Windows Weekly 1002: Only B & D Matter

With Richard away, Leo and Paul discuss the Week D preview updates, Dave Plummer’s TMOG, Googlebooks, AI and dev, another XBOX reorg, and more.

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Windows

Week D arrives, and this time we get updates – a preview of October’s Patch Tuesday

• 24H2/25H2: Minor update with new Copilot key remaps, Wi-Fi in WRE, more
• 26H1: Major update that brings all new 26H2 features—Start, Taskbar, Search—to 26H1. Finally

Windows Insider Program

• Four new builds last Friday – Biggest change is Cloud Rebuild in WRE (in Experimental) gaining new capabilities\

Software

• 30 years ago, Dave Plummer created Task Manager, and now he’s vibe-coded a modern version that works on Mac and Linux too
• Stardock announces a new Windows 11 utility called Snipboard
• Clipchamp does AI upscaling to 4K now (original link)

Hardware

• The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15p Aura Edition is nearly perfect, with 11 hours of battery life
• Googlebook revealed!
  • Questions answered – $899 starting price is much lower than expected
  • This is Android’s Copilot+ PC moment – An AI PC? What a concept!

AI/dev

Microsoft announces a OneDrive + Copilot event in October – Also a separate Copilot event before then

Financial Times reveals internal OpenAI prediction of $278 billion in losses over the next five years

NYT copyright case discovery reveals what Microsoft and OpenAI really think about stealing content

Anthropic merges Cowork into chat, adds Docs and Slides

Google Labs CC turned into Gemini Daily Brief, so now it’s an AI agent for families

🤔 Google opens up its Home smart home ecosystem to other AI assistants

XAML.io is a web-based vibe coding IDE for .NET apps and it looks amazing

XBOX and gaming

A big reorg and a small number of layoffs at XBOX sets off a new round of hand-wringing

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Get Auto SR on Panther Lake-based laptops

Auto SR was designed to make gaming viable on Windows 11 on Arm/Snapdragon X/X2, but now it’s available on Intel Core Ultra Series 3-based PCs and it is worth experimenting with.

App pick of the week: Affinity

Possibly the greatest free app in existence, Affinity just got 60 new features and is even better