Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 24H2 to eligible Windows 10 PCs, free of charge.


Image: Ralf Liebhold / Shutterstock

Microsoft has just made Windows 10 users an offer they (almost) can’t refuse: a free update to Windows 11 version 24H2. Details can be found on this support page, where Microsoft writes:

“Windows 11, version 24H2, also known as the Windows 11 2024 Update, is now broadly available.

Starting this week, we are expanding this latest Windows version’s phased rollout. We are gradually offering this update also to eligible devices running Windows 10, version 22H2.”

Clearly, Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to transition to Windows 11, and they’re doing everything they can to make the process as easy and enticing as possible. The company also wants users to hop aboard Windows 11 24H2 — so much so that they recently made the update mandatory — so they’re killing two birds with one stone here.

How to claim the Windows 11 24H2 update

The rollout of this offer is only going out to Windows 10 PCs that are eligible for Windows 11. That means you’ll need to meet some minimum hardware requirements, like a TPM 2.0 chip in your system.

To check whether your device is eligible, go to the Settings app and navigate to Windows Update. Version 24H2 of Windows 11 will be shown there if your PC meets the technical requirements. (Note that the update may not show up for a few days as it’s still rolling out.)

If you’re on Windows 10 Home, you’ll be upgraded to Windows 11 Home. If you want Windows 11 Pro instead, you’ll need to upgrade that separately. Learn more in our comparison of Windows 11 Home and Pro.

Act fast before October comes around

Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. After that date, Windows 10 PCs will stop receiving security updates and Office 365 apps will eventually stop working. Learn more about what this means for Windows 10 users.

You’ll still be able to use your Windows 10 PC, but it will grow increasingly more vulnerable to malware and other security issues. That’s why security experts warn that you shouldn’t wait to upgrade to Windows 11. If you don’t want to upgrade, you can pay for extended Windows 10 support or switch to a different operating system.

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Gmail phone number verification problems anger users.SOPA
Imges/LightRocket via Getty Images

Google is a great proponent of best practices when it comes to user security, be that the introduction of exciting new identity check features on your Android 15 smartphone, and automatic updates to patch Chrome browser vulnerabilities. When things go wrong, however, such as an inability to recover a hacked Gmail account, then users can get understandably frustrated. And that’s what is happening to a number of Gmail users who have found themselves in the unenviable position of having given Gmail their phone numbers, as requested by Google, and then finding they are being told they cannot be used when the security need is greatest. Here’s what you need to know.

Gmail Wants Your Phone Number—Here’s Why And How

Your Google account is the gateway to your Gmail account, break into one and get access to the other. The problem here is that your Gmail account is a true treasure-chest of valuable information for any hacker or cybercriminal who gains such access. Which is why it needs to be protected as best as it can, and that includes handing your phone number over to Google. Yes, I know that there are all sorts of reasons that people balk at the idea, but I’m looking at this purely from the security perspective, and there are way more compelling reasons to comply than deny, in my never humble opinion.

To add a phone number to your Gmail account, you need to head for your Google account and then the personal info settings, which you should see in the navigation panel options. From here, look for contact info, and then it’s the rather obvious route of “phone” followed by “set up” in order to enter the phone number you want to use for recovery and verification purposes. Google advises that, for recovery and verification purposes, you should always choose a phone number that is able to receive SMS text messages, is used exclusively by yourself alone, as well as used regularly and kept with you. In other words, your primary smartphone that is always nearby and isn’t accessible to others, which could open the verification process up to potential risk.

A Gmail recovery phone number is essential when you consider that account compromise attempts have become increasingly more sophisticated over the years. Everything from AI-driven phishing attacks to the use of infostealer malware can be used as part of the account takeover attack methodology. “Extra confirmation by phone helps keep spammers from abusing our systems,” a Google support document said, explaining why it sometimes asks for a verification phone number before you can sign into your Gmail account. Substitute spammers with hackers at your leisure, as the protection applies to both in equal measure.

Google said that this Gmail recovery phone number can be used in a number of ways, including:

   • To send you a code to get into your account if you’re ever locked out

   • To block someone from using your account without your permission

   • To make it easier for you to prove that an account is yours

   • To tell you if there’s suspicious activity on your account

A Google spokesperson once told me some years ago, and it remains as true now as it was then, that “adding a recovery phone number to your account is much like putting on your seatbelt when you ride in a car: it drastically improves your safety when you use it."

Which is great until that seatbelt breaks.

This Gmail Phone Number Cannot Be Used For Verification

One user recently posted their frustrations with the Google phone number account verification process to the Gmail support subreddit complaining they had “tried every phone number I know” and were still facing the same number not used for verification brick wall. The issue here appears to have been suspicious activity detected with the account in question, which triggered the user verification process. This is a good thing, make no mistake: until it’s not. The instructions the user was requested to follow basically wanted that phone number attached to the account to be entered for verification purposes so that a code could be sent by text. The request started a loop of “this phone number cannot be used for verification” that led back to the same request.

According to a Google support page, the solution to the ”this phone number cannot be used for verification” error is, erm, to use a different number. “To protect you from abuse,” the support posting continued, “we limit the number of accounts each phone number can create. You can use a family member or friend's phone number instead. It may also help if you attempt to use a number from a different phone carrier.” All of which is, in my never humble opinion, about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to user-friendly support for a security issue.

Gmail Working On Something That Might Help

The problem here is that there is no phone number for Gmail or Google support, of course, to have a discussion when trying to resolve a problem like this. All you have is the online support documentation and processes to work with. Unless that is, you are a paid Google One subscriber, and then you can try tackling the issue from the Google One Help service side of Google. If you are willing to pay for it, you can “reach out to Google One support for help via chat, a phone call or email,” it seems. I pay for it, but with subscription fees ranging from $1.99 to $9.99 per month, it’s not for everyone. You do get benefits such as extra data storage and dark web monitoring, but the enhanced access to customer support is probably the biggest of them, in my never humble opinion. It should be noted, however, that Google said that “Google One offers support for a variety of issues that include membership management, usage of Google One features and understanding your storage,” so it’s not going to be a silver bullet for all your Google and Gmail problems.

You start the process by describing the issue as you would if you were searching Google for help, which is precisely what you are doing, in effect. Make this as concise and accurate as possible for the best results. Also, you will need to choose a category that best describes the type of problem you are having. In this case it could be account access issues or verification codes not working, for example.


Google One support is worth a try if you are a paid member.Google

The next step will pop up a list of potential fixes, also known as online support advice and resources that you will likely have already tried if you get to this point. However, check these out in case you have missed something obvious that might help.


Google One list of resources prompted by intiial help search.Google

Amazingly, you can opt for getting a call, yes a call, from Google in less than a minute when I took the screenshots, an online chat, which could be up to a couple of hours waiting time, or email.


Google One support options include calls, chats and email.Google

I reached out to my Gmail contacts, and a spokesperson could only inform me that Google is working on something that “intersects with this question and beyond.” This could be related to either the general ability to conact Google customer support or the verficication codes issue, I am not clear at this point. What it involves won’t be known for a month or so, at the soonest, it would appear.

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SteamOS is spreading beyond Valve's hardware. That could threaten Microsoft's hold on PC gaming...or even Windows' hold on the PC market.


Image: Asus/Valve

Ten years ago PC gamers were eagerly awaiting Steam Machines, console-style Linux boxes built from the ground up to play PC games. They flopped, due in no small part to Steam operator Valve’s lack of experience working with hardware partners. But in 2025, both Valve and its home-built gaming operating system are different beasts. And Microsoft should be afraid of them.

The Steam Deck dominates PC gaming

The big story in PC gaming for the last three years has been the Steam Deck. This low-power, portable, relatively inexpensive machine is clearly something the market has been waiting for, exciting gamers and energizing PC makers to pump out imitators, like the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go.

But all of these machines lack a crucial component, despite copying the Steam Deck’s hardware to a greater or lesser degree. They rely on Windows, as do almost all consumer PCs not made by Apple. And Windows just isn’t a good experience in this form factor.

That’s why Lenovo turned to Valve for its second-gen Legion Go S. Or perhaps more precisely, the Legion Go S Powered By SteamOS (its full and cumbersome title). It’s the first handheld PC officially powered by Valve’s Linux-based operating system, but probably not the last.

Lenovo is also making new Windows-based versions of the same hardware, but we’ve already heard that Asus is working on a similar Steam-powered handheld, and Valve itself will let you download and install builds of SteamOS later in 2025. Some tech heads aren’t even waiting, and are already building their own quasi-SteamOS-powered PCs.


Image: Lenovo/Valve

Despite fumbling its initial debut on console-style Steam Machines, SteamOS has quietly and steadily improved over the last decade, benefitting both from the Linux market’s maturity and Valve’s endless investment into the Steam store and community as a quasi-platform of its own.

The X factor in the Steam Deck’s explosive popularity is the Proton compatibility layer, which allows games made only for Windows to run on the low-powered AMD hardware with minimal fuss. It can’t run everything — non-Steam games like Fortnite and the latest AAA polygon-pushers can’t run optimally on the Steam Deck. But it’s good enough for the vast majority of PC games and on a device that starts at $400, you get a lot of grace from gamers who also need to pay for rent and groceries.

Contrast this with Windows, the current de facto standard for PC gaming. Yes, Linux fans, I know you’ve been playing some of the same games as Windows users for years, ditto for Mac. But when you think “gaming PC,” you think of a Windows-powered desktop or laptop. Or do you? It’s possible — though hard to pin down, since Valve hasn’t released any numbers — that in terms of single-device volume, the Steam Deck is now the most popular gaming PC in the world.

Windows wobbles from 10 to 11

But I digress. Windows is the home of PC gaming, at least for now and the foreseeable future, but it’s not a happy home. As I said previously, handheld gaming PCs that ape the Steam Deck’s hardware but run Windows 11 often find that last point is the biggest pain point for users.

They complain of inefficient use of the limited hardware, to say nothing of how Windows just isn’t easy to use on those smaller screens. And companies like Asus, Lenovo, MSI, et cetera don’t have the software chops to make an effective go-between layer for users, even if these devices could spare the performance overhead (they can’t).


Image: Michael Crider/Foundry

Windows isn’t looking so hot in general, in fact. The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 hasn’t quite been the disaster that the initial Windows 7 to 8 transition was. But it hasn’t been great, either.

Those big yearly updates seem to reliably bork at least some portion of the userbase’s machines, disproportionately affecting gamers and Microsoft is still struggling to get people to give up Windows 10. Even with a well-publicized end of support coming in under a year, Windows 11 is struggling — and sometimes flat-out failing — to gain market share over its previous incarnation.

Microsoft’s has larger general woes in the gaming market, watching the Xbox platform and brand apparently drown even as its Game Pass subscription grows. Game Pass is pretty clearly the company’s attempt at a cross-platform rebirth, the culmination of hundreds of billions invested in buying up developers and publishers to own games as diverse as Minecraft, Call of Duty, and WoW.

But you can’t spend-money-to-make-money forever, and gaming isn’t Microsoft’s only business. It’s also desperate to sell Windows machines (2025 is “The year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” allegedly), Office subscriptions, and AI services to the enterprise. There might be too many cooks in the kitchen and too many mouths to feed, all at once, in one of the tech industry’s oldest and most reliable megacorps.

SteamOS reminds me of Android

So look at a wobbling Windows platform on one hand, and an ascendant and suddenly spreading SteamOS on the other. Valve has committed to offering SteamOS to manufacturing partners via the “Powered by SteamOS” branding initiative.

With the open source Linux as a foundation and relative hardware agnosticism, it’s starting to look a lot like the relationship that Google developed with smartphone makers to proliferate Android across the mobile market. It’s not a complete one-to-one comparison, but Valve told us in an interview that it’s not charging for SteamOS. Huh.

Microsoft tried to compete with Android. It failed, miserably, and the company essentially had to abandon the mobile space entirely and settle for providing backend services through apps. Even when Microsoft tried to get an early foothold in the folding device segment with the Surface Duo (also failing), it did so using Android as a basis.

My colleague Adam Patrick Murray waxed philosophical about SteamOS powering gaming laptops when he spoke with a Valve engineer at CES. And I think that’s a definite possibility, even if it isn’t Valve’s immediate focus with SteamOS as it moves to conquer the handheld form factor first.

But we’re talking about a “free” operating system (those quotes are because you’ll need to partner with Valve in some capacity to get the branding), built from the ground up for PC gaming, and flexible enough to run on some of the lowest-power hardware on the market or potentially the most cutting-edge gaming devices.

The parallels to Android are hard to ignore, at least for me, a journalist who cut my teeth on the smartphone boom. But the prospects don’t stop at gaming. With Chromebooks and ChromeOS, Google has proven that regular consumers and even some bigger customers like education aren’t as committed to Windows as they were back in the 90s.


Image: Marek Sowa / Shutterstock

ChromeOS is still seen as a “budget” laptop solution (much to Google’s chagrin). But a year or two from now, you could see Chrome-powered budget laptops next to mid-range and high-end SteamOS-powered gaming laptops, all sitting next to Windows 11 machines on a Best Buy shelf. And that’ll be after Microsoft has forced an upgrade upon lots of people who didn’t want to give up Windows 10.

Consumers are ready for a future beyond Windows

Let me be clear: The odds of a massive, immediate shift away from Windows PCs aren’t great. This isn’t a “year of the Linux desktop” rallying cry. But if there is a Linux desktop that exists today, it’s the Steam Deck. And that makes SteamOS a bellwether for greater proliferation of non-Windows devices (if not necessarily “Linux” specifically) in a huge range of form factors.

At the start of 2025, Microsoft still has its comfortable stranglehold on the consumer side of the PC market. It weathered “the death of the desktop” predicted during the smartphone and tablet boom — people aren’t getting rid of their personal machines. But Windows’ never-ending dominance as the de facto PC operating system is, if not in doubt, then certainly in question.

Microsoft’s attempts to ameliorate the issues that Windows-powered handheld PCs, lacking as they are, shows that the company is aware of the problem it has in that form factor. I wonder what it’ll do if it sees SteamOS jump to gaming laptops…or desktops. SteamOS isn’t necessarily a harbinger of doom for Windows. But it could be. And that should make Microsoft very, very frightened.

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You have been warned. The 2025 threat landscape is set for an AI revolution, and whatever defenses you have in place will almost certainly not be good enough. Nowhere is this more true than with our email platforms at home and especially at work. “Email is the most common cyberattack vector for businesses,” a new cyber insurance report has just reinforced, “serving as the most prevalent initial entry point to launch financial fraud, ransomware, and data breach attacks.”

Despite all the cyber noise, sometimes a stat or datapoint still has the potential to stand out. And so it is with the latest report from At-Bay, lauding the benefits of email that’s more secure by default. Maybe there’s some hope after all.

At home there are checks you can do that will help you review your settings and make recommendations — Google’s account security check-up, for example. But at work it’s more complex, given that many of these settings will fall to your IT department to control. But that flexibility comes at a price. “At-Bay strongly recommends transitioning to a cloud-based email solution to mitigate security risks and ensure proactive vulnerability management.”

Nothing new here — but that transition to cloud brings the potential for increasingly game-changing defenses to be built around email and for a rethink as to how these platforms operate. We’re not there yet, but this is a step.

Gmail scores well in the new report — its security upgrades in recent years are paying off in the real world data collected from actual cyber insurance claims. “Organizations that used Google Workspace,” At-Bay says, “experienced the lowest frequency of incidents on average. Compared to the overall average, Google’s claims frequency was 54% lower.” The insurer highlights features included by default “that may not be the default setting in other email solutions.” These include “real-time scanning for phishing emails and malicious attachments, automatic security updates to protect against vulnerabilities, and integrated threat intelligence to proactively identify and respond to potential threats.”

Gmail might be the largest email provider on our planet with its claimed 2.5 billion users, but Workspace does not dominate at work the way Gmail might at home. The point being that there’s no need to play with settings to secure the platform, it’s “a comprehensive and robust security framework out of the box, without requiring additional attention to set up or configure.” Harder to run a comp in the wider world, but this enterprise data does provide some evidence this approach is working, and that the defaults are getting better.

The question is how this will evolve to cope with new AI threats heading fast in our direction. As I’ve commented before, email is a second-rate technology that has not evolved at the same pace as almost everything else. We still see too many blatant threats skip through any and all defenses into our inboxes. It’s still to easy for anyone to ping anyone, and new AI innovations make that all the more dangerous by making those threats more realistic.

We are now seeing two parallel developments. A hybrid mix of on-device and cloud screening for threats that target our phones in particular, but new AI desktops and laptops can extend this; and new safe browsing innovations that don’t only rely on centrally collated lists. It’s time for an email rethink that evolves email into a more messenger-like platform, and screens emails for threats to a level that doesn’t happen today. This is what Elon Musk has in mind with X-Mail.

Realistically, Google and Gmail are best placed to do this first across a huge user base. But in the meantime, these stats are a great ad for fully managed, cloud-based email at home and at work. Whether Gmail or one of the alternatives, if this isn’t what you’re running today then the numbers would suggest it might be time to switch.

On that note, the report from At-Bay will be interesting to those administering SMB or enterprise email, where traditional choices may now give way to managed alternatives for the first time. Now, as reported by Bleeping Computer, “Microsoft has reminded admins that Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will reach the end of extended support in October and shared guidance for those who need to decommission outdated servers.”

For those on extended support, this could well be an opportunity to explore alternatives — whether from Microsoft or others — to the traditional approaching of rolling forwards the same or next-gen option. Microsoft confirms that “customer installations of Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will of course continue to run after October 14, 2025; however, due to the upcoming end of support date and potential future security risks, we strongly recommend customers act now.” The company suggests migrating to Exchange Online or Microsoft 365.

“Migrating to the cloud is the best and simplest option to help you retire your Exchange Server deployment,” the company says, which is aligned with the cyber advice from At-Bay. “When you migrate to the Microsoft cloud, you make a single hop away from an on-premises deployment, and benefit from new features and technologies, including advanced generative AI technologies that are available in the cloud but not on-premises.”

Microsoft’s cloud-based solutions provide a material security step-up for organizations still operating on-premise email, and At-Bay is unequivocal in recommending a move away from on-premise. The security step-up includes Exchange Online Protection (EOP), “the cloud-based filtering service that protects organizations against spam, malware, phishing and other email threats. EOP is included in all Microsoft 365 organizations that have Exchange Online mailboxes.”

Listening to the cyber insurance industry when it comes to such decisions clearly makes sense. As TechRadar points out, “one of the biggest influences on the state of ransomware in the relatively short period since it really arrived just over ten years ago has been cyber insurance. Though not always to the benefit of victims, years of policy changes and updated requirements for cover have seen it make organizations much more resilient in the long run.”

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Image Credits: TechCrunch

TikTok may be back, but that hasn’t prevented other Chinese competitors from gaining users. In the lead up to a ban on TikTok — which kicked off Sunday and lasted a day — a number of other video apps rose through the ranks and now dominate the App Store’s Top Charts.

The Chinese app RedNote (which is listed on the app stores as Xiaohongshu) became the No. 1 app in the U.S. last week, followed by video apps like Clapper, Flip, and others. On Monday, following TikTok’s restoration of service, RedNote retained its No. 1 spot on the App Store, after having attracted some 700,000 new U.S. users.

TikTok users’ move to RedNote was meant to send a signal to U.S. lawmakers and Meta alike that they would rather join another Chinese app similar to TikTok than return to Instagram Reels.

Though TikTok is back online, the app stores aren’t yet hosting it for download; app marketplaces still have to abide by U.S. law, despite President-elect Trump’s assurances that he will extend the deadline for the TikTok ban.

Instead, both app stores’ top charts continue to reflect the shift to other TikTok alternatives.

In Apple’s U.S. App Store, for instance, video apps including RedNote, Likee, Clapper, and Flip hold the No. 1, 2, 4, and 10 spots in the Overall Top Charts as of Monday morning. Favorited, an app dedicated to livestreams, is No. 15.

Social network Bluesky also just added an optional custom video feed, however, its app has dropped out of the top 10 position it held last week on the U.S. App Store. It’s No. 13 as of Monday morning on the App Store and No. 15 on Google Play.

Still, Bluesky gained a few more downloads thanks to the TikTok ban and now has 28.29 million users, up from 27.5 million last week.

According to estimates from app store intelligence provider Appfigures, RedNote, Flip, and Clapper, all saw a massive growth spurt last week from single-digit thousand downloads per day earlier in January to tens of thousands of U.S. downloads on Friday.

RedNote, meanwhile, was receiving hundreds of thousands of downloads.

RedNote gained 818,000 new U.S. installs across the App Store and Google Play during January 2025. Because the app is localized in Mandarin, language learning app Duolingo also reported a 216% spike in U.S. users trying to learn the language last week.

Currently, it’s the No. 1 app in the U.S. on the U.S. App Store and Google Play, excluding games.


Apple App Store Image Credits:Apple's U.S. App Store on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025

Clapper, a TikTok alternative aimed at teens and adults ages 17 and up, gained 646,000 downloads on the App Store and Google Play in the U.S. On Friday, it added 87,000 new downloads, or 1,030% more than the 7,000 new downloads it saw back on January 1, Appfigures reports. It’s now the No. 4 top app (excluding games) on the U.S. App Store and No. 2 on Google Play.

Likee, a short video app, is No. 2 on the U.S. App Store and No. 3 on Google Play. It saw a massive surge of growth, moving from No. 202 on the U.S. App Store on Saturday to No. 2 by 3 a.m. on Sunday, Appfigures says. In total, it saw 283,000 downloads during January so far. On Google Play, it jumped to the No. 8 position across both apps and games, on Sunday night and has since dropped to No. 11. It’s currently the No. 3 app (excluding games).



Image Credits:Google Play in the U.S. on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025



For Android users, the short video app, Scoopz, made it into the No. 4 position on Google Play while the short drama app ReelShort is No. 7 on Google Play’s list of top apps, excluding games.

Lastly, Flip, which focuses on social commerce, grew by 580,000 downloads in January, the data indicates. (However, Flip also ran many TikTok ads over the past week, leading to those gains.) It’s No. 10 on the U.S. App Store and No. 9 on Google Play’s top charts, excluding games.


Image Credits: Appfigures(opens in a new window)

Despite many TikTok users’ signaling that they wouldn’t use Instagram, Meta’s app continued to hold a high rank on both app stores, including No. 8 on the U.S. Apple App Store Top Apps chart and No. 5 on Google Play’s Top Apps chart as of Monday morning.

VPN apps saw a brief surge, too

After the TikTok ban went into effect, U.S. users immediately tried installing VPN apps to work around the restrictions to no avail. (TikTok’s mobile app remained blocked even when VPNs were used).

Still, this temporarily drove a number of new U.S. users to VPN apps like VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy, which grew from the No. 91 app to the No. 3 app within 36 hours. Another app, VPN – Fast VPN Super, climbed 155 spots during that same time, and Nord VPN hit No. 9 after climbing 160 spots in the top charts.

Other apps that rose hundreds of spots overnight after the ban included X-VPN, Proton VPN, Free VPN .org, and Express VPN.

The app store charts are likely to soon shift again as U.S. users realize they can return to TikTok and decide to move away from at least some of their recent backup choices for a replacement.

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