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Microsoft and Meta have quietly made it possible to use a Meta Quest headset as a multi‑monitor extension for a Windows 11 PC without third‑party apps, and the result is a surprisingly practical, if still preview‑grade, way to create a large virtual workspace. Overview Mixed Reality Link is a Microsoft‑developed Windows 11 app that streams your desktop into a paired Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S headset, letting you position one to three high‑resolution virtual monitors in front of you. The setup...

Microsoft and community tools have finally turned the long-standing dream of "iMessage on Windows" from fantasy into a set of practical — if imperfect — options: built‑in Windows 11 integration via Phone Link (Start menu integration), OEM solutions such as Intel Unison, and self‑hosted or proxy relays like BlueBubbles and AirMessage. Each approach solves part of the problem — keyboard, larger display, and drag‑and‑drop file sharing — but none gives Windows users a fully native...

Samsung has pushed its long-running mobile web browser onto the Windows desktop with a region‑gated beta that promises cross‑device continuity, built‑in Galaxy AI browsing helpers, and a privacy‑forward feature set — a move that shifts Samsung Internet from a mobile exclusive into a direct competitor in the Windows browser arena. Background Samsung Internet debuted on Android more than a decade ago as a default browser on Galaxy phones and gradually built a reputation for robust privacy...

Intel has quietly closed a critical compatibility loop: the company’s latest wireless driver packages — Intel Wireless Wi‑Fi and Intel Wireless Bluetooth version 23.170.0 — are now formally validated to support Microsoft Windows 11, version 25H2, and the Wi‑Fi package explicitly includes client‑side support for Intel’s Wi‑Fi 7 adapters. Background / Overview Windows 11 version 25H2 arrived as a lightweight enablement package (an eKB) that flips features already present in the servicing...

Microsoft has begun rolling out a substantial redesign of the Windows 11 Start menu through the October non‑security preview update (KB5067036), delivering a single, scrollable Start surface, new app‑browsing modes, tighter Phone Link integration, and a set of taskbar and File Explorer refinements that aim to make launching apps and managing cross‑device activity faster and less cluttered. Background / Overview Windows' Start menu has been central to desktop navigation for decades, and the...

Microsoft has begun rolling out a substantial refresh of the Windows 11 Start menu as part of the optional October 28, 2025 preview update (KB5067036), introducing a single, vertically scrollable Start surface, multiple "All apps" view modes, tighter Phone Link integration, and a handful of taskbar and File Explorer refinements that together aim to restore discoverability and customization to the launcher while remaining gated behind Microsoft’s staged rollout model. Background / Overview...

YouTube’s removal of several Windows 11 how‑tos — including a pair of videos from the CyberCPU Tech channel that showed users how to create a local account during setup and how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware — has exposed a fault line between platform moderation at scale and technical how‑to culture, with consequences for creators, privacy‑minded users, and anyone who maintains older PCs. The videos were taken down under YouTube’s “harmful or dangerous” policy language, and...

Microsoft Azure suffered a widespread, high‑impact outage on October 29 that knocked Microsoft 365, Xbox/Minecraft, the Azure Portal and thousands of customer sites offline or into intermittent failure for several hours while engineers rolled back an inadvertent Azure Front Door (AFD) configuration change and worked through a cautious, phased recovery. Background / Overview Microsoft Azure operates a global edge and application‑delivery fabric called Azure Front Door (AFD) that performs TLS...

Microsoft’s latest Azure outage — coming less than two weeks after a major AWS disruption — exposed a fragile dependency at the heart of modern customer service: when the edge goes dark, millions of customer interactions stop working in minutes. Overview The outage began in the late afternoon UTC hours on October 29 and rippled through global systems that rely on Azure’s edge routing and communications stack. Microsoft’s public incident updates pointed to a problem in Azure Front Door (AFD)...

Microsoft’s staged recovery from a major Azure outage is under way after an inadvertent configuration change in Azure Front Door left services, consumer apps and enterprise systems intermittently unavailable across multiple regions, and customers are being advised to expect a bumpy restoration as traffic is rebalanced and edge capacity is recovered. Background / Overview On October 29, 2025, Microsoft acknowledged a large-scale disruption originating in Azure Front Door (AFD), its global...

Knowing which port on your laptop is a USB 3 port is one of those small but practical skills that saves time, avoids bottlenecks, and prevents needless frustration when moving large files or connecting fast external drives. This guide distills simple, reliable methods for identifying USB 3 ports — from the easy visual cues to Windows tools and a quick real‑world speed test — and explains the technical background, common manufacturer quirks, and pitfalls to watch for so you can be certain a...

I have five small, practical tweaks that cut my Windows 11 boot time and made day‑to‑day performance feel noticeably snappier — they’re the same simple moves the Pocket‑lint writer described, distilled into clear steps, verification, and realistic expectations for readers who want speed without risk. Background / Overview Windows boot speed is the sum of hardware capability, firmware behavior, and what the operating system and installed apps choose to do during startup. Modern hardware —...

Microsoft’s blunt warning landed with blunt clarity: running unsupported Windows 10 (or any unsupported OS) isn’t merely an inconvenience — it’s an open invitation to attackers. That message, amplified in consumer reporting from Kurt “the CyberGuy” and repeated across Microsoft’s security guidance, rests on hard telemetry: when a ransomware campaign reaches the encryption (ransom) stage, more than 90% of those incidents started from unmanaged or unsupported devices. Background / Overview...

Microsoft is rolling a small but practical change into Windows 11 Insider builds: after an unexpected kernel crash (bugcheck), Windows can now offer a one‑click path to schedule a quick RAM check — running the built‑in Windows Memory Diagnostic on the next reboot — with results surfaced back to the signed‑in user. Background Windows has long included a native memory tester (mdsched.exe) that runs in a pre‑boot environment to exercise installed RAM modules and report faults. Until now, most...

Windows can tell you “You’re not up to date” even when Settings reports there are no new updates available — a confusing but fixable mismatch that usually stems from local update components rather than Microsoft’s servers. This guide explains exactly why the message appears, walks through safe, step‑by‑step repairs (from quick restarts to a full reset of update components), and highlights practical troubleshooting, risks, and fallback options for Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems. Background...

A baffling regression in Microsoft’s optional October 28, 2025 Windows 11 preview (KB5067036) can leave Task Manager processes running after the window is closed, allowing multiple invisible copies of taskmgr.exe to accumulate and quietly consume memory and CPU — a problem reproduced across community tests and confirmed by independent reporting. Background / Overview Microsoft released KB5067036 on October 28, 2025 as an optional, non‑security preview cumulative update for Windows 11...

Surface’s ARM-based machines run Windows the way you expect most of the time, but there are important differences to understand about software compatibility, peripheral support, and how Microsoft’s emulation roadmap changes the practical limits of these devices for power users and IT deployments. Background Windows on ARM has moved from a niche curiosity into a mainstream option for select Surface models and Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft explicitly lists Surface ARM SKUs — including Surface Pro...

The center of gravity at GitHub Universe 2025 was unmistakable: developers, not just models, are driving the next wave of AI-powered software by designing, orchestrating, and governing fleets of autonomous agents — and GitHub, together with Microsoft’s Azure stack, is positioning itself as the mission control for that movement. Background GitHub Universe 2025 framed a simple but profound thesis: the capability to see, steer, and build across agents will determine which teams and platforms...

Microsoft’s official Media Creation Tool—long the easiest way for home users and small IT teams to produce a Windows installer USB or ISO—began closing without warning on many Windows 10 hosts right at the worst possible moment, and Microsoft has confirmed the regression while pointing users to manual ISO downloads and alternative upgrade paths. Background The Media Creation Tool (MCT) is a single-file Microsoft utility used to download a published Windows image and create bootable...

Microsoft’s new full‑screen, controller‑first “Xbox” experience for Windows 11 — the mode shipping on the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally family — is not just a cosmetic skin: it’s a layered, console‑style shell built on the Xbox PC app and Game Bar that trims desktop baggage, centralizes your games, and makes a Windows PC feel far more usable with a controller. Early hands‑on impressions show real ergonomic and usability wins for handheld and living‑room setups, and the community has already unlocked...