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Microsoft appears to be quietly experimenting with an “AI agent” entry point for the Windows 11 taskbar — a small, persistent companion that could surface context-aware assistance, link into Copilot features, and even perform multi‑step actions on behalf of the user. Traces of a feature labeled Taskbar Companion and references to “agentic companions” and a “Composer on Taskbar” have been discovered in recent Insider and server preview builds, suggesting Microsoft is prototyping a...

Workday and Microsoft have announced a practical, identity-first integration that lets organizations register, verify, and govern AI agents alongside human employees by linking Microsoft’s agent runtime and identity tooling with Workday’s new Agent System of Record (ASOR), enabling agents built in Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio to receive Microsoft Entra Agent IDs and be managed within Workday’s governance, finance, and HR controls. Background Enterprises are moving quickly from pilots...

Microsoft has given Windows 10 users one clear, short-lived option to avoid an immediate upgrade: a consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program that can keep eligible PCs receiving critical security patches for a single extra year — but only if you meet the prerequisites and enroll before the cutoffs Microsoft has set. Background Microsoft set a firm end-of-support date for consumer editions of Windows 10: October 14, 2025. After that date, routine feature updates, most quality fixes...

Microsoft’s new handheld-focused “Xbox mode” for Windows 11 is already being run on existing Windows handhelds — in some cases by users who have forced the mode early via Insider/Release Preview builds and system tweaks — giving owners of devices like the original ASUS ROG Ally and other Windows gaming handhelds the chance to try a console-style launcher and reclaim system resources months before OEM‑shipped Ally devices arrive on store shelves. Background Microsoft and ASUS unveiled a...

Millions of PC gamers are racing to replace whole systems — not just install a new OS — as the clock ticks down toward Windows 10’s official end of support on October 14, 2025, a change that industry researchers say is already reshaping the PC gaming hardware market and buying behavior. Background / Overview Microsoft has set a firm end-of-support date for Windows 10: after October 14, 2025, the company will stop issuing free security updates, feature updates, and technical support for that...

Mozilla has quietly shipped Firefox 143.0.1 — a focused, emergency patch whose sole purpose is to stop a class of tab crashes caused by third-party DLL injection on Windows systems, with multiple reports pointing to Trend Micro's tmmon64.dll as a common trigger. Background Firefox 143 arrived as a major feature release with new UI conveniences and platform improvements, but like any large browser update it also exposed edge cases where third‑party Windows code interferes with Firefox...

The debate about whether Windows 10 or Windows 11 delivers the better gaming experience is no longer a purely technical argument — it has become a cultural one, tied up with benchmarking obsession, perceived differences versus measurable gains, and a growing tension between security features that protect systems and performance features that keep games smooth; a recent TechPowerUp forum thread captures this tension neatly, arguing that many gamers fall prey to the placebo effect and that...

Microsoft has quietly given many Windows 10 users a narrow, conditional lifeline: enroll your PC in the consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program before October 14, 2025 and you can receive security-only updates for one more year — through October 13, 2026 — but the window is tight and the trade-offs are real. Background / Overview Microsoft set a firm end-of-support (EOL) date for Windows 10: October 14, 2025. After that day, consumer editions of Windows 10 will no longer receive...

Microsoft today pushed another Dev Channel flight: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.6690 (KB5065786), a focused cumulative update for Insiders running Windows 11, version 25H2, that continues the program’s push to fold Copilot-driven experiences deeper into the shell while addressing a set of reliability and device-specific regressions. The flight, published on September 19, 2025, expands Click to Do capabilities (including Copilot-powered translation on Copilot+ PCs), experiments with...

Valve is ending support for 32‑bit Windows on the Steam desktop client, setting a firm cutoff that marks the final mainstream exit of 32‑bit Windows from one of the largest PC gaming platforms and giving the small remaining cohort of users a clear migration deadline. Background Modern PC software and drivers have migrated to a 64‑bit baseline over the last decade. Microsoft shipped Windows 11 as a 64‑bit‑only operating system, and Windows 10 has been the last broadly available edition that...

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27950 to the Canary Channel, a compact flight focused on stability fixes, a temporary UI rollback for Advanced Settings, and several targeted reliability improvements for taskbar previews, Dynamic Lighting, and gaming overlays. Background / Overview Windows Insider Canary builds are the earliest public preview tier for platform-level changes. They are intended as an experimental playground for long-lead platform work, kernel-level...

Windows Insiders on the Beta Channel received a small but meaningful preview build today: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.6690 (KB5065786), delivered to devices running Windows 11, version 24H2 as a Beta Channel enablement package and focused largely on controlled feature rollouts, bug fixes, and incremental improvements to AI-driven experiences on Copilot+ PCs. This flight continues Microsoft’s summer-to-fall cadence of seeding features across Dev, Beta, and Canary channels while...

Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot has quietly moved from phone screens into full desktop overlays — and yes, that includes Samsung’s Galaxy Book Ultra and other Windows 11 laptops that meet the basic requirements. The AI assistant now appears as a widget in Windows 11’s Game Bar, offers a hands‑free Voice Mode, can analyze screenshots of live gameplay, and surfaces personalized recommendations, achievements and play history — all without forcing you to Alt+Tab out of a boss fight. Background /...

Google has quietly — and decisively — converted Chrome from a passive window onto the web into an AI-powered browsing platform by embedding Gemini throughout the browser, adding a Gemini toolbar button, an AI Mode in the omnibox, and the groundwork for agentic automation that can act on users’ behalf across tabs and Google services. This staged rollout begins on macOS and Windows for U.S. users in English and will expand to mobile and Workspace-managed deployments in the coming weeks...

Cluster Reply’s rapid, Microsoft‑backed rollout for Riverty — delivered into production in just 100 days — marks a clear, practical example of how an AI‑first, human‑centric customer‑service platform can be assembled using Dynamics 365, Dataverse and Microsoft Copilot tooling while remaining explicitly staged to preserve human empathy. Background / Overview Riverty, the fintech arm of Bertelsmann, has moved to centralize telephone, chat and email into a single Dynamics 365 Customer Service...

When Microsoft began shipping keyboards labeled “Copilot+” with a dedicated Copilot key, the gesture felt like a signal: AI was now a hardware-first priority for Windows. What started as a promotional flourish, however, has quickly exposed the long-running tension between hardware gimmicks and real user workflows — and has reignited the same questions that killed earlier one-off keys like Cortana, the Office key, and F‑Lock. The Copilot key’s future now hinges on whether it acts as a genuine...

A new Principled Technologies (PT) study—distributed as a press release via EIN Presswire and reported on partner channels—claims that adopting a single‑cloud approach for AI on Microsoft Azure can deliver measurable benefits in performance, manageability, and cost for enterprise AI projects. The study frames Azure as a pragmatic foundation for organizations that want to simplify operations, accelerate model deployment, and centralize governance, while also noting scenarios where hybrid or...

Microsoft’s Paint has quietly shed its toy status and picked up features that turn it into a genuinely usable, session‑aware image editor: Windows Insiders are now seeing a new .paint project file that preserves layers and session state, a per‑tool opacity/ transparency slider for brushes and pencils, and expanded export options that include modern image container formats — changes documented in the Windows Insider flight for Paint (app version 11.2508.361.0) and corroborated by independent...

As Windows 10 approaches its October 14, 2025 end-of-support deadline, researchers and industry observers are forecasting a concentrated surge in PC gaming hardware spending even as broader PC shipments show mixed signals — a shift driven as much by Microsoft’s strict Windows 11 hardware requirements as by a patchwork of economic forces, tariffs, and changing gamer priorities. Background: the deadline, the requirements, and why it matters Microsoft has set October 14, 2025 as the date when...

The August cumulative update for Windows — most notably KB5063878 (Windows 11 24H2, OS Build 26100.4946) and companion rollups for Windows 10 — has been identified as the root cause of a wave of streaming and system problems that emerged in mid‑August and persisted into September, producing severe stuttering, dropped frames, and audio drift in multi‑PC NDI workflows used by Twitch and YouTube broadcasters. Microsoft has acknowledged the regression and vendors including the NDI tools and...