What's New

Valve has announced that it is updating Steam reviews with a new helpfulness system. It is finally addressing a problem that has plagued its platform for years.

Why does the user review system need to be updated? Let me highlight the issues to provide some context.

Proton announced today that it has made the decision to allow free users of its service to use the Chrome and Firefox extensions. Up until now, access was limited to paying customers.

Here are the details:

Microsoft has released security updates for all supported client and server versions of Windows. Other company products, including Microsoft Office, have received security updates as well.

Our monthly overview is designed to be the starting point for system administrators and home users alike. Learn about the released updates and potential issues that may come along with them before you install the updates.

Included is an Excel spreadsheet with released security updates, link to support pages and direct downloads, and much more.

Microsoft loves to tinker with the Start Menu, but most of the changes that it made have been rather controversial. Now, it appears the Windows 11 Start Menu will categorize your apps in tiles.

Windows Utility, short WinUtil, is a popular open source customization tool for Microsoft Windows devices. It is free and can be run from an elevated PowerShell prompt.

It is difficult to describe WinUtil in a short paragraph. It is a free tool to customize Windows. This is achieved through tweaks and the installation of software.

WinUtil offers the following core functionality:

The latest Firefox Nightly release makes it easier to test vertical tabs and the browser's new sidebar.

Mozilla launched support for the, much requested, vertical tabs feature in Firefox in June. Back then, it was necessary to flip several configuration switches manually to unlock the functionality.

Vacations encourage us to relax and change our daily habits. With these changes, too often, our devices become slightly more exposed to certain risks. During these periods, our attention to security matters naturally decreases, and we may not respond promptly to security alerts or similar messages.

Moreover, our online activity changes: we access the internet in new places, connect to public Wi-Fi networks, and share more information on social media, which can pose new risks to our personal data.

One of the most important advices when it comes to the security of electronic devices is to make sure that they are up to date.

A security researcher discovered a new attack that downgrades Windows devices permanently. Information on the attack are available on the SafeBreach website.

Google has been found guilty of maintaining an illegal monopoly in the search engine market. This is the company's biggest defeat in an antitrust case.

Google loses antitrust case against U.S.

The United States Department of Justice sued Google last year, accusing the Silicon Valley mogul of violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. It said that the company was stifling its competition, by making deals with Apple, Samsung, Mozilla, etc., to maintain itself as the default search engine across operating systems, and browsers.

Google is working on integrating what it calls Web Monetization functionality in its Chrome web browser. One of the main intents is to add a way to reward good content on the web.

Most websites rely either on ads or subscriptions for revenue generation. While direct payments are in theory great, they are not in practice. Each payment has additional costs and intermediary services are needed in most cases, as individual implementations are technical.

This lead to absurd scenarios where fees eat up a large chunk of payments.

Mozilla has released Firefox 129.0 Stable as well as Firefox 128.1 ESR and Firefox 115.14 ESR. Firefox 129 makes several important changes to the browser. Notable are the switch to HTTPS first for non-local addresses, use of system DNS settings on some operating systems, and Reader View enhancements.

All development versions of Firefox were updated as well. The new versions are Firefox 130 Beta and Firefox 131 Nightly.

Executive Summary

If you experience low audio volume playback on Windows 11, then you may be affected by the same issue that I ran into over this weekend. When I turned on my HP laptop I realized quickly that something was not right.

First, I thought that audio pfayback was muted, as I could not hear anything while playing music or watching videos. When I moved the volume to 100%, I could barely hear the playback.

Something was not right. I first tried the usual fixes:

Nvidia has announced that it will no longer offer its display drivers on old CPUs that don't support POPCNT. The good news is that it should not affect most modern computers.

Users who try to install the latest GPU drivers on unsupported systems may experience a blue screen of death (BSOD) with an error that says SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED.

Imagine the following scenario. You want to download Google Authenticator, run a search on Google for the company's application, and click on the first link that appears.

The link looks good even though it is listed as sponsored. It shows Google's official site as the URL. When you check the advertiser, which you can on Google Search, you get confirmation that Google has verified the advertisers identity.

Mozilla is working on a new feature for its Firefox web browser: automatic picture-in-picture mode. It is currently available in Firefox Nightly 130 and could launch in Firefox Stable later this year.

Most modern web browsers support Picture-in-Picture mode. It allows users to display video content in a separate window on the system. Ideal for keeping an eye on the video while switching to another tab to do something else.

Up until now, activation of Picture-in-Picture mode was a manual affair. You had to click on the icon while hovering over the video to launch it.