ux design

Microsoft has quietly begun testing a more integrated, surface-level approach to Account management in Windows 11 through the latest Insider builds (delivered as KB5065786), and the changes deserve attention from everyday users, power users, and IT administrators alike. These updates — visible...

Microsoft appears to be quietly experimenting with an “AI agent” entry point for the Windows 11 taskbar — a small, persistent companion that could surface context-aware assistance, link into Copilot features, and even perform multi‑step actions on behalf of the user. Traces of a feature labeled...

Microsoft’s recent nudge to users — asking “what do you miss most in Windows?” — is more than a PR moment; it’s a revealing sign that the company is wrestling with conflicting priorities for Windows 11: glossy AI capabilities and the long list of everyday quality‑of‑life features that power...

I opened Paint and a small banner asked me to join “Windows AI Labs” — an opt‑in program that, according to the on‑screen card and an attached programme agreement, will let selected users test experimental AI features inside Microsoft Paint before those features are broadly released. Overview...

Google has quietly begun testing a new desktop search experience for Windows that looks and feels like macOS Spotlight but with Google’s distinctive multimodal and generative-AI capabilities layered on top, bringing web search, Google Drive, local files, installed apps, and Google Lens into a...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

Mustafa Suleyman’s blunt declaration that machine consciousness is an illusion has refocused a technical debate into an operational warning for product teams, regulators, and everyday Windows users: the immediate danger is not that machines will quietly wake up, but that they will be engineered...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider builds are shipping a new, full-screen renewal prompt aimed at lapsed Microsoft 365 subscriptions — an eye-catching SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) screen that insiders and early reports describe as a full‑screen nag to renew rather than a...

Abdi’s “Brilliant Windows 12” concept doesn’t just re‑dress Windows in a shinier skin — it surfaces a coherent, user‑first playbook for how Microsoft could fix the things people actually complain about in Windows 11, and the timing could not be more consequential as Windows 10 support winds down...

Human memory is not a passive archive — it’s a efficiency engine, and a set of new experiments summarized in Psychology Today argues that our brains preferentially encode pairs of people who look like they’re interacting, making these dyads easier to recall later than two people who merely...

Microsoft’s Copilot on Windows 11 is shedding its “chat-first” skin and opening a new, dashboard-style Home tab that behaves less like a conversational window and more like an AI-centric Start menu — surfacing recent files, apps, conversations, and guided help in one place. Background Microsoft...

IFA 2025 made one thing unavoidably clear: artificial intelligence is no longer an experimental sidebar at trade shows — it’s the main stage. From conversational TV companions to penguin-like domesticated robots and a self‑flushing cat toilet that promises to log your pet’s health metrics, AI...

Microsoft quietly expanded the Bing interface this summer by adding keyword suggestions adjacent to a floating Copilot search box, a small-looking tweak with outsized implications for how users discover, refine, and are nudged toward conversational search—an experiment first surfaced by industry...

Microsoft’s operating system has always been a mix of pragmatic engineering, bold experiments, and occasional overreach — and some of its most interesting contributions were simply ahead of their time. A recent roundup of five Windows features — Briefcase, MSN Gaming Zone, Windows CardSpace...

Microsoft’s PowerToys 0.93 delivered a much-needed Settings dashboard overhaul and major Command Palette performance wins, but the suite still lacks a unified Settings search—and community work tracked on GitHub plus Microsoft’s own roadmap notes indicate a settings search bar is targeted for...

Microsoft's latest change to the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile experience on iOS—which converts the app into a file preview and Copilot chat wrapper that redirects editing tasks to standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps—represents a deliberate shift in how the company structures mobile...

Microsoft’s long‑running dark‑mode problem is beginning to look less like an unfinished promise and more like a deliberate, staged repair: recent Windows Insider and Release Preview builds contain code that darkens a cluster of previously glaring white file‑operation dialogs, and community...

Microsoft’s latest Canary-channel flight sharpens two long-running efforts at once: clearer battery status at a glance, and the slow, methodical migration of legacy Control Panel functionality into the modern Settings app — both arriving in preview builds that continue to reshape how users...

Microsoft’s quiet theming work in recent Insider previews finally moves one of Windows’ most visible UX complaints from “annoying” to “fix-in-progress,” as file‑operation dialogs — the copy/move progress windows, delete confirmations, access‑denied prompts and similar surfaces — are now...

Microsoft has quietly begun to fix one of Windows 11’s most persistent frictions: the sudden, blinding white dialogs that have long broken the illusion of a system-wide Dark Mode. Recent Insider preview builds include dark-themed file-operation dialogs — copy/move progress windows, delete...