Windows Weekly 975: A Bubble of Knowledge

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss two big Microsoft reorgs, Windows 11, new Intel chips, AI, Xbox and gaming, and much more.

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Windows

Rajesh Jha is retiring and Microsoft is reorging its Experiences + Devices team

Windows Insider Program

• Release Preview: A peek at next week’s Week D update (and April’s Patch Tuesday) shows we’re getting improvements to Narrator, Settings, Smart App Control, Pen settings, Display, File Explorer, and the Windows Recovery Environment (WRE). The trend continues!
• New Canary, Dev, and Beta builds – Nothing new in Canary. Dev/Beta: Drag Tray is being renamed to Drop Tray, you can change the user folder name during Setup, Restore points are getting a modern update finally

Related: Intel goes nuts with new “Arrow Lake refresh” processors; these are not Copilot+ PC capable and it’s unclear what the Panther Lake comparison looks like

• Desktop: Last week, Intel announced Core Ultra 200S Plus chips
• Mobile: Core Ultra Plus 200HX Plus series

Related: IDC now expects 11.3 percent decline in PC market in 2026, 7.6 percent decline for tablets

AI

Microsoft may sue OpenAI for contract breach – the best Microsoft divorce since IBM – and is this related to …

Major reorg in Microsoft’s AI businesses

• Former Snap exec in charge of consolidated Copilot offerings across consumer and commercial
• Mustafa Suleyman to focus on Microsoft’s foundational models
• Side note: There has been a lot of retiring and a lot of outside hires for top-level executive positions in Microsoft over the past year or more. Curious.

Rumors vs. reality in Microsoft scaling back AI ambitions in Windows

• Rumor: Microsoft is backtracking on some Copilot features
• Reality: Microsoft is not backtracking on its AI ambitions, it’s just going to try to do a better job with branding and positioning

Microsoft launches Copilot Health in the U.S.

Google Personal Intelligence ships in the U.S.

OpenAI releases GPT-5.4 mini and nano models

• And GPT-5 mini is available as a reasoning model on Duck.ai

Xbox and gaming

Rumor vs. reality in Xbox strategy

• Rumor: Microsoft removed “This is an Xbox” messaging from website so it must be focusing on consoles again
• Reality: Literally nothing has changed

Xbox Insiders is testing per-game Quick Resume toggle

• Also more groups on Home, custom colors, profile badges in guide

Big half month for Game Pass, with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, more coming

Starfield is coming to PS 5 on April 7

Nvidia launches DLSS 5, changes existing games, people are freaking out

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: The grass is always greener

There’s an ongoing narrative that Windows is worse than ever today and people are leaving in droves. I don’t see that, and I will simply point to Windows 8 and remind that it can be (and was) worse. But two main points:

• I make the case in De-Enshittify Windows 11 that Windows 11 is still the best desktop productivity platform and its problems can all be fixed and worked around; this is the best solution for most Windows users.
• But what happens when that’s not true: Potential switchers need to consider several factors, any one of which will be a blocker: Uses cases (computer as an all-day tool vs. occasional usage), workflow (a combination of apps, online services, and habits), change adversity (familiarity leads to efficiency), and probably more.

App pick of the week: PowerToys 0.98

PowerToys 0.98 adds a major new feature to Command Palette, big changes to Keyboard Manager and CursorWrap, and about 100 other updates. This is a big one.

Plus: Mozilla Firefox is staging a comeback and may be worth another look

RunAs Radio this week: Sustainable AI with Darshna Shah

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1028

Brown liquor pick of the week: Teeling Small Batch Whiskey

https://www.teelingwhiskey.com/teeling-whiskeys/small-batch-whiskey/