Just last week, we asked about Phil Spencer and why he's been so quiet lately. Now we know why! Also, OneDrive for the Mac is finally going to look like it belongs on the Mac. And Google Chrome finally picks up a split view like the rest of the planet, plus a few other new features.

PHIL SPENCER OUT AT XBOX

• Phil Spencer has retired from Microsoft and his heir-apparent, Sarah Bond, left Microsoft as well
• Report details the Xbox reorg
• Ex-Xbox executive issues an old guy shouting at sky assessment
• New Microsoft Gaming CEO discusses "return to Xbox"
• Hot-take: This person seems unqualified to run Xbox/MS Gaming, but let's give her a chance
• Alternative hot-take: She is literally here to wind down this business, which makes no sense... unless there's a spin-off

Windows

• WSJ report sheds some light, and adds a lot of confusion, to Nvidia's Windows PC plans
• Week D arrived on time this month
• Preview of March Patch Tuesday updates
• Network speed test, pan and tilt in Camera settings, sysmon, RSAT improvements, Quick Machine Recovery improvements, WEBP background image support, Emoji 16.0
• And you thought the Canary channel was weird already
  -New builds for Canary, Dev, and Beta. Canary gets features we already saw elsewhere, Dev and Beta get context menu, settings, and Taskbar improvements
• Paul has published (an incomplete version of) De-Enshittify Windows 11
• De-enshittifying Copilot and AI is doable but not yet automated
• What about the alternatives?
• Next step: Security and Apps chapters
• HP revenues up 6.9 percent to $14.4 billion but RAM warning is more dire than expected
• Apple to add multitouch to MacBook Pro lineup in late 2026. Oh the irony

AI

• Xbox February update brings 1440p streaming to Xbox consoles, updates for Xbox ROG Ally, more
• Xbox app is delivering post-game recaps on Windows 11 for Insiders
• EA had the most game downloads on PC and console in 2025, thanks to having the three most popular AAA games of the year (BF6, EA Sports FC 25, and EA Sports FC 26). Microsoft was number two, followed by Take-Two, Ubisoft, and Sony. Fortnite is somehow still the biggest game overall on console, and Counter-Strike 2 (!!!!) is the biggest on PC. 20 million Fortnite players on PS, 15 million on Xbox

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: OneDrive for the Mac
• App pick of the week: Google Chrome
• RunAs Radio this week: SaaS on Multiple Clouds with Steve Buchanan
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Sons of Vancouver Wheated Rye Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Microsoft might finally give power users what they've been demanding: the ability to move the Windows 11 taskbar wherever they want. Plus, 3 major new chapters in Paul's next book, and a strange pick that solves his big issue with Windows Spotlight.

Windows 11

• Potentially good news for the 13 people who want to move the Taskbar to a different screen side
• Beta (but not Dev) with one new "feature"
• Release Preview for 24H2/25H2 with emoji 16.0, QMR improvements, network speed test, pan and tilt controls for compatible cameras, widgets improvements, more
• Lenovo revenues up 18% to $22.2 billion

AI/Dev

• Google announces 30-second audio generation
• Google sets a date for I/O 2026, but where in the Carmen Diego is Build 2026?
• Android 17 Beta is here with an even shorter runway
• With '26.3 out, Apple releases '26.4 Beta 1s

Xbox and gaming

• Phil Spencer is always in the spotlight, but he's been on the down-low for months
• Some hints for the future coming GDC 2026
• Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Witcher 3, more coming to Xbox Game Pass
• Avowed comes to the PlayStation 5 along with the Anniversary Update
• Microsoft is retiring user-created Xbox social clubs
• NVIDIA GeForce Now comes to Amazon Fire TV 4K Sticks

Tips & picks

• Tip of the week: Major progress on De-Enshittify Windows 11, the book
• App pick of the week: Bing Wallpaper
• RunAs Radio this week: Hacking using AI with Erica Burgess
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Lot 40 100% Pot Still Rye

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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After years of ignoring and maligning Windows, Microsoft has finally woken up and is making some happy noises. Last week, we discussed how Microsoft plans to improve the quality of Windows and that there are already many signs of that work in various security features and new OneDrive Folder Backup changes - plus those two new direct reports to Nadella. Then, Microsoft announced its Windows Baseline Security Mode and User Transparency and Consent initiatives with questions about the timing. And now, Microsoft just explained Windows 11 version 26H1, and it's not like 24H2 at all despite being tied to Snapdragon X2 silicon.

Something happened ... and that something is tied to 26H1

• 26H1: Only for Snapdragon X2, a "scoped release," based on a "different core" from 24H2 and 25H2
• You cannot upgrade 24H2 or 25H2 to 26H1
• You cannot upgrade 26H1 to 26H2 (!) - instead, those on 26H1 "will have a path to update in a future Windows release." - Is that future Windows release Windows 12? Probably
• 24H2, 25H2, and 26H1 will all have the same user-facing features, this has been the case with all support Windows (11) versions for 2+ years
• (Remember, this is not what happened with 24H2. Shipped early on Snapdragon X1, but was made available to all Windows 11 PCs later that year)
• So why is this happening now? Fortune 500/corporate customer pushback on AI is one guess
• This is GOOD news, however it all unfolds

More Windows 11

• Yesterday was Patch Tuesday, so get to work. Updates this month include: Agent in Settings (Copilot+ PCs only) improvements. Settings improvements, cross-device Resume improvements, Windows MIDI Services improvements, Narrator improvements, Smart App Control improvements, Windows Hello New ESS improvements, and File Explorer improvements
• Somewhat related to the quality/security push noted above, Microsoft is rolling out new Secure Boot certificates this year for older (pre-2024/25) PCs
• Microsoft announces a Store CLI that does (almost) nothing new compared to winget
• New Dev and Beta builds with minor changes: Emoji 16.0, camera improvements, various fixes

More earnings

• Amazon hits $213.4 billion in revenues, will spend $200 billion CAPEX/AI infrastructure this fiscal year, more than Google ($175/$185 billion) or Microsoft (estimated $150+ billion)
• Qualcomm $12.25 billion in revenues, up 5 percent
• Alphabet/Google - Up 18 percent (!) to $113.8 billion - 750 million MAUs on Gemini, 74 percent of revenues come from advertising
• Spotify - somehow has over 750 million MAUs now

AI and dev

• OpenAI and Anthropic release dueling agentic AI coding models that do more than agentic AI coding within minutes of each other
• Ads appear in ChatGPT Free and Go as threatened
• Duck.ai adds private, anonymous real-time AI voice chat
• NET 11 Preview 1 arrives, but there's nothing major here

Xbox & games

• Microsoft announces the 2025 Xbox Excellence Awards
• Celebrate 35 years of Id Software - Castle Wolfenstein 3D was a wake-up call for PC gaming, but DOOM was a miracle, and Quake was a real WTF moment
• Sony sold 8 million PlayStation 5s (down 16 percent YOY) in the holiday quarter, 92 million (!) overall
• Valve predictably delays the vaporware Steam Machine
• Epic Games is having a winter sale - for example, Silent Hill 2, GTA V Enhanced are 50 percentR

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/970

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