WW 943: Five Paperclips - Looking back at 10 Years of Windows 10

Jul 30, 2025

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Ten years ago yesterday, Microsoft released Windows 10, fixing the issues with Windows 8.x and giving Windows 7 users a solid upgrade. One historical curiosity: It was the first Windows release without a major launch event. In other news, Microsoft publishes a Nadella email to the troops about the layoffs, but he never really addresses the layoffs.

Windows 10 turns 10

The Bad: Its legacy is mixed, as this is when the enshittification of Windows began, really
Windows as a Service
Ads, crapware, and telemetry — plus some made-up privacy issues
Terry Myerson gaff about one billion users
Universal apps/One Windows was a bust, with Windows Phone and HoloLens failures
Windows 10's launch was a missed opportunity to make the Store matter
The Good: Windows Subsystem for Linux was huge
WinGet was also huge, but is underappreciated and underutilized to this day
It did reverse the mistakes of Windows 8, and in time it got more stable as Microsoft figured out WaaS (and then went on to abuse it)
Oh, and the Windows 10 Field Guide is free to celebrate the anniversary

Windows 11

Microsoft is using Rust for Surface drivers, and it wants all Windows drivers to switch to Rust too
The Link to Windows app is getting a nice upgrade on Android
Dev (25H2) and Beta (24H2): Settings agent for x86, SCOOBE changes, Click to Do improvements, Windows Search improvements
Canary: Just a couple of bug fixes (Actually, two builds, one today also with no features)
Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Media Encoder are Now Native on Windows 11 on Arm in beta
Opera files antitrust case against Microsoft in Brazil for Windows 11/Edge behaviors
Another app blocking Recall in a slow-drop of negative Recall-related AI privacy news for Microsoft.
Rant: More importantly, Recall is boring and not useful given the hype around it.
Intel earnings are flat, but more layoffs are on the way
Lenovo rollable laptop in action! (ThinkBook Plus Gen 6)
Lenovo makes a lot of weird laptops now (like the dual-screen Yoga Book 9i Paul reviewed last year) — apparently they didn't get the message after Microsoft cancelled the Surface Neo and Windows 10X.
Does the average modern Windows laptop really need a touchscreen? Is this a relic of the Windows 8 era?

AI & Microsoft 365

Perplexity Comet is real and it shows the way forward for AI web browsers
Coincidentally, Microsoft suddenly launches Copilot mode for Microsoft Edge. (But I've played with Copilot Mode, and it's no Comet or Dia.)
Copilot is getting real-time expressions. It's the return of Clippy!
Microsoft's long-term Copilot plans are a lot wilder than you might expect
Google earned $96.4 billion in one quarter. This shows that it has not been impacted by other AIs yet

Xbox & gaming

Xbox is coming to Gamerscom in Germany in August, and it's bringing the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds
The July Xbox Update is here and it's all about the PC
Paul reviewed the Lenovo Legion Go S, and the Windows experience was so bad. Also, PC OEMs are having trouble competing with the Steam Deck's pricing on gaming handhelds.

Tips & picks

Tips of the week: Chris and Paul are partnering on his new newsletter
App pick of the week: Perplexity Pro
Beer pick of the week: Alesong Rhino Suit

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/943

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Guest: Chris Hoffman

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cachefly.com/twit