Nov 19th 2025
Windows Weekly 959
Thurrott Syndrome
Microsoft Faces AI Backlash as Windows 11 Evolves
Records live every Wednesday at 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific / 19:00 UTC.
Ahead of Microsoft Ignite 2025, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri tweeted an innocuous post about nothing, and all hell broke loose. We are broken as a community and it’s time to cull the herd.
Ignite 2025
- Fun aside: Google could have announced Gemini 3 at any time, but they chose the opening day of Ignite. Who’s dancing now?
- No Satya and suddenly the keynote is watchable again
- Microsoft brings Anthropic models to Foundry along with Nvidia architecture
- MCP comes to Windows 11 in public preview for developers
- New Microsoft 365 Copilot agents for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Agent 365 is the obvious name of an AI agent management service
- Windows 11 is getting agents on the Taskbar because it isn’t annoying enough already
Windows 11
- Two new Release Preview builds, a new Canary build, and the first release of Copilot Actions
- The RP builds are a preview of Patch Tuesday in December, it’s bigger than expected
- Dev/Beta build with experimental AI agent capabilities, more
AI
- OpenAI released ChatGPT 5.1 and it’s like no one noticed
- Mozilla announces AI window for Firefox, with immediate backlash
Xbox and gaming
- Qualcomm JUST announced a new control panel for Snapdragon X gaming
- Hands-on with the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) for Windows 11
- FSE Transforms a gaming handheld PC into a device-like experience
- Frame rates see a dramatic jump in FSE Call of Duty, which was surprising
- Fortnite is coming to the Xbox app in Windows, adding Xbox Play Anywhere support
- Xbox announces a new set of titles coming to Game Pass across platforms
- Xbox Partner Preview event is set for November 20
- As predicted, Steam Machine is the “Xbox Microsoft wanted to make.” Yes, it’s a good idea now that someone else is doing it
Tips and picks
- Tip of the week: Tiny11 Builder, again
- Hardware pick of the week: Lenovo Legion Go 2
- RunAs Radio this week: Azure SRE Agents with Deepthi Chelupati
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve 2007
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Links
- Google Releases Gemini 3 in Preview
- Anthropic’s Claude Models Are Coming to Microsoft Foundry and Adopting Nvidia Architecture
- Ignite 2025: MCP Comes to Windows Developers in Preview
- Ignite 2025: Microsoft 365 Copilot Adds New Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Agents, and More
- Ignite 2025: Windows 11 is Getting Agents on the Taskbar and More AI Features
- From the Editor’s Desk: Noise, Distractions, and Something Much Worse ⭐
- Windows Insider Program Releases Copilot Actions, New Release Preview Builds
- New Dev and Beta Build Enables New Agentic Features
- OpenAI Releases GPT-5.1 Model With New Personalization Options
- Mozilla Announces AI Window for Firefox
- Game on: Windows on Snapdragon delivers major performance boosts and more
- Hands-On: Windows 11 Full Screen Experience ⭐
- Fortnite is Coming to the Xbox App on PC With Xbox Play Anywhere Support
- The Crew Motorfest, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and More Are Coming to Game Pass
- Valve Announces New Steam Machine, Steam Frame Headset, and Steam Controller
- Tiny11 Builder 2025 Round 3: Customization Fails, New Laptop Install ⭐
- Lenovo Legion Go 2 Review
- Azure SRE Agents with Deepthi Chelupati
- Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve 2007