• Windows 11's Start menu is rumored to be getting a bunch of important fixes
• That includes full control over what elements appear in the menu, and the ability to manually switch between the small and larger layouts
• Microsoft is testing changes to make File Explorer perform better, too, and that should arrive with the next Windows 11 update in May

Windows 11's Start menu is going to get the changes many people have been clamoring for, and Microsoft is busy fixing the performance of File Explorer, too, as the company moves to shore up key parts of the operating system's interface.

Windows Central reported the work on the Start menu, although it should be noted that this is just a rumor. That said, we do know that Microsoft intends to revamp the menu as part of the major campaign to fix Windows 11, so something will certainly be done with this part of the UI.

According to sources who spoke to Windows Central, the main change will be a much greater level of control over the customization of the Start menu. Windows 11 users will be able to turn off any section of the menu that they don't want to see.

That means not just the ability to ditch the recommended panel — which you can do now (that was part of the most recent major overhaul for the Start menu — but you can also get rid of pinned apps, or even the list of all apps installed on the PC.

Apparently, you'll also be able to choose to have a small (6-column) or larger (8-column) Start menu layout, which is a decision Windows 11 makes itself right now. For example, if you have a small screen, the OS will automatically elect for the more compact view, which is sensible enough. However, not everyone is happy with the way this works in certain scenarios, so Microsoft is set to let users override this decision should they wish.

Windows Central says Microsoft is trying to make the Start menu "much faster and responsive" on top of this, and we've heard about this before (and that the UI should work snappily even when the system is straining under a heavy workload). The search function in the Start menu is going to be made speedier, too.

As for File Explorer — the app that powers the very folders that contain the files on your desktop — Microsoft just released a new Windows 11 test build in the Release Preview channel which boosts its performance.

The build notes say that it "improves the speed and performance of File Explorer launch" and cures the remaining bugs where opening a folder in dark mode causes a nasty white flash to light up the screen (a fix that has been progressing through test versions of late).

Windows Latest tried out the preview and found that File Explorer does indeed feel faster, and that it seems especially faster when first launched, so that sounds promising.

Analysis: a mountain to climb

The first time File Explorer is run can often be seriously sluggish with some PCs — I've witnessed this myself, on my Windows 11 Surface device — so it's an important area to fix. These are welcome improvements for File Explorer, and all being well, they should be deployed in the May update for Windows 11. (Don't count on it, though, as whether that goes ahead could depend on what happens in testing, and if last-minute bugs are found).

The proposed work with the Start menu is huge, and pretty much a wish-list of everything you could want fixed with this part of the interface (about the only thing lacking is any mention of ditching the ad-like promos, though you can switch off the recommended panel already, of course). However, before we get carried away with the idea of these changes, we should remember that they are just rumored plans for Microsoft. Even if all this is true as it stands, the company could yet change its mind on some of these points.

I'm really surprised to see the idea of turning off the Start menu's all apps list is seemingly on the table. If so, the thrust of this redesign is handing the user complete control over the look of the Start menu, to the point of making it extremely streamlined. The ability to manually switch to the small layout of the Start menu (previously a selection made by the OS, as noted) plays into this notion, too.

This would appear to be a drive to please those who've been complaining about the Start menu looking too large and cumbersome, and essentially spanning the whole desktop and becoming more like the old 'Start screen' in some cases.

As I've observed in the past, the menu has become such an annoyance for some folks in its newer, wider form, that they've been forced to resort to hacks or third-party tools to get a more compact Start menu. Now, Microsoft is going to offer this choice, and the ability to make the menu really sleek by disabling various elements — which is great, but at the same time, should've been the case in the first place.

Indeed, not everyone is impressed with Microsoft here. As one Redditor observed: "Too little too late. My next build will be... another OS." Others expressed similar sentiments in that thread, albeit more barbed in nature at times, such as: "Too little, too late. We'll believe it when we see it, and even then, we'll be careful because it can go back to being sh*t faster than we can say pumpernickel."

It's probably the software-related understatement of the year to say that there's a lot going on with tweaking and changing Windows 11 right now, across so many fronts. Windows Central points out that the project to fix the major pain points with the OS is called 'Windows K2' and I think that's a more than apt name.

It seems Microsoft realizes it has a mountain to climb here; I just worry that the ascent ahead is a bit too steep, and there are good reasons why Microsoft can't stumble or fall here, as I discussed at length recently. Linux is becoming a more imposing threat, and the MacBook Neo is a challenge to Windows 11 laptops to boot.

• The CEO of Gucci's parent company has said the brand will probably launch smart glasses next year
• These will reportedly be made in partnership with Google, likely meaning they'll run Android XR
• Nothing else is known about them, but they're sure to be extremely expensive

The world might soon be inundated with smart glasses, as not only do companies like Google, Samsung, Xreal, and Meta have some coming fairly soon — along likely with Apple — but now it seems Gucci does too.

This is according to Luca de Meo, the CEO of Gucci-owner Kering, in conversation with Reuters, and saying specifically that they will come out "probably next year, 2027."

The smart glasses will be made in partnership with Google, so will presumably run Android XR — an operating system that so far is only available on the Samsung Galaxy XR headset, but which will also be used by smart glasses including the Xreal Project Aura, the Samsung Galaxy Glasses, and some unnamed Google specs.

Not the first but not far behind

Some of these will probably land this year, so Gucci isn’t going to be first out of the gate, but it probably won’t be far behind, with de Meo explaining that the brand plans to scale up its eyewear division to help rebuild the Gucci brand, which has struggled a bit in recent years.

We don’t really know anything about these smart glasses yet, but they’re sure to be extremely expensive. Even smart specs that aren’t made by luxury brands will probably command a high price tag, so Gucci-branded ones may be essentially unobtainable to many.

Still, it’s unlikely that their specs will be any better than smart glasses bearing Google or Samsung branding — instead you’ll be paying for the name, and perhaps the specific design or materials. So if Gucci is out of your price range, you probably won’t be missing out too much.

• Meta is raising prices for its Quest 3 and Quest 3S virtual reality headsets
• The company blamed "significantly" higher costs for the price rises
• Users are disappointed but say the products are still good value for money

The Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S are phenomenally good virtual reality (VR) headsets — in fact, they’re some of the best VR headsets money can buy. Part of that lies in the strong value for money they represent, but that’s just hit something of a road bump, as Meta has announced it’ll be raising the price of both devices as soon as April 19 — just two days from now.

According to a post on the Meta website, the price increases will affect both the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Quest 3S in many markets around the world. Meta said the changes have been made because “the cost of building high-performance VR hardware has risen significantly,” with the sky-high cost of memory modules almost certainly the main culprit.

The 128GB model of the Meta Quest 3S will now cost $349.99 / £319.99 / AU$569, while the price of the 256GB edition is rising to $449.99 / £409.99 / AU$729. The 512GB Meta Quest 3, meanwhile, will soon set you back $599.99 / £549.99 / AU$969.

That’s a significant price escalation across the board. For comparison, buy one of the above headsets today and you’ll pay the following:

• Meta Quest 3S 128GB: $299.99 / £289.99 / AU$499.99
• Meta Quest 3S 256GB: $399.99 / £379.99 / AU$669.99
• Meta Quest 3 512GB: $499.99 / £469.99 / AU$799.99

The Meta Quest 3 is more negatively affected than its more budget Quest 3S sibling, with the former’s price rising by as much as 20% in US dollars.

That’ll be an unwelcome change for VR fans, and with Meta barely giving any notice, there’s not long to pull the trigger if you want to avoid the price hike.

Still a good deal?

Unsurprisingly, many people aren’t happy with the news. Over on Reddit, for example, one user lamented: “That’s too bad, price increases make VR harder to get started in. Hopefully things get better but I wouldn’t hold my breath on Quest 4 coming out soon and/or being as good of a deal as the Quest 3 was.”

Meanwhile, another sarcastically added that the move “Will definitely drive VR adoption along with axing their first party studios.” Other readers expressed little surprise over the change, with user Alarikun saying: “this was inevitable. They were heavily subsidizing the costs of the hardware to try to get more people into VR.”

That said, several users argued that even with the price rises, the Meta Quest series still represents a good deal. One Redditor contended that “while the price increase isn’t fun, it’s still the best value headset out.” That was mirrored by another post, which argued that although the Quest 3 series is “still the best value in VR,” its price change could lead Valve to “release the Frame with a higher cost than expected.”

If you’ve been on the fence about buying a Meta Quest VR headset, now might be the time to make a move. With the RAM crisis still causing misery, today’s prices might be the cheapest you’ll pay for quite some time.

Following the backlash it received for quietly hiking YouTube Premium prices in the US, Google has unveiled a new deal that gets you 50% off a year of YouTube Premium when you sign up to a Google One Premium or Google AI plan — as long as you meet certain criteria.

Vice President of Google Photos and Google One, Shimrit Ben-Yair, shared the bundle deal to her X account (see below), while the Google Gemini account on X also announced the “special surprise for our Gemini power users”.

When you sign up, the deal will knock 50% off a 12-month YouTube Premium membership, so you'll pay $80 instead of $159.99. As per Google's outline of the offer, your YouTube Premium add-on will remain active for the duration of your membership; however this deal will only be available until April 29, which will be your last day to claim.

Google has been making quite a few changes to its Google One Premium plans recently. Just a few weeks ago it doubled the storage allowance for its AI Pro tier, which also offers the YouTube Premium add-on for a limited time, without increasing the price.

But before you rush to sign up, there are a few things to note.

As mentioned in the X post, the YouTube Premium deal is only available for Google One Premium subscribers who are paying for 2TB of storage or higher. The Google AI Pro plan is also included, as it offers 5TB of storage. This means that those on the Basic, Standard, and Google AI Plus won't be eligible.

There are also some regional restrictions to bear in mind. You can only claim the discount if you’re based in the US, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, or Japan, so UK subscribers will unfortunately miss out.

If you're an existing YouTube Premium subscriber, you'll have to cancel your subscription and sign up to Google AI Pro in order to claim the discount. You can do this by following the steps outlined in the Google One help page.

• Apple's Greg Joswiak has hinted about some potential smart glasses
• He was joined by Apple's John Ternus in a new Tom's Guide interview
• Both also claimed that Apple isn't looking to merge Mac and iPad

Two of Apple's most influential executives have hinted that the tech giant could be working on some smart glasses, as rumors predicted earlier this week.

Greg 'Joz' Joswiak (Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing) was joined by John Ternus (SVP of Hardware engineering) in a wide-ranging interview with Tom's Guide, which covered everything from the MacBook Neo to Apple's recent 50th anniversary.

But it was their comments about a potential Meta Ray-Bans rival, which Bloomberg suggested could appear later in 2026 ahead of a 2027 launch, that were the most illuminating. When asked about smart glasses being the next wave of computing, Greg Joswiak said that "there’s some inevitability to combining digital and physical worlds."

Of course, Apple has already done that to an extent with the Apple Vision Pro, but it was telling that Joswiak's "inevitability" remark came in response to a question about the future of spatial computing.

Naturally, he wasn't willing to elaborate much further. "I can't give you a timeline for when spatial becomes, you know, anything else," he said. "But it's an inevitability of digital and physical worlds coming together."

The timing of the comments is apt because Bloomberg's report earlier this week gave us some more details about its rumored smart glasses. It claimed that Apple is developing its own Meta Ray-Bans rival, internally code-named N50, and that they're being tested in four different styles, including a large rectangular frame (like Ray-Ban Wayfarers) plus some oval or circular options.

Apple talks Mac vs iPad

The interview also covered the age-old Mac vs iPad debate and where the MacBook Neo sits in that divide — and Apple again stressed that it's not looking to merge the two platforms.

When asked about iPadOS becoming more Mac-like recently, Apple's John Ternus (who has been touted as a future CEO) claimed that Apple still thinks of them as separate experiences.

"There’s never been this idea of mashing these two things together," Ternus said. "There's this narrative outside that there is, but that's never been the case," he added. Anyone who's tried iPadOS 26.4 might disagree, but for now, Apple continues to push the narrative that many people want both, which is obviously good news for Apple.

Naturally, neither of the execs would be drawn on the prospect of a touchscreen MacBook Pro, which has also been strongly rumored to be launching by the end of 2026. But one thing's for sure — Apple is going to be asked these questions a lot later this year, particularly if the rumored smart glasses and OLED MacBook Pro are indeed finally made official.

• Microsoft's Windows 11 Recall still has major security flaws, according to cybersecurity expert
• TotalRecall Reloaded's creator states the application can force user authentication prompts, leading to Recall data extractions
• Microsoft has since denied that there are any security flaws

Microsoft's Windows 11 Recall tool hasn't been popular among its users ever since its debut in 2024, due to substantial security flaws when capturing private user data. Ultimately, the backlash forced Microsoft back to the drawing board, but that seemingly hasn't panned out too well, either.

As reported by The Verge, Microsoft's Windows Recall is back, but with new security concerns, unearthed by Alexander Hagenah, the creator of the TotalRecall Reloaded application on GitHub.

The controversy around Recall mainly focused on its prime purpose: to snapshot all PC activity, allowing users to quickly find what they were previously interacting with. This immediately raised red flags for PC users over their personal data potentially being exposed to malicious hackers, and it ultimately led to Microsoft removing the feature in 2024.

Microsoft redesigned Recall, and the feature made its return in 2025 with the Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-In Security feature active, requiring fingerprint or face scans to access data or enable Recall to make snapshots. Microsoft also stated, "this restricts attempts by latent malware trying to ride along with a user authentication to steal data".

However, the return of Recall still has some people, including security professionals, concerned.

The Verge spoke with Hagenah, who stated: "My research shows that the vault is real, but the trust boundary ends too early," and what this means is the TotalRecall Reloaded tool can run in the background, force user authentication prompts, and eventually lead to all data from Recall being extracted.

"TotalRecall Reloaded makes that latent malware ride along," Hagenah said. "That is precisely the scenario Microsoft's architecture is supposed to restrict," and after Hagenah raised these concerns with Microsoft, the company has since denied that there is any security flaw.

In theory, TotalRecall Reloaded replicates the same scenario where malicious hackers would attempt to steal personal data that Recall has captured, including passwords, bank details, and other private information users may have entered while Recall was taking screenshots.

Fortunately, Windows Recall is optional and can be disabled, but for those using the feature, it's certainly a significant concern that might leave Microsoft facing backlash in the near future once again.

• Gemini is now a native macOS app, so you can use Google’s AI chatbot directly from your desktop without opening a browser
• The app lets you share your screen, access local files, and launch instantly with a new Option + Space shortcut
• It also supports AI image generation and video creation, with extra features unlocked via Google’s AI Pro and Ultra plans

Google has just released a native Gemini app for the Mac, so its AI chatbot is now available right on your macOS desktop with no need to launch a browser just to use it.

The new native app means Gemini now joins both Claude and ChatGPT, which already have macOS apps on the Mac App Store. Gemini is free to use, but while the free limits are quite generous, especially for image generation, you’ll need to subscribe to Google’s AI Pro or Ultra packages if you need more access.

What it can do — more integrated than ever before

Using Gemini as an app offers several key advantages for Mac users over using it in a browser. For a start, you can now share anything on your screen with Gemini, including local files, and get help with exactly what you’re looking at.

For example, if you are reviewing a complex document, you can simply share your window and ask, ‘What are the three biggest takeaways here?’ and it will give you an answer based on what’s on your screen.

There’s also a new keyboard shortcut — Option + Space — that you can use to instantly bring up Gemini. It’s a much faster way to access the chatbot without switching tabs or digging through open windows.

Nano Banana image generation included

Gemini offers strong image creation abilities with Google’s Nano Banana image generation engine, and it can also create AI-generated videos thanks to Google’s Veo 3.1 being built in.

You can download the new Gemini app now from the Mac App Store, where it’s available to all users aged over 13 years, or from Google. A Google account and macOS 15 or greater is required.

Google says this first release of Gemini as an app is just the beginning, adding, “We're building the foundation for a truly personal, proactive, and powerful desktop assistant, with more news to share in the coming months.”

• A Microsoft executive has made a small utility for Windows 11
• The app is called PeekDesktop and lets you minimize all windows by clicking on an empty piece of the desktop
• It's very much the same as a macOS feature, and while there are keyboard shortcuts in Windows 11 to do this already, this is more convenient, and handy for Mac defectors

A Microsoft executive has put together a little utility that brings a neat piece of functionality to Windows 11, and it's something that macOS users will be familiar with.

Windows Latest reports that Scott Hanselman, a VP, member of technical staff at Microsoft – and one of the players behind the fix Windows 11 campaign – has made a tool called PeekDesktop.

It's a very simple app that allows you to "click your desktop to peek at it", working in the same way as the 'click wallpaper to reveal desktop' feature seen with macOS Sonoma.

The point is that it's a quick way to minimize all open windows, especially if you have a lot of them, and get to see the desktop underneath, just by clicking on a blank piece of desktop (the wallpaper, as opposed to any icon). Click again (on a blank spot) and the active windows are reinstated.

While it sounds very simple, almost to the point of being too basic, I can guarantee you that this is one of those neat shortcuts that'll become indispensable once you get used to having it.

And if you're worried about the resource usage involved here, don't be, as PeekDesktop uses less than 2MB when sitting in your system tray (in the taskbar) watching for your clicks.

It's worth noting that there's also a version for Arm-based laptops (Snapdragon X), as well as for PCs with AMD and Intel CPUs.

Analysis: comforting clicks

Of course, this ability is already in Windows 11. You can press the Windows key + D to minimize all windows and get straight to the desktop already. (Or Windows key + M, although that can't be used to restore active windows by pressing it again). Or indeed you can bind this function to one of your spare mouse buttons, if you have a mouse with lots of them, as I have (I use this power a lot).

However, having the ability to click on the desktop is a more convenient way of actioning this than a keyboard shortcut that involves pressing two keys. Indeed, I can't believe this is a feature that hasn't been brought in before now, because it's surely not difficult to implement, and is a useful piece of honing of an already existing power in Windows 11.

As noted, it's something in macOS already, and what's interesting is that when asked about the feature on X – and the way it duplicates Windows 11's existing keyboard shortcuts, as mentioned – Hanselman said that it's intentionally designed to be the same as how it works on macOS "so Mac folks feel comfortable".

I wonder if this ability might be something that makes the cut for Windows 11 in the future, and more to the point, whether Microsoft is looking at the Mac as a more serious rival these days. Mainly because macOS has definitely become a bigger threat to Windows 11, at least in the world of laptops, with the launch of Apple's newest budget-oriented notebook.

That is, of course, the MacBook Neo, which has been very well-received by reviewers and consumers alike, which must worry Microsoft. Particularly when the company has had to hike price tags across its entire Surface range in a big way, making these devices look a whole lot less tempting even compared to Apple's MacBooks outside the much more affordable Neo.

• Meta has been urged to scrap its rumored Name Tag feature
• In an open letter, privacy advocates have said the facial recognition tech is dangerous
• Meta hasn't announced Name Tag yet, but a statement suggests the feature may still be coming to Ray-Ban glasses

Over 70 organizations are asking Meta to cancel its controversial Name Tag AI glasses feature plans — out of fear it could supercharge the threat of stalkers and abusers.

While not yet officially announced, a report came out last year suggesting that the company wants to develop an always-on AI system with the ability to recognize people’s faces and other details from your life, like where you left your keys. The story was amplified earlier this year when The New York Times reaffirmed Meta’s rumored plans.

What’s more, the NYT report included a leaked Reality Labs memo that suggests Meta knows the tool is controversial, as it apparently plans to launch Name Tag “during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”

The document also highlighted possible plans to launch the tool at a conference for the blind to help promote it as an accessibility tool.

Despite some possible advantages to Name Tag, various organizations, including the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Electronic Privacy Information Center, have signed an open letter urging Meta to protect the public’s privacy by never releasing Name Tag or a feature like it.

“Facial recognition technology built into inconspicuous consumer eyewear represents a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties for every member of our society, and particularly for historically marginalized and vulnerable groups,” the letter explains.

It added, “People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors.”

In response, Meta issued a statement saying, “Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out.”

The issue some may have with that response is that Meta doesn't promise to never introduce facial recognition to its specs, just that it would do it the right way. However, this comes off the back of reporting that Meta contractors are seeing a lot more of our AI smart glasses’ photos and videos than we might have realized.

This second smart glasses era has so far managed to dodge the major complaints that plagued Google Glass in terms of privacy, but that has changed. If Meta, Google, and even, possibly, Apple want things to go back in a more positive direction, they need to be careful and make stronger guarantees that the public is being taken seriously.

Smart glasses are still something of a novelty — fun but arguably a lot less useful than our phones, smartwatches, and earbuds. If public backlash continues to grow, a second smart glasses decline will likely follow — and I say this as someone who thinks the tech could be awesome and would like to see it flourish.

We just need to make sure privacy protections are taken seriously. Otherwise, I imagine it won’t be long before governments or members of the public start taking action.

• A new app simulates a CRT monitor or TV image for the Mac and iOS
• It's incredibly in-depth and realistic, even simulating the chemistry of the phosphors
• Fans are very impressed and the app has a growing following, complete with calls for Windows and Android versions

Ever miss the days of great, hulking CRT monitors or television sets? If you do, a new iOS and macOS app gives you the chance to relive those bygone images, with a seriously in-depth simulation of the picture quality on offer.

A Redditor has developed the retro Analog TV Simulator, which is a passion project that really tries to capture the authentic look of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) and analog broadcasts, including simulating the physics involved.

The Analog TV Simulator app recreates the "entire analog TV pipeline from first principles", and that includes simulating elements from broadcast picture interference through to CRT phosphor glow.

The developer (Alastair Bor) explains that there are "no post-process filters or shortcuts — every artifact (dot crawl, chroma smear, phosphor persistence, ghosting, etc) emerges naturally from the physics (and chemistry of the phosphors)."

You get a simulation of various standards (like NTSC and PAL, and much more besides), as well as VCR formats (VHS and Betamax, and more), and even historical test cards. (Such as the BBC effort that I'm very familiar with from my childhood here in the UK — yes, TV used to stop at midnight in the early 1980s, and you'd get a test card or pattern on-screen, complete with an annoying constant beep tone to force you to go to bed).

On the Mac, you can route any game or video player through the app to display it in CRT fashion, or indeed any window at all, or input from capture cards, USB webcams, and the like.

It's all very cool, and you can download the app for macOS here (costing $2), and iOS here (for $1), or test builds are free via the app website if you want to give it a whirl without paying.

Magnet mode and much more

This is a really impressive, in-depth project. There are even controls, such as emulated service menu tweaks — featuring geometry settings like pincushion or tilt — along with various easter eggs, too.

One of the latter is "magnet mode", and again, anyone who had an old TV or monitor back in the day will be familiar with what happens if you put a magnet near it (an on-screen psychedelic experience of sorts). The developer has even included a simulated degaussing button to get the screen back to normal.

A fellow denizen of Reddit observes: "Played on the macOS version – loads of fun, and as someone who has made a career of making ugly video for network television, has played with lots of the plug-ins, and also has been known to dump HD footage to tape & beat on the VTR while-re-encoding so I can play it back on a 30-year-old CRT at 24fps... this is VERY cool."

Another Redditor noted: "Geez, that's like a dream come true for me. Insta bought it on my iPhone, and I'm floored already. Can't wait to try it on the bigger iPad screen later when I'm home!"

The idea is to provide both a fun and educational experience here, and it certainly appears to work well on both of those levels.

The app is currently available to download for Macs and iOS devices, as noted. However, there are more than a few requests for the developer to produce Windows and Android versions of the software, and I'd expect that interest to grow. The dev could port it across eventually, saying on Reddit that: "I might be able to use some AI tool like Claude Code to port it to Windows."

I still remember the old CRT I used to play Doom and Quake deathmatch on — ridiculously bulky though it was, that monitor did provide very smooth gameplay for a competitive shooter session. And as for my 32-inch Sony widescreen CRT, I still remember that behemoth of a TV fondly, too (my back remembers it, as well, but not so fondly across several house moves and living room furniture rejigs).

CRT enthusiasts should note that it wasn't so long ago that a retro gamer pushed their ancient Iiyama Vision Master Pro512 CRT monitor to an incredible 700Hz of smoothness. There's still life in the old CRTs yet, it would appear, one way or another.

• Microsoft is rolling out an option to skip updates during Windows 11 installation
• This will speed up the process in a big way for some users
• However, without updates, you won't have the latest security fixes – but this is still a situationally very useful (and much-requested) ability

If you've ever sat drumming your fingers, waiting for Windows 11 to finish installing for what feels like forever, then you'll appreciate a new change Microsoft has made to allow the operating system to complete setup much more swiftly.

Windows Central reports that Microsoft is now introducing an option that lets you skip the part of the installation where Windows 11 pulls in and applies relevant updates, speeding up the process hugely.

This was flagged by Ariaupdated on X who provided a screenshot of the feature which is now actively rolling out.

How does it work? When you get to the part of the Windows 11 installation where it downloads all the updates and security fixes that have been released (on top of the core OS install), this will still get underway, but you can click an option to 'Update later' if you want to skip it.

This makes good on one of the promises Microsoft made to improve Windows updates by allowing them to be bypassed during the OOBE or out-of-box-experience, the initial setup of a Windows 11 PC. Another much bigger move is inbound, too, namely allowing users to pause updates for as long as they want (whereas five weeks is the maximum amount of time you can delay an update currently).

Analysis: options on the installation table

It's always good to have a choice, and the choice in this case is to get through the installation and to the functioning desktop much more quickly than you can now (with updates being automatically applied). This could save you maybe 20 to 30 minutes of waiting for setup to finish, depending on various factors (including the speed of your internet connection, of course). And that might be very handy in certain situations.

For example, you might be on a metered, or very slow, internet connection while performing the installation, so you'd appreciate the ability to defer any chunky downloads until later, when you're on a better connection.

What you must be aware of is that a default Windows 11 installation, minus initial updates, will be short of a whole raft of security fixes, and some features, too. It's the holes in security that represent a danger, though, as if you go start browsing the web for example, you're leaving yourself more open to potentially be exploited by something malicious lurking in a website or downloaded file.

So, taking a shortcut like this with installation is fine – and could be very useful depending on your situation – but I'd be wary of doing much online before you apply all those updates (via Windows Update).

One useful tactic here could be to skip updates during installation, and then get them running as soon as you get to the Windows 11 desktop. This way, you can have those updates ticking away in the background while you begin to configure your preferences for the system, desktop, themes and so on. In other words, you're doing something useful with the time spent waiting for updates to come through, rather than being stuck in the installation screens for an extra half an hour.

At any rate, it's good to have options in this regard, and to see Microsoft realizing some of the promises it's made to improve Windows 11 in a swift manner. That said, there are cynics on Reddit who believe that Microsoft is only now taking these actions due to the threats posed by Linux (mainly driven by SteamOS) and Apple's popular new MacBook Neo, which is definitely a challenge to Windows 11's laptop dominance at the budget end of the market.

As one Redditor put it: "Interesting timing with everyone jumping ship to Linux or MacBook Neo."

• Apple is working on smart glasses that should be revealed later this year, according to leaks
• AI AirPods and an AI pendant are also planned
• Apple's privacy-first approach could help it win with AI glasses

Every tech company and its dog is cramming AI into whatever system it can, and while Apple has been slow to get off the starting line, its rumored AI glasses, AI-focused AirPods, and AI necklace could help it snatch victory from the jaws of defeat — all thanks to one major long-term focus: privacy.

While a couple of these gadgets have been teased previously by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (behind a paywall), who often shares reliable Apple insider info, he has just revealed more details about Apple’s plans to create its first smart glasses.

According to Gurman, Apple is developing display-free smart glasses that will compete directly with the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2. These smart specs, internally code-named N50, will apparently help you capture photos and videos, play music, catch up on notifications, and interact with Siri. The latter will finally, according to reports, get a big upgrade in iOS 27.

The rumored AirPods and pendant could similarly rely on tech like cameras and microphones to capture information from your surroundings to provide insight and assistance, such as visual reminders.

Gurman doesn’t share release dates for any of the trio, but says the smart spectacles should appear later this year, with a launch due in 2027. He also claims that Apple's smart glasses are being tested with four designs: a large, rectangular frame (like the Ray-Ban Wayfarers), a slimmer rectangular design (like Tim Cook's specs), larger oval or circular frames, plus a "smaller, more refined" version of the latter.

But despite these rumors that Apple will try to eclipse its rivals with a "higher-end build", I still think they're going to have their work cut out for them, for a few reasons.

Not plain sailing

For starters, this delayed Apple glasses rollout could damage the perceived utility of its tech compared to its rivals — especially as by the time it debuts AI specs, Apple’s competitors are expected to have a generation or two of AR / display glasses released.

From experience, AR and display glasses (which can overlay your vision with various details, including live translation, shared play environments, or HUD elements like a map) are also a significant step up from display-less AI specs in terms of their usefulness and capabilities.

The less-than-stellar Apple Intelligence rollout also gives me cause for concern. Apple still hasn't really proved that it knows what it's doing with AI.

The other potential pitfall is that Apple is said to be going it alone design-wise, rather than linking with a brand like Ray-Ban or Warby Parker, like Meta and Google have. As a fashion accessory, the look of smart glasses is almost as essential as their usefulness, and several brands I’ve seen try to design their glasses in-house have struggled to make something that looks good.

That said, if any brand can buck that trend, it’s arguably the tech design champion that is Apple.

And the Californian tech giant also has one major smart glasses strength that could still win me over, even as an Android fan: privacy.

Privacy, privacy, privacy

Visual reminders are seen as the next big advantage AI wearables can leverage. That is, they can take in all of the information about your life and help you remember things like people’s names, where you left your keys, or what needs restocking in your fridge.

The issue is, while this level of AI assistance is undeniably useful, it’s equally invasive — essentially requiring the wearable to have an always-on view of your life. Otherwise, it could miss vital context that would make its advice useless.

Meta and Google's practices have come under fire in the past for their data privacy, and what information is or isn’t shared with their AI — most recently, Meta has fallen into hot water over how many more videos and images than people realized are being shared with Meta and reviewed by contractors.

Apple, on the other hand, has always made a big effort to promote privacy with its tech. And in the world of AI — where some tasks require personal information to be processed on servers rather than on your device — it created Private Cloud Compute to ensure that user data is kept private even when it is used by Apple’s remote servers.

I’m firmly in the Android ecosystem, and if you’ve seen our podcast you know I have a bit of an ‘Apple-hater’ persona. Still, I’d currently trust Apple glasses over any other brand as things stand — and with the privacy advantages I expect them to offer I’d even be willing to put up with worse performance and specs if it meant knowing my personal data was secure.

We’ll have to wait and see what Apple reveals — as with all leaks, we must take teases and speculation with a pinch of salt — but I’m uncharacteristically excited to see what Apple has up its sleeve. Meta and Google (and the rest) should watch out.

• Microsoft previously promised it would give users the option to pause Windows 11 updates for as long as needed
• The first work to that end has been discovered hidden in a preview build
• It's still early days, but it's a hopeful sign that this will be in testing soon

As part of its campaign to fix Windows 11, one of Microsoft's most important promises for me was giving users more control over Windows updates — and it's now clear that this functionality will be arriving sooner rather than later.

Neowin spotted that regular Windows 11 leaker PhantomOfEarth posted on X to highlight a change with the option to pause updates for the OS, found lurking in the background (and enabled using a Windows configuration tool).

There's now a button which pops up a calendar view, allowing you to specify a date until which updates will be halted. When that day is reached, updates will resume again, although as PhantomOfEarth notes, the limited availability of dates currently should be ignored, as this work is still in the very early stages.

The feature isn't even officially out for testing yet, and is hidden in the most recent preview build that arrived in the Dev channel (though it's likely in the Beta channel as well, the leaker notes).

What this does show, though, is that the move is being put in place, and we can hope that we might see the ability to pause updates in testing for Windows 11 perhaps this month or in May.

Analysis: here's why this ability is so valuable

Pavan Davuluril, who heads up the Windows and Devices group at Microsoft, has previously promised that you'll be able to pause Windows 11 updates for as long as needed in the future.

So, this would appear to be the first step towards that goal, with the calendar presumably allowing you to select any date you want, and any length of time you want to pause updates for. Well, unless as 'long as you need' has something of a time limit on it. (And I'm betting it will, but it'll presumably be a lengthy period of a year or so, or six months at least — you can't, and shouldn't, hold off updating Windows 11 forever, of course).

If you're thinking: why would you want to hold off applying an update? Well, it's true that Windows 11's monthly updates have security fixes that, in an ideal world, should be applied swiftly (as any vulnerabilities patched are at that point public knowledge, and more likely to be exploited). However, these cumulative updates also have bugs in them, as we've seen all too often in the past with Windows 11.

One scenario might be that, say, owners of a certain GPU, or maybe processor, are having serious trouble with an update and problems are reported across social media. Imagine if some of those reports include PCs failing to boot after the update. Now, in this case, you'd likely not want to run the risk of your system completely falling over in a nasty way like this, so you'd want to hold off on the update.

Right now, you can pause updates on Windows 11 Home, but only for five weeks. You can go longer with Windows 11 Pro (although doing so is a bit fiddly, via the Group Policy Editor), and you might want to do this on the Home version of the OS as well, if an issue is still being reported persistently. Microsoft is going to give those of us on Windows 11 Home that ability, and to do it easily – and rightly so, because if you're nervous about an update for any such reason, you should be able to pause for as long as you want.

Of course, as noted, there is still a balance to be struck between pausing a worrisome update and not going too long without important security fixes, but that's a choice for the user to make based on their assessment of the perceived risks. We shouldn't be forced to install an update after a month of holding off, just because Microsoft says so.

• YouTube Premium has silently raised its tier prices
• Google started emailing users about the change before announcing it
• For a lot of subscribers, this could be the last straw

YouTube Premium is the latest subscription service to hike its prices in the US, but the timing couldn’t be more awkward — especially since it follows the controversy of its 90-second unskippable ads for free users.

As spotted by eagle-eyed users on Reddit, YouTube has already increased its monthly fees across all of its plans, including its budget Premium Lite tier which was launched only last year. With the new changes in place, subscription prices have gone up by as much as $4.

The standard YouTube Premium individual plan has now increased to $15.99 a month from $13.99, while the new Family plan fee is now $26.99 a month instead of $22.99. YouTube Premium Lite will now cost $8.99, increasing by $1, and Music Premium is $11.99/month, up from $10.99.

Unlike Netflix where customers are no stranger to a frequent price increase, fee hikes don't come as often to YouTube Premium members. The last time Google raised its subscription prices was back in 2023 when individual plans went from $11.99 to $13.99, with the Family plan increasing to $22.99 the year before. It’s safe to say that existing members are quite frustrated with this move, but it’s the vagueness on Google’s behalf that seems to be bothering them the most.

For starters, it took Google a while to speak on the change (the company gave a statement to Variety), leaving subscribers to find out for themselves via email. However, not everyone was informed, and those who’ve received emails are still scratching their heads — why is Google hiking these prices?

One user shared a screenshot of their email which detailed the following: “To continue delivering great service and features, we’re increasing your price to $20.99 a month. We don’t make these decisions lightly, but this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube”.

The thing is, users aren’t falling for it.

No more YouTube premium from r/youtube

The biggest difference between YouTube Premium and a platform such as Netflix is that the latter has a continuous output of original content, therefore it has somewhere valuable to invest money generated from subscription fees. Another user pointed this out, claiming that YouTube doesn’t have original content on Netflix’s scale to invest in, as all of its hosted content is made by creators with YouTube channels, leading users to question where their money is really going.

With this in mind, YouTube has also come under fire recently for its 90-second unskippable ads on its TV app. But despite the company’s comment against claims that it is conducting secret tests, the price hikes give us a good enough reason to believe that Google is trying to lure even more free users over to the dark side — but will it cost them the loyalty of long-time subscribers in the process?

• Microsoft's drive to remove AI from Windows 11 has started
• The Snipping Tool and Notepad apps have seen some changes
• However, the Notepad tweak doesn't remove the AI features, it just rebrands them away from Copilot – and that hasn't gone down well

Microsoft has begun the process of removing AI from Windows 11, which is good news on the face of it for many, but the catch is that one of the first moves made here is disappointingly minor in its nature.

Windows Latest noticed that Snipping Tool has had Copilot completely removed from it, and this is for all Windows 11 users. On top of that, there's been a change for Notepad, although this is still in testing, and it's where things get more complicated.

That's because in the case of the preview version of Notepad, all that's been ditched is the Copilot icon itself. The AI tools remain in the text editor; it's just that they're now called 'writing tools' and are accompanied by a new icon, which is just a generic graphic of a pen (and isn't colored, like the Copilot button, so it is a lot more subtle).

In other words, this is about ditching the Copilot branding, but not the actual AI functionality from Notepad (in testing).

As you might imagine, the reaction to this has not been favorable. As one Redditor puts it: "So it's still Copilot, just in disguise and called writing tools."

Someone else observes: "Yeah, this feels less like removal and more like rebranding to reduce backlash."

And another Redditor laments that: "The world is no longer about reality. It's fully shifted to 'optics.'"

Others have been, shall we say, far less diplomatic than that, aiming swear-word-laden posts at the company, scattered with the obligatory 'Microslop' digs (which are very much in fashion, of course, among the Windows 11 cynics out there).

Here's a more restrained example of one of those comments: "They can rebrand their slop tools all they want, but I already switched to CachyOS a year ago." (CachyOS is a nippy Linux distro, in case you were wondering).

Analysis: a half-hearted effort?

If Microsoft's idea of stripping out AI from Windows 11 involves simply leaving the actual tools in place and just renaming them away from Copilot, that's clearly not going to be well-received. We don't know if this is the company's plan yet, but what's happened here suggests that AI removal will involve some features being ditched completely (as in Snipping Tool) and some rebranding (as with Notepad).

The suggestion that the anti-AI folks are already catching on to, then, is that the campaign to tone down Copilot in Windows 11 could be much more literal than we thought (dropping just the Copilot name and icon in some cases), and therefore that Microsoft isn't fully serious about this task. Hence, the comments about this being more of a marketing exercise for Microsoft than anything else.

While I concede that the decision with Notepad here looks somewhat ominous, I'm not about to fly to the conclusion that this is going to be just a PR campaign by Microsoft. After all, this Notepad tweak is still in testing, and there may yet be further changes to come.

While it seems unlikely that a wholesale removal of AI from Notepad is in the cards, given what's happened here, we can't rule it out just yet. Or, indeed, maybe Microsoft will switch things around and have the AI off by default. That'd mean the new writing tools icon wouldn't be in the top menu bar at all, unless you went hunting for the AI features in settings and enabled them.

For now, you can still disable the AI features in Notepad – whether they're called Copilot or writing tools – and that remains the option to exercise should you never use them (or outright hate AI).

However, let's face it: AI haters won't be happy until this feature is completely stripped out of Notepad (which is what many were expecting to happen). The same is true for the more diehard users of Notepad who want the text editor to be more like the streamlined effort that it was back in the day, before Microsoft started bulking (read bloating) it up with more features. All these bits of functionality sit in the background and cumulatively add up to be potential drag factors on performance and overall responsiveness, or that's certainly the concern.

• Meta just debuted a new AI: Muse Spark
• This improved LLM more closely matches ChatGPT and Gemini
• It's launching on Meta's smart glasses and social platforms soon

Meta’s VR scaleback came with the promise of renewed effort in its glasses and AI divisions, and today we’re seeing the first glimpse of what this focus means, as Meta debuts Muse Spark.

A new Meta LLM, Muse Spark is described as offering “competitive performance” across a range of metrics including reasoning, health, and agentic tasks. Meta shared performance scores for Muse Spark that shows its performance in these areas is solidly amongst the pack — either matching, surpassing or being just behind its Gemini and ChatGPT competitors in each of those fields.

Meta’s announcement report gets quite into the weeds about the testing, scaling, and training Muse Spark received with the promise that we should look forward to “increasingly capable models” on the horizon.

The report also highlights the safety of Muse Spark, such as its refusal to be used to discuss chemical and biological weapons, which might bring this new AI into the government-usage conversation dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Regardless, the interesting aspect of this new AI is that it’ll soon be rolling out to Meta glasses and software users — at least in the US where Meta usually introduces new software features first.

Meta promises that Muse Spark will debut on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart specs “in the coming weeks” which should bring some serious performance boosts.

Exactly what this boost will look like is yet to be seen in practice on Meta’s glasses, but we have experienced the Muse Spark update on other platforms — and we expect the AI glasses roll-out might see improvements to conversational performance, image and video editing (perhaps with improved generative elements), and improved health data assistance.

Though this comes on the back of the growing backlash to Meta’s AI and glasses, it doesn’t seem to address some of the biggest concerns folks have (primarily data privacy, especially for images and videos). Perhaps the major improvements and utility of the new Meta AI will win people over, however, as Meta’s lacking ability compared to its rivals was a growing frustration — that does at least seem to have been addressed.

We’ll have to wait and see how Muse Spark unfolds, but some of my Meta interest is returning. Let’s see if it can live up to, and maintain, the hype.

• A very strange bug in macOS has just been found
• If a Mac is left on for (just over) 49 days, its networking functionality will completely fail
• The only cure is a reboot, apparently, but presumably Apple will now be working on an official fix

Ever wondered what would happen if you left your Mac on for a couple of months solid? Probably not, but you might be interested to learn that if you did, the networking side of the OS would fall over.

Tom's Hardware reports that Photon wrote a blog post on how it "found a ticking time bomb in macOS TCP networking", an explosive element in the code that "detonates after exactly 49 days."

Well, 49 days, 17 hours, two minutes, and 47 seconds to be precise. When macOS has been running continuously for that exact length of time, the operating system will experience an 'integer overflow' that "freezes the internal TCP timestamp clock".

When that happens, existing TCP network connections won't expire as they should, remaining frozen in place, and eventually, as Photon explains: "Ephemeral ports slowly exhaust, and eventually no new TCP connections can be established at all. ICMP (ping) keeps working. Everything else dies."

In short, networking on the Mac goes completely kaput, and the only cure is to reboot the machine. Yes, the old 'turn it off and turn it on again' solution.

Photon — a company that facilitates building AI agents — found this bug on the Macs it uses to monitor Apple's Messages service, and the company successfully reproduced the glitch on two systems.

Analysis: Apple following in Microsoft's footsteps

Obviously, this isn't a problem that most of you — assuming that you own a Mac — will have to worry about. No everyday user leaves their machine on for 50 days solid; but in case you're ever inclined to do so, at least you're now forewarned. This is, of course, more of a glitch that'll hit servers (which do run continuously for long periods), and one which businesses like Photon need to be aware of.

The root cause of the issue is, as mentioned, integer overflow. This is where macOS assumes a counter is only going to go up in numerical value, when in fact, it wraps back round to zero after 50 days of ticking up – and this is something that's caught out Microsoft in the past, too. Photon reminds us that Windows 95 suffered a similar 49.7-day crash where the kernel's 32-bit millisecond tick counter overflowed, in this case causing the PC to completely freeze up.

Apparently Photon is working on a solution to avoid having to reboot in order to fix the Mac, but presumably now that this bug has been brought to Apple's attention we should see an official fix before long.

• A Microsoft exec has made it clear that there are some major design improvements inbound
• March Rogers, Partner Director of Design, said: "We're really focusing on design craft in Windows at the moment"
• These enhancements will start rolling out soon

We're hearing that Microsoft is going to focus on polishing up some of the design niggles and inconsistencies with Windows 11, on top of all the other work going on as part of the broader campaign to improve the OS.

Windows Latest reports that March Rogers, Partner Director of Design at Microsoft, posted on X to say: "We're really focusing on design craft in Windows at the moment. There is still lots to do but this is the kind of work I love seeing ship: Settings pages redesigned for clarity, account dialogs updated for dark mode, Narrator working with Copilot on all devices, pen settings cleaned up, voice typing in File Explorer rename.

He added: "Nothing fancy just lots of little details that help Windows feel more polished and coherent. Coming in the April update."

Later in that thread on X, Rogers noted: "We are working hard on migrating all of Windows to modern UX. We are doing it carefully to avoid breaking any extensions built by developers on Windows."

Rogers is also asking the community for their feedback on what they'd like to see improved with the design of Windows 11.

Efforts made towards streamlining the Settings app will certainly be welcome, as parts of this are clunky, for sure. It'll be interesting to see if this means more migration of options from the old Control Panel, too, which is the legacy version of settings that's still in place (and pops up jarringly in Windows 11 from time to time – it looks truly ancient).

Wider coverage for dark mode is something that Microsoft's been working on for a long time now — since the capability came to Windows 11, in fact — and maybe that process will be sped up. This has taken far too long as it is, frankly.

Rogers is also currently engaged in working with "haptic feedback effects on compatible input devices" as seen in the latest preview build of Windows 11.

Analysis: promises, promises…

While it's good to hear that work to hone the design side of Windows 11 is coming – and quickly, with some of this due in the April update that'll be deployed next week, in fact – I have a growing sense of wariness in the back of my mind.

You see, Microsoft is promising a lot here. Fixes are coming for sluggish performance, and for RAM usage levels. Windows updates are being revamped. AI is going to be more reined in. Long missing abilities like moving the taskbar are finally planned to arrive. We're even getting fewer ads…

It's as if Microsoft realizes it needs to turn around the reputation of Windows 11 as a matter of critical priority – perhaps sparked by the whole 'Microslop' affair at the start of the year. This latest assurance about shoring up the design of the OS is another in the growing wish-fulfilment-list – and that's my concern. Is this just wishful thinking? Microsoft may genuinely have good intentions here, but is the company biting off more than it can chew?

Okay, so the design team is always going to improve the design of Windows 11 – or it should be doing – so this is not exactly a surprise. But the apparent scale of the effort to fix Windows 11 in all aspects, design included, in a year flat, feels rather daunting. And I worry that Microsoft is busying itself promising a world of improvements that will only be partially delivered, and more disappointment will ensue in the end.

I'm aware that it's not fair of me to make that judgement at this point, so call it paranoia for now. I really do hope that Microsoft can pull off a successful drive to make Windows 11 much better all-round in 2026.

However, doubts are not easily cast aside here, especially when I see recent developments such as what's just occurred with the Copilot app and its RAM usage in Windows 11. What happened regarding the bold promises about streamlining resource usage here?

• Windows 11 has a new Copilot app
• It's no longer native software, but a web app implemented via Edge
• Due to this browser-based form, its RAM usage is high, as a tech site discovered with its testing

Windows 11's Copilot app is something of a shapeshifter, having taken on many forms at this point — and its latest incarnation seems to be an unfortunate memory hog.

Windows Latest points out that the new Copilot app, which replaces the previous native app (that used the WinUI framework), is essentially built on Edge. What you're getting here is a kind of hybrid web app that runs on a spun-off version of Microsoft's web browser.

In practice, this means the new Copilot looks and behaves very much the same as the web version of the AI, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing in some ways. As Windows Latest observes, the new Copilot runs smoothly and feels pretty much like it's a native app. It also has all the latest features as deployed in the web-based assistant.

The catch is that behind the scenes it's consuming quite a lot of resources. According to the tech site, the new Copilot app can use up to 500MB of RAM when simply running in the background, with that spiking to around 1GB when you're actually using the AI assistant.

You'll find the new app in the Microsoft Store.

Analysis: Edge of confusion

The reason why Copilot is chomping a lot more RAM is because, as noted, the app now works via its own fork of Edge — it's like running Copilot in its own little browser window. And in a time where memory is very expensive, and the average PC owner is becoming more worried about RAM demands — and maybe trying to run Windows 11 on 8GB – this feels like a bit of a slap in the face.

It also seems like Microsoft is taking something of a shortcut here. Sure, Copilot appears to work well enough in this new form, and it's also easy for Microsoft to keep it up to speed with any new features — doing that is harder work with a native app (and updates are applied much less regularly). However, just making the app an instance of Edge feels like a fudge more than anything.

Further consider Microsoft's recent promise to fix everything that's wrong with Windows 11, including honing performance and reducing RAM usage — which this new move appears to fly directly in the face of.

It's a somewhat confusing turn of events, then, although perhaps the direction the AI assistant has now taken may reflect the desires of the Copilot team, as opposed to the core Windows team – but that is, of course, just speculation.

The progress of the Copilot app in Windows 11 has been weird all along, though, right from when it was first unchained from its original (native) side-panel incarnation. After that happened, Copilot became a PWA (web app), and then eventually the AI became a native app again — and it's now gone back to a (different) web form.

Scratching your head at all this? You're not alone, and the new memory drain that's evident with the app hasn't gone down well in the prevailing RAM crisis climate. As one Redditor put it: "Copilot went from a lightweight assistant to basically a hidden Edge browser eating up RAM. Cool tech, but terrible for performance conscious users."

• ChromeOS Flex is now available to buy in kit form
• The $3 kit provides a USB stick and full instructions to install the OS easily
• Flex is meant to breathe new life into old hardware, specifically Windows 10 PCs, which soon run out of road for extended support

ChromeOS Flex is a lightweight OS designed to be easily installed on older PCs — like Windows 10 laptops — to provide a way to keep what would otherwise become obsolete hardware usable, and it's now even easier to install.

That's because, as was previously promised, Google, in conjunction with Back Market (an outfit that specializes in refurbished tech), now has a ChromeOS Flex kit available to buy.

It costs $3 (or £3 in the UK, €3 in Europe) and for that outlay, you get a USB stick containing the operating system and guides on how to install it.

The Flex version of Google's OS is pretty much the same as standard ChromeOS, albeit with some features cut, and with its highly streamlined (cloud-focused) nature, it's designed to run nicely on older hardware.

Emphasizing the eco-friendly aspects here, Google tells us: "The manufacturing process of a new laptop is responsible for a large part of its carbon footprint. ChromeOS Flex allows the already-manufactured device to be used for longer, which keeps hardware out of landfills and avoids the emissions of making a new device. Savings do not stop there, ChromeOS also consumes 19% less energy on average than other comparable systems."

As the blog post announcing the arrival of the $3 kit makes clear, this is targeted at Windows 10 PCs, which will lose extended support (updates) for consumers this October, in six months. (Official support actually ceased last October.)

It will also convert other machines, including some Macs, to ChromeOS Flex, and there's a full list of compatible devices here (including caveats, such as if a webcam might not work with Google's OS).

Analysis: Flex for the win

It's a great idea to produce a dead easy-to-use kit in order to try and recruit more PCs to the ChromeOS Flex fold. As Back Market puts it, this is about "administering the cure" for the Windows 10 blues, and the "side effects may include curiosity".

All you need to do is turn off your laptop, put the USB stick in a free port, boot the machine, and from the boot menu, install ChromeOS Flex from the USB key. As mentioned, the full instructions are provided, and the kit is commendably cheap at just a few bucks. The idea is that you can pass it on to others once you're done, and as this is still a pilot program for now, there's a limited number of these kits. More will be made if they're popular, though.

However, you don't have to buy a kit, as you can make your own USB stick and install ChromeOS Flex by following our full guide here. The kit does make everything very novice-friendly, though, which is the idea, of course.