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Microsoft finally gave users a cleaner, centered Start in Windows 11 — but the Recommended and All (All apps) sections have been the two most persistent grievances. If you want a minimalist Start that shows only the pinned apps you choose, there are reliable ways to remove or hide both sections — though which method will work for you depends on your Windows edition, the precise build you’re running, and whether Microsoft has applied newer Start‑menu changes in a cumulative update. This...

Parallels Desktop 26 arrived as a deliberately pragmatic update: compatibility-first, enterprise-ready, and positioned to keep Mac-first organizations running Windows workloads without interruption. Parallels’ latest release cycle formalizes year‑based versioning to match Apple’s macOS naming, adds day‑one support for macOS Tahoe (macOS 26), tightens host-to-VM disk‑visibility, and layers in centralized IT controls that matter for large fleets. Background: why Parallels still matters in 2026...

Microsoft has quietly begun testing postgame recaps in the Xbox PC app, a new feature that surfaces a compact summary of your play session after you quit a game — highlighting captures you took, achievements you unlocked, and select in‑game events — and it’s rolling out now to Xbox Insiders enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview. Background Microsoft has been steadily reshaping the Xbox PC app from a simple storefront into a centralized gaming hub on Windows, adding discovery tools, aggregated...

Installing McAfee on a Windows 11 PC usually takes only minutes — but the real work that prevents most failures happens before you click “Install.” This guide walks you, step-by-step, through a reliable, technician-tested installation process for McAfee on Windows 11 and Windows 10, explains the common failure modes (and how to fix them), and verifies key technical details against official vendor and independent-lab sources so you can install with confidence. Background / Overview McAfee’s...

Microsoft is quietly placing a one‑click internet speed check where most Windows users already look for connectivity: the Taskbar’s network menu. This small addition — surfaced in Windows Insider preview builds and packaged in recent Release Preview updates — adds a “Perform speed test” / “Test internet speed” control to the network icon’s right‑click menu and the Wi‑Fi quick settings flyout, and it launches a browser‑hosted speed test (Bing’s embedded widget) rather than running a native...

Microsoft’s flagship productivity assistant briefly did what it was built to do — read, index and summarise corporate communications — and in doing so it accidentally summarised email messages organizations had explicitly marked Confidential, bypassing Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and sensitivity‑label protections that enterprises rely on to keep sensitive material out of automated processing. ://www.pcworld.com/article/3064782/copilot-bug-allows-ai-to-read-confidential-outlook-emails.html)...

The arrival of a Windows runtime sensor in the cloud-native security arsenal marks a consequential step for organizations operating mixed Linux and Windows estates: Wiz has opened a Public Preview of the Wiz Runtime Sensor for Windows, bringing runtime monitoring, detection, and active response to Windows workloads and promising the same unified, code-to-runtime security experience customers already use for Linux and containers. This release attempts to close a persistent blind spot for many...

Microsoft and Oracle are racing to be the enterprise backbone of the AI era, but the two companies are playing very different games: Microsoft is leveraging sprawling platform scale and recurring revenue to monetize AI broadly across productivity and cloud, while Oracle is making an audacious, capex‑heavy bet to become the hyperscale destination for AI infrastructure and data‑centric workloads. Background Both vendors enter 2026 with clear, measurable progress tied to the AI transition...

Microsoft Research’s Project Silica has moved from laboratory curiosity to a demonstrable archival platform: researchers report in Nature (published 18 February 2026) that they can encode terabytes of data inside millimetre‑thin pieces of glass — including ordinary borosilicate — using femtosecond lasers, and that accelerated ageing tests indicate those inscriptions can survive for at least 10,000 years under typical storage conditions. Background / Overview Project Silica began as an...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 preview drops a handful of small, practical features — most notably a one‑click, taskbar‑launched internet speed test — while a separate February cumulative update, KB5077181, both fixes a high‑profile NVIDIA black‑screen problem and stirs fresh debate about update reliability across diverse hardware. Background Windows 11 is no longer just a yearly feature drop; Microsoft now ships steady, incremental improvements through preview servicing and cumulative...

Microsoft has quietly split the Windows Insider Canary Channel into two separate development paths, offering Insiders an opt‑in route for very early platform work while leaving the existing Canary feature stream intact — a move that reshapes how Microsoft will validate low‑level, architecture‑level changes for the next generation of Windows. Background / Overview Microsoft published an announcement on February 18, 2026, offering Windows Insiders a new, optional Canary build identified as...

Windows 11 now lets you use your Android phone as a wireless webcam with a few taps — no extra apps, complicated drivers, or USB cables required — and in many real-world tests the phone’s higher-quality sensor produces a visibly better image than the tiny module built into most laptops. Background Laptop webcams have improved slowly while smartphone cameras have leapt forward every year. For anyone who spends time on video calls, livestreams, or remote interviews, the mismatch is obvious: a...

Microsoft has quietly tucked a one‑click network speed test into Windows 11’s taskbar — a small, deliberate convenience that opens your default browser to run a web‑hosted measurement (not a native, in‑OS speed engine) — and it’s appearing right now for Insiders in the Release Preview wave under KB5077241 (builds 26100.7918 and 26200.7918). Background Windows has historically left ad‑hoc throughput checks to third‑party web services and standalone utilities. Tools such as Speedtest (Ookla)...

Microsoft’s Copilot is quietly broadening the sources it uses to personalize your experience — and unless you turn a buried setting off, it may be drawing on your activity across other Microsoft services such as Bing, MSN, and Edge to feed its “memory” feature. Background Copilot’s memory and personalization features were introduced as a way to make the assistant feel less like a stateless tool and more like a helpful personal assistant that remembers your preferences, recurring tasks, and...

Microsoft confirmed a logic bug in Microsoft 365 Copilot that, for a window of weeks, allowed Copilot Chat’s “Work” experience to index and summarize emails that organizations had explicitly labeled as Confidential, effectively bypassing configured Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and sensitivity‑label protections. Background / Overview Microsoft 365 Copilot is positioned as an AI productivity layer embedded across Outlook, Word, Teams and other Microsoft 365 surfaces. It is designed to surface...

Mozilla’s decision to close the long-running safety net for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users is now final: Firefox 115 will be the last Firefox release to run on those operating systems, and the Extended Support Release (ESR) channel that has been carrying security fixes for legacy users will be wound down into early 2026. That move completes a multi-year transition where browser vendors stopped chasing compatibility for aging Windows releases and instead focused resources on...

For weeks this winter, Microsoft’s flagship productivity assistant, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, quietly indexed and summarised emails that organizations had explicitly marked Confidential, bypassing sensitivity labels and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) controls designed to stop exactly that — a logic bug tracked internally as CW1226324 that Microsoft first detected in late January and began remediating in early February. Background / Overview Microsoft markets Copilot as an embedded AI...

Mozilla’s long tail of support for legacy Windows has finally run out: Firefox 115 is the last version that will run with official security updates on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, and the Extended Support Release (ESR) maintenance window for that build closes at the end of February 2026 — leaving anyone still running those older Microsoft operating systems without browser security patches from Mozilla after that date. Background For more than a decade Windows 7 has occupied a...

This PCIe add‑in promises a simple, low‑cost way to give a desktop PC four SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Type‑A ports by plugging into any free PCIe slot and attaching a single 15‑pin SATA power connector from the system power supply. It advertises up to 5 Gbps per port, broad Windows and Linux compatibility, and a compact installation path for hobbyists and office users who want more USB ports without replacing a motherboard — but there are important technical details, trade‑offs, and risk points you...

Microsoft’s latest Teams mobile update doesn’t hide its intentions: a new “Links in Teams” setting will prompt mobile users to pick a browser when they open non‑Office and PDF links — and the experience is designed to steer people toward Microsoft Edge, complete with single sign‑on, Copilot integration, and a download prompt if Edge isn’t already installed. Background / Overview For years Microsoft has been refining how links and documents flow between Teams, Office apps, and the browser...