Microsoft shuts down its beloved maker space

Microsoft is closing down The Garage, a set of popular maker spaces where employees worked on experimental projects and collaborated on surprising new apps and hardware during the company’s annual hackathon events.

“We’re winding down The Garage program as a centralized function,” says Microsoft in an internal FAQ to employees, seen by Notepad. “We will continue to explore new ways to help employees build skills, collaborate across boundaries, and bring a hacker mindset to their work.” GeekWire first reported on The Garage’s closure.

The main Garage space was located at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus and served as the central hub for around 15 Garage locations across the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Microsoft employees could use it to experiment with prototypes, build hardware, and even turn hobbies into full Microsoft products.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella regularly attended Garage hackathons, giving employees a chance to showcase their projects and attract the attention of senior executives. Many apps and services have emerged from The Garage over its 17-year history, including the AI-powered Seeing AI app that describes objects and text to people who are blind or have low vision. It was born out of a 2015 hackathon event and shipped 10 years ago.

Microsoft employee Tuong Do used The Garage to develop Mouse Without Borders in his spare time, working on it during evenings and weekends. The app is still available today and lets you control up to four PCs with a single mouse and keyboard. Microsoft employees have also used The Garage to develop new learning tools and accessibility features for Word, Microsoft Edge, and PowerPoint. I would point you to the Microsoft Garage hall of fame for a list of all the top projects, but Microsoft has removed the website — erasing the rich history of its employee-led workshop.

One of the most famous success stories of The Garage was Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller. The accessibility-focused Xbox controller was a collective effort by employees across Xbox and Surface, but it originated at a hackathon event where employees were experimenting with building a gaming device that used Kinect motion-sensing technology to track movements and translate them to an Xbox controller.

An executive saw the nearly 40-person team trying to build the project, turned it into a real thing, and eventually more than 80 employees were involved with bringing the Xbox Adaptive Controller to life. While the device was nearly cut due to budget constraints, it eventually launched and went on to become the star of Microsoft’s 2019 Super Bowl commercial.

Microsoft is now planning to wind down its Garage locations, and some spaces will be closed as soon as tomorrow, Friday, October 23rd. The closure of The Garage will also mean changes to Microsoft’s annual employee hackathon event, which could potentially disappear. “As we look to the future, the hackathon team is reimagining the program to meet the needs of today’s employees, customers, and technology landscape. We’ll have more to share at a later date,” says Microsoft’s internal FAQ.

Internally, the company is trying to sell employees on the idea that “the spirit of experimentation that once lived primarily in dedicated programs is now reflected in how teams work every day.” Employees I’ve spoken to see the closure as the latest in Microsoft’s continued cutbacks.

Earlier this year Microsoft closed its employee library and cut back on subscriptions in favor of an “AI-powered learning experience.” The library used to house thousands of books, journals, and reports that employees could use to learn, research, and explore ideas — much like The Garage.

“We’re grateful to the employees, volunteers, and partners who helped build The Garage and look forward to continuing its legacy in new forms,” says Microsoft’s FAQ. It’s hard to imagine anything replicating the unique mix of expert advisers, dedicated maker spaces, hands-on workshops, and internship programs that The Garage offered employees looking to develop new skills.

The pad

• Microsoft employee causes an Xbox AI stir. Microsoft employee Brandon Stirrup posted multiple times on X this week to get everyone talking about AI use in gaming. “Gaming is the only industry where leaders are afraid to talk about AI,” said Stirrup. “Users want the truth. We’re using AI.” Stirrup’s posts elicited the usual response from gamers against AI, but he said he’s “happy to take the hit if it means hundreds at Xbox can stop pretending that they’re not using AI.” Hours after Stirrup’s posts, he disabled his X account.
• Microsoft’s new Photos app combines your PC, OneDrive, and iCloud galleries. Microsoft has redesigned its Photos app for Windows 11, combining images and videos from your PC, OneDrive, and iCloud into a single space. The new app includes a redesigned viewer, a native editor, and a new gallery view. The new editor is the most interesting aspect to me personally, simply because it loads a lot faster now and lets you quickly crop and edit photos. You can also edit HDR, HEIC, and WebP photos. The viewer has also been sped up, with improved HDR viewing and better file type support.
• Microsoft says Windows 11 is now “more responsive” and runs better on 8GB of RAM. Microsoft’s fixes for Windows 11 have made it “up to 20 percent more responsive,” according to the company. Microsoft has made improvements to Start, File Explorer, Search, Edge, and other parts of Windows 11 to make the OS feel faster. A big part of the improvements comes down to better memory management, to the point where there is now a “meaningful difference” on PCs with just 8GB of RAM. I still think there is still a way to go to fully improve Windows 11, but these are great first steps compared to a year ago.
• Ikea’s Xbox collection is now available online. The new nine-piece “Yxstaby” collection from Ikea was designed in collaboration with Microsoft. It debuted first at Ikea’s physical stores earlier this month, and it’s now available to order online. The line includes accessories and furniture inspired by Xbox controllers.
• Nvidia’s latest GPU driver brings a new way to speed up PC games. Nvidia has rolled out a new GPU driver (621.01) this week that enables Microsoft’s new Advanced Shader Delivery technology to speed up game launches. The technology also removes mid-game “just-in-time” shader compilation, reducing stuttering and CPU spikes. Microsoft’s Advanced Shader Delivery works by offloading shader compilation for different hardware combinations to the cloud. Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 now both support Advanced Shader Delivery, as long as you download the games via the Xbox PC app. “This system is storefront-agnostic, meaning you benefit even when playing games purchased on Steam, as long as the Xbox PC app is installed on your PC,” says Nvidia’s Andrew Burnes.
• Microsoft donated $10 million to Trump’s ballroom. The Washington Post has obtained a list of all the major donors to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, including previously undisclosed contributors. Microsoft donated $10 million, which puts it roughly in the middle set of tech donations from the likes of Apple ($25 million), Amazon ($5 million), Nvidia ($25 million), Google ($22 million), and Meta ($5 million).
• Xbox mandates a four-day return to office. Microsoft asked its employees to return to the office three days per week last year, and it’s now upping this requirement to four days a week for most Xbox employees. An internal memo, seen by The Verge, describes the change as a “need to create more opportunities for people to work together” after feedback from Xbox employees. “Starting February 1st, 2027, Xbox employees in Puget Sound who live within 50 commuting miles of Studio D are required to work from the office a minimum of four days a week,” says Jacinda Chislum Pearson, Xbox chief people officer, in the internal memo. Some Xbox employees I’ve spoken to view this as a stealth layoff, while others have noted that the existing three-day rule was only lightly enforced.
• Microsoft says it’s working on making Edge updates less of a hassle. Microsoft has shared a prototype demo for “seamless updates” to Edge that would avoid you needing to restart the browser. The feature is still in development, but it could certainly help with things like insecure TLS certificates and other issues where a browser needs to be patched.
• Surface Laptop Ultra review: a different kind of MacBook Pro. I spent a week reviewing Microsoft’s latest Surface laptop, and I’m impressed with the hardware. The MacBook Pro-esque design is unlike any other Windows laptop, thanks to a large haptic trackpad and USB-C magnetic charging. The software that the Surface Laptop Ultra is trying to push, in particular local AI, feels a lot less polished, though. Overall, the Laptop Ultra is targeted at a very niche audience of AI developers.
• Microsoft reportedly plans Xbox handheld in 2027, next-gen console in 2028. Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch an Xbox “next-generation handheld device” for the holiday season of 2027. The Xbox next-gen console, codenamed Project Helix, would then launch in the holidays of 2028, according to a new report from Fortune. It’s not clear if the rumored handheld is an actual first-party Xbox device, or one from an OEM like Asus. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has previously described Project Helix as a “family of devices,” suggesting that Microsoft’s next Xbox console may not be just one piece of hardware. The report also suggests that Sharma is planning a fresh round of Xbox layoffs this month, followed by more in November and January.
• Microsoft abandons the UK’s largest data center project. Microsoft is walking away from a deal with Nscale for a new data center in Loughton, Essex. Nscale has faced delays getting the data center online, with UK National Grid officials not able to supply power to the site until the 2030s, according to Reuters. The deal was originally announced ahead of Trump’s second state visit to the UK last year, with Microsoft boasting of its $30 billion investment in the UK.
• AMD is bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox consoles and handhelds. AMD has revealed that it’s bringing its latest upscaling technology, FSR 4.1, to the Xbox Series S and X consoles, as well as laptops, 6000-series GPUs, and both the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds. It’s coming to Xbox developers “very soon,” but Xbox console owners will have to wait a little longer. The frame rate-boosting technology should have a noticeable impact on the Xbox Series S, and it works with more than 300 games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Battlefield 6, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
• Microsoft: Frontier models cannot be trusted. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said earlier this month that we should assume that all AI models are “compromised,” and now Microsoft is going one step further. “Unfortunately, frontier models, regardless of their origin, cannot be trusted,” says Hayete Gallot, executive vice president of Microsoft Security. Microsoft is naturally positioning its new Project Perception as a solution to securing AI models. It’s an agentic security system designed to help cybersecurity professionals secure and control AI agents.
• Xbox is experimenting with a blades dashboard. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet has been “cooking up retro vibes” as part of Microsoft’s new Xbox Labs effort. The result is what looks like a vibe-coded option to pick your dashboard on an Xbox console. This is simply an experiment right now and it’s not clear if we’ll ever see such an option, but Xbox CEO Asha Sharma asks “blades on the web. Do we like this experiment?”
• Microsoft’s headcount is down year-over-year. Microsoft’s annual report reveals the company employed around 223,000 people as of June 30th. That’s 5,000 less than the 228,000 people employed in 2025. It’s the first time Microsoft has had a headcount reduction in 10 years, after the gutting of the Nokia phone business in 2015 and 2016. The reduction comes as Microsoft has laid off more than 9,000 employees over the past year.
• Xbox Cloud Gaming’s pay-as-you-go option starts at $3.99 for 10 hours. Microsoft announced last month that it will let anyone access Xbox Cloud Gaming in November, without the need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. The new pay-as-you-go model will require players to purchase bundles of cloud hours, and now Microsoft is revealing that bundles will start at $3.99 for 10 hours of cloud playtime. If you want 25 hours it’ll cost $7.99, and 50 hours is $11.99. All of these cloud hours will include ad-free cloud gaming, shorter wait times, and higher-quality streaming.

I’m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at notepad@theverge.com if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.

Thanks for subscribing to Notepad.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.