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A former Microsoft engineer recently took it to X to share some tips and tricks about activating Windows 11 without paying the company a single penny (yes, pirating). While it was definitely a bit awkward to see a Windows engineer pedaling piracy to a couple of hundreds of subscribers, even more odd is that Microsoft's own Copilot is not shy about telling you how to pirate Windows. Users on Reddit noticed that learning about pirating Windows using Copilot is surprisingly easy. In the early days of the chatbot saga, some tried to use ChatGPT to generate Windows activation keys, but those efforts were rather unsuccessful (not the case with Windows 95). Now, however, Copilot gives clear, simple, and straightforward answers about pirating Windows with third-party scripts. All it takes is asking nicely. When I asked Copilot about it, the assistant gave me direct links to a GitHub repository that can activate Windows 11 with just two clicks. I even asked it to explain it in more detail, to which I received a pretty detailed guide. Of course, Copilot's response is nothing extraordinary by itself. They are not some previously unknown knowledge about pirating Windows. These scripts have been around for quite a while—all Copilot does is relay that information to you. What is interesting is that Microsoft does not seem to care about this and won't bother censoring Copilot in question like this. Such behavior further backs the theory that Microsoft does not give a single bit, whether you buy Windows 11 or pirate it. The goal is to convert as many people as possible to Windows and then earn money by selling other products or ads (Windows 11 is chockful of them nowadays, even though the OS costs $199). Whether to buy or pirate Windows 11 is up to you, but should you raise a black flag, always keep in mind the potential risks of running third-party scripts and activators. These are a common way to scam users and infect their PCs with malware, so beware. You can also ask Copilot about that and even have a real-life conversation with it since Copilot Voice and Think Deeper are now available for free and without limits to all. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Earlier this week, Microsoft reminded IT admins and sysadmins of the new policy for managed office and enterprise PCs that now allows them to have a feature update like Windows 11 24H2 as "optional". This was after the company released complete details about the 2024 update as well as the LTSC version. Meanwhile, on the home users side of things, users with unsupported hardware are also trying to have a taste of the latest version of Windows and one of the popular tools that is useful in such a case is Rufus. However, several users have been reporting that an in-place upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 is not working as the system requirements bypass fails. Pete Batard, the author of Rufus acknowledged the problem and provided a batch script that works around the issue. Batard also added that a future version of Rufus will have this script baked in. He wrote: Aside from this, the Rufus developer was clearly annoyed about users on really old systems complaining that their PC was unable to bypass the requirements even after this script. He wrote: For those who may not have followed, Windows 11 24H2 only works on processors that come with PopCnt and SSE4.2 and thus no bypass method, app or software can help those on such ancient pieces of hardware. They can continue using Windows 11 23H2 though. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Google is switching the ruleset for extensions in Chrome soon. The updated version is controversial, as it will end several popular extensions for Chrome, including the world's most popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin. Note: these changes will also impact other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, or Vivaldi. Brave is special, as the developers announced that they will continue to support uBlock Origin and several other extensions (but not all). The ad-blocker will stop working in Chrome and most Chromium-based browsers once Google launches the change. Any other extension that has not been updated, or cannot be updated because of the changes, will also be disabled by Google. There is a way to keep on using the classic extensions for longer. While Google turns off support for home users immediately, it is giving Enterprise customers an option to extend support by one year. Good news is that you can also utilize this to extend support. How to extend uBlock Origin support in Chrome by one year The policy in question is called ExtensionManifestV2Availability. It defines support for classic extensions in Chrome. The policy has the following values: 0 - Default behavior, determined by Google Chrome and Google. 1 - Manifest V2 is deactivated. This means that uBlock Origin won't work anymore. 2 - Manifest V2 is enabled. This extends support by a year. 3 - Manifest V2 is enabled for forced extensions only. This limits the extensions to addons specified by an administrator. Windows users can set it in the following way: Activate the Start button. Type regedit.exe. Load the Registry Editor. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome. Note: some of the keys may not exist. In this case, right-click on the previous key, e.g. SOFTWARE and select New > Key. Name it accordingly to create the path. Right-click on Chrome and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ExtensionManifestV2Availability. Double-click on the new Dword and set its value to 2. Restart the PC. This enables the Enterprise policy on the system. Chrome will not disable the old system for extensions this year, because of it. Tip: you can load Chrome://policy to verify that the extension is set correctly. Linux and Mac users may want to check this Chrome support document for instructions on setting policies on their devices. Which extensions are affected? It takes a few seconds to find out. Google has started to display incompatible extensions on Chrome's extensions page. You load chrome://extensions/ and check "These extensions may soon no longer be supported" at the top. Tip: if you do not see this yet, load chrome://flags/#extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-warning and set the value to Enabled. Restart Chrome, and you will see the warning at the top of the page. What happens to extensions once the change lands in Chrome? Google Chrome will disable extensions like uBlock Origin once the change lands. The extensions are not uninstalled, at least not immediately. The screenshot above shows the disabled uBlock Origin extension. The toggle to enable it is inactive, which means that you cannot enable it anymore in the browser. The only options provided are to view the details and to remove it. Most users of uBlock Origin may notice quickly that the extension is disabled. Websites and services will start to show advertisement again. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

This week, Microsoft made it very clear that it wants to block the popular BYPASSNRO workaround, used to skip the internet and Microsoft Account requirement checks during the Windows 11 installation OOBE (initial setup), although thankfully, the script can still be created using Registry edits. Microsoft has its reasons why it wants people to use a Microsoft Account instead of local accounts. The company explained in detail all about it back in 2024. Naturally, when things like this happen, enthusiasts go digging for ways to work around such issues. Interestingly, as it turns out, another bypass method had already existed for a while now and it is finally becoming popular. This new method was discovered by a user ThePineapple and they have also published a detailed step-by-step guide on how to implement it. They explain: The bypass uses a CXH (cloud experience host) URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) string during the OOBE to invoke the hidden local account setup screen. The detailed guide is given below: After typing WinJS.A, press Tab to auto-complete Application. After typing res, press Tab to auto-complete restart. 5. Exit the Developer Console After entering the command, press Enter to execute it. Press Escape to exit the Developer Console and return to the OOBE interface. Note: If the Escape key doesn't close the Console, click anywhere on the screen to ensure the console is focused and then press the key again. 6. Local Account Setup The Secondary Keyboard Layout screen will refresh, and a Windows 10-style local account setup screen will appear. Enter your desired username, password, and security questions and click Next. 7. Complete the Setup The Setup will go black and will then log you in to your newly created account. Allow Windows 11 a few moments to configure the user. Continue with the remaining privacy setting prompts. Once finished, you will have successfully created a local account in Windows 11. A video guide has also been shared although you may want to turn down the volume first: You can view the project here on its GitHub repo. Thanks to d5aqoëp for the tip!!!! Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of February): 874 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Microsoft this week lifted another upgrade block for Windows 11 24H2. Thus if you are looking to do an in-place upgrade from 23H2, you can check out our review to get an idea of what you could expect. We shared those results for Windows 11 24H2 performance last month. While many tests showed margin of error differences, there were two interesting takeaways from that in terms of gaming. First the positive, there was a definite improvement in frame generation performance on Black Myth Wukong. We observed it on all three of our 24H2 runs and the gains were quite substantial too with over 17% improvement in averages and more than 15% in the lows. On the flip side, single-threaded performance on 24H2 was, for some reason, lower and it was highlighted in more than one instance, be it a synthetic test or an actual game. Besides gaming, application start-up performance also took a sizable hit on the newer feature update in PCMark 10. With those in mind, we set out to see if doing a clean installation would reduce these differences, and also whether we would come across other new performance quirks. Thus we proceeded to clean install Windows 11 November 2024 Patch Tuesday (KB5046617) on top of October 2024. Just like last time, our test is not straight-up apples-to-apples comparisons. We are trying to replicate the usage and experience of a general user and as such, all settings would be kept at default. This is how we are evaluating the performance differentials of a clean install for Windows 11 24H2 vs an in-place upgrade. Hence, some of the settings like Core Isolation or Virtualization-based Security (VBS) have been kept enabled. In case you are wondering about the hardware we tested this on, Steven and I worked on this together (remotely), on his test bench comprising Intel's Core i7-14700K CPU and AMD's 7800 XT GPU (provided by AMD for review). The latest GPU drivers were used at the time (Adrenalin version 24.10.1). Again we start with synthetic benchmarks first. In 3DMark's CPU/physics test, we see an immediate improvement with the clean installation. Our 14700K does better in both DirectX 11-based Fire Strike physics as well as DirectX 12-based Time Spy. This time, 24H2 draws nearly equal to 23H2 on Fire Strike Ultra and manages to beat it on Time Spy Extreme. So an 8.2% gain in the more single-threaded Fire Strike Ultra and a 5.87% improvement in the more modern Time Spy Extreme. The same trend continued on 3DMark CPU Profile which measures the scaling performance of a processor across threads on Time Spy. On our clean-installed 24H2 PC, we saw better scaling once the processor thread count exceeded eight. At up to 4 threads, the two systems were identical. The biggest difference was seen at 16 threads where the clean installed 14700K was ~6.78% faster. With all threads maxed, the difference was significant too at ~6.6%. Following that, we have our 3DMark GPU tests. The 7800 XT for some reason did worse on our clean-installed 24H2 system but it is something that may be considered within the margin of error (max. difference is ~2.23%). So we aren't going to sweat it out and are attributing it to run-to-run variance. Hence, in the synthetic tests, the clean PC definitely fared significantly better. Neither 3DMark nor Windows received any specific optimizations in this period and thus the performance differential is likely to be down to the clean install. With that, it's time to move on to some real-world games. On Black Myth: Wukong, we again saw a huge uplift with frame generation (FG) enabled on 24H2. In fact, our results on the clean-installed system were identical to what we saw on the in-place upgrade. Only the 95%ile score was better by 1 FPS in the case of FG off, the average was the same indicating that a clean PC or an upgraded PC hardly matters in this case. We had another eventful result on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as the 24H2 clean installed PC underperformed our 23H2 by a large degree. Interestingly, Intel's APO (Application Optimization) actually helped this time as it smoothed out whatever issue it may have been that was bothering the 14700K as we once again saw performance parity between 24H2 and 23H2. Shadow of the Tomb Raider's performance differences were within the margin of error mostly. Another noteworthy point here is that APO did not crash on 24H2 this time. We were able to evaluate its effect, and it most certainly helped on both 23H2 and 24H2. The Callisto Protocol was a boring test run, there is not much going on here. I was eager to see what would happen in Far Cry 6 since it presented an interesting case last time. Unfortunately, for some reason, our clean-installed system did not default to the same graphics settings that it had chosen during the in-place upgrade. Thus, we could not directly compare the results. Regardless, it was still interesting to note this difference between the two cases. We noticed a similar thing in a couple of other games too, Assassins' Creed Odyssey and Final Fantasy XV. We are unsure why our 24H2 clean setup felt our RX 7800 XT was not capable of handling 1080p ultra settings such that it defaulted to a lower preset in these three titles. Regardless, we could confirm that our 14700K was not bottlenecked even at these more CPU-demanding settings since we saw an increase in the FPS output in all the three games. With the gaming portion wrapped up, we move to productivity. Cinebench 2024 shows the exact same performance on 24H2 (clean) and 23H2 in the CPU rendering test, and a 10-point increase over in-place upgraded 24H2. The GPU test also shows an improvement on the clean installed PC but again nothing too exciting. It was a bit disappointing to see that the clean installed 24H2 PC was slower than the in-place upgrade system on 7-Zip's compression test. While it was still slightly faster than 23H2, compared to the in-place upgrade, the clean 24H2 setup was ~3.5% slower. PCMark 10 again revealed interesting results. If you recall, last time, on an in-place upgrade, we noted that the app startup performance was lower in the case of 24H2. Well, that trend continued and in fact, it got worse. PCMark 10 on Windows 11 23H2 Windows 11 23H2 scored 24,096 in the application start metric. In contrast, 24H2 upgrade and 24H2 clean scored 21,376 and 20,813 respectively. Thus they were ~11.3% and ~13.625% slower respectively. PCMark 10 on clean installed Windows 11 24H2 24H2 clean installed device was also much worse in photo editing, spreadsheet processing and writing tests. Overall, the 24H2 clean PC scored 9,999 points vs 10,734 points on 23H2 and 10,460 on 24H2 in-place upgrade. Lastly, we have the memory allocation test on 24H2 vs 23H2. This shows how much system RAM each OS requests for caching page files, prefetch data, game/app data, among other things. Speaking of RAM, we were using TeamGroup's 32 GB DDR5-7600 kit that we reviewed last year. Memory allocation is the amount of system RAM that an app requests and is not equal to the actual memory used up by that software. Regardless, it gives us an idea about the capacity of memory needed. This is a major win for our clean installed 24H2 system. Not only does it do quite well against 23H2, it also massively reduces the amount of allocated RAM compared to what we had previously on our upgraded 24H2 PC. The improvement was seen in every single workload. Perhaps there is a memory leak problem on an in-place upgrade that our clean-installed PC resolved. We can't say for sure, but our results consistently suggested this. Conclusion The idea of this clean installation review was to see if the performance nuances we saw on the in-place upgrade would be eliminated on a clean 24H2 PC and whether the latter would be the better way to upgrade from 23H2. While the initial impressions were great as we saw significant improvements in the synthetic 3DMark benchmarks, they did not quite materialize in actual games. Neither did we see any notable improvements in non-gaming tasks. And in the case of PCMark, we saw a significant regression in performance. Thus if you feel like trying a clean installation of Windows 11 24H2 in hopes of improving the performance, you will likely be disappointed; unless you are getting memory hogged like we experienced on our upgraded 24H2 setup. In that case, a move to clean installed 24H2 could help. Our stance on upgrading from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2 remains the same, it depends, but in most cases, you are not going to miss out on much if you stick to 23H2. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Earlier this week, Brave made a big promise that it would continue supporting uBlock Origin in a response to a social media post about Chrome "permanently disabling" the extension as Google deems it as unsupported. That is not the case for Adguard though as it already has the Manifest V3 (MV3) extension in place since August of 2022. With the latest Adguard for Windows update that was released today, version 7.19, the software gets the ability to modify any webpage and add a dark theme to it using Userstyles. AdGuard has explained how it will work: Aside from that, the update also brings multiple improvements and fixes including one related to a blue screen of death (BSOD) due to the Windows NETIO SYS system driver which is a network driver and is required by AdGuard to filter network traffic. The ad blocker says that updated drivers for both Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) and Transport Driver Interface (TDI) have been integrated. The full list of changes fixes and improvements is given below: You can download the app from its official website here. Also, note that this version of AdGuard is the last one to support Windows 7 and 8.1 and thus if you don't want to upgrade to a newer Windows, like 11, which requires a new PC, according to the official recommendation of Microsoft, you should stick to this release. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

VMware, which Broadcom purchased for $61 billion, announced some big changes to its virtualization software suite. Starting today, VMware Workstation Pro for Windows and Linux and VMware Fusion for Mac no longer require a license for personal use. If you want to set up a bunch of virtual machines on your computer to experiment with Windows 11, Linux, or something else, VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion are now available for free. All you need to do is to register and download the app for your platform. Commercial use, however, still requires purchasing a license. Besides making Workstation Pro and Fusion free for personal use, VMware discontinued Workstation Player and Fusion Player. They are no longer available for purchase, and existing customers can upgrade to the more feature-packed Pro version without any cost. However, VMware Player will remain bundled with Workstation Pro. Existing customers with commercial licenses for Fusion Player 13 and Workstation Player 17 can continue using the products without any changes. VMware recommends updating to Workstation Pro once those apps reach their end of life. VMware says the new model helped reduce its product offerings down to just one SKU for those in need of a commercial license, eliminating over 40 different editions and making purchasing VMware's virtualization software much easier. To help users better understand changes, VMware published a small guide: Current Product Going Forward Workstation Player (personal) Download and install the Workstation Pro personal use product. Workstation Player will continue to be bundled with Workstation Pro just as it is today. Fusion Player (personal) Update to Fusion 13.5.2 and delete your license key file. This will remove the ‘Player’ functionality limitation and unlock the “Pro for Personal Use” functionality without needing any additional keys. Here is a KB describing what to do: http://kb.vmware.com/s/article/97817 Fusion Player 13 and Workstation Player 17 (commercial license) Player Products will continue to function, no new license keys are required. Products will continue to be supported for existing customers in alignment with their existing End of Life and End of General Support dates (for more information visit here) Recommended upgrade to Pro products going forward for continued support and product enhancements. You can learn more in a post on the official VMware blog. Source

WinRAR 7.10 was released yesterday with numerous features, such as larger memory pages, a dark mode, and the ability to fine-tune how Windows Mark-of-the-Web flags are propagated when extracting files. WinRAR is a popular file archiver and compression tool for Windows that allows users to create, extract, and manage compressed files, primarily in RAR, ZIP, and many other file formats. The author claims that the tool is used by 500 million people worldwide. Yesterday, win.rar GmbH released the final version of WinRAR 7.10, listing numerous new features that increase the performance and usability of the program. These new features include enabling larger memory pages for increased performance, a reworked settings interface, and a long-awaited dark mode. WinRAR dark mode Source: BleepingComputer One new feature that stood out is a new setting that lets you strip information that may be considered a privacy risk from the Mark of The Web alternate data stream. "'Zone value only' option in "Settings/Security" dialog controls if archive Mark of the Web propagation includes only the security zone value or all available fields," reads the WinRAR 7.10 release notes. "While additional fields, such as a download location or IP address, might help to identify a file source, they can be a privacy concern if file is shared with other persons." For those unfamiliar with the Mark-of-the-Web (MoTW), it is an alternative data stream named "Zone.Identifier" that is added to files downloaded from the Internet, including from websites and email. This identifier tells Windows and supported applications that the file was downloaded from another computer or the Internet and, therefore, could be risky to open. When attempting to open a downloaded file, Windows will check if a MoTW exists and, if so, display additional warnings to the user, asking if they are sure they wish to run the file. Launching a downloaded executable containing a MoTW Source: BleepingComputer Microsoft Office will also check for the Mark-of-the-Web, and if found, it will open documents in Protected View, with the file in read-only mode and macros disabled. To check if a downloaded file has the Mark-of-the-Web, you can right-click it in Windows Explorer and open its properties. If the file contains a MoTW, you will see a message at the bottom stating, "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protection this computer." Modern file archives will propagate the MoTW found in archives to extracted files, allowing those files to also be protected with the Windows security feature. MoTW is a powerful security feature that is commonly targeted by threat actors who attempt to find zero-day flaws that allow their malicious files to bypass Windows' security warnings. However, some may consider it a privacy concern, as if the file is shared with another person, the "Zone.Identifier" contains information that could reveal sensitive information about where a file was downloaded from. This is because the Zone.Identifier flag contains a lot of information about a downloaded file, including the Internet Zone (ZoneID) it was downloaded from, the URL to the file, the URL referring to the file, and in some cases, the IP address of the host it was downloaded from. Information in MoTW Zone.Identifier Source: BleepingComputer As part of WinRAR 7.10, a new setting is enabled by default called "Zone value only" that strips all information from MoTW alternate data streams other than the ZoneId when it is propagated to extracted files. MoTW settings in WinRAR 7.10 Source: BleepingComputer This allows the Mark-of-the-Web security feature to continue to work with extracted files, but the alternate data stream can no longer be used to learn where the file was downloaded. For those who wish to enable complete propagation of MoTW data, you will need to go into the WinRAR settings > Security and uncheck "Zone value only." While this new setting may hamper digital forensics, it is a welcome feature for those who want the strictest privacy. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Earlier this month, Microsoft updated its official Media Creation Tool to the latest Patch Tuesday update that fixes some issues. A user can perform a clean install or an in-place upgrade using the utility. However, since it is an official utility, it can not help bypass the system requirements restrictions on unsupported hardware. That is where third-party apps like Rufus step in, and as its developer had promised, the in-place upgrade workaround Registry tweak was integrated into the Rufus setup file in version 4.6 beta. In case you were waiting for a non-beta, the Rufus 4.6 version has been finalised and it is out today with the bypass. The final version carries the improvements and fixes from the beta but also adds a new change. As per the release notes, the version has received improved support for ReactOS boot media. The issue details suggest that ReactOS was having some booting-related issues and switching to FreeLdr.SYS has fixed it. For those who may not be familiar, the ReactOS project is often referred to as "Open source Windows" and FreeLoader (FreeLdr) is the default bootloader for ReactOS. The release notes for Rufus' final version 4.6 are given below: To download the update, head over to Neowin's software story page, the official website or the GitHub repo. On a related note, a new Rufus-like utility has been released today called "Flyby11" and it too promises to bypass Windows 11 (24H2) system requirements with just a few clicks. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Google's Chrome Web Store is now warning that the uBlock Origin ad blocker and other extensions may soon be blocked as part of the company's deprecation of the Manifest V2 extension specification. "This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions," reads the Chrome Web Store page for uBlock Origin. The warning includes a link to a Google support bulletin that states the browser extension may be disabled to protect users' privacy and security. "To better protect your privacy and security, Chrome and the Chrome Web Store require extensions to be up-to-date with new requirements," reads Google's support bulletin. "With this, Chrome may disable extensions that don't meet these requirements." Warning that uBlock Origin may soon be unsupported and blocked Site: BleepingComputer The new warnings were first reported today by users on X, who saw a different message on the Chrome Web Store stating that the extension is no longer available. However, BleepingComputer was not shown this alert on numerous browsers and devices, instead seeing the one shared above. It is not clear if the original message appeared by mistake and switched later to the current one. The new alert recommends users switch to a different ad blocker that supports Manifest V3, such as Hill's uBlock Original Lite and other ad blockers. Many Chrome users are now saying they will switch to other browsers if uBlock Origin is blocked. There is nothing insecure about uBlock Origin and likely other extensions that are showing this alert. Instead, this warning is being displayed as part of Google's ongoing deprecation of the Manifest v2 (MV2) extension specification, which uBlock Origin uses. In August, Google started warning users directly in the browser that the extension may soon be disabled and that they should find alternatives. Warning on Manifest V2 extensions in Google Chrome Source: BleepingComputer At the time, uBlock Origin lead developer and maintainer Raymond Hill explained that these warnings are the result of Google deprecating support for the Manifest V2 (MV2) extensions platform in favor of Manifest V3 (MV3). "uBO is a Manifest v2 extension, hence the warning in your Google Chrome browser. There is no Manifest v3 version of uBO, hence the browser will suggest alternative extensions as a replacement for uBO," Hill explained in August. "uBO Lite (uBOL) is a pared-down version of uBO with a best effort at converting filter lists used by uBO into a Manifest v3-compliant approach, with a focus on reliability and efficiency as has been the case with uBO since first published in June 2014." These Chrome Manifest versions are specifications for building Chrome extensions that outline the rules, permissions, and APIs developers must follow and use. In 2019, Google announced that Manifest V2 would be deprecated in favor of a Manifest V3 extension specification, which first started rolling out with Chrome 88 in December 2020. However, the new Chrome Manifest V3 introduced significant technical challenges for extension developers, especially those requiring greater control over web browser functions such as ad blockers, forcing them to create new extensions with limited capabilities (like Hill's uBlock Origin Lite). While uBlock Origin Lite may work fine for some users, those who require advanced filtering or when visiting specific sites, may find that they have a more limited experience. uBlock Origin's developer created a FAQ explaining the differences between the uBlock Origin Manifest V2 extension and the new uBlock Lite Manifest V3 version. Even after Manifest V2 is deprecated, users can continue to use the Manifest V2 extension until June 2025 using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy. This policy allows the enterprise and other users to control Manifest v2 extension availability on Linux, Mac, Windows, and ChromeOS. As uBlock Origin continues to work as usual on Firefox, and Brave Browser and Vivaldi say they will continue to support Chrome Manifest V2, users can still find both Chromium-based browsers and alternatives that support the popular content filter and ad blocker. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

The maker of Tiny11, a third-party project that aims to make Windows 11 less bloated with unnecessary parts, released a new version of Tiny11 Builder, a special tool that lets you create a custom Windows 11 image tailored to your needs and preferences. The latest release makes it much easier to create a lightweight Windows 11 ISO without worrying about installing a system modified by unknown third parties. Tiny11 Builder is no longer tied to a specific Windows 11 build. You can use it with any version, language, and architecture. According to the developer, who goes by the @NTDEV_ handle on X, the improvements in Tiny11 Builder were made possible thanks to the better scripting capabilities of PowerShell. Tiny11 Builder is open-source, which allows everyone to peek under the hood to understand better how the thing works. It uses only Microsoft-made utilities, such as DISM or oscdimg.exe, which is a part of the Windows ADK: Since the updated Tiny11 Builder uses PowerShell, you should set the execution policy to unrestricted before using the project. To do so, run PowerShell as Administrator and execute the Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted command. You can download Tiny11 Builder from its GitHub repository. Before you proceed, remember that only the official Windows images from Microsoft are 100% safe. If you want to tinker with the OS beyond what Microsoft allows, you should accept potential risks and complications and keep in mind that only you are the one responsible for your system. Source

Last week, Microsoft made a major announcement as it blocked the popular BYPASSNRO workaround on Insider builds, used to skip the internet and Microsoft Account requirement checks during the Windows 11 installation OOBE (initial setup). Microsoft has its reasons why it wants people to use a Microsoft Account instead of local accounts. The company explained in detail all about it back in 2024, and on the announcement blog post itself, it noted that the change was being made to "enhance security and user experience of Windows 11." Microsoft wrote: Following this announcement, enthusiasts and smart Windows users started looking for ways in which they could work around and circumvent this. That is when we picked up on this newish method proposed by the user ThePineapple. We say newish since it already existed for the last six months or so, but no one had noticed it as the BYPASSNRO script has been so popular. The trick involves using a CXH URI string to trigger a hidden local account during the OOBE. We covered it in its dedicated article here. There is also a PowerShell script that can help in this regard. Meanwhile, another user has discovered yet another way to bypass this. This is similar to the BYPASSNRO one but involves going to the Registry and tweaking it. Upon finding this, Neowin looked around and found that Microsoft's own official documentation explains how this works. The company notes that by default, the HideOnlineAccountScreens value is set to "false" such that the sign-in page appears during the OOBE. So for the bypass to work, one has to change it to "true". Microsoft notes that this is "primarily for enterprises" for running unattended installs, but it should work for all users. Neowin also noticed that there is also an option to hide the wireless network setup option too using HideWirelessSetupInOOBE. Again, the default value is "false" so that this page appears, but users can flip it to "true". Source: Microsoft (link1, link2) Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of March): 1,357 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The Linux Foundation, alongside Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Opera, have announced today the formation of the new Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers. As the name suggests, this group has been formed for the support of open-source Chromium browsers so that they can continue to receive the necessary resources, be it financially, or in some other form. The initiative has been undertaken by the Linux Foundation in partnership with Google, and Microsoft, Meta, and Opera, have since joined it. In its press release, the Linux Foundation has explained what this consortium is about. It writes: In its blog post on the Chromium website, Google has explained why the Linux Foundation has been chosen to manage this as well as its thoughts about the whole thing as it cites millions of dollars in cost just for maintenance: Microsoft has also added its own thoughts and it mainly involves its aim to improve Edge while continuing its contributions to Chromium: Opera has also chimed in: Meta, so far, has not released a press release or a statement. What this means is that Chromium browsers are likely going to pick up even more steam, and this may not bode too well for Gecko engine based-Firefox, which is struggling hard against the Chromium juggernaut and especially Google with just ~6% desktop market share. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

When you visit the uBlock Origin page on the Chrome Web Store in Google Chrome, you see a notification near the top that states that the extension is no longer available. Google writes: "This extension is no longer available because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions." The "add to Chrome" button is not displayed anymore for that extension. If it is installed, Google displays a "remove" button instead. The message is displayed regardless of Chrome edition. In Chrome Canary, you may also notice that Google is removing uBlock Origin and other extensions automatically on start of the browser. This is part of Google's plan to remove extensions that do not use the new extensions manifest willingly or unwillingly. The only options that Chrome displays are to remove the extension, as it gets disabled only by Google, or to open the extensions manager in Chrome. Google Chrome may list affected extensions under these extensions may soon no longer be supported or the recent "This extension was turned off because it's no longer supported" listing. Tip: Google has added options to Chrome to extend support for a year. You can check out our guide on how to enable these, but note that this is only a temporary option. uBlock Origin still available in other browsers When you visit the uBlock Origin store page in another browser, you will notice that the extension is still available. If you use Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, or Opera, you will get the option to install it in that browser. Google is preventing this in Chrome, likely by checking for the user agent of the browser. It does to to prevent he installation of the extension, and any other that is using the classic extension manifest, in Chrome. Closing Words If you are a Chrome user, you have several options to deal with this. You can enable the policy to extend support for uBlock Origin and other classic extensions until mid-2025. Another option is to switch the browser. You could switch to a Chromium-based browser, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, or Edge. You may need to enable the policy for these browsers as well. Only a few Chromium-based browsers will continue to support some or all classic extensions after 2025. There is also Firefox. The open source browser does not depend on Google or Chromium. Mozilla confirmed that Firefox will support classic and new extensions going forward. Also, Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, says that the extension works best in Firefox. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of October): 4,832 news posts RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

When Microsoft released details about its Windows 11 version 24H2 for managed enterprise and office PCs, the company highlighted the ways how admins could defer them as "optional" or deploy the update to such PCs. One of the ways is by using the target version capability. Essentially, it involves using the target version policy via the Group Policy Objects (GPO) editor to input the feature update a user's PC wants to stay on or upgrade to. And while the policy is designed for business PCs, home users who are running Windows 11 Pro can also upgrade their system to Windows 11 24H2 using this method in case they are not being offered the update via Windows Update. To do so: Open the Local Group Policy Editor (GPEDIT.MSC) Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business Go to Select the target Feature Update version policy Double-click it or right-click > Edit to edit it. Set the policy from Not configured (default) to Enabled Input "Windows 11" in the product version and "24H2" in the target version Hit Apply and OK. As mentioned above, Home editions of Windows do not have the Group Policy Editor and the same is the case for Windows 11 as well. However, users can still use another powerful native Windows configuration tool called the Registry Editor to perform the same target version policy trick. To do so: Open the Registry Editor app or run REGEDIT. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windowsupdate key Inside, create a new create new string value with the name ProductVersion, set the value to "Windows 11" Create another string value TargetReleaseVersionInfo, and set the value to "24H2" Finally, create a DWORD TargetReleaseVersion and set the value to "1" Using either one of the two methods should trigger Windows Update to make the leap to Windows 11 24H2. In case you are still not being offered the latest feature update even after performing this, there may be some safeguard holds or some other issue at play. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Since updating Microsoft's latest Windows 11 feature update, version 24H2, several users are reporting that they are unable to perform a Windows Update Cleanup that allows users to free up space. As such, seemingly every user updating to Windows 11 24H2 is finding that they are not able to proceed with deleting 8.63GB of past cumulative updates, a thing that was possible on previous versions of the OS. Image via Acrobatic_Face_7404(Reddit) For example, an Eleven Forum member thecaretaker who started a thread on the issue, says: When someone suggested that they run a Disk Cleanup, another user confirmed that it was not working either, as they wrote: The user and several others believe this may be a bug in Windows 11 24H2, but that is unlikely since almost every system exhibits this 'symptom.' A user on My Digital Life forum suggests this may not be a bug after all and is how Microsoft intended it to be. They write: The user is referring to the new Windows cumulative update delivery method that Microsoft introduced with Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025. Called "Checkpoint Cumulative updates" (CCU), the company has essentially delivered these as checkpoints instead of the entire update since RTM, thus reducing the size of each update. As a consequence of that, it is certainly plausible why deleting this "8.63 GB" of unwanted data is not working. However, this is simply speculation, and it is possible that the issue is indeed a bug that needs to be fixed. After all, the company had already confirmed a CCU-related problem that leads to the "Operation is not supported” error message. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Emails, documents, and other untrusted content can plant malicious memories. When security researcher Johann Rehberger recently reported a vulnerability in ChatGPT that allowed attackers to store false information and malicious instructions in a user’s long-term memory settings, OpenAI summarily closed the inquiry, labeling the flaw a safety issue, not, technically speaking, a security concern. So Rehberger did what all good researchers do: He created a proof-of-concept exploit that used the vulnerability to exfiltrate all user input in perpetuity. OpenAI engineers took notice and issued a partial fix earlier this month. Strolling down memory lane The vulnerability abused long-term conversation memory, a feature OpenAI began testing in February and made more broadly available in September. Memory with ChatGPT stores information from previous conversations and uses it as context in all future conversations. That way, the LLM can be aware of details such as a user’s age, gender, philosophical beliefs, and pretty much anything else, so those details don’t have to be inputted during each conversation. Within three months of the rollout, Rehberger found that memories could be created and permanently stored through indirect prompt injection, an AI exploit that causes an LLM to follow instructions from untrusted content such as emails, blog posts, or documents. The researcher demonstrated how he could trick ChatGPT into believing a targeted user was 102 years old, lived in the Matrix, and insisted Earth was flat and the LLM would incorporate that information to steer all future conversations. These false memories could be planted by storing files in Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, uploading images, or browsing a site like Bing—all of which could be created by a malicious attacker. Rehberger privately reported the finding to OpenAI in May. That same month, the company closed the report ticket. A month later, the researcher submitted a new disclosure statement. This time, he included a PoC that caused the ChatGPT app for macOS to send a verbatim copy of all user input and ChatGPT output to a server of his choice. All a target needed to do was instruct the LLM to view a web link that hosted a malicious image. From then on, all input and output to and from ChatGPT was sent to the attacker's website. ChatGPT: Hacking Memories with Prompt Injection - POC “What is really interesting is this is memory-persistent now,” Rehberger said in the above video demo. “The prompt injection inserted a memory into ChatGPT’s long-term storage. When you start a new conversation, it actually is still exfiltrating the data.” The attack isn’t possible through the ChatGPT web interface, thanks to an API OpenAI rolled out last year. While OpenAI has introduced a fix that prevents memories from being abused as an exfiltration vector, the researcher said, untrusted content can still perform prompt injections that cause the memory tool to store long-term information planted by a malicious attacker. LLM users who want to prevent this form of attack should pay close attention during sessions for output that indicates a new memory has been added. They should also regularly review stored memories for anything that may have been planted by untrusted sources. OpenAI provides guidance here for managing the memory tool and specific memories stored in it. Company representatives didn’t respond to an email asking about its efforts to prevent other hacks that plant false memories. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of August): 3,792 news posts

Last month, Microsoft released an optional update for Windows 11 version 24H2 on Copilot+ PCs. Users quickly discovered that the update delivered a new optional feature under an oddly familiar "Recall" name. This quickly led to speculations about Microsoft allowing users to uninstall Recall in the near future. Sadly, this is not true. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge that Recall in the "Turn Windows Features on or off" section is nothing but a bug, and a future update will remove Recall from there: The company did not comment on whether there will be an option to uninstall Recall from Windows 11. European Union regulations have already forced Microsoft to make many Windows 11 components uninstallable, so it is possible that Recall would follow suit. However, it is worth noting that the company recently announced that Recall would be a strict opt-in experience, and Windows 11 would not turn it on without explicit permission from the end user. Therefore, instead of ripping it off the operating system, you can just keep Recall turned off and enjoy the Copilot+ PC experience without Windows 11 taking a snapshot (Microsoft is not calling them just "screenshots") every few minutes. Microsoft planned to release Recall alongside Copilot+ PCs in June 2024, but the launch was delayed after multiple privacy concerns. Now, Microsoft is preparing to re-release Recall to Windows Insiders somewhere in October before shipping the feature to all users in the Stable Channel. Do you think Microsoft should make Recall uninstallable, or do you think keeping it off by default is enough? Share your thoughts in the comment section. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of August): 3,792 news posts

Rufus, the highly popular utility used for creating bootable media, has received its latest update today. The application received its last update back in October. That was a stable update, and it was a major one too, as it added a bypass for unsupported systems on Windows 11 24H2. Rufus has, for the longest time, helped users workaround these problems. For example, the app, alongside others like Ventoy, allows skipping the requirements like internet connectivity and Microsoft Account (MSA) during Windows 11 installs. So for those pissed about the recent dumping of BYPASSNRO script in Windows 11 24H2, Rufus can still do as it automatically makes the necessary Registry edits to re-create the BYPASSNRO file. Interestingly, users can also use another Registry trick for the same, and this method is actually officially endorsed by Microsoft itself. The latest version of Rufus adds a mechanism to automatically detect and download updated Secure Boot DBXs from the official UEFI repo. Zstd compression support is now here, and in terms of bug fixes, there a quite a few too. A memory leak issue related to the user interface has been fixed, and a DLL sideloading vulnerability has been addressed. The version also drops ARM 32-bit support. The full changelog is given below: To download the update, head over to the Neowin software stories page or the official GitHub repo of Rufus. Keep in mind, though, that this is a beta release. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of March): 1,357 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The most recent Windows 11 builds pack quite a lot of new stuff, with one particular thing being not so great, especially for Windows enthusiasts. Microsoft's operating system is infamous for enforcing an active internet connection and a Microsoft Account during its setup. Still, for the last three years, it has been possible to bypass that by executing the oobe\bypassnro in Command Prompt during the initial setup. Now, Microsoft is cracking down on that. Windows 11 builds 26200.5516 and 26120.3653 remove the bypassnro.cmd script from the operating system. Microsoft says the change is to ensure that "all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account." Yes, Microsoft does not want you to use its operating system without an account. In the most recent Windows 11 builds, attempts to execute the bypassnro command return the following error: Fortunately, not all hope is lost. Enthusiasts quickly discovered that it is still possible to restore the script. Here is how: On the Windows 11 setup screen, press Shift + F10 and type regedit and press Enter. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE. Click Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) and rename the new value to BypassNRO. Open the value and change its value data to 1. Restart your system. You can now setup your computer without an active internet connection or a Microsoft Account. Of course, OOBE\bypassnro is not the only way to skip some of Windows 11's requirements. Still, it is one of the easiest and most popular ones, so quite a lot of users will be upset about its demise. Luckily, for now, it is possible to bring it back. There is just no info on whether this method will last. Source: @phantomofearth X Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of February): 874 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

New tinnitus treatment emerges from blocking back-channels in the ear By Michael Irving March 14, 2025 The discovery of a strange mechanism between the ear and the brain could lead to a new potential tinnitus treatment If some speakers in your sound system were broken, you might try to compensate by cranking up the volume on the ones that still work. It turns out that the brain does the same thing when damaged hair cells in the ear lead to hearing loss – and this could be causing your tinnitus. Sensory hair cells are tiny structures in the cochlea that wave like blades of grass in the wind – but in this case, it’s the pressure of sound waves that gets them moving. When they do, they create electrical signals that are funneled through nerve fibers to the brain, to process what you’re hearing. But a small percentage of these nerves actually run in the opposite direction, from the brain to the cochlea. Scientists have long been puzzled by the function of these backwards channels, and it’s hard to study their activity while people or animals are awake. In the new study, scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) used an intriguing imaging tool to see what’s going on in there. The technique is called optical coherence tomography (OCT), which involves creating a 3D image of tissue using light waves. It’s currently used to scan the retina to diagnose conditions like glaucoma, but the team adapted it for use in the ear. “OCT lets us look down the ear canal, through the eardrum and bone into the cochlea, and measure how it’s working – non-invasively and without pain,” said John Oghalai, lead author of the study. “What’s exciting about this is it lets us study how the brain is controlling the cochlea in real time.” The researchers genetically engineered mice to have impaired hearing, by disabling some of the nerves that carry signals from their ears to their brains. They then used OCT to monitor the activity of the cochlea, and found that it was working harder than usual. “As humans age and our hair cells die off, we start to lose our hearing,” said Oghalai. “These findings suggest that the brain can send signals to the remaining hair cells, essentially telling them to turn up the volume.” As useful as this mechanism might be to compensate for hearing loss, the team suggests that it might have unwanted side effects: namely, it could contribute to conditions like tinnitus. The brain cranking the cochlea’s volume could produce that annoying ringing associated with tinnitus, like the hiss you hear when turning a speaker up too loud with nothing playing. On the positive side, the team now plans to test drugs that could block these backwards nerve fibers as a potential treatment for tinnitus, and related conditions like hyperacusis, where everyday sounds seem uncomfortably loud. The research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Source

Google Chrome and many other browsers will stop uBlock Origin from working. Luckily, there are still several options to block ads and other content on the web. Some Google Chrome users ran into a disappointing message today. According to several people on Reddit, uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome. It's been known for a while that uBlock Origin and several other extensions would stop working on Chrome, but the deadline is finally affecting people. The change that stops uBlock Origin and some other extensions from working is rolling out gradually, so you may be able to use uBlock Origin for a little longer on Chrome. However, if you're using Google's browser, the extension will be turned off soon. Several other browsers will also stop working with uBlock Origin. What happened to uBlock Origin? For many people, uBlock Origin has stopped working on Chrome because Chrome has shifted to Manifest 3 for its extensions. That change started years ago, and the process has been gradual because developers needed time to migrate extensions from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. Manifest V3 is a Chrome extension platform that includes several security and privacy improvements. Extensions built on Manifest V3 should also perform better. While there are many benefits to moving from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3, there are some downsides. Perhaps the most notable change is that Manifest V3 limits the WebRequest API, which is essential for uBlock Origin. That API allows uBlock Origin to block certain content before that content loads. Without WebRequest API support, uBlock Origin is unable to work. Does uBlock Origin still work on Chrome? The latest browser extension framework stops essential functionality of uBlock Origin, so companies like Mozilla have had to find ways to keep certain extensions working on Firefox. (Image credit: Future) Chrome users will not be able to use uBlock Origin shortly, and many cannot already. The changes that effectively disable uBlock Origin are rolling out gradually. The safest bet for those who rely on uBlock Origin is to use Firefox. Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, will continue to support the WebRequest API even when using Manifest V3. That means uBlock Origins and other content blockers that rely on the WebRequest API will continue to work within Firefox. Mozilla explains the situation in a blog post: "Mozilla will maintain support for blocking WebRequest in MV3. To maximize compatibility with other browsers, we will also ship support for declarativeNetRequest. We will continue to work with content blockers and other key consumers of this API to identify current and future alternatives where appropriate. Content blocking is one of the most important use cases for extensions, and we are committed to ensuring that Firefox users have access to the best privacy tools available." Mozilla appears to be the most committed to ensuring popular content blockers work. Other browsers are migrating to Manifest V3 and don't seem to have plans to support the WebRequest API. Does uBlock Origin work on Microsoft Edge? Microsoft Edge will also stop uBlock Origin from working at some point, though the timeline for the cutoff is not confirmed. (Image credit: Windows Central) Microsoft Edge seems to be moving away from support for Manifest V2 extensions, though the exact timeline of Microsoft may differ from that of Google. Microsoft stopped accepting Manifest V2 extensions in July 2022, but the chart with a timeline lists "TBD" for the next stages. Below is a copy of the table from that document: Timeframe Microsoft Partner Center changes Microsoft Edge changes July 2022 (already in effect) Microsoft Partner Center will no longer accept new Manifest V2 extensions with visibility set as Hidden or Public. No change. TBD Microsoft Partner Center will no longer accept updates to existing Manifest V2 extensions. Developers can submit updates for migrating a V2 extension to V3. Microsoft Edge stops running Manifest V2 extensions. Enterprises can allow Manifest V2 extensions to run on Microsoft Edge, by using enterprise policies. TBD No change. Manifest V2 extensions will no longer function in Microsoft Edge, even with the use of enterprise policies. At some point, Microsoft will stop Manifest V2 extensions from working within Edge. For an unspecified amount of time, enterprise customers will still be able to use Manifest V2 extensions. Eventually, all Manifest V2 extensions will stop working in Edge, even if you're an enterprise user. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not shared dates on its timeline. uBlock Origin alternatives If you don't want to use Firefox, there are some alternatives to uBlock Origin. uBlock Origin Lite works with Manifest V3, but it lacks some of the granular controls of the original uBlock Origin. Despite the limits, the extension still holds a 4.5 out of 5 in the Chrome Web Store. You can also use a different content blocker. There's no shortage of them these days, but you'll have varying degrees of control. AdGuard is highly reviewed by customers and received 4.5 out of 5 stars in TechRadar's AdGuard review. Many browsers, including Brave, Firefox, and Edge, also feature built-in ad blockers. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Back in October 2021, when Microsoft made the original Windows 11, version 21H2, generally available, the company, perhaps unimaginably, had also provided a workaround that bypassed the system requirements which would allow users on unsupported PCs to upgrade too. If you remember the days, there was a widespread objection against the stringent OS hardware requirements, something that is quite prevalent even today, as Microsoft recently had to clarify it was not relaxing the Windows 11 hardware eligibility criteria. The workaround that Microsoft had published involved tweaking a Registry key that would allow a Windows 11 upgrade on unsupported PCs by bypassing CPU and TPM checks: However, Neowin noticed today while browsing that the support article which hosted this information has been edited since and the above workaround has been deleted. The change was made sometime recently after the release of Windows 11 24H2. Microsoft's current official recommendation is a new PC for updating to Windows 11, so clearly the company is not a fan of those updating to 11 on unsupported devices. Microsoft's partners like Dell and AMD have expressed they are likely on board with this too. With Microsoft justifying how deprecation is actually a good thing for users, the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 will certainly be interesting from the hardware standpoint. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

On January 14, 2025, Microsoft released the latest security updates for Windows 10 and 11. As usual, all updates come with a short list of known bugs, which sometimes gets new entries as users report their discoveries or Microsoft makes its own. This time, Microsoft acknowledged a bug in Windows 10, but the company says you should not worry about it. In the now-updated support document, Microsoft says those keeping an eye on the Windows Event Viewer might notice an error related to SgrmBroker.exe with the following code: "The System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker service terminated with the following error: %%3489660935." While it might look serious at first glance, there is indeed nothing to worry about. For one, Microsoft says the only way to detect the bug is to "monitor" the Event Viewer closely. Otherwise, you will not see any traces or signs of the problem, plus there should be no signs of performance, functionality, or security issues. Microsoft also provided some additional insights into the problem with SgrmBroker.exe (System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker Service): If the error in the Event Viewer still bugs you, you can fix it by turning off the System Guard Monitor Broker Service. Here is how to do it: Microsoft says a future update will fix the problem for good. More important bugs in the January 2025 security updates for Windows 10 and 11 include compatibility issues with certain Citrix software, which causes errors when attempting to install the latest Patch Tuesday update. You can learn more about it here. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

This week, Microsoft made a major announcement related to the rollout of the New Outlook for Windows. The new app will automatically be installed on Windows 10 PCs very soon. Thankfully, though, for those who don't want it, Microsoft has also shared a way to deal with it using a PowerShell and Registry workaround. A popular third-party utility called Bloatynosy has integrated this ability via a plugin with its latest update. However, it is noteworthy that the software already could remove the New Outlook app previously. Also, WinGet app installations are supported now. There is also an ad for Flyby11 on its home page. Besides these functionality improvements, the UI has also seen an update with a new "enhanced" Dark Mode and navigation menu similar to Windows 11. The new version is also said to bring better performance overall. The full changelog is given below: You can download the latest version of BloatyNosy, 1.0.10, here on its official GitHub repo. As always, though, the best way to test out unofficial apps may be in a VM. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Mozilla has released the latest stable version of Firefox today, 134.0. If you recall, the beta 2 version of this update tried to sneak in a way to make itself the default browser. With this new stable release, Firefox has finally gained support for hardware-accelerated playback of HEVC (high efficiency video codec) or H.265 on Windows. For reference, Google Chrome received support for H.265 decoding back in 2022 back when Mozilla was pushing back against it. Another change is a refreshed New Tab layout (image below), as well as improvements to the browser's pop-up blocker as they should no longer be as overly aggressive. The full changelog is given below: Several security fixes have also landed with this new version. They are: CVE-2025-0244: Address bar spoofing using an invalid protocol scheme on Firefox for Android CVE-2025-0245: Lock screen setting bypass in Firefox Focus for Android CVE-2025-0246: Address bar spoofing using an invalid protocol scheme on Firefox for Android CVE-2025-0237: WebChannel APIs susceptible to confused deputy attack CVE-2025-0238: Use-after-free when breaking lines in text CVE-2025-0239: Alt-Svc ALPN validation failure when redirected CVE-2025-0240: Compartment mismatch when parsing JavaScript JSON module CVE-2025-0241: Memory corruption when using JavaScript Text Segmentation CVE-2025-0242: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 134, Thunderbird 134, Firefox ESR 115.19, Firefox ESR 128.6, Thunderbird 115.19, and Thunderbird 128.6 CVE-2025-0243: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 134, Thunderbird 134, Firefox ESR 128.6, and Thunderbird 128.6 CVE-2025-0247: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 134 and Thunderbird 134 You can download the Firefox version 134.0 from the Neowin software stories page or from Mozilla's official site. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Windows users who are not satisfied with the stock UI in Windows 11 have plenty of apps to choose from to improve the default experience. StartAllBack is one such application, and it offers plenty of customization and improvements. With the latest update to version 3.9, StartAllBack received even more. StartAllBack 3.9, which is now available for download, introduces a "plump taskbar" option. It increases the taskbar margins and uses the stock Windows 11 pill-shape indicator to run apps. You can also switch between the attached and detached taskbar, with the latter having a small gap between the taskbar and the bottom edge of the screen for a floating look. Those who miss the fancy UI effects of Windows 7's taskbar can now enable Aura, which changes the highlight based on the app icon's primary color. Finally, with the latest update, you can restore the classic drive grouping from Windows 7's File Explorer. When enabled, this feature places removable drives into a separate group, making it easier to distinguish internal drives from removable, such as USB thumb drives, external SSDs, etc. In modern Windows versions, the OS crams them all into a single "Devices and drives" category, which is frankly inconvenient, especially when you have many drives. Here is the full changelog: Other features in StartAllBack include a proper dark mode for the entire operating system, different taskbar and Start menu styles, improved context menus, a more responsive user interface, Control Panel enhancements for Windows 11 users, and more. You can download StartAllBack from the official website. Alternatively, run Windows Terminal and type winget install startallback. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of November): 5,298 news posts RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

A severe security vulnerability has been discovered in 7-Zip, the popular file compression utility, allowing remote attackers to execute malicious code through specially crafted archives. The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-11477 has received a high CVSS score of 7.8, indicating significant security risks for users of affected versions. The flaw specifically exists within the Zstandard decompression implementation, where improper validation of user-supplied data can result in an integer underflow before writing to memory. This vulnerability enables attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current process when users interact with malicious archives. According to Nicholas Zubrisky of Trend Micro Security Research, attackers can exploit this vulnerability by convincing users to open carefully prepared archives, which could be distributed through email attachments or shared files. The Zstandard format, particularly prevalent in Linux environments, is commonly used in various file systems, including Btrfs, SquashFS, and OpenZFS. The vulnerability poses significant risks as it allows attackers to: Execute arbitrary code on affected systems Gain the same access rights as logged-in users Potentially achieve complete system compromise Mitigation and Fixes 7-Zip has addressed this security issue in version 24.07. Since the software lacks an integrated update mechanism, users must manually download and install the latest version to protect their systems. IT administrators and software developers who implement 7-Zip in their products should immediately update their installations to the patched version. The vulnerability was initially reported to 7-Zip in June 2024, with the coordinated public disclosure occurring on November 20, 2024. Security experts emphasize the importance of prompt patching, as the vulnerability requires minimal technical expertise to exploit, though no known malware is currently targeting this flaw. This incident highlights the critical importance of input validation in application security, particularly when processing data from potentially untrusted sources. Organizations and individuals using 7-Zip or products that incorporate its functionality should prioritize updating to the latest version to maintain system security. Source : https://cybersecuritynews.com/7-zip-vulnerability-arbitrary-code/

For some time now, Google has been waging a two-front war as it tries to render adblockers and content blockers useless, at least on YouTube, with supposed server-side-injected ads that could potentially become very difficult, if not impossible, to block. And also, the tech giant wants to make it impossible to enable unsupported adblockers, among other extensions and add-ons, on Chrome which include the likes of the highly popular uBlock Origin. These unsupported extensions are based on Manifest V2 (MV2) API which has been succeeded by Manifest V3. The latter promises better privacy, security and performance. In case you missed it, earlier this month, we reported on a new change Google is working on in its Chrome extension manager. The company is testing the option to disable the toggle to enable unsupported browser extensions like uBlock Origin such that users will no longer be able to use them and the only option will be to look for supported MV3 alternatives. The toggle would be greyed out preventing users from using unsupported MV2 add-ons. Besides, Google had already confirmed that enabling the extension via the said toggle could only work for so long as it will eventually be "permanently disabled" since such extensions, the company feels, are not the "best" for users. As such, the process has started and Google has begun disabling uBlock Origin and other such MV2 extensions. If you want to keep using uBlock Origin till June next year, you can also try this official Windows Registry trick. Rival Brave saw the opportunity and chimed in on such a post where an X user was complaining about the development. It has reminded users that, unlike Chrome, it will continue to work with uBlock Origin and also hinted about its own built-in adblocker and tracker-blocker. If you are considering something that is non-Chromium, Mozilla's Firefox is the only notable option as it is based on Gecko and it does indeed continue to work with uBlock Origin. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

This year's big feature update for Windows 11 is now officially out. It packs quite a lot of new features and improvements, but they are sadly not available to all eligible users right away. Microsoft is rolling out the update gradually, which means many customers will get Windows 11 version 24H2 in weeks, if not months. If you have an officially compatible system and you want to get Windows 11 24H2 now, here is how to do it. Before you go on, it is worth noting that your system may not be "seeing" Windows 11 version 24H2 due to a blocking issue. Check out the list of known bugs before attempting to download and install Windows 11 24H2. Applying a workaround might lift the block, or you will have to wait before Microsoft fixes the bug that prevents you from updating. Option 1—download Windows 11 24H2 from Windows Update Using this method requires the May 2024 non-security update for Windows 11. Open Windows Settings and go to Windows Update. Toggle on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" option and confirm the action. Click "Check for updates." Windows will look up available updates, and if your system is eligible, it will offer to download Windows 11 24H2. Click download and wait for the process to complete. Note: Windows 11 version 24H2 is a full system update, so installing it is likely to take more time than installing a cumulative update. Option 2—download Windows 11 24H2 using Installation Assistant Go to the official Windows 11 download website using this link. Find the "Windows 11 Installation Assistant" section. Click "Download Now." Go to this website to download Microsoft's PC Health Check app. The Installation Assistant won't let you update without checking if your system is eligible, even if you are already on Windows 11. Install the PC Health Check app and run it. Click check and make sure it says that your system is compatible with Windows 11. Close the PC Health Check app and launch the downloaded Installation Assistant exe. Click "Accept and Install." Sit back and wait for the process to finish. The app will prompt you to restart once the preparation process is over. Option 3—update to Windows 11 24H2 using official images We should warn you that if your computer cannot update to Windows 11 24H2 using previous methods, force-updating it with an ISO via in-place update may not be the best option. Microsoft might have a compatibility hold or a known issue preventing your system from updating. In such a case, force-installing Windows 11 24H2 will likely result in poor user experience, crippling issues, instabilities, or broken apps. Proceed at your own risk. Go to the official Windows 11 download website using this link. Scroll down to the "Download Windows 11 Disk Image" section. Select "Windows 11" from the drop-down menu and click "Download now." Select the language you need. Click "64-bit Download" and wait for your browser to download the ISO file. Double-click the downloaded image and launch the setup.exe file. Wait for the app to prepare your system, then click "Install" on the "Ready to install" screen. Finally, you can always create a bootable USB drive using the Media Creation Tool and clean-install Windows 11 on your computer. That is how you can officially download Windows 11 version 24H2 without waiting for Microsoft's approval. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Yesterday, we reported on the latest Media Creation Tool (MCT) update which now helps you download and install the first Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 version 24H2. You can find details about that post in this dedicated article. However, an official tool like MCT only works with systems which are supported by Microsoft that fulfill the minimum requirements. The tech giant recently updated a support page where it recommends buying a new PC for those who are looking to upgrade to Windows 11 from pre-Windows 10 since such systems are unlikely to satisfy Windows 11's upgrade criteria. Such users can opt for third-party utilities like Rufus which recently published a workaround for bypassing Windows 11 24H2 system requirements on unsupported PCs. The developer promised that the next release of Rufus would have the workaround baked in. As such, the latest version of the app, 4.6 Beta, has received the feature as well as several others including improvements related to local account passwords, UEFI bootloaders, a PowerShell fix, and more. The full changelog is given below: Keep in mind though that Windows 11 24H2 is different from its predecessors since Microsoft has added a new CPU instruction set requirement with PopCnt and SSE4.2. Thus, very old PCs with CPUs that lack the required ISA (instruction set architecture) won't be able to bypass the requirement even with the latest version of Rufus. Rufus author Pete Batard has also reiterated that such a bypass is not going to come to his app. He writes: You can download the latest version of Rufus from the Neowin software stories page, the official website or GitHub. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

If you use Word to write your documents, beware of a very odd bug that can ruin your day by deleting a file instead of saving it. Microsoft has issued a warning, acknowledging that Word documents with certain file names might be lost upon saving locally. If you save files on your local machine, you better pay attention to their file extensions. Microsoft says that if a file has its extension capitalized (.DOCX instead of .docx) or with the symbol # in it, an attempt to save when closing the file will result in Windows just deleting the file. Neowin managed to recreate this bug, as it seems to be affecting all users with Office apps version 2409: Fortunately, the damage is not permanent, and you can restore the deleted file from the Recycle Bin. Alternatively, Microsoft suggests saving the file manually before closing the document or Word altogether. There is also another workaround: Finally, you can check if your Word documents have all-caps file extensions by turning on the "File name extension" option. To do so in Windows 11, click the View button on the toolbar and select Show > File Name Extensions. In Windows 10, open Folder Options and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" option on the View tab. If a Word document has its extension in all caps, select the file, press F2, and change the extension to lowercase. You can also check your Word version by clicking File > Account > Word. It is worth noting that the bug does not affect files stored in the cloud. Microsoft says its Office team is investigating the issue. Meanwhile, users can use workarounds listed in the official documentation. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

The ability to remain installed and undetected makes Perfctl hard to fight. Thousands of machines running Linux have been infected by a malware strain that’s notable for its stealth, the number of misconfigurations it can exploit, and the breadth of malicious activities it can perform, researchers reported Thursday. The malware has been circulating since at least 2021. It gets installed by exploiting more than 20,000 common misconfigurations, a capability that may make millions of machines connected to the Internet potential targets, researchers from Aqua Security said. It can also exploit CVE-2023-33426, a vulnerability with a severity rating of 10 out of 10 that was patched last year in Apache RocketMQ, a messaging and streaming platform that’s found on many Linux machines. Perfctl storm The researchers are calling the malware Perfctl, the name of a malicious component that surreptitiously mines cryptocurrency. The unknown developers of the malware gave the process a name that combines the perf Linux monitoring tool and ctl, an abbreviation commonly used with command line tools. A signature characteristic of Perfctl is its use of process and file names that are identical or similar to those commonly found in Linux environments. The naming convention is one of the many ways the malware attempts to escape notice of infected users. Perfctl further cloaks itself using a host of other tricks. One is that it installs many of its components as rootkits, a special class of malware that hides its presence from the operating system and administrative tools. Other stealth mechanisms include: Stopping activities that are easy to detect when a new user logs in Using a Unix socket over TOR for external communications Deleting its installation binary after execution and running as a background service thereafter Manipulating the Linux process pcap_loop through a technique known as hooking to prevent admin tools from recording the malicious traffic Suppressing mesg errors to avoid any visible warnings during execution. The malware is designed to ensure persistence, meaning the ability to remain on the infected machine after reboots or attempts to delete core components. Two such techniques are (1) modifying the ~/.profile script, which sets up the environment during user login so the malware loads ahead of legitimate workloads expected to run on the server and (2) copying itself from memory to multiple disk locations. The hooking of pcap_loop can also provide persistence by allowing malicious activities to continue even after primary payloads are detected and removed. Besides running using the machine resources to mine cryptocurrency, Perfctl also turns the machine into a profit-making proxy that paying customers use to relay their Internet traffic. Aqua Security researchers have also observed the malware serving as a backdoor to install other families of malware. Assaf Morag, Aqua Security’s threat intelligence director, wrote in an email: “The malware always manages to restart” While Perfctl and some of the malware it installs are detected by some antivirus software, Aqua Security researchers were unable to find any research reports on the malware. They were, however, able to find a wealth of threads on developer-related sites that discussed infections consistent with it. This Reddit comment posted to the CentOS subreddit is typical. An admin noticed that two servers were infected with a cryptocurrency hijacker with the names perfcc and perfctl. The admin wanted help investigating the cause. “I only became aware of the malware because my monitoring setup alerted me to 100% CPU utilization,” the admin wrote in the April 2023 post. “However, the process would stop immediately when I logged in via SSH or console. As soon as I logged out, the malware would resume running within a few seconds or minutes.” The admin continued: Other discussions include: Reddit, Stack Overflow (Spanish), forobeta (Spanish), brainycp (Russian), natnetwork (Indonesian), Proxmox (Deutsch), Camel2243 (Chinese), svrforum (Korean), exabytes,>virtualmin,>serverfault and many others. After exploiting a vulnerability or misconfiguration, the exploit code downloads the main payload from a server, which, in most cases, has been hacked by the attacker and converted into a channel for distributing the malware anonymously. An attack that targeted the researchers’ honeypot named the payload httpd. Once executed, the file copies itself from memory to a new location in the /temp directory, runs it, and then terminates the original process and deletes the downloaded binary. Once moved to the /tmp directory, the file executes under a different name, which mimics the name of a known Linux process. The file hosted on the honeypot was named sh. From there, the file establishes a local command-and-control process and attempts to gain root system rights by exploiting CVE-2021-4043, a privilege-escalation vulnerability that was patched in 2021 in Gpac, a widely used open source multimedia framework. The malware goes on to copy itself from memory to a handful of other disk locations, once again using names that appear as routine system files. The malware then drops a rootkit, a host of popular Linux utilities that have been modified to serve as rootkits, and the miner. In some cases, the malware also installs software for “proxy-jacking,” the term for surreptitiously routing traffic through the infected machine so the true origin of the data isn’t revealed. The researchers continued: The diagram below captures the attack flow: Credit: Aqua Security The following image captures some of the names given to the malicious files that are installed: Credit: Aqua Security By extrapolating data such as the number of Linux servers connected to the Internet across various services and applications, as tracked by services such as Shodan and Censys, the researchers estimate that the number of machines infected by Perfctl is measured in the thousands. They say that the pool of vulnerable machines—meaning those that have yet to install the patch for CVE-2023-33426 or contain a vulnerable misconfiguration—is in the millions. The researchers have yet to measure the amount of cryptocurrency the malicious miners have generated. People who want to determine if their device has been targeted or infected by Perfctl should look for indicators of compromise included in Thursday’s post. They should also be on the lookout for unusual spikes in CPU usage or sudden system slowdowns, particularly if they occur during idle times. Thursday’s report also provides steps for preventing infections in the first place. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Intel was at one point the biggest processor maker in the world with every other company a distant second. Those days are now long gone, and now there's a new report claiming Qualcomm, the current learning maker of mobile processors, has made Intel an acquisition offer. The report comes from The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources. The report adds that a deal for Qualcomm to buy Intel is "far from certain" so it may not come to pass. Specific financial details of this offer were not revealed. There were previous unconfirmed rumors that Qualcomm was interested in purchasing some of Intel's chip design divisions. Even if such a deal is announced, it would almost certainly come under the eyes of government regulators to see if it would violate anti-trust law. Qualcomm could have to sell off parts of Intel in order to pass regulatory muster. Intel has seen its fortunes go way down in the last year, as many investors believe that the once dominate chip designer and maker missed out on the current AI revolution that's being led by other chip companies, most notably Nvidia. Earlier this year, Intel revealed that not only had its financial number missed its forecasts, but that it was going to lay off 15,000 of its employees by the end of 2024. That number represents about 15 percent of its workforce at that time. Earlier this week, Intel announced plans to make additional changes to save money. That included pausing the plans for constructing two of its plants, along with turning it foundry business into a independent subsidiary of the company. Qualcomm continues to be the top third-party processor for mobile devices. However, its been trying to boost its PC business as well. Earlier this year, it announced its Snapdragon X series of Arm-based processors made specifically for Windows 11 PCs. Most of the major PC makers are now selling notebooks with some form of Snapdragon X chip, including Microsoft with some of its Surface devices. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of August): 3,792 news posts

While the general user may be unaware of it, browser wars continue to wage on as each of them tries to secure and keep as much of the user base as they can, often seemingly venturing into controversial territories. Besides waging war against rivals, search giant Google is also currently trying to kill off ad blocking on YouTube with server-side-injected ads inside videos that may be impossible to jam off. In the ad blocking extension space, another ongoing change is the move from Manifest V2 to V3. For those unfamiliar, the Manifest API essentially deals with how extensions and add-ons work on browsers, and V3 aims to improve the privacy, security and performance of such extensions. Recently, uBlock Origin developer recommended users switch to uBlock Lite as Chrome Web Store currently flags the former with a message that says the extension may not be supported for longer following the commencement of the Manifest V2 phase-out at the start of June. The message (warning) is also present on the "About Manifest V2" page on Google's official site. It notifies extension developers that V2 extensions are no longer accepted on Chrome Web Store with the message "Warning: The Chrome Web Store no longer accepts Manifest V2 extensions. Follow the Manifest V3 Migration guide to convert your extension to Manifest V3." Microsoft Edge, which is Chromium-based as well, is going a similar route, although no such notification about the Edge Add-ons Store seems to have been planted on its site. However, updates to existing MV2 add-ons are still allowed on Edge, which is not possible on Chrome. For those who want to keep using Manifest V2 extensions like uBlock Origin in the foreseeable future, one way to do so is to migrate to Mozilla's Firefox, which has no plans to drop MV2 support any time soon. The Gecko-based browser recently said that it wants to extend the support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 further. If you want to stick to Chromium, an official Registry hack exists that allows extending the support for MV2 add-ons with the help of the "ExtensionManifestV2Availability" policy that is designed for enterprises. Enabling the policy allows an extended year of support for MV2 add-ons till June 2025. The policy works on Windows, as well as macOS, and Linux. Chrome version 110 or newer is needed, while for Edge, it is version 123 or later. Reddit user TeamDJ brought attention to the policy that can be added inside the Windows Registry using the Registry Editor app (Regedit) as a DWORD. They wrote: If you are savvy enough, you can also go about the above steps on your own using this official Chrome guide. As always, though, make sure to be careful when tweaking the Windows Registry. As an online publication, Neowin too relies on ads for operating costs and, if you use an ad blocker, we'd appreciate being whitelisted. In addition, we have an ad-free subscription for $28 a year, which is another way to show support! Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

A clean installation of Windows 10 or Windows 11 may enable Bitlocker drive encryption automatically. The main system partition and all fixed drives will be encrypted in this case after the out-of-box experience. Bitlocker protects data on the PC against unauthorized access by encrypting partitions and drives. Microsoft calls this specific BitLocker feature device encryption: "Device encryption is a Windows feature that provides a simple way for some devices to enable BitLocker encryption automatically". Problem is, since the encryption process happens automatically in this case, users may not be aware of it. This can lead to issues, for instance when reinstalling the operating system without saving the Bitlocker recovery key or using a Microsoft account. Access to files is lost in the worst case. Thankfully, there are ways to block Windows from enabling the automatic encryption of drives during clean installs. Open Start. Type CMD. Select "run as administrator" while Command Prompt is selected. Paste manage-bde -status and press the Enter-key. Check any of the following parameters: BitLocker version, Conversion status, Percentage encrypted, Encryption method, Lock status, Identification field, or Key protectors. If you see "none, "fully decrypted", "0.0%", "None", "Protection Off", "Unlocked", "None", and "None Found", then the drive is not encrypted using BitLocker. You can disable the protection by running the command manage-bde –off DRIVELETTER, e.g., manage-bde –off C : [<-- omit the space between C and colon, damn smilies] from an elevated command prompt. What about you? Do you use encryption, maybe even BitLocker? (inspiration from Deskmodder) Source

When your PC misbehaves, the first thing that most of us do or are on the verge of doing is reinstalling the operating system. That's what most normal users would do, and that gets the job done and fixes the issue, most of the time. You might have seen different ways of repairing, resetting, or reinstalling Windows 11, such as using the Reset This PC option, using the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable disc or USB to format the PC, etc. But there is another way that is way simpler and doesn't require you to have a USB or a disc at your disposal or go through some advanced steps to get your PC to a working state. You can use the "Fix Problems using Windows Update" feature, which does exactly what it says. This feature was quietly added with the Windows 11 Moment 5 update that rolled out earlier this month. Reinstall Windows 11 using Windows Update Click on the Start menu button on the bottom-left corner of the taskbar, and select Settings. You can also right-click on the Start menu button and select Settings from the list of options, or press the Win + I keys to access the Settings menu directly. Select System from the left pane of the Settings menu. On the right side, scroll down and click on Recovery. On the next page, you will see the option Fix problems using Windows Update, which is described as a feature that would "Reinstall your current version of Windows (your apps, files, and settings will be preserved)". Click on the Reinstall now button next to the Fix problems using Windows Update option. A confirmation pop-up will appear. You can check the box next to Automatically restart my PC 15 minutes after installation option and click OK. After that, your PC will reboot and the repair will initiate. This process of reinstalling Windows 11 using Windows Update is a safe and easy way to resolve issues if your PC is throwing tantrums, usually after you have installed a Windows update. Besides, it doesn't delete your files, apps, or settings. Keep in mind that if you are using a PC or laptop that is controlled or managed by your work or school, the option to Fix problems using Windows Update won't be available on your PC. Moreover, the option may also be unavailable if your PC is running a version earlier than Windows 11 with the 2022 annual update, and should have the February 2024 optional update or above to get this feature working. If you are old school and love how things looked in Windows 10, then you can check out our guide that details how you can get back the old Task Manager on Windows 11. You can also restore the old Notepad using our dedicated guide. Source

Zorin OS 17.3 has been announced today, promising new features centered around privacy and an enhanced user experience. Zorin Group kicked off its announcement by pointing out that Windows 10 is reaching its end of life this October. Zorin Group is positioning its Ubuntu-based distro as the "ideal replacement," especially for devices that can’t handle Windows 11’s system requirements. If you’re in that boat, though, Paul also suggests giving Linux Mint a shot. With 17.3, there is now an expanded database containing over 150 alternatives to Windows applications. Zorin OS allows you to run Windows applications thanks to the Wine compatibility layer, but there's nothing better than native applications on native platforms. Now, when you launch a Windows installer for an app, Zorin OS 17.3 will suggest native alternatives. For example, Obsidian, the popular "file over app" note-taking application, ships with variants for Linux, macOS, and Windows. If you try to run the Windows .exe file on Zorin OS 17.3, the system will recommend the Linux version. You've probably heard about the recent controversial policy changes Mozilla made. If you somehow haven't, here's a brief recap: Last month, Mozilla modified its Terms of Use for Firefox, stating that by using Firefox, you granted it a "nonexclusive, royalty-free license" to utilize information input through the browser. That's not all. In the Mozilla Bedrock project, the following code block was also removed: This did not sit well with many, and Zorin Group is one of them. That's why, in 17.3, Zorin OS is ditching Firefox as its default browser in favor of a lightly modified Brave. Zorin Group says the following requirements were set when considering a replacement for Firefox: Moving on, the Zorin Connect app has received a redesigned interface that adapts to your Android device's theme, alongside other improvements. For example, the "Remote Input" functionality now includes new features like middle-click, compose and send text, and a gyroscope mouse option. Other improvements to the Zorin Connect app include the following: If you're a touchscreen user, you'll notice that in 17.3, you can now open the on-screen keyboard from the panel once you enable the "Screen Keyboard Button in Panel" option under "Interface" in Zorin Appearance. Other changes Zorin OS brings include updates to pre-installed apps. The latest NVIDIA 570 drivers are now included in the .iso files, bringing support for the newest NVIDIA RTX 5000 series graphics cards. Zorin Group promises software updates and patches until June 2027 for users of the Zorin OS 17 version series. For existing Zorin OS users, there are two recommended ways to get Zorin OS 17.3. If you're on Zorin OS 17, you can upgrade to 17.3 using the Software Updater. If you're on version 16, you'll need to follow this guide on how to upgrade. As with other Zorin OS versions, 17.3 comes in three editions: Pro (which costs $47.99), Core, and Education. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of February): 874 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Nosferatu' tops the chart, followed by 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3'. 'Kraven The Hunter' completes the top three. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have three newcomers on the list. “Nosferatu” is the most shared title. The most torrented movies for the week ending on January 27 are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrent sites 1 (…) Nosferatu 7.5 / trailer 2 (…) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 7.1 / trailer 3 (1) Kraven The Hunter 5.4 / trailer 4 (2) Gladiator II 6.7 / trailer 5 (3) Venom: The Last Dance 6.1 / trailer 6 (5) Mufasa: The Lion King 6.8 / trailer 7 (4) Wicked 7.8 / trailer 8 (7) Back in Action 6.0 / trailer 9 (…) Star Trek: Section 31 4.0 / trailer 10 (6) Deadpool & Wolverine 8.2 / trailer Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Back when Windows 11 launched in 2021, Microsoft, as with any other company, wanted to hype people up about its new product. One aspect which the company focused on was suggesting that users would get better performance on 11 as the OS was designed to get the best out of their hardware. This was a bit of an ironic statement considering Microsoft introduced upgraded system requirements for its new operating system and, to this day, as it recently clarified, has stuck to it. After the promise of better performance fell mostly flat, a couple of months later in November 2021, Microsoft devs promised that improving the overall snappiness of the various UI elements in the OS was its main focus in 2022. A year and a half later, in May of 2023, Microsoft published a blog post highlighting all the improvements that it had made till then, although third-party testing from a few months prior suggested no notable improvements. We have tried testing Microsoft's claim in the past in both scenarios, an in-place upgrade and clean installation. Interestingly, we did find Windows 11 to be faster in some scenarios, although nowhere near the margin of what Microsoft wants you to believe by making up ridiculous performance claims using paid studies, for example. Besides Windows 10 vs 11, the performance differences between the versions of Windows 11 too are something worth looking at. As such, we decided to see what a user going from feature update 23H2 to 24H2 would experience. For a clear progression, Windows 11 24H2 has to perform at least somewhat better, and some users do claim that is indeed the case even when running unsupported systems. Unlike last time, our test would not just be straight-up apples-to-apples comparisons here. We are trying to replicate the usage of a general user and as such, all settings would be kept at default. This is how we will be evaluating the performance differentials for an in-place upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 from 23H2. Thus, some of the settings like Core Isolation or Virtualization-based Security (VBS) have been kept enabled. Since we are looking at an in-place upgrade experience here, we updated our system to the first 24H2 Patch, ie, October 2024 Patch Tuesday (KB5044284). In case you are wondering about the hardware we tested this on, Steven and I worked on this together (remotely), on his test bench comprising Intel's Core i7-14700K CPU and AMD's 7800 XT GPU. The latest GPU drivers were used at the time (Adrenalin version 24.10.1). We start with synthetic benchmarks first. We measured the CPU performance in synthetic gaming tests using Physics / CPU tests available in 3DMark's Fire Strike Ultra and Time Spy Extreme. The former is based on DirectX 11 while the latter is based on DirectX 12. Interestingly, as you can see, 24H2 does significantly worse in Fire Strike. We wonder if this is because of the single-threaded nature of DX 11 which is something the 2024 Windows 11 feature update is not all that optimized for. Following that we have 3DMark CPU Profile which is essentially a scaling test, and bizarrely, Windows 11 24H2 shows poor scaling for some reason. After looking at the Fire Strike Ultra results above, we were honestly expecting the opposite, as we figured 24H2 may excel in multi-threading. Clearly, we were wrong. After that, we ran 3DMark GPU tests. We chose Speed Way and Steel Nomad since these are more modern than Time Spy Extreme. Although both Time Spy Extreme and Steel Nomad are running on DX 12, the latter has more modern workloads which is more representative of typical modern rasterization. Meanwhile, Speed Way is a DirectX Ray Tracing benchmark. [Please note here that we used the white background in our charts to indicate a CPU-heavy test and a radiant gray background was used when it's a GPU-heavy load. Thus the 3DMark chart below is radiant gray.] The 7800 XT performed similarly on both 24H2 and 23H2 and the scores were within the margin of error. Following synthetic gaming tests, we move on to real games. We already mentioned that we were sticking to default settings since we are trying to evaluate the standard experience of a user, hence, we did not tweak any game (graphics) settings. As such, we were not GPU bound. We start with the most interesting outcome as we are greeted with enormous performance improvement in Black Myth: Wukong on Windows 11 24H2 when Frame Generation (FG) option was enabled. In the average framerate, we saw a 17.3% bump, while in the 95%iles, it was 15.5% better. This surprised us a lot as we were not expecting to see such a massive difference in any title. With frame generation off, the performance was nearly identical. Another interesting result was in the case of Far Cry 6 where we see that Windows 11 24H2 lags behind version 23H2. Far Cry games are known to be single-thread bound often, so this may perhaps be explained by the initial poor result we saw in 3DMark Fire Strike Physics. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is yet another Ubisoft title, the two Windows versions run equally great. We also included Intel's APO results in supported games. In the case of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, we saw no differences. On Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the APO did not work as it kept crashing on 24H2, but worked fine on 23H2. But besides those, the scores were within the margin of error. Finally, we have Final Fantasy XV and The Callisto Protocol. As you can see in these two titles, neither Windows version was truly better. After games, we move on to productivity tests, and we start with Cinebench 2024 CPU (multi-threaded) and GPU rendering tests, and there is nothing too exciting going on here. Next up, we have 7-Zip, and while the decompression performance of both systems was pretty even, in compression, Windows 11 24H2 was around 6% ahead. Finally, we test PCMark 10 to get a general idea of how the two systems feel. The first thing we notice on Windows 11 24H2 (below) is that the app start-up performance for some reason is significantly lower than on 23H2 (above). Video Editing is another area where 23H2 comes on top. Overall, 23H2 definitely has the edge with 10,734 points compared to 10,460 on 24H2. Finally, we tested memory allocation on Windows 11 24H2 and 23H2. This shows how much system RAM each OS requests for caching page files, prefetch data, game/app data, among other things. Speaking of RAM, we were using TeamGroup's 32 GB DDR5-7600 kit that we reviewed last year. Again, interesting results here as we find Windows 11 version 24H2 consistently allocates much more memory in apps and games than 23H2. The only exception was in 7-Zip. So should you upgrade? given that Microsoft has now started pushing the feature update out to more users.The answer depends on the situation. 24H2, for example, showed a clear victory in the case of frame generation, though, in single-threaded instances, Windows 11 24H2 started to fall behind. And also, if snappiness is your priority, then you may find 23H2 better since the app start-up performance on 24H2 was significantly behind. RAM allocation is also something to keep in mind since 24H2 may warrant a minimum of 32 GB. Those were our results. What has your experience on 23H2 or 24H2 been like? Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Microsoft will force install the new Outlook email client on Windows 10 systems starting with next month's security update. The announcement was made in a new message added to the company's Microsoft 365 Admin Center, tagged MC976059, and it applies to Microsoft 365 apps users. As Redmond explains, the new Outlook app will be installed on Windows 10 devices for users who deploy the optional January 28 update and force installed for all who install the February 11 security update. The new Outlook client will run alongside the classic Outlook app and will not modify configurations or user defaults. Microsoft added that there's no way to block it from being installed on Windows 10 devices; however, those who don't want it can remove it afterward. "New Outlook exists as an installed app on the device. For instance, it can be found in the Apps section of the Start Menu. It does not replace existing (classic) Outlook or change any configurations / user defaults. Both (classic) Outlook and New Outlook for Windows can run side by side," Microsoft says. "Currently, there isn't a way to block the new Outlook from being installed - if you prefer not to have new Outlook show up on your organization's devices, you can remove it after it's installed as part of the update," the company added in a support document updated on Thursday. New Outlook user interface (Microsoft) To remove the new Outlook app package after it's force installed on your Windows device, you can use the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage cmdlet with the PackageName parameter value Microsoft.OutlookForWindows. This can be done by running the following command from a Windows PowerShell prompt and adding a new reg value: PowerShell: Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online -PackageName (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.OutlookForWindows).PackageFullName REG VALUE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\Orchestrator\UScheduler_Oobe\OutlookUpdate Next, add a REG_SZ registry setting named BlockedOobeUpdaters with a value of ["MS_Outlook"]. After removing the Outlook package, Windows Updates will not reinstall the new Outlook client. The first preview version of the new Outlook for Windows was introduced in May 2022. The app was generally available for personal accounts in September 2023 (via the September 26 Windows fall update and the Microsoft Store on Windows 11) and for commercial customers in August 2024. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

These are the most basic commands you have to know on Windows 11. Although Command Prompt has been around for a long time, even before Windows 11, many users still ignore it. While the operating system's modern graphical interface seamlessly handles virtually every task, Command Prompt offers unparalleled control, efficiency, and troubleshooting capabilities. Whether you're looking to navigate your file system faster, diagnose network issues, or perform administrative tasks efficiently, mastering the essential commands can save you time and effort. In this how-to guide, I'll highlight 20 essential commands to manage files, troubleshoot issues, and perform various system-level tasks on Windows 11. These commands will also work on Windows 10. Command Prompt essential commands for Windows 11 This list includes the most basic commands that any user should know. The list isn't arranged in any specific order. To use these commands, open Start and search for and launch the Windows Terminal and then launch a Command Prompt console (if applicable). 1. cd (Change Directory) The "cd" command, short for "change directory," is a fundamental command-line tool to move between different folders (directories) and switch between drives (like C:, D:, etc.). Usage: cd DIRECTORY-NAME Example: cd C:\Users\YourName – Moves to your account folder. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Replace "directory-name" with the name and path of the folder you want to navigate. Special cases: cd .. – Moves you one level "up" in the directory tree (to the parent folder). cd \ – Takes you to the root directory of the current drive (for example, C:\). cd / – (In some systems) Also takes you to the root directory. 2. dir (Directory) The "dir" command in the Command Prompt is a tool for viewing the contents of a directory (folder). Usage: dir – This command alone lists the contents of the current location. Example 1: dir /P – Lists the contents of the current directory, pausing after each screenful. Example 2: dir /AH – Lists all hidden files in the current directory. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Special cases: /P: Pauses the output after each screenful, allowing you to read it more easily. /W: Displays the output in a wide format, showing more files per line. /A: Displays files with specific attributes. For example, /A:D shows directories only, /A:H shows hidden files, /A:R shows read-only files, and /A:S displays system files. /O: Sorts the output by various criteria. For example, /O:N sorts by name (alphabetical), /O:D sorts by date/time, and /O:S sorts by size. /S: Displays a list of all files and subdirectories in the specified directory and all subdirectories below it. 3. mkdir (Make Directory) The "mkdir" command allows you to create new directories on a specific location. Usage: mkdir DIRECTORY-NAME Example 1: mkdir "My_Files" – This will create a new folder named "My Files" in the current directory. Emaple 2: mkdir "C:\Users\YourName\Documents\My_Projects" – This creates the "My_Projects" folder inside the "Documents" folder. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 4. rmdir (Remove Directory) The "rmdir" command allows you to delete empty directories. Usage: rmdir DIRCTORY-NAME Example 1: rmdir "My_Files" – This will delete the folder named "My_Files" if it is empty. Example 2: rd /s /q "My_Files" – This will delete the folder named "My_Files" and its content. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) It's important to note that rmdir can only delete empty directories. If a directory contains any files or subfolders, the command will fail. If you want to delete a directory that is not empty, you'll need to use the rd /s /q command. However, be extremely cautious with this command, as it'll delete the directory and all its contents without prompting for confirmation. 5. copy The "copy" command allows you to copy files from one location to another. Usage: copy SOURCE/PATH DESTINATION/PATH Example 1: copy file1.txt C:\Backup – This will copy a file named "file1.txt" from the current directory to the "Backup" folder on the 😄 drive. Example 2: copy *.jpg C:\Backup – This will copy all files with the ".jpg" extension from the current directory to the "Backup" folder. Example 3: copy D:\My_Files\Report.docx C:\Users\YourName\Documents – This will copy the file from the source to the destination location. Example 4: copy file1.txt C:\Backup /Y – This will copy the file from the source, overwriting existing files in the destination. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 6. del (Delete) The "del" command allows you to delete files (not directories). Usage: del FILENAME Example 1: del file1.txt – This will delete the file named "my_file.txt" from the current directory. Example 2: del *.jpg – This will delete all files with the ".jpg" extension in the current directory. Example 3: del *.jpg /f – This can be used to force the deletion of read-only files. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) It's important to note that once you delete a file, it is typically permanently removed, skipping the Recycle Bin. 7. ren (Rename) The "ren" command allows you to rename files or folders. Usage: ren OLD_FILENAME NEW_FILENAME Example 1: ren old_file.txt new_file.txt – This will rename the file "old_file.txt" to "new_file.txt". Example 2: ren "old_folder" "new_folder" – This will rename the folder "old_folder" to "new_folder." (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 8. cls (Clear Screen) The "cls" command clears the screen contents, making the Command Prompt easier to read, especially after a long series of commands or output. Usage: cls (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 9. ipconfig (Internet Protocol Configuration) The "ipconfig" command is a useful tool for understanding and managing your computer's network connections. It's an essential command for basic network troubleshooting and more advanced network configuration tasks. Usage: ipconfig (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) The command outputs essential network information, for example: IP Address: Your computer's unique identifier on the network. Subnet Mask: Defines the network segment your computer belongs to. Default Gateway: The address of your router (or modem). DNS Server: The address of the Domain Name System server that translates domain names (like google.com) into IP addresses. Alternative usage: Type ipconfig /all and press Enter to display a more detailed view, including: MAC Address (Physical Address): A unique hardware identifier for your network adapter. DHCP Server: If your IP address is assigned by a DHCP server, this shows the server's address. DNS Server addresses. Special cases: ipconfig /release: Releases the IP address configuration obtained from a DHCP server. ipconfig /renew: Requests a new IP address configuration from the DHCP server. ipconfig /flushdns: Clears the DNS resolver cache store on your computer when troubleshooting DNS name resolution problems. Usually, if you want to renew the network configuration, you would first run the ipconfig /release and then the ipconfig /renew command. 10. ping The "ping" command is a simple tool for quickly checking network connectivity and diagnosing basic network problems. The tool sends small data packets (called "echo requests") to a specified destination (an IP address or domain name) and displays the response (an "echo reply") from the destination. The time it takes for the packet to be sent, received, and responded to is known as "round-trip time" (RTT). Usually, you would use this tool to determine if a specific device or server is reachable on the network and troubleshoot other connectivity issues. Usage: ping DNSNAME-OR-IP Example: ping google.com or ping 8.8.8.8 (Google Public DNS server) (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) If the ping is completed successfully, the command will output the IP address of the destination, show the round-trip time for each packet, and indicate successful replies. If the command isn't completed successfully, the output will display as "Request timed out." 11. tracert (Trace Route) The "tracert" command (short for "traceroute") is a network diagnostic tool that maps the path data packets take to reach a specific destination on the internet. The tool sends a series of packets to the target destination, each with a "Time-to-Live" (TTL) value initially set to 1. As the packet travels through the network, each router it encounters reduces the TTL by 1. When the TTL reaches 0, the router discards the packet and sends an "ICMP Time Exceeded" message back to the source. By analyzing these responses, the "tracert" command determines the sequence of routers (or "hops") the packets pass through along the way. The command output provides a list of routers encountered along the path, showing their IP addresses and the round-trip time (RTT) for each packet to reach the router and return. Usage: tracert google.com (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) This command will trace the route to Google's servers, showing the routers involved in the connection. 12. shutdown The "shutdown" command allows you to control your computer's shutdown and restart behavior. Usage: shutdown /s: Shuts down the computer immediately. shutdown /s /t 60: Shuts down the computer after a 60-second delay. shutdown /r: Restarts the computer immediately. shutdown /r /t 30: Restarts the computer after a 30-second delay. shutdown /L: Logs off the current user. shutdown /a: Cancels a pending shutdown or restart. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 13. tasklist The "tasklist" command is a tool for viewing and managing the processes running on Windows 11. It provides a quick and easy way to get a snapshot of system activity, similar to Task Manager. Usage: tasklist: Shows all processes and details, such as process name, ID, session name, and memory usage. tasklist /V: The verbose option shows more details like priority, user account, and description. tasklist /M MODULE-NAME: Lists all processes currently using the specified module (for example, a DLL file) after changing "MODULE-NAME" in the command. tasklist /SVC: Displays services hosted in each process. tasklist /FI FILTER: Filters the output based on specific criteria (for example, image name, status) when you change "FILTER" in the command. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 14. taskkill The "taskkill" command allows you to stop running processes. Usually, you would use this command to resolve issues with unresponsive apps and regain control of your system. Usage: taskkill /IM PROCESS-NAME: Ends a specific process by its name. Exmaple: taskkill /IM notepad.exe taskkill /PID PROCESS-ID: Ends a specific process ID. Example: taskkill /PID 1237 taskkill /F: forcefully ends the Explorer process. Example: taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 15. chkdsk (Check Disk) The "chkdsk" command is a tool that scans the system for errors and bad sectors and tries to repair them. Usage: chkdsk /f: fixes errors on the drive. Example: chkdsk 😄 /f – Checks the "C:" drive for errors and attempts to fix them. chkdsk /r: Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Example: chkdsk 😄 /r – Checks the "C:" drive for errors, attempts to fix them, and locates bad sectors. chkdsk /x: Disconnects the drive before running the tool. Example: chkdsk 😄 – Checks the "C:" drive for errors but does not attempt to fix them. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Running the Check Disk command can take significant time, especially if you use the "/r" option. 16. sfc /scannow (System File Checker) The "sfc" ( System File Checker) command is a tool that scans for and repairs corrupted system files using the files already available in the local image for the operating system. Usually, you would use this command with . Usage: sfc /scannow (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) When you run the command, the tool scans all protected system files on your computer and compares them to a known good copy stored within the local image. If SFC finds any discrepancies, such as missing or corrupted files, it flags them as issues and attempts to replace them with the correct versions. 17. help The "help" command gives you resources for learning about other commands. Usage: help COMMAND-NAME Example 1: help dir – Shows information about the "dir" command, including its syntax, options, and usage. Example 2: help – Shows a list of commands available for use in Command Prompt. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 18. exit The "exit" command closes the current command window. You can also exit scripts and batch files running in Command Prompt. Usage: exit (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 19. winget (Windows Package Manager) The "winget" command, in a nutshell, is a tool that streamlines the process of installing, updating, and managing apps. The Windows Package Manager is a tool with a lot of options, but there are a few that every user should know to perform basic operations. Usage: winget search APP-NAME Example: winget search firefox – Searches the Microsoft repositories and outputs the information of all the apps that match the query. winget install APP-NAME – Downloads and installs the specified application. Example: winget install "Mozilla Firefox" – Install the Mozilla Firefox browser on your computer. winget upgrade APP-NAME – Updates the installed app to the latest version. Example: winget upgrade "Mozilla Firefox" – Updates the Mozilla Firefox browser. winget uninstall APP-NAME – Removes the application from your computer. Example: winget uninstall "Mozilla Firefox" – Uninstalls the Mozilla Firefox browser. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) 20. sudo (Superuser Do) The "sudo" (Superuser Do) command is a tool that allows you to run commands as an administrator from a Command Prompt window without elevation. If this tool sounds familiar, it is because it's similar to the Sudo command for Unix-based operating systems like Linux and macOS. However, the Sudo command on Windows 11 is not the same as the tool for Linux and macOS. Instead, the tool only includes limited functionalities to run elevated commands inline, with input disabled, or in a new window. Usage: sudo COMMAND Example: sudo del file.txt (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) This is a feature that comes disabled by default on Windows 11. If you want to enable it, you have to open Settings > System > For developers, turn on the "Enable sudo" toggle switch and choose the "Inline" option to run elevated commands within the same window as on Linux and macOS. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Calendar Flyout fixes one of the biggest issues in the Windows 11 Action Center. Despite the fact that Windows 10 will reach its end of support in October of this year, there are still some features from the operating system that have not been added to Windows 11. Sadly, there are some parts of Windows 10 that will die along with the operating system's support. It seems that among those features will be the Windows 10 calendar flyout that, you know, actually worked like a calendar. As much of a shock as this may come to Microsoft, I like my digital calendar to show events and things I've planned. My parents' home has a lovely wooden calendar with painted tiles for each day of the month. If I just wanted a calendar to look pretty, I'd have my mom or dad take a picture. Unfortunately, the makers of Windows 11 seem to have a different idea for their calendar, which made me turn to a third-party app called Calendar Flyout. Calendar Flyout isn't a new app. I actually found it when reading about a different app with similar functionality. But Calendar Flyout is further along in its development, so it's worth highlighting now. The app costs $3.99 through the Microsoft Store. It's a shame we have to pay anything to restore functionality that was already in Windows, but the developer has done a good job, so I think it's worth supporting them. Calendar Flyout mimics the functional design of the Windows 10 camera flyout. (Image credit: Future) When Microsoft made Windows 11, it recreated some parts of the operating system from scratch. As part of that process, certain functionality was lost in the jump between Windows 10 and Windows 11. There are a few noteworthy examples, such as the fact that Windows 11 does not allow you to move the taskbar to the top of your screen. The new calendar flyout is yet another example, since it lacks some of the core functionality of its equivalent on Windows 10. The first time I opened the calendar flyout on Windows 11, I thought my PC ran into a bug. I use Outlook to keep track of events and the flyout did not show anything. The feature also lacked an agenda with a list of upcoming events. But it was not a bug. It was simply the new and improved calendar flyout. It's oddly normal to have to turn to third-party app developers to fix Windows these days. Stardock's Start11 is required to move the Start menu around and there are plenty of apps to customize different parts of Windows 11. Calendar Flyout sits alongside those apps as a well-made program that you should not have to install in the first place. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

ESET Germany has published a new blog post about the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 and how it is going to affect around 65% or roughly 32 million PCs there. The security firm has expressed concern over this since the vast majority of desktop PC owners are still on the outgoing OS which will leave them vulnerable. As such, the firm recommends moving to Windows 11. ESET Germany's IT security expert Thorsten Urbanski says (Google-translated to English): Microsoft is also actively urging users against installing Windows 10 even when someone tries downloading it from an official source, and to entice gamers, the company recently listed all the gaming features one can enjoy on Windows 11. ESET has also mentioned the costly pricing policy of Microsoft's paid extended support of Windows 10 via its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. It wrote: The blog post also mentions general security tips and again recommends upgrading to Windows 11 but also adds that users on older unsupported hardware could also try Linux: Microsoft though officially recommends a new PC if you want to update to Windows 11 as it recently also clarified that the system requirements for Windows 11 have not been relaxed. Check out our dedicated piece on how to salvage an old PC that is ineligible for Windows 11. You can find the blog post here on ESET Germany's official website. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

In October 2024, Windows 11 reached its all-time high market share, climbing to over 35.5%, according to Statcounter. This increase followed an unexpected decline when the operating system had been losing users for three months. Now, the story repeats itself. After dropping some market share in November, Windows 11 is once again in decline. Statcounter's latest data indicates that Windows 11 lost over 1.48% points in two consecutive months. In December 2024, the operating system went from 34.94% to 34.1% (-0.84 points). Windows 10, on the other hand, reclaimed some of its lost users, even though it will be out of mainstream support in less than eleven months. By now, Windows 10 remains the dominant Microsoft release, with a market share of 62.73% (+0.9 points). It will be interesting to see what happens to it as we get closer to October 2025, considering that many users cannot update to Windows 11 and that Microsoft does not want to negotiate its steep hardware requirements, such as TPM 2.0. If you cannot update officially and you do not want to buy a new device yet, you can opt for Microsoft's official Extended Security Program that grants 12 months of extra updates for $30 or use third-party solutions, such as 0patch, to get up to five years of additional support (also not free). Another option is to bypass Windows 11's hardware requirements with various tricks. If Statcounter's latest data is to be believed (Microsoft does not offer official Windows market share data), here is what the Windows market currently looks like: Windows 10: 62.73% (+0.9 points) Windows 11: 34.1% (-0.84 points) Windows 7: 2.4% (-0.07 points) Windows 8.1: 0.29% (-0.02 points) Windows XP: 0.23% (-0.02 points) You can find more information from the latest Statcounter report on the official website. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Apple quietly added a new feature in iOS and iPadOS 18.1 that restarts the device if it hasn’t been unlocked for a while. This reset helps secure iPhones and makes it tougher for police to access stored data, as multiple iPhone security experts have pointed out. On Thursday, it was reported that law enforcement officials were puzzled by iPhones in storage suddenly rebooting on their own. Initially, the cause was a mystery, leaving officials guessing why they were being locked out. However, according to 404 Media, experts have started piecing together the reason. According to Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen from the Hasso Plattner Institute, Apple added an "inactivity reboot" feature in iOS and iPadOS 18.1. This was confirmed in her tweet after 404 Media shared the story, showing screenshots of what seems to be the relevant code. In a private group chat for law enforcement and forensic experts, Christopher Vance from Magnet Forensics confirmed, "We found code in iOS and iPadOS 18 and above that triggers an inactivity timer. When this timer runs out, the device reboots, moving from an AFU state to a BFU state." AFU, or “After First Unlock,” means the phone has been unlocked once since it was turned on, making it easier for law enforcement to access. BFU, or “Before First Unlock,” makes it much harder for forensic tools to crack the device. One law enforcement expert shared that the reboot timer doesn’t rely on network or charging status—just the inactivity period. This change in iOS and iPadOS is the latest move in the ongoing tug-of-war between phone makers like Apple, aiming to protect user data, and law enforcement seeking access to data on seized devices. Initially, police believed the reboots were due to seized iPhones not being on a cellular network or, bizarrely, iOS and iPadOS 18 devices triggering other nearby iPhones to reboot. But experts now say the timer-based reboot seems to be the actual cause. Experts like Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen sees this as a great move from Apple. Sure, most people won’t ever have their phones under forensic analysis, but way more will deal with theft—and this protects their data in both situations. Law enforcement, however, isn’t thrilled. Vance from Magnet Forensics advised his group chat to collect data from AFU iOS and iPadOS 18 devices as quickly as possible, saying, “It’s crucial to get data from your AFU devices with iOS and iPadOS 18 as soon as you can.” Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of October): 4,832 news posts RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Cryptominer malware bogs down the system and uses rootkits, opens backdoors, and copies itself from memory to various disk locations. On October 3, Aqua Nautilus researchers posted a blog post revealing what they know about a specific Linux malware dubbed "Perfctl" that's been targeted at Linux servers over the past three to four years, using "more than 20,000 types of misconfigurations" as attack vectors to begin exploitation. Once exploitation began, the malware would use a rootkit to conceal itself and inevitably begin stealing CPU resources for crypto mining use. It hid mining traffic and potential instructions for backdoor commands and surveillance through Tor-encrypted traffic. This Perfctl malware is quite a severe and persistent threat, considering how long it has remained in the wild. A sneaky crypto miner would be bad enough, but Perfctl can also gain greater backdoor access to the entire system through certain vectors, which could prove an even greater security issue. It's also difficult to properly detect the hijacked processes when diagnosing impacted servers. It can hide its crypto mining activity from you entirely, throwing back CPU utilization numbers that omit its activity. Fortunately, there are mitigations that server operators can take to help alleviate the threat presented by Perfctl. Aqua Nautilus-Recommended Perfctl Malware Mitigations Patching all potential vulnerabilities, in particular vulnerabilities for applications like RocketMQ servers and the Polkit vulnerability. Keeping libraries up to date is advised. Restrict file execution by setting "noexec" on /tmp, /dev/svm, and "other writable directories" that are being used to execute this malware. Disable optional and unused services, in particular "those that may expose the system to external attackers, such as HTTP services". Implement strict privilege management by restricting root access to critical files and directories, as well as employing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to limit what users and processes can access or modify. Segment the network by either isolating critical servers from the Internet or using firewalls to block outbound communications, "especially Tor traffic or connections to crypto mining pools". Finally, deploy runtime protection by using "advanced anti-malware and behavioral detection tools that can detect rootkits, crypto miners, and fileless malware like Perfctl". Hopefully, server operators can avoid this exploit or fix it where present now that this exploit and mitigations are so well-documented. For more detailed information on how the attacks functioned and what Aqua Nautilus learned by honey-potting and sandboxing them, consider checking out the full, several-page blog post documenting the issue over at AquaSec. Otherwise, if you aren't a Linux server operator, hope that your information isn't on any of the Linux servers already compromised by this issue, and make sure you're following proper cybersecurity practices in your day-to-day life. Source

Check out these five effective ways to repair most Windows 11 problems without spending a lot of time troubleshooting. On Windows 11, if you're experiencing unwanted problems with the current setup, you have multiple ways to restore the system's health, and in this guide, I will show you five ways to complete this task. Although you can rely on the operating system for virtually any task, sometimes you may encounter problems with performance, startup, battery life, software and hardware compatibility issues, and more due to various reasons ranging from file corruption and malware to problematic updates from Microsoft and other companies. You can always perform different troubleshooting steps to fix the problems, but if there's a problem with the installation, finding a solution can take a long time. However, Windows 11 provides different tools that make it (relatively) easy to resolve most issues. For instance, you can use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) and the System File Checker (SFC) tools to repair missing or corrupted system files. You also have multiple mechanisms to uninstall buggy updates and roll back to a previous good working state. Furthermore, from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), it's possible to fix problems with the current installation, and you can always reset the system more than once to start from scratch without losing your files. In this how-to guide, I will explain multiple ways to resolve virtually any problem with the installation of Windows 11. How to repair installation with DISM tool On Windows 11, "Deployment Image Servicing and Management" (DISM) is an advanced command line tool that you can use to repair the local image of Windows and then use the repaired image with the System File Checker (SFC) tool to fix corrupted or missing system files to resolve issues with the current setup. To use DISM and SFC to repair an installation of Windows 11, use these steps: Open Start. Search for Windows Terminal, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option. Type the following command to check and repair the local images of Windows 11 and press Enter: dism /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth Type the following command to fix the Windows setup and press Enter: SFC /scannow (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) After you complete the steps, the System File Checker will repair the Windows 11 installation. You can learn more about this process with these instructions. How to repair installation with Windows Update On Windows 11, updates can help to improve various aspects of the system, but they can also cause unwanted problems. As a result, if you recently applied an update and the computer is not working correctly, you may have to uninstall it to mitigate the problem. On the other hand, if the operating system has a known bug or compatibility issue, you will have to patch your computer to resolve the problem. If it's unclear what the source of the issue is and your device isn't working correctly, you may need to reinstall Windows 11 to fix the problem and improve system performance and battery life. Install updates to fix issues If the device isn't working correctly because of a bug or problem that can be fixed through a newer update installation, use these steps: Open Settings. Click on Windows Update. (Optional) Turn on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle switch. Quick note: You can enable this feature if Microsoft has a fix for an issue and you need the update quickly without waiting until the next monthly update release. Click the Check for updates button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Install button (if applicable). Click the Restart button. Once you complete the steps, confirm if the problem has been resolved. Uninstall updates to fix issues If the problem is caused by a recently installed update, use these steps: Open Settings. Click on Windows Update. Click the Update history page on the right side. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Uninstall updates setting under the "Related settings" section. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Uninstall button for the update causing problems. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Quick tip: Usually, you only want to remove the most recent update, restart the computer, and confirm if the issue has been fixed. After you complete the steps, the update will be removed from the computer, and the system will be rolled back to the known good working state. Reinstall Windows 11 to fix issues Windows 11 includes an option to reinstall the current version of the operating system to fix common problems, such as boot, performance, and battery issues, without losing your files, settings, or apps. To reinstall Windows 11 without upgrading the current version, use these steps: Open Settings. Click on System. Click the Recovery page on the right side. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Reinstall now button from the "Fix problems using Windows Update" option. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Check the "Automatically restart my PC 15 minutes after installation" option. Click the OK button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Once you complete the steps, the operating system will reinstall to refresh the system and fix problems, but your files, settings, and apps will be kept. How to repair installation with Advanced Startup If the problem doesn't allow the computer to boot correctly, you can use the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), also referred to as "Advanced Startup," to access the recovery tools. Fix startup issues To resolve issues with the startup process, use these steps: Start the computer. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears to shut down the system. Continue with steps 1 and 2 two more times, and the computer will boot into the Advanced Startup settings during the second or third restart. Click the Advanced options button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click on Troubleshoot. Click on Advanced. Click the Startup Repair. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Shut down button. After you complete the steps, the computer should start working normally. Fix update issues If the startup problem appeared after installing an update, you can remove the update with these steps: Start the computer. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears to shut down the system. Continue with steps 1 and 2 two more times, and the computer will boot into the Advanced Startup settings during the second or third restart. Click the Advanced options button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click on Troubleshoot. Click on Advanced options. Click the Uninstall Updates setting. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the "Uninstall latest quality update" option. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the "Uninstall quality update" button. Once you complete the steps, the system will remove the problematic update and roll the computer back to its last known good state. How to repair installation with System Restore The System Restore option will only work if the feature has been previously enabled and you manually created a restore point or the system triggers a restore point automatically during app installation or system updates. You can use these instructions to enable and configure System Restore on your computer. Restore from desktop To fix problems with a system restore point with access to the desktop, use these steps: Open Start. Search for Create a restore point and click the top result to open the app. Click the System Restore button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Next button. Choose the restore point to fix your device's setup. Click the Next button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Finish button. After you complete the steps, you must restart the computer to complete the process. Restore from WinRE To fix problems with a system restore point from the Windows Recovery Environment, use these steps: Start the computer. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears to shut down the system. Continue with steps 1 and 2 two more times, and the computer will boot into the Advanced Startup settings during the second or third restart. Click the Advanced options button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click on Troubleshoot. Click on Advanced options. Click the System Restore option. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Next button. Choose the restore point to fix your device's setup. Click the Next button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Finish button. Once you complete the steps, you should now be able to start the device normally without issues since it'll boot in the last good known state. It's important to note that System Restore will preserve your files, but it will remove any application or configuration applied after the restore point is created. How to repair installation with Reset this PC Another way to repair the Windows 11 installation is by using the Recovery features to reset the system. When using the "Reset this PC" feature, you will be reinstalling the operating system with the same version already installed on your computer. This process will keep your files, but apps and settings will be removed as they could be the reason the device is experiencing issues. Reset from desktop If you have access to the desktop environment, you can reset the computer to the factory default settings with these instructions: Open Settings. Click on System. Click the Recovery page on the right side. Click the Reset PC button in the "Reset this PC" setting. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Choose the "Keep my files" option. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Choose the "Cloud download" option to download the installation files from the cloud (Microsoft servers) or the "Local reinstall" to allow the system to use the files already available on your computer. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Next button. Click the Reset button. After you complete the steps, the feature will reinstall the operating system, keeping your files. Once you can confirm that the problem has been resolved, you can proceed to reinstall your apps and reapply the settings. Reset from WinRE If you can't boot the computer, you can reset the Windows 11 installation from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) with these instructions: Start the computer. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears to shut down the system. Continue with steps 1 and 2 two more times, and the computer will boot into the Advanced Startup settings during the second or third restart. Click the Advanced options button. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click on Troubleshoot. Click on Reset this PC. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Keep my files option. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Choose the "Cloud download" option to download the installation files from the cloud (Microsoft servers) or the "Local reinstall" to allow the system to use the files already available on your computer. (Image credit: Mauro Huculak) Click the Reset button. Once you complete the steps, Windows 11 will reinstall to fix existing problems with the previous setup. Your files will be kept, but you will have to reinstall apps and reapply settings. Alternatively, you can always resolve the most issues (as long as they're not physical hardware problems) by backing up your files and performing a clean installation with the latest version of Windows 11. It's important to note that I'm focusing these instructions on different methods to quickly repair an installation since there could be many ways to resolve specific problems, including the local Troubleshooters. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of June): 2,839 news posts

A rare collector's item for the tech world recently appeared on social media. Former Senior VP and product manager at Microsoft Brad Silverberg took to his social media account and shared the first-ever copy of Windows 95 ever made. It all started when Microsoft veteran Dave W Plummer posted images of his "Special Edition" copy of Windows 95. The post caught Silverberg's attention who responded to it and revealed that he has the first copy of Windows 95 from the production line. Silverberg then posted some images of the Windows 95 copy upon request from a Windows fan. Along with the Windows 95 copy was a letter congratulating Silverberg and saying: July 14 was the date when Windows 95 was released to manufacturing (RTM), followed by its retail availability on August 24, 1995. It was the time when cloud installs didn't exist and Microsoft shipped Windows 95 in multiple floppy disks, evident from the floppy icon printed on Silverberg's copy. The legacy operating system was a major milestone in Microsoft's history as it unified MS-DOS and Windows products, transitioned from 16-bit to 32-bit architecture, and introduced a number of improvements over Windows 3.0/3.1. Microsoft's new corporate logo introduced in 2012 also finds its roots in commercials of the old operating system. However, Windows 95 might not induce much nostalgia in modern teenagers, some of them posted their reactions publicly as they struggled to use it. Windows 95 revolutionized desktop computing but over the decades dedicated fans have managed to install the legacy operating system on other devices. We have seen Windows 95 finding a home in a myriad of places, including an iPad, web browser, Apple Watch, and Xbox One. And who knew Apple indirectly played a small part in Windows 95's story? Its famous startup sound was produced by ambient music composer Brian Eno on an Apple Macintosh machine. A few years ago, Microsoft celebrated its golden days by giving away Windows 95-themed "Ugly" sweaters. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of June): 2,839 news posts

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, but what exactly leads to a stroke? This article breaks down the common causes of strokes, using straightforward language and supporting evidence, making it easier for everyone to understand how these critical events happen and how they might be prevented. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. Brain cells begin to die in minutes. Strokes can be classified into two main types: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic strokes, which are more common, occur when a blood clot blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain. Hemorrhagic strokes happen when an artery in the brain bursts. Both result in parts of the brain not functioning correctly. Several factors and conditions can increase your risk of having a stroke, and understanding these can help in prevention efforts. Here are some of the most well-documented causes: High blood pressure (hypertension): This is the leading cause of stroke and the most significant controllable risk factor. High blood pressure puts a strain on blood vessels throughout the body, including those leading to the brain, which can lead to strokes over time. According to the American Heart Association, managing blood pressure is one of the most effective ways to reduce your stroke risk. Tobacco use: Smoking or even exposure to secondhand smoke can increase stroke risk. Smoking promotes clot formation, thickens blood, and increases the amount of plaque buildup in arteries, as reported by numerous studies. Quitting smoking can significantly reduce the risk of stroke. Heart disease: Common heart disorders like coronary artery disease, valve defects, irregular heartbeats (like atrial fibrillation), and enlarged heart chambers can increase stroke risk. Atrial fibrillation is particularly noteworthy because it can cause blood clots to form in the heart and then travel to the brain, leading to ischemic stroke. Diabetes: People with diabetes are at higher risk because diabetes is associated with conditions that damage the blood vessels, making clots more likely. Managing diabetes is crucial to reducing the risk of stroke, as well as other complications like heart disease. Diet and exercise: Diets high in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol can raise blood cholesterol levels, while high salt (sodium) intake can contribute to increased blood pressure. Both of these factors can increase stroke risk. On the other hand, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and regular physical activity can lower stroke risk by improving overall cardiovascular health. Obesity: Being overweight can increase the likelihood of high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes, all of which are risk factors for stroke. Weight loss through diet and exercise can lower these risks significantly. Age, family history, and gender: These factors are not controllable but are important to recognize. Your chance of having a stroke increases as you get older, especially after the age of 55. Men have a higher risk of stroke at a younger age, but more women have strokes at an older age and are more likely to die from strokes than men. Family history of stroke also increases your risk. Strokes are complex events influenced by a variety of lifestyle factors, medical conditions, and genetic predispositions. However, up to 80% of strokes can be prevented through lifestyle changes such as controlling high blood pressure, quitting smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise. Recognizing the common causes of stroke not only aids in prevention but also empowers individuals to make informed decisions about their health. Knowing these factors can help you and your loved ones take action early to prevent this life-threatening condition. If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke. For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce the risk of dementia, and tea and coffee may help lower your risk of stroke, dementia. Source