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Software engineer Brandon Thomas, known on Reddit as u/ai_art_is_art, released 13 free, open-source apps through his site ArtCraft that mimic core features of Adobe and Microsoft programs. The apps include PhotoCraft, WordCraft and DeckCraft, built to replace Photoshop, Word and PowerPoint respectively.
Microsoft released its largest-ever Patch Tuesday update in October, addressing a record number of vulnerabilities across its product line. The update includes fixes for security bypasses and unauthenticated remote code execution flaws, some of which are reported as actively exploited zero-days.
KPMG's 2025 American Worker Survey found 87% of U.S. employees use AI at least weekly and 51% daily. A separate KPMG and University of Melbourne study of over 48,000 people across 47 countries found 44% had used AI in ways that violated company policy, and 66% relied on AI output without checking its accuracy.
Microsoft released its October 2026 Patch Tuesday update, fixing 1,411 vulnerabilities across its product line, including three zero-day flaws. The bulk of the disclosed issues affect .NET and related components, spanning remote code execution, elevation of privilege, denial of service, and information disclosure bugs rated mostly Important severity.
Microsoft has released KB5126657 for Windows 10, available to Enterprise LTSC and ESU-enrolled devices via Windows Update. The update brings systems to build 19045.7807 (19044.7807 for LTSC 2021) and folds in this month's Patch Tuesday fixes, which addressed 1,411 vulnerabilities including one actively exploited zero-day. It also adds permanent Daylight Savings Time support for British Columbia and Alberta, a new Manitoba Standard Time zone, auditing controls for ReFS volumes on external storage, and a Storage Spaces fix.
Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 version 24H2 Home and Pro editions stopped receiving monthly security and preview updates as of October 13, 2026, with the October update being the final one issued. Enterprise and Education editions of 24H2 remain supported until October 2027, and Microsoft is urging affected users to move to the newer Windows 11 26H2 release.
Microsoft has disclosed details of its Maia 300 AI chip, a custom processor designed for data center workloads. The chip is part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to develop in-house silicon for AI computing tasks.
Developer Brandon Thomas, who previously built free alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud apps using Claude AI, has now created WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft—open-source replicas of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The apps are written in Rust with Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 and released under MIT or Apache 2.0 licenses, running natively across Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, and the browser via WebAssembly. WordCraft already supports .docx and other formats with offline spelling and grammar tools, while GridCraft reportedly implements 89% of Excel's ribbon commands and 98% of its worksheet functions.
The Netherlands' Tax and Customs Administration has cancelled its planned migration to Microsoft 365, after roughly 5,000 employees had already switched over. The move follows a June recommendation from the Dutch Advisory Council on ICT Assessment to reverse the public-cloud rollout and a July pause of the plan, though officials have not specified what system will replace it.
NTDEV's open-source Tiny11 Builder now includes a GUI, simplifying the process of creating slimmed-down Windows 11 installation images from official Microsoft ISOs. The tool uses PowerShell scripts and DISM to strip preinstalled apps, services, and components, offering both a standard Tiny11 build that retains Windows Update and Defender, and a more extreme Tiny11 Core variant that removes them entirely.
Microsoft President Brad Smith told ITV that AI systems face less regulatory scrutiny than milk or washing machines, urging governments to apply established safety practices and require companies to build emergency shutdown mechanisms into AI systems. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella followed with an X post arguing that major AI companies lack a 'mechanistic understanding' of their own tools and called for slower development, incident reporting and independent review.
Norway's Data Protection Authority fined Xandr, an adtech unit now owned by Microsoft, 92 million kroner (about $9.6 million) for allegedly using sensitive Grindr user data for advertising without obtaining explicit consent. The agency said Xandr assumed Grindr had already secured user approval, and the case stems from a 2020 complaint by Norway's consumer council covering data practices between July 2018 and April 2020. It is the largest fine the NDPA has ever issued.