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Microsoft is redesigning its standalone Copilot app with three new tabs: 'Home' for chats and task routing, 'Code' for building apps and dashboards from natural-language descriptions, and 'Autopilot' for agentic automation of recurring tasks. The app will also gain direct integration with Office applications, according to Jared Spataro, Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer of AI at Work.
Microsoft and Qualcomm confirmed at the Snapdragon 2026 Summit that they will no longer market new Surface and Snapdragon-powered PCs as 'Copilot+' devices, even though the underlying AI features remain unchanged. Surface VP Brett Ostrum and Qualcomm's Kedar Kondap both told Windows Central the companies still emphasize AI capabilities, just without the Copilot+ label that debuted with Arm-based Windows PCs in 2024.
Microsoft has released a redesigned Copilot app that merges chat, coding tools, and AI agents into three tabs: Home, Code, and Autopilot. Home combines Copilot Chat and Cowork with a new personalized dashboard called Today, while Code lets users build apps and automations powered by GitHub Copilot's technology. Microsoft also renamed its Scout personal assistant, first shown at Build, to Autopilot, now framed as a cloud-based 'digital teammate' that can keep working autonomously.
Microsoft's new 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop meet the technical specs for Copilot Plus PCs but are not being marketed under that name, Surface CVP Brett Ostrom confirmed to Windows Central. Qualcomm's Kedar Kondap indicated similar devices will likely drop the branding going forward too.
Microsoft announced a new Surface Mouse that will go on sale October 13 for $80, marking its first update to the accessory since 2016. The device adds haptic feedback that vibrates subtly during clicks, window snapping, and object alignment, plus a customizable action button designed primarily for Copilot use via the Surface app.
Microsoft is refreshing its smaller Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus chip, launching October 13. The devices keep last year's design but get 16GB minimum RAM (up from 8GB), brighter screens, and modest battery life gains. Starting prices jump to $1,149.99 for the Surface Pro and $1,199.99 for the Surface Laptop, up from $799.99 and $899.99 respectively.
Microsoft released KB5124010, a September 2026 optional preview update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, containing 46 changes but no security patches. The update adds Emoji 17.0 support, an 'Open apps maximized' accessibility setting, Bluetooth reliability fixes, and a new option to remap the Copilot key to act as Right Ctrl or Context Menu.
Microsoft is releasing an updated Surface Mouse on October 13th, its first refresh since 2016. The new mouse adds haptic feedback for clicks and alignment cues, a customizable action button defaulting to Copilot, Bluetooth 6.0 for pairing with up to three devices, and a redesigned soft-touch body. It will cost $79.99 in black or platinum and launches alongside refreshed Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models.
Microsoft has expanded Automatic Super Resolution, its NPU-driven upscaling feature built into Windows, to Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 chips, a capability previously exclusive to Qualcomm Snapdragon X devices. The feature aims to boost frame rates in games rendered at up to 1080p, with Microsoft citing gains of up to 15% in titles like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, targeting a 60 FPS threshold.
Microsoft announced it is retiring its Microsoft 365 companion apps—Calendar, People, and Files—effective December 16, 2026, after which they will stop functioning and lose support. The company is telling IT administrators to uninstall the apps from managed devices before that date. The move comes roughly a year after Microsoft began automatically pushing these taskbar-integrated apps to Windows 11 enterprise devices running Microsoft 365 desktop clients.
Microsoft used AI agents to convert the Copilot runtime's 430,000 lines of TypeScript into 800,000 lines of Rust, a project that took about 14.5 weeks, over 135 releases, roughly $120,000 in AI token costs, and three weeks of human developer oversight to fix dozens of regressions. The Rust version now powers Copilot across VS Code, Visual Studio, the CLI, SDK, and Office apps like Excel and Outlook.
A university-affiliated blogger describes being blocked from editing a PowerPoint file on a Mac despite having an institutional Microsoft account, receiving a message saying editing isn't allowed on Mac under that license. The writer argues this stems from restrictive licensing terms tied to costly institutional contracts that effectively push users toward Windows machines.