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How to get started with Windows Recall on Windows 11

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:51:37 +0000

After upgrading to Windows 11 2024 Update, use this guide to learn and start using Windows Recall.

On Windows 11 version 24H2 (2024 Update), Windows Recall is a new feature powered by AI that tracks and remembers anything you have done on the computer.

This feature can be thought of as a photographic memory. It works by taking screenshots of your on-screen activities every few seconds, using several on-device AI models to analyze the information, and making everything searchable using natural language with the "Recall" app.

Although, for the most part, the feature is straightforward, it's important to get familiar with the new interface and settings to get the most out of the experience.

It's important to note that this feature is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs powered by the latest AI processors from Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel, and it comes disabled by default. Also, at the time of this writing, the feature is only available as a preview through the Windows Insider Program.

In this how-to guide, I will explain the steps you need to know to start using the Windows Recall feature the right way on Windows 11.

How to configure and manage settings on Windows Recall

If you have a Copilot+ PC, the operating system offers various settings to manage Windows Recall, including the ability to opt in or out of the feature, change storage allocation, delete snapshots, and filter apps and websites.

Opt-in and out

Windows 11 won't automatically turn on the Recall AI feature on your computer. It will be up to you to decide.

To turn Windows Recall on or off, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 1) Turn on the "Save snapshots" toggle switch to enable the feature.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Turn off the "Save snapshots" toggle switch to disable the feature.

Once you complete the steps, the feature will run or stay disabled, according to your configuration.

You can also turn on the feature by launching the "Recall" app and opting in to save snapshots on your computer.

Change storage settings

Windows Recall, by default, reserves 25GB of storage on devices with a 256 GB SSD, 75GB for a 512GB SSD, and 150GB for a 1TB SSD. However, you can increase or decrease the allocation with the instructions below.

To change the storage allocation for Windows Recall, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Storage setting.
Choose the storage allocation size using the "Maximum storage for snapshots" setting.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Optional) Click the "View system storage" settings to open the Storage settings to view the drive usage of Recall AI.

Quick tip: The Storage settings in the "Recall & snapshots" page show this information.

Choose the data retention time range (Unlimited, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days) in the "Maximum storage duration for snapshots" setting.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

After you complete the steps, the system will apply the new storage allocation.

Delete snapshots

Windows Recall takes screenshots every few seconds to analyze the activity on the screen and build the new Windows Semantic Search. However, since these snapshots can hold sensitive data, Microsoft has built a control that allows you to delete some or every snapshot the feature has taken and store it on your computer.

To delete Windows Recall snapshots on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Delete setting.
(Option 1) Choose the timeframe to delete snapshots from the "Delete snapshots from a specific timeframe" setting.
Click the Delete snapshots button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Delete button again to confirm.
(Option 2) Click the "Delete all" button to remove the snapshots stored on your computer.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Delete button again to confirm.

Once you complete the steps, the Recall data will be deleted according to your configuration.

Filter sensitive information

As part of the strategy to improve privacy and security, Recall AI includes a feature to detect and filter out sensitive information, such as passwords, credit cards, etc., the feature should be turned on by default, but you can always manage the option from the "Recall & snapshots" settings.

To enable or disable the filter for sensitive information, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 1) Turn on the "Filter sensitive information" toggle switch to enable the feature.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Turn off the "Filter sensitive information" toggle switch to disable the feature.

Once you complete the steps, the feature will stop saving snapshots with sensitive information on your computer.

Filter apps from Recall

Although Windows Recall records virtually everything you do on your computer, the company is also adding a couple of settings to filter specific apps and websites from being part of the experience.

However, by default, the feature won't monitor activities when you use a Chromium-based web browser, such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, and browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Opera, in InPrivate or Incognito mode. Also, Windows Recall doesn't snapshot anything with DRM (Digital Rights Management).

To exclude apps from being recorded by Windows Recall, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Add app button to filter an app.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Select the app from the list.
Click the Add button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

You can remove apps using the same instructions, but in step 4, click on the "Apps to filter" setting and click the "Remove" button for the app you want to remove.

Filter websites from Recall

To exclude websites from being recorded by Windows Recall, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Privacy & security.
Click the Recall & snapshots page from the right side.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Add website button to filter an app.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Confirm the website to exclude.
Click the Add button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

You can remove apps using the same instructions, but in step 4, click on the "Websites to filter" setting and click the "Remove" button for the website you want to remove.

It's important to note that if you are using an incognito window or a website or an app that has been excluded, and you click the "Now" button, the feature will take a snapshot of the contents. However, these snapshots will be stored temporarily in the "Temp" folder of your account and then deleted when you jump to another snapshot.

Pause and resume

It's also possible to pause and resume the Recall snapshots with these instructions:

Click the Windows Recall button from the System Tray.
(Option 1) Click the "Pause until tomorrow" button to turn off the feature until the next day at 12AM.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Click the "Resume snapshots" button to manually turn on the feature.

In the Recall flyout menu, you will also find the last snapshot that the feature has taken and its status.

You can also click the "More Recall & snapshots settings" to open the feature page in the Settings app.

How to search and find activities on Windows Recall

Windows Recall is a straightforward feature once it's configured, but there are some details you need to know.

Start a search

To use search with Recall AI, use these steps:

Click the Windows Recall button in the System Tray.
Sign in with your Microsoft account credentials to access the app.
Click the Open Recall button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Quick tip: You can also find the app from the Start menu, and you can right-click the app and pin it to the Taskbar.

(Option 1) Use the search box to search for an activity using natural language.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Quick tip: You can also click the "microphone" button and perform a voice search.

Select the snapshot from the result.

Quick tip: If the feature can't find any matches, you can click the "File Explorer results" option to perform a traditional Windows Search.

(Option 2) Use the timeline slider to scroll back in time to find a particular snapshot.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

For example, in the search box, you can type a question in the same way you would ask another person. For instance, "find the red leather jacket I saw the other day when browsing the internet."

When you press Enter, the feature will look into your past activities and bring up a snapshot that includes an image of the red leather jacket.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

The default behavior is to show every result from all the apps. You can then use the available controls to narrow down the search.

Windows Recall offers text and visual matches that are more relevant to your query. Also, the "Close match" results include at least one of the keywords, keyphrases, or images that are part of your search term. The "Related match" results are not exactly related to your search term.

If you use the timeline slider, you can scroll back to exactly the moment you were performing a specific activity. The timeline is divided into different segments and time periods. You can hover over the timeline to preview each activity from your selected period. (If the slider isn't available, click the "Timeline" button next to the search box.)

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

You can also use the navigation buttons on either side of the app to go between snapshots.

When selecting a part of the timeline or specific activities, Windows Recall will load the snapshot.

If you click the "Now" button, the feature will take a snapshot of the desktop. You can interact with the snapshot, but this particular snapshot won't be saved on your Recall history.

Interact with snapshots

It's important to note that when you interact with snapshots, you are actually using the "Click to Do" feature.

Click to Do is the feature that scans the snapshots with the on-device AI models to surface additional options to perform different actions with the text and elements found inside the screenshots you're viewing.

To interact with a Recall snapshot with Click to Do, use these steps:

Open the Windows Recall app.
Sign in using Windows Hello to access the app.
Perform a search with a text prompt or voice or by using the timeline slider.
Select the snapshot from the result.

Quick tip: You can also right-click a snapshot to copy or delete the element from the context menu.

In the snapshot, you will notice an animation around the element. This is the Click to Do feature analyzing the contents of the element. The snapshot also includes a date and time stamp in the bottom-right corner.
(Option 1) You can select and copy text, similar to extracting text from images using the Snipping Tool.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Select an element from the snapshot to access different options. For example, blur and remove background and erase object.

Quick tip: When using the Click to Do feature on an object, the options to blur and erase the background will open the screenshot with the Photos app, and the option to remove the background will open with the Microsoft Paint app.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Click the app button at the bottom of the page to launch the app.

Quick note: If the feature is capable, it will restore the app in the same location as the app you left off. If you're dealing with a snapshot of a website, the page on the snapshot will load instead of simplifying opening the web browser.

(Option 3) Click the "Click to Do" button to turn the feature on or off.
(Option 4) Click the Copy button to copy the snapshot as a screenshot to the clipboard.
(Option 5) Click the "Delete" (trash) button to erase the snapshot from the system.
(Option 6) Click the context menu to access different options. However, currently, you can only choose to open the screenshot with the Snipping Tool.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Once you complete the steps, you can proceed with another search or close the app to maintain the security of your data.

Other details about Windows Recall

If you reached this point, you should now have a good idea of how to use the Windows Recall feature. However, there are some additional details that you want to know.

For example, the feature will only run while the device is actively being used. If the computer goes idle for some time, the feature will turn off automatically until you resume an activity. You will notice this because the Windows Recall icon in the System Tray will change its state to disabled.

The System Tray icon is the indicator that lets you know that Windows Recall is enabled on the computer. You cannot move or hide this icon, similar to the location icon that appears when an app is accessing your location.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

If you turn off the Windows Recall feature, it'll be disabled permanently. The icon won't appear in the System Tray, and the Recall app will no longer appear in the Start menu.

Also, if you turn off the feature, the data won't be deleted automatically from your computer. If you re-enable the feature, the previous history will continue to be available. If you want to clear the history cache, you will have to delete the snapshots manually.

Microsoft is taking some extra precautions after receiving many security concerns from feedback.

These changes include a new page in the Windows 11 Setup experience that lets you decide whether to enable or disable the feature on your computer. (Microsoft originally planned to turn the feature on by default.)

(Image credit: Microsoft)

If you choose to enable the AI feature, you will have to enable Windows Hello PIN, Face, or Fingerprint on your account. You will also need to sign in to the "Recall" app to access your timeline.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

The system security originally protected the Recall database, but once signed in, the data was available in plain text. However, as part of the new changes, the company is now encrypting the database and snapshots, so it will not be easily accessible.

In addition to these changes, Windows Recall will be protected by the Secured-core PC firmware, Microsoft Pluton security processor, and Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS). Also, the computer must be using BitLocker (or Device Encryption) before you can turn on the feature.

Furthermore, Microsoft assures that the data collected by Recall will stay on your computer, nothing will be uploaded to the cloud, and the company won't use any data to train its AI models.

Finally, it's important to note that initially, the feature is only optimized for English, Chinese (simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

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Microsoft Account license bug, affecting Office 2024 installs, fixed

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:46:20 +0000

Earlier today, we covered a scary Microsoft 365 bug wherein Office apps like Word are displaying that the Microsoft 365 license will be "deactivated soon". Thankfully Microsoft has provided a workaround for it as well as how users can help the engineers investigate the issue better. You can find all the details in this dedicated coverage.

Aside from that, Microsoft has also fixed another Office-related bug. This issue is related to Microsoft Account (MSA) and how it confuses the Office 2024 app as an earlier version of the software, like Office 2021 or Office 2019, in case a user's MSA has the licenses for both. Reinstalling Office 2024 on top of it would not change things.

Although harmless by nature, it will certainly scare a user who had perhaps recently purchased the latest edition of Office.

Below, Microsoft has described the issue and also how to fix it, and from the looks of it, it appears that it should be an easy fix since all affected users need to do is update the application to the latest version.

ISSUE

When a Microsoft Account (MSA) has a license for both Office 2024 and for an earlier version of Office, such as Office 2021, then after installing Office 2024, the app backstage may still show the earlier version of Office instead of Office 2024.

STATUS: FIXED

To resolve the problem, please install the latest update for Office 2024.

Visit Install Office updates for more information about how to install the latest Office updates.

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

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"Microsoft 365 license deactivated soon" error hits Office apps, official workaround out

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:44:57 +0000

Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating an issue on Office apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and others wherein a user may come across a "Product Deactivated" error in Microsoft 365 Office apps.

For example, in Word, a cautionary banner would pop up that says, "Your Microsoft 365 license will be deactivated soon," and this is followed by "... most features of Word will be disabled. Ask your Admin to reactive your license".

Microsoft has explained what's causing it and has also provided a workaround for the issue. It writes:

CAUSE

Any change made by the admin at licensing level might trigger the issue. The following are probable reasons that can cause this issue:

Change in licensing group, where user is moved from one group to another (Applies to both Azure AD Groups and security groups synced from on-premises AD)

Changes in license/product assignment at the user level. Example: switching user license from Office 365 E3 subscription to Microsoft 365 E3 subscription

Removing and re-adding users to the same license group or different license group.

Toggling license or service plan for the users.

If administrators have turned off the “Latest version of Desktop Apps” service plan under the Microsoft 365 subscription for users.

WORKAROUND

Select the Reactivate button from the banner. You will be prompted to sign-in to reactivate.

OR

Sign out and close all of your Microsoft 365 apps, including Outlook. Then restart your Microsoft 365 app and sign back in.

If you're still having the issue, please reach out to your Admin to check for subscription expiry. For more information, go to Find out when your Microsoft 365 subscription expires.

Microsoft says that its engineering team is looking into it but also adds how users can help. It writes:

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

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

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 support article here on Microsoft's website.

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Microsoft shares yearly Edge stats, including 7 trillion megabytes of saved RAM

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:42:24 +0000

Following the launch of Xbox Year in Review for gamers, Microsoft posted detailed stats about its browser, Microsoft Edge. While the report is not user-specific, it reveals interesting facts about browser usage in 2024, such as 7 trillion megabytes of saved memory thanks to the Sleeping Tabs feature and more.

Copilot is Microsoft's main gig these days, so the company opened with AI-powered chats. In 2024, Edge users engaged in over 10 billion conversations with Copilot using the browser. Bing, Microsoft's search engine that started Copilot as "Bing Chat" and the default search engine in Edge, reached 140 million daily active users. Also, users read over 800 million articles on MSN, which recently received a new logo.

Moving from services to features, we have Edge's built-in translator processing 38 trillion characters, 48 million messages and files transferred across devices with Drop (a very handy feature that lets you send something files and notes between your PCs and mobile devices), and $400 yearly savings per user with the built-in shopping assistant feature.

Finally, Microsoft revealed how performance-focused features improved the browsing experience for users:

Sleeping Tabs saved over 7 trillion megabytes of memory by freezing inactive tabs
Tracking Prevention blocked 1.8 trillion trackers on Edge for mobile
Password Monitor protected over 7.3 billion passwords stored in Microsoft Edge
Security features blocked over 1.4 billion scam attacks, malware, and phishing attempts

In addition to the announcement post on the official Windows Blogs website, Microsoft published an interactive page where Edge users can check out Year in Review 2024. There, you will also find some feature highlights, such as tab organizing, Read Aloud, Immersive Reader, vertical tabs, Wallet, shopping assistant, and more.

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Microsoft fixes major PowerToys stability bugs for Windows 10, .NET 9, Advanced Paste

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:41:38 +0000

Earlier this week, PowerToys released its new update, version 0.87.0, with new features related to Advanced Paste, added support for New+ on Windows 10, fixed some important bugs, and more.

Earlier today, Microsoft released an update to the popular customization tool which fixes some major bugs and issues. The company had deemed these issues as "important" in regards to the application's stability since these were being frequently reported by users.

In total the new update deploys three fixes that resolve problems related to PowerToys' Run on Windows 10, and a couple of crash fixes related to Advanced Paste and .NET 9.

The full changelog is given below:

This is a patch release to fix issues in v0.87.0 we deemed important for stability based on incoming rates.

Highlights

#36391 - Fixed an issue causing PowerToys Run to not have borders on Windows 10.

#36417 - Fixed a crash when using the PowerToys Run OneNote plugin caused by the .NET 9 upgrade.

#36428 - Fixed a crash when cleaning out Advanced Paste resources on exit.

You can download the update, version 0.87.1, from its official GitHub repo here or from the Microsoft Store.

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No more Windows 11 preview builds this year

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 06:27:37 +0000

2025 is less than two weeks away, which means Microsoft is taking another holiday break. As a result, there will be no new Windows 11 Insider updates or any scheduled Windows updates whatsoever. The final build in 2024 is Windows 11 26100.2705 from the Dev Channel, which was released this week and introduced new AI-powered experiences for more Copilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD processors.

If you are not a Windows Insider and you prefer stable Windows builds over preview releases, do not expect any scheduled updates for Windows 10 or 11 either. Last month, Microsoft announced that the November 2024 non-security update series would be the final one in 2024. Due to "reduced operations" during the holiday season, Microsoft skipped December 2024 non-security updates (Patch Tuesday updates were released as usual).

The next Windows 10 and 11 preview builds and optional non-security updates are expected in January once the holiday frenzy is over. As usual, the year will kick off with CES 2025, which will bring a lot of new consumer electronics and interesting devices, such as the first commercially available laptop with a rollable display. A lot of interesting stuff is ahead, but for now, let us all enjoy the upcoming winter holidays.

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Microsoft 365 users hit by random product deactivation errors

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 06:26:06 +0000

Microsoft is investigating a known issue triggering "Product Deactivated" errors for customers using Microsoft 365 Office apps.

According to online user reports on Reddit and Microsoft's own community website, affected users randomly received these "Product Deactivated" errors in Office apps, prompting confusion and disruptions.

As Redmond explained in a support document published on Thursday, these problems stem from licensing changes initiated by administrators.

More precisely, the known issue arises when moving users between licensing groups (including Azure Active Directory groups or synced on-premises security groups) or switching user subscriptions, such as changing from an Office 365 E3 license to a Microsoft 365 E3 license.

It can also be triggered when admins remove and re-add users to license groups, adjust license or service plan settings, or toggle the "Latest version of Desktop Apps" service plan under the Microsoft 365 subscription.

To address this deactivation issue, customers can click the "Reactivate" button on the error banner and sign in when prompted. Alternatively, they can sign out of all Microsoft 365 apps, close them, and restart them before signing back in.

If the issue persists, users are advised to contact their administrators to check if the Microsoft 365 subscription has expired. Admins can check subscription details under the Microsoft 365 subscription management portal.

Microsoft 365 "Product Deactivated" warning (bohlsbbt)

For further troubleshooting, Microsoft advises users with open support cases to provide diagnostic data to its engineers, collected using the Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool, which can help find the root cause of licensing-related issues.

Affected users are also prompted to provide support engineers with the logs stored in the %temp%/diagnostics directory.

While Microsoft has yet to share a timeline for a fix, its engineering team is actively investigating this known issue. The company encourages affected users and administrators to monitor its support channels for updates.

Last month, Microsoft also shared a temporary fix for a known issue affecting Microsoft 365 customers that causes classic Outlook to hang or freeze when copying text.

In September, the company fixed another bug that crashed Microsoft 365 apps (i.e., Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote) when typing or spell-checking a text.

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As firms abandon VMware, Broadcom is laughing all the way to the bank

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 06:24:42 +0000

Ingram Micro the latest to ditch VMware, but VMware's still making money.

Another company has publicly cut ties with Broadcom's VMware. This time, it's Ingram Micro, one of the world's biggest IT distributors. The announcement comes as Broadcom eyes services as a key part of maintaining VMware business in 2025. But even as some customers are reducing reliance on VMware, its trillion-dollar owner is laughing all the way to the bank.

IT distributor severs VMware ties

Ingram is reducing its Broadcom-related business to "limited engagement with VMware in select regions," a spokesperson told The Register this week.

"We were unable to reach an agreement with Broadcom that would help our customers deliver the best technology outcomes now and in the future while providing an appropriate shareholder return,” the spokesperson said.

Losing business with the second-largest IT distributor would seem consequential. However, Broadcom suggested that it doesn't view Ingram as a good fit for VMware. In a statement regarding Ingram, Broadcom pointed to its own "evolving business priorities" and said that "the need for a more streamlined and focused distribution network... necessitated this change."

Broadcom business wasn't material to Ingram's revenue, a rep said. They added that the firm distributes technologies from 1,500 vendors to 161,000 customers.

There’s debate as to whether Broadcom was truly able to provide Ingram with the VMware support it needed to effectively provide VMware services or whether Ingram wasn’t up to the task. One anonymous CTO at an unnamed VMware channel partner told IT publication CRN this week that "distributors are not the issue. Broadcom is."

"They need to empower their distributors to be able to make quotes or Broadcom should double their sales force if they want full control of every quote that is requested by a partner or end user.… The average is four weeks from deal [registration] and request to [distributor] for a quote,” the CTO said.

The exec claimed that this process could take “two to three days” before Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November 2023.

The CTO's comments align with what Ars Technica has heard from customers and partners that say long quote times have hurt business and that the quality VMware support has worsened since Broadcom's takeover.

However, The Register said it heard of Ingram struggling “to handle the increased responsibilities it assumed," citing VMware users who it spoke with.

Overall, changes in what Broadcom wants from VMware partners and customers have led to various firms scaling back VMware relationships, reducing reliance on VMware tech, and/or investigating alternatives to VMware, including moving some workloads to rival offerings, diversifying vendors, and devirtualizing.

But with how much money Broadcom's making, it’s likely okay waving goodbye to some of that business.

Trillion dollar company

Broadcom’s recent $1 trillion valuation is largely related to Broadcom's expectations of AI representing $60 billion to $90 billion in revenue come 2027. To reach its goals, it will need to evolve over the coming years. That doesn’t leave room for some of VMware’s older—and often smaller—relationships that don't fit or won't evolve with Broadcom.

Broadcom's fiscal 2024 earnings report indicates VMware revenue has been growing. Broadcom’s full-year software revenue grew by $13.8 billion to reach $21.5 billion during its fiscal year. VMware made $13.4 billion in revenue in its last year before acquisition, and it's expected that at least a few hundred million in VMware revenue isn't accounted for in Broadcom's full-year numbers.

During a call with investors last week, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said that VMware operating margins were less than 30 percent before Broadcom’s acquisition but reached 70 percent in fiscal Q4 2024. VMware’s operating costs are also lower under Broadcom, declining from an average of $2.4 billion per quarter pre-acquisition to $1.2 billion in fiscal Q4.

Also, VMware’s annualized booking value (ABV) increased from $2.5 billion in Q3 to $2.7 billion in Q4. Broadcom has taken a lot of heat for bundling VMware products into a small number of SKUs, but Tan said the company added “4,500 of our largest 10,000 customers” to the VMware Cloud Foundation platform. Broadcom expects VMware revenue to grow 41 percent year-on-year to $6.5 billion in fiscal Q1 2025 and VMware ABV to reach $3 billion.

2025 challenges

Broadcom seemed okay with ending business with Ingram, which ties it to solution providers that may be supporting smaller firms. At the same time, Broadcom has shown willingness to fight for the business of large accounts.

For example, this month it settled an increasingly nasty dispute in which AT&T sued Broadcom for allegedly breaking a contract to provide perpetual license support. Broadcom infamously stopped VMware perpetual license sales, in favor of subscriptions, in December 2023.

Broadcom is also paying close attention to VMware’s biggest accounts, taking over 500 of those biggest accounts directly, thereby barring channel partners from deals.

Broadcom originally planned to take VMware’s biggest 2,000 accounts direct. But as Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards put it, letting 1,500 of the biggest accounts be run by channel partners helps tie professional services to VMware products, making migrations harder.

However, the VMware channel is under turmoil, having undergone numerous business-impacting changes over the past year, including Broadcom killing the VMware partner program in favor of its own, while announcing that there will be a new VMware channel chief, as CRN reported. Some of the resellers that could help VMware keep customers are showing frustration with the changes and what the characterize as poor communication from Broadcom.

“Broadcom has abandoned the channel market by making it nearly impossible to work with them due to constantly changing requirements, packaging and changes to the program," Jason Slagle, president of Toledo-based managed services provider and VMware partner CNWR, told CRN today.

Meanwhile, Forrester analysts Michele Pelino and Naveen Chhabra predict that next year, "VMware’s largest 2,000 customers will shrink their deployment size by an average of 40 percent," in favor of "public cloud, on-premises alternatives, and new architecture."

Still, "Broadcom’s price increases and cost-cutting measures are expected to boost its net profits, as there are not many credible competitors capable of helping clients replace VMware virtualization," the Forrester analysts said.

So although Broadcom is challenged to maintain business from VMware's biggest accounts and appease the solution providers driving smaller accounts, it's expected to keep making money off of VMware—even as firms like Ingram close the door on it.

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Three easy ways to crop images on Windows 11 — no extra tools needed

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:35:26 +0000

Need to crop a picture? Windows 11 has you covered with these three built-in options.

Although you can now remove part of an image using AI, sometimes, the best approach is to crop the unwanted area or element. If you have a computer running Windows 11, you have multiple ways to crop an image to trim the excess, remove unwanted parts, or resize the image.

Regardless of the reason, Windows 11 doesn't include a native cropping tool, but you can use built-in applications, such as the Snipping Tool, Photos, and even the Paint app, to complete this task.

In this how-to guide, I will outline the different ways to crop a picture file using the default tools available on Windows 11 without using third-party applications.

How to crop a picture from Snipping Tool

To crop an image file with the Snipping Tool on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open File Explorer.
Open the folder with the image to crop.
Right-click the image, select the "Open with" menu, and choose the Snipping Tool option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Image Crop button in the toolbar.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Drag the borders inwards using the mouse to crop the image.
Click the Apply button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the "Save as" button from the top-right.
Select the folder location.
Click the Save button.

Once you complete the steps, a copy of the image will be created with the new modifications.

How to crop a picture from Photos

To crop a picture with the Photos app, use these steps:

Open the Photos app.
Open the picture you want to crop.
Click the Edit button from the top-left corner.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Crop tool from the toolbar.
(Option 1) Drag the borders inwards using the mouse to crop the image.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Click the Free button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Select one of the crop formats available, including square, 16:9, 3:3, etc.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Done button.
Click the Save options button.
Choose the "Save as copy" option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Select the location to save the cropped image.
Confirm a new file name.
Click the Save button.

After you complete the steps, the Photos app will save a cropped version of the picture.

How to crop a picture from Paint

To crop an image with the Microsoft Paint app, use these steps:

Open the Paint app.
Click on the File menu and choose the Open option.
Select the image to crop and click the Open button.
(Option 1) Drag the borders inwards using the mouse to crop the image.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

(Option 2) Open the Select tool menu and choose the Rectangle or Free-form option.
Select the area of the image to crop.
Click the Crop button from the toolbar.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click on the File menu, select the Save as menu, and choose the format to save the file.
Select the location to save the cropped image.
Confirm a new file name.
Click the Save button.

Once you complete the steps, the Paint app will save a copy of the cropped image on your computer.

Any of the apps mentioned in this guide will crop an image just fine. However, if you're working with a picture, I would recommend using the Photos app since you can access other editing tools that are tailored for photography. You can use the Snipping Tool or Paint for screenshots and other types of images.

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Microsoft improving New Outlook for Windows offline mode again with a new feature

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:33:24 +0000

About a week ago, Microsoft announced that it would automatically start switching Microsoft 365 Enterprise users over to the New Outlook for Windows in April 2026. It already stopped supporting legacy Outlook clients earlier this year.

However, many of those who are a fan of Classic Outlook are still having a hard time moving on from it. Many feel the new app just is not as good as the classic application and the lack of some useful features is something they complain about. One such aspect is offline mode support, ie, using and working on the New Outlook for Windows without an active internet connection, and Microsoft will soon be adding another new feature to improve this area of the software.

The company has published a new entry earlier this week on the Microsoft 365 roadmap which confirms a new feature for offline mode. After this update, users will be able to open and save attachment files from an email even when they are offline.

The entry says:

Outlook: open attachments while offline in the new Outlook for Windows

We are adding more functionality to offline mode in the new Outlook for Windows. You will now be able to open and save attachments from your email without an internet connection.

The feature was added under ID 472026 and Microsoft expects the feature to roll out in January 2025. This is around the same time when the company is replacing its Microsoft Copilot with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat plus a new logo.

Aside from this, Microsoft had also announced a couple of other Outlook offline features that will certainly be welcomed by users. First, the ability to launch the app without an internet connection was also added, and this was followed by offline email synchronisation.

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Microsoft lists all Windows 11 gaming features you miss if you don't update from Windows 10

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:32:30 +0000

Microsoft wants you to update to Windows 11 this holiday season if you have not done so already. To entice you, the company has published a blog post that lists every single gaming feature you are missing out on if you don't upgrade your PC.

The suggestion to update to Windows 11 is not a bad one at all as there certainly can be some tangible benefits like, as Microsoft points out, cool new gaming features. Besides that, Windows 10 is reaching the end of support next year which will mean no more security and quality of life updates on the OS; the company is actively trying to steer people away from it nowadays.

However, what stops users is the strict eligibility Windows 11 has that makes many, even slightly older, systems incompatible. Recently, the company also updated its support document regarding the installation of Windows 11 on ineligible PCs and later clarified its position regarding the system requirements of Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

Microsoft's official stance is that users get a new PC for Windows 11 if their current system does not meet the requirements. If you do so, you can enjoy the following gaming features the company highlighted. It writes:

Auto HDR: Windows 11 brings Auto HDR, a feature that automatically upgrades Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) games to HDR. The result is richer colors, deeper contrasts and a more immersive gaming environment that brings your favorite titles to life.

DirectStorage: DirectStorage is a feature that leverages the speed of NVMe solid-state drives to reduce load times dramatically for cutting-edge game titles in select supported titles. .... This not only enhances gameplay but also reduces central processing unit (CPU) overhead, freeing up resources for other tasks and ensuring a smoother gaming experience.

Game Bar Compact Mode

Dynamic Lighting

Optimizations for Windowed Games

HDR Calibration app (Exclusive to Windows 11)

Advanced Hybrid (CASO)/UMA

Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 support

Color filters for colorblind players

Automatic Super Resolution (AutoSR) for Arm Copilot+ PCs

Xbox app on Windows PC

Other features that were not mentioned include Prism emulator and BattleEye Anti-cheat. You can find the blog post here on Microsoft's official website.

However, gaming on Windows 11, especially on the latest feature update, version 24H2, is broken at the moment. The company has been blocking the feature update due to problems with Ubisoft titles and Auto HDR.

Microsoft has often attempted to tempt users by highlighting the benefits of Windows 11. It had published a video advert earlier this year explaining why updating is a great idea. Later on, in June, an article was put up destroying all the "myths and misconceptions" surrounding Windows 11 upgrades.

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Microsoft confirms even more Windows 11 24H2 bugs: audio output is now affected

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 03:27:32 +0000

The list of known bugs in Windows 11 version 24H2 has expanded with two new issues: one affects gamers who use the Auto HDR feature, and another one might break the sound output on your PC.

Microsoft applied a temporary update block to systems "from one manufacturer" due to audio issues on Windows 11 version 24H2. The bug was observed on computers with Dirac Audio and the cridspapo.dll file (audio processing software for improved audio clarity and precision). It results in systems being no longer able to output sound to integrated speakers, Bluetooth speakers, headsets, and other audio devices.

A compatibility safeguard hold has been applied to a limited set of devices from one manufacturer due to an audio issue following the installation of Windows 11, version 24H2. This issue was observed on some devices containing Dirac Audio with the cridspapo.dll file. The incompatibility relates to the software component cridspapo.dll, which is part of these devices’ audio processing software. Dirac Audio is a digital sound improvement technology that enhances audio clarity and precision.

Microsoft won't say what systems are affected. The only way to know whether your computer is blocked is by heading to Windows Update and checking for available updates. If the compatibility holds applies to your computer, you will see the following message:

Upgrade to Window 11 is on its way to your device. There is nothing that requires your attention at the moment. Once the update is ready for your device, you’ll see it available on this page.”

As of right now, there are no workarounds for the newly discovered bug. Microsoft says it expects a newer version of the driver to resolve the issue. Once available, Microsoft will push it to Windows Update and lift the upgrade block.

Note that the problem only affects Windows 11 version 24H2, which means customers upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 23H2 will not encounter problems with audio output. You can learn more about the latest known issue in Windows 11 version 24H2 in the official documentation. By the way, there is another audio-related bug in Windows 11 24H2, which causes the system to blast users with 100% volume. Microsoft is still working on fixing that.

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Microsoft blocks Windows 11 24H2 update on more PCs due to new gaming issues

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 03:26:02 +0000

Although many users consider Windows 11 just a reskinned Windows 10 with too many compromises, the operating system that is now pushing four has some exclusive features, some of which appeal to the gaming audience. Sadly, one of those features is now causing problems, forcing Microsoft to block the path to the latest Windows 11 release for more users.

In a new support document published on the official Windows Health Dashboard website, Microsoft revealed that it had discovered a bug in Auto HDR (a system feature that converts SDR content to HDR on compatible hardware for improved visuals), which results in games showing incorrect colors or hanging altogether and stopping responding.

Microsoft has not specified what device configurations or what games are affected by the bug. All that is known at this point is that the only remedy is turning off Auto HDR if you want to get to the latest Windows 11 release. Judging by the issue description, Microsoft applied a compatibility hold to all Windows 11 systems with the Auto HDR feature on:

To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices that have enabled Auto HDR. These devices will not be offered to install Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Update release channel. IT administrators using Windows Update for Business reports can check this issue using its safeguard ID: 55382406.

Important: We recommend that you do not attempt to manually update to version 24H2 using the Windows 11 Installation Assistant or the media creation tool until this issue has been resolved.

While Microsoft is working on a resolution, users are suggested to turn off Auto HDR if they want to update to Windows 11 version 24H2. You can do so by navigating to Settings > System > Display > Use HDR and toggling off the Auto HDR feature. Sadly, there is no information on what will happen after updating to version 24H2 and turning the Auto HDR feature on.

This is not the first gaming issue confirmed in Windows 11 version 24H2. When the update was released on October 1, 2024, Microsoft notified users that games with Easy Anti-Cheat would crash to a blue screen of death after updating. Also, games like Asphalt 8 would stop responding. Later, Microsoft revealed that certain Ubisoft games have compatibility problems with Windows 11 version 24H2. Although some of those games have already received patches, some of them remain incompatible with the latest Windows 11 release. Now, Auto HDR issues add more to that.

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Windows 11 Dev build 26120.2705 is out with new AI features for Intel and AMD systems

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 03:23:37 +0000

Microsoft has a small new build for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. It adds a new AI feature for Copilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD processors and a single fix.

Here is the changelog:

New experiences for AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs

Please install all the latest driver updates available from Windows Update to ensure the following experience work correctly on your AMD or Intel®-powered Copilot+ PC. To ensure you have the latest drivers for your Copilot+ PC, make sure the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle is on under Settings > Windows Update. Just click the “Check for updates” button and install any new drivers that Windows Update delivers to you.

If you’d like to test the latest driver versions available directly from our partners before they get to Windows Update, you can download them directly here:

Latest AMD graphics driver for Ryzen™ chipset.

Latest Intel NPU driver for the Intel® Core™ Ultra 200V Series processor.

Live captions and real-time translation

We are enhancing communication on AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs with live captions and real-time translation. We’re beginning to roll out the ability in live captions to translate more than 44 languages into English, including speakers in real-time video calls, recordings and streamed content. Real-time translation is rolling out AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs with English as the primary language in use. Be sure to check the known issues for real-time translation in live captions documented below in this blog post.

Here are the fixes and other improvements:

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

[Live captions]

On Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, we’re beginning to roll out the ability to do real-time translation to Chinese (Simplified). Supported languages include Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech Danish, German, Greek English Spanish, English, Estonian, Finnish, France, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, and Swedish.

Finally, here are the known issues:

[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.

[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.

Sometimes Click to Do doesn’t highlight any info on screen if there is no content on a connected external monitor in extended mode.

[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.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Latest VMware update is free with no license, fixes Windows 11 and Linux freezes, crashes

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 17:45:45 +0000

Earlier this year, in May, VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro were made free, and thus, a license to download and install them was no longer necessary for personal users. A guide was also released by Broadcom, which walked through installation and switching.

Following that, last month, in November, the non-Pro editions were also made free, and thus, Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro were no longer purchasable products.

Earlier today, Broadcom announced new VMware updates for Workstation Pro and Workstation Player under version 17.6.2. The update makes the former free for not just personal users but also commercial and educational users. It also fixes crashing and freezing issues on Windows 11 and Linux.

Sadly, the long-standing multi-monitor issue remains unresolved. The changelog for Workstation 17.6.2 is given below:

What's New

Free Licensing Model

VMware Workstiation Pro no longer requires a license key and is now free for commercial, educational, and personal use.

Bug Fixes

VMware Workstation Pro 17.6.2 provides various bug fixes requested by customers.

Resolved Issues

After performing snapshot operations in the Snapshot Manager, VMware Workstation for Linux crashes

Taking, deleting, or restoring snapshots through the Snapshot Manager might cause VMware Workstation for Linux to crash. This issue is resolved in VMware Workstation 17.6.2.

Virtual machines on Windows 11 hosts become unresponsive after unlocking the host

After locking or unlocking the host with a virtual machine installed on a Windows 11 host, the virtual machine becomes unresponsive. The issue is resolved in VMware Workstation 17.6.2.

The kcompactd kernel process causes virtual machines on Linux hosts to become unresponsive

Virtual machines on Linux hosts eventually become unresponsive because of the kcompactd kernel process. The issue is resolved in VMware Workstation 17.6.2.

Known Issues

The multi-monitor feature might not work correctly in specific topologies

In specific situations, based on different hardware and topologies, the multi-monitor feature does not work as expected. You might see issues like reverting the topology to a single screen, or not cycling through monitors.

Workaround:

None.

You can download the apps from Neowin's software stories page using the following links: Workstation Pro | Workstation Player.

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Microsoft 365 app UI and Copilot are getting a massive update in 2025 including new icon

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has announced that it plans a massive UI (user interface) overhaul for Microsoft 365 (M365) and Copilot in January 2025. The company informed about the changes on its Microsoft 365 Message Center portal. Microsoft says the UI update is being done to better "support future AI-first experiences."

First, we have the Microsoft 365 app UI updates, in which the tech giant has highlighted the list of changes it is making to the application. You can read them below to get a rough mental image of the new app:

The app will no longer have a top header. Instead, tools like user profile, settings, and feedback will move to the bottom left toolbar. The feedback button will be available under the ‘Settings and more’ section in the bottom left toolbar.

The search box will now be presented on the Homepage for users to find all their content across multiple file types and storage locations. Note: There is no change to the search experience—only the placement of the feature.

All the apps on the left tool bar are aligned to the top and the AI rich experiences like Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Copilot Pages will be presented together to establish correlation.

The organization logo, previously displayed in the top header under the Organization theme, will no longer be visible in the app. Note: This change does not affect other Microsoft 365 apps where the organization logo will still appear in the header.

The ‘Back’ button on the Windows Microsoft 365 Copilot app will not be available. Users will still be able to use the left AppBar to navigate between pages.

The ‘My Day’ feature is being removed from the app experience, and users will no longer see the button to launch the calendar and to-do on the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Note: This change does not affect other Microsoft 365 apps where My Day feature is available.

The ‘Help me create’ feature will be retired from the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Launched in February 2024, ‘Help me create’ was focused on helping users go from their stated intent to document creation using an LLM. With Microsoft 365 Copilot app becoming the destination for Copilot, we will be bringing AI powered document creation into Copilot tab. Users will be able to brainstorm ideas and draft new content based on a storyboard or a script to an agenda or an executive summary from Copilot Chat.

Following that, Microsoft has also outlined all the changes it is making to Copilot. For example, the app name changes from "Microsoft 365" to "Microsoft 365 Copilot". The new icon, which debuted at Ignite 2024, is also being introduced:

Updates	Today	Mid-January 2025
Product Name	Microsoft Copilot (for users with Entra Account)	Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Product URL	Microsoft.com/copilot	M365Copilot.com
App Name	Microsoft 365	Microsoft 365 Copilot
App Icon	Microsoft 365	Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft expects the changes to roll out in mid-January next year. The above changes were published under M365 Message Center message IDs MC958905 and MC958903, respectively. Please note that a Microsoft 365 Copilot already exists, which is an AI assistant meant to improve people's productivity when using Office apps.

Aside from these, Microsoft also detailed the four new sections the Copilot page on the M365 Admin Center will have. These four sections, Overview, Health, Discover, and Settings, will help users understand, identify and track various aspects of the feature:

The Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center ... will soon feature four sections: Overview, Health, Discover, and Settings.

Overview will provide key metrics and insights including active user rate, AI assistance score, Copilot-assisted hours, and user sentiment.

Health will consolidate Copilot-specific health insights such as device update status for Microsoft 365 apps, distribution of devices with diagnostic data, Copilot-specific message center posts, and known active issues.

Discover will allow you to explore Copilot capabilities, understand user eligibility requirements, and access curated resources. These resources will cover compliance standards, adoption guidance, the Copilot prompt library, and more. You can also purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses here.

Settings will offer essential controls to configure Microsoft 365 Copilot to meet your organization’s needs and navigate to other key control surfaces including agent management and data security and compliance settings.

The above update was published under M365 Message Center ID 472918.

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Intel releases new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v23.100.0 driver with 6GHz optimizations and more

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 17:38:26 +0000

If your computer has an Intel wireless network card, you can download the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers, which include several optimizations and improvements.

Intel Wireless Wi-Fi driver 23.100.0 contains the following changes:

Description	OS
Improvements for Wi-Fi sensing	Windows 10 and Windows 11
Updates for 6GHz capabilities	Windows 11
This software release version 23.100.0 has been updated to include functional and security updates. There may be other minor issues addressed that will impact performance, stability, or vendor-specific functionality not listed above. Users are encouraged to update to the latest version for best performance.	Windows 10 and Windows 11

The update supports the following network cards:

Intel Wireless Adapter	Driver Version
Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE202 Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX411 (Gig+) Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (Gig+) Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX203 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX101 Intel Wireless-AC 9560 Intel Wireless-AC 9461/ 9462 Intel Wireless-AC 9260	23.100.0.4

Here are the release notes for the Intel Wireless Bluetooth 23.100.1 driver:

This version supports the latest for Windows 11 OS Update.

Intel Wireless Bluetooth 23.100.1 driver has been updated to include functional updates. Users are encouraged to update to the latest version for best performance.

And here is the list of supported cards:

Intel Wireless Adapter	Driver Version
Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE202 Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX411 Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211	23.100.1.11
Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX203 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX101 Intel Wireless-AC 9560 Intel Wireless-AC 9462 Intel Wireless-AC 9461 Intel Wireless-AC 9260	23.100.0.41

You can download the latest Intel Wi-Fi driver here and the Bluetooth driver here. Full release notes are available here (Wi-Fi) and here (Bluetooth).

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NVIDIA shares fix for game performance issues with new NVIDIA App

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 04:00:05 +0000

Nvidia has shared a temporary fix for a known issue impacting systems running its recently unveiled NVIDIA App and causing gaming performance to drop by up to 15%.

The company confirmed that these performance issues are triggered when the Game Filters option is enabled in the application and it recommends disabling it and restarting the game as a workaround.

"We are aware of a reported performance issue related to Game Filters and are actively looking into it," Nvidia staff said in a support forum thread published earlier today.

"You can turn off Game Filters from the NVIDIA App Settings > Features > Overlay > Game Filters and Photo Mode, and then relaunch your game."

This comes following widespread user reports regarding the app crippling PC gaming performance after enabling Game Filters or Photo Mode, with affected customers saying they were forced to uninstall the buggy app as it was still causing issues even after disabling the overlays and other filters.

"I uninstalled nVidia app for now because it's causing a lot of problems even though i disabled overlay and other filter stuff. We'll see how it goes," one affected user said.

"I did that yesterday, and there are no more random crashes in games. I couldn't even start delta force. After I uninstalled, it worked first try," another replied.

NVIDIA App Game filters and Photo Mode setting (BleepingComputer)

These claims were also tested by Tom's Hardware, which confirmed that the drop in framerates can reach up to 15%. This is a huge performance hit, considering this is usually the difference between standard GPU models and their Ti versions (which come with more memory and CUDA cores).

The NVIDIA App companion application for Windows 10 and Windows 11 laptops and PCs with NVIDIA GPUs was officially released in mid-November following several betas.

The app is designed to keep GeForce Game Ready and NVIDIA Studio drivers up to date and provide gamers with optimal settings for over 1000 games.

"The NVIDIA app incorporates many of the top features from GeForce Experience and RTX Experience, includes an optional login to redeem bundles and rewards, and introduces new RTX capabilities to elevate your gaming and creative experiences," the company says.

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Microsoft admits it didn't really fix Windows Outlook 0x80049dd3 sign-in bug

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:53:59 +0000

The Outlook app on Windows is having sign-in issues as users across various forums online are reporting about a "0x80049dd3" error. The issue was also shared on Feedback Hub under the headline "Getting error code 0x80049dd3 starting on Dec 2-3 2024 trying to sign into my account (email / outlook)" and Microsoft stated that the bug has since been fixed. The post has been upvoted by 82 users at the time of writing indicating that it affected more than a few.

Jennifer G, an engineer at the company, wrote:

This should be resolved now - thanks for taking the time to report this. As always, please don't hesitate to file a new piece of feedback to let us know if you continue experiencing issues

However, many users on the thread are still saying that they are continuing to encounter the same issue even though it has supposedly been fixed.

The problem has been been posted on the Microsoft's forums as well. A user Tom Chapman4 wrote:

Suddenly unable to open email in Outlook

When I attempt to open an email in Outlook on my Surface Pro 11th edition an outlook screen pops up with options to select my email account or add a new one. When I select my account a window pops up indicating I need to login to my account. Curious as I am alrealy logged in. When I attempt to login on that window an error pops up, 0x80049DD3. I am able to open my emails in Outlook on my Galaxy S21 with no problem.

Another user JG5044 wrote:

Why does 0x80049dd3 come up in the Outlook desktop app?

In Windows 10 when I open or work with mail in the Outlook desktop app (local installation) the message no access keeps coming up.

Then I get a message that I have to select continue to sign in to this account, or manage to remove the account.

Then the message something went wrong, try again later 0x80049dd3 comes up.

I can then select send feedback or cancel as I choose, and then I get logged in and can continue working.

The two queries have been upvoted by 56 and 52 people respectively at the time of writing. It also looks like the problem is specific to the Outlook desktop app for Windows as Android seems to be unaffected by it.

Update, December 17 2024, 3:30 EST: Following our report, Microsoft revisited the issue on Feedback Hub and reopened it. It has updated its official response from fixed to investigating. Here's what it says now:

Thanks for taking the time to report this - appreciate your patience if you're seeing this

The number of upvotes since our initial report has also gone up by a lot. During our initial publication, 82 users had upvoted the issue whereas now, it stands at 132.

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The NVIDIA app on Windows 11 could be sapping performance out of your PC games

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:51:21 +0000

An investigation by Tom's Hardware has shown up some troubling performance decreases by running the latest NVIDIA app while you game.

There's an app or launcher for everything, it seems when it comes to PC gaming, but in this case, a tool that should make your life easier could be doing the exact opposite.

The NVIDIA app is what the old GeForce Experience has morphed into, and after a lengthy beta, you would have hoped all the kinks were worked out. An investigation by our pals over at Tom's Hardware, however, suggests this is not the case.

In their testing, they found that running the NVIDIA app while you're gaming could result in a pretty significant degradation in performance.

It appears skipping the Nvidia App might be the better course of action for the time being, as we've confirmed reports around the web that the App hurts gaming performance, dropping framerates by up to 15% in some cases.

Jarred Walton - Tom's Hardware

It isn't a flat drop across the board, nothing in PC gaming is ever that black and white. But in the Tom's Hardware testing of a variety of games, it seemed that Assassin's Creed: Mirage was the worst affected on their test system using the RTX 4060.

Other titles including Black Myth: Wukong, and Flight Simulator 2024 saw similar results when run at 1080p, medium settings, which is the sweet spot for what a lot of folks using this card will probably be playing at.

Of course, this is just one card and a handful of games, but the results back up what many out there in the wider world of the internet have been saying. The old GeForce Experience app wasn't anything to write home about, but for the most part, nobody ever really complained about it hurting their games.

The NVIDIA app is supposed to help gamers optimize their experience, but right now it appears it could be doing the opposite. If you're seeing similar effects yourself, the best recommendation right now would be to uninstall the app and do a clean install of the latest drivers from the NVIDIA website. Hopefully the boffins at NVIDIA HQ figure out what's causing this soon enough.

Source

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Acronis backup, cloning app gets Windows 11 24H2 BitLocker support; won't work on old CPUs

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:50:16 +0000

Acronis True Image, formerly Cyber Protect Home Office, is a popular backup, cloning, and imaging software, in case you want something other than the default Microsoft recommended backup app. The application has finally received support for Windows 11 version 24H2 and BitLocker, which is the 2024 feature update for Windows 11.

This comes at a great time since earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it was beginning to roll out the update to more users. As such, the feature update should be available for downloading to more people.

In case you may not have followed, Windows 11 24H2 reduced requirements for automatic device encryption (Auto-DE), and thus, OEMs can enable automatic BitLocker encryption. Following the change, Microsoft also published a guide about BitLocker key backup and recovery.

Also, some users on the Acronis support forum (Link1, Link2) were complaining about compatibility issues with version 24H2, so those issues will hopefully be resolved as well.

The full changelog for the new version, Build 41736, is given below:

What's new

Added support for Windows 11 (version 24H2), ensuring support for automatic BitLocker enablement.

Security fixes.

Improved clarity in error message descriptions.

Bug fixes and other improvements.

Acronis also lists the system requirements, including the hardware requirements. It notes:

System requirements

Hardware requirements

Intel CORE 2 Duo (2 GHz) or equivalent processor that supports SSE instructions.

Sadly, though, if you are on a Core 2 Duo or something similar that does not have x86_64-v2 instructions like SSE4.2 and PopCnt, you will not be able to install Windows 11 24H2, and no trick or hack exists that will be able to work around this requirement. Hence, the mention of Core 2 Duo in the requirements means little on the latest client Windows.

Microsoft also recently clarified that it has no intention to lower the system requirements for Windows 11 despite what some media reports have claimed.

Source

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How to update audio drivers on Windows 11

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:47:27 +0000

Windows 11 offers multiple ways to update the audio drivers on your PC, and here's how.

On Windows 11, you can make sure that the audio device drivers are up-to-date in more than one way, and in this guide, I will outline the steps to complete this configuration.

It's not a secret that ensuring that device drivers are critical for the functionality of the hardware installed on your computer. In the case of the audio card, maintaining the drivers updated will ensure compatibility, and it helps fix common issues, such as crackling noises, sudden volume drops, or even complete audio failure.

If you want to update the drivers for the audio card on your computer, Windows 11 offers at least two ways to complete this task, including using the Settings app and Device Manager. You can also reinstall the drivers, which refreshes the current installation, a method that can help fix common issues.

In this how-to guide, I will show you the different ways to ensure you have the latest audio drivers on your Windows 11 device.

How to update audio drivers from Settings

To manually update the audio drivers on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click the Windows Update.
Click the Advanced options page.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Optional updates setting under the "Additional options" section.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Driver updates setting.
Check the audio driver update available.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Download & install button.

Once you complete the steps, the audio drivers will download and install automatically on Windows 11.

How to update audio drivers from Device Manager

If you plan to update the audio drivers through Device Manager, you must first download the drivers from the manufacturer's support website and extract the files.

Usually, the package comes with a self-extracting mechanism. If it doesn't, you may have to extract the ".zip" file before continuing with the steps below.

If you have a laptop, I recommend downloading the latest drivers from the computer manufacturer rather than the audio device manufacturer. The reason is that computer manufacturers sometimes provide custom drivers with special configurations or specific features.

On the other hand, if you have a custom workstation, you may want to download the audio card drivers from the motherboard's manufacturer support website. Unless you have a dedicated audio card, in which case you will want to get the drivers from the card manufacturer.

You should always use the manufacturer's instructions, but if your support website doesn't provide them, you can refer to these instructions.

To update the audio drivers from Device Manager, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Device Manager and click the top result to open the app.

Quick tip: You can also launch the app using the "Ctrl + Shift + Esc" keyboard shortcut or right-clicking the Start button and choosing the "Device Manager" option.

Expand the Audio inputs and outputs list.
Right-click the "Speakers" device that corresponds to your audio device and choose the Update driver option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the "Browse my computer for drivers" option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Browse button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Select the folder with the audio driver installation files.
Click the OK button.
Check the Include subfolders option.
Click the Next button.
Click the Close button.

After you complete the steps, the updated version of the drivers should be installed on your computer.

How to reinstall audio drivers on Windows 11

To reinstall the audio drivers on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Device Manager and click the top result to open the app.
Expand the Audio inputs and outputs list.
Right-click the "Speakers" device that corresponds to your audio device and choose the Uninstall device option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Uninstall button.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Restart the computer.
(Optional) Open Settings.
Click the Windows Update.
Click the Advanced options page.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Optional updates setting under the "Additional options" section.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Driver updates setting (if applicable).
Check the available audio driver update (if applicable).

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click the Download & install button.

Once you complete the steps, the system should be able to detect and reinstall the audio drivers.

Source

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Condusiv DymaxIO V20.0.120

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 11:52:19 +0000

V20.0.120 (incremental release)

A minor adjustment in the IntelliMemory feature. For systems with larger physical memory capacity, it will leave more available memory on the system before using any for read caching.

https://condusiv.com/products/dymaxio-release-notes/

PowerToys 0.87 is out with a new utility for Windows 10 users and a lot of improvements

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 03:13:53 +0000

The December 2024 update for PowerToys is here. The final release of 2024 brings some good news for Windows 10 users: the recently introduced New+ utility now works ok Windows 10. Also, there are improvements for Advanced Paste, Workspaces, Mouse Jump, and other utilities.

Here are the update highlights:

Advanced Paste has a new feature called "Advanced AI" that uses Semantic Kernel to allow setting up the orchestration of sequential clipboard transformations.

Workspaces supports Progressive Web Applications.

Workspaces has a new feature to move existing windows instead of creating new ones.

Mouse Jump added new settings to allow customization of screens pop-up.

New+ now works on Windows 10.

Quick Accent allows selecting the character sets that should appear on the UI.

And here is the complete changelog:

Advanced Paste

Added a new optional feature allowing using AI to set up the orchestration of sequential clipboard transformations.

Awake

Initialization, logging and tray icon setup improvements.

File Explorer add-ons

Preview Pane extensions now use the PerMonitorV2 DPI mode to fix errors on different scales.

Keyboard Manager

Added labels to the IME On, IME Off keys.

Fixed an issue that caused the Shift key to remain stuck if a numpad key was mapped to the Shift key.

Monaco Preview

Added support for .ahk files to be shown as a plaintext file in Peek and File Explorer add-ons.

Added support for .ion files to be shown as a plaintext file in Peek and File Explorer add-ons.

Added support for syntax highlighting for .srt files in Peek and File Explorer add-ons.

Mouse Jump

Allow customizing the appearance of the UI of the the Mouse Jump pop-up.

New+

Added support for Windows 10.

Fixed an issue causing the renaming of new files to not trigger some times.

Updated the New+ icons.

Peek

Peek now checks local capabilities to decide what image formats Image Previewer is able to support.

Fixed an issue causing the Code Files Previewer to not load correctly under certain conditions.

Refactored, improved and fixed loggin when loading the user settings file.

PowerToys Run

Added a scoring function for proper ordering of the WindowWalker plugin results.

Added UUIDv7 support to the ValueGenerator plugin.

The calculator plugin now allows scientific notation numbers with a lowercase 'e'.

Ported the UI from WPF-UI to .NET 9 WPF, to fix "Desktop composition is disabled" crashes.

Quick Accent

Added a setting to allow selecting which character sets to show.

Screen Ruler

Added a Setting to also allow showing measurements in inches, centimeters or millimeters.

Settings

Fixed an issue causing all the links to milestones in the "What's new?" OOBE page to point to the same milestone.

Removed extra space from the Welcome page.

Updated left navigation bar icons.

Fixed accessibility issues in the dashboard page.

Workspaces

Added support for Progressive Web Applications to Workspaces.

Implemented a feature to move existing windows instead of creating new ones.

Fixed a crash when opening the workspaces editor that was caused by passing incorrect encoder parameters when saving Bitmap files.

Workspaces editor position is now saved so that we can start it at the same position when we open it again.

Fixed an issue causing many instances of the same application to be put in the same position instead of the intended position due to timer issues.

Fixed detection of exact application version when many versions of the same application are installed.

You can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store or GitHub.

Source

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Kali Linux 2024.4 released with 14 new tools, deprecates some features

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 03:11:16 +0000

Kali Linux has released version 2024.4, the fourth and final version of 2024, and it is now available with fourteen new tools, numerous improvements, and deprecates some features.

Kali Linux is a distribution created for cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers to perform penetration testing, ethical hacking, vulnerability research, security audits, and red team exercises.

With this final release of 2024, the Kali Team brings increased Raspberry Pi support, a new default Python version, and the end of i386 builds.

Fourteen new tools in Kali Linux 2024.4

It is not a new Kali release without new tools to play with, and Kali 2024.4 does not disappoint.

The fourteen new tools released in this release are:

bloodyad - Active Directory privilege escalation framework (Submitted by @Arszilla)
certi - Ask for certificates to ADCS and discover templates (Submitted by @Arszilla)
chainsaw - Rapidly search and hunt through Windows forensic artefacts (Submitted by @Arszilla)
findomain - Fastest and most complete solution for domain recognition (Submitted by @Arszilla)
hexwalk - Hex analyzer, editor and viewer
linkedin2username - Generate username lists for companies on LinkedIn
mssqlpwner - Interact and pwn MSSQL servers
openssh-ssh1 - Secure SHell (SSH) client for legacy SSH1 protocol
proximoth - Control frame attack vulnerability detection tool (Submitted by @TechnicalUserX)
python-pipx - Execute binaries from Python packages in isolated environments
sara - RouterOS Security Inspector (Submitted by @casterbyte)
web-cache-vulnerability-scanner - Go-based CLI tool for testing for web cache poisoning (Submitted by @Arszilla)
xsrfprobe - An advanced Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF) audit and exploitation toolkit.
zenmap - The Network Mapper (nmap) front end (zenmap-kbx is no longer needed!)

Kali says they also bumped the Linux Kernel to version 6.11.

The end of the i386 kernel and images

With the release of Kali 2024.4, there will no longer be any i386 images released as Debian, which Kali is based on, dropped support for 32-bit builds in October.

However, as 32-bit programs can still run on the x86-64 images, Kali Linux has not removed any i386 packages from the distro.

"Despite being long obsolete, this architecture remained supported in software for years. 2019 was the year when major Linux distributions (Fedora 31 & Ubuntu) started to drop it. Finally, in October 2024, Debian stopped building a i386 kernel (and OS images, as a consequence). Kali Linux, being based on Debian, follow suit: images and releases will no longer be created for this platform.

It’s important to note that this is not an instant death for i386 though. This is not how architectures die. The i386 kernel and images are gone, however i386 packages in general are not removed from the repository. It means that it’s still possible to run i386 programs on a 64-bit system. Either directly via the package manager (APT supports installation of i386 packages on a amd64 system), or via i386 Docker images."

❖ The Kali Team

New default Python version 3.12

With this release, Python version 3.12 is now the default Python interpreter, and installing packages via pip command is disallowed by default.

As explained by the Kali Team in July 2023, running pip as root to install system-wide packages can cause conflicts with a distro's built-in package manager, like apt.

"There is a major change with this new Python version: installing third-party Python packages via pip is now strongly discouraged and disallowed by default," explains the Kali Team.

"This change has been coming for a long time, we wrote about it 18 months ago already, been given little reminders in each release blog post since and we gave another push about it in the 2024.3 release blog post. Now it’s finally effective."

For those who wish to use a program like pip, Kali now includes a pipx command that acts as a replacement. Instructions on using the pipx command can be found here.

SSH DSA keys are now deprecated

Kali Linux 2024.4 comes with OpenSSH (9.8p1), which deprecates SSH DSA keys.

For those who need to support older keys for legacy systems, the new build includes the SSH1 client, which the Kali team says is an SSH client frozen at version 7.5.

However, the developers warn that if you are using tools that do not know about the ssh1 command, they will no longer work properly with legacy systems requiring DSA keys.

"If you target very old SSH servers, you might need to use this client, assuming you are using the SSH client directly from the command-line," explains the Kali Team.

"However, if you use it indirectly (via some tool that uses SSH), it’s possible that the tool does not know about the ssh1 command, so in practice you will lose support for DSA keys with this new Kali release. If you are in this situation, talk to us (via our our Discord server or our bug tracker), and we might be able to help."

Increased Raspberry Pi Imager support

The Raspberry Pi Imager is a tool that allows you to find supported Raspberry Pi images and easily write them to a microSD card.

With this release of Kali Linux, you can now use the imager to pre-configure settings that will automatically be applied to the Kali Linux Raspberry Pi image when it's written to the microSD card.

These settings can include a custom hostname, login credentials, SSH keys, Wi-Fi network configuration, and locale settings, making it much easier to get the image set up as needed before it's ever booted up for the first time.

Raspberry Pi Imager support
Source: Kali

Desktop changes

With this release, Kali Linux includes the Gnome 47 desktop environment and greater support for color customization.

"We are excited to announce that the latest update to the GNOME Desktop, GNOME 47, is now available!," announced the Kali Team.

"This update brings numerous changes and desktop enhancements, but the most notable feature is the new support for accent color customization. You can now choose your favorite color for window and shell widgets, giving you more control over your desktop’s look and feel."

The developers also introduced a new system-monitor panel extension and login theme.

New Kali Linux 2024.4 login theme
Source: Kali

How to get Kali Linux 2024.4

To start using Kali Linux 2024.4, you can upgrade your existing installation, select a platform, or directly download ISO images for new installs and live distributions.

For those updating from a previous version, you can use the following commands to upgrade to the latest version.

echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

cp -vrbi /etc/skel/. ~/

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

If you are running Kali on the Windows Subsystem for Linux, upgrade to WSL2 for a better experience, including the ability to use graphical apps.

You can check the WSL version used by Kali with the 'wsl -l -v' command in a Windows command prompt.

Once done upgrading, you can check if the upgrade was successful by using the following command:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release

Checking the version of Kali Linux
Source: BleepingComputer

You can view the complete changelog for Kali 2024.4 on Kali's website.

Source

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Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

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