Official support for Windows 10 was discontinued last month, but despite that, there are features from the older OS that are still missing from Windows 11. One such feature? The detailed calendar view in the taskbar. Fortunately, this one’s coming soon! Microsoft announced during yesterday’s Ignite 2025 presentation that it will be adding a new “Agenda view” to the taskbar calendar that helps you streamline your day and prepare for meetings. The Agenda view will give you a quick chronological overview of upcoming events in your calendar, and you’ll be able to hop into meetings directly from this new view. Windows Insiders will be the first to get access to the Agenda view starting in December. Microsoft did not mention when the feature is expected to come to the general public. Read...

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Valve just announced the Steam Machine, a living room PC/console to compete with the Xbox and PlayStation. But Valve already has a living room gaming station! It’s called the Steam Deck and all you need is a dock—you know, just like a Nintendo Switch. I love my Steam Deck, but I’d never hooked it up to my TV before… so I bought a dock, gave it a go, and learned a lot. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to turn a Steam Deck into a living room game console. Here’s how to do it yourself and what you need to know before you do. There are some definite “gotchas” you need to watch out for! Your Steam Deck just needs a dock Unlike the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck doesn’t come with a dock. But once you add a dock? You get a Switch-style experience. I purchased Valve’s official Steam Deck Docking Station for $79 and it works well. That price does feel a little high, though, and plenty of gamers have great experiences with less expensive docks. For example, Anker has a $30 Steam Deck Dock (which I personally haven’t used, but my experience with Anker hardware has been solid). My Steam Deck docked to my Steam Deck Dock, doc.Chris Hoffman / Foundry Third-party docks generally don’t ship with power adapters while the Steam Deck Dock does ship with one, so it’s a better deal than it may seem at first glance. Then again, your Steam Deck already came with its own power adapter that you can use for the Steam Deck Dock, so you may not need another one anyway. Simply plug the dock into a power outlet, connect it to your TV via HDMI cable, and you’re ready to go! Now all you have to do is set your Steam Deck in the dock, then connect the little USB-C cable from the dock to the port on top of your Steam Deck. Done! You’ll need some peripherals, too With your Steam Deck properly docked, now you just need to connect a few peripherals. A modern Xbox Controller works well, but it connects via Bluetooth and I’ve seen some chatter about latency with Xbox controllers. Still, mine worked well for me. We have a full guide to cutting through the BS when buying gaming controllers for PC. Chris Hoffman / Foundry You can also wirelessly connect Bluetooth keyboards and mice with ease in the same way. That said, Steam Deck docks have USB ports that allow you to connect wired controllers, keyboards, and mice. If Bluetooth seems flakey but you don’t like the wired option, you can also opt for wireless USB receivers. Not all peripherals support this option, but most do. If it came with a little USB dongle, you just have to plug it in and switch the device to wireless dongle mode. Put your TV in Game Mode If you encounter input latency—noticeable lag when you press buttons resulting in delayed actions on screen—go into your TV’s picture settings and put it into “Game Mode.” This reduces input latency and is essential for a good gaming experience on many TVs. Samsung Tweak the display resolution The Steam Deck’s native resolution is 1280×800, but it can output at higher resolutions. I was able to get it up to 4K on my TV, though it looked pretty good at 1080p as well. Note, however, that a higher resolution puts a bigger strain on the Steam Deck, especially with higher-end triple-A games. The Steam Deck is best with lighter games. There’s another big problem: SteamOS uses a display system called Gamescope to manage resolutions, and it can lock games to resolutions that make sense in the native handheld mode but not in docked mode. You can tweak it, but it’s not intuitive. When a game refuses to run at higher resolutions, here’s what I do: I go into Settings > Display and turned off automatic resolution for the external display. This is just in case. For the game itself, I select Properties > General > Override resolution and enter the TV’s target resolution. I launch the game, go into its settings, and chose the higher resolution that’s available. This works with most games, bringing them up from a pixelated low resolution to a surprisingly sharp experience. Game streaming might be inconsistent The Steam Deck works well as a living room console. Firing up Hades and playing it with an Xbox Controller on my couch is great! And I’m happy I can play the games I already own without having to, say, buy a Nintendo Switch 2 and re-purchase titles on the Nintendo eShop. But the Steam Deck’s game streaming performance is inconsistent. I streamed Doom: The Dark Ages from my Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080-powered PC and it did surprisingly well on the Steam Deck when handheld. But with the Steam Deck docked and using a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox controller? The Wi-Fi apparently interfered with the Bluetooth connection, causing input to be stuttery. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Bluetooth issues aside, not every game streamed as well as Doom. I found less-demanding games often didn’t stream well at all. It seems dependent on the game’s engine and whether it’s using Vulkan, DirectX 12, DirectX 11, and so on—there are so many variables! You’ll have a better, more consistent experience playing games right on the Deck’s hardware than streaming them to the Deck. I also own one of Valve’s discontinued Steam Link boxes designed for streaming games from a desktop PC to a TV, and the game streaming experience wasn’t great for that either. Steam has always been inconsistent for me in this area, so I’ve always preferred playing games locally than streaming them over the network. What if you want to stream? Instead of Steam’s built-in streaming support, use Nvidia GeForce Now to stream games from Nvidia’s servers to your Steam Deck. I’ve had more consistent results with Nvidia GeForce Now over the years than streaming from my own PC. A docked Steam Deck is fun and easy… but I want even more! The Steam Deck is great in docked mode, but it has real drawbacks. Compared to a Nintendo Switch, there’s a lot more fiddling with resolution settings. Things that should ideally “just work”? Well, they don’t. The Steam Deck works well in handheld mode, but the experience with an external display isn’t as polished. The Steam Deck is also clearly designed to be used in hand. In theory, it can deliver high-end gaming power to your TV by streaming games from your gaming PC. In reality, it’s flakey. I wouldn’t count on a reliable streaming experience with every game in your Steam library. If anything, using the Steam Deck in docked mode makes me realize how much I want a powerful SteamOS console-style experience. I like playing PC games in my living room, but I’m not a fan of the Windows desktop experience on my TV. Clicking through OneDrive promos and Microsoft Edge ads on my 4K TV is not my idea of a chill time. SteamOS has a great TV interface. If the resolution configuration was more seamless, it would be excellent. The Steam Deck just needs more powerful hardware to stand up to modern Xboxes and PlayStations in the living room—and that’s why I’m looking forward to the new Steam Machine. But until it comes, I’m happy enough to use my docked Steam Deck as a makeshift SteamOS console. Read...

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When ChatGPT launched three years ago, it shook the academic world to its core. Suddenly, students could have AI answer questions and even write essays. And because ChatGPT is so articulate, spotting cheaters became increasingly difficult. But AI isn’t just used for cheating, it can also help those who want to learn more. Recently, the Guided Learning feature was added to Gemini. Guided Learning: No answers up front The point of Guided Learning is that Gemini doesn’t present the answer right away. Instead, it guides you through the topic much like a flesh and blood teacher would. You receive a small amount of information at a time and follow-up questions help you confirm your understanding. Guided Learning uses not only text but also images, diagrams, and videos. You can even upload your own learning materials, such as presentations, PDF files, and images. It’s also possible to create tests and quizzes. Of course, you can choose the topic yourself. Irregular verbs in Spanish, second-degree math equations, or the periodic table in physics? Anything is possible! And it’s not just theoretical knowledge, you can also use the feature to learn practical skills like cooking and photography. However, it’s important to remember that Guided Learning has the same privacy concerns as any other AI service. There’s also no guarantee that the information is totally accurate, so it’s wise to double-check anything you’re unsure about. Here’s how to get started: 1. Write a question Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo Go to gemini.google.com and log in. Type a question or description about what you want to learn more about. Click on Tools and select Guided Learning (or add Use Guided Learning to your question). Confirm with the Submit arrow on the right. 2. Uploading files Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo You can also upload your own files like PowerPoint presentations, images, and other documents. To do so, tap Add files (plus icon on the left) and then Upload files. Locate your file and press Open. 3. Read the explanation Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo Now Gemini displays an explanatory text that’s guided by your command. If you’ve asked a specific question, you will get a direct answer, while an open question will produce a more general explanation. You’ll also often receive follow-up questions, and by answering them, you can steer the learning process. 4. Ask for help Gemini can also help you solve math problems. You won’t get the answer straight away, but you’ll get hints to help you understand how to solve it. Type in the problem and you’ll get a step-by-step explanation along with educational questions to help you. 5. Take a quiz Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo Gemini can create quizzes/tests around the material. For example, you can get 10 questions with four answer options and Gemini will, of course, correct everything itself. Just write Create a quiz and add details about the number of questions and the format. 6. Create a study plan Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo Google Gemini doesn’t just help you with individual questions. It can also create individual study plans. Simply type in a description of what you want to learn and what your ambitions are, and a wizard will launch to create a complete study plan. 7. Use your cell phone In the steps above, we’re using Gemini on your computer, but you can just as easily use your cell phone or tablet. To do so, search for Google Gemini in the Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iOS) and download the app. The first time you use it, you will have to accept certain warnings. You may also need to sign in with your Google account. Once you’re up and running, the app works in the same way as on your computer, but with a more compact interface. For example, you won’t see Guided Learning right away, so you’ll need to tap the icon next to the plus button at the bottom left of the screen. Read...

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Back in February 2025, several media outlets warned of a new threat targeting users of Google’s Gmail email service. Attackers used AI technology to perfect phishing emails and make them look more convincing. To do this, the AI collected freely available data from social networks, websites, and online forums on the internet and used this information to formulate a deceptively genuine-looking email that pretended to come from an acquaintance, family member, or superior. What’s more, to ensure that the message actually looked deceptively genuine, the AI also generated suitable domains as senders for the emails. The scam was dubbed “Deepphish”—a portmanteau of the terms deep learning and phishing. Even if the report mentioned at the beginning raises some questions—such as why Gmail users in particular were affected by the Deepphish attack—it nevertheless highlights a development that experts had been expecting for some time: criminal groups are increasingly using AI tools to perfect their attacks. Domains created with AI One of the weak points of conventional phishing attacks has always been the sender address. Most phishing emails can be easily identified by the sender . For example, a message from a streaming service such as Netflix or Disney with an address like andy@brandbot.com is almost certainly a fake—no matter how perfect the rest of the presentation may be. In the AI-supported variant of a phishing attack, on the other hand, new types of algorithms are used that generate a sender address with a matching URL that is adapted to the text of the email. A research group led by Alejandro Correa Bahnsen at the US company Cyxtera Technologies, an operator of data centers, investigated how effective these algorithms can be. They developed an algorithm called Deepphish, which was trained to suggest suitable URLs for phishing attacks. To do this, they fed a neural network with more than one million URLs that had been set up for phishing via email in the past and used them to train their algorithm. In doing so, they specified two different profiles for the actors behind the phishing attack. Phishing emails can often be recognized by the sender addresses. If, as in this case, a message purporting to be from Disney comes from andy@ brandbot.com, something is wrong.Foundry With the AI-generated addresses, they achieved an increase in attack efficiency from 0.69 to 20.9 percent for one profile and from 4.91 to 36.28 percent for the other. They published their results in a stud you can find here. While Deepphish originally only referred to the algorithm developed at Cyxtera, it’s now used in most cases for AI-supported phishing attacks in general. How a Deepphish attack works Deepphish attacks follow a standardized pattern. The first step is to research the target’s social environment: Where does she live? Where does she work? What are the names of their family members? What are their friends’ names? What are the names of their colleagues and superiors? What are their email addresses, how close are they to the target person? The AI uses social networks and online forums as sources, as well as data published by hackers from intrusions into company networks and websites. The more data collected in this way, the more precisely the phishing email can be tailored to the victim. In a study, employees at Cyxtera investigated how the success rate of phishing emails can be increased by selecting an AI-generated sender address. Foundry The next step is to register a suitable domain and generate a sender address using an algorithm such as Deepphish. The AI then writes the text of the email. Using the information collected, it generates a suitable subject line, a salutation tailored to the recipient and content that is worded correctly and could actually have been written by the supposed sender. Due to the precise personalization, the message appears considerably more credible than a standard phishing email. But what do the criminals want to achieve with their deepphish attacks? They want to inspire so much confidence with their forgeries that the recipient is prepared to click on a file attachment or an embedded link. Everything else happens automatically: the file attachment then usually downloads and installs malware. The link, on the other hand, leads to another fake website that requests credit card details or login information for a streaming service, for example. AI-supported phishing emails However, the Deepphish algorithm is just the beginning. There is now a whole range of tools that do all the work for criminals when formulating phishing messages. The programs are called FraudGPT, WormGPT, or GhostGPT. They formulate phishing emails that are targeted at individuals or specific companies. For example, the user can instruct these programs to generate a Netflix-style email with a request to enter account details on a fake website. Or they can have questions answered such as “How do I hack a Wi-Fi password?”. Or they can instruct the AI to program a software keylogger that forwards all keystrokes on a computer to a server address via the internet. Hacking tools such as WormGPT use AI to generate convincing-looking and well-formulated phishing emails. In most cases, they target specific individuals or companies. Foundry ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) have in-built filters so that they do not respond to such requests. As ChatGPT does not disclose its code, there is nothing that can be done about this. However, it is possible to use instructions from the darknet to confuse LLMs such as ChatGPT via certain prompt sequences so that they are then prepared to disregard their in-built filters. At the same time, some criminal groups have switched to LLMs from the open source scene and removed the corresponding filters. AI generates malware The Stopwatch AI website demonstrates just how far the possibilities of AI-generated malware already go. It shows how AI can be used in three simple steps to program malware that specifically undermines the protective shield of the major antivirus tools. In the first step, called “Choose Platform”, you select the operating system of the computer you want to attack. You can choose from Mac, Windows, Linux, AWS (Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud service), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s professional cloud service. The Stopwatch AI website demonstrates how malware can be programmed in a few simple steps with the help of AI tools. The first step is to select the operating system to be attacked. Foundry The second step is called “Choose Defence” and offers nine antivirus tools, including Microsoft Defender, Eset Endpoint Protection Advanced, McAfee Endpoint Security, Symantec Endpoint Security, and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business. In the second step, Stopwatch AI users select the antivirus program whose weaknesses they want to exploit with their malware attack. Microsoft Defender is also listed here.Foundry In the third step, “Choose Attack”, you specify the type of virus you want to create. The selection ranges from adware and spyware to ransomware and keylogging through to data exfiltration, i.e. data theft. Stopwatch AI offers ten different types of malware, from keyloggers to ransomware. The user must register in order to implement the selected malware. Foundry After clicking on a form of attack, Stopwatch AI asks for log-in details. It is possible to register with the site using a Google, Github, or Microsoft account. As soon as registration is complete, the AI starts programming the desired malware. In order to use the site, the user must agree to the terms of use, which exclude attacks against other systems. This is because Stopwatch AI is only intended for studying malware development with AI. Critically, all projects are assigned to the respective user and saved. How to recognize AI-generated phishing emails Always take a look at the sender address of incoming emails and consider whether it is plausible. Also look out for the following features: Become wary of emails from people you are not normally in contact with or have not heard from in a while. This is especially true if these messages contain unusual requests or enquiries. Hover your mouse over any links and check where they lead to. If the address does not match the sender of the email or the text of the message, it is often a scam. No bank, streaming service, or public authority ever asks for your password or wants to know your account details via email. Be suspicious of emails that put you under time pressure or claim a high level of urgency. Tricking antivirus tools with AI Every antivirus program downloads the latest virus definitions from the manufacturer’s server at least once a day. They describe the characteristics of the new malware variants discovered in the last few hours so that the software on the user’s computer can reliably detect the malware. However, this protective shield has become increasingly fragile. The reason: virus construction kits that allow hobby programmers to create functioning malware even without AI have been circulating on the darknet for decades—but not only there. Many of these malware programs are simply minimally modified variants of already known viruses. The author often only has to change the signature for his malware to be counted as a new virus. This is the only way to explain why antivirus manufacturers report 560,000 new malware programs every day. In the age of AI, the production of malware variants has taken on a new quality. This is because security manufacturers had taught their antivirus programs to recognize and isolate the variants of already known malware. With AI support, it’s now possible to manipulate existing malware in a targeted manner so that it is no longer recognized by the virus watchdogs. The tool manufacturer Acronis demonstrated this in a presentation using a malware sample that it had uploaded to Google’s detection service Virustotal. While it was initially recognized as malware by nine of the antivirus programs used there, only one virus guard was able to identify the malware as such after it had been reworked by Grok3’s AI. When the researchers had the sample code processed by Gemini 2.0 Flash and Deepseek R1, the virus was no longer detected by any of the programs at Virustotal. Depending on which AI software is used, the hacker can manipulate existing malware in such a way that it remains almost or even completely undetected by Virustotal. Foundry Nevertheless, the heuristic and behavior-based methods of antivirus programs also work with malware whose code has been modified with the help of AI. Email spoofing The falsification of email addresses, known as email spoofing, hardly occurs any more. Since 2014, the SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication methods have gradually been defined as standards and subsequently implemented by email providers. Since then, it is no longer possible to falsify the domain information in an email address. For an address such as “magazine@pcworld.com”, for example, the domain is pcworld.com. If the aforementioned authentication procedures are deactivated by a provider, these mails are normally sorted out as spam by the recipient. Spoofing attempts still exist, however. The sender’s name can be changed in many e-mail clients, for example in classic Outlook via File -> Account settings -> Account settings -> Change -> Your name. However, this does not affect the email address. In the case of hacker attacks, the reply address is sometimes changed at the same point. In this way, all replies to the emails sent are sent to the hacker’s address. Another trick is to use a similar-looking domain, such as “magazine@pcworlde.com“. Read...

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