Windows

The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

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Catacrac. This is how the announcement that Apple made with the MacBook Neo. They are modest in specifications, yes, but they have a surprising price/performance ratio if we take into account that it comes from Apple. The company, which seemed like it would never “humiliate itself” with a “cheap” product, has ended up doing just that. And in the process, it has posed an extraordinary threat to Windows laptops with a product that is a missile to the waterline of many manufacturers. A perfect team for many people. We’re all looking for the best product at the best price, and the MacBook Neo is a fantastic balancing act. It is not by far the best laptop one can find, but it is a device with a very reasonable configuration for many people. And it is because many people use the laptop for tasks that do not need more power or features. Apple has also hit the nail on the head with the price: being an Apple product, those 700 euros almost seem like a bargain. A textbook masterstroke. While Windows laptop manufacturers get tangled up in justifying why a laptop It should cost 1,500 euros to do everything you want (not to mention the AI ​​options), Apple has on its hands a product that overturns the perception of value. The MacBook Neo does not seek to win performance races, but rather to be the equipment that any student, administrator or home user buys without looking at another alternative. In 2026, true innovation is not to include an incredible NPU, but to offer a product that solves a need and do so at a price that previously seemed an insult by Apple’s standards. Remembering netbooks. Almost 20 years ago the industry tried to move in this direction with netbooks. These Windows laptops were (very) modest, crude and cheap and generated a lot of expectation, but realities soon arrived. Its limitations were so obvious that they were not worth it, and the concept of the “modest, cheap and functional laptop” was perhaps ahead of its time. Cupertino has arrived on time. Apple seems to have arrived at the right time, because we have been saying for years that mobile chips were already extraordinarily powerful and were wasted both in our smartphones and (especially) in iPads. The MacBook Neo is what netbooks should always be—well, maybe a little expensive for a netbook—with the difference that here the features promise to be much more adequate. Slap for Windows on ARM. The appearance of this team is also a very hard blow for all those teams that have tried to Windows on ARM it made sense. We have seen several throughout these years and everything seemed to indicate that Microsoft and the manufacturers they had a chancebut they have ended up making computers that were basically clones of their variants with Intel/AMD in almost everything. With more autonomy and many AI functionsYes, but with often high prices and with some software limitations because the Windows ecosystem on ARM architecture is not nearly as prepared as Apple’s with macOS, which completed that transition after the launch of the M1 in 2020. There is hope for Microsoft and its users. Manufacturers of Windows equipment will now have to react and come up with competitive options. And they certainly have the potential to do so. Qualcomm has its Snapdragon Meanwhile, NVIDIA already has its SoCs for laptops almost ready —we saw them at CES— so we may be looking at a “second era of netbooks” in which the MacBook Neo competes with Windows/ARM machines on price and features. Of course, it remains to be seen what the real performance, autonomy and reliability of these future devices, including Apple’s, are. Suddenly Apple has a catalog of “affordable” products that puts its competitors in trouble. Beyond the Chromebook. The MacBook Neo could be seen as a “Chromebook killer”, but Google has stopped promoting them and manufacturers no longer lend them either so much attention. In fact, the future of Google laptops It seems to go through Android, not ChromeOS. While the MacBook Neo can certainly be a very reasonable device for students, it is actually an attack on the conventional “home laptop” with which HP, Dell or ASUS have always triumphed. Apple’s prestige plays a lot in its favor here, and it may win over not only young people, but also many other users who saw Apple as an aspirational brand that was too exclusive for their budgets. Memory makes everything more expensive… except the MacBook Neo. Furthermore, this launch moment could not be more cruel for Windows laptop manufacturers. All of them have already been warning that they will have to raise prices due to the RAM memory crisis, but Apple has done just the opposite: instead of presenting more expensive products—well, has also done it—, the firm has uncovered a functional and affordable bet that does not punish consumers. Sacrifices must be made, yes, but they are reasonable, especially in view of events. Apple has shown that you can be “humble” in price without losing your identity, and now it remains to be seen what the response of Windows equipment manufacturers is. Because what is clear is that that answer will come. And it is likely that after all this launch it will end up being very good news for us, the users. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play

Windows 11 is already on 1 billion devices. It has arrived before Windows 10, and that says more than it seems

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If we had to bet on which of the two operating systems users want more, Windows 10 I would still have many numbers. Not only because it was a solid launch, but also because it came at the right time: in July 2015, with the mission of erasing the bad memory they had left Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. For years, Windows 10 was the comfortable place, but Microsoft has been playing another game for some time. Windows 11 is going well, very good. Not only is it growing, but it is doing so at a pace that no longer allows for too many doubts.According to data shared by Satya Nadella During the presentation of Microsoft’s financial results (fiscal second quarter), Windows 11 has reached the symbolic milestone of 1 billion users, with a year-on-year growth of 45%. It is a huge fact due to the number, but even more so because of what it suggests: that migration is finally accelerating. A strategy that has worked. The reading fits with something we have been seeing for a long time: Microsoft has stepped on the accelerator to push the jump to Windows 11. And it has not always been easy. In fact, until not so long ago the consensus was different. Unofficial figures for November 2024, crossed with historical data, described disappointing and slower than expected adoption. Windows 11 seemed to move forward with difficulty, as if the public could not find enough reasons to abandon Windows 10. But the pace has changed, and not exactly a little. Arriving before Windows 10. The comparison leaves a particularly striking detail: Windows 11 has reached 1 billion users before Windows 10. In numbers, Windows 11 needed 1,576 days (almost four years and five months) to reach that barrier, while Windows 10 took 1,706 days (four years, eight months and two days). Even so, it is worth putting it in perspective: Microsoft set an even more aggressive goal with Windows 10, aiming for it to be installed on 1 billion devices in just three years. A goal that changed. That plan was ambitious, yes, but it also had small print. In its roadmap, Microsoft planned to add part of the mobile ecosystem as “installations”: Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile. The problem is that that future never came. The collapse of Windows Phone and the subsequent cancellation of the project They left that approach meaningless, and Microsoft ended up adjusting expectations. In fact, in April 2015 Terry Myersonthen head of Windows, was already talking about “1 billion devices” in “two or three years” after the launch. A more elastic formulation, less rotund, and much easier to land when the board changes. A milestone amidst challenges. Because the jump from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is not—nor has it been—a smooth transition for everyone. The first wall is technical: hardware requirements. Many computers are left out of the official update because they do not have TPM 2.0 or a compatible processor. In other words, there are users who are pushed to renew equipment even when theirs continues to function reliably. The second obstacle is more intangible, but just as important: experience. Windows 11 arrived with visible changes compared to Windows 10 (design, interface, organization) and also a different philosophy, with more presence of functions powered by artificial intelligence, new features that may arrive at any time and a model of constant evolution that does not always work in its favor. Added to this is the usual noise: a chain of incidents after some recent updates that have made people talk. Windows 11 is a solid system, but also one in constant transformation, and that has a cost. Despite everything, Windows 11 is advancing. Perhaps it is due to pure inertia, perhaps because of end of Windows 10 supportor maybe because the PC market is moving again. What is relevant is that Windows 11 is gaining ground at a pace that Microsoft can read as a victory. Although, deep down, the industry has already changed enough for Windows to stop being king within Microsoft itself. Today it represents less than 10% of income from the Redmond giant. The real jewel in the crown, and the big strategic bet, is elsewhere: Azure. Images | Microsoft | Andrey Matveev In Xataka | We have been waiting for the new Siri for a year and a half. Now it’s just around the corner with an unexpected twist: Google

Windows 95 had a little secret that made rebooting faster. The reason was in its more chaotic architecture

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If before Windows 95 If you used other operating systems, it’s hard not to remember the feeling of being faced with something completely new. That proposal introduced elements that we take for granted today, such as the Start menu, the taskbar or Plug and Play, and it did so at a time when starting a PC was almost a small ritual. But beneath that familiar interface a complex architecture was hidden, the result of the forced coexistence between DOS inheritances, 16-bit Windows and the first 32-bit layers. That design, as inelegant as it was effective, gave rise to unexpected behaviors that still surprise today. Few users knew that Windows 95 hid an alternative route to the classic reboot. It was enough to hold down the Shift key during the process started from the graphical interface for the system to display the warning “Windows is restarting”, instead of following the path of a cold restart, as described by Raymond Chen. The difference was not spectacular, but it was noticeable at a time when every minute of starting counted. That small gesture activated an internal mechanism designed to avoid, whenever possible, starting from scratch. The shortcut that did not restart completely Behind this behavior there was a precise technical decision. Chen details that Windows 95 used a flag called EW_RESTARTWINDOWS when invoking the old ExitWindows function, still 16-bit. With that instruction, the system did not order a cold restart of the computer, but rather something more limited: close Windows and restart it. The objective was to save steps, as long as the internal situation allowed it, although this optimization depended on everything fitting correctly. Once that alternative route was taken, the process followed a very specific sequence. The 16-bit Windows kernel was shut down first. The 32-bit virtual memory manager was then turned off and the processor returned to real mode, the most basic state of the system. At that point, control returned to win.com with a special signal asking for something very specific: restart Windows in protected mode without going through a full computer boot. With control back on win.com, the most fragile part of the process began. The program had to simulate a clean boot of Windows, as if it had just been run from scratch, which involved, in Chen’s words, resetting the command line options and returning some global variables to their original values. Although the work was largely clerical, it was especially complex because win.com It was written in assembly. There were no abstractions or modern conveniences. The decisive point was in memory. When win.com was executed, like any .com file, it received all available conventional memory. However, it freed up almost all memory beyond its own code so that Windows could load a large contiguous block when entering protected mode. If during the session a program reserved memory within the space that win.com had left free, the memory was fragmented. In that scenario, win.com could no longer recreate the original map it expected, and, Chen explains, it was forced to abandon the fast reset and fall into a hard reset. When everything fell into place, the process continued without turning back. win.com jumped directly to the code responsible for booting Windows in protected mode, recreating the virtual machine manager and llifting the 32-bit layers again. From there, the graphical interface loaded as usual and the user returned to the desktop. The difference was subtle but real: Windows hadn’t had to reboot the entire system to get to that point. This type of shortcut was only viable in a system built on cross-compatibilities. Windows 95 had to coexist with DOS software, 16-bit Windows programs and Win32 applications, and that mix forced us to accept inelegant but very practical solutions. The developers took advantage of this complexity to introduce hidden optimizations that could speed up restarts, although they could sometimes end in crashes. The obsession with saving memory led to very imaginative solutions. Chen explains that in assembler it was common to recycle code that was no longer going to be used as if it were free memory. On win.com, the first bytes of the entry point were reused as a global variableunder the premise that this code was only executed once. Since the quick restart did not return to that initial point, the system could allow that shortcut without affecting the process. That shortcut also showed its seams. Chen recalls that some users detected errors after performing several consecutive quick reboots, something that he was unable to consistently reproduce. Their hypothesis is that some driver wasn’t rebooting properly, leaving the system in a weird state, and that weirdness ended up taking its toll later. It’s no surprise that this type of behavior wasn’t presented as a documented feature, but it sums up the spirit of Windows 95 well: inventive, ambitious, and full of compromises. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | Schrödinger’s Office: at this point it is impossible to know if Microsoft keeps it alive or if everything is AI and Copilot

In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines

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The John Hancock Tower It was conceived in the late 1960s as the great coup of authority of modern Boston: a minimalist, elegant and almost “invisible” skyscraper, designed to reflect the sky with enormous panels of lightly tinted blue glass, with reduced mullions to a minimum and without elements that would break its purity, topped by a plant that visually sharpened the corners and a vertical slit that further stylized the mass. But there was a mistake fat. The modernist dream of a glass needle. The skyscraper was the type of building I wanted seem inevitableas if it had always been there, and at the same time had to demonstrate that “corporate architecture” could be a piece of urban art. In other words, a clear aesthetic ambition was sought, but it implied an enormous risk: betting everything on glass and geometric precision, where any failure ceases to be a defect and becomes a dangerous spectacle. The first shock of reality. From the beginning, the project lived under the spotlight because it in the Back Bay neighborhood and very close of Trinity Churcha historical milestone that already had a symbolic and emotional weight in the city, and that threatened to be dominated by the shadow and presence of the new colossus. Was protests and design adjustmentsbut the real conflict soon arrived below ground: the excavation and temporary retaining walls were deformed and gave way before the mud and clay fills characteristic of the area, damaging sidewalks, services and even nearby buildings. Trinity Church ended up claiming and won a million-dollar compensationand the skyscraper, before it even existed, was already seen as a work that was too ambitious for the terrain that supported it. The glass scandal. The episode that turned the tower into a black legend of architecture occurred when it was still unfinished: with the Boston winds, the panels began to crack and fall awayand the glass fragments began to fall to the street like some kind of lethal rain. The authorities even cordoned off areas and closed streets when the wind rose, and the image of the “brilliant” building was replaced by another. much more humiliating: windows covered with plywood sheetsa partially bandaged tower in the center, which earned nicknames like “Plywood Palace” and jokes like “the tallest wooden building in the world.” In a skyscraper that was intended to represent absolute control, the failure was not only technical: it was a reputational blow direct, one where the symbol of its modernity (glass) had become a meme and a threat… Why it failed. At first you knowsuspected the wind as the main actor, of the suction and channeling effect around the building, and tests were reviewed in wind tunnels with models of the environment, but the core of the problem was in the window itself. Apparently the system it was too rigid: the reflective layer and its connection to the metal frame did not allow bending, and in a structure subjected to vibrations, oscillations and continuous thermal cycles, this lack of “play” became the breaking mechanism. The stresses were transmitted to the glass instead of being absorbed, the cracks propagated, and the result was inevitable: enormous and very heavy panels, weighing hundreds of kilos, failing repeatedly until the unthinkable was assumed in a newborn corporate icon: it was necessary to replace them all. The tower at the time the windows that had fallen out were replaced with plywood The expensive remedy. The solution It was shocking.: remove and replace the entire glazing with a more robust, tempered and heat-treated glass, in an operation that cost several million and that prolonged the ordeal for years. The project, announced with grandeur and reasonable budgets, ended up becoming a spiral of delays: the inauguration was postponed, the numbers skyrocketed and the tower went from promise to public embarrassment. Even so, mass glass replacement was the only way outbecause it was not about fixing a few defective pieces, but about correcting a façade idea that had been born with a structural fragility incompatible with the climate and real loads of Boston. The building today The final twist. And when it seemed like the worst had already happened, came the most disturbing blow: Later calculations suggested that, under certain wind patterns, the building could have a stability problem more serious than assumed, with unforeseen twists and dangerous behavior on its narrower sides. The tower also moved enough to cause dizziness to occupants in tall plants. The city discovered that the beauty of minimalism had a physical price. The answer it was double: on the one hand, install a huge damping system with tuned masses, two gigantic weights mounted with springs and shock absorbers to oppose the swaying and “return” the building to its center. On the other hand, reinforce with tons of bracing steel diagonal. It was, in essence, reengineer an icon already built so that it would continue standing with the dignity that had been promised from the first render. The paradox: from shame to object of desire. The most fascinating thing is that, after such a disastrous start, the tower ended up establishing itself as an admired piece and recognized, until receiving prestigious awards and becoming an inseparable element of the Boston skyline. As they counted then architectural experts, it was the kind of redemption that only happens when a building survives to his own crisis: the public ends up remembering its silhouette and its reflection, not the panic of the closed streets or the wooden planks covering the absent glass. The Hancock went from being a historical lesson for modern architecture (a reminder that aesthetics does not negotiate with physics) to be, precisely because it has overcome this technical hell, a work with a certain aura of resistance, almost a monument to the obsession with fixing the irreparable. One more thing. Over time, the tower maintained its place as the tallest skyscraper of New England, but its story continued to move in the practical terrain of money, tenants and identity: … Read more

The community has made it clear that they do not want AI in Windows and Microsoft has ignored them. So they have taken the law into their own hands

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Microsoft’s obsession with putting AI in every corner of Windows is logical at the current time (after all, it’s what everyone is doing). The problem is that the community has been very clear about this: they don’t want to. Microsoft has continued with its plan flood Windows 11 with AIbut we already have a way to avoid it. Winslop. The name comes from the play on words between Windows and Slop, which is the term used to refer to ‘AI garbage’, that is, very poor quality content. This is a free tool whose purpose is to eliminate all traces of AI from the system. Its creator makes it clear that he is not anti-Windows, in fact he states that he likes the platform, what he doesn’t like is the direction it is taking. CleanIA Windows. Winslop is totally free and you can download it from Github. The interface looks like old versions of Windows and consists of a list with all the changes that we can apply. There is an option that inspects the system and proposes the changes to be made, or we can check the boxes we want, depending on the level of cleaning we want. The list is quite long and is divided into categories, these are some of the functions we found: System: shows details if there is a blue screen instead of a sad face, optimizes system sensitivity, speeds up shutdown time… Microsoft Edge– makes it not the default browser, disables the Copilot icon, removes the shopping assistant, does not show sponsored links when opening a tab… Interface: Turn off transparency effects, hide taskbar search, turn off Bing search… gaming: Disables DVR recording, power throttling and visual effects. Privacy: disables activity history and location tracking Advertisements– Remove ads system-wide. AI– Hides Copilot from the taskbar and disables Windows Recall. Bloatware. There is more. Winslop is divided into three tabs: Windows 11, applications and extensions. From the apps section we can eliminate pre-installed applications such as Bing News, Bing Weather, WindowsCamera and many more. As in the other section, pressing the ‘Inspect System’ button gives us a list of suggestions to eliminate and we mark the ones we want. It’s not the first. Recently we told you about a tool that was born with the same objective (although with a name with less punch), RemoveWindowsAI. Like Winslop, it also disables all AI functions, but beyond its functions, the important thing is that its simple existence was already a symptom of community fatigue. The fact that another app has come out only confirms it. The PC IA. The obsession with turning Windows into an agentic system has collided head-on with what the community is asking for, to the point that Microsoft is losing favor with users. A year ago PCs with AI promised to be a revolutionbut they have come face to face with reality and even historical brands like Dell are changing their discourse. Microsoft is left alone. Image | Winslop In Xataka | There’s a reason AI PCs aren’t hurting Apple: Nobody asked for AI PCs

It has Windows, it is light and it already comes with a mouse

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HP has presented at CES 2026 in Las Vegas a product that tells us a lot about the trend toward miniaturization in technology. The product in question is the EliteBoard G1a, a computer that is integrated into a keyboard. Best of all, we are not talking about a futuristic concept or a prototype, but rather a functional device that the company will launch on the market in March of this year. A complete PC in keyboard format The EliteBoard G1a looks like a conventional office keyboard, but inside it houses all the components necessary to function as a personal computer: processor AMD Ryzen AI of the 300 series, RAM memory, storage, fan, stereo speakers and connection ports. Simply connect it to a monitor using USB-Cturn on the included and factory-paired Bluetooth mouse, and the device is ready to go. The idea of ​​integrating a computer into a keyboard it’s not completely new. He Commodore 64 popularized this format in the 80s, and more recently Raspberry Pi has marketed models such as the Pi 400 and the Pi 500although the latter are aimed at a more technical audience and work with Linux operating systems. The main difference of the EliteBoard compared to these alternatives is that HP is committed to Windows 11 Pro for business and more powerful x86 processorsmaking it a more accessible and familiar option for professional environments that do not require advanced technical knowledge. Configuration and specifications HP will offer the EliteBoard G1a in two versions: one with a fixed USB-C cable and another with a detachable cable. The first includes an additional USB4 port as compensation. Furthermore, both variants can power up to four 4K monitors at 60 Hz. In terms of processor options, users will be able to choose between models ranging from the Ryzen AI 5 350 to the Ryzen AI 7 370 Pro. The integrated NPU reaches up to 50 TOPS, which classifies the device as Copilot+ PC within the Microsoft program. The device supports configurations with up to 64 GB of DDR5 RAM in two SODIMM slots and up to 2TB of M.2 NVMe storage. Additionally, HP includes a 35 Wh internal battery as an option, which the company says provides around 3.5 hours of battery life. A fingerprint reader can also be added to expand login options. Design designed for mobility With a thickness of just 12 mm and a weight that ranges between 726 and 750 grams Depending on configuration, the EliteBoard G1a is significantly lighter and more compact than a traditional laptop. The keys have 2mm of travel, and HP claims the typing experience is “tuned for desktop space.” According to the company, the keyboard is spill-resistant and its modular design allows you to replace the top part in a few minutes. The bottom panel is removable for easy access to the cooling fan and other internal components. Who is it intended for? HP presents this product as a solution for hybrid work environments and shared spaces where employees do not have a fixed position assigned. The idea is to offer an ultra-portable device that can be quickly set up anywhere. “Work is being redesigned in real time: where it happens, how it happens, and what tools employees need to stay productive,” affirms Guayente Sanmartin, senior vice president of Business Systems and Display Solutions at HP. The company also argues that many workers use their laptops with the lid closed connected to external monitors. If you are a user who is going to have an external screen permanently connected, the truth is that it is a more than convenient solution in the use cases described. Price and availability The HP EliteBoard G1a will be launched in March 2026although the company has not yet confirmed the official price. We will have to wait to find out more information about it. Images | H.P. In Xataka | The computers of the future have found an unexpected ally to store information: fungi

It’s not underground, it’s in the recycling of your old windows

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Galicia has strived to demonstrate that the future of the industry is not found underground, extracting finite resources, but in the ability to rescue what we have already used. In a global context obsessed with decarbonization, the town of Coirós, in A Coruña, has hit the table to position itself as an “eternal” aluminum power. The great industrial milestone. According to the company itselfCortizo has invested 38 million euros in a new recycling plant designed to absorb aluminum waste and return it to the market as new material. It is not a typical storage warehouse; It is an area of ​​29,000 square meters where teams of operators, protected with aluminized suits to withstand radiant heat, supervise state-of-the-art smelting furnaces and crushing systems. After a period of testing this summer, the plant has officially started its activity and is now ready to reach its full operational capacity. It is the Galician response to the challenge of the scarcity of raw materials: stop depending on mining to trust in the efficiency of recycling. A vision with history. But to understand this movement it is necessary to look back. The general director of the firm, Raquel Cortizo, insists that this commitment to circularity is not a passing fad. According to the specialized media Retemathe company was already a pioneer in the 90s by launching its foundry in Padrón. At that time, when the concept of “circular economy” was barely mentioned, Cortizo already became the first company in Spain to close the complete production cycle. However, the current leap is on a different scale. The new facilities have the capacity to produce 100,000 tons of recycled aluminum billet per year. The environmental impact La Voz de Galicia summarizes it: This production volume will avoid emitting more than one and a half million tons of CO2 per year. To put it in perspective, the company estimates that it is equivalent to stop emitting the gases generated for a year by all tourism in the provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra together. The choreography of recycling. The plant works with what is technically known as “post-consumer scrap”: from old windows and facades to bicycle wheels or tent structures that have ended their useful life. The process is divided into two critical phases: Precision classification: Each element is mechanically crushed and separated until pure aluminum is obtained. Smelting and rebirth: The metal is melted to become the billet Infinity. This product comes in cylinders seven meters long. The most astonishing thing is its environmental footprint: its manufacturing consumes 95% less energy than obtaining primary aluminum. It is, in essence, a material that saves energy while being manufactured. Strengthening the Galician muscle The Coirós plant is the spearhead of a larger strategy. The company has invested 228 million euros in the community in the last five years alone. Projects like the Technological Campus wave expansion of its factories in Padrón They are now consolidated with this new center. The relevance of this “Galician aluminum” is already noticeable in homes throughout the country. The company points out, in one of his press releasesthe alliance with the developer Metrovacesa, which already installs these 100% recycled solutions in 14 housing developments in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona or Seville. It is the perfect cycle: the aluminum that is recovered from a renovation or scrapping returns to Coirós to end up supporting the windows of the new homes in the country. Towards an infinite industry? Galicia has found in aluminum a way to lead the ecological transition without giving up its manufacturing identity. The Coirós plant is proof that the industry can be clean, efficient and, above all, infinite. The message that comes out of these facilities is clear: in a throwaway world, Galicia has decided that nothing is lost and everything is transformed. Image | Cortizo Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

Windows is destroying even the cleanest and most minimalist thing it had because of AI: Notepad

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For a long time, Windows Notepad was a program frozen in time. It received specific adjustments, such as font compatibility, status bar, zoom or new encoding options, but deep down it was still the same as always, the one that many of us return to precisely because of what it doesn’t have. A type of software that stands out more for its simplicity than for everything it could offer. After all, when you need something more complete, there are always alternatives, free or paid. However, for some reason, Microsoft has decided that the time has come to transform Notepad into something much more ambitious. And for some of its users, this leap forward is experienced more as a renunciation of its essence than as a real improvement. AI integrated into Notepad. It is not entirely clear why it would make sense to incorporate artificial intelligence functions in this program. If we are going to write an email, it is normal to do so in its corresponding application or web service. And if we want to write a text with a little more depth, within the Microsoft ecosystem the usual thing is to open Word. Still, Microsoft recently announced that Notepad would have three integrated AI tools. Write, to generate text. Rewrite, to rewrite existing content. And Summarize, to summarize texts. To these is now added a new feature called Streaming results for AI text features. No, it has nothing to do with streaming platforms. This is an experimental feature that sends chunks of information continuously, rather than waiting for the entire response to be ready. Something similar to watching live content instead of downloading it completely before starting. Until now, when we used Notepad’s AI functions, such as Write, Rewrite or Summarize, the system processed the request and displayed the final result in one go. With this change, content begins to be generated and displayed on the screen immediately after clicking, making the first fragments of text appear almost instantly. The tables also arrive. Again, if the idea is to work with tables, we will most likely use an application designed specifically for this. But Microsoft believes that Notepad should also cover that ground, and that is why it is already testing this function among users of the Windows Insider program. “Now you can easily insert tables into your document to structure your notes,” the company explains. AI everywhere. What happens with Notepad is not an isolated case, but a fairly clear reflection of Microsoft’s strategy with artificial intelligence, which involves integrating it into practically everything. Your productivity applications already incorporate AI across the board, from Word and Excel to PowerPoint and OneNote, within Microsoft 365. The same is true for your business software, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. And the list continues to grow. AI is also present in Windows 11, in Microsoft Edge and, of course, in Microsoft Bing. What path should you follow? The underlying question is which path Microsoft should follow from here. The expansion of Copilot It fully fits into its strategy at a time when artificial intelligence has become the great axis of technological discourse. There will be users who celebrate these new features and others who receive them with much less enthusiasm. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | Gemini 3 Flash has surpassed GPT-5.2 Extra High in several benchmarks: Google has just changed the rules of the lightweight model

People are so, so fed up with AI in Windows 11 that a developer has created an app to eliminate it

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A GitHub user named zoicware ended up so fed up with the presence of AI tools in Windows 11 that he ended up making a decision: eradicate them from the operating system. And since doing it by hand was hell, he came up with something that made his life easier and that can also make it easier for those who are in that situation: create an app called RemoveWindowsAI to remove all those functions. Enough with AI, Microsoft. The Redmond company wants Windows 11 to be full of AI, and for some time it has been adding more and more functions that allow you to take advantage of this technology natively both in the operating system and in some applications. We begin to see it with the controversial Windows Recallbut later that obsession was transferred to the native Copilot app, to Copilot integrated into Edge or to the Creator option of the legendary Paint application. Nobody asked for this. Pavan Davuluri, current president of the Windows division, published in X a message in which he explained that “Windows is evolving towards an agentic operating system.” Microsoft’s intention is clear, but the reception of the message was just the opposite of what the company would have expected: people simply You don’t want those AI options because you didn’t ask for them.. An app to leave Windows 11 without AI. A few months ago a GitHub user named zoicware published a unique project there called RemoveWindowsAI. In the tooltip this developer explains how “The current 25H2 build of Windows 11 and future builds will include more and more AI features and components. This script is aimed at removing ALL of those features to improve the user experience, as well as privacy and security.” What RemoveWindowsAI does. The script, which can be downloaded and then run as administrator from a PowerShell console, is responsible for removing the following components and functions: Disable Copilot Disable Recall Disable Input Insights and typed data collection Disable Copilot in Edge Disable Image Creator in Paint Remove AI Fabric Service Disable AI Actions Disable AI in Paint Disable Voice Access Disable AI Voice Effects Disable AI in Settings Search But there is still more. In addition to those actions, the script disables the reinstallation of packages related to AI features so that they are not offered again, hides those components in Windows 11 Settings, and also disables other features such as the new AI rewrite option in notepad. There are some AI features that cannot be removed with the script, but its creator also indicates how to get rid of them manually. Even a video of use. This developer also wanted to facilitate access to this tool adding documentation written and posting an 11 minute video in which he reviews the objective of the project and explains how to use it. bad signal. The criticism of Microsoft’s intention to turn Windows 11 into an operating system full of AI is clear, and this script is the latest demonstration of this. It does not seem that the company is going to reverse this trend. Mustafa Suleyman, head of the AI ​​division at Microsoft, explained in X I was amazed that people weren’t impressed by being able to talk to their PC calmly thanks to AI. “I grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone!” he explained. Curiously, Elon Musk replied indicating that his argument seemed good to him. In Xataka | There’s a reason AI PCs aren’t hurting Apple: Nobody asked for AI PCs

Microsoft needs 500 million PCs to jump to Windows 11. Its new list of compatible CPUs does just the opposite

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Microsoft has a calendar problem and a communication problem. It’s been almost two months since Windows 10 lost official support, leaving millions of users in security limbo. Although Windows 11 has managed recently surpassed its predecessorthe reality is that adoption is still a pending subject for those from Redmond. In this scenario, where clarity is vital for laggards, the company has updated its hardware documentation in the least intuitive way possible. It has wreaked havoc on those trying to figure out if their old PC is valid for upgrading. A labyrinth of compatibility. Until recently, Microsoft’s documentation was explicit: you looked for your exact model and left no doubt. Now, as reported specialized mediathat specificity has disappeared for the list of compatible chips. The new list groups the processors by generic families and redirects to the manufacturer’s website. This forces the user to investigate on their own and also generates certain absurd situations: complete series such as the “Celeron 3000” appear listed as compatible without being so. This family, which was launched a decade ago, only considers one chip as compatible (the Celeron 3867U). Erasing the chosen ones. The confusion now also punishes Microsoft’s own customers. Processors that are compatible have disappeared from the official list, as is the case of the Core i7-7820HQ that the Surface Studio 2 has. This chip was an exception that the firm made for its own hardware (being a Kaby Lake chip it should not fit), but by eliminating the reference, the implicit message for anyone who owns this premium device is that it is no longer suitable. Curiously, the lists dedicated to AMD and Qualcomm (ARM) processors maintain model-by-model detail. The user resists. This change, which given the context should be more intuitive, comes when the market is stubborn. There are an estimated 500 million PCs technically capable of running Windows 11 whose users simply have chosen not to update. The barriers were already high at its launch: from the technical demands of the TPM 2.0 to Microsoft’s obsession with force the online account and its services during installation. Obscuring the basic hardware requirements now only adds more friction to a user base that was already reluctant to abandon the stability of Windows 10. A lifesaver with small print. For those still trapped in the old system, security comes at a price. Microsoft has activated the extended security update program For first-time home users: grants an extra year of patches. Although in Europe regulatory pressure has made this additional year free, It’s just a temporary patch. Those who do not update are already using a vulnerable operating system, exposing themselves to security risks. PCs with Windows 11 are changing from the inside. In the photo, the Surface Pro 12 with Qualcomm ARM chip. Image: Javier Penalva for Xataka ARM is another option. It is certainly paradoxical that, while Microsoft neglects clarity in its traditional platform (x86 chips), it continues to pour resources into its ARM revolution with the Snapdragon X to compete with Apple. The company seeks to energize the sales of computers with Windows 11 relying on AI and Copilot+. But if compatibility management on today’s millions of computers becomes a labyrinth, user confidence in jumping to Windows 11 is eroded. For the more technical, third party tools like Flyoobe They continue to be the escape route to update without restrictions. The exit from the maze. Beyond the information chaos, the roadmap for the user who remains on Windows 10 is clear: the ideal solution is to make the leap to Windows 11, a process that it’s still free. If the hardware resists the official requirements, it is always the “tricks” option to install the system on non-compatible computers. It also opens a new window for Linux: distributions have greatly simplified their use and installation, and thanks to compatibility layers such as Steam Protoneven the old excuse of the lack of video games is no longer a real impediment. In Xataka | The amazing history of ARM, the architecture that triumphs in mobile phones and that was born more than 30 years ago at Acorn Computer

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