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”.
AI makes bots easier to deploy and harder to detect
Automated bot traffic surpassed human-generated traffic for the first time in a decade last year, making up 51 percent of all web traffic. This shift is largely attributed to the rise of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), which have simplified the creation and scaling of bots for malicious purposes.
The latest Imperva Bad Bot Report from Thales shows cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging these technologies to create and deploy malicious bots which now account for 37 percent of all internet traffic -- a significant increase from 32 percent in 2023.
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.
TP-Link becomes a CVE Numbering Authority to improve cybersecurity
As someone who uses and loves TP-Link products (including its affordable routers and smart home devices) I’m truly elated to see the company taking cybersecurity more seriously. You see, the company has officially joined the CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs), meaning it can now assign CVE IDs to security flaws found in its own products.
Here’s why it matters, folks: CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) are used to track publicly known cybersecurity issues. By becoming a CNA, TP-Link gains the power to document and disclose vulnerabilities faster and more transparently. That’s a win for both the company and the people who rely on its devices every day (such as yours truly).
Ubisoft makes Chroma colorblind tool open source for all developers
After years of internal use, Ubisoft has open-sourced Chroma -- a real-time colorblind simulation tool. This accessibility software is designed to help developers better serve the 300 million people around the world who live with color vision deficiencies.
Originally developed in 2021 by Ubisoft’s Quality Control team in India, Chroma allows developers to simulate how a game looks to people with various forms of colorblindness -- all without slowing down performance. It works on both single- and dual-screen setups, runs with customizable overlays, and responds to hotkeys for easy toggling during gameplay.
OpenAI releases GPT 4.1 models and Elon Musk should be terrified for Grok
OpenAI has just thrown a serious wrench into the AI landscape with the release of three new models: GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano. They’re dramatic improvements over GPT-4o, raising the bar for what AI can actually do. If Elon Musk wasn’t already nervous about Grok falling behind, he probably should be now. In comparison, Grok is starting to look a bit… dusty.
At the top of the stack is GPT-4.1, which now dominates in critical areas like coding, long-context comprehension, and instruction following. This model scores 54.6 percent on SWE-bench Verified, a benchmark designed to measure real-world software development ability. That puts it well above GPT-4o and even higher than GPT-4.5, which it’s now set to replace. Developers relying on these models to generate accurate patches or edit large codebases are going to find GPT-4.1 a lot more practical.
Debian 12-based MX Linux 23.6 is the Windows 11 alternative of your dreams
You know what, folks? Sometimes, the best updates are the ones that don’t try too hard. That’s exactly the case with MX Linux 23.6. There’s no nonsense to be found here -- just a strong Linux distribution that continues to get better.
While Microsoft continues to push AI distractions and questionable design changes in Windows 11, MX Linux sticks to what matters: speed, stability, and letting the user stay in control. In fact, MX Linux 23.6 could truly be the Linux distribution of your dreams!
Illumio uses security graphs to identify threats
The idea of security graphs was floated last year by Microsoft to make it easier to identify risks across networks.
Today Illumio is one of the first to make commercial use of this idea with the launch of Illumio Insights, the industry's first cloud detection and response (CDR) solution powered entirely by an AI security graph.
Organizations fix under half of exploitable vulnerabilities
The latest State of Pentesting report from Cobalt reveals that organizations are fixing less than half of all exploitable vulnerabilities, with just 21 percent of GenAI app flaws being resolved.
It also highlights a degree of over-confidence with 81 percent of security leaders saying they are 'confident' in their firm's security posture, despite 31 percent of the serious findings discovered having not been resolved.
Kodi is finally fixing its Blu-ray playback nightmare
The Kodi foundation is looking to make major changes to how its popular home theater system handles Blu-ray playback, with the aim of making the experience as straightforward as playing a regular media file.
At the moment, Blu-ray support in Kodi involves three less-than-satisfactory options. As the team explains “Kodi can show the Blu-ray menu, with all the navigation overhead; you can ask to play the main movie, and Kodi will just take a guess and play the longest media item on the disc, which may or may not be what you want; or you can go into file view, and wander around until you find that the main movie is labelled as item 636 out of a list of ... well, lots.”
Quantum solution aims to secure communication using satellites
Today is World Quantum Day -- which probably means that it simultaneously both is and isn't. Seriously though, we're used to hearing dire warnings about how quantum computing threatens encryption and private communication, but of course it can also be part of the solution.
A new alliance between Partisia, a leader in multiparty computation (MPC), Squareroot8, a provider of quantum-safe communication solutions and NuSpace, a company specializing in IoT connectivity services and Satellite-As-A-Service wants to place a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) on a satellite in space.
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.
How software engineering can tackle performance challenges [Q&A]
Software engineering organizations often grapple with challenges that hinder their output -- including productivity blind spots, duplicate work, deadlines that don't stand a chance, burnout, and other hidden costs that eat up time and energy.
And while metrics can signal a problem, they don't always uncover the root cause or -- more importantly -- how to fix it. To explore this, we spoke to Joe Levy, CEO of Uplevel, an engineering optimization system helping developers independently measure the ROI of AI adoption.
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.
Sony hikes PS5 price again but shockingly skips the USA
Sony has once again bumped up the price of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition across several markets (Europe, Australia and New Zealand), citing economic challenges like inflation and unstable exchange rates. Starting April 14, gamers in some regions will have to pay more to get their hands on the digital-only version of the console. The price of the standard model with the disc drive is also going up in some countries, though not all. Curiously, despite Donald Trump’s confusing tariffs, one major country isn’t affected at all -- the United States.
In certain regions, the PS5 Digital Edition now costs €499.99 or £429.99, depending on where you live. Other places are seeing even steeper prices, hitting figures like AUD $749.95 or NZD $859.95. The standard version with a disc drive is also being adjusted in those same areas, sometimes hitting nearly NZD $950. The PS5 Pro, on the other hand, remains untouched. For now, at least.
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