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Microsoft’s August cumulative (KB5063878) has been tied to a narrow but serious class of SSD failures and strange slowdowns — and while community researchers now point to pre‑release engineering firmware on some drives as a plausible trigger, the broader evidence remains mixed and important questions about reproducibility, vendor disclosure, and risk mitigation are still unresolved. Background / Overview Windows Update delivered KB5063878 as the August 2025 cumulative for Windows 11 24H2 (OS...

Windows 11 Insiders can now insert an en dash (–) and an em dash (—) with two simple keyboard combos — Win + - for an en dash and Win + Shift + - for an em dash — a small, practical change that removes a long-standing friction point for writers, editors, and anyone who types punctuation frequently. Background Windows has long offered several ways to type typographic dashes — none of them particularly elegant for everyone. Power users have relied on numeric Alt codes (Alt + 0150 for en dash...

Microsoft has warned Azure customers that parts of its cloud are seeing higher-than-normal latency after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer detours while carriers and cloud engineers reroute capacity and prepare repairs. Background The modern internet — and by extension public cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure — depends on a handful of high-capacity submarine fiber-optic cables for the bulk of intercontinental traffic. A narrow...

Microsoft’s latest back‑to‑school play hands eligible U.S. college students a full, 12‑month Microsoft 365 Personal subscription — including the integrated Copilot AI assistant and 1 TB of OneDrive storage — at no charge, a time‑limited promotional move that accelerates AI exposure on campus while raising immediate questions about privacy, renewal mechanics, and academic integrity. Background / Overview Microsoft announced the student promotion as part of a broader education push unveiled at...

Millog’s new Riihimäki test centre opens a direct lane between Nordic startups and NATO-linked defence customers, combining a low-threshold, standards-focused testing environment with HAMK’s GPU-backed AI infrastructure to accelerate dual-use technology development for both civil and military markets. Background Finland has systematically built a dense regional defence innovation cluster around Riihimäki in recent years, led by the Defence Innovation Network Finland (DEFINE), local...

Microsoft’s August security rollup intended to close a Windows Installer privilege‑escalation hole but instead changed repair semantics in a way that makes many standard (non‑admin) users see unexpected User Account Control (UAC) prompts or fail with MSI Error 1730 when launching applications that rely on per‑user configuration flows. Background / Overview The problem traces to the August 12, 2025 cumulative updates — delivered as combined Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) plus Latest Cumulative...

Microsoft has warned customers that Azure performance in and through the Middle East may be degraded after multiple undersea fibre-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic to be rerouted and raising fresh questions about the fragility of the global internet backbone and cloud resiliency strategies. Background The incident centres on a cluster of submarine cable failures in the Red Sea that monitoring groups and industry sources say have severed critical links connecting Asia...

Microsoft has warned Azure customers they may see higher-than-normal latency and intermittent slowdowns after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer detours while engineers reroute and rebalance capacity to limit customer impact. Background / Overview The internet’s long-distance arteries are physical: submarine fiber-optic cables move the vast majority of intercontinental traffic between Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. A narrow...

Microsoft Azure users experienced elevated latency and disrupted connections after multiple undersea fibre-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut on September 6, 2025, forcing cloud traffic to be rerouted through longer, more congested paths and exposing fragilities in the global internet backbone that directly affect cloud performance and enterprise continuity. Background Undersea fibre-optic cables carry the vast majority of global internet, cloud, and voice traffic. Critical systems such as...

Microsoft’s Azure cloud is reporting higher‑than‑normal latency for traffic that traverses the Middle East after a cluster of undersea fiber‑optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing Azure to reroute traffic onto longer alternate paths while repair and traffic‑engineering work continue. Background / Overview The modern internet is built on an underwater web of high‑capacity fiber — submarine cables that carry the vast majority of intercontinental data. A thin maritime corridor through...

The compact 18‑key cordless numeric keypad — the retro, round‑keycap mini number pad sold under a variety of generic and small‑brand names — is an inexpensive, plug‑and‑play way to restore a dedicated number pad to a laptop or compact keyboard, but buyers should weigh real‑world ergonomics, battery behavior and security trade‑offs before clicking “Add to cart.” Background / Overview External numeric keypads have returned to the accessory spotlight as ultraportable laptops and tenkeyless...

Microsoft warned that parts of its Azure cloud “may experience increased latency” after multiple undersea fiber‑optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer alternate routes while engineering teams reroute, rebalance and monitor affected flows. Background / Overview The Red Sea corridor is a narrow but strategically vital maritime chokepoint for intercontinental submarine fiber systems linking Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. When several high‑capacity links in...

Microsoft’s Azure cloud is reporting elevated latency and patchy performance after multiple undersea fiber‑optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer, less direct routes while carriers and cloud operators reroute and rebalance capacity to limit customer impact. Background / Overview The Red Sea is a narrow, strategically vital maritime corridor where several high‑capacity submarine cables transit between Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. When one or more of...

Microsoft Azure has warned customers of higher‑than‑normal latency after multiple undersea fiber‑optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer alternate routes while Microsoft engineers reroute and rebalance capacity to limit user impact. Background The global internet depends overwhelmingly on submarine fiber‑optic cables; these undersea trunks carry the bulk of intercontinental data between continents and are the physical backbone beneath cloud platforms such as...

Microsoft confirmed that parts of its Azure cloud are experiencing higher-than-normal latency after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer detours while engineers reroute and rebalance capacity to limit user impact. Background The Red Sea is a narrow but strategically critical maritime corridor for east–west internet traffic that connects Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. A disproportionately large amount of intercontinental data...

Microsoft’s next major Windows chapter is already shaping up as a defining moment for the PC era: rumors and early leaks point to a profoundly AI-centric, security-first, and modular operating system—commonly referred to as Windows 12—that could reshape how people interact with their computers, what hardware is required, and how enterprises plan migrations. Background / Overview The timing for a successor to Windows 11 is being driven as much by business and lifecycle forces as by...

Microsoft's cloud networking teams are racing to contain higher-than-normal latency on Azure after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were damaged, forcing traffic through longer, less direct routes and exposing a fragile chokepoint in the global internet backbone. Background The global internet relies on a patchwork of undersea fiber-optic cables that carry the vast majority of intercontinental data. When a cable breaks, the result is not always a total outage — more often...

Microsoft warned Azure customers on September 6, 2025 that parts of its global cloud network are experiencing higher-than-normal latency and intermittent service degradation after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer detours while carriers and cloud operators reroute and prepare repair operations. Background The Red Sea is a narrow but crucial maritime corridor for submarine fiber-optic cables that carry the bulk of intercontinental...

The same wars that leave cities and monuments in ruins also reverberate through the world’s invisible networks — from ancient colonnades laced with unexploded ordnance to the undersea fiber arteries that carry cloud services — exposing how fragile both culture and commerce have become in the age of modern conflict. Background: two kinds of hidden damage — mines beneath feet, cuts beneath seas Across the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of Africa, landmines and explosive remnants of war...

Microsoft has warned Azure customers they may see elevated latency and intermittent service degradation after multiple undersea fiber‑optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing traffic onto longer detours while carriers and cloud operators reroute and prepare for repairs. Background The global internet — and by extension public cloud platforms like Azure — relies on a dense web of submarine fiber cables that carry the vast majority of intercontinental data. A narrow maritime corridor...