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Bonner County commissioners and department heads delivered a dense set of operational updates that ranged from last-minute election logistics to urgent public-safety concerns over suspected fentanyl deaths, a budget‑squeezing Road & Bridge equipment loss, and a deliberate push toward enterprise email migration and controlled AI pilot planning — all of which expose both pragmatic strengths and material governance, fiscal, and legal risks for the county to manage. Background The updates...

Microsoft Edge 142 can now save and sync passkeys to your Microsoft Account, letting Windows users create, store, and use passwordless credentials across devices protected by a Microsoft Password Manager PIN and Windows Hello authentication. Background Passkeys are a modern, phishing-resistant alternative to traditional passwords that use public-key cryptography (the FIDO2/WebAuthn standard) to authenticate users with a device-bound secret. Instead of typing a password, users prove...

Microsoft’s latest stable update to Edge — version 142 — brings a major step forward for browser-based authentication: Edge can now save and sync passkeys across Windows devices using Microsoft Password Manager, protected by a PIN, and unlocked with Windows Hello. This change takes Microsoft’s long-running push toward passwordless sign‑ins and folds passkeys directly into Edge’s autofill and password-management surface, making it simpler for everyday users to replace fragile passwords with...

When you click “Update and shut down,” Windows is finally going to do exactly that — after years of intermittent misbehavior that left machines powered on instead of off, Microsoft has implemented a servicing fix that restores deterministic shutdown semantics and rolled the change into the October 28, 2025 optional preview update (KB5067036); the correction first appeared in Windows Insider Dev and Beta builds and is being staged toward mainstream release. Background / Overview For many...

Microsoft’s preview of Signing Transparency for Azure is an important and practical step toward making software signing verifiably accountable across modern supply chains — it pairs traditional cryptographic signing with an append‑only transparency ledger and confidential hardware to provide auditable receipts, countersigned COSE envelopes, and Merkle‑based inclusion proofs that anyone can validate independently. Background Software signing has long been viewed as a fundamental building...

Windows 11 can feel uncluttered at first, but a few months of installs, pinned apps, badges, and notification banners will quickly turn that polished shell into visual noise — and you don't need to reinstall or buy anything to get the calm back. By following four focused, reversible steps — declutter the taskbar, simplify the Start menu, control notifications, and reduce motion/visual effects — a typical Windows 11 desktop becomes lighter, faster to scan, and far less interruptive. The...

Windows 10’s end-of-support has created a scramble — and attackers are leaning into that urgency with counterfeit download pages that impersonate popular upgrade utilities. The developer of FlyOOBE (formerly Flyby11), a widely used community tool that automates bypasses and Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE) customizations for Windows 11 installs on unsupported hardware, has posted a blunt SECURITY ALERT telling users to avoid an unofficial mirror (flyoobe.net) and to download only from the...

Microsoft has quietly shifted how it moves millions of remaining Windows 10 users forward: when a consumer chooses to upgrade through Windows Update, Windows 10 now offers the Windows 11 25H2 “2025 Update” directly — not an interim 23H2 or 24H2 release — while Microsoft continues to press Windows 11 as the default path through full‑screen prompts and marketing that emphasizes “AI‑powered productivity.” Background / Overview Windows 10 reached its official end of standard support on October...

AI-powered browsers that act like human users are forcing a swift and uncomfortable reckoning for publishers: a Columbia Journalism Review investigation found that agentic browsers such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet can, in some cases, access and reproduce content behind subscription paywalls — not by breaking any server-side lock, but by simulating ordinary browsing and reading text already delivered to the browser. Background / Overview AI-first browsers — products that...

Microsoft has begun testing a more visible Copilot experience in Windows 11 by placing an Ask Copilot entry directly on the taskbar — an opt‑in replacement for the familiar search box that surfaces local files, apps, and conversational AI suggestions while offering one‑click access to Copilot Vision and Copilot Voice. Microsoft describes the change as an effort to make Copilot “a natural part of how you use your PC,” but emphasizes the feature is disabled by default and uses existing Windows...

If you’ve ever tried to browse a years‑worth of phone photos on a 6‑inch screen, you already know why transferring them to a Windows PC matters: larger display, easier editing, safer backups, and the ability to curate and archive without burning phone storage. The simple guide you supplied lists five practical ways to move pictures from Android to Windows — USB cable, Windows Photos import, Google Photos, OneDrive camera backup, and Microsoft Phone Link — each with its own strengths...

Microsoft has quietly corrected a long‑running annoyance in Windows’ update UX: the Start‑menu command “Update and shut down” now behaves as labeled in recent Insider preview builds and in the October 28, 2025 optional preview cumulative update, after engineers changed the servicing orchestration that previously left some machines powered on instead of shutting them down. Background / Overview For many users the menu item Update and shut down was simple: apply pending Windows updates and...

A stealthy Windows 11 update intended to modernize the Start experience has instead left a noticeable trail of annoyance: newly installed applications disappearing from the Start list and a one‑time scrolling glitch that yanks the All apps list to the top the first time you interact with it after a reboot. The problem mixes user‑visible inconsistencies with deeper questions about how the shell refreshes its app catalog and how Microsoft stages major UI rollouts — and while a partial fix for...

Catherine Doyle’s framing of artificial intelligence as “a real opportunity” for Ireland is more than corporate optimism — it sits on a set of academic projections, workforce studies and national skilling programmes that together sketch both a high‑reward and high‑risk pathway for the Irish economy. Background Catherine Doyle, General Manager of Microsoft Ireland, has used recent interviews and briefings to position AI as a national lever for productivity, growth and workforce...

Microsoft has quietly closed one of Windows’ long‑running little annoyances: the Start‑menu option labeled “Update and shut down” now behaves as advertised in recent Insider flights and an optional October preview package, restoring deterministic shutdown semantics that many users and administrators have relied on but found intermittently broken for years. This fix lands as a servicing change validated in Windows Insider Dev and Beta channels and packaged into the October 28, 2025 preview...

Every time I set up a new Windows 11 PC I install Microsoft PowerToys within the first half-hour — not because it bakes in cosmetic tweaks, but because it injects useful, system-level convenience that Windows still lacks. The PowerToys suite is acting as Microsoft’s public incubator for features that should plausibly live inside Windows itself, and five modules in particular — Command Palette, Light Switch, Peek, Awake, and Mouse Without Borders — do more than just scratch power‑user itches...

Microsoft has quietly closed a small but persistent Windows annoyance: the Start‑menu option labeled “Update and shut down” will now, in the scenarios Microsoft targeted, actually power off the PC after applying updates instead of finishing in a rebooted and powered‑on state. This fix landed first in Windows Insider preview builds and was packaged into the October 28, 2025 optional preview cumulative update KB5067036 (OS Builds 26200.7019 and 26100.7019), restoring predictable shutdown...

Microsoft’s October 2025 Windows updates deliver a mix of security hardening, staged AI features, and meaningful device-management improvements that together sharpen the enterprise upgrade path to Windows 11 while raising practical deployment questions for IT teams — from new hotpatch behavior and Intune settings for 25H2 to a redesigned Start, enhanced File Explorer AI actions, and lifecycle milestones that accelerate Windows 10 migration planning. Background Microsoft shipped October 2025...

The Daily Signal editorial unleashed a stark warning: modern AI programming is not a neutral utility but a potential mechanism to rewrite public life — selectively amplifying some ideas while erasing others — and that warning demands careful technical and civic scrutiny. Background / Overview Artificial intelligence today is more than a search box or a novelty image generator; it is increasingly embedded as a decision-making and content-creation layer across platforms and enterprise...

Microsoft and Alphabet have doubled down on an AI arms race this week, with Microsoft unveiling multi‑billion‑dollar infrastructure commitments in the United Arab Emirates and a headline GPU services contract in Texas, while Alphabet returned to the European debt market to raise billions for continued AI and cloud expansion — a flurry of deals that underscores both the scale of hyperscaler spending on AI infrastructure and the strategic, financial and geopolitical tensions it raises...