Microsoft says that it wants to invest all its efforts in the more capable OneNote on Windows app, which is why it believes that it is time to end support for the legacy Windows 10 app as the operating system reaches end of life (EoL) on the same day too. After this deadline, OneNote for Windows 10 will become read-only, you won't be able to modify or sync content to the cloud, and any security patches or quality of life (QoL) updates won't make their way to the app.

Consumers have been encouraged to migrate to the newer OneNote on Windows app as soon as possible. First, they should sync all their notebooks by right-clicking each notebook and selecting the relevant option. Then, they should leverage the in-app migration banner that will take them to the OneNote on Windows listing in the Microsoft Store. This app should be downloaded and installed, and once you open it, login with your credentials to sync your content. Meanwhile, IT admins in the Education and Enterprise sectors have been asked to follow dedicated migration guides linked inline.

Microsoft has touted new features, faster sync, faster performance, and better security in OneNote on Windows. It has also teased Copilot-powered notes generation in the future as a way to entice customers to adopt its newer note-taking app. The Redmond tech firm has urged customers to initiate the migration as soon as possible to avoid potential disruptions down the line.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 1:34 pm AEST (my time).

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Starting with search, users with Copilot+ PCs can find files by simply describing them in simple words without knowing the exact file names. For example, you can ask Copilot to "find my CV," "find pictures with red cars," or "find that file with chicken tostada recipe." Not all users will be comfortable with giving Copilot access to files, so Microsoft allows adjusting permission for what Copilot can access, read, or retrieve in Settings > Permissions.

Next is a redesigned homepage. The new variant showcases your recent conversations with Copilot, apps, and files. This lets you quickly start a Vision session with one of your recent apps so that it can help you do something you are not familiar with. Also, you can click a recent file to upload it to Copilot and perform actions with it, such as summarize a document, identify an object in a photo, or just ask something about the file.

For now, file upload to Copilot supports the following file types: .png, .jpeg, .svg, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .csv, .json, and .txt. Incompatible apps will not appear in the recent files pane.

As for privacy, Microsoft adds that Copilot pulls your recent files from the standard "Recent" folder in Windows, which also lets you access recent files in apps like Word or Excel. The app does not upload your recent files to Microsoft, and all the processing happens on your device locally.

The new Copilot features are now rolling out to Windows Insiders in all channels. The rollout is gradual, which means these features may show up on your device a little later.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 1:32 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is readying its next big feature drop for Windows 11 users, which is expected to be made generally available in September. Thanks to the Windows Insider Program and the latest Release Preview build of Windows 11, we now have a pretty good idea as to what features will begin rolling out to users in the next handful of weeks, so let's dig in!

The next Windows 11 feature drop is expected to include a number of improvements to all parts of the system, including Copilot+ features like Recall and Click To Do, as well as non-Copilot+ features like the Taskbar, Windows Search, and the Lockscreen.

Let's start with the non-Copilot+ features first, as these will be available to all Windows 11 users. With the next feature drop, Microsoft is adding improvements to Windows Search that will better display photos in search results when you search for them. Now, images will show in a handy grid view.

Search will also now tell the user when files are still being indexed, giving you a heads up that results may not be entirely accurate while this process takes place.

However, this program is not just about new features. Insiders receive plenty of additional updates of various types, and for an unprepared user, things might look a bit overwhelming, especially if you like to keep an eye on everything that Windows Update does. To make the situation clearer, Microsoft has published a support document that explained what updates it rolls out to Windows Insiders.

Here is every update type that Microsoft ships:

• Feature updates: These updates bring new features and capabilities to the operating system. Examples of recently introduced new features include the reworked Start menu, Recall, and more. Besides new features, these updates could improve existing capabilities.
• Quality updates: These improve general stability and performance by fixing bugs, issues, and other problems.
• Driver updates: These updates ensure all parts of your computer work well with the latest Windows versions and get you the maximum performance possible. Driver updates include chipset, graphics, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, touchpad, and more.
• Security updates: These updates fix security vulnerabilities, making the operating system more resilient to hacker attacks, malware, and other kinds of digital nastiness.
• Servicing updates: These updates bring changes and improvements to the servicing stack, the backbone of Windows Update. The servicing stack manages how Windows installs and maintains its updates.

Speaking of updates and features, did you know that Microsoft recently launched a dedicated Windows Roadmap page where users can track everything that Microsoft is preparing and see the current rollout status? If you are interested, you can access the Windows Roadmap on the official website.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:49 am AEST (my time).

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This issue was first reported on Friday by a Japanese PC building enthusiast who saw drives with Phison NAND controllers disappearing from the OS during heavy write operations (like writing large files or many files at once) after installing the KB5063878 security update and the KB5062660 preview update.

While some of the impacted drives were restored after restarting the system, the rest remained inaccessible even after a reboot.

The user who first reported this bug also speculated that it could be caused by a drive cache issue resulting from a memory leak in the OS-buffered region.

"Our tests show that symptoms appear on SSDs with over 60% usage after approximately 50GB of continuous writing. Reports indicate similar symptoms on HDDs as well," they said.

"Our tests suggest that Phison NAND controllers are relatively prone to issues, with DRAM-less models from the same company tending to exhibit issues at lower write volumes."

Other reportedly affected users have encountered this issue on systems with SanDisk Extreme Pro, Corsair Force MP600, Maxio SSD, KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G4, KIOXIA M.2 SSD, and other drives with Phison PS5012-E12 and InnoGrit controllers.

Microsoft reportedly working on a fix

While Redmond has yet to officially acknowledge this issue, Phison confirmed in a statement shared with BleepingComputer that it's working with Microsoft to resolve the issue.

"Phison has recently been made aware of the industry-wide effects of the 'KB5063878' and 'KB5062660' updates on Windows 11 that potentially impacted several storage devices, including some supported by Phison," a spokesperson also told BleepingComputer.

"We understand the disruption this may have caused and promptly engaged industry stakeholders. [..] At this time, the controllers that may have been affected are under review and we are working with partners."

BleepingComputer has also reached out to Microsoft with questions about this issue, but a response was not immediately available.

Until this issue is officially confirmed and addressed, Windows users should avoid writing large files (tens of gigabytes) or multiple large files in quick succession, and instead write them in smaller batches over time.

Also, when extracting large compressed files with many items (e.g., 200 files of 200 MB each), do so in several steps rather than all at once.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:48 am AEST (my time).

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Starting with the UI, there is a revamped Welcome/What's New dialog that gives you direct access to the UI picker and appearance options. Over in Writer (LibreOffice's Word), a dialog now lets you copy the content of a field even from a read-only document.

There's also now support for exporting PDF 2.0, a feature that's unavailable in Office, which still sticks to older standards. This update also introduces "modern" AES-256 encryption, which is a requirement for the PDF 2.0 standard, and improves how it handles PDF signatures to make them compatible with Adobe Reader.

Writer also saw several rules related to hyphenation get a complete overhaul, like better handling of how words are split across pages to match documents created in recent versions of Microsoft Office. It includes a new option to move the last line of a page to the next one to avoid awkward word splits.

In Calc, the following functions were added:

• CHOOSECOLS
• CHOOSEROWS
• DROP
• EXPAND
• HSTACK
• TAKE
• TEXTAFTER
• TEXTBEFORE
• TEXTSPLIT
• TOCOL
• TOROW
• VSTACK
• WRAPCOLS
• WRAPROWS

Apart from the new functions, The Document Foundation says that Calc opens complex XLSX files up to 30% faster and that a bunch of other operations got quicker, including things like row height calculation when you switch sheets, spellchecking in spreadsheets with multiple languages, and even chart rendering.

In Impress, the team improved how the application can handle PPTX files as support for embedded fonts has been added. In addition to that, the team says it developed a better algorithm to figure out if a font is actually used and needs to be embedded when you export to Microsoft's format.

Other changes include dropping support for older operating systems; LibreOffice 25.8 will not run on Windows 7 or 8. It is also the final version that will support macOS 10.15, and 32-bit Windows builds are now officially on the way out.

For its vector graphics tool, Draw, page margin boundaries are now visible by default. The entire suite has improved its display of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean DOCX documents for better accuracy and can now import encrypted hybrid PDFs. A new application-wide "Viewer mode" lets you open all files in a read-only state, while OLE objects like charts can finally be resized proportionally.

You can learn more in the full changelog.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:44 am AEST (my time).

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Notion is a fairly popular all-in-one productivity app that enables users to take notes, manage projects, collaboration online, implement to-do lists, and more. The company even has a dedicated AI-powered email service called Notion Mail. However, a core feature missing in the Notion app itself was offline mode, which the firm has finally implemented now.

It is quite strange that an app which allows you to take notes does not work when you have no internet connectivity. This would seem like a very obvious capability to have as you document stuff on the fly, often with unstable internet. However, Notion was designed with a cloud-first approach that emphasizes collaboration, so it did not have an offline mode up until now.

In an X (formerly Twitter) thread, Notion CEO Ivan Zhao stated that offline mode had been the #1 request for five years, but since the app leverages a complex backend that synchronizes content across thousands of workspaces, this was not a simple ask. The executive explained that unlike Apple Notes, Notion does not store user data on device, and neither does it store it in a relatively simple "page" structure like Google Docs. Instead, Notion utilizes a "graph of interconnected data blocks".

This is exactly why it took the company so long to migrate 100 million users to a hybrid structure with zero downtime. It apparently tested thousands of features individually to see what broke offline and how it could patch it or degrade gracefully. This was an endeavor that involved all engineers at Notion and a migration effort that spanned months, but now it's finally here.

Notion's offline mode isn't perfect, though. Right now, the app will retain 50 rows per database by default when offline, but will incrementally improve upon this limit in future updates. It is also worth mentioning that your offline content should seamlessly merge into the online version with conflicts highlighted and resolved once you connect to the internet. You can find out more about how to leverage offline mode in Notion here.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:43 am AEST (my time).

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The company states that the error is caused by a recent change to Teams' sidebar, but has yet to disclose which regions are affected by this ongoing issue.

While Microsoft has yet to share more information on the extent of this issue, it has tagged it as an advisory, which typically indicates that the problem might be limited in scope or intermittent.

"Affected users see an error that 'We couldn't connect to this app.' when launching the Microsoft Teams desktop and web app. Your organization is impacted by this event, and the problem impacts users launching the Microsoft Teams desktop and web apps," the company says in a recent Microsoft 365 admin center service alert.

"A recent change, intended to improve the left sidebar in Microsoft Teams, enabled an unoptimized code flow that's causing an error to be generated when launching the Microsoft Teams desktop and web app.

Microsoft has already started rolling out a fix that has reached 25% of affected customers and is expected to address the impact for all impacted organizations by Thursday.

"Our fix has completed approximately 25 percent of the necessary deployment, and our updated timeline expects for it to have completed and for impact to be remediated by our next scheduled communication update," Redmond added.

The company provides a temporary workaround until the fix rolls out to all impacted users, advising them to bypass the error message and launch the Teams app by clicking the "Activity" or "Chat" buttons on the left side of the screen.

Redmond mitigated another outage in March that affected Teams users, impacting auto-attendant and call queues and triggering call failures.

Last week, it also revealed that it's enhancing protection against malicious URLs and dangerous file types in Teams chats and channels, a feature that will roll out worldwide next month.

Microsoft Teams is also getting an allow/block list to help security administrators block incoming communications from blocked domains, as a defense against social-engineering attacks targeting customers' employees via Teams chats, channels, meetings, and calls.

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Posted Wednesday 20 August 2025 at 5:25 am AEST (my time).

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With Link Previews, users can long-click or right-click a link to see what is there before opening it in a new tab. The browser can also summarize key points using AI with local processing (only on systems with certain languages and more than 3GB of available memory). Link Previews are rolling out gradually to all users.

Here is the changelog:

New features:

• For users in the United States, article recommendations on your New Tab page are now grouped into topic sections like Sports, Food, and Entertainment to make stories more organized and easier to scan. You can also follow topics you’re interested in and block ones you’d prefer not to see, giving you more control over what shows up when you open a new tab.
• You can now see what’s behind a link before visiting it with Link Previews. Long press a link (or right-click and choose Preview Link). Previews can optionally include AI-generated key points, which are processed on your device to protect your privacy.
• Link Previews is gradually rolling out to ensure performance and quality and is now available in en-US, en-CA, en-GB, en-AU for users with more than 3 GB of available RAM.
• On Windows, clicking a persistent notification when Firefox is closed or restarted will now properly open Firefox with the relevant webpage, instead of just opening the main page of the website.
• ETP Strict mode now supports a flexible exception list to fix broken site features caused by tracker blocking. Exceptions are split into baseline (core functionality) and convenience (extra features), letting users choose improved site compatibility without compromising key privacy protections.
• Keep an active tab visible in a collapsed tab group
• Focus on just one tab in a group without the clutter. Your active tab stays in view, keeping things tidy even with the group collapsed.
• You can now remove extensions from the sidebar by right-clicking the extension icon and selecting Remove from Sidebar.

Fixed:

• Improved the scroll speed in the bookmarks dialog to not go beyond the component area.
• Improved drag-and-drop support for blob images.

Other changes:

• Improved search results from browsing history via the address bar, reducing the likelihood of duplicate results being shown.
• Improved Netmonitor so that Request Headers/Cookies/Params are displayed in the Network panel even if the request isn't finished yet.

Firefox 142 also adds traditional security fixes, which you can check out here. Enterprise notes for Firefox 142 are available here. In addition to Firefox 142, Mozilla is rolling out upgrades for its translation service. It now supports three more languages: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. You can learn more about it here.

You can download the latest Firefox update by heading to Menu > Help > About Firefox. The browser is available for download from the official website, the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 and 11, and Neowin's Software page.

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Posted Wednesday 20 August 2025 at 5:23 am AEST (my time).

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The first thing you should know is that you can now add a visual signature to your PDF attachments opened directly within the application. The UI got several changes, like the addition of "Copy Message Link" and "Copy News Link" to the header pane's "More actions" menu.

Meanwhile, the older "Copy Message Location" option has been removed from the mail context menu. A new "Reset Folder Order" option has also been added to the folder pane to reset any custom folder sorting you might have done. Folder copy is now enabled within mail server accounts and local folders, a damn useful feature for backups and organization.

Moving on to the bug fixes 142 brings, the issue where right-clicking "List-ID" to unsubscribe has been fixed to prevent a double-encoded

draft subject. Notification sounds now respect your operating system's do-not-disturb mode.

Fastmail calendar support now works correctly again; this bug was caused by missing OAuth settings for the CalDAV protocol when Thunderbird 140 consolidated its authentication code. A reporter on Bugzilla actually diagnosed the problem and provided the exact configuration fix, which Mozilla then implemented. Other bug fixes include:

• Users with attachments open in tabs no longer see an error on restart.
• Non-English Thunderbird no longer creates English special folders on first start.
• Sending from a unified or local folder no longer fails if no default account is set.
• On Linux, the closed caption button is no longer inactive when the mouse is in the screen corner.
• Toggling dark message mode now correctly restores focus and scroll position.
• The message list no longer scrolls back to the top when returning to the mail tab.
• Deleting a single message in a folder using "Group by Sort" no longer fails after selecting all.
• New newsgroups are now added in alphabetical order by default.
• All newsgroup folders are no longer sorted alphabetically after updating.
• Clicking a "mailto:" link to send a signed message no longer fails when Thunderbird is closed.
• Thunderbird now displays contact photos in WebP format from CardDAV servers.
• Installations from the Microsoft Store now open correctly when clicking "mailto:" links.
• The application no longer experiences long load times and UI lag while messages download on initial launch.

In case you missed it, Mozilla is planning to expand Thunderbird into a wider platform, with services like Thundermail to provide email accounts, possibly under the @thundermail.com domain, and Appointment for scheduling meetings with others.

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Posted Wednesday 20 August 2025 at 5:20 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is arguably the world's most successful and profitable tech company, having recently unlocked $4 trillion in market capitalization ($3.84 trillion at the time of writing). This isn't just by sheer luck; hard work played an important role in the software giant's success.

But perhaps more interestingly, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates admitted that he wasn't always confident that the company would succeed. "I wouldn’t say that I felt comfortable that we were successful until about 1998 or so," added Gates. This was 11 years after Microsoft had gone public, raising over $61 million in a single day.

What's more, the company's success had already propelled the executive into somewhat of an overnight billionaire. Recently, Microsoft revealed that over 1.4 billion Windows devices are currently in use, not forgetting the broad adoption of its Microsoft 365 productivity tools (including Microsoft Office) across organizations.

While Microsoft has stuck to the same formula to maintain its success, CEO Satya Nadella seemingly indicated that it might be time to shake things up and embrace a new strategy amid the fast-approaching AI evolution.

The company hasn't been shy about doubling down on its generative AI efforts following its multibillion-dollar bet on OpenAI and even deeply integrating the next-gen capabilities across its tech stack.

In a recent memo addressed to Microsoft employees, Satya Nadella indicated that even Bill Gates' revolutionary vision, which predominantly helped build the tech company and contributed to its immense success, might be obsolete in the age of AI.

As you may know, the company has been hit by major layoffs recently, impacting over 9,000 workers. They came despite Microsoft sharing its impressive earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, 2025. The company's revenue reached $76.4 billion, which was up 18% year-over-year, with a net income of $27.2 billion (up 24%). The report attributed the impressive gains to its lucrative cloud and AI businesses.

On its Windows Release Health dashboard, Microsoft has indicated that after installing August Patch Tuesday updates rolled out on August 12, several client and server editions of Windows were experiencing error 0x8007007F when following certain upgrade paths. The affected upgrade paths in question are:

• Windows 10, version 1809 to Windows 11, versions 22H2
• Windows 10, version 1809 to Windows 11, versions 23H2
• Windows 10, version 21H2 to Windows 11, versions 22H2
• Windows 10, version 21H2 to Windows 11, versions 23H2
• Windows 10, version 22H2 to Windows 11, versions 22H2
• Windows 10, version 22H2 to Windows 11, versions 23H2
• Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022

As can be seen above, quite a few upgrade paths have been impacted by this bug. It typically happened when updating the operating system through the Windows Setup program.

It is also interesting to note that while Microsoft opened and closed the issue on the health dashboard on August 18, 2025, it says that the problem was patched on August 15, 2025. As such, users should no longer experience the problem and if they attempt the same upgrade path again, it should go through without a hitch. It's unclear why Microsoft didn't begin publicly tracking the issue on August 15.

It's worth highlighting too that Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 are completely unaffected by this problem; Microsoft says that the former in particular is its "most reliable" version of the client operating system after all.

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Posted Wednesday 20 August 2025 at 5:17 am AEST (my time).

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Here is the list of changes:

Gaming Technology

• Support for Global DLSS Overrides and NVIDIA Smooth Motion support for GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs

Fixed Gaming Bugs

• Cyberpunk 2077: Crash when using Photo Mode to take a screenshot with path tracing enabled
• Marvel Rivals: Negative performance impact when using the 580.88 driver
• Forza Motorsport: Game crashes if using Smooth Motion while bringing up NVIDIA App overlay statistics
• Gray Zone Warfare: Game stability issues
• ARK: Survival Ascended: Game stability issues

Fixed General Bugs

• Potential memory leak when using NVENC hardware encoding
• Power cycling monitor can result in monitor flickering when NVIDIA App is installed
• NVIDIA App game filter issues after driver update

Here is the list of known bugs:

• Counter-Strike 2: Text may appear slightly distorted when in-game resolution is lower than the native resolution of the display
• Adobe Premiere Pro: Some system configurations can freeze during export using hardware encoding
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Light flickering after driver update on some system configurations

Nvidia 581.08 WHQL is available on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 systems equipped with one of the following graphics cards:

You can download driver 581.08 WHQL from the official Nvidia website or the Nvidia app. Release notes are available here (PDF).

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Posted Wednesday 20 August 2025 at 5:14 am AEST (my time).

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In an update on its Windows Release Health dashboard, Microsoft has begun tracking a new problem where users have been reporting that reset and recovery options have broken on their Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs after installing August's Patch Tuesday updates.

If you attempt to reset or recover a device running an older (but still supported) version of Windows 10 or Windows 11, you might run into failures. This option can be triggered through various means including navigating to System >Recovery > Reset my PC, or System > Recovery > Fix problems using Windows Update, or even leveraging RemoteWipe CSP. All of these methods will fail on affected platforms.

Speaking of affected platforms, the following client versions of Windows are impacted, Windows Server is fortunately unaffected:

• Windows 11, version 23H2
• Windows 11, version 22H2
• Windows 10, version 22H2
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019

It is interesting to see that while lots of Windows versions are impacted, Windows 11, version 24H2 is seemingly not troubled by this. Microsoft markets it as the "most reliable" version of its operating system after all.

It seems that the impact of this bug is quite widespread as Microsoft is working on an emergency fix which will be rolled out as an out-of-band (OOB) update, meaning that we'll have it in our hands prior to the next Patch Tuesday on September 9, 2025.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 5:52 pm AEST (my time).

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Bases was first introduced back in version 1.9.0 in Early Access, but now everyone gets to use it. With it, you can transform a collection of notes into a structured database to do things like manage projects or track reading lists, all without your data ever leaving your local markdown files. This works by using your existing properties stored in YAML, along with a new .base file format and syntax.

The Footnotes view core plugin adds a convenient way to manage footnotes for a document, thanks to a new sidebar tab that prevents you from losing your place while writing.

With version 1.9.10, there are several improvements, like the focus now shifting to the export button in the "Export to PDF" dialog, and whitespace is now displayed correctly in Sync history view. The Markdown parser now renders tables and callouts more efficiently, which means that while large notes might take a moment longer to load initially, they will be very responsive afterward.

The link context menu gained handy "Copy path" and "Copy relative path" options. If you're on macOS and want to try Apple's new system-wide Writing Tools, this update adds support for them in the editor, but you must install the latest version from the website and enable the "Native menus" option in settings.

As for bug fixes, the team addressed an issue with page preview where clicking the fold icon would cause the preview to hide or switch to edit mode. The update also fixed inconsistent list numbering when editing inside callouts and improved sorting in the command palette.

Obsidian no longer supports the singular properties tag, alias, and cssclass. The team says you should use the plural versions: tags, aliases, and cssclasses. You must also make sure the values are formatted in a list (e.g., aliases: [Note A, Note B]). The "Format converter" plugin has a new function to help you automatically update your notes to the new format.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 5:50 pm AEST (my time).

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It's confession time. I've been procrastinating over upgrading to Windows 11 on my main PC, even though I fully intended to move to the newer operating system, away from Windows 10, this year. (Actually, the original plan was to switch early this year).

So yes - I've let things slide, at least when it comes to my main PC, anyway. In my defense, I did upgrade my secondary machine - a Microsoft Surface Pro laptop - to Windows 11. Technically, then, I have made the leap to Windows 11 - in a partial manner - and I've found the latest incarnation of Microsoft's desktop OS just fine on that 2-in-1. There are no complaints there (well, mostly, and I'll come back to the one niggle shortly).

And while I was fully planning to migrate to Windows 11 on my work computer (I call it that, but I game on this PC too) as mentioned, there are some good reasons why I've put that plan on ice - for now.

Yes, I've not changed my mind about upgrading to Windows 11, but only adjusted the timeframe involved, as Microsoft busily reminds all of us Windows 10 folks that we only have two months of support (and vital security updates) left (as Bleeping Computer noticed). This is the latest step in a campaign of nudges to get people shifted over - Microsoft has even sent out emails directly to Windows 10 users, urging upgrades to Windows 11 in the past.

So, what are my reasons for deciding against taking the plunge with the newer OS? Well, there are a few of them, so let's dive in and explore.

Freebie extension

The first reason - and my main one, really - is that a couple of months back, Microsoft switched tack and announced that there would be a free way to get extended updates for Windows 10.

In case you missed it entirely, the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program was originally revealed for consumers with a $30 price tag (or equivalent in your currency). Then late in June, Microsoft brought forth a freebie option - well, in terms of the cash cost anyway: the new choice was to get extended support for a year if you sync your PC settings to OneDrive.

As I've said before, I don't think this is too big a deal for most people. It's not like you have to sync and store your personal data with Microsoft's cloud storage, just your settings. In my case, I do this anyway, so there's literally no cost for me to get an extra year of support. So, when this spin on the ESU was announced, it immediately took all the heat out of my (delayed) quest to upgrade my main machine to Windows 11.

And since then, I've only been thinking about why there's no rush at all now. While I didn't want to fork out actual money to stay on Windows 10, now I don't have to - and with effectively free extended support, I have until October 2026 to shift over to Windows 11. And frankly, there aren't really any pressing reasons to upgrade anyway…

(Image credit: Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock)

Performance wrinkles

What's also become clearer to me as this year has progressed (with my upgrade heels dragging) is that Windows 11 is somewhat wonky in some elements of its performance. When using the operating system on my laptop, I've experienced sluggishness with File Explorer, which is pretty disappointing. This is likely the result of there being a lot of changes with work under the hood in Windows 11, and Microsoft has even admitted that the performance situation could be better - and it's working to improve this.

In fairness, on the whole, my experience with Windows 11 on my laptop - and my wife's PC, which also has the newer operating system - is that it's actually pretty snappy overall. Indeed, I'd say it's more responsive than Windows 10, but not by enough to have me rushing for that upgrade button.

Of course, performance levels on my other PCs don't guarantee that Windows 11 will feel just as snappy on my Windows 10 rig, either. That's the thing about upgrades: they can be unpredictable, and outcomes may vary on different hardware. And there are folks out there who are firing some considerable flak at Microsoft for Windows 11 being slower in general (not just File Explorer) - so that does leave a little room for doubt to creep in.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Bugs and stability

Then we come onto the bugs. The fact that Windows 11 24H2 has been very glitchy (and generally weird) in many respects doesn't instill confidence, and for me, this was also a major pause for thought (in the past, as well as now). Case in point: I've just written an article about a new reported bug in Windows 11, which is seemingly breaking SSDs, and while it's still to be confirmed, and we certainly shouldn't be jumping to conclusions that the most recent August update caused it, this appears to be the case.

Whether that's true or not, we shall see in time, but the fact is that it's still something for those running Windows 11 to worry about. (Think twice before embarking on any big installations, as I discussed this earlier.)

Which got me thinking: if I stay on Windows 10, as I'd already been leaning towards anyway, I'm going to receive nothing but plain security patches over the next year and a bit. Just fixes for vulnerabilities, and no tinkering with the operating system whatsoever - meaning less chance of breaking stuff.

The upshot is that Windows 10 is likely to run a lot more stably than Windows 11, which is going to be witnessing a steady stream of new features as this year turns into the next, and 2026 rolls onwards.

(Image credit: Shutterstock / lassedesignen)

Risk averse

I'm risk-averse in general – and particularly with computers – so it just makes sense to stick with Windows 10, and not twist to install Windows 11, for the time being. It won't cost me anything to do so, I know how Windows 10 performs – and it runs just fine for me, it's not sluggish at all, even if it may not be quite as snappy as my wife's desktop PC on Windows 11 – and I know it'll be more reliable in terms of what will happen with updates.

Don't get me wrong, though: I will be upgrading to Windows 11 next year. Indeed, I might make the leap straight away if a tempting new feature does arrive for Windows 11 (not that there's anything in particular on the horizon yet). But for now, I'll play it safe with Windows 10, as that just seems like the best course of action on balance.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 1:41 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is currently testing the COPILOT() function in Excel and it is pretty much identical to AI() in Sheets. The idea behind the latest function is the same: boost your workflows by prompting Excel in natural language. Just like AI(), COPILOT() also takes a prompt and an optional context to work; a sample command has also been attached below:

=COPILOT("Classify this feedback", D4:D18)

Microsoft has highlighted that since its new function is integrated with Excel's calculation engine, you do not need to manually refresh your workbook to apply changes to the AI-generated output each time your data updates. In addition, it can also work in tandem with other Excel functions like IF, SWITCH, and LAMBDA.

COPILOT()'s use-cases are quite similar to AI(), as you can leverage it for sentiment analysis / classification, summary generation, brainstorming, and creation of lists and tables that have been defined using natural language. Microsoft has also shared certain tips and tricks to refine your prompts, you can check those out here.

Since this is an initial launch and it is still being tested, Microsoft has outlined some limitations and potential areas for improvements too. Direct support for live web data and internal business documents isn't currently available, but will be added at a future date. Similarly, you can make 100 calls every 10 minutes, and up to 300 calls an hour, but this limit will be expanded eventually too. The firm is also working on better large language models (LLMs), improved large array support, enhanced user guidance, and more.

For now, the COPILOT() function is available for Beta Channel Insiders who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in Windows Version 2509 (Build 19212.20000) and Mac Version 16.101 (Build 25081334) or later.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 8:27 am AEST (my time).

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For starters, the Nvidia App is finally adding a global override for Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) features, which will apply the enhancements to compatible games in one fell swoop. Previously, gamers had to navigate to Graphics > Program Settings > Driver Settings to toggle this setting for each game, so the new process definitely saves a lot of time.

In the same vein, the Alt + Z app overlay will also show a DLSS View in Statistics > Statistics View > DLSS, where you'll be able to see and customize the status of your DLSS overrides. Once you configure it, you will be able to see the status in-game and toggle the view using the Alt + R shortcut.

Titles which don't support DLSS are not being left out in the cold either, as Nvidia is adding support for Smooth Motion to RTX 40 Series GPUs too. Previously, this feature was exclusive to RTX 50 Series GPUs, but now, if you have a lower-grade GPU with the new Nvidia App and Game Ready Driver updates, you should be able to find the toggle in the Driver Settings menu for compatible games.

In addition, Nvidia is bringing its Project G-Assist AI model to all RTX GPUs with 6GB of VRAM or above. It will also sport new capabilities and enchancements, including 40% less memory consumption and extensibility via plugins.

There are lots of other improvements in tow too, including a streamlined Nvidia Surround setup screen, legacy 3D settings for older titles, Advanced Optimus enhancements, and more. All of these features will be available in the latest Nvidia App beta launching on August 19, 9AM PT.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 8:25 am AEST (my time).

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WUSA is a built-in command-line tool that helps IT admins install and uninstall Microsoft Standalone Update (.msu) files through the Windows Update Agent API to deploy and remove patches, hotfixes, and updates.

This known issue affects Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 systems on enterprise networks, as WUSA isn't a common method for installing Windows updates on home devices.

"Windows updates installed using the Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA) might fail with error ERROR_BAD_PATHNAME, when the update is installed using WUSA or double-clicking a .msu file from a network share that contains multiple .msu files," Redmond said on the Windows release health dashboard.

"These issues might occur on devices that installed updates released May 28, 2025 (KB5058499) and later."

The company noted that this issue doesn't occur with a single .msu file or when files are stored locally. Additionally, another issue that should resolve on its own is that the Update History page may temporarily show that a restart is needed after installing an .msu file and restarting Windows.

Fix available via Known Issue Rollback

While a fix for this bug is not yet available, Microsoft is mitigating it automatically on home and non-managed business devices by rolling out a fix through Known Issue Rollback (KIR).

IT admins can also resolve the issue on managed devices by installing and configuring this Known Issue Rollback Group Policy on impacted Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2022 devices.

As a workaround, those who prefer to get the fix via a future Windows update can also save the .msu files locally and install the Windows update from that location.

In recent months, admins have experienced several other issues when trying to install Windows updates. For instance, in April, Microsoft resolved another issue preventing enterprise customers from installing the April 2025 security updates on Windows 11 22H2/23H2 systems via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

The company fixed an identical bug that caused the August 2025 Windows 11 24H2 cumulative update to fail with 0x80240069 errors when delivered via WSUS.

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Posted Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 3:07 am AEST (my time).

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Windows allows users to disable app updates from the settings. You could toggle the option off, and it would stop updating apps automatically. The only way to update apps is to trigger a manual download. This is how it works currently.

However, with the upcoming change, Microsoft Store will kill the option to disable auto updates. It will let you choose to pause app updates for 1 week, or up to 5 weeks. After this time has passed, the apps will be updated automatically to the latest version.

(Image courtesy: Deskmodder.de)

I don't see the new option in my Windows 11 virtual machine, or on another computer running Windows 10. So, it's rolling out slowly.

It is not possible to change the update behavior via the Windows Registry, but you can change a Group Policy to stop app updates. Tom's Hardware reports (via Deskmodder) that the change may have been done for security reasons. Older versions of apps that contain security vulnerabilities could be exploited by hackers to attack computers. Forcibly updating an app could protect users, but this may not be the right approach.

Why not just allow developers to warn users with an in-app banner or a pop-up warning, that informs users that the current version of the app is insecure, and offer an option to update it?

There are many reasons why one may not want automatic app updates. Maybe you want to use an older version of an app because a new one is buggy, or the latest version has an interface/redesign that you don't like, or it introduced ads, or removed features, or locked formerly free options behind a paywall, or maybe an app got sold and its trash now, etc. It's a personal choice, but that's the issue here, lack of control.

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Posted Monday 18 August 2025 at 6:42 pm AEST (my time).

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But this time, it may be gone for good. You may have read my review of the extension 6 years ago.

When I read about it on r/Firefox, I thought the delisting might have been exaggerated, because I still have Enhancer installed, and use the add-on on a daily basis, especially the volume booster option which is great for podcasts, and videos that have terrible closed captions.

But when I checked the Extensions and Themes page in my Firefox, I noticed that the links to the author's page on AMO, the add-on's home page, and rating are not displayed. Indeed, the add-on's URL no longer exists. This is Maxime RF's (the developer's) page on AMO, it appears blank.

Here's an Internet Archive link for the extension's page, the latest snapshot is from August 12, 2025. The add-on had the "Recommended by Mozilla" badge, which shows how popular it was. It had over 600,000 users.  The last version of Enhancer for YouTube was 2.0.130.1, which was released on November 24, 2024. And it's the one I have installed.

A quick check on the add-on's official web page says that "Distribution stopped for Firefox, GG Mozilla! Don't ask me why, ask Mozilla...".  It also says that the extension only works on Chrome and Edge, and that Firefox, Brave, Opera, etc., are unsupported. The developer's tone clearly suggests that Mozilla could be to blame for the issue.

Digging a little more, I stumbled onto this reddit post that had a screenshot with a statement from Maxime (from 5 months ago) that said version 3 of Enhancer will only be available for Firefox if Mozilla changes its review process, hinting that the procedure was a burden on developers. I checked when v3 of the add-on was released for Chrome, it seems to have been updated from version 2 to 3 sometime in December 2024 (according to the Internet Archive).

Two add-on developers, Juraj Mäsiar (Group Speed Dial), and Brawl (Reverse Image Search), chimed in on reddit, to point out that Mozilla's had recently changed the privacy policy for add-ons, more details available here. Essentially, add-ons need to display a data consent dialog, even if they don't collect any data.

But, Brawl mentioned that Reverse Image Search was hit by the policy despite the add-on not tracking users, and adding a data consent dialog. That extension was removed for almost 2 weeks, that could be very frustrating.

It is quite possible that such rejections by Mozilla's reviewers could have caused Maxime to remove Enhancer from the AMO. Mozilla once irked Raymond Hill, the creator of uBlock Origin, and the issue resulted in the developer removing uBlock Origin Lite from the AMO, and distributing it exclusively via GitHub. Things like this could be bad for both developers and users. It could even result in users switching to different browsers that support an add-on they like.

As for alternatives to Enhancer for YouTube for Firefox, there are some options that offer a similar experience, I like Improve YouTube which Martin reviewed (formerly called Improved YouTube).

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Posted Monday 18 August 2025 at 6:34 pm AEST (my time).

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The merge window is the time when the major new features get added to the kernel, this happens for two weeks following a stable release and is then followed by seven or eight release candidates which are designed to stabilize the kernel following the addition of the new features.

Most of the fixes in this update were made to drivers, specifically for block, GPU, networking, and sound, specifically there were some SCSI and Firewire fixes. The largest single chunk of changes in drivers was the removal of the drbd page pool code. Outside of drivers, changes were made to filesystems, including SMB, XFS, EROFS, and BTRFS, core networking, and architecture fixes for x86.

The shortlog included with Torvalds’ announcement lists fixes from numerous contributors including a use-after-free bug in habanalabs, fixing a race condition in mm (memory management) related to collapse, and a fix for SCSI sysfs attributes. Some notable changes include fixes for BTRFS iteration and subpage deadlocks, as well as XFS filesystem asserts. There’s also a fix for a potential deadlock in io_uring and several fixes for netfilter.

Despite his suspicions about next week, Linus Torvalds has expressed hope for a quiet next week too. He mentioned that he will be traveling again so the less issues there are, the better it is for him. We still have another two weeks left of August and people may still be vacationing so it’s certainly possible that Torvalds will get his wish.

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Posted Monday 18 August 2025 at 6:32 pm AEST (my time).

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The Windows 11 24H2 KB5063878 update has not exactly been flawless as it exhibited installation issues, throwing up a 0x80240069 error code. The company managed to resolve the issue later and has deployed a fix.

And it does not end there as apparently the update triggered storage failures that cause drives to disappear, making them and their corresponding SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) unreadable by the OS, according to a new report.

The issue purportedly surfaces during heavy write operations to certain NVMe SSDs as well as HDDs, especially when continuous sustained writes approach 50 GB on drives and exceed 60 per cent controller usage. This could potentially lead to a "high likelihood of file corruption when symptoms occurs" adds the report (Translated from Japanese by Grok AI).

The report speculates that this could be due to a malfunction in the drive cache subsystem. Symptoms are said to recur predictably after a system reboot, which temporarily restores drive visibility but does not address the underlying fault. Affected users are said to be consistently experiencing failure under similar workload patterns within minutes.

Further analysis has suggested that SSDs built on Phison NAND controllers especially DRAM-less models exhibit failures at lower write volumes. Reports suggest that select enterprise-grade HDDs also display comparable symptoms under intensive writes.

The issue definitely bears high similarity to the WD SN770 host memory buffer (HMB) flaw, and in this case, too, restricting or disabling HMB yields no improvement. A suspected memory leak in Windows’ OS-buffered cache region could be the problem.

If you recall, that is something Microsoft apparently fixed back in October 2024, but when we reported again in June 2025, it was still a problem as WD/SanDisk failed to appropriately inform users about the correct firmware patch which meant Windows 11 24H2 was still blocked.

We looked around and could not find other reports resembling such situations. The problem has been reported by a Japanese PC builder and enthusiast and some of the comments on the thread seem to indicate that others there may be experiencing similar issues. So it could be a region-specific thing too.

Source: @Necoru_cat (X)

Update, same day: It appears that the tester also uploaded detailed test result of all the drives they tested, 21 in total:

For reference,

• Good = no errors, NG Lv. 1,2 = Not Good level 1 & 2.
• NG Lv.1 = Drive inaccessible (recoverable by rebooting)
• NG Lv. 2 = Drive inaccessible (unrecoverable)

Source: @necorucat (X)

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Posted Monday 18 August 2025 at 3:10 am AEST (my time).

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Since the end of support for Windows 10 is fast approaching, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my experience with the operating system. Although Microsoft is pushing hard for everyone to switch to Windows 11, either by upgrading or changing devices, I think there are still good reasons many of us will want to hold on to Windows 10 for as long as we can.

For me, it's not only about hardware compatibility or customization. It's about the overall balance of performance, stability, and usability that this version delivers.

4 reasons I want to keep Windows 10 as long as possible

Here are the main reasons I want to keep using Windows 10 despite its upcoming retirement.

1. Hardware compatibility

Windows 10 runs on almost any hardware, even older ones. On the other hand, Windows 11 has strict requirements (TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, newer CPUs), so older but still functional computers can't upgrade without workarounds.

It's finally happening. After more than six years since it was last updated, Microsoft looks to be making new progress towards finishing dark mode on Windows 11. Ever since dark mode debuted on Windows in 2016, it's been embarrassingly incomplete with common UI interfaces still brightly colored when dark mode is enabled.

That looks to finally be changing, as the latest Windows 11 preview builds include an early glimpse at some newly themed dark interfaces in the File Explorer. First spotted by Phantomofearth on X, the latest builds include a hidden dark mode for the file copy window, file deletion prompt, and file permissions popup window.

As you can see in the screenshot below, we can see that when dark mode is now enabled, these UI surfaces are themed correctly. The window itself, as well as buttons are themed with a dark grey colorway to match to the rest of the File Explorer.