Category: Hardware

All new Surface computers get four years of active support. During those four years, Microsoft releases new drivers and firmware updates with various improvements, fixes, and security patches. This month, Microsoft stopped supporting a bunch of Surface computers released from 2015 to 2017. Some of those Surface computers ended their lifecycles with more than six years of support.

The November 2021 update roundup for Surface devices continues with the original Surface Duo and AMD-based Surface Laptop joining the party. Here is what is new in the November 2021 update for the first-gen dual-screen smartphone from Microsoft and the fourth-gen Surface Laptop with AMD CPUs.

Today, during a special event, Microsoft announced Surface Laptop SE—its cheapest computer in the Surface family, aimed squarely at the education market to rival Chromebooks.

In a somewhat radical move, Intel decided to purge the DirectX 12 support from old Haswell-based processors. Beginning with the driver 15.40.44.5107, integrated graphics in fourth-gen Intel CPUs no longer work with the latest graphics APIs from Microsoft. The chipmaker says they had to remove the DirectX 12 support to fix a security issue.

Microsoft released another October 2021 firmware update. This time, it is the third-gen Surface Book to receive improvements and enhancements for Windows 11 alongside bug fixes and patches. Here is what is new in the October 2021 firmware update for Surface Book 3.

Reportedly, Microsoft plans to launch a new dirt-cheap Surface laptop to compete with Chromebooks in education markets. Sources claim the company develops a new laptop under the Tenjin codename. Here are some of its tech specs.

Just a couple of days after the launch, Surface Duo 2 received its first firmware update. Unlike the original Surface Duo, which has been receiving only Android security patches for several months in a row, the first update for Surface Duo 2 contains device-specific improvements and bug fixes.

Microsoft released a new software update for Xbox Series X, Series S, and the Xbox One Series consoles. The October Xbox Update brings a few major changes and improvements to make gaming on your console more comfortable and pleasing.

Microsoft has partnered with Seagate to introduce 512GB and 2TB memory expansion cards for the Xbox Series X|S. Both devices will soon be available in all countries where the Xbox brand is officially present. Earlier, only 1 TB memory cards were available to users.

Not so long ago, AMD and Microsoft acknowledged two problems users with AMD-based computers would encounter after upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Due to increased L3 cache latency, performance in games and memory-sensitive apps might decrease down to 15%. To make things worse, the first cumulative update for Windows 11 increased latencies even more. Also, motherboards would fail to detect the most powerful core and assign demanding tasks to that core (CPPC). As a result, users experience even more performance dips.