Windows Weekly 968: Uncharted Territory

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss big changes in the Insider Program, two emergency patches, AI, earnings, dev, Xbox and gaming, and more.

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Microsoft revenues are today

Probably at the end of the show-ish

Windows 11

? Big changes in the Insider Program this week

• Dev splits from Beta, tests what will surely be 26H1 – After last week’s show, Microsoft did issue that same Beta build in the Dev channel for some reason
• Dev and Beta get same fixes in different builds, but no new features
• 24H2 and 25H2 Release Preview update(s) are a peek at the next Patch Tuesday, lots of changes

?? January Patch Tuesday update was so terrible it required two emergency fixes, the second of which went out late Sunday (previous emergency fix was a week earlier)

Earnings/industry

? Intel falls flat in Q4, full year 2025 despite U.S. “investment”

? Amazon lays off 16,000 employees

Microsoft, Apple, earnings this week, Alphabet, Amazon are next week

AI

Microsoft announces Maia 200 AI datacenter processor

Like Baldric in Black Adder, Apple has a cunning plan for an AI Siri

With AI costs soaring, cheaper new AI plans appear somehow

• OpenAI was last week with big expansion of ChatGPT Go
• Google does the same this week with AI Plus plan

So … What do apps mean in the age of AI?

• OpenAI, Anthropic (this week), others are adding “apps” to their chatbots
• Microsoft is exposing app features as AI Actions in Windows 11
• Paul opined that this semantic/programmatic capability was the end of apps
• But we can now essentially vibe-code our own custom apps – this is vaguely reminiscent of the home computer/DIY era, but without the technical knowledge requirements
• The age of native apps is over, at least on desktop. Will mobile fall next? Speaking of which …

Dev

Microsoft introduces the Windows App Development (winapp) CLI. For some reason.

Xbox and gaming

Microsoft refreshes the Xbox Cloud Gaming web experience — bigger changes coming?

Fable is coming to Xbox, PC, PS5 in late 2026

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Choose a single password manager, make your life easier

Password managers do a lot more than manage passwords, and this is one thing you need to get right.

App pick of the week: Proton Pass

Proton Pass is the best password manager for everyone, and it’s a nice pairing with Proton Authenticator. It’s free, open source, and available everywhere. And it’s made by a Little Tech company you can trust.

RunAs Radio this week: Business Process Automation in 2026 with Ian Cooper

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1021

Brown liquor pick of the week: Tullibardine 18

https://shop.tullibardine.com/products/tullibardine-18-year-old