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In conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson, VR pioneer Jaron Lanier explains that his official title at Microsoft is 'Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Prime Unifying Scientist,' abbreviated as OCTOPUS. He says his agreement with the company allows him to publicly criticize Microsoft itself, as long as he clarifies he isn't speaking on its behalf.
Tom's Hardware tested Thrustmaster's new Airbus Add-On Grip paired with the AVA Joystick Base using the Fenix A320 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The reviewer found the setup highly capable overall but noted noticeable wobble in the default configuration that only dampers can resolve, alongside a steep price that may deter casual buyers.
A tech guide outlines practical settings changes Windows 11 users can make to extend laptop battery life, noting that x86-based machines remain more power-hungry than ARM alternatives and that Windows 11 itself carries performance overhead. The top recommendation is lowering screen brightness via the Win + A shortcut, alongside other adjustments that trade some performance for longer runtime.
Microsoft is telling enterprises to migrate away from Slmgr.vbs, the VBScript-based tool used to manage Windows product activation, because VBScript itself is being phased out of Windows. The company recommends switching to PowerShell equivalents before VBScript is removed entirely in a future Windows release.
Microsoft researchers uncovered a phishing operation in which an unidentified attacker sent over one million fraudulent emails within three days, each tailored to target accounts payable staff at specific companies. The emails impersonated ServiceNow, demanding nearly $50,000 in fake subscription payments, and included fabricated email threads featuring real executives' names to make the scam appear legitimate.
Switzerland's Federal Chancellery and its Armed Forces Cyber Command are separately moving away from Microsoft 365 toward openDesk, a German-built open-source workplace suite covering email, calendars, documents and video conferencing. The Chancellery plans to run openDesk alongside Microsoft 365 for about 3,000 of 47,000 federal employees by the end of 2027, at an estimated cost of 9 million Swiss francs, while the military is proceeding faster on sensitive systems.
Microsoft has updated its Copilot iPhone app to support Apple CarPlay, requiring iOS 26.4 or later and a subscription to function. The voice-driven integration mirrors chat history from the phone app, including text-based conversations, and joins Siri AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Meta AI and Claude as chatbot options available in CarPlay.
Microsoft has detailed a social engineering campaign, active since May 2026, in which attackers tied to groups like ShinyHunters and Helix pose as corporate IT help desks and warn employees their passkey, MFA, or SSO settings need urgent updating. Victims are steered to convincing fake Microsoft login pages—often via SMS to personal phones—where attackers harvest credentials and session tokens using adversary-in-the-middle and device-code phishing techniques, rather than actually registering new passkeys.
Microsoft's longtime head of communications announced departure after 17 years in the role and almost 29 years at the company, saying the decision followed extended discussions with leadership. The executive will remain through the end of the calendar year while Microsoft determines next steps for the position, with an announcement expected in coming weeks.
Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 recovery feature called Cloud Rebuild in Insider Beta Preview Build 26220.9343. It reinstalls Windows directly from Windows Update even when the existing installation is corrupted or won't boot, eliminating the need for a USB recovery drive. The tool is accessed through the Windows Recovery Environment, which can now also reuse saved Wi-Fi credentials to connect during recovery.
Windows Insider Beta Build 26220.9343 introduces Cloud Rebuild, a new recovery option that downloads a factory version of Windows 11 directly from Microsoft's servers instead of requiring a USB drive or custom image. The feature lives inside the Windows Recovery Environment under 'Reset this PC' and works over Ethernet or Wi-Fi, even restoring devices when the installed OS is too corrupted to boot normally.
Microsoft has patched a bug that stopped Teams and the new Outlook for Windows from launching on ARM-based devices like the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7. The issue, triggered by August 2026 security updates (KB5121003), mainly hit new or freshly imaged PCs without Microsoft Store updates. The fix arrived with the September 8 cumulative update, KB5124012.