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Microsoft has tucked a one‑click internet speed check into the Windows 11 taskbar — but for now it’s a launcher that opens Bing’s web speed‑test widget rather than a native, in‑OS measurement tool. Background / Overview Windows 11’s network menu just got a new convenience: a Perform speed test / Test internet speed control appears in the taskbar’s network (system tray) area and the Wi‑Fi quick‑settings flyout in recent Insider preview builds. Clicking the control launches your default...

Microsoft has quietly begun remapping the Xbox controller’s central Guide button in recent Windows 11 Insider builds so that a short tap still opens the Game Bar, a long press now opens Task View, and a sustained hold continues to power the controller off — a small input-change that signals a much larger shift toward controller-first navigation across Windows devices. Background / Overview Microsoft’s change arrived through Windows Insider preview flights in September 2025 and has been...

Microsoft is retiring the built-in Mobile Plans app and moving eSIM purchase and provisioning to a web-first model where carrier websites handle checkout while Windows Settings manages secure device provisioning and identifier consent. Background / Overview The Mobile Plans app — a small built-in storefront that shipped with Windows on cellular-capable laptops and tablets — was designed to help users discover participating mobile operators, buy short-term cellular data bundles, and receive...

AI assistants can — and do — confidently tell strangers that you committed a crime, voted a different way, or hold beliefs you don’t, and when that happens the damage is immediate, hard to correct, and increasingly baked into products people use for hiring, vetting, and decision-making. This is not hypothetical: the generative engines that power ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI, Perplexity and others regularly synthesize a single, authoritative‑sounding answer from a web of messy...

ProsperOps’ Autonomous Discount Management (ADM) is now generally available for Microsoft Azure via the Azure Marketplace, bringing the company’s algorithmic commitment‑management engine to Azure compute services and promising automated buys, sells, and portfolio reshaping of Reservations and Savings Plans for Compute to maximize savings while limiting commitment lock‑in risk. Background ProsperOps launched as a FinOps automation specialist in 2018 and built its reputation on continuous...

Rockstar’s long-awaited PC debut of the original Red Dead Redemption has given many Windows players a reason to celebrate — but a persistent stream of “unable to launch” and crash reports has left a sizable portion of users stranded at the launcher. Community troubleshooting lists (including a concise six‑step guide circulating online) identify a small set of recurring fixes that actually work for most affected systems; this feature unpacks those fixes, verifies the technical claims...

Borderlands 4’s launch has delivered the series’ trademark mayhem and a spike in player numbers — but the conversation this week has been dominated less by loot and boss fights than by stuttering frame rates, crashes on PC, and a CEO publicly telling frustrated players to “code your own engine.” Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford’s blunt replies on X (formerly Twitter) have turned what might have been a routine optimization debate into a PR story that threatens to overshadow the game’s design wins...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 preview build sharpens Copilot’s presence in daily workflows with new taskbar animations, drag‑and‑drop content handling, and deeper on‑device AI integration — a set of changes that promise faster, more contextual assistance while accelerating Microsoft’s push to offload routine AI work to local NPUs on Copilot‑ready hardware. Background Windows 11 has been steadily folding Copilot into core OS surfaces since the feature’s broad rollout began. Over the past year...

A programmer’s deep dive into Windows 11’s behavior has given a clear, if uncomfortable, explanation for why many users say Windows 10 still feels faster: aggressive background throttling tied to window focus and power-management policies on some hardware, combined with UX regressions in File Explorer and other shell components. The discovery—published as a community write-up and summarized in recent coverage—helps explain repeatable “snappy vs. sluggish” impressions, shows a path Microsoft...

Microsoft is quietly experimenting with a small but consequential change to how the Xbox button behaves on Windows 11: a long press of the Xbox button now opens Task View, while a short press still summons the Game Bar and a sustained hold continues to power the controller off. Background / Overview Microsoft shipped the behavior change to Windows Insiders in mid‑September 2025 as part of the Insider Preview flights for builds tied to Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. The Windows Insider...

Microsoft has started seeding an optional Release Preview update — KB5065789 — that previews key parts of the upcoming Windows 11 25H2 enablement package, bringing early access to AI-powered productivity features, accessibility upgrades, new emoji, and a handful of desktop and gaming refinements for Insiders and early testers. Background Windows 11’s 25H2 release is being delivered as an enablement package layered over the existing servicing branch, rather than a full OS rebase. That means...

Microsoft is quietly testing a one‑click internet speed test in Windows 11 that surfaces a “Perform speed test” launcher in the taskbar’s network menu and Wi‑Fi quick settings — a small UX change that opens Bing’s web speed‑test widget in the default browser rather than running a fully native measurement inside the OS. Background Windows has historically left ad‑hoc throughput checks to third‑party sites and apps — think Ookla’s Speedtest, Fast.com, or dedicated CLI tools like iperf3. That...

On October 14, 2025, support for Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 ends — one month from now — and organizations that delay face escalating operational risk, loss of security updates, and an increasingly narrow set of safe upgrade paths. Microsoft’s Exchange engineering team has issued a final T‑1 month notice urging immediate action: migrate to Exchange Online or move to the newly available Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE), apply April 2025 hotfix updates, and prepare...

Microsoft has quietly added a one‑click internet speed test launcher to Windows 11 Insider preview builds, placing a “Perform speed test” / “Test internet speed” control directly in the Taskbar’s network menu and Wi‑Fi quick settings — but the button is a launcher that opens Bing’s web speed‑test widget in your default browser rather than executing a native, in‑OS measurement. Background / Overview Windows 11 has been evolving through incremental Insider releases where Microsoft often...

Microsoft’s new Access Review Agent for Entra ID promises to turn one of the most tedious and error-prone identity-governance chores into a guided, AI-assisted workflow inside Microsoft Teams — but the convenience comes with clear prerequisites, operational trade-offs, and governance responsibilities that IT teams must plan for carefully. Background Access reviews are a core control in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD): scheduled recertifications that ask managers, owners, and...

Microsoft will begin automatically installing the standalone Microsoft 365 Copilot app in the background on many Windows devices that already run Microsoft 365 desktop clients, with a notable carve‑out for devices in the European Economic Area — a move that promises faster feature rollout and deeper Microsoft 365 integration, but also creates new management, privacy, and governance demands for IT teams and end users alike. Background Microsoft’s Copilot initiative has shifted from being an...

Microsoft is quietly testing a one-click network speed test shortcut in the Windows 11 system tray that launches Bing’s speed‑test widget in the default browser, putting a simple “Perform speed test” entry directly where users already go to check connectivity. Background Windows has long relied on third‑party websites and apps for ad hoc throughput checks: Speedtest by Ookla, Fast.com, and ISP portals are the typical go‑to tools. Microsoft’s recent Insider builds add a taskbar‑level shortcut...

Microsoft Copilot is built into Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, but it’s straightforward to hide, disable, or block the feature when you want a distraction‑free workspace or need to enforce an enterprise policy. Background Microsoft introduced Copilot as a system‑level assistant that blends local and cloud AI to offer contextual help inside Windows and Microsoft 365 apps. The feature is surfaced in multiple places — a taskbar button, a keyboard shortcut, context menus, and ribbon/buttons...

Apple's macOS Tahoe and Microsoft's Windows 11 now occupy distinctly different strategic positions: Apple is pushing an aesthetic and intelligence-led evolution that treats the desktop as a personal, context-aware companion, while Microsoft continues to fold AI into a broadly compatible, hardware-agnostic platform built for scale and legacy support. The result is an apples-to-oranges comparison where design philosophy, ecosystem reach, and hardware assumptions matter as much as raw features...

Microsoft’s own preview of Windows 11 25H2 may ship as a tiny enablement package, but running Ubuntu under WSL2 on that same Windows build is not indistinguishable from a native Ubuntu install — Phoronix’s fresh tests show a measurable, workload-dependent performance cost that deserves close attention from developers, sysadmins, and power users. Background Short version: Windows 11 version 25H2 is being delivered as an enablement package on the Windows 11 servicing branch — it flips staged...