This week’s news roundup brings you fresh rumors about Windows ’12’ potentially requiring much more RAM, new Windows 11 preview builds, a Microsoft hack, gaming news, and much more.
In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at the latest stories from the world of Microsoft published on Neowin between January 14 and 21. Those include rumors about Windows ’12’ requiring much more RAM than its predecessors, a Microsoft hack that happened in November 2023, right after the company announced major changes in its cybersecurity efforts, fresh Windows 11 preview builds in the Dev and Beta channels, app updates, and plenty of gaming news.
Table of contents:
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.
This week’s Windows 11 section opens with an interesting rumor about Microsoft increasing the RAM baseline for its upcoming big Windows release. Trendforce claims Microsoft «has set the baseline for DRAM on AI PCs at 16GB.» There is no information on what exactly that means. Some speculate that 16GB will be a minimum requirement for Windows «12» machines, while others suggest that it is just a recommendation for PCs with advanced AI capabilities powered by the next-gen hardware from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm.
Although we are only a few months away from the launch of Microsoft’s next-generation Windows, we still do not know what it looks like nor what features it will bring. The lack of any official announcements tickles enthusiasts’ minds, inspiring them to generate neat-looking concepts. Here is one from AR 4789. Their latest creation imagines Windows 12 based on early mockups we saw in late 2022.
Microsoft has updated its official documentation to clarify that Mac users with Apple Silicon-powered computers can officially run Windows 11 using the Parallels Desktop app. The latter has been officially authorized for Windows 11 on Apple M3 Macs, giving you access to most of the operating system’s features. The only exception is capabilities that require nested virtualization (a VM inside a VM), such as Windows Busystem for Android, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Sandbox, and VBS.
A new report emerged this week about an actively exploited Microsoft Defender vulnerability that allows bad actors to bypass Windows SmartScreen and steal data on Windows computers. Fortunately, Microsoft patched the security hole a few months ago, so your system is safe if you maintain good software hygiene and do not mess with Windows Update settings beyond what Microsoft allows. As a reminder, turning off Windows updates is never a good idea!
And speaking of vulnerabilities, here is an odd story Microsoft revealed this week. This month, Microsoft discovered that a Russian intelligence group got access to emails from its top executives using vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. Hackers breached in November 2023, but Microsoft could only spot the problem on January 12, 2024.
Finally, Microsoft confirmed that it is working on fixing the 0x80070643 — ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE message that happens on systems with too small WinRE partitions.
Windows Insider Program
Windows Insiders got a few new builds to try this week:
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.
Let us start with something that will no longer receive updates. The Surface Pro 5 and its LTE variant are no longer supported. On January 14, 2024, the tablet reached its end of life, which means no more firmware and driver updates.
This week, Microsoft unveiled a bunch of Copilot-related announcements. The company is finally ready to launch a subscription service to give users more features for a premium. Copilot Pro is now available for $20 per month, offering customers access to GPT-4 Turbo, Office integration, improved image generation, and more.
