2026-08-21
Microsoft released new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds today across the Beta, Experimental, and Experimental (26H1) channels, confirming active development of three concurrent Windows versions. The Experimental 26H2 flight introduces highly requested per-app camera, microphone, and location permission toggles for traditional Win32 desktop applications, closing a long-standing privacy gap. Users can also test a WinUI 3–based AutoPlay dialog, auto-previewing of web-downloaded PDFs in File Explorer, and a new "Open Apps Maximized" accessibility toggle. Meanwhile, the Experimental 26H1 channel has officially removed the legacy WMIC command-line utility and pulled the experimental Drag Tray feature based on insider feedback.
Gigabyte has previewed the AORUS ELITE FO32U24G, a 32-inch OLED monitor that offers 4K at 240Hz alongside a full FHD 480Hz mode for competitive shooters. Built on a next-generation Tandem WOLED panel, the display achieves 1,500-nit peak brightness with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. The monitor includes AI OLED Care Pro with ambient sensing and step-away detection, plus Tactical Switch 2.0 to toggle resolution and aspect ratios on the fly. The display is scheduled to launch in Q4 2026, with full pricing and availability details yet to be announced.
Microsoft released PowerToys Preview 0.101.2323.0 as a pure maintenance drop focused on patching recent regressions. The update resolves a critical setting-persistence bug that could inadvertently disable all enabled modules when checking for updates. It also restores excluded-app filtering in Shortcut Guide and repairs automated issue triage logic that was misclassifying valid bug reports. Per-user and machine-wide installers are now available for x64 and ARM64 systems, with full download links and hash verification on the official GitHub release page.
Tom's Hardware's hands-on time with the new Dell XPS 13 (2026) confirms it is setting a new bar for mainstream Windows ultraportables, though you will pay a premium for that compact, non-upgradable chassis. The cooling and power supply market is heating up too, with be quiet! releasing the Dark Rock Pro 6, Noctua expanding into 240mm and 420mm AIOs, and Cooler Master quietly dropping a 3000W platinum workstation supply. On the desktop side, reviewers tested the AOC's 4K/240Hz QD-OLED panel, the uniquely cooled AORUS RTX 5070 Ti INFINITY, and a new wave of sub-12ms 8,000Hz Hall-Effect and optical keyboards. If you are looking to tune out the fan noise with some clarity-focused aune AS5 active speakers, full reviews for all of these components are live across Tom's Hardware, IgorsLAB, and other partner sites.
2026-08-20
Microsoft has shipped TypeScript 7.0.2, delivering a complete native Go rewrite of the compiler that benchmarks show cuts build times by 8x to 12x on major codebases like VS Code and Sentry. The release deliberately excludes a public programmatic API to avoid breaking the ecosystem, so tooling maintainers and plugin authors will need to stick with @typescript/typescript6 until version 7.1 arrives in roughly three months. Alongside the speed gains, Microsoft removed long-deprecated configuration flags, shifted strict and noUncheckedSideEffectImports to true by default, and rebuilt the file watcher using a Go port of @parcel/watcher. Real-world adoption during the preview phase already reports massive CI savings, though embedded editor tooling like Svelte and Angular will have to wait for the upcoming API before leveraging the native compiler.
AMD has released Adrenalin Edition 26.8.1, a WHQL driver update that brings official support for the Radeon RX 9050 4GB along with fixes for multi-adapter launch crashes in Marvel Rivals and Subnautica 2. The update also adds three new AI PRO workstation SKUs and certified game profiles for STAR WARS Zero Company and the CoD MW4 Open Beta, though RX 9050 owners are advised to keep graphics-heavy settings disabled due to the 4GB VRAM cap. However, Starfield is crashing on RX 9000 series GPUs, leading AMD to recommend a rollback to Adrenalin Edition 26.7.1 using the Cleanup Utility until a patch arrives. Windows 10 users should also watch for SAM disabling post-install and ensure an audio device is selected for recording on RX 9000 cards.
AOC's new 720Hz dual-mode OLED monitor and Logitech's claimed 30ms latency drop on the Pro X2 Superstrike mouse are leading a wave of high-performance hardware reviews hitting today. Google's Pixel 11 series finally lands with an efficient Tensor G6 chip and camera upgrades, while ASRock's white X870E Taichi motherboard adds 10 GbE to AM5 builds at a premium price. Kioxia's Gen5 Exceria Pro G2 SSD is delivering sustained reads up to 14.9 GB/s, and cooler setups from Cooler Master's V8 ACE return alongside the 1024 Wh Aferiy P180Pro power station round out the coverage.
2026-08-19
Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.101.2312.0 Preview, a maintenance-driven build designed to harden the upcoming 0.101 stable release against usability regressions. Major fixes address a broken Win+Shift+/ shortcut for the Shortcut Guide, preserve transparency in SVG thumbnails, and add a regression test to prevent hardcoded API settings from breaking Advanced Paste. The update also resolves a Settings crash caused by legacy Screen Ruler measurements, moves the "New" feature badge to Window Hopper, and introduces a PoetSearch plugin for PowerToys Run. With four installer variants now available, this release prioritizes automated test coverage and defensive coding to ensure smoother adoption of the stable cycle.
Visual Studio Code 1.134 has been released today and draws a hard line under how Microsoft handles AI agents inside its editor. The headline change is the new Agent Host process, which pulls autonomous work out of the extension host and runs it as a standalone service governed by an open protocol. This architectural shift unlocks multi-window session sharing, remote execution, and independent lifecycles that work across Copilot, Claude, and Codex adapters without competing for extension resources. You'll also get a grid layout for side-by-side chats, a prompt timeline in the transcript gutter, and a few long-requested editor conveniences like Alt+click tab closing.
GMKtec’s NucBox EVO X1 PRO pushes compact computing forward with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 and 64GB of RAM, though its $1,599 starting price demands serious hardware ambitions. On the laptop front, the XMG Pro 16 (M25) champions rare internal upgradability alongside a Mini LED panel, while the Geekom GeekBook M16 trades an impressive 17-hour battery life for an out-of-the-box display that still needs calibration. Peripheral drops round out the week, featuring a $199 secondary touchscreen from ASUS, a clean 850W power supply from EINAREX, and a dual-lens document camera that turns any laptop into a streaming setup. Meanwhile, ARC System Works earns serious praise for MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, delivering one of the studio’s most accessible yet deep fighters to date.
Microsoft released Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.7.12 on August 18, 2026, delivering two targeted patches to the stable 2.7.x branch. The first fix aligns plugin-mounted folder permissions with your user session, resolving access denied errors for tooling like Docker Desktop and VS Code Remote. The second resolves a persistent issue where cross-volume distribution moves left VHD files owned by BUILTIN\Administrators, eliminating the need for manual ownership rewrites.
2026-08-18
Microsoft has released PowerToys Preview v0.101.2293.0, which introduces two conditional Command Palette entries that let you trigger Windows Update reboots directly from the search menu. The new commands only appear when a pending restart is required, routing through the existing confirmation pipeline with careful privilege handling to avoid disrupting the user experience. Beyond the feature additions, the build ships the project's first autonomous AI-assisted release workflow, automating the conversion of Azure DevOps candidates into validated GitHub draft prereleases while keeping human approval in the loop. The preview also includes a Color Picker refresh rate fix, stricter Image Resizer CLI validation, and a ZoomIt deadlock prevention, available now as per-user and machine-wide installers for x64 and ARM64.
KitGuru puts the MSI MPG 322UR X24 under the microscope, finding that its fourth-gen Samsung Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel delivers noticeably brighter highlights and cleaner blacks in a 4K 240Hz package. The FPS Review takes another look at the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 GAMING OC 32G, benchmarking the factory-overclocked card against the Founders Edition and Radeon RX 9070 XT using 2026’s latest titles. Meanwhile, the peripheral and cooling roundup lands a quieter Cooler Master HAF II 500 mid-tower, a RAM-friendly Ocypus dual-tower CPU cooler with a custom matrix display, and a lightweight ViewSonic VG1457 dual-screen portable that trades color accuracy for travel convenience. The gaming corner sees Mortal Shell 2 draw sharply divided criticism over its difficulty spikes, while Wccftech gives The Sinking City 2 high marks for finally nailing its Lovecraftian horror tone.
Microsoft just pushed five new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, permanently killing the WMIC command and shelving the Drag Tray experiment after months of testing. Build 26340.9212 on the Experimental channel brings a redesigned File Explorer context menu, Emoji 17.0 support, and a new Camera Roll Backup to OneDrive. The stable Beta flight focuses on polish, fixing taskbar loading issues and Japanese IME hangs, while the Experimental Future build introduces Windows Security UI tweaks and a few known cursor bugs. These flights mark the start of Windows 11 26H2's heavy lifting, with Microsoft pointing power users toward PowerShell CIM cmdlets to replace the removed WMIC tool.
2026-08-17
Microsoft released PowerToys Preview 0.101.2282.0, tackling long-standing Command Palette Dock instability with new topology handling, resource leak fixes, and extension failure guarding. The update debuts a standalone DevDocs extension in the third-party plugin marketplace, letting developers pull up API references directly from the palette. Behind the scenes, the team shipped a major overhaul to its automated AI triage pipeline to better manage its massive 138k-star open-source repository.
ASRock and Ocypus are driving down liquid cooling prices with budget-friendly AIOs featuring built-in LCD displays, offering solid thermal performance for under $135. Gigabyte's $799 Aorus RTX 5070 Infinity stands out with a dramatic jet-engine design, though the premium styling comes at a steep cost for a 70-class card. ASRock's all-white X870E Taichi White motherboard pairs flagship AM5 connectivity with a $449.99 price tag, while the xTool M2 laser engraver introduces CMYK color printing to the craft market. The storage lineup spans KIOXIA's fastest PCIe 5.0 drive yet, a practical external SSD with a limited pSLC cache, and a Gen4 NVMe option defined by its anime-inspired aesthetic.
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