Microsoft tightens screws on Windows 10 users; Windows 10’s latest update quietly broke a feature you likely use every day; Google Chrome warns that everything you do online could be recorded unless you take action… and More!
Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Thursday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Microsoft tightens screws on Windows 10 users running Office 365
New features are only for Windows 11 users, Microsoft says.
Microsoft has made another adjustment to the restrictions that it plans to place on Windows 10 customers who use Microsoft 365 apps (previously called Office 365), gradually incentivizing them to move to Windows 11.
You’re probably aware that Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows 10 users this October, has it has said repeatedly for years. But it is also turning off support for Microsoft 365 apps like Word and Excel, too, on the same day: Oct. 14, 2025. Apps like Word will still work, and to ensure a smooth transition Microsoft will still support Microsoft 365 apps with security updates for three years, until 2028.
What’s new? Microsoft has clarified that “security updates” do not include “feature updates” that include new features.
“Devices running Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 will receive feature updates until Version 2608 is released on the following dates: August 2026 for Current Channel (including all versions for individuals and families),” Microsoft says.
“Devices will remain on Version 2608, receiving only security updates until October 10, 2028,” the company added…
Windows 10’s latest update quietly broke a feature you likely use every day
Every time it starts feeling a bit quiet after Microsoft releases a cumulative update, something random breaks. Like every month, Microsoft rolled out its Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the second Tuesday of July, just a couple of days ago.
And while Windows 11 users got a few exciting new additions, Windows 10 users only received a handful of bug fixes. Of course, it simply wouldn’t be a Microsoft update if something didn’t break. This time around, the victim was something relatively small in Windows 10, but something you likely use on a daily basis.
Patch KB5062554 breaks the emoji search panel on Windows 10
As first spotted by Neowin, several Windows 10 users have been seen complaining about the Patch Tuesday update KB5062554, which breaks the emoji search panel. For instance, the user of this post on the r/Windows10 subreddit mentions that though the emoji picker still “mostly works,” the functionality to search for an emoji by typing is completely broken.
Every time a user attempts to search for an emoji, they’re greeted with a “We couldn’t find this one.” message…
Linux curious? This tool will let you see what you’ve been missing without uninstalling Windows
It feels like Linux is reaching an inflection point. That’s not a new sentiment, but for probably the first time since Valve introduced Proton, it’s felt like the stars are aligning for the Linux curious to become full-on converts. Support for Windows 10 is ending, and Windows 11 is slowly morphing into a dumping ground for whatever AI features Microsoft wants to push. If there’s ever been a time to try out Linux, it’s now. Even JayzTwoCents, one of the most popular mainstream PC hardware YouTube channels around, recently published a video about switching to Linux.
Now is the time to try out Linux, but where do you start? Linux is defined by its flexibility, which can make the onboarding process extremely daunting. If you want to dip your toe into the Linux waters but don’t know where to start, don’t worry. A simple tool called Ventoy will give you plenty of room to play around with different Linux distros without uninstalling your main Windows setup.
Ventoy turns a USB drive into a Swiss Army Knife- Have a new OS in an instant
The majority of popular Linux distros have a live version available. Download the correct ISO, flash it to a USB drive with balenaEtcher, and select it as a boot option next time you load up your PC. This is how you “try” different Linux distros. You load up the live environment and poke around for a little, and if you like how everything looks, you can install the OS proper. The problem, of course, is going through the process of flashing a new ISO every time you want to try out a new distro, which can take quite a bit of time if you’re trying to narrow down the right option for you.
Enter Ventoy. It’s a bootloader that you can flash onto a USB drive, and it’s what you’ll load into if you boot off a Ventoy drive. Then, from Ventoy, you can boot into any live Linux distro you want…
Google Chrome warns that everything you do online could be recorded unless you take immediate action
If you’re using Google Chrome on your PC, then you may want to check your browser ASAP and delete any harmful extensions.
Hackers can use these Chrome extensions to eavesdrop on your web surfing sessions and possibly steal your sensitive information, experts from Koi Security revealed. The scam has already impact 2.3 million users across Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
A total of 18 Chrome and Edge extensions with this malware have been revealed so far, many of which were disguised as productivity and entertainment tools. Google has taken action to remove the infected extensions from its Chrome store, but you’ll need to delete them manually from your own web browser.
Categories for these extensions include emoji keyboards, video speed controllers, weather forecasts, volume boosters, VPN proxies for Discord and TikTok, YouTube unblockers, and dark themes.
Unlock Discord (Chrome)
Dark Theme (Chrome)
Volume Max (Chrome)
Unblock TikTok (Chrome)
Unlock YouTube VPN (Chrome)
Geco Colorpick (Chrome)
Weather (Chrome)
Unlock TikTok (Edge)
Volume Booster (Edge)
Web Sound Equalizer (Edge)
Header Value (Edge)
Flash Player (Edge)
YouTube Unblocked (Edge)
SearchGPT (Edge)
Unlock Discord (Edge)Even though these extensions were working as originally advertised, experts researched further when it was found that they were hijacking browser activity and tracking the websites users were visiting…
Malware found embedded in DNS, the system that makes the internet usable, except when it doesn’t
Fortunately, the example provided appears to be “prank software” rather than more sophisticated malware.
DomainTools reported that someone found a way to embed malware in Domain Name System (DNS) records, which means we have something new to blame on the system responsible for pretty much every networking problem most people may have.
For anyone fortunate enough not to know already, DNS is the system that enables you to enter something like “tomshardware.com” in your browser’s address bar and, ideally, be taken to the IP address associated with our site. Without it we’d have to enter those IP addresses manually—with no guarantee that an IP address that worked yesterday will continue to work today. Why? Because the most common Internet Protocol, IPv4, didn’t account for the sheer number of devices we’d all want to put online, and its successor, IPv6, still isn’t supported as well as it should be.
So we have DNS. The process goes something like this: a website uses DNS records to indicate what IP address should be associated with its domain name, browsers query DNS providers for those records when someone asks to visit a website, and then, if everything goes well, the site and its visitor are connected by the wonders of the web. (By which I mean the collection of interconnected protocols and services that are far more complicated than I’ve conveyed in this overview.) DNS is ubiquitous—which means it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to abuse it…
Thanks for reading this week’s Thursday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful.
Re Microsoft???
I got rid of Microsoft for windows years ago, as all they want to do is rip you off!!!
I use Softmaker Office suit, Text Maker, (word processor) Plan Maker, (spread sheet) and presentations.
Softmaker is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and I do all my business word processing and all my spread sheet invoicing (=xls) with all the formatting etc. All this with much less costs and none of the enoing Bull— from Microsoft! Sorry! but I could not help being annoyed with Microsoft.
Ps. you get updates, including security, with Softmaker—Too!
Cheers to the “Cloudeight Family”
Microsoft Windows is an operating system, not an office suite. There are many free office suites besides Softmaker, including Open Offices and LibreOffice. We’ve featured them many times. But you’re still using Windows and if you’re using Windows 10 you have until October 14, 2025 as to what you’re going to do – buy security updates or buy a new computer or switch to Linux, or keep using Windows 10 unsupported, which is dangerous.
Or, if you can afford it, go to Apple! I’m the only Windows user in my family. Everyone else has switched to Apple. I still don’t know what I’m going to do.
What about Qortal?… is it a Windows alternative?
Windows is an operating system. It is the foundation on your computer that allows you to turn it on, open programs, and connect to the internet.
Qortal is not an operating system, it is a network and set of protocols that runs on top of an existing operating system (like Windows, Linux, or macOS). You would install the Qortal software (specifically, the Qortal UI and core node) on your Windows computer to access and participate in the Qortal network and its decentralized applications (Q-Apps).