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A new HTTP spec proposes elimination of obnoxious “cookie banners”
Explicit privacy communication mechanism can simplify UI and limit user fatigue.

The UK Times has a particularly obnoxious cookie banner—it blocks nearly all site content until dealt with. There's also no "simple deny" option of just clicking an X.

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), passed in 2018, requires websites to ask visitors for consent prior to placing cookies. As any Internet user is now aware, this means an extra step required when visiting nearly any website for the first time—or potentially every time, if you choose not to accept cookies. A new proposed HTTP standard from None of Your Business and the Sustainable Computing Lab would allow the user to set their privacy preferences once, inside the browser itself, and have the browser communicate those preferences invisibly with any website the user visits.

Windows 11 Leaked - What we know so far about Microsoft's new OS
 
An alleged preview build for Windows 11 has been leaked, confirming the new name for Microsoft's next generation of Windows and providing a glimpse of the new features.
 
Ever since Microsoft announced that they were unveiling their next-generation version of Windows in a June 24th Windows event, speculation about its name has been running rampant.
 
If this leaked build is legitimate, and it appears it is, we now have confirmation that the next version of Windows is Windows 11.

Google’s unified Gmail interface (and Google Chat) launches for everyone
Gmail's new do-it-all interface is thankfully optional.

The new, unified Gmail rolling out to consumers today. In the sidebar, you get buttons for Gmail Inbox, Google Chat chats, Google Chat rooms, and Google Meet. You can also open this split-screen Google Docs view.

Windows 10 has an optional update problem, and it's annoying
 
Windows 10 has a frustrating and annoying problem where Windows Update will only offer one optional update at a time.
 
Microsoft commonly releases new updates that are considered optional that won't be installed automatically by Windows Update.
 
Optional updates include new Windows 10 feature updates, Windows 10 preview cumulative updates, feature experience packs, and some out-of-band fixes that target a specific bug in the operating system.

How to disable the Weather widget from the Windows 10 Taskbar

Microsoft released the KB5003637 Windows Update on Tuesday. It brings various security fixes, which you can read about in Martin's article.

Apple, Mozilla, Google, Microsoft form group to standardize browser plug-ins
 
The new WebExtensions Community Group will try to forge a common architecture for future web extensions, and is inviting developers to join the effort.

Microsoft: Russian hackers used 4 new malware in USAID phishing

Microsoft states that a Russian hacking group used four new malware families in recent phishing attacks impersonating the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
 
Thursday night, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) disclosed that the Russian-backed hacking group APT29, also known as Nobelium, had compromised the Contact Contact account for USAID.
 
Using this legitimate marketing account, the threat actors impersonated USAID in phishing emails sent to approximately 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations, including government agencies and organizations devoted to international development, humanitarian, and human rights work.
Targeting phishing emails pretending to be from USAID.

Transform pictures into pixel art with SLK_img2pixel
Are you a fan of pixel graphics? Do you want to convert your pictures into a similar art style?
 

 
Well, you don't need to be a photo editing expert to add cool effects. The open source utility SLK_img2pixel provides an easy way to achieve the retro look that you want.
 
The application is portable, and takes up less than 4MB of storage space when extracted. SLK_img2pixel's interface is kind of old-school, and yet remains user-friendly.

Microsoft releases first Windows 10 package manager stable version
 
Microsoft has released the first stable version of the native Winget Windows 10 package manager that helps you manage applications directly from the command line.
 
Just as other package managers available on other platforms, Winget allows you to automate app management by enabling you to install, configure, upgrade, and remove Windows applications.
 
Microsoft first announced the first preview version of its Windows 10 package manager at Microsoft Build 2020 and has developed it as an open-source project on GitHub since then.
 
Today, at Microsoft Build 2021, the company announced Windows Package Manager 1.0, the package manager's first stable release after a year of development.

Microsoft tests sharing Edge browsing data with Windows
 
A web browser saves browsing data such as sites you visited, bookmarks you saved, and recent tabs to your profile on your device. Microsoft Edge going to make this data available to Windows features such as Search box and others for you to access when you enable the new Profiles setting in the Edge browser.

How to enable Tab Scrolling in Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a Chromium-based web browser, and as such limited to the same default tab handling mechanics as other Chromium-based browsers. By default, tabs get smaller and smaller the more you open, but there is no option to scroll them.
 
Microsoft did introduce support for vertical tabs in the recent release of Edge 89 Stable, and the feature is suggested to users when too many tabs are opened. If you prefer to use a horizontal tab bar on the other hand, you are left with little when it comes to managing lots of tabs in Edge. You could install a browser extension to improve tab management, or, if you run the Canary version, enable tab scrolling.

Microsoft fixes Windows 10 drive corruption bug — what you need to know
  
Microsoft has fixed a Windows 10 bug that could cause NTFS volumes to become corrupted by merely accessing a particular path or viewing a specially crafted file.
 
Last month, BleepingComputer reported on a new Windows bug that allows any users, including those with low privileges, to mark an NTFS volume as dirty. All a Windows user had to do to trigger the bug was to try to access a special path, shown in the image below.

Windows 10 gets a fix for annoying stuttering in some games
Patch KB4601382 is a preview update, though, with the usual caveats
 
(Image credit: Shutterstock; Future)
 
Windows 10 has received a preview version of a cumulative update, and it’s one that gamers might want to apply if they’ve been having any kind of trouble with stuttering or flickering (or indeed other rendering issues) when playing certain games.
 
As Microsoft states, patch KB4601382 (for Windows 10 May 2020 Update and October 2020 Update) applies the following fix: “Updates an issue with screen rendering after opening games with certain hardware configurations.”

Mozilla to disable backspace key in Firefox to stop data loss
 
Google and Microsoft both disabled the Backspace key in Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers that allows users to go back to a previous web page when pressed by citing data loss. Mozilla has now joined them, the company has disabled the Backspace and Shift+ Backspace keyboard shortcuts for forward/backward page navigations in Firefox 86.

How to disable Edge’s new URL copy and paste feature
Stop Microsoft’s browser from copying page titles rather than URLs 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
If you’re using a recent version of Microsoft’s Edge browser, you might have noticed that the way URLs copy and paste has changed. As of Edge version 87 for Windows or 88 for macOS, you’ll find that by default trying to copy and paste a URL from an address bar will paste the title of a webpage as a hyperlink rather than its URL directly.

Microsoft Edge 86 is out for everyone with a bunch of improvements

 
Microsoft does publish the release schedule for its Edge browser, and Edge 86 is here right on schedule. Build 86.0.622.38 is out in the Stable channel, meaning that it's available for everyone. As usual, it's chock full of new features.

An investigation into the top 10,000 Alexa sites reveals that many of these popular were infected with cryptocurrency miners and credit card skimming scripts.
 
Alexa is an online service that scores websites and ranks them based on their popularity, traffic earned, and various other factors.
 
In a shocking revelation made by Palo Alto Networks, some of these top sites that receive the highest amounts of internet traffic had ongoing malicious activity resulting from crypto miners and credit card stealing skimmers.

New finding says custom Windows 10 themes can be used to steal users' credentials

 
A new finding shared on Twitter by security researcher Jimmy Bayne points towards a loophole in Windows 10’s themes settings that can let bad actors steal users’ credentials by creating a specific theme to carry out a ‘Pass-the-Hash’ attack. The ability to install separate themes from other sources lets attackers create malicious themes files that when opened, redirect users to a page that prompts users to enter their credentials.

Microsoft once again warns of Adobe Flash removal from Edge by the end of the year

 
Adobe Flash is going away at the end of the year, and it's been a long time coming. Adobe first announced the end of life in July 2017, and every major browser vendor is committed to exorcising Adobe's legacy product from its browser by the end of the year. Microsoft published an update today promising to do just that, even though it made the same promise a year ago.
 

Microsoft has introduced Windows Sandbox as an optional feature in builds of Windows 10 19H1 (Windows 10 May 2019 update or Later). Windows Sandbox offers a secure, isolated, and disposable environment to test out suspicious programs and prevent them from affecting the main OS installation.

We (The Staff) have always been looking for a better way to communicate with nsane.fourms members instead of using the private message which sometimes causes a delay in responding  back, private message is full, and many other issues, so we have created a sub forum for that. Also, members have been using contact us page which now is only limited to use by guests, and this one caused many issues because not all staff members have access to the email address we receive the emails sent from it.