Now that Microsoft Build 2026 is in the rearview, we have a much clearer picture of the future of Windows 11. Agentic AI systems! Smart work ID badges! Always-on personal assistants! The path ahead for Microsoft’s current operating system will clearly feature AI in some form or fashion at every turn. But what about Windows 12?

Though it wasn’t a surprise that Microsoft didn’t announce its next OS during this year's Build keynote, we’d be amazed if work on Windows 12 hasn’t been motoring away in the background for quite some time over in Redmond. As such, we thought now would be an opportune time to speculate on a platform that will likely usher in a new era of AI integration.

Whether dealing with the petaflop power of the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box or the potentially paradigm-shifting Project Solara, AI agents will be run both locally and through the cloud to forge next-level hybrid computing on Windows 12.

But it’s not all about AI with our predictions for an OS we’re expecting in the not-too-distant future. The future of Xbox could also be intrinsically tied to Windows 12. With Xbox Mode continuing to bloom on Windows 11, don’t be surprised if Microsoft commits hard to PC gaming going forward, with more focus on creating a UI that can truly compete with Steam.

Without further ado, let’s get into some Windows 12 predictions, even if it does seem ludicrously early to be making them.

Windows 12 will be all about AI

Forget Copilot. The level of AI integration Windows 12 is going to embrace will be far more impactful than asking a digital assistant what the weather will be in a couple of hours. Microsoft’s new OS will have AI baked into its very core, with agentic systems that exhibit real autonomy handling the jobs you’d previously have done with apps.

This year’s Build made it clear that AI agents are a huge priority for Microsoft. As much as they’re shaping the future of your current OS, the use of agentic systems will likely leap to a new level with Windows 12.

Just take Microsoft Scout. This new Autopilot AI agent acts as an always-on personal agent. Rather than needing to be prompted like Copilot, Scout uses the MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning model to act autonomously. As such, it learns how you work over time, quickly becoming aware of your routines in order to better service your needs on any given day.

By the time Windows 12 launches, Scout and similar agentic systems will have had plenty of time to percolate. When Microsoft’s next OS is out in the wild, we could be looking at a platform where AI runs far deeper than mere surface-level window dressing. The days of manually setting meetings or switching between spreadsheets and emails could be over, as AI agents like Scout take control of your workflow, autonomously handling tasks so that you can fully focus on the most important aspects of your job.

Essentially, Windows 12 is going to be an AI OS, one that could potentially transform the way you work.

Hybrid computing will be central to Windows 12

The era of AI PCs has been around for a while now, yet it looks like Windows 12 could fully realize the potential of AI, in part, by turning the focus more heavily on hybrid computing. In this future of Jaws 19, hoverboards and flying Deloreans, users won’t need to worry about whether tasks are running on their NPU, CPU or GPU. Instead, Windows 12’s AI-influenced OS will autonomously figure out where workloads should be handled.

This isn’t about Microsoft pitting cloud AI and local AI against each other. The future we envisage for Windows 12 is where hybrid workflows are commonplace, with AI agents running locally on the systems like the Spark Dev Box (which we’ll touch on shortly) and through the cloud, too.

Ideally, users won’t even know where tasks are running. Less demanding AI tasks may operate locally, while heavy duty rendering could be split up between hardware and cloud-based infrastructures. If Windows 12 fully embraces the concept of hybrid computing, the end result will hopefully be an OS that balances performance more efficiently, as tasks run discretely across local hardware and the cloud.

AI agents will replace apps

Much of the focus of this year’s Build centered around agentic systems. AI agents aren’t just the future of Windows, they’re the here and now. We’ve already touched on Microsoft Spark being rolled out to Frontier customers, and before too long Project Solara will be upon this.

Built from the ground up on a Microsoft-tailored Android platform, the focus for Solara is on AI agents, not apps. Indeed, Solara seems keen to move away from traditional Windows hardware, instead taking the forms of a smart clock-like device and a work ID badge. The latter has been designed to assist users on the go, and it’s capable of recording notes before using AI to clean up audio that can then be sent to colleagues. It potentially represents a future of computing where you no longer need to be chained to a laptop to get work done.

Microsoft is clearly betting the farm on AI, and it’s entirely possible Windows 12 will be a heavily AI-assisted OS. Unlike past operating systems, AI agents will have far more importance than old-school apps. In this (potentially soon to be realized) future, your day will no longer be taken up by sifting through emails and spreadsheets. Rather, agentic systems will act as personal AI assistants, acting autonomously as they help declutter your workday to help you complete tasks more effortlessly and efficiently.

Windows 12 will light the Spark

There’s a line of thinking that’s easy to buy into following Microsoft's Build keynote: Windows 12 will be a “dev-first” OS. Now, Redmond isn’t suddenly going to forget regular consumers. But looking forward, it’s hard not to see the Big M being more focused on servicing developers' needs than at any other point in its history.

Enter the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. Initially shipping as a Windows 11 Pro mini PC that’s built around the Nvidia RTX Spark superchip, there’s no question more enhanced versions of this little rig will support Windows 12 in the future. Designed to support locally-based AI development, this is a box that has been built to service agentic workflows that eat up huge compute costs. Thankfully, the numbers suggest the Spark Dev Box will be more than capable of handling such tasks, as this dev-focused mini marvel gives users up to an astonishing 1 petaflop of AI compute and 128GB of unified memory.

Rocking the power of a combined Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU and Nvidia Grace CPU, the Spark Dev Box can power 120B+ parameter models locally. And that last word really is key. Spark has been designed to service the most demanding local AI tasks, in turn taking the focus away from cloud-based AI pipelines. Spark feels like a test run for what the future of high-end Windows 12 devices will look like: a workstation where the emphasis is on locally supporting AI agents to give developers more control.

Xbox Mode could change the game

Microsoft didn’t shine any light on its gaming endeavors during the dev-focused Build keynote, and that wasn’t a surprise. That doesn’t mean there aren’t big plans for the future of Xbox, particularly with how it ties into Windows 12 going forward.

With Phil Spencer gone, replaced by new Head of Xbox Asha Sharma, don’t be shocked if Microsoft’s gaming division goes through big changes in the next couple of years. We’ve known about Project Helix for ages at this point. And with the next Xbox promising to bridge the gap between consoles and PCs like never before, how Windows 12 handles Microsoft games may look quite different to the way Windows 11 currently deals with Xbox titles.

Xbox Full Screen Mode rolled out on Windows not too long ago, giving gamers an experience that’s more in line with Steam’s Big Picture. As Xbox integration continues to evolve, it would make sense for Microsoft to double down on providing a more console-like OS for next-gen games.

As for what Xbox Mode on Windows 12 could look like, there’s a reasonable chance we could see a gaming-focused app that’s more deeply integrated with Microsoft’s next OS. Imagine a more streamlined platform that you could boot directly into as soon as you fire up your PC. One that uses fewer Windows background processes to provide an experience that’s every bit as seamless as Steam.

It seems clear the future of Xbox is more deeply tied to Windows than ever before. As rumors swirl suggesting Sony could soon stop releasing PS5 games on PC, next-gen Xbox titles could provide the most premium console-like experience on Windows 12.

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Microsoft’s latest Surface devices won’t be cheap. As Windows Central reports, consumer versions of the Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 powered by Snapdragon X2 chips have just been unveiled. Though these models are more affordable than the current enterprise models powered by Intel, they still cost significantly more than their respective predecessors.

The Surface Laptop 8 starts at $1,599, while the Surface Pro 12 starts at $1,499. Those prices sting on their own, but it’s made worse when you consider that they both started at $999 in 2024. Yes, the new devices pack the more powerful Snapdragon X2 Plus chip and more storage, but their respective price tags still sting.

One saving grace is that Microsoft is offering incentives. For instance, buying the Surface Pro 12 between now and June 30 gets you a free Surface Pro keyboard. Preordering the Surface Laptop 8 gives you a free Surface Arc Mouse and a 50% offer for Microsoft Complete. The free keyboard with the Surface Pro is especially useful since it's essential for using the tablet like a laptop. You can also save up to $900 when trading in an older Surface device for a new one.

I reviewed the business model of the Surface Laptop 8 with an Intel Core Ultra X7 chip and found it to be an overall excellent, if expensive, notebook. I haven’t tested the Snapdragon X2 consumer model yet, but it has the same design as the Surface Laptop I reviewed. Microsoft says the new Surface devices offer 53% faster graphics performance over last gen, and up to 15 to 20 hours of battery life.

Thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis driving up the cost of electronics, I can’t say that I’m surprised that the latest Surface devices cost so much more than the 2024 models. This is a story we’ve seen over and over again this year. However, thanks to the incentives and freebies Microsoft is offering, you might save by choosing to upgrade. The consumer versions of the Surface devices are available now.

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PlayStation has had its turn, and this weekend was time for Microsoft’s Xbox to take the spotlight. The Xbox Game Showcase 2026 promises the latest looks at upcoming games from Xbox Game Studios, alongside new reveals and trailers from some of the biggest franchises around.

The live-streamed event kicked off Sunday at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. BST, and if one Xbox gaming showcase wasn’t enough, it was immediately followed by the Gears of War: E-Day Direct, with plenty of new information on the upcoming shooter, which is set to release on October 6. Don’t worry if you couldn't watch; you can check out all the biggest announcements and reveal below.

Alongside Gears, we saw more from the new Fable game, a teaser for Persona 5, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 had a presence in a big way, as well as the Halo 1 remake.

How to watch Xbox Games Showcase 2026

Xbox Games Showcase 2026 + Gears of War: E-Day Direct takes place today (Sunday, June 7) at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. BST.

You can watch the recording via YouTube or Twitch.

LIVE UPDATES

Welcome!

Good morning! Welcome to Tom's Guide's coverage of the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 + Gears of War: E-Day Direct (that's quite a mouthful). We'll have live updates covering all the new reveals and trailers in this live blog. If you're a passionate Xbox gamer, you won't want to miss this mammoth-sized live showcase.

Halo: Campaign Evolved screenshots leaked

There's been a surprising lack of leaks ahead of today's Xbox Games Showcase, but several screenshots of Halo: Campaign Evolved were captured on Xbox's official store page by some eagle-eyed Redditors before being taken down. The screenshots give us a glimpse at Cortana's redesign, along with battles in space and redesigned brutes with beards.

Persona 6 debut?

Several leakers have suggested we could get a look at Persona 6 today, though with Atlus also expected to reveal a release date for Persona 4 Revival at the Xbox Games Showcase, I'm not too optimistic. Then again, that would be peak Atlus.

Don't expect any next-gen console news

Games will be front and center at today's presentation (it is all called the Xbox Games Showcase, after all). But if you were getting your hopes up about new details on Xbox's next-gen console, codenamed Project Helix, I'm here to dash those.

"The focus here is on the games," Microsoft Studios boss Matt Booty said on the latest Xbox podcast (h/t Gamespot). "There won’t be Helix news. Helix will not be in this showcase. We want to get everything about that right."

A new era for Xbox

The showcase will be the first under new CEO of Microsoft Gaming Asha Sharma, who took over for now-retired Xbox boss Phil Spencer in February. Though I don't have high hopes given the show's focus on games, I'd love to see her outline a clearer picture on Xbox's future.

Phil's vision of Xbox's next-gen console as a powerful PC-like machine for your living room sounds tailored toward a pretty niche audience, but with rising costs of, well, everything these days, more and more gamers are getting priced out. Will Xbox pivot to court a broader crowd or double down on what's rumors suggest could be a pricey next-gen console?

Viva Piñata revival?

It's a long shot, but given the recent success of Pokopia, I'd love to see Xbox revive its Viva Piñata series. We haven't gotten a new game since Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise way back in 2008. Cozy games have only gotten more popular since then, and I say it's time to bring it back with more piñatas, bigger gardens, and modern controls.

Just an hour to go...

The Xbox Games Showcase is almost here! In a little over an hour, the livestreamed event will kick off, giving us our first look at games like State of Decay 3, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and new Fable and Call of Duty games.

The red room of death

Yesterday Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shared a snapshot on X of the in-person venue this year's showcase will take place at. It's giving off big "Twin Peaks" vibes to me.

Here we go!

The Xbox Games Showcase is about to kick off! As a refresher for anyone just joining us, you can watch along via YouTube or Twitch when the event kicks off at the top of the hour. Gears of War: E-day will front and center, with its own Direct immediately following the showcase. Also expect to hear more about RPGs like Fable, Clockwork Revolution, and the Persona series as well as a statement of intent from Xbox's new leadership.

New gameplay trailer for Gears of War: E Day

I'm not surprised to see Xbox kick things off with gameplay footage of today's main event: Gears of War: E-Day. A lengthy shot of gameplay showed off combat as chaos erupts through the street. The carnage is every bit as gritty and bloody as expected of the series, complete with chainsaws galore.

The age of Xbox exclusives continues

The new CEO of Microsoft Gaming Asha Sharma revealed Xbox isn't done with console exclusives quite yet. After showing off some gameplay footage of Gears of War: E-Day, the exec announced it would be an Xbox exclusive when it comes out on October 6, 2026. Considering how many previously exclusive Xbox games have made their way to other consoles, it was unclear whether Xbox would continue making them or instead pivot to hedging its bets with wider releases.

Fable revival looks promising

I love RPGs, but somehow never played the original Fable games so I wasn't too hyped for the series revival. After seeing the trailer, though, I'm excited. The writing made me laugh out loud, landing somewhere between Baldur's Gate 3 and Vox Machina with some well-placed F-bombs that actually landed rather than feeling forced. The combat looks stellar as well, with a weight that reminds me of the newer God of War games. Fable will hit store shelves on February 23, 2027.

Halo gets space battles

Three new missions are coming to Halo Campaign Evolved, the big remake of the first Halo, and Xbox showed off an exciting new addition in today's showcase: space flying missions and combat. The missions seem to be prequels to the original's campaign, with the voiceover promising a story "we haven't heard yet" that takes place "one year before the ring." Halo Campaign Evolved releases July 28, 2026.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy up next

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy shifts the spotlight to Sophia in a prequel adventure. The combat and gameplay seems less horror and more Tomb Raider/Uncharted vibes with some of the ancient temples she's seen running through. It comes out August 27 across multiple platforms.

Persona 4 Revival takes the stage

Take a trip to The Midnight Channel with our first real look at Persona 4 Revival. In the same vein as the Persona 3 Reload remake, the PS2 original looks way more detailed this time around with animated cut scenes, vibrant colors, and more detailed models. Atlus is also bringing over the Baton Pass mechanic from P3R for flashy, Persona 5-esque battles.

It's out Feb 18, 2027!

Build your cult in Join Us

Join Us from Wolf Haus Games has the graphics and multiplayer havoc of GTA 6 with the premise of Cult of the Lamb, and I'm here for it. In either single player and 4-person co-op you build your cult and convert followers to your cause while surviving giant tentacle monsters emerging from the Earth and other apocalyptic scenarios. The voice acting is on point too: "You better evaluate your life choices."

A new Senua game on the horizon

We got a look at some of the combat and gameplay for the third game in the Senua series, simply titled Senua, that's coming out next year. The combat has always been on the floaty side, but her hits landed with a satisfying weight and there seems to be plenty of environmental tools you can use in group fights. The trailer showed her kicking over a burning effigy to scatter her opponents.

Fallout 76 gets some new goodies

Bethesda up now with a Fallout 76 update with a seriously catchy jingle. The new Infestations update, which is available now, adds plenty of new baddies to mow through with your friends. And is that new power armor I see? Nice!

Sega's Crazy Taxi revival looks sick

As soon as I heard that "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" I was sat up. Sega's long in development Crazy Taxi revival finally has a name and a slick new trailer. The gameplay footage showed off even more insane antics as players pick up customers and zip around the city. Crazy Taxi World Tour comes out in 2027 across PS5, Xbox, and PC.

Y'all we are so back

Xbox showed off a new Xbox model for the company's 25th anniversary, with a Y2K style I've been chomping at the bit to come back: Those colored see-through casings that were everywhere in the early aughts. The limited edition Xbox Series X25 comes out in November 2026, and while it's not clear if it'll sport any new specs, they nailed the design.

Minecraft Dungeons II gets a new trailer

Mojang Studios returns with its next Minecraft thing, showing off players fighting through dungeons together in a world of blocky, Minecraft-style visuals. Minecraft Dungeons 2 is coming September 29.

The Thieves Guild is back

Some Elder Scrolls news, though not Elder Scrolls 6. Rather, the series' MMORPG entry, The Elder Scrolls Online, is getting a thieves guild expansion that takes players to the high seas and underwater in a hunt for glorious loot. Also making an appearance was Sheogorath, the Daedric prince of madness, and it sure looks like he got transported to Skyrim. The update is coming out July 8.

Genderbent Castlevania, yes please

To celebrate Castlevania's 40th anniversary, we got a new look at Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, a new 2D entry in the series. It looks to be a substantial entry in the series, complete with a sprawling castle map and powers like gravity-flipping and jumping inside a painting. It's coming out October 15, 2026.

Persona 6 got...something

Persona 6 made an appearance at today's showcase, though hardly a substantial one. Instead of any gameplay or a look at the new cast of characters, we got another green-tinged teaser, this time of a graveyard and a couple of collages of people with cut-up pictures. I'm sure it'll all make more sense once Atlus releases the first batch of trailers, which may not be for a while considering we still don't have a release date.

Spyro, my boy!

Would you look at that, Spyro's getting a revival! I loved the games as a kid, and the trailer showed off the iconic purple dragon and some new flight-based gameplay. Spyro: A Realm Beyond takes flight in spring 2027.

Clockwork Revolution confirmed for 2027

inXile's steampunk RPG Clockwork Revolution finally has a release window, and it's 2027. In today's showcase, we got a look at some of the game's core characters and first-person environments. Also: a heist plot! All signs point to it being another Xbox exclusive.

New look at CoD MW4

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4's new DMZ looks tense as hell, and the sound design is entirely too real in replicating bullets whizzing by your head. "Extract or die trying," we're reminded. CoD MW4 is out October 23 with an upcoming playtest set for July.

Onto the Gears of War: E-Day Direct

Studio head Mike Crump welcomes us to the Coalition as the Gears of War presentation kicks off with a bloody countdown. So stay tuned to learn more about the long-awaited prequel.

'The most brutally satisfying Gears yet'

The prequel heads back to Emergence Date, the catastrophic event that forever altered humanity’s fate and set the stage for the war-torn world players first encountered in the original game back in 2006.

Crump promises "the most brutally satisfying Gears yet." With the series leap to Unreal Engine 5, developer The Coalition revisited what made the series resonate in the first place. The team looked back to the iconic "Mad World" trailer for inspiration, seeing in it many of the themes that define the franchise. With the E-Day story, they saw it as the perfect chance to recapture that atmosphere with modern tech that finally allowed them to realize it on the scale they originally envisioned.

Built from the ground up, the game showcases seamless large-scale environments, ray-traced lighting, and real-time destruction for a dramatically reimagined look at the Gears universe while staying true to its roots.

Reimagined combat and movement

The team overhauled the game's movement with smoother transitions, a larger range of cover, and the ability to jump to open up the citywide battleground. You have more choice than ever to tackle each combat puzzle, which can take place across neighborhoods and through multiple floors of buildings. The team built out an extensive tool set for making the world feel lived in too.

E holes are back

The iconic emergence loop for spawning enemies, a core part of the Gears of War combat flow, returns in Gears of War: E-Day. Chippable cover across a range of textures also makes you feel like you're influencing the world. You'll watch "the fall of Kalona" in real time, and The Coalition demonstrated this with before and after shots of the destruction as the Locus overrun the city.

A look at Gears co-op

All four characters are playable, with two-player split-screen available locally. In PvP, maps are designed to feel like classic battles, with the added bonus of new traversal modes to build on the game's revamped movement system. There's also Foreword siege, a 12-player mode that focuses on defending Kalona co-operatively.

That's a wrap!

The Xbox Games Showcase ended with a reel of everything we've seen throughout the show. What was your favorite announcement? Let us know in the comments!

One thing was clear at Computex 2026: every laptop maker is terrified of the MacBook Neo, and they’re fighting back in a big way. But I’m worried about whether Windows 11 is actually ready for this shift.

A $599 machine powered by an A18 Pro chip, Apple has essentially forced the hands of PC manufacturers who had gotten far too comfortable giving us mid systems at this price. But I’m glad the Neo-shaped earthquake has shaken up some change here. The new Dell XPS 13 is looking mighty tasty at that lower price, but with better I/O and a touchscreen display, alongside that aluminum body.

But there’s a big Windows 11-related question here, because as I found out testing it, the way it's built makes it quite RAM hungry. I caught it using nearly 3X more memory than macOS, and with all the new features announced at Microsoft Build, things could get worse.

So while it’s all fair and good in the world of RAMageddon to shift to 8GB (not something I like to see, but something that is necessary given the insane pricing), Windows has to follow suit and trim some of the fat. Here are some ideas.

Give me a compact mode

Right now, Windows 11 treats a $600 8GB thin-and-light the same way it treats a $3,000 workstation with 64GB of RAM. Yes, the OS’ memory management can be highly dynamic, but the core fundamentals take around 6GB, and the system aggressively caches background apps, so as to not waste any unused RAM.

This may work if you have a ton of memory, but we’re not in that world at the moment and every precious bit is sacred. So what we need is a modular, adaptive OS shell. If Windows 11 detects 8GB, it should trigger an aggressive “Compact mode” right out of the box to throttle background tasks, pause any non-essential tasks and prioritize anything active in the foreground.

Kill the “widget and web” overhear

There’s this thing called WebView 2, which is actually the culprit behind some of the most unnecessary bloat within Windows 11 — namely web-heavy dependencies like news widgets you never look at or some of the always-connected elements like Start Menu details or Copilot feeds.

A user should never have to lose up to 1.5GB of RAM to useless stuff like this, so it needs to be decoupled from the core UI. If a feature isn’t actively on screen (or used) it’s background RAM allocation should be aggressively cut down.

Standardize the vanilla baseline

Bloatware. You hate it — you’ve heard us complain excessively about it. Asus, Dell, MSI and Acer all ship their budget laptops layered with their own resource-heavy management software, which on an 8GB system is a death sentence.

Microsoft needs to enforce strict RAM-usage guardrails for laptop makers who create 8GB configurations, ensuring that third-party battery trackers, lighting software and trial anti-virus programs don’t choke that last slot of 2GB remaining after the OS.

Outlook

PC makers have just proven they can match Apple’s budget hardware pricing. Now, it’s up to Microsoft to prove that Windows 11 can survive the diet Apple forced upon it.

And sure, there are other things that can be done here, such as smarter compression of background apps, getting on with moving the entire OS over to WinUI 3 framework (the thing that’s removing some of that memory overhead) and much more. But these three items are the main RAM killers here.

Will it happen? God I hope so, otherwise this fightback against the MacBook Neo is over before it even begins.

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Now that Microsoft Build 2026 is officially in the can, a clearer picture of the future of Windows 11 has appeared. Rather than announcing Windows 12, Microsoft is utterly dedicated to its current OS. That doesn’t mean the operating system you’re currently using is going to remain the same, though. Far from it.

After CEO Satya Nadella wrapped his keynote, it was hard to shake the feeling that the traditional desktop OS may soon be a thing of the past. Microsoft’s focus seems to be squarely aimed on delivering an AI-centred platform, where agentic systems are cooked into every corner of the Windows 11 experience.

Perhaps the main takeaway from Build concerning Windows 11’s future is that the OS could well make your day job easier going forward… well, unless you're a trapeze artist or a lion tamer. Using Microsoft IQ and MAI-Thinking-1, always-on AI agents will deploy real workplace knowledge to help users structure their daily workflow. The first of these to be announced was Microsoft Scout, and it could be a legit lifesaver for folks who struggle to organize hectic work schedules.

Microsoft is giving developers more tools to assist users with day-to-day tasks. That’s where the GitHub Copilot app (that uses the Big M’s new reasoning model) enters the equation. It’s available in preview to Microsoft Insider Program members now, and it’s just one of a number of productivity-focused features that could transform Windows 11 going forward. Let’s get into what that shiny new future might look like.

Scout and about

Following the latest Microsoft Build keynote, there can be little doubt as to where Microsoft’s focus is on when it comes to the future of Windows 11. Productivity-focused AI agents are going to play a key part in the evolution of the operating system, which is where Microsoft Scout enters the picture.

Available now to Microsoft Frontier customers, Scout is Microsoft’s first Autopilot agent. Focused on full Microsoft 365 app integration, this “always on” agentic AI can operate across the cloud, web and desktop, allowing users to connect to Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. To put that in more digestible terms, think of Scout as your very own personal assistant; one that constantly organizes your day as it learns and adapts to how you work.

Whereas traditional agents constantly needed to be prompted, Scout has been designed to work autonomously, allowing it to take proactive actions. This means it can help shape your working day by coordinating your schedule through 365 apps, be it organizing meetings across time zones or monitoring your inbox and Teams to flag any outstanding responses that need to be made. In theory, this should mean you no longer have to constantly flit between emails, docs and browser tabs, as much of this plate-spinning busywork can be delegated to Scout.

Powered by OpenClaw, Scout monitors your working habits through Work IQ, in turn becoming more efficient at helping you complete tasks the more it observes your daily practices. Clearly, Scout is going to be more useful for business environments than Windows 11 users lounging around on the couch. Yet if this Autopilot agent lives up to its virtual co-worker potential, it could genuinely change the way people go about their jobs.

Windows is thinking on its feet

Another huge announcement at Build — one that is directly tied to Scout — was the unveiling of MAI-Thinking-1. Microsoft’s new reasoning model helps the Autopilot AI out with planning tasks, and senior product manager Tanaya Yadav briefly demoed the tech during the keynote. While the task of training Scout could take hours, the endgame benefit should hopefully be AI agents that prove hugely useful for workflow purposes.

MAI Thinking could have a big and broad impact across Windows 11 going forward. With the future of Copilot and 365 tied to agentic systems, this reasoning model may shape Microsoft’s AI-focused goals going forward.

The pivot to MAI is also interesting in that it looks to free Microsoft from being reliant on OpenAI. As Windows 11 continues to evolve, Copilot should primarily take instructions from the Redmond giant’s internal reasoning tech. MAI is just the starting point too, as Microsoft’s AI Superintelligence Team (that must be one seriously cool business card) is also developing a further six in-house reasoning models.

Say hello to Solara

One of the most pleasant surprises to come out of Build this year was the announcement of Project Solara. This chip-to-cloud platform has been built from the ground up to ensure interacting with AI agents works in seamless fashion.

Probably the coolest feature of Solara is its eye-catching form factor. Because it’s been designed for spaces where traditional PCs and laptops might not be around, Microsoft has focused on delivering products that don’t take up much space. Enter devices which resemble a smart clock, and even more niftily, a work ID badge.

The clock-aping gizmo is intended to remain stationary, whereas the badge has been designed to be used while you’re on the move. On the latter, it can be unlocked with your fingerprint. The badge can even record video and take voice instructions, and it will subsequently clean up said audio so that you can send the note to colleagues in easily decipherable chunks.

Engineered with a new era of AI agents in mind, Project Solara takes cues from Android devices. The daring design of this new agent-focused OS seems to suggest Microsoft is fully committed to a new era of AI that thumbs its nose at traditional hardware by embracing imaginative new forms.

Security is being geared for AI agents

With Microsoft increasingly pivoting towards AI as the future of Windows 11 takes shape, the matter of security becomes ever more vital. While the prospect of Scout mapping out your workday as you sip on your morning mocha is undoubtedly an appealing one for folks who get easily flustered, protections do need to be in place.

This is where the announcement of Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) becomes crucial. Now in preview, this security framework allows developers to run containment boundaries that are enforced by Windows 11. Essentially, a dev describes the security parameters it needs its agents to adhere to, then the OS enforces them everywhere these agentic systems run.

Now, while this probably sounds roughly as exciting to you as the prospect of dining in a restaurant that only serves steamed celery, MXC is important to the future of AI agents. As they become more autonomous, it’s crucial that these agents can’t accidentally access sensitive info or make decisions they’re not permitted to. With MXC in place, admins should be able to rest safe in the knowledge that this agent-native runtime is operating under safe security parameters.

GitHub Copilot shifts the focus to devs

Now available in preview to developers, the GitHub Copilot app is an AI-assisted engineering platform that brings agentic workflows to native desktop experiences. One of the major Build takeaways concerning the app is how it will work autonomously, though not in an unfettered manner (devs will most definitely still be in control).

GitHub Copilot will use the newly revealed MAI-Code-1-Flash, an internal coding model that should improve coding performance through latency reduction. The deployment of this MAI model is to ensure the GitHub Copilot app is more aware of good workspace practices. In turn, this allows it to function like a true agentic assistant, rather than a glorified chatbot that continually needs to be prompted.

Going forward, GitHub Copilot should make developers' lives easier, taking some coding pressures off their shoulders as it tests and deploys code with genuine autonomy thanks to AI agents. In an ideal world, this app will decrease developer workloads, rather than physically replacing them.

Again, none of this is particularly focused on the Average Joe/Jenny Windows 11 experience. Then again, Build has always been focused on developers over consumers. Ultimately, the agentic benefits of GitHub Copilot that developers receive will ideally lead to smoother OS experiences for all of us.

The future of Windows 11 centers around AI

If Windows 11 is just a gateway that allows you to jump into the best PC games, there likely wasn’t much for you to get excited about coming out of Build 2026. Yet if you’re a dev or someone who is looking to use AI tools to coordinate workflows, the latest keynote definitely provided a peek into the future of Microsoft’s OS.

Rather than revealing Windows 12, Microsoft doubled down on its commitment to its current operating system. Moving forward, AI is clearly going to be the cornerstone of everyday Windows functions. With agentic systems like Microsoft Scout leaning on reasoning models to help business-minded folks map out their day by coordinating schedules, and Project Solara devices that have been crafted to replace traditional hardware, the focus is on agents that have real autonomy in order to assist users. The Redmond Giant is going hard on a vision for Windows 11 where agentic AI is baked into its very fabric.

More from Tom's Guide

• 15 top Windows 11 tips everyone needs to know
• The best Windows laptops of 2026, tested by experts
• I sped up my sluggish Windows 11 PC with these 6 free tricks — here's how

Eight laptops are launching with Nvidia RTX Spark inside at Computex 2026, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is easily one of the best — so beautifully designed it almost makes Spark feel like a side character.

Gunning for the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Microsoft doesn’t miss with a seriously luxurious build, great I/O for pros, fantastic ergonomics (including a breakthrough touchpad) and a mesmerizing display.

And you’ve seen what it will be able to do from all the RTX Spark testing I’ve done. This will not be a cheap laptop with that chip inside, so Microsoft has rolled out the red carpet in utilitarian aesthetics. Let me tell you about it.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Specs

A seriously good looker (and worker)

Make no mistake about it — the Surface Laptop Ultra is built different. On the face of it, this is a Surface Laptop if it started bulking for a few months. But once you get into the details, you realize it’s so much more than that.

It starts with a beefy utilitarian presence atop any desk. This is a hefty machine, but those premium materials and the added bulk makes this feel ready to power through any task you throw at it — just like a MacBook Pro does.

The similarities also extend to the port selection, but chalk this up as a win for the Ultra with its additional USB-A for wider support. They keyboard feels gorgeous to type on, which is something that Microsoft has really excelled in in the past — giving you a nice tactility to every key press that makes it feel intentful.

But the real star of the show on that bottom deck is the 30% larger haptic touchpad. It’s an absolute ocean with a smooth gliding surface, with every click giving me those same snappy sensations I love from the MacBook Pro’s trackpad. But as an addition here is the haptics that actually communicate back to you.

Built directly into Windows 11, you’ll feel small hints of feedback as you do key things like snap apps to sides of the screen. On top of that, the company is working with key developers to give you those same sensations in third party apps like moving your cursor over clips in a video timeline.

It’s a feeling that when returning to my MacBook Pro, I felt like something was missing! Top it all off with that gorgeously color-accurate and smooth PixelSense display up top that can get seriously bright, and you’ve got a nice-looking beast that’s ready for anything.

Monstrous performance

Speaking of ready for anything, that’s where I get to the fun stuff inside. You’ve seen a lot of the software stuff it will be able to do from the Microsoft Build announcements — in short, expect a lot of agentic AI features to take advantage of that RTX Spark chip.

And as you saw in my testing of Spark itself, there’s a lot to be had here from the massive local models changing the dynamic of how you interact with a computer from it being a tool you lays idle when you’re not using it, to an active assistant machine.

But let’s compare apples and oranges and put it up against the MacBook Pro workload. You want your laptop to get the pro stuff done speedily both on and off the charger. After flying around the most dense Unreal Engine map while connected and disconnected, that’s easily proven true. There’s also tie-ins with Adobe to use much more of that built-in RTX 5070-level GPU and turboboost creator tasks beyond levels I’d seen in equivalent Apple laptops.

But the real killer app for me is the ability to use the same laptop to work by day and play by night. Alan Wake 2 is built natively for Arm and can run at 1600p resolution with ray tracing and DLSS 4.5 ray reconstruction at buttery smooth frame rates. Even games that are not built for this architecture like Pragmata go through the Prism emulator layer and play smoothly too. And yes, both of these were on and off the charger too!

The big unanswered question here is power efficiency, which could be affected by that emulation layer. Speaking to Nvidia, they’re not giving anything away, but did give me a cheeky smile when I started talking about what all-day battery life really means. We could be in for something special here.

Outlook

Ignoring the larger USB-C port mystery (my theory is it’s a magnetic breakaway USB-C socket that replaces the missing Surface Connect), what you’re left with here is a phenomenal laptop that feels powerful.

The aesthetics are clean, the ergonomics are fantastic, the display is mesmerizing and the power under the hood is awesome! Of course, there’s a big question on price, which rumors here at Computex point to a starting cost of $3,000.

This is definitely for the pros who know how to make the most of that power, and no longer is the MacBook Pro the default option at this price. A new player has come to town.

More from Tom's Guide

• I spoke to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about RTX Spark — he tells us why this is less of a laptop chip and more like 'R2-D2,' and shares future plans on N2X and N3X
• I gamed for 250 hours on AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE — it’s a $549 nightmare for Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti
• I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — it leaves ROG Xbox Ally in the dust with breakthrough Intel Arc G3 power

Microsoft Build 2026 is over, and as expected, Satya Nadella’s keynote was all about agentic systems, or AI that acts on your behalf without direct supervision. To that end, several features and applications were introduced.

This includes Microsoft IQ, which is now generally available across GitHub Copilot, Foundry, and Copilot Studios. It’s the new context layer that feeds AI agents real workplace knowledge (Work IQ from M365 Signals), structured business data (Fabric IQ), and fast web grounding via the new Web IQ. Frontier Tuning, available in private preview, allows agents to learn how your business operates within your compliance boundaries.

Developers got some practical upgrades to the tooling. For instance, the GitHub Copilot app (now available in preview) brings agentic workflows to a native desktop experience. Project Rayfin (also in preview) tackles the prototype-to-production gap by providing developers with a managed backend-as-a-service on Microsoft Fabric, built on GitHub-defined workflows.

We also got to see some hardware in the form of the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, which targets sustained workloads, with up to 1 petaflop of AI compute and 128GB of unified memory, capable of running 120B-parameter models locally without driving up costs.

Seven new MAI models were introduced, including the MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning model and MAI-Code-1, which is tuned specifically for GitHub and VS Code. Speaking of multi-model support, Azure AI Foundry can also pick the right model for a task, so you won’t be locked in.

Now that the presentation is over, feel free to watch the embedded video and read my posts. For more details, you can also read Microsoft’s Build 2026 recap post.

Microsoft Build 2026 highlights

• Microsoft IQ is now available
• Seven new MAI models announced
• Surface RTX Spark Dev Box brings serious AI horsepower
• GitHub Copilot app enters preview
• Agent 365 delivers quick fixes

Watch Microsoft Build 2026 with us

Live: Latest updates

Microsoft Build 2026 is almost here

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our live coverage of Microsoft Build 2026. This year promises to deliver a ton of AI-focused panels and announcements, and we'll be covering it all as it happens. There's going to be a bunch of tech talk, but we'll be here breaking it all down and detailing what is (or isn't) important for you.

Agentic AI

AI will be the main focus this year at Build, but Microsoft will specifically nail down on "agentic AI." That's a term you'll hear all throughout the show, so here's a breakdown of what that is.

Right now, people use LLMs like ChatGPT to ask questions. AI agents, however, can take proactive actions on your behalf. For instance, they can resolve scheduling conflicts in your calendar, collaborate with other AI agents, and handle other complex tasks.

Reports suggest that Microsoft will be bringing agents to Windows 11, which should be beneficial for developers and enthusiasts. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft's agentic AI differs from others.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub is an important platform for developers, and it could become even more useful with AI agents. We could see deeper integrations with Visual Studio, VS Code, and the full dev lifecycle.

For the regular person, this could lead to higher-quality apps and faster updates. I expect to see a sizeable portion of today's show focus on GitHub Copilot.

Nadella's sneak peak

On X, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a few behind-the-scenes photos of Microsoft Build. One is an offstage shot of Nadella rehearsing, and another is a shot of a filming camera. Alongside what appears to be a child cooking (likely code).

There's also an intriguing shot of something with a Microsoft logo. It's interesting because that appears to be the top of an Xbox Series X/S. I'm sure the internet will run wild speculating what that could be.

Nvidia RTX Spark

While Build is generally focused on development tools, I have to believe we'll get some talk about the recently announced Nvidia Spark CPU.

Given that the processor is meant to facilitate on-device AI, it just makes sense for Windows developers to discuss their plans for Nvidia's CPU. And let's not forget that the recently announced Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra has an RTX Spark chip, so it's almost guaranteed we'll hear more about it.

Windows Foundry

Speaking of running on-device AI models, Windows Foundry is the platform that allows developers to do so on laptops and PCs using the machine's NPU, GPU, or CPU. On-device AI is important if you're working on something you'd rather not share in the cloud. I expect to see some live demos featuring on-device inference and other developer-optimized experiences.

Copilot super app?

As @testingcatalog posted on X, Microsoft could debut a Copilot "super app" at Build. According to the account, this app would combine Copilot, Cowork, GitHub Copilot, and introduce a new Autopilot Scout Agent.

Take that with a grain of salt, but a Copilot super app seems like a no-brainer for developers, letting them keep all their work in one place.

What about Windows 12?

While we’ve heard rumblings about Windows 12 for years, there has not been official confirmation from Microsoft. Build isn’t usually an event where major software is announced, so it’s unlikely that the company will unveil Windows 12 there. However, we’ll no doubt see elements of what could end up in the operating system at the various sessions. What actually makes it into Windows 12 is anyone’s guess, however.

Surface Laptop Ultra

Microsoft Build is generally about development tools, but we might get more information about the Surface Laptop Ultra. After all, it is being billed as a mobile workstation thanks to the power of Nvidia RTX Spark. I don't expect an entire segment on Microsoft's upcoming laptop, but I'd also be surprised if it wasn't brought up in some capacity.

Azure AI platform

While on-device AI will be a major talking point during Build, Microsoft won't neglect its cloud-based Azure platform.

To that end, expect discussions on the latest developments, including sessions detailing things like training and fine-tuning models efficiently, multi-model orchestration, and moving prototypes to production in a more cost-effective manner.

Nvidia @ Microsoft Build

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Nvidia will be at Microsoft Build this year. As I posted earlier, Team Green's new RTX Spark chip is all about on-device AI, and should be a boon for both developers and enthusiasts who want to get work done without going to the cloud.

"Join us online or in person to watch the keynote and discover how we're partnering with Microsoft to accelerate development and deployment of AI," posted the Nvidia Infrastructure account on X.

It'll be interesting to see live demos, but even if we don't, learning more about the partnership should be interesting.

30 minutes left!

We're just half an hour from the big show! Satya Nadella will start things off with the keynote speech, and we'll then be in for a heap of AI news and updates for developers. Get. Ready!

Setting expectations

I know it's fun to get hyped over events, but I wanted to set expectations for Microsoft Build, so you won't be disappointed.

While new hardware or consumer features might be announced, the core of Build is centered on developers. This year specifically, we'll see a lot of talk about AI tools and agentic AI. Sure, this won't be an event like WWDC or Google I/O, but it's fascinating to learn about the tools that devs will use to make the apps we use work better.

5 minutes!

I hope you've got yourself a nice snack, a tasty drink, and a comfortable seat, because the show is about to start!

Microsoft Build 2026 is officially underway!

Microsoft Build 2026 has started! Keep it locked here for all the latest updates as they happen.

Satya hits the stage!

Only a few minutes late, Satya Nadella finally hits the stage for Microsoft Build 2026.

He says the key takeaway is how developers manage in this new AI frontier. The conference will discuss the tech stack, including infrastructure, models, agent runtime, and developer tools.

Unmetered intelligence

Nadella is now discussing the company's vision for on-device AI, which will take AI use and development away from the cloud and to one's PC. To that end, Microsoft is expanding Windows AI APIs to more PCs.

A new program called Aion 1.0 Plan will have local reasoning and tools calling for agentic apps. Processors from AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm will make this happen. And of course, Nvidia RTX Spark. One of the first devices built for on-device AI will be the Surface Laptop Ultra.

Pushing the architecture to the limit

Surface RTX Spark dev box has been unveiled. This was that Xbox-like image we saw from Nadella's post on X earlier today. So, no, it's not Project Helix.

This device will have 1 petaflop of AI compute, 20 CPU cores, and 128GB of unified RAM. Those are some of the expected specs for RTX Spark. Expect 1 trillion parameters of local compute, which is pretty wild. It's basically a data center on your desktop.

A live demo

Kayla Cinnamon takes the stage to show some live demonstrations for developers to use on the Surface RTX Spark dev box. Python and other dev tools will be available on the RTX Spark dev box and on other Windows machines.

Using AI agents for development

We see Kayla using an agent to help her on a development project. You can use simple commands to make otherwise complex tasks easier. Many tools will come preconfigured. Not only can devs issue typed commands, but they can also issue voice commands.

Using the cloud and minimizing the impact of AI use

Satya Nadella returns, and now we're talking about the cloud. There's a lot that goes into using AI, and some of it can get downright expensive. To that end, Microsoft has a community-first plan to minimize the impact on the environment and on people's electricity bills.

An AI super center

Nadella is now discussing how to build data centers that have minimal environmental impact. This means minimizing water usage to what a single restaurant would use, for example. Again, this will be done in partnership with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.

Cobalt 200

New Azure Cobalt 200 VMs deliver a 50% performance improvement and are fully optimized for modern agentic AI workloads.

"Cobalt 200 is purpose-built from silicon to servers to services—integrating Microsoft’s latest innovations in security, networking, storage, and offload to outperform traditional Arm-based compute," says a blog post on Microsoft Azure website.

Jensen Huang makes a guest appearance

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang makes a guest appearance to discuss Nvidia RTX Spark.

Jensen details how Nvidia has created a chip that's purpose-built for AI. Using Windows apps, RTX Spark-powered machines could be the next major step in computing. Users can have agents perform tasks on their behalf without being there. Jensen says the personal PC has become a personal AI.

Discussing the evolution of AI development

Nvidia and Microsoft have worked to make AI more efficient and also use less energy, all while making AI more useful. This is how we have arrived at AI agents that can run on a user's PC rather than in the cloud, which is facilitated by giant AI data centers.

Agentic AI is the next step

Until now, AI has involved asking questions. With agents, users can effectively have an assistant working on their behalf. Jensen says the aim is to make agents faster and ultimately make using them profitable.

New form factors for the agent era

Project Solara is a new chip-to-cloud platform designed to make using agents more seamless. The devices in question resemble a smart clock and a work ID badge rather than traditional PCs or laptops. This is designed for places where traditional devices aren't available or aren't optimal. Azure will tie all this together.

Project Solara devices

The smart clock-like device is meant to remain stationary, while the ID badge is meant to go with you. You can use your fingerprint to unlock the latter, which is pretty cool. You can even record video with the badge and give it voice instructions. It will clean up whatever you said and send it to your team.

A chat with Qualcomm's CEO

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon sits down with Satya Nadella to discuss AI agents across different devices, including the ID badge prototype. Amon says this will change the definition of wearables and AI form factors in general. The smartphone might have a great design, but it may not be ideal for every use case.

Discussing Models

We're now on to the next layer in the stack: models. Right now, Windows Foundry has 11,000 models. When building an agentic system, it's important that it supports various models depending on specific needs or preferences.

A new service called Azure HorizonDB has been announced. It can scale with the projects it works on, which should help developers.

Web IQ announced

WebIQ has been updated to support AI agents that use the web to deliver the latest updates, helping devs build agentic systems.

Elijah Straight takes the stage to detail how WebIQ works. The long-running agent will produce a brief for the user to respond accordingly. The agent was built in Foundry and was then published to 365 for the entire team to use. When asked a question, WebIQ sources the web to deliver the latest information.

Bespoke answers

WebIQ won't just give you generic answers, but will use your knowledge (such as your company's guidelines) to give you applicable answers.

OpenClaw on Windows

OpenClaw is coming to Windows. Scott Hanselman and Samantha Song are on stage discussing how they each use their OpenClaw agents and are doing a live demo. We see everything the OpenClaw is tackling, along with other options you can configure to make the agent do exactly what you need.

Using OpenClaw to clean your desktop

During the demo, we see how you can have an OpenClaw agent clean up your desktop. It's a small thing, but it goes to show how agents are ready to help you with any task... no matter how trivial they might seem.

OpenClaw founder takes the stage

OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger briefly takes the stage to discuss OpenClaw coming to Windows. To bring the point home, Scott said this was the first time we have seen OpenClaw running on the Surface Laptop Ultra... which is true, since that device was just announced.

Developer tools

We're now talking about Developer Tools. This is where GitHub comes into play, as it has been a great resource for developers.

GitHub Copilot app announced

As rumors suggested, GitHub Copilot is getting an app. Development tools are now being rolled out.

Cassidy Williams takes the stage to show the app. This app will be the home base for developers. In the demo, Cassidy has the app work on multiple projects at once without agents stepping on each other. You can then use agent merge to bring it all together.

Canvas demo

We see a demo of the agent using a live video feed of Cassidy, which showcases the multimodal capabilities of the GitHub Copilot app.

Security

Now, let's discuss security and safety when using AI agents. Agent 365 SDK will be one of the tools to help with this.

Amanda Foster takes the stage to show how this works. With a simple prompt, all the agents are protected and will also keep one's data secure.

Agents get better the more they're used

One interesting thing is that agents will learn from experience and improve themselves through updates, depending on the tasks they are asked to do. All of this has to be approved by admins, so agents can't just do whatever they want.

Security with AI

Sarah Young, Director of Security, takes the stage to show how AI can be used for security. Agents work together to analyze potential scams and determine which vulnerability was exploited to gain access to a system. You can then use these agents to clean up the code and see what it has done. This can be done locally and uploaded to GitHub Security.

Chainsmokers take the stage

Alex Pall and Drew Taggart from the Chainsmokers take the stage. In case you don't know (which I certainly don't), they're musicians who are also developers. This seems like the obligatory celebrity cameo, but it seems the folks watching live appreciate it.

Autopilots

Autopilots are enterprise-grade, long-running agents. The first one being introduced is called Scout. The sizzle reel shows a user asking Scout to handle several tasks simultaneously. Scout works where you work, no matter what app it might be. It's available today to developers.

Microsoft AI

Mustafa Suleyman, chief of Microsoft AI, takes the stage to discuss Microsoft AI. He discusses how AI has grown over the years and how it will continue to grow. Mustafa says it has to be AI that prioritizes humans.

A family of new models will help with this, all under the MAI umbrella. This includes MAI Image 2.5 for visual work, MAI Transcribe 1.5 for transcribing (in multiple languages), and more. All of this is rolling out right now.

MAI models coming to RTX Spark

Despite calling it "N1X," Mustafa said these MAI models will be available for RTX Spark machines. Given the different use cases for MAI, such as voice, text, and video generation, it'll be interesting to see what RTX Spark can do.

Microsoft + Mayo Clinic

President and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, Gianrico Farrugia, takes the stage to discuss the company's partnership with Microsoft. The aim is to build a frontier model to help patients.

MAI Thinking demo

Tanaya Yadav, senior product manager, takes the stage to show how MAI Thinking works. The demo focuses on training agents to do what you need them to do. This can take hours, but it should result in agents that are more useful.

Microsoft Discovery for science

David Carmona takes the stage to discuss how Microsoft Discovery is being used to help scientists improve plastic recycling. The agents use scientific principles to figure this out, and David said it could take hours or days, just like real scientists would. This shows how agents can be tailored to perform specific tasks and not just dish out generic (and wrong) answers.

A science class on stage

I don't know about you, but chemistry goes way over my head. Still, it's impressive to see scientists using these tools to help mankind.

Quantum computing

Now we're talking about quantum computing, which is likely the next frontier in computing. Majorana 2 is a processor that will be used for creating scalable quantum computing. It's capable of 1-microsecond operations, which is something that's quite mind-boggling.

And that's a wrap

Microsoft Build is officially over! That was certainly a firehose of information, but hopefully it will help developers actually make folks' lives easier and do so affordably.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is the company’s answer to the MacBook Pro. Announced during Nvidia’s Computex 2026 presentation, this laptop is among the first to feature the newly announced Nvidia RTX Spark chip. It promises to be powerful enough to handle creative workloads, development, local AI use, and gaming.

Besides the Laptop Studio, Surface devices are generally designed for average use. That won't be the case with the Surface Laptop Ultra, as it will pack up to 128GB of unified memory. Microsoft also claims it can run AI models locally and that the chip delivers power comparable to a mobile RTX 5070 GPU.

If the Surface Laptop Ultra is everything Microsoft claims, it will easily be the most powerful Surface device yet — and could give the likes of the MacBook Pro stiff competition. Here’s everything you need to know about the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Design

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra will include some of the features you’d expect from a premium notebook. For starters, it has a 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra display that can reportedly reach 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness, making it the brightest display of any Surface device ever. Microsoft says it will have strong color accuracy for creative work.

You’ll also get a full set of ports, including HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack. The haptic touchpad is the largest Microsoft has ever used on a Surface, and the laptop is designed to run quietly even under load.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will reportedly have “all-day” battery life, which is a claim I’m eager to verify in our lab tests. Expect it to come in Platinum and Nightfall finishes.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Nvidia RTX Spark

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra announcement alone is noteworthy, but it’s even more interesting because it’s one of the first laptops to feature the Nvidia RTX Spark chip. In case you were wondering, yes, it’s the processor long known as the “N1X.” Different moniker aside, the chip should be a major boon for the Surface Laptop Ultra.

The chip packs up to 6,144 Blackwell RTX cores, 20 efficient Arm CPU cores, and up to 128GB of unified memory. That adds up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, enough to run 120-billion-parameter models right on the laptop without choking. The claimed power of an RTX 5070 laptop GPU should mean smoother 3D rendering, faster video exports, and potentially higher-end gaming.

If all those numbers went over your head, it means the Surface Laptop Ultra should feel like a legitimate workstation you can carry around. We’d need to benchmark this laptop and live with it to see what it can do, but RTX Spark should give it some serious power.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Outlook

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is set to launch later this year, so it might be a while until we can go hands-on with this machine. I’m certainly looking forward to that, but given how expensive electronics have become thanks to the RAM crisis, I’m not eager to see how much this thing will cost.

We’ll have more information on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra as soon as we hear it, so stay tuned!

More from Tom's Guide

• I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — Intel Arc G3 is a breakthrough for handheld gaming, but at what cost?
• Intel Arc G3 is here to shake up handheld gaming, and AMD should be terrified — Acer Predator Atlas 8, a new MSI Claw and more launching soon
• I built a touchscreen MacBook Pro using this snap-on accessory, and I'm baffled why Apple hasn't made its own for years

Microsoft Build 2026 takes place on June 2-3 and promises to showcase the latest innovations the company is cooking up. Taking place at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, this developer-focused event likely won’t feature bombshell announcements like Windows 12, but instead spotlight the latest and upcoming AI tools.

The full session catalog is already live, with sessions based around agentic AI, Azure cloud smarts, GitHub Copilot, Windows development, and responsible AI. That might not sound exciting, but what we learn during the two-day event will give us a glimpse of updates that will trickle down to the apps, PCs, and services you and I use every day.

You can watch Microsoft Build 2026 online for free by registering at the official Microsoft Build 2026 website. We’ll be covering the show as well, so make sure to keep it locked here as we break down all the technical jargon and explain what is (or isn’t) important.

Here are the biggest announcements happening at Microsoft Build 2026.

Agentic AI and multi-agent systems

One term we expect to hear a lot during Build is “agentic AI.” Right now, people use LLMs like ChatGPT to ask questions. AI agents, however, can take proactive actions on your behalf. For instance, they can resolve scheduling conflicts in your calendar, collaborate with other AI agents, and handle other complex tasks. Microsoft Foundry (the evolved version of the Azure AI platform) should be the basis for this.

To that end, expect Build sessions to cover topics such as agent orchestration and debugging, and perhaps even get real-world production stories. For instance, we could see a demo of an agent researching flights, while another books hotels, and another checks your budget. This would happen without anyone micromanaging the agents.

We’ve heard horror stories about agents deleting important documents and emails, so I hope to see Microsoft address this very real concern. But if these agents work as advertised and don't torch your work, they should act as digital assistants to take some of the stress off your daily grind.

A more autonomous GitHub Copilot

Related to the previous point, GitHub Copilot could also start doing things on your behalf. This platform has already been a boon for developers, and could become even more indispensable. We could see deeper integrations with Visual Studio, VS Code, and the full dev lifecycle.

If developers have an easier time creating app or fixing code, this could result in higher-quality apps for folks like us. Think smoother interfaces on streaming platforms, bug-free banking apps, or even smarter fitness trackers. Developers shipping code more quickly and with fewer bugs means faster app updates.

Azure AI platform

Microsoft’s Azure platform is what does the heavy lifting, so expect Build to discuss the latest on the cloud-based platform. We’ll see sessions diving into things like training and fine-tuning models efficiently, multi-model orchestration, and moving prototypes to production without giant bills.

For non-developers, this could mean keeping AI features affordable, which could result in the price of subscriptions for services we use staying low. That could be wishful thinking on my part, but if the developers are saving money, then perhaps we might as well.

Windows AI Foundry

Windows AI Foundry lets developers build apps that can run AI models on-device on laptops and PCs using the NPU, GPU, or CPU. This is beneficial if you’re working on something sensitive and don’t want to do it on the cloud.

To that end, we should see sessions featuring on-device inference, WinUI 3 with agents, WSL improvements, and other developer-optimized experiences. This builds on Copilot+ PCs but works broadly, all on-device.

Local AI means faster response times since there’s no internet lag. And as mentioned above, it also means better privacy for both personal and business files. Privacy is a growing concern with AI, so I expect Microsoft to really push on-device AI during Build.

What not to expect

Let’s get the big one out of the way. While we’ve heard rumblings about Windows 12 for years, there has not been official confirmation from Microsoft. Build isn’t usually an event where major software is announced, so it’s unlikely that the company will unveil Windows 12 there. However, we’ll no doubt see elements of what could end up in the operating system at the various sessions. What actually makes it into Windows 12 is anyone’s guess, however.

Similarly, we doubt that Microsoft will make any significant hardware announcements. Surface devices for business have already launched, such as the Surface Laptop 8 I reviewed, so any kind of mention would be redundant. We also don’t think Microsoft will unveil or discuss Xbox Project Helix.

If anything, we could hear something about the next Xbox during Summer Game Fest that’s also happening next week—but that’s a whole different story.

Microsoft Build 2026: Outlook

Microsoft Build 2026 won’t be a big fancy event like WWDC or Google I/O, but it will give us some insight into the tools developers will use to (hopefully) build more useful applications and features for regular users. From agentic systems that handle your work to local AI that lets you work more privately, there’s a lot to look forward to.

We’ll be covering Microsoft Build 2026 live as it happens, so keep it locked here for all the latest developments from Microsoft’s big developer conference.

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For the past two years, the AI industry has sounded remarkably certain about the future. Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO suggested AI would cause massive unemployment, Bill Gates predicted the end of nearly every job and even Microsoft revealed a list of jobs that AI is most likely to replace.

Now, some of the same people that made those predictions are begining to walk back their statements or at the very least reframe them. Honestly, this feels like the clearest sign yet that nobody truly knows where AI technology is headed.

The latest example comes from a Reuters report highlighting comments from Sam Altman, who recently admitted he may have overestimated how quickly AI would eliminate entry-level white-collar jobs. Just months ago, much of the conversation around generative AI focused on mass disruption and automation. Now, the tone coming from some of the industry’s biggest leaders sounds noticeably more cautious and far less certain.

That shift matters because AI has increasingly been marketed not just as a useful tool, but as an unstoppable economic force. The messaging helped fuel an arms race involving billions of dollars in infrastructure spending, data centers and AI adoption across nearly every major tech company.

But as the technology moves from hype to reality, predictions keep colliding with actual human behavior.

AI keeps changing but society moves slower

One of the biggest surprises of the AI boom is that people haven’t adapted as quickly or as uniformly as many experts predicted.

Yes, tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude have become mainstream. Millions of people now use AI to write emails, summarize meetings, brainstorm ideas and analyze information. But widespread adoption doesn’t automatically translate into immediate replacement.

Many companies still struggle with hallucinations, failures, trust issues, legal concerns and workflow integration. Workers continue finding ways to use AI alongside existing jobs instead of fully automating them away. And consumers often use AI in far more casual or limited ways than the industry originally expected.

This results in a strange contradiction of AI useage. While the models keep getting dramatically better, according to Pew Research, just 10% of society say they are more excited than concerned about AI.

The AI narrative keeps changing

According to the film, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist on Amazon Prime, more than 20,000 people are currently working on AGI — artificial general intelligence — while fewer than 200 are focused specifically on AI safety. Whether that exact number is perfectly accurate almost feels beside the point. The statistic captures something that increasingly defines the AI era: the technology is moving much faster than society’s ability to fully understand, regulate or adapt to it.

Just a year ago, some executives warned that AI agents would soon automate massive portions of knowledge work. Today, AI agents still exist mostly as early experiments for many users.

For a while, prompt engineering was described as the “job of the future.” Now many AI companies are actively building systems designed to require fewer specialized prompts altogether.

Search was supposedly on the verge of collapse. Instead, the internet has entered a strange transitional phase where AI Overviews, chatbots and traditional websites awkwardly coexist.

Even timelines for AGI seem to change constantly depending on who is speaking — and what month it is. That doesn’t necessarily mean AI companies are intentionally misleading people. It points to that predicting technological change at this scale is incredibly difficult. Especially when billions of people, governments, businesses and cultural habits are involved.

AI is absolutely changing the world, but slower than expected

One of the biggest myths surrounding the current AI boom is the idea that anyone, including Silicon Valley executives, fully understands what happens next. The technology is evolving too quickly, society is adapting unevenly and the long-term effects remain deeply unpredictable.

So when you hear bold declarations about exactly how AI will reshape work, creativity or daily life, it’s worth realizing that there's a good chance those predictions will be revised again six months from now.

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The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 (starting at $1,949), or Microsoft Surface Laptop for Business, as it is officially called, updates the company’s eponymous notebook with the latest Intel CPU, an updated haptic touchpad, and an optional built-in anti-glare privacy screen. Though designed as a business laptop, it’s a solid device overall for anyone willing to pay its steep price.

Like the Surface Laptop 7, the new Surface Laptop is a sleek ultraportable you can easily carry. It’s just slightly larger and heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air M5, which is very impressive. Despite its slim profile, it packs at least one USB-A port for legacy devices and a pair of USB-C ports.

One major upgrade is the optional built-in anti-glare privacy screen. The former is especially useful if you don’t want wandering eyes to see what you’re working on in a public spot. The anti-glare coating does a fantastic job of ensuring the display is visible even in direct sunlight. These are highlights of what is an otherwise average laptop panel.

Thanks to the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” chip inside, the Surface Laptop 8 delivers stunning performance and solid battery life. Not only do you get enough power for everyday work, but you can even run some modern games for when you’re off the clock. And while battery life might not be as impressive as on a MacBook, you’re getting well over a full day of use.

Given its status as a business laptop and its high starting price, you might want to consider a regular consumer laptop with similar specs. However, if you’re a longtime Surface Laptop fan and are willing to spend big for the best iteration of that device yet, this is a machine worth considering. Find out in my full review.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 is a business laptop packing the latest Intel Panther Lake chip.
• Who is it for? For workers who need a reliable notebook for everyday work.
• What does it cost? The Surface Laptop 8 starts at $1,949.
• What do we like? We like the slim design, strong performance, anti-glare display option, and strong battery life.
• What don’t we like? We don’t like that it costs nearly $1,000 more than the previous model.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Specs

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: The ups

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 has a lot going for it, thanks to its strong Panther Lake performance, ultraportable design, and long battery life.

Elegant design

The Surface Laptop 8 hasn’t received a major design overhaul since the last model, which is fine, considering we still get a slim yet sturdy machine. The dark aluminum alloy chassis not only looks great but also has a soft surface that feels nice in the hand.

As before, it has a slightly tapered design, which can be seen as a throwback compared to the flatter laptops we currently see, but I like it.

You get an enjoyable typing experience thanks to the relatively roomy keyboard deck. The thick keycaps and their short travel distance allow you to type with little resistance. I’m also fond of the touchpad, which delivers satisfying haptic feedback when pressed. With some apps, you will even feel haptics when hovering over the X button on a window, which is quite fun and intuitive.

There are a decent number of ports for such a slim laptop. This includes a pair of USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full SD card slot. I especially appreciate the lone USB-A port, which lets me connect legacy wired devices.

Vivid display

The Surface Laptop 8 might not have the most impressive display, but it’s plenty bright and colorful for everyday work and even recreation.

When watching a YouTube video, I had no problem seeing even the smallest details of a colorful, sun-drenched beach. Naturally, websites also look and run well thanks to the sharp 2304x1536 resolution and smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

Our lab tests corroborate what my eyes experienced. As you can see in the table above, Microsoft’s notebook delivers a good level of SDR and HDR brightness, though both fall short of 500 nits. That’s not terrible, considering how the MacBook Air couldn’t hit that mark either. The MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ also fell behind the Surface Laptop’s intensity.

Color representation (sRGB and DCI-P3) is roughly on par with the MacBook Air, which is reflected in how good the colors can look. Color accuracy (Delta-E) isn’t what it should be (closer to 0 is best), but it’s also not terrible. The Prestige 14 Flip delivers slightly oversaturated colors in comparison.

The anti-glare and privacy screens on the model I reviewed are equally impressive. Even under direct sunlight, the anti-glare technology allowed me to view the display reasonably well. I also liked how effective the privacy screen is, since you can’t see much unless the display is directly in front of you. If you’re working with sensitive documents, this privacy screen will be extremely beneficial.

Fast performance

The Surface Laptop 8 I reviewed packs an Intel Core Ultra x7 368H “Panther Lake” CPU and 32GB of RAM. Thanks to that, the laptop easily handled my average workflow, which usually consists of dozens of open Chrome tabs and the occasional YouTube video. This is just another example of Panther Lake’s stunning performance.

As you can see above, the Surface Laptop 8 keeps pace with the M5-driven MacBook Air in multi-threaded performance, though Apple’s notebook is more adept with single-core tasks. The Prestige 14 Flip, which has similar specs to the Surface Laptop 8, fell just slightly behind.

In the Handbrake test, the Surface Laptop 8 took 5 minutes and 8 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That’s the equivalent of the MacBook Air’s time, which is nearly one minute faster than the Prestige 14 Flip.

Long battery life

In our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits of brightness, the Surface Pro 8 lasted for 12 hours and 26 minutes.

Of course, the two laptops I compared lasted much longer. The big winner here is the Prestige 14 Flip, which is one of the longest-lasting laptops we’ve tested. However, it’s important to note that this laptop has a slightly less powerful, less energy-intensive Panther Lake chip, which accounts for its impressive endurance.

I should note that we were only able to run one battery test on the Surface Laptop. We may see better numbers after we run three tests as usual, but not by much. I’ll update this review with the fresh numbers once we have them.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: The downs

There’s a lot to like about the Surface Laptop, but it has one glaring flaw that can make it unattractive to regular users.

Steep asking price

With a starting price of $1,949, the Surface Laptop 8 costs nearly $1,000 more than its predecessor. While it’s perhaps unrealistic to expect a comparable price thanks to RAMageddon, that’s still a serious amount of cash to plunk down.

In fairness, the former and current Surface Laptops are for different users. The older model was marketed toward average consumers, so it needed to be priced competitively. However, as a business laptop, it’s understandable that the new model costs more, even if its updates are mostly iterative.

If you’re lucky enough to have your company spring for a new Surface Laptop 8, then you’ll be sitting pretty. But if you decide to buy one of these for yourself, be prepared to pay a premium.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Verdict

I don’t often review business laptops, but I jumped at the chance to test the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 since I’ve always admired this series. It’s arguably the best one yet, even though this notebook is meant for enterprise.

Though I’m impressed by what it offers, it’s hard to recommend this notebook to the average reader I normally write for. You’re better off with something like the 13-inch MacBook Air or MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+, which cost $1,099 and $1,299 (respectively). You’ll get a comparable or better experience for hundreds less.

Price aside, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 delivers where it matters. If you’re looking for a dependable business notebook and have the cash for it, you won’t go wrong.

Microsoft made the biggest change to Windows keyboards in 30 years by adding a dedicated Copilot key to its Copilot+ PCs when they started rolling out a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, what looked like a means of leveraging Windows' massive adoption into an AI leadership position seems to have backfired. All it takes is a scroll through Reddit to see how much people dislike the button, and my colleague Tony Polanco called it the worst thing about Copilot+ PCs last year.

Now, Microsoft appears to be relenting by officially announcing it will let users remap the Copilot button back to the Right Ctrl or Context menu options it replaced.

In a recently published support document, Microsoft stated: "Customers who rely on the Right Ctrl key or Context menu key for keyboard shortcuts or assistive technologies (such as screen readers) experienced some challenges to their workflows when using these devices."

"A Windows 11 update will ship later this year that will add a setting option to let you remap the Copilot key to act as the Context menu key or Right Ctrl key. When available, you can find this setting in: Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Keyboard"

While I've never needed the Right Ctrl or Context menu for my own typical workflow, I've lost count of the number of times I've accidentally triggered Copilot by hitting that key. And while I use a number of different AI assistants over the course of a week, Copilot is very rarely among them.

Some PC manufacturers do let users remap the Copilot key with their own on-device software and we have our own Tom's Guide tutorial on how to remap the Copilot key on Windows 11. However, both of those solutions will require additional steps and won't be as simple as a native solution within the OS that applies universally to all Windows 11 laptops with a Copilot key.

Microsoft hasn't specified exactly when we may see this update, only noting it will be in a "future Windows 11 update." Microsoft typically drops major updates for Windows in October and, occasionally, in September. So in all likelihood, it could still be another five months before we see this change rolled out.

In the meantime, here are 7 genius Copilot prompts that make Windows 11 instantly more useful.

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A newly discovered zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server has experts sounding the alarm. On Thursday, Microsoft announced mitigations for a high-security Exchange Server vulnerability that's being actively exploited by hackers. All an attacker needs to do is send a specially crafted email that, when opened through Outlook Web Access, can execute arbitrary code within the user's browser.

Microsoft's called this security flaw (tracked as CVE-2026-42897) a spoofing vulnerability affecting fully updated versions of Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, and Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE).

"An attacker could exploit this issue by sending a specially crafted email to a user. If the user opens the email in Outlook Web Access and certain interaction conditions are met, arbitrary JavaScript can be executed in the browser context," the Exchange Team said.

Although security patches are not yet available, Microsoft said the Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service (EEMS) can provide automatic mitigation for Exchange Server 2016, 2019, and SE on-premises servers.

"Using EM Service is the best way for your organization to mitigate this vulnerability right away. If you have EM Service currently disabled, we recommend you enable it right away. Please note that EM Service will not be able to check for new mitigations if your server is running Exchange Server version older than March 2023," per the Exchange Team.

To check the status of the Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service, organizations should follow Microsoft's instructions on running the Exchange Health Checker script.

May has been one hell of a month for Microsoft's security team. In the last week alone, Microsoft's fixed over 130 vulnerabilities as part of its Patch Tuesday cycle, many of which are driven by a new AI-powered bug-hunting system codenamed MDASH (Multi-model Agentic Scanning Harness).

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This week Microsoft introduced a new tool that allows the company to remotely roll back bad Windows drivers even after they're delivered via Windows Update. The tool, Cloud-Initiated Driver Recovery, makes it so hardware makers and users don't need to manually fix bad drivers once they've been distributed.

According to a Microsoft Hardware Dev Center blog post, once a bad driver is identified Microsoft can initiate a recovery action that replaces the the faulty driver without intervention from you or a device maker. The problematic driver will be rolled back to the last known good version.

Seemingly, it's the latest in a series of moves from Microsoft to fix Windows 11. The company has spent much of 2026 promising to make Windows better with a Windows 11 reset, redesigning the Start menu and now, better driver patching.

How it works

The action will only be initiated if a bad driver is rejected during "shiproom evaluation." That process evaluates drivers and notes quality issues.

Currently, when a bad driver ships in a Windows Update, a hardware partner must submit a replacement driver, or end users have to manually uninstall the faulty driver, which can leave PCs with outdated drivers for too long.

"Today, when a driver published through Windows Update is identified after distribution to have quality issues, the remediation path relies on the hardware partner to submit an updated driver — or on end users to manually uninstall the problematic driver themselves.," Microsoft said.

Microsoft does note that if a "Driver Shiproom-approved" driver cannot be found a CIDR action will not be attempted.

However, if one is identified, recovery will be sent via the existing Windows Update infrastructure. You won't need a new client or update from the third-party manufacturer.

Better drivers in general

According to the blog, the company is testing the tool between May and August this year. Microsoft is shooting to roll back rejected drivers starting in September 2026.

It appears this could be part of an overall initiative by Microsoft to improve the overall quality of drivers. As pointed out by Bleeping Computer, the company announced a new Driver Quality Initiative last week at the WinHEC 2026 conference in Taipei.

"When drivers are high quality, customers experience reliable, secure, performant devices. When drivers fail, customers experience it as a device problem, regardless of where the root cause sits," the company said in an announcement.

Microsoft announced it will invest in partners and tools to improve drivers overall.

"In the months ahead, we will keep investing in the fundamentals that matter most to customers: reliability, security, performance, compatibility and quality."

If these tools and initiatives hold up, it could mean the end of frustrating driver experiences on your PC. Instead of hunting down the faulty driver, now Microsoft will do it for you. Fingers crossed this new tool works well.

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Now is the perfect time to update your laptop or desktop PC as Microsoft has released its May Patch Tuesday updates which contain fixes for 30 flaws rated as important or critical severity.

In total, the latest security patch applies fixes to 138 bugs including many that made network privileges vulnerable. Fortunately, none of the bugs are listed as publicly known or under active attack.

The patch was released at the same time as one from Google that addressed 127 security flaws in Chromium, which undergirds the Microsoft Edge browser.

Many of the flaws appear to be related to Azure and more business-focused Microsoft products. However, one of the more severe bugs impacts Windows DNS via a heap-based buffer overflow flaw that would let a malicious actor execute code over a network.

"An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted DNS response to a vulnerable Windows system, causing the DNS Client to incorrectly process the response and corrupt memory," Microsoft said in its patch notes. "In certain configurations, this could allow the attacker to run code remotely on the affected system without authentication."

Hundreds of flaws fixed this year

Since January, when the first patch Tuesday of 2026 fixed 114 flaws, Microsoft has apparently fixed more than 500 CVE bugs already this year.

According to Hacker News, this can be attributed to a greater focus by Microsoft on vulnerability discovery, some of which is heavily assisted by AI-based flagging. Microsoft claimed as much in a recent Microsoft Security Response Center report released this week.

"Microsoft engineers and the wider security community alike are increasingly using AI to examine software more carefully and more often than was practical even a few years ago," Tom Gallagher said in the report.

How to stay safe with Patch Tuesday

First and foremost, update your Windows laptop or desktop with the latest system update or patches. You also want to make sure that Windows Defender is enabled so that it can scan your system for dangerous malware.

Of course, we always recommend using one of the best antivirus software packages for extra protection.

In the MSRC report, Gallagher recommends practicing good cyber hygiene, which we wholeheartedly agree with. This includes enabling multi-factor authentication, creating strong passwords, and using one of the best password managers

As always, and in general, don't click links or attachments from unknown senders, as they could contain malware or send you to phishing sites designed to steal your personal information.

By practicing good cyber hygiene and regularly updating your computer, you should be safe from most attacks.

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If you’re a Windows 11 user, you’re already familiar with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) — popping up when a critical error forces the operating system to stop. Normally, the blame falls on Microsoft (although its team is working hard on improving Windows soon). But if you’ve been seeing this happen on your Dell PC, it turns out the culprit is so much more ironic.

As spotted by Neowin, Dell’s own SupportAssist software (the company calls it “your personalized PC support experience”) is causing some Dell PCs to hit a BSOD every 30 minutes after a recent update. So far, we’re seeing confirmation that the following laptops are affected:

• Alienware M16 R2
• Dell Pro 16 Plus
• Dell Pro 14 Plus
• Dell XPS 16
• Dell XPS 15
• Dell XPS 14
• Dell XPS 13

This is based on what Dell forum members are saying, but given it’s widespread, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a far wider problem than this. If you’re one of these folks who just installed the Dell software update and are seeing this issue, there is a simple fix.

Just uninstall SupportAssist

The situation was revealed after keen-eyed users took a look into the system log to see what was going on. It was identified after some people reported their laptops “kept randomly rebooting” roughly every 30 minutes. This suggests that the SupportAssist is trying to check system health on a regular half-hour schedule, where it hits a corrupted piece of code and crashes it.

As you can see, there’s a lot of critical errors at the Kernel-Power level — basically the system level — and after a check, the critical process that dies has consistently been the “Dell SupportAssist Remediation” service. Giving a “CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED (0xEF)” code, it’s taking down the entire operating system with it.

And it’s not the first time this has happened, with a similar SupportAssist problem happening at the end of 2024. Luckily, just like the last time, the issue is simple. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, find Dell SupportAssist, select More > Uninstall.

Users who have already done this are reporting that it fixes the issue and they’re not seeing any more random BSOD crashes.

Can we cool it with the bloatware?

Windows 11 already has a RAM problem. It’s inherent to how the OS prioritizes preloading parts of apps into system memory before you click them, but what that means is all these little additions actually harm the experience rather than enrich it.

Things like Dell SupportAssist take up another chunk of that precious RAM that could be better used elsewhere on apps people actually use. And while the Windows K2 project may be aiming squarely at tackling some of these challenges at an OS-level, I can only imagine that the additional bloatware won’t help the situation.

So I beg of you, Dell and others, please just let us have a clean install, so we don’t have to uninstall all the unnecessary heft!

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Since the MacBook Neo launched in early March it's proven to be so popular that Apple quickly ran out of stock and is doubling production orders. The budget-friendly laptop 'shocked' PC makers and it's clear Windows has some real competition in the space.

Thus, it's probably not too surprising to see Microsoft commission a report from Signal65 comparing some wallet-friendly Windows 11 laptops against the MacBook Neo.

As you might expect, the study comes out largely in favor of Windows laptops.

Signal65's report particularly highlights the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x, HP OmniBook 5, Lenovo Yoga 7i, and HP OmniBook X Flip as veritable contenders to the Neo. All of these come in multiple configurations, including different screen sizes and processors, which greatly affect price and capabilities.

But here's the problem: there's a lot of cherry-picking in the comparisons that undermines the point of the research.

Missing the point of the Neo

The MacBook Neo is clearly designed for people looking for a budget-friendly laptop to get them through school, work or day-to-day tasks. It's meant to be a lightweight, portable option.

And straight away, that means we have to immediately ignore half of Signal65's list. Both the Lenovo Yoga 7i and HP OmniBook X Flip cost $1,099 and $949, respectively. There is no comparison in terms of affordability when the laptops you're suggesting are nearly double the cost.

Meanwhile, portability seems to have been ignored in favor of battery life (more on that below) and storage. The MacBook Neo features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and only weighs 2.7 pounds. It measures 11.71" x .50" x 8.12". Meanwhile, every laptop that Signal65 highlights features a 15.3- or 16-inch display, meaning they are all larger than the Neo.

As an example, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x, the cheapest and "smallest" laptop highlighted, weighs a whopping 3.52 lbs compared to the Neo. It's also measurably larger at 13.51" x 9.42" x .67-.70" — but the Signal65 report fails to showcase any dimensions or weights.

Comparing battery life

Notably, Signal65 has a series of tests that the show the Windows PCs beating the MacBook Neo when it comes to battery life from 12% to 56% improve power efficiency.

Here's where highlighting larger laptops lets the study fall in favor of Windows. A larger chassis means you can stuff a bigger battery in there.

In Tom's Guide testing, the MacBook Neo lasted a fairly robust 13 hours and 28 minutes, solidly in the top end of our comparison to other budget laptops we've tested.

We haven't reviewed every laptop Signal65 highlights or even those configurations. We have looked at smaller versions, so lets compare those to see what a smaller battery can do against the Neo.

Specifically we're looking at the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x (15.3"), HP OmniBook X Flip 14 (Intel Core Ultra 5), and the HP OmniBook 5 14.

Alternatives

Look, not everyone wants to join the Apple ecosystem. I personally swore off Apple laptops after three different hard drive failures in a two year period.

Fortunately, there are Windows options if you want. Some of them still feature premium design and a lower price. A few have higher storage.

If you need recommendations check out these three MacBook Neo rivals. If you need more data, we've benchmarked a number of budget laptops and compared them to the Neo. Don't forget about the Neo versus Chromebooks, the original super-cheap laptop.

And of course, if you like Apple there's the MacBook Air, which you can get in the M5 version or seek out the less expensive refurbished MacBook Air M4.

Finally, we want to hear from you — would you pick up the MacBook Neo as your next budget laptop? Or does Windows offer you something better? Let us know in the comments box below.

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The shake-up at Microsoft caught a lot of people off guard. When Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond both stepped away from their roles, it marked a major turning point for Xbox.

What came next was even more unexpected: Asha Sharma, formerly leading Microsoft’s CoreAI product, stepped in as the new EVP and CEO of Xbox.

Since taking over, Sharma has moved quickly to reshape the Xbox ecosystem, and early signs are giving gamers a reason to feel optimistic again. Her initial changes include lowering the price of Xbox Game Pass from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, scrapping the “This is an Xbox” campaign, and rolling out long-requested improvements to the Achievements system.

Then came another update. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sharma teased yet another change, one that pushed fan excitement even higher. And honestly, I felt it too. This was the kind of announcement that makes you start paying attention to Xbox again.

Copilot AI on consoles will no longer be a thing

Sharma made it clear that further development for Microsoft Copilot AI across mobile and consoles has officially been halted for good.

Before its cancellation on those devices, this feature was showcased as an AI assistant that could provide players with in-game tips, make game recommendations and even offer predictions for upcoming Xbox showcases. Gaming Copilot is currently available in the Xbox mobile app, on Game Bar for Windows 11 and across the ROG Xbox Ally family of handhelds.

Another major change that Sharma has enacted for the Xbox brand is her appointment of new leaders who will assist her in her mission to make Xbox a powerhouse once again. In a memo detailed by IGN, four of those new roles saw positions filled by Sharma’s colleagues from her time spent at CoreAI.

Those new Xbox leaders include:

• Jared Palmer, the new VP of Engineering at Xbox (former CoreAI VP of product)
• Tim Allen, the new CVP of Xbox Design (former CoreAI president of design)
• Jonathan McKay, the new Xbox Head of Growth (former CoreAI head of growth)
• Evan Chaki will “run a team of forward-deployed engineers that will look to simplify development and end repetitive work” (former CoreAI GM of AI innovation)
• David Schloss, the new Xbox Head of subscriptions and cloud (former Instacart senior director of product and growth)

Kotaku also discovered a bunch of other changes made to Xbox’s most important positions:

• Jason Ronald will now be "accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform" as the new VP of Next Generation at Xbox (former VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystems)
• Jason Beaumont will now lead product and also serve as interim head of engineering (former VP of Xbox experiences)
• Fatima Kardar will maintain her position as the corporate VP of gaming AI and fulfill her new responsibilities as the head of a “newly formed Personalization org” that will focus on solving player-facing issues like search and discovery.
• Jennifer Creegan will now lead Xbox’s media business (former VP of strategy, business model, and insights)

The takeaway

From my perspective, Sharma has made all the right moves so far to rebuild confidence in the Xbox brand.

As an Xbox Series X owner and long-time Xbox Game Pass subscriber, I’m genuinely optimistic about what comes next. With major titles like Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved and a new Fable reportedly on the way, 2026 is shaping up to be a big year. I’m also hoping Clockwork Revolution makes the cut.

Dropping Copilot from the core gaming experience also feels like the right call. While I tested the Gaming Copilot feature on mobile and found its recommendations surprisingly useful, most players simply don’t need AI to handle tasks they can easily do themselves. The broader gaming audience hasn’t exactly been asking for it.

Instead, doubling down on first-party studios and focusing on delivering high-quality games—not forcing AI into places it doesn’t belong—looks like a smarter long-term strategy. If Sharma and her team stay on this path, Xbox could finally regain some serious momentum.

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Microsoft Edge apparently saves your passwords in its memory as cleartext according to a Norwegian cybersecurity researcher. This matters because it means a malicious actor could see all of your passwords if they gain access to your PC.

Update: Microsoft provided Tom's Guide with a statement, read on for the company's response.

The researcher, Tom Jøran Sønstebyseter Rønning (spotted by our friends at PC Gamer), posted a thread on X explaining how the browser decrypts "every credential at startup" and then keeps them in process memory. It even happens for sites that you don't visit that session.

"Edge is the only Chromium‑based browser I’ve tested that behaves this way," Rønning said.

To be clear, this isn't available for anyone to just stumble across. You need some know-how and administrative access to the terminal server, already a huge breach. Once that is done, a bad actor "can access the memory of all logged‑on user processes."

A person could have administrative access on one account and then use that access to compromise passwords for other logged-in users too.

Yes, someone with admin rights can wreak havoc on any computer they have access to, but you typically need passwords to access password managers or two-factor authentication. Cleartext means that passwords are more visible and in a shared environment, that would be a treasure trove for a bad actor.

"Access to browser data as described in the reported scenario would require the device to already be compromised," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

"By design"

Rønning posted that he disclosed this flaw to Microsoft and was told that the behavior is "by design." And it appears to be known.

In a related thread, X user LopezLucio666 responded that they reported the flaw in September of 2025. According to a screencap they posted, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) deemed the flaw "not a vulnerability and no security boundary being crossed."

The message says that the ability to read Edge memory requires privileges "the same or greater."

Microsoft has a password manager security FAQ that does sort of address the issue. "Even if an attacker has admin rights or offline access and can get to the locally stored data, the system is designed to prevent the attacker from getting the plaintext passwords of a user who isn't logged in."

This doesn't do anything for users who are logged in, though.

Microsoft told Tom's Guide that design choices regarding this involve "balancing performance, usability and security, and we continue to review it against evolving threats."

The company added that the browser's access to password data in memory allows you to sign in quickly and securely, an "expected feature of the application."

Per Rønning and others' research, the system may not be doing enough to prevent attackers from being able to access the cleartext passwords.

In the meantime, we recommend using one of the best password managers instead of storing them in Edge or any other browser for that matter.

Microsoft statement

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When Xbox raised the price of the Game Pass Ultimate tier by 50% last October, it infuriated gamers who rushed to cancel their subscriptions. Since then a lot of changes have unfolded at Microsoft, including the ascension of new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

Today (Apr. 21), Sharma took to X to announce a rare price decrease for the service.

"Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players," Sharma wrote. "Starting today, we’re dropping the price from $29.99 to $22.99/month."

It's not quite back to pre-October levels, when Game Pass Ultimate was only $19.99 a month but it's a step in the right direction.

Sharma added that the service will also no longer get future Call of Duty titles on Day One via Game Pass Ultimate. I've long speculated that Call of Duty was driving up the cost of Ultimate since it is one of Activision's cash cows, so this makes sense.

When the next Call of Duty releases, it won't join Game Pass until the "following holiday after launch" or about a year. Previously released Call of Duty games will remain available on the service.

What's next for Xbox?

From the outside Xbox has been floundering in recent years between price hikes across software and consoles a lack of exclusive Xbox titles that gamers find exciting.

Longtime CEO Phil Spencer retired in February which also led to the surprise resignation of Xbox President Sarah Bond, who was seen the heir apparent.

They were replaced by Sharma who came from an AI arm of Microsoft. Though she promised she wasn't coming into shove AI into Xbox.

From the outset, Sharma promised that she would listen to gamers and Xbox fans to figure out how to right the ship saying that she was "coming into gaming as a platform builder."

So far, Xbox has stayed quiet outside of teasing Project Helix, the rumored console/PC hybrid that is expected to launch in the next couple of years. It was rumored that Sharma spent much of the recent GDC conference selling Xbox to developers, publishers and investors.

Until a new console launches, a price decrease is a nice way for Xbox to garner some goodwill from fans even if it could have been more drastic.

We'll truly know where Xbox and Sharma stand when the Helix launches. That will tell us how Microsoft views its gaming division and the path forward.

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Microsoft has been promising to improve Windows 11 since January and we may see that overhaul begin with the Start Menu. The tech giant is rebuilding the Start menu with customization options and improved performance.

According to our friends at Windows Central, Microsoft is working on an update that's designed to give you more control over how the the menu looks and operates. It fits with promises made in March that detailed more customization and performance improvements for Windows 11 as a whole.

What is Microsoft potentially changing

Per Window Central, the initial look of the Start Menu will appear similar to how it already does in Windows 11. The difference will be in customization options configurable in the Windows Settings app.

Examples include the ability to turn off specific sections of the menu and choosing between small or large layouts. Currently, you can only see the small and large layouts depending on your screen size and device. This would let you set the menu to your preferred size regardless of what kind of device you're using.

As for toggling off sections, allegedly, you can turn off different things like the recommended feed or pinning apps in the menu. You could potentially even disable the all apps list.

Beyond customization, the new Start menu is supposed to be much more responsive, even when under intense load. This is supposed to extend to the search bar in the menu where you'll be able to type and search without any noticeable slowdown or missed keys.

What could have been

The alleged changes come out as Microsoft's design team shared on its Instagram page the approach that was taken to redesigning the Start menu. Unfortunately, the comments under that post are not kind.

"I don't like the new Start Menu at all. It doesn't fulfill my personal necessities and it makes everything more frustrating and time consuming. I even pay a third party software that modify it," one person wrote.

The comments were eventually turned off.

Windows Latest points out that the Windows Design team released a blog post last year that revealed five prototype Start menus. Some commentators called the prototypes more beautiful. However, looking at some of the images, all five still appear to have the same problems that the current menu does.

To be honest, it just makes us miss the Windows 10 Start Menu, which mixed app lists and tiles in a more usable way.

Microsoft says it wants to solve the pain points in Windows 11 throughout 2026. It appears the Start Menu will be one of the first changes.

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• I ditched Copilot for Claude in Microsoft Word — and I’m never going back

New Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Laptops are expected this year, and the latter will reportedly receive an upgraded display. As Windows Central’s Zack Bowden reports, the Surface Laptop will have an OLED panel, which would be a first for the notebook line. In addition, both the Surface Laptop and Pro will be kitted with the latest Intel Core Ultra “Panther Lake” chips.

These should be the primary upgrades, as neither machine is expected to get a major redesign, apart from potentially new colors and other tweaks. OLED variants of the Surface laptops will only be available in higher-end configurations, with entry-level models getting IPS panels. Bowden also says that some models are getting a higher resolution screen.

The Surface Pro and Surface Laptops will reportedly launch with Intel Panther Lake chips this spring. These devices should start with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with higher-end models going as high as 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

Bowden’s sources claim that Microsoft will launch Snapdragon models this summer when Qualcomm’s chips are more readily available. Having Intel models released before Snapdragon variants is the opposite of what happened in 2024. Microsoft is reportedly not going to offer Surface PCs with the higher-end Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip, but only with X2 Plus and X2 Elite options. Similarly, Intel models will only be available in Ultra 5 and Ultra 7 variants, and no Ultra 9.

One thing this report doesn’t disclose is how much these machines could potentially cost. As Windows Central also reported, Microsoft quietly hiked prices on all its Surface laptops by $300 due to the ongoing RAM crisis. Given that, it’s unlikely that either of the new Surface PCs will be cheaper than their current models.

As always, take this report with a grain of salt, as Microsoft has made no official statement about the 2026 models of the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. The OLED upgrade sounds like a meaningful update, as is the potential for improved battery life and performance. We’ll keep an eye on this story, so stay tuned for any further updates as we hear them.

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Microsoft has become the latest victim of the ongoing RAM crisis, quietly hiking the prices on its consumer-facing Surface laptops by as much as $300. This shouldn't come as a surprise — after all, we've just seen the PlayStation 5 get even more expensive for the same reason.

First picked up by the team at Windows Central, the price increases took effect at the Microsoft Store, with other retailers expected to follow suit. Just about every model is affected, and Windows Central notes that flagships like the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 are now $500 more expensive than their initial launch price in 2024.

"Due to recent increases in memory and component costs, Surface is updating pricing on Microsoft.com for its current‑generation hardware portfolio," a Microsoft spokesperson told the site.

Here's how the new pricing breaks down across the Surface line-up.

These price increases make Microsoft's offerings even harder to recommend against the competition. If you were choosing between an entry-level 13-inch Surface Laptop or an entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air M5, you would have saved $200 by opting for Microsoft. Now, Apple's computer comes in $100 cheaper. And that's not even taking into account the $599 MacBook Neo.

Finally, there have been some signs that costs of RAM have started to fall in recent weeks. Which makes Microsoft's decision not to try and weather the storm even more interesting. Trendforce reported that U.S. DDR5 RAM prices fell by over 20% in the last month.

It could be the case that Microsoft is attempting to set a new pricing benchmark with an eye on the upcoming Snapdragon X2 Plus-powered laptops coming in the future. Either way, the company says it remains "committed to delivering value to customers and partners while upholding our standards for quality and innovation.”

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A huge chunk of my life involves typing, and despite all the years and experience I have at throwing keystrokes and words together, I am extremely bad at it. Well, it's not an issue of speed or proficiency, just that I have fairly clumsy hands and make a boat-load of mistakes in the process.

The severity of the mistakes depends on the kind of keyboard I'm using, too. Mechanical keyboards are the best, while touchscreen keyboards are the absolute worst. Had it not been for autocorrect, the stuff I type on my phone would be totally incoherent. Actually, that still happens with autocorrect, because there are times when my typing is so appalling that it just gives up trying to figure out what I'm trying to say.

Touchscreen keyboards are not the easiest thing to self-correct with. Cursor control is possible, but there's significantly less finesse than you'd get with a physical keyboard, and it's all due to the lack of arrow keys. Some mobile keyboards do have options, but I find that none of them work quite as well as Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard on the best Android phones.

The alternative isn't as accurate

By now, I imagine that most people will know all about the space bar cursor shortcut. It doesn't matter which phone you have or the keyboard you use; pressing and holding on the space bar lets you move the cursor left or right, depending on how you move your finger.

This option is great in a pinch, but it doesn't offer the same level of precision that you'd get from using a physical button. The same is true for tapping at the area you need the cursor to move to, since that offers even less precision and reliability than the gesture.

In fact, I'd place money on the little stubs we humans call fingers as the reason why such a gesture exists in the first place.

There are plenty of times when I find myself unable to sit at my desk and type on a keyboard. I have a 5-month old baby right now and, as is the case with a lot of babies, he's extremely clingy. I don't know if you've ever tried carrying 16.5 lbs of dead weight on your shoulder, while trying to type with the other hand, but I can promise you it isn't easy.

In these instances, my options are to either stop working and have to catch up later, or rely on my phone to get stuff done. Even though I often resort to dictation and GBoard's speech-to-text feature, I do need to go back and fix various spelling and grammatical mistakes along the way.

Doing that with the space bar gesture, or my particularly stubby digits, does not work very well. In fact, it's a lot more frustrating than simply trying to type one-handed - which is where SwiftKey's arrow keys come into play.

All the benefits of real arrow keys, on a keyboard

There are a couple of things I need to bring up quickly. First up is that SwiftKey only seems to offer arrow keys on Android devices. If you're using one of the best iPhones or an iPad, then you're going to be completely out of luck. Secondly, I know that it's far from the only keyboard that offers some kind of arrow key-like functionality.

Various others, including Gboard, offer a specific arrow key menu that even includes some bonus features. But I don't find them nearly as convenient, especially not when I need to do some quick edits and fix my foolish mistakes before I lose my train of thought.

The thing I like about SwiftKey's arrow keys is that they're part of the main keyboard. It's an option you have to switch on, and it does mean your keyboard takes up even more screen space as a result, but it also means you don't have to go diving back and forth between menus and sub-menus to move the cursor around accurately.

As you can see with Gboard, getting to the arrow keys is a two-part process. Tap the square menu and tap Text editing before you're actually able to control the cursor. Now imagine having to do that over and over, every time you needed to go back and change something. Whether it's a text message, a social media post, or if you're writing something a little more long-winded, the fact that SwiftKey's arrow keys are just there makes the process a whole lot simpler and faster. Or, that's how it's been in my experience, at least.

Though I will admit, Gboard's text select button is a very nice feature. My one real gripe with SwiftKey, aside from all the AI Microsoft has been shoveling into the app, is that selecting large portions of text is just as irritating as trying to move the cursor without arrow keys. Human fingers are not built for such fine control — especially not mine.

Then again, changing more than a couple of letters at a time is not something I do very often. If I really need to make more substantial changes, most Android phones make it super easy to switch keyboards at the tap of a button.

Bottom line

While touchscreens are great for a lot of things, typing certainly isn't one of them, which is a shame. I imagine it's rare that most people will go longer than a day without having to type something on their phone. It doesn't matter if you're the kind of person who writes long essays correcting people on Reddit, or if you prefer to keep things short and sweet; it's all typing in the end.

Having a feature that makes it easier to fix all the mistakes you'll be making removes a whole lot of frustration from the equation. Autocorrect has improved a lot over the years, especially if you opt for third-party keyboards, but it can't fix everything. The increased popularity of the word ducking since the invention of the iPhone is a testament to that.

Arrow keys exist on physical keyboards for a reason, and it's about time that mobile keyboards figured that out. Even the ones that already have don't make the process easy, and it ensures that Microsoft retains my keyboard loyalty until they do. Which is not something I ever thought I'd say, especially not after seeing what Microsoft did to Skype.

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Let’s be real. Nobody I know has anything good to say about Microsoft Copilot. Shoved down our throats in any way possible in Windows 11, it’s turned the OS into a bloated behemoth that consumes the very thing we’re all seeing get way more expensive — RAM. And for what? Some rewriting tools, AI image generation in Paint and a searchable visual timeline of everything you do that’s quite a security risk, which is all ignored by users.

So it’s fair to say that I got a little hyped when I saw the “commitment to Windows quality” blog, which confirms a major update with reduced Copilot features and better efficiency. Microsoft listened…at least that’s what I thought. Because what we’re actually getting from the first signs of these changes is a simple rebranding. Copilot is still there — it’s just called something different.

An AI wolf in sheep’s clothing

As discovered by Windows Latest, the Notepad app and Snipping Tool are the first signs of Microsoft starting to rollback Copilot in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview. Copilot logos have disappeared from Notepad and the Snipping Tool.

But as is clearly apparent, this is mostly just branding only. Instead of a colorful Copilot button, Notepad gets a “Writing tools” icon, whereas the Snipping Tool is actually AI-free from the looks of it. Being someone who got tired of seeing Copilot everywhere, it’s definitely a welcome change.

Though, it does make me nervous that the idea of Microsoft being “intentional about how and where Copilot integrates across Windows” may be more like “let’s just hide it in plain sight.”

Outlook

That’s not to say this Windows 11 commitment is for nothing. We could very well just be seeing a small slither of the wider changes that could reduce AI integration to only where (in Microsoft’s words) it’s “most meaningful, with craft and focus.”

But early updates do give us an indication of where Microsoft is thinking of going, and simply changing the presentation rather than removing unnecessary feature sets does not instill confidence here.

Taskbar customization, a faster File explorer and reduced Windows Updates disruption are all good things, but if Microsoft doesn’t genuinely hit the biggest performance consumer here, then we’re right back at square one — only looking prettier. I hope the company goes harder on the run up to Build 2026.

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Apple has been pretty low-key about it, but the behemoth brand turned 50 this week. Just kidding, they threw some epic parties to celebrate. While Microsoft doesn't have a big milestone in the calendar (it already celebrated its own half-century last year), we didn't want it to feel left out, so have put together some challenges for you, Microsoft fans.

So whether your favorite era was Windows 98 with wobbly Word Art headings on every doc and the little paper clip guy offering a cheerful wave, or you're a slick Windows 11 upgrader (with or without Copilot), take a moment to prove your PC prowess with the quizzes below, which we've built especially for you.

Microsoft Mastery quiz

First up, take our multiple choice quiz to be crowned a Microsoft Master. I may have just given away the first answer in my introduction (oops), but there are nine more questions to stretch your brain cells.

Don't forget to register to save your score, reveal hints for any clues you're not sure of and secure your spot on the competitive Tom's Guide leaderboards. Good luck!

Windows 10 crossword

If the multiple choice quiz wasn't enough of a challenge, this crossword is a little more niche, in my opinion. I never knew the name of 9 down, so I've learned certainly something today!

How did you do? Let us know what you think in the comments below — including any other games you'd love to see.

If you enjoyed this quiz, then check out our other puzzles and quizzes.

And if you want to revel in Microsoft nostalgia a little longer, dive into Microsoft turns 50: 25 best and worst moments.

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Since the beginning of the year, Microsoft has been quietly promising to improve Windows 11, even going so far as to refocus its engineers to resolve the "core issues" with the operating system. Today, Microsoft released a highly detailed memo committing to improving "performance, reliability, and craft."

Microsoft's executive vice president of Windows + Devices Pavan Davuluri wrote in the memo that the company had spent the last few months listening to those "who care deeply about Windows and want it better."

The memo outlines a broad plan with areas of focus that should start appearing in the April update. Davuluri says we should see "tangible progress" in preview builds throughout the rest of 2026.

Yes, based on this memo, we can expect a lot of changes, tackling everything from system performance to customization and some AI.

Davuluri says that everything announced today will be tested first by the Windows Insider community. Including a big redesign to its Feedback Hub to make it faster and easier to submit feedback on Windows 11.

"Thank you for holding us to a high standard. Windows is as much yours as it is ours," Pavan said.

What's coming?

We rarely get such a public commitment with specific types of changes. So, what is Microsoft committing to?

Initially, in April, the changes will start with the ability to reposition the taskbar to the top or sides of the screen and a reduction of Copilot integration in Windows apps like Photos, Notepad and the Snipping Tool.

Expect less disruptive Windows updates with “fewer automatic restarts and notifications." Plus, you'll get the ability to skip updates during initial device setup.

Microsoft is also planning to improve File Explorer in the first rounds of improvements. “Our first round of improvements will focus on a quicker launch experience, reduced flicker, smoother navigation and more reliable performance for everyday file tasks,” Davuluri promises.

After that, widgets in Windows 11 will get more personalization features and "quieter defaults."

Reliability and performance are two of the big promises with Microsoft promising to reduce the number of resources Windows consumes and "improving the baseline reliability." That includes what Davuluri calls craft with a focus on "raising the bar" on the overall usability of the Windows 11 experience.

In all, it's a broad list of fixes. I'm not certain it directly covers everything, including the annoying pop-ups demanding you use Edge or Bing or anything Copilot. You should read the full memo for all the promised fixes.

Still, Davuluri is promising a more nuanced approach to Copilot integration. This fits with a January report that Microsoft is pulling back on stuffing Windows 11 with AI.

It's one of the few companies that actually seems to be stepping away from AI as everyone else bull rushes through the china shop to shove it in every piece of tech.

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The annual Game Developers' Conference (GDC) is taking place this week in San Francisco. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma promised last week that more details about Project Helix, the next Xbox, would be revealed at GDC and Microsoft did in fact provide some new details on the upcoming device.

Helix is meant to be a hybrid console-PC. During a talk titled "Building for the Future with Xbox" VP of Next Generation Jason Ronald explained what the hybrid means. Think of Helix as akin to Valve's delayed Steam Machine as it will play both PC games and Xbox ones.

Unsurprisingly, Helix will be powered by AMD featuring the company's next-gen upscaling, frame generation and ray tracing abilities thanks to a custom chip.

Here's an overview of Project Helix features. Partnered with AMD, designed for the next generation of DirectX.

— @haydendingman.bsky.social (@haydendingman.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T23:55:07.494Z

"The days of people defining themselves as (console/PC/mobile gamer) don't really exist anymore," Ronald said in his presentation. "What we've really learned is as we look at it, PC is becoming an increasingly important part of the Xbox experience."

A summary of Ronald's speech was posted to the Xbox site.

We maybe waiting awhile

Ronald announced that alpha versions of Helix wouldn't ship to developers until 2027. Which means we might not see the console actually launch until 2028 despite hints at a 2027 reveal by AMD's Lisa Su.

Other than an AMD chip and its hybrid nature, we don't know anything else about Helix at this time.

A pushed out launch window might actually help Xbox since the ongoing memory shortage isn't supposed to even begin resolving until 2028, at the earliest. By then, new factories should be handling the demand, assuming the AI bubble doesn't pop by then.

It's part of the reason Valve has delayed the Steam Machine and is struggling to maintain Steam Deck stock. At this rate, the Steam Machine and Xbox might launch around the same time and actually go head to head a la the battle Xbox used to have PlayStation.

Xbox mode for Windows

Microsoft is apparently expanding its work on "Xbox Mode" for Windows PCs based around the work it did on the Asus Rog Xbox Ally X handheld consoles. The goal is to optimize Windows 11 to like an Xbox console with reduced background processes and a prioritization of game performance.

This would include faster boot times, better controller support and improved frame stability.

"Xbox mode lets players seamlessly switch between productivity and play, with a familiar full screen and controller optimized Xbox experience while embracing the openness of Windows," Ronald said.

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Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma has a tough job ahead as she tries to revive the 25-year old gaming brand, or as some on the internet believe, lead it gently into the good night.

After trying to prove her gaming bona fides to the unwashed masses of X, Sharma has confirmed the next-generation Xbox is in the works with a codename, Project Helix.

"Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games," Sharma wrote on X. She added that she'll be discussing the console with partners and studios at GDC this month. Potentially, more details could be revealed to us then.

Sharma's post seems to confirm the rumors that Xbox is working on a hybrid console/PC. Previous rumors have suggested that Xbox will reveal its new console before the end of 2026. It's also possible the company could unveil an Xbox PC.

Previous Xbox president, Sarah Bond, hinted that the next Xbox console would be a "very premium, very high-end curated experience."

Sharma just took over the gaming division at Microsoft after longtime Xbox head Phil Spencer retired. It'll be interesting to see if she is pivoting away from the projects Spencer and Bond were working on, or if she'll stay the course based on what's already available.

Sharma has described herself as a "platform builder" in an interview, and she is committed to "being grounded in what the community is telling us."

Over the summer, a leaked "Magnus APU" suggested Microsoft was working on an upgradeable console that would get more frequent updates than your usual seven-year console lifecycle. Basically, the leak hinted that the next Xbox would be more akin to a pre-built PC.

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In case you’ve missed the news, Phil Spencer has retired from Xbox, and Sarah Bond has departed. New CEO Asha Sharma and freshly minted Chief Content Officer Matt Booty will now run Microsoft Gaming. It’s a huge shakeup, to say the least.

While this news is shocking (gotta love that late Friday news dump!), I can’t say I’m totally surprised. The Xbox brand has been in a slow-motion decline since the Xbox One’s announcement in 2013. Who can forget the always-online disaster, the Kinect fiasco, and the $399 PS4 memes?

And now the Series X/S has sold roughly 35 million units to date, compared with the PS5’s 92+ million and the original Switch’s 155 million. In 2025, Xbox console sales saw a brutal 45% drop from the previous year. Though content and services like Xbox Game Pass keep the lights on, hardware is tanking.

With new leadership at the helm, now is the time for the Xbox brand to take bold steps to ensure a viable future. Here’s how the Xbox brand can survive and thrive in the coming years.

Embrace being a third-party developer

The console business clearly isn’t working for Microsoft and hasn’t for well over a decade. The days of the Xbox 360’s dominance are in the distant past, a fact that’s abundantly clear in 2026. Though Microsoft is working on a next-gen system (as Sarah Bond stated in her farewell message to the team), that system (the rumored PC-like Project Magnus) shouldn’t be the focus for the company.

Right now, Microsoft is already the biggest third-party publisher in gaming. Between Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and a slew of others, the company owns dozens of studios. With such a huge army of developers, you don’t need dedicated hardware to sell games. You can sell them on other platforms.

Going from hardware manufacturer to purely software developer wouldn’t be unheard of, either — just look at Sega. After the Dreamcast flopped, Nintendo’s former rival pulled the plug on hardware in 2001 and went full third-party. Though the transition wasn’t exactly smooth, the move benefited Sega over time. Sega stopped the bleeding, focused on delivering excellent games for all systems, and is currently one of the most respected and beloved developers in the industry.

There’s absolutely no reason why Xbox can’t do the same. The company doesn’t need to release another system with a confusing name for folks to play its games. As it’s already doing, it should keep releasing on PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch 2, and wherever else it makes sense. Focus on making awesome games and let Game Pass be the subscription hook (more on that shortly). This way, the Xbox brand can finally become the true multiplatform powerhouse Microsoft has always wanted it to be.

Quality over quantity

Though plenty of games land on Game Pass, few of them make a significant impact with gamers. Despite having a legion of AAA studios, actual blockbuster titles can sometimes feel few and far between. We see more headlines about layoffs, cancellations, and delayed projects than we do about must-play releases.

To fix that, Microsoft must do a better job of curating its output and enforcing faster, more reliable development cycles for its heavy hitters. There’s no reason players should have to wait the better part of a decade for new installments of bedrock franchises like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza. The company needs to find the right balance between quality and timely releases for the games that actually define Xbox.

The same standard should apply to the rest of the mid-tier and indie portfolio. With so many teams, there’s no excuse for inconsistent output, but that output also can’t be filler just to pad Game Pass day-one slates. Even if it means fewer releases overall, true quality titles will win players back over time. That’s how you rebuild trust and turn folks into loyal subscribers.

Expand Game Pass

I’m sure some of you are wondering what the point of Game Pass is without dedicated hardware. While the subscription service has certainly been a big reason to buy an Xbox console, it doesn’t have to live primarily on the company’s hardware. Given the poor sales of Xbox, Game Pass shouldn’t be tied to it. In fact, the subscription service can thrive outside of Xbox.

And you don’t even have to imagine this scenario. You can already stream hundreds of titles via the Xbox app on Samsung and LG smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and more. Going further, Microsoft should strike aggressive partnerships for native apps on Roku, Apple TV, every major phone carrier (bundled data plans, anyone?), and every TV manufacturer on the planet. Make Game Pass the true Netflix of gaming.

It can also become the ultimate first-party destination: day-one releases from every major Microsoft-owned studio, plus the full back catalog of legacy Xbox, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games. With that massive library, Game Pass wouldn’t need third-party day-ones from the likes of Capcom or Square Enix. Think of it like a good version of EA Play or Ubisoft+ that you actually want to subscribe to.

To address the elephant in the room, this would also mean bringing Game Pass to PlayStation and Nintendo systems. That would ultimately be up to Sony and Nintendo to approve, but if the service only features Xbox-owned titles (which players could still buy individually on those storefronts), I don’t see a strong reason for them to object, especially since EA Play and Ubisoft+ are already available on PS5. That said, I wouldn’t hold my breath for Nintendo to play ball.

Set realistic expectations

Xbox’s communication isn’t bad. We’re generally not left in the dark about what’s in the pipeline. That said, it could still use some serious restructuring to keep players informed and excited without the usual drama.

Though the company has improved over the years, we need to see an end to the overhype. Aaron Greenberg and the old hype machine loved promising the moon only to underdeliver. The new regime needs to get fans excited for what’s actually coming without setting itself up for backlash when plans change.

Games shouldn’t be announced years before they’re ready. Want an example? Look no further than Perfect Dark, announced in 2020, hyped for half a decade, and then completely cancelled in 2025 along with its entire studio. If a delay is coming, say it early instead of stringing people along.

This last point is controversial but important: Xbox needs to let fans understand the company is not their friend. I’m all for open communication and more fan-centric events to keep people invested, but execs hopping on social media and acting like your buddy is cringey as hell. It has fostered some genuinely toxic parasocial relationships on social media. Like Sony and Nintendo, let fans feel welcome without the fake intimacy that breeds toxicity when expectations aren’t met.

Outlook

Xbox isn’t in great shape today, but that doesn’t mean the 25-year-old brand is finished. With Asha Sharma’s experience as a platform builder and fresh perspective, now is the perfect time for Microsoft to take the drastic measures required to make Xbox thrive again.

Sega came back stronger after it abandoned hardware, and I don’t see why Xbox can’t follow suit. The brand can absolutely prosper without a dedicated plastic box in your living room. The console wars are over and there's no reason for Xbox to continue focusing on hardware. Microsoft can become the ultimate third-party publisher that also offers the ultimate gaming subscription service.

While that might sound absurd or even blasphemous, I think this is the best course for Xbox. After all, Microsoft is and always has been a software-first company. If it can follow through, Xbox won’t be relegated to the landfill of gaming history. By focusing on software and putting it everywhere, Xbox might just pull off the greatest comeback story in gaming.

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Microsoft shook up the leadership of its Xbox division in a late Friday news dump that revealed the retirement of longtime Xbox head Phil Spencer and the new CEO, Asha Sharma.

Sharma was previously the head of product development for Microsoft's CoreAI, and had stints at Instacart and Whatnot, a "living shopping platform." In an announcement letter, Sharma stated that her first job is to "understand what makes this work and protect it."

Since the reveal, she spent this past weekend bolstering her gaming bona fides against the tidal wave of the usual nefarious sorts you'll see on "Gaming Twitter."

Sharma is stepping into a tumultuous time in gaming. Between Xbox's lagging sales and the ongoing RAM crisis, she will need to weather a few different storms.

What Sharma is saying so far?

Sharma is stepping into some big shoes, so outside of an attempt to appease gamers, what is she saying about the future of Xbox?

We have some answers thanks to an interview she gave to Variety. In her internal memo, Sharma said that her commitment to Xbox required three things: great games, the return of Xbox, and understanding the future of play. "We are witnessing the reinvention of play," she wrote.

A great game to Sharma has "deep emotional resonance" and a "distinct point of view." She added that she wants to make stories that make players "feel something," highlighting the excellent indie game Firewatch.

“I’m coming into gaming as a platform builder,” Sharma told Variety. She added that the goal is to be consistent and earn the trust of players and developers.

She acknowledged that she has a lot to learn but is committed to "being grounded in what the community is telling us."

Sharma's background in AI has been a concern, with some backlash against the potential use of generative AI in development. Sharma said she has "no tolerance for bad AI," while adding that AI has been and will continue to be a part of gaming.

But she does note that “great stories are created by humans," echoing a similar sentiment from her announcement letter.

The future of Xbox

For now, we have platitudes, and it might take a minute for action to show up. We'll see what direction Xbox faces during the Game Developers Conference in March and an expected Xbox Games Showcase later this spring.

Meanwhile, The Verge is reporting that former president Sarah Bond was pushing the gaming division at Microsoft in a direction that employees disagreed with, from the "Xbox everywhere" strategy to pushing for multi-platform access.

Sharma's hiring is seen as a reset button, so it will be interesting to see how she pivots away from the previous strategy.

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• Microsoft confirms Copilot bug let its AI read sensitive and confidential emails

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes and Microsoft continuing to push its Edge browser onto users. Now, the company is at it again, this time with a new feature in the Teams app for iOS and Android.

Microsoft has announced a new "Links in Teams" feature that will prompt users to choose a browser when opening non-Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and PDF links in the Teams app. The update's goal? "Encouraging" the use of Microsoft Edge.

This affects all users of Microsoft Teams on iPhone and Android, with the feature rolling out to all by default in late February. As noted, the Redmond tech giant will be monitoring Microsoft Edge installation rates and retention, along with user satisfaction, during the rollout of the new feature.

Yet another push for Edge

Microsoft has been trying to push its Edge browser on all platforms for years, so much so that the Digital Markets Act in Europe forced Microsoft to stop prompting Windows users to set Edge as their default browser. Now, the company has found a new way to tempt users to switch browsers.

With Links in Teams, whenever you tap on a link in chats that's not from Microsoft's suite of Office apps, or just a PDF, a (you guessed it) pop-up will appear at the bottom of the screen, giving users the option to choose a browser.

Of course, Microsoft Edge will be an option, even when the browser isn't installed. If you select Edge, you will then be taken to the App Store or Play Store to download it. It's another way for the company to force its Edge browser to be a prominent option, despite links in Teams already opening up in users' default browsers.

“Using Teams to push users toward Edge, rather than honoring their browser preferences, introduces unnecessary hurdles that override consumer choice," a Browser Choice Alliance representative shared with Tom's Guide. "Microsoft should stand on the side of users instead of expanding its campaign to lock out competing browsers.”

Microsoft is promoting Edge with its support for "Single Sign-On (SSO), Copilot, and enhanced security," including its Copilot Mode released last year. Teams is Microsoft's own communication platform, so it makes sense that the company would include its browser as an option, but it's no secret that the Redmond giant is relentless when it comes to introducing new ways to push Edge, and this is another sticking point.

A quick way to stop it

Fortunately, Microsoft Edge isn't automatically chosen as the default browser in Teams. A new Links in Teams setting will be available once the update rolls out, allowing users their choice of browser before being prompted.

Once available, just follow these steps:

• Open the Microsoft Teams app.
• Tap the profile icon in the top-left corner of the app.
• Tap Settings.
• Select Links in Teams.
• Choose your default browser of choice.

As before, Microsoft Edge will appear as an option even if you don't have the app downloaded, and if this is chosen, you will be prompted to download it. Notably, it doesn't appear like other browsers are options, like Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox and more.

Microsoft notes that IT admins in organizations can disable the feature via PowerShell if needed, especially if companies already make use of specific browsers.

According to Statcounter, Google Chrome continues to dominate as the leading browser at over 70%, with Edge far behind at 4%. Clearly, Microsoft wants Edge to be widely adopted, and only time will tell if its latest campaign with Links in Teams will make a difference.

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• Windows 11 is getting 3 new features in a major quality of life update — is Microsoft starting to pull back on AI slop?
• Microsoft is reportedly 'pulling back' on stuffing Windows 11 with AI — and I couldn't be happier

Microsoft confirmed that a Copilot security bug was allowing the AI assistant to read and summarize emails that were labeled as confidential. According to a report from Bleeping Computer, the bug bypassed Microsoft's data loss prevention policies, which are meant to protect sensitive information.

The bug was discovered in late January (tracked as CW1226324) and specifically affects Copilot Chat and the "work tab" feature. The bug let Copilot read and summarize emails in the sent and drafts folders, including messages that were explicitly labeled as confidential, which should have had restricted access.

Copilot Chat is Microsoft's version of Google Gemini or ChatGPT. It's meant to be content-aware and can interact with 365 apps like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. The company began rolling it out to Microsoft 365 business customers in September 2025.

"Users' email messages with a confidential label applied are being incorrectly processed by Microsoft 365 Copilot chat," Microsoft confirmed.

The company said that an unspecified code error was responsible for the issue. A fix began rolling out in early February with Microsoft saying that it is continuing to monitor it. A final timeline for the rollout has not been revealed, nor has Microsoft stated how many organizations or individuals were affected.

That said, the issue has been tagged as "advisory," which usually means that the incident was limited in scope or impact.

"We identified and addressed an issue where Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat could return content from emails labeled confidential authored by a user and stored within their Draft and Sent Items in Outlook desktop. This did not provide anyone access to information they weren’t already authorized to see," a spokesperson told Bleeping Computer.

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Microsoft just issued a Windows 11 Release Preview build that previews a bunch of new features coming to the OS.

The team at Redmond has been doing this on a regular basis for months, but this one follows the company reportedly pulling back on stuffing Windows 11 with AI.

The name of the game here is optimization and upgrading the quality of life of using Windows, and these new features make me cautiously optimistic that we’re heading in the right direction.

The Taskbar is getting more helpful

First of all, there is now an option to run a network speed test directly from the taskbar — great for helping check network performance or identify any issues if you’re not seeing pages load.

Also, shout-out to the improvement that doesn’t move multiple windows of the same app into an overflow area, and just uses the space available on the bar itself.

Faster ‘wake up’ times for your PC

Microsoft has made some performance improvements and optimized how Windows resumes from “sleep” mode. If you’ve ever felt like your laptop takes a while to wake up when you leave a lot of apps open before closing the lid, this update specifically targets that.

You can expect your system (be it notebook or desktop) to feel snappier when you wake it up, which should bring some equality between the zippy Snapdragon X Elite systems and those from Intel and AMD.

Camera control

Tired of AI trying to frame your face on the webcam? Now there are manual controls! Within “Bluetooth & devices” settings, you’re now able to control the pan and tilt for supported cameras.

This is because it’s often easy to trick AI framing, and many people may not want dramatic zooms that are out of their control.

That’s not all…

There are other noteworthy updates coming, too, and all of them seem to indicate a shift from Microsoft towards “pulling back” from stuffing Windows 11 with AI. Not groundbreaking, but useful features and optimizations:

• You’ll finally be able to set .webp image files as your desktop wallpaper.
• The “Storage Settings” page is now much faster at scanning for temporary files to help you reclaim disk space.
• Windows update page now responds faster when you click “Check for updates.”
• New emoji alongside the 16.0 release — including a harp, splatter and a face with bags under eyes (hard relate).

Of course, we have a long way to go in the area of bringing Windows 11 back to the promised land.

Optimizations and efficiencies need to be made to help the OS run smoother (using less memory that is currently being consumed in the RAM crisis), and my dream would be to see Microsoft tackle the many unnecessary pop-ups promoting different services to subscribe to, alongside the ads.

But this is definitely a small step in the right direction. These features are all on gradual rollout, so don’t expect to see them all immediately if you’re on the Windows Insider program!

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On Tuesday, February 17, Xbox Live ran into trouble, with complaints skyrocketing after 10am ET. Microsoft itself admitted there's an issue on its status page, under "Games and gaming." This issue has now been fixed!

Some users reported not being able to login to their games with Xbox. While we haven't been able to replicate this in either the U.S. or U.K., there was definitely an issue with game save syncs — being unable to upload save data to the cloud to be synced across devices.

Ouch, that's a nasty spike

We've been keeping an eye on this Downdetector chart for the past hour or so, and so far the numbers have kept climbing. But unlike your level in an RPG or the damage output of your favorite FPS weapon, this is a number we don't want to be large.

What's Microsoft saying?

Looking at Microsoft's own Xbox Status page, we see a yellow warning sign for syncing games. So be careful if you've not backed up your saves recently - you may want to wait to try until after whatever issue we're having has passed.

Xbox on X's last transmission

There's nothing on any of Xbox's official X accounts, including Xbox Support. The most recent official message was from Xbox Game Pass, announcing the latest batch of games. It may be a coincidence, but that is around the time outage reports began to climb.

No log-in issues, but other problems?

Some users seem to be having problems logging into Xbox in the first place, but we're not having that same trouble. The most we're seeing is a save-syncing issue - when trying to save Cities: Skylines II in the screenshot above, the sync hung on 26% for a whole five minutes.

Is it over?

The Down Detector spike has quickly dropped off. But in our own testing, that game save sync is still hung on 26%. Closed and reopened the app and still issues. We're keeping a close eye on it.

Microsoft says the issues aren't over yet

Another look at the Xbox Live status page shows the issue hasn't been resolved yet.

Game save syncs still not working

No word of a joke, I've closed and reopened the Xbox app multiple times, and it's still showing 26%.

BREAKING: Game Save syncing is working

Both in the U.S. and the U.K., Xbox Live cloud game saves are working. Not only that, but logins are working both on the PC Xbox app and Xbox consoles. Based on this confirmation and our methods of analyzing outages showing the service as running, I'm happy to say the outage is resolved.

We'll keep a close eye on the situation — just in case the mitigation causes any further issues.

Microsoft has seen better days. The last few months have shown Windows 10 reach its end of life, much to the disappointment of many, while the tech giant's stock took a 10% dive, the biggest it's had since 2020.

The common thread for this rough patch? Microsoft Copilot, or in other words, the push for AI on Windows 11. When we see Copilot icons slapped on every app and interface of the operating system, to the point that you have to sign in to Paint, there's a good reason users have felt the sting and coined the admittedly hard term "MicroSlop."

This is the year of the laptop, and it's no secret that Microsoft's OS should be a huge driving force for this, especially with the advancements Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips are showing. But with its focus on AI, it appears the company has shifted its priorities. Namely, with its first patch of 2026, set to fix over 100 bugs, resulting in a plague of bigger issues.

In light of this, it's clear that this has left a stain on Windows' legacy, so much so that Microsoft aims to rectify this by "pulling back" on stuffing Windows 11 with AI. However, perhaps it should never have reached this point in the first place, if the words of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are anything to go by.

As Jason England of Tom's Guide noted, Gates' vision for Microsoft PCs was simpler, and right now, Windows 11 is the complete opposite.

Keep it simple, Microsoft

During an interview in 1986 from Programmers at Work: 1st Generation, Gates talks about his time as the CEO of Microsoft, along with navigating the advancements of computing at the time. With PCs becoming more powerful, programs became trickier to work with.

When asked what the most difficult part of computer programming was, though, one quote stands out that resonates with what Windows has become today.

"The hardest part is deciding what the algorithms are, and then simplifying them as much as you can. It’s difficult to get things down to their simplest forms. You have to simulate in your mind how the program’s going to work, and you have to have a complete grasp of how the various pieces of the program work together."

Gates continues: "The finest pieces of software are those where one individual has a complete sense of exactly how the program works. To have that, you have to really love the program and concentrate on keeping it simple, to an incredible degree."

Essentially, for new software to work on an operating system and integrate with what's already working, it needs to be simple. With the countless number of features Microsoft has implemented into its OS since then, from Windows 7 to Windows 11, I can only imagine that's a hard task. But it's telling that Copilot hasn't abided by these words.

A few years later, in 1992, Gates spoke with Profit magazine, following up on the state of advancing its OS alongside the evolution of PCs.

“Five years ago, a lot of improvements in applications were just throwing features in. Now we have to understand what people want to do, what makes it hard to do those things, and design the interface around those ideas.”

In recent years, the boom in AI services like ChatGPT, Gemini and yes, even Copilot itself, appeared to be the next stage in computing. It seemed to be the right bet, as we've seen how artificial intelligence has made improvements in the way we work, interact with the world (using Ray-Ban Meta Display smart glasses to translate Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show) and certainly in the way we game (Nvidia's DLSS 4.5, as the most recent example).

But then there are AI features like the controversial Windows Recall, the inclusion of Copilot in apps and settings that aren't needed, and more. This is notable, as it goes against Gates' stating "we have to understand what people want to do." And the people have spoken, too.

When we asked "How do you feel about Microsoft potentially scaling back AI features in Windows 11?" in a poll, 68% of responders chose that they wanted a master "OFF" switch for all of it, while 31% said it's about time to clean up the bloat. Notably, no one picked "I actually use those features."

Making amends

Gates' words ring more true than ever today. With a bloated Windows 11 stuffed with AI, leading to further bugs, sluggish performance, and an AI assistant around every corner that nearly demands a smart way to work in... Paint, the frustration is tangible.

But Microsoft appears to be taking heed. President of Windows and devices, Pavan Davuluri, has addressed Windows 11's issues, stating: "The feedback we’re receiving from our community of passionate customers and Windows Insiders has been clear. We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people."

That echoes what Gates said decades ago and is a good sign that Windows as a whole is making a comeback. How will these fixes look? I'm not sure, but we're already catching word that Microsoft plans to ditch OpenAI, as Jezz Corden of Windows Central reports, meaning ChatGPT won't continue to take over Microsoft's AI push.

Microsoft appears to be going back to the drawing board, and if anything, this will follow Gates' remarks of keeping things "simple." So far, Windows 11 may have been a betrayal of these words, but Microsoft is rightfully trying to gain the trust of its users back.

For now, it's looking like the AI bubble might burst after all — for Microsoft, at least.

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Support for Windows 10 ended officially in October 2025, and while over 60% of PC users have made the switch to Windows 11, 35% are still using the older OS. Look, I get that it’s tricky to break an old habit, but for those users, this has become a significant security concern.

In a new blog post, Microsoft has announced a “generational refresh” of Secure Boot certificates, which means the current ones are set to expire in late June.

If you’re on Windows 10 without these certificates, you could miss out on future security updates, and, as Microsoft says, you will risk a “degraded security state.”

What is Secure Boot?

Secure Boot is an authorization process that only allows the PC to run trusted software on startup, which stops malicious hacks during the boot.

These certificates have been around for 15 years — since 2011 with Windows 8, so it makes sense that they’re renewed to an updated standard.

How could this affect your system?

If you’re on Windows 11, you’ll just receive the updated certificates with “no additional action required.” On top of that, chances are some of you reading this may already have them, as Microsoft has been working with PC manufacturers and “provisioning updated certificates” on desktops and laptops sold in 2024 and 2025.

However, if you’re on “Windows 10 and older”, you won’t be protected from new boot-level vulnerabilities, which will put your computer at risk from the second you hit the power button.

What do you need to do?

Well, you’ve got two options here. The first obvious one that Microsoft is really wanting you to do is upgrade to Windows 11.

• You can either pick up a new system, and we’re always busy testing the best laptops, best gaming laptops and best desktops to help you make the right choice.
• Or if you’re keen to stick with your older Windows 10 system, there are ways to bypass Microsoft’s restrictions and install Windows 11. We’ve got a guide on how to do that.

If neither of these are not to your liking — maybe you have a severe allergy to Windows 11, and you want to wait for when Microsoft pulls back on stuffing it with AI. Well, there is the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program.

Follow our guide and you can expect to get these new certificates, since this program is set to run for a year starting from its launch in October.

Though it’s fair to say that by this point, going this route is kind of like kicking the can down the road. We’ll be back in this situation once October 13, 2026 rolls around.

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We are still a couple of years away from the next-generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles, but the rumors are starting to pile up. This week, some new leaks surfaced regarding the PlayStation 6 and its rumored companion handheld, as well as Microsoft's potential plans for the next Xbox.

Starting with Sony, regular leaker KeplerL2 posted (via Videocardz) in the NEoGAF forums that the PS6 could feature 32GB of DDR7 memory, double that of the 16GB of GDDR6. Meanwhile, the rumored handheld could feature 24GB of LPDDR5X memory, which would match Windows handheld configurations for a higher-end mobile console.

Both leaks imply that Sony's next console and handheld will be able to run heavy games with no memory constraints.

It's no real surprise that the next PlayStation will be more powerful than its predecessor. The worry is that so much memory will make the PS6 extremely expensive, with the ongoing RAM crisis not expected to abate until 2028 at the earliest.

However, Sony isn't expected to launch the PS6 until 2028, maybe late 2027. Perhaps that delay will give the company time to reduce costs or for memory manufacturers to catch up to AI demand.

The nexBox

At the start of February, AMD's CEO Lisa Su surprisingly revealed that the next Xbox featuring an AMD SoC could launch in 2027. Allegedly, that was a surprise to even Microsoft, per our friends at Windows Central. It contradicted previous Microsoft comments and documents that revealed that the next Xbox was slated for 2028.

"I'm told Microsoft insiders were a little taken off-guard by Lisa Su's comments on Xbox's Gen-10 timeline," Jez Corden reported.

From our own rumor reporting and other sources, the big change between the Series X and the next generation is a focus on a hybrid console/PC. Xbox president Sarah Bond previously hinted that the new console would be "a very premium, very high-end curated experience."

The big rumor from Windows Central is that Microsoft is working with OEMs, like Asus, to build a "variety of options" that would span a wide range of price points. This hints at a gaming laptop-esque future where you could have a high-end, say Razer-built Xbox, but also a lower-end model.

The difference here is that Xbox would become more of a branding exercise and a launcher rather than hardware. Corden is reporting that Microsoft wants to make an "Xbox interface" on top of Windows, similar to how it works on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X handheld PC console, which launched this past October.

While the PS6 might be a more traditional power-step forward, the Xbox could be, as the ads say, "anything."

We'll likely find out more about both next-gen consoles soon enough, so stay tuned to Tom's Guide for the latest news, leaks and rumors.

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AI tools and services come in many shapes and sizes, but the most exciting part is how this technology adapts to your current workflows — without you having to change a thing.

For every chatbot that can respond to queries, there’s a more useful array of features built into the latest generation of laptops with NPUs (neural processing units). And many of them, you may not even realize they're hard at work in the background.

That's because of the power efficiency of offloading key AI tasks to that NPU, which takes the pressure off that CPU to ensure all-day battery life.

Two such machines that benefit from one are Acer’s Swift 14 and 16 AI. Here are 5 ways that NPU brings serious AI smarts to the table without you even realizing it.

1. Copilot Recall

Microsoft’s push for your screen to be recorded at all times is still enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone concerned with privacy, but the feature can be particularly useful.

Screenshots it grabs are encrypted locally, not shared to OneDrive or beyond (unless you choose to), and it essentially allows you to search ...a sort of visual time machine to instantly find what you were looking for.

Lost a product listing? An email contact? Or even a file you put in a folder? Recall can help you find it.

2. Live Captions

Whether it’s for watching content in other languages or a way to make your own content more accessible, Live Captions is a game-changer for anyone consuming or creating video content online.

Copilot tools allow you to create Live Captions for just about anything you’re watching, even when you’re offline, translating over 40 languages into English.

If you’re a creator, it can be used within third-party apps to power transcription for podcast conversions, video assignments, and even training courses you may be building for work.

3. 365 Copilot

Microsoft Office remains arguably the king of enterprise solutions whether you’re using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or just about anything else.

With the arrival of 365 Copilot, it’s been infused with additional features that make the act of scouring tiny toolbars for the button you need a thing of the past.

Now, Copilot permeates just about any layer of the Microsoft Office experience, starting with the creation of a new file. You can explain to Copilot what data you need to show in an Excel sheet, or how best to lay out a Word document, and it can get straight to it to save you setting up your initial template.

Once you’re actually using the included apps, you can use tools like Copilot Chat to ask questions about the work, share content with colleagues, or use AI-powered features like meeting recordings and Microsoft ToDo to keep focused.

Copilot makes Microsoft Office feel less like a series of apps and more like a deeply integrated ecosystem.

4. Look better in meetings

We’ve all been there: The house is a mess, your hair’s still wet from the shower, or you just want to lock the view to yourself for something important.

Windows Studio Effects are a collection of features that can have you looking more professional in just about any scenario, like keeping your face centered in the frame on a call.

Portrait light brightens your face during calls, even in darker rooms, and Eye Contact subtly adjusts your gaze to keep your gaze squared with the webcam lens, making you feel more connected to the person you're chatting with.

Then there are the usual background blur effects you may find elsewhere, except that they’re much more useful because they tap into the power of the NPU - avoiding those jagged lines more often than non-AI options. That applies to both Standard Blur (for your messy room) or Portrait Blur (for appearing more professional).

Finally, if you’re looking to call the family with the kids, Creative Filters are a great way to add some personality, like turning your video call into an illustrator’s canvas or watercolor painting.

5. Semantic Search in File Explorer

Another AI-powered feature that feels so simple it’s almost a miracle it hadn’t been done before, users can turn on Enhanced Search Settings to be able to search for files with just about any terminology they want.

‘Find my budgeting spreadsheet’ can be used to find the relevant file without needing to dive into endless folders. It can take some time to index those files, but it’s worth doing to have them at your fingertips without needing to remember specific names or locations.

Bottom line

So, there you have it - five ways to use AI to assist your workflow and keep you more productive, rather than having to bend your workflow around AI.

All of the features above are available on the Acer Swift 14 AI, which we used for testing purposes.

It weighs just 1.26kg at the low end but has up to 29 hours of battery life, 48 TOPS AI performance in the NPU, and can be configured with an up to 3K OLED display.

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Something interesting happened in AMD’s earnings call, and I’m not talking about the stock price dropping significantly. CEO Lisa Su started talking about its games console chip business, and let slip that “development of Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC is progressing well to support a launch in 2027.”

She also mentioned the Steam Machine is still set for “early this year” too, but it’s that Xbox comment that piqued my interest, as this conflicts with what Microsoft has said in the past. So let’s break down what I predict will be in this next console, and why I’m skeptical about the launch year.

Predicting the next Xbox specs (way too early)

So as Xbox president Sarah Bond said, this is set to be a “very premium, very high-end, curated experience.” With a higher spec ceiling to reach (and a rumored cost of $1,000), that gives Microsoft (and AMD) a lot of room to work in to create what is set to be a console/PC hybrid.

I’m going to go through the rumors I’ve seen and given them a rating out of 10 on likelihood (in my opinion of course):

• AMD Zen 6 chipset architecture (7/10): This next gen CPU architecture is set to rollout in late 2026 — moving to TSMC’s new manufacturing processes to stuff more transistors on there for improved performance. In my mind, it seems likely.
• RDNA 5 GPU (6/10): Xbox Series X sports AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU architecture, which was Team Red’s graphics tech back in 2020. While I can see the logic here (RDNA 2 launched in early 2020 for PCs and came to consoles later that year), given the GPU squeeze at the moment for AI infrastructure, I can see the current-gen RDNA 4 coming instead.
• Up to 48GB of GDDR7 RAM (5/10): Casting serious doubt on this in the current RAM price crisis. Of course, I have my (rather selfish) prayer circle that this AI bubble bursts and components are reasonably priced again. But even with that in mind, I still anticipate 16GB of VRAM.
• AI and neural rendering (10/10): AMD has pivoted hard to AI trickery using FSR Redstone, and the PS5 Pro already does this. I would be shocked if the next-gen Xbox didn’t sport this.

Why I’m pressing ‘X’ to doubt

Well, my suspicions come from what Microsoft itself said. Back in the FTC vs. Microsoft court battle, documents revealed that the next Xbox (and PS6) were set for 2028. This “hybrid game platform” is set to combine local hardware and cloud computing.

Of course, this could’ve changed over the years since this court battle happened, and the “very high-end” comments from Bond does suggest that a pivot is on the table here. But let’s go deeper.

One thing that’s clear is RAMageddon is set to impact console gaming, and with next-gen systems, companies like Microsoft and Sony have a decision to make: Stick to this expected timeline and make it hurt, or wait it out for this DRAM drought to correct.

If I were a betting man, I’d go for the latter. But I’d love to know when you think the PS6 and next-gen Xbox will launch.

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Remember the Microsoft Surface Headphones? I’m sure you do.

The PC giant’s first-ever wireless headphones were noteworthy, but struggled to compete with the market’s best noise-canceling headphones. It wasn’t until the Surface Headphones 2 launched that business really picked up for Microsoft. Enhanced audio, intuitive features, and powerful connectivity earned them critical acclaim.

Then the product completely disappeared. No marketing. No software updates. No availability. Rumors of a threequel were also put to rest once Microsoft confirmed it was cancelling the next generation of Surface headphones back in 2023.

Microsoft's almost sequel

The closest we ever got to a follow-up was the Surface Headphones 2+. I tested them a few years back…and was greatly disappointed. That all changed recently.

My wife needed a pair of cans to use for business calls, so I passed along my unit since it was the closest option within reach. Never did I think that she would rave about them. Her reaction encouraged me to give the headphones a second shot. What I experienced was eye-opening.

The Surface Headphones 2+ aren’t just the best work-from-home headphones ever created – they’re essential for Microsoft Office enthusiasts.

Now, before you go pointing out other Microsoft Teams-certified headsets, know two things: (1) Office integration feels more natural and seamless with the Surface Headphones 2+ and (2) these headphones offer a lot more value when factoring in other hallmarks.

Come see what I’m talking about.

The perfect Office companion

Let me preface this by stating that I am not a Windows user. I’m a macOS and Android guy. That didn’t affect how I used the Surface Headphones 2+ since most Microsoft-related features are tied to the company’s cloud-based productivity suite: Microsoft 365.

Voice dictation on these headphones is on point. Best of all, it works with all Office apps: OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. I used voice-to-text to create captions and subtitles for PowerPoint presentations and transcribe email responses. The feature is highly intelligible.

Half the reason why voice dictation performs at an elite level is Microsoft’s excellent software engineering. The other half is credited to the Surface Headphones 2+’s built-in mics, which demonstrate stellar speech recognition. That same functionality carries over to digital assistance for flawless Google Assistant and Siri voice command execution.

The Play My Email feature is just as rewarding. I’m someone who leaves his inbox with zero unread messages at the end of the day. Hearing emails in real-time was more efficient than skimming through dozens of lines of text. This allowed me to multitask around the house and not miss or overlook important emails.

A true Microsoft Teams player

The “big” change that Microsoft implemented on the Surface Headphones 2+ was the USB Link dongle. It comes bundled with the purchase and is exclusive to this version of the headphones. The accessory bypasses Bluetooth to form a dedicated connection for Microsoft Teams. I found it more reliable than standard Bluetooth when paired to my MacBook Pro. Connectivity was stabler and stronger. It also made pairing faster and provided in-call controls for Teams chats.

Everything else that makes the Surface Headphones 2+ an underrated gem

People forget how innovative the original Surface Headphones were when they came out. At the time, it didn’t matter if their active noise cancellation was secondary to category leaders, like the Bose 700 and Sony WH-1000xM4. The fact that Microsoft gave us 13 levels of ANC was astounding. That same technology holds up strong to this day.

Much of the fracas that surrounded me when working on my balcony was muted. That included dogs barking, landscaping tools, and talkative pedestrians by the pool area. High-pitched sounds (e.g., crying babies, whistles) were audible, but never broke my concentration.

It’s also worth reminding people that Microsoft’s headphones were some of the first models to feature Ambient and Passthrough modes. Both work exceptionally well on the Surface Headphones 2+. Ambient mode effectively increases situational awareness, while Passthrough mode demonstrates exceptional vocal capture to hear conversations loudly and clearly.

I’m glad Microsoft hasn’t ended smartphone support for the Surface Headphones lineup. Otherwise, we’d lose out on audio personalization features like the customizable EQ with multiple presets and Qualcomm’s aptX codec for CD-like sound over Bluetooth (Android and Windows only). These are accessible through the Surface app.

Lastly, the Surface Headphones series boasts one of the most attractive and unique designs constructed. It’s all in the details. What’s not to love about the creative dial controls, plush leather padding, sleek arched yokes, and sturdy craftsmanship that outclasses current minimalist-styled favorites (e.g., Apple AirPods Max, Sony WH-1000xM6).

The Surface Headphones 2+ currently sell for $149 at Amazon – an unbeatable deal considering their premium ANC, audio quality, design, and MS365 integration. Believe me when I say that your home office setup is incomplete without them.

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Is Microsoft finally starting to see the light? It’s no secret that the company’s obsession with AI has gone over about as well as a lead balloon with the Windows faithful.

For the past year, it has felt like every update was less about making our lives easier and more about cramming Copilot into every nook and cranny of Windows 11. The backlash has been so loud and so consistent that a specific, none-too-flattering nickname has been trending across social media: "MicroSlop."

It’s a harsh term, but it perfectly captures the exhaustion of a user base that feels like their OS is being filled with non-essential AI features at the expense of stability, privacy, and common sense.

Whether it’s unwanted buttons in the taskbar or AI-powered "assistance" in apps that don’t need it, the sentiment is clear: people are tired of AI being shoved in their faces.

Turning the page on AI?

Wall Street seems to agree, too. Microsoft’s stock just took a massive 10% nosedive — its biggest single-day drop since the 2020 crash.

That's $400 billion in market value, and the equivalent of McDonald's, Burger King, Coca-Cola and Starbucks all going to zero overnight. Turns out investors aren't too happy with their returns on AI spending!

Thankfully, the message seems to have reached the higher-ups in Redmond. According to a new report from Zack Bowden over at Windows Central, Microsoft is reevaluating its AI strategy for Windows 11.

Citing sources familiar with the company's plans, Bowden details how Microsoft is looking to streamline — or outright remove — Copilot integrations across several "in-box" apps like Notepad and Paint starting in 2026.

The report suggests that internal teams have realized that haphazardly slapping a Copilot icon on every UI surface isn't actually helping anyone. In fact, Microsoft has reportedly paused work on adding new Copilot buttons to other built-in apps, signaling a shift toward being more "tactful and deliberate" with where AI actually appears.

Recalling Recall

The biggest admission of defeat may involve Windows Recall. According to Bowden’s sources, Microsoft internally views the current implementation of Recall as a failure.

While the company isn't scrapping the "photographic memory" concept entirely, they are reportedly looking to evolve it into something else — possibly even dropping the tainted "Recall" branding in the process.

While under-the-hood AI efforts like Semantic Search and new APIs for developers are still moving ahead, the heavy-handed, front-facing AI features that have annoyed so many of us are potentially on the chopping block.

Outlook

I’ve been a Windows user since the late 90s—I've lived through the highs of Windows XP and 7, and the dark days of Vista and 8.

But even as a long-term fan, I’m getting fed up with how bloated and sluggish the OS has become in recent years. Every time I open a simple text editor or try to find a file, I don't want a digital assistant trying to sell me on a "smarter" way to work.

I honestly hope this reevaluation is the real deal. Lessening these forced AI integrations would go a long way in making Windows feel like a tool again, rather than an advertising platform for Microsoft’s latest buzzword.

If Redmond actually follows through on cleaning up the "slop" and focuses on making the core OS fast and reliable, it might finally regain the trust of users like me who just want a clean place to get work done.

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After years of warning, Windows 10 reaches the end of life in October 2025, and Windows 11 becomes the supported and default Microsoft operating system. Unfortunately, that transition has not been smooth or friendly to PC users.

The Verge's Tom Warren just released a massive new report saying that Microsoft is shifting its engineers to focus on resolving core issues with Windows 11 in an attempt to win back customer trust.

There are a lot of details about what's coming, and you should read Warren's article, but here's what you need to know.

“The feedback we’re receiving from our community of passionate customers and Windows Insiders has been clear. We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people,” Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices, told Warren.

Running list of issues

Earlier this month, the company released its first 2026 patch that was meant to fix over 100 bugs, a fairly common monthly release. That patch was so broken that it introduced new bugs, including one that made it impossible to actually shut down your computer.

Between an infusion of seemingly unwanted AI, like the ongoing failure that is Recall, so much so that Microsoft has a new "Microslop" nickname. CEO Satya Nadella has begged people to stop calling AI slop.

Plus, the company has inserted advertisements into core Windows 11 functions, reportedly upsetting customers.

How will things get fixed?

Apparently, Microsoft has been tight-lipped about how it plans to improve Windows 11, but is using a process called "swarming," where teams of engineers are redirected to urgently solve Windows 11 performance issues.

"This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows," Davuluri said.

Windows is a dominant force in the computing world, from daily consumers to businesses. Even so, the missteps surrounding Windows 11 have eroded Microsoft's standing.

Tom's Guide will be tracking what Microsoft does this year to see if the engineers are capable of righting the boat.

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• Microsoft Office is getting a major AI overhaul — here are all the new updates coming soon

Once upon a time, one of the universally accepted truths was that if you were serious about gaming on a PC or laptop, you needed Windows.

Microsoft fostered a community of PC gamers that’s been around for more than three decades now, and the ways you can game are evolving beyond relying on the x86 likes of Intel and AMD chips, and bringing Arm support for laptops sporting Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite.

But the winds of change might be blowing. The Steam Deck showed what was possible on Linux, Valve is coming for the desktop space with Steam Machine, and all the ‘Microslop’ accusations are starting to sway me and other users. Let me explain.

Shot in the Arm

Before diving into the rise of Linux, there’s good news for Xbox fans who are playing on PC - the Xbox app has finally arrived on Arm-based Windows 11 PCs.

If you’ve got one such machine, Microsoft says you can play 85% of games in the Game Pass catalog of them right now by downloading the app. The company also says Epic Anti-Cheat is functional so players can enjoy Fortnite, Gears of War: Reloaded, and more.

You can check out the latest in Microsoft’s blog post, with the company promising more to come with Windows.

“Windows and Xbox continue to collaborate across the gaming community, OEMs, silicon innovators and game studios to expand catalog compatibility and deliver a consistently great Windows gaming experience—whether you’re on a powerful desktop, a purpose‑built handheld, or an Arm‑based Windows 11 laptop,” it says.

“Our focus remains on improving compatibility, enhancing performance and delivering experiences that make it easy to jump in and play.”

That’s just as well, because Windows might be up against its sternest test in the battle for PC gaming dominance.

Pressure Valve

While Xbox has fallen way behind other platforms in the console space, Microsoft still owns the biggest piece of the PC market. According to Steam’s Hardware Survey from December 2025, Windows versions (including Windows 11, Windows 10, and even Windows 7) make up 94.23% of PC gamers.

And yet, macOS and Linux are climbing, too. Mac versions now make up 2.18% of the survey results, a slight jump but undeniably buoyed by Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit rollout and the power of Apple Silicon.

Linux is also on the climb, reaching 3.58% across all platforms. There’s a good chance that’s thanks to the arrival of the Steam Deck in 2022, which has given rise to handheld PCs, many of which now run (or dual boot) the Linux-based SteamOS.

These are small numbers as it stands, but they conceal the fact that Linux is a more efficient platform for extracting better performance and battery life from your games (as Jason found out in his hands-on testing with the Asus ROG Ally X). The tides are slowly but surely turning.

While the Steam Machine could end up seeing a delay thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, it’’ offer a PC-like experience that would be shorn of the cruft that Copilot has introduced. Microsoft keeps chasing the dream of AI, but it’s done so at the cost of many of Windows’ core pillars - including stability.

Gamers are noticing, too. Anecdotally, more adventurous enthusiasts are starting to dual-boot into Linux, or even remove Windows entirely. Developers and publishers have done some of the heavy lifting already to get games onto SteamOS, and now even storefronts are having their say.

“I'm really surprised at Windows. It's such poor-quality software and product, and I'm so surprised that it's [spent] so many years on the market. I can't believe it!” Michał Kiciński, the new owner of storefront GOG.com explained to PC Gamer.

Preaching to the choir, Michal, preaching to the choir.

A gaming Arm race

Despite all this, Windows on Arm might get another boost for gamers with reports that a new Nvidia N1 and N1X chip lineup is expected to debut in new Lenovo laptops. Outside of Snapdragon X2 Elite's improved GPU, this would mark the first real push for Windows 11 gaming on Arm. Will that then improve perception around Windows for gamers? Or is it too little too late?

94.23% of the market share suggests it’s likely to be a positive thing for anyone already on Windows. The Nvidia N1 and N1X chips will also bring Blackwell features to Dell XPS systems if reports are correct.

The advantage would be that the work Microsoft is doing on compatibility will undoubtedly make Arm a more compatible platform. Linux still doesn’t have access to anti-cheat systems across games like Fortnite, Battlefield 6, Destiny 2, or Call of Duty, meaning if you’re heavily invested in any of those titles, Windows (on Arm or not) is still the way to go for you.

There’s an argument that there’s never been a worse time to buy a dedicated games console, too, with the Switch 2 expected to join its Sony and Microsoft contemporaries in raising prices following the AI rush for RAM.

Where do you stand? Are you considering a move away from Windows for your gaming fix? Leaning into consoles? Or staying put and hoping Windows gets better? Let us know in the comments!

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I feel like I’m living in “Groundhog Day” these days: huge server infrastructure goes down and knocks out essential internet services for people, the reason exposes a risk of concentrating too much of said infrastructure in one location, I rant about it and the problem happens again.

Well, the thing just happened again. Microsoft’s services went down — taking out 365, Outlook, Teams and Azure with it. And would you look at that! The root cause is “a portion of service infrastructure in North America” that just so happened to knock out the planet.

So just like the AWS outage last October, I’m here again with a plea. For the love of everything, figure out a backup plan. The world is far too dependent on the internet for there not be a Plan B in case of emergency.

Is this ‘US-EAST-1’ all over again?

So let’s figure out the symmetry here to the AWS outage last year, because there are some differences that all lead back to one similar epicenter. The differences are simple enough:

• The AWS issue was caused by a DNS issue in one server region — US-EAST-1 (the internet’s phonebook forgot all the phone numbers), which knocked out half the internet.
• The Microsoft outage was caused by a failure in North American service infrastructure that stopped processing traffic correctly. A busted toll booth made the digital traffic jam worse and brought services to a standstill.

So in that way, these are different problems, but they both highlight the same key issue: a massive centralized dependency on a specific region to run the world’s cloud computing infrastructure.

To paraphrase Monica Eaton, Founder and CEO of Chargebacks911 and Fi911 from my earlier article, when one of these companies sneezes, “half the internet catches the flu.”

But it gets worse (and more complicated)

As you may have seen, Microsoft’s first attempt to fix these traffic imbalances actually made the problem worse. The highway patrol saw the huge digital traffic jam and set up a detour down a tiny street not built for millions of cars. It immediately bottlenecked, and the road cracked under the weight of it all.

My problem is not that Microsoft tried, it’s that we’re here in the first place. And to go into that, I need to go into the difference between the “Data Plane” and the “Control Plane,” because this is what’s critical here.

• The “Data Plane” is protected by a Multi-availability zone safety net. Basically, if you have two different computers in two different rooms, and a pipe bursts and floods one, the other keeps working. This is what most people mean by “redundancy.”
• The “Control Plane” is the brain that tells those computers where to send traffic, and it’s a single point of failure. In both the AWS and Microsoft outages, the brain broke, and none of those redundancies on the “Data Plane” mattered.

That’s not to say there aren't redundancies for the “Control Plane,” but both of these companies actually have too many of the wrong kind — internal redundancies. The brains are all in one place (multiple servers in one region) rather than building in external redundancies (separate brains across multiple regions).

The fix isn’t simple

In defense of these companies, that’s a very tough nut to crack. If you were to change your password on one brain, every brain in the world needs to know that immediately.

They have to constantly talk to each other, and if one starts to hallucinate (if a bad software update or database error happens), then all the other redundant brains get the same wrong information in perfect sync.

AWS and Microsoft use something called Static Stability to mitigate, which means that if the brain (Control Plane) dies, the body (Data Plane) should continue. You won’t be able to change your password, but users should still be able to send emails because the local servers remember the last good state.

However, the Microsoft outage wasn’t just a failure in the brain; it was in the traffic layer. The body looked fine, but the central nervous system (the network) couldn’t carry the signal to the limbs.

But there is a fix, a cell-based architecture. AWS and Microsoft are moving aggressively towards this answer to the “one giant brain” problem, which breaks down a huge server region into hundreds of independent micro-neighborhoods. So if one cell is impacted, nobody else notices.

Sounds like a dream fix, right? Well, why doesn’t it happen now? There is an inconceivable amount of complexity and a massive amount of legacy to overcome:

• The cells need the right traffic directed to them, which requires a cell router. If the router breaks, none of this cell-based architecture matters.
• Microsoft 365 is a 15-year-old system that is massive. Turning this monolithic brain into 100 mini brains is like trying to perform a brain transplant on someone who is running a marathon.

So the short answer is they’re working on it, but while it’s proving to be tricky, this needs to be resolved like yesterday for one key reason.

Wait, the world expects us to rent a PC from the cloud?

Computing Editor Darragh Murphy wrote a great piece exposing the moment when Jeff Bezos said the quiet part out loud: the idea of having a local PC is “not going to last.” AI and the RAM price crisis are accelerating us towards the idea that the only way computing makes sense is to rent one from the cloud.

While I massively disagree with Jeff’s take with every fiber of my being (many things have tried to kill owning your own computer in the past, and all have failed), let’s entertain it for a second.

For this to even remotely stand a chance of working, the infrastructure has to be perfect. While there are many Windows 11 bugs in updates to your PC, you can at the very least turn it on. With cloud infrastructure issues like this, none of that happens.

And if the plan is to make the world rely solely on cloud computing, small issues like what we’ve seen in these outages can cause issues far worse than just the frustration of stopping you getting to your cloud PC to play games. It could severely impact small businesses, governments, healthcare and much more.

And this is what I mean when I end every single one of these rants by saying we need to demand better redundancy from the tech we use every day. There’s too much at stake for the cloud to be the only way we compute — there must always be a local element.

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Microsoft experienced one of its largest outages to date, affecting services including Outlook, Teams, 365 and more. Now, it appears the impact has been "resolved."

Multiple Microsoft services suddenly went down on January 22, which left multiple users without access to emails, apps and even Microsoft Defender. Over the course of around nine hours, Microsoft tried to fix the issue, resulting in a mixed bag of services returning and being out again.

Before that, on January 21, Microsoft 365 and Teams also suffered a brief outage that left users unable to log in or access various Office apps. However, that outage was resolved fairly quickly. This time, it left users without access for hours longer.

As of now, with Downdetector showing a huge drop in reports and Microsoft confirming the "impact has been resolved" on X, it appears services are now back to normal.

Here's a brief recap of events and how the outage happened.

• Microsoft services saw a massive spike in outage reports at around 11.40 a.m. PST / 2.40 p.m. EST / 7.40 p.m. GMT on January 22.
• Multiple services across Microsoft were impacted, with users unable to access Microsoft 365, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Store, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Defender.
• The outage appeared to be caused by a service load elevation during maintenance of a North America server: "we’ve identified elevated service load combined with temporary capacity constraints during maintenance resulted in impact," Microsoft states.
• Microsoft also indicated that a possible third-party networking issue may be affecting access to Microsoft 365 services.
• As of around 1.30 a.m. EST / 6.30 a.m. GMT / 10.30 p.m. PST (Jan 21.), Microsoft confirms that the impact has now been resolved.

Microsoft's outage follows many other multi-hour impacts over the past few months, including Verizon going down earlier this month, and the AWS outage that effectively broke the internet in October 2025.

Follow Tom's Guide for the latest updates on the major Microsoft outage and everything as it happened below.

Microsoft was down again: here's what happened

Sudden spike

The new outage kicked off around noon Pacific with Outlook hitting just over 6,750 reports on Down Detector.

Microsoft 365, the office apps suite, is less but still sitting closer to 4,000 reports.

Other services affected

While they haven't received the same number of reports we are seeing other Microsoft services interrupted as well.

These include Azure, Defender, and Teams.

Microsoft acknowledges outage

The official Microsoft status page hasn't been updated yet, but the official Microsoft 365 X account posted that the company is investigating.

"We're investigating a potential issue impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview. Further information can be found in the admin center under MO1221364."

Similar to previous outage?

During the outage on Jan 21, Microsoft blamed the interruption on an issue related to a third-party. It's believed that an unnamed ISP caused connections between Microsoft's services and the apps.

This led to user unable to login to 365 or Teams or in some cases even open the app.

Mixed bag for Microsoft apps

Over on Down Detector, Outlook, 365, Teams and Microsoft Store are seeing a growing number of reports.

On the other hand, Azure and Defender XDR spiked but have quickly started to decline. It's possible these services aren't as affected compared to the big apps like 365.

Status page update

The official Microsoft status page has finally updated. It specifically notes service degradation for Microsoft 365 (Business or Enterprise).

Surprisingly, the page reads, "Users may be seeing degraded service functionality across multiple Microsoft 365 services."

That message would normally appear in the admin center, but apparently the outage may affect some people's ability to even access the admin center.

The message says people may have issues with sending and receiving emails.

Cause identified

Microsoft says it has identified a cause for the outage.

"We've identified a portion of service infrastructure in North America that is not processing traffic as expected. We're working to restore the infrastructure to a healthy state to achieve recovery," the company posted in a tweet.

On the status page, it provided a little more a details saying that the infrastructure is impacting load balancing and service availability.

Status page crashes!

Either because of the infrastructure issues or due to a fix Microsoft is attempting to implement, the Status page is also now down.

When I try to access it I keep getting the above error message.

An HTTP 429 Error refers to a site receiving too many requests. I'm sure it's not just me trying to access the page.

Intermittent interruption

I was able to load the status page again, but it won't stay up. Refreshing causes the 429 error to hit.

There is some new information, including this message:

"Users may be receiving a "451 4.3.2 temporary server issue" error message when attempting to send or receive email through Outlook."

The update does say that users may experience intermittent impact.

365 seems to work but not Outlook

I'm seeing comments on Down Detector and social media that some people are able to login to the admin center for Microsoft 365.

Outlook appears to be having more problems with claims of emails not sending or receiving. I've seen some comments from users who can send emails but aren't receiving any new ones.

Where we stand after just over an hour

This outage kicked off around 11 a.m. Pacific but didn't really hit until closer to 11:40 am.

Right now, reports on Down Detector have started to dip a little across every Microsoft service. However, we are still seeing a high numbers including over 12,000 reports for Outlook, close 16,000 reports for 365, and 2,700 reports for Store.

The status page hasn't changed, and Microsoft hasn't tweeted in about 35 minutes.

However, the company says it is continuing to review the incident to determine what actions it needs to restore service.

Microsoft update

Another tweet from Microsoft just went up. Unfortunately, there isn't anything new here.

"We're continuing to review what actions are required to restore the affected infrastructure to a heathy state and rebalance the service traffic to achieve recovery."

It's similar to the message we've seen on the status page. However, access to the status page is intermittent due to the 429 errors, so sharing this message in multiple places is getting people some information.

Up and down reports

Reports for Outlook have plateaued but other services are a mixed bag. Some services like Azure went down but are spiking again.

365 is dipping a bit and Store is going up. Teams meanwhile is going down.

Infrastructure restored says Microsoft

Microsoft says it has restored the infrastructure to a "healthy state" with a caveat.

The company says it still needs "further load balancing" to mitigate the impact from the outage. Traffic is being redirected while the fix goes into effect.

Near immediate drop in reports

Since Microsoft announced that it was redirecting traffic and implemented a repair reports have quickly dropped on Down Detector.

That doesn't mean the outage is over since thousands of reports are still coming in, they've just lessened.

Outlook, the most affected service, is still above 10,000 reports though it is in decline.

Status page still crashing

Microsoft is telling people to go to its status page for updates but it continues to be affected by the 429 error, which means too many are trying to access the page.

Several Tom's Guide readers have commented that they can't access the status page.

I've been able to access it through brute force persistent refreshing.

Slow recovery

As mentioned previously, reports have been in decline but it's slow, suggesting that recovery is happening but not everyone has been able to access their Outlook emails or 365 services.

Consumer products should be working

According to Microsoft's Service Health Status page, its consumer-focused products are now operational, which lines up with the dip in outage reports we're currently seeing on Downdetector. The same can't be said for Microsoft 365 though, which is still experiencing issues.

The storm before the storm

Microsoft 365 going down on a Thursday afternoon means that tomorrow is going to be a rough day at work. Hopefully the service is fully restored by then, which it should be, but either way, you're looking at an inbox full of replies and missed emails to go through. Then there's a historic winter storm set to bring snow and ice across the U.S. all weekend. Your time might be better spent preparing for the storm instead of waiting for Microsoft to fully resolve this outage.

'Proceeding as quickly as possible'

Here's the latest statement from the Microsoft 365 account.

"We're rebalancing traffic across all affected infrastructure to ensure the environment enters into a balanced state. We’re proceeding as quickly as possible and this approach will help us identify any additional actions needed for recovery."

Microsoft hasn't provided an ETA for service return anywhere, and I'm not sure the company has an idea of when the apps will be fully functional again.

Despite drop in reports services may still be down

Across Down Detector reports have dropped significantly in the last 45 minutes and Microsoft appears to be on the road to recovery.

However, tweets and comments from Tom's Guide readers reveal that the recovery isn't hitting everyone.

"We are still 100% down," one reader said.

To be fair, it's about 6 pm on the East Coast, so perhaps people have given up on the day and moved on with their lives. So, people actively reporting may have been reduced.

But! we're still partying on the West Coast and in the Midwest, except Indiana, which I assume is still shut down after the CFB National Championship win.

New update from Microsoft

For the most part Microsoft has been updating its 365 X account with similar information that you can find on the Status page. Largely because the official status page has been intermittenly inaccessible.

However, a new note just went up on the status page.

"During our ongoing efforts to rebalance traffic across the region, we introduced a targeted load balancing configuration change intended to expedite the recovery process, which incidentally introduced additional traffic imbalances associated with persistent impact for a portion of the affected infrastructure. We're remedying our load balancing configurations while, in parallel, reviewing the viability of expediting our ongoing incremental rebalancing and recovery efforts."

So, it looks like Microsoft's attempts to fix the original problem worsened things in other areas. A problem with software recovery sometimes, one bug breaks another.

Where we stand after more than 4 hours

Sadly, the outage is ongoing, and I can't tell when it will end.

As mentioned in the last post, Microsoft indicated that an intended fix to mitigate the "load balancing" issue caused other problems. So it is now trying to fix that and continue the recovery of the system.

The official status page was down for a while with 429 errors, but I've been able to access it continually for the last hour.

Over on Down Detector, reports have declined to just under 5,000 reports for Outlook and 3,200 reports for 365. I am seeing comments from users that they still can't access their email or aren't seeing emails come through.

An update from Microsoft

Microsoft has provided another update. Simply, they continue.

"We're continuing to refine our load balancing configurations to address residual imbalances across the environment."

No sign of stopping anytime soon

This outage does not appear to be stopping anytime soon. So enjoy this from reader 'Losing All Hope':

"Is now the appropriate time to send thoughts and prayers to Outlook, or we're not quite there yet?"

Another joke for you

It is now 5 pm Pacific, meaning it's clocking off time for most of the continental United States. I expect, as people leave work, if they haven't already, we'll see reports take another nose-dive.

With that in mind, have a drink on us and enjoy a little joke from Tom's Guide global editor Mark Spoonauer. Got a laugh from me, and now I plan on watching 'Airplane!' tonight.

I will be keeping an eye on things to see if we all have to come back to work tomorrow, despite the snowstorm and/or Outlook outage.

So, keep us in your tabs for any updates as they happen.

As expected, reports drop

Despite no updates from Microsoft and an apparent continued interruption of service, reports on Down Detector are dropping.

Outlook and 365 are hovering around 1,000 reports after sitting closer to 3,500 before 5 pm Pacific. At their peak, the two services hit a high of closer to 15,000 reports. That was hours ago, around 12:30 pm Pacific.

This isn't surprising since, as we said in our previous post, people on the West Coast are starting to clock off.

Update may slow down now, but I will be keeping an eye on things in case it changes.

The latest Microsoft update

"We’re refining our load balancing efforts to optimize performance and reduce potential impact. In parallel, we’re assessing alternative solutions to reinforce recovery and enhance long term stability."

Maybe things are getting better but we're not out of the woods yet.

Status page hasn't crashed in hours though, so that's good. And it reads:

Users may be seeing degraded service functionality or be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services

Microsoft claims it's seeing improvements

Latest update:

'We’re seeing continued improvements in service availability and functionality as a result of our load-balancing efforts. We’re actively monitoring performance and making targeted adjustments to further improve stability and availability, while continuing recovery actions to ensure a reliable service experience.'

Of course, the immediate tweets underneath are people calling this lies and saying that Outlook is still down.

Steady decline

I honestly can't tell if the outage is petering out or not. Microsoft did say that its team is seeing improvement on their end.

However, we've reached a point where most Americans are home, off work and not actively checking emails or trying to access 365 services.

On Down Detector, 365 reports are still hovering around 750. Outlook is finally under 500 reports and the other impacted services have basically 0.

Still, that does mean reports are still steadily rolling in, just not at the rate or amount that spiked earlier in the day when the country was actually online.

I won't call it just yet, but I will save any updates for anything more significant or if Microsoft says that its systems have fully recovered.

You're email might work now?

On the official status page, Microsoft updated with a current status that now reads:

" We’ve identified elevated service load combined with temporary capacity constraints during maintenance resulted in impact. We’re seeing positive signs of recovery in mail delivery, and mitigation actions are in place to better manage service load. While some connectivity impact remains between Microsoft Defender for Office, Microsoft Purview, and Exchange Online, and DNS lookup failures, engineers are actively working to restore full functionality."

I don't believe Outlook is fully back on line based on this information but if you're still trying to send emails, you might be able to get a few through the queue now.

What happened?

After hours of users not being able to access services, Microsoft has now confirmed the issue has been resolved. But what was the issue that kicked it all off?

Well, according to Microsoft, it was due to a service load issue during maintenance. Here's what the company has to say:

"We’ve identified elevated service load combined with temporary capacity constraints during maintenance resulted in impact. We’re seeing positive signs of recovery in mail delivery, and mitigation actions are in place to better manage service load. While some connectivity impact remains between Microsoft Defender for Office, Microsoft Purview, and Exchange Online, and DNS lookup failures, engineers are actively working to restore full functionality."

Essentially, this means that too many servers hosted in North America were shut down during maintenance. This caused too much load, and all services were impacted across the globe as a result. It isn't too dissimilar from the AWS outage that happened in October 2025, which saw several services go dark for hours.

Last year saw many internet outages due to major cloud computing platforms seeing issues, making it into our biggest tech fails of 2025. Here's hoping Microsoft's outage isn't the start of another year of problems.

Do companies need better backup plans?

Along with the AWS outage last year, it's becoming clear that companies like Microsoft and Amazon need more of a plan in place when these outages happen, as Managing Editor of Computing Jason England has recently explained.

While the Microsoft outage was caused by a failure in North American service infrastructure that stopped processing traffic correctly, the problems go further. With the "brains" all in one place (multiple servers in one region), rather than building in external redundancies (separate brains across multiple regions), it becomes harder to fix these issues.

For more, you can find out why yesterday’s outage proves these companies don’t yet have a backup plan for the internet.

Back to normal?

Over on Downdetector, Microsoft services including 365 and the Microsoft Store have now seen a huge dip in outage reports. So, as the company has stated, the issue does seem to be resolved. However, there are still over 300 reports, so there may still be a few tweaks to iron out for a few.

Considering it reached a high of 15,889 reports during the outage, this is a hugely more welcome sight.

Affected by the Microsoft outage? Let us know!

With how long the Microsoft outage lasted (essentially half a day), there's bound to be many users who were unable to carry on with their usual workload, considering it took out services including Teams, Outlook, 365 and more.

So, over to you. Let us know if your usual day has been disrupted by Microsoft being down!

My own Microsoft outage story... share yours

I was trying to buy tickets for snow tubing yesterday and needed to create an account, which required email verification with a code. Apparently, they used Microsoft for the service that emailed said code, and I couldn't register. I had to call the ski mountain to get a ticket, like it was 1999.

As I pulled into the parking lot, my phone started blowing up with around 20 emails from all my attempts when things came back online. Thankfully, I managed to get in through the phone before tickets sold out (there were 12 left when I spoke to the mountain), but I could have ended up with a very disappointed 9-year-old.

"Outages are expected conditions"

When these major events pop up PR tend to reach out with quotes that often aren't relevant or are promoting their business in the wake of an outage.

However, one rep sent us an argument from Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball who argues that companies like Microsoft, AWS and Verizon are not prepared for the current always-on internet that we live in.

"When a widely used service like Microsoft 365 experiences a cascade of failures across Outlook, Teams, and other apps, it highlights a core truth: most cloud systems are still designed around steady‑state assumptions. In today’s always‑on world, outages aren’t rare edge cases — they’re expected conditions. Resilience must be intentionally engineered, because single‑region dependencies, tightly coupled services, and monoculture infrastructure are exactly what turn localized problems into mass disruptions."

We will need to do more research but this may be true and something that leads to more structural outages.

One last communique from Microsoft

I missed this one earlier, but Microsoft says if you're still experiencing any "residual issues" try clearing your local caches or "temporarily lowering DNS TTL values."

Often when it comes to resetting your system beyond a restart, a cache clear is always a good idea.

Poll results: Outage hit hard

Earlier today, we ran a poll asking Tom's Guide readers if the Microsoft outage affected their days.

I can tell you that about 500 readers responded and 96% of you said that the outage affected them.

It means most of you were unable to carry on with your usual workload especially when it came to emails. We received plenty of comments about Outlook being unavailable.

Thank you for responding!

That's all for today folks

I have no new information to share with you regarding the outage.

But, it is supposed to get cold and snowy this weekend across a large swath of the United States. So stay safe, stay warm and take care of your neighbors Be good people!

After recent comments from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the company maintaining its AI-centric course in an increasingly skeptical industry (and politely asking you not to refer to AI content as ‘slop’), many in the wider computing industry shrugged, snorted in something approaching derision, then went back to bemoaning Windows’ increasing focus on AI.

Customers have long complained about Copilot, with some leaning further into ChatGPT instead, as Microsoft’s AI feels like it’s clogging up the core pillars of what a computer should offer. It’s no wonder users are trying to remove it.

So, with Windows needing a shot in the arm, both in terms of performance and public perception, we’re sad to report that Microsoft isn’t off to the best start in either regard in 2026.

Patching previous patches leads to even more Windows problems

Last week, Microsoft released Windows 11 update numbers KB5073455 and KB5074109, intended to resolve a series of issues (114 in total, apparently).

Sadly, as has often been the case with Microsoft in recent years, the patch actually caused plenty of issues, too. It caused some black screen issues (notably with ever-popular Nvidia GPUs), as well as a bizarre Outlook Classic bug that essentially locked up the company’s email app if you were using a POP account.

Windows 11 Enterprise builds reportedly restarted when users clicked ‘Shut Down’, which probably isn’t great for anyone’s electricity bills, and actually required users to enter a Command Prompt to, you know, turn their PC off.

That’s pretty wild for a company that owns a sizeable piece of the PC pie, and prompted Microsoft to push out additional patches in recent days.

Update KB5077797 landed on January 17 to fix the bug pushing computers to restart, while another emergency patch was released on Saturday to “restore access to Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365”, according to Extreme Tech.

The rub? That Outlook bug still isn’t fixed, and if your work PC can’t get emails right now, you’ll undoubtedly be cursing Nadella’s recent comments that we suggest we need to embrace AI.

Has Microsoft lost its way entirely?

“For this not to be a bubble by definition, it requires that the benefits of this are much more evenly spread,” Nadella said on Tuesday (thanks, Irish Times).

“I’m much more confident that this is a technology that will, in fact, build on the rails of cloud and mobile, diffuse faster, bend the productivity curve, and bring local surplus and economic growth all around the world,” he added.

‘Bending the productivity curve’ probably isn’t what those without a working email app were thinking about, Mr Nadella.

Still, this tone deafness has been building and not just in Microsoft’s computing department.

Last year, the company laid off more than 9,000 employees, many in itsXbox division. Microsoft’s gaming brand was decimated, with studios shut “to position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace” (via Eurogamer).

In a memo to staff in June last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said, “I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we're seeing currently is based on tough decisions we've made previously.”

As if the company’s successes being paraded in front of the employees being let go wasn’t enough, one executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing said, "I know these types of tools engender strong feelings in people, but I'd be remiss in not trying to offer the best advice I can under the circumstances. I've been experimenting with ways to use LLM AI tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss."

Thankfully, that post was deleted, but given Microsoft’s continued investment in AI at the cost of not just its humanity but now its most defining product, Windows, it really does feel like the worm is turning, and public perception couldn’t be lower.

Not the first, not the last

Perhaps the worrying thing about the current rollout of Windows patches and then subsequent band-aids is that it’s not really anything new.

Last year, there were plenty of updates that simply ‘broke’ elements of the OS or day-to-day use of Windows. Digital-to-Analog Converters were essentially rendered inactive in January, and that bug hit Windows 10, too.

Another update gaffe left users unable to use their webcams, while another stopped Premiere Pro editors from doing any kind of movement of clips in the timeline. If you worked in anything to do with media creation, there were some rough months for you.

Then there was the return of the vanishing cursor, disconnections from Remote Desktop sessions, and blue screen of death appearances.

Still, at least we can agree that update KB5053602 removing Copilot was something we could get behind.

As a writer in the field of consumer technology, I always want to keep my PC updated as best I can, but even as new features arrive, I’m finding myself drawn to using one of the best MacBooks more often than my Windows machines. If I had to choose one to get work done, I’m leaning Mac, and I know plenty of folks anecdotally who are pivoting to Linux for its Windows-like simplicity, but shorn off all AI ‘fluff’.

Where do you stand on Windows? Are you locked in because of its gaming prowess or your own history with the platform? Or are you considering breaking away to somewhere less laser-focused on AI functionality and more on the wider platform features? Let us know in the comments below and you might just want to hold off when it comes to installing the next Windows update because who knows what that one will break.

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Your computer's supposed to shut down when you tell it to. That's pretty basic. But a recent Windows 11 update threw a wrench in that simple expectation for some users. Hit the shutdown button, and instead of powering down, the PC just restarts.

Specifically, those using Windows 11 Enterprise with System Guard Secure Launch enabled have run into trouble. Although Microsoft acknowledged the problem and rolled out a fix on January 17 2026, some people are still dealing with computers that refuse to stay off.

Here's exactly what happened and how you can fix it.

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Ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming could be coming soon. As The Verge’s Tom Warren posted on X just before the weekend, some Xbox users started seeing notifications on the Xbox app that said: “1-hour of ad-supported play time per session.” We don’t yet know when this free tier could launch, but it could be soon.

As Warren also reported on The Verge, Microsoft has been testing ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming for months and is preparing to test it with Xbox Insiders. The Xbox app notification aligns with Microsoft’s testing. Warren says that, so far, the testing has been limited to one-hour play sessions, and that users will get up to five hours free per month.

The internal testing features two minutes of preroll ads before you’re able to play from a selection of games. This free version will let you stream games you own and Free Play Days games over a weekend. The report also says Xbox Retro Classics will have preroll ads.

Another report from The Verge details how Microsoft told The New York Times that it was officially testing ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming. So while we don’t yet have a blog post from Xbox Wire or another Microsoft blog announcing the ad-free service, it’s all but assuredly coming. According to Tom Warren, the announcement could be “in the coming weeks.”

Even if you have to deal with ads and a limited amount of play hours, an ad-free Xbox Cloud Gaming tier seems like a great way for folks without an Xbox Game Pass subscription to check the service out. Though it has been some years since I’ve used Xbox Cloud Gaming, it worked remarkably well, even with spotty hotel Wi-Fi. My colleagues say it still runs great and is a nice alternative to playing on an Xbox or PC if you’re on the road.

If this report is accurate, then we could be hearing more from Xbox very soon. To that end, make sure you come back to read our report and our hands-on take on the ad-free Xbox Cloud Gaming service. Stay tuned!

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A flaw within Microsoft’s Copilot has been allowing attackers to steal the personal information of users with a single click. Called the ‘Reprompt’ exploit by the researchers at the Varonis Threat Labs, a new report from the data security research firm details the way that the vulnerability permits attackers to gain an entry point to perform a data-exfiltration chain that bypasses security controls to access data without detection.

According to the researchers, an attacker using the Reprompt exploit would send a user a phishing link. Once the link was opened, it would begin a multi-stage prompt injection process that uses a ‘q parameter.’ This would enable the attacker to request information about the victim from Copilot, such as the victim's address or the files they recently viewed. They could access this data even if Copilot was closed.

The researchers had found that "By including a specific question or instruction in the Q parameter, developers and users can automatically populate the input field when the page loads causing the AI system to execute the prompt immediately."

This means that an attacker could issue a Q parameter that asks Copilot to send data back to the attacker's server, even though Copilot is designed to specifically refuse to fetch URLs like this. Varonis researchers were able to engineer prompts to Copilot in ways that bypassed safeguards and asked the AI to fetch the URL in a way that the AI wasn't designed to.

How to stay safe from Reprompt

The good news is that the exploit has already been reported to Microsoft way back in August of 2025, and has been patched this week, so it has been fixed. That means there is currently no risk of it impacting users, particularly if you regularly update your operating system with available patches and updates.

However, it’s still recommended that users be extremely careful about what kind of information they share with their AI assistants and be on the lookout for phishing attempts. That means don't click on links that get sent to you from unexpected sources, especially ones that link to your AI assistant of choice.

Because Reprompt initiates from a phishing link, it is particularly important to follow the guidelines to protect yourself against phishing attempts. Don't open or click anything you're not expecting, especially if it uses urgency or threatening language. Hover over links to see where they redirect to. Use one of the best antivirus programs, and make sure you've enabled all the features it offers to help keep you safe online, such as browser warnings, a VPN and anti-phishing measures.

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