A weekly look at all things Microsoft, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and more, from two of the foremost Windows watchers in the world, Paul Thurrott of Thurrott.com and Mary Jo Foley of All About Microsoft. Records live every Wednesday at 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific / 19:00 UTC.
WW 846: Purple is for Jazz Hands - Enhanced Windows 365 App Experience, Paint's random new feature, Xbox Mastercard
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 5 minutes, 24 seconds
WW 847: JUSHED! - Panos Panay's abrupt departure, leaked Xbox documents, AI event preview
It's a BIG news episode this week, as Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott discuss the sudden departure of Panos Panay from Microsoft to Amazon. Did he jump or get pushed out of the company? Leo and Paul also dive into a massive leaked memo about Microsoft's Xbox roadmap and plans over the next 10 years. Other topics include Microsoft's upcoming event focused on AI integration across products like Windows, Office 365, and Surface, as well as online account consolidation and Google's Takeout service.
We're down a Panay
After his curiously off-kilter performance at Build 2023 this past May, Microsoft reveals that it is parting ways with Panos Panay. Are these things related?
He's landing at Amazon devices, which makes sense given David Limp is retiring
Multiple Microsoft executives and employees have reached out privately about this
Comparisons to Terry Myerson's exit
Blockbuster Xbox leak
Major Xbox leak reveals Xbox Series X|S mid-season upgrades, next-gen console, new controller, and more
This is one of the top three Microsoft leaks that's happened in Paul's nearly 30 years of covering this company
An analysis of just one of the documents in this leak reveals an incredible amount of strategy information for the next 10 years
And one about the reaction to the PS5 reveal
Microsoft's upcoming AI event
Expectations for this event, the kick-off for Microsoft's full-on client AI push
Sub-analysis: This could be Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott's "Ray Ozzie moment." There's a profile of this mostly unknown in the WSJ
Intel announces NPU-powered Core Ultra CPUs - off schedule? Related to the MSFT event?
Bing Chat gains two new mobile integrations
Paint keeps getting AI features. Remember when Paint was the laughing stock of Windows 11 apps?
Windows
No new builds (of substance, there was an RP build).
Windows Photos, Snipping Tool, and Phone Link are all getting new features in Insider. Is Microsoft finally taking its in-box apps seriously (again)?
Google extends the support lifecycle for ChromeOS, solving the single biggest criticism of this platform. This is problematic for Microsoft
Microsoft 365
EU will reject Microsoft's offer to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365
Surface
Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Laptop Go 3 leak. They will likely be announced at the special event
Xbox
Microsoft announces more Xbox Game Pass titles for September
Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls VI will be an Xbox exclusive.
Tips and picks
Tip of the week: Consolidate and organize your online accounts
App pick of the week: Google Takeout
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 24 minutes, 16 seconds
WW 848: The Era of a Grinning Paul - Microsoft September Event, Meteor Lake, Windows 11 2023 Update
In this episode of Windows Weekly, Mikah Sargent is joined by Paul and Richard to discuss the latest Microsoft updates, news, and products. Paul chimes in on his experience at Microsoft's recent AI event, changes to Windows 11's confusing updates, last week's Xbox leaks, antitrust lawsuits against tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon, and more!
Microsoft Special Event: Blockbuster... or blockluster?
Paul went to his first in-person Microsoft event in almost four years. You're not going to believe what happened next!
Ahead of the event, everyone was calling this a "Surface event" and some still are. But it was an AI event, period. Were our expectations met?
Copilot "rebrand" was in many ways the biggest news
Microsoft 365 Commercial arrives November 1 - And Microsoft 365 consumer is a thing
Microsoft announced two Surface PCs at event, one with an NPU. And then two other Surface PCs/devices. Most of these do not matter
WTF is happening with Windows 11 23H2?
We had a confusing several days, the perfect end-cap to a confusing year when it comes to Windows updating. But now we have the answers.
At special event, Microsoft reveals it will ship "next major Windows 11 update" September 26. It's 23H2! It's not 23H2!
One day after the event, Release Preview gets Fall Update
Paul attempted to achieve some clarity ahead of John Cable's post
Microsoft releases the Fall Update (in preview form)
Is Windows 11 finally where it needed to be when Microsoft shipped v1 two years ago?
Follow-ups to last week's blockbuster news
Panos Panay will succeed Dave Limp at Amazon
Further examination of the leaked Xbox documents
Microsoft's reaction to the PS5 specs reveal is sort of clueless in retrospect
Microsoft wanted to buy Nintendo. No, really. And it considered lots of companies
Antitrust
UK CMA provisionally approves of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard
So of course the FTC revives its lost battle against Microsoft/AB. You can't make this stuff
FTC sues Amazon for monopoly abuse. Paul has questions. Lots of questions
Dev and AI
Intel announced its Meteor Lake chipset BEFORE Microsoft event.
Amazon buys Anthropic for $4 billion
Amazon announces generative AI features for Alexa at its hardware event
Google Studio Bot expands worldwide in preview
Microsoft is moving Windows device driver development to Rust
Unity: JUST KIDDING GUYS SERIOUSLY
GitHub Passkeys are GA
Xbox
Cuphead anniversary update is on the way, Xbox only
Microsoft tweaks how Xbox/OneDrive integration works in a "bonus Xbox update for September"
Tips and picks
Tip of the week: Install the update, check the store
App pick of the week: Amazon adBlocker
RunAs Radio this week: SharePoint Online Features On-Prem with Sandy Ussia
Brown liquor pick of the week: Pokeno Whisky
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 40 minutes, 2 seconds
WW 849: Back to Dumb - Bing's future, Windows Backup app, Chromebook Plus
Leo, Paul, and Richard talk about the end of free Windows 7/8 to Windows 10/11 upgrades using retail product keys. They also examine Chromebook Plus, Google's new premium Chromebooks aimed at gaming via cloud streaming services. This highlights issues with Google's disjointed strategies after killing Stadia. Plus, insights from the Google antitrust lawsuit, including testimony from Microsoft and Apple executives on partnerships and search dominance. This sparks debate on whether a Bing improvement could ever rival Google. The episode explores concerns around growing subscription costs, ecosystem lock-in, and how technology often complicates rather than eases life today.
Windows 11
Microsoft is killing free upgrades from Windows 7 and 8.x
And yes, that means those product keys will stop working
Windows 11 Insider Preview: Copilot comes to Alt + Tab, more File Explorer fixes
Windows 11 Field Guide is getting free updates for 23H2, of course
Join the Release Preview channel, you'll (probably) be upgraded to 23H2 and/or (most) new features
Windows Backup is already here. But what is it? And what might it become?
OneDrive is among the things getting worse in this release. And it's a problem
Google announces Chromebook Plus, New Material You design is available now to all
AI/Microsoft 365
Satya Nadella admits under oath that AI-powered Bing has not improved its usage share in the slightest
Also, Microsoft tried to sell Bing to Apple
Apple never seriously considered switching to, let alone buying, Bing
Microsoft announces the next generation OneDrive across businesses and consumers
Microsoft Lists for consumers comes to mobile, finally
Bing Image Creator gets a big DALL-E 3 update. And it is amazing
Surface
Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Laptop Go 3 are now available
Xbox
Here are the first Xbox Game Pass titles for October
Sony PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan is retiring
Layoffs at Epic
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: The great ensh*ttification reset
App pick of the week: ScanSpeeder
RunAs Radio this week: Episode 900!
Brown liquor pick of the week: Upshot
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 52 minutes, 53 seconds
WW 850: Emotional Support Whiskey - Snapdragon X, Windows 23H2, Microsoft & Activision, Microsoft Back Taxes
Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X — could we see a huge improvement to Windows on Arm? Then, the dynamic trio break down Patch Tuesday and Windows 11 Insider. Paul discusses Google's Passkey support and reminds listeners Microsoft has been doing passwordless logins for years. The team discusses GitHub Copilot losses, HP AI features, Adobe's Firefly updates, and Dropbox AI. Then, Paul briefly covers C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code. During Paul's Xbox Corner, a breaking news story hits; Leo shares news that Microsoft is contesting an IRS claim that the company owes $28.9 billion in back taxes. Leo, Paul, and Richard round things out with the tips and picks of the week.
Windows 11
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X Series for the PC
Microsoft Releases October 2023 Patch Tuesday Updates
October 10, 2023—KB5031354 (OS Build 22621.2428) - Microsoft Support
Windows 11 Insider Preview Beta Channel Moves to a Single Build
Windows 11 Canary Build 25967 Brings New Scrollable View of Quick Settings
Microsoft 365
UK is Investigating Microsoft and Amazon's Cloud Practices
Google Makes Passkeys the Default Login Option for Personal Accounts
Microsoft Will No Longer Make Changes to OneDrive Photo Storage
Microsoft Redesigns the Microsoft Store Web App
AI
Report: GitHub Copilot Loses an Average of $20 Per User Per Month
HP: AI Will Transform the PC Into a Personal Companion
Can AI Save the PC Industry? (Premium)
Adobe Announces Major Advances for Firefly Generative AI
Dropbox Launches Redesigned Web App and Expands Access to New AI Features
Dev
C# Dev Kit is Now Available
Xbox
Activision Blizzard Says No Call of Duty or Diablo IV on Game Pass This Year
Microsoft Reportedly Aims to Close its Activision Blizzard Acquisition on October 13
Diablo IV is Coming to Steam on October 17
Forza Motorsport is Now Available on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass
Sony Announces Smaller PS5 With and Attachable Disc Drive
PS5 Cloud Streaming is Launching Later This Month
Tips & Picks
Tip of the week: Deal with OneDrive's forced folder backup push
App pick of the week: Microsoft Teams (New)
RunAs Radio this week: Security Chaos Engineering with Kelly Shortridge
Brown liquor pick of the week: Pappy Van Winkle
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 58 minutes, 11 seconds
WW 851: Between 2 Ferns - Activision Blizzard acquired, Windows 11 active devices, Jibarito
In this episode of Windows Weekly, Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss the successful acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the questionable success of Windows 11 adoption, new Windows Insider program builds, and updates on AI integration in Microsoft/Google products.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard
This came in the wake of the UK CMA accepting the Microsoft concessions
The FTC is still being a sore loser despite facts and logic
No AB titles on Game Pass until 2024, Phil Spencer says
Bethesda's Pete Hines is leaving the company
Windows 11
Microsoft leak reveals that there are 400 million PCs running Windows 11
This tells us a few things. That there are 1 billion PCs still running Windows 10
What did Windows 10 adoption look like at 2 years? What different factors impact both adoption rates? What will happen when Microsoft retires Windows 10 in two years? Why was Microsoft so transparent about Windows 10 adoption and so non-transparent about Windows 11 adoption?
New Beta build landed last Friday with some more interesting news for Europe
Back on October 12, a new Release Preview channel build arrived with a quiet change we never noticed or discussed. There is a new System Components section in Settings > System
New Dev build today: Copilot support for multimon, more File Explorer relability fixes
New Canary build today: Mail and Calendar no longer installed on clean install, Bluetooth LE support for hearing aids, new location functionality
It's official: Windows 7/8 keys can no longer activate Windows 11
There are THREE new Dave Cutler interviews on YouTube!
Microsoft
Microsoft owes $29 billion in back taxes
AI
Google releases new smartphones and all the mainstream press can talk about is faux nonsense worries about photo editing altering reality. Let's be more sophisticated here, please
Microsoft Edge 118 adds an AI-powered Find on Page feature
Google will also indemnify users for AI
Google Search Generative Experience can now generate images
Xbox
More Game Pass titles for October
Microsoft announces new accessibility features for Xbox
Xbox Series S starter bundle is just Xbox Series S + 3 mos of Game Pass
Tips & Picks
App pick of the week: DuckDuckGo browser
App pick of the week: AllDup
RunAs Radio this week: Large Language Models for IT Pros with Seth Juarez
Brown liquor pick of the week: Quinta do Portal 20 year Tawny Port
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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Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss Microsoft's latest earnings report, Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chip, Windows on Arm's future, passkey support for Amazon accounts, Dave Cutler's awesomeness, Stardock's 30th anniversary, Photoshop/Premiere Elements 2024, and more!
Microsoft earnings
Microsoft announced that it earned a net income of $22.3 billion on revenues of $56.5 billion in the quarter ending September 30, 2023. Those figures are up 27 percent and 13 percent, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)
Analysis: Activision Blizzard, Windows, Surface, Xbox and gaming, Office and Microsoft 365, and the evolving impact of AI
Google earnings: net income of $19.7 billion on revenues of $76.7 billion, ads are 71 percent of total revenues, Google Cloud disappoints
Windows on Arm
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Elite X for Windows on Arm PCs
Promises, promises, but if this fails again, it's over... for Qualcomm
Qualcomm's WOA deal expires next year and NVIDIA and AMD are on the way
Windows
Dave Cutler sat down for a THREE HOUR interview. This is a must watch. Some key points here
Beta build last week with three changes (gradual rollout): system components in All apps display a System badge, Xbox Game Bar is just Game Bar now, the improved casting experience
New Canary build today adds Copilot??
Windows 11 Field Guide: the 23H2 update has begun with 9 chapters done so far
OneDrive: just when you thought it was safe to go back in the cloud storage
Windows 7/8.x products key don't work in Windows 10 either, sorry
Celebrate Stardock's 30 years of making Windows better - by buying some of its products
Satya Nadella said he regretted killing Windows Phone? Not exactly
Xbox
Microsoft revives the "Power Your Dreams" ad campaign for the holidays
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Add passkeys to your Amazon account right now
App pick of the week: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 and Premiere Elements 2024
RunAs Radio this week: Choosing Azure Data Storage Solutions with Nicole Stevens
Brown liquor pick of the week: Burgas 63 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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 28 minutes, 58 seconds
WW 853: Ten Outta Ten for the 404! - Windows 11 2023 Update, Surface replacement components, marketing leadership change
On this episode, Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss the big release of Windows 11 23H2, productivity in Macs vs PCs, Microsoft 365 Copilot arriving, changes in the Xbox and marketing divisions, iFixit support for Surface repair, and American rye whiskeys.
23H2
Surprise! Microsoft delivers the Windows 11 23H2 Update, which upgrades your Windows 11 version 22H2-based PC to version 23H2, much sooner than expected.
Technically, Microsoft NEVER delivered the so-called "Fall Update," since it was only made available in preview form (twice, for some reason). So 23H2 is actually the first public release of those 150+ new features.
The Windows 11 Media Creation Tool still installs 22H2. Because Microsoft. Workaround: Use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. Which hilariously requires you to install the PC Health Check app.
We need to discuss Microsoft Teams in Windows 11. And then literally never discuss it again.
Microsoft is killing the Windows Insider MVP program. What exactly did it even mean to be an "MVP" in the Insider program?
Dev: From last Friday, adds one new feature, a "Recently added" folder (for apps) in Start (in Recommended)
Beta, from last Thursday: Two new features (gradual rollout): System components in Settings, Game Bar rebranding. Plus fixes.
Windows 11 now has 26 percent usage share vs. 69 percent for Windows 10.
Whatever happened to Windows 12?
There have been overt clues about Windows 12 literally all year, including as recently as last week. But Microsoft has never, not once, uttered this phrase. What's happening?
Microsoft 365/AI
Today's the day: Microsoft 365 Copilot arrives for commercial customers on E3 or higher.
OG Teams is retiring in March.
Microsoft Word turned 40 last week.
This was the gateway drug that lured Paul into the Microsoft ecosystem. But it's showing it's age. If Microsoft can't get spell- and grammar-checking right in Word, why will AI work?
Earnings Learnings
Did Azure just make more money than AWS??
Intel stumbles but finally sees an end to the PC sales slide.
Surface
iFixit now sells Surface replacement parts. And it is fascinating to see how much more you can replace/repair in newer models compared to the first "repairable" Surface, Surface Pro 7.
Xbox
Microsoft reorgs Xbox in the wake of Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Chris Capossela is Leaving Microsoft.
Paul has a very mysterious announcement to make for our holiday show this year!
Xbox October Update arrives with keyboard mapping for Elite Series 2 and Adaptive controllers.
There are a lot more titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in early November.
Microsoft will now block unofficial controllers on Xbox consoles.
Atari acquires Digital Eclipse, the retro game company behind that amazing Karateka interactive documentary.
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Windows 11 Field Guide gets its first 23H2 update
App pick of the week: Start11 v2 is here to chase your Start menu nightmares away
RunAs Radio this week: Green IT with Mike Halsey
-Brown liquor pick of the week: Leopold Bros Maryland Rye 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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 46 minutes, 52 seconds
WW 854: Dated, Insecure, and Unreliable - Copilot headed to Windows 10, Parallels Desktop on M3 Max, SFI
Windows 11
Microsoft to bring Copilot to Windows 10 too. As predicted, actually.
Last week was hell trying to figure out how/where people could get 23H2. Turns out, there's a reason. Microsoft is terrible.
A Microsoft employee notably—offered some clarity on the 23H2 rollout. 23H2 is available via the ISO download or Installation Assistant, as Paul noted last week. 23H2 is NOT available via the Media Creation Tool, as Paul also observed — delayed two weeks.
Canary build today: SMB changes (Server Message Block, not small business).
Microsoft deprecated some features in Windows 11 version 23H2 but didn't remove any (yet?).
The Windows Tips app was just deprecated too.
Microsoft to remove two in-box apps from clean installs in the future.
The HP Spectre Folding PC is a compelling argument for the hybrid PCs of the future.
More Revenues
Apple: Flat with last year, still all iPhone.
Qualcomm: Terrible, but also sees a rebound looming.
Surface
Microsoft extended Surface support for firmware/drivers from 4 years to 6 for newer models.
Microsoft 365/AI
Microsoft Authenticator quietly rolled out "MFA Fatigue" relief. You will have noticed this.
Microsoft launches Trustworthy Computing 2.0: The Cloudening.
A look at the M365 competition: Google Workspace good (especially Drive), Slack bad. REALLY bad.
Microsoft Edge 119 arrives with a few UI changes.
OpenAI had a little show and is offering custom ChatGPT clients.
Because we all need more Elon Musk in our lives, here's Grok.
Microsoft partners with Inworld on generative AI game development.
Xbox
Call of Duty MWIII multiplayer/full game arrive Friday.
Nintendo revenues up nicely. EA is in great shape.
Epic is in court vs. Google, this time could be different.
Google paid Activision Blizzard $360 million in 2020 to keep its games in the Play Store.
Sony is killing Twitter integration on PS4/5.
Tips and Picks
App pick of the week: Brave
App pick of the week #2: Start 11 v2... again
RunAs Radio this week: Large Language Models in Business with Ulrika Hedlund
Brown liquor pick of the week: Aberlour A'bunadh Alba
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 40 minutes, 42 seconds
WW 855: Live From Ignite! - Microsoft is copiloting all the things! Big news from the show
Paul and Richard are at Microsoft Ignite 2023 and just watched the keynote! Leo Laporte chats with them to discuss the clarified rebranding of Copilot, some new AI features in Windows 365, Microsoft Loop's availability, the release of .NET 8, two decades of Patch Tuesday, a neat Xbox Series bundle discount for Black Friday, and more!
Microsoft Ignite
(Final) Copilot rebranding clarifies the naming changes announced in September
Copilot for Microsoft 365 adds plug-in support, more
Windows 11: Windows AI Studio announced, Dev Home and WSL are updated
New AI capabilities in Windows 365
Microsoft Loop is now available
New Teams now GA, 320 million users - Mesh in Jan 2024
Clipchamp and Microsoft Designer come to Microsoft 365 commercial
Microsoft announces its first custom AI chipsets for the Azure datacenter
Dev: .NET Conf
Microsoft releases .NET 8 with .NET Aspire
Windows 11
Microsoft releases 23H2 for the fourth time?
One tiny bit of OneDrive de-ensh*ttification does not address the bigger issues
Patch Tuesday turns 20, Microsoft couldn't care less
The new Outlook: People, we have a roadmap!
Microsoft Store now lets you decide where to install games
Copilot in Microsoft Shopping, AI review summaries come to Bing and Edge
Microsoft, more AI
Microsoft will not challenge its gatekeeper designation in the EU
Google brings generative AI search to 120+ new countries
Google will ID AI-based videos in YouTube
Google Photos gets some cool AI organizational features
Xbox
Xbox Series X|S are discounted by $50 for Black Friday
Halo Infinite goes retro too, adds Halo 3 playlist
Here are more titles coming to Xbox Game Pass
Here comes the OLED Steam Deck
PS5 "Slim" is now available in the US - Sony unlikely to hit PS5 sales targets
Amazon lays off gaming staff, will refine Prime Gaming perks
Tips & Picks
Tip of the week: Google's Black Friday sale looks solid
App pick of the week: Microsoft Loop
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Entra Security Service Edge with Richard Hicks
Brown liquor pick of the week: Makers Mark Cellar Aged
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 13 minutes, 51 seconds
WW 856: Sunglasses For Your Whiskey - Altman returns to OpenAI, Windows Hello vulnerabilities, Half-Life turns 25
On this episode of Windows Weekly, Leo, Paul, and Richard dive deep into the latest OpenAI/Microsoft partnership drama involving Sam Altman's position. They also discuss upcoming EU regulations and their impact on Microsoft products, evaluate NVIDIA's record-breaking Q3 earnings, and reminisce about the classic PC FPS Half-Life.
And you thought AI was already controversial...
On Friday, OpenAI's board suddenly and unexpectedly fired CEO Sam Altman, kicking off several days of unprecedented high drama
OpenAI president and board chairman Greg Brockman announced that he was quitting in protest
Microsoft announced it had hired Altman and Brockman over the weekend
95 percent of OpenAI employees threatened to quit if Altman did not come back
Altman began negotiating his return to OpenAI (and major governance changes)
Altman is once again CEO of OpenAI
Key takeaway: No matter what happens, Microsoft wins
Wrong takeaway: Nothing changed
Windows
Windows 11 is about to get awesome in the EEA
WHY IS WINDOWS 11 ONLY GOING TO BE AWESOME IN THE EEA???
Microsoft confirms that Copilot is coming to Windows 10 too. "No new features, my ass!"
Copilot begins rolling out to Windows 10 in Insider Program
Release Preview: Copilot in Alt + Tab and on other displays, limited Copilot with local account, DMA compliance, Windows Spotlight changes
Canary: Disable Phone Link in the Bluetooth settings, display Teams contacts in the Windows share window when signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID
Dev: Narrator improvements, File Explorer fixes (wait for it)
Redmond, we have a problem. With Windows Hello
Earnings learning
NVIDIA continues to soar on AI (Winner)
Zoom has settled back down to reality
HP stumbles through its fourth quarter and FY2023: AI PCS FTW in late 2024!
Lenovo stumbles too, but explicitly predicts industry recovery
Antitrust
Apple, ByteDance, and Meta contest their DMA gatekeeper designations
Xbox
Half-Life turned 25 last weekend and Valve finally remembered it exists
Nvidia's GeForce Now adds Microsoft Store, PC Game Pass, and Ubisoft+ integration - over 1700 games now
Amazon Luna comes to France, Italy, and Spain
Next Call of Duty leaks!
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Ignite's over, but the videos are forever
App pick of the week: Half-Lif
RunAs Radio this week: Azure Operator Nexus with Jennelle Crothers
Brown liquor pick of the week: Willett Wheated 8 Year Bourbon
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 30 minutes, 18 seconds
WW 857: SharePoint All the Way Down - Energy Saver, tiny11 2311, Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client
Windows
Tiny11 2311 arrives, is even tinier and even 23H2er ... or something
Beta channel: Teams integration with Share (Entra ID only), new language support for Ink Anywhere
Dev: Copilot icon moves (!), more Copilot, Share, Ink, Android in Nearby Sharing (!)
Canary: Energy Saver (new feature), more
Samsung brings its browser to the Microsoft Store
AI/Microsoft
Microsoft and Meta reportedly receiving 3x as many NVIDIA GPUs for AI as Amazon
Amazon introduces it's own AI chatbot for the enterprise, and it does have one useful and unique feature
Microsoft is retiring its Microsoft 365 browser extension
Evernote is still a thing and now it wants to charge everyone
Amazon takes a Fire TV Cube and turns it into a remote desktop thin client
Antitrust
UK CMA provisionally rules against Adobe acquisition of Figma
EU formally objects to Amazon acquisition of iRobot because the robot vacuum cleaner market is so important
Xbox
Xbox Series X and S are still on sale. Just saying
The November Update for Xbox is here with rewards redemption, Xbox app gets compact mode
Microsoft is reportedly deprecating the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox
Netflix is bringing GTA trilogy to the service
The current Call of Duty is awash in bad reviews, so let's talk about the next Call of Duty!
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Microsoft's new ugly Christmas sweater is here
App pick of the week: DuckDuckGo
RunAs Radio this week: Zero Trust Adoption Guidance with Nicolas Blank
Brown liquor pick of the week: Pendleton Rye 12 Year
Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, 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
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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 1 hour, 55 minutes, 27 seconds
WW 858: Quaff and Nosh - Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, Richard's new PC, KB5032288
In this week's Windows Weekly, Paul, Leo, and Richard discuss the extension of Windows 10 support for 3 more years after 2025 for consumers and enterprises, updates on the AI features of Copilot, Google's new AI model Gemini, potential features coming in a future Windows release next year, and the cleanliness of ImageGlass 9.
Windows 10
Yep! They're going to support Windows 10 for 3 more years with extended security update (ESU) program. But this time there's a twist!
Consumers are going to have the chance to pay annually for the ESU as well. Let the complaints begin
Copilot expands to more Windows 10 users
Windows 11
Report sees a major Windows release in 2024
The November 2023 Preview Update for Windows 11 shipped on a Monday in December because Microsoft, adding new Copilot features, last preview CU for 2023
Dell earnings - revenues fall 10 percent YOY because the PC market is still horrible
Richard bought a computer. Can you guess which one?
AI
Microsoft to get non-voting board representation at OpenAI
Copilot is now GA. Unless you're using Windows 11, apparently. Everyone gets free commercial data protection
Copilot gets GPT-4 Turbo, new DALLE-3 model, and more
Google goes live with Gemini, including a Nano version for Pixel 8 Pro
Microsoft 365/Cloud
Microsoft finally releases Seeing AI on Android
Evernote restricts free users to 1 notebook, 50 notes - time to switch!
Antitrust
Federal judge orders Google and Epic to try and settle the case before the jury renders its verdict
30 more venture capital firms tell the FTC to stop harassing Microsoft for Activision Blizzard
Google and Amazon have both weighed in on Microsoft's cloud licensing with the UK CMA
Xbox
Microsoft is betting on the DMA, will create mobile video game store with unnamed partners
The first Game Pass titles for December
Microsoft explains licensing pop-ups on console
Rockstar issues first GTA VI trailer
PlayStation reminds the world that no one owns the digital content they purchased
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Stuck on 22H2? You can still upgrade to 23H2
App pick of the week: ImageGlass 9 (Microsoft Store)
RunAs Radio this week: Modernizing using M365 with Sharon Weaver
Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenfiddich 12
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 9 minutes, 16 seconds
WW 859: Taste the Darkness! - 2023's final Patch Tuesday, E3 officially dies, the future of NPUs
Grab your favorite whisky and join Paul, Richard, and Leo as they meander through a delightfully geeky/tipsy conversation spanning Windows updates, AI advancements, Big Tech antitrust issues, and more!
Windows 11
The final Patch Tuesday of 2023 arrives
Copilot now opens on the display where you click its Taskbar icon (or it will, thanks to CFR)
Copilot now appears in Alt + Tab (but not in Task view/WINKEY + Tab), oddly (Same deal)
Account notifications in Start and Settings (disable this nonsense in Settings > Privacy & security > General)
For Windows 10 users, Copilot is now available to everyone in preview with the Patch Tuesday update (CFR, need to manually download it). No Windows integration settings yet. A few other changes on Windows 10 too
Canary/Dev (Thursday): Copilot undocked mode, Widgets changes, Windows 365 Boot and Switch changes, Windows Share improvements (WhatsApp integration, curious), character count in Notepad (how cute)
Beta channel (Friday): Windows Share and Windows Store improvements
Dev channel (today): Transitioning Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) to voice access because WSR is being deprecated
Also Canary: New Windows Protected Print Mode
Clipchamp quietly added four new features recently, and you're never going to believe what happens next
AMD unveils Ryzen 8040 series mobile CPUs with a new NPU on select models
Intel's Meteor Lake is coming in hot
Antitrust
UK CMA and US FTC are both investigating Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI
After failing to reach a settlement, Google loses Epic antitrust trial
Why it has so far done much better against Google than it has against Apple?
Apple to be punished for App Store business practices in the EU
Apple likely to open up NFC chipset in iPhone in response to EU concerns
AI
Microsoft reaches agreement with AFL/CIO on AI
Google Releases Gemini Pro to enterprises and developers
Google releases Gemini-powered NotebookLM in the U.S. Keep on steroids, basically
Xbox
An ad-supported Xbox Game Pass offering is likely on the way
Xbox Cloud Gaming is now on Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro
Balder's Gate 3 lands on Xbox Series X|S
Microsoft reveals two new games at The Game Awards
E3, which has been dead for years, is now officially dead
The next Digital Eclipse interactive documentary looks about as amazing as the first
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Get your Xbox Year in Review
App pick of the week: Fences 5
RunAs Radio this week: SysAdmin Gifts with Joey Snow & Rick Claus
Brown liquor pick of the week: Balvenie Double Wood 12
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 34 minutes, 33 seconds
WW 860: An Unexpected Visitor - Suno's AI music, Bobby Kotick's departure, predictions for Microsoft's 2024
On the last episode of 2023, Richard Campbell, Paul Thurrott, and Leo Laporte are joined by a lovely guest to look back (and look ahead) on Microsoft's progress and accomplishments. Between a Teams milestone, Meteor Lake chipset's release, AI music creation in Copilot, Bobby Kotick's upcoming exit, and Microsoft's Countdown Sale, there's plenty of news left to digest at the end of this eventful year! Happy holidays, dozers!
Windows 11/Microsoft 365
Microsoft will FINALLY fix the dumbest File Explorer bug of all - no, not that File Explorer bug
Microsoft is suddenly deprecating tons of Windows features
Windows Insider: Windows 11 Beta build 22635.2915 is the last Insider build of 2023. Nothing major: Voice access supports multiple displays, Windows 365 Boot and Windows 365 Switch from last week's Dev build, Notepad update with Notepad an "Edit with Notepad" item in the File Explorer context menu, and a character count display
Microsoft Teams now has 320 million users, 2,000 apps in the Teams store, and over 145,000 custom line-of-business (LOB) apps built by enterprises
AI
Microsoft partners with Suno to bring music creation to Copilot - OH AND THERE ARE PLUG-INS THERE NOW TOO
A few insider notes about this generation of Intel chips
Intel's Core Ultra chipset is coming to Chromebooks too
Look back/Look Ahead
What's left to say Copilots? There are lots (at least announced) and even more are coming
Is 2024 going to be the year of the AI PC? Or is this just another fad/bubble
"Windows 12" or whatever the vNext is called: Huzzah!
Ready or not, the new Outlook for Windows and new Teams are coming
How will Activision Blizzard impact Xbox?
Antitrust
Activision Blizzard settles 2021 class action lawsuit that triggered the acquisition by Microsoft
Bobby Kotick on the outs Dec 29
In wake of antitrust loss, Google also settles Play Store suit, will pay $700 million to victims
Adobe bails on Figma. Just kidding!
Xbox
Leak shows that Sony is very worried about Xbox now
Sony has sold 50 million PS5s, has outsold Xbox 3-to-1 in 2023
Google extends Stadia controller conversion timeline
Tips and picks
Tip of the week: Microsoft's Countdown sale brings big discounts to Xbox, Surface, more
App pick of the week: MediaSorter
RunAs Radio this week: Azure Arc Guest Configuration with Jodi Boone
Enterprise pick of the week: Directions on Microsoft's got some (free) resources worth checking out
Brown liquor pick of the week: The Spirit of Scotland 46 & Monkey Shoulder
Beer pick of the week: Back Home Beer Yalda Queen
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Guest: Mary Jo Foley
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 41 minutes, 49 seconds
WW 861: Our Best of 2023 - An eventful year in Microsoft news
Looking back at Windows Weekly's best moments from 2023
Welcoming Richard aboard, and setting the table for an AI-filled year
"I have been a good Bing" and other chatbot awkwardness
Leo's Parallels 18 for Mac demonstration
UK CMA blocks the Activision Blizzard deal, and it makes no sense
Build 2023 was a great showing for Steven Pathiche, but a strange showing for Panos Panay
Microsoft beats the Federal Trade Commission in court, inching a step closer to their acquisition
Discord chat with Sean, a sign language interpreter and CODA!
Panos Pany leaves Microsoft, but did he jump or get pushed?
Giant Xbox leak reveals new console refreshes, a controller, and a roadmap for the future
Impressions from the AI September event, including the sweeping Copilot rebrand.
Activision Blizzard is finally acquired after much struggle
A token Thurrant about OneDrive and its near-endless push to back up Paul's folders
A classic beer pick from the one and only Mary Jo Foley!
Host: Leo Laporte
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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1/1/1 • 3 hours, 15 minutes, 35 seconds
WW 862: One Click to Malware - Windows Mixed Reality deprecated, NY Times sues Microsoft & OpenAI, malicious MSIX packages
Microsoft finally kills Windows Mixed Reality
Just in time for Christmas, Microsoft revealed that its long-dead WMR platform is now officially dead
Windows 11
Moment 5 is allegedly coming in February
Microsoft quietly reissues Windows 11 version 23H2 installation media
Microsoft kills install from web capabilities in Windows App Installer (MSIX)
Dev (today): Richer weather experience on Lock, more Voice access improvements
Canary (today): Same Voice access changes, no more WordPad or People in a clean install, Steps Recorder deprecated, new Energy Saver icon in the system tray, Nearby Sharing can name your PC
Surface
New Surface Pro 6 and Laptop 6 are expected in Spring 2024 with Intel and Qualcomm chipsets.
Microsoft's first "real" AI PCs. FU, Surface Laptop Studio 2 buyers!
Microsoft 365
Something to consider for 2024: Have Microsoft's core platforms gotten too complex? And when/if this will drive away customers?
Standalone Copilot app launches on Android ... and then, days later, on iPhone and iPad - And it offers a ChatGPT4 mode, interestingly
AI
New York Times sues Microsoft, OpenAI for massive copyright infringement
GitHub Copilot Chat is now GA. Requires $10/month GitHub Copilot sub, but it may be the single best example of how AI can improve our lives so far
Xbox
New Xbox Game Pass titles for early January: Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Resident Evil 2 remake, more
Does something smell better around here? Bobby Kotick has left the building
PlayStation: Just kidding, you can keep your stupid Discovery shows
Meta Quest 2 gets a permanent price cut
Steam no longer supports Windows 7 or 8.1
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Properly secure your Microsoft account
App pick of the week: MSEdgeRedirect
Bonus pick: MediaSorter
RunAs Radio this week: Doing More with Less in 2024 with Erin Chapple
Brown liquor pick of the week: Elijah Craig Small Batch
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 32 minutes, 44 seconds
WW 863: Full of Corn - CES 2024 announcements, Incase Designed by Microsoft, passkey support
It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course
Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only?
PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC!
Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like?
It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs
Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share
Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft?
Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter
Windows 11
Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone
Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday
Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version
Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason
Microsoft 365
Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase
Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client
Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date
AI
OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed
Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential
Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut
Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content
Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI
Interesting details about negotiations between the two
Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf
EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA
Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise
OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users
Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board
Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good
Xbox
Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation
Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18
Minecraft Legends, RIP
Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more
Layoffs at Twitch
After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers
App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers
RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore
Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 54 minutes, 1 second
WW 864: Word Doesn't Respect Me - Outlook & advertising, Copilot Pro announced, Galaxy S24 + Google's AI
Outlook, privacy, and the terribleness of Big Tech
New Outlook Decried as a "Surveillance Tool for Targeted Advertising
One perspective: How terrible are other companies like Google and Meta?
But also, how terrible are Windows 11, Teams, Microsoft Edge, etc?
Supreme Court refuses to hear Epic v. Apple appeals
So, Epic wins on one important count, being able to communicate to their own customers
But Apple is still being terrible because it can be. Will the EU finally take care of this?
Google unlinking its services in the EU, Apple removing pulse ox from Watch in the US, Google comes clean on Incognito, and Microsoft Cloud lets EU customers keep data locally, it just keeps coming
Copilot all the things
Richard correctly predicted that 2024 would be the year that Microsoft stopped talking about AI and started implementing AI. But who could have predicted THIS in the first two weeks (!) of the year?
Copilot Pro for consumers, Copilot for Microsoft 365 for all commercial customers with no baseline, Copilot on mobile, Copilot in Microsoft 365 mobile, Copilot GPT Builder on the way
But there's a real vulnerability for Microsoft and its AI aims here - Too soon, too little may be a mistake
Microsoft and Vodafone, sitting in a tree
Plus: No Copilot AI (SLM) on the Galaxy S24 family? Interesting. Is Google trying to undermine that partnership and bring Samsung back into the fold?
Windows 11
PC sales for 2023: Good news, bad news. OK, it's just bad news
They're doing it again: After almost literally no testing, Microsoft launches new Weather experience on the lock screen and makes it the default
Store app install notifications are in stable now too
Dev: USB 80 Gbps support, auto-start Copilot on 27-inch+ displays, Windows Share (as below) improvements, fixes
Beta: More Windows Share improvements (WhatsApp, Gmail, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn URL sharing), Weather experience on Lock, Microsoft Store with instant arcade games and app install notifications
Release Preview: New KB update gives us our second near-final peek at Moment 5, with more "Ink Everywhere," eye control system support, 7-ZIP support improvements, other fixes
Microsoft will reportedly bring back the Windows Insider Program's Beta Channel for Windows 10 because they were just kidding about that whole "no new features" thing
Dev Home comes to Windows 10
Xbox
January's Game Pass titles, still no Activision Blizzard
Xbox fixes Baldur's Gate save bug
Ubisoft mixes up its Ubisoft+ subscriptions
Tips & Picks
Tip of the week: Maybe this is the year of NextDNS
App pick of the week: Brave
RunAs Radio this week: Copilots for Power Platform with April Dunnam
Brown liquor pick of the week: Writer's Tears
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 22 minutes, 22 seconds
WW 865: You Don't Drink the Bottle! - Midnight Blizzard, $3 trillion market cap, AI in Reading Coach
In this episode of Windows Weekly, Leo, Paul, and Richard cover Microsoft's recent hack, new Windows Insider updates, Copilot Pro's image creativity, various browsers, education's compatibility with generative AI, Halo Infinite's slowdown, Notion's calendar service, and Japanese whisky.
Microsoft was hacked
A Russia-backed hacker group infiltrated a legacy system and gained access to executive emails
This is triggering an escalation in Microsoft's security makeover either way
Windows 11
Beta channel: USB 80 Gbps/USB4 v2 support, bug fixes
Dev channel: Teams (commercial) meeting integration in Start, new mobile device management interface
New Surface event rumored for March. Possibly two waves of Pro and Laptop releases
Microsoft Bing and Edge are obviously not dominant platforms, and will not be subject to EU DMA
Microsoft Mesh is here for all your legless meeting needs
AI
Microsoft hits $3 trillion market cap on the strength of its AI moves
Paul used Copilot Pro and you're never going to believe what happened next
Microsoft is bringing more AI to education. And so is Google
Would you pay for an AI-infused Alexa?
Web browsers, oh my
Chrome is updated with new AI features
Firefox version 122 is out
Brave will simplify fingerprint protection. What is fingerprint protection?
Opera will pay a brand ambassador $10,000 to spend a month on a deserted Icelandic island
Xbox
Microsoft reveals several new games for 2024, key among them an Indiana Jones title
343 slows down Halo Infinite updates dramatically. Is this just about Halo or a hint at a looming new trend?
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Is it even possible to prevent online tracking?
App pick of the week: Arc browser
RunAs Radio this week: AI for IT with Gil Pekelman
Brown liquor pick of the week: Hibiki Harmony
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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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kolide.com/ww
1/1/1 • 2 hours, 36 minutes, 1 second
WW 866: Squishmallows With Guns - FY24 Q2 earnings, Teams worldwide outage, 1st-run experience redesign
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it earned a net income of $21.9 billion on revenues of $62 billion in the quarter ending December 31, 2023. Those figures are up 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)
Intelligent Cloud: Azure, AI
Microsoft's biggest business unit delivered $25.9 billion in revenue, up 20 percent YOY and driven primarily by its Azure cloud platform
Azure revenues were up 30 percent in the quarter, 6 points of which Microsoft attributed to "AI services"
Productivity and Business Processes: Microsoft 365
$19.2 billion in revenues, with growth of 13 percent YOY
Office Commercial revenues were up 15 percent
More Personal Computing: Xbox, Windows
Revenues of $16.9 billion, up 19 percent YOY
Gaming revenues surged 49 percent (44 points from Activision Blizzard)
Xbox hardware revenues inched up by 3 percent
Windows revenues from PC makers grew 11 percent in the quarter
Windows
Canary: Voice Clarity comes to more PCs, and Microsoft previews new/old Windows Setup first-run experience
Dev: Minor bug fixes only
Beta: Snap Layout suggestions, new settings in Widgets, and you can now revert to stable (!!)
Microsoft 365
Teams goes down for the count
AI
Microsoft adds deepfake guardrails to Designer AI. So, this wasn't there before now?
FTC is investigating Microsoft/OpenAI and other Big Tech AI partnerships
Xbox
Microsoft can finally bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to the iPhone (and Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone in the EU)
1900 layoffs at Activision Blizzard, Zenimax, and Xbox
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Upgrade to passkeys
App pick of the week: Insync
RunAs Radio this week: Software Licensing with Mary Jo Foley
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dailuaine 16
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds
WW 867: Prepare the Double Box! - One year of Copilot, Arc's Act II, Mozilla Monitor Plus
One year of Copilot, Arc's Act II, Mozilla Monitor Plus
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/867
Sponsor:
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1/1/1 • 3 hours, 5 minutes, 7 seconds
WW 868: PaulyBrowserous - Sudo for Windows, new FTC complaint, Mozilla refocuses
On this spicy episode of Windows Weekly, Paul, Leo, and Richard try to pronounce "Sudo," watch an expensive Copilot ad, marvel at big Arm revenues, discuss the latest in internet browser news, and debate the FTC's motivations as they go after Microsoft once again!
Windows 11
Big changes in Insider, with Canary and Dev moving to the same 24H2 builds
Windows 11 is going to get its AI moment this year
With the announcement of 24H2, does that mean nothing big mid-year as rumors suggested?
Patch Tuesday arrives. Copilot moves to the right of the system tray after 10 seconds of testing
Brave ships its browser on Arm in stable
Windows will likely get an AI game upscaling feature
AI/Antitrust
Report: Azure is allegedly 2/3rds the size of AWS by revenue, thanks to AI
Microsoft Bing and Edge avoid the EU DMA
Google Gemini officially replaces Bard
Grammarly lays off 230 to focus on AI
Mozilla scales back dramatically, will focus on AI in Firefox
Arc Sync comes to Arc on Mac only
Cloud/server/dev
Google One surpasses 100 million users. New AI tier is coming to take on Copilot Pro
Arm revenues are in. Look at those margins!
Notion acquires Skiff. Ladies and gentlemen, the Notion Office is coming
.NET 9 Preview 1 arrives. Are annual updates too much?
Xbox
Xbox says it will come clean on its strategy
The FTC claims that Xbox layoffs violate the terms of its Activision Blizzard acquisition promises
Microsoft tells the court that the FTC is wrong on multiple levels
There's a new Xbox system update
Sony doesn't meet its quarterly PS5 sales target, will miss its annual target, and the PS5 is falling off a cliff
Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic Games. "F U, Apple!"
Flight Simulator jumps the Minecraft Shark
Tips and Picks
Tip of the Week: Microsoft PC Manager - Avoid at all costs
App Picks of the Week: DuckDuckGo browser, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Devices for Windows
RunAs Radio this week: Maximizing Metadata with Emily Manicini
Brown liquor pick of the week: Starward Pedro Ximenez Cask
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 50 minutes, 29 seconds
WW 869: Pretty, Pretty Bueno - Xbox business update, ChromeOS Flex, OpenAI's Sora
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
AI
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 13 minutes, 13 seconds
WW 870: The Return of the Copilot - Windows 23H2, Lenovo Laptops, Copilot Pro
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!
AI
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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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 1 hour, 43 minutes, 47 seconds
WW 871: Ash Happens - Windows 11 Moment 5, DirectSR API, LibreOffice Writer
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
AI
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 Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 45 minutes, 36 seconds
WW 872: Go Skype Yourself - Copilot GPT Builder Impressions, DMA compliance, actual Skype news
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
AI
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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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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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
AI
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 1 minute, 6 seconds
WW 874: Dark Satya - Moment 5, Surface Pro 10 & Laptop 6
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.
AI
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 6 minutes, 51 seconds
WW 875: A Lot of Neil Diamond - Grounding Copilot, Intel Foundry's losses, Andres Freund's heroic save
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
AI
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 47 minutes, 6 seconds
WW 876: Solder On - Snapdragon X Elite impressions, KB5036893 update, CHIPS & Science Act
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
AI
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 43 minutes, 26 seconds
WW 877: The Tiger in the Grass - Backlash against tech criticism, Ralf Groene retires, Hardcore Software
Backlash against tech criticism, Ralf Groene retires, Hardcore Software
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/877
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 16 minutes, 49 seconds
WW 878: If You Build It, You Are Dumb - Snapdragon X Series SKUs, Phi-3-mini, Fallout
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
AI
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 32 minutes, 28 seconds
WW 879: The Cockroach of CPUs - FY24 Q3 Earnings, AI Explorer, Github Copilot Workspace
FY24 Q3 Earnings, AI Explorer, Github Copilot Workspace
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/879
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 22 minutes, 34 seconds
WW 880: B.C. in a Bottle - Passkeys, Xbox Studios, Democracy Prevails!
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.
AI
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 10 minutes, 34 seconds
WW 881: Big Boy Teams - Snipping Tool and Word updates, Snapdragon X Leak
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
AI
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 46 minutes, 25 seconds
WW 882: The Hall & Oates Story - Copilot+ PCs, Recall snapshots, Khan Academy
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
AI
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 13 minutes, 50 seconds
WW 883: It's So Convulated - Bing outage, NVIDIA's record Q1 FY25, WPF's rebirth
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
AI
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
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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
AI
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
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 29 minutes, 4 seconds
WW 885: Open the Kokomo! - Recall to be opt-in, Auto SR, new Xbox Series models
Recall to be opt-in, Auto SR, new Xbox Series models
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 55 minutes, 37 seconds
WW 886: The Old Banana in the Tailpipe - Copilot+ PC Launch Chaos, Recall Delay, Windows 11 Updates
Copilot+ PC Launch Chaos, Recall Delay, Windows 11 Updates
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 31 minutes, 21 seconds
WW 887: You're Drinking Wood! - Copilot+ PC impressions, Windows Hello ESS, Teams vs EU
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 17 minutes, 53 seconds
WW 888: Find the Blue Penguin - Handwriting recognition, more Copilot+ PCs tests, Brave BYOM
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 36 minutes, 31 seconds
WW 889: Works Best With Netscape - OneDrive calms down, Surface firmware, Field Guide resize
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
AI
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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 39 minutes, 40 seconds
WW 891: Scent of Carbon - CrowdStrike Outage, Windows 23H2, Halo Series
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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 38 minutes
WW 892: Capacious Chyrons - Microsoft's FY24 Q4, Xbox 360 Store closes, Skype ad-free
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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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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 46 minutes, 13 seconds
WW 894: This Isn't the Airport Jail! - Intel Innovation delay, QuakeCon 2024, Compact Mode
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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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 $1
Microsoft shows off lots of Xbox games and one PS5 game at gamescom
Phil Spencer defends this strategy at the show
Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S refreshes are available for preorder, ship in October
Microsoft announces new Xbox accessibility accessories
New Game Pass titles to include early access to COD: Black Ops 6
Nvidia GeForce Now adds auto sign in to Xbox
Epic Games Store launches on Android and iOS
It's not just regular laptops that are getting better at gaming: AAA mobile gaming is real
New Atari 7800
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Windows on Arm - Then and Now
App pick of the week: Start11
RunAs Radio this week: Threat Modeling in the Cloud with Romina Druta & Daniela Cruzes
Brown liquor pick of the week: Armorik Sherry Cask
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 36 minutes, 32 seconds
WW 896: A Very Buxom Seal - Touchpad right-clicking, Pixel 9 XL, Win11Debloat
It's Week D. Do you know where your preview updates are?
Windows 11
Windows 11 version 22H2/23H2 get the same update
Windows 11 version 24H2 gets a different update, but at least it's on time
Beta: Media controls on the Lock screen, more
Windows security update borks small number of Linux bootloaders, is perfect example of misplaced and faux outrage
Right-click doesn't work correctly with Windows and a touchpad. It's not you
M$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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 3 minutes, 9 seconds
WW 897: Not the Worst Currywurst - Lunar Lake launch, NVIDIA's Q2 FY25. weird WSJ piece
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
AI
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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 38 minutes, 51 seconds
WW 898: It's Notable When It Works - IFA Berlin 2024, PS5 Pro, Bonjourr
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 22 minutes, 32 seconds
WW 899: Functional But Disturbing - Copilot agents, HP Omnibook Ultra, What's Next?
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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 10 minutes, 49 seconds
WW 900: The 8 Poles of Inaccessibility - LinkedIn AI training, Three Mile Island, Apollo's offer
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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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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
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 38 minutes, 34 seconds
WW 904: Not Sexy, but Important - Snapdragon Dev Kit canceled, Unity 6, "A-R-M"
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
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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1/1/1 • 2 hours, 19 minutes, 38 seconds
WW 845: My NAS is Out of Date - End of WordPad, OneDrive album storage, Lenovo Legion Go
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
• 2 hours, 31 minutes, 54 seconds
WW 844: Friday Sweets - Windows 11 bugs drive Paul crazy, Microsoft AI event coming, no Xbox mid-cycle refresh
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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• 2 hours, 29 minutes, 21 seconds
WW 843: The Drawer of Broken Dreams - UK CMA stubbornness, Parallels Desktop 19, Atari 2600+
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
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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• 2 hours, 31 minutes, 13 seconds
WW 842: Eight Strikes and You're Out - Live listener questions, Edge for Business, subscription fatigue
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 15 minutes, 19 seconds
WW 841: You've Been Tennified - Windows 365 Switch public preview, Project IDX, digital decluttering
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
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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• 2 hours, 36 minutes, 35 seconds
WW 840: Buried in Corn - EU investigates Teams, Loop in the Microsoft Store, Beta build 22631.2129
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 43 minutes, 31 seconds
WW 839: Velcro and Tang - Microsoft's FY23 Q4, Zenbleed vulnerability, Nearby Share for Windows
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 43 minutes, 21 seconds
WW 838: Dabbling with Farclas - FTC double-defeated, ASUS saves the NUC, Gates on AI concerns
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
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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• 2 hours, 35 minutes, 9 seconds
WW 837: A Small Internet Boutique - Microsoft defeats the FTC, AdDuplex shutting down, Azure AD rebrand
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 36 minutes, 23 seconds
WW 836: SharePoint Under Every Desk - EU's Big Tech gatekeepers, AI-powered shopping tools, Windows Copilot Preview
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
AI
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 39 minutes, 38 seconds
WW 834: The Soothing Sounds of Trains - Moment 3 nonsense, Mail/Calendar app replacement, Opera One
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 1 hour, 54 minutes, 3 seconds
WW 833: Where Games Go To Die - Microsoft & Activision Blizzard, Windows 11 22H2, OpenAI, Xbox Updates
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
Sponsors:
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• 2 hours, 40 minutes, 26 seconds
WW 832: Saturated by Fake Girlfriends - Cortana's Windows death, 3 months with no Xbox, thoughts on WWDC23
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 19 minutes, 33 seconds
WW 831: Skied Both & Drunk in the Middle - Build 2023 analysis, Dev Drive, Margrethe Vestager's speech
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 46 minutes, 47 seconds
WW 830: Windows Is My Copilot - Build 2023 key(note) takeaways, Neeva shuts down, Leo updates to Moment 3
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
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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• 1 hour, 46 minutes, 21 seconds
WW 829: You Can't Spell Blair Witch Without AI - Moment 3 features, EC targets Azure, Forgetful Browsing
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
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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• 2 hours, 4 minutes, 20 seconds
WW 828: By Mennen - Patch Tuesday, Bing Chatbot, Redfall
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
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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AWS Insiders - WW
• 1 hour, 58 minutes, 34 seconds
WW 827: It Makes Me Fight - Windows 11 LTSC, PC peripheral consolidation, CFRs
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 44 minutes, 51 seconds
WW 826: Make it Suntory Time - CMA blocks Activision Blizzard deal, FY23 Q3 earnings, Mad Dogs Hot Dogs
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 50 minutes, 2 seconds
WW 825: You're Not a Normal Human - Bing in SwiftKey, Gallery in File Explorer, Ubisoft+ Multi Access
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
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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• 2 hours, 6 minutes, 2 seconds
WW 824: It's Called Flocculation - KB5025239, Build 2023 session catalog, Xbox April update
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
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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• 3 hours, 31 seconds
WW 817: The Moment of Confusion - Parallels Desktop 18 for Mac, AI anthropomorphism, WinUI 3 & WinAppSDK
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
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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• 2 hours, 53 minutes, 8 seconds
WW 822: Squirt a Little Fresh Air - Week D production-quality updates, revamped widgets board, Microsoft Teams redesign
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 CDMA: 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
(Thumbnail artwork by Club TWiT member Joe Esposito)
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 Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 25 minutes, 9 seconds
WW 819: Sixty-four Threads but None for You - Windows Insider Canary Channel, video super resolution, Outlook for Mac goes free
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
AI
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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• 2 hours, 25 minutes, 35 seconds
WW 823: The Door is Made of a Rake - Microsoft turns 48, Edge Workspaces public preview, Xbox Remix Special Edition Controller
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
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
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• 2 hours, 5 minutes, 30 seconds
WW 818: Antitrust Theater - New features in KB5022913 update, Microsoft's defense of Activision Blizzard bid
New features in KB5022913 update, Microsoft's defense of Activision Blizzard bid
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/818
Sponsor:
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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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
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• 2 hours, 26 minutes, 56 seconds
WW 821: Windows Everywhere - Microsoft Loop public preview, GibHub Copilot X, Adobe Firefly
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
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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• 2 hours, 50 minutes, 32 seconds
WW 815: It's Your Foot! - AI riskiness, Zoom layoffs, HBO's The Last of Us, Skype on Apple Silicon
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
CDW.com/LenovoClient
Miro.com/podcast
• 3 hours, 1 minute, 55 seconds
WW 816: I Have Been a Good Bing - Skype's annual revenue drop, Github layoffs, Viva Engage
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsor:
cachefly.com
• 2 hours, 49 minutes, 53 seconds
WW 820: Mustard Can Solve Any Problem - OpenAI's GPT-4 released, KB5023706 update, YouTube Music
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
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
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
drata.com/twit
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