Microsoft has revealed the date when support for Windows 10 is going to end - effectively confirming that their original vision of Windows 10 being "the last Windows OS ever" is now dead. The information comes from Microsoft's own update to Windows 10's support life cycle page, which the company has amended with the final resting date set for October 14th 2025 for both Home and Pro versions of the operating system. Previously, the support life cycle page listed end of support dates for various release versions of Windows 10 - not the entire OS.

Adding this to the announcement that Windows would get a new, "next-gen" update; the related teaser art which omits the shadow of the window crossbar, making the cast shadow look either basically unrealistic (some Raytracing seems to be needed by Microsoft's art personnel) or, infinitely more likely, the omitted shadow serves to approximate the cast shadows as much as possible to 11. No official announcement by Microsoft, but usually 1 + 1 = 2.

Microsoft's console and gaming division, Xbox, has been working closely with game studios and game developers for years now, and in return for supporting the creation of games, the company gets its platform exclusivity, where the game is only available on Xbox series of consoles. Today, Xbox has decided to unveil a hefty list composing out of AAA titles exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Starting off, we have the Forza Horizon 5 game, which delivers the experience of the open world of Mexico, while allowing you to drive the world's greatest cars. The game is set to become available on November 9 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PC via Steam on Windows, and Cloud Gaming service, which is in Beta.

Next up is a collaboration with 343 Industries game studio, which has unveiled its next-generation Halo shooter gameplay. Dubbed Halo Infinite, the game is a massive experience set in the world of Halo, which also includes a free-to-play multiplayer element aiming to bring millions of people together across Xbox consoles, cloud, and PC to join the fight. When it comes to new franchises, we have seen the announcement of Redfall, a co-op first-person shooter that sets you in a small island town of Redfall, which has now fallen to the pandemic of vampires, and your goal is to put it to the end. Coming from Arkane Austin, the developers of Prey and Dishonored, the game is sure to be a quality one.

Microsoft has recently confirmed that AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology will be coming to Xbox Series X/S. The new feature is AMD's response to NVIDIA's DLSS 2.0 AI processing found in RTX series graphics cards. The two technologies both aim to increase frame rates in select titles with various upscaling technologies without a significant reduction in visual quality. AMD boasts compatibility with a wider set of graphics cards including older NVIDIA GTX 10 series cards while also making the technology open-source. AMD will launch FidelityFX Super Resolution for select PC games on June 22nd which will show if they can hope to compete with the well-established DLSS 2.0. Microsoft has confirmed that they will bring the technology to their Xbox Series X/S consoles running custom AMD processors.

MicrosoftAt Xbox, we're excited by the potential of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution technology as another great method for developers to increase framerates and resolution. We will have more to share on this soon,

When Microsoft announced its Windows 10 operating system, the company set it to be a platform that would last for many years. Instead of the regular releases like we have seen in the past years with Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8, Windows 10 is a bit different. Microsoft designed the OS to be a product that receives plenty of updates over the years, however, it is still the same project. We are, of course, wondering if we are going to get something different and will Microsoft develop a new OS that is a successor to the 10. It seems like we are about to find out what the Redmond company plans to do with its OS offerings in the upcoming Microsoft Event scheduled for June 24th.

Starting at 11 a.m. Eastern Time, you can tune in to watch the event and find out what the company plans to do. The event website says "Join us to see what's next for Windows". By saying this, we are sure to see some advancements coming to the OS, however, we are still guessing what that may be. You can watch the live stream on Microsoft's website on June 24th, which you can check out here.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took to the Build Conference to announce "an imminent announcement" on the "next generation of Windows". The Microsoft CEO said that we should be expecting news on a revamped Windows experience that aims to be "one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators". There was no word on when we can expect such an announcement - or even available deployment of such version of windows - but considering this was done during the Build Conference, it makes sense that we actually won't be hearing about this until after the end of the Conference.

It's expected that this "next generation of Windows" comes with a revamped Windows store experience - which we already know Microsoft was prioritizing as of late. At the same time, the new version of windows could possess a radical new interface aesthetic redesign, pushing it more into the digital render space we've been slowly walking towards. Whatever this update actually encompasses, according to Satya Nadella, we won't have to wait too long for it. Look after the break for the excerpt on the release of this "new Windows".

MAINGEAR—an award-winning PC system integrator of custom gaming desktops, notebooks, and workstations—today launched the MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite, a 15" ultra-premium notebook designed in collaboration with Intel. Featuring Intel Iris Xe Graphics and up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, the MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite pairs next-generation hardware with a sleek and minimal machined aluminium alloy chassis for maximum power, speed, and portability. The new MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite is the perfect Windows laptop for work and play on the go.

Custom designed and engineered in collaboration with Intel, this uncompromising notebook PC comes equipped with up to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 Processor running at 2.8 GHz with a Max Turbo Frequency of 4.7 GHz on 4 cores / 8 threads. Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics make multimedia viewing, content creation, and even light gaming a breeze. ELEMENT Lite systems can be equipped with 16 GB of DDR4 memory and up to 2 TB of user-replaceable PCI-E Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD storage. MAINGEAR optimized the ELEMENT Lite to pack exceptional performance and cooling into its frame without sacrificing on battery life or upgradeability. It weighs in at just 3.64 lbs (1.65 kg) and is 14.9 mm thin—making it the thinnest notebook that MAINGEAR has ever offered.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been one of the biggest browsers in the world by market share. However, that was some years ago and the browser technology keeps developing to a point where a 3-month non-updated browser is slow and insecure. The latest version of Internet Explorer is version 11, which you can find still running on your Windows PC. You might wonder why is it still present when Microsoft announced its Chromium-based Edge browser some time ago. Well, many applications have built-int code that needs Internet Explorer to work. If there is no IE browser, the application would display errors and likely not run well.

However, Microsoft today announced that the company will be moving on from IE 11 and that it is finally killing it by June 15th, 2022. The IE browser represents a code that is probably hard to maintain and a potential security hole. That is why the company is deciding to end it in 2022. If you are wondering how the company plans to migrate a plethora of apps from needing IE, Microsoft is preparing Internet Explorer compatibility mode on its Edge browser. That way it ensures that all of the existing applications would run under the Edge browser and that old and insecure piece of code is removed from Windows.

AMD today released the latest version of their Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition drivers. Version 21.5.2 features support for the impending release of Days Gone. It also adds support for Microsoft's Direct X 12 Velocity SDK - meant to make it easier and faster for game developers to implement Direct X 12 features onto their development pipeline.

The new drivers also feature support for Shader Model 6.6. This particular revision for Microsoft's Shader Model implements expanded atomic operations (64-bit), dynamic resource binding, derivatives and samples in compute shaders, packed 8-bit computations, and wave size. Read on after the break for fixed issues, and remaining issues that AMD is aware of. Follow the link below towards our very own download section.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.5.2 Beta

Pictures of the mysterious AMD 4700S SoC desktop kit just hit the web, courtesy Disclosuzen. As we reported earlier, the 4700S could be derived from the semi-custom SoC AMD originally co-developed with Microsoft for the Xbox Series X/S consoles. Close-ups of the PC motherboard reveals an interesting aspect—the board lacks any discernible display output, and instead relies on a PCI-Express graphics card. The board is built in the Mini-ITX form-factor, and draws power from a conventional combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors.

A custom-design fan-heatsink cools the SoC. There are no memory slots, an unknown amount of hardwired memory under the SoC heatsink. 6-channel HD audio, wired Ethernet, and twelve USB ports (six each of USB 3.x and USB 2.0), make for the rest of the I/O. Storage connectivity is interesting—there are no M.2 NVMe slots, just two SATA ports. Why AMD even came up with this contraption is anyone's guess, but we guess it serves two purposes—1, it lets AMD harvest dies with faulty iGPUs, and 2, it serves as a decent developer platform, for game devs to at least optimize for the CPU. The lack of any NVMe storage interfaces points to the likelihood of this board not being meant for the general audience. Retail channel availability of the board seems unlikely, although it won't surprise us if suppliers on AliExpress list it anyway.

Since lobbying is both legal and regulated in the US (an attempt to bring attempts of influencing political power by corporations under legal boundaries, as opposed to being done in the dark), it feels like it was only a matter of time before big tech attempted to join under one banner. As such, the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC) has now been put together, and boasts of 64 members including Microsoft, Apple, TSMC, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Arm, and Samsung. It seems that all of these companies - which are often at odds with one another when it comes to competing for consumers' choice and money - have found enough similarities to get organized in an attempt to nudge political power in their favor.

SIAC said in a press release that its mission is to "advance federal policies that promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in the U.S. to strengthen America's economy, national security, and critical infrastructure." The first announcement from the SIAC following its foundation was its intention to support the CHIPS for America Act. The Act (supported by The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and President Joe Biden) has already been approved by the House and the Senate as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021 but has not yet been funded. It seems that SIAC's first mission is to get the government to open up its $50 billion-deep pockets.

Windows 10X, an ambitious lightweight PC operating system under development at Microsoft, which was being designed to compete with Google's Chrome OS, has reportedly been shelved. The OS was designed for pretty much the same class of hardware as Chrome OS—entry-level with lightweight specs, with just enough muscle for web-browsing, and web-based applications that leverage cloud storage. The company even bet big on Chromium, the web rendering engine powering Chrome, over to its Edge browser. A new report by Petri states that Windows 10X will not launch in 2021, and that the project is shelved.

The reason behind Microsoft's decision is anyone's guess. Pulling off a second, purpose-built client-segment PC OS entails developing a hardware ecosystem, like Google did with Chrome OS. Secondly, Microsoft has flirted with lightweight versions of its PC operating systems more than once in the past, be it Windows RT or Windows 7 Basic; both of which met with limited success. Thirdly, Chrome OS itself isn't being shown outpacing Windows 10 as it probably was in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinvigorated the PC landscape, with much of the skilled workforce connecting from home.

It's not only graphics cards and CPUs that are best kept on the edge of manufacturing processes; in truth, one could even say that consoles have more to gain from these transitions when it comes to their manufacturers' financial outlooks. This happens because usually, consoles are subsidized by manufacturers in that their actual retail price is lower than manufacturing costs; this works as a way for console players to increase their platforms' attractiveness and user base, so they can then sell them games and subscription services, where the big bucks are actually made. We knew this already, but Microsoft's head of Xbox business development, Lori Wright confirmed it yesterday at the Apple vs Epic Games hearing. Lori Wright is quoted as answering "We don't; we sell the consoles at a loss" when asked whether Microsoft does or does not turn a profit on Xbox Series S | X hardware sales.

Considering the similarities between the Xbox Series X and PS5's SoC, it's very likely that Sony doesn't make a profit on console hardware sales either - or if it actually does, it's nothing actually meaningful. This is part of the reason why consoles are usually actually in the forefront of manufacturing processes' advancements, as it's a way for console players to quickly reduce the BoM (Bill of Materials) for their consoles. Since the specifications don't change within a console generation (discounting Pro models, which both companies have taken to launching some years into their generations), they choose to take advantage of process advancements due to the transistor density increases that allow for both lower silicon area for the SoC, and lower power consumption - which sometimes enables them to develop slim versions of their gaming consoles.

Remember that neat Microsoft engineering trick that boosted previous-gen's games' performance on their latest and greatest Xbox Series X|S consoles? Well, Microsoft has released a new update for FPS Boost which increases the number of titles from the previous 23. The update adds the FPS boosting capability to a mind-boggling 74 games in one go, increasing their performance up to 60 FPS at their respective rendering resolutions.

Of course, one might want some more changes to be made to the game. However, remember that this a wholly Microsoft endeavor - there's no developer work required or being done here. some developers have released "next-gen" updates to some of their releases from the Xbox One and PS4 era, but FPS Boost is developer agnostic, and works via the Direct 3D API on the Xbox consoles. Titles getting an FPS Boost include Assassin's Creed Unity (maybe now finally is the time to play that one Assassin's Creed game, uh?), Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Alien Isolation (get some scares at double the framerate, what's not to love?) Wasteland 3, and Far Cry 5 all moving to 60 FPS.

Starting today, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint expands its use of Intel Threat Detection Technology (Intel TDT) beyond accelerated memory scanning capabilities to activate central processing unit (CPU) based cryptomining machine learning (ML) detection. This move further accelerates endpoint detection and response for millions of customers without compromising experience.

"This is a true inflection point for the security industry as well as our SMB, mid-market and enterprise customers that have rapidly adopted Windows 10 with built-in endpoint protections. Customers who choose Intel vPro with the exclusive Intel Hardware Shield now gain full-stack visibility to detect threats out of the box with no need for IT configuration. The scale of this CPU-based threat detection rollout across customer systems is unmatched and helps close gaps in corporate defenses," said Michael Nordquist, senior director of Strategic Planning and Architecture in the Business Client Group at Intel.

Thanks to their flexible pricing schemes and diverse service offerings, CSPs have been a direct, major driver of enterprise demand for cloud services, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. As such, the rise of CSPs have in turn brought about a gradual shift in the prevailing business model of server supply chains from sales of traditional branded servers (that is, server OEMs) to ODM Direct sales instead. Incidentally, the global public cloud market operates as an oligopoly dominated by North American companies including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which collectively possess an above-50% share in this market. More specifically, GCP and AWS are the most aggressive in their data center build-outs. Each of these two companies is expected to increase its server procurement by 25-30% YoY this year, followed closely by Azure.

Microsoft is reportedly developing an updated Windows Store that will introduce a new modern and fluid design along with changes to how developers submit applications. The current Store has seen limited adoption and is criticized for its unintuitive design and slow loading times, the new Store will follow Microsoft's updated design language and will feature new layouts, designs, and fluid animations. The Store will continue to be published as a UWP app and will receive monthly updates to introduce new features and improvements. This update should also improve stability when downloading and installing large games and applications.

The current Store has seen limited adoption due to the restrictive requirements for developers, Microsoft currently only allows UWP (Universal Windows Programs) and packaged MSIX programs to be uploaded but will now allow traditional unpackaged Win32 apps also. Microsoft will also allow developers to host their apps and updates with private content delivery networks and integrate third-party commerce functionality. These changes will grant greater control to developers and hopefully entice more applications to join the Store. Microsoft is expected to officially announce their plans for the new Store at Build 2021 with a public preview following.

AMD has announced that Microsoft's Xbox Series S|X now features support for the company's FidelityFX suite. This move, which enabled previously PC-centric technologies on Microsoft's latest-generation gaming consoles, will bring feature parity between RDNA 2-powered graphics, and will eventually enable support for AMD's FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution), the company's eventual competition to NVIDIA's DLSS tech.

This means that besides the technologies that are part of the DX 12 Ultimate spec (and which the consoles already obviously support), developers now have access to AMD's Fidelity FX technologies such as Contrast Adaptive Sharpening, Variable Rate Shading, ray traced shadow Denoiser, Ambient Occlusion and Screen Space Reflections. All of these AMD-led developments in the SDK allow for higher performance and/or better visual fidelity. However, the icing on the cake should be the FSR support, which could bring the Series X's 8K claims to bear (alongside high-refresh-rate 4K gaming) - should FSR turn out be in a similar performance-enhancing ballpark as NVIDIA's DLSS, which we can't really know for sure at this stage (and likely neither can AMD). No word on Fidelity FX support on the PS5 has been announced at this time, which does raise the question of its eventual support, or if Sony will enable a similar feature via their own development tools.

Microsoft on Tuesday, in a developer presentation, confirmed that the DirectStorage API, designed to speed up the storage sub-system, is compatible even with NVMe SSDs that use the PCI-Express Gen 3 host interface. It also confirmed that all GPUs compatible with DirectX 12 support the feature. A feature making its way to the PC from consoles, DirectStorage enables the GPU to directly access an NVMe storage device, paving the way for GPU-accelerated decompression of game assets.

This works to reduce latencies at the storage sub-system level, and offload the CPU. Any DirectX 12-compatible GPU technically supports DirectStorage, according to Microsoft. The company however recommends DirectX 12 Ultimate GPUs "for the best experience." The GPU-accelerated game asset decompression is handled via compute shaders. In addition to reducing latencies; DirectStorage is said to accelerate the Sampler Feedback feature in DirectX 12 Ultimate.More slides from the presentation follow.

Discord has reportedly ended acquisition talks with Microsoft after they rejected a 12 billion USD bid according to people familiar with the matter. Microsoft was not the only company interested in buying Discord, other interested parties included Twitter and some valuations but the company at 15 - 18 billion USD. Discord raised 100 million USD in its latest private funding round with a valuation of 7 billion USD from Greenoaks Capital and Index Ventures. Discord is now focused on increasing revenue from its 140 million users which sat at 130 million USD in 2020. The company is also preparing for an initial public offering sometime in the future.

The UK government has stalled NVIDIA's $40 billion acquisition of Arm by constituting an investigation in "public interest." This investigation will look into the national security implications to the UK, of the acquisition. Although Arm is being transacted between Japan's SoftBank Holdings and American NVIDIA, Arm itself is a UK-based entity. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will lead the investigation, and file a report with the UK government by June 30, 2021.

NVIDIA responded to the development, stating that the acquisition has no material national-security issues affecting the UK. "We will continue to work closely with the British authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal," NVIDIA stated. Leading tech firms, namely Google, Qualcomm, and Microsoft, etc., voiced apprehensions over the deal. Unlike SoftBank, NVIDIA is a chip-designer in its own right, and could withhold cutting-edge Arm technology to itself, giving its CPUs/SoCs a competitive edge over other Arm licensees, these firms believe.

Microsoft's hardware legacy stretches back more than four decades to the early days of personal computing. As Windows built and inspired new computing experiences, new Microsoft hardware accessories helped people interact with them. At this intersection of hardware and software, magical experiences are possible. This core belief is at the heart of every product we build at Microsoft, and it's especially true of our Surface products. For almost a decade, Surface has pioneered breakthrough experiences that immerse people in their creative flow, eliminating friction that often exists between people and technology.

Surface allows people to adapt to new ways of working and creating through innovative and versatile devices that offer premium design and performance, quality typing and trackpads, exceptional cameras and mics, and immersive touchscreen display technologies. From the student learning on their Surface Go or Surface Laptop Go, to the knowledge worker on their Surface Pro 7+, to the creative professional working on a Surface Book 3, these products now serve as a lifeline to connections, content and work. It's inspiring to consider all that can be achieved on a Surface.

Microsoft employees are trialing a novel new immersive cooling system for their data center servers involving boiling liquid. Microsoft has looked to this two-phase closed-loop system as a solution to increasing power requirements from components. The cooling system features large vats where servers are submerged in a specially designed fluid from 3M which is harmless to electronics and boils at just 50°C (122°F). The heat from the servers is transferred to the fluid which boils and carries the heat away without any risk of overheating. The vats each contain a condenser that comes in contact with the gas cooling it down into a liquid and falling back into the loop. Microsoft claims that this new cooling approach will improve efficiency and sustainability through increased utilization of resources.

Microsoft has recently announced an expansion of their Xbox Cloud Gaming Beta with the addition of backward compatibility for select Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can now stream 16 backward compatible games through the Xbox Cloud Gaming Beta (formally Project xCloud). Microsoft has also enabled touch support for select titles while the rest will require a controller, the games are currently only playable on Android with no support for Apple devices. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers with a compatible device can now try out backward compatibility and you can view the complete list of available games below.

MonsterLabo, the maker of fanless PC cases designed for gaming with zero noise, has today tested its upcoming flagship offering in the case lineup. Called The Beast, the case is designed to handle high-end hardware with large TDPs and dissipate all that heat without any moving parts. Using only big heatsinks and heat pipes to transfer the heat to the big heatsink area. In a completely fanless configuration, the case can absorb and dissipate a CPU TDP of 150 Watts and a GPU TPD with 250 Watts. However, when equipped with two 140 mm fans running below 500 RPM, it can accommodate a 250 W CPU, and 320 W GPU. MonsterLabo has tested the fully fanless configuration, which was equipped with AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT processor, paired with NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 3080 Ampere graphics card.

There were no fans present in the system to help move the heat away, and the PC was being stress-tested using Microsoft's Flight Simulator. The company has posted a chart of CPU and GPU temperatures over time, where we see that the GPU has managed to hit about 75 degrees Celsius at one point. The CPU has remained a bit cooler, where the CPU package hit just above the 70-degree mark. Overall, the case is more than capable of cooling the hardware it was equipped with. By adding two slow-spinning fans, the temperatures would get even lower, however, that is no longer a fanless system. MonsterLabo's The Beast is expected to get shipped in Q3 of this year when reviewers will get their hands on it and test it for themselves. You can watch the videos in MonsterLabo's blog post here.

Microsoft is testing a user-interface refresh with an upcoming update to Windows 10. Released for testing with Insider Preview Build 21343, the refresh includes new system icons that are of a significantly different design scheme from the ones you have now. System folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, etc.,) now come with color-coded icons resembling something from a Windows-knockoff Linux desktop environment. The graphics of the icons appear simpler, and this simplicity probably has something to do with the emergence of remote-desktop/virtual-desktop, where simpler graphics are easier on the network bandwidth, particularly on the side of the VDI server. The current system icons of Windows 10 are evolved from those of previous Windows versions.