Even Microsoft’s retro holiday sweaters are having Copilot forced upon them

I can take or leave some of the things Microsoft is doing with Windows 11 these days, but I generally enjoy the company’s annual limited-time holiday sweater releases. Usually designed around a specific image or product from the company’s heyday in the ’90s and early 2000s – 2022’s sweater was Clippy-themed, and 2023’s was just Windows XP Bliss wallpaper in sweater form – sweaters usually have the exact combination of silly/cute/recognizable that makes them a good holiday conversation starter of year.

Microsoft is reviving the tradition for 2025 after taking a year off, and the design of this year’s $80 flagship sweater is largely in line with what the company has done in recent years. The 2025 “Artifact Holiday Sweater” revives several pixelated icons that Windows 3.1 through XP users will recognize, including Notepad, Reversi, Paint, MS-DOS, Internet Explorer, and even the MSN butterfly logo. Clippy is, once again, front and center, seeming happy to be included.

Not all icons come from Microsoft’s past; an emoji wearing sunglasses, a “50” in the style of the old Windows flying icon (for Microsoft’s 50th anniversary), and a Minecraft Creeper’s face all nods to the company’s more modern products. But the only one I really take issue with is on the right sleeve, where Microsoft has stuck a pixelated monochrome icon for its Copilot AI assistant.