Windows Weekly 956: Blowing the Dust Off Skype

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss Week D, Intel earnings, Microsoft 365, the OpenAI and Microsoft partnership, a big Copilot update, Xbox, and much more.

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Microsoft earnings are today …

Windows 11

Week D arrives with a massive Preview Update for 24H2 and 25H2 – including the new Start menu, finally

Windows Insider Program

• Copy & Search, Voice typing improvements, Proactive Memory Diagnostics, more in Dev and Beta
• Copilot Vision in Copilot app updated with text input and output across all Insider channels

Semi-related: Intel earnings are great unless you understand how numbers work

Microsoft 365

Australia regulator sues Microsoft over misleading Microsoft 365 consumer pricing

Copilot is being integrated into the People, Files, and Calendar companion apps for Microsoft 365 commercial

And … On the day Microsoft will report earnings, Microsoft 365 and Azure went down. Hilarious!

AI

OpenAI completes its transition to a for-profit owned by a non-profit

• Microsoft’s stake is 27 percent
• A lot has changed in the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership agreement
• Related: WSJ finally calls out Microsoft for its lack of financial reporting transparency. I’ve been complaining about that for over a decade – Big Tech has become a shell game. These companies are managing money they don’t even have and actual products and services and “real” value be damned.

Big Copilot feature dump for consumers with a human touch

• Mico character
• Copilot Groups
• Memory improvements
• Copilot connectors
• Proactive Actions in preview
• Copilot for Health
• Copilot in Edge improvements
• Copilot in Windows updates from last week, “Hey Copilot” etc.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is getting App Builder and Workflow agents

GitHub Copilot to support third-party AI agents

Grammarly rebrands as Superhuman

Xbox and gaming

Credible report claims Microsoft requires Xbox/Microsoft Gaming to deliver 30 percent profit margin

• That is impossible and this is clearly coming from Amy Hood and has led to the enshittification of Xbox as a platform

As Microsoft launches first gaming handhelds, all anyone wants to talk about is the next-generation Xbox console

• It started with Sarah Bond last week – “very premium” console with “curated” experience
• Phil Spencer this week, who implied Windows at the heart of console
• The rumor mill churns up – Will be Windows, as we’ve said, will drop multiplayer paywall that debuted in 2002
• Now Satya Nadella is commenting on the next console, confirms publisher focus for this business

Halo: Campaign Remastered is coming in 2026, new features, new Unreal Engine graphics, new PS5 compatibility

Also, The Outer Worlds 2 is now available – more here. Yes, on PS5 too

Related: Amazon relaunches Luna, and the new Amazon layoffs point to a new focus on casual gaming

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Understand where AI works and where AI is just a marketing term used to hype something that doesn’t work

2.5 years into the AI era, things are still moving quickly and there are extreme opinions on both ends of the spectrum. But I finally found a source for a good way to evaluate AI and figure out where it works and where it does not. It came from an unexpected place. From the Editor’s Desk: Normal

App pick of the week: Tiny11 Builder

Tiny11 Builder + Windows 11 version 25H2 is really designed for lowering the disk and resource usage, but it’s emerging as a solid de-enshittification tool, too.

• Initial write-up
• Follow-up
• You will also need/want: PowerToys (for Keyboard Manager) and MSEdgeRedirect and probably Rufus

RunAs Radio this week: AI for DBAs with Grant Fritchey

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1008

Brown liquor pick of the week: Redbreast Dream Casks

https://www.redbreastwhiskey.com/en/article/redbreast-dream-cask-zenith-edition/