Windows Weekly 914: Something Weird From the Closet

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh, Qualcomm v. Arm, new PCs at CES, Microsoft and AI, Xbox, and much more.

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Windows

Microsoft declares 2025 the “year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.”

• As likely as “year of the Linux desktop”
• The theory: Windows 10 EOL, AI PCs, lingering security fears from CrowdStrike
• The issue: Windows 10 has 63 usage share right now. At this point in time, Windows 7 had only 25 percent usage share (and was in second place, not first).
• Intel joins in on this fever dream but we’ve stopped listening – It just announced 117 different CPUs, none of which are Copilot+ PC capable. Here’s why.
• More interesting: AMD is kicking ass and taking names. And we thought the existing chips were good (they are). Related to this, PC makers are embracing AMD like never before. Check out HP’s workstations (including laptops)

This week in 24H2 problems – This really is the lowest quality update to Windows in recent memory

• Microsoft is blocking the 24H2 update on PCs with Auto HDR enabled

Nothing to see here: New Canary and Beta builds ring in the New Year – 23H2 is getting more 24H2 features because of course it is

Not that it matters, but Windows 11 almost had Vista Ultimate Extras-like dynamic wallpapers

Related: Dell kills XPS and all its other PC brands because Dell is stupid and doesn’t know what it had

Arm and PCs

Qualcomm defeated Arm Holdings in licensing dispute court case

• And, yes, it won big time, contrary to Arm’s nonsense

Qualcomm announces an even lower-end Snapdragon X chip for $600 PCs, so ASUS announces an $1100 laptop that uses it

Snapdragon Dev Kit update

• After spending weeks on recovery activities, can now confirm there is no way to boot from USB, need to use PXE boot so that’s fun
• A quick hands-on – It’s like a laptop but also like a prototype
• Some thoughts about what happened

Part 2 of Paul’s history of Windows on Arm is up

New Arm PCs announced, including desktops

• Ahead of CES, Geekom jumped the gun and said it was coming out with a Snapdragon X-based NUC
• Lenovo has a NUC/SFF

Blockbuster: Nvidia and MediaTek confirm partnership on Arm chips for PCs

Microsoft 365

First, GitHub Copilot, but now Microsoft 365 Copilot will allegedly stop using OpenAI exclusively

Microsoft reveals (confirms) it will spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in FY 2025 as it suckles up to Trump like the rest of the tech industry

Microsoft and OpenAI allegedly tied AGI milestone to profits, not intelligence

Xbox and gaming

Microsoft discusses a console-like experience for Windows handheld gamingl

And tied to that, a new generation of handheld gaming PCs is on the way

• Acer
• Lenovo offers SteamOS/Windows choice
• AMD Z2 chip
• Speculation about a coming wave of Arm-powered handheld gaming PCs or is it Xbox devices??

Xbox Game Pass says Happy New Year with a full slate of Activision Blizzard titles. Just kidding.

Nvidia announces new graphics cards for PCs

No one wants this, but Xbox is coming to LG smart TVs

Xbox Rewards shuffles the deck chairs, hopes no one notices it’s worse now

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Spend a little, upgrade to Windows 11

Windows 11 is free on qualifying Windows 10 PCs. But if you have a VM, a newly built PC, or want to upgrade from Windows 11 Home or Pro, you can do so cheaply. Like $30 or less, not the $130 to $200 that Microsoft charges. Is it legit? Yeah. Probably.

Also: I complete the latest version of .NETpad and posted the source code on GitHub

• I made some late-breaking changes to accommodate the coming tabs-based UI and made a to-do list for 2025

App pick of the week: Microsoft PowerToys

I’ve amped up my usage of PowerToys over the past few months. Two tools have jumped to the top of the heap: PowerToys Awake and Find My Mouse.

RunAs Radio this week: Least Privilege in 2025 with Bailey Bercik

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/966

Brown liquor pick of the week: Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

https://www.kilbegganwhiskey.com/whiskeys/kilbeggan-blended-whiskey