News and Updates about Windows Tips

Microsoft is reshaping Copilot Notebooks from a source-grounded question-and-answer tool into something that can act on notebook content: delegating tasks, running recurring automations, and editing Office files directly inside a notebook, according to Neowin.

Microsoft started rolling out a rebuilt Photos app for Windows 11 to Windows Insiders on October 15, combining a new Gallery, Editor, and Viewer into a single interface that pulls in photos from a PC, OneDrive, and iCloud.

Microsoft says it has optimized Windows 11 for 8GB RAM machines, reworking memory management so the OS can keep up to 2GB more active data in RAM instead of shuffling it off to slower storage. The claim comes from a post on Microsoft's official Windows blog. The reporting reviewed doesn't name a build number, release channel, or a list of qualifying devices, so there's no way yet to confirm whether a specific 8GB PC has actually received this change.

Microsoft has created a new internal group called Xbox Labs, but what Xbox CEO Asha Sharma actually confirmed is a small research team exploring emerging technology, not a game, app, or AI-created port that players can use today. Sharma announced the group in an October 13 post on Microsoft's official Xbox Wire website, and PCMag Middle East reported that the move follows a rise in AI-assisted game decompilation among enthusiasts and software developers.

Microsoft and NVIDIA are both talking about local AI on Windows right now, but they're describing two products at very different stages of readiness. One is Microsoft Copilot+ PC local AI processing, a hardware certification already sitting on store shelves. The other is NVIDIA's RTX Spark, a GPU/CPU "superchip" that exists mostly as company specifications and a fall ship date. If you're shopping based on either company's local-AI claims, it matters which one you're actually comparing.

Microsoft has fixed the Windows 11 KB5124008 bug that broke Plan9 host-folder sharing for some Linux virtual machines, including environments used by Claude Cowork and the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Is Microsoft Copilot becoming an operating system, or is Microsoft just borrowing OS-like language for a new layer of AI tools? The company has started describing its overhauled Copilot as a unified "AI workspace" that routes chat, coding, and autonomous agent work through one system. That framing sounds like Microsoft Copilot as an operating system in the making, but it's not the same as replacing Windows, and the gap between the two matters if you're wondering whether your Windows 11 PC is...

A report on Microsoft's October Windows 11 update says it resolves "mouse-input stutter in some games," grouped with fixes for an actively exploited Windows Shell vulnerability, VPN connection failures, and desktop black screens. For anyone chasing a Windows 11 gaming mouse stutter fix, that line stands out. Microsoft's October 13 release notes confirm the mouse-input stutter fix. It appears in KB5127648 for Windows 11 versions 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2, and KB5127646 for version 26H1. Microsoft...

Does Windows Update include BIOS updates? Sometimes, yes, but there's no blanket rule guaranteeing your specific machine will receive one alongside a routine monthly patch. Windows Update can deliver system BIOS/UEFI firmware updates to supported PCs. Whether you get one depends on your PC maker, the exact model you own, its firmware-update capabilities, and whether the manufacturer publishes a compatible package through that channel.

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra pairs Nvidia's RTX Spark SoC with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 1 petaflop of AI compute. The company has confirmed a $2,599.99 starting price, with preorders open ahead of its Oct. 16 release.

Microsoft has started testing a Windows 11 Search overhaul that turns the taskbar search box into a command tool. Instead of digging through Settings, typing a phrase like "switch to dark mode" or "dim my screen" can carry out the action directly from the search box, according to the Windows Insider Blog.

Microsoft is reportedly targeting a holiday 2027 launch for a next-generation Xbox handheld, with a home console called Project Helix following in holiday 2028.

Link to Windows is testing a Power menu that lets a paired Android phone remotely shut down a Windows PC, restart it, or put it to sleep, replacing the app's standalone Lock PC button, according to Android Authority.

A reader shuts their laptop down every night, yet Task Manager still shows three days of uptime the next morning. Another keeps hitting a graphics glitch that survives shutdown after shutdown, no matter how many times the machine gets powered off. Neither is broken. Both come down to a single Windows setting that quietly changes what "off" actually means.

Can MS Paint run Doom? Yes, technically, though the honest answer takes some unpacking. Doom is fully playable inside Microsoft Paint right now, complete with sound, music, and a frame rate that hits 35 fps at the game's native resolution (The Verge, today). The project is called DoomPaint, built by Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure's CTO and a Technical Fellow (Windows Central, today). It loads the genuine shareware DOOM1.WAD file and sustains Doom's classic 35 tics-per-second cadence at...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for September 2026 shipped fixes for 973 vulnerabilities, including 113 rated Critical, making it the largest Patch Tuesday on record, according to Automox. Cisco Talos counts the same 973 CVEs and 113 Critical bugs. Rapid7 puts Microsoft's own tally slightly higher, at 974, and counted 999 vulnerabilities total once it added 25 non-Microsoft CVEs reviewed in the same release. None of the three publications explain the small gap between their counts.

Microsoft has introduced a Windows platform framework that lets apps request an age signal tied to the person currently using the PC.

"Excel multiple values in one cell" can mean two completely different things.