Having just delivered an impressive update to the much-loved text editor Notepad, Microsoft has revealed that its (slightly) more advanced sibling, WordPad, is to be discontinued.

Serving as a halfway house between the barebones Notepad and a fully-fledged word processor, WordPad has been a feature of Windows for decades -- having been preceded by Write . But now Microsoft feels that the time has come to pull the plug, saying that the app is now longer being developed and will be killed ff.

There is now a little over a month until Windows 11 21H2 reaches end of service. When October 10 rolls around, the operating system will no longer receive updates.

With just a few weeks to go, Microsoft has issued a reminder to users of this two-year-old version of Windows 11 that support is coming to an end. More than this, the company has warned users of Windows 11 21H2 that they should expect to be forcibly upgraded to a supported version of the OS very soon.

Notepad is one of the longest standing Windows apps, having been around for decades. Over the years, there have been slow, gradual improvements and now Microsoft has delivered a much-needed update to the beloved text editor.

Bringing the app more in line with word processors like Microsoft Word, this latest update sees the arrival of automatic file saves and more.

Kicking off the v0.73 release cycle, which is "focused on new features, stability and improvements", Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.73.0, complete with a new module -- Crop And Lock.

The latest addition to the PowerToys family is described as making it possible to "crop a current application into a smaller window or just create a thumbnail. Focus the target window and press the shortcut to start cropping". This update also includes a number of bug fixes and a range of new features for existing modules.

Microsoft has released an updated version of its screen capture and screen recording utility, Snipping Tool. As well as bug fixes there are improvements and additions to the Windows 11 tool.

The latest version of the app introduces a number of key changes including the arrival of the combined capture bar, something Microsoft says simplifies switching between screen grabbing and screen recording. There are also changes to audio recording options.

It is usually the case that when a web browser, or any other app for that matter, gets an interesting new feature, the company behind said app shouts about it. Usually, but not always.

A newly discovered option in Microsoft Edge is a good example. Microsoft has made no announcement about it, but has snuck a handy new "Copy video frame" option into the browser that makes it possible to grab a still from a video.

Microsoft has announced that it will unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 in the EEA and Switzerland starting in October -- and this will mean a price reduction.  

The move comes after the European Commission expressed concerns about the bundling of the software. Microsoft describes the decision as being part of "proactive changes", and the company will no doubt be hoping that it is enough to stop further probing and legislation. For now, the unbundling is limited to Europe.

There are many reasons for wanting to share passwords, and it is surprising -- and also a source of irritation -- that doing so is not easier. But Google is looking to change this by introducing a dedicated password sharing option to Chrome.

Users of the browser will soon be able to use the Password Manager function of the browser to quickly share login details with others. To start with, it appears that Google will limit sharing to people you have added to your Google Family Group, but it is possible that this will be opened up further in future.

Windows Copilot -- Microsoft's latest AI tool -- may not seem groundbreakingly useful yet, but all of this is set to change. Microsoft is currently testing a series of plugins for the artificial intelligence-powered assistant that will make it a valuable asset for getting things done at OS-level in Windows 11.

Rather than simply being a glorified version of the new AI-driven Bing, Windows Copilot's plugins allow for tight integration with Windows 11. This means that users will be able to call on Copilot to change settings, interact with the operating system and apps, and much more. Importantly, by taking a plugin-based, modular approach, Microsoft is helping to ensure that Windows Copilot does not become a bloated behemoth.

Following on from the Meltdown flaw and other related vulnerabilities, a more recent security issue was discovered in the form of Downfall. Tracked as CVE-2022-40982, exploitation of the flaw is known as a transient execution attack and it affects Intel CPUs.

Microsoft has not only acknowledged that the problem exists, but has now provided details of mitigation techniques that can be used. In security advisory KB5029778, the company gives instructions for users of Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server.

When Microsoft released the KB5029351 update for Windows 11 a few days ago, it didn't take long for complaints to start. Owners of systems with MSI motherboards started to see UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR error messages and Blue Screens of Death.

Microsoft has said that it is investigating the issue, but its announcement was worded quite defensively. The company said: "We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft". Thankfully, MSI has stepped up to the plate and offered up a workaround.

Installing updates for Windows is always something of a gamble, and this is greatly magnified for anyone who chooses to install the preview versions Microsoft releases each month. A good case in point is the KB5029351 update preview that was released for Windows 11 this week.

There are lots of positive changes introduced by this update, but there are also numerous reports of blue screens and UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR errors. There's good news and bad news to come.

For anyone with an older, cheaper and less powerful Android device, the Lite version of Messenger has been something of a lifeline. The stripped-back, resource-light version of its big sibling was specifically designed to run well on lesser hardware, but now Meta has decided to kill it off.

Messenger Lite, once known as Facebook Messenger Lite, has been around for a number of years, but Meta is giving users just a few weeks' notice about the app being discontinued. The closure comes despite the app having millions of users.

Google is introducing what it is referring to as "stronger protection for additional sensitive actions taken in Gmail".

It's a security measure that builds on safeguards added to Google Workspace accounts last year. It means you will start to see "Verify it's you" warnings when you try to do certain things with your Gmail account, requiring user verification before particular settings can be changed.

We've talked about the incredible tiny11 previously, the amazing utility for anyone looking for a super-lightweight version of Windows 11. From the same developer there is also tiny10, and this Windows 10 edition of the software has just received a significant update.

tiny10 23H2 x64 is, as the name suggests, a 64-bit, debloated version of Windows 10. The latest update is described as "a pretty major departure from previous versions", fixing swathes of problems and improving compatibility considerably.