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If you’re in the market for a hard drive or SSD, act fast! Otherwise, you could be paying more than you’d like.

According to Taiwan analyst company TrendForce, storage makers Western Digital and now Seagate have sent letters to customers warning them that the companies will be raising prices on hard drives. WD’s letter said that it would be raising prices on SSDs, too.

“[D]emand recovery continues across several segments of our business and our reduced manufacturing capacity is limiting our ability to meet all of our customers’ demand and is resulting in longer lead times,” the letter says, signed by BS Teh, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Seagate. “As a result, we will be implementing price increases effective immediately on new orders and for demand that is over and above previously committed volumes.”

WD sent a similar letter earlier this month. In it, WD warned that is seeing “higher than expected demand across its entire flash and hard drive portfolio resulting in supply constraints.

“Given these circumstances, we will continue to implement price increases on flash and hard drive products this quarter, with some changes taking effect immediately,” WD senior vice president Scott Davis wrote, as noted by TrendForce and TomsHardware. “These updates will apply to our entire product portfolio.”

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The letters both companies sent are addressed to their commercial partners, including PC makers who are responsible for ordering hard drives and SSDs for PC production. But with two of the world’s largest storage companies warning of price hikes, it’s hard to believe such increases wouldn’t hit retail products as well. In other words, if you’re interested in upgrading your SSD or buying an external hard drive or SSD, prices may be increasing in the near future.

The warning signs were there, however. In November, analysts warned that the price of SSDs was going up. That prediction appears to be coming true, and has sucked in hard-drive prices, too.

The good news? Hard drives prices are typically a fraction of the price of an SSD — this 1TB external Seagate hard drive is currently priced at $60 on Amazon, while a quality WD 1TB external SSD is $109. Could those prices climb? It certainly appears possible.

Further reading: The best SSDs we’ve tested

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor

As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.

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Do you like dealing with advertising, even in software that you’ve already paid for? Of course you do! According to Microsoft, anyway, which continues to shove ads for its own products into every corner of Windows. A new glimpse at an upcoming Windows 11 “feature” from a prolific leaker said that the Start Menu was going to get some ad injections soon.

And now it’s official, Microsoft added on Friday.

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Windows 11 Pro

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Phantom Ocean, a Twitter leaker who’s been rock-solid on Microsoft topics, previously said that the Windows 11 Start Menu is testing “app promotions” in an upcoming build. They’ll appear in the Recommended section of the menu, which at present includes applications that have recently been installed or frequently run by the user. This area of the Start menu also shows tips and shortcuts.

The Twitter user’s leaked photo shows Opera Browser with a “Promoted” tag indicating that it’s an advertisement, along with the “browse safely” promo text. The Windows Game Bar appears next to it, in an example of a more standard Recommended app you might see today.

Twitter user @PhantomofEarth

Twitter user @PhantomofEarth

Twitter user @PhantomofEarth

A screenshot from Phantom Ocean shows the personalization settings for the Start Menu with a toggle for recommended “tips, app promotions, and more,” whereas the current version of that setting is labeled “tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more.” In some beta builds these promotions had been labeled as more straightforward “ads.”

As it turned out, Phantom Ocean basically had it right. Microsoft rolled out Windows Insider Preview 22635.3495 in the Beta Channel on Friday, and confirmed that these changes are coming. And this is the Beta Channel, which means that Microsoft has it slated to hit your desktop sooner or later.

“We are now trying out recommendations to help you discover great apps from the Microsoft Store under Recommended on the Start menu,” Microsoft wrote. “This will appear only for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the U.S. and will not apply to commercial devices (devices managed by organizations).”

Can the ads be turned off? Yes, it sounds like it, thankfully.

“This can be turned off by going to Settings > Personalization > Start and turning off the toggle for ‘Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.’” Microsoft wrote.

Advertising is becoming a ubiquitous sight in Windows. We’ve been reporting on Microsoft’s encroaching advertising in its flagship operating system for the better part of a decade now, and it’s only getting worse. Advertising isn’t bad in concept — it’s how this website stays in business, for example — but Windows is still a product that you pay real money for, either outright via a license or as an extra cost of buying a PC.

This, to use a highly technical industry term, sucks.

This story was updated at 3:04 PM on April 12 with new details from Microsoft. It was written by Mark Hachman.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer

Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.

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Working with large data sets is complicated enough, but communicating insights and conclusions can feel next to impossible. With a tool like Microsoft Visio Professional 2021 for Windows, however, it’s a lot easier. During our Digital Blowout, you can get this top-rated software for just $24.97.

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Microsoft not only introduces new features or programs with Windows updates, it also removes obsolete functions.

Many people don’t notice this until they need a specific feature or the outdated program. One example is WordPad, which will soon be removed from Windows, or Windows-to-Go and the Homegroup.

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Windows 11 Pro

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If you use WordPad, you should look for a replacement in good time. In most cases, however, Microsoft does not remove features immediately, but instead marks them as “obsolete.”

This means that no more improvements are being developed for these features or tools and that Microsoft will remove them from Windows in a future version. Here’s a list of the Windows features destined to get the axe soon.

Further reading: How to fight the new Windows Outlook app and keep Mail…for now

WordPad will no longer be part of Windows

Microsoft has announced that WordPad will be completely removed from Windows. Although the limited word processor is still included in Windows 11 23H2, this may change with the update to Windows 11 24H2 later this year. Microsoft is already no longer updating the program.

Thomas Joos

Thomas Joos

Thomas Joos

Anyone who relies on WordPad should therefore look for a replacement. Microsoft recommends using Word Online on the Internet at this point. Google Docs, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice are also useful.

Cortana no longer exists

The stand-alone Cortana application in Windows is also outdated and is being replaced by Microsoft’s new Copilot AI. If you use Cortana for certain areas, you should familiarize yourself with the possibilities of Copilot.

VBScript is being removed from Windows

Anyone who uses their own scripts with VBScript will also have to find a replacement: Microsoft will completely remove VBScript in the next Windows versions, presumably in Windows 11 24H2.

WebDAV will no longer be part of Windows

With the removal of the WebClient, Microsoft is removing WebDAV from Windows. This means that the protocol cannot be used to connect network drives with WebDAV. Users often use the protocol to integrate cloud storage directly as a drive in Windows, for example.

This won’t be so easy in future. Microsoft no longer wants to start the service at bootup, and one of the next steps will probably be to remove it, perhaps even in Windows 11 24H2.

TLS certificates under 2,408 bits will be removed

Microsoft is removing support for TLS certificates with an RSA key of less than 2,048 bits from Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you are therefore still using older certificates for applications, there is a risk that these will no longer work after an update in the future.

You should therefore replace them as soon as possible if you become aware of this. However, this mostly affects companies that operate their own web applications.

Problem logging is coming to an end – psr.exe

With problem recording, users can create step-based screenshots to create documentation or recreate errors so that a support employee can help.

Microsoft wants to remove the recording completely from Windows. Here too, you should obtain a replacement if you use the problem recordings. Microsoft recommends using the snipping tool in Windows for this purpose.

Windows Mail and Outlook Express will be removed and replaced by Outlook

Microsoft is removing the Windows Mail app in Windows 10 and Windows 11 and replacing it with the new, free Outlook app. This is currently being criticized not only due to Outlook’s lackluster feature set compared to the original Mail app, but because it routes all emails via Microsoft servers. This also applies to mail accounts that are not hosted by Microsoft. Many users are already swapping Windows Mail for Mozilla Thunderbird.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

Wmic.exe to be discontinued: Use WMI queries in Windows

With “wmic.exe”, users and administrators can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) for queries – for example, for information about a computer’s hardware. Microsoft has marked “wmic.exe” as obsolete and will permanently remove this command line program from Windows 10 and Windows 11. However, there is the option of using PowerShell and the Get-WmiObject cmdlet in future.

Windows-to-Go no longer part of Windows

With Windows-to-Go, it was previously possible to save Windows on an external hard drive and start it on different computers. This option will be removed from Windows. Microsoft is already no longer providing support for this feature.

No more HomeGroup in Windows

Microsoft has discontinued support for HomeGroups/home network groups. If you have created shares based on HomeGroups, these will be retained, but the HomeGroup view will be completely removed from the operating system. Resources can still be shared via workgroups and Active Directory domains.

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.

Author: Thomas Joos, Autor

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Windows is generally flexible about tweaks to its system—and advanced users have long taken advantage of registry tweaks to make the OS behave. But recently, Microsoft has quietly barred access to one setting in Windows 10 and Windows 11, making a switch of your default browser only possible through the Windows settings app.

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Windows 11 Pro

Price When Reviewed:199.99Best Prices Today:$59 at PCWorld Store – Win 11 Pro Upgrade Only | $79.99 at PCWorld Software Store

As reported by Bleeping Computer, a new driver released during Microsoft’s February updates now locks down the registry, preventing any changes performed outside Windows settings. It was initially spotted by Christoph Kolbicz, an IT consultant and creator of two programs that allowed users to modify file associations and the default browser in Windows.

Windows currently relies on a particular kind of hash (that is, a conversion of text or even other data into a fixed-length combination of numbers and letters) to designate a program as a default app. Before the addition of this new driver, third-party apps could reverse-engineer the process of creating the hash to then swap in their own selection. Now they’re blocked from doing so—which users can reproduce themselves by attempting to manually edit the registry, as Bleeping Computer did. When attempting to change the value of the hash through the Registry Editor, an error message of “Cannot edit Hash: Error writing the value’s new contents” appears.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

While this updated approach to switching your default browser may seem draconian, it’s largely good news from a security perspective. Malicious apps will have a more difficult time trying to modify the default browser behind your back—meaning they can’t substitute a phony browser for your normal one, in order to potentially monitor and/or capture the details of your browsing sessions (including any forms you fill out). You’ll still need to practice safe online behavior and have antivirus software on your PC, but it’s one less potential attack vector.

Changing your default browser in Windows settings remains possible; just head to the default app settings within the app. If that’s still inconvenient (or philosophically vexing), determined users have since discovered a workaround this limitation—you can first disable the driver locking everything down, then disabling a scheduled task that automatically re-enables it. But the overwhelming majority of Windows users shouldn’t need go to such lengths.

As for the reason behind this update, Kolbicz speculates that it could relate to European regulations meant to guarantee fair competition between software companies. However, the driver also appears on Windows computers in the United States, which are not bound by such terms—and the new driver doesn’t seem to be enforcing the lock down uniformly yet. Bleeping Computer’s tests indicate that at least some Windows 11 PCs still allow registry changes to the default browser setting.

Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor

Alaina Yee is PCWorld’s resident bargain hunter—when she’s not covering software, PC building, and more, she’s scouring for the best tech deals. Previously her work has appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @morphingball.

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It’s been a few years since I transitioned my primary monitor to a super-sized ultrawide. While I did it for gaming, it’s been a shockingly good boon for my productivity, too — I’m using apps side-by-side for just about anything that isn’t video. If you’d like to join the club, today Microcenter is selling a full-res 34-inch ultrawide monitor from Samsung for just $199.99.

What do I mean by “full-res?” Well, this ViewFinity S5 has a resolution of 3440×1440 — it’s basically the same vertical resolution as a 27-inch, 1440p monitor, stretched out into a 21:9 aspect ratio. We’ve seen a few similarly-sized monitors on sale, but they cheaped out on the screen panel with a 1080p base. This is the real deal.

Though there are a few compromises to hit that low price. It’s a VA panel, not IPS, so the color accuracy isn’t really good enough for media or pro photo work. And with a refresh rate of 100Hz, it’s decent for gaming, but you won’t be maxing out a more powerful system even with the AMD FreeSync tech. It’s also lacking a fancy curve. Also note that unless you have a MicroCenter retail store near you, you’ll need to pay for shipping.

(By the way, if you need massive resolution and a color-accurate IPS panel, this smaller 4K Acer monitor is still on sale as of today.)

But if you’re looking for the productivity and field-of-view boost an ultrawide monitor brings, this is about as cheap as they come, even if you do have to pay for shipping. Note that MicroCenter’s deals often don’t last very long, so this might go out of stock quickly.

Get a 34-inch Samsung Ultrawide monitor for $199.99

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer

Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.

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When assembling a desktop PC, applying thermal paste to the CPU is a crucial step that often causes confusion. Thermal paste, also known as thermal grease, thermal interface material, or thermal gel, ensures efficient heat transfer from the processor to the cooler. The correct application of the paste is crucial, as either too much or too little can affect cooling performance.

Noctua

Noctua

Noctua

The thermal compound is applied to the top of the CPU, not to the bottom or into the CPU socket of the motherboard. The top of the CPU is the smooth metal plate on which the manufacturer and model information is printed. The paste must not be applied to the hundreds of squares or pins on the bottom of the CPU or directly onto the CPU socket of the motherboard.

Be careful with the amount of thermal paste. A pea-sized amount is sufficient and should be placed directly in the center of the CPU. You do not need more paste to ensure effective heat transfer. When attaching the cooler, the paste is distributed evenly under pressure. You therefore do not need to spread it beforehand. Too much paste can spill over the chip and penetrate the CPU socket, possibly causing thermal problems and potential damage.

Noctua

Noctua

Noctua

It is also important to note that many CPU coolers are already equipped with thermal paste. In this case, no additional application of the paste is necessary. However, if you are using a new cooler or replacing an old CPU, you must remove the old paste and apply fresh paste. It is best to use isopropyl alcohol for cleaning.

Once the paste has been applied, simply place the cooler on top and attach it to the motherboard using the mounting hardware supplied. The correct use of thermal paste is an important step when assembling a PC.

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.

Author: Friedrich Stiemer

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