There are Android 13 security updates as well, alongside many more improvements. The full changelog and announcement post is given below:

Today we are shipping an update for Windows Subsystem for Android™ on Windows 11 to all Windows Insider channels. This update (2301.40000.4.0) will make improvements to the camera experience, graphics improvements, general reliability, and security updates.

What’s New

• Improved audio input latency and reliability
• Improvements to camera experience (camera metadata now exposed to camera apps)
• Improvements to framerate performance: certain benchmarks have improved by 10%-20% on ARM and 40%-50% on x64
• Fixed zooming out in apps using touchpad or mouse
• Improvements to platform reliability
• Using latest Chromium WebView to version 108
• Synchronizing global microphone and camera privacy toggles between Windows and Android apps
• Android 13 security updates

You can view the official blog post here.

Microsoft claims up to 50% performance boost on AMD, Intel with latest Windows 11 WSA update

What's new in Microsoft Edge 110

Here are the official release notes for Microsoft Edge 110.0.1587.41:

Feature updates

• New Immersive Reader policies. Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge simplifies web page layouts, removes clutter, and helps you customize your reading experience. Using these new policies (ImmersiveReaderGrammarToolsEnabled and ImmersiveReaderPictureDictionaryEnabled), administrators can control the availability of Grammar Tools and Picture Dictionary features within Immersive Reader.
• Enabling sync for Azure Active Directory signed in customers. Microsoft Edge sync roams data across all signed in instances of Microsoft Edge. This data includes favorites, passwords, browsing history, open tabs, settings, apps, collections, and extensions.  For Azure Active Directory users who have sync turned off, after the browser is launched they'll see a notification prompt and have sync turned on for all signed in instances of Microsoft Edge. This sync enablement includes other devices where they're signed in. Additionally, if a user’s other devices don’t have history and open tabs sync on, those two toggles will be turned on. Organizations using the SyncDisabled policy won't be affected by this change.
• Drop. Microsoft Edge now offers a simple way to send files and notes across all your signed in mobile and desktop devices. Using the desktop version of Microsoft Edge, Drop can be managed through the sidebar (edge://settings/sidebar). Administrators can control the availability of Drop using the EdgeEDropEnabled policy.

Policy updates

New policies

• AutofillMembershipsEnabled - Save and fill memberships
• ImmersiveReaderGrammarToolsEnabled - Enable Grammar Tools feature within Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge
• ImmersiveReaderPictureDictionaryEnabled - Enable Picture Dictionary feature within Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge
• PrintPreviewStickySettings - Configure the sticky print preview settings
• SearchInSidebarEnabled - Search in Sidebar enabled
• WorkspacesNavigationSettings - Configure navigation settings per groups of URLs in Microsoft Edge Workspaces

Obsoleted policies

• DisplayCapturePermissionsPolicyEnabled - Specifies whether the display-capture permissions-policy is checked or skipped
• ExemptDomainFileTypePairsFromFileTypeDownloadWarnings - Disable download file type extension-based warnings for specified file types on domains
• SetTimeoutWithout1MsClampEnabled - Control Javascript setTimeout() function minimum timeout
• ShadowStackCrashRollbackBehavior Configure ShadowStack crash rollback behavior

In addition the new release includes two security updates which you can learn about at the following links: CVE-2023-21794 and CVE-2023-23374.

Microsoft Edge 110 is now available for download from the official website and from within the browser. Edge can update itself automatically, but if you want to get the new version now, you can force-install the latest release by navigating to edge://settings/help.

Microsoft Edge 110 is available with new Immersive Reader policies and more

Since early 2020, development of Thunderbird has been conducted by MZLA Technologies, which is a subsidary of Mozilla. A small but growing number of paid developers has been maintaining and updating the email client for the past three years. The donations from users have helped keep the lights on. Now it looks like the team is ready to make a major leap forward in Thunderbird's development.

One of the team's big goals is to refresh the email client's user interface so it looks as good as modern email software. The blog post stated:

A UI that looks and feels modern is getting initially implemented with version 115 in July, aiming at offering a simple and clean interface for “new” users, as well as the implementation of more customizable options with a flexible and adaptable interface to allow veteran users to maintain that familiarity they love.

The team has a roadmap in place that will include UI and UX improvements over the next two years. Also, efforts are being made to replace the old code in Thunderbird, along with better accessiblity options, and new features to the client "that some of our competitors have had for years." In addition, the team has a goal of releasing new versions on a monthly basis starting sometime in the next three years.

Even with these upcoming updates and changes, Thunderbird will continue to be an open source software application. The team will also continue to listen and use ideas from the outside community. Hopefully we will learn more, and see more, of the revamped Thunderbird email client soon.

Mozilla Thunderbird will get a major revamp starting in July

Here's whats new and what's been fixed in this build:

Tabs in Notepad

We are beginning to roll out tabs in Notepad to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel (version 11.2301.17.0).

Fixes in Build 22623.1255

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue where Start would open behind the taskbar when entering it while using the touch keyboard.
• Fixed an issue where the taskbar would disappear when switching from Task view to a Win32 app icon through the tablet-optimized taskbar.

[Task Manager]

• Process names typed into the search box should no longer unexpected get spellchecked.
• Fixed a couple of issues with how Narrator was reading out content in Task Manager.
• Fixed an issue where the dropdowns in settings might not match your currently selected theme.
• When using search on the App History page, results should no longer suddenly disappear.
• If you open the Default Start Page dropdown in settings, clicking the Task Manager window should make the dropdown disappear now.

The new Notepad tab feature was previously released in the Dev Channel for Windows Insiders who signed up for those builds.

Windows 11 Insider Preview Beta builds (KB5022918) launched with Notepad tabs

What’s new

New commercial policy: Enable features introduced via servicing that are off by default

This new policy enables commercial customers to enable features introduced via servicing (outside of the annual feature update) that are off by default for devices that have their Windows updates managed. Windows update managed devices are those that have their Windows updates managed via policy; whether via the cloud using Windows Update for Business or on-premises with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). While this policy is available for Insider Preview builds in the Dev Channel, there aren’t any features currently in Dev Channel behind the policy. However, we expect to make this policy available in the Beta Channel shortly where there are features behind the policy. Learn more about this new policy here.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• Users will now see a copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts from apps installed on the PC or from phones linked to the PC. We make a best effort to determine if a notification toast has an authentication code but please send us feedback if we got it wrong or if we failed to detect the code in a notification toast.

New copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• The new search on the taskbar experience that began rolling out with Build 25252 is now available for all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Insiders can change the treatment of search on taskbar in settings under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Items.

New search box experience on the taskbar.

Fixes

[General]

• The issue causing repeated bugchecks for some Insiders after upgrading to Build 25284+ should be fixed now.
• Made another fix for an issue causing Insiders to experience freezes in recent flights (specifically in this case where apps might freeze if you tried to use them while also trying to play games).
• Fixed an issue where the Update history page under Settings > Windows Update > Update history was blank for some users after installing Build 25290.
• Fixed an issue where some users experienced longer than expected update times installing recent builds. If you experience this issue again, please submit a new feedback item with logs in Feedback Hub.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where the add and close tab buttons weren’t working in File Explorer if File Explorer was maximized, and you were using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue which could lead to app windows becoming unresponsive after using multi-finger on screen touch gestures.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing your mouse to appear like pointer trails was enabled when sharing your screen.

[Settings]

• The Add a Device dialog should no longer have an unexpectedly big border.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue which could cause certain apps to move very slowly when you dragged it across the screen.
• Fixed a DWM crash in recent flights which could cause your screen to flash black.
• Fixed an issue where snapped windows might not remember their positions if you disconnected and reconnected your monitor.

[Other]

• Fixed an underlying crash impacting the ability the ability for apps using Graphics.Capture to take screen captures in recent flights.
• Fixed an underlying issue causing crashes in certain apps when trying to print to PDFs in recent 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]

• [NEW] 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.
• [NEW] Some users are experiencing issues authenticating to enterprise websites that require windows integrated authentication. This will be addressed in a future update.
• Launching Group Policy Editor may show an error about a displayName attribute not being found.
• Using Windows Hello to sign in with facial recognition may not work on Arm64 PCs. A workaround for this is to use the Hello PIN path.
• We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue related to combase.dll, causing crashes with multiple apps using GetKnownFolder APIs after upgrading to Build 25290, including Notepad and Windows Terminal for IME users.
• While using Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) or in doing a clean install of Build 25290, users may encounter rendering issues which create difficulty in using these processes. If you need to do a clean install to your device, please obtain the latest Dev Channel ISO from https://aka.ms/wipISO.

[Widgets]

• The link for “Find more widgets” in the widgets picker currently is broken. This will be fixed and linked to the Store collection here in a future update.
• Third-party widgets may occasionally disappear from the widgets board. They can be re-added by clicking refresh or by re-pinning them from the widgets picker.
• Third-party widgets may occasionally get unpinned when the Microsoft account is used to sign-in multiple Windows 11 devices.
• The undo button on the widget pinned/unpinned toast notification sometimes doesn’t work.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• App icons on the taskbar may appear on the wrong monitor for some Insiders with multiple monitors.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• There is an issue where you will be unable to change taskbar search box to show as icon only via taskbar settings in some cases. To work around this issue, first change to a different option and then after, you should be able to choose to show as icon only.

[Windows Spotlight]

The following known issues only apply for Windows Insiders who received one of the different treatments of Windows Spotlight that began rolling out to Insiders with Build 25281:

• Clicking on a secondary monitor does not dismiss the full screen experience.
• Spotlight wallpaper doesn’t show the correct resolution on multiple / mixed resolution monitors.

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 25295 brings 2FA changes, fixes freezing and slow download bugs, more

As per usual, there's no changelog to speak of, so it's unclear what's new in the bits that relate to Server, for a changelog of the build 25295 client, go here.

Branding has not yet been updated and remains as Windows Server 2022 in the preview. In addition, Microsoft is encouraging Insiders to give feedback in the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory. The company asks to indicate the build number you are providing feedback on along with the title as shown in the example below:

• [Server #####] Title of my feedback

What's New

There are no new features shared about this build.

Known Issues

While using Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) or in doing a clean install of Build 25295, users may encounter rendering issues which create difficulty in using these processes. Build-to-build upgrade is unaffected.

Installing the Languages and Optional Features preview will put the Server in a state where SCONFIG does not reliable start up after login, and Remote Desktop functionality into the Server fails inconsistently. If you depend on either Remote Desktop or SCONFIG, you may wish to avoid installing the Languages and Optional Features preview.

Available Downloads:

• Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel Preview in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only.
  Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition Preview in ISO and VHDX format, English only.*
  Microsoft Server Languages and Optional Features Preview

Note: Downloads to certain countries may not be available. See Microsoft suspends new sales in Russia - Microsoft On the Issues

Keys are valid for preview builds only:

• Server Standard: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH
• Datacenter: 2KNJJ-33Y9H-2GXGX-KMQWH-G6H67
• Azure Edition does not accept a key

To download, registered Insiders can head over to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page here. You can also check out the Getting Started with Server page here on the Windows Insider for Business portal to register for the Windows Insider Program in case you aren't already registered.

Microsoft also notes that this Preview will expire on September 15, 2023.

You can download the build here, and find the official announcement here.

Windows Server vNext build 25295 Preview download available in ISO and VHDX

The new Transmission 4.0.0 release is available for download on the official GitHub repository of the project. Existing users may install the new version over the current version; torrent information and settings are retained in the process.

Transmission 4.0: resource efficiency

One of the main improvements of the new Transmission version is that the new release uses less memory and fewer CPU cycles. The developers ran a stress test using a version with 25,000 torrents. This particular client used 50% fewer CPU cycles and 70% less memory than Transmission 3.0.0 during the test.

Mileage varies depending on the program's configuration, operating system and torrents in the client, but most users should notice massive improvements in regards to resource usage of the application.

The application's remote control graphical user interfaces, have been switched to using RPC API "table" mode, which resulted in smaller payloads and less bandwidth use.

Other improvements in Transmission 4.0

The developers have modernized the code of the project by migrating from C to C++ removing "thousands of lines of custom code" in the process. Core code is 18% smaller than before, and the entire codebase is "more testable and maintainable" as a result.

Community contributions to the project have picked up as well. The release notes highlight that the community has submitted over 350 commits and that new contributors have started to work on the project.

Transmission 4.0.0 is the first version of the Bittorrent client that supports Bittorent v2 and hybrid torrents. The current version loads these torrents but there is no support yet for creating these two torrent formats. The developers promise in the release notes that support for creating these torrent formats is planed for an upcoming release.

Transmission is a bit late when it comes to support, as other clients, such as qBittorrent, have added support last year already.

Apart from this, users may now also set a default racker in the application that is used to announce all public torrents.

Transmission 4.0.0 users may now also hide certain information, such as the user-agent, when creating torrents to improve privacy, and set custom piece sizes for torrents. There is also a new IPv6 blocklist available, and a rewritten web client that supports mobile use.

Full release notes are available here.

Closing Words

Transmission 4.0.0 is a big update for the open source Bittorrent client. Improving resource usage and support for Bittorrent v2 and hybrid torrents are probably the two main feature additions of the release.

Source

According to a CNBC report, Opera's parent company Kunlun Tech has revealed that it plans to integrate ChatGPT into its own products. The firm has not clarified what the products in question are and if they include its Opera browser. Furthermore, the report does not exactly clarify if the integration is with the ChatGPT chatbot - Microsoft is yet to give access to this as a service - or if Opera plans to leverage the underlying GPT large language model. Availability details have not been disclosed either.

Regardless, the AI race is clearly on with major tech players looking to launch their products soon. Microsoft has already launched a new version of Bing powered by OpenAI's tech and Google is demoing a competitor called "Bard"; although its launch has been a bit bumpy. Moreover, we already know that Baidu and Alibaba are looking to reveal their offerings in this space soon as well.

As it currently stands, Opera currently occupies a relatively minuscule 3.42% marketshare in the desktop browser space, far behind the front-runner Google with 66.39%. The company is clearly looking to boost its presence by offering enticing experiences powered by AI.

Source: CNBC

Source

While those messages were errors, the truth is that Twitter has set up a new limit on how many tweets individuals and businesses can send out in a single day. An updated page on Twitter's Help site now states that Twitter accounts are limited to 2,400 tweets in one day. This limit also includes retweets.

The Help page also says there are semi-hourly limits on tweets, but doesn't give any info on specific numbers. It does say that if you do hit one of those semi-hourly limits, simply try again in a few hours. Also, direct messages are limited to 500 per day.

Also, if your account exceeds 5,000 other account follows, adding additional accounts to follow will be "limited by account-specific ratios". A limit of 400 follows per day has also been put in place.

All of these new limits for Twitter accounts were likely put in due to the company trying to keep the social network up and running. Indeed, the BBC reports that company CEO Elon Musk sent out a message to Twitter employees, asking them to put new feature development on hold in order to concentrate on "system stability and robustness". He mentioned the upcoming Super Bowl game on Sunday as a reason for this shift, most likely because he believes there will be a surge of Twitter users during the game.

One new feature that is now in place for Twitter Blue US subscribers is the ability to put in up to 4,000 characters in one tweet, compared to the normal 256 character limit.

Source: Twitter via BBC

Source

Microsoft is updating the Edge browser to ship with Adobe software built-in, which is news that will surely make more than a few Windows users break out in a cold sweat.

In what the two companies describe as "the next step in their commitment to transform the future of digital work," the built-in PDF reader Edge uses will soon be powered by Adobe's Acrobat PDF engine. Microsoft says this will allow for more accurate colors and graphics, better performance, and "strong security." Microsoft decided to write a separate post that goes in-depth on how the PDF stack is being secured in a bid to "make exploits hard."

Adobe Flash and its associated Flash Player may be a distant memory now, but it's hard to forget the security nightmare it caused on multiple occasions, including being used to deliver the notorious FinSpy spyware onto computers. The situation was so dire, a website was setup whose sole purpose was to "get the world to uninstall the Flash Player plugin from their desktop browsers."

The built-in PDF reader Adobe provides will be free, but Microsoft points out an Acrobat subscription is available if users want more features beyond just reading PDFs. A separate browser extension is required to unlock those feature within Edge. There's no detail given on if Acrobat will be advertised within Edge once it's the default engine.

Microsoft will be switching from the existing Edge PDF legacy engine to the Adobe Acrobat PDF rendering engine in phases. Those phases start next month, and the legacy engine is expected to be completely removed from Edge by March 31, 2024. And remember, you can't uninstall Edge in Windows, which means you won't be able to uninstall Acrobat either.

Microsoft and Adobe have committed to working together across a range of software and services. Adobe's PDF, e-signature, and document automation tools are already being used in Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Edge is just the latest to join that list.

Source

I still remember the first time I used Google. I was a nerdy, internet-obsessed preteen, and for weeks afterward, I couldn’t stop telling my friends and relatives about the cool new search engine with the weird, Seussian name: how fast it retrieved results, how much slicker and more intuitive it was than existing search engines like AltaVista and WebCrawler, and how magical it felt to be able to call up knowledge from the depths of the internet.

I felt a similar sense of awe this week when I started using the new, A.I.-powered Bing. (Yes, Bing, Microsoft’s eternally mocked search engine. It’s good now. I know, I’m still adjusting, too.)

Microsoft released the new Bing, which is powered by artificial intelligence software from OpenAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, with great fanfare at an event at the company’s headquarters on Tuesday. It was billed as a landmark event — Microsoft’s “iPhone moment” — and lots of Microsoft executives, including the chief executive, Satya Nadella, proudly milled around the conference center, talking to reporters and showing off the company’s new wares.

But the real star was Bing itself or, rather, the artificial intelligence technology that has been plugged into Bing to help answer users’ questions and chat with them about any topic imaginable. (Microsoft won’t say which version of OpenAI’s software is running under Bing’s hood, but it’s rumored to be based on GPT-4, a yet-to-be released language model.)

Microsoft, which first invested in OpenAI in 2019 and re-upped with a reported $10 billion investment this year, is capitalizing on a wave of recent progress in A.I. capabilities to try to catch up with Google, which has long held a dominant position in the search market. (And which has been spooked by all the recent ChatGPT hoopla into releasing new A.I. tools of its own.) Microsoft eventually plans to incorporate OpenAI’s technology into many of its products.

But the Bing relaunch is especially momentous for Microsoft, which has struggled to gain a foothold in search for years. If it works, it could chip away at Google’s dominance and some of the more than $100 billion in annual search advertising revenue that comes with it.

The new Bing, which is available only to a small group of testers now and will become more widely available soon, looks like a hybrid of a standard search engine and a GPT-style chatbot. Type in a prompt — say, “Write me a menu for a vegetarian dinner party” — and the left side of your screen fills up with the standard ads and links to recipe websites. On the right side, Bing’s A.I. engine starts typing out a response in full sentences, often annotated with links to the websites it’s retrieving information from.

To ask a follow-up question or make a more detailed request — for example, “Write a grocery list for that menu, sorted by aisle, with amounts needed to make enough food for eight people” — you can open up a chat window and type it. (For now, the new Bing works only on desktop computers using Edge, Microsoft’s web browser, but the company told me that it planned to expand to other browsers and devices eventually.)

I tested the new Bing for a few hours on Tuesday afternoon, and it’s a marked improvement over Google. It’s also an improvement over ChatGPT, which, despite its many capabilities, was never designed to be used as a search engine. It doesn’t cite its sources, and it has trouble incorporating up-to-date information or events. So while ChatGPT can write a beautiful poem about baseball or draft a testy email to your landlord, it’s less suited to telling you what happened in Ukraine last week or where to find a decent meal in Albuquerque.

Microsoft has gotten around some of ChatGPT’s limitations by marrying OpenAI’s language capabilities to Bing’s search function, using a proprietary tool it’s calling Prometheus. The technology works, roughly, by extracting search terms from users’ requests, running those queries through Bing’s search index and then using those search results in combination with its own language model to formulate a response. In both Microsoft’s demos and my own testing, Bing did well at a wide variety of search-related tasks, including creating travel itineraries, brainstorming gift ideas and summarizing books and movie plots.

Microsoft has also incorporated OpenAI’s technology into Edge, its web browser, as a kind of superpowered writing assistant. Users can now open a panel in Edge, type in a general topic and get an A.I.-generated paragraph, blog post, email or list of ideas written in one of five tones. (Professional, casual, informational, enthusiastic or funny.) They can paste that text directly into a web browser, a social media app or an email client.

Users can also chat with Edge’s built-in A.I. about any website they’re viewing, asking for summaries or additional information. In one eye-popping demo on Tuesday, a Microsoft executive navigated to the Gap’s website, opened a PDF file with the company’s most recent quarterly financial results and asked Edge to both summarize the key takeaways and create a table comparing the data with the most recent financial results from another clothing company, Lululemon. The A.I. did both, almost instantly.

The new Bing is far from perfect. Like ChatGPT, it’s prone to spouting confident-sounding nonsense, and its answers can be erratic. When I gave it a basic math puzzle — “If a dozen eggs cost $0.24, how many eggs can you buy for a dollar?” — it got the answer wrong. (It said 100; the correct answer is 50.)

It also didn’t do well when I asked it for a list of kid-friendly activities happening in my hometown this coming weekend. Among Bing’s suggestions were a Lunar New Year parade (which happened last weekend), a fund-raiser for a local school (which happened two weekends ago) and a “tie-dye Hanukkah celebration” (which happened in mid-December).

There are also legitimate questions about how quickly all of this A.I. technology is being developed and deployed. And, of course, using A.I. language models to answer search queries raises a litany of thorny questions about copyright, attribution and bias. (To name an obvious one: What will happen to all the publishers that rely on Google as a traffic source if no one on Bing needs to click the links to their sites?)

But fixating on the areas where these tools fall short risks missing what’s so amazing about what they get right. When the new Bing works, it’s not just a better search engine. It’s an entirely new way of interacting with information on the internet, one whose full implications I’m still trying to wrap my head around.

Kevin Scott, the chief technology officer of Microsoft, and Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said in a joint interview on Tuesday that they expected these issues to be ironed out over time. It’s still early days for this kind of A.I., they said, and it’s too early to predict the downstream consequences of putting this technology in billions of people’s hands.

“With any new technology, you don’t perfectly forecast all of the issues and mitigations,” Mr. Altman said. “But if you run a very tight feedback loop, at the rate things are evolving, I think we can get to very solid products very fast.”

For now, only one thing seems clear: After years of stagnation and stasis, Microsoft and OpenAI have made search interesting again.

After I turn in this column, I’m going to do something I thought I’d never do: I’m switching my desktop computer’s default search engine to Bing. And Google, my default source of information for my entire adult life, is going to have to fight to get me back.

Source

Today, the Redmond company has confirmed that its November 2022 Patch Tuesday updates, for both Windows 11(KB5019980/KB5019961) as well as Windows 10 (KB5019959), had broken DirectX or Direct3D-based applications, causing an apphelp DLL file error. On the health dashboard where it describes the issue, the company has explained that the bug affects certain Intel graphics driver versions:

After installing KB5019980, you might receive an error with apphelp.dll on Windows devices using Intel graphics drivers with versions 26.20.100.7463 up to 30.0.101.1190. This issue might happen intermittently and affects apps which use DirectX or Direct3D to render part or all of their content.

Workaround: To mitigate this issue, you can install an Intel graphics driver with a later version than 30.0.101.1190. It is recommended to check your Windows device manufacturer's support for the latest version of the Intel graphics driver for your device. If they do not offer a driver later than 30.0.101.1190, you can check List of Drivers for Intel Graphics for information on how to download and install the latest Intel graphics driver available from Intel directly.

Although, to be fair to Microsoft, the drivers affected by the problem seem to be old as the version which supposedly helps work around the issue was released back in December of 2021 (version 30.0.101.1191). This isn't the only display related problem resolved by the driver though as it fixed a Desktop Window Manager (DWM) bug as well.

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 and 10 Patch Tuesday broke DirectX apps on Intel hardware

Microsoft has now formally made the announcement. Although we already knew that MSDT would be retired in 2025, thanks to that retirement banner we talked about before, Microsoft has now provided more details regarding the matter. The company has explained that it will be a gradual phase out process. Explaining what MSDT and the legacy Windows troubleshooters do, the Redmond giant has provided a timeline for the retirement phase out process, which starts this year and lasts till 2025.

On a support document regarding the matter, the company writes:

Microsoft is retiring the Windows legacy inbox Troubleshooters, such as Keyboard troubleshooter and Speech troubleshooter, and the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) that runs them. The legacy inbox Windows Troubleshooters are built-in tools that, when launched, automatically diagnose and correct common problems for a variety of Windows features. MSDT Troubleshooters will be deprecated in the next Windows 11 release, with the date to be determined.

The estimated deprecation timeline will take place over the next three years:

• 2023 – Begin redirecting some of the troubleshooters to the new Get Help troubleshooting platform

• 2024 – Complete the troubleshooter redirection and remove the rest of the roubleshooters

• 2025 – Remove the MSDT platform

Microsoft has confirmed that that Windows 11 22H2 will go unaffected which means future Windows 11 Moment feature updates, Windows 12, and beyond will lack MSDT and its functionalities. You can find more details about MSDT retirement and its associated troubleshooters in this support article.

Microsoft formally announces death of MSDT in Windows 11 Moment update, Windows 12, beyond

Microsoft Teams Free data won’t transfer over to Microsoft Teams (free)

LAYOFFS CONTINUE TO hit the tech industry, and this week, they came for one of the pandemic’s biggest winners: Zoom.  

Yesterday, the video conferencing platform cut 15 percent of its staff, or about 1,300 people. That came after Zoom tripled its headcount in two years. “We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities,” Eric Yuan, Zoom’s CEO, said in a statement announcing the layoffs. Yuan said he was “accountable for these mistakes,” and vowed to reduce his salary by 98 percent and forgo a 2023 bonus, dropping his compensation to about $10,000, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

Zoom isn’t alone. Big Tech companies boomed when the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered the world and pushed people to increase their screen time. Amazon added more than 400,000 employees in 2020, and Meta, then Facebook, hired 13,000. Zoom rose from an obscure video conferencing platform to a household name. There were Zoom happy hours, weddings, and memorial services. By late April 2020, the company said 300 million daily participants were on Zoom calls. It was the most downloaded app on Apple devices in 2020 and reported $2.6 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending in January 2021, a 326 percent increase from the prior year.

Nearly three years later, Zoom’s dominance is waning. Competitors, particularly Microsoft and Slack, bundle calling with email and other productivity tools. Zoom is experiencing market saturation and falling to the Peloton problem—namely, most of the people who are willing to buy Zoom packages may have done so. “It’s suddenly become a much, much harder market than what [Zoom] previously experienced,” says Will McKeon-White, an infrastructure and operations analyst at research firm Forrester.

And as companies look to cut costs in the face of market uncertainty, Zoom could be left behind in favor of rival bundled services such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. But for now, Zoom is still growing. Its latest financial report shows growth at around 5 percent year over year, but that’s a sharp slowdown from its 2021 revenue growth of 55 percent year over year. With less people Zooming for fun, it’s become more about business. And Microsoft Teams, Zoom’s main rival, has grown more quietly, passing 270 million monthly users by early 2022.

Zoom is seemingly aware that it needs to be more than just a video call service. In late 2022, it announced plans to integrate email and calendar features into the platform, and to roll out an AI-driven chatbot to troubleshoot customer issues. It’s added cartoon avatars and meeting templates, and a new feature called Zoom Spots, a video coworking experience that sounds a lot like a never-ending Zoom call, will launch later this year.

Zoom excelled because it was easy to use. It was also free if people kept their calls shorter than 40 minutes. Up to 100 people can join at a time. But other video calling services, like Google Meet and Skype, also offer free calls that last longer. And becoming synonymous with video calling wasn’t all positive. People reported “Zoom fatigue” brought on by the strange, psychological effects of communicating over video and watching their own faces for hours a day. 

Some began “Zoom bombing” meetings, hijacking classes and presentations and flooding them with obscene and offensive content. Video meetings sparked fresh anxiety for some. And Zoom was criticized for failing to protect the privacy of its users. At its peak in October 2020, Zoom had a market valuation of $139 billion. By February 2023, its market cap had fallen to $23.4 billion.

The layoffs at Zoom and elsewhere are indicative of a readjustment in how people are living and working as the pandemic enters its fourth year. Nearly 100,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2023, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job losses in the industry. That comes on top of nearly 160,000 in 2022. Big companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google have announced cuts of more than 10,000 people each. Microsoft shed around 10,000 workers.

These layoffs are circling the tech industry, but the economy at large remains strong. “This is largely a correction. We’re seeing this across a number of different companies,” Rachel Sederberg, a senior economist at labor market analytics firm Lightcast, says of the continued layoffs. 

Zoom’s future may be starting to look uncertain. It’s competing with more video calling platforms at a time when fewer people are sitting in front of computers all day. But our Zoom days aren’t necessarily over—and it remains one of the easiest-to-use video calling platforms. But the company will need to prove it can do more in the workplace to hold its own against Google and Microsoft. And it will need more than just a name known for video calling to do so. 

Source

Note: You can turn off or on specific features separately. For example, disable the rounded corners but keep the rounded tabs or vice versa.

Here is how the new design compares to the old one:

Before

After

Disable rounded corners in Edge

1. Open edge://flags.
2. Type Microsoft Edge rounded corners in the Search flags box.
3. Set the flag to Disabled.
4. Restart the browser.

Move the profile icon to the right in Edge

1. Open edge://flags.
2. Type Microsoft Edge minimal toolbar experience.
3. Set the flag to Disabled.
4. Restart the browser.

Disable rounded tabs in Edge

1. Open edge://flags.
2. Type Make Rounded Tabs feature available.
3. Set the flag to Disabled.
4. Restart the browser.
5. Alternatively, go to edge://settings/appearance and toggle off the Use rounded corners for browser tabs option.
6. Restart the browser.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Edge no longer supports the Mica effect. Developers recently removed the flag responsible for eye candy, and there is nothing you can do about it right now.

Do you plan to use the new visual upgrades (or downgrades, as some think) in Microsoft Edge? Let us know in the comments.

How to disable rounded corners in Microsoft Edge?

The latest Edge Canary update attempts to shrink its massive menu to more reasonable sizes by moving less popular and unnecessary tools to a submenu. The already existing "More tools" option will soon host more features, such as Read Aloud, Performance, Battery, Share, and more.

Interestingly, the Games section appears too important to move to the submenu, so it sits higher than built-in accessibility and resource-optimizing utilities that now require more clicks to access. However, it is too early to dunk on Microsoft for poor priorities—the updated menu is available only to some Edge Canary users, so future updates may tweak the menu more and reposition various tools and options. If you test pre-release Edge updates, send your feedback to Microsoft to help improve the browser.

What do you think about Microsoft's attempt to make Edge's menu more compact? What features do you think Microsoft should move to the submenu? Lets us know in the comments.

Source: Leopeva64-2 on Reddit

Microsoft finally has a fix for Edge's oversized menus

Bing is currently sat at the number 10 spot in the UK App Store chart, with Edge sitting at 46 as it stands. Given where it was previously however, it shows a huge increase in downloads overnight, and the same can be said for the US as well.

This surge in downloads may result in some threat to Google in the future, but it just depends if people keep the app installed and keep using it, as the charts can change rapidly from day to day. Google is actually below Bing in the charts at time of writing, which would have been unthinkable just before. The recent surge in popularity of AI powered chatbots, particularly ChatGPT, has led to many search engine providers announcing their own AI powered search tools, with Google announcing Bard and even Baidu announcing Ernie Bot.

Source: data.ai via Techcrunch

Bing surges up App Store charts thanks to OpenAI

Here's the changelog for version 3.6

• Dark mode and Mica for property sheets in Explorer
• Style and scaling improvements for common controls in Explorer
• Search box and window sharing for classic taskbar

You can purchase StartAllBack right now for just $4.99. If you are upgrading from the older StartIsBack app, it will only cost you $1.50 to snap up the more recent StartAllBack. This app is worth a look if you are not happy with the current Windows 11 menu and taskbar features.

StartAllBack 3.6 released with dark mode improvements and more

Chrome’s new update is the first version you can’t run on Windows 7

The driver also is optimized for new titles and adds DLSS and Reflex feature support to some of these. The release note says:

This new Game Ready Driver provides the best day-0 gaming experience for the latest new games supporting NVIDIA DLSS technology including Hello Neighbor 2 and PERISH. Additionally, this Game Ready Driver supports Company of Heroes 3 and the latest update for World of Warcraft which introduces support for NVIDIA Reflex.

Here are the fixed and the open issues in this release:

Fixed Issues in Version 528.49 WHQL

• Adobe Bridge stability issues with 528.02 [3957846]
• Disable Hitman 3 Resizable Bar profile on Intel platforms [3956209]
• Discord update causes GPU memory clocks to drop to P2 state [3960028]

Open Issues in Version 528.49 WHQL

• Toggling HDR on and off in-game causes game stability issues when non-native resolution is used. [3624030]
• Monitor may briefly flicker on waking from display sleep if DSR/DLDSR is enabled. [3592260]
• [Halo Wars 2] In-game foliage is larger than normal and displays constant flickering [3888343]
• [Steam version] Forza Horizon 4 may freeze after 15-30 minutes of gameplay [3866530]
• [GeForce RTX 4090] Watch Dogs 2 may display flickering when staring at the sky [3858016]
• Increase in DPC latency observed in Latencymon [3952556]
• Adobe After Effects / Media Encoder – issues with ProRes RAW files [3957455] [3957469]
• Adobe Premiere Pro application instability [3940086]

You can download the Nvidia GeForce 528.49 driver at the links below:

Desktop GPUs:

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

Notebook GPUs:

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

You can view the release notes for the driver here (PDF).

Nvidia 528.49 driver fixes ReBAR bug, Discord issue, adds RTX 4090, 4080 mobile support

    ⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show Twitter has been restricted in #Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes

    📰 Report: https://t.co/CEbfgeBpvz pic.twitter.com/3884wMpYD2

    — NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 8, 2023

Real-time NetBlocks metrics indicate that Twitter has been restricted by means of SNI filtering on major internet providers TTNet and Turkcell, and subsequently by other operators, with aggregated reachability statistics collected from an initial set of 40 vantage points. This class of disruption can be worked around using VPN services, which are able to circumvent government internet censorship measures.

    ⚠️ Update: Live metrics show that the Twitter restriction in #Turkey has been extended to more internet providers. The filtering measure is likely to impact community rescue efforts underway after the series of deadly earthquakes on Monday.

    📰 Report: https://t.co/CEbfgeBpvz pic.twitter.com/51j66jAydA

    — NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 8, 2023

What’s happening in Turkey?

A series of deadly earthquakes shook southern and central Turkey on Monday, with thousands of casualties reported. The incident has also had an observable impact on internet connectivity in affected regions, although that impact is distinct from the filtering which has been implemented intentionally at the ISP level.

Turkey has an extensive history of social media restrictions during national emergencies and safety incidents. These have been implemented variously on the basis of national security, to prevent the sharing of harmful images, or to prevent the spread of alleged disinformation.

NetBlocks recommends against the use of internet filtering due to its disproportionate impact on the public’s right to freely access and impart knowledge.

Source

Microsoft has announced that March will see Edge get an update that will add the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine inside the browser's built-in reader. This addition will give Windows 10 and 11 Edge users more PDF features, including better text selection and read-aloud narration. It will also add more accurate colors and graphics to current PDF files, along with better security and performance features overall.

If users want even more PDF features in Microsoft Edge, including the conversion of PDFs to other file formats and full editing capablities, they can purchase an Adobe Acrobat subscription. This will be able to be handled inside the Edge browser, so users won't have to leave it to get the upgrade.

Microsoft will add the new PDF reader in stages, starting in March for IT-managed PCs with an opt-in choice. Ultimately, the current PDF reader in Edge will be discontinued by Microsoft in March 2024.

Source

This is a patch release to fix issues in v.670 to fix some bugs we deemed important for stability based on incoming rates. See v0.67.0 for full release notes.

Changelog:

• #23733 - Fix FancyZones crashing on moving window between monitors with win + arrows
• #23818 - Fix FancyZones issue causing window attributes not being reset properly
• #23749 - Move PowerToys registry entries back to HKLM to fix context menu entries not working on some configurations
• #23737 - Respect taskbar position when showing system tray flyout
• #18166 - Fix Power Toys Run crashing when loading thumbnail for PDF files
• #23801 - Show correct Hosts module image in PowerToys Settings app
• #23820 - Fix FancyZones issue causing window not being adjusted when layout is changed
• #23926 - Fix an issue causing issues not to be unsnapped when dragging started
• #23927 - Fix layouts not being applied to new virtual desktops
• #23579, #23811 - Fix for thumbnail crashes

You can download PowerToys 0.67.1 from the Microsoft Store using this link or the official repository on GitHub. If you already have PowerToys installed on your computer, the app will notify you about available updates, or you can manually update from settings. As noted above, you can also learn about changes in the previous 0.67 release.

If you are unfamiliar with PowerToys, it is a set of advanced utilities provided by Microsoft and the open-source developer community. It contains various tools, such as an app launcher, bulk file renamer, colour picker, a utility to customize shortcuts, etc. Microsoft frequently updates PowerToys with new features and fixes.

Microsoft PowerToys 0.67.1 reverts registry changes, fixes FancyZones bugs, and more

If you have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 or RTX 4000 graphics card inside your PC, Chrome 110 adds in the previously announced RTX Video Super Resolution feature. Using software AI with NVIDIA's Tensor processors in the RTX 3000 or 4000 cards, Chrome 110 users can check out a video on YouTube or Netflix in 1080p resolution, and watch it in upscaled 2160p or 4K resolutions. VideoCardz reports that this new feature will still require a new driver to support it. It will also need to be enabled with the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Some other improvements in Chrome 110 include the ability for desktop users to use a biometric device to fill in passwords, along with adding Google Translate settings to Chrome's regular settings. It also improves the browser's Enhanced Safe Browsing setting so it can check out if any malware is inside your browser extensions.

There's one other small but still interesting thing about Chrome 110. It's the first version of Google's browser that is not officially supported by Windows 7 or 8.1. Google's support for those two older Microsoft Windows operating system ended with the release of Chrome 109 in early January 2023.

Chrome 110 is now available with NVIDIA RTX Super Resolution Support and more