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Microsoft’s move to outsource hollow‑core fiber (HCF) production to established glass and fiber manufacturers marks a key inflection point for a technology that has long promised dramatic gains in latency, bandwidth and energy efficiency for cloud and AI workloads. Over the last week Microsoft publicly announced strategic manufacturing collaborations with Corning and Heraeus to scale its HCF output, building on the company’s 2022 acquisition of Lumenisity and a string of laboratory...

Multiple subsea fibre‑optic cable faults in the Red Sea produced a measurable slowdown for Internet users across Pakistan, forcing carriers and cloud operators to reroute traffic, warn customers of higher latency, and expose the fragile link between cloud performance and the physical seabed infrastructure that carries most international data. Background The global internet runs on a physical spine of submarine (subsea) fibre‑optic cables that carry the vast majority of cross‑border data. A...

October 14, 2025 is shaping up to be more than a corporate calendar milestone — it’s a practical deadline that will force many Monster Hunter players to make a clear choice about how they keep playing: upgrade the operating system, accept an unsupported experience, or invest in new hardware. Background / Overview Microsoft has set a hard end‑of‑support date for Windows 10: after October 14, 2025 Microsoft will stop issuing routine security updates, feature updates, and standard technical...

A stubborn little triumph unfolded on the internet this week: an enterprising tinkerer managed to resurrect Windows 7, coerce the Steam client into running on it, and — after a series of creative workarounds — boot Hollow Knight: Silksong on that ancient platform, delivering a textbook example of why the PC modding community will never let legacy systems die quietly. Background: why this matters (and why it’s messy) For most PC users, Windows 7 has been a relic for half a decade. Microsoft...

A stubborn late‑model PC and a patient tinkerer have done what many considered impossible: coaxing modern Steam and Team Cherry’s hotly anticipated Silksong to run on a machine still sitting on Windows 7. The spectacle is less about raw performance than it is a reminder that the PC ecosystem—its games, platform clients, drivers and energetic communities—can be bent, bridged, and sometimes bullied into cooperation. The episode touches on bigger issues: platform support lifecycles, the...

If you want to power down an Xbox controller quickly and reliably—whether to save battery, reset a stuck connection, or prepare for storage—you can do it in a handful of simple ways that work across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PCs. This guide walks through four practical methods, verifies the technical details against official and independent sources, explains common edge cases (USB behavior, auto-sleep, firmware quirks), and provides battery-care and troubleshooting advice so...

Microsoft is adding a long-requested quality-of-life feature to Windows 11 via PowerToys: an automatic, schedule-driven switch between Light and Dark themes — a small addition on the surface that closes a glaring usability gap and gives advanced users precise control over how and when the OS and apps change appearance. Background Windows has supported light and dark modes for several years, but the operating system still lacks a built‑in, user‑friendly scheduler that flips themes...

Capcom has quietly moved a new compatibility line into the post‑launch roadmap for its Monster Hunter trilogy on PC: starting October 14, 2025, the publisher will no longer guarantee that Monster Hunter Wilds, Monster Hunter World, and Monster Hunter Rise will run on Windows 10. The change — announced on Steam and reported across gaming outlets — coincides with Microsoft's official end‑of‑support date for Windows 10, and it forces PC players and administrators to reckon with two simultaneous...

Every year I perform a ritual of hardware and software maintenance that restores older Windows laptops to the kind of snappy, reliable performance you expect from a new machine — not with magical upgrades, but with disciplined cleaning, targeted software housekeeping, and a few careful repairs that remove the friction that builds up over time. Background Windows laptops collect two kinds of slowdowns: physical and digital. Physically, dust and grime clog vents and fans, causing higher...

Microsoft has removed a long-running compatibility block that kept certain Intel 11th‑Gen PCs from receiving the Windows 11 24H2 feature update through Windows Update, resolving an incompatibility with specific Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST) drivers and allowing affected systems to be offered 24H2 again without requiring a manual driver update. Background / Overview For more than a year, a narrow but disruptive compatibility problem prevented a subset of Intel‑based systems from...

Google quietly dropped a native, Spotlight‑style search overlay for Windows that brings Google Search, Google Lens and an integrated AI Mode to the desktop — summoned by a single hotkey and gated as an opt‑in experiment in Search Labs. Background Google’s new “Google app for Windows” is an experimental client surfaced through Search Labs that aims to replace a browser‑tab workflow with a keyboard‑first desktop experience. The app places a small, pill‑shaped search bar above whatever you’re...

Lionel Barrow’s short, furious tour of Microsoft 365 — republished and amplified by The Register — reads like a field report from an alien visitor trying to understand a human ritual: a thirty-something engineer raised on Gmail who steps into Exchange, Outlook, SharePoint, and Microsoft’s multi-headed group apparatus and emerges bewildered, amused, and alarmed. Background / Overview The current debate is a familiar one: for many organizations, Microsoft Exchange and Outlook are...

FSLogix 25.09 shipped as a routine maintenance release on September 9, 2025, but community reports over the past two weeks suggest the update may have resolved two particularly disruptive problems in virtualized and Remote Desktop Services environments: the recurring Outlook 365 sign‑in/activation error tagged [58tm1] and a Windows Server 2019 OneDrive behavior that prevented renaming of files and folders inside FSLogix-managed profiles. Microsoft’s official release notes for 25.09 list...

Open‑source software gives Windows users a fast, private, and flexible path away from closed ecosystems — and ZDNet’s compact list of “10 open‑source apps I always recommend Windows users try — and they’re free” is a practical starter kit for anyone ready to swap proprietary defaults for community‑driven alternatives. Background / Overview Open‑source apps have matured far beyond niche utilities; today they cover productivity, backups, local AI, password management, automation, and desktop...

In 2025, connecting your smartphone to a Windows PC is no longer a niche trick—it’s an expected part of a productive workflow, and Microsoft’s QR-based pairing flow at aka.ms/linkphoneqr is the simple, official gateway that makes it happen. The QR flow launches the Phone Link (formerly Your Phone) and Link to Windows ecosystem, letting Android and iPhone users move messages, notifications, photos, calls, and in many cases entire mobile apps between devices. This guide distills what...

When mainstream buyers in India look for a practical, versatile laptop that balances productivity, battery life and light creative work, AMD Ryzen 5 systems often sit near the top of the shortlist — and a recent roundup on Herzindagi of “8 Best AMD Ryzen 5 Laptops in India (2025)” illustrates exactly why. The list highlights a mix of thin-and-light everyday notebooks, work-focused business machines and entry-level gaming rigs available on Amazon India, but several specification lines, price...

Microsoft has set a firm deadline: on October 14, 2025 Windows 10 stops receiving routine security updates, feature improvements, and standard technical support — a hard lifecycle cliff that forces every remaining Windows 10 PC into one of three practical paths: upgrade to Windows 11 where eligible, buy a time‑boxed bridge with Extended Security Updates (ESU), or migrate workloads to cloud or alternate operating systems. Background Microsoft’s lifecycle pages and support notices spell out...

Xbox Game Pass makes playing hundreds of PC titles as simple as signing in and clicking Install — but there are a few important steps, settings, and troubleshooting tricks every Windows user should know to download Game Pass games reliably, manage storage, and avoid common pitfalls. This guide summarizes the straightforward install flow that Windows Report lays out while adding verified technical detail, proven workarounds, and safety tips drawn from Microsoft’s documentation and independent...

Canceling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is quick and straightforward: you can stop recurring billing from your Microsoft account, directly from an Xbox console, or from a Windows PC, and you’ll keep access to the service until the end of your current paid period. Background Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is Microsoft’s all-in-one gaming subscription that bundles console and PC Game Pass benefits, cloud streaming, and Xbox Live Gold into a single monthly or annual fee. It’s designed to let players access...

Microsoft has quietly begun rolling an AI-powered cleanup of chaotic photo libraries: the Windows 11 Photos app now includes an Auto‑Categorization preview that automatically sorts images into four practical collections — Screenshots, Receipts, Identity documents, and Notes — and Microsoft is rolling the preview to Windows Insiders on select Copilot+ PCs. Background / Overview Microsoft has been steadily converting the Photos app from a basic viewer into an AI-enabled productivity surface...