Microsoft is reportedly preparing to launch smaller versions of the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop in the near future, and they could be launching sooner than you think. The company had already been reported to be working on a smaller Surface Pro last year, but plans for that seemingly fell through, as the Surface Pro 11 launched in the same 13-inch size as always.

I've gone back and forth between variants of Apple and Microsoft's operating systems all my life, starting with ProDOS on the Apple IIc. Since then, I've used every version of MS-DOS, Windows (yes, even Windows Me and Windows Phone), and every variant of Mac software through OS X and macOS. And while Apple's current crop of hardware is impressive, Windows 11 PCs have got my heart locked up.

The world of Linux distros is chock-full of cool operating systems that bring distinctive features to the table. You've got simple and user-friendly Debian-based distros that are easy to configure even for newcomers. Then there's the bleeding-edge Arch Linux that comes with a do-it-yourself design featuring advanced customization options, though you’ll have to contend with instability issues every once in a while.

If you plan on opening up parts of your local area network (LAN) to the outside world, you'll want to have specific measures to ensure your network is secure. Reverse proxies are a great way of allowing direct access to specific services hosted at home without making it easy for anyone to break in and start causing problems. A great feature of reverse proxies is running multiple services on the same IP address, even web server instances. Reverse proxies are rock-solid, secure, versatile, and powerful, and you should try setting one up to learn a few things about networking.

Image: Royal Shakespeare Company Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s iconic play, is being reimagined as an interactive video game with a neo-noir vibe — and it’s being developed in part by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The game, titled Lili, is a “screen life thriller video game” where you’ll have access to a modern-day Lady Macbeth’s personal devices, according to a press release.“Players will be immersed in a stylized, neo-noir vision of modern Iran, where surveillance and authoritarianism are part of daily life,” the release says. “The gameplay will feature a blend of live-action cinema within an interactive game format, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Lady Macbeth and make choices that influence her destiny.” It sounds kind of like a version of Macbeth inspired by Sam Barlow’s interactive thrillers.The Royal Shakespeare Company is making the game in collaboration with iNK Stories, a New York-based indie studio and publisher that also made 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. It stars Zar Amir as “Lady Macbeth (Lili),” per the press release.Lili is set to release “later in 2025.”

I've said it several times now on XDA: powerful gaming PCs need cool-looking decor. You can have the mightiest CPU and GPU known to man, but if it's all crammed into a PC case that suits an office better than a battle station, it's a sad sight to see. Fortunately, Starforge is here to save us from depressing gaming PC builds with these sleek cases with exclusive decors from the Kaiju No. 8 anime series.

Wallpapers and theme packs are a great way to customize your Windows installation. Here at XDA, we regularly cover new Windows 10 and 11 themes that you can leverage to freshen things up on your PC, and also offer options for those who prefer more customization options through open-source applications. Up until now, Microsoft had been providing custom themes via a dedicated support website as well, but that may not be the case moving forward.

Keeping your web browsing safe when using Microsoft Edge (or any browser) is essential. While online security shouldn’t rest within your browser alone, it’s integral to your overall data privacy and security strategy. Utilizing your browser's available privacy and security settings keeps you safe and provides peace of mind. This article will examine some essential security settings you should enable in Edge right now if they aren’t already.

Samsung makes some of the best storage media that you can find on the market right now. And if you're looking to upgrade your PC, laptop, or PlayStation 5 — there's a good chance that it'll use an M.2 SSD. While there are many great options when it comes to M.2 SSDs, we think this Samsung 990 Evo Plus strikes a good balance between price and performance.

Image: CD Projekt Red You may have to wait until January 30th to buy Nvidia’s new RTX 5090 graphics card, but owners of last-gen Nvidia 40-series GPUs can already download and install DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation software via the Nvidia app. And if you want a compatible, graphically-intense game to test DLSS 4 out, Cyberpunk 2077’s newly-launched patch 2.21 adds support for it.Here’s the important info from CD Projekt Red’s changelog for patch 2.21 about DLSS 4:Added support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation for GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, which boosts FPS by using AI to generate up to three times per traditionally rendered frame – enabled with GeForce RTX 50 Series on January 30th. DLSS 4 also introduces faster single Frame Generation with reduced memory usage for RTX 50 and 40 Series. Additionally, you can now choose between the CNN model or the new Transformer model for DLSS Ray Reconstruction, DLSS Super Resolution, and DLAA on all GeForce RTX graphics cards today. The new Transformer model enhances stability, lighting, and detail in motion.People on the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit are already trying out DLSS 4’s improved single Frame Generation on their 40-series cards and sharing their results. One user posted a variety of screenshots with comparison sliders that show a side-by-side between the older Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model and the new Transformer model in DLSS 4 with full path tracing on their RTX 4070 Super at QHD resolution. It may not be night-and-day differences when frozen in screenshots, but looking closely reveals improvements like better clothing textures and cleaned up facial details, all without taking any significant hit to framerates.The real star of the DLSS 4 show may be incredibly high framerates via Multi Frame Generation on the new 50-series cards, but getting graphical improvements for free on older cards is an impressive flex of Nvidia’s new tech. It’s not every day you can download better performance.But just as 50-series early adopters will have to wait for more developers to implement Multi Frame Generation beyond the approximate 75 titles at launch, 40-series users may also have to be patient to see more DLSS 4-compatible updates.

When it comes to encrypting files on your computer, there are numerous options to choose from. However, my favorite is VeraCrypt. It's an open-source, cross-platform, completely free encryption program that you can use to manage your files, with a lot of features to make things even more secure.

Today’s digital life makes you tackle constant "storage full" warnings across devices, safeguard your data against frequent cloud breaches, and navigate a world where privacy feels like a myth. A simple way out of all these issues is to set up your own network-attached storage (NAS) server at home to take back control of your data. However, NAS units have a reputation for being too complicated to install for home users. Modern consumer NAS models are thankfully breaking that notion by requiring minimal tinkering on your part to get started.