virtualization

A simple three-image metaphor — a lone pickup with a crate, a convoy of trucks hauling trailers, and a single pickup stacked with multiple boxes — captures the essential differences between stand‑alone systems, virtual machines (VMs), and containers better than most dense technical diagrams...

I switched my usual VM workflow to Windows Sandbox for a week, ran a steady stream of third‑party apps, and came away impressed — but not uncritical — about how Microsoft’s lightweight, disposable virtualization tool changes the way enthusiasts and developers can test software on Windows...

Windows can be pushed toward “mostly immutable,” but achieving that feeling of an unbreakable PC on a consumer machine takes trade-offs, careful tooling, and a willingness to accept brittleness where convenience once lived. Background / Overview Immutability in operating systems means separating...

Windows Sandbox is the kind of overlooked Windows feature that quietly solves real-world problems for developers, power users, and anyone who downloads software they don’t fully trust—without the friction of setting up a full virtual machine. Background Windows has shipped many niche features...

Windows 10 will stop receiving free security fixes on October 14, 2025 — and if your PC can’t take the free Windows 11 upgrade, you have five realistic paths forward: enroll in Extended Security Updates (ESU), buy or rent a new Windows 11 PC (including cloud PCs), perform an unsupported upgrade...

Microsoft’s claim that Arm-based Windows PCs now see most user minutes spent inside natively compiled apps marks a pivotal moment for the platform — a transition from compatibility-first survival to native-first performance and efficiency. Microsoft executives point to a figure that will shape...

Steam will stop supporting Windows 32‑bit installations on January 1, 2026, a move that, if confirmed and implemented as reported, will leave the vanishingly small number of users still running Windows 10 in its 32‑bit form without client updates, security fixes, or official Steam Support help —...

As an experiment that sounds more like a retrofuturist stunt than practical advice, a 2005 Sun workstation powered by an early AMD Opteron has been shown booting and running Windows 11—thanks not to official support but to a pared-down, community-built Windows image known as Tiny11 and an...

Microsoft released a targeted hotpatch—KB5065474—on September 9, 2025, for Windows 11 Enterprise (24H2 / LTSC 2024) that advances eligible devices to OS Build 26100.6508, delivers a focused app-compatibility / UAC repair, and includes two operational advisories administrators must treat as high...

Microsoft's Azure Linux 3.0.20250910 adds an optional Linux 6.12 LTS hardware‑enablement (HWE) kernel, giving Azure customers a supported path to newer device drivers and platform improvements while keeping the existing Linux 6.6 LTS kernel available for conservative deployments. Background...

Apple’s macOS 26 “Tahoe” and Microsoft’s Windows 11 no longer compete on the same flat plane — Tahoe doubles down on a design‑led, privacy‑first desktop infused with on‑device intelligence, while Windows 11 pushes AI into a broadly compatible, enterprise‑ready platform that still owns gaming and...

Microsoft’s Secure Boot update FAQ makes clear that a coordinated, multi-step transition is now live: Windows will roll new 2023 signing certificates into UEFI variables and update the Windows boot manager to preserve Secure Boot protection ahead of the 2011 CA expirations, but the rollout...

Microsoft’s September cumulative for Windows 11, KB5065426 (OS Build 26100.6584), is proving to be a high‑priority security and quality rollup — and for a meaningful subset of users it’s also proving unusually stubborn: installs failing with a wide variety of error codes, long downloads, and in...

Microsoft has released KB5066360, a targeted hotpatch for Windows PowerShell that corrects an interoperability and security regression affecting PowerShell Direct (PSDirect) when host and guest virtual machines are unevenly patched; the update is a no-restart hotpatch for eligible systems and...

Microsoft’s own preview of Windows 11 25H2 may ship as a tiny enablement package, but running Ubuntu under WSL2 on that same Windows build is not indistinguishable from a native Ubuntu install — Phoronix’s fresh tests show a measurable, workload-dependent performance cost that deserves close...

NTDEV’s latest builder shrinks a full Windows 11 ISO down to a reported 2.29 GB by surgically removing nearly everything most users expect from a modern desktop OS — from Xbox and Solitaire to Windows Update and Windows Defender — producing an extremely compact, intentionally unserviceable image...

WinBoat arrives as one of the clearest attempts yet to bridge the Windows-on-Linux gap by running a full Windows environment inside a lightweight Docker container and exposing apps to the Linux desktop as (nearly) native windows. Background WinBoat is an open‑source project from TibixDev that...

Nano11’s demo-sized ISO and sub‑3GB installed footprints are headline‑grabbing — but they’re the result of deliberate surgical removals and heavy compression that trade serviceability, security, and general compatibility for raw minimalism. Background / Overview Windows 11’s default footprint...

Connecting from a Mac to a Windows PC is no longer a niche trick; it’s a day‑to‑day workflow for developers, accountants, and hybrid workers who want the best of both worlds. With the Microsoft Remote Desktop client (and the newer Windows App consolidation on macOS), a properly configured...

Oracle’s VirtualBox 7.2.2 arrives as a focused maintenance release that patches several painful regressions introduced with the 7.2 series—most notably virtual machines failing to start on Windows‑on‑ARM hosts, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) emulation problems for some guests, multiple GUI...