Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 reaches 70% of Steam users, no new Insider builds, and job cuts

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Happy 4th of July to all our readers from the US! This week Windows Insiders didn"t receive a new build, as Microsoft was more focused on fixing underlying issues, and delivering new updates to its products and apps.

This week"s news recap is here.

Quick links:

  1. Windows 10 and 11
  2. Updates are available
  3. Reviews are in
  4. Gaming news
  5. Great deals to check

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft"s latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions.

According to Valve’s June 2026 Steam survey, Windows 11 has finally crossed 70% of the platform’s user base, up 0.68 points from May. At the same time, Windows 10 slides further to 23.56%. Still, Windows as a whole is dominant with 94.10% of Steam users.

Image: Steam

Last week was riddled with news about issues on Windows 11, their fixes, and more issues. Microsoft shipped KB5102558 and KB5095615 updates, a pair of Setup and Recovery dynamic updates, and quietly fixed a bug where the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file was eating tens of gigabytes of storage. At the same time, the company explained why GIFs stopped loading in Windows 11"s emoji panel; Google retired the Tenor API, so Microsoft switched to GIPHY.

WSL containers | Image: Microsoft

Developers would be happy to know that WSL Containers finally moved into public preview, so Windows users can now run Linux containers natively without Docker Desktop. There’s also the redesigned, modular Start menu, which is now rolling out to enterprises, and Microsoft has published the full set of Group Policy and CSP settings admins can use to control it.

On the business side, Microsoft launched Frontier Company, a $2.5 billion push to help enterprises adopt and deploy AI at scale. But at the same time, the company reportedly prepares to cut under 2.5% of its workforce, which is roughly 5,500 jobs, mostly in sales, consulting, and Xbox gaming.

And if you"re into leaks and speculation, a new leak that suggests Microsoft may have worked on an Edge-powered, AI-first operating system hit the community by storm.

Last week also marked the first week in a long time when we didn’t get a build for any of the Windows Insider channels. Guess the 4th of July arrived earlier at Microsoft this year.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

When it comes to Microsoft’s own products, Edge and Teams received the most significant updates. Edge for Business now uses an on-device AI model that watches your screen and blocks scareware in real time, and new DLP policies restrict copy-paste and downloads for contractors. Edge 150 also hit stable, and finally added the ability for users to sign in with their Google accounts.

Image: Microsoft

Teams is replacing CAPTCHA with smarter bot detection, as meeting organizers now can approve or reject including bots in calls. It"s also rolling out Facilitator, an AI agent that spots knowledge gaps mid-meeting and keeps track of the agenda. So, you won’t have to remember all the details from calls, as the agent will track these down for you. Although it never hurts to double-check.

Finally, legacy SharePoint services are being retired, as SharePoint Designer 2013 and InfoPath 2013 both lose support July 14. Users are encouraged to switch to Power Automate and Microsoft Forms.

Microsoft also published a roundup of the latest features in Excel, Teams, and Copilot. You can check more details below:

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week:

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

Steven Parker tested an interesting bunch of products this week. If you need a new ergonomic chair, take a look at Steven"s detailed review of the Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 ergonomic office chair.

Steven also finished his lengthy review of the new Honor Magic v6 foldable phone. It"s a foldable that delivers great specs and performance for its price, and can trade a few blows with more expensive competitors. And if you"re more of an outdoor type who doesn"t dig foldables, check out this Oukitel WP500 Ultra rugged phone, which is built for extreme conditions.

And finally, if you need a DIY NAS board these days, check out the review of the the ZimaBoard 2 1664 Starter Kit. It"s an affordable Nas board built around Intel"s low-power N150 chip, with support for SATA or SSD storage.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more.

To celebrate the the country"s 250th birthday, Microsoft Flight Simulator"s latest World Update overhauls the terrain and scenery of 31 U.S. National Parks. Minecraft Bedrock Edition also finally has closed captions, a decade after Java Edition got the feature, and Payday 2 now supports DX11.

Image: Microsoft

On the business side, Microsoft is reportedly taking "a fresh look" at Xbox investments as layoffs loom, and IO Interactive confirmed Microsoft pulled funding from its long-in-development fantasy game.

In the wake of Sony"s controversial decision ot move away from physical discs, Microsoft is also reportedly testing a Disc to Digital feature that would let Xbox owners convert disc collections into digital entitlements.

Deals and freebies

Great deals to check

Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need.

This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.

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