testing

  1. Windows 11 26220.6682 Dev: Copilot prompts, Emoji 16, Narrator accessibility upgrades

    Microsoft’s latest Insider flights deliver a compact but meaningful set of refinements — from a new Copilot prompt box inside Click to Do to a curated Emoji 16 rollout and deep accessibility fixes for Narrator — packaged in Dev build 26220.6682 (and matching Beta build 26120.6682), signaling...
  2. Nano11 Builder: Ultra-Small Windows 11 ISOs via Aggressive Debloat

    NTDEV’s new Nano11 Builder takes the Windows‑11 debloat movement from pragmatic trimming to experimental minimalism, producing bootable ISOs and installed images measured in single‑digit gigabytes by surgically removing inbox apps, servicing infrastructure, and even parts of the Windows...
  3. Windows 11 25H2 ISO Released for Release Preview — eKB Enablement & Admin Migration

    Microsoft has quietly published official ISO images for Windows 11, version 25H2 to the Windows Insider Preview downloads area, completing a key piece of release scaffolding for IT teams, OEMs, and enthusiasts even as most devices receive the feature update as a lightweight enablement package...
  4. Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka: Rust Coreutils, RC Kernel, GNOME 49, X11 Tradeoff

    Ubuntu’s next interim release, Questing Quokka (25.10), has entered its User Interface Freeze as Canonical rides a wave of late-cycle engineering changes: Rust-based system utilities moving into the default image, an aggressively modern kernel target that could ship as a release candidate at...
  5. Retro Windows 7 Look on Windows 11 with Start11 and WindowBlinds

    I dragged my Windows 11 desktop back into the late 2000s, and — to my surprise — the result isn’t just nostalgia porn: it’s a practical, usable environment that keeps modern security and features while restoring the things many people still prefer about Windows 7. The MakeUseOf walkthrough that...
  6. Engineering Firmware Causes SSD Failures Linked to Windows 11 KB5063878, Phison Confirms

    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...
  7. Windows 11 Update: SSD Failures Linked to Engineering Firmware, Not Production Firmware

    A small Taiwanese PC‑building community may have just pulled a loose thread that explains a wave of terrifying reports about Windows 11 “bricking” SSDs: the drives that failed in public tests were running pre‑release, engineering firmware — not the production firmware shipped to regular...
  8. Windows 11 KB5063878 Update Not Linked to SSD Failures: What It Means

    Microsoft says its August Windows 11 security update (KB5063878) is not behind the recent wave of reports alleging SSDs and HDDs have been rendered inaccessible or corrupted, but the episode has exposed gaps in forensic clarity and left many users mistrustful of a conclusion drawn without a...
  9. KB5063878: No Widespread SSD Failures in Windows 11 24H2

    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...
  10. Windows 11 KB5063878: Not a universal SSD killer, but a risk for heavy writes

    Last week’s viral panic about a Windows 11 update “bricking” SSDs has been louder than the underlying evidence — but it also exposed real, repeatable failure patterns that deserve careful attention from users and IT teams. Microsoft and Phison, the SSD controller vendor most frequently named in...
  11. Phison NVMe SSD Failures After Windows 11 Updates: Reproducibility and Risk

    Phison’s latest test summary puts the disputed SSD failures tied to Windows 11 updates into a new, uneasy middle ground: vendors and Microsoft say they cannot reproduce a widespread “bricking” problem, while a small but alarming set of user reports continues to describe drives disappearing and...
  12. Windows 11 Aug 2025 KB5063878: SSDs Vanish Under Heavy Writes

    A wave of community test results and vendor confirmations this week has put the latest Windows 11 cumulative update under a harsh spotlight: several SSDs can disappear from Windows during sustained, large write operations after installing the August 12, 2025 update (KB5063878), with a...
  13. AppLockerGen: Open-Source XML Policy Editor for Windows AppLocker

    The arrival of an open-source AppLocker policy generator aimed at simplifying XML policy creation for Windows administrators deserves attention: AppLockerGen promises a lightweight, web-like interface to author, merge, inspect, and export AppLocker policies — but the tool’s appeal comes with...
  14. Windows 11 dark mode expands to File Explorer dialogs in Insider builds

    Windows 11’s long-fractured dark mode has taken a tangible step toward cohesion: recent Insider Beta and Dev builds quietly include dark-themed File Explorer dialog boxes, and community testers can already surface them with third‑party tooling. This is the most visible sign yet that Microsoft is...
  15. Windows 11 Canary Build 27924: Copilot+ AI, Advanced Settings, and Risks

    Today’s Canary-channel flight, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27924, marks a significant push by Microsoft into earlier-stage platform experimentation — and it ships with a packed, sometimes contentious mix of AI-driven features for Copilot+ PCs, new system-level settings, app updates, and...
  16. Booting Windows 24H2 with ReFS 3.14 as Native FS

    The question comes about if it is currently possible and stable to install Windows 11 Pro (or Enterprise) on ReFS. Apparently this appears possible based on a Guru3D post: testing instaling windows 11 24h2 build 26100 on reFS I currently have converted my D drive to ReFS by copying all files to...
  17. VIDEO GPU & CPU Power Testing Needs an Overhaul | Discussion ft. Aris of Cybenetics

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    Windows 11: some questions on Android mode

    Hi All, Windows 11-Pro 22H2 I can not run android mode in my Windows 11-22H2 virtual machine. So I can't test it out myself. I need an "accomplice". I really need all the questions answered, not just the first one. 1) do I need to install Android operating system or does it come with...
  19. VIDEO Ultimate FAIL! What Linus Tech Tips, Gamers Nexus, Jay2cents ALL Get WRONG When Thermal Testing

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  20. VIDEO When Parts Don't Die (We Tried to Kill ASUS' Motherboards)

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