Innehållsförteckning för November 2024 från PCWorld

Microsoft announced the beginning of the rollout of the Windows 11 2024 Update (version 24H2) October 1, but it may be a while before you get it. Microsoft is implementing what it’s calling a “phased rollout” of the Windows 11 2024 Update and the first phase will begin “over the coming weeks,” said John Cable, Microsoft’s vice president of program management, Windows servicing and delivery, in a blog post. The Windows 11 2024 Update will be available to everyone and not just those who have bought a Copilot+ PC. But Copilot PC+ owners will be among the first to sample new Windows experiences that Microsoft will subsequently launch, with the goal of pushing them out to as many users as possible by the 2024 holiday season. HOW TO GET THE…

Last week, the World Wide Web Foundation announced in an open letter (PDF) that it would be “winding down” and “closing [its] virtual doors” after 15 years of working to make the web safer and more accessible. The WWWF was founded in 2009 by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who’s widely credited as inventing the World Wide Web and making it possible for regular users like you and me to browse websites and download files over the internet. When the WWWF was first created, only 20 percent of the world’s population had access to the internet. Today, that figure has ballooned to an astonishing 70 percent with no signs of stopping—and alongside that growth come ever more threats of scams, malware, and hackers. In the open letter, Berners-Lee writes that while the…

It’s been three years since Microsoft released the 2021 version of its inescapable Office apps suite, but the company hasn’t been resting on its laurels. The subscription-based, always-online Microsoft 365 has been getting constant tweaks and updates in that time. But not everyone is keen on software as a service. If you’d rather pay a flat fee for software, here’s some good news for you: Microsoft recently released Office 2024 for consumers. The base version of Office 2024 is called Office Home—I see Microsoft is keeping up its tradition of terrible branding—and it includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote for a price tag of $150 on both PC and Mac. There’s also the Office Home & Business version that adds commercial licensing, which really only matters if your…

Kensington’s first Thunderbolt 5 dock, the future of PC I/O, is here! Unfortunately, it’s just one part of the equation. The Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt 5 Triple 4K Docking Station is the first Thunderbolt 5 dock I’ve seen inside PCWorld’s lab. Kensington will begin selling the dock today on Amazon for $399.99, a substantial premium to the majority of Thunderbolt 4 docks already on the market. (One exception is Kingston’s SD5800T, a premium Thunderbolt 4 dock). Thunderbolt 5, however, offers significant advantages compared to Thunderbolt 4 docks, which have offered the same 40Gbps throughput as the older Thunderbolt 3 docks. Thunderbolt 5 boosts that to 80Gbps, and in certain cases even up to 120Gbps in a single direction. That equates to two 8K, 60Hz displays, or three 4K displays at 144Hz.…

The Logitech G705 from the Aurora collection is aimed at gamers looking for a compact and ergonomic mouse that combines performance and design. With its small size and attractive appearance, it’s appealing to users with smaller hands. But can the G705 really impress in terms of performance and handling or does it fall short of expectations? Read on to find out. DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP The Logitech G705 scores points with its sophisticated design, which is designed for small hands. It measures 105.8×68.1×39.4 millimeters and weighs 85 grams, making it light and easy to handle. The mouse is slim and modern-looking, and the White Mist colorway is lovely with its lavender accents—it’s a real eye-catcher. The high-quality workmanship ensures that the mouse remains robust even after prolonged use. However, gamers who…

CPUs and GPUs are old news. These days, the cutting edge for chips is all about NPUs, and hardware manufacturers are talking up NPU performance. The NPU is a computer component designed to accelerate AI tasks in a power-efficient manner, paving the way for new Windows desktop applications with powerful AI features. That’s the plan, anyway. All PCs will eventually have NPUs, but at the moment only some PCs have them. Here’s everything you need to know about NPUs and why they’re such a hot topic in the computer industry right now. WHAT IS AN NPU? NPU stands for neural processing unit. It’s a special kind of processor that’s optimized for AI and machine-learning tasks. The name comes from the fact that AI models use neural networks. A neural network…

In September 2023, Microsoft announced the surprising end of its free text-editing program. For many, WordPad was a simple but useful alternative to Microsoft Word—but it’s no longer part of Windows. Windows 11 24H2 marks the official death of WordPad along with several other features that have been removed in the update. (The 24H2 update is currently being rolled out. Learn more about when you’ll get it in our article breaking down its release schedule.) You’ll likely be better off switching to other free apps such as LibreOffice, but it just won’t be the same. If you find that you still prefer WordPad and want to keep using it, here’s a method you can use. HOW TO GET WORDPAD BACK IN WINDOWS 11 It’s not that difficult to bring WordPad…

What’s next for Windows? Microsoft may have just shipped the Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2), but the company is already disclosing its plans for next-gen Windows apps—and there are some very interesting AI-powered features due by the holidays. Microsoft disclosed that it is working on several AI additions to Windows and Windows apps: improved Windows search using natural descriptive language, Super Resolution in Photos, Generative Fill and Erase in Paint, as well as the debut of Recall. All (save Recall) are appearing in October as part of the Windows Insider program, with an expected launch in November. All of these features will depend on the NPU inside Copilot+ PCs, which will now include PCs that feature Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors as well as AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 and Intel’s…

Microsoft has now released the shipping version of the Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2), the year’s major feature update for Windows 11. But there’s a price to pay: When Microsoft begins installing Windows 11 24H2 on your PC, some older applications and features will be gone forever. Microsoft has signaled some of the changes previously. But well-known apps like Windows Mixed Reality, Tips, and WordPad will still be removed from your PC. Fortunately, there are alternatives for the applications Microsoft is removing. Microsoft will also take several weeks to roll out Windows 11 24H2, leaving you with time to make the transition. Microsoft has detailed the changes in a list of deprecated Windows features. While the decisions can take place over a period of months, they’re usually made with one…

Software developers have embraced artificial intelligence language models for code generation in a big way, with huge gains in productivity but also some predictably dubious developments. It’s no surprise that hackers and malware writers are doing the same. According to recent reports, there have been several active malware attacks spotted with code that’s at least partially generated by AI. BleepingComputer chronicles multiple attacks using suspected AI-written code, with reports from Proofpoint and HP making the case that these tools were generated in ways that no longer need the technical expertise normally required for large-scale malware attacks. You could call it the democratization of hacking. The attacks used fairly straightforward vectors, HTML, VBScript, and JavaScript, with code that was more broad and less targeted. So these attacks are most effective when set…

Private Internet Access (PIA) has seemingly been around since the advent of third-party VPNs. Since that time, it’s been a favorite VPN service for many users thanks to its excellent pricing and good privacy guarantees. Recently the service has made some truly promising improvements by lifting the device connection limit and undergoing a third-party audit. So, with these new updates, how does it stack up against the other titans of the VPN market? Let’s dive in and have a look. Private Internet Access in brief: P2P allowed: Yes Simultaneous device connections: Unlimited Business location: U.S. Number of servers: 10,000-plus Number of country locations: 90 Cost: $11.95 per month, or $79 + 4 free months for a three-year subscription FEATURES AND SERVICES Upon first opening PIA, you’ll notice that it has…

The plethora of OLED has made comparisons a bit dull. Most use the same OLED panels and have similar features, so the verdict often comes down to price. Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G8 is an exception, however, as it delivers an OLED panel alongside Smart TV functionality that includes built-in apps, a remote control, and much more. These features make the monitor more versatile, but could annoy PC enthusiasts who just want a monitor to act like a monitor. SPECS AND FEATURES The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8’s specifications are typical for a high-end OLED monitor. It offers 4K resolution, a refresh rate of up to 240Hz, and a QD-OLED panel that provides an exceptional color gamut. It also supports Adaptive Sync and HDR. Display size: 32-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution:…

As a long-time Windows geek, I’ve always loved and relied on keyboard shortcuts. They’re incredible—like a collection of secret handshakes that can quickly perform useful tasks and dramatically speed up whatever you’re doing on your computer. And yes, keyboard shortcuts are rather secret. Windows doesn’t provide a coach that guides you through the hundreds of keyboard shortcuts you might find handy. They’re just… there. In the background. So you usually have to seek them out or find out about them the old-fashioned way: by talking with other PC geeks and reading helpful articles like this one. Let me show you the greatest and most practical keyboard shortcuts I actually use all the time. 1. LAUNCH FILE EXPLORER If you’re like me, you use File Explorer a lot. With a keyboard…

I’ll be the first one to admit to not practicing the best battery habits, especially where my laptop is concerned. Most days I leave my laptop plugged in for far too long, which can deteriorate the battery over time, especially if it’s fully charged. I’ll find myself cranking up the brightness as well, even when I’m just browsing social media and doing day-to-day tasks. That’s because I’m a mutant. Don’t be a mutant. That said, I’m willing to turn over a new leaf and start practicing better battery life habits—and if you’re anything like me, it’s not too late to change your ways either. Here are a few simple tweaks you can make to extend the life of your laptop. 1. TURN DOWN THE BRIGHTNESS Lowering the screen brightness is…

I’ve written a lot about ad blockers in the last few weeks, from Google’s Chrome updates making some popular options inoperable, to alternatives that will work, to my reason for blocking every ad on YouTube. So when I was contacted by representatives from Ghostery, a German company that operates an ad-blocker extension and other privacy products, I was eager to pick their brains. I’ve been a technology writer for over 10 years, and I can wax poetic on building PCs and keyboards all day. But I’m not a web developer or programmer of any kind, so I relished the opportunity to get an expert opinion on the changes in Chrome’s extension support, from Manifest V2 to V3. The V3 changeover, and its more restrictive access model to some of the…

The Meta Quest 2 remains the most popular VR headset in the world, at least if we assume that Steam’s hardware survey is an accurate indicator of the VR headset market. And it isn’t even a close contest: With 38 percent of the user base, it has more than double the market share of Valve’s own PC-focused Index HMD. So why is Meta’s newer and far more advanced Quest 3 headset so far behind its predecessor at just 17 percent in the same survey? The answer is obviously its price. The Quest 2 is still the cheapest standalone VR headset you can find at most retailers, including crucial brick-and-mortar stores where VR headset demos are at least possible, if not commonplace. And it can be connected to a gaming PC with…

Lunar Lake is Intel’s Snapdragon killer. Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) was specifically designed to emphasize low power, but with competitive performance. In this it somewhat succeeds, though the Core Ultra 7 258V chip I tested can still run a distant second, or third, behind AMD’s mobile Ryzen processors. But Lunar Lake also provides incredibly good, Snapdragon-like battery life with a powerful, embedded GPU capable of playing yesterday’s top-tier games. Intel supplied us with a Lunar Lake–powered Asus ZenBook S14 laptop for review, and we’ve spent the last week or so testing it to answer the question: Of the AMD Ryzen AI 300, Intel’s Lunar Lake, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, which is the best laptop processor so far in 2024? And how does Lunar Lake compare…

The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is a “next-gen AI PC” thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processor. But, while this machine has a neural processing unit (NPU) for local AI applications—plus Copilot+ PC features coming soon—AI isn’t the big story here. Look past the “AI” logos on this machine and you’ll find a solid laptop that gets long battery life and excellent performance in real-world use, thanks to AMD’s latest hardware. First, a word about the name: Back in May 2024, HP announced a rebranding of its entire PC lineup, dumping names like “Spectre” and “Dragonfly.” The word “OmniBook” here means this is a consumer laptop. If this was intended for commercial users, HP would call it an “EliteBook” or “ProBook.” (However, HP will still use “Omen” to refer to…

The big Windows 11 2024 Update (also known as Windows 11 24H2) is both a brand-new operating system but also one that’s been out for several months now. It’s Windows 12—but it’s also not. And its best features are really reserved for those who have invested in a next-generation Copilot+ PC powered by chips from Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD. These seeming contradictions are at the heart of Windows 11 24H2, which began rolling out October 1 in a “phased” rollout that will last several weeks. But when you get it and what you get with it will all depend on whether you own a Copilot+ PC. In other words, there’s a set of basic features that everyone will receive (including new energy-saving features for laptops and desktops, improved smartphone integration,…

For anyone trying to keep their personal information secure, recent headlines have been a grim kick in the pants. The harshest came last month when the National Public Data breach was disclosed—the source of a purported 2.9 billion records spilling onto the dark web. But it wasn’t the only prominent data leak. In early September, Medicare contacted almost a million beneficiaries about a loss of personal identifiable information related to a vulnerability in third-party software. In other words, your social security number—central to filing taxes, applying and maintaining credit, and receiving certain U.S. government benefits—is very likely available to hackers and would-be criminals for exploit. And if it isn’t yet, the unfortunate reality is that another data breach will inevitably change that. You don’t have to wait for trouble to…