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

While Microsoft did not detail the kind of boost users could expect from the change, early reports from last year claimed that Memory Integrity or Virtualization-based Security (VBS) was leading to nearly 30% loss in certain scenarios, even on systems that were officially Windows 11 ready. It is generally considered that these features eat up CPU cycles and disk usage, among other things, which is why disabling them improves performance.

And with memory integrity off, Intel's Arc discrete GPUs are seeing a decent uptick in performance. According to Twitter user Löschzwerg, the Arc A380 graphics card gained around two to three thousand points in 3DMark03, which is a DirectX 9 benchmark. To put the score into context, the card originally got around 58,000 points which is a 5.2% uptick in performance.

Meanwhile, using DXVK, a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 9/10/11, the performance went up by three times in total as you can see in the images below.

This is because Intel does not run DX9 natively on Arc and employs the D3D9On12 mapping layer. DXVK though is far more efficient at extracting the performance and it seems to help a lot for the driver overhead Intel discrete cards are currently having. After all, Arc is new and making efficient software takes time.

Since the Arc A380, which is an entry-level card, was tested here, it is possible to a degree that the higher-end SKUs like the Arc A750 or A770 end up getting a bigger boost than the 5.2% noted here with the disabled Windows features. However, we must remember that synthetic 3D benchmarks like 3DMark are already quite light on CPU usage and there may be less headroom left for further gains.

Source and images: Löschzwerg (Twitter)

Microsoft's Windows 11 performance tips are helping Intel in a bit unexpected way

Alongside that, Microsoft has also announced a new update, version 22210.1401.x, to its Store app. The new update brings improved discoverability of digital attach offers including for Office, Game Pass, and more. The user experience (UX) has also been revamped slightly for smoother scrolling and resizing. The full changelog is given below:

Microsoft Store Update

Windows Insiders running version 22210.1401.x of the Microsoft Store will see the following improvements:

• Discover and redeem offers available with your new PC: We’ve made it much easier for you to discover that your device came with digital attach offers (Office, Game Pass, or standalone games) and redeem it.

We’ve made it much easier for you to discover that your device came with digital attach offers (Office, Game Pass, or standalone games) and redeem it in the Store.

• Improve the search card results while scrolling UX: We’ve optimized our layout and rendering architecture for search card results to provide a much smoother scrolling and resizing experience – especially on low powered devices

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

You can find the official blog post here.

Microsoft's latest Store update brings only a couple of, but notable improvements

At some point, users in the United States, where this feature is launching first, will see a pop-up in Gmail asking them for permission to track packages in Gmail. If you decline permission, you can also switch it on by going to the Gmail settings and looking for the relevant option, it can also be turned off here if you decided to opt in.

Another feature, which isn’t going to arrive for several months, is a delay label that will be pinned to your order emails if a package has been delayed. To ensure that you see the label, the affected email will be placed at the top of your inbox, so you don’t miss it.

Google hopes that with these new features, people will spend less time waiting by the door for their delivery. The search giant didn’t say when the feature would be launching in other countries, unfortunately.

Source: The Keyword

Gmail gets new features to help track your Christmas orders

PowerToys 0.64.0 introduces a new File Locksmith utility (shown below). It lets you see what process or processes use the selected file or folder, preventing them from deletion or modification. The second new tool provides an easy and convenient UI for editing the Hosts file—no more diving into the system drive and opening Hosts in Notepad.

You can view details about processes and even end them if necessary.

Another noteworthy feature in version 0.64.0 is the ability to back up and restore settings. You can now store your PowerToys settings, custom key bindings, and other parameters in a file. It is a quick and easy way to get your preferences to another device or store them safely. Finally, PowerToys gets Group Policy Objects settings for enabling or disabling utilities on managed devices.

Here is the full changelog for PowerToys 0.64.0:

Highlights:

• New utility: File Locksmith allows seeing which processes are currently using the selected files.
• New utility: Hosts File Editor allows you to edit your hosts file in an Editor UI.

  

   

• Settings has a new feature for backing up / restoring the settings from a file.

  

   

• FancyZones allows you to set defaults for horizontal/vertical screens to get better intended behavior for new screens and cases where a monitor ID resets.
• PowerToys ships with Group Policy Objects settings for force disabling and enabling PowerToys utilities in organizations. Check the GPO docs for more details.
• Added a warning about deprecating Video Conference Mute in the future (v0.67), please check #21473 for more information.

Known Issues:

• The Text Extractor utility fails to recognize text in some cases on ARM64 devices running Windows 10.
• After installing PowerToys, the new Windows 11 context menu entries for PowerRename and Image Resizer might not appear before a system restart.
• There are reports of users who are unable to open the Settings window. This is being caused by incompatibilities with some applications (RTSS RivaTuner Statistics Server is a known examples of this). If you're affected by this, please check the linked issue to verify if any of the presented solutions works for you.

Always on Top

• Detect and put a window on top again if it's no longer on top.

Color Picker

• Added the hexadecimal integer format.

FancyZones

• Added a way for users to configure default layouts for horizontal and vertical screens.
• Replaced remaning Number Boxes in FancyZones Editor with Sliders, to improve accessibility for screen readers.Fixed an issue breaking window switching shortcuts.

File Locksmith

• Added a new utility: File Locksmith.

Group Policy Objects

• Group Policy Objects settings for force disabling and enabling PowerToys utilities.

Hosts File Editor

• Added a new utility: Hosts File Editor.

Keyboard Manager

• Fixed a delay that was not being cancelled properly. Thanks @AtariDreams!

Mouse Utilities

• Changed the opacity setting to the 1-100 range.

PowerToys Run

• Changed image loading to release the images in PowerToys Run main executable. This is a try to fix the "app.dark.png" missing issues received after a PowerToys update.
• Fixed the PowerToys Run hiding after the default action failed.
• Fixed the PowerToys Run allows showing after a context menu action succeeded.

Quick Accent

• Corrected "Dutch" word to "German".
• Added the Portuguese language accents.
• Fixed positioning of toolbar on scaled desktops.

Screen Ruler

• Improved the acrylic brush used in the menu. Thanks @niels9001!

Settings

• Added a feature to backup/restore settings to/from a file.
• Fixed an issue causing shortcuts shown in OOBE not updating to new values when the window was re-opened.
• Fixed the "Documents" folder usage in the backup/restore feature.

Text Extractor

• Added a warning about how to install languages for OCR recognition.
• Fixed the overlay not focusing after the first activation.
• Added spaces between CJK and non-CKJ words.

Video Conference Mute

• Added a setting to hide the Video Conference Mute overlay when muted.
• Added a warning about deprecating Video Conference Mute in the future (v0.67), please check #21473 for more information.

Installer

• Added some missing files that were causing Settings and PowerRename to not function correctly on some configurations.
• Updated the .NET dependency to 6.0.10.

Development

• Consolidated nuget packages and removed a few unused packages.
• Updated the Windows.CppRT to the latest version.
• Removed the cxxopts dependency, which was no longer used.
• Updated the cziplob dependency to 0.25.
• Updated the System.IO.Abstractions dependency.
• Turned on C++ code analysis and incrementally fixing warnings.
• Added the install method to the issue template on GitHub, since some issues seem to be related to specific installation methods.
• Automated installer hash creation in the release CI.
• Simplified use of .First() on ImageResizer.
• Improved and clarified the issues templates.
• Fixed a PTRun unit test to be more compatible with .NET 6.

You can download PowerToys 0.64.0 from the Microsoft Store or GitHub.

PowerToys 0.64.0 is out with File Locksmith, Hosts File Editor, and settings backup

According to customers, these connection issues affect any device running TeamViewer 15.35.7, regardless of the software and hardware configuration.

"Version 15.35.7, on random computers of differing ages, Windows OSs and hardware, refuse to accept incoming connections, even lan connections," one user reported Sunday.

"I've uninstalled, re-installed the client, etc., and tried everything I can think of, but this machine will not allow me to connect from any of my other machines," another added.

A TeamViewer community moderator confirmed the company was aware of the issue on Monday and said the problem had been reported internally.

One day later, TeamViewer removed the 15.35.7 update from its servers and advised all affected users to downgrade to a previous version.

"The update file has been pulled from the updates as well as our main website while our developers work on the issue," the community moderator said.

Workaround until a fixed version is available

Until the company provides a new build, customers can go through the following steps to deploy an older and working version:

1. Go to Extras > Options >Advanced on affected systems, disable automatic updates, set the app to never check for updates, and click OK.
2. Uninstall the existing version, but make sure you don't delete your current configuration by checking the "delete settings" option.
3. Reinstall an older version.

While TeamViewer has not provided an official workaround for this known issue, it did remove the problematic version from its download page to allow customers to download TeamViewer 15.35.5, the previous release, which is unaffected by these connection problems.

"Affected users can download version 15.35.5 via our main downloads page," the TeamViewer moderator added.

Hendricks however denied anything of the sort, saying people "assumed" stuff and that the tweet was simply talking about brewing beer with habanero.

Perhaps to the surprise of no one, though, it does look like Task Manager is indeed getting a new feature. And as one of our Neowin readers wingliston had guessed, it seems a search bar is coming to the Windows 11 Task Manager. This could be something in store for the next Moment 2 feature update, which we had a tiny glimpse of recently.

As one can see in the image above, the new Task Manager shows a search bar on top which will allow users to look up processes and tasks using the name, process ID (PID) as well as the publisher of the process.

This is still a hidden feature inside the Dev Channel preview build, so enabling it can break Windows as there are plenty of experimental work-in-progress features there. Still, if you wish to see the feature for yourself, you can do so by using ViveTool.

How to enable the new Task Manager search in Windows 11 build 25231

1. Download ViVeTool from its repository on GitHub and extract the files whenever you like. For example, in the root of drive C.
2. Right-click the Start menu button and select Terminal (Admin).
3. Switch Terminal to the Command Prompt profile using the arrow-down button on the tab strip.

   

4. Navigate to the folder containing Vive files using the CD command. Here is an example: CD C:\Vive.
5. Execute the following command:
   • vivetool /enable /id:39420424
   • (For PowerShell try: .\vivetool /enable /id:39420424)
6. Restart your computer (optional).

To disable the feature, just use "disable" in place of enable.

Source and image: Deskmodder

You can now enable a hidden Task Manager search feature inside Windows 11

Starting with enhancements to meetings, organizers can now assign seats to participants in Together Mode. Moreover, meeting content can now be popped out in a separate window, this functionality was available for only chats and meeting experiences previously. The companion mode for Teams mobile is also being rolled out to Android, it allows a streamlined management experience through access to meeting controls directly on Teams mobile. And some Teams customers may be disappointed to know that Microsoft is making live translated captions exclusive to customers with a Teams Premium license.

Coming over to improvements to calling, you can take advantage of a more detailed call history with recordings and transcripts. Contact groups for calls can now be created and edited too. In related news, there are some new Teams-certified devices too, including Creston Flex, Sony YY2969 Earbuds, and Neat Frame.

There are tons of enhancements in the chat and collaboration domain too. When you create a team using a Teams template, the associated SharePoint template will get automatically applied as well. Other features include limited functionality for Adobe Acrobat as the default PDF reader (public preview), suggested replies in group chats, video clips (generally available on desktop, private preview on mobile at the end of this year), the ability to delete or rename files present in a Teams channel or the OneDrive folder in teams, and scheduling form pop-out windows for Teams Calendar.

Other features not geared towards mainstream consumers of Teams are listed below:

• Power Platform and custom development
  • ISV App Subscriptions instead of 3P app subscriptions in Teams Admin Center
  • Simplified app update experience
  • Teams Platform Apps in One-on-One VOIP Calls
  • Teams Platform Apps in Group VOIP Calls
  • Zero install link unfurling
• Management

  • Upgraded usage analytics for Teams administrators and users

  • Enhancement to app usage report - support for Line of Business apps

     

• Teams for Education

  • Dedicated blog here

     

• Frontline Workers

  • Approvals as a PDFs can be saved, printed and transferred

  • Approvals in integrated SharePoint Lists

  • Assign Approvals to a Tag in Teams

  • Rich notes in Tasks field

     

• Government

  • Enhancement to app usage report - support for Line of Business apps

  • Music on hold for Voice over IP calls, consultative transfer, and call transfer for GCCH and DOD

  • Live Share SDK support for meeting extensions

  • Text prediction for Teams mobile in GCC-High and DoD

  • Connectors in GCC

  • Firefox Meeting Support for Outgoing Screen Sharing

  • Updated companion mode for Android users for GCC, GCC-High and DoD

     

If you're interested in any of the aforementioned features, be sure to check out more details in Microsoft's blog post here.

Here are all the new features Microsoft added to Teams in October 2022

Windows 11 gained 1.83 points in October 2022, climbing from 13.61% to 15.44%. As of now, Windows 11 is the second most popular version, sitting 5.83 points higher than now-dead Windows 7 with a 9.61% market share. Windows 10, on the other hand, remains in the unreachable (for now) zone with a 71.29% share.

Windows 8.1, 8, and XP split the remaining breadcrumbs of the pie. Statcounter says Windows 8.1 currently holds 2.51%, Windows 8 has 0.69%, and Windows XP still runs on 0.39% of all PCs. Overall, Windows has 75.93% of the global desktop OS market, Apple's macOS has 15.74%, Linux 2.6%, and ChromeOS 2.38%.

It is worth noting that Statcounter's data differs significantly from the latest AdDuplex findings published in early September 2022. The latter claims Windows 11 has more than 23%, 12 points higher than the newest info from Statcounter. The difference between the two findings is due to different data collection methods. AdDuplex gets its stats from Microsoft Store apps containing the AdDuplex SDK (approximately 5,000 titles), whereas Statcounter's reports are based on info gathered from more than 1.5 million websites. Microsoft, unfortunately, does not provide official numbers on its operating system, so the exact values and market shares remain anybody's guess.

Even though Microsoft has already released one and a half feature updates for Windows 11, the OS's growth is unlikely to break records any time soon. And it is not just personal preference—another survey shows that about half of workstations do not meet Windows 11's hardware requirements, thus unable to get from Windows 10 to 11. Controversial feature changes, steep hardware requirements, and frequent bugs keep haunting Windows 11, likely resulting in a slower market share growth than Windows 10 was able to achieve after its first year on the market.

Statcounter: only 15% of Windows users upgraded to Windows 11

According to a post on Bugzilla (via gHacks), the browser's developers are considering two options: end support in the first quarter of 2023 or keep updating Firefox on the old Windows versions until August 2023, when the browser will move to a newer Extended Support Release version.

The development team says that ditching Firefox for Windows 7 and 8.1 in early 2023 could make their lives a bit easier by removing the need for Windows 7 test automation machines. At the same time, keeping them running for a little longer "is not the end of the world," considering that Firefox still has "a lot of users on Windows 7." According to the latest data from Statcounter, Windows 7 holds almost 10% of the PC market.

It is worth mentioning that running an unsupported browser on an unsupported Windows version will not cause your computer to explode, as shown by people still using Windows XP in 2022. Still, accessing the modern internet using software that no longer receives security updates is not the best idea. Those sticking to Windows 7 should get ready to kiss their favorite operating system goodbye and move on to a supported OS with supported browsers.

Mozilla is considering extending Firefox support on Windows 7 and 8.1

According to Statcounter, Google Chrome unsurprisingly remains king of the browser hill with its 66.46% market share despite losing 1.12 points in October 2022. Microsoft Edge is the second most popular desktop browser with a less impressive 10.85% share (+0.05 points) that has been relatively unchanged for five months.

Apple's Safari closes the top three desktop browsers list with a 9.38% share (+0.45 points). Firefox is fourth with 7.05% (-0.22 points), and Opera is fifth with 3.61% (+0.67 points). Like Windows XP, which refuses to go away more than eight years after its end of support, Internet Explorer is not giving up, holding about 0.8% of the global desktop browser market share. Microsoft plans to disable the latter on specific Windows 10 versions on February 14, 2023.

1. Google Chrome: 66.46% (-1.12)
2. Microsoft Edge: 10.85% (+0.05)
3. Apple Safari: 9.38% (+0.45)
4. Mozilla Firefox: 7.05% (-0.22)
5. Opera: 3.61% (+0.67)

Things are slightly different on the mobile side of the browser market. Most users are split between Google Chrome and Safari, while Microsoft sits deep in the "Other" section with a market share too small to appear on the charts.

1. Google Chrome: 65% (-0.23)
2. Apple Safari: 25.11% (+0.49)
3. Samsung Internet: 4.63% (-0.06)
4. Opera: 1.81% (-0.05)
5. UC Browser: 1.06% (-0.11)

Which browser do you use on your computer and mobile devices? Let us know in the comments.

Statcounter: Edge can't cross 11% mark despite being second most popular desktop browser

The Linux Mint team has just shared what it has been working on through October. There are quite a few improvements it has been making, but one notable one is the corner bar, which is very similar to the ‘show the desktop’ button on Windows that lives in the bottom right of the taskbar. Other changes include fewer password prompts, Flatpak support in Update Manager, and some visual refinements.

The new corner bar coming to Mint is less noticeable than the show the desktop button on Windows, however, it can be configured to be more powerful than the Windows implementation. Using customizable settings, you can choose the click action, the middle click action, and enable or disable peek at the desktop on hover. As the corner bar is in the lower right, you don’t even have to think about where to move the cursor.

Password requests have also been worked on, so they’re less intrusive. They’re no longer needed when using Synaptic and Update Manager, nor when removing a Flatpak. These programs will instead ask pkexec to remember your password, so you don’t need to enter it more than once. This should make things a little more convenient.

Finally, there are a few visual tweaks that should improve the overall experience. The Nemo file manager has been update so that in icon view, the icon will not be highlighted when you press an item, this makes it more consistent with the file manager’s list view. When you select files now, only the file names will be highlighted. In addition, the desktop icon in the file manager had the task bar at the top but in Mint it’s usually at the bottom, so this icon has been flipped. Display Settings has also been added as a menu item when accessing the desktop’s context menu.

The latest announcement didn’t say when these features were going to ship, they could either land as an update in the current version or ship with the next release, which is due around Christmas – the latter case is probably more likely.

Source: Linux Mint

Linux Mint is getting a ‘show the desktop' button just like Windows

Google began leading Hangouts to its eventual closure in 2020 when it stripped the platform of Google Voice features, Fi support, and more. The company then made an additional announcement in June, followed by a final disclaimer in September that shared the nitty-gritty of transferring data across the platforms and other updates.

Google stated that it would shut down the Hangouts web app from November 1, 2022. According to the company, it is to provide a better and integrated messaging experience across Google Workspace. Google Chat will now be the default application as the Hangouts app, browser extensions, and other links will be redirected to Google Chat.

While Hangouts will be disabled, users can still export their complete data history to Google Chat till January 1, 2023, via Google Takeout.

Google Hangouts is officially shutting down today

The search giant's recent blog post explains how the new feature works: after a user clicks on a search result, they will be taken to the webpage. Then, a Google button with the text "Open search in side panel" will pop up on the address bar. Clicking that will open a sidebar that that will display the search page the user accessed before. From there, the user can click on other results, which will open in the main window of the tab. They can also perform new searches if they prefer.

This feature, which is similar to Microsoft Edge's sidebar, will be very handy for comparing various search options. As a writer, the feature will be useful when I'm looking for the best explanation of a new term or concept that I've encountered — no more endless clicking of the back button to find the result I want.

This isn't Chrome's first sidebar feature. Back in March, Google rolled out a similar functionality that lets users quickly access their Reading List and bookmarks.

Aside from this, Google Chrome is also getting a new price tracker capability, which has been available for its Android app for several months now. When a user is signed in to the browser and visits a store page, a "Track price" button will show up. If the user clicks the button, they will be notified via email once the product becomes cheaper. The feature currently doesn't work in our own testing, however, but it may appear in the next update or two.

Source: Google

Google Chrome's new sidebar makes it easy to compare search results

You’ll see a downloads flyout menu appearing on your computer screen when you attempt to download a file or a program via Edge browser. It fades away as soon as the download is complete. Maybe it's related to making the browser more energy-efficient but if you would like to completely stop the downloads menu from showing up in the toolbar area, follow this guide.

How to stop the downloads menu from appearing under the browser toolbar

The downloads menu in the Microsoft Edge browser houses some very basic management functions like showing the download in the containing folder, removing it, and searching for any recent downloads via a dedicated search option. However, if you rarely use it or want its spot to be replaced by a more frequently used function, remove it using these steps.

1. Launch the Microsoft Edge browser. Choose the Settings and more option (three horizontal dots in the upper-right corner of the browser screen).
2. From the list of options displayed, choose the Settings option.

   

    

3. When directed to the Settings screen, scroll down to the Downloads heading under the side panel on the left. Here, switch to the right pane and toggle the Show downloads menu when a download starts feature to the Off position.

   

    

4. Alternatively, you can simply click the More options button inside the downloads menu and choose the Downloads Settings option as shown in the image above.
5. When taken directly to the downloads page, disable the Show downloads menu when a download starts toggle.

Hereafter, you will not see the downloads popup menu appearing under the Edge browser toolbar. Also read: Microsoft Edge is out with an improved sidebar.

How to remove the downloads menu from the Edge browser toolbar

The company writes:

We have been made aware of reports of unexpected performance deltas in certain games with AMD Ryzen™ desktop processors as well as performance variances between Windows® 11 and Windows® 10 in certain game titles. We are currently investigating but based on testing to date have not observed a material difference in game performance between OS versions across a variety of operating scenarios and game titles.

Additionally it believes that the differences noted may have to do with the games' optimizations themselves rather than something that AMD has messed up on its part. It says:

Many factors affect gaming performance, including the game engine, CPU architecture, GPU selection and memory choices. As new architectures enter the market, we often observe performance anomalies which must be addressed by the component vendor or the game publisher. This is not a new phenomenon nor is it unexpected.

Hence, what AMD is essentially saying is that future optimizations for Ryzen 7000 and the Zen 4 architecture will likely iron out these performance issues. For those that missed it, the reports indicated that disabling SMT was found to be more helpful, especially in cases when fewer CCD (CPU Compute Die) are deployed.

Via: Tom's Hardware

AMD explains what's actually causing Ryzen 7000 performance issues on Windows 11

According to Mozilla, Firefox 106.0.3 fixes the bug causing crashes upon startup when running on Windows. The second problem affects Windows 11 users who have already updated their systems to Windows 11 22H2 and its latest "moment 1" update. Mozilla says a compatibility issue with the Suggested Actions feature in Windows 11 is causing the browser to hang when copying text on a web page. Firefox 106.0.3 is here to resolve that problem.

The Suggested Actions feature is a new tool in Windows 11 22H2 that makes it easier to add events to your calendar and make phone calls. The operating system can detect dates, time, and phone numbers and then offer quick actions in corresponding apps. You can learn more about it and other changes in Windows 11 22H2's "moment 1" update in our dedicated coverage.

Firefox will update itself automatically in the background, or you can force-update it by downloading Firefox Installer from the official website. Full release notes for Firefox 106.0.3 are available in the official documentation alongside the changelog for version 106.

Firefox 106.0.3 is out with fixes for crashes and hangs on Windows 11 22H2

Microsoft is working on Focus Time in Outlook to let you schedule focus events directly from the Outlook calendar. This will help you work uninterrupted, as no Teams and Outlook notifications will pop up during this time. It is quite similar to how the Focus feature works in Windows 11.

When it arrives for everyone, you will be able to schedule your focus events direct from the Outlook Calendar. It should be very similar to setting up event types such as "Out of office," "Busy," etc., in the calendar. Although Microsoft has not shown us how users will be able to set it up, the most likely scenario is that the Focus Time along with "Free,", "Tentative", "Busy," "Working Elsewhere," and "Out of Office" options will be available when you start creating a new event from Outlook Calendar.

Google Calendar and Microsoft's own Viva Insights app allow users to schedule their focus events. Users can also set it up in Outlook with the help of the Insights Outlook add-in, though it requires a Viva Insights subscription. This is why Focus Time in Outlook is such a big deal — scheduling of focus events will be available for free to every Outlook user.

According to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap page, Focus Time should be available to all Outlook clients in the month of January 2023. However, Microsoft can delay it by a couple of months, as was the case with dark mode for Word for the web.

This upcoming feature in Outlook will let you work uninterrupted

A note on Google's bug tracker for the Chromium browser specifies that version 110 won't get JPEG XL support after all.

The Chromium browser project is the open source upstream of what later becomes Google's Chrome browser, along with a host of other browsers including Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave.

The removal of JPEG XL means that none of these above browsers will be able to natively render JPEG XL images, and in turn that effectively dooms the new format, barring the unlikely event of the Mountain View megalith changing course.

The stated reasoning seems less than totally convincing:

We will be removing the JPEG XL code and flag from Chromium for the following reasons:

• Experimental flags and code should not remain indefinitely

• There is not enough interest from the entire ecosystem to continue experimenting with JPEG XL

• The new image format does not bring sufficient incremental benefits over existing formats to warrant enabling it by default

• By removing the flag and the code in M110, it reduces the maintenance burden and allows us to focus on improving existing    formats in Chrome

JPEG XL is not final yet, although it's at version 0.7.0 and the format was frozen at the end of 2020, so it's stable. The format was derived from two earlier image-compression formats: FLIF and Google's own PIK. The latter of these obviously makes the decision even more surprising.

The original JPEG 1 file format was launched 30 years ago by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Since then, the organization has released multiple improved successor formats, including JPEG XR in 2009, JPEG XT in 2015, and JPEG XS in 2019.

The decision follows long-running legal maneuvering. In February 2022, Microsoft received a patent over a core technology used in JPEG XL, over a year and a half since its previous rejection and despite protests from industry specialists.

In other file format deprecation news, Google has also axed version 2 of its own image and video format, WebP. It open sourced WebP in 2010 and added to its own browsers in 2011. It now says of WebP 2:

WebP 2 will not be released as an image format but is used as a playground for image compression experiments.

Considering the development history notes on the codec's homepage, we suspect that performance considerations may be the issue here, rather than any potential issue over patents. ®

Source