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Parallels Desktop 26 arrives as a major compatibility and management update for Mac users who run Windows and legacy applications inside virtual machines, adding full support for Apple’s forthcoming macOS 26 “Tahoe,” compatibility with Microsoft’s Windows 11 25H2 update, clearer host-disk visibility inside Windows VMs, and a slate of enterprise-focused management tools designed to give IT teams centralized control over VM policies and update workflows. (macrumors.com, globenewswire.com)...

Microsoft’s AI team has shipped two first-party foundation models — MAI‑Voice‑1 and MAI‑1‑preview — marking a decisive shift from a pure reliance on external providers toward building and productizing in‑house models tuned for Copilot and Azure services. eng-standing strategy combined deep partnership with OpenAI and internal research projects. The new MAI releases formalize a third pillar: owning specialized models that can be optimized for cost, latency, and product fit inside Microsoft’s...

Microsoft’s AI group quietly cut the ribbon on two home‑grown foundation models on August 28, releasing a high‑speed speech engine and a consumer‑focused text model that together signal a strategic shift: Microsoft intends to build its own AI muscle even as its long, lucrative relationship with OpenAI continues to be renegotiated. (theverge.com, semafor.com) Background Microsoft’s public AI strategy has long been defined by two complementary threads: an outsized commercial partnership with...

Microsoft’s August 2025 cumulative rollups have introduced a surprising compatibility regression: launching some MSI‑based applications — most notably AutoCAD family products, Firefox variants, and certain SAP installers — can now surface a User Account Control (UAC) elevation prompt at first run and, when declined by a standard user, produce Windows Installer error 1730 (“User does not have necessary access rights”), effectively blocking normal non‑administrator workflows. ly security...

Microsoft’s internal use of AI to “recap” meetings has moved from experiment to everyday practice, with Microsoft Teams Premium now delivering a suite of AI-powered recap tools — Intelligent Recap, Audio Recap, the Interpreter agent, and the Facilitator — that together change how employees catch up, collaborate asynchronously, and convert meeting outputs into action across Microsoft 365 Copilot workflows. Background Microsoft built Intelligent Recap to solve a universal modern-work problem...

As October 14, 2025 approaches, the scheduled end of mainstream support for Windows 10 has shifted from a distant policy note into a live operational deadline for millions of users — a deadline that is creating both a security emergency and an opening for alternatives such as Zorin OS. Microsoft’s lifecycle guidance makes the stakes explicit: after that date Windows 10 will no longer receive security patches, feature updates, or general technical support, and users must either upgrade to...

Windows 11's latest updates finally close a long-standing gap in PC audio: Bluetooth headsets can now stream high-quality stereo audio and use their microphones at the same time, thanks to support for Bluetooth LE Audio and the new Telephony and Media Audio Profile (TMAP) — a change that promises clearer voice chat, better in-game situational awareness, and broader support for hearing devices, provided users have modern headsets and updated system drivers. (theverge.com, bluetooth.com)...

Microsoft has confirmed that a limited, consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 is rolling out now — an emergency, one‑year safety net that will be available to eligible Windows 10 PCs before the platform’s support cutoff on October 14, 2025. The ESU enrollment appears as an “Enroll now” option in Settings → Windows Update, and Microsoft says the consumer ESU will be delivered in waves and be available to all qualifying devices by the October 14 deadline...

Active Directory disaster recovery is no longer an optional checkbox; it is a strategic, cross-team program that must protect identity as the foundational dependency for every application, service, and user in your environment. Background / Overview Active Directory (AD) sits at the heart of most Windows-based enterprises. When AD fails — whether because of accidental changes, corruption, hardware loss, or a deliberate attack — the blast radius is massive: authentication, Group Policy, DNS...

Microsoft's decision to retire the Mobile Plans app for Windows marks the end of a small but strategic piece of the company's push to make cellular connectivity a first-class feature on PCs, and it raises immediate questions for users of eSIM-enabled laptops, OEMs, and mobile operators about migration, privacy, and the future of PC cellular provisioning. (neowin.net) Background / Overview The Mobile Plans app has been the Windows-side conduit that let users discover, purchase, and activate...

Microsoft is rolling a change that will alter the first minutes of life for new Windows 11 devices in many organizations: starting with the September 2025 security update, eligible enterprise and education PCs will check for and install the latest Windows quality updates during the Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE) so the device reaches the desktop already patched and up to date. Background / Overview For years IT teams have wrestled with a predictable pain point: freshly imaged or factory‑fresh...

The Wplace “500 Internal Server Error” is an HTTP server error that prevents the canvas from loading and blocks actions like placing pixels or signing in; while it usually means something failed on Wplace’s servers, a short, methodical troubleshooting run on the client side will tell you whether this is a global outage, a temporary hiccup, or an issue you can fix locally. (developer.mozilla.org) (wplacetool.com) Background The HTTP 500 status is a generic “internal server error” returned...

Borderless CS’s launch of IT Hardening Expert Services arrives at a moment when simple misconfigurations and unmaintained defaults are repeatedly exposed as the weakest links in enterprise security, and the firm is pitching a pragmatic, standards-aligned program to shrink attack surfaces across Windows, Linux, macOS, cloud, IoT and edge estates. Background Borderless CS, an Australian cyber‑security provider that advertises CREST recognition and ISO 27001:2022 certification, has published a...

Microsoft has quietly removed one of Bluetooth’s longest‑running compromises on Windows PCs: with recent Windows 11 updates the OS now exposes Bluetooth LE Audio and a super‑wideband stereo path so compatible headsets can keep high‑fidelity stereo playback while their microphones are active. (support.microsoft.com) Background / Overview Bluetooth audio on PCs has, for years, forced an unhappy trade‑off: either enjoy stereo, high‑fidelity playback (A2DP) or use the headset microphone — but...

Ohio University’s yearlong pilot of Microsoft 365 Copilot delivered a pragmatic, measured verdict: the tool can help with routine drafting and information retrieval, especially for communication-heavy administrative work, but the headline productivity payoff is modest and highly role-dependent — and realizing meaningful ROI will require focused training, governance, and careful measurement. (ohio.edu) Overview Ohio University (OHIO) ran a structured pilot of Microsoft 365 Copilot from May...

A colorful rocket blasts off over a surreal, flower-filled landscape.

Alibaba’s latest AI push reads like a two-act drama: a crescendo of product releases and developer traction on one side, and an equally loud chorus of pricing pressure, competition, and heavy-capex obligations on the other. In the past year the company has rolled out its Qwen3 model family and pushed AI features across cloud and commerce while pledging an unprecedented RMB 380 billion ($~53 billion) of spending on AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years. Those moves have...

Microsoft has quietly turned one of Word’s most useful safety nets into the new default: AutoSave will now save newly created Word documents to the cloud automatically, starting with Word for Windows Version 2509 (Build 19221.20000) for Microsoft 365 Insiders. The change flips the long-standing local-first behavior on its head: when you start typing a new document it will receive a cloud-backed identity immediately, AutoSave will be toggled on, and the file will be placed in the default...

HP’s latest quarter did more than steady investor nerves — it refocused the market’s narrative from a collapsing PC cycle to a disciplined recovery powered by AI-capable PCs, strategic supply‑chain moves and a tightly managed printing business that, for now, is holding margins within targeted ranges. The company reported fiscal Q3 net revenue of roughly $13.9 billion with Personal Systems at about $9.9 billion and Printing at roughly $4.0 billion, matched consensus EPS of $0.75, and kept...

Microsoft’s AI team has quietly crossed a major productization threshold: the company has announced two purpose-built, in‑house foundation models — MAI‑Voice‑1, a natural speech generation model, and MAI‑1‑preview, a text-based mixture‑of‑experts foundation model — and begun integrating them into Copilot features while opening limited public probes to the community for testing. This marks a material strategic pivot from Microsoft’s prior posture of heavy dependency on external frontier...