Skip to main content

Microsoft Launches Windows Fix It Center Beta

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Anyone with experience troubleshooting Microsoft WIndows can testify that, sometimes, getting to the bottom of a software problem can be a little…time consuming. To help ease the pain, Microsoft has unveiled a beta version of its Microsoft Fix It Center, which hopes to make fixing the most common Windows problems as easy as clicking a button—something even technology-phobic Windows users might be able to do.

Microsoft Fix It Center is designed to help users install appropriate software updates and identify known problems that might be impacting their Windows systems. The application features automated troubleshooters and a series of wizards that guide users through set-up and routine maintenance tasks. The software scans a users’s PC to create an individualized software and hardware profile; that information is then compared against Microsoft’s databases of known support issues and updates, and lets the user know about anything relevant to their particular computer—and the software keeps records of everything its done so users know what’s been changed on their computer. Users can control the level of automation that Fix It Center users, and the system even supports multiple devices.

Microsoft Fix It Center is available for Windows XP SP3, Vista, and Windows 7; it’s a free application, but users will need a Windows Live account to use the service.

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
A dangerous new jailbreak for AI chatbots was just discovered
the side of a Microsoft building

Microsoft has released more details about a troubling new generative AI jailbreak technique it has discovered, called "Skeleton Key." Using this prompt injection method, malicious users can effectively bypass a chatbot's safety guardrails, the security features that keeps ChatGPT from going full Taye.

Skeleton Key is an example of a prompt injection or prompt engineering attack. It's a multi-turn strategy designed to essentially convince an AI model to ignore its ingrained safety guardrails, "[causing] the system to violate its operators’ policies, make decisions unduly influenced by a user, or execute malicious instructions," Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, wrote in the announcement.

Read more