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Microsoft is moving antivirus providers out of the Windows kernel

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. It’s been nearly a year since a faulty CrowdStrike update took down 8.5 million Windows-based machines around the world, and Microsoft wants to ensure such a problem never happens again. After holding a summit with security vendors last year, Microsoft is poised to release a private preview of Windows changes that will move antivirus (AV) and endpoint detection and response (ED

Alert: There's a Lost Spaceship in the Ocean

It's lost forever? Dive Mind In science fiction, we often have the trope of a spacecraft becoming lost in space — but what about being lost at sea? That's what happened this week with an eight-foot-wide experimental spacecraft flown by a European aerospace outfit called The Exploration Company, according to a company statement on LinkedIn. When the vehicle came back to Earth, mission control lost contact with the craft when it entered the ocean. "The capsule was launched successfully, powere

Microsoft confirms Family Safety blocks Google Chrome from launching

Microsoft has confirmed that its Family Safety parental control service is blocking users from launching Google Chrome and other web browsers on Windows systems. Microsoft Family Safety helps parents monitor their children's activity across desktop and mobile devices, providing screen time management, content filtering, app controls, location tracking, communication monitoring, and activity reports. Redmond acknowledged the bug after widespread user reports since early June that they were unab

Microsoft fixes Outlook bug causing crashes when opening emails

Microsoft has fixed a known issue that will cause the classic Outlook email client to crash when opening emails or starting a new message. The bug impacts users across all Microsoft 365 Office channels who updated Outlook for Microsoft 365 earlier this month. "When you open or start a new email, classic Outlook crashes. This issue occurs because Outlook cannot open the Forms Library. The emerging cases for this issue are on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)," the Outlook team said when it a

Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 Review: The Mini-LED Display Shines but There's Little Else to Get Excited About

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. 7.3 / 10 SCORE Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 $1,450 at Dell Pros Bright, striking mini-LED display Strong productivity performance Sturdy chassis Cons Poor battery life Subpar speakers Mushy keyboard At the beginning of 2025, Dell introduced a sweeping rebrand to its laptop product stack in an attempt to simplify its offerings. One of the results of the rebrand

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A European Startup’s Spacecraft Made It to Orbit. Now It’s Lost at Sea

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its Mission Possible vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an “issue,” the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company characterized the test

Microsoft Dependency Has Risks

There was a recent incident where Microsoft somehow allegedly blocked a mailbox of a sanctioned individual. Any organization highly depending on MS products that might come into the crosshair should ask - can this happen to me? What would be the cost? How much I invest into prevention of this scenario? In this article I try to get the facts straight and use a return on security investment calculation to try and judge this situation in a rational way. Let’s grab our tinfoil hats and find out if i

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A European Startup's Spacecraft Made It to Orbit. Now It's Lost at Sea

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its Mission Possible vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an “issue,” the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company characterized the test

How PC makers exploited BIOS copyright strings to unlock trial software during the Windows 95 era

What just happened? Jokingly referred to as "Plug and Pray" due to its notorious unreliability, the Plug and Play standard was nonetheless a pivotal advancement in simplifying hardware and peripheral configuration during the early Windows 9x era. Beyond easing setup for end users, the technology also played an unexpected role in exposing a cartel of PC manufacturers that had been exploiting a hardware feature to provide full versions of trial software packages to their customers. Microsoft vete

OpenAI might be stealth-building the ultimate Google Workspace and Office 365 replacement

Eugene Mymrin/Getty Images OpenAI is building new features within ChatGPT that would make it a direct competitor with workplace productivity suites like Google Workplace and Microsoft Office 365, The Information reported Tuesday. ZDNET has reached out to OpenAI for comment. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Also: How to get Windows 10 extended secur

Trump’s FTC announces merger condition that prohibits advertising boycotts

The Federal Trade Commission is approving a merger of big advertising agencies after extracting an agreement that the combined firm won't lead or participate in any advertising boycotts based on political or ideological viewpoints. The merger condition is a new strategy in the Republican-controlled FTC's fight against alleged advertising boycotts, which could help Elon Musk's X social network and President Trump's own Truth Social platform. The FTC proposal surfaced in a news report earlier thi

AI Agents Are Getting Better at Writing Code—and Hacking It as Well

The latest artificial intelligence models are not only remarkably good at software engineering—new research shows they are getting ever-better at finding bugs in software, too. AI researchers at UC Berkeley tested how well the latest AI models and agents could find vulnerabilities in 188 large open source codebases. Using a new benchmark called CyberGym, the AI models identified 17 new bugs including 15 previously unknown, or “zero-day,” ones. “Many of these vulnerabilities are critical,” says

Was laid off from Microsoft after 23 years, and I'm still going into the office

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Freddy Kristiansen, a 59-year-old former principal product manager at Microsoft's Denmark office who was laid off in May. Business Insider has verified Kristiansen's employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity. A couple of weeks ago, after 23 years at Microsoft, I was laid off. Yet here I am, back in the office.

Is this $600 Acer the best laptop deal right now? I tested it, and here's my verdict

ZDNET's key takeaways The Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) is on sale now at B&H for $599. It's a lightweight, responsive laptop with a touchscreen, and a slick media playback menu. However, for a laptop so optimized for media, its speakers aren't the best. $599 at B&H Photo-Video The 14-inch Acer Swift Go was among the first round of laptops to come loaded with Intel's Meteor Lake AI processors last year, and it does so for $899 (on sale now for $599), a mid-range price point right in the sweet spot

Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026 – with a catch

In brief: Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 this October despite its enduring popularity and the fact that hundreds of millions of usable PCs don't support Windows 11. The company recently introduced a new option for personal devices to receive another year of security updates, but it requires using OneDrive. After Windows 10 reaches end-of-life status on October 14, users who enroll in Windows Backup will continue receiving security updates through October 13, 2026, at no extra cos

This Acer laptop has a game-changing feature for multimedia consumption (and it's $300 off)

ZDNET's key takeaways The Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) is on sale now at B&H for $599. It's a lightweight, responsive laptop with a touchscreen, and a slick media playback menu. However, for a laptop so optimized for media, its speakers aren't the best. $599 at B&H Photo-Video The 14-inch Acer Swift Go was among the first round of laptops to come loaded with Intel's Meteor Lake AI processors last year, and it does so for $899 (on sale now for $599), a mid-range price point right in the sweet spot

Lyon Drops Microsoft to Boost Digital Sovereignty

▼ Summary – Lyon will gradually replace Microsoft software with open-source alternatives like Only Office, Linux, and PostgreSQL to reduce dependency on U.S. solutions. – The city aims to achieve digital sovereignty by transitioning to free and interoperable software. – Lyon will use the Territoire Numérique Ouvert suite, developed with SITIV and Métropole de Lyon, for its digital needs. – The Territoire Numérique Ouvert suite is already used by thousands of employees across 9 local governmen

A nasal spray company wants to make it harder for the FTC to police health claims

In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, a health products company called Xlear began advertising its saline nasal spray to people desperately searching for ways to protect themselves from a new virus. In its marketing, Xlear pointed to studies that it said supported the idea that ingredients in the spray could block viruses from sticking to the nasal cavity. Based on its interpretation of the science, Xlear promoted the product as one part of a “layered defense” against contracting covid. In 202

Microsoft Offers Free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates -- Under One Condition

Microsoft is closing the door on Windows 10 in October 2025, and will be ceasing security support for that operating system unless users pay $30 for a one-year extended security update. On Tuesday, with less than four months on the clock until support expires, Microsoft has added a free option. Users need to turn on cloud backup and connect it to their OneDrive account. The ability to get free updates on Windows 10 is a pretty big deal because it is still the most widely used Windows OS, accoun

The German automotive industry wants to develop open-source software together

Collaboration for more speed, efficiency, and security in software development and the basis for an open and collaborative ecosystem With the support of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), 11 companies in the automotive industry have agreed on pre-competitive cooperation in open source software development. A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today at the 29th International Automotive Electronics Congress (AEK). With the increasing importance and

Meet Mu, the small language model in charge of Microsoft's Settings AI agent

In brief: Small language models are generally more compact and efficient than LLMs, as they are designed to run on local hardware or edge devices. Microsoft is now bringing yet another SLM to Windows 11, as users apparently need a few AI-powered hints to help them find specific OS settings and customize their PC experience. Microsoft recently announced Mu, a new small language model designed to integrate with the Windows 11 UI experience. Mu will work alongside Phi Silica – the language model p

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Medha Agarwal, Jyoti Bansal, and Jennifer Neundorfer discuss what makes a pitch land

Perfect your pitch for maximum impact. Investors hear hundreds of pitches, but only a few stand out. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, hear directly from Medha Agarwal, general partner, defy.vc; Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder, Harness; Jennifer Neundorfer, co-founder and managing partner, January Ventures as they share what grabs their attention, what turns them off, and the subtle signals founders often miss. This candid panel reveals the insider strategies to help you build trust, stand out, and w

Windows 10 users can get extended security updates for 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points

As we edge closer to Windows 10's end-of-support on October 14, 2025, Microsoft is throwing its more stubborn users another bone. The company previously announced that, for the first time, consumers would be able to purchase one year of Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for $30. Today, Microsoft revealed that you'll also be able to use 1,000 reward points to snap up an ESU. That could be helpful if, like me, you've been slowly amassing Microsoft Rewards and completely forgot they exist

Windows 10 users can get extended security updates using Microsoft points

Microsoft says Windows 10 home users who want to delay switching to Windows 11 can enroll in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program at no additional cost using Microsoft Rewards points or enabling Windows Backup to sync their data to the cloud. Windows 10 will reach the end of support on October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft will stop providing bug fixes and security updates to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities, with unpatched systems exposed to attacks and malware. Windows Insi

400 million Windows PCs vanished in 3 years. Where did they all go?

Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty Images In today's very very long blog post (more than 2,400 words!) about end-of-support options for Windows 10 PCs, Microsoft tried to bury an unpleasant statistic. That data point is tossed off casually in the opening paragraph, as Microsoft executive VP and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi says, "Today, Windows is the most widely used operating system, powering over a billion monthly active devices..." Sounds pretty good, right? Also: How to get Windows 10

How to get Windows 10 extended security updates for free: 2 options

hxdbzxy / Getty Images With just a few months remaining until the Windows 10 end-of-support date, Microsoft seems to have belatedly realized that owners of tens of millions of consumer PCs running Windows 10 aren't ready to replace their old computers, and they're also not about to fork over $30 for a one-year Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription. So today, the company waved the white flag and announced new "free enrollment options" for the ESU program, along with a description of the

Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026, with strings attached

Last fall, Microsoft announced that individuals who wanted to keep using Windows 10 past its official end-of-support date could do so by opting into the company's Extended Security Update (ESU) program at a cost of $30 per PC. That payment would get users a single year of additional security updates. Today, less than four months before that October 14, 2025, cutoff, Microsoft is announcing additional options for people who can't or don't want to pay that fee. Individuals who want to pay $30 for

Microsoft makes Windows 10 extended security updates free, but there’s a catch

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft revealed last year that it will charge consumers $30 for a year of extra security updates to Windows 10. Now, it’s allowing consumers to enroll into its Extended Security Updates (ESU) free of charge ahead of the Windows 10 end of support on October 14th. But there’s a catch. Consumers will have three options to get ESU on their personal Windows 10 PCs, and the free

Emergence AI’s CRAFT arrives to make it easy for enterprises to automate their entire data pipeline

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more New York City based startup Emergence AI, founded by former IBM researchers, previously made headlines for its impressive automated system that allows enterprises to type in a requested task in plain natural language and automatically create a fleet of agents to help complete it. But that’s not all the company has up its sleeve when it co

Xbox will reportedly conduct another major round of layoffs next week

It seems the cuts just keep on coming within Microsoft's gaming division. A company-wide reorganization is taking place, and that's slated to include another major round of layoffs within the Xbox team. Those cuts will be confirmed next week, according to Bloomberg. Engadget has contacted Microsoft for comment. Microsoft confirmed last month that it would lay off about three percent of its total workforce across all teams, levels and regions in an attempt to streamline operations and flatten it