AMD warned last week that its chips are experiencing performance issues in Windows 11, and now Microsoft’s first update to its new OS has reportedly made the problems worse. TechPowerUp reports that it’s seeing much higher latency, which means worse performance, after the Windows 11 update went live yesterday.

AMD and Microsoft found two issues with Windows 11 on Ryzen processors. Windows 11 can cause L3 cache latency to triple, slowing performance by up to 15 percent in certain games. The second issue affects AMD’s preferred core technology, that shifts threads over to the fastest core on a processor. AMD says this second bug could impact performance on CPU-reliant tasks.

TechPowerUp measured the L3 cache latency on its Ryzen 7 2700X at around 10ns, and Windows 11 increased this to 17ns. “This was made much worse with the October 12 ‘Patch Tuesday’ update, driving up the latency to 31.9ns,” says TechPowerUp. That’s a huge jump, and the exact type of issue AMD warned about.

Patches for both of the Ryzen issues are coming before the end of the month, though. The L3 cache issue will likely be addressed next week by Microsoft, with rumors suggesting October 19th for a patch. The preferred core patch will be addressed by an AMD driver, which is expected to be delivered later this month and will hopefully be available on Windows Update as soon as it’s released.

It’s still surprising to see Windows 11 ship with these issues, especially when Microsoft has limited the amount of supported processors for this new OS. Bugs always happen with new OS releases, but such an obvious performance impact on key CPUs should have been picked up during the months of public beta testing. Either way, it’s encouraging to see this will be fixed very soon so those suffering from worse performance won’t have to wait too much longer for a patch.

Source

The issue in fact was detected on officially supported AMD processors, ie, Zen+ and newer, which meant the performance hiccup wasn't due to something like Virtualization-based Security (VBS) that is known to heavily impact 1st gen Zen processors.

Thankfully, both AMD and Microsoft stated that patches for the two issues were heading out within this month and today, Wccftech claims it has received information regarding the purported release dates. According to the site, both the issues have been resolved and the patches will begin rolling out in a week's time.

• The CPPC issue has been resolved. The AMD driver power profile is in the release process and targeted for GA release on 10/21. If it is needed before GA, AMD can share the driver directly with customers upon request.
• The L3 cache latency issue has been resolved by Microsoft. Microsoft plans to release the fix in their 10C Windows Update which is targeted for 10/19.

Essentially, Wccftech says that an update for Windows 11 that lands next week would add the fix for the L3 cache latency problem, while the UEFI CPPC2 patch will be generally available a couple of days after that.

Source: Wccftech

Windows 11 performance patch for AMD Ryzen CPUs reportedly rolling out next week

Microsoft today announced improvements to how Microsoft Edge is listed in Windows Task Manager on Windows 11 PCs. Instead of a list of processes named Microsoft Edge, you can now see a detailed view of the Microsoft Edge processes as shown in the image above.

The improvements include:

• For the browser process, GPU process and crashpad process, you will see the process type with a descriptive name and icon (such as “Browser,” “GPU Process,” or “Crashpad.)
• For the utility, plug-in, and extension processes, you will see the process type and the name of the service, plug-in, or extension.
• For renderer processes:
  • For tabs you will see the word ‘tab’, and the site name and icon (Note: For InPrivate tabs, site name will be removed and icon will updated to a default tab icon)
  • For subframes (typically used for ads), you will see the word ‘subframe’, followed by the subframe’s URL
• All dedicated workers and service workers will be listed

When you end any of the browser process listed in the Task Manager, the behavior of Edge browser will vary depending on the process which was ended. Find the details below.

• Browser process: All processes related to that instance of Microsoft Edge will close.
• GPU process, utility processes: Processes will close and restart. When the processes close, you may see a brief change in your Microsoft Edge window. For example, when the GPU process is closed, your Microsoft Edge window will briefly go black and will return to normal once the process is restarted and when the audio utility process is closed, if you are listening to music, your audio will briefly stop and will return to normal once the process is restarted.
• Renderer processes: Process will close. If the process contains tabs, all the tabs in the process will be replaced with an error page saying, “This page is having a problem.” If the process contains subframes, the visible subframes will be replaced with a crashed tab icon. For invisible subframes, you likely won’t see a difference, but the page may be affected in some way.
• Extension and plug-in processes: A balloon will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen saying the extension or plug-in has crashed and will ask you if you would like to reload the extension or plug-in.
• Crashpad processes: Process will close. Crashes in Microsoft Edge may be reported by other means.
• Dedicated workers/service workers: Functionality of a tab may break.

The new improvements are now available to Windows 11 PCs with the Edge 94 Stable release.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft announces improvements for Microsoft Edge in Windows 11 Task Manager

The company has been promising bug fixes for the release version for a while now, saying that it will bring improvements made as part of the Dev channel builds to the version of the OS that heads out to the public in October. Windows 11 launched with a bunch of known issues which are expected to be fixed so as to remove the upgrade holds caused by those bugs.

Today's update does not include a huge list of fixes but expect them to show up in the following months as the OS reaches more devices. Today's build is also heading to users running Beta and Release Preview channel builds.

Here is the changelog posted by the firm for build 22000.258:

• Addresses known compatibility issues between some Intel “Killer” and “SmartByte” networking software and Windows 11 (original release). Devices with the affected software might drop User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets under certain conditions. This creates performance and other issues for protocols based on UDP. For example, some websites might load slower than others on the affected devices, which might cause videos to stream slower in certain resolutions. VPN solutions based on UDP might also be slower.

The Redmond firm notes that there are no known issues in this build. However, this does not include the known issues posted at launch, which will also be addressed in future releases. You can read through our complete coverage of Windows 11 here, including guides on how to install the OS or roll back to Windows 10.

Along with Windows 11, supported Windows 10 versions are also receiving the monthly patches. The three latest versions supported fully - 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 - are receiving KB5006600, bringing builds 19041.1288, 19042.1288, and 19043.1288, respectively. Other older versions supported for certain customers on certain SKUs are also receiving cumulative updates. .

Windows 11 gets its first-ever Patch Tuesday update

Microsoft has begun rolling out the monthly Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 10, bringing cumulative updates to all supported versions across multiple SKUs. As is the case every month, the second Tuesday is the day that all supported Windows versions receive mandatory updates. This time around, Windows 11 is also getting its first Patch Tuesday update and will continue to be served patches along with other supported Windows versions.

For Windows 10, however, the versions currently supported include the three latest releases and a few older versions for specific customers. Versions 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 are receiving KB5006670, bumping up the builds to 19041.1288, 19042.1288, and 19043.1288, respectively. The three versions are built on the same codebase and receiving identical update packages. The next major version, Windows 10 version 21H2 will also receive the same patch for those running the OS in the Release Preview channel.

As for what's new, there are a bunch of improvements and bug fixes, as always. Those that installed the C/D optional preview release that was offered earlier this month will only receive the new bits mentioned below. However, for those that did not install the optional patch, all the fixes will be bundled into KB5006670. You can manually download the update from here.

Here are the highlights of the update package:

• Updates security for your Windows operating system.

And here is the complete changelog detailing the improvement, in addition to the fixes made via the optional patch:

• Addresses an issue that prevents some applications, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader, from opening or causes them to stop responding. This occurs on devices that are subject to Microsoft Exploit Protectionfor Export Address Filtering (EAF).

As is generally the case, the Redmond company has also listed the known issues in the update, which is always handy. Here are the known issues for KB5006670:

Older Windows 10 versions, such as version 1909, are supported for SKUs such as Enterprise, Education, or IoT Enterprise. Those running Windows 10 version 1809 in the Long Term Servicing Channel are also receiving updates. Here is a summary of the versions, the corresponding KB articles for the updates and links for manual downloads, the build numbers, and the SKUs they are supported in:

Windows 10 Patch Tuesday updates are now live

This month's cumulative updates include security fixes for PCs with May 2021 Update (version 21H1), October 2020 Update (version 20H2), and May 2020 Update (version 2004).

The update is now rolling out via Windows Update, WSUS, and the Microsoft Update Catalog with numerous bug fixes and performance enhancements.

List of new updates released today:

• Windows 10 version 1507 — (OS Build 10240.19086)
• Windows 10 version 1607 — (will be up shortly)
• Windows 10 version 1703 — EOS
• Windows 10 version 1709 — EOS
• Windows 10 version 1803 — EOS
• Windows 10 version 1809 — KB5006672 (OS Build 17763.2237)
• Windows 10 version 1903 — EOS
• Windows 10 version 1909 — (OS Build 18363.1854)
• Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2 and 21H1 — KB5006670 (OS Builds 19041.1288, 19042.1288, and 19043.1288)

Like every Patch Tuesday, you can check for and install new updates by going to Settings, clicking on Windows Update, and selecting 'Check for Updates' to install the updates.

If you own multiple PCs or if you would like to patch the PCs manually, you can learn more about how to do so here.

What's new in the latest cumulative update for Windows 10

Microsoft has addressed several bugs with today's cumuilative update for Windows 10 version 2004 or later. This update advances PCs to Build 19041.1288, 19042.1288, and 19043.1288.

This cumulative update addresses an issue that causes apps like Outlook to suddenly stop working during normal use.

Addtionally, Microsoft has finally fixed an  issue that causes blurry News and interests icons when you use certain screen resolutions. The update also comes with the following fixes:

• Addresses an issue that prevents some applications, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader, from opening or causes them to stop responding. This occurs on devices that are subject to Microsoft Exploit Protectionfor Export Address Filtering (EAF).

• Updates an issue that might cause distortion in the sound that Cortana and other voice assistants record. 

• Updates an issue that causes your device to stop working after you restart it.

• Updates an issue that prevents you from providing input to apps when the taskbar is not at the bottom of the screen. 

Windows 10 version 1909 has received the same set of fixes with KB5006667.

Windows 10 updates KB5006670 & KB5006667 released

As is always the case, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 updates are classified into monthly rollup and security-only updates. While the former can be installed via Windows Update, the latter can only be manually downloaded and installed. Usually, these versions are only served one update per month, unlike Windows 10 which receives a mid-month preview update.

To begin with, Windows 8.1 users are receiving KB5006714, which is the monthly rollup. The update can also be downloaded from the Update Catalog here. Here is the complete changelog for the update:

• Addresses an issue in which a user does not have a way to track DCOM activation failures on a server that is running Windows Server 2012 R2.

• Addresses an issue in which an Internet print server cannot package the driver to send to the client.

• Implements a Group Policy setting for the following registry value:

  • Registry location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint
    
    Value name: RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators
    
    Value data: 1

  For more information, see KB5005010.

• Adds the ability to configure period or dot (.) delimited IP addresses interchangeably with fully qualified host names in the following Group Policy settings:

  • Package Point and Print - Approved Servers

  • Point and Print Restrictions

• Addresses an issue in which Security Account Manager (SAM) events are not displayed properly in the Event Viewer.

• In Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, certain circumstances might cause Enterprise Mode Site List redirection from Internet Explorer 11 to Microsoft Edge to open the site in multiple tabs in Microsoft Edge.

The update also brings with it a long-standing known issue, which seems to have been on the list for months. You can head to our previous coverage to check out the known issue. The security-only update for this version is KB5006729 and can be only be installed manually by downloading the package from here.

The changelog notes that the patch includes "miscellaneous security improvements to internal OS functionality", which is the only listed fix. The known issue is identical to that of the monthly rollup.

Moving on to Windows 7, the monthly rollup is termed KB5006743, which can be downloaded manually from here. The list of fixes is almost identical to that of the Windows 8.1 update, save for the first line item that relates to the DCOM activation failures. As for known issues, the release shares the rename issue with Windows 8,1, along with another problem that listed below:

The security-only update for Windows 7 and the corresponding Windows Server release is KB5006728, which can be found for manual download here. The update shares the known issues with the monthly rollup and contains fixes that are identical to that of the security-only update for WIndows 8.1.

As mentioned earlier, Windows 7 updates will only head to those that have paid for extended updates. Windows 8.1 updates, however, are available for all supported SKUs.

Patch Tuesday: Here's what's new for Windows 8.1 and 7

Turtle Rock's newly released cooperative shooter Back 4 Blood is optimized in this driver, and is a recommended install before enabling its DLSS capabilities, which Nvidia says can boost frame rates by up to 46%. Crytek's Crysis Remastered Trilogy launches on October 15, and support for its ray tracing and DLSS features also arrive with this driver.

The latest driver is a recommended install for the upcoming Sword and Fairy 7 and The Riftbreaker games as well.

In addition, DLSS technology is reaching 10 more games in October, including Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake Remastered, Chivalry 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Swords of Legends Online. Head to this DLSS-dedicated blog post to find the increased performance numbers on all the new titles.

Meanwhile, new options have been added to the Nvidia Control Panel, enabling control of the Shader Cache Size on the disk as well as Vertical Sync options for Optimus notebook GPUs.

The fixed issues on this release are as follows:

• [GeForce RTX 3080]: The system does not boot with two Samsung Odyssey G70A 28" monitors are connected to the GPU. [3359697]
• [GeForce GTX 960]: The primary monitor lost after resume from sleep or shutdown. [3340905]
• [Windows 11]: The screen flashes once after switching to the discrete GPU-only mode in the NVIDIA Control Panel. [3330077]
• [Multiple Apps][Ansel/Freestyle]: Depth of field filter shows blurry characters. [200749545]
• [Notebook]: Vulkan test applications run on the integrated graphics processor instead of the discrete GPU. [200770322]

The known issues still being worked on are these:

• [Doom Eternal][HDR][FSR]: Eternal]: Texture across the game darkens and is unplayable after enabling HDR + FSR. [200776916]
• [Rise of the Tomb Raider]: Characters and background disappear and corruption is prominent when Anti-Aliasing is set to SSAA 2X and SSAA 4x. [200777463]
• [Deathloop][HDR]: TDR/corruption occurs in the game with Windows HDR enabled.
• If this issue occurs, toggle the Windows HDR setting.
• [YouTube]: Video playback stutters while scrolling down the YouTube page. [3129705]
• Tom Clancy's The Division 2 may display graphical artifacts. [200754013]
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed may crash on courses where players drive through water. [3338967]
• [HDR][G-Sync]: Mouse pointer gets stuck after turning on HDR from the Windows Control Panel or after toggling G-Sync from the NVIDIA control panel. [200762998]
• To work around, click the mouse (right or left button). The mouse cursor will be sluggish for a few seconds before returning to normal operation.
• [NVIDIA Control Panel]: After setting the display multiplexer type to “dGPU”, the setting is not preserved across a reboot or resume from S4. [200779758
• [Windows 11]: Display goes blank when video is switched to full-screen with G-Sync enabled. [200778687]

The 496.13 WHQL Game Ready driver is now available for download on the GeForce Experience app. It appears Nvidia has finally dropped driver support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 just as it announced earlier this year. Find the Windows 10 and 11 standalone installation links below. The release notes are here.

Desktop GPUs:

• Download: Windows 11, 10 – DCH

Notebook GPUs:

• Download: Windows 11, 10 – DCH

Nvidia 496.13 driver brings DLSS support in Back 4 Blood and many more games

At the end of September, Microsoft released PowerToys version 0.47.0 with a ton of bug fixes, a new Shortcut Guide and stability updates. Today, the company has rolled out version 0.47.1 which focuses on increasing stability based on user feedback.

Changelog

This is a patch release to fix issues in v0.47.0 we deemed important for stability based on user feedback. See v0.47.0 for full release notes.

• #11898 - PowerToys Run crashing when selecting search results
• #13553 - [Shortcut Guide] Suppress Windows Menu from appearing
• #13557 - [PT Run] Add setting to use centralized keyboard hook
• #13616 - [FancyZones] Change layout using a shortcut (another regression fix that the next commit depends on)
• #13703 - [FancyZones] Reset layouts after screen locking fix

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 0.47.1 installer from the app's GitHub page.

Microsoft releases PowerToys 0.47.1 to address stability issues

We use Canonical's Ubuntu Linux on desktops, servers, and clouds all the time. But Ubuntu also finds its way into narrower purposes. For example, Ubuntu Core Linux is often used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Now, with Ubuntu Frame, Ubuntu has an even more specialized role: digital signs and user kiosks. 

Ubuntu Frame makes it easy to build and deploy graphical applications for interactive kiosks, digital signage, or other products requiring a graphical output. Besides just providing an Ubuntu Linux base, it also comes with integrated Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) and Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) to back up displays. This means you'll have less code to manage and fewer opportunities for bugs and vulnerabilities in untried code. All this, in turn, gives programmers more time to work on the display's content rather than fine-tuning the display itself.

Frame's goal is to minimize the development and deployment time for building graphic solutions for edge devices. It does this by leveraging existing applications and hardening security techniques. It's compatible with toolkits such as Flutter, Qt, GTK, Electron, and Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) 2. It also supports HTML5 and Java. 

You can deploy graphical applications to Frame-based hardware using snaps, Ubuntu's next-generation package format. Snaps are containerized software packages. By design, Ubuntu Frame and the apps running on top of it are isolated from one another and limited in the resources they can access from the hardware. They are also controlled and operated so that unplanned or unauthorized access to privileged system APIs, portions of the OS, or non-application-specific user data are automatically blocked. 

Put it all together and out-of-the-box, Ubuntu Frame provides developers with all they need to deploy fully interactive applications. It also supports graphical interfaces, so you don't need to worry about handcrafting the application programming interfaces (APIs) to deal with specific hardware drivers. It also automatically enables digital display functionality, such as touch screen input with support for many gestures.

"Ubuntu Frame's reliability has been widely tested in the field. Its technology has been in development for over 7 years and in production for 5 years, using state-of-the-art techniques, and deployed in production to Linux desktop and mobile users. As such, Ubuntu Frame is one of the most mature graphical servers available today for embedded devices." Michał Sawicz, Canonical's Smart Displays Engineering Manager. 

Ubuntu Frame also comes with built-in security. The shell provides secure client-server communications based on the Wayland protocol. The client and server snaps are in separate, secure containers, so applications can only communicate to the Ubuntu Frame via a secure socket. This reduces the attack vectors available to malicious code. Finally, snaps software publishers can also benefit from automatic notifications on security vulnerabilities. Snaps also make it simple to update deployed software with the latest security fixes.

Together with Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Frame is supported for up to 10 years. Since embedded devices are deployed for years, this enables you to deploy and support secure devices for much longer than most IoT and embedded operating systems will allow you to. With IoT security becoming more of a worry, Ubuntu Frame-based hardware is much more attractive to buyers and end-users.

Source

PDFs aren’t the headache they once were, but they can still be a hassle sometimes, especially if all you need to do is make a quick edit. Not everyone wants to download dedicated desktop software for signing the occasional document and their web apps can present their own jank. In a move that feels long overdue, Adobe is releasing Acrobat Chrome and Edge extensions that allow you to access its PDF tools directly through your browser.

If you mostly need something that allows you to sign documents, the good news is you don’t need an Acrobat Pro DC subscription to access that functionality within the extension. Free access also allows you to add comments to PDFs, in addition to allowing you to download and print them. It’s when you get to things like trying to convert a PDF into a Microsoft Word document that you’ll need to pony up.

To be clear, the extensions are separate from Acrobat web, which Adobe recently updated to bring to clear feature parity with its desktop client. If your work involves editing PDFs frequently, you’ll probably continue using Adobe’s dedicated app. For everyone else, the extensions should do just fine in a pinch.

Source

The most important changes:

• IPHlpApi, NsiProxy, WineDbg and some other modules have been converted to PE (Portable Executable) format.
• The development of the backend for joysticks supporting the HID (Human Interface Devices) protocol is continued.
• The kernel related parts of GDI have been moved to the Win32u library.
• Additional work has been done to support the debug format DWARF 3/4.
• Closed bug reports related to games: Control Ultimate Edition, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Levelhead, FreeOrion, Darksiders Warmastered Edition, Simucube 2 TrueDrive, Mass Effect Legendary, SimHub, Fanaleds, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.
• Closed error reports related to the operation of applications: Corel Painter 12, Open Metronome, IEC 61850 v2.02, PureBasic x64 IDE, TP-Link PLC 2.2, MikuMikuMoving.

Additionally, we can note the formation of the release of the project Wine Staging 6.19 , within which extended Wine assemblies are formed, including incompletely finished or risky patches that are not yet suitable for adoption into the main Wine branch. Compared to Wine, Wine Staging provides 627 additional patches. The new release provides synchronization with the Wine 6.19 codebase. 3 patches related to SPSTREAMFORMAT support, the ability to use buffers up to 4K in wininet and setting the size for the content of HTTP responses with a 403 code have been translated into the main Wine composition. The updated patch has been sapi-iteration-tokens .

Source

Google has revealed a new plan to help customers squeeze even more value from its productivity software and collaboration tools.

At its annual Google Cloud Next event, the company announced it will invest heavily in the Google Workspace Marketplace, the third-party app library that services its product suite. The goal is to create opportunities for new synergies that expand the functionality of its apps and improve the user experience.

New figures published by Google show the Workspace suite now has upwards of three billion users (which equates to more than a third of the planet). Many of these users are augmenting their setup with first- or third-party apps - of which there are now 5,300 in the official marketplace - but Google is pushing for further expansion.

“We’re excited to see so many users personalize their experience by adding third-party apps or by building their own to create a more powerful engine for productivity and collaboration,” wrote Google.

“Developers have been able to build applications that integrate with Gmail, Drive and Docs for years. And today, we’re announcing enhancements to the Google Workspace platform by making it just as easy for developers to build applications and integrate with Meet, Chat and Spaces.”

Evolution of Google Workspace

Since the birth of G Suite in 2006, Google has competed directly with Microsoft in the office software space, going up against the famous Microsoft 365 suite, which houses the likes of Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.

One of the defining features of Microsoft’s offering is tight integration between apps and services, extending all the way out to the Windows operating system on which most business devices run. And although Google stole the march on Microsoft when it came to SaaS, the individual G Suite apps felt more isolated.

When Google rebranded its suite as Workspace last year, however, the company announced it would make a concerted effort to create a more “deeply integrated user experience”, by improving the level of interoperability of its various productivity apps. And now, the company wants to focus on facilitating new integrations with third-party apps as well.

The first new integration unveiled at Cloud Next allows users to create and action Jira tickets directly from Google Chat and Spaces, streamlining the ticketing process and cutting the number of apps employees need to juggle at once.

In a similar vein, Google has released a new AppSheet integration for Gmail, which is supposed to help non-technical users to create custom no-code apps that save time on administrative tasks.

Finally, Google announced a new Work Safer offering that utilizes services from security companies CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks to help customers collaborate securely in a hybrid working environment.

“Our mission is to empower everyone with an innovative and seamless experience that gives people - no matter their location or technical ability - the opportunity to drive real impact,” said Google. “At its core, the vision of the Google Workspace platform is to help you build your own innovation momentum, while providing a foundation of security and privacy.

Source

First up, this is the boring new taskbar on your second screen. You can have a Start menu button and the pinned apps, and even choose to only display a program that is opened on that screen, but no system tray clock for you, no sir!

Thanks to a cool find by msftnext, you can use a third-party app to get back that clock so we can full-screen game and keep an eye on the time on the other monitor.

1. Download the latest ElevenClock version from GitHub.
2. Run the installer ElevenClock.Installer.exe and follow its steps.
3. The app will add itself to the startup.

You may be prompted by your browser that the installer is unsafe, it is, after all, a third-party app and you have to be cool trusting a program that is free and open source.

Here is a rundown of its features:

• It supports all system locales and time formats (they are pulled from the OS)*
• It shows in all displays except in the primary one (Because you have the default system clock)
• It supports dark and light theme
• It has a hide button to prevent annoying on full-screen
• It imitates Windows 11's taskbar clock animation on hover
• It supports taskbars on the top of the screen
• It supports seconds enabling via locale or regedit (Windows 11's default clock can't do that)
• ElevenClock downloads and installs updates automatically, so you don't have to
• Clicking the clock shows/hides the notifications and calendar panel
• Correct alignment and size on HiDPi displays (100%, 200%, 300%) AND on fractional HiDPI displays(125%, 150%, 175%, 250%, etc.)*
• Correct alignment and size on Different-scaled monitors (Display1: 100%, Display2: 150%, Display3: 225%, etc.)*
• The clock updates the time each second, so you won't see different times across all your taskbars
• The clock also adjusts itself automatically when (dis)connecting monitors
• Automatically starts at login

As noted in the features, it also supports seconds, but that requires you to edit the registry yourself. If you are comfortable doing this, read on!

Press Start and type regedit, right click and Run as Administrator

Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Right-click the “Advanced” key in the left pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name the value

ShowSecondsInSystemClock

and press Enter.

Double-click the value you just created, enter a value data of 1, and click “OK”.

Now you can close Registry Editor. In order for the changes to take effect, you will need to sign out of Windows and then back in again. If these steps are unclear, the ElevenClock app links to a detailed tutorial with screenshots when you right-click on it in the systray and click on Enable/Disable seconds.

Now you have lovely seconds again, but it appears this does not take on the primary screen on our test machine for whatever reason. We were using build 22000.194 which is the consumer Windows 11 release.

ElevenClock adds the clock back to multi-monitor setups in Windows 11 (with seconds)

One help article states that updating to Windows 11 could prevent the operating system from detecting your Brother machine when connected via USB, changing printer settings, or connecting more than one printer via USB.

Brother states that there are 92 printer models affected by this behavior, which are listed below:

DCP-B7500D, DCP-B7535DW, DCP-J1050DW, DCP-J1100DW, DCP-J1140DW, DCP-J1200W(XL), DCP-J572DW, DCP-L2531DW, DCP-L2535D , DCP-L2535DW, DCP-L2550DW, DCP-L3510CDW, DCP-L3551CDW, DCP-L5500D, DCP-L5600DN, DCP-T220, DCP-T310, DCP-T420W, DCP-T510W, DCP-T520W, DCP-T710W, DCP-T720DW, DCP-T820DW, DCP-T825DW, HL-B2000D, HL-B2080DW, HL-L2310D, HL-L2335D, HL-L2350DW, HL-L2351DW, HL-L2370DN, HL-L2375DW, HL-L2376DW, HL-L2385DW, HL-L2386DW, HL-L2395DW, HL-L3210CW, HL-L3230CDN, HL-L3230CDW, HL-L3270CDW, HL-T4000DW, MFC-B7715DW, MFC-J1010DW, MFC-J1300DW, MFC-J2330DW, MFC-J2730DW, MFC-J3530DW, MFC-J3930DW, MFC-J4340DW(XL), MFC-J4440DW, MFC-J4540DW(XL), MFC-J491DW, MFC-J5330DW, MFC-J5730DW, MFC-J5845DW, MFC-J5930DW, MFC-J5945DW, MFC-J6530DW, MFC-J6545DW, MFC-J6730DW, MFC-J690DW, MFC-J6930DW, MFC-J6935DW, MFC-J6945DW, MFC-J890DW, MFC-L2710DW, MFC-L2713DW, MFC-L2715DW, MFC-L2716DW, MFC-L2730DW, MFC-L2750DW, MFC-L2751DW, MFC-L2770DW, MFC-L2771DW, MFC-L3710CW, MFC-L3735CDN, MFC-L3745CDW, MFC-L3750CDW, MFC-L3770CDW, MFC-L5700DN, MFC-L5755DW, MFC-L5900DW, MFC-L6700DW, MFC-L6900DW, MFC-L8690CDW, MFC-L8900CDW, MFC-L9570CDW, MFC-T4500DW, MFC-T810W, MFC-T910DW, MFC-T920DW, MFC-T925DW

When printing, Brother also warns that users of 106 different printer models may receive an error from the "USB Connection Repair Tool," stating, "Cannot print to the USB printer."

However, Brother states that you can ignore the error, and the document should print successfully.

Finally, Brother says that USB-connected printers will not be able to communicate with various printing utilities in Windows 11, including:

• Device Settings Tool
• Paper Size Setup Tool
• Distributed Print Tool
• Special ID Setting Tool
• Wireless Setup Wizard
• P-Touch Editor 5.4
• Update Software
• Transfer Manager
• Transfer Express
• Template Settings
• Printer Setting Tool

For users affected by any of these issues, Brother recommends temporarily using a different connection method, such as a wireless or wired network connection.

Brother states that they are investigating the issue and are working on a resolution.

While Microsoft has not acknowledged these printing issues, it would not be surprising if they placed a safeguard hold on computers with Brother devices that prevent them from being upgraded to Windows 11.

Microsoft is already investigating eight other issues, including safeguard holds for networking software, Oracle VirtualBox, and the Cốc Cốc web browser.

Thx to noelprg4 for the tip!

Brother printers may not work in Windows 11 if connected via USB

For a subset of users, Microsoft is testing a new design to better manage your installed web apps. When you go to edge://apps in your browser, it now displays a redesigned hub that lists installed PWAs and websites as apps.

You can now sort your apps by any of the following:

• Recently used.
• Alphabetically, based on the title.
• Date of installation.

You can also arrange apps in a list or grid view.

Additionally, you can easily pin apps to the taskbar or Start menu. You can create a shortcut, and enable apps to run on user login.

Also, there’s now a way to easily access the following:

• Permissions and privacy details for the associated origin.
• More details about the application.

If no major issue arises, the updated design should roll out to the dev channel in 2-3 weeks.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft announce new PWA Hub design for Edge 96

WhatsApp is working on a new Community feature which is related to their WhatsApp Groups function.

Evidence for the feature was discovered by XDA-Developers in an APK teardown of WhatsApp Beta v2.21.21.6, which includes strings like:

string name="accept_invite_link_already_in_parent_group">"You're already in this community"</string>
<string name="button_invite_to_parent_group">Invite to community</string>
<string name="cannot_send_to_parent_group_not_member">"ERROR: can't send to this community, not a participant"</string>
<string name="conversations_most_recent_parent_group_invite">WhatsApp community invite</string>
<string name="failed_accept_bad_invite_link_parent_group">"This invite link doesn't match any WhatsApp communities"</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_banned_parent_group">"You can't join this community because you were removed."</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_invalid_parent_group">"You can't join this community because this invite link is invalid."</string>

It is unclear at present how the Community feature works differently than Groups, but like Facebook Groups it may be able single landing page that can host a number of other Group chats.

It is likely more evidence for the feature will show up in the near future as reverse engineers get onto the task.

via XDA- Dev

WhatsApp working on a new Community feature

Savitri and Sanatan Mahto were unlikely influencers. Sister and brother, they live on the edge of Nipania, a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is remote from any city: if the siblings feel like eating at a restaurant, it entails half a day’s walk down a 15-mile-long dirt road, dotted with swamps. 

While India’s Instagram elite presented a polished facade of overseas vacations and perfectly groomed cats, the Mahtos shot to fame dancing on TikTok, singing indigenous rhymes as floodwaters clogged their mud house. Over three years, their unvarnished, but joyful, depictions of village life amassed them 2.7 million followers on the short-form video platform.

When the Mahtos started using TikTok in 2018, they found they could earn decent money, and a certain level of celebrity. If they went to a restaurant, the owner would barely register their presence. Waiters, though, would approach to snap a selfie. In a gleaming motorcycle showroom last year in Dhanbad, their nearest town, the manager ignored Sanatan when he asked for a test ride — but a regular mechanic came up to congratulate him, requesting a shoutout.

At its peak in 2020, TikTok had 200 million users in India. What made it remarkable was the opportunity it offered for creators like the Mahtos, economically downtrodden and from marginalized caste backgrounds, who were otherwise invisible on the Indian internet. It allowed them to become bona fide pieces of the nation’s digital culture, and to build a career online. 

That was taken from them when, in June 2020, the Indian government banned the platform, along with 58 other Chinese-owned apps, in retaliation for the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in a border clash.

What was a gutting blow for Indian creators has transpired to be a gift for Facebook, whose Instagram Reels, a competing short-form video platform, has grown swiftly to fill the vacuum. But Facebook’s expansion strategy involved courting upper-class and caste influencers, who set the tone for a very different online space. Critics say that Reels has replaced the textured, complex, and often inclusive creator community on TikTok with bland, aspirational content: an advertisement for a middle-class lifestyle unobtainable for Indians from marginalized communities, like the Mahtos. 

“Instagram has been the place for a … fantasy of a better life; of fashion and better aesthetics,” said Divya Kandakuri, a 24-year-old anti-caste activist from Andhra Pradesh. “TikTok was a more democratic space, more acceptable to change.”

As social media spread in India, it replicated the class lines that divided wider society. TikTok launched in India in 2017 and soon became wildly popular, particularly among users — and creators — from outside the middle classes, who themselves congregated on YouTube and Instagram. 

Among TikTok’s library of songs, which run in the background of its videos, were exuberant, regional Indian hits. It was a feature that users loved and couldn’t find on other platforms, which were built around mainstream U.S. and Bollywood cultural references. That, together with TikTok’s intuitive UX design and short, 15-second upload length, which lent itself to showing snatches of daily life, endeared the platform to rural users.

At the same time, TikTok users in India became accustomed to online harassment. In an infamous tussle with a YouTuber community in 2020, casteist remarks were directed at TikTokkers by the popular creator CarryMinati, calling them “cringey” and talentless.

But the huge audiences coming to the platform soon attracted advertisers. Leading brands, including fast-moving consumer goods suppliers like PepsiCo, adopted TikTok strategies to reach the youth market across India, looking to access the vast rural market. Creators benefited.

“[TikTok] democratized the creator economy and brought money to marginalized groups,” Sahil Shah, managing partner at WatConsult, a leading Indian digital agency, told Rest of World. Someone like Mahto could make $2,000 per month from brand partnerships, said Shah, compared to around $130 as a farm laborer.

Before the ban, India had four of the top 15 paid TikTokers around the world, according to HypeAuditor, an influencer analytics company. The firm located 7.7% of the total TikTok influencers in India. Top influencers could make around $25,000 per partnered post.

Then, in late June 2020, came the ban. Instagram Reels appeared almost instantly, in early July. 

There was no question that Reels wanted to fill the vacuum left by TikTok. But rather than court the same creators who had driven the Chinese company’s success, Facebook, Reels’ owner, kick-started its launch campaign by courting a set of influencers from upper-class backgrounds, including Komal Pandey, Kusha Kapila, and Ammy Virk: “A catalog of aspiring lifestyle [examples] for middle-class and upper-middle-class Indians,” was how Dr. Rahul Advani, a research fellow at the University College London, described the launch to Rest of World. 

Advani has studied the ways that the poorer strata of Indian society engage with the internet, particularly methods of self-expression, like selfies. There is a clear difference between Reels and TikTok, he said: Reels is for curators, not creators, which makes it a more upmarket space.

“The aesthetics of curation were defined very early on by people [with resources],” Advani said. That is, that first round of influencer recruits established the tone for future content.

To keep its curated look and feel, Reels has stricter requirements on quality. In its latest guidelines, Instagram announced a change in its algorithm, stating that it wouldn’t recommend videos that are blurry, bear a watermark or logo, or have a border around them. This raises the barrier to entry for users. Instagram did not respond to request for comment from Rest of World. 

To achieve stardom on TikTok, Sanatan Mahto had only to access a low-end smartphone and a limited data connection. “My smartphone was so slow that I couldn’t upload a YouTube video on that. A 15-second was easy,” Sanatan said. He taught himself to use the TikTok app by playing around with the buttons, and never gave too much thought to the image he was presenting of himself.

“We never realized that [the elements in our] frame would make a difference. I never placed a plough or the cow dung in the frame,” Savitri, his sister, added. “This is my life.” 

Divya Kandukuri, the anti-caste activist, was a devoted TikTok user who migrated to Reels after the ban. Describing the difference between platforms, she drew parallels to her first day at a privileged government-run college in New Delhi in 2014, when her classmates admonished her. Where they were eating was not a “canteen,” they said, but a “café.” 

“TikTok was a canteen; Instagram is a café,” said Kankaduri. “But the canteen has better food, and the café serves costly coffee that not everyone drinks.”

WatConsult’s Shah said that the changes have effectively shut people like the Mahtos out of the creator economy.

“Tier three and tier four [creators] have lost, again,” he said. “On Instagram, to get 30 million followers, you have to be a Deepika Padukone,” referring to India’s highest-paid actress.

Reels has grown dramatically since it launched in India. Instagram itself has 210 million active users there, who are uploading 6 million short videos daily. Several desi, or local, alternatives of TikTok, have also launched. The largest of those is ShareChat’s Moj, with 2.5 million videos uploaded per day. 

The short-video boom has helped boost the overall influencer economy. Rahul Vengalil, managing partner at WatConsult’s sister agency Isobar India, told Rest of World that the share of marketing budget his clients devote to digital advertising has risen from 5% to 25%. Reels, unsurprisingly, is the home of premium brands like high-end skin care and accessories, Vengalil said — a break from TikTok, which would commonly feature ads for instant loans and cheap homewares.

But the India now reflected back in Reels — and, by extension, the majority of India’s short-video market — is unrecognizable to former TikTok stars and to many of the now-banned platform’s users. 

A year after the ban, Sanatan Mahto remembers going to the restaurant nearest his home. The waiter came to him, he said, and asked in a curious whisper: “Where are you hiding these days? Where are the videos, brother?”

“Instagram,” Sanatan replied, with a grin. “And what’s that?” the waiter responded.

“I’m not able to connect with the songs in the trends on Instagram,” said Sanatan Mahto. Courtesy of Sanatan Mahto

Instagram’s dominance in the short-video market isn’t yet assured. The landscape continues to shift, with a reported re-emergence of Snapchat, and a rise in the popularity of YouTube.

In their village, the Mahto siblings are still visited by fans. A YouTube vlogger duo — who arrived dressed in tight jeans and neat shirts — drove 62 miles to meet them, unannounced, in August, when Rest of World visited. To produce a quick Reel, the duo asked if Sanatan would like to perform an “Alors on Danse” trend; Sanatan wasn’t sure what they meant. 

“I’m not able to connect with the songs in the trends on Instagram,” he later said, loitering on his pebbled porch, barefoot. “Samaj hi nahi aata hai.” (I cannot understand it.) 

The Mahtos have found some success on Instagram, with Sanatan collecting around 482,000 followers and Savitri 137,000. They upload vlogs to YouTube. Comments praise the “rawness” of their content. But when well-meaning followers suggest that Sanatan smarten up his appearance to better suit the new platforms, he objects. 

“I wanted to alter the idea that you are more than the [aesthetics]; you are what you do,” Sanatan said, rubbing his hands nervously. “But I think that’s not true.”

Source

Soft blocking is different from standard blocking, as it permits the person removed to still see your tweets and send you a direct message, but they won't be seeing your tweets on their feed. This discreet action can help alleviate privacy and abuse-related concerns of users on the platform. Previously, if users wanted to achieve the same effect, they had to block and unblock a follower manually.

The feature, which gives users more control over their experience on the platform, is a way to curb abuse and harassment on the platform. Users might not want to block someone out of fear of being retaliated against by that person via their allies or other accounts once they find out.

Twitter wants to make the app experience more pleasant for its users. It revealed last week that it was testing a new feature that would prompt users that they were entering "intense" conversations.

The firm is yet to announce when the feature would be made available to Android and iOS users.

Source

The new version of Linux Mint 20.3, codenamed Una, should be released later this year, more specifically around the Christmas holidays. As always, this version will offer its users a choice of three desktop environments Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce, including the necessary software package updates and other development news since the release of the last stable version. An edition of LMDE 5 is also being prepared, which will be based on the Debian 11 distribution with the Cinnamon desktop environment. Once again, users can expect new LMDE installation images for both amd64 and i386 processor architectures.

The previous month also brought several changes to the Mint-Y theme. The window’s headers have been slightly enlarged and its edges more rounded, which could help make it easier to work with windows even at higher screen resolutions. The color contrast between the environment elements and the content has also been re-adjusted. Similarly, developers have been able to resolve most of the issues with the dark Mint-Y alternative and various window managers. Users will be able to choose a dark or light look for specific applications as needed, regardless of system settings. Linux Mint 20.3 will also offer users a package mint-themes-legacy in case they prefer Minta’s current look.

The last good news is also the completion of the new website of this distribution and its expansion with current information. Although it took longer to prepare than originally planned, with the help of a community of users, it was still completed relatively quickly, and now developers can devote themselves fully to upcoming Linux Mint updates.

The full summary report on the development of Linux Mint for the previous month was published on the blog distribution

Source

According to the latest ratings from the software company TIOBE, Python is now the most popular programming language in the world. The so-called TIOBE Index is based on the number of language searches performed online, which may also be a measure of a language’s popularity.

For the first time in more than 20 years we have a new leader of the pack: the Python programming language. The long-standing hegemony of Java and C is over.

Python is widely regarded as a programming language that’s easy to learn, due to its simple syntax, a large library of standards and toolkits, and integration with other popular programming languages such as C and C++. 

It is a free, open source programming language with extensive support modules and community development, easy integration with web services, user-friendly data structures, and GUI-based desktop applications.

You can learn more about Python on the official website.

Why Python is the Most Popular Programming Language?

So Python is now the most popular programming language, but why is this the case? Why so many people love Python? What makes Python special?

1. Community

When you are coding Python, you are not alone. As you know, Python is an open source programming language with community development. Python’s popularity and its community are two interrelated things.

Python was created more than 30 years ago, which is a lot of time for any community of programming language to grow. Imagine thousands of software engineers working with Python as you are working with Python. Whenever you have a problem, chances are someone already faced that problem and someone else already solved that on the internet.

This means that if somebody has an issue with python language, they can get instant support from developers of all levels ranging from beginner to expert in the community.

2. Simplicity

One of the main reasons for the popularity of Python would be its simplicity in syntax so that it could be easily read and understood even by amateur developers also. It is easily readable as compared to other languages. This is one of the reasons developers like working on it.

If you are just getting started with programming, you will find Python very close to the English language. Python language is incredibly easy to use and learn for new beginners and newcomers. And since it is an interpreted language, it also helps that one can quickly change its code base, in turn adding to the popularity of Python among developers, made it the most popular programming language.

3. Libraries

A programming language library refers to a module that comes with a pre-written code that helps the user to use the same functionality to perform different actions. In other word, the libraries make the development that much easier, since you no longer need to write all code from the ground up.

The more libraries and packages a programming language has at its disposal, the more diverse use-cases it can have. Python has excellent libraries that you can use to select and save your time and effort on the initial cycle of development. Some of the most popular Python’s libraries are listed below:

• Django – Web development framework.

• TensorFlow – Used for making production quality machine learning applications.

• SciPy – Engineering applications.

• NumPy – Powerful machine learning library.

• Pandas – Data analysis and manipulation library.

• Plotly – visualization library.

• Flask – Web application micro framework.

• SQLAlchemy – Library for creating Domain Object Models that can interact with relational databases such as MySQL and Postgres.

While many people are grateful that Python is a very simple language to understand what they should actually be grateful for is the extensive libraries that are being created as a result of Python being simple to learn and work with.

4. Machine Learning

Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, and Big Data are some of the hottest trends in the computer science world. Machine Learning (ML) is a branch of AI (Artificial Intelligence) that works towards making systems perform certain tasks and take decisions without the supervision of human beings.

Python has become a staple in data science and machine learning, allowing data analysts and other professionals to use the language to conduct complex statistical calculations, create data visualizations, build machine learning algorithms, manipulate and analyze data, and complete other data-related tasks.

Hundreds of python libraries are being used in thousands of machine learning projects every day, such as TensorFlow for neural networks and OpenCV for computer vision. As time of writing this, Python is the most popular language for Machine Learning, with 57% of data scientists and machine learning developers.

Source

Microsoft is making available today, October 11, a preview version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for Windows 11 in the Microsoft Store. This isn't a new version of WSL; Microsoft is just making the existing WSL 2 available in the Store as an option at this point. Microsoft's goal in doing this is to get users the latest WSL updates and features faster, according to the blog post announcing the new preview.

Up until now, WSL has been installed as an optional component inside Windows. As noted in Microsoft's post, the binaries that make up WSL's logic in that optional component are part of the Windows image, and thus are serviced and updated when the OS itself is. By decoupling WSL from the Windows image and making it a separate app available from the Store, users can get updates to the app independently of the OS.

Microsoft has made a number of the new features for WSL that were part of Windows 11 available in the separate WSL preview. WSLg (GUI app support for WSL) is in there. New wsl.exe -- mount features are included. The supported Microsoft Linux kernel is 5.10.60.1; a progress indicator helper function with a Please Wait message is there, and wsl.exe -- version command has been added.

To install and use WSL from the Store, users need to be running Windows 11 build 22000 or higher. The Virtual Machine Platform optional component also must be enabled. If these conditions are met, users can go to the WSL Store page and click install to install WSL, and then install a supported Linux distro of their choice.

Users who have the in-Windows version of WSL installed can still install the preview of WSL from the Store, as the two can run simultaneously. (The Store version will always take precedence, though). And users will be able to use WSL 1 distros with the Store preview as long as the WSL optional component is enabled. And users will have the option to uninstall WSL from the store and go back to the in-Windows version.

"Our goals are to make WSL in the Microsoft Store the best way to install and use WSL, as you'll be able to get the latest updates fastest through that route, and in the long term we'd like to move WSL users to use the store version," blogged Craig Loewen, Program Manager with the Windows Developer Platform.  

Last year, Microsoft announced it was removing the Linux kernel from the Windows OS image with WSL2 and would, instead, deliver it to users' machines using Windows update.

WSL enables developers run a GNU/Linux environment -- including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications -- directly on Windows, unmodified, without a virtual machine or dual-boot setup.

Source

Windows 11 security is something of a hot topic, as the revamped OS comes with much tighter defenses than Windows 10, but with the side-effect of creating controversy and confusion on the system requirements front (and indeed for gamers – more on that later).

However, Microsoft recently produced a video to show how Windows 11’s new protective measures – which include TPM (Trusted Platform Module), Secure Boot and VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) – help to make systems safer against hackers. Furthermore, it reminds us these moves are an extension of what was already happening with Windows 10 (but crucially, not on a compulsory level).

The clip stars Microsoft’s security expert Dave Weston who explains more about why this higher level of security, which entails the aforementioned raised hardware requirements – including support for TPM 2.0, which rules out a fair number of not-all-that-old PCs – is required to defend against some potentially nasty security breaches.

Weston shows how this nastiness could play out in real world situations, first of all demonstrating a remote attack leveraging an open RDP (remote desktop protocol) port, brute forcing the password, and then infecting the machine with ransomware. This was on a PC without TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, and naturally, wouldn’t be possible on a Windows 11 system.

The second attack used for demo purposes is an in-person one using a PCI Leech device to access system memory and bypass fingerprint recognition to login. VBS stops this kind of attack being leveraged against a Windows 11 system, and the former remote attack is prevented by UEFI, Secure Boot and Trusted Boot (in conjunction with TPM).

Analysis: Land of confusion

This is an interesting look at the nuts-and-bolts of how these security countermeasures work against real life attacks. Clearly, in some scenarios there are good reasons for mandating TPM and the other mentioned security technologies to help keep a PC safer against a possible attack, whether that’s a remote or local intrusion.

No one is going to argue against better protection, but the issue with making these pieces of security tech a compulsory part of the system requirements is the confusion around whether or not a PC has these capabilities.

In some cases, newer machines do indeed have TPM on-board, it just isn’t enabled – leading to a frustrating situation where the owner of a modern device could be told it isn’t compatible with Windows 11. And while it might just be a case of switching TPM on, which isn’t difficult for a reasonably tech-savvy person, it could be very intimidating for a novice user (involving a trip to the BIOS, a scary place for the untrained eye).

VBS or Virtualization-Based Security has run into further controversy, as well, given that while this isn’t an issue for upgraders from Windows 10, it will be enabled by default on new PCs that come with Windows 11 – and it causes slowdown with gaming frame rates. By all accounts, VBS can be a pretty serious headwind for frame rates, too; and again, this adds to the confusion around what’s going on with Windows 11 machines in general.

Having a more secure PC is great, without a doubt, but there are costs here which have a potentially negative impact on the experience of some users adopting (or trying to adopt) Windows 11.

Source

Google's Privacy Budget, a plan to reduce the amount of information available in Chrome as a defense against browser fingerprinting, runs the risk of performing poorly, of breaking websites, and of creating a new tracking mechanism.

These are the concerns of Mozilla CTO Eric Rescorla, who recently published his analysis [PDF] of Google's Privacy Budget. While Mozilla's recent testing of sponsored suggestions during search queries in Firefox complicated its stance as a defender of privacy, rival browser maker Brave also raised some of these issues in November, 2019, and updated its objections last week.

Browser fingerprinting is an online tracking technique that involves collecting various data points that internet users make available to web servers through their browsers and network connections. As demonstrated at AmIUnique.org, these data points – HTTP header attributes, software and hardware attributes available through JavaScript, and other details like installed plugins – enable the creation of unique identifiers that can be used to track people across different websites.

Google, as part of a broader security and platform overhaul, announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019, which includes a proposed defense against browser fingerprinting called Privacy Budget.

Privacy Budget, in conjunction with adjacent privacy improvements like Gnatcatcher (IP address protection), aims to enhance the privacy of web users by reducing the browser fingerprinting surface – the number of data points available. With fewer details to construct an identifier, there's a greater chance the identifier will not be unique.

"Fundamentally, we want to limit how much information about individual users is exposed to sites so that in total it is insufficient to identify and track users across the web, except for possibly as part of large, heterogeneous groups," wrote Google engineering manager Brad Lassey in the project's GitHub repo.

Online marketers very much don't want that and have made Google's Privacy Sandbox a competition issue – they worry that if the Chocolate Factory limits the availability of web data, then Google will have an informational advantage due to its ability to get data through its ad ecosystem and Google Accounts.

And so they've managed to get the UK's Competition and Markets Authority to extract a series of commitments from Google that its changes will not harm competition.

Ahem

But even assuming Google somehow manages to reconcile its privacy push with the pushback from the ad tech set, it may all be for naught. According to Mozilla's Rescola, there are several significant issues that threaten Google's Privacy Budget.

First, the calculations are difficult and likely to vary, he contends, because not all values measured have the same informational content. For example, knowing someone uses Chrome doesn't have much value because so many people do, but knowing someone uses Tor (or Firefox) puts them in a much smaller set of people.

A related issue is that some values are correlated, like screen height and width, so a site would only need to know one to infer the second. And this isn't currently considered in how a site's Privacy Budget is calculated.

Then there's the problem with multiple reads of the same fingerprinting surface. For example, Rescola observes, Google's proposal doesn't explain how to deal with an API like window.screen that would be called on each page load in order to size its content displayed. If each load counts toward the Privacy Budget, then the limit would quickly be reached. And if only the initial load is counted, there are still issues with values that may not be entirely static.

In other words, a given Privacy Budget total could mean a significantly different fingerprinting surface across different sites and users.

Then there's the matter of what happens once a website has exceeded its Privacy Budget.

"Enforcement is likely to lead to surprising and disruptive site breakage because sites will exceed the budget and then be unable to make API calls which are essential to site function," said Rescorla in a blog post. "This will be exacerbated because the order in which the budget is used is nondeterministic and depends on factors such as the network performance of various sites, so some users will experience breakage and others will not."

Finally, Rescorla cites the possibility that Google's Privacy Budget could itself become a fingerprinting surface, a concern raised by Brave's researchers, because the limitations placed on cookies recently have made fingerprinting more appealing to those intent on ducking privacy defenses.

"The Privacy Budget idea is intended to prevent this kind of cross-site tracking but because the budget itself is state that can be both manipulated and read but is not partitioned, it can be used for cross-site tracking," Rescorla said in his analysis.

He argues that rather than trying to contain fingerprinting data, Google would be better off simply limiting fingerprinting surface when new web APIs are developed while gradually removing existing fingerprinting surfaces and monitoring for abusive patterns.

In a statement emailed to The Register, a Google spokesperson said Privacy Budget is still being developed and improvements based on this sort of feedback should be expected.

"Our ultimate goal is to build a solution that restricts fingerprinting effectively without compromising key website functionality or introducing new forms of tracking," said Google's spokesperson. "We appreciate Mozilla’s engagement throughout this process as we all work to build a more private web without third party cookies and other forms of invasive tracking. This is our collaborative process working as intended." ®

Source

- Fully open-sourced, L3AF enables Kernel Function as a Service by providing complete lifecycle management of eBPF networking application programs

- The project brings a strong existing ecosystem, with support from Microsoft, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and more

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LF Networking (LFN), which facilitates collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, today announced that Walmart has moved its L3AF project to the Linux Foundation. L3AF provides complete life-cycle management of eBPF networking application programs with the help of an advanced control plane, offering a cloud and vendor-agnostic platform for launching and managing eBPF programs.

Koby Avital, executive vice president, Walmart Global Tech, announced the news during his keynote address, "title," as part of Open Networking and Edge (ONE) Summit + Kubernetes on Edge Day, this morning.

"I'm excited to open source L3AF, a platform that has allowed us to operate various security and network functions in this omni environment," said Koby Avital, Executive Vice President, Walmart Global Tech. "With L3AF life cycle management, we've been able to tap into the power of eBPF while accelerating and streamlining its usage. This has allowed us to replace third party and Cloud provider-specific solutions with a common platform that's not only much easier to manage but also more cost effective. By sharing this capability with the community, we hope to help accelerate the development of solutions for managing an omni environment for other enterprises or service providers and bring about standards and practices that benefit everyone."

"L3AF as a network application for large-scale enterprise complements the eBPF Foundation and other accelerated forwarding and data plane projects under LF networking quite well," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. "We're looking forward to building an open source networking community within this critical application space."

L3AF is an open source project, developed by Walmart, housing cutting-edge solutions in the realm of eBPF (a revolutionary technology that allows us to run sandboxed programs in an operating system kernel) that provides complete life-cycle management of eBPF programs with the help of an advanced control plane that has been written in Golang. The  control plane orchestrates and composes independent eBPF programs across the network infrastructure to solve crucial business problems. L3AF's eBPF programs include load-balancing, rate limiting, traffic mirroring, flow exporter, packet manipulation, performance tuning, and many more.

For more information on the L3AF project, read this 3-part introductory blog series or visit the website at l3af.io.

Quotes from Supporting Organizations

Microsoft

"Lifecycle management of eBPF programs is an exciting area of innovation that will enable new scenarios and use cases," said Krishna Ganugapati, VP of Software Engineering, Microsoft.  "We look forward to collaborating with Walmart and the L3AF project."

Tech Mahindra

As a founding member of the L3AF project, we are pleased to see the community join Linux Foundation Networking as a neutral venue for open collaboration," Manish Mangal, Global Business Head – Network Services, Tech Mahindra. "The collective work being done in L3AF to provide eBPF- based networking and observability solutions in an open format is aligned with Tech Mahindra's mission to unlock the value of 5G and Networks by helping Enterprises and CSPs transform to Cloud Native Software Centric Digital Operators. We are eager to see the work progress even further."

Wipro

"Walmart is making a significant technology contribution in open sourcing the L3AF platform, enabling production-tested secure kernel-level networking functionality required by the edge computing ecosystem. Open sourcing L3AF under the Linux Foundation umbrella will provide the support necessary for increased pace of innovation and industry adoption," said Andrew Aitken, General Manager, Open Source Leader, Office of CTO, Wipro Limited. 

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org.

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