Security News
Microsoft announced today that it will deprecate WordPad with a future Windows update as it's no longer under active development, though the company did not specify the precise timing of this change. "We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like.doc and.rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like.txt."
Microsoft has reminded customers that systems running Windows 11 21H2 will be force-updated before the end of servicing next month. Since Windows 11 21H2 devices will no longer receive security updates starting October 10, 2023, they will be updated to Windows 11 22H2 to continue receiving the latest updates, security updates, and improvements.
Microsoft will soon allow users in the European Union, as well as from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, to once again open all links in Windows using their default web browser rather than forcing the use of Microsoft Edge. As the company said when it released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 to the Dev Channel on Friday, links in Windows systems apps will no longer open using Microsoft Edge, ignoring the users' browser of choice.
New findings show that malicious actors could leverage a sneaky malware detection evasion technique and bypass endpoint security solutions by manipulating the Windows Container Isolation Framework. Microsoft's container architecture uses what's called a dynamically generated image to separate the file system from each container to the host and at the same time avoid duplication of system files.
The FBI announced today the disruption of the Qakbot botnet in an international law enforcement operation that not only seized infrastructure but also uninstalled the malware from infected devices. Before we learn how the FBI uninstalled Qakbot from computers, it is essential to understand how the malware was distributed, what malicious behavior it performed, and who utilized it.
Microsoft is experimenting with different approaches to introduce new users to Windows 11's features as soon as they complete the initial setup, also known as the "Out of Box Experience". This app serves as a personal guide through the new features in Windows 11, showcasing Dev Home for those who've opted for the 'Development Intent'.
MSI has officially confirmed the recent surge of blue screens of death encountered by Windows users after installing this week's optional preview updates is linked to some of its motherboard models. "MSI has received several reports of users encountering a Blue Screen of Death that has an error message that reads 'UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR' with MSI's 600/700 series motherboards after installing the Windows 11 update, KB5029351 Preview," the company said.
Microsoft says the August 2023 preview updates released this week for Windows 11 and Windows 10 systems are causing blue screens with errors mentioning an unsupported processor issue. The updates in question are tagged as KB5029351 and KB5029331, and they come with Search app fixes and introduce a new Backup app, respectively.
Microsoft has released the optional KB5029331 Preview cumulative update for Windows 10 22H2 with sixteen improvements or fixes, including the introduction of a new Backup app. While recent Windows 10 updates have been acting primarily as bug fixes, this update includes several new features, demonstrating that Microsoft is not completely ignoring Windows 10 in favor of Windows 11.
Security researchers have released NoFilter, a tool that abuses the Windows Filtering Platform to elevate a user's privileges to increases privileges to SYSTEM, the highest permission level on Windows. Microsoft defines the Windows Filtering Platform as "a set of API and system services that provide a platform for creating network filtering applications."