Windows Weekly 965: Almost Meat

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss new PC tech from CES, Microsoft and Rust, Windows 11, the RAM shortage, AI, Xbox and gaming, and more.

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CES 2026 is here with the 4K hummingbird feeder of your dreams

Actually relevant news

• New PCs and more from HP consumers/commercial, HP gamers, Lenovo, others
• The first official Copilot+ PC desktops
• Snapdragon X2 Plus joins X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme
• Intel Panther Lake has meaningful CPU and graphics performances gains, but predictable reliablility issues
• AMD Ryzen AI 400 series is a minor bump

Windows

Paul was the first to report that Microsoft is refactoring it all with Rust

• A Microsoft distinguished engineer wrote about his desire to refactor all C/C++ code in the company with Rust by 2030
• Some mistook this to mean “rewriting Windows with Rust,” so he had to issue a clarification. But I never wrote that.
• Heads-up: That will happen, but this is really about Azure first and the core underlying code in Microsoft’s most important platforms

Microsoft released hardware-accelerated BitLocker in late 2025 and never told anyone. It requires the latest PC CPUs

Windows Insider Program – Our last updates were on December 19

• Copilot app update that adds text editing actions to Copilot Vision across all channels
• Dev and Beta got first previews of AI agents on the Taskbar, starting with the Researcher agent, plus underlying Agent Launchers experience

Related: IDC says the global memory shortage (thanks, AI!) could screw up PC and smartphone growth this year

AI

ChatGPT now has an app store, but it has a ways to go

Mozilla Firefox will have a “killswitch” for AI

Our national nightmare will soon be over, LG will let users remove Copilot app from their smart TVs

Xbox and gaming

First Xbox Game Pass releases of 2026 include Resident Evil Village and Star Wars Outlaws

Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Hisense smart TVs and to the latest Fire TV smart TVs

GOG goes independent, will continue DRM-free push

Throwback: “Have a blast” and other FPS throwbacks from the 1990s

Valve quietly killed the LCD Steam Deck model

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: It’s time to give Little AI a look

It’s just Little Tech: Little AI in the cloud and on your PCs and devices can protect you from Big Tech privacy issues and it’s always getting better.

Also: What is Little Tech? Size, yes. But it’s really about trust

App pick of the week: Bonjourr

This web browser extension provides a minimalist New Tab experience that I love and it also keeps getting better. It’s like Momentum but free

RunAs Radio this week: What AI can do for SysAdmins in 2026 with Cecilia Wiren

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1018

Brown liquor pick of the week: The Singleton of Dufftown 12

https://www.malts.com/en/products/the-singleton-of-dufftown-12-year-old-single-malt-scotch-whisky-70cl