Windows Report has noticed a warning for Edge customers leveraging the Dev Channel which reads: "Collections is being retired. You will no longer be able to add new items to Collections. To keep your saved content, you can export it, or move all pages to your Favorites before removal."

This essentially means that Edge users only have two options. If they click on Move to Favorites, Edge will automatically create a new CollectionsExport folder in Favorites, but the drawback is that only web pages are relocated here, not images and notes. The other option is to export, which does exactly what it says on the tin and sends the data in an offline CSV format to your PC.

For those unaware, Collections in Microsoft Edge were launched back in 2020, and they have been updated with new capabilities several times over the past few years. Collections are very similar to Favorites, but different in other ways. They enable users to save web pages, notes, and images in Edge, which can be useful when planning trips or making shopping lists. These collections can be accessed from the omnibar on desktop, and they can be synced across devices where Edge is installed with the same Microsoft Account logged in.

It is important to note that Microsoft has not publicly announced the discontinuation of Collections in Edge, and the documentation hasn't been updated to reflect this change in strategy either. We could not reproduce this change in our Edge Dev copy, but the report does seem legitimate because there have been hints in the past about this deprecation too, as spotted by Windows Central. The retirement of Collections in Edge will likely infuriate customers who use them heavily, especially since no proper alternative is in place.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:14 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has always prioritized the security side of Windows 11 ever since its inception back in 2021, which is why it introduced the strict system requirements for Windows 10 users. TPM 2.0 and MBEC-capable CPUs were deemed necessary.

As such, many users who have old PCs with unsupported processors are having to give up on Windows entirely and look for alternatives, as Microsoft has also warned about the security issues that can creep up if you run an unserviced system. That is where Linux comes in, and there can certainly be some compelling reasons to switch over.

While there are many Linux distros out there, one of them that has managed to gain popularity in the recent few months is Zorin Group's Zorin OS. The group teased Zorin OS 18 in September of 2025 right before Windows 10 ran out of support. A huge new feature list was on offer with the latest version of the OS.

Seeing the opportunity it had, the Zorin Group released Zorin OS 18 on the exact day Windows 10 mainstream support was drawn to a halt. With an estimated 240 million Windows 10 PCs being unable to upgrade, this was a good chance to increase its foothold.

Over the next few months, Zorin Group has been sharing its success story as it noted that the launch was its "biggest ever" as it claimed that over 100,000 people downloaded it in just a couple of days. And later in November, that number increased by tenfold as downloads crossed one million. It said: "Zorin OS 18 has amassed 1 million downloads in just over a month since its release, breaking all previous records."

This month, Zorin revealed that the number of downloads has again doubled to reach 2 million downloads. An interesting tidbit added this time is the claim that three-fourths, or 75%, of the downloads have come from Windows users.

On its official X handle, it posted: "Zorin OS 18 just crossed 2 million downloads in under 3 months. More than ¾ of these downloads came from Windows users, helping to grow the Linux user base even further. .... Thank you to everyone who supported and shared our biggest release ever"

This is an interesting one for sure, as it indicates that around 1.5 million Windows 10 and 11 users could be on Zorin OS. It is hard to gauge exactly how many of them have come from Windows 10, though, and also the number of people who may be using it as a daily driver as many may simply be trying it to get a feel. Perhaps we also have many Neowin readers who are among them. Let us know in the comments how your experience has been.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:10 am AEST (my time).

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While the feature is available, you won’t be able to enable it without enabling the #enable-jxl-image-format flag in chrome://flags. This marks the first time that it has been natively available in Chrome since version 110 in 2022. Other browsers don’t have great support for JPEG XL either; in Firefox you need to enable it and in Safari it only has partial support.

As a bit of background, JPEG XL is a next-generation format designed to replace the ageing JPEG format, which has been really popular but doesn’t compress files very well by modern standards. JPEG XL can make files 60% smaller than JPEGs and it’s very quick for your computer to decode.

In 2022, Google decided to remove its experimental support for JPEG XL citing various reasons. It said there was low interest in the format, meaning not enough websites were using it. Google said this meant that there wasn’t enough reason to continue working on support for the format in its browser. Additionally, Google has been pushing another format called AVIF, which it helped create, and wanted people to use that instead.

Several factors have forced Google to reintroduce support for JPEG XL. Firstly, there is the fact that Apple and Mozilla have both shipped support for the format in recent years, leaving Chrome as the lone holdout among major browsers. Also, in late 2025, the PDF Association named JPEG XL as the preferred solution for embedding High Dynamic Range (HDR) content in the PDF specifications, so if Google wants to carry on rendering PDFs in its PDF viewer correctly, the browser needs to support the new format. Finally, developers rank the format as the top pain point in surveys, demonstrating high demand for its advanced features like progressive decoding and animation.

By switching to a Rust implementation, which is a memory-safe language, Google no longer has an excuse that maintenance would be too cumbersome. When it is built, it will need fewer repairs later on.

Let us know in the comments if you are looking forward to this feature.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:09 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft Paint is about to get an update that tweaks the interface of the popular app. Microsoft is adding the option to collapse the toolbar within Paint.

The new feature is in testing among Windows Insiders. With it, you can choose to hide the toolbar automatically. You can also set Paint to always show the toolbar, which is the default view of the app.

While Windows 11 Build 26220.7523 is for Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, the update to Paint is for Dev and Canary Insiders. Since there's some overlap, the change to Paint is in the blog post for the build:

"With Paint version 11.2511.281.0, we’re introducing the collapse toolbar feature in Paint. To get started, open Paint and click the chevron icon at the bottom-right of the ribbon to enable Automatically hide toolbar. Once the toolbar collapses, use the Show toolbar button to bring it back and switch tools. To hide it again, click the Hide toolbar button or anywhere outside the toolbar. When you’re ready to return to the default view, click the chevron icon and select Always show toolbar."

Some would call this an overdue change. Others would prefer Microsoft not tweak its classic apps.

What to do with Paint and other old apps

With the November 2025 patch, Microsoft imposed a new security mitigation for the Common Log File System (CLFS) driver in updates to Windows 11 25H2 and Server 2025. This is a crucial update as it adds a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) to CLFS logfiles in order to strengthen protection against tampering.

If you are wondering, a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) is a cryptographic mechanism used to verify message integrity and authenticity by combining a secret key with a hash function. The sender computes a hash value over the data and transmits both the data and the HMAC. The receiver then, using the same secret key, recomputes the hash and checks for a match. This match is basically what ensures there is no tamper detection.

According to Microsoft, the authentication codes are generated by combining file data with a system-unique cryptographic key stored in the registry. Access to this key is restricted to administrators and SYSTEM accounts. So if tampering is detected, the logfile will not open.

If you are unfamiliar, the Common Log File System (CLFS) API is a general-purpose, high-performance logging subsystem in Windows that is used by apps and services, both in user-mode as well as kernel-mode executions. CLFS is designed to ensure reliable transactions, event logging and tracking, thus making it good for crash recoveries. However, it has historically been vulnerable to privilege escalation exploits which is why the new HMAC mechanism is a hardening step to prevent such attacks.

To help in easy adoption, Microsoft, for now, has built in a 90‑day “learning mode” following installation of the updates. During this period, authentication codes are automatically added to existing logfiles when they are opened. After the 90-day window closes, CLFS enters enforcement mode, requiring all logfiles to contain valid authentication codes.

Thus IT admins and system administrators are advised to review systems that rely on CLFS and ensure logfiles are accessed during the learning mode period. Otherwise, the fsutil clfs authenticate command line utility should be used to add authentication codes to unopened log files.

One thing the company notes is the additional file space that is required to store the authentication codes. It explains: "Additional file space is required to store authentication codes. The amount of space needed for authentication codes depends on the size of the file. Refer to the following list for an estimate about how much additional data will be required for your logfiles:

• 512KB container files require an additional ~8192 bytes for authentication codes.
• 1024KB container files require an additional ~12288 bytes for authentication codes.
• 10MB container files require an additional ~90112 bytes for authentication codes.
• 100MB container files require an additional ~57344 bytes for authentication codes.
• 4GB container files require an additional ~2101248 bytes for authentication codes"

It further adds that the consequent increase in I/O operations for maintaining authentication codes, the time taken to perform logfile creation, logfile opening, and the writing of new records will also go up, depending on the container size, and that the average time it takes to write to a record in a logfile has now doubled.

You can find the full details about CLFS authentication and hardening on this support article here under KB5056852 on Microsoft's official site.

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Posted Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 12:06 pm AEST (my time).

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Here is the changelog:

• WebGPU support is now enabled for devices with Apple Silicon processors on all supported macOS versions.
• Firefox now supports Compression Dictionaries. This standard has already been adopted by several major sites and can significantly reduce the number of bytes transferred to load a page. This leads to faster page load times, particularly in limited bandwidth situations.
• Improved video playback performance on systems with AMD GPUs by enabling zero-copy playback for hardware-decoded video where supported, bringing them to parity with Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.
• Firefox now supports the Safe Browsing V5 protocol and is migrating from Safe Browsing V4 to the local list mode of Safe Browsing V5 protocol.
• Users with Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) set to Strict will have local network access restrictions enabled by default. Firefox will now require users to explicitly allow public websites to access local network resources.
• Firefox now allows you to customize your keyboard shortcuts to replace hard-to-type or hard-to-remember hotkeys, eliminate conflicts with other software, and create your preferred set. Access this experimental new feature by typing `about:keyboard` in the address bar.
• Firefox now supports the Freedesktop.org
• A Picture-in-Picture player window can now optionally be opened automatically for a video playing in a tab when that tab goes into the background.

Here is what was fixed:

• Fixed an issue that prevented some Windows users from selecting a tab when the cursor was at the top of the screen and the Firefox window was maximized.
• Fixed a bug that made HTTP/3 requests containing non-UTF-8 header values time out or fall back to HTTP/2 after a while.
• A draggable button can now be dragged if initiated from the button itself.
• For Linux GNOME Mutter users, window and rendering surface sizes were updated to match the actual pixel grid so Firefox delivers sharp rendering on fractionally scaled displays regardless of the actual window size.

Additionally, the update fixes security vulnerabilities (will be available later) and changes plenty of stuff for developers and enterprise users. You will be able to find release notes on the official website (once they become available). If you want to update Firefox right now, you can get it from Mozilla's FTP. Firefox 147 will be available for download from existing installations in a few hours.

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Posted Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 4:04 am AEST (my time).

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Aside from details on the bugs themselves, Microsoft had also provided workarounds to fix the issues, which affected the entire Shell that comprises components like the Explorer, Taskbar, Start menu, and more. These fixes included commands to restart the Shell Infrastructure host as well as PowerShell logon scripts.

Microsoft however had committed an error in its provided commands. The company has now fixed it as it updated its relevant support article. Here is what the original version of the commands had stated:

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path 'C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\appxmanifest.xml' -DisableDevelopmentMode

 

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path 'C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS_8wekyb3d8bbwe\appxmanifest.xml' -DisableDevelopmentMode

 

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path 'C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.Core_cw5n1h2txyewy\appxmanifest.xml' -DisableDevelopmentMode

And here is the updated version:

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

 

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS_8wekyb3d8bbwe\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

 

Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.Core_cw5n1h2txyewy\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

Thus the commands have been updated as the single quotes have been replaced with double quotes, which in PowerShell can be significant depending on the variables, escape sequences, and static or dynamic strings/paths. In this particular case, the outcomes should be the same. You can find the support article here under KB5072911 on Microsoft's official site.

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Posted Monday 12 January 2026 at 12:10 pm AEST (my time).

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About Screen Ruler

Screen Ruler does exactly what it says on the tin; it measures the distance between various objects drawn on your screen. The good thing is that it offers various units of measurements and "advanced image edge detection technology" to accomplish this task. Although I am not proficient enough in Windows development to understand the open-source code base available on GitHub, my assumption is that it uses a combination of your display's metadata, cursor location, and screen display elements to achieve its goal of calculating distances.

Screen Ruler Functionalities

Screen Ruler can be triggered with the Win + Shift + M shortcut by default, and it should go without saying at this point that this activation method is configurable. Once you trigger it, you'll be presented with four modes represented by different icons, as can be seen in the screenshot above. I will describe them below in order:

• Bounding box: As you draw your cursor across the screen, the utility will show the length and width of the bounding box that you are drawing. One excellent feature available here is also that if you hold the Shift button while drawing, your bounding boxes will stay in place, along with their measures.
• Spacing: As you move your cursor to your target location, you'll be shown the vertical and horizontal distances to the neighboring element.
• Horizontal: Only show the horizontal distance between your target location and the neighboring element.
• Vertical: Only show the horizontal distance between your target location and the neighboring element.

You can toggle between all of these modes through Ctrl + 1, 2, 3, 4 and also scroll your mouse wheel to manually change the size of the measuring line by 15 units per wheel tick.

There are several other behavorial quirks that you can toggle as well. By default, when you select a measuring mode, your screen will become frozen as if you are measuring a screenshot. However, you can modify this so that all measurements occur in real-time, which will also consume more resources. Other advanced configurations include enabling per color channel edge detection and pixel tolerance for edge detection. The latter allows you to set a variance between 0 and 255 so that it respects display elements like gradients and shadows, and only measures the "true" object.

Notably, you can also change the color of the measuring line and show measurements in multiple formats, including pixels, or a combination of pixels with centimeters, millimeters, and inches.

Conclusion: An excellent tool for many... but not for me

Just like Color Picker in PowerToys, I strongly believe that Screen Ruler is a very useful tool for its target market; that being designers and developers. But, it is not something that I use in my workflows at all. There is nothing wrong with that. After all, PowerToys is meant to be a set of tools for power users of various types, it's not a "one shoe fits all" solution.

In its current state, Screen Ruler is pretty much feature-complete and I haven't noticed it being buggy in its calculations, even when I change my screen resolution. I don't know what else it could do for me to make me use it in my daily workflows, and that's okay, I'm not one of the target audiences.

This Closer Look piece is based on version 0.96.1 of Microsoft PowerToys, which is the latest version at the time of writing. Functionalities may change in newer versions of PowerToys when they become available.

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Posted Monday 12 January 2026 at 12:08 pm AEST (my time).

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This week, Google announced a new AI Inbox view for Gmail that replaces the traditional list of emails with an AI-generated list of to-dos and topics to track based on what’s in your inbox. It’s not widely available yet, but I have access, and in the few hours I’ve spent messing around with it, I can see how AI Inbox could be a helpful or even transformational way to manage your inbox. But right now, it’s not going to change the way I manage my email, and I’m not sure it ever will.

Before I dig in, I should note a few things upfront. AI Inbox is a very early product that’s currently only available to “trusted testers.” It’s unlikely that you can use this for yourself just yet, and what it’s like now may not be representative of what it will be like when it launches broadly. The feature currently only works with consumer Gmail accounts, not Workspace ones, so I’ve only been able to see how it handles my personal inbox, not with my much busier work inbox.

But as someone who already runs a very tight ship when it comes to my email, I was curious if AI Inbox could make my nearly inbox-zero system any better.

As I wrote this on Friday, there were six emails sitting in my personal inbox:

• A snoozed email from Chris Plante’s Post Games
• An email from Flipboard’s Surf app
• An email from my mortgage lender to review my annual escrow summary
• A recent Platformer newsletter I forwarded from my work email to my personal email
• A pitch from a friend sent to my personal email where I said I’d quick post something to The Verge
• And a newsletter from the gaming website Aftermath.

This, for me, is a high number; instead of deciding as soon as I can if I need to do something with the emails, I’ve let them sit to see how AI Inbox would handle them.

Screenshot

Jay Peters / The Verge

But if I click the new AI Inbox icon in my sidebar above the traditional inbox one, after a few seconds of loading, my inbox looks completely different.

Screenshot: Jay Peters / The Verge

 

Screenshot: Jay Peters / The Verge

 

With AI Inbox, my inbox instead becomes an AI-generated page of short summaries to read. There are suggested to-dos at the top, with links to the emails they’re about if I want to dig in more or respond. Under the to-dos, there are topics to catch up on, also with links to the relevant emails. Perhaps most notably, AI Inbox has pulled in two things that I’ve archived and aren’t in my main inbox: conversations between my wife and me about tax preparation and potty training for our toddler.

It’s all kind of like Google Search’s AI Mode, but for your Gmail. And similar to AI Mode, I don’t think AI Inbox is for me.

I have been actively using email since I was a teenager, so at this point I’ve spent decades honing my personal email management system. My philosophy is to keep my inbox neat, tidy, and compact; as soon as I can, I decide what I need to do with an email (read, reply, make a reminder against it, etc.) and then archive it.

AI Inbox, on the other hand, fills my screen with unnecessary information. I have to scroll down my 13-inch MacBook Air’s screen to see my full AI Inbox summary, but in my normal inbox, I have just six email threads to look at. The tool is also guessing, incorrectly, at what’s relevant to me right now; it doesn’t seem to factor in that I only keep things in my inbox that I need to figure out what to do with. Yes, while my wife and I do have to submit the tax engagement letter to our accountant, we don’t need to do it today, and we already have a plan for when we need to. Potty training planning also isn’t something that I need to catch up on because my wife and I are actively talking about it in real life.

That said, if you aren’t as ruthless as I am about keeping your email organized and your tasks in order, I can see how these nudges and suggestions from AI Inbox could be very useful. In an interview with The Verge, Blake Barnes, Google’s VP of product for Gmail, says that the company is seeing people treat AI Inbox as a complementary tool to their core inbox flow, and I think that’s the right way to look at it for now.

I should also reiterate that AI Inbox is a very early product that’s not widely available, and Google seems to have a lot of ideas on how to improve it. Barnes says the company is working on a way to mark one of the suggested items as completed. He says Google wants to add a quick-reply button to AI Inbox’s suggestions and potentially even suggest drafted replies for you. The company wants to integrate AI Inbox with Google Calendar so that suggested drafts could have preloaded suggested times if someone invites you to a meeting. He even described how users could eventually just tell AI Inbox to look out for emails from a certain person.

Should Google’s bigger ideas for AI Inbox come to fruition, you can see how Gmail could change from a constant deluge of things to firefight into an AI-supercharged personal assistant. Depending on how much you run your life through your email, that could be quite useful. But if that’s what AI Inbox turns into, you’re putting a lot of trust in Google’s AI to be able to handle that workload instead of figuring out your own system to manage your inbox exactly the way you want to.

Just as Google rapidly expanded AI Mode, I expect it will do the same with AI Inbox, and maybe it will become a tool in my arsenal down the line. I’ve also only been messing around with AI Inbox since Thursday night, so my opinion could change the longer I have it. But for now, I suspect I won’t be using AI Inbox much. Maybe I’m stuck in my ways, but my system works great for me, and I think it will hold up for years to come.

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Posted Monday 12 January 2026 at 5:12 am AEST (my time).

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Starting with Peek, a proposed pull request on GitHub suggests adding two features: the ability to keep Peek always on top and remove its icon from the taskbar for a more minimal experience. Both features are suggested as optional toggles, so those who prefer things the other way could revert to the original experience.

Moving to Light Switch, in its current form, it can only switch modes in Windows and apps. It lets you enable dark mode at sunset (or custom hours) and revert to light mode at sunrise. Before Microsoft introduced Light Switch with a PowerToys update, I used a wonderful app called Auto Dark Mode, which, in addition to theme switching, lets you select custom wallpapers for each mode. The same capability could make its way to PowerToys soon.

A user on GitHub proposed adding wallpaper support to PowerToys Light Switch. You should be able to select a different background for each mode, select its fit, and even apply wallpapers to each virtual desktop (it is an experimental feature in its current form). The author also wants to add the ability to adjust the system accent color for even more customization.

Unfortunately, for now, none of these pull requests have been approved by core contributors, so the work might still be rejected. Still, given the open-source nature of PowerToys, efforts like these are worth spreading the word about so that more devs can join and users can share their feedback. What is already confirmed, though, is a bunch of customization for the PowerToys Command Palette and a new monitor utility.

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 6:02 pm AEST (my time).

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Release notes for the December 2025 security update for Windows Server 2025 reveal that Microsoft is about to move Windows Server 2025 to separate update identifiers. This move will make things clearer for administrators and make it easier to distinguish updates for consumer Windows versions from updates for server versions:

KB Identifier changes for Windows Server 2025 starting January 2026

 

Starting with the January 2026 security update, Windows Server 2025 will have its own KB identifiers. These identifiers are separate from those for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. This change improves clarity for administrators. Installation and management processes remain the same.

This month's security updates for all supported Windows versions, including Windows 10 in the Extended Security Updates program, are coming January 13. Therefore, expect to see separate KBs for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 (these are built on the same branch, hence identical KB identifiers) and Windows Server 2025.

New update identifiers for Windows Server 2025 join recently introduced changes for Windows Update. In October, Microsoft announced simplified update names in Windows 11, but in November, the company promised to undo some of those changes, as users claimed the company had gone a bit too far with simplification. As such, Windows Update now displays the update type, its date, KB identifier, and the build number.

Via Deskmodder

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 5:32 am AEST (my time).

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Winslop was made by the same developer behind FlyOOBE, a quite popular tool for customizing Windows 11. It is based on the recently released Remove Windows AI script, but it builds on it with a few extra features. It is a native app that not only removes AI features but also adjusts Windows behavior, apps, default settings, and policies. The maker says Winslop is "modular by design," and future updates will expand the app with additional capabilities.

Winslop's UI is not what you would call a beautiful modern Windows app, but the list of options is quite extensive, and you can customize a lot of stuff, including AI, gaming, privacy, ads, Microsoft Edge, etc. There is also an option to revert changes, should you need to get things back to the original state. You can download Winslop from its GitHub repository.

It is very disappointing that Windows 11 users have to resort to such projects only to make the operating system less annoying. With Microsoft's CEO now claiming people should stop saying "AI slop," it is clear that tools like Winslop will only be getting more relevant and important going forward until Microsoft decides to make its operating system more user-friendly. While Microsoft sometimes throws its users a bone, the general direction of where Windows 11 is heading is certainly concerning.

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 5:30 am AEST (my time).

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Basically, the latest Preview build contains a new policy called RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp for Windows 11 Enterprise, Pro, and EDU SKUs. Looking at the name, you would think that it simply allows IT admins to remove Copilot from tenant devices, but this is not really the case. This policy only applies to devices and users who meet all of the following conditions:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are both installed
• The Microsoft Copilot app was not installed by the user
• The Microsoft Copilot app was not launched in the last 28 days

This essentially means that IT admins will only be able to uninstall the Copilot app for customers where their device has both Copilot apps installed by either a clean install or by the IT team itself, as long as the Copilot app has not been opened in a month. So, even if you accidentally open the Copilot app for a second because it's there in your Windows taskbar, the Copilot app won't be uninstalled.

This is a rather strange implementation, but it makes sense from Microsoft's business perspective. While, on the surface, the firm is portraying the impression that IT admins can simply remove the Copilot app from managed devices (as they should ideally be able to), they don't really have that much control, as indicated by the criteria for Copilot removal set above. IT admins are not typically shackled in this way, unless there's a technical reason for a limitation, but this seems to be more about making sure that Copilot sticks around for as long as possible on managed devices. It shouldn't be easy to remove, even for IT admins.

All in all, this is not really surprising, given how heavily Microsoft has been pushing Copilot, despite persistent backlash. While some may take it as a positive that the Redmond tech giant is at least posturing to its customers to some extent, it's undeniable that the implementation of this group policy is needlessly complicated - seemingly on purpose - for the end customer. You can check out the policy in User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows AI > Remove Microsoft Copilot App and file any feedback directly to Microsoft in the Feedback Hub (Win + F).

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 5:27 am AEST (my time).

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The updated Narrator that can use Copilot to generate better image descriptions using AI was first announced in 2025 for Copilot+ PCs (Snapdragon, AMD, and Intel). Now, Microsoft managed to make it work without relying on NPUs. You can press Narrator Key + Ctrl + D to make Narrator describe the focused image. The Narrator + Ctrl + S to describe the entire screen. When Narrator opens Copilot, you can enter a custom prompt to generate desired results, ask it to describe the image, and more.

Microsoft clarifies that Windows 11 won't send the selected image until you ask Copilot to describe it.

Narrator with Copilot is now rolling out gradually to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels with build 26220.7535. Note that the feature is not available in EEA countries. You can read more about Narrator with Copilot in the release notes for build 26220.7535.

Other useful additions to Windows 11 in recent Windows 11 builds include more language support for Settings Agent, a feature that lets you describe what you want to change in the Settings app with natural language. Also, Microsoft is adding Copilot to File Explorer, a feature that lets you quickly invoke Copilot to work with your files.

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 5:26 am AEST (my time).

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Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I completely forgot about it until now — probably because the option is hidden within a small, smiley face icon beside the Forward button. But now, Google is bringing emoji reactions to all Workspace users by default on February 9th, reminding me of their existence (and all the times I could’ve replied with a “thumbs-up” instead of a full-blown message).

Selecting the inconspicuous smiley face button displays a range of emoji you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they’ll see your reaction at the bottom of the email, as well as see the emoji as an update to the thread in their inbox. People using other email providers — or if they have emoji reactions disabled — will receive a separate email saying that you “reacted via Gmail.” Google introduced emoji reactions as an opt-in feature for Workspace users last April, so you may have seen them attached to your work email before this announcement.

Image: Google

 

Additionally, emails sent to multiple people will show how many people reacted to the message, and with which emoji. You can also hover over each reaction to see who it was from. As noted by Google, you won’t see the emoji reaction option for all emails, including if the message was sent to a group email list, if there are more than 20 recipients, or if you’ve “already sent more than 20 reactions to the same message” (lol).

Now that I know this feature exists again, I’m still not sure if I’m going to use it. Choosing an emoji might be easier than saying, “Thanks,” but I’m not sure if I’m ready to make my emails sound more like my text messages.

Source

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Posted Saturday 10 January 2026 at 5:19 pm AEST (my time).

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As of right now, Dev and Beta Channels share identical updates, with Microsoft releasing one build for both channels simultaneously. This allows Windows Insiders to switch between channels without reinstalling Windows. Soon, however, this opportunity will go away. Microsoft is getting ready to promote the Dev Channel to a higher-number build and leave the Beta Channel a bit behind. As such, users who do not want to risk encountering more bugs should consider switching to the Beta Channel right now.

Switching channels without reinstalling Windows is only possible when Microsoft offers identical builds for both channels. Once Dev is higher than Beta, downgrading is only possible by reinstalling Windows 11 from scratch.

If you want to leave Dev and switch to Beta, go to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider program. After that, your PC will stop receiving Dev updates and stay in the Beta channel with more stable updates ahead of their public rollout.

While the Dev and Beta Channels are Microsoft's playground for new Windows 11 features, Canary users can try the upcoming Windows 11 version 26H1, which is expected in the first half of this year. At CES 2026, manufacturers confirmed that the first PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 will ship in the first quarter of 2026. Other PCs will get this year's big Windows 11 update in the second half of the year in the form of Windows 11 version 26H2.

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Posted Saturday 10 January 2026 at 5:18 pm AEST (my time).

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Here are the new features:

Bringing Copilot-powered image descriptions to Narrator

Last year, we introduced rich image descriptions in Narrator on Copilot+ PCs—making it possible for blind and low-vision users to hear detailed, AI-generated descriptions of images, charts, and graphs.

Narrator can now work with Copilot on all Windows 11 devices to further understand images and visual elements on your screen. You can press Narrator key + Ctrl + D to describe the focused image or press Narrator key + Ctrl + S to describe the full screen. Copilot opens with the image ready, allowing you to enter your own prompt and generate a description tailored to what you want to know. Importantly, the image is only shared after you choose to describe it. You remain in control at every step. When you want more detail or follow-up insights, simply select Ask Copilot to continue exploring.

This feature is not available in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Uninstalling Microsoft Copilot App on managed devices

Admins can now uninstall Microsoft Copilot for a user in a targeted way by enabling a new policy titled RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp. It will apply for devices/users that meet the below conditions:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are both installed
• The Microsoft Copilot app was not installed by the user
• The Microsoft Copilot app was not launched in the last 28 days

If this policy is enabled, the Microsoft Copilot app will be uninstalled, once. Users can still re-install if they choose to. This policy is available on Enterprise, Pro, and EDU SKUs.

To enable this policy, open the Group policy editor and go to: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows AI -> Remove Microsoft Copilot App.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[For Developers]

We’re excited to share an enhancement to the Cross Device Resume capability that we announced earlier. Until now, app developers could integrate with Resume using a solution based on the Link to Windows app. We’ve now introduced an additional integration path leveraging the Windows Notification System (WNS). This additional option expands the scope of users to whom you can offer Resume capability, while delivering the same seamless experience on Windows. We invite developers to explore onboarding with this new capability alongside the existing integration method. Together, these options help maximize continuity across devices. Use WNS Notifications to implement Cross Device Resume (XDR) – Windows apps | Microsoft Learn.

[Windows Spotlight]

The Windows Spotlight icon is getting refreshed. The new icon flight was started in late December for a small set of Insiders.

Here is what was fixed:

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue where the edge of the warning dialog shown when shutting down your PC while other users were still signed in was truncated by the edge of the Start menu.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue which was causing explorer.exe to crash for some Insiders when invoking the context menu on the desktop recently.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue which could lead to a black flash when using a pen to ink in Snipping Tool.

[Print]

• Fixed an issue which could lead to two print dialogs appearing when you opened print instead of just one.
• Fixed the color of the close button the print dialog to be consistent with other windows.
• Fixed an issue where the text on the Printers and Scanners page in Settings could become truncated and unreadable.

[Windows Update]

• Fixed an issue which could lead to the Windows Update settings page hanging when loading.

And here is the list of known bugs:

[Xbox full screen experience for PC]

• Some apps may behave unexpectedly when using FSE, particularly those that expect to be locked to a given size or launch additional windows.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue which is causing the Start menu to not open for some Insiders on click, although it will open if you press the Windows key. This issue may also potentially impact the notification center (which you can open with WIN + N) and quick settings (WIN + A).
• We’re investigating an issue where for some Insiders apps aren’t showing in the system tray when they should be.
• We’re working on the fix for an issue in the latest builds where, when the taskbar is set to autohide, it might invoke before interacting with the bottom of the screen, blocking the use of apps in that area.

[Settings]

• [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Settings to crash when interacting with audio devices.

[Bluetooth]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Bluetooth device battery level to not show for some Insiders.

[Click to Do]

• We’re investigating an issue where the Microsoft 365 Copilot prompt box on selected images does not function if the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is not running.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Posted Saturday 10 January 2026 at 6:19 am AEST (my time).

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An invisible button has been spotted in the File Explorer app on the latest Windows 11 preview builds. Currently, the button is non-functional, only appearing when you hover over a blank space in the navigation bar, but that hasn't stopped Windows Insider sleuths from looking into what it might be for.

Discovered by @phantomofearth, it appears the button will be tied to Copilot. Strings spotted in the current Windows 11 preview builds specifically mentions a feature called "Chat with Copilot," along with an option to detach the Copilot interface from the File Explorer window.

We don't yet know much else about the new button in File Explorer, but it's likely to invoke a Copilot sidebar or pop-up that lets you chat directly with Copilot about a document, photos, or other file type that you've selected within the File Explorer app.

Here's a mock-up of what that could possibly look like:

On Windows 11, you can use the Microsoft Edit tool to work with text files while in Command Prompt or PowerShell without having to switch applications, and in this guide, I'll show you everything you need to know to get started.

Microsoft Edit is a simple utility that is under 250KB, similar to Linux command-line editors such as Nano, Vim, and Micro.

This editor is not brand-new to the operating system. In older versions, Microsoft included the MS-DOS Editor for text editing. However, Microsoft Edit is an open-source, more modern alternative with 64-bit architecture support. In addition, it's not only available for Windows 11 (and 10), but it's also available for Linux.

In this how-to guide, I'll outline the steps to get started with Microsoft Edit on Windows 11.

How to use Microsoft Edit on Windows 11

Microsoft now ships the Edit command-line tool with the latest version of the operating system, but you can install it manually if it's not yet available on your device.

Installation

To install Microsoft Edit on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option.
3. Type the following winget command to install Microsoft Edit and press Enter: winget install --id Microsoft.Edit

 ZDNET's key takeaways

• The Linux desktop will continue to grow.
• Linux and open-source security will both improve.
• Firefox is in deep, deep trouble.

Clearly, AI will play a larger role in Linux and open source next year, but that's true of pretty much all technology. However, while AI will be used to help develop the Linux kernel, no one is predicting, a la Windows, that AI will be used to rewrite the entire codebase by 2030. That said, open source will remain at the heart of AI.

The continued rise of the Linux desktop

For Linux, I see more desktop distributions aimed at ex-Windows users. As a result, the Linux desktop, which has already been growing faster than ever, will continue to grow even faster. Microsoft is helping by continuing to push AI down Windows users' throats. Attention Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO: Windows fans don't want AI. Sure, some do. Most, however, don't.

In addition, as my colleague on the Windows side of life, Ed Bott, points out, Microsoft's current course toward more restrictions on which applications Windows can run, and a monthly subscription model for Windows, is almost certain to disillusion even hardcore Windows users.

All this means Linux's opportunity for growth will only continue to grow. Now, we'll see if Linux can take advantage of its new chances. You see, as Linus Torvalds himself pointed out long ago, we have too many Linux desktops.

Imagine yourself at a grocery store in another country, and you want a new breakfast cereal. You're presented with over a hundred different boxes, and you don't know a thing about any of them. How will you decide? Or will you just throw up your hands and order Windows 12 via Amazon from back home because you can't make heads or tails of all the local cereals?

It's the same with Linux. If you go to DistroWatch, you'll find over a hundred desktops. I can't tell them all apart, and I cover this stuff for a living. We need a distro to step forward to become the top choice.

That has never happened because every Linux distribution maker thinks their way is the best way. The closer you look, the more differences you'll find between the distros. For example, there are more than half a dozen viable Linux desktop interfaces such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, Cinnamon, etc.

I have some ideas on how to address this issue, but that's a story for another day. For now, even though there are still too many Linux desktops, the Linux desktop will continue to grow.

Rust becomes 'normal' in kernel and core tools

Earlier this month, Linux kernel developers formally ended the "Rust experiment," declaring Rust a permanent core language for Linux. Indeed, the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) graphics maintainers are already talking about requiring Rust for new drivers within about a year.

Even before, the Debian Linux developers had decided that, by May 2026, all further development of its core APT package manager would be done in Rust. Why? Because Rust is memory safe. This stops in their tracks many kinds of security problems that C, Linux's main language, has proven all too prone to over the decades.

Don't think, however, that it's all peaches and cream now for Rust on Linux. 

As Miguel Ojeda, leader of the Rust for Linux project, has said, "Rust is here to stay, ... this does not mean that everything works for every kernel configuration, architecture, toolchain, etc." 

There's still a lot of work to be done. That said, Ojeda also noted that Android 16 devices based on the 6.12 Linux kernel include the new Rust-based anonymous shared memory allocator (ashmem). That means millions of devices are already using Rust for Linux in production. Rust is here. Rust is real. And Rust is already at work.

However, unlike Microsoft, which appears to plan to move all of Windows to Rust by 2030, there are no such plans for Linux. Someday, all of Linux may be written in Rust, but I can't see it happening until the 2050s, and maybe not even then. After all, for pure performance, short of writing code in assembler, nothing's faster than C.

Oh, and for Windows' Rust plans? Good luck with converting that mess of a codebase into Rust in four years. Fourteen? Maybe.

Immutable Linux goes mainstream

Immutable Linux distributions are gaining traction because read-only system images, atomic updates, and transactional package layers significantly simplify rollback and reduce "dependency hell." Analysts are explicitly framing immutability as a "new era of security and stability."

Now, immutable Linux distros, such as Fedora Silverblue, OpenSUSE MicroOS, and Ubuntu Core, have been around for a while.

Previously, though, only Linux enthusiasts used them in containers. Enterprise Linux is now switching to them.

The leading example of an immutable business is the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10. While you can still use the old tools to maintain RHEL, you now have the choice of going the immutable route. As time goes on, I expect more enterprise distributions to follow this trend. It's much easier to manage.

Security and supply-chain hardening across the stack

Some inherent changes, such as Rust's integration into Linux, are guaranteed to make Linux more secure. 

Linux and open source are also on track to become more secure in 2026, as the ecosystem simultaneously hardens the kernel, professionalizes supply-chain defenses, and scales coordinated security programs like the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) across vendors and governments.

Starting with Linux, the Kernel Self-Protection Project and similar efforts are pushing more exploit-mitigation features upstream. Simultaneously, risk-based patching and AI-assisted triage are making it easier to prioritize and deploy fixes at scale.

At the same time, open-source supply-chain attacks have driven widespread adoption of Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA), and signed provenance. 

Sigstore is now integrated into major platforms like GitHub and GitLab, which will make verifiable signing routine by 2026. That's important because, more than ever, developers need to know what's actually in any given program and who really wrote it.

It's not just, by the way, that this just makes good security sense. In Europe, with the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) now in force, it's the law. The CRA requires anyone, by the end of next year, who sells any product containing software, including open-source programs, to have an SBOM. Period. End of statement.

Open source becomes essential for AI agents

Last year, over in AI land, everyone was talking about how 2025 would be the year of Agentic AI. Leading the hype pack was OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who said, "In 2025, we may see the first AI agents join the workforce and materially change the output of companies." He was wrong. Agents aren't ready yet.

If AI agents are really going to be all that -- and I'm not convinced they will be -- it will be because of the open-standard Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF). This new, open standards industry-backed consortium gets pretty much everyone who's anyone in AI agents on the same page for sharing data and making interactions easy for agents. Without interoperability, agents will go nowhere.

Firefox falls

I started this story by mentioning how people are annoyed with Microsoft for forcing AI on its users. Their bad temper is nothing -- nothing -- compared to how Firefox users are reacting to Mozilla pushing AI into their favorite browser.

When Mozilla declared that AI would be Firefox's future, its users quickly said, and I quote from the Mozilla Connect list, "Once again, Mozilla is SPRINTING to chase after the stupidest tech-brained trends and not actually focused on improving the product at all." 

This was followed up by comments such as "Stop chasing slop and actually work on making sure your browser competes with Chromium in REAL areas like speed and functionality, not in digital hallucinations." And one I especially liked: "I would LOVE a function that helps me remove AI slop from my everyday browser. I would really encourage Mozilla to develop this."

Mozilla backed off quickly. 

On Mastodon, Mozilla retreated to "Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features. We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this."

I think the damage has already been done. As I've been saying for years, Firefox has been declining. 

The people in charge of the project keep chasing one new tech craze after another, such as briefly accepting cryptocurrency donations and Firefox Hello, a built-in WebRTC video and voice calling feature, while abandoning popular features such as built-in RSS support (Live Bookmarks) and legacy add-ons/XUL extensions. 

Mozilla has also pursued such massive projects as its own device operating system, Firefox OS; a Virtual Private Network (VPN); and Mozilla Monitor Plus, a paid data-broker scan and removal service. What Mozilla hasn't been doing, many Firefox users have complained, is improving Firefox's performance.

The result has been that Firefox's popularity has been sinking into irrelevance for years. Over the last 90 days, Firefox's market share has sunk in the US to a mere 1.7%. At one time, Firefox had a 34.1% market share. It will never see those numbers again. I fear, by this time next year, thanks to how annoyed its most loyal users are, it will drop below 1%.

Firefox was once one of open source's greatest success stories. Now, its day is almost done.

Well, it couldn't all be great days ahead, could it? Still, taken all in all-in-all, I expect 2026 to be a banner year for both Linux and open-source software. 

Source

A free community script called RemoveWindowsAI addresses that gap. It disables Windows AI features at the system level and then configures Windows Update to avoid reinstalling them. The script targets Copilot, Recall, and Copilot integrations inside core applications, with options to disable everything or only selected components.

RemoveWindowsAI works by applying a set of registry changes rather than modifying system files. The goal is to remove visible AI entry points and keep them disabled across cumulative updates, which is something Windows does not currently support through official settings.

The script is designed for users who want Windows to behave like a traditional desktop operating system, without persistent prompts or UI elements tied to Microsoft's AI features.

What the script changes

When run with all options enabled, RemoveWindowsAI removes Copilot from the taskbar and uninstalls the Copilot app entirely. References to Copilot disappear from the Settings app, and AI buttons inside applications such as Notepad and Paint are disabled.

The script also attempts to prevent those components from returning. After disabling the features, it applies update-related workarounds so Windows Update does not automatically reinstall the removed AI packages. This matters because Copilot and related features are often restored during monthly updates.

Changes are applied immediately, and the script reports progress directly in the PowerShell window. No reboot is usually required, although some app-level changes may only be visible after restarting the affected applications.

Running RemoveWindowsAI

RemoveWindowsAI must be run using Windows PowerShell 5.1. Systems that only use the default PowerShell included with Windows are already compatible. PowerShell 7 is not supported.

To use the script:

1. Open Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
2. Confirm the version is PowerShell 5.1.
3. Copy the install command from the RemoveWindowsAI project page. The command is not repeated here because it may change.
4. Paste the command into PowerShell and run it.
5. Select which AI features to disable when the menu appears.

The script can be rerun later to re-enable features, though future Windows updates may still require reapplying the changes.

Impact and limitations

The main advantage is consistency. Windows provides individual toggles for some AI features, but they do not cover all integrations and are frequently reset. RemoveWindowsAI applies a single set of changes that affect the entire system.

There are limitations. The script is unofficial and relies on current Windows behavior. Feature updates or major version upgrades can reintroduce AI components or override update blocks. New AI features added by Microsoft may not be covered until the script is updated.

Microsoft does not offer a supported way to disable all AI features globally, and this approach remains dependent on community maintenance.

Source

Microsoft is celebrating the resurgence of interest in physical media in the only way it knows how… by halting the Windows Media Player metadata service.

Readers of a certain vintage will remember inserting a CD into their PC and watching Windows Media Player populate with track listings and album artwork. No more. Sometime before Christmas, the metadata servers stopped working and on Windows 10 or 11, the result is the same: album not found.

We tried this out at Vulture Central on some sacrificial Windows devices that had media drives and can confirm that a variety of compact discs were met with stony indifference. Some 90s cheese that was successfully ripped (for personal use, of course) decades ago? No longer recognized. A reissue of something achingly hip? Also not recognized.

We asked Microsoft if the service had indeed been retired or if there might be a reprieve or workaround, but we were met with equal indifference from the tech giant's PR organ.

A message on a Reddit forum purporting to be a chat with a Microsoft support representative suggested that the servers have indeed been shut down, and that a third-party alternative should be sourced.

Alternatively, customers can manually enter the information, like it's the 1990s all over again.

The timing is unfortunate. Tired of content vanishing from streaming services or disappearing into algorithmic feeds, consumers are returning to physical media like CDs.

Physical media drives have yet to completely disappear from Windows devices, but the default service used by Windows Media Player for album information, musicmatch-ssl.xboxlive.com, does not appear to serve up any metadata.

Windows Media Player has a long history with Windows. First released as part of the Multimedia Extensions for Windows 3.0, it evolved over the years, gaining support for streaming, ripping, and burning CDs. It survived Microsoft's Zune experiment and remains in Windows 11 - though now branded "Legacy" as Microsoft pushes users toward its modern Media Player app.

Microsoft does not share its device telemetry, but it clearly concluded too few users still play CDs to justify maintaining the metadata services.

Apple's iTunes, on the other hand, recognized every CD we threw at it. ®

Source

In summary:

• PCWorld reports that Windows 11’s market share dropped to 50.73% in December 2025, falling over 3 percentage points after previous growth appeared temporary.
• Windows 10 defied expectations by increasing to 44.68% market share despite Microsoft ending official support for the older operating system.
• Microsoft faced significant challenges in 2025 with struggling AI initiatives and Windows update issues, making it a difficult year for adoption.

Microsoft is entering 2026 with discouraging numbers for Windows 11, as the latest figures from Statcounter reveal that market share for Microsoft’s operating system fell further in December despite the ending of support for Windows 10 in much of the world.

Image: Statcounter

The share of Windows 11 users fell by just over 3 percentage points, from 53.7 percent down to 50.73. At the same time, the share of Windows 10 users increased from 42.7 percent to 44.68 percent, while the share of Windows 8 users actually rose from 2.93 percent to 3.83. (Huh.)

Overall, 2025 seems to have been a bit of a nightmare year for Microsoft, with—among other things—floundering AI initiatives that didn’t really catch on, plus a series of inadequate Windows updates.

Source

Windows 11 gets a bad rep in the community because of its higher baseline overhead, stringent hardware requirements, UI regressions, and more - not to mention the forced Microsoft hooks that keep getting worse by the day. Moreover, when placed in a rather unscientific test by TrigrZolt, comparing six different generations of Windows with each other, it placed dead last in pretty much every individual test, though the situation is a bit more nuanced.

Six Lenovo ThinkPad X220 laptops were used in the test, featuring a Core i5-2520M CPU and 8GB of RAM, with a 256GB hard drive — running the latest versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 11. That setup alone should tell you how the methodology employed here is skewed toward favoring older software. Windows 11 isn't even officially supported on these components.

Regardless, the experiment begins with a startup test, where Windows 8.1 booted up the quickest, while Windows 11 was the slowest. Both of these versions (and Windows 10) have Fast Boot capability that older Windows editions lack. In the video, we also see that Windows 11 struggles to load the taskbar for a bit, an infamous quirk of the OS that's been heavily scrutinized ever since launch.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Then comes the storage test, where it's Windows XP that takes the cake, with only 18.9GB of space taken up for all the apps installed. The same number of programs, along with Windows itself, took 37.3GB of hard drive real estate on Windows 11, so there's definitely a lot of extras there. But Windows 11 actually came third here, behind Windows Vista, at 37.8GB, and the revered Windows 7, at a whopping 44.6GB.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Next up is RAM management where Windows XP is the winner once again, consuming only 0.8GB of system memory at idle, while Windows 11's appetite grew to 3.3GB on average; it jumped to 3.7GB at one point. This is because of the added resources the OS loads in the background, including persistent telemetry.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Older hardware with less RAM, therefore, will be more susceptible to sluggishness on Windows 11. Keep in mind, TrigrZolt is also running a system with a hard drive, which are outdated at this point regardless of your operating system loyalties. Any modern system with a decent CPU and NVMe SSD will likely mask over the general inefficiency Windows 11 shows, plus options like debloat tools and Xbox FSE can further help here.

Now we move on to the second part of the RAM management test, where the YouTuber loaded as many browser tabs as possible before the memory hits 5GB of utilization. Since Firefox and Chrome don't load webpages properly anymore on archaic Windows versions, a more widely-compatible browser called Supermium was used across all devices.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Once again, Windows 11 places dead last here, only being able to load a measly 49 tabs. Compare that to the insane 252 tabs Windows 8.1 was able to load. Even the older Windows XP managed 50 tabs, and that's because it kept crashing past that number because of its paging file failing to keep up, not because it had hit the 5GB memory ceiling.

Our fourth test is for battery life and, of course, Windows 11 died first here, while Windows XP walked away with the best endurance. Though, the delta between all the devices was only about two minutes so it won't make a difference in real-world usage. All the laptops had 100% battery health, too, and the same program was run to drain them as quickly as possible.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Moving on, exporting an audio file in Audacity once again put Windows 11 at fifth place, only ahead of Windows Vista which was experiencing an unusual delay, otherwise all laptops finished around the same time. The same fate follows Windows 11 when it came to rendering a video, finishing in last, with Windows 10 taking first place. Here, Windows XP and Vista couldn't load the OpenShot Video Editor that was used, so they were disqualified.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

Finally, we arrive at our last test, which are benchmarks. Windows XP took the crown in CPU-Z's single threaded load while Windows 7 topped the multithreaded charts, and Windows 11 was fourth in both. Geekbench was also tested, but the versions are different for Windows 10/11 and the rest. Between those two, Windows 11 scored higher in single-core but lower in multicore.

Among the older operating systems, Windows Vista walked away with the highest score.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

TrigrZolt also tested CrystalDiskMark and Windows 11 netted a decent third place here, tied with Windows 10, while Windows XP won. In Cinebench R10 single-core, Windows 8.1 got its second victory of the day, pushing Windows 11 down to fourth place. Multicore was even worse for Windows 11 because it only beat Windows 10 by a few points to save itself from scoring last; Windows Vista walked away as the fastest.

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

(Image credit: TrigrZolt on YouTube)

All in all, this was a pretty devastating showing for Windows 11 where it couldn't even win a single test. However, the hardware is just so outdated at this point that it doesn't represent the Windows 11 experience faithfully. The laptops were never designed to run a modern operating system, neither does Microsoft's latest OS support this hardware.

If you were to use modern laptops that came out in the Windows 10/11 era, the results would likely be skewed the other way. The omission of an SSD, especially, is strange since that's a component every edition of Windows will benefit from, and something that truly does hold back Windows 11 here. Though, it's still a little embarrassing, considering Windows 10 didn't suffer nearly as much without it.

The YouTuber himself mentions that this test represents historic value more than practicality. He ended up giving the overall win to Windows 8.1, saying how fluid and fast it felt, despite being ridiculed at the time of its release. It's also more visually consistent with Windows 10/11 than it is with Windows 7/Vista, so it doesn't look outdated.

A better methodology would've been to use flagship — or even midrange, for that matter — laptops from every generation: custodians of that era of Windows, so that each version had the best shot at performing at its full potential. As it stands right now, while it's quite funny to see Microsoft's increasingly AI-riddled OS loose against legacy offerings, the test just wasn't set up fairly to begin with.

Source

A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company killed the ability to activate Windows via phone on December 3, 2025. Before that, it served as a convenient and useful way to activate Windows on so-called "air-gapped" systems that have no access to the internet or a legal tool for activating long-unsupported Windows versions.

Now, however, all of that is history, and any attempt to call the offline activation line results in the robot reading the following message: "Support for product activation has moved online. For the fastest and most convenient way to activate your product, please visit our online product activation portal at aka.ms/aoh."

Fortunately, it is still possible to activate Windows 11 in offline mode or without a Microsoft Account. If you only want to activate a Windows copy with a local account, you can go to Settings > Activation and just enter your license key.

For those who want to activate an offline copy, things are a bit more challenging but still possible. Microsoft says that offline activation remains available, but users need a second device with an active internet connection to log into the online activation portal and follow its instructions to get the job done. Sadly, this means that official activation of old Windows versions for whatever reason you have is now virtually impossible.

Source: The Verge

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Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 9 January 2026 at 5:50 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025: 5,700+

RIP Matrix