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The past decade has been a period of sustained growth for the UK tech sector. But it has also seen the industry evolve remarkably -- something that has been apparent to those working within it.

It was reported only last month the sector had surpassed a milestone $1 trillion valuation, becoming only the third country to do so behind rival giants China and the US. Naturally, this puts the UK at the top of Europe’s digital food chain.

Four-hundred-eighty-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Adoption of Windows 11 appears to have slowed down in the past two months according to recent usage statistics by third-parties.

Digital transformation, a shift to hybrid and remote working, and increasing regulatory pressure have seen major changes to the enterprise IT landscape in recent years.

CISOs have been at the heart of this, facing new challenges and taking on additional responsibilities. We spoke to Ben Smith, field CTO of NetWitness, to discuss these changes and find out what makes a good, or bad, CISO.

Installing updates for Windows can often be something of a gamble, but this is particularly true when we're talking about the preview versions Microsoft makes available ahead of the monthly Patch Tuesday releases.

The latest problematic patch is the recently released KB5012643 update for Windows 11. Due for a wider release in May, Microsoft has already made a preview version available for those who like to get updated as soon as possible. But some people who have installed the update are reporting problems with flickering screens.

When you are a computer-builder, there are peaks and valleys when it comes to excitement about PC components. What do I mean by this? Well, sometimes you are building machines with cutting edge parts as an early adopter, while other times you are using ho-hum components that have been around a while. For instance, we have been using DDR4 memory for about seven years now. It is time to move on.

Thankfully, the age of DDR5 is finally here. After dealing with DDR4 for so many years now, we will soon see many PCs with DDR5 memory inside. One of the companies leading this industry shift is PATRIOT, and today, that company begins selling the 6200MHz variants of its VIPER VENOM DDR5 32GB (16GB x2) RAM kits. 

The Log4Shell vulnerability proved to be one of the major cybersecurity events of last year and its repercussions continue to rumble on.

Research from network security platform Valtix shows 95 percent of IT leaders say Log4Shell was a wake up call for cloud security, changing it permanently, and 87 percent feel less confident about their cloud security now than they did before the incident.

Piriform Software, best-known for its CCleaner cleaning product for PCs and Macs, has released Kamo 4.0, a major new update to its Windows privacy tool.

Kamo 4.0, which blocks online trackers through a range of tools built into a single application, has added location masking through the implementation of a basic VPN, which masks the user’s IP address and exact geographic location via an encrypted connection through another server in their own country.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is used to boost the ranking of websites by ensuring they offer quality content and a good user experience.

But new research from global threat intelligence firm Cybersixgill shows, perhaps not too surprisingly, that similar techniques are being exploited by threat actors to boost trust in their sites.

As Linux continues to gain prominence, there has been a rise in network services being deployed on Linux for cost and flexibility reasons.

If you are a networking professional or an infrastructure engineer involved with networks, extensive knowledge of Linux networking is a must.

For some people, taking screen grabs is a simple matter of hitting Print Screen and pasting the contents of the clipboard into an image editor, while others with slightly greater needs may turn to Windows' Snipping Tool. While of these options are fine, they are both quite limited, and this is why the likes of Screenpresso remain important utilities.

For the uninitiated, Screenpresso is an advanced screen capture tool that makes it possible to take grabs of what you see on your screen -- but it includes a huge range of tools and options that make it stand out from the competition. The app can also be used to capture video footage, and with the release of Screenpresso 2.0.0 even more powerful special features help take your screen grabbing to the next level.

Microsoft has launched the latest version of its developer tool GitHub Desktop. The company describes GitHub Desktop 3.0 as a "big milestone", with this release bringing enhance pull request integration.

Among the improvements in version 3.0 of the software is the ability to review the status of your pull request check runs. There's also support for high-signal pull request notifications so you can be kept informed of pull request check failures and passes.

Concerns about online privacy and security mean that more and more people are turning to VPNs. It can be hard to know which VPN to choose, and to determine whether it is best to go for a free or paid-for tool. For users of its Edge browser, Microsoft is readying another solution.

The Microsoft Edge Secure Network is a Cloudflare-powered VPN service which Microsoft is looking to integrate directly into Edge. Microsoft's VPN would not only eliminate the need to install a third-party tool -- something that serves as an obstacle to many people -- it also includes a free data quota to help entice users.

Late last year, Apple said that it was planning to let customers fix their own hardware rather than forcing them to bring devices to an Apple Store or authorized third party. Now the company has officially launched the Self Service Repair program in the US, and will bring it to Europe soon.

For now, Apple Self Service Repair applies only to certain iPhone models, but it will eventually encompass some Macs as well. Anyone interested in repairing their own iPhone can download a repair manual from Apple, order the parts they need direct from the company, and even rent the tools required to perform the repairs.

The first quarter of this year has seen a massive 182 percent growth in tech roles within fintech, three times the pace of general market.

Figures from recruitment firm Robert Walters show that one in three new hires within fintech companies around the globe are software engineers and developers. Also the top eight fintech 'mega-hubs' account for over 90 percent of all new fintech jobs advertised around the globe.

As enterprises have moved to make their systems more accessible to hybrid working during the pandemic, they have increasingly been turning to cloud-based solutions.

But this rapid growth of cloud infrastructure leads to problems managing and optimizing cloud resources. Which is why cloud networking company Alkira is launching a free tool to expose shadow IT and recommend ways to secure, optimize, and boost cloud deployments.