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Microsoft has thrown a lifeline to Windows 10 users ahead of the OS going end-of-life, by offering an extra year of patches for $30. Support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025 and Redmond is pushing people to upgrade to Windows 11, with mixed success to date – as of last month, Windows 10 had 62.75 percent of Redmond's OS market share, compared to 33.42 percent for the newer version ago. Perhaps that’s why the software behemoth has decided to offer Extended Security Updates - previously only available for business, education, and government users - to anyone who wants them....

This is odd. When I try to copy urls to repost the url disappears. Instead I am provided with a statement that SAYS SEARCH OR TYPE URL. This is occurring on X, YOUTUBE, FB and other media. This is new. Not with FR. I often cut and paste across platforms. But not now. Just started yesterday. What am I doing wrong

A little earlier this evening I was sitting at my computer reading something when suddenly a program I had never heard of suddenly popped up on my screen. It seemed to be an antivirus, and since I've had Kaspersky Free for years (and been very satisfied with it) I didn't need a new antivirus. So I attempted to remove it. I thought I did. I didn't. After "removing" the new unwanted antivirus program I noticed my Kaspersky shorcut icon had disappeared. Oops! I clicked on the new one again and sure enough it still worked, so I attempted to create...

Last week it became clear to me that although Microsoft has “loved” Linux for more than a decade now, that love still doesn’t extend to the Linux desktop.This realization came to me as I read news of a Windows security update that borked Grub, the open-source boot loader that’s used by most Linux distributions and which is used to load Windows in dual-boot situations.After the Windows update was applied, an untold number of Windows’ dual booters were unable to boot Linux, but instead were served the scary and cryptic error message: “Something has gone seriously wrong.”According to Ars Technica, the...

Its a small difference, but a real one.Go into your operating system and for all WiFi connections set MAC address randomization.For Windows 11 it is under Network & Internet -> WiFi right at the bottom -- "Random hardware addresses."For Android it is on by default for WiFi connections -- check all of them you use, and it should be on.I suspect IOS on Macs has a similar feature.Unfortunately for most systems there is no similar setting for hardware connections (e.g. cabled.)This didn't used to matter much in the world of IPv4 because MAC addresses do not travel beyond the local...

Tesla CEO compared incoming Recall feature to an episode of Black MirrorNew Recall feature will be coming to Copilot+ PCs from JuneIt takes screenshots of everything you do on-screenSnapshots are analysed by AI on-device so they can be searchedElon Musk has announced plans to disable the feature on his PCPrivacy campaigners have also flagged concernsUK privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into RecallElon Musk has criticised a controversial new AI feature coming to Windows 11 devices this summer. Known as Recall, it takes screenshots of everything on-screen so you can scroll back in time and resume work on anything from...

Working from home remains an overwhelmingly popular option for people across the world, with new research finding the vast majority (83%) saying they felt more productive in hybrid/remote settings rather than in-office or on site.A survey from Zoom focusing on knowledge workers seemingly confirmed many companies back the trend of post-Covid remote working to continue, with 50% of leaders saying they have introduced more flexible working styles over the last two years, and 82% plan to carry this on into the future.And despite the distance, hybrid workers even report that they are feeling more connected to their teams and managers,...

Here is one for our FR computer gurus: Why are PCIe expansion cards with a DisplayPort capable USB-C port (DP alternate mode) hard to find for desktop PC's? Many laptops, like my Dell Latitude 5490, have a DisplayPort capable USB-C port. Yet it seems most desktops of roughly the same vintage, such as my Dell Precision 3430 (and many a newer desktop too), do not have a DisplayPort capable USB-C port. (My 3430 has a high speed USB-C port, but it is not DP capable.) Why the omission on the desktops?

The cause of the CrowdStrike mess has been revealed by the company, together with the steps it has taken to ensure nothing similar can happen again. The company is facing a deluge of lawsuits over the estimated $5B worth of financial losses incurred by its clients, but the small print in its contract may protect it … A quick recap on the outageA huge mistake by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike last month caused a global IT outage on a massive scale, with airlines, banks, health services, and more affected – including some 911 centers. Airlines were forced to ground flights, broadcasters...

Microsoft warned customers this Tuesday to patch a critical TCP/IP remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability with an increased likelihood of exploitation that impacts all Windows systems using IPv6, which is enabled by default. Found by Kunlun Lab's XiaoWei and tracked as CVE-2024-38063, this security bug is caused by an Integer Underflow weakness, which attackers could exploit to trigger buffer overflows that can be used to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server systems.

So, Microsoft has been threatening me all year that they're going to force everyone to use "Outlook" on their computers, getting rid of "Mail". I use Outlook on my computer for a 'side hustle' business, and do not want to intermingle my email accounts on one application - and "Mail" does everything I need for my Yahoo/Gmail/etc. accounts. I've tried looking online for some, but can't really find anything that fits the job like the simple, basic "Mail". So, reaching out to the technocrati here at FreeP to see what y'all use for e-mail on a Windows laptop?

Good afternoon Freepers. This is a post to ask what I hope is a simple question. What do you all recommend for use as a web browser? The reason I ask this question is because today I was trying to update my Mozilla-ish browser called Palemoon. It's actually a Goanna fork of Mozilla so it's not really based on their programming code anymore, that I'm aware of. In the process of my task, I noticed that it wasn't playing well with a few secure websites, like ID.me, myPay, etc. I use Brave as my primary browser, and I also have...

Microsoft's Outlook email is changing in September. You can no longer set your email program's Authentication Method to Normal Password. You must set it to OAuth2. I'm having difficulty doing this. My Thunderbird, fully up to date, allows me to set the Server Settings to OAuth2, but my Outgoing Server (SMPT) setting has no OAuth2 option. Also, when I log into MS online, it wants to verify me. MS has my phone number, and my non-Outlook email (which forwards to my Outlook address). But though MS claims to have texted and emailed verification codes to me, I never receive them....

We Windows users are sometimes the butt of the joke when it comes to cybersecurity issues. Or at least, we often used to be. Still, if I receive one more lecture on why Linux or Mac systems are more secure, I'll at least have this article to point to. Not always, I shall say. Not always.Oligo Security's research team has discovered a “0.0.0.0 Day” vulnerability that affects Google Chrome/Chromium, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers, enabling websites to communicate with software running on MacOS and Linux systems (via The Hacker News).The vulnerability means public websites using .com domains are able...

Good afternoon Freepers. I got an IT question I'm hoping you all can help me with. I have been experimenting with using a "dark mode" for my browsers. I know that browsers like Brave have a built in dark mode that can be found in chrome://flags, and I've experimented with a few plugin extensions, like Super Dark Mode. The problem is none of them "quite" do the job. For instance, Super Dark Mode can be a good one. The extension has options built in where you can white list a website that doesn't do well in dark mode, and it...

I have detected a serious YouTube security threat that needs exposure. All IT and security experts welcome to please check into my findings and chime in. Here is what I found so far. Years ago this was a problem. Just going to youtube or Google mail at all even on another tab without logging in would load strong spyware in your browser and even in your machine permanently which required reinstalling your OS to remove. It tracked logins on other tabs and was gaining access to keyboards, microphones, and cameras even if you just landed on their site by accident....

My wife's Windows 11 laptop is in an infinite loop trying to install an update that fails to install then immediately tries to install it again. This slows the laptop of so much that it is unusable. Below is a screenshot of the update screen displaying the offending optional update. I have searched and searched the Interwebs to find out how to make an update stop trying to install but have had no luck. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge. Big Tech is slashing jobs—half a million and counting. And it’s blaming artificial intelligence. A new study by Layoffs.fyi reports that layoffs in the tech industry have exceeded 100,000 so far this year —and keep in mind that the year’s only half over. That’s on top of 212,000 tech layoffs last year. And 165,000 in 2022. Recent layoffs include Microsoft and Facebook, which each cut 10,000 jobs. Cisco dropped 4,000, Intuit 1,800. Even Amazon and Apple are laying off. Part of this is...

A single CrowdStrike bug sent the entire tech world into chaos last week — a snafu some companies are still recovering from. Third-party agents selling and supporting CrowdStrike software and the complicated repairs for customers have been a miserably busy bunch over the past week. CrowdStrike’s token of appreciation for those vendors: a $10 Uber Eats voucher. We’re not kidding. When reports of the voucher “gifts” first surfaced on Wednesday afternoon there were three main buckets of reactions: Yup, checks out... Now partners could risk losing their customers as a result of this mess, even though it was out of...

IT admins now have a quicker way to get machines up and running again after CrowdStrike’s faulty update. Microsoft has released a recovery tool that’s designed to help IT admins repair Windows machines that were impacted by CrowdStrike’s faulty update that crashed 8.5 million Windows devices on Friday. The tool creates a bootable USB drive that IT admins can use to help quickly recover impacted machines. While CrowdStrike has issued an update to fix its software that led to millions of Blue Screen of Death errors, not all machines are able to automatically receive that fix. Some IT admins have...