Software & Apps News - Page 4

Windows XP might just be one of the most beloved versions of Microsoft's iconic OS, and it was fast, easy to use, and, best of all - stable. Well, at least once, the Service Packs rolled around. Apologies if this stat makes you feel old, but it debuted 21 years ago, back in 2001. Yeah, in the world of tech Windows XP is pretty ancient.

Unused Windows XP logo designs, credit: Casey Potter

Many people still use the operating system in 2023, even for gaming, mostly to play older titles.

Today comes a little trip down memory lane and a glimpse at 'what could have been' designs for Windows XP logos. Microsoft turned to a company called Frog Design to create a new logo and help shape the look and feel of the UI and taskbars. At this point, the classic four window panes of the Windows logo were already well established, and even though brand identity was ultimately established with the final look, a few very strange options were put together.

AMD's Ryzen Master, a utility used for overclocking Ryzen processors, has a nasty security flaw that you should address swiftly if you have the software installed.

The Ryzen Master software can be used to easily adjust CPU clock speeds and voltages (Image Credit: AMD)

This vulnerability is labeled with a severity level of 'high' and it could potentially allow an attacker to gain control of your PC in the worst-case scenario.

AMD explains:

"Failure to validate privileges during installation of AMD Ryzen Master may allow an attacker with low privileges to modify files potentially leading to privilege escalation and code execution by the lower privileged user."

By now we're well-used to Microsoft trying to get people to adopt its Edge browser in Windows 10 and Windows 11, but the software giant has set its sights on iPhone users too, according to a new report.

This is the pop-up that tries to convince iPhone users to switch to Edge (Image Credit: Windows Latest)

This comes from Windows Latest, who spotted that when opening a link from Outlook, Microsoft's email client, in iOS, users are being confronted by a pop-up asking if they'd like to open that link in Edge (rather than Safari, or whatever their default browser may be).

Now, you can choose to open with 'default browser' and also tick a box to remember this selection so the pop-up doesn't happen again - except the catch is that you'll need to do this separately for different file types when opening attachments in your emails.

Windows 11 could soon offer users a much more convenient and swifter way to close an app that has become unresponsive.

Normally when an app stops working and becomes non-functional, the standard way to close it down is to go to the Task Manager.

However, in a hidden change to Windows 11 (still in testing) spotted by leaker @PhantomOfEarth and highlighted on Twitter, it seems that Microsoft is going to allow for processes to be killed via the taskbar.

Recently we reported on the alarming amount of data that a fresh install of Windows 11 sends to third parties, where it seems like Microsoft's latest OS is all about geo-tracking and telemetry and saying hello to Bing, Google, Steam, McAfee, and more before you do anything. That little deep dive, compared to Windows XP, was posted by The PC Security Channel on YouTube, and it didn't paint a flattering picture of the behind-the-scenes DNS traffic happening on Windows 11.

Ghost Spectre Windows 11

So, what if you want a version of Windows 11 without all the bloatware and telemetry and still be able to play PC Game Pass titles like Forza Horizon 5 and Gears of War? For that, there's Ghost Spectre Windows 11 - which covers Windows 11 version 22H2 SV2. Described as bloatware free with several custom optimizations for removing things like Windows Defender, OneDrive, the Action Centre, and all manner of telemetry - it's a stripped-back version of the OS that still supports PC gaming.

As per The PC Security Channel's latest video, it even manages to keep memory (RAM) usage down to an impressive 1GB. For comparison, my Windows 11 PC uses 20GB of memory simply because I've got a few browser windows open.

Use third-party apps from Razer, Corsair, ASUS, MSI, and others to manage and sync RGB lighting on all your PC hardware. That's how it has been for many years now, and to be honest, that's how we expected all things RGB and lighting would continue for the foreseeable future. Well, as per the latest public test build of Windows 11, it looks like Microsoft is adding the ability to customize lighting directly within Windows settings.

As spotted on Twitter by user Albacore, the options appear in the 'Personalization' section of Windows 11 and include all of the basic stuff you'll need to customize RGB lighting. It's a simple interface, but it includes options to adjust brightness, Lighting effects, Effect speed, and Color, and even have your lighting match your current Windows accent color. What effect this will have on people installing Razer Synapse or Corsair iCUE to manage their lighting remains to be seen. Still, it's certainly interesting to see these features being added to Windows 11.

Microsoft's approach has been all over the place regarding Windows as a platform for PC gaming. However, with Windows 10 and now Windows 11, the integration of the Xbox app and PC Game Pass has seen a renewed focus on Windows as a hub for gaming, so it makes sense that controlling RGB lighting would inevitably become a part of Windows.

Twitter has changed a lot since Tesla, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion back in October last year, and now it's going to change again.

Twitter has taken to its 'Twitter Blue' account to announce that it's launching an upgrade for tweets, with the company writing that it's introducing longer tweets that will have a character limit of 4,000 characters. The account wrote the announcement in the form of a long tweet that explains that beginning on February 9, individuals that are Twitter Blue members will gain access to the long tweet feature.

Additionally, Twitter wrote that it's aware that the introduction of long tweets would mean users would be inundated with long scrolling, ruining the unique Twitter experience of being able to see multiple tweets from many users at once. To remedy this problem, Twitter has implemented a 'see more' button that will be attached to every long tweet. A user that wishes to read more of the tweet can simply press this button to reveal the remainder of the post.

Not many of us are truly aware of how much data is being sent by our PCs over the internet to third parties, let alone what sort of private information is being harvested for advertising and geo-tracking. We all know it's happening; targeted search results based on stuff you might have said out loud is a testament to that. Browsing the internet, shopping trends, likes, and dislikes, the more you do, the more it's visible.

Windows 11

But what about a brand-new PC with a fresh installation of Windows 11? What sort of telemetry is being sent before the user sends their first email? Well, a new in-depth video by The PC Security Channel doesn't paint a flattering picture of the behind-the-scenes network traffic on Microsoft's latest OS.

Using Wireshark to check, and again this is a fresh install of Windows 11, we see an eye-opening amount of traffic. From Microsoft to Bing, Google, Steam, McAfee, and more - constant communication and geo-tracking without the user doing anything. Let alone giving permission outside of ticking boxes during the initial boot and setup phase. The most alarming examples involve sending data (DNS traffic) to market research firms and other companies we've never heard of with words like "trusted," "security," and "privacy" in their company profiles. One specific example, is ScorecardResearch.com, which "studies and reports on Internet trends and behavior."

Twitter has rolled out a new quality-of-life update for all users of its platform, making the overall experience on the platform much more enjoyable.

If you haven't updated your Twitter app, now would be a good time, but before you go ahead and do that, let me tell you why it's a good idea. Twitter has taken to its "Twitter Support" account to announce that the "For You" tab will no longer be the default tab whenever Twitter is opened. Before this update, Twitter would always default to the "For You" tab whenever the app was opened, despite a user closing the app in the "Following" tab.

Anyone that wished to just live in their following tab, so they aren't consuming any content that Twitter recommends them, was unable to do so. Now, Twitter has rolled out an update across iOS and Android devices that enables users to return to whichever timeline they had opened last. This update is especially helpful for people that don't want to consume Twitter's suggested content and strictly want to view content created by accounts they follow on the platform.

As far as video encoding goes, AV1 represents a big leap forward over H.264 - a video technology that is remarkably almost two decades old. With the release of the GeForce RTX 40 Series, NVIDIA beefed up the video capabilities of its new GPU range with the addition of dual AV1 encoders. Not only something that brings massive improvements to encoding times for content creators but improves quality for streaming.

When NVIDIA announced the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 last year, it showcased the difference AV1 brings using Fortnite gameplay in a Twitch-like setting. As per the video above, it's a massive improvement, with NVENC AV1 delivering noticeably crisper and smoother video at 1080p60 than H.264 using the same bitrate. Bitrate is critical, as spotty video compression can be detrimental to live streams and broadcasts.

With AV1 added to the popular streaming app OBS Studio for recording, its addition to Discord this week is excellent news for gamers and the future of streaming. Discord is widely used as a social platform for specific games, groups, and friends, and being able to jump into a chat or share screens means it's a streaming platform too.