Featured content

Microsoft and AMD’s co-designed EPYC 9V64H — the CPU at the heart of Azure’s new HBv5 virtual machines — changes the calculus for memory‑bound HPC in the cloud by bringing HBM3 directly to an EPYC‑class CPU and delivering an order‑of‑magnitude uplift in sustained memory bandwidth for real‑world applications. Background / Overview Microsoft’s HBv5 family targets the narrow but high‑value segment of HPC and memory‑bound workloads: computational fluid dynamics, weather and climate modeling...

Windows users have long envied the tactile precision and gesture-friendly surface of Apple’s Magic Trackpad — and now a crowdfunded contender claims to deliver that same feel plus Windows-focused features: the HyperSpace Trackpad Pro, launched on Kickstarter by Hyper, pledges full-force sensing, contextual piezo haptics, a 240 Hz response rate, and deeply customizable app profiles via its Hydra Connect software. The campaign hit its funding goal within minutes, early-backer pricing undercuts...

A veteran tinkerer has released a bootable Windows 7 x86 image that measures just 69.0 MB on disk — a headline-grabbing proof‑of‑concept that boots to a desktop but deliberately strips so much of the userland that “virtually nothing can run” without manually restoring missing system files. Background / Overview Windows enthusiasts have long pushed the boundaries of what the operating system can tolerate when pared down. Recent community efforts such as Tiny11 and container-focused...

Microsoft has quietly corrected one of those small, long‑running Windows annoyances: the Start‑menu command “Update and shut down” now behaves as labeled in recent Insider preview builds and an October 28, 2025 optional preview package, addressing an intermittent issue that sometimes left PCs powered on instead of truly shutting down after updates. Background The problem was simple to describe and hard to fix: when users selected Update and shut down they expected Windows to apply pending...

Microsoft has quietly corrected the maddening “Update and shut down” behavior that for years sometimes left Windows machines powered on after updates — the October 28, 2025 preview cumulative update (KB5067036) and related Insider builds now include a servicing change that ensures the system honors a user’s choice to install updates and then power off. Background For a surprising number of Windows users the Start menu’s Update and shut down option became unreliable: you would select it, go...

Microsoft’s latest Canary build for Windows Insiders, reported as Build 27982, continues the steady stream of UI and usability experiments in Windows 11 by expanding lock screen personalization, reworking the Widgets board with multiple dashboards and new left-side navigation, and bringing an evolved file-sharing workflow via a drag-to-share tray — changes that aim to make common tasks faster but also raise fresh questions about discoverability, workflow interference, and enterprise...

Microsoft has quietly confirmed what many Windows users have long suspected: the Start menu option labeled “Update and shut down” could, in some setups, install updates and then restart (or return to the lock screen) instead of powering the machine off — and Microsoft now says that behavior was a bug that it has addressed in its October 28, 2025 optional preview update (KB5067036). Background For several years a steady trickle of complaints across forums, support tickets, and help-desk logs...

A misleading “Your version of Windows has reached the end of support” banner began appearing inside Settings → Windows Update on a subset of Windows 10 machines after the October servicing wave, triggering confusion and alarm even on systems that remain eligible for Extended Security Updates (ESU) or are running supported Long‑Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) editions. Microsoft has characterized the message as a display/diagnostic error, not a revocation of update entitlements, and pushed a...

Microsoft’s new e‑book and the surrounding product messaging make a clear, consequential claim: generative AI can shift Security Operations Centers (SOCs) from overwhelmed triage centers into proactive, high‑impact defense teams — reducing wasted analyst time, accelerating investigations, and improving remediation outcomes. That promise is both realistic and measurable in early deployments, but it also carries new operational, governance, and adversarial risks that security leaders must...

Microsoft’s software for macOS has quietly matured from rough ports into a first‑class, often native experience — and for Mac users who need cross‑platform muscle, that matters. What started as Word and Excel running in compatibility mode is now a full productivity ecosystem: Microsoft 365 on macOS supports system Dark Mode, Continuity Camera and other macOS features; OneDrive tightly integrates into Finder with Files On‑Demand; OneNote and Outlook offer robust cross‑device sync; Edge brings...

Microsoft’s update cadence for Windows 11 may be quietly shifting again: a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) connected to the October 2025 Windows 10 cumulative update has surfaced internal metadata that appears to reference a Windows 11 build labeled “version 26H1”, and community reporting links that trace to Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X2 family and a codename in Microsoft’s internal flight branches. Background / Overview Microsoft moved Windows 11 from a semiannual feature-update cadence to a...

Microsoft Flight Simulator is the rare piece of software that can make a desk-bound user feel the unmistakable hush and throttle of a real cockpit — and yet, in recent years, the franchise has also become a case study in how modern simulation depends as much on cloud infrastructure, live data, and continuous service design as it does on aerodynamics and pixel-perfect scenery. Background Microsoft’s Flight Simulator franchise stretches back to the early 1980s and has evolved from pixelated...

Amazon Renewed marketplaces were quietly listing dozens of refurbished PCs that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 — a problem Techlicious exposed that forced Amazon to remove listings but left a larger question about how refurbished-device marketplaces police compatibility and protect buyers. The story is straightforward and urgent: Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, and many low-cost Renewed listings were for machines that lack the hardware baseline...

Microsoft has pushed a fresh Canary‑channel flight — Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27982 — that quietly advances three user-facing experiences (lock‑screen widgets, a redesigned Widgets board with multiple dashboards, and a top‑of‑screen drag tray for sharing) while delivering a small but meaningful set of stability fixes and a couple of noteworthy regressions still under investigation. Background Canary‑channel builds are the earliest public preview of Windows platform work, intended for...

Windows ships with a tidy, low‑noise instrument for spotting the kinds of crashes and driver problems that quietly erode a PC’s day‑to‑day reliability: the built‑in Reliability Monitor. It runs without fanfare, produces a simple 1–10 stability score, and surfaces application crashes, Windows failures, installation events and other markers you can act on — often faster and less painfully than digging through raw Event Viewer logs. This piece examines what Reliability Monitor actually does...

Three decades after it first landed on desktops, Windows 95 has found a second life inside modern browsers — booting, running classic apps, and serving nostalgia — but the browser-based resurrection carries the same practical and legal risks as the original OS, plus a few new ones unique to web emulation. Background / Overview Windows 95 is one of the most consequential consumer operating systems Microsoft ever shipped. It was released to retail on August 24, 1995, introduced the Start menu...

Best Buy has quietly dropped the price on select Surface Pro models—most notably a Snapdragon X Plus–powered Surface Pro variant—bringing an attention‑grabbing early Black Friday price down to roughly $699.99 and re‑igniting frantic comparison shopping across outlets and forums. This isn’t just another markdown: it’s a rapid re‑evaluation of the value proposition for Microsoft’s Copilot+ Surface line, especially for buyers who want an ultra‑portable 2‑in‑1 that also claims meaningful...

I turned my Ubuntu 24 desktop into something that looks and feels remarkably like Windows 11 — and the result is more useful than a simple gimmick. What started as a cosmetic experiment (themes, icons, a centered taskbar and a Start‑style menu) quickly revealed a practical middle ground: the visual familiarity of Windows 11 combined with the speed, flexibility and privacy of a modern Ubuntu installation. This walkthrough and analysis pulls the XDA‑style how‑to into sharper technical focus...

Microsoft has confirmed a display bug in Windows 10 that is incorrectly warning some users their systems “have reached the end of support,” even when those devices are still eligible for Extended Security Updates (ESU) or are running supported Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) releases. The false alert has caused confusion and concern because it appears in Windows Update and explicitly claims, “Your device is no longer receiving security updates,” a statement that — in many reported cases —...

Florida Crystals Corporation’s expanded agreement with Celonis marks a decisive step in marrying process intelligence with enterprise AI, setting the sugar producer on a path from tactical process improvement to an enterprise-wide AI orchestration strategy that touches finance, procurement, supply chain, and plant maintenance. Background / Overview Florida Crystals Corporation (FCC), a large integrated cane sugar producer with extensive agricultural and milling operations in South Florida...