Microsoft's plans for your future

Here's what AI will do to Windows  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [Windows Intelligence](#) [Windows Intelligence](#) Brought to you by: [HubSpot logo](​ Wow, what a week for Windows and PCs. Microsoft finally stopped teasing its AI plans and revealed them to the world. We now know what to expect. Spoiler: Most of these new features will require you buy a new PC. But it's not just about AI. These laptops also sound like they'll have huge battery life improvements. Plus, there's lots more to try — Google finally rolled out a search engine option that many people have wanted for a long, long time. It's a real blast from the past. Now let's get to it. [Chris Hoffman, AUthor] Chris Today's read: ⌚ 3 Things to Know: 2 minutes ⌚ 3 Things to Try: 2 minutes ⌚ Top Thurrott Thoughts: 30 seconds ⌚ Just for Fun: 20 seconds ​ [] [3 Things to Know This Week] ​ 1. Microsoft announces Copilot+ PCs with AI features ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Microsoft this week announced a "Copilot+ PC" certification alongside a first wave of Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft is delivering a lot of AI features for Windows 11 — but only to these new PCs with the hardware to handle them. 🔎 KNOW MORE: Copilot+ PCs will be available from a variety of manufacturers starting June 18, 2024. They have so many new features that Microsoft could have easily made them part of a "Windows 12" — but Microsoft is still calling this Windows 11. - Copilot+ PCs will have powerful neural processing units to run AI tasks locally on your PC's hardware, giving you access to features that wouldn't otherwise be possible and speeding up things that rely on slow online services today. - The Recall feature will remember everything you've seen on your PC and let you find it with plain language searches, while Windows is also getting real-time audio translation, built-in image generation, easy image touchups, text summarization, and more AI features. - Importantly, these features are not coming to the existing "AI PCs" manufacturers have already released in 2024. 📌 READ MORE: Read about why Microsoft is finally giving us a reason to buy new PCs in [my latest Computerworld column](). (Or, check out the plight of [those existing AI PCs in my editorial for PCWorld]().) --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Windows laptops may beat MacBooks on battery life ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: AI may not be the most important story with these Copilot+ PCs. Even if you don't care about AI, Microsoft says these PCs will deliver huge battery life improvements over your current laptop. 🔎 KNOW MORE: These Copilot+ PCs are the first Windows laptops to have truly competitive ARM chips — an alternative architecture to the traditional Intel x86 chips found in PCs. (Smartphones also use ARM chips, as do modern MacBooks.) - Microsoft says these laptops will get up to 15 hours of battery life while browsing the web — about double what a typical Windows laptop might offer today. - Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chips also supposedly deliver more performance than an M3 MacBook air — a big change after more than a decade of underpowered ARM-based PC experiments starting with the Surface RT. - Windows includes a "Prism" translation layer that lets you run traditional Windows PC software and games on these new ARM-based PCs, and Microsoft says it's incredibly fast. 📌 READ MORE: Check out this look at [Microsoft's quest to take down the MacBook Air](. Or, learn more about that [Prism compatibility layer](). 🗳️ Are you interested in buying one of these new Copilot+ PCs? [Share your opinion in this week's Windows Intelligence poll](=). --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Your Windows 11 PC will get new AI features, too ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: While Microsoft focused on the new AI features coming only to Copilot+ laptops in its presentation, some of those new upgrades will come to existing Windows 11 PCs.. 🔎 KNOW MORE: Microsoft is transforming the Copilot app on Windows into a traditional windowed app — not a weird sidebar. And that's just the start. - Microsoft also showed off sharing your screen in real time with Copilot to have Copilot give you real-time guidance for crafting while playing Minecraft. It uses the same GPT-4o capabilities OpenAI recently showed off — and it looks a lot like that new ChatGPT app, too. - The latest version of Windows also has other useful upgrades, like support for Wi-Fi 7 hardware. But the AI features are stealing the show. - These features will arrive in Windows 11's 24H2 update, which is already available in Release Preview form for those brave enough to install it early. 📌 READ MORE: Check out [Copilot's upcoming real-time conversation abilities](=). Or, learn more about [what's new in Windows 11 version 24H2](=). SPONSORED MESSAGE 100 productivity-enhancing ChatGPT prompts for work 💪 [Cartoon throwing hands in the air happily with words "Time to be productive!"](​ While we can’t guarantee that the [free guide: How to Use ChatGPT at Work]( will earn you a promotion… It will help you automate mundane tasks, skyrocket productivity, and produce higher-quality work! Which means, at the very least, you will impress all your colleagues. Created by HubSpot (the folks behind The Hustle newsletter, read by 1.5+ million), this ~free~ course includes: 🧠The what’s, why’s, and how’s of ChatGPT’s capabilities ✂️ [100 copy ‘n’ paste ChatGPT prompts]( you can use today ⚙️ Automations for email, content creation, customer support, and data analysis Ready to save yourself time and impress all your coworkers? ➜ [Download the free ChatGPT guide and start implementing AI into your workflows today!]( [ACCESS 100 TIME-SAVING CHATGPT PROMPTS​ ➜]( ​ [] [3 Things to Try This Week] 1. Make Google search only the web — no AI Google quietly rolled out an amazing new "Web" search option that's a blast from the past this week, and everyone should know about it. ➜ With this option, Google won't provide AI answers — and it won't show shopping results or all the other clutter that's accumulated in search results over the years. You'll just get the classic ten blue links on the search page. ⌚ You can try this out in 3 seconds. 💻 This works on Windows 10 and Windows 11 — as well as any other device with a browser. To do this, just perform a search on Google. Then, look for the "Web" option and click it. [The "Web" search option in Google.] 📌 Here's [how to make this your default search experience in Chrome on a PC](). (Use another browser? [Check out this guide instead](.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Upgrade your Alt+Tab experience Let's take a refreshing break from AI for a second and talk about some classic Windows tips I love — ones everyone should know. There's a lot more to Alt+Tab than just pressing Alt+Tab. ➜ The classic Alt+Tab experience has all kinds of useful tricks up its sleeve — ones that are easy to find and remember. ⌚ You can play with each trick in about 2 seconds. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Try these tricks: - Alt+Shift+Tab: While Alt+Tabbing, press and hold the Shift key to move through the window list in reverse. It's very convenient for finding the right window if you have a lot of windows open. - Click in Alt+Tab: You can use your mouse along with Alt+Tab. Just press Alt+Tab, release the Tab key (keep holding Alt), and then click any of the windows to switch to it. - Use the arrows and Enter key: You can use the arrow keys and Enter key, too. Press Alt+Tab and then release the Tab key. While holding down the Alt key, use the arrow keys and Enter key to choose a window. - Close windows in Alt+Tab: With the Alt+Tab switcher open, you can hover your mouse cursor over a window thumbnail and click the "X" to quickly close it. Or, you can click a window thumbnail with the middle mouse button to close it. I use these tricks all constantly — but I bet most PC users don't. Give them a try! --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Try a powerful AI-powered copy-and-paste tool Microsoft's PowerToys tool just got an AI-powered copy-and-paste experience — one that will likely become easier to set up on those upcoming Copilot+ PCs. ➜ Imagine copying a message and then pasting it in pirate-speak, or pasting a chat log in the form of a Shakespearean play. (Or, you could use it for something more practical, like copying text in one language and pasting it in another.) ⌚ You can pull up the tool in 3 seconds (if you have PowerToys installed.) 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. You'll need the latest version of [Microsoft PowerToys]( installed. (If you've already got it installed, launch PowerToys from your Start menu, select "General" on the left, and you can check for and install updates from there. Once you've got it installed, you can press Windows+Shift+V to open the "Advanced Paste" tool. The tool has convenient options for pasting as plain text (without formatting) anywhere, as well as pasting with the Markdown formatting required by certain text editors. The AI options currently require an OpenAI API key to access the service that powers ChatGPT. If you want to set it up, you'll have to pay a few cents a month to use it — yes, it really is that cheap! It should become easier on those new Copilot+ PCs. [The PowerToys Advanced Paste tool.] ​ [] [Top Thurrott Thoughts] Some standout links and expert analysis from our friends at Thurrott, who have been covering Windows since 1994: - ​[Windows 11 Recall is Not a Privacy Concern](​ - Read Paul Thurrott's take on the feature that will take screenshots of your PC's screen. - ​[Microsoft’s New Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Are the “Ultimate Copilot+ PCs”]()​​- Check out the new Surface hardware. - ​[Here Are The First ‘Copilot+’ PCs Powered By Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series Chips]() - Lots of new PCs. - ​[Windows Copilot Runtime Isn’t a Runtime, and WPF is Back, Baby (Premium)]() - The future of Windows apps. - ​[Intel Reminds Everyone It Still Exists on Qualcomm’s Big Day]()​ - Intel says it won't be behind for long. - ​[Bifurcation? (Premium)]() - Microsoft is splitting Windows 11 into two. ​ SPONSORED MESSAGE = Next-generation video conferencing Introducing the all-new, stunning[Neat Bar 2](=), which delivers the highest quality audio and video to Microsoft Teams or Zoom. [DISCOVER NEAT BAR 2](=) [And Just for Funsies...] Microsoft's big announcement this week reminded me of other big Windows releases. Let's rewind back to the release of Windows 7. With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft did something very bizarre. It encouraged Windows enthusiasts to host "Windows 7 launch parties." The idea was that you'd invite your friends to your home and celebrate the release of Windows 7. Yes, seriously. ​[This official video](=) walks you through everything you need to know to host a Windows 7 launch party, complete with Microsoft-approved activities: [[video preview]​](=) For some reason, Microsoft hasn't encouraged people to host Windows launch parties since! Have a great weekend It's Memorial Day weekend here in the USA, so we'll be celebrating "the unofficial start of summer." Wherever you are, I hope you have an awesome weekend! --------------------------------------------------------------- 📊 Last week's poll results: Microsoft Copilot is the most popular AI chatbot among readers at 23%, followed by ChatGPT at 19% and Google Gemini at 14%. But 39% of respondents don't use an AI chatbot at all. 🗳️ And before we go, [be sure to vote in this week's Windows Intelligence poll](=) if you haven't already done so! 🤚 Wait! Before you go: What'd you think of this issue? [Thumbs Up]( [Thumbs Down]() Hit the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to cast your vote and let me know. Want less email? [Update your reading preferences](=) to opt out of any individual publications or unsubscribe entirely. New here and not yet subscribed? Take two seconds to [sign up for our newsletters](): Windows Intelligence, Android Intelligence, or Cool Tools (or all three!). 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