However, it appears that lots of people are getting banned for redeeming Microsoft Rewards points recently. As spotted by DeskModder, there is a busy thread on Reddit with lots of people from various regions claiming that they are being banned by Microsoft for no apparent reason while redeeming Microsoft Rewards points.

People on the forum claim that they can earn points as expected, however, when they try to redeem them, they are told to contact technical support. Revisiting the same page after some time shows the account as suspended. Customers from all over the world including Portugal, Brazil, and Europe are reporting the same issue.

The good thing is that Microsoft is aware of the problem and a partial fix has already started to roll out. Xbox Loyalty Marketing Lead Daniel Martins responded on the Reddit thread and while he did not go into technical details regarding why the problem occurred, he did highlight that a patch began to roll out on the weekend.

While this fix is intended to stop additional accounts from getting suspended, it does not revert existing bans. Martins says that the team will reconvene on Monday to work on this front but those impacted can still log a support ticket in the interim.

Source: Reddit via DeskModder

Source

So with 22H2 development nearly done and dusted, Microsoft has moved on to 23H2 or Sun Valley 3 (SV3) which is going to be the next feature update for Windows 11. New Dev Channel builds like 25131 and 25120 have also started to drop hinting at the possible upcoming features that are in store for 23H2.

References related to Sun Valley 3 development have surfaced in previous leaks including one from Microsoft itself. And today, a leak from Twitter user Tero Alhonen, who is an active Microsoft and Windows community member, has revealed interesting tidbits of details which hint at the progress of Sun Valley 3 kernel development.

First up, we seem to have a bunch of Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) contract versions for several Windows versions including the upcoming Windows 11 23H2 development semester which Microsoft refers to as Copper release.

Another image apparently shows a Windows 11 23H2 Sun Valley 3 source file compilation:

The code above is using the NTDDI or NT Device Driver Interface which has generally been used by Microsoft for a long time to refer to Windows versions.

Tidbits of Windows 11 23H2 Sun Valley 3 (Copper release) kernel compilation leak

One of the most time-consuming tasks for setting up a new Windows installation is restoring all your previously installed applications.

While desktop applications will still need to be installed manually, the new Windows 11 feature will allow you to install all the Microsoft Store apps tied to your account by clicking a single button.

"To make it easier for customers to transition to their new PCs quickly and seamlessly, we will soon test a new feature in the Windows Insider channel that helps customers automatically restore their apps, previously installed from the Microsoft Store, to their new Windows device," Microsoft Giorgio Sardo explained in a blog post about the Microsoft Store.

"This will also help developers retain their customers without having to remind customers to re-download their app."

Microsoft has not released too many details regarding this upcoming feature, but we can get more information from a shared screenshot, shown below.

When visiting the 'Library' section of the Microsoft Store, a new option will appear showing the apps previously associated with the logged-in Microsoft account.

Users will then have the option to click 'Restore all' to restore all of these apps on the new installation of Windows 11 or select the individual apps they wish to install.

While this will not install standalone desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office, Steam, Photoshop, etc., it will allow you to quickly get your new installation up and running.

In addition to the restore apps feature, Microsoft will also soon add the ability to install apps directly from a search in the Windows 11 Start Menu.

As it's common to use the Windows Start Menu to search for apps to launch, if that app is not installed, users will be able to install it directly from Windows Search without accessing the Microsoft Store.

Windows 11 'Restore Apps' feature will make it easier to set up new PCs

Up until recently, Visual Search needed to be enabled by the user to make use of the feature. Edge displays the Visual Search icon in the upper right corner of the image when the mouse cursor hovers over the image.

The Visual Search tooltip is displayed when you move the cursor over the icon. A click on the icon opens the Visual Search sidebar of the Edge browser. Powered by Microsoft's search engine Bing, information about the selected image and related content is displayed in the sidebar.

It is a reverse image solution that is baked directly in the Edge web browser. Some Edge users may find the feature useful, as it gives them access to reverse image searches with just a click. Others may find the icon distracting and want to remove it, if it was enabled on their devices.

Edge users may right-click on images and select "Visual Search" to get the same result. Most may prefer that option over the ever-present Visual Search icons when hovering over images in the Edge browser.

Microsoft Bing supports the searching for images, which some users may also use.

Disable the Edge Visual Search icon

Edge users who may want to turn of the Visual Search icon or the context menu option in the browser may do so in the following way. Note that you may also enable the feature if it not enabled using the instructions.

1. Load edge://settings/appearance in the browser's address bar, or select Main Menu > Settings > Appearance.
2. Scroll down to the Context menus section on the page that opens.
3. Activate the Visual Search entry on the page to display the preferences for that particular feature.
4. Toggle "Show visual search on image hover" to enable or disable the Visual Search icon in Microsoft Edge.
5. Toggle "Show visual search in context menu" to enable or disable the Visual Search context menu entry.
6. You may also turn off Visual Search for specific sites by selecting Add and entering URLs.

The changes take effect immediately, a restart of the browser or a reload of open tabs is not necessary to see the changes.

Repeat the steps to undo the changes at any time.

Now you: do you find Edge's Visual Search feature useful? (via Dr. Windows)

How to disable the Visual Search icon in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Defender may block the application once it is downloaded. It detected Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml on a test system. A scan on Virustotal returned no hits. The program modifies system settings, and that the reason why Microsoft Defender is flagging it.

LoveWindowsAgain feels a lot like Microsoft Fix-It applications and troubleshooting applications. It scans the system for issues and displays options to the user to resolve these automatically or manually. The scan is quick and most users may want to select Menu > Advanced Mode to display all detected issues that the program suggests to fix.

It is possible to resolve all of these automatically with the click of a button, but it is usually not a good idea to let a program make changes to the system that you may not be aware of. Advanced Mode displays all issues the program scans for and the suggested actions.

The initial version of LoveWindowsAgain scans for two dozen issues. It suggests to disable Telemetry in Chrome and Firefox, enable the display of hidden file name extensions in File Explorer, disable the Windows 11 widgets feature, or to enable full context menus in File Explorer.

All of these options can be modified manually in Windows, but the program makes it easier, especially if it is executed on first start of the system. Options to restore the initial state are provided.

Install or remove apps from Windows

The "More Tools" section at the bottom of the screen lists additional options for users of the application. The two main tools at the time of writing give users options to install popular third-party applications using the Windows Package Manager, and to remove installed Windows applications from the system.

The selection of the first option displays a list of applications that users may install on their device. The list includes apps such as KeePass, Brave, Gimp, Microsoft PowerToys, BleachBit, Acrobat Reader or Putty. There is no initial check to hide already installed programs from the list of available applications.

You may add some or all of the programs, and hit the install button to install them in one swift operation on the device.

The removal tool uses the same interface, but it lists installed Windows applications that users may remove using it. You may select one, some or all apps and hit the uninstall button to remove them from the system.

Closing Words

LoveWindowsAgain is a promising open source application, which may speed up the tweaking of the system or the installation or removal of applications. It could use more tweaks, but all processes, including restoring changes to their original state, work fine already.

Landing page:   https://github.com/builtbybel/LoveWindowsAgain/releases

Now You: do you use tweak software or apply tweaks manually? (via Deskmodder)

LoveWindowsAgain: fix Windows 11 issues in a few clicks

The latest Office update adds fixes for issues found in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Project, and Access. You can read the complete official changelog to learn more about the fixes.

Changelog

In related news, Microsoft introduced a redesigned dictation toolbar for efficiency and a cleaner look. The company also released the voice dictation feature in OneNote, a more optimized Microsoft Excel, and more. Recently, Microsoft Office also added the ability to gather five million responses on a single form. You can read more about what’s new in the update here.

Microsoft releases a new Office update every week for Beta Channel subscribers on Windows, adding new features and changes. Microsoft is also expected to release a new Office Insider Build next week. We’ll keep you updated if we find anything interesting in the update.

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.

Microsoft releases Office Insider Build 15330.20004 for Windows users

With regards to the Tor Connection assistant, Tails 5.1 fixes the clock computer for those who choose to connect to Tor automatically. The project said this makes it easier for those in Asia to get online. To do this, Tails uses Fedora’s captive portal detection service – which is present on many Linux distributions. One of the drawbacks is that this connection doesn’t use the Tor network. You can read the project’s assessment of using this software in the FAQ.

Another nice change that has been made to the Tor Connection assistant is the last screen which clarifies whether you’ve connected to Tor using bridges. This should help with the general usability of the Tails operating system.

Regarding the Unsafe Browser, the team behind Tails says it has created a new homepage for this browser for when you’re not yet connected to Tor. The homepage explains better to users how to sign in to the Wi-Fi network using a captive portal. If you didn’t choose to enable the Unsafe Browser on the Welcome Screen, Tails now presents a confirmation before restarting the system so you don’t accidentally lose your work.

If you have a Tails USB already set up, you can boot it up and connect to the net which should trigger a pop-up offering you the new version. It will be securely downloaded over Tor and installed in place. If you want to download Tails for the first time, check out the Get Tails page.

Source

Since 2020, Brave has been experimenting with direct mail via the United States Postal Service’s Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program. EDDM allows businesses in the US to create and distribute mailers to addresses across one or more ZIP Codes. Direct mail allows Brave to reach more people across the country, including in regions where alternative marketing options—such as digital advertising—may be less effective.

EDDM is attractive to Brave because the process and system never expose any private, or otherwise sensitive, information regarding potential recipients. Further details about this effort and process were shared a few months ago in a transparency post on Reddit. To ensure privacy, also to avoid confusion, our mailers were intentionally designed to exclude names.

After having completed several test campaigns, Brave this year scaled up our efforts to reach seven major cities: Atlanta, Fresno, Milwaukee, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Antonio. In this process, our EDDM vendor made a significant mistake by not excluding names, but instead including names before addresses, resulting in the distribution of personalized mailers.

Because addresses are printed only after Brave’s quality-assurance has finished (so as not to expose any sensitive information to Brave), this issue was not caught in time to prevent distribution.

Upon hearing from surprised recipients about this error, we froze any further printing of direct mail until the issue could be corrected. Any printed mailers with individual names which had not yet been sent were stopped and destroyed, while all future mailers were corrected to be anonymous (as originally intended), excluding printed names. We are evaluating whether further action needs to be taken due to the significance of the mistake.

We completely understand that some users are upset or confused about receiving a mailer addressed to them by name, and we sincerely apologize for this error. We’re committed to fixing this kind of issue systematically, so it never happens again, and we appreciate all of you who helped us catch and correct the problem.

Source

In May 2022, Windows 11 went up from 18.94% to 19.59%, which means almost every fifth Steam customer switched to Microsoft's latest operating system. Despite Windows 11's healthy growth, Windows 10 remains the king with 73.89% (+0.34 points). Microsoft plans to support Windows 10 at least until 2025, so do not expect Windows 10 to lose any major ground soon.

Older Windows lost some points last month, but their market share combined is slightly more than 3%. Overall, 96.68% (+0.37 points) of Steam users prefer Windows to other operating systems. Apple's macOS has 2.20% (-0.35 points), and Linux is third with just 1.12% (-0.02 points).

Hardware-wise, here are the most popular processors, graphics cards, and configurations Steam customers use to play their favorite games:

• CPU: 4-core CPUs with clocks from 2.3 to 2.69 GHz. Intel has 67.19% (-1.23 points) and AMD has 32.8% (+1.24 points).
• GPU: Nvidia has 75.93%, AMD has 8.95%, and Intel maintains 8.95%. The most popular graphics cards are Nvidia GTX 1060, Nvidia GTX 1650, and Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti.
• RAM: 16 GB.
• Video Memory: 8 GB.
• Primary Display: 1920 x 1080.
• VR: Oculus Quest has 47.99% (+0.01 point), Valve Index has 15.79% (+0.44 points), and Oculus Rift is third with 10.94% (-0.12 points).

Source: Steam

Windows 11 inches closer to 20% market share on Steam

Many Chromium-based browsers support tab groups by now. You can use Microsoft Edge, Brave or Google Chrome, and use the functionality right away. All that it takes is to right-click on a tab and select the "add tab to new group" option from the context menu.

Add a custom string to describe the group, pick a color and you are all set to start using it. New tabs are added via drag & drop, and once the tab bar reaches a certain threshold, you may click on the name of the tab group to minimize it.

Some Chromium-based browsers have created different solutions. The Vivaldi browser supports a range of tab group related options. Unlike other Chromium-based browsers, Vivaldi users may create tab groups by dragging tabs on top of each other. It is simpler, and the browser comes with options to display tabs of groups in a second tab bar in the interface for improved usability.

Mozilla's Firefox web browser supported tab groups for some time several years ago. Mozilla made the decision to remove tab grouping functionality from Firefox. Firefox users may install add-ons, such as Tiled Tab Groups, Panorama Tab Groups, or Simple Tab Groups, that restore the functionality.

Why I like Tab Groups

When I use a web browser, I tend to have a good amount of tabs open at all times. It happens that I find sites and pages of interest during browsing and research sessions, and I tend to open these in new tabs in the browser and keep these tabs open between sessions.

While I could save the tabs to the browser's bookmarks or use other archiving options, I found that I forget about these then quickly as they are not visible anymore on the screen.

The number of tabs reaches dangerous threshold levels sometimes, so that open tabs are displayed with just a site icon or no icon at all anymore.

The introduction of tab group support in the browser allows me to sort open tabs into multiple groups and to collapse groups that are needed. One group has all the Ghacks research articles that I came across; these consist of new programs that I want to test, articles from other websites, research papers, tips, and anything else that could make an article on the site or be used in one.

Then I have groups for other activities, including entertainment and hobbies, or informational articles on topics of interest that are unrelated to my day job. Tab groups help me focus, as they hide open tabs that I don't need access to at the time.

What is still missing

Tab groups improve how I work significantly. The implementation in Chrome, Edge and most Chromium-based browsers lacks one option, which I would like to see introduced in the future. If a tab group is collapsed, it is not possible to use drag and drop to add a new open tab to it. I have to expand the group to drop another tab into it.

Vivaldi does this better, and it is having the superior tab grouping system in my opinion.

Closing Words

Tab groups are not for all users. If you have one or two tabs open at a time, then you don't need to use tab groups. If you have several dozen or even hundreds of tabs open, you may want to check out the feature to better organize tabs and improve workflows in the process.

Now You: do you use tab groups?

Opinion: I love the tab grouping feature of web browsers

In a recent blog post, Microsoft has highlighted all the performance gains that Teams on Windows 11 has made since August 2021. To that end, it has shared some statistics from real, anonymized data from the 95th percentile. You can check out the stats below, but note that they are based on the data of the "business" version of Microsoft Teams that is directly integrated in Windows 11:

• Latency while scrolling a chat list has improved by 11.4%
• Latency while scrolling the channel list has improved by 12.1%
• The compose message box loads 63% faster
• The time to switch to a channel and to open a chat window have both improved by 25%
• Switching threads in the activity feed has become better by 17.4%
• Switching between chat threads is 3.1% faster
• The mute and unmute audio response during a call has improved by 16%
• Jumping to the "Pre-meeting join" screen is better by 9%
• Opening a calling/meeting window now loads 4.5% faster
• There is a 13% performance difference for the better while switching from a meeting to a chat
• Switching from a meeting to the activity feed has improved by 18.7%
• Switching from a meeting to a channel has improved by 20%

Microsoft has credited numerous engineering efforts including the migration from Angular to React, upgrading Electron, reducing re-rendering where possible, and refactoring and incrementally improving the code for these performance gains. Although the Teams app in Windows 11 should be faster now according to the data shared by Microsoft, we'll leave it up to our readers in the chat to validate whether these are noticeable in real-world use-cases.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Source: Microsoft via Windows Central

Teams on Windows 11 is much faster now, according to Microsoft

Google Drive is set to receive a small but mighty new feature that should make it easier to find out exactly where your key files are hiding.

The cloud storage platform has announced it will be adding a new "Location" column that expands to show the exact full name and other information of your Google Drive files.

In a blog post (opens in new tab) announcing the news, Google said the new feature will make it easier for users to differentiate between similarly-named files stored in different locations, meaning you should be able to find exactly what you’re looking for at a much faster rate.

Google Drive search

The new Location column will sit alongside the existing name, owner, size and last modified fields found within the Search, Recent, Starred and Trash web views of Google Drive.

Hovering over or clicking on the information will display the full location data, which acts as an alternative to the current method of right-clicking on a file and selecting "show file location", which can take you to a different window.

(Image credit: Google Drive)

The new feature is rolling out now, and will be enabled by default. It will be available to Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.

The update is the latest in a series of upgrades given to Google Drive in recent months as the company looks to make the platform more useful than ever for all users.

This includes the introduction of “search chips” in Drive, which lets users filter search results using various different parameters, including file type, labels and last modified date.

When searching for a file, users can now type in a key word, rather than the exact file name, in order to try and track down what they're looking for.

The company also recently revealed that Google Drive will now allow admins to configure custom labels that can be applied to files housed within their organization’s domain, helping users categorize and organize content more easily, whilst also assisting with the file discovery process and guard against the deliberate misuse or accidental mishandling of sensitive files.

Source

What is new in Microsoft Edge Dev 104.1271.2?

New Features:

• Added a group policy that allows enterprises to restrict the max length of username/password values added to the Edge Password Manager.

   

• iOS: Added a delete button for individual apps on the block external app list.

   

Reliability Improvements:

• Improved features in SharePoint for translation.
• Improved features with the ability to select the download location and the interface to continue to display the selection dialog or not, to prevent it from not being displayed next time after a wrong touch.
• Improved cache performance for profile pictures in Mobile.
• Improved strings for sidebar search text when reading with a screen reader to find the area more clearly.
• Improved web select/web capture keyboard controls with multiple displays.

Changes and bugfixes:

• Changed behavior of disposable email on select for passwords and invoked autosave flow on submission. We also updated priority to autosave on consent.
• Fixed an issue where the search bar in the Downloads hub would lose focus when typing.
• Fixed a crash when using the Send Tab feature.
• Fixed an issue where the search bar in the Downloads hub would lose focus when typing. 
• Fixed high memory usage from WebResourceRequested events – GitHub Issue#2171
• Fixed a crash when using the Send Tab feature.
• Activated the browser/host app in windowed or visual hosting mode when closing the find on page bar. 
• Fixed a crash when using Read Aloud online.

Mobile:

• Fixed a crash when using Read Aloud online.
• Fixed a crash on AAD (Azure Active Directory) sign in. 

Microsoft usually provides a list of known issues for each Dev release; however, this time, we do not know what is broken in Edge Dev 104.0.1271.2. Remember that Microsoft uses Canary and Dev for testing early updates, so it is not the best idea to use these channels for your daily Internet surfing or work due to possible bugs and instabilities.

You can download Edge Dev from the official Edge Insider website on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.

Edge 104 is now available in the Dev channel with several improvements

What is new in Microsoft Edge Beta 103?

Microsoft Edge Beta 103 is not the biggest release in terms of features and changes. Still, it brings important security improvements and better profile switching. New capabilities in Edge Beta 103 include the following:

• The ability to control automatic profile switching. The GuidedSwitchEnabled policy lets Microsoft Edge prompt the user to switch to the appropriate profile when Microsoft Edge detects that a link is a personal or work link.
• Enhanced security for web browsing. Users can navigate the web safely with improved reliability and stability thanks to the rewritten web defense client (previously known as Microsoft Defender SmartScreen) on Microsoft Edge for Windows.

Also, there are several new policies:

• GuidedSwitchEnabled - Guided Switch Enabled.

   

• InternetExplorerZoomDisplay - Display zoom in IE Mode tabs with DPI Scale included like it is in Internet Explorer.

   

• LiveCaptionsAllowed - Live captions allowed.

   

• OriginAgentClusterDefaultEnabled - Origin-keyed agent clustering enabled by default.

   

Edge 103 will remain in Beta for four weeks. According to the release schedule, Microsoft will ship it to all users in the Stable channel in the week of June 23, 2022. Edge 104, currently available in Canary and Dev, will arrive in Beta in the week of June 28, 2022.

Edge 103 arrives in the Beta channel with improved security and better profile switching

Here is what is new in May 2022 "C" updates (non-security release) for Windows 10:

• Addresses a rare issue that prevents Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Outlook from opening.
• Addresses an issue that affects the IE mode window frame.
• Addresses an issue that prevents internet shortcuts from updating.
• Addresses an issue that causes an Input Method Editor (IME) to discard a character if you enter the character while the IME is converting previous text.
• Addresses an issue that causes file copying to be slower.
• Addresses a known issue that affects certain GPUs and might cause apps to close unexpectedly or cause intermittent issues that affect some apps that use Direct3D 9.

KB5014023 is available on systems with Windows 10 21H2, 21H1, and 20H2, with build numbers 19044.1741, 19043.1741, and 19042.1741, respectively. Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel can also download this release.

Keep in mind that C updates are optional, so you are not obliged to install them right away.

Microsoft releases optional Windows 10 update (KB5014023) to fix several annoying issues

Mozilla integrated the privacy feature in Firefox Nightly 96 originally for testing purposes. Some sites and services add tracking parameters to links to track users across sites. Facebook, for example, appends a unique fbclid string to all outgoing links, which is unique for all users on the site.

The parameter may be used to identify and track users. Facebook can use it if one if the service's scripts is running on the target site, but others may use it as well, as the identifier is unique.

One of the main advantages of using URL query string identifiers is that these don't rely on cookies or other data bits.

The initial query parameter stripping version in Firefox 102 uses a blocklist to strip known tracking parameters from top-level URLs; this includes navigational events such as opening a new tab, clicking on links, redirects or window.open() events.

Mozilla decided to limit the processing to top-level navigation events to reduce the likelihood of web compatibility issues. Navigational events across the same site are not processed because of that.

Navigational tracking protection  is enabled in Private Browsing Mode and when Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection feature is set to Strict. Firefox supports standard (default), strict and custom Enhanced Tracking Protection modes.

The preference privacy.query_stripping.enabled determines whether the feature is enabled or disabled in Firefox. Set the preference to TRUE on about:config to enable the parameter stripping.

Mozilla added support for custom parameters that users can add to Firefox to have them stripped automatically with the rest of the built-in stripping.  The preference privacy.query_stripping.strip_list accepts query strings and uses space as the delimiter.

Brave Browser has a similar feature that is removing query strings from web addresses. The list that Brave uses is public; it includes Facebook's tracking strings, but also strings that other services use to track users across the web.

Closing Words

Firefox's query string protection improves user privacy, but only in private browsing windows or when the browser's Enhanced Tracking Protection setting is set to strict; this is a limitation, and most Firefox users may not benefit as much from the privacy improvement because of that.

Still, it is a step in the right direction, and there is a chance that Mozilla is enabling the feature for the standard mode as well. Most Firefox users may want to switch to strict tracking protection in the browser, as it improves their privacy while using the browser.

Firefox 102 will be released on June 28, 2022.

Now You: do you use your browser's tracking protection features?

Firefox 102: Query Parameter Stripping improves privacy

Downloads for all Mozilla Firefox versions/languages/OS: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Microsoft added the option to enable a new UI in Edge a month ago in the Canary channel. It adds the Mica effect to the title bar and toolbar backgrounds when using the default theme. Also, users can enable new rounded tabs using a separate toggle, also responsible for Mica on the toolbar.

Following a brief period of testing, the company decided to add the new design to the Stable channel for more users to test and provide feedback. Still, the redesigned UI remains hidden behind a flag, so you will not see it by default. Here is how to enable it:

1. Update Edge to version 102 or newer.
2. Paste the following URL into the address bar: edge://flags/#edge-visual-rejuv-show-settings
3. Set the flag to Enabled, then restart the browser.
4. Go to Settings > Appearance and turn on the "Show Windows 11 visual effects..." option. You can also toggle on rounded corners for tabs.
5. Restart the browser and enjoy the eye candy.

Note that the new visual effects are work-in-progress, and Microsoft warns that users may notice some performance issues. Also, the redesigned UI works only with the default black and white theme.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Microsoft experiments with the Mica effect in Edge on Windows 11. The browser previously allowed users to enable Mica on the tab strip using a flag, now gone in Edge 102. The latest update replaced it with a new option for managing experimental appearance settings. The latter includes the Mica effect and rounded tabs, plus it might bring more changes in future updates.

Do you like the new Windows 11-like UI in Microsoft Edge?

The redesigned Windows 11-like UI is now available in Edge Stable

Here are the highlights for build 25131:

• This build includes a good set of fixes.

   

• We’re releasing SDKs for new Dev Channel builds again – links are included below.

   

• We have begun rolling out an update to the Microsoft Store (Version 22205.1401.3.0) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Details on improvements and changes below.

   

Below are all of the fixes in this build:

[General]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insider PCs with certain AMD processors to bugcheck and roll back when attempting to upgrade to last week’s flight. This issue is also believed to be the cause of some Insiders experiencing a bugcheck after enabling SVM in the bios on their PCs in the last build.

   

• Fixed an issue which was causing some Insiders with secondary accounts on their PC to not be able to upgrade to the latest builds.

   

[File Explorer]

• The new folder icon used in the command bar should be consistent with the one used in the context menu now.

   

• Fixed an issue which could lead to File Explorer hanging when browsing folders with lots of .mkv files.

   

• Fixed an issue which was causing searching from Home to not return any results sometimes from the Open or Save dialog (when doing it from File Explorer returned results).

   

[Search]

• Searching for something like %appdata% should now show a proper folder icon and not just a blank square.

   

• When selecting “Open file location” for a search result, it should now select the file in the folder again now, and not just open the folder.

   

[Settings]

• Searching for “default” will now return the default apps Settings page as the first result, and not require you to click “show all results” in order to see it.

   

• Fixed an issue where the “Listen to this device” audio option would stop working after a reboot until being unchecked and rechecked.

   

• Narrator will now read out the position of the radio buttons in the Settings > Accessibility > Color filters page to make it easier to navigate.

   

[Other]

• Hovering over “Do you like what you see?” when using Windows Spotlight on the lock screen should no longer display a shadow which extends to the bottom of the screen.

   

• Fixed an issue which was leading to certain frame rate monitoring applications impacting game performance.

   

• Fixed an issue that could cause rounded corners to unexpectedly become pixelated at certain scale factors.

   

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.

Next up, there are some Known Issues to be aware of:

[General]

• Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.
• [NEW] We’re investigating reports that shutting down via the Start menu isn’t working for some Insiders and is unexpectedly rebooting instead.

[Live captions]

• Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
• Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

The company also announced a Microsoft Store update rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel, so folks on anything less than Build 25131 will not see these changes:

• Native Arm64 support: We’ve improved the Microsoft Store app experience on ARM64 devices. You’ll see faster and better performance when you use the app.
• Improved app updates: We improved automatic updates for your apps. We’ll skip over apps that you have open, so you don’t lose any important work. You can update the apps later in the Microsoft Store.
• Improved Android apps support for the pop-pup store experience: When you’re browsing the web, you might discover a new app. If it’s available in the Microsoft Store, we’ll show you a pop-up experience to help you install it. This experience now supports free Android apps (depending on device compatibility and age rating).
• Faster navigation: We have improved the browsing experience.

Improved viewing options UX for movies and TV shows: Ready for a new show but not sure how to watch it? Once you’ve selected a TV show or movie, you can see all your viewing options in a single list.

Microsoft is asking testers of the new Microsoft Store experience to file issues in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

Today's blog post is linked here.

Windows 11 build 25131 released to Dev Channel with new Microsoft Store experience

Several early adopters have complained that they are facing some issues printing in Microsoft Edge after they updated the browser to version 102. Printing any documents accessed via the latest stable version of Edge is no longer possible for many.

It was believed the issues could be plaguing certain localized versions of Microsoft Edge. However, quite a few administrators as well as users attempting to print through English and French versions of Windows have indicated the problem exists in all variants. Entire networks with Edge v102 seem to be facing issues while printing documents.

It is not immediately clear what is causing the problem, and hence, there's no solution yet. Some users claim downgrading Microsoft Edge to version 101 solves the issue, but there are conflicting reports about this too. Older versions of Microsoft Edge installers (for all supported desktop platforms) are available from the Microsoft Edge business download site. However, downgrading is not a simple process. It involves several steps and may cause more problems.

Incidentally, Google Chrome has also reached version 102. There are no reports about printing problems in the Chromium-based browser yet. Hence, affected users could try printing their documents by accessing them in Chrome or any other browser, for that matter.

Microsoft Edge 102 has broken printing for some users

• We fixed an issue that prevents the file system control code (FSCTL_SET_INTEGRITY_INFORMATION_EX) from handling its input parameter correctly.

However, all of the fixes from last week on Monday's optional KB5014023 update are included in this new build 19044.1741 (21H2) (KB5014023), which is optional, tests if certain non-security fixes can make it through to the next Patch Tuesday, it is available now through the Release Preview Channel.

As a reminder, here are all the improvements from last week:

• New! We introduced new sorting version 6.4.3, which addresses the sorting issue that affects Japanese half-width katakana.
• We prevented users from bypassing forced enrollment by disconnecting from the internet when they sign into Azure Active Directory (AAD).
• We fixed an issue that might run an AnyCPU application as a 32-bit process.
• We fixed an issue that prevents Azure Desired State Configuration (DSC) scenarios that have multiple partial configurations from working as expected.
• We fixed an issue that affects remote procedure calls (RPC) to the Win32_User or Win32_Group WMI class. The domain member that runs the RPC contacts the primary domain controller (PDC). When multiple RPCs occur simultaneously on many domain members, this might overwhelm the PDC.
• We fixed an issue that occurs when adding a trusted user, group, or computer that has a one-way trust in place. The error message, “The object selected doesn’t match the type of destination source” appears.
• We fixed an issue that fails to display the Application Counters section in the performance reports of the Performance Monitor tool.
• We fixed an issue that might affect some apps that use d3d9.dll with certain graphics cards and might cause those apps to close unexpectedly.
• We fixed a rare issue that prevents Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Outlook from opening.
• We fixed a memory leak issue that affects Windows systems that are in use 24 hours each day of the week.
• We fixed an issue that affects the IE mode window frame.
• We fixed an issue that prevents internet shortcuts from updating.
• We fixed an issue that causes an Input Method Editor (IME) to discard a character if you enter the character while the IME is converting previous text.
• We fixed an issue that causes print failures when a low integrity level (LowIL) application prints to a null port.
• We fixed an issue that prevents BitLocker from encrypting when you use the silent encryption option.
• We fixed an issue that occurs when you apply multiple WDAC policies. Doing that might prevent scripts from running when the policies allow scripts to run.
• We fixed an issue that affects the behavior and shape orientation of a mouse cursor for Microsoft Defender Application Guard (MDAG), Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Edge. This issue occurs when you turn on a virtual graphics processing unit (GPU).
• We fixed an issue that might cause the Remote Desktop client application to stop working when you end a session.
• We fixed a reliability issue in the Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway) service that randomly causes clients to disconnect.
• We deployed search highlights to devices that are domain-joined. For more information about the feature, see Group configuration: search highlights in Windows. You can configure search highlights at the enterprise scale using Group Policy settings defined in the Search.admx file and Policy CSP – Search.
• We fixed an issue that displays the wrong image for the Input Method Editor (IME) mode indicator icon when you turn on the Font Mitigation policy.
• We fixed an issue that causes a yellow exclamation point to display in Device Manager. This occurs when a Bluetooth remote device advertises the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) source (SRC).
• We fixed an issue in which the Cluster Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider (ClustWMI.dll) generates high CPU usage in WMIPRVSE.EXE.
• We fixed an issue that causes Microsoft’s deduplication driver to consume large amounts of nonpaged pool memory. As a result, this depletes all the physical memory on the machine, which causes the server to stop responding.
• We fixed an issue that causes file copying to be slower.
• We fixed an issue that might cause a system to stop responding when a user signs out if Microsoft OneDrive is in use.
• We fixed a known issue that might prevent recovery discs (CD or DVD) from starting if you created them using the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) app in Control Panel. This issue occurs after installing Windows updates released January 11, 2022 or later.

This build contains no Known Issues, and as previously pointed out, no new features either. To check and see which version of Windows 10 you’re running, just type winver into the Windows search box on the Taskbar (or right click on Start and choose Run and then type in winver). It should show as “Version 21H2”.

This is an optional "C update" of which is generally released in the third or fourth week of the month, and is designed to test new bug fixes and improvements for other non-security issues. C updates are optional, and Windows Update won’t automatically install them on your PC, when offered outside of Windows Insider channels.

You can view the official press release for Build 19044.1741 here.

Windows 10 Build 19044.1741 (KB5014023) in Release Preview Channel contains one fix

Google appears to be dropping two features from its Assistant’s reminder-setting capabilities. It’s ditching support for assignable reminders — “remind Anna to bring in the trash cans this morning” — and location-based ones — “remind me to call Becca when I get to the office.” Google didn’t announce either change, instead opting to bury one in a support page and another in a pop-up in the Assistant app. Both features still work but evidently won’t for much longer.

Chalk this one up to the latest in a long, long history of Google doing a terrible job of turning Reminders into an even remotely useful system.

The list of chaotic Google product offerings is long, but I submit that none make less sense than Reminders. You can set reminders in Google Calendar, which sync with the Google Tasks app. This is good and correct behavior! But you can also set reminders with Google Assistant, which live in an entirely different ecosystem and don’t appear in Tasks. Google Keep is maybe the most chaotic: you can add a reminder to a note, and it will show up alongside your Assistant-created reminders but not in Google Tasks. They’ll also appear in a dedicated section of the Keep app, but none of your other reminders are there.

Google Calendar shows the way this should work. But it doesn’t. Image: Google

There is precisely one place to see all the reminders in your Google account and that is the Google Calendar app for iOS and Android. But even this has its oddities. You can create a reminder in the Google Calendar app, which shows up alongside Assistant reminders and at reminders.google.com, or create a task, which appears exactly the same yet shows up in Google Tasks but not other places. In the Calendar web app, you can only create and see Tasks reminders, which don’t show up where the other reminders do.

The fact that Calendar gets it so close to right is all the more infuriating. It means there’s nothing keeping reminders apart other than Google just not putting them together. In general, all you can really hope for is that your device will ping you at the right time and that you never actually need to look at a list of everything you have going on.

Inside this nonsensical ecosystem, Google can’t even make its Reminders features match. Assistant may be losing its location-based reminders, but your Keep reminders can still be triggered by your GPS pin. Google Tasks and Calendar reminders could never be location-based, for some reason.

The glass-half-full read on Google’s recent changes would be that they’re the first signal in a while that anyone at Google actually remembers reminders exist. And, as the company continues to work on bringing its products together more coherently, it’s possible that a project is underway to finally make reminders make sense: 9to5Google spotted a new feature called “Memory” last year that could be the ultimate home for all your bookmarks and reminders.

But I wouldn’t hold your breath. Google has intermittently expressed interest in making reminders work, most recently in 2018 when it relaunched Google Tasks alongside a big Gmail redesign. The app felt like a good start, but it was clear Google had more work to do. In the four years since, Google has done roughly none of that work.

It’s clear that Google sees Assistant as the true center of its ecosystem, both for reminders and for its whole ambient-computing project. Which would be fine, really, if the company would actually do the (relatively minor) work of connecting the rest of the ecosystem.

Here’s hoping that Google is paring down its Reminders features as it plots a way to bring the whole system together and then add some of those features back. Until then, I’ll keep setting reminders with Siri. It may hear me wrong half the time, but at least I know where to find things.

Google’s messy Reminders system just keeps getting messier

WhatsApp Beta can now send your voice notes to all your WhatsApp contacts. As can be seen in the image below, you can now see a voice recorder icon on the right side of the text editor. Click on the icon to start recording, or you can also go ahead and delete your voice note midway if you don't like what you're saying. However, there is no option to pause your recording to get a preview of a draft of your message.

Another nifty new feature is related to user privacy. WhatsApp Beta UWP now comes with an option to allow senders to send photos and videos that can be viewed once. After receivers view the message, the photos or videos will automatically disappear. Unfortunately, as is the case with WhatsApp Android, iOS, and web clients, users can bypass this privacy measure by taking a screenshot or by using a screen recorder.

'View once' and voice recorder are also available on WhatsApp Web. In fact, the WhatsApp web client has had these features for months.

Nevertheless, both the capabilities are pretty useful and could convince many users to finally use the app on their Windows 11 and 10 PCs. Some of the exciting features the Meta-owned company recently added include emoji shortcuts, dark mode support, the ability to filter and archive your chats, and many more.

Hopefully, WhatsApp will continue to introduce enhancements to its UWP app to make it on par with its Android and iOS counterparts.

If you're a WhatsApp user, do you use the beta app on your Windows 11/10 PC? Do the new voice recorder and 'view once' features make the app more useful to you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

WhatsApp Beta UWP app gets two nifty new features

If you have a 2013- or 2014-era iPad sitting around unused because it's not getting updates from Apple anymore and has stopped running the apps you need, some developers are working on an alternative software solution for you. Developer Konrad Dybcio and a Linux enthusiast going by "quaack723" have collaborated to get Linux kernel version 5.18 booting on an old iPad Air 2, a major feat for a device that was designed to never run any operating system other than Apple's.

The project appears to use an Alpine Linux-based distribution called "postmarketOS," a relatively small but actively developed distribution made primarily for Android devices. Dybcio used a "checkm8" hashtag in his initial tweet about the project, strongly implying that they used the "Checkm8" bootrom exploit published back in 2019 to access the hardware. For now, the developers only have Linux running on some older iPad hardware using A7 and A8-based chips—this includes the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and a few generations of iPad mini. But subsequent tweets imply that it will be possible to get Linux up and running on any device with an A7 or A8 in it, including the iPhone 5S and the original HomePod.

This isn't the only project devoted to running Linux on Apple's hardware. One project, Asahi Linux, has been dedicated to reverse-engineering support for the M1 chips in Apple's Macs and sending the patches upstream so that they can be integrated into the Linux kernel. Another, Project Sandcastle, has a build of Android up and running on an iPhone 7. Apps like iSH will give you a Linux shell running on top of iOS or iPadOS—not the same as running Linux on the hardware directly, but useful in some circumstances.

Development work on this latest Linux-on-iDevices effort is still in its early days. The photos that the developers shared both show a basic boot process that fails because it can't mount a filesystem, and Dybcio notes that basic things like USB and Bluetooth support aren't working. Getting networking, audio, and graphics acceleration all working properly will also be a tall order. But being able to boot Linux at all could draw the attention of other developers who want to help the project.

Compared to modern hardware with an Apple M1 chip, A7 and A8-powered devices wouldn't be great as general-purpose Linux machines. While impressive at the time, their CPUs and GPUs are considerably slower than modern Apple devices, and they all shipped with either 1GB or 2GB of RAM. But their performance still stacks up well next to the slow processors in devices like the Raspberry Pi 4, and most (though not all) A7 and A8 hardware has stopped getting new iOS and iPadOS updates from Apple at this point; Linux support could give some of these devices a second life as retro game consoles, simple home servers, or other things that low-power Arm hardware is good for.

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Currently the overall Linux share is 1.12%. Still a pretty clear upwards trend, and drops in a couple months are to be expected as that's just how things go. No doubt it will bounce up again within a couple months. The interesting thing to see now though, is how the Steam Deck will affect it since Valve actually hooked up the survey in a recent Steam Deck update.

When filtering to just Linux, here's the current top:

• "Arch Linux" 64 bit 12.85% +0.53%
•  Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS 64 bit 11.75% -2.53%
•  "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 11.09% -0.46%
•  Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64 bit 8.04% +8.04%
•  Linux Mint 20.3 64 bit 5.97% -0.39%
•  "SteamOS Holo" 64 bit 5.23% +5.23%
•  Other 45.07% +6.46%

So it might look like Arch Linux is on top at a quick glance, but not quite, since you need to take into account the various versions of Ubuntu as people tend to stick to LTS releases for years. The real interesting thing to see though is SteamOS Holo, which is the Arch-based Steam Deck operating system already hitting well over 5% of Linux users on Steam. Not only that, the Steam Deck GPU "AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405" is shown as the second most popular already for just Linux systems on Steam.

Using May's 1.12% share, that puts Linux users at around ~1,478,400 estimated "monthly active users" based on the last time Valve gave out their user data. While you could say that to be around ~77,320 Steam Deck users, it doesn't really work like that, since it's usually an additional device but still fun to check.

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According to Microsoft 365 Roadmap page, Microsoft is now working on a feature for Word on Mac that will predict the text as you type on the editor. Mac users will be able to write more efficiently with the text predictions capability as they will save a lot of time.

Although not confirmed in the Roadmap page, it will be very similar to how text predictions work on Word for web, Windows, and Android. If you disagree with what Microsoft has predicted, you can continue to type, and the prediction will disappear automatically from the editor. And to use the predicted Word or phrase, you'll need to press the Tab key on your keyboard.

Microsoft is using Machine Learning mode to make suggestions based on the text you type, making typing a lot faster and allowing fewer typing errors. As per the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, Mac users will get predictions on Word in September. Office Insiders in the Current Channel will likely get it before it being rolled out to the general public.

For Mac users, it should not surprise you if Microsoft doesn't keep its promise of making text predictions available in September. We may see a repeat of what happened to dark mode for Word Web — it was supposed to come in May, but hasn't materialized yet.

Source: Microsoft 365 Roadmap

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