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Microsoft has released the Windows 11 KB5007215 cumulative update to fix security vulnerabilities and bugs introduced in previous versions.
 
KB5007215 is a mandatory cumulative update containing security updates, performance improvements, and bug fixes for Windows 11 21H2.
 
You can install this update by going to Start > Settings > Windows Update and clicking on 'Check for Updates.' 

Microsoft has begun pushing Patch Tuesday updates out to supported Windows 8.1 (KB5007255) and Windows 7 (KB5007236) computers today. Windows 8.1 is currently in extended support until the start of 2023 while Windows 7 users who are subscribed to Extended Security Updates will still receive updates for a couple of years.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Finch' tops the chart, followed by ‘Dune'. 'Free Guy' completes the top three.

While Windows 11 has a number of great new features, such as the ability to run Android apps, it also features a significant change in the look and feel of the operating system, particularly with the new Start menu, and you may not feel invested enough in Microsoft’s new OS to make the effort to relearn your work patterns.
 
Microsoft will soon start pushing out the OS update to Windows 10 users who’s PC meet Microsoft’s hardware requirements, and the company is also well know for using dark patterns into tricking users into upgrading.
 
If you want to make sure you don’t wake up one day with Windows 11 installed on your PC, there is an easy way to block the update from being offered to your PC.

It's been over a month since Windows 11 started generally rolling out, but since it is being made available in a staggered manner, not everyone has received it on their machine. Although there are ways to immediately trigger the update, it is perhaps advisable to know what's in store before you decide to do so. This is exactly what we've been exploring so far in our ongoing Closer Look series.
 
So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, quick settings and notifications, Virtual Desktops, power and battery settings, default apps configurations, File Explorer, context menus, Teams integration, the updated Clock app in Windows 11, the Microsoft Store, the Snipping Tool, the Paint app refresh, the lock screen, the revamped Photos app, the voice typing experience, the storage settings, the touch keyboard, the Calendar app integration, and the Calculator app. Today, we'll be discussing a very specific feature, namely the Settings app's UI in Windows 11.
 
For the purpose of this hands-on, we'll be taking a look at the generally available Windows 11 build versus a publicly available and up-to-date Windows 10 (version 21H1 build 19043.1320). Right off the bat, I would like to emphasize that we are not looking at the entire Settings app (in fact, we have discussed many sections of it already in individual Closer Look articles), but will only be focusing on some specific UI updates.

New Microsoft Edge features are designed to improve the shopping experience
 
Microsoft is testing new ecommerce-related features for its Edge web browser that could help streamline the shopping experience ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
 
Available to members of the early-access Dev Channel, the latest Microsoft Edge build delivers a number of improvements, one of which combines autofill functionality with password generation to help users create new website accounts with a single click. 

Microsoft brings more security tools to Linux operating systems for the cloud.
 
Microsoft has announced it's adding even more security features to the protection it offers to open-source operating systems.
 
Defender for Endpoint on Linux server gained endpoint detection and response (EDR) abilities a few months ago and now has extra capabilities for Azure Defender customers. It makes sense for Microsoft to develop security products for Linux, given that Linux distributions dominate virtual machine OSes on its Azure cloud.  

Celebrating the 10 years since the launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda is releasing an Anniversary Edition of the massively popular RPG on November 11. Announced in August, this release is a bundle that contains Skyrim Special Edition plus every piece of released content from the Creation Club, which includes a massive number of quests, armor, and gameplay modes.

Microsoft is a major proponent of the Zero Trust security model, alongside organizations like Google. Time and time again, the Redmond tech giant has emphasized that passwords are on their way out as companies around the world adopt Zero Trust. It is also driving U.S. President Joe Biden's Executive Order about U.S. firms evolving to adopt Zero Trust technologies. Now, Microsoft has shared its updated stance on the implementation and how organizations should cater to it.

Windows 11 started rolling out a month ago but since it's being distributed in a staggered manner, not everyone has received it yet. While there are ways to jump the queue, it's advisable to first find out what you're getting yourself into. This is exactly what we've been doing in our ongoing Closer Look series where we discuss individual features of Windows 11 in more detail.
 
So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, quick settings and notifications, Virtual Desktops, power and battery settings, default apps configurations, File Explorer, context menus, Teams integration, the updated Clock app in Windows 11, the Microsoft Store, the Snipping Tool, the Paint app refresh, the lock screen, the revamped Photos app, the voice typing experience, the storage settings, the touch keyboard, and the Calendar app integration. Today, we'll be discussing the updated Calculator app in Windows 11.

Stardock has released Start11 version 1.0, a program that allows users to customize the Windows Start menu and taskbar, today. As with previous editions of StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appear as it does in previous versions of Windows, as well as customize and enhance its functionality.

Two-factor authentication is coming to Google accounts whether you want it or not.

Google announced earlier this year that it is planning to forcefully transition as many of its users as possible to two-factor authentication (2FA). The company elaborated further in October, saying it was planning to auto-enroll 150 million Google accounts in 2FA by the end of the year. Now, with just two months left in the year, Android Police has found a few reports showing that the process has started, with some users finally being auto-enrolled in 2FA.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Dune' tops the chart, followed by ‘Free Guy'. 'Army of Thieves' completes the top three.

Apple released macOS Monetary last week as part of its annual update. However, many users reported that their Macs got bricked and weren't able to turn on after updating to the latest version of the macOS.

An investigation by The Financial Times found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube lost around $9.85 billion in revenue following Apple’s changes to its privacy practices. Last year, Apple announced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy that requires apps to ask permission to track users’ data. The policy went into effect in April, barring apps from tracking users if they opt out.

It's been almost a month since Windows 11 started rolling out generally but since it's being distributed in a staggered manner, not everyone has received it yet. Regardless of whether or not you have received the update yet, it's worth discussing its features in more detail given that the OS is still quite new. This is exactly what we have been doing in our ongoing Closer Look series for the past couple of months.
 
So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, quick settings and notifications, Virtual Desktops, power and battery settings, default apps configurations, File Explorer, context menus, Teams integration, the updated Clock app in Windows 11, the Microsoft Store, the Snipping Tool, the Paint app refresh, the lock screen, the revamped Photos app, the voice typing experience, the storage settings, and the touch keyboard. Today, we'll be discussing the updated Calendar app and its integration with Windows 11.

Intel's latest 12th gen Alder Lake micro-architecture is exciting for enthusiasts. Irrespective of its performance against its predecessors or AMD's competing Ryzen CPUs, the new generation of Intel processors is landing with a fundamentally new design that has not been seen before in the x86 space. The architecture is introducing the big.LITTLE approach (Intel calls it Big-Bigger), which is an extremely popular way of designing mobile phone SoCs where larger more powerful cores are combined with smaller more efficient ones to get the optimal performance out of a microprocessor.
 
Not just that, the Alder Lake also brings cutting-edge next-gen features that include PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 / LPDDR5 memory support. Essentially Alder Lake's integrated memory controller (IMC) is ready for the fifth generation of double data rate (DDR) SDRAM but it is also compatible with last-gen DDR4 as well. As default spec, Intel states that the Alder Lake-S desktop CPUs would work with DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200, but higher speeds should work fine too.

Microsoft says Windows customers are experiencing issues with network printing after installing the Windows 11 KB5006674 and Windows 10 KB5006670 updates issued with this month's Patch Tuesday, on October 12.
 
Users attempting to connect to printers shared on Windows print servers might encounter multiple errors preventing them from printing over the network.

How to fix screen flickering in Windows 11

It is nearly a month since Windows 11 was offered as free upgrade for users. But the operating system is not devoid of bugs, there are some annoying issues like the File Explorer not responding.
 
Another issue that has been troubling users, is the screen flickering in Windows 11. I've had this happen a few times, but they were completely random, and not like what users are reporting.

We are at the close of the week so it's time to recap everything important that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past week. We did get a new Windows 11 Dev channel build this week, as well as optional updates for Windows 10. Microsoft posted a strong quarter with improvements across the board (almost), but the company faced backlash from the community over some controversial changes to .NET. Find out more about this in our weekly digest for October 24 - October 29.

The Clalit Research Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University, analyzed one of the world's largest integrated health record databases to examine the effectiveness of the third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162B2 vaccine against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. The study provides the largest peer-reviewed evaluation of the effectiveness of a third "booster" dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in a nationwide mass-vaccination setting. The study was conducted in Israel. It is published in The Lancet journal.
 
Many countries are currently experiencing a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 infections despite hitherto successful vaccination campaigns. This may be due to the greater infectiousness of the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant of SARS-CoV-2, and to waning immunity of vaccines administered months earlier. In the face of the current resurgence, several countries are planning to administer a third booster dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Two fans, 512 execution units, 6+8-pin PCIe
 
Intel is building dedicated gaming graphics cards, due out in Q1 2022, and we may have just gotten our first look at the big one, the Arc Alchemist. Here are some leaked images from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (via Videocardz)

Microsoft Edge set to work more closely with Microsoft 365 apps
 
Microsoft has unveiled a number of upcoming changes that will make its web browser Edge the obvious choice for users of the Microsoft 365 productivity suite.
 
In a lengthy blog post, the company announced it is working hard to implement intelligence changes that streamline workflows for Microsoft 365 customers.
 
For example, although people are often logged into personal and professional Microsoft accounts simultaneously, Edge will soon automatically open files in whichever profile was active when the link was clicked.

It's almost been a month since Windows 11 became generally available, but since it is being rolled out in a staggered manner, it's not available for everyone. Although there are ways to jump the queue and immediately install the OS on your machine, it's wiser to know what you're getting into before you decide to pull the trigger. This is why we have been discussing Windows 11's features and capabilities in more detail in our ongoing Closer Look series.
 
So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, quick settings and notifications, Virtual Desktops, power and battery settings, default apps configurations, File Explorer, context menus, Teams integration, the updated Clock app in Windows 11, the Microsoft Store, the Snipping Tool, the Paint app refresh, the lock screen, the revamped Photos app, the voice typing experience, and the storage settings. Today, we'll be the touch keyboard in Windows 11.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Dune' tops the chart, followed by ‘Halloween Kills'. 'Free Guy' completes the top three.