Items tagged with Windows
Malware on Windows devices has become a real problem in the last few years, specifically with a recent uptick in ransomware. It appears that Microsoft has been trying to combat this issue, though, with updates to Microsoft Defender, so it has more teeth than ever before. However, what if Microsoft is part of the problem too? On Friday, cybersecurity researcher TheAnalyst explained on Twitter how BazarLoader malware leads to ransomware that can severely affect healthcare, among other industries. He then called out Microsoft, asking if the company has “any responsibility in this when they KNOWINGLY are hosting hundreds of files leading to this,” alongside an image of what appears to...
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Windows 11 is now available. Assuming your system meets the minimum system requirements – which isn’t a given, even if your rig is happily humming along with Windows 10 -- you’re likely to receive a notification via Windows Update that a free Windows 11 upgrade is ready and available for installation. As was the case with Windows 10, Microsoft is offering free upgrades to Windows 11 to virtually anyone with a current, valid license installed on their systems, again assuming it meets the minimum requirements. So, if you’re ready, willing and able to make the switch, Microsoft’s newest OS is just a few clicks away. In-place upgrades of Windows have become relatively...
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The astutely named PrintNightmare family of issues affecting many Windows devices is not going away for Microsoft, it seems. Though there have been numerous patches and updates, not all have been fixes for the print spooler issues. This is the case once more following this month’s Patch Tuesday update, which has been confirmed to break network printing in some cases. As of late, Microsoft is reporting that “After installing KB5005033 or a later update, certain printers in some environments using Point and Print might receive a prompt saying, ‘Do you trust this printer?’” When this happens, administrator credentials are required to install the printer every time...
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The official launch of Windows 11 is on the horizon, but people have seemingly been installing it in droves even though it's not fully released. However, one catch in installing the newest operating system from Microsoft is that you need an internet connection, but do you really? It appears that a new bypass has been found that circumvents that need, so you can now install Windows 11 offline by following these relatively easy steps below. Back in June, when Windows 11 was leaked online, users found that the “next generation of windows” required an internet connection to grab a Microsoft ID. To avoid this, some quick-thinking users found a workaround by pressing “Alt+F4”...
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A key component for getting Android applications to play nice in Windows 11 has made an appearance in the Microsoft Store. It is called Windows Subsystem for Android, though don't get overly excited about its availability—yes, you can mosey on over to the Microsoft Store and download it, but at present, it does not appear to do anything. We tried it ourselves on a Windows Insider preview build, and all that happens is it loads up a white screen. On the store page, it comes with a description that reads, "Microsoft Confidential - For testing purposes - Please do not take screenshots or communicate about the content." None of which we can do anyway, so no worries Microsoft. Of course, if...
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We finally have a release date for Halo Infinite, which will now arrive on December 8th, more than a year after it was initially supposed to launch. The game will be available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles as well as Windows PCs. When it comes to consoles, there's no need to worry about system requirements, as the game should "just work." However, the game will look and play the best on the flagship Xbox Series X. On the PC side, things are very dependent on the hardware that powers your rig. Luckily for us, we now know the minimum and recommended specs for the PC version of Halo Infinite, courtesy of its listing on the Steam store. Getting your foot in the door isn't that difficult,...
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Committing to a new operating system is no small task when you are not used to the interface and are unsure where to start. However, developer Blue Edge is trying to solve this problem with a web-based mock Windows 11 experience that can give you a feel for Microsoft’s latest Windows update. Announced back in July, the Windows 11 experience in-browser is a neat project built “using standard web technologies like React, CSS (SCSS), and Js.” According to the FAQ on the project’s GitHub, Blue Edge explained that it took upwards of 12 days to get assets, plan, and program. Though it is not the snappiest experience, the browser-based Windows 11 currently features...
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Microsoft is pretty confident that it has finally addressed the dreaded PrintNightmare that has been keeping IT admins awake at night. Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. However, the vulnerability within Microsoft's Windows Print Spooler service has definitely been a recurring headache, and is seemingly fixed (knock on wood). The first warning of the PrintNightmare bug came abut a month and a half ago. Microsoft explained that remote code execution could occur when the Windows Print Spooler service "improperly performs privileged file operations." If successfully exploited, an attacker could run malicious code on a system full privileges. Not good. An emergency Windows 10 patch issued...
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Back in July, Microsoft announced a cloud-based Windows experience called Windows 365 that would allow anyone on any device to work with Windows. As reported, the service launched on August 2nd, and now pricing is available, ranging from $20 to $162 per user per month, depending on specifications. Windows 365 sits somewhere between full infrastructure as a service, like AWS, and platform as a service, like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. It allows businesses to easily deploy and scale a Windows environment up to 300 seats in Windows 365 Business and from 300 users to infinity with Windows 365 Enterprise. For each end-user, as Christiaan Brinkhoff explains in a blog post, “It...
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As it stands, Windows 10 gets monthly security, quality, and the occasional out-of-band update which all help to keep users “productive and protected.” It appears Microsoft has now officially confirmed that Windows 11 will be following the same update system which has worked well for the past six years. The continual updates to Windows 10 over the years have ensured that customers have access to all the latest features and security fixes at no additional cost. In a recent documentation post about monthly quality updates, technical writer Greg Lindsay outlines the plan for updates concerning Windows 10 and 11. First and foremost, quality updates which consist of either non-security...
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After the PrintNightmare vulnerability was found, the Windows Print Spooler and printer drivers were under the microscope. Now, yet another Print Spooler vulnerability has been discovered, allowing for code execution with SYSTEM privileges. First disclosed yesterday, the new print spooler vulnerability was uncovered by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. It stems from Windows allowing non-admin users to install printer drivers through a feature called “Point and Print.” However, Microsoft “requires that printers installable via Point are either signed by a WHQL release signature or are signed by a certificate that is explicitly trusted by the target system.” Want...
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Remember that scene in Office Space where a trio of disgruntled employees take a problematic printer to field and beat it to a pulp? Anyone who has ever dealt with stubborn printer issues has probably felt that way. It doesn't help that we also have to worry about printer vulnerabilities messing up our day, and to that end, Microsoft has warned of yet another one. The latest printer bug is being tracked as CVE-2021-34481. It has to do with the Windows Print Spooler service, and without a patch in place, a nefarious actor could potentially gain unfettered access to an affected system. At that point, they could install malware, swipe sensitive data, and worst of all, rearrange your carefully aligned...
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Everything is going to the cloud, it seems, and that now includes Windows with Windows 365. Windows 365 will allow people to stream their Windows experience so you can continue where you left off anywhere on any device starting August 2. Though virtualization, remote access, and cloud-based devices have been commonplace for several years now, Microsoft’s Windows 365 offering is taking a stab at the new market that has been born out of the pandemic. The goal is to combine “the power and security of the cloud with the versatility and simplicity of the PC,” to enable “a variety of new scenarios for the new world of work.” Windows 365 will work through any browser...
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After last week's out-of-band update to patch the PrintNightmare vulnerability, Microsoft has now released more vulnerability fixes as part of Patch Tuesday. With this update, the Redmond, Washington-based company knocked out a whopping 117 security issues that garnered a variety of concerns. Patch Tuesday has become something a holiday (or recurring nightmare) on the second Tuesday of each month for IT administrators, as Microsoft pushes out the latest security updates to its products. For this Patch Tuesday, a rather extensive list including Microsoft Office products, Microsoft networking products, and a swath of Windows products have been given security updates. Many of the vulnerabilities...
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At the top of July, a vulnerability within the Windows print spooler service, dubbed PrintNightmare, was discovered in the wild. Afterward, Microsoft rushed out a patch to fix the problem, but the Redmond, Washington-based company may have been just a little quick on the draw. Now, some users are encountering printer issues with the emergency Windows patch leading to an even bigger headache. As reported on Reddit, among other places on the Internet, users and system administrators are finding that the emergency patch KB5004945 to fix PrintNightmare is breaking Zebra printers’ functionality. The common theme appears to be that print jobs are getting stuck in the queue after a computer wakes...
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Windows 11 is finally out in the wild, and though there are some early caveats, it appears to be a nice update to the Windows ecosystem. However, now that Microsoft has made it publicly available, it also means people get to tinker with it to the extreme. Some developers have done just that as well, with reports of Windows 11 now running on Android phones with just a little software help. Xilin Wu is a developer behind the GitHub project “Renegade,” where “people try to port edk2 to different phones.” EDK2 is an open-source UEFI implementation that would allow ARM-based operating systems to be loaded on phones once ported. In this case, the goal was to get Windows 11 working...
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Last week, we heard all about Windows 11 with its new features, alongside all the caveats that came with it, like requiring a TPM 2.0 module. Despite this, it is exciting to see a new version of Windows on the horizon, and you can try it right now if you wish. The Windows Insider Program (which coincidentally spells WIP or Work-In-Progress) is a way for enthusiasts to get their hands on the latest features and updates while letting Microsoft test things out. Within this program, there are three rings: The dev channel for the technical users who get access to updates first. The beta channel for “early adopters,” where user feedback is most important The release preview channel that...
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At the Windows 11 reveal event, we got to see several new features, which are quite exciting. One of these new features is the ability to install and run Android apps on Windows 11, as if they were regular programs, via the Amazon Appstore. But what about cases where an app you need is not available for the Appstore? The Android apps feature coming to the Windows 11 is happening is thanks to a partnership between Amazon and Intel with its Intel Bridge Technology. This technology is the important part of the equation here, as it is a “runtime post-compiler that enables applications to run natively on x86-based devices, including running those applications on Windows.” In short, this...
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Windows 11 upgrades may be free, but the hardware is certainly going to cost you. That's the message sent by Microsoft yesterday as the company published system requirements for the upcoming operating system, due during the Holiday season later this year. At first blush, the Windows 11 system requirements calling for a dual-core CPU and 4 GB of system memory doesn't sound like a lot, but once we dug into the nitty-gritty details, it became obvious that Microsoft is cutting ties with some pretty recent hardware. The most restrictive requirement appears to be a mandatory Trusted Platform Module (TPM). This technology has been with us for more than 15 years, but more specifically, Windows...
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Windows 11 has finally been announced, and it seems that many of the leaks and rumors were true. However, there is much more to cover that we had not heard about yet, so let’s take a look at what Microsoft showed off today during its Windows 11 livestream… Windows 11 User Interface As we mentioned, it turns out that many of the leaks about the Windows 11 interface were true, but what Microsoft did with Windows 11 is still fascinating. Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer for Windows and Devices, explained that the OS has been “redesigned for productivity, creativity and ease.” One of the most notable of these changes is the repositioning and reworking of the iconic...
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Sometimes you may not know that you have been infected with malware until it is too late, as is likely the case for users across more than three million Windows-based computers globally. In a stunning revelation, in the two years between 2018 and 2020, a Trojan-like malware managed to infiltrate millions of Windows devices and extract 1.2 terabytes of personal information. On Wednesday, NordLocker, a subsidiary of NordVPN, released malware research that led to discovering a database of stolen data. The stolen information includes nearly 26 million login credentials with 1.1 million unique email addresses, 2 billion or more cookies, and roughly 6.6 million files. Over 50 percent of the stolen...
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As we slowly say goodbye (and good riddance) to Internet Explorer, the millions of users still using it will need a replacement. Microsoft is trying to make sure that the replacement is its own Microsoft Edge browser based on Chromium. The company is now claiming that Edge will be the best-performing browser on Windows 10, but is it just marketing, or is the browser up to snuff? Today, Microsoft’s Build developer conference kicked off, and with it comes a slew of announcements concerning developers, businesses, and consumers alike. One of the bigger announcements was about the upcoming Edge version 91, bringing some new features to the platform. The first feature is called “startup...
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