Without ACM, Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) restricts apps to output the image at only 8 bits per channel, even on monitors with higher colour depth (optimized apps can explicitly target a wide colour gamut using ICM/WCS colour management APIs to match the monitor's native colour depth). With the new Auto colour Management feature, DWM uses IEEE half-precision floating point to eliminate any possible bottlenecks and ensure all applications can access 10-16 bit precision. ACM delivers colour improvements even to displays with only 8-bit colour depth with different techniques, such as dithering.

The expanded Auto colour Management is now rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel with build 25309 (spotted in earlier builds as a hidden feature). You can enable the feature by navigating to System > Display > Advanced display and toggling on the Automatically manage colour for apps option. However, it is worth noting that enabling ACM may result in your GPU consuming more power, producing more heat and noise, and reducing the battery life.

colour management improvements will work on most monitors, including standard 8-bit sRGB panels. However, for best results, Microsoft recommends using a display with a wider than sRGB colour range or an optional 10-bit depth. Besides, your computer must meet specific GPU requirements:

To check your GPU model and WDDM driver, press Win + R and type dxdiag.

Speaking of colours, Microsoft is also working on adding native controls for RGB peripherals. Windows 11's preview builds already have a hidden settings section allowing customers to personalize compatible devices' backlights.

Windows 11 will soon make your monitor display better colours

Edge's Video Super Resolution uses machine learning to enhance your viewing experience by removing block compression artifacts and upscaling the final resolution on YouTube and other streaming platforms. Naturally, there are a few notable limitations.

For starters, you need a relatively new computer with more horsepower to process the AI magic that powers Video Super Resolution—the feature requires a discrete graphics card from Nvidia (RTX 20 Series and newer) or AMD (RX5700 and newer). If you use a laptop with an iGPU and dGPU and want to try VSR, change your graphics settings so that Edge uses the dGPU. Microsoft promises support for automatic switching between iGPU and dGPU in future updates.

In addition, you cannot use Video Super Resolution with DRM-protected videos (frames in such videos are not accessible to the browser for processing) or when unplugged from AC power.

Microsoft says the new video upscaler is now rolling out to 50% of users in the Canary Channel. However, you can enable Edge's new Video Super Resolution feature by toggling on the edge://flags/#edge-video-super-resolution flag. VSR will soon join other upscaling tech Microsoft is already using in its browser to make images look sharper and provide a better gaming experience when streaming games from the cloud. Enhance, enhance!

Microsoft Edge Canary can now upscale low-resolution videos

More annoying changes to Windows 11 Start Menu

Start Menu Recommendations

You may be aware that Windows 11's Start Menu has a recommended section that the operating system uses to show your recently accessed apps, and files.  It appears that Microsoft wants to crank this up a notch, it wants to display tips, shortcuts, new apps and more in the Start Menu. A hidden toggle for this is available in the Start Menu settings under the Personalization tab. The option is hidden, but PhantomOfEarth shared the velocity ID to enable it. Use the ViveTool utility to toggle the following command in a terminal.

vivetool /enable /id:42916428

You will need to restart the computer to view the new option. But, it doesn't seem to display any new recommended content yet. Perhaps it will start doing so in a future build when the feature is announced.

OneDrive Reminder in the Power Menu

The Power Menu that you can access via Start has an unusual change. Users may see an exclamation badge on their profile. Click on it, and a small flyout will appear, it displays a message that reads "Protect your Memories. Automatically save photos and files to the cloud to help keep them safe and available anywhere". It has 2 options, Start backup, and Remind me later. The first one is more prominently featured with a button design, clicking on which opens the Back up folders panel in the OneDrive app.

If you click the "Remind me later" option, the badging goes away. I tried rebooting the virtual machine a few times to see if the reminder appears, but it didn't. To try how the Start Menu badging looks, use the following command in ViveTool.

vivetool /enable /id:36435151 /variant:1 /variantpayloadkind:1 /variantpayload:1121

You may not see the badge immediately, if your OneDrive app is set to backup your data. To test this, open the OneDrive app on your PC, and go to its Settings section. Click the Manage Backup button under Sync and Backup, disable some of the toggles. Now, open the Start Menu, and it should display the badge on your profile. There are 2 more variants that you can try, replace the number 1121 in the command with 737 or 993. (h/t PhantomOfEarth)

Here's a screenshot from Microsoft that shows all 3 versions.

This isn't particularly new, Martin wrote about a somewhat similar ad in the Start Menu, back in November 2022. I don't like either implementations, but if I were to compare them, I'd say the older style was a bit more style, the new flyout looks terrible. It feels like an ad for OneDrive, rather than being concerned about protecting the user's data.  What next? Notifications that tell you to backup your data on OneDrive?

You could argue that a Start Menu replacement could solve these annoyances, but some recent issues have popped up which seem to suggest UI customization apps may prevent Windows 11 from booting. It's almost as if Microsoft doesn't care about users' freedom to tailor their experience.

Source

The big new addition is some improvements in Windows 11's voice access feature. Here's what you can expect:

Redesigned in-app command help page: We have completely renovated the in-app command help page in voice access to make it simpler to use and comprehend. The search bar allows users to quickly find commands and the different categories provide further guidance. Every command now has a description and examples of its variations, making it easier to understand and use.

You can access the command help page from Help > View all commands on the voice access bar or use the voice command “what can I say”.

Please note that the redesigned in-app help page in voice access may not include all commands and the supplementary information may be inaccurate. We plan to update this in future builds. If you want an exhaustive list of Voice Access commands and extra information about them, we recommend you refer Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice – Microsoft Support.

Voice access is available in English dialects: We have extended voice access to support other English dialects such as English -UK, English – India, English – New Zealand, English – Canada, English – Australia.

When voice access is turned on for the first time, you will be prompted to download a speech model to enable on-device recognition of voice data. In case voice access does not find a speech model matching your display language, you can still choose to proceed ahead to use voice access in English – US.

You can always switch to a different language by navigating to Settings > Language on the voice access bar.

New text selection & editing commands: We have added some more useful commands to make text selection and editing easier with voice access.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1391 & Build 22624.1391

• This update improves the reliability of Windows after you install an update.
• Fixed an issue from the last Beta Channel flight which was causing Notification Center, Quick Settings, and taskbar jump lists to not work for some Insiders.

Known issues

[Voice access]

Please note that the redesigned in-app help page in voice access may not include all commands and the supplementary information may be inaccurate. We plan to update this in future builds. If you want an exhaustive list of Voice Access commands and extra information about them, we recommend you refer Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice – Microsoft Support.

Just a reminder: Microsoft is now allowing Insider Beta testers to opt out of getting new builds from now until March 8.

Windows 11 Beta build 22624.1391 (KB5023011) comes with voice access improvements

What’s new

New volume mixer experience in Quick Settings

We’re introducing a new enhanced volume mixer into Quick Settings! The updated audio quick settings experience brings a modern volume mixer that allows for quick customization of audio on a per-app basis, with additional control to swap devices on the fly. We’ve also added a new keyboard shortcut (WIN + CTRL + V) to bring you directly to the volume mixer for faster control of the experience. With this change, you can now tailor your audio experience better with more control and fewer clicks to better manage your favorite apps.

New volume mixer experience in quick settings.

In addition, we’ve made it easier for users to enable their Windows Sonic experience with a quick access list of installed spatial sound technology. You can visit the Microsoft Store to find additional spatial sound technology to choose from such as Dolby and DTS.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it 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 > Quick Settings.

Updated Touch Keyboard Settings

After making some fixes, we are re-introducing the new touch keyboard setting we originally introduced with Build 25188 (and disabled with Build 25217) 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.

[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 Input and Language > Touch keyboard.

Auto colour Management (ACM) Expansion

Back in October, we launched Auto colour Management(hardware accelerated system level colour management) on select qualifying and specially provisioned SDR displays. Now, Insiders in the Dev Channel will be able to turn ACM on for their SDR displays and have all colours across all Windows apps, whether or not they are colour-managed, appear accurately and consistently on every supported display.

To turn ACM on, go to Settings > Display > Advanced display, select correct display and turn on Automatically manage colour for apps.

Auto colour Management setting in the Advanced display settings page.

Note: ACM enablement has the following requirements:

• WDDM driver version 3.0 or greater
• Supported GPU:
  • AMD:
    • AMD RX 400 Series or later
    • AMD Ryzen processors with Radeon Graphics
  • Intel
    • Integrated: Intel 12th Gen (Alder Lake) or later
    • Discrete: Intel DG1 or later
  • NVIDIA:
    • NVIDIA GTX 10xx or later (Pascal+)
  • There are no hard requirements on the display or connection – ACM can provide benefits even on 8-bit sRGB panels. However, we strongly recommend ACM devices to have panels with a wider-than-sRGB gamut, and optionally 10-bits per colour channel or greater.

[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 Display and Graphics > Windows HD colour.

Voice access improvements

Redesigned in-app command help page: We have completely renovated the in-app command help page in voice access to make it simpler to use and comprehend. The search bar allows users to quickly find commands and the different categories provide further guidance. Every command now has a description and examples of its variations, making it easier to understand and use.

You can access the command help page from Help > View all commands on the voice access bar or use the voice command “what can I say”.

Redesigned in-app help page in voice access.

Please note that the redesigned in-app help page in voice access may not include all commands and the supplementary information may be inaccurate. We plan to update this in future builds. If you want an exhaustive list of Voice Access commands and extra information about them, we recommend you refer Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice – Microsoft Support.

Voice access is available in English dialects: We have extended voice access to support other English dialects such as English -UK, English – India, English – New Zealand, English – Canada, English – Australia.

When voice access is turned on for the first time, you will be prompted to download a speech model to enable on-device recognition of voice data. In case voice access does not find a speech model matching your display language, you can still choose to proceed ahead to use voice access in English – US.

You can always switch to a different language by navigating to Settings > Language on the voice access bar.

New text selection & editing commands: We have added some more useful commands to make text selection and editing easier with voice access.

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

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• Starting with Build 25290, we started a new exploration of badging on the Start menu with two new treatments that some Insiders in the Dev Channel will see. Starting today, we’re trying out different text variants within these treatments. If you see one of these treatments, give us feedback on what you think. As a reminder, it is normal for us to try out different concepts in the Dev Channel to get feedback.

Different treatments of badging on the Start menu with different text variants.

• We’re trying out a more personalized second-chance out of box experience (SCOOBE) with a small subset of Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Example treatment of a personalized second-chance out of box experience (SCOOBE) screen.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• The search box on taskbar will be lighter when Windows is set to a custom colour mode. Specifically, when the Windows 11 mode is set to dark, and the app mode is set to light under Settings > Personalization > colours you will see a lighter search box on taskbar.

The search box on taskbar will be lighter when Windows is set to a custom colour mode.

[File Explorer]

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

Pizza icon in File Explorer’s command bar to denote previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer.

[Windows Spotlight]

• Starting today, we are disabling the different treatments we’ve been trying out for Windows Spotlight that began with Build 25281 due to an issue impacting the experience Insiders will have on these treatments. We plan to re-introduce an updated Windows Spotlight experience for Insiders in a future flight based on the feedback from Insiders from using these different treatments. As part of disabling these treatments, Insiders may need to go to Settings > Personalization and re-enable Windows Spotlight.

[Input]

• We have updated the Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition engine to be faster and more accurate as well as supported characters defined in GB18030-2022. Currently you can write characters in GB18030-2022 Level 2 and some of characters in GB18030-2022 Level 1 in the handwriting panel or directly into the text field when it’s supported. Please try it and let us know what you think.

The Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition engine is faster and more accurate and now supports characters defined in GB18030-202.

[Widgets]

• We are beginning to roll out theme-aware icons for Widgets on the taskbar so that based on the user’s Windows theme (dark or light), the Widgets icons will display a theme-aware icon that will have a higher contrast ratio which will make information on the taskbar clearer for users, particularly for those with low-sight.

Examples of updated theme-aware icons for Widgets on the taskbar with a higher contrast ratio.

[Settings]

• Settings > Power & Battery has been updated to include settings for choosing what happens when interacting with your PC’s physical power controls.

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue causing USB devices (including keyboard and mouse) to not work for some Insiders after upgrading to Build 25295+.
• Fixed an issue for some Insiders where if you’d uninstalled the previous flight, it would cause your Start menu and taskbar to cyclically crash.
• Fixed an issue where when using Windows Hello to sign in with facial recognition, it may not have worked on Arm64 PCs.
• Fixed an issue with the Windows Insider Program settings page showing a newer build was available in Windows Update even though you were on the latest available build in the Dev Channel.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed multiple Explorer.exe crashes impacting taskbar and system tray.
• Fixed a display issue that could result in the taskbar appearing duplicated when making resolution changes.
• Fixed an issue which was causing app icons on the taskbar to appear on the wrong monitor for some Insiders with multiple monitors.

[Widgets]

• We fixed an issue where under certain circumstances third-party widgets were not loading as expected.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Fixed rendering issues when using the touch keyboard with the search box on taskbar.
• Fixed an issue when double clicking the search highlight glyph in the search box makes it disappear.
• Fixed an issue where the search box would randomly disappear.
• Fixed an issue where the search icon flips incorrectly for right-to-left (RTL) languages.
• Fixed on issue where you might have seen some text flicker in the search box when you click into it.
• Fixed an issue where the search box might disappear on one monitor if you are using multiple monitors.
• Made some accessibility fixes to the settings for search under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue which caused Insiders with custom desktop icon arrangements / sizes to get set back to default in the previous build.
• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of File Explorer unexpectedly jumping into the foreground sometimes.
• The “Open in new tab” context menu option and middle clicking folders will now open the tab in the background rather than switching focus.
• Fixed an issue where the close button could get stuck in a highlighted state when you moved your mouse across it.

[Input]

• Fix an issue where when using the French-Canadian layout for the touch keyboard, the letters output when typing didn’t always match what was displayed on the keys.
• When using the Korean IME, CTRL + F10 should no longer open the IME context menu.

[Settings]

• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the root cause of why some Insiders saw their startup app settings get reset with the previous build.
• Going to Privacy & Security > Phone Calls should no longer crash Settings.

[Windowing]

• Fixed a high hitting DWM.exe crash in the last couple flights.

[Other]

• Fixed multiple issues that were preventing some of the new live captions language models from downloading correctly.
• Fixed an underlying issue causing Insiders on Arm64 PCs to not be able to activate M365, with it citing a network issue.
• Fixed a search indexer crash.
• Fixed an underlying issue that could cause UWP apps to appear in English after upgrading although that wasn’t your display language.
• Fixed an issue which was causing .appinstaller packages to fail to install with an error message that says “The parameter is incorrect” (even though it wasn’t).
• Fixed an underlying issue causing certain cameras to not work in apps with the last flight.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was leading to Microsoft Edge crashes for some Insiders in the last few flights.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

• We are investigating an issue where some users are experiencing longer than expected update times installing recent builds. If you experienced this issue, please submit a new feedback item with logs in Feedback Hub.
• Some AAD (Azure Active Directory joined users are now seeing “Getting ready for you” screens when signing into Windows after updating the latest builds. We are investigating the issue.
• Launching Group Policy Editor may show an error about a displayName attribute not being found.

[Snipping Tool]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing the New button in Snipping Tool to not work for some Insiders after upgrading to Build 25295. If you are impacted by this, going to Settings > Apps > Default apps, and setting screen snipping as the default for ms-screenclip, it should resolve the issue.

[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.
• The Language & Region settings page may not offer the necessary speech recognition language support for live captions for up to an hour after first login.
• 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.

[Voice access]

• [NEW] Please note that the redesigned in-app help page in voice access may not include all commands and the supplementary information may be inaccurate. We plan to update this in future builds. If you want an exhaustive list of Voice Access commands and extra information about them, we recommend you refer Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice – Microsoft Support.

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 25309 lands with new OOBE, WinUI 3, volume mixer, and lots more

There's also a good number of fixes included in this release too which are included below.

Here are the highlights of the update:

Highlights

• New utility: Paste as Plain Text allows pasting the text contents of your clipboard without formatting. Note: the formatted text in the clipboard is replaced with the unformatted text. Thanks @carlos-zamora!
• New utility: Mouse Jump allows to quickly move the mouse pointer long distances on a single screen or across multiple screens. Thanks @mikeclayton!
• Add new GPO policies for automatic update downloads and update toast notifications. Thanks @htcfreek!
• Support MSC and CPL files in "Run command" results of PowerToys Run Program plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
• Add support for log2 and log10 in PowerToys Run Calculator plugin. Thanks @RickLuiken!
• Added experimentation to PowerToys first run experience. There are current page which says "welcome" and a variant with direct instructions on how to use some of the utilities. We want to see if directly showing how to use PowerToys leads to more people using the features

There are no known issues in this release.

And here is your in-depth changelog with improvements and changes for the existing toys:

General

• Improve metered network detection in runner. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

• Update PowerToys logo used by installer. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

• Add new GPO policies for automatic update downloads and update toast notifications. Thanks @htcfreek!

• Update copyright year to 2023. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

   

FancyZones

• Refactored and improved code quality.

• Fix crashing on moving window between monitors with Win + arrows. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Fix issue causing window attributes to not be reset properly. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Fix issue causing window to not be adjusted when layout is changed. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Fix issue causing window not to be unsnapped on drag started. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Fix issue causing layouts not to be applied to new virtual desktops. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Fix issues causing windows not to be restored correctly to their last known zone.

   

File explorer add-ons

• Add Developer files previewer option to set max file size and fix styling issue. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!

• Improve Developer files previewer exception handling and printing of error messages.

• Fix crash when generating PDF and Gcode file thumbnails. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

   

Hosts file editor

• Improve hosts file loading. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

• Improved duplicate hosts finding. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

   

Keyboard Manager

• Fix typo in Keyboard Manager Editor. Thanks @ChristianLW!

   

Mouse Utils

• Resolve grammatical error in Mouse Highlighter description. Thanks @WordlessSafe1!

• New utility: Mouse Jump allows to quickly move the mouse pointer long distances on single or across screens. Thanks @mikeclayton!

   

Paste as Plain Text

• New utility: Paste as Plain Text allows pasting the text contents of your clipboard without formatting. Note: the formatted text in the clipboard is replaced with the unformatted text. Thanks @carlos-zamora!

   

PowerToys Run

• Show Steam (steam://open/) shortcuts in the Program plugin.

• Localize paths of Program plugin results. Thanks @htcfreek!

• Improved stability of the code used to get the localized names and paths. Thanks @htcfreek!

• Support MSC and CPL files in "Run command" results of Program plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!

• Added missing MSC and CPL settings to the results of Windows Settings plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!

• System plugin: Setting for separate "Open/Empty Recycle bin" results or single result with context menu. (This was implemented based on user feedback for a change in the last build.) Thanks @htcfreek!

• Add support for log2 and log10 in Calculator plugin. Thanks @RickLuiken!

• Removed the TimeZone plugin.

• Fix the crash when loading thumbnail for PDF files. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

   

Shortcut Guide

• Added: Dismiss Shortcut Guide with mouse click. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

   

Quick Accent

• Added Lithuanian characters. Thanks @saulens22!

• Added additional (Chinese) characters. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

   

Settings

• Add missing flyout borders on Windows 10. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

• Add experimentation for oobe landing page. Thanks @chenss3!

• Show icons of user-installed PowerToys Run plugins. Thanks @al2me6!

• Fixed crash when clicking Browse for backup and restore location while running elevated.

• Respect taskbar position when showing system tray flyout. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

• Show correct Hosts module image. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

   

Development

• Turned on C++ code analysis and incrementally fixing warnings.

• Centralize .NET NuGet packages versions. Thanks @snickler!

• Separate PowerToys installer logs and MSI logs to different files.

• Added new GPO rules to the reporting tool.

• Move PowerToys registry entries back to HKLM to fix context menu entries not working on some configurations. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

   

You can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store, winget, or its repository on GitHub.

PowerToys 0.68.0 is out with two new utilities: Paste as Plain Text and Mouse Jump

MTL-S has additional 5.0 x4 from CPU(for M.2?)
5.0 x16
5.0 x4
4.0 x4
From CPU Direct
No AVX512

Z890 has additional 4.0 x4 from chipset, x24 Gen4 lanes total
Wi-Fi 7 debut

It says support windows 12 on OS list(?)

Now only 6P+8E and 6P+16E, 8P under dev?
That’s everything I know

Microsoft and Intel refused to comment on the post. However, this is not the first time we have seen rumors (and internal mockups) about the next generation of Windows. In the Summer of 2022, a new report emerged about Microsoft changing its plans and shifting back to releasing new Windows every three years instead of continuously servicing one release (remember "Windows 10 is the last Windows"?). Although Microsoft has yet to confirm Windows 12, one can already tell where the company wants to aim for Windows 11's successor.

Microsoft is already experimenting with integrating AI into Windows 11. Although the first attempt is unapologetically lame, Microsoft is exploring different ideas to supercharge its operating system with artificial intelligence, as explained by Microsoft's head of consumer marketing in a recent interview with The Verge:

As we start to develop future versions of Windows we'll think about other places where AI should play a natural role in the experience.

Implementing AI-based features into Windows 12 means Microsoft needs to tighten its relationship with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Therefore, seeing the next operating system mentioned in the documentation is not surprising. AI-powered capabilities usually require deeper integration with the hardware, and the trio of PC processor manufacturers is already pushing in that direction. For example, AMD's recent Ryzen 7000 mobile chips have a dedicated AI engine for Microsoft's Windows Studio Effects, including noise suppression, eye contact, background blur, and more.

Intel's Meteor Lake platform should arrive in the second half of 2024, just before Windows 11's third anniversary and Windows 12's big debut. However, take these reports with a grain of salt since none is officially confirmed. Besides, Microsoft's plans can change anytime, as with the Surface Mini canceled right before the announcement.

Intel leak hints at potential Windows 12 launch in second half of 2024

After installing the Moment 2 update, Windows 11 will greet you with a new search box on the taskbar. It will be there, even if you have previously disabled it (this is not the first time Windows ignores and overrides your preferences). The new Bing logo in that box might trick you into thinking you can chat with the AI without opening the browser and navigating to bing.com. Unfortunately, no.

Clicking the search box opens Windows Search with a massive Bing banner showing what the updated search engine can do. Type a query, and you will get the standard, not-so-smart Windows Search results. Still, there is a "Chat" button, but all it does is open Microsoft Edge (the system does not care about your default browser) and launch Bing. That is everything "the new AI-powered Bing on the taskbar" does. Compare it to the marketing words from Microsoft, and the problem will become clear:

Today, we take the next major step forward adding to the incredible breadth and ease of use of the Windows PC by implementing a typable Windows search box and the amazing capability of the new AI-powered Bing directly into the taskbar. Putting all your search needs for Windows in one easy to find location.

The search box is one of the most widely used features on Windows, with over half a billion users every month, and now with the typable Windows search box and the new AI-powered Bing front and center to this experience you will be empowered to find the answers you’re looking for, faster than ever before.

What Microsoft is shipping to customers looks like a last-minute low-effort banner slap (we already know how much Microsoft loves placing banners across its OS and even third-party websites) with fancy descriptions in the official release notes. Even though Windows 11's latest feature drop has no proper update name, it does feature a few quality-of-life upgrades and welcome changes. Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to promote it with a glorified shortcut on the taskbar.

It no longer looks so pumping, does it?

Windows 11 Moment 2's headline feature is nothing but an ad for Bing and Edge

However, for those using third-party UI customization apps like StartAllBack and ExplorerPatcher, Microsoft has confirmed that new Build 22621.1344 (KB5022913) is causing these apps to not start up and launch properly. For now, Microsoft recommends uninstalling these apps until the tech giant figures out a solution for the issue. On the Windows health dashboard, the company describes the issue, stating:

After installing KB5022913 or later updates, Windows devices with some third-party UI customization apps might not start up. These third-party apps might cause errors with explorer.exe that might repeat multiple times in a loop. The known affected third-party UI customization apps are ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack. These types of apps often use unsupported methods to achieve their customization and as a result can have unintended results on your Windows device.

Workaround: We recommend uninstalling any third-party UI customization app before installing KB5022913 to prevent this issue. If your Windows device is already experiencing this issue, you might need to contact customer support for the developer of the app you are using. If you are using StartAllBack, you might be able to prevent this issue by updating to the latest version (v3.5.6 or later).

Although not stated by Microsoft, Stardock has confirmed that its Start11 appis also having issues on Moment 2, leading to colouring issues on secondary monitors.

Interestingly, Microsoft still lists the file copy kernel bug in the known issues section even though it should have been fixed with the Moment 2 update. Perhaps, the fix will roll out with the March 2023 Patch Tuesday.

Microsoft: ExplorerPatcher, StartAllBack, Start11 break on Windows 11 Moment 2 (KB5022913)

Microsoft began rolling out a new feature update to Windows 11 version 22H2 yesterday. Although the update does not have an official name, it is likely what's referred to as "Moment 2" internally. It features a massive changelog with improvements to Taskbar, Search, Widgets, Task Manager, and more. You can read about all the changes in our dedicated review here.

Although this is all nice and dandy, it turns out that Microsoft has shipped buggy software to this Stable Windows 11 release, perhaps knowingly as the bug has been on the known issues list for a while. As Rafael Rivera on Twitter points out, the "Alt+F, X" shortcut is broken for the new tabbed Notepad, also available to Windows 11 Stable users via an update from the Microsoft Store.

The shortcut is meant to close the window that is currently in focus, but instead, it attempts to close all windows. This may interrupt your workflow if you are a heavy user of Notepad because as it attempts to close all Notepad windows, you will also get a bunch of dialog boxes asking if you want to save your changes before closing the application.

We can replicate this bug in an older version of Notepad too. However, the fact that this is being shipped to production is a bit of a disappointment considering that Microsoft is likely aware of the issue but is more eager to ship half-baked features to meet deadlines rather than releasing a fully functional app. It continues Microsoft's trend of "ship first, fix later" when it comes to Windows releases.

Regardless, Rivera has highlighted the issue on Feedback Hub, you can upvote it here.

Microsoft ships buggy Notepad to Windows 11 Stable

The Windows 11 development environment is available for VMWare (Workstation Pro and Player), Hyper-V Gen2, VirtualBox, and Parallels. It includes the Windows 11 Enterprise SKU, Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, Ubuntu, and Windows Terminal. It also has Developer mode enabled by default.

Version 2302 is based on Windows 11 build 22621.1265 (version 22H2 Moment 1), and you can update it to the Moment 2 update right after setting up the VM (optional KB5022913).

Although you can use virtual machines without activation, some features still require a license key. For example, you cannot change personalization settings. Microsoft also warns that after May 23, 2023, the desktop background will turn black, you will see a persistent activation notification, and the virtual machine will shut down every hour. Still, Microsoft will most likely release a newer version before this one expires (the last update was on January 21, 2023).

You can download the latest Windows 11 virtual machines provided by Microsoft from the official website. They require a minimum of 21GB of free space on your drive.

Microsoft releases new free Windows 11 virtual machines

Starting with Excel for the web, there is a single feature in the form of an improvement to PivotTables. Users can now manually sort rows and columns for PivotTables and PivotCharts through by dragging and dropping individual items.

Meanwhile, Excel for Windows customers can leverage two new capabilities. However, both of these are available for Insiders only. The first is an optimization which will see recalculations limited to the active workbook and its interdependent workbooks only. The other feature is the blocking of untrusted XLL add-ins for better security.

Lastly, Excel for Mac customers can take advantage of four new features. For starters, queries for local files, SharePoint, OData feeds, and more can be directly authored from the Power Query Editor. An even bigger improvement is that users on this platform can now import data from more sources, including XML and JSON files, OData, SharePoint Online List, Blank Query, and Blank Table. Microsoft has gone a step further with Insiders and allows them to connect to SQL Server databases, a highly requested feature. Finally, the recalculation optimization for Windows Insiders mentioned previously applies to Insiders on Mac too.

Here are all the new features Microsoft added to Excel in February 2023

According to Statcounter, in February 2023, Windows 11 increased its market share by 1.01 points, reaching an all-time high of 19.13%. In other words, almost every fifth PC runs Microsoft's newest operating system. The latest feature update released on February 28, 2023, might tempt more Windows 10 users to pull the trigger and migrate to Windows 11. You can learn what is new in the Windows 11 "Moment 2" update in our review.

The operating system market is massive and rarely experiences sudden spikes or significant changes. However, February 2023 is an exception. In January 2023, Microsoft put Windows 7 and 8.1 to their final rest and ended the Extended Security Updates program. This resulted in more companies upgrading their computers to Windows 10, bringing its market share up from 68.86% in January to 73.25% in February.

Despite the final end of support, Windows 7 remains the third most popular Windows version. However, it lost a massive chunk of users and dropped from 9.55% to 5.39%. Windows 8.1's market share also halved from 2.28% to 1.15%.

1. Windows 10 - 73.25% (+4.39)
2. Windows 11 - 19.13% (+1.01)
3. Windows 7 - 5.39% (-4.16)
4. Windows 8.1 - 1.15% (-1.13)
5. Windows 8 - 0.52% (-0.1)

You can learn more about the latest Statcounter findings on the official website.

Note: Third-party reports are never 100% accurate. Learn how Statcounter gathers information in the official FAQ.

Statcounter: Almost every fifth PC runs Windows 11, Windows 10 gets major spike

According to Statcounter, in February 2023, Google Chrome reached a 66.12% market share. Its overwhelmingly crushing numbers dropped just 0.29 points compared with January 2023. Microsoft Edge is second with 10.84% (-0.24), and Apple Safari is third at 10.14% (+0.83). Microsoft Edge used to keep a safe distance from its macOS rival, but now Safari is catching up.

Firefox is not overtaking any browser soon as it has a more distant 6.84% share (-0.03). Finally, Opera closes the top 5 desktop browsers list with 3.21% (-0.2).

1. Google Chrome - 66.12% (-0.29)
2. Microsoft Edge - 10.84% (-0.24)
3. Apple Safari - 10.14% (+0.83)
4. Mozilla Firefox - 6.84% (-0.03)
5. Opera - 3.21% (-0.2)

There are no significant changes on the mobile side of the desktop market. Google Chrome and Apple Safari share almost 90% of the market, leaving the rest for Samsung Internet, Opera, UC Browser, and other less popular options. Microsoft Edge, unfortunately, remains too small to register on Statcounter's gauges, and integrating AI-powered Bing in Edge on Android and iOS is unlikely to help change the situation.

1. Google Chrome - 66.08% (-0.7)
2. Apple Safari - 23.97% (-0.45)
3. Samsung Internet - 4.37% (-0.09)
4. Opera - 1.71% (-0.06)
5. UC Browser - 1.46% (-0.01)

Finally, here is how the market looks like with desktop and mobile browsers combined:

1. Google Chrome - 65.74% (+0.31)
2. Apple Safari - 18.86% (+0.17)
3. Microsoft Edge - 4.27% (-0.19)
4. Mozilla Firefox - 2.92% (-0.09)
5. Samsung Internet - 2.6% (-0.01)

You can learn more about the Statcounter February 2023 browser report on the official website. Also, check out Statcounter's latest operating system report, where you will find interesting changes in Windows 10 and 11's shares.

Note: Third-party reports are never 100% accurate. Learn how Statcounter gathers its data in the official FAQ.

Statcounter: Safari is about to overtake Edge and become second-most popular desktop browser

Microsoft has already shared all the new features it added to its paid versions of Teams in February 2023, and it has now done the same for Teams Free too.

The changelog for Teams Free isn't particularly lengthy, which makes sense since this is more limited version of the software. On the desktop and the web, Teams Free users can now easily invite recipients with work or school accounts by just typing in their email addresses. A Teams profile connected via a Google account on desktop will also be able to sync Google contacts. It is important to note that group calls in Teams Free are limited to 60 minutes and 100 participants while 1:1 calls can go up to 30 hours.

Meanwhile, mobile users on Teams Free now have the ability to make community events recurring when they set up a new one. If a community member is promoted to community admin, they will also be notified.

That's pretty much it for the February 2023 changelog for Teams Free. If you have any feedback for Microsoft, file it through the process detailed here.

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

This time, Microsoft has divided its changelog into two distinct sections, namely Teams Premium (launched in early February) and non-Teams Premium.

Teams Premium

In the "More Intelligent" section, we have AI-generated chapters powered by PowerPoint Live, along with personalized timeline markers for easier navigation. The latter will eventually expand to cater to events like when your name was called out or when a screen was shared. Additionally, we also have live translated captions; something that was available in the standard version of Teams too.

On the "More Personalized" front, IT admins can create meeting templates to be used within an organization. Branded meetings and organization backgrounds that sport the theme of your company before joining and during a meeting can also be created. IT admins can leverage custom user policy packages to define different rules for various groups too.

Lastly, the "More Protected" front contains a truckload of improvements. These include watermarks during screen-sharing, more control over who can record a meeting, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for online meetings, sensitivity labels for Teams meetings powered by Purview (for Microsoft 365 E5 customers only), and advanced webinars.

Additionally, you can toggle start times, end times, registration waitlists, and manual approvals for webinars. Presenters can join a virtual green room to prepare for their meeting, with hosts also being able to control what attendees see during the actual meeting. Some other features include:

• RTMP-in (Real-Time Messaging Protocol)
• Microsoft eCDN: Improve live event experiences
• Advanced Virtual Appointments: A new Teams Meeting type for business-to-customer (B2C) meetings
• Virtual Appointments app
• Queue view of scheduled and on-demand appointments
• Custom virtual lobby for Virtual Appointments
• Virtual Appointments individual and departmental analytics
• Virtual Appointments organizational level analytics

Non-Teams Premium

Next, we have the slightly cheaper SKU of Teams, which used to be the standard paid tier prior to the launch of Teams Premium. On the Meetings front, developers can now create tab experiences for anonymous users. Bots can also be leveraged to target notifications to select people during a meeting.

When it comes to Virtual Appointments, there is some "basic functionality" for all Microsoft 365 and Office 365 license plans. This includes the ability to create templates for Virtual Appointments in Teams Calendar for external users, along with the creation of custom flows through the Graph API.

On the Calling side of the fence, iOS/iPadOS users can change the size of a meeting window and drag it to the desired location on their screen thanks to Picture in Picture (PiP) improvements. Co-organizers to manage breakout rooms are now supported, along with Android devices in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Moreover, enhancements have been made to authentication mechanisms and the Presenter window. New call controls with Survivable Branch Appliance have also been introduced to cater to network outages.

Meanwhile, the newly certified Teams devices are as follows:

• Teams Rooms
  • Lenovo ThinkSmart One collaboration bar and Lenovo Core Bundle for Teams Rooms on Windows
  • Crestron FLEX Microsoft Teams Rooms kit with the Dell OptiPlex for Teams Rooms on Windows
• Teams peripherals
  • Logitech Zone Wireless 2 Headset
  • Yealink UH37 Dual/ Mono Headset

Switching gears to collaboration and chat improvements, developers can access message events. Meanwhile, regular users can take advantage of suggested files in chats, schedule send suggestions powered by Viva Insights, notify everyone in a chat with the "@Everyone" mention, and call someone back directly from the Teams activity feed in case they miss a call.

There are lots of management-related enhancements that have been made to Teams too. They are listed below:

• Manage Surface Hubs as Teams devices from Teams admin center
• Notification granularity
• Ability for Teams users to manage their third-party app subscriptions from within Teams Client
• Delete or rename files in a channel and in your OneDrive folder in Teams
• Surface Message Actions by most recently used menu
• License management in Microsoft Teams and Teams admin center for SaaS offers built by ISVs
• Upload files to your approval request via Power Automate portal
• Enhanced flyout design for app engagement and discovery

Lastly, Teams for Education customers can invite parents via SMS and also set up parent-teacher meetings virtually in Teams.

Of course, this is only a high-level summary of all the improvements in Teams during February 2023. You can find even more details by heading over to Microsoft's blog post here.

Here are all the new features Microsoft added to Teams in February 2023

What is new in Intel Wi-Fi Driver Version 22.200.0?

Here is what the official release notes state about the new 22.200.0 version of the Intel Wi-Fi drivers:

• Regulatory adjustments for: Chile, China
• In Advanced settings, adding option 5&6GHz in preferred band.
• Bluetooth/Wi-Fi coexistence improvements for 11n on some systems.
• Some 5GHz channels in China may not be available in P2P GO or SoftAP scenario.
• This software release version 22.200.0 has been updated to include functional and security updates. There may be other minor issues addressed which will impact performance, stability, or vendor specific functionality not listed above. Users should update to the latest version.

Here are the specific Intel Wi-Fi products affected by the new Windows 10 and 11 22.200.0.6 driver:

• Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX411 (Gig+)
• Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+)
• Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (Gig+)
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX203
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX101
• Intel Wireless-AC 9560
• Intel Wireless-AC 9461/ 9462
• Intel Wireless-AC 9260

In addition, new 20.70.32.1 Windows 10 and 11 drivers were released for these products:

• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265
• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260

Also, new Windows 11 and Windows 10 drivers (64-bit: 19.51.42.2 and 32-bit: 19.51.40.12) were released for the following products:

• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168
• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165
• Intel Wireless 7265 Family (Rev.D)

Intel has the same release notes for its Intel PROSet/Wireless Software version 22.200.0 driver update, made primarily for IT administrators.

You can download the Wi-Fi drivers for Windows 11, and Windows 10 in 32-bit and 64-bit versions from Intel's site. You can also download the new Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11.

Intel releases new Windows 10 and 11 v22.200.0 Wi-Fi drivers with 6 GHz options

You may recall that I reviewed the DuckDuckGo Mac Browser when it was announced in April last year. I've been using it on my MacBook as a secondary browser, it's quite decent at blocking ads on web pages, but doesn't hide the place where the banners were supposed to be, so you're left with big ugly boxes here and there. It has some built-in privacy-friendly features such as a Fire button to delete all browser cookies and tabs, an option to fireproof websites (whitelist from deletion), Email protection to mask your real email address, and more.

DuckDuckGo's browser for Mac doesn't block the ad banners that appear in YouTube's search results, but you can use the Duck Player to watch videos without ads. The browser natively supports Bitwarden for autofill, but this feature has some limitations compared to the password manager's extensions for Firefox and Chrome, and also requires the Mac app to be running in the background. That said, DuckDuckGo updates its browser regularly to fix issues, you can download the Mac version from here. It's definitely heading in the right direction, but there's still a lot of work to be done before it can graduate out of beta.

The macOS app uses Safari's WebKit engine (WKWebView). Now, coming to the PC version, DuckDuckGo for Windows is based on WebView2 which uses the Blink rendering engine, but it's not a fork of Chromium. The company says the Windows browser is good enough to be used as a daily driver, but also told users that DuckDuckGo for Windows does not have the Duck Player and Email Protection's autofill yet. These features will be rolled out in the coming weeks. So it's like the application's development is making some good progress.

The screenshot that you see above was shared by DuckDuckGo, it does look similar to the macOS version.

Image courtesy: DuckDuckGo

How to sign up for DuckDuckGo Windows browser waitlist

1. Install the DuckDuckGo app on your Android phone or iPhone.

2. Tap on the menu button, and open the Settings page.

3. Scroll down the pop-up until you see an option that says "DuckDuckGo Windows App" Beta. Tap on it.

4. On the next screen, tap the large button that is labeled "Join the Private Waitlist".

That's it. Once you are selected for the beta, the app will display a notification with a download link and a unique invite code.

I got curious, and changed the word mac in the macOS version's download URL, and managed to get the Windows app's installer, which is a ".appinstaller file". That means it is a Microsoft Store app, I installed it on Windows 11. You can download DuckDuckGo for Windows from "https://duckduckgo.com/windows". The current version of the app is 0.36.3.0.

Don't get your hopes up, though. You will still need an invite code (8 characters) from the mobile app to start using the browser on your desktop.

The program's web page mentions that DuckDuckGo for Windows beta is available for Windows 10 (May 2020) or later.

There is no word about a Linux version of the browser yet.

Have you tried the DuckDuckGo Windows browser?

DuckDuckGo Windows browser enters beta, here's how to sign up for it

You will need a subscription to Windows 365 to use this new app. Microsoft states:

With the Windows 365 app, you can go from your desktop straight to your Cloud PC, which provides you with a personalized experience tailored to your settings, profile, and work style. It also reduces friction for IT administrators who can enable employees with single sign-on experience.

More details about the app can be read on this blog post by Microsoft back in October 2022. Some of the features included in the app are:

• Use of a Cloud PC as a window or full screen
• High-performing, reliable experiences for Microsoft Teams, multimedia redirection, and other Microsoft 365 apps
• User actions to Restart, Reset, Restore, Rename, and Troubleshoot Cloud PCs available directly from Windows
• A direct single sign-on experience
• Support for Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Microsoft Authenticator for secure access to Cloud PCs
• Accessibility using screen reader and keyboard shortcuts
• Regular and automatic app updates to ensure employees are using the most up-to-date version of Windows 365

Microsoft will include the app with all new installs of Windows 11. For all other users, you can download the Windows 365 app for Windows 10 and 11 directly from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft plans to add more features to the app in the coming weeks and months.

The Windows 365 app has officially launched for Windows 10 and 11

February’s patches affected you either severely, or not at all.

The good news: If you are a consumer, home user, or business that does not use Windows Server 2022 or any version of on-premises Exchange server, you will be just fine installing the updates at this time. Therefore, I am very comfortable with lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.

However, if you are a business patcher with Windows Server 2022 hosted in VMware, you may have been significantly impacted. In addition, patch administrators are still dealing with the side effects of the Exchange updates.

Both Apple and Windows patches have been relatively well behaved this month. I always say “relatively” because with any updating experience, someone somewhere may have a hiccup.

For those of you maintaining a Windows PC that is capable of receiving an update to Windows 11 but don’t want it, remember that you can use registry keys, group policy editing, Intune, or the InControl app to edit the settings so that Windows 10 remains without nagging. Also remember that you can specifically set the feature releases to stop at a specific release number. If you aren’t as fussy about that, but still want control on the basics of the operating system version, that is easily done.

If you have a Windows 10 Professional, enter “edit group policy” into the search box and launch the resulting editor. Click Computer configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components. Scroll all the way to the bottom and select Windows Update | Windows update for Business, then click Select the target feature update version. (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1. You can use the local Group Policy Editor to control which Windows version and feature release you wish to remain with.

Click the Enabled radio button (if not already selected), then look for the text box labeled “Which Windows product version would you like to receive feature updates for? e.g., Windows 10.” Enter Windows 10. Leave the second box, “Target Version for Feature Updates,” blank. Click the Apply button, then exit the policy editor.

This will keep your system at Windows 10 indefinitely. If you would prefer a Registry link, use this download.

Finally, beware of disabling applications. Folks on Reddit are often gamers or those who love to tinker with their operating systems. One such poster disabled the Microsoft Defender/Antimalware Service Executable and now, after installing KB5022360, he found that other applications would not run or would start slowly. Always keep in mind that if you install another antivirus software program, it will promptly disable Microsoft Defender. One AV program at a time, please!

It is wise not to disable services unless you understand the ramifications fully and have a good backup. If you have any issues after an update, come and ask in our forums — don’t start following advice in a random post you found at the top of a Google search.

For businesses with an on-premises Exchange server, the way forward is murkier. For those on Exchange 2013, remember that its window of support is coming to a close and there will be no extended support updates. You may also see a crash in the Exchange Web services. Microsoft has released a specific KB article with registry fixes.

If you had Windows Server 2022 in VMware — specifically, versions older than ESXi 8.0 — you found your servers unable to boot after the February updates. ESXi 6.7 will not be patched. However, a patch has been released to VMWare ESXi 7.0 U3k, released on February 21.

For those who still patch Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials (not the plain server, but a specific SKU for small businesses), you won’t be able to install February’s updates until Microsoft fixes detection. Seems the company forgot to include the Essential SKU in its updating build, so it fails to detect that server version. I’ll let you know when the detection is fixed.

Our next Patch Tuesday is March 14, giving you plenty of time to update your VMware and your servers.

MS-DEFCON 4: Wrapping up a short month

Aside from that, this release includes a few game-related fixes, but plenty of known issues. Find the full changelog below:

HIGHLIGHTS:

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

• Destiny 2: Lightfall*
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty*

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

• Halo Infinite* (DX12)

FIXED ISSUES:

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Halo Infinite* (DX12) may exhibit colour corruption during gameplay when Reflections settings are enabled.
• Red Dead Redemption 2* (Vulkan) may experience application crash in benchmark mode when Screen Type is Fullscreen.

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:

• Sea of Thieves* (DX11) may experience colour corruption on water edges.
• Conqueror’s Blade* (DX11) may experience corruption in benchmark mode.
• The Riftbreaker* (DX12) may exhibit black line corruption with the Xbox Game Pass* version
• 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™ Xe + Iris™ Xe MAX devices. A system reboot and re-installation of the graphics driver may be required for successful installation.

Intel® Core™ Processor Products:

• Total War: Warhammer III* (DX11) may experience an application crash when loading battle scenarios.
• Conqueror's Blade* (DX12) may experience application crash during game launch.
• A Plague Tale: Requiem* (DX12) may experience application freeze and crash 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.

Download for Windows 10 and 11 .exe format or ZIP (1GB)

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

New Intel 31.0.101.4146 WHQL Intel Arc and Iris Xe driver optimized for Halo Infinite

The full changelog is given below:

Highlights

• New! This update improves the search box experience on the taskbar. As you type in the search box, search results now appear in the search flyout box. You can also change the search experience you want for your taskbar by going to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. For commercial customers, this update adds a new policy for IT administrators to manage how the search box on the taskbar appears in your organization. For more information, see Customizing search on the Windows 11 taskbar.

   

• New! You can now access Windows Studio effects directly from quick settings on the taskbar for devices that have a supported neural processing unit (NPU). This makes it quick and easy to turn on and configure camera effects. These effects include Background blur, Eye contact, Automatic framing, and Audio effects (Voice focus). You can still access these effects in the Settings pages.

   

• New! This update makes it easier to get help if you are having PC issues. You can now find Quick Assist in the Start menu’s All apps list.

   

• New! This update introduces a touch-optimized taskbar for 2-in-1 devices that you can use as a tablet. There are two states of this taskbar: collapsed and expanded. To switch between the two states, swipe up and down on the bottom of your screen. When collapsed in tablet mode, the taskbar recedes to give you more screen space and keeps you from accidentally opening the taskbar. When expanded in tablet mode, the taskbar is optimized to be easier to use with touch. Your taskbar will automatically change to this optimized version when you disconnect or fold back the keyboard.

   

  This feature only works on devices that can be used as tablets and is on by default. To change that, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors. The setting is called “Optimize taskbar for touch interactions when this device is used as a tablet.” If your company manages Windows updates for your device, this feature will be off by default. Administrators can turn it on using the new commercial control for continuous innovation.

   

• New! This update provides enhanced support for braille devices. They will continue working while you switch between Microsoft Narrator and third-party screen readers. Narrator will automatically change braille drivers. For more information, see Chapter 8: Using Narrator with braille.

   

• New! This update also adds support for new braille displays and new braille input and output languages in Narrator. Some of the new braille displays include the APH Chameleon, the APH Mantis Q40, the NLS eReader, and many more. For more information, see Chapter 8: Using Narrator with braille.

   

• New! Windows now provides energy recommendations. If you use them, they can help to improve the energy efficiency of your PC and reduce your carbon footprint. Go to Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy Recommendations.

   

• New! For devices that are joined to Azure Active Directory (AAD), Windows now provides AI-powered recommended content on your Start menu. On the Start menu, you will find content to help you to prepare for meetings, quickly access files you're collaborating on, and more.

   

• New! This update enhances the system tray. All icons will have a rounded focus and hover treatment in the lower right, including the “Show hidden icons” flyout menu. You can move icons to rearrange them in the “Show hidden icons” flyout menu or move icons to the taskbar.

   

• New! This update makes voice access more flexible and supports interaction with more user interface (UI) controls. For example, voice now interacts with controls that contain:

   

  • Names that have numbers, such as “Click 5”

  • Names without whitespaces between them, such as “click PivotTable” or “click PivotChart”

  • Names that have special characters, such as Bluetooth & devices (“click Bluetooth and devices”) or Dial – up (“click dial hyphen up”)

     

• New! Voice now supports spin controls, thumb controls, and split buttons. You interact with these controls by using the “click” command or number overlays. This update also addresses issues that affect snapping commands that snap a window left or right. Commands that move the cursor in a text box now run instantly.

   

• New! This update also provides voice scrolling enhancements. You can use voice to scroll to the extreme left and right on a page. You can also use continuous scrolling to the left or right like what is already present for vertical scrolling. For more information about the new voice access commands, see Voice access command list.

   

• New! This update makes enhancements to Task Manager. These include:

   

  • Filtering—You can now filter processes using the binary name, PID, or publisher name. The filter also applies when you switch between pages. The keyboard shortcut is ALT+F.

  • More theme options—You can now choose a theme for Task Manager that is different from the Windows theme. Also, all dialogs, except for Run new task and the Properties dialog, now support themes. The dialogs will use app-specific themes or the Windows theme.

  • Efficiency mode—You can now opt out of confirmation dialogs when you turn on Efficiency mode.

     

• This update addresses an issue that affects the colour filters setting. When you select Inverted, the system sets it to Grayscale instead.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects IE mode. The text on the status bar is not always visible.

   

• This update addresses an issue that displays a blue screen during video playback. This occurs after you set high dynamic range (HDR) on your display.

   

• This update addresses an issue that might affect the touch keyboard and the PIN entry keyboard. You might not be able to use them to enter text when you sign in to your device.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects which folders appear in the Browse for Folder picker.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects File Explorer. When you use Shift+Tab or Shift+F6, the input focus does not move.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects the user interface (UI). The volume up and volume down commands from a Bluetooth keyboard do not display.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects Xbox subscribers. If you purchased an Xbox subscription using the "Redeem code" option, you cannot see the Xbox subscription card on the Settings Accounts page. This occurs when recurring billing is off.

Improvements

This non-security update includes quality improvements. When you install this KB:

• New! This update adds the new Tamil Anjal keyboard for the Tamil language. To add it, make sure Tamil (Singapore), Tamil (Malaysia), Tamil (Sri Lanka), or Tamil (India) appears in Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region. Select the ellipses (…) next to the language. Select Language Options. Add Tamil Anjal (QWERTY) to the list of keyboards.

   

• This update improves the reliability of Windows after you install an update.

   

• This update affects the United Mexican States. This update supports the government’s daylight saving time change order for 2023.

   

• This update addresses a date information issue. It affects the format of dates sent between Windows and some versions of the Heimdal Kerberos library.

   

• 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 software keyboard. It does not appear in the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) after a Push-button reset (factory reset). This type of reset requires an external keyboard to be attached to provide credentials.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects AppV. It stops file names from having the correct letter case (uppercase or lowercase).

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge. The issue removes conflicting policies for Microsoft Edge. This occurs when you set the MDMWinsOverGPFlag in a Microsoft Intune tenant and Intune detects a policy conflict.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects provisioning packages. They fail to apply in certain circumstances when elevation is required.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Using a provisioning package for bulk provisioning fails.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects Universal Print's Configuration Service Provider (CSP). A command prompt window appears when you install a printer.

   

• This update addresses a reliability issue that occurs when you use Task View.

   

• 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.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). LSASS might stop responding. This occurs after you run Sysprep on a domain-joined machine.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects copying from a network to a local drive. Copying is slower than expected for some users.

   

• This update addresses an issue that affects parity virtual disks. Using Server Manager to create them fails.

   

If you installed earlier updates, only the new updates contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

The known issues in this release are given in the table below. They apply to IT admins:

You can also manually download the update from Microsoft Update Catalog website. You can find the official support document here.

KB5022913: Windows 11 22H2 Moment 2 update goes live with massive changelog

Our dedicated review lets you learn what is new in the Windows 11 February 2023 Update. The most prominent features include new touch gestures and a tablet-optimized taskbar, energy recommendations, improved accessibility, third-party and full-screen widgets, and more. Besides, the update brings a host of improvements for the inbox apps, such as the ability to record your screen using the Snipping Tool and the tabbed Notepad.

Another noteworthy change is the new AI-powered Bing, which is now built into Windows 11's updated search on the taskbar. Microsoft recently brought the updated Bing to mobile Edge and Skype, and now it is ready for its prime time on Windows.

The Windows 11 February 2023 Update is now available for download via Windows Update. It is an optional non-security update (KB5022913) you need to install manually. Microsoft will automatically update all Windows 11 22H2 users on March 14, 2023, with the next Patch Tuesday updates. The updated inbox apps will be available from the Microsoft Store.

Are you excited about the latest feature drop for Microsoft's desktop operating system? Let us know in the comments.

Windows 11 February 2023 Update or 'Moment 2' is now available for download

Microsoft has just announced the big "Moment 2" update for Windows 11 with a ton of new features. That includes a preview of the new Phone Link for iOS app feature. If you are a member of the Windows Insider program, you will get first dibs on checking out this addition, with some members of the program getting it sometime this week. The app will allow Windows 11 PC owners to see calls and texts from their paired iPhone.

In a blog post, Microsoft says this first preview will be available for all Windows 11 users signed up for any of the three Windows Insider channels. While the preview of the Phone Link for iOS will be controlled from a cloud server, Insiders will still need the Phone Link app to be updated to version 1.23012.169.0 or higher. While a small number of Insiders will get this preview this week, it will be expanded to more members of the program in the coming weeks.

If you are one of the Windows Insiders selected to test drive the new version of the app, you should see the iPhone button in the updated app available to click or tap on to proceed with the pairing of Windows 11 to the iPhone. Microsoft states:

After choosing iPhone, the guided installation will kick off to pair your iPhone. You will be directed to follow a set of steps that will guide you to pair your iPhone and PC over Bluetooth. This will initiate after you scan a QR code shown on your screen, and then move on to the confirmation steps that helps us confirm the phone and PC are in range.

During this step, you will be asked to confirm the code in Phone Link matches the code shown on your iPhone. Once you complete pairing, you’ll be asked to grant a set of permissions that allow us to get all your favorite content sync’d over to Phone Link.

After that, your Windows 11 PC will be able to show you your iPhone's calls, texts, and contact list. However, this version of the Phone Link app won't let you send replies to group messages or send media in messages. There's no word on when or if the app will add these features in the future.

Windows 11 will finally let iPhone users text and call from PCs

The new feature will add a toggle that will allow the Team profanity filter to be turned on or off in Live Captions by the user. Here's how the feature is described in the roadmap entry:

With the newly introduced toggle for turn on/off profanity filtering, user will now be able to control whether they want to continue to leverage the profanity filtering capability provided out of box, or, if they want to see every word as-is.

The new toggle is planned to be added to Teams for desktop and Mac users, at least at first. Hopefully, Microsoft will add this feature to the other platforms supported by the online meeting tool. However, we will have to wait a little while for the toggle to be added, as it is currently slated for General Availability in May 2023.

Microsoft is reportedly working on a major code overhaul for Teams that will increase performance and use less energy, among other improvements. This new version is allegedly planned for a public preview release in March.

Microsoft Teams is adding filters designed to remove or keep profanity in chats