Since the acquisition of Mountain in 2022, Listan GmbH, the parent company of gaming brand be quiet!!, has continued to build upon the foundation established by the Mountain ‘Everest' series of keyboards.Today, be quiet!! introduces its first pair of keyboards: the Dark Mount and Light Mount. These products are designed to embody the be quiet!! design philosophy by delivering a silent, distraction-free, and subtle acoustic profile.
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:46 Background / pricing
02:04 The keyboards
02:47 Dark Mount
04:03 Key Customisation
04:45 RGB Lighting
05:00 Light Mount
06:20 Stackable Magnetic Feet
06:57 Fold out Feet
07:05 Thoughts and build quality
09:15 How is the sound and feel?
11:49 Real world use
13:22 Software
15:30 Worth a buy?
Specifications
Dark Mount
Light Mount
You can buy the Dark Mount and Light Mount keyboards from Scan HERE. The full MSRP is £239.90 and £169.90, respectively – however, Scan currently have the keyboards at the lower pricing of £229.90 (Dark Mount) and £149.99 (Light Mount).
Pros:
Cons:
KitGuru says: The Dark Mount and Light Mount definitely deliver on their promise of a quiet typing experience but offer nothing groundbreaking in terms of design and gaming features.
Last year, Microsoft released Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for Xbox and PC. While the game was celebrated at the time, it failed to reach the peak of the sales charts. Interestingly, with the game now available on PS5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has managed to top the weekly sales charts for the first time.
As reported by industry analyst Matt Piscatella of Circana via BlueSky, “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the best-selling video game in the US during week ending April 19th, following its PS5 launch”. Adding further context, Piscatella continued, “It was the first time the title reached #1 on the weekly charts.”
Of course, this is not to say that the game failed during its initial launch, with Microsoft confirming earlier this year that the game has exceeded 4 million players.
It’s worth noting that being a first-party Xbox game, Indiana Jones was available day-one on Game Pass PC / Ultimate, likely impacting its placement on the Circana charts (due to its use of Dollar sales as the metric for calculations).
Even so, it is interesting to see Microsoft’s first-party Xbox titles in some ways perform better on PlayStation than their own system. That said, more sales for Indiana Jones is a win for Microsoft, no matter the platform of choice.
It will be interesting to see how Forza Horizon 5 performs on PS5 when it launches soon.
KitGuru says: Did you pick up Indiana Jones on PS5? How many copies do you think it sold prior to the PS5 version’s launch? Will Forza be their biggest game yet on PS5? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Indiana Jones and the Great Circle tops sales charts for the first time, following PS5 launch first appeared on KitGuru.Late last year, PC platform holder GOG announced that they were setting up a new game preservation program. In the months since, the initiative has seen a consistent influx of games being preserved for generations to come. Ahead of this year’s Star Wars Day, the team announced around half a dozen titles set to be preserved for the future.
Making the announcement on their blog, the team at GOG wrote: “With Star Wars Day approaching, we want to honor this amazing franchise in the best way we can: by adding iconic classics from a galaxy far, far away to the GOG Preservation Program! That’s right – while we kick off intergalactic celebrations with May the 4th sale, we also decided to put special attention into some of the most classic Star Wars games out there; those titles shaped who we are, and it’s about time to go back to them.”
Said to have been updated to “run as smoothly as possible on modern systems and are now made to live forever” the following games have now been added to GOG’s preservation program:
In alignment with this announcement, all of the listed games are currently on sale for 75% off – and will remain so until the 6th of May.
For the uninitiated, the GOG preservation program expands on the platform’s already solid business practice of offering all their games DRM-free. These preserved titles in particular however have had extra care put into them to ensure long-term compatibility.
Star Wars Battlefront for example has had its stability validated; has added cloud save support and is now verified to work correctly on Windows 10/11.
As the video games industry evolves and matures, it is highly welcome to see at least one company doing what it can to ensure that video gaming remains as accessible and forward-facing as possible. Hopefully game preservation programs become a common practice.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this announcement? Are you surprised given the fact that these are all licensed games? What’s your favourite classic Star Wars game? Let us know down below.
The post Multiple Star Wars games added to GOG preservation program first appeared on KitGuru.Between the 3 major console makers, Microsoft’s Xbox controller is easily the most basic, lacking any form of advanced haptics, gyro-controls and the like. That said, it seems the company is testing out a number of next-gen controllers – including one which appears heavily inspired by the PS5’s DualSense.
Back in 2023 during Microsoft’s then-ongoing hearings with the FTC, the console maker accidentally leaked some of its future plans, including a next-gen controller which was said to feature new precision haptics, an accelerometer, improved build quality with quieter buttons and thumbsticks – and a lift-to-wake mechanic for better battery life.
Now, known insider Jez Corden has offered some updated details, including what appears to be multiple controllers in the works.
According to Corden, Microsoft currently has 3 different Xbox controllers in development. The first is said to be a 3rd version of the company’s Elite controller – bringing with it improved connectivity alongside advanced haptic feedback and adaptive triggers (like the PS5’s DualSense).
The other two controllers are perhaps even more interesting, with controller #2 said to feature an LED status bar (also similar to the PS4/5) alongside improved Bluetooth for better connectivity. Additionally, the controller will reportedly offer a Google Stadia-like direct connection to Xbox’s cloud services for minimal latency when streaming.
Last but not least, controller #3 is codenamed Sebile and is seemingly a blend of the two above accessories, featuring full haptics alongside support for direct cloud connection (as well as Bluetooth). That said, Sebile also includes an odd feature which is said to vibrate the controller in order to alert players of various issues such as connection quality.
Technologically, Xbox controllers have remained pretty much the same since the very first console. With both Sony and Nintendo lapping the Xbox multiple times over when it comes to controller tech, it is encouraging to see Microsoft finally trying to catch up.
KitGuru says: What do you think of these controllers? Are you bothered by the Xbox controller’s relative lack of features? What one DualSense feature would you like to see added to the Xbox? Let us know down below.
The post Microsoft reportedly has 3 next-gen Xbox controllers in the works first appeared on KitGuru.Back in 2023, Bulletstorm developers People Can Fly announced that they were working on a game with Microsoft known as Project Maverick. Following this, the studio revealed that they are also assisting The Coalition with development on Gear of War: E-Day. Though not explicitly stated at the time, the team has now confirmed that Project Maverick was in fact Gear of War: E-Day.
People Can Fly recently updated the ‘About Us’ section on their website, offering new details on all their current ongoing projects. Though not confirmed to be the same project at the time, the team have now solidified the fact that their mysterious ‘Project Maverick’ was in fact the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, writing:
“PCF Group S.A. is currently working on seven projects: Gemini, a new AAA game developed in partnership with global publisher Square Enix; Maverick (Gears of War: E-Day), in collaboration with Microsoft; Echo, a mode to the existing game developed for Krafton; and projects Bifrost and Victoria (Lost Rift) to be released in the self-publishing model.”
Of course, for our purposes the most notable reveal was the confirmation that Project Maverick is in fact Gears of War: E-Day (a fact which was assumed but not officially announced).
This is somewhat interesting however as Maverick was said to be an RPG of sorts – something which is not typically associated with the Gears franchise. Whether this was merely a matter of different definitions, or whether E-Day will offer more in the way of role-playing we will have to wait and see.
All that said, it is slightly disappointing to know that Project Maverick is not some brand new IP with a ton of inventive ideas. Hopefully E-Day proves to be more than just a simple sequel/prequel to Gears 5.
KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to Gears of War: E-Day? What did you think project Maverick was going to be? What kind of RPG elements do you hope to see included? Let us know down below.
The post Mysterious ‘Project Maverick’ from People Can Fly confirmed to be Gears of War: E-Day first appeared on KitGuru.The new Framework Laptop 13 should cost you between $1100 to $1670 depending on how what components you need it to come with. You should actually be able to order it if…
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Connexionrsync command-line tool has been around for decades. It provides users with the ability to copy files and folders to and from remote computers over the Internet and local networks.The Highlights
There’s one piece of obscure 2007 code that has propped-up the entirety of the fan control and large parts of the RGB industry. It’s a driver called WinRing0, and now, the software that uses it to control hardware through Windows is breaking.
If you're like us, you've always felt some sense of looming dread when you install a piece of software that controls fans or LEDs.
There's something ominous about a half-baked app with a broken UI taking control of hardware in meat space.
Editor's note: This was originally published on April 17, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.
Steve Burke
Patrick Lathan
Vitalii Makhnovets
Tim Phetdara
Jimmy Thang
As always, being pessimistic about this kind of thing has eventually paid off, with Hyte emailing us in March and The Verge posting a story about WinRing0 being flagged as a threat by Windows Defender (that article is worth a read for the statements provided by several developers).
We contacted our own list of developers, and then reached out to Wendell from Level1Techs to help us talk through the technical aspects. This article explores the history and story of the WinRing 0 driver.
WinRing0 is a library originally released in 2007 by Noriyuki Miyazaki [宮崎 典行] (AKA hiyohiyo), and he regrets it.
The developer is best-known for CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo. According to the active GitHub repository, "WinRing0 is a hardware access library for Windows" and "WinRing0 library allows x86/x64 Windows applications to access I/O port, MSR (Model-Specific Register), [and] PCI."
Basically, WinRing0, the driver, is a unique open-source window into hardware. Over the years, it's become the equivalent of that XKCD comic for small developers who can't afford to develop and certify their own loopholes for controlling hardware like RGB LEDs and fans.
If you're part of a small team that wants to distribute software for monitoring or controlling any of the hardware in a PC, WinRing0 has been the go-to option.
Hiyohiyo announced the end of development in February 2010, stating (in Japanese) that "WinRing0 is essentially a library that should not exist [...] I wanted to share the joy of low-level programming with as many developers as possible, so I developed and released WinRing0 after fully understanding the various issues, but I had no choice but to accept that this is no longer acceptable in today's age."
He repeated that sentiment to us in an email, saying that "I consider it a complete youthful indiscretion on my part not to have accepted the changing times."
The final update from hiyohiyo was WinRing0 2.0.0 in July 2010, where he intentionally removed almost all functionality, apologized again, and described the project (again, in Japanese) as a "big failure."
There’s something sad about that sentiment. For better or worse, the WinRing0 driver was actually not a big failure: A ton of hardware companies transacting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue have relied upon it; however, this is probably why hiyohiyo views it as a failure.
Given what WinRing0 is -- a method of low-level access to hardware -- it makes sense that hiyohiyo has distanced himself from the project so much, especially since he currently collaborates with Microsoft. The releases of Windows Vista in 2007 and Windows 7 in 2009 made it increasingly clear that Microsoft is no longer in the business of letting you f*ck around with this stuff:
Windows was moving away from low-level programming. The idea of old-school unrestricted memory access is scandalous these days. As Martin Malik of HWiNFO stated to The Verge, "since the driver has access and doesn’t restrict the range, it can read/change other processes, secrets in memory or protected kernel registers. This is very dangerous." As hiyohiyo stated when closing WinRing0 development 15 years ago, "If you think about why the OS restricts access to I/O ports, physical memory, MSR, etc., and why signing kernel-mode drivers is mandatory since Vista x64, you will understand."
We don't want to get too into the weeds here, but kernel-mode is the alternative to user-mode.
We interviewed Wendell from Level1Techs, who went on to explain:
“What is the kernel? [You may have] heard of the Linux kernel but Windows has a kernel, too. So the kernel is responsible for management of your system; so process management, memory management, hardware abstraction, security isolation, and system calls, which is like a programmer's calls, like the kernel is going to provide this programmer's interface. You call [it] as a programmer and then the kernel goes off and does something. And so the buck stops with the kernel. So your programs just run and they don't have to deal with things like, ‘which processor am I running on,’ ‘how do I allocate memory?’ It just says I would like to allocate memory and the kernel [asks] how much memory would you like and then you get an address and then that's all handled; memory management, all of the abstraction for all those kinds of things. So the kernel is really the smallest, lowest part of your operating system and it is typically engineered to be as uncomplicated as possible. It's only as complex as necessary to do the task and if it has bugs that leads to a lot of problems, not just in terms of system instability but also security issues and that sort of thing.
Sometimes it's fun to think of it abstractly. Your computer is a bus and all of the apps on the bus are the passengers. The kernel is the driver of the bus and your computer hardware is like the engine, the wheels, the door, the brakes, and that kind of thing. The driver gets to decide how to use everything safely and effectively and if one of the passengers wet willies the driver then that's bad because it may put everybody in danger.”
The only reason that analogy is a bit confusing is because Wendell uses the word “driver” to explain the operation of the vehicle and he uses the word bus to explain the vehicle.
With that in mind, let's take time to explain WinRing0's namesake: security Ring 0. Wendell elaborates, “There's a lot of ring 0 drivers as it turns out. Ring 0…kernel mode. I'm not a Windows developer [as my] day job but kernel operating system…it kind of makes sense. The things that are close to the hardware are ring 0 and they're supposed to have a relatively low surface area. If you are running an application and the application does something bad, which is ring 3, I believe, the application crashes. If you're running something at ring 0 and it crashes, it has the potential to affect the entire system and so the entire system will crash. Windows blue screens are probably ring 0. What has really accelerated Microsoft giving the boot to ring 0 is the CrowdStrike thing. This has been a problem forever but the CrowdStrike thing taking out the vast majority of infrastructure that runs Windows and Crowdstrike…Microsoft sees this as a problem and so this is basically a casualty of war.
Ideally you have things running in user mode ring three, all things running in user mode ring three. And so all of your software runs at ring 3 and the driver is very small and very low level and very lightweight and doesn't need to run quite as low level as ring 0 but is still sort of in the administrative permissions mode. But at a very low fundamental level, you can use software to update your BIOS and that is a pre-boot environment. You could have malware that lives in your BIOS. I would prefer having a motherboard that has a jumper so that when I want to re-flash the BIOS, I physically have to move a little switch to say yes.”
When we brought up Asus Armory Crate, Wendell added, “It goes the other way too, the BIOS could run arbitrary software.”
Kernel-mode drivers are almost always hardware device drivers, and within the x86 structure these (typically) occupy the highest security ring alongside the kernel: Ring 0.
This is why a device driver literally named WinRing0 getting handed out to anyone who wants it might be a little alarming to Microsoft. As confusing as it is, Wendell's still pretty positive on the basic concept of security rings: “The ring 0, ring negative 1, ring 1…that’s all very tightly coupled with hardware features of x86 to provide isolation, which is great. There's different approaches from AMD and Intel, but there is there is a hardware aspect of this that is very nice for users as well so it's not just like you're entirely reliant on a 100% Microsoft software solution but a lot of this is how Microsoft has chosen to implement the various security levels but it dovetails with a lot of functionality that is at the hardware level, which is nice because the hardware is trying to protect you from code that shouldn't be executed.”
Microsoft's method for mitigating those concerns has been to require digital signatures for kernel-mode drivers in all Windows versions since 64-bit Vista. A digital signature is a certificate issued by a "trusted Certification Authority" (CA) that verifies that: "the file, or the collection of files, is signed. The signer is trusted. The certification authority that authenticated the signer is trusted. The collection of files was not altered after it was published."
Back when WinRing0 was first published, individuals (in Japan) could sign drivers themselves, which hiyohiyo did. More expensive and difficult-to-obtain Extended Validation (EV) certificates were required starting in the Windows 8 era, and they're only issued to businesses, but old drivers were grandfathered in.
Over the years when installing a piece of software, you might have seen some kind of popup about the driver signatory, the lack or the presence of a signature. And we see this a lot with the prototype versions of software where they haven't signed it yet but as for why digital signatures are a useful idea in general, we turn again to Wendell who stated:
“As part of Microsoft’s strategy to deal with…driver signing, in general, any kind of executable signing is actually sort of fun and interesting. It’s a fun and interesting way of approaching security. If you right click on basically any executable on any modern Windows system and you look at the properties, you can see that the executable is digitally signed. That's an identity thing [that indicates] this is from [a particular] company. Drivers are a great way to hide malware and so it has to kind of be a walled garden and so the certificates you have on a website are really not [too] different or the executables from programs are really not [too] different from what you have for a driver. Basically you create the driver. You submit it to Microsoft and well, the submit-it-to-Microsoft process doesn't actually technically have anything to do with signing, but theoretically, Microsoft looks at you as a company and says ‘Okay, yes, we're going to be able to do business with you.’ And you get something that you can sign that is trusted and it is it is the standard certificate signing process where [you say] ‘here is my certificate’ [and] I'm going to send this somewhere that will then say: ‘okay, yes, we are going to sign the certificate that you have asked for except instead of being based on a hash or something ephemeral, it's based on the hash of the actual binary of the driver.’ And so this driver with this hash has been signed and if somebody tampers with the driver or changes it then the cryptographic signature will no longer match and the driver doesn't work anymore and so it's a nice way to affirm that something has signed off on the contents of this driver and this driver is good.”
Wendell also interestingly pointed out that CAs can be broken into and certificates can (and have been) stolen, but that's a subject for a different time.
So, hiyohiyo apologized for pulling the plug and refusing to maintain WinRing0's certification back in 2010, seemingly with the expectation that its certification would be pulled and everyone's projects would break:
"WinRing0 was discontinued without any alternative plan in order to avoid the worst case scenario of the signature being revoked" and "if the digital signature for WinRing0 is revoked, all WinRing0-based applications will be unable to start in an x64 environment."
That brings us to the second part of WinRing0’s history.
WinRing0 actually became a foundational element of many, many projects, and some of those projects—like Open Hardware Monitor, later forked as LibreHardwareMonitor—would themselves become foundational to even more software on top of that. So there are nested layers of reliance on something that hasn’t really been even maintained or even liked by its original developer for 15 years.
Seriously: You have very likely encountered WinRing0 in some capacity, and with the changes Microsoft is making for security reasons, a lot of those software encounters would no longer work today.
And that’s for good reason: Over the years, hiyohiyo's concerns were repeatedly validated.
In 2019, HP got in hot water for including WinRing0 pre-installed in its HP Touchpoint Analytics service "preinstalled on most HP PCs." This became a massive security concern from one of the biggest OEMs.
In 2020, WinRing0 was named in another CVE, or Common Vulnerability and Exposure, for EVGA's Precision X1. In 2021, it was Crucial's turn. Even though specific software was called out each time this happened, HP, EVGA, and Crucial were using the same 1.2.0 version of WinRing0 that everyone else was.
As GermanAizek put it to us, "The driver was made in 2007. CVE in 2020. Microsoft started blocking it in 2025. Vulnerability has been around for 18 years." As for why Microsoft hasn't blocked it before now, according to OCCT, "They haven't done it yet because big corporations were lazy enough to use it in their software in the past, so that would invalidate their own software, so they cannot do it right away."
And the list of software that has used it at some point, and therefore software that has had vulnerabilities and attack vectors, is huge: CapFrameX (but not PresentMon), Precision X1, Crucial MOD, HP Touchpoint Analytics, SignalRGB, OpenRGB, and many more are on the list.
The issue isn't that Precision X1 or Crucial MOD or any of the vast array of affected software (CapFrameX, OpenRGB, SignalRGB, at least some versions of Afterburner, et cetera) are compromised: the issue is that they install an insecure driver (WinRing0) that's then accessible to any other software that wants it, including malware.
This is precisely what happened with actual malware SteelFox starting in 2023; the vulnerability is real and has been actively exploited for profit. This isn’t just some proof of concept, this is an actual, in-the-wild malware that has been used to illicitly make money.
Calling it "theoretical," as CapFrameX did, is irresponsible and dangerous, and it's not really relevant whether the software that installs the driver is itself safe. To quote OCCT:
And here’s what Wendell thought, “If you say the last time the driver was meaningfully updated was in 2008 and it has not yet been exploited by malware, then that's a miracle.” We had to interject and say that it has been exploited by malware.
For another example of a Ring 0 driver problem (not WinRing 0), check out what Wendell had to say about Crowdstrike, “So what happened was Crowdstrike has a ring 0 malware detection driver and Crowdstrike is otherwise very good software. It's very effective at what it does. It's an interesting security architecture. They made a mistake in their software and as a result of the mistake, the system tried to jump to memory address zero or start executing memory address zero. I don't really remember exactly what the details were but it was something obviously incredibly stupid and there was no safety rails for anything at this level and so systems would crash. And it was an impossible situation because the system would [consistently] boot and crash. If you were lucky after the 20th or 30th time, it would do that, the system would notice and deal with it and so Microsoft is saying ‘this is the wild west. We’ve got to deal with this ring 0 problem immediately and software like CrowdStrike cannot run at ring 0. We as operating system vendors have to provide a lower level facility to let these software vendors do what they need to do but without compromising the integrity of an update process without compromising the integrity of a boot process to provide fallbacks' and that sort of thing. As a result of that…I mean, internally, Microsoft has known this is an issue almost since day one. They didn't care until millions of machines had very large problems, basically every crowd customer that got the update.”
Beyond the current wave of Windows Defender alerts, WinRing0 and similar drivers also have a tendency to get flagged by software like Easy Anti-Cheat due to their ability to read and rewrite memory. You can make your own judgement about how serious the issue is, but these are not false positives. We want to make sure that’s clear. It isn’t a “false positive,” it’s just a true positive.
As hiyohiyo stated fifteen years ago: "although a general-purpose hardware access library such as WinRing0 1.x is very useful for prototyping, developers would need to develop dedicated device drivers for public release."
But there needs to be a better, secure solution to gain access to this control and hardware. There is one and there has been one. As a developer, the 100% proper by-the-books response to this (from talking to numerous people) is to drop WinRing0, develop your own dedicated driver for your specific product, and obtain a signature for it.
This is apparently the path that EVGA took back in 2020 after that CVE we mentioned.
New signatures for kernel-mode drivers are really only accessible to large companies, though, with smaller dev teams unable to afford dedicating their time and money (in recurring payments) to the process, not to mention the software development work.
Other manufacturers, including Hyte, have informed us that EVGA was somewhat propping-up fan control and RGB software by getting signatures on the driver. We’ve had a tough time trying to verify some of these claims, but that seems to be the belief held by, for example, Hyte.
Therefore, WinRing0 has been eternally recycled and eternally frozen at vulnerable version 1.2.0.
If you dig around in LibreHardwareMonitor's source code (for example), it references WinRing0.sys 1.2.0.5 from July 2008, which makes sense: hiyohiyo's next release included a reference in a patch note, saying that "it would have been an easy fix if only a digital signature could be obtained, but since the kernel mode driver cannot be updated, this was scrapped."
According to Martin Malik of HWINFO64, this day of reckoning has been a long time coming, with Microsoft repeatedly warning that the driver would be blocked.
Again, we've heard unconfirmed reports that EVGA possibly took up the maintenance for WinRing0's digital signature in the post-2010 era, possibly arranging for its renewal (as we understand that certificates expire over time) or just convincing Microsoft not to revoke it. If EVGA had any involvement, it probably ended in 2020 when the company stopped using WinRing0, or at least in 2022 when the company basically halted operation. Microsoft's statement to The Verge that "we are aware of reports about gaming and monitoring applications being flagged as a threat due to the use of unsigned versions of the WinRing0 driver" implies that the driver is now unsigned, which could be a further clue that EVGA was doing some kind of upkeep behind the scenes.
Somehow, we continue to learn EVGA’s impact beyond its GPUs.
All of this is a problem, because there are limited tools to control hardware through the OS -- and for good reasons -- but there needs to be something, and currently, many of those tools are breaking or broken. Or insecure.
That brings us to the future of WinRing0.
The easiest solution to all this would be to patch WinRing0 itself. After hiyohiyo's last constructive contribution in 2009, Herman Semenov [Герман Семёнов] (AKA GermanAizek) took over maintenance in 2019, initially with the goal of optimizing crypto mining with access to CPU MSR registers. As he stated to us, "around 2023, many people wanted to build WinRing0 Windows driver themselves to increase mining hashrate, even though it was much more difficult than just mining on Linux."
In a weird way then, crypto mining potentially provided something directly useful to those controlling hardware for non-mining use cases.
Development accelerated in 2023 as other members contributed to the project, adding x64 support and fixing some BSOD triggers in the old driver. Eventually, the team applied patches to address the open CVE from 2020. Critically, this fork of WinRing0 remained unsigned: only the un-optimized, insecure version from 2008 had the valid signature vital to projects like LibreHardwareMonitor.
This is where HYTE has stepped in. HYTE originally contacted us with the story, stating that it wants to take the version of WinRing0 that GermanAizek's team has been updating, submit it to Microsoft for signing, and fork LibreHardwareMonitor to integrate the patched, signed driver. HYTE would then take on the responsibility of paying Microsoft, basically replacing EVGA’s assumed role in this chain.
The direct benefit is that HYTE's own software can continue to function, while the rest of the industry gets to keep using WinRing0 (and LibreHardwareMonitor) without getting auto-quarantined by Windows Defender.
GermanAizek told us that "these fixes restrict the use of the driver only to programs running with administrator rights." This is certainly safer, but (as Martin Malik of HWiNFO warned The Verge), this just means that an app has to be run as admin before it can access the driver.
We asked Wendell about this. Specifically about running things as admin and how much that might help. Here’s his response:
“That's probably not unreasonable. Short of Microsoft getting involved and offering a better solution or somebody that is that deep in the Microsoft kernel driver developer ecosystem, that's probably what it would take: somebody that has very deep intricate knowledge of the operating system and also knows what the operating system is capable of. As far as I know, you're on your own to implement a lot of the functionality that would be needed to do that. So this driver is probably still your best hope to do that. Microsoft probably doesn't want to adopt the driver, which would also be a reasonable outcome. At the same time, Microsoft probably doesn't want to re-implement the functionality that's in the driver, but how this is usually done is you peel away the minimum functionality and you stuff that in your ring 0 driver and then you have all of the other stuff live somewhere else. And that ring 0 driver, you trust not to be able to be manipulated to access memory, it's not supposed to or write to a bus address that it's not supposed to be able to.”
So, as Wendell helped us understand, the idea that a combination of patches and signatures can fix the root cause of the problem is arguably misguided.
We contacted Franck Delattre of CPUID (CPU-Z, HWMonitor), who explained that CPUID has had similar difficulties with its own software. "In order to fix the problems, we had to move a big part of the user code into the kernel code, in the unique goal of reducing exposure. We could do that because only our code uses our driver, but for a generic driver like WinRing0, this was simply not possible since its functions were used in a different context by the different application. To go further, this means that no replacement of WinRing0 is possible, at least not with the same genericity that WinRing0 provided until today."
In other words, the thing that makes WinRing0 uniquely useful is the same thing that makes it dangerous.
GermanAizek is literally the frontman for the "fixed" version of WinRing0.
He told us that "personally, I migrated to Linux and BSD systems because Windows has become really insecure, and as a Unix developer, such operating systems really seem convenient to me."
He also openly asked that developers use the InpOut32 driver instead of WinRing0 (although we've seen other developers express concerns about that as well).
OCCT has also announced that it will be providing a publicly-available but closed-source alternative to WinRing0, and it's possible that other organizations will follow suit.
Wendell informed us that there are other bigger-picture alternatives, “For sensors and fan speed, one way that you could solve this architecturally is to just move it to a USB controller. That's slightly more cost or if somebody wants to build in a USB client interface then that's probably a marginal cost increase. I'm slightly surprised it hasn't gone in that direction but I'm also slightly surprised because this is a problem for Windows server in the context of the system management bus because servers need access to the system management bus and kind of hilariously, you have the out-of-band management that also has access to the system management bus so like servers have a whole other computer inside them that has access to the system management bus and the same controllers and so you can use that computer within a computer to monitor the sensors. You could just not have that and plug it into USB in the case of client computers. Like I say, we put important things on the system management bus and so like controlling CPU voltage probably should be on the system management bus. Controlling fan speed…You could probably do that through USB, but when it's through USB, the chipset and other things probably are not able to control fan speed. So you end up with a chipset that needs a system management bus so low-level parts of the system can make those controls but user overrides have to come through another path like through USB or something that's low security. Or Microsoft can provide a reasonable facility that is reasonably locked down to access the system management bus facility.”
That’s the story of how this small piece of code has supported an entire industry and its software for 15 years now, even in spite of its own developer disowning it and regarding it as not only a mistake, but a failure. We feel bad for hiyohiyo who now is powerless to stop people from using his youthful development project, but these multi-million and billion dollar companies have the resources to develop a responsible alternative. That includes Microsoft, Razer, and everyone else.
That brings us around to what power an end user has, if any.
Our recommendation is to do what your antivirus software says: if Windows Defender quarantines WinRing0, let it happen, and if anyone tells you to ignore the warnings, treat them with extreme skepticism. Some manufacturers and developers have called these “false positives,” but they are not.
They are real positives, and there are real vulnerabilities that have been used which can exploit your machine.
Microsoft appears to have paused the "ban" as of this writing, but it's only a matter of time. If everything goes according to plan, though, the patched driver should be usable soon thanks to HYTE, at which point you can decide whether requiring admin privilege for access meets your personal standard for security.
For whatever it's worth, the Windows Dynamic Lighting RGB control feature continues to be developed, although it doesn't feel great to be railroaded into using it just because Microsoft bricked the alternatives.
Still, it's probably the right direction for Microsoft with Wendell stating, “There is one aspect of this where Microsoft is doing the right thing and that is RGB control. Windows 11 allows you to control RGB directly in the operating system. Microsoft [shouldn’t take] half measures here and add some fan controls and or at least provide a programming interface. [Microsoft doesn’t] have to [provide] a GUI for fan control like it did with RGB control but wherever that's plumbed in, [Microsoft should] go ahead and plumb in the other stuff. It's really not any more complicated than that.”
Thanks to the various developers that provided quotes for this piece, as well as Wendell.
Oblivion Remastered has been out for one week now and while the game has launched to a positive reception, there is still some room for improvement. Now, Bethesda is turning to the fans for suggestions on new additions to the game.
The suggestions are being taken over on the Bethesda Studios Discord channel. Players are already calling for an extra difficulty level, as there seems to be plenty of wiggle room between Adept and Expert difficulty levels. Others want UI tweaks, such as the ability to see current weight and your maximum carrying capacity while looting, or adding a ‘cleared' tag over dungeons you have already explored.
Some other suggestions popping up include unlocking the character creator so you can make adjustments to your player model after exiting the prologue, various little quest bugs and a way to improve the item level of unique gear in the game.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is available now for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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KitGuru Says: Have you been playing through Oblivion Remastered this past week? Are there any changes you would like to see in the game?
The post Bethesda seeks fan feedback for future Oblivion Remastered updates first appeared on KitGuru.Philips has quietly revealed a new addition to their high-end Evnia gaming monitor lineup: the Philips Evnia 27M2N8800. Following the larger 32-inch model (32M2N8800) released last year, this new variant scales down slightly to a 26.5-inch screen size but still packs some serious firepower.
It features a QD-OLED panel, delivering a crisp 4K resolution (3840 x 2160) paired with a blazing-fast 240Hz refresh rate. As expected from any OLED panel, the response time is nearly instantaneous at just 0.03 ms, ensuring incredibly sharp motion, while the contrast is quite high at 1,500,000:1, thanks to per-pixel lighting.
The panel boasts 10-bit colour depth and wide colour coverage, hitting percentages like 99% DCI-P3 and 97.6% Adobe RGB, alongside a Delta-E of less than 2 for excellent out-of-the-box colour accuracy. HDR performance is certified under DisplayHDR True Black 400, with the monitor capable of hitting a peak brightness of 1000 cd/m²s. Motion clarity should also be quite good, as the monitor is ClearMR 13,000 certified.
For gamers, the monitor features FreeSync Premium Pro support, providing tear-free and low-latency gameplay. Additional features include handy PiP and PbP modes, gaming features such as a black stabilizer and crosshair overlays, and integrated 5-watt speakers. Bringing some signature Philips flair, it also features three-sided AI Ambiglow, providing dynamic lighting effects that can enhance immersion or add ambient light behind the display.
Connectivity is varied, offering two HDMI 2.1 inputs alongside a high-bandwidth DisplayPort 2.1 connection, as well as a built-in USB 3.0 hub and headphone output. Ergonomically, the stand supports tilt, swivel, and 130mm of height adjustment, and the monitor is also VESA mount (100×100) compatible.
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KitGuru says: Are you thinking about making the jump to OLED in 2025?
The post Philips expands Evnia QD-OLED line-up with 27-inch 4K/240Hz gaming monitor first appeared on KitGuru.New reports suggest that AMD may reconsider a specific variant of its upcoming mid-range desktop GPU. The target of these rumours is the 8GB version of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, which may not hit the market after all.
The report from MLID states that AMD is reconsidering this variant due to the market's reaction to Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti 8GB. That card faced notable criticism for having insufficient VRAM, which led to performance issues in some of today's most demanding games, particularly at higher resolutions or with high-res textures. Seeing this, AMD is reportedly keen to avoid a similar misstep with its mid-range offering.
Rather than proceeding with the RX 9060 XT 8GB launch as initially planned, AMD could potentially cancel the variant entirely, release it in limited numbers, or even rename it.
With their recent RX 9070 XT desktop GPU launch proving quite successful, AMD is reportedly looking to maintain that momentum by ensuring their following mid-range product satisfies current VRAM demands.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: This potential change highlights just how critical VRAM capacity has become in PC gaming, especially in the mid-range segment. 8GB of VRAM is starting to become a limiting factor, even at 1080p. As such, GPU manufacturers will have to either increase VRAM on their lower-end gaming solutions or sell them as non-gaming GPUs.
The post AMD may scrap plans for 8GB RX 9060 XT following RTX 5060 Ti controversy first appeared on KitGuru.From Software surprised us all last year with the announcement of Elden Ring Nightreign. Now one month out from the game's official launch, the PC system requirements have been revealed.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is a co-op spin-off set in the land of Limveld. Players will tread new ground, taking on new bosses old in groups of up to three players. To keep things fresh, From Software plans to add new playable characters and boss fights to the game as DLC.
Here are the minimum PC requirements:
Here are the recommended PC system requirements:
These requirements are quite low, making the game accessible to a wide audience of PC gamers. To install the game, you will need 30GB of free storage space. Elden Ring Nightreign releases on the 30th of May for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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KitGuru Says: Are you looking forward to Elden Ring Nightreign?
The post Elden Ring Nightreign PC system requirements announced first appeared on KitGuru.Elden Ring quickly became From Software’s biggest success following its release in February 2022 – where the game managed to sell over 12 million copies within its first few weeks on the market. Now, three years on from launch, the game has surpassed 30 million copies sold.
Elden Ring ended 2024 with around 28 million sales, in part thanks to a surge in sales following the release of the game's one and only expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.
Dearest Tarnished, we are profoundly thankful for your lasting devotion.
May your path be forever guided by the Grace of Gold.#ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/3oMfkVpFWU— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) April 28, 2025
From Software and publisher Bandai Namco shared the above message on social media to celebrate the 30 million milestone.
Elden Ring will be making more headlines this year, as From Software has a new spin-off coming out, titled Elden Ring: Nightreign.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: At this rate, Elden Ring might outpace the entire Dark Souls trilogy.
The post Elden Ring has surpassed 30 million copies sold first appeared on KitGuru.Ocypus has recently introduced the Gamma C72 chassis, designed to offer builders an unobstructed view of their system's internals. The headline feature is its sought-after column-free corner, providing a clear display perfect for showcasing high-end hardware, custom liquid cooling loops, and/or RGB lighting.
Beyond aesthetics, the Gamma C72 is engineered with airflow in mind. The top and side panels feature a perforation pattern designed to maximise air intake and exhaust. This architecture supports various cooling setups, including radiators up to 360mm at the top, and a total of up to 10 fans throughout the chassis, helping to keep components cool under load.
The case provides ample space to handle the latest hardware. Builders will find room for graphics cards up to 425mm in length, ensuring compatibility with most flagship GPUs. There's also generous clearance for PSUs, supporting units up to 250mm long, which allows for high-wattage PSUs needed for more demanding builds. Moreover, the case supports ATX, mATX, and Mini ITX motherboards, as well as CPU coolers up to 170mm tall. Lastly, there is space for two 2.5-inch drives and two 3.5-inch drives.
Keeping the interior clean is made simpler thanks to the magnetic dust filters on both the top and bottom panels. These are easy to remove for cleaning, effectively preventing dust build-up while maintaining airflow. The case is already available in some Asian countries, where you can purchase one for less than £30.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: Even if it costs twice as much as it does in Asia, the Gamma C72 would still be a relatively cheap case for what it offers.
The post Ocypus launches panoramic Gamma C72 PC case first appeared on KitGuru.
In March, Endorfy introduced its latest power supply, the Supremo FM6 1000W, offering full compliance with the ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 standards. At launch, it had been certified as 80Plus Gold. Now a couple of months later, the PSU has gone through the rigorous Cybenetics certification process.
The Endorfy FM6 1000W PSU now has its Cybenetics certifications for both power efficiency and noise output. While traditionally, 80Plus efficiency ratings are based on four load points, the Cybenetics process tests for thousands of load point combinations for a more accurate overall rating.
The Endorfy Supremo FM6 1000W power supply has achieved the Cybenetics Platinum efficiency rating and scored an A in the noise output test. With both scores, customers can be confident that this power supply will offer efficient power management and delivery, combined with low noise output under load.
More specifically, the PSU achieves a 90.01% efficiency score at 115V and 92.18% at 230V. The fan has an average acoustic output if 21.91dBA at 115V and 20.50dBA at 230V.
As Cybenetics testing is all public, you can read the full certification report and see all of the test results, HERE.
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KitGuru Says: Do you typically check for a Cybenetics rating when choosing a new power supply?
The post Endorfy Supremo FM6 1000W PSU achieves Cybenetics Platinum rating first appeared on KitGuru.The Cooler Master Hyper series of air coolers will go down in history as amongst the best for their price points. Today, Cooler Master is introducing its latest addition to the line-up, the Hyper 612 APEX.
The new Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex CPU cooler is built using in-house developed superconductive heatpipes to carry heat away from the CPU, and two Cooler Master 120P fans to dissipate that heat quickly and efficiently. The high performance heat pipes allowed Cooler Master to shrink the dimensions of the cooler by 30 percent compared to its predecessor, which in turn makes the cooler easier to install, and improves compatibility with various cases and memory modules.
Below are the key features for the Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex CPU cooler:
Speaking on the launch, Cooler Master CEO, Jimmy Sha, said: “With our advanced heat pipe technology and compact design, this cooler delivers high-performance results while staying user-friendly for a wide range of builds.”
The Cooler Master Hyper 612 APEX CPU cooler will be available soon. UK pricing is still to be confirmed.
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KitGuru Says: What do you think of the new Hyper 612 APEX? Would you pick one of these up for a new build?
The post Cooler Master’s new Hyper 612 Apex CPU cooler is 30% smaller than predecessor first appeared on KitGuru.The Resident Evil series is by far Capcom’s biggest, with each entry selling millions upon millions of copies – especially in recent years. While fans eagerly await the announcement and subsequent release of Resident Evil 9, other titles in the franchise have continued to sell well, with multiple RE titles hitting record numbers.
Making the announcement via a blog post, the team at Capcom officially confirmed that 2023’s RE4 Remake has hit a new major milestone of over 10 million copies sold – officially making it one of Capcom’s best-selling games.
That said, other RE titles still have it beat, with 2019’s much-loved Resident Evil 2 Remake having now surpassed 15 million copies sold (matching that of RE7: Biohazard).
This marks both RE7 and RE2 Remake as the joint 3rd-best selling games of all time from Capcom, only being beaten by Monster Hunter Rise (16.7 million) and World (21.3 million) – and perhaps MH: Wilds.
Regardless, Resident Evil continues to prove itself as one of Capcom’s most important franchises. It will be interesting to see just how quickly RE9 sells when it inevitably releases.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Resident Evil’s sales numbers? Are they lower/higher than expected? Will Monster Hunter ever overtake RE as Capcom’s best-selling franchise? Let us know down below.
The post Multiple Resident Evil titles hit new sales milestone first appeared on KitGuru.With the Nintendo Switch 2 a little over a month away from release, many 3rd party developers have announced or expressed interest in bringing their previous titles to the console maker’s upcoming system. Interestingly, one game which may not come to Switch 2 is Diablo IV, with Blizzard claiming the platform to be “challenging” for live-service titles.
In a recent interview with Gamertag Radio, the Senior Vice President / General Manager for Diablo at Blizzard ‘Rod Fergusson’ was asked about the upcoming Switch 2 and their plans for the system.
With a rather interesting response, Fergusson had this to say: “I think there’s opportunity there for sure. I mean, we have Diablo III and Diablo II Resurrected is already on the Switch, and with back compat like it’ll be playable on Switch 2.”
He continued, “It's nice the Switch 2 has the performance that can run a game like Diablo 4, so yeah, it's something to look at for sure. I think the challenge is less around the hardware and just about how we… you know, live services on Switch have been a little bit challenging in the past.”
Offering some positivity on the matter, Fergusson concluded by stating “I'm hopeful that as they launch this June and as we look to the future, that becomes easier and easier, so it makes more sense to put a live service on that platform.”
As mentioned by Fergusson, both Diablo II and III are available on the OG Switch and so the idea that a live-service title can’t work on Nintendo’s sequel system is slightly odd. That said, it would be highly surprising if Diablo IV didn’t eventually make its way onto Switch 2. We will have to wait and see.
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KitGuru says: What do you think of these comments? Do you agree? How long before Blizzard brings Diablo IV to Switch 2? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Diablo IV might not come to Switch 2 due to live-service “challenge” first appeared on KitGuru.While Sony typically waits until the last Wednesday of the month to announce its upcoming PlayStation Plus Essential line-up, the console maker seems to have accidentally leaked one of May’s headlining titles – with the Until Dawn Remake seemingly set to be given away next month.
As discovered by Reddit user ‘Budget-Neat4750’ a select number of PlayStation users have had their PS Plus tab updated with a listing for the Until Dawn Remake as one of the available monthly games.
Of course, right now, the title is not actually available to claim, with April’s PS Plus line-up still set to be available until the 6th of May – those games being RoboCop Rogue City; Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker's Memory and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Given this, it is highly likely that last year’s Until Dawn remake will be one of May’s headlining PlayStation Plus titles. This also lines up with the recent release of the Until Dawn film a couple days ago; making for a great synergistic release.
All that said, the Until Dawn Remake was a bit of a controversial release, with some fans arguing the original game to be superior. Since its launch last year however, the Remake has seen a number of updates, which at the very least helped with performance issues.
It will be interesting to see what the wider audience thinks of the game should it wind up being one of next month’s PS Plus titles.
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KitGuru says: What do you think of the Until Dawn Remake? Was it as disappointing as some claimed? Have you checked out the film adaptation yet, and if so, did you enjoy it? Let us know down below.
The post Sony leaks one of May’s PlayStation Plus Essential titles first appeared on KitGuru.Following a ton of leaks and rumours, the much-anticipated Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was finally shadow-dropped to a great deal of interest, seeing a peak concurrent player count on Steam of over 100,000 within hours of its launch. In alignment with the announcement that the remaster has surpassed 4 million total players, Oblivion managed to hit a new peak concurrent player count on Steam on Sunday.
Over the weekend, as some of the early launch day bugs were squashed and more people got the chance to hop into the game, TES IV: Oblivion Remastered managed to surpass its day-one concurrent player count on Steam.
While CCUs are a rather arbitrary metric (particularly for single player games) it is still worthy of note, especially in instances such as this, as Oblivion Remastered has now seen a new peak CCU of over 200,000 players – 216,784 to be specific.
Though not uncommon for a game to rise in popularity during the weekend period, it is interesting to consider whether Oblivion’s surprise ‘shadow drop’ launch has contributed to its continued rise in concurrent players as more people were made aware of its release.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the game continues to perform over time, and whether it has hit its peak, or if this is just the start.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Were you playing Oblivion over the weekend? How quickly following its announcement did you purchase the game? Will its peak concurrent players continue to rise over time? Let us know down below.
The post Oblivion Remastered surpasses 200,000 concurrent players on Steam first appeared on KitGuru.
The Intel LGA 1700 platform was launched three years ago in 2021, and it has since seen a total of 3 generations of CPUs: Alder Lake (12th Gen), Raptor Lake (13th Gen), and Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen). We have seen at least three generations of motherboards, first with the 600-series, which had Z690 as the top SKU, and then two generations of 700-series based on the top Z790 chipset, which included a soft refresh for the 14th Gen lineup. Intel has now introduced its next-generation 800-series chipsets, and with the Core Ultra 200S CPU series, the company is also […]
Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/asrock-z890-taichi-aqua-motherboard-review/
