Everything announced at Microsoft's Windows and Surface event

Microsoft held a Windows and Surface event today, which gave us a look at what's ahead for the operating system and lineup of devices. Along with CEO Satya Nadella, the company's head of Windows and Devices, Pavan Davuluri, spoke at the San Francisco event. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang was in attendance too.

Ahead of the event, Microsoft said it would focus on "how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC," so perhaps (like me) you're already wondering how to disable whatever agentic AI features the company is planning to shove into Windows. Maybe this time it'll work for Microsoft after the whole Copilot+ PC deal didn't turn out to be a raging success and the company started pulling Copilot features out of Windows 11.

During the event, much of which was surprisingly developer-focused, Microsoft hammered home that it's working to make Windows the most secure platform for AI agents. The company also talked up a hybrid approach to AI that runs both locally and in the cloud. 

We'll be updating this story as swiftly as we can to give you a rundown of the key news (at least on the consumer side) in one place, along with links to read more of our coverage from the event. With that said, let's jump into everything Microsoft announced for regular folks at its Windows and Surface event.

Microsoft doesn't want to be left behind when it comes to agentic personal computing, especially in the wake of Meta's Muse AI agent quickly finding a large audience and tools like Perplexity's Personal Computer seeping into the world on Mac. The company has been making some moves in this area. It announced an agentic AI platform called Project Solara earlier this year and it recently updated the Copilot app to include more automation. Now, though, Microsoft is ready to make a bigger push into agentic AI.

For instance, with your permission, Copilot will able to carry out actions based on your local files. It'll be able to run AI models locally while tapping into the cloud for extra compute power. There's also the ability to generate apps and widgets (Google is offering something similar in Googlebooks). 

Just like attempts by other companies to anthropomorphize their AI tools, the Copilot icon now has a face. I'm sure Microsoft really doesn't want you to call it Clippy 2.0. Please don't call it Clippy 2.0. I would never.

Anyway, starting this fall, you'll be able to take thousands of quick actions directly in Windows search from the taskbar, a bit like Mac users can in Spotlight. These include switching on dark mode, taking a screenshot, adjusting the volume, getting answers to questions, sending text messages and, of course, access the new Copilot app.

Microsoft is looking to make it easier for people to get AI agents up and running in Windows with a "Get Started" tool. Among the agents you'll be able to use, if you're interested, is Portable Computer. This will be able to run locally and without burning any Perplexity cloud credits. Muse will be available as a native Windows app too. 

It'll be interesting to see how users react to Microsoft pushing AI agents into Windows, given the backlash against tools like Recall and Copilot features that the company ended up removing from the operating system. For what it's worth, I have no interest in agents having access to my personal files (despite the company placing an onus on trust during the stream, I do not trust any of it) and I'll be turning all of that off as soon as possible.

After it teased the Surface Laptop Ultra earlier this year, Microsoft revealed much more about the high-end device, which it says is for developers and creators. Maybe other folks will be interested too!

The laptop has a 15-inch mini-LED display with up to 2,000 nits of brightness and a 3:2 aspect ratio. There's a giant trackpad that's 30 percent larger than the one on the seventh-gen Surface laptop as well. 

The laptop weighs less than 4.5 pounds and it's less than 18mm (0.7 inches) thick. Microsoft claims it has 2.5 times the thermal capacity of the seventh-gen 15-inch Surface Laptop and all-day battery life.

It's positioned as a MacBook Pro competitor, with more ports (including USB-A, USB-C, HDMI and a full-size SD card reader) than Apple's laptop. A magnetic charging option that uses a regular USB-C port is available. This seems like Microsoft's answer to MagSafe.

The laptop runs on NVIDIA's new Arm-based SOC, which has GPU capabilities that are comparable to the GeForce RTX 5070. Microsoft showed Gears of War: E-Day running on the Surface Laptop Ultra and it said Call of Duty will be available on the system later this year.

Perhaps most pertinent for Microsoft's purposes, the RTX Spark has a neural processing unit that's zippy enough to comply with its Copilot+ requirements. The SOC has 20 CPU cores and it can be equipped with lots of RAM too — as much as 128GB of unified memory. The RTX Spark is said to be less power-intensive than other AI-focused chips, as it won't draw more than 80W.

It looks like a premium laptop with plenty of power. It's great that Microsoft appears to have designed the Surface Laptop Ultra with repairability in mind. A replaceable SSD is very welcome too. The price will be a significant barrier for many, though. The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 and pre-orders start today.

Microsoft also revealed the price of the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a mini PC designed for heavier AI workloads. That starts at $5,999 and pre-orders are open.