privacy security

Perplexity’s Comet and Microsoft Edge’s Copilot Mode have turned a once‑straightforward choice — which Chromium browser to use — into a strategic decision about how much control you want to delegate to AI. In a matter of months the debate moved from “who renders pages fastest” to “who can safely...

I spent a week side‑by‑side with Windows 10 and Windows 11 to see whether the new OS really improves the day‑to‑day experience — and came away surprised: Windows 11 is a clearer, more modern platform in many places, but Microsoft’s marketing and some design choices make the upgrade feel like a...

Open‑source software gives Windows users a fast, private, and flexible path away from closed ecosystems — and ZDNet’s compact list of “10 open‑source apps I always recommend Windows users try — and they’re free” is a practical starter kit for anyone ready to swap proprietary defaults for...

Microsoft’s Photos app will now sort your messy camera roll for you — but only on select Windows machines and with a handful of important caveats. Background Microsoft announced an AI-powered Auto‑Categorization feature for the Windows 11 Microsoft Photos app in a Windows Insider post by senior...

Microsoft just gave Windows 10 users one last lifeline — but the window to grab it is small, conditional, and full of trade-offs you need to understand before you act. Overview Microsoft will stop regular security updates for consumer editions of Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, but it is...

Microsoft’s Copilot Vision packs the promise of a truly multimodal assistant: point a camera or share a window, and the AI reads, summarizes, translates, highlights UI elements, and even talks back — a combination of visual comprehension and conversational voice that changes what “help” on a PC...

Windows 11’s built‑in calendar covers the basics, but the real productivity gains often come from third‑party calendar apps that add deeper integrations, better visuals, and utility tailored to real workflows—this roundup examines five of the best free calendar apps for Windows 11, explains who...

Microsoft’s push to make Edge an “AI browser” took a decisive step this year with an update that gives Copilot the ability to act on users’ behalf inside the browser — opening and navigating tabs, running searches, and executing multi-step tasks like bookings and form-filling when explicitly...

Microsoft's direction is clear: there won't be a standalone "AI browser" from Redmond — instead, Copilot is being folded deeper into Microsoft Edge, turning the browser into an AI-first, agentic assistant that acts on context, orchestrates multi-step tasks, and tightly integrates with Microsoft...

Microsoft's Copilot button on the Windows 11 taskbar was designed to be a single, always-available gateway to AI assistance — but for a sizeable and vocal segment of Windows users, that convenience has become a nuisance, a privacy risk, and a reason to disable the feature entirely. Background...

Perplexity’s new Email Assistant promises to turn an overflowing inbox into a working assistant that schedules meetings, drafts replies in your voice, and auto-prioritizes messages — but it arrives as an exclusive, high-cost feature with real privacy and reliability trade‑offs that every Windows...

AI shopping assistants can trim real dollars off your receipts by automating the tedious parts of bargain hunting: they watch prices, test coupons, surface cash-back opportunities, and can even time purchases when a product is most likely to be cheapest. In the past two years these browser and...

Microsoft’s new 18‑second commercial for Copilot Labs lands like a concentrated marketing shot: bright visuals, brisk pacing and a single-minded message — Copilot is experimental, useful, and already part of everyday workflows — yet the ad’s brevity masks a deeper conversation about how...

Windows 11 Insiders are now seeing a new, unexpected entry in the parade of Copilot entry points: a floating “Share with Copilot” button that appears when you hover over an open app on the taskbar and use the window preview. The button launches Copilot Vision against the contents of that window...

Microsoft’s latest Canary‑channel experiment pushes intelligence deeper into the Windows shell: a new AI actions submenu in File Explorer lets you right‑click images to run Bing Visual Search, blur or remove backgrounds, and erase objects — all without opening a full editor. This context‑aware...

Microsoft’s refreshed Windows Backup now offers a built‑in, local PC‑to‑PC migration path that makes moving your personal files and many settings from an old Windows PC to a new Windows 11 machine far less painful than past upgrades — but it is not a silver bullet, and there are important...

PowerToys Run can replace the Start menu, and for a growing number of power users the switch feels less like a tweak and more like a fundamental productivity upgrade. Overview PowerToys Run is a lightweight, keyboard-first launcher included in Microsoft PowerToys that surfaces apps, files...

Windows 11’s clipboard history is one of those small features that delivers outsized productivity gains: enable it once, and you can paste from a rolling list of recent copies, pin recurring snippets, sync text across devices, and reclaim content you thought was gone. Background Clipboard...

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...

Windows already does most of what “optimizer” and “cleaner” apps promise — and in many cases it does it more safely. Background / Overview For decades a cottage industry of “PC optimizers,” “tune‑up suites,” and “registry cleaners” has promised faster boot times, reduced RAM usage, and a...