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Microsoft Azure customers were jolted into a weekend of frantic console checks and support tickets after an account migration left forecasted costs wildly inflated, triggering automated budget alerts that suggested some organizations were about to exceed their planned spend by hundreds of percent. Background Azure's budget and forecast system is designed to give administrators early warning of potential overspend by combining actual consumption with a projection model that estimates...

Microsoft has quietly pushed three Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE) servicing packages — KB5065813, KB5065847, and KB5065848 — that change how Windows 11 (22H2/23H2/24H2) and Windows Server 2025 are provisioned at first boot, enabling day‑one quality updates and delivering emergency fixes to recovery and enrollment flows. Background The Windows setup flow has been evolving beyond a cosmetic first‑run wizard into a managed provisioning checkpoint where security posture and compliance can be...

Microsoft and a leading SSD controller vendor have pushed back on viral claims that a recent Windows 11 update “bricked” NVMe drives — after industry tests and Microsoft telemetry showed no reproducible, platform‑wide hardware failure, but the episode still leaves unanswered forensic questions and concrete steps users and IT teams should take now. Background / overview In mid‑August 2025 Microsoft shipped the regular Patch Tuesday cumulative update tracked by the community as KB5063878 for...

Title: Enable Hibernation (and 14 other practical Windows 11 tweaks) to squeeze more life from your laptop battery By: WindowsForum.com — Senior IT Desk Summary — what the Analytics Insight piece said (short) Analytics Insight’s visual guide recommends several straightforward Windows 11 tweaks — Battery Saver (Energy Saver), lower display brightness and refresh rate, Dark Mode, disabling unnecessary startup/background apps, and (notably) enabling hibernation so you can “save your session and...

Microsoft is retiring the long‑standing Mobile Plans app in Windows and moving plan discovery and purchase to carrier websites while keeping eSIM provisioning inside Windows Settings — a transition Microsoft says will take effect when the Mobile Plans app is removed and support ends in late February 2026. The change is less about cutting cellular support from Windows and more about consolidating where commerce happens: carriers will own checkout and subscription management, while Windows...

Microsoft’s 2025 Windows 11 update arrives as a quiet, operational pivot: Windows 11, version 25H2 is being shipped as a small enablement package that flips on features already staged in the 24H2 servicing stream, contains no headline-grabbing consumer features at launch, and explicitly removes legacy management tools such as PowerShell 2.0 and WMIC while giving IT admins new controls to trim preinstalled Microsoft Store apps on managed devices. Background / Overview Microsoft published the...

Samsung and Microsoft have quietly moved the next phase of conversational AI out of the pocket and onto the living‑room wall: Microsoft Copilot is now embedded in select Samsung 2025 Smart TVs and Smart Monitors as part of Samsung Vision AI, accessible from Tizen by voice or remote and surfaced across the Tizen home, Samsung Daily+ and Click to Search. The vendor messaging positions this as a living‑room‑first Copilot — a spoken, avatar‑backed assistant built to serve groups with...

Microsoft has pushed targeted Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE) updates for Windows 11 in late August 2025—delivering KB5065813, KB5065847 and KB5065848—to change how new and freshly imaged devices handle day‑one servicing and enrollment during initial setup. Background Microsoft has been reworking the Windows 11 setup flow to close the “day‑one patch gap” — the window between first boot and the first secured, compliant sign‑in — by introducing a managed OOBE update stage that can apply quality...

Windows 11’s recent lead over its predecessor proved to be fragile: Statcounter’s August snapshot shows Windows 11 slipping back below the 50% mark while Windows 10 recovered some ground, yet the newer OS still holds a larger share overall after overtaking Windows 10 in July. (gs.statcounter.com, windowscentral.com) Background Microsoft’s two most-used desktop operating systems have lived in a slow-motion duel ever since Windows 11 launched in October 2021. Windows 10 dominated for most of...

Microsoft has pushed Windows 11, version 25H2 into the Release Preview channel — Build 26200.5074 — signaling an imminent public rollout that many expect could land as soon as October. This near‑final preview is being delivered as a small enablement package on top of the 24H2 servicing stream rather than a full OS rebase, and Microsoft’s own notes and community coverage make clear the release emphasizes operational reliability, manageability, and incremental AI polish over headline consumer...

Microsoft pushed two targeted Dynamic Updates over the weekend — KB5065378 and KB5064097 — aimed at hardening setup and recovery for Windows 11, version 24H2, and Windows Server 2025, refreshing the small but critical set of setup binaries and the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) used during feature updates, media-based installs, and recovery flows. Background / Overview Dynamic Updates are a focused servicing mechanism Microsoft uses to refresh only the files Setup and pre-boot recovery...

Microsoft has quietly pushed PC makers to stop treating USB Type‑C as merely a cosmetic port and to implement the platform-level hooks Windows needs to deliver consistent, actionable notifications when Type‑C connections misbehave — a move that aims to end years of “plug‑and‑pray” frustration but which hinges on firmware, ACPI, and driver work at the OEM level. Background USB Type‑C promised simplicity: a single reversible plug for power, data, and alternate‑mode protocols such as...

Microsoft’s August 2025 Copilot push is one of the broadest enterprise- and user-facing updates yet — expanding admin controls, folding GPT‑5 into day‑to‑day workflows, and embedding multimodal editing and semantic search across Windows, Edge, Teams, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot surfaces. Background / Overview Microsoft has been turning Copilot from a single chat interface into a platform: a set of managed agents, on‑device features for Copilot+ PCs, and a server‑side model router that...

Microsoft has pushed Windows 11, version 25H2, into the Release Preview channel — a near‑final, enablement package release that IT teams and enthusiasts can validate now ahead of a broader public rollout later this year, with Microsoft identifying the preview as Build 26200.5074 and explicitly calling out the removal of legacy tooling such as PowerShell 2.0 and WMIC while adding new enterprise controls for inbox apps. Background / Overview Microsoft continues to refine Windows servicing with...

Microsoft has quietly published two targeted Windows 11 dynamic updates — KB5065378 (a Setup Dynamic Update) and KB5064097 (a Safe OS / WinRE Dynamic Update) — to refresh the setup binaries and the Windows Recovery Environment used during feature updates, media-based installs, and recovery flows. Background Dynamic Updates are a focused class of servicing packages Windows Setup pulls during an in-place upgrade or when booting from installation media; they let Microsoft refresh the small set...

Microsoft quietly published two targeted Dynamic Update packages for Windows 11, version 24H2 (and Windows Server 2025) — KB5065378 (a Setup Dynamic Update) and KB5064097 (a Safe OS / WinRE Dynamic Update) — on August 29, 2025, delivering refreshed setup binaries and a new Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) image to address installation and recovery reliability during feature updates and image deployments. Background / Overview Dynamic Updates are a class of servicing packages Windows...

Microsoft has pushed Windows 11, version 25H2 (build 26200.5074) into the Release Preview channel, making a near‑final enablement package available to Insiders, IT pilots and commercial customers for validation ahead of a broader rollout later this year. Background / Overview Microsoft continues to deliver its annual Windows 11 feature update via a shared servicing branch and a small enablement package (eKB) that flips on features already staged in monthly cumulative updates. That model...

OpenAI’s release of a public Realtime playbook and the general-availability launch of the gpt-realtime model marks a clear turning point: voice-first, low-latency agents demand a different prompt engineering toolkit than text-only models, and OpenAI’s guide distills that into practical rules anyone building speech-to-speech experiences should adopt now. (openai.com, cookbook.openai.com) Background / Overview Voice agents are not “chat in audio” — they’re an interface that mixes timing...

A serious compatibility change in Windows 11’s recent updates has left many IT teams scrambling — and, according to recent reporting, a Microsoft staffer appears to have indicated the behavior may not be reverted. The issue touches DHCP, WinHTTP/WPAD behavior and a surprising dependency that can leave corporate laptops with their network adapters disabled if an environment has hardened or disabled the WinHTTP Auto-Proxy (WPAD) service. Here’s what happened, why it matters for offices, what...

Businesses have entered the critical phase between planning and full-scale implementation for the Windows 10 → Windows 11 transition, and the calendar is unforgiving: Windows 10 support ends on October 14, 2025 — which means device readiness, compatibility validation and a staged deployment plan must now move from planning documents into operational action. Background / Overview Microsoft has set a firm cutoff: Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. After that date...