PCWorld March 2025

Microsoft will release the last update for Windows 10 with the Patchday on October 14, 2025, after which this version of Windows will no longer receive any updates. What does this mean for users? WINDOWS 10 IS NOT IMMEDIATELY INSECURE OR NO LONGER USABLE First of all, there is no need to panic about this date. Windows 10 will theoretically continue to run indefinitely, as Microsoft is not discontinuing the functionality of the operating system, there will “only” be no more updates from November. This means that you can continue to use Windows 10 in principle, but no more security gaps will be closed, for example. Of course, given that cyberattacks on companies and private individuals continue to increase, this can be a problem for Windows 10 users in the…

Bill Gates was once the embodiment of the computer industry. Though the co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft retired over a decade ago to pursue full-time philanthropy, people still listen when he talks—and in a recent interview, he talked about Intel. Intel is having a rough time of late. The chipmaker’s stock is practically in freefall. It’s had high-profile failures for its most powerful CPUs, and rivals AMD and especially Nvidia are kicking its silicon butt in the AI arms race. In December, the company’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, stepped down after working for Intel on and off for decades. Yeah, it’s bad. Intel is also one of Microsoft’s most important partners, so it’s no surprise that the company’s woes came up in an interview with the Associated Press. “I am stunned…

USB labeling has long been a mystery for consumers. Terms like “USB 3.2 Gen 2” or “SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps” have caused more confusion than clarity, and shopping for USB accessories can feel like a crapshoot. The good news is that the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) is trying to clean things up with newly simplified logos and icons that better convey USB speed and performance at a glance. This move by the USB-IF comes in response to criticism that existing version designations—such as “USB 3.2” or “USB4v2”—are too complicated. Instead of emphasizing technical terms, why not focus on what consumers actually care about—how fast data is transferred, how much power can be transmitted, and so on. The change should make it easier to understand the capabilities of any USB device or cable…

I think it’s fair to say that people are frustrated with Google these days between the deluge of advertisements and AI-powered results of questionable utility. Normally, swearing at your computer only helps in a placebo effect, but it turns out that throwing in an F-bomb might actually improve the quality of Google search results. Heads up, there’s going to be a lot of swearing in this article, absolutely none of which I will enjoy. I’m definitely not giggling like a third grader while I write this—nope, not at all. Ars Technica reports that the latest tech tip making the rounds on social media is that you can disable Google’s Gemini AI-powered search overviews if you add some casual cursing to your search query. Some cursory testing shows that, indeed, modifying your…

Bitwarden is a beloved password manager for good reason—it’s feature-rich and its paid subscriptions cost bare pennies ($10 a year). The service is also proactive about continually strengthening security for its users. Here’s the latest security update for cloud-hosted personal accounts: Starting in February, if you don’t have two-factor authentication enabled, a confirmation code will be sent to your email address when logging in from unrecognized devices. It must be entered to approve the sign-in attempt. In its announcement of the new feature, Bitwarden says a unrecognized device is any previously not used to log in, one where the Bitwarden app was uninstalled or one that had its Bitwarden login cookies wiped. The service will treat all of these scenarios as new devices, forcing this verification step. On the whole, this…

Microsoft is taking an aggressive step toward lowering the price of top-tier AI reasoning, placing what appears to be unlimited access to OpenAI’s o1 model directly within Copilot’s new “Think Deeper” feature. What’s important here is the word “free”: OpenAI released the o1 model in December, and company chief executive Sam Altman promised that it would be the most powerful model available. But it came with a catch: two subscriptions. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro charges a whopping $200 a month for unlimited access to the model. The company’s $20 a month service, ChatGPT Plus, also allows access to the o1 model, but with limited access. On Wednesday, Microsoft’s chief of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, announced that access to the o1 model would be available to Copilot users “everywhere at no cost”.…