ZFS fans, rejoice—RAIDz expansion will be a thing very soon

Founding OpenZFS dev Matthew Ahrens opened a pull request last week.

OpenZFS founding developer Matthew Ahrens opened a PR for one of the most sought-after features in ZFS history—RAIDz expansion—last week. The new feature allows a ZFS user to expand the size of a single RAIDz vdev. For example, you can use the new feature to turn a three-disk RAIDz1 into a four, five, or six RAIDz1.

 

OpenZFS is a complex filesystem, and things are necessarily going to get a bit chewy explaining how the feature works. So if you're a ZFS newbie, you may want to refer back to our comprehensive ZFS 101 introduction.

Expanding storage in ZFS

In addition to being a filesystem, ZFS is a storage array and volume manager, meaning that you can feed it a whole pile of disk devices, not just one. The heart of a ZFS storage system is the zpool—this is the most fundamental level of ZFS storage. The zpool in turn contains vdevs, and vdevs contain actual disks within them. Writes are split into units called records or blocks, which are then distributed semi-evenly among the vdevs.

 

A storage vdev can be one of five types—a single disk, mirror, RAIDz1, RAIDz2, or RAIDz3. You can add more vdevs to a zpool, and you can attach more disks to a single or mirror vdev. But managing storage this way requires some planning ahead and budgeting—which hobbyists and homelabbers frequently aren't too enthusiastic about.

 

Conventional RAID, which does not share the "pool" concept with ZFS, generally offers the ability to expand and/or reshape an array in place. For example, you might add a single disk to a six-disk RAID6 array, thereby turning it into a seven-disk RAID6 array. Undergoing a live reshaping can be pretty painful, especially on nearly full arrays; it's entirely possible that such a task might require a week or more, with array performance limited to a quarter or less of normal the entire time.

 

Historically, ZFS has eschewed this sort of expansion. ZFS was originally developed for business use, and live array re-shaping is generally a non-starter in the business world. Dropping your storage's performance to unusable levels for days on end generally costs more in payroll and overhead than buying an entirely new set of hardware would. Live expansion is also potentially very dangerous since it involves reading and re-writing all data and puts the array in a temporary and far less well-tested "half this, half that" condition until it completes.

 

For users with many disks, the new RAIDz expansion is unlikely to materially change how they use ZFS. It will still be both easier and more practical to manage vdevs as complete units rather than trying to muck about inside them. But hobbyists, homelabbers, and small users who run ZFS with a single vdev will likely get a lot of use out of the new feature.

How does it work?

From a practical perspective, Ahrens' new vdev expansion feature merely adds new capabilities to an existing command, namely, zpool attach, which is normally used to add a disk to a single-disk vdev (turning it into a mirror vdev) or add an extra disk to a mirror (for example, turning a two-disk mirror into a three-disk mirror).

 

With the new code, you'll be able to attach new disks to an existing RAIDz vdev as well. Doing so expands the vdev in width but does not change the vdev type, so you can turn a six-disk RAIDz2 vdev into a seven-disk RAIDz2 vdev, but you can't turn it into a seven-disk RAIDz3.

 

Upon issuing your zpool attach command, the expansion begins. During expansion, each block or record is read from the vdev being expanded and is then rewritten. The sectors of the rewritten block are distributed among all disks in the vdev, including the new disk(s), but the width of the stripe itself is not changed. So a RAIDz2 vdev expanded from six disks to ten will still be full of six-wide stripes after expansion completes.

 

So while the user will see the extra space made available by the new disks, the storage efficiency of the expanded data will not have improved due to the new disks. In the example above, we went from a six-disk RAIDz2 with a nominal storage efficiency of 67 percent (four of every six sectors are data) to a ten-disk RAIDz2. Data newly written to the ten-disk RAIDz2 has a nominal storage efficiency of 80 percent—eight of every ten sectors are data—but the old expanded data is still written in six-wide stripes, so it still has the old 67 percent storage efficiency.

 

It's worth noting that this isn't an unexpected or bizarre state for a vdev to be in—RAIDz already uses a dynamic, variable stripe width to account for blocks or records too small to stripe across all the disks in a single vdev.

 

For example, if you write a single metadata block—the data containing a file's name, permissions, and location on disk—it fits within a single sector on disk. If you write that metadata block to a ten-wide RAIDz2, you don't write a full ten-wide stripe—instead, you write an undersized block only three disks wide; a single data sector plus two parity sectors. So the "undersized" blocks in a newly expanded RAIDz vdev aren't anything for ZFS to get confused about. They're just another day at the office.

Is there any lasting performance impact?

As we discussed above, a newly expanded RAIDz vdev won't look quite like one designed that way from "birth"—at least, not at first. Although there are more disks in the mix, the internal structure of the data isn't changed.

 

Adding one or more new disks to the vdev means that it should be capable of somewhat higher throughput. Even though the legacy blocks don't span the entire width of the vdev, the added disks mean more spindles to distribute the work around. This probably won't make for a jaw-dropping speed increase, though—six-wide stripes on a seven-disk vdev mean that you still can't read or write two blocks simultaneously, so any speed improvements are likely to be minor.

 

The net impact to performance can be difficult to predict. If you are expanding from a six-disk RAIDz2 to a seven-disk RAIDz2, for example, your original six-disk configuration didn't need any padding. A 128KiB block can be cut evenly into four 32KiB data pieces, with two 32KiB parity pieces. The same record split among seven disks requires padding because 128KiB/five data pieces doesn't come out to an even number of sectors.

 

Similarly, in some cases—particularly with a small recordsize or volblocksize set—the workload per individual disk may be significantly less challenging in the older, narrower layout than in the newer, wider one. A 128KiB block split into 32KiB pieces for a six-wide RAIDz2 can be read or written more efficiently per disk than one split into 16KiB pieces for a ten-wide RAIDz2, for example—so it's a bit of a crapshoot whether more disks but smaller pieces will provide more throughput than fewer disks but larger pieces did.

 

The one thing you can be certain of is that the newly expanded configuration should typically perform as well as the original non-expanded version—and that once the majority of data is (re)written in the new width, the expanded vdev won't perform any differently, or be any less reliable, than one that was designed that way from the start.

Why not reshape records/blocks during expansion?

It might seem odd that the initial expansion process doesn't rewrite all existing blocks to the new width while it's running—after all, it's reading and re-writing the data anyway, right? We asked Ahrens why the original width was left as-is, and the answer boils down to "it's easier and safer that way."

 

One key factor to recognize is that technically, the expansion isn't moving blocks; it's just moving sectors. The way it's written, the expansion code doesn't need to know where ZFS' logical block boundaries are—the expansion routine has no idea whether an individual sector is parity or data, let alone which block it belongs to.

 

Expansion could traverse all the block pointers to locate block boundaries, and then it would know which sector belongs to what block and how to re-shape the block, but according to Ahrens, doing things that way would be extremely invasive to ZFS' on-disk format. The expansion would need to continually update spacemaps on metaslabs to account for changes in the on-disk size of each block—and if the block is part of a dataset rather than a zvol, update the per-dataset and per-file space accounting as well.

 

If it really makes your teeth itch knowing you have four-wide stripes on a freshly five-wide vdev, you can just read and re-write your data yourself after expansion completes. The simplest way to do this is to use zfs snapshot, zfs send, and zfs receive to replicate entire datasets and zvols. If you're not worried about ZFS properties, a simple mv operation will do the trick.

 

However, we'd recommend in most cases just relaxing and letting ZFS do its thing. Your undersized blocks from older data aren't really hurting anything, and as you naturally delete and/or alter data over the life of the vdev, most of them will get re-written naturally as necessary, without the need for admin intervention or long periods of high storage load due to obsessively reading and re-writing everything all at once.

When will RAIDz expansion hit production?

Ahrens' new code is not yet a part of any OpenZFS release, let alone added to anyone else's repositories. We asked Ahrens when we might expect to see the code in production, and unfortunately, it will be a while.

 

It's too late for RAIDz expansion to be included in the upcoming OpenZFS 2.1 release, expected very soon (2.1 release candidate 7 is available now). It should be included in the next major OpenZFS release; it's too early for concrete dates, but major releases typically happen about once per year.

 

Broadly speaking, we expect RAIDz expansion to hit production in the likes of Ubuntu and FreeBSD somewhere around August 2022, but that's just a guess. TrueNAS may very well put it into production sooner than that, since ixSystems tends to pull ZFS features from master before they officially hit release status.

 

ZFS fans, rejoice—RAIDz expansion will be a thing very soon

The company is so far calling it Windows 11, which several rumors had already reported. While Microsoft could change things up until the launch, it's highly unlikely. Windows 11 wallpapers are already available to download.

Today's Windows 11 leaks confirm that the company has indeed focused on design changes, focusing on a new Start and taskbar interface. The design is borrowing many improvements from Microsoft's now-shelved Windows 10X, but other changes are likely to be added as the operating system develops further. Here are the screenshots of Windows 11 OOBE.

Windows 11 and Windows 11 Pro leaked screenshots

Qwant has been held up as a digital champion by President Emmanuel Macron.

PARIS — French search engine Qwant is seeking €8 million from Chinese telecom giant Huawei in an effort to stay afloat, according to documents seen by POLITICO.

Qwant CEO Jean-Claude Ghinozzi asked shareholders on May 18 to accept €8 million in funding via convertible bonds from Hubble, Huawei’s venture capital arm based in Hong Kong, the documents show.

The move comes as Qwant, which is partly funded by French public money, aims to shore up its finances. Launched in 2013 and soon backed by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager, Qwant was designed to become a rival to U.S. search giant Google and bolster the EU's tech sector amid wider efforts to wean the Continent off dependence on foreign companies.

Financial backing could mean the Chinese player gains a say over the company's operations, at a time when Huawei stands accused by several governments of spying and has been pushed out of key markets.

Despite geopolitical tensions surrounding Huawei, the French state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts — a Qwant shareholder — voted in favor of the financial operation, according to one of the people who attended the May 18 meeting.

The Caisse des Dépôts declined to comment. A person involved in the matter said the bank had been reassured by the fact that Huawei did not have the power to convert its bonds as it wanted.

This type of financial operation, which is quite common in the startup world, aims to bail out Qwant after years of losses via a three-year loan at a 4.5 percent interest rate. The company lost €13 million in 2020, €23 million in 2019 and €11.2 million in 2018 for revenues that amount respectively for €7.5 million, €5.8 million and €3 million. 

But the mechanism also makes it possible for investors like Huawei to turn its bonds into shares under strict conditions. As a shareholder, the company could potentially gain visibility or influence on the company's strategy.

Among other conditions, the company needs to obtain “administrative authorizations,” before asking for a conversion in two years and become a shareholder owning only “between 5 and 7.5 percent” of Qwant, the document reads. The parties declined to comment on who would issue such an authorization.

A spokesperson for Qwant said the bond financing was a continuation of an existing partnership with Huawei, which did not mean the Chinese firm would take an equity stake.

"This is an investment via a bond. It is not an entry into Qwant's capital. It is a vehicle to finance our expansion, and importantly it's with a crucial global player that recognizes the solidity of our technology and the reality of our project."

"Concretely, with its bond investment, Huawei is helping Qwant to develop and gain scale on a European level for all of the brand's smartphones that will be put on the market in France, Germany and Italy," the spokesperson added.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Axel Springer, which is also an investor in Qwant via Axel Springer Digital Ventures, declined to comment. Axel Springer is a co-owner of POLITICO Europe.

Huawei's partnership with Qwant dates back to March 2020 when the two companies announced they would cooperate on mobile devices, with Qwant being installed by default on Huawei’s P40 smartphones in some European countries. Huawei has been deprived of Google’s products because of a conflict with the American administration. 

The Qwant-Huawei partnership had been in the pipeline since November 2018, several insiders told POLITICO.

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but they included sharing advertising revenue that P40 users would generate on Qwant’s search engine.

Source

Europe’s communication needs are currently almost exclusively delivered by Chinese hardware that connects us to US-based platforms. For a variety of reasons, this is not a good idea.

As stated recently by Charles Michel, President of the European Council, “Interdependence is natural, even desirable. Over-dependence, however, is not”.

At the core, the problem is that almost no consumer-oriented platforms or software products are being created in Europe, or more precisely, by European companies.

Almost all software and (communication) services these days are provided (nearly) for free. The software comes with your computer, the service comes with the phone, or perhaps it is an app that costs a few euros at most.

There are of course exceptions, gaming is one, but in general software and services aimed at consumers are made available without explicit payment. This includes browsers and almost all our modes of communication (email, chat, video) or collaboration (file exchange, calendaring, document editing).

So why would anyone develop such free platforms? Programmers and hardware are still pretty expensive. There must be a plan.

In many countries there is a deeply held belief that it will always be possible to eventually exploit users in order to make money, even if you currently aren’t yet sure how you’ll do that.

Possibilities include monetizing users' behaviour, or more nefariously, once a platform is dominant, abuse its position to make other people pay up if they want to do business with your users (or simply reach them). This is called rent-seeking.

As an example, Apple and Google have recently booted a large gaming company from their platform to make sure they get their 30% cut. To access Android and Apple users, you’ll have to get out your wallet.

Over the past two decades, giving away free software (or running it for users as a platform) has proven to be profitable in the long run, mostly by extracting money indirectly, often through unkind or exclusionary means.

Enter Europe

European companies generally do not operate like this. For one, we lack the imagination and vision to launch something without knowing how it might eventually make money. This may be good or bad depending how you look at it.

European investors specifically are much more interested in traditional business plans than US venture capitalists. “Data is the new oil” does not translate well into German, French or Spanish.

In addition, with the GDPR, NIS (2) Directive & other regulations, data in Europe is definitely more “the new toxic waste”. It is in any case not a business plan.

So not only do we lack the imagination to launch free platforms, the path to one day making money with them is blocked by regulation.

The result

Europe gets its “free” services from the US (and the hardware from China), and both of these countries now operate our consumer communication platforms.

In addition, US companies have taken the economies of scale from consumer communications and have turned these into highly affordable business communication tooling as well (G-suite/Google Workplace, Office 365, Teams).

For various reasons, handing over the vast majority of your communications to people far away is a bad idea. Notably Chinese and US laws offer no meaningful privacy protections for European citizens.

Attempted solutions

Through various kinds of regulations it has been attempted to make transferring data to countries with inadequate privacy regimes illegal. Both in theory and practice this has not worked. US stuff simply is more inviting to use - as it should be, money is being made by us using it.

In earlier times, software (and communications) were far more interoperable than today. This made it possible for projects from different countries and companies to interoperate, which allowed for some competition. You could at least attempt to (re)join the party. Try “interoperating” with WhatsApp one day.

Around 2007, telecommunications companies made one last attempt to take this standards based world to the Internet.

The functionalities now delivered by WhatsApp, WeChat, iMessage etc were packaged up in the “Rich Communication Services” protocol suite, also known as Joyn.

When launched in 2007 however, such standardised communications turned out not to be competitive with free services (for many reasons, including regulatory). So all communications are now on proprietary or exclusionary platforms – it is for example getting hard to deliver email from your own mail infrastructure without ending up in a spam folder over at Gmail.

So in effect, outlawing selling our data to the US has not worked, and neither has a program of going for interoperable standards based communications – the results simply aren’t compelling enough.

Something big will have to happen before we’ll be able to compete with “free” platforms from other countries.

The inevitable solution

If Europe wants to have its citizens (and companies) rely significantly on European-operated software, it has no choice but to develop better software, and to also offer that for free. The good news is: we have the talent. Tens of thousands of Europeans work for US tech companies, often from Europe even.

Another problem we should not have is funding.

The amounts of money involved in software development are trivial on an EU-wide scale. The EU spends several billions every year on worthy infrastructure projects like Copernicus (Climate satellites) and navigation (Galileo). Hundreds of billions are spent on research.

There is definitely enough money to author things like a web browser, chat, email and video conferencing facilities. This would only require the equivalent of a few days of Corona recovery fund money. It will still cost real money though – we don’t need “government-grade” or typical clunky open source software, we need very compelling apps and services that can compete on quality.

It is amazing what a billion euros could get you, with only a two-euro tax on every EU citizen! But it would deliver great things – free communication platforms that we do run ourselves, and that do not track our citizens for the benefit of foreign companies and advertisers.

The remaining challenge

Although the money can definitely be found, it is not easy for any government to support/fund innovative projects, specifically software. Public procurement is a terrible way to spend money. Otherwise useful programs like Horizon Europe are also not set up to deliver this. Consumer-facing software needs to change at a rapid clip, with several major releases every year. Current government procurement for billion euro projects would be happy to buy anything at all in a three year timeframe. H2020 funding also does not work well if you want to be dynamic about your goals.

With enough political will however, it should be possible to find structures to fund European programmers to write compelling software for Europeans. Some of the recent Corona App programs may prove instructive. This might also involve things like contests or other non-traditional constructions.

In this context I am particularly fond of the German Federal agency for disruptive innovation, SPRIND (“A home for people with radical new ideas”), headed by my friend Rafael Laguna.

But it won’t be easy - stimulating innovation with money is extremely hard. Chances are you’ll only be stimulating existing big companies, who might not even be European.

Summarising

Europe nearly exclusively communicates through US platforms, using Chinese hardware. Interdependence is good, but this is over-dependence.

The world is dominated by “free” software and platforms, for which we pay by other means (like rent-seeking and surveillance). European software companies can’t (and won’t) fund themselves this way. Our attempt to forbid foreign software from funding itself with data is worthy, but has failed to foster attractive European software.

Since all communication platforms are now free, the only way to get people to use competitive European software and services is to also offer these for free, and to make sure this technology is very good and compelling. A very minor EU contribution could pay for all this.

The remaining non-trivial challenge is how to turn such EU funding into quality software – existing mechanisms like public procurement and Horizon Europe are not up to the job.

Source

For many, the journey from Windows Vista’s Aero Glass to the Metro UI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 was a major step backwards, but I think few could have imagined just how radical some of Microsoft’s UI ideas were in the past.

Stephan Chapman has been posting historical mockups, pictures and video from the history of Windows, and today posted a short clip showing how Microsoft was considering adding ray-traced-like lighting animation effects to Windows 7.

He said:

Here’s a snippet from a fascinating, super-early Windows 7 prototype that really reimagines the desktop environment. I’d love to see something like this today taking advantage of raytracing to really accomplish some neat effects, interactions, etc.!

Chapman appears to suggest Microsoft rapidly dropped the idea, but it seems the skeuomorphic pendulum is swinging the other direction again (just look at the new Windows 11 shell icons), so who knows, maybe this UI concept will make a comeback.

At one point Microsoft was considering directional lighting effects for Windows 7 UI

(tweet substituted for article video)

Google’s unified Gmail interface (and Google Chat) launches for everyone

Gmail's new do-it-all interface is thankfully optional.

 

The new, unified Gmail rolling out to consumers today. In the sidebar, you get buttons for Gmail Inbox, Google Chat chats, Google Chat rooms, and Google Meet. You can also open this split-screen Google Docs view.

The "Welcome to Chat in Gmail" message.

The Gmail app, with new navigation buttons at the bottom. (This is just a test account, so it's full of spam.)

This "Active" button is your Google Chat status. 

The menu.

 

Google is moving two big features from Google Workspace (Google's paid tier of business Google accounts, formerly called "G Suite") to free, consumer Google accounts. Google Chat, the company's latest messaging app, is now open to everyone. And Gmail's big merger with Google Chat, Google Docs, and Google Meet (Google's Zoom competitor) is also coming to consumer accounts.

Almost a year ago, Google announced a significant change for Gmail that would turn it from a simple email app into a "single, integrated experience" where you could send email, chat, work on a Google Doc, and make video calls, all from one browser-based super-app. In August, this change started rolling out to paid Google Workspace accounts, and it has experimentally appeared on some consumer accounts. Today, though, Google is officially making the feature available to all Google users.

The "unified" Gmail UI mostly takes the form of a segmented sidebar design with all sorts of Google apps in it. Gmail has long featured a segmented sidebar that includes a chat program—first Google Talk (from 2005), then Google Hangouts (2013), and currently Google Chat (2018). With today's change, there are new sections with a spot for Google Chat "rooms" (or group chats, which are now separate from regular contacts) and a section for Google Meet (so you can make video calls).

Although it's not in the sidebar, Google Docs also have Gmail integration. If someone pastes a Google Docs link into Google Chat, you can mouse over the thumbnail and click "Open in Chat," which will open the Google Doc inside a new, multipane interface inside Gmail, with your navigation sidebar on the left. A split-screen interface with Google Chat on the left and the Google Doc on the right will also appear. "Open in Chat" seems like an odd name for this button since it's opening the document inside Gmail.com, but this split-screen interface does not actually work if you receive the link via email. The interface also doesn't work if you have Chat in a pop-up window. Chat has to be shown in a full-screen interface for the button to appear.

Another new widget you'll probably spot in the Gmail UI is the selectable Google Chat status in the top right corner. Normally, this status says "Active" and has a green dot next to it, but you can switch to "Do not disturb" or "Invisible" so you can get some work done.

"Starting today, you can enable the integrated experience in Google Workspace by turning on Google Chat," Google says. Hiding the unified Gmail interface behind the "Google Chat" flag doesn't make a ton of sense, but you can check this box by going to settings -> "Chat and Meet" and flipping the "Chat" setting from "Classic Hangouts" to "Google Chat." If you hate the idea of all this extra stuff inside Gmail, you can turn the "Chat" setting to "Off" and the Google Meet setting to "hide." That should give you regular Gmail.

Google Chat for everyone

Also in today's batch of announcements: Google Chat, Google's latest messaging app, is rolling out for all consumer accounts. Google Chat has had a long and eventful life as a service. It was first announced in 2017 as "Hangouts Chat" and was exclusive to Google Workspace/GSuite. It was Google's competitor to Slack, the $27 billion enterprise chat app, and was renamed three years later to "Google Chat." Starting today, Google Chat is also being drafted into service as a consumer chat app and will eventually replace Google Hangouts, Google's most popular chat product.

Google has launched (and shut down) many chat apps over the years—Google Talk, Voice, Buzz, Disco, Google+ Messenger, Hangouts, Spaces, Allo, etc.—but one user base has kept it all running throughout this chaos. The original Google Talk user base from 2005 was upgraded to Google Hangouts in 2013, and now those Google Hangouts users will be upgraded to Google Chat at some point. Google Chat is already cross-compatible with Google Hangouts—your contacts and messages in one app will show up in the other—Google just needs to kick users off the old Hangouts clients and get them running on the new Google Chat clients.

Rolling Google Chat out to everyone is the first step in that process. Presumably, we'll eventually see prompts in the old Hangouts clients to switch to Google Chat, while Google Hangouts will finally undergo the promised shutdown that has been delayed several times now.

I've had early access to Google Chat for a while now, and if you're wondering what the difference is between the old Google Hangouts and the new Google Chat, the answer is "not much." That's actually a good thing. Google's previous efforts to replace Hangouts, such as Google Allo, have been woefully inadequate in terms of missing features and client support. Google Chat is functionally the same as Hangouts. The two big differences are that chat rooms support @ mentions now, which will be great for bigger rooms, and rooms are separate from the individual contact list, just like in Slack. The result is neither a dramatic upgrade nor downgrade, but Google Chat does have more modern clients. Plus, unlike Hangouts, Google Chat will keep running for the foreseeable future.

Another new Gmail interface—and something called “Spaces”

The Gmail interface that is rolling out to everyone today was announced a year ago. Today (along with the announcement post), Google showed off another new Gmail interface and a new Google Chat feature called "Spaces." Meanwhile, Spaces gets a separate blog post all to itself. The update sounds like a revamp to Google Chat's group chat feature, which used to be called "Rooms" and from now on will be called "Spaces." (Google already had a product called "Spaces"—it was a messaging app that launched in 2016 and was shut down eight months later.)

The blog post mentions that Google Chat Spaces will include "new features like in-line topic threading, presence indicators, custom statuses, expressive reactions, and a collapsible view." Google Chat already has reactions and presence indicators, so it's unclear what the blog post is talking about there, but in-line topic threading would make the service more Slack-like. Both of Google's blog posts today are so packed with flowery marketing language and devoid of specifics that readers will have a challenge parsing what is changing and what the new features are. One of the posts says:

Spaces can provide a place to fuel knowledge sharing and community building for teams of all sizes, where all the relevant information, conversations, and files for a project can be organized, and where topics—even at the organization level—can be intelligently moderated. With the ability to pin messages where everyone can see them, Spaces will play a crucial role in helping people stay connected and informed as hybrid work evolves.

Right. Sounds like a chat room to me.

What's more interesting is that the Spaces screenshots show a bunch of changes to the Gmail interface. Most of the navigational UI area is gray in these screenshots. The sidebar, the top search and settings area, and the right-side panel are all gray, while today, those spots are white and blend in with the main content area.

The sidebar buttons are all styled differently with icons and text; today, the buttons show icons when collapsed and text when moused over. The buttons also seem to be clickable navigation items in this screenshot, whereas the sidebar is presently only an accordion-style list—you can click on an arrow next to "Chat" to expand the chat list in the sidebar, but clicking on the "Chat" title doesn't do anything.

There are also three person-shaped icons in the lower left-hand corner. It's unclear what those are. The icons for the group-chat participants still live in the top right corner of this screenshot. If they are DMs, you would think the "Chat" icon would have a notification number next to them the way the "Mail" icon does. Strange. Google doesn't acknowledge this redesign in its blog post at all, so we'll need to wait until the redesign rolls out for more info.

Listing image by Google

Google’s unified Gmail interface (and Google Chat) launches for everyone

Microsoft Search will soon offer Actionable Items

Microsoft is rolling out actionable items to Microsoft Search. After this change, search results will be supplemented with an assistive action menu.

The search box itself will also command the application where you are working. For example, begin typing “acc” in Word to get list of suggested actions such as Accept Revision or Accessibility Checker. Other options include opening results in the browser or client, download, share, or copy links to search results to help with task completion. You no longer need to hunt through toolbars to look for a command.

The feature will begin rolling this out in mid-June to Targeted Release and expect to complete rollout late June.

Standard release will begin rolling this out in late June and expect to complete rollout mid-July.

Microsoft Search will soon offer Actionable Items

Lengthy support for enterprises that prefer things just so

Ubuntu Pro is coming to Google Cloud, replete with an all-important 10-year maintenance commitment for corporate punters who like things stable.

While Canonical's Ubuntu is hardly new to Google's Cloud, the Pro edition joins other enterprise favourites in the premium category, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

The lengthy support window is based at least in part on Canonical's Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) programme. ESM means eight years for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (to 2024), 10 years for 18.04 LTS (to 2028), and support until 2030 for 20.04 LTS.

During the support period, customers paying for Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud will get live kernel patching as well as patching of high and critical CVEs for Ubuntu's repository (which includes the likes of Node.js, MongoDB, and Apache Kafka).

Canonical's wares can be found in a variety of clouds; Ubuntu Pro (replete with 10 years of support for recent LTS editions and live kernel patching) is available on Microsoft's Azure and AWS with FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria EAL2 certified components. The latter is not due to arrive on Google Cloud until the second half of 2021.

The duo reckon that "Ubuntu Pro will be 3-4.5 per cent of your average computing cost." Similar savings are also claimed for Azure, which says: "Ubuntu Pro pricing tracks the underlying compute cost, starting at under $0.01 for the smallest B1 ls instance type, and ramping down to less than 1 per cent of hourly compute."

As with all "average" figures, your mileage may vary significantly.

For Google Cloud, the charge is based on licence cost for RAM per GB per hour, plus for vCPU per hour and per GPU per hour (if the latter is in use.) RAM weighs in at a flat rate of $0.000127 per GB/hour while CPU and GPU are on a sliding scale depending on quantity.

The cost is in addition to the regular cost of running the VM, meaning that some calculations will be needed to avoid an alarming invoice at the end of the month. ®

Source

Microsoft announces the roll out Windows 10 Cumulative Update Build 21390.2025

Microsoft today announced the release of Windows 10 Cumulative Update Build 21390.2025 (KB5004123). This update does not include any new features and is designed to test Microsoft’s servicing pipeline. It is the third servicing test on build 21390.

What’s new in Windows 10 Build 21390:

Changes and Improvements

• As part of our ongoing iconography improvements, Task Manager and MSI installers now have new Fluent icons.
• You can now set Windows Terminal Preview as your default terminal emulator on Windows – please see this blog post for details. This requires Windows Terminal Preview version 1.9 (or higher).

Fixes

• We fixed an issue causing the news and interests text on the taskbar to appear blurry on some resolutions and scaling factors.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain punctuation not being displayed correctly when the display language was Chinese.
• We fixed a svchost.exe crash related to cdp.dll that some Insiders have been experiencing in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue impacting Start reliability in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue where when using dark mode, the text in the File Explorer search box would be black on a black background. Please note this only addresses this dark theme issue in File Explorer, we are continuing to investigate a second issue impacting dark theme when using Search in the taskbar.
• We fixed an issue in recent flights where a folder might not retain keyboard focus after being renamed in File Explorer.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Task Manager showing the incorrect icon for some processes.
• We fixed a second issue causing some devices to fail when updating to this build with error code 0xc1900101. If you continue to receive this error code when attempting to update, please file a new feedback item.
• [ADDED 5/27] We have re-enabled the functionality where if a folder under the Start menu’s all apps list only contains a single item, we will now display that item in place of the folder on the Start menu.

Known issues

• The Windows Camera App currently does not respect the default brightness setting set via the new Camera Settings page.
• We’re investigating an issue where Search results are unexpectedly no longer following dark theme as of recent flights.
• [News and interests] We’re investigating an issue where the flyout may occasionally flash in the top left corner of your screen after clicking the button on your taskbar.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft announces the roll out Windows 10 Cumulative Update Build 21390.2025

WinRAR 6.02 update includes security improvements

Frontpaged: WinRAR 6.02

Microsoft is hiring engineers to “modernizing existing parts of the Windows”

 

Windows 10 has a frustrating and annoying problem where Windows Update will only offer one optional update at a time.

 

Microsoft commonly releases new updates that are considered optional that won't be installed automatically by Windows Update.

 

Optional updates include new Windows 10 feature updates, Windows 10 preview cumulative updates, feature experience packs, and some out-of-band fixes that target a specific bug in the operating system.

 

However, for over a year now, Windows 10 will only offer one optional update at a time, even if there are multiple optional updates available for your version of Windows 10.

 

For example, the recently released Windows 10 21H1 update has preferential treatment in Windows Update and is offered regardless of other available optional updates.

This week, Microsoft released the out-of-band (OOB) KB5004476 Windows 10 update to fix an Xbox Game Pass bug preventing users from installing or launching games.

 

What is frustrating is that even though this update applies to Windows 10 20H2, Windows Update refused to offer it to my devices until I first installed the Windows 10 21H1 update.

 

Microsoft introduced a new "Optional Update Experience" to Windows 10 in 2019 that was supposed to resolve this issue and allow you to pick and choose what optional updates you wish to install.

 

This feature is clearly not working, as before we installed the Windows 10 21H1 feature update, we were still not offered the optional KB5004476 update in the Optional Updates screen, as shown below.

Once we installed the optional Windows 10 21H1 feature update, Windows Update gladly offered us the new optional KB5004476 OOB update.

BleepingComputer tried these same steps on multiple devices, and Windows 10 demonstrated the same behavior on all of them.

 

While some of these optional updates are available from the Microsoft Catalog, many people are unfamiliar with manually installing Windows updates.

 

It is not clear why Microsoft is not offering all optional updates under the 'Optional updates' feature. However, in its current form users are unnecessarily forced to install feature updates before they can get access to the actual updates that they want.

 Windows 10 has an optional update problem, and it's annoying

 

Microsoft will soon reveal their next generation of Windows at an upcoming press event later this month. Here is what we know so far about Microsoft's new version of Windows.

 

The upcoming press event is scheduled for June 24th and coincides with a public webcast of the live Windows reveal at 11 AM EST.

 

Way back in 2015, Microsoft's developer evangelist Jerry Nixon stated that Windows 10 is the last version of Windows:

 

"Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10." - Jerry Nixon.

 

However, as pointed out by Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley and highlighted by Rich Woods on Twitter, Microsoft has never publicly said in plain words that Windows 10 is the last version of the Windows operating system.

 

Only one developer evangelist only gave the statement. However, the Microsoft PR team never denied it.

 

In fact, Microsoft is slowly dropping hints that suggest Windows 11 is around the corner. For example, the company recently uploaded 11 minutes long relaxing music video on YouTube, which shows off sunlight passing through the Windows logo to form the number '11' on the surface.

 

At the moment, we don't know what the company has in store for us and whether the update is going to be called "Windows 11", but it's safe to assume that it will be based on the long rumoured Windows Sun Valley design, which was recently confirmed in a Microsoft documentation.

 

It's also possible that Microsoft will drop the numbers and start using geographic location names like Sun Valley for Windows updates.

Windows 11 features

Here's a list of rumoured and expected features, arriving later this year with Windows 11 "Sun Valley" update:

Design improvements

Windows 11 update will improve the legacy apps and features of the operating system. On the surface, we're expecting Windows to appear more modern with consistent design language, at least for first-party apps. For example, Microsoft will update file Explorer with dark mode support for the popup menus (properties tab, etc.).

 

However, it appears that the company will not replace File Explorer with a modern version. Instead, the plan is to service the existing Explorer and update it with new icons, rounded corners, and dark mode.

 

Microsoft is using WinUI, modern controls, styles to improve the overall experience. WinUI is not a replacement for Fluent Design, and it is supposed to enhance the overall experience by enabling support for the same UI elements everywhere (legacy and modern).

 

Windows Sun Valley update is built on top of the Fluent Design, which means Fluent Design is not going away.

 

On Github, we've already seen new design ideas for app buttons, elements, ListView, buttons, sliders, etc.

New animations, gestures

As you can see in the above GIF, Microsoft has been working on a new animation for closing/opening windows. This new animation will apply to all apps and windows by default.

File Explorer

Windows Sun Valley will update File Explorer with new icons, rounded corners, and dark mode improvements.

 

As you can see in the below GIF, Microsoft is spacing out the items, columns, and rows in File Explorer. These changes will help users with touchscreen, and they can easily interact with files without switching to tablet mode.

 

Microsoft previously said that the new File Explorer is designed for better consistency with modern (XAML) experiences, and it doesn't require tablet mode. At the moment, it appears that the tablet experience will be enabled by default, which means you can try out the new layout when you're using the desktop mode (normal experience).

Users can always switch to the old layout called "Compact mode."

 

In addition, there'll be some nifty improvements. For example, the Extract All option for OneDrive files is being introduced. This option shows up when you right-click on a zipped OneDrive file that was set to online-only.

The second new nifty addition is support for CTRL + Left / Right arrow when renaming files. This lets you move your cursor between words in the file name, as well as CTRL + Delete and CTRL + Backspace to delete words at a time, like other apps and tools in Windows.

Windows Camera Settings

Microsoft is introducing a new Camera Settings page for advanced users to help them manage the existing cameras, add/remove cameras and configure the default image settings of each one.

This new Settings page can be found at Settings > Devices > Camera, and users can use it to configure the default image settings,

 

As you can see in the above screenshot, this page can be used to change the brightness and contrast.

Display Settings

Microsoft is adding a new option to the Settings app that will allow you to turn off the content-adaptive brightness control (CABC) feature. For those unaware, the CABC feature is used by OEMs like Dell and Lenovo to improve battery performance on PCs, but it comes at the cost of image quality.

 

In some configurations, it can result in distracting brightness changes.

Starting with the Sun Valley update, you can turn off the feature by navigating to the Display Settings page.

Battery usage

Windows Sun Valley also includes a redesigned 'Battery' settings page with detailed graphs to help users understand how their laptop/notebook uses the battery.

 

Once enabled, the graphs will appear within the same settings app and users can see their laptop's battery level throughout the day.

Likewise, you can also open the bar graph view to better understand the battery usage over the past seven days.

HDR support for color managed apps

Microsoft is enabling support for HDR mode in apps creative and artistic apps that use International Color Consortium (ICC) display color profiles. This includes  Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and CorelDraw.

 

This feature will allow your favorite apps to get accurate color and access the full gamut of your HDR display.

New system font

Microsoft is also working on a new Segoe UI Variable that includes an optical axis and allows the font outlines to scale seamlessly from small to larger display sizes. The feature is called "Segoe UI Variable," and Microsoft says it is a refreshed take on the classic Segoe.

 

In theory, it comes with improved legibility for small sizes and much improved outlines at display sizes. It also fixes issues on different form factors and resolutions by enabling support for a new feature that can dynamically offer excellent legibility at very small sizes and style at large sizes.

A new option under the Power menu on the Start menu

Microsoft has enabled support for a new option within the Power menu on the Start menu to help you restart apps after signing in when you reboot your device.

 

This setting is based on the existing "Restart apps" feature, so it's technically not a new feature. This option is currently offered under Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Restart apps in Windows 10 May 2020 Update (20H1) or newer.

Virtual desktops

Sun Valley will also ship with some much-needed multitasking improvements. Microsoft is also on new features for Windows 10's virtual desktop to keep your open apps and projects organized in their own desktops.

 

The problem with virtual desktops is that we cannot reorganize the order of virtual desktops or use unique wallpapers for each virtual desktops. Likewise, it's also not possible to maintain different virtual desktops for two monitors.

 

With the Sun Valley update, Microsoft is introducing three new features for virtual desktops - the ability to reorder (change the position of each virtual desktop), customize the backgrounds for all your virtual desktops, and support for multi-monitor setup.

To reorder the desktops, follow these steps:

 

1. Create multiple new Virtual Desktops.
2. Drag and drop a Virtual Desktop to another position.
3. Right-click a Virtual Desktop thumbnail in task view and select “Move left” or “Move right” in the context menu. This will change the order of all virtual desktops.

 

If you want to change the background of the virtual desktops, follow these steps:

 

1. Open Settings > Personalization > Background.
2. Right-click a background and apply it to a specific Virtual Desktop.

 

Once you’ve selected the background, changes will apply instantly, and you’ll see your new background when you switch to the virtual desktop.

New Clipboard

You can now use the clipboard history manager (Win + V) to insert emojis and GIFs.

In addition to these new fancy features, you will now see a “Paste as plain text” option alongside pin and delete. This will allow you to paste the text content of the clipboard without its original formatting (font, color, size etc.), 

New DNS over HTTPS (DoH) feature

DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a new feature that will allow DNS resolution over encrypted HTTPS connections, and it aims to protect your browsing privacy from outsiders. 

 

"If you haven’t been waiting for it, and are wondering what DoH is all about, then be aware this feature will change how your device connects to the Internet and is in an early testing stage so only proceed if you’re sure you’re ready," Microsoft explained DoH in a blog post published last year.

 

In preview, you can test the feature and configure DoH for ethernet connections by following these steps:

 

1. Open Settings > Network & Internet > Status.
2. Click Properties.
3. Select Edit IP assignment or Edit DNS server assignment.

   

4. Enable DoH in the popup.

 

To configure DoH for Wi-Fi connections, follow these steps:

 

1. Open Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi.
2. Click the adapter properties link.
3. Select Edit IP assignment or Edit DNS server assignment.
4. Enable DoH in the popup.

 

For more detailed information, see our article on how DoH works on Windows 10.

Modern disk management in Settings

Microsoft is migrating legacy apps or tools into modern versions found in the Settings. For example, the Settings app is getting the new Disk Management tool, which aims to simplify the disk management process and manage your disks and volumes without using the legacy tool.

'Manage Disks and Volumes' utility supports better integration with the Storage Spaces and Storage Settings. The disk management tool has been rewritten, and it will initially allow you to view disk information, create and format volumes, and assign drive letters.

 

To access this new tool, you need to go to Settings > System > Storage and click Manage Disks and Volumes.

 

For more detailed information, see our article on the new Disk Management tool.

Improved GPU performance

Microsoft is giving users greater control over multiple GPUs when running apps in Windows 10.

 

On devices with two GPUs, Windows 10 will use integrated one as a power-saving GPU and the discrete graphics card as a high-performance GPU. This setting will be configured automatically based on your device.

You can also go to the Graphics settings under Settings > Display > Graphics Settings and specify whether an app should use the high-performance or power-saving GPU.

 

For more information, please read our article on GPU controls in Windows 10.

Improved Sound Device Settings

You can now set default speakers by navigating to Settings > System > Sound. The same page has been updated with a link to the per-app sound screen in the classic Volume Mixer.

Other changes in this update

Sun Valley update will also classify more apps as 'Inbox apps,'. Apps like Windows Terminal will be automatically installed in Windows 10.

 

After the update, users will find Windows Terminal and Power Automate Desktop installed automatically. In fact, users can soon replace their command-line tool with Terminal on Windows 10.

 

Furthermore, Notepad and these apps will be updated via the Microsoft Store, outside the normal Windows updates.

How to test these new features now

If you're a member of the Windows Insider Program (join it from Microsoft's website), you can try some of the Sun Valley or Windows 11 features by joining the Dev Channel:

 

1. Open Start menu.
2. Click on Cog icon to access Settings.
3. Navigate to  Update & Security > Windows Insider Program or simply search 'Windows Insider program settings' on Cortana to skip the navigation steps.
4. Click Get Started on Windows Insider page.
5. Link your Microsoft account (Email should be the one that you used earlier to sign up for Insider program).
6. Select "Dev Channel".
7. Reboot.
8. Check for updates and download the update.

Microsoft's next generation of Windows — What we know so far

Tab groups is one of Chrome’s greatest UI innovations, but the company has been moving rather slowly on rounding out the needed feature set for the feature.

The latest feature the company is working on is saving the names and organization of your closed tabs, allowing you to easily find and re-open individual and whole tab groups you have closed earlier.

This feature is available in Chrome Canary under the Show app menu history sub menus flag.

Google is also working on another new feature, as revealed on the Chromium Gerrit.

The feature lets you save your tab groups when you Bookmark all tabs:

Add folders for Tab groups on Bookmark All Tabs.

When the user has one or more Tab groups open and selects “Bookmark All Tabs”, instead of getting a folder with a flat list of tabs, they will now see nested folders for any Tab groups, with naming aligned with the Tab group title. The order of URLs and nested folders will match the tabstrip order. If multiple Tab groups share the same title, their tabs will get combined into a single folder at the index of the first group.

All these features are of course sensible and pretty basic, and I do wonder why Google did not debut with all these features at launch.

Source: Leo Varela

Google is added submenus for Tab Groups in the Chrome History menu

 

Microsoft is rolling out the KB4023057 update again to all versions of Windows 10 to ensure that devices can successfully install new updates as they are released.

 

KB4023057 is being released to offer "reliability improvements to Windows Update Service components" in Windows 10 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1909, 2004, 20H2, and 21H1.

Microsoft routinely re-releases the KB4023057 to improve the reliability of the Windows Update process.

 

"This update includes files and resources that address issues that affect the update processes in Windows 10 that may prevent important Windows updates from being installed," explains the KB4023057 support bulletin.

 

"These improvements help make sure that updates are installed seamlessly on your device, and they help improve the reliability and security of devices that are running Windows 10."

 

As part of the installation, the update may free up disk space by compressing files in the User Profile directory so Windows 10 can properly install future updates.

 

When files are compressed, they will be displayed with two blue arrows overlaid on the file's icon, as shown below.

After the update has finished installing, the files will be uncompressed, and the arrows will disappear.

 

Microsoft states the KB4023057 update may perform the following when installed:

 

• This update may request your device to stay awake longer to enable the installation of updates.

  Note The installation will respect any user-configured sleep configurations and also your "active hours" when you use your device the most.

• This update may try to reset network settings if problems are detected, and it will clean up registry keys that may be preventing updates from being installed successfully.

• This update may repair disabled or corrupted Windows operating system components that determine the applicability of updates to your version of Windows 10.

• This update may compress files in your user profile directory to help free up enough disk space to install important updates.

• This update may reset the Windows Update database to repair the problems that could prevent updates from installing successfully. Therefore, you may see that your Windows Update history was cleared.

 

This update will be automatically installed via Windows Update and is only available from the Microsoft Update Catalog for Windows 10, versions 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, and 1803.

Microsoft pushes Windows 10 KB4023057 again to fix update issues

Nvidia to drop Game Ready Driver updates for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 starting this October

Nvidia to drop Game Ready Driver updates for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 starting this October

Microsoft Edge gets a silly update that procrastinators and time-wasters will love

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Edge gets a silly update that procrastinators and time-wasters will love

How to disable the Weather widget from the Windows 10 Taskbar

Google will skip the release of Chrome 95 to adjust to the new four-week release schedule  

Google will skip the release of Chrome 95 to adjust to the new four-week release schedule

EdgeDeflector v1.2.2.0 release cleans up unused code

EdgeDeflector v1.2.2.0 release cleans up unused code

Official Twitter app for Windows 10 devices updated with several new features

A new Twitter update is available in Microsoft Store for Windows 10 devices. This updated Twitter app is based on Microsoft’s Chromium Edge-based web view offering new features and better performance. Twitter app now supports shortcuts, web share target, taskbar badging, notifications, jump lists, and dark/light theme sync with OS settings.

You can download the updated Twitter app here from Microsoft Store.

Official Twitter app for Windows 10 devices updated with several new features

Microsoft releases new Office Insider Build 14204.20006 for Windows users

Microsoft has released a new Office Insider Preview Build 16.50.21060600 for Insiders in the Current Channel. The new Office build comes with a bunch of new features for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

Talking about what’s new, the new Office Insider Preview Build adds a new look for the Office start screen which is based on the Fluent Design capabilities, an updated Thesaurus across Office, the ability to add a high-quality video to your presentation, dark mode in document canvas, colorful themes, and many more. You can read about all the features in detail below.

Changelog

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote

Get a new look for your Office start screen

When you open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote on your Mac, you are greeted with a new start screen that takes advantage of the latest Fluent Design capabilities. Though this update does not include any changes to the core functionality of the Start screen, it provides a clearer and?more intuitive start experience that is Big Sur macOS-optimized and unmistakably Microsoft 365.

Learn more >

Updated Thesaurus

The built-in Thesaurus feature allows you to select just the right word to get your message across. We’ve updated the Thesaurus across Office to improve its accuracy and eliminate inappropriate and incorrect synonyms. To use the Thesaurus, highlight (double-click) a word, select Synonyms from the dialogue box, and choose the best option. (You can also open the Thesaurus pane from the Review ribbon to view contextual vocabulary suggestions.)

PowerPoint

Add high-quality video to your presentation

Nothing adds life to a presentation like video. You can now elevate your documents with premium content by accessing a library of curated, royalty-free video footage. To add a video to your presentation, select the Insert tab, then select Video > Stock Videos and browse the available content. Select the video you want to use and click Insert to place it on the slide you want it to play from.

Outlook

Transition to the new Outlook

If you are upgrading to the latest version of Outlook, you’ll notice we’ve implemented some features that will help you make a smooth and seamless transition. These include a First Run Experience that explains the major changes when you open the app for the first time, in-app notifications that “nudge” you to try out new features, and a What’s New checklist that helps you navigate the new experience and see what aspects of the program you haven’t explored or customized yet.

New Colorful Themes

Now you can enhance your Outlook for Mac experience with exciting new themes—choose one of six preset theme colors. These themes enable you to increase your screen visibility, address any personal accessibility needs, or simply beautify the user interface to suit your mood or interests. To enable a theme, select Outlook > Preferences > General. Under Personalize, select Light Mode, Dark Mode, or System (the latter will allow Outlook to reflect the system default setting). Then in the Theme section, click the color you want. To enable or disable window transparency, check or clear the Transparency checkbox.

Change defaults for meeting times across an organization

While back-to-back meetings have become a hallmark of the pandemic era, research shows that even small breaks between meetings can have a positive impact on stress levels and the ability to focus and engage. Now network administrators have the ability to create default settings in Outlook across an organization to end all meetings or events a few minutes early or start them a few minutes late, giving everyone at the company more breaks. These settings can be enabled through PowerShell; admins should refer to this Tech Community post for more details and instructions.

Move and copy messages between accounts

Many of you have asked for the ability to move or copy an email sent to one of multiple accounts to a folder in a different account. Now you can! This is also very helpful for those who are using a shared mailbox account.

Learn more >

Pin messages to the top of your Inbox

You asked for it! Sometimes there’s an important email that you just can’t let get buried. You can keep that message highly visible by easily pinning it to the top of your Inbox.

Learn more >

Use contextual add-ins in the reading pane

Now you can access contextual add-ins right from the reading pane in Outlook. This makes it easy to add a phone number to your contacts, look up a location on a map, or suggest a meeting without leaving the reading pane. To try these out, simply click on the contextual items that are highlighted for you by Outlook.

Word

New Dark Mode

We heard you! We’ve made improvements to the popular Dark Mode. Previously, the Black Office theme offered a dark ribbon and toolbars, but your document canvas stayed bright white. We’ve extended Dark Mode so that your document is also dark, which is important for reducing eye strain and accommodating light sensitivity from long hours at a computer screen. To turn on Dark Mode, you need to enable it for your Mac in Settings > General > Appearance > Dark. Then, you can switch to this mode in Word at any time by selecting View > Switch Modes from the ribbon.

Learn more >

Editor Enhances Communication

The Editor feature is here! Editor is an intelligent writing assistant that helps you put your best foot forward and communicate your message more effectively. It checks your document for grammar and spelling errors and offers suggestions to improve clarity, conciseness, inclusiveness, vocabulary, and more. To access the feature, click on the Editor icon on the Home ribbon, and review the suggestions in the Editor pane.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Accessibility Checker runs in background

Now it’s even easier to create accessible content, by having the Accessibility Checker running in the background as you create and update your document. This feature displays real-time scan results in the status bar, showing when accessibility recommendations are available to investigate. Clicking the status bar item will launch the Accessibility Checker pane, which offers a list of accessibility issues that you can act on as desired.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote

Use the ribbon with just your keyboard

You asked for it! You can now carry out common ribbon tasks from anywhere in Office by using your keyboard; we’ve made this easier by implementing KeyTips. When you press the Option key (? Opt), KeyTips now appear on the ribbon to allow you to activate tabs and commands.

To update to Office Insider Preview Build, open any Office program and go to File > Account > Update options > Update now.

New macOS Office Build comes with a ton of new features

 

Microsoft has released the KB5004476 emergency out-of-band update for Windows 10 that fixes problems installing or playing an Xbox Game Pass game.

 

Since 2019, some Windows 10 users have been having issues [1, 2, 3, 4] installing or playing Xbox Game Pass games. When attempting to do so, users would be prompted to install the 'Gaming Services' app from the Microsoft Store, which would fail with a 0x80073D26 or 0x8007139F error, as shown below.

Microsoft released a manual fix yesterday to explain how to fix the problem by manually removing the Windows services for the Game Services app.

 

However, it is never advisable to recommend people manually remove Registry entries as a mistake could cause Windows to become unusable.

Out-of-band Windows 10 update released

To make it easier to fix this Xbox Game Pass issue, Microsoft has released the KB5004476 emergency update to fix the bug without having users manually delete Registry keys.

 

"Updates an issue that might redirect you to the Microsoft Store page for Gaming Services when you try to install or start an Xbox Game Pass game on your Windows 10 device," explains the KB5004476 support bulletin.

 

Microsoft states that this bug only affects users running Windows 10 2004, Windows 10 20H1, Windows 10 20H2, and Windows 10 21H1.

 

To install the update, you must open Windows Update and perform a manual 'Check for update.' Windows Update will then offer KB5004476 as an optional update.

Before installing the KB5004476 OOB update, Windows users must first install the May 11th, 2021 KB5003173 cumulative update or later.

Microsoft pushes emergency update for Windows 10 Xbox Game Pass bug

Friday gift: Microsoft Teams bugs puts calls directly in voicemail