Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft 365 and Office in 2024 and beyond

  Posted on December 30, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Let’s do a low drone pass over another year of innovation and hype in Microsoft 365 and Office.

  Amazingly, there were some non-AI highlights.

  As I review what happened in 2024, I’ll also provide a few notes about what to watch out for in 2025.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.53.0, 2024-12-30).

  Microsoft 365 Advanced Paste, Aptos, ARM, Calibri, Copilot, Copilot Credits, Excel, fonts, Newsletters, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2024, Publisher

• Can Office and Windows play nice on ARM computers?

  Posted on August 19, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  ARM-based computers are about to move from a nerd niche to a mainstream product with the arrival of Copilot+ PCs and the increasing popularity of Mac computers.

  What are the compatibility issues for running Windows apps, especially Microsoft Office, on this very different hardware?

  Though Windows and Office look the same on both ARM and Intel computers, their CPUs are fundamentally different. Under the hood, there are big differences in the software layers between the hardware and what you see on the screen. It’s a bit like the difference between a petrol and an electric car — both look and are driven the same, but they have hugely different engines and mechanics.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.34.0, 2024-08-19).

  Microsoft 365 Apple Silicon, ARM, Newsletters, Office, Office on Mac, Windows on ARM

• ARM is really important for Windows 11

  Posted on July 22, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Microsoft is pushing people to Windows 11 to get AI features. Today, that means Windows 11 on ARM — even though the AI isn’t ready yet.

  When Microsoft announced the generative AI features in Windows 11 that Satya Nadella claimed would change the whole PC experience, the first thing that struck me about Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs was how very far Windows on ARM has come. The new flagship devices that will run controversial, premium new Windows features such as Recall — and are supposed to make us think of Microsoft as “the AI company” rather than “the Windows company” — are, at least initially, powered by Snapdragon X Elite processors. Those are ARM architectures.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.30.0, 2024-07-22).

  Windows 11 AI, ARM, Copilot+ PCs, Intel, Newsletters, Qualcomm, Snapdragon X Elite, Windows 11, Windows 11 24H2

• The good and bad of 24H2

  Posted on June 3, 2024 at 02:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  We’re getting closer to the next round of Microsoft’s feature releases, this time in the form of Windows 11 24H2.

  Microsoft took advantage of its recent developer conference, BUILD, to talk about what 24H2 will include. But unless you have access to Entra ID, many of the features are ho-hum at best. And if you are a consumer, you’ll skip most of the enhancements.

  Unless you like living on the edge, prepare your system now to hold back 24H2.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.23.0, 2024-06-03).

  Patch Watch ARM, Newsletters, NTLM, Patch Lady Posts, Qualcomm, Recall, Snapdragon X Elite, Surface, Windows 11, Windows 11 24H2

• Making Windows 11 on Arm less obnoxious

  Posted on March 20, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.12 • 2023-03-20

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  If you’re running Windows on Arm, you really want to be running Windows 11 rather than Windows 10.

  Not only is it the only way to get Windows 11–specific features such as running Android apps or tabs in Notepad, but — crucially for Arm devices — it’s the only way to get 64-bit emulation or the native ARM64 .NET Framework. 64-bit emulation was previewed in an Insider build of Win10, but it shipped only in Win11.

  If you want to run apps such as the most recent version of Photoshop or Signal on your Arm PC, you need Windows 11 to do it. That’s annoying if you find the new Windows 11 user interface as frustrating as I do.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.12.0, 2023-03-20).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 ARM, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows 11, Windows on ARM

• Will you be able to run Windows on an Arm processor?

  Posted on June 13, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  SILICON

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The computing scene is up in arms, so to speak, about the latest Arm technology.

  Arm — which began as an acronym but is now more like a religion — is the technology that powers the latest Apple Macs, but it’s made only slight inroads into Windows machines due to software incompatibilities.

  Whether or not you know anything about Arm, you’re probably already using it. Arm-based systems tend to have much lower power requirements than systems using more complex central processing units, such as Intel processors.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.24.0, 2022-06-13).

  Silicon ARM, Newsletters, Silicon, Windows, Windows on ARM

• The former head of Windows: “Mac will be the ultimate developer PC”

  Posted on June 26, 2020 at 14:28 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I don’t quote Steve Sinofsky very often, but he just posted this on Twitter – and it rings very true.

  Steve Troughton-Smith:

  I really hope the ARM transition is what gets Apple’s Mac lineup to 120Hz, Face ID & touch. There are so many things we take for granted on iOS that make macOS feel broken without them, and with the convergence of the software and hardware it feels like those are closer than ever

  Sinofsky:

  It will. Guaranteed. In two years there is only ARM hardware and in 4 Intel will be ancient memory. The ecosystem will have rolled over. And Mac will be the ultimate developer PC. iPad will be used for more and more “work”. PS yes a computer without touch is broken.

  Yes, this is the Steve Sinofsky who started on Excel development, ran the Office side of things for many years, then shifted over to lead the team that finished Windows 7 and created Windows 8. Yes, that Windows 8.

  I rarely, rarely find myself agreeing with SteveSi on anything. But in this case, I think he’s right.

  (Don’t tell Steve I said, that, OK?)

  Apple ARM

• Windows 10 on ARM

  Posted on May 11, 2017 at 16:05 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Looks like we’re going to see Windows 10 running on Snapdragon chips by the end of the year.

  This is a fascinating presentation:

  https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2017/P4171

  Windows 10 on Snapdragon/ARM chips will run Win32 apps through a “X86 Win32 emulation layer,” which is surprisingly fast. Watch at the five minute mark forward.

  Windows News ARM, Windows 10
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