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Windows 11 Insiders on the Dev Channel are getting a small but significant usability upgrade: Dev build 26220.6682 introduces a new three‑state behavior for the Xbox (Guide) button on connected controllers — a quick tap opens the Xbox Game Bar, a long press now brings up Task View, and a...

Microsoft has quietly repurposed the Xbox button on gamepads when used with Windows 11 Insiders: a long press now opens Task View while a short press still launches the Game Bar, and a press-and-hold continues to power down the controller — a small but practical tweak rolling out to Dev and Beta...

Windows 11’s next wave of preview builds quietly delivers two of the most requested quality-of-life fixes for everyday users — smoother, more reliable taskbar auto-hide behavior and a pair of bug fixes that restore clickable space above the taskbar — while also ramping up Copilot’s visibility by...

Microsoft’s Copilot is being pushed through another iteration of experimental polish: testers have spotted a new voice entry point on the Copilot home screen and a parallel “private chat” mode that promises ephemeral, non‑training conversations—changes that aim to make voice interactions faster...

Microsoft is quietly restoring a piece of the Windows 10 experience many users missed: a larger, in-your-face clock with seconds in the Notification Center — and it’s arriving alongside a set of AI shortcuts in File Explorer and new transparency controls for generative AI access in Windows 11’s...

Microsoft is quietly turning Edge into a research assistant you can talk to: recent Canary builds are testing a multi‑tab summarization feature that lets Copilot read and synthesize content from several open tabs at once — a capability that shifts Copilot from a single‑page summarizer to a...

Google’s Chrome team is quietly testing a one-click option in Chrome’s Windows settings that not only sets Chrome as the default browser but will also pin it to the Windows 11 taskbar — a small UI change with outsized product and regulatory implications for how browsers compete on Windows. The...

Microsoft appears to be closing one of Windows’ longest-running cosmetic grievances: preview builds released in August 2025 show legacy file‑operation dialogs and several system prompts finally obeying the system Dark theme, reducing the jarring white “flash” that has plagued Dark Mode since the...

Microsoft appears to be testing a new AI layer for Windows 11’s taskbar: references to a “Taskbar Companion” and “agentic companions” have been found in recent preview and server builds, suggesting Microsoft is experimenting with making the taskbar an entry point for proactive, context-aware AI...

I've been out of the PC market for a long time. Right now, I've got an old, assembled AMD/ASUS desktop from 2007, which my dad bought and helped me build for personal use. It's been running XP ever since and I've painfully upgraded the hardware over time. More recently, I've used Windows 7 at...