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Insecure Code vs. the Entire RGB Industry | WinRing 0 Driver, ft. Wendell of Level1 Techsjimmy_thangApril 28, 2025
We provide the rocky history of WinRing 0 and share how important it’s been to the PC industry
The Highlights
The WinRing 0 driver has propped-up the fan control and RGB industry for over a decade
Security updates have broken WinRing 0’s code
This has resulted in a mad dash for hardware vendors to re-develop RGB and fan control software
Table of Contents
AutoTOC
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Intro
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.
Credits
Host, Writing
Steve Burke
Writing, Research
Patrick Lathan
Video Editing
Vitalii Makhnovets Tim Phetdara
Writing, Web Editing
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.
History Part 1: WinRing0's Creation
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.
Technical Explanation
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."
“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.”
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.”
Digital Signatures
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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."
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:
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.
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.
The Future of WinRing0
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."
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.”
Conclusion
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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.
The fourth round of developer betas has arrived, with Apple trialling another set of builds of iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, macOS 15.5, tvOS 18.5, watchOS 11.5, and visionOS 2.5.
Examples of Apple Intelligence at work.
The fourth round of testing for iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, macOS 15.5, tvOS 18.5, watchOS 11.5, and visionOS 2.5 arrived after the third, which landed on April 21. The second appeared on April 14, while the first round for this generation was handed out on March 17.
The fourth iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 developer betas share build number 22F5068a, taking over from the previous build, 22F5053j. The fourth macOS Sequoia 15.5 build uses number 24F5068b, replacing from 24F5053j.
The iPhone 17 is getting closer to mass production, as it takes an important step ahead of its eventual release this fall.
iPhone prototypes go through many stages before mass production starts.
The annual cycle for the main iPhone releases in September means that mass production of the iPhone has to occur during the summer. To get to that point of manufacturing, the year's iPhone has to pass through a number of stages to ensure production goes smoothly.
According to a Monday report from DigiTimes, as spotted byMacRumors, at least of one the models has completed one of the early stages of pre-production testing. The report doesn't specify which models of the 2025 roster have done so, but that it was Engineering Validation Testing, or EVT.
You've got to be inspired by the incredibly cool concept to do this, but you can now spend a lot of money to wedge a Mac mini into a case with a keyboard and monitor.
Well, it works. If you plug it in. Image credit: Scott Yu-Jan
Back in 2022, talented YouTuber Scott Yu-Jan took a then-current M1 Mac mini and nearly made it portable. He made a clever combination of a Mac mini with an iPad for the screen, but you still had to find a keyboard, and you still had to plug the whole thing in.
Nonethless, Yu-Jan reportedly used that Frankenstein's monster of a Mac mini, because he's also complained about it. "I hated carrying around the keyboard for my other portable builds," he said, "so this time I wanna incorporate the Apple Magic Keyboard into the design."
Amazon has issued fresh price drops on multiple Apple devices this week, including the 2025 iPad 11-inch and AirPods 4, with prices falling to a low as $99.99.
Pick up the 2025 iPad 11-inch for just $299 at Amazon, reflecting a 14% discount off MSRP, which is the lowest price we've seen on the latest release powered by Apple's A16 chip.
Apple's Beats by Dre is bringing out two more colors of its Beats Pill portable speaker, with Blush Pink and Navy Blue colorways joining the roster.
Beats Pill in Blush Pink and Navy Blue - Image Credit: Apple/Beats
Beats frequently offers new color variants of its products, building out the selection for consumers to choose from. On Monday, the Apple subsidiary is doing just that for its Beats Pill.
In time for the Summer and people spending more time outside, the Beats Pill is being made available in Navy Blue and Blush Pink.
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.
KitGuru Says: Have you been playing through Oblivion Remastered this past week? Are there any changes you would like to see in the game?
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.
KitGuru says: Are you thinking about making the jump to OLED in 2025?
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.
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.
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:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 or Intel Core i5-10600
RAM: 12GB
GPU: GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 580
Here are the recommended PC system requirements:
OS: Windows 11 64-bit
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel Core i5-11500
RAM: 16GB
GPU: GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56
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.
KitGuru Says: Are you looking forward to Elden Ring Nightreign?
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.#ELDENRINGpic.twitter.com/3oMfkVpFWU
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.
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 $3400 ASUS GeForce RTX 5090 Astral Liquid OC is the company's flagship RTX 5090 model. It uses a 360 mm liquid cooling solution to handle the 600 W heat output of the RTX 5090 GPU. Testing in our review confirms: it's the fastest RTX 5090, with lowest temps and best thermals, but also with the highest price.
The Orico MiniDock Vertical Mac Mini Dock Stand offers more ports and storage for the new Mac mini, without frills. But, sometimes, that's all you need.
Orico MiniDock Vertical Mac Mini Dock Stand
The Mac Mini has always been compact, but the M4 generation's reworking of the form made it even smaller. The newest model takes up very little desk space, but it seems Orico thinks it can do better.
The Orico MiniDock Vertical Mac Mini Dock Stand is an attempt to minimize the desk footprint of the new Mac mini by thinking vertically. In effect, it's a vertical stand for the Mac mini that also incorporates a bunch of extra ports into its base.
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.
KitGuru Says: Do you typically check for a Cybenetics rating when choosing a new power supply?
On the latest episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, Dan Turk joins to talk through the latest smart home news for the week and review the Aqara G5 Pro camera
HomeKit Insider Podcast
Dan Turk, a PR representative from Max Borges, joins us for his third time on the podcast. He provides unique insight into the inner-workings of tech agencies bringing new products to market.
This past week, saw several new smart home devices come to market. Starting with Aqara who had three new options available for the US market.
Analysts at JP Morgan are looking more favorably at Q2 results, predicting that Apple may actually see increased revenue in Q3 thanks to short-term effects of the ongoing U.S.-China tariff battle.
Apple Park - Image Credit: Apple
Apple will be reporting its Q2 2025 earnings on May 1, to a background of a tariff war between the U.S. and China. Despite the noise, JP Morgan is still looking towards good results for the concluded quarter.
In the near-term view, a note to investors seen by AppleInsider proposes Apple will have a good quarter, thanks to a pull-forward of demand for iPhones, Macs, and other products. The early-year threat of tariffs will have modestly increased demand, causing early consumer upgrades as well as an increased influx of inventory by retailers.
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:
Superconductive composite heat pipes: Six advanced heat pipes handle heavy thermal loads, ideal for overclocking.
Compact design: 30% smaller than previous models, providing easier installation and compatibility with large memory modules.
Quick installation: Removable magnetic top cover and easy-to-remove fan streamline the setup process.
Durable nickel-plated copper base: Resists corrosion and enhances long-term reliability.
Powerful Mobius 120P fan: Designed for high-pressure airflow while keeping noise levels to a minimum.
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.”
Apple TV+ has won four Bafta awards in the UK body's technical categories, with "Slow Horses" thriller repeating its 2024 success.
Gary Oldman in "Slow Horses" — image credit: Apple
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) presents the UK's highest awards, with its TV categories resembling the Emmys. As ever, Bafta has separated its 2025 television awards into different events, and as ever, Apple TV+ has won multiple awards.
For the latest Baftas, presented in London on Sunday, April 27, 2025, the winning Apple TV+ shows were "Slow Horses", "Bad Sisters", and "The Velveteen Rabbit." They won:
Apple has highlighted that developers in India earned $5.31 billion from the App Store in 2024, but makes the real headline be just how little developers have had to pay Apple itself.
Indian developers earned $5.31 billion in 2024 — image credit: Apple
Apple has occasionally promoted how much money developers make from the App Store — in 2018 it said they'd earned $100 billion since the store opened, and then in 2019 the total was $120 billion. It's now singled out a study that reports Indian developers earned $5.31 billion from Apple during 2024 — but it's really saying that as part of its defence against accusations of anti-competitive practices.
"The App Store has been an economic miracle for developers in India and all around the world, and we're thrilled to support their work," Tim Cook said in a statement. "This study underlines the power of India's incredibly vibrant app economy."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A record-breaking discount on the 2025 MacBook Air M4 has been issued, driving the standard model down to an all-time best $849.
M4 MacBook Air drops to lowest price ever.
Amazon and Best Buy are engaged in a MacBook Air price war, with customers benefitting from a 15% price cut on the latest M4 13-inch model with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage.
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 […]
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched as the highest-rated game of 2025 so far and despite this week's release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, the game has managed to accrue an impressive number of sales.
Within days of the game's release, Sandfall Interactive confirmed it had surpassed 500K sales for the game. Now that the weekend surge has kicked in, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has now surpassed 1 million sales.
In a tweet, Sandfall Interactive thanks fans for their support of the game, adding that they reached the 1 million players milestone sooner than expected. Impressively, this 1 million sales figure does not include players who have installed the game via Game Pass.
For those out of the loop, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a new turn-based RPG where players look to take down The Paintress, a goddess-like figure that controls death in this fantasy universe. The game has gone on to receive wide acclaim from critics and gamers themselves are leaving overwhelmingly positive reviews for the game on Steam.
Meta's AR and VR division has been burning money for a long time, costing the company billions as it chases its dream of birthing the ‘metaverse'. Now, company bosses are looking to bring the costs down and make its Reality Labs team more efficient.
According to sources speaking with Bloomberg, Meta is undergoing a round of job cuts at its Reality Labs division, with “more than 100″employees set to be impacted.
A Meta spokesperson later gave comment to The Verge, confirming that “some teams” were undergoing layoffs. The goal with this is to make Mixed Reality development more efficient, which sounds like an admission that Meta Reality Labs has lost too much money and things need to start turning around.
Despite seeing little return, Meta has continued to invest in its Reality Labs division, putting out new Quest VR hardware and acquiring additional companies to bolster its mixed reality offerings.
KitGuru Says: The writing has been on the wall for something like this, particularly after Meta's admission last year that it was losing $1 billion each month on Reality Labs projects.
The Marathon alpha playtest went live for thousands of players earlier this week and PC gamers were quick to zone in on the game's use of aim assist for both controller and mouse inputs. Now, Bungie has responded to the criticism.
Bungie will be making adjustments in an upcoming patch for the Marathon alpha test. This update will include disabling ‘aim magnetism' on mouse. It is unclear if aim assist will return for mouse users, but given how heavy-handed the ‘assist' was, it will need to be heavily nerfed in order to make a return.
While many shooters will offer some form of aim assist to controller users, aim assist is traditionally not offered to keyboard and mouse users due to the ease of aiming with a mouse compared to a controller's analogue sticks. While aim assist on controllers is generally accepted, spoofing your input to access aim assist on a mouse is often viewed as cheating and many games now actively ban players for using such tools.
In Marathon, aim assist was available for both controller users and mouse users. It was switched on by default in the Marathon alpha and it would essentially cause your aim to snap onto enemies. It also seemed to help with recoil control, taking another element of skill out of the shootout.
KitGuru Says: After seeing some of the gameplay footage, I had my doubts that mouse aim-assist would remain in the game past this alpha playtest. It is being removed for now. It will be interesting to see if Bungie makes any tweaks and attempts to add it back in for future playtests.
While the surprise was spoiled weeks ahead of time, Bethesda's reveal of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered still managed to deliver. The reveal quickly hyped fans up for a return to The Imperial City.
The Oblivion remaster quickly began racking up sales when it went live on Tuesday and things have only snowballed in the days following. Bethesda has now announced that the game has racked up over four million players in the days since release.
We are so grateful to the over 4 million of you that have already ventured into Cyrodiil with Oblivion Remastered. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Fz1lo7XZtM
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) April 25, 2025
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has been rumoured for years, as the game originally showed up on a Microsoft document filed in the FTC vs Microsoft court case. The leaked document also listed Fallout 3 Remastered and Dishonored 3, neither of which have been officially announced yet.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has been a top-selling game on Steam, as well as Xbox and PS5 consoles since its release. However, the game also had a player boost from Game Pass, with the game becoming available to all Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers on day-one.
We are a few years removed from the launch of Resident Evil Village, which means it is about time we started learning more about the sequel. Capcom has not yet made any official announcements regarding Resident Evil 9 but a recent teaser shows that the company is gearing up for a reveal.
In a recent milestone video celebrating 10 million players for Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom hid a little sign numbered ‘IX'. This was quickly picked up on by fans on social media.
Resident Evil 9 has been in the works since Resident Evil Village shipped. The next game is set to conclude the story that began with Resident Evil 7, which introduced all new characters to the franchise.
According to long-time Resident Evil leaker, Dusk Golem, Resident Evil 9 will be announced later this year, with a release date scheduled for 2026. Typically, Capcom likes to release major titles in the first half of the year, as we've seen in recent years with the likes of Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon's Dogma 2 being Q1 releases.
Thermaltake is expanding its power supply lineup with the launch of the new Toughpower GT Series, designed to handle the demands of today's high-performance PC builds. These fully modular units are now available in 1000W and 1200W models, and Thermaltake is offering them in both black and white finishes.
The Toughpower GT series fully complies with the latest ATX 3.1 standard and is designed to support PCIe Gen 5.1 graphics cards right out of the box. These PSUs feature native 12V-2×6 (12+4 pin) PCIe Gen 5 connectors, capable of delivering up to 600W of power to next-gen GPUs via a single cable, providing that essential future-proof connectivity. These units are engineered to withstand power excursions up to 200%, helping ensure system stability even when powerful components demand sudden bursts of energy.
Efficiency is rated at 80 Plus Gold, promising high efficiency under typical loads to help reduce power consumption and heat generation. Cooling is managed by a quiet 120mm hydraulic bearing fan featuring Smart Zero Fan technology, which ensures silent operation by only spinning up when necessary. The fully modular, low-profile flat cables promote better airflow and make wire management significantly easier, contributing to a cleaner build aesthetic.
Backed by a comprehensive suite of industrial-grade protection features (OCP, OVP, UVP, OPP, SCP, and OTP) to safeguard your components and supported by a 5-year warranty, the Toughpower GT 1000W and 1200W models are built to provide reliable, high-efficiency power.
KitGuru says: With modular cables, compliancy with the latest standards and an 80Plus Gold efficiency rating, the Toughpower GT PSUs look to offer everything you'll need on paper.
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