Information Technology
The big picture: Dozens of European tech firms have accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the industry due to how it aggressively pushes and bundles first-party services (OneDrive, Office 365, Teams etc.) with Windows. German cloud storage company, Nextcloud, has revealed that it officially asked the EU and German authorities to put a stop … Continue reading EU tech firms file formal complaint against Microsoft for bundling OneDrive with Windows
What just happened? The latest Windows 11 preview release includes the introduction of a new style of emojis. After a PR campaign that started earlier this summer, Microsoft decided to resurrect Clippy as one of the new emojis. The update introduces emojis that are supposed to be more in line with the "Fluent" design style of Windows 11. … Continue reading Clippy is back… as a Windows 11 emoji
In brief: If you've been getting a blue screen of death on Windows 11 and you have Intel Smart Sound Technology installed, you might want to check its driver version. Microsoft flagged the issue this week and has offered a workaround. This week, Microsoft added a compatibility problem with the Intel Smart Sound Technology driver to its list … Continue reading An Intel sound driver is behind a Windows 11 BSOD, Microsoft posts workaround
What just happened? If you received an email from Microsoft this week offering you free gift cards and assumed it was a scam, check again. The Redmond company has confirmed it sent out 50,000 codes for its store, worth either $10 or $100 each, to US account holders. Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that it had given 50,000 … Continue reading Microsoft is sending random people 50,000 virtual gift cards worth up to $100
Why it matters: For the past ten years, Microsoft has undergone a radical transformation from a company obsessed with pushing its closed-source software to one that embraces open-source software and tries to add to it. However, that obsession hasn't been completely removed from the corporate culture, which has led to a lot of drama around the … Continue reading Microsoft backtracks from controversial decision to remove flagship feature from .NET 6 SDK
In brief: If you've ever wanted to run Visual Studio code in a web browser, now you can. Microsoft has made a zero-installation version of the popular desktop app that can be used as a local development tool, but naturally there are some caveats. Microsoft has revealed that developers who use Visual Studio Code can now run it … Continue reading Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code can now run in a web browser
The big picture: Microsoft’s shiny new OS has had a mixed reception, not helped by the fact that users considering updating/trying out the OS on their relatively recent PCs were put off by a stringent list of system requirements, accompanied by vague messaging around compatibility and updates for unsupported PCs. This situation has led to some … Continue reading Enthusiast manages to run Windows 11 on a single-core Intel Pentium 4 chip from 15 years ago
Through the looking glass: Recent Windows 11 releases have plagued AMD users with several documented performance issues. A blog post from the Windows Insider Program Team indicates that a fix for L3 cache performance and other performance-related flaws is on the horizon and already distributed via the Beta and Release Preview Channels. Microsoft added insult to … Continue reading New Windows 11 build made available to Insiders fixes AMD performance issues
In brief: If you've managed to upgrade an "unsupported" PC to the final release of Windows 11 (build 22000), you may have noticed that you can still receive Windows updates even though Microsoft said you're not entitled to any. For now, that means you'll continue to get cumulative updates, but there will come a time when … Continue reading You’ll still get Windows 11 updates on an unsupported system, just don’t get used to it
Facepalm: Windows 11 hasn’t exactly been lovingly embraced by the PC-owning public quite like Microsoft hoped, and now another element of the new OS has managed to annoy users: its emoji. The problem's not due to how different they are, but because they aren’t the drastic redesign seemingly promised by the Redmond company. Microsoft has made … Continue reading Microsoft denies pulling a bait-and-switch with Windows 11’s emoji design