Microsoft wants to ensure every Windows 11 eligible user knows about Copilot Pro, so it decided to place an ad on the Home page of the Settings app. That tab opens by default every time you launch the Settings app, which means the Copilot Pro banner will get a lot of eyes once it is out for all users.

Besides giving you a brief description of what Copilot Pro is, the ad lets you click a big button to subscribe or learn more about the subscription and its perks using the "What's included in Copilot Pro?" link.

Even though the company has not announced the banner yet, some Windows Insiders have already spotted it on preview builds from the Dev and Beta Channels without enabling any hidden features or IDs. If you also want to witness the latest ad in Windows 11, try enabling it using the ViVeTool app. Download ViVeTool from GitHub, launch Command Prompt as Administrator, type vivetool /enable /id:47942561, and press Enter

It is worth noting that Copilot Pro is only available to users in the United States. Therefore, the banner and its rollout may be limited.

The Copilot Pro ad is not the first thing of questionable practicality to appear on the Settings' Home page. Microsoft already uses it to promote the Microsoft 365 subscription and OneDrive. On the other hand, the page provides some useful things, like quick access to themes and recommended settings.

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The only Windows Insider build that was rolled out this week was for Beta Channel users. Even that release, which has the build number 22635.3139 under KB5034220, only had a few minor bug fixes:

• This update includes a handful of fixes to improve overall reliability.
• Fixed a dwm.exe crash impacting some Insiders in the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue impacting Task Manager reliability on the last few builds.

While Microsoft has been releasing new Windows 11 Beta builds for Insiders every week since the end of the 2023 holiday break, this will be the first time the Dev channel will not get a new build for 2024.

Canary channel members have only received two Windows 11 builds since the beginning of 2024. Both of them have turned out to be pretty huge in terms of new features. The first, build 26020, dropped on January 3, included extended voice access support for more languages, a new Taskbar icon to help with power savings on desktop, and deprecations of the WordPad and Steps Recorder apps.

The last Canary Channel release was made on January 26, with the build number 26040. It added a new way to get images from your Android phone to your PC, support for the new USB 80Gbps standard, and more.

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It’s an open secret at this point that Microsoft is gearing up to ship a significant update for Windows this year that will primarily focus on new AI experiences, much of which will be powered by next-generation silicon from the likes of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. This next release, code-named Hudson Valley, is expected to be unveiled in early summer, and begin shipping in the fall.

Because of its significance, there has been some debate around what exactly Microsoft intends to call this next Windows update. Will it be another Windows 11 feature update, or will Microsoft go all out and call it something new like Windows 12? The answer is we don’t yet know, and likely won’t know for sure until Microsoft is ready to take the wraps off Hudson Valley in a handful of months.

This is a topic being discussed not just externally amongst Windows fans and tech enthusiasts, but internally at the company too. There are pros and cons for going either route with branding, and while I’d personally love for Hudson Valley to ship as “Windows 12,” reading the tea leaves, I think this is unlikely. Here's why.

Windows has a new boss

Ex-CVP of Windows & Devices, Panos Panay, is out.  (Image credit: Microsoft)

Windows got a new boss and home internally at Microsoft over the last six months. When this happens, it’s not uncommon for the “new guys” to have different thoughts, opinions, and views on what Windows as a product and platform should be. Everything from what features are greenlit, to how OS updates are delivered, can change when Windows gets a new leader.  

Windows’ previous boss, Panos Panay, oversaw both Windows & Surface, similar to how Apple handles macOS and the Mac. This idea of a top-down synergy between hardware and software was important for Panay, and it resulted in things like Windows 11, an OS that rightly complemented the premium hardware it could be found on.

There’s no denying a clear divide regarding UX polish between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and to my knowledge, that’s mostly something Panay really pushed for. But now he’s out the door, Windows & Surface have essentially been split up internally, and now Windows resides under the same umbrella as Edge, Bing, MSN, and Copilot.

Windows’ new boss, Mikhail Parakhin is CEO of Advertising and Web Services at Microsoft, and now oversees Windows in addition to the web products mentioned above. Of course, the new boss likely has his own views on Windows, including where it fits at the company, and changes are already beginning to be made.

One such change is the Windows release strategy itself. Under Panay, Microsoft was moving back to a three-year development cycle for major releases of the Windows platform, which could have been timed with new versions of the Windows product (like Windows 12, Windows 13, etc.)

Now that Windows is part of the web experiences team, I understand that Microsoft wants to return to a more frequent update schedule for Windows as a whole. The new bosses want to emphasize Windows as a Service, which means shipping features and platform improvements when they’re ready, instead of waiting for a big bang release every few years.

Fragmentation is a real concern

(Image credit: Windows Central | Microsoft Copilot)

Right now, there are two dominant versions of Windows on the market. There’s Windows 10, which has around 1 billion users, and Windows 11, which sources say has around 400 million users. That totals 1.4 billion Windows users, with a roughly 70/30 split between platforms. That’s called fragmentation, and it’s something OS platform makers want to avoid.

The problem is, most of the users still using Windows 10 are doing so on PCs that aren’t eligible for Windows 11, and many of those PCs are still perfectly capable of performing the day-to-day tasks they were purchased for. Because of this, Microsoft knows that Windows 11 growth is slowing.

While a new version of Windows might encourage some users to dump their existing Windows 10 PC for a new one with Windows 12, that encouragement only works on a small percentage of people. Most users just don’t care about new versions of Windows, and would rather wait to buy a new PC once their existing one is no longer fit for purpose.

This is why Microsoft recently announced plans to bring new features back to Windows 10, because it knows a lot of people have no intention of upgrading to Windows 11 (or a Windows 12) for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t matter how groundbreaking a potential Windows 12 is, people just don’t care.

If Microsoft were to ship a Windows 12 this year, that would mean supporting and maintaining a third in-market version of the client OS, something the company really wants to avoid. So if Hudson Valley ships as another Windows 11 update, Microsoft only has to continue actively supporting two versions of Windows.

I think this landscape changes once Windows 10 exits support in 2025, but there’s no room for a Windows 12 on the market before then.

Playing it safe is key

An experimental mock-up of the Windows desktop, based on real internal designs.  (Image credit: Zac Bowden)

I think a key reason for making the next release Windows 12 is if it comes with a significantly reworked interface. Since Windows XP, new versions of Windows have come with some kind of interface redesign or paradigm shift, which hasn't always gone down well with Windows users.

The most infamous example of this is Windows 8, which attempted to uproot everything you know about Windows in favor of a simplified, touch-first experience instead. These changes damaged the Windows brand significantly, and it left Microsoft picking up the pieces for the next half a decade after Windows 8's launch.

We know that Microsoft was experimenting with a significant desktop UX overhaul for Hudson Valley under Panay. In fact, an early proof of concept mock up even leaked thanks to someone accidentally including it during an Ignite 2022 keynote presentation. 

The concept revealed a floating Taskbar design, and a new home along the top of the screen for things like the System Tray and Windows Search bar. While this interface wouldn't be that drastic from what we have today, I still think it's a risk Microsoft doesn't need to take right now.

Users are so averse to change that they will use any UX change as an excuse not to upgrade, which is a huge problem if your release is all about putting your AI tech in front of as many people as possible. If Microsoft just sticks with the interface people know, that's one less reason for users to refuse the update.

And if Hudson Valley is a Windows 11 update, those users can only refuse it for so long anyway. Microsoft's current update policy means once the version of Windows 11 you're using reaches end of support, you are automatically updated to the latest version of Windows 11 to stay secure.

This doesn't happen between different Windows product releases. So, if Hudson Valley is Windows 12, users can refuse it forever. They will never be forced to move to it, which obviously doesn't help Microsoft long-term.

Microsoft is fast becoming the AI company, and shareholders want to see Microsoft's AI tech and services in use by as many people as possible. So, it's paramount that this next Windows release is familiar, easy to use, and most importantly, released as an update for all 400 million Windows 11 users.

Windows 10 gets reevaluated

(Image credit: Future)

One of the very first things the new Windows leadership team did was reevaluate its stance on Windows 10. Under Panay, Microsoft opted to leave Windows 10 behind, and focus only on delivering new features for Windows 11 and beyond. As we've discussed, this decision cut out a majority of Windows users from enjoying any of the new apps, services and features Microsoft has been building over the last two years.

That includes most of Microsoft's AI efforts, including Windows Copilot. So of course, the team in charge of Copilot, now also being in charge of Windows, decided that they should bring Copilot to the version of Windows that has the most users, and thus, a decision was made to refocus efforts on delivering features to both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

This, I think, is the biggest evidence that Microsoft doesn't want to do a Windows 12 this year. It wants to start treating Windows 10 and Windows 11 like a singular platform. There's now even an internal effort to streamline the process for back porting certain features from Windows 11 to Windows 10.

Microsoft will even let users pay for continued security updates beyond the end of support date in 2025. That's how much it knows users aren't looking to upgrade to Windows 11 or Windows 12 any time soon.

Ultimately, we're coming up on another Windows XP situation, where the last version of Windows was the latest for way longer than usual. Many of those users ended up being uninterested in moving to anything newer for a very long time. 

Windows XP stuck around for way longer than Microsoft wanted it to, which led to a decade of user base fragmentation across Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Windows 10 was the unification effort Microsoft needed to get everyone back on the same platform again, but it took a while.

Now, Microsoft is at risk of doing it all again. Does Microsoft keep down this path and fragment the platform further, or do they plug the hole now and play the waiting game for Windows 10 PCs to die off and Windows 11 to become the new dominant OS?

We just don't know

(Image credit: Windows Central | Microsoft Copilot)

Ultimately, we don't know what Microsoft will end up doing later this year. I think my arguments for why Windows 12 is unlikely this year are strong, but we all know Microsoft is Microsoft, and sometimes logic doesn't apply. 

It's possible that OEMs are putting pressure on Microsoft to ship Hudson Valley as Windows 12 for that small boost in sales it will ultimately provide. Or perhaps Microsoft has big UX plans for Hudson Valley that would naturally make for a good Windows 12, regardless of the risks that brings. 

While that was certainly possible under Panay, I don't think the new leadership team is interested in any drastic UX changes right now. Could Microsoft save it all for a Windows 12 for 2025? Maybe. I think that would be a safer play for them. But deep down, I don't think Microsoft wants to do a Windows "12" at all. 

My big bet is that long-term, Microsoft would love to do what Google does with Chrome OS, which is make the platform invisible. You don't hear about Chrome OS 12, or Chrome OS Version 2025. It's just Chrome OS, always and forever, constantly updated with new features and enhancements without much of a fuss.

If Microsoft could do that with Windows, Microsoft would never have to worry about fragmentation again. Windows, as a service, updated every week or month with something new here and there, for "the lifetime of the device" you purchased. That's Microsoft's dream goal, in my opinion.

Will they ever get there? We'll have to wait and see. But for now, I think this year's big Windows OS release is going to be Windows 11 version 24H2, with AI as the headlining feature. 

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What you need to know

• Users of Linux and macOS may well be familiar with the sudo command, used regularly in the terminal, and it looks like Windows may finally be getting its own version. 
• Spotted in a preview build of Windows Server, a new option to enable sudo with three configurable options is present in the developer settings. 
• The average user will likely never touch this, but it would set Windows more in line with other platforms for system admins and developers who spend their time in the terminal. 
• Presumably it could also reduce the need to launch a terminal specifically with administrator privileges. 

For those who work across Windows 11 as well as Linux (or macOS), there are different ways of doing things. For the latter two, there are many similarities, but Windows has always been a little different. Now, though, it looks like one key tool used elsewhere may be coming to Windows. 

Spotted in a leaked Windows Server preview build by Windows Latest, a new option to enable sudo looks like it's being added. This would bring some operations from within the terminal on Windows in line with Linux and macOS. 

What is sudo?

(Image credit: Windows Latest)

Sudo simply means "superuser do" and is used when requiring elevated privileges on a user account while executing commands. For example, on Debian-based Linux distros, you would enter sudo apt update to update your system packages. Not everything requires elevated privileges, but the command applies them as and when necessary. 

It's similar to requiring administrator rights on Windows, where currently you would choose specifically to run your terminal as administrator. 

As per the report from Windows Latest, this new feature would appear to have three configurable options for sudo behavior. This includes opening in a new window, opening with input disabled, or inline, which you would imagine means keeping everything in the same session as it would on Linux. 

It could seem like a small change, but it's actually far from it. Not only would it bring Windows into line with other platforms developers and system admins use regularly with a standard command, it could also make executing with admin rights far simpler. As a regular Linux/WSL user myself, sudo is already engrained into my brain, but whenever I switch over to PowerShell, I just find myself getting frustrated because it's different. I, for one, welcome the arrival of our new sudo overlord. 

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What is new in Microsoft Edge 122 Beta?

Here is what is new in Microsoft Edge 122:

Feature updates

 

• Moving Managed Site Indicator (Briefcase icon) into the lock icon in the address bar omnibox. The briefcase icon, which signals that a page is managed, has been moved into the lock icon within the address bar. If an admin wants to see whether there are protections for a given page, they can click to open the lock icon in the address bar to look for the briefcase icon.
• Deprecation of the image enhancement feature. To improve end user experience the image enhancement feature has been deprecated.
• Configure recommended policies in the Microsoft Edge management service. The Microsoft Edge management service will provide admins with controls to configure recommended policies. This gives end users permission to override the configured policy.

 

Fixes

 

• Resolved an issue where PDF text fields and drop downs values were being rendered twice for specific files when using the Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader powered by Adobe Acrobat.

   

New Policies

 

• AIGenThemesEnabled Enables DALL-E themes generation

• EnhanceSecurityModeAllowUserBypass Allow users to bypass Enhanced Security Mode

• SuperDragDropEnabled Super Drag Drop Enabled

   

Obsolete Policies

 

• EdgeEnhanceImagesEnabled Enhance images enabled

You can download Microsoft Edge 122 Beta from the official Edge Insider website. Microsoft plans to release it to all users on the week of February 22, 2024.

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Not all users are migrated at this point. Those who have been migrated already or installed the Outlook app directly, may notice several differences between the new Outlook app and the classic Mail app.

One of the main differences turns an ad-free email experience into one with ads. You may see ads in the inbox in the new Outlook.

The classic Mail app did not have any ads. The new Outlook app is based on the web-version of Outlook, which also features advertisement.

Microsoft highlights advertisement with an ad icon. The ads are designed to look like regular emails otherwise, and it may be difficult for some users to distinguish between ads and real emails.

Microsoft is not the only maintainer of a free email service that displays these types of ads. Google's Gmail service and many other free email services may also display these types of ads to users.

Ads in the new Outlook app may be deleted. This is done by hovering over them in the inbox and selecting the trashcan icon. This won't last long though, as new ads will eventually be added to the inbox again.

There is also a menu link that links to the "go ad-free" page on Microsoft's website. Microsoft asks for $1.99 per month for an ad-free Outlook experience.

Ads and trackers are almost synonymous these days. Proton, maker of Proton Mail and therefore a Microsoft competitor, claimed that Microsoft was using the Outlook app as a new data collection service on Windows.

Go ad free by switching to another email client

Switching email clients is an option. While ads are shown like emails in the Outlook app, these are not shown when you connect third-party email clients to the Outlook account.

One of the best options on Windows is the open source Thunderbird client. Installation and setup of Outlook in the email client is straightforward.

All it takes is to type the Outlook email address and password in Thunderbird's account creation dialog to add the account. It takes less than a minute to complete and you will get an ad-free experience in the end.

Closing Words

Ads used to be distinguishable from regular content. This was the case for ads on the websites of email services, for search results and many other places. Nowadays ads are designed to look like regular content. This increases click rates and increases the revenue of the publisher and also the ad company.

It seems unlikely that this trend is going to reverse anytime soon.

The new Outlook app is a step back in this regard. A percentage of Mail users will dislike the display of ads in the new Outlook, as ads were not part of the classic Mail app.

Now You: what is your take on the new Outlook, and ads made to look like regular content?

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The Browser Company has offered its Arc Browser for Macs for a while, and late in 2023, it started sending invites for the Windows beta version. This week, the company announced new upcoming features that it hopes will speed things up for people searching for things on the internet.

In a YouTube video, The Browser Company outlined these features. The first is Instant Links, which is now available for beta testers. People can type in a very specific search request, and instead of going to Google, Bing, or another search engine, the browser brings in the links you want and puts them as tabs on your browser. The Arc Browser places those tabs on the left-hand side of the browser rather than on the top.

Another feature that will be added in the near future is Arc Explore. This time, when you search for something, the Arc Browser, using large language models, will start searching for you and will show you content on the screen, along with all of the information sources it has used to bring you the information that you asked for. You can continue chatting with the LLM as you would with Copilot or ChatGPT to get the specific information you need from your search.

Finally, Live Folders will launch in beta on February 15. This feature will let you follow websites placed in folders, and if the sites you follow get updated with a new blog post or a video, a new tab will show up in that folder with the updated content.

All of these changes have the potential to worry Google, Microsoft, and websites that depend on search engine results to get website links and, thus, money via ads. With that said, Microsoft Edge proves that even companies with unlimited funds have an extremely hard time luring Chrome users. It remains to be seen if a relatively small company and the features in its browser will make a dent in the search engine business model.

As we stated, the Arc Browser is available now for Mac, and it's in private beta testing for Windows, with a planned full public launch sometime in the spring of 2024.

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Judging from the pull request on GitHub, the new tool is in its infancy, so you probably should not expect it in the next PowerToys release. Meanwhile, you can contribute by offering your ideas and suggestions on GitHub or X.

Screenshots published by developers show a rough (very rough) concept of the module. Sadly, it seems that File Actions will work as a separate context menu invoked by a dedicated shortcut instead of integrating into Windows 11's native menus. According to the developer, context menus in Windows 11 are very limited, and adding a large number of entries will slow the already not-so-fast UI to the crawl.

In case you missed it, Microsoft recently released PowerToys 0.78. The latest release added four new localizations and a number of fixes for existing tools. Besides File Actions, Microsoft is working on other improvements, such as a reworked keyboard manager and better update settings.

You can download PowerToys from GitHub or the Microsoft Store.

What do you think about an extra context menu with different actions? What features you would like to see there? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Nvidia positions the RTX 3050 6GB as a step-up for those owning the old GTX 1650 and 1050 graphics cards. The company promises up to four times more performance with DLSS at the same power across popular games. The new card has a TGP of just 70W, which means most variants will not require additional power.

What is new in Nvidia 551.32 WHQL driver?

Game Ready for GeForce RTX 3050 6GB

 

This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3 technology including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Further support for new titles leveraging NVIDIA DLSS technology includes the launch of Enshrouded, TEKKEN 8, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League which support DLSS Super Resolution.

 

• Adds support for the GeForce RTX 3050 6GB GPU.

Driver 551.32 is identical to the previous release, other than support for the RTX 3050 6GB. That means it contains the same fixes for display flicker on systems with the RTX 4060 Ti, Forza Horizon 4 freezes and crashes, and horizontal banding when cloning a G-SYNC display to an HDMI monitor. If you do not plan to buy the RTX 3050 6GB, you can skip this driver altogether.

The driver also contains the same open issues as the previous one:

• [Netflix] Display issues for videos when using Edge browser. Recommend using Windows Netflix application as workaround.
• GeForce GTX 10/RTX 20 series: PC may randomly freeze when Windows HardwareAccelerated GPU Scheduling and NVIDIA SLI are both enabled
• Potential stutter may be observed when scrolling in web browsers on certain system configurations.

Nvidia 553.32 WHQL supports 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 systems with the following GPU generations:

You can download Nvidia's latest [EN-US] driver from the official website. Full release notes are available here (PDF).

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Valve's latest Hardware & Software Survey results revealed a notable increase in Windows 11 machines accessing Steam every month. It was the only Windows version that increased its market share in January 2024. Right now, it holds roughly 44.23%, which is a 2.29 gain over December 2023. With that change, Windows 10 is less than 8% away.

1. Windows 10 64-bit - 51.43% (-2.02 points)
2. Windows 11 - 44.24% (+2.29 points)
3. Windows 7 64-bit - 0.59% (-0.09 points)
4. Windows 8.1 64-bit - 0.13% (-0.02 points)
5. Windows 7 32-bit - 0.05% (-0.01 points)

As you can see, pre-Windows 10 releases still have enough users to show up in monthly reports, even though participation is optional. That will soon change since Valve ended Steam support on Windows 7 and 8/8.1 in January 2024, citing the end of Chromium support on those operating systems. Even though unsupported Windows versions can still access Steam, the app might stop working at any moment due to changes that require a minimum of Windows 10 or newer.

Here is what was happening on the hardware side in January 2024. The most notable change is that the laptop variant of the RTX 3060 graphics card is now the third most popular GPU on Steam. The GTX 1060 is now in fourth place

You can find more information on the official Steam website.

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The listing on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site states:

Copilot in OneDrive, available on OneDrive for Web, will allow you to ask questions and get information from files in your OneDrive without having to open the files. It will also summarize one or multiple files. Copilot in OneDrive will work on the following file types: DOC, DOCX, FLUID, LOOP, PPT, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, ODT, ODP, RTF, ASPX, RTF, TXT, HTM, and HTML.

This new feature will require a subscription to Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. In January 2024, the company revealed that Copilot for Microsoft 365 was now generally available for all businesses. The cost of adding Copilot to a Microsoft 365 business plan is $30 a month per person.

Microsoft has been paying a lot more attention to its OneDrive cloud storage services in the last few months. In October 2023, the company first announced its plans for "OneDrive 3.0" with a new user interface and features including a new People hub that organizes cloud files based on the people that have shared them with the user.

That new design started rolling out for personal users of OneDrive earlier this week, and it will continue through the month of February.

Microsoft also rolled out its new OneDrive app for Teams users in December. It includes many of the same new features the company revealed in October, including the People hub, along with the Shared View section, which lets users see any stored file that's been shared by someone else with you, along with the For You hub, which shows off any AI-recommended files you might have stored on your account.

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

[General]

 

• This update includes a handful of fixes to improve overall reliability.
• Fixed a dwm.exe crash impacting some Insiders in the previous flight.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• Fixed an issue impacting Task Manager reliability on the last few builds.

As you may already notice. This is a rather small changelog compared to what we are generally familiar with. You can view the official blog post on Microsoft's website here.

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It all started with a user claiming they could not open a picture using the stock Photos app, with the latter showing the error mentioned above. Later on, other people chimed in, reporting the same problem with other inbox Windows apps, such as Calculator (how hard could it be to run Calculator), Movies and TV, Feedback Hub (this one is quite ironic), 3D Viewer, etc.

Microsoft usually takes a while to acknowledge a widespread bug or error (assuming this one is such a problem), so we have to wait for the company to say a word about the situation. Meanwhile, users decided to dig deeper into the issue and perform their own investigation.

According to The Register, one theory is that the recent app updates rely on instructions that older processors do not support. In fact, many of the affected users run old-school hardware from the pre-Intel Core era, with long-outdated processors like Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon. Another speculation is that we may be dealing with a simple and unintentional developer mistake that rendered outdated hardware incapable of running the latest Windows app versions.

If you have a Windows 10 PC that runs on hardware whose best time dates back to the Windows Vista era, maybe it is a good idea to pause automatic updates and wait for the situation to clear up. The story also serves as a reminder that sometimes Microsoft means it when saying that you may encounter problems when running unsupported hardware and software.

Windows 10 users, do you have problems with Windows apps on your not-so-recent PCs? Let us know in the comments.

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Initially initially announced in 2021 and dubbed Compat 2021, the project focused on cross-browser web compatibility. In 2022, the companies launched Interop 2022 for browser interoperability to acknowledge developer pain points and make the web platform "more pleasant to work with." Together, Microsoft, Google, and other companies implemented numerous improvements to the web platform, and now they are ready to continue their joint venture.

This year, the Interop project focuses on several areas, such as layouts, CSS architecture, HTML elements, and more. Microsoft says Compat and Interop significantly reduced the number of browser inconsistencies when using flexboxes and grids, but some differences still exist. Therefore, Interop 2024 participants decided to make layouts one of their focus areas this year. There will be additional improvements for CSS nesting to ensure it works in the same way across browsers and Popover API in HTML that lets developers display content on top of other elements.

Besides the main focus areas, Interop 2024 will improve accessibility, custom properties, font size, pointer events, scrollbar styling, text directionality, and more. Every participant has already published their detailed blog posts detailing what is coming with Interop 2024. Here are the links if you want to learn more: Apple, Bocoup, Google, Firefox, Igalia, and Microsoft.

Like the previous two years, everyone is welcome to check how each mainstream browser scores in Interop 2024 tests using the official Interop Dashboard.

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The increase in Windows 11's market share means negative gains for Windows 10. Although it is still the dominant operating system on the market, its audience is slowly leaving for newer releases as the latest computers come bundled with Windows 11, and newer hardware works better with it. Statcounter says Windows 10 finished January 2024 at a 66.47% mark, which is -0.95 points.

Despite the steady decline, Windows 10 is with us for the long run. Windows 11 is still an optional update with a steep hardware requirement, which means plenty of Windows 10 users may not even know Windows 11 exists or they can update to it. In addition, Windows 10 has a little less than two years of mainstream support ahead, with three more years of paid extended security updates afterward. The latter will be available to regular customers for the first time.

Windows 7, a fifteen-year-old operating system, is the third most popular Windows release. After a big wave of users upgrading to Windows 10 in January 2023, Windows 7 sits slightly above 3%. In January 2024, it went down from 3.35% to 3.05%.

Of course, there are still people who use Windows 8, 8.1, and XP, even though Windows XP reached the end of support ten years ago, and Windows 8 was one of the most hated releases. Windows 8.1 is at 1.73% (+0.05), Windows XP is at 0.57% (-0.07), and Windows 8 is at 0.26% (-0.02).

You can find more information on the official Statcounter website. Keep in mind that third-party reports are never 100% accurate.

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Unsurprisingly, Google Chrome is still the number one desktop browser with a 64.84% share. After a substantial gain in December 2023, Chrome lost 0.39 points, something Google can easily afford considering its dominant position. Chrome's recent updates introduced several AI-powered features, which might lure users from alternative browsers.

Apple's Safari is the third most popular desktop browser, with a market share of 8.83% (-0.13 points). Mozilla Firefox is fourth with 7.57% (-0.05 points), and Opera is fifth at a 3.23% mark (-0.57 points).

1. Google Chrome - 64.84% (-0.39 points)
2. Microsoft Edge - 12.96% (+1.01 points)
3. Apple Safari - 8.83 (-0.13 points)
4. Mozilla Firefox - 7.57% (-0.05 points)
5. Opera - 3.23% (-0.57 points)

Here is what is happening in the mobile browser market, where Edge, sadly, is nowhere near its rivals. Maybe the upcoming extension support will help Microsoft make its mobile browser more popular on Android and iOS, but for now, things are rather uninspiring for the software giant. Statcounter says Microsoft Edge has a market share of 0.3% (+0.06 points).

1. Google Chrome - 64.74% (-0.19 points)
2. Apple Safari - 25.07% (+0.36 points)
3. Samsung Internet - 4.39% (-0.09 points)
4. Opera - 2.15% (-0.12 points)
5. UC Browser - 1.36% (-0.12 points)

You can find more information about the latest Statcounter report on the official website. As a reminder, Statcounter's data is not 100% accurate. Click here to learn how the service prepares its monthly reports.

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Windows 11 users who miss the ability to add or view events in the calendar flyout can restore the needed functionality with Calendar Flyout, a third-party app from the Microsoft Store. It has just received an update to version 2.0, bringing users new features and improvements.

With the latest release, Calendar Flyout users can add their work and school accounts, join meetings in Microsoft Teams for Business, check canceled meetings, see the number of events on the taskbar icon, switch between different background styles (Acrylic or Mica), and more. The app also switched from Windows Appointments API to Microsoft Graph API.

You can use Calendar Flyout to view, add, modify, and delete events and join Microsoft Teams meetings from a flyout without opening additional apps.

It is also worth noting that Calendar Flyout 2.0 has ditched support for non-Microsoft accounts and the sync with the old Microsoft Calendar app (UWP). However, the developer promises to add support for Gmail accounts and other online meeting providers.

Here is the full changelog for Calendar Flyout 2.0:

Added:

 

• week numbers in the calendar view (optional)
• two sizes of the main app window - normal and fit to screen height
• ability of performing basic operations on events: adding, modifying and deleting
• account management directly in the app (changing visibility of calendar, changing calendar color)
• support for work or school accounts
• support for Microsoft Teams for Business (ability to join a meeting directly from the agenda)
• support for cancelled meetings (visible as translucent in the agenda)
• ability of opening app directly from the taskbar icon (not only from the system tray)
• support for a jump list (matches context menu of the app in the system tray)
• a badge (with number of events) on the app icon on the taskbar
• two styles of the app background - Acrylic and Mica
• new event designer for adding new events and editing existing ones
• new preview of existing events
• context menu of events in the agenda view
• new icon for series events in the agenda view
• automatic app updates in the background
• confirmation info after creating or editing an event

 

Changed:

 

• Calendar Flyout is based on Microsoft Graph API instead of Windows Appointments API

• updated UI elements in the agenda

• updated app icon in system tray

   

Removed:

 

• support for non-Microsoft calendars

• synchronization with Microsoft Calendar app (UWP version introduced in Windows 10)

   

You can download Calendar Flyout from the Microsoft Store for $2.59. Although the app is not free, it is a great tool to fix Windows 11's inconveniences and bring back some of the removed features in better form.

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However, so far, the next-gen file system was limited to Windows Server only. In fact, if you recall, Microsoft limited ReFS support to only professional and enterprise-based Windows 10 SKUs back in 2017. Fast forward to 2023 though, things had been looking up in terms of ReFS support on client OS systems.

Almost exactly a year ago, Windows enthusiasts began noticing that Microsoft was working to enable bootable Windows on ReFS volumes. Although the feature was hidden at that time inside Canary channel builds, users could force-enable it via something like ViVeTool and go on to install Windows 11 on a Resilient File System drive.

As the year went on, some more progress was made. In March, the company updated the ReFS version 3.9 to a newer version, 3.10. So far though, only clean Windows 11 installs were possible, but that changed with another Canary build that made in-place upgrades possible before which, it would fail on attempting one.

That was back in August and since then, there has not been anything too noteworthy in terms of Windows bootability support on ReFS. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also not updated the officially supported ReFS version up from 3.10 yet, and as such, trying to run Windows on any newer ReFS version leads to an immediate crash on the newest Canary build 26040. Apparently, the crash is worse than it was on previous builds as it now throws up no recovery messages either.

The above was found when testing ReFS version 3.12 which suggests that Resilient File System compatibility still needs more work before it can hit the general public. Perhaps we will eventually get there with Windows 11 24H2 or maybe the next Windows version.

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Regardless, it is good to see that the company is out with a new chipset driver after a long time, and also considering it has been the holiday season in the U.S.

Chipset drivers typically improve or address bugs or issues with Windows power plans, USB, among others. They also add optimizations for newly released processors which is a high possibility this time as AMD just released its Ryzen 8000 G-series desktop APUs for Socket AM5. The performance-cutting STAPM bug though is more likely to be resolved via firmware update.

You can download the new AMD chipset driver version 6.01.25.342 from this page on AMD's official website.

Besides the chipset driver, AMD has also released a new special display driver for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League under Adrenalin Edition 23.40.02.03. Its release notes are as follows:

New Feature Highlights

 

New Game Support

 

• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

 

Fixed Issues

 

• Corruption may be observed while playing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League with ray tracing enabled.

 

Known Issues

 

• Deathloop may experience extended loading times on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6900 XT.
• Dead Space may experience an application crash after enabling RTAO on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6800.
• Excessive stuttering may be experienced when first playing a match in Overwatch 2.
• Audio may intermittently become out of sync with the video when recording from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition using AV1 codec.
• Oculus Rift S may display with a green tint on AMD Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• After a system reboot, Parsec host application may experience a crash on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• During Microsoft Teams meetings, the camera may intermittently display looped footage on some AMD Products, such as the AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840U Processor.

You can download that driver from AMD's official website here.

Thanks for the tip, Eternal Tempest!!

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In a blog post, Microsoft says the new OneDrive design is made to make it faster to find the files you need to find. It says:

The improved visual design reduces clutter and distractions, allowing you to focus on what's important – your content. Spend less time finding files and more time doing what you need with the improved OneDrive. These changes are consistent throughout the app, providing a seamless and consistent experience.

One of the new features in this OneDrive design is the People view. Microsoft says:

We know there are lots of important people in your life - from friends and family to members of your community. When life gets busy with all the activities going on, from school to soccer practices, it can often be easier to remember who sent you a file instead of the file name. We’ve created a new People view to match how you see the world – based on the people you spend your time with.

The revamped UI also includes new filters that were made to quickly discover the files you need by their file format (Word, PDF, Excel, etc).

OneDrive now has a revamped "add new" button. In addition to being able to upload new files to your OneDrive account, the button can also let you create a new document like a Word file, an Excel spreadsheet and more without having to launch an outside app. You can also view all the commands you can access on a specific file or folder, like Delete, Move To, Download, and more, by clicking on its context menu.

Microsoft has just started rolling out the revamped OneDrive experience to users, and it says it should become generally available for all users sometime before the end of February.

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Another new feature that is new to us is the ability to forward chat messages. Microsoft stated in the blog post:

Share a message with another colleague by right clicking the message and selecting “forward” or by clicking the “…” on the message and then “forward”. You can also add additional context to the message to provide greater clarity for the recipient. Messages can be forwarded to 1:1 chats and group chats.

If you are using Teams with Google's Chrome or Microsoft's Edge browser, you now has support for up to 9 video chats on screen in a 3x3 layout, instead of the previous 4 videos in a 2x2 design.

Business administrators and managers can now set up specific employees to handle on-demand services with their own appointment time duration in Teams.

The Teams mobile apps have received a few improvements in January as well. They include a new user interface for calls, as well as the ability for mobile Teams users to see the current status of a meeting, including who is in the meeting, how long it has lasted up until that moment, and if someone is recording it.

Microsoft also revealed a number of new third-party apps that launched for Teams in January. One of them is the well-known Calm sleep and meditation app. Microsoft says:

This includes content to prepare for key moments at work, music to help focus, breathing exercises, movement, and more. You can access mindfulness sessions for yourself or with others during meetings, share mindfulness content via chat, and set reminders for mental health breaks to help reduce stress and anxiety, reset, refocus, and build resilience.

The Calm app for Teams has a total of over 3,000 sessions that can be accessed.

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With the latest update, you can preview PDF documents in chats. Instead of the standard icon, Skype now shows the first page of the PDF you received, giving you a sneak peek into the file without opening it. Microsoft says the new PDF thumbnails make documents "a clear, identifiable part of your conversation."

Skype's media composer on Android now provides instant access to GIFs and stickers. These media are now only one tap away from your keyboard. In addition, the updated composer lets you copy and paste or drag and drop images and videos on tablets and foldables.

The calling UI is also getting some love from developers. One-on-one Skype calls now support resizing and moving your video preview to any corner of the screen. The app will remember your preferences, so you do not have to change them every time someone calls you. Finally, there is a new way to switch between cameras: just tap your video preview to move from the front to the back camera.

Every Skype update includes a few minor improvements and fixes, and version 8.112 is no exception. Here is what was fixed in the latest release:

• Audio Message Accessibility: Improved the drag functionality of the progress bar for short audio messages, ensuring easier navigation on Desktop.
• Android Stability: Fixed crashes related to the display of certain GIF images within the app.
• Background Reliability on Android: Addressed a sign-out bug that occurred when the app was running in the background.
• iOS Chat Interaction: Corrected a freeze issue where users couldn't interact with the chat after saving a draft reply and the conversation continued on another platform. Users can now scroll, access the composer, and manage drafts without disruption.

You can download the latest Skype Insider update from the official website.

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Added features:

 

• Added translate icon in PDF toolbar overflow menu.
• Added the text 'New' in the Magnify image context menu to indicate the addition of a new feature.

 

Improved reliability:

 

• Fixed a browser crash for autofill.
• Android: Fixed an issue that caused the browser to crash when closing a tab.

 

Changed behavior:

 

• Resolved an issue that hide the Restart button when switching “Show Copilot” and going back from Sidebar setting.
• Resolved a problem where the header was updated on Bing chat.
• Resolved an issue where text moved when the mouse was over the “Learn more” link.
• Resolved an issue After setting to dark mode and entering read mode, the translation pop-up window appears in white colour.
• Fixed an issue that blocked opening of Windows copilot’s continuity dialog on Desktop.
• Resolved a problem where pressing “Enter” key did not confirm renaming under favorites hub.
• Resolved an issue of download data not clearing when changing accounts in browser.
• Resolved a problem that made the status bar colour look weird when changing the system’s dark/light mode while Copilot was on.
• Resolved an issue that hide URL when hovering on item in favorites hub search result page.
• Fixed a glitch that resulted in the menu being misaligned when changing between landscape and portrait mode after accessing the Copilot toolbar menu.
• Fixed a glitch that resulted in the keyboard focus running in the background after triggering the ‘see more’ button.
• Solved a problem where the pinning dialog was not in Narrator Focus when the browser was closed.
• Fixed an issue where clicking on a deep link URL in the browser had no effect.
• Android: Fixed a bug that caused the wallpaper and some buttons to turn white when clicking on the search box and returning to NTP (New Tab Page).

To download the latest Edge Dev release, open the browser and navigate to edge://settings/help. If you want to join the ranks of Edge Insiders in the Dev Channel, head to the official website. Preview versions are available on Windows 10 and 11, macOS, Linux, and Android.

Edge 122 is expected in the Stable Channel on the week of February 22, 2024.

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What is new in Nvidia 551.31 WHQL driver?

From the official changelog:

Game Ready for GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

 

This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3 technology including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Further support for new titles leveraging NVIDIA DLSS technology includes the launch of Enshrouded, TEKKEN 8, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League which support DLSS Super Resolution.

 

• Adds support for the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER GPU.

Here is what was fixed in driver 551.31:

• Forza Horizon 4: Ansel/ Freestyle filters cause application to freeze or crash.
• RTX 4060 Ti: Display may randomly flicker with a black bar on the top of the screen when using desktop apps.
• Horizontal band may appear when cloning a G-SYNC display to HDMI monitor.

And here are the known issues:

• [Netflix] Display issues for videos when using Edge browser. Recommend using Windows Netflix application as workaround.
• GeForce GTX 10/RTX 20 series: PC may randomly freeze when Windows Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling and NVIDIA SLI are both enabled.
• Potential stutter may be observed when scrolling in web browsers on certain system configurations.

NVIDIA 551.31 WHQL Game-Ready driver supports 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11 with the following graphics cards and architectures:

You can download the latest NVIDIA driver from the official website or update an existing installation via the GeForce Experience app. Full release notes for driver 551.31 are available here (PDF).

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Selecting Help > Check for updates is an option to run a manual check for updates. The update may then be downloaded and installed directly.

LibreOffice 24.2

LibreOffice 24.2 is a major release. It adds new features and improves others. One of the main changes is the new auto save behavior.

Starting with this release, LibreOffice will save auto recovery information automatically. Users had to turn on the feature in previous versions of the Office suite manually to make use of it.

The new default saves the information every 10 minutes. LibreOffice users may turn off the functionality, expand it, or change the default path for document backups.

Here is how that is done.

1. Select Tools > Options to open the preferences.
2. Expand Load/Save in the sidebar and select the General subcategory.
3. The preference "Save AutoRecovery information every" may be turned off here. The default interval of 10 minutes may also be changed.

LibreOffice users may also enable "automatically save the document too" to save the entire document each time as well. The release notes reveal that "always create backup copy" is also enabled by default, but this was not the case on my system.

The default backup path is found under LibreOffice > Paths in the preferences. A double-click on the path allows users to change it to another location on the system.

The application's auto recovery feature reduces the risk of losing access to content, for instance after crashes.

Tip: it may be a good idea to enable the creation of full document backups to avoid data loss.

Other changes in LibreOffice 24.2

The official release notes list dozens of changes. Here is a selection of important ones:

• Comments support styles now.
• Nested sections may be collapsed.
• Improved multi-page floating tables.
• New line break algorithm for improved compatibility with Word.
• The Functions sidebar has a search now.
• Option to change the Math font under Format > Fonts.
• Option to search the preferences added.
• Windows users get access to the full Unicode range using Alt-NumPad.
• New ODF document encryption option that promises to be "more tamper-resistant and performant".
• The password dialog features a new password strength meter that indicates the strength of the password.
• Armenian language is now supported.
• FTP support is removed.

The Android version of LibreOffice received initial dark theme support and more interface languages.

Closing Words

LibreOffice 24.2 improves the free Office suite in many regards. The new auto-saving behavior protects documents against data loss. This is especially important to new users and users who have not enabled the feature in the application's options. It is easily overlooked there, considering that the settings are extensive.

Microsoft removed WordPad support from recent Windows builds. Soon, WordPad will no longer be available on Windows. LibreOffice supports all formats that WordPad supports and it can be a viable alternative for the application.

Microsoft plans to release Office 2024 standalone later this year.

Now You: which Office app, if any, do you use?

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