Paul Thurrott reports live from Maui with exciting details on Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon X2 Elite chip and how it could shake up the PC world, while behind the scenes, Microsoft quietly drifts further from OpenAI just as an NVIDIA mega-deal makes headlines. Is Windows about to get its biggest reboot in years, and can ARM finally topple Intel?

Windows

• 25H2 is imminent: The real ISOs and eKBs are here!
• Paul's Arm-based trip to Mexico and Arm-based Apple-tastic experience at Snapdragon Summit
• And yet. It's Week D. And we didn't get any preview updates (for 24H2)
• Windows AI Labs is a thing
• If you're migrating from Windows 10 get a Windows 11 on Arm PC, Microsoft suggests
• New AI features coming to Notepad, Paint, and Snipping Tool
• New Dev and Beta (and Canary) builds: Click to Do translation, Share with Copilot, Accounts management improvements

AI

• The Microsoft/OpenAI rift widens yet again
• NVIDIA invests $100 billion in OpenAI, days after "investing" $5 billion in Intel
• Intel will keep making its own GPUs because who gives a crap
• Microsoft is bringing Anthropic Claude to Microsoft 365 Copilot - "Model choice"
• Microsoft reportedly trying to pay publishers for content used by AI
• Microsoft Teams is getting more agents
• Google Chrome is getting a major AI update

Snapdragon Summit 2025

• 6G, AI as the new UI, glasses as the next wave, Android PCs out of nowhere
• X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme (with up to 18 cores for ultra-premium PCs)
• 3rd Gen Oryon CPU (X2 was 1st gen, last year's phone chip was G2)
• 75 percent faster CPU perf than competition at ISO power
• First Arm chip to hit 5+ GHz
• New Adreno GPU architecture with 2.3x perf per watt and power efficiency over previous gen
• Hexagon NPU with 80 TOPS for "concurrent AI experiences" on Copilot+ PCs
• Supports latest 5G SD X75 modem, Wi-Fi 7, BT 5.4
• 75 percent faster CPU perf than competition at ISO power
• Bad news: First half of 2026 availability
• Not in the press release: The secret of why X2 Elite Extreme is so fast

Xbox

• Microsoft raises Xbox console prices for the second time in 2025
• Here comes the Gaming Copilot on Windows 11
• Google is copying it on Android and bringing Android and native games to Windows now

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Think of 1 story for everyone you care about
• App pick of the week: Notion 3.0
• RunAs Radio this week: Managing Vendor Incidents with Mandi Walls
• Brown liquor pick of the week: High Coast Whisky Quercus IV Mongolica

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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With Windows 10's end-of-life looming, Paul and Leo dissect the real risks, questionable hardware requirements, and whether dumping old PCs in landfills is an acceptable trade-off for modern security. Plus, why is Apple finally buying up touchscreen displays for MacBooks after years of resistance, and what could that mean for the future of both Mac and Windows hardware?

Windows

• Consumer Reports asks Microsoft to continue Windows 10 support
• Reminder: Windows 11 25H2 ISOs are available... x64 only, in Insider Preview. Arm version is from Dev channel and is a VHDX
• Dev (25H2) and Beta (24H2) - Copilot prompt in Click to Do, Prompt recommendations in Start, controller navigation for gaming handhelds, SCOOBE, agents in the Store, more
• Release Preview (24H2 AND 25H2) - Click to Do table detection, action tags, and Summarize improvements; agent in Settings improvements, Hardware indicator improvements, more
• Quick Machine Recovery is a solid addition to your recovery toolbox
• Microsoft releases Windows 365 Cloud Apps in Preview
• A MacBook with a touch screen? Oh the irony

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft finally settles Teams antitrust case with EU and you're not going to believe what happens next
• Microsoft 365 desktop apps (i.e. "Office") gets Copilot chat even for free - Web grounded? That's ungrounded, right?
• Microsoft 365 commercial pulls in previously separate sales, service, and financial services
• Outlook Lite is heading off to a farm to chase rabbits
• No more Office file editing in Microsoft 365 Copilot app for iPhone and iPad

AI

• OpenAI and Microsoft hint at another major restructuring of their partnership
• Auto AI model selection comes to Visual Studio Code. Your orchestration is showing
• Visual Studio 2026 on .NET Rocks and the recent news about configuring GitHub Copilot in VS 20xx.

Hardware

• October is going to be a big month for new hardware
• Apple rumored for October
• Google Home on October 1 with Gemini
• Amazon devices (September 30, close enough)
• Where are the next-gen PC chips?

Xbox & games

• Third-party store integration comes to Xbox app on Windows
• Microsoft kicks off another big half month for Xbox Game Pass
• Epic Games can't stop beating Google in court

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week: Improve Windows 11 security
• App pick of the week: Google app for Windows

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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Windows 11 just dropped one of its biggest updates yet, but new features and relentless AI integrations are making right-click menus bigger—and more confusing—than ever. Is Windows getting better, or just busier?

Windows 11
• Patch Tuesday arrives with several new features for all Windows 11 users
• A few new features added for Copilot+ PCs
• This may be the last cumulative update before 25H2

Windows Insider
• New Canary build includes features we've seen before
• Copilot+ PCs bring Windows Studio Effects to secondary cameras in Dev and Beta channels

Hardware
• 40-year Intel veteran now leads PC chips business
• Paul's continued criticism of Lunar Lake problems
• Lenovo's three IFA concept devices should become shipping products

Apps
• Atlassian acquires The Browser Company, potentially threatening the Dia browser

Microsoft
• Microsoft mandates employees return to office three days per week
• Microsoft accused of "gross cybersecurity negligence"

Dev
• Microsoft open sources 6502 BASIC
• First Visual Studio 2026 preview now available
• Individual developers can register for Microsoft Store for free

Mobile
• Google ships Android 16 QPR1 with Material 3 Expressive on Pixel devices plus September Pixel Drop
• Apple announces iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, AirPods Pro 3, and new Apple Watches
• Comparison of OS updating styles between Apple, Google, and Microsoft and their impact on hardware upgrades

AI
• Microsoft to pay almost $20 billion for third-party AI infrastructure
• Microsoft may turn to Anthropic for Office apps
• Anthropic settles with book authors, then judge rejects the settlement (Apple faces similar lawsuit)
• Google details all Gemini tier offerings
• Firefox will use Apple Intelligence on iPhones with iOS 26

Xbox and Games
• Lenovo Legion Go 2 coming in October with new Xbox Ally OS in early 2026
• Xbox to announce games at Tokyo Game Show on September 25
• Xbox Cloud Gaming coming to select cars
• PlayStation 6 will be modular

Tips and Picks
• Something to read: iWar by Tim Higgins
• Something to watch: New Dave Plumber interview on YouTube
• Something to get for free: Microsoft 365 free for US students for one year
• Something to plan for: Proton offers emergency access on accounts
• RunAs Radio this week: Training for AI with Stephanie Donahue
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Boplaas 8 Single Grain Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Paul Thurrott is in Berlin this week for IFA 2025! With AI models multiplying across devices and Microsoft plotting a post-OpenAI future, Paul and Richard debate whether Copilot and local AI finally hint at what's next for your PC. Paul also reacts to the surprising Google antitrust ruling, questioning whether judges are truly willing to rein in Big Tech or just maintain the status quo. Has the battle for online competition already been lost?

Windows 11

• Four new builds issued in the Insider Program at the same time (rare)
• Dev and Beta: New Microsoft 365 text actions in Click to Do, Braille Viewer, more Share changes
• Canary: Nothing to see here, move along
• The Mobile Plans app you never used in Windows 11 is going away
• Windows Backup for Organizations is here
• Dolby Vision 2 is on the way
• Dell hits record revenues, but not because of PCs - PC revenues $12.5 billion, up 1 percent
• HP revenues up 3.1 percent and it is because of PCs - PC revenues $9.9 billion, up 6 percent
• Reminder that Lenovo is curiously dominant in this market - PC revenues $13.5 billion, up 18 percent

Antitrust

• Google unexpectedly given a pass on egregious antitrust violations
• "We don't do these things because they are hard"

Ensh*ttification

• Amazon begins restricting the ability to share Prime free shipping within a household
• This, from the company that makes you pay to remove ads from a video service you're already paying for
• YouTube is changing what it means to be in household

This week from the misinformation files

• Microsoft denied that it had anything to do with SSD fails
• Google denies that it warned 2.8 billion Gmail users about anything
• If it happened online, it must be real

AI

• Microsoft AI releases its first-ever in-house models and one is quite mysterious
• Copilot is coming to make your smart TVs dumber
• Anthropic will now train Claude on user data unless you opt out
• NVIDIA is still doing pretty well financially
• The Pixel 10 series phones are all about AI
• Camera Coach
• It's fascinating to reexamine the initial Pixel launch for its forward-leaning looks at AI, computational photography, and more

Xbox and games

• Xbox August Update brings a few interesting new features
• Activision inks deal to make a Call of Duty movie
• Hollow Knight: Silksong and more are coming to Game Pass in first half of September

Tips & picks

• Tip of the week
• App pick of the week: Vivaldi
• RunAs Radio this week: Episode 1000!
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Canadian Club 1858 Original

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Protesters take over Microsoft's Building 34, objecting to the company's technology being allegedly used by Israel. Is it more than simply cybersecurity usage, and how is Microsoft handling employee activism? In other news, Gemini suddenly vaults to the front of AI image editing capability, and the OG Gears of War has been remastered at least twice (but now it's cross-platform).

Windows 11

• Resume from your (Android) phone in testing in Dev and Beta channels
• Copilot app gets semantic search and new home page across all Insider channels
• 25H2 feature focus: Administrator Protection probably works but it's more disruptive than even UAC was
• Windows 11 gets a nice Bluetooth quality update
• Parallels Desktop 26 for Mac is out, but it's a minor update for individuals

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft to fix one of the biggest issues with Word
• Reminder: OneNote for Windows 10 hits EOL in October

AI

• Apple's AI floundering continues as it considers a Perplexity or Mistral acquisition
• And tests a Gemini AI model for Siri in-house
• Perplexity offers a $5 per month Comet Plus subscription that pays content makers
• Anthropic sort of brings Claude extension to Chrome
• NotebookLM audio and video overviews are now available in over 80 languages
• And AI Mode is now available in Search in over 180 countries
• Norton's AI web browser gets off to a rough start
• Proton Lumo gets a big update
• Rant: The real problem with the Windows 2030 talk, and why everyone (on both sides) is wrong about AI

Dev

• Microsoft lets Visual Studio devs tune-down GitHub Copilot, finally
• Microsoft makes some progress with improving Windows App SDK, supposedly

Xbox and gaming

• Xbox Cloud Gaming expands to Xbox Game Pass Core Standard, adds PC games for the first time
• Steam and other stores come to Xbox app on PC
• Activision says it will reverse some of the stupidity it introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Nintendo invented the 30 percent fee that's still common today in digital app/game stores, but when it did so, the fee actually made sense... and it still does today, but only for the videogame industry

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week: Edit images with Gemini
• Tip of the week: Subscribe to Chris's new newsletter, The Windows ReadMe
• App pick of the week: Gears of War
• App pick of the week: NVIDIA Broadcast app

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Chris Hoffman

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Leo, Paul, and Richard break down Google's Pixel 10 launch spectacle, poking fun at celebrity overkill and asking whether anyone actually cares about new phones anymore. Plus, they dig into Lenovo's record-breaking quarter, surprising shifts in the PC market, and the ongoing struggle between innovation and copycatting in the AI arms race. Also, Notion has finally added basic offline support, which should make it stickier than ever.

You got your AI in my Windows

• Pavan Davuluri discusses how AI will impact the Windows user experience
• Not the same video series as the previous "vision" video
• Davuluri leads Windows and Surface, so his words matter
• Changing: Interactions, business models, experiences
• Multimodal - in this case, meaning adding natural language interactions and vision to keyboard, mouse, touch, pen, etc. - "experience diversity"
• Powerful AI models running on-device are "transformational"
• Predictably, the Chicken Littles are losing their s#%t yet again. Guys. Come on.

Windows 11

• Semantic search and new Copilot home page for all Insiders
• Click to Do selection modes, minor improvements in Beta and Dev
• Recall and other Copilot+ PC features FINALLY come to Canary
• A few minor additions to Canary, nothing new to everyone else
• Notepad is getting an updated context menu and the Chicken Littles are losing their s#%t yet again. Guys. Come on!
• Lenovo earnings up 22 percent, best PC market share ever, number one in AI PCs too

AI

• Google Chrome takes the subtle approach
• Brave found a major security vulnerability in Comet
• Like my wife, Gemini remembers everything I ever said now
• Duck.ai gets GPT-5 Mini access, web search results
• Grammarly announces CODA-based editor, several AI agents

Xbox and games

• Another stunning Windows on Arm development
• The Xbox app actually works now on Windows 11 on Arm, meaning not just game streaming but also downloads. Except, of course, that it mostly doesn't work
• Heretic/Hexen installs and runs great
• Asus ROG Xbox Ally handhelds to launch on October 16
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with four-player co-op campaign
• Indiana Jones coming to the Switch 2
• Gears of War: Reloaded, more coming to Game Pass in late August
• To help Xbox, Sony raises prices on the PS5
• GeForce Now gets more powerful cloud GPUs

Tips & picks

• Tip of the week: Windows 11 Field Guide, 25H2 Edition is on the way
• App pick of the week: Notion
• RunAs Radio this week: Data Governance for AI with Martina Grom
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Chichibu Ichiro's Malt & Grain Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Patch Tuesday was yesterday, so find out what's new! Plus, two of the best-ever Doom engine games are now available in remastered form (4K/120 FPS, new episodes, cross-play, multiplayer, more) on Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC (Windows), PS4, PS5, Switch, Steam, GOG, and various cloud streaming services. It's a free update if you already own either game. Also, if you have a local library, you should use it. If only for Libby by Overdrive free audiobooks and free access to periodicals. But then be surprised by all the services they offer!

Windows 11

• Copilot+ PCs: Recall comes to the EU, Recall Reset, Click to Do improvements, AI agent in Settings
• All: Quick Machine Recovery, black screen of death, Snap layouts improvements, Gamepad layout for Windows Touch Keyboard
• Blender is now native on Windows 11 on Arm
• Search settings consolidation in Canary
• Mobile device companion sidebar for Start gets a new layout in Dev
• More Control Panel settings move to Settings app in Dev and Beta

Windows 10

• Consumer ESU licenses will support up to 10 PCs
• Microsoft will support Edge on Windows 10 through October 2028 (as expected)

AI

• OpenAI releases GPT-5 but not everyone loves it
• Quickly brought back GPT-4o
• And now the model picker is back, for now
• Microsoft is adding it everywhere, of course, and Apple says it will add to Apple Intelligence - And Bing just added support for GPT-4o image creation
• Perplexity makes unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google Chrome
• Comet - New tab page with Chat, can choose a Google Search as you type, Assistant in a sidebar, Summarize webpage/document, voice dictation, voice mode, big feature is website interactivity
• Microsoft Edge in Copilot Mode - most evolutionary update, new New Tab page, Quick assist with Copilot button location change, Simple task handoff (which needs work), Voice navigation
• But some bigger UI changes are on the way
• Dia (Mac only for now) - Also, there's a Pro subscription - New Tab page with chat and an attempt at orchestration, @mentions for tabs, Skills (built-in, can edit, can make you're own), and personalization
• Next up: Opera Neon - And what is Google doing with Chrome?
• Copilot 3D can turn images into 3D models - It's a "Creators Update"!
• Microsoft is EOLing the Lens app - use Microsoft Copilot 365 app instead

Microsoft/Surface

• GitHub CEO is leaving, Microsoft is rolling GitHub into its Core AI organization
• Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 get firmware update to add battery charging modes

Xbox and games

• Sony sold 2.5 million PS5s in quarter, now over 80 million cumulatively
• Microsoft rumored to have sold only 21 to 29 million Xbox Series X|S consoles
• Big Windows 11 on Arm updates!
• Game downloading is coming to Xbox app on Windows 11 on Arm
• Epic Games and Qualcomm bring Easy Anti-Cheat to Windows 11 on Arm/Snapdragon X
• Apple and Google have illegal mobile app store monopolies in Australia, so Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone there via Epic Games Store
• Microsoft is updating Xbox Dashboard and app to show game trials and demos in "Free with Xbox" section
• Microsoft has paused the production of Contraband
• Steam for Chromebooks Beta will never leave beta, discontinuing in January instead

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week: Go to the library
• App pick of the week: Heretic and Hexen

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/945

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft's fiscal year ended on a high note, assuming you didn't just get laid off. WinSAT's formal assessment will give you some interesting PC performance information, similar to the old WEI score from Windows Vista. And Proton finally makes a standalone authenticator app; How to transition from whatever you're currently using and why you'll need to keep using Microsoft Authenticator too.

Microsoft Earning

• Quarterly: net income of $27.2 billion on revenues of $76.4 billion. Those figures represent gains of 24 percent and 18 percent, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)
• Annual: a net income of $101.8 billion (up 16 percent YOY) on revenues of $281.7 billion (up 15 percent)
• Another look at layoffs, which are nothing new under Satya Nadella - Over 17,000 in CY 2025 so far, despite over $100 billion in profits in FY
• Headcount "unchanged" YOY
• Big announcements below were likely made to avoid Qs about layoffs and it almost worked
• AI spending in FY was about $85 billion, higher than promised
• AI spending in this quarter will jump to $30 billion (!!!!)
• Azure earned $75 billion in revenues in FY, its first-ever disclosure of this number - Fun with math, that means $56 billion in revenues in previous FY. How far back can we go?
• Microsoft's market cap exceeded $4 trillion after earnings release
• "Copilot" has over 100 million MAUs, really M365 Copilot, which even Nadella thinks is a new M365 tier
• GitHub Copilot has over 20 million MAUs, probably most are free
• HUGE gains in Microsoft Gaming/Xbox, discussed below

Windows 11

• But first, something completely different: Microsoft's "vision" for Windows in 2030
• David Weston a curious choice for this video, first in a series - he's in security
• Daily work life changes thanks to AI - less toil work, less eyes and more talking, multimodal interactions
• Security - customers want appliance-level security, "it just works" security -
• Degenerates into a general security discussion
• Back to AI, reclaiming our lives
• Windows 11 SE, RIP - We hardly knew you. Literally.
• Insider: Changes to Home view in File Explorer for Work and School sign-ins, Settings app changes in Dev (25H2) and Beta (24H2)

More earnings

• AMD - HUGE gains in its PC businesses!
• Qualcomm up 10%
• Apple up 9.6%
• Amazon up 13%

AI & dev

• OpenAI releases its first open-weight reasoning models and Microsoft gives them away for free
• Apple is trying to Sherlock ChatGPT
• Of course Alexa+ will get ads
• Dev: Microsoft has a native app problem on Windows
• Microsoft says it will fix Windows App SDK
• Paul just switched .NETpad to the Windows App SDK and can confirm it's a nightmare
• WPF is half-assed... and last year, it took Microsoft over 9 months to deliver the first Windows Copilot Runtime capabilities to devs, but you still can't use this in production. Also, it's not called that anymore

Xbox & games

• Microsoft Gaming has over 500 million MAUs - More fun with math
• COD has 50 million MAUs
• Microsoft has nearly 40 games in development
• Xbox Game Pass has $5 billion in revenues in FY, over 500 million hours played in FY
• Gaming Copilot (Beta) is available on Game Bar for Windows PC for Xbox Insiders enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview
• Assassin's Creed Mirage and more coming to Game Pass this month
• OG Switch models now cost more thanks to tariffs

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week:

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/944

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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