Security and privacy advocates are girding themselves for another uphill battle against Recall, the AI tool rolling out in Windows 11 that will screenshot, index, and store everything a user does every three seconds.

When Recall was first introduced in May 2024, security practitioners roundly castigated it for creating a gold mine for malicious insiders, criminals, or nation-state spies if they managed to gain even brief administrative access to a Windows device. Privacy advocates warned that Recall was ripe for abuse in intimate partner violence settings. They also noted that there was nothing stopping Recall from preserving sensitive disappearing content sent through privacy-protecting messengers such as Signal.

Enshittification at a new scale

Following months of backlash, Microsoft later suspended Recall. On Thursday, the company said it was reintroducing Recall. It currently is available only to insiders with access to the Windows 11 Build 26100.3902 preview version. Over time, the feature will be rolled out more broadly. Microsoft officials wrote:

Recall (preview)* saves you time by offering an entirely new way to search for things you’ve seen or done on your PC securely. With the AI capabilities of Copilot+ PCs, it’s now possible to quickly find and get back to any app, website, image, or document just by describing its content. To use Recall, you will need to opt-in to saving snapshots, which are images of your activity, and enroll in Windows Hello to confirm your presence so only you can access your snapshots. You are always in control of what snapshots are saved and can pause saving snapshots at any time. As you use your Copilot+ PC throughout the day working on documents or presentations, taking video calls, and context switching across activities, Recall will take regular snapshots and help you find things faster and easier. When you need to find or get back to something you’ve done previously, open Recall and authenticate with Windows Hello. When you’ve found what you were looking for, you can reopen the application, website, or document, or use Click to Do to act on any image or text in the snapshot you found.

Microsoft is hoping that the concessions requiring opt-in and the ability to pause Recall will help quell the collective revolt that broke out last year. It likely won’t for various reasons.

First, even if User A never opts in to Recall, they have no control over the setting on the machines of Users B through Z. That means anything User A sends them will be screenshotted, processed with optical character recognition and Copilot AI, and then stored in an indexed database on the other users’ devices. That would indiscriminately hoover up all kinds of User A's sensitive material, including photos, passwords, medical conditions, and encrypted videos and messages. As Privacy Guides writer Em wrote on Mastodon:

Important Warning About Windows Recall :

If you communicate with someone who might be using the upcoming Microsoft's Windows Recall feature, be extremely careful about what information you share with them.

Regardless of what secure application you use, be especially careful about sending:

- Intimate photos

- Passwords or other sensitive information

- Medical conditions

- Personal details, even through secure emails or secure encrypted chats

- Financial information

- Video chats, even encrypted ones

This feature will unfortunately extract your information from whatever secure software you might have used and store it on this person's computer in a possibly less secure way.

Of course this person could manually take a screenshot of all of this anyway, but this feature makes it that even a well-intentioned person might either not be aware it is on, or might wrongly assume it is secure enough.

This feature isn't fully released yet, but it might be soon.

The presence of an easily searchable database capturing a machine’s every waking moment would also be a bonanza for others who don’t have users’ best interests at heart. That level of detailed archival material will undoubtedly be subject to subpoena by lawyers and governments. Threat actors who manage to get their spyware installed on a device will no longer have to scour it for the most sensitive data stored there. Instead they will mine Recall just as they do browser databases storing passwords now.

Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a message asking why it’s reintroducing Recall less than a year after the feature got such a chilly reception. For critics, Recall is likely to remain one of the most pernicious examples of enshittification, the recently minted term for the shoehorning of unwanted AI and other features into existing products when there is negligible benefit to users.

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Here is the changelog:

New Copilot+ PC experiences

 

Find the settings you want more easily with the Windows search box

 

As part of improving Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, we’re beginning to roll out the ability to type a setting you’re looking for in the Windows search box on your taskbar without needing to remember the exact setting name. For example, you can use your own words to find settings like “change my theme” or “about my PC”. You no longer need to remember the exact setting name you are looking for. Thanks to the power of the 40+ TOPS NPU onboard Copilot+ PCs, these search improvements work even when you’re not connected to the internet. You can learn more about semantic search on Copilot + PCs here.

 

Making visual content more accessible with image descriptions in Narrator

 

We are enhancing digital accessibility with the ability to get rich, detailed descriptions of images, charts, graphs in Narrator by using the power of AI on Copilot+ PCs. In today’s digital world, images are everywhere—on websites, apps, and documents. But for blind and low-vision users, many of these visuals remain inaccessible due to missing or inadequate alt text.

 

With this new feature that is beginning to roll out, Narrator will now generate more richer image descriptions on your Copilot+ PC. Simply press Narrator key + Ctrl + D and Narrator will read out a contextual description of the image describing people, objects, colours, text, and numbers from the image. On non-Copilot+ PCs, this experience will continue to give you very basic image descriptions.

 

For example, for an image about stock performance, users will get the following detailed description. The image is a graph showing the stock prices of Microsoft Corporation, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Computer indexes. The graph shows a steady increase in Microsoft’s stock price over the period from June 18th to June 23rd.

 

The window also contains regenerate, like, dislike and copy button at the bottom.

 

This feature is currently available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs coming soon. To turn Narrator on, you can press “Ctrl + Windows key + Enter” on your PC or search for “Narrator” in Windows search box. When you try the image descriptions feature for the first time using Narrator Key + Ctrl + D, we download the models required for getting image descriptions. You can check the download status via Settings > Windows update.

 

If you are new to Narrator, you can find more information and learn about using Narrator from the complete guide to Narrator.

 

Also check out frequently asked questions about rich image descriptions in Narrator here.

 

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on*

 

[Widgets]

 

• We are trying out the ability to read content such as full articles, slideshows, and videos directly within your MSN feed in the widgets board in Windows 11. Try it out and let us know what you think by using the feedback button at the top of your widgets board. As a reminder, you can manage whether your MSN feed is shown in the widgets board or not directly within the widget settings. We are beginning to roll this change out to Windows Insiders across all channels.

  

The following improvements are for Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA) with the new lock screen widgets experience (previously referred to as “Weather and more”):

 

• There are some new updates to the new Widgets on Lock experience. In addition to accessibility and craftsmanship improvements, the Lock screen weather widget now supports customization. To configure your weather widget, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen and click the “Customize widget” option from the weather widget more options menu. More widgets will be customizable in the future.

 

Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on

 

[Recall (Preview)]

 

The following fixes are rolling out for Recall on Copilot+ PCs:

 

• Fixed an issue which could cause Settings to crash when adding an app to filter on under Privacy & Security > Recall & Snapshots.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue causing File Explorer Home to crash for some Insiders after the latest flights.
• Fixed an issue where the Organize and New Folder options might not be visible in the Save Dialog when using dark mode.

 

[Taskbar]

 

• Fixed an issue which was causing app icons in the taskbar to become unexpectedly oversized in recent flights after disconnecting from an external display and some other cases.

 

[Desktop icons]

 

• Updated the logic for apps pinned to the desktop, so that packaged apps no longer show an accent colored backplate (for example, if you were to drag and drop Snipping Tool from the apps list in Start to the desktop). In doing this, the icons should be bigger and easier to see now. Please note, you may need to create new shortcuts for this to take effect, if you already have something on your desktop.

 

[Input]

 

• If your touchpad wasn’t working with the previous flight, that should be resolved now.

 

[Graphics]

 

• Fixed an issue where when using CopyPixels the pixels may be unexpectedly inverted in certain cases.
• Fixed an issue where some JPG images weren’t displaying, although they could display correctly on older builds.

 

Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[General]

 

• We fixed the issue causing Windows Sandbox to not work in the last flight.

Known issues include the following:

[General]

 

• [IMPORTANT] When joining the Dev Channel on Windows 11, version 24H2 – you will be offered Build 26200.5518 After installing that update, you will be offered the most recent update available. This 2-hop experience to get onto the latest 24H2-based flight in the Dev Channel is just temporary.
• After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.
• Quick Assist will not work for non-administrator users.
• [NEW] After installing this update, Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) may not work, and you may not be able to use the “Fix problems using Windows Update” option under Settings > Recovery. These issues will be fixed in another update soon.
• [NEW] Some apps may appear blank after installing this update. Closing and re-launching the app may correct the issue.

 

[Recall (Preview)]

 

• [REMINDER] You are always in control and can always choose to remove Recall anytime via “Turn Windows features on or off”. Removing Recall will delete entry points and binaries. Like any feature, Windows sometimes keeps temporary copies of binaries for serviceability. These Recall binaries are not executable and are eventually removed over time.
• [REMINDER] Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents.
• The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:
• Some Insiders may experience an issue where Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings. We’re working on a fix for this issue.

 

[Click to Do (Preview)]

 

• [REMINDER] The intelligent text actions are now locally moderated to ensure the safety of prompts and responses and has replaced the cloud endpoint. Now that these intelligent text actions are fully local, they are also available in Click to Do in Recall.
• [REMINDER] If any of your actions on image entities are no longer appearing, please ensure you have the latest updates for the Photos and Paint app from the Microsoft Store.
• The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:
• In small cases, Click to Do may fail to launch. Trying again should get Click to Do to launch.
• There is an issue where images that are used with Click to Do image actions are stuck in your temp folder on your PC. This issue will be fixed in the next flight. You can manually clear your temp folder under C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp.
• We’re investigating reports that the Click to Do icon is incorrectly showing up on non-Copilot+ PCs. If you happen to see this on your non-Copilot+ PC, please file feedback in Feedback Hub and let us know.

 

[Improved Windows Search]

 

• [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• [NEW] Search and other options such as filtering in Task Manager does not work.
• After adding the new CPU Utility column, you may notice that System Idle Process always shows as 0.
• The CPU graphs in the Performance page are still using the old CPU utility calculations.

You can find the official announcement here.

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The full changelog is given below:

New Copilot+ PC experiences

Find the settings you want more easily with the Windows search box

 

As part of improving Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, we’re beginning to roll out the ability to type a setting you’re looking for in the Windows search box on your taskbar without needing to remember the exact setting name. For example, you can use your own words to find settings like “change my theme” or “about my PC”. You no longer need to remember the exact setting name you are looking for. Thanks to the power of the 40+ TOPS NPU onboard Copilot+ PCs, these search improvements work even when you’re not connected to the internet. You can learn more about semantic search on Copilot + PCs here.

 

FEEDBACK for Windows Taskbar Search: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Search.

 

Making visual content more accessible with image descriptions in Narrator

 

We are enhancing digital accessibility with the ability to get rich, detailed descriptions of images, charts, graphs in Narrator by using the power of AI on Copilot+ PCs. In today’s digital world, images are everywhere—on websites, apps, and documents. But for blind and low-vision users, many of these visuals remain inaccessible due to missing or inadequate alt text.

 

With this new feature that is beginning to roll out, Narrator will now generate more richer image descriptions on your Copilot+ PC. Simply press Narrator key + Ctrl + D and Narrator will read out a contextual description of the image describing people, objects, colours, text, and numbers from the image. On non-Copilot+ PCs, this experience will continue to give you very basic image descriptions.

 

For example, for an image about stock performance, users will get the following detailed description. The image is a graph showing the stock prices of Microsoft Corporation, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Computer indexes. The graph shows a steady increase in Microsoft’s stock price over the period from June 18th to June 23rd.

 

The window also contains regenerate, like, dislike and copy button at the bottom.

 

This feature is currently available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs coming soon. To turn Narrator on, you can press “Ctrl + Windows key + Enter” on your PC or search for “Narrator” in Windows search box. When you try the image descriptions feature for the first time using Narrator Key + Ctrl + D, we download the models required for getting image descriptions. You can check the download status via Settings > Windows update.

 

If you are new to Narrator, you can find more information and learn about using Narrator from the complete guide to Narrator.

 

Also check out frequently asked questions about rich image descriptions in Narrator here.

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Narrator.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*

[Widgets]

 

• We are trying out the ability to read content such as full articles, slideshows, and videos directly within your MSN feed in the widgets board in Windows 11. Try it out and let us know what you think by using the feedback button at the top of your widgets board. As a reminder, you can manage whether your MSN feed is shown in the widgets board or not directly within the widget settings. We are beginning to roll this change out to Windows Insiders across all channels.

The following improvements are for Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA) with the new lock screen widgets experience (previously referred to as “Weather and more”):

 

• There are some new updates to the new Widgets on Lock experience. In addition to accessibility and craftsmanship improvements, the Lock screen weather widget now supports customization. To configure your weather widget, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen and click the “Customize widget” option from the weather widget more options menu. More widgets will be customizable in the future.

Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*

[Recall (Preview)]

 

The following fixes are rolling out for Recall on Copilot+ PCs:

 

• Fixed an issue which could cause Settings to crash when adding an app to filter on under Privacy & Security > Recall & Snapshots.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue causing File Explorer Home to crash for some Insiders after the latest flights.
• Fixed an issue where the Organize and New Folder options might not be visible in the Save Dialog when using dark mode.

 

[Taskbar]

 

• Fixed an issue which was causing app icons in the taskbar to become unexpectedly oversized in recent flights after disconnecting from an external display and some other cases.

 

[Desktop icons]

 

• Updated the logic for apps pinned to the desktop, so that packaged apps no longer show an accent colored backplate (for example, if you were to drag and drop Snipping Tool from the apps list in Start to the desktop). In doing this, the icons should be bigger and easier to see now. Please note, you may need to create new shortcuts for this to take effect, if you already have something on your desktop.

 

[Input]

 

• If your touchpad wasn’t working with the previous flight, that should be resolved now.

 

[Graphics]

 

• Fixed an issue where when using CopyPixels the pixels may be unexpectedly inverted in certain cases.
• Fixed an issue where some JPG images weren’t displaying, although they could display correctly on older builds.

Fixes for everyone in the Beta Channel

[General]

 

• We fixed the issue causing Windows Sandbox to not work in the last flight.

 

Known issues

 

[General]

 

• [REMINDER] When joining the Beta Channels on Windows 11, version 24H2 – you will be offered Build 26120.3360 After installing that update, you will be offered the most recent update available. This 2-hop experience to get onto the latest 24H2-based flight in the Beta Channel is just temporary.
• After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.
• Quick Assist will not work for non-administrator users.
• [NEW] After installing this update, Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) may not work, and you may not be able to use the “Fix problems using Windows Update” option under Settings > Recovery. These issues will be fixed in another update soon.
• [NEW] Some apps may appear blank after installing this update. Closing and re-launching the app may correct the issue.

 

[Recall (Preview)]

 

• [REMINDER] You are always in control and can always choose to remove Recall anytime via “Turn Windows features on or off”. Removing Recall will delete entry points and binaries. Like any feature, Windows sometimes keeps temporary copies of binaries for serviceability. These Recall binaries are not executable and are eventually removed over time.
• [REMINDER] Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents.

 

The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:

 

• Some Insiders may experience an issue where Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings. We’re working on a fix for this issue.

 

[Click to Do (Preview)]

 

• [REMINDER] The intelligent text actions are now locally moderated to ensure the safety of prompts and responses and has replaced the cloud endpoint. Now that these intelligent text actions are fully local, they are also available in Click to Do in Recall.
• [REMINDER] If any of your actions on image entities are no longer appearing, please ensure you have the latest updates for the Photos and Paint app from the Microsoft Store.

 

The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:

 

• In small cases, Click to Do may fail to launch. Trying again should get Click to Do to launch.
• There is an issue where images that are used with Click to Do image actions are stuck in your temp folder on your PC. This issue will be fixed in the next flight. You can manually clear your temp folder under C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp.
• We’re investigating reports that the Click to Do icon is incorrectly showing up on non-Copilot+ PCs. If you happen to see this on your non-Copilot+ PC, please file feedback in Feedback Hub and let us know.

 

[Improved Windows Search]

 

• [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• [NEW] Search and other options such as filtering in Task Manager does not work.
• After adding the new CPU Utility column, you may notice that System Idle Process always shows as 0.
• The CPU graphs in the Performance page are still using the old CPU utility calculations.

You can view the blog post here on Microsoft's official website.

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Phantomofearth on X reports that the recent Windows 11 preview builds contain strings related to the calendar flyout clock, namely the ability to show it or hide it from the notification center:

As of right now, Windows 11's notification center (and the calendar flyout) only shows the date and a rather generic calendar. Although Windows 11 is turning four soon, that area remains critically underdeveloped, with no option to display your events, add new events, see the clock, and more. While most of those things can be addressed with third-party apps like Calendar Flyout, not everyone wants to pay for extra software just to fix what Microsoft removed in 2021.

The clock in the notification center is not the only improvement that is coming soon to Windows 11. Microsoft is also working on a massive Start menu redesign, which you can already try in the recent preview builds. In addition to a much more convenient navigation with new layouts, it adds much-requested features like the ability to turn off the recommended section for good.

Do you miss the clock in Windows 11's notification center? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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This folder is typically used by Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS), a web server platform that can be enabled via the Windows Features dialog to host websites and web apps.

However, after installing this month's cumulative updates, many Windows users have found a newly created C:\inetpub folder on their systems, although IIS wasn't installed during the process.

BleepingComputer has confirmed this behavior on our Windows 11 and Windows 10 systems and discovered that the cumulative update creates the folder using the SYSTEM account.

Even though deleting the folder did not cause issues using Windows in our tests, Microsoft told BleepingComputer on Thursday that this empty folder had been intentionally created and should not be removed.

However, according to user reports, the April cumulative updates will fail to install if the C:\inetpub directory is created before update deployment.  

Users warned not to remove the new folder

While Redmond still has to explain why the security updates are creating this folder in the first place, the company updated the advisory for a Windows Process Activation elevation of privilege vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2025-21204) overnight to warn users not to delete the new empty inetpub folder on their hard drives.

"After installing the updates listed in the Security Updates table for your operating system, a new %systemdrive%\inetpub folder will be created on your device," Microsoft says.

"This folder should not be deleted regardless of whether Internet Information Services (IIS) is active on the target device. This behavior is part of changes that increase protection and does not require any action from IT admins and end users."

The CVE-2025-21204 security flaw is caused by an improper link resolution issue before file access ('link following') in the Windows Update Stack which likely means that, on unpatched devices, Windows Update may follow symbolic links in a way that can let local attackers trick the system into accessing or modifying unintended files or folders.

The company warns that successful exploitation can let local attackers with low privileges escalate permissions and "perform and/or manipulate file management operations on the victim machine in the context of the NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM account."

How to recreate the C:\inetpub folder

For those who deleted the inetpub folder, you can recreate it by going into the Windows "Turn Windows Features on or off" control panel and installing Internet Information Services.

Once installed, a new inetpub folder will be created in the root of the C: drive, this time with files in it. However, it will have the same SYSTEM ownership as the folder created by the recent Windows security update.

If you do not use IIS, you can uninstall it again through the same Windows Features control panel and reboot your computer when prompted.

This will remove the software but leave the C:\inetpub folder behind. 

Microsoft didn't explain how the inetpub folder would "increase protection," and BleepingComputer has yet to receive a reply to further questions regarding the newly created folder's actual purpose and how to restore it.

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This tool makes use of Apple's Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK) and the Wine compatibility layer to allow Windows games to run on macOS. Unfortunately, the sole developer—who happens to be a student—has decided to abandon the project. The developer of Whisky made this announcement in a notice on the official website (spotted by TechSpot), stating that he "lost interest in the project."

The developer has also mentioned that Whisky will no longer be supported with future releases. However, in case future macOS upgrades break the Whisky application, users might still see some occasional updates. The sole developer of Whisky noted, "Running it is incredibly time-consuming, and as I'm still a student and also not being paid for work on Whisky, it becomes hard to justify working on it if I no longer enjoy it."

Additionally, the developer feels that Whisky doesn't offer anything exceptional to the Wine community. And since Whisky is based on CrossOver, it doesn't introduce new improvements, which limits its value. The developer even described Whisky's relationship with CrossOver as "parasitic," suggesting it could potentially harm CrossOver's profitability and Wine's presence on Mac.

CrossOver, on the other hand, has introduced significant upgrades, with the tool supporting DirectX 12 games on Apple's OS for quite some time. What's next for the sole developer of Whisky? According to the notice, they have moved on to other projects, such as "helping out with porting Sonic Unleashed Recompiled to macOS and Metal."

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Now, in April, we have a new entry on the list of deprecated Windows features. This time, Microsoft is ditching the Windows UWP Map control and Windows Maps Platform APIs that allow developers to integrate maps into their Windows applications:

The Windows UWP Map control and Windows Maps platform APIs within Windows have been deprecated as of April 8, 2025. The Maps UWP Control and Maps platform support within Windows will continue to function but will not be updated. For more information, see Resources for deprecated features.

Microsoft has a dedicated documentation that hosts extra information about each deprecated feature and API. It says the following about the Windows UWP Map control and Windows Maps platform APIs:

In May 2024, we announced the unification of Bing Maps for Enterprise with Azure Maps. This means that going forward, Azure Maps will combine the best of Bing Maps for Enterprise and Azure Maps. If your solution uses the Windows UWP Map control, look to move to an Azure Maps based replacement within one year of this deprecation notice rather than the end date for the entire Bing Maps for Enterprise platform. The following resources can help you with this transition:

 

• Migrate from Bing Maps to Azure Maps
• Use the Azure Maps map control
• Azure Maps code samples
• Bing Maps Blog
• Azure Maps Blog

You can find the rest of the deprecated Windows features in the official documentation here.

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Microsoft is starting to gradually roll out a preview of Recall, its feature that captures screenshots of what you do on a Copilot Plus PC to find again later, to Windows Insiders, according to a blog post published Thursday.

This new rollout could indicate that Microsoft is finally getting close to launching Recall more widely. Microsoft originally intended to launch Recall alongside Copilot Plus PCs last June, but the feature was delayed following concerns raised by security experts. The company then planned to launch it in October, but that got pushed as well so that the company could deliver “a secure and trusted experience.”

The company did release a preview of Recall in November to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel for Qualcomm Copilot Plus PCs and made a preview available to Intel- and AMD-powered Copilot Plus PC shortly after. And after a couple weeks of testing, my colleague Tom Warren said that Recall is “creepy, clever, and compelling.”

In Thursday’s blog post, Microsoft spells out that you have to opt in to saving snapshots with Recall, and you can pause saving them “at any time.”

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If you have been reading Neowin for a while, you are probably aware of just how badly Microsoft wants everyone to embrace the new mail app, despite many admins seemingly feeling like it's "hot garbage"

The company has explained the issue (below) and has deployed a fix for the problem with a new dropdown for installing the Classic Outlook app in other languages. It has also given an estimated timeline for the rollout of the fix:

ISSUE

 

Starting in 2025, Microsoft 365 consumer installs have new Outlook only and don't include classic Outlook. If you installed Microsoft 365 in a localized version and then installed classic Outlook via the standalone download, it's display language is English.

 

...

 

The reason this issue occurred is because the standalone download link used en-us "clcid" instead of the appropriate locale

 

STATUS: FIXED

 

The Office Team fixed the standalone “Download” link for the localized versions by adding a dropdown picker to pick the language to install at You can't open classic Outlook on a new Windows PC.

 

Although the standalone download is now fixed, there are issues installing from the Store. Installing from the Store may pull down the wrong language. ... The Office Team says that the Store fix will begin rolling out, starting Monday April 14, 2025. Until that fix completes rolling out, please install from the standalone download.

You can download the app in the language of your choice from this dedicated support page, and view the support article here on Microsoft's official website.

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With every release of Microsoft Edge, we care about delivering better performance so that you can spend less time waiting and more time browsing. This is why we have features like sleeping tabs and startup boost, which are a big help for performance.

The company says that the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark recorded a 6% jump from 3% to 9% between Edge 133 and 134. The test was carried out on a Windows 11 machine with a 13th-generation Intel Core i5.

Note that you may not experience the same improvements Microsoft is reporting on your machine, as performance metrics are influenced by a number of factors like your hardware, how many applications are open and running on it, and more.

Microsoft attributes the jump in speed between 133 and 134 to the focus it put on "optimizing speed" and the code changes it made to Edge and the Chromium engine that powers it.

It also adds that based on its own field telemetry, when compared to Edge 133, 134 is 1.3% faster at navigation, starts up 2% faster, and offers a 5-7% improvement in the responsiveness of web pages.

Edge 134 landed in the stable channel a little over a month ago and brought several updates, including the removal of the “Add account” option for Entra ID users, the deprecation of Microsoft Search in Bing, and seamless link opening in Teams on macOS with Edge.

The update also introduced a preview of a new policy to protect against scareware attacks and improvements to Edge settings with a more responsive interface. You can grab Edge 134 from our software page.

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The company acknowledged these problems following user reports on social media that Office apps no longer open after applying the April 2025 security updates.

"We're experiencing an issue on Windows 10 with Office 2016 where Word and Excel no longer open," one impacted Office user said.

"Same behavior here: after starting Word it crashes and also Outlook crashes in calendar view. Uninstalling KB5002700 resolved both issues," another added.

Microsoft has now addressed these crash problems in the KB5002623 Office 2016 update released on Thursday, two days after KB5002700 was pushed during this month's Patch Tuesday to fix multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities.

Office users affected by this issue can download KB5002623 from Microsoft's Download Center, but it's important to note that it only applies to the Microsoft Installer (.msi)-based edition of Office 2016.

"This update fixes the known issue in KB5002700 that causes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Outlook to stop responding," Microsoft said today.

"To restore the full Office 2016 suite to a working state, you must have both updates KB5002700 and KB5002623 installed."

Today, Redmond also fixed the standalone "Download" link for localized classic Outlook versions, which were automatically set to English.

Additionally, it confirmed that it's working on mitigating a licensing issue that is blocking access to Microsoft 365 services for some customers with Family subscriptions.

Last month, the company addressed another issue causing the new Outlook email client to crash when users clicked a button that should have helped them switch back to classic Outlook.

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This new feature in Clipchamp for work enables you to make and share project templates, helping everyone to stay aligned on branding and style. This has been a popular request from enterprise customers, and we’re happy to deliver!

Templates can come in handy in situations like YouTube intros, educational content, onboarding videos, product demos, and more. When you create a template in Clipchamp, it can be saved in OneDrive or SharePoint, and you can easily share it with members of your team via Outlook. Here's how it works:

1. Create a video or open an existing project in Microsoft Clipchamp.
2. Once the video is ready, navigate to the Templates tab in the sidebar and click Create template from project.

   

3. To save the project as a template and add it to the template list, type a name for the template, then click Create.

   

4. To edit a template, click the more options (…) button, then either select Edit template and edit the content, or delete the template by clicking Open location and deleting the template folder from your OneDrive or SharePoint account.

   

5. To share the template with someone at work, click the Share icon next to the template name, type in the name or email address of whom you'd like to share it with, and then click Send.

   

   NOTE: You can also copy the link to share it.
6. To use a template shared with you, select Templates > Import template, type or paste the URL that was shared, click Import, and then click the + icon to add the template to a project.

After adding the template, you can replace the placeholder media and text. This feature will be available for Clipchamp users with personal accounts starting this month.

Clipchamp has gotten several notable updates in the past year. For example, back in February, Microsoft rolled out features like the ability to switch between light and dark mode, a user interface revamp, and more to users with personal accounts, while users with work accounts started seeing those changes a month later in March.

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Windows 10 is about to lose another feature. Ahead of the impending end of support for the operating system, Microsoft is testing another downgrade for PCs.

The recent Patch Tuesday update for Windows 10, which brings systems to Build 19045.5737, includes several bug fixes and improvements. It also removes the clock that displays seconds within the Calendar flyout.

Windows Latest spotted the change, which appears to be in A/B testing right now. Most Windows 10 PCs seem to still show seconds within the Calendar flyout, but there are at least some users who see the new interface.

To kick things off, file regular expressions (regex) search is making its way to Nemo, Mint's default file manager. Regular expressions are insanely powerful, with a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to them, you'd find yourself using them anywhere that supports it.

Future versions of Nemo will have a regex toggle beside the search box, allowing you to enable regex mode. You can check out the specific commit that makes this possible here. At the moment, Nemo only supports wildcards in the search box.

Other improvements in Nemo include expression validation for filename and content patterns, which allows the file manager to notify you when an expression is invalid.

Next up, Cinnamon in Wayland is getting improved support for keyboard layouts and input methods. The Linux Mint team hopes this feature is finished in time for the next Linux Mint release, as it's not ready yet. At the moment, there are issues to be resolved with input methods for Asian languages and more.

The Mint team also says that LMDE 7 will finally come with "full support" for OEM installations, which will allow Linux Mint to be pre-installed on computers that are sold to consumers. After purchasing a system with LMDE 7 installed, the user can fill in their details via a first-run wizard when they turn on the new computer.

Finally, Cinnamon JavaScript (CJS), Mint's JavaScript interpreter used in the Cinnamon desktop environment, will now be versioned according to the Mozilla SpiderMonkey engine it uses. Previously, CJS shared the same version number as the Cinnamon desktop environment and was only updated when Cinnamon itself was updated.

The new changes to how CJS versioning is handled should allow for more frequent updates, faster integration of JavaScript engine improvements, and support for multiple engine versions without waiting for a full Cinnamon release.

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Before Windows introduced its modern GUI system, Microsoft was well-known for its iconic command-line operating system, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

But did you know that the Redmond giant developed a user interface called "Microsoft Bob" (codenamed Utopia) to make Windows more user-friendly to those comfortable with DOS?

Microsoft Bob shipped with a cute interface that was easy to navigate, presumably part of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' broader plan to get a PC in every household.

Microsoft Bob was an exaggerated graphical user interface for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT, designed to make computers more intuitive and easier to navigate for new users.

Microsoft Bob seemingly moved away from tiles of windows to a cartoonish home interface, packed with files, folders, apps, and even the beloved Rover the Dog, who also wiggled its way into Windows XP as a virtual assistant alongside Clippy.

However, Microsoft Bob failed to spark interest among users, prompting the company to pull the plug on the friendly interface before its prime time. According to PCWorld, Microsoft only sold 30,000 copies of Bob.

The software's low reception and adoption can be attributed to its stringent hardware requirements, including a demand for 8MB of RAM, which was a big ask at the time. Microsoft Bob was forced to bite the dust in Microsoft's Graveyard around the same time Windows 95 shipped.

The U.S. Library of Congress (LoC) has inducted the Windows 95 sound into its National Recording Registry (NRR). For those unfamiliar, the NRR is essentially a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States."

Alongside the Windows 95 theme, Minecraft's Volume Alpha has also been chosen, alongside 23 other mainstream songs. The press release says:

Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime, and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game phenomenon have been selected as some of the defining sounds of history and culture that will join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.

The LoC has also explained why it chose the Windows 95 reboot theme by Brian Eno exclaiming that it was a crucial point in the home PC revolution:

The 1990s witnessed the beginning of ubiquitous use of personal computing that is a familiar aspect of the world today. This revolution gained significant momentum in August 1995 with the release by Microsoft of the Windows 95 operating system. This iteration brought more of the computer’s operation under a graphical user interface (GUI), making a home computer more accessible to a non-specialist audience of consumers. To mark this and other improvements, Microsoft chose to incorporate a brief start-up sound that would play when Windows 95 booted up.

 

The company chose the ambient music creator and prolific music producer Brian Eno to compose this sound. Eno, now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has also been a pioneer in the creation of ambient and electronica music. Eno delivered 84 sound elements to the Microsoft designers, who ultimately selected a sound almost twice as long as requested but which they felt conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness and progress that they envisioned.

You can listen to it below

Meanwhile, about Minecraft's Volume Alpha by Daniel Rosenfeld (also known as C418), the LoC writes:

Since its official release in 2011, Minecraft has grown into a cultural phenomenon, building its legacy as one of history’s most successful video games one voxel at a time. Key to the game’s early success is the ambient-style soundtrack, created by German producer Daniel Rosenfeld under his alias, C418. The gentle electronic score lends itself perfectly to the game’s open-ended design and sandbox environment, which invites players to interact, explore and build, free from any specific narrative constraints. Inspired by pioneers of intelligent dance music such as Aphex Twin and the ambient music of Brian Eno, Rosenfeld’s original soundtrack to the game, compiled on the 2011 release “Minecraft: Volume Alpha,” provides a soothing and inviting backdrop to the video game’s open-world environment, creating instant nostalgia in the process.

 

The influence of C418’s music can be traced through the proliferation of ambient scores appearing in video games since Minecraft’s initial release, as well as the cultural phenomenon of “lo-fi hip-hop,” which grew in popularity during the late 2010s and shares many of the same calming and nostalgic musical aesthetics as those found in Minecraft’s original score.

You can listen to the songs below:

Here's a shorter version:

You can read the full press release here on LoC's official website.

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This month's security updates for Windows 11 create a new empty folder on drive C. It is called "inetpub," and it does not contain any extra folders or files. Its properties window shows 0 bytes in size and that it was created by the system itself. Neowin checked a bunch of Windows 11 PCs with the April 2025 security updates installed, and all of them had inetpub on drive C.

The mysterious inetpub folder is not protected, and you can remove it like any other folder on your computer. At the moment, it does not appear that deleting the uncalled directory causes any harm, nor does it affect any running processes or apps. You can also leave it as is since it does not take any space on your drive.

It seems that the newly discovered folder is related to Microsoft Internet Information Services, a platform that was introduced in 1995 for hosting websites and services. While IIS is still present in modern Windows releases, it is turned off by default. It is an optional feature that requires manual installation from the "Turn Windows features on or off" UI. Therefore, the inetpub folder should not be present on drive C by default.

Microsoft has not shared anything about the situation, so stay tuned for word from the company. This could be a simple bug that somehow slipped unnoticed into the public release. We will update the article once there is more information to it. Meanwhile, you can find release notes for Windows 11 April 2025 cumulative updates here.

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The official Microsoft 365 Service Health Status website currently lists there is no issue with "everything up and running". However, the page will likely be updated soon to reflect the situation.

A user was able to work around the issue:

We will update the post once more details are available.

Update, April 9th, 10.35 EST: Microsoft says the issue may be worsening as it is "investigating an increase in errors within the service"

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This known issue impacts both client (Windows 11 24H2) and server (Windows Server 2025) platforms with the KB5055523 cumulative update installed, although only in some specific scenarios.

According to Redmond, devices impacted by these Windows Hello authentication issues include those with the Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement (DRTM) or System Guard Secure Launch features enabled before deploying the KB5055523 update.

"We're aware of an edge case of Windows Hello issue affecting devices with specific security features enabled. After installing this update and performing a Push button reset or Reset this PC from Settings > System > Recovery and selecting Keep my Files and Local install, some users might be unable to login to their Windows services using Windows Hello facial recognition or PIN," Microsoft explains.

"Users might observe a Windows Hello Message saying 'Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again' or 'Sorry something went wrong with face setup'."

Until a permanent fix is available, the company also provides the following workarounds for affected Windows users:

• To log in using PIN, follow the Set my PIN prompt on the logon screen to re-enroll into Windows Hello.
• To use Face Logon, re-enroll in Windows Hello Facial Recognition by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Facial recognition (Windows Hello) and selecting Set up. Next, follow the on-screen instructions.

On Tuesday, Microsoft fixed another KB5055523 bug that caused authentication issues when Credential Guard was enabled on systems using the Kerberos PKINIT pre-auth security protocol.

Earlier this week, Redmond also introduced a new Windows 11 24H2 safeguard hold for systems with SenseShield Technology's sprotect.sys driver (used by security or enterprise software) because of incompatibility issues that trigger blue or black screen of death (BSOD) errors.

Other upgrade blocks prompted by incompatible software or hardware have also been applied to Windows devices with Dirac audio improvement software, integrated cameras, or the Easy Anti-Cheat and Safe Exam Browser apps.

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When you install a fresh copy of Windows 11, the system comes preconfigured with a range of default settings that Microsoft believes are suitable for most users.

However, many of these defaults are designed to promote the company’s own products and services (such as Microsoft 365, PC Game Pass, and Microsoft Edge) rather than optimize the experience for all users.

Beyond these promotional features, Windows 11 also enables and disables various system settings by default, which sometimes may not align with what’s best for performance, security, or productivity.

For instance, System Protection, a feature that allows you to undo unwanted system changes, is disabled by default for all drives, even though it used to be enabled for the main drive in earlier versions. Similarly, automatic Registry backups, a critical recovery safeguard, are no longer created by default.

File Explorer also continues to hide file extensions for known file types, which can make it harder to identify potentially harmful files or manage advanced file tasks.

Although new features like the "Sudo" command and "End Task" from the taskbar are now part of Windows 11, they remain disabled by default and reserved primarily for developers.

In this how-to guide, I'll highlight seven features that should be turned on by default on every installation of Windows 11.

Reddit user jbgski posted on the Windows 11 subreddit a screenshot of the redesigned Office app icons that Microsoft included in an email survey, asking users to help the company "better understand preferences and opinions about our exploration of different iconography designs for Microsoft 365." To offer users an extra incentive, Microsoft is giving $10 gift cards to each survey participant.

Judging by the email's wording, the offered icons are likely not final, and they might ship in a slightly different form (if they ship at all). It also looks like Microsoft wants to align all of the Microsoft 365 apps with the look of the new Outlook app, which so many people openly hate. The offered variants looks more vibrant with more gradients, rounded corners, and volume or depth to each icon.

The new icons also align better with the recent redesign that the company announced for its illustrations in September 2024. Microsoft is now leaning towards more skeuomorphic and 3D-like icons and illustrations after over a decade of mostly flat design across its operating systems, apps, and services. You can read more about Microsoft's new design concepts in a post on the Microsoft Design website, where the company also hosts its multiple wallpaper collections, including the recent 50th-anniversary images.

Do you like the new icons for Office apps? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

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Today, in a new blog post, Microsoft has published a detailed step-by-step guide on how to troubleshoot feature update troubles on Windows 10 and 11 via Intune. Penned by Luke Ramsdale, a Senior Security Customer Escalation Engineer at the Microsoft Intune department, the guide is quite thorough as it walks you through all the steps one at a time.

Remember the recent checklist of things Microsoft released for devices that can't update to Windows 11? This guide is similar to that, as it is also a sort of checklist that IT admins can follow to help them fix or work around feature update problems.

It starts with confirming the prerequisites, and these include things like an Intune license, a supported Edition, Windows diagnostic data collection, among others. This is followed by update ring considerations, ways of dealing with conflicting feature update policies, and accounting for safeguard holds, like the recent example of the SenseShield software incompatibility block placed on Windows 11 24H2.

Finally, after all these considerations are made, Microsoft has explained how administrators can proceed with the troubleshooting part from the Intune admin center using the Windows feature update report.

Additionally, the guide has also highlighted how troubleshooting is possible from the client side too. At the end of the guide, the tech giant has provided a quick summary or TL;DR of everything it has gone through. Microsoft writes:

This blog covered many aspects of troubleshooting feature updates, here are the key points:

 

• Make sure the prerequisites are in place. It’s important to emphasize that implementing the prerequisites for feature updates is important to ensuring a smooth feature update deployment. Take time to ensure that these are configured correctly as this is especially important for reporting.
• In more complex environments with Microsoft Entra hybrid joined devices, it’s important to ensure that there are no conflicting settings deployed from multiple sources, for example, having GPO settings, Microsoft Configuration Manager update policies, and conflicting Intune update policies deployed. Try to ensure that update policies are deployed from only one source. If multiple sources must be used, consider using the scan source group policy.
• It’s possible to interact with Windows Autopatch using PowerShell cmdlets and Graph APIs. This provides insight into a tenant's configuration, but it’s not a requirement as Intune will configure this for you using feature update and update ring policies.
  Note: It’s also important to understand that the Intune configured Windows Update client policies will not be visible via the PowerShell cmdlets or Graph APIs.
• Take note of whether safeguard holds are applied to specific device models, checking the feature update failures report will assist with identifying these.
• The device side event logs, Windows update logs, MDM diagnostics report, and registry values are all important sources for trying to narrow down why a device isn’t installing a feature update, or if a feature update was unexpectedly not installed or installed.
• Collecting diagnostics from affected devices will gather the relevant logs and data required for troubleshooting, this is important to gather if a support request is opened.

You can read the guide in its full glory on the blog post here on Microsoft's official Tech Community website.

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On the Windows 10 side, Microsoft has confirmed that there are no known issues for the latest supported version of Windows, which is a rarity. Meanwhile, over on the latest Windows 11 side, the tech giant states that it has fixed a Kerberos authentication bug.

The bug would not allow passwords to change correctly, leading to authentication failures as they are perceived as "stale, disabled, or deleted." In normal situations, these passwords are set to automatically rotate at an interval (30 days is the default).

Due to this issue, Machine accounts in Credential Guard were also disabled as the feature is dependent on Kerberos authentication working optimally. For those wondering, when using this feature, machine account credentials are moved from the registry to the Defender Credential Guard for safety.

Microsoft explains:

After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, devices using the Identity Update Manager certificate/Public Key Cryptography for Initial Authentication (PKNIT), might experience an issue with passwords not rotating correctly, causing authentication failures. This issue occurs particularly when Kerberos Authentication is used and the Credential Guard feature is enabled. Note that machine certification using PKINIT path is a niche use case, and this issue affects a small number of devices in enterprise environments.

 

With this issue, devices fail to change their password every 30 days as the default interval. Because of this failure, devices are perceived as stale, disabled, or deleted, leading to user authentication issues.

 

Devices running Windows Home edition are unlikely to be affected by this issue, as Kerberos authentication is typically used in enterprise environments and is not common in personal or home settings.

 

Note: The feature Machine Accounts in Credential Guard, which is dependent on password rotation via Kerberos, has been disabled until a permanent fix is made available.

The company says the issue has now been resolved:

This issue is resolved in the April 2025 Windows security update (KB5055523) and later updates. We recommend you install the latest update for your device as it contains important improvements and issue resolutions, including this one.

You can view the issue here on Microsoft's official Windows health dashboard website.

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Copilot File Search is a feature that lets you find files on your PC within the Copilot app. Besides locating your files, the app now enables you to ask questions about them. For example, you can say something like, "Look at my budget file and tell me how much I spent on dining last month.".

File search: You can now find, open and ask questions about the contents of a file on your device from the Copilot on Windows app. You can adjust your permissions for what Copilot can access, retrieve, or read in Copilot Settings under Permission settings. File search supports most file types and can read .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .txt, .pdf, .json files. Ask Copilot questions like “Can you find my resume”, “Open the trip planning doc I was working on last week”, or “Look at my budget file and tell me how much I spent on dining last month”.

Copilot Vision is a new assistant that can provide additional information about something inside your browser window or any other app. You can let it analyze the content and then ask various questions.

Copilot Vision on Windows: You can share any browser or app window with Copilot. Copilot can then help analyze, offer insights, or answer your questions, coaching you through it aloud. To get started click the glasses icon in your composer, select which browser window or app you want to share, and ask Copilot to help with whatever you’re working on. To stop sharing, press ‘Stop’ or ‘X’ in the composer.

These features are now rolling out to Windows insiders in all channels via the Microsoft Store. Copilot Vision is only available in the United States, while Copilot File Search is available worldwide. Note that the rollout is gradual, so not everyone can access these features right here and right now.

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In the Stable channel, Game Assist received support for new games, such as Assassin's Creed Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, Split Fiction, World of Warcraft, and Genshin Impact. It now defaults to desktop versions of websites, supports the F6 key to set focus on the address bar, opens links from form sidebar apps without switching to desktop Edge, and more.

In the preview channels, Game Assist now features improved looks that match the Game Bar's recent redesign. You can now view favorites and history, use extensions from context menus, and more. A neat new addition is the Ctrl + G shortcut, which pastes the name of the game you are currently playing.

Here is what is new in the Stable release:

• Enhanced Game Assist for more games, including Assassin's Creed Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, Split Fiction, World of Warcraft, and Genshin Impact. See all enhanced games.
• Switched default page rendering mode from mobile to desktop to improve site compatibility, particularly on third-party productivity websites.
• Expanded initial extensions support to sidebar apps (instead of just browser tabs).
• Game Assist now automatically switches to new tabs created by the webpage instead of opening them in the background.
• Links in sidebar apps now open in Game Assist.
• Added support for opening a tab in the background with Ctrl+Click or by clicking the mouse scroll wheel.
• Added support for closing tabs by clicking the mouse scroll wheel.
• Added page zoom controls to the Settings and more (…) menu.
• Fixed a bug where users would end up with many new tabs.
• Added support for moving focus to the address bar with F6.
• Additional bug fixes, polish, and accessibility improvements.

Those testing Edge in the Canary and Dev Channels have a separate changelog:

• Updated the look and feel of Game Assist to match the new Game Bar design.
• Reduced the size of the header and address bar for a more streamlined experience.
• Quickly paste the name of the game you're playing into any text box with Ctrl+G or by right-clicking and selecting Paste game title.
• Added support for viewing and managing favorites and history.
• Added support for adding a new favorite.
• Enabled support for extensions in context menus.
• Show keyboard shortcuts next to items in menus.
• Moved the profile switcher and refresh button into the Settings and more (…) menu.
• Removed the sidebar to maximize space for the webpage based on your feedback. Sites in the sidebar can still be visited in a new tab.
• Additional bug fixes, polish, and accessibility improvements.

Microsoft Edge Game Assist is currently available in preview. You can try it out on your system by heading to Edge Settings > Appearance > Game Assist (Preview). After that, open Game Bar and click Game Assist from the list of available widgets.

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