windows update

Windows 11’s monthly updates are essential, but they can also break critical functionality without warning — the August 2025 Patch Tuesday cycle proved that once again, and the fallout shows why every Windows user and IT team needs a tested recovery plan before applying patches. Background /...

Microsoft set a hard deadline for Windows 10 support — October 14, 2025 — and has offered a narrowly scoped lifeline for holdouts: the consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program that extends security-only patches for one additional year, through October 13, 2026. This article explains...

Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel are receiving a substantial cumulative flight: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.5770 (KB5064093), a Dev-only increment that continues Microsoft’s staged push of Copilot‑centric productivity features, expanded Microsoft 365 integration, and accessibility...

Microsoft has published the August 2025 non‑security preview update for Windows 11, version 24H2 — delivered as KB5064081 and shipping an updated servicing stack that identifies as OS Build 26100.5074 — packing a mix of staged AI features, UI polish, reliability fixes, and several enterprise‑facing

Microsoft has quietly published KB5066123, an Image Processing AI component update that advances the component to version 1.2508.906.0 for AMD-powered Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11, version 24H2 — a targeted, vendor-specific push to refine on-device image processing used by Photos, Camera...

Microsoft has quietly released KB5066122, an Image Processing AI component update that advances the on-device imaging stack to version 1.2508.906.0 for Intel‑powered Copilot+ systems running Windows 11, version 24H2 — a targeted, vendor‑specific push intended to improve image scaling...

Microsoft has pushed another incremental but important update for on‑device AI: KB5066125 upgrades the Phi Silica AI component to version 1.2508.906.0 for Qualcomm‑powered Copilot+ PCs, delivered automatically through Windows Update to qualifying Windows 11 (24H2) devices. Background / Overview...

Microsoft has quietly pushed an Image Transform update to Copilot+ Windows 11 machines: KB5066124 advances the on‑device Image Transform AI component to version 1.2508.906.0, bringing incremental improvements to the inpainting, erase-and-fill, and related image-editing primitives used by Photos...

Error 0x8000FFFF — the dreaded “Catastrophic failure” — is rarely fatal, but it’s a disruptive Windows error that often appears after an update, during a System Restore, or when a core servicing operation fails; it generally signals corrupted system files, a damaged component store, driver...

Microsoft has set a hard stop: Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025, and consumers who want to keep receiving critical security fixes after that date must take action now — either upgrade to Windows 11, move to another supported environment, or enroll in Microsoft’s consumer...

Microsoft’s August 2025 cumulative rollups have introduced a surprising compatibility regression: launching some MSI‑based applications — most notably AutoCAD family products, Firefox variants, and certain SAP installers — can now surface a User Account Control (UAC) elevation prompt at first...

Microsoft has confirmed that a limited, consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 is rolling out now — an emergency, one‑year safety net that will be available to eligible Windows 10 PCs before the platform’s support cutoff on October 14, 2025. The ESU enrollment appears as...

Microsoft has warned that the cryptographic roots underpinning UEFI Secure Boot on Windows devices will begin to expire in June 2026, forcing a global certificate update that every IT team and many end users must plan for now to avoid boot-level insecurities and loss of updateability. Background...

Windows 11’s August servicing wave briefly looked like a potential storage disaster: users and hobbyist labs reported NVMe SSDs vanishing during large, sustained writes after installing the 24H2 cumulative update tracked as KB5063878 (and the related preview KB5062660), but Phison — the largest...

Microsoft quietly—then not so quietly—took a major step to collapse an awkward transition period: Windows 10 machines running the aging Edge Legacy (EdgeHTML) browser were slated to have that app removed and replaced by the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge via a Windows cumulative update released...

When File Explorer becomes the system’s biggest CPU hog after upgrading to Windows 11 24H2, it stops being a mild annoyance and starts costing time, battery life, and user confidence—with many users reporting sustained explorer.exe or related processes eating CPU even at idle. The problem is...

Control Windows Update Interruptions: Active Hours, Pause, and Delivery Optimization Difficulty: Intermediate | Time Required: 10-15 minutes Keeping Windows up to date is important for security and performance — but unexpected restarts or large background downloads can interrupt work or slow a...

Microsoft's latest move to centralize and simplify enterprise patching — pushing Azure Update Manager as the recommended path for orchestrating Windows updates across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid fleets — promises to change how IT teams plan, schedule, and recover from update events while also...

Microsoft’s last-minute lifeline for Windows 10 users has arrived — but it’s a patchwork fix, and the rollout has been messy enough to deserve scrutiny from security professionals, privacy advocates, and anyone still running older PCs. The Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10...

Microsoft’s August cumulative update for Windows 11 (KB5063878) has been linked by multiple independent testers and SSD vendors to a troubling storage regression: under sustained, large write workloads some SSDs temporarily vanish from the operating system — and in a subset of reports files...