The Redmond tech giant is actually warning its users that, while on Windows 11, they might experience issues opening or using some built-in apps and features due to an expired digital certificate.
As you can imagine, this is disconcerting news, since everyone was starting to think that the waters are calming down and the new OS is becoming increasingly stable.
Snipping Tool and Touch Keypad may not work for all of us
UPDATE: There is a cumulative update (KB4006746) that will fix the touch keyboard, voice typing, emoji panel, and issues with the getting started and tips sections of Windows 11.
You’ll be able to find this patch by checking for updates in the Windows Update section of Settings in Windows 11.
Microsoft explained that starting on November 1, 2021, some users might be unable to open or use certain built-in Windows apps or parts of some built-in apps that have not installed KB5006746, released October 21, 2021.
This is caused by an issue with a Microsoft digital certificate, which expired on October 31, 2021. Devices running in S mode are more likely to be affected.
The complete list of apps and features potentially impacted by this Windows 11, version 21H2 known issue includes:
Snipping Tool
Accounts page and landing page in the Settings app (S mode only)
Touch Keyboard, Voice Typing, and Emoji Panel
Input Method Editor user interface (IME UI)
Getting started and Tips
Redmond officials also stated that affected Windows 11 users can install the KB5006746 release preview update.
This cumulative update was designed to resolve issues impacting the Touch Keyboard, the Voice Typing and Emoji Panel, the Input Method Editor user interface (IME UI), and the Getting Started and Tips feature.
Also, the company is currently working on a fix to address this new known issue which will be provided with a future update.
Roblox is a free online gaming platform and game creation system that allows users to create and publish games that can be played by others in the community.
The games are created by amateur game creators using simple tools, and although Roblox is targeted at children across different age groups, it is also played by teenagers and adults.
The platform is very popular and has seen a great surge in terms of usage, with more than 40 million daily active users worldwide.
In addition to positive reviews, Roblox has also received criticism for the nature of its content, chat filtration systems as well as microtransactions that make it easy for children to spend large sums of money without parents’ knowledge.
Roblox was banned in a few countries, including the UAE, so if you want to use the platform in the UAE, we’ll show you how to get around the ban. Just continue reading, and you’ll find how easy it is.
Why was Roblox banned in the UAE?
Roblox was banned in the UAE in 2018 by UAE’s attorney general Dr. Hamad Saif Al Shamsi. It wasn’t the only gaming platform banned, as others, including Blue Whale and Cloud Pets, were banned too.
Among the reasons invoked for the ban were the addictiveness that the gaming platform caused as well as alleged reports of parental control not working properly.
However, the Roblox developers ensured that the gaming platform had proper parental control established for children so that they would not be affected by the game in any manner.
Despite the clarification by Roblox officials, these reports resulted in the ban of the platform in the UAE, and questions like Is Roblox banned in the UAE in 2021? or Is Roblox still banned in the UAE? are lingering even today.
How can I play Roblox in the UAE?
1. Use a premium VPN service
If you want to play Roblox in the UAE without any limitations, then using a premium VPN service is a fool-proof solution that will allow you to enjoy the games on the platform carefree.
A VPN works by replacing your ISP-assigned IP address with another provided by the VPN provider. Anytime you connect to a different VPN server in a different location, you will get a new IP address.
Therefore, a VPN is a very effective solution for bypassing geo-blocking since you can easily access restricted content in your area by connecting to a VPN server in a region or country where that content is available.
Moreover, a VPN service also encrypts all of your traffic and data going in and out of your device by rerouting them through a secure VPN tunnel. This way, you can enjoy full protection and anonymity while surfing the web.
For example, you can do online banking transactions securely without worrying about hackers, and also you should no longer worry that another party – not even your ISP – will spy on you. In other words, no one will know where you’re going and what you’re doing online.
When choosing a VPN service, you need to make sure that you pick a well-reputed and reliable service, as not every service on the market will work 100% with Roblox in the UAE.
Private Internet Access (PIA) is our number one recommendation if you want to play Roblox in the UAE without worrying about any bans. We tested it and it works smoothly with Roblox, so you should confidently give it a shot.
PIA is based in the USA and is owned by Kape Technologies. With more than 15 million global users, this VPN is a household name on the VPN market. It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
Private Internet Access uses AES-128 or AES-256 military-grade encryption and the OpenVPN and WireGuard VPN protocols. These will ensure the maximum level of online protection and privacy.
It also comes bundled with other great features, such as VPN Killswitch, PIA MACE (ads and malware blocker), Split Tunnel, Port forwarding, Connection Automation, and Dedicated IP.
More about PIA:
32,000+ servers in 101 locations across 78 countries.
No traffic or request logs.
Up to 10 simultaneous connections.
Risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
24/7 live chat customer support.
Private Internet Access
Try PIA to unblock Roblox in the UAE and enjoy it without any restrictions.
Once you’ve chosen a VPN product and purchased a subscription, you can easily set up the VPN client on all of your devices. This way, you can play Roblox on your PC, phone, or tablet depending on your choice.
Follow these steps to quickly set up your VPN. In this example, we show you how it’s done with Private Internet Access (PIA).
Download the VPN app from the official website, Play Store or App Store.
Install the client on your device and launch it.
Go to the available countries and select one where Roblox isn’t banned.
Connect to a server in that country.
Launch Roblox if you already have it installed and start playing.
3. Install Roblox and start playing
Depending on the device you want to play Roblox from, you can get the app from the Microsoft Store, Xbox Store, Google Play, App Store, or Amazon Appstore.
Here, we’ll show you how can you get Roblox from the Microsoft Store and install it on your Windows PC.
Go to the Roblox website and click on Get if from Microsoft.
Click on Get.
Open your Microsoft store and click on My Library.
Go to the All owned tab, find Roblox and click Install.
Go to the Installed tab, find Roblox and click Launch.
Is Roblox still banned in the UAE?
Although it is a fact that Roblox was banned in the UAE in 2018, there are speculations that the ban has been lifted recently. However, even though this may be true, there’s always the chance that the platform will be banned again.
The information received by the Gulf News was confirmed by a spokesperson for the aforementioned authority.
There are other online sources as well that mention that Roblox was unbanned in the UAE, so apparently, this is true – at least for the time being – if we take into account all the information available, some of which is certified by credible sources.
Nonetheless, since its future availability in the UAE is uncertain, you need to be cautious and use a VPN all the time while playing Roblox, as you might face interruptions or a complete ban anytime.
In conclusion, if you want to play Roblox in the UAE without getting stuck with any current or future potential ban, using a VPN service is by far the best available option that is guaranteed to work hassle-free.
Besides helping you circumvent the Roblox ban, a VPN will also ensure your online protection and privacy when browsing the web for other purposes.
Last but not least, make sure – for the best experience – to get a powerful and stable premium VPN service like the one recommended above (Private Internet Access). Keep in mind that free plans very often come with limitations, and also other unpopular products might not work properly with Roblox.
Riders Republic is Ubisoft’s response to the huge gap of extreme downhill racing in the videogames industry. While indies like Descenders and Lonely Mountains: Downhill have covered the downhill biking, Ubisoft also adds in snowboarding, jetpacks and wingsuits for anyone seeking that extreme sports rush in a AAA game.
We’ve been excited about this game ever since the closed beta (as you could tell from our preview) and now it’s finally here and ready to be played by the masses. And we do mean that literally as the mass events seem like a huge draw to the game with 64 players racing to the finish line. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take this one slope at a time.
I wanted to go skiing, but things went downhill fast
Let’s first answer a simple question with a complicated response. What is Riders Republic? It’s what happens if Steep and The Crew 2 married and had a child with elements from both games showing up.
A massive open world to explore
While it has the large open-world Ubisoft games are known for, it’s not as massive as the entirety of the USA like what The Crew 2 tried to accomplish. Although it also tries to include elements from well-known biomes across the world, Riders Republic condenses them into a more manageable map.
You’ll have rocky mountains you can wingsuit through like threading a needle, snowy slopes to perform snowboard tricks on, and forest-like areas with tracks nearly as wide as your bike to race your BMX through.
What impresses the most is how smooth the transitioning from one type of gear to the next goes, allowing you to switch from a bike jump into a jet-pack on the fly and launch yourself to the next objective at blistering speeds.
— BloodyGoodReviews™ | Pirate PR ?☠️ (@BloodyGoodRev) October 28, 2021
Add into this the amazingly fast teleportation and you’ll never have to wait too long between events. It’s downright incredible how quickly you can get from one side of the map to the other by using the map and there is not a loading screen in sight on the Xbox Series X.
Next to an amazing amount of events, there is also a lot to explore. There are 23 stunts to perform, 45 landmarks to learn more about and 11 secrets to find which will each reward you with some brand new gear.
Cue the Lion King music
You also find up to 500 Riders Republic balloons that will reward you with some cash and a star for every five you find. Collecting them all will certainly take some time but the nice thing is that they are also visible during races. Because these do not appear on the map, however, you’ll need an external guide to locate them all.
There’s a story to tell?
Weirdly enough, Riders Republic decided to include a narrative element where you’re some kind of extreme sports prodigy who’s following into the footsteps of an older legend. The characters all try too hard to be cool, like a father trying to impress their kids, wanting to convince them that they are still young at heart.
I may not be much of a judge, as a 33-year-old father of two who often goes for the punny dad-jokes, but there were plenty of cringy moments that missed the mark for me. Experience may vary depending on what you find comical, but I just wanted the cutscenes to be over and get back to racing down dusty hills as soon as possible.
“How do you do, fellow kids?”
Luckily the deeper you get into the game, the less you’ll hear from them and the story elements take a backseat to the action, as it rightfully should be in games of this genre. You’ll only hear them check in every now and then through a phone call.
If you level each category enough by grinding for experience, you’ll unlock BOSS events. I was expecting these to have some kind of narrative pay-off at least but other than a short introduction over the phone about the brand that’s sponsoring the event, it doesn’t really lead to anything.
I feel conflicted about this because, on one hand, I didn’t like the characters all that much, but on the other hand, I was expecting some kind of closure that never happened. Perhaps when I’ve beaten ALL the boss events I’ll get a credits scene. If so, I’ll update it here.
Downhill thrills
No one is picking up a game like Riders Republic for the story. The only real questions here are how fun it is to play and how the sensation of speed will deliver us thrills. And boy, it does not disappoint in this department.
The game moves at breakneck speeds at all times and you can even switch to a first-person view whenever you want to increase the sensation. There’s nothing quite as exciting as biking down a narrow trail and dodging trees as your life depends on it.
This is especially impressive when you’re playing one of the mass events and you see 63 other players cannon-balling down the slopes, all looking to rank high in the triad of events.
Weeeeeeeeee!
Rider’s Republic is always focused on the fun factor, it leans into the silly things and comes out a better game because of it. There are wacky outfits like dinosaur costumes or giraffe masks, and special gear called Funkies that not only look awesome but can totally alter your playstyle.
This ranges from a plane wing replacing your jetpack, a cardboard plane instead of a wingsuit, or a pizza delivery bike that drops pizzas everywhere and has cringy Italian voice acting. But there are also some really cool ones, with my favorite being the rocket-powered skis that propel you up the slopes and make it very easy to get around.
— BloodyGoodReviews™ | Pirate PR ?☠️ (@BloodyGoodRev) October 28, 2021
Challenging but forgiving at the same time
Riders Republic isn’t an easy game if you’re playing on the pro difficulty or facing other players and it will constantly throw additional challenges at you that may seem impossible at first. But while all of these daunting options are available, they’re never enforced.
I often defaulted to the easiest difficulty (which results in just a bit less experience upon completing the event) and never bothered too much about falling or using the useful BACKTRACK feature.
Be Kind. Rewind.
Now, for players familiar with how Forza Horizon implements this, a fair warning: while the BACKTRACK feature can be activated at all times, it doesn’t affect other players, not even the offline versions. And if you’re playing an event where you have to beat the clock, it will not stop the clock while you are rewinding.
This wouldn’t be such an issue, but it IS very easy to miss certain checkpoints. Riders Republic always shows the next two checkpoints ahead, but if the second one is straight in front of you and the first one is just outside of your peripheral vision, you will have to backtrack and it will cost you time or even that optional challenge you were going for.
Flawless Victory!
Luckily Riders Republic is a big fan of playing the game is more important than winning with completing an event at any position will still reward you with plenty of experience to level up the current sports genre and you’ll get a gold star simply for trying. It goes without saying, however, that getting the secondary objectives will accelerate your progression by a large factor.
Impressive soundtrack
Before we dig into the visual aspect, I feel the need to bring up the excellent soundtrack. It’s not often that a licensed soundtrack makes me giddy with joy but Riders Republic managed to do just that on many occasions.
From perfectly matched serene music when skydiving between rocky canyons, to actually turning up the ROCK factor to eleven with The Offspring, one of my favorite bands ever.
— BloodyGoodReviews™ | Pirate PR ?☠️ (@BloodyGoodRev) October 31, 2021
While licensed music can play on the familiarity aspect and win players over, it also poses a risk. Youtubers will need to share in ad revenue on any content they provide and Twitch streamers could even risk getting banned if they get too many copyright strikes against them.
It’s a problem that has been rearing its ugly head more and more in the content creator world, but that’s a topic for a dedicated article I intend to write at a later point in time.
Pretty from afar, but far from pretty
Onwards to the visual feast. Other than what the header of this section may lead you to believe, Riders Republic can be a great-looking game, especially when you’re working with the built-in photo mode.
Pretty as a picture. Because it IS a picture.
But it’s still an online game with a massive amount of on-screen players from all over the world and some compensation was necessary to make that possible.
When you stop dead in your tracks, the world looks great. When you’re moving through it at 160 miles per hour, it will be too blurry to notice… But it’s between those two extremes that the game shows a few technical shortcomings, with textures loading in only a few meters ahead and foliage popping into existence a few times.
There is even some wildlife that populates the game and while it’s a step up from the cardboard cutouts used in The Crew 2, it’s still not something you’d like to catch in a close-up.
Plenty of things to customize
If you’re the creative type, you can design your own content in Riders Republic. Draw out paths down a mountain and set a time to beat or score to improve on and other people can participate in your custom events. It’s something that is always welcomed and provided infinite possibilities, but not something I’d dabble in myself.
What I do always appreciate are ways to express myself through my avatar’s design and clothing, and I’m glad to say there is some very cool gear to purchase and you don’t necessarily need to spend any additional real-life cash.
Just take a look at this awesome spider backpack that lights up in the dark. If you’ve got a good eye, you can even spot the Halloween-themed pumpkin helmet I have equipped.
When I see cool spider gear, I get arachneedy!
The variety is a bit lacking at the moment though, you have daily deals and weekly items to browse, but I was expecting a much larger choice of gear. Perhaps that will still improve as the game will be playable to the public for a longer period of time, but until then it’s at least good to know that the designs are as good-looking as this.
As for your gear itself, leveling up will reward you with new bikes and snowboards and such and if you complete certain optional elements like the sponsor contracts or the Shack Daddy Bandit quests, you can even earn time-limited unique stuff that looks mighty impressive.
Nanananana, Batman!
How long to beat and complete
There is not really a moment where you’ll see the credits roll and it will feel like you’ve beaten the main campaign of Riders Republic. But if you’re solely going for the five different Boss Events, I’d say it takes around 20 hours to beat the game.
If you’re looking to 100% the game or at least go for the 1000G worth of achievements, however, you can easily triple that amount of time. There are some very grindy achievements, like completing 50 Mass Events. And while you’d expect to get achievements for finding all landmarks and relics, you’ll need to find at least 150 of the 500 hidden RR balloons as well, which are hidden across the massive map.
It’s pine, I can do this…
Lastly, there may just be a skill barrier to overcome, as one achievement requires you to complete 20 out of 23 possible stunt events and I had to chicken out of 4 of them already.
Add into this the user-generated content and any DLC that may arrive at a later time, and you’re looking at a typical Ubisoft experience that will get you 100 hours of fun or more.
Final thoughts on Riders Republic
Pros
It's fun, it's fast and it's got content to last
The licensed soundtrack is absolutely killer
There is hardly a loading screen in sight. Smooth sailing all-around
Cons
Not the prettiest next-gen game, but not bad-looking by any means
Secondary objectives are often too difficult
Checkpoints can be hard to spot in certain events, causing unnecessary restarts
FINAL SCORE: 4/5
Riders Republic satisfies any need for speed you may have and fills the extreme sports void that the AAA industry has left vacant for way too long. It’s fun, it’s not afraid to be an actual game, and leans into the silly things that keep the experience fresh and it has dozens of hours worth of content.
The speed at which you can chain one event into the next one is nothing short of impressive and it’s one of the fastest loading open worlds I’ve ever had the joy of exploring. Add a killer soundtrack into the mix and you’ve got a success formula that is a few steps up from Ubisoft’s previous attempt at a similar game with Steep.
There’s no denying that Age of Empires 4, created by Relic Entertainment and World’s Edge, has been an absolute smash.
It has captured the attention of not only die-hard series fans that have been waiting for it for a long time but also of players that never heard of the game before.
It has eight playable civilizations, each unique in its own way, and the overall experience is one that you should definitely try for yourself.
How can I rotate buildings in AoE 4?
Lately, a new question emerged and fans are more and more curious as to what the answer to this question is.
A lot of people have been asking if it is possible to actually rotate the buildings we have available in the game.
If we really think about it, quite a few base-building RTS games actually allow you to rotate buildings in whatever way you see fit.
For example, for management and city-building games, rotating buildings is somewhat essential for optimal planning and placement.
However, going back to Age of Empires 4, it is currently not possible to rotate a building. The only thing you can do, which is slightly related to this, is to rotate the camera perspective.
This way, you will be able to see all four sides of any given structure and then some, but after you place it down on the ground, there’s nothing you can do but accept the pre-set rotation.
And yes, one might think this is a major step back but in truth, there is no real need for the feature to exist in the first place.
Creators have built each AoE map in a way where the landscape moulds itself to what you build, so the whole building rotation thing becomes kind of redundant.
Also, each of the buildings has a square base meaning there’s no risk of overlapping and the game simply won’t allow it and rotation wouldn’t fix the issue.
So, unfortunately, no rotation for us in Age of Empires 4 for the time being, But who’s to say that someone won’t come up with a mod that would allow you to do just that, in the future?
Especially now that so many have actually asked if such a thing is possible in the game. We’ll just have to wait and see if this will become a reality.
What other features that aren’t present in the game so far would you like to see in the future? Share your opinion with us in the comments section below.
Microsoft has announced some important updates for Project and Planner, its popular work management tools in Microsoft 365. If Planner and Project currently serve a slightly different audience, the company also plans to introduce a more seamless experience between the two apps in 2022.
“Planner helps you manage and monitor team tasks in a shared plan while Project takes managing your tasks and projects to the next level with more flexibility and power. Over the next year, our plan is to simplify and bring the experiences of these two apps closer together so that moving from one to the other is effortless,” the company explained in a blog post.
In the meantime, Microsoft plans to introduce a new feature that will let users schedule their frequent Planner tasks to occur at a regular interval. Microsoft Planner is also getting support for rich text and images, allowing users to insert bold, italicized, or underlined text and images into task notes. Microsoft says that its task management tool is also getting some new integrations with other Microsoft 365 apps, though the company has yet to share the details.
Microsoft Project is set to add new project management features in the coming months: The Project app in Microsoft Teams will enable users to start conversations on specific tasks with their colleagues and mention them. Project for the web will also allow Microsoft 365 users to view the progress of their assigned tasks and provide status updates. With Guest Access support in the Project web app, team leaders will be able to add guest users and assign tasks to them.
Microsoft keeps adding new features regularly to its project management tools, and the company will keep listening to feedback to improve the collaboration experience for employees. If you’re interested to learn more about these updates, we invite you to check out yesterday’s “Coming soon to work management tools in Microsoft 365” Ignite session.
Microsoft has teamed up with Adidas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Xbox, and Xbox fans in the US and Canada will be able to purchase the first-ever Xbox-themed Adidas sneakers tomorrow, November 4. The limited-edition Adidas sneakers are named the “Xbox 360 Forum Mid,” and their design includes a lot of cool Easter eggs for Xbox fans.
“On the strap, you’ll note the Xbox 360 disc tray, along with the classic 360-era Xbox button design on the shoe’s outer side and the console’s air vents on the inner side. Additionally, the heel features references to the Xbox 360’s distinctive removable hard drive and memory unit slots. There are a myriad of details to discover and enjoy, including some hidden secrets for fans,” the Xbox team explained today.
The Adidas Xbox 360 Forum Mid will be available to purchase on adidas.com in the U.S. and Canada starting tomorrow, November 4 at 7:00 a.m. PT, though pricing details are not yet available as of this writing. Anyway, the box will include four pairs of laces in red, yellow, green, and blue, as a nice homage to the color of the ABXY buttons of Xbox controllers.
The Xbox 360 Forum Mid is actually the second pair of Adidas sneakers inspired by the Xbox brand: Microsoft previously revealed the Adidas Xbox 20th Forum Tech sneakers earlier this month, but those aren’t available for purchase. Microsoft plans to reveal a third and final Adidas sneaker inspired by Xbox Series X on November 15 during a special broadcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of Xbox and Halo, so watch this space if you’re a sneaker fan.
The Microsoft Edge Insider Dev channel has jumped to version 97 yesterday, with the first build 97.0.1060.2 bringing new PDF and password management features. Microsoft Edge is the default PDF reader on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and this new build improves the viewing and markup experience even further.
Microsoft Edge has also become a great password manager, and this new build makes it possible to create new website accounts or apply coupons and check out on shopping sites in a single click. You can find the full list of new features in the Edge Insider Dev build 97.0.1060.2 below:
Added the ability to draw arbitrary highlighting on PDFs.
Added an option to print even or odd pages.
Combined autofill and password generation on account sign-up webpages to be able to create new website accounts in a single click.
Combined personal info and payment info autofill on certain shopping websites to be able to apply coupons and checkout in a single click.
Enabled by default one-click password updating by adding a button to the leaked passwords Settings page that goes directly to the website’s password update page and then using password generation to automatically fill in a new password.
Added the Downloads button to windows opened with the –app command line flag.
Management policies (updates to documentation and administrative templates may not have occurred yet):
Added a policy to control if the Internet Explorer Mode Toolbar Button is Enabled.
Added a policy to control if the ability for Edge to automatically Enhance Images is Enabled.
Added a policy to control if Accessibility Image Labels are Enabled, which controls if a service can be used to generate descriptions for images that don’t already have them.
Developer:
Added an experimental WebView2 API to handle basic website authentication (Issue 120).
Added an experimental API to WebView2 apps to send and receive post web messages to iframes (Issue 139).
Added an API to WebView2 apps to query the user data folder location.
As usual, this new build also brings a couple of bug fixes, and you can learn more details on this page. With Edge 97 landing on the Dev channel this week, Edge 96 has also made its way to the Beta channel and should reach the Stable channel at the end of the month. If you’re using Linux, Microsoft Edge finally came out of beta this week and it supports all the major Linux variants.
The Microsoft Teams desktop app will let users sign in with multiple work accounts next year. This has been a top-requested feature from users, but Microsoft explained yesterday it requires a lot of work and it won’t be ready until the second half of 2022.
“Thank you for your continued feedback, and patience. We are listening and hear loud and clear that you want support for multiple work accounts in the Teams desktop apps. We are continuing our work to support this, including updating our current application architecture to ensure solid performance and functionality. Given the complexity of this work, we are targeting the second half of calendar year 2022 to be able to support this. We will update you when we have a better sense of dates,” the company explained on its Teams Feedback forum.
As of today, the Teams desktop app only lets users add a personal Microsoft account in addition to a work account. If you want to use Teams with different work accounts, you either have to sign out and then sign back in with a different account or use a workaround like using Microsoft Teams on the web.
As Microsoft explained yesterday, the company is also working on bringing its new Teams 2.0 architecture to work accounts, which will provide better performance. We’ve already seen the promising results of this work on the built-in Teams for consumers app on Windows 11, which has ditched the Electron framework in favor of Edge Webview 2. Performance improvements have been an ongoing request from Teams users, and it’s good to see the company addressing that in addition to the multiple work accounts scenario.
You surely remember all the discussions that were sparked by the fact that the taskbar for the new operating system lacks a lot of functions that we’ve all grown accustomed to.
Until today, you couldn’t drag and drop anything to your Windows 11 taskbar, and you also couldn’t just move it to any part of the desktop you want.
Well, both options are still unavailable to us, but we are actually going to get the drag and drop feature next year.
Drag and drop will be available in 2022
One of the central innovations of Microsoft’s new operating system is the completely redesigned taskbar and the associated start menu.
To be honest, both elements look chic and also have functional improvements to offer, but users are still displeased with the fact that not all functionalities we had on Windows 10 are present now.
The taskbar is by far the most important element in the daily use of Windows and in the latest version of the operating system, the Redmond company has made some changes that sparked major backlash.
This includes forced grouping and the lack of the ability to drag programs or files and folders onto the taskbar.
The latter also means that apps cannot simply be linked there using drag and drop, and opening a file via an application in the taskbar does not work in this way either.
Indeed, this is a great start, but we’re pretty sure this won’t please users 100%. Yes, the drag and drop feature for the taskbar was a must, but it’s only a drop in the ocean.
So, now that the Redmond tech company decided to make one of the requested changes, the question is if they will stop here or actually listen to the community and go the extra mile.
There’s no official rollout date for this new functionality, but we’re certain it will come to us via an update, in the first half of 2022.
There aren’t many customization options available for the Windows 11 taskbar right now either, besides the fact that you can play with the transparency option a bit.
What other changes do you think Microsoft should definitely undergo when it comes to the taskbar? Share your opinion with us in the comments section below.
Besides FUT, Career Mode still remains one of the most popular game modes in FIFA, especially if we take into consideration the new player development and training options in this year’s game.
As a result, if you want to improve your chances of always being successful, finding the best young players in FIFA 22 and developing them at your club is more important than ever.
In order to help get you started on your Career Mode journey, we’ve put together a small list of the best young players in FIFA 22, ten for each section of the pitch.
All of these players are aged 20 or under and have the highest potential rating in the game, so picking them will prove to be a win-win situation.
Who are the best young players in FIFA 22?
Before we begin, know that all players are listed by their main position, but any other position they can also play is shown as well.
As you would have expected, all players need the right training and lots of game time to ensure they develop properly and reach their full potential.
Substitutes and reserve players will not improve as much if they do not get minutes on the pitch. Makes sense, right?
We are going to start from the bottom of the field and work our way up, listing the top ten candidates for each section, divided between goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and strikers.
Top 10 young goalkeepers
As many predicted, Gianluigi Donnarumma has been the best young goalkeeper in FIFA for the past few seasons. However, now he’s now 22 years old costs more than £100 million in Career Mode.
Yes, you guessed it. This actually means that you will have to look elsewhere for a long-term solution between the posts, even if you are a superclub that can compete with other top clubs for the world’s best players.
As of right now, Maarten Vandevoort, from Genk, is the best young goalkeeper in FIFA 22. He can reach an overall rating of 87 and can be bought for relatively cheap at the start of the game.
The second-listed young goalkeeper, Chatzigavriel is also a promising prospect and you can actually get him for free because his current team is not even in the game.
But even if he can be brought to the club free of charge, it will take a while for him to reach his full potential, because as you can see, his current rating is only 58.
#
Name
Age
Club
Position
Current Rating
Predicted Rating
Value
1
M Vandevoordt
19
Genk
GK
71
87
$5m
2
C Chatzigavriel
17
Free
GK
58
84
Free
3
G Mamardashvili
20
Valencia
GK
75
83
$12.2m
4
D Alemdar
18
Rennes
GK
68
83
$2.8m
5
Joan Garcia
20
Espanyol
GK
67
83
$2.8m
6
K Tzolakis
18
Olympiacos
GK
67
83
$2.7m
7
B Verbruggen
18
Anderlecht
GK
65
83
$1.9m
8
G Bazunu
19
Man City
GK
64
83
$1.4m
9
E Green
20
Saint-Etienne
GK
72
81
$5.1m
10
Ayesa
20
Real Sociedad B
GK
67
81
$2.4m
Top 10 young defenders
Here’s a fun fact you might like to know: Alphonso Davies is not only one of the fastest players in the game, he’s also the best young defender in the latest FIFA title.
The Bayern Munich left-back is extremely versatile and can also play in left midfield, helping you better exploit the wings with his awesome pace.
However, his price tag may put off a lot of teams, as some surely won’t be able to afford to buy him.
Luckily, there are a lot of good alternatives available, so all you really have to do is imagine what kind of team you want to grow, and purchase accordingly.
Just remember that this is an important choice you are making, as these players will be the last line of defense and you want someone who will go to whatever lengths to make sure the opposing team won’t score.
#
Name
Age
Club
Position
Current Rating
Predicted Rating
Value
1
A Davies
20
Bayern Munich
LB, LM
82
89
$66m
2
Nuno Mendes
19
PSG
LWB, LB, LM
78
88
$34m
3
J Gvardiol
19
RB Leipzig
CB, LB
75
87
$14.7m
4
W Fofana
20
Leicester
CB
78
86
$33.9m
5
Eric Garcia
20
Barcelona
CB
77
86
$25.2m
6
Goncalo Inacio
19
Sporting CP
CB
76
86
$17.5m
7
J Timber
20
Ajax
CB, RB
75
86
$13.4m
8
L Stergiou
19
St Gallen
CB
67
86
$2.9m
9
S Dest
20
Barcelona
RB, RM
76
85
$18.1m
10
J Bogle
20
Sheffield Utd
RWB, RB
74
85
$10.4m
Top 10 young midfielders
Barcelona has the best young midfielder in FIFA 22, which comes as no surprise to anyone, with Pedri already being a high-rated star even before he reaches his full potential.
Don’t be afraid to use him constantly, because FIFA 22 will not punish you for pushing him every single game, and more minutes on the pitch will actually help him reach his predicted rating of 91 even quicker.
Before deciding what midfielder you want in your starting 11, or as a substitute, you must know that a lot of the best young midfielders in FIFA 22 are quite expensive, as they already have high ratings.
However, there are some players available for less than £10m, but they haven’t made our lists because they are not among the top 10 ones.
This doesn’t mean that you are going to have a hard time finding them in the game, you just have to know what you are looking for.
#
Name
Age
Club
Position
Current Rating
Predicted Rating
Value
1
Pedri
18
Barcelona
CM
81
91
$63.2m
2
R Gravenberch
19
Ajax
CM, CDM
78
90
$38.7m
3
J Bellingham
18
Borussia Dortmund
CM, LM
79
89
$43.3m
4
F Wirtz
18
Bayer Leverkusen
CAM, CM
78
89
$34.6m
5
M Greenwood
19
Man Utd
RM, ST
78
89
$35.7m
6
E Camavinga
18
Real Madrid
CM, CDM
78
89
$34.6m
7
B Saka
19
Arsenal
RM, LM, LB
80
88
$53.3m
8
N Madueke
19
PSV
RM, ST
77
88
$26.9m
9
J Musiala
18
Bayern Munich
LM, CAM
76
88
$20.5m
10
Gabriel Martinelli
20
Arsenal
LM, LW
76
88
$21.1m
Top 10 young attackers
Again, it comes as no surprise to anyone that first place in this ranking is held by Erling Haaland. The young Borussia Dortmund player has been an absolute sensation and he is still twenty years old.
Not only is he the best young forward in FIFA 22, but he can also become the best player in the game if you train him accordingly.
His potential rating of 93 is Lionel Messi’s current rating in the game, meaning Haaland can become one of the game’s greatest ever.
The catch is that he’s valued at over £161m, so it might not be the best choice in Career Mode unless you’re managing a club with a lot of available capital.
However, the second player listed in our top 10, which is Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. is not a bad choice at all, and he’s over $100m cheaper than Haaland.
It doesn’t really matter who you pick, as long as your choice fits perfectly into the puzzle that is your team’s game style and pace.
#
Name
Age
Club
PO.
CR
PR
VA.
1
E Haaland
20
Borussia Dortmund
ST
88
93
$161.3m
2
Vinicius Jr
20
Real Madrid
LW
80
90
$54.5m
3
A Fati
18
Barcelona
LW
76
90
$20.5m
4
Rodrygo
20
Real Madrid
RW
79
88
$45.1m
5
J Doku
19
Rennes
RW, RM
77
88
$26.9m
6
R Cherki
17
Lyon
RW, LW
73
88
$8.1m
7
C Hudson-Odoi
20
Chelsea
RW, LW
77
87
$26.9m
8
A Hlozek
18
Sparta Praha
ST, LM, RM
74
87
$11.7m
9
H Elliott
18
Liverpool
RW, CM
73
87
$8.1m
10
Kayky
18
Man City
RW
66
87
$3.1m
These aren’t the only youth players that are worth looking at, we just listed the top 10 out of every area of the pitch.
There are a lot of other choices so make sure you are thorough in your search before you have one of these young players sign a contract with your team.
You can even make good use of your scouts and they too can come back with some unexpected results, costing you a lot less than these well-known players.
As we mentioned before, it all comes down to your personal choice, so don’t be afraid to experiment and build the best team ever.
Out of all the choices we listed in this article, which player is your absolute favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.
Most users would prefer to have access to the same functionality when watching TV as when using a PC keyboard and mouse combo because it is a lot easier to navigate menus and choose your favorite shows without having to slowly move a cursor on the screen with 2 buttons.
No matter if you’re using your TV to play DVDs, or simply have it connected to your PC, quick and easy access could make a difference between a successful family movie night and one that causes more stress.
This is where a mini wireless keyboard and mouse combination would come in extremely handy, offering you quick and precise control over how your movie night evolves.
Even though with an item like this you get the full capability of a normal PC setup, it wouldn’t be recommended for professional-level gaming. That doesn’t mean that you can still have some fun by using it with more common games.
Besides, the items we will discuss in this guide are compatible with other devices based on Android OS, macOS, Windows, and even Linux. Most of these options also work seamlessly with Xbox and PS systems as well.
The compact size and good functionality offered by a combo of this type will surely improve your interaction level with any devices you might use it with.
How we chose the best mini wireless keyboard-mouse combos
Our team of expert testers, with a combined experience of 15 years, has tackled a variety of testing tasks for any device you could imagine.
Their experience comes into play as a very important element when choosing the products we described in this guide, and a large variety of factors have been taken into consideration.
The options that have been chosen offer great quality and cover the entire spectrum of price ranges, thus enabling everybody to find something that fits their needs both financially and otherwise.
The Rii RT518S is our top pick when it comes to keyboard-mouse combos, which can be used perfectly for any sort of multimedia control, connecting seamlessly with Android TV, tablets, smart TVs, Android devices, HTPC, IPTV, and Windows devices. Beyond this, it works with macOS as well, but with limited capabilities.
This compact multimedia keyboard has two modes of operation, including both Bluetooth and RF 2.4Ghz, which can be switched with ease by the use of one button.
To ensure visibility no matter how dark the environment is, this keyboard-mouse combo has 2 color backlights including green and blue light.
The full-sized trackpad allows you to use this feature even better than on a laptop, and easily control the mouse pointer on almost any device you connect it with.
The Rii X1-BT is another very good keyboard-mouse combo that is extremely portable and easy to use.
This device uses a QWERTY keyboard which will be extremely useful when searching for items or typing on your TV, and supports both Bluetooth and a 2.4Ghz connection.
As an added feature, this device also has a built-in laser pointer and uses backlit keys to ensure that you can use it in complete darkness without needing to search for buttons.
The built-in laser pointer makes it a suitable device for office work and offers you full wireless control over any project presentation.
The ultra-sensitive touchpad can be used as a normal mouse by enabling the device to recognize a 90-degree flip and allows multi-finger usage for zooming in and other tasks.
You can control devices like iPads, notebooks, Android TV Box, Google TV Box, Xbox 360, PS3, HTPC, IPTV, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire TV Stick from a distance of up to 15 meters.
The Rii i4 BT keyboard-mouse combo is another very useful portable keyboard that offers amazing functionality in a compact and portable design.
What makes it stand out from the crowd is the fact that it doesn’t use any dongle, so this eliminates the possibility to lose it. It connects directly to the device with Bluetooth 4.0 and 2.4Ghz RF.
The rechargeable built-in lithium-ion battery allows you long-lasting power and provides you with all the keys you need to surf the internet, control media, gaming, and typing.
You can use the 2.4G dongle for a variety of services and devices, including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Fire TV.
This pocket-size device also offers you touch controls with the built-in touchpad which can be used either as a mouse or as a controller when playing various games.
The iPazzPort Mini Bluetooth keyboard offers amazing capabilities at an accessible price and comes with a dual-mode connection. You can choose to connect your device through the Bluetooth 4.0 built-in feature, or by using the 2.4Ghz RF connection which is enabled by the use of a USB dongle.
As the connection features are variable, you can use this device with ease on almost any device. including Android TV Box, Smart TV, PC, Pad, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K/ Lite, Raspberry pi, Xbox 360, PS3, HTPC/IPTV, etc.
The touchpad built into the device covers the requirement of a mouse when dealing with searching for information, browsing the internet, gaming, and the compact keyboard allows you to type text.
What’s very important is that this keyboard combo works without issues for up to 1om/33ft from the connected device, allowing you to remove any distance limitations.
Amaminibox 2.4GHz keyboard and mouse combo is another useful device that ensures that you will be able to type and control devices without using any cables.
This useful keyboard uses a 2.4Ghz USB dongle to connect to Android TV Box, Smart TVs, and also PCs using Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox, etc.
The interface features a wide range of hotkeys, a normal QWERTY keyboard, and a multi-touch touchpad which allows you to right and left click with ease, and also completes the experience whenever you’re writing text or copy-pasting information from one document to another.
The 8 hotkeys are built into the device as shortcuts for your browsing experience, thus significantly reducing the need to use the trackpad.
To ensure that you can use this device no matter how much light there is in your environment, this device comes with backlit keys that can be set with 7 colors, depending on your preference.
To power this item, you get a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that allows your device to automatically sleep and wake up depending on your usage.
Bottom runners
Even though we already covered some of the best mouse + keyboard mini multimedia controllers, some other products caught our attention.
These items didn’t make the main list, but they are still worthy of a mention, especially because they round up the list perfectly for users who might prefer another design.
As you already noticed by exploring our carefully-crafted list, we included a wide range of wireless mini keybord+mouse alternatives which vary both in specifications but also in design and shape.
Depending on the exact environment in which you plan on using it, or for what task, you will have plenty of very good options to choose from.
Don’t hesitate to share with us what device you chose to buy from this list. You can do so by simply using the comment section found below this article.
Microsoft’s vision for a metaverse differs in distinct ways from Facebooks, but also includes perhaps the most accessible form of public acceptance by incorporating gaming.
With Microsoft Teams metaverse now becoming a thing, CEO Satya Nadella is spinning off separate metaverse concepts the company plans to back soon and among them is “gaming for the metaverse with Xbox.”
In a post Ignite 2021 keynote interview with Bloomberg TV, Nadella confirms something he hinted at during the opening of the company’s cloud-based developers conference earlier today.
You can absolutely expect us to do things in gaming. If you take Halo as a game, it is a metaverse. Minecraft is a metaverse, and so is Flight Sim. In some sense, they’re 2D today, and the question is can you now take that to a full 3D world, and we absolutely plan to do so.
Turning the Xbox platform into a conduit into Microsoft’s ultimate metaverse vision may be among one of the simpler undertakings in its entire effort. Properties such as Minecraft and Flight Sim are already built-out and robust worlds teeming with detail and communities ripe for a metaverse migration.
Nadella also hinted at somehow turning its famed Halo franchise into a metaverse destination, where again, the company could leverage decades of community engagement and vast environments to expand the concept of a parallel online world.
Perhaps, the most complicated issue with Microsoft’s proposed Xbox-related metaverse comes in the practical application. While many connect to properties such as Flight Sim, Minecraft and Halo through keyboards and controllers, they don’t necessarily make use of synthetic avatar bridges most iconic in both Facebook and Microsoft’s metaverse vision.
Microsoft highlighted its partner AltspaceVR and its work with social networking 3D avatars, as well as its own Teams mesh avatars, but the Xbox 3d avatars are not tied to the physical movement of a user like the other two are through AR and VR hardware.
The seemingly easiest solution is to bring down the price of its own HoloLens hardware while building more consumer-friendly accessibility features that tie into the platforms recently refreshed 3D avatars, but we’ll have to wait and see how Nadella and company implement their gaming metaverse vision.
Microsoft’s OneDrive sync client for Windows and macOS is soon getting native support for ARM-based devices. At its Ignite conference this morning, the company announced that Office Insiders with ARM-based Windows devices will be able to opt in for the ARM preview of OneDrive “by end of this year.”
For Mac users, the OneDrive sync client is also getting native M1 support later this year. A first preview will be available for Office Insiders in December, and the new M1 version is expected to be generally available early next year. These new native versions of OneDrive for Windows on ARM PCs and M1 Macs should perform better than the existing clients for Intel-based devices.
With Apple expecting to transition its whole Mac line to Apple Silicon by 2022, app developers have a good incentive to recompile their apps for M1-powered Macs. The Office for Mac apps have been natively compiled for M1 Macs since last year, and a native version of the OneDrive sync client had been announced back in June.
It seems like things are moving a bit slower on the Windows on ARM side, though. Microsoft released a 64-bit preview version of Office for Windows 11 on ARM testers back in July, which offers significant performance improvements compared to the emulated version that’s still available for Windows 10 on ARM users. That’s thanks to Windows 11’s ARM64EC technology, which makes it possible for developers to build apps for Windows 11 on ARM that still rely on x64 code.
Thanks in large part to Facebook taking the preverbal industry leap to invoke the phrase metaverse for its vision of a connected social online construct, other companies are now free to offer their own conceptualizations and Microsoft’s metaverse contains a whole lot of Teams.
While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees the metaverse as an interconnected sprawl of various social media experiences via new augmented and virtual reality hardware, Microsoft just tossed out its own vision that puts Teams at the center of its hybrid vision. In addition to Teams utilizing the vast array of cloud hybrid solutions, Microsoft also talked at length during Ignite 2021 about how it plans to make hybrid work environments more accessible through its communication, cross-functional fusion teams support, data visualization and deeper developer APIs for cloud management.
Meta might be trying to extract the links between its Big Blue app and its metaverse, Microsoft seems more than content to allow Teams and Azure to anchor its own productivity metaverse.
Leveraging solutions such as Mesh for Microsoft Teams to advance 2D and 3D meeting experiences, new collaborative apps, and platform tools such as Power Virtual Agents to embed in new virtual experiences for customers and linking Microsoft Cloud for Health with virtual waiting rooms for patients to offer a customized virtual experience similar to in-person, are just a handful of announcements Microsoft and partners discussed today at Ignite.
Similar to Meta, Microsoft’s metaverse does incorporate a hardware element to tie its vision together and the company not only looks to leverage its own HoloLens AR headset but team up with industry leaders such as AltSpaceVR to expand the accessibility of a future of meeting and device advancements for both developers and customers. AltSpaceVR has been in the Microsoft Store for a quick minute now, but the two are using Ignite 2021 to help expand the technologies towards training and improving developer platforms for the various collaboration apps and tools that take advantage of the cloud.
At the end of the day, Microsoft’s metaverse vision is distinctly divergent from Zuckerberg and Meta, but share the same core principles, bringing people and experiences closer online. As usual, Microsoft is leaning heavily on its investments in the cloud and the industry shift toward hybrid or full cloud migration of data, sensor information and automation. Facebook on the other hand appears poised to bring forth the second coming of 2nd Life for those ready to go on that ride.
While the Facebook metaverse may have more impact in our consumption of social media from day to day, Microsoft’s vision of a meshed interconnected hybrid work environment led by virtual assistants, 3D conferencing technologies and data visualizations may have more practical effects on lives, touching everything from coordinating global supply chains to hosting new ways to experience virtual sporting events.
When you think of Microsoft Teams, you probably think of something that you use at school or work. Even with the new “Teams for Consumers” chat app in Windows 11, though, Teams isn’t quite as mainstream in the personal space compared to chat apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. Well, Microsoft is taking the raw power of Teams for consumers and just crossed the lines a bit with Teams for business and enterprise.
At Ignite 2021, Microsoft announced that by the end of 2021 it will be allowing Teams users to chat with team members outside their work network with a Teams personal account. This means teams enterprise users will be able to invite any Teams users to chat using an email address or phone number, while still reaching the security compliances of their organization.
Such a move might seem small in the long run, but for organizations, it’s an important one. Seeing as though not all of a business’ clients might be using Teams, this lets Microsoft and organizations spread Teams to external users without creating security risks or the hassle of guest accounts. After all, Microsoft did find that employees already connect with customers and vendors, during work, leading to using different collaboration or even personal apps.
For the popularity of Teams, it’s even more important. Seeing as though Skype for Business is already in use by many organizations, it’s huge to see that Microsoft picked Teams for Consumer, instead of Skype for this interoperability. In the long run, this also shows how much of a platform Teams has become since it was first introduced.
Much like what it did with its Windows operating system, Microsoft has created the Teams platform and is able to tap into it to solve common problems. Using Teams for the consumer in enterprise to chat with external users is one of those, and Microsoft Mesh is another. We covered it in a separate post, but Mesh combines the work Microsoft has done in Mixed Reality with the work done with collaboration on Teams to let users communicate, collaborate and share with a personal virtual presence.
Microsoft is kicking off its Inspire November 2021 conference this morning, and the Redmond giant has announced some exciting updates for Microsoft Teams. The popular collaboration service is getting a slew of new features and capabilities focused on improving chat, meetings, webinars, and other experiences.
New Chat features
In early 2022, Microsoft plans to launch some new chat features to support asynchronous collaboration within organizations. Just like Outlook, Microsoft Teams will let users schedule a message in a chat, something that wasn’t possible before. The app will soon support new search results UI and over 800 3D emoji chat reactions. Meanwhile, a new Chat density feature will let users customize the number of messages displayed in the chat window.
New Webinar features and broadcasting capabilities
For meeting organizers, Microsoft Teams has released new webinar and broadcasting capabilities to help deliver more professional and engaging live events. A new Q&A experience is now in public preview, and it will allow presenters and organizers to moderate and dismiss questions, pin posts, filter responses, and more.
A new Co-organizer role is also coming to Teams later this year and will provide an option to assign up to 10 organizers to meetings and webinars. Additionally, Microsoft Teams is getting a new integration with Cvent, a popular third-party events & hospitality management platform that should make it easier for organizers to manage registration and agendas.
New Meetings features and Shared channels
The software giant is also announcing some enhancements coming to the Teams meeting experience: Meeting organizers will now be able to assign roles while scheduling the meeting as well as track the order in which virtual hands were raised by the participants. The Teams mobile app will also get an updated overflow menu that will help users to access the most frequently used actions.
For other customers using Microsoft Teams Room devices, the direct guest join feature will support joining BlueJeans and GoToMeeting meetings in the first half of 2022. Microsoft also announced today new Teams-certified devices including Yealink deskVision AIO24 and Logitech Tap Scheduler.
Another important update coming to Microsoft Teams is support for Shared channels, which will allow Teams users to collaborate with external partners and clients across multiple organizations. In Shared channels, employees will be able to use apps, meetings, chat, 1:1 calls, share content, and co-author documents with external users in real-time. Microsoft plans to release this feature in public preview in early 2021.
Microsoft Viva and other updates
Microsoft Viva, the company’s new employee experience platform within Teams is now generally available. That includes the four Viva modules (Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, and Viva Learning), which can now be purchased with just one plan, the Microsoft Viva Suite available at a promotional price of $9 per user per month. Early adopters will also get access next year to Ally.io, a new module that should make it easier for employees to manage their goals management.
This integration will be in addition to the existing Insights, Learning, and Topics modules. Microsoft has also announced the general availability of Viva Learning as well as 21 new partner integrations in Viva, including SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow. Microsoft’s Ignite 2021 conference is just getting started, and the Redmond giant also announced big updates for its Microsoft 365 apps and Azure this morning.
The November edition of Microsoft Ignite is here and Ignite has always been about IT professionals, so Azure is front and center. Topics include Azure AI, Data, Dev & Ecosystem, Hybrid, Infra, IoT, MIgration, Mixed Reality, Networking, and Resilience. We got you covered with a recap of everything Microsoft announced for Azure.
Azure AI
We start with Azure AI. On this front, Microsoft announced two major things. The first is that Azure Cognitive Search now supports more languages, for a total of more than 50. Microsoft says that advanced machine learning techniques help understand user intent and contextually rank the most relevant search results.
Azure Data saw five major announcements at Ignite 2021. First up, Azure Cosmos DV got a set of new features that make it easier for developers to build and maintain cost-effective application databases. Secondly, Azure Synapse got updated features. These include new database templates, real-time analytics for telemetry, and Event Hubs Premium hitting GA.
Third up, there was the news that the Flexible Server deployment option for Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL hit generally available this month. Also included was the news that Azure SQL Managed Instance now has significant new investments and feature updates to enhance performance and security for apps modernizing on Azure
SQL.
The final Azure Data story is SQL Server 2022 hitting preview. Microsoft is calling this the most cloud-connected release of SQL Server yet. This release should enable customers to drive deeper insights, predictions, and governance from their data at scale.
We’ll end by mentioning that Azure APU management has also been updated. There are three new features in the update and you can learn more here and here.
Microsoft shared some news around Azure IoT at Ignite. It says that IoT is seeing 90% adoption globally. Microsoft hopes its IoT Signals product can help boost IoT adoption. It put our a report about it here.
When it comes to Azure Resilience, there’s a new Azure Chaos Studio. This should give Azure customers more ways to find gaps in their apps, and help plan mitigations to avoid end-user disruption.
While most normal people may equate the cloud to the vast void of store family photos and tax documents, Microsoft is busy hosting keynotes at its Ignite 2021 conference that speak to verticals that include Health, Finance, Manufacturing, and even non-profits and new extensibilities that can help automated a slew of processes.
First up is Microsoft’s Cloud for Financial Services which is now generally available for use and brings a set of extension meant to seamlessly integrate with Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform. The new features will help extend the core functions of Cloud for Financial Services which includes Risk Analytics, Remote Sales and Services, Unified Customer Profiles, Loan Management software, security, Fraud protection and other automated processes.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft also has updates for its first ever Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing that will expand its end-to-end manufacturing solutions that rolled out in February of this year as preview but is now generally available.
Supply chain and manufacturing disruptions are here to stay, bringing with them an intensified need for innovation and evolution. Manufacturers across industries are asking for help accelerating the transformation of all aspects of their end-to-end business. These are areas where Microsoft can help connect experiences across customer operations, workforce, design and engineering processes, customer engagements and the end-to-end value chain with Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
As previously mentioned, Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing marks the first time the company is offering an end-to-end, manufacturing industry-specific cloud tool. As with most Microsoft effort, customers can rely on a robust 3rd party partner stable to tie into this manufacturing cloud solution that includes PTC, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, ABB, Annata 365, Ansys, and many more.
Non-profits can also benefit from Microsoft’s push into expanding Industry Cloud solutions. Organizations already making use of Microsoft 365, Azure or Dynamics 365 can now gain additional collaboration tools for fundraising, volunteer, and program management, as well engagement accelerant through Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.
At the core of the experience is you guessed it, Teams, which helps both communication and collaboration among volunteers and program managers. With many non-profits handling delicate information, Microsoft for Nonprofit also relies heavily on AccountGuard which the company launched back in 2018 and subsequently expanded to include AccountGuard for Healthcare, AccountGuard for Human Rights Organization and AccountGuard for Journalists.
Speaking of Healthcare, Microsoft also talked up its Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare which is now general available. As the name would imply, it’s a pretty straightforward solution for the healthcare industry that offers
Enhanced patient engagement: Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offers
an enhanced patient view that allows providers to associate one patient
record with other patient records and easily navigate between them for
faster access (in preview). The new Waiting Room in Microsoft Teams
helps patients know they’ve taken the right steps to connect to their
appointment (in preview). Integration of Microsoft
Forms with Microsoft Bookings helps with data collection from a
patient’s prior visit to a virtual visit (in preview). A new mobile browser
join function allows a patient to join a virtual visit from a mobile device
(generally available).
Improved clinical and operational insights: Microsoft Cloud for
Healthcare offers better modeling of healthcare data in dataverse,
allowing partners to define the process and experience for their
customers (generally available). Improved ingestion of healthcare data
allows customers to select how much data is copied between systems,
minimizing duplication and saving space (in preview).
Increased health team collaboration: Microsoft Teams Electronic
Health Record (EHR) Connector – Cerner allows visits to be launched
from within EHR system patient or provider portals (in preview). A
scheduled queue for virtual visits in Microsoft Bookings offers a
dashboard-like view of the day and real-time appointment updates (in
preview). Virtual Visits Manager, a standalone Teams app, simplifies the
data analytics process through reporting and actionable insights about
virtual consults (in preview).
Lastly, Microsoft’s future leaning Cloud sector solution Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability just moved into preview for select customers. As more businesses look to reduce their carbon footprint and optimize their use of servers, Microsoft is now testing its cloud solution which should help efforts to measure sustainability goals, better record and report carbon emissions reduction paths, and meet regulatory and reporting requirements.
Once again, Microsoft’s cloud investments are paying dividends for the company as it spins up specific Industry Cloud Solutions that already tie into other sustained efforts by the company that include its decades long involvement in government, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, science, and research.
Microsoft’s fall version of the Ignite conference for IT Pros kicks off this morning at 8am Pacific Time, and is once again an all-virtual, free event. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will kick off the event with a keynote focused on the emerging trends and the Microsoft Cloud, and we’ll be hearing a lot about Azure, Office, and Teams. We’ll have a full slate of coverage beginning at 8 am, and you can watch the keynotes here:
Stay tuned to OnMSFT for all the news coming out of Ignite, and enjoy the show!
On November 15th, six titles will exit Xbox Game Pass which means that those looking to continue playing one of these video games on their Xbox One or Xbox Series X console and Windows PC will need to purchase it outright.
These titles are Final Fantasy VIII HD, The Gardens Between, Planet Coaster, River City Girls, Star Renegades, and Streets of Rogue.
With the exception of Final Fantasy VIII HD, all of the above games are currently playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming. When they leave Xbox Game Pass, however, they will also be removed as playable titles from Xbox Cloud Gaming.
The Snipping Tool received a facelift sometime back, but users are now complaining that in Windows 11, the Snipping Tool is slow.
The app had had huge improvements, such as dark mode and other key features for Windows 11, but it lacks agility, and sometimes it’s missing altogether.
Why is the Snipping Tool slow in Windows 11?
The problem appears to be widespread, given the number of users who have complained about the issue, and here are some of the reasons behind this problem:
Corrupt app – Like any app, and especially with Windows apps, Snipping Tool can get buggy after a Windows 11 update.
Old or corrupted graphics card driver – Since the app uses video captioning, an incompatible or corrupted graphics driver may be the culprit for a slow Snipping Tool.
Software conflict – If you installed any other captioning tool running in the background, it may compete for the same resources, causing the Snipping Tool to be slow or unresponsive.
Now that we know the reason for this problem, let’s fix it using the solutions below.
How can I fix the Snipping Tool if it is slow on Windows 11?
Before getting into the more complicated solutions, let’s try some quick methods to fix it:
Restart the Snipping Tool and Windows 11. Sometimes, this workaround is all it takes.
Make sure to install all the Windows 11 updates on your PC.
Close any apps that use intensive graphics, such as games or photo & video editors.
If these quick solutions didn’t fix the Windows 11 slow Snipping Tool problem, let’s apply the following fixes.
1. Run the Windows Store Apps troubleshooter
Right-click the Start button and select Settings.
Now, in the System tab, select Troubleshoot from the right pane.
Click on Other troubleshooters.
Look for Windows Store Apps troubleshooter and click on Run.
The system will attempt to fix any problems with the Windows apps, including Snipping Tool.
2. Repair & reset Snipping Tool
Click the Start button and select Settings from the menu.
Choose Apps from the left pane, then select Installed apps from the right.
Look for Snipping Tool in the list of apps, click on the three dots from its right, and select Advanced options.
Scroll down and under the Reset menu, click on Repair.
After the process is done, check if there are any changes. If not, repeat the steps above and hit the Reset button instead.
Repairing and resetting the Snipping Tool app should fix the problem, and the tool will work faster. This also helps with the Snipping Tool Recording stopped error.
Right-click the Windows button and select Device Manager from the list.
Expand the Display adapters section, right-click your adapter, and select Update driver.
Choose Search automatically for drivers.
The system will find and install the update if it finds any.
If Snipping Tool is still slow on Windows 11, in step 2, choose Uninstall device instead and restart your PC. The system will install a new driver.
Alternatively, you may visit the graphics card or the motherboard manufacturer’s website and manually download the right driver for your device and OS.
If that is not suitable either, you could better manage any drivers on your PC with optimized support for proper driver performance. It will entirely diagnose your Windows 11 and find outdated drivers that you can update at once.
4. Reinstall Snipping Tool
Click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
From there click on Apps from the left and then choose Installed apps from the right pane.
Scroll down to find Snipping Tool, click the three dots from its right side, and select Uninstall.
The Microsoft app is free and already built-in, but if the Snipping Tool is slow on Windows 11 even after performing the above solutions, it’s time to think of a better tool.
We have prepared a list of Snipping Tool alternatives for you. Although the selection is for Windows 10, they all work for Windows 11, so try them out.
That’s it! After performing our solutions, we hope the Windows 11 slow Snipping Tool problem is gone.
Cybercriminals seem to be having a field day with the number of phishing campaigns reported lately. Kaspersky makes the list as the latest entrant in these attacks.
Microsoft had a similar phishing campaign attack a few months ago with the criminals thirsty for credentials.
Kaspersky security experts have detected phishing attempts that target Office 365 users through the Amazon SES.
The Amazon SES is an email service that allows developers to send emails from any app for different cases.
Servers are safe
The phishing campaign is not linked to one individual as it seems it is a multi-criminal attack. Two phishing campaign kits appear to have been used, namely Iamtheboss and another named MIRCBOOT.
The servers have not been compromised, as the SES token was revoked immediately after the phishing attacks were discovered.
Sourcing for credentials
The cybercriminals made an attempt by camouflaging the phishing messages and redirecting users to the phishing landing pages. The aim was to harvest the victims’ Microsoft credentials.
The cybercriminals used an official Kaspersky email through the Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
This enabled them to easily bypass Secure Email Gateway (SEGs) protections and access the victims’ mailboxes.
Users to stay vigilant
Although no servers were compromised or malicious activities were detected, Kaspersky advises its users to be extra vigilant and cautious when asked for their credentials.
If you are unsure where the emails are coming from, you can verify the sender’s identity on Kaspersky’s blog.
What are some of the tips you use to protect yourself from cyber-attacks? Share with us in the comment section below.
November is finally here! You know what this means, there will be a bunch of games that will be released during this period. Microsoft recently announced and revealed the list of new games heading to the service in the weeks to come.
Xbox Game Pass is not leaving any stones unturned. The games scheduled to be released will stand the test of time, the only competition will be the ones released in December.
Forza Horizon 5, is Xbox’s Game Pass highlight this month. It is scheduled to officially launch on November 9. Based on the game’s preview, it is totally worth the hype.
It is also worth noting that Minecraft is finally joining Xbox Game Pass for PC Bundle. This was official during Minecraft Live 2021.
There truly is a need for celebration, Xbox Game Pass will also have access to games like Takes Two. Throughout the next couple of weeks, Xbox Game Pass will have some of the heavy hitters when it comes to games onboard.
Access to games
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud will all have access to the games listed below. Xbox Game Pass will grant you access to these games. The number of games coming and leaving Xbox Game Pass is quite difficult to track.
JoiningXbox Game Pass
Here are some of the games to watch out for during this month:
It Takes Two (Xbox Series X|S Optimized, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, & PC)
Kill It with Fire (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, & PC)
Football Manager 2022: Xbox Edition (Xbox Series X|S Optimized, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, & PC)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas The Definitive Edition (Xbox Series X|S & Xbox One)
Exciting Xbox Game Pass
However, some of the games leaving include:
Streets of Rogue (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC)
Final Fantasy VIII HD (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, & PC)
Planet Coaster (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, & Xbox Cloud Gaming)
Star Renegades (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, & PC)
Which game can’t you wait to get your hands on in the next couple of weeks? Let us know in the comment section below.
Over the past week, Microsoft Defender receiver a new preview app for Windows 11. Although this information is not official it is purely based on a leak. Finally, Microsoft has finally launched an app for Insiders.
The Microsoft Defender preview is now available in the New Microsoft Store for Windows 11, however, its use is limited to a number of users. The limited preview is not available for use by all members subscribed to the Windows Insider Program.
Users that have tried to install it have not had the easiest time. They have only been able to get a few steps into the installation process before being shut out completely. Some users were also able to install the Microsoft Defender review from the Microsoft Store, however, they were unable to link their accounts to the app.
New features
The new app is tailored to fit and complement Windows 11. It comes with rounded corners and a general softer look as compared to previous versions. It also means that the New Microsoft Defender on Windows 11 provides better security for users on all their devices across all the platforms.
Microsoft has been in the works developing an app called GiibraltarApp, built on WPF and XAML. According to Microsoft, the app is now more secure and simplified for use. The Microsoft Defender is your personal line of defense against any digital threats.
The new Microsoft Defender will help you cover all your devices across operating systems, Windows, Android, and Apple.
Have you interacted with the New Windows Defender yet? Are you having trouble installing it on your device? Let us know in the comment section below.
After a wait of nearly two decades, users are thrilled with the release of Age of Empires 4 and want to get their hands on the game. But, there are a few things you must know, including the Age of Empires 4 download size, before you go ahead with the installation.
There are primarily three main points to be acquainted with – the download size, system requirements, and available sources to get the game. In this article, we have covered all of them to help you get a clear picture and be able to download and play the game right away.
Also, when downloading the Age of Empires 4 from Xbox Games Pass for PC, some users were taken aback by the 220 GB storage size. Fret not! We have a fix for that as well, go through the following sections to find out.
What is the download size of Age of Empires 4?
First things first, Age of Empires 4 requires 50GB of available storage. But, you will certainly need more in the long run. There would be patches and other features updates released in the coming days to enhance your experience.
Also, while the game requires 50 GB of free storage, you will need almost double the amount at the time of download. In the Microsoft Store app, you find that the approximate size mentioned for Age of Empires 4 is 86.2 GB. And, this does not include the 4K HDR Video Pack, as discussed in the next section.
So, what exactly happens here is that the files shrink to 50 GB after download. Hence, while you require 50 GB of available storage to run the game, it’s recommended that you have 100 GB free to download it.
Why is the download size for Age of Empires 4 on my PC 218.6 GB?
If you find the download size for Age of Empires 4 to be 218.6 GB, it’s probably because you are downloading the 4K HDR Video Pack along with it.
To put it simply, the Age of Empires 4 has two downloadable versions – one is just the game while the other includes a 4K HDR Video Pack along with it. The former has a download size of 86.2 GB while the latter adds 132.4 GB, taking the total size to 218.6 GB.
In case you don’t have that much free storage or simply don’t want to download the 4K HDR Video Pack, you can very well download just the game.
How to download the game without the 4K HDR Video Pack?
Press Windows + S to launch the Search menu.
Enter Xbox in the text field at the top, and click on the relevant search result that appears to launch the app.
Search for Age of Empires 4 in the Xbox app and click on the search result for the game.
Now, scroll down and select the first option, one without the 4K HDR Video Pack, under Included in this bundle.
When talking of this method, it’s also imperative to mention that you would not be able to purchase Age of Empires 4 but only play it using Game Pass when downloading just the game. The option to purchase it wouldn’t be present in this case.
How can I uninstall the 4K HDR Video Pack?
Press Windows + I to launch the Settings app.
Select the Apps tab from the ones listed in the navigation pane on the left.
Click on Installed apps on the right.
Locate the Age of Empire IV entry in the list of apps.
Click on the ellipsis next to it and select Advanced options from the ones that appear.
Now, scroll down to App add-ons and downloadable content.
Click on the Age of Empires IV 4K HDR Video Pack and select Uninstall.
In case you have already downloaded the 4K HDR Video Pack, you can easily uninstall it by following these steps to clear some space on the drive.
What are the system requirements for Age of Empires 4?
Once you know the various options for download, you may be able to identify the one best suited for your needs.
But, before you go ahead with the installation, it’s imperative for you to ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for Age of Empires 4.
As mentioned on the Age of Empires 4 support website
Also, you can head to websites like Can You Run it which will automatically scan your system and check if it meets the requirements for Age of Empires 4. This is a relatively quicker method that will also provide a detailed report as to why your computer cannot run the game, if that’s the case.
Also, the game is a part of Xbox Game Pass, so you don’t really need to make a purchase in case you already have a subscription. Even more, you can get Age of Empires 4 from other vendors and take advantage of some great discounts.
Before deciding, also take a look at some Age of Empires 4 offers available on G2A, GreenManGaming, and Amazon.
That’s all there’s about Age of Empires 4 – its download size, and other relevant information. The game is the newest entrant in the series and has a lot to offer.
Age of Empires 4 is the most recent title from the popular series, and it brought the real-time strategy genre to a new level of graphics and gameplay.
Note from the start that it will set you in the middle of historical battles that shaped the world as we know it but this time, you can change the balance of the war.
If strategy is your preferred genre, this is the next title to enjoy right now. We have prepared all the instructions on how to download and play Age of Empires 4 but let’s start with the game’s requirements.
What are the Age of Empires 4 system requirements?
To avoid any problems running Age of Empires 4, you have to comply with the game’s minimum system requirements.
Being a strategy game, you won’t need any fancy graphics cards, but it won’t hurt at all to have a better configuration for your PC.
System requirements
Minimum
Recommended
OS:
Windows 10 64bit or Windows 11 64bit
Windows 10 64bit or Windows 11 64bit
CPU:
Intel Core i5-6300U or AMD Ryzen 5 2400G | CPU with AVX support
3.6 GHz 6-core (Intel i5) or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | CPU with AVX support
Memory:
8 GB RAM
16 GB RAM
Graphics:
Intel HD 520 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 11
Nvidia GeForce 970 GPU or AMD Radeon RX 570 GPU with 4GB of VRAM
There is also the choice to visit Can You RUN it and after you download a small app, it will check your system configuration with the game requirements automatically.
Now that you know if you can play the game, we can go over on how to download and play Age of Empires 4.
We also need to specify that getting and running Age of Empires 4 is identical on Windows 10 and Windows 11 so if you upgraded, you will only experience minor graphics differences.
If you don’t have a Game Pass, you are offered to join for a minimum fee but keep in mind that there will be a monthly subscription to pay afterwards.
In the next window, click on the Join button.
Now, click the Next button.
Enter the payment data and go through the process to get a Game Pass subscription.
If you don’t have the Xbox app yet, go back to the website and hit the Download the app button.
Install the app, make sure you log in with the account you used for Game Pass, then click on Age of Empires 4.
Next, hit the Buy button. You will have a special offer if you have a Game Pass account.
In the next window, pick a way to pay, complete the data form, then hit Next. The game will be added to your account.
After you buy the game, it will install, and you can hit Play in your library.
The whole process is a lot more simple if you already have a Game Pass subscription. Basically, you can pick it up from step 7, search for Age of Empires 4 in the Xbox store and buy it from there.
2. Get Age of Empires 4 using the Steam app
Open the Steam app and click on the Store button.
Type age of empires 4 in the search box and click on the game from the results.
Select your option and click on the Add to Cart button.
Click on the Purchase for myself button. You can also buy it as a gift for someone and in that case, click on the second button.
Select the payment method, complete the form with the necessary data, and hit Continue.
After you review the data and complete the purchase, te game will start downloading and installing. Go to your Library tab, click on Age of Empires 4, and click the Play button.
3. Get Age of Empires 4 from Microsoft Store
Click the Start button, type store and click on Microsoft Store from the results.
After the app starts, click the Search option from the top right corner.
Type age of empires 4 in the search field and select the version you want to get.
In the next window, click the Buy button.
Log into your Microsoft account, pick the payment option and after you fill in the form, click Next.
After you finish the purchase procedure, you will get a download link for the game. Clicking on the file will start the installation process. If you selected the option to create a shortcut on the desktop, clicking it will launch the game.
As you probably know, Microsoft Store has changed a little bit in Windows 11 but the process is identical so if you switched to the new OS, you will only see minor graphical differences in the store.
You can also get Age of Empires 4 from other vendors and benefit from some great discounts in the process.
Feel free to check some other cool Age of Empires 4 offers available on G2A, GreenManGaming, or Amazon.
How can I play Age of Empires 4 on Windows?
Age of Empires 4 didn’t change in terms of gameplay and the principles remained the same. So, if you played the previous version, you will know what you need to do.
If you’re new to the series, the whole game revolves around exploring your surroundings, gathering resources, training military units, and building structures that will lead you to victory.
How do you win in Age of Empires 4?
Obviously, the objective of the game is to grow your empire in military strength, technology, or both and emerge victoriously.
However, there are three possible conditions to win the game against your opponents:
➡ Landmark Victory – Destroy your opponent’s landmarks using your magnificent army.
Sieging your opponent castle
➡ Sacred Victory – Protect and maintain specific spots on the map.
➡ Wonder Victory – You have a time limit to build the Wonder of your civilization and protect it until the time runs out.
Go through with the Art of War challenges
At the start of the game, you will be brought into a Mission Zero scenario that will teach you all the basics of the mechanics.
You will learn how to gather the four resources of the game (food, wood, gold, and stone), how to produce villagers who will handle the collecting, to construct buildings, and how to produce and command the units on the map.
If you’re new to the game, we recommend starting the Ar of War challenges that will help you practice what you’ve learned in the tutorial.
There are 5 challenges to complete:
Early Economy – This challenge will be about constructing a Landmark and you will also advance from the Dark Age to the Feudal Age.
Late Economy – You will learn how a strong economy can influence your advance to the Imperial Age.
Basic Combat – Use the counter system and the terrain to lead your army to victory.
Early Siege – Sieging the buildiengs of your enemy is crucial and in this challenge section you will learn about the basic strategy and siege units.
Late Siege – You will learn about Trebuchets and Bombards and how to distroy an enemy fortress.
Now you are prepared to face your opponents in Age of Empire 4 battles and obtain a crushing victory.
Of course, it’s also very important to study all 8 civilizations within the game because all have their strengths and weaknesses.
Playing with the Roman Empire has a clear advantage when it comes to the economy but the English have a great defense and the Mongols come with awesome mobility.
After you complete the challenges, you can take on the campaigns and even play online against players like yourself.
Even more, a lot of users playing this game have reported being unable to change the graphics settings. If you happen to encounter the same issue, modify either the game files, update Windows, or apply a bunch of other tips detailed in our guide.
Have you started playing Age of Empires 4? Tell us all about your experience in the comments section below.
If you are a Diablo fan, you surely know that Runes are a type of socketable item introduced in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction.
You can insert them into socketed items to add many magical attributes, making you a lot stronger a more likely to succeed in your endeavors.
These overpowered sockets can increase the power of an item beyond what it can achieve on its own, so it’s very much worth having some.
But where can you find these Runes? Well, you can find them in various containers throughout the world, you can loot them off the creatures you kill, or craft them yourself using the Horadric Cube.
There are also High Runes, which are, of course, more powerful and a lot more desired by players, because of their high value and rarity.
We’re about to show you some of the best places where you can farm Runes, so you can better prepare yourself for the hard battles ahead.
What’s the best way to find Runes?
You can use Runes in different sockets of your gear pieces, such as your chest armor, head armor, weapons, and shields. You can even create rarer and powerful Runewords by sequencing Runes you already have.
However, the chance of you finding a Rune is pretty low, and if you are fortunate enough to find one, the quality will be low.
But we’re about to show you how you can greatly increase your chances of finding some pretty useful ones.
Act 1 – The Forgotten Towe in the Black Marsh
Black Marsh is an excellent place to farm Runes. Towers in the Black Marsh area can provide you with a good number of these valuable artifacts if you know where to look.
On the Nightmare or Hell difficulty, locate the Forgotten Tower in Black Marsh. We understand that these difficulties may not be for everyone, but they are recommended because, with them, the quality of the Rune improves.
Step into the Forgotten Tower, and, once you’ve entered, go all the way up to level 5. As you progress, enter the room next to the level 5 Entrance. You’ll also have to deal with some minions there, so be prepared.
You’ll see the Countess once the minions are out of the way. Take her out as well, and depending on your luck, she’ll drop between 1-3 runes.
There’s is also a good chance you’ll find a gem or two while you’re at it, and if you are very lucky, she’ll actually drop even 6 runes per kill.
And since we were talking about Act 1, another source, although not as good as the first one, is the last boss. Killing Andariel in the above-mentioned difficulties can also result in you looting some juicy Runes.
Act 2 – The Arcane Sanctuary
Arcane Sanctuary is another place where you can expect to obtain good high-level Runes. We all know this as the area where we find the which is the real tomb of Tal Rasha, out of all the seven we find throughout the desert.
All the ghosts in this place have a limited drop pool, so by killing them, you automatically have a higher chance of dropping runes.
However, if you want to improve your chances, make sure not to kill them off the path, and also check the end of the paths for additional chests.
These chests carry high-level loot within them, including these highly desired Runes, which can make the difference.
Another spot where you can try your luck is Tal Rasha’s tomb, where you find the last boss of Act 2, which is Duriel. He too can drop some pretty good ones, if you are lucky.
Act 3 – Travincal
Another location to farm for Runes, High Runes especially, is Travincal. Compared to other places in the game, this location has a much higher drop rate, so the probability of you obtaining a valuable high Rune would be bigger.
To quickly locate Travincal while in Upper Kurast, head to the northeast corner of the map. This will lead to the short Kurast Causeway bridge, which then leads to Travincal.
The farming technique for Travincal is similar to other places in the game, which is to keep killing the enemies that spawn till you get your hands on the rune. Pretty simple, right?
Act 4 – The Hellforge
The Hellforge is also a great place to look for Runes, provided you dare to proceed inside on the highest difficulties. All you need to do to get the Runes from here is break Mephisto’s Soulstone.
First, you have to slay Hephasto the Armorer, who guards the Hellforge. When you defeat him, you will obtain his Hellforge Hammer, which is required to break the stone.
Once you have the hammer, Mephisto’s Soulstone will appear and you will be able to smash it. After you do so you’ll get a rune and a few gems.
Act 5 – Mount Arreat
We’re about to let you in another awesome area where you can farm Runes. We are talking about Mount Arreat, accessible in Act 5, and you’ll always get three runes here, but the quality of the runes is low.
Despite their lower quality, they are still extremely useful because they can be used in Horadric Cube to create higher-level Runes later on.
All you have to do is free 15 Barbarian Warriors at the request of Qual-Kehk, the Barbarian captain. This will complete the Mount Arreat quest and award you three runes.
The Cow Level
By far one of the most lucrative locations to farm both Runes and High Runes in Diablo 2 Resurrected is the Secret Cow Level.
But don’t get too excited just yet, because you will need to prepare a bit before tackling this particular task. To create the portal for the Cow Level, you would first need to have killed the final boss, Baal, on the difficulty you are playing.
While standing in the Rogue Encampment, in Act 1, combine a Wirt’s Leg & a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube.
Doing so will open a red portal leading you to the Secret Cow Level. The enemies within this realm will spawn at a high rate, therefore, the chances of looting High Runes along with chests will be much higher.
And you’ll also be able to polish your fighting skills, considering the constant array of enemies that spawns and comes for you.
The Chaos Sanctuary
To perform a Chaos Run, players have to go through the Chaos Sanctuary, which is one of the most difficult locations in the game to clear.
Chaos Sanctuary is the place where Lord of Terror Diablo himself is hidden under multiple seals, so you can imagine the difficulty yourself.
You need to first get to the Chaos Sanctuary, which is situated beyond the River of Flame. From the River of Flame Waypoint, proceed to the upper right corner and continue straight at that angle, you’ll end up at its entrance.
To yield maximum benefits from the Chaos Run, you have to play in Hell difficulty, because we know that the higher the difficulty, the higher the reward.
However, if your level is under 60 or your resistances aren’t high enough, one can play in Nightmare difficulty too, but it’s most effective on Hell with the appropriate levels.
Similar to the Cow Level, you will be bombarded with an army of monsters with a decent drop rate for High Runes. Slash and defeat the countless monsters till you find your desired high rune.
These are all excellent places for farming Runes, or High Runes, so go right ahead and give it a go, if you were looking for ways to enhance your powers.
However, some are much harder than others, so make sure you take the appropriate time to prepare for what comes.
Also, if you’re a true Diablo fan, you might want to know that the release for Diablo Immortal has been postponed to 2022.
Which out of the places we listed were the best farming spots for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you spend a large portion of your day in front of the PC, then you know how important overall comfort and efficiency are.
These elements are very important no matter if you’re an average user exploring the web, doing your job, or even gaming.
If you’re gaming, no matter if professional or not, your experience will greatly improve if you invest in a good gaming mousepad that will offer you enough space, and even give you an edge against your online adversaries.
If you’re an average internet explorer or want some comfort and stability while doing your PC work, investing in a smaller and comfortable mouse pad would be the way to go.
To accompany the mouse-pad, it is also very important to have a good mouse that offers great multitasking features, like seamless connection to multiple devices, customizable buttons, and others. The best thing is that these mouse options can be used without problems for both gaming, working, and everyday browsing.
In today’s guide, we will dive a bit deeper into choosing the right small mousepad for your everyday PC experience. We made sure to try out a variety of options with different features to cover a wide spectrum of needs and price ranges.
How we chose the best small mousepads
Our team of expert testers, with a combined experience of 15 years, has tackled a variety of testing tasks for any device you could imagine.
Their experience comes into play as a very important element when choosing the products we described in this guide, and a large variety of factors have been taken into consideration.
The options that have been chosen offer great quality and cover the entire spectrum of price ranges, thus enabling everybody to find something that fits their needs both financially and otherwise.
The G440 from Logitech is our top pick when it comes to small mousepads.
This model is suitable both for everyday usage, but also for gaming, by offering you a high DPI gaming surface that allows you to react fast and with precision.
To offer you this feature, the surface of this mousepad is built with a material that offers low surface friction, and a consistent surface texture.
The rubber base keeps the mousepad in place on your desk offering stability and great overall performance.
Even though this accessory is designed specifically to work with gaming mice, the surface doesn’t disappoint no matter what task you throw at it.
This mousepad has a multi-layered design that ensures a long-lasting life and provides a sturdy and efficient surface for your PC usage, with a strong polymer core.
MROCO has created a great ergonomic mouse pad that ensures that the long hours spent in front of the PC will not affect your wrist badly anymore.
What makes this item stand out from the crowd is the amazingly-comfortable Memory Foam filling found in the wrist rest which supports your hand gently, while also providing you with enough stability to move the mouse without any impediments.
To ensure a smooth gliding surface, this item comes with a Lycra cloth surface which is the perfect texture for a smooth gliding experience with great accuracy.
The soft non-skid PU base ensures that the mousepad sticks to your desk, and will not be moving even when it is used with high intensity.
This item is also extremely durable, as the edges are finished with a reinforcement that ensures that no deformation will occur.
The ergonomic mousepad from Gimars is another great option for those of you who are worried about wrist issues.
This great item comes in a variety of colors and patterns, allowing you to choose the one which best fits your environment or taste.
The top of this mousepad is made out of Lycra, which not only provides a smooth sensing surface for any type of mouse but also does so without limiting the efficiency of the tracking.
To ensure that you have enough space to move your mouse, this item is 11 x 8.26 inches in size, with an elongated shape, while at the same time not compromising in portability.
The foam that makes up the wrist support is incredibly soft and offers amazing support, even for those that have bigger hands.
The QcK small mousepad is another great option that works great both for everyday usage and gaming.
Even though it is specifically designed for gaming, the quality micro-woven materials used in the upper of this item provide a perfect surface for any type of mouse or activity.
The micro-woven cloth on the upper ensures that any mouse movement will be captured and represented on the screen, working perfectly for both low and high DPI movements.
The company has had over 20 years of experience when creating mousepads that offer what users need, and this item is 9.84 x 8.27 inches, making it suitable for small desks, and offering great portability.
To ensure that the mousepad will not be moving while you’re using it, the base of this item is equipped with non-slip rubber.
The small mousepad from Audimi comes at a very affordable price and measures 8 x 6 inches, ensuring a smooth experience and without taking any space in your office or backpack.
This great pad comes in 6 colors, including the black one you can see in the image above, but also in blue, green, orange, pink, and purple. Having these options allows you to spice up your office without the need for any extravagant items.
The Audimi mousepad is so small and thin that it can easily be put into the laptop bag without any worries, and provide you with great mouse traction whenever you need it.
The surface of this mousepad ensures a smooth gliding experience by the use of a specialized cloth, and the non-slip rubber base ensures that the mousepad will not move even with heavy mouse usage.
Bottom runners
Even though we have already chosen some of the best small mousepads and discussed them in our main product list, some other options have caught our attention.
This item has a beautiful floral design and comes with other great image prints as well, thus allowing you to choose the one that fits your needs the best.
It also has a small gel pad to ensure wrist comfort when spending a lot of time at the PC.
This round mousepad also comes with an incredible array of great prints, allowing you to integrate the mousepad seamlessly in almost any environment.
Even though it doesn’t have a pad, the surface is round and offers a smooth experience when using the mouse.
As you can see from our guide, there are a variety of options to choose from, no matter if you’re interested in a longer design for the pad, protecting your wrist with memory foam padding, or want to impress your visitors with some great designs.
We included a variety of small pad options covering a wide range of prices, so everybody can choose one that fits their desk size and room design, without needing to spend too much money.
Don’t hesitate to let us know which item you chose and why by using the comment section below.
FaceTime, one of the most popular video-conferencing platforms, is now available in Windows. Ever since its release back in 2010, it catered exclusively to Apple devices. But with iOS 15, you can finally use Facetime in Windows 11 and its previous iterations.
Apart from Windows, FaceTime is available for Android and Linux users as well. Also, you can now access iCloud on Windows 11, though, unlike Facetime, it won’t be available for the earlier iterations.
If you have been planning to switch to an Apple device just to be part of Facetime calls with friends and family, sit back and read along to find out how you can join Facetime calls from your Windows 11 computer.
Can I host a FaceTime call from a Windows computer?
Unfortunately, the answer is No. Although Windows users can be a part of FaceTime calls, it still won’t be possible for them to create or host one. The option to initiate a FaceTime call is only available to Apple users, namely those using iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
To join a FaceTime call, you just need the link to it. Ask the host to share the link through any of the preferred channels and follow the steps listed next to join.
How can I join FaceTime calls from a Windows 11 computer?
This is a three-step process – the first is the creation of a FaceTime invite link, the second is joining the call on a Windows 11 PC, and the third is to approve the request. We have listed all three to help you understand how to host a call as well as be a part of it, in case it’s hosted by another Apple user.
1. Create a FaceTime invite link (Apple device)
NOTE
The steps listed here are to create an invite link on iPhone or iPad. The process on Mac is quite similar and once you get an idea from here, it wouldn’t be difficult to create one. If you already have a link, head to the next step.
Tap on the FaceTime app icon.
Next, tap on the Create Link button.
Tap on Add Name to to give a name to the FaceTime call.
Enter a name in the text field and tap on OK to save it.
Choose an option to share the FaceTime link with Windows 11 users. You can send it via messages, email, WhatsApp, or other messaging platform. You can also tap on Copy and share the link via other channels, in case they are not listed here.
Now, tap on the link that you just created listed under Upcoming.
Tap on Join.
Once the call is started, you can wait for those on Windows 11 to join FaceTime. Every time someone wants to join, you will have the option to approve, as discussed in the last step.
Also, it’s not necessary to give a name to the link and you can very well create one without it.
2. Join a Facetime call (Windows PC)
Click on the link that you received to join FaceTime in Windows 11.
Enter your name in the required section and click on Continue.
Click on Allow to let FaceTime access your microphone and webcam, and then click on Join. You will will asked for the grant permission the first time.
Wait for the host to approve and let you in.
The process to join a FaceTime call from a Windows 11 PC is quite simple. However, you have to wait for the host to approve. Once that’s done, you can start interacting with those present in the call.
3. Approve joining request (Apple device)
After someone clicks on the link and joins the call, a notificaiton is received on the host’s end. Simply tap on the GreenTick button to approve.
Once the request is approved, you will right away join the FaceTime call, and no more be missing out on one of the most popular video conferencing platforms.
How can I share the link of FaceTime call in Windows?
Click on the ellispis (three dots) near the bottom left corner.
Now, click on the Share Link button placed right under the list of people who are in the call.
Choose the required channel to share the link from the options listed here.
Although you cannot create a link, FaceTime still allows you to share it with other Windows and Apple users. Once you are in, you can invite as many people. But, keep in mind that the maximum number of participants in a FaceTime call is 32.
Can I use SharePlay and screen sharing on FaceTime in Windows 11?
You can’t use either SharePlay or screen sharing when using FaceTime on your Windows 11 system, though they would have been a great addition.
SharePlay allows you to do a lot more than just talk. Participants can watch movies or listen to songs together while in the FaceTime call. Screen sharing, as the name suggests, is simply sharing your screen with others in the call.
Can I use FaceTime in Windows 11 on all web browsers?
The answer would be No. Apple recommends using the latest version of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge for the best FaceTime experience. When we tried using other browsers to join a call, it seemed to work fine on Opera.
However, when using Mozilla Firefox, it showed that the current browser is not supported and we need to switch to another one.
In case you use any other browser, check if you are able to join a FaceTime call. In case you receive an error, we recommend, and so does Apple, that you switch to Chrome or Edge.
That’s all there’s to using FaceTime in Windows 11. Now, you don’t need to purchase an Apple device to use FaceTime. But with the limited functionality, it’s just plain and simple and doesn’t offer a plethora of options as the other video-conferencing apps out there.
With the release of Age of Empires 4, the latest in the series, users have been nothing but thrilled. However, some of them reported that the Age of Empires 4 hotkeys are not working.
Given the amazing graphics and fascinating gameplay, problems with the hotkeys prove to be a major disappointment. Now, this could be due to a bunch of issues, either a faulty keyboard, conflicting apps, issues with the game files, amongst others.
In order to liven up your experience, we have listed some of the most effective methods to get your Age of Empires 4 hotkeys working.
What do I do if the Age of Empires 4 hotkeys are not working?
1. Restart the computer
Navigate to the Desktop and press Alt + F4 to launch the Shut Down Windows box.
Click on the dropdown menu and select Restart from the list of options.
Next, click on OK to reboot.
Wait for the computer to restart, launch Age of Empires 4 and check if the hotkeys are working.
If this is the first time you are encountering problems using the hotkeys, a simple fix would be to restart the computer. Sometimes, when Windows is booting, a bug may creep in and cause trouble. When you restart the PC, the OS is reloaded and any such bug is eliminated.
Also, before restarting the computer, make sure you save any open files to avoid loss of data.
2. Check if the keyboard is properly connected
Though this may seem obvious, a lot of users later realize that the keyboard wasn’t properly connected. Check if you can use the keyboard on other apps and across Windows in general. Also, verify if the hotkeys for other games work fine.
If there’s an issue, unplug the cable for the keyboard and replug it firmly. You can also refer to our guide to fix issues with a Bluetooth keyboard. Though it’s for Windows 10, we checked and it works just as well on the latest version.
3. Check the integrity of Age of Empires 4 game files
Press Windows + S to launch the Search menu.
Search for the Steam app in the text field at the top and click on relevant search result to launch it.
Navigate to the Library tab.
Right-click on the Age of Empires 4 icon and select Properties from the context menu.
Select Local Files from the navigation pane on the left.
Click on Verify integrity of game files and wait for the process to complete.
After it’s done, check if you are able to use the hotkeys in Age of Empires 4.
If you use the Steam app to play Age of Empires 4, it’s even simpler to fix trivial bugs. Simply verify the integrity of games files and if any issues are found, they would be fixed automatically.
Select Windows Update tab from the ones listed in the navigation pane on the left.
Again, click on the Windows Update option on the right.
Click on Check for updates and let Windows scan for any pending updates. If there are any available, download and install them.
It’s always recommended that stay up-to-date on Windows. With each update, a bunch of features and patches are released, and these may fix the problems with hotkeys in Age of Empires 4.
Along with that, DirectX, a critical system requirement for Age of Empires 4 is also updated along with the Windows, another reason to check and install any pending updates.
5. Disable/uninstall conflicting applications
NOTE
You can disable a problematic app from its built-in settings. Since the process is different for each app, we recommend that you check the FAQ section on the official app website. In case disabling it doesn’t work, follow the steps listed below to uninstall the app.
Press Windows + I to launch the Settings app.
Select Apps from the tabs listed on the left.
Click on Installed apps, the first option on the right.
Locate the app that you believe may be conflicting with Age of Empires 4, click on the ellipsis next to it, and select Uninstall from the list of options that appear.
Again click on Uninstall to confirm removing the app from the computer.
In some cases, it could be another app that’s conflicting with the functioning of Age of Empire 4, and thereby, the hotkeys are not working. But the real question here is, how are you going to identify the problematic app?
A simple, yet highly effective, approach is to recollect when you first encountered the error and think of the apps that were installed around the same time. Now perform a thorough research as to whether any of these apps are known to cause trouble with Age of Empires 4 or other games.
Now, uninstall the ones that could be leading to the problem with hotkeys. After removing each app, check if the problem is fixed. Once you have uninstalled the problematic app and the game works fine, reinstall the ones that were removed prior to it.
If nothing else works, you are left with no option but to reinstall Age of Empires 4 to fix the hotkeys not working issue. To reinstall, first, simply uninstall the app as we did in the previous fix, and then reinstall it from Steam or any other source that you choose earlier.
This will work, in case the issue lies with the installation of Age of Empires 4 itself. So, if you come across the error in the initial days or the first very first time you are playing the game, reinstalling it would be an effective fix.
Can I change the hotkeys in Age of Empires 4?
There are certain hotkeys that cannot be changed in Age of Empires 4 and you are left with no option but to use the preset ones.
There is no one way to set the hotkeys, it is an individual preference and users like to set them as per their convenience. But, with Age of Empires 4, that’s not the case. We went through several forums where users shared how the inability to change certain hotkeys will dampen their experience.
Whether it will attract more people or send the existing fans away, the jury is still out. What we know for certain is that you can’t customize all the hotkeys in Age of Empires 4.
The fixes mentioned above will resolve any issues preventing the hotkeys from working in Age of Empires 4.
The availability of Windows 11 has been increased as we are leveraging our latest generation machine learning model to offer the upgrade to an expanded set of eligible devices. More information can be found on the Windows release health dashboard. https://t.co/hw6FkgJ03j
PowerToys 0.49 brings new Find My Mouse tool and modern Windows 11 UI
A new update for PowerToys, version 0.49, has brought a new Find My Mouse feature, making it easier to find the location of your mouse pointer on the screen. A design refresh has also brought in a Windows 11-style UI.
AdDuplex sees Windows 11 already running on over 5% of surveyed PCs in October
Nearly a month since the launch of Windows 11, the latest data from AdDuplex suggests that just over 5% of surveyed PCs are running Windows 11 as of October.
That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Windows news.
Microsoft acquires Xbox, Minecraft, MSN content moderation provider Two Hat
Content moderation provider, Two Hat, has been acquired by Microsoft. The company provides moderation services for Xbox, MSN, and Minecraft. Under Microsoft, the two will aim to bolster its moderation technology to keep online communities safe and clean.
You can now stream PC games on Xbox consoles with GeForce Now
GeForce NOW working on the Xbox Series S Edge Browser and surprisingly smooth. Video will be up later covering the Edge browser support across PC and Console. #geforcenow#Xboxpic.twitter.com/AmmslJ43uj
Microsoft announced some big updates for Microsoft Whiteboard, its digital canvas that allows users to collaborate and share ideas with other people. This release brings a new Whiteboard experience to iOS and Windows, with personal account support coming to the Android and Web apps. There are also a few new features for all platforms.
New collaboration features for iOS and Windows
First off, the new Whiteboard experience brings several new collaboration features for Windows and iOS users that are already available on Teams, Android, as well as the web. The list includes over 40 new customizable templates, multiple shades of sticky notes & note grids, reactions support, as well as inking improvements. There is also the ability to add, reposition, and align images and shapes.
New OneDrive integration
Microsoft Whiteboard now integrates with OneDrive for Business, allowing users to add recent documents to Whiteboard directly from Microsoft Teams channels and OneDrive. It should make it easier for users to collaborate on PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, and other content as well. Other improvements include support for multiple images to make shared Whiteboard content more appealing and eye-catching for the audience.
Personal accounts support on Android and the web
The collaborative workspace already supports personal Microsoft accounts on iOS and Windows, and users can now add their consumer accounts to the web and Android versions of the app. It’s great to see that the Microsoft Whiteboard app now offers a more consistent experience across all platforms.
If you are using Microsoft Whiteboard on iOS, you can head to the Apple App Store to download the latest update. However, the new Whiteboard experience is gradually rolling out on Windows PCs via a Microsoft Store update, and it should hit general availability by the end of this year.
As you know, Icon cards feature some of the best legends to ever grace the football pitch, and it was a great idea to allow gamers to play as some of their heroes.
But these awesome cards are not free, they do cost a lot of coins, due to their quality, and a lot of them fit the meta stats needed to be good in FIFA Ultimate Team.
And there are a lot in the game, but we’re just going to focus on the ten best ones, and hopefully, this will help you decide which ones to use in the game.
Top 10 Icon Cards in FIFA Ultimate Team 22
It’s important to know that each player who is featured as an Icon actually has three Icon cards, but we are going to focus on each Icon’s highest rated card.
Players might believe that the price of a player shows how strong they are at the game, but when it comes to Icons this is not the case.
Some are a lot rarer than others, and the price is also influenced by the football fan base, as some legends of the game are more loved than others. Makes sense, right?
If we’re talking about attackers, you need to make sure that they have good finishing, dribbling, pace, and passing.
However, when it comes to more defensive players, you need to make sure their pace is decent, and they also have good defending and physical stats.
Of course, we are going to start this Top 10 from the worst and work out way up to the best. When we say worse, we actually mean the weakest out of the ten selected for this roster.
10. Paolo Maldini
Paolo Cesare Maldini is an Italian former professional footballer who played primarily as a left-back and central defender for AC Milan and the Italy national team.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever defenders and as one of the greatest players of all time, so it comes as no surprise that he made this Top 10.
If you want Paolo Maldini as your defender in FIFA Ultimate Team, you have to pay a total of 1.9 million coins for him.
9. Johan Cruyff
The former Dutch national is one of the most sought after Icon Cards within FUT 22, and a lot of players will pay whatever is necessary in order to get him
This central forward is excellent for any team combination you have in mind, but just don’t rely on him when it comes to defense, as you might be disappointed.
With a rating of 94, Johan Cruyff will set you back 3.5 million coins if you want to add him to your roster.
8. Patrick Vieira
Owning the Patrick Vieira Icon Card in FUT 22 is clearly one of the best choices you can make. This brilliant defender has amazing defending capabilities and he’s also very creative.
He might not be the fastest-paced player in the game, but he surely is among the ones that can turn the tide when you most need it.
However, if you want to get your hands on this card, you better have 3.6 million coins saved up, otherwise, forget about it.
7. Zinedine Zidane
Although this legend comes at a price that is just a bit lower than previous ones, you can ve sure of the fact that having Zinedine Zidane as your attacking midfielder is a huge threat for your opponents.
His passing, shooting, and ability to dribble are excellent weapons to use in a match you really want to win. The French captain will not disappoint and will be the center of attention without a doubt.
And the good news is that you only have to spend 3 million coins if you plan to add him to your roster.
6. Ronaldinho
Absolutely no introductions are needed here, as we are sure that everybody around the world has heard of Ronaldinho at least once.
Whether it was during his debut years at Paris Saint Germain, or his golden age at Barcelona, this card is definitely one you should have at your disposal.
True, his defense stats are lousy, but let’s be honest, nobody is buying Ronaldinho for that. If you want this Brazilian legend to help you get those hard wins, you need about 3.3 million coins to bring him on the bench.
5. Eusebio
This Portuguese legend can be the difference between a victory or a loss in most cases, so don’t ignore this Icon Card if you come across it.
He’s fast, he can easily dribble his way into the opponent’s box, and most importantly, his shot is one to be reckoned with, making most goalkeepers wish they were substitutes that day.
And you can get him for the same price you would pay for Zidane, so a pretty sweet deal if you ask us.
4. Ruud Gullit
Here’s another Icon Card that we strongly recommend you add to your collection if you are serious about dominating your opponents in FIFA Ultimate Team.
The Dutch midfielder/striker is one of the favored choices of millions of players worldwide, which means that he is truly a formidable foe to go up against.
However, don’t get excited just yet, because owning this card comes at a higher price than the ones we’ve presented so far. The Ruud Gullit Icon Card is worth 5.7 million coins so you better start saving up.
3. Diego Maradona
Not much can be said about the late Argentinian legend except that he was one of the greatest to ever play this noble sport.
And even though his fan base is in the hundreds of millions, you can get this exceptional card for what we consider to be a bargain.
His dribbling skills will put even the most talented players to shame and he is, without a doubt, a player you must add to your roster if there are any available spots.
Have we mentioned that this card is a steal? Oh yes, we did, and you can acquire it for only 2.3 million coins, making this the second cheapest one in this Top 10.
2. Ronaldo
Even though Ronaldo only managed to secure the second position in our Top 10, he definitely is everything that every young football player aspires to be.
The former Brazil national team and Real Madrid striker is most likely the only attacker you will ever need, scoring with every opportunity he has.
This goal machine is a dream addition to anyone that plays FUT 22, but not everyone can afford this card. Well, at least not right away.
This is by far the most expensive Icon Card on this list so you better have some saved-up coins if you want Ronaldo to join your team because he costs 8.3 million coins.
1. Pele
Still regarded by many as the best football player in history, Pele definitely deserves the first spot in our list or any list for that matter.
Let’s just say that there are amoeba on Saturn that heard about Pele, so there’s no point in contesting if he is the best ever or not.
His stats are very similar to Ronaldo’s and they sometimes had the same role assigned on the pitch, but you can get the Pele Icon Card for a lot less than his co-national.
If you want to secure this player for your all-star team, all you need to do is come up with 5.2 million coins and he will gladly sign the contract.
There are way too many Icon Cards to go through them all right now, but out of all of them, these are the best ten.
EA also added four new icons in FIFA 22, among which are Wayne Rooney, Iker Casillas, Robin Van Persie, and the former Brazilian national and AC Milan defender Cafu.
What is your favorite Icon Card in FIFA Ultimate Team 22? Let us know in the comments section below.
Sometimes while browsing the web you might get the Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message.
Many users are alarmed by this message, and rightfully so, but in today’s article we’ll explain to you what this message does and how to deal with it in your Google Chrome browser.
Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message can appear when visiting certain websites.
It often appears when trying to access a website that contains malicious code, but sometimes you might see this message when trying to view ordinary websites.
How to solve This site may harm your computer in Chrome?
If you keep getting Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message on almost any website, it’s possible that your system is infected by malware.
Usually, this message appears when you’re trying to visit an obscure and potentially malicious website, but if the message appears when visiting reliable websites, the problem might be something else.
To make sure that your system is not infected by malware, be sure to scan it using dedicated antivirus software for browsing antivirus. Sometimes malware can interfere with your browser and cause this message to appear, so it’s important that you scan your PC. If your PC is clean, you should move to the next solution.
2. Try accessing the website from a different device
The Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message can appear only on your PC. In order to make sure that your PC is the problem, try accessing this website from a different device.
If the problem doesn’t appear on other devices, it’s possible that your PC configuration or malware infection is causing this error.
Keep in mind that this solution applies only to trusted and reliable websites. If you’re trying to access an obscure website that you’re visiting for the first time, you should avoid this solution.
3. Turn off the Safe Browsing feature in Chrome
Click the Menu button in the top right corner and choose Settings from the menu.
Scroll all the way down and click the Advanced button.
Scroll down to the Privacy section and disable Safe Browsing feature.
Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message usually appears in Google Chrome, and it’s caused by the Safe Browsing feature.
This feature is actually quite useful, since it will scan websites that you’re trying to visit, and if a specific website has malicious code on it, you’ll get this message.
However, you can always disable the Safe Browsing feature if you want. To do that, just follow the above steps.
After doing that, you should be able to access any website without this message. Keep in mind that by disabling this feature you might put your system at risk.
As a rule of thumb, it’s advised to disable this feature only when visiting familiar and safe websites.
Keep in mind that other browsers have similar features as well, so you don’t use Chrome, be sure to check the privacy section in your browser and disable the Safe Browsing feature.
4. Reinstall the browser
According to users, the Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message can sometimes appear if you have any issues with your browser.
This message appears usually on problematic websites, but if you see this message often, even on websites that you used to visit frequently, the issue might be your installation.
To fix this problem, users are suggesting reinstalling your browser. There are several ways to uninstall your browser, but perhaps the best one is to use professional uninstaller software.
In order to completely remove an application, it’s important to remove all its files and registry entries, since they can cause certain issues.
5. Ignore the message and proceed to the website
On the warning screen locate the URL that you’re trying to visit and copy it and try to open it in the new tab. Alternatively, some users are suggesting to visit to highlight the URL, right-click it, and choose Open in new tab.
You should now see a different screen. Click Details and then click visit the unsafe site link.
Many users get worried when they see the Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message on their screen and rightfully so.
However, sometimes this message can appear on a familiar website that you frequently visit.
If you get this message, you might be able to ignore it and just visit the website. To do that, follow the above procedure.
After doing that, you should be able to visit the website without any problems.
Keep in mind that this warning message is there for a reason, but if this message appears while trying to visit a familiar and safe website, you might be able to avoid it using this method.
If this method doesn’t work, you can always disable the Safe Browsing feature in your browser and that should fix the problem for you.
6. Switch to a different browser
If the Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message keeps appearing on familiar websites, the problem might be your browser.
If that’s the case, consider switching temporarily to a different browser until you manage to fix the problem.
You can use Microsoft Edge since it comes with Windows 10, but you can use other browsers such as Firefox or Opera One.
Bear in mind that these browsers might have a similar feature available, so they might also block this website.
7. Make sure that your browser is up to date
Warning visiting this website may harm your computer message can appear if your browser is out of date. An outdated browser can encounter various issues, therefore it’s important that you keep it up to date at all times.
Most browsers download the latest updates automatically, but sometimes you might skip a couple of updates. However, you can always check for updates manually.
To do that, open the browser’s menu in the top right corner and choose Help > About.
From there you should be able to see the current version that you’re using, and the browser will automatically check for updates. Once the updates are installed, check if this problem is still there.
Bear in mind that this process might be slightly different on your browser, but you should be able to figure it out on your own.
Removing these files by hand can be quite tedious, therefore it’s better to use uninstaller software that will remove the desired application along with all of its files.
Once you remove your browser, install it again and check if that solves your problem.
Warning visiting this website may harm your computer usually appears before you try to access a malicious website.
However, sometimes this message can appear on trusted and reliable websites, and if that happens, be sure to try some of our solutions and see if that solves your problem.
This issue can be quite annoying, and speaking of that, users reported the following problems as well:
Visiting this website may harm your computer Firefox – This message can appear in any browser, and if you encounter it, perhaps it would be a good idea to scan your PC for malware.
This site may harm your computer Firefox – According to users, this message is caused by the Safe Browsing feature, and in order to stop it from appearing, just disable this feature in your browser.
Google malicious website warning – Sometimes you might get this warning message in Chrome. If that happens, simply choose the option to ignore it.
Warning the website contains malware. Visiting this site may harm your computer – This message can appear due to numerous reasons, but you should be able to fix it using our solutions.
Since the 2014 movie, the Guardians of the Galaxy have served as the heart of the MCU. There were already enough characters representing the brains and brawn and honor, but the ragtag crew of misfits as presented by James Gunn, et al, gave us something we hadn’t yet seen in a franchise that, at the time, needed an injection of levity.
Still, while the original movie will always rank as one of my favorites, I wasn’t expecting much from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy game. The trailer gave that same uncanny valley feeling, as I was watching characters that kind of looked and kind of sounded like the heroes I knew. Within an hour, those fears were blown away like so much drifting space debris.
Besides some of the aesthetics and character touches, the game takes very little directly from the MCU. In fact, it barely takes a lot directly from the comics universe either in terms of its actual story. It’s set in a time when the Guardians are already a team, but a fledgling one, having only been on 13 missions together and still very much finding their place.
All for one
Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, remains the human core of the group. He’s the one we, arguably, relate to more as there’s still so much about the universe he doesn’t know. This is not the MCU Star Lord, but it’s not far off. He’s still a well-intentioned clown, always quick with a joke or an excuse but never failing to pull out the goods when he needs to. Playing as Quill allows us to learn things he learns, but it also positions us at the center of the group in such a way that we can call on them at any time during battle.
Rocket Raccoon, though, might as well be the very same version from the duology. He’s foul-mouthed and mean-tempered, but oddly he has some of the most emotional moments. You can collect odds and ends then discuss them with the group later aboard the Milano, and learning through this medium about his traumatic time spent as an experiment on Halfworld is genuinely quite moving.
In fact, all the characters have an incredible dimension to them – even the villains you meet along the way. The dynamic between Gamora and Drax is superb. She is the adopted daughter and former assassin of Thanos, the supervillain who killed Drax’s family and who Drax, in this universe, was the end of. They don’t hate each other, exactly, but Drax’s open hostility is so honest it’s almost endearing, and Gamora does her best to shrug it off despite the fact that she continues to do everything possible to atone for her past.
Dancin’ in the stars
And Groot… well, Groot is Groot, as he repeatedly confirms in his three-word language that Rocket unreliably translates for us. But even Groot has his moments. On top of the great characterization, there’s also a great soundtrack, filled with licensed tracks that evoke that retro-futuristic spirit at all times.
Quite surprisingly, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a game about choice and consequence. Throughout the story, you’ll make many, many choices, some obvious and binary, presented as clear-cut dialogue options. These may force you to take one side or another in an argument, or go with one teammate’s plan over another. The characters remember your choices for the entire game and will even bring them up again hours later.
Other choices are more subtle and in fact, you may not even realize you’re making one. Opting to, for example, wander off the obvious path can lead to one or more of the Guardians following you for a conversation you may not have experienced otherwise. Sometimes it will simply lead to them chastising you for wasting their time.
We are Groot
The more hours you play, the more you’ll see certain lines and exchanges repeated, but there is a ton of dialogue in this game. It’s not all pure gold, but the majority of it absolutely nails the Guardians brand. And the voice acting is some of the very, very best I’ve ever heard. Kimberley Sue-Murray and Alex Weiner as Gamora and Rocket respectively absolutely powerhouse their roles, but the other actors remain on point throughout too.
In an original story that sees the Guardians bungle a fairly simple ruse and end up indebted to the Nova Corps and up to their necks with a savage monster dealer, the crew hop between some incredible locales. And in these locales, of course, are some pretty wild alien enemies.
Sadly, though, the combat is probably the weakest element in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s not bad, exactly, but there’s a messiness to it that never manages to quite come together. As Star Lord you’ll use elemental attacks and standard blasters and can command your allies to activate any of a trio of unlockable moves. Drax can stun the enemy, Groot can entangle them, Rocket blows stuff up, and Gamora has devastating attacks that can obliterate single weakened enemies.
Teamwork makes the dream work
You’ll find scrap hidden all over the place (along with alternate outfits for the team) that let Rocket apply upgrades to your attacks and gear to give you an edge in battle and make exploring worthwhile.
But there’s so much combat and it’s so scrappy that it’s not always easy to see what’s going on or keep track of where characters even are. At certain points, you’ll be able to activate an ultimate ability called the Huddle, which causes Quill to call his allies in for a pep talk.
As an element in a Guardians game, it’s easy to see what Eidos Montreal were going for. It’s pure Guardians fun – however, these moments break up the combat to such a degree that they become a hindrance. I don’t want to take a break mid-wallop to hear Gamora whine or Drax grumble about his lot in life. And if you fail a Huddle, which is easily done, you lose out on a group damage buff. Hardly a major issue and something else that renders them a little superfluous.
Motley crew
Misfiring gimmick aside, though, the combat in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy at least brings the team together in a meaningful way. As you progress, you’ll see the bonds between them strengthen in ways you may not even notice. At the start of the game, you’ll need to ask them to do things for you, such as Groot bridging a gap with his roots or Gamora leaping to a high cliff face to give you a boost.
By the late game, they do this without your agency, showing that they are beginning to synergize as a team. Likewise, the sharp dialogue and verbal lashings begin to soften as the characters find common ground even in seemingly random dialogue exchanges. It’s not just a cool system, it’s one of the best examples of character development I’ve seen in an action game.
If there’s a major downside here it’s in the performance. Whether I kept the graphical settings high or dropped them to accommodate, I still experienced areas of massive slow down and frame rate drops. Twice it kicked me back to desktop after a Huddle, and there are all sorts of physical glitches like vibrating characters and animation bugs.
There was nothing that ruined my fun, but a triple-A should be in better condition at launch. Also, if you’re playing with a controller, look out for a weird bug that repeatedly scrambles the control prompts across Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch inputs. That one is a lot of fun during QTEs, as you can imagine.
Completion and achievements
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will take around 15 to 18 hours to beat, but if you want to explore every nook and cranny for hidden collectibles and outfits it will take more than 20.
There’s a full suite of achievements on PC that ape the console list, so if you’re a trophy hunter there’s plenty to get stuck into. You can unlock all trophies in one run, but there are missable achievements ties to the collectibles, so you may want to use a guide here.
Final thoughts on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Pros
Perfectly nails the Guardians atmosphere
Stunning alien worlds
Incredible soundtrack
Cons
Struggles technically
Huddle system is a bit of a misfire
Combat can feel a little tedious
Final Score: 4/5
Despite some annoying bugs and a few hit-and-miss gimmicks, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an exceptional cinematic adventure. The choice system is excellent and feeds into the stellar character development in ways you may not even realize at the time.
Crucially, it doesn’t outstay its welcome or get bogged down in filler. The combat isn’t always a winner though, which is a shame because there’s so much of it. Ultimately, this game is just a lot of fun, with some genuinely touching character moments sprinkled in that will give you pause for thought among all the wise-cracks. Don’t let the bugs put you off: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic blast of intergalactic adventure.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is available on PC for around $49.99. It’s also available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. You can see its recommended specs on the Steam page.
*Disclaimer: Reviewed on PC. Review code provided by the publisher.
![How to Use FaceTime on Windows 11 [Download]](https://windowsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Windows-11-Facetime.jpg)
