Free Republic

Like you, I see those flashy headlines and articles every day trying to convince Windows users to switch to Linux—how it’s supposedly better in every possible way, how you can use all your favorite apps, and so on. But honestly, most of that is just talk. It sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t match up with reality. Still, I guess those kinds of articles do their job pretty well.Here, though, I want to take a slightly different approach. Right from the start, let me be clear: I’m not here to persuade anyone to jump on the Linux bandwagon. Instead,...

Take this with a grain of salt, but users have reported another privacy transgression by Microsoft. According to the report by users from the Resetera forum and elsewhere, Copilot Gaming, an AI specially for gaming-related AI tasks, is taking screen captures of your gameplay for training. While that would be fine if the user knew about it and enabled it willingly, it appears to be turned on automatically and without informing users about the data collecting and use of the data. According to the user who noticed it first by monitoring network traffic, the AI is using OCR technology to...

Teams will start tracking office attendance and yes, your boss will know Microsoft Teams is about to deal a heavy blow to those who like to work from home for peace and quiet. In a new feature update rolling out December 2025, the platform will track a worker’s location using the office Wi-Fi, to see whether you’re actually there or not. From a boss’ perspective, this would eliminate any of that confusion as to where your team actually is. But for those people who have found their own sanctuary of peaceful productivity by working from home, consider this a warning...

As many of us have seen, Windows 11 is introducing AI into PCs programmed with that O/S. Granted, there are methods of removing it. Installing W11 with Rufus software is a common way of doing it. Using Flyoobe is another option. There is also software out there to remove unwanted components once W11 is installed. Regardless, I, and I'm sure many others, are trying to find ways of running Windows software on a Linux system. I've run across a few software packages in Linux that try to accomplish this. Bottles, Wine, Winapps and PlayonLinux are just a few things I've...

I own four computers. Two desktops. One laptop. One Microsoft notebook. Three have Win 11. One has 10. Lately, on a desktop w/11, frequently, when I'm searching google for data, when I type in the phrase or business or topic, I'll get a captcha test. It's becoming more frequent. I always clear my cache, run ccleaner, clear history, etc. It's still happening. And none of my other computers are doing it. When it happens, it starts with the "I'm not a robot" box which I check. Directly underneath it has some computer lingo with the word "google" in it. And...

Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10, all but forcing users to either upgrade or pay more money to keep getting essential security updates for the OS they already own. No matter that its replacement, Windows 11, can’t be run on nearly half a billion machines, meaning it’ll create mountains of e-waste as those old, perfectly usable PCs get thrown out for new ones. If possible, things are getting even worse. This week, Microsoft is launching a suite of artificial intelligence features that basically turns existing Windows 11 systems into full-blown “AI PCs” which are controlled by Copilot, the...

And Copilot is coming for your Windows 11 Search Bar ================================================================= Microsoft is pushing to make every Windows 11 PC an AI PC. In new updates, the company is focusing on further integrating AI into Windows 11 apps and experiences (not just chatbots), and making voice as much of an input option as the keyboard and mouse. The idea, Microsoft says, is that AI on a PC should be easy and natural to interact with in either text or voice; that it should be able to see your screen and information and help; and that it should be able, with...

ZDNET's key takeawaysWindows 10 support has ended, making Linux a possible alternative.It's a good time to consider switching from Windows to Linux.Switching to Linux can extend your computer's life and performance.I can still remember when I decided to install Linux on my very first computer (a Pentium 75). I'd been using Windows 95 and found myself more frustrated than not. I was experiencing constant blue screens of death, couldn't make the OS behave how I wanted, the software was expensive, and I hated the way it looked.So, I installed Linux over Windows, and the rest is history. I've been using...

Winboat is a tool that now easily let's you run your Windows programs underneath Linux in a way that makes it almost seamless. How do you do this? Let's find out!

Microsoft is closing a popular loophole that allowed users to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. The change has appeared in recent Insider builds of Windows 11, indicating it is likely to be included in the production version soon. Microsoft refers to these loopholes as "known mechanisms" and is talking about local commands in this instance. You can learn all about these in our piece for getting Windows 11 installed with a local account, but suffice to say start ms-cxh:localonly is no more. "While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical...

Next month sees Windows 10 finally reaching the end of (mainstream) support. Microsoft has been pushing people towards Windows 11 for what feels like forever, and it worked – for a while. The latest market figures show that this is changing. The statistics for August 2025 from statcounter Global Stats show a marked drop in Windows 11’s share of the desktop market. Rewinding a little bit through time, June 2025 was a significant month because it marked the point at which Windows 11 finally caught up (well, very nearly) with Windows 10. Windows 11 managed to reach a market share...

Mini-PCs are space-saving, quiet, versatile and often cheaper than a classic desktop PC. We discuss the advantages and what you should look out for when buying in this guide. Mini-PCs have been experiencing a real boom in recent years. No wonder, because these small desktop computers are powerful, space-saving, and flexible. This guide shows what a mini-PC actually is, where its strengths lie, and who can benefit the most from buying one. Also, be sure to check out the PCWorld deals page where we highlight the best deals from around the web on mini-PCs, like the latest stellar deal on...

Dozens of anti-Israel Microsoft employees, many wearing face masks and keffiyes, swarmed the company’s headquarters in Washington state to protest the Big Tech giant’s ties to Israel’s military. The protesters set up tents in a “liberated zone” on the Redmond campus, renaming it the “Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza” — and toted signs that urged co-workers to “Join the worker intifada: no labor for genocide.” Other placards said “stop starving Gaza.” A group calling itself “No Azure For Apartheid” organized Tuesday’s sit-in after The Guardian reported that an Israeli military intelligence agency was using Microsoft’s Azure software to amass recordings of...

Choose wisely. Your PC could end up vulnerable to online threats otherwise. This fall, Windows 10 will reach its end of life—at least, as defined by Microsoft. On October 14, the company ends feature updates to the operating system. Security and stability updates also become restricted—a potential liability, depending on the choices you make now. To help users successfully navigate Windows 10’s extinction event, Adam Patrick Murray sat down with ethical hacker Mike Danseglio to talk options. The goal: To find the best option for your PC to stay current with security updates and patches, no matter the age of...

No Copilot, no ads, no bloat, no AI — and seven extra years of official support. It sounds too good to be true, but there's a reason most haven't heard of it. Microsoft won't advertise it, and you're highly unlikely to stumble across it by accident, but there's a version of Windows 10 that drops the ads, the AI, and will be officially supported for years to come — long after most are forced to upgrade to Windows 11. For those unaware, Windows 10 is due to be retired by Microsoft on October 14, 2025. Beyond this date, the operating...

Microsoft is saying hello to the Black Screen of Death error message instead.The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has held strong in Windows for nearly 40 years, but that’s about to change. Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it was overhauling its BSOD error message in Windows 11, and the company has now confirmed that it will soon be known as the Black Screen of Death. The new design drops the traditional blue color, frowning face, and QR code in favor of a simplified black screen.The simplified BSOD looks a lot more like the black screen you’d see during a...

Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 11 version 24H2 update is now in its final rollout phase and will soon be delivered automatically to millions of Home and Pro users around the world. As of May 2, 2025, any unmanaged device running Windows 11 versions 21H2, 22H2, or 23H2—or even Windows 10—will see the 2024 Update download in the background. After the download completes, users can choose when to install the update or postpone it by going to Settings, then Windows Update.SNIPTo avoid disruptions, Windows Update offers a four‑week postponement option. Should you need more time, you can use command‑line...

Can someone help with getting the notification popup window at the bottom right of the screen to show the notifications again? For instance, I used to get the popup window notification to show immediately when a Youtube video was downloaded. Not getting the window anymore. Now, up at the top right on the Youtube page there is a bell that will show the number of new videos since the last time I checked but if I don't constantly check, I never know. Not to mention the bell has when the videos were loaded all messed up - 1 hour ago,...

Hackers just hit a massive jackpot: 184 million accounts across Apple, Google and Microsoft were exposed in a sweeping data breach. I’m talking email addresses, usernames, passwords, device info (the whole buffet), now up for grabs on the dark web. Before you say, “I’m safe, I use strong passwords,” or “I’ve never been hacked,” take a second to think. These weren’t obscure services. This breach hit the biggest names in tech. Household-name-level oopsie. If your login credentials got caught in the cross fire, hackers are already trying to use them to break into your other accounts. The hidden risk It’s...

Microsoft has announced that it has open sourced the Windows Subsystem for Linux. WSL, as it's commonly called, allows users to run Linux apps directly on Windows. All you need to do to install WSL is run the following command in a terminal: wsl --install Refer to this article for additional details regarding how to set up WSL. WSL was first announced at the Build 2016 developer conference, and shipped with the Windows 10 Anniversary update. While the original release was based on lxcore.sys, a pico process provider that Windows used to run ELF executables natively. Microsoft released WSL 2...