Microsoft has announced the general availability of the progressive web app (PWA) for Teams, in terms of official support. The company says that this will allow Linux users to leverage desktop-like features in Teams in a secure manner.

More importantly, this move essentially bridges gaps between the desktop versions of Teams on Windows and Linux. The latter has been available since 2019 but Microsoft claims that it could ship new features faster via the PWA.

The PWA offers other advantages too, including large galleries, Together mode, custom backgrounds, reactions, system notifications, a dock icon, and auto-restart. Organizations can also configure conditional access in the PWA with Endpoint Manager.

Microsoft has recommended Linux customers to switch to the PWA version of Teams, touting the latest features with desktop-like functionalities.

The Teams PWA is supported on both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome running on Linux.

Source

So far, this year, the company has been found testing such ads and promos in File Explorer (later disabled) and Microsoft Store on Windows 11. And now, it looks such a thing could be coming to the Windows 11 Start menu as well.

Twitter user Albacore noticed promos for OneDrive on the user session flyout in Start menu recently on the newer Windows 11 Dev Channel builds. The promo says "Back up your files" with a OneDrive logo.

More such promos (via Albacore) have also been noticed, with another one suggesting signing up for a Microsoft Account (MSA).

Microsoft is probably testing the feature now and in case you have it and want to disable it, here's how to do it using ViveTool.

Caution: Unannounced features are often raw, unstable, or borderline unusable. Back up important data before using the ViveTool app and enabling hidden options. Remember that using stable Windows 11 is the best way to ensure your system remains as bug-free as possible.

How to disable Start menu promos on Windows 11 Dev builds:

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

   

4. Navigate to the folder containing the extracted files using the CD command. For example, if you have extracted ViveTool to C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
5. Type vivetool /disable/id:36435151 and press Enter.
   (For PowerShell, try: .\vivetool /disable/id:36435151)
6. Restart your computer.

To re-enable it, just use "enable" in place of disable. Thanks to Twitter user PhantomOcean3 for sharing their findings.

Microsoft is now pushing ads and promos in Windows 11 Start menu, but you can disable them

• Build 22623.885 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.885 = New features off by default.

Without further ado, below are the release notes.

What’s new in Build 22623.885

Access Windows Studio Effects from Quick Settings

Windows Studio effects can now be accessed directly from Quick Settings on the taskbar, for devices that have a supported Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This makes it quick and easy to enable and configure camera effects (Background Blur, Eye Contact, and automatic framing) and audio effects (Voice Focus). You can still access these effects in the Settings pages if desired.

Microsoft is requesting that Windows Insiders file feedback in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Power and Battery > Energy Recommendations.

Energy Recommendations

We are beginning to roll out Energy Recommendations under Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy Recommendations. Review and apply these recommendations to improve the energy efficiency of your PC and reduce your carbon footprint.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

Microsoft is requesting that Windows Insiders file feedback in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Power and Battery > Energy Recommendations.

What’s new in Build 22621.885 & 22623.885

Expanded View in Widgets

Need more space in your widgets board? Can’t quite see everything at a glance? We’re trying out some changes that will allow you to expand the size of your widgets board.

Use the expand and collapse button in the top right corner of the board, next to the add widgets button, to expand or collapse the size of your widgets board.

The button that shows at the top right to expand the widgets board.

The size of your board is remembered, so if you prefer your widgets board to always show you more content and leave it expanded then that’s how it will be the next time you open it.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

Here are the changes and Improvements in Build 22623.885:

[System Tray]

• This build includes support to rearrange icons in the hidden icons flyout in the system tray that began rolling out with Build 22623.746.

   

[Input]

• We are introducing the new Tamil Anjal keyboard for the Tamil language. To add it, make sure Tamil (Singapore), Tamil (Malaysia), Tamil (Sri Lanka), or Tamil (India) is listed under Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region, and then click the “…” next to the language, select Language Options, and add Tamil Anjal (QWERTY) to the list of keyboards.
• This build includes support for the use of clipboard history (WIN + V) on password fields.
• Switched the touch keyboard icon option under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar from being a toggle to now being a dropdown where you can select Never, Always, or When no keyboard attached.

Here are the bug fixes in Build 22623.885:

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed a few explorer.exe crashes related to the recent taskbar and system tray work.

• The pin/unpin visual will now display when dragging system tray icons to any position along the system tray, and not only when hovering over the show hidden icons button.

• Fixed the issue where certain chat apps (that supported it) weren’t flashing with new messages or opening a preview on hover in the system tray.

• The show hidden icons flyout in the system tray should now responsively resize with changes again to prevent empty spaces and columns.

• Fixed an issue that could result in the show hidden icons flyout appearing disconnected from the taskbar in certain cases.

• Fixed an issue that was causing the volume icon in the system tray to incorrectly show as muted.

• Fixed an issue where invoking the context menu for items in the system tray might not put the context menu in the foreground and it would get stuck behind the taskbar.

   

[File Explorer]

• Did some work to help improve the performance of deleting files via File Explorer (when emptying the recycle bin or using Shift + Delete) in the case where there are a large number of files being deleted at once.

   

Here are the fixes for both build 22621.885 and 22623.885:

• We fixed an issue that affects some modern applications. It stops them from opening.

Finally, the known issues are given below:

[General]

• We’re looking into reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders in recent Beta Channel builds.

   

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• The taskbar sometimes flashes when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.

• The taskbar takes longer than expected to transition to the touch-optimized version when switching between desktop posture and tablet posture.

• When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the taskbar sometimes stays stuck in the expanded state, instead of dismissing to collapsed state.

   

Finally Microsoft has posted a reminder about what an Insider can expect from being in the Beta Channel, specifically in cases where new features can show up in the Beta Channel before they become available (or not at all) to the Dev Channel or the stable version of Windows 11.

About the Beta Channel

The Beta Channel will be the place we preview experiences that are closer to what we will ship to our general customers. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. However, this does not mean every feature we try out in the Beta Channel will ship. We encourage Insiders to read this blog post that outlines the ways we’ll try things out with Insiders in both the Dev and Beta Channels.

You can find the official blog post here.

Expanded View for Widgets and Energy Recommendations arrive in Windows 11 Beta

If you are looking for a free and open source all-in-one file converter which converts audio, video, images and documents, look no further. File Converter has it all.

We were looking for a good converter which allowed us to convert images to WebP image format quickly for our site. We couldn’t rely on online services as they are good only for an image or two and take some time to do it. So we required a proper software.

We had many options. But none of them were designed to do it quickly. A lot of them had many complicated settings that required to be modified. Then we found a nice free and open source software named File Converter. Yes, File Converter. Simple name.

Developed by a French developer named Adrien Allard, it’s a great software which allows converting not only images, but audio, video and documents too.

In audio files, it supports converting to flac, aac, ogg, mp3 and wav. With huge amount of input formats.

In video files, it supports converting to webm, mkv, mp4, ogv, avi and gif. Again, with big input format options.

In image files, it supports converting to png, jpg, ico and webp. However, again, with huge amount of input file support.

Lastly, in document files, it supports converting to just pdf. But on the contrary, you can convert a huge amount of images and office files to pdf. Which is a great thing.

All these supported file formats, both input and output, are mentioned here. We suggest everyone to go through it.

Its source code too is available on its GitHub page. Now let’s get to the review.

Download and Installation

Downloading it was quick and easy. Only problem is it does not come with a portable version. Which is sometimes understood as it’s required to integrate it into the right click menu. In simple words, it needs to connect itself to the OS, which is not possible for a completely portable software. Though, we would like the developer to consider making one.

Installation too was quick and good with all the basic required options. Our problem was, there was no icon on the desktop. But as it’s about the shell menu / right click menu, so no big deal.

File Converter Settings

The settings of File Converter are simple. This is the main and only complex part of this software.

On the left is output formats which it supports. One can move them up or down depending on how they want it to appear when they right-click the file they want to convert.

Selecting those file formats shows which formats you want to allow it to input / convert from.

In output settings it has format options, quality sliders, encoding speed, customizable file name template and a lot more.

It also has an option to move the input file to the archive folder or delete it after its conversion is completed.

Application Tab

In Application tab, it supports changing to three different languages. English, which is default, then there is French and Portuguese.

It also has a slider for a number of max simultaneous conversions one can do.

It has options to auto-exit when conversions are finished. Additionally, it has a slider option to wait a certain amount of seconds before exiting. Then it has options to auto-check for updates when the software starts. In all, basic but powerful and featured enough.

About Tab

The About tab has one nice feature. To download change log when required. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work on our side. The downloading of change log has stuck.

It has a donate button. A button to open its GitHub page. A button for its Wiki documentation page, which has links to many detailed explanation of features of the software. It has a button to open the software’s homepage, but it is broken as it adds www to the site, which leads to a broken link.

However, what we liked the most – the reason we are even sharing this part, is that it has a button, which, when clicked, opens up a report issues page on the GitHub page of the software. There one can, just like many have, report the issue one is having. This is excellent and helps improve the software and shows that the developer is interested in conversation with the users and wants to continue improving the software.

The only option we felt missing was to reset to defaults.

Now to the main part. Conversion.

Converting Audio Files

Converting audio files in File Converter. Credit: File Converter.

In audio file conversion, one can easily click on an audio file and convert it to the audio format they want.

We decided to convert the famous Start Wars main theme from mp3 to ogg format. The conversion was quick within seconds. It took at 192 Kbps mp3 file and converted it into a 160 Kbps ogg audio file. The size changed from 7.91 MB to 6.33 MB. A 20% reduction in size.

After hearing the converted original and converted files, we found no noticeable loss in quality. To confirm it, we checked it in the free audio analyzing and manipulation software Audacity.

In Audacity, we found no difference between both the tracks whatsoever when compared on top of one another.

We also tried converting the ‘The Imperial March’ from Start Ware: The Empire Strikes Back. The results were the same.

Then we tried something different. We converted a video file into an audio format and the result was very successful. It extracted the audio from the video and File Converter converted the file into an audio format of our liking. The results were excellent. Though, we would have preferred if it had a feature of just extracting the audio and not only converting it. But that’s not what this software is made for.

In all, audio conversion was satisfactory. It must be mentioned that File Converter uses FFmpeg, an open source media converter library which almost all other media converters use too. So quality is almost guaranteed and same across various different software.

Though, the only problem we had was that we could not save the bit rate settings for AAC. It kept resetting itself to 155 Kbps.

Converting Video Files

In video conversion, unfortunately, File Converter only supports converting to H.264. That means it cannot convert to H.265 (HEVC) which is the latest standard these days. Though H.264 remains one of the most used codec out there.

We decided to convert a H.265 (HEVC) video file to a H.264 to make it compatible with all the players out there. We kept the quality settings at default 30 and encoding speed at medium. There’s no option to set custom bit rate. Which is understandable, as this software seems more suitable for quick conversion rather than a detailed one.

Again, the conversion was quick. The loss in quality, thanks to converting from H.265 to H.264 was hardly noticeable. Probably because we used a video file with a high bit rate, but the bit rate was half in the converted file and still we did not see much quality difference, except when zoomed in.

We have a attached screenshot of the original and converted file. It’s for the users to notice any difference in them.

As mentioned above, File Converter uses FFmpeg, so quality is almost guaranteed and same across various different software.

Converting Image Files

Now comes the part for which we used this software in the first place. Converting images.

As mentioned at the start of this article. We wanted a software through which we could easily convert our files from PNG and JPG to WebP images.

The idea behind using WebP is that images converted to WebP are slightly smaller than JPG and significantly smaller than PNG. So, when converting to WebP, we decided that we wanted the highest converted image quality possible without much increase in the file size. Hence, we decided to change the quality slider from default 70% to 95%. Setting at 100% gave huge file size increase, hence not recommended.

The conversion was really quick. Each file took less than a second to convert. Right-click the image file > File Converter > To WebP and done.

But the results were even more impressive than the time it took to convert the files. In JPG to WebP conversions, we saw at least 10-20% decrease in file size without much quality loss. The highest file size decrease was seen at 50% of the original file, which is great. It was only in some instances that the output WebP file was larger than JPG, but it’s due to how both the image types and their compression methods are designed.

But it gets even better in PNG. When converting from PNG to WebP, we were able to find 85% to sometimes even 90% decrease in file size. For example, the video file compare screenshots we have shared above, the original PNG screenshots were 3700 KB in size. Converting them to WebP in File Converter, they became 350 KB in size with no noticeable decrease in quality even when zoomed.

We found that the average decrease in file size from PNG to WebP was 85% across almost all the PNG files. Though, it was lesser when converting smaller files and more noticeable in larger ones.

It must be mentioned that File Converter uses ImageMagick, which is a golden standard, to convert image files. So again, good quality is almost guaranteed.

Converting Document Files

File Converter has the ability to convert a lot of Office files to PDF. However, one needs to have Office installed as per the requirements of the software to convert those files. Unfortunately, we don’t have it installed at the moment to test it.

Fortunately, it allows converting image files to PDF and that’s what we did. When converting various images to PDF, we found some problems.

The size in pixels of the converted images, inside the PDF, were reduced significantly in PDF conversions. So the quality decrease too was visible. But thankfully, the quality was not reduced so much that it was not even comparable. The only problem was that the images inside the PDF had a lot of sharpening added to them, probably to negate any loss in quality.

Both the image and PDF files were comparable, though the PDF file had a lesser quality image in it, with the words inside it looking more sharpened.

File Converter uses an external library to convert files to PDF. So whatever quality and output results File Converter might give, it might give due to that library.

Testing The Latest Fork with H.265 Capability

When we started using this software and subsequently, started writing this review, we felt a need for an update to the software with an added capability of converting video files to H.265 (HEVC). A person has forked the software, which can be downloaded from here, with a capability to convert video files to H.265.

It has two versions, the GPU version which uses graphics card to convert files which is faster and there’s the usual CPU version which uses CPU to convert files. However, there are two major problems in it.

First, the software’s video quality slider does not work. It has a fixed quality setting. Please check the changelog of the software for the reason behind it.

Second, we are not able to play the converted video files correctly when we used the GPU version. While it can be anything related to the video player we use or the codecs we have installed, or it can also be a problem with the newer FFmpeg library it uses. But still, as we found issues with the converted files when using the GPU version, we don’t recommend it yet. The CPU version, however, did not have such problems, but output file sizes were too big for us to recommend it – remember, the quality setting is fixed.

Conclusion

File Converter is an excellent software to quickly convert audio, video, image and document files if quality is not a priority. It offers a fair amount of options and controls, though more is required.

Pros:

• Great free and open source software.
• Uses publicly available libraries.
• Excellent for quickly converting files.
• Offers a lot of options and file extensions.
• The software was originally developed with good amount of attention to details.
• The output quality and file size reduction is unbelievable, especially in audio and image files.
• Converting video files to H.264 is good too.

Cons:

• The software is not updated from some time now, with no built-in H.265 (HEVC) support.
• The audio quality slider for AAC does not work.
• Converted PDF quality needs more improvement.

In spite of all the problems with it. We fully recommend this software for anyone who has need to use it.

Review: File Converter. Great, Free and Open Source Software

First spotted by Albacore, it appears that Microsoft has found another location to advertise its services. Some might say that it is Microsoft's right to promote its own services, considering that it owns the operating system. Others may object, stating that Microsoft should not plaster advertisement across the entire operating system.

Microsoft tested ads in various locations of the Windows operating system, from File Explorer over Search to Windows Widgets and Microsoft Edge. All have in common that they advertise Microsoft services and products; some free and some paid.

In this particular case, it is debatable whether OneDrive is the best option when it comes to backing up files. The service is integrated deeply into new versions of Windows and enabled automatically when users sign-in with a Microsoft account.

Microsoft shifted strategy regarding Windows some time ago by making it a vessel for additional revenue. Getting users to use OneDrive, and in the next step, to subscribe to a paid plan, adds to Microsoft's revenue and pushes users into the company's ecosystem even further.

Tests on several desktop systems running Windows 11 did not return the "back up your files" listing in the context menu. It is possible that this is a limited trial run or limited to certain regions or based on other information that Microsoft has at its disposal.

Closing Words

It is clear that Microsoft won't change the course in the near future. To the contrary, it may even intensify advertisement on Windows machines. News broke recently that Microsoft is working on a new product that ties Windows with Windows 365 even further. The main idea behind this is to sell or rent low-cost devices to businesses and home users, and generate revenue from advertisement and subscriptions.

It would not be that much of a problem if Windows would include an option to turn all of these ads off in the settings. Such options exist for some locations. On Windows 11, there is an option under Privacy & Security > General, to disable suggested content in the Start Menu.

Most Windows users and organizations won't switch to another operating system because of this. Migrating to Linux, which seems the only option going forward, as Windows 7 and 8.1 will run out of support in January 2023, is a daunting task for most.

Now You: what is your take on this?

Some Windows users see OneDrive ads in the user session menu

The social network says it now has over 655,000 users - with over 230,000 having joined in the last week.

On the surface Mastodon looks like Twitter - account users write posts (called "toots"), which can be replied to, liked and re-posted, and they can follow each other.

Under the bonnet, though, it works in a different way.

That's one of the reasons it is attracting fresh users, but it has caused some confusion to new people signing up.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

The platform is six years old but its current activity is unprecedented and it is struggling under the weight of new joiners.

Here's a brief guide to finding your way around it.

What are all these servers?

The first thing you have to do when you sign up is choose a server. There are loads of them, They are themed - many by country, city or interest - like UK, social, technology, gaming and so on.

It doesn't hugely matter which one you are on because you will be able to follow users on all the others anyway, but it does give you a starting community who are more likely to post things you are interested in as well.

Some of the popular ones - such as social and UK - are currently running very slowly because of demand.

Ryan Wild, who is running the MastodonApp.UK server via his firm Superior Networks, said he had over 6,000 new joiners in 24 hours and had to pause registration.

"I wanted to see what the hype was about," he said.

"I stood the server up at 10pm Friday night, and I woke up next morning to 1,000 people I didn't know would rock up."

How do you find people?

The server you choose becomes part of your user name - so for example, I used my current Twitter handle, zsk, and chose the UK server, making my user name @zsk@mastodonapp.uk. And that's my address there - what you would look up to find me.

If you are on the same server, you can search just using the person's name, but if they are on a different server you will need their full address.

Unlike Twitter, Mastodon won't suggest followers you may be interested in.

You can also search hashtags.

Why are the servers there?

Okay, this is complicated, but I'm going to try to keep it very simple.

Mastodon is not one platform. It's not one "thing" and it is not owned by one person or firm. All of these different servers link together, and form a collective network, but they are owned by different people and organisations.

This is called decentralised, and fans of decentralised platforms like them for exactly this reason - they can't be run at the whim of a single entity, bought or sold.

However the downside of this is that you are instead at the whim of the person or organisation running your server - if they decide to abandon it, you lose your account. Mastodon is asking server owners to give their users three months notice if they decide to close it.

The original founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, is working on a new network called BlueSky, by the way - and he has said he wants that to be decentralised too.

How is Mastodon moderated?

This is a real hot potato. At the moment all the servers have their own moderation rules, and some have none. Some servers are choosing not to link to others that are full of bots or seem to have a high quantity of hateful content - this means they will not be visible to those on the servers where they are blocked. Posts can also be reported to the server owners.

If it's hate speech or illegal content then those owners can delete it - but that does not necessarily delete it everywhere.

It's going to be a huge issue if this platform continues to grow.

There are already reports of people being targeted by hateful content and the BBC has seen examples of homophobic abuse.

Are there any ads?

No. There are no ads although there's also nothing to stop you writing a post promoting your company or product.

Mastodon also doesn't offer a curated experience like Twitter does in terms of how you view posts - you generally see what your followers are saying, as they say it.

Is it free to use?

It depends which server you are on - some are asking for donations, as they don't get paid, but it is largely free.

You can follow Zoe Kleinman on Mastodon @zsk@mastodonapp.uk (or Twitter @zsk)

Source

Microsoft introduced virtual desktops in Windows 10 in 2015, only to let them sit virtually (heh) untouched for more than seven years. Such neglect is unforgivable for an operating system focusing on productivity, empowering people, and "putting you in the center."

Sounds good, does not work

I love the idea of virtual desktops—they are a centerpiece (although crippled) of my productivity and one of my favorite Windows features. Windows is my primary desktop operating system, and I do not plan to switch to Mac in the foreseeable future. Still, I have spent enough time using macOS to realize how bad virtual desktops on Windows 10 and 11 are.

My standard Windows environment consists of three virtual desktops on two monitors—the left desktop for image editing, the center for main work, and the right for various extra research and non-essential apps I use less frequently. Windows 11 hurts me every time I open Task View, move apps across desktops, or switch between them.

Just to name a few

To begin, I cannot assign apps to desktops (something macOS has, and I am so jealous of it). I want Windows to jump to a specific desktop when I open a particular app. Instead, I need to move every window to its desktop whenever I turn on my computer. Therefore, my day starts with launching my apps and sorting them across virtual desktops. And here comes another thing: you cannot right-click a shortcut and open it on a new or existing desktop, not to mention having different shortcuts on different desktops, which would make managing windows so much easier.

What grinds my gears is the operating system not displaying a transition animation when I move between desktops—animations are only available on tablets and laptops when you use gestures. And I do not want even to start ranting about glitchy animations and other graphical anomalies I observe every time I use Task View and virtual desktops. Watching your apps abruptly disappear when you change desktops is not a fluent or pleasant experience, especially if you use different wallpapers on each desktop.

Update: As it turned out, Microsoft disabled the transition animation in Windows 11 22000.120 due to bugs causing "flashes and hangs." As you can guess, the problem was never fixed. Kudos to adrenalyne for pointing that out.

Another thing that makes virtual desktops in macOS much better than Windows is how you move apps across desktops. Grab a window and drag it to the left or right edge of the display to send it to another desktop (this also works for files). In Windows, the only way to move an app is to press Win + Tab and drag or right-click it. And no, you cannot drag files across desktops.

Finally, you cannot have two virtual desktops on two different displays. Windows treats all your monitors as one large desktop, so switching desktops on one display changes them on other monitors.

Only two virtual desktops-related settings, nothing more

I am not the only one ranting about how bad virtual desktops are. Other users also understand how powerful virtual desktops can be when implemented properly. Feedback Hub and various social platforms have many suggestions and pleas from frustrated users asking to make virtual desktops just a bit better. Here are some of the most popular requests:

• Add animations when switching between desktops—such a weird omission for an operating system that focuses so much on aesthetics and visual appeal. Besides, the transition is available in Windows 10 but not in Windows 11.
• Allow pinning apps so that they are available on all desktops. This one is available when you right-click an open app in the Task View, but you need to do this every time you launch the app—Windows cannot remember you want to keep the program on all desktops all the time.

  

   

• Let users assign keyboard shortcuts for specific desktops to make switching faster. Switching is not a big problem when you have two or three desktops, but it becomes more tedious if you prefer having multiple desktops for different tasks.
• Let users cycle between desktops using Win + Tab—just a matter of convenience and accessibility.
• Different desktops on different monitors. This would solve the problem of assigning apps to desktops.
• Let users move an open window to a specific desktop by right-clicking on the taskbar without opening Task View.
• Fix bugs—low-fps animations, stutters, windows jumping back and forward, flashing screens, and more.

There are speculations that virtual desktops implementation in Windows 10 and 11 is far from being an example of a good code (rumors say DWM is faking virtual desktops), so maybe that is why this feature sucks so much. But I do not want to know why virtual desktops are bad—all I want from Microsoft is to improve the experience or rewrite it from scratch. I do not need crappy Android apps (this is my personal opinion, okay?) on my computer—I want my favorite productivity feature to be better and stop annoying me every time I use it.

I hate my favorite Windows feature

Office Version 2211 (Build 15831.20012) also comes with bug fixes and improvements. It has fixes for notable bugs in Word and Office Suite. You can read the complete official changelog to learn more about what’s new in the latest Office Insider preview update for Windows users below.

Changelog

November 4, 2022 | Version 2211 (Build 15831.20012)

PowerPoint

• Save Media with Closed Captions. Now, when you right-click and choose Save Media as, all the closed caption files are saved along with the media file.

Word

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where no visual indicator would show which wrap text option was selected.
• We fixed an issue where content would flash with every keystroke when typing in a tracked change in a table.
• We fixed an issue where printing would stop working.
• We fixed an issue where a paragraph before non-editable content could not be deleted.

Office Suite

Notable fix

• We fixed an issue where a file, opened as protected, would remain in a temp folder after the user closed it and exited Office.

Microsoft is currently testing these changes with Office Insiders, so the general public cannot see them right now. The good news is that they will eventually be available for all Office users. Meanwhile, Beta Channel Insiders on Windows will get another new Office Build next Friday, and we are hoping that the upcoming Office update for Windows will be much more exciting with lots of new features and changes.

To update the Microsoft Office Insider Preview Build to the latest version, open any Office program and go to File> Account> Update Options> Update Now.

Office Version 2211 (Build 15831.20012) for Insiders on Windows introduces new PowerPoint feature

Project Bergamot is a EU-funded project to create a privacy-friendly and open translation service. Browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge had an edge over other browsers for a long time, as they could leverage the translation services of their parent companies.

Both Google Translate and Microsoft Translate are cloud-based services, that require an Internet connection. Information is submitted to Google or Microsoft whenever content is translated.

Firefox Translate changes that by moving translations to the local system. The extension works really well already, but lacks support for the majority of languages.

TranslateLocally

TranslateLocally's origin dates back to Project Bergamot, just like Firefox Translations. Project Bergamot funding ended in June 2022, but a new project, High Performance Language Technologies, received funding already.

TranslateLocally is available as an extension for the Firefox web browser and as a desktop app. Since it is not as deeply linked to Firefox as Firefox Translations, it may in theory also be made available for other browsers. An experimental Chromium extension is already in development.

The desktop app is a standalone application that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux devices. It appears to be powered by Electron. Once started, it requires that you download at least one language pair to enable offline translation support.

The list of language pair that is supported is identical to that of Firefox Translations:

Bulgarian ? English
Czech ? English
Estonian ? Engish
French ? Engish
German ? English
Polish ? English
Spanish ? English
Ukranian ? English
Icelandic ? English
Norwegian Bokmål ? English
Norwegian Nynorsk ? English

You may type or paste text into the upper text field to have it translated automatically by the program. All translations happen locally.

The TranslateLocally extension for Firefox may be used independently or in conjunction with the desktop app. It adds an icon to the Firefox toolbar that displays the translation options when it is activated. You may also right-click on a text selection to have it translated directly.

The extension works similarly to Firefox Translations, but there are differences between both implementations:

• Supports in-page translations, not just full page translations.
• Is powered by a button in the interface as non-Mozilla extensions have no access to the area that Firefox Translations uses.
• Lacks form field translations (for now).
• May use models that Firefox Translations does not use.

One of the interesting features of TranslateLocally, besides being able to translate individual words, sentences or paragraphs, is that it may work in conjunction with the desktop app, which improves the translation performance. Another advantage is support for importing other translation models, provided that these support Marian.

Firefox Translations development continues as well. The next version will introduce support for translating text selections. Both projects will benefit from the new EU project as more language pairs will be produced in the coming three years.

Closing Words

Should you use Firefox Translations or TranslateLocally? There is no definitive answer to that, as both offer features that the other does not offer. Support for the translation of text selections is a much requested Firefox Translations feature, but differences exist even after that feature lands.

Now You: which translation service do you use? (via Sören Hentzschel)

TranslateLocally: local translations as an Extension and Desktop app

Originally designed to fit into the official limit for SMS text messages on mobile phones, Twitter posts were capped at 140 characters. This limit was later expanded to 280 characters in 2017. Now, a new tweet from its owners suggests that the social media giant will do away with the existing upper limit too.

    Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots

    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022

The change will end the need to attach longform text screenshots as previously users had to type a message on a text editor and then upload a screenshot of it to Twitter via Media to overcome the character limit and deliver the message in the entirety. While tweeting about the change, Musk also took a dig at Twitter's search feature and said his company is working on it to make it better.

The change comes amid the controversial decision of laying off employees to cut down the losses in revenue incurred and some of its current and former employees filing a class-action suit against the social media company. They blame Musk for failing to provide sufficient notice of the mass lay-offs following the takeover.

Meanwhile, Twitter has updated its app for iOS users with the availability of the new Twitter Blue subscription, costing $7.99 per month, with "half the ads" but promising them to be more relevant.

Source

Also:  https://i.imgur.com/z0euNRt.png

Whenever Windows finds you connected to a Wi-Fi network, it automatically updates the maps you downloaded offline. You can change this default behavior and stop it from consuming valuable storage space.

Stop Windows from automatically updating offline maps

The built-in Maps app in Windows is powered by Microsoft Bing Maps and can be used to quickly find directions to a place. You can use the app to easily save your favorite places like home or work and create collections of places you want to remember later. However, if you don’t find its Offline maps’ automatic update feature quite useful, you can disable it in an instant. Here’s how!

1. Click the Windows button residing on the Taskbar to see the frequently used apps. Choose Settings (visible as the cog-wheel icon). Alternatively, you can click the search button, type Settings, and select the app.
2. When the Settings window opens, scroll down to the Apps heading in the left panel and select it.

   

    

3. Switch to the right and expand the Offline Maps entry. It lets you manage downloads, storage locations, and map updates.

   

    

4. Hit the drop-down button adjacent to the Map updates entry.

   

    

5. Uncheck the Update automatically when plugged in and on Wi-Fi option.

Close the Settings window and exit. Restart your browser to allow the changes to take effect. This will stop Windows from automatically updating offline maps permanently.

How to stop Windows from automatically updating offline maps

It is worth mentioning that Microsoft's Windows 11-based virtual machines are not entirely free. You can use those VMs at no cost until January 10, 2023. After that date, Microsoft will ask you to activate Windows just like any other virtual machine or local installation (you can activate it with a genuine key and continue using it). Still, two months should be enough for developers to get acquainted with the following:

• Windows 11 Enterprise SKU (Evaluation)
• Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# workloads
• Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 with Ubuntu pre-installed
• Windows Terminal
• Developer Mode

The official Windows 11 virtual machines are available in four variants for different virtualization software: VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox (which recently received full support for Windows 11), and Parallels. You need at least 20GB of free disk space to get started with one of those virtual machines. You can find all the details and links for download on the official website.

Microsoft releases free Windows 11 22H2 virtual machines

The new update is available already. Firefox should pick it up automatically on most systems. Users who run affected devices may want to install the update immediately to resolve the issue.

This can be done by downloading the latest version of the Firefox web browser from the Mozilla website or, if Firefox starts on the device, via Menu > Help > About Firefox.

The official release notes list a single issue that is fixed in Firefox 106.0.5:

Addresses a crash experienced by users with Intel Gemini Lake CPUs.

Mozilla does not provide any details on the crash.

Intel Gemini Lake processors were released in 2017. They are considered low-powered chips that are primarily found in entry level devices such as low-cost laptops or desktop PCs.

Intel Gemini Lake CPUs were sold as Celeron and Pentium Silver processors in 2017. They feature Intel UHD Graphics.

Firefox 106.0.5 is the fifth point release of Firefox 106. Mozilla fixed crashes and freezes on some devices in Firefox 106.0.4, which it released just a day earlier.

Firefox 106.0.3 fixed a crash and hangs on Windows, and Firefox 106.0.2 fixed a freeze and opening issues on some devices.

The majority of these issues affected a small number of Firefox installations only and most were addressed by Mozilla quickly. Still, the release of five point releases resulted in increased update activity of the browser.

Mozilla plans to release the next major version of Firefox, Firefox 107.0, on November 15, 2022.Firefox 108 follows in December, and it will be the last major Firefox release of the year. As to point releases, users should expect some for each of the major Firefox releases. Looking back, it is clear that most Firefox releases come with at least one point release. The last Firefox release without one was Firefox 93, released more than a year ago.

Now You: what is your preference regarding updates?

Firefox 106.0.5 fixes a crash on certain Intel systems

Frontpaged:   Mozilla Firefox Browser 106.0.5

The full announcement says:

We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 25236.1010 (KB5021116). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev Channel.

Hence, all the bug fixes and improvements that were announced with the earlier released Build 25236 to the Dev Channel are carried over into this.

Interestingly, while there are no new changes made in this build, servicing test builds like these before have been known to break some features. For example, in the previous version of Windows, on Windows 10 Build 21292.1010 specifically, it caused issues for x64 emulation on ARM PCs.

The official announcement can be found on Microsoft's website here.

Latest Windows 11 Dev Channel Build 25236.1010 (KB5021116) is a servicing pipeline update

Microsoft considers the audio sync bug in Windows 11 2022 Update (22H2) serious enough to issue an upgrade block. If you previously used the capture feature in Xbox Game Bar, Windows 11 2022 Update will not be available until Microsoft provides a permanent fix.

Those already using the latest Windows 11 release can resolve the problem by downloading KB5018496, an optional cumulative update. It will arrive for all users later this month and lift the upgrade block, allowing affected gamers to get their Windows 11 systems to the most recent version. KB5018496 is the same update that brings redesigned notification area and a quirky hidden "compact taskbar" to Windows 11 2022 Update users.

Microsoft says the problem affects only Windows 11 2022 Update, so those preferring gaming on Windows 10 should not be afraid of ruined game recordings. According to Valve, quite a large chunk of customers can have peace of mind since only 23% of Steam users have moved to Windows 11.

Audio sync issues might be why you are not getting Windows 11 22H2

For those unfamiliar, Auto Dark Mode lets you schedule theme switching and make Windows enable or disable dark mode at sunset, a specific time, or using a dedicated shortcut. Auto Dark Mode has many customization options that allow you to set dedicated themes or wallpapers for dark and light modes, delay theme switching, set additional conditions, and more.

With version 10.3.0.90, the app becomes even better with new scheduling options, a more modern UI, new context menu entries, and more. Here is what is new:

New Features

• Use Windows Night Light as source for your light and dark switch times. You can of course still configure an offset in ADM.
• Pause automatic theme switching once (postpones until next sunrise / sunset time dynamically).
• Pause automatic theme switching for a short amount of time.
• Managed theme switch postponing via the UI on the time page:
  • Pause and resume theme switching via the UI on the Time page.
  • See which modules are holding up a theme switch and for how long (if they have an expiry time).
• Show a notification and delay or postpone this action interactively:
  • Before an automatic theme switch is applied and the theme needs to be updated.
  • When auto dark mode is started.
• New hotkeys:
  • Turn on/off automatic theme switching.
  • Pause theme switching until next sunrise/sunset.
  • Toggle themes between light and dark using a single hotkey. If you switch to a theme that doesn't match the time, we will auto-pause theme switching and notify you.
• New context menu options in the notification area / tray that provide the same functionality as the hotkeys.
• Toggle colorization for title bars and window borders for Windows 10 (does work on Windows 11 for some windows, but not all).
• Ignore certain options like background, cursors and sounds when using the Windows theme mode.

Improvements:

• Uses an additional, more modern theme switching method that supports more options and makes ADM more reliable (Huge thanks to @namazso for the awesome contribution)!
• Proper support for in-lockscreen theme switching. Windows 11 will switch as soon as you unlock your PC, Windows 10 will switch themes during the lockscreen.
• Clicking on the tray icon when the app is minimized will now instantly bring it to the front.
• Many stability improvements for theme state synchronization that include but aren't limited to:
  • More reliable wallpaper retrieval from an existing custom theme (for support with third party wallpaper tools),
  • Better detection when an unsaved Windows theme is used.
  • Improve potential wallpaper flickering by reducing the number of required synchronization calls.
  • More robust detection of the currently active windows theme.
• Single monitor and multi monitor wallpapers as well as solid color are now being retrieved when the wallpaper picker is enabled and when Auto Dark Mode starts for a smoother wallpaper switching experience with our own picker.
• The context menu in the tray now supports dark mode.
• The wallpaper page now requests a theme refresh when the setting is toggled on, which results in a slightly better user experience.
• We redesigned the personalization page to look a bit more modern.
• Added information text when pressing the copy button on the about page.
• Notification area icon and hover text shows if auto theme switching is paused or disabled.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where ADM stopped working with builds older than 19044 (#508).
• Fixed an issue on Windows 10 that caused multi users to experience missed theme switches on a user account when they were currently logged into another. You can toggle support for this on or off in the settings menu (#544).
• Fixed an issue where the Windows default themes were not correctly synchronized.
• Fixed an issue where custom theme synchronization was dependent on the system language and would only work correctly in English.
• Fixed an issue where activated slideshows in the source theme would cause the wallpaper picker to fail setting wallpapers.
• Fixed an issue where solid color backgrounds failed to synchronize (#547).
• Fixed multiple issues where incorrect theme paths were being retrieved, causing either too much or too little theme synchronizations and applications.
• Fixed an issue on Windows 10 where the "Restore themes when changed externally" setting would cause excessive theme updates by rate limiting the updates.
• Fixed an issue where the updater would parse whitelisted files with case-sensitivity.
• Fixed an issue where the theme picker page was always forcing a theme refresh when it loads, even when the setting is disabled.

Auto Dark Mode is available for free from the Microsoft Store and GitHub, where you can also contribute to its further development. It is a user-favorite app (it recently won an Open Platform award), and we are happy to see it growing with new features, improved mechanisms, and other improvements.

Auto Dark Mode gets new features and reliability improvements in latest update

Thunderbird users may check the installed version by going to Menu > Help > About Thunderbird in the program interface. Thunderbird displays the current version and runs a check for updates. Any update that it finds during the scan is downloaded and installed automatically.

Thunderbird 102.4.2

Thunderbird 102.4.2 is a bug fix release for the most part, but it introduces a change regarding address books in the client. New address books are created using CardDav instead of local address books. The change does not affect existing address books in the email client.

The release notes list all other changes, which, as usual, include cover different areas of the email client. Here is the rundown of the changes:

• Some messages could disappear in Thunderbird when moved to a different folder using the client's filter actions; this affected messages fetched from Pop3 servers with Fetch Headers Only selected.
• Thunderbird would redownload locally deleted messages from Pop3 servers even though "leave messages on server" and "Until I delete them" were both selected.
• Thunderbird would accidentally displays several password prompts for the same Pop3 account.
• IMAP authentication failed on the next run of Thunderbird if the ImapMail folder was deleted by the user.
• Retrieving passwords for authenticated NNTP accounts could fail "due to obsolete preferences in a users profile on every startup".
• Two bugs when fetching messages from NNTP servers were fixed in this release.
• Thunderbird installer and Thunderbird updater would create shortcuts on Windows with different names.
• The LDAP search filter did not work with non-ASCII characters.
• The Today highlighting in the month view of the Calendar did not update at midnight.
• Thunderbird text branding did not always match locale of localized build.

Now You: do you run Thunderbird? If so, which version?

Thunderbird 102.4.2: CardDav new default for address books

Frontpaged:   Mozilla Thunderbird 102.4.2

However, the percentage improvements noted by Microsoft here appear to be somewhat misleading. The company claims a 12% improvement when switching between chat threads over the June '22 update. And when switching between channel threads, that gain is noted at 11%.

However, the baseline for the data has actually been taken as the June 2020 update from two years ago, which means Microsoft has measured the percentage point differentials between the June 2022 and November 2022 updates, and not the actual gain percentage it seems.

The actual gain percentage with the latest framework upgrade should actually be 10% for switching chat threads and 8.6% for channel threads over June 2022, and not 12% and 11%, respectively.

The blog post detailing the changes has been penned by Microsoft's Jeff Chen, who is the Principal TPM manager for Teams. It says:

Users can enjoy a greater fluidity experience from day-to-day application interactions

The most common action for a user in Teams is to switch between different chats, channels, and activity feeds. Over the past two years, switching between chat threads is now 32% faster, switching between channels is 39% faster. This leads to a more fluid experience that will keep you in the flow.

Aside from faster switching between threads, Teams has also received improvements to the joining time with a 21% betterment. Latency and responsiveness see a 16% boost:

Improved meeting experiences from faster joining and interaction

Another common scenario of our day-to-day life with Teams is joining a meeting. We are excited to share that the framework upgrade improved the join time by 21%, and responsiveness during meetings has improved. For example, the latency of raising your hand has improved by 16%.

You may find more details on the official blog post.

Microsoft may just be really bad at Maths as it touts another big performance boost in Teams

If you somehow haven’t heard, Elon Musk has bought Twitter and has already started announcing and enacting major changes to how the social media site operates. One of the most controversial is that Twitter Verification will go from a free feature to a paid one, but the change might be even worse than we first thought: getting the blue checkmark may no longer require any actual verification.

In his breakdown of why Musk’s changes will destroy Twitter, our US Editor in Chief Lance Ulanoff highlighted some issues with needing to pay up for the blue check mark.

First, unlike Netflix, HBO Max, and the other best streaming services, Twitter doesn’t make its own content, it relies on its users to provide it. And unlike YouTube, there’s no in-app way for creators to make money from Twitter. Effectively, the change would ask Twitter’s most valuable assets (its top creators) to pay for the privilege of making Twitter better without receiving anything in return.

Second, while $8/month (around £7 / AU$12.50) isn’t a lot, it’s more than many currently verified people will be willing to pay. Some politicians and other government accounts will reportedly receive a separate free verification-like mark; but scientists, journalists, and other trustworthy sources who don’t pay up will once again struggle to stand out in the sea of bots, liars, and spam accounts.

Elon Musk is making some big changes to Twitter, not all of them are popular

(Image credit: Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

But if that wasn’t bad enough, according to leaked internal documents seen by The New York Times (opens in new tab), following the merging of Twitter Blue and Twitter Verification, subscribers would not need to get their identities authenticated to receive the blue check mark.

If true then the only thing stopping a bad actor from getting a fake account verified is an $8/month fee. For people wanting to sow chaos by pretending to be someone they aren’t, or set up a scam that steals valuable information or money from unsuspecting victims, $8 is a small price to pay.

Sure, not every scammer will be able to cough up for every account they run, but a single Verified account would likely have a lot more power to trick and scam people than an army of unverified ones – as many people would reasonably expect a Verified account to be genuine.

Part of this change could be because of the major layoffs that are expected to be announced at the social media company today (November 4). If Twitter is cutting its employee count as drastically as is predicted then the people that remain may no longer be able to manage the Twitter Verification system as it currently exists. This simpler method that offers Twitter Blue subscribers an instant checkmark would require much less oversight and be easier to manage with smaller staff counts.

As with all leaked information we have to take this news with a pinch of salt. No matter what is leaked – or even what Elon Musk tweets out – we won’t know how Twitter Verification and Twitter Blue will change until the company officially lays out the details (which we expect will be on Monday, November 7).

But, if the changes that The New York Times is warning about come to be then Musk’s claims that paying for verification is the “only way to defeat the bots & trolls (opens in new tab)” is wrong. This wouldn’t beat the bots, it would supercharge them.

Source

This doesn't seem to be the case any more, however, as many people have reportedly deactivated their account since the "Chief Twit" took over.

According to new data by Bot Sentinel, a firm that tracks inauthentic behaviour on Twitter, the social media network has already seen 877,000 deactivations between October 27 and November 1. In the same timeframe, a further 497,000 accounts were suspended. Adding these numbers up, Twitter has lost almost 1.4 million users.

To arrive at this number, Bot Sentinel looked at the proportion of users they analyse who had deactivated their accounts or had been suspended after Musk’s takeover. They then applied that percentage to Twitter’s overall user base, which is currently at 237 million.

A deactivation is when a user intentionally shuts down their account. A suspension, on the other hand, is when Twitter removes accounts for inactivity, inauthenticity, or violation of site rules.

A separate analysis by research group Network Contagion Research Institute found that bad actors are trying to test Twitter's limits after it has been acquired by Musk. For example, the use of the "n-word" on the platform increased by almost 500% in only 12 hours since Musk announced he had taken over Twitter.

Christopher Bouzy, Bot Sentinel’s founder, predicts that the growing hostile environment on Twitter will eventually promote user attrition. "I believe if users continue to deactivate their accounts en masse, it will become a significant problem for the platform," he states. "If left-leaning and marginalized people leave the platform, Twitter will not differ from Parler or Truth Social."

Source: MIT Technology Review

Source

With this release, users will only need to be on the ChromeOS Beta channel, rather than the Dev channel that was required before. Chromebooks with AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series and Intel 12th Gen Core CPUs are now supported, and the minimum CPU requirement has been lowered to i3 / Ryzen 3. This triples the number of supported Chromebooks and includes support for new cloud gaming Chromebooks from Lenovo, Acer, and ASUS.

With the new Steam beta, scaling in games has been improved, so you can play many games better on QHD and UHD displays. As a result of the work that has gone in over the last several months, Google has expanded its list of recommended games to 50 titles, with more coming. DirectX 12 and Vulkan 1.3 support has also been added for improved performance.

The full changelog is as follows:

• Added various game-specific tweaks
• AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series support
• Avoid sleeping when game indicates activity via dbus
• Changed shader cache format to reduce disk footprint
• Initial DX12 support
• Enable pointer lock by default (without the #exo-pointer-lock flag)
• Fixed some cases previously resulting in GPU hangs
• i3/R3 device support
• Improved battery life from reduced CPU overhead in Vulkan and DirectX titles
• Optimized display pipeline when scaling
• Improved GPU rendering performance with transparent huge page support
• Improved handling switching between apps and full-screen
• Improved keyboard handling; for example, the launcher key now works when the Steam client is focused
• Improved window management support
• Include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai fonts
• Increased size of shader caches
• Intel 12th Gen core support
• Low battery notifications
• Mouse cursor fixes
• New installer and splash screen
• Revamped storage management
  • Fixes games that install additional content outside of Steam
  • Improves file access performance for Proton games
  • Note: alpha users will need to uninstall and reinstall Steam so these changes can take effect
• Device no longer sleeps while games are downloading in the background.
• Shader caches persist until software update
• Show all low-battery notifications while gaming in fullscreen
• Vulkan 1.3 support
• Vulkan and GL performance improvements
• xshape support for games/launchers with transparency

To get started with Steam on ChromeOS, just head over to the setup page and follow the instructions. You’ll be able to find out here if your device is supported, learn about known issues, and see recommended games.

Source: ChromeOS Dev

Steam enters beta on ChromeOS 108 following seven-month alpha period

According to the release notes available in the official documentation, Firefox 106.0.4 fixes a rare issue causing crashes when playing DRM-protected videos. Another crash could happen when users navigate to about:support and trigger device reset—version 106.0.4 fixes that bug too. Finally, the latest Firefox release solves the problem with a broken layout of datetime input when switching types.

Here is the full changelog with links to the fixed bugs on Bugzilla:

•         Fixed an issue with DRM Video playback (bug 1797292).
•         Fixed broken layout of datetime input when switching types (bug 1797139).
•         Fixed a crash experienced by some users during media playback (bug 1792115).

Firefox will install the latest release automatically, but users can force-update the browser by navigating to Help > About Firefox. Alternatively, you can download and install Firefox 106.0.4 using an installer from the official website.

In case you missed it, Mozilla is considering extending support for Firefox on Windows 7. Microsoft will soon end the program providing extended support for its 13-year-old operating system, and developers of Chrome are also getting ready to abandon ship to let Windows 7 sink for good.

Mozilla, as it seems, thinks it is better to continue supporting its browser for several more months since its Windows 7 audience remains relatively high.

Source

Here are the changes and improvements in build 25236:

[General]

• To improve the value of Search shortcuts and reduce friction in the broader Windows Search experience, we are trying out different ways to provide tips on how to use Windows Search via the taskbar. Only some English-speaking Windows Insiders in the U.S. will see this. If you do, be sure to give us feedback on what you think in Feedback Hub.

Example tip on how to better use Windows Search via the taskbar.

Here are the bug fixes:

[Narrator]

• We fixed the issue causing natural voices such as Microsoft David or Mark to not speak in Narrator.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue where if you opened the hidden icons flyout, it caused a File Explorer entry for it to appear in the taskbar.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the taskbar previews to freeze or show as blank and not open when using Windows key + (#) key commands to try and switch between windows.
• The show hidden icons flyout in the system tray should now responsively resize with changes again to prevent empty spaces and columns.
• Fixed multiple issues related to the taskbar which were impacting explorer.exe reliability.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the volume icon in the system tray to incorrectly show as muted.
• Fixed a GDI handle leak related to updating the notification center icon in the taskbar, which would eventually lead to an explorer.exe crash for people who received a large number of notifications.
• Narrator will now announce the pinned and unpinned status of apps in the taskbar.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue which was making File Explorer crash when closing tabs for some people.
• Made another fix for an issue which could cause errant divider lines in File Explorer’s navigation pane.

[Settings]

• Made a change to hide the battery graph on the Power & Battery page if a UPS is connected, as the capacity information it displayed in that case wasn’t correct.
• If you don’t have a kiosk set up, we’ve now updated the text on Accounts > Other Users > Kiosk to make it clearer you need to do that, so it doesn’t appear to be a dead end.
• Fixed an issue where if you went into the properties for an audio device, this could make it unexpectedly show in the output devices list on System > Sound although it was actually an input device.
• In the accessibility settings for color filters, the inverted option should work correctly again now and not just set your PC to grayscale colors.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with error SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED in recent builds.

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.

The known issues are:

[General]

• We’re looking into reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders after upgrading to the latest flights.
• We’re investigating reports of crashes with a few different apps and games in recent builds.
• We’re investigating reports that various UI elements in apps appear to be disappearing and reappearing sometimes in recent builds.
• We’re investigating reports that some apps like Microsoft Edge are unexpectedly showing thick lines on the side of the window after the last flight.
• When using the latest ISO to install the Dev Channel build, you might get a SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION bugcheck citing an error with win32kfull.sys. We’re working on a fix.
• [NEW] We’re investigating an issue in this build where switching projection modes using WIN + P / the Project section of Quick Settings doesn’t work. As a workaround you can switch projection modes using the cast icon in the system tray (Win+K) for either Miracast or wired displays.

[Taskbar]

• The taskbar sometimes flashes when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.
• When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the taskbar sometimes stays stuck in the expanded state, instead of dismissing to collapsed state.

[System Tray]

• Chat apps aren’t flashing with new messages or opening a preview on hover in the system tray. We’re working on a fix.

[Start menu]

• We’re investigating reports that folders in Start menu don’t open on the first try.
• [NEW] We’re investigating an issue that causes garbled text in the navigation headings of Start’s all apps list for Chinese users.

[Input]

• We’re investigating reports that the text cursor becomes white on white when hovering over text fields, making it difficult to see.

[Widgets]

• In right-to-left display languages like Arabic, content animates out of view before the widgets board resizes when clicking to expanded view of the widgets board.

You can find the official blog post here.

Latest Windows 11 Dev build 25236 brings interesting changes to Taskbar, and more

The Energy Recommendations section sits under Settings > System > Power. It is a page where Windows 11 shows how to lower your carbon footprint and make a PC more energy efficient by letting it turn off the screen and go to sleep faster, setting the power mode for best efficiency, disabling a screen saver, and turning on dark mode. There is also a sort of green score that increases as you go through the "checklist."

Another neat change is the button that lets you make your computer "greener" with a single click. If you are okay with energy recommendations and do not want to change settings manually, click the "Apply All" button for Windows 11 to do the job for you. Finally, there is a link to a support article describing energy efficiency mode in Microsoft Edge and a "Learn more" link leading to the official Microsoft website.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first attempt to make Windows 11 more eco-friendly. The operating system shows warnings about increased carbon emissions when you change the screen and sleep timers, plus it tries to install available updates when more green energy is available in the grid.

Although these changes may not look groundbreaking, even small efficiency improvements make a difference when applied to a market with more than 1.2 billion devices. Too bad, it seems for Microsoft, that people are not rushing to update their systems to Windows 11.

If you want to test the new energy recommendations section, here is how to enable it using the ViveTool app.

Caution: Unannounced features are often raw, unstable, or borderline unusable. Back up important data before using the ViveTool app and enabling hidden options. Remember that using stable Windows 11 is the best way to ensure your system remains as bug-free as possible.

How to enable Energy Recommendations section in Windows 11 build 25231?

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

   

4. Navigate to the folder containing the extracted files using the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
5. Enter vivetool /enable /id:39427030 and press Enter.
6. Enter vivetool /enable /id:41249924 and press Enter.
7. Restart your computer.
8. Open Settings and go to System > Power > Energy Recommendations.

If you change your mind and want to disable the new Settings section, repeat the steps above and replace /enable with /disable in the commands on steps 5 and 6.

Kudos to @PhantomOfEarth for sharing their findings!

Windows 11 build 25231 gets a dedicated section for making your PC more energy efficient

The company was responding to reports from reviewers and users who had noted performance discrepancies on the latest gen Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. The big differentials were noted especially were fewer Zen 4 cores, via CCD disablement, were being deployed.

One of the testers, CapFrameX, who had put out the original performance reports retested Windows 11 22H2 to see if AMD's claim was accurate. Two games - Cyberpunk 2077 (CB 2077) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (SotTR) - were tested. This time, instead of a Ryzen 7000 chip, a Zen 3-based Ryzen 5900X was used. The data suggests there is certainly a lowered performance trend that goes away with a fresh reinstallation of the OS. In CB 2077, there is close to a 15.5% bump up in the average framerate. Meanwhile, in SotTR, the gap is even bigger with close to a 20% uplift.

This suggests some hiccups are present, perhaps on Windows 11 22H2 itself, or else a clean installation should not cause such a large variation. To be fair to AMD though, the company's knowledge base (KB) document only mentions Ryzen 7000 series CPUs which means it's possible it is yet to test previous-gen parts.

Regardless, AMD isn't the first company to be facing issues since the Windows 11 2022 feature update. Nvidia too has had quite a few performance and other bugs on it. For example, with its latest drivers, the company confirmed a Task Manager mis-reading issue, and this was after the bugs were supposed to have been fixed.

Source and image: CapFrameX (Twitter)

Despite AMD's denial, data suggests Windows 11 22H2 performance loss on Ryzen is real