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Windows Weekly 962: Peak Bloat

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December 2025's Patch Tuesday brought major shifts, but the real action is in Microsoft's pricing, privacy battles, and the arms race to control AI-enabled browsers. Plus, Paul recommends Tiny11 Builder for a clean install, or Win11Debloat for an existing install. Then, Rufus to create installation media without the forced Microsoft account (MSA) sign-in or hardware requirement checks. Use MSEdgeDirect to use the default web browser for stories from Widgets, web-based search results, etc. And ExplorerPatcher can fix the performance and reliability issues in File Explorer.

It's the final Patch Tuesday of 2025

  • Major dark mode updates (with a fix for the "flashbang" problem)
  • AI Agent in Settings, Click to Do, Windows Studio Effects, and Search improvements for Copilot+ PCs
  • Many other improvements: FSE, Share, Settings, Widgets, more

    • More Windows 11

    • New 25H2 preview build on Beta/Dev adds MCP public preview, Quick Machine Recovery auto-enabled, Unified Update Orchestration Platform, Windows MIDI services

      • Microsoft 365

      • Microsoft 365 is getting a lot more expensive in mid-2026. You didn't think all those free AI updates were free, did you?

        • AI

        • Paul has been talking about "programmatic" apps and services because he wasn't sure of a term for this type of interaction. But there is a term for this: Semantic. As in semantic web. And there you go
        • Microsoft one of 1,000 companies partnering on Agentic AI Foundation because you're getting agents whether they work or not
        • Gartner says NO to AI web browsers
        • The New York Times is suing Perplexity for all the obvious reasons
        • After a big win in the legal battle with OpenAI
        • Opera for Android gets a big AI update
        • Google Workspace Studio brings code-free agent creation to business users - automation is a solid AI use case

          • Xbox

          • Xbox Series X|S notably absent during Black Friday sales
          • Call of Duty won't repeat the mistakes of the past anymore since it didn't work out twice now
          • MS Flight Simulator 2024 is now available on PS5
          • Red Dead Redemption comes to mobile for the first time, free with a Netflix account

            • Tips & Picks

            • Tip and app(s) of the week: De-enshittify Windows 11
            • RunAs Radio this week: Incident Management and the Crowdstrike Event with Liam Westley
            • Brown liquor pick of the week: Old Farm Pennsylvania Straight Rye Whiskey

              • Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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

              Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

              The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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