The AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 24.7.1 driver comes touting official support for the games Zenless Zone Zero as well as Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. For the latter title specifically, AMD's testing showed up to a 16% increase in performance when compared to using the company's previous driver release.

At the same time, AMD's Radeon Anti-Lag 2 technology now officially supports Valve's hit competitive MOBA DOTA 2. "Take responsive gaming to the next level by introducing an in-game option to optimally pace frames, further reducing input lag on AMD RDNA™ architecture-based discrete and integrated graphics products," says AMD describing the technology, that was also added to Counter Strike 2 recently.

AMD has also shipped a lot of bug fixes with this release:

• Improvements to stutter when AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag and AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 3 frame generation is enabled.
• Improvements to stutter while playing Fortnite with DirectX® 12 API.
• Texture corruption may be observed while playing TEKKEN™ 8 with Ray Tracing or Upscale enabled.
• Corruption may be observed while playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition with Radeon™ Boost enabled.
• Intermittent system crash or corruption may be observed while playing Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy with Ray Tracing enabled.
• Virtual Super Resolution or Display Color Enhancements may be set to disabled after driver upgrade.
• Unable to change display pixel format with certain Windows display languages.
• Intermittent black corruption may be observed on scaled 3d models while using Origin or OriginPro application.
• Black corruption may be observed while fast forwarding using PotPlayer.

Following all those fixes, the known issues pile has been reduced to just these:

• Lower than expected performance or excess stutter may be observed while player Battlefield 2042 on Radeon™ RX 6000 and 7000 series GPUs. [Resolution targeted for 24.8.1]
• Audio and video may intermittently become out of sync while recording using the AV1 codec in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition. [Resolution targeted for 24.9.1]

The WHQL-certified AMD Adrenalin Edition 24.7.1 driver can now be downloaded via the Radeon Settings app. Standalone download links hosted by AMD can also be found on its release notes page for the driver.

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Here is the official changelog:

Version 126.0.2592.113: July 18, 2024

 

• Fixed various bugs and performance issues, improved reliability.

 

Stable channel security updates are listed here.

 

Improved reliability

 

• Fixed a renderer crash (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION) that occurred when using some sites with web contents accessibility enabled, including on the Azure portal or Intune dashboard.

 

Fixes

 

• Resolved an issue that allowed the Microsoft Edge New Tab Page feed to be activated even when the NewTabPageContentEnabled policy was set to disabled.

As for security patches, Edge 126.0.2592.113 includes the following fixes for Chromium vulnerabilities:

• CVE-2024-6779: Out-of-bounds memory access in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed a remote attacker to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6778: Race in DevTools in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed an attacker who convinced a user to install a malicious extension to inject scripts or HTML into a privileged page via a crafted Chrome Extension. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6777: Use after free in Navigation in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed an attacker who convinced a user to install a malicious extension to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted Chrome Extension. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6776: Use after free in Audio in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6775: Use after free in Media Stream. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6774: Use after free in Screen Capture. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6773: Inappropriate implementation in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)

• CVE-2024-6772: Inappropriate implementation in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 126.0.6478.182 allowed a remote attacker to perform out-of-bounds memory access via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)

   

You can update Microsoft Edge to the latest version by heading to Menu > Help and Feedback > About Microsoft Edge. Alternatively, type edge://settings/help in the address bar. Like every other modern browser, Edge can update itself automatically in the background, so you can just continue using it as is and apply the latest update upon the next restart.

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Note that the update is not applicable to the Surface Pro 9 with the Microsoft SQ3 processor.

Here is the official changelog:

The following update is available for Surface Pro 9 with Intel Processor devices running Windows 10 October 2022 Update, Version 22H2, or greater.

 

Improvements and fixes:

 

• Addresses issues related to recovery of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections when device is on Standby and improves connection reliability.
• Resolves a problem causing taskbar flickering and occasional device freezing when using a Slim Pen.
• Resolves an issue that prevented the device from using the USB-C functionality after the system had booted.

Here is the list of new drivers in the latest firmware update:

Here is extra information about the release:

The Surface Pro 9 (both Intel and ARM-based versions) has a six-year lifecycle. It is expected to run out of support on October 25, 2028.

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On Windows 11, if you're experiencing unwanted problems with the current setup, you have multiple ways to restore the system's health, and in this guide, I will show you five ways to complete this task.

Although you can rely on the operating system for virtually any task, sometimes you may encounter problems with performance, startup, battery life, software and hardware compatibility issues, and more due to various reasons ranging from file corruption and malware to problematic updates from Microsoft and other companies.

You can always perform different troubleshooting steps to fix the problems, but if there's a problem with the installation, finding a solution can take a long time. However, Windows 11 provides different tools that make it (relatively) easy to resolve most issues. 

For instance, you can use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) and the System File Checker (SFC) tools to repair missing or corrupted system files. You also have multiple mechanisms to uninstall buggy updates and roll back to a previous good working state. Furthermore, from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), it's possible to fix problems with the current installation, and you can always reset the system more than once to start from scratch without losing your files.

In this how-to guide, I will explain multiple ways to resolve virtually any problem with the installation of Windows 11.

How to repair installation with DISM tool

On Windows 11, "Deployment Image Servicing and Management" (DISM) is an advanced command line tool that you can use to repair the local image of Windows and then use the repaired image with the System File Checker (SFC) tool to fix corrupted or missing system files to resolve issues with the current setup.

To use DISM and SFC to repair an installation of Windows 11, use these steps:

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," the company's CEO George Kurtz said in a statement. "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

The company, which acknowledged "reports of [Blue Screens of Death] on Windows hosts," further said it has identified the issue and a fix has been deployed for its Falcon Sensor product, urging customers to refer to the support portal for the latest updates.

For systems that have been already impacted by the problem, the mitigation instructions are listed below -

•     Boot Windows in Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment

•     Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory

•     Find the file named "C-00000291*.sys" and delete it

•     Restart the computer or server normally

It's worth noting that the outage has also impacted Google Cloud Compute Engine, causing Windows virtual machines using CrowdStrike's csagent.sys to crash and go into an unexpected reboot state.

"After having automatically received a defective patch from CrowdStrike, Windows VMs crash and will not be able to reboot," it said. "Windows VMs that are currently up and running should no longer be impacted."

Microsoft Azure has also posted a similar update, stating it "received reports of successful recovery from some customers attempting multiple Virtual Machine restart operations on affected Virtual Machines" and that "several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required."

Amazon Web Services (AWS), for its part, said it has taken steps to mitigate the issue for as many Windows instances, Windows Workspaces, and Appstream Applications as possible, recommending customers still affected by the issue to "take action to restore connectivity."

Security researcher Kevin Beaumont said "I have obtained the CrowdStrike driver they pushed via auto update. I don't know how it happened, but the file isn't a validly formatted driver and causes Windows to crash every time."

"CrowdStrike is the top tier EDR product, and is on everything from point of sale to ATMs etc – this will be the biggest 'cyber' incident worldwide ever in terms of impact, most likely."

Airlines, financial institutions, food and retail chains, hospitals, hotels, news organizations, railway networks, and telecom firms are among the many businesses affected. Shares of CrowdStrike have tanked 15% in U.S. premarket trading.

"The current event appears – even in July – that it will be one of the most significant cyber issues of 2024," Omer Grossman, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at CyberArk, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "The damage to business processes at the global level is dramatic. The glitch is due to a software update of CrowdStrike's EDR product."

"This is a product that runs with high privileges that protects endpoints. A malfunction in this can, as we are seeing in the current incident, cause the operating system to crash."

The recovery is expected to take days as the problem needs to be solved manually, endpoint by endpoint, by starting them in Safe Mode and removing the buggy driver, Grossman pointed out, adding the root cause behind the malfunction will be of the "utmost interest."

Jake Moore, global security advisor at Slovakian cybersecurity company ESET, told The Hacker News that the incident serves to highlight the need for implementing multiple "fail safes" in place and diversifying IT infrastructure.

"Upgrades and maintenance to systems and networks can unintentionally include small errors, which can have wide-reaching consequences as experienced today by CrowdStrike's customers," Moore said.

"Another aspect of this incident relates to 'diversity' in the use of large-scale IT infrastructure. This applies to critical systems like operating systems (OSes), cybersecurity products, and other globally deployed (scaled) applications. Where diversity is low, a single technical incident, not to mention a security issue, can lead to global-scale outages with subsequent knock-on effects."

The development comes as Microsoft is recovering from a separate outage of its own that caused issues with Microsoft 365 apps and services, including Defender, Intune, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Windows 365, Viva Engage, and Purview.

"A configuration change in a portion of our Azure backend workloads, caused interruption between storage and compute resources which resulted in connectivity failures that affected downstream Microsoft 365 services dependent on these connections," the tech giant said.

Omkhar Arasaratnam, general manager of OpenSSF, said the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outages underscore the fragility of monocultural supply chains and emphasized the import ance of diversity in technology stacks for greater resilience and security.

"Monocultural supply chains (single operating system, single EDR) are inherently fragile and susceptible to systemic faults – as we've seen," Arasaratnam pointed out. "Good system engineering tells us that changes in these systems should be rolled out gradually, observing the impact in small tranches vs. all at once. More diverse ecosystems can tolerate rapid change as they're resilient to systemic issues."

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The notification about Windows 11 version 23H2's broad availability was announced in the official documentation on the Microsoft Learn website. If you have a Windows 11 PC with the Pro or Home SKU and you are still on version 22H2, go to Settings > Windows Update and click the "Check for Updates" button. If there are no blocking issues, your computer will find the update and offer to download and install it.

It is also worth noting that non-managed Windows 11 devices (primarily those used at home) will be automatically updated to Windows 11 version 23H2. Microsoft recently issued a 90-day reminder about the upcoming end of support for Windows 11 versions 21H2 (final) and 22H2 (partial). To ensure customers are using a safe, supported OS, Microsoft is updating them to Windows 11 version 23H2 automatically.

Windows 11 version 24H2, the successor to version 23H2, is coming later this year to all systems, not just those powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite processors. It is expected to bring a lot of new features to the operating system, such as HDR background support, Sudo for Windows, improved energy saver, Wi-Fi 7 support, new AI features, Rust in the Windows Kernel, and more.

If you do not want to wait for Windows 11 version 24H2 to arrive in the Stable Channel, go get the recently updated ISO files and try the latest preview on your device. Just beware of bugs—while close to the public release, Windows 11 24H2 is still a bug-prone preview.

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Here is the change log for this update which also has a game-related new feature:

[ADDED 7/18] Microsoft Store Update

 

Windows Insiders across all Insider Channels running version 22406.xxxx.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvement rolling out:

 

Store Search suggestions: When you’re searching for content in the Store Search box, a new flyout at the bottom of the search display suggests content you may be interested in. Check it out by navigating to the Search box!

 

Browsing games per category: From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, shooter, sport, puzzle, and simulation. This feature is experimented in the US, UK and CA.

 

Browsing games per category: From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, shooter, sport, puzzle, and simulation. This feature is experimented in the US, UK and CA.

 

In addition, Microsoft is rolling out an update to the Paint app for members of the Dev and Canary Insider channels. Here is the changelog for that update:

[ADDED 7/18] Paint Update

 

We are rolling out an update for Paint (version 11.2406.34.0and newer) to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels that introduces the following improvements:

 

• Pen back button eraser support: In the new update, users can now seamlessly switch from their current tool to erase by pressing on the eraser button or flipping to the back of the stylus pen to erase.
• Pen support lasso select in pen side button: In the latest update, users can click on the side button when they hover the stylus pen over the screen to use the free-form selection tool and select anything on the canvas quickly.

There's no word on when these Store and Paint app updates will be made available for all Windows 11 users.

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Welcome to version 0.16 of Dev Home! In this release, we focused on code health, quality improvements, and adding new features! Check them out:

 

Accessibility fixes

 

• Narrator should now properly announce the progress bar and loading screen messages when installing apps.

 

Changes

 

• You can now add external tools to Project Ironsides from the list of installed apps along with .bat, .cmd, .ps1, and .msc files.
• General system and virtualization feature settings are now available in Windows customization.
• Dev Drive insights folder path is now prepopulated.
• WSL is now available as an environment type in Environments.

 

Bug fixes

 

• Disabling an extension will now hide its widgets from the dashboard.
• There should no longer be an error due to localization for adding a user to the Hyper-V administrators group.

Although the Dev Home app is primarily made for developers, it contains several features that may be interesting to regular users. For example, you can use it to place hardware-monitoring widgets in the Windows Widgets area. For example, you can track RAM, network, or CPU usage using Dev Home's widgets. They may not be the prettiest, but they are still a quick and easy way to keep an eye on how your system handles its resources.

You can download the Dev Home 0.16 app from its GitHub repository here. It is also available in the Microsoft Store. Windows 11 version 23H2, which is now broadly available, has the Dev Home app prebuilt by default.

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What you need to know

• The latest Windows 11 preview builds include early work for a new "all apps" grid layout.
• The layout takes inspiration from iOS's App Library, which groups apps into categories.
• Users will be able to choose between the traditional apps list or this new categorized grid view.

Microsoft looks to be working on a new layout for the all apps list in the Start menu on Windows 11 that takes some inspiration from the App Library found on iOS and iPadOS. On those platforms, the "all apps" list is automatically categorized and grouped by app type, rather than in a traditional alphabetical list.

This kind of layout looks to be exactly what Microsoft is toying with on Windows 11, as the latest preview builds include early work for such a view, first spotted by phantomofearth on X. While not yet functional, we can see the layout will consist of different categories of apps, along with a preview of four app icons to represent each grouping.

Here is the official changelog:

The following update is available for Surface Pro 8 devices running Windows 10 October 2022 Update, Version 22H2, or greater.

 

• Improves Wi-Fi connectivity and addresses concerns regarding Bluetooth pairing when device is on standby.

• Improves interoperability with the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock by resolving issues that were preventing the system from detecting audio devices.

• Enables auto-pairing of the Slim pen and improves auto binding to provide a seamless workflow.

• Improves device security by updating certificate processes for better protection and easier authentication.

• Addresses an issue affecting the camera's performance caused by insufficient memory or storage capacity.

You can find the complete list (a lengthy one) of new drivers in the Surface Pro 8's July 2024 firmware update in the official documentation.

Here is extra information about the release:

Although the eighth-generation Surface Pro tablet is now two-generation old (three, if you count the Surface Pro 10 for Business), it will remain supported for quite a few years from now. Microsoft says the Surface Pro 8 has a six-year lifecycle, which means it will reach the end of support on October 5, 2027, alongside the Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Go 3, and the Surface Pro X Wi-Fi.

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On its Windows health dashboard website, Microsoft explained how the issue popped up after a recent update to the Photos app, which now fails when the BlockNonAdminUserInstall CSP policy or the equivalent Group Policy is enabled. However, the good news is that this did not seem to affect home users.

The tech giant explained:

If your device has updated the Microsoft Photos app from the Windows store on or after June 4, 2024 (version 2024.11050.29009.0 and above), you might face issues starting the application. On launching the app, it might display a spinning circle, after which it might disappear. If you have the Procmon monitoring tool installed in your device, this error might display as Access Denied error on Process Exit (‘Exit Status: -2147024891’).

 

This issue is most likely to occur if you have enabled either the Prevent non-admin users from installing packaged Windows apps policy or its Configuration Service provider (CSP) equivalent policy, BlockNonAdminUserInstall.

 

Users with Windows Home edition are unlikely to experience this issue, as the policies which may cause this issue to happen are less likely to be applied in home environments.

In the meantime, Microsoft also provided a detailed workaround for IT and system admins that involved a few steps.

Today, Microsoft has confirmed that the issue has been fixed with a new Photos app update:

Resolution:

 

This issue was resolved by Photos app version 2024.11070.15005.0 and newer, released to the Microsoft Store on July 17, 2024. Windows devices will automatically download the updated Photos application over the following weeks without user or admin interaction. You can also download the latest version of the Photos application immediately either by visiting the Microsoft Photos app page or by selecting Get updates option from the Microsoft Store.

You may find more details about the problem here on Microsoft's official Windows health dashboard website.

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Here are the release notes for Edge 128.0.2708.0:

Added Features:

 

• Added a toast view for Super Drag and Drop feature to solve over triggering problem.
• Implemented logic to terminate a browser process stuck in shutdown.

 

Improved Reliability:

 

• Resolved an issue causing the browser to crash when toggling dark mode while using the picture-in-picture feature.
• Fixed a browser narrator crash after the selection of a suggestion.
• Resolved a browser crash related to auto grouping on Android.
• Resolved a crash occurring after navigating specific webpages in the browser.
• Resolved a crash observed during browser shutdown.
• Resolved an issue causing the browser to crash when clicking on 'Settings & More' button on Xbox.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue where, upon invoking the 'split screen' button, keyboard focus did not move inside the 'split screen' section, preventing navigation to other screens using the F6 key.
• Fixed an issue where keyboard input prevented editing (adding squares, text, etc.) to the captured screenshot.
• Fixed an issue where the Vertical tabs toggle button was not showing properly in Tab actions menu.
• Resolved an issue where empty group names were inconsistently labeled in the Recently Closed Hub.
• Addressed an issue where pressing the 'Enter' key did not work when renaming the first half of a favorite's name.

 

Android:

 

• Fixed an issue where the icons and names for top sites were not displayed correctly on Android.
• Resolved a problem where the browser would open duplicate tabs when clicking links from other apps in Shared Device Mode.

 

iOS:

 

• Addressed an issue where the keyboard remained active in a pop-up state and could not be deactivated when editing top sites.
• Fixed an issue where the edit bar would unexpectedly move up and down while performing a long press on top sites to activate edit mode for renaming.

You can download Microsoft Edge Dev from the official Edge Insider website. It is available on Windows 10, 11, macOS, Linux, and Android.

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For Windows, an event viewer bug has been fixed wherein it would show TPM (Trusted Platform Module) -related errors on Windows guest PCs. Speaking of Windows guest PCs, a high definition audio (HDA) recording emulation bug has been fixed on such systems as well. This bug was affecting both Windows 10 and Windows 11 guests.

Aside from these Windows bug fixes, new UEFI Secure Boot certificates have also been added. In case you missed it, Microsoft notified users about updated Secure Boot keys earlier this year in February, and this past week, the tech giant announced the deployment phase of the patches for the BlackLotus UEFI Secure Boot security flaw.

Moving on from Windows, a USB passing bug for macOS hosts has been fixed. Another USB-related bug triggering the Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) has also been resolved.

Over on the Linux side of things, the new VirtualBox release has added initial support OpenSuse 15.6 and RHEL 9.5 kernels.

The full changelog is given below:

VirtualBox 7.0.20 (released July 16 2024)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• TPM: Fixed errors appearing [sic] the event viewer with Windows guests
• macOS Hosts: Fixed passing USB devices to the VM (bug #21218)
• Audio: Fixed recording with HDA emulation after newer Windows 10 / 11 guests got rebooted
• USB: Fixed a deadlock in OHCI triggered when saving the current state of a VM or taking a snapshot (bug #22059)
• Linux Guest and Host: Introduced initial support for OpenSuse 15.6 kernel
• Linux Guest and Host: Introduced initial support for RHEL 9.5 kernel (bug #22099)
• Guest Additions: Shared Clipboard: Fixed issue when extra new lines were pasted when copying text between Win and X11 (bug #21716)
• UEFI Secure Boot: Add new Microsoft certificates to list for new VMs

To download the latest version of VirtualBox, 7.0.20, head over to the Neowin software stories page or the official website here.

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The company decided to close its business and lay off employees in the U.S. after the U.S. government added Kaspersky to the Entity List, a catalog of “foreign individuals, companies, and organizations deemed a national security concern.”

Farewell gift to U.S. users

In a message addressed only to users in the U.S., Kaspersky is thanking its customers for choosing and trusting its products over the years.

As a token of farewell, the company is offering users in the U.S. some of its security software free of charge for half a year.

“With Kaspersky leaving the U.S., we’d like to pay you back with the least we can: gifting you a selection of our security solutions for free for 6 months,” reads the message.

The company also provides a short list of general tips that can help users avoid  trouble and keep safer:

• remember to always back up your data
• be wary of links and double-check their source before clicking
• protect your identity online, change passwords regularly, and keep them long and complex

The six-month limitation is likely due to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) banning sales and distribution of Kaspersky products, including updates, in the United States starting September 29.

This means that after that date, U.S. users of Kaspersky products will no longer be able to receive automatic updates and antivirus definitions through the software. Instead, they would need to manually install them via Kaspersky's site, if made available, potentially decreasing the security of the product.

In a statement for BleepingComputer, Kaspersky said that on July 20 it will begin shutting down its business in the U.S., which also involves lay-offs.

The decision and process follows the Final Determination by the U.S. Department of Commerce, prohibiting the sales and distribution of Kaspersky products in the U.S.

 

The company has carefully examined and evaluated the impact of the U.S. legal requirements and made this sad and difficult decision as business opportunities in the country are no longer viable.

While the U.S. has banned Kaspersky, the company's products are still widely used and critical vulnerabilities in any of them are in demand.

For instance, vulnerability disclosure outfit SSD Secure Disclosure headquartered in South Korea has announced “BIG payouts” for pre-authentication remote code/command execution in Kaspersky Security Center, a security management solution for businesses.

With the U.S. market now off-limits and with pressure from the European Parliament (PDF) to exclude the use in vital and sensitive sectors in the European Union of products from vendors in China and Russia, Kaspersky is now forced to move to other regions, such as Asia and South America.

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However, it looks like Microsoft has not yet finished its Excel improvements. In a blog post today, it showed off some more additions and changes for Excel web users.

One addition is the use of hyperlink previews. If a spreadsheet in Excel on the web has a link to a website or a link to an internal location, you can move the cursor over the link and get some options to copy, edit, or remove it. Some web links will also show a preview thumbnail so you can see what's on that page without having to visit it.

The web edition of Excel now makes it easier to rename sheets. Now, all you have to do is take the cursor over to the sheet tag, double-click on it, and just rename it. This eliminates the method in the old Excel web version, having to go through a number of steps to rename sheets.

The files menu in Excel on the web now has a new "Open files from this device" option. You can use it to upload an Excel file from your PC to your OneDrive account and then work on it using the Excel web edition.

Some of the other new improvements include:

• Easily Adjust Zoom in Status Bar - Customizing your grid zoom just got easier with the status bar. You can now quickly edit zoom values to suit your preferences.
• New Keyboard Shortcuts for Faster Access - Good news for keyboard shortcut enthusiasts! We've added support for accelerator keyboard shortcuts (Alt, E, Alt, V, Alt, I, Alt, O) and over 120 legacy shortcuts. Additionally, we have modernized the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, with richer information and styling.
• One Click feedback and Help - You can now quickly access shortcuts to Feedback, Help, and Keyboard shortcuts, all at your fingertips, from the Status bar.

All of these new features and improvements are now rolling out for Excel web users.

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Speaking of streamlining sizes, Microsoft today has also announced that it is improving Windows driver packaging. The company is introducing WDK (Windows Driver Kit) NuGet packaging for Windows drivers.

So far, WDK has been available as MSI (Microsoft Installer) files or ISO files, but the tech giant has explained the benefits of NuGet. On its official Tech community blog post announcing the change, Microsoft has wrote:

The WDK NuGet offer some advantages over the traditional WDK offerings:

 

• It is smaller in size, which reduces the download and setup time.
• It is portable across different machines and environments.
• It can be integrated with large CI/CD pipelines and source control systems.
• It better support an agile WDK release model, it can be easily updated latest WDK features and fixes.

Alongside highlighting the advantages, Microsoft has also provided step by step guide on how to install WDK using NuGet. The company notes that Windows 11 and Visual Studio 2022 are needed.

Install the latest WDK using NuGet - Step by Step

 

Prerequisites

 

• X64/ARM64 PC with Windows 11 or newer.

 

Step 1: Install Visual Studio 2022

 

Download and install Visual Studio 2022 Community, Professional, or Enterprise edition.

 

Download Visual Studio Tools

 

During the installation, select and install Desktop development with C++.

 

Step 2: Prepare Visual Studio

 

The WDK requires Visual Studio 2022 with the VS 2022 C++ build tools and their corresponding VS 2022 C++ Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest) components for each architecture you intend to build drivers for.

 

1. Register and sign in with your credentials to Visual Studio.

    

2. Select and install the following VS individual components - MSVC V143 - VS2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest) and MSVC V143 - VS2022 C++ ARM64 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)

    

Step 3: Install WDK Visual Studio extension

 

Option 1: Visual Studio Marketplace

 

In Visual Studio, select Extensions, Manage Extensions and then Visual Studio Marketplace. Search for "Windows Driver Kit", select and install the Windows Drivers Kit Visual Studio extension.

 

Option 2: Download and install

 

Download and install the Windows Drivers Kit Visual Studio Extension using this link:

 

Windows Driver Kit - Visual Studio Marketplace

You can find more details about the release here on the official Tech community blog post.

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Driver 570.70 does not include any gaming optimizations and fixes, but there are some general bugs fixed. They include the following:

• [NVENC] Quality and bitrate settings are ignored at 10-bit encoding.
• [OBS] Scaling 10-bit HVEC or AV1 content down below 50% in viewport shows corruption for some configurations.
• [Unity] Artifacts when rendering overlapped geometry on anti-aliased framebuffer.
• [Adobe Premiere] Visual corruption in Source and Program Monitor Previews when using 555.85 driver.

And here are the known bugs:

• [GeForce Experience] Performance Monitoring overlay may stop refreshing GPU information
• [GeForce Experience/NVIDIA App] If GPU utilization gets stuck at 0% within Performance overlay, games may display stutter

There is also support for 14 new G-SYNC-compatible monitors from Acer, AOC, ASUS, LG, and Philips. You can check out the complete list of new models here, alongside specific performance uplifts that DLSS 3 support brings to the new titles.

Nvidia 560.70 WHQL is available here. You can download and install it if your computer runs 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 with one of the following graphic cards:

Full release notes for driver 560.70 WHQL are available here (PDF).

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This is another Windows Update-related improvement Microsoft is making similar to one where IT and system admins can manage feature update installations instead of them being forced.

In a separate blog post on Microsoft's Tech community website, Maliha Qureshi, a Principal Program Manager Lead at the company, has explained what it is and how it will work. Qureshi writes:

With Windows 11, version 24H2, we’re introducing a new concept of checkpoint cumulative updates. This will allow you to get features and security enhancements via the latest cumulative update through smaller, incremental differentials containing only the changes since the previous checkpoint cumulative update. This means that you can save time, bandwidth, and hard drive space.

 

Going forward, Microsoft might periodically release cumulative updates as checkpoints. The subsequent updates will then consist of:

 

• The update package files associated with the checkpoints
• New update package files that contain incremental binary differentials against the version of binaries in the last checkpoint

 

This process may be repeated multiple times, thereby generating multiple checkpoints during the lifecycle of a given Windows release. The Windows 11, version 24H2 servicing stack can merge all the checkpoints and only download and install content that’s missing on the device.

Hence, essentially, the idea behind the feature is smaller Windows update downloads and that means updates will also apply faster. Consequently, enablement packages for major feature updates can also be installed quickly due to lowered sizes.

Microsoft explains that Windows 11 24H2 will have a new way to deliver such feature updates so that binary differentials in subsequent cumulative updates are generated only for the latest checkpoint instead of the RTM (release to manufacturing) version, which has been the case so far since the original Windows 11 version 21H2 release.

Additionally, thanks to such checkpoint files, Microsoft says that server-side load will also be subsequently reduced.

You can find more details about checkpoint cumulative updates here on the official Microsoft Tech community blog post.

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Here is the change log:

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

 

[General]

 

We are beginning to enable again the set of new features we started to enable on 6/28 but paused on 6/30. We’re starting the enablement of these at a small percentage at first so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel with this toggle turned on will see all these features right away. And some features may show up while others might not just yet.

 

[Start menu]

 

You can now also pin apps from the Start menu to the taskbar by dragging and dropping items directly to taskbar from the pinned section in the Start menu.

 

[File Explorer]

 

Drag-and-drop files with your mouse functionality between breadcrumbs is now available in the File Explorer Address Bar – thanks again Insiders that shared feedback about this!

 

[Lock screen]

 

We’re beginning to roll out Weather and more to your lock screen starting with this build in the Dev Channel. Stay informed and efficient with dynamic updates that bring finance, traffic, and sports to your Lock screen, alongside weather. The card design has been improved with acrylic blur, card size, spacing, and font optimizations. To turn on this feature, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. To learn more, see Personalize your lock screen.

 

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

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue which could make explorer.exe crash when navigating away from Home.

 

[Input]

 

• Fixed an issue where if you went through Windows Setup (OOBE), pinyin would be unexpectedly displayed twice in the list of available input methods.

 

[Other]

 

• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of Insiders seeing error 0x80370106 when trying to launch Windows Sandbox after the latest flights.
• Fixed an issue which was causing the preferred audio volume (under Settings > System > Sound > Volume Mixer) for Microsoft Edge to not persist across restarting the app.

 

Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[General]

 

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with error KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE in recent flights.
• Fixed an issue believed to be the underlying cause of some Insiders noticing stutters in some animations recently (dropping frames), particularly with Task View.

[Input]

 

• Fixed an issue causing a cyclical input crash in the previous flight for a small number of Insiders, which impacted various input experiences.
• Fixed an issue where the Input Method Editor (IME) candidate list may fail to show or showed in the wrong position.
• Fixed an issue causing Insiders to see errors when attempting to use Voice Typing with certain languages such as Chinese.

 

[Taskbar & System Tray]

 

• Updated the app icon flashing in the taskbar to be a bit easier to see.

 

[Settings]

 

• Fixed an issue where Settings > System > Power & Battery unexpectedly had duplicate text when showing a warning about a slow charger.
• Fixed an issue causing Insiders to see errors when attempting to use Voice Typing with certain languages such as Chinese.

 

[Other]

 

• This update brings Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.
• Fixed the underlying issue causing some Insiders to see a Pcasvc.dll error dialog pop-up with the message “Missing entry: PcaWallpaperAppDetect” after upgrading from Windows 11, version 22H2/23H2 to a 26xxx build.

 

Known issues

 

[General]

 

• [IMPORTANT] Windows Insiders joining the Dev Channel on PCs running Windows 11, version 24H2 Build 26100.xxxx will see “(repair version)” noted next to the latest Dev Channel build from Windows Update. This is nothing to worry about as all it means is that an in-place upgrade will happen to update your PC to the latest build in the Dev Channel.
• [NEW] There’s an issue in this build where the Windows Update page in Settings is not displaying correctly for Insiders using certain languages (no text shows). If you are impacted by this, the update when the next flight goes out should still happen on its own, however you may need to wait a little bit.
• [NEW] Adding additional languages or optional features may fail with error 0x800f081f.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• Navigating between different pages in Task Manager may crash Task Manager.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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Today, Microsoft announced that it has expanded the use of Draft with Copilot in Word documents. In a blog post, it states it can now be used to rewrite or redefine a specific selection of text in a Word draft.

First, you must select the section of a Word document you want to change via Draft with Copilot. Once you do that, you should see a Make Changes option appear. Click on it, and then you can type in the prompt to change that selected text to another format.

Microsoft says users could select a text in a Word document, then type in a text prompt that turns that section into a bulleted list, or you can ask it to add headings. Alternatively, you could select a list in a Word document and then ask Draft with Copilot to turn that list into a paragraph or paragraphs.

Draft with Copilot can now also be used to turn a paragraph into one that is meant for a specific language or market. For example, for a paragraph that has a UK version of English, with specific spellings for words or the use of the pound for currency, you could ask Draft with Copilot to turn that paragraph into one that is designed for a US English market.

Microsoft says it will be making improvements to Draft with Copilot over the next several months. Those improvements will include a way to reference and attach new content from other files to the selected content in Word. It added:

We are also exploring additional functionality to preserve the formatting of original selected content or direct Copilot to apply formatting to newly generated content and as other modalities and capabilities become available with Copilot these will become available for Draft with Copilot as well.

It will be interesting to see how these changes will help Word users in the future.

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Excel users on the PC, Mac, and the web will get a helpful new Copilot feature later in July:

Previously, when a user asked Copilot to make changes to their table data, Copilot would make the changes directly. Now, Copilot will respond with a description of the planned changes, along with a button to "Apply". Users can choose to refine before applying. This provides more user awareness and control over Copilot's changes.

The new Outlook for Windows app will get a new keyboard shortcut in September:

Users in new Outlook will now be able to use the Alt key to bring up key tips when using keyboard navigation. This behavior was previously Win+Alt. Other Outlook apps will not be impacted by these changes.

In August, Outlook web users will be able to quickly add an account to their Outlook mobile app:

Microsoft is simplifying how users can add their Microsoft 365 for work or school accounts to Outlook mobile by allowing them to use a QR code instead of typing their username and password. This experience will roll out first to Outlook on the web. From there, users will see a new button in Help labeled “Outlook mobile." Once they click it, a QR code will appear. Users can scan the QR code from within Outlook mobile following the steps for "Add account" to add their account without the need to type their usernames and passwords.

Web users of Outlook will get some extra help when they use Copilot to draft a document in September:

Draft with Copilot will include information from Bing search, resulting in content that's as current as what you would find when searching with Bing on the web.

Those same Word on the web users will get another Copilot draft improvement in September:

You will no longer need to reference certain types of organizational data for Copilot to generate contextually relevant content. People and chats will still need to be referenced explicitly.

That's our look back at the last week for the Microsoft 365 roadmap web site. We will return next Sunday with a peak at what's new on the site for the upcoming week.

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Here is how the tech giant itself describes Validation OS:

Microsoft Validation OS is a lightweight, fast, and customizable Windows 11-based operating system that you can use on the factory floor to diagnose, mitigate and repair hardware defects during Windows device manufacturing. Validation OS boots into a Command Line environment to increase reliability on the factory floor and supports running Win32 apps, smoothing the transition from early hardware bring-up to retail OS and apps development.

Microsoft first released Validation OS back in June of 2022 and followed it up in July 2023 with updated ISOs.

German site Deskmodder noticed that Microsoft has again released Validation OS with newer ISOs and this time they are based on build 26100.1, which was released in April of 2024 and is the RTM (release to manufacturing) build of the upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2.

It is noteworthy that the 2024 feature update for Windows 11 is already generally available under KB5039239 though it is only aimed at Copilot+ PCs. Since then, Microsoft has also released its first Patch Tuesday update for under KB5040435 for such devices alongside the regular Patches for Windows 10 (KB5040427 / KB5040430 / KB5040434 / KB5040448) and Windows 11 21H2/ 22H2 / 23H2 (KB5040442 / KB5040431).

You can find more details and resources about Validation OS at these links:

• Mount and customize a Validation OS image

• Setup a bootable Validation OS installation

• Validation OS feature packages reference

• Launching an app or command when Validation OS starts

• Debugging Apps in Validation OS

If you want to try it out, Microsoft Validation OS is available for download as a Windows Image (.WIM) file at this link for both ARM64 and AMD64 architectures.

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• Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# workloads enabled
• Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enabled with Ubuntu installed
• Windows Terminal installed
• Developer mode enabled

Windows Development Environment 2407 is now the latest version of Microsoft's Windows 11 virtual machines. It is based on Windows 11 build 22621.3880, which is this month's Patch Tuesday update.

Note that this time, unlike all the previous updates, Windows Development Environment 2407 is only available in two formats: Hyper-V and VirtualBox. Editions for VMware Workstation and Parallels Desktop (this one is for macOS) are not available due to unknown technical issues that were confirmed earlier this month.

What has not changed is the evaluation period: you still have 90 days to use these virtual machines without paying for a license key. The expiration date for Windows Development Environment version 2407 is set to October 9, 2024.

Note that WDE may ask you to activate the operating system right after the first boot. In such a case, give the virtual machine some time to get to senses and remove the activation prompt. However, after October 9, you will see your typical symptoms of inactivated OS with a blacked-out desktop, activation notifications, and constant shutdowns every hour.

If you want to download one of Microsoft's official Windows 11 virtual machines, head to this website. Before you proceed, make sure you have at least 70GB of free disk space and a minimum of 8GB of RAM.

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In case you missed it, a conflict between a recent Photos app update and certain policies made it impossible to launch the app in some environments. It would display a loading spinner and then hopelessly crash. The bug mainly affected organizations and business customers since regular home users rarely have any policies applied to their home machines. Another good thing is that there is now an official solution (temporary, but still).

The solution Microsoft suggests applying is not very elegant, but it will fix things for IT admins. Here is what they need to do:

1. Download the latest WInAppSDK from Latest downloads for the Windows App SDK - Windows apps | Microsoft Learn. Select from the links titled “Installer” and choose the appropriate one for your system.
   If you’re unsure if you should download an Installer labeled with x64, x86, or arm64, open the System Information view by opening the Start menu and typing “System Information”. Then select System Information from the results. Once the System Information window appears, note the “System Type” field on the right-side panel of the window. It should denote either an x64, x86, or arm64 based system.
2. Right click the windowsappruntimeinstall-x64.exe file and select ‘Run as administrator’. A command prompt window will open and display some text as the installation is taking place. Please note that no action is required while this command prompt window appears, and it will close without notice after the installation has completed.
3. If you're an IT administrator, you can execute this installer in your environment using either system or admin context. The parameter “-quiet" is specific to this installer and can added to an execution command to prevent user interaction with the prompt. The installer only needs to be run once per device (not per user).

Microsoft says it is working on a permanent solution that will be available soon. In addition to offering a workaround for the broken Photos app, Microsoft confirmed problems with the Windows Agent Update API. It also has a solution officially provided by Microsoft.

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