Now a new app called Live Tiles Anywhere lets you bring your favourite Live Tiles to your new operating system.

Live Tiles Anywhere is a free app for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 which lets you create customised Live Tiles, and display them on your start menu, desktop and also floating widgets.

The app features:

• Create custom Live Tiles and add pin them on the Start Menu, on your Desktop as an icon or create a floating widget. All four sizes are supported!
•  The “Live” aspect of the Live Tiles is present both on the Start Menu tiles and for the widgets on Desktop. All apps with a Live Tile are supported, both on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
• No live tile support for some apps? Live Tiles Anywhere can use the toast notifications from the action / notification center.
•  Customize many aspects of the tile, including images, background and text colour, branding and more.
• Supports Desktop win32 apps, UWP apps, links, commands and other protocols.
• LTA will automatically find installed apps, including games from Steam and Epic Games launcher.
• A central hub is available, where you can manage all the tiles you’ve created, added and customized.
• No changes will be made on system files and no special procedures or patches are required.
• Updated Fluent Design interface, easy to use, with light or dark theme supported.
• Multi-language support available. English and Italian languages ??are supported in this version.

As can be seen from the screenshot above (via Reddit) the app appears to work quite well, though it is reportedly somewhat processor intensive.

It is however completely free, and can be found in the Store here.

Thanks, MrElectrifyer for the tip.

This app lets you bring Live Tiles to Windows 11

These problems started showing up around June when the first official and unofficial Windows 11 preview builds surfaced.

As those affected said, Outlook stopped showing results [1, 2] when searching for specific emails on IMAP/POP accounts, in some cases resulting in the app completely freezing.

"This issue will happen with any account where the emails and other items are stored locally in PST or OST files such as POP and IMAP accounts," Microsoft says on its list of recent issues impacting Outlook for PC.

"For Exchange and Microsoft 365 hosted accounts, this issue will affect offline search for the data in the locally stored OST files."

According to Redmond, these issues impact Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, and Outlook 2016. Per Microsoft, the root cause is the Windows search index being deleted during the upgrade, which breaks search until it gets rebuilt.

To ensure that the index rebuilding process is still ongoing, you can check the current status by going to the Search box, selecting Search Tools, and then choosing Indexing Status on the ribbon.

How to fix broken Outlook search in Windows 11

If the indexing is still active and takes too long, you can fix Outlook search not returning any results by setting a registry key that disables Windows Desktop Search and tells Outlook to use its built-in search.

Once Outlook's own search engine kicks in, the following message is displayed as an indication that search performance is affected: "Search performance will be impacted because a group policy has turned off the Windows Search service."

To disable the Windows Desktop Search Service for Outlook you have to go through the following steps:

1. In Windows, right-click Start, and then select Run. In the Open: box type regedit, and then click OK. This will open the registry editor.

2. Find this subkey in the registry and then click it:

   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

3. Click Edit > New > Key, and name the new key Windows Search.

4. Select the new Windows Search key.

5. Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.

6. Type PreventIndexingOutlook for the name of the DWORD, and then press Enter.

7. Right-click PreventIndexingOutlook, and then click Modify.

8. In the Value data box, type 1 to enable the registry entry, and then click OK.

9. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart Outlook.

If you want to re-enable the Windows Desktop Search, you need to disable the PreventIndexingOutlook setting by typing 0 (zero) and clicking OK.

Microsoft has also recently provided workarounds for a handful of other Outlook issues, including:

Microsoft shares fix for broken Outlook search in Windows 11

For this purpose, we have collected the top 10 most-voted pieces of feedback from Microsoft's own Feedback Hub, along with the current official response from the company. You can also navigate to the respective feedback item yourself and upvote it or provide your own feedback. Without further ado, here goes:

1. Bring back the ability to move the taskbar to the top and sides of the screen on Windows 11 (25,732 upvotes)
   Microsoft response: We'll be continuing to evolve Windows 11 and its features based on feedback like this, so thank you so much for taking the time to give us your feedback!
2. Bring back right-click for Task Manager option on taskbar in Windows 11 (16,439 upvotes)
   Microsoft response: Thank you so much for giving us your feedback. While we'll continue to use your feedback to guide the future of features like this, currently on Windows 11, you can right-click the Start menu button to quickly open the Task Manager. In addition you can also press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open Task Manager directly
3. Update the Windows 11 Start menu to support putting pinned apps into groups / folders (11,115 upvotes)
   No response from Microsoft yet.
4. Update the Windows 11 taskbar to support dragging and dropping files onto the app icons to open them in / transfer them to that app (10,855 upvotes)

   Microsoft response: Currently, dragging a file onto an app in the taskbar to open it in that app is not supported in Windows 11, but we appreciate all your feedback, and we'll continue to use it to help guide the future of features like this. You can start to drag, press ALT+Tab, open the window you wanted to drag to, and drop inside it to still open your files more quickly. Thank you!

5. Update the Windows 11 taskbar to support never combining app icons and showing labels (10,064 upvotes)
   No response from Microsoft yet.

6. Update the Windows 11 taskbar to support using small icons option that Windows 10 had (8,797 upvotes)
   No response from Microsoft yet.

7. I want the taskbar clock in Windows 11 to be available on all my monitors and not just my primary monitor (8,436 upvotes)
   Microsoft response: Thank you for your feedback! We made it possible to display the date and time on secondary monitors with Build 22509, now available in the Dev Channel.

8. Remove the TPM requirement in determining Windows 11 eligibility (7,801 upvotes)
   Microsoft response: Thanks for taking the time to reach out about this. Please read the following blog post which includes more information about the reasons for this change.

9. I would like to be able to turn off the Recommended section in the Start menu and have the whole area disappear in Windows 11 (7,787 upvotes)
   Microsoft response: Thanks for taking the time to reach out. It is not currently possible to have the whole area collapse or disappear, however your desire to have this functionality has been shared with the team. We'll let you know if there are any updates. What is currently possible is hiding the content, if you are concerned about it displaying. To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the Show recently added apps and/or the Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer. This will turn those off in jump lists too.
   UPDATE: We made a new layout for Start that will let you reduce the size of the Recommended section. Right-click on Start to quickly access Start settings and choose the More pins layout option to show an extra row of pins with Build 22509, now available in the Dev Channel.

10. I want to have the option to turn off news in Widgets so they no longer display there (7,481 upvotes)
    No response from Microsoft yet.

Well, there you have it. These are currently the most requested suggestions that people have regarding Windows 11. While Microsoft hasn't provided a detailed response to some feedback items, it's still encouraging to see the company actively responding to most and updating their status as well. We have seen the firm addressing some of the problems that people have with the Start menu and the Taskbar with build 22509 that recently started rolling out to the Dev Channel, and while we don't know when and more importantly, if, these changes will be made generally available, it's nice to see that at least some feedback is being listened to.

Here are the top 10 changes that Windows 11 needs, according to the public

The latest app to get the treatment appears to be the OneDrive sync client for Windows 11.

Besides the obvious rounded corners the app now also floats clearly above the taskbar. It also supports now supports dark mode.

The update was spotted by Florian who mentioned it here.

Microsoft is rolling out an updated OneDrive client with Windows 11 styling

• #13214 - FZ losing layouts due to VirtualDesktopManager init
• #14701- PT Run due to duplicate older plugins

The first bug appears to be an issue with FancyZones not enabling when booting up Windows 10 or 11, users would have to go into PowerToys, disable FancyZones, and then enable again to get it working. The developers appear to blame the VirtualDesktopManager for FancyZones failing to start. The second bug appears to be a problem that has stayed with older versions of PowerToys, where in some cases newer installs have not removed older plugins, and those plugins fail to start. the v0.51.1 release fixes that.

Version 0.51.1 contains all of the fixes and improvements from the 0.51.0 release, which you can view 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 0.51.1 installer from the app's GitHub page.

 Microsoft releases PowerToys v0.51.1 to fix FancyZones and outdated plugins

VentoyPlugson gives Ventoy users a graphical user interface to configure the tool. Up until now, Ventoy users could only configure the application through the ventoy.json file directly; this option is not going away, and users can even mix and match both options, e.g. by using VentoyPlugson to create a ventoy.json file and then editing the file manually to tweak it further,

The latest release version of Ventoy includes the tool in the zip archive. Windows users need to extract the archive that they download from the official repository and run VentoyPlugson.exe afterwards.

It displays a small GUI. Select the Ventoy USB device and then the Start button; this should open the configuration page in the default browser. If that does not work, use the Link button instead. There is also a refresh button if you need to connect the USB device to the system after launching the configuration tool.

Ventoy on Linux requires the following steps:

1. sudo sh VentoyPlugson.sh /dev/sdX
2. Load http://127.0.0.1:24681 in a system browser.

Note that sdX needs to be replaced with the device name of the Ventoy USB device, e.g. /dev/sdc.

The web page may be used to configure Ventoy. The configuration file ventoy.json is created automatically during the process.

The sidebar displays the available configuration options, e.g. theme plugin or password plugin. It is a good idea to go through all available sidebar pages to make sure the configuration is correct.

Ventoy's configuration options are explained on this page. It can be used to make lots of changes, including bypassing Windows 11 system compatibility checks during installation, setting passwords, or managing persistence for some Linux distributions.

The new version of Ventoy includes the following changes next to that:

• Add default_file option in theme plugin.
• Add F5 Tools --> Theme Select menu to switch between themes.
• Automatically fix volume abnormal status when do non-destructive install in Windows.
• Optimization for FreeBSD boot process.
• Optimization for Ventoy2Disk.sh
• languages.json update

Closing Words

The new VentoyPlugson configuration tool improves the configuration process in several ways, including making the editing less error-prone and displaying the configuration options more pleasantly.

Not all Ventoy users need to manipulate the configuration file, but those who do, may find the new option useful, at least as an alternative to the existing direct editing option of the ventoy.json file.

Latest Ventoy includes VentoyPlugson, a GUI configuration tool

We mentioned the vulnerability in late November 2021 already here on this site. The issue was unpatched back then and Microsoft has yet to release a security update that addresses the vulnerability.

Micro-patching company 0Patch released a free patch for the issue this week that is available to all users. The micropatch that 0Patch released is available for the following operating systems:

• Windows 10 version 1709 to 21H1.
• Windows 7 ESU
• Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 ESU

0Patch notes that non-ESU Windows 7 and Windows Server 2012 installations are not affected by the vulnerability. Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11 are likely also affected, but not officially supported by the company yet (hence no patch). Windows 8.1 was not analyzed because of low interest in the particular version of Windows.

The vulnerability takes advantage of rollback files that Windows Installer creates during installation. It stores files that are deleted or modified during the installation process, to allow rollbacks. The rollback file is created in system directories and then moved to a temp folder in the user's directory.

Naceri discovered that a symbolic link can be placed in the location, so that the RBF file is moved to another location. The symbolic link points to a file on the system that is then made accessible to the user, provided that Local System has write access to it.

Since Windows Installer is running as Local System, any file writable by Local System can be overwritten and made writable by the local user.

The micropatch that 0Patch has created checks if the destination for the rollback file operation contains junctions or links. The operation is blocked if that is the case, or allowed otherwise.

Patching systems with 0Patch micropatches requires a free account at 0Patch Central and the installation and registration of 0Patch Agent from the company. The patch is applied automatically, a reboot is not required.

Here is a demo video that 0Patch published on YouTube:

Here is the video of our micropatch in action. Without the micropatch, exploit works and a command line window is launched as Local System; with the micropatch, the code we correct in msi.dll determines that destination path contains a symbolic link, aborts the file move operation and triggers an "Exploit blocked" event.

Check out the 0Patch blog for additional details.

Now You: how do you handle unpatched vulnerabilities?

Source

After much outcry and a seeming change in strategy, Microsoft appears to have come round in the latest Windows 11 Insider Builds, and are now making it relatively easier to set the default browser to your own preference.

Deskmodder reports that Windows 11 Build 22509 now sports a new button in the Standard Apps section of settings which lets you easily set the default browser for your device.

This is of course not as convenient as having the browser do it itself, but it is better than setting each protocol individually to your preferred browser.

Unfortunately, the button only sets HTTP and HTTPS to your preferred browser, with Microsoft still for example defaulting PDFs to Edge. Slow progress, but still progress in any case.

Microsoft makes it easier to set your default browser in Windows 11

Microsoft is offering users with a pirated version of Office a discount for a Microsoft 365 subscription. A friend of mine shared the above screenshot with me, it is from Office 2019. If you look at the image closely, you will see a message near the ribbon bar. It says, "Get up to 50% off. For a limited time, save up to 50% on a genuine Microsoft 365 subscription".

Clicking the message opens this page in the default browser. The landing page educates the user about the risks involved in using pirated software, such as security threats, loss of data, the lack of support for updates, etc.

Note: You may have to change the URL to your Country's locale, to avail the prices in your currency.

Users with a pirated version of Office are getting a discount offer for a Microsoft 365 subscription

More importantly, the page also has a Microsoft Office 365 discount offer. You will need to sign in to your Microsoft account to see if you are eligible for the discount. It didn't work for me when I tried it, I'm not sure if it is because I've a genuine license tied to my account. I think it checks whether you clicked the link from the pirated copy of Office, but I can't say for certain. It worked for my friend, check the screenshot for reference.

Once you verify the difference in the price, you may proceed to checkout to complete your purchase. Initially, I thought it might be a Black Friday discount offer, but it does not seem to be the case, as it is still working at the time of writing this article.

It is a bit surprising that the discount is for the cloud based service, and not the offline desktop suite which the user had pirated. Personally, I believe the latter is a better choice, as it you can use it for years, for a one-time fee. Not to mention, the advantage of being able to use the programs offline is a huge bonus.

Still, it's nice of Microsoft to try and turn pirates into legitimate customers. That said, I'm not sure if this offer is going to cause a change of heart among the sailors of the high seas. Depending on your spending power, a year's worth of Office 365, even at a 50% discount could be an unaffordable luxury.  People usually pirate stuff not because they don't want to pay for it, but mostly because they can't afford the asking price. I'm not judging mind you, having been in the same boat before I got a job, I can understand the choice, even though I don't support piracy. If you can afford it, buy it and support the developers. That's my motto, especially when it comes to video games.

That said, if you can't pay for Microsoft Office, you don't have to pirate it. You can still get nearly the same features for free, via Office Online, right from your web browser. I used the service for a few years, until I bought a cheap license for Office 2013 via a reseller. Or, you could just use a free and open source alternative like LibreOffice.

Users with a pirated version of Office are getting a discount offer for a Microsoft 365 subscription

The Beta channel is considered to be the most stable preview channel, only releasing features well tested in the Canary and Dev version of the browser. The last major release was on 28nd September, with more minor bug fixes since.

Microsoft Edge Beta Build 97.0.1072.21 brings the following new features and improvements:

• Use current profile to sign into websites when multiple work or school accounts are signed in on a device. When multiple work or school accounts are signed in on a device, users will be asked to choose an account from the account picker to continue their visits to websites. In this release, users will be prompted to allow Microsoft Edge to sign in to the websites automatically with the work and school account signed into current profile. Users can turn this feature on and off in Settings/Profile preferences.
• Add support for Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) on MacOS. Microsoft Endpoint DLP policy enforcement is available natively on MacOS.
• Open digitally signed PDF files. Digital signatures are used extensively to validate the authenticity of, and changes to, a document. Users will be able to validate the signatures for PDF files directly from the browser, without the need for any add-ins.
• Citations in Microsoft Edge. Citing sources for research is a common requirement for students. They have to manage many research references and sources, which is no easy task. They also have to translate these citations to proper citation formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago. This new “Citations” feature in Microsoft Edge (now in Preview) gives students a better way to manage and generate citations as they research online. With Citations turned on in Collections or from Settings and more (Alt-F), Microsoft Edge automatically generates citations that students can use later so they can stay focussed on their research. When they’re done they can easily compile these citations into a final deliverable. For more information, see Previewing Citations in Microsoft Edge

Policy updates

• AccessibilityImageLabelsEnabled – Get Image Descriptions from Microsoft Enabled
• CORSNonWildcardRequestHeadersSupport – CORS non-wildcard request header support enabled
• EdgeDiscoverEnabled – Discover feature In Microsoft Edge
• EdgeEnhanceImagesEnabled – Enhance images enabled
• InternetExplorerModeTabInEdgeModeAllowed – Allow sites configured for Internet Explorer mode to open in Microsoft Edge
• OpenMicrosoftLinksInEdgeEnabled – Always open links from certain Microsoft apps in Microsoft Edge
• SameOriginTabCaptureAllowedByOrigins – Allow Same Origin Tab capture by these origins
• ScreenCaptureAllowedByOrigins – Allow Desktop, Window, and Tab capture by these origins
• SerialAllowAllPortsForUrls – Automatically grant sites permission to connect all serial ports
• SerialAllowUsbDevicesForUrls – Automatically grant sites permission to connect to USB serial devices
• SmartScreenDnsRequestsEnabled – Enable Microsoft Defender SmartScreen DNS requests
• TabCaptureAllowedByOrigins – Allow Tab capture by these origins
• WebSQLInThirdPartyContextEnabled – Force WebSQL in third-party contexts to be re-enabled
• WindowCaptureAllowedByOrigins – Allow Window and Tab capture by these origins

Edge Beta can be downloaded at Microsoft here.

Microsoft Edge Beta build 97 now available for download (Changelog

Pop-ups range from straightforward to cheeky. One calls Chrome "so 2008."

Microsoft Edge will now warn users about the dangers of downloading Google Chrome

The new version is already available. Desktop and Android users should receive it automatically through the built-in automatic updating functionality.

Desktop users may select Vivaldi Menu > Help > Check for Updates to display the installed version and run a manual check for updates. The new version should be found and downloaded & installed at that point.

Vivaldi 5.0 for Android

Vivaldi 5.0 for Android improves tab management in the Vivaldi browser significantly. The mobile browser supported a tab bar on Android already, similarly to how tab bars work on desktop browsers.

With Vivaldi 5.0 comes support for two-level tab stacks. The feature adds a second tab bar on the user's request to the selected tab.

Here is how you enable it:

1. Long-tap on the "new tab" icon in the Vivaldi for Android interface. A selection menu is displayed.
2. Select "Create new tab stack" from the context menu.

The Tab Stack is added to the active tab. All other tabs that are open remain single-level tabs. Another option to open a tab stack in the mobile version of Vivaldi is to do so from the Tab Switcher. Vivaldi explains how that works in the following sentence:

While looking at the tab thumbnails, simply drag one tab on top of another to create a new stack.

Vivaldi published a video on YouTube that demonstrates the feature:

The new Vivaldi version for Android introduces two additional tab-related improvements. The close button is only displayed on the active tab by default. Vivaldi users may restore the close button on all tabs in the Settings.

Users who have lots of tabs open in the browser may benefit from a new display option that displays just the favicon of sites in tabs. This makes room for lots of tabs in the visual area of the tab bar, and works well with the new two-level tab stacking feature of Vivaldi for Android.

Vivaldi calculates the width of tabs in the browser dynamically starting with this release. The feature works identically to how desktop browsers change the size of tabs based on the number of open tabs in the browser and the width of the browser window.

Vivaldi 5.0 for Android can shrink tabs up to the favicon if lots of tabs are opened, but will keep the title displayed if only one or a few tabs are open.

Vivaldi users who prefer dark mode for sites can enable the option under Vivaldi Menu > Settings > Theme > Dark mode for Web Pages.

Websites are displayed in dark mode from that moment on, but there is an override in the main menu to disable it for certain sites; this is useful if the site does not display correctly when the mode is enabled.

Another new feature is the option to append text to notes in Vivaldi for Android.

Vivaldi 5.0 for Android tablets and Chromebooks has seen optimizations to take better advantage of the bigger screens that these devices have.

Larger Android devices get access to panels in the new release, which work similarly to how panels on the desktop work. Panels can be toggled on and off, and provide access to features such as the bookmarks, notes or downloads.

Vivaldi 5.0 for the desktop

The desktop version of Vivaldi has seen improvements in two main areas in this update: themes and translation.

Themes can now be created and shared using Vivaldi; the feature opens up new options, including downloading themes from the new themes repository on Vivaldi's website.

To get started, select Vivaldi Menu > Tools > Settings > Themes. Switch to the Editor on the page to edit theme colors, settings and background images. The new export option is found on the page as well. Themes are exported as zip archives and they can be imported at any time using the new import option.

The browser's translate feature, powered by a self-hosted instance of Lingvanex, has seen improvements in Vivaldi 5.0 as well. The new Translate Panel enables users to translate snippets of text in the browser. While you could translate selected texts before in Vivaldi, it is becoming easier with the new Translate Panel.

Select the Translate icon from the browser's sidebar to get started. You may need to activate the sidebar with a click on the leftmost icon in the lower toolbar of the browser.

The Translate panel accepts copy and paste input, but it may also be set up to translate text selections automatically. Check the "auto-translate selected text" option from the panel for that.

Vivaldi includes a translate history page to look up previous translations in the browser.

Translations should also be faster according to Vivaldi:

It is challenging to integrate a translation feature in a browser and make everything work quickly under a high load. So, a lot of work has been put in to reach this ambitious goal. With significant development and rigorous testing before the launch, the speed improvements will help provide you with faster translations.

Downloads in Vivaldi may be displayed in a popup instead of in the panel. The option needs to be turned on under Vivaldi Menu > Tools > Settings > Downloads > Display Downloads in a Popup.

Check out the official Vivaldi website for more information and download links.

Vivaldi 5.0 launches with major tab improvements on Android, translate panel on desktop

Edge can succeed on its merits, and Microsoft needs to start acting like it.

I like Microsoft Edge. But if it doesn’t get less annoying, I’ll switch again

What’s new in Build 22509

Browsing the web in Microsoft Edge with Narrator is now easier

We have been working on a collection of improvements to web browsing with Microsoft Edge and Narrator. Specifically, typing in edit fields should now be faster, when navigating around the web more useful information is provided, and lastly you will have a more consistent navigation experience with Narrator.

We have made it easier to type in edit fields, such as the address bar, because Narrator scan mode will now turn off faster. Specifically, if you press Ctrl + L to jump to the address bar, you should be able to start typing immediately because scan mode will turn off sooner. This improvement will also help when filling in form fields such as typing your name and address in different edit boxes. In addition to making it easier to type into edit fields, we have also made it easier to delete in edit fields. Narrator will now read the character that the cursor position is at after a character has been deleted. In other words, if the cursor is on the “h” of “hello” and you press delete, Narrator will speak “e”.

You will also get more contextual information when navigating around the web. For example, required radio buttons and edit fields will now be read out as required, and more information about lists including list levels and accurate list indices will now be read out.

In addition to getting more information read out, you will have a more consistent navigation experience with Narrator. This includes improvements in heading navigation, a more consistent scan mode navigation experience where scan mode is less likely to loop between items, and a more consistent hyperlink reading experience when navigating forwards and backwards.

Thank you for all the feedback on the Narrator with Edge experience that you have sent in. These improvements were made based on your feedback. Please continue to send us feedback with Windows + F.

NOTE: Microsoft Edge version 97.0.4683.0 or higher is required to take advantage of these improvements on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 and higher.

Changes and Improvements

• Starting in this build, you can right-click on Start to quickly access Start settings and choose the “More pins” or “More recommendations” layout option to show an extra row of either pins or recommendations, respectively.

• When a secondary monitor is connected, your clock and date will now also be displayed on the taskbars of the secondary monitor or monitors for glanceability. [We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]
• For apps that send notifications for calls, reminders, or alarms that leverage Windows notifications in the OS, 3 high priority notifications will now be shown as stacked and shown at the same time. This means at any given time, you might see up to 4 notifications at the same time – 3 high priority notifications and one normal priority notification. [We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]
• As part of our ongoing effort to bring over settings from Control Panel into the Settings app:
  • We have moved the advanced sharing settings (such as Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and public folder sharing) to a new page in Settings app under Advanced Network Settings.
  • We’ve made some updates to the device specific pages under Printers & Scanners in Settings to show more information about your printer or scanner directly in Settings when available.
  • Some of the entry points for network and devices settings in Control Panel will now redirect to the corresponding pages in Settings.
• Added a new option to the Installed Apps page in Settings to sort the list from Name (Z to A), and accordingly, updated the previous “Alphabetically” option to now be called Name (A to Z).
• We’ll now remember if you turn on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi while in airplane mode. Next time you use airplane mode, the radios will reflect your preference and stay on to make it easier to keep listening to headphones and remain connected while travelling.
• Windows Sandbox now supports reboot inside of its virtualized environment (for example, if you were to click the Restart option under the Power button in Start).

Fixes

[Taskbar]

 

• The Start, Search, Task View, Widgets, and Chat icons in the Taskbar should no longer be unexpectedly large when the system scaling is set to 125%.
• Pressing the Windows key plus (the number corresponding to an app icon’s position in the Taskbar) should cycle now through the app’s windows if you repeatedly press the number instead of stopping at the last window.
• When Narrator focus is set to the Task View button and the Desktops flyout appears, Narrator will now let you know information about the Desktops.
• Fixed an explorer.exe crash some Insiders were experiencing in recent flights related to updating badges in the Taskbar.

 

[Input]

 

• Handwriting should be working again now when the language is set to Chinese.
• Mitigated an issue related to the mouse that was causing some Insiders to experience a bugcheck during hibernation sometimes in recent flights (making it appear as if the computer had rebooted).
• Updated the Chinese Simplified IME candidates to be center aligned with the candidate window height has been customized.
• Fixed touch keyboard invocation in PowerShell so it should work now.

 

[Windowing]

 

• Hovering your mouse back and forth between different desktops in Task View will no longer result in the displayed thumbnails and content area unexpectedly shrinking.
• CompactOverlay should be working again in this build (aka the option that some apps use to create a small always on top window).
• Fixed a race condition that was causing explorer.exe to crash sometimes when closing a snap group of 3 or more windows in Task View.
• Removed the unexpected tilt animation when clicking down on a corner of the New Desktop button.
• Made a tweak to address an underlying issue that was causing the context menu to animation down to the mouse instead of away from the mouse when right clicking a Desktop in Task View.
• Fixed a high hitting DWM crash in recent flights.

 

[Settings]

 

• Fixed some overlapping text for certain languages on the Installed Apps page in Settings.
• Clicking the Uninstall button when using the Installed Apps page in grid view will now show a confirmation dialog.
• Changed the new ms-settings:installed-apps URI to now be ms-settings:appsfeatures, to address scenarios where existing links expect the latter to lead to the list of installed apps, for example, when selecting the App Settings option after right clicking a UWP app in Start.

 

[Other]

 

• Fixed an issue that was causing some Insiders to see error 0x8007001f when trying to upgrade to recent Dev Channel builds.
• Fixed an issue where some PCs are unable to install new builds, or other updates with an error code 0x80070002.
• Fixed an issue causing some devices to roll back with error code 0xc1900101-0x4001c when installing new builds.
• Did some work to help address an issue leading to the Wi-Fi connection getting lost after resuming from sleep.

 

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.

Known issues

[General]

 

• Users updating from Builds 22000.xxx, or earlier, to newer Dev Channel builds using the latest Dev Channel ISO, may receive the following warning message: The build you are trying to install is Flight Signed. To continue installing, enable flight signing. If you receive this message, press the Enable button, reboot the PC, and retry the update.

 

[Start]

 

• In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.

 

[Taskbar]

 

• The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.

 

[Search]

 

• After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.

For developers

You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk.

 

SDK NuGet packages are now also flighting at NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which include:

 

• .NET TFM packages for use in .NET apps as described at ms/windowsinsidersdk
• C++ packages for Win32 headers and libs per architecture
• BuildTools package when you just need tools like MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe

 

These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integrate in CI/CD pipelines.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 22509 for Insiders with new layout options for Start and more

LibreOffice 7.3 Beta is the latest test candidate and comes with more than one thousand commits over 7.3 Alpha 1 from just over one month ago.

LibreOffice 7.3 adds support in Writer for hyperlinks attached to shapes, Writer better tracks and indicates changes to text, various performance improvements, Bash-like auto-completion for Calc spreadsheets, a new bullet mode editing feature, and much more.

LibreOffice 7.3 has many improvements to its Microsoft Office DOC, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX file format handling for importing and exporting. See the tentative release notes for more information on all that is in store for LibreOffice 7.3.

LibreOffice 7.3 is expected for its stable debut in early February. Downloads and more details on today's 7.3 beta release via the Document Foundation QA blog.

Source

Edge users aren’t happy about Microsoft’s built-in ‘buy now, pay later’ tool

We have updated the “Edit Color”, “Resize and Skew”, and other dialogs to match the style of the new Windows 11 design and fit in with the new Paint app backdrop.

The blog post for the announcement has also provided the two images (below) for examples.

The firm also notes some additional improvements it has made. The changelog is given below:

• Shift-click on a color swatch will now select that color as your secondary color.

• Fixed an issue where text boxes would move unexpectedly when using IME.

• Fixed an issue where some dialogs were not properly localized in Hebrew, Dutch, Norwegian, and other languages.

• Improved support for screen readers.

Feedback regarding these features and additions will be appreciated, says Microsoft. You can provide feedback on the Feedback Hub via this link. The original blog post is linked here.

Paint on Windows 11 is getting new improvements, rolling out to the Dev channel

Back to this release, Microsoft has added in a presentation mode helper to highlight the mouse when you click. The Find my mouse toy also gained some additional settings to enable more customization. The PowerToys dev team further states that they've been focusing work on the "Always on Top" system to help make any window to be the top most. A lot of thought is currently going into interaction models to make sure it 'feels' right for toggling as well as visualizing.

This release does not include any new PowerToys, so there's no 'What's new' section this time around, however, existing PowerToys did get some new features, fixes and improvements. You can view the full changelog below.

Changelog

Things to note

• We shifted our localization internal service and are working on adding automated integrations back in.

PowerToys Awake

• System tray and settings use same language for turning things on.

Color Picker

• New formats added to copy colors as a float or decimal value.
• Adjust color window now accepts lower-case HEX codes.

FancyZones

• New window switching functionality! Now users can assign multiple windows to a zone and cycle between them using the Win + PgDn/PgUp commands by default. Thanks @FLOAT4!
• Added functionality for zones to adopt system accent color and theme. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Added visual preview of zone appearance in settings menu. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed bug where FancyZones crashes on launch.

Image Resizer

• Fixed bug where resizing images creates empty folders.
• Added option to remove non-essential metadata. Helps significantly reduce the size of files. Thanks @CleanCodeDeveloper!
• Fixed bug caused by Image Resizer receiving an unexpected property type or value. Thanks @CleanCodeDeveloper!

Mouse utilities

• Find My Mouse: Improved functionality to activate when user double click time configuration is set above 100ms.
• Find My Mouse: Fixed display on all virtual desktops as opposed to only the virtual desktop where it was created.
• Find My Mouse: New settings to enable a lot more customization based on your feedback.
• Minor UI tweaks for fluent icons, appearance, Ctrl usage, and utility descriptions. Thanks @niels9001!
• New Mouse Highlighter PowerToy! When enabled, activate mouse highlighting with Win + Shift + H by default to begin displaying visual cues on your display when either the left or right mouse buttons are clicked. There is a much more powerful tool called SysInternal ZoomIt that is very helpful as well.

PowerRename

• Improved rename performance! This is now at parity (or better) with the prior version based on multiple tests.
• Added keyboard accelerators with Enter and Ctrl + Enter to execute rename. Thanks @niels9001!
• UI tweaks to now add number of items selected, grid-lines for improved readability, reduced font sizes & margins, and improved window resizing.
• Fixed UI focus issues. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added default window width and height. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added PowerRename event logging for BugReportTool

PowerToys Run

• New entries added for settings plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
• Added support for application URI handling like mailto: and ms-settings:. Thanks @franky920920!
• Added DevContainer workspaces to search results of the VSCode Workspaces Plugin. Thanks @JacobDeuchert!
• Fixes for crashing issues.

Shortcut Guide

• Added rounded corners to keys and tooltips, and system accent colors for desktop backdrop. Thanks @niels9001!

Settings

• Fixed default settings window size to prevent it from opening offscreen. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Video Conference Mute

• Minor UI tweaks for icon, clear button, and overlay image selection #14248. Thanks @niels9001!

Prototype work

• Always on top prototype of being actively worked on. Right now you hit a key-combo and it enables it. We are investigating ways to highlight the window in some form as well.

Installer

• Investigated how to fully shift to WIX bootstrapper and remove custom boot strapper
• Investigated how to fully shift to HKCU vs HKLM.

Random helping out

• Spell check fix - Thanks @franky920920!
• Fix a URL - Thanks @JeffersonQin!

There's also some development considerations that have been noted for this release which you can view below.

Development relevant

• Focusing on cleaning up backlog of issues and developing a method to aid in prioritizing. @Dend and @crutkas are partnering to see if we can develop one signal to see what we are calling 'centers of gravity'.
• Our primary dev branch is now named Main.
• Adjusting plugin folder structure for PT Run #10796
• Working on shifting our release pipeline onto same system that Windows Terminal uses.
• Improvements to environment variable usage/update process in PT Run. Thanks @htcfreek!
• Update .NET to 3.1.20.
• Centralized process list in the BugReportTool.
• Registry handling improvement for MSI and File Explorer add-ons.

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 0.51.0 installer from the app's GitHub page.

Microsoft PowerToys 0.51.0 adds presentation mode to highlight the mouse, and more

The report is based on some 5,000 Windows Store apps across 60,000 Windows PCs, featuring both the 10 and 11 OSs. The data published today was taken a week ago on November 23 and so it is likely that the percentage has since shifted more in favor of Windows 11.

The November 2021 pie chart below shows that the figure has reached nearly 9% (8.6% for GA build and 0.3% for Insider builds) and is closing in on doubling the 5.1% figure from October's report. Interestingly, it appears that the insider data has remained pretty much the same suggesting that not many new users have signed up for the Windows 11 Insider program after the GA release on October 5.

Aside from Windows 11, the figures also show that Windows 10 21H2 November update has also been installed in around 3.7% of PCs.

This decent uptick in adoption seems reasonable as Microsoft had earlier announced that it was going to speed up the rollout of Windows 11 due to the "positive" user feedback it had received and we are probably seeing some culmination of that in these data.

You may find more details in the original report here.

Nearly twice the people have already embraced Windows 11 compared to just a month ago

Like usual, the next LibreOffice release should happen in February. LibreOffice 7.3 is working up many more changes as it continues to prove to be a very capable alternative to Microsoft Office. Some of the changes that have accumulated so far for LibreOffice 7.3 include:

- LibreOffice Writer now allows attaching hyperlinks to shapes.

- Various improvements to tracking changes within Writer.

- Faster performance around opening of Microsoft DOX files as well as faster loading of large RTL documents. Meanwhile, PDF exporting is faster for some complex documents.

- Calc is also seeing some performance improvements around XLSM and XLSX files. Inserting large charts is also faster.

- Bash-like auto completion is implemented for the Calc spreadsheet program.

- A new bullet mode editing behavior is added for LibreOffice Impress.

- Various importing improvements around DOCX, XLSX, OOXML, and PPTX file formats.

- Initial Qt6 work.

See the tentative release notes for more information on the changes so far in the LibreOffice 7.3 development cycle.

Those wanting to help in testing can grab the latest nightly builds of the LibreOffice 7.3 alpha state via their daily build server with binaries available for a number of platforms.

Source

ThisIsWin11 (TIW11) version 0.93.0 was released by developer builtbybel earlier today on GitHub. This third-party tool allows for more Windows 11 customization and the maker even touts the app as "The real PowerToys for Windows 11".

The new update brings support for Windows 11 build 22000.348, adds a "Create Restore Points" option, and more. Here's the full changelog:

• Built-in support for build 22000.348

• Added option to system module aka OpenTweaks to "Create Restore Points"

• Revised Update check function (version infos are matched with AssemblyInfo.cs)

• Added AutoScroll to Preview/logger panels

• Updated Packages module with several new apps

• Minor fixes

If you're wondering what OpenTweaks is, it's one of the six modules that TIW11 currently offers.

• OpenTweaks integrates an important part of the Windows 11 settings app and allows you to check and enable/disable settings in a bulk and with just a click.

While we are on that topic, here's what the other five modules (image below) are:

• Presenter ThisIsWin11 is starting off with a helpful introduction to what you can find in Windows 11.

• PumpedApp makes it possible to remove unwanted features and apps from Windows 11 such as the Camera and Alarm apps, and other preinstalled bloat that you can live without.

• Packages powered by Windows Package Manager allows you to create your own custom install packages.

• PowerUI allows you automating several Windows 11 tasks based on PowerShell and community scripts, e.g. It is possible to boost privacy by disabling various telemetry-related components of Windows 11

• Extensions allows you creating custom tweaks

If you are interested, you can download it from ThisIsWin11's GitHub page linked here.

ThisIsWin11 adds support for Windows 11 build 22000.348, System Restore, and more

The update brings bug fixes and stability improvements, but the app is also asking users for feedback.

The new WhatsApp Desktop app comes with number of improvements including being UWP based, notifications that work when the app is closed and a new writing pad feature.

The app supports WhatsApp’s new multi-device feature, meaning you can use it without your phone needing to be connected to the Internet.

It does also bring a few bugs, such as scrolling issues with some threads.

Download the new app from the Store here.

via WABetaInfo

WhatsApp updates new WhatsApp Desktop app for Windows, asks for feedback

Let me remind you that simply enabling the utility only lets you access the GPEDIT console's interface, it does not apply the changes for the policy settings (at least not for the ones I tried to modify). It is still worth a shot though, especially for the price of free, and the GUI definitely works.

Note: If you have Windows 11 Pro, don't bother with this, as you will already have the fully-functional version of the tool.

How to enable the Group Policy Editor on Windows 11 Home

1. Download the ZIP archive from our website, extract it to a folder, and you will get a BAT file.

Or, copy the code below and paste it in Notepad. Save the file with the .BAT extension like Script.BAT or GPEDIT.BAT, the name doesn't matter.

@echo off
pushd "%~dp0"

dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~3*.mum >List.txt
dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~3*.mum >>List.txt

for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . List.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i"
pause

2. Right-click on the BAT file and run it as administrator.

3. A command-prompt window should open. This is the DISM command, which installs the relevant packages to enable GPEDIT on your computer. Wait for the process to be completed, it may take a few seconds. You'll know when it's done, when you see a message that says "Press any key to continue".

4. Tap any key and the command window should close.

5. Click the Start button and type Gpedit.msc, and you should see the tool appear in the result click on it (or use the Run command with Win + R, followed by Gpedit.msc), and you will be able to access the Group Policy Editor.

You don't need to reboot the computer for the utility to show up, you may want to turn off the system and turn it on again. If you try to modify a policy, but it doesn't appear to take effect, don't be surprised. As I mentioned earlier, it's a bit of a hit-and-miss, the tool seems to work sometimes. There is no known workaround to enable the functionality in Windows 11 Home or Windows 10 Home, besides upgrading your operating system to the Pro version, of course.

I recommend using the third-party program, Policy Plus, to make changes to the operating system. It is essentially the same as the Group Policy Editor, but with a slightly better interface.

Please be aware that some antivirus programs detect it as a threat (I observed 4 detections on VirusTotal), these are not from major AVs, and I'm fairly certain these are false-positives. The tool is open source, so you can check the code if you are skeptical about it.

How to enable the Group Policy Editor on Windows 11 Home

Although I personally have no complaints about the frequency of the updates themselves, I do have some concerns about the lack of information and context that Microsoft provides through its built-in Windows Update setting. Case in point is above where I have a bunch of updates pending on my Windows 11 machine but I can't directly find out what exactly they update or fix. You'll have a similar user experience in Windows 10 as well.

You can see in the screenshot that I have two KB updates that I can install, but Microsoft provides me no context about what they fix or update. And that's not due to lack of documentation, you can actually head over to dedicated pages where Microsoft provides more information about each patch.

In fact, Microsoft also provides a "Learn more" hyperlink to each dedicated webpage in its Update history setting (screenshot above). The problem is that this page gets populated with information after you install an update, not prior. This means that until you install an update, Windows doesn't directly provide you more details about what a patch contains unless you copy-paste some identification to a web browser and manually search for it yourself.

I fully understand that this is probably not a highly requested feature by the average user, but given its importance, I feel like Microsoft needs to integrate information about patches into Windows Update in a better way. This is also important because not every update is bug-free, quite a few bring along with them issues of their own, so Microsoft should offer these details to consumers directly in Windows before they go on with installing the updates. This will also enable customers to consider workarounds for any issues and weigh their options before they blindly install an update.

I'm not asking for this additional context to be displayed at all times, that would be an information overload and not a good user experience for your average consumer, but Microsoft should consider nesting these details below a drop-down for each update, or at the very least, provide a "Learn more" hyperlink before you install an update.

Right now, most consumers are dependent on media outlets like Neowin to report on all the changes present in each update and while Microsoft does provide dedicated webpages with more context, offering this information directly to its customers should ideally be the Redmond tech firm's responsibility first. I have talked in detail about how Microsoft has been improving the Windows Update process with Windows 11, and I would really appreciate it if the company could enhance this further for tech-savvy users with the aforementioned changes.

Microsoft should include more information about patches in Windows Update

The operating system only displays a handful of the icons at a time. To view the full list of shortcuts, you will need to click the caret button, which shows the rest of the icons in a pop-up panel. The idea seems good on paper, your taskbar looks neat with fewer elements on it. And This may not be an issue if you only access the shortcuts occasionally, but if it's the other way around, you may want to have the icons readily available.

With Windows 10, managing the system tray icons was a bit simpler. But, Microsoft changed the right-click menu of the Taskbar in Windows 11, so it takes a couple of extra steps to do the same.

How to display and manage system tray icons in Windows 11

1. Right-click anywhere on the taskbar, and you'll see an option that says Taskbar Settings. You can also get to this page by navigating to the Personalization > Taskbar page in the Settings app.

2. Scroll down the page, and you will see a list of programs that are allowed to display an icon in the taskbar corner overflow, aka the system tray. Go over the list, and decide which ones you'd like to have quick access to.

3. To turn an icon off, just toggle the switch next to the program's name. It is worth mentioning that the list includes Windows system icons such as Windows Security, which is used for opening Windows Defender. So, think twice before disabling the icon.

This is optional, but while you are on the same Settings page, you may choose to toggle the icons for the Pen Menu, Touch Keyboard, and Virtual Touchpad. If you don't use any of the features, why bother having the shortcuts enabled?

4. Click the caret button in the system tray to view all the icons, now click and drag an icon from the pop-up panel to the tray, and it will be displayed on the tray permanently. Similarly, to hide a shortcut from the tray, drag it to the panel instead.

Now, that takes care of managing system tray icons, you can hide and show the shortcuts that you want. You were maybe wondering whether there is a way to show or hide all the tray icons. There used to be an option for this, in the Control Panel > Notification Area Icons, but that was in Windows 11. Microsoft removed the option in Windows 11, so even if you try to access it from the Control Panel, it will just redirect you to the Settings app's Taskbar page, which we mentioned earlier.

But, not to worry. The Control Panel applet still exists, Windows 11 just hides it. To access it, open the Run command with Windows + R, and paste the following code in it. (credit: WinAero)

shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

This will open the Control Panel that allows you to "Always Show all icons and notifications on the taskbar".

Hit the Ok button to apply the changes, and you are good to go. You may also toggle the behavior of the icons, i.e., whether the icons should be displayed permanently, or only when notifications are available.

How to manage and display all system tray icons in Windows 11