windows – Tech News

Faulty CrowdStrike update causes major global IT outage, taking out banks, airlines and businesses globally

Businesses across the world are reporting IT outages, including Windows “blue screen of death” errors on their computers, in what has already become one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent years. The outage — linked to a software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — has affected computers running Microsoft Windows at organizations across various sectors, including airlines, banks, retailers, brokerage houses, media companies and railway networks.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/19/faulty-crowdstrike-update-causes-major-global-it-outage-taking-out-banks-airlines-and-businesses-globally/

Windows Notepad’s midlife renaissance continues with spellcheck and autocorrect

An updated version of Notepad currently rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels is adding two more modern features to the old app: spellcheck and autocorrect. Per usual, spellcheck in Notepad highlights misspellings with red squiggly underlines, and right-clicking the word or pressing Shift + F10 will pop up a short menu of suggested fixes.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/windows-notepads-midlife-renaissance-continues-with-spellcheck-and-autocorrect/

Microsoft announces AI key on Windows 11 PCs

In a blog announcing the change, Microsoft executive vice president Yusuf Mehdi said it was a "transformative" moment and compared it to the addition of the Windows key nearly 30 years ago. He added that it would "simplify" and "amplify" user experience.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67881373

Hell freezes over, MS Paint adds support for layers and PNG transparency

But today Microsoft announced that it is finally adding two features that could make the app a bit more useful for power users: support for Photoshop-esque image layers and the ability to open and save transparent PNGs. The redesigned Paint is rolling out to Windows Insider testers in both the Dev and Canary channels, the two bleeding-edge and less-stable versions of Windows 11. Like other recent app updates, this appears to require Windows 11 and won't be backported to Windows 10.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/hell-freezes-over-ms-paint-adds-support-for-layers-and-png-transparency/