Meta launches AI family Llama 4 — but the EU doesn't get everything – Computerworld View RSS

Over the weekend, Meta took the opportunity to launch Llama 4, a new series of AI models trained on a large amount of text, images and videos.

According to Meta, Llama 4 is better than its competitors GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 in a number of areas, including programming, reasoning and language translation.

The two variants Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick are available on Llama.com and Hugging Face now, while the top-of-the-line Llama 4 Behemoth will take a little longer.

Techcrunch points out that Meta has chosen to limit the use of the Llama 4 multimodal models within the European Union, likely due to the EU’s AI and data protection rules.

Anthropic plans to add more than 100 roles across Europe, indicating a broader push to expand its global footprint amid rising demand for enterprise-ready AI tools.

The new roles will cover sales, engineering, research and business operations, with most hiring focused in Dublin and London, according to a Reuters report.

The company has also named former Stripe executive Guillaume Princen as its head of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Last month, Anthropic raised $3.5 billion in funding. In February, it launched Claude 3.7 Sonnet, its most advanced model to date and the first to feature hybrid reasoning capabilities.

Targeting expansion and localization

Anthropic’s European hiring spree reflects its broader ambitions for global expansion – a move that mirrors a wider industry trend among well-funded AI firms, according to analysts.

“Every AI startup that has raised $1 billion is competing for global domination,” said Hyoun Park, CEO and chief analyst at Amalgam Insights. “Anthropic’s recent $3.5 billion round is no exception, as it seeks to be the leading model company for the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. And to enable this growth, it makes sense that these European hires mainly focus on sales, marketing, and engineering.”

The company’s regional push also signals the growing importance of localization in AI development – especially as regional regulations and incentives shape how technology is built and deployed.

“Hiring locally in Europe could be to ensure that its offerings down the line are tuned to European requirements that may not fully align with that of the US – particularly related to AI governance,” said Abhishek Sengupta, practice director at Everest Group. “There could also be potential business incentives aligned to local operations as more and more countries announce funds for developing a local AI ecosystem.”

Implications on EU AI adoption

Beyond expansion, Anthropic’s growing presence in Europe may signal the start of direct competition with firms positioning themselves as regionally compliant AI providers.

Anthropic is “confronting” Cohere head-on, Park said, pointing out that the Canadian startup has been actively marketing itself as a European-based, EU-compliant alternative.

“But this market competition may be a gift in disguise, as the EU has been famously aggressive in attacking monopoly,” Park said. “Having anthropic more deeply focused on the EU may give more freedom for Cohere, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and other AI firms to be able to build business in what is perceived as a competitive market.”

For AI companies with global ambitions, building a meaningful presence in the EU is no longer optional. Park noted that Anthropic’s more deliberate and safety-focused approach may align better with the demands of highly regulated markets.

“It seems that in the immediate future, the US will be a country of less AI regulation where solutions such as Meta, OpenAI, and xAI may have an advantage,” Park added. “It also seems likely that the EU will be driving a lot of global first world AI policy in the near future, almost by default as other first world global centers are reluctant to define AI standards and governance.”

As generative AI continues to dominate technology news, the hype around AI PCs is growing. It’s easy to see the appeal of personal computers powerful enough to handle genAI processing tasks.

Offered by all the major PC vendors, AI PCs include hardware and software designed to accelerate AI workloads across the central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and neural processing unit (NPU). AI is primarily a server-side application, but AI PCs offload at least some of the processing to the client.

[ Related: More AI PC news and insights ]

But these are very early days for the AI PC market, and IT buyers may be cautious, wondering why they should invest in AI PCs when so many genAI tools are accessible through the web.

The short answer is you’re going to get them whether you want them or not, because all business PCs are headed in that direction. In time, AI features will be standard issue just like Wi-Fi and vPro are now. But that’s not the case just yet, so the question is whether to move ahead with AI PC purchases now or hold off until the market matures.

What AI PCs bring to the table

The primary argument for running AI applications on the desktop instead of in the cloud is increased privacy and security. Especially in highly regulated sectors like finance and healthcare, sensitive data might have to stay within the confines of your firewall, so you want to process it locally, not on a cloud provider’s servers.

Another key consideration is cost. Server-based AI processing is extremely expensive, costing anywhere from $50,000 to millions of dollars for in-house large language model (LLM) rollouts. Even using AI-as-a-service (AIaaS) can cost tens of thousands of dollars per month, and you have the aforementioned privacy and security concerns around sending your data to the cloud. Shifting part of the AI workload onto endpoint devices, including PCs, should reduce the need for server-based processing — and speed up response times as well.

AI PCs are more than a marketing gimmick — they are a means to improved productivity, argues Steve Long, senior vice president of Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group. “AI PCs give time back to the user,” he said. “Whether it’s generating marketing content, summarizing meetings, or streamlining workflows with apps like Microsoft 365 Copilot or Personal.ai, these devices handle the heavy lifting so teams can stay focused on higher-value work. The result is real productivity.”

AI PCs also have proactive and autonomous functions like real-time threat detection that runs on the device without slowing it down, he says, and they offer predictive maintenance, which helps IT stay ahead of failures.

Finally, Long says AI PCs make for a more personalized experience because these devices adapt to how you work, such as summarizing meetings in your tone, writing emails with M365 Copilot, or surfacing relevant insights using personal AI agents from previous projects.

“It’s like having a digital assistant who gets smarter every day and never sleeps, and because it all happens locally, it’s fast, secure, and tailored to you,” he said.

Should you buy AI PCs this year?

That’s the million-dollar question. New devices need a killer app to justify their purchase. The IBM PC didn’t take off as a business tool until Lotus 1-2-3 came out. AI PCs need their own must-have app.

Gartner predicts that by end of 2026, all PCs will be AI PCs, but not everyone will be using the AI features. “The use of on-device AI features as distinct from cloud-based will evolve more slowly, and enterprises are likely to phase them in over time, to ensure compliance rules are met. Therefore, Gartner estimates only around 24% of employees will use enhanced NPU capabilities by 2028,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner.

Lenovo’s Long predicts it’s more likely to be 2027 or 2028 before every PC is an AI PC. “It is a little bit of the wild west of experimentations, with people trying to find the killer use case right now, both in enterprise and consumer,” he said.

Lacking a killer app, AI PCs are tough sell. They are not low-end devices. Atwal estimates the price difference between a standard business PC and an AI PC is $200 or more. Multiply that by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of PCs and the cost really adds up — and for what?

AI vendors will argue that AI PCs provide future-proofing. Atwal does not. “If buyers don’t see the immediate value, they are not prepared to pay the premium,” he said. “Nobody pays for future-proofing, really — especially that amount — when you don’t know exactly what [the benefit] is.”

Another important factor for IT buyers: Windows 10 will reach end of support in October. Organizations with a fleet of Windows 10 PCs will either have to purchase extended support for those devices or upgrade their users to new Windows 11 devices.

If you’re shelling out for new PCs anyway, it might make sense to spend a little more for devices with AI capabilities. Indeed, a recent IDC survey of IT decision-makers from large firms around the world found that 80% of companies plan to deploy AI PCs in 2025.

One company that’s not waiting to jump into the AI PC pool is Transmission, a global B2B marketing and advertising agency. The firm is deploying the new devices companywide to get its staff familiar with AI tools now rather than later.

“We understand that this is the future, and we want to get them to start having some exposure to the tools, getting them familiar with how they can make better and quicker decisions for themselves, but also for clients,” said Jonathan Cocek, global analytics lead at Transmission.

“We’ve initially launched [Microsoft] Copilot onto everybody’s machine, and really it’s just trying to enable them to get them familiar with using AI, how to stay ahead of the curve.”

What to look for when purchasing AI PCs

If you decide to take the plunge with AI PCs now, the configuration choices you make will affect your users’ experience. So what should you look for? There are several checkboxes to fill.

1. An AI-ready processor. AI PCs are equipped with an NPU designed to speed up the processing of machine learning and deep learning tasks and optimized for operations like matrix multiplications, convolutions, and other types of computations commonly used in AI algorithms.

A NPU is part of the CPU and only found on the newest generations of CPUs:

• Intel Core Ultra (Meteor Lake generation)
• AMD Ryzen 7040 series
• Apple M-Series chips in Macs
• Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite ARM-based chips for Windows AI PCs

2. Top TOPS performance. NPUs are measured by a benchmark called TOPS, or Tera Operations Per Second. TOPS means how many trillions of operations can be done in one second. Forget GHz and other numbers, TOPS is the measure to live by.

An AI PC has three processing units: the CPU, the GPU, and the NPU. The NPU is the most important, but the CPU and GPU also play a part. Intel’s Lunar Lake family of desktop processors have a TOPS rating of 120, which breaks down to 48 TOPS for the NPU, 67 TOPS for the GPU, and 5 TOPS for the CPU.

The NPUs in AMD’s Ryzen AI MAX series of processors have a TOPS rating of 50 — virtually tied with Intel — but AMD does not break out the CPU and GPU performance.

The one thing you can be certain of is that future generations of CPUs will feature considerably faster NPU performance. The generation of Intel processors prior to Lunar Lake featured a TOPS rating of only 10.

3. A good GPU. Business PCs often have integrated graphics on the CPU die, which are not very high performance. AI processors have much better performing GPUs than previous generations, but they are still no match for a discrete GPU. The only challenge is finding apps written to use the discrete GPU. A few exceptions like CAD/CAM software aside, most line-of-business applications don’t utilize the GPU.

But eventually AI apps will be rewritten to utilize the discrete GPU, because discrete GPUs for gaming have incredible TOPS performance. Nvidia’s new top-of-the-line RTX 5090 has a TOPS rating of 3350, for example. It also costs $4,100. Should you decide to go with a discrete GPU from either AMD or Nvidia, the rule of thumb is that the higher the model number, the faster and newer it is.

4. Lots of memory. With traditional PCs, most business users can get away with 8GB of system memory, especially if they use a lot of SaaS apps and live in their browser. But if your employees are going to do AI processing, they’re going to need a lot more memory — 16GB, if not 32GB or even 64GB, depending on the size of the model.

5. Integrated AI software. PCs should be compatible with AI frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch and tools like Windows Studio Effects, Adobe Firefly, and other useful AI applications. Software vendors continue to optimize their applications to leverage local AI processing, so having hardware that supports standard tools and frameworks is critical to accelerate AI-enabled apps. 

Intel is reportedly in advanced discussions with TSMC to form a joint venture that could potentially reshape the future of the x86 platform and the global semiconductor landscape.

Under a proposed deal, TSMC would take a 20% stake in a new entity operating Intel’s chipmaking facilities, in exchange for training Intel personnel in its industry-leading manufacturing processes, according to The Information. 

The move — initiated in part by the US government — marks a potential turning point for Intel, which has struggled in recent years to keep up with rivals in advanced chip production.

If finalized, the partnership could allow Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, to double down on chip design innovation while offloading manufacturing operations to the Taiwanese foundry giant.

For enterprise tech buyers, the implications could be far-reaching, touching everything from processor roadmaps and platform stability to supply chain sovereignty and pricing.

But the proposal is reported to be already generating internal resistance at Intel and raising questions about layoffs, equipment overhauls, and the fate of its manufacturing IP issues that could reshape how enterprise customers view their long-term relationship with one of the most iconic names in computing.

Long-term strategic implications

Analysts say the move marks a turning point for Intel and its enterprise customers. Once seen as a vertically integrated leader, the company has struggled in recent years to maintain that position.

“Intel’s foundry business has struggled to meet expectations – most notably failing to deliver the level of technical service, predictability, and yield quality that external customers expect,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Several deals have seen missed milestones and failed test runs, particularly when benchmarked against TSMC’s operational excellence.”

This brings in concerns that Intel is pulling back from manufacturing, signaling a deeper shift in its ability to control its technology stack and maintain supply chain reliability.

“In such a case, they can invest in R&D and catch up on AI processors as well as power-efficient laptop processors,” said Faisal Kawoosa, founder and lead analyst at Techarc. “Intel is facing competition from Nvidia in AI and from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple Silicon on the PC side.”

However, for enterprise buyers, this changes the calculus, Gogia said, pointing out that many chose Intel precisely because of its internal alignment between design and manufacturing – a one-stop shop that offered tighter integration and faster troubleshooting.

Data from Greyhound’s research indicates that 62% of enterprise technology leaders continue to value tight integration between Intel’s chip design and manufacturing. However, that support is weakening amid growing concerns over Intel’s manufacturing performance.

“We’re still loyal to Intel, but we’ve learned to build fallback scenarios. We can’t afford surprises anymore,” one US-based CIO told Greyhound in a recent fieldnote.

A full exit from in-house manufacturing is unlikely, according to Neil Shah, partner and co-founder at Counterpoint Research. Instead, the joint venture may be a way for Intel to protect and stabilize its foundry business.

“If it is able to protect its foundry business, Intel has to manufacture its own chips in the fab to help with the fab’s scale alongside producing chips for other customers,” Shah said. “What could actually happen is Intel could diversify its design beyond x86 by adopting newer architecture which will also give Intel more experience to compete against and alongside Arm-based PC chipset vendors such as Qualcomm, Apple, and AMD in this AI PC race.”

More concerns for enterprise buyers

A JV with TSMC offers clear advantages to Intel, including higher yields, faster time-to-market, and mature processes on advanced nodes. If Intel gains access to these capabilities, customers could see more competitive chips for AI and high-performance computing.

“But this benefit comes with layers of complexity,” Gogia said. “For one, Intel’s foundry operations are still in recovery mode. The business posted a $7 billion operating loss in 2023 – the first such loss since 1986. Attempts to scale it for external customers have struggled, largely due to inconsistent service delivery and a lack of maturity in handling complex customer requirements.”

Outsourcing to TSMC could address Intel’s manufacturing issues but complicates accountability. Customers may have to navigate supply chains spanning multiple firms and countries, with unclear responsibility in the event of defects, delays, or shortages.

“Intel’s restructuring could cause short-to-midterm disruptions, including potential product delays and shifts in support models,” said Manish Rawat, semiconductor analyst at Techinsights. “Additionally, even with US-based manufacturing, Intel’s deeper integration with TSMC still ties part of its supply chain to Taiwan – raising geopolitical and continuity concerns for security-sensitive customers.”

For Intel’s foundry to succeed – and for the US to maintain supply chain security and tech sovereignty – major chipmakers will need to shift some orders from Taiwan to the US, a move likely to drive up chip costs.

“While the US government’s CHIPS Act may help offset higher costs through subsidies, achieving Taiwan-level scale remains a near- to mid-term challenge, potentially driving up IT and electronics product costs for enterprises unless absorbed,” Shah said. “However, this move would safeguard US enterprises from future supply disruptions.”

The AI market could grow to as much as $4.8 trillion by 2033, according to a new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. At the same time, the money is expected to be concentrated among a few players and could increase inequality between countries, CNBC reports.

“The benefits of AI-driven automation often favor capital over labor, which can increase inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of cheap labor in developing countries,” the report’s authors wrote. To ensure developing countries are not left behind, the UN group recommends they be involved in discussions on AI rules and ethics.

In the same report, the UN also warned that AI could affect 40% of all jobs, even as the technology has the potential to create new industries and empower workers — as long as investments are made in training.

It might be time for Apple-as-a-service as the company looks to plot a cunning course through the post-globalist freeze — and offering its products as a service could help it do just that.

Apple had been expected to introduce just such a service. In fact, Mark Gurman recently said those plans were quite advanced, but the company shelved the idea, presumably because of its potential impact on “normal” iPhone sales and consequent revenue. 

With the recent round of tariffs from US President Donald J. Trump, things have changed. Given a $3,000 iPhone has become a real possibility under the tax regime, Apple knows it’s going to see a decline in iPhone sales anyway. It knows that those iPhones it does sell will get used longer and it knows that the inevitable cost will put a lot of consumers off from buying these devices.

Apple has also bought itself some time to figure out a way forward, thanks to the planeloads of iPhones it imported into the US just before the tariff announcement was made. These should tide the company over into September, reports claim. That makes sense, because the time isn’t right for the iPhone-as-a-service plan quite yet. 

To put the plan in effect, Apple will need the support of its carrier partners who I expect were quite resistant to the idea before — they liked the margins they made on phones sold through their networks.

However, pragmatism changes things, and even they can see that some money from a lower margin is still better than no margin at all. And when analysts predict iPhone prices could hit $3,000, it’s crystal clear sales will decline.

Think about it

Those tariff taxes will impact almost everything that cannot be made, grown, or harvested in the US. They’re going to be felt, particularly by shoppers in more impoverished socio-economic groups (who also use iPhones). Most shoppers will be much too concerned about the cost of eggs to spring thousands for a phone, and while there will be an elite group of consumers for whom it’s business as usual, most people will endure a crisis of confidence. 

Like the 1920s, there may be a lot of dancing, but not much to dance about.  

The economic precipice the world appears to have been pushed over may be enough to make any iPhone-as-a-service plan look a lot more attractive. After all, it enables cash-strapped consumers to use the smartphone they desire (and perhaps also the watch, tablet, and Mac) for a predictable monthly fee, with AppleCare, iCloud+, and Apple services included, and doesn’t require they laden themselves with credit card debt. 

People are ready to accept it

It’s not as if we’re not ready for such a service. Even back in 2022, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder Josh Lowitz said: “Based on current consumer behavior, iPhone users are primed to adopt a subscription service that provides an iPhone bundled with useful apps. Almost half iPhone owners already finance their iPhone purchase, paying monthly for a new phone. And about one-third trade-in their old phone when they buy a new one. So, a significant portion of the user base is accustomed to never owning a phone, instead basically leasing it.”

Apple also gains. In this case, it benefits from potentially lower, but at least recurring, income upon which to balance its stock. And it benefits from the fact that at the end of the subscription period (or during it if the consumer cannot maintain payments), the devices will be returned for refurbishment, resale/let, and/or recycling.

This also opens up the highly lucrative second-user iPhone market, which is an income stream Apple hasn’t yet fully explored. The iPhone is the most widely sold smartphone on the second-user market and holds its value the longest; company management is said to have been eyeing whether they can extract more from those sales. 

Pros and joes

Taking things a speculative step forward, I can easily imagine the company might choose to keep the highest-end devices out of the subscription loop, making these available for sale only. Apple knows its most affluent customers may be more accepting of a higher price in exchange for a truly cutting-edge product. 

That balance of high-end retail sales and subscription-income, bolstered by all the other plans Apple is putting in place to survive the high-tax transformation of the US economy may help it build a good and viable business in times like these. A different business, but a business all the same

Will Apple do it? Will Apple choose to offer up its products on a rental basis? 

Given sales cadence is going to fall anyway and, logically, product costs will increase, the company might see the plan as a way to pass the poison pill of some of these price increases onto consumers in as easy-to-stomach a remedy as possible. It’s not ideal, of course, but right now company management will be focused on finding the least worse options to help support the future of its business. That’s the context in which such a plan makes sense.

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When Google first launched the NotebookLM beta in late 2023, the company billed it as an experimental note-taking app with a generative AI assistant built in. You can still use it to create notes, but the app has evolved into something much more novel and powerful. Google now calls it “the ultimate tool for understanding the information that matters most to you.”

Here’s our clearer summary of what NotebookLM has become: It’s a web-based workspace where you can upload your documents and other sources and then instruct Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to analyze and synthesize them. Gemini can summarize the source materials, answer questions about them, and create a range of document types based on them, such as study guides or executive briefings. It can even spin up an audio podcast with synthetic hosts discussing the materials.

When used in NotebookLM, Gemini pulls information from the sources you feed it rather than the internet, theoretically making it less prone to hallucinations than many other genAI tools. That said, Google clearly states that NotebookLM can make mistakes. Responses include citations from your sources, which makes it easy to check for accuracy.

NotebookLM comes in free and paid versions. The paid version, called NotebookLM Plus, comes with either a Google One AI Premium plan or a Google Workspace subscription (Business Standard or higher plan). The free and paid versions share many of the same features. The main differences are that with Plus you have fewer usage limitations, can customize the writing style and length of the content generated by Gemini AI, and have advanced options for collaborating on your workspace with others.

In this guide, we take you through how to set up and use the major features of NotebookLM.

Create your first notebook

In NotebookLM, a “notebook” contains one or more sources. You can create multiple notebooks, each representing a project you’re working on and containing sources that are specific to that project.

Caution: Google says that the data you upload is not used to train Gemini AI and will stay private, but the company also advises, “it’s best to avoid submitting any information you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing.”

To get started, sign in to NotebookLM with your Google account, then click the Create button.

On the “Add sources” panel, you can drag-and-drop or upload files that are on your PC. Accepted file formats include PDF, TXT, and MP3. Toward the bottom of the “Add sources” panel, you can click to add other sources: Google Docs and Google Sheets files in your Google Drive, links to web pages or YouTube videos, and text that you’ve already copied to your PC clipboard.

Once you’ve added a source, you’ll be taken to the workspace for your new notebook. This page is divided into three columns: Sources, Chat, and Studio.

On the upper left, the title of the source (or the first several words in it) that you added will appear as the title for this notebook. You can change this by clicking the title and typing in a new one that you prefer.

The Sources column will list the source you added, and the Chat column will show a summary of that source. (We’ll get to the Studio column later.)

Add more sources and manage them

In the Sources column, click Add source to add another source. The sources that you add will appear in the Sources column.

When you add a source, it’s selected by default, which means Gemini will use it for analysis in the Chat and Studio columns. However, you may need to refresh your browser tab before Chat column updates to include additional sources in its summary.

To unselect (or select) a source: If you don’t want Gemini to include a source in a summary, click the checkmark to the right of the source to unselect it. Click the checkbox again to re-select the source.

To remove or rename a source: Move the pointer over the source and click the three-dot icon that appears to the left of it.

Get a single-source summary and kick off a related chat

If you want to delve deeper into one of your sources, click the source in the Sources column. A “Source guide” card will open at the top of the column, where Gemini will generate a summary that describes the contents of the source.

To the right of the summary is a list of key topics. Clicking any of these sends a request to Gemini to elaborate on the topic, and its response will appear in the Chat column.

In this tutorial, though, we’re more concerned with synthesizing data from multiple sources. To dismiss the topic-related chat and return to the summary of selected sources, click the Refresh button at the top right of the Chat column and then click Continue.

Chat with Gemini AI about your sources

The true power of NotebookLM rests in Gemini’s ability to respond to natural-language queries about your sources. You can ask it questions or give it instructions for analyzing the data.  

In the entry box at the bottom of the Chats column, type in your query and click the arrow to the right. The best way to word your requests is in the form of a question.

Or you can use one of the suggested queries that appear below the entry box. You can use the right and left arrows to cycle through them. Click a suggestion and it’ll be posted as a request to Gemini in the chat window.

When you enter a request, Gemini may take several seconds to process it and post a response. It analyzes only the sources listed in the Sources column that have a checkmark by them.

When the response is posted in the Chat column, there will be numbers denoted throughout it. These are citations, each representing text from one of your sources Gemini used to create the response. When you click one of these numbers, a panel opens to show you the original text from the source so you can check whether the response is accurate.

Additionally, there are three actions that you can take, which are listed below Gemini’s response:

• Save to note: Click this button to turn the response into a note that will appear under the “Notes” section in the Studio column.
• Copy: Click this icon to copy the response to your PC clipboard.
• Thumbs Up/Down: Click either icon to rate how good you think the response was. This helps to train the AI to give you better results for future requests.

To erase the current chat and start over, click the Refresh button at the top right of the Chat column.

Customize Gemini’s responses (in NotebookLM Plus)

The Plus version lets you adjust and customize the conversational style and length of the responses generated by Gemini. Click the icon of slider controls at the top-right corner of the Chat column. On the “Configure chat” panel that opens, select from the following:

• Analyst: Gemini’s results will have a more business-oriented tone.
• Guide: Gemini’s wording will be geared to those you are collaborating or sharing your notebook with who may not be familiar with its contents.
• Custom: Opens an entry box in which you can write a prompt instructing Gemini how you want it to word its responses.
• Longer: Generates more in-depth and lengthy responses.
• Shorter: Generates concise, summarized content.

Create and manage notes

You can create notes in your notebook and optionally use them as additional sources for Gemini to analyze.

To create a new note: In the Studio column under the Notes heading, click Add note. A card for a new note will open at the top of the Studio column.

Click New Note and type in a new title for this note. Then type your text into the body of the note. You can also paste in text and/or images saved on your PC clipboard, format the text (as headings, bold, italic, or bulleted or numbered lists), and insert web links.

To save a note: When you’re finished, click the double-arrow icon at the upper right of the note. Your new note will appear in the Notes section of the Studio column. Click it to reopen it so you can read or edit it.

To save a note as a source: With the note open, click the Convert to source button at the bottom of the Studio column. The note will be added to the sources list in the Sources column.

To delete a note: Move the pointer over its title in the Notes list. Click the three-dot icon that appears to the left of it and click Delete note.

To delete all notes at once, or convert all your notes to a source: To the right of the Notes section heading, click the three-dot icon and select Convert all notes to source or Delete all notes.

Selecting Convert all your notes to source combines all your notes together into one source. (Otherwise, you can convert an individual note to a source at any time by opening the note and selecting Convert to source.)

Create targeted documents from your notes

In addition to responding to queries about your sources, NotebookLM can extract content from the sources you select to create specific types of documents such as study guides, briefing documents, FAQs, or timelines.

To create a document: In the Studio column, under the Notes section, click one of the following:

• Study guide: Your selected sources are turned into a guide that’s structured for the reader to learn about them, featuring quiz questions, essay format questions, and a glossary of key terms.
• Briefing doc: This is a summary of key information that Gemini extracts from the selected sources in your notebook. Sections typically include an executive summary, main themes and ideas, and a conclusion.
• FAQ: Information from the selected sources is formatted into a list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers.
• Timeline: Data from the selected sources will be formatted into a chronological representation of events. This format obviously works best with sources that include specific events and dates.

Once you’ve selected one of the above, Gemini will analyze the selected sources in your notebook and generate a draft version of the document type. It’ll appear as a note listed under the Notes section of the Studio column. Depending on how extensive the content is in your selected sources, the draft may look incomplete, so you’ll need to make edits to it.

Share and collaborate on your notebook

It’s not only you who can benefit from a notebook you create. You can also share it with others, and they’ll be able to query Gemini about the source material too.

When you share a notebook, you can either restrict others’ permissions so that they can only view and query the notebook’s contents, or allow them to edit it, such as by adding, changing, or removing sources or notes in it. Everyone you share a notebook with can interact with Gemini and copy its responses to their own PC clipboard. But only those with Editor status can add a Gemini response as a note or as a new source to your notebook.

To share a notebook: Click the Share button that’s toward the upper right of your notebook’s workspace. A Share panel opens over the workspace.

Inside the entry box, type the name or email address of someone who’s in your Google contacts. (Note: they must already be in your Google contacts. You cannot type in any email address here.) They will be added to the “People who have access” list.

By default, a person you add will be granted Viewer access to your notebook. If you want them to collaborate with you on the notebook, click Viewer and change it to Editor.

When you are done adding people and setting their access levels, click the Send button. They’ll be notified by email that you’re sharing this notebook with them (unless you unchecked “Notify people”).

In NotebookLM Plus: Under “Viewer access” on the Share panel, you can allow those you’ve granted only Viewer access to see the sources and notes in your notebook. Or you can restrict them from seeing these — they will only be allowed to chat with Gemini about your notebook.

Get AI-spoken discussions of your notes

The splashiest feature that Google has added to NotebookLM since its launch is Audio Overview, which generates a podcast-like spoken discussion between two AI “hosts” (currently supported in English only). They banter back and forth in a friendly tone, sounding eerily like real people, as they summarize key points in your sources.

This feature may come off as an impressive tech gimmick. But it can be a convenient, and entertaining, way for you (and others you share your notebook with) to listen to your notebook content as if it’s a podcast during your daily commute.

Create an Audio Overview

In the Studio column, under the Audio Overview section, click the Generate button. Or, if you click the Customize button: You can type an instruction to guide what you want the AI hosts to focus their discussion on about your sources.

Gemini will analyze your selected sources and generate an audio file. This usually takes several minutes. The exact amount of time depends on the word length and complexity of your sources.

Note: Ensure that the text in your selected sources reads clearly. This will help generate a discussion between the AI hosts that sounds coherent. Source documents that have headings and subheadings can also help to create a logical flow in their spoken discussion.

Once the audio file is generated, it will appear in the Audio Overview section. Click it to start listening.

Along the top-right of the audio player are icons that let you rate the overall production quality of the audio summary (thumbs up/down) and share it publicly for others to listen to online. Click the three-dot icon to change the playback speed or to download the audio summary as a WAV file.

Interact with an Audio Overview (experimental feature)

Not only can you listen to the two AI hosts talk about your notebook sources, you can join in on their discussion — literally. Click Interactive mode, which will open a panel in the Studio column showing a sine wave responding to their voices. At the bottom of the column, click the Play audio icon (a right-pointing triangle), and when you feel like taking part in their talk, click the Join button.

Speaking into your PC’s microphone, you can interrupt the hosts and ask them a question or make a request to clarify a point or explain something in more detail. It’s as if you’ve called in to a live radio show.

Create and manage more notebooks

Once you discover how useful a NotebookLM notebook is for one project, you’ll want to create more.

On the notebook workspace, click the NotebookLM icon at the upper-left corner to go to the NotebookLM home page. This shows all the notebooks under your account.

To create a new notebook: Simply click the Create new button, which will open a new workspace for a blank notebook.

To manage your notebooks: On the NotebookLM home page, you can change the title of a notebook or delete it by clicking the three-dot icon on the upper-right of its card. (If your notebooks are shown in list view, this icon will be to the right of the notebook’s title.)

This article was originally published in February 2024 and updated in April 2025.

Related:

• How to use Gemini AI to write (and rewrite) in Google Docs and Gmail
• How to use Gemini AI to make templates in Google Sheets
• Google Workspace: 7 great ways to use the Gemini AI sidebar
• Google Workspace tips and tutorials

Mesmerized by the scalability, efficiency and flexibility claims from generative AI (genAI) vendors, enterprise execs have been all but tripping over themselves trying to push the technology to its limits. 

The fear of flawed deliverables — based on a combination of hallucinations, imperfect training data and a model that can disregard query specifics and can ignore guardrails — is usually minimized. 

But the Mayo Clinic is trying to push back on all those problematic answers. 

In an interview with VentureBeat, Matthew Callstrom, Mayo’s medical director, explained: “Mayo paired what’s known as the clustering using representatives (CURE) algorithm with LLMs and vector databases to double-check data retrieval.

“The algorithm has the ability to detect outliers or data points that don’t match the others. Combining CURE with a reverse RAG approach, Mayo’s [large language model] split the summaries it generated into individual facts, then matched those back to source documents. A second LLM then scored how well the facts aligned with those sources, specifically if there was a causal relationship between the two.”

(Computerworld reached directly to Callstrom for an interview, but he was not available.)

There are, broadly speaking, two categories for reducing genAI’s lack of reliability: humans in the loop (usually, an awful lot of humans in the loop) or some version of AI watching AI. 

The idea of having more humans monitoring what these tools deliver is typically seen as the safer approach, but it undercuts the key value of genAI — massive efficiencies. Those efficiencies, the argument goes, should allow workers to be redeployed to more strategic work or, as the argument becomes a whisper, to sharply reduce that workforce.

But  at the scale of a typical enterprise, genAI efficiencies could replace the work of thousands of people. Adding human oversight might only require dozens of humans. It still makes mathematical sense.

The AI-watching-AI approach is scarier, although a lot of enterprises are giving it a go. Some are looking to push any liability down the road by partnering with others to do their genAI calculations for them. Still others are looking to pay third-parties to come in and try and improve their genAI accuracy. The phrase “throwing good money after bad” immediately comes to mind.  

The lack of effective ways to improve genAI reliability internally is a key factor in why so many proof-of-concept trials got approved quickly, but never moved into production. 

Some version of throwing more humans into the mix to keep an eye on genAI outputs seems to be winning the argument, for now. “You have to have a human babysitter on it. AI watching AI is guaranteed to fail,” said Missy Cummings, a George Mason University professor and director of Mason’s Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC). 

“People are going to do it because they want to believe in the (technology’s) promises. People can be taken in by the self-confidence of a genAI system,” she said, comparing it to the experience of driving autonomous vehicles (AVs).

When driving an AV, “the AI is pretty good and it can work. But if you quit paying attention for a quick second,” disaster can strike, Cummings said. “The bigger problem is that people develop an unhealthy complacency.”

Rowan Curran, a Forrester senior analyst, said Mayo’s approach might have some merit. “Look at the input and look at the output and see how close it adheres,” Curran said. 

Curran argued that identifying the objective truth of a response is important, but it’s also important to simply see whether the model is even attempting to directly answer the query posed, including all of the query’s components. If the system concludes that the “answer” is non-responsive, it can be ignored on that basis.

Another genAI expert is Rex Booth, CISO for identity vendor Sailpoint. Booth said that simply forcing LLMs to explain more about their own limitations would be a major help in making outputs more reliable.

For example, many — if not most — hallucinations happen when the model can’t find an answer in its massive database. If the system were set up to simply say, “I don’t know,” or even the more face-saving, “The data I was trained on doesn’t cover that,” confidence in outputs would likely rise.

Booth focused on how current data is. If a question asks about something that happened in April 2025 — and the model knows its training data was last updated in December 2024 — it should simply say that rather than making something up.  “It won’t even flag that its data is so limited,” he said. 

He also said that the concept of “agents checking agents” can work well — provided each agent is assigned a discrete task. 

But IT decision-makers should never assume those tasks and that separation will be respected. “You can’t rely on the effective establishment of rules,” Booth said. “Whether human or AI agents, everything steps outside the rules. You have to be able to detect that once it happens.”

Another popular concept for making genAI more reliable is to force senior management — and especially the board of directors — to agree on a risk tolerance level, put it in writing and publish it. This would ideally push senior managers and execs to ask the tough questions about what can go wrong with these tools and how much damage they could cause. 

Reece Hayden,  principal analyst with ABI Research, is skeptical about how much senior management truly understands genAI risks.

“They see the benefits and they understand the 10% inaccuracy, but they see it as though they are human-like errors: small mistakes, recoverable mistakes,” Hayden said. But when algorithms go off track, they can make errors light years more serious than humans.

For example, humans often spot-check their work. But “spot-checking genAI doesn’t work,” Hayden said. “In no way does the accuracy of one answer indicate the accuracy of other answers.”

It’s possible the reliability issues won’t be fixed until enterprise environments adapt to become more technologically hospitable to genAI systems.

“The deeper problem lies in how most enterprises treat the model like a magic box, expecting it to behave perfectly in a messy, incomplete and outdated system,” said Soumendra Mohanty, chief strategy officer at AI vendor Tredence. “GenAI models hallucinate not just because they’re flawed, but because they’re being used in environments that were never built for machine decision-making. To move past this, CIOs need to stop managing the model and start managing the system around the model. This means rethinking how data flows, how AI is embedded in business processes, and how decisions are made, checked and improved.”

Mohanty offered an example: “A contract summarizer should not just generate a summary, but it should validate which clauses to flag, highlight missing sections and pull definitions from approved sources. This is decision engineering defining the path, limits, and rules for AI output, not just the prompt.”

There is a psychological reason execs tend to resist facing this issue. Licensing genAI models is stunningly expensive. And after making a massive investment in the technology, there’s natural resistance to pouring even more money into it to make outputs reliable.

And yet, the whole genAI game has to be focused on delivering the goods. That means not only looking at what works, but dealing with what doesn’t. There’s going to be a substantial cost to fixing things when these erroneus answers or flawed actions are discovered.

It’s galling, yes; it is also necessary. The same people who will be praised effusively about the benefits of genAI will be the ones blamed for errors that materialize later. It’s your career — choose wisely.

Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to the Current Channel for Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscriptions. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the Microsoft 365 Insider blog.

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)

Release date: April 2, 2025

This build lets you use Dark Mode in Excel, which darkens your entire sheet, including cells, and may reduce eye strain. It also fixes several bugs, including one in Word in which opening specific files that contain many tracked changes and comments resulted in poor performance, and one in PowerPoint in which the app was not displaying the icon for an inserted PDF object.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)

Release date: March 11, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which some Word files with numerous tracked changes and comments were slow. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)

Release date: March 5, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the default font size may not be 12pt as expected, and another in which PowerPoint automatically closed when the system went into hibernate or sleep mode.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)

Release date: February 11, 2025

This build removes the option to display Track Changes balloons in left margin in Word. It also includes a variety of security updates. See “Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates” for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132)

Release date: January 30, 2025

In this build, the advanced Track Changes option to set the margin for balloons in Word has been removed.

A wide variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which ActiveX controls used an excessive amount of GDI handles in PowerPoint, and another for the entire Office suite in which images couldn’t be pasted from SharePoint.

 Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194)

Release date: January 16, 2025

This build fixes one bug, in which apps would exit unexpectedly when running on Windows Server 2016.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190)

Release date: January 14, 2025

This build fixes a bug in Word in which the layout of tables were changed unexpectedly. It also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168)

Release date: January 7, 2025

This build makes tables in Outlook more accessible for screen readers. It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which a document saved to a network shared folder and set to “Always Open Read-Only” would open in “Editing” mode, and another for the entire Office suite in which application didn’t render the grid properly after switching from page break preview to normal view.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168).

Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162)

Release date: December 10, 2024

This build fixes a bug in Word and Outlook where characters didn’t render correctly when using Save Selection to Text Box Gallery. It also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162).

Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152)

Release date: December 5, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which some cells might not be rendered properly upon scrolling in a worksheet using freeze panes, one in Word which prevented emails with linked SVG content from saving or sending, and one in which some PowerPoint presentations created by third-party tools didn’t open correctly and some content was removed.

Get more info about Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152).

Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158)

Release date: November 12, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which all characters didn’t appear correctly when creating an Outlook task from OneNote, and one in PowerPoint in which embedded BMP images in the PowerPoint slide were not opening.

This build also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158).

Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116)

Release date: October 28, 2024

This build enables filtering capabilities for the comment pane in Excel and fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the title bar no longer showed a “Saved” status for locally saved files, and one in PowerPoint in which a graphics-related issue caused the app to close unexpectedly at times.

Get more info about Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160)

Release date: October 15, 2024

This build fixes a single bug in Word, in which emails with linked SVG content couldn’t be saved or sent.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140)

Release date: October 8, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which text wasn’t clearly visible in High Contrast Mode when using “Draft with Copilot” and referencing a meeting under “Reference your content.”

This build also includes multiple security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104)

Release date: September 25, 2024

This build fixes a single bug, in which when you saved a file in Word, the save status was missing from the Title bar.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096)

Release date: September 23, 2024

This build improves the user experience for selecting which users should have which permissions when a sensitivity label configured for user-defined permissions is applied to a file or when configuring standalone Information Rights Management through the Restrict Access feature. This change affects Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which Document Mode would switch from “editing” to “viewing” if user enabled “Track Changes” and set “For Everyone.”

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096).

Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156)

Release date: September 10, 2024

This update will remove Flip video support when the service goes offline on October 1, 2024. The build also includes a variety of security updates. Go here for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156).

Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114)

Release date: August 26, 2024

This build allows you to disable connected experiences for privacy concerns without impacting data security policies, such as sensitivity labels. Services associated with Microsoft Purview (e.g., sensitivity labels and rights management) are no longer controlled by policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps. Instead, these services will rely on their existing security admin controls in Purview portals.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Outlook that caused default SMIME labels to fail to apply when a user replied to or forwarded an unlabeled message, and one for the entire suite in which people couldn’t install Microsoft 365 apps on an enrolled device.

Get more info about Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114).

Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166)

Release date: August 13, 2024

This build includes a variety of security updates for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, and the entire Office suite. See Microsoft’s Release notes for Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166).

Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138)

Release date: August 1, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which coauthoring on text boxes in Excel sometimes gave unexpected results, another in PowerPoint in which line widths were not preserved when exporting arrow shapes to PDF, and another in Word in which revisions were sometimes skipped when reviewing using VBA.

Get more info about Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138).

Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160)

Release date: July 9, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one in Word and Excel in which characters don’t appear correctly in Text Box Gallery. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160).

Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126)

Release date: June 26, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which Excel documents might be unexpectedly edited when a mandatory sensitivity label has not been applied, one that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly shortly after launch for some users, and one in which pasting data from Word or Excel to an Outlook template as a link would cause an error message to appear.

Get more info about Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164)

Release date: June 19, 2024

This build includes a variety of unspecified bug and performance fixes.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144)

Release date: June 11, 2024

This build fixes one bug, which prevented users from sending mail for a few hours after updating add-ins with on-send events. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110)

Release date: May 30, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which an embedded workbook in .xls format might not have closed properly, one that that caused Outlook to close when using Copilot Summarize, one in Word in which content controls may have been removed when coauthoring, and one for the entire Office suite in which the Organization Chart Add-In for Microsoft programs was not loading properly.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110).

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152)

Release date: May 14, 2024

This build fixes a number of bugs, including one in Word where content controls might be removed when coauthoring, and one that caused Sovereign users to be unable to create ToDo tasks from Outlook.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152).

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140)

Release date: May 7, 2024

This build fixes two bugs in Outlook, one in which it closed unexpectedly using the Scheduling Assistant when creating a new meeting or viewing an existing meeting, and another that caused add-in developers to hit timeouts when retrieving notifications from an Outlook client context.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140) .

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120)

Release date: April 29, 2024

This build reduces workbook size bloat from unnecessary cell formatting with a new “Check Performance” task pane. In addition, it fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which the default font could not be set; one in Outlook in which custom forms from MAPI form servers stopped responding; one in PowerPoint in which online videos did not play in some cases; one in which when opening certain Word documents would cause the error, “Word experienced an error trying to open the file”; and one in which the Office update installer appeared to be unresponsive.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120) .

Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176)

Release date: April 9, 2024

This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184)

Release date: March 12, 2024

This build fixes three bugs: one in which Access closed unexpectedly, one in which Excel closed unexpectedly when opening files with pivot tables and table design in macro-enabled files, and one in which Word closed unexpectedly when the undo function was used.

This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162)

Release date: March 4, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one that crashed Outlook when a link was clicked on, and another for the entire Office suite in which opened Office apps didn’t automatically start when a laptop was reopened, and an error message appeared after manual relaunch.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142)

Release date: February 28, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly when expanding a conversation in the search results from a search of “All Mailboxes,” and another in which users were not able to create a bullet list with hyphens in PowerPoint.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236)

Release date: February 13, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which macros were being corrupted when saving Excel files and another that affected the entire Office suite in which add-ins would not load after Click trust for content add-in was selected.

This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194)

Release date: February 1, 2024

This build fixes a single bug in which expanded groups in the message list collapsed when users changed which column they were arranged by.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182)

Release date: January 30, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which Excel would stop responding when saving changes, one in PowerPoint in which Notes and Slide layout would open with incorrect proportions when a file was opened from a protected view, and one in Word in which comment cards appeared too wide and cut off text when changing or switching the screen in use.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182).

Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132)

Release date: January 9, 2024

This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132).

Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126)

Release date: January 4, 2023

This build introduces a new sensitivity toolbar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that helps users understand the security policies that apply to their documents. It’s available when users are creating copies of their documents in File / Save As. In addition, Office now had a new default theme, which Microsoft says is “more modern and accessible.”

It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which Custom Menu text was truncated when right-clicking in a cell, one in PowerPoint in which restoring a previous version of a presentation was not working as expected when using Version History, and one in Word in which the content control end tag was marked at the end of the document automatically if the document was edited in Word Online and then opened in Word desktop.

Get more info about  Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126).

Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108)

Release date: December 12, 2023

This build fixes one bug in Outlook, in which the message list was blank when switching between the “Focused” and “Other” views.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108).

Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068)

Release date: November 29, 2023

This build automatically inserts image captioning for Excel’s images. When you insert an image into a spreadsheet, accessibility image captioning is automatically generated for you.

It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which list box controls would not respond to mouse clicks after scrolling using the mouse wheel, and one in Word in which the language of a presentation was not retained when saving or exporting the presentation to a PDF file.

Get more info about Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150)

Release date: November 14, 2023

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which Outlook failed to comply with the default browser settings for some users, and another in which new lines were added to an Outlook signature when pressing Enter in the body of the email.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124)

Release date: Oct. 31, 2023

This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly when clicking the More link in the Search results list.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106)

Release date: Oct. 25, 2023

In this build, the Teams Meeting App works in Outlook, too. With it, you’ll be able to configure a meeting app while scheduling an invite in Outlook. The meeting app will be ready to use when you chat or join the meeting on Teams.

A wide variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in Excel where certain Pivot Tables would load slowly; one in which OneNote would close unexpectedly when rapidly navigating from one .PDF file to another .PDF file between different sections, or when performing an undo operation on a .PDF printout insertion; and one in the entire Office suite that caused unexpected black borders to appear around screen captures added with the Insert Screenshot functionality.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106).

Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166)

Release date: October 10, 2023

This build fixes two bugs, one in which users were missing their Outlook add-ins, and another in Word in which subheading numbering with a custom Style would disappear if the file was saved and reopened. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166).

Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130)

Release date: September 28, 2023

This build introduces two new features, including the ability to disable specific types of automatic data conversions in Excel and support for the “Present in Teams” button to present local files in PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams.

Several bugs have also been fixed, including one in which the setting to control how Outlook opens previous items at start-up was missing from the Options window, and another in Word in which the Add-ins tab was not visible when using custom toolbar information.

Get more info about Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130).

Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234)

Release date: September 12, 2023

This build fixes several bugs, including one that caused Outlook to close unexpectedly when viewing an email, and another in PowerPoint in which the presenter view slide section zoomed in and out when zooming in the notes section.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234).

At a special 50th anniversary event on Friday, Microsoft executives reflected on the company’s storied past and on how it’s now reinventing itself for an AI-focused future.

With previous CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in attendance, current CEO Satya Nadella boasted that the company is “leading this new wave of AI innovation, and more importantly, democratizing just like we did it with the PC.”

Details about the company’s plans were laid out by Microsoft Executive Vice President Mustafa Suleyman, who noted that the ability to customize Windows to every person’s specific needs is coming. “Years ago, Bill laid out a bold ambition, which at the time probably felt like a pretty crazy dream — to put a PC on every desk and in every home.

“Today, we’re creating a Copilot for everyone,” Suleyman said at the event, which was webcast. 

Suleyman talked about how the company is transforming its generative AI (genAI)-based Copilot into a personal assistant. Microsoft is replicating key sensory features from humans into the software.

“Today, we’re taking the very first steps towards rich memory and personalization, the very foundations of an AI companion,” Suleyman said.

Copilot is gradually adding a “Memory” feature that can personalize the tool to remember human preferences, dates, events and more. Suleyman pointed out how the AI agent over time will be able to remember birthdays, and provide reminders on tasks. It will also provide advice on how users go through each step in training sessions on specific topics and even memorize individual traits, such as whether a person greets others formally or informally.

The memory feature works with others such as “Actions,” which can complete tasks in the background.

Microsoft is also developing avatars for Copilot that make interacting with it more fun. Suleyman showed off avatars as animated characters, and in jest showcased the dreaded Clippy — of old Microsoft Office fame — as an avatar.

The company’s main announcements included Copilot Vision, a mobile app that can help users interact with the real-world. The app uses the phone’s camera to capture images and in real-time provide context of the surroundings.

“With our new mobile app, Copilot can actually see what you see and talk to you about it in real time,” Suleyman said.

The second piece to Copilot Vision is a Windows app, which can take a snapshot of a user’s PC screen and help explain what is being displayed. The app works across applications, browser tabs or files.

“It will read the screen and interact with the content. You’ll be able to use Copilot to search, change settings, organize files and collaborate on projects without switching between files or apps,” the company said in a blog post.

“With my permission it can see my screen like a second set of eyes,” Suleyman said at the event said. “It’s my sounding board. And most importantly, it can respond in the context of what I’m seeing on my screen.”

Suleyman made no reference to Windows Recall, the controversial Copilot feature that uses snapshots to log the history of activity on a PC. Recall was unveiled last year and quickly ran into a storm of controversy related to privacy concerns.

Microsoft has also started rolling out Copilot Search, with AI integrated into a conventional Bing search to provide better search results. The search results will be personalized and dynamically generated on the screen.

“With Copilot’s new search capabilities, you can get many magazine style cards made just for you, on any topic that you care about, with text, images, videos, and maps built right in,” Suleyman said.

Microsoft also unveiled “Podcasts,” an AI feature that can instantly generate podcasts with video and audio, and new AI technologies for Azure AI Foundry. 

For enterprise users, Microsoft recently rolled out Research and Analyst agents to boost enterprise search and employee productivity. 

AI will be the biggest change to the PC since the graphical user interface (GUI), and it may be as important as the first databases for enterprise users, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

But harnessing its potential is a challenge, with numerous usability, privacy and security challenges. “The ability to make AI most useful and efficient for enterprise needs still needs a lot of work. We’re in the first innings,” Gold said.

Microsoft’s challenge with AI is not just in the OS, but also in apps that support enterprise users, where Microsoft has a large installed base.

“While Copilot may make the way we interact with our devices through agents that implement and execute tasks for us more personal, it’s what AI may do to enhance our insights from our increasingly complex enterprise informational environment that could be a game changer,” Gold said.

It’s likely to be a decade-long maturing process before enterprises see the same level of maturity and creativity users have grown to expect in day-to-day go-to apps.

“Enterprises need to start down the path now, but don’t expect to achieve the end state in the short term,” Gold said.

The tech market lost 29,000 jobs in March, even as the unemployment rate for tech-related jobs slipped 0.1% to 3.1%, according to an analysis of US Labor Department data released today.

At the same time, tech sector employment fell by 8,428 jobs last month, driven largely by job cuts in tech services and telecommunications, according to CompTIA, a non-profit IT trade association that analyzed figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

The BLS data, CompTIA said, sent conflicting signals about the IT job market as uncertainty around it “accelerated.”

“With many employers in wait-and-see mode, the jobs data is about in line with expectations for the month,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.

Overall, US job growth beat expectations, with the broader economy adding 228,000 positions. That’s nearly 100,000 more than the 135,000 economists had predicted would be added. Conversely, the federal government lost 4,000 jobs, due to reduction in force efforts by the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Victor Janulaitis, CEO of IT industry research firm Janco Associates, said DOGE’s impact is causing IT contracts to be delayed, leaving government IT professionals uncertain about their future.

The overall US unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% in March, just 0.1% higher than in February. Previous US job gains for January and February were revised down by a total of 48,000, with January reduced by 14,000 and February by 34,000, according to BLS data.

In the first quarter of 2025, the IT job market shrank by 34,200 jobs, according to Janulaitis. The number of unemployed IT professionals dropped slightly in March to 133,000 from 148,000 at the start of the year. “We believe that many low-skilled, legacy-skilled IT pros, or displaced IT professionals have stopped looking for jobs in the IT sector,” he said.

CompTIA said new employee job postings for tech occupations rose slightly to more than 213,000. In all, there were nearly 478,000 active tech job postings last month. Industry sectors adding the most new tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (52,526), administrative and support services (26,099) and manufacturing (21,975).

Software developers and engineers, tech support specialists, systems engineers and architects, and cybersecurity engineers and analysts were in highest demand, according to CompTIA’. Positions in artificial intelligence (AI) or that require AI skills accounted for 21% of all active tech job postings. And half of all tech job postings did not require a four-year academic degree.

Several industry experts saw the uptick in overall hiring and steady unemployment rates as a good omen.

Martha Heller, CEO of executive search firm Heller, called the BLS jobs report healthy, and said it reinforces “the plain truth that technology innovation (primarily AI) will drive up employment. In every sector, companies need people to realize the return on their AI investments, and while those people are often technologists, the AI employment boom will expand to include a broader range of skills.

“With the nearly certain instability that our current economic policy brings, technology and the people who can use it to navigate uncertainty will have job security for a long time,” Heller said.

Kye Mitchell, head of US tech recruiting firm Experis North America, sees AI as a boon for all businesses. “In the tech sector, our real-time data shows that businesses are addressing their AI needs by focusing on their data to be prepared to best leverage AI in this new era,” she said.

Quarter over quarter, demand for data analysis and cleansing has risen sharply, he said. For example, roles for data scientists are up 238%. Database architect positions rose 142%. And, job openings for mathematicians were up 1,272%, Mitchell said.

“Additionally, there’s a growing need for executive management, indicating businesses are relying on leadership to drive AI integration,” she said. “The impact of recent economic policy shifts on AI worker demand is still unfolding, and market uncertainty may lead to longer decision timelines and adjustments.”

Others familiar with the tech industry saw the latest jobs report as positive, including Ger Doyle, US country manager at global staffing firm ManpowerGroup. “Today’s jobs report is a welcome sign, given the negative indicators we saw leading into it. While the US labor market is proving to be resilient, there are signs of cooling that are consistent with employers navigating uncertainty.”

ManpowerGroup data shows a 2% overall decline in all job postings and a 3% drop in new job postings. While the labor market appears stable, Doyle said employers remain cautious, with the exception of healthcare and education sectors.

“Uncertainty is keeping both employers and employees from making moves, leading businesses to focus on maintaining current workforces but considering adjustments if the uncertainty persists,” he said.

Janulaitis said interviews he performed with more than 100 CFOs and CIOs revealed optimism about Trump administration, though many anticipate a mild economic downturn in mid-2025. “Unemployed IT pros found jobs faster than expected as CIOs quickly filled positions while hiring was still authorized,” he said.

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We are still within the sequence of energies described in Newton’s Third Law of Motion, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” In this case, Apple, already badly bruised by Trump’s tariffs and their impact on its business, will now take another kicking as nations react to those oddly calculated trade taxes. Europe is gunning for Apple’s services, while China is about to stick some of the world’s rarest components behind its own trade wall. 

The third law

China, predictably, isn’t happy. Not only has it slapped a reciprocal 34% tariff against US goods, but it also introduced export restrictions on rare earth materials — this will have a direct and significant impact on tech, as these are used in almost every electronic device.

That includes Macs and PCs, smartphones and tablets, as well as weapons systems, energy-generation tech, and electric cars. China produces around 90% of the world’s refined rare earths and the new export restrictions are being applied against exports to all countries. The exports haven’t been banned, but the latest move does give Beijing the strategic power to restrict them or even turn them off. (Not all is lost, of course. Other nations also have some of these materials, including Canada, for example).

France, meanwhile, is warning that the EU’s second line response to these tariffs will be aimed at digital services, such as those provided by all the Big Tech firms — Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

This is also a strategic approach, given that services are popular across the region and have already emerged as the bulwark against the recession those firms all knew was coming but never called out, preferring socialism for the rich. (And given Apple’s really under pressure in the EU, at what point will the US decide to relent in some fields to give its big tax revenue generator a break?)

Also, in the run up to this chapter, don’t be too surprised if Apple — and other companies selling products into the US — imported bigly piles of hardware to meet short-term demand. 

Tactical silence

Don’t expect to hear much from Apple’s leadership quite yet. Execs recognize that the sensible approach is to stay under water until others throw their own responding stones into the pool as the rocks of Trump’s tariff troubles ripple across an angry world trade pond.

They may have gamed out a whole range of potential scenarios, but must now wait to see what’s left after the storm. It’s only after both action and reaction have had time to play out that defensive plans can be put into effect.

I don’t imagine they feel particularly optimistic in the medium term. Investment bank JP Morgan now sees a 60% chance of global economic recession this year, up from a still uninspiring 40% before. A recession would further deepen the damage to consumer confidence, and no doubt cut tithes from product sales across every category, not just iPhones. But America’s biggest company will be especially impacted, and given it already supports 2.9 million US jobs, what’s good for Apple is good for America. 

As is what’s bad.

Battle of the bean counters

While the extent of the tariffs and the unpredictable nature of reactions to them makes the future hard to see, Apple’s leadership is shrewd. They’ll have read The Art of War enough times to understand the need to preserve what resources they do possess and use what defensive opportunities they can exploit.

Look at it this way: every company involved in hardware production rationally knows that the cost of repatriating production to the US would be trillions of dollars, and would take years, even if there were enough skilled workers to handle all that.

With trillions at stake, what do they do? Backstage, anticipate political maneuvering, lobbying, and a chance for a cohort of people not usually celebrated too much at Apple to shine. I’m talking about lawyers, accountants, tax experts, PR types, and corporate staff.

This really is their time.

Way I see it, just as product design saved Apple in the late ’90s with a message that echoed the zeitgeist then, tactical use of obscure tax and territorial law has now become equally important to the future of Apple and any other multinational company exposed to risk. In terms of profit and revenue, this is the time when the back room professionals must save the day. Defend. Delay. Navigate. Obfuscate. Be ready to innovate. Your shareholders are counting on you.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

On April 4, 1975, two childhood friends, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, started what is today one of the world’s leading technology companies. Inspired by the January cover of Popular Electronics magazine, they created Microsoft (then Micro-Soft, referring to microprocessors and software) to develop software for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal computers on the market.

Half a century later, and after establishing its operations center in Redmond, Washington, in 1986, the company has diversified its activity, from Windows operating systems to the cloud and the video game industry, reaching a present dominated by artificial intelligence (AI).

In the stock market — where it listed in March 1986 — it has always occupied the top positions on the Nasdaq, where it is known as one of “the magnificent seven” along with other major players in the digital landscape.

Throughout these five decades it has only had three global CEOs: Bill Gates himself, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, in an industry accustomed to the constant dance of names. But in that time it has acquired and merged with hundreds of companies, including Hotmail, Nokia’s mobile devices division, and more recently Skype, GitHub, Linkedin and Activision Blizzard, the latter, related to gaming, being the most expensive at $68.7 billion.

But let’s look back to some of the earliest milestones in the development of the organization. In 1980, Gates and Allen signed an agreement to provide an operating system for IBM’s first personal computer. After presenting its MS-DOS PC in 1981, Windows came along in 1985 and, by the end of the decade, it was already the most recognized software brand on the planet. The first version of Microsoft Office arrived around that time, the productivity suite that today, under the Microsoft 365 brand, is used by more than 1.5 billion people.

During the 1990s, Bill Gates’ vision of the potential of the World Wide Web led to the integration of the company’s products and services into the network and the creation of one of the most famous browsers in the digital world, Internet Explorer. Gates has become one of the leading gurus of the computer industry and his thinking has permeated the world through numerous lectures, public appearances and published books.

In 1995 he set out a roadmap for the IT revolution in his first major text, The Road Ahead. Of the changes to come, he told Time magazine in a 1997 interview, “People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they?” That year he created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to address health and education issues of our time.

The arrival of the new century crowned a new CEO, Steve Ballmer. Gates stepped back to let the company’s first business manager continue with his strategy. Through 2013 Ballmer laid the first stones of the company’s video game business with the launch of the Xbox game console, and of the cloud with the 2008 launch of Azure. It was in 2011 that Office made the leap to the cloud with Office 365, and the company too a further step in collaboration with the purchase of the Skype video calling tool. In Ballmer’s final years in charge the Surface line of tablets emerged.

In 2014 comes the Satya Nadella era, characterized by a hitherto unknown acceleration of the technology industry around the planet. It stands out for the consolidation of cloud business and video games while introducing new trends, such as AI. Along the way, Windows 10, the purchase of LinkedIn, GitHub, the launch of Teams, which became the fastest growing application for the company, and the strong investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. His great achievement, perhaps, is to take Microsoft to a market value of $3 trillion dollars by 2024 thanks to this strategy. But it was in 2015 that he turns the technology around with a new corporate mission: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more” through IT.

Today, Nadella leads a company of 228,000 employees spread across more than 190 countries.

Paco Salcedo, head of the company’s Spanish subsidiary, says, “The most relevant learning in these 50 years is to have gone from believing we were a company ‘that knew everything’ to wanting to become a brand that ‘wants to learn everything’. And, if we look to the future, we believe that AI can enable the next billion jobs in all parts of the economy.”

A marathon journey

Reviewing this trajectory, Foundry consultant Fernando Maldonado says the company has adapted to change. “You have to know how to rise to disruptions in time,” he said, noting the company’s entry into the cybersecurity sector under the premise that “without protection there is nothing” when hardly anyone understood this need. Also, the company’s switch to embrace open source, even before its acquisition of GitHub. “At the beginning, open source was the enemy and, today, we can say that it also knew how to adapt. […] A lot of its software is already open source.”

“All this gives you an idea that it has always been able to react in time to macro-trends,” Maldonado said. Although, he added, the company has taken several hits, inevitable for a company that has been around for half a century, such as the flop of the Bing search engine. “If it hadn’t had any friction, we wouldn’t be talking about its achievements,” he says. “But it has worked on a very solid foundation with Office, which is the anchoring of all types of companies.”

Now, it remains to be seen how it fares in the still very young world of AI, with the billion-dollar investments it is making, although there is some slowdown in terms of data centers. In any case, says the analyst, “it is also making a very strong bet on the future”.

Nadella’s reflection regarding Microsoft’s anniversary is in line with the expert’s analysis: “I’ve found myself reflecting on how Microsoft has remained a consequential company decade after decade in an industry with no franchise value. And I realize that it’s because -time and time again, when tech paradigms have shifted- we have seized the opportunity to reinvent ourselves to stay relevant to our customers, our partners and our employees. And that’s what we are doing again today,” he said.

Windows 11 24H2 has been released, but behind the scenes, Microsoft is constantly working to improve the newest version of Windows. The company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.

Skip to the builds

The Windows Insider program is divided into four channels:

• The Canary Channel is where platform changes (such as major updates to the Windows kernel and new APIs) are previewed. These changes are not tied to a particular Windows release and may never ship at all. Little documentation is provided, and builds are likely to be very unstable. This channel is best for highly technical users.
• The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they’ll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers and builds in it may be unstable and buggy.
• In the Beta Channel, you’ll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact.
• The Release Preview Channel typically doesn’t see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It’s meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds.

The Beta and Release Preview Channels also receive bug-fix builds for the currently shipping version of Windows 11. See “How to preview and deploy Windows 10 and 11 updates” for more details about the four channels and how to switch to a different channel.

Not everyone can participate in the Windows 11 Insider program, because the new operating system has more stringent system requirements than Windows 10. If your PC fails to meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11, you cannot join the Windows 11 Insider Program. (See “How to check if your PC can run Windows 11.”)

Below you’ll find information about the Windows 11 preview builds that have been announced by Microsoft in the past six months. (For the Release Preview Channel, we cover builds released for the current version of Windows 11, not for earlier versions.) For each build, we’ve included the date of its release, which Insider channel it was released to, a summary of what’s in the build, and a link to Microsoft’s announcement about it.

Note: If you’re looking for information about updates being rolled out to all Windows 11 users, not previews for Windows Insiders, see “Windows 11: A guide to the updates.”

The latest Windows 11 Insider preview builds

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5518

Release date: April 3, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

Those in the Dev Channel who have opted to receive the latest updates get several new features that are being rolled out gradually, including taskbar icon scaling — when your taskbar starts to get crowded with pinned or open apps, the icons automatically scale down to a smaller size. This lets you keep more apps visible and accessible without having to use a secondary menu.

Dev Channel users who have opted to receive the latest updates get three bug fixes, one in which external graphics cards connected over Thunderbolt were unexpectedly not discoverable in some cases; another in which Hyper-V Manager erroneously reported 0% CPU usage for VMs in some scenarios; and another for those with Copilot+ PCs who saw semantic search stop working until their PCs were rebooted.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5518.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3671

Release date: April 3, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who agreed to receive the latest updates get several new features being rolled out gradually, including taskbar icon scaling — when your taskbar starts to get crowded with pinned or open apps, the icons automatically scale down to a smaller size. This lets you keep more apps visible and accessible without having to use a secondary menu.

Those in the Beta Channel who get the latest updates get two bug fixes, one in which external graphics cards connected over Thunderbolt were unexpectedly not discoverable in some cases, and another in which Hyper-V Manager erroneously reported 0% CPU usage for VMs in some scenarios.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3671.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516

Release date: March 28, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

This build includes improved search tools for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. When searching in File Explorer, the Windows search box on the taskbar, or in Settings, you can type plain-English searches without having to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. In addition, those with AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs can find photos in the cloud by using plain-English searches.

Those who have turned on the toggle to receive changes as soon as they come out get a speech recap in Narrator which keeps track of what Narrator has spoken and access it for quick reference. They also get a variety of changes and improvements, including one in which on Copilot+ PCs, they can now access Click to Do from the Start menu and can pin it to Start and the taskbar.

They also receive a variety of bug fixes, including one in which File Explorer was very slow to close for some Insiders when closing it using the X button.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a bug fixed in which the toggle to get the latest updates as soon they are available via Settings > Windows Update didn’t render correctly and turned itself off.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3653

Release date: March 28, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features being rolled out gradually, including a speech recap feature in Narrator that keeps track of what Narrator has spoken and lets you access it for quick reference. There are also a variety of changes and improvements, including one in which on Copilot+ PCs, users can now access Click to Do from the Start menu and can pin it to Start and the taskbar.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which the taskbar icons weren’t increasing in size as they should when using your PC in a tablet posture.

Two bugs are fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which the toggle to get the latest updates as soon they are available via Settings > Windows Update did not render correctly and automatically turned itself off.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates that will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3653.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27823

Release date: March 26, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows. It also includes new “top cards” under Settings > System > About. Top cards provide an easy way to view your PC’s key specifications—processor, RAM, storage, and GPU.

The build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Settings could crash when interacting with Bluetooth & Devices > Cameras.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27823.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3585

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

This build includes improved search tools for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. When searching in File Explorer, the Windows search box on the taskbar, or in Settings, you can type plain-English searches without having to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. In addition, those with AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs can find photos in the cloud by using plain-English searches.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which File Explorer was very slow to close via the X button.

Two bugs are fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update did not render correctly and automatically turned itself off.

There are 16 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3585.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5510

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build the Dev Channel is jumping ahead to receive 26200 series builds. This means that once you install it, you cannot switch to the Beta Channel. If you are in the Dev Channel and want to switch to the Beta Channel, don’t install this build. Instead, pause updates in Windows Update, switch your channel to the Beta Channel and then un-pause updates.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5510.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3624 (KB5053656)

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out several new features for Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, including natural-language search in Windows Search. Just describe what you’re looking for without having to remember specific file names, exact words in file content, or settings names.

In addition, the build includes the same set of improvements and bug fixes as a previous build, Build 26100.3613, such as Natural Language Commanding in voice access, available initially on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3624.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27818

Release date: March 19, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Remote Desktop sometimes froze when connecting.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27818.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3613 (KB5053656)

Release date: March 18, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including Natural Language Commanding in voice access, which lets users speak commands naturally, using filler words and synonyms, rather than rigid, predefined commands. It is available initially on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Several bug fixes are also being rolled out gradually, including one in which the “see more” (…) menu in the File Explorer command bar opened in the wrong direction in some cases.

A variety of new bug fixes are being rolled out immediately, including one for a bug in which critical PowerShell modules required for device configuration were not executed under Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3613.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3576 

Release date: March 17, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including one in which on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, you can use natural language commands during voice access, rather than having to remember specific voice commands.

The same group gets several bug fixes, including one addressing a bug for users in managed environments, in which your Windows Recall snapshots would get deleted after installing Build 26120.3380 and after each reboot on that build.

There are 16 known issues in this build, including one in which Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings, and another in which Recall is no longer able to save new snapshots or modify settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3576.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27813

Release date: March 12, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows.

The build also fixes two bugs, one which the WDMAud system driver was causing some app crashes, and the other in which Settings > System > Display > Color Management did not always display the expected color profile list for the selected monitor.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27813.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3380 

Release date: March 10, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including one in which File Explorer displays a new Recommended section that is displayed as a carousel with thumbnail previews. This includes content such as files you frequently use, have recently downloaded, or added to your File Explorer Gallery. Users with a work/school account (Entra ID) will have additional types of recommendations available with this update.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which windows.storage.dll led caused some apps to crash when files were opened in them.

There are 10 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3380.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27808

Release date: March 7, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, a change is being rolled out in the way Task Manager calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. For backward compatibility, a new optional column called CPU Utility is available (hidden by default) on the Details tab showing the previous CPU value used on the Processes page.

The build also fixes a number of bugs, including one that caused the search window to go blank for some Insiders when searching from the taskbar, due to a background crash.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN. In the other, a d3d9.dll crash is causing multiple apps to fail to launch starting with Build 27802 for some Insiders.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27808.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5015

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will see a new system tray icon on the taskbar, which lets you use emojis, GIFs, Kaomoji, etc. across all apps and surfaces in Windows in addition to using the Win + . keyboard shortcut. This new system tray icon can be changed by right-clicking on the icon to go to taskbar settings page.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a number of new bug fixes, including for a bug in which File Explorer Home crashed for some Insiders.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which File Explorer is very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also affect the other title bar buttons.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5015.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3360 

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get two new features being gradually rolled out, including one in which Task Manager changes the way it calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. Also being added is the ability to share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows when right-clicking on local files in File Explorer or the desktop.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug which some people experienced Remote Desktop freezes on login, or frequent disconnect.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3360.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27802

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, new battery icons in Windows 11 communicate the battery status of your PC with a quick glance. Key changes include colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one that was causing the login screen to crash when clicking the “sign-in options” link for some Insiders.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27802.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3291

Release date: February 21, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs can search photos saved in the cloud by using your own words to describe what you’re looking for in the Windows search box on the taskbar.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bugs fixed, including one in which switching languages crashed live captions if audio was playing or the microphone was enabled.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots,” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3291.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3321 (KB5052093)

Release date: February 18, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which you can share files directly from a jump list on the taskbar, and another in which you can find out more information about a background image by hovering over the image or clicking the “Learn about this picture” icon.

A variety of bug fixes are also being gradually rolled out, including one in which when you enter a URL in the File Explorer address bar, it might not go to the location.

The build also immediately fixes a number of bugs, including one in which Remote Desktop stopped working.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3321.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3281

Release date: February 14, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates have the ability to resume working on OneDrive files from your phone (iOS and Android) on your Windows 11 PC with a single click. In addition, when “Restore previous folder windows at logon” is enabled in File Explorer, you can now restore all the extra tabs that you previously had open in each File Explorer window. 

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which if you tried to reset your password from the login screen, it wouldn’t work due to an underlying crash. Another fix addresses a bug for users who have a Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PC, in which File Explorer search was unresponsive and required a reboot to start working.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots,” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3281.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27788

Release date: February 5, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes the first in-box public preview of Windows MIDI Services, a complete rewrite of MIDI on Windows for musicians. Windows MIDI Services handles MIDI 2.0 and improves MIDI 1.0 implementation, with automatic translation between the two. It works on 64-bit operating systems on all supported processors, including Arm64.

The build also gradually rolls out the ability to resume working on OneDrive files from your phone (iOS or Android) on your Windows 11 PC with a single click.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one that prevented scanning apps from detecting a connected scanner.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27788.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4870

Release date: February 3, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, IT administrators in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a new group policy called “Disable Widgets On Lock Screen,” which allows them to disable lock screen widgets without disabling widgets elsewhere on PCs they manage. 

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which the Start menu crashed for some Insiders when they interacted with the letters in the apps list.

Several bugs have been fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which PCs did not recognize that USB cameras were on after installing the January 2025 security update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which the home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4870.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3073

Release date: January 31, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those who have Copilot+ PCs get a new feature in Windows Search, in which you can use your own words to find photos stored and saved in the cloud by describing what they are, such as “European castles” or “summer picnics.” In addition to photos stored locally on your Copilot+ PC, photos from the cloud will now show up in the search results as well. Exact matches for your keywords within the text of your cloud files will show in the search results.

The build also includes changes being gradually rolled out for all Windows 11 PCs. Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will see a Settings home page for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. The feature will show some existing cards relevant to enterprise-managed PCs like “Recommended settings” and “Bluetooth devices,” as well as two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards. For commercial customers who also use their Microsoft account on their managed PC, there will also be a new accounts card indicating the presence of both work/school and Microsoft account types. 

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which minimized File Explorer windows might not have rendered correctly when restored.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets several bug fixes, including for one in which the display of some games appeared oversaturated when you used Auto HDR.

There are 18 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots” message while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3073.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27783

Release date: January 29, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, users signed into Windows with a Microsoft account will be able to view files that have been shared with the account, such as email, Teams chat, etc., in File Explorer. Commercial customers signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID account will also be able to view files that they have shared with others. You can access this feature by launching File Explorer Home and clicking on the ‘Shared’ tab item.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which taskbar preview windows sometimes didn’t display when hovering over open apps in the taskbar.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27783.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4805

Release date: January 24, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a change to Snap in Windows 11 in which inline messaging will now appear when you accidentally invoke the Snap Bar when dragging an app to the top middle of your desktop or Snap Flyout when hovering over the Minimize or Maximize button of an app. This is designed to provide guidance on snapping app windows and educating users on the keyboard shortcuts for quickly snapping app windows in the future.

This group also gets new keyboard shortcuts in Narrator scan mode for quickly jumping to list items and to the beginning or end of large elements such as tables or lists. These changes are gradually rolling out.

There are five known issues in this build, including one in which the Home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4805.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3000

Release date: January 24, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new battery icons, including colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage. The same group also gets several bug fixes, including for a bug in File Explorer in which you sometimes would be unable to navigate by entering a path in the address bar. These changes are gradually rolling out.

There are 18 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3000.)

Windows 11 Build 26100.3025 (KB5050094)

Release date: January 21, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which an icon will appear in the system tray when you use an app that supports Windows Studio Effects. This only occurs on a device that has a neural processing unit (NPU). Select the icon to open the Studio Effects page in Quick Settings.

The update also improves the previews that show when your cursor hovers over apps on the taskbar. In addition, the Windows Mobile Hotspot now supports 6 GHz connections. This new band requires chips that support the feature and updated drivers. 

A variety of bug fixes are also being rolled out, including for a bug in which the Snipping Tool screenshots were distorted when you used two or more monitors that have different display scaling.

The build also immediately rolls out a change in which you will now have a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3025.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4800

Release date: January 17, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC. You can still find your apps in the Start menu and Search, and you can pin apps to your taskbar. In addition, the build starts the rollout of the Settings home page for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. 

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get one bug fix, which includes increased support for text scaling in File Explorer, File Open/Save dialogs, and copy dialogs.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which the Home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4800.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774

Release date: January 16, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of tweaks that Microsoft says improves the overall experience of Windows 11. In addition, the Administrator protection can now be enabled from Windows Security settings under the Account Protection tab, which allows users to enable the feature without requiring help from IT admins.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which accent colored window borders were not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows were not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations were not showing.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which Insiders joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into the PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27768

Release date: January 9, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of general changes that Microsoft says improve the overall experience of Windows 11. It also fixes several bugs, including one in which File Explorer sometimes lost focus on the search box while typing.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27768.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4660

Release date: January 3, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get labels added to previously unlabeled actions on File Explorer’s context menu such as cut, copy, paste, rename, share, and delete.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes for issues that impacted File Explorer’s performance and reliability.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4660.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27766

Release date: January 3, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that Microsoft says improve the overall experience of Windows 11. It also fixes several bugs, including one in which some Insiders experienced frequent explorer.exe crashes after they clean-installed or reset their PC.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27766.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2702

Release date: December 13, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a new advanced camera options page. To see it, navigate to a camera under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras and click the edit button for advanced camera options. Note that this is being gradually rolled out.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bugs fixed, including one in which when pointer trails were enabled, the mouse cursor became invisible with a black box behind it.

One bug is fixed for everyone in the Dev Channel, in which if you rolled back from Build 26120.2510 to an earlier build, you would see a “Your organization used App Control for Business to block this app” dialog when attempting to use or install certain third-party apps on your PC due to an incorrect policy being enforced.

There are seven known issues in this build, including one in which Click to Do sometimes doesn’t highlight any info on screen if there is no content on a connected external monitor in extended mode.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2702.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4655

Release date: December 13, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available will be able to see visual previews of links or web content they share using the Windows share window. Note that the new feature may not yet be available to everyone because it is being gradually rolled out.

The build also fixes one bug, in which window previews weren’t showing when hovering over certain open apps in the taskbar, for those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4655.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27764

Release date: December 11, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

In this build, when right-clicking on apps pinned to the Start menu, jump lists will be shown for apps that have them, such as PowerPoint. The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which File Explorer might hang when browsing a folder with lots of media in it, and another in which some HDDs were being incorrectly listed as SSD on the Task Manager Performance page.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27764.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4580

Release date: December 6, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get several improvements to File Explorer, including one in which if you launch File Explorer folders from outside of File Explorer (for example, from an app or from the desktop), by default they now open in a new tab if you have an existing File Explorer window open. Note that these features are being gradually rolled out, so may not be immediately available.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a single bug fix, in which Pinyin IME users may unexpectedly switch the IME from Chinese to English when switching between windows.

Everyone in the Beta Channel gets four bug fixes, including for a bug in which Windows stopped responding when you used an Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) USB printer.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4580.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27758

Release date: December 4, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build introduces a new advanced camera options page in Settings that includes a multi-app camera setting and a basic camera setting, the latter intended as a last resort when your camera is not functioning correctly. The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one that could have caused Settings to crash when you selected your default audio device.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27758.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2415

Release date: November 22, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

This build, for those who have Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, introduces the first preview of the Recall feature that constantly takes screenshots of what you do while you work so you easily find files, web pages, and more. In addition to searching, you can use a timeline to scroll back to what you were doing on your PC at a specific day and time.

Click to Do is also included. It lets you take AI-powered actions on the screenshots taken by Recall, such as erasing objects from them, performing a visual Bing search on them, copying them, sharing them, and more.

In addition, those who have the toggle turned on to immediately get new features will soon get new Windows Hello features that have already been rolled out to the Beta and Canary Channels.

Those who have the toggle turned on to immediately get new features and other changes get a variety of bug fixes, including for a bug in which explorer.exe sometimes crashed when interacting with app icons.

Click to Do has eight known issues, including one in which there a delay before snapshots first appear in the timeline.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2415.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4510

Release date: November 22, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available can resume working on OneDrive files from a phone (iOS and Android) on a Windows 11 PC with a single click. Users will also be able to right-click and share local files under the Recommended section of the Start menu. Note that these changes will roll out gradually.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of bug fixes, including one for a bug in which you sometimes could not navigate by entering a path in the address bar.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4510.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27754

Release date: November 20, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build revamps Windows Hello in several ways, primarily to make authentication easier. Among the changes is a redesign of using passkeys for more secure and faster authentication. Users can now switch between authentication options and select passkey/devices more intuitively. Beyond that, if you hold Shift and Ctrl when clicking on a jump list item in the Start menu or taskbar, you will launch that item as admin.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one that caused RAW images taken in portrait mode to unexpectedly display in landscape mode thumbnails in File Explorer.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27754.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4510

Release date: November 15, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available can share files directly from right-click jump lists on the taskbar in supported apps such as Notepad. Note that this feature will roll out gradually.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get a fix for a single bug, in which you might have unexpectedly seen a message saying “You’re offline. Widgets are unavailable.”

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4510.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.2448

Release date: November 14, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gets a wide variety of new features, including one in which when you right-click apps that you have pinned to the Start menu, jump lists will appear for apps that have jump lists. There is also a new section for touchscreen edge gestures. Go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Touch. There, you can choose if you would like to turn off the left or right screen edge touch gesture. These features are being gradually rolled out.

There are also a variety of bugs that have been fixed, including one in which the Task Manager’s Users page could have caused Task Manager to stop responding when you used the keyboard.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.2448.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27749

Release date: November 13, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build adds a new shortcut “Narrator key + Ctrl + X” to copy what Narrator last spoke to clipboard. You can use this shortcut in conjunction with “Narrator key + X,” which repeats the last spoken phrase out loud, to review and copy what Narrator spoke.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Task Manager showed a 0 count for apps and processes, and another in which a blank entry in Settings > Privacy would cause Settings to crash if you clicked it.

There are five known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27749.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2222

Release date: November 8, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates can hold Shift + Ctrl when clicking on a jump list item in the Start menu or taskbar to launch that item as admin. This feature is being gradually rolled out.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes, including for an issue in which windows unexpectedly moved around after waking from sleep if you had multiple monitors. Note that this is being gradually rolled out.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which Narrator crashes on launch if you use one of the natural voices, and another in which your desktop background may show big black areas with multiple monitors.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2222.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4445

Release date: November 8, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, Insiders in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available have a New Folder option in the context menu when right-clicking locations in the navigation pane. Note that this change will be gradually rolled out.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also have a variety of bugs fixed, including one in which performing a search unexpectedly triggered the search happening repeatedly. Note that these fixes will be gradually rolled out.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4445.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27744

Release date: November 6, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build includes a major feature update to Prism, Microsoft’s emulator for Windows on Arm, that will make it possible for more 64-bit x86 (x64) applications to run under emulation. This new support in Prism is already in limited use in the retail version of Windows 11 24H2, where it enables the ability to run Adobe Premiere Pro 25 on Arm. Starting with this build, the support is being opened to any x64 application under emulation. You may find that some games or creative apps that were blocked due to CPU requirements before will now be able to run using Prism.

Note that only x64 applications can use these new CPU features. If you have a 32-bit app or a 64-bit app that uses a 32-bit helper to detect CPU feature support, that app won’t detect the new features in Prism.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which certain apps did not detect a scanner, although one was connected.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you may lose your Windows Hello PIN and biometric sign-in your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27744.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2213

Release date: November 4, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will have the IME toolbar hidden when apps are in full-screen mode for those who have the IME toolbar enabled and type in Chinese or Japanese. Note that this is being gradually rolled out.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get a variety of bug fixes, including for one in which RAW images taken in portrait mode unexpectedly displayed in landscape mode thumbnails in File Explorer. Note that this is being gradually rolled out.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a variety of bug fixes, including for a bug that caused Task Manager to show a 0 count for apps and processes.

There is one known issue in this build, in which the desktop background sometimes may not show correctly with multiple monitors (showing big black areas).

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2213.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4440

Release date: November 1, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a revamped Windows Hello that adheres to contemporary Windows visual design standards. The update also has a small set of general improvements. Note that all these changes will be gradually rolled out.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get a single bug fix, for a bug that caused touch keyboard crashes and the IME candidate window not to appear for some Insiders.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4440.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4435

Release date: October 25, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available can launch an item on the Start menu or taskbar as an admin by holding Ctrl + Shift when clicking. Note that this feature will be gradually rolled out.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bugs fixed, including one in which the X button to close an app window from the taskbar wasn’t working for some Insiders. This fix will be gradually rolled out.

Everyone in the Beta Channel can now configure the Copilot key again, after that feature was turned off in Build 22635.4291. Everyone in the Beta Channel gets several bug fixes, including for one in which the PIN reset did not work when you selected the “I forgot my PIN’ link on the credentials screen in Windows Hello for Business.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4435.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2200

Release date: October 25, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates can access Windows Studio Effects in Quick Settings from the system tray of the taskbar. Windows Studio Effects delivers AI-based camera and audio enhancements on devices equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU). Note that this feature is being gradually rolled out.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bugs fixed, including one in which if you clicked or tapped on a letter on the Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may have broken. This fix is being gradually rolled out.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a variety of bug fixes, including for a bug in which you could not view some parts of the UI when you ran certain apps.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which there is an unexpected amount of spacing between items in the Start menu apps list.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2200.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4371

Release date: October 18, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available can now use the new Narrator key + Ctrl + X shortcut to copy what Narrator last spoke to clipboard. It follows the pattern of using Narrator key + X, which repeats the last spoken phrase out loud.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible get several fixes for several bugs, including one in which Narrator would slow down after 15 minutes of continuous use with a single application.

An update for the Snipping Tool (version 11.2409.23.0 and newer) is also being rolled out to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels. It introduces a new “Copy as table” feature.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4371.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2130

Release date: October 18, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including one in which “All apps” is now just “All” on the Start menu.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which clipboard history did not display items you had copied.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2130.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27729

Release date: October 17, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build adds the ability  to configure the Copilot key. You can choose to have the Copilot key launch an app that is MSIX packaged and signed, thus indicating the app meets security and privacy requirements to keep customers safe.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which the screen went black for a few seconds for some people when using Alt + Tab.

There are five known issues in this build, including one in which some Insiders with PCs that have older NVIDIA GPUs (like the GTX 970, Quadro K620, etc.) are experiencing some issues where their displays appear stuck at a black screen and unresponsive or seeing their GPUs showing errors in Device Manager and not working correctly.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27729.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4367

Release date: October 11, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a small set of general improvements and fixes that Microsoft claims improves the overall experience of running Windows. They also now have the ability to share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows when right-clicking on local files in File Explorer or the desktop.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible get several bug fixes, including for one in which some Insiders saw an unexpected amount of spacing between items in the Start menu All Apps list.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4367.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2122

Release date: October 11, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a small set of general fixes that Microsoft says improve the overall experience of running Windows. The Disconnect and Logoff dialogs in Task Manager now support dark mode and text scaling.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get one bug fix, for a bug that caused the screen to go black for a few seconds for some people when using Alt + Tab.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets several bugs fixed, including one in which some Insiders saw error 0x800f0825 when trying to install the latest Dev Channel builds.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2122.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.2152

Release date: October 10, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which you can stop the suggestions to turn off notifications from certain apps. Select the ellipses (…) in the notification and turn it off. You can also go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn it off from there.

The build also immediately rolls out a change in which you can configure the Copilot key on the keyboard. The build also immediately fixes a number of bugs, including one in which you could not sign in to your account from the web because the screen stopped responding.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.2152.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27723

Release date: October 9, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build introduces several minor changes and features, including one in which you can share local files directly from within the search results shown in the search box on the taskbar.

There are five known issues in this build, including one for those using Copilot+ PCs, in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose your Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27723.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1930

Release date: October 4, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a small set of general improvements and one bug fix, for a bug in which the boot menu wasn’t displaying correctly for some Insiders with dual-boot devices.

Everyone in the Dev Channel can now configure the Copilot key. You can have the Copilot key launch an app that is MSIX packaged and signed, increasing security and privacy.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the list may break. If you encounter this issue, please try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1930.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4300 

Release date: October 4, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available will see “All” instead of “All apps” on the Start menu. In addition, Windows Search runs IFilters in the Less Privileged App Containers (LPACs). LPACs are like app containers, but they deny even more permissions by default. The intent is that a process running in a LPAC has access only to the resources needed by it. This helps to minimize the potential damage that can be caused by a compromised process by limiting its access to sensitive system components and data.

Two bugs are fixed for those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible, including one in which items in the navigation pane became very spread out for some people.

There are two known issues in the build, including one in which live captions will crash if you try to use them.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4300.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27718

Release date: October 2, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build introduces a number of minor new changes and features. You can now drag apps from the Pinned section of the Start menu and pin them to the taskbar. For laptops on battery, a notification will pop up asking you to plug in your laptop if the battery level reaches 20% while Energy Saver is set to “Always On.” 

Several bugs have been fixed, including one in which the emoji panel closed when you tried to switch to the kaomoji and symbols sections, or after selecting an emoji, and another in which the Widgets icon sometimes unexpectedly displayed twice in the taskbar.

There are three known issues in this build, including one for those using Copilot+ PCs, in which If you are joining the Canary Channel from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC; you’ll see error 0xd0000225 and an error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available.” You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27718.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1912

Release date: September 30, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who’ve turned on the toggle to receive the latest updates get a small set of general improvements and fixes that Microsoft says improves the overall experience of running Windows. In addition, Windows Mobile Hotspot has been enhanced to support 6GHz connections. The new band requires chips that support the feature and updated drivers; not all chips that support 6GHz Wi-Fi in general will support the 6GHz mobile hotspot.

Those in the Dev Channel who agreed to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes, including one in which Task Manager’s Settings page might have a white background when it should not.

There is one known issue in this build: if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1912.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4291

Release date: September 30, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned on the toggle to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get an updated Task Manager design in which the Disconnect and Logoff dialogs in Task Manager now support dark mode and text scaling. They also get several bug fixes, including one in which explorer.exe crashed sporadically when using ALT + Tab in recent builds.

Everyone in the Beta Channel gets several bug fixes, including one in which Work Folders files failed to sync when Defender for Endpoint was on.

There are two known issues in the build, including one in which live captions will crash if you try to use them.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4291)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.1876

Release date: September 23, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build, for those using Windows 11 version 24H2, gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which when your device’s battery power is running low, a pop-up window will appear that asks you to plug in your device. This occurs when the battery level reaches 20% and while Energy Saver is set to “Always On.

Several bug fixes are being immediately rolled out, including one in which when a combo box has input focus, a memory leak might have occurred when you closed that window.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.1876.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds 22621.4247 and 22631.4247

Release date: September 23, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel

In this update for users on Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, a variety of features are being rolled out slowly, including one in which the “Sign out” option is now on the account manager when you open the Start menu. To change to a different user, select the ellipses (…). A list of other users appears to make it easier to switch.

The update also fixes several bugs, including one in which Microsoft Edge sometimes stopped responding when you used IE mode.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds 22621.4247 and 22631.4247.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4225

Release date: September 20, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available will get the ability to share content to an Android device from the context menu in File Explorer and on the desktop. To use this feature, the Phone Link app must be installed and configured on your PC.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible get a fix for a bug in which the emoji panel didn’t work properly.

Everyone in the Beta Channel can now configure the Copilot key. You can choose to have the Copilot key launch an app that is MSIX packaged and signed, thus indicating the app meets security and privacy requirements.

Everyone in the Beta Channel gets several bug fixes, including for a bug in which some Insiders experienced a bug check when closing Notepad.

There is one known issue in the build, in which if you click or tap on a letter on the Start menu’s All apps list, the list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4225.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1843

Release date: September 20, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a new feature, in which File Explorer provides you with quick access to files that have been shared with you. If you are signed into Windows with your Microsoft account or Entra ID account, you will be able to view files that have been shared with your account, such as email, Teams chat, etc. You can access this feature by launching File Explorer Home and clicking on the Shared tab.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including one in which when pressing Windows key + E, a screen reader might unexpectedly say a pane had focus, or focus may not be set within File Explorer at all.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a number of bug fixes, including one in which could result in the Widgets icon unexpectedly displaying in the taskbar twice sometimes.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1843.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4145

Release date: August 30, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available will see several new features, including one in which the Sign out option is immediately visible in the new account manager on the Start menu. There’s also a list of signed in users under the three-dot icon so it’s faster to switch accounts. The mouse and touchscreen controls have more options, and hotspots now appear on the desktop when users right-click the Windows Spotlight icon. The changes are being rolled out gradually.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible get fixes for several bugs, including one in which explorer.exe crashed when interacting with archive files. These fixes are being rolled out gradually

Everyone in the Beta Channel gets a number of bug fixes, including for a bug in which the [NetJoinLegacyAccountReuse] registry key has been removed.

There is one known issue in the build: if you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break. If you encounter this issue, try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4145.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27695

Release date: August 30, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

In this build, Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) has been improved with a new ability to recover encrypted passwords from Active Directory (AD) backup media even when there are zero AD domain controllers running.

A number of bugs have been fixed, including one in which Ctrl + F would sometimes not start a search in File Explore, and another in which the colors in the Performance section of Task Manager weren’t displayed correctly in dark mode.

There are two known issues in this build, including one for those using Copilot+ PCs, in which  If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose your Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available.” You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27695.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4082

Release date: August 26, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available will see the media controls at the lower bottom center of the Lock screen when media is being played. There is also now an option to turn off the suggestions to disable notifications from certain apps. These features are being rolled out gradually.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as possible get fixes for several bugs, including one in which explorer.exe crashed for some Insiders when closing apps from the taskbar. These fixes are being rolled out gradually.

Everyone in the beta channel gets one bug fix, in which the [NetJoinLegacyAccountReuse] registry key has been removed.

There are two known issues for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one that causes explorer.exe to crash when interacting with archive files.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4082.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds 22621.4108 and 22631.4108

Release date: August 19, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel (Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2)

Starting with this update, a variety of features will be rolled out slowly, including one that lets you share content to your Android device from the Windows Share window. To do this, you must pair your Android device to your Windows PC. Use the Link to Windows app on your Android device and Phone Link on your PC.

A number of bugs are being fixed, including one in which when a combo box has input focus, a memory leak might occur when you close that window.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds 22621.4108 and 22631.4108.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22610.1586

Release date: August 19, 2024

Released to: Release Preview Channel (Windows 11 24H2)

This build, for those with Windows 11 version 24H2, gradually rolls out a new feature in which when you right-click a tab in File Explorer, you have the choice to duplicate it.

A wide variety of bug fixes are being gradually rolled out, including for a bug in which memory leak occurred when you interacted with archive folders and another in which File Explorer stopped responding when you browsed within it.

Three bug fixes have been immediately released to everyone, including one in which a deadlock occurred in the domain controller (DC) when it started up in the DNS client.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.1586.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4076

Release date: August 19, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will find that a feature introduced in Build 22635.3930 that showed a Studio Effects icon in the system tray when using any application with a Studio Effects-enabled camera has temporarily been disabled. It will be re-enabled in a future build.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of bug fixes, including for a bug in which  Voice Access commands weren’t working for non-English supported languages.

A wide variety of bugs are fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which Windows Backup sometimes failed in devices with an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) system partition (ESP).

There are two known issues for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which explorer.exe crashes when interacting with archive files.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4076.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1542

Release date: August 19, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a new feature that adds first letter navigation support to the taskbar. When keyboard focus is set to the taskbar (WIN + T), you can press a letter, and it will jump to the open or pinned app whose name starts with that letter. The feature is being gradually rolled out so isn’t yet available to everyone.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get fixes for three bugs, including one in which the emoji panel closed when trying to switch to the kaomoji and symbols sections, or after selecting an emoji.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a number of bug fixes, including for a bug in which adding languages or optional features might fail with error 0x800f081f.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which navigating between different pages in Task Manager may crash it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1542.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27686

Release date: August 15, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This build includes the new Windows Sandbox Client Preview that is now updated via the Microsoft Store. It introduces runtime clipboard redirection, audio/video input control, and the ability to share folders with the host at runtime. You can access these via the new “…” icon at the upper right on the app. This preview also includes a very early version of command line support. (Commands may change over time.) You can use the wsb.exe –help command for more information.

The build also includes optimizations to improve battery life and a detach virtual hard disk (VHD/VHDx) button in Settings that makes it simpler to detach your VHD/VHDx as needed.

A number of bugs have been fixed, including one in which Dev Drive VHDs weren’t automatically remounting when the underlying volume was dismounted and brought back online, and one in the Windows Security app where if you browsed the networks under Firewall & Network protection, it showed a broken glyph (a rectangle) next to the network name rather than a network icon.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27686.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1350

Release date: August 9, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates can more easily share content to an Android device from Windows share window. The feature requires you to pair your Android device to your Windows PC using the Link to Windows app on Android and Phone Link on your PC. The feature is being rolled out gradually.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get one fix that addresses an issue in which graphs on the Performance page in Task Manager did not show the correct colors when using dark mode again. The fix is being rolled out gradually.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets several bug fixes, including for a bug in which Windows Sandbox failed to launch with error 0x80370106.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which navigating between different pages in Task Manager may crash it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1350.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4010

Release date: August 9, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, many of those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will see the simplified system tray with shortened date/time change that began rolling out with Build 22635.3930. The feature is being rolled out gradually.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get fixes for two bugs, one in which the dropdown at the top of the GPU section of Performance wasn’t showing in dark mode when dark mode was enabled, and the other in which if you pressed the Shift key when you right-clicked on an app icon on the taskbar, it opened another instance of the app rather than opening the expected menu.

There are three known issues for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one that causes explorer.exe to crash for some Insiders when closing apps from the taskbar.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4010.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1340

Release date: August 5, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get improvements for spelling and corrections in voice access, including the ability to dictate characters at a faster speed and have more editing flexibility with selection, deletion, and text navigation commands.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a fix for a bug in which items under “Let desktop apps access your location” section in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location had visibly flickered although there were no changes displayed.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which navigating between different pages in Task Manager may crash it.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.1340.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4005

Release date: August 2, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a small set of general tweaks and fixes that Microsoft says improves the overall experience of running Windows.

Those who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get one fix for a bug that caused sporadic explorer.exe crashes for some Insiders.

There are three known issues for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one that causes explorer.exe to crash for some Insiders when closing apps from the taskbar.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4005.)

Two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence are independently developing new AI tools that encourage learning, at a time when the technology has been criticized for dumbing down smart users in the enterprise and discouraging critical thinking. While the new initiatives from OpenAI and Anthropic are aimed at transforming how AI is used in higher education, the opportunities they open up extend beyond universities.

The approach taken by the two AI firms, emphasizing learning, retention, and critical thinking, has implications for enterprises that are increasingly integrating AI into their workflows.

Such education-focused initiatives arrive at a crucial moment, as research increasingly shows that improper use of AI in workplaces leads to what experts call “cognitive atrophy” — a decline in employees’ ability to think critically when AI handles too many cognitive tasks.

Like it or not, those who use Windows Update to obtain and install updates, patches, and fixes will occasionally encounter issues. Sometimes, a specific update may not download. At other times, an update may fail to install. Every now and then, Windows Update (a.k.a. WU) may refuse to interact with the Windows servers from which updates come.

That’s where these steps come into play. Try these troubleshooting techniques in the order outlined below to get WU operational again.

Although I’ve illustrated the WU troubleshooting steps in Windows 11 here, the same techniques also work with Windows 10, with only minor variations. This story covers both Windows OSes quite nicely.

1. If at first you don’t succeed…try again

Though the most basic of all troubleshooting techniques for Windows Update doesn’t always work, it can help sometimes. That is, if WU fails to work as expected, the first thing to try is running the Windows Update request again.

For best results, restart the target PC before trying again. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it may clear some pending or transitory conditions (such as an already-downloaded update that needs to be applied, or some other pending system action) that will put Windows Update back to rights.

Here’s what to do (see Figures 1 and 2):

1. Click Start, then the power button icon (far right), then Restart from its pop-up menu.

2. When the desktop reappears, click Start > Settings > Windows Update, then click the Check for updates button.

In my own experience, this works one-quarter to one-half of the time when a WU problem manifests. The upload and install simply succeeds on a second try. Could it have been a download hiccup, or perhaps cosmic rays? Whatever: getting it on that next try is a good thing!

But if restarting the PC provides no relief, move onto the next section.

2. Try the Windows Update troubleshooter (or Get Help app)

As the trite software saying goes, “There’s an app for that.” For common Windows issues — which definitely include WU — it’s equally valid to observe, “There’s a troubleshooter for that.” Troubleshooters are built-in Windows mini-apps meant to diagnose and fix specific Windows problems.

In Windows 11, troubleshooters are being deprecated in favor of a new universal Get Help app, but for now, at least, the Windows Update troubleshooter remains the go-to for WU problems in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Indeed, if you enter troubleshoot Windows Update errors into the Get Help app, it takes you to this very same troubleshooter.

At some as-yet-unknown point in the future, that troubleshooter may be replaced with another tool available via Get Help. In the meantime, here’s how to fire up the WU troubleshooter directly:

1. Click Start > Settings.

2. Insider the Settings app, type trouble into search. You’ll see something like the list shown in Figure 3 appear. Click Troubleshoot Other problems.

3. In the “Other troubleshooters” pane, Windows Update appears in position 4 (from top) under the “Most frequent” heading, as shown in Figure 4. Click the Run button at the right-hand side of that entry.

4. The Windows Update troubleshooter runs in its own window. You’ll pick one of two options: I can’t download, install, or uninstall an update or I installed an update, but that update has caused a problem. Pick the one that matches your situation. (For this story, I picked I can’t download…) The troubleshooter asks permission to run an automated diagnostic. Choose Yes, and it runs — be patient, this can take a minute or two.

When it finishes, you’ll see a final report window like the one in Figure 5.

The troubleshooter asks if its fix solved the problem, but it’s difficult to tell that without running another update check in WU. I usually answer Yes to the question shown in Figure 5, restart the PC, and run Windows Update again. Only then is the real Yes/No answer clear.

In my experience, the WU troubleshooter actually fixes what’s wrong one-third to one-half of the time. If it doesn’t, advance to the next section, please.

3. Completely reset WU

If the WU troubleshooter doesn’t address your issue, there is heavier artillery you can bring to bear. It’s fully described in the excellent Windows 11 Forum tutorial entitled “Reset Windows Update in Windows 11.” This tutorial includes a download link to a special batch file that turns off all WU related services, resets all Windows Update components and policies, then restarts all the services it turns off. (There’s a similar tutorial for resetting WU in Windows 10 on Windows 10 Forums, complete with its own batch file.)

The download ends in a ZIP extension, so you’ll need to unzip it after you download. This will reveal the batch file named Reset_Reregister_Windows_Update_Components_for_Windows11.bat.

Next, you’ll need to open an administrative command prompt or PowerShell session. (Type either cmd or powershell in the Windows search box, right-click Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell in the list of results, select Run as administrator, and enter the password if prompted.)

Next, navigate to the folder where the aforenamed batch file resides. (It’s so handy, I keep it on the desktop on my Windows 10 and 11 PCs, as shown in Figure 6.)

Cut and paste the filename into the command line, and then hit the Enter key to run it. That’s all there is to it.

This batch file takes a while to run and involves checking and stopping WU services (bits, wuauserv, and cryptsvc). It then flushes the DNS cache, clears pending update requests, deletes temporary files and folders related to WU downloads, and resets Windows Update policies in the Windows Registry. Then it restarts the services it stopped, and finally ends by offering a Restart button. Use it, because the PC must restart for all these changes to take effect.

I’ve used this batch file on most of my Windows 10 and 11 PCs (and 7, 8, and 8.1 PCs before that), and it’s worked in every case except two to put WU back in action. On the machines where it failed, it turned out I had a hardware problem (a failing SSD) on one of them. On the other, Microsoft’s update was later documented to pose problems for certain PCs.

IMO, the reset-reregister batch file is something of a silver bullet for WU problems. Thus, if you don’t mind waiting the time it can take to work through its processes (under 2 minutes on my 8th-gen i7 Lenovo X12 hybrid tablet), it’s always worth a try.

After I ran it on my first test PC, it cleared the error condition the troubleshooter found but couldn’t fix, and successfully downloaded and installed a pending Cumulative Update (CU).

If the silver bullet doesn’t work, then what?

On one of the two occasions when the batch file didn’t fix WU, I had to take my affected PC to the shop, where they were able to detect and diagnose a failing drive (SSD) that I did not catch on my own. Once that component was replaced, the system returned to normal working order.

On the other machine, I learned from the chatter around KB5053390 on Windows 11 Forum that others were having similar problems. After I used DISM to install that package manually, WU resumed working correctly. Thus, online research can also help prevent unnecessary flailing about when WU problems present.

Before you take a PC that gets to this stage to the shop, I’d recommend trying an in-place repair install. And if that fails, try a clean OS install next. Only then should a trip to the shop be needed. Hopefully, you’ll never get that far!

Additional reading on WU issues and errors

The Microsoft Learn collection called “Windows deployment documentation” covers the ins and outs of Windows deployment, including WU and updates. It includes a Troubleshoot section broken into two parts — namely, “Resolve Windows upgrade errors” and “Windows Update issues troubleshooting.” Both dispense lots of useful advice and techniques, plus discussions of (and references to) Windows Update error codes. For those who want to learn and do more about WU and its workings, these are must-reads.

This article was originally published in November 2022 and updated in April 2025.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) payment system has more than 60 million lines of COBOL code. That makes it one of the world’s largest, not to mention oldest, codebases. Everyone agrees it needs to be updated. But, sorry, there’s no way it can be updated in mere months.

Nevertheless, Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) claim they can convert the ancient SSA code to Java or some other modern language in only a few months. Reminder DOGE isn’t a real department — and that modernization effort isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

Seriously, I’ve seen this rodeo before. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been trying to replace the 200,000-line assembly language Individual Master File (IMF) with Java for decades. Hasn’t happened. The latest plan was to replace the IMF by 2028. I say “was” because President Donald J. Trump, Musk, and DOGE have cut the IRS modernization funds to zilch. 

As for SSA, it was going to replace COBOL with Java in 2017, a code translation expected to take five years; it failed. (That’s why we’re having this conversation now.) Part of the problem was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as Ernst & Young noted, the agency also didn’t have a real plan for modernizing its legacy IT systems, nor one to identify and track the systems.

Guess what? There’s no real plan today, either. All we know is that Musk, yes-man Steve Davis and  nine kid software engineers, and some undefined AI program will miraculously transform the code into Java.

I doubt any of them can even read COBOL code. This is, after all, the same crew who thought there were hordes of 150-year-old fraudsters ripping off Social Security. What they didn’t realize was that COBOL doesn’t have a standardized way of dealing with dates, which led to records for numerous century-old-plus people who were not — I repeat- — not getting an unfair penny of government funds.

Why should they know? Over a decade ago, fewer than one in four colleges offered COBOL classes.

Thinking of dates, that’s not the only data in that codebase kept in formats incompatible with modern languages. Converting this data accurately is crucial and fraught with risks. Any errors during the conversion process could result in data loss or corruption, which would have catastrophic consequences for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick believes that if Social Security checks didn’t go out one month, his mother-in-law “wouldn’t call and complain.” Maybe she wouldn’t — after all, she has a billionaire son-in-law. I don’t. I bet the vast majority of the 73 million other Americans who depend on it don’t have billionaires in the family either. 

Even if these youngsters did grok the language, knowing COBOL is only part of the problem. You see, COBOL is more than just a coding language. It also incorporates organizational processes and policies. That’s not an approach modern developers deal with.

In addition, COBOL systems were not designed to integrate seamlessly with modern technologies. A migration requires extensive customization to ensure compatibility with newer software and hardware, which is both costly and complex. This integration challenge was exacerbated by the need to maintain the system’s functionality during the  transition, a delicate balancing act that demands meticulous planning and execution.

Meticulous is not the word I’d use for Musk and his move-fast and break-things bunch.

As Waldo Jaquith, former director of technology acquisition for the Inflation Reduction Act, said on Bluesky about the scheme, “I’m an expert in modernizing legacy government software systems. This is profoundly stupid and will definitely fail, and it’s just a question of whether our social security system fails along with it.

“I cannot think of a single legitimate reason for DOGE to perform such a modernization, especially on such a time scale.”

Jason Fichtner, a former SSA deputy commissioner, told CNBC: “If you start messing with the system’s code, that could impact those who are currently getting benefits now, and that’s a new front-and-center concern.

“You can’t just flip a switch one night and expect to be able to upgrade. It takes due diligence, and you have to understand the complexity of the programs,” he added.

In light of DOGE’s employee cuts at the agency, Fichtner and Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, warned in a column: “If Social Security’s computer systems experience an outage, which has happened twice in recent years, the agency may lack the expertise to resolve it.” 

Unless Congress acts soon to block DOGE’s misguided technology plans, Social Security, which has never missed a payment in its nearly 90 years, might finally not deliver American workers’ hard-earned retirement checks. Yes, legacy systems should be replaced and upgraded. No one’s arguing they shouldn’t be.

But waving a magic AI wand powered up by a political agenda isn’t the way to do it.

Enterprise IT leaders are facing a double-whammy of uncertainties complicating their data center building decisions: The ever-changing realities of genAI strategies, and the back-and-forth nature of the current tariff wars pushed by the United States.

“This is obviously a fluid situation. The stated goal of the [US] administration is to bring more development into the US,” said Forrester Senior Analyst Alvin Nguyen. “But with some of these activities, there is the potential that it draws some manufacturing and other capabilities of the data center away from the US.”

Nguyen, who advises enterprises on data center strategies, said the tariffs are adding complexity and uncertainty into the already volatile genAI data center strategies.

“Right now, there’s too much variability. With all of the tariffs, this may be the thing that slows down AI,” Nguyen said. “And if you slow down AI, that will slow down the data centers.”

Microsoft is urging Office 2016 and 2019 customers to upgrade to Microsoft 365 before support ends Oct. 14, but analysts said viable alternatives are available outside Microsoft’s walled garden.

“Continuing to use unsupported software can expose your organization to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks, and operational disruptions,” the company warned in a blog post.

Microsoft 365 is the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office, which also includes Teams, Copilot and web-based collaborative features. It is available only by subscription, with prices starting at $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year for the Personal edition.

The alternative, a standalone desktop version of Microsoft Office, doesn’t have the AI and collaboration features, nor does it have Copilot or Teams. Users looking to replace Office 2016 or 2019 could also opt for the convenience of a one-time purchase of Office 2024, which costs $149. 

Microsoft in the blog post talked only about upgrading to M365, which never expires. Office 2024 support ends in October 2029.

Analysts said enterprise customers might find upgrading to Microsoft 365 worthwhile for its generative AI (genAI) tools, collaborative features and security. Or, depending on enterprise AI and productivity needs, they could jump ship for rivals such as Google Workspace. 

For enterprise customers worried about data privacy in the cloud, the desktop edition of Office or free open-source alternatives such as LibreOffice might be more attractive. The $149 price of Office 2024 might also be cheaper than Microsoft 365 in the long run, analysts said.

Microsoft wants to move customers to Microsoft 365 subscription services, said Jason Wong, vice president at Gartner for on app design and development.

“This makes support easier and lowers the cost of products for Microsoft, while at the same time it opens up many up-sell and cross-sell opportunities such as security products, the Power Platform tools, and of course M365 Copilot,” Wong said.

Basic Microsoft 365 editions for home users or business users don’t include Teams. But users can get features that include Intune, Defender, Clipchamp and Loop at higher subscription prices.

For those who only need Microsoft Office apps that include PowerPoint and Word, the standalone option could be attractive, especially if they already use something like Google or Zoho for mail, calendar, and document storage, said Irwin Lazar, principal analyst at Metrigy.

“For those wishing to take advantage of AI, an upgrade to M365 is a requirement. I expect that for [small and mid-sized businesses], Microsoft now offering M365 without Teams at a lower price could prove attractive,” Lazar said. 

Metrigy in a recent study noted that about 25% of Microsoft customers were evaluating the unbundled option. The study, Employee Experience Optimization: 2025, was published in November.

“Google’s recent price increases for Workspace are likely to help Microsoft, especially for SMBs, though Google includes Gemini AI now with Workspace,” Lazar said.

Enterprises would see value in moving from legacy on-prem, disconnected apps to Microsoft 365 though at this point those were probably Lotus or legacy on-prem Exchange/Sharepoint customers.  “The savings is likely to be minimal if customers are already using cloud-based services for document, email, and calendar,” Lazar said.

Some organizations are resisting the push to the cloud — primarily European-based companies with stricter data requirements and regulations. “Cost also plays a factor in staying on-premise, but typically organizations realize they won’t be getting the latest features and capabilities, like generative AI and Copilot, if they choose this path,” Wong said. 

Gartner sees clients evaluating rival suites to see what life looks like outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. “It typically comes down to familiarity of products and features for the workers, and the overall security and cost of ownership for IT to consider whether to switch or not,” Wong said.

Microsoft, for its part, painted a doomsday scenario to get users to upgrade to Microsoft 365 if they don’t quit Office 2016 or 2019 by the time support expires. 

“You may have started noticing limitations,” the company wrote. “Your apps are stuck on your desktop, limiting productivity anytime you’re away from your office. You can’t easily access your files or collaborate when working remotely or traveling, creating unnecessary friction for your team. Perhaps you’ve seen your company’s IT expenses creep upwards as you’ve added separate solutions for email, file storage, and virtual meetings.”

Readers of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World this week sought to learn how corporate culture can affect digital transformation, wanted to know more about the rise of cloud-based ERP, and had questions about desktop-based office software.

Transform Faster

Disruptive forces dictate the need for speed when it comes to key digital initiatives. This week we reported 12 ways in which IT leaders are overhauling strategies and processes to streamline IT for quicker success. We explained how to transform: faster.  

Transformation is not only a question of technology, of course. And the readers of CIO were keen to understand how big a part organizational culture plays in transformation projects. According to Smart Answers: a lot.  

It says that organizational culture impacts time to business outcomes and the development of digital core competencies. And that a culture committed to digital transformation, such as a cloud-committed culture, can accelerate the adoption of digital technologies. Transformation requires a change in mind set, and culture is a big part of that. 

Find out: How does organizational culture impact digital transformation speed?  

SAP is Rising

Last week we reported on problems in migrations to SAP’s S4/HANA. This week we brought the better news that SAP adoption is surging (in Europe at least) as enterprises embrace cloud. But why? What is driving the trend of cloud ERP adoption? 

The accepted answer would be that organizations are looking to accelerate digital transformation efforts and seek greater operational efficiency through advanced technologies. Smart Answers takes that ball and runs with it, adding other factors: a broader shift toward scalable and efficient IT infrastructure; SAP’s RISE with SAP program, designed to facilitate cloud migration; and the cost savings from not having to refresh systems is another factor driving the adoption of cloud-based ERP systems. 

Find out: What is driving the trend of cloud ERP adoption?  

The Price of Productivity

Recently we reported that LibreOffice downloads are on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs. We said that the free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week.  

It makes sense, right? Something free is better than something expensive. But is it a fair comparison. Readers of Computerworld wanted to know if a desktop productivity suite could compete with a cloud-based solution such as O365. The answer is yes… but Microsoft’s desktop software is the best solution. At least that is the opinion of Smart Answers.  

Find out What are the advantages of using a desktop office productivity suite over a cloud-based one?  

About Smart Answers 

Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides.  

Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content.