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Check out the differences between the two most popular editions of Windows 11, Home and Pro.

Although Windows 11 has many different editions, there are only two main flavors, including "Windows 11 Pro" and "Windows 11 Home," and the decision of which one to use comes down to the available features each edition offers and pricing. 

14 years ago today, on October 22, 2009, Microsoft launched Windows 7. The company's then-latest operating system for PCs was something of a redemption for the release of Windows Vista, which was called one of the world tech products ever made by some critics (of course, this was before the release of Windows 8, but we will get to that a bit later).

All of the biggest PC and gaming stories from the week are right here.

From gaming leaks to an exclusive report about Windows 11, we saw quite a bit run across the Windows Central news desk this week. Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared that Windows 11 is now on 400 million devices and is on pace to be on half a billion PCs in early 2024. Intel and AMD each launched processors, giving gamers and creators more CPU and GPU options. We also got a better idea of how much Microsoft pays its employees, thanks to a leak. Here are all the biggest stories from the past week.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Windows 11 and its 400+ million monthly active devices, a bunch of neat new features in the latest preview builds, performance improvements for the Microsoft Store, PCs cooled with human blood, Edge updates, Surface updates, and gaming news.

AI is "bigger than the PC, bigger than mobile," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has laid out his hopes for an AI-powered future across personal and working lives for users everywhere.
 
Speaking at an event in London, Nadella outlined how AI technology, primarily Microsoft's own Copilot and Open AI-powered tools, can bring in a new era for consumers and business alike.

A few days ago, a new report emerged about Windows 11 having slightly more than 400 million monthly active devices. Although it is significantly lower than what Windows 10 had achieved after its first two years, the result beat Microsoft's humble expectations. According to leaked data, Microsoft lowered its forecast primarily due to Windows 11's high CPU requirements and the need for a hardware or firmware Trusted Platform Module.
 
Steep hardware requirements cannot stop a true enthusiast from installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, but it looks like the list of available bypasses just lost one option.

Last weekend, popular torrent tracker FileList announced that it would soon shut its doors forever. A change in life priorities and an absence of trusted and skilled successors were mentioned as the main reasons. The decision triggered an outpouring of support and two people have stepped forward to keep the site going. This includes "God", one of FileList's original founders.

Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has published details about a newly found vulnerability in WinRAR, a truly legendary piece of Windows software. According to TAG, numerous government-backed actors have been actively exploiting the vulnerability since the beginning of this year. What makes the situation much worse is that WinRAR has no automatic update mechanisms. Therefore, you need to update the app manually to version 6.23 or 6.24 to avoid the risk.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'The Equalizer 3' tops the chart, followed by 'The Nun II'. ‘Haunted Mansion' completes the top three.
 
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.  

These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends.

All data are gathered from public resources.

Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Windows 10 security updates released during this month's Patch Tuesday to fail with 0x8007000d errors.
 
For systems impacted by this issue, specifically Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 10 22H2, the KB5031356 security update would fail despite displaying initial progress during deployment.

Intel has officially unwrapped its 14th-gen processor lineup aimed at PC enthusiasts, gamers, and other customers needing high-performance desktop processors. The new CPU trio delivers the "fastest desktop frequencies," the "best desktop experience," and "unparalleled overclocking."
 
The lineup consists of three unlocked models (plus iGPU-less KF variants) with up to 24 cores and 6GHz max clocks. The Core i7-14700K model received four extra E-cores, bumping the spec up to 8 P-cores and 12-E cores for 20 cores and 28 threads. Intel claims the change results in significant performance gains in multi-threaded workloads.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, the software giant finally acquires Activision-Blizzard, old Windows keys lose their ability to activate Windows 11, Microsoft backtracks controversial OneDrive changes, Patch Tuesday updates come out, Windows issues emerge, and preview builds land in three channels.

‘Full fat’ sugary drinks such as colas increase the risk of obesity and are generally off-limits for diabetics. But now a leading testing expert says there is increasing evidence that many diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners affect blood sugar levels, insulin resistance and our gut microbiome.
 
It's well-known that ‘full fat’ fizzy drinks such as colas, lemonades and energy drinks raise the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. People who have one can or more a day have a 26% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Sugary drinks rapidly increase blood sugar levels, and this can lead to tiredness and increased hunger even in people without diabetes.

Microsoft displays a lot of promotions and advertisement in its Windows 11 operating system. The lock screen is but one of the locations that Microsoft uses to display promotions to users of the operating system.
 
This guide walks you through the steps of disabling lock screen ads and promotions in the Windows 11 operating system.

Windows 11 received numerous updates and improvements over its first two years. The taskbar, the notification area, the volume slider/mixer, File Explorer (as long as you ignore its questionable performance), and many more parts of the latest Windows 11 versions are much better than the initial and now-unsupported release.
 
However, one area of Windows 11 has remained mostly unchanged since version 21H2. That area is the Start menu, a highly controversial part among Windows users. After five relatively big feature updates, the Start menu still does not offer significant improvements over what Microsoft shipped in October 2021, which is a shame, considering how many people openly dislike or even hate the redesigned variant.

Some Windows 10 users have been getting an error when trying to install the latest Windows 10 Patch Tuesday update (KB5031356). Microsoft said that some users have encountered Error 8007000D (ERROR_INVALID_DATA); the error can be found in Windows Update under System settings by going to Update History.
 
Microsoft said that the issue has been resolved with Known Issue Rollback (KIR) and that the fix could take 48 hours from 18:14 P.T. 13 October to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. If you’re impatient, however, you can take some manual steps to resolve the issue right now.

In an effort to enhance user experience and energy efficiency, Firefox is working on an update that will reduce power consumption while streaming videos on YouTube. This update targeted for Firefox 120 is expected to address a specific issue related to video playback.
 
In a recent development, YouTube, a platform known for its leading role in video content delivery and streaming, has been grappling with a bug that has affected its video playback. The bug, identified as Bug 1849680, has caused a regression in the video overlay function, which is not working as expected unless in full-screen mode.

Microsoft now has a tool called Loop to help you brainstorm ideas and manage projects, and here I'll show you how to use it.

Microsoft Loop is a collaboration and productivity online tool that combines workspaces, pages, and components to help people manage projects and work together more effectively, similar to Notion and Google Workspaces.
 
The Loop tool is an excellent solution for task lists, meeting notes, brainstorming ideas, creating documentation, tracking issues, and more, whether you use it on Windows 11, 10, or another platform. 

A few days ago, this week, Microsoft released its Patch Tuesday update for the month of October 2023. The Patch Tuesday or B-release is the monthly security update and this month's release brought the Moment 4 to Windows 11.
 
Microsoft, alongside that, also released dynamic compatibility updates for Windows 11 versions 21H2 and 22H2, which improve the Windows recovery with the help of SafeOS updates labeled "critical".

Pete Batard, the creator of the Rufus app, has released a new preview version to try before it goes out to the stable channel. Release 4.3 is now available for download with several changes.
 
Notable improvements in Rufus 4.3 include the ability to enforce Windows installation in S Mode (the long-forgotten mode that limited app installation to the Microsoft Store), NTFS enforcing for Linux Mint LMDE, a fix for the bug preventing opening VHD images, and more. As a reminder, Rufus received VHD and ZIP64 support in version 4.2 released in July 2023.

At the end of last month, Microsoft released its Moment 4 feature update for Windows 11 22H2. The update was available as a preview and this week it rolled out to all users via the month's Patch Tuesday.
 
While the big moment was for Windows 11, Microsoft also released something significant for Windows 10 as well. The company released an update to the Windows update service components which brings a new user interface (UI) functionality.

The Windows activation loophole has now been closed by Microsoft, so you’ll have to buy a legit Windows 11 key.

Microsoft is now blocking Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from activating a copy of Windows 11. It’s been a loophole that has existed for years, allowing people to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 or 11 free of charge.

This week, Windows 11 marked its second anniversary and the end of the initial release, version 21H2, which was infamous for its lack of polish and certain features. However, Windows 11 also introduced new things, such as a redesigned File Explorer, which later received tabs support and plenty of modernized UI elements and features.

Google is taking a more aggressive stance in detecting ad blockers on YouTube. The issue seems to have become more widespread than before, here's how you can block the anti-adblock measures.

Microsoft has released the Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 22H2 (KB5031354). The update bumps 22H2 to Build 22621.2428. Please be aware that Windows 11 21H2 is no longer supported and you should upgrade as soon as possible to remain protected.