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• A new patch is being quietly pushed to Windows 10 (and 11) PCs
• It’ll force upgrades in certain circumstances to keep the PC in support
• This update will mean more nag prompts coming to your PC

Windows 10 users – and those running an out-of-date version of Windows 11 – are getting an update stealthily pushed to their PCs that will allow Microsoft to force a future update to the OS (to keep it in support), and also to nag users about support running out, too.

Neowin spotted the deployment of patch KB5001716, which the site notes has been quietly installed on Windows 10 PCs following the release of the October cumulative update. (It was also pushed to Windows 11 version 21H2 devices, which ran out of support over a year ago).

The patch is an update for Windows Update, essentially, and Microsoft notes: “When this update is installed, Windows may attempt to download and install feature updates to your device if it is approaching or has reached the end of support for your currently installed Windows version.”

Microsoft also observes: “After this update is installed, Windows may periodically display a notification informing you of problems that may prevent Windows Update from keeping your device up-to-date and protected against current threats.”

This means that KB5001716 will allow notifications to be presented to Windows 10 (and 11) users telling them that their device is running an unsupported version of Windows that is past its sell-by date for updates and is therefore insecure. For Windows 10 users, this likely translates into further badgering to move to Windows 11.

In some cases, given the first point Microsoft notes, the update may also be forced on your PC (eventually), as we see happening when any given version of Windows 10 or 11 runs out of road and is no longer supported for further upgrades.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/fizkes) Analysis: Repeat performance – the odd history of KB5001716

What Microsoft is doing here is trying to keep your device secure, so in some ways, it’s a perfectly understandable measure. As you may recall, Windows 10 has less than a year of support left now.

However, there are problems with the approach here: namely the stealthy way in which the update turns up on PCs. After checking for updates, this one seemingly just lands on your system – boom – without any warning.

What’s also odd is that if you search for KB5001716 on the web, you’ll find that there’s a history of this update mysteriously appearing on PCs. As reported on various forums such as Reddit, KB5001716 turned up in April 2024, and was piped to PCs before that in October 2023 as well.

What gives? That’s a good question. Presumably, these are revisions of KB5001716 – tweaked updates – that are being redelivered to Windows 10 (and 11) PCs. However, in some cases in the past, there were errors caused by the reinstallation, which seemingly conflicted with previous installs of the patch in some way. If you’ve recently got a message that KB5001716 failed to install on your PC, this is likely to be what’s happened.

The apparent cure for those scenarios is to go to the Windows Update page (in Settings) and click on View update history, then click on Uninstall updates at the top of the panel. Now, scroll back to find the previously installed KB5001716, then select and remove it. Reboot, head back to Windows Update, and check for updates again – whereupon the latest version of KB5001716 (for October 2024) should install okay (hopefully).

There’s seemingly no getting around this update, as it is a necessary upgrade for Windows Update (it’s possible that it may do other things in the background, too, apart from the reminders to upgrade and everything else mentioned in the support notes).

We should clarify that this won’t force a Windows 11 upgrade on a Windows 10 PC which isn’t compatible with the stricter requirements for the newest OS – but it’ll likely continue to nag you about upgrading (for your own good, Microsoft would obviously argue).

Indeed, we’d be surprised if it fired up any upgrade for Windows 11 automatically, even if the PC in question was compatible – but, we guess, perhaps this could happen. Normally forced upgrades are for feature updates, though, meaning new versions of your current operating system, like 24H2 which recently arrived as this year’s annual update for Windows 11. Migrating to a whole new OS, like jumping from Windows 10 to 11, is a much bigger move.

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• Microsoft is ending support for Windows 11’s built-in Mail and Calendar apps after December 31, 2024, and users will need to switch to the web-based Outlook app
• Users can still access emails and calendar events in view-only mode in the Mail and Calendar apps, but won’t be able to send or receive emails
• Microsoft aims to unify email and calendar management in Outlook, though users are concerned about the web app’s lack of offline access and inconsistent design when compared to the rest of Windows 11

Microsoft is shutting down the built-in Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11, which means you’ll no longer be able to send or receive emails or manage your calendar using those apps after December 31, 2024. This has been a long time coming, with Microsoft showing pop-up notifications about this in both apps for months – and now the end is officially nigh.

Users are being urged to switch to the new web-based Outlook app for Windows 11, as explained in a support document that outlines how Microsoft is planning to end support for the Mail, Calendar, and People apps on December 31. It appears that Microsoft wants to streamline all of its email and calendar features and services into this one app that will be accessible on every Windows device.

If you want to use those apps after December 31, it appears you can still do that by switching off the ‘New Outlook’ setting (by unchecking it) found in the new Outlook app’s settings, specifically Outlook > Settings > General > About Outlook.

Windows Latest reports that this will likely be a ‘view-only’ mode, allowing you to view your emails, drafts, contacts, and other details in the Mail and Calendar apps, but you won’t be able to send or receive emails, and will be redirected to the web-based Outlook. It apparently doesn’t work offline yet, and Microsoft is working on adding support for this in the next few weeks, which is good news as most people would expect a desktop email client to let you see and compose emails even if you briefly lose your internet connection.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Drazen Zigic) What this means for Mail and Calendar app users

What this means for you is that starting January 1, 2025, you’ll have to switch to the new Outlook or use a third-party app. In the meantime, you can choose to follow Microsoft’s advice or close the reminder pop-up, clicking the ‘Not now’ option, although this will reappear the next time you use these apps.

One other workaround that you can try is to downgrade your Mail and Calendar apps to the previous versions, which seemingly gets rid of the pop-ups altogether, but this loophole will also stop working on December 31, 2024.

If you have emails, calendar events, and contacts in the Mail and Calendar apps that are saved only on your device, and you want to be able to access them in the web Outlook app, you’ll be able to export this information by using the ‘Export’ feature in both apps to add those emails or events to either a suitable third-party app of your choosing or to Outlook.

It looks like the reception of the new web Outlook app isn’t so hot, with some people complaining that it doesn’t ‘feel’ like the rest of the operating system. There seems to be a disconnect with the rest of Windows 11, and along with the lack of offline access, it still feels more like a website than a convenient app for many.

Along with Microsoft’s recent mishaps and problems brought on by the new Windows 11 24H2 update, I don’t see this move winning many people over. I think being able to see all of your admin information in one place is useful, but users of the Mail and Calendar apps may have come to rely on using these built-in applications which have been tightly integrated into Windows 11.

If the replacement Outlook web app lacks features and polish, I think Windows 11 users will feel let down at a time when Microsoft needs more people to switch to its latest operating system.

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Creative Zen Air SXFI: Two-minute review

The Creative Zen Air SXFI are true wireless earbuds at a tempting price with plenty of advanced features, from active noise cancellation (ANC) to Creative’s proprietary ‘spatial holography’ mode, Super X-Fi. But are these earbuds set to enter our best noise-cancelling earbuds guide – and ultimately, are they really worth your consideration?

The Zen Air SXFI Earbuds certainly look the part, with a tasteful matte gray colorway and metallic detailing, alongside a charging case and supplementary cloth bag (unusual!) for carrying around your earbuds in style. An IPX5 rating means they can withstand jets of water too (though not full submersion), so they might be a good choice for walkers, runners and other exercise freaks on a limited budget.

And I was a fan of the sound quality, at least when Creative let the earbuds do their own thing. It’s when additional modes come into the picture that things get tricky – whether it’s the Super X-Fi audio mode distorting the sound, or Ambient Mode funneling scratchy recordings of the outside world into your ear.

You get an impressive suite of features for the $80 / £70 price tag, though some of them are better ignored – so honestly, it can be hard to figure out what the Creative Zen Air SXFI earbuds actually offer in terms of stone cold value over the competition. However, there’s something to be said for its IPX5 water resistance and a lot to be said for the 39-hour battery life. Elsewhere, it's good to see Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and important to note that these earbuds still get the key metrics right, despite some iffy implementation of their more premium features.

Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Price and release date

• $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$139.95
• Launched in June 2024

The Creative Zen Air SXFI headphones retail for $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$139.95, having been released in June 2024. That’s roughly the same price as the older Creative Zen Air Pro model was at launch, though the latter is now heavily discounted to make way for the new version.

If you're looking for over-ears, it's worth giving a shout-out to the May 2024-release Creative Zen Hybrid SXFI at $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$69.95. Here, we actually loved Creative's proprietary spatial audio side-sauce – which, as you'll soon see, sadly isn't the case here. 

Creative Zen Air SXFI headphones review: Specs Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Features

(Image credit: Future / Henry St Leger)

• Adaptive ANC and Ambient Mode
• SXFI app
• Bluetooth 5.3

The Creative Zen Air SXFI headphones use Bluetooth 5.3. This basically means that you’re getting fast, energy efficient connections with a good range that are unlikely to drop out easily, and the ability to connect simultaneously with other devices. (I did struggle connecting the earbuds to any device at first, but the issue seems to have resolved itself before I needed to call in a new unit, and I haven’t had a problem since.)

These earbuds do feature touch controls, which is a great inclusion for the price. Essentially, holding down the left earbud decreases volume, whereas holding down the right increases it – there’s no slider here. Double tapping the right earbud pauses or restarts playback, whereas double tapping the left cycles through ANC, ANC Adaptive, ANC off, and Ambient Mode.

As a refresher, ANC – or active noise cancellation – works by using built-in microphones to record outside noise and cancel out those wavelengths. Adaptive is the same idea, but it’s able to respond more dynamically to fluctuations in outside noise.

The ANC implementation works fine. It's not going to wow you for creating a bubble of silence around you (there’s only a minor reduction to extraneous low-level noise such as an AC unit above me) but it does do a little to soften environmental noise. Ambient Mode is where I ran into trouble, as you have to double tap the earbud to deactivate it, and I repeatedly ended up banging the microphone while doing so, sending a wave of static into my ear. And I wouldn’t generally recommend using the mode anyway, given that during my tests I found the mics actually made outside noise sound worse than if you weren’t wearing the headphones at all.

There’s also Creative’s SXFI, or Super X-Fi spatial audio tech, which is intended to capture “the listening experience of a high-end multi-speaker system in a professional studio”, by virtually upscaling its stereo audio into something approaching three-dimensional sound. There’s a dedicated SXFI app you need to download, before building a personalized sound profile based on the size and shape of your ears, but it is available for both desktop and mobile. I'll mention this in more depth in the audio quality section though, since there's plenty to say. 

Features score: 3.5 / 5 

Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Design

(Image credit: Future / Henry St Leger)

• USB-C charging case
• Lightweight with a cloth carry case
• Battery life indicator

For headphones that only cost $80, the Zen Air SXFI look pretty sleek. Each earbud is a light matte gray, with a small Creative logo (a metallic triangle) and a shape similar to the AirPods Pro (bulbous body with a thin pipe hanging down over the earlobe).

The charging case has the same color scheme, with the four letters of SXFI embossed on the top, a USB-C charging port along the underside, and a multifunction button on the front. There’s also a four-point indicator that tells you how much battery life is left, or whether it’s in pairing mode, though it can be hard to make out the green LEDs in light environments.

The case has lightly curved edges, making it comfortable to hold or stick in a pocket, and it doesn’t pick up fingerprints, meaning it stays pretty even after a few weeks of testing. The inside of the case is where the affordability of these earbuds shows, with a cheap-looking metallic finish, though you won’t have to look at it often! Just note that the charging case’s curved edges means that it’s a little wobbly when sat upright, especially when the case’s top is open.

In a nice touch, you also get a small cloth bag to pack the charging case – preventing loose earbuds rattling around in your luggage – though with IPX5 water resistance you shouldn’t need to worry too much about the earbuds getting wet.

Design score: 4 / 5

Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future / Henry St Leger)

• Clear, warm audio
• 10mm drivers
• SXFI doesn’t quite land

So, does Creative’s Super X-Fi tech actually work?

I’ve tested other SXFI models I was impressed by – specifically the Creative Zen Hybrid SXFI over-ear headphones, which have enough of a wide soundstage to manipulate the audio for a more spatial quality.

These Zen Air SXFI earbuds, however, don’t offer the same luxury – with compact 10mm drivers, and more restricted in-ear hardware – and while there’s a slight difference in the sound during music, it’s hard to quantify or call an improvement.

I actually enjoyed using SXFI more during podcasts, where the difference is more notable, subtly shifting the voices of talking heads so that the sound appears to fill more of the room around you in a natural way.

But regardless of Creative’s virtual trickery, I was pretty happy during my time with the Zen Air SXFI earbuds. They have a clear, crisp sound – at least, for the price – without the harsh notes or sibilance that can plague lower-cost audio hardware. 

Sure, you’re not getting pinpoint detail, or the powerful bass of headphones with bigger, more impactful drivers, and these earbuds work best for pop vocals and mid-range frequencies, rather than thumping club tracks. 

Listening to Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!, the earbuds do a decent job of capturing the singer’s playful vocal inflections, with clear separation between the vocals, drums, and other instruments cutting across the soundstage. You lose a little of the fast transition between different notes – something Roan’s voice does so aptly – but it’s still a good time overall.

While the sound is a little soft around the edges, it does make the Zen Air SXFI earbuds very easy on the ears, and good for listening for longer sessions. With a frequency range of 20-20,000Hz, you’re getting the standard spectrum of sound recreation – and, unlike the Zen Hybrid SXFI headphones, we had no trouble using these earbuds for podcasts or streaming apps.

Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Value

(Image credit: Future / Henry St Leger)

• Active noise cancellation
• Sub-$100 price
• Stylish design for the price

The Creative Zen Air SXFI headphones are absolutely good value, with a slick design, Bluetooth 5.3, and a number of advanced features that include ANC and Super X-Fi Audio – even if the implementation is a little basic.

The touch controls are generally workable, despite when switching out of Ambient Mode, and overall you’re getting a good feature set with some sensible corners cut. For the price tag, these are acceptable true wireless earbuds with the ambition to be something better.

Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Creative Zen Air SXFI? Buy them if… Don’t buy them if… Creative Zen Air SXFI review: Also consider How I tested the Creative Zen Air SXFI

• Tested for 2 weeks
• Used at home, on commutes, and in public cafes
• Predominantly tested using Spotify service on OnePlus 8

I’ve worked as a gadget reporter for seven years now, including a substantial stint at TechRadar as its News & Features Editor. I’ve tested countless headphones and reported on audio tech in London, Las Vegas, Berlin and Shanghai.

My first over-ear headphones, back in 2009, were made by Creative, so I have a long history with the brand, and was excited to test out their products a full 15 years later.

I spent two weeks testing out the Creative Zen Air SXFI headphones in my home office, alongside outdoor walks, runs, and commutes over train and bus throughout the city. I primarily used my Android smartphone, a OnePlus 8, for testing, but switched to a MacBook Air for wired listening also.

• First reviewed in September 2024

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

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• Broadcom acknowledges “strong customer momentum” for VCF and VVF
• VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and Standard subscriptions available
• Too little, too late? This comes 12 months after the Broadcom takeover

Just days short of the one-year anniversary of Broadcom’s wildly controversial takeover of VMware, the company is now looking to offer more cost-effective options for small businesses that were previously priced out of the virtualization giant’s revised pricing structure.

After it transitioned to a subscription-only model, Broadcom VP of Product Marketing Prashanth Shenoy confirmed the next stages of VMware Cloud Foundation.

The company now offers VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware vSphere Standard, both of which are available to all end-user customers directly from Broadcom as well as via distribution channels.

Broadcom-VMware finally caters to SMBs again

Besides ending the sale of perpetual licenses, pushing customers into ongoing subscriptions, Broadcom also reduced the VMware lineup, grouping software into fewer and more expensive bundles. Both of these changes made it especially expensive for smaller companies to continue using VMware services, leading to widespread uproar.

Shenoy wrote: “To round out the portfolio, for customers who are focused on compute virtualization, we will now have two options, VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware vSphere Standard.”

Companies wanting only vSphere virtualization can now select from two subscriptions following what’s been described as “strong customer momentum” for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).

Suggesting that the company “continue[s] to listen to [its] customers and partners,” Shenoy said: “This combination of added customer choice among our product offerings, along with flexible subscription length, price, and payment flexibility within our per-core subscription model highlight Broadcom’s commitment to our customers.”

However, Broadcom’s efforts could be a case of ‘too little, too late.’ The efforts to pacify smaller businesses with limited budgets come close to 12 months after the company completed its acquisition of VMware.

Just two months ago, we reported that 52% of customers were looking to move to an alternative provider. Six months before that, we revealed that customers were jumping ship, with open-source alternatives like KVM-based and Xen-based proving popular.

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When it comes to the best Prime Video shows and best Disney Plus shows, Fallout and Percy Jackson and the Olympians sit comfortably on our lists. With both expected to return for second seasons both platforms have unveiled a brand new cast member for each show, with Macauley Culkin joining the post-apocalyptic drama and Andra Day joining Disney’s Greek deity fantasy.

Premiering on Prime Video just this year, Fallout proved to be an authentic adaptation of the popular video game, making it one of Prime Video’s top three most-watched titles. But although details of its second season have yet to be unveiled, Macaulay Culkin’s addition to the cast is confirmed and he'll allegedly be playing a “crazy genius-type character”, according to Deadline.

Ella Purnell as Lucy in Prime Video's Fallout. (Image credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)

Culkin’s new character will join an already star-studded cast featuring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, and Walton Goggins - whose Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy nomination was just one of 17 that Fallout accumulated this year. Given the successful run of its first season which attracted 65 million viewers in its first 16 days, Fallout season two sure does have a reputation to live up to.

However, Fallout is just one of the shows on the best streaming services returning with an updated cast as Oscar nominee Andra Day is set to play the role of Athena in the next season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney Plus. Day will step into the shoes of the Greek goddess of wisdom – an integral character in Rick Riordan’s series of novels – playing the mother of Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), one of Percy’s (Walker Scobell) closest friends.

The news that Day would be joining the cast of the Disney Plus show was announced at the D23 event in Brazil, followed by a video (see below) posted to social media with Day in character. Disney also announced more cast members for season two including Tamara Smart and Daniel Deimer, who are lined up to play Thalia Grace (the daughter of Zeus) and Percy’s half-brother Tyson.

A post shared by Percy Jackson (@percyseries)

A photo posted by on

Despite the absence of release date details, we know that season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be based on Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, the second book in Riordan’s fantasy series. One year after the events of the first season, Percy returns to Camp Halfblood to find that it’s under threat from Kronos. Along with his shifting friendships and the missing case of his friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri), Percy learns that he has a long-lost half-brother Tyson, who happens to be a cyclops.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is expected to return for a second season sometime in 2025 on Disney Plus.

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• Marvel has released new teasers for Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts
• Cap 4's trailer reveals our best look yet at Harrison Ford's Red Hulk
• The pair will close out Phase 5 of the comic book giant's cinematic universe

2025 is going to be one of the busiest 12-month periods in Marvel Studios' history – and, if trailers for two of its new movies are anything to go by, the comic-book giant could be in for another stellar year.

Fresh off announcing a packed 2025 Disney Plus TV show lineup in late October, Marvel debuted new looks at two of the three films it'll release next year at last Saturday's (November 9) D23 Brasil Expo presentation. The movies in question? Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, which will arrive in theaters on February 14 and May 2 respectively.

With Sam Wilson's first big-screen outing as Captain America leading the charge, it'll come as no surprise to learn that this Marvel Phase 5 film's latest batch of footage came by way of an official trailer. It's one of the more creatively original teasers that the Disney subsidiary has spliced together in a long time, too, with conflicting snippets of footage, which show off its largely duplicitous cast of characters (Wilson notwithstanding), speaking to its political-thriller vibes. Cap 4's latest teaser comes four months after Brave New World's initial trailer debuted a first look at Harrison Ford's Red Hulk, who's revealed in all his glory in this new round of footage.

As for Thunderbolts, the second of three Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flicks received a lengthy special-look teaser. The three-minute-long video opens with an extended clip from the film, which shows Bucky Barnes appearing to save Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, US Agent, and Ghost from some unidentifiable bad guys, only for Bucky to turn the tables on the supposed rescuees.

The teaser, which arrives less than two months after Thunderbolts' first trailer unveiled an official look at Lewis Pullman's Bob and Yelena Belova's anti-hero squad, evolves into a more traditional trailer after that, with quick-cut footage that shows its morally complex characters working together as they trade quips and sarcastic barbs. The video also confirms who owns Avengers Tower now, with Valentina Allegra De Fontaine having bought the New York landmark in the wake of Tony Stark's demise in Avengers: Endgame.

Ending on a high?

Weird as it is to say, Thunderbolts could be a surprise hit for Marvel in mid-2025 (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Anyone who's frequented these parts will be aware that, ever since MCU Phase 5 began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February 2023, my confidence in Marvel has waned.

Yes, there have been customary successes for the comic titan. In 2024 alone, Marvel has given us one of the best Disney Plus shows of all time in X-Men 97. That animated series was recently joined on the TV front by highly-rated WandaVision spin-off Agatha All Along, whose popularity grew week-on-week. Add in the box-office juggernaut that was Deadpool and Wolverine, an MCU movie I really enjoyed even if some didn't, and 2024 has seen Marvel succeed in its attempts to course-correct after a – by its lofty standards – terrible 2023.

Indeed, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Loki season 2 notwithstanding, small- and big-screen duds in the form of Secret Invasion and The Marvels continued to showcase Marvel's inconsistent creative approach to its cinematic juggernaut since 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Yes, there were also great films and series that followed Avengers 4 between July 2019 and January 2023 – including WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Shang-Chi to name just three.

For every good project, though, there was a bad and/or divisive one, such as Thor: Love and Thunder and – although I liked it – She Hulk: Attorney at Law. Throw in the 2023 Hollywood strikes and other issues that have plagued the studio, and Marvel has not only been fighting fires for years now, but also suffered numerous hits to its previously untouchable reputation.

Based on Cap 4 and Thunderbolts' new teasers, though, it seems the MCU's latest phase will end with a bang, rather than a whimper. And even if it does go out on a low note, it won't sound the MCU's death knell, with eagerly anticipated films like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and two more Avengers movies, plus exciting Disney Plus shows including Daredevil: Born Again, also on the way. Even so, Marvel can't afford to keep churning out critical and commercial duds, so it'll hope 2025 doesn't start as badly as 2023 did.

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