automation

Microsoft has put a generative AI assistant where most knowledge workers spend the bulk of their time: directly into Excel’s grid with a new COPILOT function that lets Microsoft 365 Copilot run natural-language prompts inside individual cells and return multi-cell arrays, categories, summaries...

The UK government has announced a national programme to trial agentic AI across public services, inviting frontier AI labs to work with Whitehall teams to build prototypes that could automate routine “life admin” — from filling forms and booking appointments to tailored careers and...

Microsoft has announced that Windows PowerShell 2.0 will be removed from Windows starting in August 2025 for Windows 11, version 24H2 and in September 2025 for Windows Server 2025 — a final step in a deprecation that began in 2017 and a change already visible in Windows Insider builds this...

Microsoft’s Windows could reclaim its place as the undisputed productivity platform in 2025 — but only if Microsoft stops prioritizing marketing nudges and gimmicks and instead delivers focused, enterprise-grade features that solve real workplace pain points now, not sometime next quarter...

Microsoft’s slow UI migration has an unexpected side effect: the Settings app often buries advanced controls behind extra clicks while the decades-old Control Panel still surfaces them instantly, and that reality makes many power users—and the author of a recent piece—reach for the Control Panel...

Microsoft’s Power Pages now lets makers build AI agents from a selected form inside Power Pages Studio and push them into Microsoft Copilot Studio for customization — complete with CRUD access to Dataverse, optional file-upload data extraction, and a refreshed multi-agent chat widget for site...

CPS’s pitch — that outcome-focused AI agents built on Microsoft Copilot can shrink paperwork, speed investigations and put more officers back on the street — arrives at a moment when policing is hungry for tangible efficiency gains and painfully wary of unproven AI experiments. The company will...

Windows 11 still hides a surprising amount of power under its polished surface — and for power users the obvious answer isn't hoping Microsoft brings back every legacy tool, it’s learning where those capabilities already exist and how to extend them cleanly. What began as a short list of...

Microsoft is executing the long‑announced end of Windows PowerShell 2.0: starting with Windows 11, version 24H2 in August 2025 and following with Windows Server 2025 in September 2025, the legacy PowerShell 2.0 engine will be removed from shipping Windows images as part of a platform cleanup...

A Microsoft Garage hackathon prototype has graduated into a commercial workstream that uses generative AI to attack permitting bottlenecks across nuclear, renewable, mining, and grid projects — a practical, high-stakes application of AI that could materially shorten the time and cost of getting...

Microsoft has begun excising Windows PowerShell 2.0 from shipping Windows images, closing a chapter that started with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and signaling a firm push toward a smaller attack surface and a simpler PowerShell ecosystem. The removal is being rolled into current...

AI tools that once produced short clips or basic explainer reels are now capable of assembling entire long-form videos from structured, machine-readable prompts — and a new crop of free tools that accept detailed JSON prompts is making that capability far more accessible to creators, marketers...

Microsoft’s move to meter Copilot Studio and AI agents by “messages” changes the calculus for automation: it makes on-demand, low-commitment experimentation easy, but it also requires careful billing-policy setup in Power Platform and Azure to avoid surprise costs and service disruptions...

File Explorer in Windows 11 is powerful, but out of the box it includes modern context-menu cruft, pinned pages, and automatic folder sniffing that can slow and clutter everyday navigation — the eight Registry tweaks below strip away the noise, speed up browsing, and restore classic behaviors...

Microsoft appears to be testing an AI-driven companion that surfaces directly on the Windows 11 Taskbar — a small, persistent entry point for what Microsoft and code trackers are referring to as “agentic companions” — and the traces spotted in preview builds suggest it could proactively suggest...

Windows PowerShell 2.0 is being removed from Windows images, and the change—announced in an August 11, 2025 Microsoft support bulletin—begins rolling into production builds in late summer and early fall 2025; organizations that still depend on the legacy PowerShell 2.0 engine must inventory...

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows PowerShell 2.0 — the legacy scripting engine first shipped with Windows 7 — will be removed from shipping Windows images as part of the upcoming Windows 11 and Windows Server 2025 releases, a change that closes a long‑running deprecation and removes a known...

Microsoft’s Copilot has moved fast from a marketing phrase to a platform-level feature that now shapes how millions of people search, write, schedule, analyze data, and even debug code — and with the arrival of GPT‑5 across Microsoft surfaces, that transformation has accelerated into a new phase...

Flyoobe’s first official release arrives as a pragmatic answer to two persistent complaints from Windows users: the rigid hardware checks that block many PCs from upgrading to Windows 11, and the bloated, one-size-fits-all Out‑Of‑Box Experience that ships too much software by default. The...

Microsoft has announced the removal of Windows PowerShell 2.0 from shipping Windows images, a deliberate end to a legacy runtime that has lingered in the OS for more than a decade and which Microsoft says will be excised from Windows 11 (starting with version 24H2 in August 2025) and Windows...