Windows Weekly (Audio)

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Windows Weekly (Audio) episodes

January 22, 2025WW 916: ¡Agua Gigante! - OpenAI, Stargate Project, 24H2 Preview
Microsoft, Google make major changes to how they deliver office productivity AI functionality.
Microsoft was technically first, it made two changes previously: AI credits for Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers across Windows apps, Designer, etc. And it introduced the new plans and price hikes noted below in limited markets.

Google kills Gemini Advanced for businesses, adds those features to Workspace, raises prices.

Microsoft adds limited access to Copilot Plus features for paying Microsoft 365 Family and Personal subscriptions, raises prices.

But there are lots of caveats, questions, and complaints - of course there are.

Price hikes are pretty substantial.

AI credits system with no management.

Only the primary user gets this functionality with Family plan, no way to change that.

No way to get more credits each month.

You can pay $20 per user per month to get Copilot Plus still.

With this, the AI business model has changed yet again. It will keep changing.

All in all, an incredible week of change, but also one I (Paul) asked for last year in Will Not Pay for AI.

Nothing changed with Google consumer AI you still pay for Gemini Advanced and Microsoft commercial AI - you still pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Windows
PC market grew just 1.3 percent in 2024. I'm sure 2025 will be WAY better.

Windows 11 version 24H2 is now broadly available.
Windows Insider
Microsoft brings AI-powered Windows Search to Dev channel Copilot+ PC is the minimum.

Windows 11 version 24H2 Release Preview channel update ahead of preview update and then Patch Tuesday in February: Improved Taskbar previews, Windows Studio Effects icon in system tray, Shared items in File Explorer home page/new Shared tab, 6 GHz support for mobile hotspot, non-admins can finally change the time zone, weird Windows Backup change (standard Taskbar on restore on new PC), many fixes.

Last week, new Canary build with Administrator protection (basically the Recall Windows Hello behavior for every admin action).

Last week, two builds - new Beta (23H2) build with widgets extensibility, top cards in Settings app, changes to Home view in Settings app for commercial users, improved text scaling in File Explorer, the Windows Backup change noted above more. And more...

Semi-related but important: Microsoft made a subtle yet massive way to how MSA sign-ins work on the web.
AI
Microsoft and OpenAI change their relationship subtly, OpenAI can now use other cloud infrastructure. Or is the start of something major?

FTC warns on Big Tech AI startups, no one care.

OpenAI announces two new feature for ChatGPT Custom instructions and task (from last week).
Xbox and Gaming
Microsoft Edge Game Assist is now available in stable, but you have to enable it first.

Xbox Game Pass gets a ton of new titles for the second half of January.

Don't forget: Xbox Developer Direct is Thursday (January 22).

Nintendo finally offers a tease of the larger Switch 2, more in May.
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: It's time to figure out an AI strategy

For you, as an individual. My high-level advice: Go free for as long as you can and experiment with everything.

App pick of the week: Opera

The Opera sidebar is getting interesting and offers a mobile-like experience for online services that can reduce tab usage (and thus

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/916

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Sponsors:
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2 hr 9 min
January 15, 2025WW 915: Magic Tricks for Cats - GitHub Copilot's magic, KB5050009, 16GB Pi 5
The first Patch Tuesday of 2025 brings temporary but sweet relief. There were no preview updates last month, so this month is just security/bug fixes. Plus, will Microsoft back down from its Windows 10 EOL line in the sand? It appears not. Finally, got New Year's resolutions? Paul's got a better idea. Maybe...
Windows
New Canary build with nothing in it

Microsoft will not support Office on Windows 10 after October EOL date

Microsoft is auto-installing the new Outlook in Windows 10 too - Don't let the door hit you on the way out

Parallels Desktop for Mac now supports running x86 Windows VMs. Very slowly
AI, Microsoft 365
New business models for AI emerge in 2025. Pay as you go vs. pay or no pay

Microsoft has shifted its business model strategy over two years

15 months of Copilot in Windows: Madness

Microsoft announces pay-as-you-go AI agents

Google has a different (better) take with "the best of Google AI" in Workspace

What to expect: Price hikes on subscription services to pay for this AI

Massive reorg of Microsoft's engineering groups is all about AI - There are PM-level layoffs happening now all over Microsoft

OpenAI adds tasks in beta to ChatGPT

Microsoft Excel in Windows will soon support dark mode. Wait, what?
Hardware
Surface teases a big announcement on January 30

AMD surges on incredible new x86 chips and Intel's epic fail

Former Surface design lead Ralf Groene joins Panos at Amazon. Why?

Arm Holdings plans massive licensing price hikes. Everyone needs to settle the F down

There's a 16 GB Raspberry Pi 5 now. But at this price, a low-end NUC is the better choice for most
Dev
.NET 9.0.1 arrives - and with it, the fix for the app-crashing WPF/Windows 11 theming bug

Paul tried GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio. It is MAGIC
Xbox
Microsoft is clearly planning something big for gaming handhelds. Windows or Xbox? Or both?

Happy New Year, Xbox fans! Microsoft to bring more Xbox exclusives to PS, Switch

Xbox to host a Developer Direct event next week

Microsoft introduces new Xbox repair options

The Nintendo Switch 2 is leaking all over the place, and there were prototypes at CES
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Think about making micro changes each month or quarter instead of huge, sweeping changes once a year

App pick of the week: Start11 v2.5

RunAs Radio this week: DevOpsDocs with Mattias Karlsson

Brown liquor pick of the week: Buchanan's Deluxe 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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 hr 37 min
January 08, 2025WW 914: Something Weird From the Closet - Snapdragon X, Dell kills XPS, Qualcomm beats Arm
We heard you missed us. We're back.
Windows
Microsoft declares 2025 the "year of the Windows 11 PC refresh."

As likely as "year of the Linux desktop"

The theory: Windows 10 EOL, AI PCs, lingering security fears from CrowdStrike

The issue: Windows 10 has 63 usage share right now. At this point in time, Windows 7 had only 25 percent usage share (and was in second place, not first)

Intel joins in on this fever dream but we've stopped listening

More interesting: AMD is kicking ass and taking names. And we thought the existing chips were good (they are). Related to this, PC makers are embracing AMD like never before. Check out HP's workstations (including laptops)

Microsoft is blocking the 24H2 update on PCs with Auto HDR enabled

New Canary and Beta builds ring in the New Year

Not that it matters, but Windows 11 almost had Vista Ultimate Extras-like dynamic wallpapers

Dell kills XPS and all its other PC brands because Dell is stupid and doesn't know what it had
Arm & PCs
Qualcomm defeated Arm Holdings in licensing dispute court case. And, yes, it won big time, contrary to Arm's nonsense

Qualcomm announces an even lower-end Snapdragon X chip for $600 PCs, so ASUS announces an $1100 laptop that uses it

Snapdragon Dev Kit update

Part 2 of Paul's history of Windows on Arm is up

New Arm PCs announced, including desktops. Ahead of CES, Geekom jumped the gun and said it was coming out with a Snapdragon X-based NUC. Lenovo has a NUC/SFF

NVIDIA and MediaTek confirm partnership on Arm chips for PCs
Microsoft 365
First, GitHub Copilot, but now Microsoft 365 Copilot will allegedly stop using OpenAI exclusively

Microsoft reveals (confirms) it will spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in FY 2025 as it suckles up to Trump like the rest of the tech industry

Microsoft and OpenAI allegedly tied AGI milestone to profits, not intelligence
Xbox & Gaming
Microsoft discusses a console-like experience for Windows handheld gaming. Tied to that, a new generation of handheld gaming PCs is on the way

Xbox Game Pass says Happy New Year with a full slate of Activision Blizzard titles. Just kidding

NVIDIA announces new graphics cards for PCs

No one wants this, but Xbox is coming to LG smart TVs

Xbox Rewards shuffles the deck chairs, hopes no one notices it's worse now
Tips & Picks
Tip of the week: Spend a little, upgrade to Windows 11

App pick of the week: Microsoft PowerToys

RunAs Radio this week: Least Privilege in 2025 with Bailey Bercik

Brown liquor pick of the week: Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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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zscaler.com/security
2 hr 45 min
December 23, 2024WW 913: The Best of 2024 - Windows Weekly's 2024 Highlights
Windows Weekly wishes all viewers and listeners a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Here's a look back at Microsoft's 2024!
NYT sues OpenAI and Microsoft

Copilot Pro announced

Copilot GPT Builder Impressions

XZ Utils Backdoor Found by Microsoft Hero

Copilot+ PC & Recall Announced

Recall Drama Prompts Opt-in Changes

Thurrant: WSJ Hit Piece on Qualcomm?

Lenovo's nutty ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid

3 Mile Island Revival

Halo Studios & Unreal Engine 5

Snapdragon Dev Kit Unboxed

Coffee and Nespresso tangent!

Steve Gibson's Worry About "Connected Experiences"

Intel's CEO "retires"

Clonakilty Whiskey in studio!

Host: Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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 hr 50 min
December 18, 2024WW 912: Unicornification - Real-time translation, AI steak video, The Great Circle
Real-time translation, AI steak video, The Great Circle

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/912
Sponsors:
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2 hr 44 min
December 11, 2024WW 911: A Back-End Guy - Recall impressions, Copilot Vision preview, x86's future
Recall impressions, Copilot Vision preview, x86's future

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/911
Sponsors:
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2 hr 56 min
December 04, 2024WW 910: Intel Outside - Pat Gelsinger's exit, FTC investigation, Dia browser
BLOCKBUSTER NEWS FROM INTEL
Intel announces Arc B-series GPUs!!!

CEO Pat Gelsinger "retires," but was really forced out by the board of directors

Why? Theories include too-slow progress, major partner bailing on foundry, disagreements over keeping x86 design and foundry, etc.
Windows
All Quiet on the Windows Front

No Insider builds last week. Thanks Thanksgiving! Today, a new Canary build with Win32 app updating in the Store

Patch Tuesday is next week - this will be a big one

The rest of December will be quiet too

Microsoft: TPM 2.0 is "non-negotiable" in Windows

And now, a long-threatened change: Watermark on the desktop of unsupported PCs

PC sales slid 1.5 percent in Q3 after two quarters of "growth"/flat sales

Samsung is killing DeX

Phone Link is the new Dex. Interesting, given the partnership with Microsoft

Plus, Google is FINALLY adding desktop capabilities to Android. This should have always come from the platform maker
AI, Cloud
FTC is investigating Microsoft for cloud licensing too - And about 16 other things apparently

Microsoft: SHE HIT ME FIRST!

Spotify Wrapped 2024 uses Notebook LM to create a personalized podcast for each customer

OpenAI is solving the biggest problem with AI... its lack of advertising!

The Browser Company's next browser is called Dia and it's all about AI. Does it have a chance?
Xbox
Xbox Year in Review is live

Indiana Jones and more is coming to Game Pass in the first half of December

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is getting big reliability updates. Hopefully, Boeing is helping out here

For some reason, Sony announces that it sold 160 million PlayStation 2 consoles
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Get out of the basement

App pick of the week: Google Drive

RunAs Radio this week: A SysAdmin Christmas with Rick Claus and Joey Snow

Brown liquor pick of the week: Dewar's 8 Year Old Caribbean Smooth Rum Cask Finish

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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 hr 45 min
November 27, 2024WW 909: Shaved Toasted and Charred - Spreading light, MSFS 2024 issues, Recall (Preview)
Spreading light, MSFS 2024 issues, Recall (Preview)
Windows
Recall and Click to Do arrive in Preview and the world doesn't implode. Sorry, haters

Snapdragon X Copilot+ PCs only - and dear God, please follow Paul's advice

Look at how facile the complaints are now

This week in 24H2, unreliability problems. Certain Ubisoft games are causing issues

Beta: New taskbar-based continuity features

Microsoft is getting rid of ONE OneDrive folder backup nag. The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?

HP and Dell earnings

The PC refresh cycle keeps getting delayed, now to second half of 2025

Google will reportedly merge Chrome OS into Android. Complexity won. Is this a good idea?
Microsoft 365
Big outage kept customers off Microsoft 365 for better part of a day this week
AI, antitrust, corporate
Microsoft debunks reports that it is using customer data in Microsoft 365 to train AI

This kind of thing keeps happening. There were reports a month ago about Microsoft secretly enabling Recall on PCs that was complete BS

Amazon expands Anthropic investment to $8 billion, or 73 percent of MSFT/OpenAI

Brave Search adds a chat mode to ask follow-ups to AI results

DOJ, Google make final arguments in Google ad monopoly case in US

Google testing changes to search to meet DMA needs

Intel secures $7.6 billion in CHIPS funding. Qualcomm is apparently no longer interested
Xbox
Flight Simulator 2024 is a cluster$%^@ so Xbox is issuing fixes

Microsoft is adding a mini Edge browser to Game Bar

Xbox gamers can make private Discord calls now

Microsoft is shutting down Xbox Avatar Editor because no one uses it

Like Microsoft, PlayStation is looking at mobile gaming hardware again, still years away
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: We live in a new era of misinformation

App pick of the week: Opera GX is almost all-new, Firefox goes to 133

RunAs Radio this week: Incident Response with Mandi Walls

Brown liquor pick of the week: Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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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e-e.com/twit
flashpoint.io
2 hr 40 min
November 20, 2024WW 908: Twenty-Six Boxes of Napoli - Microsoft Ignite 2024, Half-Life 2 turns 20, "Agentic"
It's Microsoft Ignite and we are totally not there
One word summary: Agentic

A wave two for Copilot, essentially

Agents that work on your behalf autonomously

The Snapdragon Dev Box was such a success that Microsoft is offering more hardware

Copilot+ PCs are getting new AI capabilities. Eventually

Copilot Actions brings, um, actions to Microsoft 365
Windows 11
Microsoft FINALLY releases Windows 11 on Arm ISO - Here's some advice

When you think about Windows, we're guessing security and resiliency aren't what comes to mind. So why is Microsoft pushing this so hard at Ignite??

Google Drive is now available in Beta for Windows 11 on Arm. Paul's national nightmare is over!

Here's what's coming to Windows 11 SOON - a new Release Preview channel build shows that 24H2 was just the start of this coming year's updates

Canary: Mostly bug fixes, no clear vision for this channel we can see - new Canary build today with the new Hello experience, new Taskbar thumbnail previews

Beta: Jump list sharing and other features no one has ever, ever, ever asked for

Microsoft is shutting down Beta channel for Windows 10, just months after it revived it

Lenovo revenues surge, PC sales only up slightly but it sees big growth in the coming quarters
AI, antitrust, more
DOJ reportedly wants Google to sell off Chrome - How does this compare to the previous Microsoft breakup attempt?

Some thoughts about Uno Platform Studio and a re-do of last week's .NET news now that Richard is back

A WPF on .NET 9 update
Xbox
Phil Spencer speaks: Portable Xbox hardware, mobile store, more

Microsoft's new Xbox ad triggers PTSD or celebration, depending on your views

You can now play (50) games you own on Xbox Cloud Gaming!

It's been a while, but this is a killer month for Game Pass

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available

Avowed is an Xbox console exclusive and it's coming in February

Warcraft 1 and 2 Remasters arrive alongside Warcraft 3: Reforged 2.0 - celebrating the 20th anniversary

Valve celebrates the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2!

The OG Unreal and Unreal Tournament are now free, and they run on modern PCs too

Sony PlayStation Portal can now stream some PS Plus games
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Get 1 TB of additional Xbox storage for just $99

App pick of the week: ChatGPT for Windows and Mac

RunAs Radio this week: Testing Databases with Dan Mallott

Brown liquor pick of the week: Haavaldsen Sledgehammer 2024

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly 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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cachefly.com/twit
3 hr 31 min
November 13, 2024WW 907: It's Interesting Being Me - Edge's data trick, Outlook's AI Themes, .NET 9
Edge's data trick, Outlook's AI Themes, .NET 9, and more!
Windows 11
The 24H2 quality issues continue, like a parade with no end.

Patch Tuesday arrives

Windows team says no Preview update in December... but what about November?

Reminder of the Canary build last week with Prism emulator improvements. WHERE ARE THE ARM ISOs???

Most recent episode of Run as Radio is worth discussing again here

Dev and Beta: Nice new "run as admin" shortcut in Dev, minor changes in Beta

Canary: Mostly bug fixes

Microsoft Edge is using a new trick to steal Chrome data

It's dead, Jim: Microsoft reminds world that Outlook will replace Mail, Calendar, People

If you pay for Copilot (dummy) you can make custom Outlook themes now for some reason

Quick laptop update: AMD Zen 5 vs. Intel Lunar Lake vs. Snapdragon X
Still more earnings
Arm: $844 million, but disappointing. Also, Qualcomm legal battle looms

Qualcomm: $10.24 billion in revenues, up 19 percent

AMD to lay off 4 percent of (26,000 employee) workforce globally, focus on AI
Dev
Microsoft releases .NET 9

That means WPF support for Windows 11 theming is live

But there's a surprise: Microsoft added one of the features we need

.NET Conf is happening as we speak - Thursday is third-party day, and I am curious about Avalon and Uno announcements

Qualcomm has a webinar tomorrow for AI developers and Snapdragon X
Xbox
Surprise! Death Stranding comes to Xbox three years later to the day

Phil Spencer talks PS5, mobile devices, more in a new interview

MAJOR NEW ACTIVISION RELEASE ON GAME PASS

Just kidding, it's some stupid purple dragon

Friend requests now available (again) to all Xbox users

Paying GeForce Now customers get monthly usage caps

NVIDIA app replaces GeForce Experience, no need to sign in anymore

Sony has sold 65 million PS5 consoles ... it needs 20+ million more to surpass PS3
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update

App pick of the week: Stardock DesktopGPT

App pick of the week #2: Quick Share

Cocktail of the week: Salmoncito
Ingredients
1 oz. tonic water, plus more for topping

1½ oz. London dry gin

¼ oz. Campari

¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice

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

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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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veeam.com
2 hr 18 min

About Windows Weekly (Audio)

From the publisher's feed

Windows Weekly is about more than Windows. Veteran Microsoft insiders Paul Thurrott and Richard Campbell join Leo for a deep dive into the most valuable company in the world. From consumer to enterprise, AI to Xbox, Windows Weekly is the only Microsoft podcast you'll ever need.

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