When visiting the Microsoft ISO Disc Image Download Page using a desktop PC, Microsoft will force you to use the Media Creation Tool to get the ISO. A direct download is not available, or you can use the Upgrade Assistant, to upgrade your current running system. This complicates things if you just want to grab the Windows 10 ISO image quickly, without jumping through Microsoft's hoops.

We have learned, that when you make your web-browser render the Windows 10 installation media download page as a mobile device, which obviously doesn't support running the Windows-based Media Creation Tool, Microsoft will give you a direct download link instead. Below we present step-by-step instructions for Firefox and Chrome, the two browsers we use ourselves.

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP), a leading storage, network and computing solutions provider, today launched the QNA-UC5G1T USB 3.0 to 5GbE adapter, allowing users to add 5GbE/2.5GbE/1GbE/100MbE connectivity to their computers and NAS via USB 3.0. Users can easily upgrade their network speed with the QNA-UC5G1T using an existing CAT 5e cable to increase file transfer speeds and work efficiency.

"Both home and business users require higher bandwidth to take advantage of high-performance systems and faster internet speeds. The handy QNA-UC5G1T adapter can be easily paired with QNAP's 10GbE switch to create a high-speed network environment at home or in the office to greatly improve network speed and application performance," said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "the QNA-UC5G1T is also useful for adding Ethernet connectivity to modern laptops that lack in-built network ports."

In January 2019, EVGA launched the NU Audio Card. The NU Audio Card was designed to produce the most immersive audio and lifelike gaming experienced on a PC. This was achieved, in part, by partnering with Audio Note (UK), Ltd. - a world-renowned audio company dedicated to using only the highest quality components and materials in its products, even if it means creating the components in-house. The result is an audio card that features specs often used in higher-end audiophile equipment but at an affordable price for PC enthusiasts. This partnership produced an audio card that has been praised by many reviewers for its Lifelike Audio quality and its dedication to audio fidelity.

Today, EVGA releases a free software update that further enhances and upgrades the capabilities of the EVGA NU Audio Card for owners using Windows 10. The NU Audio Card is now enhanced by Nahimic with 3D Audio for Gamers, along with many other features.

Just in time for the release of Bethesda's open-world first-person shooter Rage 2 (find our performance analysis here), AMD has released their latest installment of the Radeon Adrenalin 2019 edition drivers for their graphics cards to make the most of the game. Indeed, AMD claims an improvement in game performance of up to 16% on the Radeon VII relative to last month's 19.4.3 drivers, and this is in addition to added support for the big Windows 10 May 2019 update and instruction tracing for AMD's GPU Profiler version 1.5.X. There is a plethora of fixed issues listed as well, and the usual list of known bugs, all of which can be seen past the break. We have also hosted the drivers installer for your convenience, which can be found at the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.5.1

Microsoft will release PowerToys - a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity. PowerToys are a collection of power tools and apps that give users the ability to customize UI and UX. Unlike previous PowerToys from Windows 95 era, this time we are getting them in open source form.

Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with ways to squeeze more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows. A great overview of the Windows 95 PowerToys can be found here. The first preview of these utilities and corresponding source code will be released Summer 2019.

Lenovo has released a trio of new Windows 10 laptops based on new, 2nd generation AMD Ryzen PRO processors, in their famous ThinkPad form factor. There are two models that are part of the T series of ThinkPads, while one is part of X series. For reminding, the T series is the flagship line that offers the best balance between ruggedness, features, processing power, and portability in a 14 or 15-inch unit, while the X series focuses on portability.

The new ThinkPads use the second generation of AMD Ryzen PRO processors, which are 12nm improvements of the previous 14nm Ryzen Family. They carry the 3000 name branding but are similar to the 2000 series of desktop CPUs.

NVIDIA today rolled out GeForce 430.39 WHQL drivers, which introduce support for the new GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card launched earlier today. The drivers also add support for the new notebook variants of the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1660. Most importantly, the drivers add support for Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903), which adds a standardized method of variable-rate shading. The drivers add or improve optimization for "Mortal Kombat XI," "Anthem," and "Strange Brigade." NVIDIA tested and approved 7 more VESA Adaptive Sync-capable monitors for G-Sync support added through these drivers (full list here).

Among the other features is the new ability to merge two portrait monitors to a landscape display head. Fixes include MadVR not correctly rendering HDR mode using MPC-HC; a random desktop flicker seen in some multi-display PCs, and memory leaks noticed when launching certain games. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 430.39 WHQLThe change-log follows.

The April 2019 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 released this "patch Tuesday" (9th April), bearing knowledgebase code KB4493509, is discovered to cause machines with cluster shared volumes (CSVs) to become unresponsive upon restart after installing the update. Installation of cumulative updates forces system restart as Windows shuts down certain services and drivers to a bare-minimum state so it could overwrite system files. This latest issue of system freezing is caused on machines with incompatible security software, such as ArcaBit, however, users over at Ten Forums observed Avira Antivir to show the same incompatibility. Microsoft has since listed this incompatibility as a Known Issue in the description page of KB4493509. All versions of Windows 10 will soon be able to defer updates, letting users prevent buggy updates from being automatically installed. Currently only Windows 10 Pro and Workstation provide this feature.

Razer , the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, announced today the latest external graphics enclosure (eGPU), the Razer Core X Chroma. The Razer Core X Chroma expands its features to now include a 700W power supply, USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and Razer Chroma lighting.

Designed to work with a wide array of Thunderbolt 3 Windows laptops and MacBooks, the Razer Core eGPU line will give mobile warriors the ability to tap into the massive graphics processing power of a desktop gaming machine with minimal hassle. This allows users to play the most demanding games and create world-class content at blazing speeds. The Razer Core X Chroma now includes a 700W power supply, USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and Razer Chroma lighting to meet the needs of the most hardcore gamers and creators.

One of the big no-nos for some users looking to upgrade do Windows 10 was the fact that Microsoft enforced constant, 6-month update cycles independent of whether users wanted them or not. This move was done to streamline the update process and keep all users at parity when it comes to important security and feature updates that Microsoft considered relevant. However, it seems Microsoft is now abandoning this practice, which means that users that like to know exactly what is being changed in their systems - and at a time of their convenience - now have one less reason to not upgrade.

Not only will Windows no longer push updates inadvertently, now home users will also have the ability to not only pause updates, but also remove them. There's a caveat, though - you won't be able to postpone feature updates forever. As it stands, Microsoft has an 18 month "end of life" period for major Windows 10 versions, which means that after your 18 months of postponing updates are up (and all of the kinks have been ironed out), you PC will still update to the latest version. There are some other details, which I will transcribe from the Microsoft blog post for your perusal.

Global industrial and IoT hardware manufacturer Logic Supply has combined the latest vision processing, security protocols, wireless communication technologies, and proven cloud architectures to create the Karbon 300 rugged fanless computer. The system has been engineered to help innovators overcome the limitations of deploying reliable computer hardware in challenging environments.

"Computing at the edge is increasingly at the core of today's Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT solutions," says Logic Supply VP of Products Murat Erdogan. "These devices are being deployed in environments that would quickly destroy traditional computer hardware. The builders and creators we work with require a careful combination of connectivity, processing and environmental protections. With Karbon 300, we're providing the ideal mix of capabilities to help make the next generation of industry-shaping innovation a reality, and enable innovators to truly challenge what's possible."

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In what is likely to create a good deal of controversy along with a few cheers, Blizzard will be adding DirectX 12 support to World of Warcraft on Windows 7 thanks to a bit of effort from Microsoft. You might be wondering how that is possible? Well after seeing massive performance gains in WoW when Blizzard released their DirectX 12 update for Windows 10 in late 2018, resulted in the company wanting to bring those performance improvements to gamers still holding out on Windows 7. To facilitate this, they began talking with Microsoft who after getting a great deal of feedback from Blizzard decided to act on it. To achieve this Microsoft decided to port the user mode D3D12 runtime to Windows 7, which will unblock developers, thereby allows them to take advantage of the latest improvements that the DirectX 12 API offers while still giving full support to customers on older operating systems.

For now, World of Warcraft is the first game to run in DirectX 12 on Windows 7 with the latest 8.1.5 patch. However, they will not be the last as more developers are working on porting DirectX 12 games to Windows 7 with more announcements to follow. Microsoft, of course, has taken it upon themselves to remind everyone that the best possible performance with DirectX 12 will still be had on Windows 10 due to numerous OS optimizations. How true this is remains to be seen, but for many curmudgeons still holding out on Windows 7, this will likely be seen as a form of vindication for sticking with the now venerable OS.

Let's give credit where it is due- Microsoft was quick in admitting that their Windows 10 update (KB4482887) from March 1 had a detrimental effect on performance, especially as it related to specific gaming scenarios. Under a week later, we now have a public fix available as well. The latest update from today, March 12, is version KB4489899 (OS Build 17763.379) and claims to address "an issue that may degrade graphics and mouse performance with desktop gaming when playing certain games, such as Destiny 2, after installing KB4482887", among other things.

Other listed improvements and fixes include improved HoloLens tracking and device calibration, solving a bug that caused some users to get "Error 1309" when dealing with some .MSI and/or .MSP files, and a host of general security updates to various Microsoft software solutions. There remain some issues with this update, however, which are listed in the source page linked below. The update should be available for download and install automatically via Windows Update, as of the time of this post.

Microsoft has confirmed that their latest Windows 10 update (KB4482887), which released on march 1st, can actually degrade graphics and mouse performance in some games. As Microsoft themselves put it, "After installing KB4482887, users may notice graphics and mouse performance degradation with desktop gaming when playing certain games (eg: Destiny 2)."

There's no word yet on a definitive listing of games that suffer this performance degradation, but Microsoft is hard at work fixing this for the next Windows release. Until then, users facing graphics and mouse performance degradation can simply uninstall the KB4482887 update.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the global leading motherboard, Mini-PC, Notebooks, mobile device and smart city solutions provider, is pleased to announce the LIVA Q2 - the silent, energy efficient multi-functional mini PC designed for various smart solutions such as home entertainment, smart offices, and modern classroom. It can also be used with digital signage and successfully used in smart retail solutions. Ultra-mini body design, but the applications are beyond imagination.

With the beautifully designed LIVA Q2 mini PC can meet all the device connections you need by providing full I / O support. The mini PC support for Microsoft's latest Windows 10 operating system. The LIVA Q2 is integrated with Intel Pentium Silver/Celeron processor. Simply by using the Intel Unite application on client's device, which clients can easily integrate participants, solutions and platforms into one.

Intel is well on its way to making the innovation delivered with Thunderbolt 3 available to everyone. Today, Intel announced that it contributed the Intel Thunderbolt protocol specification to the USB Promoter Group, enabling other chip makers to build Thunderbolt compatible silicon, royalty-free. In addition, the USB Promoter Group announced the pending release of the USB4 specification, based on the Thunderbolt protocol. The convergence of the underlying Thunderbolt and USB protocols will increase compatibility among USB Type-C connector-based products, simplifying how people connect their devices.

"Releasing the Thunderbolt protocol specification is a significant milestone for making today's simplest and most versatile port available to everyone. This, in combination with the integration of Thunderbolt 3 into upcoming Intel processors is a win-win for the industry and consumers," said Jason Ziller, general manager, Client Connectivity Division at Intel.

In what is likely to cause some hand wringing or chuckles depending on upon your personality, Microsoft's Windows 10 Insider Preview Slow Ring (beta versions of the OS) has not seen a new release in months. This is due to a common Anti-cheat software running amok and causing GSODs (replacement for BSODs in preview builds). The problem itself has existed for a few months and needs to be fixed by the creators of the software as noted by Chief of the Windows Insider program, Dona Sarkar, on twitter. Apparently, this isn't something Microsoft can fix due to how the software itself functions. Essentially the unspecified anti-cheat software runs in kernel mode and tampers with various aspects of the OS that it is not supposed to tamper with. While it is possible, the software is using allowed hooks in order to function. It is also possible that in the process it is damaging kernel data structures and code. This situation is likely to stir up debate on how effective anti-cheat software is considering it seldom seems to stop determined cheaters and as of now is causing the OS crash and is proving to be a thorn in Microsoft's side.

Still, this has more ramifications than just some system crashes or a software company that needs to edit some code. It directly results in Microsoft having to delay Preview releases. Since these Slow Ring builds can't be tested or validated. Pair that with the fact Microsoft's testing of Windows 10 builds is already considered lackluster with many bugs and issues going unresolved and you end up with a rather grim situation. After all, it was only a few short months ago that the October 2018 update was released after suffering numerous problems and delays. If issues like that continue, it seems the April 2019 update could be delayed as well. To avoid this and to get something done, Microsoft will be pushing out a Slow Ring build to systems that do not have the offending anti-cheat software. Better late than never but you would have thought that this solution would have been implemented sooner.

In a report via Ars Technica, it seems that Microsoft is actually inching ever closer to having PCs powered by Xbox games (and Xbox servers). After the company pushed some free copies of State of Decay to a limited number of beta testers for its upcoming Windows 10 updates (and asking for feedback on the game's behavior), a number of users tried (and managed) to dig deeper.

It seems that Microsoft used the Xbox's distribution services instead of the usual Game Store ones for distributing State of Decay, which would mean a tight integration of its console distribution platform and its Windows PC one. Furthermore, the state of Decay files came in encoded on a proprietary, Xbox-bound .xvc file system. State of Decay, as it is being delivered, also tries to update the DirectX installation on the users' PC, which speaks of it being aware of some PC-specific requirements for it to be run, which wouldn't be present shouldn't that be the case. This is all part of Microsoft's GameCore initiative, which aims to build a common set of system services and APIs that allow for higher development integration between both the PC and Xbox platforms, lowering the coding barrier for games to run on both, and perhaps even enabling PCs to be recognized as equals to Xbox consoles when it comes to content distribution. Maybe we'll finally be able to get The Master Chief collection and... Red Dead Redemption in our PCs?

In what is turning out to be a massive QA oversight by AMD, people who bought retail Radeon VII graphics cards report that their cards don't support UEFI, and that installing the card in their machines causes their motherboard to engage CSM (compatibility support module), a key component of UEFI firmware that's needed to boot the machine with UEFI-unaware hardware (such as old storage devices, graphics cards, NICs, etc.,).

To verify this claim, we put the stock video BIOS of our Radeon VII sample in a hex editor, and what we found out startled us. The BIOS completely lacks UEFI support, including a GOP (graphics output protocol) driver. A GOP driver is a wafer-thin display driver that runs basic display functions on your GPU during the pre-boot environment. Without UEFI support for the graphics card (i.e. with CSM running), Windows 10 cannot engage Secure Boot. Since UEFI Secure Boot is a requirement for Microsoft Windows 10 Logo certification, we are having doubts whether AMD can really claim "Windows 10 compatible" for Radeon VII, at least until a BIOS update is available.

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Windows Lite is a new upcoming PC operating system by Microsoft designed as a competitor to Google's ChromeOS, and being designed for machines with extremely slim hardware specifications. The OS could also target devices that work as "edge computers," with much of their processing being performed over the cloud. ChromeOS beats the bloated Windows 10 in one key department - a lightweight and uncluttered user-interface. This is the area where much of Microsoft's design efforts lie - UI elements and graphics that are lightweight not just on memory, but also Internet bandwidth, if the device is streaming a remote session (a la Citrix). Below is a concept by UX designer Jay Machalani.

The Windows Lite desktop looks familiar, with a taskbar and app buttons, and a Start menu, but one that's been redesigned without live tiles, but a simple list of icons. At this point it's unclear just how far Microsoft intends to go with the lightweight OS concept without cannibalizing sales of Windows 10 Home. The OS definitely features UWP, and from the looks of the screenshot doing rounds, also appears to support legacy Win32 apps, however, Microsoft has in the past restricted functionality of its cheapest OS products so as to not kill pricier Windows versions. Microsoft is innovating two brand new Windows user-interfaces for launches through 2019-2020, codenamed "Polaris" and "Andromeda."

ZOTAC Technology, a global manufacturer of innovation, today releases a new generation of MAGNUS E Series Mini PC built for hardware enthusiasts. The MAGNUS is re-engineered to give powerful performance for creators and prosumers in a compact and lightweight enclosure. With an 8th Generation Intel processor, a discrete GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card and equipped with premium connectivity, the all-new MAGNUS E Series Mini PC powers everything from demanding workloads, creative workflows, home entertainment experiences, and much more.

The MAGNUS EC52070D features a 6-core Intel Core i5-8400T processor with boost up to 3.3GHz, giving it the power to handle simultaneous, compute-intensive, multithreaded workloads. Users can get responsive processing on creative workflows such as photo post-processing, illustration, audio processing, video production, live-streaming, and more. With ready support for up to 32GB of high-speed DDR4 memory, NVMe M.2 SSD, 2.5-inch large capacity storage and Intel Optane memory technology for high performance storage, MAGNUS is capable of loading files and applications faster.

AMD in 2012 launched the FX-8150, the "world's first 8-core desktop processor," or so it says on the literal tin. AMD achieved its core-count of 8 with an unconventional CPU core design. Its 8 cores are arranged in four sets of two cores each, called "modules." Each core has its own independent integer unit and L1 data cache, while the two cores share a majority of their components - the core's front-end, a branch-predictor, a 64 KB L1 code cache, a 2 MB L2 cache, but most importantly, an FPU. There was much debate across tech forums on what constitutes a CPU core.

Multiprocessor-aware operating systems had to be tweaked on how to properly address a "Bulldozer" processor. Their schedulers would initially treat "Bulldozer" cores as fully independent (as conventional logic would dictate), until AMD noticed multi-threaded application performance bottlenecks. Eventually, Windows and various *nix kernels received updates to their schedulers to treat each module as a core, and each core as an SMT unit (a logical processor). The FX-8350 is a 4-core/8-thread processor in the eyes of Windows 10, for example. These updates improved the processors' performance but not before consumers started noticing that their operating systems weren't reporting the correct core-count. In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was filed against AMD for false marketing of FX-series processors. The wheels of that lawsuit are finally moving, after a 12-member Jury is set up to examine what constitutes a CPU core, and whether an AMD FX-8000 or FX-9000 series processor can qualify as an 8-core chip.

What's this? A new high-end internal sound-card launch? From EVGA? We must be dreaming! The NU-Audio internal sound card is the most unexpected product from our visit to EVGA's suite on Monday. Developed in partnership with British audiophile hardware maker Audio Note and sold under the EVGA badge, the NU-Audio is a full-height internal sound card with PCI-Express 2.0 x1 bus interface. At its heart is an XMOS xCORE 200 PCIe audio processor with an Azalia-like pipeline. The main DAC is an Asahi Kasei AK4493, fronted by an Analog Devices OP275 OPAMP for the main headphones channel, and AD8056 for the line-out channel.

The card has some serious input chops as output, with the main line-in powered by an Asahi Kasei AK5572, and a Cirrus Logic CS53456 for the microphone-in channel. As an analog sound card, you only get 2 channels. You'll need optical TOSLINK for 5.1 channels. A combination of WIMA and Audio Note electrolytic capacitors are used across the card. The electrical area is ground-layer isolated, draws power from a SATA power input, and uses a Texas Instruments TPS7A47 voltage regulator. All connections between the electrical and audio areas are filtered, and copper EMI shielding covers vital audio components, in addition to the outer shroud. The PCB itself is chunky (possibly 4-layer with 2 oz copper layers).