Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Google has just offered an incentive to subscribe to Google One. The company is launching a desktop client that makes it possible to use its VPN service on Windows and macOS -- something that was previously only possible on iOS and Android devices.

While Google's VPN service and the associated apps are free, you need to be signed up to Google One Premium in order to access it.

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The last update to PowerToys was a hugely significant one, adding two great new utilities in the form of a HOSTS file editor and the File Locksmith tool. Just a week on, it is time for another update.

The newly launched PowerToys v0.64.1 is described as a patch release and it includes a number of updates for several utilities. Among the tools receiving attention are FancyZones, Color Picker and File Locksmith.

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It is the time of the month when Microsoft publishes its Patch Tuesday updates, and as part of this, the company has just released two significant security updates for Windows 11 -- KB5019961 and KB5019980.

Available for Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 respectively, the KB5019961 and KB5019980 updates not only address key security issues, but also add new features and options, as well as fixing non-security related bugs.

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For Windows users of a certain age, the name PowerToys summons to mind utilities such as TweakUI. In the age of Windows 11, Microsoft saw fit to resurrect and update the much-loved utility collection, and the suite of tools goes from strength to strength as it is developed and updated.

The have been a number of incredible utilities added to PowerToys in recent months, as well as some handy new settings, and you may well have spent some considerable time setting things up to your liking. To save having to do all of that hard work again, here's how to backup and restore your PowerToys settings, and how to transfer settings to another PC.

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If you're someone who has previously been irritated by Microsoft displaying ads in Windows, prepare to roll your eyes, gnash your teeth and howl in anguish. Windows 11 users are finding that the company is now showing advertisements in the Start menu.

As has been the case in the past, Microsoft is using Start menu ads to promote its own products and services -- specifically OneDrive and Microsoft accounts. Unsurprisingly, the reaction from users who have seen the ads has been less than positive.

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Cast your mind back a month, and you may recall that Microsoft shared something of a surprising tip for gamers -- by disabling some security features of Window 11, it is possible to boost game performance. Well, it seems there is more to this tip than this.

People with systems featuring Intel's Arc discrete GPUs found that disabling the same security settings increased performance quite dramatically. And we are talking about measurable increases of thousands of points in benchmarking tool 3DMark.

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Since the release of Window 11 2022 Update, Microsoft has implemented numerous compatibility holds to prevent certain users from upgrading. The latest block is something of a strange one, having been applied to anyone who has previously used the capture feature in the Xbox Game Bar app.

While Microsoft has fixed the issue with the KB5018496 update, this is currently only available in preview and will not get a proper release until later in the month.

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It is finally time for not only a new build of PowerToys, but also for the arrival of a pair of completely new utilities. Microsoft has released PowerToys 0.64.0 complete with two new tools, File Locksmith and a HOSTS file editor -- as well as the option to backup PowerToys settings.

These are both utilities that we learned about relatively recently, and it seems that the PowerToys development team has been busy working to bring them to users as a soon as possible. So, what are the new tools all about?

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For those who like a glimpse of the future of Windows, the Insider program is the place to be. Microsoft frequently experiments with new features and functionality in preview builds, and the latest releases are no different.

With the release of Windows 11 2022 Update, we have already seen Task Manager receive a much-needed revamp and the latest Insider builds show that a search option is coming to the utility too. But the feature is hidden by default, and you will need to take action to unlock it.

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While there are numerous ways to save links, text and other information you need to refer to later, sending an email to oneself is a method that many people rely on. But soon you could use WhatsApp to send yourself a message instead.

Currently in beta testing, the feature is one that will be welcomed by many users, particularly those who use WhatsApp across multiple devices. Here's what we know so far.

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Dropbox has revealed details of a phishing attack to which it fell victim. In the attack, a threat actor was able to steal code from the company after gathering employee credentials to GitHub repositories.

The security breach took place in the middle of last month, with GitHub notifying Dropbox of suspicious account activity on October 14. The cloud storage company says that the code that was accessed "contained some credentials -- primarily, API keys -- used by Dropbox developers" but insists that "no one's content, passwords, or payment information was accessed", and that its core apps and infrastructure were unaffected.

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Some Firefox users who upgraded to Windows 11 2022 Update found that the latest version of Microsoft's operating system was causing their web browser to freeze.

The issue arose when trying to copy text from a web page, and the culprit was ultimately determined to be the Suggested Actions feature of Windows 11 22H2. Mozilla leapt into action, addressed the problem and has released an update. The company also has advice for anyone who is unable to update to the latest version of Firefox right now.

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For many people, the release of Windows 11 2022 Update transformed Windows 11 into the operating system it should have been when it was first launched. But for others, the first major update to the OS has been a serious headache. The latest group of users to have cause for complaint are those with certain AMD CPUs.

There are numerous reports from people with systems powered by Ryzen 7000 series processor chips that there are worrying performance issues when gaming. This is not the first time there have been game performance problems in Windows 11, and it is just the latest in a seemingly never-ending list of issues that are being discovered.

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Microsoft is warning users of every from Windows 11 down to Windows 7 that this month's security updates -- in particular the KB5018427 update -- could lead to issues joining a domain. The company says that those affected by the problem will see 0xaac (2732) errors.

Despite flagging the matter in the known issues section of Windows release health, Microsoft says that the behavior is intentional. There is, sadly, no proper fix right now, just some advice and workarounds -- but this should change soon.

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Windows 10 users who installed Patch Tuesday updates this month have reported that OneDrive and OneDrive for Business is broken.

The problem relates to the KB5018410 update and others released after it. People affected by the issue report app crashes, being unable to sign out of OneDrive, problems with syncing, and various other symptoms. Microsoft acknowledged the problem fairly quickly and has now issued an emergency fix (the KB5020953 update).

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