Software & Apps

Windows 11 (and 10) users have been in a bit of an odd place with the lock screen after Microsoft brought widgets to it - but that'll change soon enough, with a proper set of customization options apparently being readied.

Windows Latest has the details on this one, having been digging around in a preview build of Windows 11.

Currently, as you may be aware, Windows 11 and Windows 10's lock screens have an all-or-nothing situation for MSN widgets - you get the lot, or you can turn them all off, but nothing in-between.

It's no secret that Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 - what with the end-of-life of the older OS coming round in less than a year - and the campaign to push this is seemingly being cranked up a notch.

As Neowin observes, there has been an uptick in Microsoft placing messaging on various official web pages reminding people that Windows 10 is on its way out, and that they should be looking to migrate to Windows 11 ideally.

The tech site has spotted another banner urging said upgrade, when you go to the Microsoft web page telling you how to create installation media for Windows. In the section for Windows 10, there's now a warning that states:

"After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates from Windows Update, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10. Your PC will still work, but we recommend moving to Windows 11."

CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and Windows are making headlines again, but this time, the issue is nowhere near as severe as the last CrowdStrike Falcon sensor issue, which caused millions of PCs to BSOD (blue screen of death) earlier this year. Theo ne that impacted airlines, travel, banks, and other infrastructure around the globe.

This time, an issue with Windows 11 24H2 is causing apps like Microsoft Office to hang or crash. Windows 11 24H2 is one of the most significant updates to the operating system to date, with Microsoft calling it a full OS swap, so teething issues are expected. And, yes, one of the teething issues involves the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor.

It all comes down to policy settings, such as the Enhanced Exploitation Visibility Prevention Policy. This doesn't affect home users as CrowdStrike Falcon is a business-facing cybersecurity solution. CrowdStrike has already provided a statement confirming that the issue is Windows-related and unrelated to its software or any recent update.

The City of Columbus has confirmed that at least 500,000 people have been affected by a ransomware hack that potentially leaked a collection of personal information.

Ransomware traced back to the group known as Rhysida was detected on systems over the summer and now the City of Columbus, Ohio, has confirmed at least 500,000 people's data such as first and last names, dates of birth, home addresses, bank account information, and more, were leaked online. Reports indicate that Rhysida published approximately 3TB of stolen files on its blog after it failed to obtained a ransom from the city for the stolen data.

Letters were sent to the potentially affected individuals and were delivered to addresses around October 7. Notably, the confirmation didn't state how many victims received letters, or the specifics of the data that was leaked online, and is more than likely accessible somewhere on the dark web. Furthermore, security researcher Connor Goodwolf, legally called David Leroy Ross, said after downloading the stolen data from Rhysida he discovered one of the sources for the hack was the city's prosecutor.

Microsoft has been put in a tough position as the severance date for support for the world's most popular operating system is approaching, and users don't seem to be upgrading at the rate the Redmond company would like.

We have known for quite some time that Microsoft plans to officially cut support for Windows 10, the world's most popular operating system, in October of next year. Following the cut-off date, Windows 10 machines will no longer receive security updates from Microsoft, putting them at exponential risk of security breaches. It was only recently that Microsoft began offering users a $30 one-year continuation of Microsoft updates, with Enterprises needing to pay $61 and the education sector $1 (for the first year).

There is also the massive looming issue of what happens to all of the Windows 10 machines that don't meet the system requirements for Windows 11. Those machines will effectively be rendered useless as they will no longer be eligible to receive critical security updates. There are an estimated 240 million working computers soon to be thrown into landfills, according to technology firm Canalys, which issued a warning about this very problem back in December 2023.

Windows 11 24H2 is turning out to be quite the bug-fest, with some odd glitches popping up, and here's another one, this time hitting File Explorer.

Windows Latest reports that there's a serious issue in File Explorer with the three-dot (ellipsis) menu when you're using it in a full-screen window.

That's the button with three dots on it (also called meatballs) on the toolbar along the top of the File Explorer window, which when you click on it, summons a flyout menu below with extra options on it.

Microsoft is offering a prize of $1,000,000 as a fresh incentive to switch over to use its search engine, Bing, or web browser, Edge, or indeed other services.

This is part of the Microsoft Rewards loyalty program, a scheme whereby you pick up reward points by using Microsoft services such as the aforementioned products.

Windows Central flagged up the new million-dollar sweepstakes program, which was announced via an email from Microsoft that the tech site received, and is also detailed on an official website.

According to sources like StatCounter, which covers all PCs, Windows 10 is still by far the most used Windows operating system among PC users, with a 60% market share. However, looking at PC gamers - specifically, the data supplied by Valve as part of its monthly Steam Hardware & Survey Results - Windows 11 is pulling ahead.

According to Valve's latest data, which now includes October 2024 data, 51.97% of all Steam users are on Windows 11. With Windows accounting for 96.61% of PC gamer operating systems, Windows 10 has dropped to second place with 45.95% - a figure that is 2.71% lower than September's data.

Why are PC gamers adopting or making the jump to Windows 11 versus the rest of the PC community? It comes down to the operating system's more robust integration of DirectX 12 technologies like DirectStorage and cutting-edge visual effects like ray tracing. Plus, gamers are more likely to upgrade regularly versus businesses and those simply using their PCs for day-to-day tasks like shopping and checking emails.

If you've been worrying about what you're going to do in a year, when support runs out for Windows 10 - and you really don't want to upgrade to Windows 11 (or hardware requirements mean that you can't) - then Microsoft has thrown you a lifeline.

Albeit a lifeline with a cost attached, but this is the first time that Microsoft has actually made the scheme to pay for extended support available to the average consumer - with a charge of $30.

Previously, Microsoft has enacted ESU (Extended Security Update) programs for enterprise and education users, with subscriptions per user, but this personal individual option is new.

Microsoft's new super resolution ability - which was recently applied (in preview) to the Photos app in Windows 11 - has suffered from a seemingly botched rollout by the software giant.

This is a new AI ability - one for Copilot+ PCs, as it requires a beefy NPU for acceleration - and it allows for enhancing or enlarging images, by a factor of up to 8x. The idea is you can blow up a photo for a large print, or improve very low quality photos to something a bit sharper and more palatable.

This was supposed to be in testing for Windows Insiders, but as leaker PhantomOfEarth reports, super resolution was appearing on some devices that it wasn't supposed to be on. Presumably, that means non-Copilot+ PCs, rather than the feature coming to users outside of the Windows Insider programme.