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Open‑source software gives Windows users a fast, private, and flexible path away from closed ecosystems — and ZDNet’s compact list of “10 open‑source apps I always recommend Windows users try — and they’re free” is a practical starter kit for anyone ready to swap proprietary defaults for community‑driven alternatives. Background / Overview Open‑source apps have matured far beyond niche utilities; today they cover productivity, backups, local AI, password management, automation, and desktop...

In 2025, connecting your smartphone to a Windows PC is no longer a niche trick—it’s an expected part of a productive workflow, and Microsoft’s QR-based pairing flow at aka.ms/linkphoneqr is the simple, official gateway that makes it happen. The QR flow launches the Phone Link (formerly Your Phone) and Link to Windows ecosystem, letting Android and iPhone users move messages, notifications, photos, calls, and in many cases entire mobile apps between devices. This guide distills what...

When mainstream buyers in India look for a practical, versatile laptop that balances productivity, battery life and light creative work, AMD Ryzen 5 systems often sit near the top of the shortlist — and a recent roundup on Herzindagi of “8 Best AMD Ryzen 5 Laptops in India (2025)” illustrates exactly why. The list highlights a mix of thin-and-light everyday notebooks, work-focused business machines and entry-level gaming rigs available on Amazon India, but several specification lines, price...

Microsoft has set a firm deadline: on October 14, 2025 Windows 10 stops receiving routine security updates, feature improvements, and standard technical support — a hard lifecycle cliff that forces every remaining Windows 10 PC into one of three practical paths: upgrade to Windows 11 where eligible, buy a time‑boxed bridge with Extended Security Updates (ESU), or migrate workloads to cloud or alternate operating systems. Background Microsoft’s lifecycle pages and support notices spell out...

Xbox Game Pass makes playing hundreds of PC titles as simple as signing in and clicking Install — but there are a few important steps, settings, and troubleshooting tricks every Windows user should know to download Game Pass games reliably, manage storage, and avoid common pitfalls. This guide summarizes the straightforward install flow that Windows Report lays out while adding verified technical detail, proven workarounds, and safety tips drawn from Microsoft’s documentation and independent...

Canceling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is quick and straightforward: you can stop recurring billing from your Microsoft account, directly from an Xbox console, or from a Windows PC, and you’ll keep access to the service until the end of your current paid period. Background Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is Microsoft’s all-in-one gaming subscription that bundles console and PC Game Pass benefits, cloud streaming, and Xbox Live Gold into a single monthly or annual fee. It’s designed to let players access...

Microsoft has quietly begun rolling an AI-powered cleanup of chaotic photo libraries: the Windows 11 Photos app now includes an Auto‑Categorization preview that automatically sorts images into four practical collections — Screenshots, Receipts, Identity documents, and Notes — and Microsoft is rolling the preview to Windows Insiders on select Copilot+ PCs. Background / Overview Microsoft has been steadily converting the Photos app from a basic viewer into an AI-enabled productivity surface...

Microsoft’s latest update to Microsoft 365 Copilot marks a decisive shift from single‑vendor dependency toward a deliberate, multi‑model orchestration strategy that now makes Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 selectable engines inside Copilot’s Researcher and Copilot Studio surfaces. Background Microsoft 365 Copilot has been the company’s flagship effort to embed large language models into everyday productivity workflows across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams...

Capcom’s name appearing in headlines alongside “end of Windows 10 support” for the Monster Hunter series is the kind of story that can roil PC players — but the reality is messier than a one-line take. A recent article circulating the claim that “Capcom confirms end of Windows 10 support for the Monster Hunter franchise” has been picked up by smaller outlets, but Capcom’s official public documentation and storefront pages still list Windows 10 as a supported PC platform for current Monster...

Microsoft has removed a long‑standing compatibility safeguard that prevented many Intel‑powered PCs from being offered the Windows 11, version 24H2 feature update — a move that clears the path for affected devices once compatible Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST) audio drivers are installed and recognized by Windows Update. Background Microsoft uses targeted safeguard holds (also called compatibility holds) to block specific device‑software combinations from receiving major feature...

Microsoft is quietly rolling an AI-driven clean-up for messy photo libraries: the Microsoft Photos app can now automatically sort images into focused collections — Screenshots, Receipts, Identity documents, and Notes — and that capability is being previewed to Windows Insiders running the updated Photos app on Copilot+ PCs. Background Microsoft has steadily evolved Photos from a simple image viewer into an AI-enabled productivity surface over the past year. The app already includes OCR...

Windows 11’s push to make AI a first‑class, local capability has finally reached the hardware layer: a new class of laptops—Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs—is built around dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and is explicitly designed to deliver on‑device AI experiences that ordinary laptops cannot. This isn’t marketing-speak; Microsoft and its silicon partners have defined Copilot+ as a hardware‑gated tier—machines with NPUs capable of 40+ TOPS (trillions of operations per second)—and that...

If Xbox Game Bar refuses to open, glitches during captures, or shows widget errors on a Windows 11 PC, the fastest, lowest-risk route back to a working overlay is a targeted restart and update routine that begins in Settings and escalates only when necessary. The built‑in Repair → Reset flow in Windows Settings fixes most user‑level corruption; when that fails, PowerShell package commands and Store/winget updates can re‑register or reinstall the Xbox Game Bar (Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay)...

ChatGPT’s Windows app has jolted the desktop AI landscape: in practical day‑to‑day tasks it outpaces Microsoft’s Copilot in accessibility, file handling, and a snappier user experience, while Copilot still holds important advantages in deep Office integration and tenant‑aware security—making the real choice less about “which is better” and more about which fit matters to you. Background The debate over ChatGPT versus Copilot has moved out of abstract model comparisons and into the messy...

Almirall’s R&D teams can now find the right experiment, protocol, or historical result in seconds instead of hours or days — a leap made possible by combining Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, Azure AI Search, and Azure Databricks to index and query some 400,000 documents spanning more than 50 years of pharmaceutical research and corporate records. The project — developed in close collaboration with Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery — packaged a custom, domain-aware assistant that...

Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 Copilot now supports Anthropic’s Claude family — specifically Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 — giving enterprise customers an explicit choice between OpenAI and Anthropic models for selected Copilot experiences, while raising immediate governance, security, and procurement questions that IT leaders can’t afford to ignore. Background Microsoft 365 Copilot began as Microsoft’s AI layer across Office apps, centered on capabilities powered largely by OpenAI models...

OpenAI, SAP and Microsoft have launched “OpenAI for Germany,” a sovereign-AI partnership that will host OpenAI’s foundation models inside SAP’s Delos Cloud running on Microsoft Azure, targeted at Germany’s public sector with an initial infrastructure buildout of approximately 4,000 GPUs and a staged public rollout planned for 2026. Background Germany has made digital sovereignty a central element of its industrial and public‑sector policy. The federal High‑Tech Agenda and the “Made for...

The clock is ticking for businesses still anchored to Windows 10: Microsoft’s move to concentrate development and security work on Windows 11, combined with a hard end-of-support date for Windows 10, makes migration planning a board-level operational imperative rather than an optional IT project. Background Windows 10 will reach the end of its mainstream support lifecycle on October 14, 2025. After that date Microsoft will stop providing regular security updates, feature updates, and...

Microsoft has quietly removed a long-running compatibility block that prevented many Intel-powered PCs from getting the Windows 11, version 24H2 (2024 Update) rollout, clearing the path for affected machines to receive the feature update once compatible Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST) audio drivers are installed on those systems. Background The block traces back to an incompatibility between Windows 11, version 24H2 and specific releases of the Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel...

Australia’s leading security practitioners and program owners have been named as finalists in the 2025 Benchmark Security Awards, an annual recognition program run by iTnews in partnership with techpartner.news that celebrates excellence in cybersecurity leadership across government, energy, education, healthcare, finance, retail and not‑for‑profit organisations. The finalists list — spanning public‑sector cyber teams, critical infrastructure operators and large private enterprises —...