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Microsoft's WinUI team has quietly handed developers the first real tool to address one of Windows 11’s most persistent annoyances: the bloated, hard-to-scan right‑click context menu—by prototyping a split, hybrid menu control that groups related actions under a single, smarter line item. Background Since Windows 11 launched, the context (right‑click) menu has been a poster child for design tradeoffs between minimalism and productivity. The OS introduced a trimmed, icon‑rich top layer and...

Microsoft has shipped Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7070 (packaged as KB5070300) to the Dev and Beta channels, an incremental but meaningful update that tightens recovery workflows, refines the Widgets user interface, and removes a handful of practical friction points for testers and IT teams while leaving several features staged behind server-side and hardware gates. Background Microsoft’s servicing strategy for recent Windows 11 releases increasingly uses small enablement packages...

Microsoft has quietly confirmed a new, unconventional Windows 11 release: Windows 11, version 26H1, now appearing in the Canary Channel as Build 28000 and labeled by Microsoft as a platform-only update intended to support specific new silicon. Insiders running the Canary Channel will see the version string change in Settings and winver, and Microsoft says this release is not a conventional feature update for version 25H2 — instead it contains targeted platform changes to enable upcoming...

Microsoft has begun rolling out the very first Windows 11 build carrying the 26H1 version label to Insiders in the Canary Channel, but this release is not the feature-packed consumer update many readers expect — it’s a platform-only, silicon-focused flight intended to validate low-level support for new ARM-based processors. Background / Overview Microsoft’s Insider channels serve distinct purposes: Canary is the earliest testbed for low-level platform changes and experimental plumbing, Dev...

Microsoft has quietly introduced Windows 11 version 26H1 — but it isn’t the broad consumer feature update many readers expect; instead, 26H1 is a platform-only branch designed to bring up support for next‑generation silicon, and Microsoft says it will not be pushed as a general feature update to existing Windows 11 PCs. Background / Overview Microsoft’s Windows 11 update strategy has evolved into a mix of annual feature releases and targeted platform branches. The company has used...

The latest corporate snapshot of generative AI is both reassuring and revealing: most companies report measurable gains, but the market for the tools they use is sharply uneven — with OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominating usage, Microsoft’s Copilot punching above its weight thanks to office integration, Google’s Gemini trailing in enterprise reach, and Anthropic’s Claude underperforming relative to expectations. Background In late 2025 a widely circulated Wharton Human‑AI Research survey of business...

Infosys has unveiled a domain‑specific AI Agent for the energy industry that combines the company’s Topaz agent fabric and Infosys Cobalt cloud blueprints with Microsoft’s Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI Foundry-hosted models (including GPT‑family multimodal models) to deliver conversational, multimodal operational assistance for well operations, field maintenance and control‑room workflows. Background / Overview Infosys presented the offering as an industry‑tailored productivity and safety...

Short, sharp, and sometimes brittle: a hands‑on recheck of free AI coding assistants in 2025 shows the market settling into two clear tiers — capable free tools that are safe for everyday use, and a larger group of impressive but error‑prone free offerings that still demand heavy human oversight. Background / Overview The last three years pushed AI from autocomplete into agentic workflows that can edit multiple files, open pull requests, run tests, and operate from IDEs or the terminal. That...

Microsoft’s security team has published a troubling technical disclosure showing that encrypted conversations with streaming language models can leak topic-level information to a passive network observer by analyzing encrypted packet sizes and timings — a novel side-channel the researchers call “Whisper Leak.” Background / Overview Language models (LLMs) deployed as remote services often stream responses token-by-token to improve perceived latency. That streaming behaviour creates observable...

Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7070 (KB5070300) to both the Dev and Beta Channels, continuing the enablement-package approach to 25H2 previews and widening the set of staged features and reliability fixes available to Insiders. This flight preserves the temporary parity between Dev and Beta builds—meaning Dev Insiders have a limited window to move to Beta without reinstalling—while introducing a mix of user-facing widget improvements, a streamlined Quick...

Microsoft has quietly started redirecting the Phone Link app’s built‑in photo gallery to File Explorer, effectively removing the “Photos” viewing experience from Phone Link and asking Windows 11 users to manage mobile images through File Explorer instead. This change is already visible as an in‑app alert that reads “Photos is moving to File Explorer,” and Microsoft points users at the Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mobile devices → Manage devices switch that enables a paired phone to...

It was a whirlwind October for the AI industry: major cloud and chip vendors pushed new tools and silicon, Google reported a landmark verifiable quantum result, Apple shipped the new M5 for Macs and iPads, Microsoft and OpenAI formalized a sweeping partnership recapitalization, and industry players from NVIDIA to AMD and Intel unveiled hardware and national-scale systems that push compute toward petaflops and beyond — all developments that reshape how AI will be built, deployed, and...

Boeing has launched a cloud‑first pilot training product called the Virtual Airplane Procedures Trainer (VAPT), built on Microsoft Azure and powered by Microsoft Flight Simulator, that promises high‑fidelity 3D procedural rehearsal on laptops and iPads — starting with the Boeing 737 MAX and unveiled at the European Aviation Training Summit in Cascais on November 6, 2025. Background / Overview Boeing’s Virtual Airplane initiative is presented as a modular product family whose first...

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has moved to bring Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) devices — collectively marketed as Extended Reality (XR) products — into the scope of the country’s compulsory safety certification regime, a regulatory step that will force manufacturers, importers and retailers to certify XR headsets and related immersive hardware under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) rules. Background India’s...

Microsoft’s November Defender updates arrive as more than a routine patch cycle — they are a targeted response to an explosive set of risks centered on Azure Blob Storage and AI integrations that, together, have remapped the priority list for CIOs and security teams across hybrid clouds. Background Azure Blob Storage is ubiquitous: it hosts training datasets, media assets, backups, static sites, and the enormous troves of unstructured data that feed AI initiatives. That broad role is why...

Microsoft has quietly begun removing the Phone Link app’s built‑in Photos viewer and redirecting users to File Explorer, telling Windows 11 owners to browse and manage mobile photos from a mounted mobile device entry instead of the app’s curated gallery view. Background / Overview Phone Link (formerly Your Phone) has been one of Windows’ most visible continuity tools: notifications, messages, calls, app streaming and a simple gallery that displayed recent phone photos inside a single pane...

Boeing’s new Virtual Airplane Procedures Trainer (VAPT) — unveiled at the European Aviation Training Summit in Cascais on November 6, 2025 — is a cloud-powered, Microsoft Flight Simulator–backed effort to move routine cockpit procedures training onto ubiquitous devices such as laptops and iPads, starting with the Boeing 737 MAX and promising to expand across the Boeing fleet. Background The commercial aviation industry is under sustained pressure to scale pilot training rapidly and...

Microsoft’s 2025 security push is the most consequential overhaul of Windows’ endpoint defenses in years — a coordinated stack of technologies (hotpatching, Smart App Control, and Quick Machine Recovery) designed to minimize reboots, harden execution, and accelerate recovery — but real-world teething issues this autumn show the program’s success will depend on careful rollout, vendor coordination, and disciplined operations. Background / Overview The Windows Resiliency Initiative that...

Microsoft’s Configuration Manager is shifting from a semi‑annual feature cadence to a predictable, once‑a‑year major release schedule — a move Microsoft says is intended to prioritize security, stability and long‑term support for on‑premises estates while concentrating all future device‑management innovation inside Microsoft Intune. Background Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr, historically SCCM) has been the on‑premises backbone of Windows endpoint management for large enterprises for...

Microsoft’s rebuilt Start menu for Windows 11 is rolling out as part of Microsoft’s October/November 2025 servicing preview, and you can either wait for the supported server‑side activation or enable it immediately on machines that already have the updated servicing bits — but doing so requires caution, backups, and an understanding of trade‑offs. Background / Overview Microsoft delivered the code for the redesigned Start menu inside an optional, non‑security preview package (KB5067036)...