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Everything from Cortana to WordPad is on the chopping block after a year of feature deprecation.
2023 was a busy year for Microsoft and Windows 11, and not just because of AI. The company spent a lot of time deprecating a number of features that have been part of Windows for many years. What is feature deprecation you ask? It's the process of slowing killing off, and eventually removing, a feature or component from the Windows OS that will no longer be updated.

Microsoft has released its Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 (KB5033375). It's the same KB update for both versions of Windows but depending on which version you have, you'll land on a different Build number, 22621.2861 and 22631.2861, for 22H2 and 23H2 respectively.

It's the second Tuesday of the month, which means it's Patch Tuesday time again. As such, today Microsoft is rolling out the monthly security update (also called "B release") for December 2023 on Windows Server 20H2, and Windows 10 for the latest supported versions, 20H2, 21H2, and 22H2.

Do you need to take a screenshot on Windows 11? Here are the best methods you can use.

On Windows 11, you can take screenshots from any window, web page, or the entire screen, and in this guide, I will show you the best ways to complete this task. 
 
In the digital age, screenshots have become essential for communication and documentation, whether you need to capture a funny meme, a winning game score, or a vital piece of information. 

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Killers of the Flower Moon' tops the chart, followed by 'Oppenheimer'. ‘'The Creator' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

Sayan Sen contributed to this feature, and also provided the benchmark graphics.
 
As you may be aware, we have been benchmarking different scenarios with the Intel Core i9-14900K sent to us. It provides an ultra-modern test bed to test Microsoft's flagship Windows 11 OS, but also against the older, but more trusted, Windows 10 counterpart.
 
However, today's benchmarks pitches Windows 11 against itself! To put it plainly, which is better, Windows 11 22H2, or the newest 23H2 with Copilot and all the changes that it brought with it?

If you don't like an app on Windows 11, I have an alternative suggestion for you.

Windows 11 has a suite of default apps, but venturing beyond them can unlock a world of enhanced functionality, customization, and personalized experiences. 

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at big new features coming to Windows in 2024, GTA VI trailer, new Windows preview builds, news-less Windows widgets, antivirus tests, app updates, and more.

From the ashes of No Man's Sky, Hello Games emerges stronger, wiser, and ready to ignite the gaming world once again but for the right reasons

Announced at The Game Awards 2023, 'Light No Fire' is a fantasy game from Hello Games, the developers of No Man's Sky—a title with a tumultuous history. Light No Fire has a Steam page confirming its arrival on PC, but it's fair to assume it'll hit Xbox Series X|S as well down the line similarly to its predecessor.
 
Over the past five years, Hello Games has been creating this new adventure, described by founder Sean Murray as "something very different, something more ambitious."

Terminal addicts, throw your thoughts in the ring, it might make your life better.

Microsoft has opened a thread on GitHub exploring the possibility of adding a default CLI (command line interface) text editor into Windows. 

By Susan Bradley
 
The upcoming December updates will begin Microsoft’s process of dribbling out Windows Copilot.
 
No question here — I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

Upgrade the tool that you can use to upgrade everything else.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Oppenheimer' tops the chart, followed by Freelance'. ‘'The Creator' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

This weekend we published a feature looking at the performance improvements, or regressions, one can expect if they were to move from a clean-installed Windows 10 22H2 system to a clean-installed Windows 11 23H2 PC (similar to the one where we upgraded to Windows 11 22H2). What we generally noticed was that the differentials were typically within the margin of error or in the imperceptible zone, though there were situations where one was quite a beat ahead of the other.

You can finally turn off news in Windows Widgets in Windows 11. Earlier this year, the company promised to deliver the much-requested feature, and now every Windows 11 user, not only Windows Insiders, can clean the widgets board and make it work as it should have from the very beginning.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at the latest soft-wear from Microsoft, the potential release windows for Windows "12" (get it?), new preview builds with some puzzling features, the upcoming GTA "6" trailer, no Xbox Game Pass for Sony and Nintendo, and more.

Sayan Sen contributed to this feature, and also provided the benchmark graphics.
 
As you may be aware, we have been benchmarking different scenarios with the Intel Core i9-14900K sent to us. It provides an ultra-modern test bed to test Microsoft's flagship Windows 11 OS against the older, but more trusted, Windows 10 counterpart.
 
Tech and gaming enthusiasts will swear blindly that their choice of OS is the best: wherever you look online you will find different results, on the one hand, Windows 10 is better, on the other, Windows 11 should be your choice. It's a hard question to answer with so many different variations of hardware and software being used with test results, so why not try to answer it with some of the best hardware currently at our disposal.

As we near the end of 2023, the hype and excitement around the next version of Windows in the Windows and the general tech enthusiast community is palpable. That's because it is expected that Microsoft will be releasing the next major Windows version, casually referred to by the community as 'Windows 12' next year.

The recently released Dev Home App preview for Windows 11 offers several developer-related features to make life easier for code writers. But Microsoft wants to take an extra step and equip the app with "Advanced Windows Settings," a section with additional options and preferences that otherwise require more complicated actions to turn on/off or customize.

Earlier today, we reported about the first official mention of "Windows 11 24H2" and also speculated on how this could affect the supposed launch of the next Windows version, also called Windows '12' casually.

Even third-party apps can't bring up the Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11 anymore.

If you haven't logged into your Google account in a long time, you should do it once, or your account may cease to exist. Google announced earlier this year that it would start deleting inactive Google accounts that haven't been used for at least two years, starting December 2023.

By Susan Bradley

For most Windows 10 and 11 users, including me, there have been no side effects as a result of November’s updates.

Nonetheless, there appear to be a few potholes in the road. That’s enough to make me cautious — I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to only 3.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Oppenheimer' tops the chart, followed by 'The Creator'. ‘Leo' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

A series of arrests that began in late August and continued into last week has sparked concerns that a relatively rare 'Scene' crackdown targeting the top of the so-called 'Piracy Pyramid' may be underway in the Nordic region. A long-running investigation involving Denmark's Special Crime Unit appears to be the common denominator. Coincidentally, several groups have stopped releasing.