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Thread 'Microsoft Redmond Sit-In Sparks Cloud Governance and Sovereign Cloud Debate'
A small, live‑streamed sit‑in at Microsoft’s Redmond campus that ended with arrests and multiple firings has blown open a simmering internal dispute over the company’s government contracts — and crystallized a broader industry reckoning about cloud ethics, sovereign deployments, and the limits of corporate oversight. Background Microsoft’s headquarters have been the scene of recurring employee activism in 2024–2025 around allegations that cloud and AI services provided to the Israeli...
Thread 'Microsoft Azure Controversy Sparks Governance and Cloud Accountability Debate'
Microsoft’s decision to terminate multiple employees after an on‑campus sit‑in over alleged uses of Azure in Israeli military intelligence operations has turned a workplace protest into a major corporate governance and technology‑ethics crisis for the company — one that raises urgent questions about cloud accountability, employee activism, and the limits of corporate oversight when sovereign customers control critical deployments. was a late‑August demonstration at Microsoft’s Redmond campus...
Thread 'Final Kerberos Hardening: Enforce Strong Certificate Binding by September 2025'
Microsoft’s long-running Kerberos hardening campaign is entering its final, non-reversible phase: the temporary registry workarounds that allowed administrators to keep weak certificate mappings and “Compatibility” behavior will be removed with the September 2025 servicing wave, forcing everyone to adopt strong certificate binding or implement explicit strong mappings ahead of the deadline. Background Microsoft began this multi-year Kerberos hardening program after researchers and incident...
Thread 'HP AI PCs and Windows 11 Refresh Lift Margins as Printing Slows'
HP’s latest quarterly results confirm a simple — and lucrative — reality: AI PCs and the Windows 11 refresh are doing heavy lifting for the Personal Systems business, and that shift is materially improving margins even as printing revenues soften. Background / Overview HP reported fiscal third-quarter net revenue of $13.9 billion, with Personal Systems revenue rising 6% year‑over‑year to about $9.9 billion, while Printing fell roughly 4% to $4.0 billion. Executives told investors the two...
Thread 'Microsoft Teams August 2025 Update: 26 Features, Copilot Dictionaries, Premium Templates'
Microsoft Teams’ August update is a substantial one: Microsoft rolled out 26 new features across chat, meetings, Teams Phone, workplace Places, frontline scenarios, security tooling, and device certification — blending productivity tweaks, admin controls (notably for Copilot), and several Teams Premium capabilities aimed at hybrid and enterprise deployments. These changes include multiple emoji reactions, tenant-level custom dictionaries for Copilot in Teams, new personal meeting templates...
Thread 'Silver Fox BYOVD: Signed kernel driver abuse to kill security and drop ValleyRAT'
Check Point Research has uncovered an active, in-the-wild campaign by the group tracked as Silver Fox that weaponizes a Microsoft-signed—but functionally vulnerable—kernel driver (amsdk.sys / WatchDog Antimalware) to terminate protected security processes and deliver the ValleyRAT backdoor across modern Windows systems. Background / Overview Windows has steadily hardened its kernel and driver model—introducing Protected Processes (PP/PPL), Kernel Mode Code Integrity (KMCI)...
Thread 'Master Windows screen capture: Snipping Tool, PrtScn, Game Bar, and third-party tools'
Windows provides a surprising number of ways to capture your screen, from the quick-and-dirty Print Screen key to a full-featured Snipping Tool that now includes OCR and video recording — this guide explains each native option, shows when to reach for third‑party tools, and evaluates risks and best practices for everyday and professional workflows. Background Windows has evolved screenshot functionality steadily across Windows 10 and Windows 11. The old single-purpose Print Screen key...
Thread 'Windows to Linux Migration: 4 Practical, Risk-Aware Tactics'
If you’ve spent a decade — or three — inside Windows and the prospect of switching to Linux feels equal parts liberating and terrifying, you’re not alone; recent coverage and community chatter have distilled the crossover into four practical tactics that turn a daunting migration into a manageable project: try live demos, dual‑boot until you’re confident, pick a Windows‑familiar distro to reduce shock, and watch for migration tools (like Operese) that promise to automate heavy lifting...
Thread 'Microsoft Announces MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-Preview: In-House AI for Copilot'
Microsoft has quietly shipped its first fully in‑house AI models — MAI‑Voice‑1 and MAI‑1‑preview — marking a deliberate shift in strategy that reduces dependence on OpenAI’s stack and accelerates Microsoft’s plan to own more of the compute, models, and product surface area that power Copilot across Windows, Office, and Azure. (theverge.com, investing.com) Background Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI has been deeply consequential for both companies: a multi‑billion‑dollar investment and...
Thread 'Microsoft Copilot on Samsung TVs: Living Room AI, Vision AI, and Smart Home'
Microsoft’s conversational assistant has moved out of pockets and laptops and onto the couch: select 2025 Samsung smart TVs and Smart Monitors now ship with Microsoft Copilot built in, turning the living-room screen into a voice-first, visually rich hub for entertainment, smart‑home control and light productivity. Background Samsung and Microsoft announced the integration on August 27, 2025, positioning Copilot as part of Samsung’s broader Vision AI strategy that pairs on‑device media...
Thread 'Windows Retires Mobile Plans: Carriers Handle Checkout, Settings Drives Provisioning'
Microsoft will retire the long-underused Mobile Plans app from Windows and move plan purchases and eSIM provisioning to carrier websites and the built‑in Windows Settings experience, with the in‑OS app scheduled to stop functioning on February 27, 2026; installed cellular profiles will continue to work, but discovery, checkout, and subscription management will shift to operators and Settings-driven provisioning. Background / Overview The Mobile Plans app has existed since the Windows 10 era...
Thread 'HTTP 429 Proxy Error on Windows 11: Quick Fixes and Deep Diagnostics'
A Proxy Error 429 — the server telling your browser “too many requests” — is one of those transient but productivity-killing problems that can come from either your side (misbehaving scripts, bad proxy configuration, malware) or the server’s side (rate limiting, DDoS protection, load shedding). This guide explains what an HTTP 429 through a proxy on Windows 11 actually means, why it happens, and provides a practical, prioritized troubleshooting path that takes you from fast consumer-level...
Thread 'Infobip Expands Azure SMS Reach with Messaging Connect (2-Way in 100+ Countries)'
Infobip’s expanded integration with Microsoft Azure Communication Services (ACS) pushes global SMS reach into new territory, making carrier-grade messaging available through Azure for well over 100 additional countries and unlocking broader international coverage, two‑way messaging, and partner-managed sender identities for enterprises that build on Azure. Announced across both companies’ channels during mid‑2025, the move pairs Infobip’s deep telco relationships and regulatory tooling with...
Thread 'Windows 11 Breaks Wintel Continuity: Security Gates, Arm, and a New PC Era'
Windows has stopped pretending to be merely an operating system that quietly evolves; with Windows 11 Microsoft has made a series of deliberate architectural and policy choices that break long-standing continuity with the past—and those choices are already reshaping the desktop landscape, corporate upgrade cycles, and the political economy of silicon. Background The marriage of Intel silicon and Microsoft Windows—Wintel—was never just marketing shorthand. For decades it defined expectations...
Thread 'OpenAI and Microsoft roll out fast voice AI: gpt-realtime and MAI-Voice-1'
OpenAI and Microsoft have stepped into the fast-moving audio AI arena this week with new voice-capable systems that aim to make spoken interactions far cheaper, faster, and more flexible — and in doing so have raised immediate questions about safety, verification, and the shifting balance of power between platform partners and in‑house AI development. Background / Overview The announcements introduce two distinct but related moves. OpenAI released gpt‑realtime, a voice‑focused variant of its...
Thread 'Windows Error 0x8000FFFF: Catastrophic Failure and How to Fix'
Error 0x8000FFFF — the dreaded “Catastrophic failure” — is rarely fatal, but it’s a disruptive Windows error that often appears after an update, during a System Restore, or when a core servicing operation fails; it generally signals corrupted system files, a damaged component store, driver conflicts, or third‑party interference. view Windows reports the numeric code 0x8000FFFF when a low‑level servicing operation cannot complete and Windows detects an unrecoverable condition within its...
Thread 'Samsung Copilot on Tizen: Cloud-Powered Signage for 2025 Displays'
Samsung’s move to bake Microsoft Copilot into TizenOS for its 2025 Smart TVs and Smart Monitors represents more than a consumer convenience feature — it rewrites the rules for how displays can be deployed, managed, and monetized in commercial environments. The integration shifts heavy generative work off constrained SoCs and into the cloud, enables conversational, context-aware experiences at scale, and removes a long-standing hardware barrier in digital signage: the dependence on external...
Thread 'Microsoft Fires Employees After On-Campus Protests Over Azure Use'
Microsoft’s decision to terminate four employees after on‑campus protests over the company’s ties to Israel crystallizes a larger, unresolved crisis at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, corporate governance, and worker activism. Background / Overview In late August, demonstrators from a group calling itself No Azure for Apartheid staged protests at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus that included an occupation of the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith and an encampment on...
Thread 'Windows 11 24H2 LE Audio: Stereo Playback With Active Microphone'
Windows 11’s 24H2 servicing update finally removes a long-standing and deeply irritating trade-off for Bluetooth headset users: you no longer have to choose between pristine stereo audio for playback and intelligible voice when the headset microphone is active. Background / Overview For more than a decade, Bluetooth audio on PCs has been split between two competing worlds: high-fidelity, one-way playback using A2DP and two-way telephony using HFP/HSP. When a capture stream opened (voice...
Thread 'Windows 11 OOBE Applies Quality Updates via ESP with Intune'
Microsoft is moving routine Windows 11 quality updates into the initial setup flow so that eligible Entra-joined devices can download and install the latest cumulative fixes during the Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE), making day‑one systems more secure—and forcing IT teams to rethink provisioning, bandwidth and failure‑recovery plans. Background Microsoft announced a managed OOBE update capability earlier in 2025 and confirmed that the capability will be enabled by default for eligible...
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