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Windows 11 now uses JScript9Legacy engine for improved security

Microsoft announced that it has replaced the default scripting engine JScript with the newer and more secure JScript9Legacy on Windows 11 version 24H2 and later. The decision is driven by security concerns, as JScript9Legacy is expected to offer better protection against web threats, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), and also improved performance. "To provide a more secure experience, beginning with Windows 11, version 24H2, JScript9Legacy is enabled by default to handle all scripting proces

The ultimate Windows 11 upgrade guide: Everything you need to know

Rustam Kaberov/Getty Images Windows 11 is about to celebrate its fourth anniversary and runs on hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide. When it debuted in 2021, the new version of Microsoft's flagship operating system was arguably an incremental change to Windows 10, with a fresh look and feel on top of core code that was practically identical to its predecessor. The more important change, it turned out, was a new set of hardware compatibility requirements that made many existing PCs ineligible

Can't upgrade your Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options and 3 months to act - before EOS

wragg/Getty Images Have you decided what to do with your Windows 10 PCs when they reach their official end-of-support date three months from now? I can tell you with absolute certainty that Microsoft is not going to back down at the last minute and extend that deadline. But you do have options, including some new ways to continue getting security updates for an extra year, at no cost, thanks to an announcement Microsoft made in late June. Don't procrastinate, though: You'll need to take action

Best Carpet Cleaners: I Used Real Life Messes as the Ultimate Test

The Bissell Revolution HydroSteam is the best overall carpet cleaner I tested. It was the only carpet washer that effectively removed pet urine and pet odors from my carpet. It also came in second to the Tineco Carpet Cruiser with tough stain removal. But for $300 less than the Tineco, its price-to-value ratio is unbeatable. Why I like it: While the Tineco Carpet Cruiser edged out the Bissell HydroSteam on the tough stain removal test, the Bissell blew away the competition on pet odor testing.

Postgres LISTEN/NOTIFY does not scale

At Recall.ai, we run an unusual workload. We record millions of hours of meetings every month. Each of these meetings generates a large amount of data we need to reliably capture and analyze. Some of that data is video, some of it is audio and some of it is structured data – transcription, events and metadata. The structured data gets written to our Postgres database by tens of thousands of simultaneous writers. Each of these writers is a “meeting bot”, which joins a video call and captures the

Measles Cases Hit the Highest Number in 33 Years. Do You Need a Measles Vaccine Booster?

The measles outbreak that started in West Texas has now spread to nearly every US state and infected 1,288 people, according to NPR. That's the largest number of measles cases since 1992. With measles still infecting many people, you might be wondering about your own vaccination status and whether you are adequately protected from the potentially deadly disease. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine are 97% eff

Insider Claims Microsoft Saved Half a Billion Dollars by Automating Low-Level Jobs

A Microsoft executive has made a bold — if dubious — claim: that the company has already saved hundreds of millions of dollars as it automates thousands of jobs formerly held by humans. As Bloomberg reports based on insider sources, Microsoft chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said during a recent employee presentation that the tech giant saved more than $500 million using AI in 2024 — and that's just at its call centers. Althoff's comments came just days after the company announced layof

The 37 Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now (July 2025)

As the birthplace of prestige TV shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, HBO—and, by extension, HBO Max—is best known for its impressive lineup of original series. The network has also been upping the ante with feature-length content that is the stuff of Oscar dreams. Below is a list of some of our favorite films streaming on HBO Max—from Oscar-winning epics to dystopian sci-fi classics. If you decide you’re in more of a TV mood, head over to our picks for the best shows on HBO Max. If you’re loo

Topics: best film life new oscar

Bitcoin sets another record above $113,000 as investors jump into risk assets, liquidate shorts

Bitcoin climbed to new all-time high on Thursday, building on its previous record reached just a day earlier, as investors jumped into risk assets and liquidated short positions. The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 2% at $113,766.74. Earlier, it rose as high as $113,863.18. Over the past 24 hours, $318 million in short liquidations across centralized exchanges, according to CoinGlass. When traders use leverage to short bitcoin and the cryptocurrency's price ri

Windows 11’s new Black Screen of Death is now rolling out

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft is now starting to change its Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) to a newly designed black version. It’s the first major change to the BSOD since Microsoft added a sad face to the screen in Windows 8, and Microsoft is now removing that frowning face and QR code in favor of a more simplified black screen. The new BSOD is rolling out to Windows 11 Release Preview users today,

Microsoft Outlook hit with hours-long outage

Microsoft 's Outlook email service malfunctioned for several hours Wednesday and Thursday, prompting some people to post on social media about the inability to reach their virtual mailboxes. The issue began at 6:20 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, according to a dashboard the software company maintains. It affected Outlook.com as well as Outlook mobile apps and desktop programs. At 12:21 ET the Microsoft 365 Status account posted that it was rolling out a fix. "Our configuration changes have e

"Awkward": Sacked Twitter CEO's Son Is Still Showing Up for Work

On Tuesday, Linda Yaccarino suddenly stepped down as CEO of X, Elon Musk's social media site that was once known to many as Twitter, after two years of loyal service at the company. But guess who still showed up to work the next day? According to reporting by the New York Times: her nepo-hire of a son, Matt Madrazo. "So that's awkward," Madrazo said to colleagues after arriving at X's New York office, per the NYT. The progeny outlasts the progenitor. Yaccarino hired Madrazo in 2023 to sell po

YouTube’s ‘Trending’ section is about to disappear

YouTube is preparing to sunset the Trending section that shows users which videos are currently going viral on the platform. The Trending page and Trending Now list will be removed within the “next couple of weeks,” according to YouTube, with the platform shifting its attention toward expanding YouTube Charts, which rank top-performing content. YouTube is directing users to lean on personalized recommendations and YouTube Charts to explore new videos ahead of the Trending page’s removal. YouTub

YouTube is getting rid of its Trending page and Trending Now list

YouTube is removing its Trending page and Trending Now list in favor of category-specific charts, the company announced on Thursday. With this change, YouTube is moving away from the single, all-encompassing list for trending content to now just displaying the most popular content in specific categories on YouTube Charts. The platform says the update better aligns with the way trending content is discovered today, noting that when the Trending page launched in 2015, it was a lot simpler to capt

Apple Maps in iOS 26 gains the proactive feature I’ve long needed

Apple Maps gets new features nearly every year, and iOS 26 is no exception. One brand new addition in iOS 26 could make Apple Maps vital for your daily commute, even if you don’t use it for navigation: proactive commute notifications. Commute notifications are coming to Apple Maps in iOS 26 Regular commutes are one of those occasions when using a maps app might seem unnecessary. If you travel to a place often enough—including, of course, your regular work or school drives—there’s little reaso

Topics: 26 apple commute ios maps

Microsoft Outlook outage enters hours-long stretch with no resolution

Everybody’s working for the weekend, but Microsoft Outlook clocked out early. The mission-critical email service is facing a widespread, hours-long outage. Microsoft says the Outlook outage means mailbox access may be unavailable for Outlook.com, Outlook Mobile, and Outlook desktop apps. The company also says that it’s working on a fix. We’ve begun a broad expedited deployment of the configuration change across all affected infrastructure. We expect most impacted users will experience relief w

Gemini can now transform your boring stills into lifelike videos

TL;DR Gemini will now let you generate videos from existing images using its Veo3 model. Google says you can also use actual photos to transform them into videos. Veo3 will limit the output to eight-second clips in 720p resolution. If you’ve recently come across any realistic-looking videos with bizarre tropes, chances are they were generated using Google’s Veo3 AI video generation in Gemini. Its outstanding continuity of video frames, the ability to automatically generate audio, and seamless

Gemini can now turn your photos into video with Veo 3

wGoogle's Veo 3 videos have propagated across the Internet since the model's debut in May, blurring the line between truth and fiction. Now, it's getting even easier to create these AI videos. The Gemini app is gaining photo-to-video generation, allowing you to upload a photo and turn it into a video. You don't have to pay anything extra for these Veo 3 videos, but the feature is only available to subscribers of Google's Pro and Ultra AI plans. When Veo 3 launched, it could conjure up a video b

Musk says Grok chatbot was 'manipulated' into praising Hitler

Musk says Grok chatbot was 'manipulated' into praising Hitler 3 hours ago Share Save Peter Hoskins & Charlotte Edwards • @edwardsclm Business & technology reporters, BBC News Share Save Reuters Elon Musk has sought to explain how his artificial intelligence (AI) firm's chatbot, Grok, praised Hitler. "Grok was too compliant to user prompts," Musk wrote on X. "Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed." Screenshots published on social media show the chatbot sa

As a millennial, I love this digital photo frame to display memories, and it's discounted for Prime Day

Allison Murray/ZDNET The Nixplay Touch 10 Smart Frame is $20 off at Amazon when you apply the coupon before adding it to your cart. This deal only applies to the black/silver color combo, allowing you to snag it for just $120. Also: The best Prime Day deals you can shop now ZDNET's key takeaways The Nixplay smart frame retails for $199 and comes in black, white, or wood. It's easy to set up, and you can invite family and friends to add photos to your frame (even if they don't own a Nixplay)

Microsoft Outlook goes down around the world - here's what we know

NurPhoto / Contributor/Getty If you're having trouble logging in to your email this morning, you're (probably) not fired. A massive outage is affecting Microsoft's Outlook service, leaving many people unable to access their email accounts. Also: How passkeys work: The complete guide to your inevitable passwordless future Reports of problems started shortly before 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, but surged just before 7 a.m. ET. As of 9 a.m., reports were still on the rise, indicating there was no resol

The best headphones for watching movies received a huge upgrade right before Prime Day sales

Jada Jones/ZDNET The Sonos Ace headphones are currently discounted to $299, $150 off their original price of $450. You can find this deal at Amazon, Best Buy, Sonos, and Walmart. It's been one year since Sonos released its first pair of consumer headphones, and although they made waves when they first dropped, how have they fared after the hype has died down? You can often find the Ace discounted, and if you're interested in them, that's the best time to buy them. Also: The best headphones of

Samsung drops Snapdragon for the Galaxy Z Flip 7 — here’s why it makes sense

After months of speculation about the status of Samsung’s custom Exynos chip program, we finally have an answer — it’s alive and kicking inside the new Galaxy Z Flip 7. This includes customers in the US, who had previously only been treated to a modern Exynos chip in the Galaxy S24 FE. However, this choice leaves Samsung with two different chips inside its latest flagship foldable portfolio. The Exynos 2500 is in the Z Flip 7, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the Galaxy Z Fold 7. But wh

Get the limited-edition Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for a record-low price of $129

If you’re in the market for premium earbuds, there’s a noteworthy deal available for the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. For Amazon Prime Day, you can snag these earbuds at a discounted price of $129, down from the regular price of $179. That’s a substantial 28% off the recommended retail price, and the lowest price of all time, making it an opportune moment to invest in quality sound. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for $129 (28% off) The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds come in a limited-edition Twilight Blue,

Prime Day has our favorite digital photo frame in stock and on sale for 20 percent off

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . A digital frame may seem like too obvious of a gift — but that's for a reason. They actually improve upon something we all have around our homes, allowing you to display more of your favorite photos all the time. Engadget's favorite option in this space, the Aura Carver Mat, is on sale

Your Apple CarPlay is getting a major upgrade soon: 3 features I can't wait to use on iOS 26

Apple Apple's annual Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) happened last month, and the tech giant announced several new updates to iOS 26, including upgrades for Apple CarPlay users, in case you missed it. Also: How to install iOS 26 beta on your iPhone (and which models support it) While you'll have to enroll in the developer beta to get early access, here's a quick overview of all the new features you can expect in Apple CarPlay by this fall. 1. New CarPlay design Along with the redesi

Topics: apple car carplay ios new

This iOS 26 change could make it Apple’s most surprising update yet

With iOS 26, Apple has made a key strategy shift: it’s no longer pre-announcing major new features that won’t be available for months to come. Here’s why I think that’s a great decision by Apple, and why it could make for an exciting 12 months. The iOS 26 strategy shift Apple’s change in strategy was clearly driven by what happened at WWDC 2024 and during the subsequent iOS 18 cycle. The company pre-announced major new features for Siri, but failed to actually deliver those features. But iOS

Topics: 26 apple features ios new

Microsoft shares $500M in AI savings internally days after cutting 9,000 jobs

Microsoft’s chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said during a presentation this week that AI tools are boosting productivity across sales, customer service, and software engineering, Bloomberg reports. Althoff noted AI has been so useful that Microsoft was able to save more than $500 million last year in its call center alone. The internal remarks come a week after Microsoft laid off more than 9,000 workers, the company’s third round of layoffs this year that put the total number of affecte

Microsoft Authenticator on iOS moves backups fully to iCloud

Microsoft is rolling out a new backup system in September for its Authenticator app on iOS, removing the requirement to use a Microsoft personal account to back up TOTP secrets and account names. Previously, the Microsoft Authenticator app required iOS users to sign in with a personal Microsoft Account to enable backups, regardless of whether they were using the app for personal or enterprise credentials. This created problems in enterprise environments where organizations often like to keep p

Lowest price alert: Belkin BoostCharge Pro 4-port charger drops to just $84.99

If you’re looking to upgrade your charging setup, Amazon’s Prime Day deals have something special in store. The Belkin BoostCharge Pro is now on sale at an impressive discount, making it an enticing option for those needing multi-device charging solutions. Belkin BoostCharge Pro 4-Port USB-C 200W GaN Charger for $84.99 (35% off) During Prime Day, the Belkin BoostCharge Pro is available for just $84.99 — a 35% discount off its recommended retail price of $129.99. This marks the lowest price date