← All Posts

Microsoft still wants to force New Outlook on everyone by 2027, even as users call it painful, and prefer Outlook Classic

The Hot Take: Trying to kill a dinosaur client.

New Outlook is “painful and drives me crazy,” one user told me as their organization prepared to ditch Outlook Classic. But does that mean Microsoft will hold off on its plans to force New Outlook? Certainly not. According to Microsoft’s roadmap, it still plans to move all Classic Outlook users to New Outlook starting in March 2027, and we’re not that far away now. New Outlook for Windows has been around for almost three years, as it was first rolled out to testers in 2023. Fast-forward to 2024, and Microsoft released New Outlook for…

Read the full article

Microsoft Responds to LG Monitors Installing McAfee Ads On Windows

The Hot Take: M$ is the only one to give us Ads on Windows 11....

LG is removing a McAfee pop-up ad from its LG Monitor App Installer after criticism that some LG monitors were silently installing the app through Windows Update and showing ads on every boot. Microsoft says LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up, but the broader issue remains: Windows allows certain peripheral companion apps to install automatically without notifying users. Ars Technica reports: Following Gamers Nexus' video, a Microsoft representative stated that the LG Monitor App Installer will no longer show pop-up ads for McAfee. In…

Read the full article

Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share

The Hot Take: Linux seems to be hovering and Windows is apparently listening to it's end users Finally. We'll see where this goes.

StatCounter's June 2026 data shows Windows made up 56.55% of global desktop OS usage, dropping Microsoft's share below 60% for the first time in years. Linux, meanwhile, reached 4.39%, "one of its strongest recent showings in the company's desktop OS statistics," reports Linuxiac. From the report: Apple's desktop platforms also remain a major part of the picture. StatCounter lists OS X at 11.89% and macOS at 4.48% for June 2026, meaning Apple's combined desktop presence remains comfortably ahead of Linux in the global chart. Chrome OS follows…

Read the full article

Windows 11 will soon be able to reinstall itself and your drivers without a USB drive via new 'Cloud Rebuild' recovery method

The Hot Take: Nice, but all to push cloud storage I'm assuming.

Microsoft has announced another new recovery method for Windows 11 PCs that will allow users to reinstall the OS using the cloud. The new recovery tool is called Cloud Rebuild which will restore a PC to a "clean, known-good state by performing an entire OS reinstall."The new Cloud Rebuild feature will download the Windows OS along with your devices drivers, and seamlessly install them during the recovery process so that your device is fully functional once the OS reinstalled, all without needing an external USB install drive."Unlike Reset this…

Read the full article

I built a Linux container on Windows 11 without Docker Desktop, and Docker users should pay attention

The Hot Take: Nore more docker on Windows? Interesting.

Windows 11 can now build, run, and manage Linux containers on its own, without Docker Desktop in the background. Microsoft calls this WSL Containers, and after installing the preview and running a few real workloads through it, here is what works, what still needs Docker, and how to get it running on your own PC. WSL Container should not be confused with the next version of WSL 2, as we already covered how Microsoft shut down the WSL 3 rumors. It has now shipped as a public preview, so we installed it, built a custom container image from…

Read the full article

Microsoft denies WSL 3 exists, reveals Windows 11’s WSL Containers ship next week

The Hot Take: Slowly Windows becoming more and more Linux.

Microsoft has shot down the idea that WSL 3 is on the way. The articles that have been calling it WSL 3 mixed up a different feature, WSL Containers, which the company showed at Build 2026 and is now days away from shipping. The correction came straight from the team that builds Windows Subsystem for Linux. TL; DR: WSL 3 does not exist. WSL Containers does, and it shows up in less than a week. Microsoft has officially denied that WSL 3 exists. Craig Loewen, the Product Manager at Microsoft responsible for the Windows Subsystem for…

Read the full article

Windows 11 26H2 is just 174KB, which is 0.003 % of 24H2’s size. Here’s how

The Hot Take: Impressive size reduction.

The “big” Windows 11 update for the year 2026, aka Windows 11 26H2, is arriving this fall as a mere 174KB enablement package for anyone already running Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2. For context, upgrading from 23H2 to 26H2 requires close to 6.5GB (not a typo). Windows 11 update, depending on which version you are on, can weigh either 174 kilobytes or roughly 6.5 gigabytes. The reason is the shared servicing branch model. With Microsoft now force-installing Windows 11 25H2 on all eligible Home and Pro PCs ahead of the 26H2 launch, we’ll tell you…

Read the full article

Microsoft is killing the Microsoft account lock-in across products, Windows 11 may be next

The Hot Take: I guess OK? Is it going to be a google authenticated Microsoft account though?

Microsoft is quietly loosening its grip on the Microsoft account (MSA) requirement. Edge is getting a new option to sign in with a Google account, and we already know that internal teams in the company are working to bring back local account in Windows 11. This may be the first time in 10 years that Microsoft is getting a change of heart when it comes to forcing us to sign in with MSA. For years, Microsoft pushed MSA hard. You needed one to set up Windows 11, to get the most out of Bing, to claim Rewards points, and to sync anything in Edge.…

Read the full article