• Profile Picture Maker lets you turn any sticker or animated emoji into a picture for your profile, group, or channel. Animated emojis in chats are only available for Telegram Premium subscribers, but you can use them for free for profile pictures.

  

   

• Improved Chat Translator extends Telegram's built-in multi-language capabilities. Telegram Premium subscribers can now translate entire chats, groups, and channels (in real-time).
• Improved emojis are now sorted by categories, making it easier to find the needed one when chatting or changing the status (animated emojis in statuses are only available for Telegram Premium users).

  

   

• Network Usage is a new settings section that lets you see how much data Telegram uses and what parts of the messenger consume the most of your traffic. You can check out separate stats for Wi-Fi and cellular data.

  

   

• Auto-Save Incoming Media saves incoming photos and videos directly to your camera roll. Users can fine-tune this setting and select media type, maximum size, and chats with media auto-save.
• Improved Media Permissions for group admins allow specifying what type of media participants can send. Telegram supports nine media types and even lets you create a media-only group where participants can only send photos, videos, voice messages, etc.
• Annual Premium Subscription allows saving up to 40% on the Telegram Premium subscription.
• Bots Improvements let developers add special buttons to help users select groups, channels, or people that meet predefined criteria.
• Apple ID and Google Account. Telegram now supports re-logging with Apple ID or Google Account without entering an SMS code. Note that this setting is not replacing the two-step verification password.
• New custom and animated emoji. No Telegram update comes without extra animated emojis or new custom packs.

The latest Telegram update is available on Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, and macOS. Note that the Microsoft Store version might get this release a little later. You can download Telegram from the official website.

Telegram now can translate entire chats, generate profile images, auto-save media, more

One Reddit user published a photo of their Windows 10 computer displaying a full-screen Microsoft 365 Family trial ad during the out-of-box experience (OOBE). "Windows 10 preventing me from booting into desktop without first non-consensually being forced to accept their free trial and $100 monthly thereafter (obviously I cancelled after but WTF Microsoft)," the Redditor's post stated.

via u/whatsurissuebro on Reddit

A user has two options: "Try for free" and "No, thanks." Weirdly enough, if a user clicks on "No, thanks," they will be redirected to a payment confirmation page where apparently they have no other option but to click "Start trial, buy later."

As BleepingComputer indicates, other users have reported seeing a different variant of the ad that uses "Next" and "No, thanks" buttons. However, clicking on the latter still takes them to the payment page.

Because there's no apparent way to skip the ad, the only thing users can do is to enter their card information and then cancel the subscription later through their Microsoft account. If they don't cancel, they will be charged $109 a month after the trial period.

As some Redditors have pointed out, it's possible that the behavior is just a bug, given how the full-screen Windows 11 ad we reported on yesterday has a properly working skip button. For now, if you want to avoid seeing the offer, you can try disconnecting from the internet when going through OOBE.

Source: whatsurissuebro (Reddit)

Microsoft is displaying unskippable full-screen Microsoft 365 trial ads to some users

As spotted by Leopeva64-2, the latest Edge Canary updates now warn the user if they attempt to save a weak password. Moreover, the browser displays a progress bar to indicate the password's strength and encourage complex and hard-to-guess passwords.

Microsoft is not the only one working on an improved password manager. Google started cooking a similar feature a couple of months ago, although its implementation differs slightly from Microsoft Edge.

The updated password manager with its strength progress bar is rolling out to a limited set of Edge Insiders in the Canary Channel. Like most early features, it might take a while to arrive since Microsoft picks users to try new features in the Canary Channel seemingly randomly.

Speaking of other Edge Canary news, users recently noticed an experimental flag that lets you enable Edge Split Screen and display two tabs within one browser window. According to rumors, Edge Split Screen is a part of the upcoming Microsoft Edge rejuvenation that should give the software giant's browser a new life and make it stand out among the competitors. New productivity and security features will surely help Microsoft Edge increase its market share, which is currently at just above 11%.

Microsoft Edge will soon tell you if a password is not strong enough

If one isn't comfortable going about tweaking things themselves with it, they could also opt for Tiny11, which was released earlier today. This stripped-down Windows 11 Pro 22H2 mod requires 8GB of install space, 2GB of system memory, and perhaps the best part, it does not require TPM and Secure Boot.

However, there are of course caveats to this and as one would expect, security can be the biggest dealbreaker for many people, perhaps even bigger than saving memory and storage. The developer of Tiny11, NTDev, assured that despite the strip down, the mod is still pretty secure. They have also explained how they managed to package it inside 8Gigs of space.

On a Twitter thread, NTDev has addressed several questions or concerns that people have:

After reading some comments about tiny11, here are a few remarks that I want to make:

1. Tiny11 is not serviceable, but .NET, drivers and security definiton updates can still be installed from Windows Update.

2. While I can understand that installing modified versions of Windows can pose a security risk, I can assure you (and you can obviously check for yourself) that the image doesn't have anything from external sources added to it.

3. The main way that tiny11 gets its small size is by the removal of Windows Component Store (WinSxS). As such, the installation of new features or languages is unfortunately not possible.

4. At it's core, tiny11 is designed to bring new life to old computers, so I don't encourage installing it on PCs that support Windows 11 by default. This doesn't mean that I don't trust my product, but at one point the disadvantages outweigh the benefits.

5. This shouldn't be considered a "Windows without telemetry/spyware" image, but one that was designed to run on PCs that don't support the standard versions of Windows 11, in the same line that tiny10 did with Windows 10.

You can have a detailed look at what Tiny11 offers in this article.

Dev explains why Tiny11 Windows is so tiny yet secure despite no TPM, Secure Boot

Tiny11 is the original Windows 11 version 22H2 stripped down to the very vitals. The mod requires only 8GB on a drive (stock Windows 11 chews more than 20GB), works on systems with 2GB of RAM, and does not need Trusted Platform Module or Secure Boot. You can even upgrade from Windows 10 to Tiny11.

Tiny11 provides just the necessary components, such as accessibility tools, Windows Terminal, Microsoft Store, Calculator, Notepad, and Paint. There is no Microsoft Edge, so you can install the browser you want without the operating system begging you to stay with Edge. Also, Tiny11 works with offline accounts by default, but you can sign in with a Microsoft Account.

Overall, the operating system has everything a casual user needs for comfortable daily computing on any hardware. It consumes fewer resources and does not require the latest hardware. Of course, installing a modified Windows 11 ISO always has potential risks, so proceed with caution. Another thing to keep in mind is that you still need a valid key to activate Tiny11—no piracy here. You can download Tiny11 from the Internet Archive. Alternatively, you can get a similar experience with third-party apps, such as TIW11.

If Windows 11 is not your choice, opt for Tiny10, which applies the same treatment to user-favorite Windows 10.

Tiny11 is out—a lightweight and debloated Windows 11 for less powerful computers

As with most changelogs that Microsoft publishes for its updates, the company labeled the release notes for the update with the title "Improvements and fixes". It wrote:

Improvements and fixes

This update is intended to help Microsoft identify the number of users running out-of-support (or soon to be out-of-support) versions of Office, including Office 2013, Office 2010, and Office 2007. This update will run one time silently without installing anything on the user's device.

However, since then, Microsoft has updated the document with more details, and hence, the "Improvements and fixes" title has been altered to "Summary" since the post now has more information regarding the update. This time Microsoft has elaborated on why this update is important citing the fact that unsupported software does not receive security updates against vulnerabilities.

Summary

This update is intended to help Microsoft identify the number of users who are running out-of-support (or soon to be out-of-support) versions of Office, including Office 2013, Office 2010, and Office 2007.

Versions of Office that are no longer supported do not receive security updates that provide the latest protections against known vulnerabilities. Also, unsupported versions might face performance and reliability issues over time.

More interestingly perhaps, Microsoft has added details regarding the user data it is collecting, or rather, not collecting with this update. The company has assured that it is not gathering other private information like those related to non-Microsoft products. Microsoft says it is only diagnostic and performance data it is after which helps it to estimate the usage of installed Office versions.

It explains:

This update gathers diagnostic and performance data to estimate the usage of installed Office versions to determine how best to support and service these systems. This data is gathered from registry entries and APIs. The update does not gather licensing details, customer content, or data about non-Microsoft products. Microsoft values, protects, and defends privacy. For more information about our privacy principles, see Privacy at Microsoft.

Although somewhat trivial perhaps, the new support page also adds more details on how to carry out this update. While the previous "How to download and install the update" section only stated "Use Microsoft Update to automatically download and install the update", the updated page now adds that users who have opted for the "Receive updates for other Microsoft products" will get the KB5021751 package.

Via: BleepingComputer

Microsoft assures KB5021751 Windows 11 update wasn't meant to steal users' private data

 

If your main problem with the Microsoft Store is that you get too many relevant results when you search for apps, good news: Microsoft is officially launching Microsoft Store Ads, a way for developers to pay to get their apps in front of your eyes when you go to the store to look for something else.

 

Microsoft's landing page for the feature says the apps will appear during searches and in the Apps and Gaming tabs within the app. Developers will be able to track whether and where users see the ads and whether they're downloading and opening the apps once they see the ads.

 

Microsoft also provided an update on the health of the Microsoft Store, pointing to 2022 as "a record year," with more than 900 million unique users worldwide and "a 122% year-over-year increase in developer submissions of new apps and games." Microsoft has steadily loosened its restrictions on Store apps in the last year or two, allowing in traditional Win32 apps and also leaning on Amazon's Android app store and the Windows Subsystem for Android to expand its selection.

 

The company launched a "pilot program" of the Microsoft Store Ads back in September of 2022, and the look of the ads doesn't appear to have changed much since then. Ads will be served to Microsoft Store users on Windows 10 and Windows 11 and are only available to developers who have already published their apps to the store.

 

These kinds of ads are usually described in benign terms—that they're merely a way for the developers on the Microsoft Store to boost their work and find more users. The reality is that similar ads on Apple's platforms, at least in my experience, tend to be either irrelevant (ads for Twitter or Truth Social on a search for Mastodon clients), annoying (ads for shovelware free-to-play games), actively malicious (the brief period where gambling ads took over the store), or some combination of all three.

 

The new addition may or may not turn up relevant search results for users, but it does add more advertisements to a platform that already has plenty of them. A fresh Windows 11 install from a USB stick automatically pulls down a range of third-party apps from the Microsoft Store the first time you connect to the Internet, and Windows includes plenty of Microsoft house ads for Edge, Bing, Microsoft Start, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and other products and features.

 

The newest feature in the Microsoft Store is more ads

If you love to go on Twitch or YouTube to live stream your gaming session for anyone to see, you likely are familiar with the Elgato Stream Deck. It makes streaming your video easier with many shortcut buttons that you can use to go live quickly, switch cameras while still playing, interact with your followers, and more. Now Microsoft has released an official plugin for the Elgato Stream Deck that turns it into a device that works with Microsoft Teams.

The new plugin was announced by Microsoft earlier this week but is now available to download. Microsoft's support forums offer more info on how to install and use it on the Elgato Stream Deck. You can use the device's shortcut buttons to turn your camera on and off while in Teams, blur your background, raise or lower your hand, and turn on and off other features like mute and record. You can even use it to display live reactions during a Teams meeting.

If you are a game streamer who also works at home and your company uses Teams, this new plugin is definitely for you. If you are not a streamer but just want to have a faster way to interact in a Teams meeting, you can purchase an Elgato Stream Deck for $149.99.

You can now use hardware made for game streamers in Microsoft Teams with a new plugin

According to the blog post, developers can now run ads in the store via Microsoft Advertising, Developers must have apps already in the store to run any ad campaigns with this new program, They can promote an all-new app with the ads, or a major update to an existing app. The company also promises competitive costs per click (CPC) rates. They can run a campaign to put their app in front of an audience that might like similar apps. For example, a racing game could be advertised in the store for people who are already fans of racing games.

In a separate announcement, the company is now allowing all Win32 developers to upload their desktop apps to be sold in the Microsoft Store, That includes desktop apps made with .NET, C++, Electron, Flutter, Qt, Rust, and more. Again, the apps must work on Windows 10 or 11.

Microsoft Store Ads are now generally available for all developers

touchhole does things a bit different from other emulators as it only simulates the operating environment, meaning you do not need to provide an OS image. It reimplements all the core components necessary to get the job done, like Foundation, UIKit, OpenGL ES, OpenAL, and others.

The goal of touchHLE is not to emulate an entire iPhone from yesteryear. No sir, its goal is the noblest of all; it lets you play your 32-bit games that are no longer supported on modern versions of iOS. Currently, touchHLE only supports apps that will run on iPhone OS 2.x, but the author plans to support apps for newer 32-bit versions of iPhone OS and iPad OS in the future. Support for iPhone OS 1.x is a possibility, but promises have not been made for this yet. So far the emulator has only been tested with iPhone/iPod touch apps for iPhone OS 2.x.

For now, touchHLE only works on 64-bit systems, ironically, which at this point should not be a barrier to entry. Android support is on the roadmap but work on that has yet to be started but should be a real conversation starter if it gets off the ground. The big bummer here is that touch input doesn’t work yet – only mouse and keyboard for now.

Development for touchHLE began in December 2022 and is a one-person project which is quite impressive since its already in a functional state. In this initial release, touchHLE only supports Super Monkey Ball, which was a launch title for the App Store way back in 2008. However, all the features of the game work including sound effects, music, save game persistence, and more. Though there is a known issue with memory leaks on the Mac version.

To use touchHLE, you need the prebuilt binary release or you can build it yourself. Both the binary and source code are available on Github. You also need a decrypted app to run. So far, you aren't able to use .ipa files, so you will need to unzip them and get the .app bundle out of them. TouchHLE does not have a graphical user interface, so you need to use the command line to run it but instructions for this are on the homepage.

touchHLE is a new emulator that’s meant to do one thing; play 32-bit mobile games, and development is moving fast. It offers full support for Super Monkey Ball after less than two months of development and may someday allow you to play these old iPhone games on Android. What a time to be alive!

Source: touchHLE homepage

touchHLE is a new iPhone OS emulator that lets you play 32-bit iPhone games on Windows

If you want to learn how to uninstall Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, you wouldn’t be alone. Despite the current Chromium-based version of Microsoft’s browser being a much better browser than previous iterations of Edge, it’s still an unpopular browser.

Although you need a pre-installed browser on your PC in order to, y’know, install other browsers, many people take exception to having Edge forced upon them and not being able to get rid of it after they’ve used it to install Chrome, Firefox, Opera or other browsers.

And Edge is forced upon you by Microsoft. You see, Edge is now firmly integrated within Windows 10 and seemingly can’t be removed. It also opens automatically as the default app for certain tasks. So you’re stuck with it, right?

Wrong. It is in fact possible to remove Edge by using Command Prompt, and we’re going to show you the steps. If you’re a Windows 11 user, be warned: this process may throw up some issues as Microsoft is determined to push its Edge browser in its latest operating system.

To get started, we’ll look at the easiest way to uninstall Microsoft Edge, just in case it works for you. 

How to uninstall Microsoft Edge through Windows 10 Settings 

If you installed Microsoft Edge by downloading the browser manually, rather than it installing automatically through Windows Update, you should be able to uninstall it using the following simple method. 

1. Open the Settings app in Windows 10 by clicking the Start button and selecting the gear icon. When the Settings window opens, click Apps. 

2. In the “Apps & features” window, scroll down to “Microsoft Edge.” Select that item and click the Uninstall button. If this button is greyed out, sadly you’re out of luck and will need to use an alternative method.  

3. If you’ve installed the Beta, Developer, or Canary version of Edge, you'll be able to click Uninstall to remove the program. However, you’ll still be stuck with the latest stable version of Edge.

How to uninstall Microsoft Edge with Command Prompt 

You can forcibly uninstall Edge from Windows 10 through Command Prompt, using the commands we’ll provide below. But first, you'll need to find out exactly which version of Edge is installed on your PC.

1. Open Edge and click the three-line button in the top-right corner of the browser. Select “Help & feedback,” then “About Microsoft Edge.” 

Make a note of the version number below the browser name at the top of the page, or copy and paste it somewhere for reference.

2. Next, open Command Prompt as an administrator. To do this, type "cmd" in the Windows search box and select “Run as administrator” next to Command Prompt at the top of the results list. 

3. When Command Prompt opens, type (or copy and paste) the following command, but replace the “xxx” with the Edge version number from step 1, for example “92.0.902.62."

cd %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\xxx\Installer 

Press Enter and Command Prompt will switch to Edge’s Installer folder. Now type (or copy and paste) the following command:

setup.exe --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging --force-uninstall

4. Press Enter and Edge will instantly be uninstalled from Windows 10, without you needing to restart your PC. 

The browser's shortcut icon will disappear from your taskbar, though you may still see an Edge entry in the Start menu. However, this won’t do anything when clicked. 

How to uninstall Microsoft Edge: Stop Edge reinstalling 

Even after you’ve successfully uninstalled Microsoft Edge, there’s still a chance it could come back when you install future Windows updates. You can stop this happening using a simple registry tweak.

1. Type "regedit" in the Windows search box and click “Run as administrator” next to Registry Editor.  

2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key, or just copy and paste it into the Registry Editor address bar:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

3. Right-click the Microsoft folder, and select New, then Key. Name the key “EdgeUpdate” and then right-click it. Select New, then “DWORD (32-bit) Value” and call it “DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium.” 

4. Once you’ve created the new DWORD Value, double-click it to open it and change its value to “1.” Click OK to confirm, then exit the Registry Editor. 

Your Windows 10 PC should now be completely free of Microsoft Edge. If you decide you want the browser after all, just change the value you created to “0” and download Edge from Microsoft(opens in new tab). 

For more Windows themed tutorials, make sure you read our guides on how to uninstall a Windows update, how to install Windows 11 and how to turn off Windows Defender. If you've just upgraded to Windows 11, you might be interested in learning how to change the Windows 11 Start Menu back to Windows 10. If you're a Chrome user, read our guide on how to set Chrome flags to test out some cool, experimental features.

Source

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1250 and Build 22623.1250 (KB5023008) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22623.1250 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.1250 = New features off by default.

The new build fixes an odd "F" bug in the Task Manager where the Search function wouldn't work. The build fixes several other Task Manager bugs, among others. It also adds new Seach functions for IT admins and system admins. The full changelog is given below:

Changes and Improvements in 22621.1250 & 22623.1250

[Search on the Taskbar]

• We are adding a new policy for IT administrators to manage how the search box on the taskbar appears in their organizations. See this blog post for details.

   

Fixes in Build 22623.1250

[Task Manager]

• Typing F in the search box should work again now.

• Fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t reading out some of the text in dialogs.

• Dragging the window using the search box area should work now (like other areas of the title bar).

• If you do a search and then press the down arrow, keyboard focus should now move from the search box into the results.

• Fixed an issue where ending processes in the Details tab wasn’t showing a confirmation dialog.

• Increasing the text scaling should no longer result in a “see more” button appearing with no contents.

• Fixed an issue where focus might not get set properly to search, leading to Narrator not saying that focus was on the search box.

• If you have a contrast theme enabled and select one of the rows in the Processes page, that row should now show that it’s selected.

   

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where the search box would randomly disappear sometimes when you clicked it (leaving a blank space on the taskbar).

• Fixed an issue where the search box was shifting to the side slightly when you clicked it.

• If you have the taskbar set to auto-hide and press the Windows key and start typing, the taskbar should no longer unexpectedly hide.

   

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta builds (KB5023008) fixes the "F" bug, adds Search options for IT admins

Microsoft Word for Windows is now finally capable of converting speech to a text transcript with each speaker individually separated. This was limited to Word for the web and the OneNote app until Microsoft announced it for the Word Windows client a couple of days back.

With the Transcribe feature, you can revisit parts of the recording by playing back the timestamped audio and edit the transcription to make corrections. You can also save the full transcript as a Word document or insert snippets of it into existing documents. This feature can benefit users in conversations, interviews, or meetings.

You can transcribe your speech by recording directly in Word or uploading an audio file. For those who have not tried it on Word for the web, you can follow the below steps to transcribe your speech:

1. Navigate to Home > Dictate > Transcribe.
2. Select the Start recording button in Transcribe pane.
3. Start talking or recording, but make sure the incoming audio is clear.
4. Once finished, you can click the Save and transcribe now button to save your recording to OneDrive.

If you want to transcribe a pre-recorded audio file using Word for Windows, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to Home > Dictate > Transcribe.
2. Select the Upload audio button in the Transcribe pane.
   Note: The uploaded audio file should be in .wav/ .mp4/ .m4a/ .mp3 formats.
3. Choose an existing audio file from the file picker, and then click the Open button.

Transcribe feature works with more than 80 languages across different parts of the world. It is currently being rolled out for Microsoft 365 Beta Channel users running Version 2302 (Build 16107.20000) or later.

Microsoft brings “highly anticipated” Transcribe feature to Word for Windows

You can check out the major additions and improvements below:

    GENERAL

•         Major improvements to dark mode support
•         New application and MIME-type icons, more colorful and vibrant
•         The Start Centre can filter documents by type
•         An improved version of the Single Toolbar UI has been implemented
•         PDF Export improved with several fixes, and new options and features
•         Support for font embedding on macOS
•         Improvements to the Font Features dialog with several new options
•         Addition of a zoom slider at the bottom right of the macro editor

    WRITER

•         Bookmarks have been significantly improved, and are also much more visible
•         Objects can be marked as decorative, for better accessibility
•         New types added to content controls, which also improve the quality of PDF forms
•         A new automatic accessibility checker option has been added to the Tools menu
•         Initial machine translation is available, based on DeepL translate APIs
•         Several spell checking improvements

    CALC

•         Data tables are now supported in charts
•         The Function Wizard now lets you search by descriptions
•         “Spell out” number formats have been added
•         Conditional formatting conditions are now case insensitive
•         Correct behavior when entering numbers with a single prefix quote (‘)

IMPRESS & DRAW

•         New set of default table styles, and creation of table styles
•         Table styles can be customized, saved as master elements and exported
•         Objects can be drag-and-dropped in the navigator
•         It is now possible to crop inserted videos in the slide and still play them
•         The presenter console can also run as a normal window instead of fullscreen

As usual with a new and major version release, the Document Foundation says that LibreOffice 7.5 includes many improvements designed to help users share documents with Microsoft Office, or if they want to switch over from MS Office.

You can download LibreOffice 7.5 now for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The team does now charge a $9 fee if you download the suite from the Mac App Store, but Mac users can still download it for free from the LibreOffice website.

Source

As described by Microsoft, a "minimal toolbar experience" will include a change where the profile icon will be moved to the title bar. Microsoft did not mention other changes it would bring, but it is likely that the change will also affect the Favorites bar. It may disable or hide the Favorites bar until the "minimal toolbar experience" is disabled.

As things stand now, Microsoft Edge allows you to enable/disable full-screen mode, but it is unlike what the legacy Edge offered. Entering full-screen mode in old Edge would mean you were shown only the web page and nothing else, whereas, in the Chromium Edge, it's just a larger window occupying the entire space of your display.

However, it seems that the "minimal toolbar experience" does not promise to hide everything except the webpage. Instead, it is reportedly aiming to build a less cluttered toolbar and perhaps to provide more screen space. Currently, it is available behind a flag called Microsoft Edge minimal toolbar experience.

Upon searching for the flag in Edge Canary, we did not see anything which suggests that Microsoft could be testing the functionality with select users. However, Leopeva64-2 was one of the users that got lucky enough to get their hands on it (via Reddit).

If you are not seeing the flag despite running the latest Edge Canary update, you can customize the toolbar from the browser Settings page. You can, among other things, disable the Favorites bar in the toolbar.

Microsoft did well last month by attracting more people to use Edge. According to a Statcounter report, Microsoft Edge's market share climbed back past 11%—11.09% (+0.11 points) in January. With Microsoft adding useful functionalities to the browser at a steady pace, Edge will hopefully gain more market share in the coming months.

Microsoft's new feature may give you more screen space in Edge

Microsoft is working on major File Explorer upgrades, and a part of those upgrades is making tabs more usable and less crippled. As of now, File Explorer suffers from poor performance and missing features, such as the ability to drag a tab to create a new window or move a tab across windows. Customers running Windows 11 build 25290 can now turn on a feature ID responsible for dragging tabs and creating new File Explorer windows.

Caution: Unannounced features are often raw, unstable, or borderline unusable, and the ability to move tabs from one window into a new one will prove that. It is very buggy, so back up important data before proceeding with the ViveTool app. Remember that using stable Windows 11 is the best way to ensure your system remains as bug-free as possible.

How to enable tabs drag and drop in Windows 11 build 25290?

1. Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder.
2. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin).
3. Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window.

    

   
4. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
5. Type vivetool /enable /id:39661369 and press Enter.
6. Restart your computer.

You can disable the ID by replacing /enable with /disable in the command in step 5. You might, at some point, do that since the updated File Explorer is buggy and does not support moving a tab between existing windows (only dragging it out). Perhaps, the best idea is to wait for Microsoft to deliver a more polished experience in the upcoming Windows 11 preview builds.

The latest Windows 11 preview build finally makes tabs in File Explorer notably better

What’s new

New Widgets: Spotify and Phone Link

Last week, we promoted a preview of the widget for the Messenger app. Spotify and Phone Link are now rolling out preview versions of their widgets as well. To give them a try, go to the widgets collection in the Microsoft Store and update to the latest version of the apps. Then open the widgets board and navigate to the widgets picker by clicking the “+” button at the top-right of the board to pin your widgets.

As you give these and other new widgets a try, please let us know what you think through the Widgets feedback link in the widgets picker. You should expect to see additional new widgets as more developers create and release widgets for their apps.

With the release of Windows App SDK 1.2 developers are now able to create widgets for their apps. Users can access these experiences on their Windows 11 widgets board in current Dev Channel Insider Preview builds. If you’re interested in developing a widget, watch our latest tutorial video:

Changes and Improvements

[Start Menu]

• Back in October with Build 25227, we started trying out a small change to the Start menu where some Insiders saw badging on their user profile notifying them that certain actions need to be taken. We concluded that initial exploration in November. Starting today, we are starting a new exploration of badging on the Start menu with two new treatments that some Insiders in the Dev Channel will see. 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.

   

Fixes

[General]

• We fixed the issue causing Arm64 devices to fail to resume from sleep/hibernate when running Build 25281 and getting stuck at the OS boot logo.

• Fixed an issue where some Insiders may have issues accessing websites and other resources via VPN connections. If you used the workaround documented in this forum post, please reverse those changes once you have this new build installed.

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to experience freezes when using the browser and certain other apps in recent Dev Channel builds.

   

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an explorer.exe crash which could cause the taskbar not to load for some Insiders.

   

[Search on the Taskbar]

The fixes only apply for Windows Insiders who received one of the different treatments for how search looks on the taskbar that began rolling out to Insiders with Build 25252:

• Fixed an issue where the search box would randomly disappear sometimes when you clicked it (leaving a blank space on the taskbar).

• Fixed an issue where the search box was shifting to the side slightly when you clicked it.

   

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where the data content area of the Processes page might flash once when theme changes were applied in the Task Manager Settings page.

• Fixed an issue where some dialogs did not render in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.

• Fixed an issue where properties in the Memory section of the Performance page were getting truncated even though there was space to display them.

• Reduced the transparency of graph colours in the Performance page, and adjusted the borders, to help make them stand out more.

• Fixed a few issues causing Task Manager crashes.

• Typing F in the search box should work again now.

• You now shouldn’t have to make Task Manager be as wide before the navigation pane appears.

• If text scaling has been increased, the search box shouldn’t overlap with the title bar text anymore.

• Made some tweaks to address cases where text in dialogs was getting cut off when text scaling was increased.

• Fixes an issue where certain parts of the title bar couldn’t be used to drag the window.

   

[Windows Spotlight]

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

• We fixed the issue causing some people to not get a consistent refresh of images on a daily basis.

   

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where the preview for Sans Serif Collection in Personalization > Fonts was displaying broken glyphs.

   

[Other]

• Fixed an issue that was preventing Narrator from announcing dropdown lists in Excel.

• Fixed an underlying issue which could cause Snipping Tool screenshots to become stretched out and distorted in the last few builds if you had multiple monitors.

• Fixed an issue which could cause a bugcheck with SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION.

• Fixed an issue which could make the Open With dialog crash on launch.

• Fixed an issue where the Open File dialog would hang if you clicked it while using an IME after having selected “Choose an app on your PC” from the Open With dialog.

• Fixed an issue which could cause Group Policy Editor to unexpectedly show “An error has occurred in the script on this page” with an invalid character error when editing a group policy.

• If you have OpenSSH Server set to start at boot (instead of manual), that preference should be remembered across OS upgrades now. Please note, you need to be on a build with this fix before it will take effect with your next upgrade.

   

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] The Update history page under Settings > Windows Update > Update history is blank for some users after installing Build 25290. This will be fixed via a newer Update Stack Package delivered via Windows Update when available.

• [NEW[ Investigating reports that some Insiders are experiencing repeated bugchecks after upgrading to Build 25284.

• [NEW] 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.

• Some users are experiencing longer than expected update times installing recent builds. We are actively investigating this issue.

   

[Widgets]

• [NEW] 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]

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

• The taskbar is sometimes cropped in half when using the tablet-optimized taskbar. You may also see this issue on secondary monitors.

   

[Search on the Taskbar]

The following known issues only apply for Windows Insiders who received one of the different treatments for how search looks on the taskbar that began rolling out to Insiders with Build 25252:

• 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 25290 gets new Start menu badges, Widgets, and more

There's also a good number of fixes included in this release, and perhaps importantly, PowerToys registry settings have been moved from the general machine scope (HKLM) to user scope (HKCU).

Here are the highlights of the update:

Highlights

• Added an option for PowerToys Run to tab through results instead of context buttons. Thanks @maws6502!
• All PowerToys registry entries are moved from machine scope (HKLM) to user scope (HKCU).
• Quick access system tray launcher. Thanks @niels9001!

There are no known issues in this release.

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

Awake

• Disable instead of hiding "Keep screen on" option.

   

FancyZones

• Refactored and improved code quality.

   

File explorer add-ons

• Fixed escaping HTML-sensitive characters when previewing developer files. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

   

Image Resizer

• Improved code quality around a silent crash that was being reported to Microsoft servers.

   

PowerToys Run

• Add option to tab through results only. Thanks @maws6502!

• System plugin - Updated Recycle Bin command to allow opening the Recycle Bin. Thanks @htcfreek!

• System plugin - Improved Recycle Bin command to not block PT Run while the deletion is running. Thanks @htcfreek!

• System plugin - Small other changes to improve the usability of the Recycle Bin command. Thanks @htcfreek!

• WindowWalker plugin - Show all open windows with action keyword. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

   

Quick Accent

• Added dashes characters. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!

• Added Estonian characters. Thanks @jovark!

• Added Hebrew characters. Thanks @Evyatar-E!

• Added diacritical marks. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!

• Added Norwegian characters. Thanks @norwayman22!

   

Settings

• Fixed URL click crash on the "What's New" screen.

• Added quick access system tray launcher. Thanks @niels9001!

   

Documentation

• Added PowerToys disk usage footprint document.

• Fixed some grammar issues on main readme / Wiki. Thanks @CanePlayz!

   

Development

• Verify notice.md file and used NuGet packages are synced.

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

• Automatically add list of .NET Runtime deps to Installer during build. Thanks @snickler!

• Move all installer registry entries to HKCU.

• Refactor installer - extract module related stuff from Product.wxs to per-module .wxs file.

• Enhance ARM64 build configuration verification. Thanks @snickler!

• Helped identify a WebView2 issue affecting PowerToys File explorer add-ons, which has been fixed upstream and released as an update through the usual Windows Update channels.

   

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

PowerToys 0.67.0 is out with Quick access system tray launcher, and more

Developers of the most popular desktop and mobile browsers understand that cross-browser development is one of the biggest pain points for web devs, so Interop 2023 will attempt to improve the situation by focusing on the following areas:

• Container queries
• CSS :has() pseudo-class
• WebComponents improvements like constructable stylesheets and form-associated custom elements
• Offscreen Canvas
• More

Besides new areas, Interop 2023 will continue improving last-year focus points, such as the CSS subgrid. Mozilla says Interop 2022 has been a significant success, leading every participant to score more than 90 in each area.

All the signs are that Interop 2022 was helpful in aligning implementations of the web and ensuring that users are able to retain a free choice of browser without running into compatibility problems. We plan to build on that success with the forthcoming launch of Interop 2023, which we hope will further push the state of the art for web developers and help web browser developers focus on the most important issues to ensure the future of a healthy open web.

Customers and developers can track the progress and see how each browser scores in a specific area on the official Interop 2023 dashboard. Stable Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari versions currently have scores below 80, so customers can expect improvements in the outlined areas to come in this year's browser updates.

Microsoft highlights key areas to work on in 2023 to improve browser interoperability

The key selling points Microsoft is highlighting within advanced webinars is "dynamic and richer" experiences before and during a meeting. In terms of the setup, both Teams Premium and the existing webinars in Office 365 / Microsoft 365 now allow adding event details, co-organizers, presenter bios, brand theming, and custom questions. Registrations can be managed for up to 1,000 attendees and you can view their attendance status as well.

Custom registration start and end times for webinars can be configured, along with waitlists and approval queues. Organizers will also be able to send automated reminder emails from March 2023 to hype up attendees for an upcoming webinar. Additionally, these are the enhancements for the actual webinar itself:

On the day of the webinar, presenters are able to join together with one another and the host in the virtual green room to ensure preparation is seamless. With the virtual green room, presenters have a separate, dedicated space separate from attendees where they can connect and chat real-time, stage content, do a quick briefing, and test run without disturbing attendees. While attendees join and wait for the event to start, they’re greeted with a welcome screen to inform them the event will start shortly and can engage with the presenters and one another through chat and Q&A.

That's not all though. Webinar organizers can easily manage what they want the audience to see and even integrate different external media feeds into the webinar using Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP-in).

An exclusive feature coming to Teams Premium is also support Microsoft eCDN in Teams Live Events. This will reduce the load on the enterprise network without the need to install anything on endpoints.

Lastly, we have a couple of integrations. The first connects Teams to Meta Workplace Live, and we already know that it's being planned for March. The other is a new plugin for integration within the Elgato Stream Deck, and that is planned for general availability this month.

Although the Teams Premium website on our end still doesn't indicate that the product is generally available, Microsoft claims in its blog post that is, so expect details on the website to change soon. The license is expected to cost $10/month/user, according to the FAQs.

Microsoft Teams Premium is now generally available, brings advanced webinars

The main highlight of the premium service is the use of some intelligent features aimed at making meetings “more intelligent, personalized, and protected.” Specifically, it offers AI-generated tasks, including live translated captions, automatically generated meeting notes, recommended tasks, and personalized highlights. Other features include watermarking, recording capability limiting, personalized timeline markers, speaker timeline markers, branded meetings, customized meeting templates, and more.

The integration of the ChatGPT into Teams Premium is the product of Microsoft’s investment in the chatbot’s creator, OpenAI. It started with its $1 billion investment in 2019, with the software giant now having the third phase of its investment, which it called “a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment.” With all this, the Redmond company is expected to inject the technology into all of its products in the future. Recently, the giant confirmed that it would soon bring it to Bing, Office apps, and its other services. It also promised to introduce ChatGPT to its Azure OpenAI Service soon.

ChatGPT is known for its incredible ability to generate works based on users’ commands, including composing prose and writing essays. Recently, the chatbot even got an update that improved its factuality and math capabilities.

ChatGPT-powered Teams Premium is now available

The ad tries to promote Windows 11 by claiming that the operating system "is now unlocked" for the customers, who can get it right now (the highlighted button) and schedule the installation for later (the second button). The only way to reject the offer is to click a small "Keep Windows 10" link on a white bar at the bottom of the screen (via Ghacks).

Needless to say, Windows 10 users are not happy with Microsoft trying to impose its operating system using tricky banners and optical illusions. Many users are likely to click the first highlighted button without reading the message (not to mention not finding the reject button) just to get to the desktop and do what they need with the computer.

Microsoft is clearly trying to speed up the Windows 11 rollout using "dark patterns" and misleading tricks. The report interestingly coincides with Microsoft ceasing Windows 10 sales, so more users might feel like they have no choice but to move to Windows 11 (which is incorrect). Luckily, Microsoft has yet to start automatic upgrades to Windows 11, so the chances of you getting the new operating system out of the blue are slim. However, it is safe to say that Microsoft will only increase the pressure on users in attempts to make Windows 11 more popular. According to the latest report from Statcounter, about 18% of all Windows users have upgraded to Windows 11.

Fortunately, there are many ways to prevent such banners from infecting your computer. One could give Microsoft a taste of its own medicine by disabling TPM to render the computer "incompatible" with Windows 11 (this potentially increases security risks, so proceed only if you are 100% sure turning off TPM will not break anything on your system). Also, paying attention and reading what your computer tries to say, regardless of how vague the descriptions are, dramatically reduces the chances of getting unplanned upgrades.

Microsoft reportedly shows full-screen Windows 11 upgrade ads with two 'yes' buttons

According to Statcounter, in January 2023, Windows 11 increased its market share by 1.16 points, effectively reaching 18.13%. It is a relatively modest number, but it remains consistent over months. Slow but steady, Windows 11 continues biting off customers from Windows 10 and other operating systems.

Windows 10, the king of the hill, is not giving up easily. The soon-to-be eight-year-old operating system increased its customer base and went up from 67.95% in December 2022 to 68.75% in January 2023. The end of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 extended support periods is the most likely reason for the sudden spike. As expected, Windows 7 and 8.1 experienced a notable dip in their market shares. Windows 7 went down from 11.2% to 9.62% (-1.58 ), and Windows 8.1 lost 0.29 points.

Windows 8 closes the top 5 Windows versions list with 0.62% (-0.03), and Windows XP is sixth at 0.45% (-0.04).

1. Windows 10: 68.75% (+0.8)
2. Windows 11: 18.13% (+1.16)
3. Windows 7: 9.62% (-1.58)
4. Windows 8.1: 2.331% (-0.29)
5. Windows 8: 0.62% (-0.03)

Overall, Windows holds 74.14% of the desktop operating system market. The value went down 1.2 points in January 2023, which is nothing uncommon compared to the previous months. The closest rival to Windows, Apple's macOS, is second with 15.33% (+0.67).

1. Windows: 74.14% (-1.2)
2. macOS: 15.33% (+0.67)
3. Unknown: 5.27% (+0.49)
4. Linux: 2.91% (-0.02)
5. ChromeOS: 2.34% (+0.06)

Finally, when considering the entire mobile and desktop operating systems market, Windows is the second most popular OS that only Android manages to beat. iOS and macOS are third and fourth.

1. Android: 43.01% (-1.59)
2. Windows: 29.18% (+0.77)
3. iOS: 17.24% (-0.05)
4. macOS: 6.03% (+0.5)
5. Unknown: 2.15% (+0.73)

You can find more information about the desktop operating system market on the official Statcounter website. Keep in mind that reports like this one are not 100% accurate and leave a margin for errors and inaccuracies.

Statcounter: Windows 11 crosses 18% mark but Windows 10 is not giving up

The original screen displayed "now unlocked: you're eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11" in big letters on the screen. A short description reassured users that they could continue using the device during the download of the Windows 11 operating system ("Don't worry -- you'll be able to use your PC while the download runs in the background (it's about 4 GB)").

A button "see what's inside" was displayed below the information. A bottom toolbar, in white, displayed learn more, keep windows 10, schedule it and get it links. Back then, Get it was the only button on the toolbar, which meant that it stuck out.

Now, Windows 10 users are seeing a revised "now unlocked" prompt, which is a deceptive design pattern, also known as dark pattern. The title and description remained, but the "see what's inside" button is no longer displayed below the text. Microsoft displays the highlighted "get it" button there, and a less emphasized "schedule it" button next to it.

The white toolbar at the bottom appears to be less visible than before. It includes the moved "see what's inside" link, and the learn more and "keep Windows 10" links. Nothing is highlighted on the toolbar anymore.

Classic dark pattern design emphasizes certain actions on a screen while deemphasizing others. In the case of the Windows 11 upgrade prompt, the action to get the operating system right then and there is highlighted. The schedule option is less emphasized, but it is probably picked by Windows 10 users who do not want Windows 11 and have not spotted the "keep Windows 10" option on the screen.

The previous version of the "now unlocked" prompt emphasized the get" button as well, but it was on the toolbar. With eyes on the toolbar, it is likely that more users spotted the keep Windows 10 option on it as well.

Windows 10 users who want to stay on Windows 10 need to locate the "keep Windows 10" link when the prompt is displayed on their devices. It is possible that the prompt will be modified again by Microsoft in the coming months to improve conversions even more.

Another option that Windows 10 administrators have is to use the freeware InControl to stay on a specific version and block any upgrade prompts to Windows 11.

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

Windows 10: Uncovering the Deception of the Windows 11 Upgrade Screen

You can enable the tags widget in Files Preview version 2.4.26.0. Go to Files' Settings > Preferences > Widgets and toggle on the Tags option. Return to the Home page, and you will see a new section with all the tagged files and folders (right-click a file or folder and select Edit Tags to assign a tag). You can customize tags in the Advanced > Experimental feature flags section.

The Files app should get the new tags widget in the stable release in a couple of weeks. According to recent reports, Microsoft is also working on a tagging system for the stock File Explorer as a part of an extensive rejuvenation. That feature upgrade has yet to materialize and go through the Windows Insiders program, so users can get the features they want in the Files app right now.

The Files app is available on the official website for free. If you want to support the developer so that they keep releasing frequent updates, purchase Files in the Microsoft Store for $8.99. Those wishing to test preview updates for the Files app can download the pre-release version from the official website (it can run side-by-side with the stable release without issues).

If you want to learn about other must-have apps for Windows 11 and 10, check out our recent "Top 11 apps every Windows 11 user should have" article.

Files app preview gets a dedicated widget for tags