An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. economy experienced almost zero job growth in 2025, according to revised federal data. On a more encouraging note: hiring has picked up in 2026. Preliminary data had indicated that the U.S. economy added 584,000 jobs last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised that number after it received additional state data, and found that the labor market had added 181,000 jobs in all of 2025. This is far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024. One bright spot was last month, when hiring increased by 130,000 roles. This was significantly more than the 55,000 additions that had been expected by economists. "Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs," BLS said in a statement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you use Microsoft Publisher via Microsoft 365, you’ll now see an alert titled “Publisher is retiring.” The alert warns that “beginning October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported, and you won’t be able to access Publisher or open Publisher files.” There’s a ‘Got it’ button to dismiss the alert.

Windows Latest spotted Microsoft Publisher end-of-life alerts when we tried opening existing .pub files, and it aligns with the original plans shared by the company.

Microsoft previously confirmed the retirement of Publisher (.pub) for October 2026, but turns out it’s more than just a simple end-of-life date. In October 2026, your Microsoft Publisher will become useless unless you use a perpetual license, not a Microsoft 365 subscription.

What does Microsoft Publisher’s October 2026 end-of-support mean for you?

It means you won’t be able to open Microsoft Publisher (.pub) files, and you should export or save your work before the October 2026 deadline. You’ll get locked out of the app, and it’s not exactly simple to migrate all .pub files to a new format without access to the Publisher app.

How to convert .pub files to another format in Microsoft Publisher?

1. In Microsoft Publisher, open the file you want to convert.
   
2. Now, open File and click ‘Save as.’
   
3. This time, select ‘PDF‘ as your file type, and save it.

I tested it on my PC, and it converts all Microsoft Publisher (.pub) files, but the catch is, how can you automate the process?

PowerShell script to convert Microsoft Publisher (.pub) files

You can’t manually open each .pub file and save it as a PDF in the next few months (until October 2026). However, you can automate the process using a PowerShell script, which can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website.

You need to edit the PowerShell script before you use it. More importantly, before you run the .pub to .pdf script, you should understand how it works. Windows Latest found that Microsoft’s official PowerShell script converts Microsoft Publisher (.pub) files into PDFs using the Publisher desktop app through its COM/Interop interface.

In the PowerShell script, you’re giving it a -Filter (like *.pub or C:\Docs\file.pub) and optionally -Recurse, and then it searches for Publisher files using Get-ChildItem.

Once it finds files, it loads the Publisher assemblies and tries to start Publisher.Application, and it begins to convert by replacing .pub with .pdf.

I asked Microsoft for more details, and it told me that customers are advised to convert existing files to another format before October 2026.

But can you edit .pub files in Publisher after October 2026?

No, you won’t be able to edit .pub files because it’ll no longer be possible to even access Microsoft Publisher. However, you can convert .pub files to .pdf, and then convert .pdf to MS Word, and edit it.

You can open MS Word, then File > Open, and open the converted .pdf file.

This will allow you to edit your converted PDF, but the catch is that MS Word PDF conversion is far from perfect, and it could corrupt text, which means you’ll probably need to spend hours or days editing all PDF-converted .pub files.

Is there any way to keep using Microsoft Publisher after October 2026?

Microsoft Publisher 2021 in Office LTSC 2021 will still work after October 13, 2026. Unlike Microsoft 365, which is a subscription, Office LTSC 2021 is a perpetual (one-time purchase) license.

Microsoft is not killing off Publisher out of nowhere. It made the plans official in 2025 and is giving more than a year to its customers for migration. After October 2026, Microsoft 365 plans won’t include the old tool as they always did. You have close to nine months to make the migration, plan your escape, and salvage your files from the app.

Microsoft has also recommended searching for Publisher alternatives. While Microsoft doesn’t have a single app that offers everything from Publisher, you can try using Microsoft Designer, Word, or PowerPoint. I made a table with a list of the best alternatives for you to try.

Microsoft Publisher (.pub) alternatives recommended by Microsoft

To create	Best Alternative	Category
Ads & Flyers	Word, PowerPoint, Designer	Marketing Materials
Brochures	Word, PowerPoint	Marketing Materials
Banners, Posters & Signs	PowerPoint, Designer	Large Format Prints
Newsletters	Word	Publications
Programs & Folded Projects	Word	Publications
Business Cards	Word, PowerPoint	Business Documents
Certificates	Word, PowerPoint	Business Documents
Invoices, Forms & Applications	Word	Business Documents
Letterheads	Word	Business Documents
Envelopes	Word	Stationery
Labels	Word	Stationery
Calendars	Word, PowerPoint	Planning & Events
Greeting & Complement Cards	Word, PowerPoint, and Designer	Personal & Events

I am going to miss Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher was introduced in 1991 and quickly became one of the most popular tools for creating marketing materials, especially at a time when alternatives were very expensive.

Fast forward to now, Microsoft has other tools offering similar functionality, such as Designer, which lets you make templates for social media. As a result, Microsoft no longer wants to develop Publisher.

What about you? How do you plan to replace Publisher? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Microsoft Publisher: You won’t be able to access Publisher or open files (.pub) in October 2026 appeared first on Windows Latest

Microsoft has fixed a serious security vulnerability affecting Markdown files in Notepad. In the company's Tuesday patch notes, Microsoft says a bad actor could carry out a remote code execution attack by tricking users "into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad," as reported earlier by The Register.

Clicking the link would "launch unverified protocols," allowing attackers to remotely load and execute malicious files on a victim's computer, according to the patch notes. Microsoft says there isn't any evidence of attackers exploiting the Notepad vulnerability (CVE-2026-20841) in the wild, but it issued a fix for …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I used the viral AI helper to order groceries, sort emails, and negotiate deals. Then it decided to scam me.

Microsoft's .NET 11 Preview 1 introduces runtime and SDK enhancements while facing community scrutiny over C# syntax complexity and a strategic shift toward AI-driven development.

As the agentic era reshapes security operations, leaders face a strategic inflection point: legacy security information and event management (SIEM) solutions and fragmented toolchains can no longer keep pace with the scale, speed, and complexity of modern cyberthreats. Organizations can choose to spend the next year tuning and integrating their SIEM stack—or simplify the architecture and let a unified platform do the heavy lifting. If they choose a platform, it should make it inexpensive to ingest and retain more telemetry, automatically shape that data into analysis‑ready form, and enrich it with graph‑driven intelligence so both analysts and AI can quickly understand what matters and why. The strategic SIEM buyer’s guide outlines what decision‑makers should look for as they build a future‑ready security operations center (SOC). Read on for a preview of key concepts covered in the guide.

Build a unified, future-proof foundation

As organizations step into the agentic AI era, the priority shifts to establishing a security foundation that can absorb rapid change without adding operational drag. That requires an architecture built for flexibility—one that brings security data, analytics, and response capabilities together rather than scattering them across aging infrastructure. A unified, cloud‑native platform gives security teams the structural advantage of consistent visibility, elastic scale, and a single source of truth for both human analysts and AI systems. By consolidating core functions into one environment, leaders can modernize the SOC in a deliberate, sustainable way while positioning their teams to capitalize on emerging AI‑powered security capabilities.

Accelerate detection and response with AI

As cyberthreats evolve faster than traditional workflows can manage, the advantage shifts to SOCs that can elevate detection and response with adaptive automation. Modern platforms augment analysts with real‑time correlation, automated investigation, and adaptive orchestration that reduces manual steps and shortens exposure windows. By standardizing access to high‑quality security data and enabling agents to act on that context, organizations improve precision, reduce noise, and transition from reactive triage to continuous, intelligence‑driven response. This shift not only accelerates outcomes but frees teams to focus on higher‑value threat hunting and strategic risk reduction.

Maximize return on investment and accelerate time to value

Driving measurable value is now a leadership imperative, and modern SIEM platforms must deliver results without protracted deployments or heavy reliance on specialized expertise. AI-ready solutions reduce onboarding friction through prebuilt connectors, embedded analytics, and turnkey content that produce meaningful detection coverage within hours—not months.

“Microsoft Sentinel’s ease of use means we can go ahead and deploy our solutions much faster. It means we can get insights into how things are operating more quickly.”

—Director of IT in the healthcare industry

By consolidating core workflows into a single environment, organizations avoid the hidden costs of operating multiple tools and shorten the path from implementation to impact. As adaptive AI optimizes configurations, prioritizes coverage gaps, and streamlines operations, security leaders gain a clearer return on investment while reallocating resources toward strategic risk reduction instead of maintenance and integration work. AI‑ready solutions reduce onboarding friction through pre‑built connectors, embedded analytics, and turnkey content that produce meaningful detection coverage within hours—not months.

Turning guidance into action with Microsoft

The guide also outlines where Microsoft Sentinel delivers meaningful advantages for modern SOC leaders—from its cloud‑native scale and unified data foundation to integrated SIEM, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR), extended detection and response (XDR), and advanced analytics in a single AI‑ready platform. It includes practical tips for evaluating vendors, highlighting the importance of unification, cloud‑native elasticity, and avoiding fragmented add‑ons that drive hidden costs. Together, the three essentials—building a unified foundation, accelerating detection and response with AI, and maximizing return on investment through rapid time to value—establish a clear roadmap for modernizing security operations.

Read The strategic SIEM buyer’s guide for the full analysis, vendor considerations, and detailed guidance on selecting an AI‑ready platform for the agentic era.

Learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Sentinel or discover more about Microsoft Unified SecOps.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The post The strategic SIEM buyer’s guide: Choosing an AI-ready platform for the agentic era appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.