Ozzillate is a web based application that allows you to send and receive files to and from nearby devices through the help of sound waves. You only need a speaker and a microphone, which means that the software can run on most older as well as newer hardware.

Benefits over Traditional Methods

Using sound waves instead of the more traditional internet-only based solutions to transfer files has a lot of advantages, some of which are:

• Files are transfered within seconds to any nearby receivers
• No need to get the receiver's details (such as email address, phone number, etc.)
• No accounts or login credentials required
• Only the file is shared, no extra information about the sender/receiver is exchanged at all
• Easily distribute a file to multiple people at once (for example in classroom settings)

Not Working?

Some browsers and OS implementations have built in low-pass filters that Ozzillate's web application cannot turn off. This means that the sound waves transmitted through UHF (Ultra High Frequency) will be filtered out before they reach the sound analyzer. To fix this issue - uncheck the UHF checkbox in the sender's menu (and thereby transmit on a lower frequency band).

Ozzillate has only been tested and developed for modern web browsers, if the solution above does not fix your problem - make sure to update your browsers and/or try using different ones.

Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Visit our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more information.

Source

So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, the Taskbar, and quick settings and notifications in Windows 11. Now, we feel like it's time to take a look at another capability that has been revamped from a UI perspective, and that is Virtual Desktops.

For the purpose of this hands-on, we'll be taking a look at Windows 11 build 22000.176 that was released to the Beta Channel a week ago versus a publicly available and up-to-date Windows 10 (version 21H1 build 19043.1165). As usual, it is important to note that the OS is still under active development so it's possible that some of the features we talk about change by the time of Windows 11's general availability.

Before we talk about Windows 11, it's worth discussing Virtual Desktops in Windows 10 first. These can be launched by pressing the "Task View" button on the left side of the taskbar or by using the Win + Tab shortcut. This opens a UI which is fairly cluttered as it gives you the ability to launch virtual desktops on the top panel, shows the open apps below that, and Timeline activity in the bottom half. A lot of stuff fit into a single screen that makes it difficult to focus on and find what you're looking for, in my opinion.

Speaking of virtual desktops, you can right-click to rename them (or just click on the name text), use the "+" icon to create new ones, and also hover between them to show open windows and apps in each respective desktop. Right-clicking on these windows also gives you a variety of options such as the ability to move windows between desktops, replicate to all desktops, and so on.

Coming over to Windows 11, you see a much different picture. This is because Microsoft has removed Timeline in the OS, something that it formally announced back in June. Even prior to that, Microsoft had indicated that it was winding down on the feature in Windows 10, even though the feature was introduced to much fanfare back in 2017. The company's rationale was that while local activity history is useful to some extent, there are much better workarounds for cross-device syncing. With Windows 11, it has seemingly decided that local activity history isn't useful either. Personally, I never used Timeline anyway so its absence doesn't bother me at all. What matters to me is that this clears up the UI a lot, as can be seen in the screenshot above. Now, we have a dedicated UI for managing virtual desktops that is a lot cleaner to use and easier to focus on. The virtual desktops are at the bottom of the screen while the windows and apps open in them - respectively - are in the center.

Talking about Virtual Desktops themselves, Microsoft has ported all of the capabilities from Windows 10, and improved on them in a couple of areas in meaningful ways too. For one, you can now right-click on a virtual desktop and instead of just showing the "Rename" option present in Windows 10, Microsoft's upcoming OS also shows a couple of other useful options like moving a virtual desktop to the left or the right, or changing the desktop background. The reasoning behind the latter is to allow you to differentiate between which virtual desktop you have open, which I think is a pretty neat idea. You can also drag and drop virtual desktops to change their order, something that is not present in Windows 10 at all.

Overall, I can see myself making use of Virtual Desktops in Windows 11 because it offers a much aesthetically pleasing experience as compared to Windows 10. Apart from that, it also adds a couple of new capabilities on top of that, which greatly improve the user experience, in this writer's opinion.

There don't seem to be any major features added to Virtual Desktops in Windows 11, but I'm glad that Microsoft at least hasn't taken away useful capabilities, à la the awful taskbar in Windows 11. Perhaps some next steps could be to add some capabilities for power users such as the ability to categorize virtual desktops, or to save a set of apps for a virtual desktop so that all of them automatically open when you launch a certain desktop. Personally, I don't see myself utilizing these capabilities but they might be useful to some people.

What are your thoughts on Virtual Desktops in Windows 11? Do you like the changes? How would you like to see Microsoft enhance it further? Let us know in the comments section below and inform Microsoft via the Feedback Hub too.

Closer Look: Virtual Desktops in Windows 11

Windows 11 comes with new and improved features that help you stay organized in a snap. Keep up with the news, weather, and events you care about. Instantly connect with anyone, anywhere. Or access the latest apps and games right on your PC.

Check out the new ad below.

Introducing new Windows 11: a whole new way to experience your PC. It doesn’t just bring you closer to the tools you need, it brings you closer to everything you love.

Microsoft begins Windows 11 marketing campaign with a new video ad

Added features and bug fixes: 

• Added the ability to sync custom IE mode site lists between devices.
• Re-enabled the improved browser profile sign-in dialog.
• Fixed a crash on launch on Linux.
• Fixed a crash when clicking the … menu in a PWA or website installed as an app.
• Fixed a crash when watching videos.
• Fixed a crash when using Smart Copy.
• Fixed an issue where the browser crashes when switching to a different profile, including Guest or Kids mode.
• Fixed an error when exporting a Collection to Word.
• Fixed an issue on mobile where Collections sometimes don’t sync.

Edge Dev Known issues: 

• Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube.  As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed.  See this help article for more details.
• Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error.  The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it.
• Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load.  This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed.
• Some users are still seeing favorites get duplicated.  This issue should be reduced now that automatic deduplication has been introduced into Insider channels, but we’re still rolling that out in Stable.  We’ve also seen duplication happen when running the manual deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.
• Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other.  Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices.  This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag.

This Edge Dev channel update should download and install directly but in case it doesn’t then you can head to the Edge settings and manually update the browser.

Microsoft releases Edge Dev channel build 95.0.1000.0 with the ability to sync IE mode site lists

What’s new in Windows 11 Build 22000.184:

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue where the new learn more info in OOBE about Windows Hello wasn’t translated for non-English languages.
• Fixed an issue where a small set of languages were missing translations across the UI in Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

• We’re investigating reports from Insiders in the Beta Channel where after upgrading to Windows 11, they are not seeing the new Taskbar and the Start menu doesn’t work. To workaround this if you are impacted, please try going to Windows Update > Update history, uninstalling the latest cumulative update for Windows, and the reinstall it by checking for updates.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue that is causing some Surface Pro X’s to bugcheck with a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR.

[Start]

• In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
• System and Windows Terminal is missing when right-clicking on the Start button (WIN + X).

[Taskbar]

• The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.

[Search]

• After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
• Search panel might appear as black and not display any content below the search box.

[Widgets]

• The widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
• Widgets may be displayed in the wrong size on external monitors. If you encounter this, you can launch the widgets via touch or WIN + W shortcut on your actual PC display first and then launch on your secondary monitors.

[Microsoft Store]

• We continue to work to improve search relevance in the Store.

[Windows Sandbox]

• Within Windows Sandbox, the language input switcher does not launch after clicking the switcher icon on the Taskbar. As a workaround, users can switch their input language via any of the following hardware keyboard shortcuts: Alt + Shift, Ctrl + Shift, or Win + Space (the third option is available only if Sandbox is full-screened).
• Within Windows Sandbox, the IME context menu does not launch after clicking the IME icon in the Taskbar. As workarounds, users can access the functionalities of the IME context menu with either of following methods:
  • Accessing the IME settings via Settings > Time & language >  Language & region > (e.g., Japanese) three dots > Language options > (e.g., Microsoft IME) three dots > Keyboard options.
    • Optionally, you may also enable the IME toolbar, an alternative UI, to quickly invoke specific IME functions. Continuing from above, navigate to Keyboard options > Appearance > Use IME toolbar.
  • Using the unique set of hardware keyboard shortcuts associated with each IME-supported language. (See: Japanese IME Shortcuts, Traditional Chinese IME Shortcuts).

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 22000.184 with bug fixes for Beta Channel Insiders

Microsoft today announced the release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22454 to the Dev Channel. This build does not include any new features, but comes with three new improvements including the new modern context menu for Recycle Bin.

Find the full change log below.

What’s new in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22454:

Changes and Improvements

• Right-clicking on Recycle Bin on the desktop now uses the new modern context menu.

• Added an option when right clicking a network share in File Explorer to pin it to Quick Access without having to click Show more options.
• We have begun releasing an updated version of the Korean IME with adjustments made based on Windows Insider feedback. We believe this will provide a more reliable input experience for Korean on Windows 11. The updated version of the Korean IME follows the new visual design of Windows 11 with acrylic in the candidate window, a new selection visual, and dark mode support. It also improves improved performance and compatibility. The updated Korean IME is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Over time, it will roll out to everyone in the Dev Channel. Please file feedback via Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Text Input.

Fixes

[General]

• We fixed the issue that was causing PCs with Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) enabled to bugcheck continuously. PCs with WDAG enabled should now receive Build 22454.

[Start]

• Windows Terminal is listed again when right-clicking on the Start button (WIN + X).
• Narrator should announce the Start launch more reliably now.

[Taskbar]

• The Desktops flyout should now dismiss properly for Narrator users when scanning with item navigation across the Task View button.
• Fixed an issue where the preview thumbnails for Desktops were not rendering correctly for certain aspect ratios.
• Fixed a rounding issue that was making the volume icon tooltip show the wrong number in some cases.
• The input indicator, Quick Settings, and notification center icon tooltips will no longer display behind the flyouts when they’re open.
• Addressed an underlying issue that was resulting in the volume icon in the Taskbar displaying sound was muted when that was not the case.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Taskbar to unexpectedly get stuck on top of full screen applications, such as PowerPoint presentations, after interacting with the Taskbar previews.
• Taskbar icons should no longer flicker when you mouse over them while using a contrast theme.
• Fixed an issue where app icons would occasionally unexpectedly animate onto the Taskbar from somewhere other than from below.
• Shift + Click on an app icon in the Taskbar to launch a new instance of that app (for apps that support multiple instances) is now working again.
• Did some work to address an issue where app icons could get stuck in an alert state in the Taskbar even if the app in question was closed.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue that was causing the text candidates to not appear after the first time the handwriting panel was invoked.
• Mitigated a stutter in the animation when tapping a text field to invoke the touch keyboard.
• Fixed a bug that was causing clipboard history to not render for some people.
• Displaying 3rd party IME icons in the input indicator should be more reliable now.
• Addressed an explorer.exe crash that could happen when changing window focus while using the touch keyboard.
• Fixed an issue for people who’d opted into the previous version of the Japanese IME that was causing certain games to crash.
• Fixed an issue where the tip for voice typing when using the touch keyboard wouldn’t be connected to the microphone button.
• Addressed an issue where the touch keyboard could get into a state where the key labels would be invisible due to the wrong background color being used.
• Mitigated an issue that was leading to the touch keyboard settings flyout having white on white text sometimes.
• Did some work to address an issue where interacting with the expressive input button in the touch keyboard could result in the candidate area having a broken layout.

[File Explorer]

• Improved the reliability of context menu invocation.
• Mitigated a couple of issues that were causing leaks when using File Explorer.
• The context menu will now not immediately dismiss when the option to open things with a single-click is enabled in File Explorer.
• If you press F11 to full screen File Explorer, then use WIN + Shift + Left/Right to change what screen the window is displaying on, pressing F11 again will no longer jump the window back to the original screen.

[Settings]

• Mitigated an issue when typing with certain 3rd party IMEs into the search box in Settings that could result in the candidate window being rendered elsewhere on-screen (not attached to the search box) and/or characters inserted into the search box not displaying.
• We did some work to help address an issue that was making the Windows Insider Program page in Settings appear blank sometimes.
• The mouse pointers under Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch are no longer invisible for Arabic and Hebrew display languages.
• System > Storage > Show more categories > Other should no longer always say it’s managed by group policy even when it isn’t.
• Added some links to “Find my device” in Settings to help you learn more about the privacy resources.
• Start time and end time pickers under Focus Assist > During these times are now visible when focus is set while using a contrast theme.
• Addressed a crash that could happen when using Sound Settings.
• Fixed an issue with the volume slider in Quick Settings that was causing the volume to sometimes to save at a slightly different level than what was actually set.

[Logging in and Authentication]

• Fixed a crash that could happen when the network icon updated states on the login screen.

[Windowing]

• Made a change to address an issue where title bar options including close, minimize and maximize where not appearing as expected in certain apps when moving the mouse to top of the screen while the app was maximized.

[Other]

• Improved icon rendering for certain apps in the Search hover flyout.
• Addressed an issue that was causing overlapping text in the Share window for certain languages.
• Made some performance improvements when switching to the Details tab of Task Manager.
• If the Windows Security app is open when switching to dark mode, the UI elements should respond better now and not have unreadable text.
• If there are a large number of exclusions listed under Virus and Threat Protection in the Windows Security app, it will now display a progress indicator when loading them.
• Fixed some text clipping in the Windows Security app when using the option in Accessibility Settings to increase the text size.
• Mitigated an issue that was causing the WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC message used in certain apps to be ignored, so the colors in some places wouldn’t appear correctly.
• Fixed a leak when the desktop background was set to a slideshow, impacting performance over time until explorer.exe was restarted.
• Mitigated an issue that was causing some PCs to bugcheck while in modern standby.
• Fixed an issue that was causing slower Wi-Fi speeds after enabling Hyper-V and creating an External V-Switch.
• When animations are disabled in the system, there should no longer be a fade animation in UWP apps like Settings or the Feedback Hub when transitioning from the splash screen to the app content.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the active development branch may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11 after general availability on October 5th.

Known issues

[General]

• We’re working on a fix for an issue that is causing some Surface Pro X’s to bugcheck with a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR.

[Start]

• In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
• System is missing when right-clicking on the Start button (WIN + X).

[Taskbar]

• The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
• We’re investigating an issue in this build where app icons in the Taskbar are getting cut off by the “show hidden icons” button and aren’t centered when using multiple monitors.

[Search]

• After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
• Search panel might appear as black and not display any content below the search box.

[File Explorer]

• If you right click files in OneDrive locations in File Explorer, the context menu will unexpectedly dismiss when you hover over entries that open sub-menus, such as “Open with.”

[Widgets]

• The widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
• Widgets may be displayed in the wrong size on external monitors. If you encounter this, you can launch the widgets via touch or WIN + W shortcut on your actual PC display first and then launch on your secondary monitors.

[Windows Sandbox]

• We’re investigating an issue in which Windows Sandbox may not launch for some Insiders after upgrading to this build.

[Microsoft Store]

• We continue to work to improve search relevance in the Store.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 22454 with three new improvements for Dev Channel Insiders

Mozilla continues to chisel away and improve the open source browser’s handling of non-secure HTTP connections by upgrading them to secure HTTPS connections. 

After introducing a HTTPS by default policy in Private browsing in Firefox 91, the latest release adds “automatic switching to HTTPS browsing mode by using the HTTPS RR browser as Alt-Svc headers.” 

The feature is touted as a means to auto-update HTTP connection to HTTPS, whenever possible. However, the company hasn’t shared any details on how the arrangement would affect the end-user, especially when compared to the current arrangement. 

Mozilla is yet to reply to TechRadar Pro’s email seeking an explanation about this much-touted feature.

Other upgrades

One of the other marquee features in Firefox 92 is the official support for the AVIF image format. Based on the royalty-free AV1 video codec, AVIF offers significant bandwidth savings compared to the other image formats prevailing on the web, without compromising on features.

The release also improves certain existing features. For starters, the certificate error pages have been redesigned to give a better user experience. For macOS users, the bookmark toolbar menus will nicely follow Firefox’s visual styles. 

For Android users, the headline feature in Firefox 92 is support for the Web Authentication API, or WebAuthn, which will enable the use of bluetooth or USB security keys to log into websites. 

Firefox releases for iOS don’t just use a different browser engine (WebKit instead of Gecko), but also follow a different version numbering. In this release cycle, iOS users move on to Firefox 37, which now offers the ability to manually add new accounts to the browser’s inbuilt password manager. 

In terms of security, Firefox 37 for iOS touts improvements to the enhanced tracking protection (ETP) feature, which is more verbose about the security mechanisms of the visited websites.

Source

Coming almost two months after LibreOffice 7.1.5, the LibreOffice 7.1.6 update is here to fix more bugs across all core components of the open-source software suite used by millions of users worldwide on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms. A total of 44 bugs were squashed, according to the changelogs from RC1 and RC2.

LibreOffice 7.2 is already here as the next major release of the popular and free office suite, but you are probably still using the LibreOffice 7.1 series on your GNU/Linux distribution, so I suggest you keep an eye on the stable software repositories for the 7.1.6 release and update as soon as it’s available.

The Document Foundation will support the LibreOffice 7.1 office suite series until November 30th, 2021, and they plan to release one more maintenance update, LibreOffice 7.1.7, which is currently scheduled for the first week of November. Until then, hopefully more distros will adopt the latest LibreOffice 7.2 series.

Please keep in mind that this is the so-called “Community” edition of LibreOffice, which is targeted at home and small office users. For enterprise deployments, The Document Foundation recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners, which provide long-term support options and professional assistance.

“LibreOffice Community and the LibreOffice Enterprise family of products are based on the LibreOffice Technology platform, the result of years of development efforts with the objective of providing a state of the art office suite not only for the desktop but also for mobile and the cloud,” said Italo Vignoli.

If you want to install LibreOffice yourself, you can download the LibreOffice 7.1.6 binaries for DEB and RPM-based distributions right now from the official website.

Source

We already know Windows 11 will make better use of new processors than Windows 10, but Microsoft says even on older hardware Windows 11 will feel significantly faster.

In a Microsoft Mechanics video, Microsoft VP Steve Dispensa from the Windows Management team detailed some of the improvements.

These include:

• Memory and CPU resource management improvements that prioritise foreground windows.
• Even in browsers, prioritising foreground tabs by sleeping inactive tabs, reducing memory usage by up to 32% and CPU usage by 37%.
• Faster resume by optimized calls to hardware components that need to power on for better overall memory management and reducing starvation across key processing threads so that power is preserved for the threads that really need it.
• 40% smaller and therefore faster updates thanks to a new update engine that only downloads the necessary files from Microsoft’s servers.

Microsoft says Windows 11 should feel snappier and more responsive  and the resume experience should be “almost instantaneous.”

Watch the video below:

via onMSFT

Microsoft explains why Windows 11 feels faster than Windows 10 on the same hardware

Panos Panay tease redesigned Windows 11 Photos app (video)

Going beyond backup: Acronis True Image is now Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office

Is Linus Torvalds important to open-source software? Of course. Guido van Rossum, who created the popular programming language Python? Sure! Michael "Monty" Widenius of MySQL fame? Certainly. OK, what about Robert Love? Eben Moglen? Or Jono Bacon?

Who? Exactly. They latter three are, in order: the author of Linux in a Nutshell, arguably the most important Linux book; the leading open-source GPL attorney; and perhaps the top open-source community guru. Would open-source software exist without them? Yes. But, would it look the same? No. No it wouldn't.

We've always known that open source is more than its developers. Open source is also the people who document it, popularise it, organise the communities that support it and, yes, lead the companies that monetise it.

But, how do you measure their value? That's a good question without an obvious good answer.

For programmers, it's relatively easy. Once you get rid of the insane idea that programming productivity could be measured by lines of code (LoC) per day, like so many factory workers making widgets, you can come up with reasonable metrics.

These include a variety of Key Performance Indicators (KPI)s. These will vary from project to project, but once you've worked out what really matters in your programs, it's not too hard. Of course, KPIs can be abused. We're looking at you, Huawei, with some of your Linux "contributions."

My favorite metric, though, comes from Eric Elliott, author of Composing Software, who said: "The best way to be a 10x developer is to help 5 other developers be 2x developers." That's very open source in spirit!

But documentation? Legal help? Community development? There's no way to give those GitHub Stars. And they do matter.

As a Nature article recently pointed out: "Substantial contributions, such as organising meetings, providing outreach or performing other activities that leave no visible trace within the code, are often neglected. Indeed, some important contributions occur entirely outside of common open-source development platforms such as GitHub and often go unrecognised."

You think?

So, what to do? Well, the University of Vermont has joined forces with the Google Open-Source Programs Office into a project called Open-Source Ecosystems and Networks (OCEAN) to tackle the problem. Its job? Deepen our understanding of how people, teams and organisations thrive together in open-source projects and communities.

Their first goal is simply to figure out how to spot open-source contributors beyond the coders. It ain't easy.

The OCEAN crew is attempting to build a more inclusive picture of contributors to show what everyone brings to open-source projects. They're attempting to do this by looking at what communities are trying to accomplish.

These include maintaining healthy open-source software project repositories. That's not just having a GitHub. It includes supporting the program with good project management that avoids the bus problem – can the program survive its lead developer getting hit by a bus? Does it have maintainers who give good code reviews? Can its people triage bugs?

OCEAN also asks who the leaders are who actually, you know, lead the group – so that leaves the Free Software Foundation (FSF) out.

On the other hand, The Linux Foundation and The Apache Foundation seem to always find people who can actually organise programmers, writers and other contributors.

Finally, OCEAN is also looking for people who can actually bring people together into real communities, be they virtual or the increasingly rare real-life get-together. This includes leaders who can bring in people who don't all look, act and think the same.

Open-source organisations that consist solely of a God-King and his acolytes aren't healthy. OCEAN is looking for people who foster groups that are open to everyone.

OCEAN's end goal is "to normalise attribution for contributors to what communities think is important".

This isn't easy and they know all too well that they've just begun. So that is why they're seeking to work with and learn from open-source communities. Want to join in? Start here with the Open Source Contribution Schemas Workshop Series form.

Why bother? I will quote from Nadia Eghbal's Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind our Digital Infrastructure: "The impact of digital infrastructure is still very difficult to measure. Usage metrics are either highly inaccurate or simply unavailable. This is not an easy problem to solve for. But without data about which tools are used, and how much we rely upon them, it is hard to paint a clear picture of what is underfunded. With better metrics, we could describe the economic impact of digital infrastructure, identify critical projects that are lacking support, and understand dependencies between projects and people."

I can tell that from where I sit – as someone who has been covering open source long before Bruce Perens, Eric S Raymond and Christine Peterson came up with the concept – this won't be easy. It's going to be a long, hard slog.

But the goal is worthy, and I, for one, would like to see more people recognised for the hard work and time they put into open source, even if their name will never crop up in a Git repository. ®

Source

You can update to Edge version 1008 to fix this random window issue.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft fixes the Edge canary build issue which opened new windows randomly

Asus starts testing Windows 11 support for some older Intel CPUs on select motherboards

It offers a quick option to check if a PC is compatible with Windows 11. If that is all that is required, it is as good a tool as any for the job as it displays whether the device is compatible with Windows at the top of the window when it is run.

What sets it apart from other tools of its kind, including Microsoft's own PC Health Check tool and third-party solutions such as Win11SysCheck or WhyNotWin11, is that it reveals information about incompatibilities that the other programs don't provide.

Most tools check the model and make of the processor to find out if it is on Microsoft's compatibility lists for AMD, Intel and ARM processors.

Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool

Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool does not do that.  The tool checks the actual processor requirements and returns the result to the user.

The program checks for the following processor features and instructions next to the number of cores and processing speed:

• PAE (Physical Address Extension)
• NX (No-eXecute)
• SSE4.1 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1)
• CMPXCHG16B
• LAHF (Load AH from Flags)
• SAHF (Store AH into Flags)
• PrefetchW
• Virtualization-Based Security (VBS)

Similarly, the program checks whether the system has a security processor and supports secure boot. For Secure Boot, it will highlight if the device supports it and whether it is enabled or disabled. For TPM, it will check for a TPM 2.0 security processor.

The application runs two feature checks at the time of writing. The first checks if connected displays support High Dynamic Range (HDR) content. AutoHDR is a new feature that Microsoft introduces in Windows 11 to improve the graphics quality of games.

The second tests if the storage controller of the system disk and the shader model of the graphics card meet DirectStorage requirements. DirectStorage is another new feature aimed at gamers that promises improved game loading times.

A click on an entry opens a help page on the developer's website with additional information about the feature.

Closing Words

Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool may provide Windows users with additional information in regards to Windows 11 compatibility of their systems. It may provide actionable information when a feature is supported but not enabled. For most users, it may be enough to know if a system is compatible or not.

Still, it is a well designed tool that is very promising.

Landing Page: https://bytejams.com/

Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool offers details on why a PC is not compatible with Windows 11

Last month, Mozilla released Firefox 91.0, a new base for the Extended Support Release channel of the Firefox web browser.

Firefox 92.0 is not the only version of Firefox that is released this week. Firefox 91.0 ESR is upgraded to Firefox 91.1 ESR, and Firefox 78.13 ESR to Firefox 78.14 ESR.

Firefox's Beta, Developer and Nightly channels are all moved to a new version, in this case to Firefox 93 Beta, Firefox 93 Developer and Firefox 94 Nightly. The Android version will be updated as well soon.

Check out the Firefox 91 release overview in case you missed it or want to look it up again.

Executive Summary

• Mozilla fixed the screen reader and accessibility tools issue that could degrade Firefox performance significantly.
• Firefox supports the AVIF image format by default (update: postponed to Firefox 93)
• WebRender should be enabled on all systems now.
• Firefox 92.0 includes security updates.

Firefox 92.0 download and update

Most Firefox installations are updated automatically. Mozilla introduced support for background updates on Windows, which further streamlines installations of new versions.

The new version will be released later on September 7, 2021.

To check the installed version, go to Menu > Help > About Firefox. Note that this will also run a manual check for updates and will install new versions that are found during the scan.

Manual downloads are also available. The following pages list direct downloads for supported Firefox channels.

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

New features and improvements

Support for AVIF images enabled by default (postponed to Firefox 93)

Mozilla Firefox supports the AVIF image format by default now. It is a new image format developed by the Alliance for Open Media that is royalty-free, and based on the AV1 video codec, which is also royalty-free.

Firefox supports non-animated AVIF images in this initial release.

Firefox can display still images, with colorspace support for both full and limited range colors, and image transforms for mirroring and rotation.

Firefox users and organizations may use the preference image.avif.compliance_strictness to adjust the compliance strictness with the specification.

Note: The flag in Firefox that determines whether AVIF is enabled or not, image.avif.enabled , was set to FALSE on the test system. Load about:config and check the preference image.avif.enabled to see if it is enabled (TRUE) or not (FALSE).

Automatic updates to HTTPS

Mozilla's work on improving HTTP and HTTPS handling continues. After introducing a HTTPS-First policy for Firefox's private browsing mode in Firefox 91 to auto-update HTTP to HTTPS whenever possible, it integrated support for auto-upgrading to HTTPS using HTTPS RR as Alt-Svc headers.

The Alt-Svc header "allows a server to indicate that a particular resource should be loaded from a different server" while appearing to the user that it was still loaded from the same server.

Other changes

• Full-color level support for video playback on many systems.
• Open alerts in tabs don't cause performance issues in other tabs that are using the same process.
• Redesigned certificate error pages for "better user experience".
• Mac: the Mac OS Share options are now accessible from the Firefox File menu.
• Mac: support for images containing ICC v4 profiles enabled.
• Mac: VoiceOver reports buttons and links marked as "expanded" correctly using aria-expanded attribute.
• Mac: Bookmark toolbar menus follow Firefox's visual styles now.

Developer Changes

• Audio output device access is protected by the speaker-selection feature policy.
• Default HTTP accept header for images has been changed to image/avif,image/webp,*/* to support the AVIF format.

Enterprise changes

• None

Known Issues

None listed.

Security updates / fixes

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

Outlook

Firefox 93.0 Stable is scheduled to be released on October 5, 2021. Firefox 78.15 ESR will be released on the same day; it is the last version of the 78.x branch, which is the last to support Adobe Flash and Mac Os X versions 10.11 and older.

Recently Reviewed Firefox extensions

none

Recent Firefox news and tips

• Firefox will block insecure downloads soon by default
• Firefox Suggest: Mozilla is testing custom search and sponsored suggestions in the United States
• Mozilla's plan to offer a Privacy Pack

Additional information / sources

• Firefox 92 release notes
• Firefox 92 for Developers
• Firefox for Enterprise 92 - release notes
• Firefox Security Advisories
• Firefox Release Schedule

Firefox 92.0 release: here is what is new and changed

Frontpaged: Mozilla Forefox Browser 92

Microsoft Start can be accessed from Edge and Chrome at the MicrosoftStart.com website, on mobile via native Android and iOS apps, and on Windows 10 and Windows 11 through the News and Interests column and news widgets, respectively. The service is also what powers the new tab page content in Microsoft Edge. Considering that the branding change has just begun rolling out, the Play Store listing is yet to be updated, and those running the Microsoft News app will receive an update that brings the branding change, which is the case with both Android and iOS versions.

As for the service itself, there is not much that is new in the way of features. Just like the current experience, news articles are curated for users and adapt based on preferences. The firm says that it curates articles from “over a thousand global premium publishing brands” which are tailored to users' interests through both AI algorithms and moderators. For those that want to personalize their feed manually, the firm allows them to select topics of interest through the Personalize option.

In addition to news items, Start will also provide users with cards relating to weather, finance, sports, navigation information, and more, just like before. Unsurprisingly, preferences set by the user on the desktop sync with the mobile apps connected to the same Microsoft account.

While Microsoft Start is currently just a branding change, it will be interesting to see if there are any new features and/or capabilities added to the service.

Microsoft rebrands its news service to Microsoft Start

The main toolbar lists just nine options by default, some of which open menus that list options that were accessible directly before. Core File Explorer functions such as cut, copy and paste are still available as buttons, everything else is available in nested menus.

Microsoft changed the design of the drive, file and folder listing as well in Windows 11. While you do get the list of files and folders, sizes, types, modification dates and other information displayed to you when you open File Explorer, you may notice that there is lots of whitespace between items.

The following screenshot shows the default view mode of Windows 11's File Explorer:

Compare that with the Compact View mode that File Explorer supports as well:

If you want more files and folders to be displayed at the same time, you need to enable Compact View in File Explorer on Windows 11 to achieve that.

It is unclear why Microsoft decided to make the "other" mode the default. Was it for aesthetic reasons or to make file handling more comfortable for users of touch devices? The second option seems unlikely, as Microsoft could have implemented a check that would enable the larger view mode for touch device users and leave the more compact option enabled for everyone else.

Compact View is available for all Windows 11 users; it needs to be enabled though, and many users may miss out on that mode and endure the less usable mode in the process.

Do the following to enable Compact View:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Select View  > Compact View.

Not exactly rocket science, but if you never open the View menu, you will never stumble upon that option.

Tip: the view menu has options to display hidden files and file extensions for all files under the submenu "show" as well.

Closing Words

Some Windows 11 users may prefer the default view of File Explorer. It is certainly better for touch device users as it makes selecting files less error-prone. Non-touch device users on the other hand may prefer the compact file listing option as it makes it easier to work with files on the system as more as displayed without having to scroll.

It seems to me that designers and users are increasingly at odds when it comes to weighting design and usability.

  Enable Compact View in Windows 11's File Explorer for improved usability

Up until now, Disk Cleanup was accessible from the Properties dialog window of drives. Microsoft replaced the link to the Disk Cleanup tool with a link to Storage Sense in the latest Windows 11 build.

While it is still possible to load Disk Cleanup directly, it is no longer possible to open it from a drive's properties dialog.

Activation of the Storage usage button opens the Storage used on other drives page of the Settings application. The page lists the capacity of all drives and the free and used storage ratio. It takes another click to display how storage is used on the drive.

Options to cleanup files are not displayed on the page. It is necessary to open the main Storage page in the settings to get that option (or select Start > Settings > System > Storage). Select Cleanup recommendations and Windows displays cleanup options on the page that follows.

Disk Cleanup tool is the better application

The entire process is not as straightforward as using the Disk Cleanup tool. Opening issues aside, Cleanup recommendations is not nearly as user friendly as the Disk Cleanup tool. Disk Cleanup offers an immediate view of all items that can be cleaned up; while you may need to click on the "clean up system files" button after the program has launched to get more cleaning options, it is faster and provides a better view of items that can be removed from the system to free up disk space.

Tip: you may speed up the system files loading part of Disk Cleanup.

Disk Cleanup is still present in the latest Windows 11 build, and chance is high that it remains an option initially after Windows 11 is released.

Windows 11 users may launch it by typing Disk Cleanup in Start. Windows 11 displays the tool as the first result and it may be opened this way. There is a chance that Microsoft is going to alter the result manually, so that the Storage settings page is opened instead.

You may then still load it by opening the Run box with the shortcut Windows-R to launch cleanmgr.exe.

Eventually, Disk Cleanup will be removed from Windows. Windows users who prefer the tool may use third-party alternatives instead. There is Cleanmgr+, an open source alternative that replicates the functionality, which may be used instead.

It looks different but it offers the same cleaning options as the classic Disk Cleanup tool.

Closing Words

The replacing of the Disk Cleanup button with the link to the Storage Settings page marks another step in the removal of the Disk Cleanup tool from Windows. Thankfully, there is a third-party alternative available that works equally well and may be used by users who prefer Disk Cleanup over Microsoft's own reinterpretation of the tool.

You may still use Disk Cleanup on Windows 11 (even though Microsoft does not want you to)

When developing Windows 11, the Microsoft audio team developed new system sounds designed to provide a calm experience while still being able to notify you of something as necessary.

"Windows 10 sounds were sharp, literally created with sharp wave lengths. In Windows 11, we have focused on making the technology calm. In order to do this, we needed to reevaluate our sound scape to also be calm," Microsoft told BleepingComputer in a statement.

"The new sounds have a much rounder wavelength, making them softer so that they can still alert/notify you, but without being overwhelming."

"Just like we rounded UI visually, we rounded our sound scape as well to soften the overall feel of the experience."

Unlike all previous versions of Windows, Microsoft also created different versions of the system sounds for Windows 11, depending on whether you are in Light Mode or Dark Mode.

For Light Mode users, the sounds are meant to be brighter and louder, while in Dark Mode, the sounds will be quieter and more subdued with a slight echo.

"We introduced light and dark sound options so that people who may have low visibility or no vision can still experience light and dark themes audibly. Themed sounds improve productivity by matching your working style through your theme. Dark Sounds help you stay in focus while Light Sounds ensure you’re always engaged" - Microsoft spokesperson.

The Light Mode sounds are still stored under the C:\Windows\Media folder with the new Dark Mode sounds stored under C:\Windows\Media\dm.

Compare the Windows 11 Light and Dark mode sounds

With Windows 11, Microsoft created ten new system sounds that will be played while in Dark Mode. These ten sounds, and their Light Mode counterparts, are displayed below to compare their differences easily.

The Light Mode sound will be in audio control with a white background, while the Dark Mode sound will be the dark background.

We have also labeled each sound based on default assignment under the 'Program Events' section in the Windows 11 Sound properties screen.

Asterisk, Default Beep, Exclamation, Low Battery Alarm, System Notification: This system sound is played when an alert is displayed, such as a warning message.

Critical Battery Alarm and Critical Stop: This sound is played when an error occurs.

Device failed to connect: This sound will play when an inserted device could not be correctly set up by Windows 11.

Device Disconnect: This sound will play when you disconnect a device, such as a USB key, from your computer.

Calendar Reminder: This sound will be played when a Calendar event occurs.

New Email Notification and New Fax Notification: When a new email or fax is received, this sound will play.

New Text Message Notification: This sound will play when you receive a new text message.

Notification: This sound will play when a program wants to issue a notification.

Windows User Account Control: This system sound will play when a User Account Control prompt is displayed in Windows 11.

There are still quite a few system sounds that do not have new Dark Mode versions. So we will have to wait and see if Microsoft adds other sounds in the future.

Windows 11 dark mode has quieter, more soothing sounds - Listen now

The long-awaited chat history migration feature between Android and iOS is finally becoming a reality. However, at the moment, the feature is only available for Samsung phones running Android 10 or newer. You will also need a USB-C to Lightning cable to initiate the process. If you don’t have a Samsung device, you’re out of luck for now. However, the WhatsApp developers have announced that this feature will be rolling out to other Android devices soon.

Another new feature that is also coming to the WhatsApp beta version is message reactions. This feature allows users to react to messages with other emojis and not another message. This feature is already available on other chatting apps like Signal, Apple’s iMessage, and even Google Messages. However, at the moment, the feature would appear slightly restricted, with only about seven emojis to choose from. There is also currently no exact date on when this feature will be released to beta users. However, it is said to come to Android users first.

At the moment, very little has been released about the feature and exactly how it will work and when users can expect the public rollout. All that we know for sure is that reactions will not be anonymous, so everyone will know precisely who reacted to a message. Also, once the features start rolling out, you will receive a notification asking you to update to the latest version of WhatsApp so that you can start reacting with other emojis.

Another feature that we’re looking forward to is multi-device support. This feature is supposed to be released sometime before the end of the year and will allow users to use their WhatsApp on up to four different devices at once. Then there is also a feature currently in beta that will make it easier for users to send mobile payments on the platform.

Closing words

These new features for WhatsApp that are coming to Android are making it even easier to use the app. From iOS to Android migration and emoji reactions to multi-device support and mobile platforms, things are definitely happening at WhatsApp. I look forward to seeing if these features turn out to be all they promised.

WhatsApp is bringing a few new features, including iOS to Android migration and iMessage-like emojis

Linux head honcho Linus Torvalds however wasn't too pleased with the submission. While Torvalds really didn't have too much of an issue with the NTFS3 pull request itself, he was rather annoyed however at the GitHub merge commit in it, as apparently, the Linux boss does not like GitHub merges much, if at all.

Here's what Linus Torvalds has said in a response to Paragon Software in a rather familiar stern manner about the GitHub merges:

github creates absolutely useless garbage merges, and you should never ever use the github interfaces to merge anything.

github is a perfectly fine hosting site, and it does a number of other things well too, but merges is not one of those things.

Linux kernel merges need to be done *properly*. That means proper commit messages with information about what is being merged and *why* you merge something. But it also means proper authorship and committer information etc. All of which github entirely screws up.

Finally. Torvalds also revealed what he would much rather prefer instead of GitHub when it comes to Linux kernel merges:

for continued development you need to do things properly. That means doing merges from the command line, not using the entirely broken github web interface.

So command line it is for Linus Torvalds then.

Source: lkml

Linus Torvalds is not much of a fan of GitHub's "absolutely useless garbage merges"

The study was conducted by Fraunhofer ISI and OpenForum Europe (OFE), to investigate the economic impact of open source software (OSS) and hardware on the EU’s economy.

It estimates that OSS already contributes between €65 to €95 billion to the EU’s GDP, which according to the OFE is the equivalent of both air and water transport combined.

“Open source offers a greenfield advantage for policymakers and Europe has the chance to lead,” noted Sachiko Muto, the OFE’s CEO.

Open source for the win

The report notes that EU governments and companies have already invested over €1 billion in open source development in 2018 alone, even as it identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of OSS in important fields such as cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI), among others.

The report goes on to offer certain recommendations to enable OSS to help digitise the European industry. One of the suggestions involves setting up a European network of governmental units dedicated to accelerating the use of open technologies.

The report also suggests using the Horizon Europe program with a total budget of €95.5 billion for 2021-2027 to infuse capital into “open source support mechanisms and projects.”

“The data predicts that if open source contributions increased by 10% in the EU, they would generate an additional 0.4% to 0.6% (around €100 billion) to the bloc’s GDP,” notes OFE, which hopes the study equips policymakers with all the evidence they need to promote open source for the benefit of the EU.

Source

So far, we have taken a look at Search, Widgets, the Start menu, Snap Layouts and Snap Groups, and the Taskbar in Windows 11. Now, we feel like it's time to take a look at the quick settings and notifications center too since it has been revamped significantly as well, as discussed in our last Closer Look article.

For the purpose of this hands-on, we'll be taking a look at Windows 11 build 22000.176 that was released to the Beta Channel a couple of days ago versus a publicly available and up-to-date Windows 10 (version 21H1 build 19043.1165). An important change this time is that we are not using build 22449 which was also released to the Dev Channel at the same time. This is because Microsoft has now split builds from different branches and the Dev Channel does not represent what customers will be getting on October 5.

Windows 10 has a UI called Action Center that can be accessed from the icon on the extreme right of the taskbar. This collectively shows you all your quick settings on the bottom half of the panel on the right and all your notifications on the top half of the same panel. It's fairly straight forward to use; you can open or swipe notifications, or utilize and unpin your quick settings directly from one place.

The associated settings are quite straightforward too. You can edit quick actions, disable notifications from certain senders or configure other cosmetic things like sounds.

When we go to Windows 11, the situation is considerably different. The major difference is that Microsoft has split quick settings and notifications into their own separate trays. The quick settings panel can be displayed when you click on any of the system icons (such as volume or internet connectivity in the screenshot above). Similar to Windows 10, you can right-click on any of the quick settings, choose the "Edit quick settings" option, and unpin or add more settings. A faster way to do this is also via the "pencil" icon that you can see in the bottom-right corner of the panel.

The drawback of this approach is that in Windows 10, you could click on the system icons on the taskbar to open only the settings relevant to that icon. For example, if I click on the volume icon in the taskbar on Windows 10, I just get a volume slider in a pop-up. Clicking on the same in Windows 11 opens all the quick settings which I personally find a bit annoying as it wastes screen estate.

Similarly, notifications now have a separate panel too. Whenever you get a notification, you'll get a badge next to the date and time on the taskbar. Clicking on it will open the calendar at the bottom and the notifications area at the top. I don't know why Microsoft has coupled the calendar and notifications area in Windows 11, I personally haven't found a productivity use-case for it yet.

The associated settings for notifications and quick settings are mostly the same, there's not much to talk about except that they are grouped a bit better.

Overall, I appreciate the fact that Microsoft has decoupled notifications and quick settings in Windows 11. It makes sense from a usability perspective and saves up a lot of space that previously used to be taken up by the Action Center panel on the right of the screen when you opened it. Now, you get relatively smaller and more manageable panels.

But talking about screen estate, the fact that I have to see either all the quick settings or none of them bothers me. I liked the simplicity of Windows 10 where clicking on the volume system icon only opens a slider, but in Windows 11, I have to look at the whole panel of quick settings, which is a waste of space. The system icons behavior for quick settings definitely needs to be decoupled, and maybe Microsoft should add a dedicated system icon for quick settings à la Action Center - but only for quick settings - in Windows 10.

In the same vein, the fact that notifications open alongside the calendar is a bit of an odd design decision too. Maybe I'm missing some popular use-case but I personally think it wastes more screen estate. It might be worth it to give users an option to add a dedicated system icon for this too.

Overall, I like the direction that Microsoft is going in, but given the seemingly odd coupling of certain system icons, I'm not sure if I prefer it over the Windows 10 implementation yet. Personally, I feel Microsoft needs to invest some more effort into its design before the general availability of Windows 11.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on the quick settings and notifications panel in Windows 11? Do you like the changes? How would you like to see Microsoft enhance it further? Let us know in the comments section below and inform Microsoft via the Feedback Hub too.

Closer Look: Quick settings and notifications in Windows 11

Microsoft Edge 94 now supports “Well-known URL for change Passwords”