Items tagged with Windows
Windows 3.1 turned 30 years old this month and if you were around when it came out, don't forget to take your pain pills for your back. I'm reminding myself as much as anyone else—my roots in computing date back even further, to the era of the Commodore 64 and later MS-DOS, both of which preceded Windows 3.1 with its...
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The dreaded Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, has been the bane of every Windows users' existence for every generation of the OS. With every new version of Windows, Microsoft has claimed that there will be fewer or no blue screens. Rarely has the company been correct about this, though. Even the Xbox has not been immune...
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A pile of outlets have run a lot of benchmarks on the Steam Deck (we haven't gotten one yet). However, one of the big question marks surrounding the Steam Deck's gaming performance has been the effect, whether good or bad, of its choice of operating system.
See, despite being a gaming PC at its heart, the Steam Deck...
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Starting tomorrow, Apple will be accepting preorders for its recently announced Studio Display, a 27-inch monitor with a built-in webcam and six-speaker sound system. Apple unveiled the multi-trick pony alongside a new Mac Studio desktop, an ideal companion for the Studio Display, but could you use the monitor with a...
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While Microsoft already released Windows 11 back in October and has since been rolling it out to eligible devices, the “Windows as a service” model means that, like Windows 10, Windows 11 will continue to receive relatively frequent updates with substantial changes and new features. These updates first appear in...
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Earlier today, we reported on a circumstance in which NVMe SSDs can lose your data, which is a bad situation when you need to preserve said data. However, it turns out that both Windows 11 and 10 have the opposite problem. Sometimes you do want your data to disappear, as when wiping a device clean, but it appears...
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Microsoft first unveiled Windows 11 in June of last year, but the announcement was quickly met with criticism in response to some of the operating system's strict requirements. The requirements make Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 mandatory even though Microsoft didn’t publish its reference implementation...
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HP, which maintains a threat analyst team, has released a post on its threat research blog detailing a tricky new malware campaign. Only a day after Microsoft announced that Windows 11 was entering its final phase of availability, becoming available for broad deployment on eligible devices, HP discovered that someone...
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The Windows Insider Preview program has been a safe place for consumers to try out upcoming Windows features before they hit mainline releases. However, that is all changing with a Windows Insider rebrand and a move to make the Dev Channel more experimental. While features tested here going forward may never make it...
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In the age of Windows 95, Microsoft introduced PowerToys, a set of tools for Windows power users to tweak to their heart's content. Among these tools was TweakUI, which exposed system utility settings that were previously accessible only by modifying the Windows Registry. However, after Windows XP, PowerToys went the...
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When people think of malware and malicious code, they might imagine an infected file or download from a sketchy email or website on their computer. However, this sort of infection is realistically only the tip of the iceberg and often some of the least sophisticated. Researchers at Kaspersky have found a complex...
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Windows Updates are great when they work properly, but many users like to have more control over when and how they update their OS. Microsoft's TechCommunity Blog, however, says there are a bunch of things that you probably should not attempt to control yourself.
Power users and system administrators commonly use...
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If you're a Windows Server admin you're surely already aware, but Microsoft's last monthly update was infested with a bevy of bugs. The patches, released on the 11th, were causing Windows domain controllers to boot loop, blocking Hyper-V initialization, disabling ReFS support, and breaking certain types of IPSEC...
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Did you watch The Game Awards last night? If you did, then you probably already know this, but if not, here's the deal: Google is bringing its Play Games app to Windows PCs next year. That essentially means you'll have one more PC gaming store to look at, on top of Steam, GOG, Origin, UPlay, Bethesda, Rockstar...
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Installing pirated software is always risky business. The hacking tools used to bypass legitimate software activation quite frequently include viruses and malware. The latest in a long line of malware piggybacking is a popular activation tool that targets your cryptocurrency wallets.
The threat was first noticed by...
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Server admins and security-heads take note: there's a new Windows zero-day that's like leaving the key in the lock. It just requires access to any standard user account, and provides administrative privileges with the execution of a single application. There's pretty much no defense against it as it stands, so keep...
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If you were a threat actor, what better way to get a payload onto someone’s device than through a program that nearly everyone has installed like Google Chrome? Unfortunately, this appears to be what is happening with the Infostealer malware, masquerading as a legitimate update to the popular web browser from Google...
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Malware on Windows devices has become a real problem in the last few years, specifically with a recent uptick in ransomware. It appears that Microsoft has been trying to combat this issue, though, with updates to Microsoft Defender, so it has more teeth than ever before. However, what if Microsoft is part of the...
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Windows 11 is now available. Assuming your system meets the minimum system requirements – which isn’t a given, even if your rig is happily humming along with Windows 10 -- you’re likely to receive a notification via Windows Update that a free Windows 11 upgrade is ready and available for installation.
As was the case with Windows 10, Microsoft
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The astutely named PrintNightmare family of issues affecting many Windows devices is not going away for Microsoft, it seems. Though there have been numerous patches and updates, not all have been fixes for the print spooler issues. This is the case once more following this month’s Patch Tuesday update, which has been...
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The official launch of Windows 11 is on the horizon, but people have seemingly been installing it in droves even though it's not fully released. However, one catch in installing the newest operating system from Microsoft is that you need an internet connection, but do you really? It appears that a new bypass has been...
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A key component for getting Android applications to play nice in Windows 11 has made an appearance in the Microsoft Store. It is called Windows Subsystem for Android, though don't get overly excited about its availability—yes, you can mosey on over to the Microsoft Store and download it, but at present, it does not...
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