On a support document, it explains how it would crash when trying to start a new email, or when replying or even forwarding. Alongside that, the information related to the crash event log has also been provided such that users can confirm whether that is indeed the bug.

Microsoft writes:

ISSUE

 

After updating to Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168) classic Outlook may crash when starting a new email, or when replying or forwarding an email.

 

You can confirm if this is the issue by looking at the Windows Event Viewer Application Log for crash Event 1000 or Event 1001, and the following event details:

 

Faulting application name: OUTLOOK.EXE, version: 16.0.18324.20168, time stamp: 0x677828da
Faulting module name: OUTLOOK.EXE, version: 16.0.18324.20168, time stamp: 0x677828da
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000001a7c02a
Faulting process id: 0x0xFD0
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DB65D0FD0B9857
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE

Microsoft has provided a workaround for the problem for those on the current channel which involves reverting to the previous version:

STATUS: WORKAROUND

 

This issue is fixed for Current Channel with Version 2501 Build 18429.20000 estimated to be released January 28, 2025.

 

To work around the issue, you can revert to the prior Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162):

 

1. Open a Command Prompt in Administrator context.
2. Type or paste the two commands into the Command Prompt window and press  Enter after each:

   cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

    

   officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20162

    

3. To prevent Office updating back to the latest build you can turn off updates by selecting File > Office Account > Update Options > Disable Updates.
4. Put a reminder on your calendar for February 11th to re-enable updates. Or, check back on this Known Issue in case it is addressed sooner.

You can find the support document here on Microsoft's official website.

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Here is the official changelog:

• Fixed crash reporter not being displayed for some localized builds (Bug 1940763).
• Fixed a regression in Firefox 134 where anchored links in HTML framesets pointing to local files did not work (Bug 1934807).
• Fixed an issue in developer tools preventing the resending of network requests when debugging extensions (Bug 1934478).
• Fixed an issue where data consumption from service workers may unexpectedly halt (Bug 1941210).

Firefox version 134.0.2 joins the recently released version 134.0.1 that fixed bugs with the user interface hanging on certain websites like Google and YouTube, startup crashes after upgrading to Firefox 133, and bugs with the search engine selection menus. You can check out the changelog in our dedicated article.

As for version 134.0, which was released on January 7, it introduced new features like improved touchpad gestures on Linux (you can now interrupt kinetic scrolling by placing two fingers on the touchpad), hardware-accelerated playback of HEVC videos on Windows, a refreshed layout of the new tab page for more users in the United States and Canada, and more. The complete release notes for Firefox 134 are available here.

You can download Firefox 134.0.2 from

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The Chrome browser, which aims to be easy to use, will try to minimize any disruption with this new feature by only freezing background tabs that meet specific criteria and are CPU-intensive. Google said that freezing a tab is different from unloading a tab from memory; when you go back to the tab it will resume any queued tasks without loss of state.

For anyone with technical knowledge wondering about this feature, Google says that freezing will suspend task execution on affected web pages; including event handlers, timers, and promise resolvers.

The search giant said that the new feature will aim to avoid freezing 'efficiently implemented' web apps such as email or chat clients, or calendar apps that generate notifications. Web pages that provide audio or video conferencing capabilities and those that control external devices will also not be frozen to avoid disruption.

For developers out there in charge of running websites, Google says that if your page doesn't do anything in the background, it likely won't be impacted by freezing. However, if your site does have background functionality, then you should try to minimize the CPU usage so that it's not considered a CPU-intensive website and made eligible for freezing. Google has a list of tips for anyone looking to optimize their websites in its announcement under the 'How can I prepare my website?' header.

Chrome 133 will be released in February, so users won't need to wait long for this cool new feature.

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Exchange 2016 reached its mainstream end date in October 2020, while Exchange 2019 reached the end of mainstream support on January 9, 2024.

"On October 14, 2025, 9 months from today, Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 reach end of support," the Exchange Team said.

"Customer installations of Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will of course continue to run after October 14, 2025; however, due to the upcoming end of support date and potential future security risks, we strongly recommend customers act now."

After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for problems with Exchange 2016 or Exchange 2019, including technical support and bug fixes for newly discovered issues that may impact server usability and stability.

The company will also stop issuing time zone updates and security fixes for discovered vulnerabilities that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches.

Upgrade to Exchange Online or Exchange Server SE

Microsoft advises admins to migrate to Exchange Online (available as an Office 365 subscription or a stand-alone service) or prepare to upgrade to Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) when it rolls out in early H2 of CY2025.

Admins can perform an in-place upgrade from Exchange Server 2019 to Exchange Server SE, identical to installing a Cumulative Update (CU).

"To enable quick and easy in-place upgrades from Exchange Server 2019, we have purposely either pulled new features forward into Exchange Server 2019 CU15 or pushed them to Exchange Server SE CU1 or later, leaving the Exchange SE RTM to be a branding update that introduces new lifecycle and support policies," the Exchange Team said in September when it provided more information on Exchange Server SE upgrades.

"By moving to Exchange Server SE RTM, your servers are on the supported path to Exchange SE CU1. Once Exchange SE CU1 is released, all older versions will be out of support."

Redmond's documentation site provides detailed guidance for global admins on Microsoft 365 migration and helps them decide on the Exchange Online migration path.

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From a usability point of view, it compares badly against Chromium-based browsers. That is probably the main reason why Mozilla set out to improve the experience.

The new Profile Manager of the Firefox web browser has just been enabled in Firefox Nightly. This is the first step towards enabling the new manager in Firefox Stable, the version that is most widely used.

Good to know: Profiles add more to the browser than just a fresh coat of paint and a new icon. These act as independent users, which means that they have their own set of bookmarks, open tabs, installed extensions and other customizations.

Here is what you can expect.

Firefox's Profile Manager

A click on the Menu-icon in Firefox's toolbar displays the new Profiles entry. Another click displays all existing profiles, an option to create a new profile, and to manage all profiles.

You can load any profile with a click on its name or icon. This loads the profile in a new browser window without closing the existing one.

A click on the new profile option loads the creator page. Each profile has a name, theme, and avatar that you can pick.

Select the manage profile entry instead to get an overview and management options. Here you may do the following:

• Edit any profile.
• Delete a profile.
• Create a new profile.
• Toggle "choose a profile when Nightly opens".

This is the same window that opens when you keep the option to choose a profile when the browser opens enabled.

Here is how it looks.

Note that the profile that was used previously will be loaded when you disable the option. You may then still switch to another profile using the profile menu.

For those wondering, the old profile manager is still available. You can still launch Firefox with the -p parameter to load it, at least for now.

Closing Words

The new profiles entry under menu in Firefox improves the visibility of the feature. This highlights the feature to many Firefox users, which is good.

Now it is your turn. Do you use profiles in your browser of choice? If so, how many do you use and for which purpose? 

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In the latest episode of "stuff that nobody asked for for the dying OS," we have cute little artworks in the calendar flyout to showcase various important events and celebrations.

X user @phantomofearth noticed that the latest Windows 10 Release Preview build 19045.5435 adds a few extra bits to the taskbar calendar. You can toggle on or off weather, holidays and events, and holiday illustrations. Turning these bits on places a weather forecast next to your agenda and little illustrations next to today's date. For example, Valentine's Day on February 14 has roses and purple hearts; how cute. Useless? Pretty much, but still, it's a nice touch.

This addition is similar to Search Highlights, which are small daily images that appear in the search box on the taskbar. They are not very useful, plus clicking them gets you to Bing, but some users like how Windows surprises you with daily images and some interesting facts about current events, holidays, or just random stuff.

Watching Microsoft add stuff to the soon-to-be-dead OS is quite puzzling, considering the poor state of Windows 11's stock taskbar. The calendar flyout still does not allow adding or viewing events—it is a primitive calendar with nothing useful, and it has remained in that state since its initial release in late 2021, forcing users to fix things with the help of third-party apps like Calendar Flyout or Battery Flyout. Even the Windows 10 Insider Program is still active, with the most recent release on Jan 17 adding "Outlook (new)" as Microsoft continues its push to forcefully move people off Mail, Calendar, and People apps.

Fun illustrations are cool and everything, but can we have some much-needed upgrades for Windows 11's taskbar? Microsoft tries so hard to make everyone move to Windows 11, but instead of addressing popular requests to make the OS more appealing (a lot of people are discontent with Windows 11's absolutely lame calendar flyout), the company adds cute images in Windows 10. Come on, Microsoft.

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As it often does, aside from Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has also released new dynamic updates for WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), also called Safe OS updates. There are a bunch of them as there are updates for all supported Windows 10 versions, namely, 22H1, 21H2,1809, 1607, and 1507.

This time, Microsoft has not released any update for Setup binaries which it typically also does simultaneously alongside the recovery updates.

About the WinRE updates, Microsoft writes:

KB5050199: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 10, version 21H2 and Windows 10, version 22H2.

 

..

 

KB5050198: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019.

 

..

 

KB5050120: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 10, version 1607 and Windows Server 2016: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 10, version 1607 and Windows Server 2016.

 

..

 

KB5050121: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 10: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 10, version 1507.

Microsoft is also replacing the KB5048239 WinRE update that kept installing over and over basically leading to an installation-loop with no actual progress. The update has been replaced by the new KB5050411 which applies the KB5050199 WinRE update listed above.

The problem was occurring even when users had more than the necessary 250 MB allocated space for a recovery partition as highlighted by Neowin reader snowy owl.

Microsoft writes:

KB5050411: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update automatically applies Safe OS Dynamic Update (KB5050199) to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) on a running PC. The update installs improvements to Windows recovery features.

WinRE updates seem to be causing installation problems for users at fairly regular intervals. One thing to avoid the headache is to delete the recovery partition entirely although that may not be the best option for everyone considering the Microsoft recently highlighted how WinRE is just as essential a system requirement as TPM and Secure Boot at least for features like encryption.

For those who may not be aware, these Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. In a Techcommunity blog post about Windows 10 Dynamic Updates, Microsoft explained Dynamic Updates in more detail regarding its various components and uses. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more:

As soon as a Windows 10 feature update initiates, whether from media or a Windows Update service-connected environment, Dynamic Update is one of the first steps invoked. Windows 10 Setup reaches out to an Internet-facing URL hosted by Microsoft to fetch Dynamic Update content, then applies those updates to your OS installation media.

 

Content acquired includes:

 

• Setup Updates: Fixes to Setup binaries or any files that Setup uses for feature updates.
• Safe OS Updates: Fixes for the "safe OS" that are used to update Windows recovery environment (WinRE).

 

In addition to these updates, Dynamic Update will preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. These are not updates to LPs and FODs, but reacquisition to ensure the user has these elements present with the update completes.

These WinRE dynamic updates are not pushed through Windows Update and are also available for manual downloading from the Windows Update Catalog website. You can find them here: KB5050199, KB5050198, KB5050120, and KB5050121.

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As it often does, aside from Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has also released new dynamic updates for WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), also called Safe OS updates. This time there are a couple of them as there are updates for all Windows 11 versions, namely, 24H2, 23H2, and 22H2.

This time, Microsoft has not released any update for Setup binaries which it typically also does simultaneously alongside the recovery updates.

About the WinRE updates, Microsoft writes:

KB5050119: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025.

 

..

 

KB5050200: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 22H2 and 23H2: January 14, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 11, version 22H2 and Windows 11, version 23H2.

For those who may not be aware, these Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. In a Techcommunity blog post about Windows 10 Dynamic Updates, Microsoft explained Dynamic Updates in more detail regarding its various components and uses. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more:

As soon as a Windows 10 feature update initiates, whether from media or a Windows Update service-connected environment, Dynamic Update is one of the first steps invoked. Windows 10 Setup reaches out to an Internet-facing URL hosted by Microsoft to fetch Dynamic Update content, then applies those updates to your OS installation media.

 

Content acquired includes:

 

• Setup Updates: Fixes to Setup binaries or any files that Setup uses for feature updates.
• Safe OS Updates: Fixes for the "safe OS" that are used to update Windows recovery environment (WinRE).

 

In addition to these updates, Dynamic Update will preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. These are not updates to LPs and FODs, but reacquisition to ensure the user has these elements present with the update completes.

These WinRE dynamic updates are not pushed through Windows Update and are also available for manual downloading from the Windows Update Catalog website. You can find them here: KB5050119, KB5050200.

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You can also check out our previous articles from the series, which also have plenty of relevant and useful Windows applications here, here, and here.

1. Visum Photo Viewer

Free in the Microsoft Store

I do not like the stock Photos app, and it is usually one of the first apps that go straight to the trash when I perform another clean installation. The standard Photos app is resource-heavy, slow, and overall not very convenient.

I still remember writing a guide about restoring the old Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10, but with that now gone, those who need a simple and fast app for viewing photos should check out the Visum Photo Viewer. Besides being quick and very responsive, it has a Windows 11-like UI, plus it can work as a media player for videos. And yes, it is completely free.

The only thing I am not a fan of is the fact that the last update was released nearly two years ago. Smells like abandonware, but in its current form, Visum Photo Viewer works great for me with zero complaints.

2. QuickPad

$3.99 in the Microsoft Store

I know that $3.99 for a Notepad replacement might sound a bit silly, but hear me out. I do not trust Windows 11's stock Notepad. It is no longer a bulletproof app that works 100% of the time. Like many other modern Windows apps, it is slow and not very reliable (even though it has Autosave now); plus, I am not a fan of how Microsoft is cramming AI stuff into such simple things as Notepad that should be 100% reliable and bulletproof.

This sounds like an old man yelling at cloud, but I prefer having a simpler, faster, dead-stable application for quick text editing, and I do not mind paying a few bucks for that. That is exactly what QuickPad provides, plus a few additional conveniences like CompactOverlay support, which is mega-convenient, several UI modes, autosave, text customization, themes, markdown support, and more. QuickPad gets bonus points for having a user interface that looks at home in Windows 11.

If you are still not convinced, there is always Notepad++.

3. ClipShelf

Free in the Microsoft Store + $3.99 one-time in-app purchase for extra features

I did not expect to like this app so much when I first tried it. Now, several weeks later, I think Microsoft should take some notes from it. ClipShelf is a program for those who want to supercharge Windows' built-in clipboard. It places a small pane above the taskbar and keeps there all your recently copied elements. It utilizes Windows' built-in clipboard history and provides additional features.

My favorite thing about this app is how I can quickly paste certain things from the clipboard. Just hit the shortcut with the corresponding number, and it will paste what you need. For example, I have copied a photo and then copied a HEX number. I can press Win + Ctrl + 2, and ClipShelf will paste my photo. Alternatively, I can just click the item on the shelf to paste it.

ClipShelf is highly customizable—you can change the shelf location, adjust its theme, select how many items appear, block apps from recording or screenshotting your clipboard, and more. You can use the app for free, but some additional features require a one-time $3.99 purchase (no subscriptions, thankfully).

4. WinToys

Free in the Microsoft Store

Unlike the previous apps, you are probably not going to use this one very often. Still, WinToys is a great program to have for tweaking, servicing, or troubleshooting Windows 11 and 10. The app offers you a dashboard with your computer's specs, an overview of running processes, services, network, resource utilization, and more.

You can use WinToys to uninstall applications, track and manage various Windows services in a modern, user-friendly UI (each service has a brief explanation to help you understand its purpose), and adjust multiple settings, including some hidden ones.

I also like WinToys for some of its service-related features like quick memory diagnostic, disk cleanup, Windows Update management, and more. Also, WinToys can help you get rid of Windows 11's annoyances like second-chance OOBE, ads, feedback notifications, etc. And yes, it also has a beautiful Windows 11-optimized UI with light and dark modes.

5. Battery Flyout

$3.99 in the Microsoft Store

Battery Flyout is a must-have for Windows laptop and tablet owners. As the name suggests, it is a native-like battery flyout that lets you track your device's battery, plus Bluetooth accessories like mice, keyboards, headphones, etc. The app also provides a quick way to adjust power plans (something Microsoft killed when switching from Windows 10 to 11), offers battery level notifications, and lets you have a battery percentage indicator in the tray area.

We published a story about Battery Flyout some time ago; you can check it out here for more details.

6. Wino Mail

Free in the Microsoft Store + $9.99 one-time purchase to unlock unlimited accounts.

The Windows community is a very polarizing one, but there is one undeniable consensus that the New Outlook for Windows sucks big time. With the old Mail and Calendar apps gone, unsatisfied users have to resort to other options, like the Wino Mail. It is a free email client that tries very hard to give customers what Microsoft has taken away.

Besides being very fast and looking very nice (dark and light modes are supported, plus plenty of other customization features), Win Mail supports Microsoft, Gmail, IMAP, and SMTP accounts. It works in the background and has notifications, linked accounts, system tray integration, and many more. If you need a decent mail client for your personal needs, Wino Mail is a great pick. Just keep in mind that if you want to use four or more accounts, you will have to pay $9.99 (a one-time purchase).

7. Lively Weather

Free in the Microsoft Store

Lively Weather is a lightweight app with all the weather data you need. Unlike the clunky and slow stock Windows Weather app, Lively Weather is fast and smooth with a simple UI and beautiful subtle animations that do not hog system resources. It offers data like temperature, UV index, sunset/sunrise/ humidity, pressure, air quality, wind, precipitation, and more. You can select from built-in weather providers and adjust the app's visual fidelity if you have a lower-end device.

8. Writing Tools

Free on GitHub

Writing Tools is a free, open-source app that adds Apple Intelligence-like features to Windows machines, regardless of whether you have a Copilot+ PC or a traditional machine. It utilizes Gemini Nano LLM for text processing, allowing you to rewrite, proofread, ask questions, and do other AI stuff. Just press the shortcut (you can customize it) and type what you need to do with the selected text or your request. Very handy.

Writing Tools is a very small application with a minimal impact on resources. The only caveat is that it does not work without an active internet connection.

9. Aquile Reader

Free with a subscription or one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store

I, like many other Microsoft Edge users, do not understand why Microsoft decided to remove EPUB support from its browser. Now, with Edge no longer being able to work as an EPUB reader, those who want to read on their tablets, laptops, or PC should look elsewhere. Aquile Reader may not be the prettiest application on the list (it is a weird mix of Windows 10 and 11 UI bits), but it is great at doing its job—being an e-reader.

You can read your own e-books or browse various online catalogs and read over 50,000 books for free within the app. Aquile Reader also supports notes, highlights, bookmarks, a system text-to-speech engine, powerful library features, collections, folder sync, and even reading stats so that you can keep an eye on your reading habits.

Aquile Reader is available for free, but access to all of its features requires either a subscription of $8.99/year or $2.99/3 months or a one-time $19.99 purchase. The free version has ads and limits on the number of books you can have in your library, as well as other features.

10. SyncFolder

Free in the Microsoft Store

This simple app is for those who want to keep important files backed up without using stuff like OneDrive or other cloud solutions. The purpose of the SyncFolder app is to back up select folders to your external hard drives, USB flash drives, network drives, FTP servers, network-attached storage, MPT devices, and more.

The developer deliberately keeps the app as simple as possible to focus on its primary purpose without overcomplicating stuff or sacrificing reliability/privacy. SyncFolder supports four copying methods: mirroring (exact copy of the source), two-way sync (keeps two locations in sync), blind copying (only new and changed files are copied), and cut-paste (moving an item from one location to another).

Personally, I keep my important data in OneDrive (I am in a love-hate relationship with it), so I do not use SyncFolder, but Steven Parker, Neowin's founder, does. He is an avid user of SyncFolder, and it is his personal recommendation. If you need a simple and flexible backup solution for local or network media, definitely try it.

If you know other great Windows 10 and 11 apps, share them in the comment section!

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Microsoft has updated the official Windows Health Dashboard documentation to notify users that the block preventing upgrades to Windows 11 version 24H2 due to issues with certain Ubisoft games has been fully removed (it was partially lifted in early December 2024).

In November 2024, the company confirmed problems with games like Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and more. Microsoft said the games would hang during loading or gameplay or get stuck on a black screen. Ubisoft helped Microsoft resolve the bug by releasing updates to affected games, and with updates now fully out, the software giant is giving the green light to Windows 11 version 24H2.

If you have Ubisoft games on your PC, you should update them to the latest version first before proceeding with Windows updates. Here are the details:

Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are no longer affected by this issue due to temporary hotfixes deployed by Ubisoft. While these fixes mitigate the crashes, players might still experience some performance issues. For more details, see the release notes for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Title Update 1.2 and Star Wars Outlaws – Title Update 1.4.0. The safeguard hold (ID 54580160) that was previously in place for these two games has been lifted as of 12/05/2024.

 

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla are no longer affected by this issue due to fixes deployed by Ubisoft. These updates have resolved the compatibility issues with Windows 11, version 24H2, ensuring that players can now enjoy these games without previous disruptions. The safeguard hold (ID 54437462) that was previously in place has been lifted as of 1/16/2025 to exclude these games.

Note that despite the removal of the upgrade block, your system might still take some time to find version 24H2 in Windows Update. If you want to speed things up, restart your system. You can also perform an in-place update using the Media Creation Tool app or a Windows 11 image.

Note that some gaming-related upgrade blocks remain in place, such as issues with Auto HDR. Microsoft is still working on a fix for that, but there is an easy workaround for those who cannot wait.

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These measures are meant to protect against CVE-2024-26248 and CVE-2024-29056 Kerberos PAC (Privilege Attribute Certificate) flaws and Black Lotus Secure Boot flaw.

DC security hardening is strengthening the servers that run Azure Active Directory (AD) in order to reduce the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches, and they are being deployed in phases.

In the previous phase that commenced in October 2024, Secure Boot bypass protections were enforced under the Mandatory Enforcement Phase.

The new timeline is given below:

January 2025

 

• PAC Validation changes KB5037754 | Enforcement by default phase

Updates released in or after January 2025 will move all Windows domain controllers and clients in the environment to Enforced mode. This mode will enforce secure behavior by default. Existing registry key settings that have been previously set will override this default behavior change.

 

The default Enforced mode settings can be overridden by an Administrator to revert to Compatibility mode.

 

February 2025 or later

 

• Certificate-based authentication KB5014754 | Phase 3

Full Enforcement mode. If a certificate cannot be strongly mapped, authentication will be denied.

 

April 2025

 

• PAC Validation changes KB5037754 | Enforcement phase

The Windows security updates released in or after April 2025, will remove support for the registry subkeys PacSignatureValidationLeveland CrossDomainFilteringLevel and enforce the new secure behavior. There will be no support for Compatibility mode after installing the April 2025 update.

You can find the timeline in this support article (KB5036534) on Microsoft's official website.

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Users discovered that the latest Windows 11 Dev build, which brought some big new features to Copilot+ PCs, also has some updates for the battery indicator. In addition to the recent redesign, first spotted in early December 2024, Microsoft will let you have proper battery percentage in the tray area next to the battery indicator.

Of course, some may want to keep their tray areas clean and without extra indicators, so Microsoft is generously offering the ability to toggle battery percentage on or off. When enabled, the new option sits in System > Power > Battery Percentage.

For now, the updated battery indicator remains unannounced by Microsoft, whose software engineers are busy polishing the new variant. However, if you cannot wait to try the updated battery indicator, you can toggle it on with the help of the ViVeTool app. Here is how to do it:

1. Make sure you are on build 26120.2992. You can check your build version in Settings > System > About > OS build.
2. Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files wherever convenient.
3. Launch Command Prompt as Administrator.
4. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
5. Type vivetool /enable /id:48822452,48433719 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.

Now, you can go to Settings > Power and turn on the battery percentage indicator.

Credit for the discovery, feature IDs, and screenshot goes to the ever-giving source of Windows insights, @phantomofearth.

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Here is the list of feature updates:

• Intune policies in the Microsoft Edge management service. Admins now can set Intune policies via the Microsoft Edge management service, alongside the existing cloud policies. This ability lets admins deploy both browser policies in the cloud and Intune policies from a single pane, making it easy to keep users safe and the browser workflow streamlined. This feature comes along with a new policy creation wizard that streamlines the creation process into a comprehensive, step-by-step flow. Note: This experience is in public preview and can be accessed by opting in to targeted release in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Version monitoring in the Edge management service. The Edge management service offers a single view of all managed Edge instances with their update status and possible actions to take. For out-of-date devices, you can easily schedule updates or notify users to update their browsers to avoid workflow interruptions. Note: This experience is in public preview and can be accessed by opting in to targeted release in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Shopping Product Tracking. Track product prices easily with a new experience in the Edge Address Bar that appears on the product detail page. Users can track prices quickly and are notified when there's a price drop on that product and save more. Administrators can control the availability of Shopping in Edge using the EdgeShoppingAssistantEnabled policy. Note: This feature is a controlled feature rollout. If you don't see this feature, check back as we continue our rollout.
• New password manager policy. The DeletingUndecryptablePasswordsEnabled policy controls whether the built-in password manager can delete undecryptable passwords from its database. This policy is required to restore the full functionality of the built-in password manager, but it might cause permanent data loss. Undecryptable password values won't become decryptable on their own. If fixing them is possible, it usually requires complex user actions.
• PromotionalTabsEnabled policy deprecation. The PromotionalTabsEnabled policy is deprecated in Microsoft Edge version 132 and will be obsolete in a future Microsoft Edge version. Administrators can use the ShowRecommendationsEnabled policy instead.
• Allow enterprise users to view XFA PDFs using IE Mode. Enterprise customers can view XFA PDFs in Microsoft Edge using IE mode through either the ViewXFAPDFInIEModeAllowedOrigins or ViewXFAPDFInIEModeAllowedFileHash policy. This change will be available in the new PDF viewer on Microsoft Edge.
• Deprecation of Microsoft Edge Support page. To improve end user experience, edge://support is being deprecated. The information found on edge://support is available on other pages: edge://version, edge://metrics-internals, edge://extensions, and edge://policy.
• Full Favorites Bar available in Workspaces. Workspaces now display a user's full set of favorites in the Favorites Bar, with a dedicated workspace folder accessible from the bar. Previously when in a workspace, a user's existing Favorites Bar was not easily accessible and instead only the workspace favorites folder was visible. Users can control the behavior by modifying #edge-workspace-favorites-bar in edge://flags.

If you want to learn more information about fixed bugs in Microsoft Edge 132, you can check out detailed release notes for each Edge 132 Dev update that are included in today's release:

• Dev Channel update to 132.0.2917.0
• Dev Channel update to 132.0.2931.1
• Dev Channel update to 132.0.2945.0
• Dev Channel update to 132.0.2957.11

As for security fixes, Edge 132 contains two Edge-specific fixes, namely CVE-2025-21399 and CVE-2025-21185, two vulnerabilities that allow privilege escalation. In addition, there are 13 more Chromium security patches, which you can find in the Security Update Guide.

You can update Microsoft Edge to version 132 by heading to edge://settings/help. The browser can also update itself automatically in the background. The next feature update, version 133, is expected on the week of February 6, 2025.

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Here is what is new:

New Copilot+ PC experiences

 

Improved Windows Search

 

We are making finding your documents, photos, and settings across Windows 11 easier on Copilot+ PCs by introducing semantic indexing along with traditional indexing. Whether it’s searching in File Explorer, in the Windows search box on your taskbar, or in Settings – just type what’s on your mind to find it on your Copilot+ PC. You no longer need to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. For example, you can use your own words to find images by typing “bridge at sunset”, documents by describing what they are about like “Europe trip budget”, or settings like “change my theme”. 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.

 

Today, searching for files on your Copilot+ PC with improved Windows Search will only work for files saved locally in indexed locations on your PC. You can go to Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows to adjust which locations are indexed on your PC or turn on “Enhanced” to index your entire PC. In a future flight, we will support searching for documents and photos stored in cloud storage providers such as OneDrive.

 

Searching for settings like “change my theme” will work within the Settings app for now. In a future flight, you will be able to do this within the Windows search box on the taskbar.

 

These improved Windows Search experiences will gradually roll out to Windows Insiders on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs coming soon. These experiences are supported in select languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish) and document formats. Supported file formats include .txt, .pdf, .docx, .doc, .rtf, .pptx, .ppt, .xls, .xlsx for documents and .jpg/.jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico for images. See here for more details.

 

You can learn more about semantic search on Copilot + PCs here.

 

FEEDBACK for File Explorer Search: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files Folders and Online Storage > File Explorer Search.

 

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

 

FEEDBACK for Settings Search: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Settings > Search Settings.

 

New text action for Click to Do (Preview)

 

You’ll see a new text action for Click to Do available on Copilot+ PCs called Refine. To try this out, press Win + Click directly on a block of text or press Win + Q and then navigate to the text you’d like to proofread and refine. When you open the menu, the new action will be under Rewrite > Refine.

 

All the other actions you’ve seen in Click to Do are still here. If anything looks missing, please check the Microsoft Store for the latest Photos and Paint apps installed.

 

You can learn more about using Click to Do here.

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Click to Do.

All the changes above are only for users with Copilot+ PCs. However, there are some updates for people with "traditional" processors:

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

 

[File Explorer]

 

• We’ve added a New Folder option in the context menu when right-clicking locations in the navigation pane.

 

[Magnifier]

 

• We’re adding a new keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + Minus for Magnifier users to quickly toggle between the current zoom and 1X zoom.
• In addition to the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + Minus to quickly toggle between the current zoom and 1X zoom, we have also added buttons in Magnifier to reset zoom to fit to screen and reset zoom to your last/preferred magnification.

  

Here is what was fixed:

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

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue where the date/time properties of files were unexpectedly updated in some cases after copying them.
• Fixed an issue where File Explorer may sometimes lose focus on the search box while typing.
• Fixed an issue where when you did a search it may unexpectedly trigger the search happening repeatedly.
• Fixed an issue where the Details Pane icons weren’t responding correctly to theme changes, making it hard to see if you switched from dark to light or vice versa.
• Fixed a black flash in File Explorer that appeared when duplicating a tab.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• Fixed an issue where Task manager wrongly identified an HDD as an SSD.

 

[Click to Do]

 

• We fixed the issue where Click to Do would sometimes not highlight any info on screen if there is no content on a connected external monitor in extended mode.

 

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[Windows Backup]

 

• You will now have a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC. You can still find your apps in the Start menu and Search and pin apps you want to your taskbar.

 

Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[Other]

 

• [Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file (DriverSiPolicy.p7b)] This update adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.

And here is the list of known bugs (a big one):

[General]

 

• 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 Dev Channel updates which will resolve this issue.
• [NEW] A 0xc0e90001 error will occur when booting into Windows Recovery (WinRE) on Arm64 PCs. This will be fixed in the next Dev Channel flight. For recovery options on your PC, visit Settings > System > Recovery.

 

[Recall]

 

• The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:
• Recall can be enabled or disabled from “Turn Windows features on or off”. We are caching the Recall binaries on disk while we test add/remove. In a future update we will completely remove the binaries.
• Some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots”, while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.
• Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents.

 

[Click to Do]

 

• The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:
• Sometimes additional context is given when using more intelligent text actions powered by Phi Silica.
• The intelligent text actions leverage the power of Microsoft’s secure cloud to improve your text results by ensuring prompts and responses are safe and appropriate. This data is automatically deleted. Local moderation to ensure the safety of prompts and responses will be added in the future, replacing this cloud endpoint.
• [NEW] 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.

 

[Live captions & real-time translation]

 

• The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:
• Some Insiders may see a crash on first launch of live captions. Restart live captions if you encounter this issue and you will not see it again.
• If audio is playing or the microphone is enabled, switching languages will crash live captions. Stop audio when changing languages to resume captions or translations.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• [NEW] If you open a File Explorer window and minimize it in this build, it may not render correctly when you restore it.

 

[Improved Windows Search]

 

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

 

• [NEW] In this build, the search box on the taskbar does not yet have the same underline and sparkles icon UI that the File Explorer search box has. This is coming in a future flight.
• [NEW] In some rare cases, improved Windows search experiences may not be available and may require a reboot to start working.
• [NEW] In some rare cases, File explorer search might be unresponsive and may require a reboot to start working.
• [NEW] In some rare cases, searching on Outlook while offline might result in some results not being found.
• [NEW] The underline animation in the File Explorer search box sometimes does not stop pulsing.
• [NEW] The tip about the new search improvements appears whenever you set focus to the search box in File Explorer, rather than only once.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Here are the changes that Microsoft is rolling out gradually:

The following features and improvements might not be available to all users because they will roll out gradually. Text bolded in brackets indicate the area of the change being documented.

 

• [Taskbar] New! This update improves the previews that show when your cursor hovers over apps on the taskbar. The update also improves their animations.
• [Windows Studio Effects] New! An icon will appear in the system tray when you use an app that supports Windows Studio Effects. This only occurs on a device that has a neural processing unit (NPU). Select the icon to open the Studio Effects page in Quick Settings. To view the app that is using the camera, hover over the icon for a tooltip.
• [Work across devices] New! You know that you can use an iOS or Android phone to access your Microsoft OneDrive files. If you do that when your PC is locked, you can now continue working on that file from where you left off on your PC. Just sign in to your PC within five minutes of using your phone. When Windows asks if you want to resume work on that file, select the file to open it. To use this feature, you must sign in to OneDrive and your PC using the same Microsoft account. Work and school accounts do not support this feature. This feature works for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and PDF files. For the best experience, sign in to OneDrive on your PC using your default browser. To manage this feature, go to Settings > Apps > Resume.
• [Fonts] New! This update adds Simsun-ExtG, a new simplified Chinese font. It includes the Biangbiang noodles character. Some apps might not be able to display these new extension characters yet. The font has 9,753 ideographs that support Unicode Extensions G, H, and I. See the list below.
  • Unicode range G 30000-3134A (4,939 chars)
  • Unicode range H 31350-323AF (4,192 chars)
  • Unicode range I 2EBF0-2EE5D (622 chars)
• [File Explorer]
  • New! You now have quick access to items that others have shared with you. Shared items include files, emails, Teams chats, and more. To view them, you must use a Microsoft account or a Microsoft Entra ID account to sign in to Windows. To view these shared items, go to the File Explorer Home page and choose the Shared tab. If you use a Microsoft Entra ID account to sign in, you have more viewing choices. You will see the files that you have shared with others. Also, the Recent, Favorites, and Shared sections of the page will show a broader set of file types.
  • New! When you right-click items in the left pane, the “New Folder” command appears on the context menu.
  • Fixed: After you do a search, that search might repeat when you don’t want it to.
  • Fixed: The date and time properties of a file might update after you copy it.
  • Fixed: Icons on the details pane might not update as you expect when you change a theme. This makes it hard to view the change when you switch between dark and light themes.
  • Fixed: The search box might lose input focus as you type.
• [Windows Share] New! You can now share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows. Just right-click local files in File Explorer or on the desktop.
• [Magnifier app]
  • New! This update adds a new keyboard shortcut: CTRL + ALT + Minus sign. Use it to quickly switch between the current zoom and 1X zoom.
  • New! This update adds buttons to reset zoom. You can reset zoom to fit to the screen and reset zoom to your last or preferred magnification.
• [Snipping Tool] Fixed: Snipping Tool screenshots might be distorted. This occurs when you use two or more monitors that have different display scaling.
• [Chinese Pinyin IME] Fixed: When you switch app windows, the IME language might change from Chinese to English.

And here is what is available to all insiders:

This update includes the following features and improvements that are rolling out as part of this update. Text bolded in brackets indicates the area of the change being documented.

 

• [Task Manager] Fixed: The CPU index number might be wrong when you set process affinity. This occurs on servers that have two or more non-uniform memory access (NUMA) nodes.
• [Remote desktop]
  • Fixed: When you reconnect to a console session, it stops responding.
  • Fixed: The Action Center does not display in certain scenarios.
• [Exporting chart objects] Fixed: You can’t export a file to PDF and XLSX formats if the file has a chart object.
• [Virtual memory] Fixed: An issue depletes virtual memory, which might cause some apps to fail.
• [Chinese Pinyin input method editor (IME)] Bing will stop giving automatic suggestions in the search box for search engine sites, like Baidu. To get manual suggestions, use Ctrl + Tab or the chevron button (>).
• [Near Field Communication (NFC) readers] Fixed: At times, they fail to read card Universal Unique Identifiers (UUID). This occurs after many point-of-sale (POS) app scans.
• [USB Print and IPP Over USB] Fixed: An installed printer fails when the spooler initializes.
• [Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP)] This update adds support for Y210, Y216, Y410, and Y416 for the High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format.
• [Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file (DriverSiPolicy.p7b)] This update adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.

You can find the official announcement here.

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Here is the changelog:

• [Calendar] New! Stay informed and informed with the new calendar. See the weather forecast and learn about the holidays and events that are coming up.
• [Mail] New! You now have the new Outlook for Windows app as the free default mail app. A new app icon appears on the Start menu. If you have pinned the former mail app to the taskbar, the new icon replaces the pinned app icon.
• [GB18030-2022] This update adds support for this amendment.
• [Virtual memory] Fixed: An issue depletes virtual memory, which might cause some apps to fail.
• [Chinese Pinyin input method editor (IME)] Bing will stop giving automatic suggestions in the search box for search engine sites, like Baidu. To get manual suggestions, use Ctrl + Tab or the chevron button (>).
• [Near Field Communication (NFC) readers] Fixed: At times, they fail to read card Universal Unique Identifiers (UUID). This occurs after many point-of-sale (POS) app scans.
• [USB Print and IPP Over USB] Fixed: An installed printer fails when the spooler initializes.
• [Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file (DriverSiPolicy.p7b)] This update adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.
• [Screen capture] Fixed: The Capture Service and Snipping Tool stop responding. This occurs when you press Windows logo key + Shift + S several times while Narrator is on.

You can find the announcement post on the official Windows Blogs website.

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[Widgets]

 

• In this flight, we’re introducing the ability for web developers to easily utilize their existing web content to build dynamic and interactive widgets that can be added to the widgets surfaces in Windows 11. For more information, click here.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• We are temporarily disabling the change that began rolling out with Build 22635.4580 where File Explorer opens in a new tab by default if you have an existing File Explorer window open when launching File Explorer from outside of File Explorer (for example, from an app or from the desktop) to address some issues.

 

[Windows Backup]

 

• You will now have a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC. You can still find your apps in the Start menu and Search and pin apps you want to your taskbar.

 

[Search on the Taskbar]

 

• Improved support for web search providers in Windows Search for the EEA, including clearer provider attribution in tabs.

 

[Settings]

 

We are rolling out “top cards” under Settings > System > About. These top cards provide an easy way to view your PC’s key specifications—processor, RAM, storage, and GPU—helping you understand your PC’s capabilities at a glance. This is designed to simplify decision-making by highlighting potential areas for hardware improvements while giving you a clear snapshot of your PC. Top Cards won’t appear yet on managed commercial PCs.

 

New top cards at the top of the About settings page displaying your PC’s processor, RAM, storage, and GPU specifications.

 

We are starting to roll out the Settings homepage for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. The feature will show some existing cards relevant to enterprise-managed PCs like “Recommended settings” and “Bluetooth devices” as well as two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards. For commercial customers who also use their Microsoft account on their managed PC, there will also be a new accounts card indicating the presence of both work and school and Microsoft account types. We are starting the rollout of this gradually with managed commercial PCs who have both work and school and Microsoft accounts present seeing this experience first.

 

Here is what was fixed:

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

 

[File Explorer]

 

• As part of our ongoing commitment to improving File Explorer accessibility, this updates includes increased support for the text scaling (via Settings > Accessibility > Text size) across File Explorer, File Open/Save dialogs and the copy dialogs.

 

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to everyone in the Beta Channel

 

[Windows Backup]

 

• You will now have a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC. You can still find your apps in the Start menu and Search and pin apps you want to your taskbar.

And here is the list of known issues:

[File Explorer]

 

• [NEW] If you open a File Explorer window and minimize it in this build, it may not render correctly when you restore it.

 

[Settings]

 

• [NEW] The Home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.
• [NEW] There is a known issue where the two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards are showing up on non-managed PCs signed in with Microsoft accounts.

You can find the official announcement in a post on the official Windows Blog.

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Check out our Windows 11 version 24H2 feature overview here.

Microsoft says it has reached "a new stage in the phased rollout," and it is now ready to update more users to the latest release automatically. Until now, Windows 11 version 24H2 was an optional update available on systems unaffected by the update's pretty long list of known issues and bugs.

It is worth noting that the forced update only applies to "regular users" with Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2. Managed devices will not be updated unless their IT admins decide to do so. Also, Microsoft reminded users that they can specify the time for restart to apply the update or postpone it altogether if moving to version 24H2 is not currently possible. Finally, if your system has no upgrade blocks in place, you should be able to get the update from Windows Update manually by clicking the "Check for updates" button.

We have reached a new stage in the phased rollout of version 24H2. Eligible devices running Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, versions 23H3 [sic] and 22H2 will be gradually updated to version 24H2. This automatic update targets only devices that are not managed by IT departments. Users can choose the time to restart their device or postpone the update.

 

If you don’t want to wait for the automatic update, check if the update is available to you. Select Settings > Windows Update and select Check for updates. If your device is ready for the update, you’ll see the option to Download and install version 24H2.

Note that the change does not apply to Copilot+ PCs that ship with Windows 11 version 24H2 out of the box. However, some of the new AI-powered experiences, such as Recall and Click To Do, remain available only to Windows Insiders. Microsoft will announce its rollout separately in the future.

Despite the public availability, Windows 11 version 24H2 still has plenty of upgrade blocks. Microsoft is still working on resolving issues with Auto HDR, audio bugs, games hanging, blue screens of death on certain ASUS devices, apps freezing when the camera is in use, bugs with wallpaper apps, and many more. Some of those issues remain unresolved since October 1, 2024. Luckily, PCs affected by those bugs will not be auto-upgraded to Windows 11 version 24H2.

By the way, if you do not mind updating from Windows 11 version 23H2 to version 24H2, check out what performance difference you could expect to see after pulling the trigger. If your computer does not support Windows 11 version 24H2, you can still update with the help of our guide.

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Here is the changelog:

Added Features:

 

• Added ARIA labels to the buttons on the main page in Import settings.

 

Improved Behavior:

 

• Fixed an issue where the browser would crash in Copilot on Android.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Fixed an issue where a blank dialog appeared during the New Profile First Run Experience (FRE).

 

Mac:

 

• Resolved an issue where the 'Close tab' button was still visible on MAC when the tab was not focused or selected.
• Resolved an issue where the data content pages in French were overlapping on MAC.
• Resolved an issue where a blank window appeared, preventing the setup of a new personal profile on a Mac.
• Resolved an issue where the ‘Browser Task Manager’ screen did not auto-scroll when navigating using the arrow keys on MAC.
• Fixed an issue where ‘Configure Super Drag and Drop’ could not be opened when clicked on a Mac.

 

Android:

 

• Resolved an issue where the top status bar of the What’s New page was not visible on Android.
• Resolved an issue where loading a PDF failed when using a link with the ‘text/html’ content type on Android.
• Fixed an issue where the search box was covered by the keyboard and the bottom bar displayed abnormally when clicking on the search box to enter the ZIP page on Android.
• Fixed an issue where the Copilot icon would reappear in the address bar on Android after visiting a website, turning off Copilot, and scrolling the page.
• Fixed an issue where the page info subtitle appeared incomplete on Android.
• Fixed an issue where the refresh icon and reading mode icon overlapped in the address bar on Android.

 

iOS:

 

• Resolved an issue where browser displayed incorrectly when a blocked URL was searched, and the cancel icon was clicked on iOS.
• Resolved an issue where the Read Aloud page displayed errors when opening external PDF files on iOS.

You can download Microsoft Edge Dev from the official Edge Insider website. Version 133 will be available in the Stable Channel on the week of February 6, 2025.

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You can now use Windows 11 with vertical taskbars, though the feat requires use of a third-party app. Stardock just rolled out an update to Start11 that brings support for vertical taskbars. Following the update, you can place the taskbar on the left or right side of your screen. Clicking on the Start icon will summon a Start menu that fits alongside the vertical taskbar.

Stardock noted in its blog post about the update that vertical taskbars were a highly requested feature. I'm sure that Stardock has received direct feedback on the topic, but I don't have access to those figures. Based on the fact that over 55,000 people viewed a single Microsoft community post about vertical taskbars on Windows 11 and that many have gone to Reddit to request the feature, I think it's safe to say many people want vertical taskbars on Windows 11.

Windows 10 and previous versions of Windows allowed you to move the taskbar to either side of the screen, but Microsoft removed that functionality when it made Windows 11. An Ask Me Anything (AMA) held by Microsoft shed some light as to way the option was removed.

This is the first price increase for Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions in the United States. Ever since the company launched then-Office 365 12 years ago, it has kept the price at $69.99/year (Personal) and $99.99/year (Home). Now, however, the price goes up by $3/mo, with the new prices being $99.99 and $129.99, respectively.

If you are already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, nothing changes for you until your next monthly or yearly payment. Despite that, you can access new Copilot features right away. In addition, those who do not need new AI features and do not want to pay more can opt for the Personal Classic and Family Classic plans. These will allow keeping old prices but with no access to AI features. Microsoft promises to maintain those plans, but "certain new innovations" will only be available in the more expensive subscriptions. Also, the new classic plans are only available to existing customers for one year.

In addition to features like document drafting in Word, data analysis in Excel, email summarization in Outlook, and presentation generation in PowerPoint, Microsoft 365 subscribers can access image generation in Microsoft Designer. However, all these features require AI credits, which will be allotted to every subscriber each month. Microsoft says the amount of credits "should be enough for most subscribers." If it is not, you can switch to Copilot Pro, which costs $20/month and does not have usage limits.

Microsoft also promises not to use your document data to train its models. This reassurance comes after a report spread across the internet, falsely claiming that Microsoft siphons your document data to train its AI models. In addition, Microsoft will let you turn off Copilot with a few clicks, should you do that to comply with rules at your work or school.

You can already access AI-powered features in Office apps if you are a Microsoft 365 subscriber, so just make sure you are using the latest version.

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Microsoft isn't exactly known for "good" branding, at least generally.

Indeed, "hit and miss" is how I'd ultimately describe Microsoft's ability to actually name things. Xbox is cool, but Xbox One, Series X|S, Xbox 360? It all began to get a bit confusing. "Surface" is cool too, but somewhere along the way, Microsoft stopped giving them numbers, so now we have the Surface Pro "11th Edition" instead of simply the Surface Pro 11 (which is what most people search for anyway). I quite like the Microsoft Edge branding too. Then there's Windows itself, which is perhaps among the most recognizable brands and products in history.

Synonymous with Windows, for the past several decades, is its suite of productivity tools known to the vast majority of the globe as "Microsoft Office." At least, it used to be. A couple of years ago, Microsoft inexplicably rebranded it to "Microsoft 365," throwing away decades of brand recognition and removing the actual function of the product from its name. It's so dumb that Microsoft itself acknowledges the dumbness, having to list Microsoft 365 as "Microsoft 365 (Office)" on various app stores, because they know how much confusion they've created with their misguided name change.

But wait, it gets worse. Say hi to "Microsoft 365 Copilot." Yep.

If you thought the first Office rebrand was dumb, Microsoft has decided to take it to the next level with Microsoft 365 Copilot

In addition, Microsoft released ISO images for clean installations. You can download them here.

Here is the official changelog:

[General]

 

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

 

[Windows Setup]

 

• When installing Windows from installation media, you will now see a confirmation dialog when formatting or deleting partitions.

 

[Administrator protection]

 

Administrator protection can now be enabled from Windows Security settings under the Account Protection tab. This allows users to enable this feature without requiring help from IT admins. It also allows Windows home users to enable Administrator protection via Windows Security settings. Changing this setting requires a Windows reboot.

 

With administrator protection enabled, the prompt requesting the user’s authorization for elevating untrusted and unsigned applications now comes with expanded color-coded regions which will now extend down over the app description.

Here is what was fixed:

[General]

 

• Fixed an underlying issue causing accent colored window borders to not be not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations to show even though the setting to show animations is turned off in the latest Canary builds.

 

[Other]

 

• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing the Xbox app to fail to launch with a “Please try again” error sometimes in the last two Canary builds.

Finally, here are the known issues:

[General]

 

• [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”.
• We’re working on the fix for an issue where SFC /scannow is showing errors every time it’s run.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• If you open a File Explorer window and minimize it in this build, it may not render correctly when you restore it.

 

[Remote Desktop]

 

• [NEW] Using MTSC.exe for Remote Desktop may fail on this build with error 0x80080005. As a workaround, please launch as admin.

You can find the official announcement here.

Source

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For example, recently we noticed that one of the guidance support pages on its website was updated so as to make it simpler to understand the requirements for Windows 11, although it confirmed it is not relaxing those.

Following that, a blog post was put up by the tech giant earlier this week suggesting that the update to Windows 11 from Windows 10 may not be free beyond the end of support date for the latter, ie, October 14, 2025. The post was headlined "Free Upgrade to Windows 11 (For a Limited Time Only)"

Alongside that, Microsoft also informed that support for Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook and such would also end on Windows 10. Thus, users would have to update to Windows 11, since some of the available features may not work to their full capability beyond a certain period if a user chose to stay on Windows 10.

So was Microsoft saying that an upgrade to Windows 11 after October 14, 2025, would not be free and would resume a paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program like on Windows 10? It is hard to say since the company itself did not clarify it.

What's bizarre is that the blog post itself mentions the words "free" and "limited" just once and that is in the title itself and nowhere else. So there is no concrete information on it at this point in time.

And what makes the situation even weirder is that Microsoft has now deleted the page entirely, yes, the post is no longer available on its official Tech Community website, although we can still access it via the Wayback Machine.

So it is hard to say what Microsoft's plans with Windows 11 upgrades are, and perhaps Microsoft itself is not sure what's in the future.

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Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and has shared a workaround. The company notes that that the issue began after updating to version and build 18324.20168/20190. It says that it is investigating:

ISSUE

 

After updating to Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168) or Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190), Microsoft 365 applications may crash on Windows Server 2016.

 

You can confirm if this is the issue by looking at the Windows Event Viewer Application Log for crash Event 1000 or Event 1001, and the following event details: 

 

Faulting application name: WINWORD.EXE, version: 16.0.18324.20168, time stamp: 0x677832b6
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.14393.5850, time stamp: 0x64253b64
Exception code: 0xc06d007e
Fault offset: 0x000dcd42
Faulting process id: 0xb1b8
Faulting application start time: 0x01db655766958e10
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

 

Note: "Faulting module name" and "Exception code" may vary.

 

STATUS: INVESTIGATING

 

This issue is tracked in the M365 Admin Center as MO978220.

The workaround for now is to revert back to the previous version as this is clearly buggy and Microsoft needs more time to investigate and reach the root of the issue:

To work around the issue, you can revert to the prior Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152):

 

1. Open a Command Prompt in Administrator context.

    

2. Type or paste the two commands into the Command Prompt window and press Enter after each:

    

   1. cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

       

   2. officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20152

       

3. To prevent Office updating back to the latest build you can turn off updates by clicking File, Office Account, Update Options, Disable Updates.

    

4. Put a reminder on your calendar for February 11th to re-enable updates. Or check back on this Known Issue in case it is addressed sooner.

You can find the support article here on Microsoft's official website.

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