Bluesky’s newly unveiled verification system is a unique and interesting approach
Social media has managed to make everyone more connected and informed than ever before, but it has also created a confusing mix of fact and misinformation. Part of the problem is knowing whether to trust that an individual on a particular platform is who they say they are.
Becoming verified on Twitter used to be a goal -- a dream, even -- for many people, but this changed when Twitter morphed into X and verification became a paid-for label available to anyone. Now rival platform Bluesky has unveiled a new component to its existing system of verification. It is an approach that others may learn from.
Google has lost its ad tech monopoly trial... and Mozilla is scared
In a decision that surprised few, a judge has ruled that Google is guilty of “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in advertising technology. Google (or its parent company, Alphabet, at least) is obviously unhappy with the ruling, but it’s not the only one.
Mozilla was one of the first companies to react to the ruling, and CEO Laura Chambers has expressed alarm about what it means for the future of its Firefox web browser. She also voices concerns about the implication of the rules for the open web and online industries.
CISA adds Windows NTLM hash disclosure spoofing flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog
A vulnerability in the Windows NTLM authentication protocol, which is known to have been actively exploited for at least a month, has been added to the US CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.
While Microsoft deprecated NTLM last year, it remains widely used. Security researchers discovered the hash disclosure spoofing bug, and Microsoft quietly patched it in March. But the creation of a patch is one thing -- having users install it is something else. By adding the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24054, to its catalog, CISA is raising aware that action needs to be taken.
If you couldn't attend your Zoom meeting yesterday, GoDaddy may be to blame
Zoom going down is more than an inconvenience, it can be catastrophic. The online video meeting tool has become so important since the COVID pandemic, that it is hard to imagine life without it.
But for a significant period yesterday, Zoom was down. Some users were cutting off in the middle of a meeting, while plenty more were unable to connect in the first place. With Zoom out of service for almost two hours, the impact was significant, and the company has now revealed just what went wrong.
Microsoft admits classic Outlook for Windows has a massive resource usage problem
Users of classic Outlook for Windows have been complaining since last year that Microsoft's email client has turned into a massive resource hog. Months later, the company has conceded that the complaints are justified.
Microsoft is eager for everyone to move away from the classic version of Outlook to the newly updated edition of the app, and there have been suspicions voiced that high CPU usage is an underhand tactic to encourage the move. But having acknowledged the problem, Microsoft says that it is working to come up with a fix.
It must be a day with a 'y' in it -- there's a problematic Windows 11 update causing blue screens
Microsoft has once again been forced to mitigate a problem caused by a faulty update for Windows 11 with a Known Issue Rollback (KIR).
The KB5055523 update, release earlier this month is causing BSoDs and a 0x18B error. The same issue applies to the KB5053656 preview update from March. While it used to be possible to refer to KIRs as a rarely used fix for particularly serious issues, it is something Microsoft is falling back on more and more. The problem is, they don’t work for everyone.
Microsoft brings a new text extraction tool to Windows 11
We’re huge fans of PowerToys, and one of the greatest modules included in the utility collection is Text Extractor. As the name suggests, this provides a way to pull text out of images ready to edit and use in other documents. Microsoft has also added a similar tool to Microsoft Photos, and now the company has brought it to another area of Windows 11.
The increasingly useful and powerful Snipping Tool has been updated with a text extractor button in the app’s capture bar. This makes the process of copying text from your screen to the clipboard insanely quick and easy, eliminating the need to take a screenshot before extracting text.
Google is changing the URL of its search engine for billions of people
Google is making a huge change to the most famous and widely used search engine in the world. And it is the global nature of Google search, and the internet in general, which is at the heart of the change.
For a very long time, Google has used different URLs for its search engine in different countries -- google.co.uk in the UK, google.es in Spain, for instance. But no more. The company has announced that different country code top-level domain names (ccTLD) are no longer needed and will not be used.
Microsoft says that Windows 11 24H2 now plays nicely with wallpaper customization applications
Microsoft is starting the process of lifting a compatibility hold that was preventing some Windows 11 users from updating to Windows 11 24H2.
The block has been in place since September, stopping users with certain unnamed wallpaper customization applications from installing the latest version of the operating system. Microsoft has still not provided a list of the apps that it has, until now, considered troublesome, but says that it will “gradually remove this safeguard hold”.
Those scary-looking 0x80070643 -- ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE messages? Just ignore them, says Microsoft
Oh, look! It’s another update from Microsoft with weird or unwanted side effects. This time around it is the KB5057588 update, which is an update to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
Sysadmins are being freaked out by the appearance of an error message that reads 0x80070643 -- ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE. Time to panic? Nope! Microsoft says to just ignore it.
Microsoft says that an empty folder created by a system update increases Windows 11 security
Cast your mind back to just last week, and there was the usual chaos of problematic updates from Microsoft. But one of the more peculiar things about one of the updates was the creation an empty folder called inetpub after installing the KB5055523 update for Windows 11.
The appearance of this folder caused confusion, but failed to be explained by Microsoft. Users who were irritated by the folder materializing unbidden simply deleted it without side effects -- but now Microsoft has spoken out. The company says that the folder should not be deleted because it improves system security -- but leaves many questions unanswered.
Meta finally updates Messenger to allow sharing larger files
Despite the popularity of WhatsApp and other messaging apps, Meta’s Messenger (or Facebook Messenger) maintains an incredibly healthy userbase. Millions of people continue to use this stalwart of social messaging even though it has various limitations when compared to its rivals.
But Meta has just addressed an issue that has irked users for a long time: the size of file attachments. For far too long, a file size limit of 10MB has been in place -- a limit that is way out of line with modern file sizes (although it was higher for some users). Now it has been increased.
Microsoft thinks its controversial Recall feature is ready for some Windows 11 users to try out... install it if you dare
When Microsoft first added the AI-powered Recall feature to Windows 11, it could hardly have been expecting the backlash that came from users. Concerns about privacy and security forced the company to delay the rollout of the activity and screen monitoring snapshot tool.
Now Microsoft thinks it has made the improvements required to calm the concerns of those who spoke out very loudly against the tool. A new preview version of Recall is making its way to some users right now.
Microsoft has a fix for Office 2016 issues after faulty update broke Word, Excel and Outlook
There is not long left for Office 2016 in terms of official support from Microsoft, but it felt like adding salt to the wound when a recent update caused Word, Excel and Outlook to stop working.
Microsoft is certainly no stranger to breaking Windows with problematic updates, but with the KB5002700 security update released earlier this week, it was Office 2016 that was affected. So severe were the problems caused, Microsoft has been forced to release an out-of-band fix.
Microsoft 365 Family licensing snafu causes a ‘Your subscription expired’ message
Microsoft has just found a new way to interfere with its customers’ productivity. While software updates are frequent culprits for downtime, some Microsoft 365 subscribers have been hit with a warning that their subscription has expired, leaving them unable to edit Office documents.
The issue affects Microsoft 365 Family users, many of whom have been locked out of their accounts despite having a valid subscription in place. The problems started yesterday and are still ongoing for some.
Sofia Elizabella's Bio
Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson is a queer, transgender journalist based in Poland. She has been writing about technology for more than two decades, and after years working for magazines, her writing moved online. She is fueled by literature, music, nature, and vegetables. You can find her on Bluesky and Mastodon. If you like what you read, you can Buy her a Coffee!
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