In this week’s Microsoft Weekly: more details about the upcoming AI Explorer, Start menu updates, File Explorer updates, much-needed browser updates, financial reports from Microsoft, and more.
In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at fresh rumors about the upcoming AI Explorer for Windows 11, updates for the old File Explorer, Start menu improvements in the latest Windows Insider builds, the new financial report from Microsoft, Edge updates, app updates, and a lot more.
Table of contents:
This Microsoft Weekly starts with the latest financial report from Microsoft. On April 26, the company announced its earnings, revealing $61.9 billion in revenue and $21.9 billion in net income. Most of the company’s divisions reported double-digit growth.
Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft’s latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.
The April 2024 non-security updates for Windows 10 and 11 are now available. Windows 10 received KB5036979, and Windows 11 got KB5036980.
Those non-security updates contain one thing that will most likely upset many Windows 11 users: The company is now stuffing the Start menu with app ads. Fortunately, you can turn them off. This short guide provides more insight into that. Also, Windows 11 should soon become more clear about ads across its parts.
On the bride side, Windows 10 updates are now significantly smaller in size. Microsoft implemented some of Windows 11’s practices in its previous-gen operating systems, resulting in a notable decrease of hundreds of megabytes.
This week, NTDEV, the maker of Tiny11, released a new version of Tiny11 Builder, a script that uses official Microsoft-made tools to debloat any Windows 11 build or edition. You can now make your own Tiny11 without risking using modified Windows images.
Microsoft announced some big changes on the Microsoft Store website. Now, users can download app executables directly from the website with fewer clicks. Microsoft says that the new system is faster, allows installing apps on systems without the Microsoft Store, and downloading several apps side-by-side.
If you recently purchased a Windows 11 and are now wondering if it qualifies as an “AI-enabled” one, Dell has the answers you need. The company published a support page with detailed explanations of what makes a Windows computer “AI-enabled.”
The upcoming Surface Pro 10 should be one such “AI-enabled” computer. We are less than one month away from the public announcement, and benchmark leaks are already spoiling the show. A test on Geekbnch revealed a Surface Pro 10 configuration with the Snapdragon X Plus chip and 16GB of RAM.
Shortly after that, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X Plus, a new, more affordable SKU in its upcoming lineup. It features 10 Cryo cores operating at up to 4.3GHz and a GPU capable of delivering up to 3.8TFLOPs. However, that is not everything Qualcomm has in store. A new report emerged about the company planning to release even more versions, including 80-core server processors.
All those Snapdragon processors should enable the new AI Explorer, which will be available in Windows 11 later this year. Just short of one month before the official announcement, a new report revealed more details about the feature.
Windows Insider Program
Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:
Besides the two documented changes in build 22635.3566, the latest Beta build brought updates to the new “All Apps” Start menu layout and the ability to duplicate tabs in File Explorer. You may not get the new AI Explorer on your old PC, but at least you can have some quality-of-life improvements for the classic File Explorer, which is nice.
To finish the Windows section, here is a useful guide explaining how to reinstall Windows 11 without losing your data using just Windows Update.
This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.
