windows 11

For years the quickest way I reached for the volume on Windows was a keyboard shortcut or the tiny slider in Quick Settings—only to discover that Windows 11 quietly restored a single, frictionless gesture: hover the mouse over the speaker icon in the taskbar and roll your mouse wheel to change...

Microsoft released an out‑of‑band cumulative update for Windows 11 version 24H2 on September 22, 2025 — KB5068221 (OS Build 26100.6588) — that bundles quality fixes (including the fixes from the September 9, 2025 security rollup), updates several AI components, and quietly re‑emphasizes the...

Microsoft is quietly rolling out another round of practical — and strategically significant — updates to three of Windows 11’s oldest built‑in utilities: Notepad, Paint, and Snipping Tool. Insiders in the Dev and Canary channels can already try a mix of incremental UX improvements and larger...

Microsoft is quietly testing built‑in support for video wallpapers in Windows 11, a modern revival of the long‑forgotten DreamScene experiment from the Vista era that lets users set looping MP4, MKV and other video files as desktop backgrounds — and this time Microsoft is building the capability...

Windows 11’s personalization options are quietly regaining a long‑requested capability: native video wallpapers that let ordinary video files play as looping desktop backgrounds — a modern echo of Vista’s DreamScene now visible in Insider preview builds and gated behind experimental flags...

Apple and Microsoft have pushed the desktop into sharply different directions this year: macOS Tahoe bets on a curated, privacy‑first, design‑led desktop infused with on‑device AI, while Windows 11 continues to trade on hardware variety, backward compatibility, and a rapidly expanding set of...

Microsoft is quietly testing native video wallpapers in Windows 11 Insider preview builds — a DreamScene‑style feature that lets ordinary video files (MP4, MKV, MOV and others) act as looping desktop backgrounds directly from Settings or a File Explorer context menu — but it remains...

Microsoft is quietly testing built‑in video wallpapers for Windows 11, a modern revival of Vista’s DreamScene that lets ordinary video files act as looping desktop backgrounds directly from Settings — and the change could alter how millions of users personalize their PCs. Background The idea of...

Microsoft has quietly started testing native video wallpapers in Windows 11 Insider Preview builds — a DreamScene‑style capability that lets users set ordinary video files (MP4, MKV and others) as looping desktop backgrounds from the standard Settings UI. Background / Overview For nearly two...

Windows 11 is quietly testing native video wallpapers — a modern, DreamScene‑style capability that lets ordinary video files behave as looping desktop backgrounds — and the change has started showing up in Insider preview builds, sparking a mix of nostalgia and practical questions about battery...

Windows 11’s next annual refresh is officially on the doorstep: Microsoft’s 25H2 update has reached final pre-release builds and is being distributed to partners and insiders, but the real headline for many users may be the overhauled Start menu — a change already living, dormant, in Windows 11...

Microsoft is quietly testing a native “video wallpaper” capability in Windows 11 Insider builds that brings back a DreamScene‑style feature — letting ordinary video files (MP4, MKV, MOV and others) be set as looping desktop backgrounds directly from Settings or File Explorer — but the experience...

Apple’s macOS Tahoe and Microsoft’s Windows 11 have both evolved beyond simple visual refreshes into competing philosophies for how a modern desktop should behave — one optimized for curated, privacy‑centric on‑device intelligence and seamless multi‑device continuity, the other for broad...

Microsoft appears to be quietly restoring a one‑click way to put motion on the desktop: recent Windows 11 Insider preview builds include a native video wallpaper capability that treats ordinary video files as looping desktop backgrounds, a modern revival of Vista’s DreamScene now visible behind...

Windows 11’s personalization options are getting a nostalgic — and potentially divisive — upgrade: Microsoft is testing a native video‑wallpaper feature in recent Insider builds that lets you set a looping video file as your desktop background, reviving the spirit of DreamScene while aiming for...

Microsoft has quietly begun testing a native video‑wallpaper feature in Windows 11 Insider preview builds, a modern revival of Vista’s DreamScene that — according to multiple independent community reports — will let users set ordinary video files such as MP4 and MKV as looping desktop...

Microsoft has begun rolling out Gaming Copilot (Beta) into the Windows 11 Game Bar, bringing a contextual, voice-enabled Copilot experience directly into PC gaming sessions and promising to fold achievement tracking, play-history insights, and screenshot-aware help into the same overlay that...

Microsoft has quietly reintroduced a DreamScene-style capability in Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, with hidden support for setting ordinary video files (MP4, MOV, MKV and others) as looping desktop backgrounds — a neat personalization revival that’s currently gated behind experimental flags...

Microsoft has confirmed that an optional August servicing update for Windows 11, shipped as KB5064081 and folded into the September cumulative rollup KB5065426, introduced a regression that can block playback of DRM‑protected video in certain Blu‑ray, DVD and digital‑TV applications — a problem...

Windows 11 gives you multiple, fast ways to kill a misbehaving app — from the standard Task Manager to a hidden taskbar “End task” toggle and simple keyboard shortcuts — and knowing which method to use can save you time, prevent further instability, and limit data loss when an application goes...