For an even more personalized touch, the app allows users to create their own custom WhatsApp emoji stickers. But now, it seems that WhatsApp is taking self-expression to the next level by working on introducing animated emojis to its platform.

Animated WhatsApp emojis are in Beta now

According to WABetaInfo, the latest beta release of WhatsApp's desktop app has revealed that the company is actively developing animated emojis. This discovery follows a report from June 2022 that indicated WhatsApp was working on a beating heart emoji reaction. It appears that this enhancement to emoji functionality has been in the works for some time. WABetaInfo also noted that the animated emojis are created using Lottie, an efficient animation file format that is optimized for mobile devices.

This is particularly important given WhatsApp's immense user base of over a billion people across a wide variety of smartphones with differing RAM and storage capacities. The company certainly wouldn't want to introduce a feature that could hinder the app's performance on lower-end devices.

As of now, there doesn't seem to be an option to disable emoji animations within WhatsApp. It remains unclear whether the company plans to offer this feature in the future.

Once the animated WhatsApp emoji feature goes live, it's expected to be available on the platform's mobile apps as well. However, the feature is still in the testing phase, and it may take some time before it becomes accessible on the stable channel.

WhatsApp pushes the button for animated emojis

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is coming out with Light Sabers swinging on April 28 while the zombie-slaying Dead Island 2 is out on April 21. While Nvidia has not detailed any specific stability or performance benefits, this is the recommended driver to install for anyone looking to jump into either of the games.

At the same time, those lucky enough to have access to Counter-Strike 2 tests will also want to upgrade to this driver to fix an Nvidia Reflex issue affecting performance. Here are all the bug fixes included in this release:

• [Immortals Fenyx Rising] is randomly crashing to desktop after a driver update to 531.41 [4042712]
• Shadowplay incorrectly getting engaged within EA Play application [4049414]
• [Counter Strike 2] Enabling Reflex may reduce performance [4065567]

Known issues:

• Toggling HDR on and off in-game causes game stability issues when non-native resolution is used. [3624030]
• Monitor may briefly flicker on waking from display sleep if DSR/DLDSR is enabled. [3592260]
• [Halo Wars 2] In-game foliage is larger than normal and displays constant flickering [3888343]
• [GeForce RTX 4090] Watch Dogs 2 may display flickering when staring at the sky [3858016]
• Increase in DPC latency observed in Latencymon [3952556]
• Applying GeForce Experience Freestyle filters cause games to crash [4008945]

The Nvidia 531.68 Game Ready driver is now available via the GeForce Experience app, while standalone download links can be found below. Here are the release notes (PDF).

Desktop GPUs:

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

Notebook GPUs:

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

Nvidia 531.68 driver delivers Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Dead Island 2 support

I've been using Linux since 1997. Years ago, I reached the point where I was certain there was nothing that could surprise me anymore. Fast forward to this past weekend when Jorge Castro reached out to me and proved me wrong.

Jorge used to work with Ubuntu but is now working on a new project, called Universal Blue. Without going into the technical details of what this distribution does (because most average users don't really care what happens "under the hood," they only care that things work), let's see if I can describe what Universal Blue is. Understand, this is really new stuff we're talking about… and it's cool.

Imagine you've installed an operating system and you poke around and decide it's not the right desktop for you. Maybe you installed a version which ships with the GNOME desktop. With Universal Blue, what you can do is "rebase" the operating system such that it now is based on KDE Plasma.

Or MATE.
Or LXQt.

I'm sure that list will continue to grow.

According to the Git documentation: "With the rebase command, you can take all the changes that were committed on one branch and replay them on a different branch. For this example, you would check out the experiment branch, and then rebase it onto the master branch…"

Technically speaking, a Linux distribution isn't actually "based" on a desktop environment but it's an easy way to explain it.

Over the weekend, I did some basic testing with this. I started out using the default Universal Blue release. After installing that, I used the rpm-ostree rebase command and rebased the OS with the Bluefin version.

According to Jorge, Bluefin "is me and some friends taking uBlue and then making it our own -- this is where I make stronger opinionated decisions, the Ubuntu-style dock and app indicators, and a ChromeOS-like maintenance cycle. For devs, it includes a bunch of cloud tools like Kubernetes' kind. The overuse of cloud terminology is on purpose, I'm trying to use known-proven tech from cloud on the desktop for reliability and features, so you'll see all the usual cloud-native words in there, good for SEO."

When I went to do the rebasing, the command was:

sudo rpm-ostree rebase ostree-unverified-registry:ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:38

After the process was completed, I rebooted, logged in, and saw a completely different desktop environment.

I already know what you're thinking: Why not just install a different desktop over the existing OS? That's a valid question and I'll explain by way of an example. Recently, I found Pop!_OS becoming rather unstable. I tried to track down the issue but was unsuccessful. In the end, I decided to install a different desktop environment.

First, I tried KDE Plasma but was quickly reminded why I didn't much care for that desktop environment (it's too much like Windows). Then I tried Enlightenment, but that environment didn't much care for Wayland, so it was a no-go. I was going to install standard GNOME, but that would break Pop!_OS. Pantheon? Nope. I soon realized it was probably time to switch to a different distribution, but I don't really have the time to do so at the moment. Now, if I were using Universal Blue, I could simply run the rebase command and make the switch. There would be no breakage, no complicated dependencies to deal with, and no mess. It's clean, fast, and simple.

When I experimented with Universal Blue over the weekend, I was reminded of just how cool the Linux operating system is. All of a sudden, I felt like I was back in the late 90s or early 2000s and was seeing the future of operating systems before my eyes. That's how impressive Jorge's work is.

I've been considering making the jump to Fedora OS. After all, one of the first versions of Linux I ever used was Red Hat 5.2 (after a failed Caldera Open Linux 1 experiment). With Universal Blue (which is based on Fedora), I would never have to worry about such an issue again. It would also curb that feeling of "distro hopping" that so many Linux users succumb to.

At the moment, Universal Blue is still in alpha, so I wouldn't exactly recommend it for installation on machines you use daily. But install it as a virtual machine and see how amazing the rebasing feature is. Also, at the moment, the rebasing must be done with the command line. Hopefully, at some point, a GUI tool will be created to remove the need to do the rebasing from the command line. The simpler everything in Linux gets, the more people will use it.

I stand in awe of what Jorge has done with this project and hope it flourishes as I believe it can and should. If you're curious about this, make sure to download Universal Blue and test the rebasing feature. I suspect, once this comes out of alpha, it might very well wind up being my daily operating system. I'm also confident, once you try Universal Blue (and its rebasing feature), you might come away with the same opinion.

You can read more about what Jorge Castro is doing with Universal Blue on his official blog.

Source

Microsoft refers to the Start Menu advertisement for using a Microsoft Account, which it started to show to users of Insider builds of Windows 11. Microsoft started to experiment with OneDrive notifications in the Start Menu in late 2022 already, and has modified the messages since then. One of the latest iterations displayed an error icon to local account users to increase the pressure further.

One could say now that this is one of the risks associated with running development builds of the Windows operating system. Microsoft is going to try things to see how they do, and will remove some before the launch of the next stable version of the operating system.

Microsoft is motivated to convince users to use a Microsoft account. In doing so, it gains access to data and also options to sell some of its products to users. Several recent feature additions are clearly aimed at that.

The Settings app highlights OneDrive storage now and Outlook users may have discovered recently that they can't send or receive emails anymore, as Microsoft decided to add Outlook file attachments to the customer's storage quota. Microsoft experimented with ads in File Explorer, and with promotional messages elsewhere.

The company is quick when it comes to introducing these promotional messages in Windows, but often not as quick when it comes to giving users a choice to disable those messages.

Windows 11 has several preferences already that determine whether some of the promotional messages are displayed or not. There is the notorious System > Notifications > Additional Settings > Get tips and suggestions when using Windows setting, or the dreaded "Show the Windows welcome experience after updates and when signed in to show what's new and suggested".

Many Windows customers and testers have turned these off, either manually or by using privacy tools, but there is no centralized setting that deals with everything. The Start Menu promotions, for instance, require a new Setting, which does not exist yet.

Another annoyance: when users complete the initial steps of setup after installation of the operating system, they will notice that they can't create a local account easily anymore. Microsoft removed the option from Home and Pro systems. While there are options to create a local account on Windows still, most customers are unaware of these and will create a Microsoft Account instead, as they have no option to proceed otherwise.

There is also Out of Box Experience dialog, which Microsoft introduced in Windows 10. It asks customers to select country and keyboard settings, create the first account, make some privacy changes, and the Welcome Experience, which promotes certain Microsoft products. The latter includes no option to decline, only to postpone. If postponed, it will be displayed over and over again to the user, unless the option is turned off in the Settings app.

Closing Words

Regardless of Stable or Beta versions of Windows, Microsoft should give its customers straightforward options to turn off undesirable features in the operating system. These need to be attached to the dialogs, windows or badges directly, and should not be hidden somewhere deep in the Settings or missing.

Microsoft should not have an "anything goes" approach in development builds, and it should start valuing its Home customers more again.

Or, as Susan Bradley over at Ask Woody puts it, "Sometimes we WANT the choice we have gone OUT OF OUR WAY to select. If we wanted a Microsoft account, we would get that Microsoft account.".

Now You: what would you change in Windows, if you had the might to do so?

Please Microsoft, stop these Evil Empire tactics in Windows

Google Chrome became the first to support AVIF in its browser with Chrome 85, Mozilla became second when it added compatibility for the feature in Firefox 93 back in October 2021. This was followed by Google in 2022, when Chrome 103 received AVIF image support. This was soon followed by Safari with version 16.0 in iOS 16.

Twitter user and prolific leakster Leopeva64 managed to enable AVIF on Edge Canary. Hints of the change were first noticed earlier this year in February. The leaker posted a screenshot of an AVIF demo test image running on the libre-software.net/image/avif-test/ website.

When running the same test image on Edge version 112.0.1722.48 stable release, the image goes to the fallback JPEG format:

AVIF support is currently not available by default on Edge Canary. Users who want to enable the feature may be able to do so using the command line flag "--enable-features=msEdgeAVIF".

However, bear in mind that it is an unfinished feature that is still work-in-progress, and hence, it may not work as intended on your browser, which is perfectly fine. What this means is that AVIF support in the final stable version of Edge shouldn't be too far away now, given that support for the format is arriving on Canary.

Source: Leopeva64 (Twitter)

Microsoft Edge is finally getting AVIF support, long after Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari

Aside from that, the Redmond tech giant is also looking at making changes to the OOBE with a new "Development" customization preset for configuring the PC. The description of this feature mentions a new "Dev Home" app, and it goes on to briefly discuss what the function of the new Dev Home app will be. It reads:

You can monitor your workflows with the widgets dashboard and see suggested tips to boost PC performance and discover new developer settings. If Development is pre-selected, Windows has found that your previous PC has been used for developer workloads and might benefit from this customization.

This change was spotted in Canary build 25336 though the option was not yet available inside the Device Usage section in Settings. Microsoft has seemingly removed the Development option since then in the most recent Dev build. The Redmond giant is also working on a "Dev drive" or developer volume option, based on the ReFS file system.

Source and image: techosarusrex (Twitter) via Xeno (Twitter)

Microsoft is experimenting with more PC customizations in OOBE for next gen Windows 11

Most websites on the Internet display cookie banners to users. Certain regulations, like the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, by the European Union, require that sites get consent for placing cookies and data on user devices.

There are numerous different cookie dialogs that users get when they visit websites. From straightforward allow or decline prompts to prompts that provide a great deal of customization or dark patterns.

These cookie prompts can become annoying and at least some users click on the first button that is presented to them to get to the site's content.

Mozilla Firefox's new Cookie Banner Reduction feature attempts to make the prompts less annoying for users of the browser. The feature was launched in Nightly recently, and users need to enable it before it becomes active. Firefox users could use extensions, like Auto Cookie Optout, to deal with cookie prompts automatically.

Do the following to enable the feature:

1. Load about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar.
2. Scroll down to Cookie Banner Reduction.
3. Check the Reduce Cookie Banners box to enable the feature.

If you do not see the feature, try updating Firefox Nightly. When enabled, Firefox will select reject all, if available automatically. If that is not an option or is not detected by Firefox, it keeps the cookie prompt displayed so that you may interact with it manually. The preference enables the feature for regular and private browsing in Firefox.

Firefox users may customize the handling of cookie banners further; this requires making changes to the browser's advanced configuration. Here is how that is done:

1. Load about:config in the browser's address bar.
2. Confirm that warning prompt to proceed, if it is displayed.
3. Search for cookiebanners.service.mode or cookiebanners.service.mode.privateBrowsing. The first preference defines the cookie banner behavior in normal browsing mode, the other in private browsing mode.
4. Change the value of the preference(s) to one of the following supported values:
   • 0 to disable the feature.
   • 1 to set it to handle Reject All banners only and ignore the rest.
   • 2 to make Reject All the default, but fall back to Accept All, if the former is not available.
5. Restart the web browser.

You can undo changes at any time by changing the value of the feature in the advanced configuration or in the preferences.

Closing Words

Firefox's new Cookie Banner feature does not take care of all cookie banners, but it may automate the process for some of the banners that are displayed to users when they browse the Internet.

Brave introduced a similar cookie prompt blocking feature to its browser recently. Brave's functionality is powered by a filter list, the Easylist-Cookie List, which tries to block or hide the prompts after it is enabled. Since it is based on a list, users of other browsers, including Firefox, may also enable it in their browsers, provided that they use a content blocker.

It is not clear yet when Firefox's feature will land in the Stable version of the browser.

Now You: how do you handle cookie prompts?

Firefox may soon reject Cookie prompts automatically

According to Mozilla, updating Firefox to version 112 makes cookie dates change to the far future, resulting in an unintentional removal of all saved cookies. Deleting stored cookies usually signs you out of all websites, resets preferences, and more. Therefore, a random cookie removal may cause significant frustration and break the user experience.

Here is the complete changelog for Firefox 112.0.1:

• "Fixed a bug where cookie dates appear to be set in the far future after updating Firefox. This may have caused cookies to be unintentionally purged. (bug 1827669)."

You can download Firefox 112.0.1 from the official Firefox website. If you already have the browser on your computer, head to Menu > Help > About Firefox to force-install the latest release. If you want to learn what is new in Firefox 112, the latest major update for Mozilla's browser, check out our dedicated coverage.

Firefox 112.0.1 is out with a fix for the bug causing an unintentional cookie purge

The press release says:

We're very excited to announce that DisplayFusion 10.0 is now available for download! This major new version of DisplayFusion fixes hundreds of issues and adds full support for Windows 11.

The changelog showing major changes in DisplayFusion 10.0 is given below (via BetaNews😞

DisplayFusion 10.0 Highlights

• Change: New code signing certificate
• Change: Upgraded to .NET 7 (OS support is now Win 10 1607 and higher)
• Change: Win 7, Win 8/8.1, and Win 10 versions lower than 1607 are no longer supported (DisplayFusion will still install but use at your own risk)
• Change: Monitor Config backend code completely overhauled to support more configurations and prevent errors for minor variations when loading profiles.
• Change: It's now possible to open multiple script edit windows
• Change: Much improved code editor for scripted functions
• Change: Added an entry for DisplayFusionCommand to the Select Application dialog
• Change: Advanced settings that are forced by policy setting will now show as red and cannot be edited in the UI
• Change: Added a policy setting to disable the social links in the Settings window
• Change: Added a policy setting to disable crash reporting
• Change: Added an advanced setting to disable webview2 install prompt
• Change: Added an advanced setting to set the polling interval for the "Lock Mouse Cursor" function
• Change: Improved some icons to help with colour blindness
• Change: Removed the "restart explorer" prompt and added an advanced setting to re-enable it
• Change: Added an advanced setting to adjust the size of taskbar buttons and pinned items

A beta version of the software has also been released since. This version, 10.0.1 (Beta 1) also adds more bug fixes:

DisplayFusion 10.0.1 (Beta 1) Changes

• Change: Added additional info to the "you need Pro for this feature prompt"
• Fix: Borderless mirror window can now be made full screen by double-clicking
• Fix: Settings backup fix
• Fix: "Auto-Hide Animation" advanced setting works again
• Fix: Taskbar button text no longer upside-down when running WindowBlinds
• Fix: Start menu now stays open when using third-party Start menu replacements
• Fix: Taskbar button height issue
• Fix: Resolved a rendering issue with the Windows 7 taskbar

You can download the free trial version of the software from Binary Fortress' official website. A detailed changelog of the software is also available there.

DisplayFusion gains full Windows 11 support, but loses it on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1

However, it is worth exploring Safari's extensive features and settings. Standard provisions such as Private browsing, Reader view, and file downloading are readily available, but there is a wide selection of additional possibilities.

Organize your tabs with ease

Organize Open Tabs by tapping the Tabs icon on the tabs bar, allowing you to view all open tabs. Long-press a tab thumbnail and select Arrange Tabs By, followed by choosing to sort them by title or website. iPad users can access open tabs from the Sidebar icon, then press down on any thumbnail and select Arrange Tabs By to sort by title or website.

Or if you have too many tabs, organize them into groups. The process varies slightly between iPhones and iPads. On an iPhone, tap the Tabs icon, then the X Tabs entry at the bottom. Choose New Empty Tab Group for a new group or New Tab Group from X Tabs to create a group from existing tabs. Name the group and tap Save. This group can now be accessed from the Tabs screen. On an iPad, tap the Sidebar icon and then the Tabs icon. Follow the same process to create and name your group.

Capture the full webpage

In previous versions of Safari, taking a screenshot on your mobile device would only capture the visible portion of a web page. However, with the latest update, you can now capture the entire page.

To do so, take a screenshot as you normally would and open the preview thumbnail of the shot. Then, tap the Full Page tab located at the top of the preview to display the entire web page, even if it wasn't visible in the initial shot.

No need to crop your images

With the release of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Apple's Live Text feature now allows you to isolate and extract a foreground subject from an image, even on websites visited through Safari.

To copy a subject from an image, simply find an image with the desired subject, press down on it, and select "Copy Subject" from the menu. You can then open an app, such as Mail or iMessage, where you can paste the image and insert the subject using the Paste function.

Bookmark multiple tabs

Instead of saving each individual open tab as a bookmark, you can save them all at once by pressing down on the Bookmark icon located at the top or bottom of your screen.

From the drop-down menu, select "Add Bookmarks for X Tabs", where X is the number of open tabs you have. Name the folder that will contain the bookmarked tabs, and then tap "Save".

Save your iPhone's RAM

Safari has a tendency to accumulate numerous open tabs, causing the browser to become cluttered and difficult to navigate. To avoid this, you can set a time limit for when tabs will be automatically closed.

Simply go to "Settings", select "Safari", and then choose "Close Tabs". From there, you can set a specific timeframe of one day, one week, or one month before tabs are closed automatically.

5 Safari browser tips to maximize your experience

Version 6.3 of the Linux kernel is on track to debut next week after what emperor penguin Linus Torvalds has described a “nice uneventful release cycle’”.…

Torvalds used the epithet quoted above in his announcement that release candidate seven for version 6.3 of the kernel is now available for testing. The Finnish FOSS boss’s preference is for seven release candidates, followed by a full release. But versions 6.2 and 6.1 both needed an eighth release test edition.

Ahead of work commencing on version 6.3 Torvalds urged developers to start lodging their desired additions, and later thanked them for doing so as his queue of pull requests considerations was pleasingly busy once work on the new kernel cut commenced.

By the time release candidate one rolled debuted, Torvalds was effusive in his praise for kernel contributors’ efforts.

“So after several releases where the merge windows had something odd going on, we finally had just a regular ‘two weeks of just merge window’,” he wrote when announcing the first cut of version 6.3.

“In fact, it was quite nice in a couple of ways,” he added: “Not only didn't I have a hugely compressed merge window where I felt I had to cram as much as possible into the first few days, but the fact that we _have_ had a couple of merge windows where I really asked for people to have everything ready when the merge window opened seems to have set a pattern: the bulk of everything really did come in early.”

Work on version 6.3 continued to be smooth. Torvalds rated release candidate two “fairly normal” and release candidate three “fairly standard”.

Release candidate four was described as “pretty normal for this time of the release process.”

By the time release candidate five rolled around Torvalds declared it as “very normal and boring, which is just how I like it. The commit count says that we've started calming down right on schedule, and the diffstat looks normal too.”

“Of course, there may be something nasty still hiding,” he hedged, but it didn’t appear a week later when he described release candidate six as “pretty regular”.

The announcement of r6 also included an insight into Torvalds’ diet, as he mentioned “mämmi”, a traditional Finish Easter treat that Wikipedia describes as combining water, rye flour, powdered malted rye, seasoned salt and dried, powdered Seville orange zest into a wet mess that is left to sweeten before being baked and served with molasses. Mämmi emerges from that process as a dark lump that The Register understands is sweet and a little gritty.

The combination of mämmi and Easter did not derail kernel development, as Sunday’s rc7 announcement mentioned the addition of “a late cgroup cpuset fix that is a bit more involved than maybe I'd have liked at this point.”

But not so involved that Torvalds felt the need to warn of delays to the release of a full cut of version 6.3 next week.

When it arrives, Penguinistas will be able to play with features including an ethernet driver for Nvidia’s BlueField 3 DPU, more refined handling for AMD and Intel GPUs, improved Thunderbolt support, and the usual oddities such as improved support for analog TVs. ®

Source

Google’s employees were shocked when they learned in March that the South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung was considering replacing Google with Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its devices.

For years, Bing had been a search engine also-ran. But it became a lot more interesting to industry insiders when it recently added new artificial intelligence technology.

Google’s reaction to the Samsung threat was “panic,” according to internal messages reviewed by The New York Times. An estimated $3 billion in annual revenue was at stake with the Samsung contract. An additional $20 billion is tied to a similar Apple contract that will be up for renewal this year.

A.I. competitors like the new Bing are quickly becoming the most serious threat to Google’s search business in 25 years, and in response, Google is racing to build an all-new search engine powered by the technology. It is also upgrading the existing one with A.I. features, according to internal documents reviewed by The Times.

The new features, under the project name Magi, are being created by designers, engineers and executives working in so-called sprint rooms to tweak and test the latest versions. The new search engine would offer users a far more personalized experience than the company’s current service, attempting to anticipate users’ needs.

Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement that “not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new A.I.-powered features to search, and will share more details soon.”

Billions of people use Google’s search engine every day for everything from finding restaurants and directions to understanding a medical diagnosis, and that simple white page with the company logo and an empty bar in the middle is one of the most widely used web pages in the world. Changes to it would have a significant impact on the lives of ordinary people, and until recently it was hard to imagine anything challenging it.

Google has been worried about A.I.-powered competitors since OpenAI, a San Francisco start-up that is working with Microsoft, demonstrated a chatbot called ChatGPT in November. About two weeks later, Google created a task force in its search division to start building A.I. products, said two people with knowledge of the efforts, who were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Modernizing its search engine has become an obsession at Google, and the planned changes could put new A.I. technology in phones and homes all over the world.

The Samsung threat represented the first potential crack in Google’s seemingly impregnable search business, which was worth $162 billion last year. Although it was not clear whether Microsoft’s work with A.I. was the main reason Samsung was considering a change after the last 12 years, that was the assumption inside Google. The contract is under negotiation, and Samsung could stick with Google.

But the idea that Samsung, which makes hundreds of millions of smartphones with Google’s Android software every year, would even consider switching search engines shocked Google’s employees.

After some workers were told that the company was looking for volunteers this month to help put together material for a pitch to Samsung, they reacted with emojis and surprise. “Wow, OK, that’s wild,” one person responded.

A Google spokesperson said that the company was continuously improving its search engine to give users and partners more reason to choose Google, and that Android phone makers were free to embrace technologies from different companies to improve their users’ experience.

Samsung and Microsoft declined to comment.

Google has been doing A.I. research for years. Its DeepMind lab in London is considered one of the best A.I. research centers in the world, and the company has been a pioneer with A.I. projects, such as self-driving cars and the so-called large language models that are used in the development of chatbots. In recent years, Google has used large language models to improve the quality of its search results, but held off on fully adopting A.I. because it has been prone to generating false and biased statements.

Now the priority is winning control of the industry’s next big thing. Last month, Google released its own chatbot, Bard, but the technology received mixed reviews.

Plans for the new search engine, which demonstrate Google’s ambitions to reimagine the search experience, are still in the early stages, with no clear timetable on when it will release the new search technology.

The system would learn what users want to know based on what they’re searching when they begin using it. And it would offer lists of preselected options for objects to buy, information to research and other information. It would also be more conversational — a bit like chatting with a helpful person.

But long before the search engine can be rebuilt, the Magi project will add features to the existing search engine, according to internal documents. Google has more than 160 people working full time on it, a person with knowledge of the work said.

Magi would keep ads in the mix of search results. Search queries that could lead to a financial transaction, such as buying shoes or booking a flight, for example, would still feature ads on their results pages.

That’s important for Google, since search ads are the primary way it makes money. Its chatbot, Bard, does not feature ads, and there has been anticipation in the tech industry that A.I. answers on search engines could make ads less relevant to users.

The planned search additions could also answer questions about software coding and write code based on a user’s request. Google may place an ad under the computer code answers, according to a document.

Last week, Google invited some employees to test Magi’s features, and it has encouraged them to ask the search engine follow-up questions to judge its ability to hold a conversation. Google is expected to release the tools to the public next month and add more features in the fall, according to the planning document.

The company plans to initially release the features to a maximum of one million people. That number should progressively increase to 30 million by the end of the year. The features will be available exclusively in the United States.

Google has also explored efforts to let people use Google Earth’s mapping technology with help from A.I. and search for music through a conversation with a chatbot, a Google director wrote in a document.

Other product ideas are in various stages of development. A tool called GIFI would use A.I. to generate images in Google Image results. Another tool, Tivoli Tutor, would teach users a new language through open-ended A.I. text conversations.

Yet another product, Searchalong, would let users ask a chatbot questions while surfing the web through Google’s Chrome browser. People might ask the chatbot for activities near an Airbnb rental, for example, and the A.I. would scan the page and the rest of the internet for a response.

Jim Lecinski, a former Google vice president of sales and service, said the company had been goaded into action and now had to convince users that it was as “powerful, competent and contemporary” as its competitors.

“If we are the leading search engine and this is a new attribute, a new feature, a new characteristic of search engines, we want to make sure that we’re in this race as well,” Mr. Lecinski, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University, said in an interview.

Source

In February 2023, a new report revealed Microsoft's plans to upgrade Windows 11's Snap Layouts with AI magic. According to the leak, Windows 11 (or its successor) would use machine learning to predict what apps and in what order the user wants to arrange. Although Microsoft has not announced the AI-powered Snap Layouts yet, the latest Windows 11 build from the Dev Channel lets you test a new smart window snapping, giving you a glimpse of what is to come.

Enabling two hidden features in Windows 11 build 23435 (credits for the find go to ever-giving @PhantomOfEarth) allows the operating system to generate snapping presets, thus providing the ability to arrange open apps with a single click. These sets appear below the current Snap Layouts, so you still have more freedom over windows positioning. Here is a quick look at the new smart snapping:

As of now, "snap predictions" only work when you hover the cursor over the "Maximize" button. Snap Assist, a panel at the top of the screen that appears when you move a window across the screen, does not currently support predictions. Another limitation is that you cannot select what apps appear in the suggestions, and Windows seemingly does not consider the context of your current workflow.

Important: Always back up your data before enabling experimental features with the ViVeTool app or similar utilities. Digging out unannounced changes frequently results in instabilities, crashes, and bugs, so beware.

How to enable the upgraded Snap Layouts in Windows 11 build 23435?

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:41863571,42589465 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.

What do you think about the upgraded Snap Layouts? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Windows 11 build 23435 has a hidden smart window snapping feature, here is how to enable it

Hundreds of users reported issues with accessing Amazon Web Services on Sunday, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector.com.

Amazon's voice assistant Alexa was also down for thousands of users in the United States, according to Downdetector.com. More than 15,000 users reported issues with Alexa at the peak of disruption, Downdetector data showed.

Users also reported issues accessing Amazon's mobile app.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters queries on reasons for the outage and estimated timeline for resolution.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.

Source

live11 works like any other Windows live CD (or DVD/USB). You can burn the ISO to a USB or optical drive (if you want to do it the old way) and boot the OS without installing it on your HDD or SSD. After that, you get a fully working Windows 11 suitable for troubleshooting, data recovery, virus removal, or other tasks.

You can download NTDEV's live11 from the Internet Archive, but mind the following limitations before using it:

• Booting live11 requires 8GB of RAM, even though the project uses only half of that.
• live11 does not work on systems with UEFI and GPT (GUID partition table)—only MBR and BIOS are currently supported.
• If you want to try live11 on a virtual machine, only VMware and Hyper-V work (VirtualBox will get stuck in a boot loop).

NTDEV plans to address the dominant issues and deliver other improvements in future updates, so expect a better version of live11 soon. Although the first release looks more like a proof of concept, seeing a fully working Windows 11 on a 4GB live DVD is still an impressive achievement.

Tiny11 developer creates first bootable Windows 11 live DVD

Soon, Windows 11 users may have control over the Presence sensing capabilities of their devices. Microsoft launched a new privacy setting and API in the Insider Preview build 22624.1610, which it released just a moment ago.

Windows 11 users who install the build on devices with presence sensing capabilities may open Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing to control the functionality.

There, they find several options, including one to disable Presence sensing access for all users of the device or for apps that are installed on the device.

The two options give users control over the feature. Toggling them off disables the functionality on the device. It is unclear at this point if certain core operating system features continue to have access to Presence sensing after users turn the feature off.

The Presence sensing Settings page lists recent activity as well on the page; this is useful to check which apps have accessed the functionality on the device in the past. The listing is limited to activity of the past seven days, and lists access chronologically.

Each app is listed with its name, access date and time under recent activity.

Microsoft notes on the Windows blog that it is not collecting any images or metadata, and that all processing "is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy".

Application developers may use the newly created API to integrate presence sensing capabilities into their applications. Microsoft notes: "App developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability."

The main API page is available here. It lists technical information, but also additional information. For users, the following information may be relevant also:

• Presence sensing may have a "significant impact" on security, responsiveness and performance.
• Devices may be locked automatically when left unattended "to protect sensitive files and other info".
• Developers may infer user intent to "reduce the response time required from detection to authentication or interaction".
• Devices on battery may last longer by "reducing unnecessary screen idle time".

Soon, privacy apps and policies will be available to manage the feature as well.

Source

Google Maps will now give you more information about national parks. The company is planning to roll out four new updates on iOS and Android to help users find the information they need when they head to a national park.

These new updates will feature quickly identifying the most popular places in a park, spotting popular trails and highlighting the entire route, finding your way around with more detailed directions, and bringing Maps offline to use without an internet connection.

Google

Get the most of your national park trips

Google Maps will let you spot popular places in national parks, like attractions, campgrounds, visitor centers, and trailheads. Thanks to those who have been there, you will get more details about these places. You can check out more details about the popular places by tapping any of their photos.

The company also made it easy to discover trails within national parks. All you have to do is to search for a trail, and Google will highlight its entire route on the map instead of just a pin. You will also see photos of other Google Maps users and other information like the difficulty level or whether it is better for running, walking, or cycling.

Maps will also work more precisely within the national parks. The application will guide you with precise directions. ". Later this month, you'll see park entrances highlighted right on the map, and now, when you request walking or cycling directions to a particular trail, Maps will direct you right to the trailhead," says the company.

Lastly, users will also be able to download an offline map of the park. This way, you can find your way around without cellular data or any internet access. The download button will also be available later this month, located on the park listings.

Source

As spotted by @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter, Windows 11 build 23435 contains a hidden (disabled by default) option that lets you make the operating system open search on hover. That means you are no longer required to click the search box or button to trigger Windows Search—it will pop up whenever you move the cursor over, just like Edge opens Bing when you hover the cursor over the new Bing button (here is how to disable it).

Microsoft has yet to announce the new setting for Windows Search, so things might change multiple times in future updates. Meanwhile, you can try the new “Open search on hover” option by enabling it with the Vivetool app.

Important: Back up your data before experimenting with hidden features and the Vivetool app.

How to enable new Search settings in Windows 11 build 25435

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:43572857 and press Enter.
6. Type vivetool /enable /id:43572692 and press Enter.
7. Restart your computer.

As usual, it is worth reminding you that not everything Microsoft tests in Windows Insider builds will make it to the general public. The company often throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks, resulting in some changes getting trashed during testing due to negative feedback or other reasons.

Windows 11 may soon let you open Search on hover

What’s new in Build 23435

Gallery in File Explorer

We are introducing Gallery, a new feature in File Explorer designed to make it easy to access your photo collection. The set of content shown in Gallery is the same as what you’ll see in the All Photos view in the Photos app.

Gallery is optimized for accessing your most recently taken photos. If you have OneDrive Camera Roll Backup set up on your phone, photos you take will show up automatically at the top of the view. You can choose which folders are shown in Gallery through the Collection dropdown. You can also add subfolders of existing sources to filter to a subset of your content, such as desktop backgrounds and SD card/camera imports.

Gallery also works from the file picking dialog, bringing that same ease of use to situations such as inserting attachments, building a PowerPoint deck, or crafting social media posts.

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

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• We are continuing the exploration of badging on the Start menu with several new treatments for users logging in with local user accounts to highlight the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA). If you see one of these treatments, give us feedback on what you think. As a reminder, it is normal for us to try out different concepts in the Dev Channel to get feedback.

[File Explorer]

• Windows Insiders will begin noticing a “pizza” icon on the command bar in File Explorer. This icon denotes that an Insider is previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer. Functionality in File Explorer remains unchanged, it just switches from using WinUI 2 to using WinUI 3.

[Narrator]

• Narrator users who interact with Traditional Chinese characters are now able to do this with confidence while using Narrator and the IME candidate window in Windows. This was accomplished by creating a Traditional Chinese dictionary for detail reading. Narrator now consumes the dictionary to disambiguate each Traditional Chinese word. Users should be aware that Narrator detailed reading is only supported for the Taiwan language pack. The Hong-Kong language pack is not supported with Narrator.

[Settings]

• We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. 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.

Fixes

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed a few explorer.exe crashes that were impacting taskbar reliability.

[Input]

• Updated the TextInput/EnableTouchKeyboardAutoInvokeInDesktopMode MDM policy to allow “2” as a valid value to enforce showing the touch keyboard on tapping an edit control even when the hardware keyboard is attached.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue which was causing Settings crashes when navigating to various Windows Update related pages in the last couple flights.

[Live captions]

• Fixed the issue that caused enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page to require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu on Arm64 devices.
• Fixed the issue where you may not see install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” (required by Live Captions) when adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, and language feature installation progress may become hidden.

[Task Manager]

• Improved the performance of the expand all / collapse all View options on the Processes page.

[Accessibility]

• Updated Narrator’s default for “Context level for buttons and controls” to “3 – Immediate content name and type.”

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

[Search on the Taskbar]

• There is an issue where some people may not see the search box on the taskbar and/or the settings to adjust the search box experience on the taskbar after updating to Build 23403. We are aware of the issue, and we are working on a fix.

[File Explorer]

Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues:

• [NEW] Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load.
• [NEW] Live updates (including filtering) are currently disabled and require using the Refresh button as a workaround.
• [NEW] Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool.
• [NEW] Photos from OneDrive for Business currently must be hydrated to work properly.
• [NEW] Some file types (e.g., HEIC) might not be rendered correctly or performantly.

Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer will see the following issues:

• Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear.
• Shift + Right click on a file or folder is not opening “Show more options”.

Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer:

• Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive).

[Live captions]

• [NEW] Live captions will crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. A new fix is expected very soon.
• Certain languages shown on the Language & Region settings page will indicate speech recognition support (e.g., Korean) but don’t yet have support for live captions.
• Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages which means that incorrect captions will be shown for speech not in the caption language.

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 23435 brings new File Explorer "Gallery" but it's quite buggy

However, it looks like the Redmond has now re-published a buggy update alongside the month's Patch Tuesday. Over on the Microsoft Update Catalog website, the KB5012170 update is available for download as a cumulative update for Windows 11 and Windows 10. The release date of the KB matches that of Patch Tuesday.

Back in August, Microsoft released security fix for a critical Secure Boot DBX GRUB vulnerability (KB5012170). The update was found to be causing issues as it was failing to install with error code 0x800f0922, and as a workaround, Microsoft suggested updating the UEFI. And a week later, Microsoft also acknowledged another issue relating to the KB5012170 update. This time, users reported that after installing the update, their systems were forced into BitLocker recovery mode, forcing the Redmond firm to provide steps to workaround the bug. Microsoft's health dashboard still lists these bugs as "investigating" and "confirmed" implying it is possible that the buggy update has been re-pushed by the tech giant.

Source

What is new in Microsoft Edge 113 Beta?

New features:

• Improvements to enhanced security mode. Enhanced security mode provides an extra layer of protection when browsing the web and visiting unfamiliar sites. Updates this release include a new flyout to improve user's experience when a site is not working as expected. Note: This feature is a controlled feature rollout. If you don't see this feature, check back as we continue our rollout.
• Switch from Microsoft Autoupdate to EdgeUpdater for macOS. Microsoft Edge for macOS will start using a new updater called EdgeUpdater. This change only affects Microsoft Edge on macOS. If you use update preferences for Microsoft Autoupdate to prevent browser updates, you will need to transition to the new EdgeUpdater UpdateDefault policy before Microsoft Edge 113 to prevent future automatic updates. For more information, see Microsoft Edge for macOS switch from Microsoft AutoUpdate to EdgeUpdater.

Policy updates:

• RestorePdfView - Restore PDF view
• ReadAloudEnabled - Enable Read Aloud feature in Microsoft Edge
• ShowDownloadsToolbarButton - Show Downloads button on the toolbar
• TabServicesEnabled - Tab Services enabled

You can download Microsoft Edge 113 Beta from the official Edge Insider website. If you prefer stable releases, expect the update to arrive on the week of May 4, 2023.

Edge 113 Beta is now available with enhanced security and new updater for macOS

The set of changes includes improved HTML parsing, better pointer compression, improved caching, and better memory management among various tweaks. Google said that some of the internal changes it made might trickle down to Apple's WebKit engine as well. You can read the company's blog post for more technical details.

In the case of Chrome for Android, Google says it targeted high-end devices "with a version of Chrome that uses compiler flags tuned for speed rather than binary size." These Chrome versions deliver up to 30% better performance on the Speedometer 2.1 benchmark when running on capable devices.

First launched in 2008, Google Chrome holds the highest browser market share globally. According to StatCounter data for March 2023, Chrome leads the race with 64.8% market share and is followed by Safari with 19.5%.

Google flaunts latest Chrome benchmarks, says it got 10% faster

Here is the changelog:

• New! This update changes firewall settings. You can now configure application group rules.
• This update affects the Islamic Republic of Iran. The update supports the government’s daylight-saving time change order from 2022.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process. It might stop responding. Because of this, the machine restarts. The error is 0xc0000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION).
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge IE mode. Pop-up windows open in the background instead of in the foreground.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Edge IE mode. The Tab Window Manager stops responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Remote Management (WinRM) client. The client returns an HTTP server error status (500). This error occurs when it runs a transfer job in the Storage Migration Service.
• This update addresses a rare issue that might cause an input destination to be null. This issue might occur when you attempt to convert a physical point to a logical point during hit testing. Because of this, the computer raises a stop error.
• This update addresses an issue that affects protected content. When you minimize a window that has protected content, the content displays when it should not. This occurs when you are using Taskbar Thumbnail Live Preview.
• This update addresses an issue that affects provisioning packages. They fail to apply in certain circumstances when elevation is required.
• This update addresses an issue that affects mobile device management (MDM) customers. The issue stops you from printing. This occurs because of an exception.
• This update changes the app icons for certain mobile providers.
• This update addresses an issue that affects signed Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies. They are not applied to the Secure Kernel. This occurs when you enable Secure Boot.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Defender Application Control. The policy that blocks software using a hash rule might not stop the software from running.
• This update affects Xbox Elite users who have the Xbox Adaptive Controller. This update applies your controller remapping preferences on the desktop.
• This update addresses an issue that occurs when you use a PIN to sign in to Windows Hello for Business. Signing in to Remote Desktop Services might fail. The error message is, “The request is not supported”.
• This update makes improvements to the performance of the search box.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Administrator Account Lockout policies. GPResult and Resultant Set of Policy did not report them.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Active Directory Users & Computers. It stops responding. This occurs when you use TaskPad view to enable or disable many objects at the same time.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Unified Write Filter (UWF). When you turn it off by using a call to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), your device might stop responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Resilient File System (ReFS). A stop error prevents the OS from starting up correctly.
• This update addresses an issue that affects MySQL commands. The commands fail on Windows Xenon containers.
• This update addresses an issue that affects SMB Direct. Endpoints might not be available on systems that use multi-byte character sets.

You can check out the full blog post for the update here, and you can download the build via Windows Update through the original Windows 11 OS as a Windows Insider in the Release Preview Channel.

Original Windows 11 Build 22000.1879 Release Preview is out but it's mostly bug fixes

Here is the full changelog:

• New! This update changes firewall settings. You can now configure application group rules.
• New! This update adds animations to a few icons on the Widgets taskbar button. These animations turn on when:
  • A new announcement appears on the Widgets taskbar button.
  • You hover over or click the Widgets taskbar button.
• This update affects the Islamic Republic of Iran. The update supports the government’s daylight-saving time change order from 2022.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process. It might stop responding. Because of this, the machine restarts. The error is 0xc0000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION).
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge IE mode. The Tab Window Manager stops responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge IE mode. Pop-up windows open in the background instead of in the foreground.
• This update addresses an issue that affects protected content. When you minimize a window that has protected content, the content displays when it should not. This occurs when you are using Taskbar Thumbnail Live Preview.
• This update addresses an issue that affects mobile device management (MDM) customers. The issue stops you from printing. This occurs because of an exception.
• This update changes the app icons for certain mobile providers.
• This update addresses an issue that affects signed Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies. They are not applied to the Secure Kernel. This occurs when you enable Secure Boot.
• This update addresses an issue that displays Task View in the wrong area. This occurs when you close a full screen game by pressing Win+Tab.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Chinese input method. You cannot see all of the first suggested item.
• This update addresses an issue that occurs when you use a PIN to sign in to Windows Hello for Business. Signing in to Remote Desktop Services might fail. The error message is, “The request is not supported”.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Administrator Account Lockout policies. GPResult and Resultant Set of Policy did not report them.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Unified Write Filter (UWF). When you turn it off by using a call to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), your device might stop responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Resilient File System (ReFS). A stop error occurs that stops the OS from starting up correctly.
• This update addresses an issue that affects MySQL commands. The commands fail on Windows Xenon containers.
• This update addresses an issue that affects SMB Direct. Endpoints might not be available on systems that use multi-byte character sets.

You can view Microsoft's announcement blog post here, and you can download the build via Windows Update through Windows 11 22H2 as a Windows Insider in the Release Preview Channel

Windows 11 Build 22621.1631 Release Preview adds animations to Widgets taskbars and more

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1610 and Build 22624.1610 (KB5025299) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22624.1610 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.1610 = New features off by default.

The new release contains a few small improvements and bug fixes, along with a list of current known issues. You can check out the entire changelog below:

Changes and Improvements in Build 22624.1610

[Settings]

• We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. 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.

Changes and Improvements in BOTH Build 22621.1610 & Build 22624.1610

[Settings]

• Windows Insiders can help us preview a new experience we’re working on. Insiders will begin to see a new toggle under Settings > Windows Update for “getting the latest updates as soon as they are available”. This new toggle is meant to be used in the Beta Channel to allow Insiders to switch more seamlessly to the enablement package. Insiders in the Beta Channel who are on Build 22621 and toggle this on will get updated to Build 22624 via the enablement package. Insiders in the Beta Channel already on Build 22624 and toggle this on will see a “Windows configuration update” offered via Windows Update that is designed to help us make sure this new toggle is connected to our backend services correctly. This configuration update introduces nothing new for Insiders.

Fixes in Build 22624.1610

[General]

• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing a noticeable increase in explorer.exe crashes in the last flight for some Insiders.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1610 & Build 22624.1610

• This update addresses a compatibility issue. The issue occurs because of unsupported use of the registry.

Known issues

[Search on the Taskbar]

• If you have the Bing button in the search box on the taskbar and you restart your computer, you may see the daily rotating search highlight for some time before getting the Bing button back.

[File Explorer]

Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer:

• Shift + Right click on a file or folder is not opening “Show more options”.

[Live captions]

• On ARM64 devices, enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page will require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu.
• [NEW] Live captions will crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. A new fix is expected very soon.
• Certain languages shown on the Language & Region settings page will indicate speech recognition support (e.g., Korean) but don’t yet have support for live captions.
• When adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, language feature installation progress may become hidden, and you may not see install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” (required by Live Captions). (You can use the language’s “Language options” to monitor progress.) If this happens, there may be an unexpected delay before the live caption setup experience detects this and lets you continue.
• Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages which means that incorrect captions will be shown for speech not in the caption language.

You can view the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta build 22624.1610 (KB5025299) fixes registry compatibility issue, and more