Windows Weekly 935: Don’t Spritz Yourself

With Richard away, Leo and Paul discuss Notepad, Windows 11, more earnings, Microsoft 365 and AI, Xbox and gaming, and more.

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Windows

THE GREAT NOTEPAD CONTROVERSY OF 2025

• Microsoft announced it was testing “lightweight text formatting” in Notepad
• This is one of MANY changes its made to Notepad in recent years
• The community has collectively lost its s#$t – most thought this was RTF support – it’s not
• Everyone is wrong. In defense of Notepad

24H2

• Last Tuesday, 22H2/23H2 got a preview update in Week D, but 24H2 did not
• The 24H2 update appeared later, with a ton of new features as expected – it’s possible an out-of-band update requirement is responsible for the delay
• Now we know for sure what’s coming on Patch Tuesday next week

Windows Insider updates

• Today, in Canary: Energy saver in Intune, re-rollout of Phone companion, more
• Dev and Beta (24H2): Quick machine recovery, Phone Link improvements – Plus, more just in Dev
• Canary: Voice access and some bug fixes

Microsoft makes more DMA changes to Windows 11/Edge

• We all need these changes
• Apple needs to pay attention
• Also, hilarious: Apple copies what Microsoft did in the 1990s. Twice.

Earnings:

• HP
• Dell
• Nvidia

Microsoft 365/AI

Microsoft announces (internally) its third major AI reorg in 15 months – Too … slow?

Microsoft is killing password management/autofill in the Microsoft Authenticator app (announced previously, but now a warning is showing up in the app)

• Good, you should use a third-party password manager anyway. Also, it’s really an identity manager. Also, wake up.
• When/why to use Microsoft Authenticator
• And why you should also use Google Authenticator

June 2025 update for the new Outlook adds tons of new features

Research and Analyst AI agents are now GA in Microsoft 365 Copilot

You can experiment with short, phone videos on your phone with Bing Video Creator

FU, OpenAI! NYT licenses its content to Amazon

Samsung may drop Gemini for Perplexity

Xbox/gaming

Microsoft has reportedly delayed its first-party Xbox/Windows gaming handheld

• Xbox continues to be in a holding pattern on hardware – Theories include an Arm revolution in waiting and Amy Hood getting serious about trying to make this business profitable
• Are handheld gaming PCs the next Netbook or mini-tablet … or this is market real, sustainable, and big enough to matter?
• SteamDeck/Linux could be a problem here – related to this, Nvidia news

Microsoft reaches its first-ever agreement with a game studio union

Semi-related: J Allard is one of about 100 former Microsoft execs at Amazon now, and we have an update

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: You can replace OneDrive/Google Drive with a NAS

My Synology NAS is better than expected as a Little Tech replacement for OneDrive and Google Drive. This changes everything.

App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge 137

Edge 137 has quietly emerged as the biggest release of this browser since its inception

• Edge 137 adds PIP and business improvements, removes Wallet Hub and some truly pointless features
• It adds Windows 11 App action support to PWAs
• It brings Game Assist for Game Bar to everyone

Photoshop for Android is here and it’s free to everyone during the beta

RunAs Radio this week: x

Brown liquor pick of the week: x