostly just clean-up now, and then whatever new monthly features. Lastly, The Document Foundation issues a friendly reminder about the Office 2021 EOL and how that never happens with their software

Microsoft earnings

Microsoft earnings up 18 percent to $90 billion
Analysis: Microsoft finds a new way to not account for AI costs

Windows

Pavan Davuluri says he's "energized" about what's happening to Windows in 2026.
OK. But what's really happened so far? When will the biggest changes land? And when, if ever, will you address the real enshittification in Windows 11?
Windows Insider Program: Five new builds - New Taskbar comes to Beta channel
This leads to questions of timing, and here, WIP is not all that transparent still
Another antitrust win: Apple to allow Copy and Paste between Windows and iPhone
AMD revenues up 50 percent to $11.5 billion, but it's all AI datacenter
Amazon: up 20 percent to $200 billion
Apple: up 16 percent to $109 billion

Satya Nadella mentions AI super app again, not clear why anyone cares about this
Proton Lumo can do data visualization now

Xbox and gaming

Asha Sharma details the priorities for XBOX in the next year and number 5 will shock you
XBOX console prices going up in the EU and UK
Thanks, Caption Obvious: Yes, Backward Compatibility on PC will support Xbox 360 games too
XBOX plans new FanFest tour dates - there's SO much to celebrate!
Gears of War: E-Day leads the charge for new Game Pass titles in August
XBOX Insiders is testing new console features
XBOX app comes to Hisense and VIDDA TVs
EA goes private for $55 billion in cash, but also some debt
Sony has sold 95.3 million PS5s
Sony responds to concerns about no more discs (with "pffffftttt")

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: It's done!
App pick of the week: LibreOffice
RunAs Radio this week: Ransomware Readiness with Heather Renze
Brown liquor pick of the week: Frey Ranch Straight Bourbon

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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There's been so much drama over what options Microsoft will allow for the Copilot key. But you don't have to wait for a future Windows update; you can remap any key with Microsoft's own Keyboard Manager PowerToy. More people should take advantage of this. Also, Paul just finished his major 2026 rewrite of the Windows 11 Field Guide! Every single chapter was rewritten or consolidated, with several new chapters added. Lastly, the OG Halo remake is a great reminder of how good this series was in the beginning. And it looks and plays terrific.

Windows

Week D updates arrive on time this month
Windows Hello ESS support for external fingerprint readers, many small improvements
Experimental (Future Platforms) finally gets an update, but it's just the features we saw elsewhere first
Several in-box app updates for July, nothing major
Microsoft convinces LG to drop the McAfee ads, but HP's Bing ads are A-OK
Chris tested Windows 11 with 8GB of RAM and the experience is not great
Paul has a Wildcat-based laptop waiting for him in PA
Microsoft is testing a "Do nothing" option for the Copilot key
Your Windows 11 PC now has a OneDrive Photos app for some reason
Opera One gets vertical tabs, deeper Google Lens integration

Earnings

Google/Alphabet - net income of $28 billion on $120 billion in revenues, but negative cash flow for the first time in the company's history
Intel - net loss of $11 million, no Foundry customers leaves Wall Street swooning for some reason

Microsoft begins shifting to its own MAI models, but the forward progress is minimal
NVIDIA, Microsoft, more team up for AI empire, er, Alliance
Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5

Xbox and gaming

Halo: Campaign Evolved is here
XBOX went down for the count for most of the day on Monday. But disc-based games still worked
XBOX begins testing ad-supported Cloud Gaming
Ubisoft game purchases on Xbox now carry over to PC for free
Luna comes to Prime Video app

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Remap keys with PowerToys Keyboard Manager
App pick of the week: Halo Campaign Evolved
Chris's pick of the week: His new newsletter! https://preferences.pcmag.com/PCMag/windows-guide

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Chris Hoffman

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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As the tech world catches its breath from AI whiplash and retro gaming returns to the PC, Microsoft quietly kills underused tools and tries to double down on what actually works. This episode blends the excitement of tech and entertainment (like Xbox classics landing on Windows 11) with a poignant look back at the life and legacy of legendary columnist John C. Dvorak.

Windows

Five new Insider builds released on Monday; the new Start menu comes to the Beta channel
Experimental (26H1) a day later with no interesting new features
The Whiteboard app is apparently being retired

Microsoft expands partnership with Mistral to improve EU AI infrastructure
Copilot for consumers is losing Podcasts and Deep research features soon
U.S. judge approves Anthropic $1.5 billion settlement with authors it stole from
1Password partners with Anthropic to make AI access to password-protected websites secure
Google renames NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook
Google's next big AI models are delayed, but we got Gemini 3.6 Flash, Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber to tide us over

XBOX and gaming

Microsoft brings XBOX Backward Compatibility to PC!!
Here comes Halo: Campaign Evolved, along with more Game Pass titles for the end of July
Bethesda announces Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters, and Fallout 5 is entering pre-production
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 in Early Access on August 21, Open Beta on August 27
XBOX July update adds support for longer gamertags, new library customization options, and more
XBOX teams with Meta to bring Game Pass Starter Edition to Meta Horizon+ subscribers
Valve says the component crisis dogging Steam Machine pricing will only get worse

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Windows Package Manager for bulk app installs
App (game) of the week: Doom: The Dark Ages
RunAs Radio this week: Security Begins at Procurement with Jessie Schofer
Brown liquor pick of the week: Loup River Nebraska Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft's July 2026 Patch Tuesday just shattered records with hundreds of bug fixes, and AI is the force behind the surge. Are we witnessing the beginning of a safer Windows, or is this flood of vulnerabilities the new normal? Plus, Tony Redmond's epic book has a new name (was Office 365 for IT Pros) and is now a bundle of four books.

Windows

Patch Tuesday is here!
Point in Time Restore, quieter Widgets, Windows Update improvements, Screen tint, and more
The biggest Patch Tuesday in history, by far: a record 570 fixes for security flaws, and a huge 3X increase from the then-record flaws fixed last month. (Some say the number is 622. Math is hard.) And this is on top of 468 Microsoft Edge/Chromium flaws that were fixed by Google this month too. Yikes.
Microsoft discusses how it's improving Windows security with AI
Windows Insider Program: Improved Windows Search is next on the docket, heading out to Experimental this week. Question: When do these things hit stable?
Microsoft releases Snapdragon X2 versions of its Surface for Business Pro and Laptop models

Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets
Surprised there was no talk of "thermonuclear war"
OpenAI's response is hilarious, and it is already prepping its first hardware device
OpenAI just announced the rumored super app, which is a combination of ChatGPT, Work, Codex, and an in-app web browser, which replaces the standalone Atlas web browser. Also, GPT-5.6.
In keeping with recent history, Anthropic announced its in-app web browser for Claude less than 24 hours later
Reminder that Microsoft acknowledged that it, too, is working on an AI super app at Build
Apple releases public betas of its OS 27 releases and, shocker, Siri is really good
Now Spotify has an AI chatbot so I can tell it how much I hate Spotify

Xbox and gaming

Obsidian is working on a new Fallout game, duh.
A quiet time after last week's terribleness

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Microsoft 365 for IT Pros (2027 edition) is here!
App pick of the week: MusicBee
RunAs Radio this week: Finding Security Vulnerabilities using AI with Sami Laiho
Brown liquor pick of the week: Sanctuary Single Malt Whisky Reserve Edition

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft's latest round of layoffs and game studio shakeups reveal deep cracks in the XBOX business, as years of unprofitability and missed expectations force the company into tough decisions. Are industry icons like Game Pass and big-name studios on borrowed time? Also, Paul's made major progress on the Windows 11 Field Guide updates! Plus, a desktop and mobile web browser that now blocks YouTube ads by default.

Layoffs

Microsoft announces 4800 layoffs, 3200 at XBOX
Analysis: What Sharma said and didn't say. Many interesting details revealed here. Many questions unanswered
Great outcomes for four studios, id Software reportedly laid off half its staff
Interesting alternative analysis: The Game Pass thesis, XBOX can't do everything

Windows

Four new builds yesterday, one major new feature: Cloud restore
Microsoft Edge is adding support for Google account sign-ins
Opera One adds clipboard attack prevention
Google and Samsung have announced new hardware launches, both with new foldables on the way - Apple's first foldable expected in January

Microsoft is reportedly transitioning to its in-house MAI models where possible
Latest Corey Doctorow book takes on the future of AI and is surprisingly middle-of-the-road. Unlike his last book, he explains how he handles this and has some ideas for doing so yourself

XBOX and gaming

Gears of War Reloaded, more head to Game Pass
The oldest rumor in XBOX history is back, with Microsoft working (again, or as always) on a disc-to-digital program in the wake of the Sony PS5+ physical media announcement
Nintendo to end OG Switch sales, make Switch 2 changes in the EU
You can play Half-Life 2 in a web browser now

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: All Mint Mobile Plans Are Now Just $15 Per Month
App pick of the week: DuckDuckGo browser
RunAs Radio this week: Implementing Azure Policies with Barbara Forbes
Brown liquor pick of the week: Shenk's Homestead Sour Mash Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 10's Extended Security Update program quietly gets extended for another year for consumers. Microsoft reportedly kills Surface Go products & is now selling 8 GB Surface Pro & Laptop models. And Xbox Series X & S prices are going to go up again.

Windows

Microsoft quietly extends the Windows 10 Extended Security Update program one year to October 2027 for consumers

Windows Insider

Windows Update is transitioning to the new Windows Insider experience by default
Plus, five new builds across Beta, Experimental, Beta (26H1), Experimental (26H1), and Experimental (Future Platforms) — new Taskbar size setting is the much-needed new feature

Hardware

Apple raises prices on Macs, iPads, and more, easing pressure on PC makers
Microsoft quietly begins selling 8 GB Surface Pro/Laptop models
Microsoft reportedly kills Surface Go products right when we need them the most
The ASUS Zenbook A16 is nearly perfect, but it's unclear what you get with an X2 Elite Extreme chip

HP partners with OpenAI for its agentic makeover
Anthropic seizes on the "good enough" AI movement with Sonnet 5
Proton Lumo 2.0 is here
Gemini personalized image creator is available for free in the US
Notion blames agentic AI for it killing Notion Mail

Xbox and Gaming
The 2026 Doom and Gloom Watch

Xbox Series X|S prices to go up again, by $150, on August 1 - and the 2 TB X is going away
Undead Labs and Arkane Lyon possible victims of pending closures
Latest rumor: Microsoft to layoff 2.5 percent of workforce next week - that's 5,500 people, less than expected, but that's because of the earlier voluntary buyouts, which apparently met internal expectations
Minecraft Bedrock edition gets closed captions
Sony will stop selling PS physical media in 2028

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Help or get out of the way
People who just complain aren't solving problems, they're just making noise and distracting us from the real problems.

App Pick of the Week: Snapdragon Control Panel

If you have a Windows 11 on Arm PC on Snapdragon X or X2, you need this app to make games run as well as possible.
Plus - Settings > System > Display > Graphics for Auto SR and other settings and whatever is in each game

RunAs Radio this week: AI-Accelerated Supply Chain Attacks with Mackenzie Duncan

Brown liquor pick of the week: Rupert's Exceptional Canadian Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 12 is stalled and the real reasons go far beyond software. The conversation unpacks how soaring hardware prices, AI chaos, and market confusion have Microsoft in a holding pattern. Also, Paul finally took a sledgehammer to the subscription services he pays for, and more is on the way. Plus, one of Paul's favorite Markdown editors supports authorship on Windows now and an integrated Search/Outline view on Mac, iPad, and iPad.

Windows

Week D is here with a preview of July's Patch Tuesday
Point-in-time restore is now generally available in Windows 11, sort of
Quieter widgets, which is nice! Plus, Screen tint, Windows Update improvements, more
Tied to this, sort of, something wonderful is happening to the Windows 11 Field Guide
Five new builds, plus some 26H2 news (and still no news about what 26H1 becomes, see below...)
Mostly minor fit-and-finish improvements
So... what about Windows 12? The history is interesting, and Copilot+ PC was what Paul originally thought Windows 12 would be. But now we're talking agentic capabilities that will handle local/cloud/hybrid orchestration per last week's discussion, and maybe that will be it.
We knew that Surface Laptop and Surface Pro would come in 8 GB configurations. But they're available now with just 256 GB of storage and the prices are $950 and $850 and up, respectively. Plus all the usual Surface limitations, like one color choice. (16 GB is $1150 and $1050, respectively, so $300 more.)
Once again, it's time to just get a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x for $850. It has 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage and is awesome.
Tim Cook just admitted that Apple will raise hardware prices because of the component crisis. If this is hitting Apple hard, the rest of the industry is screwed.

Cory Doctorow's new book is out and let's just say his new neologism isn't as catchy as enshittification
Reverse centaur (groan)
Surprisingly centrist view on the pros and cons of AI
Highlights the Microsoft financial shenanigans I point out every quarter: Microsoft "invests" $10 billion of "tokens" in OpenAI, but there's no volume discount and Microsoft books the transaction as $10 billion in AI revenues as OpenAI simply uses its infrastructure. It gave $10 billion to OpenAI so that it could spend $10 billion on Azure.
Google Home Speaker is the Gemini speaker and it's now shipping to first customers as Google discontinues Nest Audio and Nest Mini speakers. Can we trust this company with hardware? And why are there no Apple or Google home theater setups?
Adobe brings its creative agent to Firefly and the biggest apps in Creative Cloud

XBOX & gaming

No movement yet on the massive changes we expect in XBOX soon
Microsoft has "dozens" of gaming IP-based movies and TV shows in the works
XBOX Insiders can now test updates to Gamertags, Game Hub, and Wish List
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are being ported to modern PS consoles. Sadly, not remakes or remasters.
GTA VI will cost $79.99 and up - Arrives in November, can preorder on June 25
Steam Machine to cost $1049 and up, and that's with no controller

Tips & picks

Tip of the week: How to save $100 a month
App pick of the week: iA Writer
RunAs Radio this week: Securing Developers with Tanya Janca
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glen Breton Rare 10

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/989

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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With major leadership shakeups and rumors of studio closures, the future of XBOX inside Microsoft suddenly looks uncertain. Is this the beginning of a Game Pass overhaul, or could XBOX face an outright split from the company? Plus, PowerToys 0.100 (yes, point one hundred) arrives with so many improvements. And the Windows Insider program is leaving even seasoned users scratching their heads over Microsoft's so-called "simplification."

Windows

Windows Insider Program: Microsoft releases a record 7 builds to the allegedly simpler Insider Program
You can't tell the players without a program
Experimental: Less disruptive Windows Update, Windows Search improvements
Beta 26H1: Screen tint
Beta 25H2: Screen tint, quieter Widgets, Magnifier zoom controls
Release Preview 25H2: Screen tint, quieter Widgets, Magnifier zoom controls, Bluetooth connectivity improvements
All (?) get Voice access and Voice typing improvements, and new right-click Touchpad settings
Good God, Microsoft

Hardware

Microsoft announces Snapdragon X2-based Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Laptop 13 and the prices are eye-watering
Samsung announces Snapdragon X2-based Galaxy Book6 Edge and, yes, the prices are eye-watering
The component crisis is a disaster but limitations are driving innovation, as they always have
Google releases Android 17 alongside a new Pixel Drop, setting the stage for Googlebooks

Software

Microsoft Edge to follow Chrome to a two-week development schedule because we all love updating our web browsers
Mozilla releases Firefox 152 and a new roadmap for the browser

FINALLY AN AI-FREE WEEK

XBOX and gaming

Fear & loathing at XBOX! The Microsoft fiscal year ends in two weeks, and big changes are coming
XBOX leadership set to reveal "hard truths" that will absolutely include layoffs and studio and game closures
Microsoft is looking at all options for XBOX, including a spin-off
XBOX Studios CEO and chief of staff announce their departures ahead of expected layoffs
XBOX reportedly closing Ninja Theory, makers of the Hellblade games
Compulsion Games is likely on the chopping block too
XBOX is coming to Gamescon this year
Xbox June Update arrives with new boot animation, more while Microsoft continues testing minor UX changes in the Insider Program
COD: Vanguard, EA Sports FC 26 and more coming to Game Pass in the second half of June
Rockstar Games is giving free GTA V upgrades to Xbox One and PS4 players

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Don't doomscroll, learnscroll instead
App pick of the week: PowerToys 0.100
RunAs Radio this week: 47 Day Certificates with Todd Gardner
Brown liquor pick of the week: Thornæs Kagerup

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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If you think code is safe from automation, think again. This week's discussion tackles why the rise of vibe coding and AI-powered tools could upend long-held beliefs about software development, with even seasoned pros rethinking their roles. Also, a new C++ documentary is worth watching!

Windows

After a weekend of Build session viewing, two big takeaways!
Vibe coding native Windows apps and a new reactive dev model for WinUI will help to make modern app dev easier for everyone
A new theory emerges: The real reason Microsoft is fixing Windows 11 is that it needs this foundation for a future of hybrid AI agents. And hybrid means more than just local + cloud.
Patch Tuesday is here! As promised, Microsoft fixed a record number of security issues thanks to AI
24H2/25H2: Shared audio, more NPU in Task Manager, multi-app camera support, user folder name choice in OOBE, more
26H1: Xbox Mode, Drop tray, etc.
Windows Insider Program: New 26H1 Beta channel added for some reason
Dell now sells a Windows Hello ESS-compatible wired mouse

WWDC 2026: Apple announced vibe-coding advances for normal users (Safari extensions) and developers (Xcode). Paul used Xcode and Claude Code to create a full-featured Markdown editor app in about 12-15 minutes.
Google drops the price of AI Plus plan to $4.99 per month, raises storage to 400 GB and announces new NotebookLM capabilities
Proton Drive is coming to Linux, has a new SDK, and now has a new CLI too. We're going to need a CLI section in the show notes.

XBOX and gaming

Microsoft Games Showcase: It needed to be a big day for Xbox and it was
Microsoft showed off Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War E-Day, Fable, and a lot more
Some games will be console-exclusive in the future, starting with the new Gears
Microsoft will sell a limited edition Xbox Series X25 later this year
Xbox leadership is exploring new business models for the next console - Game Pass lost "millions" of subscribers after last year's price hikes
Xbox Insider update adds a new way to discover mutual friends, more
Valve says the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will ship this summer

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 Field Guide is being updated to 2026 edition
App pick of the week: Brave Origin
RunAs Radio this week: How Machine Learning Fails with Megan Robertson
Brown liquor pick of the week: Thy Bøg

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Build 2026 is underway in San Francisco this week, and it started with a big, overly-long keynote as always. And Computex is this week, too. There's a lot going on, and some of it is fascinating. Plus, WWDC is next week because you cannot relax. Also, Microsoft GA's WinApp CLI, announces the Windows Platform Skills plug-in for native app creation, and you're not going to believe what Paul did next. OK, you will believe it

Build + Computex = OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD

NVIDIA finally announces Arm-based N1X as the RTX Spark
RTX Spark is an Arm-based portable workstation chip for Windows 11
Microsoft announces Surface Laptop Ultra - It and other RTX Spark-based PCs will appear in late 2026
Some of this leaked earlier, including a lower-end N1 chipset
Microsoft continues to optimize and evolve Windows 11 for developers
Windows Developer Configuration, Windows Developer Skills + WinApp CLI, Terminal, more Linux, and more on-device ("unmetered") AI - Tied to this, Copilot+ PC features are coming to more PCs, with CPU/GPU support - this, plus the RTX Spark stuff hints at answers to some obvious questions but there's nothing concrete from Microsoft
Microsoft Edge is getting three new on-AI features
Scout is a personal work agent powered by OpenClaw
GitHub Copilot app arrives on desktop for your agentic coding and management needs
Microsoft AI announces seven new foundation models
Stevie Bathiche is back, baby! And he's talking about those AI app structures and how they've led to Project Solara

Windows

Microsoft discusses the progress it's made on Windows 11 pain points
You can now test the new Start menu in Experimental - Paul did so along with the new Taskbar
Qualcomm announces low-cost Snapdragon C for $300+ PCs to take on MacBook Neo
And Acer is the first to announce a Snapdragon C laptop
New Surface Pro with Snapdragon X2 leaks for June release (!)
Dell XPS 13 is coming soon with Intel Wildcat (also to take on MacBook Neo)
Dell revenues are through the roof, but not because of PCs
HP revenues are up, and it is because of PCs

AI and dev

Anthropic gets a new valuation exceeding OpenAI and then it files for an IPO
OpenAI adjusts GPT5.5-Instant for less sucking-up and releases computer use in Codex on Windows
Flutter takes the lead on Flutter desktop development

XBOX and gaming

Asha Sharma says you can't please everyone and then immediately jumps the shark trying to please everyone
XBOX delays Fable reboot because of GTA VI
New titles coming to Game Pass in early June across platforms
XBOX starts early testing of new console features
ASUS announces ROG Xbox Ally X20 with OLED display and XReal R1 glasses
Intel announces Arc G-series for gaming handhelds
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 is next and it's the COD we've been begging for

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Now you can vibe code a native Windows app from the CLI
App pick of the week: iA Writer
RunAs Radio this week: Data API Builder and SQL MVP with Jerry Nixon
Brown liquor pick of the week: Old Malt Casking of Longmorn 20

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/986

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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No, it's not you. Windows Hello doesn't work in the dark anymore. For reasons. Say "Hello" to the Windows Hello controversy of the month!

Windows

AI agent in Settings and Recall export experience in Dev/Beta channels - plus the old clock is back, baby
July Patch Tuesday preview: App defaults (EEA only), Share images with visual preview, and some fixes for Windows 11 (The first one is coming to Windows 10 too - tied to the DMA news from last week.)
Commentary: What Apple gets right in macOS 26 (and otherwise)

Surface

One year with Surface Laptop 7
Microsoft issues its first firmware updates for Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 in several months, sort of

Microsoft 365

BBB complains about how Microsoft promotes Microsoft 365; Microsoft disagrees but will change the way it communicates about these features

OpenAI, Microsoft, and... the nuclear option??
The Open AI Files provides an insider view of the company and finds it lacking
Copilot Vision is GA in the United States - It's also free to try on mobile
The Browser Company starts explaining Dia, finally

Xbox and Games

Microsoft announces (extends?) partnership with AMD on future Xbox hardware - a one minute video with plenty to parse
Next-gen hardware
Multi-year partnership with AMD on Xbox consoles and gaming handhelds
Compatibility with existing game libraries
Working closely with the Windows team, ensure Windows is the number one games platform
Microsoft shares Xbox Ally details with devs, a hint at the coming Windows-based Xbox platform requirements?
More Game Pass titles for June, including an old favorite
Minecraft gets three great updates
Steam will run natively on Apple Silicon soon. Unlike all the games.

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Don't give in
App pick of the week: Camtasia online
RunAs Radio this week: SQL Server 2025 with Bob Ward
Brown liquor pick of the week: The Macallan 18 Sherry Oak Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Get to know Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday updates and new features in Windows 11, such as improvements to the Start menu, File Explorer, and Copilot integration. They also cover new AI features coming to the Photos app for Copilot+ PCs and updates to the Microsoft Store. The discussion then shifts to developer conferences like Google I/O and Apple's WWDC, with a focus on their respective AI advancements and product strategies. Plus, the controversy surrounding Microsoft's decision to no longer host its Build conference in Seattle. Don't miss the discussion on the evolving role of the iPad as a potential threat to Surface devices due to recent software enhancements!

Windows 11

June Patch Tuesday is here! Big changes for Windows 11 versions 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2
New Start menu finally debuts in Dev and Beta - synchronized again for some reason
Copilot+ PCs get Relight feature and natural language search in the Photos app
The Microsoft Store gets a major update in the Beta channel
And Canary is still a thing, no one knows why

Developer conference season draws to a close

Build: Protests, problems, and more problems
Microsoft pulls out of Seattle permanently
Google I/O: Stunning array of AI announcements. But Android 16 is on a weird slow boil after a truncated development cycle
Apple WWDC: Apple Intelligence? Look, Liquid Glass! Also, some actual advances across its newly unified platforms
Look out Surface: The iPad is a real computer now - And it only took 15 years
Microsoft, Google, and Apple all played to their strengths
Between Windows 11 2xH2, Android 16, and iOS whatever - do the platform makers even know how to ship software anymore?

Xbox

Microsoft unveils the first Xbox-branded third-party gaming handheld as part of its Xbox Games Showcase 2025 event - a few interesting things there as well - COD: BO7, Gears remake, Gears v.next delayed to 2026
This heavily modified/optimized version of Windows 11 is coming to more gaming handhelds
Looking to the future: What if this is literally the model for future Xbox console hardware? What if the next Xbox was a NUC?
More Game Pass titles across platforms for the second half of June
You can add 4 TB of storage to your Xbox, but it will cost you dearly
Apple loses again in Epic v. Apple, Fortnite can stay in the App Store and developers can stop getting robbed by Apple
The Nintendo Switch 2 launched this past week and is apparently the best-selling console of all time at launch
PS5 controllers to support multiple Bluetooth connections

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Share Feature, image crunching
App pick of the week: Dia Browser
RunAs Radio this week: The Case for Telemetry with Liz Fong-Jones
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenlossie 26

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Richard Campbell is out this week! Microsoft continues to make changes to Notepad as it tests 'lightweight text formatting' in Notepad. 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 got preview updates. And Microsoft has reportedly delayed its first-party Xbox / Windows gaming handheld.

Windows

THE GREAT NOTEPAD CONTROVERSY OF 2025

Microsoft announced it was testing "lightweight text formatting" in Notepad.
This is one of MANY changes its made to Notepad in recent years.
The community has collectively lost its s#$t - most thought this was RTF support - it's not.
Everyone is wrong. In defense of Notepad.

24H2

Last Tuesday, 22H2/23H2 got a preview update in Week D, but 24H2 did not.
The 24H2 update appeared later, with a ton of new features as expected - it's possible an out-of-band update requirement is responsible for the delay.
Now we know for sure what's coming on Patch Tuesday next week.
Windows Insider updates
- Today, in Canary: Energy saver in Intune, re-rollout of Phone companion, more.
- Dev and Beta (24H2): Quick machine recovery, Phone Link improvements - Plus, more just in Dev.
- Canary: Voice access and some bug fixes.
Microsoft makes more DMA changes to Windows 11/Edge
- We all need these changes.
- Apple needs to pay attention.
- Also, hilarious: Apple copies what Microsoft did in the 1990s. Twice.
Earnings:
- HP
- Dell
- Nvidia

Microsoft 365/AI

Microsoft announces (internally) its third major AI reorg in 15 months - Too ... slow?
Microsoft is killing password management/autofill in the Microsoft Authenticator app (announced previously, but now a warning is showing up in the app).
- Good, you should use a third-party password manager anyway. Also, it's really an identity manager. Also, wake up.
- When/why to use Microsoft Authenticator.
- And why you should also use Google Authenticator.
June 2025 update for the new Outlook adds tons of new features.
Research and Analyst AI agents are now GA in Microsoft 365 Copilot.
You can experiment with short, phone videos on your phone with Bing Video Creator.
FU, OpenAI! NYT licenses its content to Amazon.
Samsung may drop Gemini for Perplexity.

Xbox/Gaming

Microsoft has reportedly delayed its first-party Xbox/Windows gaming handheld.
- Xbox continues to be in a holding pattern on hardware - Theories include an Arm revolution in waiting and Amy Hood getting serious about trying to make this business profitable.
- Are handheld gaming PCs the next Netbook or mini-tablet ... or this is market real, sustainable, and big enough to matter?
- SteamDeck/Linux could be a problem here - related to this, Nvidia news.
Microsoft reaches its first-ever agreement with a game studio union.
Semi-related: J Allard is one of about 100 former Microsoft execs at Amazon now, and we have an update.

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: You can replace OneDrive/Google Drive with a NAS.
- My Synology NAS is better than expected as a Little Tech replacement for OneDrive and Google Drive. This changes everything
App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge 137
- Edge 137 has quietly emerged as the biggest release of this browser since its inception.
- Edge 137 adds PIP and business improvements, removes Wallet Hub and some truly pointless features.
- It adds Windows 11 App action support to PWAs.
- It brings Game Assist for Game Bar to everyone.
Photoshop for Android is here and it's free

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/935

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Microsoft shakes up Windows Update with third-party app integration while AI features flood into Paint, Notepad, and Snipping Tool. Plus, the browser wars heat up as Arc pivots to agentic AI and Opera launches Neon, while Richard calls in from Cape Town with whiskey wisdom.

Windows 11

It's Week D! Microsoft issues preview updates for 23H2/22H2 - Windows Key + C for Copilot, Drag tray, FAQs in Settings, Lock screen widget customization, IT admin controls for Taskbar
Windows Insider Program
- Canary - Microsoft adds support for asymmetrical key encryption that won't be vulnerable to quantum computing attacks
- Beta (24H2) - New Microsoft 365 text actions in Click to Do, Lock screen widget customization, multiple dashboards in Widgets, App recommendations in Open with dialog, PC to PC migration experience in Windows Backup
- New Paint, Notepad, and Snipping Tool features in Canary and Dev - Paint sticker generator and Object select tool, Snipping Tool perfect screenshot and color picker, Notepad writing tools (draft from prompt, rewrite text, etc.)
- Now Windows Update is going to update third-party apps too
- As promised last week, Notion is now available in the Microsoft Store
- Signal will explicitly prevent Recall from screenshotting the app
- Related: Why is Lenovo doing so well financially?
  - Also related: IDC predicts 4.1 percent growth in PC market this year to 274 million units

AI and Web Browsers, Oh My

Browsers go agentic
- The Browser Company says it will no longer offer functional updates to Arc as it focuses on Dia
- Opera announces Neon, its agentic AI web browser
Hand-wringing as OpenAI buys Jony Ive's newish company
Duck.ai if you ask it nicely (and use the right model)
Yes, Google is going to put ads in Search AI Mode
Vivaldi 7.4 arrives for desktop and for mobile
Firefox 139 is a minor update - maybe it's time to move to a 6 week schedule?

Xbox and Games

Xbox's Copilot for Gaming Launches on iOS and Android in Beta
FTC drops its bid to unwind Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Sony discounts PS5 and peripherals temporary to undercut Switch 2

Tips and Picks

Tip of the Week: 'Fear and Loathing in Seattle' and 'More Fear and Loathing in Seattle'
App Pick of the Week: Instapaper
- Plus: Fences 6 is GA on Windows 11
RunAs Radio This Week: How to Talk to Security with Sarah Young
Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Aerstone 10 Sea Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Agentic AI is the theme of the show this year, and this time its multi-agent with orchestration! But first, we need to discuss the protestors. Paul and Richard have stories. So many stories!

Build 2025

New Microsoft 365 Copilot features are rolling out now because it's a day that ends in y
Tuning is the unexpected Build Bingo center square term - rolling out to agents
GitHub Copilot is open source in VS Code, more
Win32 app support improvements, no more fees in Microsoft Store
A shift in making Windows 11 the best place for developers - some things said, some left unsaid
Edge gets new AI features too of course
New native app capabilities in Windows App SDK, React Native
And, pre-Build, 50 million Visual Studio users
Copilot for consumers does image generation now. Fun tip: You can Minecraft-ize photos
OpenAI has a coding agent too, obviously
And OpenAI is buying Jony Ive!

Windows

Administrator Protection is coming soon - And not just for businesses. This feels very much like the firewall in XP SP2, it's going to be disruptive
New 24H2 features in Release Preview: New text actions in Click to Do, a lot more
New 24H2 features in Dev and Beta: AI actions in File Explorer, Advanced Settings, Search improvements, more
New 23H2 features, Windows 10 features in Release Preview
Surface Laptop Studio RIP
Calendar companion app for Windows 11/M365
Microsoft may finally put the Teams antitrust issue in the EU behind

Xbox

Fortnite returns to the Apple App Store
Apple blocked it first, Epic complained to judge
And Microsoft files a legal motion against Apple and for Epic Games
Qualcomm job listing confirms Xbox plans to some degree
What happens when you combine Qualcomm NPU with Nvidia GPU?
Xbox May Update arrives and it's a big one
Retro Classic Games for Xbox Game Pass
Game Bar updates, Edge Game Assist, GeForce now etc. on PC
Custom Xbox gift cards
More streaming of your own games
Hellblade II is coming from Xbox to PS5
Many more games coming to Xbox Game Pass across platforms

Tips and Picks

App pick of the week: You can try Microsoft's command line editor now
Game pick of the week: Doom: The Dark Ages
RunAs Radio this week: PowerShell 7.5 and DSC 3.0.0 with Jason Helmick
Brown liquor pick of the week: Tamnavulin Sherry Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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It's go time: The biggest Patch Tuesday of 2025 sets the stage for 2025! Microsoft has finally revealed whether it will further extend Windows 10 support past October (it won't). Also, Microsoft designed notifications in Windows 11 to be annoying and pointless, so Paul has some advice. Plus, Proton Drive gets a long awaited albums feature, and more on the way.

Windows 11

Recall (preview) and Click to Do (preview) come to stable for the first time
Let's give Microsoft a bit of credit for this one non-reported behavior
Also: Improvements to Settings, Narrator, Start, Phone Link, Widgets, File Explorer
You knew this was coming: Microsoft now testing a "Hey, Copilot" feature
It's opt-in and an alternative to holding down Alt + Spacebar for two seconds
Microsoft discusses the new Start design and it's not a s#$t show like it was three years ago
No builds for the second Friday in a row
Improvements to Settings AI agent, intelligent text actions in Click to Do, a few small changes come to 24H2 in Dev and Beta channels
Copilot Vision gets Highlights and 2-App Support across all channels
Google's big Android reveal includes Material Expressive, big Wear OS update. Android, like Windows 11 (and iOS) is just being updated all the time now

Windows 10

Extended support program
Will support Microsoft 365 on Windows 10 through October 2028
Those time frames are identical
So what about those Surface PCs that can't upgrade to Windows 11? Microsoft has an answer (for all unsupported PCs) and it's not as cynical as you think
Microsoft quietly discontinued entry-level 13.8-inch Surface Laptop and 13-inch Surface Pro when it introduced those smaller new models last week

Layoffs

Microsoft just made $70 billion, so naturally it's laying off employees. How to explain this?
The FTC's losing streak against Microsoft continues
A proposal for solving the "Mozilla problem" in U.S. v. Google
Fortnite could return to the iPhone App Store as soon as today

OH MY GOD IS THERE NO AI NEWS FOR ONCE. OK, three small items
OpenAI brings OneDrive and SharePoint integration with ChatGPT for paid business customers
"AI mode" could replace "I'm feeling lucky" on the Google home page
Spotify's AI DJ keeps improving

Dev

Build is next week in Seattle, a few thoughts
.NET 10 Preview 4 is out

Xbox & Games

Today's the day: DOOM: The Dark Ages goes live at 8:00 ET tonight!
Xbox Insiders can now play cloud-enabled games with mouse and keyboard
Paul reviews the Backbone Pro controller
Nintendo revenues slide big ahead of Switch 2 - 15m consoles expected in first year
Sony sold 18.5 million PS5s in the most recent fiscal year, down 11 percent YOY

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 notifications make iOS look sophisticated
App pick of the week: Proton Drive
RunAs Radio this week: Active Directory in 2025 with Liz Tesch
Brown liquor pick of the week: Limeburners Albany Tawny Cask

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/932

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Microsoft announces big changes to Windows 11: New Start menu, Phone Companion on Start, AI actions in File Explorer, Notepad and other updates. Plus, new Copilot+ PC features: Click to Do actions, AI agent in Search for some reason, new Photos, Paint, and Snipping Tool features, and more.

Windows 11

Microsoft announces new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models after teasing the announcement last week
Recall improvements, Taskbar improvements, HDR improvements, more come to Beta and Dev
Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 to start on hotpatching, same schedule as Windows Server 2025
A moment of silence for Skype, we didn't know what we had until you ensh*ttified and then killed it
Google is secretly working on two major changes for Android 16+ - We need something like this for 25H2

Antitrust

Apple is slapped down hard by Judge in Epic v. Apple
Spotify, Amazon, Proton and many other change apps to avoid Apple Tax
The walls are finally tumbling down for Big Tech
US v. Google (ads) has a remedy hearing set for September, that should go well

Open AI: just kidding about that for-profit thing. Did Microsoft squelch this plan?
Google's Little Language Lessons looks like a neat use of AI
GitHub Copilot now has over 15 million users

Xbox & gaming

FTC may have suffered its final defeat in trying to end Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Xbox/ASUS portable gaming device leaks
Good news! Xbox consoles are more expensive now! Wait.
New DOOM game and more are coming to Game Pass this month
Gears of War Remastered coming to Xbox, PS5, PC, Game Pass in August
Minecraft drops VR/MR support
GTA VI delayed until 2026
Backbone Pro works with phones directly but also tablets, PCs, and more wirelessly

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Go passwordless
App pick of the week: Microsoft Authenticator
RunAs Radio this week: Building a Career in Cybersecurity with Yuri Diogenes
Brown liquor pick of the week: Jura 10

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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YOU ARE THE PRODUCT! But... are you? In Russia, Windows 11 uses you! Plus, something happened to Paul on the way to dual-booting Ubuntu 25.04 on Surface Laptop 7, but all is well! Also, you should be using Brave. But if you don't like/trust Chromium, Firefox 138 finally added profile management support.

Windows

Windows 11 24H2 preview update for April finally arrives
Now we know why Microsoft waited: It wanted to announce the "general availability" of Recall, Click to Do, and "improved Windows Search" (we're still struggling with a name for that one)
Dev and Beta (24H2) builds add a profanity filter, a Pen shortcut for Click to Do, improved Windows Search for work and school accounts, Accessibility flyout in Quick settings
Microsoft (sort of) explains why Windows Insider Preview channels don't follow a logical order anymore
Microsoft deprecates Map app in Windows 11
That makes sense. But also VBS Enclaves in pre-24H2 versions, which is interesting

Corporate

Microsoft says it will defend EU companies against US government
Alphabet/Google is doing just great, thanks
Intel earnings are flat, and that's as good as that news gets
Samsung posts record revenues on strong S25 series sales

Dev

Build and Google I/O are coming in hot
Google is holding a separate Android event for the first time, ahead of I/O
What about Surface? At Build last year, the company announced Copilot+ PC

Microsoft has an OpenAI problem - duh and/or hello
Microsoft is part of an AI unholy quaternity on new Moto phones
Duolingo announces controversial "AI first" strategy - And then announces 148 new AI-based courses
Apple on Apple Intelligence: Just kidding!
OpenAI on GPT-4o: Just kidding!
ChatGPT goes shopping and OpenAI improves Deep Research
Google updates NotebookLM audio overviews with support for over 50 languages
YouTube starts testing AI overviews for videos - and Spotify is using AI for playlists
Adobe updates Firefly models, adds third party support
DuckDuckGo's Duck.ai now supports real-time model switching
Meta launches a standalone AI app that no one should want

Xbox

Xbox-exclusive game Towerborne is here in preview on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Be prepared
App pick of the week: Firefox 138
RunAs Radio this week: Modern Work in 2025 with Karoliina Kettukari
Brown liquor pick of the week: Highwayman Whisky Abbey 2024

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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It's Week D, do you know where your preview update is? 23H2 is out - 24H2, not so much! No surprises in the new features list, but are more new features on the way?

Windows

New text actions in Click to Do - Practice in Reading Coach and Read with Immersive Reader - in Dev and Beta (24H2)
Find cloud-based (OneDrive-based) photos using Semantic search - Comes to EEA, Snapdragon X only for now, Dev and Beta
Voice access improvements - add words to custom dictionary - Dev and Beta
Updated green screen UI - latest Canary build, from today
Minor update to the Beta/23H2 channel, no new features
Ubuntu 25.04 is out and there's a native Arm64 ISO (!) and BitLocker support
Hands-on with WSL (which is stuck at 24.xx) and in Hyper-V on a Copilot+ PC
Is dual-boot even possible on Arm? (Yet)
Friday night update to identity caused accounts to be marked as leaked for 50,000 partner accounts

We're in a new wave: Microsoft 365 Copilot updated, new Agent Store and more on the way
Copilot Vision is now free for everyone in Microsoft Edge
Google is giving Gemini Advanced/Google One AI Premium away for free to US college students
Google estimates its Gemini AI chatbot had 35M DAUs and 350M MAUs worldwide as of last month while ChatGPT had 160M DAUs and 600M MAUs (Erin Woo/The Information)
Perplexity is coming to Samsung and Motorola phones - and Microsoft is apparently coming to Motorola too

Antitrust

It's getting real - 20 years after US v. Microsoft, Big Tech is finally getting a reckoning
Google has now lost two major US antitrust cases in less than a year
US v. Google (search): DOJ wants Judge to break up Google
US v. Google (ads): Google found to have another illegal monopoly
What's the "right" outcome for Chrome and Google's ad businesses?
OpenAI says it would be happy to buy Chrome from Google- hilarious
Google just killed Privacy Sandbox, cites regulatory climate
Apple, Meta fined by EU for not conforming to the DMA
Apple Intelligence is no longer "available now" (Siri: Is it raining?)

Xbox/gaming

Elder Scrolls IV Remastered lands on Xbox, PC, PS5 and Game Pass
Xbox app arrives on LG smart TVs
It's (back) on: Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders rescheduled to April 24 with no price change
And the demand is higher than expected, Nintendo says

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: It's time to look at Google Fi again
HARDWARE pick of the week: Microsoft keyboards and mice are back, baby
RunAs Radio this week: Agentic AI for IT Pros with Tim Warner
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dark Harmony No. 3 Black IPA Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Paul, Leo, and Richard get into new Windows features (thanks to the Feature Tracker), hardware shifts for Microsoft/Intel/Apple, AI moves from OpenAI/Apple/Adobe, Notion Mail, a Hawaiian drink, the National Recording Registry, rice cookers, and electronic timer tunes!

Windows 11

Feature Tracker. Since we last talked, Microsoft has announced the following new features for Windows 11:
Semantic search can now search for Windows settings using natural language - Dev and Beta (24H2) channels, no clear stable date but guessing June
Narrator can more accurately describe images by detailing the people, objects, colours, text, and numbers in them, Snapdragon X only, same builds as above
Snipping Tool with "Text extraction" in the capture bar - This in Canary now, but it was in at least Dev previously, this could ship in stable at any time, it's an app
Recall (preview) and Click to Do (preview) head to the Release Preview channel (24H2) - Expect this in May Patch Tuesday
Narrator speech recap, Phone Link/Start integration, File Explorer Home updates, Windows Share with Edit all head to Release Preview (23H2) - Expect these in May Patch Tuesday - They were added to Beta channel (23H2) a few days earlier
Plus, Microsoft Edge is up to 9 percent faster at web rendering and we're having a fiesta
Also, the Windows 95 startup/logout chime has been inducted into the National Recording Registry

Hardware

Surface Hub OG hits EOL this year just like Windows 10
First major change under new Intel CEO
What's a computer? The iPad, supposedly, but we'll see
Everything's fine, but Google laid off hundreds in Pixel/Android group

Apple is making big changes so that Apple Intelligence will actually be intelligent
Adobe is going agentic too
OpenAI is creating its own social network because the world needs another social network
OpenAI announces three GPT-4.1 models - may retire GPT-4 soon - plus now o3 and o4-mini models
ChapGPT gets an image library and a memory
Claude gets Research and Google Workspace integration
Meta will start training its AI models with EU data, wink wink

Xbox and games

Xbox app on mobile will soon let you buy games (!) and add-on content, join Game Pass, and redeem perks. Did Microsoft get a concession from Apple/Google??
COD: Modern Warfare II (OG) and more are coming to Game Pass in the next few weeks
Xbox announces Doom: The Dark Ages limited edition accessories
Sea of Thieves is coming to Battle.net
Sony forced to raise the price of PS5 in three locales

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Think like an individual, not an enterprise
App pick of the week: Notion Mail
RunAs Radio this week: How to Not Hate PowerShell with Barbara Forbes
Brown liquor pick of the week: 12th Hawaii Distiller's Reserve

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Edge's data trick, Outlook's AI Themes, .NET 9, and more!

Windows 11

The 24H2 quality issues continue, like a parade with no end.
Patch Tuesday arrives
Windows team says no Preview update in December... but what about November?
Reminder of the Canary build last week with Prism emulator improvements. WHERE ARE THE ARM ISOs???
Most recent episode of Run as Radio is worth discussing again here
Dev and Beta: Nice new "run as admin" shortcut in Dev, minor changes in Beta
Canary: Mostly bug fixes
Microsoft Edge is using a new trick to steal Chrome data
It's dead, Jim: Microsoft reminds world that Outlook will replace Mail, Calendar, People
If you pay for Copilot (dummy) you can make custom Outlook themes now for some reason
Quick laptop update: AMD Zen 5 vs. Intel Lunar Lake vs. Snapdragon X

Still more earnings

Arm: $844 million, but disappointing. Also, Qualcomm legal battle looms
Qualcomm: $10.24 billion in revenues, up 19 percent
AMD to lay off 4 percent of (26,000 employee) workforce globally, focus on AI

Dev

Microsoft releases .NET 9
That means WPF support for Windows 11 theming is live
But there's a surprise: Microsoft added one of the features we need
.NET Conf is happening as we speak - Thursday is third-party day, and I am curious about Avalon and Uno announcements
Qualcomm has a webinar tomorrow for AI developers and Snapdragon X

Xbox

Surprise! Death Stranding comes to Xbox three years later to the day
Phil Spencer talks PS5, mobile devices, more in a new interview
MAJOR NEW ACTIVISION RELEASE ON GAME PASS
Just kidding, it's some stupid purple dragon
Friend requests now available (again) to all Xbox users
Paying GeForce Now customers get monthly usage caps
NVIDIA app replaces GeForce Experience, no need to sign in anymore
Sony has sold 65 million PS5 consoles ... it needs 20+ million more to surpass PS3

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update
App pick of the week: Stardock DesktopGPT
App pick of the week #2: Quick Share
Cocktail of the week: Salmoncito

Ingredients

1 oz. tonic water, plus more for topping
1½ oz. London dry gin
¼ oz. Campari
¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice
Grapefruit twist and grapefruit supreme (for serving)

Preparation

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add 1 oz. tonic water, then pour in 1½ oz. London dry gin, ¼ oz. Campari, and ¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice. Top off with more tonic water and stir gently with a bar spoon. Express oil of a grapefruit twist over cocktail and discard. Garnish with a grapefruit supreme.

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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On Halloween, the last day of October, Microsoft delayed Recall again. It was supposed to preview in October, this is the third delay. No clear reason why. December now, supposedly. Plus, Paul gives an earnings recap that he didn't get to dive into much last week.

Windows

New 24H2 bug
More features coming to Prism emulator in Windows 11 on Arm (!)
New generative AI features are coming to Paint, Photos, and Notepad
Beta channel: Here's the new Windows Hello experience, with explicit references to passkeys
Proton VPN is native on Windows 11 on Arm
Windows Server 2025 is GA (and some are being mistakenly force-upgraded. This is what you get when you share a codebase with Windows 11, apparently)
Google shifts Android development cycle - Major update each Q2, minor update each Q4, monthly feature/quality updates

A Tale of 2 Chips

Paul reviewed the AMD Zen 5-based HP OmniBook Ultra, it's awesome. Paul is also reviewing an Intel Lunar Lake laptop, and it is not awesome
Early glee around Lunar Lake was misplaced
Laptop reviewers all report what Paul is seeing (for once), that the performance is horrific. You need to switch to "Best performance" power management mode for reasonable performance, but this hasn't solved all the issues
COD: Black Ops 6. Average FPS under Zen 5 is 90 to 120 at native resolution/medium graphics, single and multi-player. Lunar Lake? 40 FPS with all graphics settings on low/very low
Intel now says Lunar Lake is a one-off too (Meteor Lake was likewise a one-off, architecturally). It will no longer package RAM with processors because of margins. Lunar Lake rushed to market and was key contributor to recent financial issues

More Earnings Learnings

Amazon: $159 billion in revenues, $27.5 billion for AW
Apple: $95 billion in revenues, a small uptick in iPhone revenues

Microsoft 365/AI

Some curious/confusing moves with Microsoft 365 for consumers: subscribers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand are getting Copilot Pro credits with base subscription (Word, Excel, etc.), Designer, ... and the long-overdue and dreaded price increase
This must be a test for the U.S. and western Europe. Feels inevitable
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Search. This is not the Google Search replacement you're looking for

Xbox

It's November, so here's the incredible list of Activision Blizzard games now coming to Game Pass! Just kidding, but we are getting Flight Sim 2024
Microsoft introduced an AI-powered support virtual agent to Xbox because something something AI
Switch sales drop off a cliff, Nintendo will announce backward-compatible successor before the end of March
Sony launches the PS5 Pro to meh

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 minus the MSA
App pick of the week: Docs in Proton Drive
RunAs Radio this week: Software-Defined Networking using Azure Firewall with Aidan Finn
Brown liquor MOVIE pick of the week: Whisky Galore

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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Enjoy Leo's many hats in this fun and silly edition of Windows Weekly. Happy Halloween!

Windows 11

Yes, Windows 11 version 24H2 got its preview update for October too, a few days late as expected
24H2 was a surprisingly big platform shift - no enablement updates - faster updates going forward
Dev and Beta get new builds, minor changes in each

Microsoft 365/AI/dev

Teams is... getting weird
Microsoft 365 apps get Handoff support on Apple devices
Notion Mail - a light alternatives to Google Workspace and M365?
GitHub Copilot goes multi-LLM
Apple Intelligence wave one arrives, mostly to indifference. Wave two in December. EU is getting it in the Spring
New Macs this week with M4. But the big news? 16 GB of RAM, minimum. Finally.
The Browser Company can't realize its vision for the future with Arc

Earnings/Corporate

Microsoft and Google duke it out over Cloud licensing - This one is getting ugly
Google - $88.3 billion in revenues
AMD - OK, but dominated by Intel on PCs and NVIDIA in AI/datacenter

Xbox

More games, more people, more devices, Microsoft says
Less emphasis on console but what might a next-gen console look like? Arm? Mobile? Third-party hardware makers?
Cloud Gaming is limited to the most expensive Game Pass tier - that has to change, and what about a standalone tier?
Mobile app stores are coming - but what about native mobile games?
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 lands on PC Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and Cloud Gaming - Paul puts aside his grudge and gives it a shot
Microsoft previews new Home experience for Xbox app on Windows

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: It might be time to look at the Raspberry Pi again
App pick of the week: My God, it's full of web browsers
RunAs Radio this week: Updating Windows on ARM with Aria Hanson
Brown liquor pick of the week: Laird of the Fintry Black Label Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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In case you missed it

You didn't. But Qualcomm canceled that Snapdragon Dev Box, will refund customers
Qualcomm picked the wrong company for this
Also, there are plenty of Copilot+ PCs and does it make more sense to develop against the type of PC your customers will use?

Windows 11

23H2 gets a preview update, as expected
Copilot key customization, Gamepad for virtual keyboard, notification suggestions, etc.
Qualcomm and Microsoft solve Paul's only hardware issue with Arm, more
Qualcomm brings Oryon cores to the phone, comes out firing against Intel, and is sued by Arm
Dev channel: That Gamepad virtual kb thing
Canary: That Copilot key customization thing
Photos app gets Super Resolution feature - Microsoft says in preview, but Paul sees it in stable
Microsoft Store is getting "immersive trailers" because ADHD

Microsoft 365, AI, more

Report details mounting tensions between Microsoft and OpenAI. Worst partnership ever?
Several months after releasing Mac and iPhone ChatGPT apps, OpenAI delivers a comicly-named "early version" of it for Windows. Thanks guys, don't hurt yourselves.
Microsoft announces first AI agents for commercial space, DIY in AI Studio
AI in phases? Copilot is phase one, this thing that works beside you (app, essentially)
Agents is phase two, this thing that works on your behalf away from you (service, essentially)
Copilot comes to OneNote for Mac, iPad in beta
Two years behind in AI, Apple has figured out the right quips and marketing messages
As expected, Google gets a stay of execution (pardon the pun) in Epic case (also, pardon the pun)
WTF is happening with smartphones? Did Apple and Google look at the 2024 Windows 11 Mess and say, we want us some of that?
Apple Intelligence to roll out over at least four major iOS 18 updates and then forever
Google rushes Android 15 dev to meet new August deadline for Pixel 9 series, whiffs it, and then delivers it 2 months late ... But at least it's jam-packed with AI

Xbox

Age of Empires goes mobile
In the wake of Xbox/Halo adopting Unreal Engine, Unity ships Unity 6 Engine
Netflix shuts down AAA game studio - I could've saved you guys a lot of money
New Xbox Wireless Headset more battery, better Bluetooth, new voice isolation

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Scott and Mark, sitting in a tree...
App pick of the week: Affinity Photos 2.6 Beta
RunAs Radio this week: Securing Data using Azure Virtual Desktop with Jim Duffy
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenmorangie Nectar D'Or

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On this episode, Leo Laporte shows off his new Snapdragon Dev Kit to Paul Thurrott and Richard Campbell. He also tries setting it up, and the process is TOTALLY "seamless." AMD has revealed the Ryzen AI PRO 300 Series alongside Intel's launch of the Core Ultra 200S desktop processors. The FIDO Alliance has published new credential exchange specifications. Sarah Bond announces that Xbox games will be purchasable on Android. And Paul unveils his new "get rich" scheme... as he looks for some feedback.

x86's Last Stand?

Intel and AMD announce partnership that is clearly aimed at taking on Arm.
Intel was already working on simplifying the x86 architecture by removing older, unused bits
Don't worry, Intel and AMD will still compete. And AMD just released new AI processors, with Intel also announcing first Core Ultra chips for Desktop
Which raises a question: Why do the desktop chips not meet the Copilot+ PC spec?

Windows

Redmond, we have a quality problem: 24H2 is besieged by a curious number of issues despite several months of gestation and a shared feature set with 23H2.
Dev and Beta: Beta is minor, but Dev has some Taskbar updates
Release Preview: New builds for 23H2 and 24H2 hint at this month's Week D preview updates - since this announcement, some features have been delayed

Microsoft 365/Surfac

Google Workspace is adding a OneDrive (for Business) data migration capability
Is there some new cloud interoperability thing going on? We're seeing this in the consumer space too. Wondering if this is related to regulatory attention
A Lunar Lake Surface Laptop? Probably not

Passkeys Get Real

As expected, FIDO Alliance will standardize passkey portability
Two sides to this: Portability between devices but also import/export between password managers
Amazon has 175 million customers using passkeys - one year after initial unveil

Xbox

With Google antitrust loss, Microsoft vaguely reveals that Xbox games are coming to Android
Long-forgotten ability to stream games you purchased over Cloud Gaming is now coming soon
Microsoft settles BS "Gamers' lawsuit" for what we hope was a pittance
The only gamers with a case to sue Microsoft are Xbox fans - one year this week
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and more are headed to Game Pass if anyone still cares
Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S mid-season replacements are here, and they come with a fun surprise
New Xbox wireless headset is incoming
Microsoft to host Xbox Partner Preview tomorrow, October 17
Steam forced to communicate that you don't own anything you buy

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Check out the Thurrott swag
App pick of the week: Arc browser, now native on Windows 11 on Arm!
RunAs Radio this week: Pen Testing Yourself with Paula Januszkiewicz
Brown liquor pick of the week: Jameson Irish Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Join Leo, Paul, and Richard on a potentially Spanish-adjacent episode! Patch Tuesday arrives and Microsoft finally admits that 24H2 is a thing. Plus, a discussion on Satya Nadella recently describing the LLMs behind Copilot and other AIs as a "commodity." In Xbox news, Microsoft finally reveals it's moving Halo to Unreal Engine, and it's renaming the tarnished 343 Industries after laying off much of that studio.

Windows 11

24H2 appears on the Microsoft Support site for the first time
22H2 gets its final cumulative update (same update as 23H2)
24H2 new features: Share local files from search results, Sign out moved to where it belongs, media controls on lock screen, Copilot Plus management in Settings > Account, etc. - 22H2/23H3 mostly the same
Paul is updating the Windows 11 Field Guide for 24H2 this month - the first several chapter updates are live
Dev and Beta: New builds right after 24H2 ships? Why not? And there are some interesting new features in the pipeline
New Canary build today as well
Passkeys are a joke in Windows 11 ... someday, they'll be less of a joke, but today is not that day.
Paul finally has a Lunar Lake laptop in-house. Or in-casa, one could say

Antitrust

Google is ordered to open up Android apps and the Google Play Store- Breathtaking.
DOJ is open to breaking up Google - even better
Web browser makers you've never heard of want the EU to add Microsoft Edge to the DMA list

Microsoft 365/AI/Dev

Microsoft announces major new features for OneDrive
Colored folders, yay, but will it fix the ensh*ttification?
.NET 9 Release Candidate 2 lands on schedule, no new features
RIP, Surface Duo

Xbox

Finally, Microsoft makes a good decision for Halo fans
Flight Sim 2024 will get a technical alpha on PC
Red Dead Redemption is coming to the PC on October 29
Diablo IV to be first Microsoft game enhanced for PS5 Pro

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Something for videogame fans to watch and read
App pick of the week: Multiplicity 4 (Beta 1 for now)
RunAs Radio this week: OpenAI for PowerShell with Doug Finke
Brown liquor pick of the week: Talisker 45-Year-Old Glacial Edge

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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After a flurry of last-second pre-release activity, Microsoft shipped 24H2 a week earlier than expected! Copilot also gets a major update for individuals too, and Copilot+ PCs get more features.

24H2 is here!

Last week's Week D updates did finally go out, first to 22H2/23H2 and then to 24H2
That 22H2/23H2 preview update was apparently a hot mess Now Microsoft has issued a fix
Windows 11 version 24H2 is fully available. Arm64 ISOs are coming soon
The first LTSC version(s) of Windows 11 is now available - Windows 11 Enterprise Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 24H2 + Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024)
New Dev and Beta builds, not much new, but new Snipping Tools spreads further
Canary build today

Copilot

Copilot morphs into an AI companion or something
Copilot+ PCs are getting new features, including one with a serious Recall vibe
Microsoft is trying a different tact with the new AI features - explaining why they can be trusted. Can they be trusted?
Microsoft belatedly explains why you can trust Recall
As expected, Microsoft does a song and dance on changes to Recall, but notably never thanks the feedback it got from the security community. Good. But this is still a win-win, if just for opt-in and, now, uninstall
Google pushes Gemini more in ChromeOS

Microsoft 365, More

Microsoft finally kills HoloLens 2
Germany has a plan for regulating all of Microsoft, not just the products that fall under the DMA
Office 2024 is here for individuals too
Intel rejects buyout offer... from Arm?

Xbox

Xbox announces new games at Tokyo Game Show
First Game Pass titles of October reveal a bonanza of Activision titles, is what I wish we could discuss
Starfield expansion arrives on Xbox, PC
J Allard joins Amazon for some reason

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Get the 24H2, refresh your recovery drivers/setup media
App pick of the week: Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2025 are here
RunAs Radio this week: Data Security and Governance with Nikki Chapple
Brown liquor pick of the week: Russell's Reserve 10

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11

24H2 is following a now-familiar trajectory to release. Right, it's chaos
Microsoft issues last-second updates to 22H2/23H2 and 24H2 in the Release Preview on Monday. Paul predicted these would turn into our Week D updates later in the week and that we'd get nothing on Tuesday
Dev and Beta channels got some interesting updates recently as well
The Windows App is now available on Windows, Mac, and iOS
HP announces two new flagship AI PCs, one AMD and one Intel. Plus a lower-cost 8-core Snapdragon model. This is officially a trend.
A week after providing details about the September 2024 firmware update for Surface Laptop 7, Microsoft confirmed it shipped the same update to Surface Pro 11. This has had a major negative effect on the device's instant-on capabilities

Microsoft 365, cloud, AI

Microsoft is reviving Three Mile Island and other headlines I never thought I'd write
Google formally complains about alleged Microsoft antitrust abuses in the EU
LinkedIn is training AI with your data. You can turn it off because Microsoft loves opt-out
Microsoft issues a SFI progress report and they are doing GREAT, thank you very much
Gemini comes to Workspace
Apple Intelligence will hoover 4GB of drive space on iPhones to start, more later as more features are added

More!

Qualcomm makes another offer to acquire Intel
Investment firm offers Intel a $5 billion lifeline
Arc just experienced its first major security incident and handled it really well
Raspberry Pi reports its first-ever earnings
Paul has finished updating .NETpad for Windows 11 theming support in .NET 9, will put code up in GitHub after .NET ships in stable

Xbox

A new tell-all about Blizzard, Activision, and Xbox arrives October 8
Game Pass features are coming to Xbox mobile app where they belong
Also, Game Bar Compact mode as part of September Xbox Update
New Indie Selects titles
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available for preorder and it will look a lot better and take up a lot less disk space
Xbox Ambassador's Program is dead, Jim
Xbox spends $1 billion per year to acquire Game Pass titles
Xbox figured out how to reduce its carbon emissions. You know, besides selling fewer consoles
Sony announces 30th anniversary PS5 collection

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Stop paying so much for everything
App pick of the week: A week of browser-adjacent updates
RunAs Radio this week: Windows Server 2025 and Active Directory with Orin Thomas
Brown liquor pick of the week: Hatozaki Small Batch

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On this episode, Paul Thurrott gets a bit better at unmuting! Mikah is back once again while Leo is away, and Richard features a classic single malt scotch. Wave 2 of Microsoft 365 Copilot kicks off, including an agent builder! Lenovo's got an everything-in-one ThinkBook, HP's got a Ryzen AI 300-based Copilot+ PC, and Netflix has a new series with Bill Gates.

Windows 11

Microsoft comes clean on the schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2
First AMD Zen 5-based Copilot+ PC in here (if here means "Paul's house")
A few thoughts on where we're at with Copilot+ PCs, AI, etc
Microsoft deprecates legacy DRM in Windows
Google is bringing desktop windowing capabilities to Android

Microsoft 365 + AI/Dev

Microsoft announces "Copilot Wave 2" with new Agent Builder, Pages experience, more
Slack: Look at me, look at me! I have agents too!!
Office LTSC 2024 is now available for businesses - consumer versions in "the coming weeks"
Microsoft held its security summit with CrowdStrike, etc. There were no reports of a tarp on the floor
Apple releases annual upgrades for all its hardware platforms and not an iota of AI in sight
This is the end of an era. An era we will think back on as "the good old days"
Microsoft issues .NET 9 RC1 ahead of November release. Clear to Paul that the WPF support in this release will never be updated again, which sucks

Hardware

Intel finally has some good news: Foundry subsidiary spin-off, AWS expanded partnership, more CHIPS money
Intel also has some bad news: It lost out on the PS6 contract to AMD, which made previous gen PS chips
A Windows 11 2-in-1 (like Surface Book) in which the detachable display is a powerful, standalone Android tablet

Xbox

Microsoft lays off 650 more Gaming division employees
Microsoft realizes that some Xbox members do have friends, is bringing back Friends Requests
Microsoft concludes September with three more Game Pass titles
Bonus points: How many of these are Activision Blizzard titles?
Bonus tip: If you play Overwatch 2 on Xbox, there are now some bonus perks for Game Pass members: Six hero skins, 30 Mythic prisms to spend on Mythic unlocks, a stackable XP boost, and access to Overwatch 2 Shop cosmetics from prior seasons
Unity: Just kidding about that runtime fee, please stop harassing us now

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: How to spend your time and your money
App pick of the week: ExplorerPatcher
RunAs Radio this week: Asymmetric Encryption with Eli Holderness
Brown liquor pick of the week: Talisker 10

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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Paul is back from Berlin! Mikah Sargent subs in for Leo, while Richard brings a glass of Einar's whisky to the show! They talk about the latest from IFA 2024, including the state of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Later, tune in for intriguing updates about Parallels Desktop, Windows 10's Photos app, and Apple's lineup of (currently) AI-less devices.

IFA Part Deux

More perspective from industry insiders on where Intel, AMD and Qualcomm are at now
Why did Qualcomm launch lower-end Snapdragon X chips now?
Intel bails on 20A manufacturing process to focus on 18A - making lemonade
Intel lands a punch with Lunar Lake. Is it enough for a comeback?
Qualcomm has reportedly been trying to buy Intel's chip design business for months
Lenovo launches new PCs with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips - Photo gallery
Copilot+ PC-class PCs with AMD and Intel chips come with 24H2e

Windows

Patch Tuesday arrives - 22H2/23H2 and 24H2 all get updates - same as last month's preview updates, of course
Microsoft still doesn't list 24H2 in Windows 11 Update History on the Support sit
Parallels Desktop 20 will benefit from Microsoft's Prism emulator too
Microsoft is updating Photos app in Windows 10 too
It's not just macOS Sequoia, ChromeOS is copying Windows's Snap feature too

Apple launches new devices but AI is not ready

Apple launches iPhone 16 series without AI, plus new Apple Watch and AirPods 4 also without AI... and confirms next software updates, also without AI - AI is for later, sometimes much later
This was a lackluster launch by any measure. But AI might make things more interesting in time
Dashlane recommends skipping out on Apple Passwords

Microsoft 365, AI, more

Microsoft opens up Ignite 2024 registration
Windows App set to replace various RDP apps

Xbox

Sony tips PS5 Pro for a November 7 launch at $699
Xbox Game Pass Standard launches
Netflix allegedly saw 210 million game downloads

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Lose the bookmarks, gain a (free) New tab page
Tip of the week #2: Amazon Prime Games has free games too
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft 365 and PowerShell with Tony Redmond
Brown liquor pick of the week: Einar's Great Skua Single Malt

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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In this week's episode, Paul is in Germany in preparation for IFA 2024. Some of the big PC players have made timely hardware announcements, including Intel launching their Core Ultra 200V series processors, Qualcomm revealing an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus chip, and Dell listing a new XPS 13 laptop for preorder. Plus, does the Wall Street Journal have something for Intel? A suspiciously-timed gaming article might suggest so. Tune in for more news on all the related companies, from HP and NVIDIA to Proton and Google!

IFA begins (just kidding)

Microsoft comes clean on Copilot+ PC features on non-Snapdragon X PCs: Next-gen AMD and Intel systems will get Copilot+ PC features in November, but will not be called Copilot+ PCs
Intel formally launches Lunar Lake as Core Ultra processor Series 2
Dell announces Lunar Lake-based XPS 13, pre-order now
Qualcomm launches 8-core Snapdragon X Plus processor
Google Drive is going native on Arm - And ExpressVPN and NordVPN are live on Arm now!
Richard got an email from Arrow Electronics about his Snapdragon Dev Kit (and what happens next will shock you!)
Surface Pro 11, Surface Pro 7 for Business - plus 5G coming to Surface Pro 10 for Business
Is the recent WSJ piece an Intel hit job?

Windows

Windows 11 version 24H2 - Some clarity? Come on!
Everyone announces that you'll be able to remove Recall from Windows 11. You won't
New Canary and Beta builds (last week) - lots of things in both, for a change
Vivaldi is fully optimized for Windows 11 on Arm
HP earnings: Slim growth, thanks to PCs

Copilot Wave 2 event is coming soon. The great rebrandening?
UK CMA OK's Microsoft "acqui-hire" of Inflection. Oh, and it's a merger
ChatGPT now has 200 million active users
Firefox 130 offers third-party AI chatbots
More Apple Intelligence in latest betas
Proton Scribe is available to consumers now too

Antitrust

Microsoft complains to UK CMA about Apple App Store fees, licensing
Plus, Apple keeps getting passive aggressive with those that complain about its business practices
Yelp finally sues Google
Intel is considering breaking itself up to survive - will likely take baby steps first
NVIDIA seems to be OK, but next year will be interesting. Oh wait, the stock just cratered

Xbox

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Early access is here
More Game Pass titles appear, none from Activision Blizzard
PlayStation 5 Pro design leaks
Sony has its Redfall moment, launches and then kills Concord

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Looking for a cheap gaming laptop?
App pick of the week: Windows App
RunAs Radio this week: Evolving Generative AI with Alison Cossette
Brown liquor pick of the week: Cley Whisky Palo Cortado

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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It's Week D. Do you know where your preview updates are?

Windows 11

Windows 11 version 22H2/23H2 get the same update
Windows 11 version 24H2 gets a different update, but at least it's on time
Beta: Media controls on the Lock screen, more
Windows security update borks small number of Linux bootloaders, is perfect example of misplaced and faux outrage
Right-click doesn't work correctly with Windows and a touchpad. It's not you

M$FT

Microsoft took Paul's advice. Instead of just blaming the EU, it's holding a security summit with CrowdStrike and other partners to solve the problems highlighted by the botched update outage. (Which it said it would do back in July.)
Microsoft shuffles the decks below its three primary business units
Microsoft: It's all about transparency!
Paul: Nope

Hardware

Lenovo ThinkPad T14s is the best business-class Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC yet
ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 is the last gasp of the Surface Pro-alikes
Paul got a Pixel 9 Pro XL - Eerily iPhone Pro-like design, crazy AI features - The combination of hardware and software here is nuts
Pixel 9 series is shipping with Android 14. Google planned to ship Android 14 earlier than ever before this year. Users with Pixel 9 series phones can enroll in Android 15 Beta now. But Android 15 was quietly delayed to October, the normal release time frame
Mark Gurman leaks all the iPhone 16 things
Apple announces launch event
Some navel-gazing about Apple's place in our lives

Magic of Software

Microsoft announces Loop 2.0 on Twitter, no one has it yet
LibreOffice is now native on Windows on Arm!
Google Essentials app will be bundled with some new PCs, starting with HP
Proton Drive for Business now available standalone, and with sale pricing (and more storage)
Brave gets major privacy updates on desktop and mobile
Apple makes further DMA concessions, will let iPhone users change default apps for phone, messaging, more
Threads is testing posts that are as ephemeral as your facts
Paid version of Alexa will allegedly launch in October
Google Meet gets auto PIP for all and AI meeting notes for some

Xbox

Xbox August Update starts rolling out with those new Discord features
Raven labor union files complaint against Microsoft
Microsoft brings Xbox Cloud Gaming to more Fire TV devices

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: You can still upgrade to 24H2 right now
App pick of the week: Win11Debloat
RunAs Radio this week: The Security Risks of AI with Steve Poole
Brown liquor pick of the week: Mosgaard Moscatel Single Malt

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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This episode of Windows Weekly has Paul, Richard, and Leo chatting about everything from Microsoft Recall's upcoming availability to AMD's move to acquire ZT Systems. Paul reviews a new Meteor Lake-equipped laptop from HP, and Leo shows off his Diablo skills on iPad. The group also takes a look at gamescom news, including a trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which has a release date!) and an awesome Xbox Adaptive Joystick for accessibility.

Windows 11

Recall will ship with Windows 11 24H2 in preview in October
Canary (last week) - New Sandbox, FAT32 improvements, more
Dev and Beta - One new feature, one removed feature
Lenovo revenues point to ongoing PC market rebound
HP's efforts to overcome Meteor Lake problems are about as successful as they can be

Microsoft 365

Unified Teams client is now available
Supposedly Loop 2.0 is out and/or coming soon as well
Proton shifts ownership to non-profit foundation

AI/Hardware

Paul: I will not pay for AI
AMD tries to acquire its way into being an Nvidia competitor
There's a cheaper new Raspberry 5

Antitrust

Judge in Epic v. Google: Oh, Google is going to pay

Dev

Quick follow-up to last week's VS 2022 releases
Microsoft didn't document an important change to how Windows 11 theming works in .NET 9 Preview, all hell broke loose
Continued work on WPF app modernization—dialogs, custom title bar area—and a long chat with Rafael uncovers the serious problems remaining here

Xbox

Xbox Insiders can test Game Pass Standard for $1
Microsoft shows off lots of Xbox games and one PS5 game at gamescom
Phil Spencer defends this strategy at the show
Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S refreshes are available for preorder, ship in October
Microsoft announces new Xbox accessibility accessories
New Game Pass titles to include early access to COD: Black Ops 6
Nvidia GeForce Now adds auto sign in to Xbox
Epic Games Store launches on Android and iOS
It's not just regular laptops that are getting better at gaming: AAA mobile gaming is real
New Atari 7800

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Windows on Arm - Then and Now
App pick of the week: Start11
RunAs Radio this week: Threat Modeling in the Cloud with Romina Druta & Daniela Cruzes
Brown liquor pick of the week: Armorik Sherry Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11

Synchronicity achieved! Patch Tuesday updates put 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 on the same page, as expected
Dev and Beta channels (last week) - simplified system tray is back, new jump list behavior is optional
Clipchamp is getting two new AI features soon, for free

AI/Developer

Security researcher (and ex-Microsoftie) demonstrates several Copilot flaws. He at least did the right thing and disclosed them to Microsoft first
Intel delays Innovation event to 2025. And innovation to 2028, presumably. But we kid
Google's Pixel event was really about Gemini AI. But it was also really about Pixel
Paul bought a Pixel 9 Pro XL. Yes, he may have a problem. But it kind of pays for itself, too
iPhone 16 series to be minor update. All phones are minor updates now
UK CMA investigating Amazon + Anthropic partnership
Visual Studio something something
VS 2022 17.11 is here
VS 2022 17.12 is in preview, will be the release with .NET 9
.NET 9 preview 7 is here, no WPF improvements

Antitrust

U.S. government is weighing a Google breakup - This isn't as out there as it may seem
After changing App Store rules that violate the DMA to new rules that also violate the DMA, Apple finally lets Spotify communicate with its own customers!
Apple sets a date for opening up NFC, and it will be worldwide

Xbox

There's a BIG QuakeCon sale on Bethesda games you need to check out - and a "new" OG DOOM/DOOM II bundle
Microsoft starts testing a Compact Mode for Game Bar
Next Flight Simulator will let gamers walk around the world as well
Microsoft might be working on a new mixed reality something for some reason

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Proton offers a Duo plan
App pick of the week: More web browsers
RunAs Radio this week: Implementing Passkeys with Tarek Dawoud
Brown liquor pick of the week: Bowmore 15

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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It's the last Windows Weekly in the TWiT Eastside Studio! The Week D mystery continues in this episode. And Windows Insider has had a relatively quiet week. Intel is in trouble, with stock price dropping over 25 percent! WordStar is back, but the big news here is the documentation archive. Also, Paul thinks the improved Reader mode in Firefox 129 is pretty sweet.

Windows 11

Last week, Microsoft issued Week D update for 22H2/23H2 late
Last week, Microsoft issued 24H2 build to the Release Preview channel but nothing for Week D. Paul speculated this would replace the Weed D update, head to stable in August
Since then, Microsoft quietly issued Week D update for 24H2 one week late (on last day of July)
Speculation was correct: These are all the same thing, with the same new features, most CFRs
Microsoft's release schedule gets even more chaotic. It's been missing the Week D Tuesday release schedule more often than not in recent months
BIG update to the Microsoft Store in Canary and Dev today

Hardware

Snapdragon X is a huge leap forward for the PC, but Apple/MacBook Air still have big advantages
AMD's new chips are getting rave reviews
Intel is on track for Lunar Lake in September
Intel earnings crater, with layoffs, cost reductions
Stock price drop second worst in corporate history
Intel extends Core processor Gen 13/14 warranty by 2 years (PC bundles only)
Core processor warranty is extended to retail sales
Surface Laptop 7, Surface Pro 11 for Business available for preorder

Microsoft 365

The new Outlook is now generally available and the Microsoft community celebrates in the streets

Antitrust/Corporate

Google found guilty of abusing its Search monopoly
Big point: Google's revenue share deals with Apple, etc. Could this kill Mozilla?
Microsoft and Bing come up over 500 times (!) in the ruling. Obsessed much?
Apple would like to have its antitrust case dismissed. Good luck with that
Context: The paradox of antitrust
Thanks to Manifest V3, ad- and tracker- blocking in Chrome is going to get less effective
Microsoft: We are STILL serious about security. No, really
Arm revenues up 39 percent to $939 million
Qualcomm up 11 precent to $9.4 billion
Apple up 4.9 percent to 85.8 billion in revenues
Amazon up 10 percent to $148 billion

Xbox

Microsoft promises over 50 playable games at Gamerscom this month in Germany, ahead of IFA
Valorant is a free-to-play shooter now available on Xbox Series X|S
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, more comes to Xbox Game Pass
Sony sold 2.4 million PS5s in the quarter, total at 61.7 million
Nintendo sold 2.1 million Switch consoles, total at 143.42 million

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: You can experience WordStar for MS-DOS again
App pick of the week: Web browser updates
RunAs Radio this week: Optimizing Cloud Recovery Costs with Natalie Serebryakova
Brown liquor pick of the week: Legent Bourbon

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On this episode of Windows Weekly, the show has a new yet similar look (as Leo tries to read chyrons that may be a tad tiny). Microsoft announces its quarterly (and annual) financial results. They're doing OK. The company also expands on what it has done and will do, with Windows security in the wake of the CrowdStrike outage. Finally, Paul advises that the password manager in a browser isn't enough, as secure users need more capabilities like 2FA code generation, dark web monitoring, passkey storage, and more.

Earnings

Microsoft announces its quarterly (and annual) financial results. They're doing OK.
Microsoft's FY24: a net income of $88.1 billion on revenues of $245.1 billion, up 22 percent and 16 percent
Windows - Barely mentioned, another solid $10 billion+ in revenues, no gain from Copilot+ PC
Office - Solid growth, mostly commercial
Surface - Flush twice, it's a long way to New Mexico
Xbox - Problematic, propped up mostly by Activision, but there are huge costs there too
AI - Huge investments, Microsoft can afford it. $19 billion (!) in infrastructure costs in this quarter, and it's going up next year ... when/how does AI pay off?
Microsoft to give employees a one-time cash award on top of bonuses
TikTok was paying Microsoft $20 million per month through at least March for OpenAI on Azure, close to 25 percent of Microsoft's total revenues for that business
AMD revenues - the next NVIDIA?

Windows

Windows 11 versions 22H2/23H2 get theirs a few days late, features we saw in Release Preview a few weeks ago
Nothing for 24H2, but a new Release Preview build is almost certainly its equivalent, meaning we'll see these features in stable in August
All channels: Support for Android file system navigation in File Explorer
Beta channel (last week): Widgets is about to get third party feeds
It's not a dud, but the HP EliteBook Ultra doesn't measure up
Qualcomm and AMD have spoken, now Intel is delivering Lunar Lake on September 3

Microsoft 365 and AI

No more ads in Skype! Cue the Skype jokes from all the jerks
OpenAI announces SearchGPT, search features it will add later to ChatGPT - and just today, more natural advanced voice mode voices for ChapGPT
Apple ships some Apple Intelligence in Beta. it's pretty good! But it's also delayed to iOS 18.1 etc
Canva buys Leonardo for its AI
X (Twitter) is using your posts to train Grok (its AI). You can disable it. But these names all suck

Xbox

Xbox is getting new Discord and streaming features in a coming update
With Xbox in the toilet, some thoughts about gaming PCs to go
RIP, Xbox 360. We had a good run

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: What to look for in a password manager
App pick of the week: Password managers - 1Password, Dashlane/Proton Pass, and Bitwarden
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Cloud PKI with Richard Hicks
Brown liquor pick of the week: Laird of the Fintry BSV Pipe Finish

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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CrowdStrike: Terrible name, terrible outage

CrowdStrike, a company no one has ever heard of, ships an update that borks Windows PCs, servers, and clouds services at the heart of the worldʼs infrastructure. Naturally, everyone blamed Microsoft at first
Microsoft says outage impacted under 1 percent of PCs. It was just the worst PCs imaginable
Microsoft blames EU regulation for its inability to be like Apple
That is not a good look. It's also deceptive.
Microsoft issues repair tool (later updates).
CrowdStrike explains what it did wrong. TLDR: everything.

Windows

Windows 11 version 23H2 is fully available! Wait, what?
Surface Laptop 7 review: big, heavy, no presence sensing or fingerprint reader. Right, I love it.
Also, the ThinkPad T14s arrived.
Related: Intel cops to mistake in Core Gen 13/14 processors, will issue fix. Why this is unprecedented. And also precedented. Also, why precedented is a word.
Microsoft is FINALLY bringing ads to the Microsoft Store search box.
Microsoft starts testing new Start menu layouts. Surely one of them has live tites.
Canary build today: Duplicate File Explorer tab, not much else.

AI/Antitrust

Meta is making a surprising—and surprisingly strong—case for AI as open-source.
Proton adds an AI writing assistant to its Drive-based Docs.
Amazon lost an alleged $25 billion on Alexa devices over four years, so itʼs all in on AI-based devices now! (Panos Panay is the perfect fit for this business if the goal is to be unprofitable).
Google effectively kills Privacy Sandbox in a victory for regulation.
Microsoft probably cleared the final hurdle to avoid EU antitrust action on cloud licensing. Hey, it worked with security companies and the Windows kernel!

It's That Time of the Quarter Again

Alphabet / Google: Double-digit revune gains YOY, but how much of this is AI?
Subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, not so much Game Pass) are KILLING it,but theyʼre also in full-on enshirtification mode - how do we fix this? Can we fix this.

Xbox

FTC complains about Xbox Game changes. They're not wrong. But they're not
right either.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare III lands on Game Pass today - what the what
Also, Microsoft muffed the landing badly - but it appears to be working now
Halo TV series canceled. It's the worst thing that's happened with Xbox this entire year

Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: The best thing about Copilot in Windows 11 now

With Copilot switching from a pane to an app, thereʼs an unintended benefit that comes into play when you use an AI PC with a Copilot key on it. Youʼre never going to believe what happens next.

App pick of the week: Microsoft Designer for image generation

Microsoft Designer exited preview last week and thereʼs at least one secret benefit to using it: Unlike Copilot, you can create wide and portrait images (and not just square) without paying. This is why I pay for Copilot Pro. (You do need to sign in with an MSA, however.)

RunAs Radio This Week: Data Risk Management using Purview with Joanne Klein

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/942

Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Writerʼs Tears Tequila Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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This episode features Paul, Richard, and Leo discussing Microsoft's new "checkpoint cumulative updates" and HP's announcement of its AMD-based AI PC. Afterward, Paul goes over his review of the Yoga Slim 7x laptop, which features a 14.5-inch OLED display. Other topics include the hiring of Inflection staff, Microsoft's settlement with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe, Leo's ZDTV hat, .NET 9 Preview 6, OS/2 Warp, the Xbox Game Pass mess, Amazon Prime Day, and a controller designed by Deadpool!

Windows

Windows 11 version 24H2 introduces a new way to update Windows because WTF Microsoft
HP announces an AMD-based AI PC that is/is not a Copilot+ PC - lots going on here
AMD comes clean on the new chips, which ship at the end of July
With a Snapdragon X-based ThinkPad on the way, Paul reviews the Yoga Slim 7xp
Windows 11 Photos app now integrates with Microsoft Designer
Dev (last week): Testing/deployment of new features resumes after long pause
Beta (last week): More changes to the home page in File Explorer
Release Preview (last week): Duplicate a File Explorer tab, drag and drop to pin from Start to Taskbar, more. Also a Windows 10 build (hooray?)

AI/Antitrust

UK CMA investigates Microsoft for its Inflection AI hirings
Microsoft settles with (most of) CISPE on cloud licensing in EU
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia public betas arrive, but with no Apple Intelligence features
Opera beta on iPhone and iPad has new UI, some AI

Dev

.NET 9 Preview 6 arrives
Paul makes massive progress on Windows 11 port of .NETpad with the updated WPF. Plus a neat third-party add-on that might put this project over the top
Google is bringing Android Studio to the web

Xbox

Xbox controversy of the month, but this one is real: Microsoft ensh*ttifies Xbox Game Pass - more info now that the dust has settled, but still no announcement from Microsoft
Microsoft, you HAVE to announce what's going on with AB and Game Pass
Now that Microsoft owns Call of Duty, Xbox gamers are getting next beta on day one - well, Game Pass members anyway
Microsoft offers a cheap Xbox streaming bundle on Amazon
The Deadpool Xbox wireless controller is priceless
Microsoft announces three day-one titles for Game Pass, none from AB

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Amazon Prime Day is here
App pick of the week: Proton Pass
RunAs Radio this week: The Power of Data in the Cloud with Arun Ulag
Brown liquor pick of the week: Crown Royal Blender's Mash

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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In this episode, Paul seems to be sitting in a familiar room! Could this be a sign that a game-changing enhancement to Notepad is rolling out? That's not all, as OneDrive seems to be undergoing some behavioral changes in a positive direction. After 3 weeks since the Copilot+ PC launch (2 weeks since Paul got his 1st model), the future of Intel and x86 may not be as dire as some think. Plus, Affinity announced that its award-winning Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps are now free for 6 months with no obligation to buy!

The Morning After

The end of Intel and the x86 era? You guys are cute
Comparing the HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft entries: A few differentiators, but these things are very, very similar. There's a reason why
IDC throws cold water on the AI PC/Copilot+ PC parade
We still need official Windows 11 on Arm ISOs, Microsoft. Until then, there are workarounds.

Windows 11

GAME CHANGER: Notepad FINALLY supports spell-checking and auto-correct!
ACTUAL GAME CHANGER: Microsoft is apparently stepping back some of the OneDrive terribleness in Windows 11 version 24H2
Patch Tuesday: BIG deal for Windows 11 22H2, 23H2 with 24H2 features
Nothing to speak of for 24H2, as predicted - just security updates
It's nice when things happen as expected for a change
Canary: Lock screen widget changes
Paul put the Windows 11 Field Guide on a diet - and then the other books too
PDF went from 377 MB to 107 MB, EPUB went from 344 MB to just 86 MB (!)
Similar gains for Windows Everywhere, Windows 10 Field Guide
Updated the Win10 add-in that comes with the Windows 11 Field Guide too

Surface

Surface Laptop 7 and Pro 11 get second firmware updates

The OpenAI drama consumes Microsoft
Opera brings Aria AI features to its GX gaming browser too

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price hike
Xbox Cloud Gaming is now available on newer Fire TV Sticks. Also, free Fortnite!

Tips and Tricks

Tip of the week: Get all three Affinity apps on all three platforms for free for six months!
App pick of the week: Firefox 128 and Vivaldi 6.8
RunAs Radio this week: The Hardware of Azure with Rani Borkar
Brown liquor pick of the week: Raasay Single Malt

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Guest: Mary Jo Foley

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It's only been one week, but it's really been 14 years, and Paul is calling: Microsoft and Qualcomm have finally made Windows 11 on Arm both viable and desirable. Nothing is perfect, but this platform is pretty incredible. Some notes from the past week:

Mission Accomplished

As a reminder, Paul finally got the Yoga Slim 7x last week and updated on app compatibility, hardware compatibility, gaming, and in-box AI experiences in time for WW - only found one non-working app, Google Drive. Then...
More app and game compatibility testing. Since then, played a lot more DOOM (2016), ran into one issue that's surely WOA-related (note beta graphics driver, though)
Video encoding performance: Snapdragon X vs Snapdragon X vs Core Ultra 9 H-series vs MacBook Air M3
Initial thoughts on battery life and then More thoughts on battery life. The Yoga Slim 9x and Surface Laptop both get about 10 hours of real-world battery life (so far), compared to 15 hours for the MacBook Air 15-inch M3.
Hardware compatibility update: Only one of my devices doesn't work, the Focusrite.
Surface Laptop 7 first impressions and second impressions
HP Elitebook Ultra first impressions

Windows 11

After skipping Week D last Tuesday, Microsoft belatedly delivers a Week D preview update for Windows 11 version 24H2
No new features, so next Patch Tuesday will be light for 24H2
22H2 and 23H2 got a big Week D update last Tuesday, so Patch Tuesday will be meaningful
As of July's Patch Tuesday, 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 will all provide the same basic feature set
Canary, Dev, Beta (last Friday): nothing exciting, a few small features or changes

AI & Microsoft 365

European Commission "shifts" investigation of Microsoft/OpenAI partnership. Is Ken Starr in charge of this thing?
Microsoft highlights new Copilot features coming to Microsoft 365 in July
Copilot in OneNote can now recognize handwritten text. It's 2002 all over again!
Pixel 9 family will promote unique "Google AI" features
Brave introduces a BYOM plan for its web browser
Thanks to AI, Google Translate now supports 110 new languages

Xbox

Xbox Cloud Gaming Fire Sticks it to Amazon
Another two weeks of Xbox Game Pass
Forza Horizon 4 (from 2018) to be delisted December 15. Why?

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Get $10 off Tony Redmond's Office 365 for IT Pros 11th Edition
App pick of the week: Docs in Proton Drive
RunAs Radio this week: NGINX as a Service with Buu Lam
Brown liquor pick of the week: Jack Daniels Old No. 7

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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We're one week into the Copilot+ PC, and the feedback is positive with caution! Key takeaways so far: Much improved performance and reliability, AI features mostly stink, but there is still uncertainty each time you install/do anything.

Windows 11

Week D arrives with preview updates for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 only
The second Patch Tuesday in a row with no 24H2 update (on the day)
This preview update adds 24H2 features to 22H2/23H2 as predicted
Beta channel (last week): Bizarre Start menu extension for Phone Link users
Release preview channel (last week): The 22H2/23H2 builds and features that shipped to stable as a preview update on Tuesday
Canary channel (last week): After pausing the previous build (hint: Recall code), new build arrives with drag-and-drop address bar in File Explorer, notification tweaks

Copilot+ PC

Paul finally got a Copilot+ PC to test, a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14"
App compatibility scorecard: Excellent, but with familiar Arm uncertainties
Hardware compatibility: Excellent, but with the same person-by-person caveat
Gaming: Lots of fiddling, but if you can find a compatible game, some great perf and visual quality. Still better than the Mac, and better than any x64 Ultrabook. But not a gaming PC. No Xbox Game Pass support?? COME ON
In-box AI capabilities: With Recall out, there's almost nothing to see here
Plus, Intel and AMD are gunning for Qualcomm
iFixit reports that Surface Laptop 7/Pro 11 repairability is "astonishingly" good. Granted, the bar was low
Microsoft brings Surface Flex Keyboard to Surface Pro 8, 9, and 11
Microsoft releases recovery images for Surface Pro 11/Laptop 7
Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-In Security (ESS) is one of several Copilot+ PC protections that rendered those security researcher complaints about Recall moot. But Paul now has two PCs that use this feature, and it's even more impressive than you think
The Windows 11 decoder ring

Antitrust

As expected, the European Commission announced preliminary charges against Microsoft for Office/Teams bundling
This is antitrust, not DMA (like Apple)
The EU has not explained WHAT Microsoft can do to fix this (unlike with Apple)
This is based on a complaint from Slack, which was created 7 years after Microsoft first offered this type of app/service

Xbox
-Hot off a terrific Xbox Games Showcase event, Xbox promises its "biggest-ever" booth at Gamescom 2024 (which is now the biggest trade show in Europe, apparently)
-Microsoft details how Auto SR and Prism work in WOA11 to make gaming both possible and decent
-Steam Deck LCD models are on sale

Tips and Picks
-App pick of the week #1: New browser upgrades
-App pick of the week: Proton Drive
-RunAs Radio this week: The Hard Part of Machine Learning with Lynn Langit
-Brown liquor pick of the week: Cragganmore 12

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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Copilot+ PC Launch Chaos, Recall Delay, Windows 11 Updates

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Recall to be opt-in, Auto SR, new Xbox Series models

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Recall debate, orchestration, Bing turns 15

Attack of the Copilot+ PCs

Nvidia: GeForce RTX AI PCs will get Copilot+ PC status ... some day
AMD: Ryzen AI 300 series (laptops) and AMD Ryzen 9000 series (desktops) have 50 TOPS NPUs and an on-stage apology, er, admission, from Microsoft
Intel: Lunar Lake delivers 48 TOPS NPU, new GPU
Qualcomm - Don't forget us! We're going to go after every PC form factor there is
Thinking about AI, NPUs, and local workloads - Is an orchestrator in our future?
Microsoft needs to address the Recall controversies
Framework Laptop 13 is coming with Intel Core Ultra chips
HP earnings - PC business up 3 percent in Q
Dell earnings - PC business is flat

Windows 11

Microsoft delivers its Week D preview update a day late
If you're on 24H2 like I recommended last week, you get ... wait for it ... Copilot as an app
Canary: Copilot as an app, Emoji 15.1 support
Dev: Copilot as an app
Microsoft adds a Windows 10 Insider Preview Beta channel to test new features

Microsoft

Bing is 15 years old. What can we possibly celebrate?
More Microsoft layoffs, this time in Mixed Reality and Azure

Apple reportedly partnering with OpenAI. Microsoft reportedly pissed about Apple partnering with OpenAI
Google is fixing its AI overviews in Search
And if anyone still trusts Google AI for some reason, Google Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash are now GA
Amazon brings AI search, and to Fire TV for some reason
When Raspberry Pi 5 can do AI is AI just everywhere now?

Xbox

Asus announces ROG Ally X gaming handheld - are these to gaming what 8.1-inch tablets were to Windows 8.1?
PlayStation VR2 adapter for PC is $60

Tips & Picks

App pick of the week: Opera
RunAs Radio this week: Apple and Microsoft Entra with Michael Epping
Brown liquor pick of the week: Nikka "From the Barrel"

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 11

A quick look back at the Copilot+ PC launch
Paul did end up making a video of each MacBook Air reference during last week's launch
The Copilot+ PC event was also notable for its many references to the past: Paul counted at least 7 in the first 7 minutes alone
After some soul-searching, Paul went all-in on Surface Laptop by canceling the first preorder and bulking it up with more RAM and storage
Release Preview (last week): 24H2 comes to RP, suggesting it hits stable on Tuesday, June 11 (in preview), one week before the first Copilot+ PCs arrive with this build preinstalled
Beta (last week): 23H2 build with no new features (arriving after 24H2 in Release Preview, of course)
Microsoft Edge is getting more responsive thanks to a "WebUI 2.0" initiative
Lenovo earnings up 9 percent in quarter, down 8 percent for the year. The future? AI PCs, duh

There was a massive Bing outage late last week. Press hold on all the obvious jokes, this impacted Copilot everywhere, DuckDuckGo, other services
Cue the Chicken Little "this is why I'll never use AI" crowd, which used to be the "this is why I'll never use the cloud" crowd
Copilot comes to Telegram for some reason
Google goes live with AI overviews in Search and the world grinds to a halt
Google adds Gemini to Chromebook Plus, gives one free year of Google One AI Premium to new device buyers
WWDC is coming soon and we're seeing hints of how Apple will add more AI to its products
Opera partners with Google Cloud on Gemini in Aria AI and image understanding/image generation in browser
And it now plans to make 2000 SLMs available in the browser
NVIDIA revenues were a record in Q1, up 262 percent YOY

Dev

Last week, we learned that WPF is making a comeback. This week, Paul revived his .NETpad project and is going to modernize it using the new features

Xbox

We finally have some news about Activision Blizzard games and Game Pass!!! But it's only one game, and it doesn't happen until November
Atari buys the Intellivision brand. I wish we knew more about this

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Beware the dark patterns
App pick of the week: Windows 11 version 24H2
RunAs Radio this week: PowerApp Extensibility with Christina Wheeler
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glen Garioch 1797 Founder's Reserve

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 11 and the Copilot+ PC

Microsoft announces Copilot+ PC and our world collapses
Microsoft announces new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop 13/15 as expected
What the heck is this new bifurcation of features in Windows? Why?
Paul ordered a Surface Laptop 15 the second Yusuf Mehdi said he could
The other shoe finally drops: Every Copilot+ Pro PC has a fan. Is this a problem?
Sorry, Chicken Little, Microsoft Recall is not a privacy concern
Windows 11 is getting a lot of new security features
Qualcomm is offering a $899 Copilot+ PC Mini and it looks awesome
Windows 11 24H2 just entered the Release Preview channel

Inside baseball

Everyone is mad at Microsoft about Monday's event
Intel had people on-site to attend and present, Microsoft took their badges away and asked them to leave (AMD seemingly placated by Build keynote mentions). Intel countered with its own pissy announcement
Qualcomm, the darling of the event, would like to know why it took Microsoft 40 minutes to say the word "Snapdragon"
PC makers were told they would get equal billing with Surface, but they were afterthoughts during the event and at the showcase

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Announces Team Copilot
Microsoft adds new features to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Edge is getting a real-time translation feature

Microsoft adds a multimodal model to its Phi family of on-device SLMs
Microsoft brings Copilots to developers, updates Power Platform
Microsoft partners with Khan Academy on AI training

Dev

Microsoft announces Windows Copilot runtime, but it's not a runtime
Also, WTFF WPF is BACK with WinUI support too!
Visual Studio 2022 17.10 adds integrated GitHub Copilot
Plus some .NET 9 updates in pre-release
Windows 11 24H2 is getting a bunch of new features for developers

Tips & Picks

Tip of the Week: Windows 11 Security Book & Surface Laptop Report
RunAs Radio This Week: The End of Windows 10 with Paul Thurrott
Brown Liquor: Eagle Rare 10

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11

Patch Tuesday
Windows 11 gets those stupid lock screen widgets
Snipping Tool is being updated with emojis and QR code scanning
Microsoft is testing widgets in the Windows 11 Start menu
New Dev and Beta builds
Dell PCs based on Snapdragon X leak
Microsoft 365
Microsoft Word gets a long-overdue overhaul to default paste

OpenAI kicks off the week with its Spring Update
Google I/O follows up with a Microsoft-style keynote

Xbox

Microsoft to launch Xbox mobile games store in July
Xbox consoles will support game update pre-loads, finally
Microsoft discounts Xbox 360 titles ahead of Store closure
We have another round of Game Pass titles and you're never going to believe what we didn't get, again
Starfield May Update is here with 60 fps support on Series X
Xbox Cloud Gaming supports keyboard and mouse with 26 games
Xbox app gets more improvements tied to handheld gaming PCs
Sony has now sold almost 60 million PS5s, roughly even with PS4 at this point in
time

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Remote Desktop is another feature semi-broken by MSA sign-ins
App pick of the week: VMWare Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro are free
RunAs Radio this week: MLOps + DevOps + Kubernetes with Annie Talvasto
Brown liquor pick of the week: Lagavulin 16

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft is promising to put security first, again. Three features have been added to Windows 11 Canary build 26212. Microsoft shuts down some game developer studios under its Xbox Games Studios, including a popular one that published Hi-Fi RUSH. And Playstation recinds PSN account requirement for Helldivers 2 on PC.

Microsoft & Security

Microsoft promises to put security first. Again.
Microsoft adds passkey support to Microsoft accounts.

Windows 11

Windows 11 Canary build 26212 adds three features from the beta channel.
Microsoft starts controlled feature rollouts (CFRs) on Windows Insider dev channel.
Microsoft acknowledges VPN connection issues on Windows 11 and Windows 10.
More improvements to Tiny11 Builder.
Arc for Windows shipped last week.

Armed and Ready

Apple announces M4 along with new iPad Pros.
Qualcomm earnings flat, but big promises for current quarter.

Better prompt writing is coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot.
OpenAI is allegedly testing its replacement for Google Search.
Microsoft allegedly testing LLM that challenges OpenAI.

Xbox

Microsoft shuts down more Xbox studios, triggering a new round of angst.
Starfield is getting the 60 FPS support it should have had at launch on Xbox Series X.
Nintendo has now sold over 141 million Switch consoles, promises Switch 2.
Just kidding on the PSN account requirement for PC Helldivers 2.

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Build Blogger Bash
App pick of the week: DesktopGPT
Plus: Proton Pass gets much-needed account protection features.
RunAs Radio this week: Identity Governance with Jef Kazimer.
Brown liquor pick of the week: Shelter Point Cask Strength Single Malt.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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FY24 Q3 Earnings, AI Explorer, Github Copilot Workspace

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Leo, Paul, and Richard steer towards the performance race as they speculate about how Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite/Plus PCs will compare to Apple Silicon MacBooks. What makes a laptop truly user-friendly? System reliability, UI consistency, battery life? Plus, the recent Fallout TV series, the practicality of using winget for browser installations, and how the ARM chipset switch is revving up the PC market.

ARMed & ready

Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon X Plus and confirms Paul's report that the Snapdragon X Elite will have three SKUs (product editions)
All four SKUs outperform Apple M3, Intel Core Ultra 7/9, AMD Ryzen 9 7940/8945HS on most benchmarks
Why? PC makers asked Qualcomm for familiar choices
Previously, an X Plus-based Surface Pro 10 and an X Elite-based ThinkPad T40s leaked. Paul can now confirm from a source that Surface Laptop 6 (13 and 15-inch) and Surface Pro will all be on X (something}
Vivaldi is bringing its browser to Windows on Arm too

Windows 11

The April 2024 Week D preview update is here: Recommended apps and frequently used apps in Start, Widgets icon updates, Lock screen widgets improvements
Canary: Moves off 24H2 train to build 26200, no more switch to Dev, minor changes to the Widgets board and Taskbar (no new build for Dev)
Beta: New Widgets design with navigation bar, new account manager in Start, Gmail in Share, MSA recovery advertisement, and new Game Pass recommendation card in Settings
Microsoft Store app downloads from the web get simpler, more sophisticated
After yet another Quest 2 Headset price cut, and mounting problems for Apple's Vision Pro, Meta opens up Horizon OS, Microsoft is sort-of on board

Microsoft 365/Dev

Office LTSC 2024 commercial is now available in preview
Classic Teams rides off into the sunset on July 1
Dropbox offers deeper Microsoft 365 integration
GitHub sees success in 2FA push

The European Commission will not formally investigate Microsoft/OpenAI partnership
Microsoft released a new SLM
Microsoft gives a sneak peek of VASA-1, a crazy and scary "talking faces" AI tool
Google copies Microsoft again, announces massive AI reorg - that has Pixel fans worried
Adobe's generative AI image capabilities are predictably fantastic

Xbox

Get an Xbox Mastercard in the US, if you're a tool
Microsoft announces IGN x ID@Xbox digital showcase - indie games

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Have you heard the one joke about the one time you need to use Edge?
App pick of the week: Tiny11 Builder
RunAs Radio this week: PowerShell 7.4 with Sydney Smith
Brown liquor pick of the week: GlenKinchie 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Backlash against tech criticism, Ralf Groene retires, Hardcore Software

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On this episode, Paul shares his thoughts on the Snapdragon X Elite chip with Leo and Richard. Windows 11 24H2, AI, NPUs, and SoCs from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all on the way this year. But a schedule is finally starting to emerge. And it looks like we'll soon have answers to the questions about how or why AI will matter on PCs.

Windows, AI, and the future

Windows 11 version 24H2 - staggered release schedule as discussed last week
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based PCs in May/June - nothing but good news to date, but Paul went hands-on last week. It's the real deal.
Intel's first-gen Core Ultra chipsets are lackluster, but now we have big promises for Arrow Lake in late 2024
Microsoft Build 2024 is in mid-May, and now we have a session list with some nice clues. For example, Introducing the Next Generation of Windows on Arm
Microsoft is expected to unveil 24H2 and new X Elite-based Surface PCs at Build
Computex and other milestones, and then back-to-school and holiday selling periods

Windows 11

Moment 5 arrives in stable with yesterday's Patch Tuesday (which is now called the General Availability channel, by the way). Of course, we still don't have all the features. In particular, waiting on Android phone as a webcam.
IDC says PC market grew by 1.5 percent in Q1 and acts like it's the turnaround of the century
Microsoft is manually blocking certain registry keys related to default browsers now: Apple-like non-EU belligerence or pragmatic protection of user choice? Why can't it be both?
Beta channel (last week) - Copilot actions improvements
New Store app update improvements performance dramatically
The Windows 11 de-ensh*ttification experiments continue
Does Windows 11 Enterprise solve the problem? No. So it's time to move on

Hardware

TSMC gets some of that sweet, sweet CHIPS Act money to expand its US operations

Three AIs comparison
Blockbuster report claims OpenAI/Microsoft, Google, and Meta stole content at scale to train AI
Microsoft opens a new AI hub in London
Google mulls charging for generative AI in Search
Spotify lets user create AI playlists using text prompts now
Brave brings Leo to iOS, so it's on all supported platforms now. And it added Leo to Brave Talk Premium too
Google rebrands Studio Bot to Gemini in Android Studio, still in preview. This is their GitHub Copilot

Xbox

Microsoft rolls out April updates for Xbox consoles, Xbox app on PC
Xbox reorgs, Kareem Choudhry leaves Microsoft
A rumored game preservation team is too obvious not to be true

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Microsoft Store hosts its annual Spring Sale
App picks of the week: Standard Notes & Beeper
RunAs Radio this week: Securing AI with Sarah Young
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dalwhinnie 15

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11 version 24H2 is coming and you're not going to believe what happens next... and then again 6 months later

Microsoft reveals Windows 10 Extended Security Updates pricing
Paul reinstalled Windows 10 after three years on Windows 11. There's some good and some bad
Multiple sources have revealed a staggered release schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2

Insider Builds

Canary/Dev - Widgets improvements head out to more people
Canary/Dev (today) - New build today with minor changes, bug fixes (24H2 RTM-ish?). Canary/Dev switch is ending soon
Microsoft is moving Photos app to Windows App SDK (from UWP, presumably). Paul has theories
Microsoft will move the Widgets button in Windows 11 if you put the Start button on the left
Dropbox comes to the Microsoft Store in Windows 11. It only took 12 years

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is getting many new features by the end of April
Copilot for Microsoft 365 picks up priority ChatGPT-4 Turbo and no more conversation limits
You can use ChatGPT without an account now, asterisk, asterisk
Amazon concludes its $4 billion investment in Anthropic
Opera is bringing local LLMs to Opera One web browser
Google: Just kidding, non-Pro Pixel 8 will get Gemini Nano too, and you can suck on the performance issues
Is Intel circling the drain?

Antitrust

The EU is predictably investigating Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon—for not complying with the DMA.
Notably absent from that list? Microsoft. Which is unique among Big Tech in that it is being reasonable with DMA compliance and antitrust in general
Microsoft debundles Teams from Office. Too little too late?

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Basic picks up some new features
A random Microsoft engineer found a backdoor lurking in a Linux utility and might have saved the world
LinkedIn isn't just getting games, it's getting TikTok-style videos too
.NET 7 EOL is coming. Is the .NET support schedule too aggressive?

Xbox

A MASSIVE LIST OF ACTIVISION GAMES ARE COMING TO GAME PASS! Just kidding, you're getting Shadow of the Tomb Raider, jerks
Xbox is getting an AI-powered support agent. Huh. Kind of like a personal assistant then. If only they had a name for this thing
Phil Spencer says he's open to rival games stores on Xbox
Take-Two is buying (most of) Gearbox for $460 million. A Grand Theft Auto and Duke Nukem cross-over is inevitable
Rumored white Xbox Series X emerges. White and discless? YOU'RE white and discless!

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: You can still access legacy File Explorers in Windows 11
App pick of the week: Two for two
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Copilot for Security with George Coldham
Brown liquor pick of the week: Clonakilty Irish Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On Windows Weekly, Moment 5 has arrived as a Preview Update, Windows 10 gets a preview update, and Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 10 & Surface Laptop 6 for Business at a digital event. Designer and Copilot are coming to the Microsoft 365 mobile app. Would Microsoft develop a Windows-based gaming handheld device? And Canva acquires Affinity.

Windows

Moment 5 arrives as a Preview Update right on schedule - it's Week D, etc.
Microsoft previously described this schedule in its DMA compliance documentation, and noted that it would be fully deployed in stable by the end of April.
Quick raise of hands: Did you think this was already available? You're not alone. But ... you know. Microsoft.
Oh, and there's a preview update for Windows 10 too. Because come on Microsoft.
Don't worry, that lock screen nonsense in Windows 10 is coming to Windows 11 too.
Qualcomm claims that most Windows games will "just work" on its X Elite processor. How?
Chromium accepts Microsoft commit that will improve Chrome/Chromium text rendering on Windows.
Google Chrome comes to Windows on Arm, instantly legitimatizing the platform.

Surface

Microsoft announces Surface Pro 10, Surface Laptop 6.
For businesses, only - Intel Core Ultra-based.
Consumer versions based on X Elite to follow in May, according to reliable rumors.
It's first "AI PCs," supposedly. But now we know why they are using that terminology, and it's stupid. (Related, Intel has its own definitions for what makes a PC an AI PC.)
This was billed as an AI event, "the new era of work," but there was NO news for Windows or Copilot. None.
Why is that? One word: Momentum.

In the wake of Microsoft AI reorg (a NeXT-style takeover), a key Microsoft exec says no and steps aside, will likely leave the company
Microsoft Teams is gaining new AI capabilities because, duh, of course it is
Designer and Copilot are coming to the Microsoft 365 mobile app - Two more checkmarks for that grid of Copilot capabilities
Our developer show schedule is complete: Apple to host WWDC 2024 in June, following Google I/O and Build in May
Samsung spreads Galaxy A1 to more devices starting tomorrow in the US

Xbox

It's finally happening: Diablo IV will be the first Activision Blizzard game on Xbox Game Pass when it goes live tomorrow.
Phil Spencer says Windows is wrong for gaming handhelds, thinks an Xbox would be better.
Xbox is testing mouse and keyboard support for Cloud Gaming.

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Arc browser just became more viable on Windows.
App pick of the week: Affinity Photo 2
Also: Proton Pass now supports (portable) passkeys. And it's free.
RunAs Radio this week: GitHub for SysAdmins with April Edwards.
Brown liquor pick of the week: Stauning Kaos Danish Whisky.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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On this episode, Paul, Richard, and Mikah talk AI developments, Windows 10 (yes, 10), Azure egress, and even VR gaming! Is the new Microsoft AI organization an "acquisition" in disguise? How did NVIDIA's recent GTC keynote go? Plus, why it makes sense for Apple to partner with Google for Gemini on iPhone.

AI Reorg

Microsoft has created a new Microsoft AI "organization" that reports directly to Satya Nadella
Led by former Inflection co-founders and staffed in part by several ex-Inflection employees
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who orchestrated Microsoft's OpenAI partnership, will continue forward in his other role as executive vice president of AI and will remain responsible for Microsoft's overall AI strategy
Mikhail Parakhin and the entire team responsible for Copilot, Bing, and Edge, plus Misha Bilenko and the GenAI team, will move into Microsoft AI.
Rajesh Jha will continue as executive vice president of Experiences & Devices and will "partner closely with Mustafa and team" on Copilot for Microsoft 365.
What does this mean for Windows? (Paul's guess: Not much. Windows is still presumably under Jha)

Windows

Windows 10 (Yes, 10, not 11) is getting new Sports, Traffic, and Finance cards on the lock screen for some reason
No new Insider builds since last week! WHAAAAAT?

Microsoft 365

No AI for you! Microsoft announces perpetual Office 2024 and Office 2024 LTSC for late 2024
AI for you! Microsoft 365 web apps now support Copilot Pro users
Better AI for you! Free Copilot gets ChatGPT-4 Turbo (previously a paid feature)
Microsoft follows Google and AWS, ends Azure egress fees - the other European Big Tech battleground

Apple is almost certainly going to (try to) partner with Google on AI for iPhone
How the F is Microsoft not part of this?
Google I/O is set for May 14, Apple WWDC will be in June, both to focus on AI (duh)
Microsoft to host "AI and Surface event" right before Build 2024 in May
Nvidia is determined to not just ride the AI wave, but win it
In the wake of a subtle rebranding, Google is bringing generative AI to Fitbit
Amazon is bringing generative AI for product pages to sellers

Xbox

New games across Game Pass for the second half of March - including, for the first time, an Activision Blizzard title, Diablo IV
Microsoft is killing the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox... though there is a Rewards tab on your Profile page.
LinkedIn is experimenting with games because everything has to suck now
Sony halts PSVR2 production because no one wants to pay $550 for VR on PS5

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Steam Sale goes through tomorrow (March 21)
App picks of the week: Stardock ObjectDock 3, Proton Mail native app, Firefox 124
RunAs Radio this week: From SysAdmin to Platform Engineer with Steve Buchanan
Brown liquor pick of the week: Bull Run Oregon Single Malt Whiskey

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Can we have a Windows experience tailored for enterprise efficiency? Paul, Richard, and Mikah unpack the freshest updates from Windows 11's March 2024 Patch Tuesday, dissect Microsoft's transparency behind Midnight Blizzard's November attack, and speculate on Microsoft's much-anticipated Surface/AI event. Plus, Paul offers insights from his time with Copilot Pro's custom GPT builder.

Windows 11

Patch Tuesday new features: Phone Link settings is renamed to Mobile devices, USB 80 Gbps support, more - Windows 10 users get some love (hate?) too
Microsoft confirms that Moment 5 will be delivered in the March preview update, fully deployed in late April
Microsoft details how it is changing Windows in the EU - and now we all want to move to the EU
Beta (last week): New Copilot actions experiment
Dev and Canary: Unified Teams experience, Copilot updates to more people, Power Automate via Copilot in Windows, Live Captions quick settings tile, progress bars in Taskbar icons, File Explorer file copy improvements, etc
Beta (today): Most frequently used apps now appear in Recommended

Microsoft

Microsoft continues to dribble out details about that Russia-sponsored hack and the news is predictably getting worse each time
We have an event! March 21st will focus on Copilot, Windows, and Surface

Microsoft brings Custom GPT Builder to Copilot Pro subscribers
Here comes Copilot for Security. April 1 rollout is perfect
Teams app developers get AI capabilities via a free Microsoft toolkit
Opera Feature Drops to bring new AI features early to Opera One
EU moves to the AI Act

Microsoft 365

Microsoft finally spells out its commercial deployment schedule/plans for the new Outlook. Let the complaining continue
Skype is updated with new Channels features, prompting questions about Skype still being alive
Parallels Desktop for Mac is updated with Clipboard and game improvements for Windows VMs

Xbox

Some Activision QA works vote to unionize
More Microsoft Studio titles come to Boosteroid, that service you only heard of because of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Time zone math
App pick of the week: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is now available! Plus, Joplin (a Notion alternative)
RunAs Radio this week: Understanding Large Language Models with Jodie Burchell
Brown liquor pick of the week: Bushmills 21

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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This week, Paul, Richard, and Leo unpack the twice-delayed unveiling of Moment 5 for Windows 11 and the long list of small features it brings to users, alongside whispers of new Surface devices on the horizon. Plus, they dissect the implications of Elon Musk's critical eye on OpenAI and the captivating prospect of upscaling classic adventure games via DirectSR.

"Moment 5"

Moment 5 is here. Sort of. In preview. Well, some features
This was supposed to happen before last week's Windows Weekly, but the announcement was delayed twice

Windows 11

Microsoft quietly reveals that it is killing the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), triggering two reactions: "Who cares?" and "Why?"
Beta: Controversial new mouse hover experience for Copilot
Dell had double-digit revenue declines in Q4, all of 2024
HP revenues fell 4.8 percent in Q1

Surface

Rumor: Microsoft to launch Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 soon, with both Intel Core Ultra and Snapdragon X Elite variants

Microsoft engineer continues to raise disturbing issues with Copilot
Microsoft Edge picks up two new AI features: Video highlights and screenshot integration
Copilot is coming to OneDrive (commercial) and Microsoft 365 mobile app
Microsoft announces Copilot for Finance
Microsoft files motion to dismiss parts of the NYT's copyright suite, compares AI to a Betamax machine. Maybe not the smartest comparison
Elon Musk sues OpenAI because something something
ChatGPT picks up a Read Aloud feature. Is there anything AI can't do??
Anthropic announces a three-tier Claude 3 family of LLMs with the usual claims
Apple releases the M3-based MacBook Air. Or should we call it the MacBook AIr?
Brave brings Leo AI to Android app

Xbox

Microsoft comes clean on DirectSR, will say more soon
Xbox Partner Preview event today - Final Fantasy XIV, STALKER Original Trilogy, more announced
MLB The Show 24, more come to Xbox Game Pass in March
Linux exceeds 4 percent usage share for the first time. Is this the "SteamDeck" effect?

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Twitter user? Disable this new feature immediately
App picks of the week: LibreOffice, Vivaldi, Anytype
RunAs Radio this week: Upgrading TLS with Scott Helme
Brown liquor pick of the week: Hornitos Black Barrel

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The newest version of Windows 11 is entering a new rollout phase. Some new exciting hardware from Lenovo emerged from this year's Mobile World Congress. And Paul has been using Copilot Pro for some time and is quite happy with it so far!

Windows

Windows 11 version 23H2 enters a new rollout phase - the "you're getting it whether you want it or not" phase.
Canary: Wi-Fi 7 support, 16 new actions for Windows (+13 there already), separates from Dev channel again.
Photos app to get generative erase functionality.

Hardware

Snapdragon X Elite destroys Intel Core Ultra in AI performance tests. Is this finally the year of Windows on Arm?
Intel rolls out vPro versions of Core Ultra for businesses.
Lenovo imagines transparent displays, ships actual ThinkPads.
HP brings NPUs to its consumer PCs.
Samsung Galaxy Book4 series is now available in the U.S. with unique Copilot features.
Microsoft lays out its 2024 event calendar, and Ignite is in Chicago in November!

Microsoft (quietly) adds four GPTs to Microsoft Copilot.
Microsoft partners with Mistral AI, and gets immediate regulatory notice
GitHub Copilot Enterprise is now available with organizational GPTs
Google pauses Gemini image creation after, um, some issues
Help Me Write is now in Google Chrome
Brave Leo now supports PDFs and Google Drive

Xbox

Xbox will attend GDR, and will discuss DirectSR
Microsoft starts testing Game Hubs in Xbox app for PC
Lots of Age of Empire releases this year
GeForce Now Free is adding pre-roll advertising

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Turn off Microsoft Start in Widgets.
Widget is finally closer to what most people will want.
App pick of the week: Microsoft Copilot Pro
Podcast pick of the week: Copilot Governance with Martina Grom
Brown liquor pick of the week: Ian Macleod's Isle of Skye Range

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Microsoft's big Xbox strategy event was exactly what Paul expected it was going to be. Hopefully, this calmed some nerves.

Xbox strategy reveal

It was going to be about Activision Blizzard originally (nailed it)
All first-party games will be in Game Pass on day one (as is the case now)
Game Pass will only be on Xbox (whatever "Xbox" means as it's on PC too)
The strategy is unchanged: Meet gamers where they are
But the best experience is on Xbox (this is like going from "Windows only" to "Windows first" to "Windows best")
Portability across hardware platforms is a key part of the strategy - Backward Compatibility, etc.
A future generation of Xbox console hardware will offer "the largest technical leap you have ever seen in a hardware generation."
Oh, and four games are coming to "other consoles."

Windows 11

Microsoft is quietly adding off-ramps to the Insider Program after killing the Magic window with their screwed-up release schedule
Canary and Dev - 24H2, same builds. New navigation pane in Widgets - new accessibility setting for low-vision users - that same tired weather experience on the lock screen that is already in stable and seriously kill me now I can't stand this company anymore. Oh, and there are ISOs.
Beta - New prompts for that "manage mobile devices" features, updates to Snipping Tool and Notepad (also in RP)
Release Preview - We're testing Moment 5 now, so this is a huge update
Microsoft fixed a bug that let Edge siphon browser data from other browsers
Stardock brings pre-release support for Arm versions of Start11, Fences, and Groupy to new Object Desktop Insider program
Google has an answer for those out of support Windows 10 PCs

Build 2024

Microsoft confirms that Build 2024 is May 21-23 in Seattle. No word on press invites

Microsoft 365

Microsoft will finally unify the Teams clients on Windows and Mac
Microsoft is killing Publisher in 2 years and even though no one uses it, people are freaking out

Microsoft to use Intel Foundry for at least one in-house custom AI chip
Now OpenAI is worth over $80 billion, is world's third-biggest unicorn
OpenAI announces Sora and... HOLY #$%^
Gemini (formerly Duet AI) comes to all Workspace customers
Google brings Gemini down to size with Gemma for free, local use
Adobe Acrobat is getting an AI assistant

Xbox

Game streaming is (probably) coming to all the Xbox games you own
More (non-AB) games are coming to Game Pass in February
Microsoft goes after Apple's non-compliance DMA compliance in the EU
Epic announces a game store for iOS in Europe, will launch this year
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story will release on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch on March 13

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Androids by Chet Haase
App picks of the week: Dashlane, Firefox 123, Bonjourr
Cocktail of the week: Sumi - This is a "clasicos Baltra" from the most famous bar in Mexico City. Tanqueray Ten Gin, Violet liqueur, Jasmine syrup, Yuzu, Egg white. Serve in a coupe glass, and garnish with dried flowers.

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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The latest updates to Windows 11, including the removal of legacy troubleshooting tools. Paul, Richard, and Mikah also discuss Windows 365 integration with Android phones, the new iPhone models, and Qualcomm supplying 5G modems to Apple. Plus, the full Game Pass Core library, the announcement of the Xbox Mastercard, an update on .NET 8 nearing its release, and opinions on Unity's new Runtime Fee for game installations.

Windows 11

New Insider Preview builds
Patch Tuesday arrives and the latest Windows 11 update is a non-event
Microsoft Paint is getting a background removal tool
Microsoft is removing the legacy troubleshooters from Windows 11 and killing third-party printer drivers

Mobile

Microsoft announces Enhanced Windows 365 App Experience for Android. Yes, that's the name. Yes, it's a cloud-based version of Samsung Dex
Qualcomm extends wireless partnership with Apple for three more years
Intel announces Thunderbolt 5 branding, surprising no one

Microsoft 365, Antitrust, & AI

PowerPoint co-creator Dennis Austin passes away
Apple's new iPhones have USB-C ports to meet the needs of a new EU law
United States vs. Google kicks off
Day 1: Yes, Google pays Apple $10 billion per year to be the default search on iPhone
Adobe's Firefly generative AI is now generally available

Dev

.NET 8 hits release candidate
Unity might have just jumped the shark

Xbox

Microsoft reveals the full Xbox Game Pass Core library. This new offering replaces Xbox Live Gold. A moment of silence, please
Apple envy? Microsoft announces an Xbox credit card for some reason
Minecraft Live is coming back, but it's not in-person

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Google rolls out privacy sandbox. Seriously, use a different browser
App pick of the week: WizTree
RunAs Radio this week: Doing More with Less with Sonia Cuff
Brown liquor pick of the week: Chivas Regal

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss issues with the reliability of File Explorer (is XAML the root cause?), Microsoft's decision to retire WordPad, antitrust lawsuits and investigations into Big Tech companies, Microsoft's upcoming Surface(?) event, automatic OneDrive uploads for Xbox captures, the launch of Bethesda's Starfield, digital decluttering tools, and more!

Windows

Canary: some changes to the Dynamic refresh rate feature, no more Power & Battery page in Settings, etc
Dev: Bug fixes
Beta: File Explorer fixes (INTERESTING, given last week's rant)
A moment of silence, please: WordPad will be retired
The secret life of WordPad via its source code release and it being an example for developers (over time) of MFC, open Word document format support, the ribbon, and more
The future is open plain text: embrace Markdown
Notepad and Snipping Tool are getting new features
Microsoft is changing how it counts your OneDrive storage usage

Events

We forgot the Amazon devices event, which is September 20
Microsoft will host a OneDrive/AI event on October 3
Ignite registration just opened up - November 14-17 in Seattle

Antitrust

Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others are all gatekeepers, EU says
Bing: Hold my beer
Zoom would like the FTC to unbundle Teams/M365 in the US
Google is heading into an antitrust trial against the DOJ next week.
Microsoft's approach to antitrust has changed a bit
Margrethe Vestager is stepping aside to bid on a new job
Google has tentatively settled a US Play Store class action antitrust lawsuit brought by over 30 states; the settlement is subject to the court's approval, according to a legal filing
FTC to file antitrust lawsuit against Amazon after firm made no concessions, may seek to break up the company

Xbox

Microsoft to add auto OneDrive upload to Xbox game clips
Xbox September Update is here with Discord game streaming
New Game Pass titles for early September - Starfield among them
Your Xbox Series S has arrived, Mr. Vader
Lenovo has a Steam Deck competitor

Tips & Picks

Tip/app pick of the week: Digital decluttering
RunAs Radio this week: Breach Reporting with Troy Hunt
Brown liquor pick of the week: Old Perth 23

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11 bugs drive Paul crazy, Microsoft AI event coming, no Xbox mid-cycle refresh

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/844

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This week on Windows Weekly, Leo, Paul, and Richard dive deep into Microsoft's prolonged acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, the launch of Edge for Business, and the Mixed Reality collaboration between Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Magic Leap.

CMA: F&$% you, common sense!

Despite appearing to step back from the wrong decision it made about Activision Blizzard, the CMA has instead rejected the deal again... because cloud gaming
So Microsoft has offered to give Ubisoft (non-exclusive) rights to cloud streaming all AB games (except in the EU)
Now the EU is wondering how/if this impacts its own agreement with Microsoft - a close reading of the Microsoft and Ubisoft announcements provides some clues that all is well

Windows 11 * It's Week D, so we just got the preview versions of next month's Patch Tuesday CU * And it's August, so Microsoft has probably finalized 23H2 and could ship it in preview form in September's Week D * Perhaps not coincidentally, Microsoft has scheduled an in-person Surface/Windows event in NYC for the following week * Insider: we got new Dev and Beta builds last week * Dev: rich thumbnail previews in Start, new Cast flyout, never-combine Taskbar mode * Beta (23H2): native support for RAR and other archive formats, never-combined Taskbar mode, rich thumbnail previews in Start, Snipping Tool update with links to Paint and Clipchamp, new app defaults behavior (that one is in the preview update above) * Edge for Business is now available * Microsoft sets Windows Mixed Reality Toolkit free because AI is the new AR

AI + Dev

As predicted, the addition of AI-based Bing Chat has not helped Bing usage share in the slightest: "Bing AI is cute, but not a game changer". Microsoft is not happy.
AI-generated Microsoft travel guide recommended a food bank in Canada to those with "empty stomachs"
Brave is bringing a safe and private AI assistant to Brave because of course it is
Quick hands-on with Project IDX. Yep, it's Visual Studio Code on the web

Xbox

The end of an era: Xbox 360 store to shut down in one year
Age of Empires IV is now available on Xbox and Xbox Game Pass
PC Game Pass has arrived on NVIDIA GeForce Now
Sony's PlayStation Portal Remote Player is launching later this tear at $199.99
The nostalgia keeps coming: Atari announces the 2600+ console

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Enjoy my video archive on YouTube
App pick of the week: Parallels Desktop 19
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Fabric with Andrew Snodgrass
Brown liquor pick of the week: Oban 14

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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This fun episode of Windows Weekly features Paul and Richard answering questions from listeners in the Club TWiT Discord! Plus, they chat about minor Windows Insider updates, strategies for saving money on streaming services, new gaming releases like the enhanced Quake II, and more.

Windows

New Canary build JUST released - Nothing major; the wait for 12 continues
Dev Home Preview 0.4 JUST released - accessibility and other improvements
Windows 365 Switch comes to the Windows Insider Dev and Beta channels
Here comes Edge for Business

Microsoft 365

Microsoft is releasing a new default theme for Office

Mobile + AI

Google Photos gets a new AI-powered Memories view
Opera brings Aria AI to its iOS browser
Google brings more features to its generative AI search service
Amazon adds more AI-generated review summaries on mobile
Google to add Audio Magic Eraser feature with Pixel 8 series
Apple to finally pay its victims for Batterygate

Xbox

Overview of Microsoft's new system to suspend toxic players on Xbox via strikes
Now Netflix is testing a cloud gaming solution

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Dealing with subscription fatigue
App pick of the week: Quake II Remaster
RunAs Radio this week: PowerShellGet in 2023 with Sydney Smith
Brown liquor pick of the week: EH Taylor Small Batch

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 365 Switch public preview, Project IDX, digital decluttering

Windows 11

Patch Tuesday arrives - nothing to see here, first PT this year with no new Windows 11 22H2 features
New Canary build today: Two features from Dev, one new feature, plus a few minor fixes
Windows 365 Switch is now available in public preview

More Earnings Learnings

Amazon revenues up 11 percent, but we have lots of AWS info
Apple revenues flat as smartphone market slide continues - but services

Microsoft 365, AI, etc

Bing Chat comes to (some) third-party mobile browsers
Slack is getting a major UI refresh

Dev

Microsoft issues final .NET 8 preview, RC next
Google uses VS Code to make its new AI-based code editor in the browser
GitHub Copilot adds a beta code referencing tool

Xbox

New Zealand OK's Activision Blizzard acquisition
Microsoft, er, Activision announces Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Sony revenues soared 33 percent in the previous quarter, with PlayStation 5 unit sales up 38 percent to 3.3 million
PS5 Cloud Streaming goes live for some (requires PS Plus)

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: One strategy for digital decluttering
Tip of the week #2: Back-to-school sale at the Microsoft Store
Tip of the week #3: Subscribe to Thurrott Premium, Windows Intelligence newsletter, and Club TWiT
Podcast pick of the week: Azure Innovations with Mark Russinovich
Brown liquor pick of the week: Port Askaig 100 Proof

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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EU investigates Teams, Loop in the Microsoft Store, Beta build 22631.2129

Windows

Insider: Last week, Canary got features from Dev plus some new features of its own.
Dev channel: Improved screen cast, HDR background support, more Voice access, presence sensing, more.
Beta channel: Windows Copilot, Dev Drive, enhanced Narrator/Excel integration, new Voice access text authoring features, passwordless experience for Windows Hello for Business, plus screen cast, presence, and voice access from above.
Intel is profitable again, hopeful for the future (and massive fab expansion in Oregon)
AMD revenues fell 18 percent, but also some hope for the future

Microsoft 365

The EU announces formal investigation of Teams bundling in Microsoft 365
Microsoft Teams gets spatial audio support
Microsoft lowers storage allotments for M365 Education customers, kills Office 365 A1 Plus
Clipchamp is coming to Microsoft 365 commercial (with OneDrive storage integration)

Dev

Microsoft to launch .NET 8 at .NET Conf in November

Xbox

CMA publishes Microsoft's list of "material changes" in its Activision Blizzard case, gives public four days for feedback
Unexpectedly, not a single new concession, just a bunch of new "evidence" that appeared since the decision
Xbox Games with Gold goes out with a whimper
Here come the first August Game Pass titles
Final Fantasy XIV Online is FINALLY coming to Xbox
Microsoft starts testing game streaming from Xbox to Discord
You can buy Xbox controller parts now
Sony has now sold over 40 million PS5s
EA revenues up 9 percent in Q2
Nintendo's next Switch to debut next year
Microsoft is killing the Xbox Console Companion app, has never made a new solution for getting Xbox console screenshots and videos on the PC

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enroll in the Windows Insider Beta channel if you want to test 23H2
App pick of the week: Loop for Windows is now available
RunAs Radio this week: Windows 11 and Windows Update for Business with Julie Andreacola
Brown liquor pick of the week: Angel's Envy

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Microsoft's FY23 Q4, Zenbleed vulnerability, Nearby Share for Windows

Microsoft Earnings

Microsoft had another blockbuster quarter. What else is new?
Fiscal quarter: a net income of $20.1 billion on revenues of $56.2 billion. Those figures represent year-over-year (YOY) gains of 20 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Intelligent Cloud was again Microsoft's biggest business unit, delivering $24 billion in revenues (up 15 percent YOY) on the strength of server and cloud services revenue growth of 17 percent. Azure and other cloud services grew 26 percent YOY, and Enterprise Mobility saw its installed base grow by 11 percent to over 256 million seats.
Productivity and Business Processes was Microsoft's second-biggest business, with $18.3 billion in revenues, a gain of 10 percent YOY. Here, Microsoft reported that Office commercial revenue was up 12 percent, Office 365 commercial revenues were up 15 percent, and Office consumer revenues were up 3 percent. Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers grew 12 percent to 67 million customers.
More Personal Computing once again brought up the rear, with $13.9 billion in revenues, a decline of 4 percent YOY. Windows revenues from PC makers declined 12 percent. Surface (and HoloLens, but really just Surface) revenues were down 20 percent YOY, as that product line continues to struggle. Gaming revenue overall was up 1 percent, with Xbox hardware revenues down 13 percent YOY and Xbox content and services revenues up 5 percent, "driven by growth in third-party content and Xbox Game Pass."

AI Stuff

Top AI companies agree to safeguards (just not for privacy).
Microsoft opens up Bing Chat to users on Chrome and Safari.
ChatGPT for Android is available in the U.S. to handle all your mobile AI needs.
GitHub Copilot Chat is now available in Beta, stage one of the transition to GitHub Copilot X.
Apple is rumored to be working on its own ChatGPT.

Windows * This just in: Preview cumulative update for 22H2 arrives a day late. * Insider: Microsoft tests 23H2 features in the Beta channel. * AMD to fix Zenbleed vulnerability. * Microsoft could release a Surface Studio Laptop 2 this year. * U.S. Army to test upgraded HoloLens soon.

Activision Blizzard

Paul looked at how the Activision Blizzard acquisition will impact its quarterly financials. Not much, actually.
Chief regulators from the FTC and CMA have spoken a bit publicly about their mishandled Microsoft cases.
Mirroring what happened with the CMA last week, the FTC ended an internal trial against Microsoft so the sides can reach a settlement.

Xbox

Microsoft starts rolling out YAHE (yet another home experience)
Google Play Games for PC expands
Blizzard is bringing key titles to Steam

Tips and Picks * Tip of the week: Clipchamp's hidden gems * App pick of the week: Nearby Share for Windows * RunAs Radio this week: Future of Integrated Communication with Bob Serr * Brown liquor pick of the week: Bottles!

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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It's happening! Microsoft will absolutely acquire Activision Blizzard

An amazing (ahem) blizzard of activity on the acquisition front leaves Microsoft on the verge of consummating this deal. It's amazing how much has happened since last week.
FTC appealed its court loss and was immediately defeated again
UK CMA extends deadline for its review of Microsoft's new concessions
Microsoft and Sony agree to a Call of Duty deal (!) - not clear if it's for 10 years
UK court formally pauses CMA block of AB acquisition so the two sides can negotiate
Microsoft and Activision agreed to extend the acquisition deadline to October 18 to accommodate the CMA

Windows

Windows 11 23H2 will be deployed as an enablement package, virtually providing our theories that 23H2 = Moment 4.
Tied to this, Microsoft finally explains how it updates Windows now, literally 8 years after the release of Windows 10. It's easy to be cynical, but a Microsoft whitepaper offers a lot of overdue transparency about updating
Insider Program: New Dev build today. Passwordless for Windows Hello Business, local file sharing improvements, Outlook now an inbox app
Insider Program: New Beta and Release Preview builds out last week.
Beta is 23H2. Galley view in Explorer, new Paint app
Release Preview is 22H2, just fixes
The NUC lives!
Microsoft has a new font

An AI told you so

Microsoft announces Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (for commercial) and it is exactly as expensive as we warned
Bing Chat adds visual search support
Bill Gates dismisses the dangers of AI. "We've done this before."
FTC is investigating OpenAI

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass Core to replace Xbox Live Gold in September
The next Game Pass titles for July
Game Pass Friends and Family Preview is ending in August
More fun retro gaming as Anstream Arcade is coming to Xbox on July 21

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enable passkeys in GitHub
Book of the week: John Romero wrote a book
RunAs this week: Securing Sprawling Services with Karinne Bessette
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenfarclas 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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MICROSOFT BEATS FTC IN DRAMATIC FASHION

Judge throws out FTC's request to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard
For once, common sense prevails
FTC threatens to appeal, but legal experts say this will fail
UK CMA (sort of) realizes the error of its ways and will renegotiate with Microsoft and then later said it may require a new investigation because they are terrible
Just a quick note about an old friend: AdDuplex is shutting down
Amazon is first Big Tech firm to legally challenge EU's new anti-Big Tech laws

Windows

Microsoft releases Moment 3 for the fourth time
Insider: New Canary build (today) brings new features from Dev, Arm32 deprecation, etc.
Amazon Appstore for Windows 11 is now generally available
Microsoft Edge now blocks spam pop-ups. Finally, a reasonable Edge feature
Intel is killing the NUC, will exit the PC business

Cloud/Enterprise

Microsoft is renaming Azure AD to Entra ID
Former original NT team member burns bridges as he leaves Google for second time

Dev * Microsoft is bringing .NET MAUI is coming to Visual Studio Code * Microsoft Dev Box is generally available * Raspberry Pi open-sources its Code Editor * GitHub announced the public beta of passkey authentication

Xbox

Digital Eclipse is going to release a series of interactive classic video documentaries on Xbox
Xbox introduces new voice reporting feature to help battle online toxicity

Tips & Picks * Tip of the week: You can get a $1 Game Pass trial again * App pick of the week: Nostalgia (for Intellivision) * RunAs Radio this week: Windows 11 Deployment with Johan Arwidmark * Brown liquor pick of the week: Smooth Ambler Old Scout

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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EU's Big Tech gatekeepers, AI-powered shopping tools, Windows Copilot Preview

The EU officially identified the first Big Tech "gatekeepers" that will be held to a higher regulatory standard, and Microsoft made the list.
Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook (Meta)
Plus, TikTok owner ByteDance (?) and Samsung
Booking.com says it was notified it will be on the next list for some reason too
What is the standard? What are the penalties for non-compliance?
Microsoft to face EU antitrust investigation after discussions break down.

Windows * Microsoft JUST makes its self-imposed June deadline, releases first public preview of Windows Copilot to (some) Windows Insiders. * Windows Copilot hands-on * Windows 365 Frontline exits preview

Microsoft adds new AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge. I'm sure they won't just recommend Microsoft products.
Google changes its privacy policy, admits it will scrape the Internet to train its models

Hardware

Hybrids bridge the gap between the new and the old, and they're all around us. In personal tech, the laptop was an early hybrid, but today's hybrids—like folding smartphones—are getting interesting and are inarguably the future of the premium, and then the mainstream, smartphone market. So much for "right tool for the job."

Xbox * Nadella claims he wants videogame exclusives to go away. This explains why Microsoft has purchased so man game studios, and why its wants Activision Blizzard. Somehow. * What would a "mobile-native" version of Game Pass look like? And how could Microsoft get past the mobile gatekeepers? * Microsoft announces its July Xbox Games with Gold titles * Microsoft also announced its first Game Pass titles for July

Tips & Picks * Tip of the week #1: Enable Windows Copilot (Preview) * Tip of the week #2: Get Office 365 for IT Pros 2024 Edition for $10 off * App pick of the week #1: Stella * App pick of the week #2: Firefox 115 * RunAs this week: Power Platform Proliferation with Luise Freese * Brown Liquor this week: Dewars 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Microsoft/FTC hearings reveal numerous details about the Xbox business

The FTC's economist could not explain how the acquisition would actually harm competition
The FTC bungled its questioning of Phil Spencer so badly that he had to explain how mergers work to the agency.
Microsoft decided to pursue AB after it learned that Sony was paying publishers to skip Xbox and that it was trying to make Starfield exclusive to PlayStation
A Bethesda executive asked Phil Spencer why AB was so different, noting that some Bethesda titles became Xbox exclusives
Phil Spencer says that Microsoft "expects" Xbox to be profitable, but he never said that it ever was. Its continual third-place finishes in the console market is what kicked off Microsoft's game studio buying spree: Sony was outspending it on exclusives
Phil Spencer also admitted to what I think is Xbox's biggest failure, it's lack of an "organic" strategy for mobile.
Spencer: there is no native Minecraft on PS5 because Sony. (Related: if Microsoft buys AB, Sony will not give AB advanced access to PS6)
Xbox Cloud Gaming was promoted as a way to get Xbox in front of 3 billion more eyeballs, but it's been used as a way for Xbox console users to test new games before they buy them.
Sony's PlayStation boss came off badly during the hearings.
Microsoft considered "spending Sony out of business." If this deal fails, it should do just that
AB demanded a better revenue share and threatened to pull COD off Xbox otherwise. They had no choice, so AB gets an 80/20 revenue split instead of the usual 70/30. Blackmail!
Microsoft considered buying over 100 separate companies to gain a foothold in mobile gaming (and overall). Key among them are Zynga, Bungie, Sega, CD Projekt Red, and Gearbox

Windows 11

Deja vu: Microsoft issues Windows 11 version 22H2 Moment 3 as a preview update
A quick update on that new switch in Windows Update
Welcome to the nanny state: Windows 11 just can't stop telling us how to do things
Microsoft wants to bring Cloud PC to consumers for some reason
DuckDuckGo's web browser is here for Windows in beta. It's as safe and private as Brave, but it is still lacking too many core features for daily use

Microsoft and AI

ChatGPT adds Bing integration in iOS
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks about his AI conversion

Xbox

Meta launches a VR Quest+ subscription service
Google is bringing games to YouTube

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Xbox Series X/S storage hits lowest prices ever
App pick of the week: Stardock Deskscapes 11
RunAs Radio this week: Patching in 2023 with Sami Laiho
Brown liquor pick of the week: Green Spot:

Regular - 40% - $50

Leoville Barton - 46% - Bordeaux - $100

Chateau Montelana - 46% - Zinfandel - $100

Quails Gate - 46% - Pinot Noir - $100 CAD

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Microsoft squares off against the FTC

On Thursday, Microsoft will face off against the FTC in its bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. But the FTC has proven that it does not understand its role as an enforcer of US antitrust laws. The FTC should lose this case, paving the way for an immediate acquisition. The CMA can go F itself.
NZ may be stepping in soon too

More Moment 3 confusion

This week, Microsoft issued Moment 3 to the Windows 11 Insider Program Release Preview Program
This is odd because Microsoft released Moment 3 to stable last week
We need to talk about Chat in Windows 11
New Beta channel builds with changes to notifications and Wi-Fi Hotspot
Intel unveils branding changes for its processors - there's no "i" in "Core"

New (new) Outlook confusion

Microsoft announces that it will replace Mail and Calendar in Windows 11 with the new Outlook in late 2024. Smart!
The world freaks out for some reason
Microsoft quickly recants, will "re-evaluate" this decision

AI & Cloud

Google files complaint to FTC about Microsoft's cloud contracts
Microsoft: June outages were cyberattacks
Opera says it has released the first-ever "AI-native" web browser

Xbox * Incoming price hike for Xbox Series X, Xbox Game Pass * Microsoft stops making Xbox One games * Halo Infinite Season 4 is here * More games are heading to Xbox Game pass in the second half of June * Microsoft will host an ID@Xbox Showcase on July 11

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Try the new Outlook now
App pick of the week: Amiga Forever 10
RunAs Radio this week: Windows Update for Business with Aria Carley
Brown liquor pick of the week: Mortlach 12

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Microsoft & Activision Blizzard, Windows 11 22H2, OpenAI, Xbox Updates

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/833

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Cortana's Windows death, 3 months with no Xbox, thoughts on WWDC23

Developer Story

As the developer conference season winds down with WWDC, a look at how Apple, Google, and Microsoft are both similar to and different from each other
Hololens flashbacks anyone?

Windows

She's dead, Jim: Microsoft kills Cortana in Windows 10, 11 - this is all about marketing
Teams for Windows (consumer) gets new features that no one will notice either
Windows Insider Preview: Microsoft Paint gets Dark mode support (FINALLY) and more in Canary and Dev
Canary: New build brings SMB signing requirement (Enterprise ed only), camera app troubleshooting (plus new build today)
Dev (new): redesigned Home view for File Explorer, modernized address bar and search box, Dynamic Lighting settings
Dev: File Explorer tabs and gallery view improvements, Add Phone Photos button for setting up OneDrive camera roll
Beta: WPA3 support in Phone Link, fixes
Microsoft Edge arrives with Workspaces (but not the new UI)
Brave finally gets vertical tabs
One week after HP, Dell posts 20 percent revenue fall

Xbox

Well, Paul finally did it: 3 months without Xbox
WD Xbox Series X|S expansion cards start at just $80
Minecraft comes to chromebooks
Microsoft was fined $20 million by the FTC for collecting kids' data (Amazon was fined $25 million)
Report explains why Redfall failed. (It sucks)
Apple brings Windows games to macOS using Wine-based toolkit
Amazon kills Luna app on Windows and Mac, focuses on web. Are we facing a Stadia moment now?

Tips & Picks * Tip of the week: Passkeys come to Google Workspace accounts too * Tip of the week #2: Get the updated Windows 11 22H2 ISO * RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Sentinel with Sarah Young * Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 14

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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One more look back at Build

Microsoft talked a lot about what's coming to Windows, was vague on the timing. Speaking of vague, Microsoft gave the impression that there were "1 billion" Windows 11 users. There are not.
Paul can confirm that Panos Panay was purposefully sidelined.
Dev Drive: excellent. Dev Home: Eh. Windows Copilot, Winget config: maybe
A theory about 23H2 = Moment 4

Windows 11

New Insider Preview builds.
Canary: Microsoft Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies on Windows on ARM.
Dev: Dev Drive, Windows Backup, never combine in Taskbar.
Beta: Minor changes.
Don't forget that Moment 3 arrives next week.
Hackers fully crack Windows XP activation.
HP revenues fall 22 percent as PC market doldrums continue.
Intel CEO discusses "serious leadership issues" at Intel and the rocky turnaround.

Surface

Surface Pro X camera just stops working, so Microsoft issues a temporary fix.

Xbox

Margrethe Vestager discusses the UK CMA and Activision Blizzard.
New Games for Gold titles - Adios is available now, and on Windows too (a first?).
New Game Pass titles.
Xbox app gets May update.
Google Play Games for PC Beta comes to Europe, New Zealand.

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Get started on what's next for Windows 11
App pick of the week: Greenshot, ImageGlass, VLC
RunAs Radio this week: Azure Sticker Shock with Aidan Finn
Brown liquor pick of the week: Crown Royal Northern Rye Harvest

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Build 2023 key(note) takeaways, Neeva shutting down, Leo updates to Moment 3

Microsoft Build 2023

Microsoft's keynotes are a combination of marketing and developer talk and that stands in sharp contrast to how Google and Apple handle their developer shows. It's good and bad, but Microsoft's keynotes must be mostly boring and/or pointless to mainstream users.
Microsoft announces Windows Co-pilot, with yet another Taskbar button and a new sidebar
Dev Home is a dashboard for developers with ReFS and winget configuration
Qualcomm makes its case for local and hybrid AI
AI is coming to the Microsoft Store
Microsoft also talked up Moment 3
Microsoft Edge gets a major UI revamp, a business experience, and more
Avatars are coming to Teams this week
Microsoft 365 Co-pilot is getting plug-in support
Bing becomes the default search engine for ChatGPT
Microsoft's tsunami of AI for customers and developers
ChatGPT comes to the iPhone
Neeva shuts down its paid search service to focus on AI
Chris Cap is unfairly raked over the coals for his comments to employees about getting raises

Xbox

China is the "37th country" to OK Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Microsoft snags a legal victory in ridiculous "gamers' lawsuit"
Microsoft brings its first PC games to NVIDIA GeForce Now
Sony sold 600,000 PSVR2 headsets in 6 weeks somehow

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Grateful Geek
App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge Beta
RunAs Radio this week: Incident Response Readiness with Paula Januszkiewicz
Brown liquor pick of the week: Woodinville Straight Rye

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11: We're having another moment!

After hitting Release Preview last week, Moment 3 will arrive in preview form next week (Week D) or the following week and then head to stable on June 13 (Patch Tuesday).
Now we have a better understanding of Microsoft's update schedule for Windows 11
Feature Updates - one per year in H2, deployed logically using best-known configurations first
Moments - once per quarter
Controlled Feature Releases (CFRs) - almost every month, deployed randomly
App updates - can happen anytime based on readiness\
Continuous innovation isn't just for Windows. In fact, we can assume that mobile was the inspiration for this. Windows feels pressure from mobile. Does mobile feel pressure from web?
When Moment 3 arrives, can people in Release Preview automatically exit Insider Preview?
Phone Link support for iPhone goes to stable
Windows 10 version 21H2 exits support next month, leaving 22H2 as the last version standing for non-managed businesses

Bing/AI/cloud

Bing chatbot gets contextual chat, a few changes on mobile
EU begins an antitrust investigation of Azure
Google barely mentioned Android 14 and didn't mention Google Assistant at IO keynote. This is by design: Like Microsoft marketing the cloud before it was ready for 10 years, Google is marketing AI

Dev * First Rust code shows up in the Windows kernel (in Insider) * Visual Studio is getting its first visual refresh in over 10 years * Build 2023 is next week! Any sessions stand out? (You can save sessions you want to see to your virtual backpack)

Xbox * EU regulators approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard * UK CMA acts like a bunch of crybabies * Microsoft announces more Game Pass titles for May * Here comes another Windows-based gaming handheld

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: There is a new Windows 11 ISO coming
App pick of the week: Brave
RunAs Radio this week: Dealing with Vulnerable Exchange Servers with Gareth Gudger
Brown liquor pick of the week: Goodridge & Williams Northern Grain Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 11

Patch Tuesday: Windows 11 gets that one new feature that Microsoft was awfully quiet about.
New builds last week across Canary, Dev, and Beta - Nothing in Canary, lots in Dev, two changes to Beta.
Beta channel: Photos app gets new slideshow and spot fixing tool.
Beta channel: No features for consumers, one feature for IT pros, a Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) fix.
Widgets might be coming to the desktop because it's 2009 again.
Related: Qualcomm revenues cough up a lung too.

Microsoft 365 * Bing chatbot is available to all, Edge is about to get a makeover. * Microsoft 365 Copilot launches in early access. * Microsoft is partnering with AMD on Project Athena, no it isn't. * Microsoft starts throttling traffic from legacy Exchange servers.

Xbox * Report: EU will approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard soon - it worked for the UK! * Phil Spencer does what Phil Spencer does and speaks plainly about AB and Redfall troubles. * Redfall proves that Xbox Game Pass makes sense. * The Xbox May update brings Discord integration. * Halo Infinite May update adds Super Fiesta Mode because seriously WTF. * Xbox storage expansion cards finally get a price reduction. * Nintendo Switch sales are officially on the decline, but 125m sold so far.

Tips and Picks * Tip of the week: Know your screenshot keyboard shortcuts. And then get a real screenshot program. I recommend Greenshot. * Stardock Groupy 2 is now in beta, adds tabs to almost any app, groups them on the taskbar, $6.99 on sale. * Firefox 113 fixes a million-year-old bug! * RunAs Radio this week: Azure Virtual Desktop Accelerator with Jen Sheerin. * Brown liquor pick of the week: Bus Whisky.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Windows 11 LTSC, PC peripheral consolidation, CFRs

WE GOT ROADMAPS

Microsoft updated the Windows roadmap. And there are two takeaways
Windows 11 LTSC will finally arrive in the second half of 2024
Windows 10 version 22H2 is the final version of Windows 10, and it will be supported with only security updates until October 14, 2025

Windows 11

Last week, we talked about Week D monthly preview updates. This week, we need to talk about Controlled Feature Rollouts (CFRs). This is what happened with that Search "pill" late last year, not that Microsoft ever announced that, and it's all about testing new features first in stable. Is the Insider Program in trouble?
Microsoft is adding Rust to the Windows kernel
Insider Program: Microsoft is testing new Widget board improvements
Web usage statistics show us how Edge has failed where Safari has succeeded
Oops! A stupid new feature in Edge is causing Microsoft to report all your web browsing to Bing
Intel revenues are circling the drain, but it promises a brighter future. And AMD fell hard too, with the same guidance

Microsoft 365

One domain to rule them all and in the darkness bind them
Microsoft Loop Preview now supports personal accounts
Microsoft Designer arrives in open preview, offers DALL-E-powered AI graphics designs
Links in Teams and (the new) Outlook will soon open in Edge no matter which browser you chose
Microsoft is overhauling OneDrive for work and school on the web. You know, eventually
Microsoft brings payments to SMBs in Teams with PayPal, Stripe, and... GoDaddy?

Surface

Is Surface Duo dead? Was it ever not dead?
Microsoft consolidates all of its keyboards and other PC peripherals under the Surface brand

Xbox

Microsoft signs yet another 10-year Xbox deal, this time with an EU cloud streaming company
Microsoft "fixes" the Xbox Dashboard. Again
Here are the (two) Games with Gold titles for May
Redfall and other titles are heading to Xbox Game Pass in May
Xbox launches a Game Pass friend referral program
Sony has now sold 38.5 PlayStation 5 consoles

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Afraid of command lines? Use WingetUI
App pick of the week: Brave Search
RunAs this week: Large Language Models and Windows with Paul Thurrott
Brown liquor pick of the week: Redbreast 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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CMA blocks Activision Blizzard deal, FY23 Q3 earnings, Mad Dogs Hot Dogs

Microsoft earnings

Microsoft announced that it earned a net income of $18.3 billion on revenues of $52.9 billion for the quarter ending March 31. Those figures represent gains of 9 and 7 percent, respectively, year-over-year.
Intelligent Cloud, the home of Azure and Server, was once again the software giant's biggest business, with $22.1 billion in revenues, up 16 percent YOY.
Productivity and Business Processes, which houses Office, delivered $17.5 billion in revenues, up 11 percent YOY.
Windows, Xbox, and Surface once again tripped over themselves, with $13.3 billion in revenues, down 9 percent.

Analysis of Microsoft's F23Q3

Yet another AI theory: After years of 70 percent-ish growth in Azure revenues driving its stock price and market cap, Microsoft needed something exciting for Wall Street. (Azure grew "just" 27 percent in this quarter)
Windows revenues from PC makers fell 28 percent in the quarter. Windows Commercial products and cloud services increased 14 percent YOY, "driven by strong renewal execution and an increase in agreements that carried higher in-period revenue recognition."
Surface was a no-show: Devices revenues fell by 30 percent.
Xbox: Xbox console sales and other hardware revenues fell 30 percent in the quarter while gaming revenue, overall, declined 4 percent and Xbox content and services revenue grew 3 percent. But revenue from Xbox subscriptions reached nearly $1 billion in the quarter.
Teams: over 300 million MAUs.
Microsoft 365: Office commercial revenue grew 13 percent in the quarter. Paid Office 365 commercial seats were up 11 percent YOY to 382 million. Office consumer revenues were up, sort of, by 1 percent, while the Microsoft 365 consumer user base grew 12 percent to 65.4 million.

Windows 11

A new monthly preview update to think about
Phone Link for iOS is now rolling out to everyone
New Beta channel builds: new Live Caption languages
Leak: Microsoft will bring (back) app labels and grouping to the Windows 11 Taskbar

Microsoft 365

Microsoft rumored to unbundle Teams from Office to appease regulators
Does Microsoft have an antitrust problem?

Xbox

UK CMA blocks Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard... because of cloud streaming??
Microsoft Flight Simulator has a new World Update
Atari just acquired over 100 classic games from the 80s and 90s
ASUS ROG Ally is a new Windows gaming handheld

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Bulk-install apps with Winget and Winstall
App pick of the week: Google Authenticator
On RunAs this week: Building your Data Analytics Team at SQLBits!
Brown liquor pick of the week: Ohishi Whisky Sherry Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Gallery in File Explorer, Bing in SwiftKey, Ubisoft+ Multi Access

Bing/AI

Samsung allegedly is considering replacing Google Search with Bing. Can they even do that?
Bing chatbot comes to Swiftkey and Microsoft Start. And now you can remove the Bing button from Swiftkey. Sound familiar?
Microsoft is all-in on AI hardware
Microsoft brings more AI to developers ahead of Build
Amazon announces Bedrock generative AI tool for developers. Speaking of which, where's Apple in all this?

Windows 11

New Dev channel build: remove time/date from the system tray, "new" hover behavior on search
New Beta channel build: Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) on plugged in PCs, a PC maker-enabled feature - plus RDC redesign for Windows 11
Photo Gallery view comes to File Explorer in Insider Program This isn't the first time a Photos app feature has shown up elsewhere this year

Surface

Microsoft can't seem to escape the trap of its one successful Surface design

Xbox

Minecraft Legends, more on tap for Xbox Game Pass
Ubisoft+ Multi Access comes to Xbox
The exodus from 343 Industries continues
Microsoft: just kidding on the latest Xbox Dashboard UI
Sega buys Rovio for the same reason Microsoft wants AB

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Hyper-V or Windows Sandbox?
App pick of the week: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate/Xbox app for Windows 11
RunAs Radio this week: Project Zero Trust with George Finney
Brown liquor pick of the week: Woodford Reserve

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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KB5025239, Build 2023 session catalog, Xbox April update

Microsoft brings more new features to Windows 11 on Patch Tuesday. It's a mini moment!
Windows 11 is coming to HoloLens 2! The platform is saved! (Oops)
IDC says that PC shipments tanked 29 percent in Q1. Don't worry, the Mac did even worse. And you won't believe how the Apple community is rationalizing THAT bit of news
Windows 365 gets a Frontline worker option and a smart TV app

Microsoft Build is coming

Microsoft has posted the session catalog! Anything stand out? Yep.
Windows: How we integrated WinUI 3 into File Explorer, Q&A The Old New Thing with Raymond Chen, Q&A Deliver AI-powered experiences across cloud and edge, with Windows; Learn how to build the best Arm apps for Windows; Optimize your apps for Arm
.NET: Full stack Blazor in .NET 8 with Blazor United; What's new in .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI), Q&A
The era of the AI Copilot with Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott
Fluent 2: It must be based on the work in Loop

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming soon to OneNote
Microsoft Edge gets three new features, including DALL-E-based image creation
The case of the mysterious reappearing Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Office. A tale of ribbons, simplified ribbons, and personalized toolbars, oh my
LinkedIn adds free ways to verify yourself on the service - there better be a blue checkmark!
Microsoft brings Bing chatbot to Swiftkey on Android

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass exits beta, is now available in 40 new countries
Xbox April Update adds revamped search, ability to adjust active hours - a nice compromise on energy savings
Microsoft drops the hammer on Xbox game emulation
Microsoft brings more Elite Controller 2 customizations to Xbox Design Lab
Microsoft announces another 10-year cloud gaming deal with a company not named Sony

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Learn to code for free
App pick of the week: Opera's free VPN
This Week on RunAs: Team Metrics with Angela Dugan
Brown liquor pick of the week: The Famous Grouse

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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File Explorer access keys, Edge Workspaces public preview, Xbox Remix Special Edition Controller

Happy birthday, Microsoft

Microsoft turned 48 this week (April 4). It took a wrong left turn in Albuquerque

Windows 11

New Beta channel build adds Access Keys to File Explorer, Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC), and, yes, a new Bing button on the Taskbar
Microsoft Edge Workspaces now in limited public preview

Microsoft 365

Oh you didn't think the new Bing was free, did you?
(New) Outlook for Windows Preview gains Gmail support, finally
Right before the new Bing launch, Microsoft fixed a major security vulnerability that compromised Bing
Google secretly enacted a 5 million file limit on Drive then retracted it after complaints

Surface

Microsoft announces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock (Surface Dock 3) with no Surface Connect connector

Xbox

Microsoft reveals first Game Pass titles for April
New Xbox Wireless Controller contains "some" recycled materials, is very expensive

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enable split window feature in Microsoft Edge
App pick of the week: Google Nearby Share for Windows
This week on RunAs: IPv6 and Azure Active Directory with Pierre Roman
Brown liquor pick of the week: Auchentoshan Virgin Oak

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Week D production-quality updates, revamped widgets board, Microsoft Teams redesign

Windows 11

Microsoft debuts new Windows 11 features in Preview. And now we have a new updating schedule!
Coming via Canary: another Widgets UX update
Surface Hub 2S is still a thing and will be upgradeable to Teams Rooms OS soon
You can hide the Bing button in Edge 111.x now

Microsoft 365

As expected, Microsoft announces Teams 2.0 with Apple-like improvement claims

AI o' the week

OpenAI announces ChatGTP plug-ins capability - Now it's a platform! Next stop: sentience
Microsoft brings AI-based copilot capabilities to security pros

Xbox

UK CMA: Just kidding on Microsoft's AB acquisition issues, will likely approve it
Japan FTC approves Microsoft's AB acquisition without conditions
Activision CEO disappointed in his best partner, Sony
Microsoft announces red and blue (get it?) Elite Series 2 Core Controllers
No more $1 intro offer on Xbox Game Pass
Now even Xbox developers can help your console use less power
Steam will drop support for Windows 7/8.x in 2024

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Still on Windows 7/8.x? Switch to Firefox
App pick of the week: Oofhours.com Media Creation tool
This week on RunAs Radio: When does Multi-Cloud Make Sense with Phoummala Schmitt
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dalmore 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft Loop preview FINALLY arrives

Microsoft Loop web app launches in public preview for MSA and work/school accounts - Yeah, it's a Notion rip-off. Alarmingly so.

Windows 11

Now, Microsoft is testing Windows 11 features first in Release Preview
New Dev channel build: Seconds in the system tray is a game changer! /s
Minor changes coming to default apps
Based on a single hardware review, it appears that 13th Gen Intel Core processors have the same problem with docks and hubs as do 12th Gen processors.

AI all the things

Bill Gates describes AI as the biggest technology transformation since the GUI.
Bing Chatbot can now generate images from text
GitHub launches ChatGPT-4 powered Copilot X
Adobe launches responsible/ethical generative AI tools
Google launches Bard in early access
Mozilla.ai startup goes live
Opera adds AI prompts, sidebar ChatGPT

Xbox

Microsoft's AB acquisition is all about mobile, not COD
Microsoft announces it will launch mobile apps store on iPhone and Android as soon as regulators make it possible
FOSS patents: We've moved into the acceptance phase, and this acquisition is on track
Netflix is expanding its mobile games library dramatically
Microsoft releases a third set of Game Pass titles for March
Get a Steam Deck for 10 percent off to celebrate its first birthday

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Inbox Zero
App pick of the week: Visual Studio Code
RunAs Radio this week: SMB over QUIC File Servers with Ned Pyle
Brown liquor pick of the week: Ben Nevis 10

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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OpenAI's GPT-4 released, KB5023706 update, YouTube Music

Windows 11

Moment 2 is official; mostly a solid update
The ensh*ttification of Windows/Microsoft 365 continues: Microsoft Word, Paint, Teams, and Edge

AI all the things

One wonders, if everything is AI, is anything AI?
OpenAI releases ChatGPT 4
Microsoft "reveals" it was using an early version all along, duh
BING CHATBOT IS OPEN TO EVERYONE
Bing will move Chatbot responses to the top of search results
Microsoft's LinkedIn is adding GPT AI to improve the writing of profiles and job postings
Grammarly adds more AI
Google Workspace is getting generative AI features, obviously... and it's raising prices (coincidentally!)
Duolingo adds two new AI features at great cost

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Word is getting two keyboard shortcuts it should have always had: "Paste as Text" & Zoom

Dev

Microsoft Build 2023 is May 23-25, live and remote
GitHub starts rolling out its 2FA requirement for contributors

Xbox

Microsoft announces two 10-year cloud gaming deals with companies not named Sony: Boosteroid & Ubitus
Epic Games takes a page from the Microsoft Store and will allow self-publishing

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: YouTube Premium member? Play some games
App pick of the week: YouTube Music
This week on RunAs: Incident Management with Hila Fish
Brown liquor pick of the week: Springbank 10

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft adds Windows 12 to the Insider Program

Last week's feature release shows you how these Insider channels map to the next release, which is sometimes a Moment now and not just a formal Feature Update. Don't worry. They didn't tell anyone that.
Canary - big changes that need lots of incubation time (e.g. kernel changes), no release target
Dev - changes that need incubation, no release target
Beta- testing changes targeting the next release
Release preview - testing changes that are slated to ship imminently in the next release barring any major explosions (e.g. printers)
Stable - nothing works
First Canary build today: Access keys and File Recommendations in File Explorer, LSA Protection Enablement on upgrade.
Dev channel: This channel is "rebooted" to 23000 series now, per above. This build has live captions in more languages, access keys in the File Explorer context menus (another Win11 regression), Recommendations in File Explorer, and other changes.
Dev channel (last week): Microsoft is working on a new volume mixer.

Windows 11

Microsoft is bringing "video super resolution" to Microsoft Edge
We're still not done with PC maker results: Dell goes down in Q4 too

Satya Nadella, marketing AI, now says that Cortana was "dumb as a rock." Come on.
Microsoft to talk up AI in work next week
Microsoft talks up AI in Microsoft 365 - this will never end now
Microsoft brings more AI to devs at Azure Open Source Day
Brave Search adds an AI-powered Summarizer
DuckDuckGo adds a similar Answer feature

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Outlook is now free on the Mac

Xbox

EU likely to approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Told you so?
Halo Infinite Season 3 is live. Can it save this game?
Halo players have created over one million maps with Forge Beta
Microsoft announces new titles for Xbox Game Pass
Starfield arrives in September

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Don't be a statistic
App pick of the week: Start11
RunAs this Week: FIDO2 and Passwordless with Kyle Kotowick
Brown liquor pick of the week: Craigellachie Bas Armagnac Cask Finish 13

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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New features in KB5022913 update, Microsoft's defense of Activision Blizzard bid

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft FINALLY brings Windows 11 on Arm support to Apple Silicon Macs

A new Release Preview build shows us what the next Moment update will look like
New Beta channe builds are a bit less interesting
More PC maker fallout with Lenovo revenues down 24 percent in Q4

Bing AI

Bing AI is a lying liar who lies. Questions about Microsoft releasing it in this state continue
After many Bing AI freakouts, Microsoft limits the length of chats... and then it bumps up the length a bit just a few days later.
Microsoft brings Bing AI to Bing, Edge, and Skype mobile apps

Microsoft 365

Microsoft IS releasing Teams 2.0 in March.

Dev

Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2022 17.5, and it's a big update
Microsoft releases .NET 8 Preview 1
Visual Studio gets an integrated .NET Upgrade Assistant... previously only a command line tool
Paul examines WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK.
Microsoft is moving File Explorer from XAML Islands to Windows App SDK.

Xbox

Microsoft defends the Activision Blizzard acquisition in court.
Microsoft inks 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo
Microsoft's PC games are coming to NVIDIA GeForce Now
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Friends & Family Plan comes to 6 new countries, none of which are your country
As suspected, we're getting a third Xbox Game Pass title drop this month

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: 2FA all the things
App pick of the week: Craiyon
RunAs Radio this week: Migrating to Windows 11 with Michael Niehaus
Brown liquor pick of the week: The Macallan Estate

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The AI morning after

A week after the irrational exuberance, reality sets in. It's still Bing. And it's still competing against Google
Microsoft shares an update on Bing AI rollout
Google employees were not amused at botched Bard announcement
Microsoft to add AI to Office in March
Everyone is doing AI now. Including Opera and Notion

Windows 11

New Windows 11 Dev build adds more live captions
IE was disabled in Windows 11 on Patch Tuesday. It's dead, Jim
2FA is coming to Windows 11. It's all in the toast

Microsoft 365

Looks like Skype revenue has plummeted over the past decade
And full of "meet your new girlfriend" messages if you don't lock down from defaults
Microsoft finally retired the Yammer brand. And you're never going to believe what happened next

Corporate

GitHub lays off 10 percent of staff, going fully remote
More jobs cuts announced in Surface, HoloLens, Xbox

Xbox

Just kidding: Activision to release a major Call of Duty title this year
Xbox February update is now available with Google Home app integration

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Get started with the new Bing AI. Bing AI apparently has some "creator prompts" that will jumpstart certain types of tasks:

-Letter (Write a letter)
-Code (Write code)
-Movie (Write a script)
-Story (Write a story)
-Poem (Write a poem)
-Summary (Write a summary)
-Tweet (Write a tweet)
-Blog post (Write a blog post)
-Quiz (Write a quiz)
-Joke (Write a joke)

App pick of the week: DALL-E
This Week on RunAs: Strengthening Security with Jess Dodson
Brown liquor pick of the week: Kvint Divin

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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WORLD WAR AI

OpenAI announces ChatGPT Plus
Google responds to ChatGPT with Bard
Microsoft announces AI-powered Bing and Edge.
Google hosted its own AI event and it announced multi-search, Maps improvements, and Translate improvements, and discussed how AI can make life better
Semi-related: Paul was let into the Notion AI beta

Windows

Paul has some thoughts about Windows 12 and what an AI-based Windows could look like
Ads are coming to the Microsoft Store. FINALLY
New Insider build for the Beta channel. No new features, but a new policy that lets IT admins customize how Search looks on the Windows 11 Taskbar
Microsoft is integrating Adobe Acrobat PDF with Microsoft Edge, but only on Windows 10 and 11 for now

Microsoft 365

Native Apple Silicon version of Skype is 3X faster. What took so long?

Hardware

Microsoft says it's still committed to HoloLens 2 and MR, tries not to laugh
Samsung is working on XR hardware with Qualcomm and Google.

Dev

Microsoft updates its .NET language strategy. Nothing has changed, other than they way they document their .NET language strategy

More Big Tech Earnings

Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta earnings
Zoom just showed us the way to handle layoffs

Xbox

Sony is fighting Microsoft subpoena in AB case. It's fighting the FTC subpoena, too
UK CMA says AB deal is "anti-competitive" but would accept some concessions
New Game Pass titles announced for the middle of February
Sony says the PS5 is immune to the downturn
Nintendo says Switch is not immune to the downturn, but it's still dominating

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Protect your privacy in Windows 11
App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge Dev
Brown Liquor of the week: Mackmyra

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Halo engine switch, Intel Q4 2022 revenues, Ground News

Windows 11

Skipping the Windows 11 upgrade? Microsoft will force-feed it to you soon
Related: Microsoft is using dark patterns to get people to upgrade to 11
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25290 heads to Dev channel with new Spotify and Phone Link widgets, new Start menu "exploration"
Screen recording in Snipping Tool rolls out to users in Windows Insider Beta channel

More earnings

Since Microsoft's mixed earnings last week, a few more relevant firms have checked in on Q4 2022
Intel earnings fall off a cliff: Cutting pay 5% rather than layoffs, VPs 10%, leadership 15%, CEO 25%
AMD - not bad thanks to datacenter, but this quarter will be down 10 percent
And it's not just the PC: IDC says smartphone sales declined 18.3 percent in Q4

Dev

A quick look at .NET MAUI desktop app capabilities
.NET MAUI gets a cross-platform media player control
GitHub says it has over 100 million developers on the service. From what Google indicates, there are only ~27 million developers in the world

Xbox

After layoffs at 343, a smaller team will start over with Unreal Engine
Why not just disband the whole disaster and let Halo fly free?
Microsoft announces Xbox Games with Gold for February... and new Game Pass titles for first half of February
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition comes to Xbox consoles
Xbox Series X|S get a price hike in Japan
Did Sony really halve PS VR2 production?
VR is not having a good time right now... probably this whole year.
Rumor: Microsoft will skip E3 along with Nintendo and Sony

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Complete your password manager switch
Plus: Quick update on the new book
App pick of the week: https://ground.news/
Brown alcohol pick of the week: Crown Royal

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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F23Q2 analysis, the subscription future, Microsoft 365 Insider program

Microsoft announced a net income of $16.4 billion on revenues of $52.7 billion for the quarter ending December 31. Net income decreased by 12 percent year-over-year (YOY) in the time period while revenue was up just 2 percent. It was a mixed quarter, at best, and below expectations.
Intelligent Cloud delivered $21.5 billion in revenues in the quarter, up 18 percent YOY.
Productivity and Business Processes was Microsoft's second-biggest business in the quarter, with $17 billion in revenues, up 7 percent.
More Personal Computing was again the laggard with $14.2 billion in revenues, down an astonishing 19 percent YOY.
The cloud saved the quarter
Windows tanked
Windows won't get better any time soon
Surface tanked even worse than Windows
Surface also won't get better any time soon thanks to "execution challenges"
Xbox tanked, but was at least inline with expectations
Teams has over 280 million users
Microsoft 365 to evolve into an AI-first platform
Office did OK overall, big shift away from one-off product sales to subscriptions

Windows

It's time to suck it up: the future of Windows is all advertising and subscriptions
Microsoft is working on yet another File Explorer redesign
Microsoft also starts testing tabs in Notepad
Microsoft is also testing a side-by-side view for web pages in Edge
And now a new Insider build for the Dev channel with a new (Facebook) Messenger widget
Microsoft kills Altspace VR as part of an AR/MR house-cleaning move
Microsoft may be walking away from AR/MR, but Apple's coming headset will allegedly switch between the two modes

Microsoft 365

Office Insider Program renamed to Microsoft 365 Insider Program
This rebranding crusade is a mistake and is reminiscent of the .NET branding mistake

Antitrust

EU to announce antitrust case against Microsoft Teams
DOJ announces antitrust case against Google for advertising and Google responds
Google lays off 12,000. Nothing from Apple?

Dev

Github now has over 100 million developers
Google announces what's next for Flutter
An examination of .NET MAUI reveals what it's good for on the Windows desktop

Xbox

N64 classic GoldenEye is coming to Xbox, Game Pass January 27
Sony pushes forward with VR2 plans

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Paul is working on a new book and needs your help
Tip of the week #2: Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10 downloads
Brown alcohol pick of the week: Nomad Outland Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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AI for the consumer client side, HoloLens request rejected, Azure DevOps

Layoffs

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella informs employees of 10,000 layoffs
Is Surface on the cutting block?
Amazon to layoff 18,000

Welcome to the AI era

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirms Microsoft's AI moves: Azure Open AI service, ChatGPT APIs, and infusing AI across the entire Microsoft stack
This is a much bigger deal than Microsoft's pivot to the cloud 20 years ago because it infuses everything that it does. When Wall Street latched onto Azure and cloud computing and made Microsoft the second biggest company in the world, the software giant effectively ignored personal computing because no one wanted to hear about legacy. That era is over.

Windows 11

New Insider Preview build for the Dev channel adds a developer feature, OneDrive storage quote display
New Insider Preview build comes to the ... Release Preview channel? This one is interesting.
Now we know the full story of the bloodbath that was PC sales in Q4 2022: a 28.3 percent drop in unit sales YOY. Yikes
Intel ships its first 6 GHz CPU, reminding us again that this—and not efficiency—is what Intel is good at
12 years after Windows 8 and Surface, Apple is adding touchscreens to the Mac.

Devices

US Congress nixes Army purchase of more HoloLens units

Xbox

Google and NVIDIA voice concerns about Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
EU likely to issue warning on Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Public support for the acquisition is strong. Even about PlayStation users!
Google turns the Stadia controller into a normal Bluetooth controller

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: The OneDrive storage upgrades you didn't know about
App pick of the week: MSEdgeRedirect
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure DevOps
Whisky pick of the week: Glenlivet Nadurra

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Fungible, rounded corners, Xbox Oreos, the AI wave

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019
Surface Pro X, also from 2019, featured the first-ever NPU in a Surface product
Eye contact announced in 2020 - requires NPU
Windows Studio Effects announced at hybrid work event in April 2021 - adds Voice clarity, Voice focus, Automatic framing, Portrait blur, and Background blur to Eye contact
Windows Dev Kit 2023 (Volterra) arrives in late 2022 with NPU
Did Microsoft just soft announce Windows 12? Panos Panay awkwardly joins Lisa Su at AMD announcement at CES. Still, this is potentially huge
Let's not forget VALL-E
Now, Microsoft is reportedly seeking to expand its OpenAI partnership with $10 billion investment, could lead to 49 percent ownership stake

Windows 7 + Windows 8.1 are on a farm chasing rabbits

Microsoft issues the final Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 7 and 8.1. They're dead, Jim. And ... oddly, Microsoft added Secure Boot to Windows 7 at the last second
Windows 7 was beloved, Windows 8 was reviled, both were horribly misunderstood

More Windows

First Windows Insider builds of 2023 reveal more UI tinkering
Android 13 comes to WSA in the Insider Program
Preliminary results (from IDC) confirm what we knew about the PC industry in 2022

Surface + devices

After claiming that Surface Duo remained important, rumors of major Surface Duo developments, um, surface - Microsoft to move to folding display design, could add standalone phone
And let's not forget this little patent from 2017!
Microsoft launches shared device mode for frontline workers

Microsoft

Microsoft announces Microsoft 365 Basic - what used to be called OneDrive 100 GB Standalone plan
Microsoft acquires Fungible for $190 million (estimated)
There's a Microsoft education event coming in February

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Install Windows Subsystem for Android correctly
App pick of the week: BitWarden
Enterprise pick of the week: Local Administrator Password Solution V2
Bourbon pick of the week: Angel's Envy

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Notepad tabs, Stack Overflow 2022 developer survey, LastPass alternatives

Windows

Microsoft's next Moment for Windows 11 is on the way
Microsoft is testing tabs in Notepad internally
This is what we're reduced to with the Windows 11 team, a 25-year old debate about MDI and SDI
Google is changing the Chrome release schedule again... no word from the Edge team

Services

Bing is reportedly going to get a ChatGPT upgrade to take on Google Search

CES

Intel announces 13th Gen Core chipsets for mobile
New PCs from Acer, HP, etc.
Matter Devices
Masonite Smart Door
Shiftall Mutalk
Surface Laptop 2 is no longer supported. It's four years old

Dev

Stack Overflow releases its 2022 survey. Lots of interesting data in there

Xbox

Ahead of Tuesday's pre-trial hearing, Microsoft responds to FTC complaint... and everyone focuses on the exact wrong thing, again
Microsoft's strategy for the FTC: Be the nice guy
Alone in Big Tech, Microsoft embraces unions
Here are the Games with Gold for January
Epic Games settles with FTC, will pay $520 million fine

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Dump LastPass?
App pick of the week: Xbox Live Gold
Bourbon pick of the week: Fable & Folly by Orphan Barrel

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Looking back on the year in Microsoft, from Paul's rants to Mary Jo's beer! The world of Windows has had one wild 2022!

Activision Blizzard acquisition begins
Autocorrect/autocomplete baffles Mary Jo!
Experimenting with Ads in File Explorer!? Uh oh!
Farewell to Clippy/Gottfried
DuckDuckGo's controversial Microsoft problem
Interrupted by a crisis in Leo's office!
Zac Bowden & Rich Woods discuss the new Windows update schedule
Live widget notifications are annoying!
Outlook? More like Look-Out... for advertisements
Multiple Apple integrations announced
Mary Jo Foley's final beer pick of the week: Sororicide
Revolver's 2022 mix is an incredible musical achievement

Host: Leo Laporte

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Microsoft in 2022: the good, the bad, the meh

Activision Blizzard. It's the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, Brazil OKed the deal. COME ON
Microsoft Teams turned 5. Is it unstoppable? (Stack is asking for a friend)
Games in Teams?
Just one feature update per year? Just kidding! Microsoft released Windows 10 version 22H2 in October. Since then, we've seen the unexpected, largely (or completely) untested rollout of three new features: Search "pill," Task Manager access from the Taskbar, and now a new OneDrive. Each has inconsistently rolled out to different PCs. One has a regression. One was actually tested with the Insider Program. And one wasn't tested at all.
Don't like Windows 11? Please, let the designers explain it
One Outlook (Project Monarch) arrives, sort of, changes nothing
Loop doesn't arrive, changes nothing
.NET MAUI lands. Is it the future? Or just "a" future?
Project Voltera looks cool, but Arm is still down the road
DuckDuckGo colluded with Microsoft, then didn't
Alex Kipman was just trying to be like Bill Gates!
GitHub CoPilot: friend or foe?
PC sales fell off a cliff. That cliff is about to get higher. Deeper. Whatever
Joe B leaves. Like Mad Men, he might have stuck around too long
The year the Insider Program broke - there is no way out of Dev, Beta, or WOA builds

Windows 11

Microsoft brings Android 13 to WSA in preview

Hardware

Microsoft touts HoloLens 2 "momentum," says that an HL3 will need to be "meaningful"
Lenovo is pre-gaming CES with major PC announcements. Isn't this how E3 started to fall apart?
Google Android/Nest and Amazon both go live with early Matter implementations.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft will let all EU cloud customers store their data locally.
Microsoft teams with AWS, Meta, and TomTom to take on Google Maps
Microsoft, Teams has failed with consumers. Just bring back Skype already
In its second announcement all year, Skype adds real-time translation that imitates your voice
Amazon settles EU antitrust case. Did it learn anything from Microsoft?

Xbox

Microsoft launches a massive sale on Xbox games
Amazon expands in gaming, will publish next Tomb Raider title
John Carmack leaves Meta, has a lot to say. Little of it good
Ubisoft is giving Stadia customers the PC versions of the games they bought

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Make Mastodon less sleepy
Apps of the year: Brave, Notion, ImageGlass, Modern Warfare II
Term of the Week: Overwhelm Freeze

Holiday cocktail pick of the season: Winter Warmer

Mix equal parts apple whiskey and cranberry juice with a few good shakes of ginger bitters.
Warm gently on the stovetop or in the microwave--to a little above room temperature, not hot like tea or coffee.
Serve with a cinnamon stick or dried apple slice.
You can make a batch for a party and keep it warm on the stove or in a crock-pot, just keep in on low or the alcohol will evaporate.

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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FTC sues to block Activision Blizzard acquisition

FTC goes after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard
The FTC's action against Microsoft is ridiculous given the real-world abuses by Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta
Did the FTC lie about Microsoft? And what does this say about its case?
Spencer: Sony wants to make PlayStation bigger by making Xbox smaller
Microsoft offered to bring Call of Duty to PlayStation Plus
Microsoft offered the FTC a legally-binding consent decree to address their needs.

12th-Gen Intel update

There are problems with 12th-Gen Intel Core-based PCs from all major PC makers using USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, and Thunderbolt 4 docks.
It appears that Dell has released a flurry of firmware updates that may have fixed the issue. This hints at how the issue will be fixed: by PC makers.

Windows 11

Dev channel: latest build has more Search experiment, final Dev channel build of 2022
Dev channel: New build last week removed sign-in requirement for Widgets
Dev channel: everyone is getting an update Snipping Tool with screen recording and an updated Media Player with who cares
Stable: Microsoft quietly updated OneDrive, never tested it with the public first
Microsoft Edge 110 will drop support for Windows 7/8.1 in January 2023

Microsoft 365

OneNote for Windows is getting vertical tabs because that's what's wrong with OneNote
Microsoft Authenticator drops support for Apple Watch. The reason is... curious

Microsoft

Microsoft buys 4 percent of the London Stock Market

Surface

Surface Duo 2 December Update addresses calling issues. Remember, it's not a phone

Xbox

Riot games come to Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft gives Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers 3 months of Calm
It's been a good year for the Xbox app on Windows. Sure, but what about accessing your console screenshots and recorded clips?

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Enable text suggestions in Windows 11
App pick of the week: Typora
Apple pick of the week #2: Firefox
Word of the week: Contronym

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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There have been major moves in the Activision Blizzard drama this week

Brad Smith publicly lays out Microsoft's argument for the acquisition
Smith compares Sony to Blockbuster
He complains about Apple and Google app stores, but this deal won't help
He confirms that Microsoft offer Sony a 10-year Call of Duty contract
Microsoft comes to 10-year Call of Duty agreement with Nintendo, Steam... and then heads to Washington D.C. to explain to the FTC how Sony never even responded to this offer
Conclusions? Everyone is obsessed with Call of Duty but this is more about mobile than it is about COD. And Microsoft is remaining true to its vision for making games available wherever the gamers are. They did this with Minecraft, Flight Simulator, and more. And they will do this with AB's titles

Windows 11

Beta channel: Builds 22623.1028 and 22621.1028 finally address long-standing game performance issues in Windows 11. Right, they supposedly fixed this in stable already.
Microsoft is spamming Windows 10 users with ads for Windows 11... in the product, of course. Because slippery slope. There's even an ad in the OOBE no
Microsoft Edge version 108 is here with no new features for end users

Microsoft 365

Microsoft announces a free, Discord-like feature for Teams, starting on mobile. It's called Communities

Xbox

Microsoft announces that new AAA first-party games will be $70 starting next year
Microsoft Flight Simulator hits a big milestone
Here are the first Game Pass titles for December
Amazon Luna customers can now stream PC-based Ubisoft games for free

Tips and picks

Thurrott's Top Podcasts of the Year
Thurrott's Top Audiobooks of the Year
Thurrott's Top Music of the Year

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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New Microsoft 365 additions, Reset this PC, Revolver: Special Edition

Windows 11

A quick look at "moments" and what it means for the future of Windows. The October/November update was a moment. There will be big moments and little moments. Also, moments is a terrible name for this.
Microsoft issues its last Preview Update for Windows 10/11 of 2022
Windows Insider: New Dev channel build adds VPN status, search design tests

Microsoft 365

Games for Work in Teams
Schedule send in Teams
Sign language in Teams - update on the conversation from last week
Microsoft Create launched - Microsoft's template site for creators

Surface

Surface Duo might be getting its own Insider Program

Troubleshooting

New phone, message and phone call weirdness
Brother-in-law's laptop
Daughter's laptop
An update on 12th-Gen Intel suspicions.
Some Mastodon questions: US English? Notification sounds?

Revolver

We need to discuss the 2022 remix of The Beatles' Revolver album

Xbox

Microsoft ready to make concessions on Activision Blizzard
Games with Gold titles for December

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Don't be a afraid of Reset this PC
App pick of the week: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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Slippery slope

Ten years of advertising in Windows, and it's about to get even worse
Windows 11
Dev channel: Windows 11 build 25247
The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now generally available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and 11
Qualcomm reveals new 'Oryon' CPU to be used in Windows on ARM PCs

PC sales11

HP announces financial results, with PC business falling off a cliff and layoffs looming
AMD CEO comments on industry issues to CNBC

Windows 10

Windows 10 version 22H2 is ready for broad deployment

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Teams add sign language view for meetings
New One Outlook app adds multiple account support
Surprise! Microsoft brings SwiftKey for iPhone back from the dead, promises new features

Xbox

Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year deal on Call of Duty
Hyperkin is selling an Xbox 360 controller for the new Xbox consoles

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week #1: Get an Xbox Series S on sale and other Black Friday deals
Tip of the week #2: Download your Twitter archives

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition, Xbox Transparency Report, Task Manager ImprovementsWindows 11* Beta channel: Microsoft starts testing Task Manager improvements * Photos app integration with iCloud is now available * Windows App SDK 1.2 is here

Microsoft* Independent report faults Microsoft on employee discrimination and harassment, it will do better

Microsoft 365 * The Office mobile app is losing two sharing features as it transitions to Microsoft 365 * Games are coming to Microsoft Teams for some reason * NVIDIA partners with Microsoft on massive cloud AI computer * When it comes to Microsoft 365, there is the past (Office) and then this other stuff * Flashback: maybe let's look at that Google One VPN for Windows thing one last time

Hardware* Microsoft announces a Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition that, no, is not USA! USA! USA! * Qualcomm announces its next flagship smartphone chipset. Assume a PC chipset announcement is imminent

Xbox* Spencer: Seriously, Call of Duty is staying on PlayStation * Xbox releases its first-ever transparency report, will do so regularly going forward * Xbox Game Pass in the second half of November * A new Xbox Series S bundle adds digital perks * Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition adds helicopters, gliders, and more oh my * Xbox November Update is here * A few more thoughts about the CliffyB book * IT'S HERE! CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE II SEASON 01!!!

Tips & Picks* Tip of the week: Twitter is dead, long live Mastodon * App pick of the week: Descript * App pick of the week #2: DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection for Android

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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"Hey, Github!" voice coding, KB5019980 update, Control FreakWindows 11 Why Windows 11 usage is down so low and what Microsoft could do to fix that * Microsoft ships the "November update for Windows 11 22H2 * A different Search button on the Taskbar * New Beta channel build adds three new features

Microsoft 365* Zoom launches Mail and Calendar beta to take on Google Workspaces and M365 * Microsoft moves to kill custom domains in Outlook.com ... again * Microsoft brings certificate-based authentication for AAD to mobile * Google One VPN arrives on Windows and Mac

Still more earnings* Lenovo reports first drop in revenues in 2.5 years * Qualcomm misses expectations too ... and promises that 2024 will be the year for WOA

Dev* Microsoft issues .NET 7 * GitHub announces new features for devs and the enterprise

Xbox* Winter has come for Halo Infinite * EU to take a longer look a Activision Blizzard acquisition * Microsoft may make your Xbox more efficient * Nintendo lowers Switch sales forecast, but it's still doing great * Steam comes to more Chromebooks in beta * Netflix is working on a Gears of War movie and animated TV series

Tips & Picks* Tip of the week: A new industry book to read * App pick of the week: Keepa

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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New Dev & Beta builds, Phone Link update, Joe Belfiore, Modern Warfare II

Windows 11

New Dev build today: Build 25236 feature a minor change to the Windows 11 search experience and a Store UX update
Dev Build 25231 adds the tablet-optimized taskbar for all Insiders, and the ability to rearrange icons in the (new) System tray
Beta Build 22623.875 also adds the tablet-optimized taskbar for all Insiders (who are getting new features), plus Taskbar-based access to Task Manager
Big Phone Link app update for owners of select Samsung Galaxy devices lets them instantly access their phone's hotspot from Quick settings on their PC. (Requires a Samsung device with One UI 4.1.1+ and a PC with Windows 11 build 22621 or higher)

Microsoft 365

Here's what Microsoft added to Teams in October. Some of the biggest updates: Assign seats in Together mode, shared content in a separate window, Live Translated Captions (Teams Premium), some new certified hardware, and suggested replies in group chats
Edge hits 107 but doesn't look a day over 95 - Let's talk about Edge
The new unified OneNote app is in the Microsoft Store...sort of

Microsoft

Joe B is retiring - it's not clear what he was doing for the past three years, but we go way back and he's been around since Windows 95

More Earnings

Intel continues to struggle
Apple comes on strong, but Mac & iPad were low points
Samsung's smartphone business grew
Amazon kills it, but may be lucky to break even in holiday quarter

Xbox

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is here. Some thoughts.
Xbox loses money on each console
Spencer: Seriously, we are not taking COD off of PlayStation. Think Minecraft
Spencer takes on Meta's metaverse and once again reveals himself to be the single greatest leader in Big Tech
Xbox price increases? Probably, but not in 2022
Microsoft reveals the first Xbox Game Pass titles for November, with a nice surprise
Games with Gold, meanwhile, is looking a bit sad
Twitch partners with Xbox for free PC Game Pass subscriptions when you buy Twitch subscriptions
Sony reports decent earnings, but PlayStation is stumbling
PS VR2 coming Feb 22 for $550
Google's Play Games on PC comes to US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: It's finally here! The Windows 11 Field Guide eBook
Tip of the week #2: Using Edge? You need to configure it correctly
Tip of the week #3: The big asterisk on the Windows Dev Kit 202

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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Q1 FY23 Earnings, Q2 pessimism, Sinofsky reflects on Windows 8

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

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Windows 11

Microsoft rolls out optional October update for Windows 11 22H2, adding tabbed File Explorer
New to the Dev channel: Some stack orchestrator and other minor updates
New to the Beta channel: System tray updates
Microsoft showed off a new Windows 11 UI with a floating taskbar at Ignite
Paul is (temporarily) using Microsoft Edge again and has some thoughts
Paul's review of the Snapdragon-based ThinkPad X13s

Windows 10

Windows 10 22H2 is here

Microsoft 365 and cloud

Is Microsoft 365 taking over the Office brand? Not really
Microsoft 365 Apps are coming to Windows Server 2022 after all
Mary Jo interviews Microsoft Cloud and AI chief Scott Guthrie
Dark Mode finally comes to Word for the web

Microsoft

Microsoft lays off almost 1000 employees
Q2 FY23 earnings are happening next Tuesday, Oct. 25

Xbox

A Plague Tale: Requiem, Persona 5 Royal come to Game Pass in October
Xbox October Update is out now

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Customize an Elite Series 2 Controller on Xbox Design Labs
App pick of the week: PC Game Pass
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows 365 app is now in public preview
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Intune - rebranding and new add-ons, plans coming
Beer pick of the week: Fall | Maine Beer Company

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Apple integrations, Surface Laptop 5, Microsoft Designer

Microsoft Ignite 2022

Loop components news!
Teams Premium Add-on, Mesh avatars in preview, more new features
New/rebranded Microsoft 365 app for Windows, mobile devices, and the web
Microsoft Places: A new app for coordinating hybrid work
Microsoft Edge is getting a workspaces feature
Dev Box in preview
New Outlook features for hybrid work
Microsoft Editor gets some AI updates

Surface Event

Surface Laptop 5, Surface Pro 9, Surface Studio 2+ announced - all of it leaked already.
Oddly, the new peripherals are more interesting. OK, not oddly...
What exactly is Microsoft trying to accomplish with Surface?
Microsoft: iCloud Photos, Apple TV and Apple Music are coming to Windows 11
Microsoft Designer steals the show (and will be up next on "Killed by Microsoft")

Windows 11

Let's talk 22H2, October update, and new features — there is some confusion
New Dev build adds support for third-party widgets

More Microsoft

Microsoft partners with Meta on the Metaverse ... productivity and games

Xbox

Brazil OK's Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition
Enthusiasts spy device on Phil Spencer's shelf, it's just an old prototype
You can launch Xbox Cloud Gaming titles from Bing search results for some reason

Tips and picks

Microsoft has a tip: disable security features to improve gaming on Windows 11!
App pick of the week: Oracle VirtualBox 7.0
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft Syntex
Codename pick of the week: Haven
Beer pick of the week: Southern Tier Pumking

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

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Windows 11 2022 Update issues, Industry Clouds, Stadia's best feature

Windows 11 22H2 Deployment Drama

Microsoft says that it is speeding up the delivery of 22H2
But why can't you get 22H2 yet? One reason: printers
One year ago today: Windows 11 started rolling out to mainstream users
Task Manager is coming back to the Taskbar!
October update features head to Release Preview channel
Microsoft investigating slow copy speeds in 22H2

Microsoft 365/cloud

Microsoft pushes industry specific clouds
Microsoft Edge 106 is now available

Xbox

EU to decide on Activision Blizzard acquisition by November 8
Google kills Stadia, and what Xbox can learn
Flight Simulator flies to Canada
A Plague Tale, more come to Xbox Game Pass
Only TWO games in Games for Gold this month
Halo rumored to adopt a new rendering engine
Microsoft is looking at letting users disable Quick Resume on console

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Ignite session catalog is now live
App pick of the week: HDR Calibration
Enterprise pick of the week Defender for Individuals gets Identity theft monitoring
Enterprise pick 2: From the M365 Admin dashboard
Throwback pick of the week: We miss you, Steve!
Beer pick of the week: Other Half Anchovy Testarossa

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows

A quick update on Windows 11 22H2 update availability.
Microsoft begins testing the new Photos app that will come with the October update.
Edge team has a plan to make PWA more native ... and on Linux and Mac, too!
Can Intel crack the code on Windows/iPhone interop? Dell did, but that app has been killed.
Bye-bye, SwiftKey for iOS
Intel announces 13th-Gen Core desktop chipsets. Guess what? more cores!

Microsoft 365

The new unified Outlook app for Windows (project Monarch) is going out to more testers, getting some missing features.
Study results show that Teams is an OS/platform and needs app store-like protections.
Microsoft expands Viva.

Surface

Surface Studio 3 shows up at FCC

Xbox

Nadella "very confident" Activision/Blizzard deal will be OKd by regulators. As he should be.
Logitech announces an Xbox Cloud Gaming handheld
Microsoft may let Xbox users mute startup sounds
E3 is coming back next for some reason
Microsoft announces a new camo wireless controller with charging dock

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 Field Guide update
App pick of the week: WindowBlinds 11 open beta
Enterprise pick of the week: SharePoint Server Subscription Edition moves to a twice-yearly update schedule
Codename pick of the week: Surface codename-palooza
Beer pick of the week: Ayinger Celebrator

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 11 version 22H2 Arrives!

Repeat after me: you use the Windows 11 2022 Update to upgrade to Windows 11 version 2022. Got it? Good. Because Microsoft does not.
Windows 11 upgrade remains free, the hardware requirements are unchanged.
Seekers with no blocking holds can use Windows Update or the Installation Assistant.
Build number is 22621.521. Except when it isn't. (There are at least three, including .382 and .105)
Paul has tried to upgrade several PCs. You'll never believe what happened next.
Some features are coming in an October update, including tabs for File Explorer, updates to Photos app, new Taskbar overflow experience, and improved Nearby Share.
Managed businesses will not get post-22H2 interim updates ... until 22H3. With one hilarious caveat.
New business features are mostly security-related. But some of the best new features are for consumers too.
New gaming features in Windows 11 22H2.
New accessibility features.
A theory about how Microsoft's A-B testing in the Beta channel previewed how 22H2 builds will work going forward, split between Home/Pro (features on) and Ent/Edu (features off).
Plus: New Insider Preview builds today for some reason.
New Photos app is now rolling out to Insiders.

What about Windows 10 version 22H2?

It's arriving in October
No idea on new features, if any

Hardware

The Fall Surface launch date is official: October 12
Intel to rebrand Pentium, Celeron. How the mighty have fallen

More Microsoft

Microsoft Teams has a major new vulnerability. Microsoft: "Eh"
Power Platform just got some interesting new features, all in the name of "Collaboration Apps"
Microsoft Learn subsumes Docs, just like it did Channel 9. Hopefully not just like.
Canva is creating a Docs web app, will take on Notion, Microsoft 365
The merged version of OneNote is coming in October

Xbox

Xbox September Update is here
Logitech G Cloud is a handheld gaming machine with Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft quietly changed how DRM works on Xbox.
Here are the rest of September's Xbox Game Pass titles
Hacker breaks into Rockstar, leaks lots of GTA VI footage
Xbox app for Windows updated with HowLongToBeat integration and better performance

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enable Smart App Control
App pick of the week: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Open Beta
Enterprise pick of the week: Power Up
Developer pick of the week: Microsoft CTO of Azure Mark Russinovich is all in on Rust
Beer Pick of the week: Firestone Walker Maple Parabola

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11

Last week, Build 25197 came to the Dev channel and brings back the tablet-optimized Taskbar
This week, we got build 25201 with an expanded widgets view that's almost full-screen and ISOs.
Separately, Dev channel Insiders got two updates: the Calculator app is now ARM64 native, and the Media Player app got a new shortcut so you can edit the current video in Clipchamp.
Builds 22621.598 and 22622.598 headed to the Beta channel earlier this week, removing the ability to uninstall apps with dependencies.

Surface

Google kills Pixelbook as part of a cost-cutting measure. Should Microsoft kill Surface?
Consider: Google needed to establish Chromebook as a viable laptop alternative. Microsoft did not.

Microsoft Ignite

You can now register for Microsoft Ignite, which is happening October 12-14.

Dev

You can now install .NET runtimes and SDKs using the Windows Package Manager

Xbox

The head of 343 Industries abruptly steps down. Coincidence?
Sony chief: Microsoft lied about Activision Blizzard and Call of Duty
Microsoft is experimenting with the Xbox Dashboard
Discord voice chat is now available on Xbox consoles
Goldeneye 007, the original console first-person shooter, is coming to Xbox Game Pass

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Remix your Teams ringtone
App pick of the week: Voxel Doom
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure Space: The family is expanding
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: PatchTuesday.com
Beer pick of the week: Grimm Festooning

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Mica Alt, USB4 Version 2.0, Teams Rooms Pro, Halo Infinite Co-op

Windows 11

Windows 11 22H2 inches towards release with SDK, WDK/EWDK releases
Windows 11 to get new visual effect
Xbox subscription into coming to Settings in Windows 11

PCs/hardware

PC sales will fall in 2022 and 2023 now
AMD announces new naming convention for PC mobile chips
Lenovo announces 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold
Here comes USB4 Version 2.0
Army to get its first HoloLens delivery

Microsoft 365

Microsoft splits Teams Rooms into free/paid tiers
Microsoft is killing its Scheduler meeting coordination service

Xbox

UK CDMA complains about Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft makes concessions
Microsoft announces Elite Controller Core ... which explains the white version rumors
Good news/bad news for Halo Infinite
Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family is real. Just not here.
Here are the first Game Pass titles for September
Xbox party chat gets AI-based noise reduction

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Customize your Windows 11 privacy settings
App pick of the week: PowerToys 0.62
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft Stream mobile app gets a do-over
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Microsoft eCDN
Beer pick of the week: Apple2 (squared)

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows

Jensen Harris has come out against the Windows 11 Start menu.
AMD launches Ryzen 7000 series desktop CPUs

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Outlook is picking up Microsoft To-Do integration.
Microsoft to drop its Kaizala group-messaging service in 2023.

Cloud

Microsoft addresses its EU-based cloud licensing issues...No, it doesn't.
Microsoft brings Arm-powered VMs to Azure - Ubuntu couldn't be happier, but it's not just Ubuntu
It's been a tough couple of days for folks running Ubuntu VMs on Azure. (Blame DNS. Always)
Semi-related (thanks to AKS): Microsoft continues to plod along in trying to move M365 to Azure

Surface

Microsoft might consolidate Surface Pro/Pro X brands

Xbox

No price hike for Xbox
September Games with Gold includes Portal 2!
Humble Games titles are coming to Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft tests a unified gaming library on Xbox
White Elite Controller rumors continue
First it was PCs, but now Sony is going after mobile gaming too

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: ImageGlass
App pick of the week #2: NextDNS
Tip of the week: First, do what you can to protect yourself from trackers
Enterprise pick of the week: SelfX
Codename pick of the week: CBL-Mariner
Beer pick of the week: Abomination Brewing Drippy Popsicle

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows 11 2022 Update, Windows 95's 27th birthday, Edge Sidebar

Windows 11

It looks like Microsoft will call the 22H2 update the "Windows 11 2022 Update."
Today is the 27th anniversary of the launch of Win 95.
New Win 11 test builds for Dev and Beta channels. Mostly fixes.
New test build in the Release Preview channel for those on Win 11 22H2. Some minor feature updates.
Edge gets a sidebar. For some reason.

Microsoft 365

Outlook Mobile is now displaying even more ads. And Outlook.com (and other Outlooks) are making ads look like unread emails!
The pilot of ads in Search in the Microsoft Store begins!
The new unified Outlook app (Project Monarch) now supports personal accounts (for Office Insiders in the beta channel).
Microsoft is planning to add a boatload (official term) of features to Whiteboard.

IoT

Google is exiting the IoT market. But Microsoft isn't. Why?

Xbox

Microsoft brings more Wolfenstein and Quake titles to PC Game Pass.
GeForce NOW can stream 1440p/120 fps in Chrome and Edge.
Sony finally takes on the Xbox Elite controller.
Alexa Game Control is coming to Xbox, PC games soon. Why?

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Catch the MAUI .NET Conf on replay
App pick of the week: Death Stranding for PC Game Pass
Enterprise pick of the week: ACS for Teams hits GA
Codename pick of the week: O'Hare
Beer pick of the week: Japas Cervejaria Kasato Maru

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Live animated widget notifications, Pixel 6a, Dev Box Preview

Windows 11

Windows 11 version 22H2 arrives in September
Windows 11 is getting widget notifications
Camera app goes native on Arm, gets privacy shutter support
Microsoft shuts down Windows Insider enterprise test bed

Microsoft 365

Outlook for Windows moves the cheese. Predictably, no one is happy
About those ads in Outlook Mobile...

Dev

Microsoft makes Dev Box available in preview
Microsoft, Canonical bring native .NET to Ubuntu Linux
Microsoft launches a Markdown language server

Mobile

Android 13 arrives a month early. Any other surprises?
Paul reviews the Pixel 6a - It's terrific.

Xbox

Microsoft only sold ~50 million Xbox Ones. Thanks, Kinect!
Here is the second round of Game Pass titles for August
Sony complains about Microsoft AB acquisition - but there's a simple fix for Sony's Microsoft/COD concerns
Sony to make an even bigger push on PC gaming
Google lets you launch cloud-streaming games from search results

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Pre-order Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
App pick of the week: Brave for iOS
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft still won't say what's happening with S4BS
Codename pick of the week: LaTTe: Language Trajectory Transformer
Beer pick of the week: Transmitter Brewing W4 Dry Hopped Gose

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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MLX Team layoffs, Clipchamp Essentials plan, OneDrive turns 15

Microsoft lays off its Modern Life Experiences teams, has perhaps halted almost all hiring.

Windows

New build (22621.382) for the Windows 11 Insider Preview Release Preview channel - 22H2 is still being refined. But there's no blog post and the support page for this release 404s.
New builds for Dev and Beta channels, and Devs get an ISO
Windows Package Manager 1.3 arrives with support for portable apps
Clipchamp has a single paid tier now but it's still too much.
Microsoft is making its emoji library available on GitHub and Figma

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Edge 104 arrives
DuckDuckGo to block Microsoft trackers after embarrassment
OneDrive turns 15 and Microsoft is redesigning its home page

.NET/dev

Visual Studio 2022 17.3 arrives with MAUI support, plus several .NET milestone releases

Xbox

Microsoft is FINALLY testing an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Family plan
Xbox Series S gets a memory boost
Microsoft is returning to Gamescom for some reason
A white Elite controller leaks and it is horrible
Unity picks Azure for its cloud developer tools
Nintendo has sold over 111 million Switch consoles

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Upgrading/Upgraded to Windows 11? You need to look at this OneDrive setting
App pick of the week: Parallels Desktop 18 for Mac
Enterprise pick of the week: Revisiting the M365-Office connectivity warning
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Entra Verified ID now generally available
Beer pick of the week: Trillium Brewing Congress Street IPA

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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Intel down, AMD up, the Windows 10 22H2 mystery continues

Windows 10 22H2

Microsoft enters the final test phase for Windows 10 22H2 before rollout - but doesn't announce what the new features are
Microsoft said information about the "scoped features" will come later

Windows 11

Dev channel got a new build today with Game Pass widget
Beta Channel gets two new builds because of course it does
Windows Subsystem for Android to get gamepad support

Microsoft 365

Outlook Lite arrives for low-end Android devices
Uber emails are crashing Outlook
Teams for Apple silicon Macs is rolling out 'in the coming months'

More Earnings Learnings

Apple: All businesses but iPhone and Services were down, and Services growth was half that of the past year, and they lost subscribers
Amazon: Net loss because of Rivian investment, but AWS revenues jumped 33 percent YOY to $19.74 billion
Intel: Net loss of $454 million on revenues of $15.3 billion, a decline of 22 percent year-over-year. Why? PCs
AMD: Net income of $447 million on revenues of $6.6 billion in the quarter ending June 25, 2022
Microsoft added more than 40,000 employees in the last year and is now well over 200K employees

Xbox & Gaming

Activision Blizzard limps through the quarter, and Microsoft disses them to pass regulatory approval
Google is not killing Stadia. Yet
Amazon Luna heads to 2022 Samsung Smart TVs
PS5 sales plummet, but Sony finalizes Bungie acquisition
Nintendo misses on earnings, sales down 4.7 percent

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: Buy the PC you need, not the PC you might need
App pick of the week: VMWare Fusion 22H2 for Mac
Enterprise pick of the week: More Microsoft Defender products for defending all the things
Codename pick of the week: Oasis
Beer pick of the week: Deciduous Lollipop Forest

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Earnings Learnings 2022, Windows 11 22H2 review, Sound Schemes

Microsoft earnings

Microsoft reported that it earned a net income of $16.7 billion on revenues of $51.87 billion in the quarter ending June 30.
Microsoft discloses Teams usage numbers.
This was the first time MSFT has missed on earnings since 2016 - and it adjusted its guidance in June too.

Windows 11

Paul reviewed Windows 11 22H2 and found lots of little improvements... but also little in the way of addressing feedback.
Also, let's recap the new servicing and Windows 12 rumors.
Windows 10 22H2 is also coming with no new features.
Microsoft Edge adds disk caching compression with v102.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft now blocks external VBA macros by default.
Ignite is coming October 12-14. It's a hybrid event with a few in-person venues worldwide.

Dev

The next .NET Conf will focus on .NET MAUI
Power Platform now has over 7 million MAUs

Xbox

Microsoft speeds Xbox Series X|S boot time by 5 seconds.

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Get to Sound schemes as quickly as possible
App pick of the week: iA Writer
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows 11 onboarding and deployment kits
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Office 2016 and 2019 users: Mark your calendars
Beer Pick of the week: Hill Farmstead Charlie

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Let's talk Windows 12! Or Win 11 X?

Windows is moving to a new schedule, with major drops every three years and multiple smaller feature drops in between
The next "major" Windows client release is coming in 2024.
What happens to the promised once-yearly feature releases like Win 11 22H2? And Windows 10?
Will Microsoft end up supporting each Windows release going forward for three years?

Let's talk about the canceled Surface Duo.

A plastic Surface Duo 2 'lite'? Microsoft canceled it, but why (besides price) was this a thing at all?
Qualcomm Technology Summit coming November 15
What's happening with the rumored MS-Qualcomm exclusive deal, and what this will mean

Microsoft and Netflix

Microsoft wants to get more money and market share from ads.
One analyst says this paves the way for Microsoft to buy Netflix.

Inspire Partner Conference

Excel Live: Viva Engage: Not a Facebook rip-off as some thought.
Viva Engage: Not a Facebook rip-off as some thought.
Microsoft's unified digital contact center: Microsoft's Nuance acquisition is already paying off

Tips & Picks

App pick 1: Unigram - Telegram for Windows
App pick 2: Forza Horizon 5 Hotwheels
Enterprise: Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty
Codename: Project AirSim

Hosts: Mary Jo Foley and Mikah Sargent

Guests: Rich Woods and Zac Bowden

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Mid-Year Predictions, Dev Channel Build 25158, Search Highlights

Microsoft layoffs. Ahead of Q4 earnings on July 26
What will happen with Windows 10 and 11 for the rest of this year?
EdgeOS vs. ChromeOS?
Where is Fluid?? Where is Teams 2.0?

Windows

New Dev Channel build 25158 out today that adds notification badging with widgets
A closer look at the new Rufus 3.19 Windows 11 ISO capabilities
Patch Tuesday arrives. Gentlemen and ladies, start your updates
Windows Autopatch is now GA and (maybe) here to help
PC sales to fall in 2022 ... and for a LOT of reasons

Microsoft 365

Microsoft plays rope-a-dope with Office VBA macro blocking

Dev

Microsoft announces EOL date for .NET Core 3.1

Surface

Surface Duo 2 gets camera improvements in the July update

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Back-to-school sale
App pick of the week: PowerToys 0.60
Enterprise pick of the week: Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Wave 2 plans for 2022
Codename pick of the week: Salus
Beer pick of the week: A Deal With the Devil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Beta Channel split, Outlook Lite app, Rufus

Windows 11

Windows 11 is on over 20 percent of (consumer) PCs now
Over 20 percent of Steam gamers are on Windows 11 now
Windows Insider Beta Channel splits into 2, but this time there is a major (and positive) caveat
What is an "enablement package"? When did this start? What is its use on 22H2?
Microsoft's small improvements that no one seems to have noticed
Windows Subsystem for Android updated for Insiders in the United States

Microsoft 365

Microsoft is working on a Lite version of Outlook.
Microsoft wants people to join the Family Insider Program
Microsoft is trying to turn OneDrive into a social platform
Former Microsoft exec Javier Soltero is leaving Google after just 2.5 years
EU makes moves against Big Tech

Xbox

Microsoft announces the first Xbox Game Pass titles for July
Microsoft to drop Xbox 360 titles from Games with Gold in October.
Samsung Gaming Hub brings Xbox Cloud Gaming (and more) to the 2022 Samsung Smart TVs

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Join the Halo Infinite network campaign co-op beta
App pick of the week: Rufus (3.19 Beta or newer)
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure capacity limits are continuing. What can you do?
Enterprise pick 2 of the week: The Office 365 for IT Pros eBook (9th edition)
Beer pick of the week: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Du Kriek

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 8.1

Microsoft to start nagging Windows 8.1 users in July about January 2023 end-of-support date
The End of the Windows 8 Era? Hardly

Windows 11

Windows 11 Insider Build 25151 is Out With More Bug Fixes

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge Version 103 is Now Available
Microsoft turns on promised gaming features for its Edge browser
Microsoft Announces Big Updates for Edge Collections
Microsoft Brings Edge WebView2 to Windows 10
Mozilla Releases Firefox 102
Brave Reports Strong Growth in Search, Launches Goggles

Xbox

Microsoft Reveals July 2022 Games with Gold Lineup

Listener Q&A

Windows Hello face authentication | Microsoft Docs

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Set up Windows 11 22H2 with a local account
App pick of the week: Brave
Enterprise pick of the week: Get ready for Microsoft Inspire in July
Codename pick of the week: Monad
Beer pick of the week: Off Color Brewing Beer for Beaches

Hosts: Mary Jo Foley, Paul Thurrott, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows Defender, Microsoft Viva, GitHub Copilot

Windows

New Windows 11 Insider Build Brings OneDrive Information
Microsoft Gets Ready to Roll Out Search Highlights on Windows 11
Xiaomi Launches its First Windows on ARM 2-in-1 PC

Microsoft 365 & Cloud

Microsoft launches Defender for Individuals for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers
Microsoft's Viva Sales: A new companion app that works with many CRM systems (not only Microsoft's)
Microsoft to curtail some of its facial recognition capabilities in the name of 'Responsible AI'
From Nvidia to IKEA: Here's who's joining the Metaverse Standards Forum

Dev

GitHub Copilot, Microsoft's AI pair-programming service, is generally available
The Directions on Microsoft Briefing | Directions on Microsoft

Xbox

Xbox Cloud Gaming to Get Mouse and Keyboard Support on PC
Microsoft Warns About Supply Shortages for Xbox Controllers
Far Cry 5 is Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft's Xbox App on PC Adds a Performance Indicator

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Learn about the new features in Windows 11 22H2
App pick of the week: Reading apps
Enterprise pick 1 of the week: Microsoft's Secured Core comes to IoT devices
Enterprise pick 2 of the week: Don't be fooled: Patch Tuesday isn't going away
Beer pick of the week: Torch & Crown Rainbows Everywhere

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Changes to Windows 11 22H2, Microsoft's Gaming Announcements, Farewell IE11

Windows 11 File Explorer Tabs Are Now Available for Beta Channel Testers
Microsoft Finalizes Windows 11 Version 22H2

More Windows

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25136 | Windows Insider Blog
Windows 11 Insider Build 25140 is Here with More Bug Fixes
Hands-On with Visual Studio 2022 17.3 Preview 2 on Arm
June 15: It's the end of the Internet Explorer era
Saying Goodbye to Internet Explorer
Report: PC Sales to Fall Over 8 Percent in 2022

Microsoft & Gaming

Microsoft to allow Xbox Cloud Gaming users to bring their own games later this year
Microsoft Edge is Getting New Gaming Features
Xbox Design Lab Comes to More Markets with New Options
Xbox Game Pass Will Add Demos of Upcoming Games Next Year
Xbox Cloud Gaming Will Soon Let You Play the Games you Own
Xbox Cloud Gaming Comes to 2022 Samsung Smart TVs This Month
Microsoft Shows Over 30 Games Coming to Xbox in the Next 12 Months
This is Why Apple Blocks Xbox Cloud Gaming
Activision Announces Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Microsoft 365

Report: Microsoft Has Started Testing Casual Games in Teams
Microsoft is adding echo cancellation and anti-interruption features to Teams
Outlook Mobile is Getting an Algorithmic Newsfeed

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Save big on games
App pick of the week: Firefox
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows Admin Center comes to the Azure portal
Codename pick of the week: Gibraltar
Beer pick of the week: Wild East Brewing Alfresco Cucumber

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Alex Kipman leaves Microsoft, Windows 11 gets updates, Microsoft unions

Report: Toxicity Continues at Nadella's Microsoft
HoloLens chief Kipman is out. So what's next for Microsoft's metaverse strategy?
Microsoft is Leaving Russia
Microsoft Will Respect Unionization Efforts from its Employees

Windows 11

Microsoft begins rolling out Windows 11 22H2 to testers in the Release Preview channel
Microsoft Releases Windows 11 Insider Build 25131 and ARM64 Microsoft Store
Windows 11 Version 22H2 is Showing Up on Some Unsupported PCs

Microsoft 365

Microsoft: Next version of Exchange Server not until 2025
Apple Revamps the iPad Multitasking Experience with iPadOS 16

Dev

Microsoft Releases Windows App SDK 1.1

Xbox

Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition Launches on PC Today
E3 is Coming Back as a Physical and Digital Event Next Year
Announcing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - Xbox Wire

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Learn about the new features in Windows 11
Tip of the week: Add Windows 11 visual style to Microsoft Edge
Tip of the week: Transcribe any audio or video file with Word for Web
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows Customer Connection Program
Enterprise pick of the week: IE users — June 15 is the day
Beer pick of the week: Hudson Valley Demiurge sour IPA

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft Entra, Win11 version 22H2, Surface Laptop Go 2

Quick update on the Windows 11 version 22H2 rollout at Casa de Thurrott
Spotify releases a native ARM version of its client on Windows 10/11
PC maker earnings
New report suggests Microsoft's dirty tactics in Windows 11 are the reason for Edge usage gains
Microsoft announces Entra, a new set of business identity services

Microsoft 365

Microsoft drops three Microsoft 365-exclusive Excel features: Money, Wolfram Data Types, and partner exclusives
DuckDuckGo has a Microsoft problem. But I don't think it's as bad as many are making out

Surface

Surface Laptop Go 2 leaks and is now officially announced
Surface Laptop Studio finally gets a dynamic refresh rate feature

Xbox

Microsoft skips "Keystone" but is still working on a dongle
New Games for Gold for June
New Game Pass titles for the first half of June
June Xbox Update Makes Secret Achievements Visible
Sony is going big on the PC

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Camo
App pick of the week #2: Vivaldi 5.3
Enterprise pick of the week: WSL comes to Win Server 2022
Codename pick of the week: Zuma
Beer pick of the week: Brasserie Dieu du Ciel Rosee d'Hibiscus

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Build 2022 Updates!

'Project Volterra': Microsoft is building an Arm dev kit on the Snapdragon compute platform
Microsoft is making virtual developer workstations available in the cloud via Dev Box
Build 2022: Microsoft Opens Windows 11 Widgets to Third-party Developers
The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform: Bringing together databases, analytics and governance
Build 2022: Microsoft Announces Power Platform Advances
Microsoft Teams and Power Platform to get more collaboration, AI-assisted additions
Build 2022: .NET MAUI is Now Generally Available
Build 2022: Microsoft Highlights Windows 11 Microsoft Store Momentum
Microsoft: Here are the new features coming to OneNote on Windows

Windows 11

Microsoft Finalizes Windows 11 Version 22H2
New Windows 11 Build Heads to the Release Preview Channel
Microsoft Releases Windows 11 Insider Build 25126
Windows 11 Subsystem for Android Gets a Big Update
Quality, Quality, Quality (Premium)

Xbox

Xbox Outsold PS5 in Japan for the First Time in this Console Gen
Microsoft Launches "Simply Next Gen" Ad Campaign for Xbox Series S

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Get Windows 11 version 22H2 now
App pick of the week: YouTube
Enterprise pick of the week: Keep up with Microsoft Linux
Codename pick of the week: Black Rock
Beer pick of the week: Bell's Oberon Ale

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

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One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment

One Outlook

Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers
Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release)

Microsoft 365

Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store
Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge

Windows 11

Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs

Microsoft Corporate

Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation
Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs
Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe

Xbox

Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games
Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May
Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023
Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps
App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again
Vivaldi & Brave
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround\
Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault
Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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FIDO, Microsoft Build 2022, Power Pages

Microsoft starts testing 'Suggested Actions' in new Windows 11 test build
Microsoft Issues New Windows Insider Preview Build to Dev and Beta
Apple, Google, and Microsoft to Work Together on Passwordless Logins
Microsoft Releases Physical Copies of Windows 11
Windows 11 is Getting a "New" Sound Recorder App

Microsoft 365 & IT

Microsoft readies its latest 'industrial metaverse' pitch
Microsoft's new Outlook email client is live (at least for now)
Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release)
Microsoft to rechristen Power Apps portals as 'Power Pages'

Hardware

Microsoft Unveils New Adaptive Accessories Coming This Fall
Microsoft, Volkswagen are working to enable HoloLens headsets to be used in vehicles
Intel Adds a New Member to the 12th Gen Core Processor Family
AMD Launches New Chipsets for Chromebooks

Dev

Microsoft's Build 2022 Session Catalog is Now Available
Microsoft Announces New .NET Milestones
Google Announces Flutter 3.0

Xbox

Report: Microsoft Still Plans Xbox Streaming Device
Sony Has Sold 19.3 Million PlayStation 5 Consoles
Nintendo Sold 23 Million Switch Consoles in the Past Year

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Read "After Steve"
App pick of the week: Fortnite
Enterprise pick of the week: Replacing the Store for Business and Store for EDU
Codename pick of the week: Haven
Beer pick of the week: Lowercase Brewing Mexican Lager

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Edge VPN, Office Web Apps, .NET MAUI, Tech Earnings

Windows 11 Inside story — How we made the Start

Care About Windows? Do Not Watch This Video

Windows 11

Microsoft's latest Windows 11 test build adds new group policies, drops SMB1 enablement by default
Microsoft Edge Starts Testing Built-in VPN Powered by Cloudflare
Desktop Browser Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats
Microsoft Edge Version 101 is Now Available

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Web Apps Gain Support For Seamless Account Switching

Dev

.NET MAUI Hits RC2, Adds Tizen Support
GitHub to Require 2FA by the End of 2023

More earnings

Intel Earnings Beat Estimates, Arrive with a Warning
AMD Reports Record Quarterly Revenue
Qualcomm Reports Record Revenues
Apple Delivers Another Blockbuster Quarter
Amazon Revenues Hit $116.4 Billion in Q1

Xbox

Halo Infinite's Season 2 Launches Today on Xbox and PC
Microsoft Announces First Xbox Game Pass Titles for May
Microsoft Reveals New Games with Gold for May
Microsoft Releases the May Xbox Update
Microsoft Launches Deep Pink Xbox Wireless Controller
Microsoft Announces Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12
Embracer Group Acquires Square Enix Western Studios and their IPs

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Programming Windows series is almost done
App pick of the week: Mozilla Firefox
Cocktail pick of the week: The Agua Fresca

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Learnings from Microsoft's Q3 Earnings Call

Microsoft: Cloud revenue at $23.4 billion in Q3, up 32 percent
Analysis: Microsoft Post-Earnings Conference Call (Premium)
Microsoft: Windows PC has 'never been more relevant'
Analysis: Microsoft Post-Earnings Conference Call (Premium)
Google/Alphabet Revenues Were Up 23 Percent in Q1

Windows

AdDuplex: Windows 11's Market Share Continues to Stagnate in April
Windows 11 Auto HDR Feature Gets an Intensity Slider
Microsoft Offers Insights from its Internal Windows 11 Upgrade

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft's Teams app is coming to the Microsoft Store
Microsoft Teams Adds Beta Support for Apple Silicon Macs

Hardware

U.S. Army Could Waste $22 Billion on HoloLens

Build & Dev

Microsoft Opens Registrations for its Virtual Build 2022 Conference

Xbox

Xbox Beat US Sales Records in March 2022
Report: Sony is Also Exploring Ads in Free-to-play Games

Tips and Picks

App pick of the week: Clipchamp
Tip of the week: Find assets for YouTube
Enterprise pick of the week: Your M365 apps are moving to the Monthly Channel
Buzzword pick of the week: Lots of buzzy buzzwords on that earnings call
Beer pick of the week: New England Brewing G-Bot

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Checking in on Windows 11, Microsoft Purview, Build 2022

Report: More PCs Running Windows XP, 7, and 8 Than Windows 11
Microsoft disables SMB1 file-sharing protocol by default in Windows 11 Home
Microsoft Gets Ready to Disable SMB1 Protocol on Windows 11
Windows 10 Version 21H2 is Now Available for All Users
PC Sales Fell 6 Percent in Q1 2022

Microsoft

Microsoft rebrands its compliance and data-governance products as 'Microsoft Purview'
Microsoft 365 Bug Bounty Program Now Offers up to $26K Rewards

Dev

Microsoft Starts Filling up its Build 2022 Session Catalog
Microsoft Issues .NET 7 Preview 3, .NET MAUI RC

Surface

Microsoft Rolls Out Voice Clarity Feature on Surface Laptop Studio

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass Will Soon Get More Ubisoft Games
Microsoft May Soon Allow Ads in Free-to-Play Xbox Games
Chris Novak Leaves Xbox After Almost 20 Years
Sony and Nintendo Agree to Change Auto-Renew Subscription Practices

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Disable Google AMP
App pick of the week: Google Drive for Windows
Enterprise pick of the week: Loop components rolling out to Outlook
Codename pick of the week: MetaOS' "Hubs"
Beer pick of the week: Delirium Black Barrel Aged

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11 Taskbar, Windows on ARM, Surface Laptop Go 2

Customers aren't happy about Microsoft's restrictive cloud licensing policies
Critics Say Windows Licensing is Anticompetitive
Microsoft Has No Plans to Let You Move the Windows 11 Taskbar
Microsoft Releases Windows 11 Insider Build 22598
New Apcsilmic Dot 1 Windows on ARM Mini PC Starts at $229
Microsoft Says Edge's Sleeping Tabs Now Save Even More Resources
New Windows 11 Security Feature Will Require a PC Reset

Surface

Report: Microsoft's Surface Laptop Go 2 Could Be Released This Spring
Microsoft Releases April Updates for Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2
Deal: Microsoft's Surface Duo 2 is Currently $500 Off

Xbox

Microsoft Previews Halo Infinite Season 2
Microsoft Launches an Xbox Spring Sale

Tips and Picks

App of the week: Start11 v1.2
App pick of the week #2: DuckDuckGo for Mac
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows Autopatch
Codename pick of the week: Night's Watch
Cocktail pick of the week: Maple Splash

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11 for Hybrid Work, Phone Link, Process Mining

Windows 11 for Hybrid Work

Windows 11 is Not Ready for Business (Premium)
Tabs are coming to Windows 11's File Explorer. But here's what's more interesting
Here Are the New Windows 11 Features That Microsoft Announced
Microsoft provides a glimpse of future Windows 11 and Cloud PC integrations

Windows 11

Windows 11 Insider Build 22593 Brings File Explorer Changes
Microsoft to rebrand 'Your Phone' as 'Phone Link'
Microsoft Edge Becomes the Second Most Popular Web Browser
Microsoft Releases Edge Version 100

Cloud/Microsoft 365

Microsoft brings Arm support to Azure virtual machines
Microsoft Teams Adds New Video Filters

Microsoft

Microsoft Silently Withdrew From ACT
Google Claims Microsoft Makes Governments Less Secure
Euro Commission looks into Microsoft cloud practices • The Register
Report: Microsoft Adds New Android Division Following Internal Reorg

Xbox

Microsoft Announces First Xbox Game Pass Titles for April
Microsoft Releases April 2022 Xbox Update with HDMI-CEC Improvements
Xbox Game Pass Family Plan is Reportedly in the Cards
E3 2022 is Officially Canceled

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Watch Halo episode 1 for free
App pick of the week: Shotcut
Enterprise pick of the week: Reading the latest ScottGu reorg tea leaves
Watchword of the week: Process mining
Beer pick of the week: Torch & Crown Bat Flip

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11 default browser, Microsoft Build 2022, Microsoft bribes

Windows 11 Usage Stagnates in Latest AdDuplex Report
Microsoft Graveyard - Killed by Microsoft
Windows 11 to get soon a one-click default browser option
Microsoft is adding a new driver-blocklist feature to Windows Defender on Windows 10 and 11
Microsoft Build 2022 developer conference: Coming May 24 to a screen near you

Business

Microsoft Accused of Violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Again
EU Aims to Open Up Big Tech's Walled Gardens with Digital Markets Act

Xbox

Microsoft Announces New Games with Gold for April
Sony Revamps PlayStation Plus to Better Compete With Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft Now Offers Refurbished Xbox Series X Consoles Online
Microsoft's Cloud Gaming Division Aims to Bring Cloud-Native Games to Xbox
Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update VIII Focuses on the Iberian Peninsula
Halo TV Series Comes to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate With Free Paramount+ Trial

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Get a month of Paramount+ for free
App pick of the week: OBS Studio
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure Front Door revisited
Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Get ahead of Microsoft product deprecations
Beer pick of the week: Grimm Plink

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11 Beta testers: Start your engines

Microsoft starts moving more Windows 11 test features into the Beta channel
Microsoft to extend its 'enterprise metaverse' strategy with Mesh for Teams
Zoom live avatars: Finally you can turn up to your meetings as a rabbit or a dog
New Windows 11 Insider Build Brings Back Naming Options for Start Menu Folders

Playing Chicken?

Windows 11 will add a watermark on your desktop if your hardware isn't supported
Microsoft leaves a loophole for those wanting to run Windows 11 on 'unsupported' hardware

Hacked!

Hacking Group Claims to Have Stolen 37 GB of Microsoft Source Code
Microsoft Says Lapsus$ Hackers Had "Limited Access" to Source Code

Edge-ing Along

Microsoft Edge 100 Lands in the Beta Channel
Microsoft Edge Can Now Generate Image Descriptions for Screen Readers

Cloud

China Asks Microsoft to Suspend Bing Auto-suggestions
Microsoft continues its push to convince more game developers to use Azure

Hardware

Report: Microsoft Expects Negative Feedback About Military HoloLens
New Surface Go 3 with LTE Model Launches at $499
Surface Duo and AMD-based Surface Laptop 3 Get New Firmware Updates
Dynabook Announces New Tecra Laptops
The Future of Computing is ... a Tablet? (Premium)

Xbox

FTC Requests More Information from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard
Xbox Cloud Gaming Adds Steam Deck Support via Microsoft Edge
Google Has a New Strategy for Stadia (Premium)

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Decision time
A few weeks back I said it was time to check out the Dev channel. Well, Microsoft just gave you an out. Should you take it?
App pick of the week: Greenshot
This is the best screenshot utility for Windows, period. I rely on it every day.
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft Translator gets an AI boost
Z-code, Mixture of Experts and lots of other AI "magic" is improving Translator and other Azure services, MS says
Enterprise pick no. 2 of the week: You say you want to learn cybersecurity...
Microsoft expands its skilling campaign for cybersecurity experts to 23 countries
Beer pick of the week: Resolve Freedom Kellerbier
The Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) is a designated not-for-profit for the Resolve collaboration beer. GEM is providing emergency aid inside Ukraine to the fighters and families that have stayed behind, as well as humanitarian aid to the women and children that are trying to cross the border into Poland.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11 ads, Search Highlights, hybrid work, Halo TV series

Microsoft is Experimenting With Ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer
Microsoft on File Explorer Ads: Just Kidding!
Microsoft Brings Search Highlights to Windows 10 Insiders
DirectStorage is Now Available on PC
Windows 10 Can Now Be Installed on Valve's Steam Deck

Microsoft 365

Microsoft to show how Windows 'powers the future of hybrid work'
Microsoft study finds 50 percent of leaders have plans for a full return to the office
Microsoft Teams turns five. What's next?
Office 365 Login | Microsoft Office
Microsoft Brings Redesigned Office.com to All Business and Education customers

Hardware

Intel to Invest Over $36 Billion in Europe
Lenovo Refreshes ThinkPad X13, X13 Yoga, and ThinkPad L
Empowering collaboration in the hybrid workplace with Surface Hub 2S and Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera | Microsoft Devices Blog

Xbox

Here's the Halo TV Series Story Trailer
Microsoft Announces More Xbox Game Pass Games for March
Report: Microsoft's Perfect Dark Reboot is Being Hit by High Turnover
Google Details New Tools to Make Google Play Games Multiplatform
Call of Duty: Warzone is Coming to Mobile

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enable tabs in Windows 11 (Dev) File Explorer
App pick of the week: Notion
Enterprise picks of the week: Surprise! There's a Win Server release (or 2) coming this year. Changes are on the way for Microsoft's Partner Program.
Beer pick of the week: Other Half Bang On

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

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Clipchamp, Windows Search, Patch Tuesday

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22572
The consumerization of Windows 11 continues with the newest Windows 11 test build
Microsoft Improves the Windows Subsystem for Android for Insiders
Microsoft's latest Windows patches fix the bug causing user data not to be erased

Microsoft

Microsoft Teams with Apple, Google, Mozilla, Others on Web Interop
Intel and AMD Stop Chip Sales in Russia and Belarus
Microsoft suspends all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia
Microsoft adds its fifth Azure cloud region in China
Microsoft's revamped Startups program is generally available with OpenAI perk

Xbox

Halo Infinite's Campaign Co-op Won't Be Ready for the Launch of Season 2
March Xbox Update Lets Users Pin Games to Quick Resume
Spring Games Spotlight 2022 – Over 40 New Games Coming to Xbox - Xbox Wire

Tips and Picks

App picks of the week: Brave, CorelDRAW
Enterprise pick of the week: Nuance is officially now part of Microsoft
Codename pick of the week: Vienna
Beer pick of the week: Brasserie Cantillon Classic Gueuze

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Windows 11, Reset This PC, Microsoft Aids Ukraine

How's the First Windows 11 Feature Update Shaping Up?
Microsoft adds a tablet-optimized taskbar to the latest Windows 11 test build
New Windows 11 test build adds Smart App control, better Microsoft 365 account management
Windows 11 Usage Surpasses 19 Percent
Lenovo Offers New ThinkPads, ThinkBooks, and More at MWC
Lenovo Announces ThinkPad X13s Powered by Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Chip
Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro Series Brings Secured-Core Capabilities to Consumers
Microsoft Warns About Windows Reset Feature Failing to Wipe All User Data

Microsoft 365

Microsoft delays planned price increase for Office 365 for some of its reseller partners
OneDrive for macOS is Now Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs

More Microsoft

Microsoft CEO's Son Zain Nadella Has Passed Away at 26
Microsoft Helped Ukraine Thwart Russian Cyberattacks

Xbox

Forza Horizon 5 Gets Sign Language Support
Microsoft Reveals New Games with Gold for March
Valve is Open to Offering Xbox Game Pass on Steam
Amazon's Luna Cloud Gaming Service is Now Generally Available in the US

Tips and Picks

Tips of the week: It's time to test Windows 11 vNext, .NETpad the next generation
Enterprise picks of the week: Windows Server: 5 best practices, Microsoft starts rolling out Defender for Business for SMBs
Beer pick of the week: Other Half Gravity Gumbo

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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A Look Back at Microsoft's Longhorn Era - The absolute apex for Windows fans

Paul's Programming Windows series
Professional Developers Conference 2003 vs.2005
Microsoft guts Longhorn to make 2006 delivery date
What did Microsoft learn from Vista
New programming models - Avalon, Indigo, WinFS (Was WinFX, became .NET FW 3)
Satya Nadella vs. Steve Ballmer
Microsoft fought the web, and the web won

Windows 11

Microsoft tests new warnings for Windows 11 PCs not meeting minimum Specs
Windows 11 Pro may require MSA sign-in, internet connectivity, just like the Home version

Hardware

Intel surges forward with 12th-gen Core chips

Xbox

Microsoft integrates Twitch into the Xbox UI
Activision Blizzard filing/shareholder letter explains how the Microsoft acquisition went down
Activision reportedly delays 2023 Call of Duty title

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Take command of the squigglies
App pick of the week: .NETpad (WinForms)
Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft Defender for Cloud now supports GCP and AWS
Codename pick of the week: Singularity – there is NOT just one
Beer pick of the week: Sour #9 by Magic Hat Brewing Company

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Android Apps in Windows 11, .NET Anniversary, Surface Laptop 5

Microsoft rolls out Android apps for Windows 11, new features to mainstream users
With the rollout of 21H2, Microsoft moves Windows 10 to annual updates

Windows 11 Dev Channel

New Windows 11 test build brings tweaks to Start, a new taskbar and touch options, and more

.NET

Microsoft Celebrates 20 Years of .NET
Windows App SDK 1.1 Due By Mid-2022

Microsoft Reopens

Microsoft to fully reopen its Washington state campuses starting February 28
Microsoft Inspire 2022 Will Be Virtual Again -- Redmond Channel Partner

Microsoft 365

Microsoft allows US users to cut politics from their LinkedIn feeds
Microsoft Offers G Suite Legacy Customers a Deal

Surface Laptop 5

Surface Laptop 5 to Finally Embrace Modern AMD Processors

Xbox

Halo Television Series Will Get a Second Season on Paramount+
Microsoft Announces More Xbox Game Pass Titles for February
Microsoft Releases the February 2022 Xbox Update

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Watch out for Win 11 autocorrect!
App pick of the week: Chrome OS Flex
Enterprise picks of the week: The beginning of the end for ADFS, Microsoft's first Azure HPC + AI Days, What's Next in Security
Beer pick (warning off) of the week: Finback Orange Puffs

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Web Experience Packs, HoloLens 3, Office macros

Microsoft: Here's how Windows 11 will get new features
Microsoft Adds More Experience Packs to Windows 11
Latest Windows 11 Preview Hides New Wallpaper Stickers and Other Secret Features
Microsoft Could Add More Settings to the Windows 11 Task Manager App
Microsoft Defender: Coming soon to a group of 'family' devices, including phones
Microsoft Temporarily Addresses New Windows Vulnerability with a Workaround

HoloLens

Could Microsoft's 'the third time's the charm' days be over?
Microsoft Reportedly Killed HoloLens 3

Microsoft 365

Microsoft to make enabling 'untrusted' Office macros tougher in the name of security
Microsoft is reportedly in Acquisition Talks with Cybersecurity Company Mandiant
Microsoft Viva Has 10 Million Monthly Active Users

NVIDIA Gives Up On its $40 Billion Acquisition of Arm

Xbox

Activision Blizzard Earnings Decline
The Switch is Now Nintendo's Best-Selling Console of All-Time
Microsoft Details its Open App Stores Principles for PC and Xbox consoles

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Enable 2FA/2SV whatever
App pick of the week: Flutter
Enterprise pick of the week: Windows 365 gets one of the most requested features
Codename picks of the week: Calypso, Bondi
Beer pick of the week: Western Maryland Vacation Packages

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft Account Management, Front Row for Teams, FTC & Microsoft

Windows 11 Gets a New Feature a Bit Early: Microsoft Account Management
Windows 11 users will get several new features in February ahead of its H2 feature update
Windows 11 Almost Doubles Usage Share to 16.1 Percent
Report: Chromebook Sales Grew 13.5 Percent in 2021

Microsoft 365

Microsoft starts rolling out Teams 'Front Row' view for better hybrid meetings
Microsoft: Standalone test version of Lists app requires no 365 subscription

Earnings Reports

Intel Earnings Beat Expectations
Apple Delivers Another Record Quarter
Alphabet (Google) Sees Big Net Income, Revenue Gains
AMD Reports Record Revenues

Browsers vs. Google

Brave Says FLoC You to Google's Topics API
Vivaldi: Google is Going Off-Topics Again

Xbox & Gaming

Microsoft Falls on Report FTC, and Not DoJ, Will Review Activision Deal
DOJ antitrust chief's past work for Microsoft looms over $69B Activision deal
Microsoft Agrees to Xbox Subscription Auto-Renew Changes in the UK
Microsoft Announces Games with Gold for February
Microsoft Announces First Game Pass Titles for February
Flight Simulator World Update VII Adds Australia Content
PlayStation 5 Sales are Already Slowing
Sony to Acquire Bungie for $3.6 Billion
Microsoft Supports Epic Games Appeal of Apple Ruling

Mary Jo Foley's DOM Briefing Podcast

Microsoft's Strategy for 2022: It's All About the Cloud | Directions on Microsoft

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Stop those annoying Edge popups (at least for a bit)
App picks of the week: Get free PC games each week from Epic
Enterprise picks of the week: New monthly podcast for Microsoft enterprise nerds
Developer pick of the week: February 14: Get sweet on .NET
Beer pick of the week: Sofia Electric Brewing Small Steps Giant Leaps

Hosts: Mary Jo Foley, Paul Thurrott, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft Q2 Earnings, Windows 11 Updates, One Outlook

Windows 11 users will get several new features in February ahead of its H2 feature update
Microsoft Plans Public Preview of Android Apps on Windows 11, More in February
Microsoft: Teams now has more than 270 million monthly active users
1.4 Billion
Microsoft Highlights Windows 11 Momentum
Lenovo Will Not Enable Microsoft's Pluton Processor by Default

Microsoft FY22 Q2 Earnings

Cloud revenues power Microsoft's $51.7 billion Q2 in the fiscal year 2022
Microsoft Delivers Another Monster Quarter
The WinForms Notepad Project (2022): It's (A)live! (Premium)
Microsoft: Teams now has more than 270 million monthly active users

Microsoft 365

Microsoft marches toward its 'One Outlook' rollout

Surface

Microsoft Finally Upgrades Surface Duo ... to Android 11

Hardware

Report: NVIDIA to Abandon Its $40 Billion Arm Acquisition
EU Overturns Intel's Antitrust Conviction, €1 Billion Fine
Intel to Invest $20 Billion on New Chip Factories in Ohio

Xbox

Halo Infinite is the Biggest Halo Launch in History*
Phil Spencer Opens Up About Activision Blizzard Plans
Rethinking Videogame Exclusives (Premium)
Google Play Games Soft Launches on Windows in Beta

Tips and Picks

App picks of the week: .NETpad (C#/WinForms/.NETFW4.x), File Manager
Enterprise picks of the week: Wave 1 2022 Dynamics and Power Platform, Azure Open Source Day
Beer pick of the week: Other Half Broccoli World Special Reserve

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard, the makers of WoW, CoD, Overwatch, and Candy Crush, among other gaming hits.
Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition is the biggest in the company's history.
Sony shares stumble as the firm cedes $20 billion in value overnight
Windows 11 SE devices are rolling out for the education market, starting as cheap as $219.
Surface Laptop SE is now available for schools to purchase.
PC sales, in a third consecutive year of growth, increased 16% in 2021.
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 announced and released to the Dev channel.
New updates roll out for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones.
Game Pass titles for January include Death's Door and Nobody Saves the World

Tips & Picks:

Tip of the week: Programming Windows articles and projects

App pick of the week: .NETpad

Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft fixes yet another botched Patch Tuesday update

Codename pick of the week: Nickel

Beer pick of the week: Shacksbury The Vermonter Cider

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 11, Microsoft HoloLens, Microsoft 365

Microsoft Issues First Windows 11 Build of the New Year
Microsoft Issues New Windows 11 Build to the Dev Channel
Stardock Releases Start11 v1.1
Tip: Get the New Windows 11 Media Player Now

AR/VR/XR

Microsoft Hit by Defections as Tech Giants Battle for Talent to Build the Metaverse - WSJ
Meta Platforms Halts VR and AR Operating System Project — The Information
Magic Leap Targets Medical Customers for Its Augmented Reality Headset - Bloomberg
CES 2022: Microsoft, Qualcomm to collaborate on custom augmented-reality chips

Microsoft 365

Microsoft is rolling out the ability to chat across personal and business Teams accounts
Microsoft adds more Teams, Viva features for frontline workers

Microsoft Surface

Surface Pro 8 with LTE is now available to order from the Microsoft Store | Windows Central

Xbox

Report: Microsoft Has Sold 12 Million Xbox Series X|S Consoles
Sony to Continue PS4 Production Through 2022

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: How to use the Quick Access menu
App pick of the week: Firefox 96
Codename pick of the week: Gibraltar
Cocktail pick of the week: Blue Bomber

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Azure vs. AWS, Ryzen 6000, Android on Windows

CES 2022: Better together with Android and beyond
AMD Unveils Its Ryzen 6000 Series Mobile Processors
12th-Generation Intel Core Chipsets Come to Mobile PCs
CES 2022: Microsoft, Qualcomm to collaborate on custom augmented-reality chips
Intel says foldable screen laptop PCs are coming to market in 2022 | Windows Central
Acer Announces the Aspire Vero National Geographic Edition
CES 2022: ASUS refreshes its gaming lineup and introduces new form factors, CPUs and GPUs | Windows Experience Blog
Dell Announces XPS 13 Plus
HP Announces New Dragonfly, Many More Portable and Desktop PCs
CES 2022: Lenovo ushers in new looks and approaches for hybrid work, gaming and everything else | Windows Experience Blog
First Microsoft Pluton-powered Windows 11 PCs to start rolling out this year
Samsung Launches the Galaxy S21 FE at $699
OnePlus Previews the OnePlus 10 Pro
Where is the December Update for the Pixel 6 Series?
Google Finally Addresses the December 2021 Update for Pixel 6/6 Pro
Google Delivers January Update for Pixel, But Not for Pixel 6 Series
I'm Switching to the iPhone

More Microsoft

Report: Microsoft Cloud Still Half the Size of AWS
Microsoft issues emergency fix for Exchange Server date-check bug
Windows Developer Team Tweets a Programming Mistake
Apple is First Company to Hit $3 Trillion Valuation

Xbox

Microsoft Reveals Games with Gold for January
Microsoft Announces First Xbox Game Pass Titles for January
Rainbow Six Extraction Coming to Xbox Game Pass on Day One
Sony Announces VR2 and VR2 Sense Controller for PlayStation 5
Samsung Gaming Hub to Bring Stadia, More to Samsung TVs

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Understand the history of Windows via software development
App and Codename pick of the week: Project Monarch (One Outlook)
Enterprise pick of the week: Out of band Win Server and Win 10 Enterprise updates
Beer pick of the week: Salted Caramel Barrel Aged Framinghammer

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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A brief life for Windows 10X, Microsoft's Pinterest flirtations, Mary Jo Foley tries some ice cream, and Microsoft's 2021 Surface event.

After some rumors and leaks, Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley explain how Windows 10X fits in the Windows lineup.
Microsoft reportedly sets its sights on Pinterest — the Windows Weekly panel explains why.
A fake Microsoft code name couldn't trick Mary Jo Foley.
Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott explain what happened to Windows 10X ... despite Microsoft's best efforts to hide the news of its demise.
Paul Thurrott installs a leaked version of Windows 11 and promptly uses the Windows 11 machine to join the show.
Microsoft announces Windows 365, its Windows-in-the-cloud service.
Microsoft hosts its 2021 Surface Event, announcing several new Surface PCs.
The Windows Weekly panel shares their disappointment over Microsoft's Ocean Plastic Mouse.
Mary Jo Foley reviews some Windows 11 themed ice cream.
Mary Jo Foley goes hands-on with the Surface Duo 2.
The Windows Weekly panel explains Mesh for Microsoft Teams and the company's plans for the enterprise side of the Metaverse.

Host: Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Revisiting Microsoft's 2021 and looking to the future.

With the rollout of 21H2, Microsoft moves Windows 10 to annual updates
Microsoft officially acknowledges Windows 10X isn't happening
Microsoft brings Windows to the cloud with Windows 365 and Cloud PC
Microsoft to make hybrid meetings work better with new Teams features coming later this year
Microsoft talks with Discord end with no buy for now: Report

What's Likely for Microsoft in 2022?

Microsoft to extend its 'enterprise metaverse' strategy with Mesh for Teams
How Microsoft is looking to MetaOS to make Microsoft 365 a 'whole life' experience
What's next for the Microsoft Cloud
Microsoft redesigns Notepad for Windows 11
Microsoft introduces Windows 11 SE, new $250 Surface Laptop SE for the education market
Does Windows on Arm have a future?
Microsoft to increase Microsoft 365, Office 365 commercial prices in March 2022
Microsoft to replace its many mail variants with 'One Outlook'

News From the Past Week

Bingo Was Almost Cortana's Name-O
Google Touts Android App Usage on Chrome OS
Microsoft to buy Xandr ad marketplace from AT&T

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Check out this incredible documentary about the history of Xbox
App pick of the week: Firewatch
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure Space adds more partners, functionality
Codename pick of the week: Florence
Beer pick of the week: Brasserie d'Achouffe N'ice Chouffe

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Deck the halls with Log4j patches

Log4j flaw: Now state-backed hackers are using bug as part of attacks, warns Microsoft

Ringing the antitrust bells

Vivaldi: Microsoft is Up To Its Old Tricks Again
Oh, Microsoft (Premium)
Microsoft doubles down on its strategy to get more Windows 11 users on Edge

Windows Wonderland

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22523 | Windows Insider Blog
Hands-On with the Redesigned Notepad for Windows 11
Windows Terminal to Become Default Windows 11 Command Line Experience

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft releases end-to-end encryption for Teams calls
Microsoft Teams search just got this major update

Surface

iFixit Partners with Microsoft on Surface Repair Tools

Xbox

Microsoft Rebrands Xbox Game Pass for PC
Microsoft Announces More Game Pass Titles for December
Sony to Release PS5 Covers in 2022
Google is Bringing Play Store Games to Windows

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Check out this incredible documentary about the history of Xbox

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Chris Capossela

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Edge default browser, Windows 11 Notepad, Windows on ARM

Microsoft looks ready to make changing browsers on Windows 11 easier
Microsoft Steps Back From the Default Browser Cliff
Microsoft Edges Tries to Convince Users Not to Download Chrome
Microsoft Releases New Windows 11 Pre-Release Build With Several New Features
Microsoft redesigns Notepad for Windows 11
Yep, Microsoft is Redesigning Notepad in Windows 11 Too
Microsoft Confirms It Could Update Windows 11 Before October 2022
Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518 | Windows Insider Blog

Windows on ARM

Qualcomm Unveils the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 for PCs
Microsoft Preps Native OneDrive Clients for Windows on ARM, M1 Macs
FTC Sues to Block Sale of Arm to Nvidia

Microsoft 365

Microsoft to try to push business customers to longer-term subscriptions via price increases
Microsoft is rolling out this new look for Office that tackles 'pain points' in design

Xbox

Halo Infinite Campaign Preview: Approaching Perfection
Microsoft Sees Success with Xbox Touch Controls
Report: Sony to Merge PS Now, PS Plus, and Take on Xbox Game Pass

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Thinking About Teams Essentials? Don't!
App pick of the week: Firefox 95
Enterprise pick of this week: Secured-core servers are here
Enterprise pick of the week: EU regulators are digging into Nuance
Beer pick of the week: Grimm Super Spruce

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Edgegate, Loop for Teams, Listener Q&A

Microsoft Continues to Bog Down Edge with Unnecessary Bloat
Users Push Back Against Bloatware in Microsoft Edge
Cyber Monday: The Rise of Buy Now, Pay Later | BizTech Magazine

Microsoft 365

Microsoft creates new standalone Teams Essentials edition for SMBs
This new Microsoft Teams feature could save you from project overload

Windows

Microsoft makes Start menu customizations possible in new Windows 11 test build
Windows 11 is Now on Almost 9 Percent of PCs
Windows Insiders Can Test a Minor Paint App Update

Xbox

Microsoft Announces First Game Pass Titles for December
Clarity Boost is Coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming on Microsoft Edge

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: It's time to consider other browser options
App pick of the week: Xbox Game Pass
Shareholder picks of this week: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sells half his Microsoft stock, Microsoft holds an annual shareholder meeting
Codename pick of the week: Project Nucleus
Beer pick of the week: KBS Cinnamon-Vanilla-Cocoa

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows Weekly (Audio): Recent Episodes

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