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Peak Microsoft is whatever you want it to be. Or not
The readers have spoken, and the era of peak Microsoft is… open to debate.…
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Microsoft 365 boosts prices in 2026 … to pay for more AI and security
All those new features won’t fund themselves
Microsoft 365 customers have gotten an early Christmas present from Santa Satya: price rises. All that AI goodness isn't going to pay for itself.…
Irish Excel whiz sheets all over the competition in Vegas showdown
Diarmuid Early takes world title after outpacing 11 rivals
Ireland's Diarmuid Early has won the Excel World Championship. Readers of a certain age may be disappointed to learn he has never used Lotus 1-2-3.…
Cloudflare suffers second outage in as many months during routine maintenance
The Reg is still standing (this time) despite our best efforts
Updated Routine Cloudflare maintenance went awry this morning, knocking over the company's dashboard and API and sending sites around the world into error screens.…
We'll beat China to the Moon, NASA nominee declares
Isaacman: 'We can never accept a gap in our capabilities again'
The US must return astronauts to the Moon before China mounts its first crewed landing there, NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman predicted on Wednesday. He also vowed that the country will not endure another gap in its human-spaceflight capabilities as the International Space Station approaches retirement.…
EU probes Meta after WhatsApp kicked rival AIs off platform
OpenAI and Microsoft yank their chatbots, telling millions of users to head elsewhere
The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into Meta after WhatsApp rewrote its rules to block rival AI chatbots including OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot.…
Latest Windows 11 updates may break the OS's most basic bits
Microsoft warns Start menu, Explorer, and other XAML apps can crash or vanish on managed devices
Microsoft has admitted that it might have broken Windows components including the Start menu and Explorer in the latest round of updates.…
China's reusable rocket makes it to orbit but fails to stick the landing
An ‘anomaly’ meant a fireball arrived at the recovery zone instead of a spent first stage
There's good news and bad news for the Chinese commercial launch industry. The good news is that LandSpace's ZhuQue-3 launched successfully on its maiden flight. The bad news is that a hoped-for recovery of the first stage ended in a fireball.…
Microsoft sharpens the blocking axe for Exchange Web Services
Starting in March, Frontline Worker and Kiosk–only mailboxes lose EWS access
Microsoft is getting serious about the end of Exchange Web Services (EWS) and has announced that, starting in March 2026, it will begin blocking EWS access to mailboxes without license rights.…
ISS hits rare full house as all eight docking ports ocupado
Russian vehicles will depart soon, but Baikonur launchpad damage clouds future arrivals
Updated NASA confirmed this week that for the first time, all eight of the International Space Station's docking ports are currently occupied – four by Russian vehicles.…
Windows 11 still barely pulling ahead of 10 despite end-of-support push
Statcounter shows the gap narrowing as users cling to older hardware and familiar workflows
Windows 11 has not significantly widened its market share lead over Windows 10, despite support for many versions of the latter ending almost two months ago.…
NASA nominee 'committed' to uprooting Shuttle Discovery for Houston trophy piece
Isaacman backs Texas relocation amid warnings that costs could top $150M
US President Donald Trump's nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, is "committed to move the Space Shuttle Discovery to Houston," according to the office of Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).…
Microsoft mops up Mesh after another metaverse misfire
Dreams of a virtual world linger on in Teams
As of December 1, mixed reality collaboration platform Microsoft Mesh is no more, and Redmond has directed customers to immersive events in Teams.…
French AI shop Mistral rolls out full suite of Apache-licensed models
Lineup spans 3B to 14B parameters, from edge devices to multi-GPU rigs
Mistral AI has released a suite of open source models under the Mistral 3 banner, aiming to scale from a mobile device or drone up to multi-GPU datacenter beasts.…
Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever
2025 Xmas knitware nightmare could be yours if you make us smile: When was peak Microsoft?
Free Wear It's that time of year again when Microsoft dispatches its latest Ugly Sweater to The Register, and we spoil a lucky reader that makes us smile by sending you the garment in time for Christmas.…
UK sinks to fifth in ESA funding league behind Spain
Brit astro Tim Peake's much-vaunted mission to the ISS a distant memory
Nearly ten years after Brit astronaut Tim Peake visited the International Space Station (ISS), the UK has slipped behind Spain in European Space Agency funding rankings.…
Windows 11 needs an XP SP2 moment, says ex-Microsoft engineer
Stop AI bloat, fix the operating system, implores veteran software developer Dave Plummer
The Windows operating system is buckling under AI features that seem designed more for shareholders than users, and retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer says it's time to hit pause.…
Cheaper 1 GB Raspberry Pi 5 lands as memory costs go through the roof
Budget model slips in at $45 while other boards climb amid AI-driven component crunch
Raspberry Pi has raised prices across much of its latest lineup while launching a new $45 Raspberry Pi 5 with 1GB of RAM, it's first sub-$50 model in the series.…
Baikonur's only crew-capable pad busted after Soyuz flight
Roscosmos confirms 'damage' as images suggest repairs could stretch into 2027
The pad used by Russia to send Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) sustained damage during yesterday's crew launch, according to Roscosmos.…
GrapheneOS bails on OVHcloud over France's privacy stance
Project cites fears of state access as cloud sovereignty row deepens
French cloud outfit OVHcloud took another hit this week after GrapheneOS, a mobile operating system, said it was ditching the company's servers over concerns about France's approach to digital privacy.…
