Windows Weekly 931: The Eaglet Has Landed

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss new Surface PCs, new Windows 11 features, Skype RIP, Apple’s antitrust humbling, AI, Xbox and gaming, and more.

Stream this episode and subscribe

Enjoy Windows Weekly on YouTube

Windows 11

Microsoft announces big changes to Windows 11

• New Start menu
• Phone Companion on Start
• AI actions in File Explorer
• Notepad and other updates
• New Copilot+ PC features: Click to Do actions, AI agent in Search for some reason, new Photos, Paint, and Snipping Tool features, more

Related: Microsoft announces new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models after teasing the announcement last week

• What’s next for Surface?

Windows Insider Program

• Recall improvements, Taskbar improvements, HDR improvements, more come to Beta and Dev

Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 to start on hotpatching, same schedule as Windows Server 2025

Related: A moment of silence for Skype, we didn’t know what we had until you enshittified and then killed it

Semi-related: Google is secretly working on two major changes for Android 16+ – We need something like this for 25H2

Antitrust

Apple is slapped down hard by Judge in Epic v. Apple

• Spotify, Amazon, Proton and many other change apps to avoid Apple Tax
• The walls are finally tumbling down for Big Tech

US v. Google (ads) has a remedy hearing set for September, that should go well

Related: Earnings

• Apple – Let’s keep an eye on that Services number, shall we?
• Amazon – AWS is now smaller by revenue than Intelligent Cloud at Microsoft
• Qualcomm
• AMD
• Oh, and Microsoft – Lots of confusion about AI spending

AI

Open AI: just kidding about that for-profit thing

• Did Microsoft squelch this plan?

Google’s Little Language Lessons looks like a neat use of AI

GitHub Copilot now has over 15 million users

Xbox and gaming

FTC may have suffered its final defeat in trying to end Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Xbox/ASUS portable gaming device leaks

Good news! Xbox consoles are more expensive now! Wait.

New DOOM game and more are coming to Game Pass this month

Gears of War Remastered coming to Xbox, PS5, PC, Game Pass in August

Minecraft drops VR/MR support

GTA VI delayed until 2026

Backbone Pro works with phones directly but also tablets, PCs, and more wirelessly

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Go passwordless

Microsoft has (supposedly) made new MSAs passwordless by default. It’s time for the rest of you Luddites to get on board too.

App pick of the week: Microsoft Authenticator

Microsoft is removing the password management/autofill features from Authenticator and letting it just be an authenticator app again. You should use Google Authenticator too and a third-party password manager.

Plus: Brave for Android and Opera for Android get big updates

RunAs Radio this week: Building a Career in Cybersecurity with Yuri Diogenes

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/983

Brown liquor pick of the week: Jura 10

https://www.jurawhisky.com/en/all-whisky/signature-series/10-year-old/