You might have come across a viral post on X, saying "Windows keeps a thumbnail of every photo you've ever deleted," secretly sitting in thumbcache_256.db. To be fair, yes, Windows keeps a thumbnail cache. File Explorer has done this for years because scrolling through thousands of photos would be painfully slow if Windows had to generate every preview from scratch. macOS, Linux desktops, and Android also have thumbnail systems, so this is not some uniquely evil Windows habit. But “every photo you’ve ever deleted” is where the claim falls apart. Microsoft’s own Raymond Chen explained years ago that merely creating or copying an image does not automatically create a thumbnail cache entry. Explorer, or another app using Explorer’s thumbnail cache, has to ask for it. In my own test, I downloaded images, opened them, deleted them, restarted the PC, and the thumbcache files didn’t even get a new modified date. That doesn’t mean the cache is useless for forensics. Surviving thumbnails can absolutely outlive the original file, which is why you should know how it works and clear it if needed. Disk Cleanup already has a Thumbnails option for this, and Windows Pro also has a policy to stop thumbnail caching.

Electron is one of Windows 11's biggest RAM offenders, and Discord's latest idea is to build a Game Mode to reduce background usage rather than abandon the framework. Previously, Discord said it would restart itself when its RAM usage reaches 4GB. Discord is now working on a new Game Mode that automatically reduces animations and visual effects when it detects you’re playing a game, so the app doesn’t waste CPU and GPU while your game is running. That’s good, but it avoids the bigger problem: RAM management. Discord is one of Windows 11’s biggest RAM offenders because it is built on Electron, which means the app brings a Chromium-based runtime along with the chat client. Discord has already admitted the app can balloon past 4GB of RAM, and it previously tested automatically restarting itself when memory usage crosses that mark. The new Game Mode focuses on CPU and GPU usage, not memory. That matters because RAM is now one of the most expensive parts of a PC again, and Microsoft, OEMs, and users are all being forced back into the reality of 8GB and 16GB machines. Discord says its Electron upgrades improved CPU usage, and Game Mode is still a useful idea. Animations and effects shouldn’t compete with games. But if the app still needs a browser runtime to exist on Windows, the bigger performance question remains untouched. It's about time Windows developers stop cooking Electron apps and eat RAM like it’s still cheap!

Google researcher explains why Windows NT “puts Linux to shame.." Before anyone turns this into another Windows vs Linux fan war, Laurie Kirk is not praising the Windows 11 Start menu, Copilot, ads, or any of the things people usually hate about modern Windows. She is talking about the NT kernel underneath it. Kirk, a Google researcher who spent four years as a reverse engineer at Microsoft, says “the NT kernel really is an engineering marvel that still puts Linux to shame in many ways.” That is a spicy statement, but the argument is interesting. NT was built around objects, handles, access tokens, ACLs, auditing, and a centralized security model from the beginning. Processes, threads, files, devices, registry keys, jobs, and tokens all fit into that model. Linux took a very different path. UIDs, GIDs, file modes, ACLs, capabilities, namespaces, cgroups, SELinux, AppArmor, Landlock, and other layers all do their own jobs, and Linux became the foundation for servers, cloud, containers, Android, and most of the modern developer stack. But Kirk’s 2026 question is the one that matters now: “What exactly is this AI agent allowed to do?” And thhat changes the debate. An AI agent can read files, write code, execute commands, chain permissions, and act on your behalf much faster than a human ever could. Suddenly, the old Windows NT ideas around identity, objects, permissions, and audit trails feel a lot more relevant than people might want to admit.

“We’re building Copilot as a new OS,” says Satya Nadella. Satya Nadella is calling Copilot a “new OS for work,” and this time, the idea makes more sense because Microsoft is not really talking about replacing Windows 11. It is turning Copilot into a work hub that sits above Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, code, agents, files, meetings, and business data. The new Copilot app now has Home, Chat, Cowork, Code, and Autopilot. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can run inside Copilot, and changes still sync back to the normal Office apps. So you have Code, which lets you describe an app, tracker, dashboard, or workflow in plain English and generate it inside the company tenant. And my personal favorite is Autopilot, which is the bigger step: a persistent agent with its own identity, memory, workspace, and governance. Microsoft is trying to move Copilot away from being a button stapled onto every app and toward becoming the AI layer across work. This version of Copilot at least looks closer to the product Microsoft has been trying to describe for three years!

Microsoft 365's social media account is now asking users to follow Microsoft Copilot, even though Microsoft 365 is more than just Copilot, as it includes all Office apps. And unsurprisingly, users are confused. Microsoft 365 is still the subscription with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and everything else. But there's a separate app called 'Microsoft 365 Copilot.' That app journey has somehow gone from Office to Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 Copilot to Microsoft Copilot. Office app > Microsoft 365 > Microsoft 365 Copilot > Microsoft Copilot. At the same time, Microsoft already had a separate Copilot app, Copilot branding in Windows, Copilot+ PCs, a Copilot key, Copilot in Office apps, and now one unified Copilot account for Microsoft 365 updates. Regardless, it does not make sense to shut down Microsoft 365's social media accounts and ask users to follow Copilot's social media account for Copilot and Microsoft 365/Office updates.

Google is using Microsoft Copilot to sell its new Googlebook laptops. Seriously. On the official Googlebook page, Google has an Apps & Games section meant to show what this new ChromeOS and Android-powered laptop category can do, and Microsoft Copilot is sitting right there in the Productivity row with Notion, Acrobat, Dropbox, Fantastical, and others. Microsoft 365 is also featured, and Google’s own FAQ says Googlebook users can open, edit, download, and save Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint files. Google once fought Microsoft so hard on Windows Phone that even YouTube became a problem. Now Google is building a laptop meant to compete with Windows and macOS, while openly showing Microsoft’s productivity software as part of the pitch. And Microsoft is doing the same in reverse.... Gemini is now on Windows. Google’s AI tools are getting native Windows and WSL support. And Microsoft apps are everywhere on Android.

Microsoft just released emergency updates for Windows 11 to patch bugs introduced by the September 2026 update, including broken audio and Remote Desktop errors. After this month’s security updates, affected systems became unstable, with admins reporting Remote Desktop connection failures, sign-in problems, unresponsive servers, and related tools like MMC, File Explorer, Windows Update, and RDS Licensing Diagnoser freezing or refusing to respond. This is now being fixed with today's emergency update, and the same update also fixes Claude Cowork issues on Hyper-V shared-folder issues with Linux VMs and some multichannel USB audio problems, but Microsoft says one USB audio bug is still not fixed. September Patch Tuesday was already messy, and reports of other issues are still coming in. Microsoft hasn't confirmed broken File History, explorer exe crashes, and AMD GPU errors yet.