Disclaimer

Read this one

Disclaimers are usually written for lawyers to cite later. This one is written for readers, because people who read WinAddons act on it: they decide whether to approve an update across a fleet of machines, whether to buy a console now or wait, whether an outage is really over, whether a vulnerability has to be patched tonight. Where the responsibility of a news site ends, and where yours begins, deserves to be spelled out in a place everyone can find.

Independent, and not Microsoft

WinAddons is an independent publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Microsoft, and nothing on this site should be read as an official statement of Microsoft’s plans, policies, pricing or support positions. Microsoft, Windows, Xbox, Azure, Microsoft 365, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. We use those names to identify the products we report on, as any publication covering a company must, and no use of them implies a relationship. Where Microsoft’s documentation and our reporting disagree, tell us, because one of them needs correcting, but until then treat the documentation as the authoritative source for your own systems.

Not technical support, and not IT advice

We report on updates, builds, patches, configuration changes, workarounds and known issues. Reporting on them is not a recommendation to apply them to your machines. Every environment is different: drivers, firmware, group policies, third-party software and hardware age all change how an update behaves, and no article can account for yours.

• Do not install, uninstall, roll back or block an update because of something you read here without testing it first on a machine you can afford to lose.
• A workaround we describe is one that worked in the conditions we describe. Registry edits, scripts and policy changes can break systems, and you are responsible for backing up before you try them.
• Coverage of a known issue is not a diagnosis of your problem. Microsoft’s own support channels, release health information and documentation exist for that, and we are not a substitute for them.
• Administrators of managed environments should follow their organisation’s change process and Microsoft’s guidance, not a news story.

Security coverage is not vendor guidance

We report on vulnerabilities, advisories and attacks in the Microsoft ecosystem. Our stories describe what Microsoft and researchers have published, which products and versions are affected, whether a flaw is known to be exploited, and what mitigations are available. That reporting is a summary, not the advisory. The advisory published by the Microsoft Security Response Center and the CVE record are the documents to act on, and they may be revised after our story is written. We do not publish exploit details or proof-of-concept code before a fix is available, as our editorial standards explain, so nothing here is a tool for attacking systems and nothing here is complete enough to be one.

Pre-release features, leaks and rumours

A large share of the news about Microsoft concerns things that have not shipped: Insider builds, roadmap entries, features behind flags, store listings that appear early, and leaks. We label each of those for what it is, and the label matters. A feature in an Insider build may change or never reach general release. A roadmap date is a target that Microsoft moves without notice. A leak is unverified information from a source who may be wrong or may be mistaken about context. Nothing we report about unreleased software, hardware or games is a promise that it will arrive, when it will arrive or what it will cost. Plan around what has shipped.

Prices, availability and specifications

Prices, availability, subscription tiers, catalogue contents and specifications are reported as Microsoft, its partners and its stores publish them at the time of writing. They vary by market and currency, they change between announcement and release, and a subscription catalogue can lose a title the week after we mention it. A price we quote applies to the market we name, on the day we name, and to nothing else. Check the store listing before you spend money. Cloud pricing in particular depends on location, tier, commitment and usage, and only the pricing documentation and your own agreement can tell you what you will pay.

Business coverage is not financial advice

Our News section covers Microsoft as a company: earnings, filings, acquisitions, workforce changes and regulatory matters. A story about quarterly results is not a recommendation about the shares. A story about a competitor or a supplier is not a view on any security. Nothing here is investment, tax or trading advice, and reading it creates no adviser relationship of any kind. Where money is on the line, talk to someone licensed to advise you who knows your circumstances.

How long a story stays true

Our fact-checking policy governs what we check before publishing and our corrections policy governs what we fix afterwards, but neither lets us promise that every page is complete, current and free of error. On this beat, freshness matters more than on most: builds are superseded, KB articles are revised after release, known issues are added days later, advisories are updated, and Microsoft renames products with some regularity. Every article carries its publication date and, where updated, the time of the update. Look at the date before you rely on anything, and read older pieces as a record of what was known when they were written.

Links, advertisements and the sum of it

Where we link to or quote external material, responsibility for it rests with its authors, and a link is a citation rather than an endorsement. Advertisements are the words of the advertisers, delivered through a third-party network under the conditions on our advertise page, and any purchase you make from one is between you and them. Sponsored content carries a label that keeps it distinct from reporting. Read this site to know what is happening, not to be told what to do. For your systems, rely on Microsoft’s documentation and your own change control. For money, rely on a licensed adviser. For mistakes in our reporting, rely on us: write to support@winaddons.com and the record will be put right.