Mullvad is a Swedish company that is best known for its VPN service. It was founded in 2009 in Sweden and is best known for its strong focus on privacy.

Mullvad Browser

Mullvad Browser has been developed in cooperation with the makers of the Tor web browser. Tor Browser is also based on Firefox ESR code, but it includes advanced security and privacy features. One of the main ideas behind the creation of the browser was the realization that a privacy-focused VPN may not be enough, if the tools used, in this case the web browser, would reveal information to "big tech, authorities, and data brokers".

The web browser does lots of things different when compared to the majority of web browsers out there. One of the main differentiating factors is that Mullvad has no intention of making money with the browser. It has created the browser for users of its VPN service. As such, it has been designed with privacy in mind.

Developers have removed all Telemetry from the browser, added strong anti-fingerprinting protections from the Tor project, and made private browsing mode the default browsing mode. This means that cookies, cache and the browsing history are not retained between sessions. There is also a new reset button to reset the current session and start anew.

Mullvad lists all outgoing connections that the browser makes on its own on the FAQ page on the official website:

• Browser update (Mullvad)
• Mullvad Browser Extension update (Mullvad)
• Mullvad DoH (Mullvad)
• NoScript/Ublock Origin update (Mozilla)
• Certificates & Domains update (Mozilla)
• Ublock Origin filter lists update (various lists)

The default security level of the browser is set to standard, to ensure compatibility with the majority of websites. Users may increase security by switching to the safer or safest levels. These disable certain features that may be used for invasive acts, but it may lead to issues on some sites.

Mullvad Browser includes several browser extensions by default, including the popular uBlock Origin content blocker and the company's own Mullvad VPN extension.

Some users may wonder why they should use Mullvad Browser if they could use Tor Browser. The main difference is that Mullvad Browser is designed to be run with Mullvad VPN. It does work with any other VPN or no-VPN connection. Tor Browser on the other hand works best with a Tor connection.

Closing Words

Mullvad Browser follows the same release schedule as Firefox ESR and Tor Browser. It can best be described as Tor Browser without Tor. The decision to make private browsing the default may cause issues for some users, considering that cookies are not stored across sessions. Frequent sign-ins may be necessary because of this.

Other than that, it is an alternative to Tor Browser and also to the Firefox web browser. Used in combination with a VPN, that does not log connections, it is improving privacy even further.

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Ever since its introduction, Windows has been the dominating platform on Steam. While Valve has spend resources on improving gaming on Linux, for instance by improving Proton, which makes many Windows games playable on Linux devices, it has not threatened Windows' dominance on the platform.

The March 2023 Steam Hardware & Software Survey highlight this better than ever before. According to the stats, 97.75% of Steam users are using Windows. While it is remarkable that Windows usage is increasing, by 1.73% over February 2023, it is the huge drop of Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 11 and the equally huge increase of Windows 10 that is remarkable.

According to the stats. Windows 10 usage increased by 10.40% to 73.85% on Steam. Windows 11 usage dropped by 7.92% at the same time to 22.41%. Last month, Windows 11 crossed the 30% mark for the first time, only to be pushed back to less than 23% this month.

Valve does not provide any explanations for the statistics. While it is in theory possible that a major Windows 11 bug caused almost a quarter of Windows 11 devices to be downgraded to Windows 10, there is a simple explanation for the development.

Valve does not collect hardware and software stats automatically. What the company does instead is display prompts to Steam users, asking them to provide the information voluntarily. Not all Steam users see the prompt each month and even fewer users participate.

What this means is that stats may fluctuate significantly based on the criteria mentioned. More Windows 10 Steam users may have gotten the prompt in March 2023. It is also possible that Valve has increased the number of prompts, which would benefit operating systems that are more widely used; this would also explain why Linux and macOS have seen a drop in usage.

Only Valve knows, but all available statistics, regardless of whether they come from Steam, Statcounter or other tracking services, are not 100% accurate. All observe just part of the Internet and as such may be off, sometimes way off, when it comes to usage statistics.

Microsoft could provide accurate statistics on the distribution of the various Windows platforms, but the company has never released the information. While it has announced certain milestones in the past, especially when it was still hunting the 1 billion devices goal of Windows 10, it never released detailed statistics publicly.

For users, it does not really matter whether Windows 10 or Windows 11 is in the lead on Steam or elsewhere. It may play a role when Windows 10 is reaching its end of life in 2025, as a large userbase could persuade Microsoft to offer an extension of sorts, similarly to the ESU released for Windows 7.

As for Steam, the April 2023 stats may provide a clearer picture.

Now You: Windows 10, 11 or something else. What is your system?

Explanation for the huge Windows 11 drop on Steam in March 2023

Note: Valve picks users randomly and allows declining participation in the survey. The primary goal is to provide a platform average picture and help developers tailor their games and technology investments. The survey is never 100% accurate.

Windows 11 and 10 combined hold 96.36% of Steam users. Although older Windows versions no longer receive any support from Microsoft, some customers continue accessing Steam from machines running Windows 7 and 8.1. However, Steam will soon cut off those people from the platform—Valve recently announced plans to stop supporting Steam on now-dead Windows versions.

1. Windows 10 64-bit - 73.95% (+10.49)
2. Windows 11 - 22.41% (-7.92)
3. Windows 7 64-bit - 1.06% (-0.54)
4. Windows 8.1 64-bit - 0.20% (-0.19)
5. Windows 7 32-bit - 0.05% (-0.06)

Now to the hardware side of the report:

You can find more information on the survey's official page.

Windows 11's market share on Steam takes a massive nosedive

Firefox is a very popular browser used by more than 200 million people daily.  It also has various add-on extensions that you can use to make your online experience even better. I've had the opportunity to use Firefox in the past and I must say it's a great browser. 

One popular browser extension is Ghostery. Ghostery is one of the best Firefox extensions and has a great ad blocker and also assists with keeping track and rest assured while using the web you’re secure. This extension has been downloaded more than 100 times and it’s regarded as a powerful privacy tool and comes free to install and use.

Ghostery will be our example today as we learn how to install and manage extensions in Firefox.

Accessing Firefox Extensions

As a Firefox user, you can view extensions by clicking on the menu button in the toolbar. You then select add-ons and themes. The add-ons manager tab opens. Select the panel with the type of add-on you wish to manage or view.

Installing Firefox Extensions on Desktop

To install Firefox extensions on a desktop, follow these steps: 

1. Download Firefox and install it
2. Open the firefox browser to launch it 
3. Go to the add-ons section found in Settings >Add-ons. This opens a window that shows all your installed extensions. At this point, you can either select to remove or update any unused extensions as well as search for new ones. If you prefer to do it manually in the address bar, type about add-ons after launching Firefox. This should take you to the add-ons section.
4. Select “Get Add-ons” and then in the search bar type in Ghostery. 
5. The Ghostery extension appears with an “Add to Firefox” button. Click on this and Firefox will automatically install and download. Sometimes a restart is required to use the extension but Firefox will alert you. 
6. Once the installation is complete, a Ghostery icon appears in the toolbar on the right-hand side. This is the quickest way to access settings for extensions.

Installing Firefox Extensions on Android Devices

The Android version supports a limited number of extensions in the recommended extensions list. you commonly find and install your extensions from add-ons.mozilla.org or from the browser add-ons manager.

Here are the steps: 

1. Tap the menu button, which should be three dots at the bottom of the screen
2. Tap the add-ons menu item
3. Tap to add the Ghostery extension
4. To install it, tap the +  button next to the extension's name. This also shows any permissions that the extension needs. Confirm the add-on.
5. You can enable it in private browsing after installation Firefox comes with that option. You can do this by checking or unchecking, allowed in private browsing. These settings can also be changed anytime. 
6.  Tap the ok button to finish.

Disabling Firefox Add-ons

Removing a program when you no longer use it is necessary. Sometimes we download and install programs and do not use them for a long time and you need to be careful because some extensions collect personal data. Although this is not the case with Ghostery because it works with an ad blocker and a tracker for Firefox, it also doesn't collect any personal data.

To disable any Firefox add-on, these are the steps: 

1. Open Firefox and click the menu button
2. Click add-ons and themes and go to extensions
3. Find the extension you wish to disable and disable it using the blue toggle button.

Removing Firefox Add-ons

You can always refer to disabling a Firefox extension instead of removing it but we recommend that you remove any unused extensions. This can be done easily and quickly using these steps: 

1. Go to Firefox and click the menu button 
2. Find the extension
3. Click the three dots next to the extension icon and then click remove. The extension will be completely uninstalled from Firefox.

Stay In Control 

Uninstalling any unused add-ons protects your personal data, and it can be done in three simple steps. It takes you less than 2 minutes to ensure that your personal information is protected at all times while you use the internet.  Ghostery is an extension that comes highly recommended as it blocks any annoying ads,  pop-ups, and spying trackers. It will additionally give you more information if it finds any threats. Ghostery privacy suite also works better than cookie blocking while enhancing your online privacy.

How to Manage Your Firefox Extensions: Tips for Organizing and Updating Them

Spotted by Twitter user Xeno, who also happens to be a Windows enthusiast and detective, it looks like Microsoft will be limiting the number of tabs shown when when snapping. On each of the most recent Insider builds (linked in the first line of the article), Microsoft is tweaking the Alt + Tab option inside Settings to now include up to 20 most recent tabs as you can see in the image below:

In previous builds, for example, in build 25314, Microsoft allowed swapping "All tabs" (image below).

The rest of the options remain the same which are "5 most recent tabs", "3 most recent tabs", and "Don't show tabs". As mentioned above, Xeno has noted that all the Insider builds have received the feature which means this option could be rolling out to Moment 3 update.

If we had to guess, Microsoft may be adding this feature to reduce the impact tabs can have on system memory (especially in situations when Sleeping Tabs may be disabled), and sometimes on the lower end processors as well.

Source: Xeno (Twitter)

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The following guide provides easy to follow step-by-step instructions to resolve the error message if it is unintentional. Windows users who try to install certain types of applications may receive the error message "The app you're trying to install isn't a Microsoft-verified app".

The dialog offers little information on why the installation was prevented. It states that "installing apps from the Store helps protect your PC and keep it running smoothly", and links to the Microsoft Store and the app recommendation settings. There is no option to bypass the restriction immediately.

Explanation for the error message

Microsoft Windows 10 and 11 systems can be configured to only allow software installations from the Microsoft Store. Any app that is not delivered via the Microsoft Store, or at least verified by Microsoft, can't be installed for as long as the setting is active.

Please note that this affects software installations only. Portable applications, those that do not need to be installed, can be run, even if they do not come from the Microsoft Store or are Microsoft-verified.

How to fix "the app you're trying to install" error on Windows

There is an easy option to resolve the issue and remove the limitation on Windows 10 and 11 systems. It should work in most cases, but there are additional options available for edge cases.

Here is how it works on Windows 10:

1. Open the Start Menu and select Settings.
2. Switch to Apps & features.
3. Locate "Choose where to get apps"; it should be displayed at the top.
4. Switch the setting to "anywhere" from "The Microsoft Store only (recommended)".

How to make the change on Windows 11:

1. Open the Start Menu and select Settings.
2. Go to Apps.
3. Select Advanced App Settings on the page that opens.
4. Locate "Choose were to get apps".
5. Change the setting to "anywhere".

The change takes effect immediately. Installations of non-Microsoft Store programs should be allowed now. The change can be undone at any time by reverting the setting to "The Microsoft Store only (Recommended)".

Tip: users who want to keep the restriction, but need to install a non-Store app occasionally, may toggle it off temporarily for the install and restore it after the installation finishes".

Advanced troubleshooting options

Application recommendation settings may also be changed in the Group Policy. This is only available in Professional, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows, and not in Windows Home.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type gpedit.msc and select Group Policy Editor from the results.
3. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender SmartScreen > Explorer.
4. Double-click on Configure App Install Control.
5. The policy is inactive if it is set to "not configured" or "disabled.
6. If it has the enabled status, it may be configured to "allow apps from Store only"; this setting prevents the installation of non-Store apps.
7. Change the value to "turn off app recommendations" to disable the feature entirely. Note that you may also set the entire policy to either Disabled or Not Configured.
8. Select OK to complete the process.
9. A restart of the PC is required.

Windows 10 and 11 Home devices may configure the change in the Windows Registry directly.

Here is how that is done:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor result.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
4. Right-click on Explorer and select New > String value.
5. Name it AicEnabled.
6. Double-click on AicEnabled and set its value to Anywhere.
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart the PC.

Last but not least, there is a special version of Windows, S Mode, which prevents the installation of non-Store apps on Windows devices. Users may leave S Mode under Settings > System > Activation on Windows 11 or Settings > Update & Security > Activation under Windows 10. Note that it is not possible to go back to S Mode once the change has been made.

How to fix The app you're trying to install isn't a Microsoft-verified app on Windows

Starting with Teams Chat that is integrated in Windows 11 directly, we have better app badging for notifications in the Taskbar. If there is a red dot on the Teams icon in the Taskbar, Microsoft says that you will always "find something new in the app", which could also be information about new features. Moreover, Microsoft hasn't detailed what the change is, but it has mentioned that users might see something "fun" when they use the high-five emoji in the app.

Additionally, desktop and web users can also view videos shared in communities in an inline UX. Meeting invites can be shared with other members through their phone numbers only via SMS too.

Meanwhile, coming over to Teams Free on mobile, we have some improvements for communities. Users have the ability to easily share content to recent communities. Communities themselves are also secured from malicious content through autonomous safeguards. Lastly, if a community owner invites you to their community, you'll see a notification inside the app which you can choose to decline or accept.

Here are all the new features Microsoft added to the free version of Teams in March 2023

Benedict Evans, a tech analyst whose newsletter is required reading for those who follow the industry, made an interesting point this week. He had, he said, been talking to generalist journalists who “were still under the impression that ChatGPT was a trivial parlour trick and the whole thing was about as interesting as a new iPhone app”. On the other hand, he continued, “most people in tech are walking around slowly, holding on to the top of their head with both hands to stop it flying off. But within that, I think we can see a range of attitudes.”

We certainly can – on a spectrum ranging from the view that this “generative AI” is going to be the biggest bonanza since the invention of the wheel, to fears that it augurs an existential risk to humanity, and numerous opinions in between. Seeking a respite from the firehose of contradictory commentary, I suddenly remembered an interview that Steve Jobs – the nearest thing to a visionary the tech industry has ever had – gave in 1990, and dug it out on YouTube.

In it he talks about a memory he had of reading an article in Scientific American when he was 12 years old. It was a report of how someone had measured the efficiency of locomotion for a number of species on planet Earth – “how many kilocalories did they expend to get from point A to point B. And the condor won – came in at the top of the list, surpassed everything else; and humans came in about a third of the way down the list, which was not such a great showing for the ‘crown of creation’.

“But then somebody there had the imagination to test the efficiency of a human riding a bicycle. A human riding a bicycle blew away the condor, all the way to the top of the list. And it made a really big impression on me – that we humans are tool-builders, and that we can fashion tools that amplify these inherent abilities that we have to spectacular magnitudes.

“And so for me,” he concluded, “a computer has always been a bicycle of the mind – something that takes us far beyond our inherent abilities.

And I think we’re just at the early stages of this tool – very early stages – and we’ve come only a very short distance, and it’s still in its formation, but already we’ve seen enormous changes, [but] that’s nothing to what’s coming in the next 100 years.”

Well, that was 1990 and here we are, three decades later, with a mighty powerful bicycle. Quite how powerful it is becomes clear when one inspects how the technology (not just ChatGPT) tackles particular tasks that humans find difficult.

Writing computer programs, for instance.

Last week, Steve Yegge, a renowned software engineer who – like all uber-geeks – uses the ultra-programmable Emacs text editor, conducted an instructive experiment. He typed the following prompt into ChatGPT: “Write an interactive Emacs Lisp function that pops to a new buffer, prints out the first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, and changes all words with ‘i’ in them red. Just print the code without explanation.”

ChatGPT did its stuff and spat out the code. Yegge copied and pasted it into his Emacs session and published a screenshot of the result. “In one shot,” he writes, “ChatGPT has produced completely working code from a sloppy English description! With voice input wired up, I could have written this program by asking my computer to do it. And not only does it work correctly, the code that it wrote is actually pretty decent Emacs Lisp code. It’s not complicated, sure. But it’s good code.”

Ponder the significance of this for a moment, as tech investors such as Paul Kedrosky are already doing. He likens tools such as ChatGPT to “a missile aimed, however unintentionally, directly at software production itself. Sure, chat AIs can perform swimmingly at producing undergraduate essays, or spinning up marketing materials and blog posts (like we need more of either), but such technologies are terrific to the point of dark magic at producing, debugging, and accelerating software production quickly and almost costlessly.”

Since, ultimately, our networked world runs on software, suddenly having tools that can write it – and that could be available to anyone, not just geeks – marks an important moment. Programmers have always seemed like magicians: they can make an inanimate object do something useful.

I once wrote that they must sometimes feel like Napoleon – who was able to order legions, at a stroke, to do his bidding. After all, computers – like troops – obey orders. But to become masters of their virtual universe, programmers had to possess arcane knowledge, and learn specialist languages to converse with their electronic servants. For most people, that was a pretty high threshold to cross. ChatGPT and its ilk have just lowered it.

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Linux Lite may not be as well known as Ubuntu or Linux Mint but unlike those distributions, it’s a lot lighter. According to the release notes, Linux Lite 6.4 will work on computers with as little as 768 MB of RAM and a 1 GHz processor. These are the minimum specs, however, and a 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM are recommended. As for disk space, the minimum is 8 GB but it’s recommended you have at least 20 GB.

Another change in this update is that the in-house Linux Lite applications have started to be repackaged with ZSTD compression. This delivers faster decompression speeds and high compression rates.

There are a couple of issues with this update. Firstly, it ships with Linux 5.15.0-69 which is quite a bit behind where the stable Linux kernel is now so some newer hardware may not yet be compatible with Linux Lite 6.4. Additionally, the desktop icons support English only and the grub menu shows Linux Lite as Ubuntu, while not major, users may find these issues a bit bothersome.

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In March 2023, Windows 11 gained 1.81 points and increased from 19.13% to 20.94%. However, Windows 10 also went up, albeit not as drastic as in February 2023, when Microsoft killed Windows 7 and 8.1. The current market leader holds 73.48%, a 0.17 points increase from the previous month.

As expected, people started leaving Windows 7 and 8.1 much faster after Microsoft announced the end of the Extended Security Updates program (ESU). Windows 7 continues its decline, reaching the 3.72% mark and losing 1.62 points. Windows 8.1 currently holds a puny 0.84%, a 0.3 points decrease from February 2023.

Here is what the Windows market looks like according to Statcounter:

1.     Windows 10 - 73.48%
2.     Windows 11 - 29.94%
3.     Windows 7 - 3.72%
4.     Windows 8.1 - 0.84%
5.     Windows 8 - 0.51%

Considering other operating systems (Android, iOS, macOS, ChromeOS, Linux, and others), Windows remains the second most popular OS, losing ground only to Android. Microsoft's desktop operating system has a 28.29% market share (+0.56 points) between Android and iOS.

1.     Android - 41.56% (-2.32)
2.     Windows - 28.89% (+0.56)
3.     iOS - 17.29% (+0.16)
4.     macOS - 7% (+0.33)
5.     Unknown OSes - 3.05% (+0.62)

You can find more information on the official StatCounter website.

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The full release notes for this update are as follows:

•         Bundled vkd3d upgraded to version 1.7.
•         Better error reporting in the IDL compiler.
•         Support for shared Wow64 Classes registry key.
•         More cleanups in IME support.
•         Support for configuring a WinRT dark theme.
•         Various bug fixes.

This latest update comes just two weeks after the release of Wine 8.4 which was notable because it added initial native support for Wayland. As mentioned last time, the Wayland driver is still in the very early stages on not yet ready for end users to leverage.

If you'd like to install Wine 8.5 on your Linux system, head over to the project's downloads page and follow the appropriate instructions for your distribution. If you want to find out which pieces of software will work with Wine, check the AppDB catalogue on the Wine website where various programs have been given ratings based on how well they work with Wine.

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Generative AI systems like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney are poised to revolutionize countless industries. Artificial intelligence expert Pascal Kaufmann said these new AIs are so good at generating text and images that it's easy to overestimate their capabilities.

Kaufman, founder of Starmind.ai and the Mindfire Group explained that true intelligence is loosely defined as the ability to solve completely novel problems. While it's easy to be impressed by AI's ability to perform tasks like natural language processing, Kaufman argued that large language models like GPT-3 merely mimic intelligence without truly possessing it. In particular, they lack the capacity to tackle challenges they have yet to encounter before.

For example, these systems can generate poetry and write code because they've been trained on existing content. But they cannot perform abstract tasks, like understanding humor or feeling empathy.

"There are some people that treat the term 'AI' like it [just means] 'amazing innovation.' So whenever something is amazing, it's called AI," said Kaufmann. "But when you are looking at the scientific and perspective, you can actually measure and define intelligence. Intelligence would be measured as your capability of dealing with unseen problems, unencounted problems. Can you solve something that's completely novel? And the large language models like ChatGPT are not able to tackle anything that it hasn't encountered before. Therefore, its [intelligence] is zero."

Despite this limitation, Kaufman acknowledged that new generative models are a significant advance in AI capability and could revolutionize a number of industries. He highlighted their ability to produce creative and visual work efficiently, significantly reducing costs and turnaround times. He also suggested that the models can generate more creative solutions to unique problems than humans, thanks to their access to a vast reservoir of information.

Kaufman pointed to the value of AI in industries such as illustration and filmmaking, where virtual human beings can be generated and controlled more cost-effectively than their real-life counterparts. He also commented on the potential displacement of creative jobs by AI technologies.

In drilling down on the measurement of intelligence, he noted that Mindfire achieved a world record by solving over 30% of puzzles in an AI IQ test, a significant increase from the previous record of 20%.

He also mentioned the fact that the GPT-4 upgrade being multimodal is another important step forward. Kaufman ultimately characterized the rise of AI models like GPT-3 and GPT-4 as a "usefulness revolution" that will accelerate technological developments.

"This is really a revolution, and it will accelerate the developments towards human-level AI," said Kaufmann.

However, he clarified that these models are not a direct path to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) -- AI with human-level intelligence.

You can watch our full interview with Kaufmann on ZDNET or YouTube.

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In a post on the official Bing blog, it stated that it had now added a way to search for images and videos inside of the chat dialog. Users will see those results under their chat prompts as answer cards, and they can click or tap on "See more" to go into regular Bing image search for additional content.

The blog also states that the team has added improvements for "local grounding" in Bing Chat. That means if you are trying to find a local restaurant near or, or some other nearby establishment, you should see better results while using the chatbot.

Finally, Microsoft revealed some more smaller improvements and fixes to Bing Chat:

•     Bringing the context enhancements announced on March 17 to Edge sidebar, helping you summarize much larger pages and documents.
•     Supporting Bing Image Creator in Edge sidebar (in Creative mode).
•     Making the sidebar load faster and preventing it from loading with a blank screen at first launch.
•     Preventing conversation resets that occurred when Edge was left running for a long time.

Microsoft also revealed plans this week to include ads in Bing Chat responses, with links to companies and also content creators. It's also working on better formatting for responses that deal with math equations.

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Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1537 and Build 22624.1537 (KB5022910) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22624.1537 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.1537 = New features off by default.

The new release brings Bing Chat button to the taskbar Search, fixes a BitLocker CSV issue, and has many other bug fixes and improvements. Here is the full list of changes and improvements, as well as bug fixes in the new Beta builds:

What’s new in Build 22624.1537

Access Keys in File Explorer

We are adding access key shortcuts into the XAML context menu in File Explorer. An access key is a one keystroke shortcut that allows a keyboard user to quickly execute a command in context menu. Each access key will correspond with a letter in the display name. It’s part of our effort to make File Explorer more accessible. To try this out, you can click on a file in File Explorer and press the menu key on your keyboard.

Access keys in the XAML context menu in File Explorer.

[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.]

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

Create live kernel memory dumps in Task Manager

We are introducing a set of new developer-focused features in Task Manager to aid the collection of live kernel memory dumps (LKDs). This is in addition to the existing “Memory dump” for user mode processes. The goal of kernel live dump is to gather data to troubleshoot an abnormal situation but allow the OS to continue operation. This reduces downtime when compared to a bug check for “non-fatal” but high-impact failures and hangs. Click here for more info on live kernel dumps.

To capture a live kernel memory dump (LKD), go to the Details page in Task Manager, right-click on the System process and the context menu should light up to show “Create live kernel memory dump file” to capture a Full live kernel or Kernel stack memory dumps.

The dumps will be written to a fixed location:

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\TaskManager\LiveKernelDumps

Choose the new “Create live kernel memory dump file” option when right-clicking on a process on the details page in Task Manager.

You can also go to the Task Manager Settings page to view/edit the settings for live kernel memory dumps.

Configure live kernel dumps options in Task Manager settings.

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

Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) on plugged in devices including desktop PCs

Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) is already a feature that users are familiar with. This feature in Windows 11 will dim or brighten areas of a display or monitor based on the content being displayed with the goal of striking a balance between reduced power consumption with visual experience to save battery life. Starting with this build, we are allowing this feature to run on devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s that are plugged into a charger, as well as on desktop PCs. For most users, this change won’t be noticeable and should reduce energy consumption.

Content Adaptive Brightness Control options in Settings.

This feature can be adjusted via Settings > System > Display under “Brightness & colour” and through a drop-down menu with 3 options: Off, Always, and “On Battery Only”. For battery powered devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s, the default is “On Battery Only”. On desktop PCs, this is off by default. We encourage Insiders across laptops, 2-in1’s, and desktop PCs to try the “Always” option and give us feedback on the visual quality of CABC so we can ensure it is properly tuned.

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

Changes and Improvements in Build 22624.1537

[Settings]

• As part of the deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters, we have begun redirecting some of the troubleshooters found under Settings > System > Troubleshoot and in other areas of the OS to the new Get Help troubleshooting platform.

[Developer]

• Virtual Memory ranges which are marked by a KbCallbackTriageDumpData BugCheck Callback Routine will now be added to kernel-generated minidumps after a bugcheck.

Changes and Improvements for BOTH Build 22621.1537 & Build 22624.1537

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Once you have access to the new Bing, the search box on the taskbar will include a button that opens the Bing chat experience in Edge. If you don’t have access, the search box on the taskbar will feature a dynamic search highlight button. We’re beginning to roll this out to Insiders, not everyone will see it right away.

Fixes in Build 22624.1537

[General]

• Improved the experience on logon after booting up by reducing the performance impact of startup apps.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• We fixed the issue in the previous build where the option under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar in the Taskbar behavior section to show seconds in the clock on the system tray was not actually enabling the functionality. Enabling should work now.
• Fixed an issue causing the show hidden icons flyout to open behind things like OneNote flyout and live captions.

[Settings]

• Improved the performance of search within Settings.

[Voice access]

• Fixed an issue that was causing voice access to take some time to turn on after using the wake-up command.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue which was causing an unexpected error message to appear when opening Group Policy Editor in the previous flight.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1537 & Build 22624.1537

• New! This update adds many new features and improvements to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. For more information, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.
• New!The search box on the taskbar will be lighter when you set Windows to a custom colour mode. This will occur when you set the Windows mode to dark and the app mode to light in Settings > Personalization > colours.
• This update affects the Arab Republic of Egypt. The update supports the government’s daylight saving time change order for 2023.
• This update affects jscript9Legacy.dll. It adds ITracker and ITrackingService to stop MHTML from not responding.
• This update addresses an issue that affects complexity policy settings for PINs. They are ignored.
• 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 affects the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) option 119 – Domain Search Option. The issue stops you from using a connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a Clustered Shared Volume (CSV). The CSV fails to come online. This occurs if you enable BitLocker and local CSV managed protectors, and the system recently rotated the BitLocker keys.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect your audio. It might cause glitching or screeching. This occurs when the system is under a heavy load or wakes from sleep.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Narrator. It fails to read items in dropdown lists in Microsoft Excel.
• 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 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 affects the Group Policy Editor. It adds Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 to the list of protocols that you can set.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Windows Search. Windows Search fails inside of Windows container images.
• 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 Desired State Configuration. It loses its previously configured options. This occurs if metaconfig.mof is missing.
• The update addresses an issue that affects the Remote Procedure Call Service (rpcss.exe). The issue might cause a race condition between the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and the Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (RPC) endpoint mapper.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft PowerPoint. It stops responding on the Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). This occurs when you use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Fast Identity Online 2.0 (FIDO2) PIN credential icon. It does not appear on the credentials screen of an external monitor. This occurs when that monitor is attached to a closed laptop.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the new Windows Runtime (WinRT) API. This issue stops an application from querying for location information using MBIM2.0+.
• This update addresses an issue that affects USB printers. The system classifies them as multimedia devices even though they are not.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Microsoft HTML Application Host (HTA). This issue blocks code execution that uses Microsoft HTA. This occurs when you turn on Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) User Mode Code Integrity (UMCI) enforced mode.
• This update affects the Group Policy Management Console. It addresses a scripting error in the Group Policy Preferences window.
• This update addresses an issue that stops WDAC from parsing fields from binaries.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) certificate. The system reports some SCEP certificate installations as failed. Instead, the system should report them as pending.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft PowerPoint. It stops responding. This occurs when you use accessibility tools.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Notepad combo box in Settings. It fails to show all the available options.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect Win32 and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. They might close when devices enter Modern Standby. Modern Standby is an expansion of the Connected Standby power model. This issue occurs if certain Bluetooth PhoneLink features are turned on.

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.

[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.
• 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 find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta build 22624.1537 (KB5022910) fixes CSV BitLocker bug, adds Bing Chat button

You may be a bit surprised by this announcement as Nvidia had already ended driver support for Kepler. However, this is not the general Game Ready driver which brings support for new graphics cards or optimizations for new game titles. Instead, this is a security update driver meant to patch some of the security issues that have come up. Nvidia had earlier stated that it would provide security updates for Kepler through September 2024, and it looks like the company is keeping true to its word.

As such, the driver changelog does not list any fixed bugs or known issues. The release note only says:

NVIDIA has released a software security update for NVIDIA GPU Display Driver. This update addresses issues that may lead to code execution, denial of service, escalation of privileges, information disclosure, or data tampering.

The links to download the new security drivers are provided below:

Download:

• Windows 10 64-bit/ Windows 11: Standard / DCH (474.30) [US version]
• Windows 7/8/8.1 64-bit: Standard / DCH (474.30) [US version]

The driver mitigates the following security vulnerabilities:

• CVE-2023-0184
• CVE-2023-0182
• CVE-2023-0191
• CVE-2023-0181
• CVE-2023-0199
• CVE-2023-0186
• CVE-2023-0187
• CVE-2023-0188
• CVE-2023-0192
• CVE-2023-0194
• CVE-2023-0195

You can find more details on these vulnerabilities on Nvidia's security bulletin page here.

Windows 11/10 and Windows 8.1/7 security drivers for Nvidia GTX 700 and 600 (Kepler) is here

It’s not only the main Ubuntu flavour receiving a beta release today either, also included are Ubuntu Server, Cloud, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Unity, Xubuntu, and the recently graduated Ubuntu Cinnamon which Neowin covered earlier in the week.

Two of the main features in this update are the new Linux 6.2 kernel which brings support for newer hardware and a new default Ubuntu installer which is now a Flutter snap. The old installer is still packaged in case of issues but the company thinks the new one is ready for prime time.

Other big changes that users will notice come from the GNOME developers. With Ubuntu 23.04, Canonical has decided to include GNOME 44 which was only released this month. You can check out our coverage from last week to see what features you may find in the new Ubuntu release. You can find the download links in the mailing list announcement.

Canonical releases Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” Beta

Linux might not be on the mind of every consumer that uses a PC, but it's certainly growing in popularity. The reason for this growth has to do with several factors, including how deeply embedded Linux is within the enterprise business space, how the web browser has become the primary tool for most users, the incredible evolution of Linux on the desktop, the cost-effectiveness of Linux (it's completely free), and how the open-source operating system can save you from having to throw out that aging computer.

Add to those factors how user-friendly Linux has become and it's a perfect time for the masses to adopt Linux.

When I first started using Linux (back in '97), it was a challenge to not only install but to use. It seemed everything I needed to do required I read a considerably long manifesto as to why it had to be done a certain way, while at the same time offering a number of different ways to achieve the same thing. It was both confusing and freeing at the same time. Being thrown into that mix head-first forced me to learn fast. After about six months of using Linux as my only OS, I pretty much had it down.

But six months is a long time to take just so you know how to use an operating system on a computer.

Fortunately, things have dramatically changed. Linux of yesterday would barely be recognizable in comparison to its modern equivalent. Now, Linux is as user-friendly as any OS on the market. If you're considering migrating from either Windows or macOS to Linux, here are some things you need to know.

1. It's easier than you think

The Linux desktop is so easy. It really is. Developers and designers of most distributions have gone out of their way to ensure the desktop operating system is as user-friendly as any operating system on the market. During those early years of using Linux, the command line was an absolute necessity. Today? Not so much. In fact, Linux has become so easy and user-friendly, that you could go your entire career on the desktop and never touch the terminal window.

That's right, Linux of today is all about the graphical user interface (GUI) and the GUIs are good. If you can use macOS or Windows, you can use Linux. It doesn't matter how skilled you are with a computer, Linux is a viable option. In fact, I'd go so far to say that the less skill you have with a computer the better off you are with Linux. Why? Linux is far less "breakable" than Windows. You really need to know what you're doing to break a Linux system.

2. Linux is not just a kernel

One very quick way to start an argument within the Linux community is to say Linux isn't just a kernel. In a similar vein, a very quick way to confuse a new user is to tell them that Linux is only the kernel.

Let me clear this up for you. Every version of the Linux operating system uses the Linux kernel. But as a new user, you don't care about that. Even talking about the Linux kernel is a way to completely confuse and turn off new users. Yes, Linux uses the Linux kernel. All operating systems have a kernel, but you don't ever hear Windows or macOS users talk about which kernel they use.

In simplest terms, Linux is an operating system because, without the kernel, you won't have an operating system. So if anyone tries to confuse the issue, understand that Linux is both an operating system and a kernel and they are inextricably bound.

3. Distributions are just different "brands" of the Linux operating system

When you first dive into the Linux waters, you'll find there are a vast array of "brands" you can use. There's Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, Cutefish OS, Arch Linux, Feren OS, openSUSE, Mageia, Bohdi Linux, Deepin, Sabayon Linux, Peppermint Linux, MX Linux, EndeavorOS, Manjaro, Garuda, Debian, Zorin, elementary OS, PCLinuxOS…the list goes on and on. In fact, there are hundreds of Linux distributions.

What's important to understand is that each distribution is like a brand. Think about Linux distributions as shoes. If you're looking for a new running shoe, you might consider Brooks, Hoka, Nike, Alta, New Balance, or Addidas. They're all running shoes, they just offer a different variation on the theme. Each shoe might have different features, different heel-to-toe drops, different weights, different purposes, and different looks. However, in the end, they are all running shoes.

Linux distributions can be viewed in the same way: Each offers different features, different GUI tools, different purposes, and different looks…but they are all operating systems. The important thing (which is similar to your choice of kicks) is to find the distribution that best matches your needs and wants.

4. There's so many choices

One thing that has always been true of Linux is that there's a vast amount of choices. Not only in distributions, but desktops, and installable software. One aspect that will help you narrow down your choice of distribution is what desktop you prefer. There's GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Mate, Enlightenment, Xfce, LXQt, Budgie, Pantheon, LXDE, Trinity Desktop, Sugar, and more.

That level of choice trickles down to so much more. You have multiple web browsers, email clients, office suites, and image editors…you name it and there's a choice. The good thing is that most of those choices are really good options. However, at first blush, all of those choices might be a bit daunting. Because of that, the best approach for new users trying to decide which path to take is:

•     Decide which desktop you like.

•     Narrow down the distributions that use your desktop of choice.

•     Weed out the distributions that don't include a simple-to-use app store.

•     Weed out Arch-based distributions (for new users only).

•     Install and enjoy.

5. You'll find help everywhere

Like anything these days, help is just a google search away. And you'll find plenty of sites dedicated to helping people with Linux (such as ZDNET). When you run into a problem (or something isn't quite as clear as you think it should be) just run a quick search and you'll find tons of solutions.

Speaking of which, with Linux, there isn't always one right answer for things. You might find there are numerous solutions for just about every task you need to complete. The important thing is to find the solution that best suits your skills and your needs.

6. Not all hardware will work (but most do)

I'll say this (and I stand by it): Ubuntu Linux probably has the best hardware detection and support of any operating system on the market. That doesn't mean it works with everything.

There are certain peripherals you might own that have trouble working with Linux. Two of the more problematic pieces of hardware are scanners and wireless chips. One thing I've often done (when I find a piece of hardware that isn't supported) is trying a different Linux distribution. For example, you might have a laptop and Ubuntu Linux can't detect the built-in wireless chipset. Maybe give Fedora Linux a try and it'll work (Fedora often ships with a newer kernel than Ubuntu Linux, which supports more modern hardware).

One thing to keep in mind is most Linux distributions are offered as Live images, which means you can test drive them without making any changes to your hard drive. This is a great way to tell if a distribution will support all of the hardware you need to use.

Conclusion

Although this isn't an exhaustive list of things you should know before migrating to Linux, it should serve to ease some of your concerns and make you better prepared for what's in store. If you're tired of the headaches associated with Windows, and Apple products are too expensive, Linux is a great choice.

Source

Changes and Improvements

[Settings]

• Pressing the print screen key will now open Snipping Tool by default. This setting can be turned off via Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. If you have previously modified this setting yourself, your preference will be preserved.
• The settings page for wheel devices such as the Surface Dial has been updated to better match the Windows 11 design principles.

Updated wheel devices settings page.

[Windows Sandbox]

• If you have changed your primary mouse button under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mouse, Windows Sandbox will now follow that setting.

[Remote Desktop]

• We updated the Remote Desktop Connection setup window (mstsc.exe) so that it now follows the text scaling settings under Settings > Accessibility > Text Size. In cases where the text scaling is very large, it will show a scrollbar.

[Bitlocker]

• When encrypting a drive using Bitlocker, you can now minimize the encryption progress dialog.

[Inbox apps]

• You can now uninstall the Camera app if you need to.

Microsoft Store Update

Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels running version 22303.1401.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvements rolling out:

Quickly install free apps and games from search results in the Store.

• Install free apps and games from search results: We’ve introduced a new way to install free apps and games. Hovering over a free product on the search results page opens a new expanded card experience, where you can find a convenient install button. This will trigger the installation without having to navigate into the product page.

• New design when purchasing apps and games in the Store: Discover a new and redesigned experience when purchasing apps and games inside the Microsoft Store! The purchase dialog’s styles align better with Windows 11 to bring you a more pleasant checkout experience.

New design when purchasing apps and games in the Store.

• New UX for in-app ratings dialog: Developers of your favorite apps and games often use a Microsoft Store feature that requests ratings from within the app or game. We’ve updated this in-app ratings experiences to be faster, more reliable, and to better align with Windows 11 styling.

New UX for in-app ratings dialog in the Store.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Insider Canary build 25330 has some Windows Store improvements and more

You can find the full changelog below:

What’s new in Build 23424

Evolved Widgets Board

We are beginning to preview a revamp of the widgets board experience with a larger canvas (3-columns if supported by the device) and new zones to provide users quick access to glanceable widgets from their apps and services as well as enable users to take a high-value break with their personalized feed.

Example of updated widgets board with larger canvas and dedicated sections for widgets and feed content.

[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 Desktop Environment > Widgets.

Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) on plugged in devices including desktop PCs

Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) is already a feature that users are familiar with. This feature in Windows 11 will dim or brighten areas of a display or monitor based on the content being displayed with the goal of striking a balance between reduced power consumption with visual experience to save battery life. Starting with this build, we are allowing this feature to run on devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s that are plugged into a charger, as well as on desktop PCs. For most users, this change won’t be noticeable and should reduce energy consumption.

Content Adaptive Brightness Control options in Settings.

This feature can be adjusted via Settings > System > Display under “Brightness & colour” and through a drop-down menu with 3 options: Off, Always, and “On Battery Only”. For battery powered devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s, the default is “On Battery Only”. On desktop PCs, this is off by default. We encourage Insiders across laptops, 2-in1’s, and desktop PCs to try the “Always” option and give us feedback on the visual quality of CABC so we can ensure it is properly tuned.

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

Changes and Improvements

[Input]

• Made a change to help improve performance when using a high polling mouse while gaming.

[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. But because the Dev Channel does not use an enablement package, turning this toggle on will not do anything for Insiders in the Dev Channel. However, by turning it on, a “Windows configuration update” will be offered via Windows Update that is designed to help us make sure it this new toggle is connected to our backend services correctly before making it available in the Beta Channel. This update introduces nothing new for Insiders.

New toggle on the Windows Update settings page for getting the latest updates as soon as they are available.

• Improved the performance of search within Settings.
• The settings page for wheel devices such as the Surface Dial has been updated to better match the Windows 11 design principles.

Updated wheel devices settings page.

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue that was causing voice access to take some time to turn on after using the wake-up command.

[File Explorer]

We fixed the following issues for Insiders with recommended files in File Explorer:

• We fixed the issue causing an error dialog to pop up when clicking on the “Open File Location” command.
• We fixed the issue causing no action to occur when clicking on the ‘Remove from list’ command.

[Input]

• Made a change to help improve performance when using a high report rate mouse while gaming. As a reminder, if you have gaming performance feedback, please follow these steps to file actionable feedback.

[Settings]

• Improved the performance of search within Settings.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue from the last flight where Microsoft Edge tabs would show when doing ALT + Tab even if Settings > System > Multitasking was set to “Don’t show tabs”.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where the search icon could end up overlapping the Task Manager icon in the title bar.

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.
• 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:

• Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear.

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]

• 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.
• 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 find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 23424 brings latest updates sooner to you, boosts Settings performance

Windows 11 build 23419, currently available for Windows insiders in the Dev Channel, contains a hidden feature for turning on or off account-related notifications in the Start menu. Digging it up allows disabling the ads by heading to Settings > Personalization > Start.

Microsoft has not announced the option, so whether it will ship it to all customers in the Stable Channel remains an open question (it is also unavailable in the Canary Channel). If you are using Dev builds and want to remove Microsoft Account notifications from the Start menu, here is how to enable the corresponding option using the ViveTool app.

Note: Enabling hidden experimental changes could lead to instabilities and bugs—back up important data before using the ViveTool app.

How to disable Microsoft Account notifications in Windows 11 build 23419?

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:41981645 and press Enter (credits for the ID go to @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter).
6. Restart your computer.
7. Go to Settings > Personalization > Start and toggle off the Show account-related notifications option.

What do you think about the new Microsoft Account notifications in the Start menu? Are they invasive ads, or are they actually useful? Let us know in the comments.

Windows 11 may let you disable annoying notifications in the Start menu

Gmail is one of the most used emailing platforms online. It offers many distinct features and is widely used due to its easy accessibility and user-friendly interface. However, sending a large file is a serious issue most Gmail users complain about, with most unaware of a simple fix. Here is how to send large files in Gmail!

How to send large files in Gmail: Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud-based file storage and synchronization service provided by Google. It allows users to store and access their files from anywhere with an internet connection and share files and folders with others. Did you catch the last sentence? Thanks to Google Drive, you can send up to 10GB of files in Gmail, and you don't have to back and forth between the applications as Google has already thought about that and eliminated the hassle. If you want to know how to send large files in Gmail using Google Drive, follow the steps below:

1. Open Google Drive and sign in to your Google account.
2. Upload the large file to Drive.
3. Open Gmail and sign in to your account.
4. Click Compose to start writing a new email.
5. At the bottom of the window, you will see a Google Drive icon near the emoji icon; click that.
6. Find the large file and click the blue Insert button at the bottom left of the attachment window.
7. Now that your file is attached, compose your email and hit Send.

The file's link will be sent to the recipient, and they can download it by using the link.

Bypassing the 25MB limit in Gmail: Mobile

The process is almost the same, and just the placements of certain buttons are different. If you want to avoid the 25MBlimit in the mobile Gmail app, please follow the steps below:

1. Again, upload the large file to Drive and log into your Gmail account.
2. Tap Compose to start writing a new email.
3. Tap Attach at the top right of your screen.
4. Choose Insert from Drive. ( If you are an iPhone user, simply choose the file from the Drive menu that you will see at this stage.)
5. Find the file and tap Select.
6. Complete your email and hit Send.

What is the Gmail attachment limit?

The Gmail attachment limit is set at 25MB per email. Unless you follow our guide on how to send large emails in Gmail, you won't be able to exceed the 25MB limit.

How to send large files in Gmail: Easiest way

Windows 10 and 11 can preview registry files without extra applications (just use the default Notepad). However, PowerToys' Registry Preview will offer several convenient features, making work with .reg files much better. For example, you will be able to edit registry files with a more user-friendly UI than the standard Notepad, write changes to Registry with a single click, quickly open Registry Editor, view Registry trees, watch changes live, and more.

Here is what Registry Previewer should look like (the final version is subject to change):

In addition to opening .reg files from the previewer, PowerToys will add a new entry to Windows' context menus, allowing you to right-click and open a .reg-files in the previewer.

There is no information on when Microsoft plans to release Registry Previewer to the public, but it should not take too long. You can track the development process on GitHub.

PowerToys' upcoming registry tool will let you preview and edit registry files

Aside from adding AV1 and HEVC over RTMP support, the update also includes update channels for macOS, improved String Transition performance, fMP4 support, and multi-track audio options in simple output mode. There are also bug fixes, performance improvements, and usability tweaks.

The release notes are as follows:

• Added a DLL blocking feature for Windows. This allows OBS to block problematic DLLs from attaching to OBS and causing freezing or crashes, for example 3rd party overlay hooks and outdated video capture devices. [notr1ch]
  • This blocks old versions of popular VTubing software virtual cameras that are known to cause freezes when accessing video capture device properties. If you are affected, please update to the latest version of your VTubing software.
• Added Update Channels on macOS and updated Sparkle for smaller and faster updates going forward [derrod]
• Added settings to select the audio encoder for streaming and recording [tytan652]
• Added an option to preload media sources used in Stingers to memory, to avoid frame skips during transitions [Jim]
• Added compatibility notices in the Window and Game Capture sources for Windows [derrod]
• Added the ability to zoom browser docks with Ctrl - and + and the right click menu [WizardCM]
• Added a setting to record in fragmented MP4 and MOV formats [derrod]
• Added support for surround sound for AJA capture cards [paulh-aja]
• Added ProRes 4444 (XQ) support for VideoToolbox encoder on macOS [jpark37]
• Added lossless audio recording options (FLAC/ALAC/PCM including 32-bit float) [derrod]
• Added indicator if an audio source is unmuted, but not assigned to any audio tracks [derrod]
• Added support for streaming AV1/HEVC over RTMP [YouTube/yuriy-chunak]
  • Currently only supported by/enabled for YouTube. Please see the pull request for context and known issues. This feature is also in beta at YouTube. Please help test with different encoders and settings, and report any issues found here, along with a log file from OBS.
• Added support for multiple audio tracks in Simple output recording [pkv]

Windows users that want to install this latest beta can grab the download here (it’s hosted by GitHub) please be aware that this is not production-ready software so you should download a stable version if you need to get work done.

OBS Studio 29.1 Beta available with AV1 and HEVC streaming over RTMP

And it is not just stupid tabloids. As discovered by Tom's Hardware, the content Microsoft's algorithms promote is often misleading or even harmful. No wonder users want to get rid of it. Although Windows 11 has no single-click solution for this problem, one trick might help you clear the widgets area.

How to disable news in Windows Widgets?

The process is a bit tedious, and you will have to make a lot of clicks, so try it when you have some free time and maybe a favorite podcast to listen to so that the process is less miserable (get ready for accidental clicks too).

This method relies on the option to remove select news sources from your feed. In theory, hiding all sources should result in Windows Widgets showing only widgets, as it should have been in the first place.

1. Open Windows Widgets and click your profile icon in the upper-right corner.
2. Click Manage interests. The link will get you to the Microsoft Start portal and ask you to specify your interests. Select one or two topics that match your preferences the most—this will help make the feed more tolerable.
3. Open Windows Widgets again and click refresh.
4. Click the button with an eye icon and select Hide stories from this source.

   

    

5. Repeat step 4 until Windows stops serving you new stories.
6. Restart your computer and open Windows Widgets.

Of course, this is far from perfect. However, for now, it seems like the only way to make Windows Widgets usable before Microsoft lets us place widgets on the desktop or disable the news. Note that it might take a long time to remove all sources (depending on where you live), and some websites may appear again. In such a case, just repeat the steps above.

How to remove news from Windows Widgets in Windows 11?

Climate change has contributed to extreme weather conditions in recent years, including prolonged heat waves and flooding from large storms. The search giant says that heat wave-related queries peaked during July last year and data shows (PDF) that around 500,000 people lose their lives every year due to extreme heat.

Once rolled out, Google Search heat alerts will show various information including tips for staying cool and predicting when a heat wave would start and end. As of now, Google already displays crisis-related alerts for natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires in Search and Maps. The company also uses satellite imagery data to track wildfires in real time.

Furthermore, Google also announced that its Tree Canopy tool now works for 350 cities across the globe, up from 14 in the past. The AI-powered tool is designed to reduce 'heat islands' which are basically concrete-rich urban areas that experience comparatively higher temperatures. The tool uses satellite imagery to create a digital map of tree canopy coverage in cities. Local authorities can use this data to plan urban forestry initiatives and improve tree coverage to keep the cities cooler.

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