These accessories might not cure your anxiety or insomnia, but they can feel like a hug when you really need one.

The way to control government is to control the computers

MacworldLast month, we covered a new SMS phishing scam specifically targeting iPhone users. The idea behind the scheme is to trick the recipient into replying to a text in order to activate a link, which would then be clicked, either purposefully or inadvertently, and activate a piece of malware.Messages in iOS 18 has a feature that turns off hyperlinks when receiving a text from a number thats not in your Contacts list. That extra bit of security makes it difficult for scammers to trick you into clicking their linksunless you then reply, which unlocks the link.The idea is that the original text tricks you into replying with something as simple as a Y or N so the link will become clickable.Its usually a question or some kind of opt-out trick to get you to respond. But the one I received on Thursday was neither clever nor tricky.The first tip-off was the senders name, which was too long to even display on the screen:hanwen.zhanyi.1991_zhongweicong-yulunchui@musician.org. The second clue was the message text, which told me my car had an unpaid toll and asked me to settle properly to avoid excessive late fees.FoundryAfter all that scary text was a web address without a hyperlink because the number was unknown. Instead of trying to trick me into responding, however, the rest of the message read: Please reply Y, then exit the SMS and reopen to activate the link, or copy the link to your Safari browser and open it.Thats about as obvious as a smishing attempt can get. I suppose its possible that an unsuspecting user could unwittingly follow those instructions and open their phone to malware, but mostly its just an advertisement for Apples excellent security measures to prevent attacks before they can even start.So sorry,hanwen.zhanyi.1991_zhongweicong-yulunchui@musician.org, maybe next time try an Android user.

MacworldAt a glanceExpert's RatingProsFastest external enclosure outside of Thunderbolt 5Super affordable for 40Gbps USB4Handsome, easy-access design with silicon jacketConsThermal issues under super heavy load with jacket onOur Verdict UGreens solid, good-looking CM850 USB4 enclosure outperforms everything except Thunderbolt 5, and gives that more than a run for its money in real-world transfers. it also does so for significantly less cash.Price When ReviewedThis value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefinedBest Pricing TodayIf youve shopped Thunderbolt in your quest for fast external Mac storage, youll know that sticker shock is often a pitfall of the process. You can reduce the monetary jolt by switching your search to USB4, which, being an outgrowth of Intels PCIe over-a-wire technology is just as fast as Thunderbolt 4.And its significantly cheaper than Thunderbolt, especially if you roll your own with something such as the UGreen CM850 NVMe M.2 enclosure.The CM850 is a more affordable version of the Ugreens CM642 that uses the same ASMedia ASM2464PD chip. Its a gun-metal gray aluminum enclosure thats approximately 4.75 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches and weighs 4.4 ounces.Its heft is nice, as is the top panel that pops off to reveal the internal M.2/NVMe slot that supports 2230 (22mm wide, 30mm long) to 2280 SSDs secured by a captive screw. The panel doesnt have small screws to deal with (or lose).The CM850s interior M.2 slot. Note the fan underneath the screw thats used to secure the NVMe SSD.Your options on the Mac for 20Gbps/40Gbps performance are Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5, all of which involve significantly pricier enclosures, and are not supported on the majority of Windows machines. That can be important if you work in a mixed environment.Adding an NVMe SSD to the CM850 will cost you anywhere from $40 (256GB) to $650 (8TB), with the sweet spot being the 1TB ($60) to 2TB ($160) range. Note that USB4 (or Thunderbolt for that matter) cant use the extra bandwidth provided by PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSDs. PCIe 3.0 SSDs are quickly disappearing, but the point is, dont overbuy.Beyond that, avoid QLC SSDs if you regularly write large amounts of data, and buy a DRAM design if youre going to run an operating system off the drive or want top random performance. The best bang for the buck however will be cheaper TLC host memory buffer (HMB) drives.The CM850 with its silicone jacket in place. Artistically lit as wellUgreen CM850: PerformanceThe CM 850 is darn fast. In fact, in the aggregate, its the fastest external SSD weve tested. Take that with several grains of salt, however, as I populated the CM850 with the super-fast 8TB WD850X for my testing.Also, the Thunderbolt 5 OWC Envoy Ultra was significantly faster in Mac synthetic benchmarks, though its real-world transfers were little faster than SSDs with less haughty benchmark results.The charmingly simple, but generally quite accurate Disk Speed Test from Blackmagicdesign shows the 3GBps plus you get both reading and writing with the CM850given a suitably fast NVME SSD inside.The charmingly simple, but generally quite accurate Disk Speed Test from Blackmagicdesign shows the 3GBps plus you get both reading and writing with the CM850 given a suitably fast NVME SSD inside.AmorphousDiskMark (a port of the original CyrstalDiskMark) also shows well over 3GBps transfers.AmorphousDiskMark (a port of the original CyrstalDiskMark) also shows well over 3GBps transfers.ATTO Disk Benchmark says that the CM850 is perfectly capable of utilizing much of the performance any NVMe SSD will deliver. Within the confines of 40Gbps that is. PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs can go much faster than the 3GBps USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 allow.ATTO Disk Benchmark says that the CM850 is perfectly capable of utilizing much of the performance any NVMe SSD will deliver. Within the confines of 40Gbps that is. PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs can go much faster than the bus allows.I also ran the CM850 through PCWorlds battery of tests, which is how that fastest claim is substantiated.The following are the results from CrystalDiskMark 8, as well as PCWorlds 48GB transfers and 450GB write. These are all run on the PCWorld storage test beds Thunderbolt 4 ports, not a Mac. Theyre still indicative of superior performance given a superior NVMe SSD inside of course.Overall, the CM850 is number one among all external SSDs tested on that platform, with the CM642 finishing a very close second. That said, the Adata SE920 and OWC Express 1M2 are still both very fast drives that didnt have the uber fast WD 8TB SN850X to help out.The UGreen siblings give their pre-populated rivals more than a run for their money. Keep in mind the super fast WD SN850X was inside. Longer bars are better.In both CrystalDiskMark 8s sequential (above), and random (below) performance tests, the CM850 did very well. The UGreen siblings didnt dominate in the 4K tests, but the results are still very good. Again, the super fast WD SN850X inside helped. Longer bars are better.The CM850, again with the aid of the WD SN850X was the fastest external enclosure weve tested with our 48GB transfers.The CM850 and its cousin bested both their rivals in our 48GB transfers, though the difference is within the margin of error. Shorted bars are better.The CM850 turned in the fastest 450GB write weve seen from an external drive. Bear in mind that the CM642 had the same 8TB WD SN850X inside. The WD SN850X allowed the UGreen enclosures to finish number 1 and 2 in our all time 450GG write times. Shorter bars are better.I did run into an issue with the CM850. While performing the 450GB write in the PCWorld testing, the drive would disappear with the sleeve on. No doubt due to thermal issues, internal fan or no. Removing the silicone jacket allowed it to finish, as did running a fan over it.Other than that, I was absolutely delighted with the CM850s performance. (Who other than PCWorld writes 450GB files on a regular basis?)Should you buy the Ugreen CM850?The CM850 (or its pricier CM642 cousin) is an absolutely fantastic way to add 40Gbps storage to your Mac without paying that heavy Thunderbolt surtax. If you already have an NVMe SSD great, if you dont, buy one and have at it. Good job, Ugreen.

Back in the 1990s, Windows power users often availed themselves of a set of small, free software tools from Microsoft collectively known as PowerToys. (Read about their history at Wikipedia.) Microsoft abandoned these mini-utilities during the Windows Vista, 7, and 8 years but reintroduced them in May 2019 as an open-source project on GitHub.In both incarnations, these tools have always sought to help out with everyday tasks, such as resizing images; creating easy-to-use Windows desktop layouts; running programs; or looking up keyboard shortcuts. Handy stuff! Theres a lot more going on in the current crop of PowerToys than many readers might know about, so its a good idea to survey whats inside that toybox. While some of the original 90s PowerToys have been re-created and updated for Windows 10 and 11, many others are brand new. Recently, the PowerToys team has even started adding elements of the venerable Sysinternals toolkit (e.g., ZoomIt) into the mix.Heres an introduction to the two-dozen-plus PowerToys available today and how to take advantage of these highly useful, compact, and capable tools.In this article:Obtaining and installing PowerToysUsing PowerToysMeet the Windows PowerToysWhats coming for PowerToysObtaining and installing PowerToysUnlike the 90s tools, which had to be downloaded and installed individually, theres now a single PowerToys app that gives users access to all available PowerToys tools in one go. When this app was introduced in 2019, it was available only through GitHub.Its still available that way: visit the PowerToys GitHub page, click the Latest release icon at lower right, then download and install the .exe that matches your target PC x64 or ARM64, per-user or machine-wide. (I recommend machine-wide because it will work for all users on a given PC.)But a GitHub visit is no longer necessary. Instead you can get the PowerToys app from the Microsoft Store (and take advantage of its auto-update capabilities).Or you can use the built-in Windows package manager, WinGet, to install (and then update) it at the command line if you prefer. To install the latest version, open an administrative Windows Terminal session (either PowerShell or Command Prompt will work) and type:Winget install PowerToysThen, to update PowerToys automatically or directly, type:Winget upgrade all include-unknown #updates all incl PowerToysWinget upgrade PowerToys #only updates PowerToysFor more information on installing PowerToys, visit the Installing PowerToys page at Microsoft Learn.Once youve got PowerToys installed on a PC, you can open the app by searching on PowerToys in the Windows search box or typing PowerToys into the Run box. Youre good to go.Using PowerToysBy default, PowerToys is a startup item, so it fires off once the Windows desktop appears after boot-up. It becomes part of the Windows runtime that way, and makes its tools available using their keyboard shortcuts any time you need them.To access PowerToys settings, tools, and info, click its icon in the notification area at the right-hand side of the Windows 10 or 11 taskbar. This brings up a Shortcuts window with access to various PowerToys, and some key buttons, as shown in Figure 1.Figure 1: Click on the PowerToys icon in the taskbars notifications area to pop up this menu.Ed Tittel / FoundryWhat you see in this Shortcuts menu is an abbreviated list of PowerToys tools. If you click More, you can access All apps with a scrolling control at the far right.Look at the buttons at the lower right in Figure 1. The page icon (left) takes you to the Microsoft Learn pages for PowerToys where the whole shebang is described, documented, and depicted. The debug icon (middle) creates a bug report file from PowerToys and deposits it on your desktop. Youre supposed to visit the Issues page at the PowerToys GitHub home, and may use that information as part of a New issue filing if you find that necessary.The real action is from the rightmost icon, which shows the familiar Settings gear. As you might guess, this takes you to PowerToys Settings, where the Dashboard pane (shown in Figure 2) appears by default.Figure 2: The PowerToys Dashboard presents toggles for all PowerToys and shows their current state. (Partial image: there are too many to show at once!)Ed Tittel / FoundryThis Dashboard is helpful in showing you the status (on or off) for all PowerToys. Note that the PowerToys are organized into five categories, which appear at the left in Figure 2:System Tools: Various controls over OS appearance and desktop or app window contents (includes Advanced Paste, Awake, Color Picker, PowerToys Run, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide, Text Extractor, and ZoomIt).Windowing & Layouts: Tools to control how windows on the desktop interact, stack, and get arranged (includes Always On Top, Crop and Lock, FancyZones, and Workspaces).Input / Output: Tools for mouse and keyboard management and control (includes Keyboard Manager, Mouse utilities, Mouse Without Borders, and Quick Accent).File Management: A plethora of File Explorer add-ins (context menus, usually) and file controls (includes File Explorer add-ons, File Locksmith, Image Resizer, New+, Peek, and PowerRename).Advanced: A grab-bag of tools for command line, networking, and registry access aimed at savvy power users (includes Command Not Found, Environment Variables, Hosts File Editor, and Registry Preview).The General item near the top of that left-hand list is also worth getting to know; its where youll find global info about and general settings for PowerToys (partially shown in Figure 3).Figure 3: The General settings pane provides version info, an update button, and other PowerToys controls.Ed Tittel / FoundryThis is the pane where you can see that PowerToys will Run at startup by default. You can also guide how PowerToys behaves when run in administrator mode, what it looks and acts like, adjust backup and restore settings, and enable or disable use of experimental features. (The PowerToys team, under the able direction of team lead Clint Rutkas, issues regular previews with experimental or planned features.)Meet the Windows PowerToysThe initial set of eight PowerToys released in 2019 has now more than tripled, with new tools rolling out steadily. As I wrote this story, the total count was 26 across the categories mentioned earlier. (In the list that follows, I present the PowerToys in alphabetical order, not by category.) Inside PowerToys, youll find a lot to learn, like, play with, and put to good use.Advanced Paste: Lets you manipulate the format for clipboard content. You can paste whatever youve cut as plain text, markdown, or .json using the tool directly, or more simply with direct keystroke sequences. (By default, Win key + Shift + V opens the Advanced Paste tool, and Win key + Ctrl +Alt + V pastes as plain text.) Youll find additional clipboard controls and key combinations (paste as file, as .txt file, as .png file, and as .html file) as well, as shown in Figure 4. Theres even an AI-based function, but it requires users to supply their own OpenAI key to put it to work.Figure 4: The Advanced Paste PowerToy includes AI options, clipboard controls, and various key combos for quick use.Ed Tittel / FoundryAlways On Top: Keeps an open window pinned on the top display layer so that its always visible. Once enabled, its shortcut key combo is Win key + Ctrl + T. It plays a brief sound as it pins any window and shows a thick blue border around pinned windows for easy recognition all configurable in the settings. You can even create an exclusion list to prevent certain apps from responding to this tool. Always on Top works best when you have ample screen real estate; I use it mostly on multi-monitor setups.Awake: Keeps a PC awake independent of its power and sleep settings. Its primarily designed to enable completion of long-running tasks that might otherwise be interrupted or paused by sleep kicking in or the display(s) turning off. Figure 5 shows the options available to control how long the PC stays awake.Figure 5: Awake lets you control wake behavior and keep the display on as well.Ed Tittel / FoundryColor Picker: A small widget that lets users obtain codes for colors anywhere in the visible display area(s) in Windows 10 or 11 (HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK, etc.). Once its enabled, press Win key + Shift + C to activate Color Picker, then select a color on your screen. Color Picker copies the colors code in the format youve set (HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK, etc.) to the clipboard so you can easily paste it into a graphics program, HTML markup, or anyplace else you might need such a color code.Command Not Found (CNF): A PowerShell (PS) module that snags the PS error code for an unrecognized command, then looks up and offers to install plausible WinGet packages if theyre available. Behind the scenes, this adds an item to the Windows Terminal profile and makes sure PS 7.4 (or higher) is running and that the WinGet Client PowerShell module is installed. The net result is depicted in Figure 6. (Visit CNFs settings for more info.)Figure 6: After the error message (red) appears, CNF takes over to suggest possible vim installs.Ed Tittel / FoundryCrop and Lock: Lets you create a smaller window in which to display an application (called Reparent mode and triggered by the keyboard shortcut Win key + Ctrl + Shift + R) or show a desktop thumbnail (Thumbnail mode, with shortcut key combo Win key + Ctrl + Shift + T). Either way, position the cursor inside the app window you wish to crop and lock, enter the key combo, and a crosshair (+) cursor will appear. Use that to crop the app window, and there you go (opens a new, smaller-sized window).Environment Variables: Provides access to a standalone app that lets you see, create, edit, or remove environment variables that Windows uses to control its behavior and to identify and access system resources (e.g., Path, OneDrive, OS, and so forth). The controls are dead simple, and the app provides standard user or administrative access to Profiles, Default, System, and Applied variables in the Windows environment, as shown in Figure 7. Its much handier than the old Control Panel item, which restricts window size severely.Figure 7: The Environment Variables app lets you create, edit, and remove variables and profiles in Windows.Ed Tittel / FoundryFancyZones: Like Windows Snap functionality on steroids, this window manager tool lets you create windows layouts for multiple usage scenarios and multitasking between and among them. Shortcut key combo: Win key + `(grave accent or backtick; its on the same key as ~ in US QWERTY layout). See Figure 8 for a glimpse of FancyZones easy-to-use controls.Figure 8: FancyZones makes it easy to set up and use complex window arrangements.Ed Tittel / FoundryFile Explorer add-ons: Originally released as FE Preview, this PowerToy provides toggles to show miniature SVG files on the File Explorer preview pane, or within thumbnails. This tool also enables previews or thumbnails for Markdown (.md, .mdown, .mkdn, ) files, source code files (.txt, .cpp, .py, .json, .xml, ), geometric code, Portable Document Format (.pdf), and Quite OK image files (.qoi).File Locksmith: Checks if a file or folder (and sub-contents) is in use and, if so, which processes are using it. To use it, open File Explorer, then hold down the Shift key, right-click a file or folder, and choose Unlock with File Locksmith from the pop-up menu. As shown in Figure 9, a sub-window appears listing the tasks (if any) using the file. If you want to stop the process from running, click End task.Figure 9: File Locksmith lets you see the process(es) using a file in this case, the Chrome browser.Ed Tittel / FoundryHosts File Editor: In a typical TCP/IP networking environment, a local file named Hosts predefines domain names and IP addresses to give the IP host/address resolution process a jump start. Indeed, Windows checks this file first before it uses the Domain Name Service (DNS), to turn human-readable domain names (such as Microsoft.com) into machine-usable IP addresses (such as 20.70.246.20, among many others).The Hosts File Editor PowerToy launches a standalone app that provides guided access to view and edit the Hosts file in Windows. (Be careful! As the app warns, you can bollix up internet access editing this file incorrectly.) For a good overview of the pros, cons, and best uses for a customized hosts file in Windows, see this 2020 LoginRadius blog post Benefits and usages of Hosts File.Image Resizer: Provides drag-and-drop or right-click context menu access (Resize with Image Resizer) to resize graphics files, alter graphics file formats, or rename them as desired. This tool not only lets you define your own dimensions for small, medium, large, and phone images, you can add new named image types for more customized captures as well. Figure 10 shows the Image Resizer pop-up control when its entry is selected from the right-click menu.Figure 10: Image Resizers pop-up applet makes it quick and easy to resize image files.Ed Tittel / FoundryKeyboard Manager: Provides a toggle that lets users remap keyboard keys to other keys or shortcuts, or remap shortcuts to other shortcuts or keys. Once turned on, you can remap keys on your keyboard, or you can remap existing shortcuts into different ones. To really understand what this tool can do (and why it can sometimes be a real boon), browse the Microsoft Learn article Keyboard Manager utility.Mouse utilities: A collection of mouse tools that includes Find My Mouse (press Ctrl twice fairly quickly), Mouse Highlighter (Win key + H), Mouse Jump (disabled by default, Win key + Shift + D), and Mouse Pointer Crosshairs (disabled by default, Win key + Alt + P). Each comes with an on/off toggle, plus various simple controls. Try them out to see how they work and look. Of all of them, I use Find My Mouse most often: double-click Ctrl and a white circle pops up around the mouse.Mouse Without Borders (MWB): I remember Mouse Without Borders as an old Microsoft Garage project. (Wikipedia says it made its public debut in September 2011.) Simply put, MWB lets you use a single mouse to track its cursor across the screens of multiple Windows devices configured to interact and communicate with one another. Thus, unlike most other PowerToys, MWB requires initial setup and configuration.First, it must be enabled (its off by default). Then a shared key must be generated and used to get the devices talking to each other, after which a layout can be arranged. There are all kinds of controls that come into play: a dozen for behavior, five keyboard shortcuts, and a smattering of advanced settings and troubleshooting tools. Figure 11 shows two of my laptops (P16 and X380, from left to right) set up to permit the cursor to track between them.Figure 11: MWB lets you arrange systems (two laptops in this case) in line to track the cursor across them.Ed Tittel / FoundryNew+: Lets you create files and folders from your own personalized template set. You can use it to set up text, Office, and other files with predefined info. For instance, you could create a file with the address block, date placeholder, and recipient placeholder for a business letter; another with layouts and column heads for invoice spreadsheets; and others for commonly needed files for everyday use. The New+ settings let you change the default template location and hide filename extensions and starting characters.Peek: Another File Explorer extension that provides quick, transient access to file previews. Highlight a file, press Ctrl + spacebar, and a preview window opens. This works especially well for screencaps; as demonstrated in Figure 12, its easy to see details captured in a screenshot without actually opening the image file. (Notice the Peek icon up top, a magnifying glass on a file folder.) Peek has very simple controls, too.Figure 12: Highlight a file, press Ctrl + spacebar, and get the preview.Ed Tittel / FoundryPowerRename: Provides a context menu entry (Windows Shell extension) for advanced bulk file renaming in File Explorer using search and replace or regular expression syntax (regex). Regex is an extremely powerful technique, and its a good idea to have some knowledge of how it works before you use PowerRename to mess around with real, live files on your PC. Microsoft Learn has a nice regex tutorial for Visual Studio that covers the basics of characters, operators, constructs, and patterns.Figure 13 shows me renaming some of the image files for this very story: its a useful tool.Figure 13: I highlighted four filenames and Shift-clicked to open this PowerRename window. Its set up to replace pt25 with PowToy25.Ed Tittel / FoundryPowerToys Run: A quick pop-up launcher that works like the Run command window. Shortcut key combo: Alt + spacebar. Note that these keys are adjacent on US QWERTY keyboards for super-quick access and use. Its faster and easier to access than the Run box, and its search function is likewise lightning fast. Click any item in the search results to launch and go.Figure 14 shows a generic PowerToys Run box that puts its capabilities on display: run executables; calculate simple equations; search previous inputs, files, folders and programs; and navigate the Registry. The better you know it, the better youll like it!Figure 14: Press Alt + spacebar to get this nifty box offering a variety of instant actions.Ed Tittel / FoundryQuick Accent: Longtime windows users know they can use all kinds of Esc and Alt key combos to emit odd and interesting characters from Windows keyboards. Quick Accent provides another way to access accents, fractions, diacritical marks, and other characters using a more visual approach.As you can see in Figure 15, holding down the 1 key and hitting the left arrow puts lots of 1s down before the accent bar pops up above, with various sub- and superscript options plus fractions with a 1 numerator. Interesting!Figure 15: The Quick Accent bar appears above the Notepad window: thats where you pick the character you want.Ed Tittel / FoundryThis one takes some playing with to get used to but can then be quite handy. When you dont need the Quick Accent toolbar anymore, you must disable this PowerToy to make it vanish.Registry Preview: Provides a clean, simple look at the contents of any Windows Registry file. You can launch this app from PowerToys Settings > Registry Preview, or else hold down the Shift key when you click on a .reg file in File Explorer, then select Preview from the resulting pop-up menu. Those who occasionally (or regularly) work on the Registry directly will find this a pleasant, lightweight alternative to RegEdit.exe.Screen Ruler: Provides a simple, visual way to measure pixels on a Windows display. It also includes horizontal and vertical measurement capability; offers continuous measuring; and provides color, color edge, and edge detection controls (see PowerToys Settings > Screen Ruler for all the details). Its shortcut key combo is Win key + Shift + M.Figure 16 shows the ruler at work, showing the pixel count between two desktop background elements. As with Quick Accent, you must disable Screen Ruler to turn off the top center ruler toolbar when you dont wish to see or use it.Figure 16: A faint red line labeled 345 shows the distance in pixels from the circle to the logo.Ed Tittel / FoundryShortcut Guide: A context-sensitive listing of keyboard shortcuts that shows up in Windows 10 or 11 when shortcut key combo Win key + Shift + / (right-slash) is pressed. If opened on the desktop (as in Figure 17), it shows Windows shortcuts. Opened inside any application, it shows that apps shortcuts instead. Hit Esc to close the guide. One of my personal favorites, this tool helps me remember more shortcuts than my poor brain can hold.Figure 17: Combined with the Windows key, these are the basic Windows shortcuts, neatly laid out in Shortcut Guide.Ed Tittel / FoundryText Extractor: Copies text from any portion of the Windows display, including inside images or videos. Microsoft recommends using the relatively new Text actions capability inside the Snipping Tool instead of this tool. Indeed, Text Extractor is disabled by default. But when enabled, it responds to the shortcut key combo Win key + Shift + T.Once you define a rectangular region on screen, Text Extractor parses all text it finds into the clipboard. You can then paste that text into an editor or text input of your choice. I used it to grab the end of the Lenovo logo on my desktop, which you can see pasted into Notepad in Figure 18.Figure 18: When I trace a rectangle around novo (white text on red background), Text Extractor pastes it into Notepad.Ed Tittel / FoundryWorkspaces: A tool for grouping a set of applications together, with positioning control and unique configuration settings. The shortcut to launch this tool, if enabled, is Win key + Ctrl + ` (grave accent or backtick). Pressing that shortcut opens the Workspaces editor and lets you choose from predefined layouts (called Templates) or create your own unique layout (called Custom).You can see a custom workspace in Figure 19, which shows Chrome at left, PowerToys above and Edge below in the center, and Copilot to the right. Figure 19: Workspaces makes it easy to set up and switch among common working scenarios.Ed Tittel / FoundryWorkspaces is helpful when you run specific work scenarios and need groups of applications to make them fly. (See The ultimate Windows app launcher for more info.) Works on both single and multiple monitor setups.ZoomIt: A longtime favorite among Sysinternals users, PowerToys has brought this nifty screen zoom, annotation, and recording tool under the PowerToys umbrella. Its a great addition for those whove never used it; its even more convenient for longtime Sysinternals fans and users (like yours truly, who had the pleasure of writing for Winternals in Austin in the 1990s). The best way to dig into ZoomIt is to read the Microsoft Learn article ZoomIt utility, which includes an animated demo that shows you exactly how it works.This concludes the overview of the current PowerToys lineup as of early February 2025. For more about working with PowerToys, see 10 PowerToys you should use on Windows.In the next section, youll learn a bit about what the PowerToys team is thinking about and working on, by way of possible new PowerToys.Whats coming for PowerToysIf you visit the PowerToys roadmap, youll see information about what the Microsoft development team currently has in its sights. (Shortcut Guide v2 gets my vote.) But because PowerToys is an open-source effort and takes input from countless volunteers who contribute ideas and code, this doesnt cover everything that might show up in the toybox.Given those provisos and qualifications, heres a short-ish list of whats up with possible enhancements or new PowerToys:The in-house team is always working on the PowerToys installer and UI bits and pieces (including the taskbar icon, flyout menu, and more). Right now if you look back at Figure 1 youll see that the PowerToys that function as apps (e.g. Color Picker, Environment Variables, FancyZones, Hosts File Editor, PowerToys Run, Text Extractor, Registry Preview, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide, and Workspaces) all appear as icons on that flyout menu. As these items come and go, this lineup will change to match.Each new PowerToys release comes with release notes that include a Whats New section. This is a great way to find (and see) what kinds of things are popping up inside the toybox.PowerToys works well with the WinGet package manager and includes its own update button on the General pane in PowerToys Settings. It provides notifications when updates are ready and makes it easy to update. Personally, I tend to catch updates through WinGet because I run it on my Windows systems every other day.In online forums recently, PowerToys team lead Clint Rutkas has teased adding transcoding capabilities for audio and video files within the Advanced Paste PowerToy.Given that the Sysinternals tool ZoomIt is now integrated into PowerToys, one has to ponder the possibility that others in that collection may make their way into the toybox, too. Learn more about the outstanding Sysinternals tool set at its Microsoft home page.Dont you need some PowerToys?As somebody whos used some of these wonderful programs and extensions since the late 1990s, my own opinion on using PowerToys is an emphatic Yes! May I have another? But youll have to try them out for yourself and see how you like them if youre not using them already. If you are, hopefully youve seen something new or intriguing here that youll want to try out. Enjoy!This story was originally launched in October 2020 and updated in February 2025.

In trying to make sense of the wrecking ball that is Elon Musk and President Trumps DOGE, it may be helpful to think about the Evil Housekeeper Problem. Its a principle of computer security roughly stating that once someone is in your hotel room with your laptop, all bets are off. Because the intruder has physical access, you are in much more trouble. And the person demanding to get into your computer may be standing right beside you.So who is going to stop the evil housekeeper from plugging a computer in and telling IT staff to connect it to the network?What happens if someone comes in and tells you that youll be fired unless you reveal the authenticator code from your phone, or sign off on a code change, or turn over your PIV card, the Homeland Securityapproved smart card used to access facilities and systems and securely sign documents and emails? What happens if someone says your name will otherwise be published in an online list of traitors? Already the new administration is firing, putting on leave, or outright escorting from the building people who refuse to do what theyre told.Its incredibly hard to protect a system from someonethe evil housekeeper from DOGEwho has made their way inside and wants to wreck it. This administration is on the record as wanting to outright delete entire departments. Accelerationists are not only setting policy but implementing it by working within the administration. If you cant delete a department, then why not just break it until it doesnt work?Thats why what DOGE is doing is a massive, terrifying problem, and one I talked through earlier in a thread on Bluesky.Government is built to be stable. Collectively, we put systems and rules in place to ensure that stability. But whether they actually deliver and preserve stability in the real world isnt actually about the technology used; its about the people using it. When it comes down to it, technology is a tool to be used by humans for human ends. The software used to run our democratically elected government is deployed to accomplish goals tied to policies: collecting money from people, or giving money to states so they can give money to people who qualify for food stamps, or making covid tests available to people.Usually, our experience of government technology is that its out of date or slow or unreliable. Certainly not as shiny as what we see in the private sector. And that technology changes very, very slowly, if it happens at all.Its not as if people dont realize these systems could do with modernization. In my experience troubleshooting and modernizing government systems in California and the federal government, I worked with Head Start, Medicaid, child welfare, and logistics at the Department of Defense. Some of those systems were already undergoing modernization attempts, many of which were and continue to be late, over budget, or just plain broken. But the changes that are needed to make other systems more modern were frequently seen as too risky or too expensive. In other words, not important enough.Of course, some changes are deemed important enough. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance systems offer good examples. When covid hit, certain critical government technologies suddenly became visible. Those systems, like unemployment insurance portals, also became politically important, just like the launch of the Affordable Care Act website (which is why it got so much attention when it was botched).Political attention can change everything. During the pandemic, suddenly it wasnt just possible to modernize and upgrade government systems, or to make them simpler, clearer, and faster to use. It actually happened. Teams were parachuted in. Overly restrictive rules and procedures were reassessed and relaxed. Suddenly, government workers were allowed to work remotely and to use Slack.However, there is a reason this was an exception.In normal times, rules and procedures are certainly part of what makes it very, very hard to change government technology. But they are in place to stop changes because, well, changes might break those systems and government doesnt work without them working consistently.A long time ago I worked on a mainframe system in Californiathe kind that uses COBOL. It was as solid as a rock and worked day in, day out. Because if it didnt, and reimbursements werent received for Medicaid, then the state might become temporarily insolvent.Thats why many of the rules about technology in government make it hard to make changes: because sometimes the risk of things breaking is just too high. Sometimes whats at stake is simply keeping money flowing; sometimes, as with 911, lives are on the line.Still, government systems and the rules that govern them are ultimately only as good as the people who oversee and enforce them. The technology will only do (and not do) what people tell it to. So if anyone comes in and breaks those rules on purposewithout fear of consequencethere are few practical or technical guardrails to prevent it.One system thats meant to do that is the ATO, or the Authority to Operate. It does what it says: It lets you run a computer system. You are not supposed to operate a system without one.But DOGE staffers are behaving in a way that suggests they dont care about getting ATOs. And nothing is really stopping them. (Someone on Bluesky replied to me: My first thought about the OPM [email] server was, theres no way those fuckers have an ATO.)You might think that there would be technical measures to stop someone right out of high school from coming in and changing the code to a government system. That the system could require two-factor authentication to deploy the code to the cloud. That you would need a smart card to log in to a specific system to do that. Nopeall those technical measures can be circumvented by coercion at the hands of the evil housekeeper.Indeed, none of our systems and rules work without enforcement, and consequences flowing from that enforcement. But to an unprecedented degree, this administration, and its individual leaders, have shown absolutely no fear. Thats why, according to Wired, the former X and SpaceX engineer and DOGE staffer Marko Elez had the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). (Elez reportedly resigned yesterday after the Wall Street Journal began reporting on a series of racist comments he had allegedly made.)Were seeing in real time that there are no practical technical measures preventing someone from taking a spanner to the technology that keeps our government stable, that keeps society running every daydespite the very real consequences.So we should plan for the worst, even if the likelihood of the worst is low.We need a version of the UK governments National Risk Register, covering everything from the collapse of financial markets to an attack on government (but, unsurprisingly, that risk is described in terms of external threats). The register mostly predicts long-term consequences, with recovery taking months. That may end up being the case here.We need to dust off those in the event of an emergency disaster response procedures dealing with the failure of federal governmentat individual organizations that may soon hit cash-flow problems and huge budget deficits without federal funding, at statehouses that will need to keep social programs running, and in groups doing the hard work of archiving and preserving data and knowledge.In the end, all we have is each otherour ability to form communities and networks to support, help, and care for each other. Sometimes all it takes is for the first person to step forward, or to say no, and for us to rally around so its easier for the next person. In the end, its not about the technologyits about the people.Dan Hon is principal of Very Little Gravitas, where he helps turn around and modernize large and complex government services and products.

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here.This week Ive been working on a piece about teeth. Well, sort of teeth. Specifically, lab-grown bioengineered teeth. Researchers have created these teeth with a mixture of human and pig tooth cells and grown them in the jaws of living mini pigs.Were working on trying to create functional replacement teeth, Pamela Yelick of Tufts University, one of the researchers behind the work, told me. The idea is to develop an alternative to titanium dental implants. Replacing lost or damaged teeth with healthy, living, lab-grown ones might be a more appealing option than drilling a piece of metal into a persons jawbone.Current dental implants can work well, but theyre not perfect. They dont attach to bones and gums in the same way that real teeth do. And around 20% of people who get implants end up developing an infection called peri-implantitis, which can lead to bone loss.It is all down to the microbes that grow on them. Theres a complex community of microbes living in our mouths, and disruptions can lead to infection. But these organisms dont just affect our mouths; they also seem to be linked to a growing number of disorders that can affect our bodies and brains. If youre curious, read on.The oral microbiome, as it is now called, was first discovered in 1670 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a self-taught Dutch microbiologist. I didnt clean my teeth for three days and then took the material that had lodged in small amounts on the gums above my front teeth I found a few living animalcules, he wrote in a letter to the Royal Society at the time.Van Leeuwenhoek had used his own homemade microscopes to study the animalcules he found in his mouth. Today, we know that these organisms include bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, each of which comes in lots of types. Everyones mouth is home to hundreds of bacterial species, says Kathryn Kauffman at the University of Buffalo, who studies the oral microbiome.These organisms interact with each other and with our own immune systems, and researchers are still getting to grips with how the interactions work. Some microbes feed on sugars or fats in our diets, for example, while others seem to feed on our own cells. Depending on what they consume and produce, microbes can alter the environment of the mouth to either promote or inhibit the growth of other microbes.This complex microbial dance seems to have a really important role in our health. Oral diseases and even oral cancers have been linked to an imbalance in the oral microbiome, which scientists call dysbiosis. Tooth decay, for example, has been attributed to an overgrowth of microbes that produce acids that can damage teeth.Specific oral microbes are also being linked to an ever-growing list of diseases of the body and brain, including rheumatoid arthritis, metabolic disease, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and more.Theres also growing evidence that these oral microbes contribute to neurodegenerative disease. A bacterium called P. gingivalis, which plays a role in the development of chronic periodontitis, has been found in the brains of people with Alzheimers disease. And people who are infected with P. gingivalis also experience a decline in their cognitive abilities over a six-month period.Scientists are still figuring out how oral microbes might travel from the mouth to cause disease elsewhere. In some cases, you swallow the saliva that contains them and they can lodge in your heart and other parts of the body, says Yelick. They can result in a systemic inflammation that just happens in the background.In other cases, the microbes may be hitching a ride in our own immune cells to journey through the bloodstream, as the Trojan horse hypothesis posits. Theres some evidence that Fusobacterium nucleatum, a bacterium commonly found in the mouth, does this by hiding in white blood cells.Theres a lot to learn about exactly how these tiny microbes are exerting such huge influence over everything from our metabolism and bone health to our neurological function. But in the meantime, the emerging evidence is a good reminder to us all to look after our teeth. At least until lab-grown ones become available.Now read the rest of The CheckupRead more from MIT Technology Reviews archiveYou can read more about Yelicks attempt to grow humanlike teeth in mini pigs here.The gut microbiome is even more complex than the one in our mouths. Some scientists believe that people in traditional societies have the healthiest collections of gut microbes. But research on the topic has left some of the people in those groups feeling exploited.Research suggests our microbiomes change as we age. Scientists are exploring whether maintaining our microbiomes might help us stave off age-related disease.The makeup of a gut microbiome can be assessed by analyzing fecal samples. This research might be able to reveal what a person has eaten and help provide personalized dietary advice.There are also communities of microbes living on our skin. Scientists have engineered skin microbes to prevent and treat cancer in mice. Human trials are in the works.From around the webArgentina has declared that it will withdraw from the World Health Organization, following a similar move from the US. President Javier Milei has criticized the WHO for its handling of the covid-19 pandemic and called it a nefarious organization. (Al Jazeera)Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a form of bird flu different from the one that has been circulating in US dairy herds for months. (The New York Times)Staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been instructed to withdraw pending journal publications that mention terms including transgender and pregnant people. But the editors of the British Medical Journal have said they will not retract published articles on request by an author on the basis that they contained so-called banned words. Retraction occurs in circumstances where clear evidence exists of major errors, data fabrication, or falsification that compromise the reliability of the research findings. It is not a matter of author request, two editors have written. (BMJ)Al Nowatzki had been chatting to his AI girlfriend, Erin, for months. Then, in late January, Erin told him to kill himself, and provided explicit instructions on how to do so. (MIT Technology Review)Is our use of the internet and AI tools making us cognitively lazy? Digital amnesia might just be a sign of an aging brain. (Nature)

The UK government has issued an order to Apple telling it to allow officials full access to any iCloud content belonging to any user across the globe.UK ParliamentDuring Conservative Boris Johnson's tenure as Prime Minister, the UK government claimed to be in discussions with Apple about creating a backdoor into iOS that would allow it access to all user data. If there really ever were such discussions, they will have been short because US company Apple has refused the FBI the same thing.Now the new Labour government in the UK is demanding that Apple create this backdoor, according to The Washington Post. Under UK law, it is a criminal offense for Apple to even reveal that such a demand has been made, and so consequently the company has refused to comment. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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