There are separate lists for both Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 even though the system requirements of Windows 11 haven't changed (much) since the original 21H2 announcement. So if anyone hopes that their currently unsupported hardware could suddenly appear on the supported list, that is simply not going to happen. In fact, the new list, published towards the end of the last month on 25 July, removes some Intel processors that were previously supported.

Contrary to that, Microsoft had previously updated this list of CPUs sometime around May, adding several new Intel chips, mainly Raptor Lake (13th Gen), but there are some others too.

The removed list of processors though are Xeons which are part of Intel's server lineup. The CPUs removed from the list are given below. The new list also contains a few new Ryzen models, including one that has never been mentioned by AMD itself:

• Intel Xeon E-2104G
• Intel Xeon E-2124
• Intel Xeon E-2124G
• Intel Xeon E-2126G
• Intel Xeon E-2134
• Intel Xeon E-2136
• Intel Xeon E-2144G
• Intel Xeon E-2146G
• Intel Xeon E-2174G
• Intel Xeon E-2176G
• Intel Xeon E-2176M
• Intel Xeon E-2186G
• Intel Xeon E-2186M
• Intel Xeon E-2224
• Intel Xeon E-2224G
• Intel Xeon E-2226G
• Intel Xeon E-2226GE
• Intel Xeon E-2234
• Intel Xeon E-2236
• Intel Xeon E-2244G
• Intel Xeon E-2246G
• Intel Xeon E-2254ME
• Intel Xeon E-2254ML
• Intel Xeon E-2274G
• Intel Xeon E-2276G
• Intel Xeon E-2276M
• Intel Xeon E-2276ME
• Intel Xeon E-2276ML
• Intel Xeon E-2278G
• Intel Xeon E-2278GE
• Intel Xeon E-2278GEL
• Intel Xeon E-2286G
• Intel Xeon E-2286M
• Intel Xeon E-2288G
• Intel Xeon E-2314
• Intel Xeon E-2324G
• Intel Xeon E-2334
• Intel Xeon E-2336
• Intel Xeon E-2356G
• Intel Xeon E-2374G
• Intel Xeon E-2378
• Intel Xeon E-2378G
• Intel Xeon E-2386G
• Intel Xeon E-2388G

The Xeons CPUs listed above are based on Intel's Coffee Lake, the company's 8th generation Core processors, whose desktop parts, like the i7-8700K, and i5-8400, among others, are, still on the supported processor list. But the Xeons above, are on paper, no longer Windows 11 compatible. We do wonder why Microsoft made such a change seeing how other Xeon models are still there.

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Recently we covered a feature that could make one think Microsoft can see every picture you view online. Here is another one: an upcoming release will add a toggle enabling Edge to take screenshots of each page you visit. And no, it is not a clickbait-like assumption: Microsoft clearly states it wants to screenshot everything you view online.

Microsoft Edge 117, currently available for testing in the Canary and Dev channels, has a new toggle called "Save screenshots of site for History" with the following description:

We'll take screenshots of the sites you visit and save it so that you can quickly revisit the site you want from history.

Turning on the feature will let you revisit any page from your browsing history without an internet connection. In other words, you get a built-in Pocket-like service for offline reading. Besides, you will be able to hover a cursor over a webpage in history to preview its thumbnail.

That sounds great and useful—no more downloading third-party extensions or apps for reading pages offline (something Apple introduced in Safari years ago). However, Microsoft again falls flat on its face with a confusing feature name and description.

You cannot blame an average consumer for making false assumptions after reading about a service taking screenshots of each and every webpage without exception. There is no extra information about privacy, encryption, and other safeguards to give the user peace of mind.

Also, the initial implementation lacks the exception capability for preventing the browser from taking "screenshots" of specific websites (a button for manually saving a select page would also be great).

"Save pages for offline reading," or something similar, sounds much less alarming, but Microsoft decided to go the other way. One can only hope developers will ship this confusing-looking feature to the Stable channel in a much more polished and refined form.

Fortunately, the toggle is off by default, and now you know why Microsoft Edge Dev and Canary want to screenshot everything you view online. You can enable or disable the "Save screenshots of site for History" feature by heading to Settings > Privacy and Services. Alternatively, use the edge://settings/privacy link.

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On occasion, Microsoft will shut down some software apps that it feels have outlived their use. Last week it announced that the Xbox Console Companion app will shut down on August 28. This week, it disabled the standalone Cortana app for Windows 11 PCs. They join a long history of Microsoft apps and services that have either been closed completely or morphed into new apps with different names.

One of the more interesting canceled Microsoft apps and services is one that in many ways was ahead of its time but has since been forgotten by most people. It's called Microsoft Comic Chat, and it basically is an IRC client that created 2D comic book panels for users who wanted to chat with others. It's a bit of a precursor to today's popular generative AI art creators like Midjourney, DALL-E, or Microsoft's own Bing Image Creator.

Microsoft Comic Chat began as a project for the company's Research division. The main person behind the initial idea was David "DJ" Kurlander, and he talks about some of the ideas behind the program on his official website. Kurlander, who has since retired from Microsoft, first developed Comic Chat in 1995, and he, along with team members Tim Skelly and David Salesin, wrote a paper about its creation for the SIGGRAPH graphics developers conference in 1996.

In that paper, the authors wrote about some of the issues they felt graphical chat services had at that time. They include issues like the "relatively static nature" of chat room backgrounds, users taking time to do things other than chatting like navigating rooms to find conversations, and that chat histories were regulated to just storing text conversations.

Microsoft Research's project was created to help with many of these problems. The paper stated:

We have built a system, called “Comic Chat,” that automatically generates comics to depict on-line graphical chats. Relying on the rules of comic panel composition, this system chooses which avatars (presented as comic characters) to include in each panel, determines their placement and orientation, constructs word balloons of multiple types, and places these word balloons according to the rules for proper reading order. The system also chooses an appropriate camera zoom factor for each panel, decides when to begin a new panel, and selects default gestures and expressions that the participants can override.

The artwork that was created for this chat client was originally drawn by well-known indie comic book artist Jim Woodring. There's no word on how Kurlander and his Comic Chat team chose Woodring for the program's art style, but it certainly was an inspired decision to bring him in for this project. His art resembles that of the underground comic art trend from the 1960s and 1970s and gives the chat program a distinctive look.

Besides its ability to create new comic book panels on the fly for online chats, Comic Chat also had a "emotion wheel" where users could alter the look of their 2D avatar to express different emotions. Kurlander wrote on his site:

The circle at the bottom includes a number of emotions at its periphery (laughing, happy, coy, bored, scared, sad, angry, and shouting). At the center of the circle is the neutral expression. As the user moves the selector from the center of the circle towards an expression at the periphery, the character's emotion becomes more intense. For example, here an intensely angry emotion is chosen on the emotion wheel, and the self-view of the character reflects this. When the user next types a chat utterance, their character will be drawn in a panel with the same gesture and expression as in the self-view.

Microsoft Comic Chat was officially launched to the public in 1996 as part of Internet Explorer 3. It would later be released as part of IE 4 and 5, and would also be bundled with Windows 98 and Windows NT 5. It would later be renamed as just Microsoft Chat.

In 2001, Microsoft decided to shut down the official servers for Microsoft Chat and the development of the client ended. As a result, the program quickly lost a lot of its audience. However, the last version of Comic Chat (2.5) is still available to download from many places. If you are interested, you can check out Mermaid Elizabeth's website which has a ton of resources on Comic Chat, including a way to find some IRC servers that still support the program.

In this new generative AI age, perhaps Microsoft should take a look at creating a new version of Comic Chat. Combining Bing Chat with Bing Comic Creator would be a very interesting new experiment.

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However, Microsoft is also reportedly hiding some upcoming Copilot functions in these Insider builds. Windows enthusiast Xeno posted what he uncovered in an X (formerly Twitter) post this week (via MSPoweruser)

The new functions, which could be accessed via first-party plugins, may include "ClockService", which could allow people to access Copilot to set up their PCs clock for timers and other functions. Another function that's listed is "Accessibility Tools", which may indicate users can access Windows 11 accessibility features via Copilot.

There's also a "Launch Application" listed, which looks like it could let people use Copilot to launch apps. "Task Manager Service" is also listed, which means the old CTRL-ATL-DEL way of entering Task Manager could gain Copilot support. Finally, there's "Troubleshooter", which could indicate that you may be able to use Copilot to fix PC issues.

It's important to note that these "hidden" features may mean Microsoft is likely still testing them in internal Windows 11 builds. It could also mean that one or more of these Copilot additions may not be added for some time, if ever. Indeed, Microsoft sometimes adds features in Insider builds and then removes them for periods of time.

In any case, we can expect to get more info on Copilot in the coming weeks and months before it becomes an official part of Windows 11.

Source

Keep in mind Microsoft is now doing a bug bash for new Windows 11 Insider builds where you can complete quests to help the development team fix some issues.

Here is the changelog:

What’s new in Build 25921

HDR Background Support

You can now set JXR files to be your desktop background and if you have an HDR display, they will render in full HDR.

First – make sure your device has an HDR display or is connected to a HDR display that supports HDR. You can check this by going to Settings > System > Display and checking the HDR toggle.

Next, download an HDR .JXR file to your device. Then right-click on your desktop, choose “Personalize” and then “Background”, and under “Personalize your background” – go and select the .JXR file you downloaded to your device.

You can download example .JXR files here to try this experience out on your HDR-capable device/display.

The background should load on your display. If you have multiple displays attached to your device, the background will show as HDR or SDR depending on each display’s capabilities. When using external displays attached to your device, we recommend running the HDR Calibration app for best picture quality. Please note that for this build, there may be some issues with the HDR version of the desktop background not correctly display on some laptops with HDR.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Background and Wallpaper.

Rich thumbnail previews (tooltips) for cloud files on Start

For people logged into a Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise editions with an AAD account (soon to be Microsoft Entra ID), we are providing a richer thumbnail preview (tooltips) when hovering over cloud files such as Word documents under Recommended on the Start menu. For this initial release, richer thumbnail previews will not be available for all files and a later update will enable the experience for more files and for MSA users. Additionally, when right-clicking on cloud file recommendations, there is now an option to quickly share these files.

What will appear only for people logged with an AAD account currently are the richer thumbnail previews for cloud files if available such as Word documents. People who are logged in with an AAD account will see richer thumbnail previews for cloud files that look like this:

Example of richer thumbnail preview when hovering over files such as Word documents under Recommended on the Start menu.

People who are logged in with a local account or MSA will see this experience when hovering over files (cloud files and local files) under Recommended on the Start menu:

Example updated tooltip when hovering over files without a rich thumbnail preview.

However, what is currently a bug is that for files that do not have rich thumbnail previews that can be provided, it should not be showing the preview area (where the thumbnail preview would be) with the file format icon like this:

Example of a bug when hovering over files under Recommended on Start without rich thumbnail previews to provide.

NOTE: This feature previously rolled out to the Dev Channel with this flight and to the Beta Channel with this flight. We adjusted the text in both those blog posts based on feedback from Insiders.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Start menu.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

Cortana can be uninstalled in this build. For more on the end of support for Cortana, click here.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

Beginning to roll out with this build, Chat is now Microsoft Teams – Free. Microsoft Teams – Free is pinned by default to the taskbar and can be unpinned like other apps on the taskbar. Windows Insiders who click to launch Teams will discover a mini communications experience making it possible to chat, call, and meet with their people within just a click or two. Not only does its compact size make it easy to place the window anywhere on desktop, but you can passively keep tabs on your conversations with the ability to have it visible as they browse the web or connect with your communities. Phone Link integration is coming soon to Microsoft Teams (free) as well.

New mini communications experience in Microsoft Teams (free).

[Task View & Desktops]

When navigating between desktops in Task View (WIN + CTRL + left or right arrows), labels will be shown. New sliding animations will also show when you change your desktops using trackpad gestures, touch gestures, hotkeys and by clicking on the Task View flyout.

Labels will appear when switching between desktops.

[Networking]

A new asynchronous error-handling feature in the DHCP client service will allow for faster response time for some runs of ipconfig /renew on the Windows command line. Improvements will vary depending on system and network conditions, but ideal cases will improve from ~4.1 seconds to ~0.1 seconds per run.

Known issues

After updating to this build, devices with mobile broadband connectivity may not be able connect to a wireless network due to an issue in which the APN configuration may get lost on upgrade. You can either add in the APN configuration manually as a workaround or hold off taking this build as we expect to have the issue fixed in the next flight.

You can check out the full blog post here.

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One such feature appears to be a new Windows repair option that the tech giant has been testing. The option is hidden in the new Dev build 23516 but it is already enabled on the Canary channel. This means Microsoft is looking to introduce this feature to more Insiders.

Within the Windows Recovery section in the Settings app, the new feature allows users to perform an in-place upgrade to fix and repair issues with their current Windows install. This troubleshooting mechanism is likely going to be quite useful as most of the issues on Windows are often resolved by reinstallation.

The option is labeled "Fix problems using Windows Update" and when one opts to use it, a "repair version" of the build is downloaded for reinstallation.

As mentioned above, the feature is hidden in the new Dev build 23516 but it can be enabled using ViVeTool. Do keep in mind though that the feature is not yet enabled likely because it may not be fully stable yet.

Caution: Unannounced features are often raw, unstable, or borderline unusable. Back up important data before enabling them with the ViveTool app. Remember that using stable Windows 11 is the best way to ensure your system remains as bug-free as possible.

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

    

   
4. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
5. Type vivetool /enable /id:39847173 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.

If you change your mind, repeat the steps above and replace /enable with /disable in the commands on steps 5 and 6.

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@XenoPanther on TwitterX spotted the "Match my Windows accent colour" option a few days ago. Later, Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's Senior Program Manager on the Windows Insider Program Team, confirmed that developers introduced the feature "a few builds ago without documenting it in release notes.

To make your accessories' lighting match the accent colour, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting > Effects and toggle on the "Match my Windows accent colour" option. As a reminder, you can only control RGB devices within the Settings app if they support the HID LampArray standard. As of right now, Windows 11 preview builds support the following devices, with more to follow:

Dynamic Lighting is one of many great features Microsoft plans to release in the upcoming Windows 11 version 22H3 update. We prepared an article covering 5 cool features coming soon to Windows 11, so be sure to check it out.

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Rectify11 developers released the first version 3.0 Release Candidate, giving users a glimpse of what will come in the final version. The project promises better scaling with consistent controls, a better user interface with reworked icons and enhanced context menus, a "truly consistent" dark mode, enhanced performance, Windows Gadgets for those missing the Windows Vista era, and an overall better experience than "vanilla" Windows 11.

Although not all changes are available in the first Release Candidate, it offers the revamped dark mode (no more white copy-paste dialogs or properties windows), improved scaling, modernized icons, more Mica material, etc.

You can apply Rectify11's magic to an existing Windows installation by downloading the project's files from GitHub. However, keep in mind that by doing so, you allow third-party software to modify system files on a deeper level. Therefore, you should mind potential privacy and stability risks. Besides, the release is not final, so it might be better to try the project on a virtual machine (Microsoft provides free VMs with Windows 11) or a spare device with nothing critical or vital on it.

Rectify11 uses different projects to revamp Windows 11, such as MicaForEveryone, Resource Hacker, Accentcolourizer, SecureUxTheme, and more. You can try those standalone apps for changing a specific part of the operating system.

Would you install a third-party app on your PC to make Windows 11 look better and more consistent? Let us know in the comments below.

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Now, the company has disabled the standalone Cortana app on Windows 11 devices. The updated version of the Cortana app now notes that “Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated”.

The screen also has a learn more button that redirects to Microsoft's documentation page. The Redmond giant notes that Cortana will stop working on Windows devices starting August 2023.

Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app. However, you can still access powerful productivity features in Windows and Edge, which have increased AI capabilities. This means you can still get help with your tasks, calendar, and email, but in new and exciting ways. This change only impacts Cortana in Windows, and your productivity assistant, Cortana, will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

Microsoft first announced Cortana in 2014 to compete with Apple's Siri voice assistant. Cortana sat on Windows Phone devices and offered a way for users to interact with the digital assistant as well as offer a helping hand to the users.

However, the digital assistant did not do well and in 2020, Microsoft announced that it will kill the Cortana apps, which the company did in 2021.

Microsoft plans to replace Cortana with its upcoming Windows Copilot, which is powered by Bing and uses generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the user. Windows Copilot was first announced during Build 2023 and is currently being tested on Windows Insider builds.

Windows Copilot is expected to come out later this year Windows 11 23H2 update.

While Microsoft is discontinuing Cortana, the change only impacts Windows and Cortana will continue to be available on Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

If you still have Cortana app installed on your Windows device then you can check out our tutorial on how to uninstall Cortana on Windows 11 devices.

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You can try the new feature by updating your system to build 23516 or higher. Next, check if your monitor supports high dynamic range by heading to Settings > System > Display > HDR. If the display does support HDR, you can set JXR pictures as your desktop background. Here is how to do that:

1. Download an HDR image in JXR format. Microsoft provides samples you can download here for testing.
2. Open the Settings app and navigate to Settings > Personalize > Personalize your background > Picture > Browse photos.
3. Select the JXR file you want to set as the desktop background.

If you use more than one display with different technology support (for example, one with HDR and one without), Windows 11 will adapt the background according to each monitor's capabilities. Microsoft also recommends using the HDR Calibration app from the Microsoft Store to ensure the best image quality when connecting external displays to your computer.

The initial HDR background support in Windows 11 currently undergoes testing in the Windows Insider program, so expect potential instabilities, bugs, and rough surfaces. For example, Microsoft says some laptops with HDR displays may experience issues with high dynamic range wallpapers.

You can find more information about build 23516 and the features it introduced here.

For those unfamiliar, JXR, or JPEG XR (eXtended Range), is Microsoft's proprietary image compression standard with multiple improvements over the regular JPEG. Announced in 2007, the format offers improved compression, lossless support, better colour accuracy, embedded ICC (International colour Consortium) colour profiles, transparency, and more.

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I’ve been tracking some side effects that Microsoft has yet to acknowledge.

With Patch Tuesday just around the corner, it’s a good idea to put your favorite deferral solution in place. Some issues I’ve been following for several months are finally fixed in the August security updates, but we’re learning about this only through hints in preview releases.

Set your phasers on stun: I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

Highlights

To defer updates, head to Settings | Update & Security | Windows Update | Advanced Options. Scroll down and choose the date through which you want to defer updates.

Most of the issues I’m tracking won’t be seen by consumers, only businesses. Many of them are in Windows 11 22H2. So even though I’ve approved 22H2 for everyone but gamers (my approval based primarily on the near impossibility of purchasing anything but 22H2), there are still some issues that businesses will find annoying. For the most part, these are described in Microsoft’s support post KB5028254 (OS Build 22621.2070) Preview. Here are two examples.

This update addresses an issue that affects certain display and audio devices. They are missing after your system resumes from sleep.

Sleep has been a slightly annoying issue with various versions of Windows, and 11 22H2 is no different. It appears that Microsoft is once again trying to quash the remaining bugs.

This update addresses an issue that affects virtual private networks (VPN). There might be excessive Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests to the network gateway. This occurs when the VPN is on a wireless mesh network that uses an aggressive throttling algorithm. Because of this, network performance is poor.

What’s interesting about this bug is that it specifically calls out MESH technology as causing a side effect unique to that platform. Note that I’m still hearing reports that users are seeing some issues with LT2P with IPSec. Again, bugs with that platform are still being quashed.

If you are like most consumer or home users, you don’t often look for or install firmware updates. But if your PC has an AMD processor, read on. A new vulnerability (CVE-2023-20593) impacting AMD’s line of Zen 2 processors — including the Ryzen 5 3600 — has been discovered that can be exploited to steal sensitive data such as passwords and encryption keys. AMD posted Cross-Process Information Leak, which provides details and an estimated timeline for firmware patch releases. The key thing to remember is that the attacker does not need physical access to exploit this bug — even JavaScript code on a website can potentially nail you.

Lately, I’ve seen several reports (including on my dad’s PC) about a search result from Google that led to a scam website pretending to be a Microsoft security notification (Figure 1). It isn’t.

Figure 1. A fake Microsoft security alert, which is a scam. That’s not a Microsoft support number.

Let there be no doubt in your mind that the phone number on the screen is not a Microsoft number, and clicking any of those buttons would be a very bad thing. No matter how scary these alerts seem, just remember that it’s easy to “fix” the issue simply by closing the browser. But this is a showcase reminder that scam websites remain prevalent, with their only goal being trickery.

The key to remember is that although these look like Windows dialog boxes, they are not. They are simply images and buttons from a website. Always be ready to close a browser should you come across anything that resembles the image above.

We are now in August and still do not have a clue about when Microsoft will be enforcing CVE-2023-32019. Worse, I have no idea what side effects I might see once we’ve applied the registry fixes explained by Microsoft in KB5028407: How to manage the vulnerability associated with CVE-2023-32019. I find it inexcusable and disturbing that no details have been posted. Fortunately for us, it appears that there have been no active attacks and that the problem can be complex to trigger.

Update: Just after completing this alert, I became aware of further details. I created a post with additional information in the forums: CVE-2023-32019 – a bit more info from the researcher.

Be aware of the upcoming changes that may be impacting various Microsoft 365 settings. Some of them are introduced by patches, but others are enforcement changes coming to Microsoft 365. Remember: July brought Netlogon RPC entering the enforcement phase and Kerberos PAC changes beginning its Initial Enforcement. The second phase for Boot Manager revocation also began. For those of you still on Kaizala, be aware you should be migrating to Teams, as Kaizala is now end of life. More information can be found in a Microsoft Ticking Timebombs post at Reddit.

Resources

In a separate blog post, Intel says that the new drivers will help people with its Arc A750 GPU in their PC get up to 47 percent better performance per dollar in Baldur's Gate 3 compared to the NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 12GB GPU.

Here are the release notes for the new beta drivers:

GAMING HIGHLIGHTS:

Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics for:

• Baldur’s Gate 3

KNOWN ISSUES:

Intel Arc Graphics Products:

• Shadow of The Tomb Raider (DX11) may experience an application crash after loading to game menu.
• System may hang while waking up from sleep. May need to power cycle the system for recovery.
• GPU hardware acceleration may not be available for media playback and encode with some versions of Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement.
• Blender 3.6 may experience an application crash during render operations when Hardware Ray Tracing is enabled.
• Adobe After Effects may experience an application crash during render operations.

Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics Products:

• Driver installation may not complete successfully on certain notebook systems with both Intel Iris Xe + Iris Xe MAX devices. A system reboot and re-installation of the graphics driver may be required for successful installation.

Intel Core Processor Products:

• Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruption on certain light sources such as fire.

INTEL ARC CONTROL KNOWN ISSUES:

• Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
• With Intel Arc Control installed, systems may experience slightly higher than expected power consumption during system sleep or hibernate.
• The Camera on-screen preview may incorrectly persist when switching between Desktop and Overlay modes.
• The “Connector” type in the Display page may incorrectly show DP when using an HDMI display connection.
• May observe “stream has already ended” pop-up after the power events with Capture/Highlights/Broadcast toggle on.

Intel Arc Control Performance Tuning (BETA):

• Intel Arc Control Performance Tuning is currently in Beta. As such, performance and features may behave unexpectedly. Intel® will continue to refine the Performance Tuning software in future releases.

You can download the beta drivers here.

Source

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.2129 and Build 22631.2129 (KB5029359) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22631.2129 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.2129 = New features off by default.

Microsoft added that anyone joining the Windows Insider program today will not be getting this Beta build update "to prevent the possibility of your device getting into a bad state." A few current Beta channel members may also not get this update for similar reasons.

The new build adds the Windows Copilot feature for the first time, along with a number of other additions, including some that are a part of today's Dev Channel build. Keep in mind Microsoft is now doing a bug bash for new Windows 11 Insider builds where you can complete quests to help the development team fix some issues.

Here is the changelog:

What’s new in Build 22631.2129

Windows Copilot Preview

Back in May at the Build conference, we introduced Windows Copilot for Windows 11. At the end of June, we kicked off the first preview of Windows Copilot and today, we’re expanding the preview to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel via a controlled feature rollout. This first preview focuses on our integrated UI experience, with additional functionality coming down the road in future previews. To use Copilot in this flight you must have Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22631.2129 or higher in the Beta Channel, and Microsoft Edge version 115.0.1901.150 or higher.

To get started, just click on the new button on the taskbar (or WIN + C) to launch Windows Copilot. Windows Copilot will use the same Microsoft account (MSA) or Azure Active Directory (AAD) account used to sign-in to Windows.

Click the new button on the taskbar to launch Windows Copilot

Windows Copilot will appear as a side bar docked to the right where it won’t overlap with your desktop content and will run unobstructed alongside your open app windows, allowing you to interact with Windows Copilot anytime you need.

Windows Copilot docked with Microsoft Edge in the foreground and showing a summary of a website.

In this first preview, you can ask Windows Copilot a range of questions or to take actions such as:

• “Change to dark mode.”
• “Turn on do not disturb.”
• “Take a screenshot”
• “Summarize this website” (Active tab in Microsoft Edge)
• “Write a story about a dog who lives on the moon.”
• “Make me a picture of a serene koi fishpond with lily pads.”

Just click the “…” icon at the top right of the side bar in Windows Copilot to submit feedback on any issues you run into.

As we begin the rollout for the Windows Copilot Preview to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel, please understand that not everyone in the Beta Channel will see it right away. We will continue to increase the rollout in the coming weeks. Windows insiders in the Beta Channel who log in and are managed by AAD (soon to be Microsoft Entra ID) will see Windows Copilot in a future flight.

Windows Copilot with Bing Chat generates responses that are contextual and improves your experience in Windows. You may see inline recommendations we think are relevant through ads in Bing. We’ll continue to learn and listen to customer feedback. Understand what Bing does with your data by visiting Microsoft Privacy Statement. Read more about our responsible AI journey, the ethical principles that guide us, and the tooling and capabilities we’ve created to assure that we develop AI technology responsibly at Microsoft’s commitment to responsible AI.

Please note that not everything shown at Build for Windows Copilot is included in this first, early preview. For example, Windows Copilot has a basic set of Windows settings plugins but no third-party plugin support yet. Over time, features will be added as we refine the Windows Copilot experience with Windows Insiders.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Beta Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

Dev Drive

Dev Drive is a new form of storage volume available to improve performance for key developer workloads. Dev Drive is built upon Resilient File System (ReFS) technology and includes file system optimizations and features that enable developers to better manage their performance and security profile. It has been designed to meet a developer’s needs to host project source code, working folders, and package caches. It is not designed for general consumer workloads such as document libraries, installing packaged applications or non-developer tools.

To setup a Dev Drive, you can create one in free space on an existing drive or create a VHD/VHDX. This is done via Settings > System > For developers, or via the command-line. A Dev Drive must be at least 50GB or higher in size and we recommend having 8GB or higher RAM on your device.

Performance mode, a new capability of Microsoft Defender Antivirus, is designed for Dev Drive to minimize impact on developer workloads.

More details on Dev Drive, see this documentation on MS Learn.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Developer Platform > Dev Drive.

Narrator enhances interaction with Excel

Narrator now provides a more succinct and efficient reading experience while working in Microsoft Excel. Announcements are prioritized based on the information you need to skim a workbook and are customizable using convenient keyboard shortcuts. Review the Enhanced Narrator support in Excel documentation for further information.

To enable the enhanced announcements, you need to be on the latest Windows Insider and Microsoft 365 Insiders builds and start Narrator using the keyboard shortcut Control + Windows + Enter. The updated experience will be available through the Microsoft Store, so it may take a few minutes to be available on your PC. We look forward to you trying out our new changes and would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator.

New text authoring experiences in voice access

We have added two new experiences to make text authoring easy with voice access. Users can now use “correction” commands to correct words that are misrecognized by voice access.

You can say “correct [text]” or “correct that” to correct a specific piece of text or last dictated text. The correction window appears with a list of options labelled with numbers.

You can say “click [number]” to select any option from the list. If you choose an alternate word from the window , the selected text will be replaced by the word. You can also say “spell that” to dictate the correct spelling of the text.

A word document showing corrections window with candidates for the text “cereals”.

Users can directly use the “spell that” or “spell out” command to dictate the right spelling of non-standard words such as usernames, topics, etc. A spelling window appears where you can dictate letters, numbers, symbols, phonetic alphabet, etc. You get suggestions as you spell out the text. You can say “click 1” to enter the text you spelled out or say “click [number]” to pick a suggestion (if any). All words and phrases dictated using spelling experience are added to Windows dictionary and show up as suggestions when you try to spell the text next time.

Spelling window is floating on top of the Word application.

Spelling window showing suggestions as few characters are dictated.

• To do this: Correct a specific word or text“correct [text]”, e.g., “correct site” Say this “correct [text]”, e.g., “correct site”
• To do this: Correct selected text or last dictated text“ Say this correct that”
• To do this: Spell a word letter by letter., Say this “spell that”

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Voice Access.

Voice access is now available to use on more areas in Windows

We have added support for voice access to work right when you start your PC. You can use voice access to login to your PC and access other areas on the Lock screen. You can turn on voice access from the accessibility flyout on Lock screen or have it on automatically every time by checking the setting to “Start voice access before you sign in to your PC” via Settings > Accessibility > Speech.

You can use voice access to login to your PC and access other areas on the Lock screen.

New setting to start voice access before you sign in to your PC.

Note: If you have never tried voice access, we recommend you search for voice access in search on the taskbar and complete the initial setup before trying it first time on the lock screen.

You can follow the instructions on the voice access bar to get your focus on the password field and use your voice to dictate your password or PIN. Alternatively, you can say “show keyboard” to bring up the touch keyboard with number labels on it. You can say the numbers on the keys to enter the letters associated with it. This will mask the actual password you are entering from being heard by anyone in your vicinity.

The touch keyboard with number labels on it to use voice access to enter a password.

You can also use other commands such as “show numbers” or “click [element name]” to access other elements on t.

And voice access now works for apps running with Microsoft Defender Application Guard.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Voice Access.

Passwordless experience with Windows Hello for Business

With Windows Hello for Business (WHFB), Windows provides organizations with a strong, phish-resistant credential, helping customers move to a passwordless future. Enterprise customers can now set the EnablePasswordlessExperience policy that promotes a user experience on AAD joined machines for core authentication scenarios without requiring a password. This new experience hides passwords from certain Windows authentication scenarios and leverages passwordless recovery mechanisms, such as WHFB PIN reset, if necessary.

Once the policy is set, it removes passwords from the user experience, both for device logon as well as in-session auth scenarios like password managers in a web browser or “Run as” admin scenarios, and User Account Control (UAC). Users will navigate through their core authentication scenarios using WHFB in place of passwords. If the user fails to sign in, recovery mechanisms such as PIN reset or web sign-in can be used to help the user recover their credentials without IT helpdesk engagement.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > Windows Hello PIN.

Improving the screen casting experience

Casting from your Windows PC allows you to wirelessly extend your display to another nearby PC, TV or other external displays. We are making some improvements that focus on educating people about the Cast feature, improving its discoverability, and simplifying the overall experience in Windows 11. Those improvements include:

• When doing multitasking activities on your PC such as often switching between windows to complete a task or using Snap Assist to organise your screen space, we will provide the suggestion to Cast via a notification toast.
• We will now provide inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings, with step-by-step guidance for users to enable:
  • Installation of the optional Wireless Display feature.
  • Discoverability of the PC to other devices, via the “Projecting to this PC” Settings page.

Inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Wireless Display and Casting.

Presence Sensing Improvements

For PCs with presence sensors that support attention detection, we are introducing Adaptive Dimming. Now your device can intelligently dim your screen when you look away and undim when you look back. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it.

New Adaptive Dimming setting.

Wake on Approach, Lock on Leave, Adaptive Dimming are all powered by Presence Sensing in Windows and now can be enabled via the OOBE (“out of box experience”) setup process when choosing your privacy settings for your device. This will give more control of the presence sensing features and app access to presence information when setting up a new device with a compatible sensor.

Enabling Presence Sensing in Windows via OOBE.

As a reminder, app developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Sensors.

Changes and Improvements in Build 22631.2129

[Start menu]

• For people logged into a Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise editions with an AAD account (soon to be Microsoft Entra ID), we are providing a richer preview when hovering over files such as Word documents under Recommended on the Start menu. For this initial release, thumbnails will not be available for all files and a later update will enable the experience for more files and for MSA users. Additionally, when right-clicking on cloud file recommendations, there is now an option to quickly share these files.

Example of richer preview when hovering over files such as Word documents under Recommended on the Start menu.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Notifications will now show as a bell in the system tray and when new notifications come through, the bell will colourize based on your system accent colour. When there are no notifications and the clock is visible, the bell will be empty. Notification counts are no longer shown.

• The updated API for pinning as mentioned here in this blog post are now included in this build for preview.

Example of new dialog that is displayed based on the updated API for pinning apps to the taskbar.

[Task Manager]

We’ve updated the Task Manager settings page to match the design principles of Windows 11. The design has a similar look and feel to the Settings in Windows 11 and provides a cleaner UI separating categories into different sections. We will also be enabling this in the Dev Channel soon.

Redesigned Task Manager settings.

[Settings]

• We are improving the user experience when changing time zones, including cases of low confidence in location data. It displays a non-dismissible notification for accepting or rejecting the change and prompts the user for confirmation before adjusting the time zone.
• We are also improving the user experience while changing the time zone via Settings > Time & language > Date & time. If location settings are disabled, a warning is now shown to the user, urging them to enable location settings to ensure accurate time zone adjustments. This warning provides helpful information to the user, helping them understand why their time zone may not be correct and guiding them towards resolving the issue.
• ALT-TEXT: Warning if location services are disabled on the Date and Time settings page.

Fixes in Build 22631.2129

[File Explorer]

• The keyboard shortcuts to set focus to the search box (CTRL + F, CTRL + E, F3) should work now.
• Fixed an issue where the dropdown in the address bar could appear totally blank.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue that was causing quick settings not to open when selecting the network, volume, and battery icons in the system tray.
• Fixed a few issues causing explorer.exe crashes and leading to taskbar reliability issues.

[Notifications]

• Fixed an issue causing Insiders to unexpectedly see a notification suggesting you turn off notifications for an app named NotifyiconGeneratedAumid_*.

[Input]

• Fixed a high hitting ctfmon.exe crash in the last two flights, which could impact the ability to type.

[Task View & Desktops]

• Adjusted the desktops switching animation to ease into the animation a little more.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where some of the app icons in the Startup Apps section of Task Manager were very tiny.
• Fixed an issue where the selection colour wasn’t displaying correctly if you were using a contrast theme.
• Fixed an issue where focus wasn’t getting set correctly to search if the Task Manager window was small enough that search was collapsed to an icon.
• Fixed alignment of Task Manager icon and name in the title bar.

Known issues

[General]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing explorer.exe to crash on the login screen when attempting to enter safe mode.

[File Explorer]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing File Explorer to crash when going to Home. If you encounter this when opening File Explorer, you may need to use Search or the Run dialog to open File Explorer directly to a specific folder (for example, C:).
• In some cases, the context menu background in File Explorer may appear transparent.
• In some cases, the icons on your desktop may all go blank. If this happens, using the refresh option in the desktop context menu should resolve it.

[Taskbar]

• We’re working on a fix for an issue causing the safely remove hardware icon to not appear when expected in the system tray.

[Input]

• We’re investigating reports that typing with the Japanese and Chinese IMEs is not working correctly after the last flight.

[Narrator]

• You may see some of the strings are NOT localized to the selected language. This will be fixed in a future flight.

You can check out the full blog post here.

Source

Keep in mind Microsoft is now doing a bug bash for new Windows 11 Insider builds where you can complete quests to help the development team fix some issues.

Here is the changelog:

What’s new in Build 23516

Improving the screen casting experience

Casting from your Windows PC allows you to wirelessly extend your display to another nearby PC, TV or other external displays. We are making some improvements that focus on educating people about the Cast feature, improving its discoverability, and simplifying the overall experience in Windows 11. Those improvements include:

• When doing multitasking activities on your PC such as often switching between windows to complete a task or using Snap Assist to organize your screen space, we will provide the suggestion to Cast via a notification toast.
• We will now provide inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings, with step-by-step guidance for users to enable:
  • Installation of the optional Wireless Display feature.
  • Discoverability of the PC to other devices, via the “Projecting to this PC” Settings page.

Inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Wireless Display and Casting.

HDR Background Support

You can now set JXR files to be your desktop background and if you have an HDR display, they will render in full HDR.

First – make sure your device has an HDR display or is connected to a HDR display that supports HDR. You can check this by going to Settings > System > Display and checking the HDR toggle.

Next, download an HDR .JXR file to your device. Then right-click on your desktop, choose “Personalize” and then “Background”, and under “Personalize your background” – go and select the .JXR file you downloaded to your device.

The background should load on your display. If you have multiple displays attached to your device, the background will show as HDR or SDR depending on each display’s capabilities. When using external displays attached to your device, we recommend running the HDR Calibration app for best picture quality. Please note that for this build, there may be some issues with the HDR version of the desktop background not correctly display on some laptops with HDR.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Background and Wallpaper.

Voice access is now available to use on more areas in Windows

We have added support for voice access to work right when you start your PC. You can use voice access to login to your PC and access other areas on the Lock screen. You can turn on voice access from the accessibility flyout on Lock screen or have it on automatically every time by checking the setting to “Start voice access before you sign in to your PC” via Settings > Accessibility > Speech.

You can use voice access to login to your PC and access other areas on the Lock screen.

New setting to start voice access before you sign in to your PC.

Note: If you have never tried voice access, we recommend you search for voice access in search on the taskbar and complete the initial setup before trying it first time on the lock screen.

You can follow the instructions on the voice access bar to get your focus on the password field and use your voice to dictate your password or PIN. Alternatively, you can say “show keyboard” to bring up the touch keyboard with number labels on it. You can say the numbers on the keys to enter the letters associated with it. This will mask the actual password you are entering from being heard by anyone in your vicinity.

The touch keyboard with number labels on it to use voice access to enter a password.

You can also use other commands such as “show numbers” or “click [element name]” to access other elements on lock screen or UAC prompt.

And voice access now works for apps running with Microsoft Defender Application Guard.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Voice Access.

Narrator Natural Voices in French, Portuguese, English (India) ,German and Korea

We are introducing new natural voices in French, Portuguese, English (India) ,German and Korean that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection.

To use one of the natural voices, add it to your PC by following these steps:

1. Open Narrator Settings by pressing the WIN + Ctrl + N hotkey.
2. Under Narrator’s voice, select the Add button next to Add natural voices.
3. Select the voice you want to install. You can install all voices, but you must install them separately.

• The new French voices are Microsoft Denise (Female) and Microsoft Henri (Male)
• The new Portuguese voices are Microsoft Francisca (Female) and Microsoft Antonio (Male)
• The new English (India) voices are Microsoft Neerja (Female) and Microsoft Prabhat (Male)
• The new German voices are Microsoft Katja (Female) and Microsoft Conrad (Male)
• The new Korean voices are Microsoft SunHi (Female) and Microsoft InJoon (Male)

To start the download of the selected voice, select Install. The new voice will download and be ready for use in a few minutes, depending on your internet download speed.

When the new voice has downloaded, in Narrator settings select your preferred voice from the drop-down menu in Narrator’s voice > Choose a voice.

Note: If your display language is not set to any of the above languages, then in step 3 you will first need to select “Choose a different language” and then select the appropriate language followed by the specific voice.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator.

Presence Sensing Improvements

For PCs with presence sensors that support attention detection, we are introducing Adaptive Dimming. Now your device can intelligently dim your screen when you look away and undim when you look back. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it.

New Adaptive Dimming setting

Wake on Approach, Lock on Leave, Adaptive Dimming are all powered by Presence Sensing in Windows and now can be enabled via the OOBE (“out of box experience”) setup process when choosing your privacy settings for your device. This will give more control of the presence sensing features and app access to presence information when setting up a new device with a compatible sensor.

Enabling Presence Sensing in Windows via OOBE.

As a reminder, app developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Sensors.

Changes and Improvements

[Windows Copilot]

• [REMINDER] As of Build 23511, Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who login and are managed by AAD (soon to be Microsoft Entra ID) will notice that the Windows Copilot Preview is no longer available in this build. This is just a temporary issue. You may enable it temporarily via this policy located here in Group Policy Editor: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Copilot. Please note that this policy name will change in an upcoming flight. The Windows Copilot Preview will be defaulted on in a future flight including support for Bing Chat for Enterprise.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• As mentioned here with Build 23481, Microsoft Teams (free) is now pre-pinned to the taskbar in Windows 11. This change continues to roll out so not all Insiders will see it right away. Windows Insiders who click to launch Teams will discover a mini communications experience making it possible to chat, call, and meet with their people within just a click or two. Not only does its compact size make it easy to place the window anywhere on desktop, but you can passively keep tabs on their conversations with the ability to have it visible as they browse the web or connect with your communities. Phone Link integration is also coming soon.

New mini communications experience in Microsoft Teams (free).

As noted in our Beta Channel flight here, the settings for never combined mode for the taskbar were showing up under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors but do not enable the experience. We have temporarily removed the settings to fix the issue. The feature will be coming to a Beta Channel flight soon.

[File Explorer]

• Added more fields to show in the Details pane, including image dimensions for pictures, number of pages for .docx, space used and free information for drives, and many others.

Fixes

[General]

• After updating to Build 23511, some Insiders may have seen the Photos app pinned to the taskbar. This issue only occurred with that build and should no longer occur. We apologize for the issue.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where the icons displayed in the tabs in File Explorer could become out of sync with the current folder after navigating.
• Fixed a memory leak in File Explorer with the latest updates which could cause explorer.exe crashes and other issues over prolonged usage.
• Fixed an underlying issue causing desktop icons to all go blank in the last few flights.
• Fixed an issue which was causing File Explorer to show “Working on it” in an empty folder.
• Fixed an issue where the text box for naming newly created files or folders on the desktop was showing in the wrong position (far away or way too close) relative to the thumbnail.
• Fixed an issue where opening the context menu in the previous flight was crashing explorer.exe for some Insiders.
• Fixed an issue where right clicking items in the navigation pane wouldn’t open a context menu after you changed folders.
• Fixed an issue where ALT + P and Shift + Alt + P keyboard shortcuts weren’t working when focus was set to one of the images in Gallery.
• Fixed an issue where Home and Gallery could get stuck in the wrong colours if they were open when changing between light and dark mode.
• Fixed an issue where thumbnails in Gallery might not load after changing the view to a smaller icon size (for example, medium to small).
• Fixed an issue where after refreshing Home, actions to pin and unpin favorite files might not work.
• We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized details pane in File Explorer:
• Fixed an issue where the design of the details pane was displaying from left to right instead of right to left when using Hebrew or Arabic display languages.
• We fixed the following issues for Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer address bar that began rolling out with Build 23475:
• The ALT + D, CTRL + L, and F4 keyboard shortcuts should work now to set focus to the address bar.
• Fixed an issue where typing drive letters, %localappdata%, and certain other things in the address bar wasn’t causing suggested paths to appear in a dropdown.
• We fixed the following issues for Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer Home that began rolling out with Build 23475:
• Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe to crash when opening Home.
• Fixed an issue where the tooltip would get stuck on the screen when you scrolled Home with touch.
• Fixed an issue where collapsing and expanding the sections of Home didn’t always work.
• Made some small adjustments to the size of elements, including reducing the size of the text.
• Fixed an issue where mouse wheel scrolling wasn’t working if your mouse was hovered over the recommended section of Home.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed multiple explorer.exe crashes impacting taskbar reliability.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue which was causing certain mouse actions (including resizing windows with mouse) to not work over remote desktop.

[Dynamic Lighting]

• Fixed an issue where switching user accounts could turn off device LEDs.

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

[General]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing explorer.exe to crash on the login screen when attempting to enter safe mode.

[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.

[Windows Copilot]

• You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
• When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

[File Explorer]

• Insiders may experience a File Explorer crash when dragging the scroll bar or attempting to close the window during an extended file-loading process.

[Windows Ink]

• Windows Ink does not convert handwriting to text into the main content (e.g., Word documents and Excel spreadsheets) in Microsoft 365 applications.
• Search boxes in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.
• Comment fields in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.

[Input]

• We’re investigating reports that typing with the Japanese and Chinese IMEs is not working correctly after the last flight.

You can find the full blog post here.

Source

PC enthusiasts have plenty of tools to fight back Microsoft's attempts to fill Windows to the brim with unnecessary software. However, you do not need complicated scripts or third-party utilities to get a clean Windows 11 installation without TikTok, Instagram, ESPN, Spotify, and other programs. All you need is one simple setting most users ignore when clean-installing Windows on their machines.

Windows 11 installation begins with the ever-familiar setup screen, where you select language, regional formats, and input methods. To prevent Windows 11 from infecting your start menu with bloatware, choose English (World) from the Time and Currency format drop-down, then proceed with the installation as usual.

Choosing a universal time and currency format may result in a few errors during the onboarding experience (also known as OOBE or out-of-box experience), especially if you use the oobe\bypassnro command. The operating system will take a while to load the initial region select screen and then throw the typical "Something went wrong" error with the OOBEREGION code. To bypass the problem, click Skip—you can change your region and formats later in the Settings app.

You may encounter a similar error on other steps, so keep pressing Skip or Try again. You will eventually get through the setup screen to the desktop with the Start menu clean of third-party apps.

Now you can head to Settings > Time & Language > Language & region and set your own country and regional format. Also, feel free to install available Windows updates—they should not add any unwanted apps.

It is worth noting that this trick does not prevent Windows from installing stock apps like Mail & Calendar, Climpchamp, Edge, Teams, Cortana (Windows 11 will soon let you uninstall it much easier), Maps, Weather, etc. Therefore, you will have to delete them manually or via winget.

Credit for the finding goes to @ThioJoe on Twitter X.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source

To participate in Bug Bash and earn the corresponding badge in Feedback Hub, you must update your computer to Windows 11 build 25915 (Canary Channel), build 23511 (Dev Channel), or build 22621/3.2115 (Beta Channel). Afterward, launch the Feedback Hub app, sign in with your Windows Insider account, and navigate to the Quests section. You will find there a list of various tasks to perform with detailed checklists and a button to share feedback.

Sending Microsoft your thoughts and quest results will help the company to make the next Windows 11 version more stable. According to recent reports, Microsoft plans to release Windows 11 version 23H2 in a couple of months.

Here are a few examples of quests to perform during the August 2023 Bug Bash:

• Customize your Taskbar with never combined mode.
• Control your sound faster with the new volume mixer.
• Explore the new Windows Copilot.
• Discover the modern Details Pane in File Explorer.
• Set a daily or weekly data limit for data usage.
• Connect to Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN) in Settings.

Right now, you can complete a total of ten quests, but you can expect Microsoft to add more. The company said it would provide more details about the event in the next build announcement post, so stay tuned.

Do you plan to participate in Bug Bash and help Microsoft find and fix Windows bugs? Let us know in the comments below.

Source

It was also during this time when the tech giant unveiled the system requirements for running Android apps on Windows 11 via WSA. As such, the company recommended SSDs, without specifying anything related to the interface, ie, SATA III or PCIe (NVMe). However, it was the processor requirements that surprised many as Microsoft was recommending a Ryzen 3000 or Zen 2 architecture chips as the minimum, whereas Windows 11 itself supported Ryzen 2000, which is based on the Zen+ design.

Sometime around the end of last year (after September) though, Microsoft quietly revised the system requirements for running Android apps on Windows 11. The initial system requirements for Windows 11 WSA were:

The company did away with the entire "Processor" section from the requirements as Microsoft's page now only states that a 64-bit CPU or an ARM64 CPU is all one needs for WSA. However, we are not sure if this means users no longer require AMD's Ryzen 3000 as the minimum.

The rest of the specifications though, like memory and storage, do remain completely unchanged.

Source

This feature has existed in Chrome for ages, but unlike Google's browser, which sends the data to its servers, Firefox's automatic translation feature uses on-device translation. The latter is much better for your privacy, and works offline.

Mozilla Firefox is getting an automatic translator for websites

The new option is quite similar to what the Firefox Translations add-on does. So how is this different? The built-in translator works automatically, i.e. you don't have to interact with the extension to tell it to translate the text on a website, or on all websites of a specific language. Let's say you want to translate web pages from Spanish or German to English, Firefox will do that automatically for you.

The quality of the translation is a bit wonky, but that is a problem with most translation services. Firefox does not translate web pages automatically, you will have to set it up, we'll get to this in a bit.

When you visit a website that is not in your default language, Firefox will show a pop-up that offers to translate the web page for you, you just need to click on the Translate button and let the browser do the rest. The pop-up displays the detected language of the web page in the "Translate From" menu, if you find it to be incorrect, you may choose the correct language manually. Similarly, you can select the language that you want to translate the text to. You can click the "Show Original" button to view the unmodified version of the text.

Firefox's offline translation feature supports the following languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

If you don't see the pop-up, click on the Translate button in the address bar to bring up the options. The browser's menu also has a "Translate Page" option that you can use. Oddly, there is no such option in the right-click context menu.

Note: The translate button will not appear (in the address bar) on web pages that are in your default language, but you can use the menu shortcut to force the translation.

How to manage Firefox's translation feature

Head to Firefox's Settings > General and scroll down to the Translations section. You will find options to download and install languages for offline translation (refer to the above list). Just click on the install or remove button next to a language to manage them per your requirements. This section has a Settings button, click on it and a large pop-up appears.

This modal has 3 sections, the first of which lets you see which languages are translated automatically.

While you can remove specific languages from the list, you cannot use this panel to add languages to it directly. Instead, you will have to visit a website that is in the language you want to translate the text from, for example: Spanish, or Italian or French, etc. Don't click on the translate button, instead click the gear icon and select "Always translate Spanish". This will add it to the first section, that tells the browser to automatically translate all web pages of the same language.

On the other hand, if you chose "Never translate language", it will be added to the 2nd section in the settings. Firefox's translation tool also has a whitelist feature that prevents specific websites from being translated.  And just like the other two options, this can only be accessed when you are on a website. The process seems a bit convoluted, I think an option to add sites to these lists directly would be better.

Want to try Firefox's translation capabilities without installing the beta version of the browser? Install the official Firefox Translations add-on from the AMO, it works offline.

While the automatic translation of web pages is useful, Firefox's translator tool is missing 2 options that are available in the extension. There is no option to translate selected text, which displays the original and the translated version in a pop-up. Speaking of the which, the text box itself is missing in the browser's built-in feature, so you can't type or paste some text to view its translation. That's not a huge problem because you can just install the add-on to get these features.

Source

What is new in Windows Subsystem for Android Preview 2307?

Here is the official changelog published on GitHub:

We've shipped an update for Windows Subsystem for Android™ on Windows 11 to the Windows Subsystem for Android™ Preview Program. This update (2307.40000.2.0) includes improvements to advanced settings, graphics reliability and several requested features.

• Custom Microsoft.Windows.LAUNCH_URI intent to launch apps on Windows via protocol activation

• Platform stability improvements

• We’ve added the ability for apps to use the Vulkan API in preview, options are available in the settings app to try this out

• Graphics reliability improvements

• Updated latest Chromium WebView to version 115

• Android 13 security updates

You can download Windows Subsystem for Android Preview version 2307 from the Microsoft Store. To sign up for the preview program to receive early updates, use this link. A separate preview program for WSA allows customers to test early updates without installing unstable Windows 11 builds. Still, Windows Subsystem for Android preview updates usually arrive in the Windows Insider program within a few days, so insiders can simply wait for a little longer.

Before you install WSA, note that your computer must meet specific hardware requirements to run Android apps using Windows Subsystem for Android. Microsoft recommends 16GB of RAM, a solid state drive (SSD), and virtualization support enabled within UEFI settings and the operating system.

In case you missed it, Windows Subsystem for Android version 2306 introduced multiple improvements for fullscreen mode, camera, local networking, shared user folders, OneDrive, ARM devices, and more. Check out the release notes here.

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Windows insiders and enthusiasts know about the ViVeTool app—a third-party utility for enabling, disabling, and configuring various Windows features. As revealed by a quest in Feedback Hub, Microsoft also has a similar tool called "staging tool."

The now-removed quest in Feedback Hub asked Windows insiders to obtain the staging tool via a direct link, then enable a feature using something similar to the ViVeTool app commands. Here is a screenshot with a list of commands in the staging tool published by @XenoPanther on Twitter:

Since Microsoft removed the quest mentioning the program, you can no longer get the staging tool directly from the Feedback Hub app. Still, the file is already spreading across the internet, meaning Windows insiders and enthusiasts can obtain a copy relatively easily (no links here for obvious reasons).

For those unfamiliar, feature IDs like the staging tool and the ViVeTool app use commands for turning on or off various parts of the operating system, modifying their state, etc. Microsoft often rolls out new features in waves, meaning one can wait for a specific thing for weeks. Having the correct ID lets you bypass the queue and force-enable whatever you want in Windows 11 (or remove something Microsoft does not want you to).

Besides kicking off the Bug Bash program, Microsoft unveiled a fresh set of Windows 11 preview builds today, so you can expect a bunch of unannounced features and their corresponding IDs to surface on the internet soon.

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According to the July 2023 report, Windows 11 currently holds approximately 23.68% of all Windows users.

Disclaimer: Third-party analytic companies cannot provide 100% accurate data. Therefore, take Statcounter's report with a grain of salt. Head to the official FAQ page to learn how Statcounter prepares monthly reports.

Like Google Chrome on the browser market, Windows 10 remains the undisputed king of the hill with a whopping 71.1% share (+0.01 points). At the beginning of the year, when Microsoft put Windows 7 to its final rest, Windows 10 gained a solid chunk of users, further cementing its dominant position.

However, with the Windows 10's end of life getting closer and new hardware working better on Windows 11, the now-eight-year-old OS is slowly losing consumers to Windows 11.

Still, Windows 11's growth is not as fast as Microsoft would like it to be. According to Statcounter, after reaching the 23% mark in April 2023, Windows 11 remains somewhat stalled with a 23.68% share (-0.25 points).

As for Windows 7, the third most popular Windows version (popular is a stretch here), its die-hard fan base refuses to abandon ship, resulting in the OS having an unchanged market share of 3.7% (+0.01 points). The remaining Windows releases, 8.1, 8, and XP, are below the 1% point.

1. Windows 10 - 71.1% (+0.01 points)
2. Windows 11 - 23.68% (-0.25 points)
3. Windows 7 - 3.7% (+0.01 points)
4. Windows 8.1 - 0.7%
5. Windows 8 - 0.35%

As usual, you can find more information about Statcounter's latest operating system and other reports on the official website.

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The download link to the app (Via MSPoweruser) was actually added to the Microsoft Store a few days ago, but the company decided not to make an announcement about it like it did with the Loop apps for iOS and Android.

Microsoft Loop was first announced way back in 2021, but only went into its public preview earlier this year. Here's a very quick summary of the collaboration app:

Microsoft Loop helps you organize everything you need for your project into a single workspace and even does the searching for you to kick it off. Simply add a workspace title and any other relevant keywords, and Microsoft Loop will suggest the most relevant pieces to add to your workspace. Choose which ones to add and create your workspace—content will be organized into pages that you can easily view.

There are also plans to add support for Microsoft 365 Copilot's generative AI features into Loop. Here is what the company had to say about those plans in May:

As Microsoft Loop pages get filled with ideas and content, you can ask Copilot to summarize your team’s work, helping you quickly get up to speed. You can edit Copilot summaries, add additional details or context, and send summaries to others as Microsoft Loop components.

Microsoft has yet to confirm when the Loop service will leave its public preview stage and enter general availability. It's also not currently clear if it will be added as part of Microsoft 365 plans, or if Loop will be offered as a stand alone collaboration service.

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This modification was initially introduced for Home customers to help them stay focused, but it now affects business subscribers and the Teams application as well.

The change allows users to easily access, read, and respond to emails using their authenticated profiles within Microsoft Edge, thus eliminating the need for disruptive switching between applications.

Despite this, some users might prefer their Outlook links to open in their default web browser instead. This guide will show you how to change this behavior and have Outlook links open in your preferred browser.

How to stop Outlook from opening links in Edge

Before proceeding, ensure that your preferred browser is set as the default in Windows. This ensures that Outlook links open in your desired browser.

To check and set the default browser:

For Windows 10:

1. Click on the Start menu and select "Settings"
2. Go to "Apps" and then "Default apps"
3. Look for "Web browser" at the bottom of the list of Default apps

If your preferred browser is listed, you're all set. If Microsoft Edge is listed, click on it, and choose your preferred browser from the list. Click "Switch anyway" if prompted.

For Windows 11:

1. Click on the Start menu and select "Settings"
2. Go to "Apps" and then "Default apps"
3. Find your favorite browser from the right-hand list and click on the icon

If your browser is already set as the default, you're good to go. If not, click on "Set Default" to set it as the default for all applicable types, including opening PDFs and mail links.

Change the web links setting in Outlook

After ensuring your preferred browser is set as the default in Windows, you can change the web links setting in Outlook to make links open in your preferred browser:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. Click on "File" in the top-left corner of the Outlook window
3. Select "Options" at the bottom of the navigation pane
4. In the Outlook Options window, click on "Advanced" from the left-hand menu
5. Under the "File and browser preferences" heading, you'll see "Open hyperlinks from Outlook in:" with "Microsoft Edge" as the current setting
6. Click the small down arrow in the box and choose "Default Browser" instead
7. Click "OK" to save your changes

Following these steps will ensure that your Outlook links open in your preferred browser instead of Microsoft Edge.

Featured image credit: Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.

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The Thunderbird team planned to integrate Sync functionality in their latest major release, Thunderbird 115.  Thunderbird 115 is the new Extended Support Release (ESR) base of the email client and it features changes, including an overhauled interface and plenty of other modifications.

Work continues on adding more of the planned features, such as launching Thunderbird for Android or Thunderbird Sync.

Thunderbird Sync enables users of the email client to sync data, including settings, between clients. The team plans to enable syncing for the following sets of data:

• Email account definitions.
• Account credentials.
• Signatures.
• Saved Searches.
• Tags, Tasks.
• Filters.
• Majority of preferences.

The blog post by Jason Evangelho confirms now that Thunderbird Sync won't be part of the Thunderbird 115 release cycle. The team plans to introduce the functionality in the next Thunderbird ESR release, which will be released in 2024. This is also when development is switching to a monthly release schedule for the email client.

Evangelho admits that technical blockers prevented the integration in Thunderbird 115. Based on Firefox Sync, the development team is aware that there is no room for error when it comes to such an important feature. It needs to be secure and reliable, and the infrastructure needs to be ready to sync the data of millions of users of the email client.

The team is still looking for a Site Reliability Engineer to help it with the back-end infrastructure, as it is independent of Firefox Sync. Next to that, the feature needs months of testing to iron out issues.

Closing Words

Some users of the email client who use it on multiple devices will be disappointed that the new sync functionality won't be introduced in 2023. Then again, making sure that sync is secure and stable is of utmost importance to the entire project. The postponing of the Sync feature, as disappointing as it may be for the team and users, is the right decision.

Now You: do you use Thunderbird or another email client?

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