Windows 11 saw a number of small and large updates throughout 2022, with the biggest being the recent 22H2 update. We didn’t receive anything truly monumental, but the constant stream of updates helped make Microsoft’s operating system stronger than when it debuted. As things stand, Windows 11 is finally worth upgrading to.

But what can we expect from Windows 11 in 2023? There isn't a lot of information out there, but we’ll likely see another year of incremental improvements as Microsoft continues making its OS work seamlessly both on PC and mobile devices. Even if that isn’t terribly exciting, Windows users can at least rest easy knowing they’ll likely have an overall better experience in 2023.

Here’s what we expect from Windows 11 in 2023.

No more annual updates

It seems 22H2 was the last big Windows 11 update. According to sibling site Windows Central(opens in new tab), Microsoft is returning to a more traditional three-year release cycle for major versions of Windows, with frequent smaller updates to existing packages between major releases.

Internally, Microsoft calls these updates “Moments.” Moment 1 launched a month after 22H2 and introduced features such as tabbed File Explorer, taskbar overflow, Android apps support, Amazon App Store, iCloud photos in the Photos app, and more.

Windows update 22H2 introduced features like tabbed File Explorer. (Image credit: Microsoft)

 

As for the frequency of Moments, Microsoft will reportedly release no more than four a year. If this is true, it seems we should get one of these updates every three months — which is roughly one per season.

Given how the next major Windows update won’t happen until 2024, it’s not unreasonable to assume this update could be Windows 12. But it’s still early to discuss that.

What new features will we see? 

So what can we expect to see in Moments updates? We don’t have anything concrete on that end, but some reports give us a hint of what to expect.

In a video from April 2022(opens in new tab), Zac Bowden and Daniel Rubino from Windows Central discuss what they believe 23H2 would feature. Given how 23H2 (or the Sun Valley 3 update) is no longer happening as a stand-alone update, we could see its features distributed throughout the year as Moments.

Update 23H2 (Sun Valley 3) was expected to arrive in October 2023. However, we'll now get as many as four Windows updates known as "Moments." (Image credit: Future)

Bowden believes Windows 11 will become even more touch-friendly. This part is not too surprising given how well Windows 11 works on touchscreens like those found on the Microsoft Surface Pro 9. Bowden says a dedicated tablet UI might be introduced next year.

Android apps were finally introduced to Windows 11 this year and it seems this collaboration will continue in 2023. Bowden thinks an upcoming Windows update will improve communication between Windows and Android. The current Phone Link app (formerly Your Phone) allows users to pair their phones and PC, but it appears this functionality will improve next year.

Windows 11 will reportedly work better on foldable devices like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 2022 pictured above. (Image credit: Future)

In the same video, Rubino hints that Windows 11 will be further optimized to work on foldable Windows devices. If true, devices like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 2022 could run even better, though it remains to be seen in what capacity.

Other possible features coming to Windows 11 in 2023 include a system-wide dark mode, and an option for app folders on the desktop.

Windows 11 in 2023 

We don't have too much information about Windows 11 in 2023, but the little we know is certainly intriguing.

Returning to a three-year cycle for major updates is certainly a big deal. For those who remember, this was how Windows updates were released prior to Windows 10. But receiving "Moments" every few months should still ensure the best computers and best Windows laptops remain up-to-date with the latest features. And while substantial updates may be infrequent, we're sure Windows will dole out security updates when necessary.

Getting Windows to work better on foldable devices or Windows machines with different form factors is another interesting thing to look forward to. Even though I'm not sold on foldable laptops, I can see these devices gaining more traction in 2023. If that's the case, it's good that Microsoft is already taking foldables into account.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to seeing how (or if) Microsoft can make widgets an important part of the Windows experience. Like some users, I almost never use widgets. I see how they could be useful in getting a quick snapshot of the news, weather or stock report, but it's still easier pulling up that information on my phone. Regardless, I'm eager to see widgets implemented in a more intuitive fashion next year.

For everything Windows-related, be sure to stick with Tom's Guide in 2023 for the latest news updates.

Source

Please note that the developers see the new version as a brand new program. It lacks some features of the old, but the old remains available.

New and existing users of Any Video Converter Free may download the new version from the official developer website. Existing users find an option to check for updates in the main program window under Menu > Check for Updates.

Any Video Converter Free supports more than 100 different media formats that it can convert.

Any Video Converter Free 8.0

The developers have altered the interface of the application significantly; this is the major and only change in the new video converter version.

When it is run, Any Video Converter displays a list of single tools at the top and an option to create a workflow at the bottom. The following single tools are provided:

• Video Converter -- convert videos from one format to another.
• Video Cutter -- cut videos.
• Video Cropper -- crop videos to remove parts that you want deleted.
• Video Merger -- merge multiple video clips to create a single video file.
• Audio Filter -- adjust audio related settings such as volume or effects for videos.
• Video Downloader -- download videos from various online video streaming services.

Workflow enables users to combine these single tools so that they are executed in the selected order. All tools, with the exception of the video downloader, may be added to workflows.

You could convert videos, then merge them, or merge videos before making audio changes to them.

Any Video Converter Free users who have used previous versions off the application may notice that some features are missing from it. Some capabilities, like anything that has to do with ripping media from discs or burning them to discs, appears to be missing in this release.

The developers note on Facebook that version 8.0.0 is a brand new version that is different from the previous version. The old version remains on the servers for the time being to make sure that users have the choice regarding the two versions.

Closing words

Any Video Converter Free 8.0 is still a powerful program, but it lacks features of the previous version. It remains to be seen if these get readded by the developers in future updates.

For now, users who rely on disc functionality and some other features that are not supported in version 8.0 may want to keep on using the older version 7.1.6 instead.

Source

The new version is available from the developer site. Users of the application may select About > Check for updates in the application interface to run the check for updates.

Our first review of TeraCopy dates back to 2007. The program may replace the default Windows file copy dialog with an advanced version. Windows' own file copy functionality is limited. It can break on errors, lacks reporting, has no verification feature, and does not support queuing.

TeraCopy supports error recovery, the skipping of files, file verifications, batch operations, reporting, the copying of locked files and a lot more.

TeraCopy 3.9.7

The latest version of TeraCopy is available as a free and commercial version. The free version supports the majority of features, except for editing file lists, managing favorite folders, and exporting. It can't be used in commercial environments as well, but is not limited otherwise.

The official changelog is available here on the company blog. TeraCopy may now run PowerShell scripts after transfers complete. The app ships with two PowerShell scripts, which may be run after transfers complete. The first ejects drives, the second enables notifications via IFTTT.

Users of the app may remember that PowerShell support was added to TeraCopy 3.2.7 initially back in 2017. The system appears better integrated, but it is still possible to run custom scripts by placing them into the scripts folder of the installation; this folder is found under C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\TeraCopy\Scripts.

The scripts may be selected by switching to the options tab in the file copy window and activating them there.

TeraCopy 3.9.7 includes three additional features. You may now activate the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Home to jump to the current file that is being processed by the application. The program will also detect hashes in the Clipboard automatically to show it during verification.

Last but not least, the estimation algorithm has been improved for "very long transfers" according to the changelog.

TeraCopy may be used after it has been installed, but the default file copy dialog may also be used instead. The new release is a smaller release, but still useful to some users of the app.

Now You: do you use the default Windows file copy dialog, or a third-party app?

Source

“There are a lot of benefits to Xfce 4.18, including dual pane capability in thunar, updates to the Xfce applets, panel, and terminal, and options to have Xfce apps use the older Xfwm window theming instead of gtk3-client-side-decorations,”, the MX Linux team said.

Those who want to try to out the new Xfce update early, preferably on a spare machine, can enable the “temp” development repository. To do this, open /etc/apt/sources.list.d with elevated privileges and add deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ temp main to the file. Close the file and run sudo apt update and sudo apt dist-upgrade. This should upgrade your Xfce desktop to the new version.

As MX Linux uses Xfce by default and the 4.18 update is major, the MX Linux team has also decided that it’ll spin new ISOs when the update is released in January. This will be nice for users who were planning to install MX Linux as it will come with previous updates already rolled into the ISO so users will spend less time doing post-install updates.

If Xfce is not for you, MX Linux also has KDE and Fluxbox editions. Just head over to the download page and choose whichever one you want; most people will be good with MX-21.2.1_x64, though. The aim of MX Linux is to combine elegance, efficiency, stability, and solid performance. It is based on Debian Stable so its base is rock solid.

MX Linux set to receive Xfce 4.18 update sometime in January

Here is the full test system:

• Intel Core i9-13900K
• 2x 16GB DDR5-6000 CL36
• AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
• AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
• Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
• Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 22621
• Ubuntu 22.10 (Linux kernel version 6.2-rc1)

Here is the list of games and benchmarks used in the test. Overall, it's a mix of new and old benchmarks and titles:

• Hitman 3
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Portal 2
• Quake II RTX
• Strange Brigade
• X-Plane 12
• GravityMark 1.72
• Unigine Heaven 4.0
• Unigine Superposition 1.0

As mentioned above, the performance gap between Ubuntu and Windows 11 is bigger on the newer AMD 7900 XTX card. In this case, the Windows 11 PC was around 11.1% faster than Linux. Meanwhile, on the 6800 XT PC, Microsoft's OS is roughly 6.27% better. This suggests that perhaps more driver work is needed on Linux side for the new RDNA 3 GPUs.

You can view the full test results on Phoronix's website.

Test shows you'd want Windows 11 over Ubuntu Linux in 2023 when gaming on AMD

Handbrake used to support older versions of the Windows operating system, but this changed with the release of Handbrake 1.5.1 in early 2022.

Handbrake 1.6 is a major new release that includes multiple improvements and changes. Noteworthy additions include support for new audio and video formats, revised presets for web publishing and filter updates.

Our first review of Handbrake dates back to 2007. Back then, I published a tutorial on converting DVDs with Handbrake.

Handbrake 1.6

Handbrake 1.6 introduces support for AV1 video encoding.  Users of the program may now convert existing media to the format using custom settings or new presets that the developers added. New and updated presets are also available for HEVC and the Web, which now features Creator, Email and Social presets. Support for VP8 presets was removed in the build. The developers note that the VP8 video encoder is deprecated and that it will be removed in a future build. The Theora decoded is deprecated as well and will also be removed in future builds.

Several new video encoders and updates to existing video decoders have found their way into the release:

• Added SVT-AV1 (software) and Intel QSV AV1 (hardware) video encoders
• Added VP9 10-bit encoder
• Added NVENC HEVC 10-bit encoder
• Added VCN HEVC 10-bit encoder
• Added H.264 levels 6, 6.1, and 6.2 for the x264 encoder
• Added H.264/H.265 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 profiles for the x264 and x265 encoders
• Added H.265 4:2:2 profile for VideoToolbox encoder on Apple Silicon
• Added support for Intel Deep Link Hyper Encode (leverage multiple QSV media engines to increase performance)
• Fixed longstanding issue where slowest NVENC encoder preset caused encoding failures
• Removed support for Intel CPUs older than 6th generation (Skylake) when using Intel Quick Sync Video

These changes add more capabilities to the video encoder. Support for levels 6, 6.1 and 6.2 for H.264 that extend resolution and frame rate limits support.  Level 6.2, for example, adds support for 8k resolution at 120 fps.

Several filters were updated or added in the release. You can check out the full list on the official GitHub repository, but most users of the application may not require information about individual library updates.

The Linux version has reached parity with the Mac and Windows graphical interfaces, and several quality of life improvements were added in the release. Mac and Windows changes are mostly bug fixes and translation improvements. Mac users may use Quick Look in the queue now, though.

Source

Frontpaged: HandBrake 1.6.0

Waze is one of the preferred navigation apps for many due to its live community-driven traffic incident information — but what if the app warned you where a crash could likely occur? A new beta version of the Google-owned app, as reported by Israeli tech news site Geektime, can alert users about roads that have statistically high crash occurrences based on Waze community data.

While using this new beta version of Waze, nearby roads deemed to be high-risk are colored red on the map. Although, Geektime points out that it may not do this for roads that the user often travels on. The feature also only pushes just one pop-up notification about the dangerous roads around the driver, perhaps in an effort to keep precaution from turning into anxiety.

The notification for the new History of crashes feature at launch of the new beta Waze app. Screenshot by Geektime

If you’re in the country and have access to the beta release, you’ll get a pop-up that states: “using reports from drivers and your route, you may see alerts for ‘History of crashes’ on some roads.” While the feature is only in beta, it’s likely to release to the general public soon. But if you would rather not have Waze paint the roads red when it comes out, the feature can be turned off with a toggle located under the app’s settings section designated for alerts.

It’s one of the first new features to come out of Waze since the company was rolled into the group that oversees Google Maps. Google announced that merger earlier this month, and now with Waze under Google Geo, Waze’s head of PR Caroline Bourdeau told The Verge, “the teams will benefit from further increased technical collaboration.” The change also included Waze CEO Neha Parikh exiting, all at the same time as Google looks to cut costs company-wide. Ideally, now that Waze is sharing more closely with Maps, more collaborative user data could be crunched and become new features in the future.

Source

Adjust the size of the Taskbar in Windows 11

Typically, the Taskbar in Windows 11 rests as a single row at the bottom of your desktop screen and accommodates icons to provide you quick access to your frequently used apps. However, if the icons are so small that they go virtually unnoticed, you can change their size.

Please note that the method requires you to make changes to the Registry Editor. If you edit the registry incorrectly, serious problems might occur that could require a complete reinstall of the operating system and result in data loss. Create a backup first and then proceed carefully!

1. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following path:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

2. Switch to the right pane and look for a value called TaskbarSi. If it cannot be found, create a new one. For this, right-click the Advanced folder, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name that value as TaskbarSi.

3. Double-click the TaskbarSi entry. Then, in the Edit String box that appears, enter 2 in the Value data text box and hit the OK button.

4. Restart your PC to allow the changes to take effect. You sho.

5. Similarly, if you would like to shrink the size of the Taskbar, change the Value data in the box from 2 to 0.

6. To return the Taskbar back to its default state, edit the value in the Edit String box again and this time keep it as 1.

The registry hack appears useful as currently, there's no other direct way to adjust the Taskbar size in Windows 11 through the Settings app. So, if you consider this customization as an essential feature of Windows and don't mind modifying the Registry a bit, try this workaround. It lets you change the size of the Taskbar interface to small, medium, or large.

Source

According to Zac Bowden from Windows Central, the next feature drop for Windows 11 should arrive in February or March 2023. We already know what features "moment 2" will bring (including a bunch of controversial changes). Moreover, some of those features are already available in the stable version of Windows 11 22H2.

The "moment 2" update will bring the resurrected tablet mode, a much-improved notification area (system tray), improvements for Windows Search, a better Task Manager, a new page for managing energy efficiency, full-screen widgets, and more. All those changes will continue Microsoft's efforts to address major criticism from users and make Windows 11 more modern and aesthetically pleasing.

Speaking of being more modern, expect the first feature update of 2023 to deliver a bunch of redesigns for some old dialogs from the Windows 8 era. Windows 11 preview builds already feature new eye candy for the date/time picker, rename this PC, reset, Windows Firewall, and go back to the previous build UI.

As for the "moment 3" update, users can expect it somewhere in the middle of the year, as reported a few weeks ago. The release is likely to arrive in May or June 2023. We do not know what features to expect, but the rumors say Microsoft will continue improving Windows Search, plus deliver a series of updates for dual-screen devices. The software giant should also replace the stock Mail and Calendar apps with the new web-based Outlook client.

Finally, "moment 4" should come out in September or October 2024. The report says that the "moment 4" update could be Windows 11 23H2. Unlike Windows 11 22H2 and its extensive list of new features, Windows 11 23H2 will be a smaller release with a slightly less impressive set of new capabilities.

To recap, here is what Microsoft allegedly has in store for Windows 11 in 2023:

• Windows 11 22H2 "moment 2" in February or May 2023
• Windows 11 22H2 "moment 3" in May or June 2023
• Windows 11 "23H2" or "moment 4" in September or October 2023

As usual, keep in mind that the report is unconfirmed, so take it with a grain of salt.

Microsoft reportedly preparing three feature updates for Windows 11 in 2023

Backing up files to OneDrive, or any other online storage solution, sounds like a good idea on first glance. You create a remote backup of important files and gain access to these files from any other device that you have access to and sign-in to OneDrive.

Even better, it is quite easy to set up and have it run on autopilot from that moment on. To access the feature, left-click on the OneDrive app icon on the Windows taskbar and select the cogwheel icon and then Settings.

When the Settings open, select the very first entry on the page. It is named Back up important PC folders to OneDrive. The Manage folder back up page opens.

OneDrive lists the three root folders Desktop, Documents and Pictures. All three are selected by default and the space they occupy on the hard drive is displayed. Below that, OneDrive lists how much online storage space would remain after the folders have been backed up to the storage solution.

A click on Start Backup begins the backup; it may take a while to complete, depending on the number of files in the folders and the Internet speed.

Here is why backing up entire folders to OneDrive is not a good idea:

1. This is an all or nothing approach. See the 24 Gigabytes of files in the Documents folder on the screenshot above? There is no option to deselect subfolders or individual documents to bring down the storage requirements, speed up the process, or prevent certain data from being uploaded to OneDrive.
2. Many users may need to purchase extra storage to even start the backup. New OneDrive users get just a few gigabytes of storage space by default.
3. Media is scanned by OneDrive to detect nudity and images that may be illegal. Microsoft may ban the entire user account if a single item is flagged by automatic scans.
4. The data is not encrypted in a way that only the user has access to it.

In closing, most Windows users may want to avoid using the back up feature. It is easy enough to select individual files or entire folders for uploading to OneDrive, if that is desired. Third-party tools like Cryptomator may increase the security of files uploaded, as they get encrypted properly before uploads. (Boxcryptor, another popular service, was acquired by Dropbox recently and started to shut down)

Now You: do you back up files to online services?

Should you back up important Windows folders to OneDrive?

WingetUI, which is a third-party GUI utility tool for managing CLI package managers like Winget or Scoop, has received its latest update today. The new update, version 1.5.2, fixes blurry textures on Windows 10, and improves task manager context menu positioning on Windows 11. Aside from these, there are several other improvements and bug fixes like those related to .NET, PNG files, and more. You can view the changelog for WingetUI 1.5.2 below:

General Changelog:

• Improvements in the settings page:
  • Utilities regarding winget shouldn't enable scoop anymore
  • Reorganized the headers
  • Added a submenu for experimental features
• Added a section to view, add and remove scoop buckets
• Added a new screenshot viewer on the info window
• Improved general keyboard navigation
• Improved blurry textures on Windows 10 systems
• Fixed issues with scoop custom buckets
• Fixed some issues regarding global scoop installations
• Improved taskbar context menu positioning on Windows 11 systems
• Added the update date and the release notes on the information window
• The number of installed packages will vary when uninstalling an app
• Fixed an issue where the window would drift across app restarts
• Fixed an issue where winget wouldn't detect wingetui
• Improved dialogs, fixing an issue where the user couldn't interact with them
• Fixed issues with application info parsing on botw winget and scoop
• Optimized PNG files, thanks to @panther7
• Fixed issues with .NET runtimes and with MSVC++2010 (thanks microsoft for messing up IDs and adding double spaces on them)
• Improved scoop installer, thanks to @panther7
• Fixed broken select/unselect all on the updates and the installed section
• Fixed loading loops when no package menagers were enabled
• Fixed misidentified packages
• WingetUI now detects Microsoft Store packages properly on the installed tab
• Added fluent context menus to even more areas of the UI
• migrated servers to www.marticliment.com, instead of the old www.somepythonthings.tk

You can download the latest WingetUI from GitHub where you can also view the detailed changelog.

WingetUI latest update gets improvements for Windows 11 as well as Windows 10, and more

Microsoft’s making Excel’s formulas even easier

Microsoft Edge is actually good

Other websites suggest clearing the Start menu cache files or icon cache. In fact, the Microsoft Answers website suggest this as well, but these suggestions did not work at all for me. The actual fix is actually far simpler.

1. Locate a blank tile that needs fixing.

   

    

2. Right click on the problem icon (blank tile) then select More > App settings.

   

    

3. Scroll down and click on Repair, this will fix the icon on the Start menu.

   

    

4. If Repair does not exist, then click on Reset to fix the icon. However, you may need to login to that app again.

Results vary, for example clicking on Reset while fixing the Messenger app does not require you to login again. But before you Reset any app, be sure you are able to login to it again.

The result

Now we have icons on what were blank tiles again. Unfortunately, live tile behavior is not something I've been able to find a fix for, it either works or it doesn't work.

Share your Start menu fixes in the comments below!

How to fix blank tiles in the Windows 10 Start menu

This method does not replace the menu in File Explorer's right pane, it only changes the file tree's menu. You will need to be on the Windows 11 version 25227 or above Dev Channel. For reference, Build 25227 was released on October 22nd.

How to restore the classic context menu in Windows 11's File Explorer's left pane

1. Download ViVeTool from its GitHub page, and extract the archive's contents to a folder.

2. Open the Terminal (PowerShell) with administrator privileges. You can use the Win + X menu, or right-click on the Start button to run the app.

3. Switch the path in the Terminal to the folder that you extracted ViveTool exe to.

e.g. C:\ViVeTool

4. Paste the following command in it, and hit Enter.

.\vivetool /enable /id:39696859

5. You don't have to restart your computer, or even close File Explorer. The setting is applied immediately.

Note: You can use Command Prompt too, the only difference is that you need to delete the . and \ symbols before the command.

vivetool /enable /id:39696859

The old context menu has some extra options which can be useful for some folk. Don't like the old menu? You can revert the changes by replacing the word enable in the command with disable.

I tried it on the stable channel to see if it would work, and though ViVeTool was able to set the configuration, it really didn't take effect. So, how is this change possible in Windows 11 Dev Channel builds? According to PhantomOfEarth (via DeskModder), the feature has an ID called “AccessibilityXAMLContextMenu", and its default value is disabled. This suggests that it could be available as a toggle under the Accessibility settings in Windows 11. That should be an interesting move, though I think this context menu would be more useful if it worked in the right pane in Explorer too, that's where we deal with files, archives, etc.

When I first tried Windows 11, I didn't really like the new context menu. That's mostly because the animation was slow to render, which in turn caused a minor lag, not just in File Explorer, it was noticeable on the desktop screen too. But things have changed since then, I don't mind the new menu now that it is more responsive. That said, File Explorer's performance still continues to be wonky.

The only thing that I miss in Explorer's new menu are the options to access some third-party tools, for example, accessing 7-zip's menu to create archives. The new context menu does support 7-Zip for opening files, though this really depends on the third-party program's developer, they have to update it to match Windows 11's standards. This is the only reason why I click on Show More Options to access the legacy menu.

Which style do you prefer in Windows 11's File Explorer? The new menu or the old one?

[Windows 11 Dev Channel] Restore the old context menu style in File Explorer's left pane

It is hard to deny that Microsoft's Windows 7 was one of the most beloved operating systems with many cherished features and some may certainly argue its impact was just as big as those of Windows 95 and Windows XP before it. While support for Windows 7 ended over two years ago, the 2009 OS is still the third most popular with around a 10% market share.

One of the reasons for its popularity was its meaningful system requirements as it could actually ran well on its minimum requirements. All you needed was a 1GHz single-core CPU and 1GB (32-bit) / 2GB (64-bit) system memory. And despite such low requirements, the software was designed to support up to 256 cores/threads in 64-bit mode highlighting that it was pretty forward-looking. Although Microsoft stuck with the same requirements till Windows 10, it is generally never as smooth an experience on the newer much heavier OS.

To test how low one could go with Windows 7, Twitter user and Windows enthusiast NTDEV tried running it on a 5MHz Pentium-S processor - which is 200 times lower than the official requirement - and 128MB of RAM. You may notice in the image below that the Pentium chip is running at 50MHz. NTDEV notes here that the LogonUI refused to load up with anything below that. The 5MHz clock was achieved by editing 86Box's source code, the virtual machine where the test was conducted.

Aside from this, several major modifications were made too. The entire OOBE folder (c:\windows\system32\oobe folder) was deleted and Registry tweaks were made to emulate a "pseudo-OOBE state". The BCD (boot configuration data) was also tweaked so that it booted into Safe Mode even when the "Start Windows Normally" option was chosen. For further de-bloating, the GUI elements were disabled too.

NTDEV successfully managed to boot into Windows 7 Ultimate build 7601 SP1 after around 28 minutes. The system was stable with the WCPUCLK or Real TIme Clock Checker confirming that the system was indeed running at 5Mhz.

Ultimately it was a fun experiment and most people who are still running Windows 7 as their daily driver probably are doing so on much faster PCs anyway. And in case that PC happens to meet Windows 11 requirements, Microsoft says you can certainly upgrade to its latest OS though it would require a clean installation.

Source: NTDEV (Twitter) (1), (2) via Tom's Hardware

Windows 7 was made to run on a mere 5MHz Pentium, 128MB RAM and it worked, mostly

While most users are aware of the visual changes, only a few may be aware of the under-the-hood work of Microsoft. One of Microsoft's development goals is to improve stability of the Windows 11 operating system.

The Explorer process is a prime target for these optimizations. Most Windows users may associate Explorer.exe with File Explorer, the system's default file browser. Termination of the process using the Task Manager or other process managers reveals that other components, for example the desktop, are somehow linked to the Explorer process. When an administrator terminates explorer.exe on a Windows machine, it is taking the entire taskbar and desktop with it into Nirvana.

This is a major source for reliability issues on Windows. If the explorer.exe process hangs or crashes, it is causing other core elements of the operating system to crash as well. Even though it is usually possible to restart the Explorer process to bring everything back to life, it is a huge nuisance and instability issue.

In recent Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, Microsoft has started to unlink Immersive Shell from the Explorer process. First spotted by the makers of Start is All Back, a third-party Start Menu replacement for Windows, the change attempts to split Immersive Shell from Explorer. This step moves some core components into their own process, which in turn means that they won't go down with Explorer anymore or hang when Explorer hangs.

The change is in active development at this point in time and not working properly right now in the latest Insider builds. It is too early to tell when it will land in stable versions of Windows 11. A potential candidate is the next feature update for Windows 11, which is expected to be released at the end of 2023.

Microsoft plans to release several Moments update, feature drops, in the meantime, but it seems unlikely that such a major change is introduced as part of one of those updates.

In any event, the change could improve the stability and also performance of the Windows 11 operating system significantly.

Source

Same as Windows 10

While Windows 11 does not allow you to officially move your taskbar, a registry hack allows you to do this. The best part is your taskbar will still be functional after moving it. However, there are a few functional limitations when moving it to the screen's left or right.

Windows 11 uses the same registry key values as Windows 10. This means that this registry hack could have been performed in Windows 10 as well. It seems only a matter of time before Microsoft allows you to move your taskbar around while providing full functionality.

Still Want To Try?

If you're still eager to try moving your taskbar around, follow these simple steps. You need to first open your registry editor. This can be done by pressing Windows+R and typing "regedit" in the dialog box. You can also look for the registry editor in the start menu and click on it. Once the editor opens, navigate to the following key and paste it into the address bar:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3

If you're moving the taskbar on a multi-monitor setup, you will need to edit the values under all keys listed under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MMStuckRects3

Find the settings key within StuckRects3 and double-click it.

This will open the "edit binary value" window. You then need to locate the fifth value from the left. This can be found in the second two from the top. The default value for this is set as "3." This number determines which side of the screen your taskbar will show up on. Number "00" will place the taskbar on the left of the screen. Number "01" will place the taskbar on the top of the screen. Number "02" will place the taskbar on the right of the screen. Number "03" will place the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

To edit the number, place your cursor just ahead of the number and backspace once. You can then type in the number you want. Click ok when done.

Once you close the registry editor and restart Windows Explorer, the changes will take effect. While most people think restarting the computer will help, in this case, the explorer needs to restart. You can restart the explorer by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. This will open the task manager. Click on 'more details' at the bottom of the screen. Then select the processes tab and look for Windows Explorer. When you find it, right-click on it and click on restart.

You will now see your taskbar in the position you picked for it. It will be blank except for status icons for wifi and speakers. If you click on them, the settings window will open. Apart from this, nothing else will show up on the taskbar.

Back To Normal

When you're done experimenting with the taskbar, you can set it to its original position by following the steps above and setting the setting's value to "03."

Source

Bitwarden is a cloud-based open source password manager that is available as a free version and commercial versions. The free version does not restrict device access or limits the number of passwords that users may store, but it limits access to features such as emergency access, Bitwarden Authenticator, or hardware-based two-step verification. The price for individuals is just $10 per year on the other hand.

Bitwarden customers can use solutions such as the open source Vaultwarden, to run a Bitwarden server on their infrastructure. While that requires technical knowhow and a server, it improves control and manageability immensely. Bitwarden supported self-hosting for some time, but the process was highly technical.

The recent LastPass incident has shown that cloud-based password managers are lucrative targets. Depending on how data is stored by the company, it may lead to major issues for millions of users.

Tip: the migration from LastPass to Bitwarden is explained here.

A self-hosted instance is a much smaller target and therefore less attractive to threat actors.

Bitwarden unified will run on machines using a Docker container. It is an alternative to the standard deployment option, which uses multiple Docker containers and uses a Microsoft SQL Server database.

The new unified self-host deployment option is available for all Bitwarden plans and requires at least 200 megabytes of RAM, 1 gigabyte of storage space and Docker Engine 19 or newer.

One of the main advantages of Bitwarden unified is that it supports additional database types and CPU architectures. Basically, it enables support for ARM processors and databases besides Microsoft SQL Server. Support for ARM adds support for running Bitwarden's self-hosted instance on Raspberry PI devices, NAS servers, and any other hardware that uses ARM.

A support document is available that highlights how Bitwarden unified is installed on different operating systems. Configuration options are also explained.

Self-hosting a password manager is just one option that Internet users and organizations have when it comes to universal access. Some use local solutions, such as KeePass on their devices and store the password database on their own servers or at a file hosting service.

Source

If you are already in the Windows 11 team or just plan to upgrade, here are 11 apps (in no particular order) we consider must-haves on Microsoft's latest OS. They improve existing features or add something Windows 11 lacks (they also work perfectly fine on Windows 10).

You can also check out the older version of this article for Windows 10, published seven years ago.

1. Start11 ($4.99, 30-day trial)

Start11 fixes the Start menu and taskbar in Windows 11. It provides several familiar and more convenient Start menu layouts, the ability to ungroup apps, move the taskbar to the top of the screen, reposition the Start button, and personalize the experience to your heart's content. Start 11 frequently receives updates and new features, and we are convinced it should be on each Windows 11 PC.

Download Start11: Stardock.com

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship with Stardock

2. PowerToys (free)

PowerToys is the only first-party Windows app in this list. It is a popular set of advanced utilities for Windows 11 and 10 users that includes more than 15 "toys" for editing the hosts file, measuring your display, remapping keys and shortcuts, arranging apps and windows, keeping programs on top of the other, checking what processes block a file, extracting text from images, and more.

Besides providing a massive list of utilities, PowerToys is highly customizable and supports settings backups.

Download PowerToys: GitHub | Microsoft Store

3. Twinkle Tray (free)

Twinkle Tray makes managing your monitor's brightness easier without reaching for the physical controls or installing ugly-looking OEM software. The app features beautiful Windows 11-like UI with advanced options, such as the ability to schedule automatic brightness adjustments, set custom shortcuts, sync brightness across monitors, set additional parameters (contrast or volume), change the power state, and many more. You can even adjust the brightness with the scroll wheel when hovering the cursor over the app's icon.

Download Twinkle Tray: Twinkletray.com | Microsoft Store

4. NanaZIP (free)

NanaZIP is a fork of the popular 7Zip archiver. Besides offering what the original does, NanaZIP provides a better Windows 11 experience thanks to integration with the redesigned context menus. Also, NanaZIP is slowly migrating to WinUI, so the app will eventually get a much more modern user interface.

Download NanaZIP: Microsoft Store

5. Files App (free)

Files App is what the stock File Explorer should be. The app has numerous features to boost productivity when working with files, archives, and folders. It supports tabs, multi-pane and tree views, tags, compact overlay, custom themes, archives, and many more. Moreover, you can set Files App as your default Windows file manager, plus it has much better and more convenient context menus.

Files is a free and open-source project with a beautiful user interface and frequent updates that deliver new features regularly. The only thing to note is that the app cannot replace windows, such as "Save as" or "Open."

Download Files App: Microsoft Store

6. Auto Dark Mode (free)

Windows 11 still does not support automatic theme switching on schedule or sunset/sunrise, so here is an app that can automate the process, plus throw in several extra features. Auto Dark Mode allows creating custom schedules for mode switching, specifying custom themes for dark and light modes, toggling themes with shortcuts, personalizing backgrounds, etc.

Download Auto Dark Mode: GitHub | Microsoft Store

7. ShareX (free)

Windows 11 has plenty of screenshot-making tools. However, they are all on a more basic side (there is still no built-in screen recorder, and the one coming is lackluster at best), so those who need more advanced and convenient features should opt for ShareX. Although mastering the app to fit your specific needs might take a little more than one minute, the result will be a robust screenshot utility with a feature-packed editor, custom actions, OCR, screen recording (GIF and video), and more.

Download ShareX: Getsharex.com | Microsoft Store

8. EarTrumpet (free)

Pepperidge Farm remembers having a quick and easy-to-use volume mixer in Windows. Unfortunately, it is now buried in the Settings app (right-click the volume indicator and select "Volume Mixer"), so here comes the EarTrumpet tool. It will place another volume indicator in the notification area, and clicking the icon will open a flyout with your audio output devices and apps playing sound. The only problem with EarTrumpet is the old Windows 10-styled UI and Windows 11's inability to remove the standard volume indicator.

Download EarTrumpet: Eartrumpet.app | Microsoft Store

9. QuickLook (free)

This app copies one of those small neat features available in macOS by default. Apple's desktop operating system lets you preview any file by pressing the spacebar key, and you can get the same thing in Windows with the QuickLook app. Besides being small, light, and fast, the program supports various plugins for expanding its stock capabilities.

Download QuickLook: Microsoft Store

10. Paint.NET (free)

Paint.NET is something people often call "a free photoshop alternative for Windows." It's an excellent tool for those who need more advanced image editing features for free and without subscriptions. Paint.NET offers an intuitive user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of powerful tools.

Download Paint.NET: Getpaint.net

11. Dynamic Theme (free)

Dynamic Theme is a small wallpaper tool that lets you download and set as the desktop or lock screen background Bing and Windows Spotlight images. The latter is infamous for its frequent bugs, so Dynamic Theme is here to save the day (still not immune to bugs). The app also gets extra points for its native-looking UI resembling the stock Settings app.

Download Dynamic Theme: Microsoft Store

Of course, we cannot list every app in a single article. If you know other hidden gems for Windows 11 and 10, let us and others know in the comments below to spread the knowledge!

Top 11 apps every Windows 11 user should have

EDIT: Substituted image for incorrect article ShareX image

People might find Adobe Photoshop’s pricing too expensive. Today we review Affinity Photo, which is an alternative to Photoshop, without the high costs associated with it.

Adobe Photoshop, a software considered an industry standard for creation, editing and manipulation of an image. It however comes with a huge cost associated with it. It’s subscription-only model costs $20.99 per month to almost $239.88 per year.

Compared to that, Affinity Photo, often considered a Photoshop alternative, costs $54.99 upfront without any additional monthly or yearly charges for the base software.

Affinity Photo history

Released in 2015, Affinity Photo is not entirely a new product. It has at least two decades of a history behind it. Affinity Photo is a successor of Serif PhotoPlus which was released way back in 1999. In 2009, Serif Europe Ltd., a British company behind these products, decided to make a new software from an entirely new code written from ground up as an successor Serif PhotoPlus – which was phased out when Affinity Photo released. Six years in making, Affinity Photo was finally released to the public in 2015. Windows version came a year later.

Developers of Affinity Photo claim to provide a lot of features. From editing of RAW image files, merging of HDR files, Panorama Stitching, Focus Stacking, Batch Processing, 360 Image Editing, Digital Painting, Unlimited Layers, support for Smart Objects but more importantly, ability to edit and export PSD files.

But the question is. Does Affinity Photo justify it’s Photoshop alternative tag. Does it come even near it. We decided to try to review the Windows version of Affinity Photo to find it out.

Download and Installation

Downloading Affinity Photo is not entirely easy. One requires to create an account to get a download link emailed to their account. The file is 579 MB in size and downloaded quickly.

The installer uses a custom UI with the ability to install the software in whichever location one wants on the disk. The installation was done rather quickly.

When we ran the software after its successful installation, we were first greeted with a trial screen, then a beautiful splash screen, then a welcome screen.

User Interface

The new document page at start up had all the features required. From various image sizes, DPI, Orientation, colour format – including RGB/32 (HDR), colour profile, Transparent background option and other things.

When we started Affinity Photo, we immediately noticed how similar it looked to Photoshop, while still maintaining some of its originality.

It has all the tools one commonly finds in an image editor. Hand tool, Move tool (something we enjoyed using), colour Picker Tool, Crop Tool, Selection Brush Tool, Flood Select Tool (similar to Magic Wand Tool of Photoshop), Marquee Tool of various shapes like Rectangle, Elliptical, Row, Column and also a Freehand Selection Tool. Other tools included Flood Fill (Paint Bucket), Gradient Tool, various Paint brush tools, Erase Brush, Dodge Brush, Clone Brush Tool, Blur, Sharpen and Smudge Tool. It also has Healing Brush, Patch Tool, Blemish Removal Tool, Pen Tool, various shapes creation tool, Text tools, Zoom tool and a lot more.

On right-hand side we have a “Studio”, with Histogram, Scope, colour selection, Brushes and others. Below it are Layers and their creation / deletion buttons. Layer effects look and work quite similar to Photoshop. It also has Layer adjustments which allows one to manipulate individual layers among other things. Even below is the Navigator, RGB colour Channels selector and editor, also an Info tab which shows mouse location, memory efficiency among other things. We however had to manually find and enable History from the top View > Studio options to enable it.

Tools on top

What we liked was that Affinity Photo had special, easy to use tools on top.

It has Liquify Persona – which allows one to manipulate the size of various objects inside the photo with your mouse by dragging the area. Another option is Tone Mapping Persona, which allows one to modify the image with presets of various colour and brightness tones.

The top tools also come with buttons like Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto colours and Auto White Balance. All of them automatically adjust the image to what Affinity Photo considers to looks best. Other buttons include Select All, Deselect, Invert Selection among others.

However, our favorite top side tool is Develop Persona, which is a feature which professional photographers might find useful with their RAW and other image files. It gives one an ability to edit and modify Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, White Balance, Shadows and Highlights. In addition to it is ability to modify camera captures like Lens Correction, Noise Reduction, Tones modification, Split Toning and many other things. Making it almost a real life photo studio by itself.

Menus

The Menu of Affinity Photo has all the features one would expect. The File menu has an ability to Open New files normally, through Clipboard and also open New Panorama file among other things. One can also save files in a default .afphoto format native to Affinity Photo. It also gives an option to Export files in PNG, JPEG (JPG), GIF, PSD and many other formats.

The ability to save the file (export) in PSD however was not complete satisfactory. While it did have options of saving PSD in two formats – preserve accuracy and preserve editability, it did not save our text layers properly in an re-editable manner, no matter which option we selected. This problem was not found in its native .afphoto format.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu has basic options like Cut, Copy, Paste, Fill and others. It however contains main Preferences options of Affinity Photo.

The preferences window comes with a lot of options like General tab – Startup options, clipboard options, Language options.

The colour tab offers various colour profiles they use while using the software.

The Performance tab allows one to modify RAM usage limit, Disk usage warning, file recovery, View Quality, Renderer – with an ability to select GPU and Hardware Acceleration among other things.

The User Interface tab allows one to adjust Background Gray Levels, UI Gamma levels and UI Style – Dark or Light.

Other tabs include things like the Tools tab which allows selecting left-hand side toolbar sizes, ability to change Keyboard Shortcuts, Reset all settings, but most importantly, ability to add Photoshop plugins – this feature was a surprise to us.

Other menus

The Text menu has various options like Character options, Typography, Paragraph Styles, Text styles, Spell check and others.

The Document menu the gives ability to Add and Restore Snapshot, Resize Document – something which worked excellently in our trials, Resize Canvas, rotate and flip image.

The Layer menu has all the options we had mentioned previously – same as Layer options on the right. Blur, Shadow, Glow, Overlay, Gradient being some of them.

The Select menu gives an ability to Select All, Select specific layers or specific colour Range, Tonal Range and Alpha Range for individual editing.

The Filters menu is among the most interesting aspect of Photoshop and Affinity Photo disappoints here a little. It has almost everything, like dozens of Blur options, Sharpen, Distort, Noise, Detect, colour, Lightening, Shadows, Haze Removal among others. We however did not find any options to render clouds or add lens flare.

The View menu has Zoom options, Ruler, Grid, Margin options and ability to show and hide various objects on the screen.

The Help menu has Affinity Photo’s build in guide, which is one of the most detailed guides we have seen in a software. The menu also has a link to hundreds of video tutorials hosted on Affinity Photo’s official site.

Left toolbar

Coming back to the left toolbar that we had mentioned at the start of the article. We tried all the tools at our disposal and all of them worked as intended. Whether it was Flood Fill tool or whether it was Gradient tool or whether it was Paint Brush Tool – which came with a lot of options like Width (brush size), Opacity, Flow, Hardness, Blend and many other things. All of them worked as intended – some of them in fact worked better than Photoshop. However, we wanted to try what we consider our favorite feature of Photoshop – Content Aware tool. We knew Affinity Photo provided its alternative.

Content Aware and Inpaint

Content Aware is among the best features of Photoshop. It allows one to mark an area and make the object disappear completely from the image. The image editor fills the disappeared object with the background area and make it appear as if the original object did not exist. In Affinity Photo, this tool is known as Inpaint.

There are two ways to use this. One is to select and area with the Marquee Tool and then select the Inpaint option. The second option is to use the Inpainting Brush Tool. We used the second one as it is easier to use.

We chose a simple photo with a tree and used the Inpainting Brush Tool. See the results for yourself.

Looks good to us. But where is the tree?

Using advanced images might require advanced skills, though.

Conclusion and rating

We are not professional image editing experts. So we tried to review Affinity Photo to the best of our abilities. This was especially done with a consideration that the common users too might find benefit with this review, as professionals already might be aware about it. If anyone feels our review was lacking or insufficient or if there is any other way we could have improved it, then we would like to hear the feedback.

In our tests. We found that Affinity Photo has the ability to almost reach the Photoshop level of greatness. In some things, however, it pulls itself behind. But cheaper, one time payment cost is a huge advantage. Additionally, more features are getting added to it. So we recommend everyone to try it at least once. Maybe they can replace their favorite image editor with Affinity Photo.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Affinity Photo Is An Excellent Photoshop Alternative

The new Ventoy version improves the installation of Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system further. The main improvement in the new release enables two Windows 11-specific bypass options by default.

• VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_CHECK -- this bypasses the hardware compatibility checks that Windows 11 performs during installation of the operating system. Ventoy creates several Registry keys to bypass checks for TPM, CPU, Secure Boot and RAM during setup of the operating system. The feature was introduced in Ventoy 1.0.55, but it had to be enabled manually by the user.
• VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_NRO -- this bypasses the online account requirement of Windows 11. Users may set up a local account during installation of the operating system instead.

The functionality was introduced in earlier versions of Ventoy, but the new default behavior improves things for users considerably. Since it is enabled by default, it works right away. Users who don't want these applied need to override the default values using Ventoy's global control plugin.

Tip: you can check out my guide on using local accounts on Windows 11 here, and the guide on bypassing the creation of a Microsoft Account during Windows setup here.

Windows 11 users are now able to install the operating system on unsupported hardware, run upgrades, and bypass the online account requirement.

Ventoy 1.0.86 includes several fixes and improvements next to that. Noteworthy is Ventoy2Disk.exe's support for command line mode and new menu languages.

You can check out the full changelog here.

Ventoy is not the only bootable media tool that can bypass Windows 11 requirements. There is also Rufus, which includes similar functionality to do so.

As a note: Windows 11 installations on unsupported hardware run fine for the most part. Monthly cumulative updates install without issues, as no hardware compatibility checks are performed. New feature update installations, like Windows 11 version 22H2, do perform compatibility checks and do require these bypasses again, however.

Now You: do you use Ventoy or Rufus? (via Deskmodder)

Ventoy 1.0.86: bypass Windows 11 hardware and online account requirement enabled by default

Frontpaged:   Ventoy 1.0.86

Microsoft employee accidentally announces Notepad is getting tabs in Windows 11

• Added Windows Classic Skin

   

A preview of all available skins in WindowBlinds 11 is also provided as you can see in the image below:

The reskin looks pretty compelling overall. Here are a couple more examples, one with winver, and the other inside File Explorer:

We also include a few other sub-styles for the Win8 skin. These are the default, XP, Vista, and Windows 8 preset. This is not new and was already available previously.

WindowBlinds 11 went public beta earlier in the year. In case you haven't been following, here's what's new in it:

• Automatic dark mode
• Enhanced high-DPI support for new skins
• Marketplace browser for skin library
• Autoscaling for legacy skins to improve visual fidelity
• Designed for Windows 10 and 11

You can download WindowBlinds 11.0.1.0 from Neowin or from Stardock's official website. You can also download the entire Object Desktop package. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start10, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes and Multiplicity.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

You can now relive Windows 95 on Windows 11 and 10 with latest WindowBlinds 11 update

Frontpaged:   WindowBlinds 11.0.1.0

It is worth noting that Feedback Hub is full of duplicating posts, so the exact number of upvotes of a specific request is significantly higher than those listed below. Be sure to upvote the complaints from this article to expedite the feedback and increase the chances of Microsoft doing something or at least providing a proper response (all the posts below are flagged with the generic "we've got this" message).

1. Add an option to turn off the computer once a download finishes - 393+ upvotes
2. Add an option to verify the integrity of game files - 149+ upvotes
3. Add an option to limit download speeds (bandwidth) - 112+ upvotes
4. Add an option to locate an installed game - 82 upvotes
5. Display playtime in hours, not days - 70+ upvotes
6. Bring back some of the old Xbox Console Companion Features - many upvotes
   This includes many feedback pieces, with users asking Microsoft to restore previously available features: club management, activity feed, streaming, etc. Many customers across the Feedback Hub complain that the Xbox app is raw and not feature-complete compared to the Xbox Console Companion app.
7. Improve system requirements discoverability - 42+ upvotes
   Finding the system requirements for a specific title requires quite a lot of clicks in the current version of the Xbox app. The author of this feedback piece claims a more accessible system requirements section will improve the user experience and reduce the chances of accidental purchases with subsequent refunds.
8. Add a better taskbar icon - 37+ upvotes
   This one is self-explanatory. The Xbox app's icon looks too out-of-place, desperately needing some fluent treatment.
9. Add controller battery notifications - 32+ upvotes
   This feedback piece is heavily underrated. Although you can get a rough estimate of your controller's battery level, the system does not alert when the battery is about to kick the bucket, resulting in abrupt disconnections and lost games.
10. Allow per-game language settings - 28+ upvotes

The most popular gaming requests from Windows 11 and 10 customers are hardly surprising. Despite leading the industry and providing the main and only platform for PC gaming, Microsoft struggles with many basic or straight primitive things. And we have not mentioned the massive number of cryptic errors people deal with when using the Xbox app, miserable performance, UI inconsistencies with the rest of the system, and all sorts of annoying bugs.

Still, it is not the end of the world. The Xbox app for Windows frequently gets updates, so there is hope for improvements and better times. After all, most gaming stores on Windows have already figured out most of the above mentioned things.

Do you agree that the list above is what gaming on Windows 11 and 10 needs the most? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Top 10 gaming features and changes Windows 11 users want