Windows Weekly 999: Physical Goods

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss solving the 26H2 mystery, IFA 2026 in Berlin, more revenues, AI, WinUI, XBOX and gaming, and more.

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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

(More) Windows Insider Program

• Two 26H1 pre-release builds with little to speak of

Hardware

• 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

Apps

• 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, will have premium option soon
• Firefox for iOS now has integrated ad blocking

More earnings

• 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

The GTA VI gameplay reveal arrived and it is pretty amazing actually

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Markdown: A Field Guide for Writers

My Markdown book will be released sometime in the next week.

App pick of the week: ImageGlass 10

My go-to image viewer gets a major revamp and, thanks to Avalon, cross-platform availability for the first time

RunAs Radio this week: Reimagining Intranets with Susan Hanley

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1052

Brown liquor pick of the week: Macaloney’s Cath-Nah-Aven

https://www.macaloneys.com/products/cath-nah-aven