PC makers are shaking up CES with wild designs and next-gen chips, but the real story is Microsoft's bold software moves, AI's hardware hunger, and a candid debate over whether any tech company still puts users first. Come for the Windows updates, stay for the whisky warnings and robot bathroom assistants.

CES 2026 is here with the 4K hummingbird feeder of your dreams

New PCs and more from HP consumers/commercial, HP gamers, Lenovo, others
The first official Copilot+ PC desktops
Snapdragon X2 Plus joins X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme
Intel Panther Lake has meaningful CPU and graphics performance gains, but predictable reliability issues
AMD Ryzen AI 400 series is a minor bump

Windows

Paul was the first to report that Microsoft is refactoring it all with Rust
A Microsoft distinguished engineer wrote about his desire to refactor all C/C++ code in the company with Rust by 2030
Some mistook this to mean "rewriting Windows with Rust,ˮ so he had to issue a clarification. But I never wrote that.
Heads-up: That will happen, but this is really about Azure first and the core underlying code in Microsoftʼs most important platforms
Microsoft released hardware-accelerated BitLocker in late 2025 and never told anyone. It requires the latest PC CPUs
Copilot app update that adds text editing actions to Copilot Vision across channels
Dev and Beta got first previews of AI agents on the Taskbar, starting with the Researcher agent, plus underlying Agent Launchers experience
IDC says the global memory shortage (thanks, AI!) could screw up PC and smartphone growth this year

AI

ChatGPT now has an app store, but it has a ways to go
Mozilla Firefox will have a "killswitchˮ for AI
Our national nightmare will soon be over, LG will let users remove Copilot app from their smart TVs

Xbox and gaming

First Xbox Game Pass releases of 2026 include Resident Evil Village and Star Wars Outlaws
Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Hisense smart TVs and to the latest Fire TV smart TVs
GOG goes independent, will continue DRM-free push
"Have a blastˮ and other FPS throwbacks from the 1990s
Valve quietly killed the LCD Steam Deck model

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Itʼs time to give Little AI a look
App pick of the week: Bonjourr
RunAs Radio this week: What AI can do for SysAdmins in 2026 with Cecilia Wiren
Brown liquor pick of the week: The Singleton of Dufftown 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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