PulseAudio 15.0 sound server has been released today as a major update that introduces numerous new features and improvements for state-of-the-art sound support for Linux and UNIX systems.

Highlights of the PulseAudio 15.0 release include support for the LDAC and AptX Bluetooth codecs for A2DP, support for the high-quality SBC XQ configuration variants, native support for HFP Bluetooth profiles, as well as support for Bluetooth A2DP AVRCP Absolute Volume to control the volume of the connected A2DP device.

This major release also improves hardware support by adding support for the SteelSeries Arctis 9 USB gaming headsets, HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G2 dock, OnePlus Type-C Bullets USB-C headset device, and Sennheiser GSX 1000 and 1200 PRO USB DACs for gaming.

Among other noteworthy changes, PulseAudio 15.0 introduces new command-line parameters for the pactl command, such as get-default-{sink|source}, get-{sink|source}-volume and get-{sink|source}-mute, adds support for setting sound card profiles as sticky, and lets you set module-alsa-card module arguments via udev configuration through a new udev variable called PULSE_MODARGS.

In addition, users can now configure the upper limit for latency of the module-null-source module with the max_latency_msec module argument, load the module-match module multiple times, and add ALSA path configuration files in their /home directory.

Also, the module-jackdbus-detect module now automatically loads JACK sink and source when JACK starts, the module-filter-apply module now automatically adds filter parameters from device properties, and the module-virtual-surround-sink module has been rewritten to support larger impulse responses.

For developers, PulseAudio 15.0 adds a new mechanism that they can use in their apps to disable shared memory on their connection to PulseAudio, as well as a new API that can be used for sending messages from clients to PulseAudio objects.

For packagers, PulseAudio now avoids the loading of X11 modules on Wayland, but the feature currently only works with the GNOME desktop environment, adds support for configuring OSS and Valgrind support in Meson, brings support for reading additional configuration from the /etc/pulse/default.pa.d/ directory to the startup script, and a new option to build client library and utilities only.

PulseAudio 15.0 is available for download as a source tarball for Linux OS maintainers right now from the official website. End users should wait for the new PulseAudio version to arrive in their distro’s stable software repositories before updating. For more details about the new features and improvements, visit the release notes.

Source

Linux Lite developer and maintainer Jerry Bezencon announced today the general availability for public testing of the Release Candidate (RC) milestone of the upcoming Linux Lite 5.6 distribution.

Still derived from the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series, most precisely on the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS point release, Linux Lite 5.6 looks to be yet another small maintenance update that only updates various of the default apps and core components, and brings new artwork.

The biggest change in the Linux Lite 5.6 release appears to be a change in the Lite Welcome application, which is the first thing you see when you fire up the live system. Lite Welcome has been updated in this upcoming release to make it easier for newcomers to install Linux Lite via an “Install Now” button located at the bottom of the dialog.

Lite Welcome’s new “Install Now” button is, in fact, a shortcut for the Lite Installer, which will kick off immediately after pressing the said button. If you happen to close the Lite Welcome dialog at startup, you can always open the installed using the desktop shortcut.

In addition to this accessibility feature, the Linux Lite 5.6 release brings an updated Papirus icon theme and seven new desktop wallpapers to make your future Linux Lite installations prettier. Of course, there are also many other smaller tweaks and changes for a more stable and reliable Linux Lite desktop experience.

Under the hood, Linux Lite 5.6 RC is powered by the long-term supported Linux 5.4 LTS kernel series from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, LLVM 11.0, Python 3.8.10, Perl 5.30.0, GCC 9.3, as well as Mesa 20.2.6 and X.Org Server 1.20.9 graphics stacks.

Various updated apps like the Mozilla Firefox 89.0.2 web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird 78.11.0 email client, LibreOffice 6.4.7 office suite, VLC 3.0.9.2 media player, and GIMP 2.10.18 image editor are included as well, and Linux Lite 5.6 is using Xfce 4.14 as default desktop environment.

The final release is expected on September 1st, 2021, but a Release Candidate of Linux Lite 5.6 is available for testing now and you can download it from the forum announcement. Before testing it, please be aware of the known issues, and keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, not suitable for use in a production environment.

Source

Microsoft to retire semi-annual Windows Server updates, will move entirely to LTSC releases

Microsoft to retire semi-annual Windows Server updates, will move entirely to LTSC releases

Microsoft releases Edge Dev channel build 93.0.961.2 with improved media autoplay settings and more

Microsoft today released the new v93.0.961.2 build for Edge Dev channel users. This new build comes with improved media autoplay settings, improved Settings menu and several bug fixes. Find the full change log of Edge Dev Channel build below.

Added features: 

• Added an allow list to media autoplay settings.
• Added the ability to un-ignore password health alerts for a particular website.
• Combined the Settings pages for Start, Home, and New Tab pages.
• Enabled the new Share experience by default.

Improved reliability: 

• Fixed an issue where the Web Widget crashes when switching browser profiles.
• Fixed a crash when navigating to certain pages.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the browser crashes after being open for a while.

Edge Dev Channel Changed behavior: 

• Fixed an issue on Mac where PDFs sometimes don’t display at the correct size.  Thanks for being persistent in reporting this and making sure we knew about it!
• Fixed an issue where PWAs or websites installed as apps sometimes open to blank windows.
• Fixed an issue where printing specific pages of a PDF sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where an error message that “Update policies are configured but will be ignored because this device isn’t domain joined.” unexpectedly appears when updating the browser.
• Fixed an issue where extension icons sometimes aren’t visible.
• Reduced the number of irrelevant entries saved in autofill.
• Temporarily disabled the ability to change fonts in Immersive Reader on Linux.

Edge Dev Known issues: 

• Certain extensions such as the Microsoft Editor extension don’t work on Linux.  As soon as they’re installed, they crash and are disabled.  We’re currently investigating.
• Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube.  As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed.
• 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 93.0.961.2 with improved media autoplay settings and more

AdDuplex: Windows 10 version 21H1 is now on over 26% of PCs, Windows 11 makes its debut  

After a gap of a couple of months, AdDuplex has released its Windows version usage report for the month of July. The report is collected from 5,000 Microsoft Store apps that are running the AdDuplex SDK v.2 or higher, and around 60,000 Windows PCs were sampled for this report. This month’s highlight is the debut of Windows 11, which was formally announced in June. As for Windows 10, version 21H1 that was released in May is now running on over 26% of Windows machines.

 

Just like the October 2020 Update, the Windows 10 May 2021 Update was an enablement package that light up new features in the OS. The underlying codebase for 21H1, however, is identical to versions 20H2 and 2004, meaning that the three most recent versions are serviced with the same cumulative updates. It is, therefore, not surprising to see that the rollout of the latest version has been faster than the previous versions has seen. This is only expected to increase as version 2004 begins to reach the end of support for consumer SKUs.

With Windows 10 21H1 now on more than 26% of PCs, the three latest versions of the OS account for close to 88% of usage share. The title for the most famous version of Windows 10 is retained by version 20H2 at 36.3%, followed by version 2004 at 24.6%. Windows Insiders running Windows 11 in the Dev channel account for close to 1% of total devices.

 

Windows 10 version 21H2 is also slated to be an enablement package. However, with Windows 11 expected to begin rolling out later this year, it will be interesting to see how the usage share changes, since there are still questions about the pace of the rollout and what the final hardware specifications will be.

AdDuplex: Windows 10 version 21H1 is now on over 26% of PCs, Windows 11 makes its debut

New Windows 10 KB5005394 emergency update fixes printing issues

Audacity 3.0.3 introduces error reporting and update checking functionality

There are several open-source tools available for security researchers. Now, GitLab has introduced a new one to the arsenal that lets you detect malicious code in dependencies.

The tool is also known as “Package Hunter” and is an important addition that could help secure every type of software.

What is Package Hunter?

Every software includes some form of dependencies, which makes it possible for a developer to quickly build an app.

While this facilitates the reuse of code to achieve the task, they often just “trust” the dependencies used without separate review.

Package Hunter comes to the rescue here and lets you easily detect malicious code in a dependency package.

Enhanching Software Supply Chain Security

Many supply chain attacks involve a compromised dependency package.

Normally, the attacker injects malicious code in the dependency code available to the public or creates a separate private repository to distribute the malicious dependency that looks safe.

Even if you are using a package manager to get trusted packages, it can be tricked to download packages from a private repository. And, you will have no idea about it.

Hence, with an additional check to the supply chain which is as convenient as Package Hunter, the software supply chain security should improve.

And, especially, if the open-source supply chain security improves, open source software security will gradually get a boost as well.

How Does it Work? How Can You Get it?

Package Hunter scans for malicious code and keeps an eye on unexpected behavior of the dependencies.

It installs the dependencies in a sandbox environment to monitor and detect any anomalies.

As of now, it supports testing NodeJS modules and Ruby Jems.

GitLab has been using the tool internally for a while. And, now, it seamlessly integrates with GitLab.

You can learn more about setting it up by referring to the official documentation and the Package Hunter CLI instructions.

It is available as a free and open-source project on GitLab.

Source

With Windows 11, Microsoft has taken a different tack with the Microsoft Store. The company was no longer trying to make it a profit-generating centre and has cut its fees deeply while throwing open the doors for apps from all kinds of sources, including traditional and legacy Win32 apps.

This does come with some downsides, however, and for Win32 apps this means Microsoft is taking no responsibility for updating the apps, relying on the developer’s own installer and updater.

Microsoft’s documentation notes that:

“Updates to Apps are not required to be submitted through the Store. End users will not be able to receive updates from the Store. Apps can be updated directly by You via your App that is installed on a Windows Device after download from the Store.”

Developers will also be able to deliver an Installer via the Store, and download the app from their own CDN. Microsoft will be adding a label to help consumers know of this different experience:

In the Store it will look like this:

What this unfortunately means is that getting an app from the Store will mean that we will still have to suffer the multiple installers in your taskbar, but in turn developers have little reason not to add their apps to what is essentially Microsoft’s directory service.

What do our readers think of this change? Let us know below.

via WindowsLatest

On Windows 11, Win32 apps can not be updated via the Microsoft Store

iOS 14.7.1 and macOS 11.5.1 arrive with one bug fix and one security fix

iOS 14.7.1 is a small update that fixes a security vulnerability and a Watch bug.

iOS 14.7.1 and macOS 11.5.1 arrive with one bug fix and one security fix

The W3C doesn't get to be the boss of anyone, the decisions are going to be made at each of the browsers'

Google has updated the schedule for its introduction of "Privacy Sandbox" browser technology and the phasing out of third-party cookies.

The new timeline has split the bundle of technologies in the Privacy Sandbox into five phases: discussion, testing, implementation in Chrome (called "Ready for adoption"), Transition State 1 during which Chrome will "monitor adoption and feedback" and then the next stage that involves winding down support for third-party cookies over a three-month period finishing "late 2023."

Although "late 2023" might sound a long way off, the timeline has revealed that "discussion" of the contentious FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) is planned to end in Q3 2021 – just a couple of months away – and that discussion for First Party Sets, rejected by the W3C Technical Architecture Group as " harmful to the web in its current form," is scheduled to end around mid-November.

Google said that "extended discussions and testing stages often produce better, more complete solutions, and the timeline for testing and ready for adoption of use cases might change accordingly," so the dates are not set in stone. There is no suggestion that any of the proposals will be withdrawn; the company appears to believe it can alleviate concerns by tweaking rather than abandoning its proposals.

Discussion of the various pieces is set to take place in the W3C Web Incubator Community Group (WICG), though at a FLEDGE WICG Call last week, Google's Michael Kleber, tech lead for Privacy Sandbox, suggested that the W3C would not be deciding which technologies are implemented, at least in the context of FLEDGE (formerly TURTLEDOVE), which enables auctions for personalised ads in a more private manner than today.

FLEDGE is competing for attention with the Microsoft-devised PARAKEET and MaCAW. Asked by Julien Delhommeau, staff system architect at adtech company Xandr, if the WICG would get a say in whether FLEDGE or PARAKEET/MaCAW would be adopted, Kleber said: "The W3C doesn't get to be the boss of anyone, the decisions are going to be made at each of the browsers. The goal isn't to have one winner and everyone else losing – the goal of W3C is to put out a bunch of ideas, understand the positives of each, and come to a chimera that has the most necessary features. Every browser seems to want convergence, long term, so figuring out how to make convergence happen is important."

The purpose of Google's Privacy Sandbox is to reduce user tracking while still enabling the adtech industry to show customised advertising to users.

"How can websites fund content by enabling third parties to show ads and measure ad performance – but not allow individual users to be profiled?" asked Google Developer Advocate Sam Dutton. The company argued that removing personalisation from web advertising would greatly reduce advertising revenue. It ran its own tests, disabling third-party cookies (which track users across the web) for randomly selected users, for its own ad manager system.

"We observed that for the top 500 global publishers, average revenue in the treatment group decreased by 52 per cent, with a median per-publisher decline of 64 per cent," Google reported.

Therefore big money is involved, and nuances around questions like centralisation of yet more influence over the web in the hands of a few large companies, not least Google.

According to Kleber, when asked if personalised advertising could be removed from the web, he said "while most of the sites in the world would lose 50-70 per cent of their revenue in the alternative you're advocating for, Google is not one of them." He made this claim on the basis that "Google makes most of its money from the ads that appear on Google Search," which do not require tracking technology.

As we noted here, with the exception of Apple, the voices of Google and the adtech industry are louder in this debate, than those of the privacy advocates. ®

Source

Ten years after its first release, Firewalld reached version 1.0. The biggest change is removing Python 2 support.

Firewalld is front-end controller for iptables and nftables used to implement persistent network traffic rules. It provides command line and graphical interfaces and is available in the repositories of most Linux distributions. The name Firewalld adheres to the Unix convention of naming system daemons by appending the leter “d”.

Firewalld is easier to manage and configure than iptables. It offer a very flexible way to handle the firewall management compared to iptables. There are no long series of chains, jumps, accepts and denies that you need to memorize to get Firewalld up and running. It manages rulesets dynamically, allowing updates without breaking existing sessions and connections. Changes can be done immediately in the runtime environment. No restart of the service or daemon is needed.

The firewalld service uses zones to control the firewall access. Zones are preconstructed rule sets for various trust levels. You likely have a zone for a given location or scenario, such as home, public, or trusted. Different zones enable different network services and incoming traffic types while denying everything else.

Firewalld 1.0 is a major version bump. It includes breaking and behavioral changes.

What’s new in Firewalld 1.0

Above all, the most notable changes in this release is dropping of Python 2 support and support for intra-zone forwarding by default. It is important to note that from now on the default target is similar to reject.

Firewalld 1.0 is also a feature release. It includes all bug fixes since v0.9.0.

Highlights include:

• Reduced dependencies
• Intra-zone forwarding by default
• NAT rules moved to inet family
• Default target is now similar to reject
• ICMP blocks and block inversion only apply to input, not forward
• tftp-client service has been removed
• iptables backend is deprecated
• Direct interface is deprecated
• CleanupModulesOnExit defaults to no

For more information about all changes in Firewalld 1.0, you can refer to the official announcement.

Source

v11 set for mid-August release

The Debian Project has set a release date of 14 August for Debian 11, also known as Bullseye.

Debian is an important distribution in its own right, but also influential since it is the basis for many others including Ubuntu, Mint, Devuan, Knoppix, Tails, Raspbian, Pop!_OS, SteamOS and more.

In a post to the developer announcements mailing list, the release team said: "We plan to release on 2021-08-14." This is a little over two years since the release of Debian 10 "Buster," which came out 6 July 2019. The testing release is now "completely frozen" other than to "emergency bug fixes."

Debian 11 is based on the 5.10 Linux kernel and officially supports the same architectures as Debian 10, though this may be the last with full 32-bit i386 support.

According to the docs, Debian 11 has over 13,370 new packages. 62 per cent of the packages in Buster have been updated, and another 13 per cent (7,278) have been removed. This release is also the first to have kernel support for exFAT following Microsoft's publication of the specification in 2019 and Samsung's contribution of the exFAT drivers it uses in Android – though the superior ext4 is the default and the value of exFAT support is mainly for compatibility.

We took a look at Debian 11 here.

The default mail server remains Exim and the maintainers have warned that the upgrade to Exim 4.94 in Bullseye is major as "it introduces the concept of tainted data read from untrusted sources... this will break configurations which are not updated accordingly."

Removed packages include the lilo boot loader, the Python 2-based Mailman 2.1 (Mailman 3 is included), and Chef configuration management. Python 2.7 is still there but "it is not supported for running applications" and was only included for use in a few application build processes. Debian 11 will be the last release to support separate /bin /sbin and /lib directories with equivalents under /usr and the team recommended usrmerge to do the conversion to merged layout if needed.

Release parties are planned but at the time of writing none were listed; the circumstances are not ideal and the release team acknowledged that they should only be held if "the conditions around you allow for it." Fear not: there will also be a "distributed release celebration" on the DebianPartyLine, a group voice chat system. ®

Source

You may know it better as Teams. Giddy up

You can spot a veteran of the Browser Wars a mile off. These fearsome conflicts, fought across the desktops of the world not 20 years ago, left deep scars. Just whisper "Best viewed in IE6" in any crowd of Generation 95'ers, and watch grown men and women weep like babies as their hands grasp for an invisible mouse to click on that long-gone Close Window.

By Gen XP, it was all over and the internet desktop was under total Empire control. Then came the Rebel Alliance of Chrome and Firefox, and in a few short years we were liberated.

Like every peacetime generation, those since have forgotten the conflict. They assume that freedom is here by right. The desktop is an antique battleground, as obsolete as warships in the Baltic. We are mobile, we are cloud, all places where access lock-in is baked out.

Bad news. Windows 11 is going to change all that. Grab that Lee-Enfield .303, soldier. An old enemy reawakens.

Internet Explorer turned a 5 per cent market share against Netscape into a 90+ killer score by the simple expedient of getting integrated into Windows 95 through a service pack. Windows 11 is certainly very, very keen for you to use Edge, which as in Win 10 pops up in system search even if you make your default browser something else, but there's no sign it'll become anything more than the Chrome Install applet.

No, the new superweapon you'll get for free is Microsoft Teams, which is now super-snugly installed on the Windows 11 desktop and just a click away from easy-peasy sign-on to the Empire. Everything else that MS really wants you to use – OneDrive, Office 365, those blasted widgets – you can do away with. Teams? Ah, not so much. Teams is there, ostensibly, to talk to other people, and if they're on Teams you have to use it too. Documents, spreadsheets, files of all sorts – a OneDrive, Office 365 user can swap stuff with your Google Drive and apps.

In these WFH days, you have to talk to other people over the internet. The out-of-date battlefield is the physical office, the new shiny conflict zone is the mediation channel that carries all our work interactions.

And this time, there's not even an entrenched opposition. Google's conferencing system is a shambles that doesn't know its own name, and the only defensive line being drawn up is by Salesforce and the freshly mobilised Slack. It doesn't look good for Slack, which knows it – a year ago it started a complaint against Microsoft for including Teams in Office. No doubt it'll extend that to Windows 11, but nobody wins a world war in a courtroom.

What makes the conferencing space as tempting a resource as Mesopotamian oil fields to the Great Powers? It's the same as the Browser Wars – those who control the conversation between humans and the digital control the world. Every file you share, every connection made, every link swapped, is treasure to be collected. It's all funnelled together automatically. Watch as in-Teams access channels spring up across businesses for helplines, content accumulators, special offer conduits, payment systems.

The long trail of interactions between conferencing system users, each other, and their resources, produces a rich seam of ready-to-mine behaviour that, because it is so task-focused, is massively monetisable. All that metadata – and real data – on Microsoft's servers, raw material ready to feed the AI/ML machines, just a EULA click away. Microsoft stands to gain a lot more than Salesforce here as it will be installed as default across just about every business in the world, and has a lot more stuff to sell you; if it gets home users into the Teams habit, it's back in the happy hunting grounds of IE6.

This is a terrible prospect, not just for Slack but for everyone. IE6's reign was marked by stagnation; all companies see spending development resources for a monopoly service as waste. It had its slave army toiling in the factory, they should be grateful for what they get. And if you think Teams is less fun than tickling the tonsils of a decomposing turbot, wait until Microsoft has settled in to enjoy its new monopoly.

What saved the world were internet open standards – Microsoft couldn't manage that lock-in, hard as it tried. This time, the standards don't exist or where they do, they're not used by the big players, who control the whole chain end-to-end. Third-party endpoints are not allowed. So it doesn't matter if you're on a non-MS desktop or a mobile device, you'll have to use the Microsoft app. No lock-in on the cloud? Do us a favour.

It may be too late; Windows 11 will be everywhere soon. The rest of the industry is in disarray. But a new Rebel Alliance could be built, if the Googles and Salesforces and Amazons and Apples decide that living in a federation of states is preferable to seeing the whole lot go back under the four-pane logo of old. If Microsoft has the most to win, it also has the most to lose – Salesforce's Slack love is as a CRM channel, where it will end up getting the metrics and aggregated channels anyway. Google and Amazon have the reach and the infrastructure to sell conferencing services on the open market, with open access points. And they are creatures built from open standards, unlike Microsoft. Google won mobile by being open. If it showed any sign of understanding conferencing, that'd be nice.

Pinning your hopes on an uneasy alliance getting on a war footing before a focused opponent has already won is not how any sane person would make a better world. But the evidence for hope is there. Just ask the veterans of the last war, and listen when they say – there is a better way. ®

Source

As with any big-name software that is yet to be officially released, there is not only great enthusiasm about Windows 11, but also a rush to get hold of it by any means possible. While there are formal channels through which to obtain Windows 11 legitimately in order to test it out, scammers are taking advantage of the excitement surrounding the new operating system.

Security firm Kaspersky has issued a warning for anyone thinking about downloading Windows 11. The company urges caution lest users find their system infected with malware and adware, particularly in the light of a 1.75GB file that is currentlyu in circulation called 86307_windows 11 build 21996.1 x64 + activator.exe.

Unsurprisingly, the download is not what it purports to be; anyone downloading and installing it will find their computer becomes riddled with malware. And this is far from the only instance of scammers using the impending launch of Windows 11 to lure people in and have them install everything from adware and spyware to keyloggers and other malware.

Kaspersky says that it has already been able to thwart several hundred instances of fake Windows 11 installers being used to distribute malware. The security firm warns:

Microsoft hasn't yet released Windows 11, but the new operating system is already available for download and preview. Cybercriminals, of course, are exploiting that, slipping malware to users who think they're downloading Microsoft’s new operating system.

But, as mentioned, it is possible to get your hands on Windows 11 right now, completely free of charge. Microsoft has made preview builds of the operating system available to Windows Insiders, and you can easily sign up to take part in this program via Settings in Windows 10.

Kaspersky says:

Download Windows 11 from official sources only, as Microsoft advises. So far, Windows 11 is officially available only to participants in the Windows Insider program -- that is, you have to register. You'll also need a device with Windows 10 already installed.

To upgrade your Windows 10 computer to Windows 11, go to Settings, click Update & Security, then select Windows Insider Program and activate Dev Channel to get the update.

We don't recommend running the update on your main computer; prebuilds can be unstable.

The company also advises everyone to " use a reliable security solution and never disable it"

Source

 

Windows 11 was officially announced last month with a redesigned Start, taskbar and Action Center experience. At the moment, Windows 11 is available to testers in the Dev Channel of the Insider program.

 

Microsoft is still on Windows 11 and the company has introduced new features and improvements with the latest cumulative updates. In addition to big improvements, we're also expecting nifty improvements for the context menu, taskbar, and other areas of Windows 11.

Windows Update assistance

Microsoft is testing a new feature that would calculate and display the estimated installation time of an update. This feature is now available for everyone and it will appear when a new cumulative or feature update is ready to be installed in Windows Update.

 

 

However, this feature doesn't seem to be working properly as Windows Update always displays a five-minute estimate.

Search box

The Start menu is getting a new search box to make it easier to find your apps, documents, pictures and more. At the moment, the search bar is merely a shortcut and it will simply open the Windows Search panel

Taskbar

In the latest builds, Microsoft is working on a new modern design for the hidden icons flyout which is available on the lower right of the Taskbar  

 

 

Similarly, the taskbar can now be enabled across multiple displays.

 

Microsoft is testing a new taskbar design that will tell you when an app requires attention. The app icons will automatically flash on the Taskbar, but the flash effect would be subtle. Microsoft says these changes will match the look and feel of Windows 11, and the focus is on reducing the impact of unwarranted distractions.

Context menu

Microsoft is refreshing the right-click menu within the operating system to reduce clutter and enable Fluent Design acrylic effect. With Windows 11, Microsoft is bringing refinements to contextual file operations in the right-click context menu.

 

 

Windows 11 context menu comes with these improvements:

 

• Common commands are placed right next to where the menu is invoked.
• “Open” and “Open with” are grouped together.
• Apps extend the menu with IExplorerCommand + app identity. Unpackaged Win32 apps can use Sparse Manifests. IExplorerCommand support extends back to Windows 7.
• App extensions are grouped together below Shell verbs.
• Cloud Files provider apps are placed next to the Shell commands to hydrate or dehydrate the file.
• Apps with more than 1 verb are grouped into a flyout with app attribution.
• “Show more options” loads the Windows 10 context menu as-is for access to low-use Shell verbs and apps still working on porting over. No commands have been removed entirely.
• Shift-F10 or the keyboard menu key will also load the Windows 10 context menu.

Microsoft Teams integration

Microsoft has now enabled the Microsoft Teams chatting feature in the Windows Taskbar. This feature is based on Microsoft Teams WebView and it will simply allow users to launch Teams chat or meetings directly from the taskbar.

As shown in the above screenshot, you’ll see your most recent individual and group conversations. At the moment, you can tap on the Chat icon in the Taskbar to reach out to your contacts and friends.

 

It can automatically sync existing contacts via Skype or Outlook and you can also add contacts via an email address or phone number. You can generate an invite link to easily invite others to a group chat or video call.

 

Microsoft is still working on Windows 11 and we'll see more improvements in the coming builds.

A closer look at Windows 11’s recent changes

Microsoft Edge 92 won't autoplay all media anymore by default

Hands-on with the new Microsoft Teams experience for Windows 11

 

Earlier this week, Microsoft released another Windows 11 build to Windows Insiders in the Dev Preview ring. The new build brought improvements to the UI as well as the new Microsoft Teams integration. Microsoft announced the Teams integration at the Windows 11 launch event last month. With the feature now rolling out to Windows Insiders, we decided to take a closer look at the new Teams integration for Windows 11.

First time setup

After you install the new Windows 11 build, you will see a Teams icon on the taskbar. Clicking on the option will open Team for the first-time setup. The setup is pretty simple.

Microsoft allows you to use your regular MSA account for personal use. You can also use your work or school account if you have one and want it easily accessible.

Once you select the account, Microsoft will ask you to verify ownership (if you have two-factor authentication) as well as add a phone number. This will add as a secondary username and also allow others to find you on Teams.

Lastly, Microsoft will confirm the settings and ask you if you want to use your existing Outlook or Skype contact list to find people on Microsoft Teams. One thing to note here is that if you have used Windows Phone in the past or you use Outlook to sync your contacts then you will see your address book on Teams (provided you selected the sync Outlook contact list on the last step).

Using the app

The experience is same more or less. However, with a personal Teams account, users can now use it as way to stay connected to their loved ones. Moreover, you can now enter an email address to send a Teams message to them.

This works in two parts: if the person already uses Teams, they will get a general chat notification. However, if the person you are messaging does not use Teams, they will get an email inviting them to join Teams and continue the chat.

One thing that I personally believe can enhance the Teams experience is the support for SMS. While you can message people using phone numbers, they have to be in your contacts. Unfortunately, you can’t directly start a conversation with someone if they are not in your contacts. This is something that Microsoft can add in the future to allow users to start conversations by just entering the phone number of the person they want to talk to and if the person is not on Teams, they will get an invite to join the app.

However, there is one way to invite others to a text chain and that is via the 'invite using link' option. As the name suggests, the option generates a custom link that can be shared with others to allow them to join a conversation.

Lastly, Microsoft is also expected to merge the Meet Now feature into Teams in the feature. It will further enhance the user experience by allowing users to make audio and video calls using Microsoft Teams. Currently, the feature exists just as a placeholder button, but the company is expected to add it before Windows 11 is shipped as an update to existing Windows users.

Hands-on with the new Microsoft Teams experience for Windows 11

 

Microsoft has reminded customers that Microsoft 365 apps and services will drop support for the legacy Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) web browser next month, on August 17, 2021.

 

After the end of support is reached, those still trying to connect to Microsoft 365 may face degraded user experience or connection failures.

 

"These apps and services will phase out over weeks and months to ensure a smooth end of support, with each app and service phasing out on independent schedules," the Microsoft 365 team said earlier this week.

 

According to Microsoft, users experiencing issues when attempting to access Microsoft 365 apps or services after August 17 will not be offered support.

 

No new features will be released, and the daily usage experience will most likely get steadily worse until the M365 apps and services slowly phase out.

 

Additionally, using the new Microsoft Edge's Internet Explorer mode will not help extend IE11 access to Microsoft 365 products beyond the end of support.

This is how the M365 application experience will look like for IE11 users starting with August 17:

 

• Outlook Web App: Users logging in with AAD accounts will still receive the full OWA experience but will not receive new features beginning August 17, 2021, while users logging in with Microsoft Accounts (MSA) will be redirected to the Outlook Web App Light experience.
• Open with Explorer/View in File Explorer (SharePoint): We understand that some customers may continue to use Open with Explorer and View in File Explorer (only accessible in IE11) to access document libraries. To avoid disruption, these customers will be able to use these features for now when they go to a document library in IE11. These features remain in maintenance mode and aren't receiving further development. We encourage all customers to move to a modern browser and OneDrive sync for a better user experience and easier access to files. For more information on how to prepare your SharePoint environment for end of support on IE11, please read this Docs article.
• All other apps and services will phase out over weeks and months to ensure a smooth end of support with each app and service phasing out on independent schedules.

IE11 to reach EOS on some Windows 10 versions next year

This reminder comes after Microsoft first announced plans to ditch support for the Microsoft Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer 11 web browsers in Windows 10 and Microsoft 365.

 

Following that initial announcement, Microsoft Teams had already dropped support for Internet Explorer 11 on November 30, 2020.

 

Two months ago, Redmond also revealed that it would also retire the legacy browser on some Windows 10 versions on June 15, 2022, replacing it with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge.

 

After being retired on systems running Windows 10 client SKUs (version 20H2 and later) and Windows 10 IoT (version 20H2 and later), the Internet Explorer desktop app will be disabled, automatically redirecting users to Microsoft Edge when launched.

 

Enterprise organizations depending on legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and apps for critical processes can still use them with Microsoft Edge's IE mode (more info available in this Getting Started guide.)

 

In related news, WordPress, the most popular blogging platform, also announced in March 2021 that it is planning to drop support for Internet Explorer 11 as the browser's usage has already dipped below 1%.

Microsoft 365 drops support for Internet Explorer 11 in August

Microsoft’s fix for Windows 10 gaming issues is coming soon

Windows July update breaks printing and scanning when using smart-cards

Windows July update breaks printing and scanning when using smart-cards

New Windows Office Insider Preview Build 14315.20008 now available for Beta Channel subscribers

Many Windows 11 Insiders are running into a Windows Hello “Something went wrong” error after installing the latest preview build 22000.100.

This was a known issue Microsoft was aware of prior to the release of the build, with Microsoft saying:

Windows Hello (Face) may show an error saying “Something went wrong” when attempting to sign in after upgrading.

There are two workarounds.  One is simply to use your PIN, until the next build fixes the issue.

The other is to uninstall the Windows Hello biometric driver and let Microsoft install a fresh version that works better.

To do this:

1. Open Device Manager
2. Navigate to “Biometric devices”
3. Right-click on and choose to Uninstall “Windows Hello Face Software Device”
4. Reboot your PC.

Your PC should automatically install a new driver which should fix the issue.

The latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build is breaking Windows Hello, here is the fix

Microsoft backtracks on Windows 11 using dark mode by default

Of course kids are allowed. Whatever gave you the impression they weren't?

Open-source audio editor Audacity this week posted an apology on GitHub in response to the entirely predictable furore over the platform's privacy policy.

An updated privacy policy accompanied the apology, in which the team insisted it had just been misunderstood, and that a look at the source would have shown its intentions.

"We are deeply sorry for the significant lapse in communication caused by the original privacy policy document," it said. The fact that it didn't regret the actual document itself seemed to alarm a good many users.

The update removes phrasing that "discourages children under 13 years old from using Audacity." The wording has also been updated to emphasise that no additional data is being collected for law enforcement purposes and that no personally identifiable information is being stored.

We'd wondered if the age restriction was perhaps related to consent for data collection and, indeed, the company said: "After extensive further consultation with our lawyers, we have determined that this provision is unnecessary given the actual mechanics of data transmission and storage. The provision had been included out of an abundance of caution, but in the end turned out not to be required."

It sounds like somebody got a bit too handsy with the copy and paste buttons, popped in some boilerplate text and sent it out into the wild world of GitHub without first considering the implications. Coming so soon after the telemetry fiasco, one would have hoped that Audacity's new owner, Muse Group, might have paused before poking an already angry open-source bear.

Alas, it seems not. The company said: "We are now taking steps to improve our processes for releasing any information related to Audacity in the future to ensure that users are appropriately informed."

It has taken a while for the change to occur, and at least one user observed it was "too little, too late," although the majority opinion on the update appears to be positive. New boss Martin Keary (aka Tantacrul) apologised for the tardiness and laid the blame on the time-consuming process of getting legal teams involved.

"What we want more than anything else," he said, "is for people to see clearly what we are doing."

Which, we suspect, might be the problem in the eyes of many of Audacity's users. ®

Source