Articles about Windows 11

Check Point Research (CPR) has identified a critical zero-day spoofing attack exploiting Microsoft Internet Explorer on modern Windows 10/11 systems, despite the browser's retirement.

Identified as CVE-2024-38112, this vulnerability allows attackers to execute remote code by tricking users into opening malicious Internet Shortcut (.url) files. This attack method has been active for over a year and could potentially impact millions.

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Four months ago, we reported that Microsoft was testing adding long overdue features like spell checking and autocorrect to its Notepad app. You may have been wondering when, or indeed if, this functionality was ever going to come non-Insiders, but the updated Notepad is now quietly rolling out to all users and you likely already have it installed.

Notepad has been a popular tool since its arrival in 1983, acting as a simple, free alternative to the likes of Word, and these new capabilities will be a welcome addition for its fans, especially after Microsoft took the controversial decision to kill off the more capable WordPad recently.

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Six-hundred-two in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Proton has launched a privacy-first document editing feature that is attached to its Proton Drive service.

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There are lots of ways that you can speed up Windows without performing pricey hardware upgrades, including disabling running processes and features. Windows comes with a handy, lesser-known feature which can boost your system performance by killing off annoying resource hogs you didn’t even know were running.

If you install a lot of software, you’re probably aware that many apps will automatically set themselves to run at login. This may be useful to you, but equally it could be a pain, and consume system resources without your permission, or even your knowledge. You can check to see what’s running using task manager, but there’s a way of being alerted automatically without having to lift a finger.

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Six-hundred-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Good news for Windows 10 users. Micro-patching service 0Patch will support the operating system at least until 2030 with security updates.

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Microsoft has released a preview version of next month's KB5039302 update for Windows 11. Although there are no security fixes, the update addresses a number of problems such as distorted audio in Snipping Tool recording and issues with ejecting USB devices.

This update also sees the welcome return of the Show Desktop button in the taskbar and brings new TAR and 7-Zip creation options to the context menu of File Explorer. But there's much more too.

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Six-hundred in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Many of the AI features that Microsoft is working on currently in Windows will only be available on Copilot+ PCs. This creates a multi-tier system of Windows users.

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Developers working on the PowerToys collection of utilities have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for eager users. Building on the New entry in the Windows content menu, New+ is a module that, in the words of its main developer, Christian Gaardmark, "enables users to create files and folders from a personalized set of templates".

As there are already numerous third party utilities that extend the capabilities of the New menu, there is clearly an appetite for the likes of New+. It's aimed at Windows power-users, developers and, over time, also regular users who find themselves often creating files or folders that contain similar content, such as VS Code development projects, job applications and cover letters, scripts, etc and it already looks incredibly intriguing.

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With the official launch of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has also unleashed Windows 11 24H2. This most recent update to Windows 11 has been a long time in the works, and there have been numerous preview builds available.

What is interesting is the way in which this launch is taking place. Copilot+ PC are now available with Windows 11 24H2 pre-installed, and it is also available to Insiders. The fact that systems have this version of the operating system installed means that development is complete (well, as complete as such work ever is), but the launch is dividing the Windows userbase into haves and have-nots -- in more ways than one.

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If you have been experiencing higher than normal CPU usage in Windows 11 recently, you are certainly not alone. There is good and bad news.

The good news is twofold. Firstly, the cause of the issue has been identified by Microsoft, and secondly, it only affects Insider builds of Windows 11. The bad news, however, is that there is no fix available, and no indication of when this may change.

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Five-hundred-and-ninety-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft is changing the functionality of the controversial Recall AI feature to improve quality and security. It won't release the feature on June 18 to Copilot+ PCs, but plans to introduce it to the Windows Insider Platform first.

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Since it was first announced, the Recall feature for Copilot+ PC has been a major headache for Microsoft. The AI-powered feature has raised all manner of privacy concerns, and now the company has responded by putting the brakes on rolling it out.

Microsoft doesn't use words like "delay" or "postpone", of course. In an update to an earlier blog post about the rollout of the feature, the company now says: " We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security".

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Microsoft is busy introducing AI functionality across Windows 11. That's great, but a lot of users would prefer to see an operating system that’s more user-friendly and lets you customize it as you see fit.

The tech giant has a history of not necessarily following expected naming conventions -- whatever happened to Windows 9? -- so this look at an OS that’s Windows 13, not Windows 12, perhaps shouldn’t seem too outlandish.

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When Microsoft announced the new Recall feature that is coming to Windows 11 later this year, privacy concerns were very quickly voiced by many.

In response to this, the company announced that Recall would not be enabled by default and would be made an opt-in feature. This PR move was made very publicly for maximum attention, but Microsoft has also withdrawn the build of Windows 11 which provided early access to Recall.

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The way Windows 11 interacts with mobile devices -- and, in turn, the way it lets users interact with them -- has been a little odd for some time. The Your Phone / Phone Link app showed that using Windows to use or browse your smartphone was really something of an afterthought for Microsoft.

Continuing the piecemeal approach to mobiles, it looks as though the company is finally about to give File Explorer the ability to browse smartphone contents. The option has been unearthed in Windows 11, although we don't yet know when it will be released properly.

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