Putin channels "I have no idea what I'm doing" meme
Facepalm: Russia might have spent more than a decade trying to drop US technology in favor of home-grown alternatives, but it appears that even President Vladimir Putin is happy to use a Dell PC and Windows for a video showing him casting his vote. It also seems that the Kremlin didn't want to pay Microsoft $139 for an activation key (or $10 for that matter): Putin was using an unactivated copy of the OS, and looked about as comfortable using the computer as most 73-year-olds would.
The first major Windows event in over two years could center on local AI computing
Forward-looking: Microsoft will use an event in San Francisco next month to lay out its next moves in Windows and Surface, with local AI computing expected to take center stage. The October 7 presentation marks Microsoft's first major Windows-focused event in more than two years – its last one came in May 2024, when the company unveiled Copilot+ PCs and laid out a strategy built around AI-ready hardware.
Windows is getting patched faster than ever, but users are paying for it
Winners & losers: Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to repair the damage from September's Patch Tuesday. That release fixed nearly 1,000 vulnerabilities across Microsoft's products and broke a number of things along the way. The emergency patch fixes Remote Desktop failures, a virtualization bug, and part of an audio problem. Several of the most disruptive complaints remain unresolved, including AMD Radeon crashes and Explorer failing to load.
Google's Gemini desktop app is now available for Windows 10 and 11, providing quick access to the AI assistant from anywhere with an Alt + Space shortcut. The app also supports Google app integrations, multi-step tasks with Gemini Spark, and image and video generation.
Lenovo's Legion 9i Gen 10 is a monster 18-inch laptop with desktop-class performance, a superb 240Hz display, and premium build quality. It's also one of the most expensive laptops we've tested.
The openDesk suite will replace Microsoft 365 on 3,000 PCs, with 54,000 more possibly next
Editor's take: Switzerland is joining a growing list of European countries that no longer want to do business with Microsoft and other US IT giants. The federal government has already begun ditching Microsoft's productivity tools in favor of open-source alternatives, and the country's military authorities are moving even faster with the transition.
The Windows built-in uninstaller handles the basics, but these tools go much further with batch removal, leftover cleanup, installation tracking, and options for stubborn or broken apps.