Neowin News Feed for: Blocking

Windows 11 blocks Google Chrome due to a Microsoft safety feature, fix out

Sayan Sen — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:56:01 +0000

Windows 11 systems are automatically breaking and blocking Google Chrome as it is triggering a Microsoft safety feature. Read more...

Microsoft shares details on Teams block if app is not updated after 90 days

Sayan Sen — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:16:01 +0000

Microsoft has confirmed that Teams will be warning users who are on an outdated app version and will eventually block it after 90 days. Read more...

Links to sites that Elon Musk publicly attacked apparently load slower on X

Steve Bennett — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 20:44:01 +0000

In the saga that is Elon Musk's management of X, it's being reported that links to websites that he has been having arguments with online are now loading slower, with delays of up to 5 seconds. Read more...

Microsoft might soon block force-installing Windows 11 on unsupported CPUs via bypass

Sayan Sen — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 21:26:01 +0000

Microsoft recently published new Intel and AMD CPU support list for Windows 11. Speaking of which, the tech giant may also be working on blocking installs of the OS on unsupported hardware. Read more...

Microsoft confirms it'll throttle and block mails from outdated, unpatched Exchange Servers

Sayan Sen — Tue, 09 May 2023 05:32:01 +0000

Microsoft has released details on how it plans to protect against unsupported, unpatched, vulnerable Exchange Servers. The tech giant says that it will throttle and eventually block such mails. Read more...

Microsoft's latest Sysmon 14.0 could help block dangerous malware

Sayan Sen — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 22:32:01 +0000

Microsoft's latest Sysmon version 14.0 can be used to block or prevent malicious and other dangerous files from opening. This is thanks to a new event type addition to the Sysinternals utility. Read more...

VideoLAN claims that its VLC media player is being blocked in India

Usama Jawad — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 10:50:02 +0000

VideoLAN's president and lead developer has claimed that Indian internet service providers are restricting customers from downloading VLC media player from the official website for unknown reasons. Read more...

You can no longer download Windows 11, 10 ISOs via Rufus as Microsoft blocks Fido [Update]

Sayan Sen — Sat, 13 Aug 2022 08:28:01 +0000

If you wished to download Windows ISOs via Rufus, you can no longer do it. That's because Microsoft has seemingly blocked such downloads which were made possible using the Fido script. Read more...

You can no longer download Windows 11 and Windows 10 in Russia

Sayan Sen — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 19:58:02 +0000

Since yesterday, downloads for Microsoft's Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems are being blocked in Russia. Thankfully, though, there is a way to bypass this sudden apparent blockade. Read more...

Spotify is testing a feature that lets you fully block artists

Steven Parker — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:55:27 +0000

It appears that Spotify is testing the highly requested feature with a small group of beta testers that lets you completely block an artist from appearing in any playlist, compilation, or anywhere! Read more...

Amazon updates iOS Alexa app to block calls and messages from contacts

Paul Hill — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 23:52:01 +0000

Amazon's Alexa app for iOS has received a new update that bring call and message blocking functionality. Last month, Amazon introduced calling to the Echo but it didn't include a blocking feature. Read more...

New report suggests operating system makers could block pirated content

Paul Hill — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:04:01 +0000

A new report published by two anti-piracy-focused outfits has made a suggestion that operating system makers should build blocks into their software to disable access to websites that enable piracy. Read more...

Twitter reverses update after backlash over blocking feature

Shreyas Gandhe — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 08:05:55 +0000

Twitter made changes to its "block user" feature to simply mute the blocked users, but had to revert to the old behaviour of the feature after backlash from users related to privacy and harassment. Read more...

PayPal banning Usenet providers because of piracy concern

Andrew Stevenson — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000

After taking a hard line against BitTorrent and file-sharing sites, PayPal has moved onto Usenet service providers, freezing funds and stopping them accepting payments to their accounts. Read more...

Virgin Media ISP begins blocking Pirate Bay in UK

John Callaham — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:02:12 +0000

Virgin Media's ISP unit in the UK has become the first to start blocking The Pirate Bay from its users after being ordered to do so by the UK's High Court on Monday. Read more...

UK Government confirms site blocking discussions, end of internet freedom

Piers Hausjell — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:19:29 +0000

The western world takes Internet freedom for granted and expects to be able to access any website from anywhere, of course countries such as China are known for having state-controlled firewalls, but it now seems... Read more...

Australia to test blocking all P2P and Bit Torrent traffic

Brad Sams — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:15:09 +0000

Australia has been known to have high levels of censorship. It should come as no surprise to those in the land down under that the government is planning to filter P2P and Bit Torrent traffic... Read more...

Comcast Sued Over BitTorrent Blocking

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:20:42 +0000

A California man filed suit in state court Tuesday against internet service provider Comcast, arguing that the company's secret use of technology to limit peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent violates federal computer fraud laws, their... Read more...

Windows Live Passport blocking Gmail addresses

Tom Warren — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:49:10 +0000

It has come to our attention via Mauricio that Microsoft's Windows Live Passport service is currently blocking new sign ups from any @gmail.com email addresses. The error message any user receives is "reserved domain" when... Read more...

Comcast says not blocking Internet downloads

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:34:07 +0000

Comcast Corp said on Monday that file transfers on peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent may be delayed by bandwidth management technology, but it denied blocking access to any applications or content. As the second-largest high-speed... Read more...

Yahoo: Beijing Likely Blocking Photo Site

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:04:11 +0000

Flickr.com, one of the world's most popular online photo-sharing sites and owned by Yahoo Inc., is likely being blocked by the Chinese government, Yahoo's Hong Kong unit said on Tuesday. Flickr—popular among a growing class... Read more...

Widgets, BitTorrent, content blocking - its Opera 9 beta

Daniel Fleshbourne — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:13:43 +0000

Opera Software today announced the first public Beta of Opera 9. This version includes Widgets, small Web programs running in their own windows that are fun, easy-to-use and live on users' desktops. The Opera... Read more...

Windows XP SP2 blocking tool expires Tuesday

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:40:44 +0000

A special tool that blocks the download of Service Pack 2 (SP2) on Windows XP PCs will expire Tuesday, ending the last SP2 respite for users who rely on the Automatic Updates feature in Windows... Read more...

China Blocking Access to Google News Site - Watchdog

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 15:16:02 +0000

China is blocking access to the Web site Google News, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday, and accused the U.S.-based company of being complicit by filtering its Chinese-language site. The Paris-based group said... Read more...

Italy foils cheats by blocking mobile phones

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 19:44:59 +0000

Italian schools are using military technology and transfering it to the class room to help stop students cheating in their exams. Mobile phone technology has opened up a whole new front for teenagers desperate to... Read more...

How EarthLink Is Blocking Spam For 5 Million Users

Sat, 07 Jun 2003 10:16:00 +0000

EarthLink has the same spam problem that an enterprise e-mail system has -- only bigger. Where an large enterprise might have more than 100,000 mailboxes, EarthLink has five million. EarthLink users range... Read more...

Lockergnome Report - Firewalls not blocking ANY IPv6 traffic

Daniel Fleshbourne — Tue, 20 May 2003 07:38:42 +0000

Thanks Chris for telling me that in his latest GnomeREPORT, he's tring to fiqure out Microsoft's "unique" logic for fixing something thats broken... Then, there are gems like this one [Firewalls not blocking ANY IPv6... Read more...

RoadRunner Blocking Use of Kazaa?

Daniel Fleshbourne — Sun, 14 Jul 2002 09:31:18 +0000

Thanks Wickedkitten...An anonymous reader submits: "You should know that RoadRunner is quietly blocking the use of Kazaa in certain markets. Particularly in Texas, they have some sort of port scanner in place which scans for... Read more...