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This week’s UN General Assembly is set to be “the most consequential” meeting in a generation, and New Zealand is keeping its cards close to its chest. Read...

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A host of countries, including France and the UK, are expected to do the same when world leaders gather at the UN General Assembly next week. Read...

Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the hot topics on our YouTube show or latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! I like my laptops weird. Or at least, that’s what I learned looking at the news out of IFA this year. Specifically, Lenovo’s latest concept design: the ThinkBook VertiFlex. This thin-and-light notebook lets users rotate the screen between portrait and landscape mode. Do I like it better than Lenovo’s rolling screen ThinkBook? Not in terms of sheer coolness, no. Do I think I could just buy a 2-in-1 laptop with a 360-degree hinge, prop it on a portable stand in full tablet mode, and pair it with a keyboard? Yeah, I need an ergo keyboard anyway. But would I still consider buying this anyway? Oh yeah. I’m not a coder, but I do a little writing for my job—and having a taller screen helps me see how the overall piece flows together, without having to zoom out or scrunch down font size. And as accustomed as I am to hobbling together my own solutions, it is nice to have a more elegant, purpose-built version. That’s especially so since I assume this would be more affordable than that $3,000+ ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable model. Not automation here. You just grab the screen and rotate it on its hinge. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry What else would I love to see? Currently on my mind would be laptops that bridge DIY and off-the-shelf designs—like letting you convert a handheld gaming PC into the littlest of laptops. (Conveniently, the lone mainstream handheld with detachable controllers is…Lenovo’s.) I already waxed poetic this week on the show about using a handheld gaming PC without its controllers as a Windows tablet. Dropping a handheld gaming PC into a frame with a keyboard and trackpad, built just for it, would be even more badass. I’d also be into the return of the truly wild, like Razer’s Project Valerie (a triple display laptop). And I’m now hoping for more variations in sizes, shapes, and weight for creator and possibly gaming laptops, now that dogs and cats have united, with the surprise announcement of Intel consumer CPUs featuring Nvidia RTX integrated graphics. (More on that in the news recap below!) We’ve been in a hardware drought on the desktop side—I honestly can’t remember a year quite this slow in a long while, including during the pandemic. I don’t think it’ll end any time soon, even given the startling news about Intel and Nvidia’s partnership on x86 chips. But laptops have been giving a solid boost to my enthusiasm for PCs. It’s been a nice way to shake off the summer doldrums and head into fall feeling more optimistic. In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith dive into the return of five-year old Intel architecture, Lenovo’s pricing for its fancy-schmancy Legion Go 2 handheld, and AMD Radeon market share. We also dive into a discussion around game launchers on Windows, inspired by the news of Microsoft’s tweaks to its Xbox app. (You won’t be surprised to learn that nothing is as good as we’d want.) It also turns out that Adam likes to flout domestic laws (and flaunt it by showing us his haul). I may have also delayed the start of the show by singing the praises of German bread (and cooking in general). Definitely try homemade rouladen, if you can! Honestly, I kind of miss my beard.Alex Esteves / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! (Plus, we did a live build recently, if you’d like to watch us put together our latest PC for the TFN studio.) And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s dramatic nerd news Intel and Nvidia (Intvidia?)’s partnership completely took all of us by surprise, of course. But it’s just the peak of the emotional rollercoaster I was on this week, between ominous rumblings about product availability, another full blast of nostalgia, and yet more amazing used PCs finds. Oh, and a scandal that I found truly delightful. Alternative-Run363 / Reddit The Intel-Nvidia deal could utterly rewrite the future of laptops: I’m not the only one on the PCWorld staff thinking about laptops and the impact of x86 chips with RTX graphics. My colleague and TFN regular Mark Hachman takes a different angle, diving into the history of previous SoC architectures and Intel partnerships, as well as the questions sparked by this new partnership. What’s next for Intel Arc? Brad examines the potential implications this new Intel-Nvidia deal could have on Intel’s Arc graphics division, even with Intel assuring us that it will “continue to have GPU product offerings.” So, Doom can run 2.5 years without crashing: It even went beyond the original estimate by the person running this experiment. Nice. Would you eat TSMC honey? No, that’s not a euphemism. Just a sweet byproduct of TSMC’s efforts to restore the ecosystems around its plants. I think I’d try it. Don’t worry, Nvidia will still take your thousands of dollars: For a moment this past week, people thought the RTX 5090 Founders Edition cards might be discontinued. Nvidia quickly reassured everyone that no, it does want your money. The WinRing0 driver issue hurts: Choosing between security and PC fan performance is making me unhappy. (Obviously I’m choosing security, hence the sorrow.) A ton of third-party apps are affected—MSI Afterburner, OpenRGB, and Razer Synapse among them. What a trash haul: Redditor Alternative-Run363’s dad snagged quite a find off the street—a 9th-gen Intel PC with a GTX 1660. Sure, it’s old and dusty. But as the redditor says in response to a commenter, “I can use the PC.” (Also hilarious: this comment.) Tech apocalypse incoming? Ars Technica had a chat with the Consumer Technology Association, and the impact of tariff effects sounds potentially bad for availability of tech products in the U.S. after the holiday season. Combined with other expected shortages, affordable DIY PC building and upgrades might get tough soon. Meow.Ubisoft I love Assassin’s Creed. I love cats more: This DLC was made for me. Rooftop Cat, you’re my number one objective now. I have demands, Ubisoft: Speaking of Assassin’s Creed, a Black Flag remake seems imminent. But I’m not playing it unless they bring back the companion app and its ship minigame. This sleeper build gives me all the nostalgia: But it has none of the nonsense of 1990s-era Windows. (Windows 98 is the reason I still stan Windows NT.) Win-win. There’s a God mode in Windows?! Wait, the thing I wanted most in Windows actually exists? And I’ve just been oblivious this whole time? ajakfldjsa;kfewizs It’s not free, but dang close to it: Honestly, $23 for a 24-core Threadripper and RTX 3080 Ti system seems somehow more of a steal than free. What an auction win. I guess I didn’t have to build a Pi-Hole? Instead of blocking Windows 10 telemetry data, I could have just stripped it out at the roots. AMD X3Ds can hit 1,000fps: At least, they can in some esports games, according to AMD China. And here I am, happy when Overwatch 2 just gives me a consistent 40 to 50fps. (Sometimes the new patches cause awful framerate drops.) I need to demand more from life. Scandal rocks international stone skipping contest: I get that people broke the rules. But everything about this situation is just so wholesome. (Also the science of rock skipping is neat.) Catch you all next week—I’ll likely still be reeling from the realization that fall is starting. Where did this year go? Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. Read...

Dozens of nurses turned their backs on Health Minister Simeon Brown in a show of frustration over staffing shortages, as he made an address at their union’s annual general meeting. Read...

Caulfield lost her seat at last year`s general election, after nearly nine years as the MP for Lewes. Read...

Every Windows PC usually starts from the built-in hard drive, as the term “Windows PC” implies. This is because the Microsoft operating system is not anchored in or with the hardware, but is installed on your storage device. However, given the right environment, the computer can also be started in other ways: from CD/DVD, via the network and from external data carriers such as USB flash drives. Because flash drives are most important for external booting, our guide focuses on this scenario. In principle, however, the explanations also apply to other connected storage, such as larger USB hard drives, internal data carriers that are connected via USB cable or adapter, and inserted SD and micro SD cards. Why boot Windows from a flash drive? If the PC usually starts with Windows from the hard drive, the question is justified as to why you should boot from a USB stick. In some cases there are good or even compelling reasons for this. For example, if you bought the computer without Windows, you have to install the operating system first. This can be done easily, quickly and flexibly from a flash drive with customizations. Or if Microsoft’s operating system no longer starts even in safe mode, you can of course reinstall it. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Firstly, however, it is advisable to attempt a repair with a bootable rescue system. The same applies to malware and virus infections as well as accidentally deleted data. This is because an externally booted, so-called live system also provides access to files that are hidden by Windows or the malware. When recovering data, it is crucial that a live system, unlike Windows, does not overwrite empty hard drive areas without being asked, thereby reducing the chances of recovery. Booting from a USB stick also helps with system-related operations such as partitioning the system hard drive and cloning the complete system onto a new PC or a larger SSD. Finally, live systems make it easy to try things out: Instead of installing a Linux distribution or something else on an additional partition including dual boot, booting from the stick eliminates any configuration effort. Important knowledge so that everything works when booting You might be familiar with Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool: It creates bootable flash drives for installing Windows 10 and 11. With this tool, all you need to do is confirm the default settings five times, so you don’t have to change anything to configure the setup stick. If it’s so easy, why bother with (a bit of) theory? In fact, the Media Creation Tool hardly causes any problems. But “how” Windows is installed with it is beyond anyone’s control. However, the way it is installed is crucial for certain functions and is therefore important, as the new system should run as long and error-free as possible. Back to the Windows installation stick. All newer computers have long been working with the modern bios successor Uefi (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). This interface between the mainboard and other hardware ensures that all components function smoothly. Two advantages of Uefi over the old bios are the Secure Boot security function and the GPT (Guid Partition Table) partition style of the boot hard disk. Because the latter is closely linked to starting the computer in true Uefi mode and many computers continue to support the bios compatibility mode, the correct installation and operating mode is crucial. Because the Uefi menus differ from PC to PC, a particular setting is not always easy to find – if it is not missing altogether. The picture shows the choice of boot mode. IDG However, this is not easy to control, as Uefi has hardly any fixed standards: Sometimes the compatibility mode is called “CSM” (for “Compatibility Support Module”), sometimes “Legacy Bios”, sometimes simply “Legacy”. Some motherboards even change the boot mode automatically if the Uefi boot fails. In addition, each Uefi menu is structured differently and certain functions cannot always be found immediately – every motherboard and PC manufacturer really does its own thing here. However, as the Media Creation Tool does not allow any settings for the Windows startup mode, you may only be able to see after installation whether the PC is starting in true Uefi mode and the hard drive is running in GPT partition style. Rufus – More control during Windows installation Rufus offers much more configuration control for your Windows setup stick. This is how it works: Insert a USB stick of at least eight GB into the computer and then start Rufus; no installation is required. At the top of the program interface, you will see the inserted USB flash drive under “Drive”. In the line below, check whether the small black arrow is present on the far right behind “Selection”. If not, click on the settings icon at the bottom and change the “Check for new version” setting from “Disabled” to “Daily (default)”. After two clicks on “Close”, restart Rufus, now with a selection arrow for downloading the ISO file from Windows. The two functions mentioned are marked in the illustration at the top right. Tip: As an alternative to downloading via Rufus, you can obtain the ISO files from Microsoft or via the Windows ISO Downloader tool. Continue by clicking on the arrow behind “Selection”, switch to “Download” and click on the button again. Now select the desired Windows version including language and 64-bit architecture. Once everything is set, download the ISO file via “Download”, confirm the storage folder in the next step and wait until the download is complete. Before you click on the “Start” button straight away, take another look at the program interface: For real Uefi operation, the option “GPT” and to the right of it “Uefi (without CSM)” are correct as “Partition scheme”. Finally, create the bootable stick by clicking on “Start -‘ OK -‘ OK”. A stick configured with the option “Uefi (without CSM)” ensures that Windows works in real Uefi mode. On newer computers, it is usually sufficient to insert the stick, switch on the PC and press the boot selection button displayed on the monitor when starting. Use the arrow keys to select the USB stick and confirm with Enter to start the Windows installation. If booting from the stick fails, check the boot mode setting in the Uefi menu again and switch to “Uefi” if necessary. Also check that “Secure Boot” is activated. Tip: You can access the Uefi menu from the Windows operating system by clicking on “System -‘ Recovery -‘ Advanced Boot -‘ Restart Now -‘ Troubleshooting -‘ Advanced Options -‘ UEFI Firmware Settings -‘ Restart” in the Settings app. In Windows 10, “Recovery” is located under “Update and Security” instead of “System”. Important: There is no single correct boot option for all systems. If a live system does not offer Uefi, select the CSM variant in the Uefi menu of the PC to boot from the special stick. If booting from the stick fails What should you do if a USB stick boots without problems on other computers but not on one? First make sure in the Uefi menu that general booting via USB is authorized (“Enabled”). You may need to switch on the option separately for different USB ports. If the problem persists, plug the stick into a different socket. On a notebook, try both sides of the device; on a desktop PC, try the front and back – the only thing that really helps is trial and error. Avoid using USB docks and other pass-through sockets. Not all USB sockets on a computer are equally suitable for booting from a stick. In practice, the only thing that helps on both notebooks and desktop PCs is trial and error. IDG The stick configuration may also not match the current Uefi settings: Change the boot mode from “Uefi” to “Legacy” or vice versa. If the Uefi supports both modes at the same time, try this setting. Depending on the contents of the stick, the mobile data carrier may then appear twice. Another stick can also help. Many other tools: Balena Etcher, Unetbootin & Co. There are also a number of other tools for generating bootable USB sticks. Balena Etcher is characterized by its particularly simple operation. After selecting the ISO file – either saved locally or as a download link – and the flash drive, simply click on the “Flash” button. This is convenient, but nothing can be configured. The interface of ISO to USB is unadorned, but the program fulfils its purpose. Unetbootin focuses on different Linux distributions so it’s not recommended for Windows systems. With Universal USB Installer, the name says it all: In addition to dozens of different Linux variants, the tool offers presets for various anti-virus, rescue and emergency systems. The tool also creates installation sticks for Windows 10 and 11 by selecting the option “Windows 10 or 11 Installer”, not (!) “Windows 10 or 11 on USB”. With Balena Etcher, bootable sticks are created in no time: select the ISO file on the left, specify the USB stick in the centre, then start by clicking on “Flash” on the right. IDG Finally, Universal USB Installer can create multi-boot sticks, i.e. mobile data carriers with several installation or live systems from which you can select the one you want. Win-USB also supports multi-boot sticks, but here the pre-selection of systems is very limited. We will come back to the multi-boot sticks at the end of this guide. The prerequisite for creating bootable sticks with all the tools is the ISO file. You can usually download this from the provider’s website and then integrate it into Rufus & Co. Sometimes, however, a Google search is quicker than contacting the software provider itself. For licensing reasons, not all ISO files can be freely downloaded from the Internet. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro This applies, for example, if a live system is not based on Linux, but on Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) from Microsoft. In these cases, you must first install the Windows software and then generate the ISO file. The option can usually be found on the software interface under “Tools”, “Tools”, “Boot medium”, “Rescue” or similar. The ISO file is created with just a few mouse clicks and all the components required for Windows PE are then automatically downloaded from the Internet. Finally, you can generate your boot stick from the finished ISO file using Rufus, for example. Converting a PC from CSM to UEFI mode Computers that have long since been upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 or 11 may still be running in CSM compatibility mode, although true UEFI operation would be possible. You can check this by typing msinfo in the Run field in the taskbar. If the system overview shows the entry “UEFI” after the “BIOS mode” entry, the PC is running in true Uefi mode. However, if it says “Previous version”, we recommend changing the system. To do this, check whether the mainboard supports Uefi mode in the Uefi menu as described. If the PC is running in CSM compatibility mode (“previous version”) and the conditions are right, it can easily be switched to real Uefi operation. IDG If this is the case, first convert the system data carrier to the GPT partition style using the MBR2GPT tool integrated in Windows before switching to true Uefi mode. Multiboot: Packing several live systems onto one USB stick Reserving separate boot sticks for the many live and installation systems would be confusing and a waste of sticks. You can avoid both with a multiboot system, where you call up the system of your choice after booting. Ventoy makes it easy to create and configure a multi-boot stick. To save several systems, select a sufficiently large stick with 16 gigabytes or more storage space if possible. After inserting the stick, start Ventoy and click on “Install -‘ Yes -‘ Yes” on the interface. This step, which is only necessary at the beginning, makes the stick bootable and creates two partitions of different sizes on it. While the smaller of the two often remains invisible in Windows Explorer, the larger one appears as a normal drive: you copy the ISO files of your choice to this drive. After booting from the stick, the Ventoy interface lists the different boot systems with their file names for selection and starting. While FAT32 is the appropriate file system for most boot sticks, Ventoy uses exFAT. This also allows ISO files over four GB in size. Tip: To add or remove a system, add or delete the corresponding ISO file in the Windows file explorer. Read...

Having achieved supremacy in most reviews of high-end gaming CPUs, AMD is now flexing a bit. The company recently pointed out that several of its Ryzen X3D CPUs can reach 1,000 fps in esports titles when paired with the right GPU. Unfortunately, that GPU isn’t always made by AMD. Nevertheless, AMD China has published a slide listing six titles in which two of its CPUs — the fantastic Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D — can hit 1,000 frames per second. The slide was published by @realVictor_M on X. An AMD representative in the United States said via email that the slide “appears to be genuine,” though it would have been authored by AMD’s regional PR team overseas and couldn’t be authenticated by press time. The slide simply points out that three CPUs can achieve 1,000 fps when the games Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Player Unknown: Battlegrounds, Naraka: Bladepoint, and Marvel Rivals are played using the Ryzen CPUs. Not all of the CPUs listed could hit 1,000 fps on all of the games; as the slide indicates, the only games that all three chips could achieve those numbers in were League of Legends and Valorant. It’s also possible that the slide contains an error: on the left, AMD lists the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and the mobile Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor as part of the “1,000 Club,” as translated by Google Translate and Tom’s Hardware, which noted the slide. But its matrix of games lists the 9800X3D twice, though paired with two separate GPUs. AMD also set some constraints: the test PCs ran at 1080p, and at 540Hz. The test PCs ran Windows 11 24H2, and turned off the Security Account Manager and Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) — though our tests with VBS showed that turning it off or on didn’t have much effect besides a few percentage points’ worth of performance on certain games. Still, even a few frames may have made the difference. We can’t know for certain. It’s also worth noting that of the GPUs listed, only one is made by AMD. In fact, of the three GPUs listed — Nvidia’s GeForce RTX GeForce 5080 and 5090, as well as AMD’s Radeon RX 9070XT — AMD only achieved 1,000 fps consistently with the GeForce GPUs, and not its own. In general gaming, theres always some tension: do gamers really need something like 300 fps and above, or should they instead dial up the resolution and/or visual effects for a prettier experience? In esports, however, it’s all about the victory, and there’s some truth to the “frames win games” slogan. In this case, AMD appears to be making a valid argument that esports aficionados should be buying a Ryzen X3D chip…but also a GeForce to go along with it. Read...