Articles about Microsoft

When CrowdStrike issued a faulty security update on Friday, the impact was nothing less than catastrophic, causing a global IT outage that made Windows computers crash, impacting an estimated 8.5 million systems around the world.

"We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners, and their IT teams are working tirelessly, and we’re profoundly grateful. We apologize for the disruption this has created,” CrowdStrike said on LinkedIn.

Continue reading →

Outbyte has launched a new app designed to improve energy efficiency for systems running Windows 10 and 11. The free application optimizes CPU performance, reducing power consumption by up to 34 percent and decreasing carbon emissions to support environmental sustainability.

The Camomile app works by adjusting CPU voltage and frequency to prevent unnecessary spikes in power usage, which are common with default chipset configurations. These spikes often cause CPUs to overheat and fans to work harder, increasing noise and decreasing system efficiency. By keeping CPU operations within manufacturer-recommended speeds, Camomile reportedly helps mitigate these issues, extending battery life, and improving the overall user experience.

Continue reading →

Six-hundred-four 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.

Windows 11 version 23H2 is now broadly available according to Microsoft. This means that everyone with an eligible device should get it when searching for the update under Windows Update in Settings. Non-managed devices with Windows 11 version 22H2 will be updated automatically in the coming months.

Continue reading →

You'll doubtless be aware already of the major outages of Microsoft systems today causing problems for airports, rail operators, banks, retailers, broadcasters and more.

Among the disruption stores found themselves unable to accept payments and in the UK Sky News’s breakfast show was taken off air. Some airports were forced to use whiteboards to show flight departure information.

Continue reading →

Last month, Microsoft acknowledged an issue with the Photos app that is included with Windows 11. Anyone installing updates for the app from June 4 onwards may have found themselves unable to launch Photos.

Having already announced that it was working on producing a fix, Microsoft has now provided details of a temporary workaround.

Continue reading →

Six-hundred-three 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 started to push out the new Copilot app to Windows 10 devices as part of the July 2024 cumulative update for the operating system. It removes the Copilot button and integration, and replaces it with a Microsoft Store app. The same Copilot experience is also launching on Windows 11 devices.

Continue reading →

Microsoft Office stands as a pillar in the landscape of modern productivity tools. Its suite of programs -- from Word for crafting documents to Excel for data analysis - allows for versatility in both personal and professional environments. Used from everything like notetaking, resumes, essays, and business reports, in today’s digital age, these documents are indispensable and trusted tools.

This versatility, however, presents a double-edged sword. While they enhance efficiency and functionality, they simultaneously create potential security risks. This duality makes Microsoft Office documents an attractive target for threat actors, who exploit their widespread use and familiar interface to deliver phishing and malware with alarming ease.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has issued a reminder to anyone using older editions of Windows 11 that their operating system is about to reach end of servicing.

Windows 11 versions 21H2 and 22H2 will no longer receive security updates as of October. To avoid the problem of leaving people with an insecure and unsupported operating system, Microsoft has a solution: forced upgrades.

Continue reading →

This month’s update for Windows 11 is pretty impressive. There are the typical bug fixes that you would expect, but there are also lots of additions and improvements to the operating system.

Like Windows 10, Windows 11 Copilot now offers a more app-like experience, and there is the very welcome return of the Show Desktop button on the taskbar. Other improvements mean that it is now possible to create 7-Zip and Tape Archive (TAR) files using the context menu, and there is newly added support for Emoji 15.1. But that’s just for starters.

Continue reading →

The Windows Registry is obviously a critical component of the Windows operating system, serving as a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the OS and applications. It contains configurations for system hardware, installed software, user preferences, and the OS itself.

You can add new functionality to Windows and change how existing features work by creating new registry keys or altering existing ones, typically changing their binary values from 0 to 1 or vice versa. But have you ever wondered what would happen to Windows if -- in a moment of madness -- you set every registry key to 0? Basically setting them to ‘disabled’ or ‘off'?

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

PowerToys updates are always keenly received, and while users are hoping for new utilities every time, even those releases that are focused on "stability and improvements" can be exciting.

The release of PowerToys v.082.0 does not, sadly see the addition of new modules, but it is a big release. The number of bug fixes and tweaks is impressive, but there are also many new options scattered liberally across the suite of utilities.

Continue reading →

Microsoft goes through phases of deprecating features from Windows and other software and services it produces. The latest for the chopping block is a component of Windows Server Update Services -- driver synchronization.

While certainly not something that is used by everyone, WSUS driver synchronization gives sysadmins a handy way to sync driver updates across networked devices. But now the clock is ticking, as Microsoft has announced that the feature is heading to the graveyard.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →