WW 962: Peak Bloat - The Last Patch Tuesday of 2025
Windows Weekly (Audio)
AI as New UX and Intent
Paul argues AI changes UX by letting users express intent instead of mastering tools, comparing Copilot to a future Start menu.
December 2025's Patch Tuesday brought major shifts, but the real action is in Microsoft's pricing, privacy battles, and the arms race to control AI-enabled browsers. Plus, Paul recommends Tiny11 Builder for a clean install, or Win11Debloat for an existing install. Then, Rufus to create installation media without the forced Microsoft account (MSA) sign-in or hardware requirement checks. Use MSEdgeDirect to use the default web browser for stories from Widgets, web-based search results, etc. And ExplorerPatcher can fix the performance and reliability issues in File Explorer.
It's the final Patch Tuesday of 2025
- Major dark mode updates (with a fix for the "flashbang" problem)
- AI Agent in Settings, Click to Do, Windows Studio Effects, and Search improvements for Copilot+ PCs
- Many other improvements: FSE, Share, Settings, Widgets, more
More Windows 11
- New 25H2 preview build on Beta/Dev adds MCP public preview, Quick Machine Recovery auto-enabled, Unified Update Orchestration Platform, Windows MIDI services
Microsoft 365
- Microsoft 365 is getting a lot more expensive in mid-2026. You didn't think all those free AI updates were free, did you?
AI
- Paul has been talking about "programmatic" apps and services because he wasn't sure of a term for this type of interaction. But there is a term for this: Semantic. As in semantic web. And there you go
- Microsoft one of 1,000 companies partnering on Agentic AI Foundation because you're getting agents whether they work or not
- Gartner says NO to AI web browsers
- The New York Times is suing Perplexity for all the obvious reasons
- After a big win in the legal battle with OpenAI
- Opera for Android gets a big AI update
- Google Workspace Studio brings code-free agent creation to business users - automation is a solid AI use case
Xbox
- Xbox Series X|S notably absent during Black Friday sales
- Call of Duty won't repeat the mistakes of the past anymore since it didn't work out twice now
- MS Flight Simulator 2024 is now available on PS5
- Red Dead Redemption comes to mobile for the first time, free with a Netflix account
Tips & Picks
- Tip and app(s) of the week: De-enshittify Windows 11
- RunAs Radio this week: Incident Management and the Crowdstrike Event with Liam Westley
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Old Farm Pennsylvania Straight Rye Whiskey
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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