Our Picks

Microsoft has time and again iterated how it believes Windows 11 is the best OS for gaming, and in general. For example, when DirectStorage became generally available on PCs, the company promised an "amazing experience" on Windows 11.
 
However, tests, since the early days of the original Windows 11 21H2 release, have shown that certain features on the new OS do hurt the performance, at least when gaming, which is why Microsoft itself has recommended disabling them.

Microsoft has accidentally revealed an internal 'StagingTool' utility that can be used to enable hidden features, or Moments, in Windows 11.
 
When developing new features, Microsoft adds them to public Windows preview builds in a hidden and disabled state. These features, or Moments, can be enabled when they want to perform public A/B or internal tests.
 
For years, Windows enthusiasts have been searching for hidden features in new Insider preview builds and using specialized third-party tools, like ViveTool, to enable them for a sneak peek into what's coming in the future.
 
Now, Microsoft has revealed its own tool used to enable these hidden features.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Microsoft Edge taking screenshots of the websites you visit for your own convenience, new features for Windows 11 in preview builds, leaked tools for turning on and off Windows features, gaming news, new hardware, and various app updates. Besides, as usual, you get a few look-back articles remembering old hardware and software from Microsoft.

All of this week's news is right here in one convenient spot.

From Surface Go disappointment to exclusive reports about a handheld gaming PC from Lenovo, this week was packed with all sorts of news. We even got to share a story about Linux surpassing macOS when it comes to gaming on Steam. Whether it's Microsoft Loop coming to the Microsoft Store or another trending topic, you can stay in the loop here with our weekly news roundup.

Microsoft Edge has numerous features to make the browsing experience better. For example, Startup Boost ensures Edge launches instantly, and improved text rendering delivers better fonts on Windows. These, in addition to several more, make Edge stand out among competitors. However, some services are head-scratching at best or outright bewildering at first sight.
 
Recently we covered a feature that could make one think Microsoft can see every picture you view online. Here is another one: an upcoming release will add a toggle enabling Edge to take screenshots of each page you visit. And no, it is not a clickbait-like assumption: Microsoft clearly states it wants to screenshot everything you view online.

Remember installing Windows 7 and not getting a metric ton of bloatware? Those were the good days. Nowadays, modern Windows versions come bundled with all sorts of third-party apps pinned to the Start menu, a sad reality for a premium product with a price tag of $139 and up.
 
PC enthusiasts have plenty of tools to fight back Microsoft's attempts to fill Windows to the brim with unnecessary software. However, you do not need complicated scripts or third-party utilities to get a clean Windows 11 installation without TikTok, Instagram, ESPN, Spotify, and other programs. All you need is one simple setting most users ignore when clean-installing Windows on their machines.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' tops the chart, followed by 'The Little Mermaid'. ‘The Flash' 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.

In this issue of Microsoft Weekly: Microsoft's latest financial reports, new Windows 11 builds in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels, Edge's new cute mascot, an antitrust investigation in the EU, and a bunch of reviews.

You can catch up on all of this week's news right here!

From hedgehogs on Microsoft's Redmond campus to Phil Spencer surprising us with a major Final Fantasy announcement at this year's Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival, it's been an eventful week.

Thankfully for anyone wanting to catch up on Microsoft, Xbox, and Windows news, we have a roundup of the biggest stories.

Pete Batard, creator of the Rufus app, has released a new feature update in the stable channel. Earlier this month, version 4.2 arrived as beta, and now it is ready to offer the latest improvements for all users.
 
Although Rufus 4.2 does not contain groundbreaking new features, it offers several notable changes, improvements, and fixes. For example, the app can warn users about revoked UEFI bootloaders.
 
This feature is related to changes in the Windows Boot Manager that will cause specific media to stop booting after Q1 2024 (find more information in the official documentation). Also, Rufus now supports ZIP64, allowing you to extract images larger than 4GB.
 
Finally, there is support for saving and restoring the current drive to or from compressed VHDX and FFU images, plus a bunch of bugfixes.

By Susan Bradley (AKA 'The Microsoft Patch Lady')
 
If you haven’t updated to Windows 10/11 22H2, now is a good time because I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.
 
This month’s updates have now settled down to the point that I don’t anticipate any issues for the vast majority of readers, nor have I seen any surprises in my testing on Windows 10 or Windows 11.
 
22H2 is now my recommended version of Windows for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 for all editions and all types of users — with the single exception of gamers.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'The Flash' tops the chart, followed by 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' 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.

Choosing the right VPN can be a tricky endeavor. There are hundreds of VPN services out there promising to improve users' privacy, but some are more private than others.

To help you pick the best one for your needs, we asked dozens of VPNs to detail their logging practices, how they handle torrent users, and what else they do to keep you as anonymous as possible.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we take a look at the long-rumored Xbox Live Gold replacement called "Xbox Game Pass Core" and its features; Windows Insiders get new builds with Windows 11 23H2 features, energy improvements, and more; plenty of apps get plenty of changes in the latest updates; Microsoft announces Bing Chat for enterprise with a hefty price-per-user; and we recall Microsoft's first attempt to disrupt the mobile market with a cordless mobile phone.

Intel moved to a hybrid x86 CPU design for its 11th generation of Core processors (Alder Lake). Not only that, but the company also made several other changes to other components too, dubbed the "Uncore" portion of the processor, also referred to as the System Agent, which includes the Northbridge. One such change is apparently causing various latency issues and sluggish performance in general on Intel's hybrid chips according to a report by YouTuber Tech YES City (TYC).

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' tops the chart, followed by 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'. ‘John Wick: Chapter 4' 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.

Keyboard shortcuts are an extremely powerful productivity-boosting feature. Sadly, Windows has no built-in shortcut guide, so I decided to list my eleven favorite shortcuts without which I cannot use my computer.

If colours are not looking as they should on the screen, it's probably because the device isn't using the correct colour profile. Here's the fix on Windows 11.

On Windows 11, similar to any operating system, accurate colour rendering on the screen is critical, even more for those professionals working on video editing, photography, or gamers. As a result, in this guide, you will learn the steps to set the correct colour profile for your monitor. 

Towards the end of last month, Nvidia released a firmware update tool for DisplayPort (DP) 1.3 and DP 1.4. The green team explains in its support document that users who are running such display specifications without the necessary firmware can experience black screen until the OS is able to load. Aside from black screening, hang while booting can also occur. Essentially, what this tool does is detect if the GPU requires a newer firmware to properly run DP 1.3 and DP 1.4. Hence, the firmware update is meant to address compatibility issues. Turing (RTX 20-series/GTX 16-series) and newer GPUs already feature the updated firmware. Hence, your DP issues may be unrelated.

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we take a look at FTC losing the Microsoft-ABK merger case, Microsoft confirming Windows 11 version 23H2, a new Office font to replace the 13-year-old Calibri, Patch Tuesday updates, a new way to remove the half-dead Cortana from Windows 11, Windows Update-like ransomware, and new features to test in Windows 11's latest preview build.

The Event Viewer can help you to monitor and troubleshoot issues on Windows 11, and here's how.

The Event Viewer on Windows 11 is an application that collects system and app event logs on a friendly interface that you can use to monitor and troubleshoot problems. Also, it can come in handy to track the performance of your computer.

In 2021, Microsoft announced it was planning to replace Calibri as the default font for its Office productivity apps. It presented the public with five competing fonts (Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview) and asked them to vote for their favorite via Twitter polls, online feedback, and more. Today, Microsoft Design announced the winner.
 
On its Medium page, Microsoft Design stated that the winning font was . . . Bierstadt! However, Microsoft decided to give the winning font a name change, so the new default Office font is now called . . . Aptos!

Microsoft has been working on version 23H2 of Windows 11 for a very long time. We got the first tidbits of it back in 2022 when evidence of WDDM (Windows Display Driver Module) 3.2 surfaced in leaks. More recently, in 2023, VBScript removal was something on the menu for Microsoft, following MSDT deprecation.
 
A couple of months ago, it was reported that 23H2 is not going to be a major update over 22H2 and that it would be delivered via an enablement package (EKB) or a Cumulative Update (C.U.). Microsoft, today confirmed such reports in a Tech Community blog post titled "Windows client roadmap update: July 2023".

Officially Windows 11 requires at least 4GB of RAM to run on a laptop, tablet, or desktop PC. However, "NTDEV", the developer behind the popular Tiny10 and Tiny11 Windows OS mod projects, has posted proof that he got a version of Tiny11 to run on a PC with below 4GB of RAM.

Microsoft has just released the July Patch Tuesday update KB5028185 for Windows 11 users, taking it up to OS Build 22621.1992. Interestingly, this update comes with quite an extensive list of features.