Recently, Microsoft removed a command-line-based feature called SaRA that allows users and admins to troubleshoot various issues on Windows across several Microsoft apps, including Office. The company deemed that legacy feature as no longer safe and thus deprecated it to make Windows more secure.

On a similar note with a similar motive, Microsoft has announced this week that it is retiring a Teams component too, so that it can improve the security of the app. The company has announced that Teams will retire legacy external meeting controls integration in its desktop client for Windows 11/10 and Mac soon.

For anyone not familiar, the feature enabled limited external control of actions such as leaving a meeting, muting audio, raising a hand, turning the camera on/off, blurring/unblurring the background, and sending reactions. The tech giant has confirmed that this is no longer being maintained and supported as it does not meet the company’s security and platform standards. The company understands that this could affect users who rely on hardware shortcuts or automation tools; however, the decision is aimed at improving reliability, security, and long-term maintainability, which, Microsoft says, are its primary motivations.

If you are wondering when, this change will come into effect starting June 30, 2026, which is when these capabilities will be permanently removed from the Teams desktop clients, and the corresponding setting under Settings > Privacy will no longer be available. Hence, Microsoft is giving users and admins alike more than 30 days’ notice ahead of the removal. Following this, external applications or devices that depended on this method to trigger meeting actions should stop functioning entirely. This includes previously configured third-party integrations that relied on this legacy pathway.

On the bright side, Microsoft has noted that native Teams controls within the app will continue to work as expected, as the company has emphasized that supported integration frameworks, including published APIs such as the Microsoft Graph API, will continue to function normally as they remain unaffected. Those who have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal can view the message here under ID MC1266901 on the company's official site.

On the topic of Teams security, Microsoft is also making another related change. The company announced at the end of last year that it was going to automatically remove EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) from images shared in conversations and chats in order to improve privacy protection. For those who don't know, an EXIF file in an image is a metadata file, which means it stores info about that image. The feature is currently being rolled out. You can find its entry here under 542795 on the Microsoft 365 roadmap.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 5:17 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

Task Manager is a crucial piece of every PC. From hardware monitoring to killing stuck or misbehaving apps, this part of Windows 11 can do quite a lot. Hardware monitoring is a common use case scenario. If you want to keep an eye on CPU usage, temperature, RAM usage, GPU, or network load, Task Manager is here to help you without downloading third-party software. Did you know that you can make Task Manager always on top? Here is how to do it.

Make Task Manager always on top in Windows 11

Windows 11's Task Manager can stay on top of other windows without extra tools:

1. Open Task Manager using any method you prefer. Right-click the taskbar, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete, or hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc. By the way, the latter opens Task Manager directly without any extra clicks or menus, which is very convenient.
2. Click the Settings icon in the bottom-left corner of the window.
3. Find the Window management section and place a check mark next to the "Always on top" option. Task Manager will restart and then stay above every other app.

   

    

To disable Task Manager always on top in Windows 11, repeat the steps above and uncheck the "Always on top" option.

Task Manager always on top — Option 2

Microsoft has an official Always on Top tool for Windows 10 and 11, but it requires downloading PowerToys, a set of very useful utilities for the operating system. With Always on Top, you can use a dedicated, customizable shortcut to pin apps and windows above others in an instant. What makes Always on Top great, besides a dedicated shortcut, is the ability to pin several apps at once, highlight pinned apps, and even set custom transparency for each pin so that you can see what is below it.

It also works with Task Manager, but there is one important catch.

1. Download and install PowerToys from the Microsoft Store. It is also available from GitHub here.
2. Launch PowerToys and go to Always on Top. There, you can customize the module and set your own shortcut.
3. If you want to pin Task Manager above all other apps with Always on Top and its shortcut, you must run PowerToys as Administrator. Otherwise, Always on Top won't work with Task Manager and some other parts of the operating system. Go to PowerToys Settings > General and click "Restart PowerToys as Administrator."

   

    

Now, with PowerToys running as Administrator, you can press your Always on Top shortcut to make Task Manager (or any other open window) always on top. Press the shortcut again to unpin it. And that is how you do it.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 12:23 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

The latest Windows 11 preview builds Microsoft released this week do not contain much, and we are still waiting for the company to ship some of the promised "fixes" for the operating system. However, there are some interesting changes for Task Manager, a critical component of every Windows PC. With build 26300.8142, Microsoft is improving hardware utilization tracking, allowing you to see which apps use your PC's Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and which apps run in containers.

Now, when you go to the Processes tab in the updated Task Manager, you can add new columns for NPU usage and NPU Engine. They will let you sort processes by NPU load so that you can better understand what is utilizing your Neural Processing Unit at the moment, which is useful when you work with apps that support local AI processing on dedicated hardware. Just keep in mind that these tabs are available on systems with dedicated NPUs and systems with NPUs integrated into graphics cards.

Here is what Microsoft says in the release notes:

We’re updating Task Manager to provide better insight into NPU usage for PCs that include an NPU. New optional NPU and NPU Engine columns are now available on the Processes, Users, and Details pages. The Details page also adds NPU Dedicated Memory and NPU Shared Memory optional columns to give you deeper visibility into how workloads are using NPU resources. Additionally, if there are neural engines that are part of a GPU, they will now appear on the Performance page, providing a more complete view of AI‑related system activity.

If you have a device with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit, you can enable NPU-related columns in Task Manager by right-clicking one of the columns. They are optional, so if you do not care about the NPU, you can leave everything as is.

Finally, in addition to new columns for the NPU, Microsoft now lets you see apps that are running in an AppContainer, a special mode where the app has no access outside its "sandbox." The new Isolation column is available on the Processes and Details pages, while NPU-related columns can be shown on Processes, Details, and Users.

You can find the rest of the changelog for the latest Windows 11 Dev build in our dedicated article.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 12:20 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

Windows 11's Task Manager is finally getting more nuanced insights into the performance and usage of your PC's Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

The NPU only began its mainstream run with the launch of Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips and Microsoft Copilot+ PCs in 2024. Since then, it has become a topic of debate whenever AI PCs are mentioned, for it's the NPU that technically makes your Windows 11 device fit into the emerging category.

Up until this point, with the release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8142 for the Dev Channel, Windows 11's Task Manager would only show the NPU on the main Performance tab. It was a fairly basic outline of NPU usage across the system at any given time, giving just a percentage reading of its total used ability.

With this latest Task Manager update, you'll now find NPU and NPU Engine columns in the Processes, Users, and Details tabs. These columns are completely optional, and, of course, they'll only be available in PCs that include an NPU.

The ability to change where Windows 11's taskbar appears on the screen is among the most requested features in the Feedback Hub. While it is not a ground-breaking thing, it appears that quite a lot of users want Microsoft to bring back this old feature. Last month, Microsoft acknowledged the request and promised to deliver the feature. While we wait for it to show up in a new preview build, Microsoft itself posted an early look on X.

In a now-deleted post, a video showed a Windows 11 desktop with a dedicated debut menu for changing the taskbar position with just two clicks. It works just as it sounds: right-click the taskbar and select the preferred position, after which Windows 11 moves its taskbar accordingly with some neat icon animations.

It is worth noting that the deleted video is not the final version that Microsoft plans to ship. Microsoft engineers have already confirmed that the right-click menu is just a debug tool. The final version will work similarly to Windows 10, where the taskbar position is configured via the Settings app. Interestingly, before, Windows allowed you to move the taskbar by simply dragging it across the screen (if the taskbar was not locked). At this point, it is unknown if Microsoft plans to bring it back. Finally, janky animations should also be fixed in the final version.

Microsoft has confirmed that the taskbar and its elements would adapt to each position. However, there will be no search bars for side-mounted taskbars. Instead, the search bar will collapse to a simple icon to match the taskbar width.

Another highly-requested taskbar feature is the ability to make it smaller. Right now, Windows 11's taskbar supports small icons, but its physical size stays the same regardless of the icons' size. Microsoft says a future Windows 11 update will fix that as well. Microsoft said that the first promised Windows 11 improvements would arrive in the next few weeks, so look out for new preview builds and their changelogs.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 5:30 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

Earlier today, Neowin reported on an issue wherein the Samsung Magician app, which, sort of, is an essential software for Samsung SSDs, is broken on modern Windows 11 systems in several ways. Users who are affected have reported an inability to launch the app, performance issues, UI problems, and more. Check out our dedicated article on the topic here. Hence, Windows or any Windows update did not have anything to do with this.

This surfaced hot on the heels of another Samsung-related bug wherein the system (C) drive on Windows 11 PCs became inaccessible, though, again, Samsung, not Microsoft or Windows update, was found to be the culprit.

With these recent issues in mind, it is no surprise that a senior veteran Microsoft Windows engineer, Raymond Chen, has urged users and customers not to look for fault all the time in Windows and its updates.

Chen has remarked how corporate IT teams often raise alarms after monthly Patch Tuesday updates, claiming that it “broke our system” as the issues typically come to light after a Patch Tuesday release, when systems reboot following an update installation. However, according to some of Microsoft's enterprise product support staff, the reboot itself and not the update is what actually triggers latent hidden system problems.

The backstory usually goes back to changes made several weeks earlier, changes which are unrelated to Windows update itself. These include deployment of new drivers, new software installs, or new group policy changes, sometimes sourced from questionable online tips like a random "TikTok video or something." These mods can quietly do many "sketchy" things like alter registry permissions, reconfigure services, or tweak undocumented settings. Machines remain seemingly stable until the next reboot, which happens after a Windows Update.

Thus when the update cycle arrives, the reboot activates those hidden misconfigurations, rendering systems unbootable. Hence, the timing of the issue creates the illusion that the patch caused the failure when in reality the Windows update simply exposed pre-existing instability. The idea of hotpatching sounds like a good idea in this situation as it doesn't require a restart.

Although this article mainly discusses the enterprise scenario, the idea of user-error can be applied to home systems too.

While we completely agree with Microsoft's take here, the company should also note that this reputation has come from actual issues Windows Update can and does cause, like the recent one which the company was forced to pull as it failed to download on affected systems. Microsoft has now released a replacement update for it under KB5086672.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 5:29 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

March 2026 has finally drawn to a close in most regions around the globe, which means that it is time yet again to recap all the new features Microsoft added to Excel during the month. The company already published a roundup for Teams earlier, and now, its flagship spreadsheet software is receiving the same treatment.

Despite being a longer month, March 2026 only brought three new features to Excel. Two of these capabilities came to Excel on Windows, macOS, and the web. The first involves new Edit with Copilot enhancements, which include support for all standard Copilot languages, and the ability to choose Claude Opus 4.6 in the model selector. Microsoft has also brought contextual awareness through WorkIQ so that Copilot can make more accurate multi-step edits to your Excel data while being grounded in the information available through your enterprise chats, emails, and files. Naturally, you do need a Microsoft 365 license to take advantage of these capabilities.

The second feature made available on the aforementioned platforms is a revamp of the Office Scripts UI. The UX is now cleaner and more consistent, making it easier to create, manage, and share automation scripts. Microsoft says that this redesign was heavily requested by its customers so it has tagged it as "Feedback In Action (#FIA)".

Finally, Excel for the web also netted a UX enhancement which enables customers to get to their files quickly. They can simply start leveraging the search bar on the homepage rather than manually sifting through tons of files.

All in all, it's been a relatively quieter month, but the new capabilities will certainly be welcomed by those who have use of them. It'll be interesting to see what the company has planned for next month; it recently unveiled agentic AI features powered by its Copilot Cowork initiative.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 5:29 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

It is fair to say that Samsung products haven't had the best time so far on some of the latest Windows 11 versions. The South Korean giant came under fire recently as it came to notice that its Connect app was messing with Windows 11 updates leading to the system drive (C:) becoming inaccessible. Microsoft later published a detailed guidance article that walks through the fixes.

Interestingly, in the first article I linked above, a related comment caught my attention. Posted by a forum member M. Murcek, who has been around on Neowin for a while, pointed out another crucial Samsung software, which has been broken on Windows 11 for the last several months.

They wrote: "Not what's being discussed in the article, but Samsung Magician has been broken in Canary builds for a while now," to which another one of our readers wotsit responded "I don’t do any Insider stuff but Magician never opens for me," confirming that this Samsung Magician bug they are talking about has been encountered by others too, and outside of Insider channel alpha/beta Windows testing as well.

After coming across these comments, I did some digging around to see if others outside of Neowin are also having to experience such problems, and, as expected, there were many threads with lots of views and upvotes from online users which suggested that yes, this is a fairly widespread problem that has so far not been reported by mainstream outlets.

The first such thread seems to have popped up back in December 2025 with Samsung Magician version 9.0.0 as it simply would not start on Windows 11. This failure to launch the Magician app seemingly coincides with the release of the native NVMe driver on Servers, so we wonder if anything happened there.

Here is a gist of all the issues users are reporting about the Magician app on Windows:

• Magician app not working/launching/starting
• Display scaling bug such that fonts/texts in the app are unreadable, illegible
• Speed and performance reduction
• SSDs not being recognized/seen
• Drive health status and monitoring reports missing

Interestingly, the Samsung Magician app version 9.0.0, which is causing the issues on Windows 11 25H2, 24H2, and 26H1, is supposed to be a crucial update for the software as it patched a high-severity privilege escalation flaw (CVE-2025-57836) that allowed attackers to hijack DLLs via its compromised app installer on Windows.

So, it seems users may have no choice but to update to this version of the app since it is a critical one. On the slightly brighter side, there is a new Magician update v9.0.1.950 available which was released earlier this week. The release notes simply says: "Improved the UI/UX to enhance user convenience.
Users can easily use various features with a more intuitive and streamlined screen."

Head over to Samsung's website here to download the app and let us know in the comments below if the new update has resolved your issues. Another positive news is that Microsoft is also working on the native NVMe feature in the background, so perhaps such problems may be addressed from Microsoft's end as well.

Source: Samsung forum (link1, link2, link3, link4, link5, link6, link7, link8)

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 5:27 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

Earlier this month, Microsoft released the March 2026 non-security update for Windows 11. As usual, the latest optional update brought some new features and various quality-of-life improvements across the operating system. However, shortly after, Microsoft pulled the update due to installation issues, particularly error 0x80073712, with a "some update files are missing or have problems" message. Now, Microsoft has a fix for that.

KB5086672 is the final update in March 2025. This out-of-band release or hotfix patches only one issue: the 0x80073712 error in KB5079391. The changelog says the following:

• [Setup] Fixed: While installing the March 2026 Windows preview update (KB5079391), some devices running Windows 11, version 25H2 or 24H2, might encounter the following error: Some update files are missing or have problems. We'll try to download the update again later. Error code: (0x80073712)

If you want changes and features in KB5079391, you can now head to Windows Update and click "Check for updates." The app will offer you to download KB5086672, which includes all the previously released features and improvements. Just keep in mind that some of them are rolling out gradually and might not be available right after installing the update.

Problems with KB5079391 came right after Microsoft pledged to fix Windows 11 and Windows Update in particular. The company will soon let you pause updates indefinitely, and the overall quality of each release is promised to go up. Unfortunately, that is not what happened to KB5079391. Fortunately, the misstep was not critical, and the hotfix arrived in less than a week.

If you want to learn more about what is new in KB5079391 (now KB5086672), check out our dedicated article here. While the update is not the biggest one, there is some interesting stuff you may find useful. All those features will make it to all Windows 11 users in the April 2026 Patch Tuesday update.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 12:07 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

March is coming to an end, and by now, you already know that this is the time to look back on the new features and changes that Microsoft made available for Windows 11 through the Windows Insider Program during the second half of the month.

In addition to the improvements rolled out during the first half of March, the software giant made available previews for version 25H2, 26H1, 26H2, and for what we believe will eventually become version 27H2.

In the Dev and Beta Channels, devices received Windows 11 builds 26300.8142, 26220.8138, 26300.8085, and 26220.8079, while the Canary Channel saw builds 28020.1797 and 28020.1743 for version 26H1 and builds 29558 and 29553 in the second path of the channel.

Biggest improvements from the Windows Insider Program in March 2026

These are the most significant changes Microsoft has unveiled since the last roundup.

Pointer Indicator new feature

Starting with build 26300.8085, Windows 11 adds the Pointer Indicator feature to help low vision users locate and use the mouse pointer more easily.

When you enable this feature, the system will add a crosshair effect to the mouse pointer, and you can even customize the colors for the effect.

The feature is available from Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch, and turning on the "Pointer Indicator" toggle switch.

Microsoft Partner Architect Rudy Huyn has revealed that he's building a team of engineers that will be focused on "crafting meaningful user experiences" that will consist of "strong product thinking and a deep focus on the customer" on Windows 11. Additionally, Huyn has confirmed that the apps and experiences that this team will build will be 100% native to the platform.

That means no WebView or web tech welcome, which is a refreshing sign of change in the Windows org. For many years, the Windows OS has used a mishmash of web tech and native UI frameworks, which has resulted in an incredibly inconsistent user experience that feels and looks different depending on the app or interface.

This isn't so bad for third-party apps, but for in-box apps and system interfaces, it's simply unacceptable. So, the good news here is Huyn and his new team will be focused on building 100% native Windows apps, which should result in a more consistent interface, from both a design and performance perspective.

Microsoft has already confirmed that it's working to rebuild the Windows 11 Start menu using WinUI, the native UI framework for Windows. Up until now, the Start menu on Windows 11 is mostly built using React Native, which is notably not a native Windows UI framework.

Back in 2023, Microsoft announced the death of MSDT, or Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool, which was a legacy troubleshooting feature on Windows. Fast forward three years, the company is doing the same thing again for another troubleshooting and diagnostic Windows feature called Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant, or SaRA in short, and the reason is the same, to boost Windows security.

The company has announced this in a new support article on its official website. Microsoft writes: "The SaRA command-line utility is deprecated to help secure and harden your environment. ... Microsoft has officially removed the SaRA utility from all in-support versions of Windows updates released on and after March 10, 2026."

Thus, SaRA will be removed from Windows 11 versions 25H2, 24H2, and 23H2, as well as Windows 10 22H2. On Server versions, Windows Server 2025, 2022, and older are affected.

Users online had already noticed that this change was in motion nearly one and a half years ago as SaRA would fail to launch.

Similar to MSDT, Microsoft has urged users to move on to Get Help and use its command line features to troubleshoot and diagnose issues, as it writes "the Get Help command-line tool has similar capabilities and is recommended as a replacement for the SaRA utility."

SaRA, for those who are not familiar, is a command-line tool designed to troubleshoot and resolve issues with Microsoft 365, Office, Outlook, and Windows. It works by running automated tests to identify the root cause of problems and then suggests or applies appropriate fixes. SaRA helps users by automatically fixing common issues such as installation failures, activation errors, and connectivity problems. It could also collect diagnostic information, guide users through manual solutions, or recommend next steps. Hence it was made to simplify troubleshooting, reduce downtime, and improve productivity by providing guided and automated problem resolution for Microsoft apps on Windows.

For anyone wondering, Microsoft has confirmed that SaRA scripts can't be reused as they have been migrated to GetHelpCmdLine. So the scripts no longer work in the SaRACmdLine environment, even though the core functionality remains the same, with the main difference being the infrastructure upgrade that makes GetHelpCmdLine more secure. So all the scenarios supported in the SaRACmdLine tool will work the same in GetHelpCmdLine too.

You can find the new support article from Microsoft here under KB5086902 and more details on the command line version of Get Help here on Microsoft's official website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 6:18 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

It's that time of the month again, where Microsoft recaps all the new features it added to Teams during the past four weeks. Just like February 2026, this month contains a lot of new features for Microsoft's flagship app for online communication and collaboration.

Starting off with updates to the core chat and collaboration experience, we have a new multi-tenant experience that also allows you to pin accounts to the right, which should work great for external contractors. The profile card now offers access to a more refined and streamlined organizational chart too, allowing you to quickly gain insights about different teams and reporting lines. There is also a Drafts section that enables you to quickly check unsent messages.

In addition, threaded channels have received live meeting indicators with quick joining buttons. IT admins also have a new view that allows them to manage external collaborations in Teams. The image viewer has been upgraded so that you can scroll through a carousel of images and also jump to their accompanying message. You can also toggle the behavior of the Enter key in chat messages, use Shift + Esc to mark all messages as read, access Teams actions through Spotlight in macOS, and share files and Loop components in external chats.

Shifting gears to meeting upgrades, Microsoft has brought annotations for single shared meeting windows, and added seven more languages to the AI-powered Audio Recap service. Over on Teams Phone, the Copilot experience is now powered by Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. The Workflows app experience has been revamped to make it more accessible as well.

Meanwhile, the latest round of Teams-certified hardware includes:

• Yealink MP55 E2 Teams
• Owl Labs HP Poly & Owl Labs Small Microsoft Teams Rooms Bundle with Owl 3 or Owl 4+
• Huddly C1
• Neat Center camera

That's not all, though. Microsoft also had some updates for IT admins, workplace, and security during March 2026. Find out more details about them here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 6:17 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of March) 1,297

RIP Matrix

Google has announced that guest accounts in Google Workspace is now generally available, introducing a new way for organizations to collaborate with external partners, clients, and vendors who do not have a Google account.

Each guest account you invite through a direct message or a Chat Space receives a unique account identifier after the system creates it. Once the invitation occurs, the system automatically places these accounts into a specific Workspace Guests organizational unit within the Admin console. On the frontend, guests can be @mentioned and will have an "external" label with a teal color attached to their name.

Admins can turn off external chatting if they don't want users to invite guests. To do this, navigate to the Admin Console, then go to Apps, Google Workspace, Google Chat, and then select External Chat Settings to turn the option off for specific organizational units or the entire domain.

That said, there are a couple of things to note. First, if an external contact is a Workspace user at another company, you can only chat with them if they have an admin who decided to turn on Google Chat for their organization.

Second, when admins turn off the guest feature, any existing guest access doesn't just magically disappear. Your internal users lose access, but the guest's account and their access to previously shared files remain until an admin manually removes them. In addition to that, guests cannot create or own new files in Google Drive; they can only modify existing files. Finally, while you can add non-Workspace domains to a trusted allowlist, doing so blocks collaboration with all consumer Google accounts.

Guest accounts on Google Workspace will start rolling out for end users between April 13 and April 16, 2026. The new admin controls for this feature became available to administrators in a gradual rollout that began on March 26, 2026. The feature is available to customers on Business Starter, Standard, and Plus plans, as well as Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus tiers.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 31 March 2026 at 6:12 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

GNOME 50 landed about two weeks ago with several new features, including Wayland becoming the default, significant performance improvements across the desktop, and a much-improved Nautilus file manager featuring faster thumbnailing and search.

But alongside the improvements came a pretty significant change. GNOME 50 no longer supports accessing Google Drive files via the Nautilus sidebar. The reason for this, according to developer Emmanuele Bassi, traces back to a decaying library called libgdata. This particular piece of code was the communication bridge between GNOME apps and Google's servers, but it has not seen active maintenance for nearly four years.

Bassi also mentioned that GVfs, the virtual file system that handles remote storage like Google Drive, disabled its dependency on libgdata about ten months ago as a result of libgdata relying on libsoup2, an equally unmaintained and insecure networking library that GNOME developers had already abandoned for libsoup3 years ago.

As OMG! Ubuntu notes, older builds of Ubuntu 26.04 development versions still show the "Files" toggle in Online Accounts, but attempting to open Google Drive in Nautilus resulted in an "Unable to access [email address]" error.

If you (like me) were a heavy user of the feature, the only real alternatives include using Google Drive's official web client, which works fine in any browser, or trying something like rclone. This tool can mount Google Drive as a local filesystem and is available in most Linux distribution repositories, though it requires a bit of manual setup outside of the standard Online Accounts interface. Users of older GNOME versions, like those found in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, will find the integration still functioning, as the removal only impacts GNOME 50 and beyond.

The Nautilus Google Drive integration now joins a long list of features no longer available on GNOME. Going back to GNOME 3.0, the team famously killed the traditional desktop metaphor, removing desktop icons, the taskbar, and even standard minimize or maximize buttons.

Later iterations saw the removal of the general system tray, consolidated application menus, and several popular Nautilus features like dual pane mode and type-ahead search. GNOME 40 swapped out vertical workspaces for horizontal ones.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 31 March 2026 at 6:11 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

In addition to releasing two new builds in the Dev and Beta Channels, Microsoft dropped a couple for Canary users. One build is 28020.1797, and one is 29558.1000. There isn't much in the changelog, but one of the builds includes plenty of upgrades for Console Host or Command Line. Here is what is new:

[Command Line (Console Host) Improvements]

The Windows Console is part of the open-source Windows Terminal project, receiving updates from its open-source community. With this release, we are bringing all the changes from the open-source project back into Windows.

Most of these updates come from Windows Insiders and community contributors, whose names can be found in the Windows Terminal blog posts on the Windows Command Line Blog.

We are bringing these updates to Windows:

• Optional new Atlas/Direct3D rendering path (UseDx): available behind a registry key (HKCU\Console, DWORD UseDx=1).
• Regular Expression search: the Find dialog now supports regular expressions.
• Bold font rendering: the original rendering engine now supports bold fonts.
• Paste reliability improvement: resolves a longstanding issue where some pasted characters could be dropped when the output code page couldn’t represent them.
• Accessibility improvements: rewritten legacy MSAA integration and parts of UI Automation support.
• Snap-on-input behavior: now only enabled by default when VT processing is enabled.
• More reliable snap on input/output in WSL and PowerShell.
• Clipboard enhancements: supports OSC 52 (Manipulate Selection Data) for writing selection data to the clipboard.
• Graphical content: adds support for Sixel-based images.
• Alt + Numpad + clipboard text fix: avoids mistranslating Codepage 936 text when generating Alt + Numpad events for clipboard content.
• Performance: scrolling text performance improvements (up to ~10x in some scenarios).
• Rectangular selection: fixes rectangular copy via Edit > Mark.

  

• We have also changed how the pop-up dialogs look inside the console to improve their compatibility with screen readers, assistive technologies, and other terminal emulators. This includes the F7 history window as well as the F2 and F4 line editing windows.

  

[Authentication]

• Fixed an authentication error when trying to connect to Azure Virtual Desktop impacting Insiders in the latest Canary flights.

[Settings]

• Improved performance of configuring power options in Settings > System > Power & Battery.

[Other]

• Updated chkdsk to now support specifying volumes with spaces if you have the path encased in quotes (for example, chkdsk “C:\My Volume\SD Card”).
• Removed unexpected error message when opening Group Policy Editor in the previous two flights.

And here is what is new in build 28020.1797:

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

You can find the announcement post here (build 29558.1000) and here (build 28020.1797).

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 31 March 2026 at 11:58 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

A rare pair of Monday builds is now rolling out to Windows 11 insiders after Microsoft skipped last week's updates. Builds 26300.8142 (Dev Channel) and 26220.8138 (Beta Channel) are now available for download with new features for trackpads, some useful Task Manager improvements, and more. Here is the changelog:

[Administrator Protection]

• After resuming the rollout of Administrator Protection as enabled by IT admins, we are also now rolling out the ability to enable Administrator Protection in Settings under Privacy & security > Windows Security > Account protection and switching the toggle to on. A restart will be required.

[Touchpad]

• We’re adding a new setting in Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Touchpad so you can choose how large the right-click zone size is (this is the portion in the bottom-right of your touchpad where pressing a single finger will result in a right-click), between default, small, medium, and large. Note – this setting only appears for touchpads that have a pressable surface for this. Some manufacturers may provide customization for this in their own apps – if you’ve customized your setting using an app like this, a “Custom” entry will be added to the dropdown, which preserves that value.

[Task Manager]

We’re making a few improvements to Task Manager:

• We’re updating Task Manager to provide better insight into NPU usage for PCs that include an NPU. New optional NPU and NPU Engine columns are now available on the Processes, Users, and Details pages. The Details page also adds NPU Dedicated Memory and NPU Shared Memory optional columns to give you deeper visibility into how workloads are using NPU resources. Additionally, if there are neural engines that are part of a GPU, they will now appear on the Performance page, providing a more complete view of AI‑related system activity.
• We’re also adding a new optional Isolation column to the Processes and Details pages, allowing you to see which apps are running in an AppContainer.
• When these changes are available for you, you can add the columns to your view by right-clicking one of the column headers in Task Manager and checking the option for this.

[Accessibility]

• Addressed an issue impacting the use of Braille for Insiders in the last few flights.

[Display Language - Beta-only]

• Addressed an issue resulting in Windows displaying in English for some Insiders rather than their preferred language.

[Windows Protected Print Mode - Dev-only]

• We are adding a new icon to show where a printer supports Windows Protected Print Mode in print settings.

You can find the announcement blog post here (Dev build) and here (Beta build).

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 31 March 2026 at 11:56 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

Last year, Microsoft announced that it is getting rid of the Remote Desktop app in favor of the Windows App (which isn't a confusing branding decision at all... sigh). For those unaware, the latter is a relatively recent addition that was introduced for back in September 2024. For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been encouraging customers to use Windows App for remote desktop access, and as it begins to prepare for the death of Remote Desktop for Windows, it has once again emphasized the greatness of its modern alternative.

The Redmond tech giant has highlighted how Windows App has improved over the past year in many aspects. This includes reliability improvements through enhancements to the transport layer and RDP Multipath to better handle network fluctuations. Connection flows across various platforms have been made more robust too.

Next, Windows App promised more productivity familiar entry points (Start menu on Windows versus Spotlight on macOS), cleaner switching of remote apps (macOS), support for splitscreen layouts (Windows), and enhanced file movement (web). Moreover, the Windows App on iOS supports external monitors and the Surface mouse. Customers can also leverage URI‑based links to resume sessions, and the Windows App on Windows also offers auto logoff functionalities.

Microsoft has also made some headway when it comes to consistency of the Windows App across various platforms. Core functionalities of the utility are identical across all supported platforms. Furthermore, Windows App for Android became generally available in April of 2025, Remote PC connections are now in preview on Windows, Teams VDI 1.0 is generally available on iOS and Android and Teams VDI 2.0 on macOS is in preview.

On the security front, data loss prevention (DLP) policies can be applied on Windows resources being accessed through Android and iOS through Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM) integration. Additionally, keyboard input protection is offered too, providing client-side security against the keystroke-based attack surface.

Microsoft believes that all of these capabilities should together offer you a great experience as it begins to retire Remote Desktop app on Windows (MSI) and the web-based client this year. Its latest blog post mentions March 27 as the deadline, but this is likely in error since that date has already passed and Microsoft's previous announcement had tagged May 27 as the end of support date. Meanwhile, support for the Windows client in Azure Government and Azure 21Vianet clouds ends on September 28, 2026.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 31 March 2026 at 11:55 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

Linus Torvalds has just released the sixth release candidate of Linux 7.0 for developers to try out. If all goes well, next week’s release candidate should be the final version before a final release the week after. This week’s patches came in thicker than usual, which Torvalds suspects could be linked to improved AI coding tools. At this point, he even said he’s feeling a bit nervous about the number of patches, this late in the cycle, and isn’t making any promises for a timely Linux 7.0 release.

Last week, we reported that Linux 7.0 development had started to calm down with the fifth release candidate; however, Torvalds notes that this was a mirage, and RC6 is back with many more fixes than are normal at this point in the release cycle. He said nothing seems particularly alarming, as many fixes are small, but the consistently larger-than-normal commits are not giving him the “warm and fuzzies.”

In this release, filesystem fixes stand out, with many of the diffstats being filesystem or VFS fixes. Among these, patches for EXT4 and XFS led the way. Torvalds said that there were the usual driver fixes too for GPU, RDMA, networking, sound, and more, but these only made up a third of the changes.

Topping off the post, Torvalds said:

“At the same time, while we have noticeably many more fixes than usual, most of it is very small and none of it strikes me as being very scary. A lot of pretty trivial - but real - fixes. I wonder if some of it is just AI tools being better - and we've hit some "bump" related to that.

Anyway, exactly because it's just "more than usual" rather than feeling *worse* than usual, I don't currently feel this merits extending the release, and I still hope that next weekend will be the last rc. But it's just a bit unnerving how this release doesn't want to calm down, so no promises.”

We have been speculating for the whole cycle that it could be extended, but even now we do not truly know what will end up happening. Interestingly, this prediction website believes the cycle will be extended, based on historical development time, so that’s something.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 5:43 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

The maintainer of Ubuntu MATE, Martin Wimpress, has started the search for new people to maintain the project after 12 years. Wimpress, whom you may remember from the Ubuntu Podcast several years ago, has said he now lacks time to work on Ubuntu MATE, and even if he did have the time, he no longer has the passion for the project that he had when he began the work.

For those that don’t know, Canonical maintains its standard version of Ubuntu, and then community members maintain spins, essentially working for free. Some of these spins are more official than others, with Ubuntu MATE becoming an official flavor in 2015. In 2016, it released its first long-term support release.

When Canonical shifted to the Unity Desktop away from GNOME 2, many people were not happy. Ubuntu MATE was born out of this desire to be able to continue using GNOME 2 technologies and continue their development. Obviously, computer hardware has come a very long way in the last 12 years, making modern iterations of GNOME easy to run. GNOME has also become much more usable compared to the early days of GNOME 3, and there are distributions like Linux Mint MATE that offer users a solid choice of operating systems

While there is a distinct possibility that Ubuntu MATE dies with Wimpress stepping away, hope isn’t lost yet, as he is looking for anyone who might be interested in taking over the project, provided they have the time and energy to do so. Managing an operating system requires a lot of work and is not something that can be vibe-coded in a few hours.

To maintain Ubuntu MATE, you would need to be an Ubuntu contributor with experience maintaining packages in the Ubuntu archive.

One of the first things that something was wrong was at the start of December when Canonical released a list of flavors that would be getting an LTS release in 2026. Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Unity were two projects that didn’t apply to release an LTS this year, suggesting Wimpress has been wanting to leave the project for at least months at this point.

Let us know in the comments if you use Ubuntu MATE. If the project is discontinued, what will you be switching to?

Source: Ubuntu Discourse and Ubuntu Lists via OMG! Ubuntu!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 5:42 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

Windows 11 is used by over a billion people around the globe, and despite having lots of issues in some environments, it dominates the enterprise and government space too. Naturally, with an OS as large and complex as Windows, people often tinker around with settings or third-party customization software, hoping to make the OS adapt perfectly to their needs. While this can be fruitful in some cases, mistakes can lead to some very undesirable results. Here are 10 common mistakes to avoid when using Windows 11, in no particular order.

1 - Installing multiple antivirus software

I understand that there is a certain level of distrust around the built-in antimalware solutions in Windows such as Microsoft Defender and other configurations available through Windows Security. Most of it is due to telemetry collection and the presence of bugs in OS releases, but if you do check out tests from most independent vendors, Microsoft Defender ranks among the best.

Still, if you don't trust Microsoft Defender, it is still a bad idea to install antivirus software from other vendors and have them run in tandem. This can cause conflicts, misconfigurations, slowdowns due to frequent scans, and confusion due to the generation of false positives depending on the strictness of each antivirus' detection. There's little benefit to running many antimalware solutions on your PC, even though it sounds good on paper. It's better to choose one antivirus software that you trust and just stick with it, regardless of whether it is Defender or some third-party alternative.

2 - Modifying Windows Registry without proper understanding

Windows Registry is a very powerful utility that contains the configurations for crucial low-level settings of the operating system. If you modify it through properly validated instructions, you can tweak the behavior of Windows and uncover hidden features. It's a great way to customize the OS according to your liking, but any wrong step or misconfiguration can cause serious problems in your installation and may even render it unbootable. Only do this if you trust the instructions completely or understand what you're doing. Same goes for using third-party software which modifies Windows Registry.

3 - Ignoring Windows updates

Microsoft rolls out Windows updates on a monthly basis through Patch Tuesday, and while I've recently debated that it's kind of confusing that these cumulative updates do more than just patch Windows, they still do contain important security fixes. While Redmond is eventually giving customers the option to indefinitely delay Windows updates, this should be an informed decision when the time comes. You shouldn't defer updates for an overly long time just to avoid a restart, as that can leave your PC susceptible to cybersecurity risks.

4 - Not monitoring startup apps

The default behavior of certain apps and software that you download is that they launch on startup. Obviously, the intention behind the developers is to quickly surface their app as soon as you start your PC (Steam is a major culprit in this area), it slows down your PC's boot time. In real-world scenarios, there are likely very few apps that you would want to launch immediately on PC startup, so it's better to navigate to the Task Manager periodically and disabling apps that you don't want to load instantly.

5 - Deleting Windows.old immediately

Windows.old is a directory created automatically after a major system update that contains an archive of your previous installation, including program files, some user data, core Windows components and files, and more. Depending upon the nature of your usage, this folder might be massive and you would be tempted to delete it immediately after updating to a new Windows version.

However, you shouldn't do that as this directory is used to revert to the previous version of the OS, should you encounter problems with your new installation. If you get rid of it, you're essentially getting rid of a system restore point, which can be an undesirable situation to be in case of breaking bugs. Windows automatically deletes this folder after a few days, but still, if you really, really want to get rid of it, you can check out our guide here.

6 - Not taking regular backups

This is kind of related to the previous section, but it requires manual intervention from your side. Some people use their PCs actively but never back up their data, finding it to be a tedious process that doesn't yield immediate results. They often ignore OneDrive prompts (which is fine, if you don't want to use Microsoft services), and don't back up their data in other locations either.

Taking regular backups of important data is good hygiene when it comes to system security and safety, and should be a practice that you should carry out by yourself periodically, or have an automated backup system. If you don't trust cloud storage vendors, get yourself some local, external storage and keep a couple of isolated replicas of essential data. World Backup Day lands in a couple of days, perhaps that should be your resolution this year?

7 - Not paying attention to app-level privacy settings

Although some Windows users are extremely conscious about privacy, the vast majority aren't. Many users simply download apps from trusted and untrusted sources on the internet and run them directly on their PC without checking what permissions they are using. Fortunately, Windows 11 has a handy section under Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions where you can validate on a granular level to see which apps are using location, camera, microphone, and other services. While this may sound rather tedious, it is better to be safe than sorry.

8 - Keeping your PC running indefinitely

Some people like to keep their Windows machines running indefinitely, either as a force of habit or keep everything loaded each time they use their PC so they don't skip a beat as they dive into their workflows. Although this will not break your PC, a good rule of thumb is to restart your PC on a weekly basis to get rid of temporary files, apply updates, and prevent gradual slowdowns due to constant resource and hardware usage. You'll notice that your Windows 11 installation will run a lot smoothly after a restart, especially if you've kept it on for more than a week already. Personally, I don't mind restarting my PC once every couple of days after saving my work; an SSD really does do wonders for Windows machines.

9 - Ignoring battery health

Since we've talked about Windows 11's performance in the previous section, it's also worth mentioning that it's important to monitor your laptop's battery health as you use it heavily or apply restarts consistently. Battery health can make or break a Windows 11 laptop experience for you, and fortunately, we have a dedicated guide which can help you keep track of it.

10 - Using Windows 11 like Windows 10

Many holdouts such as myself took ages to finally upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10 on their primary PC (although I had been using it on my secondary machine since day one), because, frankly, the latter is a solid OS. A drawback with this approach is also that you try to use Windows 11 exactly how you used the previous OS, even though Microsoft's latest iteration does pack many useful features.

Some of my favorites include Snap Layouts, tabbed File Explorer, redesigned Task Manager, native support for compression formats, the updated Settings app (lots of work still left to do!), and a lot more. Despite its weaknesses in some areas, Windows 11 is absolutely a standout in others, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you're using it exactly like Windows 10.

What are other common mistakes that you think people should avoid when using Windows 11? Let us know in the comments section below!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 11:51 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

On March 26, Microsoft began rolling out the latest non-security preview update for Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2. For those unaware, this is an optional download that will eventually be made available to all eligible customers via the Patch Tuesday update next month, on April 8. The change log for this release is enormous, and while that sounds great on paper, it also signifies a bigger problem with Windows releases in general.

The upcoming Patch Tuesday update brings loads of features, such as support for 1000Hz+ displays, improvements for File Explorer, and performance boosts for Settings, among a lot of other things. There hardly seems to be a Windows component that Microsoft hasn't touched in this release. The problem? It leaves little space for Windows feature updates to make any significant splash.

For the past few years, Windows feature updates have been kind of boring. Although they are meant to be annual rollouts in the form of H2 updates like 24H2 and 25H2, and you would think that they would contain the bulk of upgrades, that hasn't been the case for a long while. As it currently stands, feature updates only "light up" minor features that have been already seeded in previous Patch Tuesday updates. What Microsoft does is that it integrates minor capabilities into the OS through monthly updates in a disabled state and then simply toggles their flag come feature update time. So the feature update itself doesn't introduce new features, in fact, you could even enable them by yourself through some sleuthing rather than waiting for Microsoft to pull the trigger.

I remember lamenting this problem with Windows 10 version 22H2 in 2022 too, and unfortunately, the situation really hasn't improved much since then. Then with Windows 11, prior to rolling out the full 23H2 update too, Microsoft began drip-feeding new features through "Moment" updates. With 24H2, Microsoft killed off this Moments approach, and our Editor Taras Buria also complained how it's become difficult to track new features because they land via cumulative updates or enablement packages throughout the year.

Personally, I think that Patch Tuesday updates should be reserved primarily for fixes, performance improvements, and security updates, while feature updates should be maintained for any changes made to the UI or the UX. For example, if Microsoft is making a performance improvement to File Explorer (it's long overdue), it should be a Patch Tuesday release. But if the company is rebuilding components of the UX, it should be reserved for an H2 feature update.

Rushing to push new features in monthly updates can have other adverse effects too, such as the lack of time to properly test and validate new releases. I have talked about this in detail before but a very recent example of this relates to Microsoft pulling its feature-packed preview update for this month due to installation errors. That's a pretty big blunder that could have been avoided with a more predictable release cadence.

The way things stand right now, I, as a consumer doesn't care or know about the difference between a March 2026 Patch Tuesday versus a 26H2 feature update. That doesn't mean that Microsoft should do away with feature updates completely as that is important for RTM purposes, generating excitement among consumers, as well as maintaining easily understandable support cycles, I just want there to be a large enough distinction between the two. A feature update should download and install new features, it's as simple as that.

Of course, if new features only land via feature updates, the release cadence for UX updates would be relatively slow. However, based on my experience in the field as well as anecdotal evidence, people want a stable, reliable, and performant OS, rather than one which just crams new Copilot features each month. My proposed approach isn't perfect, but it should at least make both release cycles more reliable and also give consumers another chance to be excited about Windows version updates.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 5:38 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

ExplainingComputers (1.17m subscribers)

March 29, 2026

Video length: 26m 43s

Lightweight Linux distributions for three different categories of older computer, including those with 64-bit and even 32-bit processors. Video covers Lubuntu, MX Linux, Linux Lite, Q4OS and AntiX.

00:00 Titles & Intro

01:09 Linux for powerful 64-bit older computers with 4GB+ RAM

11:15 Linux for less powerful 64-bit older computers with 4GB or less RAM

20:36 Linux for 32-bit processors

25:38 Summary Table

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 5:30 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

This week Microsoft released new dynamic updates for Windows 11. For those who may not know, dynamic updates bring improvements to the Windows Recovery process in the form of Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates, which are also called Safe OS updates. The dynamic updates also affect the Setup file binaries in the form of Setup updates.

These Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. Dynamic Updates also help preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. VBScript, for example, is currently an FOD on Windows 11 24H2.

This time, both setup and recovery updates were released. The company writes:

"KB5083990: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 26H1: March 26, 2026

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 26H1.

KB5081151: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 26H1: March 26, 2026

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE).

KB5081494: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and 25H2: March 26, 2026

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows 11, version 25H2.

KB5083482: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2: March 26, 2026

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE). The following is a summary of the improvement that this update addresses when you install this update.

• [Kernel] Fixed: An issue that prevented x64 applications from running under emulation on ARM64 in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)."

Microsoft notes that both the Recovery and Setup updates will be downloaded and installed automatically via the Windows Update channel.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 29 March 2026 at 5:51 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix

Earlier this week, Microsoft released KB5079391, this month's non-security update for Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2. As usual, the latest non-security update brought various feature updates and improvements. However, a few days later, Microsoft discovered a bug critical enough to halt the rollout.

Microsoft has updated the official support article for KB5079391 with a new entry in the changelog section. The company said that the rollout had been paused due to installation errors, particularly error 0x80073712. There is no information what systems are affected or what causes the error to happen, but it seems that the problem is widespread enough for Microsoft to recall the update for all users.

Now, if you go to Settings > Windows Update and check for available updates, Windows 11 will only show you KB5085516, which is the most recent out-of-band update released to address bugs with Microsoft Account in various Windows apps.

Microsoft does not say when KB5079391 will be available for download once again. Traditionally, changes in non-security updates arrive to all users in mandatory Patch Tuesday updates, so Microsoft has over two weeks to fix it ahead of the April 2026 Patch Tuesday release. In case you missed it. KB5079391 introduced Narrator improvements, changes to Smart App Control (it no longer requires reinstalling Windows to re-enable itself), multiple display improvements with 1000Hz+ refresh rate support, and more.

In other Windows Update news, Microsoft recently promised to fix Windows 11 and its pain points. As part of the plan, Microsoft wants to let users pause Windows Update indefinitely, improve update reliability, and more. You can read about the promised changes in our dedicated article here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 29 March 2026 at 5:49 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of February) 854

RIP Matrix