Windows Weekly (Video)

Why does Microsoft keep stumbling with new devices and software design... and what happens when enthusiasts start favoring AI over old-school Office? Paul, Richard, and Leo dig into shifting loyalties and what that means for the future of the desktop. And with the release of 26H2, it's time to update your install and recovery media. The build number is 26300.9457 Windows Windows 11, version 26H2 is here New features, none unique: Start, Taskbar, Search, etc New defaults for some features: Windows settings backup for commercial customers, etc. The time a UX legend interviewed for a job at Microsoft running Windows UX WSL Containers are generally available in Windows 11 Four new Insider builds, but only Experimental gets anything interesting: Phone companion improvements and Energy recommendations directly in Quick Settings Software Microsoft retires the Microsoft 365 Companion apps for Windows 11 that never made sense in the first place Mozilla ships the new Nova UI in Firefox 157 Hardware Copilot+ PC brand could be on the way out, but it was all over IFA, including on RTX Spark-based PCs Microsoft launches new base Surface Pro and Laptop models with Snapdragon X2 - And a new mouse, for some reason Qualcomm brought (first-gen) Snapdragon X to Googlebook, but it's also bringing X2 to Linux Google quietly reveals that, yes, Chromebooks are on the way out AI Microsoft unveils the Copilot "super app" and the notion that this is basically an OS Open releases about 1000 new updates for ChatGPT Claude Sonnet 5.5 joins Opus 5.5 The AI money pit, part 127: Report details Anthropic losses, spending, and revenues. Report also does a bad job at visualizing that information XBOX and gaming Disc to digital program is live Minecraft Dungeons is here with a new dimension, and it's coming to Minecraft next year too Microsoft has a new casual mobile game for some reason XBOX now has mythic achievements Tips and picks Tip of the week: Get the Windows 11 version 26H2 ISO App pick of the week: Opera on desktop and on mobile RunAs Radio this week: AI and Penetration Testing with Paula Januszkiewicz Brown liquor pick of the week: Kilchoman Loch Gorm 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. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: PaloAltoNetworks.com/Idira bitwarden.com/twit

Windows Week D arrives, and this time we get updates - a preview of Octoberʼs Patch Tuesday 24H2/25H2 Minor update with new Copilot key remaps, Wi-Fi in WRE, more 26H1 Major update that brings all new 26H2 features—Start, Taskbar, Search —to 26H1. Finally. Windows Insider Program Four new builds last Friday - Biggest change is Cloud Rebuild in WRE (in Experimental) gaining new capabilities. Software 30 years ago, Dave Plummer created Task Manager, and now heʼs vibe-coded a modern version that works on Mac and Linux too. Stardock announces a new Windows 11 utility called Snipboard. Clipchamp does AI upscaling to 4K now Hardware The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15p Aura Edition is nearly perfect, with 11 hours of battery life. Googlebook revealed! Questions answered - $899 starting price is much lower than expected. This is Androidʼs Copilot+ PC moment - An AI PC? What a concept! AI/dev Microsoft announces a OneDrive + Copilot event in October - Also a separate Copilot event before then. Financial Times reveals internal OpenAI prediction of $278 billion in losses over the next five years. NYT copyright case discovery reveals what Microsoft and OpenAI really think about stealing content. Anthropic merges Cowork into chat, adds Docs and Slides. Google Labs CC turned into Gemini Daily Brief, so now itʼs an AI agent for families. Google opens up its Home smart home ecosystem to other AI assistants. XAML.io is a web-based vibe coding IDE for .NET apps and it looks amazing. XBOX and Gaming A big reorg and a small number of layoffs at XBOX sets off a new round of hand wringing. Tip and Picks Tip of the week: Get Auto SR on Panther Lake-based laptops Auto SR was designed to make gaming viable on Windows 11 on Arm/Snapdragon X/X2, but now itʼs available on Intel Core Ultra Series 3-based PCs and it is worth experimenting with. App Pick of the Week: Affinity Possibly the greatest free app in existence, Affinity just got 60 new features and is even better. Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott 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. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit originhq.com/windowsweekly

Microsoft's record-breaking Patch Tuesday unleashed nearly a thousand fixes, but the bonus story is in the chaos that followed as out-of-band updates and AI-driven bug hunts left admins scrambling to keep up. Windows Patch Tuesday was so buggy Microsoft had to release an emergency fix to address all the issues New Release Preview builds for 24H2/25H2 - I guess we're moving past the features that are also in the initial 26H2 release - New Copilot key remapping feature, they will get it right eventually Five builds across Experimental and Beta channels - All over the map as you'd expect Google releases the Gemini app for Windows Adobe released Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2027 AnyType is a top-tier Notion alternative and it's about to get very interesting Microsoft previews an October Windows + Surface event that's clearly all about Nvidia - but is this also tied to 26H2 release? HP announces a new Ryzen-based portable workstation with an interesting detail about unified memory Apple announced iPhone 18 Pros, iPhone Duo, Watch 12 + Ultra 4, AirPods 5, and then released its '27 OS updates - And sure whatever AI AI fear-mongering reaches new heights (or new lows): Is this just PR from Big AI to keep the money rolling? Bill Gates says Gates Foundation will donate $1+ billion to solve AI inequality Big AI could solve the PR problems by actually doing something positive for mankind. Just a thought Copilot Work and Copilot Studio get app building capabilities Google will bring MCP to Google Home, in early preview now Mozilla and Mistral partner on Firefox Smart Window AI XBOX and gaming Gears of War: E-Day and more is coming to Game Pass in the second half of September XBOX is going to the Tokyo Game Show and a nice surprise for Kojima fans Valve opens up Steam Frame preorders and it's only $1060! Amazon Prime Gaming and Luna are having a pretty g26ood September Apple is reportedly making an iPhone game controller for some reason Tips and picks Tip of the week: There's a new MSA bypass for Windows 11 Setup App pick of the week: Google Dreambeans RunAs Radio this week: Patching in 2026 with Susan Bradley Brown liquor pick of the week: Art of the Spirits Honored to Serve 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. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

With Microsoft shattering records for patched vulnerabilities and AI exposing even more bugs, Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell debate whether this tidal wave of fixes signals progress or just bigger trouble ahead for Windows users. Also, Sonos is back and here's something no one has been able to say for, well, forever: It's new app is great! Plus, Gemini's Daily Brief is surprisingly useful, and it's available for free to everyone in the U.S.MICROSOFT MAKES MAJOR FINANCIAL REPORTING CHANGE The canary in the coal mine has finally been rewarded: Microsoft will dramatically change how it reports earnings, effective immediately. The good: Didn't see this coming, Microsoft will allegedly be transparent about Azure revenues every quarter The bad: A simpler structure means more revenues are being hidden and you can only make accurate YOY comparisons dating back two years now The unknown: What this will really look like in practice How is it possible that Paul has been all over this for years and Wall Street has mostly ignored it? Windows Patch Tuesday arrives - And, yes, it's basically 26H2 New Start, Taskbar, and Windows Search are generally available Is the "real" 26H2 still on track for October or does it just happen whenever? Microsoft fixed almost 1000 security vulnerabilities this month (974), with 723 of them in Windows and 112 of them critical-severity. It has already released over double the number of security patches this year (2760) as it did in all of 2025 (1139). Five new builds drop just ahead of Patch Tuesday updates with three minor new features Project Zenith is a misguided attempt to make Windows better for developers that shows they've learned nothing Microsoft Edge team promises two contrary improvements: Faster extension approvals, better quality It came from IFA Lenovo: Two AMAZING prototype PCs, one of which is imminent as a shipping product. Two killer NVIDIA RTX Spark-based laptops. Colorful laptops and AIO deflate the MacBook Neo balloon nicely. New ThinkCentre desktops and ThinkBook laptops, including a killer AMD-based workstation that can be daisy-chained HP: Three new NVIDIA RTX Spark PCs, one of which is a desktop PC Acer: RTX Spark, gaming handheld, more Key takeaway: NVIDIA RTX Spark is a game-changer Apps Vivaldi adds PWA and address bar improvements Yes, Virginia, Brave is still the fastest web browser AI and dev Newsday and The Seattle Times sue OpenAI and Microsoft for stealing copyrighted content at scale There's a great new documentary about the making of Visual Studio Code out and it's free This is a modern example of how tech limitations can spur innovation, something that happened a lot in the early home computer era and happens a lot less now .NET 11 heads to release candidate phase ahead of November release XBOX and gaming XBOX Cloud Gaming is getting usage caps starting in November and a standalone service is on the way XBOX app is coming to TCL smart TVs XBOX Insiders are testing startup animation choices, Showcase customization, an improved Remote Play experience, background downloads for Cloud Gaming, and more Tips and picks Tip of the week: Gemini offers a useful and free daily briefing App pick of the week: Sonos RunAs Radio this week: State of WSUS with Adam Brown These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/1000 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

While Microsoft pushes Copilot+ PCs, NVIDIA storms into the Windows ecosystem with AI-focused Spark machines and game-changing specs, igniting new rivalries with Apple and upending expectations for what local hardware can do. Plus, Atari revives 39 Activision classics for a price that will make retro fans blink, while the Sonos saga continues as it pivots to an open AI platform that might finally win back old loyalties. Finally, Paul's Markdown book will be released sometime in the next week. Windows The mystery of 26H2 is now less mysterious Last week: Week D came and went without a preview release, triggering speculation Microsoft issues Windows 11 version 26H2 to Release Preview, a first This means a September or October release to stable. Just guessing, but Preview Update in September, general Update in October is most likely Version numbers don't matter much anymore. There are no unique 26H2 features, just a few unique 26H2 presets - These include Point-in-time restore and Memory Integrity Protection being on by default Two 26H1 pre-release builds with little to speak of IFA 2026 is underway in Berlin Acer is first out of the gates with dozens of new PCs, including one based on the NVIDIA RTX Spark EU General Court confirms that Microsoft Edge is not a gatekeeper Visual Studio Code now has a full Markdown Editor experience Brave now offers free email aliases, and will have a premium option soon Firefox for iOS now has integrated ad blocking NVIDIA - $96.2 billion in revenues, up 106 percent YOY Dell - record $47 billion in revenues, but it's all from server/infrastructure HP - $15.7 billion in revenues, up 12.5 percent - $11.8 billion from PCs, vs. $15 billion for all Dell client products AI/dev Sony and Warner sue Anthropic for stealing their music Gemini Notebook gets first Expert Intelligence upgrade with integrated e-book support Sonos announces Sonos 27 OS with major AI functionality Microsoft moves WinUI development fully to GitHub ahead of open-sourcing it XBOX and gaming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, more coming to Game Pass Every Activision title for the Atari 2600 is being reissued in cartridge form, but it's going to cost you Tips and picks Tip of the week: Markdown: A Field Guide for Writers App pick of the week: ImageGlass 10 RunAs Radio this week: Reimagining Intranets with Susan Hanley Brown liquor pick of the week: Macaloney's Cath-Nah-Aven 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. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: outsystems.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit helixsleep.com/windows