Windows Weekly 945: Vermont? Seriously?

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss Patch Tuesday, Windows 11 on Arm, Windows 10, AI, AI web browsers, GitHub, Xbox and gaming, and much more.

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Windows 11

Patch Tuesday was yesterday. Here’s what’s new:

• Copilot+ PCs: Recall comes to the EU, Recall Reset, Click to Do improvements, AI agent in Settings
• All: Quick Machine Recovery, black screen of death, Snap layouts improvements, Gamepad layout for Windows Touch Keyboard

Blender is now native on Windows 11 on Arm

Windows Insider

• Search settings consolidation in Canary
• Mobile device companion sidebar for Start gets a new layout in Dev
• More Control Panel settings move to Settings app in Dev and Beta

Windows 10

Consumer ESU licenses will support up to 10 PCs

Microsoft will support Edge on Windows 10 through October 2028 (as expected)

AI

OpenAI releases GPT-5 but not everyone loves it

• Quickly brought back GPT-4o
• And now the model picker is back, for now
• Microsoft is adding it everywhere, of course, and Apple says it will add to Apple Intelligence – And Bing just added support for GPT-4o image creation

Perplexity makes unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google Chrome

The first AI browsers are here

• Comet – New tab page with Chat, can choose a Google Search as you type, Assistant in a sidebar, Summarize webpage/document, voice dictation, voice mode, big feature is website interactivity
• Microsoft Edge in Copilot Mode – most evolutionary update, new New Tab page, Quick assist with Copilot button location change, Simple task handoff (which needs work), Voice navigation
  • But some bigger UI changes are on the way
• Dia (Mac only for now) – Also, there’s a Pro subscription – New Tab page with chat and an attempt at orchestration, @mentions for tabs, Skills (built-in, can edit, can make you’re own), and personalization
• Next up: Opera Neon – And what is Google doing with Chrome?

Copilot 3D can turn images into 3D models – It’s a “Creators Update”!

Microsoft is EOLing the Lens app – use Microsoft Copilot 365 app instead

Microsoft/Surface

GitHub CEO is leaving, Microsoft is rolling GitHub into its Core AI organization

Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 get firmware update to add battery charging modes

Xbox and games

Sony sold 2.5 million PS5s in quarter, now over 80 million cumulatively

• Microsoft rumored to have sold only 21 to 29 million Xbox Series X|S consoles ?

Big Windows 11 on Arm updates!

• Game downloading is coming to Xbox app on Windows 11 on Arm
• Epic Games and Qualcomm bring Easy Anti-Cheat to Windows 11 on Arm/Snapdragon X

Apple and Google have illegal mobile app store monopolies in Australia, so Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone there via Epic Games Store

Microsoft is updating Xbox Dashboard and app to show game trials and demos in “Free with Xbox” section

Microsoft has paused the production of Contraband

Steam for Chromebooks Beta will never leave beta, discontinuing in January instead

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Go to the library

This one is US-specific, sorry. But you have a local library. You should use it, if only for Libby by Overdrive free audiobooks and free access to periodicals. But then be surprised by all the services they offer.

App pick of the week: Heretic and Hexen Remasters!

Two of the best-ever Doom engine games are now available in remastered form (4K/120 FPS, new episodes, cross-play, multiplayer, more) on Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC (Windows), PS4, PS5, Switch, Steam, GOG, and various cloud streaming services. Free update if you already own either game. $15 new.

Also: Battlefield 6 Open Beta through August 17 on Steam, etc.

RunAs Radio this week: The Power of the Graph with Tony Redmond

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/997

Brown liquor pick of the week: Union Horse Rivalist

https://www.unionhorse.com/rivalist-american-single-malt-whiskey