If the CPU and GPU are the brains of your PC build, your motherboard is the heart and soul. Everything travels across the motherboard in one way or another, making it one of the most crucial components in your rig. Budget boards can offer a suite of features that will be good enough for most, but when does it make sense to spend big?

Task Manager is one of the more useful tools for power users on Windows 11. Almost everyone uses it to some extent, particularly when an annoying app freezes and you need to kill it. For that usage, Task Manager does the job perfectly fine.

Windows 11 collects a significant amount of data, which might be a concern for those who value their privacy. Some data collection is necessary, such as information about your device model, hardware components, and diagnostic data to ensure Windows runs effectively. However, a large portion of it falls under the "optional" category. You don't need to share this optional data with Microsoft if you prefer not to. Below, we'll discuss six ways Windows 11 collects data on your new laptop and the steps you can take to opt out.

When 2.5-inch SATA SSDs finally became affordable, the popularity of hard drives naturally saw a huge dip. Switching from a hard drive to a SATA SSD promised an instant boost to system responsiveness, boot times, and game loading times. We had been using hard drives for ages, but when SATA SSDs offered three times the speed for only slightly higher prices, we jumped at the opportunity.

The Windows Forecast is a look at the future of Windows that comments on the latest news for Windows Insiders, as well as other major announcements in the Windows space each and every week. My name is João Carrasqueira, and I've been covering the world of Windows professionally since 2018. If there's something you'd like to see covered, you can reach me at [email protected].

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s Phone Link app is warning that Android smartphones using the latest version of Android 15 won’t display certain “sensitive” notifications, according to a post from Mishaal Rahman spotted by Windows Central. The warning is the result of an Android 15 privacy feature that automatically categorizes notifications like those containing 2FA codes as “sensitive” and prevents third-party apps from seeing them. That extra bit of privacy could come in handy if you’ve unwittingly given a malicious app permission to access your notifications. But it could be inconvenient if you frequently rely on seeing 2FA codes appear on your computer via Phone Link. Screenshot: Windows Phone Link warning Mishaal Rahman posted a screenshot of the warning. According to Rahman, Windows should still show sensitive notifications for Android devices where Phone Link came preinstalled and has requested a “Companion Device Role.” That includes Samsung phones running One UI 6.1.1, but not other Android phones like Google Pixel or Nothing Phones, writes Windows Central.Rahman wrote in October that users could get around the notification-hiding feature by turning off “Enhanced Notifications” in Android 15’s notifications settings. However, doing so also turns off things like reply suggestions and could make it easier again for malicious apps to gather details from all of your notifications.

There may be no setting that the new Paperwhite doesn’t look crisp in. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you missed the first sale on the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite during Black Friday, now’s your chance to write your own redemption arc. Right now, you can get Amazon’s newest ad-supported ebook reader at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $134.99 ($25 off). That’s still $5 shy of its all-time low, but it’s a pretty good discount this early into its life. You can also get it without ads at Amazon for $154.99 ($25 off).There’s not much incentive to upgrade if you already own an older Paperwhite, but if you’re an avid reader, you’ll likely appreciate the newly minted seven-inch display, which is the biggest of any Paperwhite to date. It’s also 25 percent brighter than the previous model and features a higher contrast ratio, allowing for improved readability. The jump from 10 weeks of battery life to three months is a more substantial upgrade — as is a new processor, which supposedly makes a big difference when it comes to page-turning speeds — but we’ll need to finish putting Amazon’s latest e-reader through its paces before rendering our final verdict.However, despite the iterative nature of the aforementioned updates, there’s a good chance the 12th-gen Paperwhite is going to remain the best option for most people. Amazon’s new entry-level Kindle is a bit smaller (and slower), and while the jazzy Kindle Colorsoft offers the best color screen on an e-reader so far, it will run you an extra $120 over the Paperwhite. That’s a lot for a non-essential upgrade.More deals to beat the holiday crunchNow through December 25th, Grid is taking $100 off its Grid 1 frame — which bears the iPhone 2G’s guts for all to see — when you use Verge-exclusive code TV100, which drops it to $299. You can also use code TV20 to take 20 percent off any other product in the studio’s online store, so long as it’s not part of an ongoing promo. Grid’s disassembled, explosive displays offer a museum-style look at the components that make up some of the most iconic gadgets to hit the scene over the years. They’re also a great gift for wannabe tinkerers who appreciate the beauty of circuitry, especially since they’ll arrive before Christmas if you act fast enough.If you don’t need a robot vacuum that can sweep your baseboards or empty its own bin, the Eufy 11S Max is on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $129.99 ($120 off), which is one of its better prices to date. The entry-level robovac isn’t the smartest option available, but it’s at least aware enough not to bump into walls or tumble over stairs. The 11S Max offers good carpet and hard surface cleaning with relative quietness, too, and its 600ml bin is roomy enough to go through several cleanings before it needs to be dumped.A small, fast charger like Anker’s Prime Charger can come in handy if you’re traveling for the holidays. Luckily, Amazon and Anker are selling the 100W GaN charger for a record-tying $45.99 ($39 off), the latter with promo code WS7DV2FXJI84. Anker’s charger is thin enough not to horde all the space on a wall socket yet fast enough to charge almost anything (laptops included). It has three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A) to cover your charging needs, along with a folding prong for convenient storage.

Whether your game of choice is Minecraft, Terraria, Palworld, or something totally different, setting up your own gaming server opens the door to a whole world of possibilities. You can host multiplayer sessions with friends, enjoy a seamless gaming experience without relying on third-party servers, and even customize your game settings, mods, and plugins. Whether you’re building a private Minecraft server or reminiscing about classic games, a dedicated server takes your gaming experience to the next level.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube announced a hefty subscription price increase this week that will shoot the monthly cost up by $10 to $82.99 on January 13th for existing members (or now, if you sign up today). Some subscribers are staving off the hike using the time-honored tradition of threatening to cancel, as one Verge reader indicated in a comment on our original story about the price hike.That’s backed up by users in a Reddit thread that 9to5Google spotted, several of whom reported getting the offer to keep paying $72.99 for six more months when they tried to cancel their subscriptions, although some report that didn’t work for them. Some who did get to keep the old price say it happened only when they logged in using a web browser on their computer and pushed through offers to pause their subscription instead. One Verge staffer, Jennifer Tuohy, did get the offer to extend her current price. She canceled by logging into YouTube TV in a browser on her computer and navigating to Settings > Membership > Manage. As of this morning, Reddit users continue to report receiving the extension offer.

Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge The group behind the HDMI standard, HDMI Forum, says that it will detail a new spec release in a press conference on January 6th that will enable “a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates.” The new capabilities will be “supported with a new cable,” according to the HDMI Forum’s email to The Verge announcing the presser.The spec is likely to be HDMI 2.2, as VideoCardz notes. The Forum’s email hints at it too, noting that the HDMI Licensing Administrator, which two of the planned speakers at the event represent, is appointed “to license Version 2.2 of the HDMI specification.” HDMI 2.1, which has only ever received lettered revisions since its 2017 introduction, supports 48Gbps bandwidth, up to 120Hz variable refresh rates, and resolutions up to 10240 x 4320. VideoCardz speculates that the updated spec could allow for higher resolutions and framerates without the need for Display Stream Compression. Whatever the spec brings, that mention of a new cable is a tidy reminder that like USB-C, not all HDMI cables are the same. It seems unlikely that HDMI Forum would change the port itself, so you’ll probably be able to use your old ones with the updated spec, and some might even support its higher bandwidth. Still, there’s always the chance you need fresh cables to get all of the new capabilities when the time comes.

Windows is pretty much the go-to operating system for most people. And while most people use it because it already came with their laptop or desktop purchase, it's also quite popular for those that like to build their own PCs. Sure, you could go with an alternative like Linux, but for most, Windows is going to be the only option. The only problem is that if you're trying to buy a copy of Windows, it can cost quite a bit, with prices starting at $139.

Interestingly, Microsoft doesn't let you set up a copy of Windows 11 without an active internet connection. Unless, of course, you use a workaround to install it without connecting to a network. This also means you compulsorily need a Microsoft account to sign in as part of the process. Apart from privacy concerns, another drawback of setting up Windows 11 using a Microsoft account is that Windows automatically names the User folder with the first five letters of your email ID.