• Windows 10's October patch carried a confusing bug
• Microsoft has now confirmed that some people who had extended support were told they weren't supported
• This wasn't the case, and it worried some of those who saw the warning

Microsoft has admitted that a bug meant some Windows 10 users were wrongly informed that their PC is out of support after a patch for the OS was pushed out last month.

Tom's Hardware reports that Microsoft confirmed the issue, which is mainly affecting business users, but also some consumers, namely those running Windows 10 Pro.

The problem was introduced in the final October update for Windows 10 – or at least it was the final upgrade for those who haven't signed up for the extended support program.

However, the bug meant that even those on Windows 10 Pro who'd signed up for extended updates through to October 2026 were being told their system was now out of support. This was also happening to enterprise and education users on Windows 10, and those running Windows 10 LTSC, which is a special version of the desktop OS that offers long-term servicing for businesses.

Microsoft said in a statement: "The message, 'Your version of Windows has reached the end of support', might incorrectly display in the Windows Update Settings page."

However, there's already been a fix piped through which should remove the errant message, so you shouldn't be seeing it any longer.

If you are still getting this warning, then the problem could be that you haven't connected to the internet since downloading the patch with the bug – you'll also need to reboot your PC after the fix is implemented on your system.

The bug was highlighted on Reddit last month, not long after the October patch was deployed, but Microsoft has only just confirmed the issue. It was seemingly fixed pretty swiftly, at least for enterprise customers going by the feedback provided on Reddit.

Analysis: confused? Plenty of people were…

(Image credit: Asier Romero / Shutterstock)

This has caused some confusion among both enterprise users and consumers alike. If you're running Windows 10 Pro, and you signed up for Extended Security Updates (ESU) last month, to receive a message informing you that your system is no longer supported might make you worry that somehow your PC has been dropped out of the ESU scheme (or the sign-up process failed).

Rest assured this isn't the case, and the IT admins dealing with fleets of PCs which were also producing this message about being unsupported can also breathe a bit easier with this official confirmation from Microsoft that this was a mistake.

That said, some folks still subscribe to the belief that it was some kind of scare tactic from Microsoft, while noting that Windows 10 LTSC versions (from both 2019 and 2021) were actually listed as out of support in Microsoft's official end of service statement previously – but they've now been removed from that list (the correction of another mistake, perhaps).

Anyway, such controversies aside, it's clear enough that Microsoft intends to maintain support as promised, meaning another year of updates for consumers or businesses on the ESU. (And the LTSC IoT Enterprise take on Windows 10 – a very limited installation, it should be noted – actually has support all the way through to 2032, but that's for businesses only, of course).

Source

It’s that time of year again—temperatures are dropping, leaves are changing color, and Microsoft is gradually rolling out another major yearly update to Windows 11.

The Windows 11 25H2 update is relatively minor compared to last year’s 24H2 update (the “25” here is a reference to the year the update was released, while the “H2” denotes that it was released in the second half of the year, a vestigial suffix from when Microsoft would release two major Windows updates per year). The 24H2 update came with some major under-the-hood overhauls of core Windows components and significant performance improvements for the Arm version; 25H2 is largely 24H2, but with a rolled-over version number to keep it in line with Microsoft’s timeline for security updates and tech support.

But Microsoft’s continuous update cadence for Windows 11 means that even the 24H2 version as it currently exists isn’t the same one Microsoft released a year ago.

To keep things current, we’ve combed through our Windows cleanup guide, updating it for the current build of Windows 11 25H2 (26200.7019) to help anyone who needs a fresh Windows install or who is finally updating from Windows 10 now that Microsoft is winding down support for it. We’ll outline dozens of individual steps you can take to clean up a “clean install” of Windows 11, which has taken an especially user-hostile attitude toward advertising and forcing the use of other Microsoft products.

As before, this is not a guide about creating an extremely stripped-down, telemetry-free version of Windows; we stick to the things that Microsoft officially supports turning off and removing. There are plenty of experimental hacks and scripts that take it a few steps farther, and/or automate some of the steps we outline here—NTDev’s Tiny11 project is one—but removing built-in Windows components can cause unexpected compatibility and security problems, and Tiny11 has historically had issues with basic table-stakes stuff like “installing security updates.”

These guides capture moments in time, and regular monthly Windows patches, app updates downloaded through the Microsoft Store, and other factors all can and will cause small variations from our directions. You may also see apps or drivers specific to your PC’s manufacturer. This guide also doesn’t cover the additional bloatware that may come out of the box with a new PC, starting instead with a freshly installed copy of Windows from a USB drive.

Starting with Setup: Avoiding Microsoft account sign-in

The most contentious part of Windows 11’s setup process relative to earlier Windows versions is that it mandates a Microsoft account sign-in, with none of the readily apparent “limited account” fallbacks that existed in Windows 10. As of Windows 11 22H2, that’s true of both the Home and Pro editions.

There are two reasons I can think of not to sign in with a Microsoft account. The first is that you want nothing to do with a Microsoft account, thank you very much. Signing in makes Windows bombard you with more Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and Game Pass subscription upsells since all you need to do is add them to an account that already exists, and Windows setup will offer subscriptions to each if you sign in first.

The second—which describes my situation—is that you do use a Microsoft account because it offers some handy benefits like automated encryption of your local drive (having those encryption keys tied to my account has saved me a couple of times) or syncing of browser info and some preferences. But you don’t want to sign in at setup, either because you don’t want to be bothered with the extra upsells or you prefer your user folder to be located at “C:\Users\Andrew” rather than “C:\Users\.”

Regardless of your reasoning, if you don’t want to bother with sign-in at setup, you have a few different options:

During Windows 11 Setup, after selecting a language and keyboard layout but before connecting to a network, hit Shift+F10 to open the command prompt (depending on your keyboard, you may also need to hit the Fn key before pressing F10). Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO, hit Enter, and wait for the PC to reboot.

When it comes back, click “I don’t have Internet” on the network setup screen, and you’ll have recovered the option to use “limited setup” (aka a local account) again, like older versions of Windows 10 and 11 offered.

This option has been removed from some Windows 11 testing builds, but it still works as of this writing in 25H2. We may see this option removed in a future update to Windows.

For Windows 11 Pro users, there’s a command-line-free workaround you can take advantage of.

Proceed through the Windows 11 setup as you normally would, including connecting to a network and allowing the system to check for updates. Eventually, you’ll be asked whether you’re setting your PC up for personal use or for “work or school.”

Select the “work or school” option, then “sign-in options,” at which point you’ll finally be given a button that says “domain join instead.” Click this to indicate you’re planning to join the PC to a corporate domain (even though you aren’t), and you’ll see the normal workflow for creating a “limited” local account.

The downside is that you’re starting your relationship with your new Windows install by lying to it. But hey, if you’re using the AI features, your computer is probably going to lie to you, too. It all balances out.

The Rufus tool can streamline a few of the more popular tweaks and workarounds for Windows 11 install media. Rufus is a venerable open source app for creating bootable USB media for both Windows and Linux. If you find yourself doing a lot of Windows 11 installs and don’t want to deal with Microsoft accounts, Rufus lets you tweak the install media itself so that the “limited setup” options always appear, no matter which edition of Windows you’re using.

To start, grab Rufus and then a fresh Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft. You’ll also want an 8GB or larger USB drive; I’d recommend a 16GB or larger drive that supports USB 3.0 speeds, both to make things go a little faster and to leave yourself extra room for drivers, app installers, and anything else you might want to set a new PC up for the first time. (I also like this SanDisk drive that has a USB-C connector on one end and a USB-A connector on the other to ensure compatibility with all kinds of PCs.)

Fire up Rufus, select your USB drive and the Windows ISO, and hit Start to copy over all of the Windows files. After you hit Start, you’ll be asked if you want to disable some system requirements checks, remove the Microsoft account requirement, or turn off all the data collection settings that Windows asks you about the first time you set it up. What you do here is up to you; I usually turn off the sign-in requirement, but disabling the Secure Boot and TPM checks doesn’t stop those features from working once Windows is installed and running.

The main thing I do here, other than declining any and all Microsoft 365 or Game Pass offers, is turn all the toggles on the privacy settings screen to “no.” This covers location services, the Find My Device feature, and four toggles that collectively send a small pile of usage and browsing data to Microsoft that it uses “to enhance your Microsoft experiences.” Pro tip: Use the Tab key and spacebar to quickly toggle these without clicking or scrolling.

Of these, I can imagine enabling Find My Device if you’re worried about theft or location services if you want Windows and apps to be able to access your location. But I tend not to send any extra telemetry or browsing data other than the basics (the only exception being on machines I enroll in the Windows Insider Preview program for testing, since Microsoft requires you to send more detailed usage data from those machines to help it test its beta software). If you want to change any of these settings after setup, they’re all in the Settings app under Privacy & Security.

If you have signed in with a Microsoft account during setup, you can expect to see several additional setup screens that aren’t offered when you’re signing in with a local account, including attempts to sell Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. Accept or decline these offers as desired.

Cleaning up Windows 11

A desktop with an extra informational wallpaper icon, a Start menu full of apps you may or may not use, and a 

busy taskbar will greet you the first time you log in to Windows 11.

Andrew Cunningham

 

A cleaner desktop, taskbar, and Start menu, with many extraneous elements removed. With the exception of Edge, 

most Windows apps can be retained or removed as you prefer.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Reboot once this is done, and you’ll be at the Windows desktop. Start by installing any drivers you need, plus Windows updates.

When you first connect to the Internet, Windows may or may not decide to automatically pull down a few extraneous third-party apps and app shortcuts, things like Spotify or Grammarly—this has happened to me consistently in most Windows 11 installs I’ve done over the years, though it hasn’t generally happened on the 24H2 and 25H2 PCs I’ve set up.

Open the Start menu and right-click each of the apps you don’t want to remove the icons for and/or uninstall. Some of these third-party apps are just stubs that won’t actually be installed to your computer until you try to run them, so removing them directly from the Start menu will get rid of them entirely.

Right-clicking and uninstalling the unwanted apps that are pinned to the Start menu is the fastest (and, for some, the only) way to get rid of them.

Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The other apps and services included in a fresh Windows install generally at least have the excuse of being first-party software, though their usefulness will be highly user-specific: Xbox, the new Outlook app, Clipchamp, and LinkedIn are the ones that stand out, plus the ad-driven free-to-play version of the Solitaire suite that replaced the simple built-in version during the Windows 8 era.

Rather than tell you what I remove, I’ll tell you everything that can be removed from the Installed Apps section of the Settings app (also quickly accessible by right-clicking the Start button in the taskbar). You can make your own decisions here; I generally leave the in-box versions of classic Windows apps like Sound Recorder and Calculator while removing things I don’t use, like To Do or Clipchamp.

This list should be current for a fresh, fully updated install of Windows 11 25H2, at least in the US, but it doesn’t include any apps that might be specific to your hardware, like audio or GPU settings apps. Some individual apps may or may not appear as part of your Windows install.

• Calculator
• Camera
• Clock (may also appear as Windows Clock)
• Copilot
• Family
• Feedback Hub
• Game Assist
• Media Player
• Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Microsoft Clipchamp
• Microsoft OneDrive: Removing this, if you don’t use it, should also get rid of notifications about OneDrive and turning on Windows Backup.
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft To Do
• News
• Notepad
• Outlook for Windows
• Paint
• Photos
• Power Automate
• Quick Assist
• Remote Desktop Connection
• Snipping Tool
• Solitaire & Casual Games
• Sound Recorder
• Sticky Notes
• Terminal
• Weather
• Web Media Extensions
• Xbox
• Xbox Live

In Windows 11 23H2, Microsoft moved almost all of Windows’ non-removable apps to a System Components section, where they can be configured but not removed; this is where things like Phone Link, the Microsoft Store, Dev Home, and the Game Bar have ended up. The exception is Edge and its associated updater and WebView components; these are not removable, but they aren’t listed as “system components” for some reason, either.

Microsoft has been on a yearslong crusade against unused space in the Start menu and taskbar, which means there’s plenty here to turn off.

• Right-click an empty space on the desktop, click Personalize, and click any of the other built-in Windows themes to turn off the Windows Spotlight dynamic wallpapers and the “Learn about this picture” icon.
• Right-click the Taskbar and click Taskbar settings. I usually disable the Widgets board; you can leave this if you want to keep the little local weather icon in the lower-left corner of your screen, but this space is also sometimes used to present junky news articles from the Microsoft Start service.
  • If you want to keep Widgets enabled but clean it up a bit, open the Widgets menu, click the Settings gear in the top-right corner, scroll to “Show or hide feeds,” and turn the feed off. This will keep the weather, local sports scores, stocks, and a few other widgets, but it will get rid of the spammy news articles.
• Also in the Taskbar settings, I usually change the Search field to “search icon only” to get rid of the picture in the search field and reduce the amount of space it takes up. Toggle the different settings until you find one you like.

Andrew Cunningham

 

 

• Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Recommendations & offers and disable “Personalized offers,” “Improve Start and search results,” “Show notifications in Settings,” “Recommendations and offers in Settings,” and “Advertising ID” (some of these may already be turned off). These settings mostly either send data to Microsoft or clutter up the Settings app with various recommendations and ads.
• Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & feedback, scroll down to “Feedback frequency,” and select “Never” to turn off all notifications requesting feedback about various Windows features.
• Open Settings > Privacy & Security, click Search and disable “Show search highlights.” This cleans up the Search menu quite a bit, focusing it on searches you’ve done yourself and locally installed apps.

Windows 11 makes your PC's lock screen into a billboard.

Andrew Cunningham

 

If you prefer a lock screen that's just there to lock your screen, this is still possible!

Andrew Cunningham

 

• Open Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Under “Personalize your lock screen,” switch from “Windows spotlight” to either Picture or Slideshow to use local images for your lock screen, and then uncheck the “get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more” box that appears. This will hide the other text boxes and clickable elements that Windows automatically adds to the lock screen in Spotlight mode. Under “Lock screen status,” select “none” to hide the weather widget and other stocks and news widgets from your lock screen.
• If you own a newer Windows PC with a dedicated Copilot key, you can navigate to Settings > Personalization > Text input and scroll down to remap the key. Unfortunately, its usefulness is still limited—you can reassign it to the Search function or to the built-in Microsoft 365 app, but by default, Windows doesn’t give you the option to reassign it to open any old app.

By default, the Start menu will occasionally make “helpful” suggestions about third-party Microsoft Store apps to grab. These can and should be turned off.

• Open Settings > Personalization > Start. Turn off “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more.” This will disable a feature where Microsoft Store apps you haven’t installed can show up in Recommendations along with your other files. You can also decide whether you want to be able to see more pinned apps or more recent/recommended apps and files on the Start menu, depending on what you find more useful.
• On the same page, disable “show account-related notifications” to reduce the number of reminders and upsell notifications you see related to your Microsoft account.

• Open Settings > System > Notifications, scroll down, and expand the additional settings section. Uncheck all three boxes here, which should get rid of all the “finish setting up your PC” prompts, among other things.
• Also feel free to disable notifications from any specific apps you don’t want to hear from.

In-app AI features

Microsoft has steadily been adding image and text generation capabilities to some of the bedrock in-box Windows apps, from Paint and Photos to Notepad.

Exactly which AI features you’re offered will depend on whether you’ve signed in with a Microsoft account or not or whether you’re using a Copilot+ PC with access to more AI features that are executed locally on your PC rather than in the cloud (more on those in a minute).

But the short version is that it’s usually not possible to turn off or remove these AI features without uninstalling the entire app. Apps like Notepad and Edge do have toggles for shutting off Copilot and other related features, but no such toggles exist in Paint, for example.

Even if you can find some Registry key or another backdoor way to shut these things off, there’s no guarantee the settings will stick as these apps are updated; it’s probably easier to just try to ignore any AI features within these apps that you don’t plan to use.

Removing Recall, and other extra steps for Copilot+ PCs

So far, everything we’ve covered has been applicable to any PC that can run Windows 11. But new PCs with the Copilot+ branding—anything with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip in it or things with certain Intel Core Ultra or AMD Ryzen AI CPUs—get extra features that other Windows 11 PCs don’t have. Given that these are their own unique subclass of PCs, it’s worth exploring what’s included and what can be turned off.

One Copilot+ feature that can be fully removed, in part because of the backlash it initially caused, is the data-scraping Recall feature. Recall won’t be enabled on your Copilot+ system unless you’re signed in with a Microsoft account and you explicitly opt in. But if fully removing the feature gives you extra peace of mind, then by all means, remove it.

• If you just want to make sure Recall isn’t active, navigate to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots. This is where you adjust Recall’s settings and verify whether it’s turned on or off.
• To fully remove Recall, open Settings > System > Optional Features, scroll down to the bottom of this screen, and click More Windows features. This will open the old “Turn Windows features on or off” Control Panel applet used to turn on or remove some legacy or power-user-centric components, like old versions of the .NET Framework or Hyper-V. It’s arranged alphabetically.
• In Settings > Privacy & security > Click to Do, you’ll also find a toggle to disable Click to Do, a Copilot+ feature that takes a screenshot of your desktop and tries to make recommendations or suggest actions you might perform (copying and pasting text or an image, for example).

Apps like Paint or Photos may also prompt you to install an extension for AI-powered image generation from the Microsoft Store. This extension—which weighs in at well over a gigabyte as of this writing—is not installed by default. If you have installed it, you can remove it by opening Settings > Apps > Installed apps and removing “ImageCreationHostApp.”

Bonus: Cleaning up Microsoft Edge

Andrew Cunningham

 

Andrew Cunningham

 

I use Edge out of pragmatism rather than love—”the speed, compatibility, and extensions ecosystem of Chrome, backed by the resources of a large company that isn’t Google” is still a decent pitch. But Edge has become steadily less appealing as Microsoft has begun pushing its own services more aggressively and stuffing the browser with AI features. In a vacuum, Firefox aligns better with what I want from a browser, but it just doesn’t respond well to my normal tab-monster habits despite several earnest attempts to switch—things bog down and RAM runs out. I’ve also had mixed experience with the less-prominent Chromium clones, like Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave. So Edge it is, at least for now.

The main problem with Edge on a new install of Windows is that even more than Windows, it exists in a universe where no one would ever want to switch search engines or shut off any of Microsoft’s “value-added features” except by accident. Case in point: Signing in with a Microsoft account will happily sync your bookmarks, extensions, and many kinds of personal data. But many settings for search engine changes or for opting out of Microsoft services do not sync between systems and require a fresh setup each time.

Below are the Edge settings I change to maximize the browser’s usefulness (and usable screen space) while minimizing annoying distractions; it involves turning off most of the stuff Microsoft has added to the Chromium version of Edge since it entered public preview many years ago. Here’s a list of things to tweak, whether you sign in with a Microsoft account or not.

• On the Start page when you first open the browser, hit the Settings gear in the upper-right corner. Turn off “Quick links” (or if you leave them on, turn off “Show sponsored links”) and then turn off “show content.” Whether you leave the custom background or the weather widget is up to you.
• Click the “your privacy choices” link at the bottom of the menu and turn off the “share my data with third parties for personalized ads” toggle.

Edge has scattered some of the settings we change over the last year, but the browser is still full of toggles we prefer to keep turned off.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Minimizing the data sent to Microsoft and third-parties.

Andrew Cunningham

 

This won't stop Edge from trying to get you to switch back to Bing, but you can ignore it.

Andrew Cunningham

 

• In the Edge UI, click the ellipsis icon near the upper-right corner of the screen and click Settings.
• Click Profiles in the left Settings sidebar. Click Microsoft Rewards, and then turn it off.
• Click Privacy, Search, & Services in the Settings sidebar.
  • In Tracking prevention, I set tracking prevention to “strict,” though if you use some other kind of content blocker, this may be redundant; it can also occasionally prompt “it looks like you’re using an ad-blocker” pop-up from sites even if you aren’t.
  • In Privacy, if they’re enabled, disable the toggles under “Optional diagnostic data,” “Help improve Microsoft products,” and “Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity.”
  • In Search and connected experiences, disable the “Suggest similar sites when a website can’t be found,” “Save time and money with Shopping in Microsoft Edge,” and “Organize your tabs” toggles.
    • If you want to switch from Bing, click “Address bar and search” and switch to your preferred engine, whether that’s Google, DuckDuckGo, or something else. Then click “Search suggestions and filters” and disable “Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters.”

• Click Appearance in the left-hand Settings sidebar, and scroll down to Copilot and sidebar
  • Turn the sidebar off, and turn off the “Personalize my top sites in customize sidebar” and “Allow sidebar apps to show notifications” toggles.
  • Click Copilot under App specific settings. Turn off “Show Copilot button on the toolbar.” Then, back in the Copilot and sidebar settings, turn off the “Show sidebar button” toggle that has just appeared.
• Click Languages in the left-hand navigation. Disable “Use Copilot for writing on the web.” Turn off “use text prediction” if you want to prevent things you type from being sent to Microsoft, and switch the spellchecker from Microsoft Editor to Basic. (I don’t actually mind Microsoft Editor, but it’s worth remembering if you’re trying to minimize the amount of data Edge sends back to the company.)

Windows-as-a-nuisance

The most time-consuming part of installing a fresh, direct-from-Microsoft copy of Windows XP or Windows 7 was usually reinstalling all the apps you wanted to run on your PC, from your preferred browser to Office, Adobe Reader, Photoshop, and the VLC player. You still need to do all of that in a new Windows 11 installation. But now more than ever, most people will want to go through the OS and turn off a bunch of stuff to make the day-to-day experience of using the operating system less annoying.

That’s more relevant now that Microsoft has formally ended support for Windows 10. Yes, Windows 10 users can get an extra year of security updates relatively easily, but many who have been putting off the Windows 11 upgrade will be taking the plunge this year.

The settings changes we’ve recommended here may not fix everything, but they can at least give you some peace, shoving Microsoft into the background and allowing you to do what you want with your PC without as much hassle. Ideally, Microsoft would insist on respectful, user-friendly defaults itself. But until that happens, these changes are the best you can do.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 6 November 2025 at 1:03 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Windows Insider Program's official X account posted the announcement, stating that today's update is just to test the program's pipelines. In other words, it is a minor update with nothing new. There is no announcement blog post either.

Microsoft is currently releasing identical updates to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels. This gives users an opportunity to change channels without reinstalling Windows. Microsoft warns that the Dev Channel will soon move to higher-number, less stable builds, so those who do not want to risk it should switch from Dev to Beta.

There are speculations that the Dev Channel will soon be used as a testing ground for Windows 11 version 26H1, the first Windows 11 26H1 release since the initial launch in late 2021. We have already seen version 26H1 in the official code, and rumors say that the update will be exclusive to Snapdragon X2-based devices that are coming in 2026. Microsoft usually confirms new Windows 11 versions closer to their corresponding releases, so we will have to wait a little more for this one.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 6 November 2025 at 1:01 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

One of the items on the list is to streamline how users find and switch between modes, it is also looking at how to support more complex workflows. New agents and concurrency being investigated include user created custom agents, a test agent, a debugger agent, and there’s an investigation into being able to run multiple Visual Studio Agents concurrently.

Microsoft is also working on improvements to Agent Mode and Chat based on the feedback it has received from the community. It wants to allow you to use slash commands to invoke prompts and managing chats; improve memories so that user custom instructions apply globally; tool calling improvements such as dynamic tool calling and being able to summarize thread history to continue in a thread; and making Planning in Chat read-only and improve the Planning user experience with Inline Preview in Chat.

The company said it’s also trying to implement the full MCP specification so that users can integrate their entire development stack securely. Work that it is focusing on in this regard include improving MCP Sampling Window UX; performance and token usage optimizations for MCP servers; giving organizations the ability to set an allowlist of MCP servers that can be used within their repos; and a MCP Unified UX experience.

Finally, Microsoft said that it wants to expand access to and evaluate the latest models. An interesting feature is this regard is the auto model option that automatically routes prompts to the most appropriate model, reducing manual switching and ensuring users get the best balance of quality and performance. Microsoft also wants to give users access to GPT 5 Codex in Chat to get the best coding suggestion. The firm also wants to improve the user experience for soon-to-be deprecated models so that they don’t leave unexpectedly.

Again, don’t expect all these improvements right now, they will be launched over the coming months, if at all.

Source: Microsoft

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 6 November 2025 at 1:01 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Gamers on Nvidia forums started complaining about gaming issues with Nvidia's latest drivers. According to various reports, Forza games, particularly old titles, such as Forza Motorsport 6 Apex, Motorsport 7, and Forza Horizon 3, cannot properly detect graphics cards on Nvidia's 580 drivers. Affected games return error AP204 "GPU not compatible," but rolling back to driver 576.88 fixes the problem.

Nvidia replied pretty quickly to these reports, with an Nvidia staff member saying the following:

"I am able to reproduce this. I'll see if there is anything we can do but likely not as I don't think these games will ever get additional patches and may be checking for specific things that are out of control."

All the mentioned Forza games are indeed quite old, and they have long been delisted from the Microsoft Store. As such, chances of Microsoft updating them to fix compatibility issues with the latest drivers are quite slim. Forza Motorsport 6 Apex is nearly a decade-old game, just like Forza Horizon 3. Meanwhile, Forza Motorsport 7 recently turned 8 years old.

Despite their age, old Forza games have quite a big fanbase, and those who own the games can still download and play them, as long as they stay away from Nvidia's latest driver. One could only hope that Nvidia will manage to fix the issue, but for now, the only way it's meant to be played is to roll back to driver 576.88.

Source: Nvidia via VideoCardz

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 6 November 2025 at 3:04 am AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

•     Windows 10 is still installed on millions of devices, Statcounter finds
•     Windows 7 dropped in popularity far more quickly
•     One in five said they’ll continue to use Windows 10 

We’re closing in on a whole month after the official Windows 10 end of life, but the effects have apparently been far from what Microsoft might have desired in the runup to ended support.

In October 2025, the month of Windows 10 EOS, it was still installed on 41.7% of Windows machines (per Statcounter analysis), only slightly behind Windows 11 at 55.2%.

A broader look over the course of the past five years shows Windows 11 adoption climbing steadily, but Windows 10 remained users’ first choice right up until July 2025, when the flagship OS finally overtook its predecessor.

Will Windows 10 finally go to bed?

That same five-year period in Statcounter analysis allows us to see that Windows 7’s market share was 24.9% in its final supported month, suggesting users were far happier then to upgrade than they were at the point of Windows 10 EOS.

(Image credit: Statcounter)

Taking a look at previous trends, it took around three years for Windows 7 to finally level off at minimal market share after support was cut, but Microsoft may have to prepare for it to take even long for the same to happen to Windows 10.

That’s because the popular OS has been somewhat of an anomaly over the long term, climbing pretty quickly to prime position in late 2017 and passing Windows 7 in popularity around two years before it was axed.

Over the years, we’ve seen that Windows 10 has been favored for its stability and familiarity, but also its enterprise readiness. On the flip side, Windows 11 presented consumers and enterprises alike with upgrade barriers, particularly around hardware requirements.

In the runup to Windows 10’s end of support, Omdia Research Director Ishan Dutt noted, “a significant portion of the global Windows installed base remains either on Windows 10 or on a PC that is five or more years old.”

Nearly one-fifth (18%) of channel partners said they’d continue to use Windows 10 after support ends.

TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft whether it had carried out any research into the effects of Windows 10 EOS on the market share of different Windows OSs – we did not receive an immediate response.

Source

According to Microsoft, the issue primarily affects Intel-based PCs with Modern Standby, a special low-power mode that enables background activity when in sleep. Modern Standby lets your PC wake up instantly, remain connected to the network, receive important data, and more. Features like Modern Standby should not trigger BitLocker recovery, as the latter is supposed to occur when the system detects potential security threats like TPM, firmware, or hardware changes.

Fortunately, the problem does not seem to compromise or corrupt any data, as long as you know your BitLocker key. Microsoft says that users can mitigate the problem by entering their BitLocker key, after which computers should boot normally. Microsoft is already working on fixing the issue, and IT admins can undo problematic changes by applying the Known Issue Rollback group policies.

Interestingly, bugs like this occur quite frequently. One such issue happened only a couple of months ago, when the May 2025 Patch Tuesday update triggered BitLocker recovery on Windows 10 PCs. With Microsoft now encrypting drives with BitLocker by default on all Windows 11 editions, it is very important to know your BitLocker key and store it in a secure location. Drive encryption is a critical part of modern data security, but Microsoft's careless approach and the lack of communication with the end user have already caused issues and data loss for some users.

You can check out our guide to learn how to find your BitLocker key. Alternatively, you can disable BitLocker or install Windows 11 with BitLocker turned off.

Source

I’ve reported before on the Flyby11 workaround to install Windows 11 on incompatible PCs, that has now made a comeback as FlyOOBE. This is available again on Github. But there’s a new threat for any users looking to download the popular bypass tool. 

While bypasses carry risk anyway — for example, invalidating warranties and potentially diluting down hardware-based security protection, sometimes the threat is even more acute. And so it is with a new “security notice” from FlyOOBE’s developer: “Do not download FlyOOBE from flyoobe.net!!!

The developer behind the now renamed FlyOOBE promises users that by running the tool "you’ll be running Windows 11 on your ‘unsupported’ machine in no time.

Think of it as sneaking through the back door without anyone noticing."

This works by using the Windows Server installation option which “skips TPM, Secure Boot, CPU checks” and “still installs normal Windows 11.” This tool “automatically” manages the ISO download and mount and “matches Microsoft’s own documented workaround for upgrading unsupported devices.”

Even so, as I’ve suggested before, all such bypasses are intended for fairly green-fingered users. Everyday Windows users should upgrade to Windows 11 if they have an eligible PC or enrol in the ESU or buy a new PC if they don’t. It’s not certain that any bypass will secure a PC, given the tight linkage between Windows 11 software and the mandatory hardware, including the now infamous TPM 2.0.

FlyOOBE’s developer actually warns those using the tool will “likely (get) no automatic major version upgrades, future updates may fail if new hardware features are required, (and) Microsoft could block updates anytime.”

But worse, it now seems that an enterprising attacker is hijacking Windows 10 deadline concern amongst millions of users to push out a malware-laced download or one that could potentially open a backdoor onto your PC. Keep in mind, that sustem-level tools like this have unusually privileged access to your PC which can be used to do harm.

If you want to download FlyOOBE, make sure you go to the developer’s page.

Source

Samsung has officially announced that it's bringing its Internet browser app to Windows 11 (and Windows 10) PCs, and users in the United States or South Korea can be the first to try it by signing up for the Samsung Internet beta program.

For years, Galaxy phones have shipped with a default web browser simply dubbed "Internet," which over time has become somewhat of a hidden gem amongst Samsung phone users. It's a great browser, complete with extension support, dark mode, and cross device sync with your Samsung account.

It even recently gained some AI features such as the ability to summarize webpages, and more. It's very customizable too, letting you change the position of the address bar, tabs, and UI buttons. Now, the app is coming to Windows PCs, based on Chromium.

The new Samsung Internet browser for Windows PCs is a fully featured browsing experience, complete with tab and bookmark syncing, saved passwords, extension support, and even AI features. It features sign-in with Samsung, which will sync your data between Samsung Internet clients too.

Internet Explorer has already been deprecated on Windows 11, when you try to open it you get redirected to Edge, so the SmartScreen deprecation there doesn’t make much difference. However, IE Mode is still supported and designed for legacy enterprise compatibility; you’ll notice a difference here.

Microsoft pinned the removal on security modernization and the limited scope of IE Mode. It said that IE Mode is designed exclusively for enterprise-configured, trusted intranet sites, not for general internet browsing, so it makes less sense to maintain SmartScreen on it. There is also the matter of redundancy, since many enterprise administrators explicitly define the list of trusted sites for IE Mode, SmartScreen’s anti-phishing functionality becomes redundant.

Another benefit of retiring SmartScreen is the modernization that can take place. The SmartScreen infrastructure in IE depends on older binary components that can now be removed. Microsoft also mentioned that there is still some protection as files downloaded from IE or IE Mode are still protected by the Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) tags, which ensures SmartScreen in the Windows Shell scans them when they’re opened.

While SmartScreen is being deprecated, Windows 11 users still have system-level protection as well via Windows Defender and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, giving you comprehensive protection against system-level threats.

Given the deprecation, Microsoft has some recommendations for administrators. It strongly advises that IE Mode should never be used to browse untrusted sites on the public internet and admins should restrict its use via site lists that only include trust, internal enterprise applications. If you want to browse the public internet, Microsoft recommends using its newer Edge browser.

If admins encounter any issues following the update, SmartScreen can be manually disabled in IE Mode via Internet Options: Click Start, type internet options in the Search box and then click Internet Options. Go to the Security tab, select Trusted Sites, and then select Custom Level.Under Use Windows Defender SmartScreen, select Disable and then click OK.

To learn more about this change, check out Microsoft’s dedicated support page.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 6:31 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

As reported on and discovered by WindowsLatest. If you’ve ever hit update and shut down on your PC, walked away feeling productive, and then later found your system still sitting at the login screen like nothing happened, you’re not alone. It turns out this wasn’t user error or a misclick. It was a real Windows issue that has been lingering for years across both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

In the latest Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.7019, or 26100.7019 on 24H2 and newer updates, Microsoft has finally fixed it. For me, it goes all the way back to Windows 10, where I’d head out after hitting update and shut down, only to come home to a PC humming away hours later. It always left me questioning whether I pressed the wrong option.

Good news: we weren’t losing our minds. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and corrected it. From here on out, update and shut down should actually shut down, just like it always should have.

What caused the “Update and shut down” bug

As WindowsLatest haven't had confirmation on what was happening from Microsoft, they do have their own theory as to what could of happened.

Typically Windows updates normally happen in a couple of stages. First, the OS installs anything it can while you are still logged in. Then it needs to reboot into a special update mode to replace the files that Windows cannot touch while it is running. That is the phase where your screen shows progress messages and your PC feels briefly out of your hands.

Once that internal housekeeping finishes, Windows is supposed to act on whatever choice you made. If you selected update and shut down, it should close everything down and power off. Instead, Windows sometimes treated that request as a normal restart and brought you back to the login screen. For years, many people assumed they mis-clicked or imagined it, but it turns out the system simply was not holding onto the shutdown instruction correctly.

Microsoft has now corrected the behavior in the latest Windows 11 builds. The fix first appeared in the optional KB5067036 update for version 24H2 and 25H2, and it is included for everyone in the November Patch Tuesday release. After installing the update, update and shut down finally behaves like a true shutdown rather than a clever disguise for restart.

Here is the changelog:

[Lock screen]

• We have updated the widgets experience for your lock screen, replacing what was previously referred to as “Weather and more.” You can add, remove and rearrange lock screen widgets such as Weather, Watchlist, Sports and more. We also provide suggested widgets on the lock screen to help you discover more widgets. Any widget that supports the small sizing option can be added. To customize your lock screen widgets, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
  
  Note: We are beginning to roll these experiences out to Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet, as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.

[Widgets]

• Multiple dashboards in Widgets give you more space for your favorite widgets and keep you informed with a personalized feed.
• The new left-side navigation bar makes it easy to switch between dashboards and views like the Discover feed.
  
  Note: We are beginning to roll these experiences out to Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet, as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.

[Sharing]

Making sharing files in Windows easier

• Sharing files in Windows is getting a lot easier and quicker with our new drag tray feature. When you start dragging a local file with a mouse (or touch) from File Explorer or your desktop, a handy tray appears at the very top of your screen, allowing you to drop the file into one of the displayed apps or choose “More…” to open the Windows share window.
• New drag tray UI that appears at the top of your screen when dragging a local file from File Explorer or your desktop.

Here is what was fixed:

[General]

• Fixed an issue that was leading to Visio freezing when interacting with an IME.
• Fixed an issue in the latest Canary builds for Insiders with Arm64 PCs, leading to an error message when playing certain games, saying “The game has crashed with error code 0x0”.
• Fixed an issue where if you used your PC for a while without rebooting, explorer.exe might start crashing repeatedly.
• Fixed an issue where, after the latest updates, text might not render correctly when editing content within a multiline text box in certain apps.

Here is the list of known bugs:

[Start menu]

• Insiders with the new Start menu may experience it unexpectedly scrolling to the top.

[Power and Battery]

• We’re investigating reports that sleep and shutdown aren’t working correctly for some Insiders after the latest Canary builds.

You can find the announcement blog post here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 1:25 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Microsoft has released the first Windows 11 preview build that includes the company's new upcoming Copilot powered Taskbar search box, which replaces the traditional Windows Search interface with a floating Copilot interface that houses both search results and AI chatbot capabilities.

I've had some hands-on time with the new experience, and this early implementation offers some interesting changes that streamline the searching UI while also promoting more Copilot AI use, for better or worse. Let's get into it.

The first thing I noticed is a how the new UI feels quite polished in regard to interaction and animations. Clicking on the search box in the Taskbar dynamically shrinks it into an ellipsis animation, and a text box appears floating above the Taskbar where you can begin to type your search or chat query.

A Known Issue Rollback that was deployed for Windows 10 KB5066791 to address problems with the incorrect "End of support" message in Windows Update mentions Windows 11 version 26H1 in its code:

"SUPPORTED_Windows_11_0_26H1_Only" Windows 11, version 26H1"

So far, details about Windows 11 version 26H1 remain scarce. While there is now a confirmation in Microsoft's code, we do not know much about what the update will bring. Version 26H1 will be the first H1 update for Windows 11 (Windows 11 ditched H1 updates in favor of one release per year), but your PC will most likely not get it. The update is supposed to be an exclusive release for Snapdragon X2 devices, similar to how Microsoft initially launched Windows 11 version 24H2 on Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X processors.

Windows 11 version 26H1 is supposed to bring new AI-powered features and other changes for "regular" computers. However, those changes will only make their way to the stable Windows 11 release with version 26H2, which is expected in the second half of next year as a full OS update (versions 24H2 and 25H2 use the same codebase).

Microsoft recently announced that the Dev Channel of the Insider program will soon move to higher-number builds, and Insiders who do not want to risk using less stable software should consider downgrading to Beta while the window is open. It could be that Microsoft is getting ready to test 26H1 builds in the Dev Channel ahead of the 26H1 launch in the first half of 2026.

Via Deskmodder

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 4:13 am AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Starting off with Universal Print, Microsoft is making audit logs available in Purview Unified Audit Log from April 2026 in preview. It will track admin and user activities when it becomes generally available in July 2026.

Teams

Next, Microsoft is revamping the content sharing panel in Teams in January 2026, with the goal of modernizing activities such as screen sharing and making file sharing more "discoverable". In the same month, frontline workers will also be able to leverage an upgraded Teams mobile onboarding experience on BYOD hardware. Meanwhile, in December 2025, Town hall organizers will be able to simply restart an event in case of technical issues rather than scheduling an entirely new event.

Outlook

Switching gears to Outlook, the Android and iOS version will autonomously collapse multiple automatic replies, with the ability to manually expand them when needed from December 2025. In the same vein, Android customers will be able to preview PDFs within the Outlook app from this month.

Edge

Microsoft Edge is gaining some useful features too. From December 2025, Edge will prompt you before saving autofill suggestions, rather than doing so on its own accord. IT admins will also be pleased to know that they will be able to configure Edge for Business policies across macOS, Android, and iOS from the Edge management service from the start of the new year. They will also be able to configure inline data security controls and data loss prevention policies (DLP) for Edge for Business' interactions with unmanaged GenAI apps from December 2025, but a preview is landing this month.

Copilot

As expected, Microsoft has a lot of new capabilities planned for Microsoft 365 Copilot, some of the highlights are summarized below:

• Improved freshness in Copilot connectors
• Availability of AI Learning Agent (AILA)
• Discover popular graph connector prompts in Prompt Gallery for Copilot Chat
• IT admins will be able to manage filters in Copilot Search
• Copilot users will be empowered to build agents that are scoped to specific datasets
• Integration with Adobe Experience Manager Assets
• Revamped UX in Copilot Notebooks
• Utilize Hubspot Connector in Researcher agent
• Copilot conversations can be surfaced in search results
• Users can specify data source-specific filters in Copilot Search
• Copilot modifications will be highlighted on Pages by default
• Availability of Researcher with Computer Use
• A new floating Copilot button in OneDrive
• Updated Copilot UI in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, and Teams
• Admins can configure dedicated retention policies for Copilot and AI apps
• Ask Copilot about highlighted content
• Read Aloud in Word with Copilot
• Podcasts with real-time interaction in Word with Copilot

As can be seen above, Microsoft is preparing a massive feature-set for Copilot scheduled for availability within the next few months. That said, keep in mind that the Microsoft 365 Roadmap is a tentative plan that can change based on various factors, and some features might not arrive at all.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 4:12 am AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

With the driver, those jumping into Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on November 14 will be able to utilize the company's DLSS 4 upscaling and Multi Frame Generation technologies for better frame rates as well as Nvidia Reflex for reducing system latency. Meanwhile, Ubisoft's city builder and management game Anno 117 launches on November 13, and it will have support for DLSS to improve performance on PC as well.

On the same note, Paradox Interactive's latest grand strategy game, Europa Universalis V, is a part of the optimizations of the driver, just as the game releases today.

While it seems the focus has mostly been on supporting the new games, the company has fixed a couple issues with the 581.80 Game Ready driver:

• FIXED F1 25: Performance optimizations when using DLSS Frame Generation [5422722]
• FIXED Vulkan apps crash when launched on Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad CPUs [5509161]

Nvidia currently has two open issues that its driver teams are working on resolving:

• Counter-Strike 2: Text may appear slightly distorted when in-game resolution is lower than the native resolution of the display
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Light flickering after driver update on some system configurations

The Nvidia 581.80 driver is now available for download in the Nvidia app and GeForce Experience. For those that may want to download it directly, standalone links can be found here, and here are the official release notes (PDF).

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 4:10 am AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

What’s happened? Google is expanding Chrome’s enhanced autofill on desktop to cover more sensitive details. Chrome now saves and fills passports, driver’s license numbers, and vehicle information, and it handles complex web forms more reliably. The update starts rolling out today worldwide, in every language. It will also recognize common document fields across travel booking portals, insurance claims, and dealership sites, reducing the usual copy paste shuffle that slows you down during multi page forms.

•     According to Google, autofill covers passports, driver’s license numbers, and vehicle details like plates or VINs.
•     Saving is opt in, then encrypted after you grant permission.
•     Before anything appears, Chrome asks you to confirm the fill.

This is important because: Chrome is touching high-stakes fields, so privacy and control matter. The browser keeps sensitive items local, requires consent to store them, and adds a check before each fill. It also aims to cut errors on the web’s messiest forms.

•     Sensitive items are opt in and encrypted, and Chrome asks before it fills.
•     Improved format handling aims to boost accuracy on sites with unusual layouts.

Why should I care? If you book flights, renew registrations, or use government portals, this reduces retyping and mistakes. Your IDs and vehicle data stay local to the browser until you approve, which keeps surprises to a minimum.

•     Faster sign-ups and checkouts when sites request IDs or vehicle details.
•     A predictable approval step each time, so nothing fills without you.
•     Better field recognition should cut errors on nonstandard formats, from VIN boxes to passport date pickers.

Okay, so what’s next? Google says more data types are coming in the months ahead. For now, use it where it saves real time, and keep the confirmation step as your last mile of protection.

•     Expect coverage to expand beyond IDs and vehicle data.
•     On fussy forms, let Chrome try first, its upgraded parsing targets varied formats.

Source

TL;DR

•     Reddit is experiencing an outage, with many users unable to log in or access the service.
•     Reddit’s status page has confirmed the outage.

Reddit, one of the most popular online community platforms, is currently suffering from an outage. Users are complaining on X that Reddit is not working, as the website is not loading at all for many users. Reddit’s status page has confirmed that there are “increased error rates” when browsing the service.

DownDetector shows a huge spike in complaints for Reddit:

Reddit’s status page previously didn’t mention any issues, but has since been updated to show that the company is currently investigating issues:

We’re also seeing numerous user reports on X that Reddit is down. Even for me, Reddit doesn’t load at all.

There’s no word on how long this outage will last. We’ll update this article as soon as we learn more.

Source

“We are going to ensure that the date (month and year) remain present on update titles,” Microsoft confirmed in a statement. But it doesn’t appear that the company has any plans to bring back the labels like “cumulative update” or “cumulative preview update” unless there’s enough demand from IT admins.

“Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken”

Windows Update titles have always included a lot of information. For example, September 2025 Patch Tuesday shipped as “2025-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5065426).”

How updates were previously labelled on Windows Update page

Likewise, monthly optional updates also follow a similar name pattern with a clear label of “Cumulative Update Preview.” For example, Last to last month’s optional release was called “2025-09 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5065789) (26100.6725).”

Microsoft analysts found date prefixes an “unnecessary technical detail”

Up until now, there was nothing confusing about these update titles. But on October 28, when Microsoft released a new optional update (KB5067036), we noticed that it looked very odd when it showed up for download.

New Windows Update titles without month and year or cumulative update label and OS version number

Unlike the previous updates, it was simply labelled as “Preview Update (KB5062660) (26100.4770).” Not only is the term “cumulative update” missing, but we also don’t see the month and year. How do we know it’s a new update?

On October 30, Microsoft admitted that it dropped the “Cumulative Update” label, year and month, and OS version number because it wanted to “simplify” how Windows updates looked. Microsoft announced the following changes to the update titles:

“Each title now refers to the update by a more user-friendly name. It also includes just the most relevant identifiers…,” Microsoft noted. “What we omit are the unnecessary technical details like platform architecture or date prefixes.”

I understand platform architecture is not really required for Windows 11, which runs on x64 or arm64, but are data prefixes really “unnecessary technical details”?

Hundreds of IT administrators later called out Microsoft for unnecessarily changing the titles of Windows Updates.

“How did this make it all the way to be released and rolled out without realising that this is going to be a nightmare for all service desk and help desk calls in addition to all the IT admins,” one admin questioned Microsoft’s decision to remove year and month information in the update.

“Don’t understand how date is decreasing readability. Especially for the users. It is probably the only part of the title they can grasp. Not the KB or build number,” another admin wrote in a post.

Microsoft is adding back YYYY-MM to Windows Update titles

Microsoft previously told Windows Latest that it was actively listening to feedback, and today it confirmed that future Windows Update titles will have the year and month in the same format as it has previously done.

However, don’t expect Microsoft to add back the “cumulative update” label and the “OS version” number.

Source

As such, Windows 10 systems that have run the entire course of available cumulative updates now display a "Your version of Windows has reached the end of support" message on the Windows Update settings page.

Microsoft however has confirmed that users are also seeing this message on certain still-supported versions and editions of Windows 10. The tech giant has clarified that this is a false notification that is incorrectly being displayed on the following Windows 10 versions:

• Windows 10, version 22H2 Pro, Education or Enterprise editions that are correctly enrolled in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program and configured with an ESU product key
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021

As such, Microsoft has also provided a fix for the issue via a cloud configuration update it has pushed out. However it adds that to receive the update, a system must be connected to the internet, have downloads via the OneSettings CSP (Configuration Service Provider) policy enabled, allow firewall access, and not block dynamic updates.

The company is working on a permanent fix at the moment. In the meantime, a special group policy has also been published for installing and configuring a known issue rollback (KIR) that IT admins can deploy on affected systems that you can download at the link below:

• Download for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2 — KB5066791 251020_20401 Known Issue Rollback

Microsoft notes that admins will need to install and correctly configure the provided Group Policy to resolve the bug. This can be done by setting the "KB5066791 251020_20401 Known Issue Rollback" value to "Disabled". A system reboot after this will be required for the change to take effect.

You can find the issue here on Microsoft's official Windows Health dashboard website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 6:10 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

The Visio Data Visualizer add-in is getting the axe next month. It is primarily used by customers to convert spreadsheet content into Visio diagram, such as a flowchart. This was very beneficial to some users as the Visio diagram generation did not require the use of a Visio license. The add-in will be retired on December 8, 2025, and although the reasons for its deprecation are not explicitly stated, it's likely that Microsoft wants its Excel customers to just directly use Visio instead.

The Visio Data Visualizer add-in will continue to be accessible from AppSource and the Excel ribbon until December 8, 2025. After that, all templates will be removed from the add-in store and users will not be able to create new diagrams.

That said, customers will have the ability to back up their existing diagrams until March 2, 2026. Microsoft 365 subscribers are encouraged to save diagrams in .vsdx formats and then open them in Visio for the web. Meanwhile, if you're a non-commercial customer, you can convert the diagram in an image format and export it; follow the instructions detailed in Microsoft's blog post here. The Redmond firm has emphasized that even though data refresh capabilities and Visio diagrams embedded in Excel won't load after March 2, the underlying data will remain unaffected.

In terms of alternatives, Microsoft has encouraged customers to migrate to Visio Plan 2 and Visio desktop. Visio comes bundled in Microsoft 365 for commercial customers, but you can also purchase it separately through Plan 1 ($5/month) and Plan 2 ($15/month) - check out the differences here. You can also give the company feedback about Visio itself directly through the dedicated portal here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 6:09 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

To keep otherwise good computers working, some readers might have switched to Ubuntu, arguably the most popular Linux distribution in the world today. If that was you, you’ll be interested to hear that the next major version, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”, now has a release schedule and we know that April 23, 2026 is the date slated for the final release.

If you’re running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Ubuntu 25.10, you’ll receive the new LTS at different times, those on 25.10 should be able to upgrade right away, but those on 24.04 LTS will have to wait until the summer when 26.04.1 LTS is released - this is just so that more bugs can be worked out and your computing remains stable.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will receive five years of updates until 2031, bringing you into the next decade when we will surely have AGI, robots, and flying cars. If you need more support after that, you can get an extra five years, taking you to 2036, via Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) available via Ubuntu Pro.

The other big date in the release schedule that users will likely care about is that of the Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Release - this is slated for March 26, a little under a month before the final release. What you see then is more or less what the final release will look like. The month-long testing should put most things straight so that it’s relatively stable upon final launch.

Here is the full schedule:

• February 19, 2026: Feature Freeze
• March 12, 2026: User Interface Freeze
• March 19, 2026: Kernel Feature Freeze
• March 23, 2026: Beta Freeze
• March 26, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Release
• April 9, 2026: Kernel Freeze
• April 16, 2026: Final Freeze, Release Candidate
• April 23, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Final Release
• August 6, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS Release (enabling upgrade from 24.04 LTS)

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is expected to be packaged with new features including GNOME 50, a newer Linux kernel and graphics drivers, more Rust versions of core components, expanded TPM-backed encryption, and of course, new wallpapers.

Source: OMG! Ubuntu

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 6:09 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Last week, AMD released version 25.10.2 of its Adrenalin driver package for Radeon GPUs. It seemed like a relatively routine driver release with a typical list of bug fixes and game performance improvements, except for one accompanying announcement: AMD said at the time that it would be moving support for Radeon RX 5000-series and 6000-series GPUs (and their RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 architectures) to “maintenance mode.” That meant that a bunch of GPUs, including some dedicated graphics cards launched as recently as 2022, would no longer get fresh fixes and performance optimizations for newly launched games.

As reported by Tom’s Hardware, AMD released several clarifying statements to address the ensuing backlash, saying that these older GPUs would still get “new features, bug fixes, and game optimizations” based on “market needs.” That must not have quieted the complaints, because AMD then made an entirely separate post to confirm that the 25.10.2 driver release “is not the end of support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2,” and that integrated and dedicated GPUs based on these architectures would continue to receive “game support for new releases,” “stability and game optimizations,” and “security and bug fixes.”

AMD confirmed that these older GPU architectures had been moved to a separate driver path, but the company says this is meant to keep fixes and features intended for newer RDNA 3 and RDNA 4-based GPUs from inadvertently breaking things for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs.

“These [RX 5000 and RX 6000-series] products now benefit from a dedicated, stable driver branch, one built on years of tuning and optimization,” reads AMD’s post. “This approach helps deliver a smoother, more consistent experience for your games while insulating previous generation GPUs from rapid changes designed for newer architectures… By separating the code paths, our engineers can move faster with new features for RDNA 3 and RDNA 4, while keeping RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 stable and optimized for current and future games.”

The release notes for the 25.10.2 Adrenalin release also dropped Windows 10 from the list of “compatible operating systems,” listing only Windows 11 21H2 and later. But AMD confirmed to Windows Latest that the driver packages would still support Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. The company said that the OS is not listed in the release notes because Microsoft has technically ended support for Windows 10, but home users running Windows 10 on their PCs can get an extra year of security patches relatively easily. Microsoft will continue to provide support for the OS in businesses, schools, and other large organizations until at least 2028.

Why all the fuss?

It would look bad if AMD dropped or reduced support for those Radeon 5000- and 6000-series GPUs, given that Nvidia continues to support GeForce RTX 20- and 30-series graphics cards launched in the same 2019 to 2022 time window. But the end of support could have been even worse for gaming handhelds and lower-end PCs with integrated graphics.

The RDNA 2 architecture, in particular, has enjoyed a long and ongoing life as an integrated GPU, including for systems that are explicitly marketed and sold as gaming PCs. And because so many of AMD and Intel’s lower-end chips are just rebranded versions of older silicon, AMD continues to launch “new” products with RDNA 2 GPUs. The RDNA 2 architecture is the one Valve has used in the Steam Deck since 2022, for example, but Microsoft and Asus’ just-launched ROG Xbox Ally series also includes an RDNA 2 GPU in the entry-level model.

The last time AMD formally scaled back its GPU driver support was in 2023, when it moved drivers for its Polaris and Vega GPU architectures into a separate package that would only get occasional “critical updates.” At the time, AMD had launched its last dedicated Vega-based GPU just four years before, and many lower-end desktop and laptop processors still shipped with Vega-based integrated GPUs.

For the Steam Deck and other SteamOS and Linux systems, at least, it seems that things aren’t really changing, no matter what happens with the Windows drivers. Phoronix points out that the Linux driver package for AMD’s GPUs has always been maintained separately from the Windows drivers and that GPU architectures considerably older than RDNA 1 continue to get official support and occasional improvements.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 12:55 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

Apple has just released iOS 26.1, which includes a new transparency toggle for Liquid Glass. The toggle helps address some of the legibility issues introduced in iOS 26 by allowing iPhone users to tone down the glassy design for buttons, tabs, and other navigational elements.

As teased during the iOS 26.1 beta, with the toggle, users can switch between two Liquid Glass options. One is the current translucent design, while the other option provides a more frosted look that increases opacity and contrast.

 

The Liquid Glass menu in settings.

Here are Apple’s full patch notes for the iOS 26.1 update:

Liquid Glass setting gives you the option to choose between the default clear look or a new tinted look which increases opacity of the material in apps and notifications on the Lock Screen

 

Live Translation with AirPods support for Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean and Italian

 

Apple Music MiniPlayer swipe gesture to go to the next or previous track

 

Apple Music AutoMix support over AirPlay

 

Gain control is available for external USB microphones when recording with local capture

 

Local capture files can be saved to a specific location

 

Manual workout logging is available directly from the Fitness app

 

New Camera setting to turn on or off Lock Screen swipe to open Camera

 

Improved FaceTime audio quality in low-bandwidth conditions

 

Communication Safety and Web content filters to limit adult websites are enabled by default for existing child accounts for ages 13-17 (Age varies by country or region)

Apple has also released iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, watchOS 26.1, visionOS 26.1, and tvOS 26.1.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 12:52 pm AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix

While that is well and good, there are several quirks in the OS that are known to hurt performance. Microsoft also acknowledges that many of the visual effects on Windows 11 and 10 in their default ON state hurt performance. The company also explained how users will be able to disable them to get a boost.

Aside from that, there are other default Windows 11 features that can affect system performance, and those with lower spec or older devices are the ones impacted most by it as they take up precious CPU cycles and memory.

Security researcher and X user Enderman recently highlighted how the auto discovery feature on Windows 11, which is enabled by default, can massively slow down File Explorer performance in cases when a folder may have a huge number of files. That is because Windows has to crunch through a lot of data during that time while it goes through hundreds of files.

The researcher also shared how users who may not require this feature can disable it via a Registry tweak (regedit) by creating a new Registry entry (.reg file). It essentially requires making a new "FolderType" string value inside the Shell subkey.

On the same X thread, another user brought attention towards the Windows Start menu search feature which often tries to serve users online content from Bing as it barely even seems to try looking up the user query on the local device first.

Similar to auto-discovery, this annoying feature can also be turned off using a Registry mod.

If you wish to proceed with these tweaks, as always, be very careful when making Registry modifications as they can damage your Windows installation beyond repair if you are not careful or unsure of what you are doing. A good practice is to make sure to back up the Registry before making any changes.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 5:06 am AEST (my time).

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

RIP Matrix