Microsoft Weekly: dirty Bing tricks, the year of Windows 11 PC refresh, and Surface event

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Microsoft doing shady stuff to make people use Bing, a big drop of new hardware, a "year of Windows 11 PC refresh," only one new Windows 11 preview build, an upcoming Surface event, and more.

Table of contents:

1. Windows 10 and 11 news
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Reviews are in
5. Gaming news

Windows 11 and 10

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.

With the end of Windows 10 support coming very soon, Microsoft is doubling down on Windows 11 and its latest Copilot+ PCs. The company stated that 2025 is the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh. Microsoft expects that nearly 80% of businesses will update their PCs by the end of 2025 and that 70% of customers will update their PCs in the next two years.

Dell and AMD also offered their reasoning as to why customers should ditch Windows 10 in favor of newer devices with Windows 11.

Windows 10 is not the only Microsoft product scheduled to kick the bucket in October 2025. Microsoft revealed that certain Teams Rooms devices won't be able to update to Windows 11 once the mainstream Windows 10 support is over. Those include Lenovo Hub 500 (i5-7500T), HP Slice G2 (i5-7500T), HP Elite Slice (i5-7500T), Yealink NUC – NUC7i5DNKE (i5-7300U), and more.

As usual, we finish the Windows 11 section with some odd stuff. You might know that Windows 11 requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM. However, enthusiasts made it possible to run the OS with 22 times less RAM than necessary. Here is Windows 11 with just 184MB of random access memory.

If that is not enough, here is a former Microsoft software engineer who helped ship various Windows versions, pedaling Windows 11 piracy on the internet and claiming that Microsoft does not care.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

Updates are available

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.

Microsoft is preparing an update for its Surface lineup, namely its Business side. Earlier this week, the company published a teaser on LinkedIn, notifying users about the upcoming January 30 event. There, Microsoft promises to unveil a "major announcement from Surface for Business."

At CES 2025, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel announced a bunch of new hardware. To begin with, Nvidia unveiled the RTX 5000 Series for desktop computers and mobile devices. The desktop lineup consists of four models: the RTX 5070, the RTX 5070 Ti, the RTX 5080, and the RTX 5090. The latter is obviously the most interesting, but the RTX 5070 offers some impressive performance, which Nvidia compares to the RTX 4090.

In addition to the new graphics card, Nvidia announced DLSS 4, the next generation of its super sampling tech. Besides impressive performance uplifts, DLSS 4 is available on older graphics cards, all the way down to the RTX 2000 Series (with limited features, though).

Moving on to Intel, we have the full lineup of Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The series consists of various models with V, HX, H, and U suffixes that indicate different specs and capabilities for different device form factors.

Qualcomm also announced new processors. One processor, to be precise. The Snapdragon X lineup has expanded into a lower tier to pave the way for $600 Copilot+ PCs. The new Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) model is an eight-core SKU with slightly lower clocks than the most affordable Snapdragon X Plus mode. Still, it has the same GPU and NPU, ensuring even performance in AI tasks across the lineup.

Finally, we have AMD with its latest Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor. The newest chip with stacked 3D V-Cache offers some serious performance uplifts over its predecessor and Intel-made processors. The 9950X3D is made for desktop users, but those on the mobile side also have a bunch of new chips to look ahead to, including one with a 3D cache. One of those mobile processors boasts significant horsepower in AI tasks, and AMD even says it beats the RTX 4090, Apple M4 Pro, and Intel Core Ultra 9.

For gamers, AMD unveiled ML-powered FidelityFX SR 4, but this tech will only be available on the upcoming RX 9000 Series GPUs. Plus, AMD announced the next Ryzen Z2 chip for handheld devices.

Microsoft's Bing also received some updates this week. Users noticed that the search giant started disguising itself as Google to prevent users from using Bing as a shortcut to the rival service. This questionable practice sparked outrage among customers, and Microsoft rolled back this terrible decision shortly afterward.

Mozilla has updated Firefox to version 134. It is now available for download with hardware acceleration for H.265 on Windows, improved popup blocking, and more.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Microsoft Outlook for Mac is getting more Copilot integration in the coming update

• Microsoft to pump $3 billion into India-based AI and cloud infrastructure

• PowerPoint gets SRT file support for captions and subtitles

• Microsoft rolled back the latest Bing Image Creator update after user backlash

• Microsoft takes legal action against bad actors using AI for sophisticated exploitation

• Google Drive now supports differential sync for faster file uploads

• Microsoft fixes OneDrive freezes on macOS, offers affected users a workaround

   

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

• Surface Studio 2+, Surface Pro 9 (Intel), Surface Laptop Go 3, and Surface Laptop 4 (Intel) received new firmware with audio improvements and security fixes.

Reviews are in

Here is hardware and software we reviewed this week

We had plenty of reviews published this week. Robbie Khan reviewed the KTC H32S25E, an affordable 32-inch 1440p 240Hz monitor with a VA panel and VRR support. Besides solid specs, it offers minor ghosting and good performance. However, it is still a VA panel, so look out for VA glow, backlight bleed, no HDMI 2.1, and poor viewing angles.

Another review from Robbie this week is the NYXI FLexi, a solid controller with great stick latency, customizable layouts, stable connection, and great build quality. Just be aware of the cheap vibration, lack of trigger locks, and low polling rate over Bluetooth. Great controller overall, with a final rating of 8/10.

Steven Parker took a look at the Beelink EQ14, an affordable Office-class mini PC with the latest Intel Twin Lake N150 processor. This bare-bones machine is cheap, efficient, and has all the necessary ports for modern computing.

Finally, we compared the performance of Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 24H2 to help you decide whether you should update to the latest release, which, to be honest, is not the best one in terms of bugs and various known issues. The results are likely to surprise you.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

Microsoft is starting its gaming year with a new Developer_Direct event. It will happen on January 23 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET time. Expect to see DOOM: The Dark Ages from id Studios in Richardson, Texas; South of Midnight from Compulsion Games in Montreal, Canada; as well as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from Sandfall Interactive in Montpellier, France. An unknown game is teased as well.

Forza Motorsport received its 16th update. Turn 10 Studios kicked off 2025 with a BMW-focused update. In addition to BMW-themed events and rewards, the update brought balancing changes for the Featured Multiplayer Spec Series, namely tuning adjustments to several existing cars.

Microsoft announced that the next wave of Xbox Game Pass titles will be coming soon to the service. They include UFC 5, Diablo, Road 96, Rolling Hills, and more. Note that six games will leave the subscription as well, so check them out here.

If you own a Steam Deck and you would like to play unsupported games (or games that are unreachable for the handheld specs), you will be able to do that using a native GeForce NOW app for the Steam Deck, which is coming soon.

On the hardware side, we have a new, slightly cursed controller. If you wanted an Xbox-branded DualSense gamepad, the latest creation from Hyperking is just for you. Just look at it... Yikes!

As for the official hardware from Microsoft, there are rumors that Microsoft will unveil the next-generation Xbox in 2026, and the next Call of Duty will be its day-one launch title.

Other gaming stories from this week include the following:

• Microsoft Rewards on Xbox gets an overhaul, adds Quests to PC Game Pass

• Microsoft is bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to LG Smart TVs

   

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