A new version of the Skype app is out to Insiders. Skype 8.34.76.37 comes with a couple of new features, including a new emoticon picker.
Google Chrome will block all ads on web sites with ‘abusive’ ads
Starting in December 2018, Chrome 71 will remove all ads on the small number of sites with persistent abusive experiences. Sites with known abusive behavior will have all ads blocked by the built-in ad-blocking mechanism.
Disable Hardware BitLocker Encryption on Vulnerable SSDs
Yesterday, a vulnerablity was discovered in the hardware encryption implemented by some SSDs. Unfortunately, BitLocker in Windows 10 (and possibly Windows 8.1 as well) delegates the duty of securely encrypting and protecting the user's data to the drive manufacturer. When hardware encryption is available, it does not verify if the encryption is foolproof, and turns off its own software-based encryption, making your data vulnerable. Here is a workaround you can apply.
Change Narrator Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 10
Narrator is a screen-reading app built into Windows 10. Narrator lets users with vision issues to use PC and complete common tasks. Here is how to customize its keyboard shortcuts.
Cinnamon 4.0 Desktop Environment is out
Cinnamon is Linux Mint's flagship desktop environment. Started as a Gnome 3 fork, now it is fully independent. Cinnamon brings modern technologies to the Linux desktop while retains the classic desktop paradigm with the taskbar, the app menu, and traditional window management. Let's explore what is new in Cinnamon 4.0.
What’s New for WSL in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update
Windows 10 version 1809 "October 2018 Update" comes with a number of interesting changes and improvements made to the WSL feature. These include additional distros in the Store, the ability to launch WSL from File Exporer, improved per-directory case sensitivity support, and more.
Firefox 65 Supports Google’s WebP Format
WebP is a modern image format created by Google. It was made especially for the Web, providing a high compression ratio than JPEG without affecting image quality. Finally, the Mozilla Firefox browser has got support for this format.
Microsoft is shutting down its Hotfix service
Users of Microsoft products must be familiar with their Hotfix service, which offered downloadable small updates, fixes or patches for Windows, Office and all other products to resolve various issues in existing installations. Hotfixes usually address only a single issue, without containing cumulative multiple fixes. The service was extremely valuable for those who faced only a certain issue and needed to fix just that problem without downloading all available huge updates or a gigantic cumulative update rollup or a service pack. Now, its days are over.
Delete Pending Updates in Windows 10
Windows 10 is set to check for updates automatically unless you disable this feature manually. Sometimes you may have issues with installing updates, e.g. when some update gets stuck and prevents the OS from finishing the update process. In this case, you may want to delete pending updates.
Microsoft is deprecating the classic Volume Mixer app
Windows 10 introduced a new style of items and their panes/flyouts which open from the notification area. All of the applets which open from the system tray are different now. This includes the Date/Time pane, the Action Center, the Network pane, and the volume control flyout. In addition to these changes, the classic sound volume mixer is getting replaced with its modern counterpart from Settings.
