Mashable

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for July 20's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A long, narrow part of an arrow or tool.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no letters that appear twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle...

SHAFT.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Here's the answer hints for July 20 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for July 20

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: A seat the table

Hard to eat without these.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

The clue refers to table settings.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today:

Today's spangram is PlaceSetting.

NYT Strands word list for July 20

• Fork

• Plate

• Saucer

• Spoon

• PlaceSetting

• Glass

• Knife

• Napkin

Looking for other daily online games? Find one you might like – or hints for another game you're already playing – on Mashable's Games page.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for July 20's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Not hard for someone

• Green: Putting your all into something

• Blue: Charging up

• Purple: Interpretations of pop

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Effortless

• Green: Exertion

• Blue: Energy for an Electronic Device

• Purple: What "Pop" Might Mean

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #405 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Effortless: FLUID, GRACEFUL, NATURAL, SMOOTH

• Exertion: EFFORT, LABOR, SWEAT, WORK

• Energy for an Electronic Device: BATTERY, CHARGE, JUICE, POWER

• What "Pop" Might Mean: BURST, DAD, MAINSTREAM, SODA

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday's Connections.

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Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage

Hospitals, airlines, television networks, banks – you name it, it was likely disrupted, delayed, or canceled due to a massive global tech meltdown that took down many companies' systems on Friday.

The worldwide outages began in the very early morning hours in the U.S. and it became very clear right away that the issue was only affecting Windows-based computers and networks. But as it turns out, Microsoft wasn't to blame.

Who was behind the outage? A cybersecurity company out of Austin, Texas called CrowdStrike.

How CrowdStrike took down the Windows computers around the world

CrowdStrike is a well-known company in the cybersecurity space. The company was co-founded by George Kurtz, who was the chief technology officer at the antivirus company McAfee. CrowdStrike is publicly traded and has more than 8,000 employees. 

However, CrowdStrike isn't a household name – at least not to the average consumer. That's because the company provides cyberattack protection to businesses. CrowdStrike has emerged as a leading name in cybersecurity, serving many of the world's largest companies. This widespread client base is why the current issue impacts numerous businesses and their customers.

CrowdStrike's mission is to ensure that a company's critical data remains secure from malicious actors and to prevent hackers from disrupting business computer systems through cyberattacks. Yet, as it turns out, a mistake made by CrowdStrike itself ended up taking down the computer systems of many of its global customers. 

According to CrowdStrike, an error in a recently pushed out update for one of its products servicing Microsoft Windows computers ended up resulting in a global tech meltdown. The issue appears related to its cloud-based Falcon platform, specifically the Falcon Sensor product, which CrowdStrike says "blocks attacks on your systems while capturing and recording activity as it happens to detect threats fast."

As of publication, we don't yet know exactly how CrowdStrike's error was deployed on live client systems. However, based on the information that is available, cybersecurity experts believe the CrowdStrike update issue is related to a kernel driver-related error. A kernel is essentially the core software component of your computer's operating system. 

Usually, if there is an error in an application, a user will find that just that application won't work. However, due to the nature of cybersecurity software requiring deep access to your computer to run efficiently, an error in this type of software could result in your entire computer going down. And that appears to be exactly what happened.

Computer systems around the world are now experiencing the dreaded Windows "blue screen of death."

How long will the CrowdStrike outage last?

Once the error was discovered, CrowdStrike actually patched the issue fairly quickly. However, the update was already pushed out and any computer that automatically installed it was quickly affected. 

CrowdStrike also provided a fix for those Windows systems that already installed the update. But CrowdStrike can't push out an automatic fix to these computers either. Each affected system must be dealt with individually.

Because each computer needs this individual fix, CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz is warning that it might be awhile before the outage is completely mitigated. 

Mashable will continue to monitor the CrowdStrike / Microsoft outage and provide updates as we have them.

Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.

It was a truly awful day for CrowdStrike.

There's almost zero chance you missed it, but, in case you did, an issue with a software update from the cybersecurity firm caused a meltdown of the world's IT infrastructure, putting countless Microsoft machines into the Blue Screen of Death. Nearly every industry was affected. Thousands of flights were canceled, hospitals turned away patients, and banks were affected.

Toward the end of the day Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz put out a statement. Though hardly his first for the day, he did delve into a few new territories.

"I want to sincerely apologize directly to all of you for today’s outage," Kurtz wrote in a statement. "All of CrowdStrike understands the gravity and impact of the situation. We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus diligently on restoring customer systems as our highest priority."

The apology seems pointed, considering that Kurtz and CrowdStrike were criticized early on Friday for the lack of an apology over the massive issue.

Later, Kurtz noted there could be danger ahead.

He wrote:

"We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives. Our blog and technical support will continue to be the official channels for the latest updates.

Nothing is more important to me than the trust and confidence that our customers and partners have put into CrowdStrike. As we resolve this incident, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this from happening again."

While the issue on Friday was not a cyberattack, it's interesting to note that the CrowdStrike CEO warned of potential bad actors in the future.

Amandla Stenberg pulls off the ultimate switcheroo in The Acolyte.

Throughout The Acolyte's first season, Stenberg's dual performance as twins Mae and Osha Aniseya walked the line between the Dark Side and the Light. Osha begins the season as a supporter of the Jedi, even though her intense emotions and grief over losing her family led her to be kicked out of the Order. Her sister Mae, on the other hand, starts off as a devotee to a Sith master, hellbent on gaining justice on the Jedi.

SEE ALSO: 'The Acolyte' sticks the landing with a banger of a finale — and I need more, stat

But by the end of The Acolyte's showstopping finale, the twins have swapped places. Osha has turned to the Dark Side, killing Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) and becoming the Stranger's (Manny Jacinto) acolyte. In support of her sister's new path, Mae agrees to have her memories wiped, only to wind up in service to the Jedi.

It's a game-changing finale, one that never loses sight of the relationships that drives it. So much of that is owed to Stenberg, who grounds the series in the connection between Osha and Mae. In an interview with Mashable, Stenberg discussed the catharsis the finale offers both twins, direction from showrunner Leslye Headland, and the already beloved ship between Osha and Qimir/the Stranger.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mashable: The finale of The Acolyte has so many moment that made me stop and go, "Wow, I can't believe we're actually seeing this." So I'd love to know, when you were reading the script, what was the moment that stuck out to you as the showstopper, something you couldn't wait to dive into?

Amandla Stenberg: I think it had to be Osha killing Sol. Leslye said to me, from the very beginning of the show, when we were in pre-production, "It's very important for a woman in a narrative arc to kill her father." [laughs] I was like, "What does that mean?"

At first I didn't understand it. But then, as we continued speaking on it, and I went on Osha's emotional journey with her, it made so much sense to me, because I think it's the metaphorical father that she's facing. It's the things that she has been told that she is, the things she's been told she's not capable of, the suppression of self that she has partook in for most of her life, the emotional repression. All of that is coming to a head in a moment in which it's able to release itself, and it takes the form of this tragedy. Knowing that's where Osha was arriving was always such a rich thing for me to get into as I constructed her arc over the season. How does a person arrive to that point? It just became such a fun question for me to delve into.

SEE ALSO: 'The Acolyte's Darth Plagueis tease raises a huge, silly question

Sol's death is also the first moment we see Osha wield a lightsaber and the Force. What did it mean to you to finally take up these iconic elements of Star Wars in this very emotionally charged context?

Oh my God, it was so much fun. I freaked out. In the finale, I get to use a lightsaber and pilot spaceships. That was a dream come true for me; that was all I wanted to do.

It really felt like a culmination of all the work that I've done to sort of graduate — kind of like how Osha is graduating into using a saber.

It was very gratifying, because I spent so many of those months training with knives or doing kung fu stunt choreography. So it really felt like a culmination of all the work that I've done to sort of graduate — kind of like how Osha is graduating into using a saber.

Amandla Stenberg in "The Acolyte." Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

I love how in that moment, Mae's reaction to Osha killing Sol is more gentle and understanding than what we've seen from other Dark Side turns in Star Wars. What does her presence and her reaction mean to Osha as she starts down this new path?

I'm so happy to hear that. That was something that felt really important to me when approaching Mae's role in those moments. Whenever you're playing someone, you have to think of them as a person. And I always felt that Mae was driven by a profound sense of loyalty and emotionality and identification with her family and where she comes from. So I kind of had that in my back pocket throughout the season, even when it wasn't revealed why she does the things that she does.

I think that Mae has this deep sense of gratification and release [when Osha kills Sol], both in gaining justice through Osha and also by allowing her sister to be the empowered one in their dynamic. She is used to, since childhood, controlling the power dynamic in their relationship, and she sort of relinquishes that control in that moment. There's a lot of beauty in his death.

SEE ALSO: 9 burning questions we have for 'The Acolyte' Season 2

Then there's that wonderful parting moment between Osha and Mae at the tree on Brendok. When it came to shooting, I'm curious to know which side of the scene you chose to perform first, and why.

I think I chose Mae first, because Mae's perspective at that moment just felt very clear to me. I wanted there to be the opportunity for there to be a softness in her. Both sisters, they, in this really satisfying way, get to have these parts of themselves that variables out of their control were preventing them from having until that moment. And I just wanted to think about, "Okay, when Mae has experienced this retribution and this release, what parts of her do we get to see?" It felt very important to me that there was a softness and a protectiveness that she felt over her sister, because she's always been motivated by her love for her family. That just felt very simple to me.

Both sisters...get to have these parts of themselves that variables out of their control were preventing them from having until that moment.

And then Osha is going through it. [laughs] Homegirl is in the trenches. I knew that Mae was going to be the supportive, guiding force in that moment, so I let that performance guide what Osha did.

Osha is going through such quick successions of change, while also being embodied. For me, it really felt like her embodiment was going to look like her allowing herself to feel things, which is just what the Dark Side is. It's unchecked emotionality. Her journey is her having this stifled sense of self and being so afraid of her emotions, to then getting to the place where she's allowed to feel and release.

Amandla Stenberg and Manny Jacinto in "The Acolyte." Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Speaking of the Dark Side and emotions, I know a lot of viewers have latched onto the Oshamir ship. I know I was really excited to see that hand-hold play out. What are your thoughts on how things shake out for them here, and what the future might hold?

It's been really cool to see how into Oshamir people are, because we didn't necessarily know how people were going to respond to it.

Originally, the romantic arc was a much more significant part of the finale. We had this whole debate around, "Should they kiss? What should happen?" And we just wanted to prioritize Osha's choice of going to the Dark Side feeling more autonomous. That was something that Leslye always spoke to. She said, "I don't want it to feel like Osha was manipulated into making this choice. I don't want it to feel like it was something that was out of her control. I want it to feel like this was a choice that he made for herself, after she had all the information finally available to her."

We just wanted to prioritize Osha's choice of going to the Dark Side feeling more autonomous.

So it became more important for us to prioritize the ideological alignment that's happening between Osha and Qimir, and that Osha is finally acknowledged and seen in a deep way, allowed to be who she truly is by this other person. To me, that felt so much more romantically significant than any sort of physical intimacy could be.

There's a little violin melody in that final moment, and I know that you play the violin. Were you approached to play that?

No, I wish I could say that was me; that would be so cool!

I got the chance to play a piece by John Williams on my violin, which was just a piece of video that we made as we were promoting the show. But I don't think anyone was really aware I played violin up until that point. Then our music supervisor came up to me at the premiere and was like, "What the hell! I would have gotten you into the studio months ago!" So if we have the opportunity to go back, maybe that would be something we could explore.

All episodes of The Acolyte Season 1 are now streaming on Disney+.

Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.

Updating your system is imperative to keeping it safe from cyber attacks and other threats. But sometimes it goes wrong — like it did late this week.

CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that protects companies and users from cyberattacks, made a mistake, leading to a global meltdown. Users with Windows computers saw the "blue screen of death", flights were grounded, banks went dark, and websites shut down.

"This was an update to the software that got pushed out to its company's clientele around the world, but particularly those that were using Windows servers, and within a certain time period," Derrick Cogburn, a professor at American University, the Executive Director of the AU Institute on Disability and Public Policy, and the Faculty Co-Director of the Internet Governance Lab, told Mashable. "So it wasn't everybody that uses CrowdStrike, but a pretty sizable set of the community."

Cogburn said it affected a connected network of companies that were just trying to do the right thing and protect themselves and their users. But "when a provider like CrowdStrike has a problem with an update, it can ripple throughout the industry globally."

"As we have raised awareness about cybersecurity, more companies and organizations have worked to protect themselves," Cogburn said. "CrowdStrike is one of the best companies out there at protecting companies and organizations from a variety of cyberattacks."

This was, of course, not a cyberattack — it appears to have been a mistake in an update — but these are the same kinds of issues that could arise from a cyberattack. Since CrowdStrike has positioned itself as the leading third-party company that provides safeguards against cyberthreats, many companies have adopted its services. Cogburn argues that CrowdStrike does a good job at combating those attacks — but it made one grave mistake that caused widespread mayhem. Too many companies are integrated with the same tool. When it fails, an entire global network of companies are affected.

How did one software update silence so many systems?

"The incident is a great example of the cascading failures that can occur given our relatively homogenous systems that comprise the backbone of IT infrastructure," Gregory Falco, cybersecurity expert and assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University, said over email.

Rory Mir, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Associate Director of Community Organizing, told Mashable that these digital systems can't be perfect all the time. We rely on them to safeguard our sites, but they "are going to fail at some point," whether from deliberate attack or a simple mistake.

"The problem is that we're really stuck in a digital monoculture, where decades of anti-competitive practices have created it so that just one system is responsible for so much of what we rely on from everything from airlines to hospitals to schools," Mir said. "One mistake that creates a big failure, it happens, it's an inevitability. But for it to have this sort of impact is a policy failure."

Who does this affect most?

Every time a disaster occurs, we're reminded that those most at risk are also those who are affected the most deeply by these kinds of systemic failures.

"Something we regularly see with any sort of system failure, things like malware attacks and data breaches, even if the nature of the failure affects everyone across the board, frankly people's resiliency and ability to cope with these things do have a disparate impact," Mir said. "People that have enough money to have backup systems and maybe can get another hotel so they can wait for another flight or something are more able to make it through this sort of disaster."

Ultimately, access to technology is expensive. And knowing how technology works is, as Mir says, "privileged knowledge."

"When you have something like this that's so widespread, you sometimes don't think about all of the unintended consequences," Cogburn said. You think about airlines and TV stations, but you might not immediately think about how SNAP EBT is affected (it was shut down for hours) or food services and educational services. While some people are able to pivot easily and drive to the office instead of working from home, others don't have that luxury.

"For people that have more limited options, if they're relying on connected devices [and] connected services, and those are shut off they may not have the kind of flexibility to pivot into a more face-to-face environment or face-to-face space," Cogburn said. "So I think that's one of the ways that underserved populations are being affected."

Smaller businesses might be hit harder than larger companies who can "weather the storm a little bit easier," Cogburn explained, because they don't have the same kind of resources to draw from.

Inevitably, it might lead to some people not trusting systems like CrowdStrike at all which, Cogburn argues, is "really dangerous." Think about how often you don't want to update your phone, but are then vulnerable to bugs and attacks — then scale that up by 100.

"You leave yourself incredibly vulnerable to the reason that the patch was developed in the first place," Cogburn said.

How can we make sure this doesn't happen again?

These kinds of failures are a bit of an inevitability, but their effects on society doesn't have to be. Mir argues that the widespread nature of this issue is due to a lack of antitrust enforcement by the likes of the DOJ and state attorneys general. 

"So far, antitrust laws have really been focused on lowering prices for consumers, which is great and all, but it's also created this monoculture where it might just be one big company that offers a cheap deal, but then it becomes this huge single point of failure. And we can get this Y2K like scenario," Mir said.

Mir is hopeful that this massive and unprecedented failure will lead to legislative change.

"This is largely a failure from the antitrust enforcers themselves — the DOJ, the FTC, the Attorneys General — but I think hopefully this disaster will be a wake up call for all of them and potentially for legislators to make sure antitrust laws are working in the consumers and for reasons beyond lowering prices," Mir said.

Ultimately, this was an unprecedented failure. But, in some ways, we were lucky — it wasn't a cyberattack. We might not be so lucky next time, so we need to address it now — before it's too late.

Instagram is cluttering up our feeds again as the app expands its Notes feature directly to grid posts and Reels. Why? Because apparently commenting on posts isn't enough.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft outage updates: Crowdstrike issue still wreaking havoc despite fix

Now users can add tiny floating Notes bubbles, which disappear in three days unless deleted, on top of videos and photos. The somewhat hidden Notes appear above comment sections and have a customizable audience. Users can choose who can see their Notes on posts — like only their Close Friends or followers that follow them back — which means the feature is well suited for those inside jokes or personal opinions you may not want to appear on public comment sections.

But this also means that others can post Notes on your posts (and even tag their friends or hold conversations) without the poster's knowledge, the Verge reported.

Credit: Screenshot / Instagram

Instagram Notes were first introduced in 2022 as a way to encourage users to interact with their friends and followers beyond posts and stories, and to match the blueprint of Myspace and AIM away messages. Traditional Notes appear at the top of your chat log and disappear in 24 hours.

The feature was slow to gain hype among users, however, with the latest update prompting concern among some. Several accounts on Twitter have reported the surfacing of both consensual and nonconsensual pornographic Reels on their timelines, allegedly because posts with added Notes are getting an early launch algorithmic boost. Others have reported more content from strangers appearing on their feeds, most likely because they have unseen connections with other followers or commenters.

Just last month, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that the app was still recommending sexual content to minors via Reels, despite content control limits.

Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted

For users at large, such highly incentivized private engagement has others concerned about the feature's potential for online harassment or cyber bulling.

Earlier this year, Instagram expanded Notes with new music features and later added the ability to reply to Notes with follower prompts — both bids to get more users engaging with the feature.

How to use new Notes on Reels Credit: Instagram Credit: Instagram

1. Click on the airplane icon on the bottom left corner of the post.

2. Tap "Add Note" in the bottom left corner.

3. Type your Note. Manage audience preferences by selecting the drop down arrow next to "Share with."

4. Hit share.

Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.

You'll have to bear with FedEX and UPS. It's probably hard to coordinate deliveries when every computer simultaneously crashes because of a CrowdStrike bug.

That may not be a literal description of what happened to UPS and FedEx on Friday, but you get the point. Both of the major mail carriers issued statements (FedEx via its website and UPS via CBS) in the hours after a faulty CrowdStrike software update temporarily rendered most Windows PCs on the planet inoperable. According to both companies, packages might be a little delayed.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft outage impacting flights globally. See the latest.

"The FedEx network is operating across the globe, but potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a commitment of July 19, 2024," FedEx said. UPS, in a similar statement, said "there may be some service delays" but noted overall that its delivery fleet was functional.

A slightly delayed delivery is inconvenient, but far from the worst consequence of Friday's computer kerfuffle. The dreaded "blue screen of death" came for airlines, hospitals, TV stations, and even Times Square. There is a fix for the problem that unfortunately requires manual human intervention (meaning it'll take a bit before everything is back in order), but Friday's outages may be a wake-up call for those who didn't realize just how interconnected the world's technological systems are.

Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.

On Thursday, a Microsoft outage linked to a failed CrowdStrike update affected industry giants across travel and finance, and underscored the risks of our dependence on digital technology. As people flooded into work this morning — and CrowdStrike scrambled to get systems up and running — reactions to the outage on X captured a full spectrum of human emotion.

Here are the best memes, moments, and memories from that harrowing time. 💔

Congratulations to all who celebrated! Tweet may have been deleted Condolences to those who still had to work... Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Bless those who lived in ignorant bliss Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Pouring one out for the folks who are even more miserable than usual at an airport Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted And to all the engineers and IT soldiers out there, we salute you 🫡 Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted

Editor's note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.

On Friday morning, nearly every Microsoft Windows machine in the world seemed to suffer from outages related to a faulty CrowdStrike software update that rolled out on Thursday. Now, the head of Microsoft has issued a statement — but don't expect too much from it.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took to X (formerly Twitter) to let everyone know that Microsoft knows what's going on and is working with affected companies and services to fix it.

Tweet may have been deleted Microsoft blames CrowdStrike for its woes

Nadella's statement came hours after CrowdStrike provided one to the press to confirm that the outages were not related to cyberattacks nor any other malicious activity. The outages provided anyone who woke up on Friday morning with constant news headlines about various sectors dealing with delays or shutdowns.

Airports, banks, 911 emergency dispatchers, hospitals, and TV networks around the globe had to resolve technical issues first thing on Friday morning.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft outage impacting flights globally. See the latest.

The good news is the issue is resolvable. CrowdStrike released guidance on how to fix the problem shortly after it was discovered, though it involves manually booting the machine into safe mode and deleting a file. As such, any company or service that relies on lots of Windows machines will have to spend some time fixing them all manually.

Definitely more interesting than your average Friday, if nothing else.

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Windows PCs around the entire planet crashed this morning because of a CrowdStrike update glitch. You may have heard about it.

But what you may not have heard about is just how many services have been affected by the biggest global IT outage in years. It's not quite a Y2K level of apocalyptic meltdown, but everything from airline travel to broadcasting, 911 calls, and even surgeries, have been troubled by the CrowdStrike outage.

Here is just a partial list of things that have been brought down by the CrowdStrike glitch.

Airlines Tweet may have been deleted

Perhaps one of the most striking sectors to be disrupted by the CrowdStrike outage was the airline industry. Flights were grounded globally on Friday morning, with major U.S. airlines like Delta and Allegiant halting operations alongside airlines from countries like France, Spain, Australia, and India.

911 calls

Many public and private sector services rely on Windows machines for basic infrastructure and tasks — and the CrowdStrike outage has revealed that 911 emergency dispatchers are no exception.

Emergency call services went down in places like Alaska and Ohio, with local authorities releasing lists of alternative phone numbers citizens can use instead. Weirdly, in Alaska, 911 was still working in Anchorage, the state's biggest city, even while the system was down in the rest of the state.

Hospitals

Medical systems around the world also suffered as CrowdStrike's update glitch brought Windows PCs down on Friday morning. Bloomberg reported that British hospitals were having trouble pulling up important patient data, while New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center had to actually delay the start of any surgical procedures that use anesthesia.

One French hospital had employees manually direct patients to appointments because the check-in process was busted. Interestingly, Pittsburgh's UPMC healthcare provider claimed very few of its Windows devices had problems and there were no disruptions.

Stock markets

While one might expect a massive Microsoft-linked IT outage to have an effect on Microsoft's stock price, the outage actually temporarily prevented stocks from being traded at all in some places. For instance, the London stock exchange had to delay the start of trading on Friday morning.

Because companies runs different systems, many remained unaffected, including the the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, which got up and running on Friday without any issues.

TV broadcasts

Obviously, TV broadcasting requires lots of computing technology, and with the global popularity of Windows, the CrowdStrike outage was sure to affect at least some networks.

One of the most prominent was the U.K.'s Sky News, which went off the air for a bit on Friday due to the Windows outage. Multiple TV channels in France were also hit, with one being unable to display weather information for viewers due to the technical difficulties. Here in the U.S., NBC News and MSNBC had temporary problems due to CrowdStrike, as have several smaller local networks around the country, per Adweek.

Times Square

Lastly (and perhaps of least importance), Times Square in New York City went dark on Friday morning because, you guessed it, the big screens displaying advertisements in the area run on Windows.

Tweet may have been deleted

Much of the world woke up Friday discovering much of the internet wasn't working due to an outage caused by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. And, unfortunately, it doesn't appear like the problems will be totally fixed for quite some time.

Now, if it's just your personal Windows computer that's affected, there appears to be a workaround. The CrowdStrike issue caused many Windows computers to display the Blue Screen of Death but announced a fix around 2:30 a.m. ET. Mashable has the full coverage and steps but effectively you have to delete a file and reboot.

SEE ALSO: CrowdStrike announces Microsoft outage workaround. How to deal with the Blue Screen of Death.

That workaround aside, global issues still persist. Think of how complicated it may be to individually fix the countless machines and services that use Crowdstrike. Everything from airlines, to banks, to emergency services, to healthcare providers, to grocery stores were down or disrupted. Unfortunately, the problems might not go away soon.

Tweet may have been deleted

Wrote Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder:

"While the issue has been 'identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,' per CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, actually fixing it is not always trivial. This is not a simple update which can easily be deployed to all systems over-the-air, as many of the affected systems crash right after booting up, meaning they're in an endless boot loop. This, in turn, means that the fix must be applied manually...to each affected system, and in large companies, this can take many hours."

Kurtz later admitted in an interview with TODAY that a complete recovery from the issue would take a while.

"It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover," he said.

So, uhh, buckle up for a Friday with lots of services down.

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Windows computers are seeing the Blue Screen of Death, flights are being grounded, and websites are down, all because of an update gone wrong from CrowdStrike.

"CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor," CrowdStrike wrote in an alert at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday. "Symptoms include experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor. Our Engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket."

The CrowdStrike crash didn't just affect personal computers, though — it affected everyone who uses the cybersecurity company or Windows, a wildly popular operating system that supports loads of devices and companies.

"We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Among the companies affected are banks, so if yours isn't acting right, don't freak out. Here's a list of banks and financial apps that might be affected by the outage, according to DownDetector.

• TD Bank

• Charles Schwab

• VISA

• Bank of America

• Chase

• Capital One

• Arvest Bank

• Wells Fargo

• Square

• US Bank

• SNAP EBT

• E-Trade

This is likely not a complete list of the banks suffering the effects of the Microsoft outage, but does show the problem has had a widespread impact on financial institutions.

This is a developing story...

Featured Video For You What is CrowdStrike and why users are getting Windows blue screens

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Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max with Ads monthly subscription $4.99 at Max
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Filmmaker Luke Gilford is joined by Mason Alexander Park, Charlie Plummer and Eve Lindley to discuss the significance of a film highlighting queerness in American rodeo culture.