Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Spotify has launched a new personalized playlist option which gives users a unique way to create mixes to suite any mood, occasion or activity.

The company describes Niche Mixes as "a set of personalized playlists that combines all that our Mixes offer in a playful way". What this means in practice is that you can search for an "activity, vibe or aesthetic" (running, 80s, meditative, for instance), add the word "mix", and you'll be provided with a custom playlist to suit.

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Adoption of Windows 11 may well be much slower than Microsoft would have hoped or expected, but this isn't stopping the company forging ahead with its successor. The project is currently dubbed CorePC, but it is being referred to by many as -- naturally -- Windows 12.

What can be expected from Windows 12? Leaks from sources close to the company mean that plans for the next generation of the operating system have been exposed. Predictably, Microsoft is said to be leaning heavily on AI as it looks to modernize Windows. There is also a strong focus on security and faster delivery of updates on the cards.

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Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for Windows 11 22H2 that sees the arrival of Microsoft account notifications in the Start menu. There are also new features and improvements in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

The KB5023778 update is a preview of the update that will be released more widely next Patch Tuesday, and as such it is an optional update that you will need to manually install. Installing KB5023778 not only adds Start menu features, but also updates the taskbar search box, adds new functionality and fixes a large number of issues that have been found in Windows 11.

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Microsoft has launched a public preview of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows. The app is the result of a "reimagining of Teams from the ground up", with the focus very much being on performance. It is being heralded as "the new era of Microsoft Teams" and sees the app not only performing better, but also being simplified to improve ease-of-use.

At the same time, the company has also started the rollout of Avatars for Microsoft Teams. The new feature gives users a different way to present themselves in online meetings -- a highly customizable 3D avatar instead of video.

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Having tried various tactics to get Twitter users to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription, Elon Musk is now trying something new -- confiscation.

Having tried bribing users with Blue-exclusive features, and threatening non-subscribers with stripping them of verified status, the latest announcement sees Musk promising to take features away from anyone who doesn't pay up. Specifically, he warns that non-verified users will not be eligible to appear in the suggestions on the For You Tab, and they also will not be able to vote in polls on Twitter.

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Following the discovery of serious vulnerabilities in the Snipping Tool app for Windows 11 and Snip & Sketch in Windows 10, Microsoft has released out-of-band updates to plug the security holes.

The flaws are similar to the recently discovered aCropalypse bug affecting Pixel mobiles, making it possible to "uncrop" cropped images and potentially expose sensitive information. Having briefly tested updates with Windows Insiders, Microsoft has now made fixes available to all Windows 10 and Windows 11 users.

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Very much at the heart of Windows 11, the taskbar has been one of the most controversial and disappointing elements of Windows 11. One of the biggest complaints users have is that it cannot be moved from the bottom of the screen, but there are also many people who are unhappy that it is busy and overpopulated.

We recently learned that Microsoft is going to introduce a new option that will enable users to display seconds in the system tray clock, but now there is good news for anyone who craves a cleaner, more minimalist look.

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The Windows Insider program is one of the best places to gain access to the latest features and options, but there are sometimes some hidden gems that serves as signposts of what's to come. The latest Dev build is a good case in point.

References were spotted in Windows 11 build 23419 to Cloud PC thanks to the arrival of the settingshandlers_cloudpc.dll file. There are even entries in Settings that make it clear that Microsoft is betting big on Cloud PC, but it remains to be seen whether this ends up in Windows 11 or Windows 12.

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The CISA has launched a new security tool designed to help protect various Microsoft cloud services. The open source Untitled Goose Tool is available for both Windows and macOS.

The utility was developed by the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories. The aim of the tool is to help to detect and respond to malicious activity in Microsoft Azure, Azure Active Directory (AAD) and Microsoft 365 (M365) environments.

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With the chaos that has followed the arrival of Elon Musk at Twitter, it's often difficult to know which announcements to accept at face value, and which to take with a pinch of salt.

The latest announcement concerns the blue ticks used to signify verified accounts. The social platform has announced that "legacy" checkmarks (that is, those that have not been paid for) will be removed starting on April 1 -- April Fool's Day.

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Earlier this week we learned about a worrying security and privacy flaw in Windows 11's Snipping Tool screen capture app. The way the software saves cropped screengrabs means that it is possible to "uncrop" images, potentially exposing sensitive information.

Acting quickly to address the problem, Microsoft has fixed the vulnerability with a new update. There is just one problem -- the update is not available to everyone, leaving unknown numbers of users at risk.

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Ordinarily Microsoft uses the less stable Windows Insider channels to try out new Windows 11 features -- something the company reiterated when it launched the ultra-cutting edge Canary channel.

But this week saw the release of a new build of Windows 11 to the Release Preview channel, the channel which is the final stage of testing before a build gets full public release. And this time around, things were a little different because the Release Preview build includes brand new features that have not been seen in other builds -- including notifications for Microsoft accounts in the Start menu.

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While WhatsApp is most commonly used on mobile devices, growing numbers of users are adopting the desktop version of the app. Meta has just announced the release of a significantly improved version of the Windows app.

Speed is a key upgrade here, with load times being reduced, but there are also feature improvements. The latest version of WhatsApp for Windows now supports larger group video and audio calls.

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Microsoft has announced the availability of a public preview of its new collaborative working app, Loop. The public launch follows a period of private previews with enterprise customers.

Microsoft Loop is available on the web, as well as for iOS and Android, and it allows teams to work together in shared workspaces that integrate neatly with Microsoft 365 apps. The app competes with the likes of Asana and Notion and has been in development for a couple of years. As you might expect, there is a dash of AI thanks to Microsoft 365 Copilot's support for Loop.

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Users of Windows 11 have been concerned by the appearance of a message that reads: "Local Security protection is off. Your device may be vulnerable". Microsoft is blaming a recent update (KB5007651) for the warning which implies that an important security feature has been disabled.

The issue affects Windows 11 version 21H2 and 22H2, and those hit by the message have been left confused about what they need to do. So what is going on?

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