Vue normale

Has Microsoft Discontinued Offline Activation of Windows?

3 janvier 2026 à 22:45
An anonymous reader shared this report from Neowin: Offline Windows activation has been possible to do using the phone. However, it looks like Microsoft has quietly killed off that method as users online have found that they are no longer able to activate the OS using it... [As documented by Windows user Ben Kleinberg on his YouTube channel], Now when trying to activate the OS by attempting to call the phone number for Microsoft Product Activation, an automated voice response says the following: "Support for product activation has moved online. For the fastest and most convenient way to activate your product, please visit our online product activation portal at aka.ms/aoh" If you are wondering, that link takes users to the Microsoft Product Activation Portal for online activation. Thus it appears that offline ways to activate Windows may no longer be available even though the official support documentation by the company may not reflect it yet.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lancement de la Journée d'Indépendance Numérique (DI-DAY) suite au 39c3

31 décembre 2025 à 16:30

Beaucoup de nos services numériques du quotidien sont propulsés en partie voire entièrement par les GAFAM. Les risques de cette dépendance s'illustrent de plus en plus fréquemment dans l'actualité : représailles envers l'ex-Commissaire européen Thierry Breton et des ONG luttant contre la désinformation en ligne, clôture de la boite de courriel du procureur de la Cour Pénale Internationale, …

Ces vulnérabilités mettent en danger le fonctionnement des démocraties européennes.

On peut être tenté d'attendre une nouvelle législation européenne, cependant le carburant de ces plateformes est en premier lieu nos données personnelles : quitter ces plateformes réduit à la fois notre exposition personnelle et notre contribution collective à ce système néfaste.

C'est le sens de l'appel lancé à Hambourg lors du 39ème CCC : le 4 janvier (puis chaque 1er dimanche du mois), faites migrer vos connaissances d'une des plateformes et faites le savoir en utilisant les mots clés #DiDay ou #iDidIt sur le Fediverse.

Cet appel est soutenu notamment par Wikimedia, Nextcloud et Mastodon, et l'information a été relayée par la 1ère chaîne de TV allemande. Espérons que des acteurs de l'espace francophone s'y joignent rapidement !

Linux est bien sûr une des alternatives, dont la progression est en bonne voie « grâce » à Microsoft (mouvement qui s'inscrit parfaitement dans les initiatives existantes Adieu Windows ou End Of 10). Mais l'initiative concernent tous les services dépendants de ces plateformes toxiques : messageries instantanées, stockage en ligne, librairies en lignes, … dont la gratuité ou les prix au rabais reposent sur l'exploitation de nos données personnelles.

Le succès dépend donc de vous qui lisez cet article, et des relais « physiques » qui pourront accompagner ces migrations : cafés réparation, GULLs, librairies physiques, bibliothèques, … mois après mois !

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How Windows 10 Earned Its Good Reputation While Planting the Seeds of Windows 11's Problems

Par : msmash
29 décembre 2025 à 20:02
Windows 10's formal end-of-support arrived in October, and while the operating system is generally remembered as one of the "good" versions of Windows -- the most widely used since XP -- many of the annoyances people complain about in Windows 11 actually started during the Windows 10 era, ArsTechnica writes. Windows 10 earned its positive reputation primarily by not being Windows 8. It restored a version of the traditional Start menu, rolled out as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8 users, and ran on virtually all the same hardware as those older versions. Microsoft introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux during this period and eventually rebuilt Edge on Chromium. The company seemed more willing to meet users where they were rather than forcing them to change their behavior. But Windows 10 also began collecting more information about how users interacted with the operating system, cluttered the lock screen with advertisements and news articles, and added third-party app icons to the Start menu without user consent. The mandatory Microsoft Account sign-in requirement -- one of Windows 11's most frequently complained-about features -- was a Windows 10 innovation, easier to circumvent at the time but clearly a step down the road Windows 11 is currently traveling. To be sure, Windows 11 has made things worse by stacking new irritants on top of old ones. The Microsoft Account requirement expanded to both Home and Pro editions, the SCOOBE screen now regularly nags users to "finish setting up" years-old installations and Microsoft's Copilot push changed the default PC keyboard layout for the first time in 30 years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Windows 11 : la chienlit de 2025 - Next

29 décembre 2025 à 17:55
« Que se passe-t-il en ce moment avec Windows 11 ? Depuis quelques mois, Microsoft semble accumuler les boulettes, dans une avalanche de problèmes techniques, alors même que Windows 10 n’a plus de support. Les annonces sur l'IA et la montée en puissance de Linux sur les jeux n'arrangent pas la situation. »

Voir aussi : https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/2025-has-been-an-awful-year-for-windows-11-with-infuriating-bugs-and-constant-unwanted-features
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Microsoft Says It's Not Planning To Use AI To Rewrite Windows From C To Rust

Par : msmash
24 décembre 2025 à 22:02
Microsoft has denied any plans to rewrite Windows 11 using AI and Rust after a LinkedIn post from one of its top-level engineers sparked a wave of online backlash by claiming the company's goal was to "eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030." Galen Hunt, a principal software engineer responsible for several large-scale research projects at Microsoft, made the claim in what was originally a hiring post for his team. His original wording described a "North Star" of "1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code" and outlined a strategy to "combine AI and Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft's largest codebases." The repeated use of "our" in the post led many to interpret it as an official company direction rather than a personal research ambition. Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's head of communications, told Windows Latest that the company has no such plans. Hunt subsequently edited his LinkedIn post to clarify that "Windows is NOT being rewritten in Rust with AI" and that his team's work is a research project focused on building technology to enable language-to-language migration. He characterized the reaction as "speculative reading between the lines."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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