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Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' tops the chart, followed by 'Saw X'. ‘Expend4bles' 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.

Google is cracking down on the use of content blockers on YouTube. More and more users see prompts that "ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube". Currently, Google appears to test various designs and restrictions. YouTube users may bypass YouTube's anti-adblocker prompts for now, but there is no telling for how long these will work.
 
Even major content blockers such as uBlock Origin run into issues from time to time. These do get addressed quickly though, but it is still annoying when it happens.
 
There are alternatives to blocking ads on YouTube. One of them is to redirect videos to privacy friendly third-party sites.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at more reorgs at Microsoft, another veteran leaving the company, the Moment 4 update rolling out to more customers, another change in the Windows 11 supported processor list, fresh Windows 11 preview builds, gaming news, financial reports, and more.

@NTDEV_, the creator of modified and stripped-off Windows images, has released the latest addition to its tiny10 and tiny11 family. The tiny11 core project "brings everything you love about Windows" in an even smaller package. If the "regular" tiny11 was too large or demanding for you, tiny11 core is here with its ISO weighing only 2GB and the entire installation requiring a tad more than 3GB.

A massive week of PC and gaming news included stories about the future of Windows and the ghost of Windows Phone haunting Google.
What a week it has been when it comes to news in the world of Windows, PCs, and gaming. Windows Phone got its revenge against YouTube, Microsoft's CEO admitted it was a mistake to end Windows Phone, and Qualcomm unveiled a processor that could revolutionize Windows computing. On top of that, Microsoft leadership discussed features that we'll see in Windows 12.

Stardock announced Start11 v2 and the release preview of the industry's most advanced Start menu, today. This program allows users to fully customize the Windows 10 and 11 Start menu experience with unique features and designs and restore classic functionality from previous versions of Windows.
 
New with Start11 v2 are three new Start menu styles that seamlessly blend with Windows 10 and 11. Each new style is customizable from top to bottom with a focus on a different theme: Apps, Professional, and Launcher.

Here's a blast from Windows XP's past.

Well-respected software engineer David Cutler discussed Windows Longhorn and its development in a 9-minute-long video interview.

He explains that a buggy codebase impacted the operating system's development, with the "worst code he has ever seen" causing severe bugs.

Cutler started working on a new 64-bit system after AMD reached out with claims that it is less intrusive and can run 32-bit applications at speed on the 64-bit machine.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' tops the chart, followed by 'Saw X'. ‘Expend4bles' 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.

Back in July, Microsoft for the first time, publicly announced Windows 11 version 23H2. Alongside that, the company also clarified that the system requirements for the feature update will remain unchanged.
 
While many thought, including Neowin, that the September 26 feature update was 23H2, the reason being the tech giant had earlier disclosed a Q4 release time frame for the update, Microsoft clarified later that it had been planned for a different date (also in the same quarter). However, Microsoft did roll out a bunch of 23H2 features early with the Moment 4 update (We had an in-depth look at all such features back in early September).

Microsoft may be open to the idea of Windows customers trying Linux, but it surely does not want you to try Chrome or other browsers. Downloading the most popular browser using Microsoft Edge is already a nightmare filled with banners and stop-gaps, and nothing seems to be stopping Microsoft from adding even more.
 
Last weekend, we noticed that an attempt to download Google Chrome using Microsoft Edge results in the latter opening its sidebar with a poll, asking you to explain to Microsoft how you could dare try downloading Google Chrome. Of course, the exact wording is more tame, but you get the idea.

Check out the differences between the two most popular editions of Windows 11, Home and Pro.

Although Windows 11 has many different editions, there are only two main flavors, including "Windows 11 Pro" and "Windows 11 Home," and the decision of which one to use comes down to the available features each edition offers and pricing. 

14 years ago today, on October 22, 2009, Microsoft launched Windows 7. The company's then-latest operating system for PCs was something of a redemption for the release of Windows Vista, which was called one of the world tech products ever made by some critics (of course, this was before the release of Windows 8, but we will get to that a bit later).

All of the biggest PC and gaming stories from the week are right here.

From gaming leaks to an exclusive report about Windows 11, we saw quite a bit run across the Windows Central news desk this week. Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared that Windows 11 is now on 400 million devices and is on pace to be on half a billion PCs in early 2024. Intel and AMD each launched processors, giving gamers and creators more CPU and GPU options. We also got a better idea of how much Microsoft pays its employees, thanks to a leak. Here are all the biggest stories from the past week.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Windows 11 and its 400+ million monthly active devices, a bunch of neat new features in the latest preview builds, performance improvements for the Microsoft Store, PCs cooled with human blood, Edge updates, Surface updates, and gaming news.

AI is "bigger than the PC, bigger than mobile," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has laid out his hopes for an AI-powered future across personal and working lives for users everywhere.
 
Speaking at an event in London, Nadella outlined how AI technology, primarily Microsoft's own Copilot and Open AI-powered tools, can bring in a new era for consumers and business alike.

A few days ago, a new report emerged about Windows 11 having slightly more than 400 million monthly active devices. Although it is significantly lower than what Windows 10 had achieved after its first two years, the result beat Microsoft's humble expectations. According to leaked data, Microsoft lowered its forecast primarily due to Windows 11's high CPU requirements and the need for a hardware or firmware Trusted Platform Module.
 
Steep hardware requirements cannot stop a true enthusiast from installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, but it looks like the list of available bypasses just lost one option.

Last weekend, popular torrent tracker FileList announced that it would soon shut its doors forever. A change in life priorities and an absence of trusted and skilled successors were mentioned as the main reasons. The decision triggered an outpouring of support and two people have stepped forward to keep the site going. This includes "God", one of FileList's original founders.

Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has published details about a newly found vulnerability in WinRAR, a truly legendary piece of Windows software. According to TAG, numerous government-backed actors have been actively exploiting the vulnerability since the beginning of this year. What makes the situation much worse is that WinRAR has no automatic update mechanisms. Therefore, you need to update the app manually to version 6.23 or 6.24 to avoid the risk.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'The Equalizer 3' tops the chart, followed by 'The Nun II'. ‘Haunted Mansion' 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.

Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Windows 10 security updates released during this month's Patch Tuesday to fail with 0x8007000d errors.
 
For systems impacted by this issue, specifically Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 10 22H2, the KB5031356 security update would fail despite displaying initial progress during deployment.

Intel has officially unwrapped its 14th-gen processor lineup aimed at PC enthusiasts, gamers, and other customers needing high-performance desktop processors. The new CPU trio delivers the "fastest desktop frequencies," the "best desktop experience," and "unparalleled overclocking."
 
The lineup consists of three unlocked models (plus iGPU-less KF variants) with up to 24 cores and 6GHz max clocks. The Core i7-14700K model received four extra E-cores, bumping the spec up to 8 P-cores and 12-E cores for 20 cores and 28 threads. Intel claims the change results in significant performance gains in multi-threaded workloads.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, the software giant finally acquires Activision-Blizzard, old Windows keys lose their ability to activate Windows 11, Microsoft backtracks controversial OneDrive changes, Patch Tuesday updates come out, Windows issues emerge, and preview builds land in three channels.

‘Full fat’ sugary drinks such as colas increase the risk of obesity and are generally off-limits for diabetics. But now a leading testing expert says there is increasing evidence that many diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners affect blood sugar levels, insulin resistance and our gut microbiome.
 
It's well-known that ‘full fat’ fizzy drinks such as colas, lemonades and energy drinks raise the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. People who have one can or more a day have a 26% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Sugary drinks rapidly increase blood sugar levels, and this can lead to tiredness and increased hunger even in people without diabetes.

Microsoft displays a lot of promotions and advertisement in its Windows 11 operating system. The lock screen is but one of the locations that Microsoft uses to display promotions to users of the operating system.
 
This guide walks you through the steps of disabling lock screen ads and promotions in the Windows 11 operating system.

Windows 11 received numerous updates and improvements over its first two years. The taskbar, the notification area, the volume slider/mixer, File Explorer (as long as you ignore its questionable performance), and many more parts of the latest Windows 11 versions are much better than the initial and now-unsupported release.
 
However, one area of Windows 11 has remained mostly unchanged since version 21H2. That area is the Start menu, a highly controversial part among Windows users. After five relatively big feature updates, the Start menu still does not offer significant improvements over what Microsoft shipped in October 2021, which is a shame, considering how many people openly dislike or even hate the redesigned variant.