Reuters reports that a Chinese government agency has suspended Bing's auto-suggest capabilities in the country for seven days. Essentially, if you're in China, you won't be able to see suggested search queries as you're typing in the Bing search bar. The reason for the suspension has not been disclosed publicly yet but Microsoft gave the following docile statement:

Bing is a global search platform and remains committed to respecting the rule of law and users' right to access information.

It is interesting to note that this is not the first time that Bing's auto-suggestions have been suspended in China. The same thing happened in December 2021. At that time, the suspension was for 30 days and Microsoft gave the exact same statement as a response.

It's also relevant to recall that Microsoft allegedly censored image search results for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the iconic "Tank man" photo on the event's anniversary in June 2021. The company claims that this was due to a "human error", but that's an awfully big coincidence. The move even led to Notepad++ removing Bing search commands from its latest release at that time to protest the alleged censorship.

Source

Available in both Beta and Release Preview channels, this latest Windows 11 update brings, as usual, an assortment of fixes and general improvements to the OS alongside a handy new feature or two, however, it’s not all good news. 

On the positive side of things, the new feature that Windows 11 preview build users have to enjoy is a key update to notifications which now lets three high priority toast notifications be displayed simultaneously, allowing you to see calls, reminders, and alarms all at the same time if you really need to.

Unfortunately alongside this useful feature that’ll help you navigate your busy schedule, Microsoft has decided to implement the annoying unsupported hardware watermark which was previously in testing. The new desktop watermarks states “system requirements not met. Go to settings to learn more.”

Here’s the new watermark you may soon be stuck with. | Image credit: The Verge

With Windows 11 notoriously only supporting Intel’s 8th Gen Coffee Lake or AMD’s Zen+ and Zen 2, or newer, CPUs, many users have chosen to skirt around Microsoft’s imposed hardware requirements, much to the company’s chagrin.

While Microsoft has yet to close the loopholes that let would-be users install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, it’s clear that they don’t want you doing it, especially since it could leave your device more vulnerable to security threats. 

While build 22000.588 is still in preview channels, for now, it’s expected that the update, along with the pesky watermark, will launch in the coming days.

Windows 11’s unsupported hardware watermark isn’t going away

The page said:

Explore the newly refreshed Settings pages

As part of SV2 we redesigned a handful of Settings pages to ensure they are updated and consistent with the rest of the app.

[..]

Prerequisites: All SV2 builds flighted after March 15th will have these features enabled by default.

However, after the firm realized that it had shared unintended information too soon, the page was taken down and replaced with the following that wipes out all references related to SV2 and the March 15th date (referring to the latest Build 22579) it had earlier mentioned:

If you are wondering what kind of new Settings design Microsoft is referring to, the company has released a few of these already that include a new Sustainability setting, Focus, among a few others.

Microsoft has been releasing these new features in the recent Windows 11 Dev channel builds, outside of its pipeline servicing updates. You can find details about those new features here.

This isn't the first time we have found Windows 11 22H2 hints as a script had also leaked earlier that mentioned a certain March 4th date, or perhaps even April 3rd. We wonder how these dates may be connected to the March 15 mentioned by Microsoft in the article here.

Source and images: Xeno (Twitter)

Microsoft made a key Windows 11 22H2 Sun Valley 2 (SV2) reference but quickly removed it

The latest version of the Telegram Desktop app adds a new download manager, a new live streaming experience with other apps, and more. However, the update comes with no bug fixes and performance improvements.

The new download manager lets you do a couple of things. For example, a pop-up notification will appear in the bottom left corner when you finish downloading a file. If you accidentally close the app while a file is downloading, you’ll get notified about the active downloads through an alert. The new download manager also lets you find recently downloaded files in Settings> Advanced> Downloads.

The new version of the Telegram Desktop app also adds the ability to create a unique @username from the Settings page, allowing you to let others connect with you without knowing your phone number. You will also be able to share a direct t.me link to your phone number that instantly opens a chat with you.

Telegram Desktop Version 3.6.0.0 also lets you broadcast from streaming tools like OBS Studio and XSplit Broadcaster. Your viewers will also need to install the latest version of the app to watch your stream. To start a new live stream in your channel, tap the ‘Start With’ button and enter the information found there into your streaming tool.

Telegram Desktop Version 3.6.0.0

These new features are also available on other Telegram clients, including Mac, Android, iOS.

Are you using Telegram Desktop regularly? If yes, let’s us know in the comments if these features are of any use to you.

Telegram Desktop app gets a new download manager and more with the latest update

What is new in the March 2022 firmware update for Surface Laptop 3 AMD?

According to the changelog available on the official Microsoft Support website, the March 2022 firmware update for the Surface Laptop 3 with AMD processors brings the following:

• Improvements for system stability and fixes for the bugs causing the blue screen of death.
• Improved compatibility with the Surface Dock 2.
• New graphics drivers with GPU stability improvements and bugfixes.
• Windows 11 features for improved battery life.

Microsoft has already updated numerous Surface devices with a mysterious "Windows 11 feature" to improve battery life, but the company is yet to explain how it works. Interestingly, Microsoft released the exact battery optimizations for the Intel-based Surface Laptop 3 in October 2021, right after the initial Windows 11 release.

Here is a detailed list of new drivers in the March 2022 firmware update for the Surface Laptop 3:

Microsoft says you can install the March 2022 firmware update for the AMD-based Surface Laptop 3 if your device runs Windows 10 May 2020 Update or newer. Also, there are no known issues in this update.

AMD-based Surface Laptop 3 gets Windows 11-specific battery optimizations

Linus Torvalds has released version 5.17 of the Linux kernel.

"So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I'm happy to report that it was very calm indeed," Torvalds wrote in his weekly state of the kernel post. "We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it's all good," he added.

Version 5.17's standout features include:

• Support for four-level page tables on RISC-V silicon, meaning the open source tech can handle 64TB of physical memory or double that in a virtual address space. That kind of scale makes RISC-V potentially more applicable to all sorts of high-end workloads;
• A new AMD P-state driver that improves users' ability to change CPU frequency in cores using the Zen 2 and later design. The driver mainly improves matters on client devices, but AMD's EPYC server silicon also uses the Zen architecture;
• Tweaks that ensure it's possible to accelerate imminent Alder Lake mobile CPUs to reach turbo speed across their many and varied cores;
• Mitigation of new Specter-like issues in Intel and AMD CPUs.

Linux being Linux, the new version also includes an oddity in the form of a fix for an ancient bug that could cause the OS to hang when a floppy disk is ejected.

Torvalds ended his post by noting that "about a dozen pull requests" have already arrived for version 5.18 of the kernel.

"I appreciate the early pull requests: it gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling of 'this was all ready in plenty of time'," he wrote, before opining that statistics he can see suggest "5.18 will be a bit bigger than 5.17 was, but hopefully without some of the drama."

Version 5.18 of the kernel is tipped to feature the debut of Intel's plans for "software-defined silicon" – a tech about which Intel has remained virtually silent, other than hints on mailing lists about features that would allow payments to enable different features in processors. The next kernel is also slated to bring improvements for AMD EPYC server CPUs, better pass-through for NVMe, and new random number generation code – and the usual grab bag of fixes and features large and small. ®

Source

On previous versions of LMDE, support for Wi-Fi drivers was a little hit or miss but LMDE 5 seems to have addressed this issue and now all cards that work in the standard Linux Mint should work in LMDE too. If you want to see what issues there are in LMDE 5, be sure to check the release notes, one notable point on there is that the installer won’t work properly if you’re using a multiboot tool like Yumi or Ventoy so write the image directly to a USB device then install it.

The team has not published upgrade instructions yet but you should be on the lookout for these if you’re currently running LMDE 4. If LMDE 4 is treated the same way as LMDE 3, it will be retired and stop receiving updates in just a couple of months. If you prefer an installation to be in place for more like five years, and not two, you’re probably best off switching to the main Linux Mint distribution.

To find out more and to download LMDE 5, head over to the Linux Mint website and choose where you want to download the ISO from, getting it from a torrent will likely be the quickest and it saves you time as you won’t have to manually verify the image.

Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 5 now available for download

Brazil has lifted its ban on Telegram after the country’s Supreme Court blocked the messaging app on Friday for failing to comply with court orders, according to a report from The New York Times.

The court walked back on its ban after Telegram made several changes to help keep misinformation at bay in the country, which includes removing classified information shared by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and deleting accounts belonging to Allan dos Santos, an activist and Bolsonaro supporter accused of spreading disinformation.

In addition, Telegram made promises to label posts that contain false information and promote those with factual information. It will also have its employees keep a watchful eye on Brazil’s 100 most popular channels, the NYT reports.

With over 1.1 million subscribers on the platform, Telegram has become a favored channel of communication for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who’s currently under investigation for leaking police documents and has been accused of spreading false information in the past.

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, an opponent of President Bolsonaro, ordered the ban on the app, which wound up lasting just two days. As Telegram CEO Pavel Durov explains, his company didn’t take action sooner because they were checking the wrong email inbox and failed to see the messages from Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Telegram’s ban in Brazil has been lifted

That said, like every piece of software out there, it's still not perfect, and that's something I have mentioned in my previous writings too. The quality of the storefront and the apps available on it is another story altogether, but today, I want to talk about one missing capability on the UI front that I hope Microsoft adds soon.

The missing feature I'm talking about is the lack of app version history. If you're unaware what this means, let me explain a bit with comparison to the other two major storefronts. Starting off with Apple's App Store - which I think has the best implementation out of the three -, we get a whole list fo previous versions and their respective change logs. You can check out the screenshot above to see the latest version of Spotify available in the App Store in the window on the left (highlighted) as well as change logs, version numbers, and update dates for previous versions in the window on the right.

While the Google Play Store doesn't provide this level of detail, at least it tells you the last updated date for the app. It also has a label for current version, but in most cases, it says "varies with device" if you check from a desktop browser. However, if you check on a mobile device, you do get to see additional information such as the exact version number for your device as well as the initial release date.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think that the Microsoft Store is the most disappointing in this regard. If you don't have an app installed (for example, Facebook) and you visit its store listing, you can only see the initial release date for the app. I personally think that this is the most useless piece of information without additional context. See the screenshot of Facebook's store listing above. You know that it was released in 2013 (highlighted), but has it actually been updated since then? Good luck figuring that out.

The Microsoft Store does attempt to provide you some more information if you have the app installed. For example, I have installed Spotify on my machine and now the store listing for the app shows me the installed version (highlighted). However, once again, without additional context, this information is useless to me as well. Sure, I know the installed version, but do I know if this app has now been abandoned by the developer? Your guess is as good as mine.

To be fair, Microsoft does try to answer this question but it's not really an elegant solution. If you visit your app library in the Microsoft Store, you can see when an app was last updated (highlighted). But the problem is that it shows you the last updated date for your device. Maybe the update came out two years ago, and you had auto-updates turned off so you only got it when you manually triggered the update process. All in all, even this information is pointless without extra context.

I understand that the lack of a version history may or may not bother certain people depending upon how frequently they use the Microsoft Store. But as someone who has invested time and money in Microsoft's storefronts since the Windows Phone days and knows how developers used to suddenly abandon development of apps because of a low customer base, version history is information that is vital to me before I decide to give the app a go.

Let's take Spotify as a hypothetical example. If the company decides to abandon support for the Microsoft Store but doesn't decide to pull the app completely, the storefront itself would provide no information to give me this indication unless Spotify explicitly highlights it in the change log. Due to the lack of version history, I might install the app, spend lots of time migrating my library and curating my playlists, and then find out next month that Spotify is pulling its app after all, because hey, it's already been in an "unsupported" state for some time.

While this is a hypothetical example that probably won't come to pass in the case of Spotify, people who have been customers of Microsoft's storefronts understand quite well that this is always a possibility given the dwindling user base of the store in general. You could blame the developer for not giving clear guidance in their app's description about lack of support, but at the same time, I think that Microsoft needs to proactively tackle the issue of low transparency in abandonware too.

When developers submit apps and updates to the Microsoft Store, a version number, and a change log is clearly defined. The last updated date is obviously stored on the developer portal for tracking purposes too. What's stopping Microsoft from sharing this information with consumers as well? I honestly don't know.

That said, with the development of the Microsoft Store now being helmed by star developer Rudy Huyn, I do hope that the company invests more time and thought in improving the user experience for its storefront. The Microsoft Store is in a much better place than it was a year ago, but there is clearly room for improvement.

Do you use the Microsoft Store frequently? Do you think that the Microsoft Store would benefit from an app version history? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

The Microsoft Store in Windows 11 and Windows 10 really needs version history for apps

However, the update offers notable fixes for issues found in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Outlook, Access. You can read the full official changelog below.

Changelog

In other news, Microsoft recently released Windows Office Insider Preview Build 15028.20050, adding the ability to refresh your stock data in the background regularly, the ability to insert hyperlinks into Excel comments. The update also added the ability to let users apply labels whenever a document, worksheet, or presentation is either created or modified as against previous scenarios where default sensitivity labels are configured by your administrator.

Microsoft recently released Office Insider updates for Mac and iOS users too. Like Windows users, Office Insiders on Mac can also add hyperlinks to comments in Excel. The company added many new features alongside the ability to add hyperlinks to the latest Office Insider update for Mac.

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

Windows Office Version 2204 (Build 15109.20000) is now rolling out to Beta Channel subscribers

The reverse image search option loaded the Google Images website with the results of the query. It is possible to go there manually to run the search for an image by uploading it to the service, but it requires several manual steps instead of just two clicks in Chrome.

With reverse image searching gone, users may use the Google Lens link instead. Google Lens is not a reverse image search option, as it is designed to provide users with context and relevant information. The lens website does highlight visual matches and links to pages that do contain similar images. Results are limited, and links point to Google Images to get the full list of similar images and pages with that content.

Users may click on the "view all" link on the page, or scroll all the way down to activate the "try it" link, which opens the Google Images website as well.

There is no longer an option to restore the classic reverse image searching functionality in Chrome. Chrome users may install extensions, such as Search by Image, Reverse Image Search or Huntress Reverse Image Search. All of these extensions add options to Chrome to look up an image on Google Images.

Another option that Chrome users have is to switch to the Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi, which is also based on Chromium, supports the "search for image" option in its latest version. The option is displayed in the browser's context menu when users right-click on images displayed in the web browser.

Reverse image searches are useful for a number of use cases. Webmasters, photographers and copyright holders may use the search engines to find third-party webpages that use the images. Internet users may use them to find larger versions of images, e.g., for use as wallpaper images or to get a copy with more details.

Why did Google remove the option?

Google did not provide an explanation. Since it replaced the original image search option with Google Lens, it seems likely that the company wants to push Google Lens usage by exposing the service to more users. Chrome users who used the reverse image search option to find out more about an image may like the new option, as it provides more context about an image than Google Images.

Now You: do you use reverse image search engines? What is your take on Chrome replacing the option?

Google replaces reverse image search option in Chrome with Google Lens option

Hardware acceleration for AV1 video brings several noticeable benefits to customers. The standard developed by Alliance for Open Media and initially released in March 2018 offers better video compression than H.264 (about 50%) and VP9 (about 20%). Shifting AV1 video processing from software to hardware improves efficiency and reduces energy consumption, resulting in better battery life on tablets and laptops.

Google and Microsoft announced hardware-accelerated AV1 video in Chrome and Edge in late 2020. Mozilla, on the other hand, did not rush to introduce improved AV1 support in Firefox. While it is easy to dunk on Firefox, there is a reason why developers took their time. Hardware-accelerated AV1 video is not something you can add to any computer with Windows 10, and it requires a PC with the most recent and powerful hardware. According to Microsoft, hardware-accelerated AV1 video works on Windows 10 and 11 PCs if the following requirements are met:

• CPU: 11th gen Intel Core with Intel Iris Xe Graphics or newer.
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 30 Series or AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series with necessary drivers.
• OS: Windows 10 1909 or newer.

Several months ago, Mozilla said only ~2% of all PCs meet those requirements, so hardware acceleration for AV1 was not a priority for Mozilla Foundation. Now Firefox is ready to reach feature parity with Edge and Chrome in this regard.

Improved AV1 support is not the only area where Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla join forces. Recently, developers announced a new effort to enhance browsers interoperability to provide the same consistent experience for all users regardless of their platform or browser.

Source

Microsoft recently released Windows 11 build 22579 to Windows Insiders in the Dev channel. The new build focuses on improving existing features, such as folders on the Start menu and touch navigation. Besides, it brings a new Media Player version with a somewhat unexpected change: Audio CD support.

Compact Discs are no longer everyone's favorite way to play music. Still, some old-school customers continue buying those relics. Moreover, in 2021, for the first time in two decades, CD sales in the US increased from 31.6 to 46.6 million. If you are one of those enjoying music on compact discs, you will be glad to know that you can now use the new Media Player app in Windows 11 to play Audio CDs.

Microsoft added Audio CD support to the new Windows 11 Media Player app in version 11.2202.42.0. The program will show an "Audio CD" entry in its menu, allowing you to play music from the inserted disk. Other changes in the latest version improve theme switching and the media content drag and drop experience.

It is worth noting that Media Player is not the only app for Audio CDs in Windows 11. You can also utilize the good old Windows Media Player Legacy, which is still available in the latest Windows 11 builds. With the most recent update for the new Media Player app, users have one more app to play music from optical disks.

For now, Audio CD support in the Media Player app is available only for Windows Insiders, but it should make its way to the stable channel relatively soon.

Microsoft makes it easier to play audio CDs in Windows 11

IrfanView is a popular image viewer for Windows. Users like the rich functionality of the program and its extensibility through plugins. The image viewer supports all popular and many obscure image formats out of the box, is quick to load and fast when it is used, and supports a large number of features related to the viewing of images on Windows devices.

IrfanView 4.60 is the first release of 2022. The new version introduces several new features in the image viewer. Users find an option to compare two images under File > Compare Images.

IrfanView displays two images side by side in the compare interface. An existing image is displayed as one of the two images, others need to be loaded. You may then change the size of the comparison window, the display style of the images, and use the mouse to scroll and zoom both images at the same time.

It is a handy option to compare two images quickly using the image viewer.

Users of the program get a new option when saving JPEG images. The save preview window supports zooming and scrolling of the preview image now in the new version. It may be used to check the output image before saving it.

IrfanView 4.60 supports the hotkey Alt-Shift-B. It is a session-only hotkey that toggles between thin and normal interface borders.

Here is the full changelog for the new IrfanView version:

JPG save preview dialog: Options to zoom/scroll the preview image
New option in File menu: Compare current image with another image
Option for Favorite menus (Edit menu); Right mouse click on menu item
Options menu to "Create new EXIF data" in JPGs without EXIF
New browsing options for mouse wheel (Properties->Browsing)
Support for QOI format (Formats PlugIn, reading and saving)
Improved DDS loading (BC7 compression, thanks to Richard Geldreich)
TIF loading fixed (Thanks to Aslan Gurtsiev, CVE-2021-46064)
New hotkey: ALT + SHIFT + B: Show thin or normal border (current session only)
Several PlugIns are changed/updated, please install the newest versions: https://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm

Landing Page:   https://www.irfanview.com/

Now You: which image viewer do you use, and why? (via Deskmodder)

Image Viewer IrfanView 4.60 with new image compare option out

Frontpaged:   IrfanView 4.60

This follows a request from the Brazilian Federal Police claiming that Telegram is "notoriously known for its stance of not cooperating with judicial and police authorities in several countries."

The decision was motivated by Telegram's failure to comply with court orders, according to local media reports.

Although Telegram complied with some court orders to block accounts used to spread disinformation on its platform, the messaging platform failed to comply with points of the Court's decision, including providing registration information for the blocked accounts to Justice.

The Federal Police also said it tried to forward court orders and ask Telegram to provide registration data for suspended users via all available channels but received no response.

Telegram's failure to reply to law enforcement requests eventually led to its ban in Brazil, after it was accused of contempt of justice because it "failed to comply with the judicial command, in total contempt for Brazilian Justice," as Moraes added.

"The disregard for Brazilian legislation and the repeated failure to comply with numerous judicial decisions by Telegram [..] including those emanating from the Federal Supreme Court - is a circumstance completely incompatible with the current constitutional order, in addition to contradicting expressly legal provision," Moraes explained in the decision.

Banned due to email "miscommunication"

After the Brazilian Supreme Court decided to block the messaging app, founder and CEO Pavel Durov said that Telegram is to blame and pinned the failure to comply with the Court's orders on "miscommunication" and missed emails.

"It seems that we had an issue with emails going between our telegram.org corporate addresses and the Brazilian Supreme Court. As a result of this miscommunication, the Court ruled to ban Telegram for being unresponsive," Durov explained.

"We complied with an earlier court decision in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future takedown requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response must have been lost, because the Court used the old general-purpose email address in further attempts to reach us. 

"As a result, we missed its decision in early March that contained a follow-up takedown request. Luckily, we have now found and processed it, delivering another report to the Court today."

Durov also asked the Court to delay its ruling for at least a few days until Telegram appoints a representative in Brazil to expedite similar issues in the future and allow the tens of millions of Brazilian Telegram users to stay in touch with their friends and family.

"The last 3 weeks have been unprecedented for the world and for Telegram. Our content moderation team was flooded with requests from multiple parties," Durov added.

"However, I am certain that once a reliable channel of communication is established, we'll be able to efficiently process takedown requests for public channels that are illegal in Brazil."

Telegram banned by Brazilian Supreme Court over missed emails

Windows 11 build 22579, currently available in the Dev channel and as ISO files for "clean installation," does not contain groundbreaking changes but offers a few exciting improvements. You can now name and rename folders to keep your Start menu tidy and well-organized. To give a folder a name on the Start menu, open the folder and click the "Edit name" text box. Enter a name, then press Enter or click anywhere.

Overall, folders on the Start menu in Windows 11 now feel more mature and usable, although some might argue that the Windows 10's variant is still more convenient. For example, groups in Windows 10 do not overlay the entire Start menu, allowing you to tap or click apps outside a folder without closing it first. Besides, you can delete (unpin) groups with just two clicks. In Windows 11, to remove a folder, you need to drag out every single icon.

Considering folders on the Start menu are currently Dev-exclusive and not available in the stable version of Windows 11, you can expect Microsoft to bring more improvements and polish in the subsequent updates. Microsoft is now holding a Bug Bash event, during which Windows Insiders can help the company prepare the next Windows version for its prime time. Be sure to share your feedback with Microsoft if you think there are things to improve in Windows 11 (we are certain users have a word or two to say).

You can now rename folders on the Start menu in Windows 11 build 22579

The build's highlight, however, is a new policy for Windows admins who want to exclude USB removable drives from BitLocker encryption.

"This will solve the problem of automatic or accidental encryption of storage built into specialized devices like video cameras, voice recorders, conferencing systems, medical devices, and many more," the Windows Insider team said.

"When this policy is enabled, you will not be able to encrypt storage that is on the exclusion list, and you will not be prompted for encryption if you connect such storage to a device while 'Deny write access to removable drives not protected by BitLocker' policy is enabled on it."

Right now, the new policy can only be configured by IT administrators via mobile device management (MDM) and Windows client custom profiles using OMA-URI (Open Mobile Alliance Uniform Resource Identifier) settings.

The detailed procedure admins have to go through to exclude storage from encryption requires them to gather the Hardware IDs of the devices they want to exclude and to configure the BitLocker Exclusion list Policy in Intune using the steps detailed in today's announcement.

Microsoft asked Windows Insiders who will give the new policy a spin to file any feedback they have using the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > BitLocker and Device Encryption.

Start menu and Get Started app changes

The new build also comes with an assortment of changes and improvements for the Start menu and the Started app, including the ability to name folders of apps in Start and site suggestions in the Get Started app that can be pinned to the taskbar.

"To find this new feature, launch the Get Started app and navigate to the 'Apps and sites we think you’ll love' page," the Windows Insider team added.

"Click on any of the sites suggested on the page to pin it to your taskbar so you can access the sites you care about in one-click."

Additionally, Microsoft added support for CD playback updates starting with Media Player Version 11.2202.42.0 and continuity for Office documents via deeper integration with Office for the Your Phone app.

Redmond also released new ISOs to allow Insiders to perform clean installs of the current build, ISos that can be downloaded from here.

Windows 11 adds a BitLocker exclusion policy for USB drives

Some Windows Insiders might also be ecstatic to know that you can now name folders on the Start menu, as shown in the above .GIF.

Windows Insiders have also been called to arms about the ongoing Bug Bash that started on March 16th and ends on March 22nd. Microsoft is hoping that with this (and the previous) build, Windows Insiders will complete a number of quests that have been provided through the Feedback Hub, because your feedback matters! Plus you can also earn stickers.

You can can get a run down of all the new features, fixes and known issues for build 22579 here.

You can download the Windows 11 build 22579 Insider Preview here, you will have to be signed in to a Microsoft account and enrolled as a Windows Insider in order to download the ISO which also comes in Enterprise and Home (China) flavors.

Windows 11 Insider Dev Channel build 22579 ISOs also available

What’s new in Build 22579

Exclude USB removable drives from encryption

We are introducing a new policy so that IT administrators can exclude USB removable drives from BitLocker encryption. This will solve the problem of automatic or accidental encryption of storage built into specialized devices like video cameras, voice recorders, conferencing systems, medical devices and many more. When this policy is enabled, you will not be able to encrypt storage that is on the exclusion list, and you will not be prompted for encryption if you connect such storage to a device while “Deny write access to removable drives not protected by BitLocker” policy is enabled on it. This policy so far can only be configured via MDM custom OMA-URI.

Here are the steps an IT administrator can take to exclude storage from encryption:

STEP 1: Gather Hardware IDs of devices you want to exclude. You can follow the steps to get hardware IDs of devices outlined here in this Docs page.

STEP 2: Configure BitLocker Exclusion list Policy in Intune:

1. Login to Endpoint Manager portal.
2. Go To Devices > Configuration Profiles.
3. Click “Create Profile“.
4. Select Platform “Windows 10 and later” and Profile type: “Templates” then select Template Name: “Custom”.

5. On a Basics tab, name your policy and put any description.

6. On a Configuration settings tab click Add and:

• Enter your name and description of the setting.
• Oma-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/BitLocker/RemovableDrivesExcludedFromEncryption
• Data type: String
• Value: enter your Hardware ID copied in previous steps. You can separate each entry with coma.

7. Click Save and then Next.
8. On Assignments tab select group that you want this policy to apply to.

9. Click Next, Next and on Review + create tab click Create.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > BitLocker and Device Encryption.

Now we look at the changes and improvements that the new Build 22579 brings:

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• As some Insiders noticed, along with our updated Print Queue experience, we have also made an update so that win32 apps which use CPrintDialog to display the print dialog will now show our modern print dialog. In addition, the modern print dialog discovers local network printers automatically. If you choose a new printer, it will be installed without you needing to go into Settings. Please file feedback about your printing experiences under Devices and Drivers > Print in the Feedback Hub.
• We are reverting the Open With dialog box redesign that began rolling out with Build 22567 to the previous design. We plan to bring this back in the future after addressing some performance issues identified by Windows Insiders. Thank you for your feedback!
• To ensure users are still able to quickly access the console if Windows Terminal has been uninstalled, we are updating the WIN + X menu to point to Windows PowerShell. If you have Windows Terminal installed and would like Windows PowerShell to open in Windows Terminal, we recommend going to Settings > Privacy & Security > For Developers, and setting Windows Terminal as your default terminal app.
• Magnifier and the on-screen keyboard now have new Fluent-style icons.

[Start menu]

• You can now name your folders of apps in Start. To name a folder, simply create a folder (which will have the default name of “Folder”), open it, click on “Edit name”, and type your folder name. Alternatively, use keyboard focus to open the folder then select the text box and start typing.

[Get Started app]

• We have added pinned site suggestions to the Get Started app so you can conveniently pin websites to your taskbar. To find this new feature, launch the Get Started app and navigate to the “Apps and sites we think you’ll love” page. Click on any of the sites suggested on the page to pin it to your taskbar so you can access the sites you care about in one-click. Please file feedback in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Get Started.

Note: This experience recommends popular sites and is currently only available to EN-US devices. Personalized site recommendations and other locales will be supported soon.

[Windowing]

• Continuing our effort to update multi-finger touch gestures to include responsive and delightful animations that follow your finger, try out using three fingers to swipe left and right and switch between recently used windows.

[Task Manager]

• Based on feedback, the Run New Task button is now available on all pages of Task Manager.
• Updated the icon for Run New Task.

[Input]

• To help improve discoverability, emoji that can be personalized (such as the family emoji) now display a small accent colored dot in the bottom corner of their entries in the emoji panel.
• Removed the Keyboard Layout section from Quick Settings.

Up next, we have the bug fixes in Build 22579:

[General]

• Addressed an issue which was causing Gaming Services to not work in the previous flight, leading to issues launching and installing some games.
• Fixed a few high hitting explorer.exe crashes impacting recent flights during general usage of Windows.
• Fixed a bug for Windows Insiders trying to upgrade directly from Windows 10 to recent Windows 11 Dev Channel builds.

[Tablet-optimized taskbar]

NOTE: These fixes will only show if tablet-optimized taskbar is enabled on your device, which is beginning to roll out to Windows Insiders and not yet available for everyone.

• It’s no longer necessary to swipe twice from the tablet-optimized taskbar to show Start or Quick Settings – once the taskbar is fully expanded, these will display with a continued swipe upwards.
• Addressed an issue where using the swipe gesture to invoke the Start menu might bring it up on the wrong screen if an external monitor was connected.
• Notifications will no longer overlap with the tablet-optimized taskbar.
• Fixed an issue where if you invoked Task View the Desktops area might not render completely.
• Middle clicking an app icon to launch a new instance of that app should work again now.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue where Start’s folders were still showing animations even if you had animation effects disabled.
• Mitigated an issue that was causing Start’s pinned and folders layouts to get reset to default after explorer.exe restarts.
• Addressed an underlying issue leading to a transparent line along the side of the Start menu when changing your display’s scale.

[Focus]

• You’ll now see the same breaks in focus sessions over 30 minutes started from the Notification Center as you would in sessions started from the Clock app.
• If Do not disturb is turned on prior to starting a focus session, stopping the focus session will no longer turn off Do not disturb.
• If you turn on a focus session, it will not be reset if you have to log out or reboot now.
• Fixed an issue causing your keyboard focus to unexpectedly move to the top of Notification Center when ending a focus session below the calendar.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing you from adding apps to the Settings > System > Notifications > Set priority notifications

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where the enraged face emoji wasn’t searchable in Turkish using the word angry (kızgın). Please continue giving feedback about the emoji search results under Input and Language > Emoji Panel in the Feedback Hub!
• Addressed an issue where the Japanese IME was unexpectedly switching to Katakana mode when focus was set to the UAC dialog.
• Mitigated an issue recently where if you removed a third party IME from that language in Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region and didn’t uninstall it, it might still show in the input switcher.
• Fixed an issue which was causing the mouse to be invisible in fields of certain apps, as well as some unexpected cursor related app crashes in recent flights.
• Addressed an issue where the gesture for bringing in the Notification Center from the side of the screen wasn’t working for the Arabic or Hebrew display languages.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue for the header at the top of Network & Internet, where the chevron was backwards for Arabic and Hebrew display languages.

[Windowing]

• If transparency is off under Settings > Personalization > Colors, the background of ALT + Tab will no longer be transparent.
• If you drag a window to the top of the screen and then drag it back down, the dismiss animation for snap layouts will display more consistently now.
• Made a small adjustment to fix an animation glitch when invoking snap layouts at the top of the screen.
• Fixed an explorer.exe crash which was happening when dragging certain windows across snap layouts at the top of the screen.
• Mitigated an issue which was causing Task View to appear unresponsive if you invoked Task View while snap assist was showing on screen.
• Did some work to address an issue where ALT + Tab might get stuck open if you invoked it via a very quick gesture on your touchpad.
• Fixed an explorer.exe crash that could happen when an app goes in and out of full screen mode.

[Network]

• Mitigated an issue leading to cellular connections not working on certain devices in the last few builds.
• Addressed an issue leading to Wi-Fi speed degradation in the previous flight.

[Voice access]

• Fixed an issue that was causing the voice access banner to block the top row of desktop icons or the top of full-screen applications.

[Live captions]

• Live captions will now show across your Desktops.
• The “floating on screen” window position will now correctly show as selected in the settings flyout if the live captions window was forced to float (for example when using a full screen app).
• The maximum height of the live captions window is now capped at 40% of monitor height.
• Live captions will no longer crash upon shrinking a max height live captions window.
• Toggling mono audio will no longer crash live captions.

[Narrator]

• Fixed an issue with how Narrator read out collapsed sections in Settings > Accessibility > Narrator when navigating using Shift + Tab.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed a few high hitting Task Manager crashes.
• Fixed an issue where if focus was inside the Details page and you started typing, focus would stop moving through the processes list after the first letter.
• If you’re using the Performance page in Summary view, the title bar of Task Manager will now be hidden.

[Other]

• The percentage on the volume flyout that shows when using your hardware keys will now be centered in the design consistently.
• Improved how keyboard focus and navigation works when moving through and closing the accessibility options on the Lock screen.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the active development branch may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11 that became generally available on October 5th, 2021.

The known issues in Build 22579 are:

[Tablet-optimized taskbar]

• The taskbar doesn’t always automatically collapse after launching an app or tapping outside of the expanded taskbar on 2-in-1 devices.
• Some areas of the OS are not yet tracking the height of the expanded taskbar on 2-in-1 devices so you may see overlapping components, such as Widgets overlapping with the taskbar.

[File Explorer]

• Opening suggested results shown while entering search terms in File Explorer’s search box may not work.
• We’re working fixing issues regarding icon sizing, visual bugs, and text clipping in the flyout showing OneDrive storage.

[Widgets]

• Sometimes when pinning from the Feed, the pinned widget is placed at the top instead of below other pinned widgets. If this happens this will autocorrect within 30 minutes, moving the recently pinned widget to the expected default location. Or you can sign out of your Widgets board and immediately signing back in should correct the problem.
• After rearranging widgets in the widgets board, some users experience problems with widgets in the pinned section rendering incorrectly. If this happens, signing out of your widgets board and immediately signing back in should correct the problem.

[Focus]

• The Clock app does not yet update Windows Focus state when configuring focus sessions within the app. This will be addressed in a future app update.

[Narrator]

• Natural voices are breaking up sporadically in the latest build. Restart Narrator to resolve the issue.

[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 very top of maximized apps (e.g., title bar window management buttons) can’t be reached with touch while live captions is positioned at the top.

[Task Manager]

• Some tooltips do not accurately display the preferred visual setting when Task Manager is configured for dark mode.

The Dev channel release is now known as the "NI_RELEASE" or Nickel branch in preparation for the major feature update to Windows 11 later this year. You can find the official press release here.

Windows 11 Dev build 22579 packs new USB encryption policy, Start menu, Taskbar improvements

After Microsoft decided to update Edge every four weeks instead of six, "major" releases became noticeably thinner with fewer notable changes. Edge 100 is no exception. The release contains only three feature improvements:

• Preview PDF files in Microsoft Outlook and File Explorer. Edge users can open a PDF file in a new lightweight and rich read-only preview. It works with PDF attachments in Outlook Desktop and local PDF files in File Explorer.
• Sync web apps across all desktop devices. Microsoft Edge is now capable of syncing progressive web apps across all your desktop devices (assuming you signed in using a single account and turned on sync).
• Improvements to the Cloud Site List Management experience for IE Mode. Edge now allows configuring session cookie sharing between the main browser and IE Mode in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Microsoft notes that this change is a part of controlled feature rollout, and it will take a while to reach all Edge users.

Another significant change in Edge 100 is a new three-digit user-agent string. Microsoft and other companies have been testing three-digit browser versions for a while to ensure websites work correctly and customers have time to make necessary preparations.

Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers with 100 in the version number most likely will not become a new Y2K bug. Still, developers say that they are ready to roll back user-agent strings to two-digit numbers if the upcoming feature updates unfold global web chaos and break websites across the Internet.

Edge 100 is now available in Beta with a new lightweight PDF viewer and PWA sync

However, Microsoft isn't just basking in glory after fixing that false positive error. The company looks to be actively working on putting an end to such issues, at least in the case of its Defender for Endpoint product, since these alerts generally cause wide-scale disruptions.

It has published a guidance for security operators and security administrators who are using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Basically these are the steps that one can use to help eliminate a lot of such false positives. The following diagram shows the gist of the steps but you can view them in detail in the original article here.

Overall, it looks like a good initiative from the Redmond firm as this guidance can not only potentially help clear up a lot of false positives but will also help the company better understand threats and non-threats.

Source

Pale Moon 30.0 can be downloaded from the project website for Windows and Linux devices. Existing users may use the built-in updating system to update the browser to the new version. A manual check for updates is available under Pale Moon > Help > Check for updates.

Pale Moon 30.0

Pale Moon 30.0 is a milestone release. It includes changes that were announced back in December 2021. Back then, the team announced that it would change the direction of the project in regards to extension compatibility.

The new release uses the Firefox GUID instead of Pale Moon's own GUID to improve compatibility with "old and unmaintained Firefox extensions".  Users of the browser get more freedom when it comes to the installation of these extensions in the browser, but the developers note that this freedom comes with the responsibility as "more issues" need to be resolved by users going forward.

The new release restores support for legacy Firefox extensions, which users may once again install in the browser. Pale Moon exclusive extensions need to be updated to target the Firefox GUID as well.

The Pale Moon website will provide downloads for the new and older versions of the browser for some time, as users may need that time to adjust to the changes.

Another important change in Pale Moon affects the use of UXP. It is no longer used in the milestone release. UXP, the Unified XUL Platform, started out as a fork of the Mozilla-Central code repository. It is now released "to the community for maintenance and coordination".

The development team plans to focus "more tightly" on Pale Moon's Goanna rendering engine, and to cut components and target platforms in the process that are unmaintainable.

Pale Moon 30.0 features several other changes of importance:

• The Global Privacy Control has been implemented. Users find the option under Preferences > Privacy.
• Default browser controls have been moved to the General tab.
• Various libraries were updated.
• Language pack structure changed. Some languages may have "a few more untranslated strings" until these are addressed in future releases.
• Several fixes for issues, e.g. memory safety issue fix, a potential crash fix.

You can check out the full changelog here.

Now You: do you use the Pale Moon web browser?

Pale Moon 30.0 out with important changes

Microsoft uses Azure Cognitive Services to analyze and describe pictures with missing "alt text." When Edge detects an unlabeled image, it sends it to Microsoft's servers for processing. Machine learning algorithms can work with the most common formats, such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, and others, to provide descriptive summaries in 5 languages. Besides, Microsoft can analyze text on images in more than 120 languages.

As with other automated systems, auto-generated captions in Microsoft Edge are not perfect, and Microsoft warns that the quality will vary. For that reason, the company urges web developers and content managers to make sure images on their websites have user-generated alt text.

Also, Microsoft will not generate descriptions for decorative pictures, images smaller than 50 x 50 pixels, huge images, and explicit content (pornographic, sexually suggestive, or gory content).

If you want to try auto-generated captions in Microsoft Edge, update your browser to the latest version and navigate to Settings > Accessibility, then toggle on the "Get image descriptions from Microsoft for screen readers" feature. For now, it is available in Microsoft Edge for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Microsoft announces auto-generated captions for images in Edge

Microsoft has a set a criteria up for apps to be eligible for the nomination.

To quality, the app:

• Must be publicly listed in the Microsoft Store on Windows in at least one market by end of March
• Must have 100% functionality on Windows 11, not just on Windows 10
• Must have 3.5 star or higher rating with at least 50 ratings entries
• Must have been published or received significant meaningful updates over the past 12 months

If you think the apps you wish to nominate fulfill the above criteria, you can fill out the form provided by Microsoft at this link: https://forms.office.com/r/vREn1vJxcw

Multiple app nominations are also allowed but for that, separate forms for each app must be filled. You can submit your nominees till 12:00 a.m. PT on March 31. Also bear in mind that this is only a nomination form and not a voting form. That might be released later but so far there is no official word on it.

Source: @kid_genius (Twitter)

Microsoft wants you to nominate your favorite Microsoft Store apps using this form

With the working landscape still a challenge for those teams working remotely from home, Google aims to make things convenient and comfortable for anyone. With this, Google keeps on offering business-oriented products to the market together with frequent improvements in them. One we have today is the new Google Docs email draft template the multinational technology company introduced for easier collaboration of team members on an email draft.

The idea behind this new feature announced on March 15 is very simple: you compose an email draft via Google Docs and then export it to Gmail when you’re ready to send it. It gives an additional function to the @menu of the online word processor, which is aimed to help users perform actions quickly.

“We’re making it easy to collaborate on an email draft in Docs with the new email draft template,” writes Google in its blog post. “You can mention people in the recipient fields using the @menu without having to remember their email addresses, and collaborate on the message body using comments and suggestions.”

The Google Docs email draft template can be easily accessed by typing “@email” in a Google Docs. When you do, you’ll be presented with the option for the “Email Draft.” When you click it, a format will appear on your document with sections for To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject lines. Fill in the essential parts of the draft, and when you need to send it, you can simply click the Gmail logo located at the upper left part of the draft format. Clicking it will give you the Gmail compose window popup with all the fields already filled with the information you provided in the draft. 

Google announced that the feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. However, it didn’t mention if this would be available for the personal use of other typical Google Docs users.

You can now compose email drafts on Google Docs and export them to Gmail