privacy and security

Windows 11’s push to make AI a first‑class, local capability has finally reached the hardware layer: a new class of laptops—Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs—is built around dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and is explicitly designed to deliver on‑device AI experiences that ordinary laptops...

Three weeks is not a long time in the life of a PC, but when that window sits directly ahead of a fixed end-of-support deadline it becomes a hard stop: Windows 10 will stop receiving routine security and quality updates on October 14, 2025, and every Windows 10 user now has three practical...

Microsoft has begun rolling out Gaming Copilot (Beta) to Windows PCs via the Xbox Game Bar, an in‑overlay AI assistant that promises real‑time, voice‑first help, screenshot‑aware guidance, achievement tracking, and personalized game recommendations — with mobile Xbox app support scheduled for...

Consumer Reports has formally urged Microsoft to extend free support for Windows 10, warning that tens — possibly hundreds — of millions of still-working PCs will be left exposed when mainstream updates and security patches stop on October 14, 2025. The advocacy group’s letter to Microsoft’s CEO...

Enable and Use Clipboard History & Cloud Sync in Windows 10/11 (Win+V) Difficulty: Intermediate | Time Required: 10 minutes Clipboard History (Win+V) can dramatically speed up copying and pasting by letting you keep a running list of recent clipboard items and — when enabled — sync them across...

Enable and Configure DNS over HTTPS (DoH) in Windows 10/11 for Better Privacy Difficulty: Intermediate | Time Required: 20 minutes Introduction DNS over HTTPS (DoH) encrypts DNS queries — the lookups your PC makes to convert website names (example.com) into IP addresses — by sending them over...

Microsoft PC Manager quietly doing the heavy lifting on Windows machines deserves a closer look: it bundles cleanup, process control, storage analysis, and protection tools into a single, lean interface that many users find far more approachable than hunting through Settings and Task Manager...

Microsoft has quietly begun serving a new, highly visual Bing ad that places a full “scoreboard” comparison between Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome above Chrome’s official download links on Windows 11 — a move that reframes a user’s intent at the precise moment they look to switch browsers and...

Google has quietly brought a native, Spotlight-like search experience to Windows with a new experimental desktop app that places a floating, AI-capable search bar on your PC and lets you summon it instantly with Alt + Space. Background Google’s experimental Windows app is being distributed...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

Google is quietly bringing its signature search experience to the Windows desktop with an experimental app that unifies results from your PC, Google Drive, installed applications and the web — all summoned with a simple Alt + Space shortcut. Background Google has long treated search as a...

Law firms are experimenting with artificial intelligence at a rapid clip, but according to recent reporting and industry surveys, widespread, fully governed production deployments remain the exception rather than the rule—a reality shaped less by technical immaturity than by ethical, regulatory...

Microsoft is quietly rolling out a one‑click pathway to check your internet connection from the Windows 11 taskbar: a new system tray shortcut that opens a network speed test in your default browser, currently visible in Insider preview builds. Background Microsoft has long leaned on...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider preview builds quietly add a one‑click internet speed‑test shortcut to the taskbar network flyout — but the shortcut simply opens Bing’s web‑based speed test rather than running a native, offline measurement — and the same builds also include a subtle but...

Microsoft’s renewed push to make Windows a deeply agentic, multimodal platform—paired with ambitious Copilot investments—has quietly rewritten the conditions that once made a Microsoft-branded phone an improbable gamble; taken together, those shifts make the idea of a “new Windows phone” not...

Microsoft and Cerence’s announcement at IAA Mobility 2025 that a voice-first, Microsoft 365 Copilot–powered assistant will run inside vehicles marks a decisive push to turn the car into a secure mobile office — but it also raises urgent questions about safety, privacy, enterprise governance, and...

Windows 11’s latest Beta-channel preview, Build 26120.5790, brings two pragmatic AI upgrades—fluid dictation and expanded Windows Studio Effects for additional cameras on Copilot+ PCs—alongside a UI tweak in File Explorer’s Home panel that may please some users but annoy others with added visual...

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...

A prominent tech writer has publicly abandoned the Windows 11 Start menu in favor of Flow Launcher, an open‑source, keyboard‑first app launcher — and in doing so rekindled a long‑running debate about how Windows should expose search, system commands, and shortcuts to power users. The transition...

IFA 2025 made one thing unavoidably clear: artificial intelligence is no longer an experimental sidebar at trade shows — it’s the main stage. From conversational TV companions to penguin-like domesticated robots and a self‑flushing cat toilet that promises to log your pet’s health metrics, AI...