Microsoft is implementing a major Windows 11 reset focused on improving performance, reliability, and user experience following widespread user complaints about system quality and AI integration. PCWorld reports that Copilot's presence will be significantly scaled back, removing it from apps like Notepad, Snipping Tool, and Photos due to user pushback against excessive AI features. Expected improvements include enhanced system stability, repositioned Taskbar, better Start menu functionality, and a more responsive overall experience with tangible progress visible in preview builds. Over the past few months, Microsoft senior executives have quietly made a promise to me directly, as well as to other journalists: They're going to improve Windows.

The new MAI-Image-2 model is rolling out on Copilot and Bing Image Creator, with standout photorealism and text-in-image capabilities.

PCWorld reports that Microsoft's Clipchamp video editor in Windows 11 now mandates OneDrive for saving and editing video projects. This change significantly impacts users who prefer local storage, as locally saved projects become uneditable archives that cannot be modified. New Clipchamp projects automatically sync to OneDrive accounts, though media files within projects may not always require cloud synchronization. Microsoft is changing how Clipchamp--the built-in free video editor for Windows 11--works. The program now requires video projects to be saved to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service in order to continue editing them, reports Windows Latest .

A US physicist and a Canadian computer scientist have won this year's Turing Award for their invention of a form of seemingly unbreakable encryption. Charles H Bennett and Gilles Brassard's work, which dates back to 1984, is known as quantum cryptography and has redefined secure communication and computing, the award's body said. Scientists believe their work will be central to electronic communications in a world that depends heavily on data-sharing, but which for years has been trying to develop more powerful quantum computers. The Turing Award, named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, is known as the Nobel Prize of computing. It comes with a $1m (£800,000) prize.

'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. 'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. Why an up-and-coming indie developer is returning Microsoft's money Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? V ideo games are in a funding crisis. Investor money flowed freely during the pandemic gaming boom, but now the well has run dry.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. When AI starts redrawing characters and lighting, who's really in control of the art? Because it makes a game look how Nvidia thinks it should look--and uses AI to do it. Nvidia's newly-announced DLSS 5 is an Nvidia feature that injects new details like textures and lighting via generative AI into supported games, all done using the GPU. It's quickly become the focal point of an increasingly vicious battle between human artists and AI.

Justice Department Says Anthropic Can't Be Trusted With Warfighting Systems In response to Anthropic's lawsuit, the government said it lawfully penalized the company for trying to limit how its Claude AI models could be used by the military. The Trump administration argued in a court filing on Tuesday that it did not violate Anthropic's First Amendment rights by designating the AI developer a supply-chain risk and predicted that the company's lawsuit against the government will fail. "The First Amendment is not a license to unilaterally impose contract terms on the government, and Anthropic cites nothing to support such a radical conclusion," US Department of Justice attorneys wrote. The response was filed in a federal court in San Francisco, one of two venues where Anthropic is challenging the Pentagon's decision to sanction the company with a label that can bar companies from defense contracts over concerns about potential security vulnerabilities. Anthropic argues the Trump administration overstepped its authority in applying the label and preventing the company's technologies from being used inside the department.

PCWorld reports Microsoft is scaling back Copilot AI integration in Windows 11 after widespread user dissatisfaction and poor reception. The company has shelved plans to embed Copilot into notifications and settings, reversing its previous commitment that every Windows 11 PC would be an AI PC. This strategic shift comes as Copilot+ PCs have underperformed in the market, prompting Microsoft to reduce AI bloat across the operating system. Microsoft apparently doesn't know what to do with itself, at least as far as Copilot, AI, and Windows are concerned. Recent reports suggest that Microsoft is backing away from more AI in Windows 11.

PCWorld reports that Microsoft's Automatic Super Resolution (AutoSR) technology is coming to Xbox Ally X handheld consoles to enhance gaming performance. AutoSR uses AI-powered upscaling to render games at lower resolutions then upscales them, allowing less powerful GPUs to achieve higher frame rates. A public preview of AutoSR for the AMD-powered Ally X is expected in April, promising smoother gameplay experiences for users. In a month, owners of Xbox Ally X handheld consoles will see their frame rates jump upwards, as Microsoft begins supporting the Automatic Super Resolution (AutoSR) tech on the console. Microsoft snuck in a reference to the technology as part of a presentation at the Game Developer Conference, where the company pitched features from its upcoming Project Helix console as well as AI enhancements coming to Microsoft's DirectX API . Essentially, AutoSR is an upscaling technology, originally designed for use with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 or X2 Elite processor, according to Microsoft.

PCWorld reports Microsoft is embedding AI into DirectX with new tools called DirectX Linear Algebra and DirectX Compute Graph Compiler to revolutionize game rendering. Major chip makers AMD, Intel, and Nvidia support these AI initiatives, potentially allowing integrated GPUs to compete with discrete graphics cards in gaming performance. These technologies enable dynamic shader creation, neural texture compression, and advanced upscaling that could democratize high-end graphics features like path tracing across different hardware. Games are increasingly being rendered using AI, so Microsoft is bringing AI into the way future graphics chips will render games. Microsoft introduced DirectX Linear Algebra as well as the DirectX Compute Graph Compiler into its DirectX programming interface on Thursday, with previews of each technology due later this year.