For those who may not know, dynamic updates bring improvements to the Windows Recovery process in the form of Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates, which are also called Safe OS updates. The dynamic updates also affect the Setup file binaries in the form of Setup updates.

These Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more. Dynamic Updates also help preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. VBScript, for example, is currently an FOD on Windows 11 24H2.

This time only recovery updates were released for Windows 11 25H2, 24H2 and 23H2 (version 23H2 just reached end of support). The updates for 25H2/24H2 also apply to Windows Server 2025. The changelogs are given below:

"KB5070186: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and 25H2, and Windows Server 2025: November 11, 2025

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE).

KB5069341: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 23H2: November 11, 2025

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE)."

Microsoft notes that both the Recovery updates will be downloaded and installed automatically via the Windows Update channel. You can also avail both of them on Microsoft's Update Catalog website: KB5070186, KB5069341.

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Posted Monday 17 November 2025 at 6:29 pm AEST (my time).

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ExplainingComputers (1.14M subscribers)

November 17, 2025

Video length: 18m 13s

LMDE 7 review and demo, with a focus on a comparison of Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) and the regular, Ubuntu-based version of Linux Mint.

00:00 Titles & Intro 

00:52 The Mint Alternative 

04:59 Installation 

08:02 Similarities & Benefits 

12:53 A Key Difference 

17:03 A Solid Backup

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Posted Monday 17 November 2025 at 3:49 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft Confirms Windows 10 KB5068781 Extended Security Update Failure

Along with the likes of the National Security Agency and America’s Cyber Defense Agency, more formally known as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, I have been banging the update Windows as a matter of some urgency when security issues are confirmed drum for the longest time. Unfortunately, sometimes Microsoft makes this harder than it ought to be. Issues with Windows security updates failing should never occur, but they do. The latest confirmation comes from Microsoft itself, “Some Windows 10 devices enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU) might fail to install the November 2025 security update,” Microsoft said, adding that this can lead to “error 0x800f0922 (CBS\_E\_INSTALLERS\_FAILED).”

I have reached out to Microsoft for a statement and further advice for users, but in the meantime, it would appear that this issue is only impacting business users with Windows 10 devices that have corporate licenses. “This issue is isolated to devices activated via Windows subscription activation through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center,” Microsoft said. There are, to the best of my knowledge, no workarounds for this ESU security update failure currently, with Microsoft omnly stating that “The issue is under investigation, and additional information will be shared as soon as it becomes available.” Likewise, please return to this article as I will update it when this situation changes or an official fix is available. 

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Now, Davaluri has finally responded to some customer feedback on the topic with regards to claims that Windows is not developer- and power user-friendly anymore, and is taking away control from the consumer. He noted that the Windows team is aware of all of the feedback and know that they have a lot to fix in Windows when it comes to the UX, inconsistent dialog boxes, and the power user experience. His full response on X to @GergelyOrosz can be seen below too:

Hey Gergely, I am responding here, and I think this applies to a bunch of the comments that people have made. I mean, a lot of comments . The team (and I) take in a ton of feedback. We balance what we see in our product feedback systems with what we hear directly. They don’t always match, but both are important. I've read through the comments and see focus on things like reliability, performance, ease of use and more. But I want to spend a moment just on the point you are making, and I’ll boil it down, we care deeply about developers. We know we have work to do on the experience, both on the everyday usability, from inconsistent dialogs to power user experiences. When we meet as a team, we discuss these paint points and others in detail, because we want developers to choose Windows. We know words aren’t enough, it’s on us to continue improving and shipping. Would love to connect with you about what the team is doing to address these areas if you are open to it.

It's good to see Microsoft's Windows chief at least acknowledging feedback as this topic in particular has also been raised recently by ex-Microsoft veteran Dave Plummer. Windows as an OS has been gravitating a lot more towards AI-powered capabilities that don't work that well, leading many customers to be disillusioned by the future of the OS.

That said, actions speak louder than words, and while Davaluri's comments on the direction of Windows are slightly encouraging, they don't really matter much until tangible improvements that actually address customer pain points are delivered. To this day, people are complaining about the Windows 11 taskbar being nerfed for unexplained reasons, and until that and other things like it are fixed in the OS, Microsoft will always find itself on the receiving end of criticism when it comes to talking about the future direction of Windows.

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 6:06 pm AEST (my time).

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KB5068781 is the first Windows 10 extended security update and was released on November 11 as part of Patch Tuesday.

Since then, some business Windows 10 users have reported that the KB5068781 update is failing to install on certain devices.

"We are currently experiencing the same issue with this KB5068781 across our managed Win10 devices, despite purchasing and applying the ESU license (MAK key) to all our devices," wrote a BleepingComputer reader.

"The update appears to install successfully, but after a restart, it fails to apply and rolls back with the common error 0x800f0922."

Microsoft has now confirmed that they are aware of and investigating the issue, stating it only impacts Windows subscription activation through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

"Some Windows 10 devices enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU) might fail to install the November 2025 security update (the Originating KBs listed above) with error 0x800f0922 (CBS_E_INSTALLERS_FAILED)," explains Microsoft.

"This issue is isolated to devices activated via Windows subscription activation through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center."

Unfortunately, there is no ETA for when a fix will be available and Microsoft has not provided any workarounds to resolve these errors.

In addition to the install errors, Windows admins in corporate environments have reported [1, 2] that not all of their Windows 10 devices are showing as needing the new KB5068781 ESU update, even when they are appropriately licensed to receive it.

To help organizations improve their patching workflows and reduce the risk of issues like this, BleepingComputer will be hosting a December 2 webinar with Action1 on modern patch management.

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 6:04 pm AEST (my time).

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As alluded to, this update is not really a new version of Debian 13, it just updates some of the included packages so that if you install it on your system, you don’t need to spend so long installing updates as they’re already installed. If you have Debian 13 already, you can just install the latest updates and reboot. New images are already available.

This update includes numerous miscellaneous bugfixes and security-related corrections. Among the misc bugfixes the 7zip package has been updated from upstream with security fixes; curl has received fixes for a buffer over-read, cache poisoning, and path traversal issues; systemd received an upstream stable release update, fixing DNS-over-TLS handling in systemd-resolved and improving service stability; finally, qemu got a new upstream stable release, fixing a denial of service issue.

Packages that received security updates with advisories published separately by the Security Team include: chromium, linux, linux-signed-amd64, linux-signed-arm64, firefox-esr, openssl, thunderbird, and imagemagick. The rust-profiling-procmacros package was removed because it is unused.

Debian 13 “Trixie” is the latest stable version of Debian. It was released in August 2025 and will be supported until August 2028. It’s the last major Debian version we will see until 2027 when Debian 14 “Forky” is expected to ship. Debian has a reputation for being rock solid and very stable, but this can also mean users are stuck using older software. Ubuntu is based on Debian Unstable so it has access to newer packages and is usually a slightly better choice than Debian for most people.

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 6:03 pm AEST (my time).

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Windows 11's latest update is here, and your PC will receive it automatically. As is the usual case for versions of Windows, Microsoft has ended support for Windows 11 version 23H2, which initially rolled out in 2023. To help ensure PCs are up to date, Microsoft will push systems to Windows 11 version 25H2.

"As of November 11, 2025, Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, version 23H2 have reached end of servicing," explains Microsoft. "Enterprise and Education editions of version 23H2 will continue to receive monthly security updates until November 10, 2026."

Unless your PC running Windows 11 version 23H2 is managed by an IT department or is ineligible, it will be updated automatically.

As pointed out by our colleagues at TechRadar, some PCs with older processors are not eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 version 25H2. Only CPUs that are pretty old fall into that category, so there's a good chance your computer is not affected by the limitation.

As for those currently running Windows 11 version 23H2, it's important to upgrade to Windows 11 to receive security updates and bug fixes. There are also some new features that are on the way to Windows 11 version 25H2, though they will also ship to Windows 11 version 24H2.

What's new in Windows 11 version 25H2?

As Microsoft continues its crusade toward turning Windows 11 into an AI OS, the company has launched a video campaign on social media where popular YouTubers and influencers show off the latest Copilot for Windows 11 capabilities. But one video has users baffled as the ad seemingly showcases Copilot incorrectly telling the user what to click.

The video is about how Copilot can help users find settings on Windows 11. In the video, the user says, "Hey Copilot, I want to make the text on my screen bigger." Copilot shows the user where to begin clicking, but then fails to go all the way and tell the user the rest of the steps to actually change the size of text.

The user is then forced to ask, "Can you show me where to click next?" before Copilot highlights the scaling option and explains that adjusting this setting will change the size of text, apps, and other on-screen UI elements. The user then asks, "What percentage should I click?" and Copilot tells the user to select 150%, which is already selected.

In the video, the user just ignores Copilot's suggestion and selects 200% to get their desired result. But even still, the user had asked how to change the size of text, not the UI. Windows has a built-in accessibility option that lets you change text size without adjusting UI scaling, so why didn't Copilot take the user to that setting instead? It's all very confusing.

Right now, if you utilize the Horizontal Tabs layout in OneNote on Windows with the page list featured on the right, you may have noticed a rather annoying behavior in the integrated search bar. When you use it, the drop-down for the search bar expands and covers a significant portion of the page canvas, potentially breaking your flow.

Now, Microsoft has modified the UX such that the drop down area opens to the right, minimizing the overlap with the page canvas. Although this now means that your page list is now covered by the drop-down, it is perhaps better than your main canvas being obscured. You can see the "before and after" of this UX change below:

This UX change for search in OneNote on Windows is available right now for Insiders running Version 2511 (Build 19426.20042) or later. The feature is slated for general availability next month, as the company will likely be gauging feedback on the modification before pulling the trigger on expanded rollout.

That said, it's highly unlikely that it will change or be removed prior to general rollout as Microsoft has highlighted that the current redesign was already built based on user feedback about content obstruction in the Horizontal Tabs layout. If you have more suggestions for Microsoft, you can provide them directly to the firm through the Help > Feedback menu in OneNote on Windows.

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 4:53 am AEST (my time).

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If you're a Windows 11 user, and specifically an owner of a Microsoft Copilot+ PC that has the necessary AI processing power, you can now take advantage of Windows Recall. It works like a memory for your computer, using screenshots to keep track of everything you're doing on Windows, and then letting you search back through it.

The idea is to give you something like your web browsing history, but for the whole computer. If you remember an app, document, web page, or file you need to get to several hours or days later, Windows Recall can help. Thanks to Microsoft's Copilot AI, it can not only grab screenshots, but understand what's in them.

Windows Recall isn't the first tool to do this, but it has been met with a lot of criticism from a lot of users, who would rather their every computing move wasn't being recorded. Security researchers have also shown how it can be easily hacked.

So just how serious are those security and privacy concerns? And if you have Windows Recall on your PC, should you turn it on? Here's what you need to know.

How Windows Recall Works

It's fair to say the initial reaction to Windows Recall wasn't hugely positive: The problem with a memory for your PC is that other people might gain access to it, including staff at Microsoft—which potentially means those people are able to see your browsing history, your sensitive documents, your private messages, and potentially anything you looked at on your computer screen. The backlash was so strong that Microsoft pulled Recall for a while.

Now it's back, with changes. First, Recall is going to be off by default. It will not suddenly start tracking you without your knowledge. You need to deliberately turn it on if you want to use it. Second, all of the screenshots and other information Recall captures are stored locally on your PC. Nothing that Windows Recall does is sent to Microsoft's servers or anywhere else on the web. Files are also encrypted, making them much harder for bad actors to access.

Third, Windows Hello authentication is required to get at Windows Recall. If someone gains access to your PC, they can't open Recall without going through a face or fingerprint scan process, or entering your PIN, so it's a level of protection similar to what’s on your phone. Fourth, you have the option to not save screenshots when sensitive information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) are on screen. You're also able to delete screenshots at any time.

It's quite a comprehensive package of protections, and Microsoft is hoping that it'll be enough to make you trust Recall and enable it. In return, you get the convenience of being able to retrace your steps at any point, and jump back to previous files or tasks even if you're only able to half remember them. Recall has the potential to be useful, but it's understandable why concerns have been raised about it.

Ultimately, it's a question of how much you trust Microsoft and the security around your PC. Technically, someone at Google could be snooping on your Chrome history and Gmail messages if you sync that information between devices—but Google promises that won't happen, and millions of users accept that promise in return for using all of Google's apps and tools for free. Now there's a similar decision to be made with Windows Recall.

Use Windows Recall on a PC

If you want to turn on Recall to be your long-term computer memory assistant—or just for a short-term test—you can find it as one of the apps on your PC. Just search for "Recall" using the search box at the top of the Start menu. You'll be taken through the setup process, which includes verifying your user account identity.

While Windows Recall is running, you'll see an icon for it in the notification area on the right-hand side of the taskbar. Click its icon, and you can open the main interface, temporarily pause recording, and choose More Recall settings, which takes you to a list of options for the feature.

There's a lot you can do from this options screen, including disabling Recall. You can set how much storage space the feature is allowed to take up on disk (once you reach that limit, the oldest snapshots will be deleted first), you can delete some or all of the snapshots from the archive, and you can specify particular apps and websites that can't be screenshotted (so you can leave your bank website out of Recall, for instance).

When it comes to the main Recall interface, you'll be shown the most recent snapshot first. It'll probably be something you were just doing on your PC. Use the timeline at the top of the screen to go forwards or backwards in time, and hover over anything in a screenshot to interact with it. Available actions include copying text and images, running web searches, summarizing text, and editing pictures.

The search box up at the top of the Recall interface lets you look for apps, text, images, and more. You could type out a headline from a web page you remember, or type "notepad" to see all the times you've opened that app. Click through, and you're able to jump right back to whatever website or file you were looking at. And of course, the longer you use the feature, the more useful this digital memory becomes.

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Posted Saturday 15 November 2025 at 4:20 am AEST (my time).

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How AI features are introduced in browsers depends entirely on the developer. Some introduce AI features without option to turn them off, or by making it difficult to ignore them. Others, like Mozilla, follow a different development guideline: introduce AI into the browser, but make it an optional feature. Users who do not want to use AI should be able to turn the features off or, at the very least, not see them advertised over and over again.

Mozilla published a new blog post on its blog in which it outlined how it plans to introduce AI features into its open source Firefox browsers.

The main takeaways:

• AI won't be forced into the browsing experience of users.
• Firefox won't lock users into a single AI-ecosystem.
• AI Window is a new "user-controlled space" in Firefox to interact with AI.

AI Window is an opt-in experience that is currently invite only. Interested Firefox users may join a waitlist, so that they may be "among the first to try it" and give Mozilla feedback in the process.

The main idea behind the new feature is to introduce a new space for AI interactions. This works alongside the classic browsing window and the private browsing window. In other words, AI Window is a third window that users may open to chat with AI and use it for various tasks.

The blog post does not reveal any information about the AI. While Mozilla stated that users won't be locked into a single AI-ecosystem, it did not mention any AIs that Firefox will provide access to. Furthermore, there is no information on the features that users can expect, other than chatting with a selected AI.

Also, and that is one thing users need to be aware of, it is unclear if the functionality will be free, limited, or only available as a subscription. My guess is that it will be free, but with limited capacities. Users who want better AI models, faster interactions and the like, will likely need a subscription. This could be a new revenue opportunity for Mozilla.

Clearly, Mozilla plans to make the AI experience in Firefox opt-in, which is the right way to implement these features. Users who do not opt-in should not be exposed to AI features too much. The AI Window plan sounds like Mozilla could be on the right way to achieve that goal.

Mozilla has introduced several AI features in its Firefox web browser in the past. From Firefox 141's AI feature to help with tab management to access to AI chatbots in Firefox's sidebar and the "Shake to Summarize" feature on iOS.

Now You: What is your general stance regarding web browsers and AI? Do you use browsers with AI already, are waiting for the right feature to come along to make it worthwhile, or opposed to the idea entirely? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Posted Saturday 15 November 2025 at 4:18 am AEST (my time).

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The new Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 update is now available for download via the Media Creation Tool (MCT). Most of you probably already are very familiar with what it is and how it helps, but for those who may not, it is essentially Microsoft's official bootable ISO media creation utility. It downloads Windows 11/10, and currently the company's Windows Update servers are delivering the November Patch via it.

Interestingly, Microsoft has not updated the MCT version as it remains at 10.0.26100.7019 (spotted by Deskmodder). After the Windows 11 25H2 feature update release, the MCT got quite a bit buggy as both Windows 11 and 10 were experiencing bugs and issues. The timing of that was a bit ironic on Windows 10 considering the OS just ran out of support and Microsoft was encouraging users to update to Windows 11, and the Media Creation Tool was probably one of the first things people were trying to use.

If you are worried about those, you need not be. That is because the new version of the MCT app contains fixes for Windows 11, and though the latest ESU Windows 10 patch is not available via it, the issues there have been fixed too.

To download it, head to Microsoft's official website at the following links: Windows 11 | Windows 10, and navigate down the page to the "Create Windows 11/Windows 10 Installation Media" section.

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Posted Saturday 15 November 2025 at 4:17 am AEST (my time).

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The animation turns into finer particles that react to the music and resemble the effect of sound waves on a thin layer of sand. Users can also customize the animation’s look with different colors, such as vivid for dance music, or monochromatic for post-rock.

To activate the theme in Opera One R2, you must connect Spotify to the Music Player in the sidebar and start playing some music. On a technical level, the new Sonic theme uses WebGPU standards and shaders. The browser listens to the audio and converts it into a power spectrum texture, before passing it to the shader to create visual effects that are in sync with the music being played.

Users who decide to start a call or watch a video will see the animation pause with the music, this ensures that no additional system resources are used in the background. To see this theme, you must be using the dark mode in Opera One.

In addition to the new theme, Opera users in selected countries are being offered Spotify Premium for free via the Music Player in the Opera One R2 sidebar. The offer varies by country, here’s a rundown:

• 3 Months Free: Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States (for new subscribers).
• 2 Months Free: India (for all users) and France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States (for users who previously paid but canceled more than 30 days ago).
• Pay 1 Month, Get 3 Months Free: Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• 3 Months for 99 TRY: Turkey.

To get started, grab Opera now from the Opera download page.

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Posted Saturday 15 November 2025 at 4:16 am AEST (my time).

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There are some other improvements too. The full changelog is given below:

• [Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA)]
  • Fixed: This update brings profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.
• [File Explorer]
  • Fixed: This update addresses an issue where File Explorer sometimes didn’t respond to mouse clicks until you closed and reopened it.
  • Fixed: This update addresses an issue with extracting .tar files when file or folder names contain more than 34 commonly used Chinese characters.
• [Group Policy and Configuration]
  • Fixed: This update addresses an issue where the HideRecommendedSection policy didn’t work in Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session environments, such as Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Even when configured using Group Policy or Configuration Service Provider (CSP), recommendations still appeared in AVD sessions.

The official blog post is linked here on Microsoft's website.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 6:12 pm AEST (my time).

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Another day, another AI browser. This time, it’s Firefox, the self-described “independent browser” from Mozilla. Firefox says it is building an AI browsing feature called AI Window that includes an AI assistant and chatbot. The company calls it an opt-in “intelligent and user-controlled space” that is currently being built “in the open” with user input.

In September, the company launched a “shake to summarize” feature in Firefox that uses AI to generate summaries of webpages that are open on your iPhone. Mozilla positions itself as the respectful browsing company that gives users the option to use as much AI as they want.

“While others are building AI experiences that keep you locked in a conversational loop, we see a different path — one where AI serves as a trusted companion, enhancing your browsing experience and guiding you outward to the broader web,” Mozilla wrote on its company blog.

AI Window will be one of three browsing experiences offered to Firefox users in addition to the private and classic windows. In a post to the Mozilla Connect forum on Thursday, the company wrote that users will be able to pick the AI model they want to use in AI Window, but offered few additional details. Users interested in updates about the AI Window product can join Mozilla’s waitlist.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 4:17 am AEST (my time).

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The tech giant also made another fairly major change that was not documented by the company in its official release notes. That is because the company has removed a popular offline Windows 11 and 10 hack that was used to illegally activate systems. The method was dubbed KMS38 and was provided by MASSGRAVE.

If you are not familiar, MASSGRAVE (where MAS stands for Microsoft Activation Scripts) is a project that offers various unofficial Windows and Office activation services.

KMS38 was an offline activation method that worked by tricking the GatherOSstate EXE file so as to extend the KMS (Key Management Service) activation period up to January 19, 2038, 03:14:07 UTC, instead of the usual 180 days. If you are wondering, the Y2K38 super-bug prevented going further. GatherOSstate essentially helped determine if an OS in its current state is eligible for an upgrade.

The MASSGRAVE author has confirmed that this no longer works with the latest November 2025 Patch Tuesday update (KB5068861, KB5067112).

This was probably already on the cards as MASSGRAVE adds that in Windows build 26040 (released back in January 2024) gatherosstate.exe was removed from installation media. This meant in-place upgrades and feature updates reset the grace period to zero, requiring reconnection to a KMS server. And with last month's Windows 11 optional update (KB5067036), Microsoft has fully deprecated the GatherOSstate functionality, making KMS38 unusable.

Thus with the latest MAS script, version 3.8, KMS38 has now been dropped entirely. MASSGRAVE says that users should switch to HWID (Hardware ID) or TSforge activation methods, both of which still work.

Please note that while we are reporting on this news as it is significant, Neowin does not recommend or promote using such unofficial and pirated ways of activation.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 4:14 am AEST (my time).

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KB5068861 was released for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2 earlier this week, and now, the update is available as part of the tiny11 images. This lets you install Windows 11 without unnecessary bits and with hardware requirements removed, all without installing additional security updates.

The November 2025 security update for Windows 11 is particularly interesting because it contains the redesigned Start menu, which finally addresses multiple issues with the original version, shipped four years ago. The new Start menu is rolling out gradually, but beware of some odd bugs that somehow still made their way to the public release.

The latest tiny11 25H2 release is available in two flavors: regular tiny11 and tiny11 core. The first variant is suitable for daily use. Regular tiny11 installations have all the most important bits, including security, Windows Update, and more. tiny11 core, however, has a much smaller disk footprint, which was made possible by removing as many components as possible. This approach sacrifices serviceability in favor of portability, and it is not recommended to run tiny11 core on your daily machine. It is a much better option for virtual machines, test devices, and more.

NTDEV, the maker of tiny11, used to release major updates for the projects, but now, the goal is to update the images on a monthly basis so that you can always download the most recent release. You can get the latest tiny11 version from the Internet Archive.

While tiny11 was made with Microsoft-made utilities, you should still consider the potential risks of running modified images on your computer. Alternatively, you can try creating a custom lightweight Windows 11 image yourself.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 4:11 am AEST (my time).

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The new Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a budget gaming CPU that was released on November 12. The 6-core/12-thread CPU has a base clock of 4.0 GHz and a boost clock of 4.5 GHz. Plus, it comes with integrated RDNA 2 graphics, which the current driver will be useful for. The CPU comes in at $269.

The extraction shooter that has seen record-breaking player numbers in recent weeks, ARC Raiders, is now fully supported by AMD thanks to this driver. At the same time, the November 14 release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and the city builder Ubisoft released today, Anno 117, both have support with this driver too. AMD hasn't provided any performance numbers regarding what sort of change players will see, however.

A couple of issues are fixed in the 25.11.1 driver too:

• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing games with Easy Anti-Cheat enabled when using the Radeon™ Overlay.
• CPU metrics/tuning may not appear in the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ Application after updating the graphics driver using the AMD Software Install Manager.

Meanwhile, here are the issues currently being worked on:

• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while loading a saved game in Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing enabled. AMD is actively working on a resolution with the developer to be released as soon as possible.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Battlefield™ 6 on AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Roblox Player (Car Zone Racing & Drifting) when task switching between media on Radeon™ RX 7000 series products.
• Texture flickering or corruption may appear while playing Battlefield™ 6 with AMD Record and Stream on some AMD Graphics Products.
• Radeon Anti-Lag 2 option may not be available while playing Counter-Strike 2 (DX11) with Radeon Anti-Lag 2 enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 9070 XT. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to use the Vulkan API as a temporary workaround.
• Intermittent system crashes may be observed while using some high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 displays during display standby. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to use a DisplayPort connection as a temporary workaround.

The new AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.11.1 driver is now available for download from the AMD Software app as well as its official changelog page.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 4:09 am AEST (my time).

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Tails, in case you're unaware, is a security-focused Linux distribution designed to protect your privacy and anonymity. You can boot it from a USB drive on pretty much any computer. It is a "live" operating system, so it runs entirely from the computer's RAM and never touches the internal hard drive. When you shut it down, it leaves no trace of what you did, hence the term "amnesic".

In version 7.2, the devs updated the included Tor Browser to 15.0.1, which is based on Firefox 140.5.0 ESR. This new browser comes with features like vertical tabs, tab groups, and a unified search button in the address bar for switching search engines.

Speaking of search engines, this release also adds a version of the DuckDuckGo search engine that does not use AI and lists search engines alphabetically.

Tails 7.2 also removes some unwanted background connections that the Thunderbird email client was making. Users noticed in version 7.1 that Thunderbird was making several outgoing connections on startup to Mozilla and Thunderbird telemetry services. These connections to domains like live.thunderbird.net and location.services.mozilla.com happened without user consent. The devs have now disabled these remote services to prevent data leakage.

The Root Console launcher has been removed from the application menu. If you need root access now, you have to open the terminal and run the command sudo -i.

Other changes include updating the Thunderbird email client to version 140.4 and the non-free firmware packages. The system now waits for the clock to be properly synchronized before showing any "Don't ask again" notifications.

The devs also fixed an issue where upgrade notifications were not always visible and resolved a bug that reset the default zoom level.

The full changelog is available here.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 4:06 am AEST (my time).

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There were also earlier cases where Windows 10 insisted the system had reached end-of-life even when ESU was active. The odd part was that this affected not only standard Windows 10 installations but also Enterprise LTSC 2021 and LTSC IoT 2021 — editions that still have years of official support ahead of them. Microsoft patched those cloud-based configuration errors earlier, but the enrollment bugs continued to cause trouble.

Microsoft has now addressed the remaining issues with the out-of-band update KB5071959. This patch fixes the EU enrollment failures and the sign-up errors tied to Windows Backup activation. If your device couldn’t enroll in ESU before, this update is required to restore the system’s ability to join the program. On the other hand, if ESU already works on your machine, the patch isn’t mandatory. It mainly targets systems that were blocked by the earlier bugs.

With KB5071959 now available, all known ESU enrollment problems should be resolved. Windows 10 users who rely on extended support can finally complete the process without running into misleading warnings, regional availability errors, or dead-end messages. Nothing about ESU’s requirements has changed, but at least the sign-up path is no longer impeded by these software faults.

If you’re still running Windows 10 for the long haul, installing this update is worth doing before attempting ESU enrollment again.

It ensures the last security-update window Microsoft offers for Windows 10 actually works as intended — especially important for anyone keeping older hardware in service.

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Vivaldi today released version 7.7 of its cross-platform web browser, introducing a redesigned Start Page, more reliable cross-device tab syncing, a refreshed Privacy Dashboard, and a dedicated performance section with Memory Saver options.

The new synced-tabs experience allows users to open complete tab structures—including full windows, Tab Stacks, and Workspaces—from any desktop device. Instead of a flat list, Vivaldi now preserves each tab’s hierarchy, making it easier to resume work when switching between machines.

Moreover, Vivaldi 7.7 merges widgets and Speed Dials into a single Start Page. Users can mix RSS, weather, mail previews, and other widgets directly with their Speed Dial folders, arranging and resizing them as needed. The change creates a consolidated dashboard for both frequently visited websites and real-time information.

Vivaldi 7.7 Web Browser

The new Privacy Dashboard is another refined component that provides a clearer overview of blocked trackers, ads, saved bandwidth, and time saved by avoiding intrusive content. It also enhances per-site exception handling, providing users with more visibility into privacy rules and when specific sites require relaxed blocking.

Additionally, a dedicated Performance section has been added to Settings. The Memory Saver feature places inactive tabs into a low-power state, reducing RAM usage. Users can choose how aggressively the browser unloads background tabs and define exemptions for pinned or always-active tabs, offering more fine-grained resource management.

The Mail Panel receives layout adjustments to improve clarity. Sections are now separated into floating bars, and visual elements have been streamlined to facilitate easier navigation and message handling.

Last but not least, Vivaldi 7.7 includes a large number of fixes across Address Field behavior, bookmarks handling, Start Page usability, tab management, Workspaces, Mail, panels, Search, and platform-specific issues on Linux and macOS.

For more information, refer to the release announcement. The downloads are available on the project’s website.

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One of the reasons for mentioning Ryzen AI is because of how Windows itself is about to change in a really big way such that it already requires AI-specific hardware for certain features to work.

Microsoft's Windows chief Pavan Davuluri had earlier hinted at such plans already about how the next evolution of OS will make it capable enough to make it "semantically understand you" as Windows will get "more ambient, more pervasive, more multi-modal". Using features like Copilot Vision it will be able to "look at your screen" and do more.

The company is working on Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Windows 11 in an effort to help it become the Agentic OS that essentially will turn Windows into an AI OS.

Here is how Microsoft puts it: "MCP on Windows offers a standardized framework for AI agents to connect with native Windows apps, enabling them to easily participate in agentic interactions on Windows. Windows apps can expose specific functionality to augment the skills and capabilities of agents installed locally on a Windows PC."

A few days ago, Davuluri shared his excitement about it on his official X handle. He seemed very eager to reveal what the company has in mind at the upcoming Ignite event regarding the agentic OS plans.

Unfortunately for Microsoft and Davuluri, the response has been overwhelmingly negative, so much so that the comments on that X post have now been disabled. Interestingly, several of them have been heavily upvoted so it clearly shows many people do not like the sound of Windows becoming an agentic OS.

"How about making widows fast ? Not agentic" said one user clearly hoping Windows acted and felt faster than it now does. Another user said "You can't even correctly implement small taskbar icons, which is something users actually want. You are getting overwhelmingly negative feedback about all this AI stuff. And yet you persevere. Why?"

A user also suggested that all these extra features meant Windows would get more bloaty as they wrote "Sounds like more bloat incoming? Have you considered making an OS that is performant and as bug free as possible? ... You guys seem to think everyone wants a hundred always on permanantly in beta features running and phoning home, eating up processing.."

Some of the commenters have also said that they are leaving Windows and Microsoft 365 products due to the overwhelming implementation of features that they may not want.

The comments on the thread have now been disabled as mentioned above, but you can tell your own thoughts about it in the article comments down below.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 6:07 pm AEST (my time).

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In August, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated that the company is evolving beyond co-founder Bill Gates' software factory vision, which has primarily helped drive its market capitalization well beyond $3 trillion. Instead, the software giant's next chapter will be more centered on intelligence, integration, and AI.

Over the past few years, the company has heavily invested in AI, venturing into a multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI. Consequently, it has heavily integrated the ChatGPT maker's next-gen technology across its tech stack, including Windows.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently admitted that Microsoft and Satya Nadella's early conviction heavily contributed to the $500 billion company's success. But perhaps more interestingly, Bill Gates, who is reportedly intimately involved in Microsoft's affairs despite departing from the company to focus on philanthropy, warned CEO Satya Nadella from making the initial $1 billion investment in 2019. "You're going to burn this billion dollars," Gates added.

However, this move has received a lot of backlash from users, which could be among the main reasons why some are hell-bent on sticking to Windows 10 despite Microsoft ending support for the operating system on October 14, 2025. Of course, the company's stringent hardware requirements and flawed design elements have played a major role.

But as it now seems, Microsoft is planning to venture into the next phase, more recently hinting that it could evolve into an agentic AI-powered OS. Microsoft CVP and Windows lead Pavan Davuluri revealed that Windows 11's successor will present "a truly ambient and multi-modal experience made possible by AI that will redefine our usage of computers."

Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Enterprise & Security, David Weston, further expounded on this, suggesting that "the world of mousing and keyboarding around will feel as alien as it does to Gen Z [using] MS-DOS".

Davuluri recently made a similar claim on X, indicating that Windows is "evolving into an agentic OS". Microsoft is seemingly making good on its promise and has already reorganized its Windows team to better prepare for the development of an AI-powered operating system in the foreseeable future.

Starting off with Microsoft Edge, the business variant of the browser will soon get a "What's New" page that details the improvements made to Edge for Business following an update. This landing page will be arriving in February 2026. From December 2025, enterprise customers will also be able to leverage a new extension in Edge that will allow them to safely "execute AI-generated code" without worrying about their data.

Switching gears to Outlook mobile, a couple of capabilities are landing soon on Android and iOS. Among these is an updated toolbar which you can customize according to your liking for your email composition experience. The toolbar that shows up when you select multiple emails will also benefit from the same enhanced UX. Meanwhile, Outlook on Android will get an updated Copilot Chat UI so that the button is distanced from the compose emails and events button. All these updates are coming in December 2025.

In the same month, Agent Mode in Excel on the web will hit general availability too. For those unaware, this agentic experience is powered by Copilot and is capable of producing new sheets, visualizations, crunching data, and generating insights on your behalf.

Finally, Microsoft 365 Copilot is set to gain several enhancements too, they are summarized below:

• Streamlined Authentication process with OAuth for Connector Admins
• Knowledge templates support for ServiceNow Knowledge Connector
• Edit capability for selecting permission reading option for existing ServiceNow Knowledge and Catalog Connections
• Use Copilot with OneDrive files in Finder on Mac
• Generate Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from agents built from Copilot Studio lite

You can find out more details about all of these features through the Microsoft 365 Roadmap here.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 2:02 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

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Every day, your PC creates hundreds of connections, but seeing this activity is a convoluted and opaque process. Connection Explorer was built from the ground up for one thing, to create a window of clarity into these connections to allow you to see what is happening on your device.

Packed with features that allow you to create intelligent alerts for activities, easily block unwanted processes, explore all your historical connection information, and add notes to DNS entries, Connection Explorer keeps you informed about what your device is doing and when it does it.

Stardock knows that you can’t always watch your connections for all hours of the day, which is why Connection Explorer makes it easy to set up alerts with an easy-to-use interface. Creating alerts for connections from unwanted locations, IP addresses, or ports, is easily configured and deployed in seconds.

“The modern desktop is a highly connected device that is uploading and downloading data all day long, our goal was to create an application that allowed you to see what is happening with your desktop” said Brad Sams, General Manager, Stardock Software. “With Connection Explorer, you now have the ability to see what is happening and better understand what your connected footprint looks like as you use your PC”.

Connection Explorer is designed for Windows 11 supports light/dark mode and is available today as a beta as part of Object Desktop. You can learn more about Connection Explorer on its app page, here

You can also download the entire Object Desktop package. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start11, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes and Multiplicity.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardoc

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:58 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

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