One interesting new listing concerns the new Outlook for Windows app, as well as Outlook on the web. The Roadmap site says that starting sometime in July, they will get a Copilot-powered feature that is supposed to help people prepare for upcoming meetings:

Copilot can identify and summarize the key points so you can show up prepared in just a few minutes. When you have an upcoming meeting, Copilot proactively shows you a "Prepare" button in your inbox which helps you quickly get context for the meeting providing a summary of the meeting and showing and summarizing relevant files leveraging the power of the Microsoft Graph.

Another feature for Outlook on the web that's coming will be adding Microsoft's To Do to its app launcher. It will replace the current tasks module. However, this change won't happen until sometime in September.

For Microsoft Teams, the company is planning to roll out a new feature in May for all of Team's platforms that will add new functions for group chats:

Users can now access applications in group chats with individuals outside their organization, fostering improved collaboration, interactivity, and productivity. The group chat’s host involving external participants can install, remove, or update applications for use by all members.

Another feature for Teams on the PC, Mac, and Web that's coming later in April will add support for slash commands:

Users will be able to type slash in Teams compose box and select a command, helping them complete their task quickly.

Also later in April, the Microsoft Forms app on the web will let users send forms to others with some of the fields in those forms already filled in. Microsoft says this will "simplify respondent experience and improve data accuracy."

That's our look at the Microsoft 365 Roadmap this week. Come back in seven more days to see what the company has added to the site in the upcoming week.

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The System Preparation Tool is a special utility IT admins can use for installation generalization. In other words, the app can remove information specific to a particular system so the image can be later used on other computers. Audit mode in the System Preparation Tool allows admins to apply additional changes, install drivers and applications, and more.

In January 2023, Microsoft confirmed that KB5032278 (November 2023 non-security update) and subsequent updates can cause problems with completing a system preparation using sysprep.exe due to issues with a Microsoft Edge package. Affected systems were showing a 0x80073cf error in the setupact.log and the following error message:

Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation. Review the log file at %WINDIR%\system32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log for details. After resolving the issue, use Sysprep to validate your installation again.”

Microsoft has a dedicated support page that describes how to check if your computers were affected by the sysprep.exe issue. Now, with the release of KB5035941, IT admins can fix the problem for good.

According to the official Windows Health Dashboard page, the System Preparation Tool bug and its 0x80073cf2 error only affect systems with client versions of Windows 10 22H2. Windows 11 is not affected. Also, like the recently confirmed problem with Microsoft Connected Cache in KB5034203, sysprep.exe issues are only relevant for enterprise consumers, so there is nothing to worry about if you have a regular home device.

You can find more information about the System Preparation Tool and its Audit mode from the official support articles on the Microsoft Learn website.

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For context, Microsoft Connected Cache is a feature (currently in preview) that offers software-based caching to deliver "Microsoft content" across enterprise or education networks. Companies can use Microsoft Connected Cache to distribute Windows updates, Office Click-to-Run apps, Microsoft 365 App updates, client apps, and definition updates for Windows Defender. Internet service providers can also use MCC to reduce network bandwidth usage for Microsoft products.

Microsoft says the Connected Cache feature is for companies who want to "move towards modern management and away from Configuration Manager Distribution points."

The discovered bug in Windows 10 affects systems with versions 21H2 and 22H2 with KB5034203 (the January 2024 non-security update) or later. It is most likely to hit computers with DHCP Option 235, causing them to download updates and apps from outside their companies' networks.

The problem does not affect home users since Microsoft Connected Cache is a feature made specifically for internet service providers and enterprise and education environments (some home users are currently dealing with other sorts of issues).

Microsoft is working on resolving the problem with Microsoft Connected Cache nodes in Windows 10, and a fix should arrive in one of the upcoming updates. Meanwhile, IT admins can mitigate the problem using one of the following two options:

• 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. Note that by default, the DOCacheHost and DOCacheHostSource policies have no value.
• Option 2: This issue can also be mitigated using Group Policies available through our support channel. Organizations can request help through Support for business.

You can find more information about Microsoft Connected Cache in the official documentation.

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ExplorerPatcher from Valinet is quite a popular app that lets you bring back the old Windows 10 taskbar in Windows 11, apply additional modifications to make Windows 11 slightly better, and restore some of its missing features. Windows 11 version 24H2 is now flagging ExplorerPatcher as incompatible due to "security or performance issues" with the following message:

This app can't run because it causes security or performance issues on Windows. A new version may be available. Check with your software provider for an updated version that runs on this version of Windows.

Like in the case of StartAllBack, you can bypass the block by simply renaming the executable to something else. If you want to upgrade to a newer build, delete the app, update your system, and then launch it using a renamed executable. What makes the situation a bit ironic is that Windows 11 version 23H2 does not mind you using StartAllBack or ExplorerPatcher—both applications run just fine and without any performance issues.

Windows 11 version 24H2 may cause some headaches for those relying on third-party apps for user interface customization. The latest builds ship with the flag that prevents restoring the old taskbar from the Windows 10 era enabled by default. This could be a sign of Microsoft wanting to remove old components from Windows 11 as it moves forward.

Source

Here is the full change log:

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

 

[Copilot in Windows]

 

Starting with Build 22635.3286, we began rolling out a new experience for Copilot in Windows that helps showcase the ways that Copilot can accelerate and enhance your work. We’re making an improvement to this experience. Now when you copy both text or image files, the Copilot icon will change appearance and animate to indicate that Copilot can help. When you hover your mouse over the Copilot icon, it will provide a menu of actions that you can take, such as creating a similar image or analyzing an image. If you select an action on the menu, it will launch Copilot with the action ready-to-go.

 

Copilot actions you can take when you mouse over the

Copilot icon on the taskbar after copying an image.

 

[Windows Share]

 

We are beginning to roll out again the ability to share directly to specific Microsoft Teams Channels and group chats directly within the Windows share window if you’re signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID. This originally rolled out with Build 22635.2776 but was temporarily disabled to fix some issues.

 

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 check out the full blog post here.

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As we wait for Windows 11 version 24H2, users can enjoy the most up-to-date publicly available features with the Moment 5 update Microsoft began rolling out in February. That was via an optional update (KB5034848), and since then, the company has pushed it out to more users via another optional update, KB5035942, it released at the end of last month (March).

However, we reported on several issues users have been having while installing or upgrading to KB5035942. Some of them said they could not find the update installed when they browsed the list of installed Windows updates.

Others found their systems would crash with a blue screen of death (BSOD) as the update would fail, and some of them noted that their Windows desktop screen would go black, indicating something did not go right with the installation of the update. You can read the full range of reported problems and issues in the dedicated report we did.

A possible way to solve the problems is to install the standalone Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) update Microsoft released alongside that under KB5036567.

Regardless, it looks like Microsoft is now pushing the update again, as spotted by Deskmodder.

As you can see in the image above, the KB5035942 update has been reinstalled today. Hopefully, those who could not find the update installed would be in better luck this time.

Source

The update is also available for users in the Extended Stable Release Channel. They received version 122.0.2365.120 with the same security patches.

Version 123.0.2420.81: April 4, 2024

 

Fixed various bugs and performance issues.

 

Microsoft has released the latest Microsoft Edge Stable Channel (Version 123.0.2420.81) which incorporates the latest Security Updates of the Chromium project. For more information, see the Security Update Guide.

 

This update contains the following Microsoft Edge-specific update:

 

• CVE-2024-29981
• CVE-2024-29049

CVE-2024-29981 is a spoofing vulnerability (marked as low severity) that requires local access to the target device or opening a specifically crafted file.

CVE-2024-29049 is a WebView2 spoofing vulnerability of high complexity and moderate severity. According to Microsoft, exploiting it requires an attacker to take additional actions prior to exploitation to prepare the target environment. Although the vulnerability is within the web server, malicious code runs on a victim's local machine. CVE-2024-29049 also requires opening an infected file.

The latest Chromium patches contain fixes for three vulnerabilities:

• Chromium: CVE-2024-3156 Inappropriate implementation in V8

• Chromium: CVE-2024-3158 Use after free in Bookmarks

• Chromium: CVE-2024-3159 Out of bounds memory access in V8

   

Microsoft Edge will download available updates in the background as you use the browser and install the latest version upon the next restart. You can always force-update the browser by heading to edge://settings/help.

In case you missed it, Microsoft recently released the first build of Edge 125 in the Dev Channel. Version 124 is currently being tested in the Beta Channel, with the Stable release scheduled for the week of April 18, 2024.

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For some reason, Microsoft hasn't been adding the most wanted features to the Windows 11 Start menu. There are plenty of options that Windows 10 users have that seemingly got lost in the move over to Windows 11. As such, Windows 11 users who want more from their Start menu sometimes download third-party applications to enhance it, such as Start11 and StartAllBack. And while people haven't had issues with the latter app, Microsoft has decided that anyone using StartAllBack won't be getting the next Windows 11 update.

StartAllBack users can't update Windows 11, says Microsoft

As reported by Neowin, users have been encountering an error message when updating Windows 11 with StartAllBack installed. Windows won't let you upgrade Windows, citing StartAllBack as an issue for performance and security.

Of course, this won't stop users from keeping their enhanced Windows 11 Start menu. People found a way to upgrade Windows 11 without sacrificing their favorite customization app; the key is to uninstall StartAllBack, upgrading Windows 11, then reinstalling the app. The key, however, is to rename the executable to not say "StartAllBack" so Windows 11 doesn't catch onto what you're planning.

Microsoft's warning does ask the user to check if a new version of the app is available, but at the time of writing, there is no update to StartAllBack that fixes this issue. However, the developer of the app is aware of the issue, and advises anyone affected by the error to perform the executable renaming trick to get around Windows 11's check.

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Windows Development Environment version 2403 is built upon Windows 11 build 22621.3296, the March 2024 Patch Tuesday update. WDE 2403 does not include the Moment 5 features (the update is still an optional release, which should become a mandatory one later this month), but you can easily update it with KB5035942.

Each virtual machine requires about 70GB of free disk space and 8GB of memory. You can use them for free until June 19, 2024. They do not support activation with license keys, so you will have to update to a newer version once the current one expires. Expired virtual machines will turn their desktop backgrounds black, start sending you activation notifications, and shut down every hour. In addition, Microsoft's official Windows 11 virtual machines are not available in ARM variants.

Windows Development Environment version 2403 includes the following:

• Windows 11 Enterprise (Evaluation)

• Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# workloads enabled

• Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enabled with Ubuntu installed

• Windows Terminal installed

• Developer mode enabled

   

If you plan to use Microsoft's virtual machines on VirtualBox, note that it has some rendering "quirks:"

Yes, we have noticed that there are some rendering quirks when using VirtualBox to run these developer images. The Start menu may also look different than expected. We are currently investigating this behavior. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding.

More information about Windows Development Environment virtual machines is available on the official website.

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Meanwhile, fresh reports say that the next major feature update for Windows 11, version 24H2, is going to hit RTM (Release to Manufacturers) status very soon, in this month itself. The report also adds that the final General Availablity (G.A.) release is going to be at the expected time.

Meanwhile, the possible RTM Insider build, 26100, was out to Dev and Canary users and it looks like it is going to take some work before it is ready for public usage.

Windows enthusiast and Twitter (now X) user Albacore noticed two bugs in 26100, and they are not mentioned in the build's changelog, though, Microsoft does acknowledge that users may still be unable to upgrade from 26040 and 23620.

First up, it looks like the update has broken 64-bit .NET support in some ways, as app debugging when done via Visual Studio, is not working as intended. The Windows Event Viewer shows an Event 1000 Application Error message.

There is also some bad news for those who are looking to run the build inside a virtual environment. It seems 3D acceleration support inside VMware does not work with the build either, even though it worked nicely with the previous one, build 26090.

The slight silver lining is that this may not be the RTM build and hopefully, Microsoft will be able to resolve these bugs with the next update.

Source

For those unfamiliar, LTSC stands for Long-Term Servicing Channel. Windows 11 has yet to receive its first LTSC build, which will get five years of active support instead of the regular two years in consumer versions. LTSC editions put emphasis on stability, allowing users to delay feature updates and keep just the most necessary security patches (released monthly).

In April 2023, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 would be getting an LTSC release. However, one year later, we are still waiting for the company to announce it. Now, it looks like the upcoming version 24H2 and its alleged RTM build 26100 will mark the first release of the Long-Term Servicing Channel for Windows 11.

You can download the leaked build from the Internet Archive. Be aware of the potential security implications of trying leaked software from unknown software. Proceed at your own risk.

Source: Betaworld

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Old-school user-controlled memory management is back, baby!

 

Or at least it's a feature Microsoft is testing in the newest builds of its Chromium-based Edge browser (via The Verge). User Leopeva64 on X, formerly Twitter, posted screenshots of an Edge build with a "resource controls" slider for manually limiting the browser's RAM usage. There's also a toggle to set whether you want RAM limits to kick in when you're playing a game, or if you want the limit to be enforced at all times.

 

It builds on a feature that's already in the stable version of Edge, where the browser will alert you if an individual tab has particularly high memory usage. The minimum limit you can set for Edge appears to be 1GB, and it goes all the way up to the amount of physical memory you have installed in your PC.

 

As of this writing, the feature is only available in Edge's Canary channel, an unstable version of the browser that is updated daily with experimental features that may or may not ever trickle down to the Dev, Beta, or Stable channels.

 

Modern operating systems are mostly meant to manage RAM usage automatically, saving the contents of memory to disk when it needs to free some up for a newly launched app or game. Edge also uses a sleeping-tabs feature that will eject unused tabs from memory without closing them, loading them back up the next time the user tries to interact with them.

 

The new Edge feature may appeal to those who want to keep a sprawling browser session open in the background while they play a game or those who just want to make sure that some badly behaving tab can't begin devouring RAM while you're trying to do something else.

 

But setting the limit too low could also adversely impact performance, forcing Windows to write to and read from your PC's disk even when there's plenty of system RAM available. Even a super-fast PCIe 5.0 SSD doesn't offer as much bandwidth as DDR4 or DDR5 memory, and all of that extra disk usage could cause your SSD to wear down more quickly in the long run.

 

In short, it's an interesting feature. But if it ever makes it from the Canary builds of Edge into the stable builds, it's probably best used sparingly.

 

Source

Here are the update highlights:

• New feature: Desired State Configuration support, allowing the use of winget configure for PowerToys. Check the DSC documentation for more information.
• The Windows App SDK dependency was updated to 1.5.1, fixing many underlying UI issues.
• WebP/WebM files support was added to Peek.
• Audio files support was added to Peek.
• Automated UI testing for FancyZones Editor was added to CI.

And here is the full changelog:

General

 

• Added a Quick Access entry to access the flyout from PowerToys' tray icon right click menu.
• Added support for Desired State Configuration in PowerToys, allowing the use of winget configure to configure many settings.

 

Awake

 

• Fix an issue causing the "Keep screen on" option to disable after Awake deactivated itself.

 

Color Picker

 

• Fixed a UI issue causing the color picker modal to hide part of the color bar.

 

Command Not Found

 

• Now tries to find a preview version of PowerShell if no stable version is found.

 

FancyZones

 

• Fixed a crash loading the editor when there's a layout with an empty name in the configuration file.
• Refactored layout internal data structures and common code to allow for automated testing.
• The pressing of the shift key is now detected through raw input to fix an issue causing the shift key to be locked for some users.

 

File Explorer add-ons

 

• Fixed a crash occurring in the Monaco previewer when a file being previewed isn't found by the code behind.
• Fixed an issue in the Markdown previewer adding a leading space to code blocks.
• Fixed wrong location and scaling of preview results on screens with different DPIs.
• Added better clean up code to thumbnail handlers to prevent locking files.

 

File Locksmith

 

• Allow multiple lines to wrap when viewing the modal with selected file paths.

 

Installer

 

• Fixed the final directory name of the PowerToys Run VSCode Workspaces plugin in the installation directory to match the plugin name.
• Used more generic names for the bootstrap steps, so that "Installing PowerToys" is not shown when uninstalling.

 

Keyboard Manager

 

• Fixed an issue that would clear out KBM mappings when certain numpad keys were used as the second key of a chord.
• Added a comment in localization files so that translators won't translate "Text" as "SMS".

 

Peek

 

• Added support to .WebP/.WebM files in the image/video previewer.
• Added support for audio files.
• Fixed an issue causing the open file button in the title bar to be un-clickable.
• Fixed an issue when previewing a folder with a dot in the name that caused Peek to try to preview it as a file.

 

PowerToys Run

 

• Added a setting to the Windows Search plugin to exclude files and patterns from the results.
• Fixed an issue showing thumbnails caused by a hash collision between similar images.
• Added the "checkbox and multiline text box" additional property type for plugins and improved multiline text handling.

 

Quick Accent

 

• Added the Schwa character to the Italian character set.

 

Registry Preview

 

• Allow alternative valid names for the root keys.
• Fixed an issue causing many pick file windows to be opened simultaneously.

 

Screen Ruler

 

• Updated the measure icons for clarity.

 

Shortcut Guide

 

• Updated the Emoji shortcut that is shown to the new Windows key + period (.) hotkey.

 

Text Extractor

 

• Fixed issues creating the extract layout on certain monitor configurations.

 

Video Conference Mute

 

• Added enable/disable telemetry to get usage data.

 

Settings

 

• Added locks to some terms (like the name of some utilities) so that they aren't localized.
• Fixed some shortcuts not being shown properly in the Flyout and Dashboard.
• Updated image for Color Picker and outdated animations for utilities in OOBE.

You can download PowerToys from its GitHub repository or the Microsoft Store.

Source

The problem was reported by @endermanch and others on X, with many of them complaining about Windows 11 flagging StartAllBack as one causing performance issues. In addition to not letting users run the app, Microsoft is blocking upgrades to newer Windows 11 builds. An attempt to install a recent Windows 11 preview build ens up with the following message:

This app can't run because it causes security or performance issues on Windows. A new version may be available. Check with your software provider for an updated version that runs on this version of Windows.

Some users successfully mitigate the problem by uninstalling StartAllBack, updating to a newer Windows 11 build, and then installing StartAllBack back with a renamed executable.

The developer of StartAllBack acknowledged the problem and confirmed that renaming the executable should bypass Microsoft's unannounced block.

While it is easy to blame Microsoft for intentionally crippling third-party tweaking apps, it is worth noting that using such programs always involves some risk of instabilities, bugs, or potential security issues. Therefore, if you want to keep using StartAllBack despite the warning, proceed at your own risk and always back up important data.

In other Start menu news, one of the recent Windows 11 preview builds introduced a new layout for the "All apps" list. Our dedicated guide explains how to try it.

Source

Microsoft has updated the official announcement post to clarify that the initial announcement is only for enterprise customers. Home users should expect a separate announcement, which will most likely have different policies and price tags.

Editor’s note 4.3.2024: The details and pricing structure outlined in this post apply to commercial organizations only. Details will be shared at a later date for consumers on our consumer end of support page. Educational organizations can find tailored information about Windows 10 end of support in the Microsoft Education Blog.

With over 69% of all Windows PCs still running Windows 10 (according to Statcounter), Microsoft has a big challenge to tackle. While some users will eventually move to Windows 11, hundreds of millions of computers will remain on Windows 10 for a long time. Windows XP, for example, was dropped in 2014, but it still has enough users using it online to register on third-party analytic services. Windows 10 users stuck with the unsupported OS have to either pay Microsoft for extended security updates or risk encountering malware exploring unpatched vulnerabilities.

Extended Security Updates will be available for three years. Businesses will have to pay Microsoft $61 per year for one device, and those joining later will be forced to pay for the previous years since each update is cumulative. The company also has discounts and promotions for specific users and subscribers, such as schools and Windows 365 subscribers. It will be very interesting to see how Microsoft plans to promote the program to your average Joe.

If you plan to stay with Windows 10, what price would you consider reasonable to pay Microsoft for three more years of additional support?

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On Windows 11, you can rotate the screen in at least three ways, and in this guide, I will explain how this configuration is done.

Usually, you don't have to rotate the screen, but in some scenarios, it might be useful, especially if you're a programmer or a social media junkie and you want to turn the screen to portrait mode to optimize the viewing experience of code or social posts. 

Screen rotation is a must on devices like tablets since it allows you to switch orientation to consume content from a digital book or document. 

You can even use this functionality to flip the screen upside-down to play a friend a prank. 

Regardless of the reason, the operating system offers more than one way to complete this configuration. You can even disable the screen rotation.

In this how-to guide, I will explain the steps you have to take to rotate the screen on devices running Windows 11.

How to rotate screen on Windows 11

You have at least three ways to rotate the screen on your computer through the Settings app, shortcuts, and graphics card control panel.

Using Settings app

To change the screen rotation on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click the Display page on the right.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

4. Click the Display orientation setting under the "Scale & layout" settings.
5. Select the desired rotation, including:

• Landscape: Default configuration.
• Portrait: Rotates screen 90 degrees (left).
• Landscape (flipped): Screen flips 180 degrees.
• Portrait (flipped): Rotates screen 90 degrees (right).

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Once you complete the steps, the system will apply the rotation setting according to your selection.

Using keyboard shortcuts 

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to rotate the screen on Windows 11:

1. Ctrl + Alt + Up arrow – rotates to landscape mode.
2. Ctrl + Alt + Down arrow – rotates the screen upside down.
3. Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow – rotates the screen 90 degrees (right).
4. Ctrl + Alt + Left arrow – rotates the screen 90 degrees (left).

Use the "Ctrl + Alt + Up arrow" keyboard shortcut to return to the normal orientation.

These shortcuts only work on some graphics cards. If it's not working, use the Settings app option.

Using graphics card control panel

Some graphics card manufacturers, such as Nvidia, have their own control panel solution for configuring settings and changing the screen orientation. 

To rotate the screen with the Nvidia Control Panel, use these steps:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on Hardware and Sound.
3. Click on NVIDIA Control Panel.
4. Click on Rotate display under the "Display" section.
5. Select the display (if applicable).
6. Choose the orientation (or use the controls on the right).

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

1. Click the Apply button.
2. Rotate the monitor.

Although AMD also has a control panel application, after checking the solution and researching online, it appears that AMD no longer supports the rotation option through software. If you have a Radeon graphics card, the option to use the Settings app may be your only choice.

Disable rotation lock (optional)

To turn off Windows 11's rotation lock, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click the Display page on the right side.
4. Turn on the "Rotation lock" toggle switch under the "Scale & layout" section.

Alternatively, you can disable this feature by going to the "Quick Settings" menu (Windows key + A) and toggling the Rotation lock button off.

These options are only available if the device supports auto-rotation. Otherwise, it won't appear in the operating system.

Source

What you need to know

• Microsoft began testing a new way to open Copilot on Windows 11 late last year.
• Swiping from the right on a screen now summons Copilot rather than opening the notifications tray.
• The behavior entered testing with Insiders in December 2023 and is rolling out to Windows 11 version 23H2.

Microsoft is testing yet another way to open Copilot on Windows 11. Recent Insider builds of the operating system let you summon Copilot by swiping in from the right. That gesture used to open the notifications tray, but Microsoft is trying a new behavior for it.

"We are trying out a change where when swiping from the right edge of the desktop on a touch display will open Copilot instead of notifications," explained Microsoft in its blog post about Windows 11 Build 23601. That update shipped to the Dev Channel on December 7, 2023. Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc clarified that the behavior is also rolling out to Windows 11 version 23H2.

Copilot opening following a gesture became a hot topic online after our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared a video of the behavior. 

Many criticized the change on X. "This obsession to squeeze in AI stuff is getting unbearable on practically all platforms. I'm certainly not questioning AI itself, but I dislike when products are bent into directions I don't want. Maybe the make it configurable some day," said Thomas Künneth.

More ways to use Copilot

Microsoft is testing the option to swipe in from the right to summon Copilot.

(Image credit: Windows Central | Jez Corden)

Microsoft is clearly eager to get people to use Copilot on Windows. The tech giant continues to roll out new ways to summon the AI-powered tool, even though it's in preview. Copilot now lives in the Taskbar, can be brought up with a keyboard shortcut, and can be opened with the Copilot key on new PCs. Microsoft is also testing swiping in from the left to use Copilot, as discussed above. Hovering over the Copilot icon in the Taskbar to open the tool is also being tested at the moment.

Usually, I'm in the camp of "more options are always better," but Microsoft comes off as desperate with Copilot. The tool is already accessible on Windows and in Microsoft Edge. Heck, it's halfway to taking over the Edge Sidebar as it is and is now replacing gestures that show notifications (albeit in testing). How many shortcuts does Microsoft need to push Copilot? Surely if the tool is worthwhile, people will just use it.

In a recent poll about Copilot, more than half of participants said they don't use Copilot at all, stating:

• I never use Copilot on Windows 11 - 54.6%
• I use Copilot occasionally but less frequently than daily - 16.79%
• I use Copilot daily - 13.49%
• I rarely use Copilot but I have used it to some extent - 13.11%

I know some people dislike AI for a variety of reasons, such as it being used to write books accused of plagiarism. But I think another group of people are fine with AI as a general concept and just dislike when Microsoft is pushy about it. We've seen similar pushback when Microsoft started showing prompts for Xbox Game Pass when installing Windows 11. A recent viral video discussing how to fix Microsoft discussed the company being pushy with its services.

I hope Microsoft keeps the option to open notifications with a swipe on Windows 11. If the company must add another shortcut to Copilot, the folks at Microsoft should make it optional. I know plenty of people who would be happy if they never used Copilot or saw it on their PC. I wonder if Microsoft is aware of those users.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone have now kicked off their Season 3 content schedule, and Nvidia is already touting its DLSS 3 performance uplifts on these titles. Per the company, "DLSS 3 increases frame rates by up to 55% on average on GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs" when used in Warzone.

Diablo IV's Ray Tracing update is now finally live too, and this driver is also recommended when jumping in to try out the ARPG's latest visual upgrade. DLSS 3 can be especially useful when turning on the new Ray-Traced Reflections, Ray-Traced Shadows, and Ray-Traced Foliage options, which can cause massive performance hits. Nvidia is claiming an FPS increase average of 2.3X when using DLSS 3 at 1440p on GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards on maximum settings.

The driver only has one resolved issue listed as well, which is regarding the Resizable BAR profile of the newly-released port of Horizon Forbidden West from Sony. The optional feature should now be stable enough to enable when playing the action game.

The issues currently being worked on are these:

• GeForce GTX 10/RTX 20 series: PC may randomly freeze when Windows Hardware- Accelerated GPU Scheduling and NVIDIA SLI are both enabled [4009884]
• Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition: Lower GPU utilization when Reflex is set to “On + Boost” [4412035]
• Tekken 8 may randomly crash during gameplay on GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards. [4503216]

The Nvidia 552.12 Game Ready driver is now available to download and install via the GeForce Experience app on Windows, while standalone links can be found below. Here official are the release notes (PDF).

Desktop GPUs:

• GeForce Game Ready Driver Download: Windows 11, 10 – DCH [US version]

Notebook GPUs:

• GeForce Game Ready Driver Download: Windows 11, 10 – DCH [US version]

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Notably, Intel PresentMon 2.0.0 brings in a bunch of new features, fixes, and optimizations. The most important feature is the ability to calculate averages only from data points that are not zero. This helps denote metrics where zero means "no data" rather than a zero value. Another important feature that PresentMon 2.0.0 brings is the addition of histogram plots, making the visual representation of data and other important metrics better.

Here are the full release notes:

New Features

 

• The majority of metrics are changed to use the time that the CPU started working on a frame as the reference point instead of the present() call, with values that are more aligned to measuring the quality of graphics applications (e.g., latency and duration of interaction and displayed frames). See README-ConsoleApplication.md for more details.
• Processes with unknown name are now reported as instead of .
• Capture application CSV now reports NA (Not Available) in columns for unavailable metrics instead of 0.
• Overlay / Capture application now hides any metrics that are not available on the system.
• Added explicit 1%, 5%, and 10% percentile statistics (to the existing 99%, 95%, and 90%). Previously, selecting 99%ile for metrics where a lower value is better (such as frame time) would automatically convert to the 1%ile statistic. Now, no context-dependent conversion is done and whatever statistic the user selects is displayed.
• Added a non-zero average statistic which only averages non-zero data points. This is useful for metrics where zero denotes "no data" rather than a zero value (such as the click-to-photon latency metric).
• Added histogram plots.
• Client APIs:
  • New Dynamic query composition API: clients now specify which metrics/stats they are using, and only the necessary data processing is performed. This replaces the previous behavior where all metric combinations were calculated on each polling call, regardless of whether they were necessary.
  • New Introspection API: clients can now enumerate metrics at runtime to populate UIs with options, names, and descriptions. Also enables clients to be forward-compatible with newer service builds exposing new metrics.
  • PresentData: changed PresentStopTime to TimeInPresent where PresentStopTime = TimInPresent == 0 ? 0 : PresentStartTime + TimeInPresent

 

Bug Fixes

 

• Fixed crash caused by resetting preferences
• Fixed graph rendering errors when sampling rate was high and/or graph contained many data plots
• Disallow editing for built-in loadout presets
• Fixed issue where autoscaling settings was affecting the wrong graph
• Fixed issue where independent data display window would repeatedly appear above the control UI making it difficult to interact with the application
• Fixed overlay UI misalignment in readout widgets caused by very small values
• Loadout files are now saved with .json file extension by default

 

Binary Assets

 

• PresentMon-2.0.0-x64.exe: 64-bit console application
• PresentMon-2.0.0-x86.exe: 32-bit console application
• PresentMon-v2.0.msi: Intel PresentMon Installer

You can download the latest version of Intel PresentMon from GitHub.

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Last month, Neowin reported that Linux surpassed 4% market share for the first time according to Statcounter. Now, Linux has managed to further increase its market share from 4.03% to 4.05% to further secure its position.

One interesting note is that Statcounter doesn’t include Chrome OS in the Linux market share even though it is using the Linux kernel. The Linux data includes distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Linux Mint.

Speaking of Chrome OS, it remained flat in terms of market share staying at 2.27% of market share. It has actually fallen quite a bit since September when it was at 3.89% market share.

The education sector is a main driver of Chrome OS because users simply sign in with a Gmail account and all of their apps are where they left them even on a new machine because it all syncs with Google Chrome. This setup is a lot less of a headache for schools managing many children.

With Microsoft planning to retire Windows 10 in October 2025, many customers will have to decide whether to buy a new Windows 11 computer. For some people, this simply isn’t an option; in those cases they will either continue running a vulnerable Windows 10, or switch to another operating system that is compatible with their hardware such as Linux.

It will be very interesting to watch how things go after the retirement date of Windows 10 to see if Windows 11’s stringent hardware requirements backfire and hurt Microsoft’s grip on the desktop landscape.

Next month, we have two big Linux releases coming. Firstly, there will be Fedora 40 shipping with the latest GNOME desktop. Several days later, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will launch. The new Ubuntu version will be supported with updates until 2029 - this is great for anyone who wants to hang on to existing hardware but can’t upgrade to Windows 11.

Source: Statcounter

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A screenshot suggests that the picture-in-picture mode in WhatsApp will let you watch videos in a small pop-up window while navigating through parts of the app. WhatsApp already has picture-in-picture mode you can use during video calls to send messages, reply to other users, or navigate through the app.

Picture-in-picture mode is also present on the rival messaging platform Telegram, where you can pinch and drag to resize the player window. It's available in video streaming apps such as YouTube and Netflix, where you can continue watching videos while using your device.

However, the website notes that in the current development version you can only use the picture-in-picture mode for videos inside the app for now, adding that WhatsApp might make additions down the road.

This comes not long after the Meta-owned company started rolling out the ability to skip videos backward and forward by double-tapping on the edge of the screen. WhatsApp is also working on a Favorites feature to access contacts quickly. The feature, now available to testers, lets you mark important contacts as Favorites and re-arrange them as per your preference.

The instant messaging app will also add the options to set default upload quality for media and support for third-party chats in its instant messaging app to comply with the DMA regulations. A recently surfaced video hints at how the onboarding process of the feature might work when it will release as part of a future update.

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In honor of spring (and the recent weather in my home state of California), let’s avoid my usual term. Updates are being “sprinkled” this month, not “dribbled.”

It’s just terminology, though. Either way, I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2. Defer updates for both Windows 10 and 11.

Meanwhile, I’ll put on my CPA hat for all you late filers out there. Don’t defer any longer — get those US income tax returns in! (Isn’t that aggravating enough?)

My recommendation for most users remains: stick with Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 22H2. Only if you wish to engage or experiment with Microsoft Copilot in all its various editions and forms, do I recommend Windows 11 23H2. I’m not yet ready to advance this advice, but I expect a revision of some kind in the coming months.

Upcoming end of life for Windows 10 22H2

Those of you with Windows 10 22H2 have a lot of time to use your current system before Microsoft declares its end of life in October 2025. Microsoft recently announced that it will offer an Extended Security Update (ESU) plan for the Windows 10 22H2 platform, similar to the ESU offering for Windows 7. For most, the first year’s price is USD $61 per PC, after which the price doubles in each of two succeeding years. Three years is the maximum and would thus cost $427 per PC if the full term were used.

That price will probably be too steep for most consumers, who are more likely to upgrade existing PCs to Windows 11 where possible — or to buy a new PC instead. But there are many companies with line-of-business or custom apps for which a Windows 11 version is not ready or available. Keeping Windows 10 patched in those cases may prove necessary. As I did with Windows 7, I’ll be providing guidance and step-by-step instructions on how to install the ESU key when the time comes.

By the way, this means Will lost the bet. Pay up, Mr. Editor.

Consumers

Changes are coming to Windows in the form of desktop backgrounds and notifications as well as prompts on the Windows lock screen. The good news is that it’s an opt-in feature. The bad news is that many of Microsoft’s planned changes all come under the now-familiar banner of “Note: This feature might not be available to all users because it will roll out gradually.” Sprinkles, indeed. As usual, it means some may get this change in the April release and not want it, but some who would like to see it may not be able to turn it on for some time yet.

Windows 11 is also slated to get similar enhancements to the lock screen (such as sports, traffic, weather, and finance) — sprinkled out after the April updates have been installed.

Speaking of sprinkling, if you accidentally opted into Outlook (new) and want to roll yourself back, there are several ways to do so. If you have any issues with these confusing steps, post into the forums, where all the helpful regulars will assist. I find this rollout of uncompleted code sent out to Microsoft’s beta testing arm — better known as consumers — to be one of the worst ways to get feedback while simultaneously losing your customer base.

Businesses

As noted in March, the out-of-band updates for Server 2012 R2, Server 2016, Server 2019, and Server 2022 fixed an issue where servers handling Kerberos authentication requests started eating up more CPU and would cause the domain controller to crash. The issue was fixed in the following out-of-band updates:

The fixed code will be included in the April releases. I will be testing and will report back as soon as possible, in case you want to install the April updates on your Domain controllers a bit sooner than you would normally would.

Finally, while not exactly patching related, I found two items of interest to businesses that need to keep Microsoft devices secure as well as deal with Cloud-connected infrastructure.

Last November, a Microsoft blog post explained how attackers had gained entrance into targeted email boxes of various customers, including Microsoft. The theory at the time was that attackers had found security keys in a crash dump left behind in an engineer’s workstation. But in March, Microsoft quietly updated its post:

The blog below states that the actor access may have resulted from a crash dump in 2021, but we have not found a crash dump containing the impacted key material.

This indicates that Microsoft does not actually know how the attackers gained access to key material of their secure-token signing environment.

Review of the Summer 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online Intrusion, a CISA report on the incident, contains the following statement:

The Board concludes that this intrusion should never have happened. Storm-0558 was able to succeed because of a cascade of security failures at Microsoft, as outlined in this report. Today, the Board issues recommendations to Microsoft to ensure this critical company, which sits at the center of the technology ecosystem, is prioritizing security for the benefit of its more than one billion customers.

Here’s hoping industry pressure on Microsoft will also push them to make on-premises operating systems more secure.

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Sergio Pedri, who is a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft that works on the Microsoft Store, posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that the Windows 11 app store got some "major performance improvements." He added, "The splash screen can now be entirely skipped in most cases and launching the app feels a lot faster!"

Microsoft Principal Architect Rudy Huyn had a multi-message post on X that goes over some more details on the improvements put in the Microsoft Store. He confirmed that the new version number for the app store is v22403 and that it is available for Canary and Dev Insider members.

One of Huyn's messages showed a video clip of how product pages on the store were now loading "40% faster on average" with the new version.

Another message showed a video clip of how the new store build "manages entitlement and licensing, resulting in the "Buy" button being displayed approximately 1.5 times faster." Huyn stated that the Microsoft Store build that's available for Dev and Canary Insider members "includes many other changes, but we will let you discover them!" There's no word on when this new Microsoft Store version will make its way to all Windows 11 users.

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What you need to know

• Microsoft has rolled out Windows 11 build 26100 to Insiders in the Dev and Canary channels.
• Today's build is the build that Microsoft intends to release to manufacturers.
• Assuming there are no last minute bugs, build 26100 will be the RTM (release to manufacturing) build for Windows 11 version 24H2.

Microsoft is now testing a build of Windows 11 that it's hoping will become the base RTM build for the next major release known as version 24H2. The build in question is 26100, and is rolling out to Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channel now. Assuming there are no last minute showstopping bugs discovered, this is the build that Microsoft will deliver to OEMs and external partners to begin preloading onto new hardware for launch this summer and fall.

These days, Microsoft likes to avoid using the term "RTM" as it doesn't mean what it used to. In the past, an RTM build of Windows was a feature-complete representation of the next version of Windows, but in the era of Windows as a Service that's no longer the case. Instead, the RTM milestone today represents a moment in time where the underlying platform is stable enough to preload onto new hardware.

This means that even though version 24H2 is reaching an RTM milestone now, there are still many months to go before the update is considered feature complete. My sources say version 24H2 won't be feature complete until sometime in July, and Microsoft will deliver any additional features to version 24H2 via servicing updates.

I'm told OEMs will receive a 26100.x build that's considered RTM as soon as next week, if they haven't already. Once this happens, it won't be long before Insiders are able to unenroll from the Insider Program on this build, or use it to clean install the latest production-ready build that will be serviced with OS and security updates.

Microsoft will be moving the Windows Insider Canary Channel onto fresh pre-release Windows builds in the next handful of weeks, so if you don't want to get stuck testing more Windows preview builds into 2025 you should move to the Insider Dev Channel now.

PCs with version 24H2 preloaded are expected to start showing up in June on Snapdragon X Series devices, before rolling out to everyone as an OTA update later this year once version 24H2 is feature complete. Be sure to learn more about the schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2, and its unique two wave rollout plan that starts first with Arm PCs to understand what's happening, and when. 

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Notably missing from this list is Aero, something which most Windows fans and enthusiasts have generally loved. But Microsoft did not drop Aero with Windows 11, that happened with Windows 8, which succeeded Windows 7. Some of the Aero-like transparency effects lived on and they were present in more abundance on Windows 10.

In case you are wondering, Microsoft introduced Aero Glass material with Windows Vista, and it was difficult for graphics cards of that time to process, despite Microsoft claiming otherwise. Due to the intensive nature of Aero, in many instances, certain GPU-heavy applications forced Windows to disable Aero as the effect was using too many GPU cycles to hardware-accelerate the latter.

Keeping this in mind, Microsoft was having to make improvements to the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) GPU scheduler to enable faster GUI processing so as to keep up with Aero's performance demands. There were also reports that Windows 8 would allow software-accelerating Aero.

With some of that hardware backstory out of the way, one must wonder what if Microsoft had brought Aero back with Windows 11, as most of the GPUs today, both dedicated as well as integrated, are far more capable.

Reddit user sakuhanaX3 has designed a concept showing Windows 11 with Aero effects enabled and published it on the FrutigerAero subreddit. The user imagines that Microsoft had never dropped Aero and kept improving it. In the image (above), the Aero glass effect itself looks quite good though one may or may not like the ancient icons it surrounds.

Do you think Microsoft will ever bring Aero back? If not with future Windows 11 versions then perhaps with the next-gen Windows (12)? Let us know what you want to see in the comments below.

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