Microsoft displays news and trending content there. A check today promoted Bing's new DALL-E 3 image generation capabilities, an offer to "chat with Bing about dragons", more information about dragons, a trending news from the web section, games for you suggestions, and a trending searches section.

The entire list of items is unrelated to your activity on the computer. While some users may appreciate the ability to check out news, all of this is available elsewhere in abundance.

Others may classify this as promotions or even advertisement, either directly or indirectly. Microsoft uses the interface to promote its own content, either directly, by highlighting new services or features, or indirectly, by redirecting user actions to its web properties. A click on a link, for instance, opens one of Microsoft's websites.

If you use Windows Search to run local searches only, you may want to disable the functionality. The following paragraphs walk you through the steps of disabling what Microsoft calls Search Highlights in Windows 11's Search.

Remove News and Promos from Search

Microsoft has added an option to Windows 11 to disable these search highlights when opening Windows Search. Disabling the option will also remove the icon in the search field, which highlights the topic of the day.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Select Start and then Settings to open the Settings app. You may also press Ctrl-I to open it if you prefer using a keyboard shortcut.
2. Select Privacy & Search from the sidebar on the left.
3. Activate Search permissions on the page that opens. You may need to scroll to find it.
4. Scroll down to the very bottom of the Search permissions page until you find "More settings".
5. Toggle Show search highlights" there to disable the feature.

It may take a few seconds to apply the change, but a restart is not required. Once disabled, activating Windows 11's search field displays the main interface without web content.

Windows Search displays quick searches and top apps there instead. Note that there is no option to customize any of this.

Here is another tip. Select the three-dots menu in the search interface and select Search settings to open the Settings right away. It may be quicker than navigating in the Settings app.

You may also be interested in disabling lock screen ads on Windows, which we explained yesterday.

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For systems impacted by this issue, specifically Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 10 22H2, the KB5031356 security update would fail despite displaying initial progress during deployment.

The company acknowledged the problems on Friday, confirming user complaints emerging since Tuesday and saying that trying to install the update manually was also impossible.

"Microsoft has received reports of an issue where Windows updates released October 10, 2023 (KB5031356) fail to install. Devices might initially display progress, but then fail to complete installation," Redmond said.

"Based on our reports, some of the most common errors being encountered is Error 8007000D (ERROR_INVALID_DATA). This error can be found from the Windows Update view under System settings, by selecting Update History."

Fixed via Known Issue Rollback

Microsoft resolved the issue over the weekend via Known Issue Rollback (KIR), a Windows feature enabling the reversal of buggy non-security updates distributed through Windows Update.

The fix may take up to 24 hours to automatically propagate to all affected consumer and non-managed business devices. For faster deployment, users can also restart their Windows devices.

Redmond also provided the following manual steps that would help speed up recovery for impacted Windows devices using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) command-line tool:

1. Run command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, you can open the Start menu and type 'cmd.' From the right-side panel of the search results, select the option 'Run as administrator'
2. In the window that opens, type the following to execute a restore command: Dism /online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
3. Wait for it to complete successfully, then close the windows. You can now search for updates again from the Windows Updates from the Settings view.

The company still needs to provide a KIR Group Policy for Windows administrators to help resolve the security update install issue on affected Windows enterprise-managed devices.

Earlier this year, Microsoft used Known Issue Rollback to fix other issues breaking video recording in Windows apps and triggering failures when saving and copying files on Windows 11 22H2.

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Here is a GIF showing the new feature in action:

The updated Split Screen feature is not available by default—turning it on requires modifying a shortcut with a special command. Here is how to do it (via😞

1. Right-click your Microsoft Edge Canary shortcut and select Properties.
2. Click the Target field, place a space after the path, and type --enable-features=msEdgeSplitWindowDragAndDrop
3. Click Ok to save the changes.
4. Launch Microsoft Edge Canary using the modified shortcut.
5. Open two tabs and drag one to the right side of the window to initiate Split Screen.

It is worth noting that the current Split Screen implementation only works when you drag a tab to the right and only for the horizontal view with pages side-by-side. Not so long ago, Microsoft introduced a new vertical layout with stacked tabs, but it currently does not support new drag-and-drop capabilities.

As a reminder, you can enable Split Screen by clicking a button on the toolbar or pressing Ctrl + Shift + 2.

You can try the updated Split Screen feature by installing Microsoft Edge Canary version 120.0.2159.0 or newer (the latest release is 120.0.2160.0). However, we should warn you that the browser has major stability issues once again, with crashes occurring every two minutes or even less. That is the nature of testing the earliest updates, so do not use Canary or Dev builds as your main browser. Fortunately, Edge's preview versions can work side-by-side with stable releases.

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

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Copilot is coming to lots of Office apps

Microsoft announced Copilot back in September as its all-encompassing generative AI assistant. It also announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot would officially launch on November 1 for enterprise users, for $30 a month per user.

So it is not a huge shock to learn that the Microsoft 365 Roadmap added notices that Copilot would be rolled out to lots of Microsoft 365 Office apps in November. They include Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Whiteboard, OneNote, Loop, and Microsoft 365 Chat.

One Office app, Excel, is a bit different. The Microsoft 365 Roadmap shows it will get access to Copilot, but only in a public preview, in November. Its general availability won't go live until February 2024.

Finally, a new Copilot feature for classic Outlook will be available in preview in January 2024 and roll out officially in March 2024:

Copilot combines the power of LLMs and Outlook data to help you do more. Copilot can summarize email threads and extract key points.

Microsoft Teams will soon add support for Loop and more

There are a lot of upcoming new features coming to Microsoft Teams, according to this week's Roadmap update. It fact they are far too many to squeeze into this post so we will just hit on a few highlights.

One will add support for the Microsoft Loop collaboration service:

Co-create and collaborate using Loop components in channels. Share a Loop component like a table, a list or a paragraph, so anyone in the channel can view and edit it. Available in classic and new Teams.

Another upcoming Teams feature is supposed to make it easier to create messages:

A simplified compose box UI will make it easier to create and send messages. Edit your message, insert an emoji or call Copilot right from the compose box, or click on the plus button to choose from the extended menu of actions.

Yet another new feature will help with catching up with a lost call:

Easily stay in touch with your contacts after a missed call. A new chat button is added to your activity feed, enabling you to follow up on a missed call and start a chat with just one click.

All of these Teams features will roll out in November.

Microsoft Stream will add interactive quizzes, surveys, and polls

Microsoft Stream, the enterprise-based video streaming service, will be rolling out some interactive features in December 2023. One will let users add quizzes, polls, and surveys to videos:

Make your video interactive and more engaging by adding a survey, quiz, or poll using Microsoft Forms. You can add forms anywhere in the video timeline for videos you own. Go to Microsoft Forms to view responses and share a summary link with answers and scores in Microsoft Forms.

The Stream service will also add ways to include additional content to videos:

Make your video interactive and more engaging by adding annotations that can include hyperlinks and text. Call out important moments or share documents and other links to additional resources. You can add text and links anywhere in the video timeline to help guide your viewers to the right information.

That's all for this installment of the Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly post. Come back next Sunday for additional Roadmap updates.

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The process was most recently shared by X (formerly Twitter) user @TheBobPony, though it was discovered previously and even used in another Windows 11 install tool. The trick requires you to add “/product server” to the setup process using the Microsoft command prompt. You’d type that like “setup /product server” when installing Windows 11 from an ISO, and it forces the system to ignore the requirement checks that typically trigger.

It’s been confirmed to work on the most recent Canary version of Windows 11, and as I noted above, it is a bypass that people have been using for the past couple of years anyway, so it should work on live versions of Windows, too. Of course, it does require some knowledge about how to use Command Prompt, and because you can mess up things by putting in commands, it’s recommended to only use it if you have a basic understanding of what you’re doing.

If you don’t have much tech knowledge and you’re looking to upgrade to Windows 11, then utilizing one of these bypasses isn’t going to be the easiest thing. I’d recommend watching YouTube videos about the subject before trying it yourself, as you will want to have a basic idea of what you’re doing. 

Of course, you could also just go on ignoring Windows 11 like a lot of people are, as many aren’t happy with Microsoft’s recent move, which closed the pipeline that allowed users to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 11. No matter the choice, there are multiple ways to bypass the Windows 11 requirements if you so choose.

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However, one area of Windows 11 has remained mostly unchanged since version 21H2. That area is the Start menu, a highly controversial part among Windows users. After five relatively big feature updates, the Start menu still does not offer significant improvements over what Microsoft shipped in October 2021, which is a shame, considering how many people openly dislike or even hate the redesigned variant.

We have prepared a list of the top 10 features and changes Windows 11 users want for the Start menu. The information was taken from the Feedback Hub app, the main place for sharing your thoughts, complaints, and ideas with the Windows team. You can click each URI link and get to the corresponding post in the Feedback Hub to upvote it or read what other people think about a particular request.

1. Turn off and remove the Recommended section—9,800+ upvotes

The request does not need an explanation for those who have spent more than 1 minute using Windows 11. Microsoft attempted to please the crowd with the option to hide recommended content. Still, the comment section in Feedback Hub is full of enthusiastic people trying to explain to Microsoft the difference between "remove" and "reduce size." Unsuccessfully, so far.

Microsoft response:

Thanks for taking the time to reach out. It is not currently possible to have the whole area collapse or disappear, however your desire to have this functionality has been shared with the team. We'll let you know if there are any updates.

 

UPDATE: We made a new layout for Start that will let you reduce the size of the Recommended section. Right-click on Start to quickly access Start settings and choose the More pins layout option to show an extra row of pins with Build 22509.

2. Allow resizing the Start menu—3,600+ upvotes

Windows 11's Start menu looks silly on high-res monitors, and even those with lower-spec displays agree in the comments that the operating system should let you resize the Start menu. You know, just like Windows 10 does.

Microsoft response:

We've got this.

3. Go back to the Windows 10-style Start menu—3,300+ upvotes

Some even argue that Microsoft should return the much-hated full-screen Start menu option (check out number 9 below).

Microsoft response:

We appreciate you taking the time to give us feedback. If there's anything specific that would help make the Windows 11 Start menu work better for you, please upvote those requests in the Feedback Hub too.

4. Display jump lists when right-clicking pinned to the Start menu apps—2,400+ upvotes (several posts)

This request further highlights the Windows 11 Start menu's inconsistencies. For example, you can pin an app to the taskbar by dragging it from the All Apps list, but you cannot do the same on the Pins section. Similarly, right-clicking an app in the All Apps list displays its jump list, but not when you right-click a pin. Besides being confusing, this behavior makes the default Start menu view much less convenient. People love jump lists, and their omission is another reason why many dislike the "vanilla" Start menu in Windows 11.

Microsoft response:

Thank you for your feedback! While pinned apps in the Start menu don't currently support showing recently opened items in the jump list, the all apps list and taskbar do still support this. However, if you turned off Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer in Settings > Personalization > Start to remove them from the Recommended section, it will also remove them from those jump lists. You can turn this back on to bring it back across your system.

5. The "Uninstall" option opens the legacy Control Panel instead of the Settings app—1,660+ upvotes

Microsoft wants Windows 11 customers to use the Settings app, so plenty of legacy applets redirect you to the Control Panel successor. Ironically, the frequently used "Uninstall" option still launches the old Control Panel, even though the Settings app has a decent App section with plenty of useful options.

Microsoft response:

This is now available with Build 22621.2361 in the Release Preview Channel and retail updates.

Interestingly, the 22621.2361 release notes do not mention the change, so it might only be available to Windows Insiders in the Canary/Dev Channels. I am running 22621.2428 from the Stable Channel, and the Start menu still opens the Control Panel whenever I try to uninstall a Win32 app.

6. Switch the All apps list from the vertical list to the grid view—1,530+ upvotes

Two-thirds of the Start menu in the All Apps list is just empty space, which becomes extra annoying considering you cannot resize the Start menu and make it taller.

Microsoft response:

We've got this.

8. Make the Start menu open on the All Apps list by default—1,100+ upvotes

Many users do not use app pins and want to see their All Apps list without needing an extra click.

Microsoft response:

We've got this.

Tip: Our "Top 10 apps to fix Windows 11's inconveniences" features a program that lets you remove the Recommended section and open the Start menu on the All Apps list by default.

9. Add the full-screen Start menu option—1,090+ upvotes

Microsoft response:

We've got this.

10. Bring back live tiles—1,080+ upvotes

Self-explanatory. What is not self-explanatory is Microsoft suggesting you use Windows Widgets instead of live tiles. I am sorry, what?

Thank you so much for giving us your feedback. While we'll continue to use your feedback to guide the future of features like this, on Windows 11, we suggest you try out our new personalized and interactive widgets for a similar experience to Start tiles.

>

It is safe to assume that Microsoft will never address some of the most requested Start menu-related changes. Therefore, users have three options: deal with it, downgrade to (or stay on) Windows 10 until its death in two years, or use third-party apps, such as Power Start Menu, Start11, StartAllBack, and others.

What option are you picking? Let us know in the comment section alongside your opinion on the top 10 Start menu changes and features Windows 11 users want.

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Microsoft said that the issue has been resolved with Known Issue Rollback (KIR) and that the fix could take 48 hours from 18:14 P.T. 13 October to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. If you’re impatient, however, you can take some manual steps to resolve the issue right now.

The Redmond-based company said that users could fix the issue manually by following these instructions:

1. Run command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, you can open the Start menu and type 'cmd'. From the right-side panel of the search results, select the option 'Run as administrator'
2. In the window that opens, type the following to execute a restore command: Dism /online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
3. Wait for it to complete successfully, then close the windows. You can now search for updates again from the Windows Updates from the Settings view.

If you’ve followed those steps, it should be possible to install the latest Patch Tuesday update, if you run into any other issues you could retry the manual steps or simply wait and see if automatic updates resolve the issue.

According to the release notes pushed out on Tuesday, the latest Patch Tuesday update ‘addresses security issues’ in Windows. Microsoft also said that there were no known issues with the update, though, this certainly seems like one.

While we are on the topic of Patch Tuesday, it's worth reiterating here that Windows 11 21H2 is no longer getting these security updates so it's important for users still on that version to upgrade their systems.

Let us know in the comments if you have encountered an error message while updating your Windows 10 system. Did the manual steps above help to resolve you issue?

Source: Microsoft

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Back in 2021, Microsoft introduced the new share menu that made it easy for users to share links via popular services, from email to social networks. Microsoft is now revamping the share menu in Microsoft Edge browser. The new share menu is now live for Edge Canary users. As you can see from the screenshot above, the new share menu now has a new UI, and it appears right below the Share button which will appear in the address bar.

The new share menu in Microsoft Edge provides following features:

• Ability to copy the URL
• Ability to create QR code for the URL
• Ability to send the URL to mobile devices
• Ability to share via popular services including Facebook, X, Outlook, LinkedIn and others.

Microsoft will be rolling out this new share menu to Edge Dev and Edge Beta channel users in the coming weeks.

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In a recent development, YouTube, a platform known for its leading role in video content delivery and streaming, has been grappling with a bug that has affected its video playback. The bug, identified as Bug 1849680, has caused a regression in the video overlay function, which is not working as expected unless in full-screen mode.

The issue is related to video overlay and rounded corners. It was investigated on different platforms and browsers and Mozilla found that videos with rounded corners had more problems.

The bug report shows a complex problem in Firefox that affects YouTube video rendering and performance. The problem involves masks and opaque compositor surfaces.

The development team at Firefox engaged in discussions comparing how other browsers, such as Chromium, handle similar situations.

Several patches were developed and implemented to rectify the problem. Mozilla claimed “we’ve (they) cut the power consumed by Firefox when watching videos in some cases by 25% ” by fixing this bug. The enhancement is for Firefox on Windows. The company has confirmed power consumption improvements on YouTube for the Mac version of Firefox are also in the pipeline.

In summary, this upcoming Firefox update is expected to improve video rendering and performance on YouTube, particularly for videos with rounded corners on the Windows platform.

The efforts to reduce power consumption on YouTube are indicative of Firefox’s commitment to providing users with a seamless and energy-efficient video streaming experience.

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Microsoft Loop is a collaboration and productivity online tool that combines workspaces, pages, and components to help people manage projects and work together more effectively, similar to Notion and Google Workspaces.

The Loop tool is an excellent solution for task lists, meeting notes, brainstorming ideas, creating documentation, tracking issues, and more, whether you use it on Windows 11, 10, or another platform. 

The strength of the tool is that it's straightforward. It doesn't require a significant learning curve, as the interface is simple and intuitive, making creating spaces, pages, and components easier. Also, you can share and collaborate with other people.

This how-to guide will walk you through the steps to get started with the Microsoft Loop on Windows 11, but since it's an online tool, you can refer to these instructions from any platform.

Get started with Microsoft Loop

The process of getting started with Loop begins with accessing the tool, creating your first workspace and page, and creating a component you can then share with other people.

Access Loop with a Microsoft account

It's important to understand that Microsoft Loop doesn't have an application for Windows 11. Instead, you must access the service online using your Microsoft account.

You can access the service at no cost during the preview period. However, at this time, it's unclear if it'll be part of the Microsoft 365 subscription offering or free to everyone with limited functionalities without a subscription.

To sign up and access Microsoft Loop, you can use this link.

Navigate the interface

After signing in with your Microsoft account credentials, you will land on the dashboard with different views for your workspaces, recent components and pages, and ideas, allowing you to create new pages and components.

(Image credit: Future)

You can access other tools on the right side, including search, favorites, and two options to change the experience views.

Inside a workspace, the interface offers a left navigation pane with different options to access your recent pages, ideas, notifications, and more. 

The "Recent" section allows you to browse pages and components like a file manager application, and you can view who is currently accessing the items, when it was opened, and workspace location.

(Image credit: Future)

The "Ideas" section is a place to create pages and quickly dump your thoughts. Then, you can add these pages to the different workspaces.

(Image credit: Future)

You can navigate your pages and components and have the option to change the view of the pane using a tree or activity view. 

Create a workspace 

On Microsoft Loop, you can think of a "Workspace" as a folder containing different items, such as pages and loop components.

(Image credit: Future)

To create a workspace from the main page, click the "Add new workspace" (+) button from the top-right corner. Confirm a name for the workspace and an icon, and click the "Create" button.

(Image credit: Future)

The next step is to create one or more pages. 

Create a page 

Pages are the elements that contain the actual data. The first page will be created automatically when creating a new workspace, but you must configure it with a title and other components, such as a hero image.

If you want to create a new page inside a workspace, click the "Add a new page or link" (+) button from the left navigation pane on the right side and choose the "New page" option. 

(Image credit: Future)

The "New link" option isn't meant to add web links. Instead, it lets you bring pages or files you may have stored in the cloud.

On the new page, confirm the title, and you will notice the option to add an icon (in the form of an emoji) and add a cover. These last two elements are unnecessary, but they will enhance the page experience, giving them more personality. 

(Image credit: Future)

If you add a cover, Microsoft Loop offers abstract and landscape images and gradients.

You can confirm a title for the page and be done creating a page. However, at the bottom of the page, you will notice that you can choose from different templates to create different types of pages.

(Image credit: Future)

The experience offers options to create a blank page, project brief, project planning, and meeting notes, and you can access the "Template Gallery" to choose from many other templates.

(Image credit: Future)

Whatever option you choose, the template will include structure, explanation, and examples that make it simple to create your page.

(Image credit: Future)

Working with pages

On the page, as you click on "Just start typing," you will notice a flyout with two hints, including the use of "/" to insert and "@" to mention. 

(Image credit: Future)

The option you're likely to use the most is the forward slash. When you press the "/" key, the Loop context menu will appear with the elements you can insert on the page, including table, checklist, bulleted and numbered lists, divider, heading styles, and code. 

(Image credit: Future)

If you scroll down, you will find templates for task lists, voting tables, progress trackers, Q&A sessions, and communication options. Further down the list, the menu includes options to upload images and connect with other apps, such as Jira and Trello.

For example, unlike Excel, the table option allows you to create different information tables. Although Microsoft Loop doesn't offer a toolbar with different tools on a page, you can hover over an element to discover the available options.

(Image credit: Future)

If you want to upload an image, press the "/" key, scroll down under the "Media" options, click on "Image," and choose the image from your computer. 

As you hover over any part of the page, you will notice two icons, including the comment option that brings the tools to add comments to that specific block of content and react with emojis, and the "Boost picker" lets you add animated emojis.

(Image credit: Future)

The six-dot icon allows you to grab the block to re-arrange on the page, and if you click the icon, it'll give you the option to create a component or delete the block. 

If you are using Microsoft Loop to collaborate with other people, from the "/" context menu or using the "@" option, you can mention people and invite them to the workspace. 

Share a page or workspace 

You can also share workspaces with other people. You can do this by clicking the "Share" button at the top of the page, selecting the "Workspace" option, confirming the person's name or email, and clicking the "Invite" button.

(Image credit: Future)

You can share pages individually if you don't want to share the entire workspace. You can do this by clicking the "Share" button at the top of the page, selecting the "Page link" option, and sharing the available link with the people you want to have access to the contents of the page.

Create a component 

Microsoft Loop also introducess the concept of components, which allows you to share data with people outside the workspace. A component is a smaller piece of information always synced across locations.

While in the Loop platform, you can create a component from a page or block inside the page. 

To make a page a Loop component, from the page, click the "Share" button, choose the "Loop component" option, copy the link, and you can insert it on another page inside or outside the workspace. 

(Image credit: Future)

Or you can paste it as an embedded element on an email (or anywhere else like Microsoft Teams or Word on the web). Suppose you use this option in the body of the email, for example. In that case, you're not only going to see the contents of the component as if you were inside of Microsoft Loop, but it will also update in real-time if another person is making changes. 

At least, that's what was supposed to happen since, at the time, I was trying to embed a component in the body of an Outlook email. I was only able to paste the link.

Also, from the embedded component, you can view who has access, and you will find the options to copy and share components and see the shared locations. 

Check version history

Microsoft Loop also keeps track of all the changes happening on the workspaces and pages, allowing you to roll back changes that can come in handy when you have other people adding and removing content or you want back a previous idea or piece of information.

(Image credit: Future)

To check the version history on Microsoft Loop, while inside a page, click the "Settings and more" (three dots) button from the top-right and choose the "Version History" option. Select the revision, and click the "Restore" and "Confirm" buttons.

(Image credit: Future)

Check notifications 

When someone mentions you anywhere on the platform, you can see the notification from the inbox bell from the left navigation pane.

(Image credit: Future)

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Keep in mind Microsoft changed the way they have released Beta Channel preview builds this week. Instead of releasing two separate builds with their own build numbers at the same time., Microsoft is now allowing users who want new features to be gradually added to click on a new toggle and turn it off. Also the new Copilot generative AI feature in Windows 11 is slowly being rolled to members of the Windows Inside Program in different markets.

Here is the changelog:

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to everyone in the Beta Channel

 

[Emoji]

 

• We are temporarily disabling the update of our colour font format to COLRv1 (first introduced in Build 22631.2265) that displayed richer emoji with a 3D like appearance to fix some bugs. We plan to re-enable this in a future Beta Channel flight.

 

[Other]

 

• In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows will now require consent to share data between Windows and other signed-in Microsoft services. You will see some Windows features start to check for consent now, with more being added in future builds. Without consent to share data between Windows and other signed-in Microsoft services, some functionality in Windows features may be unavailable, for example certain types of file recommendations under “Recommended” on the Start menu.

 

Fixes for everyone in the Beta Channel

 

• Fixed an issue which was causing search to crash on launch for some Insiders in the previous flight.

You can check out the entire blog post here.

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Here is the changelog which can be found in full here:

Feature updates

 

• Microsoft Edge for Business Banner. Microsoft Edge for Business is a dedicated Microsoft Edge experience built for work that enables admins in organizations to give their users a productive and secure work browser across managed and unmanaged devices. The in-product Microsoft Edge for Business banner is being deprecated and will no longer be visible.
• Find on page. Searching for a word or phrase on a webpage has become easier with the new smart find update to Find on page. For more information, see Find on page. Now when you search with Find on page, we suggest related matches and synonyms making it effortless to find what you're looking for, even if you misspell a word in your search query. When you search, simply select the suggested word to quickly locate the desired word or phrase on the page. Data is sent to Microsoft for processing. For more information, see Microsoft Edge's Privacy Whitepaper. Administrators can control the availability using the RelatedMatchesCloudServiceEnabled policy.
• New SmartScreen policy. The ExemptSmartScreenDownloadWarnings policy lets administrators create a dictionary of file type extensions with a corresponding list of domains that are exempted from SmartScreen AppRep warnings. Files with file type extensions specified for domains identified by this policy are still subject to file type extension-based security warnings and mixed-content download warnings.
• New Microsoft Edge Update policies. The MeteredUpdatesDefault and MeteredUpdates policies allows administrators to control the "Download Updates over metered connections" setting (edge://settings/help). The MeteredUpdatesDefault applies to all apps and MeteredUpdates applies to targeted apps. When a policy is configured to Allow, updates occur on a metered connection, such as cellular connections or others where data usage is controlled.

 

Policy updates

 

New policies

 

• BeforeunloadEventCancelByPreventDefaultEnabled - Control the behavior for the cancel dialog produced by the beforeunload event
• CompressionDictionaryTransportEnabled - Enable compression dictionary transport support
• DataUrlInSvgUseEnabled - Data URL support for SVGUseElement
• ExemptSmartScreenDownloadWarnings - Disable SmartScreen AppRep based warnings for specified file types on specified domains
• ForceBuiltInPushMessagingClient - Forces Microsoft Edge to use its built-in WNS push client to connect to the Windows Push Notification Service
• ForcePermissionPolicyUnloadDefaultEnabled - Controls whether unload event handlers can be disabled
• PictureInPictureOverlayEnabled - Enable Picture in Picture overlay feature on supported webpages in Microsoft Edge
• SendMouseEventsDisabledFormControlsEnabled - Control the new behavior for event dispatching on disabled form controls

 

Deprecated policies

 

• RendererCodeIntegrityEnabled - Enable renderer code integrity

Microsoft also announced an upcoming change to Edge:

In an upcoming update to Microsoft Edge, the Bing icon entry point in the Microsoft Edge sidebar will change to the new Copilot icon. No other changes in the experience are expected.

There are also some security updates to Edge 118 which are listed here.

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Notable improvements in Rufus 4.3 include the ability to enforce Windows installation in S Mode (the long-forgotten mode that limited app installation to the Microsoft Store), NTFS enforcing for Linux Mint LMDE, a fix for the bug preventing opening VHD images, and more. As a reminder, Rufus received VHD and ZIP64 support in version 4.2 released in July 2023.

Here is the complete changelog for Rufus 4.3 Beta:

• Add support for symlink preservation when NTFS is used
• Add an exception to enforce NTFS for Linux Mint's LMDE
• Add an expert feature to restrict a Windows installation to S Mode
• Fix persistence support for Debian 12 in BIOS mode
• Fix a regression that prevented the opening of .vhd images (#2309)
• Update UEFI:NTFS to report a more explicit error on bootmgrsecurity issues
• Improve the search for conflicting processes, by running it in a background thread
• Improve support for Slax Linux (#2336)

You can download Rufus 4.3 Beta from the app's GitHub repository or from the Neowin Software section. The latest stable release (installable and portable) is available on the official website. You can use Rufus on any PC running Windows 8 and newer, including Windows on ARM.

For those unfamiliar, Rufus is a great free utility for creating bootable media for installing Windows, Linux, or another operating system.

Although Windows users have the Media Creation Tool app, Rufus provides several extra features, such as the ability to easily bypass Windows 11's strict hardware requirements and online connection, copy regional settings, quickly create an offline account, and more. Rufus is also open-source and its developer encourages everyone to tinker with the app's source code.

Check out our guide detailing how to create a Windows 11 install media using Rufus.

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Microsoft, alongside that, also released dynamic compatibility updates for Windows 11 versions 21H2 and 22H2, which improve the Windows recovery with the help of SafeOS updates labeled "critical". The support articles state:

KB5031476: Compatibility update for installing and recovering Windows 11, version 22H2: October 10, 2023

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery features for Windows 11, version 22H2.

 

KB5031475: Compatibility update for installing and recovering Windows 11, version 21H2: October 10, 2023

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery features for Windows 11, version 21H2.

In a Tech community blog post about Windows 10 Dynamic Updates, Microsoft explained Dynamic Updates in more detail regarding its various components and uses. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more:

As soon as a Windows 10 feature update initiates, whether from media or a Windows Update service-connected environment, Dynamic Update is one of the first steps invoked. Windows 10 Setup reaches out to an Internet-facing URL hosted by Microsoft to fetch Dynamic Update content, then applies those updates to your OS installation media.

 

Content acquired includes:

 

• Setup Updates: Fixes to Setup binaries or any files that Setup uses for feature updates.
• Safe OS Updates: Fixes for the "safe OS" that are used to update Windows recovery environment (WinRE).
• Servicing Stack Updates: Fixes that are necessary to address the Windows 10 servicing stack issue and thus required to complete the feature update.
• Latest Cumulative Update: Installs the latest cumulative quality update.
• Driver Updates: Latest version of applicable drivers that have already been published by manufacturers into Windows Update and specifically targeted for Dynamic Update.

 

In addition to these updates, Dynamic Update will preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. These are not updates to LPs and FODs, but reacquisition to ensure the user has these elements present with the update completes.

The Dynamic update is available only via the Microsoft Update Catalog. You can download it by visiting these links: (KB5031476 / KB5031475).

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Although its rollout has been really confusing, the latest Windows 11 feature update, also known as the October 2023 Update or "Moment 4," is actually pretty awesome. It’s not perfect by any means, but some of the new features Microsoft is rolling out to Windows 11 this fall really have improved my time on Windows. The attention Microsoft is giving to in-box apps and utilities has been a long time coming.

It’s true that the update has introduced some new issues. Notably, the performance of the File Explorer is a little worse now. This is because Microsoft updated File Explorer with a new design that uses more modern code, but this modern code is sitting on top of all the old code, which means the app now takes a little longer to pop up.

Microsoft Copilot is really just

Bing Chat... for now.

(Image credit: Windows Central)

There’s also the new Microsoft Copilot, which Microsoft touts as the star of this feature update, but I find it incredibly lacking in capabilities. Right now, it’s nothing more than a Bing Chat shortcut disguised as an integrated Windows 11 feature. It can control basic Windows Settings, but that’s about it currently.

It will improve over time as third-party plugins become available, but it’s also incredibly slow outside of functionality. This is because the Copilot relies on the cloud to function, so any queries you enter into it must be sent to Microsoft’s servers before being processed and sent back to you. If you intend to do a simple internet search, it’s almost always faster to do it the traditional way instead of using Copilot.

But it’s not all bad news; many of the changes and improvements added to this release are very useful. We’ll start with Microsoft Paint, now an actual capable image editor. Paint hasn’t been updated with new features in well over a decade, but with the latest Windows 11 update, it’s basically a whole new tool.

Paint now supports transparent images, along with layers, and the ability to remove the background of an image using “AI.” This functionality is incredible in a free in-box OS app, and I’m no longer required to install Photoshop for my basic photo editing needs. Microsoft is also adding generative AI to Paint in a future update, but I’m not bothered about that.

Elsewhere, the Snipping Tool on Windows 11 has been given a big boost, too. It can now identify text in screenshots, making it easy to copy and paste text from an image you screenshotted! This has saved me so much time, as I no longer need to write all the text in a screenshot. It can also now automatically redact email addresses and phone numbers from screenshots. Incredible!

Auto text recognition in Snipping Tool is a game changer. (Image credit: Microsoft)

Snipping Tool is also gaining the ability to record your microphone and screen in screen recording mode. Microsoft has even reworked the tool’s UI to make it easier to switch between screenshot and screen recording modes when hitting WIN+Shift+S.

Another new feature, Dynamic Lighting, is making my life easier. No longer do I have to download Razer’s awful peripherals app to change the colour of my keyboard. Now, I use Windows Settings, which is faster and much lighter than Razer’s bogged-down alternative.

There's also the new Windows Backup app, making transitioning to a new Windows PC easy. It backs up a bunch of Windows settings, folders, and even your apps to the cloud using your Microsoft account, then prompts you to restore your PC backup when setting up a new Windows PC during the out-of-the-box setup. You select the backup, and when you hit the desktop, your pinned apps should be back where they were on your old device. 

The new backup app is so easy to use. (Image credit: Windows Central)

While I’m enjoying these additions, public reception to the new update has been somewhat of a mixed bag. While many users are either enjoying the update or haven’t really noticed anything new, some users don’t like some of the new additions.

Eugenio Estrada on X said, “Disappointed with the availability, or lack of, Windows Copilot in the EU.” This is true. The star feature of Microsoft’s latest update is only available in a few regions. But as mentioned above, there’s not much to it right now.

@willmgreenhalgh said, “I installed it on my laptop and have had constant issues, hangs, crashes, explorer problems, programs stop opening or working, PowerToys is dead, malware bytes won’t work, Task Manager takes forever to load. It’s unusable.”

@Nick75112239 mentioned that the “tablet experience is still dearly lacking. As a proud Surface Pro owner, I often use it in Tablet mode and find the overall experience lacking. There is no gesture to switch between apps. Pen experience [could] be improved in Edge. Rotation [could] be more fluid.”

Transpencey support and layers in Paint are finally here. (Image credit: Microsoft)

On the flip side, many users, like me, are enjoying at least some of the new capabilities added to the update, especially around in-box apps such as the Snipping Tool and Photos app.

Major Davies says they “love the volume mixer option … with the new update, I can mute the game and watch YouTube without having to quit the game.”

@XeZrunner said, “I love the improvements made to the built-in apps, especially Paint. OCR in Snipping Tool and the Bokeh feature in Photos are some really nice additions.”

On the topic of Microsoft Copilot, most users are finding it quite lacking:

“The integrated Bing Chat is overhyped, I rarely even think about it,” said @Nick75112239, and KawaiDon agreed: “I right away turned off Copilot and Widgets. I have no need for these kinds of distractions on my computer. “

That said, not everyone seems to think so. @JimmyFal says, "I use Copilot 50 times a day, find it extremely useful for many of the tech questions I have about using Excel and Power Query." 50 times a day? That's seriously impressive. 

Overall, I think the new Windows 11 update delivers more good than bad, and users are missing out by not upgrading. Microsoft is already working on fixing the File Explorer performance issues, and as mentioned, Copilot, over time, will improve. All the other quality-of-life improvements are worth the upgrade.

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What is new in Windows 11 build 22621.2500?

• New! This update affects the search highlight gleam in the search box. When you select the gleam, a Bing.com page will appear for the daily search highlight. This is available to a small audience initially and deploys more broadly in the months that follow.
• This update changes the English name of the former Republic of Turkey. The new, official name is the Republic of Türkiye.
• This update supports the currency change in Croatia from the Kuna to the Euro.
• This update supports daylight saving time (DST) changes in Syria. To learn more, see Interim guidance for Syria DST changes 2022.
• This update addresses an issue that affects fontdrvhost.exe. It stops responding when you use Compact Font Format version 2 (CFF2) fonts.
• This update addresses a memory leak in ctfmon.exe.
• This update addresses a memory leak in TextInputHost.exe.
• This update addresses an issue that affects touchscreens. They do not work properly when you use more than one display.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Dynamic Lighting. The default provider is not applied as expected. This occurs when you set it up using Unattend files.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Microsoft Store. It stops responding when you access it from Windows Mixed Reality.
• This update addresses an issue that affects cellular settings. The name of the mobile operator is wrong.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Firewall Profile. When you are on a domain authenticated network, it detects a public domain. This is wrong.
• This update addresses an issue that occurs when you use Universal Print to add a printer using its location. When you browse the tree view structure, the tree nodes do not work as you expect.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Outlook. It stops responding. This occurs when you print to an Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) printer that has a slow response time.
• This update addresses an error that occurs when you print using v4 print drivers.
• This update makes Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.
• This update addresses an issue that blocks external connections. This occurs when you set up a Kubernetes load balanced service and turn on session affinity.
• This update addresses a Firewall configuration service provider (CSP) issue. It stops a device from syncing.
• This update addresses an issue that affects devices on which you have defined Windows Information Protection (WIP) policies and set up a proxy. A stop error occurs. This happens on devices that use Microsoft Defender Application Guard. In the past, WIP was known as enterprise data protection (EDP).
• This update addresses an issue that occurs after you run a Push-button reset. You cannot set up Windows Hello facial recognition. This affects devices that have Windows Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) turned on.
• This update addresses an issue that affects PowerShell versions greater than 7.3.1. It might block scripts and not let them run in Constrained Language Mode. This occurs when you turn on a WDAC policy.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Automatically Hide the Taskbar setting. You cannot set it using the SHAppBarMessage() API.
• This update improves the performance of the search box experience.
• This update addresses an issue that affects robocopy. The /efsraw switch stops it from copying data properly.

You can check out full release notes on the official Windows Blogs website.

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The Ubuntu 23.10 desktop, working just fine before you start messing with it.

 

Ubuntu 23.10, codenamed Mantic Minotaur, is the 39th Ubuntu release, and it's one of the three smaller interim releases Canonical puts out between long-term support (LTS) versions. This last interim before the next LTS doesn't stand out with bold features you can identify at a glance. But it does set up some useful options and upgrades that should persist in Ubuntu for some time.

 

Slimmed down and Flutter-ed up

Two of the biggest changes in Ubuntu 23.10 are in the installer. Ubuntu now defaults to a "Default installation," which is quite different from what the "default" was even just one release prior. "Default" is described as "Just the essentials, web browser, and basic utilities," while "Full" is "An offline-friendly selection of office tools, utilities, web browser, and games." "Default" is somewhat similar to what "Minimal" used to be in prior versions, while "Full" is intended for those who are offline or have slow connections or just want as many options as possible right away.

 

At the moment, most people won't be saving much, assuming they install off an ISO file. The ISO for Ubuntu 23.10 is 4.6GB, which is smaller than the 4.9GB ISO of Ubuntu 23.04, but not drastically so. This may change, however; Ubuntu staffers note that they have bigger plans for provisioning and install options, which may make it into 24.04. For now, it's a way to avoid clutter in your app search, at least, if not your disk overall.

 

Elsewhere in the installer, you can now choose ZFS as your primary file system. There's also an experimental option to set up Trusted Platform Module (TPM) full-disk encryption rather than rely entirely on passphrases to encrypt your disk. This brings Ubuntu up to speed with Windows in offering a way to both secure your system and find out the hard way that you lack a backup key to get in after messing with your boot options. (Kidding! Somewhat.)

 

Once you're actually inside your desktop, needing something more than a sparse few apps, you'll find the next big thing Ubuntu upgraded: the App Center. Ubuntu's software portal, still referred to as the Snap Store in various places, continues to place containerized Snap apps front and center. But now it does so much quicker, as the whole app has been rewritten in Flutter, Ubuntu's new default for desktop apps. I can tell the difference right away, but that's mostly a testament to how sluggish the prior interface felt. The first results it shows are Snap packages, and then "Debian packages" are offered below a dividing line.

 

Ubuntu 23.10 adds a dedicated firmware updater tool, one that doesn't require the performance hit of keeping a software center process to be running in the background. Linux firmware updating has come a long way in recent years, and it's a good tool to have, especially on single-boot devices.

GNOME and kernel pack-ins

Most of the other user-facing changes come from the upgrade to GNOME 45. Key among the changes are:

 

• A new "Activities Indicator" in the top bar, which shows the workspace you're on and which retires the prior text box that showed the name of the current app.
• Search performance improvements across many default GNOME apps, including Files, Calendar, and the system search tool.
• An indicator showing when a system camera is in use (though that camera must be using Pipewire).
• New default image viewing and camera apps

Specific to Ubuntu, there have been improvements to fractional scaling (certainly a your-mileage-may-vary area) and tiling. In addition to the standard left/right/top/bottom/full window options, you can now drag a window to one of the desktop corners to make it one-quarter of the usable desktop space. It's not quite a tiling desktop, but you can kinda get there with some window flinging.

 

The 6.5 kernel also gives Ubuntu some new features and improvements, including faster boot times on systems with Xeon or EPYC CPUs, improved efficiency in Ryzen CPUs, MIDI 2.0 support in ALSA, ACPI support for RISC-V architectures, and lots more. Two of the more noticeable upgrades are that some Xbox controllers now have their rumble haptic feedback supported in 6.5, and Asus' ROG Ally now has working audio, thanks to some hard-working Steam OS fans.

 

At a deeper level, Ubuntu 23.10's AppArmor policies can now implement restricted unprivileged user namespaces. Unprivileged user namespaces, which are ideally used to give non-root users access to some privileged capabilities, are now a major part of exploit chains—44 percent, by Google's estimation. There's a lot to this new policy, but Ubuntu is essentially putting checks and new defaults on apps that seek to use this tool.

 

Another change for apps is how Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are handled in 23.10. Previously, PPAs were added to a .list file at /etc/apt/sources.list.d, and a GPG keyring was added elsewhere. Now, all PPAs must be added as .sources files, coded as deb822. This prevents repositories from riding each others' keys and ensures that when a PPA is removed from the system, its key goes with it.

 

There are, of course, many Ubuntu flavors that have similarly packed in upgrades from the 6.5 kernel, their desktops, and a few other unique changes. Xubuntu, the Xfce desktop version, has better support for Apple Magic Trackpads. 9to5Linux has the flavor changes and download links for them.

 

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I never thought I’d be leaning on Microsoft to teach me how to install Linux, but here we are. The Windows maker quietly published a support page with instructions on how to install Linux on, presumably, a machine that once used Windows. The Register caught on to the page’s existence and, honestly, the step-by-step is legit. Microsoft even mentions installing a few of the most popular distros.

The best part of this whole thing is the way Microsoft describes Linux from the start:

Linux is an operating system, similar to Windows, but with many different versions due to the nature of being open source and fully customizable.

By its admittance, Microsoft calls Linux “fully customizable.” But those who have used these UNIX-based platforms before and even those of us who have been on Android a long time can recall many times when that ability for customization has come back to bite us. It’s why I stay safely in the arms of Microsoft and its software. Sure, Windows might constantly yell at me to keep using the Edge browser instead of Google Chrome, but I’ve learned how to ignore it all and continue with my life despite the platform’s kinks.

Of course, no Microsoft help is without a sprinkling of reminders of how you rely on its apps and services to get things done. The company frequently drops names throughout the thorough how-to, including Azure for cloud services, Outlook, Work, and even the dreaded Teams. Its first suggestion for starting with Linux is to use the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which installs it alongside whatever version of Windows is making all your hardware work together. That is a good way to get started with Linux for beginners, but it’s very clearly coded in bits of “don’t forget who made you first, it was Daddy Microsoft.”

The Register thinks part of the objective of this page, besides offering aid, is to give aging Windows machines another chance at life. Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7 or 8, and Windows 10 is quickly nearing extinction, too. But I’m not one to dismiss helpful support pages from the big companies. I’ve relied on them countless times throughout my computing life and I like that Microsoft made this one especially easy to follow along. I do not feel overwhelmed by the way it’s penned, though it’s a good idea to have a little bit of computer confidence if Linux is something you want to try out.

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At the end of last month, Microsoft released its Moment 4 feature update for Windows 11 22H2. The update was available as a preview and this week it rolled out to all users via the month's Patch Tuesday.

While the big moment was for Windows 11, Microsoft also released something significant for Windows 10 as well. The company released an update to the Windows update service components which brings a new user interface (UI) functionality.

The release notes for the update are given below under KB5001716 and it applies to versions 2004, 20H2, 21H1, 21H2, and 22H2:

Summary

 

This update includes a new user interface (UI) functionality for Windows Update in Windows.

 

This article applies to the following:

 

• Windows 10, version 22H2
• Windows 10, version 21H2
• Windows 10, version 21H1
• Windows 10, version 20H2
• Windows 10, version 2004

Notes about this update

 

• When this update is installed, Windows may attempt to download and install feature updates to your device if it is approaching or has reached the end of support for your currently installed Windows version. Feature updates offer new functionality and help keep your device secure.
• After this update is installed, Windows may periodically display a notification informing you of problems that may prevent Windows Update from keeping your device up-to-date and protected against current threats. For example, you may see a notification informing you that your device is currently running a version of Windows that has reached the end of its support lifecycle, or that your device does not meet the minimum hardware requirements for the currently installed version of Windows.

Known issues in this update

 

We are currently not aware of any issues that affect this update.

 

Microsoft says the update will be installed automatically though it does recommend getting the latest servicing stack update (SSU). You can find such information on this advisory (ADV990001).

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What is new in Microsoft Edge 119.0.2151.2 Dev?

Here is the official changelog published on the Edge Insider forum:

Hello Insiders! We released build 119.0.2151.2 to the Dev channel! This includes numerous fixes.

 

Added features:

 

• Added a feature trigger for auto grouping when the suggestions bubble is shown.
• Added support for video overlay lookup.
• Added support for additional page settings (page range and pages per sheet) in API when the print request is for saving to a PDF file.

 

Improved reliability:  

 

• Cookies being lost on exiting the browser on Mac has been address!
• Fixed a crash when opening a local file bookmark from the favorite's hub.
• Fixed a crash when adding and removing tabs in a shared workspace.
• Fixed a crash caused during rendering of form fields.
• Fixed a crash when modifying/deleting migrated passwords.

 

Changed behavior:

 

• Fixed a bug where Downloads gets stuck with 0 B/s and creates unconfirmed crdownload file.
• Fixed a security section settings bug.
• Fixed a bug where outlook side pane is getting hidden, when closing the tab with side pane.
• Fixed an issue with tab stops in tab strip's focus order.
• MacOS: Fixed a bug where web contents are unresponsive when in full screen.
• iOS: Fixed a bug when password added in the broken version was getting lost after updating to fixed version.
• WebView2: Fixed a bug when extension resource was not accessible.

Microsoft Edge Dev is available on Windows 11, 10, macOS, Linux, and Android. You can get it from the official website. Existing installations will update automatically, but you can also force-install the latest update by heading to edge://settings/help.

Version 119 is expected in the Stable Channel on the week of November 2, 2023.

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The new version is in distribution already and most installations of Brave Browser on the desktop should receive it automatically.

You can check the version by selecting Menu > Help > About Brave. The browser runs a check for updates when the page is opened. It should download and install any new version that it finds during the check automatically.

Brave 1.59

Brave 1.59 is a smaller release. The official release notes divide the changes into different groups as usual.

The new browser version updates Chromium to 118.0.5993.70, which means that security issues are patched in the new version. Google launched Chrome 118 recently, which is based on that. The company addressed 20 security issues in the Chrome release.

Brave engineers have fixed several crashes in the browser. One crash occurred when users loaded an internal page, brave://optimization-guide-internals, another when users added scriptlet injection filters with too many arguments.

As far as other privacy and security changes are concerned, Brave 1.59 improves the browser's debouncing service. Bounce tracking protection was introduced in 2021 in Brave Browser. It is designed to protect users from so-called bounce tracking or redirect tracking methods. The main idea behind bounce tracking is load tracking domains when users navigate that redirect users to the original destination.

Brave Browser will also block "onion" domain subresource requests in non-Tor contexts now. Brave supports Tor, which users may enable by selecting Menu > New Private Window with Tor, or through the keyboard shortcut  Alt-Shift-N.

Onion domains and subresources should only be loaded in Tor mode, and this fix prevents subresources from being loaded outside of the mode.

The Linux version of Brave Browser comes with improved password storage backend detection logic in the new version.

Brave 1.59 other changes

The integrated Wayback Machine feature has a now "don't show again" checkbox in the new browser version. It replaces the button and helps minimize miss-clicks according to Brave.  Brave suggests to load an archived copy of a webpage if it can't be reached, for instance if the server is down.

Brave Browser 1.59 has a refreshed main menu, which features icons now. All Chromium-based browsers move to this new main menu design.

Brave VPN users may now enable WireGuard in the settings by loading brave://settings/system.

Closing Words

Brave Browser 1.59 is a light update for the web browser. It is still important, as it addresses security issues and crashes. Brave Software has laid off 9% of its workforce recently.

Now You: do you use Brave?

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Most ecommerce sites support reviews in some form or another. Amazon allows customers to leave reviews and rate products. This data is often used by sites, for instance to determine the visibility of a product.

Shady organizations discovered early on that fake reviews can push sales. It is therefore no surprise that these are used widely.

While it is sometimes easy for online shoppers to detect fake reviews, e.g., when a number of reviews looks similar or uses more or less the same review text, it is almost impossible to distinguish certain fake reviews from legitimate ones.

Fakespot was created for that purpose. The free web service uses "AI to detect fake reviews and scams" on a selection of US-based ecommerce sites. Sites include Amazon, BestBuy and a handful of others. We reviewed Fakespot back in 2018.

Mozilla acquired Fakespot earlier this year and is now in the process of integrating it natively into Firefox. It is still available on the Web and also for other browsers besides Firefox.

Fakespot integration in Firefox

Fakespot analyzes reviews on supported platforms to return a rating to the user. Ratings use A to F grades Fakespot may adjust the rating of a product based on its analysis.

Firefox displays a sidebar automatically when users visit a product on a supported ecommerce site. It can be closed and a small icon in the address bar toggles the display as well. A user control will likely be integrated at one point, so that users may turn off the feature if they don't need it.

The Review Checker provides the same rating assessment as the Fakespot extension at the time. It may show an adjusted rating and also "highlights from recent reviews".

The native integration makes use of the Trusted Deals feature to sometimes list alternate products to the user with better reviews. This adds another source of income and may be another baby-step to reduce the reliance on money from search engine deals.

Firefox for Android and iOS will also get the integration, but there is no sidebar on the mobile platforms. Users activate it with a tap on the icon in the address bar; this displays an overlay that lists the same information as the desktop version of Firefox.

Verdict

Fakespot's service is US-centric at the moment. The service supports US ecommerce sites only at the time of writing and is therefore only useful to Firefox users from the United States. Mozilla may have plans to extend reviews to other geographical regions and countries, but has not made any announcement in this regard.

The usefulness of the assessment depends largely on the popularity of a product. Products with a handful of ratings may receive a low ranking or no ranking based on just that.

The assessment of popular products on the other hand may be useful, however, especially if Fakespot detects a discrepancy between the listed rating and its rating.

Source

The October 5-released Assassin's Creed Mirage is finally supported now in this WHQL-certified driver, removing the need to install the optional driver from the company that arrived last week. Lords of the Fallen is also getting support with this release, the Hexworks-developed Souls-like that's releasing on October 13.

Arguably, the most exciting part of this driver is the fixed issues list. A widely reported freeziging and black screen issues on RX 6000 series cards when playing videos, driver crashes on Starfield and Counter Strike 2, and an AMD link issue have all been resolved according to the driver team.

Here's the full list of fixed issues:

• Intermittent app crash while playing Starfield on Radeon™ RX 7000 Series Graphics Products.
• Intermittent driver crash while playing Counter Strike 2 with MSAA or FSR enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• Improvements to stutter experienced while playing Counter Strike 2.
• EA SPORTS FC™ 24 may fail to open on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7800 XT.
• System freeze or black screen when playing video files on Radeon™ RX 6000 Series Graphics Products.
• The display may intermittently freeze after changing the encode format while streaming select games with AMD Link.

There are still a few known issues to look out for:

• Performance Metrics Overlay may report N/A for FPS on various games.
• Audio may intermittently become out of sync with video when recording from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition with AV1 codec.
• Corruption may be observed in Forza Motorsport when RT is enabled.
• Intermittent flickering may be briefly observed in Total War: Pharaoh’s menus after changing graphics settings.

The AMD Adrenalin Edition 23.10.1 WHQL-certified driver can now be upgraded to via the Radeon Settings app on Windows. Standalone download links can be found on the release notes page here.

Source

Source

[Edited title to include Windows 10 and Windows 8]

Here is what is new in Windows 11 build 23565:

Changes and Improvements

 

[Copilot in Windows*]

 

• Copilot in Windows now shows the new icon on the taskbar.

 

[Windows Spotlight]

 

We are trying out Windows Spotlight on desktop on by default as the default background for upgrades where Insiders are using one of the inbox default desktop backgrounds. We are trying this experience out with a limited number of Insiders at first.
Fixes

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed a few issues impacting File Explorer reliability.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could cause File Explorer windows to hang for OneDrive users.
• If there are a lot of images to load in Gallery, it will now show a loading state rather than implying Gallery is empty while it loads.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

And here are the known issues you should beware of before upgrading from stable to preview builds:

[Start menu]

 

Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

 

[Copilot in Windows*]

 

Some Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel in global markets where Copilot in Windows is available* in preview who are on the Home edition of Windows 11 Insider Preview builds may notice that Copilot in Windows has disappeared from the taskbar. We’re working to resolve this issue in a future flight.

 

When first launching or after refreshing Copilot in Windows while using voice access, you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

You can download Windows 11 build 23565 from Windows Update or using official ISO files published on the Windows Insider website.

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