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Nvidia is removing the classic Nvidia Control Panel from default GeForce Game Ready and Studio driver installs starting with driver version 610.47, released in late May 2026, after roughly 20 years as the familiar Windows utility for managing GPU settings. The old panel is not being ripped off existing systems during a normal upgrade, but a clean install will leave users in the newer Nvidia app instead. That distinction matters because this is less a sudden deletion than a forced migration...

Amazon Web Services launched Amazon Redshift RG instances on May 12, 2026, bringing Graviton-powered provisioned clusters to its cloud data warehouse with claimed gains of up to 2.2 times over RA3 for warehouse workloads and lower per-vCPU pricing. The important part is not just the processor swap. AWS is also collapsing a long-standing boundary between Redshift’s warehouse engine and its data lake query path. For customers with serious Redshift estates, RG is less a routine instance refresh...

Microsoft added an updated Secure Boot status report to Windows Autopatch on May 19, 2026, giving IT administrators device-level visibility into whether managed Windows PCs are ready for the Secure Boot certificate transition now bearing down on enterprise fleets. The timing is not accidental: the original Secure Boot certificates introduced in the Windows 8 era are reaching the end of their planned life in 2026. Microsoft’s new report is less a dashboard flourish than a concession that...

TD Synnex is expanding its UK Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider support operation in May 2026, adding a dedicated Alliance Growth team to identify high-potential SMB-focused partners and give them tailored business development, training, and technical help. The move is not just another channel enablement announcement; it is a sign that Microsoft’s partner economy is becoming more selective, more data-driven, and less forgiving of casual cloud resale. For Windows shops, MSPs, and Microsoft...

Microsoft released the optional Windows 11 preview update KB5089573 on May 26, 2026, for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2, bringing OS builds 26100.8524 and 26200.8524 with performance changes aimed at faster app launches and snappier shell interactions. That is the plain news. The larger story is that Microsoft is finally spending update currency on the thing Windows users complain about every day: not another panel, not another AI shortcut, but the feel of the operating system itself. If...

Microsoft Commercial CEO Judson Althoff told CRN that Microsoft partners should build managed services around AI agents after Microsoft’s own Agent 365 testing reportedly found 500,000 internal agents producing 65,000 responses per day across a 28-day period. The message is not subtle: Microsoft believes the agent boom will be too sprawling for most customers to govern alone. That makes the channel less of a resale mechanism and more of the operating layer for enterprise AI. If Copilot was...

Microsoft released the optional Windows 11 KB5089573 preview update on May 26, 2026, for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 systems, bringing a phased performance change that accelerates app launch paths and shell surfaces such as Start, Search, Action Center, and related UI flyouts. The feature is not advertised in the update notes by its more interesting internal framing, but the behavior lines up with the “Low Latency Profile” work that has been circulating through Windows testing channels. That...

Dice’s “Is it time to move from Windows to Linux?” argues that long-time Windows developers should now treat Linux as a practical daily development platform, especially as Windows 11 hardware rules, resource demands, telemetry concerns, and security friction make Microsoft’s desktop feel heavier than it used to. The interesting part is not that a Linux advocate made the case; it is that the case comes from someone whose professional memory begins with Windows 3.1, DOS, hand-written message...

Microsoft’s old Windows “God Mode” folder still works in Windows 11, but a newer open-source PowerShell project called Super God Mode can generate a much broader searchable folder of shortcuts to Control Panel pages, Settings app links, shell folders, URL protocols, and hidden Windows entry points. The difference is not magic; it is taxonomy. God Mode shows the Windows that Microsoft used to organize around Control Panel, while Super God Mode exposes the Windows that actually exists now...

The East African Community has received €205,000 in ICT infrastructure from Germany’s GIZ at its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, to host and secure a regional digital platform for mutual recognition of professional engineers across EAC partner states. The gift is modest in budget-line terms but consequential in governance terms: it moves a cross-border digital service from donor-backed pilot toward institutional ownership. For WindowsForum readers, the story is not just Africa’s regional...

CD Projekt Red is raising the minimum PC requirements for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its newly announced Songs of the Past expansion, due in 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with Windows 11, DirectX 12, an SSD, and substantially newer CPU and GPU hardware becoming the new baseline. The move is more than a spec-sheet refresh for an old RPG. It is a line in the sand for the post-Windows 10 gaming PC, and one of the clearest examples yet of how software support, platform...

CD Projekt Red announced on May 27, 2026, that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will receive a third story expansion, Songs of the Past, in 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The surprise is not merely that Geralt is coming back, but that CDPR is using one of the most durable RPGs of the last decade as a bridge between eras: old saves, old hardware expectations, old fan affection, and a much more modern platform baseline. For Windows users, the announcement carries a second message...

Windows 11 users can usually fix a Bluetooth headset or speaker that shows as connected but plays no sound by selecting it as the active output device, re-enabling it in Sound settings, disabling audio enhancements, re-pairing it, and updating Bluetooth and audio drivers. The important point is that “connected” is not the same thing as “ready to carry audio.” Bluetooth pairing, Windows audio routing, app-specific output, driver state, and microphone mode all sit in separate layers, and any...

Microsoft is replacing the 2011 Secure Boot certificates used by many Windows PCs before they begin expiring in late June 2026, because machines that miss the update may keep running but lose future boot-level protections, malware revocation updates, and potentially compatibility with later Windows feature upgrades. This is not a Y2K-style midnight shutdown, and Microsoft has been careful to say as much. But it is a rare moment when a background trust mechanism, normally invisible to users...

CD Projekt Red announced on May 27, 2026, that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will receive a third expansion, Songs of the Past, in 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, alongside sharply higher minimum PC requirements that move the game to Windows 11, DirectX 12, and SSD storage. The story is not just that Geralt is being pulled out of retirement. It is that one of PC gaming’s great long-tail success stories is finally drawing a hard technical line under the hardware and operating...

Microsoft has added public-preview code interpreter tools to Azure Logic Apps Standard agent workflows, letting an AI agent generate and run Python code in Hyper-V isolated Azure Container Apps dynamic sessions while handling files, transformations, and analysis inside a governed workflow. The announcement is not just another checkbox in Microsoft’s agent platform sprawl. It is a bet that the next useful enterprise agent will look less like a chatbot and more like an integration workflow...

Microsoft confirmed on May 26, 2026 that Windows Server 2016 systems with hostnames of exactly 15 characters can fail domain controller discovery after installing the May 12 KB5087537 security update, causing DCLocator calls to return ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER and breaking tools that depend on Active Directory lookup. The bug is narrow enough to sound absurd and serious enough to interrupt real administration. That combination is precisely why it matters. In mature Windows estates, the most...

CD Projekt Red announced on May 27, 2026, that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will receive a new expansion called Songs of the Past in 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, with development support from Fool’s Theory. The surprise is not merely that Geralt is coming back after more than a decade; it is that one of PC gaming’s most durable Windows 7 and Windows 10-era blockbusters is being pulled into a Windows 11, SSD, DirectX 12 future. For players, this is nostalgia with a hardware...

Morphoice released EightySix beta on May 26, 2026, as a free VST3 software emulation of Roland’s Juno-6 synthesizer for Windows 10/11 and macOS systems running either Apple Silicon or Intel hardware. The catch is hiding in plain sight: this is free right now, not necessarily free forever. That makes EightySix less a simple giveaway than a public audition for another entrant in one of music software’s most crowded nostalgia markets. For Windows producers and synth-curious hobbyists, it is...

Microsoft’s May 12, 2026 cumulative update KB5089549 for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 fixes taskbar freezes, blank desktop delays, and explorer.exe reliability problems, but Microsoft has also confirmed that the same update can fail to install on some PCs with error 0x800f0922. That contradiction is the whole Windows servicing story in miniature: the patch is both medicine and symptom. It improves a visibly broken desktop experience for many users while exposing how fragile the hidden...