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Ever since he was a kid in Sweden, Peter Ternström wanted to make a sci-fi-style flying machine. In 1983 he saw Return of the Jedi five times and dreamed of zooming through the forest of Endor on a levitating speeder. But as a smart young nerd he quickly realized a hovering vehicle wasn’t possible.

Microsoft is apparently working on a new application for Windows 11 dubbed "Designer" and multiple images of the preview version of the app have leaked out. Prolific Windows leakster and Twitter user WalkingCat, who also recently shared the alleged RTM date for Windows 11 22H2, spotted it.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'The Northman' tops the chart, followed by ‘The Lost City'. 'The Batman' completes the top three.

Microsoft has officially announced a native VPN service for its Edge Browser. Called "Secure Network", it is available for preview in the Canary channel for a limited set of Edge Insiders. Users recently spotted the first traces of the feature, and now it is official.
 
In a nutshell, Microsoft Edge Secure Network is a simplified VPN that does not require installing third-party software or extensions. This feature aims to provide Edge users with a secure connection when working in public networks that often lack privacy. Using Secure Network lets you hide your IP address, encrypt data, and route traffic through a secure network powered by Cloudflare.

Whispers and murmurs about Windows 11 22H2 (codenamed Sun Valley 2) reaching release to manufacturing (RTM) status soon have been doing the rounds for a while now, with a report suggesting that it is happening this month itself. Another more recent report claimed that the latest Beta Channel build 22621 was the RTM candidate, with the sign-off on May 20, which is just under a week away.

We are almost halfway through the month of May and it's time once again to recap everything that happened on Microsoft's side of the fence in the past few days. This week, there were a lot of news items related to Windows builds, a welcome update to the inbox Sound Recorder app, and some nifty enhancements to Edge too. Find out more in our weekly digest for May 7 - May 13.

A look at the most significant features coming to the OS later this year.

Windows 11 has already changed quite a bit since the version we reviewed in October was released, and Microsoft has put out a steady stream of redesigned app updates, bug fixes, and user interface improvements.

Every few years, Microsoft is making it more difficult to create a local account during setup of the Windows operating system.
 
The company announced in February 2022 that new setups and first runs of Pro versions of Windows 11 would require a Microsoft account. It did not take long for workarounds to become available, but many users may be unaware of these bypass options.

At the beginning of the month, reports of Windows 11 22H2 (Sun Valley 2) being ready for RTM (release to manufacturing) started doing the rounds and these reports suggested that it was going to happen in May itself, although some other leakers said it could be happening a month later in June.
 
Windows Central's Zac Bowden however seems pretty confident that the most recent Beta channel build 22621 is the one which will be final Windows 11 22H2 build for general availability (GA) later in the year. Bowden also adds that Microsoft will be signing it off on May 20th, which is a week away from now.

With Microsoft getting ready to release Edge 102 in the Beta and Stable channel, Edge 103 is moving from Canary to Dev. The first 103 release is now available for testing in this week's Dev update. Version 103.0.1253.0 is a relatively minor update, with the most significant new feature being support for a natural voice for search in history. You can open the history flyout and type something similar to "YouTube from last week".
 
In case you missed it, in the previous Edge Dev update, Microsoft added support for the Clarity Boost feature that improves the image quality when streaming games from the cloud.

One of the most recent snaps beamed back from the Curiosity rover on Mars has revealed a rather interesting feature in the rocks: what looks to be a perfectly carved out doorway nestling in the Martian landscape.

Linux users are a self-sufficient bunch, but when it comes to hardware, they’re often at the mercy of enormous manufacturers to get working drivers.
 
While Nvidia has offered proprietary drivers similar to its Windows offerings for years, the company is changing tack and will now publish open-source GPU drivers. The initial offerings are now live on Github as well as Nvidia’s self-hosted download pages.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' tops the chart, followed by ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'. 'Uncharted' completes the top three.

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means only one thing, that it’s Patch Tuesday. The update for Windows 11 21H2 this month is designated KB5013943 and will take your system to OS Build 22000.675. The Windows 11 service stack has also been updated to Build 22000.652.

It's the second Tuesday of the month which means it's Patch Tuesday time again. As such, today Microsoft is rolling out the monthly security update for May 2022 (also called "B release") on Windows 10 for the latest versions, 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2. The new updates are being distributed under KB5013942, bumping up the builds to 19042.1706, 19043.1706, and 19044.1706.

Microsoft has released the Patch Tuesday update for Windows 8.1 (KB5014011) and Windows 7 (KB5014012) today as it’s the second Tuesday of the month. Installing them will protect your system against certain vulnerabilities but both also come with known issues. Here’s what each release contains and their known issues.

Today at the Red Hat Summit, Red Hat Inc. announced the launch of its new operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, designed to enable enterprises to deliver a more secure computing environment at scale, whether in a hybrid cloud, public cloud, or edge network environment.

The new platform is PCI-SS and HIPAA-compliant and adds new cryptographic frameworks with support for OpenSSL, so the users can encrypt data throughout their environments.

The Linux Mint team has announced the general availability of the new Upgrade Tool which allows users of Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 4 to upgrade to LMDE 5 more simply. While this is currently only available for LMDE, the Linux Mint team is working to allow upgrades from Linux Mint 20.3 to 21.0 after that version has been released.

Windows 10 and 11 are (in)famous for frequent prompts asking to provide feedback about various parts of the operating systems. Users who care enough can share their thoughts by answering those prompts or sending feedback directly using the Feedback Hub app. Such posts allow everyone to see what features and changes are the most popular and desired across the Windows 10 and 11 user base.
 
The "Top 10 features people want" series has already covered Word, Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook, and now it is time to see what users want Microsoft to do in the Microsoft Store. Oddly, crickets sounds are Microsoft's dominant reply. The company often provides comments in Feedback Hub, but even the most upvoted posts about the Microsoft Store have the mere "We have got this."

We are at the end of the first week of May, which means that it is time to recap everything important that happened in the Microsoft-verse in the past few days, through our latest issue of Microsoft Weekly. This time, we have some very interesting news items to discuss including a surprise appearance from Windows 3D Movie Maker, a leaked Outlook client, and some Defender woes. Find out more in our weekly digest for April 30 - May 6.

Microsoft announced that it would extend the Windows 11 Home requirement of a Microsoft Account and Internet connection during setup to Windows 11 Pro in early 2022.

The upcoming Windows 11 version 22H2 will enforce the requirement for all devices on which Pro is installed on. The change won't affect existing devices that are upgraded to the new version. These will work as before when local accounts are used, and even if no Microsoft Account exists.

Google has announced that it has bought Raxium, a company that has been developing single panel MicroLED display technologies for the last 5 years. According to the search giant, the technologies that Raxium has developed will be used in next-gen technology and offers “miniaturized, cost-effective and energy efficient high-resolution displays”.

Building a custom PC is not an easy process. Mistakes happen when people make them. Let us explore common mistakes so that one can avoid them.

Whether you're driving a car with children yelling in the backseat or trying to read a book in a coffee shop while someone talks loudly on their phone, attention is essential for navigating and interacting with the world.
 
However, attention has a limited capacity, meaning we can only process so many things at once. This is why it's essential to be able to filter out distractions that can divert focus from the task at hand.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Uncharted' tops the chart, followed by ‘The Batman'. 'Ambulance' completes the top three.