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

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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

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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

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Real-time translation, AI steak video, The Great Circle

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Recall impressions, Copilot Vision preview, x86's future

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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On Halloween, the last day of October, Microsoft delayed Recall again. It was supposed to preview in October, this is the third delay. No clear reason why. December now, supposedly. Plus, Paul gives an earnings recap that he didn't get to dive into much last week.

Windows

• New 24H2 bug
• More features coming to Prism emulator in Windows 11 on Arm (!)
• New generative AI features are coming to Paint, Photos, and Notepad
• Beta channel: Here's the new Windows Hello experience, with explicit references to passkeys
• Proton VPN is native on Windows 11 on Arm
• Windows Server 2025 is GA (and some are being mistakenly force-upgraded. This is what you get when you share a codebase with Windows 11, apparently)
• Google shifts Android development cycle - Major update each Q2, minor update each Q4, monthly feature/quality updates

A Tale of 2 Chips

• Paul reviewed the AMD Zen 5-based HP OmniBook Ultra, it's awesome. Paul is also reviewing an Intel Lunar Lake laptop, and it is not awesome
• Early glee around Lunar Lake was misplaced
• Laptop reviewers all report what Paul is seeing (for once), that the performance is horrific. You need to switch to "Best performance" power management mode for reasonable performance, but this hasn't solved all the issues
• COD: Black Ops 6. Average FPS under Zen 5 is 90 to 120 at native resolution/medium graphics, single and multi-player. Lunar Lake? 40 FPS with all graphics settings on low/very low
• Intel now says Lunar Lake is a one-off too (Meteor Lake was likewise a one-off, architecturally). It will no longer package RAM with processors because of margins. Lunar Lake rushed to market and was key contributor to recent financial issues

More Earnings Learnings

• Amazon: $159 billion in revenues, $27.5 billion for AW
• Apple: $95 billion in revenues, a small uptick in iPhone revenues

Microsoft 365/AI

• Some curious/confusing moves with Microsoft 365 for consumers: subscribers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand are getting Copilot Pro credits with base subscription (Word, Excel, etc.), Designer, ... and the long-overdue and dreaded price increase
• This must be a test for the U.S. and western Europe. Feels inevitable
• OpenAI launches ChatGPT Search. This is not the Google Search replacement you're looking for

Xbox

• It's November, so here's the incredible list of Activision Blizzard games now coming to Game Pass! Just kidding, but we are getting Flight Sim 2024
• Microsoft introduced an AI-powered support virtual agent to Xbox because something something AI
• Switch sales drop off a cliff, Nintendo will announce backward-compatible successor before the end of March
• Sony launches the PS5 Pro to meh

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Windows 11 minus the MSA
• App pick of the week: Docs in Proton Drive
• RunAs Radio this week: Software-Defined Networking using Azure Firewall with Aidan Finn
• Brown liquor MOVIE pick of the week: Whisky Galore

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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

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