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Microsoft has moved Windows 11 version 25H2 into the Release Preview Channel, but this year’s annual update looks more like a careful tune‑up than a headline‑grabbing redesign: it’s an enablement package that flips on features Microsoft has been quietly staging all year, removes a small set of legacy management tools, and adds a few admin‑focused controls that matter to IT teams more than to consumers. Background / Overview Windows feature updates have evolved from large, image‑replacing...

StatCounter’s August snapshot delivered a surprise: Windows 11 slipped below the 50% mark while Windows 10 widened its footprint — even as that older OS races toward its October 14, 2025 end-of-support deadline. Overview The headline numbers are simple but puzzling. StatCounter’s global “Desktop Windows Version Market Share” for August 2025 shows Windows 11 at ~49.0% and Windows 10 at ~45.6%, with legacy versions (Windows 7, 8, etc. filling the remainder. That represents a multi‑point swing...

Windows 11’s Notepad has been modernized with formatting and AI features, but the classic, no-frills Notepad is still available — and with a few sensible tweaks you can run it side-by-side with Microsoft’s new Notepad or make it the editor that opens when you type notepad.exe. This article explains exactly how to restore the classic Notepad experience, why Microsoft made the change, the administrative controls available in business environments, and the trade-offs you should weigh before...

Booting Windows Server 2019 into Safe Mode is one of the simplest — and most powerful — recovery moves an administrator can make, and it’s essential knowledge for troubleshooting boot failures, driver conflicts, malware, or service-level corruption. Multiple, supported paths exist (System Configuration, the Advanced Startup/Shift+Restart flow, BCDEdit, and WinRE/installation media), and each has trade-offs that every sysadmin should understand before they reboot a production machine...

Navatar’s new release promises a purpose-built, AI-powered CRM designed for M&A advisory teams that automatically captures emails, meetings, messages and documents, surfaces relationship intelligence inside the tools bankers already use (Outlook and Slack), and runs generative AI workflows on that consolidated, structured data via Salesforce Agentforce and Microsoft Copilot. Background Generative AI has accelerated interest across private markets and investment banking, but firms keep...

Microsoft quietly added a native option in Windows 11 to push your PC clipboard to Android — and in early hands‑on testing it appears to land inside any Android keyboard that reads the system clipboard, including Gboard. Overview Windows 11’s clipboard has long been more than a lone Ctrl+C buffer: clipboard history (Win + V), cloud sync for Microsoft accounts, and keyboard integrations (SwiftKey) have been part of Microsoft’s cross‑device play for years. Microsoft is now testing a new toggle...

Windows 11’s insistence that low-level drivers must be signed is the single most effective consumer-facing defense Microsoft has built for the Windows kernel — and it’s also one of the clearest examples of security that feels, at times, actively hostile to the people who own the hardware it runs on. Overview Driver signing is a cryptographic gatekeeper: Windows checks a digital signature before it will allow code to run in kernel mode. That check is enforced on 64‑bit Windows builds going...

PlayStation’s next State of Play will put IO Interactive’s James Bond origin story, 007 First Light, center stage with a dedicated deep dive on September 3 — a more than 30‑minute gameplay showcase that promises a playthrough of Bond’s first mission as an MI6 recruit, followed by developer commentary and technical breakdowns. (gematsu.com, gamesradar.com) Background / Overview When IO Interactive pulled the curtain back on its James Bond project earlier this year it did more than drop a...

Microsoft is quietly preparing a broader rollout of Copilot Appearance — an animated, voice-enabled avatar for Copilot — while testing UI shifts and expanded memory controls that bring Microsoft’s assistant closer to the interaction patterns already familiar from ChatGPT, Gemini and other modern AI chat platforms. Background Copilot has evolved from a sidebar helper into a platform-level assistant embedded across Microsoft Edge, Microsoft 365 and Windows itself. Recent insider previews and...

LinkedIn’s slow pivot into casual gaming is more significant than it looks: what began as a trio of daily thinking puzzles has become a deliberate product play to boost engagement, surface novel social interactions, and keep users lingering on the platform — but it also raises real questions about privacy, workplace norms, and the mixing of play with professional identity. Background / Overview LinkedIn introduced its first in‑platform games in spring 2024 as short, thinking‑oriented puzzles...

Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Link has closed a compatibility gap: Meta Quest headsets can now pair with Windows 11 PCs running on Arm silicon — including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X–class devices — allowing the Quest 3 and Quest 3S to act as a floating Windows workstation with up to three virtual monitors. Background The new connection capability is the product of two coordinated moves: Meta’s Horizon OS v72 update added an experimental “Pair to PC with Microsoft Mixed Reality Link” option on Quest...

Microsoft’s Copilot has quietly taken a big step toward true multi-document reasoning: recent hands‑on reports and company disclosures show the assistant on Windows 11 and the web can now synthesize information across multiple uploaded files in a single request, enabling workflows that previously required manual collation or third‑party tools. Background / Overview Copilot began life as a chat‑style assistant integrated into Windows and Microsoft 365, but Microsoft has steadily repositioned...

Microsoft has quietly rolled out a fix that stops a spurious CertificateServicesClient (CertEnroll) error from filling Event Viewer on Windows 11, version 24H2 — a cosmetic logging artifact tied to the Microsoft Pluton cryptographic provider that Microsoft says did not affect certificate functionality and has now been addressed in the August preview cumulative update KB5064081. Background In mid‑2025 a pattern of noisy, error‑level events began appearing in the Application log on some...

Microsoft and Meta have quietly closed a compatibility gap that mattered to two rapidly converging camps: Meta Quest headsets can now connect to Windows on Arm PCs using Microsoft's new Mixed Reality Link, bringing the Windows 11 desktop into Quest headsets and extending virtual desktop capabilities to Snapdragon X–class machines. Background Mixed Reality Link is Microsoft’s refreshed approach to letting PCs and headsets act as one workstation: it streams a Windows 11 desktop into a Quest...

Microsoft quietly bolstered Copilot’s document smarts this week, enabling multi-file analysis that lets the assistant reason across multiple uploads in a single request rather than treating each file in isolation — a ChatGPT-style capability now visible in the Copilot web and Windows 11 app and reportedly able to synthesize up to three files at once in the consumer surface. Background Microsoft’s Copilot has evolved rapidly from a sidebar helper into a system-level assistant woven into...

Microsoft’s Windows 11, version 25H2, is deliberately low‑drama: rather than introducing a slate of brand‑new consumer features, Microsoft shipped it as a small enablement package that activates functionality already staged in the 24H2 servicing stream — and, in the process, removes legacy management tooling such as PowerShell 2.0 and WMIC. Background / Overview Microsoft has continued the servicing model it refined in recent years: new feature binaries are staged across monthly cumulative...

Windows developers and administrators who depend on client-certificate (mTLS) workflows will need to keep using workarounds: a structural limitation introduced by TLS 1.3 and the way Windows handles TLS in kernel (http.sys / Schannel) means IIS Express on Windows 11 cannot reliably request a client certificate after the initial handshake, Microsoft engineers confirm, and a permanent, transparent fix for the lightweight developer server looks unlikely in the near term. Background What changed...

Microsoft has moved the next annual Windows 11 update — Windows 11, version 25H2 (Build 26200.5074) — into the Release Preview testing ring, opening the final validation window for Insiders and commercial pilots ahead of a broader public rollout later this calendar year. The update is not a full OS rebase but is being delivered as a small enablement package (eKB) on top of the existing 24H2 servicing stream, which means most of the code has already been staged in monthly cumulative updates...

Microsoft has quietly pushed Windows 11, version 25H2 (preview Build 26200.5074) into the Release Preview Channel and is delivering it as a lightweight enablement package (eKB) that flips features already staged on 24H2 systems — a move that prioritizes security, manageability and low-impact deployment over a sweeping UI rebase. Background / Overview Microsoft’s annual Windows 11 feature update model has matured into a shared servicing branch approach where much of the next release’s code...

Microsoft has opened the Release Preview gates for Windows 11, version 25H2, delivering a near‑final enablement package (reported in preview as Build 26200.5074) that flips features already staged in the 24H2 servicing stream and invites Insiders, IT pilots and commercial customers to validate before a broader rollout later this year. Background / Overview Microsoft’s servicing model for Windows 11 has continued its shift toward a shared servicing branch approach: feature binaries are...