Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

For many people, it can be useful to have Windows 11 installation media available for when a full reinstall of the operating system may be necessary. Microsoft has long made it possible to download Windows installation images, and the company has just updated the Windows 11 ISO

This means that it is now possible to download Windows 11 22H2 directly from Microsoft and use it to install the OS. It eliminates the need to install an older version of Windows 11 and then download a hefty update separately.

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Although Apple announced the latest versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems at WWDC a few days ago, it will be months until the final versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS Sonoma are available.

There will be, however, numerous beta builds for curious users to try out, starting with the early developer betas. Traditionally, Apple has only made these versions available to paying developers, but this year the company has decided to make them freely available to anyone with an Apple ID.

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Chrome has long had the unenviable reputation of being a resource hog. This is something that Google has been working on over the years, and one of the most recent improvements has seen the introduction of the Memory Saver feature which puts inactive tabs to sleep to free up RAM.

With the feature enabled, you have just had to trust that it is working -- but now Google has made a change that makes it clear just how much memory is being saved by each tab. And in a future update, the browser will make it even more obvious about just how many resources it has freed up.

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Apple may have just announced macOS Sonoma and a full release may still be some months off, but there are going to be plenty of beta builds to play with in the meantime.

Starting right now, there is a developer build of this latest version of macOS. If you are particularly keen to try out all of the new features and enhancements that Apple has introduced, here's how to download that beta right now.

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At its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) Apple made various hardware announcements, but the event wasn't just about the likes of Apple Vision Pro VR headset. Also revealed was the latest version of Apple's desktop operating system -- macOS Sonoma, or macOS 14.

Like Microsoft with Windows 11, macOS Sonoma sees Apple adding new widget capabilities and boosting the experience for gamers. Other updates include Presenter Overlay in video conferencing, new screensavers, and significant privacy updates to Safari.

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Thus far, Microsoft's artificial intelligence-powered Bing Chat has been exclusively available to users of the company's own Bing browser -- but this is starting to change.

Although there has been no official announcement, there have been numerous reports from users that they have been able to get Bing Chat to work without having to switch to Edge. Responding to queries about these reports on Twitter, Microsoft has now confirmed that it is gradually rolling out the AI-driven chat tool to different web browsers.

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Given that it never really generated a huge degree of excitement, you would be forgiven for having forgotten about Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana. Now the company has announced that support for the Cortana app for Windows 10 and Windows 11 is coming to an end.

Microsoft has not made a huge fuss about killing off the app, slipping out the news in a support document rather than a blog post. But the end of support for the app does not mean that Cortana is disappearing altogether.

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Content moderation on Twitter has been something of a prickly subject during Elon Musk's time as CEO. Having already lost Yoel Roth back in November, his replacement has now also resigned.

Ella Irwin is leaving the role after just six months as head of the trust and safety team. While Roth has been openly critical of Twitter since his resignation last year, the reasons behind Irwin's departure are not yet clear.

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It's not long since Microsoft unleashed PowerToys v0.70.0 to an excited userbase, complete with two exciting new utilities. Just a week later, it's time for yet another release.

This time around there are, sadly, no new toys to play with, but that does not mean PowerToys v0.70.1 is not significant. Described as a patch release, it addresses a large number of problems that have been found in the software as well as making various improvements.

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The Paint app that is built into Windows is much-maligned but, while it could hardly be considered a Photoshop-killer, much of the criticism really stems from the state of the app several years ago. Paint may not make it into the toolbox of a serious designer, but it has undeniably come on in leaps and bounds over the years.

And now Microsoft is treating Windows 11 users to an updated version of the not-quite-as-limited-as-you-might-think graphics tool. Among the new features are updated zoom controls and a much-requested dark mode option.

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Acknowledging that not everyone in the world uses a PC, Microsoft has launched a new tech community for people using its products in conjunction with Apple hardware. Called Microsoft Mac Admins, it is described as an "online community for IT professionals who are passionate and knowledgeable about using Microsoft products on Apple Mac devices in the enterprise."

The launch comes as growing numbers of organizations use Microsoft Intune and other products from the company to manage Macs in the enterprise. Microsoft says that the aim of the community is to give Mac admins a way to "connect with other users, share experiences and best practices, learn from experts and peers, get help with common issues, and be inspired by the latest innovations."

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There are still a lot of people running Windows 10 rather than upgrading to Windows 11. This is perhaps not astonishing, but there are still a surprising number of users with even older versions of Windows.

With Microsoft no longer supporting Windows 7 or Windows 8.x, sticking with these editions of the operating system is clearly an inadvisable security risk. But for anyone who has no choice, or who simply refuses to move on, Mozilla will continue to offer security updates for Firefox under these versions of Windows until well into 2024, so at least your browser will be safe.

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Users of ARM-based devices running Windows 10 or Windows 11 -- including Microsoft's own Surface Pro X -- have been experiencing problems with their built-in cameras for about a week. There have been increasing numbers of complaints about non-functioning cameras and the error message "0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)".

Microsoft has provided a workaround to mitigate the issue, but the consequences of implementing it are less than ideal.

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If you're using Windows Update to take care of your driver updates, the current situation for AMD users might serve as a warning. Users of Windows 10 and Windows 11 are finding that Microsoft is replacing their existing GPU drivers with older versions, leading to a range of issues.

Complaints are emerging that the error message "Windows Update may have automatically replaced your AMD driver" is appearing -- and Microsoft has replaced it with one that is incompatible with AMD software. AMD has acknowledged the problem and offered up a solution.

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Microsoft has used the recent release of the Moment 3 update for Windows 11 to look back at the improvements it has made to the operating system since its launch. More than this, there is a "behind-the-scenes peek into how performance improvements are delivered".

The company boasts proudly of the "delightful performance" its developers have delivered to users of Windows 11. Pointing to statistics such as speeding up frequently used shell interaction by up to 15 percent, Microsoft says that over the last year it has made Windows 11 "faster, more reliable, and more efficient".

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