What’s new Microsoft Edge 93 beta:

• Initial Preferences in Microsoft Edge. Deploying Microsoft Edge to your enterprise will become easier starting in version 93, with the addition of Initial Preferences.
• IE mode on Microsoft Edge will support “nomerge” behavior. Starting in Edge 93, IE mode on Microsoft Edge will support nomerge. For an end-user, when a new browser window is launched from an IE mode application, it will be in a separate session, similar to the nomerge behavior in IE11. You will need to adjust your site list to configure sites that need to prevent session sharing as “nomerge”. Behind the scenes, for each window of Microsoft Edge, the first time an IE mode tab is visited within that window, if it is one of the designated “nomerge” sites, that window is locked into a different “nomerge” IE session from all other Microsoft Edge windows at least until the last IE mode tab is closed in that window. This follows previous behavior where users could launch IE with nomerge and could also launch Microsoft Edge without nomerge via other mechanisms.
• Tab Groups. The ability to categorize tabs into user-defined groups helps you more effectively find, switch and manage tabs across multiple workstreams. To enable this, we are turning on tab grouping beginning with Microsoft Edge version 93.
• Hide the title bar while using Vertical Tabs. Get the extra few pixels back by hiding the browser’s title bar, while in Vertical Tabs. Starting with Microsoft Edge version 93, you can go to edge://settings/appearance and under the Customize Toolbar section select the option to hide the title bar while in Vertical Tab mode.
• Video Picture in Picture (PiP) from hover toolbar. Beginning in Edge version 93, it will become even easier to enter Picture in Picture (PiP) mode. When you hover over a supported video, a toolbar will appear that allows you to view that video in a PiP window. Please note: this is currently available for Microsoft Edge users on macOS. Please check back shortly as we continue our rollout to Windows users.
• Removal of 3DES in TLS. Starting with Edge v93, support for the TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA cipher suite will be removed. This change is happening in the Chromium project, on which Microsoft Edge is based. For more information, navigate to the Chrome Platform Status entry. Additionally, in Edge v93, the TripleDESEnabled policy will be available to support scenarios that need to preserve compatibility with outdated servers. This compatibility policy will become obsolete and stop working in Edge v95. Ensure that you update affected servers before then.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Edge beta version 93.0.961.11 is now available (change log)

Some users have however noticed that the option to switch is not available, however.

If you wish to switch and are seeing the above screen under  Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program Microsoft has offered the following steps below to restore the missing options:

1. Click on Start

2. In the search box, type cmd

3. In the lower right of the search results, under Command Prompt, click Run as Administrator

4. On the UAC prompt, click OK

5. At the elevated command prompt, type: bcdedit /set flightsigning on

6. Press Enter

7. At the elevated command prompt, type: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} flightsigning on

8. Press Enter

9. Reboot the device

You should now see the missing options:

Microsoft recommends if performing these steps did not resolve your issue, to file a new feedback item in Feedback Hub, so the company can investigate.

via techdows

Microsoft offers fix for missing Windows 11 Beta channel option

Microsoft notes, as with the past few releases: "Our goals for the v0.43 release cycle primarily centered around stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes, and accessibility improvements." The changelog for 0.43 can be viewed below, and it's a long one:

Change log

• Changed tooltip text for systray icon to be on a single line for Windows 11 compatibility.
• Fixed escape behavior on Color Picker so that only the fly-out is closed if active.
• Changed URI PowerToys Run plugin to launch HTTPS by default instead of HTTP. Thanks @chrisharris333!
• Added confirmation dialog when system commands are executed from PowerToys Run. Thanks @chrisharris333!

General

• New UI for sizes list view in Image Resizer settings. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed FileInUse errors during install/update scenarios.
• Fixed toggle switches on PowerToys run settings to display correctly.
• Fixed header text not updating when theme color is changed. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added Name/Alt text to GIF image
• Expanded the Report Bug tool to collect more robust diagnostic information.
• Fixed screen reader functionality to stop announcing hidden text in settings.
• Added Name and alt text properties to GIF images in Welcome to PowerToys window

Awake

• Fixed bug when right-clicking menu of Awake app icon. Thanks @dend!
• Fixed high CPU usage for timed keep awake. Thanks @dend!
• Fixed Awake icon spamming notification tray. Thanks @dend!
• Added telemetry to collect Awake settings and logs.

Color Picker

• Removed private Unicode Chars in element Name properties.
• No Class names in Name properties.
• Added non-null bounding rectangle property.
• Fixed color shade numbering for screen reader.
• Fixed focusable elements to have non-null name property.
• Distingushed name property and LocalizedControlType from elements and their parent.
• ControlType and LocalizedControlType are no longer both set to Custom.
• Fixed screen reader incorrectly naming Color Picker when launched.
• Fixed screen reader not announcing colors when navigating.

FancyZones

• Fixed bug causing multi-monitor spanning errors.
• Added minimum zone size limit to the settings.
• Fixed issue where re-opened windows don't appear in previously assigned zone.
• Fixed excluded apps setting to save on text change instead of when leaving focus.
• Fixed corrupt/outdated plugins load crash.
• Fixed issue with FancyZones not working after computer goes to sleep.
• Added screen reader confirmation to canvas editor when new zones are added.

Keyboard Manager

• Fixed screen reader usage bugs to increase intuitiveness.

PowerToys Run

• Fixed crashing bug due to missing image file app.dark.png.
• Fixed URI plugin bug with handling numeric input. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Improved launch performance of PowerToys run on first call. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

PowerToys boasts nine "toys" which can be seen above. All in all, version 0.43 contains a lot of fixes, as well as thanks for community contributions for those bug fixes, so we recommend upgrading to it.

If you are using PowerToys, you can open the app and click on "Check for updates" under the updates section on the General tab. Those who would like to try PowerToys for the first time can grab the version 0.43 installer from the app's GitHub page.

PowerToys 0.43 out with loads of bug fixes including one for Awake high CPU usage

Opening on the other hand saved the file into the temporary folder of the system; this does not affect the initial opening of the file, say a torrent file in qBittorrent, a video in the default media player, or an image in an image viewer. Files are deleted automatically when the session ends and that led to problems for users who wanted to open the downloaded file again.

Starting in Firefox 91, Firefox uses a different logic when it comes to the opening of file downloads. We reviewed part of the ne behavior in June, namely that Firefox will save all files to the downloads folder regardless of whether users select the save option or the open option.

One consequence of the new behavior is that downloads that are opened are not deleted anymore automatically. It is necessary now to clear these downloads manually.

That is not the only change though. Firefox 91 will introduce functionality to open files from the download panel. The download panel displays all downloads, active, failed or completed, of the session. If you run Firefox 90 or earlier, you may have noticed that you cannot click on a download that is in progress to get the file opened as soon as the download completes.

Firefox 91 introduces that option: just click on the download and Firefox will display the remaining time before the file is opened on the system.

Enable or disable Firefox's new downloading behavior

Many features can be customized in Firefox. If you dislike the new downloading behavior, e.g. when you want files that get opened to be deleted automatically once the session closes, then you may configure Firefox to do so.

Here is how that is done:

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Confirm that you will be careful on the warning page.
3. Search for browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel.
   1. Set the value to TRUE to enable the new download behavior.
   2. Set the value to FALSE to disable the new download behavior.

It is possible that the preference may be removed at one point in time. For now, it is available and you may use it to configure the behavior in the web browser.

Closing Words

The change brings Firefox's downloading behavior in line with that of the Chromium browsers. Firefox users who prefer the classic option may restore it once the change lands in the browser.

A close look at Firefox 91's new file download opening behavior

Mozilla’s Firefox is the only popular alternative to Chromium-based browsers.

It has been the default choice for Linux users and privacy-conscious users across every platform.

However, even with all benefits as one of the best web browsers around, it is losing its grip for the past few years.

To be honest, we do not even need a stat to say that, many of us have switched over to Chromium-based browsers or Chromium itself instead of Firefox or Google Chrome.

However, I came across a Reddit thread by u/nixcraft, which highlighted more details on the decline in the userbase of Firefox since 2018.

And surprisingly, the original source for this information is Firefox’s Public Data Report.

As per the official stats, the reported number of active (monthly) users was about 244 million at the end of 2018.

And, it seems to have declined to 198 million at the end of Q2 2021.

So, that makes it a whopping ~46 million decline in the userbase.

Firefox’s Decline is Concerning But Obvious

Considering 2021 is the year when privacy-focused tools saw a big boost in their userbase, Mozilla’s Firefox is looking at a constant decline.

Especially when Firefox manages to introduce some industry-first privacy practices. Quite the irony, eh?

In case you have never used Firefox or have moved away for a long time, a comparison between Brave and Firefox highlights that it is still a solid web browser choice to date.

So, why are users moving away to Chromium-based web browsers or Chrome in particular?

There are a few things that I can think of right off the bat:

• Google Chrome being the default web browser on Android
• Microsoft Edge as the default web browser for Windows (which naturally has a huge marketshare)
• Google.com (the biggest search engine) recommending users to install Google Chrome (which is potentially an anti-competitive behaviour)
• Some web services are exclusive to Chrome-based browsers

In addition to that, there are also a few things that Firefox may have done wrong:

• Constantly breaking the user experience with major overhauls
• Lack of significant performance improvements in the recent years

Of course, no web browser is perfect but is this something to worry about? Well, I think, yes.

Here’s Why You Should be Worried

Mozilla’s Firefox is the only viable competitor to Chromium-based browsers. If Firefox disappears, users won’t have a choice to select a different browser engine.

I’m sure you will agree that monopoly is bad; hence, we need something to survive as an alternative to Google’s chrome engine.

In fact, a significant number of websites optimize the user experience by keeping chrome-based browsers in mind.

So, eventually, if the declining trend continues, users like us may just be forced to switch to other browsers by adapting to new workflows.

Even if we ignore the dominant control of Google’s chrome engine on the web by arguing that it is technically better, Firefox is still something precious. Because it provides way more customizations and constantly improves its privacy practices unlike any other.

In other words, we will be losing out on a lot of good things (forcefully) just because all the competition prefers using Chromium as its base or engage in anti-competitive activities.

Maybe, you’re frustrated with Firefox now and move away to something else. That’s completely your choice.

But, how would you feel if you won’t have an alternative when Firefox ceases to exist because of all the factors affecting its decline?

Hence, to keep things balanced, I think we should constantly oppose the anti-competitive behavior by tech giants and start using Mozilla Firefox (in whatever capacity, even as a secondary browser).

Of course, Mozilla needs to give this situation some serious attention as well.

While they are busy introducing VPN services, email relays, and other service integrations, they are not succeeding with the user experience improvements.

At least, that is what I think. I’ve used Firefox as my primary browser for years now but I end up switching to other browsers once in a while, especially, after every major UI overhaul.

What Do You Think?

I’d love to know what you think about this and what seems to be affecting Firefox’s decline in the userbase.

What do you prefer to use as your primary web browser? Let me know all of it in the comments down below!

Source

Spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft posted this article back in June titled "Now accepting Windows 11, version 21H2 submissions". Basically, it appears that the Redmont Giant has requested all of its partners to submit drivers compatible with Windows 11 21H2 update by "September 24, 2021". Here's what the full statement reads:

Partners looking to achieve compatibility for systems shipping with Windows 11, version 21H2 Release may factory-install drivers for components that achieved compatibility with Windows 10, version 2004 until September 24, 2021.

So as it stands, the September 24, 2021 date essentially appears to be the deadline for the final submission of Windows 11 compatible drivers for Microsoft's partners. This means Windows 11 could indeed release in October or somewhere around that window.

When inquired, Microsoft also clarified in the comments that this Windows Hardware Certification submission request was indeed for Windows 11 21H1 and not related to Windows 10 21H1.

Source: Microsoft via Windows Latest

Microsoft itself hints at possible October Windows 11 launch

A mere day after it has launched, Microsoft has halted the free trial of their new Windows 365 Cloud PC product.

The change was announced by Scott Manchester, Director of Program Management, Windows 365, on Twitter earlier today.

Microsoft says they have paused new free trials to allow the company to lay on new server capacity, and are encouraging those who are interested to sign up to be notified when free trials will resume.

Windows 365 runs on Microsoft Cloud, you can enjoy an instant-on boot experience on any device including your Windows, Mac, iPad, Android, and coming soon Linux device. You can pick up right where you left off, because the state of your Cloud PC remains the same, even when you switch devices.

Because the service runs on remote servers, it does also leave you open to issues around the availability and resources of those servers.

Windows 365 will be offered in two variants:

• Windows 365 Business (for organizations with up to 300 employees)
• Windows 365 Enterprise (for organizations with more than 300 employees)

Read more about it at Microsoft here.

Microsoft halts Windows 365 Cloud PC free trial due to “unbelievable response”

With the rolling out of Windows 11 build 22000.100 to the Windows Insiders Beta channel last week, there are once again two paths of development for Windows 11. Live fast and loose with the latest relatively untested builds in the Dev channel, or opt for the more stable builds in the Beta channel. When we say relatively untested, this is somewhat untrue, Microsoft does put all builds through some internal testing before releasing them to the Dev channel, which can mean that builds get delayed or pulled after the fact if blocking bugs are discovered.

Today we are going to show you how to switch to the Beta channel so that you only receive builds that have already been tested by Microsoft, and Windows Insiders in the Dev channel. The build may have even received a cumulative update that fixes issues found in the Dev channel, either way, it will be a much more stable experience.

First of all, click on Start > Settings, alternatively you can right-click on Start and select Settings from the context menu, now select Windows Update in the left pane and then Windows Insider Program, as shown in the image above to open it.

You will see the current build you are on, in this case, we're on the latest 22000.100 build delivered through the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program. Go ahead and click on Dev to expand it.

Here you can opt to move to the Beta Channel, which is what we have done and is shown to be recommended as well. It is currently not possible to switch to the Release Preview Channel, as no such build of Windows 11 exists yet.

Windows 11 does not prompt to restart upon changing Insider settings, and moving between other Settings pages and back to Windows Insider Program confirms that the change was made.

In certain conditions, such as those people who modified the registry in order to enroll for Windows 11 Insider updates back in June, you may experience a "blank" Windows Insider Program settings page, or find you can't switch channels. To fix this, simply head to the official Windows Insider website (on the same machine) and check that your device is registered. In our case, although our Virtual Machine was receiving new builds through Windows Update, we were shown as not being registered as a Windows Insider; upon registering on the Windows Insider Program page in Windows 11 it updated to show that we were in the Dev Channel which allowed us to make the above changes to the Beta Channel.

How to switch to the Beta Channel in Windows 11 Insider Preview

Microsoft has announced that Windows 365 is now available to business and enterprise customers. The service was announced in July following a year of rumours at its Inspire conference. Currently, Windows 365 offers customers a new way to experience Windows 10 but it will soon offer Windows 11 when it becomes available later in the year.

With this new service, Windows is hosted on Microsoft Cloud and customers can securely stream the full Windows experience, including their apps, data, and settings, to personal and corporate devices. With faster and more ubiquitous internet connections, hosting an operating system in the cloud and streaming it is finally feasible.

Microsoft offers three Windows 365 subscription tiers with slight differences between the Business and Enterprise products. The three tiers are Basic, Standard, and Premium and cost $31.00, $41.00. and $66.00 per user per month respectively. The two main differences between the Business and Enterprise versions are that Business subscriptions are restricted to 300 users while Enterprise subscribers can have unlimited users. The second difference is that Business customers can access Windows 365 through windows365.microsoft.com while Enterprise customers will have it integrated with Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

On the Basic tier, you’ll get 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 128 GB storage; this tier is suitable for light productivity tools and web browsers. The Standard tier gives you 2 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, and 128 GB storage; Microsoft says this tier is suitable for running a full range of productivity tools and line-of-business apps. Finally, the Premium tier gives you 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, and 128GB storage; this tier is ideal for running high-performance workloads and heavier data processing.

If you’re not content with the defaults for these tiers and want to customise your subscription, Microsoft also offers a full list of tiers with prices ranging from $20.00 per user per month to $162.00 per user per month. To learn more about Windows 365, head over to Microsoft’s product page.

Microsoft announces the general availability of Windows 365

Microsoft's Windows 365 Cloud PC service is live - Costs from $24 to $162

Windows 11 future updates: Here's everything you need to know

We reported earlier that Microsoft has hinted that it will be re-skinning the Paint app to make it look more at home on Windows 11.

This was based on a teaser image the company posted.

It turns out Microsoft has posted a full-screen version of the new Paint app some weeks ago, but it has not been noticed till now, until FireCube stumbled across it on Unsplash.

You can see a better look at the picture in this perspective-corrected version.

The current version of Paint on Windows 11 is rather more pedestrian.

The Paint app appears to have all new icons, but does still retain the ribbon design for its functions, something which has been removed from the new Windows 11 File Explorer.

It is not clear if the images shown are real or design mockups, but we should know quite soon, with Microsoft expected to barrel towards Windows 11 RTM in the next 8 weeks.

New mockup gives us a good look at MS Paint for Windows 11

Tab Groups is one of my favourite Chromium features, and Google has recently added a number of features which makes it easier to manage this handy tool.

The latest is the ability to open a folder of bookmarks as a tab group.

When you do, Chrome will automatically prompt you to name and colour code the tab group.

Chrome will now also save and let you restore individual tab groups from history. Before you could only restore individual tabs, not groups of tabs.

The features are now currently available in the latest Chrome Canary builds, and with Tab Groups now supported by default on Edge, will hopefully come to the whole Chromium ecosystem soon.

Source: Leo Varela

Chrome adding ability to open bookmark folders as tab groups, more

Registry Explorer is the registry editor every Windows user needs

Microsoft has released a new Office Insider Preview Build 14326.20004 for Windows users registered in the Beta Channel of the Office Insider program. The new Office build adds a new Navigation pane feature, improved scrolling in sheets with large cells, improvements to Outlook search. The new Office build also includes fixes for issues found in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Office Suite. You can read the full official changelog below.

Changelog

Excel

See the big picture with Navigation pane

Gain a clearer view of complex workbooks with the new Navigation pane feature. The Navigation pane is a great way to better understand a workbook’s layout, view the different elements that make up the workbook, and navigate directly to those elements. To try out the feature, select the View tab and then choose the Navigation button to open the pane (or select the sequence Alt > W > K to open the pane from your keyboard).

Learn more >

 

Improved scrolling in sheets with large cells

When you are using a sheet with very large cells, sometimes the “snap to grid” functionality in Excel can make it harder to view the data you want. We’ve fixed this issue by making the scrolling much smoother—no more snapping to rows and columns. You’re now able to stop scrolling partially through a row or column, and Excel will not force the sheet to snap to the edges.

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue occurring when saving as XML data (.xml) from workbooks containing an XML map.
• We fixed an issue where scrolling with touch or a touchpad would revert back to the start of the spreadsheet.

Outlook

Answers: Improvements to Outlook Search

Outlook Search Answers is the latest development in search enhancement for Outlook, helping you find exactly what you’re looking for. Now it’s even easier to find the people, files, and calendar events you want, with Outlook surfacing the best answer as a card at the top of the results. To try it out, just search on one of those content types in the Search box at the top of the Outlook window (making sure that “Current Mailbox” is selected as the search scope).

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue that caused emails re-sent by a different user to appear to have been sent by the original sender, in organizations where SendFromAliasEnabled is set to True.
• We fixed an issue that caused delegates trying to view forwarded meeting requests in their sent items folder to see the manager’s copy of the meeting rather than the delegate’s sent item.
• We made a change to allow administrators to disable Always On Logging on a per-process basis via group policy.
• We fixed an issue that caused users to be able to download protected voice mail files.
• We fixed an issue where some notifications in Outlook desktop were not actionable when Office was installed on Win Server 2016.

Word

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where the cursor may not be visible after a page break.
• We fixed an issue where Word became unresponsive when updating the Table of Contents field via VBA when Track Changes was on.
• We fixed an issue that caused inserting a GIF to show a security notice.

PowerPoint

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue to re-enable cropping for pictures inside SmartArt objects.
• We fixed an issue where, in certain situations, a user was unable to use Paste Special to paste chart content from Excel to PowerPoint.

Project

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where, when you applied a view or table, not all of the columns that were supposed to show up actually showed up.
• We fixed an issue where you couldn’t create a visual report if the project had cross-project links and fixed cost.

Office Suite

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where text was truncated in some languages due to increased text size.
• We fixed an issue with incorrect text wrapping in task panes for high-DPI displays.
• We fixed an issue where Fire coauthoring state changed when transitioning to None.

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

Windows Office Insider Preview Build 14326.20004 adds new Navigation pane feature, Outlook search improvements and more

Open letter drafted against what's seen as unjustified profiteering

Many of the almost 24,000 technical standards maintained by the International Standards Organization (ISO) are subject to copyright restrictions and are not freely available.

Two weeks ago, Jon Sneyers, senior image researcher at Cloudinary and co-chair of the JPEG XL (ISO/IEC 18181) adhoc group, invited fellow technical experts to collaborate on an open letter urging the ISO to set its standards free.

In an email to The Register, Sneyers explained that paywalled, copyrighted standards inhibit education and innovation.

"Specifically for JPEG XL (or codecs in general), a free spec makes it a lot easier for external enthusiasts to make an alternative implementation," he said "Often this would be done as a free-and-open-source software hobby project, not necessarily with the goal to make a better implementation, but just as a personal learning project. With a free spec, there might be a few of such attempts, some failing, some succeeding."

The value of alternative implementations, he contends, is that they help verify the correctness of the spec. He notes that libjxl, the reference implementation of the JPEG XL spec, is the only such library at the moment, which makes it less likely discrepancies between the spec and the implementation will be found and more likely that libjxl, compliant or not, will become the de facto standard, thereby diluting the authority of the ISO spec.

"With a paywalled spec, there will likely be no such attempts, because a hobbyist is unlikely to pay a big fee up front just to read the spec (which is something you'd do before you even decide to have a go at it and try to implement it)," he said.

Via Twitter, Ian Graham, senior lecturer in operations management at the University of Edinburgh, explained the problem with paywalled specifications succinctly. "It is very difficult to teach about ISO standards when the students can't access them," he said.

The collaborative open letter notes that in 2019 the Switzerland-based ISO, which through its national affiliates brought in 6.6m CHF ($7.28m) from publications sales and 12.9m CHF ($14.23m) in royalties from publication sales by national affiliates, earned almost as much in spec fees as the organization collected in membership fees that year (21.2m CHF or $23.39m USD).

And it claims that the ISO Central Secretariat has "begun strictly and narrowly enforcing the criteria for Publicly Available Standards (PAS)" by paywalling new editions of standards that were formerly free, redefining Technical Reports so they can no longer be free under any circumstances, and "pressuring other standard organizations with which it collaborates and that have a policy of publicly available standards (e.g. ITU-T), to change their policy towards making joint documents non-publicly available."

Sneyers believes the ISO should be moving in the opposite direction by tearing down its paywall.

"I think international standards are great for worldwide interoperability and as a way to do knowledge transfer: collecting best practices and international expertise and condensing it into a standard," he said. "I see a paywall as a significant obstacle to that."

A handful of other technical experts have already signaled their agreement as co-signatories, including:

• Luca Versari, ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC 29 / WG 1, editor of ISO/IEC 18181 (JPEG XL)
• Leonard Rosenthol, Chair of ISO TC 171/SC 2, member of various TC’s including ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC 29 / WG 1 and project leader for over a dozen different standards.
• Bryce Adelstein Lelbach, ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC 22 / WG21 (C++) / LEWG chair, INCITS (US) PL22 chair
• Jeff Hammond, ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC22 / WG5 (Fortran) and WG21 (C++) contributor
• JF Bastien, SC22 / WG21 (C++) EWG Chair
• Eric Portis, W3C WICG & WHATWG participant
• Patrick H. Lauke, W3C PEWG chair, W3C AGWG member

The letter cites numerous arguments for a policy change. Among them: resentment from technical experts who write standards without compensation only to see the ISO charge for their free labor; the risk of irrelevancy if experts choose to pursue standardization through other organizations that don't charge; and the possibility that the ISO's reputation for neutrality will be tarnished if it's perceived as a for-profit entity.

The ISO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sneyers's campaign echoes similar paywall demolition initiatives, such as the ongoing effort to make US court document service Pacer available at no charge, as well the late Aaron Schwartz's attempt to open up JSTOR, and, of course, Sci-Hub.

Carl Malamud, a public domain advocate and president of public.resource.org, lauded Sneyer's effort to change the ISO.

"Standards that are not freely available lose their very reason for being," said Malamud, who has spent years working to make US government documents freely available. "Standards required by law that are not freely available are a violation of a key principle of the rule of law: that the law must be promulgated to be valid. This is particularly true for public safety standards. ISO will lose relevance in our modern world if they do not change their approach to this important issue. They are on the wrong side of justice with their current stance."

"This effort by so many senior ISO participants to make sure their important work remains relevant is very commendable," he added. "I hope they will have some impact on the organization."

Sneyers said he has no immediate plans to present this letter, which he hopes will spur discussion of reform within the national standardization bodies. He said he has been reaching out to other ISO members who share his view about the need to make standards freely available, but he is considering opening the movement up to the public and policymakers.

"The national bodies (ANSI, DIN, etc) are where this discussion will have to be had first, because they are the only ones that can really influence ISO," he said. "I am mostly just trying to give ammunition to those who want to start that discussion." ®

Source

Check out behind the scenes of making Windows 11 features

Microsoft has released a new portal that will allow you to get behind the scenes with Windows 11 designers. You can watch how the new Windows features is being designed. Some of the topics that are available in the new portal are listed below.

• Discover why Microsoft redesigned features like Start, Taskbar, Search & Quick Settings.?
• See how Microsoft created Widgets to help you stay on top of what matters most to you.
• Get the story behind the new touch keyboard, voice typing and tablet posture experiences.
• New name, new sounds, new contrast themes. See all that’s new in accessibility.

You can discover behind the scenes of making Windows 11 features here.

Check out behind the scenes of making Windows 11 features

We recently reported that Microsoft is planning to offer a feature where Microsoft Teams recordings will be automatically deleted after a set period unless other action is taken, a good companion to Microsoft Team’s automatic meeting recording feature.

Now Microsoft has offered more detail on the feature and its rollout.

Microsoft says new recordings will automatically expire 60 days after they are recorded if no action is taken. The 60-day default was chosen as, on average across all tenants, most meeting recordings are never watched again after 60 days. However, this setting can be modified if a different expiration timeline is desired.

To change the default expiration days at the tenant level, there will be two methods available.

1. You can use PowerShell to modify “MeetingRecordingExpirationDays.” This can be done at any time, as the setting is present in PowerShell today even though the feature is not yet enabled. An example command is: “Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -MeetingRecordingExpirationDays 50”
2. As this feature is rolled out, a new setting will be available in the Teams admin centre.

Users (except for users with A1 licenses) can also modify the expiration date for any recordings on which they have edit/delete permissions, using the files details pane in OneDrive or SharePoint. A1 users will receive a 30-day expiration default that can be reduced but not increased. To retain recordings for longer than 30 days A1 users will need to download the file to a non-synced folder.

At either the tenant or user level (excluding A1 users as noted above), the expiration timeline can range from one day to several years, or even set to never auto-expire.

Additional clarifications:

• The expiration setting is not a retention setting. For example, setting a 30-day expiration on a file will trigger an auto-deletion 30 days after the file was created, but it will not prevent a different system or user from deleting that file ahead of that schedule.
• When a recording is deleted due to the expiration setting, the end user will be notified via email. The SharePoint tenant or site admin, or the end user with edit/delete permissions will be able to retrieve the file from the recycle bin for up to 90 days.
• Any retention/deletion/legal hold policies you have designated in the Compliance centre will override this feature. In other words, if there is a conflict between your designated Compliance policy setting and the expiration setting, the compliance policy timeline always wins.
• The admin does not have the ability to override end-user modification capabilities.
• This will not impact any existing meeting recordings created before the feature is deployed. Also, any changes to the default date in the admin console will only apply to newly created meeting recordings after the change is made.
• The expiration days setting in Teams is controlled only via MeetingRecordingExpirationDays. CallRecordingExpirationDays is currently being ignored.
• The min number of days that can be set on MeetingRecordingExpirationDays is 1 and the maximum is 99,999 (e.g. 273 years).
• This feature does not impact meeting recordings stored in Microsoft Stream (classic Stream) but will affect recordings stored in the new Stream (built on OneDrive and SharePoint).
• This feature is only available for Teams meeting recordings created by the Teams service in OneDrive and SharePoint. It is not available for other file types in OneDrive and SharePoint.

What you need to do to prepare:

The feature will be rolling out in late September through mid-November.

If you want the default expiration to be different than 60 days, modify it via PowerShell or (once available) in the admin centre.

Microsoft Teams admins can learn more about the feature in these FAQs.

Microsoft offers more detail on auto-delete of Microsoft Teams meeting recordings

Windows 10 now lets you install WSL with a single command

You can now have 2 rows of shortcuts on the Edge New Tab Page

The feature is now available in the Stable version of Edge, meaning all current releases should support it.

If the feature is now available on your version, it may be a good idea to restart your browser so the latest version can be installed.

via Leo Varela

You can now have 2 rows of shortcuts on the Edge New Tab Page

Last week Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.100 to everyone in the Dev Channel. After no major issues were detected, Microsoft has released the same build to the more stable Beta channel. Microsoft suggests those who would like to test Windows 11 but who are not ready for the wild Dev channel ride may want to switch to the Beta channel now. Microsoft also said they will not be releasing a Dev channel build this week.

Insiders in the Beta Channel will not have Chat from Microsoft Teams, however.  Other changes however include:

Changes and Improvements

• The hidden icons flyout on the lower right of the Taskbar has been updated to match the new visuals of Windows 11. (Please note – it may not look right after updating to this build – toggling between two themes will correct the issue.)

• Microsoft added the ability to quickly access Focus assist settings directly from Notification Center.

• When a background activity from an app requires attention, the app will flash on the Taskbar to get your attention. In Windows 11, Microsoft has updated this design so that it still grabs your attention but with a calming treatment that minimizes the impact of unwarranted distractions. The subtle flashing eventually stops, and you will see a slightly red backplate and red pill under the app icon continuing to note a background activity that needs your attention.

• The touch keyboard icon in the Taskbar has been adjusted to be more consistent with the size of the other icons in the corner of the Taskbar.
• The Taskbar calendar flyout will now fully collapse down when clicking the chevron in the top corner to give you more room for notifications.
• In the latest Microsoft Store update rolling out to Insiders, Microsoft made navigation in our new Microsoft Store feel fast and fun. When you select an app or movie you’re interested in, you might notice some animations that help you keep track of what you’re browsing.

Fixes

• Taskbar:
  • Microsoft fixed the issue that was causing Explorer.exe to crash when the date and time button on the Taskbar is clicked to access new notifications with Focus Assist turned off.
  • Added the missing settings icons for the context menu entries when right clicking network, volume, and battery in the Taskbar.
  • Fixed an issue that was making the clock in the Taskbar get stuck and out of sync.
  • Addressed an explorer.exe that could happen after resuming from standby, related to the volume icon in the Taskbar.
  • There is an issue where the progress bar below app icons in the Taskbar wasn’t always displaying when it was expected to and have fixed it.
  • Clicking on the Taskbar when either Start or Search is open will now make them dismiss.
  • If you tap Taskbar icons using touch you should now see the same icon animation that was visible when using the mouse.
  • The lunar calendar (when enabled) text should no longer overlap the numbers in the Taskbar calendar flyout.
  • The calendar flyout should now show the correct month when in a collapsed state.
  • The date at the top of the calendar flyout should now follow your preferred format and not the format matching your display language.
  • If the Start menu is open, when hovering over Task View the window will now appear above Start menu instead of behind it.
  • Right-clicking Task View will now make the preview window dismiss so you can actually use the context menu.
  • Fixed an issue where if you click on a snap group in the Taskbar, it might not bring up all the app windows after docking and undocking.
  • The icons used for the On / Off indicators in the Taskbar for the Pinyin IME are now a consistent size.
  • Signing out and back in when battery saver is running should no longer result in Taskbar becoming transparent.
  • Mitigated an issue making the network icon sometimes unexpectedly not show in the Taskbar.
  • The Taskbar previews will no longer draw offscreen after upgrading to this build.
• Settings:
  • Microsoft fixed an issue causing multiple buttons and options in Settings to not work in the previous flight, including Go Back and Reset Your PC under Recovery, enabling Developer mode, renaming your PC, and enabling Remote Desktop.
  • The page titles in Settings should no longer be drawing too high up / off screen.
  • Searching for add and remove programs in Settings should now return the expected Settings page.
  • Microsoft has done some work to help search in Settings initialize faster.
  • Addressed an issue that was causing crashes in Settings when interacting with the Windows Insider Program section.
  • Fixed an issue that could make Settings crash on launch.
  • Fixed an icon rendering issue in Power and Battery Settings.
  • Fixed some reliability issues with the Language and Region page in Settings.
  • Made a change to help address a problem where the preview in Personalization Settings sometimes unexpectedly showed you were using a black wallpaper when you weren’t.
  • The font used in the Lock Screen Settings preview should now match the actual lock screen.
  • Fixed a bug making all the icons in Quick Settings appear unexpectedly flipped for Insiders using the Arabic display language.
  • Using the brightness slider in Quick Settings should now show a number as you’re adjusting, like it does with volume.
• File Explorer:
  • Using mouse to open the context menu in File Explorer and on the desktop should no longer display a keyboard focus rectangle on first launch (until you start using the keyboard to navigate it).
  • Microsoft has tweaked the context menu to address feedback that sometimes submenus were unexpectedly closing when you were trying to use them.
  • Fixed a flicker where you could see New become New Item in the context menu.
  • Microsoft has done some work on the context menu positioning logic so that submenus should no longer appear partially offscreen or unexpectedly far away.
  • Microsoft fixed two issues impacting explorer.exe reliability when bringing up the context menu, including specifically when right-clicking on a zip file.
  • Addressed an issue causing the “Unpin from Start” option when right clicking an app to not work.
• Search:
  • Fixed an issue making Search’s shadow appear boxy.
  • Have adjusted the positioning of the Search window when the Taskbar is left aligned, so that it matches Start.
  • Microsoft has addressed an issue where what was displaying when hovering over the Search icon in the Taskbar wasn’t in sync with what would actually launch when you clicked one of the entries.
  • If you’ve launched websites using Search, those should now be properly displayed in the recent searches when hovering over the Search icon in the Taskbar.
  • Made a change to address an issue where some Insiders were unexpectedly not seeing the brightness slider in Quick Settings after upgrading.
• Widgets:
  • Microsoft fixed an issue resulting in your widget configurations not getting saved and unexpectedly being reset.
  • The widgets board and content should now be sized for the correct screen when using multiple monitors.
  • Addressed an issue where sign-in wasn’t working for widgets in some scenarios due to authentication hanging.
  • Microsoft has made another fix to address the clock in the widgets board not following your preferred format.
• Other:
  • Device Security should no longer say “Standard hardware security not supported” for Insiders with supported hardware.
  • With this build the access keys for WIN + X (so that you can do things like “WIN + X M” to launch Device Manager) should now appear consistently.
  • Fingerprint sign in should no longer stop working after rebooting your PC.
  • Addressed an accessibility issue where keyboard focus would disappear from Start after pressing Tab then Shift + Tab.
  • Fixed a bug causing the informational pop ups in voice typing to not dismiss on click.
  • Fixed an infinite loop making some Insider’s devices hang during shutdown.
  • Microsoft made an adjustment to help address an issue causing the title bar to not render correctly on certain apps.
  • Made a fix to stop your wallpaper from flashing when switching between Desktops.
  • Updated the snap layouts window to now use the default animation for flyouts instead of just popping in.
  • Addressed an issue that was making Sticky Notes and Microsoft To Do crash on launch sometimes.
  • Fixed a DWM memory leak that was happening when rotating your device back and forth between landscape and portrait mode.
  • Made a change to address the issue where text could become truncated in the message dialog from Windows Update alerting that an update was ready.
  • Window borders should now be displayed correctly when using high contrast.
  • Turning off “Show shadows under windows” in Performance Options should now actually turn off the shadows under windows.
  • Microsoft has made some tweaks to fix an issue where context menus and tooltip were appearing far from the mouse when using Windows with the Arabic display language.
  • Addressed an issue where the network icons on the lock screen and login screen weren’t consistent.

Known issues

• When upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 or when installing an update to Windows 11, some features may be deprecated or removed. See details here.
• 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.
• Settings:
  • When launching the Settings app, a brief green flash may appear.
  • When using Quick Settings to modify Accessibility settings, the settings UI may not save the selected state.
  • Settings will crash when clicking “Facial recognition (Windows Hello)” under Sign-in Settings if Windows Hello is already set up.
• File Explorer:
  • exe crashes in a loop for Insiders using the Turkish display language when battery charge is at 100%.
  • The context menu sometimes doesn’t render completely and ends up truncated.
  • Clicking a desktop icon or context menu entry may result in the wrong item being selected.
• 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.
  • When you hover your mouse over the Search icon on the Taskbar, recent searches may not be displayed. To work around the issue, restart your PC.
  • Search panel might appear as black and not display any content below the search box.
• Widgets:
  • Widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
  • Launching links from the widgets board may not invoke apps to the foreground.
  • 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.
• Store:
  • Microsoft are working to improve search relevance in the Store including resolving an issue where in some cases the ordering of search results is inaccurate.
  • The install button might not be functional yet in some limited scenarios.
  • Rating and reviews are not available for some apps.
• Windows Security
  • “Automatic sample submission” is unexpectedly turned off when you restart your PC.
  • Windows Hello (Face) may show an error saying “Something went wrong” when attempting to sign in after upgrading. To work around this, sign in with your password or PIN and:
    • Open Device Manager.
    • Uninstall “Windows Hello Face Software Device” under “Biometric devices”.
  • Localization
    • There is an issue where some Insiders may be some missing translations from their user experience for a small subset of languages running the latest Insider Preview builds. To confirm if you have been impacted, please visit this Answers forum post and follow the steps for remediation.
  •  Windows Sandbox:
    • The Taskbar will crash continuously in Windows Sandbox. The team is investigating a fix.

Windows 11 Insiders in the Beta channel can download the update by Checking for Updates in Settings.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft release first Windows 11 Preview build (22000.100 ) to the Beta channel

Microsoft releases optional Windows 10 updates with a ton of fixes  

Microsoft releases optional Windows 10 updates with a ton of fixes

Microsoft has updated the Microsoft Store on Windows 11 to version 22107.1401.6.0.

Announced by developer lead Rudy Huyn, the update brings a number of user experience improvements.

These include:

• Improved UX for installation – Improved user experience for installing applications.
• New Reviews Design – New design for an app or game review dialogue and general improvements for the Reviews and Ratings section.
• PDP media improved.
• Increased performance, especially in viewing your collection and download speed.

The update is currently being tested with Windows Insider users in the Dev channel.

via WBI, screenshot via Arcadia Gracia

Microsoft Store on Windows 11 updated with UX improvements

Vivaldi Browser 4.1 introduces Accordion Tabs and Automation

Frontpaged: Vivaldi 4.1.2369.11 

Microsoft releases new Office version 16.52 (Builds 21071804 and 21072100) for Mac users in Beta Channel