Windows Central published a new report, shooting down rumors about a Windows "12" subscription. According to their information, the discovered code bits are unrelated to the next Windows client version, expected in the second half of 2024. Instead, that code references the recently spotted Windows 11 IoT Enterprise Subscription.

Still, you can expect Microsoft to lock more parts of Windows behind some sort of subscription. For example, the company plans to make Windows 365, an enterprise-exclusive service, available for regular consumers, allowing them to use cloud-based Windows PCs for daily needs. Therefore, more references to new subscriptions in the Windows code base should not surprise you. Still, the main dish, Windows "12," will remain a pay-once (or source it using other methods) product.

Microsoft does not want to become the only company offering its operating system using a subscription. It is the only company charging customers for its operating system, while Google and Apple offer their solutions for free, at least technically. It would be too hard for Microsoft to explain to your average Joe why he should pay monthly for using Windows. The report from Windows Central claims the main part of Windows and its core components will never require a subscription.

What do you think about the idea of a subscription-based Windows "12?" What features or capabilities would make you consider subscribing to such a product? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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On Thursday, Microsoft released a new Microsoft Store Windows 11 app update for Canary and Dev channel Insider users. As it turns out, that wasn't the only thing that was updated for Microsoft Store users. The store's official desktop website got a new design that makes it look much like the Windows 11 app.

The Microsoft Store site now employs a design where you can browse through cards to see new apps, categories, special offers, and more. If you click on the Games or Movies & TV tab on top, you will see that card design is also available below the main ones, with New and Notable Games and Best Selling Games getting their own cards, and New Movies and Features Movies getting the same look.

Judah Gabriel, an engineer at Microsoft, posted on X (formerly Twitter), announcing the rollout of the new Microsoft Store site. He mentioned that it was made with a number of different web component tools, including ones from Lit, Shoelace, Vite, and PWABuilder's template for making progressive web apps, among others.

In a follow-up post, Gabriel stated that the old version of the Microsoft Store site used a "React codebase built on an obsoleted UI framework." The new site has a "thoughtfully designed interface, easier ways to discover new apps, and modern web tech stack."

When someone on X worried that this store website might release the Windows 11 dedicated app, Gabriel posted a response stating:

The desktop Microsoft Store app has received a few recent updates, including an Instant Games feature where you can play casual games in the app with no downloads needed.

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However, there is some logic behind the reworked Quick Settings. Microsoft says the new layout will ensure users can access all available toggles without editing the list to add or remove specific buttons.

Interestingly, stable Windows 11 builds have a weird bug where the Quick Settings menu becomes scrollable under certain conditions. It is no longer a bug, it is a feature!

Things Microsoft introduces in Windows 11 preview builds are often experimental or temporary. The company might undo specific changes based on user feedback or other factors. Therefore, be sure to send your thoughts to Microsoft if you think the new Quick Settings layout is good or bad. If your system running the latest Canary build does not have the new variant, here is how to enable it using the ViVeTool app.

Important: Back up your data before modifying the operating system with third-party apps.

How to enable the new Quick Settings menu in Windows 11 build 25967?

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

    

   
4. Using the CD command, navigate to the folder containing the extracted ViveTool files. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive
5. Type vivetool /enable /id:39593188 and press Enter. To revert the change, replace /enable with /disable.
6. Restart your computer.

Now you can press Win + A to open Quick Settings and check out its new scrollable view. Note that the pencil-looking edit button will no longer be there since all toggles are now visible by default.

Credits for the ID go to @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter.

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However, this is not just a change in button labels. The official Excel blog post says that the new "Automate Work" button allows users of the app to access the company's Power Automate features. In short, it can give users a way to take advantage of pre-built templates that should allow for the completion of certain tasks to be much faster.

Microsoft offered an example of how the new Automate Work button could be used in Excel on the web:

More info on how Power Automate features work with Excel can be found at this Microsoft support site.

At the moment, the new Automate Work button is just for the web version of Excel, and just for the use of commercial and education customers of Microsoft 365. However, the blog states that the feature will be added to the Windows and Mac versions of Excel sometime in the future.

Microsoft celebrated the 38th anniversary of the first version of Excel just a few days ago. In August, support for the popular Python coding language was added to Excel, followed by an experimental Python editor.

A few days ago, Microsoft added support for AutoComplete for dropdown lists for the Excel apps on iOS, Android, and Mac for Microsoft 365 Insider members.

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In case you are unfamiliar with Mesh, it is a way for businesses to create 3D interactive environment, It uses avatars for employees to access in online meetings and those avatars can offer different reactions during events. Online Teams meetings can be turned into virtual spaces where team members can play interactive games for worker bonding.

In a blog post, Microsoft talked about how developers can use the Mesh toolkit:

The blog post goes over many of the features of both the Mesh 3D experiences and creating custom ones with the toolkit. They can be created for use on the PC or with Meta's Quest VR headsets. At the same time, Mesh also uses enterprise-grade security that's based on Microsoft 365.

While the toolkit allows developers to make Mesh environments from scratch, it also includes samples that can be used as the basis for a project:

Custom Mesh environments do require the use of a paid Microsoft Teams Premium license.

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Here is the changelog:

What’s new in Build 25967

Introducing the new Settings homepage

We’re introducing a new homepage in Settings that offers you a dynamic and personalized experience. It provides an overview of your device, quick access to key settings, and helps manage your Microsoft account.

New Settings homepage.

We created interactive cards that represent various device and account related settings, grouped by commonly accessed functions. Each card is optimized to offer the most relevant information and controls at your fingertips. In this release, you’ll see up to seven cards, with more coming soon.

Here’s an overview of each card:

1. Recommended settings: This card adapts to your specific usage patterns, providing timely and relevant settings options. It’s designed to streamline your settings management and save you time.
2. Cloud storage: Gives you an overview of your cloud storage use and lets you know when you’re nearing capacity.
3. Account recovery: Helps keep your Microsoft account more secure by helping you add additional recovery info so you never get locked out of your account, even if you forget your password.
4. Personalization: Brings customization to the forefront by offering one-click access to update your background theme or change your colour mode.
5. Microsoft 365: Provides a quick glimpse of your subscription status and benefits, along with the ability to take some key actions right in Settings instead of going to the web.
6. Xbox: Similar to the Microsoft 365 card, you’ll be able to view your subscription status and manage the subscription from the Settings app.
7. Bluetooth Devices: To simplify your Bluetooth device management experience, we’ve brought this to the forefront so you can quickly access and connect to your favorite Bluetooth-enabled devices.

You can take swift actions directly from this page with just a click, making device and account management seamless and efficient. What sets the homepage apart even further is that it’s more than just a landing page—it evolves and learns with you. As you use your device, it’ll adjust to provide the most relevant and useful information based on your usage and preferences.

NOTE: This experience will only be available on Windows 11 Home and Pro editions and not on devices managed by organizations.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Settings > Settings Homepage.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• The Cortana app is removed after updating to this build. We have ended support for Cortana – see this page for more information.

[Quick Settings]

We are trying out a scrollable view of quick settings to some Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel as part of evaluating effectiveness of different layouts. As part of the change, rather than having to edit the list to add new quick actions, the user now has a scrollable list of quick actions that can be rearranged.

A scrollable view of quick settings.

[Settings]

• System Components currently listed in Settings > Apps > Installed Apps page, have moved to its own page under Settings > System > System Components.

New System Components Settings page.

• Xbox Game Bar is now Game Bar under Settings > Gaming.

[Windows Subsystem for Linux]

• The September 2023 update for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has been rolled out and includes networking improvements in the latest Insider Preview builds. See this blog post for more details.

Fixes for known issues

• Fixed an issue which was causing Insiders to see bugchecks (green screens) in recent Canary Channel builds when shutting down, logging out, or restarting.
• Fixed a white flash when opening File Explorer in dark mode, as well as an issue where File Explorer could get stuck with the wrong colours after switching between light and dark mode.
• Fixed a few issues that were leading to explorer.exe crashes.
• Fixed an issue where File Explorer sorting changes wouldn’t persist in folders after you navigated away and back.
• Fixed an issue which was causing icons on the desktop to turn into white generic icons until you refreshed the desktop.
• Did some work to help improve File Explorer performance, including fixing a memory leak which would impact performance over time, and fixing an issue where the tab would get stuck with a loading icon even though loading was finished.

Known issues

• [NEW] If you need to roll back to the previous build (Build 25951) if this build has issues, you may experience an issue where the Start menu or Settings do not work. See this forum post on how to get out of this state. After updating to the next set of builds in the Canary Channel, this issue will be resolved for rolling back.
• We’re investigating reports that the print queue is no longer accessible.
• Some popular games may not work correctly on the most recent Insider Preview builds in the Canary Channel. Please be sure to submit feedback in Feedback Hub on any issues you see with playing games on these builds.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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This week offers a perfect example of why I don’t rush to update.

Ultimately, I want to understand the changes coming to my desktop and ensure that I know exactly what they do.

A little over a week ago, Microsoft announced Copilot for Windows. What that means is complicated, and we don’t really know all the details; it seems we will learn more, based upon what Microsoft dribbles out.

That’s reason enough to elevate MS-DEFCON to 1, its highest level.

The main problem is that Windows 11 23H2 is right around the corner — guesses vary about exactly when. But Copilot for Windows is coming sooner, with the October security updates. Thus the foundation and plumbing will come first, followed by the more visible manifestations in various features. This means that 23H2 will be a relatively minor update because the core will have already been installed — 23H2 will simply enable features based upon Copilot. That could be construed as good news, but it obscures what problems might come up in the foundational pieces in the security update.

Those of you intending to ride Windows 10 into the sunset will be delighted to learn that Copilot is for Windows 11 only. You won’t be subject to problems that come up for Windows 11 users.

But wait, there’s more! This is another dribble scenario — Copilot won’t be deployed for everyone at the same time. Anyone with multiple PCs, or even someone like me, acting as the network administrator at my office, will need to manage this staggered release and deal with differences in PCs until all receive the updates.

To be fair, what we will see in the operating system will be only part of the features that we may hear being discussed. This release will not be seen in Outlook, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint because Copilot for those applications will require a subscription expected to cost $30 per user per month. If you read any articles about how this release will be able to complete your emails or summarize interesting data in Excel, be aware that this is not what is releasing in October. Instead, the release will beef up Windows Help and overcome the weaknesses of Windows Search. It remains to be seen whether it will help me find that letter I wrote several months ago. You know — the one whose name and location I can’t remember.

For those with Windows 11 22H2 Professional, Education, or Enterprise editions, Group Policy can be used to control these “moments.” Launch Group Policy Editor on your local computer (Windows Pro and above) and go to Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates; then go to Windows Components | Windows Update | Manage end user experience and find Enable features introduced via servicing that are off by default. Make sure this item is disabled (see Figure 1). I have more links and information on the Master Patch List page to better control this release, including Intune instructions.

Figure 1. Control Moments with Group Policy Editor.

In order to better control the upcoming Windows 11 23H2 release, I recommend pausing updates and using InControl to keep your computer on 22H2 for now. After downloading InControl, run it to see the existing status or to take control of the version (Figure 2).

Figure 2. InControl, Gibson Research’s app, allows you to Take Control of OS upgrades by setting a specific version number and release (left). It may also  indicate that you are already in control (right).

Another handy use of InControl is to see whether your system has been set to a specific version and release by another process, such as manually setting Registry keys. For example, if you were wondering why Windows update was not offering 22H2, InControl will show you the actual setting. You can then Release Control, edit the Version/Release fields as desired, and Take Control.

For those on the Windows 11 Home edition, I’ve not been able to determine whether there is an equivalent Registry key that delays these “moment” updates. This is a key reason why I always recommend upgrading to Windows Professional edition. It’s very easy to do this. In Settings, navigate to System | About and click Change product key or upgrade your edition of Windows. You’ll be able to see the edition for which you are currently licensed. You can then acquire a Pro-edition upgrade license key from your preferred online vendor or by buying it through the Microsoft store, using your Microsoft account. In most cases, you will be able to initiate the upgrade from within Settings.

Once you’ve upgraded, your PC will in effect become a managed PC rather than a Microsoft guinea pig over which you have little control.

I tend to drag my feet on changes, primarily because I have a business/productivity perspective not only at the office, but also at home. But if you want these new Windows 11 features as soon as possible, having Windows 11 Pro allows you to control your version/release. Of course, you can live on the edge by signing up for the Insider program and get the new stuff really early.

Businesses can use Group Policy to ensure that machines remain on Windows 11 22H2 and to defer these Moment updates. Consider using some sort of update-management tool, whether it be an old-school tool such as Windows Software Update Services, or the more modern Windows Update for Business or Intune. If you don’t use a managed environment, instead leaving machines to update on their own, you may not know whether a machine has received an update. You will therefore spend extra time diagnosing problems while you determine a machine’s state. I always opt for a managed solution.

Consultants may need to review their client’s policies before these artificial intelligence additions are rolled out. In my own profession, we must always be aware (and make sure our employees are equally aware) that sensitive client information should not be transmitted or used in ChatGPT or other AI platforms. AI, as a side effect, is introducing new privacy challenges into our businesses.

The October security update will include the following features, although they may not be enabled at first. Most of these changes are related to AI.

If you don’t want Windows Copilot released to your users, there are several ways to block the use of the application completely. On a Windows 11 22H2 PC that has the October (or later) updates, there will be a new local group policy setting. See Figure 3.

Figure 3. Enabling Windows Copilot with the Group Policy Editor

Did Microsoft deliberately make this one confusing? Instead of enabling or disabling Windows Copilot, you must enable or disable Turn off Windows Copilot. I can see folks accidentally getting this wrong.

Want an ADMX file? I’ve uploaded it here. The ADML file is here.

Want a registry key to turn this off?

Copy the above into a text file and save it as a .reg file. Alternatively, you can run regedit, browse to these locations, and add these registry keys.

For those of you purchasing new phones this fall, keep in mind that you may need to keep that older phone around until you migrate your two-factor applications to your new phone. Duo Restore makes it easy to migrate from one phone to another. With Google Authenticator, you can export configurations from one phone to another. With Microsoft Authenticator, however, you must authenticate the new device and thus go through the entire setup all over again.

Plan ahead: Don’t turn inyour old phone until you’ve fully moved your authentication applications to your new phone.

Resources

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Microsoft has released new Windows 11 Insider builds this week for both the Canary and Dev channels this week. However, members of both of those Insider channels can get an extra addition to test out with an update to the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft revealed the update today as part of the Canary channel blog post:

As usual, Windows Insiders can submit their feedback to this new Windows license page revamp in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

The company has been pushing out a lot of new features in the Microsoft Store on Windows 11 lately. A few weeks ago, it showed a new page dedicated to Microsoft's Game Pass service. It's a one-stop shop for any Windows 11 user who wants to learn more about Game Pass, including "benefits, such as exclusive games, deals, free perks, EA Play, and more. "

Late in September, as part of the big feature update for Windows 11, Microsoft added a previously unannounced new feature to the store. It's called Instant Games, and as the name suggests, it allows users to play a number of casual PC games directly from the Microsoft Store app, without the need to download the game beforehand.

This particular feature is still considered to be a public preview, so there could be changes made to Instant Games before it's ready for its full general availability release.

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After launching as a public preview earlier this year, Microsoft has officially launched the new version of its Teams online meetings and collaboration app for Windows and Mac desktop platforms.

In a blog post, Microsoft noted the improvements it has added to the Teams app since its public preview launch in March:

New Teams now has full feature parity for almost all features including custom line-of-business apps, third-party apps, breakout rooms, 7x7 video, call queues, PSTN calling, contextual search in chats and channels, cross-post a channel conversation, and more. We have focused on providing high-quality performance and enhancing the basics in areas such as reliability, security, and IT management to make sure that new Teams meets the evolving requirements of your organization.

The new Microsoft Teams app has been promoted by the company as a major revamp from the ground up. It says the new app launches twice as fast as the older app, and also people can enter meetings twice as fast. It is also supposed to use less memory and disc space. At the same time, the new Teams app also has a simplified user interface with more personalisation options.

Microsoft also says that the new Teams app will work with its Copilot generative AI assistant:

Copilot in Teams chat helps you get up to speed on conversations by quickly reviewing the main points, action items, and decisions without having to scroll through long threads. You can unlock your meeting productivity by using Copilot in Teams meetings to summarize key discussion points—including who said what and where people are aligned or disagree—and suggest action items, all in real time during a meeting.

The Classic Teams app can be turned into the new Teams app by clicking on the toggle at the upper left corner of the app. Microsoft says that the Classic Teams app will automatically be updated to the new Teams version in the coming months.

Enterprise customers should start seeing the new Teams toggle in the Classic Teams app, and a full update schedule for those users is available at Microsoft's support page.

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Microsoft transitioned Office already. While still available for a one-time payment, Office is also available as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription for Enterprise customers, businesses and consumers.

These two product versions are not equal. The subscription-based version of Office gets a continuous stream of features and improvements, which the perpetual license version of Office does not get.

The situation is different when it comes to the Windows operating system. While there is Windows 365 Enterprise and Business, there is no comparable option for consumers.

These two products are also Cloud PCs, which means that these PCs are streamed to supported devices. The main idea here is to provide workers with access to a Windows environment wherever they are.

There is no Windows 365 subscription for consumers, and no subscription that works similarly to Microsoft 365.

The most obvious path for Microsoft would be to copy the Office transformation. Give Windows customers and businesses an option to purchase a Windows subscription next to making a one-time payment. It could even bundle this in Microsoft 365 to increase its attractiveness.

It seems unlikely, however, that Microsoft would feature-limit the perpetual license version of Windows similarly to what it has done with the Office version.

New evidence of a subscription-based version of Windows

Our colleagues over at Deskmodder have found new evidence of a subscription-based version of Windows. They discovered new entries in the slmgr.ini file that list a subscription-based version.

The change was discovered in the most recent Canary version of Windows 11 and a check of the file in Windows 11 version 23H2 confirmed that the entries are new.

The entries have been found in the German version of the latest Windows 11 build. They list the Subscription Edition, Subscription Type and Subscription Status.

Whether this hints at an upcoming cloud-based subscription option or a traditional subscription is unknown at this point. There are quite a few possibilities, from creating a Microsoft 365 Plus subscription that includes a Windows license to standalone Windows subscriptions and the aforementioned Cloud PC offering.

Closing Words

Microsoft could launch a subscription-based version of Windows as soon as next year. It could also use the rumored launch of Windows 12 in 2025 to add a subscription option and maybe announce other major changes to Windows at the same time.

It would coincide with the death of Windows 10 and millions of Windows PCs that can't be upgraded to Windows 11. A cloud-based Windows PC that users could stream to their aging devices might also be in consideration at Microsoft.

Now You: would you subscribe to Windows?

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Changes and Improvements

[Copilot in Windows*]

• We’re beginning to roll out the ability to use Copilot in Windows with ALT + TAB. Using the ALT + TAB hotkey now displays the thumbnail preview for Copilot in Windows among the other thumbnail previews of open windows, which you can switch between by pressing Tab.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue which could make the File Explorer dropdowns and context menu unexpectedly have a transparent background sometimes.
• Fixed an issue where the search box wasn’t showing the correct folder name when you were in Gallery.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an explorer.exe crash impacting taskbar reliability.

[Narrator]

• Fixed an issue where languages other than U.S. English couldn’t preview Narrator natural voices in Settings.
• Fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t reading out the time stamps on recommended items in Start correctly.

[Task Manager]

• Did some work to help improve performance when expanding the navigation pane in Task Manager.

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.

Known issues

[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*]

• [NEW] Some Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel 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.
• The new Copilot icon is not shown currently in the latest Dev Channel builds. It will be updated in an upcoming flight – stay tuned!
• 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 find the official blog post here.

Source

What is new in Microsoft Edge 119.0.21.32 Dev?

Added features:

• Added 'New Update Recommended' action into Browser Essentials.
• Added feature flag to allow auto-grouping with just one tab.
• Added data consistency compare result as a section in sync-internals page.
• Added support for "add to favorites" feature in the right-click context menu.
• Added "new tab group" icon to quick tab actions menu.
• Added function to the menu model that moves all items past a certain index into a submenu.
• Android: Codex support landscape mode

Improved reliability:  

• Fixed a browser crash when clicking on a credit card field shows autofill dropdown.
• Fixed a browser crash when clicking "Open Side Panel to see All Bookmarks" in favorites bar.
• Fixed: Tab key doesn't work correctly in address bar
• Fixed spacing issue caused by tab group minor text.
• Android: Fixed an NPE crash for desktop site mode.

Changed behavior:

• Profiles: This allows editing avatars in associated profiles
• User can now save the shopping shoreline icon state.
• Fixed issue where user reports now able to copy using CTRL+C when "Mini menu on text selection" is enabled.
• Sidebar adjusts icon colour in high contrast mode to ensure that switch currently on hover.
• Fixed accessibility issue which announces success message for Copy link button in share dialog
• Fixed an issue when text in Editor's radio button text doesn't appear in High Contrast Aquatic Mode.
• Fixed an issue when "Loading" text isn't translated on Desktop/Mobile when setting Top 9 Languages (Not include English (US)).
• Fixed an issue with tabs added while Fluid container is disconnected (not closed) getting lost if workspace closed before reconnecting.
• Fixed a bug when no action was being performed on invoking 'Open Workspace' button using keyboard with 'Enter/Space' keys.
• Fixed a jitter issue when renaming the first-level folder of Other Favorites in 'List view' and then clicking outside the input box.
• Fixed an issue where the omnibox notification was not being closed on page navigation or active tab change.
• Changed control button back to horizontal layout in split screen.
• iOS: Fixed an issue where clicking the tab suggestion should go to opened tab.
• iOS: There would be no translation of page on edge:* sites
• Android: Fixed a bug when keyboard focus is not visible in wallpaper edit page.
• Android: Fixed an issue when tab group cannot be shown in 'recently closed'.

You can download the latest Microsoft Edge Dev update from the official website. Note that preview versions are less stable and often contain significant bugs. For example, multiple users report problems with downloading files in the latest Edge Dev release.

Microsoft allows running Edge preview releases side-by-side, so you can keep using the Stable version while testing early Beta, Dev, or Canary Channel updates.

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In a support post, Discord stated:

To continue receiving updates and support for your Discord client, you must upgrade to a 64-bit OS version of Windows after this date.

The support post added that while the app may still offer "basic functionality" on Windows 32-bit operating systems after December 1, its continued function and stability "is not guaranteed" since it won't be getting any more updates.

Older Windows 32-bit PC users can continue to access Discord via web browsers if they meet the service's minimal requirements.

In May 2020, Microsoft announced it would no longer offer any 32-bit Windows operating systems that to OEM PC makers. Since then, those companies have shipped PC with Windows in 64-bit versions pre-installed.

Other apps and even games have dropped 32-bit support, including Valve's DOTA 2 in September 2021. AMD and NVIDIA dropped their GPU driver support for 32-bit systems way back in 2018.

The fact that Discord is only just now dropping 32-bit support for its Windows app shows many of its users have continued to use those older operating systems.

Meanwhile, Discord continues to update its service with new platforms and new features. Discord voice support was added to Microsoft's Xbox One and Series X|S consoles in September 2022 and the same feature was added to Sony's PlayStation 5 console in March 2023.

Last month, Microsoft released an Xbox feature update that added, among other things, support for streaming game video over to Discord channels. Discord has also hinted that more features are in the works for Xbox console gamers.

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Privacy friendly translations of websites was not the only privacy feature that Mozilla integrated into the browser. Firefox 118 Stable is also supporting Encrypted Client Hello, which many may see as even more important. The main purpose of the security feature is to protect data from network spies. A spy can be the Internet Service Provider or anyone listening in on the traffic in the network.

Here is an example to better illustrate the feature. A regular connection to a website uses HTTPS usually. This means that traffic data is encrypted and therefore protected against traffic monitoring. The address of the website, say ghacks.net, is not encrypted, however. This means that it will leak when someone monitors traffic. Encrypted Client Hello resolves this by encrypting the address of the site as well, so that the visited sites are no longer revealed.

Encrypted Client Hello relies on the Domain Name System, and here in particular on DNS over HTTPS. DNS over HTTPS encrypts domain lookups and is used to fetch a key from the web server that Encrypted Client Hello uses to encrypt all traffic to the server and site in question.

Firefox users need to make sure that DNS over HTTPS is used in the browser to utilize Encrypted Client Hello. This is done in the following way:

1. Load about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar to open the Privacy and Security settings.
2. Scroll all the way down to the DNS over HTTPS section on the page.
3. Firefox controls DNS over HTTPS by default. You may want to switch to Increased or Max Protection instead, as it ensures that the feature is used all the time. The difference between Increased and Max protection is that Increased includes a fallback to regular DNS whereas Max protection will not load sites if secure DNS is not available.
4. Select one of the available providers or add a custom provider to Firefox so that it is used.

With DNS over HTTPS enabled, Firefox will use Encrypted Client Hello automatically, provided that the web server of the site supports it. Users who want to know for sure can check out these two test sites to find out.

Mozilla announced support for Encrypted Client Hello on the official blog. A support page on the Mozilla website provides additional information and resource links.

Chromium-based web browsers support Encrypted Client Hello as well. The most recent version of Google Chrome, version 117, supports the feature.

Now You: what is your take on this privacy feature?

Source

This patch includes all of the changes and fixes in the previous version too.

Here are the highlights of the update:

• #28785 - After trying to calculate the All Languages charset in Quick Accent by joining the charsets of all languages, we missed that some characters were not in any of the languages. This adds those characters to All Languages again.
• #28798 - Fixes a parsing issues when converting binary data from the registry files in Registry Preview.
• #28914 - Fixes FancyZones automatically snapping context menus on some applications.
• #28819 - Fixes SVG Preview ignoring some files with comments after we optimized the file parsing code.

You can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store, winget (Command Prompt as Administrator and enter the command: winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys, or its repository on GitHub.

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One of these concepts we wrote about recently is dubbed "Windows 11.2" and it has some cool and interesting features that Windows lovers and users alike would have probably found useful and enjoyed had it been in the real thing.

I would be lying if I didn't admit that one of these features also struck me personally. The Windows 11.2 setup OOBE (out of box experience) had the option to browse the web, or paint, among other things via a dropdown menu, so that users don't get bored while the setup runs. I remarked in the article that this would be an especially good option for folks who were still installing the OS on a spinning mechanical drive or hard disk drive (HDD). (Remember that an SSD is not a system requirement on Windows 11 though rumor has it that Microsoft is considering it).

Coincidentally, and although it is not the exact same thing, Microsoft is indeed bringing something quite similar and it will also have a retro touch to it. As spotted by The Verge, Microsoft has added SkiFree -like mini game to Windows 11 setup, at least in the case of the Surface Laptop Studio 2.

In case you can not recall, Microsoft did something very similar to Edge back in 2020 when such a mini-game dubbed "Surf" was made publicly available. What's not clear at the moment though is whether this is only going to be a Surface thing or whether this will be pushed out in general to all Windows devices.

Source and images: The Verge

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I've been a fan of Ubuntu for a very long time. And although straight-up Ubuntu isn't my desktop of choice (that honor belongs to Ubuntu Budgie), I've always found Canonical's distribution to be one I highly respected and wouldn't hesitate to suggest for users of all skill levels.

Over the years, I've grown accustomed to the small steps taken by Canonical with Ubuntu. Its releases aren't exactly splashy but they certainly are reliable. So, when I downloaded the daily build of Ubuntu 23.10, I expected the usual "boring" upgrade.

I was both validated and surprised.

On the surface, Ubuntu 23.10 seems more of the same. Ubuntu looks and feels like the Ubuntu I've been experiencing for the past few years. However, when you start digging in, you realize there's more than meets the eye. 

Flutter by, you butterfly

The first thing of note is that the Ubuntu app store has been completely rewritten in the Flutter language. This new take on the app store offers a much better (and faster) search, an improved app view, the ability to easily switch between available Snap versions.

Installing Slack from the new app store is as simple as it gets.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET

This new app store is a huge improvement over the sluggish, unreliable option from previous releases.

Major changes to PPAs

For those that do work with PPAs (for the installation of third-party software), you'll discover that how PPAs are managed is a far cry from the way it was. All PPAs are now managed via source files that follow the deb822-format. Canonical went this route to heighten security by preventing GPG keys for any given repository to be installed system wide. By doing this, a PPA listing is no longer capable of hitching a ride on another listing's GPG key.

This change will trip up a lot of people at first (at least those who manually add PPAs to their system) but the change is worth the added security.

Updated software

The list of updated software is, as usual, fairly lengthy. However there are a few particular pieces that are more important than others. 

For example, Ubuntu 23.10 will ship with Linux kernel 6.5, which adds support (or enhanced support) for a number of new technologies, such as MIDI 2.0, Rust, ACPI on RISC-V, Loongarch architecture, Intel's Topology Aware Register and PM Capsule interface (for much-improved power management), and more. Of course, the 6.5 kernel also includes the usual security patches, bug fixes, and performance enhancements.

As well, Ubuntu 23.10 is set to ship with GNOME 45, which offers a ton of new features, including:

• New default apps (such as new webcam and image viewing apps).
• A return to the previous terminal application.
• Fractional scaling improvements.
• A new Activities button/indicator
• A much faster search (within the Application Overview).
• Camera usage indicator.
• New Style applications.
• Numerous improvements to the file manager.

Enhanced tiling

Finally, Ubuntu 23.10 gets a boost to the desktop, by way of enhanced tiling. Essentially, tiling makes it easier to place windows on your desktop, such that you can have numerous windows open, each of which will take up a portion of your screen. This makes it very easy to multitask while keeping all of the windows you need open on your desktop. You can learn more about tiling windows here.

You can enable or disable the new tiling feature in Ubuntu.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Ubuntu adds this enhanced tiling by way of a GNOME extension that's been baked in. Within the Ubuntu Desktop section of the Settings app, you'll find the Enhanced Tiling section, where you can enable/disable the feature and also enable/disable the Tiling Popup (which provides a list of open apps to tile) and Tile Groups (which allows you to add apps to groups, so they'll behave similarly when tiled).

For anyone who likes the idea of a tiling window manager but doesn't want to go all-in, this is an outstanding option.

The official release

Ubuntu 23.10 will be officially released on October 12, 2023. For those who can't wait for that date, you can always download the daily build to test it out. I wouldn't recommend the daily build for a production machine, but it will give you an idea of what you're in for when the full release is available. 

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Unfortuately, Windows Copilot may be the culprit when it comes to performance issues with Wallpaper Engine. Users on Reddit and the Steam community have mentioned that the new update is causing a conflict with the app resulting in various issues and crashes. On a separate thread on the Steam community, the dev team acknowledged the issue and noted that the best solution for the users is to get off Windows Insider Preview and disable HDR.

Back in July when Microsoft was testing the Moment 4 update, the Wallpaper Engine team had confirmed that they had a conversation around the update and the issues reported by Windows Insiders.

After a discussion with Microsoft, they have removed the HDR wallpaper feature for now and they will overhaul the underlying system so that compatibility with wallpaper apps like Wallpaper Engine will be kept in the future.

The team also noted that due to the large number of complaints, they are unable to reply to everyone but have suggested getting off the Insider Preview as Microsoft is making extreme changes to Windows Desktop and it is not feasible for the team to provide solutions.

We currently cannot fix issues for you because we extensively talked to Microsoft and they are making extreme changes to the desktop experience right now and partially rolling back some recent changes. It's just not realistically possible to provide support for this under the current circumstances though we are working with Microsoft for a long-term solution before these updates go live to stable versions of Windows. We will look at their changes in due time. If you want a stable Windows experience, please opt out of the Windows Insider's program. It sounds harsh but that is the only honest suggestion we can make.

Unfortunately, we are seeing same reports from users on the Feedback Hub as well. Personally, I had to reinstall Wallpaper Engine and disable Windows Copilot after the Moment 4 update on my system. It does not look like Microsoft addressed the issue completely before releasing the Moment 4 update to users.

Thankfully, you can disable Windows Copilot if it is causing issues or if you are not a fan of the new AI assistant. If you are in the EU, then consider yourself lucky as a recent law has prevented Microsoft from rolling out Copilot to users in the EU. However, you may not be as fortunate if you have an AMD GPU as the new update is causing all kinds of driver issues for AMD users.

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In case you haven't been following Windows Copilot is a centralized AI assistant for Windows similar to how Microsoft 365 Copilot is for Microsoft 365.

Interestingly, Windows Copilot not working in the EU may be a boon for those users who own AMD graphics cards as some reports online suggest that the overclocking profiles and tunings saved on drivers are being wiped clean after every single reboot. Thankfully though, it looks to be only happening on the latest AMD Adrenalin 23.9.3 beta driver so hopefully, it will be fixed on the next WHQL-signed release.

However, at the moment, the driver team's hands may be full with 23H2 as Microsoft recently began ensuring system requirements compatibility for the upcoming feature update.

An AMD community forum user with the name rawintellect was able to find a workaround for the problem though which also kind of confirms that Copilot may indeed somehow be triggering the problem. They write:

A feedback hub post also confirms the problems apparently started after installing the Moment 4 (KB5030310) update.

We have also often recommended using ViVeTool to enable or disable certain features or components on Windows though we do advise to proceed with caution as always. Those who do not want to use ViVeTool can also follow our guide where we show how to disable Copilot using the Group Policy Editor and the Registry Editor. This is said to address the profile reset issue.

It isn't the first time that Windows update has triggered such problems as they are known to often overwrite GPU drivers that the user has installed, be it AMD or Nvidia. Thankfully, this can be disabled using a Group Policy edit.

Thanks for the tip, anonymous tipster!

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Disclaimer: Steam conducts a monthly survey to collect data about what kinds of computer hardware and software gamers are using. Participation in the survey is optional, and anonymous.

Windows 10 bounced back up after dipping below 56% in August 2023. The aging operating system now holds almost 57.97%, a 1.99 points increase over the previous month.

Windows 11 is in second place with 37.43% and a minus 1.79 points compared with August 2023. Windows 11 and 10 together hold more than 95% of all users on Steam, which will change soon as Valve plans to drop pre-Windows 10 versions in January 2024 due to the recent end of support for Chromium on Windows 7 and 8.

1. Windows 10 64-bit - 57.97% (+1.99 points)
2. Windows 11 - 37.43% (-1.79 points)
3. Windows 7 64-bit - 1.23% (+0.21 points)
4. Windows 8.1 64-bit - 0.18% (-0.04 points)
5. Windows 7 32-bit - 0.06% (-0.02 points)

Other operating systems on Steam have market shares similar to the now-unsupported Windows 7. 1.43% use macOS (0.14 points), and 1.63% use Linux (-0.19 points).

Here is the most popular hardware among Steam users:

You can find more information on the official Steam website.

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As such, some system administrators and IT administrators found themselves somewhat displeased, not with the application itself, but because it did not function and was something seemingly inessential as running it would fail to launch the app with the message "This feature is not supported by your organisation" like the one you can see in the image below:

In a support article, Microsoft has since explained when and why the Backup app was installed automatically and also the reason for the app not launching on such PCs. It writes:

Because Windows Backup is a system component, it was installed to assist users to back up their data to the cloud. However, Windows Backup is only available for users that log-in with a MSA account and not for Azure Active Directory (AAD) or Active Directory (AD) users. Windows Backup is installed by Windows 10 and Windows 11 updates released on and after August 22, 2023. For example, Windows Backup was installed by the following Windows updates and later Windows updates:

• August 22, 2023—KB5029331 (OS Build 19045.3393) Preview
• September 12, 2023—KB5030211 (OS Builds 19044.3448 and 19045.3448)

[..]

By design, Windows Backup is not supported for Azure Active Directory (AAD) or Active Directory (AD) users. If you try to run Windows Backup in this scenario, you will receive the error message "This feature is not supported by your organization." Additionally, Windows Backup will not run if your MSA account is blocked by Group Policy.

Additionally, Microsoft has assured that this inconvenience will be removed later in a future update as the Windows Backup app will stop appearing on the "All apps" or "Installed apps" lists:

Because Windows Backup is a system component, it cannot be removed. However, we will be releasing a future Windows Update that prevents Windows Backup from appearing on certain user interface (UI) screens for Azure Active Directory (AAD) or Active Directory (AD) users that run the Pro, Education, or Enterprise editions of Windows 10 or Windows 11. For example, after the future Windows update is installed, Windows Backup will not appear in the “All apps” or “Installed apps” lists.

You can find the support article on Microsoft's website here at KB5032038.

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A few months ago, Microsoft redesigned the Windows 10 and 11 inbox weather app with new design, information, ads, and MSN News. After a few raised eyebrows from upset customers, Microsoft removed ads and MSN news to give a cleaner and simpler experience. However, not everyone is a fan of the new slightly crammed and overloaded design. If you are one such customer, Lively Weather may become your go-to weather app on your Windows computer.

Lively Weather is a third-party UWP app available for free in the Microsoft Store. It uses Open-Meteo weather data to generate forecasts and arrange them in a simple, easy-to-read blocky UI with subtle animations (suspiciously similar to the Weather app on iOS and iPadOS). Available information includes temperature, wind, humidity, pressure, air quality, and sunset/sunrise. Clicking a specific block will open an hourly forecast with a brief explanation.

It also uses the ComputeSharp library for background effects like snow, fog, water droplets, and more. There is also a neat parallax effect when you hover the cursor across the UI, which might look similar to the recently spotted (still yet-to-be-released) AI-based depth effect for the desktop background in Windows 11.

You can download Lively Weather for free from the Microsoft Store. The project is open-source, so everyone with the needed skills can contribute to the development process on GitHub. Note, however, that the eye candy in Lively Weather will slightly tax your GPU. Still, you can adjust the performance-to-quality ratio and brightness level in the settings section to opt for less resource-heavy effects.

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However, it looks like the addition of DALL-E 3 in Bing Image Creator has caused a big boost in the number of people accessing it, and as a result, the service can sometimes be slow in making images.

This has been noted by a number of people on X (formerly Twitter), including @DmitryForLeader who wrote that he had to wait over two hours to get an image. Others have posted reports of similar long waits to see their artwork generated.

It looks like Microsoft is very aware of this issue and is working to fix it ASAP. Mikhail Parakhin, the new head of Microsoft's Windows and Web Services team, posted his own X message which stated that they didn't expect as much interest in DALL-E 3 in Bing Image Creator from its users this past weekend.

Parakhin stated that Microsoft is "bringing more GPUs in" and that should help to decrease the wait time "soon". When asked in a follow-up message just how many GPUs are being added, Parakhin responded with, "Measured in thousands of H100-equivalent."

That's a reference to NVIDIA's H100 GPUs, which have been made and bought by the boatload by Microsoft and other companies for use in their data centers specifically for generative AI services like Bing Chat and Bing Image Creator. Those sales have also caused NVIDIA's stock price to skyrocket in 2023.

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What you need to know

• If you think you've seen this Linux task manager application somewhere before, you're right. 
• Mission Center is a task manager app for Linux users with a very familiar, very Windows 11-esque design. 
• Imitation is the finest form of flattery, right? 

Linux users are often poked fun at by the Windows 11 and Mac crowd for living in the terminal, but the truth is that even on Linux, nice GUI apps are always welcomed. I like using Linux as well as Windows, and I like using the terminal. But I also like good apps that make life easier. 

This one is definitely familiar, though. Mission Center (via It's FOSS) is a task manager for Linux built in Rust, supporting GTK4 and available as a Flatpak for easy installation. But none of that's why it's here. Looks familiar, doesn't it? 

Mission Center running on Fedora 38 (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

Task Manager running on Windows 11 (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

Jokes aside, it picked a pretty solid app to take its inspiration from, and it's definitely a little easier to parse information in than a terminal-based client like the venerable Htop. 

Visually it's very, very close to the Windows 11 Task Manager, albeit not as advanced in functionality. But the basics are all there, including experimental, basic GPU usage support, CPU and GPU temperatures, and of course, complete system process information. 

It's a great performer, too. The graphs are rendered in OpenGL to try and minimize resource usage, and you have some control over how often they update.

A bigger picture is that tools like this are a nice way of easing in folks who decide to try Linux, having spent their whole lives using Windows. It's immediately familiar and easy to use. Maybe even slap it on your Steam Deck. I've tried it on a laptop running Fedora 38 and I think I'm going to keep it around. 

It's not the first Windows-alike on Linux, either. Microsoft already supports the platform with official apps like Edge and VS Code, and a few years ago someone even ported the Windows Calculator application after it had been open-sourced. 

If you dabble in a little Linux yourself, you can find Mission Center over on Flathub.

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Some of the changes affect backwards compatibility significantly. VeraCrypt came to be after the developers of TrueCrypt, another encryption software, called it quits over dubious circumstances. It supported TrueCrypt volumes and, more or less, felt like a new version of TrueCrypt in the beginning.

The developers have improved the software, fixed security issues and introduced new features since its release back in 2014.

VeraCrypt 1.26.7: Compatibility changes

The official release notes list the following compatibility changes:

• TrueCrypt Mode support is removed in this version. There is no option anymore to mount TrueCrypt volumes in VeraCrypt 1.26.7 and future releases.
• Removed support for RIPEMD160 and GOST89 algorithms. Volumes that use these algorithms can't be mounted anymore in VeraCrypt 1.26.7 and future releases.

The developers suggest to use the previous version, 1.25.9, to convert volumes before upgrading.

On Windows, VeraCrypt releases are only tested on Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems. While the software may still run on Windows 7 and 8 devices, there is no guarantee anymore.

VeraCrypt 1.26.7: new features

The developers of VeraCrypt introduce several new features in the encryption software. One of the main additions is support for EMV banking smart cards, which users may use as keyfiles for non-system volumes.

EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is a "secure payment software". The EMV Standard is a security technology used to make payments with credit, debit and prepaid cards.

The implementation in VeraCrypt supports all EMV standard-compliant banking cards. The system does not require a card PIN or separate PKCS#11 module configuration. The secure keyfile is generated from "unique, encoded data present on the banking card".

VeraCrypt users who have upgraded their software to the latest version may enable the functionality under Settings > Security Tokens. This enables the functionality to encrypt the hard drives of the computer with a credit card or other compatible card. A compatible card reader is required to make use of the new security feature.

Additional information on the implementation is available on the website of Institut national des sciences appliquées de Rennes.

Another new feature in VeraCrypt 1.26.7 is support for the PRF algorithm BLAKE2s for encrypting standard and system volumes. BLAKE2 is a cryptographic hash function that claims to be faster than MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2, and SHA-3 and at least "as secure as the latest standard SHA-3". BLAKE2s is a variant that is optimized "for 8- to 32-bit platforms". BLAKE3 is also already available and, according to the developers, faster than BLAKE2 and its variants.

The developers of VeraCrypt have improved security by adding a check to make sure that the XTS primary key is different from the secondary key when creating volumes.

On Windows, VeryCrypt uses memory protection by default now, which has the following security benefits:

• Non-admin processes are blocked from reading VeraCrypt memory.

Screen readers by be affected by the security feature in a negative way. Administrators may disable it either under Settings > More Settings > Performance / Driver Configuration, or by adding the Dword VeraCryptEnableMemoryProtection with the value 0 to the Windows Registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\veracrypt.

A new process mitigation policy is now also in effect on Windows to "prevent VeraCrypt from being injected by other processes".

The remaining changes are fixes for the most part. VeraCrypt addresses a Secure Desktop issue under windows 11 version 22H2, fixes compatibility with Ubuntu 23.04, and address a number of issues when running in text mode on Linux systems.

Closing Words

VeryCrypt users need to make sure that they don't run into incompatibility issues when upgrading to the latest version. Most users won't be affected by the changes, but those who still use TrueCrypt volumes or volumes with the dropped algorithms may want to convert these to supported formats before running the upgrade.

Now You: do you use VeraCrypt?

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