News: Software News

Microsoft not retiring OneNote for Windows 10 app after all?

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 02:51:30 +0000

Currently Microsoft has two different OneNote apps for Windows devices, the OneNote app installed with Office and the OneNote for Windows 10 app available in the Microsoft Store.

In August Microsoft announced that it will be unifying both the apps to create a single OneNote app that will deliver great note-taking experience on Windows. As a result, the current OneNote for Windows 10 app would be retired in the future and Microsoft would help users move from that app to the updated OneNote app sometime in 2022.

Today Mike Tholfsen, Product Manager on the Microsoft EDU team, involved in building OneNote and Immersive Reader, appeared to contradict those plans, saying:

If Microsoft has changed their plans it would not be the first time, as at some time Microsoft was planning to kill off OneNote for Office and replace it with the UWP app, until later they changed their mind and decided on the current course.

Microsoft is currently planning to update the OneNote for Office app with a visual refresh, the latest Microsoft pen and ink improvements and a new navigational UI layout option and port key existing features currently unique to OneNote for Windows 10.

Microsoft not retiring OneNote for Windows 10 app after all?

Closer Look: Snipping Tool in Windows 11

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:14:17 +0000

Although Windows 11's rollout in terms of general availability has begun (check out our review here), it is important to note that due to its staggered nature, the update may not be available to everyone just yet. While there are ways to skip the queue and download Windows 11 right now, it's worth knowing what the OS offers before you decide to pull the trigger. That is exactly what we have been doing in our ongoing Closer Look series for the past couple of months.

So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, quick settings and notifications, Virtual Desktops, power and battery settings, default apps configurations, File Explorer, context menus, Teams integration, the updated Clock app in Windows 11, and the Microsoft Store. Today, we'll be discussing the unified Snipping Tool experience in Windows 11.

For the purpose of this hands-on, we'll be taking a look at the generally available Windows 11 build versus a publicly available and up-to-date Windows 10 (version 21H1 build 19043.1266).

Snipping Tool in Windows 10

Starting with Windows 10, we actually have two experiences related to the Snipping Tool. The first is the legacy application (screenshot above). It is a very straightforward tool that allows you to take free-form, rectangular, window, or full-screen snip, and enables you to add a delay of 1-5 seconds before a screenshot is taken. There are also some basic options such as screen overlays, prompts, and more. Since 2018, Microsoft has been showing the notification that Snipping Tool is moving to Snip & Sketch - more on that later -, but that hasn't happened in Windows 10 so far.

Editing capabilities in Snipping Tool for Windows 10

Once you have taken a snip, the Snipping Tool also offers some basic editing capabilities such as drawing with a pen, highlighter, erasing ink, copying an image to clipboard, sharing it with others, and opening it in Paint 3D. Suffice to say that there's not a lot you can do here but it's a quick and easy tool to utilize if your sole purpose is just to take a screenshot and make some basic edits on top.

Editing capabilities in Snip & Sketch for Windows 10

The second snipping experience we have on Windows 10 is Snip & Sketch, which is Microsoft's modern alternative to the Snipping Tool. It is essentially a rebranding of Screen Sketch, and features a more refined UI as well as new functionalities. You can open it directly via the app or the Win + Shift + S keyboard shortcut - the latter will open the app with snipping ready. It also enables you to snip immediately, after 3 seconds, or after 10 seconds.

Once you have taken a screenshot, it offers you a range of capabilities that sets it apart from the Snipping Tool. This includes different types of pointing devices, the ability to crop images, and a ruler. All other functionalities from the Snipping Tool have been carried over too. You also get the ability to print or open the image with another app. The settings allow you to add outlines to snips, show you prompts before saving an image, toggle auto-copy to clipboard, and open snips in multiple windows. It isn't anything mind-blowing, but then again, it's more advanced than Snipping Tool and is really not an alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

Both Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch can be updated from the Microsoft Store and are not tied to OS upgrades, which is really good.

Snipping Tool in Windows 11

Coming over to Windows 11, we have a couple of interesting things of note. Since 2018, Microsoft has been saying that the Snipping Tool is moving to Snip & Sketch, but what we see in Windows 11 is that it's actually the other way around. Snip & Sketch does not exist anymore and all its capabilities have been moved to the Snipping Tool. While it doesn't make a difference since the feature-set has been unified either way, you'll notice that "Snip & Sketch" will return no results in Windows Search, since it has been completely removed.

Launching the Snipping Tool now opens up a new UI that borrows from the Windows 11 design language as well as Snip & Sketch. As can be seen in the screenshot above, it packs a minimalist UI with some modern icons to replace the legacy ones from Windows 10. The delay timer settings have been changed as well. In Windows 10, the Snipping Tool offered a range from 1-5 seconds with 1 second increments while Snip & Sketch offered 3 seconds or 10 seconds. The new Snipping Tool in Windows 11 instead provides 1, 3, 5, or 10 second delays.

Honestly, I would much appreciate if Microsoft offers a slider instead of arbitrary values when it comes to delay timers. It's a bit strange to me that the company has gone forward with its current implementation instead of giving more power to its customers.

Editing capabilities in Snipping Tool for Windows 11

Once you have snipped your screen, you'll notice that the image editing experience is largely the same as it was in Snip & Sketch for Windows 10. A few minor changes include new icons and reshuffling of their order. There's not much else to talk about here since it's the same experience as Windows 10, and I have already talked about it before.

Overall, I like the fact that the Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch have finally been unified. This is something that has been pending for over three years. It was always a bit confusing to me to have two screen-snipping apps with lots of overlapping functionality, and Windows 11 solves this problem with ease.

That said, as someone who is a very active user of the Snipping Tool, I do have to say that the app is not perfect. I don't expect a Photoshop alternative, but I would love this app even more if Microsoft makes at least three changes.

First, the delay timer should be a slider rather than arbitrary values. I don't think this is a major feature to implement since the capability is already there, Microsoft just inexplicably locks it down to a couple of options.

Secondly, I would prefer if Microsoft added some sort of visible countdown timer provided that you do take a screenshot with some delay. Right now, if you add a delay of, let's say 5 seconds, and you want to take the screenshot of your display in some specific state, you have to rush through the process because unless you're also counting down seconds in your head, Microsoft gives you no indication about the countdown. This really needs to change.

Thirdly, while the basic editing feature-set covers most of my use-cases, I would really like a dedicated obfuscation tool such as a blurring capability. As a News Editor at Neowin, I frequently have to take screenshots via the Snipping Tool, and sometimes, they also contain sensitive details. Right now, I either have to hide them in a haphazard way using the marker/pen inputs in Snipping Tool or utilize another tool with blurring capabilities. I think that the Snipping Tool in Windows 11 could really use a blurring functionality, as it's something that will be beneficial in other use-cases too.

I really like the Snipping Tool in Windows 11. It's a very basic app, but it's mostly quite good at what it does. Now, if Microsoft could add the features I talked about above, this might become my favorite app in Windows 11.

Closer Look: Snipping Tool in Windows 11

Microsoft Store in Windows 11 now has a mini version of app’s page

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:10:35 +0000

With Windows 11, Microsoft released a revamped Microsoft Store with several UX improvements. This new Microsoft Store app can display a mini version of the app’s page as a popup. This popup will only display the essential details of the app and a single action button for users. Instead of opening the full Microsoft Store app to download an app, consumers can quickly and easily download the app through this new popup experience.

URI scheme for this new popup experience will be as below:

ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9WZDNCRFHVJL&mode=mini

Source: Microsoft via: Daniel

Microsoft Store in Windows 11 now has a mini version of app’s page

New Windows Office Insider Build 14527.20072(Current Channel) brings rounded corners and more to Office desktop apps

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:07:32 +0000

Microsoft has released Office Insider Preview Build 14527.20072 for Insiders on Windows in the Current Channel. The new Office build adds a number of new features, including the ability to edit the auto-generated alt text in PowerPoint with just one click, visual refresh for Office apps, and improvements to the Outlook search results. You can know about them in the Official changelog below.

Changelog

Office Suite

ICYMI: New visual refresh for Office apps

We’re excited to announce a full visual refresh for the Office desktop apps for Windows 10 and Windows 11! Based on your customer feedback, this update offers a simple and more consistent experience in all your favorite Office apps, allowing you to focus on your work. The fresh new look is based on Fluent Design principles and is aligned with the new Windows 11, providing more seamless experiences across your PC.

Learn more

PowerPoint

Edit image alt text with one click

Providing accurate alt text for your images is an important accessibility step when creating PowerPoint presentations. Now an Edit button appears on the caption bar, allowing you to edit the auto-generated alt text with one click. Just click on the Edit button and your cursor will be automatically inserted into the caption box for easy editing.

Outlook

Search Answers returns known entities

Now when you’re searching Outlook for specific entities—such as calendar events, people, or files—they will appear as a card at the top of your Search results. Just click on the card to be taken to the relevant message(s) or other items related to that entity.

Answers people entity card

Answers calendar entity card

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

New Windows Office Insider Build 14527.20072(Current Channel) brings rounded corners and more to Office desktop apps

The best part of Windows 11 is a revamped Windows Subsystem for Linux

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 14:16:57 +0000

WSL is finally easy to install—and offers automatic sound/graphics support.

In our main Windows 11 review posted earlier this week, we covered the majority of new features and design decisions in Microsoft's newest consumer OS—and it feels reasonable to characterize the overall impression given there as "lukewarm." The good news is that we still hadn't covered the best part of Windows 11: Linux.

For years now, Windows 10's Windows Subsystem for Linux has been making life easier for developers, sysadmins, and hobbyists who have one foot in the Windows world and one foot in the Linux world. But WSL, handy as it is, has been hobbled by several things it could not do. Installing WSL has never been as easy as it should be—and getting graphical apps to work has historically been possible but also a pain in the butt that required some fairly obscure third-party software.

Windows 11 finally fixes both of those problems. The Windows Subsystem for Linux isn't perfect on Windows 11, but it's a huge improvement over what came before.

Installing WSL on Windows 11

You can't install WSL from a standard CMD prompt—you need an elevated one.

From within an elevated CMD, wsl --install is all it takes. One reboot later, you have WSL with audio and graphics support baked right in!

Microsoft has traditionally made installing WSL more of a hassle than it should be, but the company finally got the process right in Windows 10 build 2004. Just open an elevated Command prompt (start --> type cmd --> click Run as Administrator), type wsl --install at the prompt, and you're good to go. Windows 11, thankfully, carries this process forward unchanged.

A simple wsl --install with no further arguments gets you Hyper-V and the other underpinnings of WSL, along with the current version of Ubuntu. If you aren't an Ubuntu fan, you can see what other easily installable distributions are available with the command wsl --list --online. If you decide you'd prefer a different distro, you can install it instead with—for example—wsl --install -d openSUSE-42.

If you're not sure which distribution you prefer, don't fret. You can install as many as you like, simply by repeating wsl --list --online to enumerate your options and wsl --install -d distroname to install whichever you like.

Installing a second distribution doesn't uninstall the first; it creates a separate environment, independent of any others. You can run as many of these installed environments as you like simultaneously, without fear of one messing up another.

WSL now supports graphics and sound

In addition to easy installation, WSL on Windows 11 brings support for both graphics and audio in WSL apps. This isn't exactly a first—Microsoft debuted WSLg in April, with Windows 10 Insider Build 21364. But Windows 11 is the first production Windows build with WSLg support.

If this is your first time hearing of WSLg, the short version is simple: you can install GUI apps—for example, Firefox—from your Ubuntu (or other distro) command line, and they'll work as expected, including sound. When I installed WSLg on Windows 11 on the Framework laptop, running firefox from the Ubuntu terminal popped up the iconic browser automatically. Heading to YouTube in it worked perfectly, too, with neither frame drops in the video nor glitches in the audio.

If you're looking for how WSLg works, we can get you started there also: Microsoft decided to go future-forward and build using the Wayland protocol rather than the increasingly elderly X11/xorg. To make it all work, this meant building the graphical interface on the Weston reference compositor for Wayland, hitched to XWayland to support X clients, with FreeRDP providing connectivity between the native Windows system and the X/Wayland apps running under WSLg.

If you want to dig further into the hairy details of WSLg's architecture, we highly recommend Microsoft's own April 19 devblog post on exactly that topic.

What can I do with WSLg on Windows 11?

We don't have Firefox installed on Windows 11—only inside the WSLg environment!

This is my favorite use for WSLg—a local copy of virt-manager, managing virtual machines hosted on remote Linux servers.

One of the most repeated questions we've seen about WSLg can be expressed as "why bother?" This is because the majority of GUI "killer apps" in the Linux world aren't really Linux-specific—the vast majority have already been ported directly to the Windows platform. And for those apps, running the native Windows ports frequently makes more sense.

With that said, there is one obvious "killer app" for WSLg that has us excited—and that's virt-manager, the RedHat-originated virtualization management tool. virt-manager is a simple tool that streamlines the creation, management, and operation of virtual machines using the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine.

With virt-manager, you can see a simple list of your VMs along with how much disk, network, and CPU activity is currently associated with each. You can also manipulate their virtual "hardware"—e.g., by adding or removing RAM, "disks", network interfaces, and more—and start, pause, or stop them. Creation and destruction of VMs is as easy as management—and, finally, virt-manager allows you to pull a graphical console directly into each VM, which behaves just as a physical display connected to a bare-metal machine would.

If all of this only worked on the local host, it would be pretty useless under WSLg. Nested virtualization is a thing, but it's generally not something you want to do in production. However, virt-manager allows you to manage the VMs on any machine you can SSH to, not just the local host. In practice, I use this remote management feature to manage many tens of hosts (and a few thousand VMs), both local and remote, on a day-to-day basis.

But...

Unfortunately, virt-manager never got a Windows port and seems unlikely to. But it runs under WSLg like a champ. In the screenshots above, you can see my Framework laptop running virt-manager under WSLg, connected via SSH to my Ubuntu workstation. The Ubuntu workstation has a variety of VMs installed and running—and virt-manager on my Framework laptop can manage them all, including the Hackintosh VM and Windows Server 2012 R2 VM it has console windows open to.

The cherry on top of this virtualization cake is just how well those console windows work—I had no trouble getting flawless YouTube playback on my Hackintosh VM console, complete with working, glitch-free audio. Ironically, this is a better remote control experience than I can manage with my real Macbook Air—which is unbearable to use for so much as spreadsheet work, thanks to it being limited to VNC over Wi-Fi.

What can’t I do with WSLg on Windows 11?

As much as we're loving the enhanced Windows Subsystem for Linux functionality in Windows 11, it's still not quite a "real" Linux VM.

As far as I can tell, there's still no networking bridge mode—which means it's difficult to run a network server application (Apache, Nginx, MySQL, Samba, etc) on your WSLg guest and expose its services to other machines on the network. This self-described "hilariously unsupported, unapproved, and experimental" workaround still seems to be the closest thing to a real network bridge available—which sharply limits the usability of WSL-based application servers.

You can't run GNOME's Software Center app under WSLg—more accurately, you can install and run it, but it's effectively useless. We're not sure exactly what goes wrong with Software Center, but it pops a "failed to connect to upower" error on the console and fails to list any available applications. It also didn't list all of our installed applications! This is a shame, as it otherwise would have been a nice way for Windows-using Linux newbies to browse the software available for their new WSLg distribution.

You also can't run the GNOME shell desktop environment itself under WSLg. Running apt install gnome-shell works fine and pulls in the enormous list of dependencies necessary to satisfy that request—but gnome-shell itself fails ignominiously with unsupported session type, which effectively means it doesn't like WSLg's Weston/XWayland environment.

ZFS

Finally, Ubuntu's excellent baked-in OpenZFS support is missing. You can apt install zfsutils-linux without difficulty, but that package depends on Canonical's in-house kernel with built-in ZFS support, which Microsoft has not picked up in its own WSL2 kernel.

Determined Ubuntu users can still apt install zfs-fuse and expect that user-mode implementation to work as well as it does under native Ubuntu—but we don't recommend it for production; the FUSE implementation is still stuck on 0.7.0, while the in-kernel version is 0.8.3. This means a lack of support for ZFS-native encryption, along with a whole host of other features, bug fixes, and enhancements—let alone the performance implications of running under FUSE rather than in-kernel.

We did not test DKMS-based implementations of in-kernel ZFS, such as those typically used in RHEL-based distros.

Conclusion

If you're already a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) user, Windows 11 offers an enormously improved experience compared to what you're accustomed to from Windows 10. It installs more easily, makes more functionality available, and offers better desktop integration than older workarounds such as running MobaXTerm's X11 server.

As a diehard desktop Linux user myself, the new WSLg functionality is nowhere near enough to make me consider going back to Windows on the desktop. But it does eliminate a lot of pain points for fellow Linux users "trapped" in Windows-land at work, as well as offering the easiest way possible for newbies to get their feet wet and try new things.

We especially appreciate Microsoft's forward-thinking approach in standardizing on Weston/Wayland rather than an X server—and the company's apparent determination to really integrate it properly with the open source stack traditional desktop Linuxes are based on.

If you're still on the fence about whether or when to bother with a Windows 11 upgrade, its new and improved WSL just might be the best reason yet to go ahead and take the plunge now.

Listing image by haru__q / Flickr

Source

Canonical launches Ubuntu Frame for embedded displays

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 13:58:10 +0000

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, has announced the launch of Ubuntu Frame. The new product seeks to give developers a way to easily build and deploy applications on embedded displays such as interactive kiosks and digital signage solutions.

According to the company, the availability of Ubuntu Frame now means that developers do not need to integrate and maintain partial solutions such as DRM, KMS, input protocols or security policies. This will free up more time for developers to focus on content that’ll be shown on the display and reduce the number of bugs and vulnerabilities in code that is no longer necessary.

To make development as easy as possible Ubuntu Frame is compatible with toolkits such as Flutter, Qt, GTK, Electron and SDL2, and it also has a solution for applications based on HTML5 and Java, among others.

Commenting on the launch of Ubuntu Frame, Michał Sawicz, Smart Displays Engineering Manager at Canonical, said:

“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.”

Along with Canonical’s operating system for IoT and embedded systems – Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Frame will be supported for 10 years ensuring that devices are supported for their entire lifetime. Canonical will also provide support for product teams and enterprise customers of Ubuntu Frame to help them overcome any issues they run into.

It’s interesting to see Canonical launch Ubuntu Frame. Unlike in the personal computing space where Ubuntu usage pales in comparison to Windows, it is quite a bit more popular in the business world for doing jobs such as running servers. Hopefully, this move will help Canonical generate more revenue.

Source

Microsoft announces the next phase of its plans for a decentralized identity system

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 13:54:30 +0000

Back in 2018, Microsoft announced that it is investing effort into the concept of creating decentralized digital identities powered by decentralized technology such as blockchain. The idea is to offer a digital "self-owned identity" to everyone that stores all information about them in a private and secure manner, and also give the owners complete control over how their data is utilized. Based on its learnings in the past few years, in April 2021, the company announced a public preview of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Verifiable Credentials which establishes some standards as to how a decentralized identity system should look like. Today, Microsoft has announced that it is kicking off the next phase of its journey towards a full-fledged decentralized digital identity system.

The new phase of Microsoft's plan is a two-pronged approach that the company will be working on in parallel. One of these includes establishing partnerships with the decentralized identity community to agree on a set of standards supported by all involved. The other is to develop and release the first generally available version of a decentralized digital identity service that builds upon the standards agreed on with the community.

Microsoft has also outlined five guiding principles that will be paramount in this phase of its plan. For the end-user, this entails that the decentralized identity system should offer the following capabilities:

Secure, reliable, and trustworthy
Privacy protecting and in my control
Inclusive, fair, and easy to use
Supervisable
Environmentally responsible

Additionally, the Redmond tech giant has pledged that the system will not encourage illegal activity and will follow all applicable laws. It will be built on non-proprietary standards and technologies so that it is accessible to all, and user safety and privacy will be at the forefront. Microsoft plans to share more details about its work in this area in the coming weeks and months.

Source

Gartner's Windows 11 adoption advice: Explore but don't rush

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 13:49:30 +0000

Analyst firm says new OS doesn't offer much to biz, so doesn't warrant rapid upgrade

Analyst firm Gartner has advised its customers what to do about Windows 11: get familiar with it and plan for eventual adoption, but don't rush to implement.

In advice titled "Positioning Windows 11 and Preparing to Deploy", Gartner research vice president Stephen Kleynhans assesses the new OS as offering an "overdue facelift" and praises new features such as the new Microsoft Store, Android app support, and ditching Internet Explorer.

But Kleynhans also opined "All of these capabilities could have been released as just another feature update for Windows 10".

The new name, he suggests, is about creating buzz rather than marking important change. By calling it Windows 11, he opines, Microsoft “has created a marketing opportunity for the PC ecosystem.

"A new OS version acts as a rallying point for the industry – something that has been missing since Windows 10 launched six years ago."

Turning Windows up to 11 also found approval from Kleynhans because he feels "the move to the Windows-as-a-service model with Windows 10 had left the question of support for outdated hardware somewhat unclear and arbitrary".

Renaming Windows – even if the upgrade isn't worthy of a new moniker – means Microsoft gained "an opportunity to establish a new more modern baseline and limit this legacy burden, without impacting existing Windows 10 users".

Kleynhans rates Windows 11's most significant change as its new cadence of annual feature updates, compared to Windows 10's twice-yearly releases. "This model more closely matches what most enterprises are effectively doing with Windows 10 feature updates today," he wrote.

The analyst doesn't think you need to rush into Windows 11.

Kleynhans recommends just two immediate actions for business. One is creation of a timeline for evaluation of and migration to Windows 11, with testing to start in the first half of 2022. The other is to conduct limited tests among folk in your IT and ops teams.

"Enterprises should run small pilots in 2022 using the initial Windows 11 21H2 release, to develop familiarity with the new UX and understand potential user and support impact," he suggests.

If you're not already using unified endpoint management, the analyst suggests adopting it should be on your short-term to-do list, too. It'll be needed to manage Windows 11.

"Once the 22H2 update ships, begin serious evaluation using the same tools and processes used for Windows 10 feature updates," he adds.

Kleynhans doesn't expect rapid mass adoption.

"By early 2023, less than ten per cent of new enterprise PCs will be deployed with Windows 11," he suggests. ®

Source

Start11 Release Candidate 1 restores the ability to move Windows 11 taskbar

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 10:01:21 +0000

As noted last week, Stardock has released a Release Candidate update to Start11, a program that allows users to customize the Windows Start menu and taskbar. As with previous editions of StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appear as it does in previous versions of Windows, as well as customize and enhance its functionality.

"We put the first beta out quickly in order to regain some of the lost functionality from the Windows 11 Start menu," said Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO. "For this release, we've added several new Start menu layouts to choose from, restored context menu functionality, enabled repositioning of the taskbar, plus one of our users' favorite features: Fences® integration."

As a reminder of what you get with Start11, here's a few of its highlights:

Returning the Start menu to the appearance of previous versions of Windows
Enhancing Windows 10 and Windows 11 menus with new functionality
Repositioning the taskbar to the top of the desktop for Windows 11
Windows 10 style taskbar context menu for Windows 11
Improving the classic and modern search experiences

Start11 is designed for Windows 11 and Windows 10 and comes loaded with features intended to make Windows more productive and personal. Start11 supports moving the Start button to the middle or to the left, adjusting the taskbar size, re-ordering quick access shortcut lists, options for adjusting grid spacing, enhanced classic and modern search experiences, and much more.

For users who want to personalize their Start menu, Start11 offers robust customization options ranging from aesthetic to functional. The software enables enhanced Windows 10 and Windows 11 style Start menus, a compact Windows 7 design, optional Windows 11 style for classic menus, and many additional settings that let you configure your personalized Start menu.

"The new UI has been designed to support additional Start menu enhancements," said Wardell. "Start8® and Start10® focused on restoring previous versions of the Start menu. Start11 extends this to support a host of new Start menu ideas such as the concept of pages, minimalism, and features for our enterprise customers."

The Start11 update is available now. Please note that it is a “Release Candidate” and is currently available for $4.99. There is an upgrade option for users of Start8 and Start10. For more information, visit www.stardock.com.

Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start10, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes, and Multiplicity.

Start11 Release Candidate 1 restores the ability to move Windows 11 taskbar

Vivaldi 4.3: translate, usability and privacy improvements

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 09:55:50 +0000

Vivaldi Technologies has just released Vivaldi 4.3 for the desktop and for Android. The new version of the web browser is a significant upgrade, as it improves several key tools and features of Vivaldi, and improves user privacy further at the same time.

Vivaldi 4.3 is already available. The browser should pick up the new version automatically and install it. Users who don't want to wait can go to Vivaldi Menu > Help > Check for Updates to run a manual check for the update on desktop systems. The browser should pick up the new version and install it at that point.

Vivaldi 4.3

Vivaldi engineers have disabled the Idle Detection API in the browser on desktop and in Android versions of the browser. Google introduced the API in Chromium and Google Chrome recently.

Websites need to request permission to access the API. If they do get permission, they may check for idle activity, e.g. for interactions with the keyboard or mouse.

Mozilla and Apple announced already that they won't implement the API because of privacy concerns and no real-world scenarios that justify implementing it.

Vivaldi 4.3 has disabled the API, which means that sites can't ask for permission to gain access to the API.

Vivaldi users may enable it by visiting Settings > Privacy, and changing the status of the Idle Detection field from Block to "Ask" or "Allow". Ask displays prompts in the browser whenever a site requests permission to use the Idle Detection API, allow gives it that permission without user interaction.

Vivaldi Translate

Vivaldi introduced translate functionality in Vivaldi 4.0 earlier this year and improved the functionality in Vivaldi 4.2 when it added options to translate bits of text on webpages (and not just the full website).

The self-hosted solution is privacy-friendly, as communication happens only between the user's system and Vivaldi's servers.

One point of criticism was that the number of supported languages was comparatively low; this changes with the release of Vivaldi 4.3 as the number of supported languages has been increased by 68 to a total of 108 languages.

Vivaldi Translate offers two main functions:

Right-click on selected text to translate the selection to another language.
Translate the entire webpage with a click on the translate icon or interaction with the translate prompt.

Other changes in Vivaldi 4.3

Improved and visually refreshed screen capturing tool with ability to resize screenshots right in the browser.
Sync setup has been improved in the new browser version: "Now more intuitive, the revamped Sync is polished with icons and colors that draw attention to key features and options and improves account setup and recovery".
Download panel displays a graph now that displays download speed over time visually. Also, new buttons to restart downloads or find downloads on the system.
Mail and Calendar OAuth login has been changed to be exclusively for the Mail and Calendar tool, and not the browser anymore. It prevents sign-in to all Google services when users access Gmail in the Mail tool (and sign-in to access the data). Also, new drag & drop support for attachments.
Vivaldi' Feed Reader supports subscribing to YouTube channels without being signed-in to a YouTube or Google account.
Vivaldi 4.3 supports the installation of PWA.
Vivaldi 4.3 for Android supports the new Tab Stack Toolbar feature. It allows users to change tabs within a Tab Stack while they are on a webpage.

Vivaldi 4.3: translate, usability and privacy improvements

Your Windows 11 install could fail with 0x8007007, 0x800F0830 errors but there may be fixes

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:43:14 +0000

Windows 11 was publicly released yesterday and there are several ways users wanting to upgrade can go about installing it. In fact, Microsoft even made the TPM check bypass via registry hack official last night as a valid workaround for users on older unsupported PCs. Of course, the company issued its fair share of warnings.

Installation errors however can happen with anyone irrespective of whether you're running a supported system or not. For example, the image below shows an error code "0x8007007f" which is reported to happen around the 71% installation mark. This seems to be occurring when using the Installation Assistant.

Fortunately, there appears to be a fix discovered by Reddit users on the Windows 11 subreddit, and executing the installation as Administrator bypasses the certain user account control limitations that were perhaps giving this error code. Rebooting your device may also fix the issue.

There's also another error message popping up for some users. This one is dubbed "0x800F0830 - 0x20003", and its description says "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during INSTALL_UPDATES operation".

Apparently, disabling the "Developer Mode" and uninstalling the Windows developer package from "Apps & features" (via Repair Windows) inside the Settings menu may prevent this interruption.

Via Windows Latest

Your Windows 11 install could fail with 0x8007007, 0x800F0830 errors but there may be fixes

Users are facing issues trying to run Windows Mixed Reality after upgrading to Windows 11

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:40:07 +0000

Earlier this week, Microsoft started rolling out Windows 11 update to eligible users. The new update comes with an UI overhaul as well as new features and general improvements. While the update is currently offered to a select group of users, many have started reporting issues with the new operating system.

According to several users on Reddit (via xrtoday), a critical issue is preventing users from running Windows Mixed Reality on Windows 11. Multiple users claim that after upgrading to Windows 11, they are unable to use Windows Mixed Reality devices.

According to others, Mixed Reality fails to work if you clean install Windows 11 or buy a device that comes with Windows 11 out-of-the-box. While, Microsoft is yet to acknowledge the issue, users found that one needs to set up Windows Mixed Reality on Windows 10 and then update to Windows 11 in order to make it work. So, in essence if you are planning to use Windows Mixed Reality devices after doing a clean install then you are out of luck.

Rolling back to official windows 10 21H1 and did a clean install, without any drivers or update, plug in the g2, no issues! I am doing a windows 11 (iso) upgrade on the existing virgin (w/ MR confirmed working) win 10 and see what happen

EDIT: clean win 10->mix reality-> win11 upgrade using iso. OK, g2 continue to work afterwards.

Clean win11->mix reality->FAIL!

Even if you are able to make Windows Mixed Reality work, there is no guarantee that you will get the ideal experience. We have seen users complain about performance issues on Windows 11, even with adequate hardware.

I just conducted the same experiment with windows 11(even did a fresh install of W10 & then W11) and nothing but problems. Took forever to get it working and then the performance was horrible (5800X & a 3080). Went back to W10 & it works perfectly. It’s a shame because I do like the W11 interface.

In the mantra of ship first, fix later, we do expect Microsoft to fix this issue soon. In the meantime, Windows Mixed Reality users should stick to Windows 10. Once you are ready, you can follow our guide on how to download and upgrade to Windows 11. For those who unfortunately upgraded to Windows 11 and now cannot use Windows Mixed Reality devices, we do have a guide on how to rollback to Windows 10.

Still on the fence about Windows 11? Check out our review and decide if Windows 11 suits your workflow.

Users are facing issues trying to run Windows Mixed Reality after upgrading to Windows 11

Windows 11 is causing performance issues for some AMD Ryzen processors

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:37:05 +0000

But a fix is on the way later this month

Windows 11 is officially out, but if you’ve got an AMD Ryzen processor, you might want to hold off on updating for a bit: the company is reporting that its chips might have issues with the new OS that could cause performance drops of up to 15 percent in some cases.

AMD and Microsoft have found two main issues with Windows 11 on Ryzen. The first is that Windows 11 may cause L3 cache latency to triple. AMD says that the issue could cause 3–5 percent worse performance in most affected applications, while some games (AMD specifically calls out those “commonly used for eSports”) could see performance dips of 10–15 percent.

Windows 11 is also having issues with AMD’s “preferred core” technology, which usually aims to shift threads over to the fastest core on a processor. AMD warns that users could see performance issues on CPU-reliant tasks, specifically on processors with more than eight cores about 65W TDP.

AMD and Microsoft have already confirmed that they are “actively investigating these known issues for resolution via software updates.” The two companies promise that both a Windows update and a software update are planned for later this month to try and resolve those issues. But in the meantime, you might want to stick with Windows 10 until AMD and Microsoft sort things out.

Windows 11 is causing performance issues for some AMD Ryzen processors

Microsoft talks about the new Windows 11 Bloom and Windows 11 logo

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:34:23 +0000

With Windows 11, we have a new Windows logo and a new default wallpaper (Bloom). Microsoft today published a blog post explaining the process that went into making the new Windows 11 logo and the Windows 11 Bloom wallpaper. Engineering, design and marketing teams at Microsoft collaborated together to create the Bloom. Also, Bloom was created to complement the new centered layout of Windows 11.

“The thing about Bloom is that it has movement to it. It doesn’t look like it’s a static object. You could almost imagine it moving around ambiently changing shape, morphing,” said Christina Koehn, creative director for Windows 11.

It’s a color that was critical to identify with Windows 11 and to signal something new to consumers, says Karina Vivas, director of Windows integrated marketing. “We are purposely using its electric blue color as a creative through line across different elements.”

You can read the full story behind the new Windows 11 Bloom from the link below.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft talks about the new Windows 11 Bloom and Windows 11 logo

Windows 11 upgrades show Windows 10 Start Menu for some users

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:32:17 +0000

Windows 11 users report a strange upgrade experience where the operating system continues to show the Windows 10 taskbar, while everything else uses the new Windows 11 user interface.

When a new version of Windows is released, there are always reports of strange behavior with the Start Menu, taskbar, or other operating system features.

However, after upgrading to Windows 11, some users have reported bizarre [1, 2] results where the new operating system becomes a hybrid of Windows 10 and Windows 11.

In a post on Reddit, a user shared a screenshot of Windows 11 showing that the new operating system continued to use the Windows 10 taskbar and the Start Menu no longer worked.

"Updated to Windows 11 using Microsoft's official update assistant . I still have the old taskbar and the start menu doesn't work at all," reads a Reddit topic.

Windows 11 retaining the Windows 10 taskbar

Soon after posting about the issue, other Reddit users began commenting that they, too, experienced similar behavior.

One of the people affected by these issues issue told BleepingComputer that other than these issues, everything else in Windows 11 used the new user interface design.

This same issue was also seen when Windows 11 build 22000.194 was tested in the Insider preview program.

To fix these issues, users experimented with uninstalling the latest Windows 11 cumulative update, which worked in some cases.

Other users forced others to create a brand new user profile to fix the issue. However, users then need to copy their data to the new profile and potentially reinstall some applications.

As the new profile is resolving the issue, it could be a Registry corruption or an existing setting causing the problem.

With numerous features missing from the Windows 11 taskbar, such as the right-click context menu and the ability to ungroup windows, one user saw this bug as a good thing.

BleepingComputer has reached out to Microsoft to see if they had any advice for users but have not heard back at this time.

Windows 11 upgrades show Windows 10 Start Menu for some users

Microsoft Edge to have built-in spellcheck and grammar suggestions

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:29:19 +0000

Microsoft Editor extension for Edge browser provides grammar, spelling, and style suggestions across multiple sites, so you can confidently write clear, concise posts and emails. Microsoft today revealed that it will implement spellcheck and grammar suggestions from Editor directly in the Edge browser. This will allow users to enjoy spellcheck and grammar suggestions without the need for installing the Editor extension.

For now, only Insiders using Windows in the US with English as their language will see this feature update in Edge Canary and Dev channels.

The next time you go type into a text box you will see not only a red squiggly line for misspellings but a blue squiggly line for grammar suggestions. Click on the item to see what Microsoft Editor suggests, and you can choose to change it or Ignore the suggestion.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Edge to have built-in spellcheck and grammar suggestions

Microsoft finds Windows 11 issues with SmartByte networking software

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:26:09 +0000

Microsoft says Windows 11 customers might experience networking speed issues if Dell's SmartByte software runs on their devices.

SmartByte is a Windows application designed to automatically stabilize the performance and quality of video streaming, downloads, and Internet browsing by prioritizing network packets.

The app has been the cause of a long stream of user reports mentioning network speed issues since Dell decided to pre-install and enable it by default on some of its laptop models.

Slow-loading websites and streaming problems

Microsoft has now also found compatibility issues between the SmartByte networking software and Windows 11, version 21H2, that could lead to slower than expected Internet speeds on impacted devices.

"Devices with the affected software might drop User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets under certain conditions. This creates performance and other problems for protocols based on UDP," Microsoft explained.

"For example, some websites might load slower than others in affected devices, with videos streaming slower in certain resolutions."

Some VPN software that uses UDP connections will also likely be affected on systems running SmartByte.

Microsoft is currently working on a fix for this new Windows 11 known issue with an update to address it to be released as part of this month's Patch Tuesday.

Windows 11 also incompatible with VirtualBox and Intel Killer

Redmond also confirmed compatibility issues with Oracle Virtualbox, Intel's gaming-focused Killer networking software, and the Cốc Cốc browser.

Due to compatibility issues with the Oracle VirtualBox virtualization software, customers might be unable to start their Virtual machines (VMs) and might receive an error on the latest Windows 11 release, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft applied a compatibility hold to safeguard the users' experience by automatically blocking affected devices from being offered or installing Windows 11 and is working on finding a solution for these Windows 11 known issues, with an update addressing them to be released with the October Patch Tuesday.

For all these issues, it's advised not to attempt to manually upgrade via the Update now button or use the Media Creation Tool until a fix is available.

Microsoft released Windows 11 worldwide on Monday and is rolling it out via Windows Update to new Windows 10 devices and those pre-loaded with Windows 11.

Windows 10 users can upgrade to Windows 11 via Windows Update as long as they come with compatible hardware. Devices are also required to run Windows 10 2004 and later and to have installed at least the September 2021 updates.

Microsoft finds Windows 11 issues with SmartByte networking software

Closer look at the changes available for WSL on Windows 11

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:28:14 +0000

Here's what you need to know about the new changes available for the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 11.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for Windows 11 has been updated with various new features and improvements, including support for Linux GUI apps, changes to make it easier to install and update the platform, File Explorer integration, storage enhancements, and more.

On Windows, WSL is the platform that allows you to run Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu and Debian) using a lightweight virtual machine, alongside Windows, without the need for setting up a full-blown virtual machine or configure a dual-boot system.

In this Windows 11 guide, we will show you the most significant changes shipping with the updated version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

The new changes for the Windows Subsystem for Linux

While this is still considered WSL version 2, there are many improvements to the experience, including a new faster installation process, support for Linux graphical applications, File Explorer integration, and more.

Simplified installation

On Windows 11, the installation process of WSL has been noticeably simplified. In the past, you first needed to enable WSL 1 through the "Windows Features" interface, enable the virtualization platform, and download an update for the kernel to switch to WSL 2. Starting with this new version, Microsoft is implementing two new commands, including the wsl --install and wsl --update to install and update the system more quickly.

In other words, if the Windows Subsystem for Linux is not set up on your computer, you can now run the wsl --install command to install all the components required to start using Linux on Windows 11. The command will configure the virtual machine platform, install the WSL components, download the Windows Subsystem for Linux kernel, set up the Linux GUI app support, and install the Ubuntu by default. After running the command, the only extra step is to restart the computer to apply the configuration.

© Provided by Windows Central

It's worth noting that the custom Linux kernel available inside the Windows 11 system image has been removed, and it's now downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

If you use the wsl --install command with the --distribution option, you can also specify the distro you want to download in the case you don't wish to use Ubuntu as the default distro.

You can always use the wsl --list --online command to view all the available distributions that you can get on Windows 11.

Furthermore, there's a new wsl --update command to check and install any updates available for the platform.

While these commands are new to Windows 11, they are also available for Windows 10.

Linux GUI apps

Perhaps one of the most significant improvements in this update is the support for Linux GUI apps. So, this basically means you can now install graphical applications and run them alongside Windows 11 apps.

© Provided by Windows Central

Microsoft is introducing this feature for developers to test their apps, but you can use it to run your favorite editors, tools, and programs. The support also ships with GPU accelerated 3D graphics and microphones and speakers, which means that if you install a media application, these components will be available for apps.

Once you set up the Windows Subsystem for Linux with the install command, it also sets up an X server that runs automatically, which includes Wayland, pulse audio, and other components to make everything work. Then, after closing the application and the WSL session, the system distro will shut down automatically.

In addition, during the installation of the app, the system will add an entry in the Start menu to launch the program without the need for typing the command in the console. Furthermore, when running an app, you will notice the icon also includes a Linux log, indicating this is not a native Windows application.

When running an application, you will notice the system renders the visuals as if it was installed on Linux. For example, the app frame, menus, buttons, and other events are the same as the graphical interface of Linux. However, Windows is not rendering these visuals. Instead, you are seeing a remote desktop connection to the distro running the application.

Attach and mount drives to distros

In this updated version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux, it's also possible to attach and mount a drive to access Linux file systems not supported on Windows 11.

The process to mount a drive is straightforward. You would open PowerShell and run the wmic diskdrive list brief to determine the disk you want to mount, and then (for example) the wsl --mount \\.\physicaldrivepath --partition 1 command will mount the first partition using the ext4 file system of the physical drive.

If you need to mount a different file system, you will use (for example) the wsl --mount \\.\physicaldrivepath -t vfat command to mount the file system as "fat."

Once the drive is mounted, you can always access the file from File Explorer using the \\wsl.localhost\distroname\mountpoint command. (Of course, you always need to update the commands with the information corresponding to your situation.)

File Explorer with Linux integration

Also, the Windows Subsystem for Linux is now better integrated into the File Explorer app. For example, the default file manager on Windows 11 now includes a "Linux" entry in the navigation pane, which allows you to access all the distros files quickly.

© Provided by Windows Central

In addition, the default path has been changed from \\wsl\ to \\wsl.localhost\ to improve performance and reliability, but you can still use the original path to access the files.

Execute commands on startup

The platform also includes a new option to run Linux commands during the startup of a distro. However, to use this new functionality, you need to change the /etc/wsl.config configuration file by adding the "command" option under the "boot" section.

GPU compute

The WSL solution now also comes with GPU compute, a new feature that enables the Linux binaries to leverage the GPU to perform more intensive machine learning (ML) development and data science workflows.

Source

Progress report: Asahi Linux brings forth a usable basic desktop on Apple's M1

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:18:48 +0000

Drivers slip into the kernel as team ponders GPU hardware

Efforts to bring Linux to Apple Silicon have resulted in a basic functional desktop, according to the Asahi Linux team.

The project kicked off in earnest with a lengthy blog post earlier this year detailing the challenges involved in getting the OS onto Apple's latest and greatest.

Since then Apple M1 support has been sidling into the Linux kernel and by August the GNOME desktop was shown booting up with the experience described as "not great, but usable."

September's progress report, published today by founder Hector Martin, was packed with good news for fans of the project, including the comment that Asahi Linux "is usable as a basic Linux desktop" albeit without GUI acceleration.

As for what desktop, Martin told The Register: "Whatever desktop you want, that's up to you!"

He went on to tell us that the plan was provide an Arch Linux ARM image preconfigured with KDE ("which happens to be my desktop of choice") and likely a barebones image so users could install their own preference.

The lowest level drivers had been merged into the Linux kernel earlier this year, but Martin said more were needed to make things usable. The goal is to eventually get everything upstreamed.

Already merged for version 5.16 of the Linux kernel (5.15 is currently in RC status) are the PCIe bindings and driver, and the USB-C PD driver. In review are other bits and pieces, including the Pinctrl drive for the GPIO pins of Apple's M1 and code to handle the M1's Device Power Management. In development is work on the Display Controller hardware among other things.

The team has also been at work on the installer. Handy, because getting the code working on a vanilla M1 Mac Mini remains somewhat challenging. "Once we have a stable kernel foundation," said Martin, "we will start publishing an 'official' installer that we expect will see more wide usage among the adventurous."

Martin told El Reg that the installer would be a script that dealt with the murky world of partitions and the like before eventually installing a Linux distribution. The completion of the install will require a reboot into Recovery Mode via the power button and the running of another script set up by the installer.

Once the distribution of choice is up and running (and Martin noted interest from a Fedora developer as well as the use of Debian), ARM64 applications are expected to work without issue. Martin added: "For running x86 apps Rosetta style, there is FEX, which I'm very excited to try out.

It should work with Wine to allow you to run Windows games too."

The progress report is positive stuff, even with the GPU elephant lurking in the corner of the room. Developer Alyssa Rosenzweig reported some impressive performance from the code on Apple's M1.

Martin said in his post: "While there is no GPU acceleration yet, the M1's CPUs are so powerful that a software-rendered desktop is actually faster on them," but acknowledged that plenty of rough edges still required smoothing before the desired polished experience could be delivered, not least that GPU.

"That said," he continued, "we hope this will allow those willing to be on the absolute bleeding edge to get a taste for what running Linux on these machines is like – and, for some, this might be enough for production usage." ®

Source

Windows 365 No Deal for Non-Biz Linux Users

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 17:34:49 +0000

Microsoft’s new Cloud PC with Windows 10/11 service potentially offers a way for some Linux users to sidestep what could be the last barrier for businesses to adopt the Linux desktop without leaving behind must-have Windows applications.

But if you lack a company’s backing, for the time being you can expect Microsoft’s new platform to consider you unsuitable. So personal use of Windows 365 is not a real option for all Linux users.

Windows 365 launched Aug. 2, 2021 as software-as-a-service offering that initially targets business and enterprise users.

Microsoft so far is silent about expanding that target user base to non-business users. Linux and Chromebook users looking to pay the monthly subscription price — especially if they run a home office-based gig — might be able to sign up for the Windows 365 streaming service.

Microsoft’s announcement said Windows PC “is a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when available) through the power of the cloud across all your devices. We believe this will give organizations of all sizes the power, simplicity, and security you need to address the changing needs of your workforce as you embrace hybrid work.”

Microsoft just blew into the smithereens the only reason why we could not use the Linux operating system, offered Alina Clark, co-founder and marketing director at CocoDoc.

“It feels like independence. If anything, a large number of Linux users will now get to enjoy Word and other Microsoft Office tools, which provide the highest amount of consistency in that regard, while still basking in the lightweight, super-efficient glow of the Linux operating system,” the tech expert and growth manager told LinuxInsider.

Windows Cloud PC could lead to an increase of Linux users, she reasoned, since all those who were stopped from using it due to the Microsoft Office compatibility issues may just consider shifting.

What’s the Difference?

Windows 365 is not the same product as the still-existing free and subscription services of Microsoft Office and Office.com. The new service is a cloud computing product that costs users a monthly fee. With it you get a fully functional Windows operating system accessed by streaming the Windows OS from your Cloud PC setup to your local devices.

The difference is you do not have to install the cloud-delivered Windows software on every Windows computer you use. Instead, you can access a fully functional Windows OS with full access to whatever Windows applications you use over the internet instead of installing it on your local hardware. You can stream the same access to all your desktop and mobile devices, including smartphone, Chromebook, and Linux-based desktop and laptop computers.

Microsoft’s other Office suite is a web-based platform that only provides the Office apps. You cannot use it to run other the Microsoft OS and Microsoft Windows applications. That is a critical difference that Linux and Chromebook users (and for that matter, macOS users) need to understand.

This new “Windows as a service” is an option for people and businesses who prefer running Linux on their local computers without configuring a virtual machine to access Microsoft Windows and installed Windows applications within Linux.

That VM option is not even fully available on Chromebooks. But just as Chromebook users can run Linux apps — just like Android apps — on a Linux partition within the Chrome OS, that capability is coming to Chromebooks via a similar Windows partition.

Windows 365 is going to give Microsoft the ability to compete for market share on a huge variety of new devices, according to Devon Fata, CEO of web design firm Pixoul. It also positions Windows 365 as a complement to those who primarily run Linux or macOS.

“I see this cutting both ways. On the one hand, it will be easier to run Linux and supplement with Windows 365 when necessary. But on the other hand, Windows can now compete with Linux on more platforms,” he told LinuxInsider.

Quick ‘n’ Easy Sign Up (Maybe)

Signing up to subscribe to the Windows 365 cloud service is similar to the process Microsoft uses for its Office.com and Microsoft.com offerings. If you have a Microsoft business account already, you should be able to use your same email address to get started. I have an Outlook.com address registered for my web-based access to other Microsoft products.

My initial efforts were an exercise in futility. ECT News Network (the parent company of LinuxInsider) has a Microsoft business account, at least that is what the sign-up page confirmed as I cobbled together my user credentials to set up a Windows 365 account.

When I entered my outlook.com address, the Windows 365 sign up page balked and said I needed to create a new Microsoft account. The automated process had me enter my suggested business company account name, and after several tries approved an available user name.

The next step automatically affixed the required domain name of “.onmicrosoft.com.” That is required for the Windows 365 license. Then Microsoft approved my suggested password. I needed to provide a secondary email address to prove my identity with a provided one-time passcode.

Following that, I was required to give my credit card information for the monthly billing. An initial free trial period was no longer available. But subscribers can cancel at any time by notifying Microsoft using the administrator account manager page.

Clicking the ‘Next’ button at this point loaded the Microsoft 365 page. The cloud-based delivery then provided options for adding other Microsoft applications and business tools.

Microsoft Happens!

Subsequent sign in attempts start to display the Windows desktop before jumping to the failed page load display.

Over the course of several days, two other Windows screens of death appeared. Despite sending copies of several screenshots requesting tech support, email replies suggested logging on to file help requests. I would if I could, Microsoft!

Overall, Microsoft’s newest Windows 365 offering seems to have an identity crisis. Some sign in attempts brought me to my Office.com page or a Microsoft.com page. Some of the emails I received after contacting Microsoft directed me to respond to https://support.office.com/home/contact.

Another reply suggested that I go to https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home to scan the list of problems and solutions. That only added to my frustration. Nearly every entry there referenced other Microsoft products. I did not see any tagged with Windows 365.

Adding insult to injury, I searched other Microsoft databases for troubleshooting and general internet searches as well. That got similar results of no solutions. Again, almost no mention of Windows 365 turned up.

Finally, as I was finishing this article on Windows 365 as a non-option for most Linux users, I received an email response from a Microsoft media representative offering a suggestion but not a real solution.

“Since your initial access to Windows 365 is through a separate paid trial/subscription, we’re unable to check the status of your Windows 365 environment. We recommend checking out this Tech Community blog post, which provides detailed guidance on how to set up Windows 365,” wrote Nick Heinz for Microsoft.

Well, I did not sign up via a trial subscription. That option was no longer available for Windows 365. Clicking the link to the Tech Community blog post that Heinz provided just added more insult to injury, as shown by yet another Microsoft webpage failure.

“We’d also like to remind you that Windows 365 is built for organizations, so you will need an existing Windows license and Microsoft 365 Business or Microsoft 365 Enterprise account for Windows 365 to work, as you would for a physical Windows 10 device in your organization. Provisioning can be done in the Microsoft 365 admin center,” he concluded.

Wrapping Up

Therein lies the rub, perhaps! My initial sign up for Windows 365 brought me beyond the admin center page. I have a licensed Windows 10 purchase. I previously signed up for a Microsoft 365 Business account, which I had no trouble accessing but will now not be renewing.

Microsoft’s limitation of Windows 365 to only qualified business accounts is a big disappointment for potential Linux users. Being able to migrate to Linux for personal use without leaving must-have Windows 10/11 applications is still an unfulfilled dream.

Why does Microsoft not want to reap more subscription fees from interested Linux users without business affiliations? Or for that matter, from non-business users of other computing and mobile platforms?

That is just plain bad business, Microsoft.

From a Linux user’s perspective, Windows 365 can be a convenient — but costly — option to stream the Windows OS to any of your non-Microsoft devices using the web browser of your choice. But Windows 365 is not an option for personal use for Linux or any other platform without any business ties.

Source

Google launches new features to help users shrink their carbon footprints

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:42:01 +0000

There are updates to Search, Maps, Travel, Nest, and more

Google announced a suite of new features that it says will help people who use their platforms make more sustainable choices. The new services focus on reducing planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions and are primarily found on Search, Maps, Travel, and Nest.

But before we get into the details of how their new tools work, a quick note of context; some environmental advocates have called out companies for shifting responsibility for the climate crisis onto individual consumers. Holding big corporate polluters accountable for their emissions far outweighs any one consumers’ individual impact. And Wednesday’s announcements from Google aren’t really designed to reduce the company’s own carbon footprint.

That being said, there’s no time to lose to the prevent the climate crisis from getting worse, and every bit of emissions-savings helps. For those who might want some new tools to rein in their own emissions, here’s a breakdown of what Google just announced.

SEARCH

Sometime this month, Google plans to switch up the way results for “climate change” appear in its Search platform. Users will be led to a dedicated results page with “high quality climate-related information,” according to Google. It plans to source content from reputable authorities on the subject, including the United Nations.

The company also says it wants to make it easier for consumers to see more eco-friendly options when shopping on Google. By “early next year,” when users based in the US search for car models and manufacturers, Google will also show results for hybrid and electric vehicles. When searching for a particular electric vehicle, users will also find nearby charging stations that are compatible with the model.

Similarly, Google users in the US should begin to see suggestions Wednesday for more energy efficient home appliances when shopping online. That applies to searches for furnaces, dishwashers, water heaters, stoves, and dryers.

Google, however, did not announce any changes to searches on YouTube, which is a big platform for misinformation and lies about climate change. Of the top 100 videos that pop up when searching for “global warming,” 20 percent of views are for videos rife with misinformation, according to one recent analysis by nonprofit Avaaz. Google has also not met its own employees’ demands that it cancel contracts with fossil fuel companies or stop funding and lobbying for candidates that derail climate action.

MAPS

Starting Wednesday, people in the US can see which driving routes are the most fuel-efficient when using Google Maps. (The company originally announced in March that this feature was on the way.) Fuel efficiency cuts down on both gas costs and tailpipe pollution. When the most fuel-efficient route is also the fastest, Google Maps will default to that option. If the fuel-efficient route is slower, the app will show users their options so that they can make an educated decision on which to choose. Users in Europe will be able to do the same starting in 2022, according to Google.

That will, in theory, help individual Google Maps users reduce their CO2 emissions. A passenger vehicle typically releases just under five metric tons of CO2 a year. And a person in the US, which has one of the highest rates of per capita emissions in the world, might be responsible for about 18 metric tons a year. Google, on the other hand, unleashed 12,529,953 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2019. That’s roughly equivalent to more than 2.73 million passenger vehicles’ pollution in a year.

Wherever cycling navigation is offered on Google Maps, the app will feature “Lite Navigation” in the coming months. This feature lets bikers see instructions and details about their route without having to leave their screen on. And starting Wednesday, the app will share information about nearby scooter and bike shares in 300 cities around the world, including Berlin, New York, São Paulo, and Taipei.

Google’s new Lite Navigation for cyclists. GIF: Google

TRAVEL

When searching for flights through Google, starting Wednesday, users will now be able to see the carbon dioxide emissions associated with each flight. They’ll even be able to see how their seat choice affects their individual carbon footprint. Taking a seat in business or first class increases the amount of pollution you’re responsible for, since they take up more space and therefore a larger share of the plane’s emissions. Choosing a more fuel efficient itinerary can actually cut CO2 pollution from a given route by as much as 63 percent, recent research found.

Separately, Google announced plans to expand its research into how to cut down emissions from driving by enabling traffic lights to direct traffic more efficiently. Google piloted the program, which utilizes AI, in Israel and found reductions between 10 to 20 percent in fuel and intersection delay time. It plans to bring the program to other cities around the world, starting with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

NEST

Google launched a new service for Nest thermostat owners in the US, which it plans to start rolling out over the next several weeks. It’s called “Nest Renew,” and allows users to automatically shift their heating and cooling to times when there’s more renewable energy available on the grid. This is a strategy that energy experts and environmental advocates have promoted as an important step to making homes more energy efficient, and reducing strain on electricity grids during times of peak demand.

In “select” markets, Google will also offer a Renew Premium subscription, which would enable subscribers to match their fossil-fueled electricity use with some investment in renewable energy (through renewable energy certificates). To learn more about Nest Renew, check out The Verge’s guide to all the changes.

Google has been offsetting its own emissions rather than fully eliminating them since 2007, and has been able to say that it is carbon neutral since that time. Google pledged last year to run its offices and data centers entirely on locally-sourced carbon-free energy by 2030, a commitment that puts it ahead of the pack when it comes to other tech companies’ promises to reach carbon neutrality. Google’s data centers now run on 67 percent clean energy, Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt said Wednesday.

Source

Firefox improves advertising tracker blocking in private browsing

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:36:05 +0000

Mozilla says that Firefox users will be better protected from advertising trackers (like Google Analytics scripts) while browsing the Internet in Private Browsing mode and using Strict Tracking Protection.

This is because, starting with the Firefox 93 version released yesterday, the browser comes with improved web compatibility for privacy protections via SmartBlock 3.0.

The SmartBlock mechanism, introduced by Mozilla with the release of Firefox 87 in March, ensures that the Tracking Protection feature and Strict Mode don't break websites when blocking tracking scripts.

It does that by loading local and privacy-preserving alternatives to blocked resources with behavior similar enough to the original ones to ensure that the site still works properly.

"The third iteration of SmartBlock brings vastly improved support for replacing the popular Google Analytics scripts and added support for popular services such as Optimizely, Criteo, Amazon TAM and various Google advertising scripts," Mozilla said.

"As usual, these replacements are bundled with Firefox and can not track you in any way.

Starting with this release, Firefox also comes with enhanced Referrer Tracking Protection which blocks sites from sharing sensitive user data via HTTP referrers by trimming the HTTP referrer for cross-site requests, regardless of the site's settings.

How Firefox private browsing defends your privacy

Mozilla also announced in July that the SmartBlock cross-site tracking blocking tech was updated to block Facebook tracking scripts while still allowing logins to work.

In June, it also enabled Total Cookie Protection by default in Private Browsing windows starting with Firefox 89, automatically protecting users from cross-site tracking.

While browsing the Internet in private mode, Firefox is designed to protect your privacy with several privacy protection technologies, all of them enabled by default:

Total Cookie Protection isolates cookies to the site where they were created.

Supercookie protections stop supercookies from following you from site to site.

Cookies and caches are cleared at the end of every Private Browsing session and aren't shared with standard windows.

Trackers are blocked, including cookies, scripts, tracking pixels, and other resources from domains on Disconnect's list of known trackers.

Many fingerprinting scripts are blocked, according to Disconnect's list of invasive fingerprinting domains.

SmartBlock intelligently fixes up web pages that were previously broken when tracking scripts were blocked.

To switch to private browsing, you have to open the Application Menu by clicking the button (☰) on the top right corner and choose "New Private Window."

You can also enable private browsing mode by using the Ctrl + Shift + P (or Cmd + Shift + P on macOS) keyboard shortcut.

In related news, Firefox 93 now also blocks downloads over HTTP to protect against potentially unsafe or malicious downloads.

Furthermore, when available system memory is critically low on Windows devices, Firefox will automatically unload browsing tabs based on their last access time, memory usage, and other attributes to reduce out-of-memory crashes.

Source

Telegram gained 70 million new users during WhatsApp outage on Monday

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 06:05:56 +0000

Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram Messenger, has revealed that the messaging platform registered 70 million new users on Monday during the WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram outage that lasted for several hours. Even before Durov made the announcement through his Telegram channel, users will have noticed the increase in users on Monday as the service became noticeably slower when it came to sending messages.

Commenting on the influx of users, Durov wrote:

“The daily growth rate of Telegram exceeded the norm by an order of magnitude, and we welcomed over 70 million refugees from other platforms in one day. I am proud of how our team handled the unprecedented growth because Telegram continued to work flawlessly for the vast majority of our users.”

While the platform largely stayed afloat under the heavier-than-usual traffic, Durov noted that users in the Americas were hit hardest with them experiencing a slower speed than usual. While he doesn’t mention it in the post, sending messages, at least on desktop, in the UK was also slower than normal too.

With Facebook’s systems restored, it’s unlikely that all the new Telegram users will stick around and become active users but they could keep the app installed for future Facebook outages. Durov asked people to make the new users feel welcome on Telegram and linked off to the Telegram Tips channel which shows you some of the powerful features that the platform offers. He also posted a link showing you how to import chats from WhatsApp to Telegram.

Telegram gained 70 million new users during WhatsApp outage on Monday

Microsoft posts video thanking Windows Insiders for helping build Windows 11

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 06:03:51 +0000

It was recently the 7th anniversary of the Windows Insider Programme, a date which coincided pretty closely with the launch of Windows 11.

More than 1 million Windows Insiders took part in testing the operating system, and today Microsoft posted a video thanking them for their contribution.

Professing to love the somewhat raucous group, Microsoft notes:

It’s been a journey building Windows 11. Thank you Windows Insiders for your energy and enthusiasm that helped create a new Windows experience that brings you closer to what you love, empowering productivity and inspiring creativity.

The group of power users are of course essential for testing Microsoft’s ideas or plans, and we saw a good response to feedback regarding the new taskbar for example.

We are however still in the honeymoon period where Windows 11 has just been released, and the biggest unfixed bugs (which had nevertheless been picked up by Insider) have yet to rear their head. Hopefully, Insiders will feel equally appreciated in a month or two.

Microsoft posts video thanking Windows Insiders for helping build Windows 11

Microsoft posts instructions for upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported PCs

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 06:01:13 +0000

A new support page on Microsoft's support website provides instructions on installing Windows 11. A paragraph on the page includes instructions on upgrading Windows 10 devices that are not compatible with Windows 11's system requirements to Windows 11.

When Microsoft announced Windows 11, it shocked part of the userbase with its updated system requirements for the operating system. Microsoft did not change requirements when it released previous versions of Windows. A Windows 7 PC of 2009 could very well run Windows 10, released in 2015.

Windows 10 users may get incompatibility messages in Windows Updates or the PC Health Check application. Windows Update may display This PC doesn't currently meet all the system requirements for Windows 11, indicating that at least one component is not compatible. The PC Health Check app may reveal the components, but some users reported already that this was not the case on their systems.

Users may download Windows 11 manually to install it, but incompatibilities may prevent the installation.

Workarounds were discovered quickly to install Windows 11 on incompatible PCs. Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 could be installed on incompatible devices, but that users should not do so. The company warned customers that incompatible Windows 11 devices would not receive support and that they were not eligible to receiving updates. The message sparked a heated debate: would incompatible Windows 11 PCs get regular security updates, or would Microsoft prevent these devices from receiving any updates.

We know now that updates will be delivered, and that feature updates may not be delivered to incompatible devices. Still, the workarounds will likely continue to work on these devices so that future feature updates, the first will be released in about 12 months, can be installed on incompatible Windows 11 devices.

Microsoft's official Windows 11 upgrade workaround for incompatible PCs

All that is required is to set a single Registry value on the device that is not compatible. The Windows 11 installer will not check the processor or TPM component according to Microsoft. Other requirements, such as hard drive space, will still be checked.

Note: Microsoft advises against installing Windows 11 on unsupported devices. A linked support page warns users that the devices may malfunction and that the devices are not guaranteed to receive updates.

Your device might malfunction due to these compatibility or other issues. Devices that do not meet these system requirements will no longer be guaranteed to receive updates, including but not limited to security updates.

Bypass the compatibility check

Open the Start Menu.
Type regedit.exe and start the Registry Editor once the results are displayed.
Confirm the UAC prompt.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup
Right-click on MoSetup and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
Name it AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU.
Double-click on the new Dword and set its value to 1.
Restart the PC.

Administrators may then upgrade to Windows 11 using installation media, which can be downloaded using our instructions (and not via Windows Update).

Microsoft posts instructions for upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported PCs