group policy

  1. Auditing SMB Hardening for CVE-2025-55234: From Audit to Signing and EPA

    Microsoft has published advisory guidance tied to CVE‑2025‑55234 that focuses less on a new exploitable bug and more on enabling administrators to find and measure exposure to SMB relay‑style elevation‑of‑privilege attacks before they flip stronger hardening controls. The short form: the SMB...
  2. NTFS Stack Overflow in Windows: Mitigation, Patch, and Detection (2025)

    A newly reported Windows NTFS vulnerability described as a stack-based buffer overflow that “allows an authorized attacker to execute code locally” has raised immediate concern—but the specific CVE identifier you provided (CVE-2025-54916) could not be located in public vendor and vulnerability...
  3. Audit-First SMB Hardening in Windows Server: Signing and EPA Readiness

    Microsoft has added built‑in auditing to help administrators safely roll out two proven SMB server hardening features—SMB Server signing and SMB Server Extended Protection for Authentication (EPA)—so that organizations can discover compatibility gaps before they require those hardening controls...
  4. Windows 11 UAC: Safe, Targeted Ways to Silence Prompts

    User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 11 protects the system by requiring explicit permission for actions that need elevated privileges, but for experienced users and specific workflows its prompts can become an impediment — this feature article explains every supported way to silence UAC...
  5. Windows 11 24H2 Adds Mouse Scroll Direction Toggle in Settings

    Microsoft’s decision to restore a simple, long-requested Windows 10 convenience—the ability to flip the mouse wheel scrolling direction from the modern Settings app—feels small, but it’s one of those pragmatic changes that quietly improves everyday usability for millions of people. Background...
  6. Undo OneDrive Backup in Windows 11: Move Folders Back Local

    Microsoft’s OneDrive Backup can be switched on for you during Windows 11 setup — but your files aren’t stolen; they’ve simply been moved into OneDrive and synced. If you prefer your Documents, Pictures, and Desktop to live locally, the change is reversible: stop folder backup in OneDrive, then...
  7. AI Actions in File Explorer: Quick Edits & Visual Search in Windows Insider

    Microsoft is quietly folding AI-powered image editing and Bing visual search directly into the File Explorer right‑click menu as part of Insider testing, a move that turns the once‑simple file manager into a micro‑workflow gateway for quick edits and visual lookups. Background Microsoft’s...
  8. Windows AI Actions in File Explorer: One-click Image Edits & Visual Search

    Microsoft’s latest Insider whispers fold AI deeper into the Windows shell: right‑click a picture in File Explorer and you may now see an “AI actions” submenu offering Bing Visual Search, background blur, object erase, and background removal — a small set of micro‑workflows that signal a broader...
  9. Windows 11 God Mode: Fast All Tasks access for admins

    Windows 11 still feels like two operating systems glued together when you hunt for settings, and the old community trick known as God Mode remains the fastest practical way to make sense of the mess. Background / Overview Windows has been migrating decades of Control Panel functionality into the...
  10. Windows 11 25H2: No Performance Gain Over 24H2; Linux Leads CPU Benchmarks

    Microsoft’s own numbers (and independent testing) make the headline simple: Windows 11 version 25H2 delivers no measurable raw performance gain over 24H2 — it’s an enablement package, not a re‑engineered OS — while modern Linux builds continue to show a meaningful edge in CPU‑bound workloads...
  11. Windows 11 Canary Preview: AI Actions in File Explorer, Privacy, and Seconds Clock

    Microsoft’s latest Canary-flight experiment stitches small, familiar conveniences into a broader push to make generative AI an everyday part of the Windows shell: right‑click inside File Explorer and you may now see an AI actions submenu that offers visual search and one‑click image edits...
  12. Windows 11 Insider: Clock with seconds, AI actions in Explorer, and AI controls

    Microsoft has quietly restored the little thing that annoyed a surprising number of users: the expanded clock in Notification Center can once again show seconds — and that small user-experience win arrives alongside a broader set of AI-focused experiments that put generative image actions...
  13. Build 27938: AI Actions in Explorer, Seconds Clock, and Power‑User Windows Tips

    On September 8, 2025 Microsoft pushed a fresh Canary-channel flight—reported as Build 27938—that strings together a set of small-but-significant UI and AI experiments. The visible pieces are straightforward: a new “AI actions” entry in File Explorer’s right‑click menu that surfaces image edits...
  14. OneDrive Known Folder Move: How Windows Reassigns Folders and How to Reclaim Them

    If you’ve ever set up a new Windows PC or clicked through a Windows update without scrutinizing every prompt, you may have opened File Explorer one day and discovered that your Documents, Desktop or Pictures folders now live inside a OneDrive folder — and that many of those files are quietly...
  15. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen in Edge: Real-time phishing and download protection

    Microsoft Defender SmartScreen in Microsoft Edge acts as a live reputation and content filter that warns users about phishing pages, malicious downloads, and suspicious sites before they can do harm. (support.microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com) Background Microsoft Defender SmartScreen began as...
  16. Edge 140 Release: Scareware Blocker, HTTPS-First, Tab Groups Auto-Save, GPT-5 Copilot

    Microsoft Edge’s September update lands as a significant security-and-productivity release: Edge 140 (stable build 140.0.3485.54) ships a local AI-powered Scareware blocker, an HTTPS‑first upgrade path, automatic persistence for Tab Groups, expanded Copilot/GPT-5 integrations and media-creation...
  17. Windows 11 25H2: Release Preview Enablement Package & ISO Delay Explained

    Microsoft quietly pulled back the promised ISO images for Windows 11, version 25H2 this week, updating its Release Preview announcement to say the ISOs are “delayed and coming soon” even as the update itself lands in the Release Preview channel as an enablement-package style release. Background...
  18. Windows 11 25H2: A lean enablement upgrade for faster, low-risk updates

    Windows 11’s 25H2 update arrives as a purposeful whisper rather than a shout: a compact enablement package that flips on functionality Microsoft has already staged throughout the 24H2 servicing stream, adds modest polish and manageability controls, and retires a couple of long‑deprecated...
  19. Windows 11 25H2: A lean, enterprise-focused enablement update

    Windows 11’s 25H2 update arrives as a deliberate exercise in restraint: a compact, low‑impact enablement package that flips on features Microsoft already staged over the past year rather than delivering a slate of headline-grabbing functionality, and it arrives with a targeted set of enterprise...
  20. Windows 11 25H2 Release Preview: Enablement Package Explained for IT Pros

    Microsoft has quietly opened the gates: Windows 11 version 25H2 is now available to testers in the Windows Insider Release Preview channel as a small, fast enablement package that flips features already staged in the 24H2 servicing branch — which means you can install the 2025 annual update on...