Microsoft Build 2025: All the updates coming to Windows and Microsoft 365
Here’s an overview of the major Windows and productivity-focused updates that stood out the most from this year’s event.
Microsoft Build 2025 is officially underway, and if there’s one thing that’s immediately clear, it’s that AI continues to sit at the centre of everything. From core Windows upgrades to revamped productivity tools, this year’s announcements blend hardware, software, and AI in ways that are starting to feel less experimental—and more essential.
While much of the spotlight was on Copilot and cloud-based innovation, Microsoft didn’t forget about the developers working locally or the everyday users navigating their digital lives. Windows saw a wave of updates aimed at making the OS smarter, more secure, and friendlier to build on—whether you're an AI enthusiast, a power user, or someone who just wants to find that document you opened last Tuesday.
Here’s an overview of the major Windows and productivity-focused updates that stood out the most from this year’s event.
Kelechi Edeh
What's new to Windows?
Microsoft used Build 2025 to show just how much Windows is evolving—not just visually or functionally, but fundamentally. This year’s updates focus on making the OS more developer-friendly, more AI-ready, and better equipped for modern workflows.
Windows AI Foundry: Empowering Local AI Development
The biggest Windows update that really caught our attention was when Microsoft unveiled the Windows AI Foundry, a platform aimed at simplifying AI development directly on Windows devices.
Not to be mistaken for the Azure AI Foundry that is built for cloud-based AI development at enterprise scale, think massive models running across global infrastructure, Windows AI Foundry is focused on making AI work seamlessly on your personal machine. It gives developers the tools to build, fine-tune, and run AI models directly on Windows devices, without needing to constantly connect to the cloud.
By supporting the Model Context Protocol (MCP), dubbed the "USB-C of AI apps," developers can integrate AI models more seamlessly into their applications. The Foundry also provides tools for training and deploying AI models locally, reducing reliance on cloud resources and enhancing performance.
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Goes Open Source
Microsoft also thought it best not to leave the Linux community aside, as it announced that the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is now Open Source.
This decision allows developers to contribute to WSL's development, customise it to their needs, and ensure greater transparency in its evolution. By open-sourcing WSL, Microsoft reinforces its commitment to fostering a collaborative development environment.
Introducing "Edit on Windows": A New Command-Line Text Editor
Addressing the long-standing absence of a built-in command-line text editor in 64-bit Windows, Microsoft introduced "Edit on Windows." This lightweight, open-source editor offers features like multi-file support, word wrapping, and advanced find-and-replace with regex support. Designed with user-friendliness in mind, it provides a modeless interface, making it accessible to both novice and experienced developers.
Advanced Windows Settings: Streamlining Developer Tools
Microsoft is rebranding Windows Dev Home to Advanced Windows Settings, integrating developer-centric controls directly into the main Windows 11 settings interface. This consolidation offers functionalities like File Explorer GitHub integration, version control settings, and enhanced customisation options. By centralising these tools, developers can more efficiently manage their workflows without navigating through multiple interfaces.
Microsoft 365
If you use Word, Outlook, or Teams, you’re already in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. But it’s no longer just about documents and email, it’s evolving into an AI-powered assistant that helps you work smarter, not harder.
At Microsoft Build 2025, the updates were all about making your day easier, whether you’re writing emails, coding apps, or juggling meetings. From an upgraded GitHub app in Teams to smarter chat layouts and major Copilot upgrades, Microsoft 365 is stepping up as more than just a toolkit, it’s becoming a true productivity partner.
Enhanced GitHub app for Teams
At the Microsoft Build 2025, developers got their moment. The updated GitHub app for Microsoft Teams brings threaded conversations, slash commands, and more intuitive notifications, making dev work feel less like juggling and more like collaborating. Even developers got their moment. The updated GitHub app for Microsoft Teams brings threaded conversations, slash commands, and more intuitive notifications, making dev work feel less like juggling and more like collaborating.
Updated Teams AI library: Available in public preview
The new Teams AI Library, now in public preview. If you’re a developer working with JavaScript or C#, this update is designed to make your life easier. Think of it as a toolkit for building smarter, more collaborative AI agents inside Teams, ones that can now talk to each other using Agent-to-Agent (A2A) collaboration, tap into shared memory, and even work within a shared model context (thanks to the new Model Context Protocol). In simple terms, it’s more powerful, more flexible, and better at mimicking how real teams work together.
New chat and channels experience
On the user side, the everyday chat and channel experience is getting a thoughtful redesign. The new layout is cleaner and more intuitive, making it easier to keep up without feeling overwhelmed. Everything, your chats, channels, and teams, is now brought together in one streamlined view. Need to focus? Use filters to sift through what matters. Want to stay organised? You can now create custom sections to group conversations by topic or priority.
It’s part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to blend simplicity with power, keeping Teams friendly for newcomers while giving power users the tools they need to customise their workflows. Whether you’re a dev building the next-gen agent or a user just trying to keep your inbox sane, these updates aim to make Teams feel more like a teammate and less like a to-do list.
The Microsoft 365 Copilot Spring Wave 2 Update Is Here
At this year’s Microsoft Build 2025, AI was the main event, like it has been for the last couple of years. And right at the heart of it was Microsoft 365 Copilot, getting its most ambitious update yet with the Wave 2 spring release.
There’s now a redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot app built to enhance human-AI collaboration. And yes, it’s smarter—thanks to a new Create experience that taps into OpenAI’s GPT-4o to bring text and image generation together in one place. Visuals, drafts, summaries—you name it, it starts here.
Copilot Notebooks are now generally available, turning scattered data into structured, useful insights in seconds. Coming in June, Copilot Search and Copilot Memory will roll out, helping you find the what, when, and why of past work, without needing to remember every file name or email thread.
Copilot's New Outlook Features Are Transforming How You Work
In Outlook, Copilot now does the heavy lifting, summarising email threads, surfacing attachments, and helping you prep for meetings faster with contextual suggestions. No more digging through your inbox while the meeting’s already started.
Then there’s Copilot Pages, which let you turn AI-generated responses into dynamic, shareable documents. New features let you create these pages straight from your phone, convert them into Word docs with a tap, and even embed interactive charts and code blocks, all on the go.
Conclusion
Microsoft Build 2025 made one thing clear: AI is no longer just a feature—it’s part of the core experience.
From local AI tools in Windows to smarter workflows in Microsoft 365, the updates focus less on flash and more on function. Whether it’s developers building directly on their devices or everyday users managing emails and meetings, Microsoft is weaving AI deeper into its ecosystem, with the goal of making work feel a little more seamless, not overwhelming.
Kelechi Edeh
