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A simple software setup has become another checkpoint in Microsoft’s expanding web of identity and control.Microsoft’s removal of phone activation for Windows and Office is another signal that the company is locking users into a fully connected, account-bound environment where privacy and ownership steadily fade.In the past, activating Windows could be done privately without linking the computer to any online profile. Users could install the system, call an automated number, and receive a confirmation code. No internet, no account, no tracking.That layer of independence is gone. Today, activation demands a Microsoft account and an active connection to the company’s servers.The...

I have win10 on a couple computers and it turns out they can't be updated to win11

Linux users often hear phrases like “the terminal is faster” or “real Linux users don’t rely on the GUI.” While these statements are common in online communities, they rarely reflect how people actually use Linux in daily life. Most users browse the web, manage files, edit documents, connect external devices, and install apps without ever touching the command line.For everyday computing, the graphical interface is usually the most comfortable path. It is visual, discoverable, and forgiving. If you want to move a document, rename a set of photos, preview a video, or open a PDF, there is no reason to...

A brand new stable release of Wine, the Windows compatibility programme, is now available to download.Wine 2.0 — yes, 2.0 — follows more than a year of development effort and marks the start of a new timed-based release cadence.Various miscellaneous changes make up Wine 2.0, ranging from support for Unicode 9.0; better HiDPI scaling; improved clipboard behaviour; an updated Gecko engine; and adjustments to joystick button mapping and force feedback effects.For gamers Wine 2.0 implements, fixes and polishes a slew of Direct3D 10/11 features, including more shader instructions, sRGB read/write support, array textures and so on, plus there are tweaks to DirectX support.On the audio side...

Remember when HP made its own CPUs and Unix? We wonder if it doesThe final version of HPE's own flavor of Unix, HP-UX 11i v3, is now out of support. It is the end of a line that started in 1982. According to HPE's HP-UX support matrix, the end of life for the final version was the last day of last year: HP-UX 11i v3 11.31 HPE Integrity: standard support through 31-Dec-2025 The product status is now "Mature Software Product Support without Sustaining Engineering through at least 31-Dec-2028." HPE's version numbers are complex, but the last release of HP-UX that...

What if, rather than make a Linux distro that can run Windows apps, you built the whole distro around Windows binaries instead?Loss32 is the most gleefully deranged idea for how to put together a Linux OS that we think we have ever read about in three and a half decades… but it's not impossible. Not only could it be done, there could be real advantages to doing it this way.The idea comes from a blogger and developer known as Hikari no Yume ("Dream of Light" in Japanese) who made it public at the 39th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany at...

The deranged hammer-wielding vandal who busted several windows at Vice President JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati is allegedly the son of a prominent millionaire family — and appears to have been going by “Julia” in recent weeks. William DeFoor, 26, was arrested early Monday after allegedly shattering four windows at Vance’s home. Police said that DeFoor was attempting to break into the home around midnight.

By my count, Linux has over 11% of the desktop market. Here's how I got that number - and why people are making the leap. The Linux desktop has continued its slow growth. Linux has been making gains in no small part because of Microsoft Windows' blunders. Users and governments have been losing trust in Windows and Microsoft. My colleague Jack Wallen and I have been telling you for a while now that you should switch from Windows to the Linux desktop. Sounds like some of you have been listening. The proof of the pudding comes from various sources. First,...

https://babylonbee.com/news/microsoft-introduces-convenient-new-47-factor-authenticationSEATTLE, WA — The Microsoft Corporation announced today that they've developed a convenient new 47-factor authentication protocol for all Windows-enabled computers. A spokesperson for Microsoft said that the new unnecessarily complicated measure serves as the company's latest response to the ever-increasing need for digital security. "Two factors just weren't secure enough," said Wayne Parkington, director of media relations at Microsoft. "So we went back to the drawing board to design a simple, easy-to-use, 47-factor security protocol that anyone can remember." Starting today, users will need to enter their usernames and passwords to log in, followed by an authentication code sent...

It has been a troublesome week or two for Microsoft, for sure. Earlier today, the company fixed a Microsoft 365 outage that made files unusable; downtimes like this seem to happen on a fairly regular basis. Meanwhile on the Windows side, it has probably been worse. The tech giant got blamed by Nvidia today as the latest Patch Tuesday is leading to performance issues in games. The GPU maker has released an emergency hotfix driver to resolve the problems. This comes hot on the heels of the massive backlash that the company's Windows boss recently faced due to the evolution...

Microsoft released a new insider preview build to the developer and beta channels of Windows 11. The new build 26220.7262 introduces several new features and changes, including a new "experimental agentic features" toggle in the Settings. If you recall, Microsoft announced this month that it is turning Windows into an agentic operating system. The post, by Windows-chief Pavan Davuluri on X, faced heavy criticism. To the point that Davuluri limited the commenting ability. The new AI component setting in the development edition of Windows 11 is a major step towards that goal. First, the good news. Microsoft is shipping the...

We’ve all been there. Your screen goes black, but you can still hear the audio. You’re trying to move the cursor on your phone, but your thumb’s too big to land in the right spot. Or your Android suddenly turns into a sluggish mess, and you’re ready to throw your $1,000 phone out the window. Pause. Breathe. There’s a secret power-user layer baked into your gadgets that most folks never see. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill tips. These are the hidden handshakes, the ones you can drop to sound like the family tech wizard. 📱 Thumb-believable phone secrets iPhone user? Stop...

Microsoft has officially ended Windows 10, marking the end of an era, but what comes next might completely change how we use Windows. In this video, we break down what’s happening behind the scenes with Microsoft’s next move, how Windows is shifting toward cloud-based systems, and what that means for you. You’ll learn: Why Windows 10’s end signals a major shift for Microsoft What’s next with Windows 11, Windows 365, and AI integration How this could reshape the future of PCs and business technology What users and organizations should do to prepare (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove...

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Many of you now think that the best option is just to stick with Windows 10, even though it is classified as end-of-life by Microsoft. End-of-life means you will not get security updates. I know that for $30 you can get an extra year of security updates from Microsoft, but after that, zero. So regardless of short-term solutions, in the end you will have an unsafe OS. Also, the reality is that many of you cannot upgrade to Windows 11, and even if you could, my recent videos show that...

If you're running Windows 11, your computer has a TPM Chip Version 2.0. This is one of the requirements to using Windows 11 and of course Windows 10 has been declared as "End-Of-Life". While you think that Windows 11 is an improvement, wait till you find out what this TPM chip is all about. It is such a giant invasion of privacy that I turned mine off. (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) If you're using Windows 11, your computer has a TPM chip, Trusted Platform Module Version 2. This thing is required now to run Windows...

Like you, I see those flashy headlines and articles every day trying to convince Windows users to switch to Linux—how it’s supposedly better in every possible way, how you can use all your favorite apps, and so on. But honestly, most of that is just talk. It sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t match up with reality. Still, I guess those kinds of articles do their job pretty well.Here, though, I want to take a slightly different approach. Right from the start, let me be clear: I’m not here to persuade anyone to jump on the Linux bandwagon. Instead,...

Take this with a grain of salt, but users have reported another privacy transgression by Microsoft. According to the report by users from the Resetera forum and elsewhere, Copilot Gaming, an AI specially for gaming-related AI tasks, is taking screen captures of your gameplay for training. While that would be fine if the user knew about it and enabled it willingly, it appears to be turned on automatically and without informing users about the data collecting and use of the data. According to the user who noticed it first by monitoring network traffic, the AI is using OCR technology to...

As many of us have seen, Windows 11 is introducing AI into PCs programmed with that O/S. Granted, there are methods of removing it. Installing W11 with Rufus software is a common way of doing it. Using Flyoobe is another option. There is also software out there to remove unwanted components once W11 is installed. Regardless, I, and I'm sure many others, are trying to find ways of running Windows software on a Linux system. I've run across a few software packages in Linux that try to accomplish this. Bottles, Wine, Winapps and PlayonLinux are just a few things I've...

I own four computers. Two desktops. One laptop. One Microsoft notebook. Three have Win 11. One has 10. Lately, on a desktop w/11, frequently, when I'm searching google for data, when I type in the phrase or business or topic, I'll get a captcha test. It's becoming more frequent. I always clear my cache, run ccleaner, clear history, etc. It's still happening. And none of my other computers are doing it. When it happens, it starts with the "I'm not a robot" box which I check. Directly underneath it has some computer lingo with the word "google" in it. And...

ZDNET's key takeawaysWindows 10 support has ended, making Linux a possible alternative.It's a good time to consider switching from Windows to Linux.Switching to Linux can extend your computer's life and performance.I can still remember when I decided to install Linux on my very first computer (a Pentium 75). I'd been using Windows 95 and found myself more frustrated than not. I was experiencing constant blue screens of death, couldn't make the OS behave how I wanted, the software was expensive, and I hated the way it looked.So, I installed Linux over Windows, and the rest is history. I've been using...