Modern Work Mindset

If your Blu-ray, DVD, or digital TV apps suddenly stopped working on Windows 11, the August 2025 update may be the culprit. Microsoft has confirmed that the optional August preview update can break DRM video playback, with similar symptoms continuing after September’s cumulative update. The issue shows up as black screens, freezes, or frequent interruptions—especially in apps that rely on the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) with HDCP enforcement. Here’s what’s going on and what you can do now. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE AUGUST WINDOWS 11 UPDATE In late August, Microsoft shipped a non-security preview update for Windows 11 24H2 (KB5064081). Shortly after installing it, some users reported that DRM-protected content no longer played correctly in Blu-ray/DVD software and certain digital TV apps. A subset saw playback fail with copyright errors or black screens, while others experienced stutter and frequent interruptions. September’s cumulative update for 24H2 (KB5065426) did not fully resolve ...

Microsoft just took a quiet but important step in its Windows AI strategy. The new Windows AI Lab gives select Windows 11 users a way to opt in and test experimental AI features before they ship broadly. Early sightings appeared inside Microsoft Paint for some Insiders, and Microsoft later confirmed the initiative. If you care about how AI lands on PCs—speed, safety, and real-world usability—Windows AI Lab is the canary in the coal mine. WHAT IS WINDOWS AI LAB Windows AI Lab is an opt-in testing lane for AI features across Windows apps. Instead of waiting for full OS releases, Microsoft can light up features in individual apps, gather feedback, and iterate quickly. Think of it as a “try it first” program aimed at validating usefulness and reliability before wider rollout. Early access appears inside app experiences like Paint, where some Insiders have seen a prompt to sign up. That suggests Microsoft will surface Labs invites contextually—right where the new capability lives—rather ...

If your organization still runs Office 2016 or Office 2019, you’re up against a hard deadline. Microsoft will end support on October 14, 2025, which means no more security updates, bug fixes, or tech support. The apps won’t suddenly stop working, but the security and compliance risks climb quickly. The good news: there’s a practical lifeline if you can’t—or don’t want to—move to Microsoft 365 yet. WHAT HAPPENS ON OCTOBER 14, 2025 Microsoft ends support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 on October 14, 2025. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and related components continue to run, but they stop receiving security and reliability patches. That lack of updates leaves devices more exposed, can break compliance baselines, and complicates support from vendors and MSPs. For many shops, this date lands alongside other Microsoft milestones. Windows 10 also exits support on the same day, and older server workloads like Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 hit end-of-life timelines. Taken together, Octo...

A newly disclosed Microsoft Entra ID vulnerability should be on every admin’s radar. This issue, now patched, could have enabled attackers to impersonate users across tenants—even Global Admins—by abusing legacy token handling and an outdated API surface. While Microsoft says there’s no evidence of exploitation, the combination of cross-tenant impersonation and limited telemetry is a wake-up call to audit identity controls, prune legacy dependencies, and double-down on Zero Trust. WHAT HAPPENED IN ENTRA ID Microsoft fixed a critical flaw in Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) that earned a maximum severity score. The issue centered on “Actor tokens” used behind the scenes for service-to-service communication and a permissive check in the legacy Azure AD Graph API. In short, a crafted token from one tenant could be misused to act as a user in another tenant, bypassing typical security policies. The scary part is impact, not complexity. With the right token and tenant identifie...

If you care about privacy on Windows, start by turning off the Advertising ID—the Windows feature that lets apps build a profile of you for personalized ads. Disabling this one toggle won’t remove ads entirely, but it will stop apps from sharing a stable identifier that ties your behavior together across apps and services. It’s quick to change, and it meaningfully reduces background tracking on your PC. WHAT IS THE WINDOWS ADVERTISING ID? Windows assigns each user a unique “advertising identifier” that apps can read to personalize ads and recommendations. Think of it like a license plate for your app activity: it doesn’t show your name, but it follows you around so different apps can recognize you. This ID helps ad networks stitch together what you click, open, and install to infer your interests. Over time, that data can be used for targeting, A/B testing, and analytics. If you’d rather not be profiled across apps, you should disable the Advertising ID and reset any data tied to it. W...

Imagine a PC that doesn't just compute—it anticipates your every move with AI smarts baked right in. That's the promise Microsoft is shouting from the rooftops in its latest Copilot marketing blitz. Launched in mid-September 2025, this campaign spotlights Copilot+ PCs as the "empowering future" of computing. But with soaring prices and a history of Arm-based flops, is the hype matching reality? In this post, we'll unpack the buzz, the breakthroughs, and what it means for your next tech upgrade. If you're eyeing AI PCs, stick around—this could change how you work and play. The Copilot Blitz—What's Microsoft Selling This Time? Microsoft kicked off its aggressive push with a flashy September 18, 2025, blog post titled "Empowering the Future: The Expanding Arm App Ecosystem for Copilot+ PCs." They're touting these devices as game-changers for personal and business use, powered by Windows on Arm architecture and neural processing units (NPUs) f...

Is your Windows 10 PC feeling outdated? With Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 ending, you might be wondering whether to upgrade or hold on to your device. Rumors suggest Microsoft could offer a trade-in program for Windows 10 PCs, giving users credit toward new devices running Windows 11 or beyond. This could be a game-changer for those hesitant to replace their aging hardware. In this article, we’ll explore what a Microsoft trade-in program might look like, its potential benefits, and whether it’s the right move for you. Let’s dive into the details and help you decide! Why Consider a Windows 10 PC Trade-In? Microsoft’s potential trade-in program could make upgrading to a new PC more affordable. With Windows 10 support ending in October 2025, older devices may not receive security updates, leaving them vulnerable. Trading in your PC could offer: Financial Incentive : Get credit toward a new Windows 11 device, reducing out-of-pocket costs. Eco-Friendly Choice : Recycling old h...

When one researcher poked at Microsoft’s Entra ID, he found a trapdoor that could have let attackers become anyone in almost any tenant—yes, even global admins. Imagine waking up to find new “you” accounts created overnight, policies flipped, and mailboxes, SharePoint sites, and Azure resources all wide open. That’s why this matters: identity is the new network perimeter, and when identity breaks, everything behind it is at risk. The short version: legacy pieces (an internal “actor token” system and the retiring Azure AD Graph API) didn’t play nicely together. Combined, they could bypass normal guardrails like Conditional Access and logs, enabling silent cross-tenant impersonation. The good news—Microsoft moved fast with a global fix and added extra protections. But the lesson is bigger than one patch: if you’re still hanging onto old APIs, stale service principals, or permissive app consents, you’re betting your uptime on yesterday’s rules. What to do now: audit and kill legacy Graph ...

Morning standups, client calls, and chat threads all blur together—and that’s exactly where Microsoft Copilot inside Teams steps in. It quietly preps you before meetings with a quick brief of the agenda and recent activity, then sits beside you during the call to capture decisions, owners, and deadlines in plain language. That matters because most of us don’t lose time doing the work—we lose it chasing context. When Copilot turns a 60-minute meeting and a hundred chat messages into a one-page recap with next steps, the day stops leaking minutes. In chat and channels, Copilot acts like a sharp teammate. Drop in late? Ask it to summarize the last 24 hours and highlight blockers. Drafting a reply? It can propose a first pass in your tone, cite the files being discussed, and pull out the exact quote you need. After the meeting, it pushes action items into To Do/Planner, writes a tidy follow-up, and links the right docs so people can move, not wander. Leaders get clarity without micromanagi...

Meetings that plan themselves, projects that nudge the team forward, and communities that answer questions with trusted sources—Microsoft just rolled out a wave of AI agents across Teams, SharePoint, and Viva that aim to do exactly that. This matters because work is messy: decisions get buried in threads, follow-ups slip, and knowledge lives in too many places. These agents promise to turn that chaos into a tidy, shared workflow so teams spend less time chasing context and more time moving the ball downfield. In Teams, a Facilitator agent can prep agendas, take notes, keep time, and turn decisions into assigned actions—so the meeting doesn’t end at “we’ll follow up.” A Project Manager agent tracks tasks and milestones in the background, while a Sales Community agent in Viva Engage amplifies launches and answers FAQs with citations. Over in SharePoint, a Knowledge agent enriches files, applies tags, and stitches related content from meetings and channels. Even daily startup gets smarter...

Microsoft just doubled down on Wisconsin. The company announced it will build a second $4 billion artificial intelligence data center in Racine County, bringing its total investment in the state to more than $7 billion. This expansion transforms a site once tied to Foxconn’s scaled-back factory plans into a cornerstone for the next wave of AI infrastructure. Beyond the headlines, the move signals a long-term bet on local talent, energy, and geography to support one of the world’s most powerful AI supercomputers. The scope is massive: hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips will be tied together to form this new AI hub, with the first facility already set to open next year. At full scale, the two centers will support around 800 permanent jobs—not the thousands once promised by Foxconn, but still meaningful roles for engineers, electricians, and operators in a region long hungry for sustainable tech growth. Add in the construction boom that comes first, and it’s clear this isn’t just a tec...

Three big shifts are colliding at once: Windows 10 is nearing the end of its life, Microsoft is pouring its best new features into Copilot+ PCs, and ARM laptops are finally fast enough to feel like real work machines. That mix matters. It means the upgrade path isn’t just “Windows 10 to Windows 11”—it’s a chance to jump to all-day battery life, cooler and quieter devices, and on-device AI that doesn’t drain your charge. If you manage client work, travel often, or run a small business from a laptop, fewer plugs and longer uptime aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re how you avoid missed calls, dropped meetings, and lost momentum. App support has also grown up. Most everyday tools now run natively or smoothly through translation, and the big blockers for many people—web apps, Office, Teams, email, password managers—just work. Pair that with modern security built into the chip and features that lean on the NPU, and you start to see why Microsoft is steering people toward ARM: better performance pe...

Microsoft pushed fresh Windows 11 preview builds to the Dev, Beta, and Canary channels today, and the timing matters. Dev and Beta are marching in step under the same cumulative update (KB5065786), which hints at features getting closer to prime time. If you’re testing for your org—or just curious about what’s next—this drop brings practical changes you’ll actually feel in daily workflows, not just under-the-hood fixes. On Dev (25H2 build 26220.6690) and Beta (24H2 build 26120.6690), Copilot gets more “hands on.” You can translate on-screen text with Click to Do on Copilot+ PCs—select text in another language and Copilot quietly offers a translation in place. There’s also “Share with Copilot,” which works like sharing to Teams from the taskbar: hover a running app, send that window to Copilot, and let Copilot Vision scan and summarize what’s inside. Settings sees polish too: Accounts management is tidied up so adding and managing accounts happens in one spot, with “Email & accounts...