Microsoft

Microsoft unveiled the newest Xbox controller today and it is both disgusting and disturbing. As part of a promotion for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie sequel, a furry/hairy controller was created in two colors -- red and blue. The colors represent Sonic (blue, duh) and Knuckles (red).

While the controllers look... interesting, they are sure to be very gross. Many gamers eat food while gaming, so you can only imagine all the Doritos and Cheetos dust that will get stuck in the fur. Not to mention, during long gaming sessions, your hands will sweat and cause the controller to get wet and smelly. Hell, this new controller could end up being ground zero for a future pandemic. Gross!

Microsoft is conducting an investigation after data extortion group Lapsus$ claimed to have hacked the company and stolen data.

In a leaked screenshot, the hackers brag about gaining access to an Azure DevOps repository which is home to source code for all manner of Microsoft projects including Bing and Cortana. Having already hacked the likes of Samsung, NVIDIA and Vodafone, the claims made by Lapsus$ are entirely feasible, but for now Microsoft is saying nothing about what -- if anything -- has been stolen.

Looking for another reason to be annoyed by Windows 11? Microsoft delivers yet again. It is not very long since the company started A/B testing a watermark on the desktop of people who had installed Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Now, for reasons best known to Microsoft, the decision appears to have been taken to roll out this irritating banner.

In the latest update pushed to the Release Preview Channel, the watermark is present for everyone running Windows 11 on hardware that doesn’t make the grade. The message has changed slightly, now reading "System requirements not met. Go to Settings to learn more". The good news? You can take steps to hide the watermark if it grates on your nerves

It may seem like a relic of the past, but Internet Explorer is still doggedly hanging on. But not for much longer. Microsoft has issued a reminder that it is mere months until the desktop app for the browser is retired.

The big day is June 15, and at this point it will be time for Internet Explorer 11 users to move on and pick an alternative. While the death of Internet Explorer has been a very long time coming, the retirement of the app will represent the end of an era.

Microsoft runs occasional bug bashes for Insiders to help find and eradicate flaws in preview versions of its operating system, and the latest one is live now and will run until March 22.

The software giant didn’t roll out a new build to Dev Channel Insiders on Wednesday this week, as is usually the case, so instead it’s delivering new build 22579 today, along with ISO files for it. There are some new features and improvements to be enjoyed in this flight, including the ability to name your folders on Start, and site suggestions in the Get Started app that you can pin to your taskbar.

Four-hundred-eighty-two 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.

Microsoft removed the last Windows 11 upgrade block this week; all compatible Windows 10 devices should have received an upgrade offer by now.

It is a year-and-a-half since Microsoft first talked about bringing the DirectStorage technology used by Xbox Series X to Windows. Now the company has finally released the API for both Windows 10 and Windows 11, promising not only faster load times for PC games, but also more detailed game worlds.

The API enables developers to take full advantage of PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 speeds. The DirectStorage SDK is available right now, and while it offers Windows 10 support, Microsoft is really pushing Windows 11 as its recommended path for gaming.

News recently came to light about Microsoft's apparent plans to bring ads to File Explorer in Windows 11. Like many of the other recommendation engines the company has introduced to its products over the years, the reception was less than warm.

The ads appeared for some -- but not all -- users of the latest insider build of Windows 11, leading to the assumption that Microsoft was testing the water to see how people reacted. Now there has been something of a backlash and Microsoft has issued a statement indicating that users were never meant to see this "experiment".

Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels today get a new Windows 11 build to install.

Build 22000.588 (KB5011563) comes with one big new feature and a number of major fixes including one for an issue that added an annoying delay to Windows startup.

Although Windows 12 likely won’t be making an appearance any time soon, that hasn’t stopped designer Addy Visuals from sharing his take on Microsoft's future operating system.

If you haven’t viewed it yet, you can watch his video in our post here. Now Addy has made the wallpapers from his Windows 12 concept available to download for free.

When Microsoft releases a new update for Windows 11 or launches a new build of the operating system, there is much interest in the new features that have been added, as well at the security fixes and bugs that have been addressed. And with the recent release of Windows 11 Build 22572, Microsoft has sped up performance in a small but important way.

One problem that some users have been complaining about for a little while now is that the right-click menu has been rather slow. With the latest build, Microsoft confirms that steps have been taken to speed things up.

There is a lot of attention focused on Windows 11 and the update releases for it, but we shouldn't forget that there are millions of people running Windows 10. Far from being a dead operating system, Microsoft is not only still producing updates, but has an active Insider program for Windows 10 that continues to see the arrival of new features and options.

The latest example of this comes with the release of the KB5011543 update which brings Windows 11's search highlight feature to Windows 10. The update includes a number of other important changes and additions, and takes the operating system up to Windows 10 21H2 Build 19044.1618.

Since the launch of Windows 11, there has been a compatibility issue between the operating system and VirtualBox. People attempting to use Oracle virtualization software found they were unable to start virtual machines and saw error messages with Hyper-V or Windows Hypervisor installed.

As a result of this problem, Microsoft introduced a safeguard block which prevented people with VirtualBox installed from upgrading to Windows 11. But following work by Oracle developers to address the issue, Microsoft has now lifted the block.

Over the years Microsoft has found various ways to squeeze advertising into Windows. We've seen the addition of "recommended" apps in the Start menu, aggressive pushing of Microsoft Edge and Office, and more. Now Microsoft is experimenting with ads in File Explorer.

This is not the first time the file browser has been used for advertising purposes; five years or so ago, the Windows 10 version of File Explorer was used as a platform for OneDrive ads. Now ads have been spotted by some users in the latest builds of Windows 11, with Microsoft again using banners to promote its own products and services.

Three weeks ago, rumors began to surface that despite Microsoft having only released Windows 11 late last year, the software giant was already beginning work on its successor, Windows 12.

Windows 11 market share is growing rapidly but at the moment it’s only on about 20 percent of systems, so Microsoft won’t be in any rush to debut that operating system's replacement.