local ai

Running AI locally on Windows 11 is no longer just a hobbyist stunt, and Tom Fenton’s latest Virtualization Review test makes that point in unusually practical terms. In his setup, an older NVIDIA Quadro P2200 in a Razer Core X eGPU enclosure turned a Windows laptop into a much more capable...

Microsoft’s Windows AI APIs are starting to change the way developers think about on-device intelligence, and Lance McCarthy’s experience shows just how low the barrier can be. What sounds like a big platform shift turns out, in practice, to be a small and highly practical workflow change: use...

Microsoft’s NPU story has quietly moved from keynote gloss to everyday utility. What started as a Copilot+ PC headline in 2024 is now showing up in accessibility tools, creative apps, security software, and even workplace assistants that can run meaningful AI tasks locally on Windows hardware...

A glossy, nostalgia‑steeped concept video has reimagined Windows 7 as if Microsoft had continued developing the platform into 2026 — preserving the operating system’s familiar look while grafting on modern features such as a refreshed File Explorer, smarter search, customizable desktop widgets...

If you want powerful AI without paying recurring subscription fees, you no longer need to rely solely on cloud services — your existing PC can do a surprising amount of heavy lifting, and four free tools make that practical, fast, and privacy-friendly: Ollama, LM Studio, GPT4All, and Jan. These...

Microsoft has quietly released KB5079266, an incremental Phi Silica AI component update that installs Phi Silica version 1.2601.1273.0 on Intel‑powered Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11, version 26H1, and the package is delivered automatically through Windows Update to qualifying devices...

Microsoft’s latest push to bring the cloud inside the walls of the datacenter is no longer a preview exercise: Azure Local, Microsoft 365 Local (including a Disconnected mode), and Foundry Local are now being offered as production-ready options that let organizations run cloud-native services —...

CES 2026 made one thing unmistakably clear: AI stopped being an optional spec line and became the operating layer across PCs, displays, and peripherals — and the devices that impressed most were the ones that treated on‑device intelligence as a first‑class design constraint rather than a sticker...

Local AI browsers now let your phone run a full assistant without sending private queries to cloud servers — but setting one up takes planning, correct hardware, and an understanding of trade‑offs between privacy, performance, and convenience. In this piece we walk through the realistic options...

Microsoft has quietly turned one of PowerToys’ smallest utilities — Advanced Paste — into a proving ground for on‑device AI, adding multi‑provider support and explicit local model paths so clipboard transforms can run on your PC (even on an NPU) instead of always phoning home. Background...

Microsoft’s PowerToys Advanced Paste has taken a decisive step toward local-first AI by adding on-device model support and multi-provider flexibility in the 0.96 update, turning a once-simple clipboard helper into a hybrid AI gateway that gives users faster transforms, reduced cloud costs, and...

Microsoft PowerToys 0.96.0 pushes Advanced Paste from a niche convenience feature into a configurable hybrid AI gateway—adding support for multiple cloud providers and local model hosts—while polishing the Command Palette, extending PowerRename with photo metadata tokens, and addressing a long...

Microsoft’s Ignite 2025 update turns the Windows 11 taskbar into a front door for AI — introducing a one‑click “Ask Copilot” composer, taskbar‑visible AI agents, and deeper Copilot integration across File Explorer, search, voice, and local AI runtimes that shift Windows from a passive OS into an...

I pulled the power plug on Windows 11, flashed a Linux USB, and turned a pocket-sized Minix ER937‑AI into a surprisingly capable Linux workstation and local‑AI testbed — and the results were more impressive (and more practical) than I expected. Background / Overview The Minix ER937‑AI arrived as...

The moment I booted the Minix ER937‑AI, wiped Windows 11, flashed a Linux USB stick and had Ollama answering a prompt in seconds, it became obvious this tiny machine was more than a lightweight desktop — it was a compact, pragmatic workstation that delivered real local‑AI capability without the...

PewDiePie’s latest off‑camera project reads like a tech parable for the AI age: Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg quietly built a private, multi‑GPU AI lab in his home and wired it to a custom chat front end he calls ChatOS — running Chinese open‑source models, local web search and retrieval‑augmented...

Clippy’s paperclip grin is back on the desktop — not as an official Microsoft resurrection, but as a DIY homage that runs entirely on your PC using local LLMs and the open-source LLM inference stack. What started as a nostalgic tinkering project has become a practical, privacy-conscious way to...

Microsoft’s optional Release Preview cumulative KB5067036 delivers a focused but consequential set of non‑security upgrades for Windows 11—most notably Fluid Dictation inside Voice Access and an expanded Improved Windows Search experience on Copilot+ PCs—while also shipping a package of UI...

The Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3 proves that a compact, Linux‑first mini PC can be both a polished daily driver and a surprisingly capable local AI workstation, delivering instant usability, quiet operation, and real‑world performance that outpaces what many users expect from a small form‑factor...

The Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3 mini PC proved to be a striking example of how a small, Linux‑first system can legitimately replace a typical Windows desktop for most users — fast, quiet, and capable of tackling local AI workloads that until recently required much larger machines. Background /...