Tech Knock

I n an announcement that’ll surely spark the interest of Windows enthusiasts, Synaptics hinted at a new “next-generation” operating system from Microsoft. This announcement took place during a conference, where Synaptics and AMD shared their plans to work together to secure the operating systems with a new kind of fingerprint sensor. Here’s what the press release from Synaptics actually said: Further, the new “biometric security OS” gets a mention again along with Windows Hello. The partnership with AMD will reportedly let Synaptics use FS7600 Match-in-Sensor technology, which is completely isolated from the rest of the system and operating system for extra security. It goes without saying that you need to take this news with an extra pinch of salt than the regular rumors that keep making rounds. The next-gen OS from Microsoft could be merely the next significant Windows 10 upgrade. In case you’re a person who loves to think more positively, ...

E very week or the other, Microsoft releases a new build for the fast ring insiders. The latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17713 bring a pack of surprises for Windows users. Redmond always listens to users, and this time, they have heard to Notepad users who were fed up with the uninteresting interface. Microsoft is giving its text editor Notepad new features after a very long time. Yes, the very same app that people use to write random text, create batch files and HTML pages, etc. Among the new Notepad features being added to Windows, you would be able to zoom into text by using the mouse wheel while holding down the Ctrl key. A long requested feature is coming for users; Microsoft is adding ctrl+backspace support to delete a previous word. Other than these, you will now have the ability to wrap around find and replace. Also, the status bar is now enabled by default in Notepad. There are few performance improvements for large...

Educating children on how to use a computer is already a challenging task in itself but try imagining the plight of a person doing it without a computer! A 33-year old teacher from Ghana, Richard Appiah Akoto went viral on social media last month when he uploaded pictures of himself teaching Microsoft Word on a blackboard due to a lack of computers. He undertook the task of sketching out the entire Microsoft Word screen on a blackboard in colored chalk so his pupils could learn the software functions without devices. Microsoft recognized the efforts of the ICT teacher at Betenase M/A Junior High School in the southern Ghana town of Sekyedumase. Soon donations from people and organization starting pouring in the form of desktop computers and laptops to his school. Impressed by Akoto’s dedication, Microsoft made arrangements to have him flown to Singapore where he attended the annual Microsoft Educators Exchange. This event had over 400 educators and school le...

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for this month falls the day before the most romantic day of the year. Yes, it's Valentine's, and the tech giant has released its monthly security update for February 2018, addressing a total of 50 CVE-listed vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, web browsers and other products. Fourteen of the security updates are listed as critical, 34 are rated as important, and 2 of them are rated as moderate in severity. The critical update patches serious security flaws in Edge browser and Outlook client, an RCE in Windows' StructuredQuery component, and several memory corruption bugs in the scripting engines used by Edge and Internet Explorer. Critical Microsoft Outlook Vulnerability One of the most severe bugs includes a memory corruption vulnerability ( CVE-2018-0852 ) in Microsoft Outlook, which can be exploited to achieve remote code execution on the targeted machines. In order to trigger the vulnerabili...