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Microsoft told IT admins it wrongly marked an Always On VPN connection bug as resolved in October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates, reverting the status to 'Mitigated.' The bug, first acknowledged in September, can leave VPN connections stuck or failing with a 'port already in use' error on Windows 11 24H2 systems using automatic protocol selection.
The Browser Company announced it will retire Arc, its browser known for its unconventional interface, on December 22, directing users toward Dia, its newer AI-focused browser available for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 11 PCs. New Arc account creation has already stopped, and mobile features like tab sync and Browse for Me will be disabled on November 23 ahead of the full desktop shutdown and account deactivation.
Microsoft says it incorrectly marked an Always On VPN connection bug as resolved in its October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative update. The company has reverted the issue's status from 'Resolved' to 'Mitigated' and says a real fix will arrive in a future update. In the meantime, it recommends IT admins work around the problem by manually selecting a single VPN tunneling protocol instead of automatic protocol selection.
Microsoft's October 13 Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 introduced a bug that disables the Smart App Control security feature and prevents users from turning it back on through normal settings. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and published a Registry workaround involving two new keys while it prepares an official fix.
Windows 11 26H2 retains a compatibility fix called EmulateHeap that reproduces Windows 95's forgiving memory-management behavior for older applications that depend on it. The feature traces back to a 1990s bug in SimCity, where Microsoft rewrote part of Windows 95's memory allocator to stop the game crashing rather than wait for a patch, and later generalized that fix into EmulateHeap to keep other legacy apps running on newer Windows versions.
Microsoft has fixed a bug that caused games and Windows 11 apps using AC-3 (Dolby Digital) audio decoding to crash or fail to launch after installing the September 2026 preview update KB5124010. The fix arrives in the KB5127648 October 2026 Patch Tuesday update, which Microsoft says affected users on Windows 11 24H2 and later should install.
Windows 11's built-in Phone Link app lets users make and receive phone calls directly from their PC by pairing an iPhone or Android device. Setup requires updating Phone Link through the Microsoft Store, enabling Bluetooth on both devices, and installing a companion app (Link to Windows) on the phone to complete pairing. Once paired, users can dial contacts or use a dial pad from the Calls tab, and incoming calls route to the PC automatically.
Windows 11 users can check negotiated Ethernet speed under Settings > Network & internet > Ethernet, or via the ncpa.cpl shortcut on Windows 10 and 11 to view adapter status. Mac users can find the same information under System Settings > Network > Ethernet > Details > Hardware, with the configuration kept on Automatic to avoid connection problems.
Microsoft is reworking parts of Windows 11 to reduce how much memory and processing power the operating system consumes, specifically targeting lower-end machines with 8GB of RAM. The changes aim to make the OS run more efficiently on hardware that has struggled under Windows 11's current resource demands.
Microsoft's new Surface Laptop Ultra, built with an Nvidia RTX Spark N1X chip, starts at $2,599 and can be configured up to $5,899 depending on processor and memory. The base 24GB unified memory model ships with Windows 11 Home, while higher-tier configurations come with Windows 11 Pro and up to 64GB of memory. During a review briefing, Microsoft gave only a vague answer when asked whether the 24GB base model has enough memory for tasks like running AI models locally.
Microsoft has rolled out an updated Photos app for Windows 11 Insiders featuring a new native editor and viewer, plus a redesigned gallery. The editor adds tools like Crop, Enhance, Repair, Stylize, and a new Relight feature for fixing lighting, alongside AI-powered object removal and support for HDR, HEIC, and WebP formats. Microsoft claims the editor launches 25% faster and the viewer opens photos up to 30% faster for HEIC files, with wider release to all users expected later this year.
Microsoft says a new Windows 11 update improves responsiveness in Search, Start, Settings, File Explorer and other tools by up to 20%, based on internal comparisons between build 26300.9550 and build 26200.7628. On systems with 8GB of RAM or less, Windows now delays loading Widgets until opened, freeing over 200MB of memory, and the OS can hold up to 2GB more active data in RAM before offloading it to storage. The update also speeds up Windows Hello sign-in and Bluetooth pairing, including faster AirPods connections, while a redesigned Search experience is being tested with Windows Insiders.