Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

People who have signed up for the Windows Insider program are among the first to be able to get hands on with Windows 11, but the preview builds that have been released so far are not complete. Microsoft is still working away on the operating system ahead of next month's rollout, and CPO Panos Panay has given us a glimpse of the new Photos app that is coming.

In typically dramatic style, a "pumped" Panay describes the updated app as being "beautifully redesigned" -- and this is something you can judge for yourself thanks to the video he has shared.

Windows 11 is here, and it brings a whole new look. While the new aesthetic is largely loved, change is always divisive and there are plenty of users who are less then enamored with the new Start menu and yearn for the way things used to be.

And this is precisely where StartIsBack can help you out. In a few steps, it gives you a way to customize and personalize not only the Start menu but also the taskbar in Windows 11. You can bring the look of Windows 10 or Windows 7 to Windows 11, including changing the appearance of Explorer.

Security researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design have disclosed a new family of security vulnerabilities in commercial Bluetooth stacks used in billions of devices. Collectively known as BrakTooth, the vulnerabilities pose a range of risks including remote code execution and DoS via crashes and deadlocks.

The Bluetooth stacks found to be vulnerable are used in System-on-Chip (SoC) boards from various big-name manufacturers including Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Silicon Labs; numerous Microsoft products are also affected, including Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2.

Microsoft is hardly a stranger to making controversial decisions with Windows, and it has previously been accused of taking liberties by using the operating system to advertise its other products and services. Windows 11 may not even been officially released yet, but the company seems to have learned nothing and has started injecting ads into the latest version of its operating system.

The ads themselves -- for Microsoft Teams -- are something that will divide opinion, but that's not really the issue here. Advertisements in Windows will always prove to be divisive and controversial, but the problem this time is that the ads (cum promotional message, cum user advisory, cum tip... call it what you will) caused the taskbar and Start menu to become unresponsive. The issue hit both the Beta and Dev builds that was pushed out just a couple of days ago and raises serious questions about Microsoft ability to deliver a stable build of Windows 11 on time.

With the latest release of PowerToys, Microsoft has focused primarily on fixing bugs and improving stability, with the promise that updated utilities will be included in next week's experimental version.

But PowerToys v0.45.0 also sees a visual makeover which had been teased recently. The update gives the suite of utilities a modern look that is in keeping with Windows 11. The development team may be slightly biased, but describes this as a "truly spectacular update".

One of the joys of using Windows -- or, for that matter, macOS or one of the various flavors of Linux -- is personalizing the operating system to your liking. To a large extent his means changing visual elements, but it can also mean showing and hiding various on-screen elements.

With Windows 11, Microsoft has made it harder to customize the taskbar... and we're not just talking about the fact that it can no longer be moved from the bottom of the screen. If you're not a fan of the Task View and Widget buttons, you may wonder how to get rid of them, as it is not immediately apparent. Here's how.

One of the most interesting features of Windows 11 is the ability to run Android apps, but Windows Insiders have not yet been able to try it out.

When Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will officially launch on October 5, the company informed eager Insiders that an updated store app complete with Android content will be previewed "over the coming months". Interestingly, however, the Windows Subsystem for Android is available for download from the Microsoft Store.

Ahead of a wider roll-out next week, Microsoft has released a preview version of the KB5005101 update for Windows 10 version 21H1, 20H2 and 2004. The biggest fix found in this non-security release addresses problems with USB and Bluetooth headphones, but it also patches numerous other flaws.

KB5005101 also fixes a problem that causes brightness to be reset on standard dynamic range (SDR) content on high-dynamic range (HDR) monitors in certain circumstances, as well as addressing a issue with touch gestures causing freezes.

It is a couple of weeks since Microsoft almost silently released Windows Server 2022, and now the company has officially announced that the operating system is generally available.

The release comes just over a month before the rollout of Windows 11 begins, and there is a strong focus on security. In particular, there is the addition of encrypted hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) and AES-256 encryption with support for server message block (SMB) protocol. The latest version of Windows Server also greatly increases hardware support.

As of September 1, 2021, Microsoft is making an important privacy change for Microsoft 365 usage analytics -- pseudonymization of user-level information by default.

Microsoft says that this change will help companies to more easily comply with local privacy laws, but it is something that is likely to be welcomed for various other reasons.

Microsoft has released an updated preview version of Windows Terminal, and while the version number increase may be small, there are a surprising number of changes and additions to be found, including a revamped Settings UI.

With Windows Terminal Preview 1.11, it is now possible to minimize the app to the system tray and there are various updates to pane functionality. New options include the ability to swap panes within a tab, tab splitting via the context menu, and moving a pane to a new or existing tab. But there is plenty more to explore too.

People who are enrolled in the Windows Insider program who have installed Windows 11 on hardware that is not officially supported are being told by Microsoft that they need to switch back to Windows 10.

Windows 11's system requirements have been a source of confusion and frustration, but for those eager to try out the operating system, Microsoft had provided something of a loophole. For a little while now, it has been possible to install Windows 11 preview builds on hardware that does not meet the minimum requirements, but now the company is clamping down and notifying Insiders with incompatible systems to downgrade to Windows 10.

The system requirements for Windows 11 have been confusing from the moment they were announced, and Microsoft's changes to them has done nothing to make the situation clearer for most people

Microsoft's own PC checking tool, released to help people determine the compatibility of their system with Windows 11 was criticized and then pulled for failing to provide enough helpful information. It has since been updated, but now Microsoft has launched a new way to check whether your computer will run Windows 11 -- performing a check via Windows Update.

Ahead of September's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released a preview of the KB5005103 update for Windows 10.

This non-security update addresses a number of issues, most notably fixing a problem which prevented certain MP4 files from playing. A second key fix sees Microsoft addressing a problem that reset syncing for Microsoft OneDrive to "Known folders only" after installing an update for Windows.

Security researchers have discovered a serious security vulnerability in Microsoft Azure that could given an attacker unfettered access to any and all of the databases stored on its Cosmos DB service.

Researchers from security firm Wiz found that it is not only possible but trivial to obtain the primary keys to databases. The vulnerability, dubbed ChoasDB, may have existed since the introduction of the Jupyter Notebook back in 2019, and it gives attackers the ability to access, edit and delete data or entire databases. Microsoft is unable to change primary keys itself, and has emailed customers to advise them to do so; but the company has been criticized for failing to contact sufficient numbers of users.