Plain-language guides on keeping your PC healthy, secure and fast - what's happening in Windows, and what to actually do about it.
Since October 2025 the File Explorer preview pane has refused to show anything that came from the internet. A new "Preview anyway" button lets you override it one file at a time.
Read more →ToxicPanda 2.0 now goes after 349 banking, wallet and crypto apps across 16 countries. Its first move after landing on a phone is to ask for VPN permission and cut off Google Play.
Read more →The August .NET updates reject Calibri, Cambria, Constantia and Corbel when a program tries to print or export a PDF. Microsoft has confirmed it. Changing the document font gets you printing again.
Read more →Microsoft has named a cause for the August update's game crashes: drivers installed by hardware that glows. There is now an official workaround, and it may switch your lights off.
Read more →Order confirmations now say "Household item" instead of naming the product. The item name was how most people spotted a fake, and Amazon is one of the most impersonated brands in the US.
Read more →Kaspersky documented the first case of malware found on an Android car head unit. It arrived through the unit's own update system and turns the car into a proxy for other people's traffic.
Read more →Point-in-Time Restore is on by default on Home and unmanaged Pro PCs with a 200 GB system drive. It keeps three days of whole-system snapshots, and restoring one asks for your BitLocker key.
Read more →Sophos went through a year of its own incident cases involving AI tools. Claude's name turned up in 26 of 38. One case was an extension sitting in the Chrome Web Store looking thoroughly well reviewed.
Read more →Allure Security traced roughly 2,200 domains posing as banks that were never real, nearly all built from the same cheap web template. They exist so a scammer can show you a balance.
Read more →A 22 MB download called Microsoft Recommended Search Settings installs a Bing extension into Chrome, Firefox, Brave and Edge, then sends you to the Rewards page. Nobody is being forced to run it yet.
Read more →OneDrive Photos has vanished from the Start menu and Windows Search as of Friday. The app itself hasn't gone anywhere, and you still can't remove it on its own.
Read more →The FTC put out an alert on Thursday about brushing scams: a cheap item you never ordered, delivered so a seller can post a fake review under your name.
Read more →Researchers rewrote the expiry date a Visa card sends to a card reader and pushed real purchases through in actual shops. Mastercard, Amex and Discover rejected the same trick.
Read more →ClarityCheck sells reverse face lookups. Its image store sat online without a password: 450 GB and more than 9 million photos of people who mostly never knew they were in it.
Read more →A registry tweak called MSI mode is doing the rounds again, promising smoother frame rates. The setting is real, the risk is real too - here is what it actually does and how to try it without gambling your screen.
Read more →An experimental Insider build adds per-app camera, microphone and location switches for ordinary desktop programs, replacing the single all-or-nothing toggle.
Read more →Six days inside an Amazon cloud account in March cost 3,756,469 people their Social Security numbers, medical records and banking details. Letters went out in July.
Read more →Hunt.io reconstructed a 35-day campaign against Dahua IP cameras from an exposed server. One backdoor account it planted survives a factory reset.
Read more →A network of 41 fake download sites shows a genuine link when you hover and hijacks the click with JavaScript. What arrives is a signed installer for something you didn't ask for.
Read more →Microsoft opened an official known-issue entry for KB5121003 on Wednesday evening. Games freezing is one symptom; PCs restarting without warning is the other.
Read more →Xfinity Shield launched this week with WiFi Motion - movement detection using the radio signal between your gateway and your devices. It's free and opt-in; the terms are the bit to read.
Read more →A bad Microsoft Defender definition update made scans crash out with 'Threat service has stopped' on Tuesday. New definitions fix it, and they arrive on their own.
Read more →Tuesday's Chrome update closes 15 holes, two of them critical bugs in the graphics code that allow code execution outside the sandbox. Restarting the browser is the part people skip.
Read more →Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 version 24H2 stop getting security updates on 13 October. The move to 25H2 is one reboot, and it's mostly automatic.
Read more →CVE-2026-33824 lets an attacker run code on Windows over the network with no password and no click. Microsoft fixed it in April; attackers found it anyway.
Read more →Microsoft is testing a faster File Explorer and a context menu with a real settings page behind it - including an option to bring back the Windows 10 look.
Read more →A developer typed his own company's domain into the search box and watched Google suggest a live credential. 'Anyone with the link' means more than most people assume.
Read more →A break-in at logistics giant CEVA is still producing customer notices weeks later - Steam hardware buyers, now Pokemon Center. What leaked is exactly what a convincing delivery scam needs.
Read more →The FTC has settled with bill-payment firm Doxo for $2.1 million over search ads that impersonated people's actual billers, and published a warning about the wider tactic.
Read more →CISA says ransomware gangs are exploiting CVE-2025-60710, a privilege bug in Windows Task Host. Microsoft fixed it nine months ago, which is really the whole story.
Read more →France's tax administration confirmed an intruder extracted data on 678,000 people and businesses using a staff login. The fields taken are exactly what makes a fake tax email believable.
Read more →WMIC is gone from 24H2 and 25H2, and this time it can't be added back. Home users won't miss it - but the reason it was dangerous is worth knowing.
Read more →An attack called 'Download More RAM' rewrites the tiny config chip on a memory stick from software. That's enough to switch off antivirus and re-enable banned drivers. Secure Boot is what stops it.
Read more →The volunteers behind uBlock Origin's filter lists stopped fighting Meta's anti-adblock tricks on August 10. Ad blockers were also filtering out fraud, which is why this matters.
Read more →Evooo1Bot breaks into routers through 18 known flaws, some nearly two decades old, and turns them into relays so other people's traffic leaves from your address.
Read more →Windows is writing new Secure Boot certificates into your PC's firmware, and that needs several reboots plus a long dark pause. Whatever you do, don't hold the power button.
Read more →Windows 11's KB5121003 broke compatibility with inpoutx64.sys, a third-party driver that hitches a ride with hardware utilities. ARC Raiders and The Finals are crashing because of it.
Read more →Ukrainian police raided 94 fraudulent call centres in a single operation, seizing 3,336 computers and 5,238 SIM cards. The scripts inside show why the second scam call knows so much about you.
Read more →A new feature called Scam Alert reads incoming messages from strangers on your phone, not on Meta's servers, and flags the ones that follow known scam patterns. It's in limited testing for now.
Read more →Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 stop at Version 2608, rolling out now. Security fixes continue to October 10, 2028 - but no new features, and support will tell you to upgrade.
Read more →A researcher published 'ShieldBreak', a working bypass of the RoguePlanet patch that hands over full control of a Windows PC. There's no fix yet - but the word 'local' matters a lot here.
Read more →A game designer's complaint that VLC needed 33 seconds to start a song went viral. VideoLAN says Microsoft Defender quarantined VLC's plugin cache - and there are three ways to fix it.
Read more →Americans reported losing more than $95 million last year to scams that started with a social media ad. The FTC's reminder: platforms don't vet most advertisers, so a slick 'sale' can be a fake store.
Read more →The 'AI Sidebar' add-on was pulled in January for siphoning ChatGPT and DeepSeek conversations. Netskope found it quietly reinstated, rebuilding trust with clean updates before slipping malicious code back in.
Read more →Researchers found 737 fake VPN extensions on the Chrome Web Store impersonating Proton, NordVPN and Surfshark. Instead of protecting your traffic, they funnel your whole browser session through proxies run by one operator.
Read more →A scary red alert is popping up minutes after boot on PCs that installed the August update, claiming Defender is off when it's actually running fine. It's a Windows bug, not an infection - here's how to check.
Read more →Microsoft's August 11 update patches more than 400 flaws, and one was being exploited in real attacks before the fix existed. Here's the one that matters and how to install it safely.
Read more →A campaign spotted on August 11 uses fake CNN, Avast and Stremio download pages to install O&O Syspectr - a genuine, signed remote-control tool. Because it's legitimate software, antivirus waves it through and the attacker gets full control of your PC.
Read more →A full-screen pop-up says your Amazon account or Apple ID was just charged $149.99 and gives a number to call right away. It's a callback scam - and the same number shows up on both versions. Here's the tell.
Read more →The Better Business Bureau is warning about official-looking postcards claiming hundreds of dollars in gas or grocery cards are being held in your name. Pay the small 'processing fee' and the cards never come - but more charges do.
Read more →As of August 1, California's DROP portal lets residents send a single request that forces every registered data broker to delete their information. Here's how it works - and what people in other states can still do.
Read more →Connor Moucka admitted to the 2024 Snowflake attacks that exposed records on 100 million-plus people. There was no clever exploit - just old stolen passwords and accounts without two-factor turned on.
Read more →A federal court sentenced Maksim Silnikau for running the Ransom Cartel ransomware crew. But his older work is the part home users will recognise: he helped pioneer the fake-virus scare pop-up that's still fooling people today.
Read more →Researchers showed three ways malware can hijack the passkeys Google syncs across your devices. The catch: every one needs malware already on your PC first. Passkeys are still worth using - here's the honest picture.
Read more →Microsoft says a Russian state-linked group is tampering with hotel and conference Wi-Fi to push fake login pages and bogus 'update' prompts. It's called CaptiveCrunch. The one habit that keeps you clear of it.
Read more →A trojanised advertising script watched visitors' clipboards and swapped any Bitcoin or Ethereum address for the attacker's own. No antivirus flagged it. A good reminder to always check what you paste.
Read more →A message from someone you know asks you to vote in a contest, then to enter a six-digit code. That code links the scammer's phone to your WhatsApp. No password needed - here's the one rule that stops it.
Read more →Google is building a protection that stops sneaky extensions from taking over your new-tab page and search engine on home PCs - and, crucially, from making themselves impossible to remove. Here's what's changing.
Read more →A sextortion campaign is borrowing the ShinyHunters name and real leaked email addresses to demand $2,000 in Bitcoin within 48 hours. There's no recording and no malware behind it - here's the calm response.
Read more →Scam pages promising free V-Bucks, a '$50' collab, or a tool to value your locker all funnel to one thing: a fake Epic Games login. Worth a two-minute chat with the Fortnite player in your house.
Read more →Adobe killed Flash Player back in 2020, but plenty of people still go looking for it. A new campaign uses a fake 'AGE Flash Player' installer to drop AtlasRAT, a trojan that logs your keystrokes and hands your PC to a stranger.
Read more →Researchers found a network of more than 120 near-identical fake Walmart shops, all built to grab your credit card at checkout. The bait is premium liquor at 40-70% off. The giveaway is hiding in the address bar.
Read more →KB5101684, the end-of-month preview build, gives the Start menu and taskbar a real performance boost, tidies up File Explorer, and adds fingerprint support for external readers. It's optional and carries no security fixes - here's whether to grab it.
Read more →The FTC warned this week about people posing as the VA and offering to help veterans apply for benefits for a fee. The VA never charges to apply, and only the VA can decide who qualifies.
Read more →Check Point traced more than 70 copycat websites impersonating popular Windows utilities like PowerToys and CrystalDiskMark. They rank above the real pages, behave at first, then swap the download for a password stealer.
Read more →The FTC warned this week that fake letters from 'law firms' claim a stranger with your last name died and left you an unclaimed life insurance policy. There's no policy - just a hunt for your Social Security number and bank details.
Read more →A campaign called FakeAgent used sponsored Bing ads to send people searching for the Claude desktop app to a fake download page hosted on the genuine claude.ai domain. The file installed a password-stealing trojan. Two habits keep you clear of it.
Read more →A growing form of digital stalking needs no malware at all - just two minutes with your unlocked device. An abuser signs Chrome into their own Google account, flips on sync, and your history and saved passwords flow to them. Here's the 60-second check.
Read more →Microsoft is ending updates for the OneDrive sync app on Windows 10 version 21H2 and earlier on August 15, 2026 - no more fixes or security patches. Machines on 22H2 are fine until 2028. A free version bump keeps you covered.
Read more →The microtask platform Paidwork was breached in March. An 11GB dump of 23.3 million accounts is now circulating, and unlike most leaks it includes bank account numbers and transaction records. Here's what to do.
Read more →Researchers are tracking a campaign that hides a password stealer inside fake games, mods and cracks. Open the installer and it quietly grabs your saved logins, browser data and crypto wallets.
Read more →Attackers walked into Chick-fil-A One loyalty accounts in June using passwords stolen from other sites. No hacking of Chick-fil-A required - just people reusing the same password. Here's how to shut that door.
Read more →The certificates behind Secure Boot were issued in 2011 and have started expiring. For most PCs the swap is automatic and invisible; on some older machines it can trigger a BitLocker recovery prompt.
Read more →A November 2025 breach of the AI music app surfaced publicly last week. Have I Been Pwned added 55.3 million accounts on July 20 - emails, some phone numbers, and tens of thousands of partial payment records.
Read more →The 2026 feature update won't be the usual multi-gigabyte, multi-restart ordeal. If you're on 24H2 or 25H2 it arrives as a 174 KB switch that flips features already on your PC.
Read more →Scammers are impersonating Federal Trade Commission staff, texting photos of fake ID badges and promising to recover cash you already lost - then talking you into sending more. Here's the tell.
Read more →A wave of fraud runs through unsolicited FaceTime calls: a fake 'bank' or 'Apple support' agent invents an emergency, then talks you into handing over codes or moving money. Here's the rule that ends it.
Read more →A few days after blocking July's update on some Dell laptops over shutdowns and overheating, Microsoft has shipped the repair. Here's who needs KB5121767 and who can safely ignore it.
Read more →A flaw in how WinRAR handles archive recovery files can let a booby-trapped download run code on your PC. The fix is version 7.23 - but WinRAR never updates itself, so most people are still exposed.
Read more →Nearly 300 fake GitHub pages are impersonating trusted apps - crypto wallets, security tools, games - and ranking in search results. Click the download and you get a password stealer instead.
Read more →A wave of fake Facebook 'account suspended for fraudulent activity' warnings is doing the rounds. They funnel you to a lookalike login page that grabs your password and even your 2FA code. Here's the tell.
Read more →A Windows 11 bug quietly let one hidden system file balloon to hundreds of gigabytes - up to 500GB on the worst-hit PCs. The July update fixes it. Here's how to check if yours was affected.
Read more →Microsoft is deliberately holding back the July update on some Intel-based Dell PCs after it caused shutdowns, overheating and battery drain. Here's what's happening and why you shouldn't force it.
Read more →Microsoft's July 14 update fixed a record 570 flaws, including three zero-days. Two are already being used in attacks, and one is a BitLocker bypass that home users should care about. Here's what to do.
Read more →A convincing fake Microsoft support site offers a Windows 11 24H2 'update' and delivers password-stealing malware that slips past antivirus - not one of 69 engines flagged it. Here's the rule that keeps you safe.
Read more →A researcher found a serious hole in Microsoft Defender itself, nicknamed RoguePlanet. Microsoft patched it out of band on July 9 - and for once, you barely have to lift a finger.
Read more →A U.S. government-backed advisory found several Tenda router models ship with a secret admin password baked into the firmware. There's no patch. If you own one, do this today.
Read more →The car insurer confirmed a breach exposing 6.9 million people's names, driver's license numbers and, for some, Social Security numbers. It's the year's biggest license-data spill. Here's the sensible response.
Read more →A new trick called ConsentFix hijacks a Microsoft 365 account in seconds - no password typed, no software installed, and it sails right past two-factor. Here's the one move it needs from you, and how to refuse it.
Read more →A recovery feature testing in Windows 11 26H2 reinstalls Windows from the cloud with no USB stick, pulling the image and your device drivers straight from Windows Update. Here's what it means.
Read more →With Windows 10 winding down, many people find their PC is 'not supported' - usually over TPM 2.0. Often it's just switched off. Here's how to check and turn it on.
Read more →Ransomware, a dead SSD or a stolen laptop all end the same way if you have no backup. The 3-2-1 rule is the simple habit that saves your files - here's how to actually do it.
Read more →Free Windows 10 security updates now run to October 2027, but you have to opt in. Here's the exact click-path, the three enrollment options, and the one requirement to check first.
Read more →New Microsoft accounts now ship without a password at all, and passkeys work on ordinary Windows PCs. They're faster than a password and can't be phished. Here's how to add one.
Read more →Google has rushed out an emergency fix for CVE-2026-11645, a flaw in Chrome's V8 engine that attackers are already using. Here's how to force the update in two minutes.
Read more →A full-screen warning, a blaring alarm, a phone number to call 'support.' It's designed to panic you. Real security software never works like this. Here's how to shut it down safely.
Read more →Infostealer malware quietly grabs every password saved in your browser and sends it to criminals. A dedicated password manager and passkeys shut the door. Here's the fix.
Read more →Task scams are among the fastest-growing frauds of 2026. They dangle easy pay for trivial work, then ask you to deposit your own money. One rule defuses all of them.
Read more →Microsoft quietly extended the consumer Extended Security Updates program by another year. Here's who qualifies, the three ways to enroll, and what it does and doesn't cover.
Read more →Fake QR stickers on parking meters, menus and 'booking' emails are draining accounts in 2026. The tell is simple once you know it. Here's what to check before you scan.
Read more →Generally available since June 24, it snapshots your whole PC every 24 hours and rolls it back in minutes - files included. Excellent, but the 72-hour limit means it is not a backup.
Read more →On June 23, LastPass told users about another breach. The good news: vaults weren't touched. The catch: your contact details leaked, so brace for targeted phishing.
Read more →Mirai-style botnets spent 2026 mass-infecting home routers, many of them end-of-life models that will never be patched. Here's how to check your firmware and when to just replace it.
Read more →ClickFix shows a fake full-screen Windows update and tricks you into pasting a command that installs a password stealer. It surged again in 2026 - here's how to spot and avoid it.
Read more →Ransomware crews load legitimately-signed but vulnerable drivers to switch off your antivirus before encrypting your files. 'EDR killers' are now standard kit - here's what home users can do.
Read more →A few seconds of audio is enough to clone a loved one's voice and fake an emergency call. The FBI's advice is simple, and a family 'safe word' makes these calls fall apart.
Read more →Beyond the cosmetic Recycle Bin glitch, KB5094126 was dropping some machines (mostly HP) into a BSOD or BitLocker recovery screen. Two steps protect you before you patch.
Read more →Microsoft's June update fixed a record number of flaws but introduced Recycle Bin glitches, BitLocker lockouts and Office crashes. Here's what's affected and how to patch safely.
Read more →A 'SMART failure predicted' message is your drive's early warning that it may be dying. Do this immediately - and learn the one thing you should never do.
Read more →Check Point counted 698 ransomware attacks in May 2026, up 48% year over year. Most hit businesses, but the fallout reaches everyone. One habit keeps you safe.
Read more →A convincing fake ChatGPT page infects people who search for the app - a credential stealer on Windows, Odyssey Stealer on Mac. The fix is a simple habit.
Read more →The headline feature of the May 2026 update isn't a fix - it's a controller-first, full-screen gaming mode for ordinary PCs, plus a faster File Explorer and smarter search.
Read more →Fake toll-payment texts drove a 40% jump in government-imposter scams in 2026. The message rushes you to a lookalike payment page. Here's the tell and what to do.
Read more →KB5089549 was rolling back on some PCs with error 0x800f0922 - not a broken machine, but a full EFI boot partition. Here's what happened and the one-line fix.
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