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A newly exposed cluster of identity and management-plane flaws has rewritten the threat model for Windows administrators and cloud tenants: an Entra ID “actor token” validation failure that could enable largely undetectable, cross‑tenant impersonation combined with a high‑impact local elevation‑of‑privilege in Windows Admin Center (WAC) means the classic separation between “endpoint compromise” and “tenant compromise” can be erased in a single chained attack. At the same time, major vendors...

Microsoft has quietly shipped the first Windows 10 security rollup of 2026 — KB5073724 — and while it doesn’t add new features, it delivers several operationally important changes that every Windows 10 user (especially administrators and anyone running older hardware) needs to understand and plan for now. Background / Overview Windows 10 is no longer receiving feature updates; Microsoft is maintaining select builds only through security servicing paths such as the Extended Security Updates...

Microsoft’s recent message to Windows 10 holdouts — “install the latest update” — is good advice, and it lands against a long, sometimes messy history of hidden or manually distributed cumulative updates that require a careful, practical response from both consumers and IT professionals. Background Windows 10’s lifecycle has shifted from frequent feature releases to a security-focused maintenance model for systems that remain on the platform. Microsoft stopped mainstream feature updates for...

Employers are buying the tools of an AI-powered workplace faster than employees are comfortable using them, Windows users are rethinking their OS choices after Windows 10’s end-of-life, and a string of product and education updates shows the Microsoft ecosystem — from Excel to Copilot to partner integrations — is racing to make AI part of everyday work while the social, legal and operational gaps widen. Background / Overview The past year of reporting collected in the briefings and community...

Microsoft is giving administrators and end users a second chance: if the opportunity to restore a preserved Windows environment was missed during the out‑of‑box experience (OOBE), Windows Backup for Organizations can now offer a first sign‑in restore that runs when the user signs in for the first time — extending restore coverage to Microsoft Entra hybrid‑joined devices, multi‑user setups, and Windows 365 Cloud PCs and promising faster, less painful device refreshes for enterprises...

Microsoft has quietly added a first sign‑in restore to Windows Backup for Organizations, giving users and admins a built‑in “second chance” to recover personalization, Start menu pins and the Microsoft Store app list at the first interactive desktop sign‑in rather than only during the Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE). Background Windows Backup for Organizations arrived as a narrowly scoped, identity‑anchored capability to ease device refresh and migration workflows by preserving a handful of...

Microsoft has quietly extended Windows Backup for Organizations with a first‑sign‑in restore pathway that gives IT teams and end users a second chance to rehydrate Windows settings, Start menu pins and Microsoft Store app lists at the user’s first interactive desktop sign‑in — not only during the Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE). This pragmatic expansion, announced by Microsoft on January 14, 2026, moves restore timing from a single provisioning moment to one aligned with actual user...

Microsoft has confirmed that a recent January cumulative update for Windows 11 — KB5073455, released on January 13, 2026 — introduced a regression that causes some Windows 11, version 23H2 systems with System Guard Secure Launch enabled to restart instead of shutting down or entering hibernation, and the company’s interim guidance is to perform a manual command-line shutdown while a proper fix is prepared. Background Windows 11 cumulative update KB5073455 (OS Build 22631.6491) shipped as...

Microsoft has confirmed that January’s Patch Tuesday produced two separate, high‑visibility regressions that are already disrupting workflows: a shutdown/hibernation regression affecting some Windows 11 23H2 systems with System Guard Secure Launch enabled, and a concurrent Outlook issue that breaks classic POP account profiles after the KB5074109 update. Both problems are narrowly scoped but operationally painful where they appear, and Microsoft has published interim guidance while...

Central Bucks School District’s plan to embed AI literacy into classroom instruction lands at a moment of sharp contrast: districts across the country are moving quickly to teach students how to use and evaluate artificial intelligence, even as security researchers expose new ways those same AI systems can be coaxed into leaking private data with a single click. The story is instructive for educators and IT leaders alike—it is both an opportunity to prepare students for an AI‑shaped...

Microsoft has closed the last vendor lifeline for the Vista‑era Windows Server 2008 codebase: as of January 13, 2026, the final paid support channel that kept Server 2008 (and its sibling Windows Vista lineage) receiving security fixes—Premium Assurance—has expired, leaving the platform without any further official security updates from Microsoft. Background Windows Server 2008 (code‑named Longhorn Server) launched in 2008 on the Windows Vista‑era NT 6.x codebase and carried on in one form...

The cloud era keeps turning a familiar paradox: organizations say security matters most, yet the single biggest obstacle to getting cloud projects done is often the people — or more precisely, the lack of expertise to run them. New and old data converge on that inconvenient truth: in the 2016 RightScale State of the Cloud survey, respondents ranked “lack of resources and expertise” above security as the top cloud challenge — a finding picked up by BetaNews and reinforced by other coverage at...

Microsoft's quietly expanded Windows Backup for Organizations shifts the device-recovery conversation away from one-time OOBE prompts and toward an identity‑anchored, user‑centric restore model that gives commercial IT teams a second chance to rehydrate Windows settings, Start menu pins and Microsoft Store app lists at the user's first interactive sign‑in — not only during the Out‑Of‑Box Experience. Background / Overview Windows Backup for Organizations debuted as a narrowly focused...

Piriform’s CCleaner update and Microsoft’s flurry of Windows and Surface headlines this week make for an instructive snapshot of two different eras of PC software: the steady evolution of tooling that helps users manage local systems, and the platform-level shifts where privacy, enterprise tooling and social features collide with broader platform strategy. The five items provided for this feature — a CCleaner 5.07 release note, Microsoft’s Windows Backup for Organizations improvements, new...

Microsoft has confirmed that January’s Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 11 have produced a sharply focused but disruptive regression: after installing the January 13, 2026 cumulative updates some systems running Windows 11 version 23H2 with virtualization‑based Secure Launch enabled may fail to power down or enter sleep/hibernation — instead they restart immediately. The bug is documented in Microsoft’s Release Health advisory and the company has published a temporary command‑line shutdown...

Microsoft’s January cumulative rollup for Windows 11 has introduced a pair of verifiable, practical regressions — one that can cause certain 23H2 systems to restart when users expect them to shut down or hibernate, and another that breaks some Azure Virtual Desktop / Cloud PC authentication flows — while community reports have also flagged gaming and NVIDIA performance anomalies that remain unconfirmed. Microsoft published the January 13, 2026 cumulative updates and accompanying release...

Enterprise IT teams woke up this week to two uncomfortable truths: a single-click prompt trick can siphon sensitive data from a consumer Copilot session, and independent telemetry shows a handful of public chatbots — led by ChatGPT — now account for the lion’s share of generative‑AI data exposures inside organizations. Background: what changed and why it matters Two distinct but related developments converged in mid‑January 2026 and together sharpen the operational risk picture for teams...

A tiny ergonomics win landed this week: a Windhawk mod now lets you hover over a taskbar app and scroll to change that app’s volume, and the resulting frictionless control has reignited a familiar debate — is Microsoft slacking on basic desktop polish, or are modders simply moving faster and closer to what users actually want? Overview The new Taskbar Volume Control Per‑App mod for Windhawk adds a micro‑interaction that many power users have wanted for years: position your cursor over a...

Microsoft’s relationship with its community is fraying in interesting ways: while official channels stumble through inconsistent UX priorities and half-finished features, creative outsiders—modders, indie developers, and small utility authors—are quietly filling the gaps, innovating faster than the company can ship and forcing a reappraisal of what “ownership” of the Windows experience looks like. Background Microsoft’s scale and market dominance make every change consequential. When the...

TechPowerUp’s recent frontpage poll — asking whether long‑time Windows users would consider moving away from Microsoft’s desktop ecosystem now that Windows 10 has reached end of support — captured a blunt moment of choice for many readers: a non‑trivial share of the site’s audience signalled they’re ready to test or even commit to alternatives rather than upgrade into Windows 11. This reaction is neither accidental nor purely emotional. It sits at the intersection of a firm Microsoft...