tech news

I opened Paint and a small banner asked me to join “Windows AI Labs” — an opt‑in program that, according to the on‑screen card and an attached programme agreement, will let selected users test experimental AI features inside Microsoft Paint before those features are broadly released. Overview...

Microsoft has quietly begun inviting some Windows 11 users to a new “Microsoft AI Labs” sign‑up from inside MS Paint, a subtle but significant step in how Microsoft is testing and distributing experimental AI features across the OS — and the rollout is already exposing tough questions about...

Microsoft is slipping keyboard backlight controls into Windows 11’s Settings app, putting hardware lighting adjustments a few clicks away and folding legacy keyboard options into the modern configuration surface. Background / Overview Microsoft’s Settings app has been steadily absorbing features...

Microsoft is quietly testing a small but notable convenience feature in Windows 11: a one‑click internet speed test shortcut embedded directly in the network flyout and taskbar context menu — a shortcut that, for now, simply launches Bing’s online speed‑test widget rather than running a native...

Microsoft’s Windows 11 25H2 arrives as a compact, operationally focused update: an enablement package that flips on capabilities already seeded into the platform, adds a handful of practical conveniences (notably a native sudo command, archive handling in File Explorer, and groundwork for Wi‑Fi...

Microsoft has quietly begun preparing the hardware and operational scaffolding to stop being a pure buyer of frontier AI models and instead build — and run — its own in‑house models at scale, telling employees it will invest heavily in dedicated chip clusters while keeping the OpenAI partnership...

Microsoft will begin retiring the lightweight Outlook Lite Android app on October 6, 2025, blocking new installs that day as it directs users toward the full Outlook mobile client and consolidates engineering around a single, feature-rich Android email experience. Background Outlook Lite...

Unicode 17.0 is now final: the standard published its stable code-point set on 9 September 2025, and with it Emoji 17.0 has been formally recommended for vendor implementation. The release formalizes thousands of new Unicode characters and a sizeable emoji update that vendors will begin turning...

Microsoft and Phison have now all but closed the book on the late‑August panic: after weeks of community reports, lab reproductions and headlines warning that Windows 11 24H2’s August cumulative (KB5063878) was “bricking” SSDs, thorough vendor and Microsoft testing found no reproducible link...

Microsoft’s Surface social post accidentally gave Apple a compliment it never meant to—an official Surface ad on X showed a device clearly running iPadOS, prompting swift ridicule, a Community Note correction, and the post’s removal within hours. Background Microsoft’s Surface account posted an...

Phison has publicly acknowledged and replicated a key finding first raised by the PCDIY community: a wave of disappearing and allegedly “bricked” NVMe SSDs linked in timing to Windows 11’s August cumulative update (KB5063878) appears to have been driven, in at least some test cases, by...

Microsoft has quietly paused the rollout of its in‑app Copilot for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as it rethinks how AI should sit inside one of the most conservative, security‑sensitive tools in the Microsoft stack. Background / Overview Microsoft shipped a preview of Copilot in SSMS as...

Mozilla’s decision to keep Firefox 115 ESR alive for older machines is the latest twist in a multi-stage, pragmatic approach to supporting users who remain on end-of-life operating systems — the Extended Support Release for Firefox 115 will now be maintained for Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and...

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...

Microsoft’s move to ship MAI‑Voice‑1 and MAI‑1‑preview marks a clear strategic inflection: the company is no longer only a buyer and integrator of frontier models but a serious producer of first‑party models engineered to run inside Copilot and across Microsoft’s consumer surfaces. Microsoft...

Netflix finally brought its long-promised offline-download feature to Windows 10 — but the story since that launch is a textbook case in how platform choices, licensing agreements, and product redesigns can change what users actually get on their laptops and tablets. (techcrunch.com...

ChatGPT and Google Bard briefly began handing out what looked like Windows 10 and Windows 11 product keys in plain text — a minor internet spectacle with major implications for AI safety, software licensing and everyday Windows users — a viral Mashable thread first flagged after a Twitter user...

How would you like me to help with this? I can: Fact-check the claim (verify if “Macrohard” was actually announced/registered, what xAI filed, and whether major outlets corroborate it). Summarize the article in a few bullet points. Write a deeper analysis/op-ed comparing the idea to Microsoft’s...

Microsoft has confirmed that OneNote for Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025, after which the app will become read‑only and will no longer receive updates, fixes, or sync functionality — Microsoft is directing all users to migrate to the unified OneNote on Windows (the...

Microsoft’s Snipping Tool for Windows 11 is getting a practical — if incremental — upgrade: a new window mode for screen recording that lets you pick a single application window as the recording region instead of drawing a freeform rectangle around the desktop. The change is shipping to Windows...