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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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

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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