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Microsoft has pushed three new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds into the Canary, Dev and Beta channels, packing a handful of practical UI tweaks for early testers and a larger, targeted cumulative update (KB5065797) that advances the Dev/Beta feature streams for 25H2/24H2 respectively. The Canary flight (Build 27959) delivers small but high‑value usability improvements — moveable on‑screen hardware indicators, system‑wide en/em dash shortcuts, and pinned targets in the Share dialog — while...

Microsoft will officially stop supporting Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, and that deadline changes the security, compliance and upgrade calculus for hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide — the decision forces users and IT teams to pick a path: upgrade to Windows 11 where possible, buy new hardware, migrate to another OS, or enroll in Extended Security Updates as a time‑boxed bridge. Background / Overview Windows 10 debuted in 2015 and for the better part of a decade has been the default...

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Microsoft’s recent preview builds make clear one thing: during the out‑of‑box experience (OOBE) Windows 11 is moving firmly to an account‑first model, and the company is actively closing the loopholes that let users skip signing in with a Microsoft account during initial setup. The change is not limited to a single patched trick — Microsoft has removed multiple known bypass paths from Insider builds and publicly framed the move as a fix to prevent incomplete device setups, while the...

Microsoft's latest Insider flights push another incremental but meaningful polish to Windows 11 while sharpening a debate that's been simmering for years: Microsoft is improving dark mode and biometric security, but it's also continuing to tighten the setup experience so new installs are far more likely to require a Microsoft Account. The new Dev- and Beta-channel preview builds (the 25H2-enabled 26220 and 26120 flight families) surface a cluster of visible changes — dark-themed File...

Microsoft’s latest Canary-channel build for Windows 11, Build 27959, brings a collection of small but widely requested user-facing tweaks and a raft of stability fixes — most notably a new setting that lets you reposition the on‑screen hardware indicators (volume, brightness, airplane mode, virtual desktops), system‑wide keyboard shortcuts for inserting en and em dashes, and the ability to pin favorite apps inside the Windows Share window. These changes are rolling out to Insiders as...

The University of South Carolina has moved from pilot to programmatic adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot, using workshops, cohort-based trials, and student-led outreach to fold generative AI into teaching, research, and administrative workflows—reporting measurable time savings for users while building campus governance, training, and an AI certificate pathway to prepare graduates for AI-augmented workplaces. Background: why USC chose Copilot and what they set out to solve Universities today...

Microsoft has begun shipping a targeted fix in Insider preview builds that finally addresses a long‑running annoyance: the “Update and shut down” option in Windows 11 that often installed updates only to leave the PC powered on (at the lock screen or desktop) instead of switching the machine off. The repair appears in both the Beta and Dev channel release notes for recent builds, and it’s being deployed gradually to Insiders now with the expectation it will reach general Windows 11 users in...

Microsoft’s support clock for Windows 10 has reached its deadline: after October 14, 2025 the operating system will no longer receive routine security patches or feature updates, and for many users that means the safest, simplest path forward is replacing aging hardware with a modern Windows 11 PC — preferably one that matches the way you work today and the AI features you may want tomorrow. Background / Overview Microsoft officially lists October 14, 2025 as the end-of-support date for...

Microsoft has made it unmistakably clear: Windows 10 reaches end of support on October 14, 2025, and the company is actively steering users toward Windows 11, offering a short-term safety net for those who can’t make the jump right away. Background Windows 10 launched in 2015 and for many households and businesses it has been the workhorse operating system for nearly a decade. Microsoft’s lifecycle policy has always included firm sunset dates for major OS releases, and this is the final...

Microsoft’s latest Canary-channel flight lands with a handful of practical UI tweaks and quality fixes: Build 27959 introduces movable on‑screen hardware indicators, an OS‑level en/em dash typing shortcut, the ability to pin favorite apps in the Windows Share UI, and a raft of under‑the‑hood corrections aimed at File Explorer, Windows Hello, Voice Access, and Arm64 stability. This update is targeted at Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel and continues Microsoft’s pattern of iterating UI...

Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.6772 (KB5065797) to the Beta Channel, and this flight brings targeted AI-driven enhancements for Copilot+ PCs, a notable expansion of Windows Hello Enhanced Sign‑in Security to peripheral fingerprint readers, new OOBE options for naming your user folder, and a spate of usability and dark‑mode fixes across File Explorer and camera effects. Background This release continues Microsoft’s pattern of delivering Beta Channel updates as...

Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.6772 to the Dev Channel, bringing incremental but meaningful updates across AI-driven utilities, sign-in security, OOBE (out-of-box experience), and File Explorer while addressing a raft of stability and compatibility issues reported by Insiders. Background / Overview This build continues the Dev Channel’s ongoing evolution of Windows 11 via the 25H2 enablement-package stream (build 26220.xxxx). The release follows the recent...

Portable apps make it possible to carry a curated toolkit on a USB stick or in your cloud folder and run the exact same software — with your settings intact — on any Windows PC, and the PortableApps.com platform is the easiest, safest way to do that at scale. The service packages hundreds of well‑known utilities into a single, lightweight launcher that installs to a USB drive or a local cloud folder, keeps apps organized and updated, and preserves your configuration so you never have to...

With just weeks to go before Microsoft stops shipping security updates for Windows 10, IT pros and home users are scrambling to decide whether to upgrade, replace, or patch their way forward — and the Spiceworks community has become a practical, no-nonsense hub for the real-world tactics people are using to keep older, “solid” PCs alive. Background / Overview Microsoft has set a firm end-of-support date for Windows 10: October 14, 2025. After that day Microsoft will no longer provide routine...

Microsoft is changing the first moments of life for many Windows 11 PCs: eligible devices can now check for and install the latest monthly quality updates during the final Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE) so users sign in to a patched, compliant system — and administrators control the behavior from the Enrollment Status Page (ESP) in Microsoft Intune. Background For years IT teams have faced the same predictable problem: brand‑new or freshly imaged devices arrive to users with an OS image that...

Battlefield 6’s most controversial design debate — whether to enforce Closed Weapons (class-locked arsenals) or embrace Open Weapons (every class can equip any gun) — has been decided for launch, and it’s a choice that exposes as much about modern game design as it does about how developers collect and interpret player data. Background / Overview DICE and Electronic Arts framed Battlefield 6 as a return to the series’ large-scale, combined-arms roots while also experimenting with systems...

Sunrise Technologies’ inclusion in Microsoft’s 2025–2026 AI Business Solutions Inner Circle confirms the company’s standing among the most commercially successful and strategically aligned Microsoft partners, signaling privileged roadmap access for Copilot, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform integrations and reinforcing Sunrise’s supply‑chain and retail practice as a flagship use case for AI‑first business applications. Background Sunrise Technologies, founded in 1994 and a Microsoft partner...

Azure AI Foundry’s latest rollout moves multimodal AI from experimental novelty toward a practical developer platform: OpenAI’s new mini models (GPT-image-1‑mini, GPT‑realtime‑mini, GPT‑audio‑mini) are being added to Foundry alongside upgraded GPT‑5 safety features and Microsoft’s new Agent Framework, giving developers a broad, production-ready toolkit for building text, image, voice, and soon video experiences at scale. Background: why this matters now Multimodal AI — models that can reason...

Google Photos’ smart suggestions can be a huge timesaver — surfacing quick edits, album ideas, and “clear the clutter” prompts — but they can also clutter your notifications and surface reminders you’d rather not see; managing which suggestion types appear (and how you’re notified) gives you back control while still letting AI do the heavy lifting. Overview Google Photos uses a combination of background processing, machine perception, and heuristics to produce suggestion cards, automated...