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Simpson Associates’ decision to accept private equity backing from Beech Tree Private Equity is a clear inflection point for a tightly focused Microsoft‑aligned data and AI services firm — one that simultaneously unlocks fresh scale and productisation opportunities while raising the usual procurement, talent and governance questions that follow a PE‑led growth playbook. Background Simpson Associates is a York‑headquartered data transformation consultancy with an additional office in...

Today’s Beta‑channel checkpoint for Windows 11 — Build 26120.6982 (KB5067109) — brings a compact but strategically important set of experiments and fixes that continue Microsoft’s measured push of on‑device AI features, usability polish, and platform reliability improvements for Windows 11, version 24H2. Background / Overview Windows Insider Beta checkpoints in the 26120.xxxx series are being delivered as enablement‑style cumulative updates for devices on Windows 11, version 24H2. That model...

Windows 11 is no longer the new kid on the block — it’s a mature, feature-rich desktop OS that keeps getting meaningful updates — and the practical, everyday changes in the latest builds and feature updates can transform how you work, play, and secure your PC. Background / Overview Windows 11 moved the user interface and interaction model forward in ways that matter: a centered taskbar, integrated AI with Copilot, an updated File Explorer, and a focus on device security with passkeys and...

Bluetooth problems can stop a meeting, derail music, or leave you staring at a silent wireless mouse—fortunately, the majority of Bluetooth issues in Windows 11 are fixable with a methodical checklist and a few minutes at your keyboard. Background Bluetooth is the backbone of many everyday wireless interactions: headphones, keyboards, mice, printers, game controllers and device-to-device file transfers all rely on a working Bluetooth stack. Windows 11 has modernized the Bluetooth UX and...

Agroz’s announcement that it has launched an AI-driven food-production platform — Agroz OS, built on Microsoft Azure and tied to a commercialized vertical-growing product called the Agroz Groz Wall — is a clear signal that one class of AgTech companies is trying to move vertical farming from an R&D novelty into a standardized, cloud‑first infrastructure offering. Background / Overview Agroz Inc., a Malaysia‑based controlled‑environment agriculture (CEA) company, completed an initial public...

Microsoft has made it significantly easier for organizations to move large object stores from Amazon S3 into Azure by announcing the general availability of Azure Storage Mover’s cloud-to-cloud migration capability — an agentless, server-to-server transfer path that preserves metadata, supports incremental syncs, integrates with Azure governance and monitoring, and is designed to handle multi-terabyte and multi-petabyte workloads with minimal scripting or third‑party tooling. Background...

Microsoft has finally given IT admins a supported, first‑party way to remove select preinstalled Microsoft Store apps from managed devices — a device‑level policy for Windows 11 Enterprise and Education (version 25H2) that replaces brittle removal scripts and complex imaging workflows with Group Policy or MDM controls. This change reduces operational overhead, improves image hygiene, and integrates app removal into standard provisioning and management pipelines — but it also requires careful...

Microsoft’s new Copilot avatar arrived with a wink: an animated, emoji‑like companion called Mico that’s designed to make voice interactions on Windows and in Edge feel warmer, more human, and easier to navigate — and yes, it hides a modern Clippy easter egg for anyone nostalgic (or wary) enough to prod it. Background Microsoft rolled out a consumer‑facing Copilot “fall release” that bundles a dozen headline features into a single push to make Copilot more personal, social and...

Browser notifications are useful when they announce the things you care about — but they become a productivity tax the moment they arrive uninvited, break your flow, and pile up in the corner of your screen. A focused Windows 11 setup starts with controlling what can interrupt you: from system‑level Do Not Disturb to site‑level permission nudges in every browser. This deep, practical guide walks through the why, the how, and the hardening steps IT pros and power users should apply to stop...

Simpson Associates has taken a decisive step toward scaling its UK data and AI services business by accepting private equity backing from Beech Tree Private Equity, a move designed to accelerate organic growth, broaden capabilities in emerging technologies such as agentic AI, and pursue strategic acquisitions to expand sector-specific products and managed services. The transaction—announced by Simpson on October 24, 2025—reaffirms the company’s positioning as a Microsoft-aligned data...

Microsoft’s deadline has turned a familiar upgrade debate into a hard choice for IT teams, small businesses and power users: with Windows 10’s free mainstream support ending on October 14, 2025, organizations face a three-way decision—move to Windows 11, buy time with Extended Security Updates (ESU), or migrate off Windows altogether—and the fallout is exposing the limits of incremental OS transitions, hardware politics, and user tolerance for forced change. Background / Overview Microsoft...

The end of free security updates for Windows 10 has forced a familiar cycle on IT teams: upgrade, patch, repeat — only this time the upgrade carries stricter hardware gates, new security promises from Microsoft, and a visible migration of some users to alternatives such as Linux. Microsoft’s October 14, 2025 end-of-support deadline for Windows 10 removed the safety net for millions of devices and crystallized a practical choice for organizations and home users alike: move to Windows 11 (if...

Microsoft’s short answer is blunt: Windows 10’s free, routine support stops on October 14, 2025 — and while there’s a one‑year consumer safety valve available, clinging to the older OS past that date has real security, compatibility and cost consequences that many users are underestimating. Background / Overview Pocket‑lint’s recent piece arguing “4 reasons people are holding onto Windows 10 (and why I think they’re wrong)” captures a common mindset: hardware incompatibility, comfort with a...

When Microsoft quietly flipped the switch in October 2015 allowing Cortana to link directly with an Xbox Live account, it marked a deliberate step beyond simple voice commands — turning a desktop assistant into a cross-device gaming companion that could surface activity, offers, friend availability, and even event countdowns tied to a player’s Xbox identity. This small UI change — found under Cortana > Notebook > Connected Accounts and pairing services such as Xbox Live, LinkedIn and Office...

Microsoft has issued an emergency out‑of‑band update for Windows 11 after the October Patch Tuesday roll introduced multiple regressions that in some cases rendered recovery tools unusable and broke key services for developers and enterprises alike. The patch cycle that began with KB5066835 on October 14 produced three distinct problems—loopback/localhost HTTP failures, smart‑card and certificate handling errors in legacy applications, and a crippling WinRE regression that disabled USB...

Microsoft has quietly folded a Google Lens–style capability into the Windows 11 Snipping Tool, letting you take a screenshot and immediately run a visual search in Bing to identify objects, extract or translate text, and even solve math problems — all from the familiar capture workflow. Background / Overview Microsoft added a built‑in Visual Search with Bing pathway into the Snipping Tool as part of a broader push to make screenshots more actionable. The capability first appeared in Insider...

Microsoft has given Copilot a face: an optional, animated avatar called Mico that debuts in the Copilot Fall Release as part of a broader push to make Microsoft Copilot feel more human-centered, voice-first, and socially capable. Background / Overview Microsoft’s Copilot Fall Release packages a dozen headline changes that together shift Copilot from a single-query chatbox into a persistent, multimodal AI companion across Windows, Edge, and mobile. The most visible change is Mico — a...

Microsoft’s Copilot has just been pushed into a far more social, agentic, and personality-driven phase — and it arrives less than 48 hours after OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas turned the browser into a first‑class surface for AI. The result is an unmistakable escalation: AI browsing has moved from pilot experiment to mainstream product strategy, with competing visions from Microsoft, OpenAI, and startups like Perplexity racing to own how we search, act, and collaborate on the web. Background /...

Microsoft has released an out‑of‑band emergency update to patch a critical remote‑code‑execution vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) — tracked as CVE‑2025‑59287 — and administrators must treat every WSUS host as a top‑tier remediation priority until it is patched or safely isolated. Background / Overview Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is the on‑premises update distribution and approval system many organizations use to stage and deliver Microsoft updates to...

Florida Atlantic University engineers have produced a rigorous, head‑to‑head validation showing that foot‑mounted wearable IMUs and a single Azure Kinect depth camera can reproduce the fine‑grained, per‑step gait measurements clinicians expect from an instrumented walkway — a result that brings practical, low‑cost gait analysis for clinics, community care, and telehealth markedly closer to reality. Background / Overview Gait is increasingly recognized as a clinical vital sign: subtle changes...