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Tag: Windows

  • Is secondary glazing worth it? Costs, savings, and energy efficiency explained – Growing Family

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    If you’re living in a period property with single-glazed windows, or facing restrictions on replacing your existing windows, you’ve probably considered secondary glazing. This increasingly popular solution promises better insulation, reduced noise, and lower energy bills without the need for full window replacement. But is secondary glazing actually worth the investment?

    In this article, we’ll break down the real costs, potential savings, and energy efficiency benefits to help you make an informed decision.

    a man installing windows

    What is secondary glazing?

    Secondary glazing is the addition of a second pane of glass or acrylic on the inside of an existing window. Unlike double glazing, which replaces your entire window unit, secondary glazing works alongside your current windows to create an insulating air gap.

    This retrofit solution is particularly valuable for listed buildings, conservation areas, or properties where planning restrictions prevent window replacement.

    What’s the price of secondary glazing?

    So, how much does secondary glazing cost? The price varies considerably depending on several factors, including window size, frame material, glass type, and installation complexity.

    On average, you can expect to pay between £200 and £600 per window for professionally installed secondary glazing. Larger windows or custom configurations may push costs toward £800 or more per unit.

    DIY secondary glazing kits offer a more budget-friendly alternative, with prices starting from around £50 to £150 per window. However, these typically provide less robust performance and may not deliver the same aesthetic finish as professional installations.

    For a typical three-bedroom home with eight to ten windows, the total investment for secondary glazing usually ranges from £2,000 to £5,000. While this represents a significant outlay, it’s considerably less expensive than full double glazing replacement, which often costs between £4,000 and £12,000 for a similar-sized property.

    Energy efficiency benefits

    Secondary glazing can dramatically improve your home’s thermal performance. By creating an additional barrier against heat loss, it reduces the U-value of your windows, which measures how effectively they prevent heat from escaping. Single-glazed windows typically have a U-value of around 5.0 W/m²K, while adding secondary glazing can reduce this to approximately 2.8 to 3.0 W/m²K.

    This improvement translates to tangible energy savings. According to the Energy Saving Trust, secondary glazing can reduce heat loss through windows by up to 60%. For the average UK household, this could mean annual heating bill savings of £100 to £200, depending on your property size, existing insulation, and heating costs.

    Beyond thermal efficiency, secondary glazing provides excellent soundproofing. The air gap between panes acts as a sound buffer, reducing external noise by up to 80%. This makes it particularly valuable for homes on busy roads or in urban environments.

    graphic of energy efficient home and piggy bankgraphic of energy efficient home and piggy bank

    Long-term savings and payback period

    When evaluating whether secondary glazing is worth it, consider the payback period. Based on average installation costs and typical energy savings, most homeowners can expect to recoup their investment within 10 to 15 years. While this may seem lengthy, remember that secondary glazing also adds value to your property and enhances comfort immediately.

    The financial case becomes even stronger when you factor in rising energy prices. As heating costs continue to increase, your annual savings will grow accordingly, potentially shortening the payback period.

    Additionally, secondary glazing typically requires minimal maintenance and can last 20 years or more with proper care, meaning you’ll enjoy many years of benefit beyond the break-even point.

    Additional advantages worth considering

    Beyond cost savings and energy efficiency, secondary glazing offers several other benefits that contribute to its overall value. It provides enhanced security by adding an extra physical barrier, reduces condensation on windows by keeping the inner pane warmer, and preserves the original character of period properties that might lose their charm with modern double glazing.

    For homeowners in conservation areas or listed buildings where external alterations are prohibited, secondary glazing may be the only viable option for improving thermal performance without planning complications.

    Is secondary glazing right for you?

    Secondary glazing is worth it if:

    • You have single-glazed windows that can’t be replaced due to planning restrictions.
    • You’re looking for a cost-effective alternative to full double glazing replacement.
    • Noise reduction is a priority alongside thermal efficiency.
    • You want to preserve the original appearance of period windows.

    However, it may not be the best choice if:

    • Your existing windows are already double-glazed.
    • You’re planning a complete renovation where full replacement makes more sense.
    • You have the budget and permissions for high-performance triple glazing.

    The bottom line

    Secondary glazing offers substantial benefits in terms of energy efficiency, comfort, and cost savings, particularly for homes with single-glazed windows or heritage restrictions. While the upfront investment requires careful consideration, the combination of reduced energy bills, improved comfort, noise reduction, and property value enhancement makes it a worthwhile upgrade for many homeowners. Evaluate your specific circumstances, obtain quotes from reputable installers, and consider both the immediate and long-term benefits to determine if secondary glazing is the right solution for your home.

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    Catherine

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  • How to Get Windows 10 Extended Support for Free

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    • Now, if you don’t have the latest Windows 10 Version 22H2 update, you need to update your Windows, then you can move to further steps, but if you do have the latest Windows 22H2 version installed in your pc or laptop, you can continue without any issue.
    • As I mentioned earlier, to enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU), your Windows 10 version should be 22H2 and if you don’t know how to check your Windows version, you can follow below mentioned steps.
    • If your PC or laptop does not meet the hardware requirements of Windows 11, then the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program is the best way to provide security to your systems.

    As of October 14, 2025, Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10. This means if you are still using Windows 10, your PC or laptop is no longer protected by regular security updates, which means no bug fixes, no feature updates, and, in fact, no technical support was provided by them.

    To avoid system vulnerabilities, Microsoft introduced the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. This program is specifically designed for Windows 10 users who are not ready to move to Windows 11, so that they can get critical and important Security updates for a limited time period.

    These updates will not include any feature updates or any technical support; they only include updates defined by the Microsoft Security Response Centre (MSRC) for devices running Windows 10. Before enrollment in this program, you have to follow some basic guidelines. Your Windows 10 version should be 22H2, which is the latest and final release of Windows 10.

    Ways to Enrol in Extended Security Updates (ESU) Program

    There are three ways to enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program:

    • At no additional cost if you are syncing your PC Settings.
    • Redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.
    • One-time purchase of $30 USD or local currency equivalent plus applicable tax.

    This article focuses particularly on how to obtain Extended Security Updates for free. We will also discuss the pros and cons of each method to understand which solution is best for you.

    Steps to enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program

    As I mentioned earlier, to enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU), your Windows 10 version should be 22H2 and if you don’t know how to check your Windows version, you can follow below mentioned steps.

    How to check your Windows version

    1. Open Settings > Click on “System”.

    2. Scroll down and click on “About” > Scroll down to the “Windows specifications” section to find details about your Windows 10 version.

    Now, if you don’t have the latest Windows 10 Version 22H2 update, you need to update your Windows, then you can move to further steps, but if you do have the latest Windows 22H2 version installed in your pc or laptop, you can continue without any issue.

    Register For Extended Security Updates

    After completing all the steps above, you’re now ready to enrol in Extended Security Updates (ESU). Now, just follow the steps given below

    1. Open Settings.

    2. Go to “Updates and Security”.

    3. Select the “Windows Updates” option.

    4. There, you can see “Enrol now” option.

    Enroll Now

    5. Click on “Next”.

    Enroll Next

    6. Enter your PIN and Login credentials and click on “Sign in”.

    Once you have followed these steps, there are two possible situations you may see.

    1. If you already have a backup of your Windows settings, the free enrollment option will appear directly. Simply enroll and continue receiving system security updates for free.

    Once you are done with the following steps, you can see this in your Windows Update option.

    Final

    2. If your system doesn’t match the minimum requirements, you will have to choose either “Redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points or a One-time purchase of $30 USD or local currency equivalent, plus applicable tax” option.

    Is Windows 10 Extended Support Worth It?

    If your PC or laptop does not meet the hardware requirements of Windows 11, then the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program is the best way to provide security to your systems. If you are someone who does not want an OS change for personal preferences, then using extended support is the most convenient way to stay on Windows 10, while having the benefit of the latest security patches.

    But if you rely on your Windows machine for sensitive tasks such as banking, crypto trading, investment tracking, or if your daily work involves handling confidential data, then it’s not recommended to stay on Windows 10. In such cases, you should upgrade to Windows 11 to ensure that all other programs on your system remain compatible with your OS with their respective security patches.

    FAQs

    Q. How to enrol in Extended Security Updates (ESU)?

    Open Settings > Click on Update & Security > Select Windows Update from the left sidebar > Look for the Enrol now option on the screen to register for Extended Security Updates.

    Q. What is Extended Security Updates in Windows 10?

    Extended Security Update (ESU) is a program offered by Microsoft for Windows 10 users so that they can get critical security updates for a temporary time period.

    Wrapping Up

    Windows 10 may still work, but without security updates, it’s no longer safe. The Extended Security Updates (ESU) program gives you a temporary way to stay protected if you’re not ready to move to Windows 11 yet. Just remember, Extended Security Updates are not a permanent solution and come with a deadline. If you’re concerned about your data security, either upgrade to Windows 11 or consider replacing your PC or Laptop if it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements.

    You may also like to read:

    Have any questions related to our how-to guides, or anything in the world of technology? Check out our new GadgetsToUse AI Chatbot for free, powered by ChatGPT.

    You can also follow us for instant tech news at Google News or for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, join the GadgetsToUse Telegram Group, or subscribe to the GadgetsToUse Youtube Channel for the latest review videos.

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    Saurabh Gupta

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  • My Favorite Laptops, Chromebooks, and Gaming Laptops Are on Sale For Black Friday

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    It’s almost the end of the year, and with Black Friday upon us, it’s a great time to buy a laptop. I’ve sorted through the junk to find the best Black Friday laptop deals, and I’m happy to report that most of my favorite laptops I tested this year are on sale right now. Even better, some laptops I thought were overpriced at launch now have such steep discounts that they’ve risen in value in my estimation. So, if you’ve been waiting to buy a laptop at the right moment, this is it. One of these laptops should fit exactly what you’re looking for at a wide range of prices.

    Hunting for more deals? Read our Absolute Best Black Friday Deals roundup, and check out our Black Friday liveblog for the highlights.

    Updated on November 28: We’ve added the Asus Zenbook A14, Razer Blade 14, and Acer Chromebook Plus 516.

    The Best Windows Laptop Deal

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    If you’re shopping for a laptop on Black Friday, you’re probably looking for something a bit more budget-friendly. And while the MacBook Air is the better laptop, there’s no question that the Dell 14 Plus is the best deal. It comes with great specs: 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V. I reviewed the model with the Core Ultra 7 258V, but either way, you’re getting really good battery life and integrated graphics performance.

    Most importantly, it avoids the two main pitfalls of budget laptops: poor displays and touchpads. The Dell 14 Plus comes with a high-resolution display (2560 x 1600) and a very smooth-feeling touchpad. It’s literally a premium laptop for an affordable price, and at $500, it’s officially the best deal on a laptop this Black Friday. It’s a doorbuster-style deal, however, so once it’s sold out, the price may change.

    The Best MacBook Deal

    Front view of an open Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 2025 laptop sitting on a couch with the screen showing the desktop

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

    Apple

    MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

    Since its launch this spring, the M4 MacBook Air has been the best laptop you can buy. It has also continued to drop in price slowly month after month, now down to just $749. That’s low enough that it’s not worth buying cheaper, older MacBook Airs, such as the M2 model. The difference in performance (and external display support) is worth far more. The M5 model is likely coming sometime in early 2026, but it’ll be a long time before it comes down to the price of the M4 right now. Come and get it while it’s hot.

    I’ve collected the best Black Friday MacBook deals here for more recommendations and discussion on which MacBook deal is right for you.

    The Best Chromebook Deal

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    There’s never been a Chromebook at this price as good as the Acer Chromebook Plus 516—at least, not at it’s current Black Friday. Despite being a new laptop from this year, it’s great to see the price drop by well under $300, making the higher specs of Chromebook Plus devices accessible to nearly everyone. The display and performance are far and above other Chromebooks at this price though. My biggest pet peeve on budget laptops is the typical low quality of the touchpad. And even there, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 has a touchpad that you make you hate your life.

    Another Good Chromebook Deal

    Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus

    Courtesy of Lenovo

    Lenovo

    Flex 5i Chromebook Plus

    There are Chromebooks I like more than the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends), such as the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14. But none are this cheap. And while the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 above is a better deal, you might want something a bit more compact with a smaller screen—or maybe with a touchscreen. At $350, the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is one of the most affordable Chromebook Plus models you can find—it’s in a different league over standard Chromebooks at this price. It has a better screen, faster performance, more storage, and even a crisper webcam. The Flex 5i Chromebook Plus even has a 360-degree hinge and touchscreen, sweetening the deal even more.

    The Latest MacBook, Already on Sale

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    The MacBook Air is a better value, yes. And the M4 Pro or M4 Max MacBooks are more powerful. But the base 14-inch MacBook Pro is the only Mac right now with the latest M5 chip, which launched just a month ago. I wish Apple had included other features in this update, as the M5 is the only change over the M4 model. The good news is that the M5 MacBook Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) offers a solid performance increase in all areas, including CPU, GPU, and even the Neural Engine. More important is the $200 discount just a month after it launched.

    The Best Gaming Laptop Deal

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    Want a gaming laptop that doesn’t really feel like a gaming laptop? That’s what the Razer Blade 14 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has always been good at. If it weren’t for the green snake logo on the lid, you might never know this thing has a powerful discrete GPU inside. You certainly wouldn’t be able to tell from the size of the laptop, which is supremely compact. It even gets decent battery life for a gaming laptop. And when it comes to gaming, the high-resolution, OLED 120-Hz display keeps your games sharp and smooth, while the RTX 5060 (or 5070) deliver some solid performance for the size.

    The Best 2-in-1 Laptop Deal

    • Photograph: Christopher Null

    • Courtesy of Microsoft

    • Courtesy of Microsoft

    • Photograph: Christopher Null

    Microsoft

    Surface Pro 13-inch (11th Edition, 2024)

    The OLED Surface Pro was excellent when it came out in mid-2024. It was the first time the Surface Pro got an OLED panel, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus/Elite chip finally gave this Windows tablet the performance and battery life needed to compete with the iPad Pro. The only problem? It was too expensive. But for Black Friday, the OLED Surface Pro is $500 off, bringing the price down to just $900. The one caveat to remember is that you’ll still need to buy a Surface Type Cover Keyboard to pair it with. Together, you have a 2-in-1 laptop that’s the ultimate travel companion and a full PC replacement.

    An Extremely Lightweight Laptop

    Front view of the Asus Zenbook A14 laptop while open with the screen showing abstract art

    Photograph: Christopher Null

    The Asus Zenbook A14 is one of the lightest laptops you can buy right now. At 2.16 pounds, it’s a fair bit lighter even than the MacBook Air. Throw this thing in your bag, and you’ll hardly even notice it’s there. That makes it a great option for students needing to trek across campus or frequent travelers bringing their work on the go. But what really makes this laptop special is the lack of compromises it makes to achieve that weight. It’s well-built, thin, and has a comfortable keyboard and touchpad. And thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus inside, it gets fantastic, all-day battery life. I also really like the glossy OLED display. So, while the Dell 14 Plus is a more well-rounded Windows laptop with a higher-resolution screen, the Zenbook A14’s portability is hard to beat—especially at this price.

    A Solid Budget Laptop

    Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, and Pc

    Photograph: Luke Larsen

    Asus

    Vivobook 14 (X1407QA)

    The Asus Vivobook 14 is one of the few Snapdragon X-powered laptops bringing efficient performance and excellent battery life to surprisingly low prices. It’s $200 off for Black Friday, which brings it down to the same price as on the last Amazon Prime Day. There’s really only one problem: the Dell 14 Plus. By every measure, that’s the laptop you should buy. Not only is it cheaper, but it also has a much better display, touchpad, and integrated GPU performance. However, if the limited Doorbuster prices on the Dell 14 Plus have run out, the Asus Vivobook 14 is your next best bet for a Windows laptop around this price.

    What to Look for in a Black Friday Laptop Deal

    Shopping around for a good Black Friday deal isn’t so different from buying a laptop at any other time of the year. We never recommend products we don’t test ourselves, so if you’re interested in a particular laptop on this list, check out the corresponding review. But as you shop around, you may want to factor in the following specs along with the current price of the laptop:

    • CPU
    • GPU
    • Memory (RAM)
    • Storage
    • Display resolution, panel type, and refresh rate
    • Battery life

    Lastly, consider the price history. CamelCamelCamel is a useful tool to see some historical data on price drops for individual laptops. Some of the laptops included above (such as the Dell 14 Plus) are hitting new historic lows in terms of price, while others are returning to the same low price as they were on Prime Day. That doesn’t mean these aren’t a good deal necessarily, but it’s important to know that not every deal labeled “Black Friday Deal” is equal, even if the percentage drop looks similar. Many products these days have permanent discounted prices at retailers, which can obscure how big of a sale it really is.

    For an in-depth breakdown that explains each element of a laptop, read our detailed How to Choose the Right Laptop guide.

    Is Now a Good Time to Buy a Laptop?

    Yes. Black Friday isn’t the only big shopping event throughout the year, and it’s not uncommon to find great sales on laptops at other times, whether that’s on a random day or on Amazon Prime Day(s). But Black Friday remains important as the beginning of the holiday shopping season. The entire annual cycle of laptop refreshes revolves around this timing. The beginning of the year starts with lots of products getting announced at CES, and then launching throughout the year. By the time Black Friday rolls around, companies and retailers are looking to clear out inventory to make room for incoming new stuff, which is why we still often see the biggest discounts for Black Friday.

    This year, that timing even applies to MacBooks. Because Apple didn’t refresh any Macs this fall outside the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro, laptops like the M4 MacBook Air or M4 Pro/Max MacBook Pro are discounted with the anticipation of a refresh coming sometime in early 2026.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • Microsoft’s Agent 365 Wants to Help You Manage Your AI Bot Army

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    A new tool from Microsoft called Agent 365 is designed to help businesses control their growing collection of robotic helpers.

    Agent 365 is not a platform for making enterprise AI tools; it’s a way to manage them, as if they were human employees. Companies using generative AI agents in their digital workplace can use Agent 365 to organize their growing sprawl of bots, keep tabs on how they’re performing, and tweak their settings. The tool is rolling out today in Microsoft’s early access program.

    Essentially, Microsoft created a trackable workspace for agents. “Tools that you use to manage people, devices, and applications today, you’d want to extend them to run agents as well in the future,” says Charles Lamanna, a president of business and industry for Microsoft’s Copilot, its AI chatbot.

    Lamanna envisions a future where companies have many more agents performing labor than humans. For example, if a company has 100,000 employees, he sees them as using “half a million to a million agents,” ranging in tasks from simple email organization to running the “whole procurement process” for a business. He claims Microsoft internally uses millions of agents.

    This army of bots, with permission to take actions inside a company’s software and automate aspects of an employee’s workflow, could quickly grow unwieldy to track. A lack of clear oversight could also open businesses up to security breaches. Agent 365 is a way to manage all your bots, whether those agents were built with Microsoft’s tools or through a third-party platform.

    Agent 365’s core feature is a registry of an organization’s active agents all in one place, featuring specific identification numbers for each and details about how they are being used by employees. It’s also where you can change the settings for agents and what aspects of a business’s software each one has permission to access.

    Courtesy of Microsoft

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    Reece Rogers

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  • What makes sliding windows a practical choice for family homes? – Growing Family

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    Thinking about practicality first

    When choosing windows for a family home, usability is always a priority. Vertical sliding uPVC windows offer practical features that can help you manage ventilation and daily operation more easily.

    Let’s look at what makes sliding windows such a practical choice.

    sash windows in a house

    Smooth and controlled operation

    Vertical sliding design

    Unlike standard casement windows that swing inwards or out, vertical sliding uPVC windows move smoothly up and down within their frame. This contained movement means there are no parts sticking out for children to bump into, and no sashes swinging into the room.

    Controlled movement

    The smooth sliding mechanism prevents sudden slamming or jolting, reducing the risk of trapped fingers. Because the sashes slide vertically, they cannot be pushed open as widely as a casement window once unlocked.

    Sash restrictors provide added peace of mind by limiting how far the window can be opened. This allows for ventilation while preventing the window from being pushed up too far, unless the feature is manually released to let the sash slide past the restrictor.

    Features for security and convenience

    Secure locking systems

    Typically, on wider windows two locks along the meeting rail keep the window tightly secured when closed, helping to prevent unauthorised opening. Reputable manufacturers like Quickslide offer a PAS 24 upgrade for improved security, which is ideal for keeping homes safer.

    Travel restrictors

    Restrictors limit how far a sash can be opened when the feature is enabled. They are activated or deactivated on the internal side, which prevents anyone outside from overriding the feature, though it may be possible for someone inside to do so. For this reason, restrictors should be considered an added convenience rather than a safety feature for children.

    Top sash ventilation

    The upper sash can be opened to allow airflow, with the gap at the top often out of reach for young children compared to a wide-open casement or even a gap in the bottom sash. This allows ventilation while keeping the bottom sash closed.

    closeup of a sash windowcloseup of a sash window

    Reducing risks from height

    Bottom sash control

    Keeping the lower sash closed helps limit access to the window, while the opening height can be restricted for controlled ventilation. Please refer to the section above on travel restrictors for more information.

    Tilt function

    Some sliding uPVC windows, like those from Quickslide, include a tilt feature that allows the sash to tilt inwards for easy cleaning. While caution is still needed, this can reduce the need to use ladders.

    Installation and safety advice

    It’s important to choose a reputable installer when upgrading your home with sash windows. A mistake during installation can lead to more than just draughts or poor performance. It can also compromise security and safety. Poorly fitted locks, misaligned sashes, or gaps in the frame can weaken the window’s resistance to forced entry and make features such as the locks or travel restrictors less effective.

    A practical choice for families

    When designing or upgrading a family home, window choice often balances safety, practicality, and everyday comfort. Sliding uPVC windows have become a popular solution, combining easy operation with thoughtful safety features that suit busy households. From their smooth movement to built-in locking systems and ventilation options, these windows offer both convenience and reassurance for families.

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    Catherine

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  • HP’s EliteBook 6 G1q Laptop Has Always-Connected 5G, but That’s About It

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    Benchmark scores were unsurprising, turning in slightly above-average numbers across the board when compared to other Snapdragon X Plus laptops. Even its battery life of just over 17 hours when playing a full-screen video via YouTube (over Wi-Fi, not HP Go) is about in the middle of all Qualcomm-based systems I’ve encountered—though that’s admittedly still an excellent mark compared to all laptops.

    The industrial design is utilitarian, though just shy of being completely boring. The silver machine, crafted from partially recycled aluminum and plastic, has a look that feels dated, and at 24 mm thick and 3.2 pounds, it’s also very heavy for a 14-inch system. (It feels heavy in the hand and on the lap as well.) Props, however, for the textured surface on the keyboard caps, which makes for a more pleasant typing experience than most laptops provide—though note it does not offer any backlighting. The trackpad is spacious without being obtrusive in size.

    Port selection is also solid, including two USB-C ports with USB4 support, two USB-A ports, a full-size HDMI jack, and a drop-jaw Ethernet port. The SIM card slot is also accessible from the side of the device; users can bring their own data plan if they don’t want to use the multicarrier HP Go, which works via eSIM.

    Poor Value

    Photograph: Chris Null

    The G1q is a Copilot+ PC and, as with more general workloads, it turned in perfectly acceptable scores on AI-based jobs like image generation and computer vision tests. It’s plenty stable in daily use; in fact, the only trouble I encountered was during initial setup, when it lost its internet connection midway and forced me to start over from scratch—annoying, but a one-time problem that never cropped up again.

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    Christopher Null

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  • Time’s Up on Windows 10. Upgrade to Windows 11 With One of These Laptops

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    You’ll want to read our extensive guide on How to Choose the Right Laptop, but for the basics, you’ll want to decide what category of laptop you need. Most people should buy a 13-inch or 14-inch laptop, and spending around $750-$1,000 is a good place to start. You should expect a laptop around this price to get good battery life, have a decent screen, perform well enough for basic tasks, and have a comfortable keyboard and touchpad. You should also expect at least 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Anything more than that gets into premium territory where you’re paying for higher specs, more performance, or extra features. If you want something with a discrete GPU for either gaming or creative workflows, you’ll need to spend more than this.

    A laptop like the Dell 14 Plus is the ideal example of what you can get while shopping in this price range. You can even find laptops with OLED panels, up to one terabyte of storage, depending on how good discounts happen to be. I would consider anything under $750 to be a cheap laptop, and will therefore come with some significant compromises, especially around the quality of the panel and the touchpad. Fortunately, laptops that use the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip get great battery life, despite often falling under $750 in price.

    Here’s a list of important specs to consider:

    CPU: For thin and light laptops, I would recommend one of the Snapdragon X, X Plus, or X Elite chips. They get the best battery life and performance for their class of laptop. As an alternative, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is also quite good.

    GPU: As of now, the Intel’s Lunar Lake chips, such as the Core Ultra 7 258V, have the best integrated graphics. For discrete options, you’ll want to pick something with one of the latest Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, such as the RTX 5060. The biggest leap in performance there is between the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5070 Ti, which increases VRAM to 12 GB.

    RAM (or memory): Stick with at least 16 GB if you can. Since the advent of the Copilot+ designation, it ha become the new standard. You’ll even find laptops as cheap as $600 that have 16 GB of memory. Gamers and content creators should upgrade to 32 GB if possible.

    Storage: Similar to memory, many laptops have moved to 512 GB as the new standard, and you’ll find lots of affordable laptops with 512 GB as the base configuration. Upgrading to one or two terabytes, where possible, will make your life that much easier, especially since many laptops don’t offer expandable storage.

    Display: Laptops are usually categorized by screen size, with 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch being the most common. You’ll want to consider size, resolution, refresh rate, and panel type here.

    Portability: Outside of display size, thickness of the chassis and weight are the primary factors here, determining how portable a laptop is to travel with. Other dimensions are important too, but more often than not, that is determined by the screen size.

    Ports: Many laptops are limited to just USB-C and headphone jack these days, with some exceptions where USB-A or HDMI are included. Make sure your laptop has what you need, or else you’ll need a USB Hub or laptop docking station to get more ports or to increase external display support.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Has MacBook Pro Vibes at a Much Lower Price

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    We shouldn’t expect any Windows laptop with a powerful discrete GPU to truly replicate what the MacBook Pro does. Yes, there are more powerful systems out there, but efficiency is just not what those systems are about. Even with the improvements Nvidia has made in Advanced Optimus (automatic switching between discrete GPU when needed), the battery life suffers, especially while running heavier applications. On a local video playback test, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 lasted for around 12 hours. Despite using the same 84-watt-hour battery, this appears to be a slight improvement over last year’s model, though it’s hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison. I do know that its battery life diminishes quickly under heavy load, as it died in just 45 minutes while running a benchmark. You’ll want to be plugged in if you’re doing anything too serious.

    Regardless of the task, you’ll get over twice the battery life on an M4 Max MacBook Pro. Not until we get ARM-based systems with powerful integrated graphics that rival the M4 Pro and M4 Max will there be competition for Apple. The closest thing we’ve seen so far is AMD’s unique Ryzen AI Max+ processor, which showed up on the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and used a massive integrated graphics chip to challenge traditional discrete graphics. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

    The only other Windows laptop that could be better is the Asus ProArt P16, which I’ve yet to test. It now even comes with an RTX 5070 or 5090 option, which could make it significantly more powerful than the Yoga Pro 9i. However, it’s also a much more expensive laptop, configured with a 4K OLED screen and only higher-end GPUs. The Yoga Pro 9i is also hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Dell 16 Premium when similarly configured.

    The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 gets a lot of things right—plenty enough to make it worth a recommendation as a valid MacBook Pro competitor. Ultimately, it’s the performance, display, and premium quality that make it a worthy content creation machine, and the Yoga Pro 9i succeeds on all those fronts, perhaps better than any other Windows machine I’ve tested.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • No, Dedicated AI Buttons on Laptops Are Not Going to Sell More PCs

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    We’ll be waiting until next year for the first round of PCs sporting Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip, plus whatever Intel and AMD have in store for lightweight laptops. As a hint of what to expect, in stepped a company nobody had ever heard of, offering a laptop few people wanted. Humain (no, not that AI wearable company that bricked its wonky AI Pin and sold itself to HP for peanuts), a Saudi Arabian company, debuted a laptop at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii (full disclosure: travel and lodging were paid by Qualcomm, and Gizmodo did not guarantee any coverage as a condition of accepting the trip), that looks like every other clamshell notebook, save for one small detail. Instead of the Copilot key that’s become standardized on Windows machines, it features an “Humain” AI key.

    Humain’s laptop is a Windows machine at its heart, powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite chip. But the AI key brings up an extra layer of UI called Humain One. Through the interface, you can call up an AI chatbot, an AI image generator, and a few more semi-interesting capabilities. There’s a special chatbot for homework help, document summaries, or a “Story Generator.” The AI will create a narrative using the average third-grade reading level.

    It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, most obviously from Microsoft’s own Copilot AI, which is built into the company’s 365 apps and desktop. Humain usurped Copilot’s new laptop with the promise that at least some of the AI processes are being handled on-device. The notebook is otherwise packing solid-sounding specs, from an OLED display designed by Samsung, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. No, the company didn’t have any word about how much the machine will cost, or when, or where it will be available. There’s no word if it will come to the U.S., either. The only question remaining is, would you want it to?

    Apps still don’t make use of new laptops’ AI capabilities

    That ‘H’ shaped like a ladder is the ‘Humain’ key that brings up more AI. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    I spent all of Snapdragon Summit barely able to take in the epic sights of Maui through the haze of big tech AI hype. Qualcomm’s new slogan, “AI is the new UI,” ran like a river through every new announcement and demo. Qualcomm wanted to imply that on-device AI will be able to look into your fridge and suggest meals (Samsung’s fridges already do that). You can use an AI app called Collov AI to remodel rooms in your house with new furniture, though it currently doesn’t have any hookup to major furniture retailers to see how products you can actually buy might look in your abode. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before; only now these features are supposedly running on the device, versus in the cloud.

    Qualcomm’s explanation for how this works suggests that the new Snapdragon X2 Elite chip for PCs has such strong AI processing capabilities, but if a laptop or mini-PC using it ever gets overwhelmed, it can bring in the big guns—the major datacenters with such massive cloud compute they could suck the power grid dry. On-device AI should be the goal for every company. AI models are getting better at being contained. The Snapdragon X2 Elite’s redesigned NPU—or neural processing engine built for low-key or background AI tasks—now sports 80 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) versus the 45 TOPS on the original Snapdragon X platform.

    What that translates to is still vague. Collov AI, the home decoration app, was tasking the NPU at just 10%. The GPU, or graphics processing unit, was taking the brunt of the rest of the AI image generation. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, though I have yet to see a demo that can truly tax the NPU.

    Better chips are getting more expensive

    Qualcomm Snapdragon X2
    Hell, I’d take a hockey puck-shaped flat mini PC over a laptop with another AI key. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    I ran multiple benchmark tests on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme platform, all done on non-commercial test machines with 48GB of RAM and 1TB SSD under the hood. I was standing in front of many Qualcomm reps ready to slap my hand if I tried jumping for any non-synthetic benchmark. From what I could see, the chip does have more power behind it than previous Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips. The problem is that when you try and benchmark for AI performance, even if the chip does well, it’s too difficult to determine what that translates to when you’re using the device as a daily driver.

    The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme’s GPU was especially impressive. The laptops managed to hit a score of 5,648 and an average of 41 fps in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light test and 23,586 in the Solar Bay benchmark. It all suggests that laptops with the Snapdragon X2 Extreme chip will be great for graphics tasks, but the issue will be the number of apps and drivers that are compatible with Qualcomm’s ARM-based chip. Apps like Maxon’s ZBrush should have an ARM version by early 2026, but good luck trying to get any gaming done on these machines.

    These tests can only offer a perspective of what users could potentially expect from actual products. I couldn’t possibly say how much the X2 Elite Extreme laptops will cost in this age of tariffs. Recent rumors suggested TSMC, which manufactures these chips, is going to pass tariff costs for 3nm process CPUs onto Qualcomm and fellow chipmaker MediaTek.

    “It’s [TSMC’s] choice to try to figure out what to do with the pricing structure,” said Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm’s head of compute and mobile. “What we constantly think about is, ‘How do I get the most efficient design, meaning performance per millimeter square?’”

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  • I Benchmarked Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. Here’s What I Learned

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    It’s important to note that this was all tested on the X2 Elite Extreme configuration, which comes with six additional CPU cores over the standard X2 Elite. There were no X2 Elite systems to test, so we don’t know what those multi-core scores will be. I’ve been told that GPU performance will also scale up on the X2 Elite, but we don’t yet know how much faster the X2 Elite Extreme is over its sibling.

    The other caveats? The reference unit on which all of this was benchmarked is a bigger laptop than many current Snapdragon X Elite options—a 16-inch laptop with a 0.67-inch thick chassis. That’s not overly large, but performance in smaller laptops with less thermal headroom may perform differently. Qualcomm did have a few other reference designs on display, such as a 2-in-1 detachable, mini PC, and all-in-one desktop. These weren’t available for testing, but were a preview of what to expect next year when these chips launch in actual devices.

    Finally, benchmarks are benchmarks. Take all of this with a grain of salt. How these chips will affect real-world performance in all the apps you use every day will be different. We’ll have to wait until these processors land in laptops to really stress test them, and we’ll have a better idea of how they perform against the competition.

    X2 Elite Extreme and X2 Elite Confusion

    Between the X2 Elite Extreme and the X2 Elite, there are technically three specific SKUs. The exact chip from the benchmarking session, the X2E-96-100, represents the top-tier performance in the lineup, with 18 cores and a dual-core 5-GHz boost. This is the chip that will be sold as the X2 Elite Extreme.

    Confusingly, there are two Snapdragon X2 Elite chips, one that also has 18 cores and one with 12 cores. The difference between the two 18-core models is memory bandwidth. Although all three chips have a new neural processing unit capable of 80 TOPS, the X2 Elite chips are limited to 8-channel memory, whereas the X2 Elite Extreme has integrated 12-channel memory with a bandwidth of up to 228 GB per second.

    That might sound like a subtle difference, and it will be for most people, but AI workloads are extremely memory-dependent—that lower bandwidth will be a bottleneck for anyone tapping out the NPU. With the X2 Elite Extreme configuration, the focus seems to be on speeding up AI workloads, rather than more conventional faster CPU or GPU performance.

    Qualcomm seems to want to push the focus of AI in its top-tier configuration, but so far, the real jump in performance seems like it would be between the 12-core and 18-core versions of the X2 Elite. But we’ll have to wait until we can review these systems in new hardware.

    Adding another top-tier chip with its own branding is an interesting move for Qualcomm, especially since the company seems to have the most success with its mid-tier chips that showed up in laptops around $1,000. But it’s a strategic move, especially if the company wants to achieve its goal of taking 50 percent of the Windows PC market share in 5 years.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • Android Needs to Remember Its Roots Before It Can Become a PC

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    Google’s getting in on PCs, and it could mean we’ll finally have another option beyond today’s stable of operating systems. After letting ChromeOS moulder in a sea of its own inadequacies, the tech giant confirmed it’s going to offer a true PC operating system alternative to macOS or Windows 11 sometime… eventually. At Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit (full disclosure: travel and lodging were paid by Qualcomm, and Gizmodo did not guarantee any coverage as a condition of accepting the trip), Google VP of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh spoke with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and hinted about this new phase of Android.

    “I’ve seen it, it’s incredible,” quipped Amon. With no other hints to go on, we need to consider what Google needs to do to make Android work on a big screen. Android on desktops or laptops needs to offer more than an Android-ified version of the latest iPadOS 26. Google could offer an OS that allows for the Mac-style continuity between devices without the walled garden that limits you to apps dictated by Google. I’m one of those PC users routinely miffed that Windows is force-feeding Microsoft’s first-party apps like OneDrive down our throats with annoying popup ads on desktop. A change of scenery would be welcome, but I’m not one ready to abandon my Steam library, either.

    Android on PC will be stuffed with AI

    Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon and Google VP Rick Osterloh waxed on about the “incredible” Android for PC brewing behind the scenes. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    For those curious, here’s Osterloh’s full comments about Google’s plans for Android on PC:

    “In the past, we’ve always had very different systems between what we’re building on PCs and what we’re building in smartphones and we’ve embarked on a project to combine that. We’re building together a common technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computers, and I think this is another way that we can leverage all of the great work we’re doing together on our AI stack bringing Gemini models—bringing all of our application and developer community into the PC domain. So we’re really excited about this and I think this is another way in which Android is going to be able to serve everyone in every computing category.”

    Without specifics, we can only guesstimate what form Android on PC could take. Of course, Google is going to fill its new OS to the brim with Gemini AI features. On Chromebook, this is in the form of Gemini and apps like NotebookLM accessible straight from the taskbar. Google would likely want to utilize the desktop space to stick Gemini directly into the main UI, akin to Microsoft shoving Copilot on the Windows 11 desktop. Already, Google apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more all contain a button that lets Gemini access your files. Sometimes this proves useful. AI is great for quickly filling out spreadsheets. In other ways, the AI can be idiotic. I can ask Gemini to find an email about an upcoming event for a company coming up in October, and it will tell me about an email from last year.

    Using AI to its fullest requires retraining users’ expectations. That’s already a hard bargain when desktop or laptop users are used to the standard experience on macOS, Windows—and to a smaller degree—Linux. Android was born as a modified version of a Linux kernel. After so many years, the Android Open Source Project has taken on a life of its own and now rules as the bedrock for all mobile devices that aren’t part of Apple’s steadfast iOS domain. Android’s best option to muscle in on the PC space is to simply regress back to its Linux roots.

    Google will have to try letting go

    Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 2025 Review 02
    The Quick Access key on ChromeOS won’t be what users need for a full PC experience. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    Nobody wants to be beholden to an app store. Google has continued to argue in court that sideloading and third-party app stores ruin the experience. Judges haven’t bought that line of thinking, and neither have users. There’s nothing bad about having full native access to all Android apps, but they need to work well on a larger display. Beyond that, users expect to download all their main productivity and gaming apps. Compatibility is what’s been holding back Qualcomm’s own ARM-based Snapdragon X-based PCs with Windows 11. Google would be better off ensuring users can access all the Linux versions of the most-popular apps than letting them load the mobile version of TikTok.

    ChromeOS is dead simple. It borrows the Windows taskbar and enables a spare few features from the control center or through the Quick Access key on recent Chromebook Plus models. File management can feel like a chore. Tasks as simple as cropping photos to specific sizes aren’t simple on Chromebook’s default apps. A desktop OS requires a completely different frame of mind from what Google has done recently.

    PC users want something clean, straightforward, and easy to manage. We don’t need the ostentation of Material 3 Expressive. We want to use all our current peripherals and external displays and change our settings to suit our needs. A new OS would need to facilitate users changing out components for their desktops or more customizable laptops. It sure seems like Google has its eye on Qualcomm’s PC chips to start. Still, this can’t be a one-and-done venture. Google, always in mind to take a hatchet to well-established features or apps (remember Stadia game streaming? I sure do) would need to support this new venture long-term. Compared to ChromeOS, this new software suite shouldn’t be beholden to streaming through the Chrome browser.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • Lenovo’s Windows and Android Hybrid Is Impressive but Egregiously Expensive

    Lenovo’s Windows and Android Hybrid Is Impressive but Egregiously Expensive

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    Windows 2-in-1s have been doing the tablet-laptop hybrid thing for a while now, but the tablet part of that equation always feels lacking. While iPads and Android tablets have refined the experience for more than a decade and have vast ecosystems of tablet-optimized apps at the ready, Windows remains a bit of an ugly duckling.

    But what if you combined a Windows laptop with a full Android tablet? That’s the idea behind the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus (Gen 5), and it’s an interesting beast.

    The closest analogue to the ThinkBook Plus (Gen 5) is Microsoft’s now-dead Surface Book line but without the need to split shared hardware between the screen and the base. Instead, the ThinkBook packs all of its laptop internals into the keyboard base and the separate tablet hardware in the display. What you end up with is a laptop that can instantly (well, nearly instantly) switch between Windows and Android at the press of a button, or operate separately when you detach the screen.

    Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

    The hardware is no slouch either. My review unit Lenovo has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive for storage. The tablet portion of the machine includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset (the flagship Android processor from 2022), 12 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage. Those are fairly beefy specs on both ends of the equation and help keep the ThinkBook Plus (Gen 5) feeling snappy with both Windows and Android.

    As you’d expect from a $3,500 machine, the build quality of this ThinkBook Plus is exceptional, with an all-metal chassis that feels like it can survive being run over by a pickup truck (please don’t do that). It features a 2,880 x 1,800-pixel-resolution 14-inch OLED touchscreen display that looks as good as you can get in a premium laptop. Combined with a set of robust speakers tuned by Harman Kardon, you have a great overall media experience.

    Front view of Lenovo ThinkBook Plus a tablet and keyboard combination with the tablet sitting on an easel and the...

    Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

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    Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

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  • Microsoft’s Copilot AI Gets a Voice, Vision, and a ‘Hype Man’ Persona

    Microsoft’s Copilot AI Gets a Voice, Vision, and a ‘Hype Man’ Persona

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    Microsoft deleted the over-eager office assistant Clippy some 17 years ago, but the vision for an friendly and optimistic AI helper has apparently found its way out of the Recycle Bin. The company is overhauling Copilot, the text-based artificial intelligence tool bundled with Windows and other software, with the addition of vision, voice, and the ability to solve more complex problems—along with a more “encouraging” personality.

    “We really are at this amazing kind of transition point,” says Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI. “AI companions now see what we see, hear what we hear, and speak in the same language that we use to communicate with one another.”

    Copilot has so far met with a mixed response, with some users complaining of lag or vagueness in its responses, but Microsoft is betting that the tool could eventually become an integral part of Windows, Office, and beyond. By incorporating OpenAI’s AI algorithms into software that is used by hundreds of millions of people, the company is also at the forefront of testing the potential for AI to boost productivity in office work. Google, a big rival, is also shoehorning AI into office apps including Gmail and Google Docs.

    The new Copilot will be able to converse with users in several humanlike voices, handling interruptions and pauses naturally. “You can interrupt in mid-flow and it can also actively listen,” Suleyman says. “And that’s kind of the art of great conversation.”

    Suleyman adds that Copilot has also been tweaked so that it offers more emotional support to users. “It’s on your team, it’s backing you up, it’s your hype man,” he says. Copilot Voice will be available from today in English to users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with more countries to follow, the company says.

    Microsoft’s helper Clippy, an anthropomorphized paper clip, was best known for appearing when users opened Word with the infamous line “It looks like you’re writing a letter…” The product was unpopular; Microsoft concluded this was in part because the program failed to deliver on the humanlike intelligence it promised, forgetting users’ preferences and repeating itself endlessly. Large language models are far better at mimicking human intelligence, but their behavior can still be odd and unpredictable, which may prove a factor in Copilot’s popularity.

    Copilot Voice will be available in the free version of Copilot for Windows, which is also available in a standalone mobile app and via the web.

    Microsoft is introducing some more experimental upgrades to Copilot as well, which will be limited to those who pay for a $20 per month Copilot Pro subscription. An opt-in feature called Copilot Vision will let the AI assistant see users’ screens and react to things that they point to with their cursor. Suleyman says a user can indicate a product, for example, and ask Copilot to offer an opinion based on reviews sourced from the web.

    “One of the things that seems to be most common is that people ask it for aesthetic advice,” Suleyman says. “They’re on a fashion website, and they’re like, what do you call that pattern? What do you call that dress?”

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    Will Knight

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  • The Asus ProArt PZ13 Is a Detachable and Affordable Copilot+ PC

    The Asus ProArt PZ13 Is a Detachable and Affordable Copilot+ PC

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    Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro is the standard-bearer for detachable 2-in-1 Copilot+ PCs. But as I noted in my review at the time, it suffers from several issues—most notably a sky-high price of $1,950 as it was configured for our tests. No matter what you think about the detachable keyboard concept, this device comes with an awfully hard price to swallow.

    Enter Asus with a suspiciously similar concept, albeit considerably cheaper. I wouldn’t quite call this the Wish version of the Surface Pro, but at $1,100, the ProArt PZ13 may at least take some of the sting out of the cash outlay should you venture down this road.

    Photograph: Christopher Null

    To trim the price, Asus has made its fair share of sacrifices. Certain elements remain the same, including a 13-inch touchscreen, 16 GB of RAM, and a magnetically attached keyboard, which comes included with your purchase. Otherwise, the ProArt comes across as a slightly different animal. It starts with the stripped-down CPU: The ProArt uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P42100 instead of the more capable Elite that dominated the first wave of Copilot+ PCs. The aspect ratio and resolution of the two screens are slightly different—2,880 x 1,920 pixels on the Surface versus 2,880 x 1,800 on the ProArt—and although the ProArt screen isn’t nearly as vibrant and bright, I had no complaints with it through several days of use.

    Surprisingly, there are a couple of upgrades on tap from Asus over what comes on the Surface Pro. Instead of Microsoft’s 512-GB SSD, Asus packs in a 1-TB drive by default. It also enhances the two USB-C 4.0 ports—one required for charging on the ProArt, unlike the Surface Pro—with a full-size SD card slot. Oddly, the card slot and one of the USB-C ports are hidden under a rigid plastic flap that’s difficult to open and does little more than get in the way.

    Side view of a laptop composed of a tablet detachable keyboard and kickstand case

    Photograph: Christopher Null

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    Christopher Null

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  • Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Copilot+ PCs

    Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Copilot+ PCs

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    In addition to these features, Copilot+ PCs have proven more than capable of running general business apps like Microsoft Office products, web browsers, and the like. Their benchmarks are outpacing Intel and AMD laptops at similar prices much of the time. Battery life is also great on Copilot+ PCs across the board, thanks to the lower power consumption required by ARM CPUs.

    So What’s the Catch? What Can’t They Do?

    There’s a tiny problem with the ARM world. For decades, Windows has been written and rewritten and rewritten again to run on x86 chips. Throw a new chip architecture into the mix and you have to rewrite your code. That’s not easy when there are thousands of apps on the market.

    Application compatibility on ARM is better today than it was five years ago, in part because Microsoft’s Prism emulator can bridge the gaps between code written for x86 and the ARM CPU, but not all of them. So problems remain. Some apps won’t run at all. Some are still in the works. Some require emulation—and emulation invariably means a significant reduction in performance. There’s no canonical guide to what’s supported, but this site has the most comprehensive list I’ve seen.

    The short of it is that the more you try to do with your computer outside the basics, the more likely you are to run into a compatibility issue. Various games and specialized apps like VPNs often don’t work (or don’t work well). Even some mainstream apps like Google Drive for Desktop aren’t supported on ARM. Many common Windows-based benchmarks won’t run on ARM either, which can make apples-to-apples comparisons with x86 machines difficult.

    Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge Copilot+ PC

    Photograph: Christopher Null; Getty Images

    Graphics performance to date has also been uniformly poor on Copilot+ PCs, as the Snapdragon chipset’s integrated GPU isn’t up to snuff compared to Intel and AMD—and these laptops don’t support more powerful discrete graphics. If you are serious about gaming or GPU-heavy work like video rendering, a Copilot+ PC may not be for you.

    These caveats won’t apply to Intel- or AMD-based Copilot+ PCs once they become available, as they won’t have ARM-based compatibility issues, though don’t expect the same kind of battery life.

    Should You Buy a Copilot+ PC?

    Today, Copilot+ PCs are ideal for anyone who wants exceptional battery life but isn’t exactly pushing their laptops to the limit. Some of the Copilot+ PC AI features are useful—the Live Translate feature is downright amazing—while some are little more than novelties. Will a feature like Recall become a must-have or be shunned by those concerned about being tracked? Time will tell, and soon enough.

    Meanwhile, consider Copilot+ PCs on their own merits, as performance, features, and price vary more widely than you’d think.

    Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just $2.50 $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

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    Christopher Null

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  • The Best 2-in-1 Laptops to Flip Between Work and Play

    The Best 2-in-1 Laptops to Flip Between Work and Play

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    The big draw of 2-in-1 laptops is that they can be used as both a laptop and a tablet. While in laptop mode, they’re generally comparable to any other clamshell laptop you’ll find. However, Windows and ChromeOS aren’t exactly the best touch-oriented operating systems out there, so you may find the touchscreen experience lacking.

    If you already use a recent iPad or Android tablet regularly, you may not get as much out of a 2-in-1. However, the different “modes” you can use with a convertible 2-in-1 can make one well worth considering. Being able to quickly rotate the display to show something to a colleague on the other side of a table or comfortably sign a PDF can come in clutch.

    Ultimately, both of our top picks on this list, the Lenovo Yoga 9i and HP Spectre x360 14, are already some of the best laptops you can buy. Consider their 2-in-1 capabilities to be a nice bonus on top of their stellar performance and features. If you’re aiming for the more budget range and already have a tablet, it’s worth considering whether you can save some cash by sticking with a traditional clamshell.

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    Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

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  • How to Choose the Right Laptop: A Step-by-Step Guide

    How to Choose the Right Laptop: A Step-by-Step Guide

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    Intel Core i7-1455U is how a laptop manufacturer’s website might list the type of processor. Now that we know Core i7 means it’s one of the more powerful chips in the lineup, let’s break the rest of the numbers down. The first numbers (“14”) refer to the generation; in this case, it’s a 14th-generation chip (as of now, that’s the latest generation available for laptops). The i7-1355U would be a 13th-generation chip or one that’s probably a year or so older.

    The next two or three numbers (“55”) are related to performance. The higher these numbers are, the more powerful the chip is. This is true within only that chip line, though. The Intel Core i7-1465U is slightly more powerful than the Intel Core i7-1455U, but much less powerful than the Intel Core i9-1435H. The i9 chip is always more powerful than the i7, the i7 more powerful than the i5, and the difference is greater than the difference between any two chips in the same chip line.

    The letter at the end of the chip name (“U” in our example) is Intel’s designation for the chip’s purpose. For laptops, the letters you’ll see at the end are Y, U, H, and HX. The Y series chips are optimized for battery life, which is good if you’re frequently away from a plug for long periods of time, but that added battery life comes at the expense of some performance. H chips are optimized for performance, and U chips are “power efficient” but not “extremely” efficient like the Y line. The newest of the bunch is the HX designation, which are chips that Intel calls “desktop replacement class.” They’re the most powerful of the bunch, but you will get less battery life from laptops with HX chips.

    AMD Processors

    AMD’s chip naming is just as difficult to decipher as Intel’s. In the name AMD Ryzen 5 8600X, the “8” is the generation (how old it is—higher is better), and the “6” is how powerful it is. A “6” would make this example a medium-powered chip, whereas a 3 or 4 would be weaker (slower). The next two numbers don’t have much impact on anything. The “X” at the end indicates high performance. Other letter designations include U for ultra-low power (for better battery life).

    Is there a huge difference between Intel and AMD chips? My experience, testing dozens of both every year, is that it depends. Generally speaking, an Intel i5 is indistinguishable from a Ryzen 5 outside of very specific benchmarks. They’re similar when you’re doing things like browsing the web or editing documents. The same goes for the Intel i7 and Ryzen 7, and the Intel i3 and the Ryzen 3.

    Graphics performance is where you’ll notice a difference. In my testing, in both benchmarks and real work use, AMD’s integrated graphics tend to perform better than Intel on graphics-intensive tasks—think editing videos or playing games. Intel’s most recent series of chips has closed that gap significantly, but AMD still has an edge. You may benefit from buying an AMD machine if you’re a video editor or gamer, but what you most likely want is a dedicated graphics card. (More on that in the GPU section below.)

    ARM Processors

    There are quite a few chips based on the ARM architecture, but the latest and greatest is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X CPU, which made a splash in 2024 when it debuted as the sole chip supporting Microsoft’s new Copilot+ AI capabilities. (Microsoft says Copilot+ will be coming to Intel and AMD machines eventually.) We’ve tested two Copilot+ laptop with Snapdragon X chips and have been very impressed. Speed is good (though not all benchmark tests run on them yet, so head-to-head comparisons are difficult), battery life is fantastic, and software compatibility is pretty good thanks to Microsoft’s Prism translation layer, which allows popular apps to run on the ARM platform (albeit slowly). It’s early days for the Snapdragon X chips, but so far we like what we’ve seen and think it has, if nothing else, shaken up the Intel/AMD duopoly that’s long reigned over the PC market.

    Apple Processors

    Apple makes a number a chips these days, used in both MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones. Fortunately the designations are pretty simple. There are three chips in the lineup: the M1, M2, and M3. The M1 is the oldest and slowest; the M3 is the newest and fastest. Within each of those chip lines there are different models, ranging from the base model, Pro, Max, and Ultra. The base model is the least powerful, while the Ultra is the most powerful. Again, we have a separate guide to Macs with a full breakdown of each chip, all the model designations, and which one you want for different tasks.

    How Much Processing Power Do You Need?

    If you’re a typical user who runs a web browser, Microsoft’s Office Suite, and perhaps even some photo editing software, we recommend a laptop with an Intel Core i5 10th-generation or later processor. That would be displayed as something like “Intel Core i5-10350U.”

    If you can afford it, an Intel i7 chip makes a nice upgrade and will make your laptop feel snappier. The extra power often means shorter battery life though, so you’ll need to balance that with your needs. A gaming laptop, for instance, would use an i7 (or i9) chip, but an i5 is usually fine for less demanding tasks. Likewise, for the average user, the AMD Ryzen 5000 series will suffice, but the Ryzen 7000 makes a nice upgrade—again at the cost of battery life.

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    Scott Gilbertson

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  • The WIRED Guide to Motherboard Sizes

    The WIRED Guide to Motherboard Sizes

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    When you first learn how to build a PC, everything can seem super complicated, but one of the most confusing things you’ll come across is motherboard sizing. Depending on the type of case you’ve bought for your build (and what kind of hardware you want to put in your computer in general) you can have a ton of different size options. Below I’ll go through all of the main modern motherboard iterations and what they mean.

    Looking to learn more about gaming or PC gear? Be sure to have a look at our guides for the Best Gaming Keyboards, Best Gaming Mice, Best Gaming Headsets, and Best Gaming Controllers.

    Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just $2.50 $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

    If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

    What Is ATX?

    Ever wonder why most modern computer motherboards look the same? That’s because they almost all use ATX, a standard for motherboards, power supplies, and desktop cases that defines size, position, and power delivery. This set of rules helps every component work together, regardless of manufacturer.

    For our purposes, we’re interested in the physical dimensions. Some elements, like the size and location of the ports on the back, are consistent across all of the ATX variations. Other aspects of the standard, like the width and length of the board, are indicated by their own acronyms, helping you quickly identify the size and compatibility.

    Just ATX

    Photograph: Amazon

    ATX is both the name of the standard and also how we refer to the most common size. If you’ve ever cracked open the side of a computer case, this form factor will likely look familiar. Measuring in at 305 x 244 mm (12 x 9.6 inches), this size of motherboard has plenty of room for four or more RAM slots, multiple PCIe cards at several lengths, and two to four M.2 slots.

    For example: The ASUS TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi ($200) is a full-size ATX motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform. It boasts four RAM slots, two M.2 slots, and a PCIe 5.0 slot.

    These are a great choice for basically any PC build, from your humble living room email checker to a powerful gaming rig. They’re typically the first to release when a new generation launches, and have all the new features and options without paying a premium price. You don’t need a fancy computer to appreciate the benefits, since ATX motherboards also come in the widest variety of budgets and feature sets.

    Micro ATX

    Left A black and blue packaging box for a computer component. Right A black electronic board with wires connectors and...

    Photograph: Amazon

    A slightly smaller option, micro ATX (or mATX for short) is increasingly common, thanks to constantly improving energy and thermal efficiency. These boards are the same width as the full-size boards, but shortened on one end to be a 244 x 244 mm square. You’ll also find many of the same options and features that you can on ATX boards, without too much of a price increase, making these a popular choice for midrange gaming PCs.

    For example: The reasonably priced MSI Pro B760M-P ($99) has the CPU slot for the latest generation of Intel chips, a PCIe 4.0 slot, and only one M.2 slot.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • A Flaw in Windows Update Opens the Door to Zombie Exploits

    A Flaw in Windows Update Opens the Door to Zombie Exploits

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    New research being presented at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas today shows that a vulnerability in Windows Update could be exploited to downgrade Windows to older versions, exposing a slew of historical vulnerabilities that then can be exploited to gain full control of a system. Microsoft says that it is working on a complex process to carefully patch the issue, dubbed “Downdate.”

    Alon Leviev, the SafeBreach Labs researcher who discovered the flaw, says he started looking for possible downgrade attack methods after seeing that a startling hacking campaign from last year was using a type of malware (known as the “BlackLotus UEFI bootkit”) that relied on downgrading the Windows boot manager to an old, vulnerable version. After probing the Windows Update flow, Leviev discovered a path to strategically downgrading Windows—either the entire operating system or just specifically chosen components. From there, he developed a proof-of-concept attack that utilized this access to disable the Windows protection known as Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and ultimately target highly privileged code running in the computer’s core “kernel.”

    “I found a downgrade exploit that is fully undetectable because it is performed by using Windows Update itself,” which the system trusts, Leviev told WIRED ahead of his conference talk. “In terms of invisibility, I didn’t uninstall any update—I basically updated the system even though under the hood it was downgraded. So the system is not aware of the downgrade and still appears up-to-date.”

    Leviev’s downgrade capability comes from a flaw in the components of the Windows Update process. To perform an upgrade, your PC places what is essentially a request to update in a special update folder. It then presents this folder to the Microsoft update server, which checks and confirms its integrity. Next, the server creates an additional update folder for you that only it can control, where it places and finalizes the update and also stores an action list—called “pending.xml”—that includes the steps of the update plan, such as which files will be updated and where the new code will be stored on your computer. When you reboot your PC, it takes the actions from the list and updates the software.

    The idea is that even if your computer, including your update folder, is compromised, a bad actor can’t hijack the update process because the crucial parts of it happen in the server-controlled update folder. Leviev looked closely at the different files in both the user’s update folder and the server’s update folder, though, and he eventually found that while he couldn’t modify the action list in the server’s update folder directly, one of the keys controlling it—called “PoqexecCmdline”—was not locked. This gave Leviev a way to manipulate the action list, and with it the entire update process, without the system realizing that anything was amiss.

    With this control, Leviev then found strategies to downgrade multiple key components of Windows, including drivers, which coordinate with hardware peripherals; dynamic link libraries, which contain system programs and data; and, crucially, the NT kernel, which contains the most core instructions for a computer to run. All of these could be downgraded to older versions that contain known, patched vulnerabilities. And Leviev even cast a wider net from there, to find strategies for downgrading Windows security components including the Windows Secure Kernel; the Windows password and storage component Credential Guard; the hypervisor, which creates and oversees virtual machines on a system; and VBS, the Windows virtualization security mechanism.

    The technique does not include a way to first gain remote access to a victim device, but for an attacker who already has initial access, it could enable a true rampage, because Windows Update is such a trusted mechanism and can reintroduce a vast array of dangerous vulnerabilities that have been fixed by Microsoft over the years. Microsoft says that it has not seen any attempts to exploit the technique.

    “We are actively developing mitigations to protect against these risks while following an extensive process involving a thorough investigation, update development across all affected versions, and compatibility testing, to ensure maximized customer protection with minimized operational disruption,” a Microsoft spokesperson told WIRED in a statement.

    Part of the company’s fix involves revoking vulnerable VBS system files, which must be done carefully and gradually, because it could cause integration issues or reintroduce other, unrelated problems that were previously addressed by those same system files.

    Leviev emphasizes that downgrade attacks are an important threat for the developer community to consider as hackers endlessly seek paths into target systems that are stealthy and difficult to detect.

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    Lily Hay Newman

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  • Understanding window damage: causes, prevention, and solutions – Growing Family

    Understanding window damage: causes, prevention, and solutions – Growing Family

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    Collaborative post

    Windows are essential components of any building, providing natural light, ventilation, and aesthetic appeal. However, window damage is a common issue that can affect both the functionality and appearance of windows.

    Understanding the causes, prevention methods, and solutions for window damage can help homeowners and building managers maintain their properties effectively. This article delves into the various aspects of window damage, offering insights and practical advice.

    wooden window replacement

    Causes of window damage

    The causes of window damage can be broadly categorised into environmental factors, physical impact, poor installation and maintenance, and ageing and wear. Environmental factors such as extreme weather conditions, temperature fluctuations, and UV radiation can significantly impact windows. Heavy rain, hailstorms, and high winds can cause substantial damage, including cracked or shattered glass and loosened or broken frames.

    Sudden changes in temperature can lead to the expansion and contraction of window materials, resulting in cracks or warping. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays can degrade window seals and cause discolouration or fading, particularly in wooden or vinyl frames.

    Physical impacts also contribute to window damage. Accidental damage from objects like balls, stones, or tools hitting the glass or frames is common. Vandalism, where windows are deliberately damaged by throwing objects or using sharp instruments, can also cause severe damage.

    Poor installation and maintenance further exacerbate window issues. Incorrect installation can create gaps, leaks, and structural weaknesses, making windows more vulnerable to damage.

    Window ageing and wear are inevitable over time. Window materials such as wood, metal, and seals can deteriorate due to environmental exposure and regular use. The mechanical components of windows, including hinges, locks, and cranks, can also wear out, leading to functional issues and potential damage.

    sunshine through a windowsunshine through a window

    Preventing window damage

    Preventing window damage requires a proactive approach, including regular maintenance, protective measures, proper installation, and addressing structural issues. Regularly cleaning windows to remove dirt, debris, and pollutants can also prevent damage.

    Using appropriate cleaning solutions and tools helps avoid scratching the glass or damaging the frames. Inspecting window seals and caulking periodically and reapplying as needed can prevent leaks and drafts. Proper sealing also protects against moisture infiltration, which can cause rot and mould growth.

    Implementing protective measures can further safeguard windows. Installing storm windows or shutters provides an additional layer of protection against severe weather conditions, shielding primary windows from impact and weather-related damage. Applying UV-resistant window films protects against harmful UV rays and reduces the risk of fading and discolouration of window frames and furnishings. You can click here to learn more about UV rays.

    Ensuring your windows are installed properly is crucial. Hiring experienced professionals who follow industry standards and best practices minimises the risk of gaps, leaks, and structural weaknesses. Choosing high-quality window materials that are durable and suitable for the specific climate and environmental conditions of your area is also essential.

    Addressing structural issues is another key aspect of preventing window damage. Regularly inspecting the building’s foundation and framing for signs of movement or damage that could affect window alignment and integrity is advisable. Promptly addressing any structural issues will help prevent further damage.

    a hand opening a double glazed windowa hand opening a double glazed window

    Solutions for window damage

    When window damage occurs, repair and replacement are the primary solutions. Small cracks or chips in the glass can often be repaired using specialised techniques and materials.

    Professional glass repair services can restore the integrity and appearance of damaged windows. High-quality firms like www.ParadiseExteriors.com can assist you with this process. Damaged frames can be repaired by replacing or reinforcing the affected sections. Wood frames may require sanding, filling, and painting, while metal frames may need welding or replacement of corroded parts.

    In cases of severe damage, window replacement may be necessary. Severely damaged or shattered glass should be replaced to ensure safety and functionality. Modern glass options, such as tempered or laminated glass, offer enhanced durability and safety features.

    Extensive frame damage or irreparable frames may require replacement of the entire window unit. This provides an opportunity to upgrade to more energy-efficient and durable window options.

    Energy-efficient windows provide better insulation, reduce energy costs, and offer increased resistance to environmental factors. Options include double or triple-pane windows with low-emissivity (Low-E) coatings.

    In areas prone to severe weather conditions or vandalism, upgrading to impact-resistant windows can provide enhanced protection and peace of mind. These windows are designed to withstand high-impact forces and prevent shattering.

    In conclusion, window damage is a common issue arising from various causes, including environmental factors, physical impact, poor installation, and ageing. However, with regular maintenance, protective measures, and prompt repairs, the lifespan and performance of windows can be significantly extended.

    Homeowners and building managers should prioritise the care and maintenance of windows to ensure they remain functional, aesthetically pleasing, and energy-efficient. By understanding the causes, prevention methods, and solutions for window damage, you can make informed decisions that protect your property and enhance the overall quality of your home.

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    Catherine

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