Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), which provides pre-compiled shaders with the game itself, is finally becoming available on a range of platforms. The company confirmed that this feature will expand to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics cards and the RTX Spark platform later this month. This means that game developers will be able to ship pre-compiled shaders to speed up game loading times and reduce any shader-induced stuttering during gameplay. When Microsoft unveiled a public preview of ASD, it reportedly supported various AMD RDNA generations, but now more platforms are receiving support.

Currently, ASD is claimed to work on AMD RDNA 1, RDNA 2, RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 GPU generations, as well as on Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Series with Adreno integrated graphics. Later this month, Microsoft plans to extend ASD to Intel Arc B-Series, which includes B570, B580, Intel Core Ultra Series 2, and Intel Core Ultra Series 3. This update will coincide with support for all NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs and the RTX Spark platform, ensuring that every RTX-based GeForce system benefits from the speedup.

NVIDIA's highly anticipated foray into the world of complete laptop designs is scheduled for October 7, as revealed in a new teaser on X. A post by Microsoft's @Windows handle, corroborated by the NVIDIA RTX Spark X account, confirms that October 7 is the launch date for the new RTX Spark lineup of mini PCs and laptops. For instance, ASUS recently teased an October launch for the RTX Spark platform with its upcoming ProArt 16 creator laptop, powered by the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X Arm SoC. Today, we have a concrete date marking NVIDIA's entry into this sector.

NVIDIA is already enabling software tools to support and utilize RTX Spark silicon, with the recent launch of RTX Kit 2026.3 alongside version 2.0 of its RTX Mega Geometry SDK. These provide game developers with new neural rendering and path tracing tools. Acer, ASUS, Dell, MSI, HP, Microsoft, Lenovo, and many other OEMs will be launch partners for the platform.

Take-Two has signed a new long-term Xbox Publisher License Agreement with Microsoft, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC. Signed on September 28 and effective from September 17, it gives Take-Two the right to develop, publish, manufacture, market, advertise, distribute, and sell Xbox-compatible products for "all Xbox devices." It also replaces all of the company's existing Xbox publisher agreements. The filing doesn't mention Project Helix by name, but it's probably covered under the "all devices" wording. On the commercial side, Microsoft pays Take-Two the wholesale price and/or an agreed revenue share on digital sales, and charges fees and royalties on physical media.

Microsoft keeps the right to approve each game concept, the final build, and any packaging or marketing that carries its marks. The full agreement will be attached to Take-Two's 10-Q for the quarter ending September 30. Interestingly, Take-Two's 2020 deal mentioned the Xbox One and Xbox Series X platforms specifically, while "all Xbox devices" is much broader. It looks like this is meant to cover whatever Xbox ships next, which would fit with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma saying the team is working on a "great family of devices" for Helix. Take-Two doesn't explain the change, and it could also be routine housekeeping. The first Take-Two game under this updated deal is GTA 6, which is still scheduled for November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

With recent insider reports claiming that Microsoft is putting pressure on Xbox to increase profitability, and given the recent mass layoffs that have taken place at Xbox Game Studios, it's easy to see why there were rumors floating around that Microsoft and Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, were preparing the gaming division for a divestment or to be sold off. However, Sharma has addressed those allegations directly in a recent interview with The New York Times, where she clarified that Xbox is in it for the long-haul, and that Microsoft has no plans to sell off its gaming division.

Asha Sharma via Windows CentralXbox is not for sale. [...] We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that. [...] We've got a long way to go with Microsoft, and we're going to take the long-term view.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 recently launched on Steam to a decent-but-not-stellar 32,556 peak concurrent players, but not without its fair share of complaints. Both Windows and Linux users alike seem to be experiencing issues launching the Steam version of the game, with SteamOS and Linux users being entirely unable to launch the game under Valve's Proton translation layer. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as Microsoft has officially confirmed in a Minecraft forum post that it is working on Steam Deck support, which consequentially means SteamOS and general Linux support via Valve's Proton.

In the meantime, several community members have posted community solutions in Minecraft Dungeons 2 Steam reviews. As one user explains it after some experimentation, there appear to be missing dependencies related to the Microsoft Store API that prevent Minecraft Dungeons 2 from launching via Proton. The current community fix is documented on a GitHub repo and involves setting a launch option in Steam and running a script to install dependencies and copy DLL files into the correct location. As the creator describes it, the workaround creates "A local stand-in for Microsoft Gaming Services so Minecraft Dungeons 2 can start under Proton."

Microsoft today released its latest Windows 11 26H2 update, bringing a new milestone for Windows 11 users. In this release, Microsoft is highlighting a few features that Windows 11 25H2 users have not yet experienced. These include a smarter File Explorer with new capabilities such as summarization, additional archive formats, and AI productivity enhancements. Additionally, Windows Search has been improved to prioritize searching through your files before resorting to web searches, while also handling typos and partial application names more effectively. Frequently used folders will receive automatic indexing, making them easier to find. Other optimizations include updates to Magnifier with new zoom and screen tint options, Narrator adding a Braille Viewer, and Voice gaining a wider range of voice-driven commands on Copilot+ PC. Finally, the Start menu and Taskbar now offer new customization options, positioning changes, and a smaller view option.

Interestingly, this update focuses more on resetting the support cycles that Microsoft is implementing, rather than introducing major features or overhauls. For those upgrading, the main change will be an extension of the support cycle as users transition to the 26H2 release. Starting September 29, 2026, there will be 36 months of servicing support for Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 11, version 26H2. Home and Pro editions will receive 24 months of support.

The Xbox Disc-to-Digital licensing program recently launched to insiders, effectively paving the way to a discless future for Xbox, while still allowing the brand to market its console as backwards compatible. Following just over a month of public testing, Microsoft has just announced that the Disc-to-Digital program has officially launched for everyone, not just Xbox Insiders.

The launch also comes with some updates and a more robust support page that details a few notable features, terms, and conditions. Most notably, it seems as though the Disc-to-Digital licensing is not guaranteed. Microsoft notes that "Not all Xbox One or Xbox Series X game discs are eligible for disc to digital licensing. Eligibility may change over time, and varies due to technical, licensing, publishing, manufacturing, and other factors," suggesting that games may be added and removed from the program at Microsoft's whim. In the announcement post on X, the fine print also notes that all digital game licenses are revokable.

AMD's processors are notoriously missing from Microsoft's latest Surface device line-up, despite there being more CPU options in Microsoft Surface PCs than ever before, including an upcoming NVIDIA SKU. In a recent statement to Windows Central, Microsoft's Surface Corporate Vice President, Brett Ostrum, explained that this absence is deliberate, although not malicious, stating that Microsoft has a limited portfolio and needs to make smart choices about its offerings.

We love working with AMD. We have a limited portfolio, and so we have to make our choices pretty wisely in terms of what we're doing and where we're doing.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Xbox's ongoing job cuts "great to see," commenting on the restructuring led by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The remark follows Xbox's latest layoffs, which cut 268 more jobs on top of the 1,600 eliminated earlier this year, part of a plan that has already folded studios together, reshuffled franchises like Halo, and pushed several developers out entirely. Nadella made the comment on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath during a broader interview about Xbox's place within Microsoft. When asked about his feelings about the state and future of Xbox, Nadella said:

"I feel fantastic. There's some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see. And then we have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people. That has always been the goal, which is, we want to be a great publisher and a great platform provider for games across both PCs and Xboxes."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has laid out his most direct pitch yet for what Copilot is supposed to become, calling it a "new OS for work that spans every model, every form factor, and every task." The comment came alongside Microsoft's biggest Copilot overhaul to date, which merges four pieces into one app: Autopilot (a long-running enterprise agent), Code (an in-app builder that hosts apps inside a company's own tenant), Home (which combines Chat and Cowork), and Office, with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now built directly into Copilot. Nadella also mentioned Copilot support inside Teams, plus a new feature called Today that pulls relevant information from across Microsoft 365 without the user having to ask.

It looks like Microsoft wants Copilot to work more like a proactive layer sitting across a person's entire workday instead of a chat window they open on demand (or by accident). Interestingly, Microsoft avoided calling Copilot part of the Windows 11 operating system this time, a year after its "agentic OS" framing for Windows drew a fairly rough reception from users. This is not even the first time Microsoft has thought about expanding Copilot in this way. Microsoft did explore a full Copilot-centered operating system internally, under the codename Project Aion, though that reportedly dates back to 2024 and there's no word on whether it's still active.

Back in early 2025, Microsoft added three new "companion" applications to its Microsoft 365 suite—Calendar, People, and Files. These were designed to provide quick access to people, files, and calendar events directly from the Windows 11 taskbar. However, it seems that Microsoft 365 customers did not find them particularly useful, and Microsoft plans to retire them on December 16, 2026. This is one of Microsoft's examples of short-lived mini applications. These mini applications pulled data from Microsoft 365 applications to generate quick insights about a person, a file, or a calendar event. Existing only as a WebView2 wrapper, they added an unnecessary layer of applications.

For Microsoft 365 users, previously known as Office suite users, the company actively tried to install these applications automatically on many PCs. After the forced installation, the company even pinned these applications to the taskbar. Although Microsoft confirmed it would automatically install these companion apps, administrators had the option to opt out. However, regular users had to manage them continuously. Interestingly, after the December 16 deadline, Microsoft confirmed that these applications would stop working, but users would need to remove them manually. Essentially, after forcing users to install these applications, Microsoft is leaving them to handle the cleanup themselves.

Microsoft's recent Snapdragon-powered Surface Laptop and Surface Pro launch was surprisingly absent the usual Copilot+ branding, aside from as a callout to the inclusion of the actual AI assistant on the devices. Apparently, this was an intentional branding change, according to Surface Corporate Vice President, Brett Ostrum, in a new interview with Windows Central.

The purpose for Copilot+ PCs was to be able to deliver experiences. So it was to define a certain category of devices with a certain bar and metric, like for example, a 45 TOPS NPU... So from that perspective, it's more offering the same experiences, probably without just using [Copilot+] terminology now."

Today at Snapdragon Summit, we introduced the next Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch, built on the Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, alongside the new Surface Mouse with integrated haptic feedback. Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch are two of our most versatile Surface devices, designed to deliver the performance and battery life people need in PCs they can comfortably carry all day. This generation brings up to 18% more efficient battery performance, over 60% faster graphics, and 95% faster on-device AI—all in the same lightweight design.

What defines Surface laptops?
Surface is hardware built to bring the best of Microsoft to life—Windows, Copilot, and Microsoft 365 experiences that make a PC feel more useful, more personal and more responsive.

Prominent AMD leaker Kepler_L2 says the chips for both the PlayStation 6 and Microsoft's Xbox Project Helix have taped out. Posting on the NeoGAF forums, he also put the PS6 at 40 TFLOPS and the Xbox Helix at 56 TFLOPS, which works out to roughly 40% more for Microsoft's machine on paper. Kepler was replying to a thread claiming the PS6 would hit 80 TFLOPS, which he dismissed before giving the new figures. Earlier estimates had put the PS6 at 34 to 40 TFLOPS, so 40 sits at the top of that range.

TFLOPS is only peak throughput, though. Kepler himself argued in the thread that TFLOPS is just a measure of FMA throughput and shouldn't be "normalized" across architectures, so these numbers probably can't be compared directly to PS5 or Xbox Series X ratings. Memory bandwidth, ray tracing hardware, and clocks all matter too, so 40% more TFLOPS likely won't translate into 40% more frames. Of course, this is just a leak, and Sony, Microsoft, and AMD have not confirmed any of this.

It was recently confirmed that Undead Labs, the game studio behind the State of Decay series, had successfully split from Microsoft's Xbox in what appears to be a management buyout of some sort, leaving the studio to fend for itself and with creative control over the upcoming State of Decay games. Unfortunately, as was the case with Double Fine Games, Undead Labs has not come away unscathed.

As announced in new post by Undead Labs on LinkedIn, the studio is now "an independent, employee-owned studio," but the announcement also confirms that Undead Labs will be laying off a "significant number" of staff following the Xbox split. The announcement did not specify which departments would be affected, and it seems as though the layoffs won't affect the upcoming launch of State of Decay 3. The studio also did not specify how many employees would be affected. The full statement continues below.

Mere hours after it was leaked that Xbox would be continuing its recent slew of layoffs, Xbox Wire published an internal email, officially confirming those layoffs and providing a glimpse into the future of the Xbox game development landscape. As a result of the layoffs, which will see 268 employees out of work, there also will be changes to several studios at Xbox, including Activision, Bethesda, King, Playground, and Turn 10.

It seems as though all of the layoffs this time around came out of the Halo Studios team, and Microsoft has left Activision in charge of the next Halo game as a result. Xbox says that a small team at Halo Studios will remain in order to support Activision in the franchise's development. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory, which was previously in negotiations on deals to exit Xbox's ownership, will officially close down instead of being bought. The Hellblade/Senua franchise will seemingly be developed by another studio at Xbox, following the closure of Ninja Theory. Xbox claims that two separate buyout deals had fallen through. For the time being, it seems as though Blizzard has escaped its anticipated layoffs.

Microsoft is reportedly surveying gamers about the importance of physical disc media for its next-generation Xbox console. According to findings from Power Up Gaming, Microsoft is conducting this survey through the Xbox Insider Hub application, where a select group of Xbox Insiders are asked about their stance on various topics. Microsoft will later use this feedback to analyze and make decisions. One question asks whether the console should allow users to install games from physical discs, with response options including "Not Necessary," "Nice to Have," and "Must Have."

Considering that Microsoft recently launched its disc-to-digital program, an initiative to promote a digital-only future for Xbox consoles, the viability of physical media is now up for debate. With disc-to-digital, players can insert their game discs into the console to convert them into digital licenses. When the disc is scanned, Microsoft uses the unique key to create a digital license, which prevents the disc from being activated on third-party consoles and stops it from being rented, borrowed, or sold to others.

Xbox is reportedly gearing up for a second major round of layoffs this week, and this time Blizzard and Halo Studios appear to be in the crosshairs. According to The Information, which cited a source briefed on the plans, Xbox is set to cut hundreds of jobs and consolidate several of its game studios. The report doesn't name specific studios or a final headcount, but insiders believe the consolidation could touch Xbox's publishing arms, including Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision, and Blizzard.

Blizzard's situation looks especially notable here. The studio was reportedly spared during Xbox's first wave of cuts in July, when CEO Asha Sharma eliminated 1,600 roles as part of a planned 3,200 reductions through fiscal 2027. That first round instead hit studios like ZeniMax Online and id Software. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has since said Blizzard layoffs are coming and imminent, despite the studio reportedly being Xbox's most profitable branch right now, and just weeks after a strong BlizzCon that revealed Diablo V and World of Warcraft Forever.

Following the recent news of unionization at Blizzard, which is slated to cover 1,900 workers at the Xbox-owned studio, and a handful of announcements at the recent BlizzCon, including Diablo V and StarCraft, video game journalist, Jason Schreier has broken the news that more layoffs are potentially coming at Blizzard.

Speaking on a recent 8-4 Play podcast episode about all the announcements Blizzard made at BlizzCon, Schreier replied to some speculation that Blizzard announced more projects than usual at BlizzCon in order to avoid layoffs and turn the consumer sentiment against Microsoft rather than Blizzard if the in-progress projects ended up being affected by layoffs. Schreier, however, confirms the layoffs, but argues that they are a continuation of the layoffs that hit Blizzard as a result of the Xbox Reset that will result in as many as 3,200 total job losses at Xbox before the end of the fiscal year.

Microsoft has filed a patent application for a system that would show ads in PC and console games during natural breaks, such as after a boss fight, at the end of a cutscene, or on a loading screen. Titled "Contextually Aware Management of Interactive Software Application Access" (US 2026/0260258 A1), the filing describes an initial ad-free window, either time-based (30 minutes, say) or tied to progress, like finishing a level. As that window runs out, the game would signal a content management system once it reaches a suitable pause, and the ad would play. Watching it earns a "credit" that delays the next interruption. Some have pointed out that this patent describes something very similar to what free mobile games are doing.

Of course, this is only a patent application. Companies file these all the time, and many never become products. The filing does not name a specific Xbox game, service, or rollout. Microsoft recently began testing free, ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming for Insiders, but those ads play before a session starts, and Microsoft says they will not interrupt gameplay. Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball has also said he personally believes interrupting gameplay "would be bad." However, what the patent describes would be a step in the opposite direction.

A developer has apparently gotten an experimental PS5 emulator running on the Xbox Series X. Devran Cosmo Uenal, who posted about the project on YouTube on September 8, calls it a research project that ports the open-source KytyPS5 emulator to Microsoft's console through Developer Mode. Uenal shows GEX Trilogy, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and Quake II in his game library and claims they all work with controller input, with sound working in some of them. He also says AI tools were used, but it's unclear how much of the code they wrote. Compatibility is very limited, and Uenal says a lot of work is left.

According to him, the Xbox environment doesn't support Vulkan, which KytyPS5 uses for rendering, so the graphics side has to be adapted to DirectX. That likely means progress on the PC version won't carry over automatically. We haven't seen performance benchmarks either, but the video shows Quake II running somewhere between 25 FPS and 45 FPS. The game also dips below 20 FPS in some scenes, especially when it first boots up. There is also a marked jump in input latency that can be observed, but no numbers back it up yet.

Microsoft has fixed the bug that made Windows Security wrongly claim Microsoft Defender Antivirus was turned off. According to Windows Latest, the fix comes in Defender platform update 4.18.26080.4, which Microsoft released on September 17. No manual action is needed, and the update should arrive on its own unless you have blocked mandatory security updates through Group Policy or the Registry Editor. The false alert usually showed up when Windows booted up, then returned at random, even with notifications turned off. Apparently, clicking it only opened the Windows Security home tab, where everything showed as active.

Microsoft acknowledged the problem on August 28 and said it affected any supported version of Windows or Windows Server running the latest Defender updates. It never named the update responsible, and since Defender updates ship daily, there is no single KB to roll back to. Windows Insider users have apparently been seeing similar warnings since at least June. TechPowerUp covered the alert when it first surfaced, and several of our own staff ran into it too. Notably, almost three weeks passed between Microsoft's confirmation and the fix, which seems slow for a bug this visible.

Microsoft announced that it has expanded device support for its Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) feature, which provides resolution upscaling to nearly every NPU-powered device, to Intel's flagship "Panther Lake" mobile platform. Introduced in 2024, Auto SR was designed to bring resolution upscaling to more devices, being hardware-agnostic and useful when native technologies are not available. For instance, Microsoft has added Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" designs to its Auto SR support list. When a game supports Intel's native XeSS Super Resolution upscaling technology, it is recommended to use that. However, if the game doesn't support XeSS-SR, Auto SR can take over, as it is built into Windows and can apply super resolution across existing games without requiring game-integrated super resolution.

Regarding performance, Microsoft conducted preliminary testing with Assassin's Creed Valhalla Benchmark Averages on the Intel Arc B390 GPU found in "Panther Lake" SoCs. At a native 1600p resolution with in-game settings on "High," the average frame rate is around 45 FPS. However, when Auto SR is applied to upscale a 1050p resolution to 1600p with in-game settings on "Ultra," the performance increases to 52 FPS. This represents a 15% improvement with higher in-game graphics settings, without any noticeable difference in resolution due to the model's upscaling capabilities. The current goal of Auto SR is to achieve a playable 60 FPS on devices that can't reach that, but Microsoft aims for a 90-120 FPS target in future iterations.

After installing the latest Defender Antivirus update for Windows 11, users have started reporting that their operating system is sending notifications stating "Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off." Despite the Defender Antivirus protection working correctly, Windows has been pushing these notifications to users, with many of the TechPowerUp staff experiencing the error themselves. These notifications typically appear when the operating system is freshly booted up or immediately afterward. Interestingly, Defender Antivirus can send out notifications even when notification settings are turned off, and all versions of Windows or Windows Server are affected. Microsoft acknowledged the issue, stating:

MicrosoftWe are working to release a resolution in a future Microsoft Defender Antivirus update and will provide more information when it is available.

Microsoft has pushed back on a leak claiming Xbox Game Pass is getting a massive overhaul in 2027. The rumor, posted by ResetEra moderator Slayven, described a split into ad-supported ($12.99/month) and ad-free ($19.99/month) tiers, day-one releases disappearing between February and April 2027, and cloud streaming becoming a separate $5.99 add-on for 25 hours. Forbes journalist Paul Tassi took the claims to Xbox directly and got an on-record response. Here's the full statement an Xbox spokesperson gave Tassi:

"We regularly test different Game Pass offerings and look at what works best for players in different markets. We don't have any changes to announce today or plans that have been finalized. There are no changes to previously announced games coming to Game Pass Ultimate on day one."