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Windows 11 has some pretty tough requirements to meet for older PCs but Microsoft does offer a way for enthusiasts to download the OS on their machine. Although you can sign a waver and bypass all warnings to install Windows on unsupported hardware, there have been reports that this will leave your machine in an "unsupported" state where you may not even receive security updates.

Microsoft has been pushing users towards cloud technologies for a while now and the company told it up a notch when it announced that Windows 11 Home users will need an internet connection to complete the setup of their new device.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Scream' tops the chart, followed by ‘The King's Man'. 'Marry Me' completes the top three.

We are the end of yet another week of 2022, which means that it is time to recap all the important things that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. This time, we have some news that developers may find interesting, some Windows 11 news for Insiders, and a farewell to a Windows mascot. Let's dive in to our weekly digest for February 12 - February 18!

Tucked away toward the bottom of the changelog is one unwelcome addition: like the Home edition of Windows 11, the Pro version will now require an Internet connection and a Microsoft account during setup.

Following a massive acquisition by Microsoft, games such as Call of Duty and Crash Bandicoot will soon find a new home. Microsoft said today that it is acquiring Activision Blizzard Inc., one of the world’s largest gaming studios.
 
The transaction set a new record in the gaming industry, costing Microsoft a hefty US$68.7 billion, or nearly $100 billion in Australian dollars. Once completed, Microsoft will have control of over 30 video game firms. Microsoft will then be the world’s third-largest gaming studio, trailing only Sony and Tencent.

Google has already promised a way to mirror Android chat apps on your computer 

Google’s January outline revealed plans to spend 2022 trying to make the Android and Chrome OS experience match Apple’s ecosystem integrations, including a feature that would mirror a messaging app from your Android phone on your Chromebook. Thanks to 9to5Google, which did some digging in the recently-released Android 13 developer preview, we might have an early look at what that feature will look like.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'The King's Man' tops the chart, followed by ‘House of Gucci'. 'Eternals' completes the top three.

There are lots of things to enjoy in the new Windows 11. But what makes the new OS more fun is the set of hidden features you can access on it, and you can use them to aid you in your work productivity. If you are unaware of the existence of these hidden gems, you can try them now.

Windows 11 is the new face of the Microsoft operating system, and it started its phased rollout in October 2021. According to Microsoft, it will stop its support on Microsoft 10 after 2025, so there’s still enough time for you to enjoy the good ol’ Win10 OS you love. And if you already have Windows 10 and you’re ready for an update, you can get Windows 11 for free. Before that, however, what should you expect in this new OS offered by Microsoft? Most importantly, how does Windows 11 compare to its predecessor?

Having a new operating system is just as exciting as having a new device in your hand. This is one of the reasons why the release of Windows 11 made a remarkable noise in October 2021. And if you are one of those who have new computers possessing the new OS, you’re probably enjoying the new interface and capabilities. But for those who are still clueless about them, here are the best Windows 11 features you should know:

If you have been following Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs, you probably are aware that the processors are a hit, at least for gaming, where even the entry-level i3-12100F is easily able to keep up with some of the best AMD has to offer. This means the pressure is on AMD to put out some good competitive parts.
 
At CES 2022, AMD already announced that it is launching the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (image below) that packs the new 3D V-Cache technology in Spring this year.

Almost all the ads were for new electric vehicles, which seems like progress.

For some people—mostly those who aren't football fans—the commercials that accompany the Super Bowl are as important as the game itself. In 2022, we got a conflicting vision of the future—almost all the automakers showed off new electric vehicles as they try to wean themselves off dirty fossil fuels, a move surely counteracted by all the energy-sucking crypto startups also shilling their wares with on-screen QR codes between downs.

The latest version of Ventoy, an open source tool to create multi-boot USB devices using disk images, introduced support for booting from local disk images.

Ventoy is a useful tool in itself. Launched in early 2020, Ventoy allows users to create bootable media on USB devices. A core differentiating factor between Ventoy and solutions such as Rufus is that Ventoy users place disk images, e.g., ISO or IMG files, on the USB device. Additionally, Ventoy supports placing multiple disk images on the device to create multi-boot USB devices.

Microsoft is enabling a Microsoft Defender 'Attack Surface Reduction' security rule by default to block hackers' attempts to steal Windows credentials from the LSASS process.
 
When threat actors compromise a network, they attempt to spread laterally to other devices by stealing credentials or using exploits.
 
One of the most common methods to steal Windows credentials is to gain admin privileges on a compromised device and then dump the memory of the Local Security Authority Server Service (LSASS) process running in Windows.

We are at the close of yet another week, which means that it is time to recap everything that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. It is safe to say that this was one of the busiest weeks of the year so far in this space. Read on to find why this was so in our weekly digest for February 5 - February 11.

The Windows 11 taskbar is slowly getting better

If, like me, you’ve missed the taskbar time and date on multiple monitors in Windows 11, you’ll be pleased to hear it’s returning. Microsoft is finally bringing this functionality back after shipping Windows 11 last year without the ability to see the time or date on secondary displays.
 
“We added the clock and date to the taskbars of other monitors when you connect other monitors to your device,” reads the release notes for a new Windows 11 build that has just been released to Release Preview testers. It’s good to see one of the many missing taskbar features returning to Windows 11, but there are still plenty more that Microsoft needs to address.

The new update is now available for Windows 10 21H2, version 21H1, and version 20H2 As per the official release notes, Microsoft has published two main cumulative updates for Windows 10 - KB5010342 and KB5010345.

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 KB5010386 cumulative update with security updates, performance improvements, and fixes for an LDAP bug.
 
KB5010386 is a mandatory cumulative update as it contains the February 2022 Patch Tuesday security updates for vulnerabilities discovered in previous months.

Arm owner SoftBank will instead spin the business off via an IPO.
SoftBank’s $66 billion sale of UK-based chip business Arm to Nvidia collapsed on Monday after regulators in the US, UK, and EU raised serious concerns about its effects on competition in the global semiconductor industry, according to three people with direct knowledge of the transaction.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'House of Gucci' tops the chart, followed by ‘Nightmare Alley'. 'Eternals' completes the top three.

Later this year, Microsoft is planning to launch the first big update for Windows 11. The update is reportedly codenamed "Sun Valley 2," and it is expected to ship with a new Task Manager, improvements to Start Menu and Taskbar, and more

This was an interesting week in the Microsoft-verse with lots of news flowing in from a variety of diverse topics. There was some new information regarding upcoming Windows 11 updates as well as some reports related to cybersecurity. Find out more in our weekly digest for January 29 - February 4!

Disappointed with the lack of US response to the Hermit Kingdom's attacks against US security researchers, one hacker took matters into his own hands.

ESET has released a bunch of product updates across the stack which fix a local privilege escalation (LPE) vulnerability that affected its products. The problem stemmed in the Windows Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) scanning feature, and the exploitation of it by threat actors could lead to LPE.