Our Picks

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' tops the chart, followed by 'Meg 2: The Trench'. ‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends.

All data are gathered from public resources.

The highly anticipated Windows 11 23H2 update is around the corner, and Microsoft has released its best features to testers in the Beta Channel.
 
From a revolutionary AI assistant to a modernized File Explorer and an in-depth energy report, the update promises a myriad of improvements. Here’s a breakdown of the top three features that have captured our attention.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at dying Windows apps and Edge features, a fresh drop of Windows 11 preview builds, the upcoming end of support for the initial Windows 11 release, new stats, gaming news, Internet Explorer 6 memories, and more.

Microsoft today has published a notice headlined "TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will be disabled in future Windows OSes" to remind users about the upcoming deprecation of TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol versions 1.0 and 1.1 in upcoming Windows releases.

Windows 11 turns two in about one month, and Microsoft is getting ready to ship another batch of improvements and new features to enhance your PC experience. The operating system has already received numerous feature updates, making it much more convenient and polished than the initial release from 2021. Unlike previous "Moment" updates, version 23H2 introduces more substantial changes, some of which are long-requested features, but also address complaints.
 
If you are thinking about updating from Windows 10 to 11 or you just want to know what is new in Microsoft's latest OS update, here is your comprehensive Windows 11 23H2 review with all the details.

Back in July, Microsoft for the first time publicly announced the upcoming Windows 11 version 23H2 feature update release, also hinting at its system requirements. This came hot on the heels of another major Windows 11 announcement, one where the tech giant informed about the end-of-service date for the original Windows 11, version 21H2, which is due later this year in October 2023.
 
Earlier today, the company published a reminder about it while also explaining how it will proceed with the major update. Microsoft says that the October 2023 Patch Tuesday will be the final security update for 21H2. It has also added that the upcoming September non-security release will be its final non-security optional update.

By Susan Bradley (AKA The Microsoft patch lady)
 
August can be a weird month where patching is concerned.
 
I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level, but with caution. I usually hope to give time near the end of the month for patches to be applied, by lowering the level to 4 and sometimes 5. This time, I’m wishy-washy. Caution is the order of the day, so I’m lowering the level to just 3.

Edge and Firefox may not be the most popular browsers, but as the leading alternatives to Chrome, which comes out on top in 2023?
 
To answer that question, we put Edge vs Firefox in a battle of user-friendliness, features, performance, and more.

Mozilla is rolling out a new feature update for the Firefox browser. Version 117 is now available in the Release channel, bringing improvements for the credit card autofill, better keyboard navigation on macOS, YouTube fixes, and other under-the-hood changes.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Meg 2: The Trench' tops the chart, followed by 'The Flash'. ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

Earlier this month, we talked about the launch of Microsoft's first web browser, Internet Explorer 1.0, back in 1995. It was a pretty bare-bones browser, but Microsoft quickly updated it with a 2.0 version later that year, followed by 3.0 in 1996, 4.0 in 1997, and 5.0 in 1999.
 
On August 24, 2001, 22 years ago this week, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 was released, a couple of months before the company's next consumer OS, Windows XP, was launched. The browser, which we will refer to as IE6 from now on, quickly dominated the market with a share as high as 90 percent at one point in 2004.

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 117 Stable on Tuesday. The next stable version of the web browser includes the long-awaited native translate integration, which does not require server connections and works online and offline.
 
While Firefox Translations is still a work in progress, which becomes apparent when looking at the supported languages, it is a major milestone for users of the browser, as it moves one step closer to feature parity with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other web browsers.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Windows 10 annoying Chrome users with Bing ads, a stand-off between the updated File Explorer, WinRAR, and NanaZIP, new Windows 11 builds, blue screens of death with the UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR code, new AI-powered features for Windows 11, gaming news, and Windows 95's 28th birthday.

Microsoft plans to release a big feature update for Windows 11 later this year. Version 23H2 is expected to introduce many quality-of-life improvements and new capabilities, including a File Explorer redesign. Although there are concerns about performance and bugs, in this article, I want to focus on the positive side and look closely at one of the best new features the redesigned File Explorer will introduce: native RAR, TAR, 7Z, and other file compression format support.

Both graphics cards will be based on the Navi 32 GPU. The release date is going to be in early September. AMD claims that the 7800 XT is faster than the Nvidia RTX 4070 and the RX 7700 XT is faster than the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti.

Earlier this week, Microsoft released the latest optional non-security updates for Windows 10 and 11. These updates usually pack various bug fixes and several new capabilities to try before the public rollout. The August 2023 C-update for Windows 11 is no exception, but the only new feature it brings only a mother could love.
 
Those willing to install the August 2023 non-optional updates on their computers with Windows 11 will receive a new search-related feature: the operating system can now invoke Windows Search without you clicking the search box on the taskbar. Like Microsoft Edge and its controversial Bing button, hovering the cursor over the taskbar "search box gleam" is now all it takes to open the search flyout. Did you accidentally place your cursor on the wrong part of the taskbar? Too bad, here is Windows Search.

These days, the release of a new PC operating system, or indeed most any PC software product, is handled almost exclusively online. We just download the update on our systems, and then complain about any bugs that might show up on Reddit. However, a few decades ago, we actually went into stores to buy software.
 
That was certainly the case for Windows 95, which launched 28 years ago on August 24, 1995. It may be hard to believe now, but back then, the debut of this successor to Windows 3.1 was more than just the release of an OS. It was a true media event, similar to the launch of a big-budget video game or movie release today.

Windows 10 and 11 are not the most compact operating systems—minimum hardware requirements demand at least 20GB of free disk space, which make modern Windows versions harder to run on less capable devices. This is where projects like tiny10 and tiny11 save the day, bringing you lightweight and debloated operating systems without sacrificing compatibility or key features. The latest tiny10 release, version 23H2, is now available for download with numerous improvements over the previous editions.

Windows and Edge customers are no strangers to ads, banners, and constant prompts to change the default browser or search engine, reset app defaults, or enable telemetry data—just to name a few. And even though customers are constantly asking Microsoft to relax and take one step back, there is simply no end to the company's effort to enforce its products on frustrated users.
 
According to a growing list of reports (and our observations on local machines), Microsoft's latest attempt to increase its user base is to spam Chrome users with Windows ads begging to set Bing as the default search engine.

Microsoft has released today its non-security update or C release for Windows 10. The update under KB5029331 fixes multiple major bugs including ones related to Group Policy, high CPU usage, BitLocker, virtual print queues, and more. It also adds new features like Microsoft Account (MSA) notification badging, among others.

One of the main arguments brought forth for the switching to the WebExtensions system for browser extensions was that it made cross-browser extensions easier. Firefox users may now reap the benefits of this promise, as Mozilla has implemented functionality in the browser to import extensions from other browsers.
 
The feature, which is in testing at the moment, can be enabled by all users of the latest stable version of Firefox.

By Susan Bradley (AKA The Patch Lady]

August can be a weird month where patching is concerned.

I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level, but with caution. I usually hope to give time near the end of the month for patches to be applied, by lowering the level to 4 and sometimes 5. This time, I’m wishy-washy. Caution is the order of the day, so I’m lowering the level to just 3.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Elemental' tops the chart, followed by 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.
 
These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

Op-ed: PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at new Windows 11 preview builds and their features, app updates, lots of gaming news, an upcoming Surface hardware event in New York, and blasts from Microsoft's past.