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Submission + - Microsoft fights back against Windows 11 leak (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Just a few days ago — before it has even been officially announced — Windows 11 leaked online and remains available to download from numerous sites. The Windows 11 ISO torrent spread like wildfire, and now Microsoft is fighting back.

The company has issued a slew of DMCA takedown notices to various sites it says are distributing "a leaked copy of the unreleased Windows 11". Unsurprisingly, an article entitled "How to Download and Install Windows 11 Right Now" caught the eyes of Microsoft lawyers.

Submission + - Microsoft previews its open source Java distribution, Microsoft Build of OpenJDK (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has launched a preview version of its own distribution of Java, making it available for Windows, macOS and Linux. The company has named the release Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, and describes it as its "new way to collaborate and contribute to the Java ecosystem".

The company has made available Microsoft Build of OpenJDK binaries for Java 11, which are based on OpenJDK source code. Microsoft says it is looking to broaden and deepen its support for Java, "one of the most important programming languages used today".

Submission + - Microsoft releases KB4583263 update for Windows 10 to prevent swollen laptop ba (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has teamed up with HP to work on a fix for a problem affecting various HP Business Notebooks. The flaw not only causes a reduction in performance and battery life, but can also lead to swollen batteries.

The problem lies with the HP Battery Health Manager, and the update from Microsoft and HP is rolling out to enable a new charging algorithm to help alleviate the issue.

Submission + - Get back deleted data with Microsoft's new Windows File Recovery tool (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has released a new data recovery app which can be used to retrieve files that have been deleted, or get back documents from drives that have been formatted or have become corrupt.
Windows File Recovery is a free app in the Microsoft store which can be used to recover data that has been lost for a variety of reasons. The command line tool can be used to retrieve data from local hard drives as well as removable media such as USB drives and memory cards.

Submission + - Coronavirus has led to a 775% increase in use of Microsoft Azure services (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: This weekend, Microsoft has given an insight into the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on its services. The company says that there has been a huge increase in Teams usage, and there are not over 44 million daily users.

In regions where there are isolation and home sheltering orders in place, Microsoft says that there has been a colossal 775 percent increase in usage of its cloud services. Despite the surge in demand, there have not been any significant service disruptions.

Submission + - US shows a 'concerning lack of regard for the privacy of people's biometrics' (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: When it comes to the extensive and invasive use of biometric data, the USA is one of the worst offenders in the world, faring only slightly better than China.

According to research conducted by Comparitech, which rated 50 countries according to how, where and why biometrics were taken and how they are stored, the US ranked as the fourth worst country. Topping the list is China, followed by Malaysia and Pakistan.

Submission + - Apple fails to stop class action lawsuit over problematic MacBook butterfly keyb (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Apple has failed in an attempt to block a class action lawsuit being brought against it by a customer who claimed the company concealed the problematic nature of the butterfly keyboard design used in MacBooks.

The proposed lawsuit not only alleges that Apple concealed the fact that MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air keyboards were prone to failure, but also that design defects left customers out of pocket because of Apple's failure to provide an effective fix.

Submission + - Trend Micro security incident involving selling customer data was an inside job (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Security firm Trend Micro has revealed details of an inside scam which led to personal details of its customers being exposed.

The security incident dates back to August this year, and the company says that it was made aware of customers being contacted by fake Trend Micro support staff. Following an investigation lasting until the end of October, it was determined that it was a member of staff that had fraudulently gained access to a customer database and sold personal data to a third party.

Submission + - PowerToys are back! Microsoft reboots the utilities as an open source project (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft is bringing back PowerToys for Windows 10 — and this time it is open source. If the name doesn't mean anything to you, you probably weren't a Windows 95 user, but if this was your computing era, you'll remember tinkering with the likes of TweakUI, Send to X, QuickRes and numerous other delightful utilities.

Now the collection of utilities is back, rebooted for Windows 10 and due to be released as an open source project. At the moment, there are two tools being worked on — Maximize to new desktop widget, and the Windows key shortcut guide — but ten more are under consideration and due for release this summer.

Submission + - Microsoft drops safe removal of USB drives as default in Windows 10 1809 (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Since the arrival of USB drives, we have been warned that they need to be "safely removed" using the correct method in Windows, rather than just being yanked out — but now this changes.

With Windows 10 1809, Microsoft is changing the default setting that's applied to USB drives and other removable media. The change means that the default policy applied to removable storage devices is Quick Removal rather than Better Performance — so you can now just pull it out without a second thought.

Submission + - Microsoft will pester Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 with pop-ups (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Anyone who is still using Windows 7 doesn't have much longer until the operating system is no longer supported by Microsoft. Come January 14, 2020 only those enterprise customers who are willing to pay for Extended Security Updates will receive any kind of support.

Microsoft has already done a lot to encourage Windows 7 diehards to make the move to Windows 10, and now it is stepping things up a gear. Throughout 2019, the company will show pop-up notifications in Windows 7 about making the switch to the latest version of Windows.

Submission + - Serious Amazon Ring vulnerability leaves audio and video feeds open to attack (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Security researchers from Dojo by Bullguard have discovered a vulnerability in Amazon's Ring doorbell that leaves it prone to man-in-the-middle attacks.

As well as enabling a hacker to access audio and video feeds in a severe violation of both privacy and security, the vulnerability also means that an attacker could replace a feed with footage of their own. Revealing the security flaw at Mobile World Congress, Yossi Atias from Dojo, demonstrated how a feed could be hijacked and injected with counterfeit video.

Submission + - Mozilla writes to European Commission about Facebook's lack of ad transparency (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Facebook has been no stranger to controversy and scandal over the years, but things have been particularly bad over the last twelve months. The latest troubles find Mozilla complaining to the European Commission about the social network's lack of transparency, particularly when it comes to political advertising.

Mozilla's Chief Operating Officer, Denelle Dixon, has penned a missive to Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. She bemoans the fact that Facebook makes it impossible to conduct analysis of ads, and this in turn prevents Mozilla from offering full transparency to European citizens — something it sees as important in light of the impending EU elections.

Submission + - Windows leak site BuildFeed closes down (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: After five years of leaking information about unreleased builds of Windows, BuildFeed has shut up shop.

Over the weekend, the site posted a slew of build numbers including references to onecore and shell_devices_foldable. But there will be no more leaks coming from the BuildFeed. Citing "extensive internal pressures and external pressures", site founder Thomas Hounsell says that he has terminated his project with immediate effect.

Submission + - DuckDuckGo denies using fingerprinting to track its users (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Responding to a forum post that accused it of "fingerprinting users", privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo says that fears are unfounded and that it is not tracking its users.

The allegation was made after the Firefox extension CanvasBlocker showed a warning to users. The suggestion of fingerprinting — gathering as much information as possible about a user through their browser to create a unique identifier that can be used for tracking — is clearly something that would seem to sit in opposition to what DuckDuckGo claims to stand for. The company CEO says the accusation is simply wrong.

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