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Steam is introducing a new feature to help gamers find titles that are upcoming, or were recently released. It's calling this tailored experience, Personal Calendar.

Valve has redesigned Steam quite a bit this year, with a new menu, improved search and recommendations. But Steam is filled to the brim with all sorts of games, from shovelware, asset flips, to sleeper hits, cult classics. The problem is, it's honestly quite difficult to find games that you may like. Discovering hidden gems among indie games is even more challenging. And with the amount of new titles being released every week, it's not easy to keep track of what's launching when.

Sometimes games that you may like may shadow-drop, and you wouldn't even know about it until stumbling upon it by chance somewhere, and that could take anytime from a few days to months. Many users rely on blogs, news outlets, social media, or YouTube channels for their gaming news including announcements about upcoming games, or new releases. Of course, AI also plays a role in this nowadays. That's a lot to follow and keep track of. The Steam Personal Calendar could just about make things easier.

(Image courtesy: Steam)

It displays a neat monthly calendar with the name and thumbnail of the game that is releasing. It's simple, yet elegant, and is tailored based on your playtime. These are essentially recommendations that are similar to games that you played, or have on your wish list. Valve says the Personal Calendar won't just look at games in your library, or those you played for a few minutes, or demos either. No, it takes note of games that you spent a long time in. This recommendation list updates every day to reflect the latest data.

(Image courtesy: Steam)

All the tiles in the calendar are clickable, meaning they take you to the store listings for each game. Recent releases are listed at the top of the page, i.e. games that came out in the previous week or month, you can scroll down to view the upcoming games to find something that you may like. There are some customization options for Personal Calendar, you can hide games that you own, show only wishlisted games, filter the calendar by tag, increase or decrease the number of games displayed.

It filters out games based on your preferences such as ignored products, tags, etc. But it doesn't resize the calendar tiles dynamically after hiding the games, so there are some blank spaces that look ugly.

Want to check your Steam Personal Calendar? Head on over to this page, you'll need to be signed in to your Steam account, because the recommendations are personalized for you.

Steam will end support for Windows 32-bit in 2026.

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Most home Windows machines may download drivers automatically via Windows Update by default. In the best case scenario, users do not need to install any driver manually to ensure their devices are working properly and offer the best performance. This was not always the case, and you had to install drivers from floppy disks or CDs, or download them from the Internet to get certain peripherals or hardware working properly.

Quite a few programs exist to manage Windows drivers. These usually let you export lists of drivers and check driver information, something that Windows offers as well, but not as straightforward.

When you monitor the installation of drivers, you may notice Windows installing drivers that look to be very old. It is puzzling, so much, that Microsoft decided to publish a new FAQ on its support website to reveal why this might be happening, and why it is usually nothing to worry about.

Here is Microsoft's answer to "Why did Windows install an old driver?": "Driver dates might look old, but that is not true. The driver date is descriptive info set by the driver provider and can be any date they choose. When determining which driver to install, Windows Update uses targeting information set by the provider inside the driver files to determine the best driver. This lets the device provider promote the best driver, regardless of the chosen date. "

In short, Windows pulls the driver date from the data that the driver creator provides. It can be any date, which could make recent drivers look old. Windows, on the other hand, does not use the date information provided to determine the driver that is best suited for a particular Windows machine. It uses other information and Windows Update might conclude that the seemingly old driver might be best suited for a specific Windows PC.

Now, that does not mean that you can't install another driver manually on the system, provided that you still find a download on the manufacturer's site or have a driver locally already.

Microsoft announced plans to simplify driver titles. Windows Update displays the publisher's name and driver version number now, as provided by the manufacturer. However, there is one exception to the rule. Older drivers, which displayed publisher name - device class- version number, continue to display the driver name as such.

Microsoft did announce to clean up the drivers that it offers via Windows Update earlier this year.

In closing, Microsoft says that old driver dates are nothing to worry about, if the drivers get installed via Windows Update, as the automatic updating system decided that a particular driver was the best fit for that particular Windows system. Still pays to verify that this is indeed the case though.

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Remember when Microsoft Edge used to promote itself when you searched for other browsers? Well, it's doing something similar, this time to push Copilot.

When you search for Gemini, or ChatGPT on Bing, Microsoft displays a promotional ad that recommends Copilot. This has been happening for a while now, despite complaints from users, criticism from browser makers, and more. It never misses an opportunity to highlight Copilot in Edge. There's of course, Copilot Vision and Copilot Voice, which is now available for all Windows 11 users.

Microsoft's marketing strategy appears to be evolving. It's no longer confining itself to Bing to promote its own AI service on Edge. According to a report by Windows Latest's Mayank Parmar, Edge on Windows 11 is nudging users who visit ChatGPT.com or Perplexity.AI or DeepSeek towards Copilot. How? When you visit Microsoft's AI rivals, a small alert appears in Edge's address bar that says "Try Copilot". That's interesting. Deciding to try it, I booted up my Windows VM to check, and guess what?

It's real, and this on the stable version of Windows, Edge stable, not some Beta or Canary. The address-bar button is not just a piece of text, you can click on it to open the browser's built-in sidebar that lets you access Copilot. The button doesn't have a right-click menu. One thing worth noting is that the button collapses to just display the icon.

So, this button is an ad, right? Well, at least it's not an intrusive pop-up that promotes Copilot. But, it's still noticeable, but not very distracting. It also seems to vanish after a while, at least after I switched to different tabs. I couldn't find a way to disable the button. Is it unethical to promote Copilot like this when visiting third-party websites? I don't know.

The report says that the Try Copilot button also appears on Comet browser's download page, and OpenAI's GPT Codex. I can confirm that, and I'm assuming that Edge is promoting Copilot based on the parent domain. Curiously, the Try Copilot button doesn't seem to do that on Gemini's web version, or Google.com. It's unclear why it wouldn't do that on Google's domains. I didn't get the button on Mistral's Le Chat, Proton Lumo, Claude AI, either. That's a good thing, the button doesn't appear on all web pages.

Note: Proton, Claude had address-bar buttons that promoted their own app. That maybe why Try Copilot didn't appear.

 

What about you? Do you mind the Try Copilot button?

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Microsoft has released an out-of-band (OOB) update to patch an issue related to Windows 11's Recovery Environment. Users had reported a major bug that was introduced in this month's Patch Tuesday update.

KB5066835, which was released on October 14, 2025, had a couple of known issues, one of which was related to USB devices not working in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). This issue affected keyboards, mice, which prevented users from performing recovery options in WinRE. That sounds like a proper nightmare, if you had trouble with Windows, you could be stuck on the recovery screen that didn't register any input from the user.

A week after the update was released, Microsoft has announced that KB5066835 is now available as an emergency out-of-band update to address the problem. It is a cumulative patch, so it contains all the security fixes, updates that were shipped in the previous update. Here's the page on Microsoft's support portal that has the release notes for the latest update.

While it may have fixed the WinRE issue, the update does not bring a solution for the other known issue, that came to light over 2 months ago.  At the end of August, Microsoft released KB5064081 as a Windows non-security preview update, which was later bundled into the September Windows Update. This patch resulted in the following issue, "some Digital TV and Blu-ray/DVD apps might not play DRM content". It affects apps that use Enhanced Video Renderer with HDCP enforcement or Digital Rights Management (DRM) for digital audio. Playback may fail, or be interrupted frequently, or display black screens or copyright protection errors. While it partially addressed the HDCP enforcement in September's update, the issue isn't fully patched. It is unclear whether Microsoft will resolve this problem.

The KB5066835 update is available for Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2 via Windows Update. Some users say that the update is not being installed, they are running into some errors. You can download it manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog to see if that helps.

Did you run into the WinRE issues?

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When Apple released iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, one specific change drew criticism, Liquid Glass. And it looks like the Cupertino company has acknowledged that its redesign did not please users as it had expected.

It's difficult to say whether the complaints were from a vocal minority, or from a vast majority. But there was negative feedback, no question about it. Even I don't like it. The main problem, however, is that there is no way to disable it. That is, apart from reducing motion effects, and the transparency. These workarounds don't really get rid of Liquid Glass, and actually make it look quite terrible.

Macrumors reports that Apple is giving users a bit more control over Liquid Glass. It is introducing a toggle that lets users switch between Liquid Glass' Clear and Tinted look. Clear is the default option, which makes buttons, bars, menus transparent. Tinted makes them opaque, with more contrast to make it easier on the eyes.

Here's a screenshot that shows the difference.

(Image courtesy: Macrumors)

It's subtle, it isn't a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing. A slider to control the transparency effect would have made more sense.

The new toggle for Liquid Glass is currently being tested in iOS 26.1 Beta, iPadOS 26.1 Beta and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Beta. iPhone and iPad users can head on over to Settings > Display and Brightness, and toggle between Clear and Tinted. Mac users can do the same from System Settings > Appearance.

It's not just about the transparency, Liquid Glass came with new animations that glitch out at times, or stutter. It is more taxing on the CPU, and is particularly noticeable on older iPhone models with less memory. The redesign was likely made with the current gen devices in mind, which isn't wrong per se. But Apple should have made Liquid Glass optional in the first place, if it had, these problems would have never existed.

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Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. But it wasn't the only Microsoft product that was discontinued last Tuesday, Office 2016 and Office 2019 also reached end of support.

Martin wrote about this in April to give readers a heads-up, but it has finally happened.

Windows 10 users have a lifeline, Extended Security Updates (ESU), which can be extended for free for a year. Unlike Windows 10 ESU, however, there are no options to get updates for the Office suites, even if you are willing to pay for updates.

An article on the Microsoft 365 Blog says that the following products have reached end of support:

Access 2016, Access 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2019, Project 2016, Project 2019, Publisher 2016, Publisher 2019, Skype for Business 2016, Skype for Business 2019, Visio 2016, Visio 2019, Word 2016, Word 2019, Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019.

Microsoft warns about security risks for discontinued products, as they won't get security fixes that could make devices, apps or servers vulnerable to threats. It also highlighted that bug fixes won't be provided, neither will tech support. The Redmond company also noted that continuing to use products after their end of support can negatively impact organizational security, compliance, and productivity. It also recommends users to upgrade their versions as soon as possible.

That's mostly marketing talk, trying to scare the users into buying a subscription. But, they are not completely wrong about security risks.

Microsoft is recommending Enterprise users to Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or Microsoft 365 Apps (if you don't use then full suite). Organizations that require an offline solution can upgrade to Office LTSC 2024.

Home users of Office 2016 and Office 2019 can upgrade to Office Home 2024 for $149.99, or Office Home & Business 2024 - $249.99. Both suites are available on Windows and Mac, and will be supported until Oct 9, 2029.

If you want a free alternative for Microsoft Office, you should take a look at LibreOffice. It's open source, works offline, supports Office document formats, and is available across all platforms.

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Wikipedia has revealed that it is seeing a decline in web traffic from human users. And the reason for it is, unsurprisingly, AI search.

An article posted by Wikimedia Foundation's Marshall Miller highlights how global trends have negatively impacted Wikipedia. The article says that Wikimedia Foundation's algorithms classify traffic from humans and bots. In May 2025, the foundation observed unusually high amounts of seemingly human traffic from Brazil. After investigating the matter, it updated its bot detection systems. Then the traffic data was reclassified for March to August 2025. It appears that a lot of the traffic was actually bots that were designed to evade detection.

The analysis reveals that Wikipedia saw a drop in human user traffic of around 8%, for the same duration, compared to 2024. Wikimedia believes that this decline is due to the bots, which are due to generative AI summaries on search engines, chatbots and social media. It says that Wikipedia's data sets are used to train almost all large language models (LLMs), but they may not always link to its sites. The report also notes that this behavior is not unique to Wikipedia, other platforms, publishers are observing the same.

You may recall that Google has previously denied that AI in search results in less traffic, as in it does not steal traffic from blogs and other websites, contrary to reports that said Google AI Overviews has over 2 Billion monthly users.

. Well, here is solid proof that's not the case, and this is coming from a company whose business is entirely dependent on web traffic.

(Image courtesy: Wikimedia)

When a user finds what they want from an AI, they don't visit the source, or continue with that session. This results in a loss of traffic for the source.

As TechCrunch reports, Wikipedia itself had experimented with AI-generated summaries in June, and drew criticism from editors. It's unethical.

Don't get me wrong. AI search offers a lot of value, it can save you a lot of time depending on the topic that you are researching. Personally, I have found AI search useful for specific scenarios like shopping, searching for coupons, pulling up product information, terms and conditions, etc., that may be buried deep on a website that doesn't really show up on a regular search.

However, the problem is that the quality of AI search results is often not better than a traditional search engine. Bots may spit out a summary based on low-effort posts, inaccurate content, fabricated posts on social media, etc. How many people take the time to verify the results? Not a lot I guess, they just assume whatever the AI says is true, which can often be misleading, as a lot of the things that you across on the web are themselves AI-generated. Such inaccuracies are often called "hallucinations", which I find to be a bit misleading. AI models are not sentient, they are trained on datasets. If it can't think on its own, it cannot hallucinate. They just reproduce information, not create them.

AI in search needs to be improved, and ensure websites are credited with proper links. Wikipedia is encouraging AI users to visit the source material. It is working on 2 new readers teams called Reader Growth and Reader Experience), in order to improve the ways users access Wikipedia, and is also working on a framework for attribution, among other improvements.

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When Google announced the end of third-party cookies support in Chrome in 2020 and its Privacy Sandbox plans, it probably did not expect as much opposition to the plans than it received. While the majority of users liked the idea of erasing third-party cookie support from the Internet, Google's euphemistically called Privacy Sandbox plan was anything but.

One core feature of one of the technologies was the switch from individual user tracking to group-based tracking. Still tracking, but according to Google better for the individual. Still, tracking would continue, albeit in a different form. Other components faced criticism as well, especially since everything looked to give Google more power and control on the Internet.

Today, Google announced the end of quite a few Privacy Sandbox technologies. " Attribution Reporting API (Chrome and Android), IP Protection, On-Device Personalization, Private Aggregation (including Shared Storage), Protected Audience (Chrome and Android), Protected App Signals, Related Website Sets (including requestStorageAccessFor and Related Website Partition), SelectURL, SDK Runtime and Topics (Chrome and Android)" are all retired and will be phased out, if they are already part of the browser.

Some technologies, including CHIPS and FedCM, which Google says "improve cookie privacy and security" remain, as they have been widely adopted already. Here is what they do:

• Cookies Having Independent Partitioned State (CHIPS): Limits third-party cookie access to a top-level site where it was set initially. In other words, other sites can't access the cookie data.
• Federated Credential Management API: Aims to improve authentication and sign ins on the Internet by using existing accounts from trusted services while keeping personal information safe.

Lastly, Private State Tokens continue to be maintained as well. This allows sites to convey trust from one context to another. Google says that this is helping sites "combat fraud and distinguish bots from real humans - without passive tracking".

Now You: what is your take on this? Good decision, or something that is not beneficial to the privacy of users? Feel free to chime in below.

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Xubuntu's website was the latest to fall victim to hackers. The attackers replaced the download links with a malicious one.

For those unaware, Xubuntu is one of the official flavors of Ubuntu, i.e. a fork/derivate of the distro. The name is a portmanteau of Xfce and Ubuntu.

Anyway, from what I can tell from user reports, the attackers replaced the download links on Xubuntu.org with a malicious one. So instead of downloading a .torrent file, it downloaded some ZIP archive that contained the malicious file.

Here is a screenshot of what the malware looks like.

(Image courtesy reddit user Buty935)

Notice that it says Target Windows Version? That, combined with the EXE in the name, seems to suggest they were targeting Windows users. Perhaps users who are moving away from Windows 10, but weren't familiar with Linux or torrents? Despite what users might think, it is not a Linux malware. It installed itself to appdata, which only exists on Windows. The malware seems to be impersonating a GUI based downloader for Ubuntu. It stealthily runs some command prompts in the background to deliver the payload.

Here's the VirusTotal link for the malware. The file was called " TestCompany.SafeDownloader.exe". It is flagged by 26/72 security vendors as malicious. Users who inspected the malware say it is a Cryto Clipper. It's not a crypto miner, it's essentially a clipboard hijacking malware that targets cryptocurrencies.

According to a user on Hacker News, the malware replaces the crypto wallet addresses in the clipboard with ones belonging to the attackers.

It seems that only Xubuntu's website was compromised, some users say that the torrents and releases/mirrors themselves do not appear to have been affected by the issue. Nevertheless, you should probably verify your downloads using the checksums provided by the developers.

A comment from Xubuntu's team says that there was some sort of slip-up in their hosting environment, and that they have disabled the Downloads page to mitigate the issue. That's a vague statement, it sounds rather irresponsible, and dismissive of the situation. How the hackers were able to compromise the server remains a mystery. It is also unclear how many people were impacted by this security lapse.

Xubuntu seems to have restored an older version of its download page, because it shows Xubuntu 24.04 from April 2024, instead of Xubuntu 25.10 based on Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka, and blog articles from 2021. And the download button doesn't seem to work either. They are likely in damage control mode. A post on reddit from September 10th says that Xubuntu's website suffered a hack a month ago, but that affected the articles on the blog,

This is not the first time a Linux distro's website has been hacked to serve malware. In fact, there were a handful of breaches in recent months. Arch Linux's Arch User Repository (AUR) was targeted by a Chaos Remote Acess Trojan (RAT) malware in July. There was a DDos attack that targeted fedoraproject.org services in August, and a Red Hat GitLab instance was hacked a couple of weeks ago.

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A couple of days ago, I told you how you can regain access to your Google account using Recovery Contacts. Let's discuss the other recovery option that Google introduced, sign in with phone number.

Now, you may wonder, didn't Google already let you sign in using a phone number? Technically, no, but you're not completely wrong about that. Up until now, Google has allowed users to sign in to their account using your username, password, and your mobile number. Your phone number is used to receive an SMS for 2-step verification. That's not very secure, because the SMS protocol lacks support for encryption. You could, and should, use an authenticator app instead.

But let's get back to using a phone number to sign in. Google will ask you to enter your phone number, which is used to search for accounts connected to that number. This is done by verifying your number with your carrier, likely via an automated text message. Then, Google will display all accounts that are connected to your phone number. Select the one you want to sign in to, and then you will be asked to enter the passcode of your previous device. This is required to verify the sign in attempt and allow access to your encrypted data.

Is this secure? Well, it doesn't rely solely on SMS. You will need to enter your device's passcode to verify the account, so I'd say it is more secure. It also supports screen patterns. This might be useful if you don't have a secondary phone or access to your passkeys, 2FA, etc. The support article for the feature is available here, though it doesn't seem to explain much about it.

Google's announcement mentions that this method is useful when phones get lost, stolen or stop working. Though it doesn't portray it as such, you can use it for setting up a new phone. I haven't tested it, but it is not a recovery only option, it's a sign in option. That's what it is designed for, when you lose access to your phone, obviously you are going to be switching to a new phone. Right? It might be more convenient perhaps, but I'd probably still use a 2FA app, it's more secure as TOTPs can't be guessed or brute forced like a passcode or screen pattern can. Besides, this new method only works on Android devices, not on iOS, PC, Linux or Mac. So, you'll still need to use traditional login methods.

Google says the option to sign in with a phone number is slowly rolling out to users globally.

On a side note, Google Messages now protects you from spam links, and helps verify the identity of your contacts.

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Meta has announced that it is discontinuing its Messenger app for Windows and Mac. The standalone apps are being deprecated in December.

Apple Insider spotted a couple of help pages on Facebook's website that indicated that the apps are being retired. It's unclear why the apps are being killed. As a reminder, Meta replaced its native Messenger app on Windows with a progressive web app in late 2024. A few months ago, the WhatsApp UWP app was also replaced with a web wrapper. Users were upset by both changes.

Meta will notify Messenger desktop users that the app is being retired, via an in-app notification, after the app's deprecation process begins. Existing users will be able to use the Messenger app on Windows or Mac for 60 days before it is fully deprecated. After that, the app will stop working altogether. That doesn't mean existing users get a 60-day grace period. The help pages say that the app is being deprecated, as in it has happened already.

Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that the Messenger desktop apps for Mac and Windows are scheduled to be shut down on December 15, and that's 60 days from now. Users will not be able to sign in to the app, and will be redirected to the Facebook website, where they can continue to access Messenger. Or you can use the Facebook desktop app to use Messenger app for chatting, and calling. The app is only available for Windows, there is no Facebook app for Mac, which means you're stuck with the website. As I mentioned earlier, even the Windows app is just a web wrapper anyway.

Meta is advising users to export their chat history from the app by activating secure storage from Privacy and Safety > End-to-end encrypted chats > Message storage, set up a PIN to save the chats, before switching to Facebook.com. Here is the support page for Messenger on Windows, and this is for the Mac version.

Did you use the Messenger app on your computer?

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Microsoft announced the launch of Copilot Vision and Copilot Voice to all Windows 11 PCs yesterday. The opt-in features introduce options to talk to the AI and to give access to your screen. The features are rolling out worldwide.

It appears that Windows 11 is getting another big update, which Microsoft announced yesterday as well on the Windows Experience Blog.

Microsoft calls these new features experiences that are rolling out to Windows 11 devices as well. Unsurprisingly, many of them are also AI-related.

Windows 11: new features and improvements

Here is an overview of what Microsoft is launching for Windows 11:

• File Explorer is getting AI actions: Unlocks AI functionality, such as getting a summary of a document , including OneDrive and Sharepoint files, or editing images, right from the file manager. Image editing is limited to the four: Bing Visual Search, blur background, erase objects, and remove background.
• Microsoft 365 People cards: File Explorer will display people icons in the Activity column for commercial customers who sign in with an Entra ID.
• Widgets visual update: The widgets interface got a visual update with a layout that is "more organized, personalized, and engaging" according to Microsoft. It also includes Copilot-curated stories now and content from "trusted MSN premium publishers". Also new, multiple dashboards for your widgets board, and widgets on the lock screen.
• Accessibility improvements: Narrator includes a Braille viewer now, which "shows both on-screen text and its Braille equivalent". You may launch Braille viewer with the keyboard short Windows-Ctrl-Enter, pressing the Narrator key-Alt-B. Microsoft says that the Narrator experience in Word has been improved as well, offering better "oice feedback, reliable continuous reading, and better navigation for footnotes, comments, lists and tables".
• Gaming Copilot, a beta feature that introduces the AI for gaming related activities, is now integrated into Game Bar. Gamers can, for instance, talk to Copilot to get game related help, while playing a game.
• The Xbox PC app displays your gaming library across devices now and enables you to access apps and play history.
• A new Network Quality Indicator tool can be launched by clicking on the profile pic in the Xbox PC app > Settings > Cloud Gaming > Network Quality Indicator.
• Windows Hello is getting a visual refresh. Windows 11 prioritizes the "best credential" automatically now when you sign in to a Windows 11 PC with a Microsoft account.
• Passkeys: Windows 11 has a seamless passkey manager integration, which users can turn on via Settings > Accounts > Passkeys > Advanced options.
• Microsoft Edge is now using the password manager instead of the legacy Wallet experience, which Microsoft says has been retired. It improves integration with Microsoft accounts.
• Improved kernel security. Parts of Windows 11 have been rewritten in Rust to "help mitigate against memory corruption vulnerabilities". Driver developers may also start writing drivers in Rust.
• Wi-Fi 7 support :Microsoft is rolling out support for the new wireless standard.
• Redesigned Advanced settings page, especially for Developers.
• Microsoft Edit is a new command line text editor that is integrated into Windows.
• Windows ML is now generally available.
• Advanced shader delivery is now available for games on Windows 11 PCs. This feature should reduce the initial long load times and disruptive stuttering during a game's first launch, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft announced a good dozen smaller tweaks to Windows 11 next to that. The CPU workload metric in the Task Manager, for instance, is now consistent, and you find new top level divider icons in File Explorer for the five actions displayed at the top.

Last but not least, Copilot+ PCs get a range of changes and new features:

• Recall's personalized homepage shows a user's recent activity and top-used apps and websites, as well as recent snapshots.
• Click to Do shows "new and popular action tags" in its context menu.
• Agent in Settings  offers direct navigation links now, and it is available across all compatible PCs.
• Voice access using natural language.
• Paint is getting project files and an opacity slider.
• The Snipping Tool is getting a quick markup option. This allows you to make edits to the image right in the tool's selection area before the screenshot is finished.
• Notepad supports AI features like summarize or rewrite now.

PCs need to update to Windows 11, version 25H2 first. The latest security update for Windows 11 needs to be installed as well on the machine before the features become available.

Also worth nothing is that Microsoft is rolling the features out gradually. Means, if you are unlucky, you may not see a single new feature immediately after upgrading to the latest version.

Now You: What is your take on the features? Something that you find interesting or waited for a long time? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Microsoft's Windows account on X published several short cryptic messages in the past two days regarding a new announcement that the company wanted to make today.

The first message "Your hands are about to get some PTO. Time to rest those fingers…something big is coming Thursday" suggested that the feature would help users type less.

Today, Microsoft has lifted the veil and announced plans to make "every Windows 11 PC an AI PC" on the official Windows Experience blog on its Windows website.

At the core of the new experience is the Hey Cortana, ups, Hey Copilot phrase that all Windows 11 users may use to interact with the AI using their voice. In addition, Copilot Vision is there to analyze anything that you see on the screen.

Hey Copilot

Hej Copilot is an opt-in feature, which is a refreshing change for a start. You need to activate the feature in the settings before Copilot reacts to you uttering the new command phrase to start a conversation with the AI.

Windows displays a Copilot microphone on the screen, so that you know that the conversation is taking place. To end a conversation, all you need to say is Goodbye, according to Microsoft. You can also click on the x-icon instead, if you prefer using your hands for that.

So, if you prefer to use your voice to interact with the AI, now you can.

Copilot Vision

Copilot Vision, which gives the AI access to what you see on the screen, is now available worldwide in all markets that Copilot is available according to Microsoft.

Microsoft lists the following main features:

• Full desktop and app sharing - Copilot can analyze content that you share to "provide insights and answer your questions".
• You can ask Copilot "show me how" to get guidance in an application or game.
• Copilot Vision has full app content in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Means, even if you just share a document, it has access.
• Coming soon is a feature that Microsoft calls text-in text-out. This allows you to use text prompts to interact with Copilot Vision.

Last but not least, there is Manus, a general AI agent that can perform "various tasks" on user PCs. Microsoft explains that Manus can create a website from files in File Explorer, all without coding. It is available as a native app on Windows. It is available as a private preview, which means that it may take a while before it lands on Windows 11 PCs for the general public.

Microsoft reveals some information on security regarding AI agents on Windows. It says that users are "always in control of what Copilot Actions can do" and have visibility into what the AI is doing.

A second post reveals details.

• The agents use distinct accounts, which paves the way for agent-specific policies.
• Agents have limited permissions at first according to Microsoft, which can be expanded by the user.
• Agents need to be signed with a trusted source.
• The Microsoft privacy statement and responsible AI standard apply.

Microsoft says that the features are available to all Windows 11 PCs, and not only Copilot+ PCs. Do these have any advantage regarding the features? Microsoft does not say. Clearly, the feature relies on processing that is done on Microsoft servers, at least for PCs without an NPU. That is something to keep in mind, as what you say, show, or do may find its way on to Microsoft servers.

Still, for users who want the Copilot experience but have a non-Copilot+ PC, it marks an opportunity to give it a go.

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Apple has unveiled its next-gen MacBook Pro laptop. The device is powered by a new M5 Apple Silicon.

Apple's newest in-house chip has a 10-Core CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, a 10-Core GPU that supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a 16-Core Neural Engine, and neural accelerators. The laptop comes with 16GB/24GB/32GB of Unified Memory (RAM) with 153GB/s memory bandwidth, and 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB of SSD storage. The M5 MacBook Pro sports a 120Hz ProMotion 14.2” Liquid Retina XDR display (mini-LED), that has a resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels, 1000 nits sustained brightness, and 1600 nits peak for HDR. There is an option for a Nano-texture screen that will set you back by $150.

The M5 MacBook Pro comes with a 12MP Center Stage camera that supports 1080p HD video recording, and a High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers, wide stereo sound, spatial audio, Dolby Atmos, and a 3-mic array. As for connectivity, the M5 MacBook Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 ax, Bluetooth 5.3, has 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, a headphone jack, and a MagSafe 3 port. The laptop runs on macOS Tahoe 26 out of the box, and supports Apple Intelligence AI features.

Apple's new laptop is equipped with a backlit Magic Keyboard that supports Touch ID, and has a Force Touch trackpad. The device supports 70W/96W fast charging via a USB-C Power Adapter. The Cupertino company says that the laptop's 72.4 watt-hour battery offers up to 24 hours of battery life (video streaming). The device measures 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches (31.26 x 22.12 x 1.55 cm), and weighs 3.4 pounds (1.55kg).

Apple has priced the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro starting at $1599. It is available in 2 colorways: Space Black and Silver. The laptop is available for pre-order now, it will start shipping from October 22.

Apple has not included the M5 MacBook Pro charger in the box in the UK, and EU region, the charger is included in the US. It is selling the 70W charger separately for £59.00 in the UK, and €65,00 in the EU. The 96W charger costs £79.00 or €85,00. The EU has a common charger rule that say manufacturers should offer devices without a charger, for a lower price. This law was announced in December 2024. But the rule doesn't come into effect for laptops until April 2026.

Apple has also launched a new iPad Pro with an M5 chip, starting at $999.

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Google has announced a couple of security upgrades for its texting app, Messages. It can now detect and block suspicious links, and adds a way to verify your contacts.

The first of these two features is Safer links. It is a scam link blocker that detects when a message may contain a link from spammers. In order to protect users from malware that could steal their identity, Google Messages will display a pop-up warning that says "Link Blocked. This message was flagged as likely spam." Users can close the warning to get back to safety. If you think that a message was falsely detected as spam, you can tap on "not spam" to unlock the link. Google says that scam link blocking is now available for all Google Messages users worldwide.

The other security feature that has been added to Google Messages is called Key Verifier. This was originally announced in May 2025, but was only launched yesterday. As the name suggests, this feature is used to verify the identity of a contact. Scammers often impersonate other people, including persons whom you may know, or have been in contact with. If their device is stolen, lost or was a victim of a SIM swap attack, you may not know it, and believe you are talking with your contact. Such attacks have been used to spy on people.

Key Verifier is designed to prevent such impersonation, this RCS feature uses public key verification, to improve the security of end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging apps. It allows users to verify each other's identity by scanning their respective QR codes, to verify the keys. So you can scan your contact's QR code, and ask them to do the same, to ensure you are talking to the right person on the other end.

Keys can change when your contact moves to a new device, or replaces their SIM card, or when the key's time-bound validity expires, or if the underlying encryption protocol is upgraded. Google warns that SIM Swapping and Man-in-the-middle attacks could also cause contact's keys to change. Either way, you'll know when that happens.

Key Verifier is available for devices running Android 10 and above. You will need the latest Google Contacts, Google Messages, and the Android System Key Verifier apps to use the feature. You can learn more about it at the official support page.

Earlier this year, Google Messages had introduced an unsubscribe button to combat spam. Yesterday, Google unveiled a new way to recover user accounts with the help of Recovery Contacts. Users may also unlock their account using the mobile number that was associated with their Google Account.

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Google has announced a new safety feature for securing user accounts. If you can't sign in to your account, you can now ask friends and family to help you regain access to your account.

There are multiple ways to recover access to a Google account such as resetting the password, getting a one-time code via SMS, using an alternative email address connected to the account, or by using backup codes, etc.

Now, you can now recover your account in a new way. Let's say someone has forgotten their password, or their phone, or the device that had their passkey or 2FA authenticator, email client, etc. They can't receive a text to sign in, or use alternate methods immediately. Recovery Contacts is Google's answer to this problem. You simply add a trusted contact, like a close friend or a family member, to your account. It's important to note that the contact will need to have a Google account. That should be fairly obvious, but I think it's better to mention it. Don't confuse this with a recovery email address, that's different, as you own both accounts.

Setting up Recovery Contacts is simple, go to your Google account's Security and Sign-in page, at https://myaccount.google.com/security. You should see an option that says "Recovery Contacts". Click on it.

Or you can directly go to g.co/recovery-contacts and click on "Add recovery contact". This opens a pop-up, which is populated with some suggested email addresses belonging to your friends or family.

Select the contact, hit continue, and it should prompt you whether you want to send a recovery contact request. This will send a mail to the selected contact, and they will be able to view your name, email address and profile photo. I mean, if you trust someone, they probably already have all these details, right? Hit the send request button, and it will tell you the contact has been sent a request, and that they will need to confirm the request within 7 days. You will also receive an email stating that you have sent a contact request.

The Recovery Contacts page will list your open requests. In case you changed your mind, you can cancel the request, or remove a contact from the Recovery Contacts list. This is also where you can choose to accept or decline requests that people have sent you.

Google's announcement says that in case of an emergency, and you're locked out of your account, you can choose to sign in using a Recovery Contact. You will need to send a code to them (that you get from Google), which the contact can use to verify it's a legitimate request, and approve the sign in attempt. Pretty cool!

Here is the official support page for Google Recovery Contacts if you need more details.

Recovery Contacts are rolling out to users slowly. I think this is a good feature, it may be useful for everyone, but especially for elderly people, or those who aren't tech-savvy, and may need assistance with recovering their account.

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Zorin OS 18 has been released. The update brings several new features, and some design changes to the distro.

There used to be a time when Ubuntu was considered noob-friendly, suitable for beginners. But many Linux fans frown at the suggestion today. Linux Mint, Fedora, Cachy OS, Bazzite, and Zorin OS are among those that are usually recommended for someone new to Linux. Zorin OS 18 seems to be focusing on that, particularly to help users who are migrating from Windows. The developers of the distro are even inviting users who cannot upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 due to hardware requirements to try Zorin OS.

The update adds support for OneDrive file integration to the built-in Online Accounts feature, so you can sign in with Microsoft 365 + OneDrive, and manage your cloud storage content from the Files app. Zorin's database now supports over 170 apps, and recommends alternatives to Windows apps. The OS supports Wine version 10 to run Windows-native apps and games.

Zorin OS 18 comes with a new window tiling manager, that looks very similar to Windows' Snap feature, which is a good thing. To tile a window, drag it to the top of the screen, and a pop-up will appear displaying various layouts. Choose the one you like, and it gets tiled. Users can create custom tiling layouts, customize the tiling behavior, and even enable auto tiling and smart window suggestions. It supports keyboard shortcuts.

The default theme in Zorin OS has been updated with rounded corners, improvements to the color palette, tint, etc. Even the panel has this rounded style. Apps including Settings, Files, Calendar have all been redesigned slightly. Zorin has given the Evolution mail app a makeover, and has replaced the Cheese app with a new Camera app. The distro's Wen Apps tool allows you to create a desktop app for any website, and these get added to the start menu. You can use these shortcuts with any browser of your choice.

The update includes various performance optimizations for a faster system. The Files app has a "Search Everywhere" button, which you can use to find your files by name, or text content.

Zorin OS 18 is based on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, and comes with the GNOME Shell. It ships with the Linux kernel 6.14. The distro will be supported until June 2029. There are two new theme colors in Zorin OS: Yellow and Brown.

Zorin OS Pro, which is the optional premium version, has some new exclusive layouts and 11 new apps. And Zorin OS Education also gets a handful of new apps. A Lite Edition with XFCE is coming soon. Refer to the announcement for the full release notes.

(Images courtesy: Zorin)

Here are the system requirements for Zorin OS

• CPU: 1 GHz Dual Core – Intel/AMD 64-bit processor
• RAM: 2 GB
• Storage: 15 GB (Core), 32 GB (Education), or 40 GB (Pro)
• Display: 800 × 600 resolution

Download Zorin OS 18 from the official website.

On a side note, Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 was released yesterday.

Have you tried Zorin OS?

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YouTube has updated its video player with a new design. There are some changes to how certain buttons work.

YouTube says the new design is cleaner and more immersive. It was designed to improve the viewing experience, and obscure less content. The announcement barely explains anything, but the video announcement on the Creator Insider channel explains the features a lot better. You can watch it here, from about 3 and a half minutes into the video.

Here's a screenshot of the old design's controls.

This is YouTube's new design, it is currently rolling out to iOS and Android mobile devices, but will be available across platforms.

The icons have been updated, and the overall design seems to be focused around an opaque theme. All the controls are inside a pill-shaped area in the bottom left corner. It sort of resembles Liquid Glass' transparent design, but not completely transparent. It looks odd, at least to me, it does.

Here's what seems to be the TV version, based on the layout of the buttons.

YouTube's double-tap to seek/skip feature has been "updated to make it more modern and less intrusive". It displays the duration that was skipped briefly on the screen. If you double tapped the left to rewind, an OSD will appear on the left saying 10 seconds, and likewise on the right if you fast-forward. You can set the skip duration from the settings, choosing from 5, 10 or 15 seconds.

YouTube on mobile will offer seamless transitions, as you switch between tabs, the motion design has been improved. More animations? Speaking of which, the like button will dynamically animate, based on the content of the video. For example, hitting the like button on a music video, will display an animated musical note. Sports videos will display a visual cue from the game, like a basketball.

The comments system will support threaded conversations with three levels for easier reading. Further replies are folded, requiring a further tap to be viewed. YouTube says it has improved Saving videos to Watch Later list, and playlists, the experience is smoother and simpler.

The new design is rolling out globally to YouTube on mobile, web and TV.

Have you tried the new video player?

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Welcome to the "end of support for Windows 10" edition of our monthly overview of Microsoft security updates for Windows. Microsoft has released the last official security update for Windows 10 and also updates for Windows 11 and other company products, including Microsoft Office.

If you do run Windows 10, you may want to check out the options that you have. In short, best option for most users is probably to subscribe to ESU to get another year of support.

Microsoft Windows Security Updates: October 2025

You may download the following Excel spreadsheet to get a list of released updates. Click on the following link to download the archive to the local device: Windows October 2025 security updates

Executive Summary

• Microsoft released a total of 175 security updates for various Microsoft products and 21 security update for non-Microsoft issues (e.g. Chromium).
• Windows clients with issues:
  • Windows 10: none
  • Windows 11: 24H2 and 25H2
• Windows Server clients with issues:
  • Windows Server 2008

Product overview

Each supported version of Windows and their critical vulnerabilities are listed below.

• Windows 10 version 22H2: 97 vulnerabilities, 2 critical, 95 important
  • MITRE CVE-2016-9535: LibTIFF Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability -- CVE-2016-9535
  • Plus Microsoft Graphics Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability -- CVE-2025-49708
• Windows 11 version 23H2: 107 vulnerabilities, 2 critical, 105 important
  • Same as Windows 10 version 22H2.
• Windows 11 version 24H2: 124 vulnerabilities, 2 critical, 121 important, and 1 moderate
  • Same as Windows 10 version 22H2.
• Windows 11 version 25H2: 116 vulnerabilities, 2 critical, 114 important
  • Same as Windows 10 version 22H2.

Windows Server products

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (extended support only): 37 vulnerabilities: 1 critical,  36 important
  • MITRE CVE-2016-9535: LibTIFF Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability -- CVE-2016-9535
• Windows Server 2016: 73 vulnerabilities: 2 critical, 71 important
  • MITRE CVE-2016-9535: LibTIFF Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability -- CVE-2016-9535
  • Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability -- CVE-2025-59287
• Windows Server 2019: 95 vulnerabilities: 3 critical, 92 important
  • Same as Windows Server 2016.
  • Plus Microsoft Graphics Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability -- CVE-2025-49708
• Windows Server 2022: 103 vulnerabilities: 3 critical, 99 important, and 1 moderate
  • Same as Windows Server 2019.
• Windows Server 2025:  130 vulnerabilities: 3 critical, 126 important, and 1 moderate
  • Same as Windows Server 2019.

Windows Security Updates

Windows 10 version 22H2

• Support Page: KB5066791

Updates and improvements:

• Fixed an SMB v1 connection issue that might prevent connecting to shared files or folders.
• Fixed a Windows Autopilot issue that could prevent the OOBE from loading.
• Removes the ltmdm64.sys driver. Fax modem hardware that depends on the driver won't work anymore.
• Fixed a Powershell Remoting and WinRM issue that saw commands time out after 600 seconds.

Windows 11 version 23H2

• Support Page: KB5066793

Updates and improvements:

• Fixed an issue with PowerShell Remoting and WinRM that had commands time out after 10 minutes.
• A few non-critical fixes. See this overview.

Windows 11 version 24H2

• Support page: KB5066835

Updates and improvements:

• Removes the ltmdm64.sys driver. Fax modem hardware that depends on the driver won't work anymore.
• Fixed an issue with PowerShell Remoting and WinRM that had commands time out after 10 minutes.
• Fixed an issue that caused the print preview screen to stop responding in Chromium-based browsers.
• Adds the new command line text editor Edit, which you can run by launching Edit from the Terminal app.
• Gradual rollout of various new features continues. Some limited to Copilot+ PCs.
• Includes several non-security fixes for various issues.
• The WSUS issue is fixed.
• You can check the full preview list here.

Windows 11 version 25H2

• Support page: KB5066835

Updates and improvements:

• Same as Windows 11, version 24H2
• You can check out the full list here.

Known Issues

Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2

• Problems playing protected content using some Blu-Ray, DVD, or Digital TV apps. Some content may not play in certain apps, playback may be interrupted, copyright messages may show, playback may stop, or show black screens.
  • Partially resolved according to Microsoft, stating that it has been addressed in the September 2025 preview update (and also this update)

Security advisories and updates

• ADV 990001 -- Latest Servicing Stack Updates

Microsoft Office Updates

You find Office update information here. How to download and install the October 2025 security updates

Here is how you install the update immediately on a system:

1. Open the Start menu, type Windows Update, and select the result.
2. Activate the "check for updates" button. This runs a manual check for updates.
3. Activate the "download & install all" button, if the update is not downloaded automatically.

Direct update downloads

Below are resource pages with direct download links, if you prefer to download the updates to install them manually.

Windows 10 version 22H2

• KB5066791 -- 2025-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2

Windows 11 version 22H2

• KB5066793 -- 2025-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 version 22H2

Windows 11 version 23H2

• KB5066835 -- 2025-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 version 23H2

Windows 11 version 24H2

• KB5066835 -- 2025-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 version 24H2

Additional resources

• October 2025 Security Updates release notes
• List of software updates for Microsoft products
• List of the latest Windows Updates and Services Packs
• Security Updates Guide
• Microsoft Update Catalog site
• Our in-depth Windows update guide
• How to install optional updates on Windows 10
• Windows 11 25H2 Update History
• Windows 11 24H2 Update History
• Windows 11 23H2 Update History
• Windows 10 Update History

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Mozilla releases Firefox 144.0 and several Firefox ESR versions today. The new releases introduce new features, improve other features, and fix some security issues as well. As such, most users of the browser may want to upgrade their version of Firefox to the latest as soon as possible.

The big new feature of the release is the long-awaited profile management update. Profiles help users distinguish between different tasks or personas in Firefox, similarly to how Chromium-based browsers offer the functionality. Firefox did support it for ages, but this update should improve the accessibility of the feature.

Firefox 144: the major changes and new features Profile Management update

Mozilla has launched improvements to Firefox's built-in profile management functionality. New profiles can now be created easily and you can switch between them when you start Firefox.

The existing functionality remains at the same time. Launch about:profiles to see a list of all profiles and their folders on the system. Here you may also create new profiles, set a new default profile or launch a profile separately.

Veteran users will be pleased to hear that the parameters that launch different profiles in Firefox remain as is as well.

Tab Group improvements

Mozilla continues its work on Firefox's relatively new tab grouping feature. The two main changes are a) that the active tab of a tab group stays visible when you collapse a group and b) that you can now drag another tab onto a collapsed group without it expanding automatically.

Other changes and fixes

• Firefox users may now see a "Search Image with Google Lens" option when they right-click on images in the browser. It offers a quick shortcut to searching Google for information about that particular image.
• Firefox on the desktop includes Perplexity now as a new AI-driven search engine.
• Firefox Translator adds support for the three languages Azerbaijani, Bangla, and Icelandic.
• More than a dozen languages of Firefox Translator have improved translation quality (Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Persian, Spanish, Ukrainian)
• When opening a link on Windows from another app, Firefox will only use its window on the current desktop to open it, or open a new window if needed.

Developer changes

• Support for the deprecated MathML STIXGeneral font has now been removed.
• CSS features for view transitions in single-page applications (SPAs) are now supported.
• The Map.prototype.getOrInsert(), Map.prototype.getOrInsertComputed(), WeakMap.prototype.getOrInsert(), and WeakMap.prototype.getOrInsertComputed() instance methods are now supported.
• The lock() and unlock() methods of the ScreenOrientation interface are now supported for Android and for Windows tablets.
• The View Transition API is now supported for SPAs (single-page applications).
• The CSSStyleProperties interface of the CSS Object Model (CSSOM) is now implemented.
• The moveBefore() method is now supported on the Element, DocumentFragment and Document interfaces.
• Cross-origin <iframe>s now require either user interaction (sticky activation) or explicit permission to redirect the top-level page using window.top.location.
• RTCDataChannel instances are now transferrable objects, and hence can be passed to workers.
• The closing event and the onclosing() event handler are now supported on the RTCDataChannel interface.
• The getUserMedia() and getDisplayMedia() methods of the MediaDevices interface now support the resizeMode constraint.

Enterprise changes

• GenerativeAI policy has been added. This allows administrators to control features that use Generative AI.
• VisualSearchEnabled policy is now available to disable Google Lens.
• Preferences policy supports security.webauthn.always_allow_direct_attestation now.
• Fixed print options showing up in Firefox when printing was disabled.
• Fixed a bug in Windows Kerberos authentication with extended protection that did not work with a SHA384 SSL certificate.

Security updates / fixes

Mozilla fixed a total of 14 different security issues or potential issues in Firefox 144. The aggregate severity rating is high. No mention of exploits in the wild.

Firefox 144.0 download and update

Firefox installations should pick up the update automatically. Desktop users may speed up the installation by selecting Menu > Help > About Firefox.

This should run a check for updates and will download any update that is found automatically.

Manual downloads are also provided on Mozilla's official website for desktop operating systems.

• Firefox Beta download
• Nightly download
• Firefox ESR download

Outlook

Firefox ESR 115 continues to be supported until at least January 2026. This coincides with the release of Firefox 148 and Firefox ESR 140.8. Mozilla may extend support once again, but the decision has not been made yet.

Additional information / resources

• Firefox 144 release notes
• Firefox 115.29.0 ESR release notes
• Firefox 140.4.0 ESR release notes
• Firefox 144 for Developers
• Firefox 144 for Enterprise
• Firefox Security Advisories
• Firefox Release Schedule

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