If you're a Windows user, then you've definitely had this happen before.

You're playing or working, deeply engrossed in whatever it is you're doing, and then suddenly your computer alerts you to a Windows update! Or, in some cases, just shuts down and decides to update right then and there. It's obnoxious, it's frustrating, and now it's hopefully a thing of the past.

Windows 11 launched just a couple of days ago and Microsoft had been telling us quite a lot about their new OS leading up the launch, including providing details on how Windows 11 intends to deliver seamless updates that will be 40% smaller than those of Windows 10. These updates are supposed to take place with a lot less frequency, which means they shouldn't interrupt what you're doing - a bonus!

According to Microsoft, Windows 11 will have fewer feature updates than Windows 10 did, with a single feature update released every year, much like Apple's annual macOS updates. In order to achieve this, Microsoft has made some quality-of-life improvements to Windows 11's updates.

Image credit: Microsoft

When a new patch is available and you go to check for updates, Windows 11 will compare the contents of the new update with what's already installed on your PC. That way, it will only download the necessary parts of what you need, which makes the size of the update significantly smaller and way more efficient.

Windows 11 users will see their updates downloaded automatically when they aren't actively using their PC thanks to a new version of Microsoft's AI and machine learning software. Although there's a lot about upcoming Windows 11 updates that are great, it should be noted that the updates won't necessarily be faster. You will still have to restart your machine after an update and stare at a blank screen while it implements for a bit. 

Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft launched Windows 11 just two days ago on October 5th and will continue to roll it out gradually over the next few months. If you're planning to make the move over to the new OS and want to jump right into customizing, make sure to check out Start11 and the other great programs in our Object Desktop suite, many of which can still be utilized on Windows 11. 

Did you download Windows 11 yet? Tell me about your favorite features!

We are finally into fall and October is already here! Since it is October, now is a fun time to get your Halloween themed desktops ready! We have a bunch of Halloween skins, so it'll be fun to see what you put together this month. Take a screenshot and post to our desktop screenshot thread linked below and let us know what themes you are using this month.

Post your desktops to the monthly thread here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/507200/

(This is a news thread and will be locked. Screenshot taken by teddybearcholla)

In news that shouldn't be especially shocking: we really love games here at Stardock.

This extends beyond just PC and video games and well into things like board games and tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. I've definitely talked about it before, but I also have a fairly sizeable board game collection at home. Before the pandemic, I used to bring games in fairly regularly and have game nights so that my coworkers and I could enjoy playing some together.

Earlier this month, we held our first in-person game night in over a year. About 22 of us showed up to play games and eat Italian food that Raeann (one of our awesome HR peeps) and I prepared. Throughout the pandemic, there were several new hires at the studio who have all been working remotely like the rest of us, and many of those people whose faces we hadn’t yet seen in person drove in to share some home cooked food, play a few games, and indulge in some good old-fashioned comradery.  

Raeann and I went downstairs after work and made
garlic bread, mostaccioli, and salad for everyone!

This is the largest game night I've ever had at Stardock, and I loved it! Normally we'd average between 8-10 people and would have to break out games like Codenames or Avalon in order for us all to play together. There aren't too many games that can comfortably handle 22 people, so I brought a selection (two large Sterelite tubs worth!) and encouraged everyone to pick whatever they wanted to play.

Everyone fueled up on pasta before we got to the games!

After we stuffed ourselves full of carbs, we broke off into groups and started in on our first games for the evening: Codenames and Secret Hitler. I was finally Hitler for one of these games and I couldn't get anyone to make me chancellor, which was super disappointing! I guess I just don't look innocent enough.

We continued to flip between games throughout the evening; below, I'll give a quick rundown of each game and what they're like so you can check them out for your next game night!

Obscurio

This is one of my favorite co-op games! In Obscurio, you're playing as a wizard who is in possession of a magical grimoire and is trying to escape the evil wizard's library. One of your companions has been enchanted by the wizard, though, and is actively working in secret to try and trip you up and force you to pick the wrong path, thus trapping you in the library forever.

One player plays as the grimoire, who gives clues and tries to guide the players to safety, while up to six other people can play as the wizards, with one hidden traitor among them. As gameplay progresses, the wizards must find ways to work around traps that make the grimoire more difficult to interpret, all while wondering just who exactly among them is in cahoots with the wizard. It's an exciting game that relies heavily on teamwork and abstract thinking, and is very much loved by most of us here at Stardock.

Codenames

Codenames is a team game of secret words and deduction. Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 field agents, but their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. In this game, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. To do this, the spymaster will give their team a one-word clue in hopes of getting them to guess the correct word on the board - but be careful! If you don't choose your clues wisely, your team might end up picking the codename of a rival agent, a civilian, or an assassin, which will instantly end the game and give victory to your rivals.

This game is fun and challenging - and it feels like it changes and is different every time depending on who's on your team and who is playing as the spymaster. It's a relatively inexpensive buy and can accommodate a larger number of players, so I definitely recommend keeping it on hand for impromptu game nights!

The Great Dalmuti

This game has been around for a long time - I remember playing this at the hobby shop in high school! - but it's still one of my favorite games to break out in a group of people.  This light and easy card game can play up to 7 players and honestly, the more the merrier! The goal is to empty your hand first, a feat that is much easier if you are lucky enough to find yourself in the position of being either the Greater or Lesser Dalmuti, a ruler who can tax the best cards out of their peons' hands.

This game requires players to shuffle seats - we also used silly hats! - whenever their position changed. Our table was constantly roaring with laughter, and because the game is so easy to teach we were able to get up and playing right away, so we got several rounds in before we moved onto our next activity.

Secret Hitler

We love social deduction games here at Stardock. I keep telling Derek that maybe betrayal and lies doesn't make for the best team-building activity, but that doesn't stop us.

Secret Hitler is a dramatic game of political intrigue and betrayal set in 1950's Germany. Players are secretly divided into 2 teams: liberals and fascists. Known only to each other, the fascists must coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader, while the liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it's too late.

Each round, a player takes the mantle as president and must propose a chancellor for election. Working together, they enact a law from the deck, but the chancellor could be forced into passing a law they don't want to pass depending on what their president gives them! Because all laws are viewed in secret, the players only have the president and chancellor's word to go off of, which can spread a lot of chaos very quickly.

If the Secret Hitler is ever elected chancellor after 3 fascist laws have already passed, the fascists automatically win. If the liberals manage to pass 5 liberal laws before this occurs, they win. The game is fast-paced and chaotic, and hits the table, along with the game Avalon, quite often at Stardock gatherings.

Dead Man's Draw

Look familiar? This game is honestly one of my absolute favorites in my collection because it is so easy to teach and everyone who has ever learned it has had an absolute blast! We have a lot of new Stardock blood here now, so I thought it was more than appropriate to introduce them to our only physical board game.

In Dead Man's Draw, you push your luck trying to score the most points by trying not to bust as you flip cards over out of the deck. If you ever flip up a suit that you already have in the lineup, you bust and don't get to score any cards for that round, so be sure to know when to stop! 

Each suit has its own special ability, ranging from blowing up or stealing an opponent's card, protecting previous cards in the lineup, or even forcing you to flip over 2 cards whether you want to or not. The gameplay is fast paced and easy, and I know that the new Stardockians really enjoyed the game as much as I enjoyed teaching it!

Well, that was our game night in a nutshell! What are some of your favorite board games, and have you played any of the ones above? Tell me about it!

Hey all you cool cats and kittens, get ready to toss a coin to your Witcher - there's some news from the streaming realm!

If you raised an eyebrow at the genre-blending sentence above, you wouldn't the only one; I did the same as I was writing it. While the announcement that Season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher is on its way isn't terribly shocking, I will say that I did a double-take at the headline that Tiger King season 2 was on its way also?

If you're unfamiliar with the documentary, some might argue that you're better off. It came out right at the beginning of quarantine, so myself and my other cooped up friends hung out on Discord and decided to watch it together out of morbid curiosity. I honestly couldn't tell you if this was a good idea or not, simply that it was a thing that occurred.  It was certainly...interesting...to say the least.

The reason Season 2 seems so off to me is that Season 1 felt pretty concluded. Joe Exotic is in jail, his assets were liquidated, and life moved on. But, you know, this is television and a studio like Netflix isn't about to let something that was so profitable go to waste.

Moving on from Tiger King, let's zero in on the stuff that makes gamers excited. If you watched season 1 of The Witcher and enjoyed it, then you were probably excited to see the first look at Season 2 back in July.

Recently, Netflix released a few more teasers, giving us another look at Geralt and company. I personally have not read any of the novelizations or played any of the Witcher games, so my sole exposure to the franchise has been through this show. I really loved season 1 - and to be frank, I'm a huge Henry Cavill fan, so that doesn't hurt - and can't wait to see where the show goes when season 2 drops on December 17th.

Netflix also confirmed already that Season 3 for the show is on its way as well, so it looks like even after this season is over we'll get our fill of adventure after another (hopefully not too long!) wait.

It feels like streaming services are always coming out with something new - I mean, honestly, I guess they have to - so in that vein it's impossible to cover everything. But there's one more announcement from this past week that piqued my interest, and that is Netflix's Arcane series. 

Based on the League of Legends game, Arcane will release in three "acts" starting on November 6th. Vi, one of the playable characters within the game, will be voiced by Hailee Steinfeld and will be the main protagonist of the series. I really like the animation style and think this might be a fun watch, regardless of whether or not you're into the League of Legends lore.

One more announcement - and frankly, I saved the best one for last. I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's work, and his Sandman series is no exception. Netflix released the very first trailer look at the show, and when I tell you that I shrieked when my friend sent me the trailer, I'm being honest.

It's a good season for TV! What are you looking forward to watching?

The fall season is finally here, and I hope wherever you are located that you are starting to get some cooler weather. This is a fun time of year for skinning as Halloween and Christmas are two of the most popular holidays for skins and themes. We already have a fantastic selection of skins for the season, and we're getting more added weekly. 

Have you put together a fall or Halloween desktop yet? Do you plan to?

If you're looking for some themes to get started with, check out these posts.

• Getting an Early Start on Your Fall Desktop!
• Here's 5 Top Desktop Wallpapers for Fall
• Halloween Animated Wallpapers for Your Windows Desktop

Those are just a few to get you started, and we'll post a couple of the newest featured wallpapers and animated wallpapers for DeskScapes below!

Foggy Jack-o-lantern

Autumn Road Covered in Leaves

Autumn Leaves Falling in the Park

I am constantly amazed by the things technology has evolved to do.

If you’d told me 15 years ago that we’d move past dial-up internet and have the sheer amount of information at our fingertips that we do today, I’m not sure I would have believed you. Honestly, I still hear that AOL dial-up tone in my head sometimes - is it just occasional nostalgia, or am I going a little nuts? Probably both.

Anyway.

People are always finding new ways to make technology work for us, and especially for kids, who have grown up in a time unlike any we experienced as children. From online schooling, to the first ever FDA-approved video game treatment for ADHD, and now Moxie, a robot designed to help kid with social-emotional learning, technology continues to find ways to make life a little easier.

A couple weeks ago, this advertisement appeared in front of a YouTube video I was watching:

Initially, I was like “WTF?” and about to click through, but then I paused. I worked with kids for a long time before coming to Stardock, and something about this tugged at my heart and made me watch through the end.

I know that technology isn’t the answer to everything; in fact, there are definitely times when I would advocate for less screen time for kids and so on. But, I have also been the teacher in that classroom with a kiddo who struggles to connect with their peers, or who just doesn’t feel safe or comfortable advocating for themselves and their needs.

Moxie is presented by a start-up robotics company called Embodied and is designed to “help promote social, emotional, and cognitive development through everyday play-based learning and captivating content.” Now, it’s not like the idea of these social robots is new, but this one is different.

Unlike other social robots, Moxie specializes in one thing - emotional development - and keeps its interactions focused there, rather than trying to be an over-generalized robotic friend. By having short 15-20 minute interactions with Moxie daily, kids will be able to lessen that interaction and hopefully apply what they’ve learned to other social relationships.

The short daily interactions provided by Moxie are supposed to help aid in learning communication skills. From Embodied’s website:

“With Moxie, children can engage in meaningful play, every day, with content informed by the best practices in child development and early childhood education. Every week is a different theme such as kindness, friendship, empathy or respect, and children are tasked to help Moxie with missions that explore human experiences, ideas, and life skills. 

These missions are activities that include creative unstructured play like drawing, mindfulness practice through breathing exercises and meditation, reading with Moxie, and exploring ways to be kind to others. Moxie encourages curiosity so children discover the world and people around them. 

All these activities help children learn and safely practice essential life skills such as turn taking, eye contact, active listening, emotion regulation, empathy, relationship management, and problem solving.”

Personal feelings on efficiency aside, this technology is really cool. It could really help some struggling kids out, or it could just get thrown on the pile of failed attempts - it’s hard to say right now.

What do you think about a robot like this? Share your thoughts with me!

If you're thinking of moving to Windows 11 when it releases on October 5th, then you'll want to know about Microsoft's updates to its Health Check app. 

This app will test your PC to see if it can adequately handle running Windows 11. The updated tool is available all the way at the bottom of Microsoft's Windows 11 page here. The user interface hasn't changed any from its previous version, but the results regarding your PC's eligibility should be much more accurate than before.

One of the things that has been making Windows 11 so contentious for Microsoft customers is the requirement of a TPM (AKA, Trusted Platform Module) chip. This crypto-processor secures a computer through an integrated cryptographic key that prevents hackers from accessing your computer and leaking your data. TPMs also are historically a business or enterprise feature, and is less common in DIY custom-built and boutique-sourced rigs.

Because Microsoft wants to put more focus on keeping its platforms secure, a TPM chip is necessary for running Windows 11 (and probably will be necessary for many other things going forward). A TPM can be integrated directly into a computer's motherboard or added manually to the CPU. Recent processors from the likes of AMD and Nvidia include this technology, but if you're using a chip that's a few years old now (like I am), then you may find yourself unable to make the jump to Windows 11.

The way a TPM will interface with Windows 11 is like this: when you log into your PC, the TPM supplies a unique code (cryptographic key). If there is no detected issue, then your PC boots up as normal. If your security is compromised, though, the computer locks down in order to prevent hackers from gaining access. On one hand, this definitely sounds like a great security measure - on the other, if it somehow glitches or goes awry, I foresee a headache in getting it all sorted.

A TPM's job doesn't stop when the correct user is logged in; it can encrypt the entire hard disk (or just parts of it), authenticate online activities like secure email and VPNs, and it can also ensure that when you go to recycle your computer that no confidential data remains on it.

I can see why Microsoft is taking the direction that it is with TPMs; they are extremely difficult to get past, and the peace of mind they provide with their additional security is not to be discounted, no matter how inconvenient it may be in regards to updating. My own PC can't handle the move to Windows 11 at the moment, although several websites I've seen have suggested a few other ways to dive a little deeper into my OS to see if there's actually a TPM I can enable after all, so I might decide to give that a look later.

Are you moving to Windows 11? How do you feel about the required technology for running it? Share with me!

The wallpapers and Dreams (animated wallpaper) galleries have categories so you can view certain types of wallpapers that you are looking for. These categories haven't been updated in a long time, and it was certainly due for a refresh for a more modern and updated gallery. Some gallery categories were not ever really used or relevant, so we removed some and added quite a few to each section for an expanded range of wallpaper choices.

With the added integration of some WinCustomize galleries in DeskScapes, it will also reflect a better experience for in-app users as well. 

Here are the new and updated categories available in these galleries today...

Wallpapers

• Anime
• Beach/Tropical
  
• City
• Landscapes
• Movies/TV
• Nature
• Seascapes
• Space 
• Vehicles
• Winter

Dreams (DeskScape Wallpapers)

• Anime
• Aquariums
• Beach/Tropical
  
• Gaming
• Landscapes
• Movies/TV
• Nature
• OS
• Seascapes
  
• Technology
• Vehicles
• Waterfalls
  
• Winter

We've populated the new galleries with items, but if you have some wallpapers that need to be changed over, you can edit your skins to a new category. Of course, please let us know if you need any help with that.

As we've done in the past, I get emailed and read blogs about design and a couple times of year various sites put out their seasonal colors, and the latest is from Creative Market. They have Cosmic Iris as their "Color of the Season".

"Iris: a flower with sword-shaped leaves, the Greek goddess of rainbows, the part of your eye that lets light in. As we discover what this new normal can look like, here’s a color that captures our quest for the unknown. The curiosity in experiencing familiar places with new eyes. Cosmic Iris is a blue-to-purple hue that takes us to a place of wonder."

HEX: #7B93E8
RGB: 123, 147, 232

I do like the color but it's not something I would associate with the fall season. Maybe I'm just a bit more traditional but I'd like to hear your opinions on it. What types of skins or themes do you think this color would look good with?

Stardock's Publisher Sale is here with up to
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STEAM KEYS ARE PROVIDED WITH PURCHASE

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