Windows Weekly (Audio)

Leo is back! From Patch Tuesday's 1000+ vulnerabilities to the relentless updates and evolving Windows features, the conversation lays bare how quickly the desktop is being reinvented, with hybrid AI and hardware hiccups included! Local AI does not rise to the challenge, hampering RTX Spark. Plus, Paul has finally started incorporating AI into his work.

Windows

Patch Tuesday: Minor improvements across 25H2/26H2 and 26H1

Five new builds on Friday, just one notable feature change

Clipchamp is still the reigning king of easy-to-use but powerful video editors

Microsoft Edge and Widgets in Windows 11 get a new Discover feed

Opera now has over 100 million users on desktop

Vivaldi completely rewrites its tracker and ad blockers on desktop and mobile

Qualcomm earnings: Waiting on the datacenter to save the company

HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review - RTX Spark is here

AI and dev

No one expected Jensen Huang to be the problem with Big AI

After a powerful set of updates, now you can use Google Antigravity for productivity, too

Adobe opens up to third-party AI assistants, expands partnerships with Microsoft and Google

New Linux distribution promises to out-AI Windows 11 - a few thoughts about how AI will benefit Linux

.NET 11 arrives at .NET Conf 2026

Discord is rewriting its app in Rust and you're not going to believe what happens next

XBOX and gaming

The new XBOX Nano Controller comes with an awesome surprise

The new XBOX app is here on Windows 11, mobile, and cloud, and it's much faster

AutoSR comes to AMD-based Copilot+ PCs, ROG XBOX Ally gaming handhelds

You can preload GTA VI now

EA remasters classic games in Ultima and Wing Commander series, more

Nintendo: 6.49 million Switch units

Sony: 2.6 million PS5 units - now over 100 million units cumulatively

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Do it for free

App pick of the week: AI

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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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Microsoft's business unit shuffle and shrouded AI spending spark a sharp conversation on whether shareholders and users can trust what's hidden behind new financial reports. Also, Start11 v3 adds Start widgets and menu sharing, plus Taskbar Islands, app groups, and more. Finally, LM Studio is the obvious place to start with local AI, and it works on any PC (not just an RTX Spark). Just be sure to get the right app.Microsoft Earnings

Microsoft earned a net income of 36.6 billion on revenues of $92.3 billion in the quarter ending September 30, 2026

Those are both double-digit gains over the year-ago quarter, or 32 percent and 19 percent growth, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)

We were promised more transparency, but what we got is a mixed bag

Microsoft is too complicated a business for only two top-level business segments

Windows revenues from PC makers down 27 percent (!)

XBOX gets a hard revenue number, and it's not bad

Microsoft spent $45.2 billion on capex (AI) expenses, up 30 percent - this is not the real number - and it will get bigger

No paid Copilot numbers, weird

Microsoft "earned" $10 billion in revenue from OpenAI - OpenAI still owes Microsoft money - MS stake in OpenAI is down; no one said why

Windows

We talked about this last week, but I now have two sources at Microsoft confirming that Microsoft's AI strategy is the reason it's fixing Windows 11

Microsoft discusses its work to make Windows 11 fit in 8 GB of RAM

Microsoft Edge is the first Windows browser to support accelerated app launches

Experimental and Experimental 26H1 get new inline actions for the new Windows Search

Hardware

It's been weird watching other reviewers try to figure out RTX Spark, but this much is clear: This platform is not ready

Baby steps: A few minor victories after weeks of defeats

More earnings

AMD up 45 percent to $13.4 billion

Intel up 21 percent to $16.5 billion

Google/Alphabet up 25 percent to $127.6 billion

Apple up 12 percent to $114.5 billion

Amazon up 12 percent to $202 billion

AI/dev

Three and a half years after it should have happened, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI agree to let sites opt out of scraping

OpenAI to unify chat and Work but not Codex

Google says schools that disable AI will lose access to Google Search - They're integrated. It's nice to see Google channeling Microsoft again

.NET Conf is next week, and Microsoft just posted the schedule

XBOX and gaming

There was a bit of drama when XBOX COO left after only a few months on the job, and now there's more

New titles coming to Game Pass in early November

The next Elder Scrolls game is ES VI Sentinel

GTA VI to rival Call of Duty - in the amount of disk space it requires

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Start11 v3

App pick of the week #2: LM Studio

RunAs Radio this week: PowerShell 7.7 and DSC 3.3 with Jason Helmick

Brown liquor pick of the week: Caol Ila 12

*Thumbnail courtesy of Joe Esposito in Club TWiT


These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/1008
Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent


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Microsoft released new Windows 11 Experimental builds. A new round of buyout offers has been presented to 25% of Microsoft's global workforce. Microsoft fixed a major Authenticator flaw for Android. And... no major XBOX news?

Windows

Paul has confirmed a theory weʼve discussed about why Microsoft is really improving Windows 11 this year.

Windows Insider Program

Four new builds - Mobile device controls in Quick Settings, native Internet speed test.

Corporate

Microsoft offers buyout offers to almost 25 percent of its global workforce.

Hardware

This week in Paulʼs RTX Spark local AI coding fails - plus, the first step is realizing itʼs not you, itʼs the technology.

Some advice for using AI.

Software

Microsoft fixes major Authenticator flaw on Android.

PowerToys adds two new utilities, so many other updates.

The Browser Company announces the inevitable end of Arc browser.

AI

Anthropic files for IPO, warns that its work could end humanity.

Canva releases its first AI model, for images.

Opera brings local AI to its desktop web browsers with WebAI standard-to-be.

Apple is bringing AI assistant to its iWorks apps - Apple copies Microsoft again!

XBOX and Gaming

No real news this week, which is rare, but a few thoughts about the new Call of Duty.

Tips and Picks

Tip of the Week: Yes, the Windows Setup workarounds still work in 26H2.

Windows 11 version 26H2 arrived recently and Iʼve now tested the installer on multiple Arm64 and x64 PCs and the local account workarounds we all know and love still work. My advice: Use Rufus to create install media.

App pick of the week: Mozilla Firefox

With a year or so of major improvements to its web browser, Mozilla has launched a big ad campaign to get Firefox users back.

RunAs Radio this week: PostgreSQL with Elizabeth Christensen

Brown liquor pick of the week: Vardberg Born

Hosts: Mikah Sargent, 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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Paul Thurrott gets hands-on with NVIDIA's new RTX Spark AI PCs and reveals why all that power isn't translating into practical results for certain users. Expect strong opinions and a few surprises about the state of local AI on computers. Plus, Tolaria is a free, open source, vibe-coded replacement for Notion that's based on Markdown files. And now it's on mobile too! Llama Windows is also free/open source and natively supports Windows 11 on Arm and RTX Spark. It may be the easiest way to interact with local AI on Windows.

Windows

Microsoft discusses second round of pain points updates for Windows 11, starting with a new Photos app plus the ability to work well with just 8 GB of RAM

Six (!) new builds, including two to the Release Preview Channel

Microsoft Edge is working towards no-reboot updates

Opera Air gets a nice refresh

The Proton roadmap is spectacular

RTX Spark: HP OmniBook Ultra 16

RTX Spark: Lenovo Pro 9n 15

RTX Spark: ASUS ProArt P16 arrives with 128 GB of RAM

Microsoft 365

OneDrive is getting a Copilot-infused upgrade for files and photos in the AI era

AI/dev

RTX Spark hands-on: Local AI is more frustrating than useful

Microsoft is working on a comprehensive strategy to secure AI agents

OpenAI releases an AI coding model for Visual Basic, other older programming languages

XBOX and gaming

Report: Project Helix starts with a gaming handheld in 2027, not a console, with a new console in 2028

Microsoft reveals standalone Cloud Gaming costs - 10 hours for $3.99, 25 for $7.99, 50 for $11.99

ASUS ROG XBOX Ally X20 is here for $1300 and up

ASUS ROG XBOX Ally X20 is here for $1300 and up

AMD is bringing FSR Upscaling 4.1 to XBOX consoles, ROG XBOX Ally

Final Fantasy VII Remake is the star of the late October Game Pass releases

NVIDIA touts games already optimized for RTX Spark

XBOX highlights new indie titles coming to PC, console, and Game Pass over the next year

EA is shutting down BioWare

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Tolaria

App pick of the week #2: Llama Windows

RunAs Radio this week: OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications with Will Velida

Brown liquor pick of the week: Ardnahoe Inaugural Release 5 Year Old

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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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