Here is the recently leaked Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge with the new wallpaper:

And here is the new wallpaper itself (shared in a private Windows Insider Telegram group and published by @cadenzza_ on X):

For now, this static image is all we have. However, there were rumors that Microsoft was preparing new effects for desktop backgrounds in Windows 11. Using AI, the OS would create a depth effect and make the background react to your cursor movement. Microsoft never announced that feature, so there is no guarantee it will make it to the public release.

On May 20, 2024, Microsoft is hosting a special Windows and Surface event where it plans to showcase the next-gen AI experiences and new features for its operating system. Also, we will see the announcement of consumer versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6. Microsoft first debuted those devices in "For Business" form with "standard" Intel processors. Consumer versions will ship with Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors to highlight Microsoft's big focus on Windows on ARM.

You can check out more variants of the Bloom wallpaper and other neat backgrounds for your PC, laptop, tablet, or phone here.

Do you like the new "AI PC" version of the stock Windows 11 Bloom wallpaper? Let us know in the comments.

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One new feature on the roadmap that Microsoft says won't roll out until December 2024 is the addition of the Copilot AI assistant in the OneNote app for Apple's iPad tablet. The listing says:

OneNote Copilot on iPad is your intelligent assistant, transforming the way you interact with your notes. With simple natural language commands, Copilot helps you understand, summarize, and rewrite notes for enhanced clarity and purpose. It’s designed to work seamlessly on the iPad, offering a contextual chat experience that allows you to accomplish tasks faster than ever. Whether you’re preparing for a meeting or organizing your thoughts, OneNote Copilot on iPad is the perfect partner for boosting productivity and creativity on the go.

Microsoft is also adding a Copilot-themed feature to Microsoft 365 Chat and Teams later in May:

Catch-up is a new experience in Copilot which aims to proactively help users catch up and take action on important updates. It contains a group of cards. Each card has an update related to an important meeting or document. It will work in M365chat and Teams Copilot. It shows up as a tab on the home page.

Copilot will also be added to Microsoft Forms sometime in May as well:

Copilot in Forms assists form owners by recommending optimal distribution channels and settings for sending forms or quizzes. This includes leveraging email, social media, and QR codes to maximize the benefits of digital forms and quizzes.

Outlook will add a new Copilot feature for iOS and Android in July. It will roll out support for generating themes for those apps via the AI assistant.

Finally, Teams for the desktop and Mac will change the name of the Files tab in the chat feature to Shared in June:

The shared tab shows all the files and links that were sent in the chat, making it easier to find them- all in one place. Channels are not affected by this change.

That's it for our weekly look back at the Microsoft 365 roadmap site. Come back next Sunday as we check out the new entries on the website.

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This installer is planned for use in GNOME OS, a nightly Linux distribution maintained by the GNOME Project to showcase all the latest cutting-edge changes. While other distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu will be free to use the installer, they both already have their own solutions.

This work is being conducted thanks to resources given by Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund which aims to help open projects like GNOME. The German public sector partially relies on open source software so they probably think it’s important to financially support these projects.

Another cool project being worked on under the auspices of the Sovereign Tech Fund is the refactoring and code minimization between Nautilus and file chooser. There is also work being done on implementing an adaptive file chooser layout in case you need to make the window smaller.

Aside from refactoring in Nautilus, another developer has made a slight tweak to the floating bar in the file view in Nautilus. The change is ever so slight but makes it less intrusive, which is nice. You can see the change below:

Outside of these improvements to GNOME and GNOME OS, This Week in GNOME also mentioned that the GNOME Circle app Text Pieces 4.0 had been released after two years and is now available on Flathub. Text Pieces was completely rewritten and designed and includes the following new features and improvements:

• Redesigned interface.
• Redesigned terminology. Tools are now called actions, arguments are now called parameters.
• The application became fully asynchronous and now long-running actions do not freeze the interface and also can be cancelled.
• Added support for typed parameters. Now actions can have boolean or numeric parameters, not only string parameters.
• Built-in actions are now written in Rust and well-tested, which means that they run faster and are less likely to break.

For those unaware, GNOME Circle is a programme that was launched back in 2020 (time flies!) to give third-party developers perks for hosting their project on GNOME infrastructure and for following GNOME’s development rules.

Other improvements mentioned this week include support for 3+ trackpad finger gestures, regression fixes and cleanups in the Orca screen reader software, and more. If everything goes to plan, we should see all these changes land as part of GNOME 47 which is due for release on September 18.

Source: This Week in GNOME via Phoronix

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Windows 11, by default, shows you a bunch of "news" articles when you click the widget icon, the thing on the left-hand side of the taskbar that usually shows you the weather. This block of news articles was, until recently, next to impossible to disable. I am not exaggerating when I say the news articles selected seemed designed to disrupt anything resembling digital calm—it's consistently some of the worst rage bait you can find on the internet, as though the 2000s-era MSN homepage had a baby with 4chan.

I wrote about how to hide this crap a few years ago, but my process didn't work for everyone. Since then a close friend of mine almost returned her brand new Microsoft Surface because of this nonsense, which on that device shows up constantly even if you disable the taskbar icon. (She stumbled on my article but it didn't help, and she ultimately used a registry hack to disable the feature entirely.)

None of those workarounds are necessary anymore. You can now use the Windows 11 widget area without seeing any garbage news headlines. Here's how.

How to Hide the News in Windows 11

Open the Widgets Board on your device (try not to read the horrible headlines—they'll be gone soon). Click the gear icon in the top-right corner.

Courtesy of Justin Pot

This will open the settings. Click the Show or hide feeds option.

Courtesy of Justin Pot

From here you can turn off the Microsoft Start option.

Courtesy of Justin Pot

And that's it! It’s not at all obvious from the name, but the Microsoft Start feed is the one that populates the Widgets Board with news. You can now use the Widgets Board without having to question your faith in the human race. Everything here is now at least someone relevant to your life, and you can even remove the widgets that you don't like.

Courtesy of Justin Pot

It seems like Microsoft is planning to allow third parties to make feeds that can replace the news feeds. There's a link in the interface to a section of the Microsoft Store that will supposedly offer more "feeds," though clicking it right now brings you to a page with only one offering: Microsoft Edge. I think I'll just leave this off for now.

Courtesy of Justin Pot

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What is new in Microsoft Edge 126.0.2578.1?

Added Features:

 

• Implemented a close button to halt media playback.

 

Improved Reliability:

 

• Fixed an issue that was causing the browser to crash upon playing the next media file.
• Fixed an issue that caused the browser to crash when selecting ‘Permissions and Privacy’ from any application in the sidebar.
• Resolved a problem where browser would crash upon launch.
• Resolved a problem where clicking the ‘x’ button on the privacy page caused browser to crash.

 

Changed Behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue when triggering the ‘No thanks’ button in the profile pane resulted in the loss of keyboard focus.
• Fixed an issue by making the circle selection option more prominent under the ‘Send diagnostic data to Microsoft’ section during feedback submission.
• Fixed an issue where the notification pop-up window was not easily locatable.
• Resolved an issue where the suggestions for Work and History were still appearing even after using the backspace key.
• Fixed an issue where the Scroll View did not refresh when expanding a group within vertical tabs.
• Fixed an issue that caused an error to appear in the translation pop-up menu after choosing ‘Always translate xx’ and changing to the desired language.
• Fixed an issue where the background color of the text input box in the Favorites hub was not uniform.

 

iOS:

 

• Resolved a problem where switching tabs would inadvertently change the browser to dark mode, which would persist until the browser was restarted.
• Fixed an issue that caused the privacy icon in the search box to be misaligned on iOS devices.

Microsoft has just released Edge 125 in the Stable Channel, so expect version 126 in about four weeks unless you use the Extended Stable Channel, which gets big updates every eight weeks. You can join the ranks of Edge Insiders on the official website.

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The thing was spotted by the ever-giving source of Windows 11 insights, @PhantomOfEarth on X:

The official release notes do not contain a single word about the updated Home page for File Explorer, so getting it to work on your system requires a bit of tinkering with everyone's favorite ViVeTool app. Here is how to do that:

1. Download ViVeTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder.
2. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin).
3. Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window.

    

   
4. 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.
5. Type vivetool /enable /id:45130483 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.

If you change your mind and want to turn off the updated Home page, repeat the steps above and replace /enable with /disable in the command on step 5.

Do you like the new Home page for Windows 11's File Explorer?

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Microsoft is not offering a comprehensive list of each change in Edge 125, but you can find them in separate articles for Edge 125 updates from the Dev Channel:

• Microsoft Edge Dev 125.0.2492.0

• Microsoft Edge Dev 125.0.2506.0

• Microsoft Edge Dev 125.0.2518.0

   

Here is the official feature changelog for Microsoft Edge 125:

• Improved user experience for Purview copy/paste controls in Edge. Our Purview cut/copy/paste experience is now more user friendly with self-dismissing dialogs on successful paste. The existing "Paste to supported browsers" setting allows organizations to classify and protect the content that end users can paste – both to specific websites and through supported browsers. You can follow the instructions in Use Endpoint data loss prevention (DLP) to create the DLP policy.
• New Workspaces color display: browser window outline. Workspaces each have a dedicated color, and that color is now displayed as an outline on the browser window. The previous experience applied the color across the entire tab strip in horizontal tab orientation, and across the title bar in vertical tab orientation. Note: This feature is a controlled feature rollout. If you don't see this feature, check back as we continue our rollout.
• Full Favorites Bar available in Workspaces. Workspaces now display a user's full set of favorites in the Favorites Bar, with a dedicated workspace folder accessible from the bar. The previous experience replaced the Favorites Bar with the workspace favorites folder. Note: This feature is a controlled feature rollout. If you don't see this feature, check back as we continue our rollout.

Microsoft also reminded users that it is deprecating the Microsoft Defender Application Guard extension. It will be discontinued alongside its Microsoft Store app this month. You can learn more about it here.

Edge will update itself to version 125 automatically. However, you can speed things up by going to Menu > Help & Feedback > About Microsoft Edge or the edge://settings/help page.

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The first thing that Canonical wants to do is to prepare the groundwork for expanding TPM-backed FDE by re-enabling detailed feedback from device configuration issues that are preventing people from using the feature. By addressing the issues stopping people from using this feature, more people should get support and added security.

Next, the company said it will be redesigning the welcome wizard so that it’s more consistent with the installer. This isn’t a massive change as each user only needs to go through this process once per installation but it should make the experience better for users, especially those using Ubuntu for the first time.

Another cool change in this update is that it will come with GNOME 47, which, it was announced yesterday, will land on September 18. For those who have Nvidia graphics cards, Canonical is also aiming to enable Wayland by default.

The company previously decided not to switch to Wayland for Nvidia users because there were known issues due to the heavy use of Ubuntu in AI/ML, VFX, and other industries. By enabling it in Ubuntu 24.10, Canonical hopes to discover and fix bugs by the time Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is launched in two years.

In its announcement, Canonical also mentioned that it would be seeking to grow the Ubuntu Desktop team by at least 50% over the next year. It will start recruiting in just the next few weeks at all levels of seniority. It said that the future of Linux on the desktop is bright and that if you’re interested in working on Ubuntu then you can contact and apply for the open positions.

Another exciting mention was that of Ubuntu Core Desktop, which an immutable version of Ubuntu similar to Fedora Silverblue. Last month, I wrote an Editorial for Neowin arguing that people should choose Fedora Silverblue 40 over Ubuntu 24.04 LTS because of all the additional security benefits it brings; it’s great to see that Canonical is also working in this direction.

Source: Ubuntu Discourse via Phoronix

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There are many more changes in the build. The full changelog is given below:

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

[File Explorer]

 

• We’ve added support for creating 7-zip and TAR archives in addition to ZIP via the context menu in File Explorer. We have also added a new compression wizard that lets you choose even more formats and specify even more details. You can compress individual files with gzip/bzip2 (and more,) or add multiple files to archives in different tar formats with different types of compression. You can also change the compression level and what types of data are stored in each archive.

[Emoji]

 

• We’re adding support for Emoji 15.1 which introduces a small number of brand-new emoji such as head shaking horizontally and vertically, phoenix, lime, brown mushroom and broken chain. Other changes for Emoji 15.1 include Unicode’s decision to revert family combinations to symbol-like shapes. Windows has chosen to stay with our existing style that use people in family combinations. We are also supporting the new directionality updates for person/man/woman walking, kneeling, with cane, running, manual wheelchair and motorized wheelchair. You can now select right facing or the original left facing orientation for these emoji.

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

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed a few accessibility issues in the Common File Dialog.

 

[Input]

 

• Fixed an underlying ctfmon.exe crash which could impact the ability to input text.

 

[Windowing]

 

• Fixed an issue related to showing tabs in Alt + Tab, which could lead to frequent explorer.exe crashes if you had a very large number of tabs.

 

Fixes for everyone in the Beta Channel

 

[Start menu]

 

• We fixed an issue believed to be the underlying cause for Start menu crashing on launch or the All apps list not displaying in the previous Beta Channel flight.

 

[Other]

 

• This update addresses an issue that might affect domain controllers (DC). NTLM authentication traffic might increase.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) scenarios. They might fail. These scenarios include VPN, Windows Hello, Credential Guard, and Key Guard.

 

Known issues

 

[General]

 

• We are investigating an issue where Internet Information Services (IIS) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) may not work after installing this update.

 

[Widgets]

 

Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who have the new position for the Widgets entry-point on left-aligned taskbars may see the following known issues:

 

• Swipe invocation for Widgets may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• Unpinning Widgets from the taskbar may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• The Widgets board is incorrectly positioned when Copilot is in side-by-side mode.
• Turning on/off Widgets in taskbar settings may refresh the taskbar.

You can view the official blog post here on Microsoft's website.

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This Dev Channel release looks like it will be a pretty minor update. Microsoft says it includes some unnamed general improvements and some bug fixes, including a fix for an issue that was causing Windows updates not to complete if a device had to restart more than once. It also has a known Widgets issue.

Here is the changelog:

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

 

[General]

 

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

 

Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel

 

[Other]

 

• Fixed an issue where the Network Locations header was missing in the This PC section of File Explorer.
• This update affects next secure record 3 (NSEC3) validation in a recursive resolver. Its limit is now 1,000 computations. One computation is equal to the validation of one label with one iteration. DNS Server Administrators can change the default number of computations. To do this, use the registry setting below.
  • Name: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters\
  • MaxComputationForNsec3Validation
  • Type: DWORD
  • Default: 1000
  • Max: 9600
  • Min: 1
• This update addresses an issue that might affect domain controllers (DC). NTLM authentication traffic might increase.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the installation of a Windows update. It fails to complete. This occurs when you have to restart your device more than once.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) scenarios. They might fail. These scenarios include VPN, Windows Hello, Credential Guard, and Key Guard.

 

Known issues

 

[Widgets]

 

• The WIN + W keyboard shortcut may not work correctly to open the Widgets board.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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Veteran users of the player had big hopes when a comeback of the player was announced in 2021. After a, mostly, bug fix release in 2022, a new Winamp Player was announced for release in 2023.

The release turned things around significantly, as it was launched as as web-based application and not a traditional desktop app. Even worse, the web-based player did not support playing local files. Everything seemed to be designed to push the new Winamp platform. This web-based platform gave artists a home and users the opportunity to follow artists and subscribe to their music.

Llama Group SA, the current owner of Winamp, revealed plans to launch the final version of the Winamp platform on July 1, 2024. Its aim is to recruit at least 50,000 artists in 2024 and one million artists by the end of 2028.

Besides the launch of the platform, Llama Group SA also plans to launch a new Winamp player on the same day. The player will be "the best player to listen to all types of audio" and the primary option to listen to music from artists on the Winamp platform.

Winamp source code release

Today, Llama Group SA announced plans to release the source code of the original Winamp player on September 24, 2024. This is the classic version of the audio player and not the web-based Winamp version.

Interested users may submit their name and email address on the FreeLLama page to receive information about the source code release.

Winamp users who do not want to wait for that release can check out WACUP, the Winamp Community Project, which is based on classic Winamp but actively maintained. The latest version can be downloaded from the official website.

Closing Words

Whether the new Winamp platform and player will succeed remains to be seen. Much depends on the actual player. If it is based on classic Winamp, but supports modern features, then it has the potential to succeed.

Most Winamp users are likely sticking to the latest classic release or the Wacup release at the time. It will be difficult to get them to switch players.

The release of the source code on the other hand may lead to more classic Winamp forks. How those fare against Wacup remains to be seen.

Now you: do you still use Winamp or do you use another audio player?

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This release contains quite a few new features, including a new Linked devices section in the Settings and Account menu, support for making QR codes for URLs in the share window, and more. It also has a long list of bug fixes. Here is the changelog:

• New! This update adds PC Manager to devices in China.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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 of your account benefits. This feature also makes it easy to manage your account settings. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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! 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• 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. Note this feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.
• This update addresses a known issue that affects your account profile picture. When you try to change it, you might get an error message. The error code is 0x80070520.
• 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 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 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 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 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 Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio headsets. They do not show the option to connect or disconnect.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Share button on USB controllers. It might not work with Game Bar.
• 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.

You can find the full blog post here.

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However, these chips were never really supported in the first place so it will only affect those who are used to bypassing the Windows 11 requirements on their ancient systems.

Folks like those, who love to run Windows on old incompatible hardware are in for a treat. A smart German modder, after a lot of hard work, has managed to modify Windows XP such that it will work on Intel i486 as well. i486, also called 486 or 80486 is the first x86 processor to pack over a million transistors, 1.2 million to be a bit more precise, though it released in 1989, which was over a decade old by the point XP was out.

The ISO for the modded XP version was uploaded on the Archive.org website (spotted by Bob Pony on X), though, it is only in German at the moment, and there are a few reporting bugs too.

This is a Windows XP Professional SP3 ISO that has been modified to work on i486 processors. The language is in German however, and there is not an English version yet. The CPU clock speed in Windows system properties is also incorrect, but programs like CPU-Z report the correct clock speed.

 

NOTE: After the installation is finished, you must copy ntoskrnl.exe and ntkrnlmp.exe from the ISO to C:\Windows\System32, or else the OS will be unable to boot.

An example screenshot of the Windows XP SP3 running inside 86Box (an IBM PC emulator) on an Intel i486SX, which is a low-cost variant of the i486 that had its floating point unit (FPU) turned off, was provided; which is why there is a separate 487SX math co-processor, reported as FPU in 86Box spec details, alongside it. There is also a screenshot of an AMD 486 clone running it.

In case you are comfortable with German and have a spare 486 system, you can try it out. Perhaps you could even try out the recently open-sourced MS-DOS 4.0.0 too.

However, do not forget the dangers of using such unsupported OS as a recent experiment showed just how vulnerable an old PC like one running Windows XP can be.

Source: MSFN forum

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Besides optimizations for the new titles, version 31.0.101.5522 WHQL brings performance improvements for Starfield on systems with Intel Arc A-Series graphics products. According to Intel, players can expect up to 8% more FPS on average when playing at 1080p Ultra and up to 7% more FPS on average when playing at 1440p High.

Intel's latest driver does not contain any bug fixes, so a pretty hefty list of known bugs still stands:

Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products:

 

• No Rest for the Wicked* (DX11) may experience intermittent application crash during gameplay.
• Enshrouded* (VK) may experience application crash during gameplay.
• Doom Eternal* (VK) may exhibit intermittent flickering corruptions in 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 a 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's latest graphics drivers are available for PCs with 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11 with the following processors and graphics cards:

You can download Intel Arc and Iris Xe Graphics driver 31.0.101.5522 WHQL from the official website. Full release notes are available here (PDF).

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The upcoming version of GNOME will likely come with plenty of new features. Some that we already know about, per Phoronix, are better support for smaller displays and Nvidia hybrid GPU copy acceleration. There’s hope we will see better Variable Rate Refresh (VRR) support too.

With it arriving in September, it’ll mean that both Ubuntu 24.10 and Fedora 41 can ship with it. This is great for anyone who likes running the latest and greatest software on their Linux system.

Speaking of Fedora Linux, anyone who’s running Fedora Linux 38 has been instructed by the Fedora Project to upgrade their systems before May 21 to keep their system secure. After that date, the operating system will stop receiving security updates and every day that ticks by, your system will become a bit less secure.

If you’re on Fedora 38, you should open Software and go to the Updates tab. Once you have the latest updates, you will be offered an upgrade to a newer version. You should do this to stay safe from exploits.

The versions of Ubuntu and Fedora that will ship with GNOME 47 will launch on October 10 and October 15, respectively. Ubuntu 24.10 will get updates for 9 months, while Fedora will be supported for one month after the next release, so roughly 13 months. If you’re on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, you will not get GNOME 47 but remain on the current version.

Other Linux distributions will likely ship with GNOME 47. Some of the earlier distributions that will get the update are those based on Arch, such as Manjaro. If you’re using one of those, you can get the updates as soon as they become available.

Source

Back when Windows 11 was released, Microsoft explained how some of the features like TPM 2.0 and VBS were so key for security, and also demoed a hacker attack being blocked thanks to such features

However, the nostalgia can be strong sometimes and people get carried away and tend to look back at the old outdated Windows operating systems through rose-tinted glasses. A video that conducts an experiment on how Windows XP, which received its last update ten years ago, would fare in 2024, was uploaded.

In the said YouTube video, the publisher, Eric Parker, ran Windows XP in a vulnerable state by disabling Firewall and Defender; and within minutes, there already was suspicious activity. Malware was starting to get hold of this system and after two hours, the malware had substantially increased their foothold on the PC.

Digging through some of the malware, the YouTuber found files that tried to act legit with one of them being made by Microsoft ("Microsoft compilation" to be precise and not Microsoft Corporation), and another by Google. The one by Microsoft compilation was also named svchost.exe to fool a potential victim.

Finally, after a while, Malwarebytes was installed and was made to scan this Windows XP PC which ended up detecting eight malicious files in total. As you can see in the image below, these were mainly classified as trojans, adware, and backdoor malware.

Tests like these demonstrate how much Windows security has improved over time. A Windows 11 or 10 PC without a firewall and an anti-virus would not immediately be hammered down by malware of all sorts.

And Microsoft is always making an active effort to make things even better. For example, recently, it announced that Windows 8-era Secure Boot keys were being updated, and more recently, 1024-bit TLS RSA keys were deprecated.

Source: Eric Parker (YouTube)

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One week ago, Microsoft released an update for its Windows 11 Snipping Tool app for Canary and Dev Channel members that added a few new features. Today, the company is rolling out yet another update for Snipping Tools that includes yet another additional feature: visual search.

In the updated blog post for this release, Microsoft says:

We’re adding visual search into Snipping Tool. With visual search, you can quickly find similar images and objects in your screenshot with Bing. You can try this by right-clicking on a screenshot and selecting “Visual Search with Bing”. This action is also available in the “See more” menu in the toolbar.

For those folks who keep up with this information, the version number for this new Snipping tool release today is 11.2404.39.0.

The new visual search feature joined the three other new Snipping Tool functions that were added last week for Canary and Dev Channel Insider members to try out. One of the features that was added last week lets the app detect any QR codes that might appear in your screenshots so you can access that link on your PC.

Another feature that was added lets Snipping Tool users add emojis to any screenshots they take with the app, This is available by just clicking or tapping the Shapes toolbar. You should then be able to see and use the new Emoji option. Once you find the specific emoji you want to put in, it will then show up in the middle of the app. You can then resize it or move it around to where you want to place it.

Finally, last week's update added a way for users to change the opacity of a shape's fill and outline colors in Snipping Tool. The app also included the ruler tool once again. There's no word yet when any of these new features will be included in Snipping Tool for a general availability release.

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Meanwhile, Microsoft saw this and released its own "Microsoft PC Manager" later. The app recently landed as an offline installer after it made its way to the Microsoft Store.

Similar to CCleaner, Microsoft also aims to boost PC performance with this, though it also adds that it will serve to clean up storage as well as protect changes to default settings from "unauthorized changes." Here's what the PC Manager description on the Microsoft Store reads:

Microsoft PC Manager is a utility app for your PC. It offers features such as one-click boost, storage clean-up, file management, and protection of your default settings from unauthorized changes.

Microsoft may be taking a bit of liberty with that last bit. It looks like the PC Manager feels your PC is broken and needs repair if you changed your default search engine from Bing.

As you can see in the image above, posted by a Reddit user FamousPotatoFarmer, the tip appears in PC Manager's "Repair tips" section, which is present in the app's sidebar panel, with the option to revert the change using the one-click "Reset" option.

The "Repair tip" reads:

The following default settings have been changed Reset all

 

Recommend restoring 1 items

 

Edge initial settings have been changed

 

Reset start page to new tab page and search engine to Bing Reset

This kind of action is hardly surprising, though. Microsoft does not want people not to use Bing or Edge. PC Manager itself, almost since its advent, has had this behaviour, and it looks like not much has changed.

In related news, recently, the company was found quietly adding a "UCPD driver" that blocks off Registry hacks for default app switching like for browsers.

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According to a post on the official Microsoft Learn website, the May 2024 security update might fail to install with a 0x800f0982 error:

Windows servers attempting to install the May 2024 security update (KB5037765), released May 14, 2024, might face issues during the installation process. The installation might fail with an error code 0x800f0982. This issue is more likely to affect devices that do not have en_us language pack support.

Microsoft is working on a resolution for the problem. Although there are no official workarounds from Microsoft as of right now, the clue is right there in the description. As reported by Borncity, some IT Admins managed to fix the 0x800f0982 error on Windows Server 2019 by installing the EN-US language pack:

I had the same issue and was able to fix it by installing the en-us language pack. The exact steps I took:

 

1. download ISO https://software-download.microsoft.com/download/pr/17763.1.180914-1434.rs5_release_SERVERLANGPACKDVD_OEM_MULTI.iso
2. Mount and copy X:\x64\langpacks\Microsoft-Windows-Server-Language-Pack_x64_en-us.cab to your server
3. Win+R - lpksetup.exe
4. select and install the language pack (no reboot needed)
5. download and install update package https://catalog.s.download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/secu/2024/05/windows10.0-kb5037765-x64_3ca0b737e301d4e398a38f1d67966f1c82507fa8.msu

 

I did it this way because the server has no internet access. I reckon it'll also work if you install the language pack and then the update regularly.

Other users on Reddit confirmed that adding the EN-US language pack fixes the problem.

On the bright side, the May 2024 Patch Tuesday update resolved a problem with broken VPN connections after the April 2024 Patch Tuesday update. However, the problem with broken profile pictures remains ongoing.

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The new Settings page was spotted in build 26217, which Microsoft released for public testing earlier this week. The company has not mentioned it in the release notes, so all the details remain unclear. However, thanks to @PhantomOfEarth on X, we can have a glimpse of the new section in build 26217.

"AI component updates" will sit in Settings > Windows Update > Update history, right next to Quality Updates, Driver Updates, Definition Updates, and Other Updates. For now, there is nothing to see in the new section since Microsoft has yet to release or update any AI bits. It is also worth noting that the Settings app will have another section for managing AI components.

You can expect to hear from Microsoft about new AI-powered experiences at its special event on May 20, 2024. Besides announcing AI Explorer and other new features for Windows 11, Microsoft will reveal its first Snapdragon X-powered AI PCs, namely the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 (consumer versions). Other manufacturers, such as Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, and more, will follow suit.

Sadly, it appears that some of the most exciting parts of the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update will be exclusive to AI PCs with Snapdragon processors. Code discoveries in recent preview builds revealed that AI Explorer will only work on systems with Qualcomm's NPUs.

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Nvidia announced RTX Video at CES in January 2023. RTX Video Super Resolution can upscale low-res videos to a cleaner, crisper image by analyzing the video and using deep learning to predict the final result. RTX Video HDR can process standard dynamic range videos, run them through neural networks, and add high-dynamic range (HDR) information for extra visibility, details, brightness, and more.

Nvidia says 90% of all videos online are in 1080p SDR or lower, and RTX Video can give users "remastered" versions with ease.

It is worth noting that Firefox is not the first browser to adopt RTX Video. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge already support video-enhancing tools. Third-party apps like VLC can also benefit from RTX Video on compatible systems.

Here is how to enable RTX Video on your Windows computer:

1. Update to a recent RTX Game Ready, Studio, or Enterprise driver.
2. Turn on Windows HDR in Settings > Display > HDR (make sure your display supports high dynamic range, namely HDR10).
3. Go to Nvidia Control Panel > Adjust Video Image Settings > RTX Video Enhancement.
4. Toggle on the "Super Resolution" and "High Dynamic Range" options.

You can use RTX Video tools on any computer with an RTX graphics card, regardless of its generation. RTX Video supports all RTX GPUs down to the original RTX 2000 Series. You can find more information about RTX Video Super Resolution and RTX HDR in the official documentation from Nvidia. Full release notes for Firefox 126.0 are available here.

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What you need to know

• Opera Browser is now available natively for compatible Windows devices powered by Snapdragon ARM processors.
• Downloads are offered via an early access developer-centric stream, targeting Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X platform.
• Working with Microsoft and Qualcomm to test the new build, Opera's development team promises faster browsing and extended battery life for portable Snapdragon X ARM devices.

Since Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Summit Keynote towards the end of 2023, it has been teasing laptops and other Windows devices powered by upcoming Snapdragon X chips. The ultra-efficient Snapdragon X Elite ARM processor continues to promise a Windows on Arm renaissance as a slew of devices from OEMs like Dell begin to leak, and more affordable variants powered by Snapdragon X Plus chips will appeal to a broader audience than ever before.

However, promises of "significantly better battery life" rely heavily on ARM-native software rather than the emulation of traditional x86-64 apps. The pool of Windows on Arm apps somewhat slowed in the past year or two, while a need for proper ARM64 support has become more significant as the Snapdragon X platform pushes a new generation of Windows computing. Thankfully, Opera's developers have paired with Microsoft's 'App Assure' team and Qualcomm Technologies to offer an AI-enhanced, native ARM variant of its popular web browser.

What is Opera Browser?

Opera is a web browser built on Chromium, the open-source codebase behind popular options like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. In the most straightforward terms, this means popular extensions and plugins are cross-compatible across all browsers, which prevents users from losing functionality when switching. However, while many third-party extensions help block intrusive and obnoxious advertisements around the web, Opera Browser has a free, built-in ad blocker alongside other enhancements like integration for popular chat apps like Whatsapp and Instagram.

How will Opera benefit from Snapdragon X?

As with most software upgrades, Opera promises increased performance but backs up its claims with in-house benchmark results. Testing its ARM-native build with Speedometer, which uses a range of timed tasks to measure overall responsiveness, its developers reported "over double than those in the emulated version of the browser." Qualcomm claims that emulated x86-64 apps and games will run 'just fine' under emulation on Snapdragon X Elite chips, though native ARM64 builds bring the absolute best performance possible with the longest portable battery life.

As with many other prominent Windows apps, artificial intelligence (AI) features heavily in Opera's plans for its ARM-native browser. The Snapdragon-optimized version supports physical neural processing units (NPUs) to run local language models (LLMs) to provide faster text generation and power other AI-powered tasks, harnessing the 45 TOPS of NPU performance offered by Snapdragon X platform. In short, Opera Browser will be able to locally process AI tasks on new ARM-powered Windows laptops, rather than relying entirely on the cloud, something Microsoft has directly assisted with its 'App Assure' team.

Where can I download Opera Browser for ARM?

This new ARM-native build of Opera Browser is available to download via the early-access Opera Developer stream. It's designed for Snapdragon-powered devices, with AI-centric features relying on the upcoming enhancements offered by the yet unreleased Snapdragon X platform.

"The Snapdragon-optimized version of Opera will be first available on the developer stream of the browser, and will allow early adopters to try it out on the new Windows devices that come with this Arm-based processor." — Opera

While hands-on experiences with Snapdragon X devices aren't here yet, I do have previous-generation ARM-powered options like my second-hand Surface Pro X. The SQ1 chip inside is essentially a modified version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx, but its NPU is far less sophisticated than even the SQ3 sucessor, so it wouldn't be entirely fair to judge this ARM-native version of Opera Browser based on performance alone. Nevertheless, it's admirable to see Opera get ahead of the curve while we're on the cusp of a massive resurgence in Windows on Arm laptops.

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Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut from PlayStation is launching on May 16, Xbox's Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is coming out on May 21, while F1 24 is out May 31. All three games are gaining official support for Radeon graphics users with this driver update. While AMD doesn’t say what kind of improvements can gamers expect with it, the driver is a recommended install for anyone jumping in.

As for the AI elements being introduced with this driver update, AMD says it can power "AI functionality included with leading ISV applications," with more details here. "AMD Software enables lower-level AI functionality with popular frameworks like PyTorch and ONNX Runtime on Linux," adds the company.

At the same time, AMD's driver-based performance tuning feature, HYPR-Tune, has been updated to support, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, Starfield, and The Last of Us Part I.

Fixed issues included with this driver are these:

• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing World of Warcraft® or World of Warcraft® Classic on RDNA™ 3 series graphics products.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Overwatch® 2 on Radeon™ RX 5000 series graphics products.
• Intermittent stutter immediately after alt-tab with Performance Metrics Overlay enabled.
• Texture flicking may be observed while playing Hitman: Contracts.
• Corruption around certain water elements may be observed while playing Alan Wake 2 with Radeon™ Boost enabled.

The known issues that AMD engineers are still working on resolving are below:

• Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas may fail to launch.[Hotfix pending verification]
• Black corruption may be observed while playing Alien Isolation on Radeon™ 7000 series graphics products.
• Corruption may be observed while playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition with Radeon™ Boost enabled. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to disable Radeon™ Boost as a temporary workaround.
• Intermittent in-game corruption may be observed while playing Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ Record & Streaming and HDR enabled.
• Max Payne 1 and 2 may fail to launch on RDNA 3 series graphics products when Anti-Aliasing is enabled.
• AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Performance Metrics may intermittently fail to update while playing HELLDIVERS™ 2.[Resolution targeted for 24.6.1]
• Audio and video may intermittently become out of sync while recording using the AV1 codec in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition. [Resolution targeted for Q3]

The WHQL-certified AMD Adrenalin Edition 24.5.1 driver can now be downloaded and installed via the Radeon Settings app on Windows. Standalone download links can be found on AMD's release notes page for the driver here.

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RealVNC will soon end its "Home" plan that's free to use for up to three users and five devices. If you still wanted a non-commercial just-in-case plan, there is one, but you're going to have to hunt a bit.

 

RealVNC users with Home subscriptions will likely receive an email from the company with the subject line: "Important changes to your Home subscription." The email notes that the firm is "Retiring our Home plan" as of June 17, 2024.

 

After "launching a wider range of tiered plans designed to better cater to more users" and to "maintain a cohesive set of plan options," the email states, Home must be retired. RealVNC, asking itself FAQ-style, "What do I need to do?" notes that the easiest way to avoid disruption is to upgrade to a paid plan. Switch now and you can save 20 percent, after hitting the big blue button labeled "SAVE MY ACCOUNT," RealVNC suggests.

 

When you arrive at RealVNC's account management page, either from the email or the Home retirement FAQ page (which mentions a Lite plan as the last question but does not link to it), you'll get a pop-up prompt if you have a Home account. It notes how many users and devices you're using in your current plan and when it expires, and it asks you to "Consider alternative plans." The plans with big boxes and temporarily discounted prices are "Essentials" and "Plus." There is actually a third plan, though you'd have to notice that it lacks for color, has no link highlighting, and is in a lower-left corner: "Switch to our Lite plan."

 

"Lite" plans reduce you from three users on Home to one and five devices to three, with no perks like file transfer or remote printing. It is decidedly not for commercial use, a follow-up prompt notes three separate times.

 

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Did you get that part about Lite being absolutely not for commercial use? There is another prompt to ensure this, with a required checkbox. It also notes that you'll be creating a new Lite team. None of my own Home computers came over to a new Lite account, so I'll need to manually re-add them.

 

RealVNC is under no obligation to offer a free plan to anybody. It is within its rights to promote its new, wider range of plans to potential customers. I've used the Home plan for years as the easiest way into a Raspberry Pi or two, along with an occasional-use desktop box.

 

But the way Lite is presented to existing Home subscribers either verges on or entirely enters dark patterns territory. Visually de-emphasizing an option to the point of obfuscation, suggesting you need to "Save" your account, and leaving "Lite" off a pricing chart entirely (minus a tiny "Lite" link in the footer links) suggests a desire to confuse or just wear down customers into your cheapest plans.

 

Ars has reached out to RealVNC for comment and will update this post with the response.

 

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