Microsoft

Windows' network activity continues to be scrutinized amid privacy concerns. Windows 10 was first put under the microscope with both new and old features causing concern. With its Cortana digital personal assistant, Windows 10 represents a new breed of operating system that incorporates extensive online services as an integral part of the platform. But its older predecessors haven't escaped attention, and questions are now being asked of Windows 7 and 8's online connectivity.

Now that Windows 10 has shipped and is reportedly running on 50 million devices, attention will no doubt turn to the successor to Windows 10, dubbed Redstone; but before that, Threshold Wave 2 is expected to arrive by October.

We know that Windows 10 Mobile and Windows Server 2016 has already moved to the Threshold 2 (TH2) branch, and the next builds of Windows 10 will also make that jump as it prepares to enter the Insider channels for testing.

Mozilla has released Firefox 40 FINAL for desktop, with Firefox for Android 40.0 due to follow by the end of the week.

Version 40 provides added protection against potentially malicious downloads on both platforms, while desktop users enjoy a raft of new features, including a new Suggested Tiles feature and add-on management dialog.

If you're a fan of hacking Microsoft's systems, then the company is going to reward you even more for your efforts.

No, Microsoft isn't masochistic. In actuality, its bug bounty program is designed to help the company address critical vulnerabilities and reward those who tinker with Microsoft's systems and services to find them. The goal, as with so many other bug bounty programs, is to give creative exploiters something for their efforts and to discourage them from releasing the results of their hacking to the larger underground communities and/or general public.

Microsoft is rolling out the first cumulative package of non-security-focused updates and fixes for Windows 10 one week after the company began making available to users the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version of the operating system.

Referred to by some company watchers as "Service Release 1," the actual update package is officially known as KB3081424. (Thanks to The Verge's Tom Warren for a pointer to the KB.)

There's not a lot of information so far about what's in today's update, which Microsoft is delivering via Windows Update.

When Microsoft unveiled its legendary Start Menu in Windows 95, it changed everything. The usability resonated with consumers, arguably leading to a huge increase in personal computer sales. While the menu remained mostly unchanged for many years -- apart from small additions and appearance tweaks -- Windows 8 replaced it with a Start Screen that consumers largely rejected. Things were looking bad for Windows for a while there.

So the latest iteration of Windows has now been unleashed, and as has become tradition at Linux Format, we pit the Redmond-ian OS mano-a-mano with Linux to determine the ultimate operating system.

Of course, in reality this is comparing apples and oranges: One is a free codebase which can run on most any hardware imaginable, the other is a proprietary product with an undecouple-able GUI that, until recently, has run only on x86 PCs. Our approach will be to consider features from Windows 10 and compare them with like-for-like equivalents from various Linux distributions.

Microsoft announced today that around 14 million people have installed Windows 10 on their computers. Windows 10 began rolling out in phases on Wednesday and the offer of a free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8 seems to be something that a lot of people decided was too good to pass up.

"We still have many more upgrades to go before we catch up to each of you that reserved your upgrade," Microsoft marketing boss Yusuf Mehdi said.

In November 2014, Microsoft said that "there will be Windows 10 upgrades for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices" - a fairly unequivocal statement that leaves no doubt that all of the company's devices released with WP8 onwards would be upgraded. But details now provided by Microsoft on its website suggest that availability of Windows 10 Mobile will be limited to only certain devices - at least at first.

Microsoft Windows 10 will have a number of improvements when it launches tomorrow, including a revamped Start menu, a speedy Microsoft Edge web browser, a built-in Cortana digital assistant and the ability to stream games from an Xbox One console to another device. But there is a controversial feature shipping with Windows 10 called Wi-Fi Sense — which will be enabled by default.