I'm talking about the "secret" tabbed File Explorer that is present in the latest Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22572, of course. This is something that was recently discovered and if you want to know how to enable it, you can check out our guide here.

Although it's not available by default in the Insider ring, this Closer Look piece will talk about some of the missing features that will perhaps shine more light on why Microsoft hasn't released tabbed File Explorer yet. The fact of the matter is simply that there are a lot of functionalities that you would expect a tabbed interface to have, but are not present in the current implementation.

But starting off with the good stuff, the basics of a tabbed interface are there. It's nice to see that the overall UI is quite similar to a browser window, which is good because it means that there's not a significant learning curve to familiarize yourself with the interface. You will notice the familiar Windows 11 design aesthetics too, such as rounded corners. Overall, I think it's quite aesthetically pleasing, even in its current unfinished state.

You can click on the "+" icon in the window to open more tabs. I did notice a slight stutter while the new tab populated with icons, which was a bit jarring, but then again, this is an early look so we can't fault Microsoft for this just yet.

I was pleased to see that if you copy and paste files between the same directories open in different tabs, both tabs automatically get refreshed to show you the updated view. Similarly, Snap Layouts work as expected too. I didn't notice any bugs in either of these processes which means that Microsoft has at least nailed the basics already.

It is also interesting to see that a tabbed File Explorer is treated as a single process in Task Manager. So if you have tons of tabs open in File Explorer, it will still be shown as a single tab. I'm not sure if it matters much to our readers in the context of actual use-cases, but I'm just drawing a comparison to the "default" look where multiple File Explorer instances are obviously treated as separate instances in Task Manager.

Now coming over to what doesn't work is where we'll see some of the reasons why Microsoft hasn't rolled this out yet. The first thing I noticed was that you can't drag your File Explorer instance by clicking on the area above tabs. If you see my screenshot above, the red line is where even if I click my mouse and drag to move the window, File Explorer will not respond. I need to drag the "untabbed" area in the blue line for this to function. So if you have lots of tabs open, your real estate to drag the entire window gets drastically reduced, I'm sure Microsoft does not intend this to be the default behavior.

It's clear that drag-and-drop behaviors aren't ready yet. This is evident in other places too where you can't drag your tabs to reorder them, drag them out of the window and spin them up as another instance, or even drag-and-drop content between different tabs. It just shows you the icon highlighted above, indicating that the functionality is not possible.

Since the whole idea behind tabbed interfaces is improvements in multitasking, I am once again sure that this is something that will be fixed ahead of general release.

Another thing I noticed was that the tab title bars don't have any context menus. Now, this is something that I probably expect due to my experience with tabbed interfaces in browsers so I'm not sure if this is something Microsoft plans to add, but it would be nice to have context menu options to group tabs, close multiple tabs, or open a duplicate tab, among other things.

That said, you can right-click on folders and then click on "open in new tab" to have it open separately. This can be seen in the screenshot above.

This also works with .zip files where you can view the content of a compressed file but it's a bit buggy in its current state as it doesn't show the name of the file in the title bar of the tab, as can be seen above.

All in all, at this point, I'm just glad that Microsoft is implementing a tabbed interface in File Explorer again after it unceremoniously shelved it in 2019. At that time, it gave no public reasoning for this, even though the initial announcement of "Sets" tabbed interfaces for Windows 10 in 2017 had generated quite a bit of excitement. Let's hope that Microsoft further improves the user experience and rolls it out eventually, preferably with the next major update of Windows 11 (version 22H2) expected later this year.

Closer Look: Tabbed File Explorer in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22572

In the latest update to Chrome Canary on Windows, Google brought a convenient feature that enables search in a side panel. It allows comparing search results with the currently open page and finding what you are looking for faster.

To test the new side search in Chrome, you need to update the browser to the latest Canary version and enable one of the experimental flags. Navigate to chrome://flags and set the “Side Search” feature to “Enabled” and then relaunch Chrome.

After turning on “Side Search” in Chrome, type a search request and click a link in the results. Now you can press the G button to the left from the address bar to trigger the side panel with Google search. Clicking another link in the search results will open a website on the same tab.

Google Chrome is not the only browser to offer search in a sidebar. A similar feature has been available in Microsoft Edge for quite a while, although some may argue that Microsoft’s implementation looks more accessible and easy to understand. You can right-click any word or phrase on a webpage and select “Search in the sidebar.” Google Chrome, on the other hand, requires opening a new tab, entering a search term, opening a link, and only then the browser displays the Side Search button.

We should note that the current version of Side Search in Chrome Canary is just an experimental feature. Google will take a while to improve Side Search and ship it in the Stable Channel (or it may not ship at all). Meanwhile, you can download Chrome Canary, test the new capability and share your feedback with Google for future improvements.

Source: Leopeva64-2 on Reddit.

Chrome gets Google search in a side panel on Windows

Microsoft has moved the navigation options that were previously at the top of the app's interface, to a sidebar on the left edge of the window.

Sidebar

There are 4 sections on the sidebar of the Xbox PC app: Game Pass, My Library, Community, and Store. The Game Pass page lists all available games that you can download, provided you have an active subscription to the service. The "My Library" section is where you can find games that you have bought on the Store.

You may chat with your friends, add people to your friends list, view people whom your recently played with, invite other players to a game, etc., from the Community tab. Want to browse the Microsoft Store? That is what the 4th tab, Store, lets you do. Your installed apps are listed below the sidebar, which makes it easy to launch them. The program also displays ongoing game downloads, along with their file size, download speed, on the sidebar.

Persistent Search Bar

The Search Bar, which appeared at the top of the app in the old GUI, is now persistent. It will appear at the top of the screen, as you scroll down a game's listing.

Settings

Your Xbox gamertag (profile name) is displayed in the top left corner of the app, click on it to view a menu. You can access the app's Settings, View your profile, manage your Insider Program options, etc., using the shortcuts that the menu contains. The bell icon next to your DP, will display a dot to indicate that a new notification has arrived. Clicking the icon causes the Notification panel to appear at the right side of the Xbox PC app's window.

There is no option to collapse the side panel. The home page of the Xbox app has shortcuts to Redeem game codes, view the Top Paid games, Add-ons (DLCs), All PC Games, and to view and manage games in your Wishlist.

Microsoft recently updated the Xbox PC app for Windows 11 and 10, to allow users to pick the folder where games get installed to. This opened up the possibility to mod games, and also provided an easier way to add desktop shortcuts for accessing the installed games.

If you update to the latest version of the Xbox PC app, and find that some games don't have the Install button, don't panic. I'm not entirely sure if it is a bug in the latest release, or just a random thing, but the solution is simple. Check whether there are any pending updates in the Microsoft Store for the Gaming Services App (version 3.64.8003.0) and Xbox Game Bar (version 5.721.12013.0). Regardless of whether the apps have updates, restart the computer, and that should resolve your problem. The current version of the Xbox PC app is 2203.1000.21.0.

I don't notice any improvement in the performance of the Xbox PC app, but then again, the recent builds have been far superior in comparison to the previous versions. The download speeds are not impressive, one minute it's at 25MB/s, the next minute it throttles down to 500KB/s, or even halts completely. Microsoft really needs to improve the download experience.

The new Xbox PC app's design seems to be more user-friendly, and easier to discover games. What do you think about the new app navigation updates?

Xbox PC app for Insiders gets a redesigned sidebar with better navigation options

The new feature, dubbed Kali Unkaputtbar, is available to users running Kali Linux version 2022.1 or newer on bare-metal, with btrfs as the file system.

Unkaputtbar adds a new boot menu that allows Kali Linux users to boot directly into snapshots to roll back to previous system states.

After enabling automatic snapshotting on their system, the new feature provides users with:

• automatic snapshots with APT installations or removals
• automatic snapshots on every boot
• automatically created Kali Linux specific btrfs subvolume layout
• new boot menu allowing you to boot into snapshots
• ability to browse the file content of snapshots and copy files across
• perform diffs between snapshots and restore individual files

"This provides VM like snapshots to bare metal, but even better as the system does it all for you," the Kali Linux developers said.

How to use Kali Unkaputtbar

The new feature automatically creates snapshots before and after installing new software using "apt install," after upgrades, and on every boot.

"Let's assume that the last upgrade broke our machine. Every run of 'apt install' creates to snapshots, one 'pre' snapshot is created before the installation and one 'post' snapshot is created after the installation," the Offensive Security team explains.

To undo the last changes and fully recover from an unbootable system, you need to load the last 'pre' snapshot to check if everything is working OK and then roll back to that snapshot using this step-by-step procedure.

To give Unkaputtbar a spin, you have to download the latest Kali Linux image from here and enable automatic snapshots.

You can find detailed info on installing Kali Linux with snapshotting functionality on the distro's documentation site.

The development team also provides Kali Unkaputtbar usage instructions, including creating and editing snapper configurations, creating and managing snapshots, and browsing snapshot contents.

Kali Linux adds VM-like snapshot feature to bare-metal installs

Homer’s release notes:

I've finally got a bootable iso image on the ftp site. The bad news is that you don't get a pretty interactive installer. But if you wanted one of those, you would have gone with RedHat, right?

I'll try to get the docs up for ABS (Arch Build System) which, IMHO, is one of the best advantages of Arch. With ABS, you can easily create new packages, and it's trivial to rebuild existing packages with your own customizations.

And on that note, if you start to use the ABS and build your own packages, I welcome your submissions. My "development team" is working on a contrib area as we speak.

There’s also a bit of aspirational foreshadowing for release 0.2, which can be found here.

The advertised components are interesting. It shipped with Linux kernel 2.4.18 which many of the Linux old-timers (myself included) will remember was right before we started to get nice things like auto-mounting USB drives in kernel 2.6. XFree86 4.2.0 was also in stow, which is what we now call Xorg. If you wanted to build software, you had to use an absolutely ancient gcc toolchain (2.95.3). Web browsing was covered by the ghost of Netscape Navigator, Mozilla 0.9.9. Heady days, these were!

Missing from this release were the contemporary desktop environments of the day, Gnome and KDE – you’d have to wait for version 0.4 in December that year or build this yourself using ABS (Arch Build System). However, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While the FOSS world is still transitioning to Wayland, Xorg (then XFree86) remains the dominant display server throughout the landscape. While Firefox replaced Mozilla less than a year later, Mozilla software like Firefox and Thunderbird are still defacto packages for most distributions. Lastly, KDE and Gnome are still the preeminent desktop environments all these years later.

Happy birthday Arch!

BTW, it's my birthday - Arch Linux becomes 20 years old today

Now, uBlock Origin has surpassed Adblock Plus on the Firefox add-ons store, making it the number one Firefox extension in regards to user numbers.

Mozilla reports that uBlock Origin crossed the 5.5 million users mark while Adblock Plus is sitting at 5.47 million users at the time of writing. If the trend continues, the gap between the two ad blockers will widen in the coming months and years.

UBlock Origin beats Adblock Plus in other metrics as well. The average rating is 4.8 out of 5 on the Mozilla add-ons store, while Adblock Plus has a rating of 4.5 out of 5. As far as the number of reviews is concerned: uBlock Origin received more than 13200 reviews, thousands more than Adblock Plus' 8500 reviews at the time of writing.

The uBlock Origin extension was first published on Mozilla's extensions store in April 2015 by its creator Raymond Hill, known as gorhill online. The extension was created after Hill left the uBlock project that he created.

Hill improved the extension over the years, adding features and improvements to it on a regular basis. To name a few improvements: blocking WebRTC from leaking IP addresses, removing elements permanently from webpages, blocking JavaScript by default, and addressing new tracking methods, such as CNAME tracking,

The Firefox version of uBlock Origin is considered the version that offers the best protection, as it supports protection against CNAME tracking, which the Chrome versions do not offer.

Hill calls uBlock Origin a "wide-spectrum content blocker" instead of an ad blocker. The extension blocks more advertisement but also trackers, miners, popups, malicious URLs and more by default. Users may add more lists, for instance to deal with annoyances on the Internet.

Many users hold uBlock Origin in high regard because of its memory and CPU effectiveness. Hill, who never accepted donations or compensation for his development work, is another core reason why the extension is as popular as it is right now.

Now You: do you use content blockers?

uBlock Origin is now the most popular Firefox add-on

Windows users know well that context menus in Windows are incredibly erratic. It takes just a few clicks to discover more than five different visual styles with very little in common. Microsoft attempted to fix the problem by introducing modern context menus in Windows 11, but the new solution worsened the issue.

Many apps do not support the new menus, so users need to open two context menus to get to the options they need (right-click to open the new menu and select “Show more options” to open the old menu). As an option, Microsoft allows pressing Shift + F10 to open the classic menu for the selected file or folder.

Some of the options in the classic context menu are not available in the new one.

In build 22572, Windows 11 still has a menu inside a menu, but invoking the classic variant is now much simpler. Instead of clicking the “Show more options” or pressing Shift + F10, you can hold the Shift button and right-click anywhere you want to directly open the legacy context menu.

Of course, "double-decked" menus are still a compromise, but the latest improvements will make life much easier for those frequently using the old menus, especially on laptops and keyboards where F1-F12 keys require pressing the Fn button. Unfortunately, inconsistent design variations are still all over the place. Hopefully, Microsoft will try to ease the problem and make Windows 11 more visually appealing in future updates.

Microsoft makes context menus in Windows 11 a little less confusing

We recently took a look at the top 10 features that people are requesting for Windows 11, and today, we'll do the same for Microsoft Teams, thanks to the curated and dedicated feedback section for the service.

For the purpose of this piece, we will only be listing issues that are "open", sorted by upvote count. So, even though the most upvoted item on the portal is about adding dedicated replies to Teams chats, that won't be included since Microsoft already rolled out the capability almost two months ago. Similarly, some features that are now in preview will be excluded too. Without further ado, let's begin!

1. Enable usage of multiple Teams accounts at the same time - 39,300 upvotes
   Microsoft: Thank you for your continued feedback, and patience. We are listening and hear loud and clear that you want support for multiple work accounts in the Teams desktop apps. We are continuing our work to support this, including updating our current application architecture to ensure solid performance and functionality. Given the complexity of this work, we are targeting the second half of calendar year 2022 to be able to support this. We will update you when we have a better sense of dates. Thank you.
2. Enable transfer of project (channel) from one team to another - 34,600 upvotes
   Microsoft: This continues to be on our backlog due to prioritization of other work items. We will update when there is more to share.
3. Please allow us to delete private chats - 25,200 upvotes
   Microsoft: Thank you for your votes and comments on this feature. The team is in the process of finalizing designs for deleting private chat threads. We will update as we have more progress to share.
4. Include Office 365 group calendar in teams - 24,000 upvotes
   Microsoft: Group Calendar is a priority for the team, and the feature team is continuing work on it. You’ll start to see some incremental improvements. We look forward to sharing more details and timeframes soon.
5. Create the ability to archive channels - 21,200 upvotes
   Microsoft: This item remains on the backlog.
6. Enable conversations to move to different channels - 12,200 upvotes
   Microsoft: If you have an existing post that you want to show in a different channel, you can edit the message and cross-post. This will add the top-level post to the different channel, but will not include the full set of replies. We will keep this request in mind as we evolve the cross-posting feature in the future and update if the status changes.
7. Enable Fulltextsearch for Wiki - 11,100 upvotes
   Microsoft: This feature is now on the backlog. We will update you when we have more details to share.
8. Allow Backup, export, printing, archive options - 11,100 upvotes
   Microsoft: Thank you for your continued feedback, the team has this item under review. We will share an update as soon as one is available.
9. Enable the download function of files to allow you to select the destination - 10,900 upvotes
   Microsoft: The team is actively working on this feature. We will provide further updates as we move through the development process. Please keep the votes and feedback coming in!
10. Add an ability for meeting participants to draw on shared screen - 10,800 upvotes
    Microsoft: Thank you for your continued feedback, we are glad to announce development is underway for this feature. We will share an update as soon as one is available.

Overall, it's really nice to see Microsoft representatives actively responding to customer feedback. When we did a roundup for the top 10 features people are requesting for Windows 11, it was a bit disappointing to see Microsoft not even gracing some threads with responses. Fortunately, this is not the case with the Teams development group.

That said, it's clear that Teams is missing quite a bunch of major capabilities that lots of people apparently use in their daily workflows. These have become even more important in recent times due to the new era of hybrid work and online collaboration. Although Microsoft seems to be working on many of the missing features in the top 10 list, the release window seems to be tentative. However, that is understandable given the (probably) massive amount of stuff that the development team has in its backlog.

Here are the top 10 features people want in Microsoft Teams

In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft offers a set of improvements and fixes to test. There are welcomed changes but none of them are groundbreaking. Still, enthusiasts quickly discovered that Microsoft is hiding some truly exciting changes in build 22572.

Windows users have been asking Microsoft to bring tabs to File Explorer for many years with little to no luck. In 2017, Microsoft finally gave in and added a tabbed interface (Windows Sets) to preview versions of Windows 10. Unfortunately, shortly after the initial tests, Microsoft killed Windows Sets, and the operating system spent the next five years without tabs in File Explorer.

It appears that Microsoft decided to dig out the old idea, and Windows 11 is finally getting a tabbed interface in File Explorer. In his Twitter account, Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) revealed that you can now enable tabs in File Explorer in Windows 11 22572

Although Microsoft is yet to announce tabs in File Explorer, the feature already looks quite promising. It works as one may expect, and there is even tab overflow support (File Explorer displays additional buttons for scrolling tabs when you open too many).

However, it is worth mentioning that enabling hidden features in Windows 11 may cause some software trouble, so unless you have a computer or VM to spare, you better wait for Microsoft to make an official announcement. Meanwhile, you can try third-party file managers, such as the Files app or Groupy, that offer tabs and other advanced features missing in stock File Explorer.

Microsoft is finally adding tabs to File Explorer in Windows 11

The full changelog is given below:

What’s new in Build 22572

Microsoft Family is now an inbox app:

The family safety features you use on web and mobile are now available on Windows 11 starting with this build with the Microsoft Family app. Set parental controls to filter inappropriate apps and games and set browsing to kid-friendly websites for Microsoft Edge. Help your kids balance their screen time activity on Windows, Xbox, and Android and use activity reporting to better understand your family’s digital activity. Stay connected even when you’re apart with family location tracking.

The Microsoft Family app for Windows 11.

The Microsoft Family app for Windows 11.The Microsoft Family app will only be an inbox app on the Windows 11 Home edition and will be updated via the Microsoft Store. Windows Insiders who are on Windows 11 Pro can go to Settings > Accounts > Family and download the Microsoft Family app from the Store. Let us know what you’d like to see in these updates to help you better care for and empower your family!

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback by clicking in the feedback icon in the top header of the app.

Clipchamp is now an inbox app:

Clipchamp is our new video editor focused on making video creation easy, fast, and fun. Clipchamp is equipped with all the basic tools you’d expect, like trimming and splitting, as well as more pro-style features like transitions and animated text. For real-time content capture, there are also built-in webcam and screen recorders.

Clipchamp’s video editing experience with the timeline.

But what really sets Clipchamp apart from other video editors is its timeline. Normally, this is an interface reserved for pros because it offers more control (and complication) than the everyday editor can handle. When it comes to Clipchamp, however, things are delightfully different. We’ve kept all the best parts of timeline editing — the flexibility, the ability to fine tune details — and done away with the rest. The result is a refreshingly simple video editing experience anyone can enjoy.

The highlights don’t stop there — in Clipchamp, users will discover more unique offerings, like a stock library filled with more than a million royalty-free videos, audio tracks, and images that can be added to videos. There’s even an Azure-powered text-to-speech generator capable of creating voice overs in more than 70 languages. And, speaking of Microsoft integrations, Clipchamp also connects with OneDrive, meaning you can import files and save videos quickly and securely.

To start creating your own videos, look for Clipchamp in the Start menu on your PC.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Clipchamp.

Coming Soon

Search highlights in Windows 11

Starting early next week, we will begin rolling out an update for Search in Windows 11 that highlights interesting moments in time. Search is right there on your taskbar—your window to discover what’s trending online, in the world, and in your organization. Of course, you can still type to start searching for your apps, files, settings, and quick answers on the web.

The search box in Start and Search will periodically update with content, including fun illustrations, that help you discover more, be connected, and stay productive. These hints in the search box give you a sneak peek into what to expect in search home.

Search highlights will present notable and interesting moments—like holidays, anniversaries, and other educational moments in time both globally and in your region. You’ll find rich, bold content in search home that highlights what’s special about today.

Search on the taskbar showing an updated experience for Earth Day. Includes relevant content and illustration in the search box and content relevant to Earth Day in search home.

To dig deeper, you can explore additional content in search home related to today’s moment and daily content like word of the day, Microsoft Rewards offers, trending searches, and more. Each day features something different to learn about! The left side of search home also shows an extended list of your recently launched apps, files, settings, and websites to help you get back to what you were doing last.

Search on the taskbar showing an updated experience for an organization, Contoso. Includes relevant content and illustration in the search box and the organization’s people chart in search home.

Signing in with your work or school account enables Search to be your one-stop-shop for your organization’s files and contacts through Microsoft Search. Search highlights will feature the latest updates from your organization and suggested people, files, and more. Explore files that may be of interest to you or browse through your organization’s people chart. As always, just start typing to find everything related to your organization, right at your fingertips using Search.

You have control over the search highlights experience where if you prefer not to see this, you can turn it off or back on in Settings > Privacy & security > Search settings and toggling “Show search highlights”. For organization administrators, there are additional controls available in the M365 admin center. You can learn more about those policies here: Policy CSP – Search.

Search highlights is also coming to the Windows 10 search box where you’ll be able to get the same updates in the search box and search home. Stay tuned for more information in an upcoming blog post when we begin trying out this experience with Insiders on Windows 10 in the Release Preview Channel.

This feature will begin rolling out early next week and won’t be available to all Insiders right away as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.

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

Here are all the changes and improvement in Build 22572:

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• The new Print Queue has an updated design to align with Windows 11 design principles, allow you to easily identify your desired print job, see the status, and manage it. The feature is designed with simplicity in mind, and to allow you better access to your print jobs. To get started, just click print and watch the Print Queue pop up.

• Quick Assist now has a new Fluent-style icon.

[Focus]

• Building off the Focus changes announced in Build 22557, we have updated the icon for Notification Center when do not disturb is set to on.

[File Explorer]

• Shift + Right-clicking in File Explorer and the Desktop will now open the “Show more options” context menu.

[Narrator]

• Narrator natural voices are now available for all English languages.

[Terminal]

• Windows Terminal is now called Terminal under Start.

[Settings]

• WMIC is now available as an optional feature that can be uninstalled or reinstalled via Settings > Apps > Optional Features.
• Switched the touch keyboard icon option under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar from being a toggle to now being a dropdown where you can select Never, Always, or When no keyboard attached.

[Windows Sandbox]

• Windows Sandbox now has a new Fluent-style icon.

[Other]

• The legacy version of Windows Media Player available in Windows Tools has been renamed to Windows Media Player Legacy.

The fixes that come with Build 22572 are given below:

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue for Enterprise edition devices going through the setup experience (OOBE) where the network add screen was skipped on the first attempt.
• Addressed an issue which was causing some Insiders to see a bug check with a CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED error in the previous build while attempting to do various things including logging in, opening outlook, and accessing network shares in File Explorer.
• Mitigated an underlying issue that was leading to audio stutters and touchpad issues in the previous flight.
• Addressed an explorer.exe crash Insiders were seeing in recent builds when attempting to use Windows Mixed Reality.
• Fixed an issue with scroll bars not rendering appropriately on some Win32 applications.
• Fixed another issue where users weren’t hearing the startup sound.
• Images should no longer be backwards when using a lock screen slideshow with an Arabic or Hebrew display language.

[Taskbar]

• We fixed the issue that was causing explorer.exe to crash if you right clicked on the Start button or used WIN + X.
• Mitigated an explorer.exe hang that could happen in the last few flights related to the visual indicator in the taskbar when sharing a window in Microsoft Teams.
• Adjusted the sensitivity so quickly sliding your mouse across the widgets icon on the path to an open flyout or menu will no longer make it dismiss.
• Made a change to help address a memory leak in Shell Experience Host when repeatedly opening and closing the Notification Center.
• Addressed a scenario where the Notification Center might not light dismiss if it was opened on top of certain apps.
• Fixed an underlying issue when the display scaling was greater than 100% which was causing drag and drop in the taskbar to unexpectedly show that it wasn’t available.

[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.

• Touch gestures are restored on all device types, as we resolved the issue that broke several of the new touch gestures announced as part of Build 22557 on non-tablet devices.
• Improved reliability of taskbar auto-collapsing after launching an app.
• Fixed several bugs related to the taskbar state change when disconnecting or reconnecting your keyboard.
• Addressed positioning issues with the hidden icons button and flyout when using the Arabic or Hebrew display language.

[Start menu]

• Improved how the “Pinned” header name is rendered in the Arabic display language.

[File Explorer]

• Made some more improvements to help with context menu invocation performance.
• Using the Filter option in Quick Access should work for images now.
• Fixed an underlying issue causing the title bar in File Explorer when colored to not visually occupy the full area it was supposed if you maximized the File Explorer window.
• Fixed an issue where if you had a folder selected in the navigation pane and right clicked another folder, options like Open in Windows Terminal would unexpectedly open the first folder.
• “Pin to Quick Access” is now available in the command bar when a file in Recent Files in Quick Access is selected.

[Input]

• Mitigated an issue where clicking hyperlinks in RichTextBlocks wasn’t working when performed with touch or pen.
• Addressed an issue where custom mouse pointers might revert to the default Windows one after rebooting.
• Fixed an issue where voice typing might display “there is a connection issue” when that wasn’t the cause of the error.
• Addressed an issue where voice typing might not launch after unlocking your PC.
• Fixed a touch keyboard crash that could happen on the login screen when there were multiple accounts on the PC.
• Mitigated an issue impacting pen sensitivity in recent flights.
• Fixed a rendering issue causing the screen to have small freezes in recent flights when trying to ink in certain apps.
• Made some refinements to help improve detection of the pinch to zoom gesture on touchpads.
• Addressed an issue leading to IME toolbar options being unresponsive in some cases for the Chinese (Simplified) IMEs.

[Search]

• Did some work to address a high hitting search crash.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue causing a hang when trying to access Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors.
• Addressed an issue where font previews under Personalization > Fonts might not be visible when a contrast mode was enabled.
• Improved performance when switching between the different available views on Apps > Installed apps.
• Uninstalling an update via Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall Updates should show a confirmation now before it proceeds.

[Windowing]

• An acrylic area should no longer get stuck on the screen if you press WIN + D while interacting with snap layouts at the top of the screen.
• Fixed an issue where if you used snap assist to snap a window that had been minimized, it might not fill the entire available space.
• Fixed a few animation stutters when using 3-finger on screen gestures.
• Addressed an explorer.exe crash that could happen if you attempted to use 3-finger on screen gestures while no windows were visible on screen.
• Addressed an underlying issue which could impact the animations and performance when invoking Task View.
• Mitigated an underlying issue which was causing you to unexpectedly see an X when attempting to rearrange Desktops in Task View in certain scenarios.
• Tweaked the logic to help further reduce the number of sounds heard when connecting and disconnecting monitors and docks.
• Mitigated a recent issue where windows for minimized apps weren’t launching on the expected monitor upon undocking and redocking.
• The title bar should no longer peek out onto secondary monitors when maximizing certain apps.
• Fixed an issue which was causing certain windows to show an unexpected white rectangle poking out from underneath, spanning the top of the window.
• Updated the new full screen gripper for edge gestures to use acrylic.

[Narrator]

• Fixed an issue preventing Narrator from reading in the Run dialog correctly in scan mode.
• Narrator in scan mode will now read error messages in the Error List correctly in Visual Studio.
• Errors while setting up a PIN in device setup (OOBE) will now be read out by Narrator.
• Pitch range for Narrator natural voices has been adjusted to provide more levels of control.
• Addressed an underlying issue which was leading to the pitch not changing when adjust Narrator’s speed in the 0 to 5 and 15 to 20 ranges in Narrator settings.

[Task Manager]

• Improved visibility of content when a contrast mode is enabled.
• Fixed an issue where critical system processes were unexpectedly displaying as background processes.
• Addressed an issue that was causing random rows in the processes list to be unexpectedly written in black text when using dark mode.
• Right clicking the Task Manager icon in the system tray should now actually show the context menu rather than a blank box.
• Pressing Esc should no longer unexpectedly close Task Manager.

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.

And finally the list of known issues in Build 22572 are:

Known issues

[General]

• Users running Windows 10 who try to upgrade directly to build 22563 or higher in the Dev Channel may encounter an install failure with error code 0x8007007f. To bypass, please join the Beta Channel, install the offered Windows 11 build there, and then switch to the Dev Channel to receive the current Dev Channel update. This issue is understood and will be fixed in an upcoming build.

[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]

• Narrator natural voices sounds garbled and will not read out text accurately. This happens when doing quick navigation, typing or pitch changes. As a workaround, you can switch back to the older voices such as Microsoft David, Mark or Zira.

[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 22572 announces new Search, new Sandbox icon, File Explorer changes

If you’ve been waiting for Microsoft to resurrect Windows Movie Maker, Clipchamp might be the next best thing. After acquiring Clipchamp last year, Microsoft is now bundling the app into Windows 11. It’s a browser-based app that supports trimming, splitting, transitions, and even has a screen recorder feature.

Clipchamp includes a timeline, just like pro apps like Adobe Premiere Pro, and uses a combination of templates and a library of filters, transitions, stock media, and styles to let people create videos with multi-track audio support and user-friendly editing. Microsoft has integrated in an Azure-powered text-to-speech generator for creators to use voiceovers in 70 languages, and OneDrive is also integrated for cloud storage of files.

Clipchamp is now part of Windows 11. Image: Microsoft

Microsoft says Clipchamp is now an “inbox” app in Windows 11, which means it will be preinstalled on all new Windows 11 devices. The Microsoft Family app is also now an inbox app, with features like filters for Edge, screen time activity on Xbox, Windows, and Android, and family location tracking.

Alongside these app updates, Microsoft is now starting to test some changes to the search experience in Windows 11. “Starting early next week, we will begin rolling out an update for Search in Windows 11 that highlights interesting moments in time,” explains Amanda Langowski, head of Microsoft’s Windows Insider program. “The search box in Start and Search will periodically update with content, including fun illustrations, that help you discover more, be connected, and stay productive.”

 The new search highlights feature. Image: Microsoft

 Work users can sign in and get access to company files. Image: Microsoft

These search highlights will include moments like holidays, anniversaries, and other moments in time. Recent search results will be placed at the side, and if you sign in with a work account, then files and contacts through Microsoft Search will be displayed. You can always turn off the search highlights feature, and it’s also making its way to Windows 10 too.

Microsoft is also making further improvements to clear up some of the legacy of Windows. The Print Queue is getting updated to match the Windows 11 design, both Quick Assist and Windows Sandbox now have Fluent design icons, and Windows Media Player has been renamed to Windows Media Player Legacy. It’s clear that the new Media Player app for Windows 11 will eventually mean Windows Media Player will disappear from the OS.

As always, some of these changes won’t appear in Windows 11 for months. Microsoft rolls out features gradually, and the company is no longer waiting on big annual feature drops to update Windows 11.

Clipchamp is Microsoft’s new video editing app for Windows 11

PicPick is a powerful screen capturing tool that supports capturing all sorts of screenshot types, including fullscreen, window, rectangular, freehand or scrolling window screenshots.

The new PicPick 6.0.0 is still available as a free for home use edition and a professional edition. The main differences between the two versions, besides the commercial and home use limitation, are that the commercial versions are free of advertisement, include technical support and automatic updates.

PicPick 6.0.0 comes with a redesigned look and feel. Some users may fear the worst when they read that, as new or redesigned interfaces are not always an improvement. Good news is that the new interface does not really look that different from the previous interface.

Below is a screenshot of the image editor of PicPick 5. When you compare it to the screenshot at the top, you will notice that all functions are still at their location in the new interface.

One improvement that is introduced in PicPick 6.0.0 is support for a dark interface. The color scheme uses that of the system by default, but users may change it to light or dark under General in the preferences.

Dark Mode is not the only improvement that the new user interface brings along with it. Some users had issues with the user interface on high DPI displays; the new version corrects these so that users should not experience any issues anymore related to that.

The release notes highlight several other improvements, including improved loading performance. Here is the full changelog:

Rebuilt UI with completely redesigned look and feel.
Support Dark Mode
Improved loading performance
Fixed UI issues on high-DPI devices
Improved Image Editor
Improved Cloud sharing features
Improved FTP upload feature
Improved Widget
Improved Whiteboard
Small known bugs were fixed.

Details have not been published and it is unclear what has been improved exactly. The last major version, PicPick 5.0.0, was released in 2018.

Now You: which screen capturing application do you use?

Screen capture tool PicPick 6.0.0 released with improved UI and dark mode support

Software Updates:   PicPick 6.0.0

Windows 8.1

Improvements and fixes

• Addresses an issue in which some low integrity level process apps might print unexpectedly.
• Addresses an issue that occurs when you try to write a service principal name (SPN) alias (such as www/contoso) and HOST/NAME already exists on another object. If the user has the RIGHT_DS_WRITE_PROPERTY on the SPN attribute of the colliding object, you receive an “Access Denied” error.
• Addresses an issue in which after the January 2022 Windows update is installed on the Primary Domain Controller emulator (PDCe), listing or modifying name suffixes routing by using Netdom.exe or "Active Directory Domains and Trusts" snap-in may fail with the following error message: "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.

Known issues in this update

Windows 7

Improvements and fixes

• Addresses SHA1 deprecation in Windows Embedded platforms by removing specific SHA1-signed security and non-security fixes and resigned the fixes with SHA2 in this release.
• Addresses an issue in which after the January 2022 Windows update is installed on the Primary Domain Controller emulator (PDCe), listing or modifying name suffixes routing by using Netdom.exe or "Active Directory Domains and Trusts" snap-in may fail with the following error message: "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service."

Known issues in this update

The update should be delivered automatically but if you’d like to hurry Windows along head to Windows Update and try to get your system to update manually. It’s worth noting too that this update on Windows 7 is only for customers paying to keep their system up to date.

Microsoft releases Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 7 (KB5011552) and 8.1 (KB5011564)

According to the release notes, the highlights of this update mention that security has been updated. Under improvements, Microsoft says that this update:

“Addresses a known issue that occurs when you attempt to reset a Windows device and its apps have folders that contain reparse data, such as Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft OneDrive for Business. When you select Remove everything, files that have been downloaded or synced locally from Microsoft OneDrive might not be deleted. Some devices might take up to seven (7) days after you install this update to fully address the issue and prevent files from persisting after a reset.”

This Patch Tuesday update also bumps the Windows 11 servicing stack to 22000.469. The servicing stack update ensures that devices are ready to download and install updates that Microsoft pushes out ensuring people get the latest features and security patches.

As for known issues, Microsoft is continuing to report that there are none that it is aware of so there will be no workarounds you need to use on your Windows 11 system.

Microsoft releases Patch Tuesday update KB5011493 for Windows 11

You can find standalone links to download the new update on Microsoft Update Catalog at this link here.

The major highlight of the release is security updates for Windows 10 and as is generally the case, the Redmond company has also listed the known issues in the update, which is always handy. Here are the symptoms and their respective workarounds:

Some of the older Windows 10 versions have also received updates today which have been listed below with their respective release notes (KB) linked as well as links to download them at Microsoft's Update Catalog.

While not Windows 10, Microsoft has also released updates for Windows Server 2022 under KB5011497.

Windows 10 Patch Tuesday (KB5011487) is out — here's what's new and what's broken

First up, what's new:

H.264 Video Hardware Decoding

This update allows Windows Subsystem for Android™ to take advantage of hardware accelerated H.264 decoding. This should enable a better experience on several apps in the current app catalog that take advantage of high-definition video playback.

And what's fixed or improved:

Networking Changes

With this update comes networking changes in the platform to enable future improvements. To help us improve networking features in Windows Subsystem for Android™, we encourage Insiders to file feedback for any network issues encountered in supported apps.

Mail Integration

We’ve made improvements to Windows integration with Windows Subsystem for Android™! In this update, the integration between Windows email clients and mobile apps has been improved. Apps that take advantage of launching a mail client or message should benefit from this change immediately.

MSAA (Multisample anti-aliasing) Changes

While MSAA is a useful feature for several game apps, users were reporting that 4X MSAA could not be disabled. We were previously force-enabling anti-aliasing, which has now been fixed.

Improvements to Input

We’ve made improvements to general input in Windows Subsystem for Android™, including improved scrolling in the Amazon Appstore and Kindle apps.

And finally, here are the known issues for this update

• Video playback in some apps may be choppy on certain systems.
• Coming out of connected standby, apps may be restarted.

Microsoft is also welcoming feedback, which you can do within the app or on the Feedback Hub, you can also go here for some basic troubleshooting. You can view the full press release here.

Microsoft rolling out update to Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 11

It appears that Google has decided to retire the "Search Google for this image" context menu feature in Chrome in favor of a new option to instead "Search image with Google Lens", and upon clicking on the option, the user is taken to the "https://lens.google.com" website where they can then decide to "Retry with Google Images." at the bottom right of the results page.

So all in all it is yet another feature that was changed to require extra steps, similar to how "reopen closed tab" was moved out of the Tab context menu. No one knows why this happens, and more people don't appreciate such changes.

Previously, one could restore reverse image search by disabling the Lens feature by heading to chrome://flags, and setting #enable-lens-region-search to disabled but although the flag is still present, setting it to disabled does nothing, leading people to believe that the flag was left behind by accident when the switch was flipped to roll out the new Lens search option for everyone, presumably from Chrome v99, since it only started showing up for me this morning.

This is where we'll have to rely on a third party extension to restore one-click reverse image searching again. Go to the Chrome web store and install Search by image by Armin Sebastian. The publisher has disclosed "that it will not collect or use your data" which is a nice thing to know, Armin has also been commenting on reddit helping people to use the extension and its options, but for the most part, you're sorted. You will once again have the option to search for the image in your context menu.

However, by default, the extension searches by URL (top left image), so if you attempt to search an image that is on a private website that requires login, it will return the error message "The URL doesn't refer to an image or the image is not publicly accessible.", so we have to change some options in the extension to make it work like Google reverse image search does.

• Go to the extensions options
• On the left untick all but one search engine to use for image searches
• On the right change the Context menu "Search mode" option to "Select image"
• Lastly, change "Search all engines" to "From context menu"

It's important to note that if you do the above and have more than one search engine ticked, the above option will open a new tab for each search result on every search engine that is selected. In addition, changing the options above means that you will be uploading the image to the search engine(s) you chose, just like how the old Search Google for image option used to work.

There does not appear to be a way to completely disable the "Search image with Google Lens" option, so you will be stuck seeing this in your context menu.

Google quietly phases out reverse image search in Chrome, here's how to get it back

Windows 10 remains the dominant operating system across Steam. 75.69% of users prefer the almost seven-year-old OS to other releases (-2.13 points in February 2022). Windows 11 holds second place with 15.59% (+2.03). Windows 7, now a dead but not forgotten operating system, still has 4.08% (+0.35 points).

You can expect Windows 11 to continue its steady growth without big spikes. Microsoft does not force Windows 10 users to move to Windows 11, and the newest processors and graphics cards work fine with the previous Windows version. Besides, many users might not be able to update their computers to Windows 11 due to the relatively steep hardware requirements.

Overall, 96.36% of Steam customers prefer Windows (+0.19 points). macOS is second with 2.62% (-0.15 points), and Linux is third with 1.02% (-0.04 points).

Hardware-wise not much has changed since January 2022. Here are the most popular configs among Steam users:

• CPU Manufacturer: Intel 69.06% (+0.04), AMD 30.92% (-0.04), and Microsoft 0.02%.
• CPU Specs: 4 physical cores with 2.3-2.69 GHz clocks.
• GPU Manufacturer: Nvidia 76.14%, AMD 14.82%, Intel 8.83%, and other 0.21%.
• GPU Models: GTX 1060, GTX 1650, and GTX 1050 Ti.
• GPU VRAM: 8 GB.
• Screen resolution: 1920x1080 (single-monitor) and 3840x1080 (multi-monitor).
• VR: Oculus Quest 2 47.09% (+1.07), Valve Index 14.43% (+0.07%), and Oculus Rift S 12.14% (-0.96).

You can find more information about the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey result on the official website.

Windows 11 reaches almost 16% on Steam

All Firefox channels get updated around the same time. Firefox Beta and Developer are moved to version 99.0, Firefox Nightly is upgraded to version 100.0, and Firefox for Android is also moved to version 98.0.

Executive Summary

• Firefox 98.0 and Firefox 91.7 ESR fix security issues.
• The new download behavior is enabled in the release. Note: "always ask" download actions will be reset.
• Some Firefox users may have their selected default search engine removed from the browser.

Firefox 98.0 download and update

Firefox 98.0's release date is March 8, 2022. Mozilla rolls out the update to all systems on that day. Firefox's built-in updating system should pick up the new version automatically once it is released (which may happen some time after the publication of this release guide).

Firefox users may check the current version and run a manual check for updates on all desktop systems by selecting Menu > Help > About Firefox. Updates that are found during the check will be downloaded and installed on the local system.

Here are the links to the official download repositories.

• Firefox Stable download
• Firefox Beta download
• Nightly download
• Firefox ESR download
• Firefox for Android on Google Play

Firefox 98.0 new features and improvements

New Download flow

The main new feature in Firefox 98 is the new download flow of the browser. The core difference between the old downloading behavior and the new is that Firefox won't prompt users anymore when downloads are started. Firefox will start the download immediately, similarly to how Chromium-based browsers handle it. You can check out our guide on restoring download prompts in Firefox.

Here are the main changes:

• The downloads panel is displayed automatically in Firefox 98 by default.
• Downloads may be opened while they still download. They are started immediately after the download completes then.
• File downloads are no longer put into the system's temp folder.
• The downloads menu displays the following options: always open similar files, show in folder, go to download page, copy download link, delete, remove from history and clear preview panel.

Some Firefox users may prefer to display download prompts, and Firefox offers two options for that. The first enables prompts for specific file types.

1. Load about:preferences in the Firefox address bar.
2. Scroll down to the Application's group.
3. Use the filter at the top to find a file type.
4. Double-click on its action field to switch the action to "always ask".

Firefox will display a prompt whenever a file of the selected filetype will be downloaded.

The second option is found on the same page. Locate the Downloads section on the page, and switch the Downloads option from "save files to" to "always ask you where to save files".

Other changes

• Firefox may remove default search engines from some user systems; this is only the case if Mozilla did not receive formal permission from the search engine operators to include their search engine into Firefox.

Developer Changes

• The HTML element <dialog> is now enabled by default.
• navigator.registerProtocolHandler() supports registering protocol handlers for FTP, SFTP and FTPS.
• HTMLElement.outerText is supported.
• WebVR API is disabled by default as it is deprecated.
• Extensions that use webReqest are no longer started early during Firefox startup unless they use blocking calls.
• userScripts.register supports cookieStoreId. Extensions may use it to register container-specific user scripts.

Enterprise changes

• PKG for macOS reported that it did not support M1. This is fixed in Firefox 98 and will soon be fixed in Firefox ESR as well.
• Some Outlook Web Access configuration fields did not work properly. This is fixed in Firefox 98, ESR coming soon.
• PDFjs policy may now be used to disable PDF permissions.
• WebsiteFilter policy did not block web pages properly that were displayed after a 301 or 302 redirect took place.
• UserMessaging policy supports the removal of "more from Mozilla" in preferences now.

Known Issues

None listed.

Security updates / fixes

Security updates are revealed after the official release of the web browser. You find the information published here after release.

Outlook

Mozilla Firefox 99 and Mozilla Firefox 91.8.0 ESR will be released on April 5, 2022. It is the last stable version of Firefox before version 100 is reached.

Mozilla Firefox 98.0: here is what is new

Frontpaged:   Mozilla Firefox Browser 98

Horizontal tab scrolling in Opera browser

The feature, called Horizontal tab scrolling, places an arrow button at either end of the tab bar, clicking on which takes you to the left or the right of the list respectively.  Opera's tab bar, unlike that of other browsers, keeps resizing the size of tabs dynamically, as you open more and more tabs. This makes it difficult to find a particular tab, which is why the new feature could be useful. But at this point, I think the Search Tabs panel is still the better way to manage tabs.

Now, when you update to the latest version, you may think that the horizontal tab scrolling doesn't work. Firefox has a similar feature (mouse wheel gesture) which kicks in when you have 25 tabs or more. Since I'm used to it, I guessed Opera has a similar requirement, so I kept opening more tabs. Opera doesn't display the arrow buttons for tab scrolling until the entire tab bar is filled, I had to open 54 tabs for the icons to appear on my 1080p monitor.

The horizontal tab scrolling is enabled by default. You can't disable the feature directly from the browser's settings, but you can toggle a preference from the opera:flags page. Look for the flag that is labeled "Scrollable tab strip", click on the drop-down menu next to it and select the Disabled option.

Users who are on the stable channel of the browser can enable the above-mentioned setting, to try the horizontal tab scrolling without installing the dev channel build.

Hide tabs from the same website

Another change that the latest version of Opera brings, is the ability to hide the list of tabs from the same website in the tooltip that pops-up when you mouse over a tab. To disable the list, head to the Settings > Advanced > User interface > and toggle the switch next to "Show tabs from the same domain in tab tooltip".

New Snapshot tools in Opera browser

Opera added a couple of new options for its Snapshot tools last week. The first new option is a crop tool that can be accessed from the snapshot editor that appears after you capture a screenshot. It's pretty much similar to the crop tool that you may have used in image editors, i.e., resize the rectangle by dragging its borders.

The other change lets you capture a Snapshot by selecting text, you'll need to highlight a minimum of 3 words, after which the "Snapshot" button appears in the pop-up panel. It acts as a shortcut to save the snapshot, so you can either copy the text or save it as an image.

You can download Opera 86 for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official website.

The horizontal tab scrolling is a nice feature to have, but I feel that the implementation could have been better. I prefer scrolling through the tabs with the mouse wheel, a feature that the application doesn't have yet. But given that Opera browser has been a pioneer in mouse gestures, I think we can expect it to be added in the future.

Opera 86 dev channel update adds support for horizontal tab scrolling

The new version has not been announced yet on the VideoLAN website, but it is only a matter of time before that happens. VLC Media Player users may download the update manually from the download server already. Once released officially, VLC instances may be updated using the built-in automatic updating functionality.

VLC Media Player 3.0.17 is a bug fix release mostly. It addresses issues in several core program modules, including in audio output, access, video output or decoders. One fix addresses a crash in Direct 3D 11, which could happen when a stream changed the aspect ratio.

As far as new features are concerned, VLC 3.0.17 adds support for playing DAV video files and for DTS LBR. DAV is a proprietary video format that is often used by DVR365 and CCTV cameras. DAV files are encrypted and most media players do not support the format. Users had to use video converters in the past, if they did not want to view DAV videos on DVR365 players, or could not, because the players are only available for Windows PCs.

DTS LBR, the LBR stands for Low Bit Rate, is the second addition introduced in VLC Media Player 3.0.17.

Other changes of note include support for uncompressed audio in mp4, HTTP2 memory usage improvements, support for Fourcc for E-AC3, AV1, and GeoVision, support for spatial audio on iOS/tvOS, and updated third-party libraries.

Here is the full changelog of VLC Media Player 3.0,17:

Changes between 3.0.16 and 3.0.17:
----------------------------------

Core:
* Fix a regression in parsing secondary source MRLs
* Allow brackets in path part of URLs

Access:
* Fix support for screen capture on macOS with avcapture
* Fix closing of HTTP 1.x connections
* Improve HTTP2 memory usage
* Improve AVCapture module
* Improve AudioCD support (audio/data mixed mode, musicbrainz)
* Improve SMB compatibility by changing the read size
* Several improvements on the SRT modules (including streamID)

Decoders/Packetizers:
* Add support for DTS LBR
* Fix some HEVC hardware decoding on Windows and crashes when aspect ratio changes
* Fix hardware decoding for some AMD GPU drivers
* Add support for new Fourcc for E-AC3, AV1, GeoVision
* Fix crashes with VP9 streams
* Fix styling issues with subs tx3g (mp4) tracks
* Fix playback of live AV1 streams

Audio Output:
* iOS/tvOS: add support for spatial audio
* macOS: fix some channels ordering for > 5.1 channels
* Android: rework audio volume management

Video Output:
* Fix a D3D11 crash when the stream changes aspect ratio

Demux:
* Major overhaul of the adaptive streaming stack
* Support for DAV video files
* Add WebP image mapping
* Fix missing audio start of Opus audio in MKV/WebM
* Fix an infinite loop in MP4
* Fix attachments extractions in ogg files
* Support Uncompressed audio in mp4 (ISO/IEC 23003-5)
* Fix some lip sync issue in rare MPEG-TS streams

Interface:
* Qt/macOS: Fixup user provided URLs
* Add safe area handling on macOS
* Qt: improve preferences search
* Qt: fix --no-mouse-events option

Misc:
* Update YouTube script
* Fix Icecast directory parsing which could lead to missing entries
* Improve UPnP compatibility with some servers

3rd party libraries (contrib):
* Update FFmpeg to 4.4
* Update libflac to 1.3.4 to fix CVE-2020-0499 and CVE-2021-0561
* Update libsmb2 to fix invalid UTF-8 encoding of some filenames
* Update taglib to fix corruptions when editing some OGG metadata
* Update dav1d to 0.9.2
* Update fribidi to 1.0.11
* Update freetype to 2.11.1
* Update libass to 0.15.2
* Drop pthreadGC2 in favor of winpthreads
* Enable Java support for blurays on Apple M1
* Update libsrt to 1.4.4
* Update twolame to 0.4.0
* Update mpg123 to 1.29.3
* Update libnfs to 5.0.1
* Update libarchive to 3.6.0
* Update AOM encoder to 3.1.1

Now You: Do you use VLC to play media files, or do you prefer a different media player?

VLC Media Player 3.0.17 out with fixes and support for DAV and DTS LBR

Frontpaged:   VLC (VideoLAN) Media Player 3.0.17

The full announcement says:

We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22567.200 (KB5012432). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev Channel.

Hence, all the bug fixes and improvements that were announced with the earlier released build 22567 to the Dev Channel are carried over into this. The build has loads of new features as we are now moving into the next phase of Windows 11 in preparation for version 22H2.

Microsoft also noted that those Insiders who have opted to install the Windows 11 Home Edition from the Dev Channel will not be able to install the Build 22567.100 and Build 22567.200 updates, as they will not be offered from Windows Update.

Interestingly, while there are no new changes made in this build, servicing test builds like these before have been known to break some features. For example, Windows 10 Build 21292.1010 caused issues for x64 emulation on ARM PCs. And if you've been keeping track, this is the second such servicing pipeline test for this build, with build 22567.100 being released last Friday.

You can find the original press release linked here.

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Dev build 22567.200 (KB5012432) to test the servicing pipeline

• #16252: We now pass in /norestart flag to .NET runtime installer for our installer
• #16155: FancyZones Template layout reset bug is fixed
• #16699: Dev File Preview handler files in use bug is fixed
• #16669: Added Find my mouse setting for shake distance to allow for adjustability
• #16712: PowerToys Run's Windows Terminal plugin didn't have localization setup correctly and is now correct.

As such, there are no changes, you can view the ull set of changes in our v0.56.1 post here.

PowerToys is Microsoft's open-source project that offers a collection of nifty tools that people can use to customize the Windows 10 or 11 UI and experience to their liking. As we know, depending upon feedback and general stability, some of the utilities also make their way to the OS eventually. A prominent example of this is Snap Layouts and Span Groups in Windows 11 which borrow heavily from the FanzyZones tool in PowerToys.

If you are using PowerToys in Windows 11, you can grab it in the Microsoft Store. For others in Windows 10, you can open the app and click on "Check for updates" under the updates section on the General tab. Those who would like to try PowerToys for the first time can grab the version 0.56.2 installer from the app's GitHub page.

Microsoft releases PowerToys 0.56.2 to address FancyZone bugs and more

And while digging around, Twitter user Xeno stumbled upon references to Windows 9 that are still present in Build 22567. The reference can be found inside the Migwiz file that's present in the System32 folder. Here's the full path of the directory:

C:\Windows\System32\migwiz\replacementmanifests

The file talks about gathering blocks for the collection of data from old Windows systems including Windows 9. There is also the mention of Windows Blue which was the codename associated with Windows 8.1. This reference has seemingly been present since the Windows 10 Technical preview build 9860.

You can view the contents of the file in the image below:

For those scratching their heads as they may be unfamiliar with Windows 9, this was assumed to be the successor to Windows 8.1 (Blue). However, there were rumors that "Windows 9" was causing certain app compatibility issues due to confusion with Windows 95 and Windows 98 forcing Microsoft to go for Windows 10 instead. Microsoft's Tony Prophet though, the corporate vice president of Windows Marketing at the time, stated something else entirely.

Source and image: Xeno (Twitter)

As we near Windows 11 22H2, Windows 9 reference is still there in Dev build 22567

Microsoft describes it as a security feature for Windows 11 "that blocks untrusted or potentially dangerous applications". Smart App Control runs in evaluation mode at first according to Microsoft, but it may turn itself on automatically.

SAC is first configured in evaluation mode. While SAC is in evaluation mode, it will learn if it can help protect you without getting in your way too much. If so, it will automatically be turned on. Otherwise, it will automatically be turned off. While in evaluation mode, a user can manually turn on SAC in the Windows Security app under the App & Browser Control section

The description is vague and it left many questions unanswered.

What is Smart App Control?

Smart App Control is a security feature that blocks malicious, untrusted and potentially unwanted apps on Windows devices.

• Malicious applications are flagged by Microsoft. They may do all sorts of unwanted things on a PC, including deleting files, pushing remote control software on devices, stealing data, monitoring user activities and more.
• Untrusted applications are not necessarily malicious. Microsoft uses two main factors to determine whether an app is untrusted or not. The first determines whether the app is digitally signed, the second takes usage into account. Unsigned apps that Microsoft's cloud-based security service are not familiar with are considered untrusted.
• Potentially unwanted apps may contain unexpected ads, slow down devices, or include offers for extra software that users don't want.

Smart App Control is only active on newly installed systems. Microsoft does not provide an explanation for this, but Microsoft wants to avoid issues with already installed applications probably at this stage. Users may enable Smart App Control manually on their devices.

The feature runs in evaluation mode in the beginning to determine whether the feature should be turned on or off. Evaluation mode monitors activity on the device, but it does not block anything in that mode.

Smart App Control is turned on or off after the evaluation period automatically. Windows 11 administrators may turn the feature on or off manually, if available. Once turned off, it can't be turned on again according to Microsoft unless a clean install is performed.

When Smart App Control is turned on, it will block the execution of applications that it flags on the device. There is no option to unblock applications, e.g., by adding them to an exclusions list.

Windows 11 users may configure Smart App Control by running a search for "Smart App Control" in the search box. It is part of Windows Security in the Settings application on Windows 11 devices.

Closing Words

Smart App Control unifies several Windows Defender's protections. Windows Defender is capable of blocking malicious apps from running, and users may enable support for blocking potentially unwanted apps as well. SmartScreen, another security component, blocks untrusted applications already. All of these are now unified in Smart App Control.

The lack of an override makes the feature unusable for most use cases at the time of writing. The only option that users have is to turn it off completely, but that means that it can't be turned on again easily according to Microsoft.

Now You: what is your take on Smart App Control?

Smart App Control in Windows 11 explained