WW 958: Personal Turkey - Will Valve's Steam Machine Make a Splash?
Windows Weekly (Audio)
Microsoft Ignite and Release Cadence
Paul and Richard discuss Ignite timing, Microsoft preview patterns, and the Windows update release schedule and team workloads.
Windows 11 just got its most noticeable Start menu revamp in a while, but is it a productivity boost or just more Microsoft meddling? The team digs into Patch Tuesday's big surprises and whether generative tools are transformative essentials or just a passing fad.
Windows 11
- Patch Tuesday was yesterday, your new Start menu is right where Microsoft left it
- Copilot+ PCs: Improvements to Click to Do, File Explorer, Voice access, and Windows Search
- All PCs, eventually: Taskbar improvements, Administrator Protection (off by default), Quality updates
- Heading into Ignite next week, Microsoft cites recent security wins in Windows 11 and Surface
- First 26H1 build comes to Canary to prove that there will be nothing new in it, ever
- Qualcomm takes a one-time $5.7 billion hit thanks to Big Stupid Bill but still nails it in quarterly earnings
Microsoft
- WSJ continues its Microsoft financial accountability criticisms
- Also reports that internal documents state OpenAI expects to lose $74 billion in 2028, the year Anthropic will break even
- If Paul starts a business and it loses money for three years in a row, it becomes a hobby. So WTF is OpenAI exactly?
AI
- Microsoft AI creates a Superintelligence team as a sort-of alternative to AGI
- Microsoft launched .NET 10 at .NET Conf on Tuesday - Plus, Visual Studio 2026 with a new monthly release schedule and Insider versions going forward
- Double-digit performance improvements again, somehow
- Uno announced Uno Platform Studio 2.0 with a fun surprise for Paul: They upgraded the original WPF version of .NETpad into a cross platform app in 3 minutes! There will be a demo on Thursday
- .NETpad is transitioning to WinUIpad with the Windows App SDK rewrite. It is going poorly because Windows App SDK is terrible, cannot be open sourced quickly enough
Xbox
- Steam announces a new videogame console, the Steam Machine!
- Backbone Pro Xbox Edition is now available
- Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition is here with with Xbox Play Anywhere support, Creations
- Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming, so Halo: Infinite becomes a lot more finite
- Call of Duty Black Ops 6 player on PC? Hope you enjoyed that 180 GB "update" you had to install before playing a year-old game (also got a 6.7 GB update Wednesday. For the love of God)
- GTA VI has been delayed yet again as it edges into Duke Nukem Forever territory
- Sony has now sold over 84 million PS5 consoles, meaning it has outsold every Xbox generation ever made
- Sony is selling a 27-inch gaming display in the U.S. and Japan
Tips & picks
- Tip of the week: Solving the problem over identifying the problem
- App pick of the week: Tiny11 Builder
- RunAs Radio this week: Azure Resiliency with Chris Ayers
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Kyoto Whisky Kuro-Obi Black Belt Blended
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
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