Items tagged with Windows
It's probably fair to say that a good number of PC enthusiasts have pirated a copy of Windows once upon a time. It's also probably fair to say that a certain number of folks have had the thought "I'll go legit and buy my Windows this time!" One such fellow in South Africa had exactly that thought, but he couldn't get...
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Virtualization-based Security, as the name suggests, is a security system that uses the Windows hypervisor (Hyper-V) to virtualize sensitive portions of the Windows operating system against exploits and malware. One example of VBS is related to Hypervisor-Enforced Code Integrity (HVCI), which uses VBS to create a...
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Intel has provided motherboard makers with a patch to sidestep stuttering and disconnecting issues with certain Ethernet controllers, including the one found on many of the newly launched 700 series boards for Raptor Lake CPUs. However, it's only a temporary workaround while Intel continues to investigate the...
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In 2022, the National Security Agency, in conjunction with the U.K’s National Cyber Security Centre, reported a critical vulnerability in the Windows CryptoAPI to Microsoft. While this was patched in August of 2022 and published in October of 2022, it could still prove to be a problem as threat actors could still...
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Square-Enix's Forspoken is out now, meaning that you can actually test DirectStorage in a real game. Forspoken even includes a built-in benchmark that not only shows framerates but also tracks load times. As you'd expect, faster SSDs mean faster load times, but they have another curious effect too: lower frame...
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Among the requirements for installing Windows 11 are two security features: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 and Secure Boot. As we’ve documented before, it’s possible to sidestep these requirements and force a Windows 11 install or upgrade anyway. Microsoft even published a registry hack to give users this...
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DirectStorage is out! No, seriously—DirectStorage 1.1, which can drastically accelerate game asset loading time, is already released and available for developers to use. Unfortunately, there aren't actually any games that take advantage of DirectStorage yet, which is why PCGamesHardware.de had to use a synthetic demo...
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Cybersecurity researchers at ASEC have uncovered a threat campaign distributing remote access software under the guise of a Pokémon NFT card game. While many threat campaigns distribute Remote Access Trojans (RATs) that operate in the background to grant threat actors access to compromised systems, this particular...
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Juggling a bunch of windows can be a pain, even with the UX enhancements in Windows 11. Microsoft is helping to reduce the clutter with the recently released tabbed file explorer, and now it appears another core app is getting tabs. According to a now-deleted Tweet, Microsoft is on the verge of releasing a version of...
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Microsoft teased the next version of DirectStorage technology back in mid-October, saying that it was "coming soon." Well, the developers weren't kidding around, because it's barely three weeks later and DirectStorage 1.1 is now available and ready to use.
Despite the small version number increment, DirectStorage 1.1...
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If you run Windows, do you use third-party cleaner apps like CCleaner and PrivaZer? These apps are of dubious utility for most users, but they do have legitimately-useful functions, like clearing out temporary folders and removing leftover update data. Microsoft would apparently prefer that you use its own software...
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DirectStorage is one of those technologies that perpetually seems to be just on the horizon. Except, Microsoft actually launched DirectStorage back in March of this year. You haven't heard much about it because it simply hasn't seen adoption in any game titles yet. That will probably change with the latest update...
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Valve's Steam Deck is a killer little machine, for what it is and for what it costs. $399 gets you a quad-core Zen 2 PC with 16 GB of memory and a surprisingly-fast little integrated Radeon. The machine ships with the Linux-based SteamOS installed, but it's a fully-capable PC, and you can install Windows on it if you...
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The mouse and graphical user interface are still arguably two of the greatest innovations in computing. They make computers easy to use, but that does not always mean slinging a cursor around is the best use of time. The keyboard still reigns supreme for many Windows tasks, so it is worthwhile to learn how to use it...
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If working in IT has taught me anything, it is that many computer issues truly can be resolved with a reboot. If I’ve learned two things, though, it is that a myriad of remaining Windows issues can be resolved with a simple command. The Windows system file checker is such an effective general fix-all that I believe...
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The latest iteration of the Parallels Desktop application, Parallels Desktop 18, has a massive change log that includes better support for Apple Silicon and Windows 11. That better support also includes an easier install process, and even a better Linux install experience through some automatic downloads and...
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If you're not a gamer and not particularly technical, you may feel slightly let down by your new NVMe SSD. After all, the newest game consoles from Microsoft and Sony came along with big promises as to the potential benefits of their solid-state storage subsystems. Integrating the same type of storage technology for...
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Following its latest earnings report, shares of Microsoft stock jumped by as much as 5 percent in pre-market trading leading up to today's opening bell. This despite Microsoft attributing a negative impact on Windows OEM revenue, which fell 2 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, to what it deemed a...
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Somewhere in a parallel universe, Windows 10 is still the most recent version of Windows, with Microsoft holding true to its original plan to continually uddate the OS until the end of time. But in this universe, Microsoft ended up changing direction and ultimately released another version, Windows 11. That's not...
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Were you around for the heyday of Windows 98? PC gamers were slow to adopt Windows 95 because the conventional game design paradigm of talking directly to the hardware was a big no-no in the new operating system. However, in the not-quite-three years between the release of Windows 95 and Windows 98, both PC hardware...
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Game streaming services are gaining steam as viable alternatives to spending big money on decked out PCs and dedicated gaming consoles, and they've come a long way in a relatively short time. One of the benefits is they're mostly platform agnostic. Or they should be—there are multiple reports that Microsoft's Xbox...
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If you have a Windows 10 or 11 machine with an Intel Core CPU from the 8th-through-11th generations, you definitely want to read this post. As it happens, Windows Defender's real-time protection on these machines is sapping even more performance than normal. The bug was found by Kevin Glynn, also known as "Uncle...
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