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20 Mar 2025

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Microsoft celebrates its 50th birthday with some ugly free wallpapers
Nearly 50 years ago—April 4, 1975—Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Back then, everything centered around the development and sales of BASIC code interpreters. Only later were MS-DOS, Windows, and Office added to the mix. Microsoft is celebrating their upcoming 50th anniversary in an unconventional way: with the creation of wallpapers that are as plain as they are ugly, which will be available to download free of charge. Microsoft published the wallpapers on X/Twitter and wrote: “50 years of innovation, memories and moments that have shaped us. To celebrate this, we are providing you with some nostalgic wallpapers. Download yours and relive the magic. #Microsoft50” Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary with some free-but-ugly wallpapers.Microsoft The wallpapers show the card game Solitaire, the extremely simple painting app Paint, the word processor Word, and the iconic spreadsheet app Excel. DOS and Basic were obviously unworthy of wallpapers. You can download the wallpapers via the tweet here. If you want to celebrate Microsoft’s history with a stroll down memory lane, check out the most pivotal events in Windows history, this visual tour of Windows through the ages, this history of Microsoft hardware, and that time Microsoft tried to scrap Windows and start over. Further reading: Why is Windows called “Windows”?

PowerSchool’s simple security error was avoidable. You can do better
Late last year, a hacker infiltrated PowerSchool, a software company that offers cloud-based services to K-12 schools. The breach resulted in stolen personal data for millions of kids as well as some staff members—but the loss of social security numbers, birthdates, and other valuable details didn’t have to happen. Amid the notices rolling out to affected students and staff, news reports also made the rounds, revealing that the compromised PowerSchool employee account lacked a crucial protection: two-factor authentication (aka multi-factor authentication). Had 2FA been active, hackers would’ve had to pass a second checkpoint to successfully access PowerSchool’s internal systems. These days, in the age of multiple data breaches, having this extra security layer can save your butt should your password ever become known. (Plenty of people use a weak or even reused passwords, which are easy to crack, but phishing attacks can also expose a previously strong credential.) PowerSchool made a mistake in not enforcing MFA for its employees, especially those with access to sensitive data. Fortunately, you can avoid PowerSchool’s failure—and you should. Even if you’re not an IT worker, you still have valuable accounts like a primary email address, a bank account, and the like that deserve safeguarding. Apps that generate one-time codes (e.g., Google Authenticator or Authy) are your best mix of convenience and security, but if you want to be even more secure, you can instead opt to use a hardware key. (You should use two for safety, in case one is lost or destroyed.)Jared Newman / Foundry For these sensitive accounts, enable 2FA now. (And if you haven’t done so already, upgrade to a strong, random password, too.) It takes just a few minutes and can be set up on your phone. I recommend one-time codes generated by an app as the best mix of convenience and security—codes sent over text message are less secure, as there’s a risk of them being intercepted. Using one takes maybe another 15 seconds during login, if that. Be sure to also save your backup codes in a secure but easily accessible way. You should enable 2FA for any valued account with a password even if you can use passkeys with them. Passkeys are a fast and much stronger method of logging in compared to passwords, especially if you store them on a local device (versus in the cloud). But if you still have a password enabled, a passkey won’t stop an attacker from being able to login with the password, if they have it. Only 2FA will. Currently, PowerSchool says it is still notifying those caught in the data breach. The information lost depends on the school district and what was stored in PowerSchool’s database, but the company says that anyone affected is entitled to two years of credit monitoring. For further defense, you can take several more powerful steps to protect your kids—some forms of identity theft are silent and can go undetected for years. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on February 18, but was updated to clarify the timeline of PowerSchool’s hack and add additional context.

Leaked Windows 11 feature explains why your PC hardware struggles
Why is your computer running like a dog? (A slow dog, that is. Not a greyhound or one of those dogs that likes to herd sheep.) Ask a technically inclined friend and they might suggest a RAM upgrade or a speedier storage drive. Ask your computer and it might suggest the same thing, at least after a future update comes to Windows 11. Phantom of Earth tried out the newest developer build of Windows 11 and spotted a new FAQ section in the Settings app under the About menu. It’s hidden by default, currently only visible with some command line inputs, but it looks fairly straightforward. New Frequently Asked Questions list in Settings > System > About hidden in builds 26120.3576 and 22635.5090. Has some questions related to the Windows version and device specs. (vivetool /enable /id:55305888)— phantomofearth ? (@phantomofearth.bsky.social) 2025-03-17T23:52:44.970Z In one screenshot, in response to the suggested question “Is my GPU sufficient for high end gaming and video experience?” [sic], the section suggests getting a discrete graphics card with more than 4GB of RAM. It also says that 4-8GB of RAM is only good enough for “basic tasks like web browsing, document editing, and emailing.” (For reference, the virtual machine PC in the screenshot has 6GB.) Microsoft hasn’t said anything about this new FAQ, but as The Verge notes, it wouldn’t be the first time that Windows itself evaluated the machine it was running on for the benefit of the user. The Windows Experience Index is no longer used, but it used to give your PC a 1-6 score for performance back in the Vista days. This advice is a little more actionable, and surprisingly doesn’t outright suggest buying a new computer. (No, Windows’ built-in advertising should handle that.) It’s possible that the next big yearly Windows update will include the new FAQ section. And it’s just as possible that it won’t. Or that this info will only appear when it detects that your hardware is a little pokey. We’ll have to see how Microsoft is feeling in the latter half of the year, and if it shows up already enabled in Windows Insider builds before then.