December 2025's Patch Tuesday brought major shifts, but the real action is in Microsoft's pricing, privacy battles, and the arms race to control AI-enabled browsers. Plus, Paul recommends Tiny11 Builder for a clean install, or Win11Debloat for an existing install. Then, Rufus to create installation media without the forced Microsoft account (MSA) sign-in or hardware requirement checks. Use MSEdgeDirect to use the default web browser for stories from Widgets, web-based search results, etc. And ExplorerPatcher can fix the performance and reliability issues in File Explorer.

It's the final Patch Tuesday of 2025

Major dark mode updates (with a fix for the "flashbang" problem)
AI Agent in Settings, Click to Do, Windows Studio Effects, and Search improvements for Copilot+ PCs
Many other improvements: FSE, Share, Settings, Widgets, more

More Windows 11

New 25H2 preview build on Beta/Dev adds MCP public preview, Quick Machine Recovery auto-enabled, Unified Update Orchestration Platform, Windows MIDI services

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is getting a lot more expensive in mid-2026. You didn't think all those free AI updates were free, did you?

Paul has been talking about "programmatic" apps and services because he wasn't sure of a term for this type of interaction. But there is a term for this: Semantic. As in semantic web. And there you go
Microsoft one of 1,000 companies partnering on Agentic AI Foundation because you're getting agents whether they work or not
Gartner says NO to AI web browsers
The New York Times is suing Perplexity for all the obvious reasons
After a big win in the legal battle with OpenAI
Opera for Android gets a big AI update
Google Workspace Studio brings code-free agent creation to business users - automation is a solid AI use case

Xbox

Xbox Series X|S notably absent during Black Friday sales
Call of Duty won't repeat the mistakes of the past anymore since it didn't work out twice now
MS Flight Simulator 2024 is now available on PS5
Red Dead Redemption comes to mobile for the first time, free with a Netflix account

Tips & Picks

Tip and app(s) of the week: De-enshittify Windows 11
RunAs Radio this week: Incident Management and the Crowdstrike Event with Liam Westley
Brown liquor pick of the week: Old Farm Pennsylvania Straight Rye Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:

WW 962: Peak Bloat - The Last Patch Tuesday of 2025

Windows Weekly (Audio)

WW 962: Peak Bloat - The Last Patch Tuesday of 2025