Our Picks

By Susan Bradley
 
Secure Boot is causing — once again — side effects for Windows patchers.
 
The August updates are triggering issues for those who dual-boot into Linux. Because this is unlikely to affect very many users, and because the IPv6 bug I alerted you to ten days ago is now well understood, I feel that lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4 is safe.

The AMD Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors opened to lukewarm reception from reviewers as well as AMD fans and enthusiasts. That is because the company's Zen 5 architecture, powering these new 9000 series SKUs, has failed to deliver on its promise of the supposed 16% IPC boost that it had claimed. This is sort of a first for AMD's Zen as typically the company has delivered excellent uplift every time so far since its launch in 2017.

About a week or so ago, Microsoft published a new support document that is meant to help users learn about the various customizing and tweaking apps that Windows natively offers in its OS.

"House of the Dragon" is one of the most watched TV series, particularly among pirates. The second season ended earlier this month after the eighth episode, though many fans had hoped for more. Pirates who downloaded the unexpected 'House of the Dragon S02E09' release got a surprise bonus, but not the one they were hoping for.

Earlier this week, we reported about a newly made third-party Windows script with a witty name: Super God Mode. The script aims to provide a much better experience than Windows' default God Mode (hence the name). Now, just a couple of days later, Windows Super God Mode is even more god-like, all thanks to its first update under version 1.1.

Although Microsoft recently hinted at killing the Control Panel at some point in the future, this old part of the operating system is still with us, providing wider access to various settings in the operating system.
 
Sadly, the Control Panel > Settings app migration saga has been going on for over a decade (it started in 2012 with the release of Windows 8), and it is still far from over. Therefore, less experienced users might get confused when looking for a certain option or feature, not knowing if they should look in the Settings app or the legacy Control Panel. The so-called "Super God Mode" aims to fix that by offering the ultimate way to access all Windows settings, special folders, links, and more.

It's very rare, but lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles can catch fire.

Windows 95 introduced the iconic Start menu to the revolutionary taskbar, and Microsoft's OS influence is still felt 29 years later.

Earlier this week, Microsoft acknowledged the problem with its August 2024 Patch Tuesday update, which caused headaches for customers running Windows and Linux side-by-side on a single machine. Basically, the update was not supposed to target dual-boot systems. Still, the detection mechanism failed to recognize certain systems, resulting in the update incorrectly applying a Secure Boot Advanced Targeting setting to the wrong systems and breaking Linux installations.

JayzTwoCents (4.09M subscribers)
 
August 24, 2024
 
Video length: 18m 38s
 

Threat actors started to use progressive web applications to impersonate banking apps and steal credentials from Android and iOS users.
 
Progressive web apps (PWA) are cross-platform applications that can be installed directly from the browser and offer a native-like experience through features like push notifications, access to device hardware, and background data syncing.

The Document Foundation (TDF) has released a new major version of LibreOffice, version 24.8. For those who are a bit confused as to why a point-8 release is considered major and not minor, it's because the project switched to a new version numbering system. 24.8 signifies that this version was released in the eighth month - August - in 2024.

Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke.

The controversial Recall feature for Windows 11 devices labeled as Copilot+ PCs was supposed to launch alongside those laptops in June. However, at the last minute, the Recall feature, which was supposed to track everything you did on your PC so you could literally recall almost anything, first got changed to an "opt-in" experience and then was removed completely from the first wave of Copilot+ PCs.

Microsoft is back with its annual Windows 11 feature update, this time focusing on the underlying platform and surface-level quality-of-life improvements and updates. Version 24H2 (also known as the 2024 Update) includes everything from better performance to UX changes designed to make Windows 11 easier to use.

Bypass Paywalls Clean, a popular browser extension that allows users to view subscription websites without a subscription, has been shut down along with 3,879 forks. In a takedown notice filed at GitHub, News Media Alliance, which represents 2,200 news, magazine, and digital media publishers, explains that BPC violates its members rights under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions.

Whether you like it or not, Microsoft has a new Outlook app, and this guide will help you get started.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Twisters' tops the chart, followed by 'Jackpot!'. 'Fly Me To The Moon' 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.

If you have an HDR-compatible monitor or TV connected to your computer, you probably know that playing HDR content in Windows 11 requires enabling a toggle in display settings. While HDR content looks good, the rest of the operating system becomes slightly washed out. Microsoft appears to be working on fixing this inconvenience.

By Susan Bradley

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Microsoft worm event.

It is no secret that there were few who appreciated the steep system requirements put forth by Microsoft when it announced Windows 11. The supported list of CPUs excluded several processors that were less than five years old at that time (mid-2021), including powerful chips like Ryzen 1st Gen 6-core and 8-core CPUs, as well as Intel's 6th and 7th gen i7 models.

While the general user may be unaware of it, browser wars continue to wage on as each of them tries to secure and keep as much of the user base as they can, often seemingly venturing into controversial territories.

In February of this year, Microsoft announced plans to expand invitations to upgrade more people to Windows 11. In other words, start nagging Windows 10 users with eligible devices to upgrade to Windows 11. Since Windows 10 is now getting close to its end of support, Microsoft feels like it is time to expedite the upgrade process. However, the company had to adjust its course of action.

Clean installs of Windows 11 version 24H2 now have BitLocker device encryption enabled.
Microsoft is making BitLocker device encryption a default feature in its next major update to Windows 11. If you clean install the 24H2 version that’s rolling out in the coming months, device encryption will be enabled by default when you first sign in or set up a device with a Microsoft account or work / school account.

Google is switching the ruleset for extensions in Chrome soon. The updated version is controversial, as it will end several popular extensions for Chrome, including the world's most popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin.