Windows Weekly (Audio)

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

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/twit

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

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:

• kolide.com/ww

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

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:

• GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

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

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:

• Miro.com/podcast
• Melissa.com/twit

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

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:

• kolide.com/ww

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:

• cachefly.com/twit

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

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:

• GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

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

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• Melissa.com/twit
• kolide.com/ww

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

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:

• meraki.cisco.com/twit
• Miro.com/podcast

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

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT
• GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT
• cachefly.com/twit