Sneak Peek: Windows 11 Start Menu Gains Phone Alerts as Microsoft Sets Insider Deadline
Microsoft released a pair of Experimental channel builds for Windows 11 this week, carrying a time-sensitive certificate renewal and a handful of new features aimed at making search and phone...
Microsoft Tests 'Renewable' Windows Update Pause, Smashing the 35-Day Ceiling
This Mini-ITX Windows Board Splits One PCIe Slot Into Multiple Paths—Without a BIOS Hack
- 01Windows point-in-time restore is generally available for 24H2+, enabling fast rollback from bad updates via WinRE.
- 02Linux kernel CVEs flood enterprise feeds, affecting Hyper-V, Azure, and hybrid Windows environments with DoS risks.
- 03Microsoft Copilot battles Google Gemini for AI workflow dominance as consumer assistants consolidate user habits.
- 04Resilience and patching converge: rollback capabilities are now as critical as security fixes for IT operations.
Why a Longtime Windows Critic Now Calls Windows 11 His Favorite Visual Style
Paul Thurrott has covered every Windows release since the 1990s, and he’s never been shy about calling out Microsoft’s missteps. So when he declared in his July 31 Ask Paul column that Windows 11...
Crow Hill Pocket Strings Is Now Free: Download This Hybrid Scoring Tool for Windows
On July 31, 2026, The Crow Hill Company quietly dropped the price of its Pocket Strings virtual instrument to zero, making the compact hybrid library available at no cost to music producers on...
That CEO productivity tool list is missing a governance column
Analytics Insight’s July 31 roundup of 2026’s essential CEO tools reads like a greatest-hits list of collaboration and AI: Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT, Power BI, Slack, Zoom, and more. But for...
Microsoft Foundry Just Added Kimi K3, a 2.8T-Parameter Open-Weight Model – Here’s What to Know
On July 31, Microsoft Foundry began offering access to Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, an open-weight model with 2.8 trillion parameters and a one-million-token context window, through a partnership with...
Open-Source Firmware Arrives for AMD AM5: Windows 11 Boots, but Only on One MSI Board and Ryzen 8000 APUs
Firmware specialist 3mdeb has released Dasharo v0.9.0 for the MSI PRO B850-P WIFI motherboard, bringing the first published open-source firmware stack to a modern AMD AM5 desktop platform. Tested...
Insider PCs Face August 11 Deadline: Microsoft Drops 5 Windows 11 Builds Packed with Taskbar and Update Upgrades
Microsoft pushed five new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds to enrolled PCs on July 31, each carrying a renewed flight certificate that will expire on August 11, 2026. If your test machine doesn’t...
Windows 11 Fall Updates Promise Movable Taskbar, Smarter Updates, and Big Speed Boosts
Microsoft announced on July 31 that a package of performance and usability upgrades for Windows 11 will begin reaching all users this fall. The update delivers on a March commitment to improve...
Microsoft’s Windows Insider Website Refresh Makes Channel Choices Crystal Clear
Microsoft quietly revamped the Windows Insider Program website on July 31, trading a generic sign-up page for a practical dashboard that spells out exactly what testers sign up for. The overhaul puts...
NACDL Report: For Criminal Defense Firms, Microsoft Copilot Requires a Legal-AI Governance Plan
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers this week told its members that adopting AI isn’t optional anymore—it’s an ethical imperative. But the association’s new report, titled...
Langley Township Requires Human Oversight for AI, Holds Back on Full M365 Copilot—What IT Admins Can Learn
Langley Township council approved an AI-use policy on July 27, 2026 that mandates human review for all generative AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot, and limits deeper Microsoft 365 integration to...
Claude AI Tests Breached Production Systems: How Windows Admins Can Lock Down AI Sandboxes
Acer’s New $1,500 Copilot+ PC Is the Only Snapdragon X2 Laptop That Folds Flat—Here’s Why That Matters
ChatGPT Work and Codex Cross 10 Million Weekly Users, Redefining Productivity on Windows
LinkedIn Retires Its AI Writing Tool and Hands You the Controls to Fight ‘Slop’
Maisy’s New AI Hub Mines SharePoint and Teams for Answers, But IT Must Dig First
One DHCP Lease Can Change Your Windows 11 DNS and Routes Without You Knowing
A Wireshark experiment reveals that DHCP can reconfigure Windows 11's DNS servers, search domains, and routing tables beyond just IP assignment. Users should audit DHCP-delivered settings to avoid unintended network changes, and admins need to secure DHCP scopes to prevent misconfigurations.
Azure Machine Configuration Now Audits Linux Against CIS Benchmarks — No Scripts Required
Microsoft has brought native CIS Benchmark auditing for Linux into Azure Machine Configuration, letting Azure VM and Azure Arc administrators assess compliance directly through Azure Policy without third-party scanners. The generally available capability supports custom rule selection, exports policy-as-code JSON, and provides per-rule evidence through Guest Assignments and Resource Graph. It’s audit-only, so admins need to plan manual remediation, but the integration unifies hybrid-server compliance monitoring under a single control plane.
CosmosEscape Flaw Fixed: What Azure Cosmos DB Users Need to Know Despite 'No Action Required'
Microsoft has patched CosmosEscape, a cross-tenant vulnerability in Azure Cosmos DB that could have allowed attackers to access other customers' databases. The fix was provider-side, with no customer action required, but experts advise reviewing logs and hardening security measures to mitigate any undetected exploitation.
Amazon Integrates Luna Cloud Gaming Into Prime Video on Fire TV, With More Devices to Come
Tesla Locks In 140 MW of Solar Power for Texas Operations, But It Won't Arrive Until 2029
AWS's New SQL Server Storage Mandate: Keep Data, Logs, and TempDB Apart for Faster Recovery
Microsoft's Private Cloud Partner Badge: What US Signal's Win Means for Windows Shops
Cisco Abandons Azure Local Bundles After Microsoft Kills ‘Validated Nodes’
Flagged Emails and Attachments Now Get a Visual Boost in the New Outlook
Microsoft has added several new conditions to conditional formatting in the new Outlook and Outlook on the web, allowing users to highlight emails by size, read status, attachments, flags, categories, or importance. This update helps surface critical messages visually without moving them, bridging a long-standing feature gap with classic Outlook. Users can find the settings under Mail > Conditional Formatting.
Outlook Now Lets You Automate Flag and Category Cleanup with New Rule Actions
Microsoft has added four new rule actions to Outlook on the web and new Outlook for Windows—Clear Categories, Clear Flag, Complete Flag, and Flag Message—enabling automatic management of follow-up flags and category labels. The server-side actions help users and admins automate email triage without manual cleanup. The update closes a long-standing gap in the new Outlook’s automation capabilities and is now generally available.
OneDrive's Frustrating 'Path Too Long' Sync Error Finally Gets a Guided Fix—in 2026
Microsoft is planning a guided fix for OneDrive's path-too-long sync errors, according to a new Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry. The feature, expected in September 2026, will show users exactly how many characters over the 520-character limit a file path is and offer a step-by-step way to rename or move the item directly from the sync client. Until then, users must continue manual workarounds like shortening folder names.