Public versions of Windows 10 and 11 require diving into the old Control Panel to change some popular mouse settings, such as mouse pointer precision enhancement and scroll direction. Considering that Microsoft went the extra mile to bury the old Control Panel as deeply as possible, finding the right section is quite a challenge for an inexperienced customer. With build 26227, that is no longer the case.

PhantomOfEarth noticed that there is now a feature ID that, upon enabling, adds two more options to the modern Settings app: the "Enhance Pointer Precision" toggle and the "Scroll direction" dropdown. The first one is responsible for the cursor acceleration, which is something gamers often want to turn off, especially in first-person shooters.

The second option will delight mouse users who want to revert the scroll wheel. Oddly, Windows does not have a user-friendly option to customize that. You can change the scroll direction if you use a touchpad but not a mouse—that thing requires tinkering with the system registry, which is quite a wild thing to do for such a simple task. Luckily, that should soon be addressed.

Image source: PhantomOfEarth on X

Although Microsoft has not mentioned these changes in the official changelog, you can turn them on with the ViVeTool app if you have already updated to build 26227. Here is how to do that:

1. Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder.
2. Launch Command Prompt as Administrator.
3. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
4. Type vivetool /enable /id:50012660 and press Enter.
5. Restart your computer.

Now, you can go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Mouse and try the new options.

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In September 2023, WSL received several experimental changes to improve memory, storage, and networking. They include automatic memory release from WSL back to Windows, automatic disk reclamation, IPv6 support, and more. Now, these features are enabled by default in Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Microsoft is also working on a more user-friendly way to customize WSL. Soon, the subsystem will have a dedicated GUI app for managing settings with tabs, toggles, categories, and more. This will make it easier to tweak WSL and understand what options are available on your machine and what are not. Microsoft says the new app will be fully compatible with the wslconfig text file so that it will respect your existing settings and preferences.

Image source: Microsoft

WSL is also enterprise-friendly, thanks to the zero-trust approach. Starting today, IT admins can enforce conditional access scenarios based on the state of a specific Linux distro. In July and August, Microsoft Entra ID will be integrated with WSL, which means Microsoft's Authentication Library will be able to communicate with WSL so that users can log in with their Entra ID credentials.

Finally, WSL is coming to Dev Home, allowing users to work with Linux distros from the Environments tab. You can already try it by downloading the extension from GitHub, and a future update will make it part of the Dev Home app. Microsoft also reminds about Sudo for Windows, which is now open-source, and the ability to create Linux dev environments using AI in Dev Home. The latter is available as a part of the latest Dev Home Preview update.

You can learn more about the latest improvements for WSL in the official blog post.

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What is new in Microsoft Edge 127.0.2610.3 Dev?

Added Features:

 

• Implemented a feature to include an icon accompanied by a tooltip to clarify why certain settings are inaccessible.

 

Improved Reliability:

 

• Fixed a browser crash on android.
• Resolved an issue when clicking the ‘Organize tabs’ button under tabs action menu caused browser to crash.
• Fixed an issue causing the browser to crash upon clicking the ‘Switch’ button while awaiting the URL to load.
• Resolved a bug that led to the browser crashing when closed while captions were running.
• Resolved a bug that led to the browser crashing when duplicating the last tab in the tab strip through the tab group menu.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Resolved a problem where the tooltip for the tab group header was appearing over the hover menu.
• Resolved an issue that caused the extension’s updated details to display incorrectly on the detail page.
• Resolved an issue when dragging a tab group containing the active tab and dropping it onto another group resulted in multiple tabs being added to the group.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in insufficient spacing between tabs and other buttons.
• Fixed an issue where the mouse gesture would close the entire tab instead of just the split-screen tab.
• Fixed an issue where the New Tab Button at the bottom of the vertical tabs view was not aligned correctly with the other items.
• Mac: Resolved an issue that resulted in the ‘alt’ attribute being incorrectly shown on macOS.
• iOS: Fixed an issue that caused a disruption in the full-page user interface, where a gap appeared between the QR code and chat content on iOS.

 

Android:

 

• Resolved a problem that caused the toolbar to vanish when altering the display mode on android.
• Fixed an issue where selecting ‘Delete browsing data’ would navigate back to the previous page.

Microsoft Edge 127 will spend a few weeks in the Dev Channel before heading to the Beta Channel and then to the Stable release. According to Microsoft, the public release of Edge 127 is expected on the week of July 25, 2024. If you want to try it now, head to the official Edge Insider website.

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We’re aware that some Windows Insiders in Release Preview are not seeing Windows 11, version 24H2 offered yet. We’ve just begun the rollout and will gradually increase the rollout over time so not everyone will see it right away.

If waiting for Microsoft to detect your device is not an option, you can speed things up using official Windows 11 images. Head to the Windows Insider Preview Downloads page and get the latest ISO under build number 26100.560. You can then use it to perform an in-place update (not a clean install) and then get to 26100.712 in the Release Preview Channel, which is Windows 11 version 24H2.

It is also worth noting that those performing clean installations of Windows 11 24H2 may not get the recent EEA-related changes that allow uninstalling Microsoft Edge and doing other previously unheard of things. They also appear to be rolling out gradually to Release Preview Insiders, so you will have to wait a little bit more. Consider it another reminder of why waiting for the public release is always the best and safest option.

Windows 11 version 24H2 is a big feature update with quite a lot of changes. Some of them include HDR background support, Sudo for Windows, improved energy saver, Wi-Fi 7 support, new AI features, Rust in the Windows Kernel, improved archive support, and more. However, the update also removes the AC-3 codec and WordPad and breaks connections to third-party NAS due to security changes and improvements.

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Here is the changelog:

Highlights

 

• This update addresses an issue that displays a hidden window. Its title bar has no content and no client area. This occurs when you share your screen using certain apps.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Share button on USB controllers. It might not work with Game Bar.

 

Improvements

 

Important: Use EKB KB5015684 to update to Windows 10, version 22H2.

 

This non-security update includes quality improvements. When you install this KB:

 

• This update addresses an issue that affects a Microsoft Entra ID account. Devices cannot authenticate a second one. This occurs after you install the Windows update, dated November 13, 2023.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a server after you remove it from a domain. The Get-LocalGroupMember cmdlet returns an exception. This occurs if the local groups contain domain members.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) app. It stops responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects an IPP-over-USB printer. After you delete it, it still appears as not available in Control Panel.
• This update addresses an issue that affects TWAIN drivers. They might stop responding when you use them in a virtual environment.
• This update brings Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Unified Write Filter (UWF) Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) API calls. Calls to shut down or restart the system throw an access denied exception.
• If you installed earlier updates, only the new updates contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

 

Windows 10 servicing stack update (KB5037995) - 19045.4467

 

This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates.

 

Known Issues in this update

 

Symptom	Workaround
Windows devices using more than one (1) monitor might experience issues with desktop icons moving unexpectedly between monitors or other icon alignment issues when attempting to use Copilot in Windows (in preview).	To prevent users from encountering this issue, Copilot in Windows (in preview) might not be available on devices that have been used or are currently being used in a multimonitor configuration.   We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
Copilot in Windows (in preview) is not currently supported when your taskbar is located vertically on the right or left of your screen.	To access Copilot in Windows, make sure your taskbar is positioned horizontally on the top or bottom of your screen.   We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
After you install KB5034203 (dated 01/23/2024) or later updates, some Windows devices that use the DHCP Option 235 to discover Microsoft Connected Cache (MCC) nodes in their network might be unable to use those nodes. Instead, these Windows devices will download updates and apps from the public internet. IT administrators also see increased download traffic on their internet routes.   Those of you who use the Home edition of Windows are not likely to experience this issue. MCC and DHCP Option 235 are typically used in enterprise environments.	Option 1: Configure Microsoft Connected Cache endpoint in DOCacheHost policy as indicated in Cache hostname. Additionally, DOCacheHostSource has to be set to 1 or removed as indicated in Cache hostname source. By default, the DOCacheHost and DOCacheHostSource policies have no value.   Option 2: You can mitigate this issue using Group Policies available through our support channel. Organizations can request help at Support for business.   We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
After installing this update, you might be unable to change your user account profile picture.   When attempting to change a profile picture by selecting the button Start> Settings > Account > Your info and, under Create your picture, clicking on Browse for one, you might receive an error message with error code 0x80070520.	We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

You can check out the full support post for this update here.

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Here is the changelog:

Highlights

 

• *New! This update adds a feature that stops you from accidentally closing the Windows share window. Clicking outside of the window will no longer close it. To close it, select the close button at the upper-right corner.
• *New! You can now use your mouse to drag files between breadcrumbs in the File Explorer address bar. A breadcrumb shows the path to your current file location in the address bar. For example, there are three breadcrumbs in the path This PC > Windows (C:) > Program Files.
• *New! This update adds a page to Settings > Accounts called Linked devices. On it, you can manage your PCs and Xbox consoles. This page only shows on Home and Pro editions when you sign in to Windows using your Microsoft account (MSA).
• *New! This update starts the rollout of the new account manager on the Start menu. When you use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows, you will get a glance at your account benefits. This feature also makes it easy to manage your account settings.
• *New! You can now create quick response (QR) codes for webpage URLs and cloud files from the Windows share window. Select the share button in the Microsoft Edge toolbar and choose “Windows share options.” Then, you can share the URLs and files across your devices.
• *New! Windows will now back up many of your sound settings (this includes your sound scheme). This only occurs if you turn on Remember my preferences and select the checkboxes for Personalization and Other Windows settings. To find these, go to Settings > Accounts > Windows backup. Then, you can use the Windows Backup app to restore those settings on a new device.
• *New Starting with this update, you can sign in to your Microsoft account in the Windows Backup app. This app saves backups to your account.
• *New! You can now send email to yourself from the Windows share window. You will receive the email at the email address that is in your Microsoft account.
• *New! This update starts the rollout of a the “Add now” button to Settings > Account. When you select it, you can add a recovery email address if you have not added one for your Microsoft account yet. The button only shows if you sign in to your Microsoft account.
• This update addresses an issue that affects File Explorer. It stops responding when you swipe from a screen edge. This issue occurs after you turn off edge swiping.
• This update addresses an issue that affects handwriting panels and touch keyboards. They do not appear when you use a pen.
• This update addresses an issue that displays a hidden window. Its title bar has no content and no client area. This occurs when you share your screen using certain apps.
• This update addresses an issue that distorts parts of the screen. This occurs when you use a Chromium-based browser to play a video.
• This update addresses an issue that affects File Explorer. It takes up to two minutes to start when you pin a folder that is on a network share to Quick Access. This occurs when you upgrade from Windows 11, version 21H2 to Windows 11, version 22H2.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio headsets. They do not show the option to connect or disconnect.
• This update addresses a known issue that affects your account profile picture. When you try to change it, youmight get an error message. The error code is 0x80070520.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Share button on USB controllers. It might not work with Game Bar.

 

Improvements

 

Windows 11, version 23H2

 

Important: Use EKB KB5027397 to update to Windows 11, version 23H2.

 

This non-security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:

 

• This build includes all the improvements in Windows 11, version 22H2.
• No additional issues are documented for this release.

 

Windows 11, version 22H2

 

This non-security update includes quality improvements. When you install this KB:

 

• New! This update adds PC Manager to devices in China.
• *New! You can directly share to specific Microsoft Teams channels and group chats in the Windows share window. To do so, you must sign in using a Microsoft Entra ID.
• This update affects the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) AmsiUtil class. It helps to detect the bypass of the AMSI scan. This update also addresses some long-term issues that expose your device to threats.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a server after you remove it from a domain. The Get-LocalGroupMember cmdlet returns an exception. This occurs if the local groups contain domain members.
• This update addresses an issue that affects printers. They do not work as you expect when you use AppContainer or use them in a restricted environment.
• This update addresses an issue that affects an IPP-over-USB printer. After you delete it, it still appears as not available in Control Panel.
• This update addresses an issue that affects TWAIN drivers. They might stop responding when you use them in a virtual environment.
• This update brings Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Host Networking Service (HNS). When the service restarts, load balancer policies are not brought back in the right way.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the display of a smart card icon. It does not appear when you sign in. This occurs when there are multiple certificates on the smart card.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Enhanced Fast Reconnect. It fails. This occurs when you use it with third-party remote desktop protocol (RDP) providers.
• This update addresses an issue that affects an app that supports encrypted email. The app asks you to enter your credentials each time you open an encrypted email. This occurs even after you have entered your PIN at least once.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a folder context menu. When you choose the command that removes items, the command adds items instead. This occurs when a third-party service implements a sync feature.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the out-of-box experience (OOBE). It fails to complete. This occurs when you turn on the "Prevent the use of security questions for local accounts" policy.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Unified Write Filter (UWF) Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) API calls. Calls to shut down or restart the system throw an access denied exception.
• If you installed earlier updates, only the new updates contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

 

Windows 11 servicing stack update (KB5037959) - 22621.3662 and 22631.3662

 

This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates.

 

Known issues in this update

 

Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.

You can check out the full support post for these updates here.

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In a nutshell, Windows 11 version 24H2 contains two important security changes: SMB signing is now required on all connections to prevent network tampering, and guest fallback is now disabled on Windows 11 Pro to improve security when connecting to untrustworthy devices. Microsoft says those two changes will make "billions of devices more secure," but at the cost of some headaches for existing users.

According to the post from Microsoft, users may experience the following issues on systems with Windows 11 24H2 when connecting to third-party network-attached storage:

Security changes that may mess up your NAS are not new—they have been in testing in Canary and Dev for over a year now. However, with Windows 11 24H2 getting closer and more users testing it, Microsoft decided to provide users with detailed instructions on how to fix things. Also, the company says its goal is to protect your data, "not to help third parties sell you unsafe products."

Affected customers can mitigate the errors by enabling SMB signing in their NAS, disabling guest access, setting a username and password in their NAS control panel, updating the firmware (if the necessary options are missing), or buying a newer, safer model.

Of course, there are other solutions that are less safe. They involve turning off the SMB client signing requirement and the guest fallback protection. Microsoft understands that not everyone can address the problem in a safe way, so there are also temporary workarounds, which you can find here.

Another thing in Windows 11 24H2 that might surprise you is the AC-3 codec or the lack of it. Microsoft quietly announced that its upcoming update will remove the AC-3 codec for surround sound.

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According to the new support page, Windows 11 version 24H2 will remove the AC-3 codec, which is also known as "Dolby Digital" for multi-channel or "surround sound":

Beginning with Windows 11, version 24H2, the AC-3 codec is no longer included with Windows. However, many device manufacturers will pre-install an AC-3 codec. In these cases, you will still be able to play files encoded with the AC-3 audio codec.

There is no word on why Microsoft decided to remove AC-3 from Windows 11 24H2. Also, Microsoft does not say what will happen to AC-3 support when upgrading to version 24H2 from older releases or Windows 10. However, users should not panic—many third-party apps, such as VLC, include AC-3 support.

For reference, here are the codecs bundled with Windows by default:

Additionally, some codecs are available from Microsoft in the store. They include MPEG-2 (MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video formats), HEVC (H.265), VP9, AV1, and Web Media Extension (OGG audio and video, Vorbis, and Theora). Keep in mind that some of them, such as HEVC, are not free.

You can learn more about codec support in Windows 10 and 11 on the official support page. Windows 11 version 24H2 is expected to ship later this year, and it is currently available for public testing in the Release Preview Channel.

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Here is the list of known issues:

Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products:

 

• No Rest for the Wicked (DX11) may experience an intermittent application crash during gameplay.
• Enshrouded (VK) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
• Doom Eternal (VK) may exhibit intermittent flickering corruption in the game menu and during gameplay.
• PugetBench Extended Preset Benchmark may fail to complete on certain Adobe Premiere Pro Processing Tests.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements.

 

Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

 

• Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora (DX12) may experience an application crash during game loading.
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (DX12) may experience an application crash on loading to gameplay.
• PugetBench Extended Preset Benchmark may fail to complete on certain Adobe Premiere Pro Processing Tests.
• Blender may experience an application crash while rendering some scenes on certain system memory configurations.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors on running certain benchmark tests.
• Procyon AI may experience an application crash while running benchmark with precision float32.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when exporting videos after using certain models for video enhancements.
• Launching a game with Endurance Gaming engaged may result in VSync persisting on after disengaging Endurance Gaming during gameplay. A workaround is to relaunch the application.

 

Intel Core Processor (12th-14th Generation) Products:

 

• Dragon Quest X Online (DX9) may experience sporadic application crash during gameplay

 

Intel Arc Control Known Issues:

 

• Arc Control Studio capture recording file may become corrupted when the mouse cursor is enabled during HDR capture.
• Schedule Updates for Drivers may not work intermittently.

Intel's latest driver is compatible with 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 systems powered by the following graphics cards or processors:

You can download the Intel 31.0.101.5534 non-WHQL driver from the official website. Full release notes are available here (PDF).

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What's new in Microsoft Edge 126.0.2592.11?

Added Features:

 

• Introduced a toggle for One-Time Password (OTP) within the edge://flags settings on Android.

 

Improved Reliability:

 

• Fixed an issue that caused the browser to crash when the ‘Join now and activate cash back’ button was clicked again after signing into the MSA account.
• Resolved a problem that caused unexpected crashes during the capture of toolbar snapshots.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue when using Narrator within the pane indicating ‘This page is open in Internet Explorer mode,’ the Narrator’s focus would incorrectly land on the ‘Learn more’ link twice without providing any audio feedback.
• Resolved a problem where the focus sequence was not in proper order when selecting the ‘Manage Performance Settings’ menu option.
• Fixed an issue where a favorites folder required a double-click to open after being renamed.
• Resolved an issue that caused app icons to not appear when the Sidebar settings page was refreshed.
• Resolved a problem that caused the display of an incorrect favicon.
• Resolved a problem that prevented tab groups opened from separate profiles from being displayed collectively.
• Resolved a problem where the ‘Delete site’ message was overlapping with other options in the edge://settings/starthomeNTP section.
• Fixed an issue where pressing Enter on the Back button resulted in no response within the Microsoft Rewards section.
• Android:
  • Fixed an issue where rapidly clicking on ‘Set as default browser’ would inadvertently open two separate windows.
  • Fixed an issue where the word ‘Active’ was partially hidden on the history page on android.
  • Resolved a problem where there were some inconsistencies in the UI colors within the favorites section.

Edge 126 should land in the stable channel around mid-June. If you're interested in trying it right now you can do so by downloading one of the Insider builds. If you come across any issues, go to the ... menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback and include diagnostics so the team can investigate.

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The announcement post does not explicitly mention the Windows Subsystem for Android or countries other than China. However, there are several clues indicating that the new initiative might continue where WSA left off. For example, the blog post (in Chinese) says the "computer version of Tencent App Store" uses Android OS based on Android 13, which was the final Android update for WSA.

It will also utilize Intel Bridge and Celadon to make it possible to run ARM apps on x86 systems and allow them to access cameras, microphones, GPS, and even NPUs. Microsoft and Tencent want to make Android apps behave like native ones with support for resizable windows, search, shortcuts, installation from the Microsoft Store, etc, which sounds way too familiar to what WSA used to offer.

Here is what Tencent VP Lin Songtao said about the partnership (translated):

PC has a huge user base, and we hope to work with Microsoft Store and Intel to provide mobile developers with technology, traffic and commercialization support in cross-terminal integration, jointly promote the prosperity and development of the PC application ecosystem, and bring users a better cross-terminal experience.

Tencent plans to bring over 1,500 mobile apps and games to the Microsoft Store. Mobile gaming is very popular in China, so it is not hard to guess why Microsoft decided to focus on the market. Shortly after the announcement of WSA's death, reports emerged about the company pulling the plug after failing to make the project and Amazon App Store generate profit. It will be interesting to see how the new Microsoft-Tencent partnership will go.

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PowerToys 0.81.1 also fixes the bug where the Run launcher would show the accent color on the title bar with that feature turned off in the Windows Settings app.

Here is the complete changelog for PowerToys version 0.81.1:

• Fixed Advanced Paste was being triggered by some external software when some of the hotkeys were not set. Slack's tray icon was the most common example in the issues that were opened.
• Added a GPO rule for Advanced Paste to disable AI online models usage and prevent users from entering the API key.
• Improved descriptions on Advanced Paste Settings and OOBE pages to clarify that usage of AI is opt-in and that it can be used without AI.
• Fixed the Advanced Paste settings page UX showing that it could enable/disable clipboard history when that feature is not allowed by GPO.
• Fixed PowerToys Run showing the accent color on the title bar when that option is turned on in Windows Settings.

You can download PowerToys 0.81.1 from GitHub. Alternatively, head to this link to get the app from the Microsoft Store. If you are already a PowerToys user, go to Settings > General and press "Check for updates" to get to the latest version. PowerToys is available on Windows 10 and 11, and older Windows versions are not supported.

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The May releases are once again a bit of a mixed bag, relatively quiet for consumers but a little bumpy for businesses.

For three days last week, Microsoft hosted its developer conference, BUILD. It’s an important event for developers, but the headlines are always about things to come.

On the other hand, I keep an eye on the now — what’s already been released — and how those patches, updates, and new features affect our everyday use of Microsoft’s technology. For example, Microsoft announced the Recall feature of its new line of Copilot+ PCs. That last part is important, because Recall requires AI support built into the hardware, and it will be available only with Windows 11.

Don’t panic: It’s not coming to your PC. We’ll have more coverage of this very soon.

This month’s highlights:

I am seeing reports that the new Lock screen feature is a bit buggy and certainly not editable. Want something other than the NBA? No can do. Want something other than the stock market? Sorry, not an option. It’s part of Windows Spotlight and currently provides almost no configuration options. We also have evidence that the options differ from PC to PC, probably due to dribbling (feature dribbling, not NBA dribbling).

To turn it off on Windows 10, go to Settings | Personalization and select Lock screen. Click the icon under Choose one app to show detailed status on the lock screen and then select None from the options.

To block it on Windows 11, go to Settings | Personalization | Lock screen. Click Lock screen status and select None from the drop-down. This is where confusion reigns, because some PCs will offer None as an option and others won’t. In the latter case, click the drop-down next to Personalize lock screen and choose something other than Windows spotlight.

Depending upon how you use your PC, you may see Spotlight on the lock screen rarely, or even never. When my computer locks because I’ve been away from the desk for more than a few minutes, I pay no attention to the lock screen — I usually press Enter and wait a second to type my PIN or password.

Be aware that even with the May updates installed for Windows 10 and Windows 11, you may not see the lock screen widget. In my workplace some have — and others have not — seen this offered to them. It’s dribble time!

Windows Server 2019 is the problem child of the month.

This is the first month for condensed patching for the Windows 10 code base. It’s meant to allow updates to be smaller and thus faster. But this redesign is hitting a speed bump: KB5037765 won’t install on Server 2019. As the company notes in the release health dashboard:

The installation might fail with an error code 0x800f0982. This issue is more likely to affect devices that do not have the English (United States) language pack.

In addition to users encountering error code 0x800f0982, we have received reports that devices are failing to install the May 2024 security update with the error code 0x80004005. This error can occur even if the English (United States) language pack is installed.

Some customers also reported install errors for this update on Windows 10, version 1809. Home users of Windows are unlikely to experience this issue since the Home and Pro editions of this Windows version reached end of servicing in 2020. Only Enterprise and IoT LTSC editions are under extended support.

On May 23, Microsoft released an out-of-band update, KB5039705, for Windows Server 2019, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, and Windows Server Version 1809.

KB5037771 for Windows 11 is also reportedly triggering issues with workstations joined to Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). In a Health Release email I received, Microsoft notes:

Microsoft has received a few reports of an issue impacting organizations where a small number of devices enrolled in Entra ID have applications failing to start after installing the May 2024 Windows security update.

Resources

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Version 126.0.1 is now available for download with fixes for PDF documents in screen readers, localization issues, broken drag-and-drop on Linux, and high VRAM usage on systems with certain graphics cards from AMD. Here is the official changelog:

Version 126.0.1, first offered to Release channel users on May 28, 2024

 

• Fixed an issue with reading tagged PDF documents in a screen reader. (Bug 1894849)
• Fixed not displaying localized text for non-en-US locales in the Crash Reporter dialog box on macOS. (Bug 1896097)
• Fixed issues with drag-and-drop functionality on Linux. (Bug 1897115)
• Fixed an issue causing high GPU memory usage on certain versions of AMD cards. (Bug 1897006)

Mozilla Firefox downloads and installs updates automatically in the background. However, you can always speed things up by heading to Menu > Help > About Firefox or downloading the latest installer from the official website.

In case you missed it, Mozilla recently announced that developers are working on multiple user-requested features, such as tab grouping and vertical tabs, a new profile management system, more customization for tabs, streamlined menus, more intuitive privacy settings, and more.

You can read about Mozilla's plans in a post on the connect.mozilla.org website.

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In a blog post today, Microsoft revealed that with the release of Edge 122 in late February it has boosted the response time for the Browser Essentials UI by 42 percent for Edge users. That performance increased by an even higher 76 percent if a user has a PC that does not have an SSD for storage and it has less than 8GB of RAM.

Microsoft also revealed that the Favorites feature in Edge 124 in mid-April also got a performance increase. It says the Favorite UI should be 40 percent faster for responses than before the update. The performance boost is available if Favorites is expanded or collapsed.

Microsoft says these changes were due to data it has been collecting from Edge users in terms of its UI response. It found there were two areas where it could make changes to increase the UI speed. One was that the UI code was not modular enough, with Microsoft stating that some parts of the code were "sharing things unnecessarily" which resulted in slowdowns.

The other issue was Edge was using JavaScript to handle client-side rendering of the UI. Microsoft stated:

Why are we sharing this ancient news? After all, a lot of web pages have been rendering on the client-side for years. Well, it turns out that JavaScript must be downloaded, then run through a JIT compiler (even if you don’t use it), and then executed, and all this must be done before any of the JavaScript can start rendering the UI. This introduces a lot of delay before users can see the UI, especially on low-end devices.

The Edge team decided to work on a new project it called WebUI 2.0. The blog stated:

In this project, we built an entirely new markup-first architecture that minimizes the size of our bundles of code, and the amount of JavaScript code that runs during the initialization path of the UI. This new internal UI architecture is more modular, and we now rely on a repository of web components that are tuned for performance on modern web engines. 

Microsoft put WebUI 2.0 to work with the Browser Essentials UI in Edge, and saw a big boost in speed. The plan is to upgrade other UI features in Edge to the new WebUI 2.0, so we should see even more increases in speed in the coming months.

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Per Wetterdal, EVP Partnerships at Opera, said the following:

Our companies have been cooperating for more than 20 years. We are excited to be announcing the deepening of this collaboration into the field of generative AI to further power our suite of browser AI services.

Eva Fors, Managing Director of Google Cloud Nordic Region, commented on the partnership, saying:

We’re happy to elevate our long standing cooperation with Opera by powering its AI innovation within the browser space.

 

We believe the future of AI will be open, so we’re providing access to the best of Google’s infrastructure, AI products, platforms and foundation models to empower organizations to chart their course with generative AI.

The main features advertised as being powered by Google Cloud are both Image Generation and Voice Output. These, included in the latest AI Feature Drop for Opera One Developer, use the Imagen 2 model on Vertex AI, and responses can be read out in a conversational-like fashion thanks to Google's text-to-audio model.

Opera has been adding numerous AI features to its browser recently, even going so far as to allow locally run LLMs to be downloaded and used on computers, allowing for access to over 150 models from more than 50 families, including Meta's Llama and Google's Gemma.

This is Opera's key point of difference to other browsers that it is pursuing, ever since the launch of Opera One back in June 2023, which is a big makeover to the original Opera web browser, including a modular design, Tab Islands to group open tabs, and the first introduction of the aforementioned Aria AI.

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According to Microsoft, you should go for Windows 11 instead of staying with Windows 10 because the newer OS has a fresh UI that is "easier on the eyes and easier to use," recommendations in File Explorer and Start, passkeys support for better security, Smart App Control, better support for external displays, Live captions, and more.

The most interesting reason for switching operating systems is probably celebrity gossip. That's no joke—Microsoft literally says that on its official page:

Widgets are new for Windows 11. They’ll help you stay up to date with all the things you need to keep tabs on, like schedules, weather, stocks, sports—even celebrity gossip.

That is quite an interesting statement, considering how Microsoft allowed users to turn off news feeds in Widgets after a deluge of complaints about low-quality, often even harmful stories. But hey, if celebrity gossip is your thing, welcome to Windows 11. Just ignore the fact that Windows 10's "News and Interests" UI is also full of celebrity gossip.

Here is the full list of new and improved features you get after upgrading from Windows 10 to 11:

Of course, some of those new and upgraded features require buying new hardware, so upgrading the operating system on existing hardware will not grant you everything new in Windows 11. You might also remember that Windows 11 was launched with Android app support, which some considered the only real reason to upgrade. Sadly, Windows Subsystem for Android is gone—in March 2024, Microsoft pulled the plug on WSA and removed it from Windows 11.

Another reason to upgrade to Windows 11 is the upcoming version 24H2 update that will bring new AI-powered experience and minor improvements, such as Recall (requires a Copilpt+ PC, but enthusiasts have already backported it), HDR wallpapers, Wi-Fi 7 support, Sudo for Windows, improved energy saver, and more.

Interestingly, there is no word on what feature you will lose after switching from Windows 10, such as Live Tiles and the ability to place the taskbar at your screen's sides or top. Also, you should prepare for a less convenient taskbar and Start menu, quite a lot of ads across the operating system, and other irritations.

You can find more information about the upcoming end of Windows 10 support and available options on the official page.

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Making the legendary wallpaper took a while, and in the process, the team created a lot of alternatives with different colors and lights. And if you are after some fresh backgrounds, you can get those pictures to spice up your desktop and celebrate the legacy of Windows 10, which will soon reach its end of support.

Bradley Munkowitz (GMUNK) shared more details about making the now-iconic Windows 10 wallpaper following the operating system's release. The team wanted to portray the operating system's logo as "a portal into the world behind it" and direct it to "speak to the timelessness of Windows and its ability to take us anywhere we want to go."

To achieve the goal, the team put together a real Windows logo, grabbed a 9k Phase One Camera system and took multiple pictures with different exposures and color varieties, resulting in a "whole library of images that can be used throughout multiple Windows applications."

The Windows logo is a true icon. Using the best techniques available, we wanted to re-envision this classic image, defining what makes Windows 10 so forward thinking and accessible. We think our live action images will stand the test of time, placing this logo in a class of its own within the physical world.

Overall, Munkowitz and his fellow designers made over 3,000 pictures. Even though only one turned into the official Windows 10 background, there were quite a lot of other beautiful takes. A few years after Windows 10's initial release, Microsoft shipped a brighter version of the original wallpaper.

Later on, another version leaked, revealing the third iteration, which, sadly, never made it to the public release (but you can still download it). If you are a fan of Windows 10's default wallpaper, you can have a few absolutely stunning alternatives.

You can read more about creating the original Windows 10 background on the official GMUNK website.

In other wallpaper-related news, Microsoft recently announced a new generation of Copilot+ PCs, and they all share the same new colorful wallpaper, which is now available for download.

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In a blog post, Microsoft stated that once the update rolls out to your OneNote app for Windows, you should be able to launch it and see the new Sticky Notes button on top of the app. After you launch it you can pin the Sticky Notes feature to your Windows taskbar so you won't have to actually launch the OneNote app Soon it will also be available from the Windows Start menu.

The new Sticky Notes will allow users to create a new note just by clicking the "Note' button. You can also capture screenshots with one click of the "Screenshot" button as well.

Microsoft added:

If you’ve taken a note or screenshot from a website, you can easily return to the original source by clicking the auto-captured link. When you revisit the same document or website, we'll conveniently bring up the relevant notes for you. Need to multi-task? You can dock the new Sticky Notes to your desktop for a convenient side-by-side experience while using other apps. Search is versatile, including the text within your notes as well as images (using OCR). You can pop out any Sticky Note and view it in a larger window.

Microsoft does note (no pun intended) one known issue with the new Sticky Notes feature. At the moment the "Dock to Desktop” feature does not work well if you have a PC set up that includes an extended monitor. Microsoft says it is working to fix this issue but does not state when an update that eliminates this bug will be released.

In the meantime, the new Sticky Notes features are available for OneNote for Windows for version Version 2402 (Build 17328.20000) or later. Microsoft does say that this update is still rolling out so it may take a little time for your PC to get the new version.

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Microsoft quietly launched a new Copilot for Telegram web page where users can find a link to the chatbot and learn more about its capabilities. Here is how the company describes it:

Copilot for Telegram. Meet your new everyday AI companion: Copilot, powered by GPT, now on Telegram. Engage in seamless conversations, access information, and enjoy a smarter chat experience, all within Telegram.

Besides providing the link, Microsoft provides some tips on how to use the service. In a nutshell, you can ask it about anything. One of the few limitations is that the chatbot is not multi-modal: it only accepts text requests and cannot generate images. It works as a one-to-one chat between you and the bot. You can ask questions or send follow-ups with the bot replying.

You can use Copilot in Telegram to search for some facts (beware of AI "hallucinations"), plan a trip, generate fitness plans, learn about movies or games, entertainment, and more.

Copilot in Telegram works on every supported platform. Telegram is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, [iPadOS], Android, Linux, and on the Web (Windows Phone used to be supported, but those days are long gone). To get started, click this link or type "@CopilotOfficialBot" in search. Before proceeding, you will have to accept Microsoft's privacy policies and confirm the phone number associated with your account.

You can learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Telegram on the official web page. There is also a dedicated FAQ page with extra info about how Copilot in Telegram works.

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Albacore, who goes by the @thebookisclosed on X, announced today that they managed to get Recall working on a quite low-end PC with the Snapdragon 7cx processor and 4GB of RAM. Although the 7cx is an ARM chip, it does not have a built-in NPU, plus just 3.4GB of available memory makes things seemingly much more challenging (especially considering that the official requirement is a minimum of 16GB RAM).

Despite the limitations, Albacore said the feature works "surprisingly good." Also, the author promised to release a detailed guide soon so that owners of Surface Pro X and other Windows on ARM devices can get their hands on Recall. As for x86, things are a bit more challenging since the ML models for developers include mostly ARM64 packages. Still, you should eventually be able to run Recall on an x86 machine.

The idea of Recall is both interesting and slightly worrying. Although Microsoft has already made it clear that all the processing happens on-device and no data leaves your computer, many users expressed concern over the idea of Windows 11 taking a screenshot of literally everything on the screen every few minutes. However, it is worth noting that Windows 11 will let you specify what apps should never be snapshotted or just toggle it off.

Recall will be available as part of the upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2, which is now available for public testing in the Release Preview Channel, which is the final step before the public release.

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Since last week, a new GitLab repository been set up for the project and the developer has settled on the navigation, deciding what to show next and other “internals”. The basic page layouts for the installer have also been done but many of the pages don’t yet fully work, you can see the progress below:

The installer and other developments are being worked on under the auspices of the GNOME Sovereign Tech Fund initiative. In the latest update, it was revealed that there were major issues on the GNOME Foundation side of things and they were hoping the issue would be resolved soon. If it isn’t, they warned that the coordination of projects could be affected meaning “the future of parts of the project is uncertain.”

Hopefully, this issue, whatever it is, is resolved soon. Here are the full highlights of what they’ve been working on this week:

• Felix completed the the refactor of the Flatpak side of Key Rack. This is an important basis for the next steps (automatic updating of Flatpak items on changes, adding new items, etc.).
• Adrien continued porting Baobab away from GtkTreeView and to GtkColumnView and ported Baobab to use CSS variables for Adwaita’s named colors.
• Dorota continued work on her prototype portal implementation for testing, updated the portal trigger, and fixed the MR to shuffle around things in settings before the globalshortcuts part can go in, among other smaller things.
• Joanie continued working on getting rid of formatting.py in Orca, and a number of other minor Orca issues and cleanups.
• Abderrahim moved sysupdate configuration to the main sysupdate directory (as part of the extensions) and reviewed and merged an MR to split out debug to a sysext and tarball for debuginfod, which should help reduce image size.
• Martín worked on various aspects of tooling for development and testing on immutable OSes, including putting together a developer story to solicit feedback, and writing a minimalist snippet for generating sysext images.
• Neill worked on tooling for checking CVEs in GNOME OS, landing MRs to allow generate_cve_report.py and update_local_cve_database.py to be used by other builds and adding tables of unversioned elements of git/archive sources to generate_cve_report.py. He also wrote a script and modified CI to populate Gitlab Pages with the CVE reports for master and all stable branches.
• Hub worked on adding USB portal support to ashpd. It can now exercise the portal, including obtain a device that can then then be opened with libusb (rusb). This allowed fixing many issues in the portal implementation, including assert on API misuses, and state handling.
• Sam fixed several small issues introduced in the GNOME Shell high contrast refactor, including extraneous padding in icon-shadows, menu item background hover fixes, an app grid margin issue in Large Text mode, and a symbolic themed icon contrast fix in notifications.
• Sam also continued work on the File Chooser Portal Open and Save dialog mockups, and updated mic sensitivity symbolic icons in Adwaita to fix visibility issues in the Shell.
• Julian continued to work on the notification grouping in GNOME Shell and looked into focus stealing prevention, filing issues and implementing fixes for some of them.
• Andy worked on Online Accounts, including porting to AdwDialog/AdwAlertDialog and separating OAuth2 browser process.
• Dhanuka continued working on implementing the oo7-daemon Secret Prompt. They implemented base64 payload parsing for SecretExchange, implemented org.gnome.keyring.Prompter interface based on SecretExchange, and integrated SecretExchange into the prompt as a test.
• Adrian worked on the new installer for GNOME OS, settling on the way the internals (navigation, deciding what page to show next, etc) will work and implementing most of the basic page layouts following the designs (though many of the pages don’t fully work yet).

What do you think of the installer? Let us know in the comments.

Source: This Week in GNOME

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Interestingly, the same will apply to Windows Server 2025 as well which received official Evaluation ISOs too.

Aside from that, the company also announced Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 this week. The company has also published the minimum system requirements as well as supported processor families. They have been categorized as Preferred and Optional. Interestingly, SSD has been added as a minimum system requirement, which has been a rumour about the client OS since mid-2022.

The minimum requirements of Windows 11 Enterprise IoT LTSC 2024, both preferred and optional, are given below:

Microsoft has also published the list of supported Intel and AMD x86 processors as well as Qualcomm and NXP Arm CPUs.

First up, we have Intel:

Up next we have AMD:

The list of supported Qualcomm and NXP processors is available on the support document on Microsoft's website. If you are curious, Microsoft last updated the compatible CPU list for client Windows 11 this March.

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Teams will also add a new feature in July for the desktop and Mac versions called Channel Cards:

Channel cards will provide you quick overview of key information about what is happening within the channel, including who is in the channel and the purpose of the channel.

The new Outlook email app for Windows and the web is getting some updates for its Scheduling Assistant feature:

We are updating the scheduling assistant view to help users have better readability. Some of these changes are in alignment to customer the feedback. These changes will also improve the grid lines, availability view, adding combined availability bar and much more.

The new Outlook Windows app will also add S/MIME support in September:

New Outlook for Windows will support S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail extensions) signing and encryption. All new and existing S/MIME configurations will work without any explicit action from admins.

All versions of Outlook will be getting improvements to its Copilot Compose feature, including "a polished, lightweight UI" which will be released in preview form in July with a full rollout in August.

Excel is scheduled to get some more Copilot improvements in June for the desktop, the web and iOS in June. One adds an additional Copilot function:

Copilot will enable the edit box on any worksheet regardless of selection. Copilot will reason over the nearest table or data range to the customer’s selected grid area on the same worksheet.

The other new feature will allow Copilot in Excel to "reason over data ranges with a single row of headers on top, even when they’re not Excel tables."

That's it for this week's look back at the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Join us next Sunday for a look at what will be added to the site next week.

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However, the company, after a a couple of days, confirmed reports from IT admins and sysadmins, that the KB5037765 update on Windows Server 2019 was failing to install with error codes 0x800f0982 or 0x80004005.Microsoft says the issue has now been resolved. The company fixed it with KB5039705 Out of band (OOB) update.

The tech giant notes that the update is only meant to resolve the KB5037765 installation failure issues and does not contain any new security fixes or improvements. It writes:

Important: This update does not contain more security updates than what was available in KB5037765, dated May 14, 2024. After you install this OOB, you must restart your device.

Microsoft has also updated its Windows health dashboard website with a new resolution section for the issue:

Resolution:

 

This issue was resolved in the out-of-band (OOB) update KB5039705, which is available via the usual channels. Since this is a cumulative update, you do not need to apply any previous update before installing KB5039705, as it supersedes all previous updates for affected versions. This update does not contain any additional security updates from those available in the 5B update. Installation of this OOB will require a device restart. If your organization uses the affected platforms and hasn’t yet deployed the May 2024 security update yet, we recommend you apply this OOB update instead. To install this update, follow the steps under How to get this update in KB5039705.

The full release notes are given below:

Highlights

 

• This update addresses a known issue that is related to the English (United States) language pack.

 

Improvements

 

This security update includes improvements. When you install this KB:

 

• This update addresses a known issue that is related to the English (United States) language pack. If your device does not have it, installing KB5037765 might fail. The error code is 0x800f0982. But this issue might affect devices that do have that language pack. In that case, the error code is 0x80004005.

 

Known issues in this update

 

Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.

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

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