If you're tired of seeing Microsoft's AI features like Copilot, agentic workloads, and Recall forced into their products, you're not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be stepping back from its "AI everywhere" strategy. According to an exclusive report by Windows Central, the internal Windows 11 teams at Microsoft are now focusing on reducing forced AI integration. Instead, they aim to address what truly matters to consumers, such as fixing the bug-prone operating system and enhancing core features for a smoother user experience. The integration of Copilot into basic apps like Notepad and Paint is reportedly under review, and Microsoft may remove these features to restore the basic functionality users have come to appreciate. This includes features like basic text formatting and tables in Notepad, which are nice additions to a core application.

Additionally, forcing Copilot AI button in every application has been paused, as there has been very little interest from users in actually using these features. TechPowerUp Forums has been a constant source of criticism for Microsoft's forced AI integration, among the remaining large crowd of PC enthusiasts who have been fighting the "AI everywhere" approach for a while. Microsoft's telemetry records usage of these AI buttons and additions, likely showing that only a few percent of Windows 11 users are actually interested in having AI access every application layer, especially with the recent ambition to shape Windows 11 into "agentic OS." The company confirmed that these features are a security nightmare to maintain, so thankfully these efforts are now cancelled.

Today, Xencelabs, a leading global brand in digital drawing tools, launched the Pen Display 16 Lite, an ultraportable 4K OLED pen display designed for ambitious artists on the move. Priced at $799, the device combines studio-grade performance with mobility. The packaging features exclusive artwork from a unique international animation project centered on the character Ted Paul. This collaboration highlights how cutting-edge technology and artistic creativity are merging to push the boundaries of digital storytelling.

A Character with Character: Bringing Ted Paul to Life.
The story behind the artwork featured on our packaging is as compelling as the product itself. The image of Ted Paul, a whimsical frog character, originated from a hand-drawn sketch by acclaimed fantasy illustrator Jesper Ejsing, known for his emotionally rich, stylized characters. Through a groundbreaking partnership involving Xencelabs, Pixar's RenderMan team, DAMN! Visdev animation studio, and Dell workstations, Ted Paul was transformed from a 2D drawing into a dynamic 3D animated character, showcasing the potential of modern rendering technology to preserve artistic style.

Today Wacom announced the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14, the next step in its Portable Creative Pad lineup, offering enhanced power, flexibility, and an immersive experience in an all-in-one creative device. The MovinkPad Pro 14 is tailored for creators who want to push their craft further—whether aspiring to become professionals or already working at that level.

Immersive display and pen performance
The 14-inch OLED screen with 2880 × 1800 resolution, 100% coverage of both DCI-P3 (CIE1931) (typ) and sRGB (CIE1931) (typ), and up to 120 Hz refresh rate delivers rich detail and fluid motion for illustration and design. With Wacom's Premium Textured Glass—its unique anti-glare, anti-reflection, and anti-fingerprint surface treatment—the display minimizes distractions, while direct bonding reduces parallax for a pen-on-paper feel. The MovinkPad Pro 14 comes with the battery-free Wacom Pro Pen 3, trusted for its precision and natural drawing feel.

With the once-lucrative business of cryptocurrency mining now slowly falling out of favor for discrete graphics, crypto miners are turning their heads to creative solutions to "refurbish" and sell their remaining inventory to third-party users. When GPU components, such as the die or GDDR memory, overheat, they can produce visual signs of damage, such as discoloration or melting. Some miners have started painting the memory on their GPU's boards with special thermal paint to hide the wear and tear from the naked eye and make the GDDR chips appear new in hopes that no one would notice. According to Iskandar Souza and TecLab, their cases are now getting debunked.

As these reports note, miners are removing the stock cooling systems from GPUs to install a third-party solution or recently tried to resolder failed GPU dies back in place and paint the yellowish GDDR memory chips. According to the testing done by Iskandar Souza, you can see below the difference between a worn-out yellowish GDDR chip and its painted deception standing next to one another. Below you can also see the process of resoldering failed GPUs back in place. Crypto miners have been very careful to make them look almost as brand new, so GPU buyers from third-party sources need to be extra cautious before making a purchase.

To be fair, the writing was already on the wall, in a way. It was so when Microsoft announced the introduction of a UWP app called Paint 3D. Paint 3D, which supplants Paint in a number of ways, is like the 1984-introduced app's big brother. It's meaner, faster, and thinks history is all its own. But that's fine.

So yes, Paint is dying. The prognosis: death by deprecation. Paint is being put on a "deprecated" list (which means "not in active development and might be removed in future releases" for Windows 10's latest update, the Fall Creators Update, which means that it's somewhat like Schrödinger's cat: it's in a limbo of life and death. It's not really dead, no; but at the same time, it really kind of is. "Whether you're an artist or just want to try out some doodles-Paint 3D makes it easy to unleash your creativity and bring your ideas to life. Classic Paint has been reimagined, with an updated look and feel and a ton of new brushes and tools. And now, create in every dimension. Make 2D masterpieces or 3D models that you can play with from all angles," Microsoft explains. And that's all well and good; but where is my nostalgia-factor? A small sentence lends hope to the Paint defenders out there, where Microsoft says "Paint will be available through the Windows Store." Alas, even so, it seems tales of Paint's demise weren't greatly exaggerated...

Even though the awaited Creators Update for Windows 10 is only set to arrive on April 11th, users who want to get ahead of the launch - and maybe themselves - can now update their version of Windows. Through the Windows 10 Update Assistant, Microsoft has made it possible for users to update to the latest version of windows ahead of time. After downloading and running the tool from Microsoft's website, it should display that Build 15063 is available - the official build number for the Creators Update.

The most awaited feature for the upcoming Windows update should be the Game Mode, though Beam live-streaming (which some say is better than Twitch) from the Game Bar, a PiP (picture-in-picture) mode for streaming videos while working on those pesky Excel budget .xlxs, and improved privacy settings (which aren't at the same level as the special edition built for the chinese market, though.) Microsoft's Edge is also seeing performance and security improvements, and Windows will now integrate a night mode that reduces blue light emissions - and thus the strain in your old eye globes. You can now also lock your Windows 10 PC at a distance through Windows Hello on your smartphone of choice, and can partake on some crazy Paint marathons with its improved 3D tool, which should elevate it to new, never before seen heights - maybe in the next update you can use the new Paint with Mixed-Reality products?