This week, the hosts go deep on out-of-band updates, unwanted "innovations," and the uneasy cost of tech's latest gold rush. Plus, securing a Microsoft account is not as hard as some think, and neither are passkeys once you get past the jargon. And for developers, AI Dev Gallery offers a fascinating glimpse at what you can do for free with AI used against a CPU, GPU, or NPU.

Windows 11

• Microsoft issues an emergency fix for a borked Windows Update. Right. A fix for a fix.
• Hell freezes over, if only slightly: Microsoft quietly made some positive changes to forced OneDrive Folder Backup. Donʼt worry, itʼs still forced (and appears to be opt-in, but isnʼt). But you can back out more elegantly. So itʼs opt-out, not opt-in, but a step forward. Plus, a new behavior
• Windows 11 on Arm PCs can now download games from the Xbox app (previously only through the Insider program)
• Over 85 percent of Xbox games on PC work in WOA now
• Prism emulator now supports AVX and AVX2 and Epic Anti-Cheat, and there is a new Windows Performance Fit feature offering guidance on which titles should play well.
• Beta: New 25H2 build with account dialog modernization, Click to Do and desktop background improvements. Not for Dev, suggesting itʼs about to move to 26H1
• Notepad and Paint get more features yet again. Notably, these updates are for Dev and Canary only, suggesting these might be 26Hx features (then again, versions don't matter, right?)

AI

• Just say no: To AI, to Copilot, and to Satya Nadella
• Our national nightmare is over: You can now (easily) hide Copilot in Microsoft Edge
• ChatGPT Go is now available worldwide, ads are on the way because of course
• Wikipedia partners with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, more on AI

Xbox & gaming

• January Xbox Update brings Game Sync Indicator, more
• Solid second half of January for Xbox Game Pass
• Microsoft will likely introduce a free, ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier because of course

Tips & picks

• Tip of the week: Secure your Microsoft account
• App pick of the week: AI Dev Gallery
• RunAs Radio this week: Ideation to Implementation with Amber Vandenburg
• Liquor pick of the week: Estancia Raicilla

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Satya Nadella gave up much of his CEO duties in 2025. Are we on the cusp of a new CEO? And does some money manager/political duo like Amy Hood and Brad Smith actually make more sense in this role than an engineer-type for the modern Microsoft?

Microsoft is trying to win our hearts and minds on AI

• After spending three years trying to jam AI down our collective throats, Microsoft has only met resistance. Now, the real marketing begins
• Governments and regulators: Microsoft will build out its AI infrastructure by actually paying for it and respecting the communities in which this happens
• Customers: Satya Nadella is blogging, and he wants us to stop complaining about AI. He's the wrong messenger

Windows 11

• First Patch Tuesday of 2026 brings security and bug fixes but no new features
• First update of 2026 brings Copilot-powered image descriptions in Narrator, new IT policies for Copilot, other changes to Dev & Beta
• Dev is about to switch to 26H1
• IDC says that PC sales rose 8.1 percent in 2025, warns again about 2026
• The good & bad of Paul's Panther Lake laptop
• Dell doesn't sell any PCs to consumers so it obviously has opinions about why consumers don't buy PCs for AI
• Microsoft will soon retire its Lens mobile app

AI

• Apple predictably partners with Google to bring Gemini to Siri
• Samsung correctly points out we're all using AI already so there's no reason to complain about it
• We can't trust AI, so Microsoft is letting Copilot go shopping with our credit cards
• We can't trust AI, so OpenAI is giving ChatGPT access to our private health data
• Gmail is getting more AI because email is the low-hanging fruit of data collection

Xbox and gaming

• Developer Direct returns on January 22 with Fable and Forza 6 gameplay
• Microsoft to bring Avowed to PS5 in February

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Kick off 2026 with a security checkup
• App pick of the week: Microsoft Local Foundry
• RunAs Radio this week: Azure in 2026 with Jeremy Winter
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Don Julio 70

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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PC makers are shaking up CES with wild designs and next-gen chips, but the real story is Microsoft's bold software moves, AI's hardware hunger, and a candid debate over whether any tech company still puts users first. Come for the Windows updates, stay for the whisky warnings and robot bathroom assistants.

CES 2026 is here with the 4K hummingbird feeder of your dreams

• New PCs and more from HP consumers/commercial, HP gamers, Lenovo, others
• The first official Copilot+ PC desktops
• Snapdragon X2 Plus joins X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme
• Intel Panther Lake has meaningful CPU and graphics performance gains, but predictable reliability issues
• AMD Ryzen AI 400 series is a minor bump

Windows

• Paul was the first to report that Microsoft is refactoring it all with Rust
• A Microsoft distinguished engineer wrote about his desire to refactor all C/C++ code in the company with Rust by 2030
• Some mistook this to mean "rewriting Windows with Rust,ˮ so he had to issue a clarification. But I never wrote that.
• Heads-up: That will happen, but this is really about Azure first and the core underlying code in Microsoftʼs most important platforms
• Microsoft released hardware-accelerated BitLocker in late 2025 and never told anyone. It requires the latest PC CPUs
• Copilot app update that adds text editing actions to Copilot Vision across channels
• Dev and Beta got first previews of AI agents on the Taskbar, starting with the Researcher agent, plus underlying Agent Launchers experience
• IDC says the global memory shortage (thanks, AI!) could screw up PC and smartphone growth this year

AI

• ChatGPT now has an app store, but it has a ways to go
• Mozilla Firefox will have a "killswitchˮ for AI
• Our national nightmare will soon be over, LG will let users remove Copilot app from their smart TVs

Xbox and gaming

• First Xbox Game Pass releases of 2026 include Resident Evil Village and Star Wars Outlaws
• Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Hisense smart TVs and to the latest Fire TV smart TVs
• GOG goes independent, will continue DRM-free push
• "Have a blastˮ and other FPS throwbacks from the 1990s
• Valve quietly killed the LCD Steam Deck model

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Itʼs time to give Little AI a look
• App pick of the week: Bonjourr
• RunAs Radio this week: What AI can do for SysAdmins in 2026 with Cecilia Wiren
• Brown liquor pick of the week: The Singleton of Dufftown 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

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