Windows Weekly 854: Dated, Insecure, and Unreliable

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss Windows 11 23H2 (of course), the HP Spectre Folding PC, more revenues, Surface, Xbox, and much more.

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Windows 11

Breaking: Microsoft to bring Copilot to Windows 10 too. As predicted, actually.

Last week was hell trying to figure out how/where people could get 23H2. Turns out, there’s a reason. Microsoft is terrible.

A Microsoft employee—not Microsoft, notably—offered some clarity on the 23H2 rollout

• 23H2 is available via the ISO download or Installation Assistant, as Paul noted last week
• 23H2 is NOT available via the Media Creation Tool, as Paul also observed — delayed two weeks

Windows Insider:

• Canary build today: SMB changes (Server Message Block, not small business)

Microsoft deprecated some features in Windows 11 version 23H2 but didn’t remove any (yet?)

• The Windows Tips app was just deprecated too
• Related: Microsoft to remove two in-box apps from clean installs in the future

Related: The HP Spectre Folding PC is a compelling argument for the hybrid PCs of the future

More revenues

Apple: Flat with last year, still all iPhone

Qualcomm: Terrible, but also sees a rebound looming

Surface

Microsoft extended Surface support for firmware/drivers from 4 years to 6 for newer models

Microsoft 365/AI

Microsoft Authenticator quietly rolled out “MFA Fatigue” relief. You will have noticed this.

Microsoft launches Trustworthy Computing 2.0: The Cloudening

A look at the M365 competition: Google Workspace good (especially Drive), Slack bad. REALLY bad.

Microsoft Edge 119 arrives with a few UI changes

OpenAI had a little show and is offering custom ChatGPT clients

Because we all need more Elon Musk in our lives, here’s Grok

Microsoft partners with Inworld on generative AI game development

Xbox/games

Here it comes: Call of Duty MWIII multiplayer/full game arrive Friday

Nintendo revenues up nicely

EA is in great shape

Epic is in court vs. Google, this time could be different

• Related: Google paid Activision Blizzard $360 million in 2020 to keep its games in the Play Store, “Project Hug”

Sony is killing Twitter integration on PS4/5

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Brave

Now with an AI browser assistant. You’ll love its name.

App pick of the week #2: Start 11 v2 … again

I know, we discussed this already. But it’s been improved again, and this time with a floating Taskbar.

RunAs Radio this week: Large Language Models in Business with Ulrika Hedlund

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/905

Brown liquor pick of the week: Aberlour A’bunadh Alba

https://www.aberlour.com/en/our-whisky/abunadh-alba-scotch-whisky/