Hardware Gating
The latest Hardware Gating coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Microsoft Gave Windows Search an AI Brain, But You'll Need a Copilot+ PC to Use It
Microsoft shipped a Windows 11 Insider preview build this week that finally makes the operating system’s search understand what you mean, not just what you type. The long-awaited semantic search...
Windows 11 Beta Build 26120.6690 Fixes File Explorer Crashes and Update Errors
Microsoft pushed a new Beta Channel build to Windows Insiders on September 19, 2025, delivering a round of critical reliability fixes alongside incremental AI feature rollouts. Build 26120.6690...
Your Windows Notepad Is Getting a Brain: On-Device AI Arrives for Copilot+ PCs
Microsoft is embedding generative AI directly into Windows Notepad, the bare-bones text editor that has shipped with the operating system for decades. The update, now in testing with Windows...
Microsoft's Click To Do Arrives on Copilot+ PCs—Here's What You Can Actually Do With It
Microsoft's new Click To Do overlay, now rolling out to Copilot+ PCs, turns any on-screen content into actionable items—summarizing text, extracting emails, or searching visually—using a mix of...
Paint's New 'AI Labs' Sign-Up Hints Microsoft Is Opening On-Device AI Tests to All Windows 11 Users
Microsoft has quietly inserted a “Microsoft AI Labs” sign-up prompt into the Settings menu of its Paint app on Windows 11, inviting users to register for experimental AI features without...
Windows 11 Build 26052: Copilot Taskbar Icon Now Animates on Copy, Accepts Drag-and-Drop Images
Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26052 to the Canary and Dev channels, bringing a set of Copilot enhancements that make the AI assistant more deeply integrated into daily...
Windows 11 25H2: Sudo, Wi-Fi 7, and Native Archives Arrive, but Copilot+ AI Still Gated
Microsoft began rolling out Windows 11 version 25H2 this week, delivering a lightweight enablement package that activates several practical features seeded into the 24H2 codebase—including a native...
Windows 11 Insider Builds Add Full-Screen Subscription Reminder, Sparking Adware Concerns
Microsoft is testing a full-screen renewal prompt in Windows 11 that appears when a Microsoft 365 subscription lapses, and early reactions from Insiders are far from welcoming. The new...
Microsoft Locks Auto SR AI Upscaling to Copilot+ PCs in Latest Windows 11 Preview
Microsoft shipped a significant update to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel on Tuesday, headlined by the expansion of its Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) AI upscaling technology to...
Windows 11 September Update Packs 4GB of AI Models You May Never Use
Microsoft's September 2025 cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 (KB5065426, build 26100.6584) landed with a mix of visible UI refinements, long‑awaited fixes, and a fresh wave of hardware‑gated...
KB5065426: Windows 11's Giant Update Packs On-Device AI, UI Polish, and Privacy Controls
Microsoft’s September Patch Tuesday cumulative update for Windows 11, KB5065426, marks a significant shift in how the operating system delivers AI capabilities. Over a gigabyte in size on many...
Windows 11 Fluid Dictation Hands-On: On-Device AI Makes Speech-to-Text Smarter, but Hardware-Locked
Microsoft shipped Windows 11 Insider Preview builds 26220.5790 (Dev) and 26120.5790 (Beta) under KB5065779, and the headline feature is Fluid Dictation – an on-device AI engine inside Voice Access...