Late last year, Microsoft planned to begin the automatic installation of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on certain Windows PCs. However, in March 2026, it disabled this process due to a technical issue and informed customers that it would let them know when it would resume. It seems like that was only a temporary respite, as the Redmond tech giant has started the forced installation of the app on eligible devices.

In an update on its Message Center for IT admins, Microsoft has informed customers that it is resuming the automatic installation of the Microsoft 365 Copilot on commercial Windows PCs that have Microsoft 365 apps already installed. What this means is that if you have Microsoft Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more installed on your Windows PC through a Microsoft 365 license, you'll likely see the Microsoft 365 Copilot app pop up in your Installed Apps section soon, too.

Fortunately, IT admins do have some control over this rollout. If they choose to opt out, devices in their tenant won't automatically get the dreaded Copilot app. However, phased rollout via feature flags has already begun and is expected to be completed by the end of June:

• Feature Flag1: started Jun 4, expected to finish June 10
• Feature Flag2: expected to start on June 11, expected to finish on June 17
• MSGraph schema rollout: expected to start on June 18, expected to finish on June 24
• Feature Flag3: expected to start on June 25, expected to complete by July 1st

Microsoft hasn't detailed what the process is to toggle the feature flags in its Message Center, and its public support page does not seem to mention it yet either.

The Redmond tech giant has encouraged IT admins to let users know beforehand so they aren't caught by surprise to see a new app seemingly installed without manual interaction or their consent. Users who already have the app installed or are based in the European Economic Area (EEA) are unaffected by this move, which Microsoft has understandably flagged as a "major change".

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Posted Saturday 6 June 2026 at 8:06 am AEST (my time).

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Five years ago, Windows 11 introduced redesigned context menus, offering users a simpler, more modern design. However, customers quickly discovered that the new menus leave a lot to be desired. Many are unhappy with performance (they are really slow), while others dislike the double-layed design, where many options are hidden behind the "Show more options" button. In addition, over the years, menus became cluttered and overloaded.

While Microsoft has already fixed plenty of pain points across Windows 11, context menus remain mostly unchanged. Fortunately, Microsoft is finally listening. Marcus Ash, Design and Research Lead for Windows at Microsoft, responded to a tweet on X, confirming that the company is working on fixing Windows 11's context menus.

Reworked context menus are supposed to be faster, simpler by default, and "configurable to what you use most." What the latter means is unknown, just like whether Microsoft plans to keep the classic menu alongside the modern one, but according to Marcus, the wait should finally be over soon, as he promised to "share our approach soon."

Improved context menus will most likely appear first in Windows 11 preview builds in the Experimental Channel. While we wait for Microsoft to release them, you can try fixing context menus on your PC with a simple tool called Windows 11 Context Menu Manager. It lets you disable entries you do not need, not only cleaning up context menus, but also making them significantly faster.

Microsoft has already improved Windows 11's Start menu and taskbar, so hopefully it will address user criticism of the context menu as well. Stay tuned for new Windows 11 preview builds, which usually arrive every Friday.

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Posted Saturday 6 June 2026 at 8:05 am AEST (my time).

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The May 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey results are now available on the official Steam website, showing Windows 11's continuous growth among the gaming audience. As of early June 2026, nearly 70% of all participants reported having a Windows 11-powered PC, while Windows 10's market share is steadily declining.

According to Valve, in May 2026, Windows 11 increased its market share to 69.76% (+2.02 points), while Windows 10 dropped to 23.99% (-1.64 points). 64-bit Windows 7 is still showing up in Valve's reports, and apparently, about 0.07% of all survey participants still use the 17-year-old operating system. Valve no longer updates its client for Windows 7, but it still can access the platform, so the Windows 7 holdouts can stay away from newer Windows versions.

Overall, 93.85% of all users run Windows (+0.38 points), while Linux is second with 3.99% (-0.53 points). macOS is third with at 2.16% (+0.15 points). The most popular Linux flavor is Arch Linux (0.35%), while macOS 26.4.1 is currently the dominant macOS release.

On the hardware side, the most popular picks include an Intel processor (53.94% against AMD's 46.06%) with six cores (28.02%, -0.6 points), 16 GB of memory (41.14%, -0.28 points), and an NVIDIA graphics card (72.42%, with AMD having 19.13% and Intel 8.05%). The most popular graphics card on Steam is the desktop NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (3.85%, -0.14 points), while the laptop RTX 4060 is second with 3.77%, and the RTX 3050 is third with 3.10%.

The average amount of VRAM is 8GB (25.89%), and the dominant display resolution is the classic 1920x1080 pixels (51.89%, -0.32 points).

As usual, you can find more details from the latest survey on the official website. The results for April 2026 are available here.

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Posted Saturday 6 June 2026 at 8:05 am AEST (my time).

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Windows 11's messy context menus will be a thing of the past, according to Marcus Ash, VP of Design and Research for Windows & Devices. Microsoft is "working on making context menus faster [and] simpler by default," according to the executive.

The context menus of Windows 11 have been controversial since the launch of the operating system (and even before that if you consider preview builds). Many, including myself, consider them cluttered, inconsistent, and irritating to navigate.

Despite a busy week in which Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Surface RTX Spark, Ash found some time to discuss Windows 11 context menus on X.

We have seen Microsoft resort to questionable tactics in the past to get more customers to use Edge, such as "bribing" people to use Edge, testing new behavior so that Edge loads automatically on startup every time, and pressuring OEMs to exclusively bundle Edge in Windows PCs. However, the company often receives pushback not only from customers but also from the Browser Choice Alliance (BCA). Now, the collective has penned an open letter to the Redmond tech firm to highlight its dissatisfaction with its practices.

For those unaware, BCA is a coalition that touts several browser vendors as its members, including Google Chrome, Midori, Opera, Vivaldi, BrowserWorks, and Wavebox. Its latest open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasizes that "enough is enough" and that user choice on Windows should be respected. It claimed that the company is abusing its dominant position in the PC space to push customers to its first-party browser, even if they don't want to use it.

To do this, it resorts to shady tactics, some of which we highlighted at the start of this piece. It says that Microsoft is making it very difficult for users to set their preferred browser across all touchpoints. This is problematic as PCs are becoming even more prevalent in the AI era, so user choice is being restricted across even more devices, further frustrating users (and competing browser vendors).

As such, BCA has urged Microsoft to take the following actions to level the playing field:

• Allow browser suppliers to compete for preinstallation and default deals with Windows PC manufacturers
• End dark patterns targeted at users seeking to download and effectively use other browsers (including as system-level default)
• Bring back the ability for users to make switching default browsers simple and transparent with a “single click” change for all relevant file types and apps (including PDFs)
• Open all web links in the users’ selected system-level browser of choice
• Eliminate manipulative Microsoft-exclusive banners pushing Edge in Windows, including when users are searching for other browsers
• Stop using operating system updates to push users back to Edge
• Remove the restrictive configurations of existing S mode devices that block the usage of third-party browsers.

It believes that all browsers should compete on merit, as this will drive innovation and healthy competition. Despite its strong wording and publication of the letter openly, it's unclear if Microsoft will pay any heed to the BCA and if this will result in any tangible downstream benefits. We'll likely find out in due time.

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Posted Friday 5 June 2026 at 7:58 am AEST (my time).

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As many of you may know, Microsoft has been trying to get customers to ditch Classic Outlook in favor of New Outlook for quite some time now. To that end, it has added numerous capabilities to the latter, including PST features, and it is working on several more, such as a unified inbox. However, customer response has been a bit lukewarm so far, with many considering the New Outlook to be "hot garbage". Now, Microsoft has highlighted 15 features that users can leverage in New Outlook in yet another attempt to get customers to migrate.

Although not all of the 15 capabilities are exclusive to New Outlook, in fact, most of them are available in Classic Outlook as well. But Microsoft hopes that this combination of familiar and fresh features will be able to attract existing users as well as new ones.

For ease of readability, we have summarized the 15 features below:

1. Pin an email: This makes it easier to track important emails
2. Snooze an email: You can temporarily snooze an email thread for a specific time frame until it becomes relevant again. This can be very useful in scenarios where you don't feel like actively following a thread or simply want to follow up on a later date
3. Add multiple categories at the same time: You can assign multiple categories to an email through a single, simplified interface
4. Sweep: As the name implies, you can define automated move processes on your inbox to declutter it, rather than cleaning it up manually
5. Schedule send: Does exactly what it says on the tin, and can be useful when accommodating recipients in different timezones
6. Simplified folder sharing: The sharing process has been simplified so permissions are automatically applied on parent folders
7. Follow a meeting: This is an RSVP option that lets people know that you won't be able to join the meeting but would still like to access a recap
8. Save calendar views: You can save different views for the calendar based on different workflows
9. Improved meeting tracking: Organizers have more controls in viewing meeting responses, such as the ability to sort and download them. Typically useful when there is a large audience
10. Meeting recap: The Outlook Calendar surfaces a meeting recap with recordings, transcripts, and shared files
11. Filtered views: Allows you to declutter your Calendar so that it's easier to scan and schedule
12. Change a recurring event: Users can modify future events of a series of meetings while preserving the configuration of previous ones
13. Rename your email account: This labeling makes it easier to identify multiple accounts in Outlook
14. Modern themes: Exactly what the name says, plus Dark Mode
15. Keyboard shortcuts: This facilitates flexible user behavior as customers can choose between Outlook for Windows shortcuts, Outlook for the web, or turn them off completely

There you have it. It's a decent list, but it remains to be seen if it will move the needle in a meaningful way for users who are attached to Classic Outlook. Again, a lot of the aforementioned features are already available in Outlook Classic, but for some, native functionality is not present, and people typically resort to workarounds. Microsoft will be hoping that it's primarily those capabilities that get people to finally switch.

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Posted Friday 5 June 2026 at 7:58 am AEST (my time).

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Fastfetch, the popular command-line system information tool that developers created as a fast alternative to the classic Neofetch utility, has updated its codebase to version 2.64, bringing experimental scripting power, streamlined compilation options, a smarter logo renderer, and Codec module support.

As noted earlier, Fastfetch can now detect hardware-accelerated video codecs across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android through this new Codec module. On Linux and BSD, the utility uses VA-API by default, with a fallback to VDPAU on Nvidia hardware if compiled with libva and libvdpau. Windows users get D3D12VA on Windows 11 or D3D11VA with Media Foundation Transforms on older systems, while macOS relies on VideoToolbox and Android utilizes AMediaCodec. You can manually toggle Vulkan Video via the config file, and the program will report both encoders and decoders unless configured otherwise.

Logo support for Quasar, Origami, Origami_small, NixOS2, and BerserkArch also landed in this release. BerserkArch, if you have never heard of it, is a specialized Arch Linux derivative that targets security researchers and power users. This distro comes with an offensive security tool manager, simply called berserk, which allows users to install complex hacking toolkits with single terminal commands.

Moving on, Fastfetch now has experimental scripting options for custom formats using Lua or QuickJS. The Lua integration supports versions 5.3 through 5.5, sharing a single interpreter instance across all modules so you can store variables globally. T Alternatively, if you prefer JavaScript, you can use QuickJS-ng version 0.15.0 or newer to evaluate your custom formats with the qjs: prefix.

Other changes that version 2.64 brings include native CMake compilation flags to disable specific modules to shrink the final binary size. Users can delete unwanted ASCII logo files directly from the source directory before building to save additional space.

The format engine now boasts ANSI-escape awareness, meaning you can center text with the new vertical bar specifier without breaking colored outputs. Haiku users receive preliminary support for boot manager, window manager theme, screen brightness, and other basic properties. Finally, the Linux edition now extracts desktop wallpaper and theme details from the modern COSMIC desktop environment.

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Posted Friday 5 June 2026 at 7:57 am AEST (my time).

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Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its brand-new high-end laptop powered by NVIDIA's brand-new RTX Spark processor. As usual, Microsoft gives each new device a unique wallpaper, and the Surface Laptop Ultra is no exception. While the device is not publicly available yet, somebody has already extracted its wallpaper, giving everyone a chance to get a piece of the upcoming laptop in its full-resolution glory.

The Surface Laptop Ultra has a very dark, abstract wallpaper that resembles the stock wallpapers in Windows Server, albeit with much less color. Having this dark, grim wallpaper highlights the laptop's mini-LED display and its ability to cut off parts of the screen's backlight to achieve OLED-like black levels. However, if you also like light wallpapers, we made a white version by simply inverting its colors. You can download both wallpapers below (click the image, right-click it, and select "Save as"):

The Surface Laptop Ultra is expected to launch later this year. Microsoft is not revealing full details yet, including the price. However, Microsoft confirmed up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and RTX 5070-level of GPU performance. The heart of the laptop has up to 20 CPU cores and 6,144 GPU cores. Additionally, Microsoft and NVIDIA boast high CPU efficiency for all-day battery life. As for the display, it is a 15-inch mini-LED display with a pixel density of 262 ppi and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits.

Of course, not everyone needs this amount of power, and certainly not everyone can afford it. For those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is also preparing the next-generation Surface Pro powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor. Weeks ahead of the announcement, details about this computer were leaked by a retailer.

Do you like the Surface Laptop Ultra's stock wallpaper? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image provided by @nextgenos2026 on X

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Posted Friday 5 June 2026 at 7:56 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is starting to roll out its much-promised, dribbled fixes.

Included in the upcoming June updates — and already included in the preview updates released on May 26, 2026 — KB5089573 includes the Secure Boot fixes and the beginning of many changes about which you’ve complained.

Nonetheless, it’s prudent to put a pause on Windows updates until we understand them and their side effects fully. Accordingly, I’ve raised the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

One update mentioned in KB5089573 that you’re probably looking for is:

[General Performance] This update accelerates app launch and core shell experiences such as Start menu, Search, and Action Center.

This promised change makes Windows briefly push the CPU to higher frequencies when it spots latency-sensitive actions. This means app launches that rely on accessing the shell should respond faster, including the Start menu and Search. When will you see it? I’m honestly not sure. You may experience it only by seeing the CPU usage spike to 100 percent right after boot. I’ve seen that behavior on my older Windows 10 computers when they get a bit long in the tooth and are unable to keep up.

Consumers

I’m more concerned about the vulnerabilities in our browsers these days. Google Chrome is rolling out updates but is keeping the details of the bugs under wraps until enough of us receive the fixes. There are 151 vulnerabilities; 22 are rated critical, and several have already attracted substantial bug bounties. The majority of the bugs could allow sandbox escapes, remote code execution, or data corruption — all of which can be triggered if a malicious user lures you to a malicious webpage.

As I’ve stated in prior newsletters, it’s important to review the tools you have to protect your operating system and browsers from online attackers. These days, you can install the major browsers on nearly any operating system you are running as your day-to-day platform. Look less at antivirus software and more at filtering platforms that may be activated in your ISP’s gateway or through your choice of a DNS provider. Even if you have a Gateway provided by the ISP, you can add a router between yourself and that device; then set up your router to have DNS settings that protect you better. OpenDNS is just one example. Firefox just recently updated to 151.0.2, fixing several issues and bugs.

Also take the time to review your extensions and ensure you have installed only what you intend. Just the other day, I had an issue that, though not a malicious application, still interfered with my day-to-day needs and caused me to stop and investigate why something wasn’t working. A colleague uses Chrome to open PDFs from a business website. Starting last week, the PDFs would no longer open and the site wouldn’t function as we required.

I applied my first rule of troubleshooting: Use another browser to see whether the bug was there, too. In that browser (Edge), the site opened up as it should have. I realized that an Adobe Acrobat PDF extension had been inserted into Chrome, but not into Edge. After removing the extension from Chrome, voilà! The site worked as expected. To examine the installed extensions, get into Chrome’s settings and click on the icon that looks like a tiny puzzle piece. Then document which extensions you have installed and note why they are installed.

Speaking of browser bugs, I use another line-of-business website that every now and then starts to misbehave. It uses a browser to launch a sign-in and then lets you have access to your on-premises software. At least once a year, the cookies need to be removed from the browser in order for the user to log in properly. Any time a vendor tells you to clear all cookies as a step of troubleshooting, I recommend that you not clear all cookies — just find the specific ones for that troublesome website and remove only that set of cookies. If that doesn’t work, remove all cookies. This is annoying and disruptive, because removing all cookies resets the browser for all your website visits. Instructions for Firefox are here.

Businesses

June means those Secure Boot certificates finally age out on our machines if those certificates have not been updated. I’m not as concerned about this for consumers because Secure Boot can always be disabled. Many businesses must deal with compliance issues, which require the most recent certs. Older hardware can be difficult to patch and especially difficult to make compliant with Intune reporting. Often you have to push out the certificates to the workstations by using PowerShell scripts.

HP, in particular, has made a mess of the Secure Boot patch process. In a recent tech note, it indicated that a BitLocker recovery screen may show up after updating a computer with BIOS updates released in early April. It notes that the certificate update process may fail, and it provides guidance on how to check the status of the installed certificates.

That guidance includes suspending BitLocker before installing the BIOS updates. You can suspend BitLocker using the GUI, the command line, or PowerShell. You can even suspend it for a certain number of reboots, after which BitLocker will resume.

Between the OEMs and Microsoft, this has been a real mess. I’ll be revisiting this topic again to ensure we’re all covered before the certificates expire on June 24, 2026, for the Microsoft Corporation KEK CA 2011, and June 27, 2026, for the Microsoft UEFI CA 2011.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 6:01 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has been steadily expanding OneDrive’s file management capabilities over the years, including for shared content and shortcuts, although it has had its flaws, too. The cloud storage platform introduced support for folder shortcuts several years ago, allowing users to pin frequently accessed shared folders from OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. Now, Microsoft is refining that experience further with a new way to organize those shortcuts as revealed in a recent Microsoft 365 roadmap addition.

Previously, shortcuts added through the “Add shortcut to My files” option would appear alongside all other files and folders in the root of a user's OneDrive. And although it's meant to be useful, this approach could also create clutter along the way, especially for heavy users who may have to work with large numbers of shared folders across multiple projects and teams on their systems. This is where Microsoft’s latest feature comes in, as it is looking to address this inconvenience by giving users the option to place new shortcuts inside a dedicated “Shortcuts” folder instead.

The feature is designed to keep shortcut links organized into a single location instead of scattering throughout the main OneDrive directory. Hence, the idea is to make navigation and usability easier and simpler.

The first time a user chooses this option, OneDrive will automatically create the folder, and to help make it stand out from the other folders, the Shortcuts folder will have a distinct visual identity featuring a unique color and a building-style icon. That being said, the new Shortcuts will behave just like any other folder in OneDrive, and as such, users will be able to move it to a different location, rename it, share it with others, or remove it entirely if they prefer a different structure.

You can view the entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap website here. Currently, the feature is in the "in development" phase, but the tech giant expects the rollout to start next month (July 2026). Do keep in mind, though, that new feature rollouts often get delayed.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 5:58 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has just released Visual Studio Code 1.123 alongside its annual developer conference, Build 2026. This release, as always, has a heavy focus on advanced AI agent integration and making the built-in browser more robust. Notably, this update brings big sync changes that keep your AI agents persistent across sessions.

With this update, VS Code now supports cross-machine syncing for chat histories, touched files, repository contexts, and related PRs via GitHub accounts, tying users even more into Microsoft’s developer ecosystem. This update also introduces the new /chronicle command that allows you to query past sessions using natural language, generate instant standup reports, and get personal productivity insights.

Microsoft has also made some improvements to network-dependent operations, it explains:

“When a terminal command that is run by a local agent requires access to domains that are not configured as allowed domains, the command is automatically retried inside the sandbox with unrestricted network access. After that, if it still fails, it falls back to unsandboxed execution. This allows network-dependent operations such as git fetch to finish, while keeping filesystem protections in place.”

Microsoft has not stopped there; in this update, it also allows developers to drag, drop, and pin multiple agent sessions side-by-side for easy code comparisons in real-time. It also introduces the Research Agent, accessible via /research. This is a read-only, depth-optimized tool that gets data from the web, local codebase, and GitHub to give you a Markdown report on complex APIs or unfamiliar code.

Now, let’s talk about the integrated browser and some security enhancements. VS Code 1.123 features enhanced screenshot capture tools that allow for targeted Area Screenshots and Full Page Screenshots to send layout context instantly to AI chat. The address bar has also been revamped, supporting favorite pages and tab management. Finally, on the security front, this update introduces a safety-first two-hour delay on third-party extension auto-updates to safeguard against compromised or buggy releases.

This release is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you have VS Code, keep an eye out for the update availability notification. If you still don’t have VS Code, you can get it here.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 5:57 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is expected to begin rolling out the June 2026 Security Update for on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. In the sixth month of the year, the software giant is pushing new features, improvements to existing experiences, and security fixes.

In this new quality update, the software giant begins the gradual rollout of the Low Latency Profile feature. It's now possible for two people to listen to the same audio from a single source at the same time thanks to Shared Audio. In addition, Microsoft is updating Task Manager with improvements to monitor NPU usage.

As part of the improvements, the Camera feature is gaining the ability to stream the camera feed across multiple applications. The Out-of-box Experience now allows you to set a custom name for the account folder, as well as improvements to the Settings app, Windows Hello, USB, battery, personalization, and more.

In this guide, I'll highlight the most significant changes in the June 2026 Security Update for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2, since both are identical.

Windows 11's new features arriving in June

Microsoft uses the Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) technology to roll out new improvements gradually, so it may take some time before you see them.

1. Low Latency Profile

Starting with the June 2026 update, the software giant introduces the Low Latency Profile, which is a feature that temporarily maxes out (or near-maxes) the processor frequency for one to three seconds during interactive tasks on Windows 11. Instead of focusing on sustained performance, the feature appears designed to reduce delays during actions like opening apps or opening flyouts, such as the Start menu, File Explorer, and context menus.

At the end of last month, Microsoft released its latest Windows 11 Insider channel Experimental preview build, 26300.8553. Aside from features that were already mentioned in the changelog, Windows enthusiasts and X users techosaruserex and phantomofearth discovered a new hidden option inside the Settings page.

I guess that this one could be quite popular among certain users, as Microsoft is working on a new AI uninstall button; it seems it will be very simple and intuitive to use, too, as it is going to be a one-click, no-fuss button. This is quite reminiscent of the Google Chrome AI model we recently covered that takes up around 4GB of space.

Windows 11, ever since version 24H2, has been bifurcated into two distinct categories. The first is the general PC, like it used to be, while the second is the new AI PC that Microsoft officially refers to as the Copilot+ PCs. The latter also has a different set of minimum system requirements compared to the vanilla systems. While the latter needs 4GB RAM (at least on paper) and 64 GB of disk space, the Copilot+ PCs require 16GB RAM and 256 GB of storage.

The fourfold increase in storage and memory requirements is there for a reason, alongside the need for a 40+ TOP NPU. Doing the locally installed AI processing, of course, requires additional resources compared to a base Windows 11 system, and the components themselves also eat up quite a lot of additional storage space. As you see in the screenshot below, the AI Phi Silica component is consuming over 2.5 GB of disk. If you notice, there is a new "Uninstall" button right below it that will remove the component after a system reboot.

For anyone wondering, Windows 11’s Copilot+ PCs include several built-in AI models that power on-device AI features for local processing. Phi Silica is Microsoft’s compact language model for local execution on a device’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to help perform tasks such as text summarization, rewriting, and content generation. The Image Creation AI component, as the name suggests, is the text-to-image model that generates images from text prompts and so on. On the flip side, the Image Processing AI component helps in analyzing user-provided images. Finally, the Image Transform AI component is there for editing, enabling features like object removal, intelligent background reconstruction, and such.

Source and image: PhantomofEarth (X)

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 8:36 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is once again facing the heat and wrath of customers, this time from Office 2019 and 2021 users. Around three weeks ago, the tech giant started informing affected users via email about the end of full feature support on Apple devices. In the email, the company stated that a "security certificate update" was required from July 13, 2026 to keep them fully functional and secure.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with informing your customers, what set off many is the fact that Microsoft seems to have never said earlier that this was ever going to be the case. This is public information that the company's own website testifies to.

Here is what the support article published on April 12th, 2023 originally said: "End of support for Office 2019 for Mac: Support for Office 2019 for Mac will end on October 10, 2023. Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function—they won't disappear from your Mac, nor will you lose any data..." It later reiterated again: "Although you'll still be able to use Office 2019 for Mac, you will no longer receive security updates and bug fixes after October 10, 2023..."

In the newly published article on May 15 2026, the wording has been slightly altered to remove the portion which mentions that it will "continue to function", instead it states: "Support for Office 2019 for Mac ended on October 10, 2023. Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won't lose any data. Your data can be accessed on any supported Microsoft 365 or Office product." Hence, this subtle wording modification is what explains the whole plot. It seems the company had initially intended that the apps will work fully well without updating as part of its "perpetual" software license agreement, but since has had a change of heart.

In a separate support piece, Microsoft has revealed more details about this "reduced functionality mode" which confirms that users can still open or print Office files but then can no longer edit, save, or create any new ones and clarifies that it "affects both Microsoft 365 subscribers on macOS, iPhone, and iPad, and those with non-subscription software, including Office 2021 or Office 2019 on macOS," with the only way to resolve being updating the OS and updating your apps.

To be able to update though you have to verify that your Apple device has the minimum OS and apps versions installed:

It's also worth noting that Office 2019 is seemingly hard-capped below version 16.83, so its certificate cannot be updated at all on macOS. Windows and Android versions of Office, meanwhile, appear to be unaffected.

Hence effectively on Office 2019, the problem "cannot be resolved." Redmond giant explains: "Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support on October 10, 2023, and no longer receives updates. Because Office 2019 cannot be updated to the required version, this issue cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling Office 2019 for Mac."

Additionally the company has shared more details regarding its digital certificate update that comes into effect July 13, 2026, in a support document. It says: "A licensing update for Microsoft 365 apps on macOS and iOS takes effect on July 13, 2026. Devices that aren't updated to a supported app version enter reduced functionality mode, where users can open and view files but can't edit, save, or access full features. Administrators should ensure that all managed macOS and iOS devices run the versions needed to keep Microsoft 365 apps fully functional after July 13, 2026."

Admins and users can find the full steps for updating in this support article here on Microsoft's official website.

Source: Microsoft via Reddit (link1, link2)

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 8:34 am AEST (my time).

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Did you know that it's been a little over 15 years since Microsoft first announced Windows 8? To be precise, June 1, 2011. Years later, .

But more interestingly, Microsoft veteran software engineer Raymond Chen recently shared a story in his ongoing about the code name the company used for Windows 8 during its development.

And, as is typical of Microsoft, employees within the organization started "abbreviating it like mad." In 2025, I extensively covered Microsoft's quirky vocabulary for internal communication, otherwise internally referred to as Microspeak. For instance, the phrase "on fire" refers to "when something has gone horribly wrong and requires immediate attention". Makes sense. Not too cryptic.

Going back to Windows 8, Chen disclosed that the development team behind the operating system abbreviated most things surrounding it. For instance, the new shell was called the “modern shell” or “MoSh” for short, whereas the old shell was referred to as the “classic shell.” Some twisted it a bit further to ClaSh, but the engineer says it didn't stick around for too long.

"When we couldn’t come up with a name for a component of the modern experience, a common fallback was to stick the prefix “Mo” in front," Chen indicated.

Interestingly, Chen reveals that the new Start menu was derived from earlier explorations known as the “Go page.” This is because it typically represents where the user would go when they want to search or "go" and do something. Consequently, Windows 8's Go page was called or given a new code — MoGo.

The list goes on and on. For instance, the settings control panel was called “MoSet,” while the ListView control started as a bit of a mouthful, “modern collection control”, it was later shortened to “MoCo.”

Over the years, Microsoft's internal slang has evolved significantly. We recently learned of Windows K2 — Microsoft's internal codename for an umbrella project that focuses on fixing Windows 11's biggest problems.

At the beginning of the year, the company pledged to address major pain points across the operating system as part of its broader strategy to improve the overall user sentiment. The company has already made good on its promise by reducing where Copilot and its integrations appear following backlash from users.

Microsoft will also allow Windows 11 users to postpone installing updates indefinitely, which is a level of freedom that hasn't been seen since the good old Windows 8 days. We invite you to check out our Windows K2 status tracker to keep tabs on Microsoft's rehabilitation project for Windows 11.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 8:34 am AEST (my time).

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Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, has promoted the Arm64 Steam Snap to the Stable channel, giving gaming on the platform a bit of a boost. Before today, this version of the Snap was considered a candidate release, but now anybody can use it with confidence that it will work like other versions of the Steam Snap.

The stable version’s release follows months of testing and user feedback since the initial candidate release in January. For anyone running an Arm-based Linux system, this release will help to lower the barrier to gaming.

The firm behind Ubuntu found the following pieces of hardware to work very well with the Snap during testing:

• Nvidia DGX Spark (and GB10 devices)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops (eg Lenovo Thinkpad X13s/T14s and Dell XPS 9345)
• Radxa Orion O5 and O6N single-board computers

Under the hood, this Snap uses FEX, an X86/x86-64 emulator for Arm64. Users can configure FEX’s options, including its library forwarding (“thunking”) toggles. You can also manually toggle Vulkan, DRM, and GL thunking by editing Config.json. On some hardware, such as Snapdragon and DGX Spark, this can boost game compatibility. Regarding thunking, Canonical said its functionality is heavily game and platform-dependent, so it isn’t enabled by default on all platforms.

Moving forward, the Steam Snap for Arm64 will follow a structured release cadence. The first stop for future versions will be the Edge channel, where users get the latest experimental updates as soon as they’re available. When they’re a bit more stable, they will move to the Candidate channel, assuming no big issues are found internally or by Edge users after 1-2 weeks of testing.

Finally, they land in the Stable channel after spending 1-3 weeks in the Candidate channel, assuming no big issues are found. If you’ve been running the Arm64 Steam Snap and are on the Edge or Candidate channels and want to switch to stable, just run the following command in the terminal: sudo snap refresh steam --channel=stable.

While this news is definitely good for those with Arm64 hardware, it should be noted that this work is not an officially Valve-supported project. Nevertheless, if you want to try it out and give feedback, you can do so via GitHub.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 8:33 am AEST (my time).

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Typically, Microsoft publishes a roundup of all the features it added to Excel and Teams during the past four weeks towards the end of the month. Although it did so for Excel last week, Teams was suspiciously missing until now. Microsoft has now detailed all the new features it added to Teams during May 2026, noting that it intentionally delayed the latest roundup to align with Build 2026.

Starting with platform enhancements this time, we have public previews of slash commands for agent invocation, as well as quoted replies and message reactions for agents. All of this makes agents feel more human without them constantly interrupting your workflow. In the same vein, AI agents can now be spun up and configured quickly via the new Teams CLI. Additionally, Microsoft also has new Teams agents for Cursor, Linear, and Atlassian Rovo.

Switching gears to chat and collaboration advancements, Teams received slash commands like /goto to create workflows. Moreover, code blocks in Teams now have line numbers for improved readability, and the badging UX has also been updated to make it easier to find the count of unread messages and navigate to them quickly. Microsoft has also introduced a "Catch up" interface on Teams mobile that allows you to swipe across unread messages and mark them as read, and there's also a new UX that focuses only on unread items. Furthermore, search results are now instantly surfaced so you don't have to press Enter and scan them manually, the Find UX in chats and channels has received new filters, and Teams finally respects Windows' Do Not Disturb (DND) setting.

In terms of meeting enhancements, Teams netted AI-powered video recaps, which we covered in detail here. Meeting organizers also have the ability to quickly delete meeting recordings, AI summaries, and transcripts themselves instead of relying on admins to reduce the chances of sensitive data exposure. A new wave of hardware also received Teams certification, including:

• Barco ClickShare Hub Core with Logitech Meetup 2
• Jabra Scheduler
• Neat Pad Pro
• Jabra Speak2 40
• Owl Labs Meeting Owl 5 Pro

As usual, if you want more details around relatively niche stuff like Teams Rooms and frontline worker solutions, you can visit Microsoft's detailed blog post here.

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Posted Thursday 4 June 2026 at 8:33 am AEST (my time).

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As May has come to an end, we can now take a look at the new features and changes that participants of the Windows Insider Program received during the second half of the month for Windows 11.

Alongside the improvements available during the first half of May, the company rolled out preview builds through the Experimental and Beta tracks for versions 25H2, 26H1, and Feature Platforms.

In the Experimental experience, we've seen 26300.8553, 26300.8497, 28020.2149, 29595, 29599, and 28020.2207, while the Beta experience received builds 26220.8491 and 26220.8544.

In this recap, I'll highlight the latest and most noteworthy changes available through the Windows Insider Program.

Biggest improvements from the Windows Insider Program in May 2026

These are the most significant improvements the company has been testing since the last roundup.

Screen tint new feature

On Windows 11 build 26300.8497, the development team introduced a new accessibility feature known as "Screen tint." It's a system-wide color overlay designed to reduce eye strain and soften overly bright or saturated displays.

Unlike the Night Light feature, which primarily reduces blue light for nighttime use, Screen tint changes the overall intensity and color tone of the display during the day. Microsoft says the two features solve different problems and can work together at the same time.

Recently, Microsoft has been promising some very delightful things for Windows 11. For example, the company is testing going 100% native for its apps in order to improve performance, and early results show promising gains.

However, new features like these are not immediately released to everyone as they could be buggy, and this has been the case for Insider channels too, which Microsoft refers to as Gradual Rollout or staggered rollout. The company refers to this practice as Continuous Feature Rollout (CFR).

This can be quite frustrating for such users who are flighting Insider channels, as at the end of the day, they are enthusiasts who very much want to experience every new thing Windows has in store, but Microsoft would rather do A/B testing at every stage just to be on the safe side so as not to break things.

Microsoft, however, was aware that users may want new features available to them sooner, and as such, it added a new "Get the latest updates as soon as they're ready for your PC" simple toggle CFR feature to enable quicker update rollouts and also expanded related functionalities towards Windows 10.

Regardless, many are still not as happy with how Gradual Rollout works, as a recent post on the Windows 11 subreddit highlights. The user horizon936 wrote: "I get that Microsoft got some heat recently, felt threatened and finally started to prioritize beneficial software features, optimizations and debloating, as well as engaging more with its userbase, including constantly hyping them up for what's to come. And I appreciate it. ... However, now that the testing channels are as robust, prolonged and engaged with as ever, I find this overreliance on gradual rollouts absolutely ridiculous and, frankly, infuriating. ... At this point I would honestly prefer dead silence from the PR team over this overengagement about features that never seem to really manifest. Every two weeks there's something large that my news feed gets bombarded with ... And it never comes. ... never rolls out until I've completely forgotten I was ever excited about the feature. ..."

The rant seems to resonate with many, as it has received a high number of upvotes too, and it's not just on Reddit that people find this a bit irking. Neowin readers, too, like leonsk29, also said a similar thing recently when they commented: "And all of this will be delivered on next month's optional C update... on a staggered rollout basis. So, yeah, cross your fingers and hope that Microsoft selects your PC to enable the new stuff, because you won't have any control over it other than using ViveTool. Stupid stuff, indeed. You could get all of it on day 1, or 6 months later, who knows? Some Microsoft AI selecting candidates remotely, apparently."

What really caught my attention on that Reddit post though, was a user alleging that Microsoft support itself reportedly had "no idea" about how this works. The user states: "I reported to Microsoft after they inquired from my posts on Reddit about these Gradual Rollout Features not appearing in Windows 11. Microsoft Technical Engineering group (or whatever the name of it was called) spent 3 days on my computers. The last chat response from them is "gradual rollout functionality seems to have a series[sic] flaw in the background processes that are not allowing the features to enable correctly." When I asked what exactly that means, Microsoft wrote "basically we have no idea why these features are not enabling," .... Each time Microsoft does not really providing[sic] an answer. They go adbandon[sic] you with closing your case, ignoring your emails, and then threaten to close your Microsoft account. However, during all these tests, a Microsoft account was never used or needed. A local user account had been used the entire time on these computers."

Now, to be fair, it's the internet, and so anyone can claim anything on here, but assuming this post is indeed the case, that even the technical support from Microsoft does not quite understand CFR rollouts properly or is unable to fix the "serious flaw" that's impacting it, then the Windows update department probably needs to have a better introspection soon. Of course, it is also entirely possible that the Redditor Fit-Middle-5407 is simply making this all up to gain upvotes and perhaps to "karma farm", but again, if true, it seems at least a bit shameful.

On the positive side though the company is trying to improve it with a newly revamped Insider channel program, and we hope these "issues" get ironed out here.

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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 8:28 am AEST (my time).

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At Build 2026 today, Microsoft has announced the general availability (G.A.) of Coreutils for Windows, which brings a native set of Linux-style command-line utilities aimed at simplifying cross-platform development workflows.

For anyone not familiar, coreutils (short for Core Utilities) are a fundamental component of GNU and Linux-based operating systems as they provide many of the basic commands used for things like file, shell, and text manipulation. These include utilities such as ls, cp, mv, rm, cat, and pwd are part of the GNU Core Utilities package and are considered as essential tools that devs and system admins use daily across Unix-like environments.

According to the company Coreutils for Windows will work similarly to its GNU counterpart and will allow developers to use familiar commands and command-line pipelines across Windows, Linux, macOS, containers, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) without needing to rewrite scripts or adjust workflows.

The company notes that some utilities may overlap with existing Command Prompt or PowerShell commands, meanwhile others that depend on POSIX-specific functionality have been excluded since they could break Windows or aren't said to be helpful. The project is available through a dedicated GitHub repo at this link.

Aside from coreutils another very interesting feature was also announced at Build 2026 today that could potentially revolutionize native app development. Dubbed "Windows Development Skills", it is a new set of AI-powered development tools designed to help agents build and maintain Windows apps better.

According to the company, the Skills are intended to provide AI agents with up-to-date knowledge and guidelines necessary for native Windows app development, thus greatly reducing the risk of outdated or wrong recommendations without the need for human intervention. Hence, it sounds like vibe coding done right.

Microsoft plans to go "100% native" for Windows 11 apps so perhaps this will help massively accelerate that journey, and also aid in reducing unintended but glaring issues while doing that.

The project is based on WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK and can be managed with the winapp CLI. You can find its dedicated repo here on GitHub. You can find the announcement blog post here on Microsoft's official website.

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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 8:27 am AEST (my time).

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A couple of weeks ago, Mozilla released Firefox 151, the latest major update for the browser. Shortly after, the company pushed version 151.0.1 to address crashes on certain Intel processors. The next one was Firefox 151.0.2 with a long list of fixes and improvements for Split View and other parts of the browser. Now version 151.0.3 has arrived, yet another bug-fixing update. This time, Mozilla is fixing only two bugs.

Despite the small size, Firefox 151.0.3 will make plenty of users happy. Firefox's subreddit is full of people complaining about the big VPN button on the toolbar, and today's release is fixing that. In the release notes, Mozilla says that version 151.0.3 fixes the oversized VPN button. In addition, the update addresses issues with pasting text into specific fields.

Here is the changelog:

Version 151.0.3, first offered to Release channel users on June 2, 2026

 

• Fixed an issue where selecting or pasting text in a text field inside a table cell could disrupt the page layout. (Bug 2041235)
• Fixed an issue where the VPN toolbar button icon could appear larger than intended. (Bug 2042454)

Firefox 151.0.3 is now available for download on existing installations and from the official channels. Those include the official website, the Microsoft Store, and Neowin's Software page. You can find Firefox 151.0.3 release notes in the official documentation.

In other news, Mozilla is testing a big redesign of Firefox. Codenamed "Nova," it is now available for testing, offering users a more modern look and feel. You can learn more about the browser's fresh coat of paint here. As usual, though, not everyone is a fan of major changes in browsers, and Neowin's Paul Hill recently published an editorial about Chrome's careful and predictable design approach helping it retain customers despite its terrible privacy track record.

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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 7:57 am AEST (my time).

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AMD is rolling out a new graphics driver under version 26.6.1. Today's release adds support for two titles: F1 25: 2026 Season Pack and World of Tanks: HEAT. It also fixes various issues in Subnautica 2 and Marvel Rivals on AMD's latest graphics cards including the new RX 9070 GRE, patches a bug with the Zero RPM mode, and more.

Here are the update highlights:

• Newly supported games in today's driver include the following:
  • F1 25: 2026 Season Pack
  • World of Tanks: HEAT

Fixed issues include the following:

• An intermittent application crash may be observed while playing Subnautica 2 and Marvel Rivals on Radeon RX 9000 series graphics products.
• Artifacts may appear while playing Enshrouded on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
• Zero RPM mode may re-enable itself after a monitor goes to sleep or is turned off on Radeon RX 9000 series graphics products.

And here are the bugs that remain standing:

• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Battlefield™ 6 on AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. AMD is actively working on a resolution with the developer to be released as soon as possible.
• Texture flickering or corruption may appear while playing Battlefield 6 with AMD Record and Stream on some AMD graphics products.
• AMD FSR Upscaling and AMD FSR Frame Generation may show as inactive in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition while playing Battlefield 6 when enabled on Radeon RX 9000 series graphics products.
• An intermittent application crash may be observed while running Blender on Radeon™ RX 7000 series graphics products and above. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to install AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.3.1.
• A purple screen may be displayed when using an HP Reverb G2 headset with SteamVR on Radeon™ RX 6000 series graphics products.
• Failure to install may be observed while installing AI Bundle components in some regions with limited access to HuggingFace and GitHub.

The driver supports 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, paired with the following graphics products:

You can download AMD's latest Radeon Software 26.6.1 driver from the official website here. Full release notes are available on the same page.

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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 7:56 am AEST (my time).

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Version 26.6 of the popular video editor, Shotcut, is now available, in Beta, for download. This release brings the usual set of bug fixes, as well as new stuff like OpenFX & VST2 Plugin support.

Support for OpenFX plugins finally landed after many years of users begging the Shotcut devs to add the open-standard API used for creating 2D visual effects. In the past, Shotcut relied almost exclusively on the frei0r plug-in API for its video effects, which felt pretty limited as it did not support advanced commercial tools.

VST2, on the other hand, is the industry-standard format for audio effects, and it lets users apply everything from advanced vocal compressors and EQs to de-essers and noise-removal tools like iZotope or ReaPlugs.

In the latest beta release, several UI elements have been moved around in the interface. For instance, the Declick Audio option shifted from the Time category to the Audio menu, while the External Monitor option hopped to the Player menu.

This menu now supports system displays, though this conflicts with the Use Old Video Output setting for Snapdragon X ARM systems. You also get a dedicated, full-screen capable Preview Window for HDR content, and you can change the dynamic range in custom Video Modes to standard SDR or HDR formats like HLG and PQ.

Some of the bug fixes Version 26.6 brings include:

• The team fixed a deadlock on the DeckLink HDMI/SDI external monitor.
• Exporting Ogg Vorbis files with cover art no longer fails.
• Marker actions no longer crash the app when nothing is open.
• Windows UNC paths now work properly with filters like GPS Graphic.
• Extended characters in custom export preset metadata no longer cause issues.
• The rebuild audio waveform function now saves properly on Windows.
• Tab focus now allows users to edit numeric fields in filters.
• Moving clips on the timeline no longer creates massive gaps.
• Timeline undo actions after changing video modes no longer corrupt data.
• Double-clicking project files in macOS Finder with Shotcut running works correctly.

As mentioned earlier, Shotcut is a very popular video editing program, and creators love it because it is open source and a great alternative to expensive, subscription-based software like Adobe Premiere Pro. It's been around since 2004, and in that time, it has gained features like native multi-format timeline editing, 4K resolution output, chroma keying, webcam capture, audio spectrum analysis, and advanced keyframe control.

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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 7:55 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft typically releases new Windows 11 preview builds every Friday. Less frequently, but still regularly, the company also pushes new ISO files (last time on May 19, 2026), allowing those who want to clean-install one of the recent builds quicker and easier, all without waiting for Windows Update to do its thing (in-place upgrades. Just like that, Microsoft today released its official images for the builds released last week.

As of right now, the latest Windows 11 preview builds are the following:

• Experimental Future Platforms (former Skip Ahead) - build 29599.1000
• Experimental 26H1 (former Canary) - build 28020.2207
• Experimental (former Dev) - build 26300.8553
• Beta - build 26220.8544

You can download all those builds from the official Windows Insider website. Just keep in mind that you need to log in with a Microsoft Account registered in the Insider program to get a link.

As for what is new, Microsoft brought some interesting and useful features with these updates. However, as usual, the most exciting changes are in the Experimental (formerly Dev) channel, which Microsoft uses as a test bed for new features. Those include a big Start menu update, which lets you resize the menu, toggle specific parts, and more. Microsoft also reworked the recommendation section, which you can now disable without affecting jump lists. We recently published a closer look at this upgrade, so check it out here.

In other news, Microsoft is hosting its annual Build developer conference this week, so expect plenty of developer-related news and some fresh Windows announcements, not just the new Surface Laptop Ultra powered by NVIDIA's latest processors for ARM PCs. We will cover all the most interesting news, so stay tuned.

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Posted Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 7:32 am AEST (my time).

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The last few weeks have been a bit eventful in the world of the Linux kernel. First, Torvalds complained that contributors using AI were reporting issues and not supplying fixes, then the week after, he had to tell people to stop submitting less necessary fixes late in the cycle.

Thankfully, he now says that things have quietened down for the sixth release candidate, which means next week’s may be the last one before the final release. This week, he said that this update was smaller than RC5, but it is still not exactly small, thanks to the use of AI tools. He also said that due to the more normal size, we could be on track for a normal release cycle.

This week, the changes for drivers are all over the place, affecting GPUs, networking, USB, serial, sound, and SCSI. There are also core networking and self-test updates. Aside from these, there are architecture fixes, filesystem fixes, and other random fixes.

In terms of specific hardware support, this release candidate improves support for the ASUS ROG RAIKIRI II, GameSir Nova 2 Lite, and Lenovo Go devices. It also fixes a bigger over-read in the Lenovo X12 Tab handler.

With the 7.1 release looking like it is back on track, the final release candidate should be next week, then after that, it will be pushed to stable to the public. However, you should wait for your Linux distribution to send out the update, as installing it yourself can lead to an unstable system, and it is a lot more complicated to do. Arch and Fedora users will be among the first to receive the update when ready.

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Posted Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 7:32 am AEST (my time).

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