Windows Weekly (Audio)

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

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

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

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

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

Windows revenues from PC makers down 27 percent (!)

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

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

No paid Copilot numbers, weird

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

Windows

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

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

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

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

Hardware

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

Baby steps: A few minor victories after weeks of defeats

More earnings

AMD up 45 percent to $13.4 billion

Intel up 21 percent to $16.5 billion

Google/Alphabet up 25 percent to $127.6 billion

Apple up 12 percent to $114.5 billion

Amazon up 12 percent to $202 billion

AI/dev

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

OpenAI to unify chat and Work but not Codex

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

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

XBOX and gaming

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

New titles coming to Game Pass in early November

The next Elder Scrolls game is ES VI Sentinel

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

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Start11 v3

App pick of the week #2: LM Studio

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

Brown liquor pick of the week: Caol Ila 12

*Thumbnail courtesy of Joe Esposito in Club TWiT


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


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

Windows

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

Windows Insider Program

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

Corporate

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

Hardware

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

Some advice for using AI.

Software

Microsoft fixes major Authenticator flaw on Android.

PowerToys adds two new utilities, so many other updates.

The Browser Company announces the inevitable end of Arc browser.

AI

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

Canva releases its first AI model, for images.

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

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

XBOX and Gaming

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

Tips and Picks

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

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

App pick of the week: Mozilla Firefox

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

RunAs Radio this week: PostgreSQL with Elizabeth Christensen

Brown liquor pick of the week: Vardberg Born

Hosts: Mikah Sargent, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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

Windows

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

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

Microsoft Edge is working towards no-reboot updates

Opera Air gets a nice refresh

The Proton roadmap is spectacular

RTX Spark: HP OmniBook Ultra 16

RTX Spark: Lenovo Pro 9n 15

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

Microsoft 365

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

AI/dev

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

Microsoft is working on a comprehensive strategy to secure AI agents

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

XBOX and gaming

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

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

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

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

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

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

NVIDIA touts games already optimized for RTX Spark

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

EA is shutting down BioWare

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: Tolaria

App pick of the week #2: Llama Windows

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

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

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Microsoft's latest Windows event left even diehard enthusiasts scratching their heads, with new AI-powered hardware and "RTX Spark" PCs getting top billing but little clear reason for anyone to buy them. If you're wondering what actually matters in the world of AI PCs. or why no one can explain it, you're not alone.

Windows

We need to talk about last week's Windows event... what the heck was this?

Lots of Windows, lots of Surface, a little bit of ecosystem, confusing local AI story, no major new end user features that are unique to RTX Spark, a weird Osborne Effect for RTX Spark, and a stunning lack of self-awareness combine for one of the weirder Microsoft events in memory

The RTX Spark era begins this week. How is this different from Copilot+ PC?

Patch Tuesday is here and it's a big milestone

Minor changes for 24H2, 25H2, 26H2

Big changes for 26H1

This is the first Patch Tuesday for 26H2, the last one for 24H2 (Home, Pro)

1400+ security fixes, a new record(!!) - This is almost 15x the normal number of patches

ASUS allows reviewers to show unboxing, so here's the RTX Spark-based ASUS ProArt P16

PC market fell over 20 percent in Q3 as component crisis takes its toll

Googlebooks suck, and everyone is finally noticing what I reported last week. But there is another, and it's an unexpected option

Tiny11 Builder gets a major update with a WinUI makeover

AI/dev

This has been the most exciting week in AI advances since this era kicked off in February 2023

ArtCraft releases impressive clones of the top 7 Adobe Creative Cloud apps

ArtCraft is also working at replacing Microsoft Office, with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint clones so far - Also clones of AutoCAD and Audacity(?)/audio editor

Google Playground lets anyone create a game that you can share with anyone

Google AI Studio now lets anyone vibe-code Android and web apps, and you will soon be able to put them in the Google Play Store

Big changes to Microsoft 365 for consumers - Family/Premium loses 1 TB per user, goes to a single pool of 2 TB, but all users now share the same Copilot rights

Apple makes a long-overdue smart home push thanks to Siri AI finally making sense - New HomeView smart display is the star

.NET 11 heads to the finish line

XBOX and gaming

XBOX creates an XP division for non-game entertainment. They should have called it XBOX One, cough

Asha Sharma creates XBOX LABS team to explore how vibe coding changes gaming

Microsoft announces an XBOX Nano Controller

Forza Horizon 6 is coming to PS5 in January

GTA VI coming to the PC in early 2027

Epic Games vibe-coded its new launcher, and it's available in preview for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Just make it

App pick of the week: ArtCraft for the win

RunAs Radio this week: Choosing Tools in M365 with Joy Apple

Brown liquor pick of the week: Bunnahabhain 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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Microsoft and NVIDIA's RTX Spark laptops are official, with preorders open and shipping October 16. Prices run from $2,599 (24GB) to $5,899 (128GB, already sold out on Surface). Paul and Leo cover who needs that much RAM, what "hybrid intelligence" means, and why Paul's new Googlebook disappointed him.

Windows

RTX Spark laptops: from $2,599 (24GB), $3,700 (32GB), $5,899 (128GB). Ships Oct 16

Partners: Microsoft, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI. Paul reviews the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 first

Surface RTX Spark Dev Box: $6,000+

"Hybrid intelligence": local AI first, cloud when needed

Windows Search gets inline AI actions in Insider builds

Cloud Rebuild adds better remove and sanitize options

Windows app adds Remote PC connections (preview)

Intel Wildcat Lake: Paul's test laptop was slow even with 16GB

Googlebook first look: Lenovo Googlebook 15 (~$1,100) is missing basics an iPad has

Microsoft has tried to kill Windows many times, including the leaked Project Aion

AI/Dev

Microsoft AI ships new voice and transcription models

Gemini 4 Argon is announced, but limited to cybersecurity partners

Google Docs and Drive add native Markdown

C# Dev Kit 11 arrives with .NET 11

Xbox and Gaming

Rockstar corrects reports of exclusive Xbox GTA VI streaming. Launch is Nov 19

Xbox Elite Series 3 controller leaks again, with a built-in screen

October Game Pass: Battlefield 6 and more

Sony brings QSSR AI upscaling to the standard PS5

Google Playground lets you vibe-code games

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Desktop98.com, a Windows 98 simulator in your browser

App pick: Gears of War: E-Day (Game Pass Ultimate and PC)

Brown liquor pick: 1792 Small Batch bourbon

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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