On this episode, Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss the big release of Windows 11 23H2, productivity in Macs vs PCs, Microsoft 365 Copilot arriving, changes in the Xbox and marketing divisions, iFixit support for Surface repair, and American rye whiskeys. 23H2 Surprise! Microsoft delivers the Windows 11 23H2 Update, which upgrades your Windows 11 version 22H2-based PC to version 23H2, much sooner than expected. Technically, Microsoft NEVER delivered the so-called "Fall Update," since it was...

Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss Microsoft's latest earnings report, Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chip, Windows on Arm's future, passkey support for Amazon accounts, Dave Cutler's awesomeness, Stardock's 30th anniversary, Photoshop/Premiere Elements 2024, and more! Microsoft earnings Microsoft announced that it earned a net income of $22.3 billion on revenues of $56.5 billion in the quarter ending September 30, 2023. Those figures are up 27 percent and 13 percent, respectively, year-over-year...

In this episode of Windows Weekly, Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss the successful acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the questionable success of Windows 11 adoption, new Windows Insider program builds, and updates on AI integration in Microsoft/Google products. Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard This came in the wake of the UK CMA accepting the Microsoft concessions The FTC is still being a sore loser despite facts and logic No AB titles on Game Pass until 2024, Phil Spencer says...

Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X — could we see a huge improvement to Windows on Arm? Then, the dynamic trio break down Patch Tuesday and Windows 11 Insider. Paul discusses Google's Passkey support and reminds listeners Microsoft has been doing passwordless logins for years. The team discusses GitHub Copilot losses, HP AI features, Adobe's Firefly updates, and Dropbox AI. Then, Paul briefly covers C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code. During Paul's Xbox Corner, a...

Leo, Paul, and Richard talk about the end of free Windows 7/8 to Windows 10/11 upgrades using retail product keys. They also examine Chromebook Plus, Google's new premium Chromebooks aimed at gaming via cloud streaming services. This highlights issues with Google's disjointed strategies after killing Stadia. Plus, insights from the Google antitrust lawsuit, including testimony from Microsoft and Apple executives on partnerships and search dominance. This sparks debate on whether a Bing...

In this episode of Windows Weekly, Mikah Sargent is joined by Paul and Richard to discuss the latest Microsoft updates, news, and products. Paul chimes in on his experience at Microsoft's recent AI event, changes to Windows 11's confusing updates, last week's Xbox leaks, antitrust lawsuits against tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon, and more! Microsoft Special Event: Blockbuster... or blockluster? Paul went to his first in-person Microsoft event in almost four years. You're not...

It's a BIG news episode this week, as Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott discuss the sudden departure of Panos Panay from Microsoft to Amazon. Did he jump or get pushed out of the company? Leo and Paul also dive into a massive leaked memo about Microsoft's Xbox roadmap and plans over the next 10 years. Other topics include Microsoft's upcoming event focused on AI integration across products like Windows, Office 365, and Surface, as well as online account consolidation and Google's Takeout...

The latest updates to Windows 11, including the removal of legacy troubleshooting tools. Paul, Richard, and Mikah also discuss Windows 365 integration with Android phones, the new iPhone models, and Qualcomm supplying 5G modems to Apple. Plus, the full Game Pass Core library, the announcement of the Xbox Mastercard, an update on .NET 8 nearing its release, and opinions on Unity's new Runtime Fee for game installations. Windows 11 New Insider Preview builds Patch Tuesday arrives and the...

Leo, Paul, and Richard discuss issues with the reliability of File Explorer (is XAML the root cause?), Microsoft's decision to retire WordPad, antitrust lawsuits and investigations into Big Tech companies, Microsoft's upcoming Surface(?) event, automatic OneDrive uploads for Xbox captures, the launch of Bethesda's Starfield, digital decluttering tools, and more! Windows Canary: some changes to the Dynamic refresh rate feature, no more Power & Battery page in Settings, etc Dev: Bug...

Windows 11 bugs drive Paul crazy, Microsoft AI event coming, no Xbox mid-cycle refresh Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/844 Sponsor: GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

This week on Windows Weekly, Leo, Paul, and Richard dive deep into Microsoft's prolonged acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, the launch of Edge for Business, and the Mixed Reality collaboration between Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Magic Leap. CMA: F&$% you, common sense! Despite appearing to step back from the wrong decision it made about Activision Blizzard, the CMA has instead rejected the deal again... because cloud gaming So Microsoft has...

This fun episode of Windows Weekly features Paul and Richard answering questions from listeners in the Club TWiT Discord! Plus, they chat about minor Windows Insider updates, strategies for saving money on streaming services, new gaming releases like the enhanced Quake II, and more. Windows New Canary build JUST released - Nothing major; the wait for 12 continues Dev Home Preview 0.4 JUST released - accessibility and other improvements Windows 365 Switch comes to the Windows Insider Dev...

Windows 365 Switch public preview, Project IDX, digital decluttering Windows 11 Patch Tuesday arrives - nothing to see here, first PT this year with no new Windows 11 22H2 features New Canary build today: Two features from Dev, one new feature, plus a few minor fixes Windows 365 Switch is now available in public preview More Earnings Learnings Amazon revenues up 11 percent, but we have lots of AWS info Apple revenues flat as smartphone market slide continues - but services...

EU investigates Teams, Loop in the Microsoft Store, Beta build 22631.2129 Windows Insider: Last week, Canary got features from Dev plus some new features of its own. Dev channel: Improved screen cast, HDR background support, more Voice access, presence sensing, more. Beta channel: Windows Copilot, Dev Drive, enhanced Narrator/Excel integration, new Voice access text authoring features, passwordless experience for Windows Hello for Business, plus screen cast, presence, and voice access...

Microsoft's FY23 Q4, Zenbleed vulnerability, Nearby Share for Windows Microsoft Earnings Microsoft had another blockbuster quarter. What else is new? Fiscal quarter: a net income of $20.1 billion on revenues of $56.2 billion. Those figures represent year-over-year (YOY) gains of 20 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Intelligent Cloud was again Microsoft's biggest business unit, delivering $24 billion in revenues (up 15 percent YOY) on the strength of server and cloud services revenue...

It's happening! Microsoft will absolutely acquire Activision Blizzard An amazing (ahem) blizzard of activity on the acquisition front leaves Microsoft on the verge of consummating this deal. It's amazing how much has happened since last week. FTC appealed its court loss and was immediately defeated again UK CMA extends deadline for its review of Microsoft's new concessions Microsoft and Sony agree to a Call of Duty deal (!) - not clear if it's for 10 years UK court formally pauses CMA...

MICROSOFT BEATS FTC IN DRAMATIC FASHION Judge throws out FTC's request to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard For once, common sense prevails FTC threatens to appeal, but legal experts say this will fail UK CMA (sort of) realizes the error of its ways and will renegotiate with Microsoft and then later said it may require a new investigation because they are terrible Just a quick note about an old friend: AdDuplex is shutting down Amazon is first Big Tech firm to...

EU's Big Tech gatekeepers, AI-powered shopping tools, Windows Copilot Preview The EU officially identified the first Big Tech "gatekeepers" that will be held to a higher regulatory standard, and Microsoft made the list. Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook (Meta) Plus, TikTok owner ByteDance (?) and Samsung Booking.com says it was notified it will be on the next list for some reason too What is the standard? What are the penalties for non-compliance? Microsoft to face EU antitrust...

Microsoft/FTC hearings reveal numerous details about the Xbox business The FTC's economist could not explain how the acquisition would actually harm competition The FTC bungled its questioning of Phil Spencer so badly that he had to explain how mergers work to the agency. Microsoft decided to pursue AB after it learned that Sony was paying publishers to skip Xbox and that it was trying to make Starfield exclusive to PlayStation A Bethesda executive asked Phil Spencer why AB was so...

Microsoft squares off against the FTC On Thursday, Microsoft will face off against the FTC in its bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. But the FTC has proven that it does not understand its role as an enforcer of US antitrust laws. The FTC should lose this case, paving the way for an immediate acquisition. The CMA can go F itself. NZ may be stepping in soon too More Moment 3 confusion This week, Microsoft issued Moment 3 to the Windows 11 Insider Program Release Preview Program This is...

Microsoft & Activision Blizzard, Windows 11 22H2, OpenAI, Xbox Updates Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/833 Sponsors: Brooklinen.com Use Code WINDOWS cs.co/twit cachefly.com

Cortana's Windows death, 3 months with no Xbox, thoughts on WWDC23 Developer Story As the developer conference season winds down with WWDC, a look at how Apple, Google, and Microsoft are both similar to and different from each other Hololens flashbacks anyone? Windows She's dead, Jim: Microsoft kills Cortana in Windows 10, 11 - this is all about marketing Teams for Windows (consumer) gets new features that no one will notice either Windows Insider Preview: Microsoft Paint gets Dark...

One more look back at Build  Microsoft talked a lot about what's coming to Windows, was vague on the timing. Speaking of vague, Microsoft gave the impression that there were "1 billion" Windows 11 users. There are not. Paul can confirm that Panos Panay was purposefully sidelined. Dev Drive: excellent. Dev Home: Eh. Windows Copilot, Winget config: maybe A theory about 23H2 = Moment 4 Windows 11 New Insider Preview builds. Canary: Microsoft Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies on...

Build 2023 key(note) takeaways, Neeva shutting down, Leo updates to Moment 3 Microsoft Build 2023 Microsoft's keynotes are a combination of marketing and developer talk and that stands in sharp contrast to how Google and Apple handle their developer shows. It's good and bad, but Microsoft's keynotes must be mostly boring and/or pointless to mainstream users. Microsoft announces Windows Co-pilot, with yet another Taskbar button and a new sidebar Dev Home is a dashboard for developers...

Windows 11: We're having another moment! After hitting Release Preview last week, Moment 3 will arrive in preview form next week (Week D) or the following week and then head to stable on June 13 (Patch Tuesday). Now we have a better understanding of Microsoft's update schedule for Windows 11 Feature Updates - one per year in H2, deployed logically using best-known configurations first Moments - once per quarter Controlled Feature Releases (CFRs) - almost every month, deployed randomly...