Microsoft highlighted the advantages of the change in the announcement. Adobe's solution offers "higher fidelity for more accurate colours and graphics, improved performance, strong security for PDF handling, and greater accessibility -- including better text selection and read-aloud narration" according to Microsoft.

Along with these improvements comes a button to buy an Acrobat subscription to access advanced features. The new Try Acrobat button is placed in the rightmost location of the main PDF viewer toolbar in Edge.

A click on the button displays information on Premium features that users can unlock when they subscribe. A 7-day free trial is offered and an option for Acrobat subscribers to sign-in to unlock the new features.

Subscribers get access to text and image editing, PDF converting and the combining of files.

Microsoft Edge 111 is the first version of the web browser that comes with Adobe's PDF viewer. The browser shows a small Adobe icon on the right side of the browser window to indicate that Edge uses Adobe's PDF viewing engine to display the document.

How to remove the Try Acrobat icon in Edge

Microsoft Edge users who do not want to upgrade their account to a paid subscription may want to hide the Try Acrobat button in Edge. The button, thankfully, does not open on hover, but it may still be seen as a distraction.

Microsoft released Edge 111.0.1661.44 on March 16, 2023, and integrated two new Adobe policies into it. The first, NewPDFReaderEnabled, defines if Adobe's PDF Viewer is enabled in Edge or not. Windows users may enable the new PDF viewer by setting the experimental flag edge://flags/#edge-new-pdf-viewer to Enabled in the browser.

The second policy defines whether the Acrobat subscription button is displayed in Edge when PDFs are viewed.

The name of the policy is ShowAcrobatSubscriptionButton, but it is possible to make the change directly in the Windows Registry.

Note: we recommend that you back up the Registry or create a system backup before Registry edits are made.

1. Select Start, type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor result to launch the Windows Registry Editor.
2. Confirm the launch with a click on ok, when the UAC prompt is displayed.
3. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\
   1. If one of the keys does not exist, right-click on the previous one and select New > Key. Name it accordingly.
4. Right-click on Microsoft and select New > Key.
5. Name it Edge.
6. Right-click on the newly created Edge key and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
7. Name it ShowAcrobatSubscriptionButton.
8. Make sure its value is set to 0 (zero), as this disables the Try Acrobat button.
9. Open edge:// policy in the Microsoft Edge web browser.
10. Activate the "reload policies" button. Edge should display the new policy now on the page.
11. Open any PDF document in Edge. The Try Acrobat button should not be displayed anymore.

Either delete the Dword or set its value to 1 to display the button again in Microsoft Edge.

How to remove the Try Acrobat advertisement from Microsoft Edge's new PDF Viewer

Following these optimizations on Windows, AMD engineers are now bringing Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) Pstate (performance state) improvements to the Linux kernel. Currently, AMD CPPC has two modes, the Active (autonomous) and Passive (non-autonomous). A third, Guided autonomous mode is being added to the kernel. This Guided autonomous mode (via Phoronix) essentially provides the best blend of both the previous two modes. Hence, it is able to provide the required performance under a particular workload (like Passive mode), while also not ignoring the minimum and maximum performance level ranges, as well as the energy performance preference (EPP) registers, that are set under the autonomous Active mode. Basically, the patch will help improve the efficiency of Zen processors.

The patch notes explain this in detail:

- In autonomous mode, platform ignores the desired performance level request and takes into account only the values set to the minimum, maximum and energy performance preference registers.

- In non-autonomous mode, platform gets desired performance level from OS directly through Desired Performance Register.

- In guided-autonomous mode, platform sets operating performance level autonomously according to the current workload and within the limits set by OS through min and max performance registers.

In related news, AMD recently confirmed that a fTPM stuttering and freezing bug, which was previously present on Windows 11, had begun affecting Linux as well. Thankfully, a workaround for the same has already been issued.

Following Windows 11, AMD Ryzen getting performance-efficiency boost in Linux

Maxim Smirnov, who leads Yandex's browser performance team, describes in a new blog post on the official company blog how his team managed to reduce GPU process crashes by the factor 5.5 and memory consumption of the GPU process by 8% on average.  According to Yandex, all they had to do is rename the GPU process to chrome.exe.

The improvements were observed on AMD systems, and it is unclear if NVIDIA systems are affected by this as well.

The idea to see if renaming the process would improve performance of the company's browser came after Smirnov's team analyzed a scrolling issue that affected the company's browser but not Chrome and Edge on the same Lenovo laptop. The team confirmed that its browser was using the same touchpad logic as the other browsers. When Yandex renamed its browser executable from browse.exe to chrome.exe, it noticed that the scrolling issue was fixed.

This suggested that a list of hardcoded application file names was used by the touchpad driver, and that Yandex's browser was not on the list.

Optimizing browser performance by pretending to be chrome.exe

Yandex's performance team remembered the touchpad solution, and decided to investigate, if the renaming of the GPU process would have a positive effect on the browser's performance. If an installed GPU driver would also use hardcoded process names, it could mean that these processes would benefit from this.

Yandex used an internal function of Chromium to replace browser.exe with chrome.exe internally only. This had the advantage that the process name was left untouched. Users who opened the Task Manager would still see browser.exe as the process name.

The company set up an A/B experiment to check if the change had any impact on the GPU process' stability and performance. Turns out it did: "The results surprised us a lot: for users with AMD video cards from the experimental group, the number of GPU process crashes decreased by 5.5 times, the memory consumption of the GPU process decreased by an average of 8%, and the opening of web pages in the browser and interface responsiveness also slightly accelerated".

Yandex's conclusion was, that the AMD driver used hardcoded process names for certain features or optimizations. Yandex contacted AMD to request inclusion of its browser in the list. The company is aware that this would affect future drivers only, and it decided to launch a change in Yandex Browser version 22.9.0 that pretends that the browser's GPU process is chrome.exe.

Closing Words

Other Chromium-based browsers and applications may be affected by this as well. Browser makers may want to verify this by running their own sets of tests.

Yandex Browser's GPU crashes dropped significantly after pretending to be Chrome

Getting "big" updates in Windows 11 is not as simple as one may think. Microsoft frequently practices staggered rollouts, which means many users get new features and upgrades significantly later than others. On one side, such an approach helps Microsoft ensure a stable rollout; on the other, it hurts enthusiasts eagerly waiting for new software.

The latest find in build 25314 will please those wanting their PCs to get new updates as quickly as possible without risking dealing with bugs in preview builds. Turning on the discovered ID places a new option in the Windows Update section, and toggling it on will prioritize your PC to receive the latest updates as they roll out, assuming there are no blocking bugs. Here is how you can enable the new feature.

Caution: Back up important data before turning on hidden and unannounced options. They are often raw and unstable and increase the risks of crashes. The best way to ensure your system remains bug-free (as much as possible) is to stay on a stable Windows release.

How to enable new Windows Update options in Windows 11 build 25314?

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:43132439 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.
7. Go to Settings > Windows Update and turn on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're ready for your PC" option.

We do not know if the new feature will work with stable updates or if it should also apply to staggered rollouts of new capabilities in the Windows Insider program. We'll have to wait for Microsoft to announce the new toggle and clarify its purpose.

Windows 11 may soon let you install new feature updates much sooner

We want to ensure that people are in control of what gets pinned to their Desktop, their Start menu and their Taskbar as well as to be able to control their default applications such as their default browser through consistent, clear and trustworthy Windows provided system dialogs and settings.

First, Windows 11 will soon introduce a new deep link URI for applications. It will allow apps to take users directly to the corresponding location in the Settings app, where they can set defaults. This change will finally end endless wandering across the Settings app in search of how to change what app Windows uses to open PDF files, for example.

Second, developers will get another publicly available API for managing primary or secondary pins on the taskbar. An app utilizing the API will use a "trusted Windows user experience" (in other words, a native prompt with a clear explanation and quick actions) to offer the customer the option to pin the app or one of its parts to the taskbar. Here is what the new prompt could look like:

Microsoft highlights that the new rules will mandate not only third-party but also Microsoft's own applications. Specifically, the company promises a dedicated Edge update to adopt the new deep link URI and pinning API. These two new features will soon be available for Windows insiders to test in the Dev Channel. Eventually, the new approach should promote a more open Windows experience, an improvement for both customers and app developers.

Microsoft introduces new policies for app pinning and changing default apps in Windows

Rufus 3.22 introduces the ability to disable automatic BitLocker encryption in the Windows User Experience dialog. This feature joins several existing options that let you personalize your Windows 11 install media, such as removing the requirement for 4GB of RAM, Secure Boot, TPM, and an online Microsoft account.

Other changes in Rufus 3.22 Beta include SHA-1 and SHA-256 x86 acceleration on supported processors and the ability to save logs between sessions. On the downside, with Rufus 3.22, Windows 7 users can no longer download ISO files using the app.

Here is the complete changelog for Rufus 3.22 Beta:

• Add SHA-1 and SHA-256 x86 acceleration on CPUs that support it
• Add an option to disable BitLocker device encryption in the Windows User Experience dialog
• Add a cheat mode (Ctrl-P) to preserve the log between sessions
• Fix potential media creation errors by forcing the unmount of stale .wim images
• Fix potential access errors in ISO → ESP mode by forcing Large FAT32 formatting
• Fix user-specified label not being preserved on error/cancel
• Fix some large SSD devices being listed by default
• Fix processing of Rock Ridge CE fields
• Work around the use of Rock Ridge symbolic links for Linux firmware packages (Debian)
• Remove the ISO download feature on Windows 7

You can download Rufus 3.22 Beta from the app's GitHub repository (via Deskmodder). Those unfamiliar with the app can check out our guide showing how to create a Windows 11 install media using Rufus.

Rufus 3.22 Beta adds an option to disable BitLocker, removes ISO downloads on Windows 7

This early-stage work on the Wayland driver was contributed by Alexandros Frantzis, here are the release notes pertaining to these improvements:

• winewayland.drv: Add initial driver stub.
• winewayland.drv: Add initial unixlib stub.
• winewayland.drv: Perform basic per-process Wayland initialization.
• win32u: Allow drivers to set the null user driver.
• winewayland.drv: Report basic monitor information.
• winewayland.drv: Report all advertised monitor modes to Wine.

As you can probably tell from reading the above information, the Wayland driver is not ready for end users to take advantage of just yet but it shows that the developers are now working to introduce native Wayland support.

Aside from initial work on Wayland, Wine 8.4 delivers clean-ups in IME support, a number of test fixes, and various bug fixes. You can find binary packages for your distribution on the Wine download page.

Source: WineHQ via Phoronix

Wine 8.4 released with initial native support for Wayland

Microsoft wants to supercharge its browser with another capability that will surely raise many eyebrows. According to the feature's description, the idea is to give Edge customers a "non-custodial wallet," meaning crypto holders will not need to rely on third parties to store private keys and passwords. Microsoft says the project is its "foray into cryptocurrencies and NFTs," and promises a more effortless and safer experience without third-party extensions to make interacting with Web3 easier.

Of course, the company is not giving testers any crypto or NFT for participating in the trials, and it also does not plan to reimburse them in the event of loss of funds. Therefore, people with access to Edge's crypto wallet should proceed at their own risk. Interestingly, the wallet clearly states it is a "confidential project and no details should be shared externally." Okay.

The upgraded wallet in Microsoft Edge will show your current balance and assets, the history of transactions, connected apps, your watchlist, and a dedicated tab for exploring the world of Web3, crypto, and NFT. There are also integrations with Coinbase and MoonPay to allow users to buy coins and send payments to other people.

Microsoft has yet to announce its "foray into cryptocurrencies," so take this report with a grain of salt. The company is experimenting with many ideas, some of which may never see the light of day.

What do you think about Microsoft adding a native crypto wallet to its formerly lean and simple browser? Share your takes in the comments.

Microsoft reportedly plans to turn Edge into a crypto and NFT wallet

The full changelog is given below:

• New Microsoft Edge PDF experience policy. As part of the Adobe and Microsoft collaboration to re-envision the future workplace and your digital experiences, we are natively embedding the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine into the Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader, with a release scheduled in March 2023. Administrators can start testing the new Microsoft Edge PDF reader which is powered by the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine by enabling the NewPDFReaderEnabled policy.

Policy updates

New policies

• ShowAcrobatSubscriptionButton - Shows button on native PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge that allows users to sign up for Adobe Acrobat subscription
• NewPDFReaderEnabled - Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader powered by Adobe Acrobat enabled

You can read about the feature in much more detail in this article here.

Latest Microsoft Edge 111 Stable brings native Adobe Acrobat PDF reader

The images below show the option as well as how they appear on the Windows 10 desktop.

Microsoft first introduced the desktop search bar in the Dev channel for Windows 11 last year. Although it was hidden at that time for many Insiders, it could have been enabled using ViVeTool. Fortunately though, things have changed since then and Microsoft is allowing the option to disable the Search bar by simply clicking the three-dot drop down menu at right of the search bar. Previous iteration of this did not have this capability.

It can also be disabled by quitting the Search bar process that opens inside the System tray:

Interestingly enough, the option to enable the "Launch search bar" did not appear, at least for us, on the Windows 11. The option is missing which could indicate that the feature is not rolling out to everyone at once.

It is also possible that Microsoft may have disabled it for Windows 11 as Microsoft had seemingly disabled the desktop Bing Search on a later build.

The Bing Search is not only thing that Microsoft has now pushed on to Windows 10, that was Windows 11 only previously. There are reports that the company is now enabling VBS security feature by default on Windows 10 as well, which could be leading to massive gaming performance drops depending on the scenario.

Following Windows 11, Microsoft pushes Bing desktop search bar to Windows 10 via Edge

Here are the changes in version 2302.4000:

• Stability improvements to graphics card selection
• Updates to the Windows Subsystem for Android Settings app to include performance options for graphics cards
• Docking and undocking with external monitors issues fixed with the subsystem
• Fixes to apps with audio buffer issues
• Android 13 security updates

Windows insiders can download the latest Windows Subsystem for Android from the Microsoft Store.

Windows Subsystem for Android is a Windows 11-exclusive feature (there are unofficial methods that let you run WSA on Windows 10) that allows running Android apps on Windows PCs. Unfortunately, WSA does not support Google Play and its services, so users need to download apps from the Amazon App Store or sideload them using ADB or more user-friendly utilities like WSATools. Microsoft frequently releases updates for the subsystem, which is currently based on Android 13.

You can follow the project's development process in its GitHub repository. It also contains a list of supported features and things to come in future updates.

Windows Subsystem for Android gets better graphics performance and stability in Beta and Dev

Microsoft has released a new version of the WinUI 3 Gallery application, bringing a new icon and design guidance section, refreshed user experience, and various fixes to the project.

WinUI 3 Gallery is a reference application containing all controls developers can implement in their application built with Windows App SDK and WinUI 3. It works as a guide for integrating modern user interface elements into Windows applications, explains how to add motion and media, gives layout examples, and many more. Besides, developers can find links to the documentation and source code on GitHub (WinUI 3 is an open-source framework).

The latest version of the WinUI 3Gallery app has added a new design guidance section where developers and enthusiasts can learn about typography, icons, colours, and accessibility features. Microsoft also says it has refreshed the overall user experience and fixed a few bugs. As a cherry on top, the app features a shiny new icon.

Following Microsoft's UI and UX guidance for Windows apps results in beautiful and pleasing applications. If you know one or several apps with great design and rich features, you can nominate them to participate in the Microsoft Store Awards 2023.

The WinUI 3 Gallery application is available in the Microsoft Store for free.

Microsoft updates WinUI 3 Gallery app to help developers create beautiful Windows apps

There are also a number of game-related fixes, but also lots of known issues. You can check out the full changelog below:

GAMING HIGHLIGHTS:

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

• Deceive Inc.
• Diablo 4 (Beta)

Game performance optimizations on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:

• Sons of The Forest

FIXED ISSUES:

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• The Riftbreaker (DX12) may exhibit black line corruption with the Xbox Game Pass* version.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake Chainsaw Demo (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance during gameplay.

Intel® Core™ Processor Products:

• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (DX12) may exhibit texture or striped corruption during gameplay.
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (DX12) may exhibit texture or striped corruption during gameplay.
• Dirt 5 (DX12) may exhibit texture corruption in the skybox.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Diablo 4 (Beta) may exhibit corruption on character during gameplay with ‘Highlight Character When Obscured’ setting enabled.
• Sea of Thieves (DX11) may exhibit colour corruption on water edges.
• Conqueror’s Blade (DX11) may exhibit corruption in benchmark mode.
• System may hang while waking up from sleep. May need to power cycle the system for recovery.
• GPU hardware acceleration may not be available for media playback and encode with some versions of Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Blender may exhibit corruption while using Nishita Sky texture node.

Intel® Iris™ Xe MAX Graphics Products:

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

Intel® Core™ Processor Products:

• Total War: Warhammer III (DX11) may experience an application crash when loading battle scenarios.
• Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruption on certain buildings and floors during gameplay.
• Conqueror's Blade (DX12) may experience an application crash during game launch.
• A Plague Tale: Requiem (DX12) may experience application instability during gameplay.

INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL KNOWN ISSUES:

• Windows UAC Admin is required to install and launch Arc Control.
• The Live Performance Monitoring page may not apply the desired removal of some performance metric tiles.
• The Resizable Bar status may show an incorrect value on systems with multiple Intel® Graphics Adapters.
• Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
• Using Arc Control Studio capture with AVC codec selected may incorrectly use the HEVC codec
• Modifying performance sliders may fail to apply back to their default values. A workaround is to use the "Reset to Defaults" button.

Intel® Arc™ Control Performance Tuning (BETA):

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

You can download the driver by heading over to Intel's official website at this link. The driver is compatible with Intel Arc discrete graphics cards alongside Intel 11th, 12th, and 13th Gen processor graphics.

Source: Release Notes (PDF) | Intel Website for Detailed Description

Intel Arc & Iris Xe beta graphics driver 31.0.101.4148 adds Diablo IV open beta support

The full changelog can be viewed below:

• This update addresses an issue that affects the command line. It fails when you set the system locale to Japanese and cmd.exe is configured in legacy mode.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Notepad box in Settings. It fails to show all the available options.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft PowerPoint. It stops responding. This occurs when you use accessibility tools.
• 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 affects the ms-appinstaller URI. It now works with the DesktopAppInstaller policy.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft PowerPoint. It stops responding on the Azure Virtual Desktop. This occurs while you are using Think-Cell Features.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Windows Search. Windows Search fails inside of Windows container images.
• 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 addresses an issue that affects Desired State Configuration. It loses its previously configured options. This occurs if metaconfig.mof is missing.
• This update addresses compatibility issues that affect some printers. These printers use Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI) printer drivers. These drivers do not completely adhere to GDI specifications.
• 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 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 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 affects the “Set a default associations configuration file” Group Policy Object (GPO). You can now use it to create an extension to specific applications.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the SharedPC account manager. It cannot delete multiple accounts during cleanup.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Xbox subscribers. If you purchase an Xbox subscription using the “Redeem code” option, the Xbox subscription card does not appear on the Settings Accounts page. This occurs when recurring billing is off.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect lsass.exe. It might stop responding. This occurs when it sends a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query to a domain controller that has a very large LDAP filter.

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

Windows 11 Build 22000.1757 in Release Preview Channel has several improvements

Several weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled a significant redesign for its browser. It features reworked tabs, a large Bing Chat button, rounded corners for web pages, and other changes. The redesigned Edge turned out to be controversial—users quickly jumped on Microsoft for enforcing questionable design choices with no options to disable them. After getting lots of customer feedback, Microsoft is fixing the situation.

Microsoft has already addressed the problem around the Bing button—one of the recent Edge Canary updates brought the option to disable it with a single click (you can use a policy to remove the Bing button while we wait for Edge 113 to arrive in the Stable Channel). Now the company is making another move to show it listens to consumer feedback. Edge Canary 113.0.1743.0 lets you toggle off rounded corners for web pages (via @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter).

You can toggle on or off rounded corners for browser windows in the Appearance settings section. Navigate to Settings > Appearance, find the "Use rounded corners for browser window" option, and restart your browser to apply the changes. Like with other new features in Edge, you can help Microsoft better understand what users think about changes in the browser by giving the option a thumbs up or down.

It is safe to say that the rounded corners for websites, or "browser windows," as Microsoft calls them, are the most hated part of the redesign. Such design robs you of screen real estate and creates visual confusion (most computer screens are still perfectly squared, not rounded). Still, some people like such an unorthodox decision, so Microsoft has decided to do the only right thing: let users decide for themselves.

What do you think about rounded corners in Microsoft Edge? Do you like them or not? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft Edge will let you disable rounded corners on web pages

The full changelog can be viewed below:

• This update affects the ms-appinstaller URI. It now works with the DesktopAppInstaller policy.
• 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 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 addresses an issue that affects Desired State Configuration. It loses its previously configured options. This occurs if metaconfig.mof is missing.
• This update addresses compatibility issues that affect some printers. These printers use Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI) printer drivers. These drivers do not completely adhere to GDI specifications.
• 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 USB printers. The system classifies them as multimedia devices even though they are not.
• 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 affects applications that use the Windows UI Library in the Windows App SDK (WinUI 3). It makes printing for them possible on Windows 10 devices.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the SharedPC account manager. It cannot delete multiple accounts during cleanup.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect lsass.exe. It might stop responding. This occurs when it sends a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query to a domain controller that has a very large LDAP filter.

You can view Microsoft's announcement blog post here, and you can download the build via Windows Update through Windows 10 22H2 as a Windows Insider in the Release Preview Channel.

Windows 10 Build 19045.2787 in Release Preview Channel contains many improvements

That's according to a post on the official Windows Insiders Twitter page today as part of the Beta build reveal:

The last Windows 11 Insider build for the Dev channel was released on March 8. Microsoft released the first build for Canary channel users on March 8 as well, and then released another build on March 10 that did not include any new features. It's likely that the Dev and Canary channels will both receive builds sometime next week.

Microsoft also released its big Patch Tuesday update earlier this week for Windows 11 and Windows 10. Both contain a number of security updates including some that fixed holes that allowed ransomware to be distributed.

No Windows 11 Insider Dev or Canary Channel updates this week

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1465 and Build 22624.1465 (KB5023775) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22624.1465 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.1465 = New features off by default.

This new build comes with Touch Keyboard Settings, more Live Captions, and several bug fixes.The full changelog is given below:

What’s new in Build 22624.1465

Introducing live captions in more languages

Live captions help everyone and people who are deaf or hard of hearing read live captions in their native language. The first release of live captions in the Windows 11 2022 Update provided captions in English, with a focus on English (United States). In this build, live captions gains the ability to also provide captions in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish and other English dialects. We will add more languages as they become available.

Live captions in Japanese.

To get started, live captions can be turned on with the WIN + Ctrl + L keyboard shortcut, or from the quick settings accessibility flyout via Quick Settings. When turned on for the first time, live captions will prompt for download of the required speech recognition support to enable on-device captioning. If speech recognition support is not available in your preferred Windows language or you want support in other languages, you will be able to download speech recognition support for live captions under Settings > Time & Language > Language & region.

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

Updated Touch Keyboard Settings

We are introducing updates for the new touch keyboard setting that replaces the “Show the touch keyboard when there’s no keyboard attached” checkbox under Settings > Time & language > Typing > Touch keyboard with a new dropdown menu with 3 options to control whether tapping an edit control should launch the touch keyboard:

• “Never” suppresses the touch keyboard even when no hardware keyboard is attached.
• “When no keyboard attached” will show the touch keyboard only when the device is used as a tablet without the hardware keyboard.
• “Always” will show the touch keyboard even when the hardware keyboard is attached.

New touch keyboard settings.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Input and Language > Touch keyboard.

Cloud Suggestion in Simplified Chinese IME

We are trying out some changes that will allow you to easily type popular words in Simplified Chinese. The changes include an improved cloud suggestion and integrated search suggestion. The cloud suggestion adds the most relevant word from Bing to the IME candidate window. We’ve updated the back-end logic so that we can provide better, fresh suggestions.

Simplified Chinese IME candidate window with a word suggestion from Bing at the second place.

The integrated search suggestion gives you additional suggestions that are similar to what you see in Bing search page. You can either insert a suggestion as text or search it directly in Bing.

Bing search suggestions expanded from IME candidate window.

To turn on these features, select a chevron button at the right end of the IME candidate window. You’ll find Turn on button.

IME candidate window with a balloon tip that points to the chevron button.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Input and Language > Text Input.

Multi-App Kiosk Mode

Multi-app kiosk mode is a lockdown feature for Windows 11 that allows an IT administrator to select a set of allowable apps to run on the device, while all other functionalities are blocked. This enables you to create multiple different apps and access configurations for different user types, all on a single device.

Some lockdown customizations include:

• Limiting access to Settings, except selected pages (e.g., Wi-Fi and screen brightness)
• Lock down the Start menu to show only allowed apps.
• Block toasts and pop-ups that lead to unwanted UI.

Multi-app kiosk mode is ideal for scenarios in which multiple people need to use the same device. This can include frontline workers and retail scenarios, education and test taking.

Currently, multi-app kiosk mode can be enabled using PowerShell and WMI Bridge, with support for Intune/MDM and provisioning package configuration coming soon.

To configure using WMI, follow these instructions. Using the Windows 10 sample XML will enable the feature, but will result in an empty Start menu. To populate the Start menu with your apps, follow these instructions to generate the list of pinned apps, then add it to your XML file after closing the StartLayout section, like the below:

Your JSON here ]]>

Don’t forget to update the namespace by replacing the AssignedAccessConfiguration tag with the below:

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > Device Lockdown.

Changes and Improvements in 22624.1465

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• We have added a glanceable VPN status into the system tray when connected to a recognized VPN profile. The VPN icon, a small shield, will be overlayed in your system accent colour over the active network connection.

Glanceable VPN status in the system tray using system accent colour.

[Voice access]

• The redesigned in-app help page in voice access introduced with Build 22624.1391 now includes all commands and the supplementary information accurately.

Redesigned in-app help page in voice access.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1465 & Build 22624.1465

• This update implements phase three of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) hardening. See KB5004442. After you install this update, you cannot turn off the changes using the registry key.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a computer account and Active Directory. When you reuse an existing computer account to join an Active Directory domain, joining fails. This occurs on devices that have installed Windows updates dated October 11, 2022 or later. The error message is, “Error 0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy: ‘An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Re-using the account was blocked by security policy.’” For more information, see KB5020276.

Known issues

[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.
• Live captions for Chinese Traditional currently does not work on Arm64 devices.
• 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.

Microsoft's Windows 11 Beta build (KB5023775) lands with VPN status changes, and more

It seems, this isn't the first time either that support professionals have employed such workarounds when under pressure to timely close out support tickets.

A 'crack' is worth a thousand support tickets

A South-Africa based freelance technologist who paid $200 for a genuine copy of Windows 10 was startled to see a Microsoft support engineer "crack" his copy using unofficial tools that bypass the Windows activation process. 

Programmer and content creator Wesley Pyburn whose online channels include TCNO (TroubleChute & TechNobo), explains his struggle after purchasing a copy of Windows 10 through legitimate channels:

"I can't believe it. My official Microsoft Store Windows 10 Pro key wouldn't activate. Support couldn't help me yesterday," tweeted the technologist.

"Today it was elevated. Official Microsoft support (not a scam) logged in with Quick Assist and ran a command to activate windows... BRO IT'S A CRACK. NO CAP."

"It's literally easier to crack windows than to pay for it," exclaimed Pyburn.

Microsoft Product Activation, as commonly seen in Windows and Office products, is Microsoft's DRM technology to ensure users are running company's genuine products as opposed to pirated versions, and are compliant with the license terms.

Windows XP-era users may also be familiar with Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), a validation process that Microsoft earlier enforced to automatically 'deactivate' pirated OS copies.

"Activation helps verify that your copy of Windows is genuine and hasn't been used on more devices than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow," according to Microsoft.

Microsoft's official Windows activation methods involve either the customer entering a 25-character product key when prompted, or signing in with their Microsoft account to apply a digital license. In some cases, customers may also call the customer care to "activate by phone."

By contrast, software "cracks" and stolen product keys are commonly used by users looking to pirate software—something which is forbidden both by a company's licensing terms and by law in most jurisdictions.

The Microsoft support engineer in this case, ran the following PowerShell command on the customer's Windows PC (URL slightly modified to prevent execution):

The command establishes a connection to massgrave.dev, an unofficial repository of Windows and Office "activator" scripts that may slip under the radar of most antivirus products.

Further, the Invoke-Expression aka iex command runs the downloaded script, as seen by BleepingComputer:

"Working in IT I can 100% believe this lmao, commented one user.

"They're probably as dumbfounded by the issue as you and/or don't have a better solution and it solves the problem/resolves the ticket so they're happy."

Cracks, warez, pirated software pose risks

Using "warez," cracks, and other unofficial means to bypass software copy protection are often frowned upon. Other than falling in a legal gray area and being akin to pirating software, these methods pose a security risk. For example, third-party scripts claiming to be software 'cracks' may instead be malware.

To clarify if what Microsoft support agent had run was indeed a crack, Pyburn reached out to Massgrave's staff via Discord.

Not only did the website staff reply affirmatively to the technologist's question, they further claimed, it wasn't the first time they'd heard of a Microsoft engineer doing this.

"This is the second time someone reported here that it's being used by Microsoft support agents. It's not official and not legal," writes WindowsAddict, a Massgrave staff member.

Naturally, such workarounds when employed by a software company's support staff would leave just about anyone startled.

"I can not believe Microsoft's answer to a broken activation system is to crack windows via official support channels," says Pyburn.

"...AND IT WAS OFFICIAL SUPPORT. The entire reason I paid was to avoid rootkits and other malware COMPLETELY. Then they crack it for me."

BleepingComputer approached Microsoft for comment in advance of publishing. We have not heard back yet.

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails

Users criticized Microsoft for making the Bing button activate the sidebar on hover. Since it is placed next to the main menu button, accidental activations are common. To make matters worse, Microsoft did not add an option to Edge to turn the functionality off.

When Edge users hover over the Discover button, Edge expands the Bing Chat interface and displays the sidebar, even if the sidebar was not displayed previously in the browser.

Edge users may configure a policy, either in the Group Policy Editor or Registry directly, to remove the Bing button in the browser. A side-effect of this is that it turns off the entire sidebar, and that it turns the browser into a "managed browser", which means that some features may only be configured using policies.

Now, with the latest Microsoft Edge Canary, comes an option to turn off the Bing button in Edge. Canary is a development version of the web browser that is usually two versions ahead. Considering the usual release cycle, the option to alleviate the issue could land in the browser in May 2023.

The new functionality is in testing right now. It looks feature complete, but there is still a chance that Microsoft decides to modify it. The release to Stable versions of Edge may be postponed or even expedited.

Disabling the Bing Discover button in Microsoft Edge

Hiding the Bing button in Edge is a straightforward process, provided that Edge 113 or newer is used.

1. Open the Microsoft Edge web browser on the device.
2. Either select Menu > Settings > Sidebar, or select the Settings icon displayed on the sidebar. If the sidebar is not displayed, hover over the Bing icon to display it.
3. Scroll down to "app specific settings" and activate the Bing setting with a click on the arrow icon.
4. Microsoft Edge displays three settings on the page that opens. The first, "Show Discover", defines whether the Bing icon is displayed in Microsoft Edge. Toggle it to off, and the Bing icon is removed immediately from the browser.

The two remaining options are disabled automatically when Show Discover is turned off in the Settings of the browser.

Note that this change does not affect the sidebar. It is still displayed and may be used. Users may toggle the "always show sidebar" option in the main Sidebar settings of the Edge web browser to hide it as well.

Closing Words

Microsoft introduced the new Bing Discover button in a user unfriendly way. The launch would not be all that problematic if Microsoft would have added a turn off option immediately.

Now You: have you used Edge's Discover feature?

Microsoft caves in, adds Edge setting to disable the Bing button

Microsoft is currently working on a new feature for Teams users on the web to make 3x3 video view the default setting. What this means is that users will no longer have to take explicit action to see nine videos on screen while using Teams on web browsers like Microsoft Edge and Chrome.

Microsoft Teams desktop clients, on the other hand, support 7x7 video view as the default setting, meaning up to 49 videos can appear on the screen during a Teams meeting. Make no mistake that this is 49 meeting participants in a single Grid View. If the number of participants exceeds 49, the remaining can be seen on the next Gallery View. Similar will be the case in Teams meeting on the web browsers. While 3x3 video view will soon be the default setting in Teams for the web, more participants can be viewed on the next page of the Gallery View. Currently, you can add up to 250 people in a Teams meeting.

On the Microsoft 365 roadmap page, Microsoft mentioned that it would make 3x3 video view the default setting for Teams for web browsers in May. The software giant also mentioned that support for being able to see up to 9 videos (3x3) automatically would be available on Chrome and Edge without giving us details on whether other web browsers will support it.

Microsoft Teams on Edge and Chrome to offer 3x3 video view support by default

The new version of the email client is available already. Existing Thunderbird installations should receive the update automatically, if the automatic updates functionality has not been disabled by the administrator.

Some users may prefer to update the application manually. This is done by selecting Help > About Thunderbird, or by selecting the Settings icon in the new sidebar on the left.

Thunderbird displays the installed version in a small overlay window in the interface. The email client performs an update check and will download and install updates that it finds during the check.

Thunderbird 102.9.0: the security fixes

Thunderbird 102.9.0 addresses 6 different security issues in the email program. The security issues have severity ratings of high and moderate, the aggregated rating is high.

Thunderbird's development team notes that many of the security issues "cannot be exploited through email in the Thunderbird product" because scripting is disabled when reading email. Thunderbird is based on Firefox code, and it inherits some of the vulnerabilities affecting Firefox because of that.

• CVE-2023-25751: Incorrect code generation during JIT compilation
• CVE-2023-28164: URL being dragged from a removed cross-origin iframe into the same tab triggered navigation
• CVE-2023-28162: Invalid downcast in Worklets
• CVE-2023-25752: Potential out-of-bounds when accessing throttled streams
• CVE-2023-28163: Windows Save As dialog resolved environment variables
• CVE-2023-28176: Memory safety bugs fixed in Thunderbird 102.9

Information about each of the vulnerabilities is provided on the Security Advisories website.

The official release notes list four non-security fixes:

• Notification about a sender's changed OpenPGP key was not immediately visible
• TLS Certificate Override dialog did not appear when retrieving messages via IMAP using "Get Messages" context menu
• Spellcheck dictionaries were missing from localized Thunderbird builds that should have included them
• Tooltips for "Show/Hide" calendar toggle did not display

None of these appear to be serious issues.

The next major version of Thunderbird, which will include lots of changes, will be released later this year.

Now You: which version of Thunderbird do you run, if any?

Thunderbird 102.9.0 is a security update for the open source email client

Before (up) and after (down)

Disable the Bing button in Microsoft Edge

It is worth noting a few things before you start. The following guide relies on enterprise policies that manage different parts of Edge. Enabling one or more on a non-managed device will result in the browser showing a "Managed by your organization" message in the main menu and settings. Also, the current version of Microsoft Edge uses a single policy to manage the Bing button and Sidebar, which means getting rid of the Bing button disabled the Sidebar too. Microsoft will separate those two features in future policy updates (via Dr.Windows).

1. Launch Windows Registry Editor by pressing Win + R and typing regedit.
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft. Using this path will turn off the Bing button system-wide, not only for the current user. If you want to disable Bing in Edge for your current Windows account, go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft. You can copy-paste the path to speed up the process.
3. Right-click the Microsoft key and select New > Key, then rename the new key or folder to Edge.

   

    

4. Click the new Edge key and right-click anywhere on the editor's right side.
5. Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and rename the value to HubsSidebarEnabled.
6. Ensure the value's data is set to zero (it should be zero by default). Double-click the HubsSidebarEnabled value to check it.

   

    

7. Launch Microsoft Edge and go to edge://policy.
8. Click Reload policies and watch the Bing button go away.

   

    

How to restore the Bing button in Microsoft Edge?

You can turn on the Bing button by launching Windows Registry Editor and deleting the Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge or Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge key (depending on whether you used a system-wide key or a one for the current user only).

Thank you, @andrewbaker05 (Twitter), for the tip!

How to disable Bing button in Microsoft Edge?

Microsoft invites everyone to let the company know about the apps that "have made your Windows experience unforgettable." The Microsoft Store App Awards event supports developers by spreading the word about their projects. It also inspires other developers and lets regular customers enhance their Windows experience with new high-quality applications (they can also read Neowin and our recent "Top 11 apps for Windows 11 users" article).

What's a great app? We want to look at apps both big and small, by huge brands and also by individuals and indie developers. We want to see nominated apps that will inspire others to build beautiful and useful apps for Windows. We want to recognize the Windows apps that you use every day, and which help make your life easier or better.

If you know one or a few apps worthy of participation in the community voting, submit your entries using the official form. Just keep in mind that the nominations are not voting—Microsoft only accepts participating apps for now, and the voting will be announced later. Also, your nominee should match each of the following criteria:

• Availability: the app should be available in the Microsoft Store in at least one region by the end of March 2023.
• Compatibility: the app should be fully functional on Windows 11, not only Windows 10.
• Quality: the app's rating must be 3.5 stars and higher, with at least 50 ratings.
• No abandonware: the app should have received at least one meaningful update over the past 12 months.

There are no limits on entry numbers, so feel free to nominate a bunch of applications (one form for one project). Microsoft will ask you to provide the app's name, URL, outstanding qualities, and a brief explanation of why you think the project is worthy of nomination. The company will stop accepting entries on March 29th at midnight PT. After submitting your picks, check out last year's Microsoft App Awards winners.

You can now nominate your favorite Windows apps for Microsoft Store Awards 2023

Although the new Canary Channel may sound exciting to Windows enthusiasts (after all, it is great to see the program growing), it has one bitter side effect: your Dev build gets upgraded to Canary automatically and with no downgrade option. Microsoft has made it clear that a clean Windows installation is the only option to go down from Canary to Dev/Beta/Release Preview/Stable. As a result, Microsoft is giving away free USB drives so that users can switch channels without purchasing extra hardware, regardless of how cheap it is.

Microsoft has sent emails with a link to a page where Windows Insiders in need can claim a free USB thumb drive. Only Windows Insiders can participate in the giveaway (you need a unique code from the email to get your free drive) while supplies last. Microsoft notes that the program runs by the "first come-first serve" principle, so act fast if you want a free USB from Microsoft.

Another caveat is that the delivery can take up to 6-8 weeks, which means users in the new Canary Channel will get at least a couple of potentially highly unstable builds. Therefore, purchasing an 8GB USB thumb drive from a local store might be a better option for those discontent with the latest changes. Fortunately, USB thumb drives are extremely cheap, and you can get one for less than $6 for 32GB, $7 for 64GB, and $15 for 128GB.

Our stories may contain affiliate links for products/apps where Neowin is paid an affiliate fee if you complete a purchase via those links.

Microsoft is giving away free USB drives due to latest changes in Windows Insider Program