WW 891: Scent of Carbon - CrowdStrike Outage, Windows 23H2, Halo Series
07/24/24 • 158 min
1 Listener
CrowdStrike: Terrible name, terrible outage
- CrowdStrike, a company no one has ever heard of, ships an update that borks Windows PCs, servers, and clouds services at the heart of the worldʼs infrastructure. Naturally, everyone blamed Microsoft at first
- Microsoft says outage impacted under 1 percent of PCs. It was just the worst PCs imaginable
- Microsoft blames EU regulation for its inability to be like Apple
- That is not a good look. It's also deceptive.
- Microsoft issues repair tool (later updates).
- CrowdStrike explains what it did wrong. TLDR: everything.
Windows
- Windows 11 version 23H2 is fully available! Wait, what?
- Surface Laptop 7 review: big, heavy, no presence sensing or fingerprint reader. Right, I love it.
- Also, the ThinkPad T14s arrived.
- Related: Intel cops to mistake in Core Gen 13/14 processors, will issue fix. Why this is unprecedented. And also precedented. Also, why precedented is a word.
- Microsoft is FINALLY bringing ads to the Microsoft Store search box.
- Microsoft starts testing new Start menu layouts. Surely one of them has live tites.
- Canary build today: Duplicate File Explorer tab, not much else.
AI/Antitrust
- Meta is making a surprising—and surprisingly strong—case for AI as open-source.
- Proton adds an AI writing assistant to its Drive-based Docs.
- Amazon lost an alleged $25 billion on Alexa devices over four years, so itʼs all in on AI-based devices now! (Panos Panay is the perfect fit for this business if the goal is to be unprofitable).
- Google effectively kills Privacy Sandbox in a victory for regulation.
- Microsoft probably cleared the final hurdle to avoid EU antitrust action on cloud licensing. Hey, it worked with security companies and the Windows kernel!
It's That Time of the Quarter Again
- Alphabet / Google: Double-digit revune gains YOY, but how much of this is AI?
- Subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, not so much Game Pass) are KILLING it,but theyʼre also in full-on enshirtification mode - how do we fix this? Can we fix this.
Xbox
- FTC complains about Xbox Game changes. They're not wrong. But they're not
right either. - Call of Duty Modern Warfare III lands on Game Pass today - what the what
- Also, Microsoft muffed the landing badly - but it appears to be working now
- Halo TV series canceled. It's the worst thing that's happened with Xbox this entire year
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: The best thing about Copilot in Windows 11 now
- With Copilot switching from a pane to an app, thereʼs an unintended benefit that comes into play when you use an AI PC with a Copilot key on it. Youʼre never going to believe what happens next.
App pick of the week: Microsoft Designer for image generation
- Microsoft Designer exited preview last week and thereʼs at least one secret benefit to using it: Unlike Copilot, you can create wide and portrait images (and not just square) without paying. This is why I pay for Copilot Pro. (You do need to sign in with an MSA, however.)
RunAs Radio This Week: Data Risk Management using Purview with Joanne Klein
- https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/942
Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Writerʼs Tears Tequila Cask
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
CrowdStrike: Terrible name, terrible outage
- CrowdStrike, a company no one has ever heard of, ships an update that borks Windows PCs, servers, and clouds services at the heart of the worldʼs infrastructure. Naturally, everyone blamed Microsoft at first
- Microsoft says outage impacted under 1 percent of PCs. It was just the worst PCs imaginable
- Microsoft blames EU regulation for its inability to be like Apple
- That is not a good look. It's also deceptive.
- Microsoft issues repair tool (later updates).
- CrowdStrike explains what it did wrong. TLDR: everything.
Windows
- Windows 11 version 23H2 is fully available! Wait, what?
- Surface Laptop 7 review: big, heavy, no presence sensing or fingerprint reader. Right, I love it.
- Also, the ThinkPad T14s arrived.
- Related: Intel cops to mistake in Core Gen 13/14 processors, will issue fix. Why this is unprecedented. And also precedented. Also, why precedented is a word.
- Microsoft is FINALLY bringing ads to the Microsoft Store search box.
- Microsoft starts testing new Start menu layouts. Surely one of them has live tites.
- Canary build today: Duplicate File Explorer tab, not much else.
AI/Antitrust
- Meta is making a surprising—and surprisingly strong—case for AI as open-source.
- Proton adds an AI writing assistant to its Drive-based Docs.
- Amazon lost an alleged $25 billion on Alexa devices over four years, so itʼs all in on AI-based devices now! (Panos Panay is the perfect fit for this business if the goal is to be unprofitable).
- Google effectively kills Privacy Sandbox in a victory for regulation.
- Microsoft probably cleared the final hurdle to avoid EU antitrust action on cloud licensing. Hey, it worked with security companies and the Windows kernel!
It's That Time of the Quarter Again
- Alphabet / Google: Double-digit revune gains YOY, but how much of this is AI?
- Subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, not so much Game Pass) are KILLING it,but theyʼre also in full-on enshirtification mode - how do we fix this? Can we fix this.
Xbox
- FTC complains about Xbox Game changes. They're not wrong. But they're not
right either. - Call of Duty Modern Warfare III lands on Game Pass today - what the what
- Also, Microsoft muffed the landing badly - but it appears to be working now
- Halo TV series canceled. It's the worst thing that's happened with Xbox this entire year
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: The best thing about Copilot in Windows 11 now
- With Copilot switching from a pane to an app, thereʼs an unintended benefit that comes into play when you use an AI PC with a Copilot key on it. Youʼre never going to believe what happens next.
App pick of the week: Microsoft Designer for image generation
- Microsoft Designer exited preview last week and thereʼs at least one secret benefit to using it: Unlike Copilot, you can create wide and portrait images (and not just square) without paying. This is why I pay for Copilot Pro. (You do need to sign in with an MSA, however.)
RunAs Radio This Week: Data Risk Management using Purview with Joanne Klein
- https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/942
Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Writerʼs Tears Tequila Cask
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
Previous Episode
WW 890: Nub Muscles - Checkpoint cumulative updates, Cheeky Controller, CISPE
This episode features Paul, Richard, and Leo discussing Microsoft's new "checkpoint cumulative updates" and HP's announcement of its AMD-based AI PC. Afterward, Paul goes over his review of the Yoga Slim 7x laptop, which features a 14.5-inch OLED display. Other topics include the hiring of Inflection staff, Microsoft's settlement with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe, Leo's ZDTV hat, .NET 9 Preview 6, OS/2 Warp, the Xbox Game Pass mess, Amazon Prime Day, and a controller designed by Deadpool!
Windows
- Windows 11 version 24H2 introduces a new way to update Windows because WTF Microsoft
- HP announces an AMD-based AI PC that is/is not a Copilot+ PC - lots going on here
- AMD comes clean on the new chips, which ship at the end of July
- With a Snapdragon X-based ThinkPad on the way, Paul reviews the Yoga Slim 7xp
- Windows 11 Photos app now integrates with Microsoft Designer
- Dev (last week): Testing/deployment of new features resumes after long pause
- Beta (last week): More changes to the home page in File Explorer
- Release Preview (last week): Duplicate a File Explorer tab, drag and drop to pin from Start to Taskbar, more. Also a Windows 10 build (hooray?)
AI/Antitrust
- UK CMA investigates Microsoft for its Inflection AI hirings
- Microsoft settles with (most of) CISPE on cloud licensing in EU
- iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia public betas arrive, but with no Apple Intelligence features
- Opera beta on iPhone and iPad has new UI, some AI
Dev
- .NET 9 Preview 6 arrives
- Paul makes massive progress on Windows 11 port of .NETpad with the updated WPF. Plus a neat third-party add-on that might put this project over the top
- Google is bringing Android Studio to the web
Xbox
- Xbox controversy of the month, but this one is real: Microsoft ensh*ttifies Xbox Game Pass - more info now that the dust has settled, but still no announcement from Microsoft
- Microsoft, you HAVE to announce what's going on with AB and Game Pass
- Now that Microsoft owns Call of Duty, Xbox gamers are getting next beta on day one - well, Game Pass members anyway
- Microsoft offers a cheap Xbox streaming bundle on Amazon
- The Deadpool Xbox wireless controller is priceless
- Microsoft announces three day-one titles for Game Pass, none from AB
Tips and picks
- Tip of the week: Amazon Prime Day is here
- App pick of the week: Proton Pass
- RunAs Radio this week: The Power of Data in the Cloud with Arun Ulag
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Crown Royal Blender's Mash
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
Next Episode
WW 892: Capacious Chyrons - Microsoft's FY24 Q4, Xbox 360 Store closes, Skype ad-free
On this episode of Windows Weekly, the show has a new yet similar look (as Leo tries to read chyrons that may be a tad tiny). Microsoft announces its quarterly (and annual) financial results. They're doing OK. The company also expands on what it has done and will do, with Windows security in the wake of the CrowdStrike outage. Finally, Paul advises that the password manager in a browser isn't enough, as secure users need more capabilities like 2FA code generation, dark web monitoring, passkey storage, and more.
Earnings
- Microsoft announces its quarterly (and annual) financial results. They're doing OK.
- Microsoft's FY24: a net income of $88.1 billion on revenues of $245.1 billion, up 22 percent and 16 percent
- Windows - Barely mentioned, another solid $10 billion+ in revenues, no gain from Copilot+ PC
- Office - Solid growth, mostly commercial
- Surface - Flush twice, it's a long way to New Mexico
- Xbox - Problematic, propped up mostly by Activision, but there are huge costs there too
- AI - Huge investments, Microsoft can afford it. $19 billion (!) in infrastructure costs in this quarter, and it's going up next year ... when/how does AI pay off?
- Microsoft to give employees a one-time cash award on top of bonuses
- TikTok was paying Microsoft $20 million per month through at least March for OpenAI on Azure, close to 25 percent of Microsoft's total revenues for that business
- AMD revenues - the next NVIDIA?
Windows
- Windows 11 versions 22H2/23H2 get theirs a few days late, features we saw in Release Preview a few weeks ago
- Nothing for 24H2, but a new Release Preview build is almost certainly its equivalent, meaning we'll see these features in stable in August
- All channels: Support for Android file system navigation in File Explorer
- Beta channel (last week): Widgets is about to get third party feeds
- It's not a dud, but the HP EliteBook Ultra doesn't measure up
- Qualcomm and AMD have spoken, now Intel is delivering Lunar Lake on September 3
Microsoft 365 and AI
- No more ads in Skype! Cue the Skype jokes from all the jerks
- OpenAI announces SearchGPT, search features it will add later to ChatGPT - and just today, more natural advanced voice mode voices for ChapGPT
- Apple ships some Apple Intelligence in Beta. it's pretty good! But it's also delayed to iOS 18.1 etc
- Canva buys Leonardo for its AI
- X (Twitter) is using your posts to train Grok (its AI). You can disable it. But these names all suck
Xbox
- Xbox is getting new Discord and streaming features in a coming update
- With Xbox in the toilet, some thoughts about gaming PCs to go
- RIP, Xbox 360. We had a good run
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: What to look for in a password manager
- App pick of the week: Password managers - 1Password, Dashlane/Proton Pass, and Bitwarden
- RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft Cloud PKI with Richard Hicks
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Laird of the Fintry BSV Pipe Finish
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
Sponsors:
Windows Weekly (Audio) - WW 891: Scent of Carbon - CrowdStrike Outage, Windows 23H2, Halo Series
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