Windows Weekly

CrowdStrike: Terrible name, terrible outage

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

Windows

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

AI/Antitrust

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

It's That Time of the Quarter Again

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

Xbox

FTC complains about Xbox Game changes. They're not wrong. But they're not

right either.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare III lands on Game Pass today - what the what
Also, Microsoft muffed the landing badly - but it appears to be working now
Halo TV series canceled. It's the worst thing that's happened with Xbox this entire year

Tips and Picks

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

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

App pick of the week: Microsoft Designer for image generation

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

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

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

Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Writerʼs Tears Tequila Cask

Hosts: Leo Laporte , Paul Thurrott , and Richard Campbell

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

Windows

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

AI/Antitrust

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

Dev

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

Xbox

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

Tips and picks

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

Hosts: Leo Laporte , Paul Thurrott , and Richard Campbell

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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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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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin .

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

Mission Accomplished

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

Windows 11

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

AI & Microsoft 365

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

Xbox

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

Tips and Picks

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

Hosts: Leo Laporte , Paul Thurrott , and Richard Campbell

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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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

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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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

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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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

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

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

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin .

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Windows 11 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

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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