Here is the changelog:

For Windows Insiders on Windows 10 in the Beta Channel, we’re beginning to roll out the following improvements

 

[Settings]

 

• Under Settings > System > About, you will now find a refreshed experience with new top cards that highlight key hardware specifications of your device. These cards are designed to keep you informed about the most important details of your device’s hardware that matter to you. We’ve also added FAQs directly within this settings page to help you better understand your device. These FAQs will explain your current hardware specifications and how they impact the performance of your device, making it easier to get the most out of your system.

 

Insiders in the Beta Channel on Windows 10 who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Updated & Security > Windows Update. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your device over time once they are ready.

 

This update includes the following features and improvements for Windows Insiders in BOTH the Beta and Release Preview Channels

 

Items bolded in brackets indicate the area of the change being documented:

 

[Start menu] New! This update starts the roll out of the new account manager on the Start menu. The new design makes it easy to view your account and access account settings. To change to a different user, select the ellipses (…) next to Sign out. The Lock command is now on the power menu. Note: This change might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.

 

[vmswitch] Fixed: A vmswitch triggers a stop error. This occurs when you use Load Balancing and Failover (LBFO) teaming with two virtual switches on a virtual machine (VM). In this case, one virtual switch uses single root Input/Output virtualization (SR-IOV).

 

[Upgrade to Windows 11] Fixed: A race condition causes stop error 0x3B. This might occur when you upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 1.

 

[Product activation phone numbers] Fixed: This adds new phone numbers for several regions.

 

[Multi-Function Printer (MFP)]

 

• Fixed: When you use a USB cable to connect to it, it prints specific network command text when you do want it to.
• Fixed: A scanner driver fails to install when you use a USB cable to connect to an MFP.

 

[Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA)] Fixed: This update brings profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.

 

[WebView2 apps] Fixed: They do not detect input from Xbox 360 and Bluetooth controllers.

You can check out the changelog here.

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At the time, the company had hinted that more offline features would be added in future updates, as it stated, "The first set of offline capabilities in the new Outlook for Windows. Mail, calendar events, and contacts will be stored on your device, so you can view them even when you're not connected to the internet."

For some reason, though, the ability to locally store Mail, calendar events, and contacts was delayed until the company finally reiterated it earlier this year in June. However, Microsoft never really disclosed why the release date was pushed back.

That was not the only offline New Outlook feature Microsoft pushed back though. The company had also delayed another one which is related to email sync that will let users choose the number of days of email and attachments they want to download to their device for offline usage.

The feature was initially added to the Microsft 365 roadmap towards the end of November last year under feature ID 189809 and the rollout was planned for June this year. That did not happen and Microsoft updated the entry with the same feature under the new ID 412619. It says:

Outlook: Choose how many days of emails sync to your device for offline usage

 

With the new sync window, you can choose how many days' worth of emails and attachments you want to download to your device so you can always access them even while offline.

However, the delay does make sense given that the feature would be useless unless a user was able to launch the New Outlook app offline. Microsoft has finally started working on such a feature and we covered it recently in our dedicated piece here.

Microsoft says the preview for the new offline email sync feature would be available towards the end of this year in December and the rollout would start in January 2025.

With these two new features, the New Outlook for Windows it seems is finally getting to the Classic Outlook level. The latter for example, allows syncing emails for offline usage for 12 months by default but there is also the option to store "All" mails.

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For better or for worse, we are no longer in the 90s, so we have Windows 11 with its sleek UI, rounded corners, and transparent elements. Even though I am not a fan of modding an operating system's looks, I just have to admire the effort it took for someone to turn Microsoft's latest and greatest (arguably, of course) operating system into something that looks like a piece of 30-year-old code capable of running stuff like Discord, Telegram, Steam, and more. Here is Windows 11, which looks like Windows 95.

Since Windows 11 is more limited in terms of personalization compared to its predecessors from the early 2000s, getting it to look like Windows 95 or Windows 98 requires some extra effort and the help of third-party apps. According to the project author, who posted the result on Reddit (via XDA), you can apply an old-school coat of paint to Windows 11 with the help of apps like Windows Blinds from Stardock, Retrobar, Winaero Tweaker, and some skins for third-party apps (Steam, Discord, Telegram, etc.).

While nostalgia often feels good and invokes sweet memories, I would probably not run such whacky experiments on my primary machine for stability and integrity's sake. Still, if you have a virtual machine or a spare device to experiment with and some time to kill, it is definitely a cool thing to toy around with it.

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Here is the official changelog:

Version 131.0.3, first offered to Release channel users on October 14, 2024

 

• Fixed an issue where some users could not access the Bill Pay portion of their bank's site. (Bug 1923500)
• Fixed an issue where some VR180 and 360 videos were not properly rendering on YouTube. (Bug 1922278)
• Fixed a crash that Windows users with Avast or AVG security software were experiencing when visiting certain sites. (Bug 1919678)
• Fixed an issue where the "List all tabs" button was not able to be moved from the toolbar. (Bug 1918681)

You can download Mozilla Firefox from the official website. If you are a Windows user, you can also get the browser from the Microsoft Store via this link. Full release notes for version 131.0.2 are available on the official website.

In case you missed it, Firefox 131 introduced several new features for the browser, such as the ability to grant temporary site permissions, tab previews, new localization, translation improvements, security fixes, and more. You can find the complete changelog here.

In other Firefox news, the maker of uBlock Origin Lite recently pulled the extension from Mozilla's add-on store after multiple encounters with a "nonsensical and hostile" review process from the store review team.

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What you need to know

• Windows 10's support lifecycle will end on October 14, 2025.
• Users have just one year left of free support and security updates for Windows 10.
• Microsoft recommends that all Windows 10 users upgrade to Windows 11, or they will have to pay for security updates on Windows 10 beyond its end-of-support date.

The death of Windows 10 is now fast approaching. We have just one year left of free support and security updates before Microsoft pulls the plug, meaning everyone still running Windows 10 should now be thinking about an exit strategy ahead of October 14, 2025. Whether you're a business managing hundreds of Windows PCs or a home user with just one computer, it's time to consider your options for what's next.

But why is Microsoft ending support for Windows 10, and is there anything you can do to stay on it beyond its end-of-support date? This article will explain everything you need to know about the end of the support life cycle for Windows 10 and the many options you have as an end user to remain secure and supported beyond October 14, 2025.

Why is Microsoft ending support for Windows 10?

Here are the products that will soon be out of support:

The end of support means no more security updates that can patch critical vulnerabilities, limited or non-existent technical support, no fixes for bugs, and more. Microsoft says using unsupported products can negatively impact organizational security, compliance, and productivity. That applies not just to corporate but also to regular customers.

To help users figure out what to do before their apps run out of support, Microsoft made the following table:

Microsoft has also published more in-depth articles, which can help you decide on your upgrade path:

• Office 2016 and 2019 suites and applications
• Exchange Server 2016 and 2019
• Skype for Business 2016 and 2019
• Project 2016 and 2019
• Visio 2016 and 2019

You can read more about Microsoft's productivity apps that will be out of support by October 14, 2025, in a post on the Tech Community forums.

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ExplainingComputers (1.05M subscribers)

October 14, 2024

Video length: 16m 28s

Windows 10 support ends on October 14th 2025. But what if your computer does not support Windows 11? Or you do not want to install Windows 11?

This video outlines all of the possibilities -- from doing nothing, to extended security updates (ESUs), an unofficial Windows 11 install, migrating to Linux, and more . . .

00:00 Titles & Intro

01:28 Do Nothing

03:05 Go Offline

03:41 Extended Security Updates

06:06 Third-Party Patches

07:27 Windows 10 LTSC Versions

08:59 Unofficial Windows 11

11:50 Linux

13:15 A ChromiumOS

13:33 Something Else?

15:11 Stats & Wrap

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The Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 fixes the bug that led to boot loops and Bluetooth/USB connectivity failures. And Microsoft has also promised an upcoming fix for the SFC scan error. However, certain quirks are yet to be addressed including a BSOD issue on WD HMB-based NVMe SSDs and an undeletable 8.63 GB pre-upgrade data.

As always, aside from Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has also released new dynamic updates for WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), also called Safe OS updates, and Setup updates. This time there is a whole bunch of them as there are updates for all Windows 11 versions, namely, 24H2, 23H2, 22H2, and 21H2.

First up we have the setup binary updates:

KB5045520: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 24H2.

 

...

 

KB5045525: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 22H2 and 23H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 22H2 and Windows 11, version 23H2.

 

...

 

KB5045527: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 21H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 21H2.

Up next, we have the Safe OS WinRE updates:

KB5044612: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

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

 

..

 

KB5044617: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 22H2 and 23H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

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

 

...

 

KB5044619: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 21H2: October 8, 2024

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 11, version 21H2.

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

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

 

Content acquired includes:

 

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

 

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

These dynamic updates are not pushed through Windows Update and are only available for manual downloading from the Windows Update Catalog website. You can find them here: KB5045520, KB5045525, KB5045527, KB5044612, KB5044617, and KB5044619.

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The Windows Insider Program launched to critical acclaim, attracting thousands of enthusiasts willing to play with early Windows 10 builds. There was also that great feeling of importance in being able to "shape the future of Windows." Now, ten years later, it seems like the excitement has worn off, and the program is in dire need of some changes. Here are five things that Microsoft should consider tweaking (some grunting ahead).

1. Make it less confusing

Ten years ago, the Insider program was very simple and straightforward: We had the Fast Ring with the latest, albeit unstable, changes and a Slow Ring with fewer updates but better quality. New features would appear first in Fast Ring and then move to Slow Ring in a few weeks.

These days, we have four channels: Canary, Dev, Beta, and Release Preview, and things are a bit messy. The proper build hierarchy is almost non-existent, with new features often appearing first in "lower" channels, such as Beta or even Release Preview, which are supposed to be more polished and near production-ready. How can a feature be properly tested if it makes its first appearance in the Beta Channel (formerly Slow Ring)?

The "Account Manager" in the Start menu is just one example of Microsoft shipping an untested feature to Beta users, completely ignoring Canary and Dev, and then receiving quite a lot of discontent for the poor implementation.

If you are a Windows enthusiast who wants to risk it all and install the latest preview build to try everything new in Windows 11, good luck trying to figure out what channel you should select. Some stuff is in Beta but not in Dev, some is in Release Preview but not in Beta, and so forth. It is very confusing and makes almost no sense, considering the nature of the program and the meaning of each channel.

2. Channels inside Channels

The "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" option in Windows Update settings seems like one of the most illogical features of the Windows Insider program.

In stable Windows releases, the toggle serves as an option to test non-security updates (C-release) with quality-of-life improvements and some new features. It makes sense outside the Insider program, but it absolutely has no place inside it.

These days, many Dev and Beta builds come with two separate changelogs: one for those with the toggle on and one for those with the toggle off, essentially splitting each channel into two sub-channels. Why? I already enrolled my computer in the Dev Channel, I already acknowledged the risks of using pre-release software, and I already know that the Dev Channel might be less stable. Why does Microsoft tip-toe around me with such a babysitting approach?

It is almost like Microsoft suffers from a channel shortage or something. And I do not even mention the fact that changelogs in those split channels are often small and contain minor changes to justify such careful rollouts.

3. Rolling out gradually

You cannot ship everything here and now if you have over 1.5 billion machines with thousands of different configurations. A gradual feature rollout is a reasonable approach to ensure that your latest update does not wreak havoc among users.

However, a preview program does not feel like a place for such things. You ship a feature in a properly unstable channel like Canary or Dev without being afraid to break things (again, users accepted the risk and terms), monitor data from insiders, make the necessary changes, and move it next to Beta and then to Release Preview for additional tests, like in the early days of the Insider Program.

It seems like Microsoft has lost its way and forgotten about the meaning of the Windows Insider program. With too many users onboard and every channel open to the average Joe, Microsoft appears to be treating insiders like regular consumers with stable builds, hence controlled feature rollouts, split channels, and other nonsense. Somehow, all of that was not required in the early days, when most builds were filled to the brim with new things. These days, we need gradual rollouts for taskbar fixes.

4. Improve communication

Part of my daily routine as a Microsoft reporter is constantly checking the already-published release notes for the latest or previously released builds. Microsoft often updates changelogs with additional information about new features, bugs, and other changes, so I have to keep an eye on them to report to readers. The worst part is that those changes are rarely communicated, and acknowledged bugs, important issues, feature rollbacks, and even entire build recalls often go unnoticed past insiders.

Yes, Windows Insider product managers sometimes notify users about newly documented features in release notes (after other insiders discover and report them), but I cannot remember seeing such posts about bugs and other "unexciting" changes. In a program made to gather feedback from users on such a complex product, I feel like Microsoft should better communicate what is going on with its latest builds, especially in light of overly controlled rollouts. On the one hand, Microsoft seems afraid to ship a buggy change to all testers, and on the other, it does not want to communicate new findings and bugs. After all, how hard is it to post a tweet that a recent changelog was updated to acknowledge a single new bug?

In all fairness, Microsoft recently tweeted about a new known bug in the latest Canary Channel, but it was such a rare occurrence (and a pretty big issue) that the point remains valid.

Besides, not every Windows user has an account on X. But every copy of Windows has the Feedback Hub app, so why not use it for extra communication with Insiders? For example, you enroll your device in the Insider program and agree that Microsoft will send you notifications about new builds, changelog updates, bugs, and other stuff.

5. Bring back the excitement

I am a day-one Windows Insider (including Windows 10 Mobile, but let's not pick at old wounds), and I have seen a lot, tried almost every build, and spent countless hours in the Feedback Hub. I might have become jaded over the last ten years, but many people agree that the original excitement of the Windows Insider program is no longer with us.

In the early days, a new build was an occasion, a big release full of changes. These days, though, with builds dropping left and right every week (minus the Canary Channel, which recently experienced a massive by modern standards, month-long pause), it is very hard to be excited about a new release, especially if you have to play the lottery and hope for the winning ticket to get even minor changes. Just why bother?

Also, we no longer have technical, in-depth posts from Microsoft explaining big changes and platform improvements in the latest builds (I do not count the recent damage-controlling Recall announcement). Heck, Microsoft celebrated the program's 10th anniversary with two wallpapers. I mean, they are nice, but seriously, two wallpapers?

The company offloaded a big part of Windows testing onto volunteers' shoulders. I am not expecting Microsoft to start paying Insiders for their efforts, but some incentives and encouragement would not hurt. This three-trillion-dollar company probably can afford small rewards for its most active and loyal insiders to reignite the interest and attract new, actually active and useful insiders.

Remember Microsoft handing out Windows 7 Ultimate keys for providing a certain amount of feedback concluding the public testing period? Neowin co-founder, Steven Parker still has his. Nowadays, we have badges in the Feedback Hub and wallpapers. You can do better, Microsoft.

What do you think about the current state of the Windows Insider program? Do you think it needs some changes? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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As usual, some of the most interesting new entries on the Roadmap site are for users of Microsoft Teams. One of the entries says that Teams users on the desktop and Mac platforms will get some improvements in November in terms of searching for people:

You can now search for content related to specific people. Start by typing the name of the relevant person in the search bar and select the filter to narrow down the search results and get relevant content suggestions.

The desktop version of Teams will get another new feature in November designed to help users learn how to say the names of others.

You can now record and share the correct pronunciation of your name, promoting inclusivity and helping colleagues avoid mispronunciations. With a click, you can play and listen to your colleagues' name pronunciations.

This feature will also be added to Outlook at some point.

On the desktop and Mac platforms in November, Teams will get some extra security features:

Identify if an external user is impersonating a brand commonly targeted by phishing attacks, during their initial contact with an enterprise user via Teams messages.

In January 2025, all Teams platforms will get another security-related feature for meeting organizers:

Meeting organizers can have greater confidence about external attendees joining Teams meetings, this capability enables sending a one-time passcode to the external attendee’s email address for that individual to use during a verification step when joining a Teams meeting.

The roadmap also had some new entries for Outlook users. In November, the Outlook mobile apps will get two new new features. One will help with receipts in emails:

Now you will be able to request both delivery and read receipts while composing an email in Outlook for iOS and Android. You will also easily be able to respond to requests for read receipts on emails you receive and set preferences for future read receipts.

The other new mobile Outlook feature is for Copilot Business Chat users:

In Outlook for iOS and Android, you will soon be able to choose whether Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat uses Microsoft 365 Graph (work) or Web grounding via a Work/Web toggle within the chat interface, just like you can at microsoft365.com/chat. Web grounding will be available for all commercial Microsoft 365 customers, while Graph grounding will require a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.

That's it for this past week on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap updates. We will be back with another edition next Sunday.

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Following those, we now have users who are reporting problems on a specific brand of hardware, mainly Western Digital NVMe SSDs, wherein their drives are blue screen crashing after updating to Windows 11 24H2.

The issue seems to be happening on WD_Black SN770 and WD Blue SN580, both of which are DRAM-less and rely on the system memory for caching via host memory buffer (HMB). Users have been able to pinpoint that the problem is occurring as a result of incorrect host memory buffer size allocation and tweaking around this issue using the Registry Editor seems to fix it.

For those who may not be familiar, many SSDs come with a dedicated DRAM chip that acts as a buffer for metadata between the controller and the NAND flash memory. The presence of this DRAM cache improves write caching and generally reduces random access times. Those NVME SSDs that do not have the DRAM cache typically support the HMB technology which helps the controller access system memory via Direct Memory Access (DMA).

NVMe SSDs generally tend to allocate around 64 MB of this amount on Windows but they can also allocate around 100 MB or higher. This is where the problem seems to stem from as affected users have noticed that their HMB allocation is going up to 200 MB on the SN770 and SN580, thus causing a potential conflict of sorts which is eventually leading to blue screens of death (BSOD).

Unfortunately, it can be hard to figure out the HMB allocation amount on Windows without using certain third-party utilities like VLO's hmb-nvme app.

Regardless, there is a workaround for this using the good old Registry Editor wherein altering the DWORD value inside the "HmbAllocationPolicy" key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort key fixes it by setting the allocation amount to 64 MB. To do this:

1. Open the Registry Editor app by running REGEDIT
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort key
3. Create a new HmbAllocationPolicy subkey if it is already not present
4. Set the DWORD value of the above key to 0 or 2 (where 0 => HMB allocation off and 2 => HMB allocation is 64 MB)
5. Restart the PC

If your issue is resolved after doing the above, it is likely that the problem was a result of HMB allocation. Those on non-WD SSDs who are experiencing a similar issue can also try out the Registry tweak above until a Windows update or a drive firmware update fixes it once and for all.

You can also go to Feedback Hub and upvote the issue so it helps Microsoft become aware of the problem.

Source: WD forum

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Here is the complete changelog:

• Addresses an issue that prevented DFCI removal via network.
• Addresses issues with keyboard working in Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) or Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).
• Fixes an issue where keypresses and the touchpad did not function correctly when connected to the device.
• Resolves an issue where waking the device from sleep mode required holding the power button instead of a simple tap or key press.
• Addresses the concern where the Slim Pen would unexpectedly charge when the device resumed from sleep mode, impacting power consumption.
• Mitigates the issue where the Caps Lock LED does not indicate ON/OFF status, despite the key functioning properly.
• Resolves the issue where double letters were being dropped when typing quickly.
• Improves security for devices with PXE boot enabled in IPv6 networks by protecting them against external access within compromised network segments.
• Improves device wake-up experience with faster response time.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

The Surface Pro 9 5G and its Intel-based sibling have a six-year support lifecycle. Microsoft plans to stop releasing updates for these devices on October 25, 2028.

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Here is how to fix the situation and clean up the C drive after installing Windows 11 version 24H2 or another big update. In a nutshell, Windows keeps the pre-update version for emergencies to let you roll back in case of issues. That old copy usually takes over 20GB of free space.

If you are not there yet, check out our guides detailing how to update to Windows 11 version 24H2 on supported systems and how to do that if your computer is not supported.

Clean disk C after installing a Windows update

It is worth mentioning right off the bat that cleaning up the system drive after a major Windows update will prevent you from going back. Consider this fact before purging the old Windows installation since you will have no way to roll back the update in case of serious bugs or issues, and the only way to solve the problem would be to clean-install Windows from scratch.

1. Press Win + I to launch Windows Settings.
2. Navigate to System > Storage and wait for the system to scan the contents of the C drive.
3. Click Temporary Files and wait again—Windows will check what can be safely deleted.

   

4. Place the checkmark next to "Previous Windows Installation(s)" and "Delivery Optimization Files."
   Note: As of right now, there is an allegedly known issue where Windows 11 won't let you clear 8.6GB of data. If it stays after running a disk cleanup, leave it be and wait for Microsoft to release a fix.

   

5. You can tick additional options. Just be careful not to delete the content of the Downloads folder accidentally (that option is not selected by default).
6. Click "Remove files" and wait for Windows to complete the process.

Free space on disk C after updating Windows—another option

Windows 11 still has a lot of legacy components, which means processes can be completed using modern and old interfaces. That is the case with disk cleanup in Windows 11. If you want some nostalgia, here is how to clean disk C using the legacy UI:

1. Press Win + R and type cleanmgr. Alternatively, open the Start menu and type Disk Cleanup.
2. Select Disk C and click Ok.
3. Click "Clean up system files." This command will let Windows find previous installations and delete them.

   

4. Wait for the scan to complete and place a checkmark next to the "Previous Windows installation(s)" option.

   

5. Click Ok and wait for the process to complete.

That is how you clean disk C after installing a major Windows update.

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A few years ago, the idea of running PC games on a Mac, in Linux, or on Arm processors would have been laughable. But the developers behind Asahi Linux—the independent project that is getting Linux working on Apple Silicon Macs—have managed to do all three of these things at once.

The feat brings together a perfect storm of open source projects, according to Asahi Linux GPU lead Alyssa Rosenzweig: the FEX project to translate x86 CPU code to Arm, the Wine project to get Windows binaries running on Linux, DXVK and the Proton project to translate DirectX 12 API calls into Vulkan API calls, and of course the Asahi project's Vulkan-conformant driver for Apple's graphics hardware.

Games are technically run inside a virtual machine because of differences in how Apple Silicon and x86 systems address memory—Apple's systems use 16 KB memory pages, while x86 systems use 4 KB pages, something that causes issues for Asahi and some other Arm Linux distros on a regular basis and a gap that the VM bridges.

Rosenzweig's post shows off screenshots of Control, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Ghostrunner, Cyberpunk 2077, Portal 2, and Hollow Knight, though as she notes, most of these games won't run at anywhere near 60 frames per second yet.

"Correctness comes first. Performance improves next," she writes.

The work on Asahi's Vulkan and OpenGL drivers is particularly impressive because Apple's own graphics drivers for macOS don't support most of these APIs. Apple's deprecated-but-not-removed OpenGL support tops out at version 4.1, the same level it's been since 2013, the year before Apple introduced the first version of its proprietary Metal graphics API.

Rosenzweig published her first Vulkan 1.3-conformant version of the Asahi GPU driver, codenamed Honeykrisp, back in April, and since then she's added additional extensions required to support the DXVK translation layer. Some of these extensions have required emulating hardware features that the M-series GPUs don't support natively. The Asahi driver has also added support for OpenCL 3.0.

The new driver and game compatibility is available in current Fedora Asahi Remix distros as an alpha, with a 1.0 release coming at some point down the line. It will run on M1- and M2-series Macs—Asahi doesn't support M3 systems yet, as the team works to improve support for M1 and M2 Macs—and Rosenzweig says that most games will require 16GB of RAM "due to emulation overhead." But even with the current list of caveats, that games written for x86 Windows PCs can run on Arm Linux Macs is a huge technical achievement and a sign of how far Linux and all of these app and API translation layers have come.

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The Windows 11 2024 Update, also known as Windows 11 24H2, started rolling out last week. Your PC may have even installed it already!

The continuous feature development of Windows 11 (and Microsoft's phased update rollouts) can make it a bit hard to track exactly what features you can expect to be available on any given Windows PC, even if it seems like it's fully up to date.

This isn't a comprehensive record of all the changes in the 2024 Update, and it doesn't reiterate some basic but important things like Wi-Fi 7 or 80Gbps USB4 support. But we've put together a small list of new and interesting changes that you're guaranteed to see when your version number rolls over from 22H2 or 23H2 to 24H2. And while Microsoft's announcement post spent most of its time on Copilot and features unique to Copilot+ PCs, here, we'll only cover things that will be available on any PC you install Windows 11 on (whether it's officially supported or not).

Quick Settings improvements

The Quick Settings menu is now paginated, so you can quickly flip through all available Quick Settings available on your PC.

Andrew Cunningham

 

A "refresh list" button added to the Wi-Fi network is a nice quality-of-life tweak.

Andrew Cunningham

 

The Quick Settings panel sees a few nice quality-of-life improvements. The biggest is a little next/previous page toggle that makes all of the Quick Settings buttons accessible without needing to edit the menu to add them. Instead of clicking a button and entering an edit menu to add and remove items from the menu, you click and drag items between pages. The downside is that you can't see all of the buttons at once across three rows as you could before, but it's definitely more handy if there are some items you want to access sometimes but don't want to see all the time.

A couple of individual Quick Settings items see small improvements: a refresh button in the lower-right corner of the Wi-Fi settings will rescan for new Wi-Fi networks instead of making you exit and reopen the Wi-Fi settings entirely. Padding in the Accessibility menu has also been tweaked so that all items can be clearly seen and toggled without scrolling. If you use one or more VPNs that are managed by Windows' settings, it will be easier to toggle individual VPN connections on and off, too. And a Live Captions accessibility button to generate automatic captions for audio and video is also present in Quick Settings starting in 24H2.

More Start menu “suggestions” (aka ads)

One of the first things a fresh Windows install does when it connects to the Internet is dump a small collection of icons into your Start menu, things grabbed from the Microsoft Store that you didn't ask for and may not want. The exact apps change from time to time, but these auto-installs have been happening since the Windows 10 days.

The 24H2 update makes this problem subtly worse by adding more "recommendations" to the lower part of the Start menu below your pinned apps. This lower part of the Start menu is usually used for recent files or newly (intentionally) installed apps, but with recommendations enabled, it can also pull recommended apps from the Microsoft Store, giving Microsoft's app store yet another place to push apps on you.

These recommendations change every time you open the Start menu—sometimes you'll see no recommended apps at all, and sometimes you'll see one of a few different app recommendations. The only thing that distinguishes these items from the apps and files you have actually interacted with is that there's no timestamp or "recently added" tag attached to the recommendations; otherwise, you'd think you had downloaded and installed them already.

These recommendations can be turned off in the Start menu section of the Personalization tab in Settings.

Context menu labels

When Windows 11 redesigned the right-click/context menu to help clean up years of clutter, it changed basic commands like copy and paste from text labels to small text-free glyphs. The 2024 Update doesn't walk this back, but it does add text labels back to the glyphs, just in case the icons by themselves didn't accurately communicate what each button was used for.

Windows 11's user interface is full of little things like this—stuff that was changed from Windows 10, only to be changed back in subsequent updates, either because people complained or because the old way was actually better (few text-free glyphs are truly as unambiguously, universally understood as a text label can be, even for basic commands like cut, copy, and paste).

Smaller, faster updates

The 24H2 update introduces something that Microsoft calls "checkpoint cumulative updates."

To recap, each annual Windows update also has a new major build number; for 24H2, that build number is 26100. In 22H2 and 23H2, it was 22621 and 22631. There's also a minor build number, which is how you track which of Windows' various monthly feature and security updates you've installed. This number starts at zero for each new annual update and slowly increases over time. The PC I'm typing this on is running Windows 11 build 26100.1882; the first version released to the Release Preview Windows Insider channel in June was 26100.712.

In previous versions of Windows, any monthly cumulative update that your PC downloads and installs can update any build of Windows 11 22H2/23H2 to the newest build. That's true whether you're updating a fresh install that's missing months' worth of updates or an actively used PC that's only a month or two out of date. As more and more updates are released, these cumulative updates get larger and take longer to install.

Starting in Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft will be able to designate specific monthly updates as "checkpoint" updates, which then become a new update baseline. The next few months' worth of updates you download to that PC will contain only the files that have been changed since the last checkpoint release instead of every single file that has been changed since the original release of 24H2.

If you're already letting Windows do its update thing automatically in the background, you probably won't notice a huge difference. But Microsoft says these checkpoint cumulative updates will "save time, bandwidth, and hard drive space" compared to the current way of doing things, something that may be more noticeable for IT admins with dozens or hundreds of systems to keep updated.

Sudo for Windows

A Windows version of the venerable Linux sudo command—short for "superuser do" or "substitute user do" and generally used to grant administrator-level access to whatever command you're trying to run—first showed up in experimental Windows builds early this year. The feature has formally been added in the 24H2 update, though it's off by default, and you'll need to head to the System settings and then the "For developers" section to turn it on.

When enabled, Sudo for Windows (as Microsoft formally calls it) allows users to run software as administrator without doing the dance of launching a separate console window as an administrator.

By default, using Sudo for Windows will still open a separate console window with administrator privileges, similar to the existing runas command. But it can also be configured to run inline, similar to how it works from a Linux or macOS Terminal window, so you could run a mix of elevated and unelevated software from within the same window. A third option, "with input disabled," will run your software with administrator privileges but won't allow additional input, which Microsoft says reduces the risk of malicious software gaining administrator privileges via the sudo command.

One thing the runas command supports that Sudo for Windows doesn't is the ability to run software as any local user—you can run software as the currently-logged-in user or as administrator, but not as another user on the machine, or using an account you've set up to run some specific service. Microsoft says that "this functionality is on the roadmap for the sudo command but does not yet exist."

Protected print mode

Microsoft is gradually phasing out third-party print drivers in Windows in favor of more widely compatible universal drivers. Printer manufacturers will still be able to add things on top of those drivers with their own apps, but the drivers themselves will rely on standards like the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), defined by the Mopria Alliance.

Windows 11 24H2 doesn't end support for third-party print drivers yet; Microsoft's plan for switching over will take years. But 24H2 does give users and IT administrators the ability to flip the switch early. In the Settings app, navigate to "Bluetooth & devices" and then to "Printers & scanners" and enable Windows protected print mode to default to the universal drivers and disable compatibility. You may need to reconnect to any printer you had previously set up on your system—at least, that was how it worked with a network-connected Brother HL-L2340D I use.

This isn't a one-way street, at least not yet. If you discover your printer won't work in protected print mode, you can switch the setting off as easily as you turned it on.

New setup interface for clean installs

The redesign to the bootable USB Windows installer isn't a huge deal, but it is the first facelift of note that we've seen since roughly 2006.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Choosing a Windows edition.

Andrew Cunningham

 

The UI for partitioning disks and loading drivers has changed the most significantly.

Andrew Cunningham

 

A full-screen progress tracker, similar to what you see if you're running an upgrade install from within Windows.

Andrew Cunningham

 

When you create a bootable USB drive to install a fresh copy of Windows—because you've built a new PC, installed a new disk in an existing PC, or just want to blow away all the existing partitions on a disk when you do your new install—the interface has stayed essentially the same since Windows Vista launched back in 2006. Color schemes and some specific dialog options have been tweaked, but the interface itself has not.

For the 2024 Update, Microsoft has spruced up the installer you see when booting from an external device. It accomplishes the same basic tasks as before, giving you a user interface for entering your product key/Windows edition and partitioning disks. The disk-partitioning interface has gotten the biggest facelift, though one of the changes is potentially a bit confusing—the volumes on the USB drive you're booted from also show up alongside any internal drives installed in your system. For most PCs with just a single internal disk, disk 0 should be the one you're installing to.

Wi-Fi drivers during setup

Microsoft's obnoxious no-exceptions Microsoft account requirement for all new PCs (and new Windows installs) is at its most obnoxious when you're installing on a system without a functioning network adapter. This scenario has come up most frequently for me when clean-installing Windows on a brand-new PC with a brand-new, as-yet-unknown Wi-Fi adapter that Windows 11 doesn't have built-in drivers for. Windows Update is usually good for this kind of thing, but you can't use an Internet connection to fix not having an Internet connection.

Microsoft has added a fallback option to the first-time setup process for Windows 11 that allows users to install drivers from a USB drive if the Windows installer doesn't already include what you need. As a failover, would we prefer to see an easy-to-use option that didn't require Microsoft account sign-in? Sure. But this is better than it was before.

To bypass this entirely, there are still local account workarounds available for experts. Pressing Shift + F10, typing OOBE\BYPASSNRO in the Command Prompt window that opens, and hitting Enter is still there for you in these situations.

Boosted security for file sharing

The 24H2 update has boosted the default security for SMB file-sharing connections, though, as Microsoft Principal Program Manager Ned Pyle notes, it may result in some broken things. In this case, that's generally a good thing, as they're only breaking because they were less secure than they ought to be. Still, it may be dismaying if something suddenly stops functioning when it was working before.

The two big changes are that all SMB connections need to be signed by default to prevent relay attacks and that Guest access for SMB shares is disabled in the Pro edition of Windows 11 (it had already been disabled in Enterprise, Education, and Pro for Workstation editions of Windows in the Windows 10 days). Guest fallback access is still available by default in Windows 11 Home, though the SMB signing requirement does apply to all Windows editions.

Microsoft notes that this will mainly cause problems for home NAS products or when you use your router's USB port to set up network-attached storage—situations where security tends to be disabled by default or for ease of use.

If you run into network-attached storage that won't work because of the security changes to 24H2, Microsoft's default recommendation is to make the network-attached storage more secure. That usually involves configuring a username and password for access, enabling signing if it exists, and installing firmware updates that might enable login credentials and SMB signing on devices that don't already support it. Microsoft also recommends replacing older or insecure devices that don't meet these requirements.

That said, advanced users can turn off both the SMB signing requirements and guest fallback protection by using the Local Group Policy Editor. Those steps are outlined here. That post also outlines the process for disabling the SMB signing requirement for Windows 11 Home, where the Local Group Policy Editor doesn't exist.

Windows Mixed Reality is dead and gone

Several technology hype cycles ago, before the Metaverse and when most "AI" stuff was still called "machine learning," Microsoft launched a new software and hardware initiative called Windows Mixed Reality. Built on top of work it had done on its HoloLens headset in 2015, Windows Mixed Reality was meant to bring in app developers and the PC makers and allowed them to build interoperable hardware and software for both virtual reality headsets that covered your eyes entirely and augmented reality headsets that superimpose objects over the real world.

But like some other mid-2010s VR-related initiatives, both HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality kind of fizzled and flailed, and both are on their way out. Microsoft officially announced the end of HoloLens at the beginning of the month, and Windows 11 24H2 utterly removes everything Mixed Reality from Windows.

Microsoft announced this in December of 2023 (in a message that proclaims "we remain committed to HoloLens"), though this is a shorter off-ramp than some deprecated features (like the Android Subsystem for Windows) have gotten. Users who want to keep using Windows Mixed Reality can continue to use Windows 23H2, though support will end for good in November 2026 when support for the 23H2 update expires.

WordPad is also dead

We've written plenty about this already, but the 24H2 update is the one that pulls the plug on WordPad, the rich text editor that has always existed a notch above Notepad and many, many notches below Word in the hierarchy of Microsoft-developed Windows word processors.

WordPad's last update of any real substance came in 2009, when it was given the then-new "ribbon" user interface from the then-recent Office 2007 update. It's one of the few in-box Windows apps not to see some kind of renaissance in the Windows 11 era; Notepad, by contrast, has gotten more new features in the last two years than it had in the preceding two decades. And now it has been totally removed, gone the way of Internet Explorer and Encarta.

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Microsoft also mentions that there are a small number of "general improvements and fixes" but does not offer any specific details on these changes made to this latest Beta Channel build.

Here is the changelog for Windows 11 Beta Channel Insider build 22635.4367:

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

 

[General]

 

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

 

[Windows Share]

 

We are adding the ability to share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows when right-clicking on local files in File Explorer or the desktop.

 

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

 

[Start menu]

 

Fixed an issue that was leading to some Insiders potentially seeing unexpected amount of spacing between items in the Start menu all apps list.

 

[Live captions]

 

Fixed an issue causing live captions to crash on launch for some Insiders in the last 2 builds.

 

[Taskbar]

 

Fixed an issue where if you had multiple windows open for an app on your taskbar, pressing WIN + multiple times wasn’t cycling between the windows, for example, pressing WIN + 1.

 

Fixed an issue for uncombined taskbar users, where app icons were unexpectedly showing instead of the window’s icon next to the window name.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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Here is the changelog:

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

 

[General]

 

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

 

[Taskbar & System Tray]

 

• We’ve updated the previews that show when you mouse-over/hover over apps on the taskbar. We have also improved the animations for when these previews show on the taskbar based on Insider feedback.

[Task Manager]

 

• We’ve updated the design of the Disconnect and Logoff dialogs in Task Manager to now support dark mode and text scaling.
• In the Performance section we now label listed disks with their type.

 

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

 

 

[Windowing]

 

• Fixed an underlying issue which could cause the screen to go black for a few seconds for some people when using ALT + Tab.
• Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[General]

 

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see error 0x800f0825 when trying to install the latest Dev Channel builds.

 

[Other]

 

• This update includes fixes for the following issues:
• [Remote Desktop Gateway Service] Fixed: The service stops responding. This occurs when a service uses remote procedure calls (RPC) over HTTP. Because of this, the clients that are using the service disconnect.

Known issues in build 26120.2122 include the following:

[General]

 

• This build may fail to install with error 0x800f0983. If you see this error, please try to install it again, as it should work on retry. If it stays on 0%, please be patient – it should proceed.

 

[Start menu]

 

• If you click or tap on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break. If you encounter this issue, please try rebooting or restarting explorer.exe to fix it.

 

[Live captions]

 

• [NEW] After installing this build, live captions may crash if you try to use it.

If you want, you can find the announcement blog post by clicking this link.

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For those who may not be familiar, System File Checker or SFC.exe is a native Windows utility that helps fix corrupt or broken Windows files by restoring them.

Essentially, running the SFC/scannow command would tell users that they had broken or corrupted files on their PC, but apparently, "fixing" the files would do nothing, and SFC would again report broken files. The reader, Sladen, also provided additional details about the problem and said that it was related to a potential WebView2 hash mismatch.

They wrote:

There is also another known issue with /sfc. When a user runs sfc /scannow, it will report corrupted files and it will repair them, but then when the user runs an additional sfc /scannow it will report and fix the same thing again. The file is Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll. There is a hash mismatch between the microsoft store version and the one that is on the system.

After noticing the comment, we headed to the Feedback Hub to see that, indeed, the issue has been heavily upvoted by users, with 208 upvotes at the time of writing.

It is also happening to others, as there are several threads on Google across various forums that are talking about the issue. Thankfully, Microsoft was aware of the problem and has rolled out a fix in the latest release preview build, 26100.2152, released under KB5044384. In the release notes, Microsoft says:

[sfc /scannow command] Fixed: You get errors every time you run the command.

Hence, those fighting the Release Preview Insider channel should have the issue resolved. The fix will also be rolling out to non-Insiders towards the end of this month on the non-security preview update (C-release) under the same KB.

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Here is what Microsoft added to the release notes for build 27723:

[ADDED 10/10] Some Insiders with PCs that have older NVIDIA GPUs (like the GTX 970, Quadro K620, etc.) are experiencing some issues where their displays appear stuck at a black screen and unresponsive or seeing their GPUs showing errors in Device Manager and not working correctly.

Unfortunately, there are no workarounds at this moment. If your system is affected, the only way to get out of the loop is to roll back to the previous build. To do so, Microsoft recommends booting into Windows Recovery (WinRE) and uninstalling build 27723 using troubleshooting tools. Once back to the previous release, make sure to go to Settings > Windows Update and pause updates to prevent Windows 11 from downloading build 27723 again.

Microsoft says it is working on resolving the problem, so a fix should be available in future updates (there is no ETA, sadly). Other bugs in build 27723 include update error 0xc190010, rollbacks when updating, game crashes on launch, biometric issues on Copilot+ PCs, and more.

Speaking of old Nvidia graphics cards, bugs in Windows 11 build 27723 are not the only thing that could nag users to look for a newer GPU. OBS Studio 31 Beta 1 is out, and it no longer supports Nvidia Encoder (NVENC) on Kepler-based graphics cards (GTX 600 and GTX 700 Series). You can learn more about that here.

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Here is the changelog:

Added Features:

 

• Introduced a 'Linked Account & Online Accounts' row to the multiple profile settings page.
• Added a new banner indicating the installation of a custom theme in Gamer Mode.

 

Improved Behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue where browser crashes when playing media and closing the previous window.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue that extended the Tab Center to the very top of the window in both restored and maximized modes.
• Resolved an issue where the return, close, and pin buttons were abnormal when in Dark mode under favorites.
• Resolved an issue where browser displayed a white screen after restarting in Split screen mode.
• Resolved an issue where pressing Enter in the search box should move the focus to the first result with an appropriate announcement under downloads.
• Resolved an issue when clicking anywhere on the NTP page was unresponsive after selecting 'Page Layout' in split screen mode.
• Resolved an issue where the page titles of favorites and history were not displayed in the dropdown menu within the Game Assist browser.

 

Android:

 

• Resolved an issue where the 'Dark Reader' extension was not selected during the extension FRE process on Android.
• Resolved an issue when switching between horizontal and vertical screen modes caused the NTP interface to display abnormally on the new tab page on android.
• Resolved an issue where the selection indicator was unclear for the no border UI style under top sites on Android.

 

iOS:

 

• Resolved an issue where clicking 'Find on Page' and then 'Print' caused the 'Find on Page' feature to appear on the print page on iOS.
• Resolved an issue where the font color of Top sites turned black when returning to the NTP after accessing News from Feeds.

You can download Microsoft Edge Dev from the official Edge Insider website. Version 131, with its improvements and new features, will be available in the Stable Channel on the week of November 14, 2024.

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• Addresses a fingerprint authentication bypass security vulnerability to prevent spoofing attacks.
• Fixes an issue where keypresses and the touchpad did not function correctly when connected to the device.
• Resolves an issue where waking the device from sleep mode required holding the power button instead of a simple tap or key press.
• Addresses the concern where the Slim Pen would unexpectedly charge when the device resumed from sleep mode, impacting power consumption.
• Mitigates the issue where the Caps Lock LED does not indicate ON/OFF status, despite the key functioning properly.
• Resolves the issue where double letters were being dropped when typing quickly.
• Mitigates a potential security vulnerability, increasing protection against unauthorized privilege.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

You can install the latest firmware for your Surface Pro X SQ2 in Settings > Windows Update. The device will continue receiving firmware until August 10, 2025.

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However, an official tool like MCT only works with systems which are supported by Microsoft that fulfill the minimum requirements. The tech giant recently updated a support page where it recommends buying a new PC for those who are looking to upgrade to Windows 11 from pre-Windows 10 since such systems are unlikely to satisfy Windows 11's upgrade criteria.

Such users can opt for third-party utilities like Rufus which recently published a workaround for bypassing Windows 11 24H2 system requirements on unsupported PCs. The developer promised that the next release of Rufus would have the workaround baked in.

As such, the latest version of the app, 4.6 Beta, has received the feature as well as several others including improvements related to local account passwords, UEFI bootloaders, a PowerShell fix, and more.

The full changelog is given below:

Rufus 4.6 BETA

 

• Add a new setup.exe wrapper to bypass Windows 11 24H2 in-place upgrade restrictions (#2568)
• Add TimeZone to regional options replication (#2499)
• Set local account passwords to not expire by default
• Fix an error when trying to write compressed VHD images (#2468)
• Fix an error when invoking Rufus from the PowerShell commandline (#2556)
• Improve revoked UEFI bootloaders check to support Linux SBAT, Windows SVN and cert DBX

Keep in mind though that Windows 11 24H2 is different from its predecessors since Microsoft has added a new CPU instruction set requirement with PopCnt and SSE4.2. Thus, very old PCs with CPUs that lack the required ISA (instruction set architecture) won't be able to bypass the requirement even with the latest version of Rufus.

Rufus author Pete Batard has also reiterated that such a bypass is not going to come to his app. He writes:

I'm not planning to. If the official bypasses that Microsoft allows don't work, it's Microsoft's problem not mine. Rufus is working within Microsoft's framework, with bypasses that Microsoft included for the installer, and, therefore, as has been the case ever since the release of Windows 11, I expect that the bypasses that Microsoft allows to not render a machine inoperative, and I also expect Microsoft to filter bypasses that will, like PopCount/SSE4.2.

You can download the latest version of Rufus from the Neowin software stories page, the official website or GitHub.

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Here is the changelog:

Gradual rollout

 

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

 

[Start menu] New! You can directly access content on your mobile device from the Start menu on your PC. Using this feature, you can view your device’s battery status and connectivity, access your voice messages, calls, and photos, and pick up where you left off with the latest activities on your device. Only Android users who are already connected using Phone Link can get this feature. iOS support will be coming later. To manage this feature, go to Settings > Personalization > Start.

 

[Notifications] New! You can now stop the suggestions to turn off notifications from certain apps. Select the ellipses (…) in the notification and turn it off. You can also go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn it off from there. Look for “Notification Suggestions” in the senders list. An entry will only appear in the list after you receive a notification.

 

[Windows Sandbox Client Preview] New! This update adds the Windows Sandbox Client Preview. This preview includes runtime clipboard redirection, audio and video input control, and sharing folders with the host at runtime. To access these, select the ellipses (…) at the upper right on the app. This preview also includes a version of command-line support. (The commands might change over time). To learn more, use the exe –help command. You can find new updates for this app in the Microsoft Store.

 

[Virtual hard disk (VHD/VHDx)] New! This update adds a detach virtual hard disk button to Settings. In the properties for your VHD or VHDx, go to Settings > System > Storage > Disks & Volumes.

 

[Wi-Fi password dialog] New! The dialog now has the Windows 11 visual design. Go to Settings > Network & internet.

 

Normal rollout

 

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

 

[Copilot key settings] New! You can configure the Copilot key on the keyboard. On new devices, the key opens the Copilot app. If you sign in to your account using a Microsoft Entra ID, the key opens the M365 app. You can make the key open a different app or open Search. To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Text input. To make the key open a different app, the app must be in a signed MSIX package. This ensures that the app meets security and privacy standards to keep you safe. If your PC’s keyboard does not have a Copilot key, changing this setting will do nothing.

 

[User interface (UI)] Fixed: You cannot view some parts of the UI when you run certain apps.

 

[HTML Applications (HTA)] Fixed: HTA optional components (OC) are now in ARM64 Windows PE.

 

[Live kernel debug files (dumps)] Fixed: win32kbase.sys creates live kernel debug files when it should not.

 

[Winlogon] Fixed: A stop error occurs during shutdown.

 

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

 

[Web sign-in] Fixed: You cannot sign in to your account from the web because the screen stops responding.

 

[sfc /scannow command] Fixed: You get errors every time you run the command.

You can get the full blog post here.

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Here is the changelog:

Gradual rollout

 

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

 

[Start menu]

 

New! You can directly access content on your mobile device from the Start menu on your PC. Using this feature, you can view your device’s battery status and connectivity, access your voice messages, calls, and photos, and pick up where you left off with the latest activities on your device. Only Android users who are already connected using Phone Link can get this feature. iOS support will be coming later. To manage this feature, go to Settings > Personalization > Start.

 

New! “All apps” has the new name, “All.”

 

[Gamepad keyboard] New! This update starts the roll out of a new Gamepad keyboard layout for the on-screen keyboard. With it, you can use your Xbox controller to move around the screen and type. Button accelerators are also available; these include the X button for backspace and the Y button for the spacebar. For better movement patterns, the keyboard keys are aligned vertically.

 

[Notifications] New! You can now stop the suggestions to turn off notifications from certain apps. Select the ellipses (…) in the notification and turn it off. You can also go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn it off from there. Look for “Notification Suggestions” in the senders list. An entry will only appear in the list after you receive a notification.

 

[Settings] New! Tailored Experiences is now Personalized offers in the out of box experience (OOBE). You can find it on the Recommendations and offers page. Go to Settings > Privacy & security. Here, you can turn off the setting that sends data about your device to enhance Windows.

 

Normal rollout

 

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

 

[Copilot key settings] New! You can configure the Copilot key on the keyboard. On new devices, the key opens the Copilot app. If you sign in to your account using a Microsoft Entra ID, the key opens the M365 app. You can make the key open a different app or open Search. To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Text input. To make the key open a different app, the app must be in a signed MSIX package. This ensures that the app meets security and privacy standards to keep you safe. If your PC’s keyboard does not have a Copilot key, changing this setting will do nothing.

 

[Battery use] Fixed: A device uses too much battery power while the device is in Modern Standby.

 

[Microsoft Teams] Fixed: The issue stops you from joining Teams meetings when you select an Outlook meeting reminder.

 

[vmswitch] Fixed: A vmswitch triggers a stop error. This occurs when you use Load Balancing and Failover (LBFO) teaming with two virtual switches on a virtual machine (VM). In this case, one virtual switch uses single root Input/Output virtualization (SR-IOV).

 

[Collector sets] Fixed: They do not close properly when an exception occurs during startup or while the set is active. Because of this, the command to stop a collector set stops responding.

 

[Product activation phone numbers] Fixed: This update adds new phone numbers for several regions.

 

[Multi-Function Printer (MFP)] Fixed: When you use a USB cable to connect to it, it prints specific network command text when you do want it to.

 

[Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA)] Fixed: This update brings profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.

 

[Windows Hello for Business] Fixed: PIN reset does not work when you select the “I forgot my PIN’ link on the credentials screen.

 

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

 

[WebView2 apps] Fixed: They do not detect input from Xbox 360 and Bluetooth controllers.

 

[Bluetooth] Fixed: An app stops responding because of a memory leak in a device.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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Astronaut and CEO of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, said:

"Oracular Oriole sets a new pace for delivering the latest upstream kernel and toolchains. Experimental new security features demonstrate our commitment to continually elevate the Linux desktop experience in conversation with the community for the next 20 years and beyond."

Ubuntu 24.10 launches with the Linux 6.11 kernel. According to Canonical, this marks a shift in its kernel selection policy so that the newest available upstream Linux kernel is chosen so that users get the latest features and hardware support at release. Doing this also benefits silicon vendors, who can now easily plan for future kernel versions for Ubuntu releases and hardware enablement updates to LTS releases.

Another change in this update is permissions prompting, a "critical tool for privacy and security conscious users." The feature is technically experimental. The implementation uses AppArmor and enforces sandboxing and mediates access at the system call level so that everything is "tightly controlled and subject to user consent".

Prompting must be enabled through the new Security Center application in Ubuntu 24.10. Eventually, the Security Center will expand with more prompting options, plus firewall and encryption management.

Ubuntu 24.10 also brings GNOME 47, which has improved performance and stability, as well as new features. This Ubuntu version also switches to Wayland by default for hardware with Nvidia graphics and uses the open-source Nvidia 560 kernel modules by default on supported hardware.

For gamers, there are significant improvements to the Steam snap with an expanded permissions model and improved Nvidia driver support. The Steam snap also comes with gaming-specific Mesa PPAs to deliver optimized performance out of the box when combined with low latency settings enabled with Linux 6.11.

If you want to use Ubuntu 24.10, you can download it from the Ubuntu website. It is a stable release, but as a non-LTS version, it will only be supported for nine months.

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Hope you enjoyed this news post.

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

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts