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).

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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).

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Microsoft employs various schemes to stop Edge users from switching to Chrome, and the latest includes financial rewards for sticking with the browser.

As spotted by Windows Latest, select users who search on Bing within Microsoft Edge for a link to download Google Chrome are now shown an offer to stay with the browser. It gives users 1,300 Microsoft Rewards points, which can be redeemed for gift cards (examples include Amazon, Roblox, and Spotify) or donated to one of over 2 million nonprofits.

You can also use Microsoft Rewards points to extend Windows 10 access through October 2026.

However, the offer isn’t appearing for everyone. When we followed the steps, Bing simply displayed a pop-up that noted, "Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft," along with a prompt to "Browse securely now." That took us through a series of slides that touted the benefits of Edge, including a built-in VPN, AI personalization, and the opportunity to earn rewards.

If you use Edge, it’s worth checking to see if you’re able to claim the Reward Points. Search Bing for any Chrome-related term, and you'll see the notification at the top of your search results. According to Windows Latest, this won't work for alternative browsers such as Opera or Brave, or new AI-powered alternatives such as Perplexity’s Comet or OpenAI’s Atlas.

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This was also the last patch update for Windows 11 23H2, as it is no longer supported by the company. This applies to Home and Pro editions, but Enterprise and Education editions of the version will continue to be supported till November 10 of 2026.

As such, Microsoft is encouraging users to move to Windows 11 version 25H2 (the Windows 11 2025 update) to "try the latest Windows innovations." You can do so by navigating to the Windows Update section inside the Settings menu and selecting "Check for updates".

When the company launched the update last month in early October 2025, it shared a list of new features that are coming to Windows 11 with the new version. If you are not aware, version 25H2 is mostly based on 24H2, which is why it could be easily upgraded with the enablement package eKB5054156. Thus you can also enable all such features on 25H2 and 24H2 using a simple hack. You can find the guide in this article.

Regardless, Microsoft says that it will automatically push the new feature update out to Windows 11 23H2 devices as long as they are eligible to receive it, which essentially means if you are running the OS on an unsupported PC, you will not get Windows 11 25H2.

Microsoft writes: "As of November 11, 2025, Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, version 23H2, have reached end of servicing. ... Devices running Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, version 23H2 that are not managed by IT departments will receive the Windows 11, version 25H2 update automatically."

Interestingly, this is also the end of the road for many systems that had been running Windows 11 23H2 or some older version of Windows 11 on a very old unsupported PC. That is because Windows 11 24H2 and likewise 25H2 can not be installed on processors that lack SSE4.2 and PopCnt. Such devices will have to remain on Windows 11 23H2. Thankfully, most systems post-2008 have those instructions so it should not be a big issue.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:32 am AEST (my time).

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As noted by The Verge, Google has relaunched Cameyo as "Cameyo by Google". Some of you may recall, Google acquired Cameyo back in 2024. The Virtual Application Delivery (VAD) service enables businesses using Chromebooks to stream Windows apps on their hardware. These apps are run as web apps, which means that they become platform-agnostic and customers are no longer bound to Microsoft's ecosystem, at least in this space.

Google has boasted that Cameyo is now more efficient in terms of switching between virtual desktop environments, so that the entire desktop environment isn't virtualized. This means that you can run various Microsoft and Google apps simultaneously. The firm noted that:

For years, the primary blocker for deeper enterprise adoption of ChromeOS has always been the ‘app gap’ — the persistent need to access a few remaining Windows applications within an organization. Now, teams can move to a more modern, collaborative productivity suite that was built for the web, and they can still access any specialized Windows apps that their workflows still depend on.

It is certainly an interesting move, to say the least. Some Chromebooks are relatively cheap, but organizations are hesitant to purchase the hardware because they are entrenched in Microsoft's ecosystem. A service like Cameyo should at least let them ponder the option of buying Chromebooks for most work and then virtualize Windows apps when needed. It remains to be seen if this will make a sizeable dent in Windows' market share.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:31 am AEST (my time).

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For starters, Microsoft is hard at work fixing bugs in Windows MIDI Services on WoA, and will be putting them in production versions of the OS soon. It has also been collaborating with a ton of partners building software for music production. Ableton Live is getting a native Arm64 app next year, and others like Bitwig Studio and REAPER are already available. Microsoft has a gigantic list of vendors involved in this category in its lengthy blog post here, which you can peruse at your leisure.

Microsoft is also collaborating with Qualcomm and Yamaha to develop a built-in low-latency USB Audio Class 2 and ASIO driver specifically for WoA hardware. It will have plug-and-play capabilities so any device that is USB Audio Class 2-compliant should "just work". This driver is currently being validated and tested internally, and will be released in public preview next year. This project is already available under a "permissive" MIT license on GitHub so that interested developers can spin off their own variants or improve upon Microsoft's implementation.

The Redmond tech giant notes that WoA already has a USB Audio Class 2 driver, but it is high latency and does not support all audio endpoints on a device. It doesn't have native integration with the ASIO protocol either. Since the effort to build the new driver is open-source, Microsoft believes that missing features will be added more quickly.

A public preview for the new driver will be available in 2026 on the Windows Canary Channel, but an ASIO control panel applet may have to be installed via GitHub separately. Microsoft expects this preview to last a long time since the ecosystem is so vast and diverse. That said, do keep in mind that this driver will work on Intel architecture too, even though it is being built primarily with WoA in mind.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:30 am AEST (my time).

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If anyone is wondering, RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology that allows users to combine multiple, typically inexpensive, disks such that data redundancy can be created to prevent data loss and/or improve performance.

Microsoft has just ended Windows 11 23H2 support and has confirmed that it will be automatically pushing the new 25H2 feature update on such devices as long as they are eligible and meet the system requirements.

As such, this looks like a good time for AMD to have released the new RAID software version 9.3.3.00245 that is compatible with 25H2. The new update supports all Socket AM5 600 and 800 series chipsets which include AMD A620, B650, B650E, X670, X670E, B840, B850, X870, and X870E.

If you are wondering about support on AM4 platform, the company dropped it a long time ago. Hence, the new driver supports every Ryzen desktop processor, 7000 series and newer, as well as new Ryzen AI mobile SKUs, like 300 series, among others.

The major highlights of the release are given below:

• Installer supports Windows® 10 and Windows® 11.

• New version of AMD RAID driver (9.3.3.00245) and AMD RAIDxpert2 utility (9.3.3.00245).

• Added support for Win 11 25H2 OS.

• RAIDXpert2 GUI fixes and enhancements.

• RAIDXpert2 GUI displays the EULA only once when restarted after it is initially accepted.

• Fix for sporadic device drop issues and bug checks

   

AMD has cautioned about installation related issues though, which can be critical in the case of RAID, which is often why users maybe advised to stick to software-based RAID solutions, like Windows' Storage Spaces for example.

The known issues for the new RAID driver are given below:

• While upgrading or downgrading AMD RAID drivers, system must consecutively reboot twice for AMD RAID drivers to work properly.

• Informed removal of the front bay NVMe may fail following an array transformation; the system must be rebooted afterwards. Refer to safety precautions section in the user guide.

• AMD RAID drivers cannot load while installing Win11 24H2 & 25H2 OS using ODD as boot media.

• OS Installation may fail when OS is not installed on the first RAID array.

   

To download the driver, head over to this page on AMD's official website.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:26 am AEST (my time).

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Fastfetch is a command-line utility for fetching and displaying system information in a pretty format, and it is a modern, performant replacement for the no-longer-maintained Neofetch. The utility has been updated to version 2.55, bringing dynamic output refreshing, support for media cover art as logos, and parallel command execution.

Commands are now executed in parallel by default, which improves performance when gathering data. This behavior can cause problems with certain scripts, so you can disable it in the configuration file by setting "parallel": false.

Fastfetch does not create this file by default, so you must first run fastfetch --gen-config to get one. Inside the config.jsonc file, you can control the entire look and feel of the output. You can reorder modules, disable ones you do not care about, and generally choose what information you want to see.

If you don't want to start from scratch, you can use a preset. For instance, running fastfetch --config neofetch --gen-config creates a config file that mimics Neofetch's old layout.

There's a new --dynamic-interval [interval in ms] that you can pass into the command to get an auto-refreshing output. One catch is that some modules, like Display and Media, do not support these dynamic updates because of some internal limitations.

Apart from the dynamic display, you would also find support for using the cover art from your current playing media as the logo. You can enable this by passing a flag like --sixel media-cover on the command line, or by adding the following in your config file:

"logo": {
  "type": "sixel",
  "source": "media-cover"
}

Speaking of logos, two new ones were added for Vincent OS and Macaroni OS. Here's what they look like:

Other changes include native GPU detection on OpenBSD and NetBSD, which removes a dependency on libpciaccess. Fastfetch also now supports GPU detection on GNU/Hurd, shows the Debian point release when running on Raspberry Pi OS, and can detect the version of the Brush shell.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:25 am AEST (my time).

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The bug was acknowledged last week after widespread user reports that the Task Manager continued to run in the background even after the app was quit, causing performance issues such as stuttering and CPU hangs.

Although having a few Task Manager processes running in the background usually doesn't cause issues, this issue can easily become serious when many instances run unnoticed, since it "can cause noticeable slowdowns in other applications," according to Microsoft.

"After installing Windows Updates released on or after October 28, 2025 (KB5067036), you might encounter an issue where closing Task Manager using the Close (X) button does not fully terminate the process," Microsoft noted when it confirmed the bug.

"When you reopen Task Manager, the previous instance continues running in the background even though no window is visible. This results in multiple lingering instances of taskmgr.exe, consuming system resources and potentially degrading device performance."

Background Task Manager processes (BleepingComputer)

Microsoft has now resolved the bug in the KB5068861 November Windows security update and advises customers to install it, as it also comes with fixes for other issues.

Users who have installed last month's KB5067036 preview update but can't immediately deploy this month's cumulative updates can also temporarily work around this known issue by manually quitting the background processes.

Those familiar with the Command Prompt can also quit all of them simultaneously by following these steps:

1.     Select Start or press the Windows key.
2.     Type cmd or Command Prompt in the search box.
3.     Select Command Prompt from the results.
4.     To run as administrator: Right-click  Command Prompt  and select Run as administrator.
5.     In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter: taskkill.exe /im taskmgr.exe /f

In October, Microsoft resolved 0x800F081F update errors affecting Windows 11 24H2 systems since January and fixed the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool (MCT).

Last week, Microsoft also acknowledged that an emergency security update, which patches an actively exploited Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) vulnerability, has broken hotpatching on some Windows Server 2025 systems.

More recently, it confirmed a known issue that causes some Windows 11 and Windows 10 systems to boot into BitLocker recovery after installing the October 2025 Windows security updates.

Source

Microsoft had begun testing support for 1Password as a passkey provider a few months ago in the Windows Insider Preview Program. This feature is now available for all users.

Windows 11 supports passkeys natively via Windows Hello, so what's this new feature about? Microsoft worked with third-party password managers to create a passkey plugin API for Windows 11. But, why do you need to use these third-party tools? Well, it gives users a choice, they can opt to save passkeys in their favorite password manager, and sync the passkeys across their devices.

To manage your passkeys via 1Password or Bitwarden, you will need to install their respective desktop tools.

1Password says its users can access passkey management from the latest version of the desktop app, by heading to Settings > Autofill and toggle the option that says Show passkey suggestions. This will open Windows' Settings app where you can choose 1Password as the system authenticator.

(Image courtesy: 1Password)

Bitwarden's announcement says that users will need to install the latest beta from GitHub to try the feature. You can download it from this page. It requires Windows OS build 26200.7019 or newer. Go to Windows' Settings > Accounts > Passkeys > Advanced options. Here you will be able to select the default passkey manager, choose Bitwarden, and it will prompt you to authenticate with Windows Hello.

(Image courtesy: Bitwarden)

Now you will be able to create passkeys for websites and store it in your password manager, and use it to log in to your accounts in browsers, and other apps. I tested the beta version of Bitwarden briefly in my Windows VM, and it seems to work fine.

According to Microsoft's announcement, native support for passkey managers is available with the Windows November 2025 security update, aka KB5068861. The feature is available for both Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.

Source

•     Windows 10 has pushed out an emergency patch to fix a bug with extended support
•     The glitch meant the wizard for signing up for extended updates failed
•     With this problem ironed out, if you grab the out-of-band update you should be good to enrol for extended support

Microsoft has released a patch to fix a problem whereby some Windows 10 PCs couldn't sign up for extended security updates (the ESU scheme) due to a bug.

As we reported earlier this week, there was a glitch with the ESU signup that meant it simply wasn't working for some Windows 10 users, falling over with an unhelpful error message that simply stated: "Something went wrong."

Thankfully, Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has released an emergency update to fix this issue.

This is patch KB5071959, which has been deployed out-of-band, meaning outside the normal release cadence for Windows patches.

Microsoft says of the update: "This update addresses an issue in the Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Update (ESU) enrollment process, where the enrollment wizard may fail during enrollment. After applying this update, consumer devices should be able to successfully enroll in ESU using the ESU wizard."

Note that nobody who's in the ESU will get this patch; it's only for those who haven't been able to sign up for extended updates due to the aforementioned bug and error message.

Analysis: extended woes have come to an end

(Image credit: Microsoft)

It's good to see Microsoft is on the case here, and just in time, as the first security update for Windows 10 PCs enrolled for extended support just emerged yesterday (November 11). Indeed, I just got this patch – which is KB5068781 – on my Windows 10 PC, which is in the ESU scheme, this morning (it took a surprisingly long time to install, considering it's just a barebones set of security fixes – or maybe there's a bit more to this first delivery).

Windows Latest indicates that "all ESU-related issues" are patched with this emergency update, but as we saw earlier this week, aside from the bug, there are also regional barriers preventing signup for extended updates in some cases. I'm not sure if all those will have been resolved, but granted, it makes sense that they should be – given that the first update for the ESU is now out as noted.

Whether or not the whole world now has access to the ESU (which should be the case), you shouldn't be seeing the unhelpful "Something went wrong" error message after applying this emergency patch.

That's going to save a good deal of frustration, no doubt, and if you've been one of those annoyed by these ESU signup failures, head to Windows Update now. Run a check for updates and you should see KB5071959, and after you've installed that you should be good to go for a successful enrolment to the ESU – and then you can grab the November security update for Windows 10.

Extended support means you'll be covered for security updates through to October 2026, but after that you'll be facing the same dilemma that you've put off for a year – upgrade to Windows 11 (if possible), or look at an alternative OS such as a Windows-like flavor of Linux.

Source

With the release of the KB5068781 update, Microsoft is now only addressing problems with Windows 10. With the ESU program now in operation, no new features should be expected.

The update is available for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 as well as Applies to: Windows 10, version 22H2, and there are no surprises to be found here. If you were hoping that Microsoft had been bluffing about Extended Security Updates focusing on anything other than security, this update will confirm what the company has been saying all along.

The fixes included in the KB5068781 update are very limited. In fact, the only named change addresses a problem with an erroneous message about the ESU program itself. In the release notes for the update, Microsoft says:

This security update includes fixes and quality improvements that are part of the following updates:

•      October 14, 2025—KB 5066791 (OS Builds 19044.6456 and 19045.6456)

The following is a summary of the issues that this update addresses when you install this update. If there are new features, it lists them as well. The bold text within the brackets indicates the item or area of the change we are documenting.

• [Update (known issue)] Fixed: After installing the October 14, 2025 Windows update (KB5066791), the message, "Your version of Windows has reached the end of support", might incorrectly display in the Windows Update Settings page. To view the page, click Start > Settings > Windows Update.

If you installed earlier updates, only the new updates contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

So while this update is far from being an exciting one, it is what we should expect from future Windows 10 updates – there will be problems fixed, but nothing more. This is the new normal for anyone who, for whatever reason, is choosing to stick with Windows 10 rather than upgrading to Windows 11 as Microsoft would prefer.

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Firefox 145 is out, with more privacy, better profile handling, better image search for Google users… and, almost inevitably, more LLM bot integration.

Mozilla has released Firefox 145. The release notes in that link make an interesting contrast with the snazzy What's new page which users see on installing the update.

Setting aside Mozilla's branding exercises for one moment, we thought we'd start with the modest new features in the release notes. The top feature here is the ability to add and read comments in PDF files. In a previous life, the Reg FOSS desk was a technical writer, and this feature will be very welcome for people collaboratively writing and editing.

A more familiar example might be the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word: as well as showing when someone else has added or removed text, this also lets co-workers add comments, which appear down one side of the document. PDF files can do this too, but you could be forgiven for not noticing, as it's an extra feature that many basic PDF viewers don't support. In his late 20-teens, this vulture spent hours a month on PDF comments, and at that time, KDE's Okular was the only Linux PDF viewer we could find that could handle them.

The release notes also highlight better protection against fingerprinting and pop-up summaries of tab groups' contents. The built-in password manager is now accessible from the sidebar, you can share links to just part of the text on web pages, and the automatic translation feature can mirror web content when translating between left-to-right scripts (like anything in the Roman, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets) and right-to-left languages (such as Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese). Readers of digital manga translated into Western scripts may be familiar with this.

On Windows, a new Firefox desktop launcher will automatically install the app if the launch icon is synched on to a machine which doesn't yet have Firefox. Meanwhile, as we warned last time, there's no 32-bit Linux version of Firefox 144.

Meanwhile the What's New page has some more marketing-oriented news. Firefox has a new mascot, new merch, and it's easier to set new-tab wallpaper. Tab groups handling has been refined.

Firefox has supported user profiles for many years, but profile management is getting improved. You can still get at the old system via the magic about:profiles URL, if you haven't got this yet. Google users can search inside images with Google Lens.

This vulture does still use Google, but via the magic &udm=14 URL that we told you about in May. That means no Google Lens for us.

And, finally, the irrepressible rise of automated plagiarism bots continues to spread its slop everwhere, including the brains of Mozilla management. Firefox now integrates what Mozilla's blurb calls Perplexity's "AI-powered answer engine" into the address bar. Some Reg contributors like it, but most of our coverage thus far leans toward the negative. We went straight to Preferences | Search, found "Perplexity" in the list of search engines, and removed it. No restart needed. We concur with a paper from the journal Ethics and Information Technology last year: ChatGPT is Bullshit. ®

Source

Windows 11 (version 24H2 and 25H2)

A couple of weeks ago, people noticed that when they close Task Manager, its process get duplicated instead. These new instances don't consume a lot of PC resources, but it does cause annoyances. Microsoft later confirmed this issue and we published a guide explaining how you can fix it. Now, the Redmond tech firm has rolled out a concrete patch for this bug in KB5068861 (Patch Tuesday), which means that you don't need to apply a complicated workaround anymore.

Windows 10 (ESU)

Although Windows 10 is out of support, it can still receive security updates through the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. Windows 10 customers have been complaining about two bugs in the OS over the past month. The first relates to the Windows 10 ESU enrollment wizard failing for eligible devices. The fix for this is present in the out-of-band (OOB) update released in the form of KB5071959 yesterday. Customers should simply apply the update and restart their device, after which they'll begin to see the latest Patch Tuesday update for Windows 10 ESU.

The other problem impacting users was an incorrect error message being shown on certain Windows 10 devices, noting that "Your version of Windows has reached the end of support", even for LTSC SKUs still in support. Microsoft has patched this through KB5068781, but if you don't install it, you'll have to utilize the Known Issue Rollback (KIR) process described here.

Windows Server 2025

Similar to Windows 10, Windows Server 2025 was also impacted by a couple of bugs. For starters, server-side applications relying on HTTP.sys were experiencing issues with incoming connections. The other issue affecting IT admins was that directory synchronization was failing for Active Directory (AD) groups which had more than 10,000 members. Microsoft patched both of these issues with KB5068861, and as usual, customers who don't install it will still have to rely on KIR workarounds detailed previously.

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Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 12 November 2025 at 5:45 pm AEST (my time).

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

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In KWin, there is a fix for the issue where users could not map their tablet to another screen. A code change had unintentionally created a situation where once you set a target display for a touchscreen or tablet, you could not change it again. This fix makes sure that KWin's input backend correctly updates the necessary device properties when you select a new display.

The KDE team also worked on a massive stability problem that was causing KWin to crash frequently on Wayland when monitors were disconnected or when the system woke up from sleep, leaving the user with a frozen desktop.

Discover got two bug fixes. The software center's end-of-session calls will now function correctly even when running outside of a Plasma session. KDE developers also switched Discover over to using the safer org.kde.Shutdown interface for handling system shutdowns and restarts.

It used to be possible for a notification to include malicious HTML that could, for example, reference file:///dev/random as an image source. This would cause the system to try and render an infinite stream of data, filling up system memory and crashing the desktop. Plasma 6.4.6 brings a patch that sanitizes these image URLs, adding extra checks to confirm that the source is a valid, regular local file before attempting to display it.

Other updates include a fix for the timer applet, which now makes its digits respect the active system color scheme. The KMenuEdit tool no longer crashes when it encounters a malformed command line or when you try to sort an empty selection.

The System Monitor's predecessor, libksysguard, had a crash fixed that occurred when saving a preset. For mouse users, the system settings page for remapping mouse buttons is functional again. And finally, the print manager received an update to correctly display marker levels for printers that only have a single marker.

You can check out the full changelog here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 12 November 2025 at 5:45 pm AEST (my time).

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

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