Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Microsoft has just released Terminal Preview 1.12 and the company proudly proclaims that this release is "HUGE!".

As you would hope and, indeed, expect, the new version brings with it new features, not least of which is the ability to set it as the default terminal emulator. But this far from being the end of the story. There's also windows restoration, full transparency in Windows 11, and a host of fixes.

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Fans of Microsoft's PowerToys have something to look forward to -- there is at least one new utility in the pipeline, very probably several.

Developers are currently working on a Find My Mouse tool which will appear in an upcoming Mouse Utilities section of PowerToys. The new tool will make it easy to locate your mouse cursor on the screen, but there is also the promise of more mouse-related tools in the future.

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Windows 11 is gradually making its way to more and more computers, giving an ever-growing userbase the chance to try out the latest features. But while Microsoft has used Windows 11 to introduce lots of changes and new options, it has also continued trend of moving away from some of the familiarity of Windows of old.

This includes a continuing move away from the Control Panel to the Settings app. This change is not to everyone's liking, but there is some good news. There is a special God Mode option that gives access to a huge number of Control Panel options in one place, giving power users the control they crave. Here's how to activate it.

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Having been kicked off Twitter, Donald Trump is making good on his promise to launch his own social media platform. The new venture is TRUTH Social and it is the former US president's attempt to "fight back against Big Tech".

TRUTH Social comes from the newly created Trump Media and Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Group, and Trump says that it will operate as "a rival to the liberal media consortium", adding, "I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon". From what we can see of it at the moment, it looks very much like a Twitter-clone.

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It was entirely planned, but it does feel like a good while since there was an exciting PowerToys release with new things to play with. But now, with the release of PowerToys Experimental v0.48.1, this changes.

There are, of course, fixes and -- as this is an experimental release -- some known issues, but there is also the return of Video Conference Mute tool which has quickly turned into a fan-favorite.

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Microsoft has released the latest preview update for Windows 10 ahead of a proper release next Patch Tuesday -- the KB5006744 update preview.

While this is a non-security update, it does address a number of problems that have been plaguing Windows 10 users. Among the problems fixed by the KB5006744 update preview are issues with virtual machine load balancing, and a memory leak issue in lsass.exe.

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Over the years, Mark Zuckerberg has shared various visions for the future including getting the entire world online. His latest idea is that of the metaverse, a far more immersive, connected experience that blends the realms of virtual reality and the internet.

While details of quite what Facebook's plans for the metaverse might be currently remain vague and ethereal, it seems that Zuckerberg could be on the verge of announcing a rebranding and a new name for Facebook.

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Microsoft has issued a stark warning to system administrators, advising them of the importance of updating PowerShell 7 as soon as possible.

Versions prior to PowerShell 7.0.8 and PowerShell 7.1.5 are vulnerable to a .NET Core Information Disclosure flaw that is being tracked as CVE-2021-41355. There is a degree of urgency to upgrading to a non-vulnerable version of PowerShell, as the flaw could expose credentials in plain text in Linux.

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Users of the vitualization tool Parallels Desktop have a major update to install that brings important changes on Windows and macOS alike.

There is now full support for running virtualized instance of Windows 11 thanks to a change in the way TPM is handled. Parallels Desktop 17.1 also supports macOS Monterey as the host OS, and improved the experience of running Monterey virtual machines on Apple M1 chips.

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You would be forgiven for thinking that printer problems go hand in hand with Windows update -- there have certainly been plenty of OS patches that that have caused such issues in recent times.

The recently released KB5006670 update is just the latest in a long string of updates that have led to problems for Windows 10 users. People whose systems have been negatively affected by the update report being unable to connect to network printers while seeing 0x00000709 and Element not found errors.

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The Windows updates released by Microsoft have been hitting the headlines for very much the wrong reasons for the last year or so. A seemingly endless string of problematic updates for Windows 10 did not, sadly, come to an end with the release of Windows 11.

But now Microsoft is making an important change to Windows updates. While it will not necessarily help to improve their quality and reliability, it will at least go some way to make them easier to download and install. The new approach kicks off with Windows 11 build 22478 and the arrival of Update Stack Packages.

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While Microsoft primarily produces apps and services designed for use with its own Windows operating system, over the years the company has embraced not only macOS but also Linux.

Having recently release Windows Subsystem for Linux to the Windows 11 store, there is a now another treat for Linux user coming out of Redmon. Microsoft has now released a Linux version of Sysmon, the Windows system monitoring tool.

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Among the problems with Windows 11 is a worrying issue with reduced performance on some AMD processors. Both AMD and Microsoft are busy working on fixes, but if you were hoping that the first update for Windows 11 was going to help, think again.

With the release of KB5006674, Microsoft has addressed a known networking issue with Windows 11, but has failed to do anything about poor AMD performance. But things are even worse than that. Reports and benchmarks suggest that performance on AMD systems has been even further reduced by this update.

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Much has been made of the system requirements for Windows 11, and after initially making it seem as though it would not be possible to install the operating system on hardware that did not make the grade, Microsoft relented and said that people could do so at their own risk.

The permission to proceed came with something of a threat, however -- a warning that a computer that did not meet the minimum requirements would not receive updates. But this seems to have been an empty threat. We've just seen the first update for Windows 11 roll out, and KB5006674 was indeed delivered to computers that do not meet the requirements set out by Microsoft. What gives?

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When it comes to accusations of fixing search results, it is usually the likes of Google in the firing line, but documents seen by Reuters show that Amazon has engaged in such activities.

The news agency obtained thousands of internal Amazon documents cited as evidence that the company not only "ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoffs", but also that it was "manipulating search results to boost its own product lines".

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