Licensing
The latest Licensing coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Windows 10’s October 2025 Sunset: Here’s How to Run Windows Apps on Linux
October 14, 2025 marks the end of support for Windows 10, leaving millions of users without security updates. For many, this deadline is a catalyst to finally migrate their workflows to Linux—but a...
SSMS 22 Preview 1 Ships Without Copilot as Microsoft Pivots to GitHub Integration
Database administrators who depend on AI assistance inside SQL Server Management Studio will find the first public preview of SSMS 22 conspicuously silent: Microsoft has confirmed it will ship...
Tiny11 Builder Rips Out Copilot and New Outlook, Shrinks Windows 11 ISOs Ahead of 25H2
Windows 10’s end-of-life clock is ticking, and with it, a renewed urgency for holdouts to find a path forward—especially those clinging to hardware Microsoft deems incompatible with Windows 11....
Copilot's 5.6M Mobile User Surge Proves In-App AI Is Becoming Enterprise Infrastructure
Microsoft Copilot’s mobile user base jumped by 5.6 million in three months, overtaking ChatGPT’s 3.9 million additions in the same period, according to Comscore data reported by Adweek. That...
Windows 11's Surprise August Slump: Why Windows 10 Is Gaining Users Before Its Demise
Windows 11’s market share took an unexpected turn in August, falling back below the 50% mark just as Microsoft’s aging Windows 10 gears up for its final days of free support. New data from web...
File Pilot Beta’s Blazing Speed and Multi-Pane Power Come with a $250 Lifetime License That Splits Users
File Pilot’s public beta is a reminder that a 1.8‑megabyte executable can run circles around Windows’ built‑in File Explorer—if you’re willing to pay a price that has turned heads during...
Microsoft Offers Free Windows 10 Security Extension Through Rewards and OneDrive Backup Before Oct 14 Deadline
Microsoft will stop shipping free security patches for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, leaving an estimated hundreds of millions of PCs exposed unless owners take action. For the first time, the...
KMSpico Activators Used as Trojan Horses by Cybercriminals: The Real Cost of Pirated Windows
Security researchers have confirmed that KMSpico and similar unofficial Windows and Office activators are not just licensing workarounds—they are actively exploited as malware delivery vehicles,...
Leaked Plans Show Microsoft Folding Copilot Add-Ons Into $30 Seat, Shifting Hefty Usage to Credits
Microsoft is engineering a dramatic reshaping of its Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing strategy that will slash the effective per-user cost for many enterprises while seeding a consumption-based billing...
ICMP Dossier Exposes AI's Copyrighted Music Heist: Google, Microsoft, Meta Implicated
The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) has compiled a damning dossier that accuses the world's largest AI companies of harvesting tens of millions of copyrighted songs without...
Microsoft Ships Covert Copilot Agent Diagnostic to Slash Teams Deployment Woes
Microsoft has stealthily rolled out a new Copilot Agent Functionality Diagnostic, a targeted validator that lets IT teams automatically surface the licensing, permissions, and tenant...
Inside Microsoft’s Decision: The Six-Dimension Framework That Settled the Dataverse vs SQL Server Debate
Microsoft's internal IT team faced a dilemma that resonates across enterprises: when building backend systems, should you opt for the low-code allure of Dataverse or the battle-hardened reliability...