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Microsoft’s terse changelog entry in a recent preview update finally does what it promises: the Start menu option “Update and shut down” now appears to power machines off after applying updates, addressing an intermittent bug that left some PCs restarted and still running instead of shut down. The remediation was identified in Windows Insider preview flights and folded into the October 28, 2025 optional preview cumulative package (KB5067036) for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2, and...

Fliqlo’s enduring minimal flip-clock aesthetic and a handful of stylistic alternatives are the focus of a practical roundup that aims to help Windows users pick a clock screensaver that’s both beautiful and reliable for modern desktops. The choices span the famously simple Fliqlo flip clock, highly tweakable analog/digital modules grouped under the generic “ClockSaver” name, richly rendered 3D clock scenes from 3Planesoft, the data‑visual PolarClock rings, and the playful word-based Word...

A sudden, global disruption to Microsoft’s cloud fabric late on October 29 laid bare a fragile dependency at the heart of many modern services: an inadvertent configuration change to Azure Front Door (AFD) produced widespread latency, authentication failures and portal downtime that—while largely recovered within hours—left businesses, gamers and administrators scrambling and raised urgent questions about change control, identity concentration and operational transparency. Background /...

Microsoft’s new ND GB300 v6 virtual machines have cracked a milestone that changes the practical limits of public‑cloud AI inference: one NVL72 rack of Blackwell Ultra GPUs sustained an aggregated throughput of roughly 1.1 million tokens per second, a result validated by an independent benchmark lab and reported by multiple outlets. Background / Overview Microsoft packaged NVIDIA’s latest GB300 NVL72 rack into the Azure ND GB300 v6 VM family and used an MLPerf‑style Llama 2 70B inference...

My 512GB laptop still feels fast because of a tiny, underrated Windows feature that quietly does what most users don’t want to do themselves: it keeps the system drive tidy, prevents low‑space thrashing, and offloads seldom‑used cloud files so the OS always has breathing room. Background / Overview Windows has always needed free space to operate smoothly. Beyond the obvious storage used by applications and media, the operating system relies on headroom for temporary files, update staging...

Microsoft’s October servicing wave left an unexpected scar: a prominent, in‑OS warning telling some Windows 10 machines they’d “reached the end of support” — including systems that are legitimately enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU) or running Long‑Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) editions that remain covered for years. The message was a display/diagnostic error, Microsoft confirmed, and the vendor pushed a two‑track remediation (a cloud configuration correction for connected devices...

A small patch of the Microsoft Store quietly flickered to life this week, revealing a string of Xbox 360-era games that had long been delisted — and each listing carried the same tantalizing label: “Coming Soon.” What began as a single screenshot shared on X (formerly Twitter) quickly spread into a swell of cross‑region sightings, forum threads, and headlines. The change is real in the storefront UI that users are seeing in some locales, but what it means — whether a planned re‑release, a...

Microsoft has confirmed that a display bug in the October 2025 servicing wave is incorrectly telling some Windows 10 PCs they’ve “reached the end of support” even when those machines remain entitled to security updates through Extended Security Updates (ESU) or supported LTSC channels — and it has pushed a server-side correction plus an enterprise Known Issue Rollback (KIR) to neutralize the misleading banner. Background / Overview Windows 10’s mainstream monthly servicing officially ended...

Microsoft’s console‑style Xbox full screen experience (FSE) is no longer an ROG exclusive: the interface is now rolling out to MSI Claw handhelds via the Windows 11 Insider Preview, with Microsoft confirming that additional OEMs will enable FSE on their handheld PCs in the coming months. This is a clear signal that Microsoft intends the Xbox‑branded launcher and its controller‑first, low‑overhead session model to become a multiplatform standard across Windows handhelds — and it raises...

I tried AutoHotkey once and within a week my repetitive desktop chores vanished — apps launched with a single keystroke, long snippets expanded from two characters, and window layouts that used to take minutes were restored instantly; it’s the kind of productivity multiplier that makes you wonder why more people don’t treat automation as a core part of their Windows workflow. Background / Overview AutoHotkey (AHK) is a lightweight, free, open‑source scripting language for Windows that maps...

A class of pre‑OS attacks that tampers with the boot chain and even replaces trusted boot components — sometimes as seemingly innocent as a boot logo or signed EFI binary — has resurfaced as a practical threat to both Windows and Linux devices, and recent public disclosures show how a single verification flaw or a trusted-but‑dangerous signed utility can completely undermine Secure Boot protections. Security researchers have published working proofs‑of‑concept and vendors have issued...

Microsoft’s Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) has quietly crossed from ASUS’ ROG Ally family onto MSI’s Claw handhelds via the Windows 11 Insider Preview, marking a meaningful step in Microsoft’s plan to make Windows behave more like a console on pocketable gaming PCs and testing whether a controller-first Windows shell can genuinely challenge SteamOS and Valve’s handheld momentum. Background The Full Screen Experience is a session posture layered on top of Windows 11 rather than a separate...

Windows 11’s latest Insider preview is more than cosmetic tinkering — Build 26220.7051 (distributed as KB5067115) pushes Copilot out of the sidebar and into the taskbar with an opt‑in “Ask Copilot” pill that blends local Windows Search results with multimodal generative assistance. This is a deliberate step toward AI as the interface for everyday PC tasks: typing or speaking to the taskbar can now surface files, adjust settings, summarize documents, and accept screenshots for visual analysis...

Microsoft has quietly walked back a contentious Windows Update UI experiment: after removing month-year prefixes and other familiar tokens from update titles, the company says it will restore the date (month and year) to the client-facing update strings following fast, organized pushback from IT administrators and support teams. Background For years, Windows Update entry titles in Settings → Windows Update and Update history have included verbose, catalogue-style strings that combined a...

Microsoft’s Xbox Full Screen Experience has begun to escape its early exclusivity and is appearing on third‑party Windows handhelds, delivering a console‑style, controller‑first shell that boots the Xbox PC app as a full‑screen launcher and trims desktop noise so games run with fewer interruptions and less background overhead. Background: why FSE matters for handheld Windows gaming Handheld Windows PCs have long suffered from a mismatch: a full desktop operating system built for mouse and...

If you want to jump into War Thunder on a fresh Windows 11 rig, the process is simple — but there are important caveats, variations, and troubleshooting steps you should know before you click Install. This guide gives a step‑by‑step installation walkthrough for both Steam and the official Gaijin launcher, explains the hardware and storage numbers you’ll encounter, and lays out the most reliable fixes for the BattlEye/anti‑cheat and Windows security interactions that trip up players on...

Microsoft’s update cadence for Windows 11 may be quietly shifting again: a recently surfaced Known Issue Rollback (KIR) connected to the October 2025 Windows 10 cumulative update has sparked the first apparent, semi‑official reference to a device‑targeted Windows 11 release labeled “version 26H1.” If accurate, the move would repeat Microsoft’s recent pattern of shipping platform‑specific images for new Copilot+ hardware (Windows on Arm) while keeping the broad consumer install base on the...

Microsoft quietly reversed part of a contentious UI experiment for Windows Update after administrators and power users pushed back: the company introduced a simplified naming scheme for Windows 11 updates that removed date prefixes and other contextual tokens, then announced it would listen to feedback and restore the month/year date prefix to update titles to aid triage and patch management. Background For years Microsoft’s servicing titles have followed a verbose, catalog-style convention...

Microsoft’s rotating catalog has claimed another high‑profile pair: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl and Frostpunk will no longer be available on Xbox Game Pass after mid‑November, with the first confirmed removals set for November 15, 2025 — a reminder that Game Pass remains a powerful but impermanent gateway to some of the year’s most talked‑about games. Fans of long campaigns and persistent city‑builders should plan accordingly: there’s a narrow window to finish what you started...

Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant threat or a niche productivity hack — it is actively rewiring how organizations operate, how jobs are described, and how people are paid, trained and promoted, with the dominant narrative shifting from “AI will take jobs” to “AI will reshape skills and reward those who master it.” Background / Overview The last 24 months have turned generative AI and enterprise copilots from curiosities into business tools that change day‑to‑day workflows. Large...