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Earlier this week, Microsoft reminded IT admins and sysadmins of the new policy for managed office and enterprise PCs that now allows them to have a feature update like Windows 11 24H2 as "optional". This was after the company released complete details about the 2024 update as well as the LTSC version.
 
Meanwhile, on the home users side of things, users with unsupported hardware are also trying to have a taste of the latest version of Windows and one of the popular tools that is useful in such a case is Rufus.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at the launch of Windows 11 version 24H2, the launch of Office 2024, quite a lot of new Windows 11 preview builds (we finally have one for Canary users), gaming updates, and more.

This year's big feature update for Windows 11 is now officially out. It packs quite a lot of new features and improvements, but they are sadly not available to all eligible users right away. Microsoft is rolling out the update gradually, which means many customers will get Windows 11 version 24H2 in weeks, if not months. If you have an officially compatible system and you want to get Windows 11 24H2 now, here is how to do it.

Microsoft released a new non-subscription version of Microsoft Office for home users and businesses. This one differs from the subscription-based Microsoft 365 version of Office in several meaningful ways.
 
The following paragraphs highlight these differences. Office 2024 is the successor of Office 2021, which Microsoft released in October 2021.

The ability to remain installed and undetected makes Perfctl hard to fight.
Thousands of machines running Linux have been infected by a malware strain that’s notable for its stealth, the number of misconfigurations it can exploit, and the breadth of malicious activities it can perform, researchers reported Thursday.
 
The malware has been circulating since at least 2021. It gets installed by exploiting more than 20,000 common misconfigurations, a capability that may make millions of machines connected to the Internet potential targets, researchers from Aqua Security said. It can also exploit CVE-2023-33426, a vulnerability with a severity rating of 10 out of 10 that was patched last year in Apache RocketMQ, a messaging and streaming platform that’s found on many Linux machines.

It seems Google is currently waging a two-front war. First up, it is trying to kill off ad blockers and content blockers in the YouTube space, with reports suggesting that the company is working to inject server-side ads into videos to make it highly difficult, if not impossible, to block them using traditional content blockers.
 
Secondly, the company is also trying to end the usage of Manifest V2 (MV2) extensions as they are no longer supported by its browser. uBlock Origin happens to be one such extension that is highly popular among users due to how efficiently it manages to block annoying advertisements on various websites including YouTube.

The latest PowerToys feature works fine, but it sits next to a messy part of Windows 11.

Yesterday, alongside the release of the Windows 11 2024 feature update, Microsoft published feature details regarding Windows 11 LTSC 2024 and Windows 11 24H2 for managed PCs.
 
One of the several new features LTSC has received is VHD-based Dev Drive utilizing ReFS or Resilience File System. The feature debuted back in 2023 at Build, when the company promised up to 30% faster performance.

In addition to releasing Windows 11 version 2024 or "2024 Update," Microsoft launched Office 2024 for consumers. The latest non-subscription-based bundle of Microsoft's productivity apps is now available for purchase for $149.99 (Office 2024 Home & Student) or $249.99 (Office Home & Business) on the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft has released details about its new Windows 11 24H2 update for IT admins and system admins today. This information is regarding the upgrade of managed office PCs and enterprise PCs to version 24H2. Additionally, the company has also published some brief details regarding app compatibility.

By Susan Bradley
It’s not that 24H2 was unexpected — but we had very, very little notice.
You won’t be surprised by this advice: Don’t take the 24H2 update just yet. Nobody has had time to react to today’s announcement — much less examine the changes, check out the new features, and assess the effects of the update on existing systems.

Windows 11 2024 Update, also known as version 24H2, is now publicly available. Microsoft announced the rollout alongside the new AI-powered features that are coming soon to Windows Insiders with Copilot+ PCs and Copilot upgrades.

It is not unfair to say that a large part of the Windows enthusiast community holds a bit of a grudge against Microsoft regarding the system requirements of Windows 11. Certain features like TPM 2.0 and modern processors were made mandatory for the OS to legitimately work.

If you use Firefox and the uBlock Origin Lite content blocker from the Firefox Add-ons Store, be aware that the extension is no longer supported. Raymond Hill, the maker of the extension, pulled support and moved uBlock Origin Lite to self-hosting after multiple encounters with a "nonsensical and hostile" review process from the store review team.

A few days ago, we reported that the latest KB5043145 C-release update (non-security preview) was breaking PCs, leading to constant restarts, blue screens or green screens of death (BSOD / GSOD), or booting into BitLocker Recovery via the Windows Automatic Repair Tool.

KB5043178 is now available for Copilot+ PCs and "traditional" computers running Windows 11 version 24H2. The update features several improvements to the Settings app, Start menu, taskbar, lock screen, and more. It also adds the ability to toggle mouse acceleration on or off or change the scroll direction in the Settings app, which previously required digging into the system registry.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Wolfs' tops the chart, followed by 'Inside Out 2'. 'Deadpool & Wolverine' 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.

Windows 11 version 24H2 is right around the corner, and one of the signs that the OS is almost ready for its public debut is the official evaluation images that Microsoft just released. You can now download the following Windows 11 version 24H2 images in different languages.

After fierce blowback, Microsoft has outlined new fixes to Recall's security, but questions remain about whether people will opt to use it.

Windows Recall will be removable as a system component via the "Turn Windows features on and off" interface.

Earlier this week Microsoft released KB5043145 non-security preview update (C-release) for Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2. The hype about this release surrounded the possible landfall of the 2024 feature update as a preview with this one.
 
However, that evidently did not happen and users should be glad Microsoft chose not to irrespective of whether it actually wanted to release Windows 11 24H2 as the September C-release or not. That is because the company has confirmed that KB5043145 is causing major issues on several systems, ranging from devices that keep rebooting to blue screens or green screens of death (BSOD / GSOD) or booting into BitLocker Recovery via the Windows Automatic Repair Tool.

Microsoft has released a new non-security preview update (C-release) for Windows 11. The update under KB5043145 does not introduce the anticipated Windows 11 version 24H2 feature update as it is applicable for version 23H2 and 22H2. Neowin speculated that there may be a delay after the company had initially officially stated that the next feature update would be rolling out as the September 2024 preview.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is all set to replace the flagship RTX 4090, whereas RTX 5080 will replace the RTX 4080. RTX 5090 looks to be a very powerful graphics card.

Musi, a massively popular free music app with millions of users, has been removed from the App Store. Apple took action following extensive complaints from music industry groups, but whether these complaints directly triggered the app's removal is unclear. Information received by TorrentFreak further reveals that YouTube weighed in as well.

Raycast first launched in 2020 and has become a popular app for owners of macOS desktops and notebooks. It's basically a replacement for Apple's Spotlight feature in macOS, offering fast access to apps, files, folders, and even access to ChatGPT.