Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

There have been complaints recently about Microsoft using the Start menu to promote its own OneDrive service as well as suggesting websites, but another upcoming addition to Windows 11 is likely be rather better received.

Hidden among the numerous new features of Windows 11 build 25247, is an update to the network connectivity icon that appears in the notification area of the taskbar. It provides at-a-glance information about whether your VPN is active.

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Around two months after acknowledging an issue with some printer drivers and Windows 11 2022 Update, Microsoft has addressed the problem and lifted the safeguard hold it had put in place.

The safeguard hold meant that people with printers using Microsoft IPP Class Driver or Universal Print Class Driver were blocked from upgrading to Windows 11 22H2. But in removing the block, Microsoft has opened up the latest version of Windows 11 to more people.

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Citing customer feedback, Microsoft has taken the decision to bring SwiftKey back to the App Store. Back at the beginning of October, the company delisted the iOS keyboard app resulting in complaints from the app's many users.

Not only has Microsoft reinstated SwiftKey, the company says that it is "investing heavily in the keyboard" but has not offered any specific details about what this means.

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Almost two years after Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, Elon Musk has permitted the former US president back onto the site. Trump was evicted form the site following the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol

This weekend Musk conducted a poll on Twitter asking people to vote about whether or not to "reinstate former President Trump". After more than 15 million votes were cast, a majority voted in favor, and it wasn't long before Trump's account was reactivated.

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In the world of social media, most of the attention is -- understandably -- focused on what's happening at Twitter, but there are changes afoot at Facebook too.

Starting at the beginning of December, some information fields are being removed from user profiles. The fields in question are Religious Views, Political Views, Address, and Interested In, with the latter being the field used to indicate sexual orientation.

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Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has been nothing short of chaotic, leading to thousands of employees being fired, an unknown number resigning, countless users jumping ship, and confusion for those left behind. So... what to do? Download your Twitter archive.

It is one thing to find a new home on a Twitter alternative such as Mastodon, but what about everything you are leaving behind? While the future of Twitter is very much an unknown, it is hanging in the balance, and recent events have shown that just about anything is possible. Rumors abound about the site being closed, so if you are concerned about losing years' worth of tweets -- many of which may contain valuable data -- here's how to go about downloading them for posterity.

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It is just a few days since Microsoft acknowledged problems with Kerberos authentication. Affecting Windows Servers with the Domain Controller role, the issues mean that domain user sign in could fail, Remote Desktop connection could fail to connect, and more.

Now the company has released a series of emergency updates to resolve the issues. A total of six out-of-band updates are available (KB5021652, KB5021653, KB5021654, KB5021655, KB5021656 and KB5021657), and they must be manually installed.

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Microsoft has started the roll out of the Xbox November update, and this time around it is big news.

Among the new features added with this latest release is the ability to connect to Discord voice channels directly from a console, eliminating the need for a mobile for setup. Other additions include better power options, a new Captures app, and the option to start your live stream directly from your Xbox with Twitch, Lightstream and Streamlabs.

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Netflix has announced a new feature that makes it possible to log out of any logged-in devices from Account Settings.

While the company is suggesting that is something that would be useful for things such as forgetting to log out of your Netflix account on a hotel TV, it is also likely to be used to give freeloaders the boot. Additionally, it serves as a helpful security feature, giving Netflix subscribers a way to remotely log out of unrecognized devices.

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Whether for reasons of aesthetics, or to be a little kinder to the eyes, the introduction of a dark mode option to Windows was real blessing. But there are times when dark mode is not appropriate, and it is a surprisingly lengthy process to temporarily disable it. Thankfully, Microsoft is working on a solution.

The company has been spotted experimenting with a dark mode toggle that reduces switching between light and dark mode to a couple of clicks.

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After November's Patch Tuesday releases, and ahead of the latest batch of updates for 2022, Microsoft has released a preview of the KB5019157 update.

The company draws attention to three particular highlights of this update including fixing an issue that saw Microsoft Store Update failing. Also highlighted are fixes for daylight savings problems as well as an issue with pinned apps in the Start menu.

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The torrent of problematic updates for Windows shows no signs of drying up. Since Patch Tuesday this month, Microsoft has already confirmed a Direct Access connectivity issue in various versions of Windows (which it sort of fixed by rolling back the update), now the company has issued a warning that this month's updates are also causing problems with Kerberos authentication.

Despite the fact the issue can lead to sign-in problems, failed Remote Desktop connections and printing not working, Microsoft is yet to offer either a fix or a workaround. Virtually every version of Windows is affected.

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Microsoft has acknowledged an issue affecting Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 that may result in Direct Access connectivity problems.

The problem can arise after installing KB5019509 or later updates, and as a result of the discovery, Microsoft has performed yet another Known Issue Rollback (KIR) -- one of a growing number. The company has also published details of a workaround for those affected.

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For many people cloud storage is now pretty much essential. There's no shortage of services to choose from, but Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive are among the most popular. For users of Microsoft's cloud storage, there is some bad news -- and we're not talking about unwanted ads for OneDrive in the Windows 11 Start menu.

The company has announced that, as of next year, it is consolidating cloud storage across Microsoft 365 apps. What this means in practice is that users of Outlook.com will effectively end up with less storage space for personal files as email attachments will count soon eat into OneDrive quotas.

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The uptake of Windows 11 may have been far lower than Microsoft would have hoped, but upgrades to the Windows 11 2022 Update are even smaller in number. While some people have been eager to jump on the 22H2 update, for many users it is not advisable or simply not possible.

There are numerous compatibility holds in place that block automatic upgrading to Windows 11 2022 Update. The latest issue sees Microsoft confirming poor game performance under Windows 11 22H2, with the company putting a block in place to help eliminate disappointment.

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