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Microsoft tries to spark new life into Windows

Windows is slowly morphing into an agentic OS.

Windows 正在缓慢演变为一个代理式操作系统。

When Microsoft released Windows 11 five years ago, it felt like an operating system that was still being renovated, a work in progress. You’d think by now that those renovations would be complete, with Microsoft turning its attention to Windows 12. Instead, Windows 11 feels like it’s here to stay, forming the foundation for Microsoft’s next big ambition: transforming Windows into an agentic OS.

五年前微软发布 Windows 11 时，它给人的感觉就像是一个仍在翻新中的操作系统，一个半成品。你本以为到了现在这些翻新工作应该已经完成，微软会将注意力转向 Windows 12。然而，Windows 11 似乎将长期存在，并成为微软下一个宏大目标的基础：将 Windows 转变为一个代理式操作系统。

At a Windows and Surface event this week, Microsoft laid out its plan to bring AI agents to Windows, including hybrid intelligence that lets Windows take advantage of free local models instead of expensive cloud ones. “I think today is the day we’ll start talking and thinking about the frontier ecosystem taking maybe slightly different contours,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

在本周的 Windows 和 Surface 发布会上，微软阐述了将 AI 代理引入 Windows 的计划，其中包括允许 Windows 利用免费本地模型而非昂贵云端模型的混合智能。“我认为今天是我们开始讨论并思考前沿生态系统呈现出略有不同轮廓的日子，”微软首席执行官萨提亚·纳德拉（Satya Nadella）表示。

After trying to sell businesses on a new Copilot last month, Nadella took a similar approach for his vision of agents and hybrid intelligence for Windows. It was so similar that when he mentioned the security, identity, and management aspects of Microsoft’s platform for securing agents, it almost seemed like he was pitching businesses again instead of AI developers, creatives, and just regular Windows users.

继上个月试图向企业推销新的 Copilot 后，纳德拉以类似的方式阐述了他对 Windows 代理和混合智能的愿景。这种方式非常相似，以至于当他提到微软用于保护代理的平台的安全性、身份和管理方面时，看起来几乎又是在向企业推销，而不是针对 AI 开发人员、创作者和普通 Windows 用户。

After a somewhat dizzying start, Windows chief Pavan Davuluri appeared onstage to try and explain why agents and hybrid intelligence are so important for Windows users. There were demos of GitHub Copilot coding locally without expensive cloud tokens; a long list of models that can now run locally; examples of agents like OpenClaw, Hermes, and Perplexity; and even deeper integration of Copilot in Windows.

在一段令人有些眼花缭乱的开场后，Windows 负责人帕万·达武卢里（Pavan Davuluri）登台，试图解释为什么代理和混合智能对 Windows 用户如此重要。现场演示了 GitHub Copilot 在本地进行编码而无需昂贵的云端令牌；展示了一长串现在可以在本地运行的模型；列举了 OpenClaw、Hermes 和 Perplexity 等代理示例；甚至还展示了 Copilot 在 Windows 中更深层次的集成。

I wasn’t fully convinced by any of these demos, though. I wanted to see what practical benefits local AI models could actually deliver for regular Windows users, instead of just the AI builders or developers Microsoft is trying to win over right now. Those are the people who could help turn its agentic OS vision into reality, though, and many of them are using a MacBook Pro instead of Windows. Microsoft’s answer to tempt them across to Windows? The Surface Laptop Ultra.

不过，这些演示并没有完全说服我。我想看到的是本地 AI 模型能为普通 Windows 用户带来什么实际好处，而不是仅仅针对微软目前试图争取的 AI 构建者或开发人员。尽管这些人确实能帮助微软将其代理式操作系统的愿景变为现实，但他们中的许多人目前使用的是 MacBook Pro 而非 Windows。微软吸引他们转向 Windows 的答案是什么？Surface Laptop Ultra。

The Surface Laptop Ultra is the home for Microsoft’s agentic OS push. Nvidia’s RTX Spark chips power the device, and there’s enough raw GPU power to get AI models exceeding 120 billion parameters running locally. “We built it for developers and creators that push the limit of performance and want portability with exceptional craft,” said Davuluri.

Surface Laptop Ultra 是微软推动代理式操作系统的核心载体。该设备由英伟达的 RTX Spark 芯片驱动，拥有足够的原始 GPU 算力，可以使超过 1200 亿参数的 AI 模型在本地运行。“我们为那些追求性能极限、同时又希望拥有卓越工艺和便携性的开发者和创作者打造了这款产品，”达武卢里说道。

The Surface Laptop Ultra is the flagship RTX Spark device, though there are also similar laptops from Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and MSI. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599, and some RTX Spark PCs can run all the way up to an eye-watering $6,999. Much like the very top of the MacBook Pro line, you’d have to really need 128GB of unified memory to spend that kind of money. For many AI builders it might just be worth it, though, especially if you can save thousands in token costs.

Surface Laptop Ultra 是旗舰级 RTX Spark 设备，不过华硕、戴尔、惠普、联想和微星也推出了类似的笔记本电脑。微软 Surface Laptop Ultra 的起售价为 2599 美元，而一些 RTX Spark PC 的价格甚至高达令人咋舌的 6999 美元。就像 MacBook Pro 的顶配机型一样，你必须真的需要 128GB 统一内存才会花这么多钱。但对于许多 AI 构建者来说，这或许是值得的，尤其是如果你能因此节省数千美元的令牌成本。

For the rest of us, Microsoft had very little to show. A new Windows Search interface looks like it could be one of the best additions to Windows 11 in years, though. Microsoft has totally redesigned search to make it not only more modern, but a heck of a lot faster than before. I’ve gotten to the point where I disable the Bing results in Windows Search, but this new UI now surfaces results in-line and lets you use search more like a launcher.

对于我们其他人来说，微软展示的内容寥寥无几。不过，全新的 Windows 搜索界面看起来可能是 Windows 11 多年来最好的新增功能之一。微软彻底重新设计了搜索功能，使其不仅更加现代化，而且比以前快得多。我以前习惯于在 Windows 搜索中禁用必应结果，但这个新的用户界面现在可以内联显示结果，让你能像使用启动器一样使用搜索。

I wasn’t expecting some grand unveiling of Windows 12 at this event, but I was hoping to hear a lot more about why RTX Spark laptops really do matter. “This is the future we’re building: agents that can work securely on your behalf, intelligence that moves seamlessly between local and cloud, and devices that become more capable than ever before,” said Davuluri.

我并没有期待在这次活动中看到 Windows 12 的盛大发布，但我希望能听到更多关于为什么 RTX Spark 笔记本电脑真正重要的信息。“这就是我们正在构建的未来：能够代表你安全工作的代理，在本地和云端之间无缝移动的智能，以及变得比以往任何时候都更强大的设备，”达武卢里说。

The problem is Microsoft is still in the early stages of this future it’s betting on for Windows. We had Copilot Plus PCs two years ago, with a big focus on the NPU chips inside that were supposed to revolutionize how consumers use everyday AI on a laptop. They haven’t done that yet, with only a handful of photo, video, and productivity tools making use of the NPU. Microsoft’s Recall feature was supposed to be the star of the NPU show, but the privacy concerns and delayed launch made it totally irrelevant instead.

问题在于，微软押注的这个 Windows 未来仍处于早期阶段。两年前我们有了 Copilot Plus PC，重点在于内部的 NPU 芯片，这些芯片本应彻底改变消费者在笔记本电脑上使用日常 AI 的方式。但它们尚未做到这一点，只有少数照片、视频和生产力工具利用了 NPU。微软的 Recall 功能本应是 NPU 的明星功能，但隐私担忧和延迟发布使其变得完全无关紧要。

Nvidia’s presence and GPU dominance may well make RTX Spark a bigger success story than Copilot Plus PCs, but these machines are targeting a niche audience for now. If Microsoft and its partners want to move beyond selling them as MacBook Pro competitors, they’ll eventually need to bring the same capabilities to less expensive, less powerful devices and demonstrate practical reasons for regular Windows users to care. The difference is that RTX Spark PCs are aimed at people who have a much more immediate reason to care about local AI: developers and creators who need to run large models and can potentially save substantial amounts of money by doing so.

英伟达的参与及其在 GPU 领域的统治地位很可能使 RTX Spark 比 Copilot Plus PC 取得更大的成功，但这些机器目前针对的是小众群体。如果微软及其合作伙伴想要超越将其作为 MacBook Pro 竞争对手的定位，他们最终需要将同样的功能带到更便宜、性能更弱的设备上，并向普通 Windows 用户展示他们关心的实际理由。不同之处在于，RTX Spark PC 针对的是有更迫切理由关心本地 AI 的人群：即需要运行大型模型并可能因此节省大量资金的开发者和创作者。

For Microsoft, though, it’s the creators and builders that matter most right now. AI agents running in the cloud on Linux virtual machines could spark a wave of desktop Linux app compatibility we’ve never seen before. Microsoft needs to counter that threat by making Windows more agent-friendly.

然而对微软来说，创作者和构建者目前是最重要的。在 Linux 虚拟机云端运行的 AI 代理可能会引发一波我们从未见过的桌面 Linux 应用兼容性浪潮。微软需要通过使 Windows 对代理更加友好来应对这一威胁。

That might explain why Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spent so much time reminiscing about the early days of the PC and graphics at this event. Microsoft isn’t ready to give up the PC dominance and app compatibility it has spent decades building. But it knows that the way people use computers is changing, and that Windows can’t rely on its historical advantages forever.

这或许可以解释为什么纳德拉和英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋在这次活动中花了那么多时间回顾 PC 和图形技术的早期岁月。微软还没有准备好放弃它花费数十年建立的 PC 统治地位和应用兼容性。但它知道人们使用计算机的方式正在改变，Windows 不能永远依赖其历史优势。

Perhaps that gets to the heart of why Microsoft seems to be scrambling to embra

这或许触及了为什么微软似乎正急于拥抱这一趋势的核心原因。