By switching to JScript9Legacy, Microsoft says that it aims to reduce vulnerabilities tied to legacy scripting like cross-site scripting (XSS), among others. XSS exploits allow cyber-attackers to attach malicious code onto legitimate websites and use them to execute the code when a potential victim loads such a website.

In the past, Windows has shown that it is vulnerable to scripting engine attacks. Even as recently as August of 2024, Microsoft issued patches for a remote code execution flaw under CVE-2024-38178. And the web is indeed a dangerous place, especially for novice Windows users.

The new JScript9Legacy engine enforces stricter execution policies and improved object handling, which should help mitigate XSS-like attacks. To put it simply, for enterprises and home users alike, this change should help protect against web-based threats that exploit outdated script engines.

If you recall, Microsoft made similar changes for Edge earlier with the default Enhanced Security mode.

For those who may not be familiar, JScript has powered Windows scripting since the late 1990s and first made its debut with Internet Explorer 3.0. Its compatibility with a broad range of web content made it widespread, but also leaves thousands of systems exposed to modern attack vectors.

According to Microsoft, the new engine replaces JScript.dll with JScript9Legacy.dll and the shift is designed to maintain backward compatibility for existing scripts while offering more robust security on the latest version of Windows. Microsoft notes that "no additional action is required from you to benefit from JScript9Legacy, nor will it impact existing workflows", and thus for most users, no further action is required.

You can find the announcement post here on Microsoft's Tech Community website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Among the fixes are proper camera activation when you’re using Google Meet, issues with dragging tabs, and mail display glitches. These minor updates mean you don’t have to suffer with annoying bugs until the next big update.

Probably the most notable issue was that the camera wouldn’t activate when trying to use Google Meet, a tool that’s crucial for some people’s remote work/meetings. The bug had something to do with permissions not being granted when it was trying to activate.

Another issue that has been resolved pertains to tab management. Vivaldi was suffering from an issue where tabs that were dragged to a new window were being duplicated. There was also an issue causing colors to go missing on new tabs in stacks. These fixes should help improve user workflow.

The mail client also received two fixes with this update, firstly, there was a persistent exclamation icon without visible errors showing, and secondly, users were running into unnecessary threading warnings. Both of these are sorted now, enhancing the experience of the integrated mail client.

Finally, there is a fix to the address bar which was moving when it shouldn’t have been when users were holding Ctrl and dragging. Issues with website scrolling have been fixed too. The scrolling fix in particular should make it better navigating the web.

The new update is now available for download and should apply automatically soon. If you want to update manually just go to the Vivaldi menu > Help > Check for Updates. If you’ve been affected by any of the bugs be sure to update promptly.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Over the past few years, job security has increasingly become a major concern among most professionals, especially as generative AI becomes more prevalent and gains broad adoption across the world. Of course, this is on top of the security and privacy-related issues.

Leaders in the industry have made bold statements, seemingly predicting the potentially negative impact of AI on jobs. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicted that coding might be dead in the water as a career with the prevalence of AI. He advised the next generation to chase down different career paths, including biology, manufacturing, education, or farming.

More recently, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claimed that AI has a high propensity to slash entry-level white-collar jobs by 50%, leaving Gen Z out of work. The statement has garnered a lot of attention, with executives like Huang dismissing the claim as fear-mongering.

It's apparent that AI is redefining the world, especially when it comes to work, by fully augmenting repetitive and redundant tasks. While this is a great productivity boost for most professions, which leaves them with more time to focus on more complex issues, it is also claiming jobs from some people.

Bill Gates claims programming is future-proofed in an AI-driven world

About a week ago, Microsoft acknowledged an issue in the June 2025 non-security preview update for Windows 11 (KB5060829), which resulted in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security logging an error event. That said, the company emphasized to customers that there is nothing to worry about as this particular log does not indicate any malfunction in Windows Firewall, and is just related to an upcoming feature that has not been fully developed yet. It informed IT admins that they don't need to take any action to resolve this issue and can either ignore it or filter it out from Event Viewer.

With the latest Patch Tuesday updates that became available for Windows 11, version 24H2 yesterday (KB5062553), Microsoft has confirmed that this Windows Firewall problem has now been fully resolved. The updated Windows Release Health dashboard entry does not reveal any other details, but it does urge customers to install the latest Patch Tuesday update in order to get rid of the faulty error log.

For those interested in the details, the error was being logged as Event 2042 each time the device was restarted. It was listed as Config Read Failed with an additional message noting that "More data is available". It wasn't a major concern for IT admins and customers since this faulty error event did not impact any of the operating system's operations or processes, but Microsoft first acknowledged this problem on July 2, so it's nice to see the company rolling out the patch in an efficient manner.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

In the announcement post, Microsoft says that Windows Hotpatching offers multiple benefits for Windows 11 users. For example, security updates are applied immediately, and there is no need to wait for everyone to restart their systems. This approach significantly reduces the vulnerability window and allows IT admins to ensure everyone has the latest security update. In addition, hotpatching minimizes the number of times users are required to restart their systems. As such, no downtime and more productivity.

Other benefits include the ability to deploy smaller updates at a higher speed and control everything within the organization with Microsoft Intune and Windows Autopatch. Microsoft says that since its launch in April 2025, millions of devices have received hotpatch updates, and the company received "overwhelmingly positive feedback" about this feature.

Microsoft releases hotpatch updates every month. However, the process is not 100% from restarts and interruptions. Every three months, the company pushes a baseline update, which requires a system restart. After that, users can enjoy two months of no forced updates. This month, users get a new baseline update, with August and September scheduled to receive no-restart hotpatch updates. Note, though, that some updates might be released that still require a restart.

You can learn more about Windows Hotpatch for Windows on ARM in a blog post on the official website. There, you will also find all the details about enrollment, useful resources, documentation, system requirements, and other prerequisites.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Excel currently has a Get Data option under the Data tab that allows customers to connect to external data sources such as files, databases, and cloud platforms and transform the data in Power Query. However, this drop-down menu for sources is not really intuitive and you need to figure out the nesting criteria to get to the sub-menu item that you actually need.

Microsoft realizes that this is a significant problem and is impacting workflows, and as such, it is now implementing a solution. The new mechanism features a revamped dialog box under Get Data (Preview). It offers popular and recommended data sources in the default view, but customers can also click the New button in the navigation pane on the left to view all available data sources.

Additionally, OneLake data artifacts on the Fabric platform can be accessed through the OneLake button in the same navigation panel. There is also a handy search bar functionality, which means that you don't need to scroll through a seemingly endless list of data sources to find what you actually need.

This is certainly a welcome change and makes the retrieval of data from external sources much more streamlined. The revamped dialog box is currently available to Beta Channel customers running Version 2505 (Build 18829.20000) or later in Excel for Windows. Microsoft has cautioned that the OneLake catalog currently supports Lakehouses and Warehouses, but other artifacts are coming soon too.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Here's what's new:

24H2

Highlights

• This update addresses security issues for your Windows operating system.

Improvements

This security update includes improvements that were a part of update KB5060829 (released June 26, 2025). The following summary outlines key issues addressed by the KB update after you install it. Also, included are available new features. The bold text within the brackets indicates the item or area of the change.

 

• [Graphics] Fixed: This issue occurs only if the June 2025 non-security update (KB5060829) is installed. Game content might become out of sync with the cursor position after using ALT+Tab to switch away and back from certain games running in full screen exclusive mode, when the game resolution doesn't match the desktop resolution.

• [Multimedia] Fixed: This update addresses an issue where notification sounds didn’t play. Affected sounds included those for on-screen alerts, volume adjustments, and sign-in.

• [Windows Firewall] Fixed: This update addresses an issue found in Event Viewer as Event 2042 for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. The event appears as "Config Read Failed" with the message "More data is available." For more information about this issue, see "Error events are logged for Windows Firewall" in the Windows Health Dashboard.

   

If you installed earlier updates, your device downloads and installs only the new updates contained in this package.

 

For more information about security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Security Update Guide website and the July 2025 Security Updates.

AI Components

This release updates the following AI components:

 

AI Component	Version
Image Search	1.2506.707.0
Content Extraction	1.2506.707.0
Semantic Analysis	1.2506.707.0

Windows 11 servicing stack update (KB5063666)- 26100.4651

This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates. To learn more about SSUs, see Simplifying on-premises deployment of servicing stack updates.

Known issues in this update

Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.

23H2 and 22H2

Highlights

• This update addresses security issues for your Windows operating system.

Improvements

Windows 11, version 23H2

Important: Use EKB KB5027397 to update to Windows 11, version 23H2.

 

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:

 

• This build includes all the improvements in Windows 11, version 22H2.

• There are no additional issues documented in this release.

Windows 11, version 22H2

This security update includes improvements that were part of update KB5060826 (released June 25, 2025). The following summary outlines key issues addressed by the KB after you install it. Also, included are available new features. The bold text within the brackets indicates the item or area of the change.

 

• [Graphics] Fixed: This update addresses a fix from a prior release that could cause black screen issues during display changes, like connecting or disconnecting a monitor.

   

If you installed earlier updates, your device downloads and installs only the new updates contained in this package.

 

For more information about security vulnerabilities, see the Security Update Guide and the July 2025 Security Update.

Windows 11 servicing stack update (KB5063707) - 22621.5619 and 22631.5619

This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates. To learn more about SSUs, see Simplifying on-premises deployment of servicing stack updates.

Known issues in this update

Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.

These updates will be available from Windows Update and should install automatically in most cases. If you would like to download these updates for offline installation, you can get them from the Microsoft Catalog website. You can find the update for 24H2 here, and 23H2 and 22H2 here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The new updates are being distributed under KB5062554, bumping up the builds to 19044.6093 and 19045.6093. You can find standalone links to download the new update on the Microsoft Update Catalog at this link.

The major highlight of the release is security patches. Microsoft writes:

• [Internal Windows OS] This update contains miscellaneous security improvements to internal Windows OS functionality. No specific issues are documented for this release.

This release has known issues with Noto fonts.

Some of the older Windows 10 versions have also received updates today, which have been listed below with their respective release notes (KB) linked as well as links to download them at Microsoft's Update Catalog:

It is noteworthy that Windows 10 20H2 and Windows 10 1909 reached the end of servicing. Non-LTSC editions of 21H2 have also reached the end of servicing.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

According to the official release notes, Microsoft Edge 138.0.3351.77 applies a temporary workaround for a bug causing audio issues when playing videos with the AAC codec on certain websites. To mitigate this issue, Microsoft had to revert one of the recent changes (not specified). The real root cause of the problem hides within outdated versions of the HLS.js, a JavaScript library that enables HTTP Live Streaming in web browsers. Microsoft says that the proper way to fix this issue is to update to a newer version of HLS.js.

Another change in the latest Microsoft Edge release is related to the Find on Page feature in Microsoft Edge for Business:

• Find on Page in Microsoft Edge for Business will soon be integrated with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Microsoft Edge for Business is introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to Find on Page (CTRL+F). This feature seeks to help users more easily find relevant content and save time.

Interestingly, Microsoft Edge 138.0.3351.77 does not contain any security fixes or additional patches. There is only one feature update and a single fix in this release.

In case you missed it, Microsoft recently revealed that WebUI 2.0 changes in the Edge browser enabled significant performance improvements. Now, the browser can render its settings in less than 300 ms, which is nearly instant for the human eye. Overall, Edge is now 40% faster than it was before. You can read more about those changes here. Full release notes for Edge 138, which was released by the end of June, can be found here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The difference, if you're wondering, is that the ESR version is built for stability, made for businesses and schools that can't have frequent changes. It receives security patches for a year, while the main version gets new features every four weeks. This yearly update schedule helps avoid breaking how things work in large offices.

As for what's new, Thunderbird 140 ESR packs in many of the changes from past monthly releases. A nice addition is better dark mode support, which now changes the look of messages on its own and gives you a quick toggle button. Notifications have been improved with new buttons to "Mark as Read", "Delete", and "Mark as Spam" right in the alert.

When it comes to folder management, you can finally sort folders manually and control threading or sorting globally from a new dedicated "Appearance" settings section. This section now combines appearance controls that were previously scattered in the General settings.

Here's the full list of what's new:

• Implemented enterprise policy to allow granular in-app notification control.
• New mail alert now includes message disposition buttons.
• Added 'Mark as Read' and 'Delete' actions to mail notifications.
• Added 'Mark as Spam' and 'Mark as Starred' actions to mail notifications.
• Support dark reader for the message pane.
• Messages are automatically adapted to dark mode with a quick toggle in the header.
• Message filters are now available in the Folder Pane context menu.
• Added horizontal threadpane scrolling (mail.threadpane.table.horizontal_scroll).
• Implemented customizable row count for Cards View in 'Appearance' settings.
• Implemented the ability to manually sort folders in the folder pane.
• New "Appearance" Settings UI to globally control message threading/sorting order.
• Added a checkbox to select/unselect all calendars in the calendar setup wizard.
• Account Hub enabled by default for second email setup.
• Add-ons: Added support for specifying a cookieStoreId when creating a space.
• Added Thunderbird-specific loading symbol.

The collection of bug fixes is huge. It tackles frustrating issues, like how deleting an attachment from a saved .eml file would only seem to work, failing in the background without any warning.

Deeper fixes include patching a race condition during folder compaction that could cause instability, and putting a stop to the strange bug that made empty emails dated 1970-01-01 appear in some POP3 inboxes. Feed subscriptions, which were completely broken, have also been repaired.

Of course, a release would not be complete without some security fixes. The update addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in Mozilla's high-impact security advisory MFSA 2025-54.

A key vulnerability patched is CVE-2025-6424, a use-after-free memory flaw with the potential to crash the application. Another fix specific to macOS closes a loophole where the application failed to trigger a safety warning when opening ".terminal" files, a mistake that could permit malicious code to execute.

Other fixes stop info from leaking and prevent websites from getting around security rules. Updating is definitely recommended.

Thunderbird 140 ESR is available for download on Windows 10/11, Windows 7/8.1, macOS, and Linux. You can also grab the regular release from our Software page. Full release notes for 140 ESR can be found here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Not a lot of processors have so many threads. Some AMD's Ryzen Threadripper CPUs have 32/64 cores and 64/128 threads. Intel Xeon has a few chips that meet the criteria, but they are not usually used on PCs. Anyway, if you have a high-end CPU, you can use 7-zip to compress zip/7z/xz archives and run the 7-Zip benchmark at faster speeds, especially on Windows.

The update also improves the bzip2 compression speed by 15 to 40%. 7-zip has also improved the speed of deflate for zip/gz compression by 1-3%. The utility now offers improved support for zip, cpio and fat archives. These improvements are rather minor, but performance improvements are always welcome.

One more thing that 7-Zip's release notes mentioned was that some bugs were fixed, along with some undisclosed security issues. No further details about the bugs have been provided. I would like to point out that due to its popularity, 7-zip was previously exploited by threat actors in a Mark-of-the-Web Bypass Vulnerability attack. This zero-day threat allowed remote attackers to bypass the protection mechanism on affected installations of 7-Zip. The issue, which was tracked under CVE-2025-0411 had affected 7-zip 24.08. Security researchers at Trend Micro had discovered the vulnerability and reported it to the app's developer, Igor Pavlov, and the issue was patched as part of the version 24.09 update in November 2024.

Considering that we do not know which security issues have been fixed in the latest version, and also the fact that the tool was previously targeted by hackers, I think it is a no-brainer to update to the new version as soon as possible to protect your files. You can download 7-Zip 25.00 for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official website.

Which file archiver do you use?

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Linux users have reason to celebrate. For a while, multitrack video output was something you could only get on other platforms, but now it has landed with full network optimizations and even support for stream delay. Linux screen capturing also gets a lift with explicit sync support for PipeWire, reducing latency and improving performance. Other new features include:

• Experimental support for Windows on Arm (WoA).
• The addition of preview zoom controls.
• GPU-powered conversion for color format, space, and range.
• AV1 B-frame support for AMD's AMF encoder.
• QVBR rate control for the VA-API encoder on Linux.
• Spatial AQ option for VideoToolbox encoders on macOS 15 and newer.
• V4L2 virtual camera support for BSD and other non-Linux systems.

On the visual side, the developers made some small UI changes to unify the look, adjusting the appearance of the Sources list and dock toolbars. You can now change the application's font size and UI density for a tighter or more spaced-out feel.

On the performance side, 31.1 now increases the maximum draw efficiency for previews. The "Missing Files" dialog also got an overhaul, now supporting deeper directory searches. For gamers, a long-awaited update to the game capture hook finally fixes issues with games like Valorant that use Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat.

The update tackles a bunch of crash-related issues, from a race condition that could cause back-to-back recordings to fail, to a simple freeze when cropping something too much. A lot of the fixes focus on the newer features, like one that stops multitrack video streams from cutting out after 48 hours.

There are plenty of platform-specific improvements too, including a fix for audio distortion in the Windows browser source, broken hotkeys on Linux, and messed-up FLV timestamps when b-frames are used.

You can download OBS Studio for your platform of choice including Linux (Ubuntu), macOS (Apple | Intel), and Windows (x64 | arm64). Full release notes and checksums can be found here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Here is the changelog for version 0.92.1:

• #40314 - File Explorer add-ons: Fixed bug where Preview didn't work with per-user installation
• #40392 - Command Palette: Fixed regression where the apps extension was missing all Win32 applications
• #40401 - Command Palette: Fixed regression where we reset the app state every time it was loaded

PowerToys 0.92.1 is now available for download from the Microsoft Store, GitHub, and Winget (run the "winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget" command). If you already have the app running on your PC, you can get it by launching PowerToys and clicking "Check for updates" on the main page of the dashboard. The latter, by the way, is getting a big redesign, albeit the exact release date currently remains unknown, so stay tuned for future PowerToys updates.

You can also check out the full release notes for the previous update here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language just got a little more… frosted. In the third iOS 26 developer beta, Apple dialed back the transparency of navigation bars, buttons, and tabs that once allowed you to clearly see the content beneath them.

Apple already toned down the glassiness of Liquid Glass after many users complained that it was too transparent and made it more difficult to see certain options, like the icons inside the Control Center. This most recent beta makes Liquid Glass elements even more solid, likely as a way to improve readability. Still, some users see the change as a reversal of the flashy, glass-like design that Apple showcased at WWDC.

 

 

The App Store in the iOS 26 beta 2 (top) vs. iOS 26 beta 3 (bottom)

“iOS 26 beta 3 completely nerfs Liquid Glass,” AppleTrack developer Sam Kohl says in a post on X. “It looks so much cheaper now and feels like Apple is backtracking on their original vision.” Others ask Apple to “stop ruining” Liquid Glass and call the new design a “step backwards.” Some users in the beta found that the transparency level can vary depending on the app they’re using.

 

 

The Weather app in the iOS 26 beta 2 (top) vs. iOS 26 beta 3 (bottom)

 

This is still just a developer beta, so it’s likely that Apple will continue to make tweaks before it releases iOS 26 to the public in September.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Instead of just getting a link you have to open in another tab, the recap email itself will now contain the meeting's summary and a list of "suggested next steps". This means you can get a quick overview of what happened and who is supposed to do what without ever leaving your inbox.

Google is also handing over more control to meeting organizers. Meeting hosts and co-hosts using a web browser can now select who receives these recap notes, with options for all invited guests, only invited guests within your organization, or just the hosts and co-hosts.

Google also says that this new sharing preference will persist for that meeting and any recurring meetings in the series.

This update has begun its journey to users, with Google calling it an "extended rollout", meaning it might take more than 15 days for the feature to appear for everyone.

If you're on Rapid Release, which is the track that gets your organization new features first, you will see the update ahead of those on the Scheduled Release track, though some patience might still be required.

The feature is available for certain Google Workspace subscribers, specifically those on Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, as well as, all users of Gemini Enterprise and the AI Meetings & Messaging add-ons.

In other Meet news, Google is making it easier to show physical stuff on a call. The company recently added an option to present directly from a camera feed, which sounds great for teachers with a document camera. The feature currently supports video up to 1080p at 30FPS, and began rollout last month.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

If you have not heard of it before, Parrot OS is a Linux distribution based on Debian that focuses on security and privacy. It is a full toolkit for penetration testers, digital forensics experts, and more.

The development team also updated a mountain of security tools. Major players like Metasploit jumped to version 6.4.71, PowerShell Empire hit 6.1.2, and the web application security proxy Caido is now at 0.48.1.

This release also brings an updated browser, Firefox 140 ESR, complete with Parrot's own privacy enhancements. The team had to wrestle with this update, as Firefox changed how it loads configurations.

They put a clever fix in place to automatically restore their custom privacy settings after any Firefox update, so its telemetry does not phone home. Plus, a bunch of Microsoft's developer tools, like PowerShell 7.5 and .NET SDKs, are now directly installable from Parrot's repositories.

A few new launchers were added to the menu, and Rocket, the communication platform has finally been added to the official repos. To install it on your system, you just run this:

sudo apt install rocket

Getting the new version is straightforward. If you are already running Parrot, to upgrade, you simply need to open a terminal and run a single command.

sudo parrot-upgrade

# or
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

There are updates to many system packages like curl (now 8.14.1), the Go language toolchain golang-go (2:1.23), and systemd (up to 254.26). The included Chromium browser also made a leap to version 138.0.7204.92.

The team says it's quite likely that 6.4 will be the last release in the 6.x branch before they roll out version 7.

The next major version is already in development and will be built on top of the upcoming Debian 13, with plans to introduce support for different desktop environments and even RISC-V architecture.

Full release notes are available here, and you can install Parrot OS from here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Microsoft is working on several key upgrades for the lock screen on Windows 11, many of which will debut over the summer. It's been a long time since Microsoft touched the lock screen with any meaningful changes or updates, which is why it's a surprise to see so many new features for it coming soon.

First up, Microsoft is finally going to let you customize the widgets that appear on the lock screen. Up until now, the widgets that appear there have been fixed, with the only configurable option being to enable or disable them. But soon, you'll be able to move, add, and remove individual widgets, including custom and third-party ones.

This feature is actually already rolling out for users in the EU, but isn't currently available globally. Microsoft does intend to roll it out to the rest of the world over the summer, and so soon everyone will be able to customize the widgets that appear on the lock screen.

The new customizable widgets feature will let you arrange your widgets in which ever order you like and add new ones that previously weren't available on the lock screen. For example, I've added Phone Link to the lock screen, which displays my current phone status such as connectivity, battery level, and missed notifications.

On July 8, 2025, Microsoft begins the rollout of the July 2025 Security Update for Windows 11, and in addition to the typical fixes and improvements, this update also packs some new features and visual changes.

In this mini-feature update, there are at least seven new changes, including the ability to use small icons in the Taskbar, an image compression option when using the Share interface, and the language settings now show region details.

Copilot+ PCs are also getting new AI actions in Click to Do. For users in Europe, they can now easily set a default browser, and Windows Narrator is gaining a new Screen Curtain feature to enhance privacy.

Finally, Microsoft is also updating the Windows Backup app with a new option to transfer your files and settings to a new computer. However, the company is only teasing because the feature won't be fully functional until later in the year.

Windows 11 new features arriving in July 2025

The changes outlined in this guide are designed for Windows 11 version 24H2.

As usual, Microsoft will roll out these new features and visual changes gradually, meaning they won't be available to everyone immediately. Additionally, some improvements require specific hardware, while others are only available in certain markets.

1. Smaller icons in the Taskbar

In a newly published blog post, Microsoft described the latest changes under the hood of its browser. Thanks to its dev efforts, the company managed to achieve a major milestone of reducing first contentful paint load time below 300 ms (FCP measures how quickly UI parts visually load). Microsoft claims that waiting times over 300 or 400 ms significantly impact user satisfaction, and reducing them below 300 ms ensures things appear nearly instantly, making the browser up to modern web standards and stand out among competitors.

Since the last update in February 2025, Microsoft has managed to reduce loading times by 40% on average across 13 different browser features, such as settings, Read Aloud, Split Screen, and Workspaces. The company also published a small video showcasing the benefits of using WebUI 2.0 in the browser's settings:

The migration to WebUI 2.0 is ongoing, which means plenty of other parts of the browser are waiting for the update. In the coming months, Microsoft promises to move more elements of the Edge browser to WebUI 2.0, including Print Preview, Extensions, and other commonly used bits.

It is great to see Microsoft focusing on important areas of its browser and making important improvements in the areas that matter, not only annoying users with ads, pop-ups, and all sorts of roadblocks to prevent them from downloading Chrome (some users are seeing fewer of them). Recently, Microsoft removed a lot of bloat from Edge to streamline the experience, and with the latest performance upgrades, the browser works much better than before.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

According to Microsoft, a clean-installed Windows 11 PC can boost performance in a rather unconventional way thanks to its Smart App Control (SAC) feature.

Meanwhile, users often wonder if a reinstall or reset of Windows could help them gain performance. The idea is that the bloat and junk that accumulates over time may be holding back the hardware resources. As such, to see if a clean PC would be better compared to a 'dirty' one, tech news site PCWorld tested the performance across some games and other applications.

On the non-gaming tests, we have Photoshop first across a 9950X3D (16-core) and 9800X3D (8-core), and the results are interesting. The Clean 9950X3D system was faster, while the Dirty 9800X3D fared better. Overall, though, one could say the scores were within margins of error.

Up next, a couple of rendering benchmarks were presented, first, the synthetic Cinebench 2024, and then followed by the real-world Blender.

The clean systems did better on both Cinebench and Blender, which shows that perhaps when all cores and threads are at play, a reinstalled, fresh PC could be a better choice. However, keep in mind that even the biggest victories seen aren't something you will likely notice unless you are paying attention.

Up next, in games, the clean and dirty systems swapped positions in the case of Cyberpunk 2077, similar to what we saw in Photoshop above.

In F1 2024, the gaps were more pronounced with the 1% lows and even the average FPS showing higher differences.

Finally, in Fortnite, the clean PC exhibited significantly better 1% low framerates in the case of the 9950X3D.

Keep in mind, though, that Windows is known to be inconsistent when it comes to performance, and even run-to-run variances can be unexpectedly wider on occasions, which makes it difficult to conclude definitively in the case of such testing. Also, the 'dirty' PC that was measured here is a year old, so it is possible that we could be seeing bigger differentials had it been an even older system.

Source and images: PCWorld

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The GNOME Session on X.Org is now disabled by default in key components like GDM and gnome-session. To be clear, your old X11 applications are not suddenly going to break; the XWayland compatibility layer is sticking around.

The reasoning behind the removal, according to the distro's developers, is that GNOME on X11 has become a maintenance burden and receives little testing compared to its Wayland counterpart. This whole removal of X11 is slated for completion in GNOME 50.

Older applications are being replaced with more modern, GTK4-based alternatives. For example, the Totem video player is officially being replaced by Showtime, a change we reported on back in May. Showtime has now joined the core app collection after graduating from the GNOME Incubator program.

There are other replacements like Papers taking over for the Evince document viewer, and a new Manuals app for Devhelp. You'll see plenty of refinement when it comes to the applications the distro ships with. GNOME's web browser, Epiphany, got a major redesign for its address bar.

The humble GNOME Calculator, of all things, received a significant upgrade; it now handles permutations and combinations, and even finds the greatest common divisor. Nautilus, the file manager, now uses transparency to show hidden files. For the developers out there, GNOME Builder now has support for Arduino projects.

Under the hood, Mutter, the window manager, has gotten some updates to make logical monitors more persistent and to apply touchpad acceleration on startup correctly.

The new, Rust-based image loader called Glycin is now the default on Linux, handling a massive list of formats for saving and encoding, from JPEGs to WebP. This also contributes to better memory safety and sandboxing. A Mutter SDK has also been introduced, which should make life easier for devs building tools on top of it.

If you're interested, you can grab the installation images from the GNOME OS project page to test it out yourself. The full list of changes is available here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Microsoft has always maintained that the system requirements of Windows 11 like TPM 2.0 are designed to give the OS better security by default than Windows 10. It recently published an explainer describing how that is.

For those wondering how it works, vTPM enables security features like BitLocker and Secure Boot within virtual machines. However, Hyper-V binds each vTPM instance to two self-signed certificates on the local host. Without a proper certificate transfer, Microsoft warns that live migrations and manual exports of vTPM-enabled VMs can fail and this can be a major issue since it will leave organizations unable to relocate protected workloads.

Microsoft notes that Hyper-V hosts automatically generate two self-signed certificates, an encryption certificate and a signing certificate, for each vTPM-enabled Generation 2 VM, and store them in the “Shielded VM Local Certificates” store under Certificates (Local Computer) > Personal in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). They are:

• Shielded VM Encryption Certificate (UntrustedGuardian)(ComputerName)
• Shielded VM Signing Certificate (UntrustedGuardian)(ComputerName)

Both the encryption and signing certificates default to a 10-year validity period.

To migrate properly, Microsoft notes that admins must export both certificates with their private keys as a PFX (Personal Information Exchange) file and import them into the same store on target hosts, thus marking them as trusted.

The company has laid out detailed steps for exporting, importing and updating (in the case of expiration of the certificates), and has also provided PowerShell commands for the same. You can find the blog post in full detail here on Microsoft's Tech Community website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Notepad now lets you use markdown text formatting on Windows 11, which means you can write in Notepad just like you could in WordPad.

The new formatting feature is turned on by default, and you just need to select one of the options in the new formatting toolbar.

For example, when you highlight one of the lines in Notepad and choose your preferred heading, Notepad will instantly apply that formatting.

You can use a heading, a subheading, or a body tag. That's up to you. You can also use bullet points, including numbered bullet points.

You can keep using formatting as you type or switch to syntax-based formatting, where you can use "###" to turn a specific line into a heading.

Notepad's lightweight text formatting also supports bold and italic styling, and hyperlinks.

While it's lightweight, and I can confirm Notepad doesn't use excessive CPU or memory at any point when formatting, you can always clear all formatting or turn off the feature from Settings.

Notepad's markdown is a great example of how Microsoft can add new features without annoying existing customers who love the app for its simplicity.

If you hate the idea, just open Notepad Settings and turn off the Formatting options.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

As such upcoming Windows 11 version 25H2 features will now be available for testing and one of those happens to be a new Group policy addition that will allow users to remove several default Microsoft Store apps that come bundled with the OS.

Some of these applications are often regarded as "bloatware" by users and that is why they often opt for bloatware-removal third-party tools and why users long for a bloat-free Windows; perhaps Windows 11 25H2 will be it?

Previously, users could uninstall such apps by using PowerShell or other CLI tools but adding it to the Group Policy and making it simpler to do via a GUI is a nice touch.

The new Group Policy setting is called "Remove default Microsoft Store packages from the system" and it allows users to select or deselect certain apps from the list of available ones to uninstall from your setup.

The description of this new setting says

If you enable this policy, the selected Microsoft Store apps in the provided list will be uninstalled from the system. You can make adjustment to the default settings.

 

Unselected apps in the list will not be removed.

 

Default is 'disabled'.

 

If the policy is disabled or not configured, no Microsoft default Store packages will be removed from the system.

Thus it looks like users and admins alike will be able to uninstall the apps they don't want on their system, although by default, no inbox apps will be removed. The list of apps includes Clipchamp, Windows Media Player, Terminal, Notepad, and more, as you can see in the image below:

Upon the enablement of default app removal via the new Policy setting, the following Registry key is created: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\RemoveDefaultMicrosoftStorePackages and each of the subkeys is for the corresponding Microsoft app. However, this also means that Windows Home edition users won't have this as Group Policy editor is only available on Pro.

Via: Patch My PC

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

With support for Windows 10 winding down, I was just looking at how my experience would differ as I consider an upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Some of you might recall that right now, I am using Windows 11 on my work PC while Windows 10 serves as the daily driver on my personal PC. In the same piece, I emphasized how, despite the passage of four years, Microsoft hasn't been able to convince me to use Windows 11 as my sole daily driver.

In the same vein, as I used both my laptops over the weekend, I realized that Windows 10 is actually far inferior compared to Windows 11 in one particular area that I use heavily. That is, the Snipping Tool / Snip & Sketch experience.

Windows 10 has a fairly muddy experience when it comes to taking screenshots. This is because it offers two apps for the same purpose in the default installation of the operating system. You have the legacy Snipping Tool software, which provides a relatively basic UX for taking screenshots and editing them. I find it good but fairly simplistic in terms of capabilities, as it does not have advanced editing options.

Then you have the relatively modern experience in the form of Snip & Sketch, a Microsoft Store app that is actually a rebrand of the Screen Sketch experience that was first introduced back in June 2018 through Windows 10 Insider Preview build 17704. This app has longer delays of up to 10 seconds in screen captures and more editing options. I am not a fan of the blank canvas UI that you get when you open the app and have yet to take a screenshot, but I appreciate the additional functionality.

Finally, we have the Snipping Tool experience in Windows 11, which builds upon the foundations of Snip & Sketch, and is my preferred piece of software. For starters, it adds another 5-second delay step for screenshots, in addition to 3 seconds and 10 seconds. This is a sweet spot for me as it offers just the right amount of delay in most of my workflows. It also has screen recording capabilities, which are completely absent in the Windows 10 version.

But perhaps my favorite feature in Snipping Tool on Windows 11 is the ability to add shapes to my screenshots. As someone working professionally in the tech space, not a day goes by that I don't have to take a screenshot and then emphasize certain sub-areas of the capture through rectangles, circles, or arrows. I do this when writing technical guides, capturing instances of data errors, and sending content to colleagues for further discussions on bugs. This is something I sorely miss when I am using Windows 10 in a personal capacity, where I still need these shapes when writing news articles on Neowin or just conversing with friends using screen-grabs as a reference.

The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 has other useful features that are absent on Windows 10, too. These include text actions such as automatically detecting text in images for copying as free-form text or a data table, as well as the ability to automatically redact phone numbers and email addresses in one fell swoop. There is also a quick navigation button for Edit in Paint, but that's not something I use heavily. Microsoft isn't just resting there with regards to the Snipping Tool in Windows 11 either. The company is also testing screen-recording as GIFs as a capability in the software right now. Snipping Tool in Windows 11 isn't perfect, but it's a superior experience to Windows 10, in my view.

And all of this makes me a bit sad that we likely aren't getting the same features in the Windows 10 snipping experience. Well, there's no technical limitation as to why Microsoft can't backport these enhancements to Windows 10, but there's probably no motivation to do so considering that the operating system is reaching the end of its life (EoL). If anything, this probably serves as a decent differentiator between Windows 10 and Windows 11. Perhaps Snipping Tool is what will finally get me to update to Microsoft's latest OS.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend