windows 11

Microsoft has accidentally leaked a tool that lets users try out every new feature that's in development. It's grabbed the attention of tech enthusiasts but is very much not a good idea for the average user. The tool came to light when Microsoft ... promoted an event called "Bug Bash". Normally that's an internal "all hands on deck" process where developers are told to hold off their normal work for a set period and instead concentrate solely on finding bugs in software. Microsoft opened this process up to members of the Windows Insider program that lets the public access in-development version ... (view more)

The latest Windows 11 update brings a host of new features. The emphasis appears to be very much about minor improvements rather than a major overhaul. All users who have the latest edition of Windows 11 (codenamed 22H2) will now get the "Moment 3" ... update. Those on older editions will only be getting the regular security patch. "Moment 3" doesn't include any dramatic changes but rather includes new and tweaked features that will have small but meaningful benefits. For example, File Explorer and the desktop will get "access keys," designed to bring the benefits of shortcut keys without the ... (view more)

Windows 11 users are continuing to report hard drives performing more slowly after mandatory system updates. The problem appears to affect solid state drives rather than traditional older model hard drives with moving parts. The Windows Latest ... website gathered together reports from its own forums, discussion site Reddit, and Microsoft's support forums. It concluded that the "performance issue doesn't appear to be widespread, but it is real." (Source: windowslatest.com ) One piece of evidence that something is actually amiss rather than it just being a fluke pattern is that those complaining ... (view more)

A supposed scam in which ChatGPT can provide working Windows 10 and 11 product keys is not quite what it seems. Most of the keys it provides will only give limited access to the system. Some reports have implied that ChatGPT is using artificial ... intelligence to figure out a working product key, perhaps in the manner of a safe cracker or somebody working out a user's online password. In reality, the "discovery" was made by a user playing around with ways to defeat ChatGPT's content filters. In most cases somebody asking ChatGPT to provide information that could be used for shady or downright ... (view more)

A recent report from StatCounter (March, 2023) suggests that Windows 11 is running on one out of every five Windows PCs (approximately 20 percent). Windows 11 has experienced a steady growth rate, increasing its market share from 19.13% to 20.94%, ... gaining 1.81 percentage points in March, 2023. While Windows 10 also saw an increase, it was not as significant as in February 2023 when Microsoft stopped support for Windows 7 and 8.1. Despite the increase in Windows 10's market share, Windows 11's growth rate indicates that users are more interested in the newer operating system. These numbers may ... (view more)

The Windows 11 taskbar will soon have a quick option to kill a task or process. It's something users currently need to do by opening Task Manager. The precise terminology of stopping Windows doing something has changed over the years, with terms ... including programs, applications, tasks and processes. The actual distinctions don't really matter that much to the average user, but they include whether the issue is with Windows itself or an application. They also depend on whether the user is trying to stop an entire application or simply one of multiple things it is doing, such as running ... (view more)

A new, unofficial version of Windows 11 runs on older machines with extremely limited memory and storage. In practice, though, Tiny11 is more for enthusiasts than the average user. Officially Windows 11 needs at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of hard ... drive space. The specs are a big increase from Windows 10 following several previous Windows editions where the minimum specs either increased slowly or remained steady. That prompted debate about what elements of Windows boost the memory and storage requirements and whether those elements are really necessary or desirable. Now a Romanian tech ... (view more)

Microsoft has abandoned plans to recommended websites in the Windows 11 Start menu. It hasn't said exactly why but suggests user feedback played a role. An idea to suggest searching on Microsoft Edge when copying text has also been ditched. It was ... the latest attempt to promote the browser to Windows users. The two ideas were both rolled out last November to users of the Dev channel in the Windows Insider test program. That's the first time potential new features are available to anyone outside of Microsoft. People who choose to use the Dev channel are particularly eager to see new ideas, ... (view more)

Windows 11 may soon show whether or not users are connected to a VPN. It's a simple feature, but it's significant since the technology is getting such mainstream acknowledgement. VPN stands for virtual private network, a feature that has three main ... benefits. The first is that it creates an "encrypted tunnel" for data going back and forth between the user and the Internet. One analogy is that ordinary Internet traffic works like a glass tube, while a VPN is more like a totally enclosed road tunnel. In simplistic terms, it means nobody else can see what is happening as data is sent and received ... (view more)

Microsoft Defender has come in last in two separate tests of Windows 11 security software. It's a surprise result given it generally did well on Windows 10. There's some comfort for Microsoft, however, as the nature of the testing means many users ... won't notice that much difference in practice. That's important given Microsoft Defender (previously Windows Defender) is built-in to Windows 11. The first rankings came from AV-Test, which describes itself as "The Independent IT-Security Institute." It ran a series of tests on 19 products using "realistic test scenarios" and "real-world threats." ( ... (view more)