Microsoft may have issued a warning that the recently released KB5012170 update for Windows might cause 0x800f0922 errors, but it seems that the update is even more problematic. Users who have been able to install the update are complaining of numerous other issues including boot problems.

Among the issues being reported are the appearance of BitLocker recovery screens, slow boot times and more.

Microsoft has issued a warning about the KB5012170 update, a security update for Secure Boot DBX released a few days ago.

The company says that users of Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows Server may find that the update installation fails, resulting in a 0x800f0922 error. While there is currently no fix, Microsoft has issued some advice while it investigates the problem.

Microsoft has announced the availability of the public preview of Microsoft Dev Box. The service lets developers create cloud-based workstations whenever they are needed for projects, even when working out of the office.

The company describes the secure Azure-based service as "a managed service that enables developers to create on-demand, high-performance, secure, ready-to-code, project-specific workstations in the cloud".

Google has announced an expansion of its sign-in options. The company is opening up google Workspace, Google Cloud and BeyondCorp Enterprise so users can take advantage of single sign-on (SSO) from multiple third-party identity providers.

Google has long-supported SSO using the SAML protocol from a single identity provider (IdP), but the company recognizes that times are changing. Support for multiple SAML-based identity providers instead of just one is something that will benefit many customers.

There are various business models for software these days, ranging from simple purchases to subscriptions. There are also freemium apps and games that are cost-free but feature advertising. If you have spent money on software, you might rightly expect it to be free from ads, but not in the case of Microsoft Office 2021.

Microsoft is certainly no stranger to using its products -- such as Windows 11 -- as platforms to advertise other products and services. Office 2021 is just the latest example, with Microsoft using the software -- for which users have paid a one-off fee -- to advertise the subscription-based its Microsoft 365 products.

The last few PowerToys updates have been slightly disappointing (but only slightly) in as much as they have been largely bug-fixing releases, and have not included any new toys to play with. This is about to change.

Microsoft has a new utility in the pipeline, and its name gives you a very good idea of what it does: Screen Ruler. Perfect for all sorts of design work, the tool will let you measure the distance between two points on your screen in a number of ways.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued a warning about a security issue with the UnRAR tool for Linux-based systems.

The vulnerability is being tracked as CVE-2022-30333, and if successfully exploited, the flaw could allow an attacker to use the process of unpacking an archive to write data to an area of storage.

Craving another problem caused by an update to Windows? Microsoft is happy to oblige! The company has issued a warning that users who install the KB5014666 update -- yes, the same update that caused printing problems and issues with the language bar -- may experience difficulties with XPS files.

The problem means that XPS documents with non-English language characters might not open, and it is not limited to those who have installed the KB5014666 update.

It is that time of the month again -- the time that Microsoft releases updates for Windows 11. This time around, the company has released the KB5016629 update to not only fix a problem that prevented the Start menu from opening, but also to address various security issues.

This is a cumulative update which also includes the changes that were part of the KB5015882 update that was made available last month. This means that the KB5016629 update fixes problems with File Explorer as well as introducing new Focus Assist features and better Windows 11 updating.

WhatsApp is not only one of the popular messaging apps out there, it is also one that is subject to some of the fastest development work. Existing features are constantly being tweaked, new options are being added all the time, and Mark Zuckerberg has just revealed three exciting new privacy-focused features.

In an announcement on his personal Facebook page, the CEO of Meta teased a trio of new features which will help to improve the privacy of group and one-on-one chats. The upcoming additions are part of a new global campaign from WhatsApp that focuses on and promotes privacy and security features.

Twitter has confirmed that a hacker was able to exploit a security vulnerability on the social platform earlier this year, gaining access to the private data of millions of users.

In total, 5.4 million accounts were affected, with the attacker able to link account names to email addresses and phone numbers. While the incident took place back in January this year, Twitter has also revealed that the exposed user data was made available to buy just last month. In what will be regarded by many as something of an understatement, the company says that "it is unfortunate that this happened".

GitLab recently announced plans that meant repositories that were part of its free tier would be erased after a year of inactivity. This led to complaints from users of the GitHub rival, saying that it was unfair and that the decision made no sense.

Having listened to the negative feedback, GitLab has now announced a change of heart. Inactive repositories will no longer be deleted when they have not been active for a while, but there will still be consequences for inactivity.

DuckDuckGo likes to bill itself as a privacy-centric search engine and web browser, and it is hard to deny that it is more private than the likes of Google search and Chrome. But earlier this year, it came to light that there was an agreement in place between the company and Microsoft that meant the DuckDuckGo browser did not block all trackers from the maker of Windows 11.

When users learned that DuckDuckGo was granting a level of leniency to Microsoft there was an understandable backlash. Now the company has announced it is to offer "more privacy and transparency" after failing to meet users expectations, and will block Microsoft tracks -- most of the time.

It is only a few days since Microsoft unleashed PowerToys v0.61.0 , bringing a slew of "quality of life improvements" to the much-loved collection of utilities. Now the company has released version 0.61.1 which will be of particular interest to Windows 11 users.

Despite lacking new features per se, PowerToys v0.61.1 remains an important release because of the issues that it addresses. Users might be longing for new features, but this development cycle is about improving what's already in place before more is added.

It has not gone unnoticed that Microsoft's quality control for updates for Windows has been found somewhat wanting of late, particularly when it comes to Windows 11. We have reported numerous times about problems caused by updates, and then the subsequent fixes -- and, sometimes, additional issues they cause -- that Microsoft releases.

Windows 10 users are also affected by problematic updates, and the recently released KB5014666 update caused issues with printing. But this was not the only problem caused by this devilish update; it was also found to lead to problems with the Input Indicator and Language Bar. Now Microsoft has issued a fix -- of sorts.