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Microsoft is quietly adding a one‑click internet speed test to Windows 11’s network menu — and while the button is a tidy UX win for quick troubleshooting, the current implementation simply opens Bing’s web speed‑test widget rather than running a native, in‑OS diagnostic, raising important questions about accuracy, telemetry, and enterprise suitability. Background Microsoft continues to iterate on Windows 11 via the Insider channels, and recent Dev and Beta preview builds (notably builds...

Microsoft has set a hard line: on October 14, 2025, mainstream security updates for Windows 10 stop — and whether you upgrade, pay, or sign into a Microsoft account will determine if your PC stays protected for another year or becomes exposed to newly discovered exploits. This deadline affects hundreds of millions of devices worldwide, forces hard choices for users with older hardware, and has already triggered a wave of enrollment tools, workarounds, and warnings. The countdown is real —...

Microsoft is adding a one‑click internet speed checker directly to the Windows 11 taskbar, visible in recent Insider preview builds and implemented as a shortcut that launches Bing’s speed‑test web widget from the network icon’s context menu and Wi‑Fi quick settings. Background Microsoft has been gradually moving lightweight utilities and troubleshooting flows out of heavy, in‑OS subsystems and into web‑backed experiences that are easy to update without a full OS servicing cycle. The...

A playful name and a deceptively simple prompt have pushed Google’s Gemini “Nano Banana” into the center of a new viral wave: users are turning ordinary selfies into hyper‑realistic miniature figurines, packaging mockups and even short animated clips with only a handful of words. The trend has exposed both the creative possibilities and the governance headaches of image‑first AI: Nano Banana (marketed as part of Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image pipeline) makes photorealistic 3D‑style...

India’s digital backbone is more dependent on US-controlled software, platforms and cloud services than most citizens realize — and that dependence now reads as a strategic vulnerability in the eyes of national security analysts and independent researchers. Background India’s public discourse over the last two years has moved rapidly from conversations about digital inclusion to far tougher questions about digital sovereignty — who controls the software, data flows and cloud infrastructure...

Microsoft is quietly testing a one‑click internet speed test in Windows 11’s system tray — a small UX convenience that opens Bing’s web‑based speed test from the network flyout and the taskbar icon’s context menu, rather than running a native in‑OS diagnostic. Background / Overview Windows 11 has been evolving through incremental feature rollouts delivered via Insider preview channels, and recent Dev and Beta builds contain a subtle but practical addition: a Perform speed test control placed...

Microsoft’s Windows week delivered a heavy mix of stabilization, incremental feature rollouts, and operational housekeeping: official ISOs for Windows 11 version 25H2 are now available to Windows Insiders, Patch Tuesday delivered several quality fixes (including a restored clock in the calendar flyout), Microsoft published migration guidance for legacy web and scripting technologies, and the industry continues to wrestle with a handful of hardware and tooling edge cases—from SSD firmware...

Microsoft is quietly testing a built‑in internet speed checker in Windows 11 that surfaces a one‑click “Perform speed test” control from the taskbar’s network menu — a shortcut that currently opens Bing’s speed‑test widget in the default browser rather than running a local diagnostic inside the OS. Background / Overview Windows 11 has been receiving steady incremental updates through the Insider channels, and this small convenience feature has been discovered in recent Dev and Beta preview...

Microsoft’s Copilot pilot in the UK, OpenAI’s decision to roll ChatGPT Projects out to free users, fresh industry moves in payments and insurance CRMs, and another wave of automation in contact centres together paint a clear — if messy — picture: generative AI is delivering real value in pockets, but the headline claim of “instant productivity” remains conditional and situational. Background / Overview Over the past week five items rose to the top for small-business technologists: a UK...

Microsoft’s Azure DevOps no longer sits unchallenged as the default CI/CD and ALM suite for every team — in 2025 a broad set of alternatives have matured into real, production-ready choices that often outpace Azure DevOps on ease of setup, GitOps alignment, cloud-native scale, or AI-assisted delivery. A recent industry roundup highlighted a cross-section of tools developers are trying this year, and this feature expands that snapshot into a practical guide: what each alternative actually...

Microsoft has marked a months‑old audio compatibility problem that blocked a subset of devices from receiving the Windows 11, version 24H2 feature update as resolved, after a vendor driver was published via Windows Update and the compatibility safeguard (safeguard ID 54283088) was removed for eligible systems. Background The issue traces to Dirac Audio, an OEM‑bundled audio enhancement suite used by multiple PC manufacturers, specifically to a binary named cridspapo.dll. After installing...

Microsoft is quietly testing a tiny but useful convenience: a one‑click network speed test tucked into Windows 11’s Taskbar network menu that — for now — simply opens Bing’s web speed‑test widget in your default browser rather than running a native, offline diagnostic inside the operating system. Background / Overview The discovery surfaced in Windows Insider preview builds and was publicized by community sleuths and tech reporters who monitor Insider channels. Early evidence shows a new...

Saudi Arabia’s deserts are rapidly being repurposed into one of the world’s most aggressive canvases for hyperscale data center expansion, a strategic pivot that combines vast land, cheap and increasingly green power, direct subsea connectivity, and state-backed capital to attract the biggest cloud and AI players. The move is already reshaping cloud geography: major providers are committing multibillion-dollar projects and partnerships, national champions are building net‑zero AI campuses...

Source code management remains the backbone of modern software delivery — and in 2025 the landscape reflects both continuity and rapid evolution as teams balance Git’s ubiquity with specialized tools for scale, binary assets, security, and integrated DevSecOps workflows. The Analytics Insight roundup that lists ten SCM options — Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos, Subversion (SVN), Mercurial, Perforce Helix Core, AWS CodeCommit, and Fossil — is a useful snapshot of choices that map...

Microsoft’s latest Insider flight sharpens Windows 11’s Copilot integrations with a new inline Copilot prompt box inside Click to Do, debuts a curated set of Emoji 16.0 glyphs, and delivers a wide-ranging set of accessibility and stability fixes in Dev Channel Build 26220.6682 (KB5065782)—but the release is deliberately cautious, gated, and carries a non-trivial set of known issues Insiders should weigh before installing. Background Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel received Build...

Microsoft’s mobile Maps experience is being rebuilt for touch first — adding richer search, turn‑by‑turn guidance for driving, walking and transit, 3D and street‑level views, and the ability to download region maps for offline use — a changeset the company tied to the Windows 10 for Phone technical preview and the broader Universal Windows Platform push. Background / Overview Microsoft’s mapping effort for Windows 10 has been framed as a unification of multiple mapping technologies — notably...

Microsoft’s release of a Windows SDK for Facebook — a native, open-source library that brings full Facebook login, Graph API access, feeds, photo uploads and Like functionality into Universal Windows apps — marks a deliberate push to make Windows a more attractive, social-first platform for developers and users alike, pairing Microsoft’s “Windows as a service” vision with Facebook’s massive social graph to try to boost app engagement across phones, tablets, desktops and even hardware like...

Microsoft has pushed Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27943 to the Canary Channel — a compact, maintenance‑focused flight that addresses several user‑facing annoyances while flagging two significant deployment blockers Insiders and developers must weigh before installing. Background / Overview The Canary Channel is Microsoft’s earliest public test ring for platform‑level work: builds here are experimental, frequently plumbing‑level, and not guaranteed to map to any specific Windows release...

Microsoft is quietly testing a small but notable convenience feature in Windows 11: a one‑click internet speed test shortcut embedded directly in the network flyout and taskbar context menu — a shortcut that, for now, simply launches Bing’s online speed‑test widget rather than running a native diagnostic inside the OS. Background / Overview Windows has steadily moved many diagnostic workflows from legacy, local tools into cloud‑backed and web‑driven experiences. The new speed‑test shortcut...

Oracle’s quarter rewrote expectations: a staggering $455 billion in booked future revenue and a five‑year Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) projection that takes OCI from a mid‑single‑digit cloud player into the same league, on paper, as the largest hyperscalers — if the contracts behind that backlog actually turn into steady revenue. Background: what changed and why it matters Oracle’s September earnings and management commentary shifted the company’s narrative in a single earnings cycle...