Windows Forum - Latest Windows News & Discussions
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DOE Genesis Mission: Turning AI Into Infrastructure for U.S. Scientific Discovery
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers used the May 7–9, 2026, AI+ Expo in Washington, D.C., to present DOE-backed work on the Genesis Mission, a federal push to combine artificial intelligence, supercomputing, scientific datasets, and laboratory automation for faster discovery. The...
Microsoft Copilot Health Preview: Guided Health Data, Privacy, and Windows Implications
Microsoft opened Copilot Health in preview on May 29, 2026, for U.S. adults with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscriptions, giving them a dedicated Copilot space to connect health records, Apple Health data, medical questions, and care-navigation searches online. The move is not just...
Microsoft Build 2026: AI Agents, Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and Windows Local AI
Microsoft Build 2026 runs June 2–3 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco and online, with Microsoft expected to focus less on a hypothetical Windows 12 reveal and more on AI agents, GitHub Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, Windows AI tooling, and the developer plumbing behind its next software cycle. That...
Broadcom Wi‑Fi 8 BCM6772/6774/6776: Reliable Mesh Routers Go Mainstream
On May 27, 2026, Broadcom announced three integrated Wi-Fi 8 systems-on-chip — the BCM6772, BCM6774, and BCM6776 — for next-generation mesh systems, Ethernet routers, extenders, and repeaters, with sampling now under way to early access partners. The announcement is not just another silicon roadmap...
Dependency Confusion on npm: Recon via postinstall Hooks Threatens Windows Dev Envs
Microsoft Threat Intelligence disclosed on May 29, 2026, that malicious npm packages published on May 28 and May 29 under three maintainer aliases used dependency confusion across nine organizational scopes to impersonate internal corporate modules and run obfuscated reconnaissance code during npm...
Windows 11 Insider Build 26300.8553 Adds Highly Configurable Start Menu Controls
Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8553 on May 29, 2026, bringing a redesigned, highly configurable Start menu to the Experimental channel, while Beta Build 26220.8544 shipped alongside it without the same Start customization controls for now. The change matters because Start...
Microsoft Copilot Super App Leak: Chat, Coding, Cowork, and Agentic Autopilot
Microsoft is reportedly building an unreleased Copilot “super app” that would combine chat, GitHub Copilot coding help, Copilot Cowork, and a new agentic Autopilot layer, with a leaked Sources screenshot dated May 30, 2026 showing a proactive Scout agent inside the interface. The immediate story is...
MAPLand & MAPWaters: Federal Recreation Access Data Gets a Public Launch
On May 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the first publication of MAPLand and MAPWaters recreation access datasets, with an initial MAPLand Act Viewer scheduled to launch on June 1, 2026, for public land users across the United States. The news sounds bureaucratic because it...
Microsoft Teams Efficiency Mode: Lighter Startup and Adaptive Video for Low-End PCs
Microsoft Teams Efficiency Mode is a new Windows and Mac desktop client behavior rolling out globally in late May 2026 for eligible hardware-constrained devices, where Teams reduces startup and meeting load by avoiding a preselected chat and dynamically adjusting outgoing camera resolution. The...
Microsoft Copilot Super App: One AI Workspace to End Fragmentation
Microsoft is reportedly building a unified “super app” for Copilot that would combine coding assistance, workplace chat, collaborative agents, and internal automation tools into one product experience, with elements potentially referenced around Build and a launch target by the end of summer 2026....
Windows 11 Start Menu Gets New Controls in Experimental Build 26300.8553
Microsoft made its latest Windows 11 Start menu personalization changes available to Insiders on May 29, 2026, through Experimental build 26300.8553, adding new size controls, section-level visibility toggles, a renamed “Recent” area, and privacy options for hiding account identity in Start. The...
Codex on Windows 11: Control Computer Use from ChatGPT Mobile
OpenAI said on May 29, 2026, that Codex app users on Windows 11 can now enable computer use and control active Codex work from the ChatGPT mobile app on iPhone and Android. The update sounds incremental, but it closes a conspicuous gap in OpenAI’s developer-agent strategy. Windows is where a huge...
Windows 11 Quality Push (2026): Start, Taskbar, Updates, Drivers & File Explorer
Microsoft used a May 29 Windows Insider Blog post and the debut of its new Inside Windows video podcast to argue that its 2026 Windows 11 quality push is now moving from promise to visible product work across Start, the taskbar, updates, drivers, File Explorer, accessibility, and developer-facing...
Microsoft 365 Copilot Redesign (May 28, 2026): Faster, Cleaner, More Office-Like
Microsoft began rolling out a redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot experience on May 28, 2026, across desktop and mobile, promising a cleaner interface, more structured answers, an expanded prompt box, contextual controls, and load times Microsoft says are more than twice as fast. The update is not a...
Microsoft Copilot Slowdown May 29: Trust, Status Clarity, and Enterprise Impact
Microsoft Copilot users reported slow responses and intermittent failures on Friday, May 29, 2026, with outage trackers showing a spike in complaints and reports concentrating around the Copilot app rather than Microsoft account sign-in. The episode was not merely another “is it down?” blip. It...
Rocky Linux 10.2 GA: Kernel 6.12, Post-Quantum Crypto, Flatpak Desktop Updates
Rocky Linux 10.2 became generally available on May 29, 2026, as the newest community rebuild in the Enterprise Linux 10 family, tracking Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.2 with Linux kernel 6.12 and a broad refresh of security, developer, desktop, container, virtualization, and installation components....
Microsoft x NVIDIA “New Era of PC” Tease: Arm N1X Rumor Heads to Computex
Microsoft and NVIDIA jointly teased “a new era of PC” on May 29, 2026, using matching social posts that point toward Computex in Taipei and have intensified speculation that NVIDIA’s long-rumored Arm-based N1X PC chip may finally be unveiled next week. The companies have not confirmed the product,...
Windows 11 May 29, 2026 Update: Taskbar, Start, File Explorer, Drivers, Accessibility
Microsoft’s May 29, 2026 Windows quality update says new Insider builds are beginning to roll out taskbar and Start personalization, File Explorer fixes, accessibility improvements, touchpad controls, and driver-reliability work tied to the Driver Quality Initiative and Cloud Initiated Driver...
Microsoft Signals No Windows 12 at Build 2026: Focus Shifts to AI PC Hardware
Microsoft said on May 29, 2026, that its Build 2026 announcements next week will not include Windows 12, while the Windows account separately teased “a new era of PC” tied to coordinates in Taipei ahead of Computex. That clarification matters because the Windows rumor cycle has become a product...
Windows 11 Insider 26300.8553: Modular Start Menu, More Privacy, Better Search
Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8553 to the Experimental Channel on May 29, 2026, adding a more modular Start menu that can hide or show individual sections, switch between small and large layouts, and remove the visible account name and profile image. The update is not a...
Copilot May 29 2026 Issues: Was It Down? How AI Reliability Impacts Workflows
Microsoft Copilot users in the United States reported widespread access problems on Friday, May 29, 2026, with complaints describing failed AI responses, slow loading, login trouble, and generic “something went wrong” errors across Microsoft’s consumer and work-facing Copilot experiences. The...
Windows 11 Insider May 29, 2026: 26H1 Split, Future Platforms Blocked PCs
Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview builds on May 29, 2026, including Experimental 26H1 build 28020.2207 and Experimental “Future Platforms” build 29599.1000, while warning that some AMD System Guard-capable PCs will be blocked from this week’s Future Platforms flight. The build numbers...
Microsoft 365 Copilot Redesign Cuts Clutter With Task-Aware AI Workspace
Microsoft on May 28, 2026 announced a redesign of Microsoft 365 Copilot across its standalone app and Office apps, replacing the static prompt line with a task-aware workspace and adding a more consistent Copilot entry point in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The company is pitching the...
Microsoft Copilot Outage Reports: Mobile App Hits Raise Reliability Concerns
Microsoft Copilot saw a wave of user-reported problems on Friday, May 29, 2026, with Downdetector showing more than 2,600 reports by 8:58 a.m. Pacific time and most complaints pointing to the mobile app. The number is not proof of a global outage, and Microsoft had not publicly supplied the kind of...
Copilot Health Preview: Microsoft Brings AI Health Data Interpreting to Consumers
Microsoft opened Copilot Health in preview on May 29, 2026, for adults in the United States using English-language Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscriptions, moving the health-focused Copilot experience beyond the waitlist it introduced in March. The launch is modest in geography but...
Copilot Down? May 29, 2026 Reports Highlight AI Reliability Gap Across Microsoft 365
On Friday, May 29, 2026, users reported problems reaching or using Microsoft Copilot, with consumer news outlets pointing to Downdetector complaints while Microsoft’s public-facing service channels had not clearly established a single universal outage. That distinction matters because Copilot is no...
Copilot Outage Exposes Azure Dependencies: Reliability Lessons for IT Teams
On May 29, 2026, Microsoft investigated a West US 2 Azure service degradation triggered by a datacenter power event, while users reported Microsoft Copilot failures and timeouts across consumer and work-facing entry points, according to Microsoft’s status messaging and outage coverage. The incident...
Azure Expert MSP Renewal: What Microsoft Demands for Secure, Scalable AI Cloud Ops
ANS renewed its Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider status in May 2026 after an independent third-party audit reviewed the Manchester-based company’s Azure architecture, migration, security, and managed services work across live customer environments. The headline is not merely that...
Microsoft 365 Copilot Redesign: Faster Prompts, Less Intrusive Button, More Adoption
Microsoft on May 28, 2026, announced a redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot app and refreshed in-app Copilot experiences across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, including a larger prompt surface, faster app performance, and a less intrusive approach to the floating Copilot entry point. The...
Microsoft 365 Copilot Redesign: Cleaner UI, Work IQ Context, Faster & Better Models
Microsoft announced a redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot experience on May 28, 2026, promising a cleaner interface, faster startup, smarter work context through Work IQ, and better model selection across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. The redesign is not...
ANS Renews Azure Expert MSP: Audited Cloud Governance at Scale
ANS has renewed its Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider status after an independent audit of its Azure architecture, migration, security, and managed operations, with the Manchester-based provider now citing 267 Azure Lighthouse customers, 1,930 subscriptions, and more than 236,000...
Acer Swift Air 14 (2026) Review: $699 Windows 11 Ultraportable vs MacBook Air
Acer used Computex 2026 to introduce the Swift Air 14, a Windows 11 ultraportable starting at $699 in the United States with Intel Core Series 3 processors, a 14-inch 120Hz display, and a claimed weight of 2.76 pounds. The pitch is not subtle: this is Acer’s pastel-colored answer to the MacBook Air...
Microsoft Copilot Health Preview: Secure AI for Sleep, Labs, Records & Care Search
Microsoft moved Copilot Health into preview on May 29, 2026, making the health-focused AI experience available on the web to U.S. Copilot users aged 18 and older with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscriptions. The move turns what was a March announcement into a live consumer product...
Microsoft Indonesia Central Azure Region Turns AI Infrastructure Into Local Capability
Microsoft marked the first anniversary of its Indonesia Central cloud region on May 29, 2026, framing the in-country Azure infrastructure as both a working datacenter platform and a strategic bet on Indonesia’s AI economy. The anniversary is more than a corporate victory lap. It is a reminder that...
Windows 11 Shared Audio (LE Audio) Arrives on Copilot+ PCs: Two Headphones, One Stream
Microsoft is rolling out Shared Audio for Windows 11 through the May 2026 KB5089573 preview update, allowing two compatible Bluetooth LE Audio devices to play the same PC audio stream at once on supported Copilot+ PCs. That sentence is both the news and the catch. Windows finally gets a feature...
Ohio University Turns to OSC for HPC as AI and Simulation Demands Outgrow Local Clusters
Ohio University researchers and students are expanding their use of the Ohio Supercomputer Center in 2026 as local computing resources struggle to keep up with larger datasets, AI workloads, molecular modeling, heart-cell simulations, and digital-art projects. The story is not simply that one...
Lightbits 3.19.1 Interoperates with Windows Server NVMe-oF Initiator Preview
Lightbits Labs said on May 28, 2026, that its Lightbits 3.19.1 software has achieved early interoperability with Microsoft’s Windows Server NVMe-over-Fabrics Initiator Preview, allowing Windows Server Insider hosts to connect to NVMe/TCP block storage over standard Ethernet for evaluation. That...
Windows Server 2016 DCLocator Failure After KB5087537 (15-Char Hostnames)
Microsoft acknowledged in late May 2026 that Windows Server 2016 systems can fail domain controller discovery after installing the May 12 KB5087537 security update when the server hostname is exactly 15 characters long. The bug is narrow, almost absurdly so, but it lands in one of the least...
Windows 11 KB5089573 Low Latency Profile: Start Menu Feels Faster
Microsoft’s May 26, 2026 optional Windows 11 preview update KB5089573 began rolling out a new performance mechanism, widely identified as Low Latency Profile, for Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2 systems on builds 26100.8524 and 26200.8524. The feature is simple in concept and politically revealing...
Windows 11 KB5089573 Lets You Choose C:\Users Folder Name During Setup
Microsoft’s May 26, 2026 optional Windows 11 preview update, KB5089573, adds a setup-time option to choose the name of the user profile folder under C:\Users on new Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 installations. That sounds microscopic until you remember how often Windows turns identity into...
Microsoft Copilot Tasks: Agentic AI That Schedules and Executes—Trust the Risk
Microsoft Copilot Tasks is a preview-era agentic AI feature for Copilot that lets Microsoft’s assistant plan, browse, schedule, and carry out user-directed tasks across web and app contexts, with availability still rolling out through signed-in Copilot experiences and related Windows Insider agent...
Microsoft 365 Copilot in Life Sciences: 30+ Agents, Faster Data Extraction
Microsoft’s latest public Copilot case study says Cactus Life Sciences has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot and more than 30 custom AI agents to accelerate clinical and scientific document workflows, with structured data extraction reportedly running 35% to 50% faster than before. The important word...
Fix Windows 11 KB5083769 Boot Loop (24H2/25H2) With WinRE Update Removal
Microsoft’s April 14, 2026 Windows 11 security update KB5083769 is reportedly leaving some Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 PCs trapped in a boot loop marked by distorted graphics, blue screens, failed automatic repair, and in some cases BitLocker recovery prompts. The practical fix is not to wait for...
14 Typosquatted npm Packages in 4 Hours: Malware Targeted CI/CD Secrets
Microsoft said on May 28, 2026, that a newly created npm maintainer account named vpmdhaj published 14 typosquatted packages in roughly four hours, targeting OpenSearch, ElasticSearch, DevOps, and environment-configuration users with malware built to steal cloud and CI/CD secrets. The campaign was...
Microsoft Copilot in Telehealth: How Whakarongorau Uses AI for Safer Human Handoffs
On May 28, 2026, Microsoft published a customer story describing how Whakarongorau Aotearoa, New Zealand’s national telehealth provider, is using Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Azure-based AI agents to reduce wait-time friction across mental health, family violence, and...
Microsoft 365 Business Standard With Copilot Launches July 1 for Small Businesses
Microsoft said on May 28, 2026, that Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot and Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot will launch July 1 for small businesses, bundling Office apps, Copilot, connectors, and security controls into new Microsoft 365 business SKUs. The announcement is not...
Microsoft Removed “Best Antivirus for 2026” Page—What It Reveals About Windows Defender
Microsoft appears to have removed an April 9 Windows Learning Center article titled “Best antivirus software for 2026: The built-in Windows protection you need,” after the page argued that many Windows 11 users do not need third-party antivirus software. The vanished page now redirects to...
Polestar Earns Microsoft Azure AI Apps & Analytics Specialization: What It Means
Polestar Analytics has been recognized as a Microsoft Azure Specialized Partner in AI Apps and Analytics, according to a TipRanks item based on a company LinkedIn post, marking a partner-status milestone for a consulting firm that sells enterprise data, cloud, analytics, and production AI services....
Intel Arc G-Series for Windows 11 Handhelds: Arc G3 vs AMD, XeSS 3 Explained
Intel announced its Arc G-Series processors for Windows 11 gaming handhelds on May 28, 2026, led by the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme, Panther Lake-derived chips that pair hybrid Core Ultra Series 3 CPU silicon with Xe3-based integrated graphics. The move is not just another mobile CPU launch; it is...
WinUI 3 Resizing Fix Coming Summer 2026 to Stop Black Edges and Tearing
Microsoft is preparing to roll out smooth resizing fixes for WinUI 3 apps in summer 2026 after acknowledging that some modern Windows 11 applications can visually tear and expose black edges while being resized, even as older UWP apps often handle the same motion more gracefully. That is a small...