Windows Weekly 932: The Last Australian

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss a momentous Patch Tuesday, Windows 10 EOL, Microsoft layoffs, Xbox and games, and much more.

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Windows 11

It’s go time: The biggest Patch Tuesday of 2025 sets the stage for 2025

• Recall (preview) and Click to Do (preview) come to stable for the first time
• Let’s give Microsoft a bit of credit for this one non-reported behavior
• Also: Improvements to Settings, Narrator, Start, Phone Link, Widgets, File Explorer
• As for 25H2…

Windows Insider Program

• You knew this was coming: Microsoft now testing a “Hey, Copilot” feature – It’s opt-in and an alternative to holding down Alt + Spacebar for two seconds
• Microsoft discusses the new Start design and it’s not a s#$t show like it was three years ago
• No builds for the second Friday in a row
• Improvements to Settings AI agent, intelligent text actions in Click to Do, a few small changes come to 24H2 in Dev and Beta channels
• Copilot Vision gets Highlights and 2-App Support across all channels

Related: Google’s big Android reveal includes Material Expressive, big Wear OS update

• Key takeaway: Android, like Windows 11 (and iOS) is just being updated all the time now

Windows 10

Microsoft has finally revealed whether it will further extend Windows 10 support past October. It won’t. Instead…

• Extended support program
• Will support Microsoft 365 on Windows 10 through October 2028
• Those time frames are identical

So what about those Surface PCs that can’t upgrade to Windows 11? Microsoft has an answer (for all unsupported PCs) and it’s not as cynical as you think

Related: Microsoft quietly discontinued entry-level 13.8-inch Surface Laptop and 13-inch Surface Pro when it introduced those smaller new models last week

Layoffs

Microsoft just made $70 billion, so naturally it’s laying off employees

• How to explain this?

Semi-related: Antitrust

• The FTC’s losing streak against Microsoft continues
• A proposal for solving the “Mozilla problem” in U.S. v. Google
• Fortnite could return to the iPhone App Store as soon as today

This just in: Microsoft might escape big EU fine for Office/Teams bundling

AI

OH MY GOD IS THERE NO AI NEWS FOR ONCE

OK, three small items:

• OpenAI brings OneDrive and SharePoint integration with ChatGPT for paid business customers
• “AI mode” could replace “I’m feeling lucky” on the Google home page
• Spotify’s AI DJ keeps improving

Dev

Build is next week in Seattle, a few thoughts

.NET 10 Preview 4 is out

Xbox and games

Today’s the day: DOOM: The Dark Ages goes live at 8:00 ET tonight!

Xbox Insiders can now play cloud-enabled games with mouse and keyboard

Paul reviews the Backbone Pro controller

Nintendo revenues slide big ahead of Switch 2 – 15m consoles expected in first year

Sony sold 18.5 million PS5s in the most recent fiscal year, down 11 percent YOY

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 notifications make iOS look sophisticated

Microsoft designed notifications in Windows 11 to be annoying and pointless. I have some advice.

App pick of the week: Proton Drive

Proton Drive gets a long awaited albums feature, more on the way. My favorite Little Tech company.

RunAs Radio this week: Active Directory in 2025 with Liz Tesch

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/984

Brown liquor pick of the week: Limeburners Albany Tawny Cask

https://distillery.com.au/pages/limeburners

https://barrel-lane.com.au/products/barrel-lane-whisky-club