Our Picks

Earlier today, we reported about the first official mention of "Windows 11 24H2" and also speculated on how this could affect the supposed launch of the next Windows version, also called Windows '12' casually.

Even third-party apps can't bring up the Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11 anymore.

If you haven't logged into your Google account in a long time, you should do it once, or your account may cease to exist. Google announced earlier this year that it would start deleting inactive Google accounts that haven't been used for at least two years, starting December 2023.

By Susan Bradley

For most Windows 10 and 11 users, including me, there have been no side effects as a result of November’s updates.

Nonetheless, there appear to be a few potholes in the road. That’s enough to make me cautious — I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to only 3.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Oppenheimer' tops the chart, followed by 'The Creator'. ‘Leo' 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.

A series of arrests that began in late August and continued into last week has sparked concerns that a relatively rare 'Scene' crackdown targeting the top of the so-called 'Piracy Pyramid' may be underway in the Nordic region. A long-running investigation involving Denmark's Special Crime Unit appears to be the common denominator. Coincidentally, several groups have stopped releasing.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at the turmoil at OpenAI, artificial intelligence breakthroughs, installing Windows 11 version 23H2 on unsupported hardware, game anniversaries, app updates, small Windows 11 images, and more.

Windows 11 version 23H2-based tiny11 is finally available for download. This Windows 11 mod offers a lightweight image stripped of unnecessary components and steep hardware requirements, resulting in an installation taking about 8GB of disk space.

Notepad++ is an open source plain text editor for Windows that offers better functionality than the built-in Notepad tool of the operating system. Notepad++ is celebrating its 20th anniversary today.
 
The developer released Notepad++ 8.6 to celebrate the anniversary. The announcement of the new release reveals information about the past 20 years of the project.

Windows 11.1 and point updates make way more sense than Windows 11 22H2 and Windows 11 2023 Update.
Every time I see a big Windows 11 update I wonder why it wasn’t a Windows 11.1 or Windows 11.2 release. Instead, Microsoft has used a number of confusing ways to name Windows updates in recent years instead of a simple method like point releases.

There’s a devastating amount of heavy news these days. Psychology experts say you need to know your limits—and when to put down the phone.

The app is rumored to be deactivated and everything moved to Rewards, ending the weekly challenges and player streaks.

Windows 11 version 23H2 is now available for download with numerous neat improvements and new features (check out our review to learn more). Sadly, it still has steep hardware requirements, which make the OS inaccessible to people with older yet still perfectly capable Windows 10 devices. If you are unwilling to deal with such injustice but buying a new PC is not an option either, here is a guide detailing how to install Windows 11 version 23H2 on an unsupported computer.

Group Policies in Windows are a powerful tool for IT and system admins to control how various features can be deployed across managed Windows enterprise PCs, which is why related bugs like the one where a Settings group policy was broken annoyed and caused inconvenience to those affected.

Earlier this month, Microsoft released new preview updates with changes to make its operating systems compliant with European Union regulations. Those changes include the ability to uninstall Edge, decouple the OS from Bing, turn on third-party news feeds in Widgets, and more. Sadly, only EU citizens can enjoy those changes without messing with their PCs' software intestines. Other people must tweak Windows Registry to spoof their location, which can lead to unnecessary complications.
 
Luckily, there is a much simpler method that does not require editing the registry or faking your location. As it turned out (via Deskmodder), Windows manages new region policies using a JSON file inside the system32 folder. Modifying that file allows force-enabling specific features in unsupported regions. Here is how to do it.

This past week Microsoft released the Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 10 and also for Windows 11 for the month of November. Besides Patch Tuesday, the tech giant also released new dynamic updates to improve the WinRE on Windows 11 21H2, as well as Setup files for all Windows 11 versions, ie, 23H2, 22H2, and 21H2.
 
Besides Windows 11 though, Microsoft this time also released a dynamic update for Windows 10 as well which is meant to improve Setup binaries. The last such dynamic update for Windows 10 was released back in July via KB5028311.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Oppenheimer' tops the chart, followed by 'The Creator'. ‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' 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 March, we covered an interesting browser report wherein Russian software Yandex alleged that its browser was being intentionally devised to crash up to five times more often and eat up more memory on systems running AMD graphics cards or integrated graphics. The problem was not a Chromium-based issue as a "chrome.exe" file workaround would fix the issue. You can read about the report in full in this article here.
 
Reports and allegations like these often pop up from time to time and it is hardly surprising since browser companies are always at war trying to one-up each other to gain market share or increase user base.
 
The latest such incident seems to be happening right now as there are several user reports online which suggest that YouTube is being intentionally crippled on Firefox and is being made to load up slower.

Earlier this week, Microsoft made a surprising move by announcing Copilot for Windows 10. Previously exclusive to Windows 11, Copilot is coming soon to the previous-gen operating system that still powers over one billion devices.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at plenty of Microsoft Ignite news, a full house of Windows preview builds, new Microsoft processors, big new features for Windows 10, EEA-compliant changes for Windows 11, and more.

On November 16, 2023, Microsoft announced several changes to its operating system to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. To avoid the regulator's scrutiny, Microsoft allowed changing several Windows settings and uninstalling some previously non-removable stock applications. Microsoft Edge is among those apps, and EU citizens will be able to remove it soon.
 
However, there is no need to move into the EU to uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11. As it turned out, a few changes in Windows Registry (shared by @thebookisclosed on X) can force the operating system to allow uninstalling Edge, disabling ads in Windows Search, and removing the news feed in Windows Widgets.

Microsoft has released a new version of its Windows 11 virtual machines available for free during a 90-day evaluation period. The latest update, version 2311, lets you try the latest features Microsoft introduced in the Moment 4 update. Those include a redesigned File Explorer, a new volume mixer, native RGB controls, native RAR support, Copilot, and more.

TDP has everything to do with heat and little to do with power.

Should you be looking for various parts to build a PC with, or to upgrade a specific component, you may have come across a term on your travels: TDP. 
 
But what exactly is TDP, and why should you even care about the value provided by a manufacturer? We break everything down for you.

Microsoft is rolling out the latest Windows 10 22H2 build for members of the Windows Insider Program in the Release Preview Channel. The new build number is 19045.3754 (KB5032278).
 
This build adds the new update toggle for Release Preview users so they can get the latest feature updates immediately. That will include the new Copilot feature that will be released as part of a future Windows 10 22H2 update.

The latest Windows 11 Canary build, released on November 15, 2023, contains an early implementation of a Wi-Fi refresh button that lets you reload the list of available networks, something you may find useful when troubleshooting network connections, for example.