When Windows 11 first debuted in 2021, it did so with one of the biggest changes to the Windows desktop in over a decade. It was the first version of Windows since Windows 8 to radically change up the Start menu and Taskbar, moving their position and altering their functionality.

Famously, Windows 11 introduced the first centered Start menu and Taskbar, along with other modern and simplified interfaces across the Windows shell. It also introduced a number of new static wallpapers designed to highlight the new centered interfaces, the most famous of which is the default Windows 11 wallpaper known as "Bloom."

In additional to static wallpapers, Microsoft has since explored bringing dynamic wallpapers to Windows 11, which would let users set live wallpapers on their desktop or lockscreen that would gently animate in the background. Thanks to Sergey Kisselev, an ex-Microsoft designer on the Windows team, we now know what these may look like.

"A variety of dynamic animations and still images were explored for Microsoft’s low-cost devices, primarily targeting educational users" says Kisselev on Behance. "This work was part of the Windows Creative Direction Team’s efforts to celebrate a new centered signature composition for Windows 11, highlighting its centered Start Menu and taskbar."

Kisselev has shared a handful of examples, which showcase different dynamic wallpaper designs that Microsoft explored for education customers. Unfortunately, dynamic wallpapers as a feature is yet to actually ship for Windows 11, suggesting the feature may have been canceled, or at the very least postponed.

Early support for dynamic wallpapers has been spotted in Windows 11 Insider builds in the past. I understand that Microsoft originally intended to bring dynamic wallpapers to Windows 11 with version 23H2, but that ended up not happening for some reason.

Whether support for dynamic wallpapers ever ships remains to be seen. For now, we can only hope the feature is still coming, and that it'll hopefully be ready in time for the annual Windows 11 feature update for 2025.

According to the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results, 54.96% of all Windows users are on Windows 11. Last month, the share increased by 1.98 points. Windows 10 respectively dropped to 42.39 (-0.92 points). 64-bit Windows 7 has 0.15% (-0.06 points), and with it no longer able to run the latest version of Steam, it is expected to drop out soon.

Although Windows 11 is now the dominant version on Steam, it has some rough surfaces gaming-wise, especially in its latest release, version 24H2. Microsoft recently paused the rollout of version 24H2 to those using the Auto HDR feature, plus some games stop working when running on the latest Windows 11 update.

There is no information on how many users have already moved to version 24H2 (Microsoft recently increased the scope of its rollout), so it is hard to tell how many are affected by those bugs.

Overall, 96.10% of all participants in the December 2024 survey (participation is optional) use Windows to access Steam. Linux is second with 2.29%, and macOS has 1.61%.

On the hardware side, the most popular picks include 16GB of RAM (45.07%), a six-core processor (31.67%), the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card (5.88%, now discontinued), 8GB of VRAM (34.91%), and a 1080p monitor (56.12%). Nvidia dominates the GPU segment with an overwhelming 75.67% market share (AMD has 16.24%), while Intel trumps AMD with 63.32% over 36.68%.

You can learn more about Valve's latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey reports on the official website.

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Windows 11 had a big year among Steam users in 2024. The operating system is now used by 54.96% of Steam gamers, according to the December Steam hardware and software survey. That figure comes on the heels of a respectable month-over-month increase of 6.16% between November and December 2024. Steam's statistics from one year earlier listed Windows 11 at 41.95% among Steam users, so overall the OS gained over 13% market share in twelve months.

Windows 11's gains come largely at the expense of Windows 10 losing market share. Windows 10 was used by 53.45% of Steam users in December 2023. The older version of Windows now has a 42.39% market share, meaning Windows 10 lost over 11% market share among Steam gamers in one year.

Windows 10 will soon reach its end of support, so many have upgraded their systems to Windows 11 in preparation. Newer PCs also ship with Windows 11, so as old hardware goes out the door, so does Windows 10.

Windows 11 also includes several features to improve the gaming experience, including Auto HDR and DirectStorage. Microsoft shared a blog post in December highlighting the gaming experience on Windows 11. The company appears eager to get people to upgrade to Windows 11 before Windows 10 reaches its end of support on October 14, 2025.

For a variety of reasons, gamers have upgraded to Windows 11 at a much higher rate than non-gamers. Among those causes is the fact that Windows 11 has strict minimum requirements, so many older computers cannot upgrade. Gaming PCs often run on newer hardware, clearing the path for an upgrade to Windows 11. While 54.96 of Steam users are on Windows 11, Windows 10 still dominates its successor among general users. According to Statcounter, 62.7% of desktops run Windows 10 compared to 34.12% running Windows 11.

Since these figures are from Statcounter and Steam rather than Microsoft, it's difficult to make an — ahem — apples to apples comparison. They also measure different metrics (Steam users and desktop users). But the disparity between Windows 11 vs Windows 10 usage is so large that it's safe to say gamers are quicker to upgrade to the newer OS.

With the latest updates, Telegram users can upgrade digital gits to collectibles with unique appearance, custom effects, and other exclusive perks. Users can transfer collectibles to others or even sell them on NFT marketplaces (remember those?). Telegram says over 20 existing gifts can be upgraded to over 1,400 unique variants. You can upgrade a gift using Telegram Stars.

Service messages in Telegram now support reactions. These include notifications like calls, profile photo changes, giveaways, etc.

Telegram search is now more powerful thanks to additional filters. You can now refine search results with options like "Private chats," "Group chats," "Channels," etc.

Businesses, organizations, and public figures can now get an extra layer of verification thanks to the third-party verification process. Third-party services can assign custom icons to verified profiles and a more detailed verification message to profile descriptions. Telegram says this change will help prevent scams and reduce misinformation on the platform.

Telegram Premium users are now allowed to add emojis to folder names for extra personalization or a more minimalistic emoji-only look. This joins other Premium-exclusive features (over 30) like faster downloads, voice-to-text, chat translation, custom emoji, etc.

Speaking of Telegram Premium, the platform reports having over 12 million paid subscribers. These users, in addition to other monetization features like ads and Telegram Stars, helped the messenger reach profitability. By the end of 2024, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, reported that the platform was now profitable.

You can learn more about the latest Telegram update in a post on the official blog via this link.

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Following that, in September, Microsoft confirmed that the new way to push updates led to installation issues for Windows Update Standalone Installer (MSU) files on Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025 and some of these updates would fail with an "Operation is not supported” error message.

In its guidance, Microsoft had explained how the issue was mainly related to FoD (features on Demand) and LP (language packs), and it had also provided a couple of methods to fix the issue. One of them involved manually installing the MSU (Windows Update Standalone Installer) package files in order and the other way was via the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) command line tool.

Microsoft has since removed the manual installation method from its support article. Here is what it said previously:

Install the .msu packages

Method 1: Manually install MSU packages in order

 

Install each update one at a time in order. To do this, go to the C:\Packages folder and double-click the earliest .msu file. Then continue in order to the next .msu file until the latest .msu file has been installed.

 

Method 2: Use a DISM command

 

Use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to install one or more checkpoint cumulative update .MSU packages. For more information, see DISM Operating System Package (.cab or .msu) Servicing Command-Line Options.

 

To add a single .msu file to a Windows image, use the Add-WindowsPackage command.

And here is what the new guidance page says:

Install the .msu packages using DISM

Use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to install one or more checkpoint cumulative update .MSU packages. For more information, see DISM Operating System Package (.cab or .msu) Servicing Command-Line Options.

 

To add a single .msu file to a Windows image, use the Add-WindowsPackage command.

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

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Now, just over two years later on 23 December 2024, the commit has finally been pushed again. In the message accompanying it, Hartman explained how this ancient Windows XP-era Microsoft protocol is no longer necessary and it also makes the system insecure and vulnerable to threats. He wrote:

USB: disable all RNDIS protocol drivers

 

The Microsoft RNDIS protocol is, as designed, insecure and vulnerable on any system that uses it with untrusted hosts or devices. Because the protocol is impossible to make secure, just disable all rndis drivers to prevent anyone from using them again. Windows only needed this for XP and newer systems, Windows systems older than that can use the normal USB class protocols instead, which do not have these problems. Android has had this disabled for many years so there should not be any real systems that still need this.

You can find the commit here on the LKML public inbox.

For those who may not be familiar, the RNDIS or Remote Network Driver Interface Specification is a bus-independent message protocol for Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) network devices on dynamic Plug and Play (PnP) buses like the USB, 1394, Bluetooth, and InfiniBand. This standardized approach means that a set of host drivers can support any number of networking devices via the USB.

As mentioned above, Microsoft debuted the spec back in the Windows XP days and it is still present on the still supported Windows 10 and Windows 11, including on the latest version, 24H2. Fortunately, though, the RNDIS driver does not automatically install on Windows 10 and 11.

If you are curious, Windows 11 24H2 supports NDIS version 6.89.

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Statcounter's latest data indicates that Windows 11 lost over 1.48% points in two consecutive months. In December 2024, the operating system went from 34.94% to 34.1% (-0.84 points). Windows 10, on the other hand, reclaimed some of its lost users, even though it will be out of mainstream support in less than eleven months.

By now, Windows 10 remains the dominant Microsoft release, with a market share of 62.73% (+0.9 points). It will be interesting to see what happens to it as we get closer to October 2025, considering that many users cannot update to Windows 11 and that Microsoft does not want to negotiate its steep hardware requirements, such as TPM 2.0.

If you cannot update officially and you do not want to buy a new device yet, you can opt for Microsoft's official Extended Security Program that grants 12 months of extra updates for $30 or use third-party solutions, such as 0patch, to get up to five years of additional support (also not free). Another option is to bypass Windows 11's hardware requirements with various tricks.

If Statcounter's latest data is to be believed (Microsoft does not offer official Windows market share data), here is what the Windows market currently looks like:

1. Windows 10: 62.73% (+0.9 points)
2. Windows 11: 34.1% (-0.84 points)
3. Windows 7: 2.4% (-0.07 points)
4. Windows 8.1: 0.29% (-0.02 points)
5. Windows XP: 0.23% (-0.02 points)

You can find more information from the latest Statcounter report on the official website.

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Google Chrome opens 2025 with a strong and unreachable 66.88% market share, increasing its market share by 0.5 points in one month and 1.65 points year-over-year (compared to December 2023).

Such a massive market share leaves a big gap between the first and second place. Microsoft Edge is the closest to Google Chrome, but its market share is still very far. In December 2024, Edge went from 12.87% to 13.21% (+0.34 points). Year-over-year growth is 2.31 points.

Apple's Safari is third, which is quite an achievement, considering it is the only browser that is not available on Windows. According to Statcounter, Safari currently holds 8.49% of the desktop browser market (-0.64 points). Firefox is fourth with 6.14% (-0.3 points), and Opera is fifth with 2.74% (-0.07 points).

1. Google Chrome: 66.88% (+0.5 points)
2. Microsoft Edge: 13.21% (+0.34 points)
3. Apple Safari: 8.49% (-0.64 points)
4. Mozilla Firefox: 6.14% (-0.3 points)
5. Opera: 2.74% (-0.07 points)

Google's dominant position in the browser and search market might soon be challenged as the Department of Justice recently filed a court filing, demanding the company to spin off its browser or even sell it to competitors. While there are arguments that such a change could bring more choice and more innovation to the market, Google claims that selling the browser launched in 2008 to critical acclaim would hurt America's tech leadership and put users and their data at risk.

Despite a relatively low market share, Microsoft might also end up in hot waters with its Edge. Browser makers and advocacy groups recently sent a letter to the European Commission asking it to subject Edge to DMA regulations and mark Microsoft as a gatekeeper that hurts other businesses with predatory practices.

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#1 — Google Chrome

Google Chrome has a staggering desktop market share; according to the latest data, it maintains over 66% of the market share. Most Linux distributions come with Firefox, which is fine, but if your data is synced to Chrome, then that's what you want.

Chrome on Linux provides an almost identical experience as on Windows. You might find different options under chrome://flags, but that's about it. Just like on Windows, it will work perfectly in terms of syncing data to your mobile device. Head to google.com/chrome, then press download and select the DEB (Debian-based distros) or RPM (Fedora-based distros) package, then install it.

All the top web browsers, except Apple's Safari, are available for download on Linux.

#2 — GNOME Disks

Another tool that you'll definitely want to take advantage of when using Linux is GNOME Disks. This is the default disk manager on Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions. While it can manage your computer's partitions, I use it a lot for formatting external disks such as external hard drives and USB sticks.

If your computer doesn't have this utility, you'll likely have a disk manager available with similar features. I use Lubuntu now due to hardware limitations, and that comes with the KDE Partition Manager, which was a bit confusing for me at first but is capable of similar things. Overall, I still prefer GNOME Disks and certainly think it's the easiest Linux partition manager, to get it just open your software manager and search for it. If you prefer the command line, the package to install is gnome-disk-utility.

#3 — VLC

The third on my list has to be the VLC media player. Personally, I watch most stuff on YouTube and Netflix these days and don't use VLC that much. However, when I need to watch videos on my laptop, VLC is the king. As users on Windows and macOS will know, VLC can play absolutely anything, no matter the video format; the same is true with VLC on Linux.

VLC sometimes comes pre-installed, but sometimes you'll need to download it from your software manager. If neither of those preferred options is available, you can also go to the VLC website's download page and download the latest version for your system. If it's already in your software manager, get it from there, as tweaks may have been applied by the distro maker to improve integration.

#4 — GIMP

Stop laughing! The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is one of the most popular raster graphics editors available on Linux. This free and open-source program can be used for image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between image file formats, and more. Many of the images you see in my articles have likely gone through GIMP to be cropped, scaled, or (subjectively) improved.

As an image editor, GIMP has a learning curve to it, but you can discover many of its features by self-exploration or Googling. Like VLC, it comes pre-installed on many distributions or is available in respective software managers. You can also find the up-to-date flatpak version on the GIMP website.

#5 — Software managers

At this point, we've seen software managers be referred to a couple of times. Most experienced Linux users will know about them and understand their place in the Linux ecosystem. For anyone coming from Windows, however, it's best to outline the key role they play compared to downloading software from the web.

On Linux, software managers are the preferred place for users to get software. Installing from them is less cumbersome compared to downloading packages online. While things are changing with snaps and flatpaks, which come with all the required dependencies, DEBs and RPMs cannot always be installed due to missing dependencies. Software managers help you avoid dependency issues, and sometimes the software in these software managers is tweaked to fit better with the operating system, such as proper theming support.

Popular software managers include GNOME Software, KDE Discover, Ubuntu Software Center, and Synaptic. It is best to stick with whatever comes pre-installed with your Linux distribution. As a side note, you can also get system updates from your software manager, as is the case with GNOME Software.

#6 — Web-based office suites

My sixth “app” is not an app but rather a category. I do not have a preference for which office suite you should use, but I do think it's best to use a cloud-based office suite. Sure, Linux users can use LibreOffice or OpenOffice, but when you can use cloud services and take documents on the go and get better compatibility with Microsoft Office documents, I think the web offerings are better choices.

Microsoft 365 and Google Docs are obvious choices here. If you already use them, your experience will not change on Linux. If you are going to be writing documents from scratch and care more about grammar issues, then LanguageTool and Grammarly are also options for written documents.

#7 — Timeshift

If you've just moved to Linux and want something similar to System Restore on Windows or Time Machine on macOS, then you'll want to install Timeshift. This used to be an independent project but got brought into the Linux Mint family after being installed by default on that distribution. The aim of Timeshift is to keep your system files and settings safe, it periodically makes back ups so you can restore easily if anything bad happens to your system.

You don't need to be running Linux Mint to use Timeshift, just look in your software manager or find installation instructions for the command line on the project's GitHub.

Timeshift is not intended to be used for backing up your own personal files, you should save duplicates to external hard drives or cloud storage services yourself. Timeshift is intended to keep the system itself safe. Using the RSYNC option will share common files between backups to minimize the amount of space being taken up by your backups.

#8 — Terminal

A common misconception about Linux is that you need to use the terminal all the time to do absolutely anything. While this isn't true, as there are graphical interfaces for everything nowadays, the Terminal is still incredibly useful, even without mastering all the commands out there. I've been using Linux since 2008 and don't know many commands in the terminal by heart, but I have memorized a few, including deleting folders and updating the system.

Both of those commands can be incredibly handy for getting things done faster. If you can memorize them and use them comfortably, absolutely do. However, if you're intimidated by the idea of using the command line, it's absolutely not necessary to learn how to use it.

Most Linux distributions include a terminal emulator, and there are lots of resources on Google for learning some basic commands. Some good ones to get started with are copying and moving files, deleting files and folders, listing items in your folders, turning off the computer from the command line, and updating from the command line.

#9 — Windows virtualization software

I do not have a strong opinion on which virtualization software you ought to use, but two popular choices are GNOME Boxes and VirtualBox. Both of these are available in software managers but don't typically come pre-installed as much as other options on this list.

With a virtual machine, you can run another operating system in a window on your desktop. They can be helpful for running Windows-only software, but they can use a lot of resources, so just ensure your computer is fast enough to handle running two operating systems at once.

#10 — Transmission

My final app recommendation for Linux is Transmission. This is another tool that comes pre-installed on many Linux distributions, and if you're new, you may have overlooked it because the name doesn't give away what it does. Transmission is an ad-free torrent client with a simple interface and settings. The settings let you throttle download and upload speeds, change download location, set seeding rules, adjust privacy levels, set up remote communication and more.

The main interface is very easy to use, with its large play and pause buttons next to the open and open URL options. Right-clicking on a torrent will also let you bring up more settings like removing the torrent from Transmission or removing it from Transmission and deleting the files.

If you get into distro hopping, where you try out new Linux distributions frequently, downloading ISO images using Transmission is straightforward. Unlike some other torrent clients, Transmission is entirely ad-free and free from bloat.

Conclusion

If you've just moved to Linux, I hope this list of recommended apps lets you settle in a bit quicker. Depending on your needs, the list may not be very exhaustive. For any programmers out there, I recommend having a look at Visual Studio Code or Codeium's new AI-powered editor, Windsurf, both of which are available on Linux. If you're into games, Steam is available natively with thousands of games for Linux. It also comes with Proton, which lets you play some Windows games on Linux if your computer can handle it.

I think the key thing to remember when coming to Linux from Windows is not to try to operate like you did on Windows. Use the software managers as your primary method for installing new software, and don't be afraid to use alternative software in place of options that you can't get on Linux, like Photoshop. Check out opensourcealternative.to to find alternatives for popular software.

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Sometimes, issues may arise. A common issue is corruption of the icon cache. This may lead to the display of wrong, old, duplicate, missing, or broken icons and other issues.

The reason for this, most of the time, is corruption of the icon cache. The solution in that case is to rebuild the icon cache.

This guide explains how that is done on Windows 11. The same method works on Windows 10 as well.

Rebuilding the icon cache in Windows 11

You can rebuild the icon cache using a single command. Here is how that is done:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Windows-X to display the administrative menu.
2. Select Terminal from the menu.
3. Confirm the security prompt by selecting the option yes.
4. Paste the command "ie4uinit.exe -show" and press the Enter-key.

Note that you do not get a response; this is normal and nothing to worry about.

The Sledgehammer method

If the above command does not fix the icon cache on the Windows 11 system, you may try the following, which is more powerful.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type cmd and select Command Prompt to launch it.
3. Paste the command ie4uinit.exe -show and press the Enter-key.
4. Paste the command taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F and press the Enter-key.
5. Paste the command CD %userprofile%\AppData\Local and press the Enter-key.
6. Type del iconcache.db /a and press the Enter-key.
7. Paste the command CD %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\ and press the Enter-key.
8. Type del iconcache* and press the Enter-key.
9. Type start explorer.exe and press the Enter-key.

You probably wonder what some of the commands do.

• taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe  - This commands force kills the explorer.exe process. Note that this removes the taskbar among other things when executed. Don't worry, the command start explorer.exe restarts Explorer at the end.
• CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local - This command changes the directory to the user's \AppData\Local directory.
• del IconCache.db /a /f /q - This command deletes the file IconCache.db
• del iconcache* /a /f /q -- The command deletes all files that start with iconcache in the folder %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\.

Rebuilding does not resolve all issues related to icons

Rebuilding works if the icon cache has become corrupted. It does not work in some other cases. For example, when an icon file gets moved or deleted on the system.

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Here are ten cool things Microsoft delivered in 2024 for Windows 11 users (in no particular order).

1. Faster Windows updates

Many consider Windows updates the least favorite thing about Windows, so in 2024, Microsoft made some changes in the 24H2 update to make the process faster and less "painful" for the end user. Improvements, such as parallel processing of component manifests, higher RAM usage (if available), and other changes enabled Microsoft to deliver up to 43% faster installation time, 33% faster restart time, and 25% less CPU usage.

2. Better performance on AMD systems

Windows 11 version 24H2 (this was also ported to version 23H2) works better on systems with AM5 processors, such as the Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series. Branch prediction optimizations deliver quite impressive performance uplifts, resulting in up to 11% better FPS in games.

3. Native support for more archive formats

Windows 11 is now more capable when it comes to file compression. In addition to the good old ZIP, users can compress files to 7zip and TAR, select a compression method (Store, Deflate, BZip2, LZMA1, LZMA2, or PPMd), specify the compression level from 0 to 9, and use additional features, such as hard or symbolic link retention.

Third-party applications might still be better performance-wise, but for a casual user, these changes eliminate the need for a dedicated file compression app.

4. Sort-of fixed context menus

With version 24H2, Windows 11's context menus received a neat accessibility improvement. Common file actions, such as cut, copy, paste, rename, share, and delete received labels so that inexperienced users can better understand what each button does. Sadly, context menus are still very slow compared to Windows 10, but hey, it's something.

5. Android devices can now work as webcams

If you have an Android phone, you can use it as a webcam for your Windows 11 computer without installing or purchasing any third-party software. The Phone Link app now allows you to turn a compatible Android smartphone into a powerful wireless webcam that can beat almost any consumer-oriented webcam on the market. Even inexpensive Android phones can deliver a better experience than what webcams in most Windows laptops do.

Additional conveniences include the ability to monitor your phone's battery, switch cameras, select additional effects, and more. Very neat!

6. Wi-Fi refresh button

A small but very welcome and delightful change. If your laptop cannot detect a Wi-Fi network from the first try, clicking a refresh button on the network flyout will force the device to rescan for available networks.

7. Better mouse settings

Another convenience that eliminates the need to modify the system registry just to tweak a certain mouse setting. Recently, Microsoft added two mouse-related options to the Settings app: the ability to toggle mouse acceleration and change the scroll direction. You can find those settings in Bluetooth & devices > Mouse.

8. Voice Clarity

Windows 11 has several cool AI-powered features, but most of them require special hardware, such as Copilot+ PCs. Fortunately, Microsoft managed to make one of those features available to all Windows 11 users. Voice Clarity now uses a better underlying model that is easier on system resources and does not require a dedicated NPU. It can eliminate background noise, reduce echo, and suppress reverb so that others can hear you better in noisy conditions.

9. Better QR code integration

Sharing links to your smartphone or other device is now much easier thanks to a built-in QR code generator. When sharing a link, you can click a QR code to quickly generate one and scan it with your mobile device. By the way, Windows 11 also lets you share a Wi-Fi password with a QR code. Go to Network & Internet> Wi-Fi > Your Network and click Show.

10. Access to your phone's file system in File Explorer

If you have a modern Android phone, you can pair it to your Windows 11 PC using the Phone Link app and access its file system directly in File Explorer. The feature also lets you move files to and from your device without any cables.

Honorable mention: HDR wallpapers

You can now use high-dynamic range images as desktop backgrounds on systems with HDR support (JXR format). Finding some might be tricky, though.

It is also worth noting that the Copilot+ PC program that was launched this year brought new AI-powered features to Windows 11. I skipped them in this article to focus on things that are available to most Windows 11 users. However, if you would like to know what exclusive features Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs have, check out this article.

Bonus: wallpapers

Here is the wallpaper from this article (courtesy of Microsoft Design). Light:

Dark:

These are some of the most interesting and useful changes implemented in Windows 11. If your favorite change from 2024 was not mentioned in the list, let us know about it in the comments.

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In summer 2016, Microsoft released its first major feature update for Windows 10 which introduced a brand-new dark theme toggle that allowed users to switch apps between light and dark themes system wide. It was a nice addition, even if at the time, many apps and shell-level interfaces didn’t support it out of the gate.

This changed over time, and today, many, if not most apps on Windows support switching between light and dark themes based on the built-in Windows toggle. However, the same can’t be said for the Windows UI itself, which has seen very little progress since the dark mode toggle was introduced.

When Windows 10 debuted in 2015, it did so with a mishmash of light and dark UI elements. The Taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center were all dark, but the File Explorer and context menus were light. In 2016, Microsoft officially added a dark mode toggle, which added dark mode to the File Explorer and context menus.

However, this work was very much surface-level. Although the File Explorer and context menus finally had dark mode, it was very easy to encounter an area of the UI that didn’t support it. Copy dialogs, file properties, Run commands, the Registry Editor, Control Panel applets, and many more areas of Windows did not support dark mode.

It's been almost 10 years since, and these areas of the Windows OS STILL don’t support dark mode. Windows 11 to this day will still flashbang you whenever you copy a large file or open the properties dialog. This wouldn’t be a problem if these areas of the system were rare to come across, but these are areas of the OS that most users see all the time, on a daily basis!

It's not just incomplete, either. In some places, dark mode is outright broken. I mean, what the heck is this?

While that was on Windows 11 24H2, it looks like versions 23H2 and 22H2 are also problematic as the latest December 2024 Patch Tuesday (KB5048685) is causing all sorts of issues for users.

A very widespread problem seems to that related to the Start menu such that Citrix had to issue a workaround guidance about it. The support article under CTX number CTX692398 says:

Start menu may stop responding if KB5048685 installed on Windows 11 22H2/23H2 VDA

 

Symptoms or Error

 

After installing patch KB5048685 on Windows 11 22H2/23H2 VDA, Start menu within a VDI session may not respond for some users. [TPV-6122]

 

Workaround

 

• Edit below registry

   

  • Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CtxUvi

  • Value Name: UviProcessExcludes

  • Type: REG_SZ

     

• Append 'StartMenuExper' ending with semi colon (;).

• Reboot the machine

   

Aside from the Start menu freezing issue, users are also reporting that their installation is getting stuck at somewhere around 60-70% typically. Such users may find some luck using Microsoft's recovery guide for botched updates.

For example, Microsoft forum user Ryan B36 writes:

Update KB5048685 Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64 won't install on my computer.

 

I've tried the Windows Update Troubleshooter and "sfc /scannow" recommendations - both appeared to identify problems but didn't fix them. I've tried the oft-cited "/RestoreHealth" command prompt fix, but it just keeps getting stuck at 62.3%, which appears to be another problem in and of itself entirely.

At the time of writing, 49 people have upvoted this thread.

Another user there mondwme says that Windows keeps telling them to restart after the update but it does not seem to proceed beyond that. They say:

I have already restarted 4 times. Twice yesterday and twice this morning but it still says that I need to update it.

 

I've tried running the Windows troubleshooter but it says everything is fine and there is no error message. I completely shut my laptop down, waited about 5 minutes, then turned it back on as well. When it was done restarting, I went back to my settings just to check and it's saying it needs to restart as if it never happened.

This one has been upvoted by 24 users at the time of writing. Thankfully, this one seems to have a working solution.

Nighter, another user on the Microsoft community, says their installation fails with 0x80070002 error after nearly completing the update and installation process. Here's the list of things they say they tried before giving up:

I have tried all things possible that I found, other than a reload, over the past several weeks. Installs to 100% and fails, prompting to retry.

> Using Update Troubleshooter (useless, since they not fixing that).

> Resetting services (which are done during a reboot anyway).

> Stopping services and deleting/moving C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution and C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 (which oddly is a folder I can not see [am set to see all including protected OS files] nor can I access C:\Windows\System32\catroot2.old if it even gets made. Even in Safe Mode. The only way I am able to remove catroot2 is booting into Advance Options and opening the Command Prompt from there. Deleted it all. No help though after reboot.

> CHKDSK, DISM *HEALTH options, SFC.

 

> Booted with all non-M$ stuff disabled.

> Safe mode with networking will not let me load update services.

> Downloading the offline installer from https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5048685 also failed. Same error.

 

> Pulled all external hardware but keyboard, which is USB.

This query has been upvoted by 27 others at the time of writing.

Finally, the update also appears to be affecting the Wi-Fi as one user by the name SKICA points out:

Since this morning, I can't get my Wifi to work. I thought it was a modem problem but every other device works fine - another laptop (Linux), my mobile, Google Home. I restarted the modem anyway.

 

The laptop connects to the modem but can't connect to the internet. I tried resetting the network, flushing DNS, disabling the driver and enabling it again, even manually entering IP address and DNS servers. But nothing works.

 

The troubleshooter gives different suggestions each time - "DNS server not reachable", "Restart modem" etc. But everything has been done.

 

...

 

Specifically, it is this update that seems to have caused the issue:

 

2024-12 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5048685)

 

I tried to do a rollback, but no use.

This thread has been upvoted by 14 people at the time of writing indicating that it too is at least somewhat widespread.

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In a surprise holiday announcement, Microsoft revealed that PowerToys Run v2 is coming in 2025. The new version will bring a revamped user interface, a reworked extension model with the ability for extensions to pick their render surface for a better user experience, and other community-driven changes.

Microsoft says it will reach out to PowerToys Run plugin developers to help them port their project to v2 to benefit from the improved features and new capabilities.

You can check out early PowerToys Run v2 UI in the screenshots below:

For now, there is no information on when exactly Microsoft plans to launch the revamped PowerToys launcher. All we have is “coming 2025.” Expect Microsoft to announce more details about PowerToys Run v2 in the near future.

Meanwhile, you can check out what is new in the latest available PowerToys update, version 0.87, here. It introduced improvements for Workspaces, Advanced AI, and Mouse Jump and brought a new module for Windows 10 users. It also later received a update with a few additional stability fixes.

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It's modern, has a search bar, and easy-to-understand graphs.

But what are some of the lesser-known features of the Task Manager? In this article, we're going to take a closer look at some of our favourite Task Manager features.

Generate live kernel dump using Task Manager

One of the lesser-known features in Task Manager is the ability to generate kernel or full crash dump.

This is particularly useful when you're unsure why your PC crashed or what caused the Blue Screen of Death in the first place.

When you use the generate kernel or full crash dump, Task Manager creates a system crash dump.

You can analyze the kernel crash dump or forward it to Microsoft's support team. You can even use ChatGPT to analyze it.

Pause Task Manager

How often do you open Task Manager to end some processes, but the screen keeps changing? This makes it possible to right-click the process you wanted to kill.

If you hold CTRL, it will pause Task Manager processes from getting updated, which means the process won't move around. You select the process, sort the list to filter out the processes you don't care about, and find the one you want to kill easily.

This works in all versions of Windows, including Windows 95 and Windows 11.

Pro tip: You can also hold the F5 key to make the values update more frequently.

Efficiency mode

You can right-click any app or process in the Task Manager and set apps or processes to run in "Efficiency Mode" to limit their CPU usage, which can help in reducing power consumption or freeing up resources for other tasks.

This feature is useful for background processes or apps that run continuously but don't require full CPU power.

You might want to turn off the feature if it's causing performance issues with the app. In some cases, it could result in lags when you're scrolling through long pages.

Task Manager Startup apps

Task Manager's Startup Apps section is also one of my favourite features.

The Startup apps inside Task Manager have a breakdown of all apps that are set to run automatically when Windows boots to the desktop. This may include apps like Windows Defender, Google Chrome Updater, Spotify, and more.

It depends on the apps installed on your system, but we recommend using the Startup Apps section to disable unwanted apps.

When you prevent apps from starting up automatically, you're also freeing up resources and reducing startup time.

Startup apps section can be used to find programs that are unnecessary to start to free up resources, as well unusual programs that may be malware. You can share and upload unknown executables pointed to by startups to virustotal to check them.

App history

The App History tab in Task Manager is a useful but often ignored feature.

It shows how much CPU time and network data each app has used since the last full shutdown.

For example, in my case, Chrome used 11GB of network and 50 hours of CPU time. It’s a good way to see which apps are using the most resources

If you’ve never used this feature, it’s worth checking out. It gives you a clear picture of what’s happening behind the scenes, especially if you’re trying to manage your system’s performance or figure out why things are slowing down.

What about you? Which Task Manager feature is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.

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It says that users trying to install new security updates or Patch Tuesdays on Windows 11 24H2 will be unable to do so had they installed using media like CD or USB. The issue is affecting those who are trying to update on top of the October 2024 Patch Tuesday (KB5044284) and November 2024 Patch Tuesday (KB5046617).

Thus those who installed Windows 11 2024 using something like the official Media Creation Tool are also going to be affected. Microsoft has clarified that the problem does not occur when the installation is done via Windows Update or the Update Catalog website.

It writes:

When using media to install Windows 11, version 24H2, the device might remain in a state where it cannot accept further Windows security updates. This occurs only when the media is created to include the October 2024, or November 2024, security updates as part of the installation (these updates were released between October 8, 2024 and November 12, 2024).

 

Please note, this only occurs when utilizing media - such as CD and USB flash drives - to install Windows 11, version 24H2. This issue does not occur for devices where the October 2024 security update or the November 2024 security updates are installed via Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

A workaround has been offered which involves avoiding the October and November Patches if a user wishes to proceed with a USB or CD installation. Microsoft says that the latest December Patch Tuesday update is not affected by this problem.

Workaround: To prevent issues, do not install Windows 11, version 24H2 which installs the October 2024 or November 2024 security updates. Instead, ensure that media used to install Windows 11, version 24H2, includes the December 2024 monthly security update (released December 10, 2024), or later.

The company is currently investigating the issue and says it will provide more details later. You can check the issue here on Microsoft's official Windows Health dashboard website.

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However, long-time Classic Outlook users have not been the most thrilled about the experience, and that is mainly because they feel the New Outlook app is lacking in terms of feature support. Thankfully, Microsoft is aware of the shortcomings and has already confirmed that it is improving New Outlook operations when an internet connection is unavailable. Multiple new features are being tested, with the latest addition being planned for early 2025.

Aside from better offline mode support, Microsoft is also working on adding PST support on the New Outlook for Windows as well as Outlook for Mac. In fact, the company has already rolled out what it refers to as the "first phase of PST support," and it is described under feature ID 399467 on the Microsoft 365 roadmap. It writes:

Outlook: First phase of PST support in new Outlook for Windows

 

The first phase PST (a.k.a. Outlook Data File) support in the new Outlook for Windows provides read-only access to Mail items within *.pst files. Users will be able to open *.pst files, read their emails within *.pst files, and search *.pst files for emails. All Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks data saved in the *.pst files are still there, but they cannot be accessed in this preview. Next releases will expand PST support capabilities.

For those wondering, PST or Personal Storage Table is an open proprietary Microsoft file format that is used to import or export Outlook data like email messages, contacts, calendar items, tasks, and notes. The PST files are archived or saved on a user's PC.

Microsoft also has plans to add PST support on Outlook for Mac since, much like Windows, the feature is currently only supported by the legacy Mac app. This feature was expected to start rolling out in November, but that has not happened.

Under feature ID 405754, the company says:

Outlook: Import and export support for data files in Outlook

 

This feature adds support for importing PST files into Outlook for Mac. Support for OLM data files will include both importing and exporting data.

Similar to what PST files are for Outlook for Windows, OLM files carry data on Outlook for Mac.

Finally, the latest PST-related addition was made earlier this month under feature ID 473995 and with this, more capabilities are coming to the app. Microsoft writes:

Outlook: Manage email in PST files in new Outlook for Windows

 

With this update of support for .pst files (a.k.a. Outlook data files) in the new Outlook for Windows, users will be able to move, copy, delete, flag/unflag, mark as read/unread, and set categories for email within .pst files. Additionally, users will be able to create, delete, move, and rename folders within .pst files. Future releases of new Outlook will expand the support for .pst file capabilities.

The rollout of the above is expected in January of next year when a major Microsoft 365 app UI update is also planned.

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’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house and office, not a creature was stirring — except yours truly, because I was checking my systems to see whether they were all fully up to date.

Seriously, I always find that the time around the holidays is a good moment to do your patching. After the holiday dinner has been served and everyone is in their holiday ham or turkey coma, I can sneak away to review my technology. The end of the year is just a week away, and as I always say, you should start the new year with everything polished and shiny. Therefore, I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.

Despite occasional reports, I’m not tracking anything widespread. The December updates will protect you from a zero day in the form of CVE-2024-49138, but Microsoft is still not being clear about exactly who (or what) was targeted or how widespread the attacks were. Based on the fact that the vendor CrowdStrike reported the exploit, clearly this attack was targeted at businesses.

I’m more concerned about the forced “shove” to Outlook (new) and its impact on small businesses as we turn over the calendar. If you haven’t already done so, check out Peter Deegan’s column Stopping the migration to Outlook (new) (AskWoody, 2024-12-16) and the excellent and extensive follow-up comments in the forum. The article is available to everyone.

I still consider Windows 11 24H2 rough around the edges and not ready for wide use — especially for gamers. Although Microsoft indicates that Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are no longer affected by this issue due to temporary hotfixes deployed by Ubisoft, it also admits that “players might still experience some performance issues.”

Consumers

If Santa brings you a brand-new Apple iPhone or iPad for Christmas, know that I’m dropping my partial hold on iOS 18.2. I held back because of my concern regarding the Photo app — one which many users shared. Go ahead and update.

You’ll notice a striking update to the user interface in the mail app (left). It’s a bit jolting, quite a departure from the previous design. Good or bad? Hard to know for sure, but tell us in the forums about your experience with this or any other hanges in Apple’s UI for any of its devices.

Also note that Apple has taken a page out of Outlook’s playbook, with additional filtering of email. You may find this helpful or annoying depending on your point of view. The app’s additional filtering of mail places things into buckets Apple thinks are helpful to you. If you don’t need the categories “Primary,” “Transactions,” “Updates,” or “Promotions,” just swipe the filter buttons on the right to show all mail.

You can also permanently disable this filtered view. Open the Mail app and then an Inbox view of messages. Tap the three-dot (•••) button in the upper-right corner. Select List View. The filters will now disappear, and all your emails will be shown in a single list.

If you do use Apple’s new filtered view, you’ll discover that counts can be wrong. When looking at the count of unread messages on the mail app’s icon, you’ll get one number. But if you look at the counts inside the app and total them, you’ll get a different number. Those of you who always mark everything as read or who delete unwanted messages won’t notice a thing. But those of us (well, mostly me) who ignore junk messages or don’t delete them, will find the mistaken counts a bit weird.

If you want the Photos app to be more like it was before iOS 18, navigate to the Photos app, scroll to the bottom, and select Customize and Reorder. Deselect all collections, with the exception of Media Types and Utilities, then click the X icon symbol in the upper right to confirm.

Businesses

For businesses, January 1 starts the 10-month countdown to the October end of support for Windows 10. I’ll be having some special articles on how to isolate such PCs if you opt not to purchase the extended-support plans; I’ll also cover how to obtain those extended support offerings. I will still be tracking post-release issues after the October end of life.

For those of you tracking CVE-2024-49112 for Windows Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, this is the vulnerability that I’m most concerned about. I have not seen anyone reporting side effects in their Active Directory networks as a result of this update, so I’ll urge you to update at this time. But I’m also looking at taking more proactive protection, such as restricting RPC to trusted machines only. As with many things in security, we’ll have to test this for any the side effects.

If you’ve seen Excel 2016 freeze or pause and you are on the perpetual version, as opposed to Microsoft 365, install either the December update for Excel or KB4484305.

Resources

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Microsoft understands that repair and recovery of Windows is essential as users can run into issues. This is also why the company recently added a handy shortcut link that goes straight to the recovery settings menu in its official guidance about installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

Likewise, today, while browsing, Neowin noted that the tech giant has updated another one of its support articles recently about uninstalling Windows Updates and it has now added details about how one can use the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to do so. Microsoft publishes WinRE updates from time to time. You can find them in these articles here.

The new text has been added to both Windows 10 and 11 sections. But the first thing you will probably notice upon stepping on the page is the big disclaimer banner regarding the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 which is Microsoft recommends staying away from that OS.

Here's what it says:

Uninstall an update from Windows RE

If you can't access Windows and you want to uninstall an update, you can do so from Windows RE. Here are the steps:

 

1. Access the Windows Recovery Environment.

2. Once in Windows RE, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Uninstall Updates.

3. Select either Uninstall latest quality update or Uninstall latest quality update.

As you can see, the first step links to a page that details WinRE and how to use it. The page also has a caution at the bottom regarding BitLocker that links to its guide about BitLocker key recovery:

Note: If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need the BitLocker recovery key to use certain tools.

BitLocker and Auto-DE are important metrics this time around on Windows 11 24H2 and in case you missed it, Microsoft recently decided to tell users how the system requirements like TPM and Secure Boot, as well as WinRE, play a key role in it.

As such, third-party backup and cloning apps like Acronis are also baking in relevant changes for the same.

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StartAllBack 3.9, which is now available for download, introduces a "plump taskbar" option. It increases the taskbar margins and uses the stock Windows 11 pill-shape indicator to run apps. You can also switch between the attached and detached taskbar, with the latter having a small gap between the taskbar and the bottom edge of the screen for a floating look.

Those who miss the fancy UI effects of Windows 7's taskbar can now enable Aura, which changes the highlight based on the app icon's primary color.

Finally, with the latest update, you can restore the classic drive grouping from Windows 7's File Explorer. When enabled, this feature places removable drives into a separate group, making it easier to distinguish internal drives from removable, such as USB thumb drives, external SSDs, etc. In modern Windows versions, the OS crams them all into a single "Devices and drives" category, which is frankly inconvenient, especially when you have many drives.

Here is the full changelog:

Version 3.9 - 23 Dec 2024

 

• Plump taskbar option w/Win11 design
• Floating taskbar: Aura / Dynamic aura perk
• Win7 This PC drive grouping option

Other features in StartAllBack include a proper dark mode for the entire operating system, different taskbar and Start menu styles, improved context menus, a more responsive user interface, Control Panel enhancements for Windows 11 users, and more.

You can download StartAllBack from the official website. Alternatively, run Windows Terminal and type winget install startallback.

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Besides that, the company also said that it was investigating another Microsoft 365-related bug wherein Office apps like Word, among others, would show a deactivation message that said: "Your Microsoft 365 license will be deactivated soon.... most features of Word will be disabled. Ask your Admin to reactivate your license".

At the time, Microsoft had provided a workaround and urged affected users to help them. It looks like the investigation has paid off as the tech giant has now closed the issue and as such the bug has been labelled as fixed. A patch that is supposed to fix the deactivation problem has been deployed on the server side.

However, it still encourages affected users to get in touch with the engineering team that is working on such bugs. It writes:

STATUS: FIXED

 

The engineering team has deployed a patch on the service side to resolve unexpected product deactivations.

 

For those that have support cases open, please collect the Office Logs and the file information below and share them with your support engineer.

 

1. Collect Office license diagnostic. For more information, go to Download Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool from Official Microsoft Download Center.

    

2. Close all Office apps and then zip up the logs in this directory and add to your support case:
   Logs: %temp%/diagnostics.

You can find the updated status report of the bug in this article here on Microsoft's website.

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Here is the changelog:

This hotfix addresses the following issues:

 

• [Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ] Some users may experience intermittent micro-stuttering [5015165]
• Improved stability for UBISoft games using the Snowdrop engine [4914325]

Nvidia 566.45 hotfix is based on the recently released driver 566.36 WHQL (check its full release notes here). Therefore, it contains all the patches, fixes, and known bugs as version 566.36. If you do not need these specific improvements, you can skip this update. Changes in hotfix releases usually arrive later with the next WHQL driver update.

You can download the Nvidia GeForce Hotfix 566.45 driver from the official website (direct link). It is available on systems with 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 versions and the following graphics cards:

The official support page with the changelog is available here.

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That was back in 2021. Fast forward to these days, with the release of the Windows 11 24H2 feature update (which just became downloadable to more users), the company recently updated one of the support articles on its official website. Neowin discovered this change while browsing the interwebs.

The article is about Automatic Device Encryption via BitLocker, which Microsoft refers to as "Auto-DE", and a particular section of this document was updated to reflect why TPM and Secure Boot are required for Device Encryption.

Previously, it stated:

Why isn't Device Encryption available?

Here are the steps to determine why Device Encryption might not be available:

 

1. From Start type System Information, right-click System Information in the list of results, then select Run as administrator

    

2. In the System Summary - Item's list, look for the value of Automatic Device Encryption Support or Device Encryption Support

    

• The value provides the reasons why Device Encryption can't be enabled

• If the value says Meets prerequisites, then Device Encryption is available on your device.

And here's what the updated page says now:

Why isn't Device Encryption available?

Here are the steps to determine why Device Encryption might not be available:

 

1. From Start type System Information, right-click System Information in the list of results, then select Run as administrator

    

2. In the System Summary - Item's list, look for the value of Automatic Device Encryption Support or Device Encryption Support

    

   The value describes the support status of Device Encryption:

    

• Meets prerequisites: Device Encryption is available on your device

• TPM is not usable: your device doesn't have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), or the TPM isn't enabled in the BIOS or in the UEFI

• WinRE is not configured: your device doesn't have Windows Recovery Environment configured

• PCR7 binding is not supported: Secure Boot is disabled in the BIOS/UEFI, or you have peripherals connected to your device during boot (like specialized network interfaces, docking stations, or external graphic card)

Essentially, the article details what those unmet "prerequisites" are. They include TPM, WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), and Secure Boot. Besides these, Microsoft also mentions PCR7.

PCR, or Platform Configuration Register, is a memory location on the TPM and is used for storing hash algorithms. PCR profile 7, or PCR7, is what BitLocker binds with. This binding ensures that a cryptographic key, in this case, the BitLocker key, loads only during a certain time during booting, neither before nor after.

This is where Secure Boot comes in as it verifies and validates the necessary Microsoft Windows PCA 2011 certificate during booting, since an invalid signature leads to BitLocker using profiles other than 7.

For those wondering what this fuss about BitLocker and encryption on Windows 11 24H2 is, the Redmond giant lowered the OEM requirements for Auto-DE on the latest Windows version and thus even Home PCs can be automatically encrypted. Soon after, the company also released a handy recovery and backup guide for the BitLocker key which should be a smart thing to bookmark.

Third-party backup and cloning apps like Acronis are also baking in relevant changes for the same.

This is Microsoft's way of letting you know why you should stick to an officially eligible PC on its latest version of Windows, and the company's official stance is that you get a new PC if yours is too old.

Recently, the company also clarified its current position regarding the system requirements of Windows 11 on unsupported hardware after explaining how TPM 2.0 is a non-negotiable standard on its OS.

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Table of contents:

• Windows Subsystem for Android
• Test Base
• TLS server authentication certificates with certain RSA keys
• Password payload in MPR notifications
• Microsoft Defender Application Guard
• Driver Verifier GUI
• NTLM
• DirectAccess
• Adobe Type 1 Fonts
• Paint3D
• Legacy DRM Services
• Suggested Actions

Deprecated features in Windows in 2024

Windows Subsystem for Android | Deprecated in March 2024

Starting with a big one: Android app support, a thing that used to be one of Windows 11's headline features, is now dead. You can no longer download WSA, the Amazon App Store for Windows, and any officially supported apps. However, if you have some installed, they will continue operating until March 5, 2025. While Microsoft never provided any official explanations, some developers from the WSA team later revealed that the project was doomed from the start.

Test Base | Deprecated in March 2024

Test Base, a cloud-based Azure service for application testing, is dead. On June 1, 2024, Microsoft shut down Test Base and deleted all user information, claiming that Windows 11 and its "continuous innovation" resolved "a high percentage of application compatibility issues."

TLS server authentication certificates with certain RSA keys | Deprecated in March 2024

RSA keys shorter than 2048 bits are no longer valid for certificates. Microsoft deprecated them to improve security when using certificates for authentication and cryptographic purposes.

Password payload in MPR notifications | Deprecated in March 2024

This is another security-related change in Windows 11 version 24H2 and newer. NPLogonNotify and NPPasswordChangeNotify APIs were deprecated to prevent risks of password exposure. However, since some customers might still need those APIs, Microsoft allows them to be used via a dedicated policy.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard | Deprecated in April 2024

MDAG extension was a security tool for tracking untrusted websites and redirecting them from your current browser to an isolated Microsoft Edge instance. This extension (available for Chrome and Firefox) was killed in May 2024.

Driver Verifier GUI | Deprecated in May 2024

Driver Verifier is a special component for stress-testing Windows drivers. While the verifier itself is not going anywhere, its graphical user interface is now deprecated. Microsoft suggests using the Verifier Command Line (verifier.exe) instead of the Driver Verifier GUI.

NTLM | Deprecated in June 2024

New Technology Lan Manager has been deprecated, and Microsoft says all NTLM calls should be replaced by Negotiate calls. Interestingly, despite the promise to keep NTLM around (remember, deprecation does not always mean removal), Microsoft started removing NTLM from consumer and server Windows versions in December 2024.

DirectAccess | Deprecated in June 2024

DirectAccess, a feature for remote connection to corporate networks introduced in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, is now deprecated in favor of Always on VPN.

Adobe Type 1 Fonts | Deprecated in August 2024

Adobe dropped Type 1 font support about two years ago, preventing users with certain creative apps from utilizing them. As a result, Microsoft is also deprecating Type 1 font support in modern Windows versions, and users are recommended to remove them in Settings > Personalization > Fonts.

Paint3D | Deprecated in August 2024

Paint3D was a failed attempt to make the classic Paint more modern by adding 3D capabilities in the era of Windows 10 feature updates with stupid names. Paint3D is no longer available for download from the Microsoft Store, but you can still install it on your Windows PC if you want to check out this forgotten piece of Microsoft history.

Legacy DRM Services | Deprecated in September 2024

This one is the only deprecated feature that does not affect Windows 10 and 11. The end of legacy DRM services means you won't be able to play protected content in Windows Media Player and Silverlight on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Xbox 360.

Suggested Actions | Deprecated in December 2024

Suggested Actions is the youngest feature that Microsoft killed this year. Introduced over two years ago as part of build 25115, Suggested Actions allowed you to quickly make calls, create calendar events, search using Bing, and do other stuff when highlighting text across Windows. Microsoft said Suggested actions would be removed in a future Windows 11 update.

In total, Microsoft deprecated 12 Windows features and components in 2024. Are you going to miss some of them?

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Here is what was fixed:

Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:

 

• The Crew Motorfest (VK) may exhibit flickering corruptions in certain scenes.
• Saleco (VK) may experience application crash during game launch.
• Elden Ring (DX12) may exhibit stuttering during gameplay in certain scenes.
• Homeworld 3 (DX12) may experience application crash during game launch.
• F1 24 (DX12) may exhibit stuttering during gameplay with ray tracing quality set to high.
  • Game may exhibit corruptions during night scenes.

Here is the list of known issues:

Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:

 

• F1 24 (DX12) with XeSS FG may exhibit certain corruptions and applications crashes o
  • Application may crash when dynamically changing XeSS FG settings during gameplay. Recommendation is to toggle XeSS FG settings in the game menu before starting a race.
  • “Alt + Enter” shortcut may change the display mode to fullscreen exclusive, which is not supported in XeSS 2 and may cause the game to crash.
• Skull and Bones (DX12) may experience an application crash while launching gameplay.
• MLPerf may exhibit intermittent errors when running on multi-GPU system configurations. It is recommended to disable integrated GPU as a workaround.
• Topaz Labs Photo AI may exhibit corruptions with certain image enhancement operations.
• Magix Vegas Pro may exhibit corruptions when using style transfer feature.
• Dassault Systèmes CATIA may experience an application crash when using HQAO option.
• Certain capture cards may exhibit visual artifacts in some scenarios.
• Adobe Lightroom Classic may experience lower than expected performance. Workaround is to set recommended preferences in the application
  • Under Edit, Preferences, Performance options, choose Graphics Processor as “Custom”
  • Select “Use GPU for Display”, “Use GPU for Image Processing” and “Use GPU for Export” options.

 

Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

 

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit darker than expected shadows in certain campaign scenarios.
• Topaz Gigapixel AI may experience intermittent crash while exporting images.

 

Intel Core Ultra Series 1 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

 

• SPECworkstation3.1 may exhibit system instability while running certain workloads.
• PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended.
• Davinci Resolve Studio v19.0 may experience errors while rendering OpenVino test scenarios.
• Topaz Video AI may experience corruption when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare III (DX12) may experience flickering during gameplay.

 

Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

 

• Adobe Premiere Pro may exhibit corruption in the output video after performing 8K AV1 Encode.
• PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended.
• Davinci Resolve Studio v19.0 may experience issues while rendering certain OpenVino test scenarios.
• Davinci Resolve Studio v19.0 may experience errors intermittently while rendering certain AI/ML scenarios.
• Topaz Video AI may experience corruption when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit black shadow corruption in certain scenes during gameplay.
• Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered (DX12) may experience crash during gameplay with frame generation enabled.

The driver is available for PCs with 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 with the following graphics cards and processors:

You can download Intel 32.0.101.6325 WHQL and 32.0.101.6253 Non-WHQL from the official website here. Full release notes are available here (PDF).

Source

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