personalization

Title: Windows 11’s Desktop Gets Modernized: WebP Wallpapers Arrive, Video Backgrounds Loom on the Horizon By: [WindowsForum] Staff Reporter Date: January 28, 2026 Lead Microsoft has quietly taken another step toward modernizing Windows 11’s personalization stack. In mid‑January 2026 the...

Microsoft has quietly added native support for .webp images as desktop backgrounds in the Insider channels, a small but practical tweak that removes a long-standing friction point for users who collect web-sourced wallpapers — while the more eye-catching idea of native video wallpapers remains a...

Mustafa Suleyman’s short chatbot interactionslip — a blunt, optimistic forecast that “in five years, everybody will have their own AI companion” — landed like a provocation and a promise at once, and it crystallizes a central tension in consumer AI today: the simultaneous rush to make assistants...

Changing your desktop or lock‑screen wallpaper in Windows 11 should be one of the simplest customizations you do — but the split between desktop and lock screen, multiple wallpaper modes (Picture, Solid color, Slideshow, Windows Spotlight), and a handful of small system quirks can turn a...

Microsoft's latest Insider preview build makes a small but meaningful tweak to how voice typing integrates with the on‑screen touch keyboard in Windows 11, shifting dictation from a full‑screen overlay into a compact, in‑keyboard indicator that preserves context and reduces visual interruption...

Microsoft is rolling out a dedicated Themes department inside the Microsoft Store for Windows, adding more than 35 new theme collections and bringing the Store’s catalog to over 400 curated looks that users can apply with a single click, a change Microsoft says is designed to make...

Microsoft’s Copilot will stop responding inside WhatsApp on January 15, 2026, after WhatsApp’s owner revised its Business API terms to explicitly bar third‑party, general‑purpose large‑language‑model (LLM) chatbots from operating as primary services through the platform. Background WhatsApp’s...

Microsoft has quietly built a one-click personalization gateway into Windows 11 by adding a dedicated Themes department to the Microsoft Store — a curated storefront that now hosts more than 400 downloadable theme packages (with 35+ new collections added at rollout) and allows users to apply...

Microsoft’s Microsoft Store has quietly become the easiest — and safest — way to make Windows 11 actually look like something you want to use, thanks to a freshly launched Themes department that centralizes hundreds of downloadable themes and simplifies applying them with a single click. The...

Microsoft is moving a long-familiar corner of Windows personalization into the Microsoft Store: the company has begun rolling out a new Themes (personalization) department inside the Microsoft Store on Windows, offering a curated catalogue of themes — more than 400 entries, including roughly 35...

Personalize Quick Settings in Windows 11: Add, remove, and arrange toggles Difficulty: Beginner | Time Required: 8 minutes Windows 11 puts quick access to common controls right at your fingertips with Quick Settings. If you’re like most users, you’ll want your most-used toggles (like Wi‑Fi...

Microsoft has quietly restored one of Windows’ most nostalgic personalization features: native video wallpapers — the spiritual successor to DreamScene — now appearing in Windows 11 Insider preview builds and accessible through the familiar Settings > Personalization > Background workflow when...

Microsoft has quietly resurrected a long-requested personalization capability in Windows 11: native support for video wallpapers that lets ordinary video files act as looping desktop backgrounds—an elegant, modern echo of Vista’s DreamScene now visible in Windows Insider preview builds, but...

Microsoft is quietly testing built‑in support for video wallpapers in Windows 11, a modern revival of the long‑forgotten DreamScene experiment from the Vista era that lets users set looping MP4, MKV and other video files as desktop backgrounds — and this time Microsoft is building the capability...

Windows 11’s personalization options are getting a nostalgic — and potentially divisive — upgrade: Microsoft is testing a native video‑wallpaper feature in recent Insider builds that lets you set a looping video file as your desktop background, reviving the spirit of DreamScene while aiming for...

Microsoft has quietly begun building native support for video wallpapers into Windows 11 — a full-circle moment that revives a DreamScene-era idea while exposing difficult trade-offs around battery life, compatibility, and the long shadow of third‑party wallpaper engines. The capability...

Microsoft has quietly reworked the Xbox app on Windows 11 into a genuine one‑stop hub for PC gaming, and the implications reach well beyond a refreshed launcher: the app now aggregates installed titles from multiple storefronts, lets you launch non‑Microsoft games without opening third‑party...

Demis Hassabis’s warning lands like a wake-up call: as artificial intelligence advances toward the kind of general, agentic systems researchers call AGI, the very same attention-harvesting dynamics that turned social media into a global amplifying lens for addiction, outrage, and polarization...

Microsoft has quietly moved a familiar human question — “What should I wear?” — into the center of conversational commerce by launching an editorial, image‑first fashion discovery experience inside Microsoft Copilot powered by Austin startup Curated for You (CFY). The integration, publicly...

Curated for You and Microsoft have activated a first‑of‑its‑kind, lifestyle‑led AI fashion experience inside Microsoft Copilot, putting visually composed, shoppable outfit recommendations into natural conversations and surfacing curated, head‑to‑toe looks from participating retailers when users...