Best of Windows — November 2025

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    Video
    Avatar of mentaloutlawMental Outlaw·20w

    The Best Desktop Linux For Windows Users

    Windows 11's focus on AI features has degraded gaming performance by up to 65% for Nvidia users, prompting increased adoption of desktop Linux distributions. Zorin OS 18 attracted over 1 million downloads (78% from Windows users) with features like web app integration, Windows app compatibility via Wine, and suggested alternatives for Windows programs. Gaming-focused distributions like Bazzite and CachyOS now match or exceed Windows 11 performance out-of-the-box, while Microsoft's AI-generated code (30% of repos) and financial ties to OpenAI suggest the company won't reverse course on its agentic OS direction.

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    Article
    Avatar of frankelA Java geek·20w

    My first real Rust project

    A developer shares their experience building their first production Rust project: a health monitoring component that polls sensors and sends email alerts. The post covers the technical rationale for choosing Rust over JVM languages (short-lived processes, cross-compilation, memory efficiency), selecting appropriate crates (reqwest, config, lettre), leveraging Rust's derive macros for trait implementation, and troubleshooting Windows compilation issues with the GNU toolchain.

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    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·22w

    Meta just killed native WhatsApp on Windows 11, now it opens WebView, uses 1GB RAM all the time

    Meta replaced the native WhatsApp Windows 11 app with a WebView2-based version that loads web.whatsapp.com in a container. The new version consumes 1-2GB RAM compared to the native app's 100-300MB, exhibits sluggish performance, and has notification issues. The change reverses years of investment in native development, moving from Electron to UWP and now back to a web wrapper. Users will eventually be forced to upgrade as Meta plans to phase out the native version.

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    Article
    Avatar of cyber_secCyber Security·23w

    A New Era of VM-Powered Cyber Attacks

    The Curly COMrades threat group exploited Hyper-V virtualization on compromised Windows systems to evade endpoint detection. Attackers enabled Hyper-V, deployed a minimal Linux VM (120 MB disk, 256 MB RAM), and ran custom tools including CurlyShell reverse shell and CurlCat proxy inside the VM. This technique bypassed host-based EDR and AV solutions that don't inspect nested virtual environments. Active since late 2023 and documented in August 2025, the campaign targeted Georgia and Moldova. Defenders should monitor for unusual VM creation and Hyper-V role enablement on endpoints.

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    Article
    Avatar of devblogsDevBlogs·21w

    PowerToys 0.96 is here: endpoints for Advanced Paste, metadata support for PowerRename and more!

    PowerToys 0.96 introduces major upgrades to Advanced Paste with support for multiple AI model endpoints (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral) and local models (Foundry Local, Ollama). Command Palette receives numerous improvements including search functionality and better extension management. PowerRename now supports EXIF and XMP metadata extraction from images. Light Switch gains manual location settings, Dashboard adds sorting options, and ZoomIt introduces screen recording with GIF export. The next release (0.97) is scheduled for January 2025.

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    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·23w

    YouTube Goes Bonkers, Removes Windows 11 Bypass Tutorials, Claims 'Risk of Physical Harm'

    YouTube removed two tutorial videos from tech creator CyberCPU Tech showing how to install Windows 11 with a local account and bypass hardware requirements, citing risk of physical harm. Both videos received community guidelines strikes, and appeals were denied within minutes. YouTube later restored the videos, claiming human reviewers made the initial decisions. The incident highlights ongoing issues with platform moderation systems incorrectly flagging legitimate technical content while actual spam goes undetected.

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    Article
    Avatar of theregisterThe Register·23w

    Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

    Microsoft's quality control has deteriorated significantly since 2014 when the company laid off many testers in favor of agile methodologies. Recent years have seen repeated issues including the Windows 10 October 2018 Update that deleted user files, frequent problematic Windows updates, and multiple Azure outages caused by faulty configuration changes. While some Windows issues may be understandable given the vast ecosystem, the recurring Azure production failures raise serious questions about Microsoft's competence in managing its own infrastructure.

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    Article
    Avatar of 404Deleted user·24w

    Hey, Microsoft, how’s the vibe coding going?

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    Video
    Avatar of techlinkedTechLinked·22w

    What Did They Do to My Boy…

    Windows 11 receives a redesigned start menu with improved customization options. AMD Ryzen 7 9700X3D benchmarks turn out to be fabricated by Reddit users. Disney channels go dark on YouTube TV amid contract disputes. SanDisk plans to increase flash memory prices by up to 50% due to AI-driven demand. Lawyers document over 500 cases of AI misuse in court filings, including fabricated citations from ChatGPT. UK investigates potential remote shutdown capabilities in Chinese-made electric buses.

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    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·20w

    Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

    Microsoft appears to be deprioritizing consumer-focused Windows development in favor of AI and enterprise services. Three factors could shift the consumer OS landscape: Microsoft's lack of consumer engagement, Apple's rumored affordable MacBook in 2026, and Valve's upcoming Steam Machine that runs Windows games on Linux. While markets this size change slowly, these converging trends suggest potential movement in Windows' consumer market share for the first time in decades.

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