Although all builds introduced some nifty improvements, the Dev and Beta releases did place restrictions on local account setups during the out-of-the-box experience (OOBE), forcing customers to sign in with a Microsoft Account by leveraging an active internet connection.

There is another change in both these builds too, and while it's more on the positive side, it's just so convoluted and perfectly... Microsoftesque, actually. Basically, the Redmond tech giant is finally giving customers the ability to customize the name of their default user folder in C:\User\ directly during OOBE, but it's allowing them to do this through a very complicated mechanism. Have a gander below:

1. On the Microsoft account sign in page, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt.
2. Type the following commands: “cd oobe” press enter and then type “SetDefaultUserFolder.cmd”
3. It can be 16 characters max.
4. Only Unicode characters are supported and special characters will be removed
5. Proceed with MSA sign-in.
6. The custom folder name will be applied if valid.
7. If not set, Windows will automatically generate a profile folder name from your Microsoft email address.

While Insider Preview builds are meant for enthusiasts and power users, it's still strange to see Microsoft forcing customers to jump through so many hoops just to set a folder name. It would have made so much more sense to include a graphical user interface (GUI) that would have simplified the process and made it more consumer-friendly, but perhaps that's intended for general availability. Or at least, that's the hope. In the meantime, follow the steps detailed above if you really want to configure your default folder name in OOBE.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 7 October 2025 at 4:36 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Microsoft has also confirmed various bug fixes like one where apps and browsers would get stuck on screen. The company has also confirmed that it is investigating shut down and restart issues that Insiders on the channel are experiencing. The full changelog is given below:

New setting to move hardware indicators on your screen

We’re excited to introduce a highly requested setting, the option to move the hardware indicators for brightness, volume, airplane mode, and virtual desktops to different positions on your screen. We’ll support the current bottom position and new top left and top center positions on your screen.

To change the position of your flyouts, go to Settings > System > Notifications and use the dropdown for Position of the onscreen pop-up.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > MTC controls and audio.

[Input]

• We’re adding a new keyboard shortcut to make it easier for you to insert an En dash (–) or Em dash (—) while typing anywhere in Windows. Going forward, pressing WIN + Minus (-) will insert En dash, and WIN + Shift + Minus (-) will insert Em dash. Note – if you have Magnifier running, WIN + Minus (-) will still zoom out Magnifier, rather than inserting an En dash.

[Windows Share]

• We’ve added the ability to pin your favorite apps in the Windows share window.

[Other]

• We have updated more dialogs to match the Windows 11 visuals including the dialog for when an app can’t open.

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders with Arm64 PCs to experience an increase in bugchecks (green screens) with error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in the latest Canary builds.

[File Explorer]

• The File Explorer context menu has been updated to remove the accent colored backplate behind packaged appicons in the Open With list when right clicking a file (for example, Snipping Tool). This change makes icons easier to see.
• Made some underlying changes to help improve the performance of launching cloud files from File Explorer and loading context menus.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to icons and text might becoming overlapping on the desktop when using increased text scaling.
• Fixed an issue where icons in the details, preview, and navigation panes of File Explorer weren’t properly mirrored when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.

[Taskbar and System Tray]

• Fixed an issue in the latest builds where the battery icon could get out of sync with the actual charging state (for example, it would show that you weren’t plugged in when you were).
• Fixed a focus related issue when clicking on an app preview thumbnail which could result on it dismissing but the app window not actually coming to the foreground.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing Start menu to dismiss if you tried to use WIN + Shift + S to take a screenshot of it.

[Display and Graphics]

• Fixed an issue where apps and browsers could have partially stuck onscreen content when other maximized / full screen apps were updating in the background. This may have been noticeable particularly when trying to scroll the window content, as only some parts would update.

[Windows Hello]

• Fixed an issue where Windows Hello Pin setup might fail with error 0x80090010 on Entra-domain joined devices after the latest updates.

[Voice Access]

• Fixed an issue which could result in Voice Access not working, showing error 9001.

[For developers]

• There was an issue where PIX on Windows was unable to play back GPU captures on the latest OS versions. This has been addressed by a new PIX release.

[Windows Security]

• Fixed an issue where the apostrophes in some of the text in the app weren’t displaying correctly.

Known issues

[Power and Battery]

• [NEW] We’re investigating reports that sleep and shutdown aren’t working correctly for some Insiders after the latest Canary builds.

You can find the official blog post here on Microsoft's official site.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 7 October 2025 at 4:34 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Still, the latest builds have plenty of great changes and new features. Here is the list of everything new:

[Click to Do (Preview)]

Image Object select in Click to Do: Image Object select is designed to help you speed up your creative flow and precisely select objects within images. Just hover over your image to preview selectable areas. Once selected, you can easily copy and paste your object into other apps or use it to kick off a chat with Copilot for deeper insights or creative actions.

Unit conversion: We’re introducing the ability to do unit conversion in Click to Do to help you quickly access conversions for number + unit combinations displayed on screen. Currently, we primarily support conversions for length, area, volume, weight, temperature, and speed.

• When users hover over a number + unit, a floating tooltip appears showing the conversion.
• When users select the number + unit, the context menu opens with additional conversion options.
• Users can also access more conversions via the Copilot app (currently supported in Microsoft Copilot. This capability is not yet available for Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China.

[Windows Hello]

Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security Now Supports Peripheral Fingerprint Sensors: Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) is expanding to support peripheral fingerprint sensors in Windows 11. Previously, ESS was only available on PCs with built-in biometric sensors, but now Windows 11 PCs, including desktops and Copilot+ PCs, can benefit from the most secure sign-in experience Windows Hello has to offer. Just plug in a supported ESS fingerprint reader, head to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and follow the prompts to enroll.

Here are other changes that are rolling out gradually with today's builds:

[Windows Setup Experience]

Ability to name your default user folder in OOBE: You can now customize the name of your default user folder, “C:\User\”, during setup. To do so, follow these steps:

1. On the Microsoft account sign-in page, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt.
2. Type the following commands: “cd oobe”, press enter, and then type “SetDefaultUserFolder.cmd ”
3. can be 16 characters max.
4. Only Unicode characters are supported, and special characters will be removed.
5. Proceed with MSA sign-in. The custom folder name will be applied if valid. If not set, Windows will automatically generate a profile folder name from your Microsoft email address.

Local-only commands removal: We are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE). While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use. Users will need to complete OOBE with internet and a Microsoft account to ensure the device is set up correctly.

We are adding the ability to name your default user folder in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE). When you get to the Microsoft account sign-in page in OOBE, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt. Go to the OOBE folder using “cd oobe” and then use the command SetDefaultUserFolder.cmd with being what you want to call your default user folder. Only Unicode characters are supported, and special characters will be removed.

[File Explorer]

Dark Mode: We’ve made improvements to the dark mode experience in File Explorer, starting with key actions like copy, move, and delete dialogs. You’ll now see a consistent dark mode experience in:

• The default and expanded state for copy, move, and delete dialogs
• Progress bars and chart views
• Dialogs for confirming states like skip, override, and file selection
• Multiple confirmation and error dialogs

Here are the fixes that are rolling out gradually:

[General]

• Fixed an underlying issue that caused multiple features that were rolling out to unexpectedly disappear from some Insider PCs after the previous flight.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue after the latest updates, where, when “automatically hide the taskbar” was enabled, sometimes you would still see the system tray peeking up while the taskbar was hidden. Also fixed an issue where it wasn’t hiding anymore when you were on the desktop with all app windows minimized.
• Fixed a focus-related issue when clicking on an app preview thumbnail, which could result in it dismissing, but the app window not actually coming to the foreground.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where Encrypted File System (EFS) related dialogs in File Explorer weren’t responding to increased text scaling.

[Windows Studio Effects]

• Fixed an issue for some classes of external webcams, where turning on “Use Windows Studio Effects” in the advanced camera settings might result in a camera preview failure. If you were impacted by this known issue in the latest builds, and turned off Windows Studio Effects inside the camera settings to workaround it, you can enable it again now.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue causing certain network adapters to show an incorrect link speed

[Other]

• Fixed an issue impacting the ability to start Hyper-V virtual machines with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) on ARM64 devices.
• Fixed an issue that could affect the playback of protected content in certain Blu-ray, DVD, and digital TV apps that used Enhanced Video Renderer with HDCP enforcement.

And here is the list of known bugs:

[Click to Do]

• Launching Click to Do on your primary display via right-edge gesture will result in the swipe visuals appearing on the incorrect display. The issue is being investigated.

[Lock and login screens]

• [NEW] The touch keyboard may fail to launch on the login screen. If you encounter this, you can use the on-screen keyboard in the accessibility menu as a workaround.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Our new animations on taskbar previews have been turned off temporarily because they were interfering with the ability to share a window from its preview. We will note when they’re brought back.

[Search]

• Certain searches may show unexpected text instead of the expected results and images.

[Xbox Controllers]

• Some Insiders are experiencing an issue where using their Xbox Controller via Bluetooth is causing their PC to bugcheck. Here is how to resolve the issue. Open Device Manager by searching for it via the search box on your taskbar. Once Device Manager is open, click on “View” and then “Devices by Driver”. Find the driver named “oemXXX.inf (XboxGameControllerDriver.inf)” where the “XXX” will be a specific number on your PC. Right-click on that driver and click “Uninstall”.

You can find the announcement blog here (Dev) and here (Beta).

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 7 October 2025 at 4:33 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

In 2025, Microsoft unveiled significant enhancements to the Windows 11 Settings app, incorporating design upgrades and around 16 new features, while bridging the gap with the Control Panel—ushering in an era of streamlined user experience and innovative functionality.

While the latest version of the operating system (version 25H2) doesn't come with exclusive changes for the Settings app, most of the updates that were made available for version 24H2 throughout the year introduced different changes that are now available in both versions.

For example, the development team has made design changes to align the Settings app with the style language of Windows 11, reorganized the search-related settings into one page, replaced the "For Developers" page with the "Advanced" page, introduced new features, such as the ability to show clocks in the Notification Center, Quick Machine Recovery, option to reset Recall, and a lot more.

In this guide, I'll highlight the best features and changes that the company has officially made available for the Settings app in 2025.

What's new in Settings app for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2

These are 16 improvements available for the Settings app for Windows 11 version 25H2 and version 24H2.

1. Advanced settings new page

On Settings > System, Microsoft is replacing the "For Developers" page with a new "Advanced" page, introducing a new design that groups settings into different sections and includes new features.

Microsoft has admittedly struggled to attract users to Windows 11 despite launching the operating system over 4 years ago. This can be predominantly attributed to its stringent system hardware requirements and for some, flawed design elements.

As you may know, the software giant is poised to pull the plug on Windows 10, next week, in October 14, 2025. As a result, users are upgrading to Windows 11 while some are defaulting to Microsoft's Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for an additional year of support for Windows 10 after its end-of-life.

It's worth noting that Microsoft made its ESU program free for users in the European Economic Area. Users in this region won't need to sync their PC settings to the cloud via a Microsoft account to access the extended security updates.

Elsewhere, the best alternative for Windows 11's File Explorer app, Files App just got a neat update in preview, bumping it to v4.0.12. The update ships with noteworthy additions including a new "Discovering" Phase and improved "Cancel" button placement in the Status Center.

For context, the new Discovering Phase notifies the users through the Status Center when it's actively looking for items for a file operation. Previous versions of the app didn't provide visual feedback, making it difficult for users to know what's going on and even suggested that the file operation was stuck.

The Cancel file operation button in the Status Center has been moved to a menu flyout to enhance clarity, creating an intuitive user experience.

Here's everything you need to know about the update, including new features and fixes:

It feels like a feature that users have been requesting for years, and it's finally now rolling out with the latest Windows 11 update. Microsoft is adding the ability to open the notification center from the Taskbar on any monitor you like, regardless of if it's set as your primary display.

Believe it or not, but up until now, users with multiple monitors attached to their Windows 11 PC found that attempting to open the notification center via the System Tray on the Taskbar on a display that was not set as your primary one would result in nothing happening.

This was because Microsoft hadn't ensured the Taskbar was functionally identical across displays. Your main monitor was where the Taskbar was fully functional, with additional monitors getting stuck with a more basic one that didn't let you access flyouts like the Notification Center.

The company mentioned that it has already integrated remote agents, such as the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent, as a native platform experience. By integrating more AI, Microsoft is trying to deliver tools to enhance the coding experience.

The company is already working on some of the new agents, including a Debugger agent and improvements to the Modernize Agent. It’s also making improvements to Agent Mode/Chat, including dynamic tool calling, thread history summarization, mid-response agent redirection, and planning lead development/To-dos in Copilot Chat.

In the feedback the company has received about its Agents, users asked for improved startup times for Copilot Chat as well as Token Optimization - the company said it’s addressing these things.

Microsoft is also focused on reaching the Model Context Protocol (MCP) full specification so that users can bring their whole development stack into Visual Studio with expected security and governance. The MCP work includes Elicitation Support, Governance - Group Policy, a Unified UX Experience, and Windows MCP registry support.

The Windows-maker also said it’s committed to giving users access to the latest models, confirming plans for Auto model in Chat, Claude Sonnet 4.5 in Chat, and GPT 5 Codex in Chat. New models are evaluated carefully to ensure they work properly in Visual Studio Code.

Microsoft’s announcement has picked up a few comments from users, who expressed their frustration that Microsoft “now seems to be devoting more attention to AI than everything else combined.” Another person noted that Agent has lots of bugs, but that the good outweighs the bad.

Source: Microsoft

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 7 October 2025 at 6:17 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Rebrands rarely get much love. That backlash can be especially strong if you’re giving a facelift to a decades-old piece of software beloved by nerds around the globe. So, it was no surprise that when Audacity revealed its new logo people on the internet got a little worked up. And look, there’s no two ways about it, the logo is pretty bad. The font it quite nice, but the bewildering take on its traditional headphone icon is rough.

Reactions around The Verge newsroom included “looks like someone stepped on the apple music icon,” and “trying to decide if their new logo looks like a sperm, and am mostly coming up with yes.” But if you can get past the branding, Audacity 4 actually looks like it’s going to be a much needed upgrade.

Martin Keary, VP of product at Muse, posted a nearly hour long video to YouTube detailing the challenges facing Audacity, the logic behind the design changes, and updates on the development of version 4 (slated for release in early 2026). One of the biggest improvements is in minimizing what Keary calls “Audacity says ‘no’”. These are things that Audacity simply won’t let you do, often with no explanation other than a simple pop up (if you’re lucky). He lists off a number of examples:

If you want to drag a clip past another clip, it hits it like a brick wall. No. If you copy a clip and try to paste it where there’s not enough blank runway, no. You don’t have enough room. If you wanted to select multiple clips… no.

Cleaning this up involved changing the behavior of the UI, like automatically trimming a clip if you paste something over it, and getting rid of a bunch of “modes” that limited how you could interact with audio. The team also added meters for individual tracks, made trimming and time stretching easier to find (just click and drag the edge of the clip), and added a split tool that makes cleaning up audio a bit easier.

Some users might be upset that the Sync Lock feature is going away but, as a long time user of Audacity, I can confirm it’s a confusing mess. Working with and keeping multiple audio tracks in sync is a difficult challenge to tackle, but the approached laid out in version 4 makes a lot more sense (to me at least). Add to this a more customizable, modern interface that’s much easier to read and Audacity 4 looks like it’s actually shaping up to be major step forward for the stalwart audio editor. Lets just hope they revisit the branding before the proper release in 2026.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 6 October 2025 at 6:02 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Microsoft has also promised even better performance on Windows 11 25H2, the latest Windows OS feature update which was released last week; we will soon test those claims out so stick around.

Meanwhile enthusiasts are always trying to improve to boost the performance or make the experience better and they also opt for third-party apps to do so. Microsoft knows this and as such recently shared with users some very useful tips that could be used to boost system performance.

Most of them are fairly general ones that our brilliant Neowin readers will already know. These include regularly updating the OS as well as device drivers, restarting the system, ensuring there is enough disk space, and checking for malware and viruses, among others.

The company also highlighted how system startup could be optimized to make your device quicker. The company has explored this in much more detail earlier. You can check that out in our dedicated coverage.

Aside from those Microsoft also pointed out a couple of Windows 10 and 11 features that can make the system feel sluggish. The company has acknowledged that though cloud syncing of your files via OneDrive is important which is why the company keeps it enabled by default, this can lead to slowdowns. It writes: "OneDrive by default sync files ..... This lets you get to your files from any device that can connect to the internet, and it helps make sure your files are backed up in case your PC is ever damaged or lost. However, .... syncing can slow down your PC. You can pause OneDrive syncing temporarily and see if it helps improve your PC performance."

Perhaps with the new redesigned OneDrive app, this will be less of an issue.

Besides OneDrive sync, Microsoft has also highlighted how the various Windows 11 visual effects can also slow your PC. In fact there is even a dedicated option for it in your PC to disable such effects if you feel they are too heavy for your device.

Microsoft writes: "Windows 11 includes many visual effects, such as animations and shadow effects. These look great, but they can also use additional system resources and can slow down your PC. This is especially true if you have a PC with a smaller amount of memory (RAM)."

If you are wondering, it can be accessed by typing "performance" in the Windows Search and then selecting "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". After the Performance Options dialog box opens, select the "Adjust for best performance" option under the Visual Effects tab.

There are also some other tips like using ReadyBoost, which allows using a USB or SD card as cache, though Windows 11 no longer has this option. Managing page file is also another way to potentially improve performance. You can explore it in full in the support article here on Microsoft's official website.

Via: Microsoft Support (X)

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 5 October 2025 at 5:46 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Alongside that the company also released new accompanying dynamic updates. For those who may not know, dynamic updates bring improvements to the Windows Recovery in the form of Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates, also called Safe OS updates, as well as to the Setup binaries in the form of Setup updates.

These Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more. Dynamic Updates also help preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. VBScript, for example, is currently an FOD on Windows 11 24H2.

Both setup and recovery updates were released but only for version 24H2 and previous versions did not receive them. The updates also apply to Windows Server 2025. The changelogs are given below. First up we have the Setup update:

KB5066683: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025: September 29, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025.

Up next, we have the Safe OS recovery update and unlike the last time, Microsoft does not note any specific fix on this one as the general changelog is back. It writes:

KB5066687: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025: September 29, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE) in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025.

Microsoft notes that the Recovery update will be downloaded and installed automatically via the Windows Update channel though the Setup update will require manual effort. You can also avail both of them on Microsoft's Update Catalog website: KB5066683, KB5066687.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 5 October 2025 at 5:45 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Regardless, in this piece, we'll be taking a look at five capabilities in Windows 11 that may change how you interact with the OS. These features aren't deliberately hidden by Microsoft; they're just too obscure for you to come across them by chance. The list below is in no particular order. Let's begin!

1 - ClickLock

ClickLock is a feature in Windows that allows you to replicate the behavior of a sustained mouse click by not having you press your finger on the click button the entire time. If you play games, you may be familiar with the "toggle button XYZ to sprint" functionality, where you can either use a trigger to start and stop the sprinting of your character, or you can just keep the button held down when you want to sprint. ClickLock works in exactly the same way.

Rather than having you sustain a mouse click while you select text, ClickLock basically "locks" your click if you keep it pressed for roughly a second. Then, as you move your cursor across a piece of text, it will continue to get highlighted even if you aren't holding down the click movement of your mouse. You can configure the delay it takes to lock in a sustained click.

It's not necessarily a better way to interact with Windows for text selection, but it's certainly an option for those who might need it for accessibility or other reasons. For example, the click button on my work laptop's trackpad has become a bit weak, where I have to apply considerable force to register a click. Using this feature, I can work around this problem without requiring additional peripherals. You can enable ClickLock in Windows by opening Mouse Properties through Windows Search and navigating to the Buttons tab.

2 - Screen Savers

Screen savers used to be a big deal in previous versions of Windows, and while most of us primarily used them to customize our Windows experience in quirky and cool ways, they served an actual purpose beyond that, too. The constantly moving pixels of a screensaver animation primarily prevented screen burn-in on old CRT monitors. Now that display technology has evolved, Microsoft doesn't really highlight them as much.

That doesn't mean that they don't exist, though. Windows still contains a handful of screen savers that behave in exactly the same way as before. You can configure a max idle time, and as soon as that timer runs out, screen saver animations will kick in. The animations on offer currently include 3D Text, Bubbles, Mystify, Photos, and Ribbons. No Pipes, unfortunately.

You can customize them to some extent by opening Screen Saver Settings through Windows Search.

3 - God Mode Folder

This is the informal name of a collection of Windows settings and Control Panel utilities that you can view directly in File Explorer through a nifty trick. You can customize various configurations, including AutoPlay, Credential Manager, BitLocker, Windows Defender Firewall, and so much more.

Again, this is not necessarily a better way to find Control Panel and Windows settings; it's just that it combines many of the same options in a single interface, which some may prefer. All of the available settings are those that you can find in their actual locations in Windows interfaces; using them in this God Mode Folder is just a matter of preference.

There are other ways to activate this God Mode Folder too, but the simplest one I know is to create a new folder on your desktop, and rename it to:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

This will immediately change the folder icon to an icon of the Control Panel, which you can click to explore various settings in a single UI.

4 - Battery Report

This is something that we have written about in the past, but it deserves another mention, too. Windows has the ability to natively generate a detailed battery report on demand, providing data about charge cycles, battery capacity, and so much more in a rich text format.

All you have to do is open Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following command:

powercfg /batteryreport

The report itself will be generated in HTML format in your System32 folder. It's a particularly useful tool to have in your arsenal when you are worried about your battery's health and want to monitor its performance.

5 - File History

If you're super-conscious about your data, Windows has a local backup option that can come in particularly handy, especially in cases of accidental damage to your machine's internal hard drive. Basically, Windows allows you to connect to an external physical drive or a network drive and keep a continuously synchronized backup of all your libraries (Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Music) on it. If you want a specific folder backed up, you can simply save it in one of the default libraries or create a new custom library for it.

What this means is that you no longer have to maintain manual backups; Windows will handle it for you. It enables the capability to time-travel back to an older version of your files and is quite beneficial for customers who don't want to pay for OneDrive cloud storage or simply don't trust it enough. You can enable File History by surfacing it through Windows Search or by navigating to Control Panel > System and Security > File History.

That's all for this list! As mentioned earlier, these features aren't hidden by Microsoft; many of them are just hidden in the depths of Windows or don't have a proper, friendly user interface. You may know about some of them already, but if you do know about more obscure nifty Windows tricks, sound off in the comments section below!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 5 October 2025 at 3:56 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

With version 1.25, Flyoobe now has "extended debloat routines" that let you get rid of unnecessary AI components, apps, and other parts. Also, the app now has a simpler user interface that focuses on upgrading Windows 10 or reinstalling the operating system.

Additionally, Flyoobe lets you collapse the navigation pane and manage Windows updates with the new "Windows Update Tamer" extension. The latter enables you to pause or resume updates, disable automatic updates (do not do this on your main machine), and more. What is interesting about this extension is that you can use it to pause updates beyond the standard 30-day limit, and if you want to have a Windows installation with Windows Updates paused for 10 years, you can now have it, thanks to Flyoobe.

Here is the full changelog:

• OOBE optimized further for Windows 11 25H2, with extended "debloat" routines targeting AI components, bundled apps, and the overall user experience
• Navigation now starts with a lightweight Windows 10–style flow focused on upgrades or reinstalls; once switched to Windows 11, the full OOBE navigation is unlocked
• General UI optimizations and improved color harmony across all OOBE panels. Unlike the Windows 11 OOBE, which leverages WebView2 to render its HTML/CSS/JS-based interface, this app is fully native, so no Webview2 engine, no Chromium layer, just pure system-level rendering. Yet some users still say it feels suspiciously webby
• Added a navigation collapse feature so the main panel can now go full-screen via the toggle button next to the "More" menu
• Improved notification area for better clarity and consistency
• Core integration of PowerShell extensions optimized for faster and cleaner execution
• Added "Windows Update Tamer" extension, a new tool to manage Windows 11 updates directly from Flyoobe. It allows pausing or resuming updates, disabling automatic updates, setting an extended pause period (up to 10 years), and restoring default behavior

Flyoobe 1.25 is available for free on GitHub via this link.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 5 October 2025 at 3:54 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

This week saw the release of Plasma 6.5 Beta 2, packed with a ton of fixes ahead of its final release. The update addresses an issue in Discover where it would not prioritize your default package source, sometimes showing a Flatpak when you would rather have the repo version.

Another fix tackles a high-priority bug in KWin (Wayland) where dragging a picture in a Chromium browser could break the user interface and stop the application from registering mouse clicks.

As the team puts the finishing touches on Plasma 6.5, it is also working on the follow-up release, Plasma 6.6, which comes with some nice UI improvements. The time zone chooser map got a complete overhaul. You can now zoom in and out much farther; the zooming action is more predictable, and there is no more blurry text.

In 6.6, when you set the system language to Arabic or Hebrew, Plasma will display reversed versions of the audio icons in different places, assuming your icon theme, like Breeze, provides them.

Speaking of non-English system languages, the team has added a feature in Plasma 6.5 to the Emoji Picker, where if you use the system in a language like German, you can still find emojis by searching for their English names.

Now, unto the bug fixes: Plasma 6.4.6, set to release next month, fixes the issue where Flatpak apps could not create launchers using the Dynamic Launcher portal. Other fixes 6.4.6 will bring include Discover's automatic shutdown feature, now properly allowing apps to prompt you to save unsaved changes, preventing data loss.

A problem that made the Applications table in System Monitor blurry at certain scale factors got sorted out, and the team fixed a bug that prevented the warning message about other logged-in users from appearing when you try to shut down or restart the system.

You can learn more from the full announcement blog post.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 5 October 2025 at 3:49 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

India’s Zoho is continuing its dominance over global tech giants. Days after its messaging app, Arattai, climbed up to the top spots on app store charts, Zoho’s new web browser, called Ulaa, has followed suit, achieving the number one rank on the Apple App Store. Ulaa, just like Arattai, is positioned as a direct competitor to Google Chrome and Apple Safari, centering its appeal on comprehensive user privacy and data protection.

Ulaa is a Chromium-based web browser that shares its foundation with Chrome. However, Zoho says that it is designed to diverge from the undesired data collection practices of its rivals. Zoho claims that Ulaa does not collect, store, or sell user data, drawing a sharp contrast with Google, which collects user data for personalised advertising.

Zoho promises users that their personal information remains confidential and their online footprint is hidden from “advertisers’ prying eyes.”

Zoho Ulaa web browser features

One of Ulaa’s features is its multi-profile functionality, which segments browsing activity for enhanced security and practicality:

Work: Tailored for enterprise users.

Personal: Designed for general use.

Kids: A safer browsing environment for children.

Developer: Equipped for professional web developers and testers.

Open Season: Presumably a mode for high-privacy, anonymous browsing.

Additional features of Ulaa

The web browser also comes standard with built-in ad blockers and advanced tracker protection, promising a cleaner and more secure browsing experience right out of the box. For enterprise users, Ulaa integrates seamlessly with Zoho’s Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication system, and its various modes are linked to Zia, which is Zoho’s AI-powered unified search system for its suite of applications.

Ulaa is available across major operating systems — Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. Ulaa’s rapid rise in the App Store rankings demonstrates strong public demand for privacy-focused alternatives in the browser market.

However, analysts also note that the browser lacks more sophisticated agentic AI features, similar to emerging competitors like Perplexity’s Comet. Hence, this could pose a long-term threat to the established dominance of Google Chrome.

Source

After launching to subscribers willing to fork out hundreds of dollars a month this summer, Perplexity’s agentic AI browser Comet is now available to everyone for free. “The internet is better on Comet,” the company says, promising to remain free forever as it styles the browser as a serious challenger to Google’s Chrome.

Comet puts AI at the heart of the browsing experience. It incorporates Perplexity’s AI search tools and a personal AI assistant that, in the company’s words, actually “travels the web with” users, instead of being “tacked onto a traditional browser.” It’s supposed to make surfing the web simpler and help you with tasks like shopping, booking trips, and general life admin. To borrow the company’s words again: you “get more done.”

The AI-powered browser launched in July, though was only available for users who subscribed to the $200 per month Perplexity Max plan. Later, Perplexity expanded this to include “select” subscribers of its cheaper Pro plan and lucky invitees on what the company says is now a millions-strong waitlist. No subscription at all will be needed to use Comet going forward, the company says.

Perplexity has also revealed its launch partners for Comet Plus, the subscription package it announced in August that gives users access to curated news content in a scheme CEO Aravind Srinivas likened to Apple News Plus. The list currently includes:

•     CNN
•     Conde Nast
•     Fortune
•     Le Figaro
•     Le Monde
•     The Los Angeles Times
•     The Washington Post

Access to Comet Plus is included for subscribers to Perplexity Pro and Max, and $5 per month for all other users.

Perplexity is not alone in its quest to bring AI to the internet. Google has infused Gemini into Chrome, The Browser Company — the makers of the Arc browser — is going all in on Dia, and Opera just launched its own AI browser, Neon.

Source

According to various reports from frustrated Firefox users, the browser experiences issues with loading or displaying certain Google services, such as Drive. While it is possible to bring Firefox to its senses temporarily by clearing the browser cache, things return to chaos shortly after. Fortunately, Mozilla now has a solution for this problem in the form of Firefox 134.0.4.

Here is what the official changelog says:

Improved Firefox' connection fallback behavior to mitigate sporadic slow/failed loads on some Google sites on systems with certain third-party software installed. (Bug 1990699)

As usual, you can update to the latest Firefox version by opening Menu > Help > About Firefox. You can also continue using the browser as is, and it will update itself automatically in the background. Those who want to take a break from Chromium and try Firefox can download the browser from the official website or the Microsoft Store (for Windows 10 and 11 users).

In case you missed some of the previous updates, Firefox 143.0.3 was released with a pretty big list of various fixes, which was pushed after Firefox 143.0.1 with a single fix. All these updates patch version 143, which brought stuff like improved tab pinning, the ability to run websites like apps on Windows, webcam preview for websites, and more. You can find full release notes here.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Saturday 4 October 2025 at 5:56 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

According to a recent company blog post, Brave says its browser has crossed a new milestone: 100 million active monthly users. That’s as of September 2025, representing a huge jump up from the 50 million users milestone it reached back in 2021. That’s a four-year doubling!

“Across the globe, users are choosing privacy and control over their online experience, instead of Big Tech’s tracking and abuse,” said Brave CEO Brendan Eich. “Every product we’ve launched since our browser—our search engine, our premium products, our ad platform—has been built with privacy protections.”

Meanwhile, the post also mentions that Brave Search—a privacy-focused alternative to Google Search—now serves over 20 billion search queries per year. That’s compared to the 2.3 billion annual search queries served back in 2021, representing an 8.7-fold growth.

We previously highlighted Brave as one of the best browsers for security, primarily for its built-in features that prioritize the user—features like ad blocking, tracking protection, disallowing JavaScript and cookies, blocking Windows Recall, and private browsing via the Tor network.

Source

Interestingly, the weather integration is now fixed as the “Unable to load weather information” error should no longer occur. The dev notes that it broke following changes on Google's side, though you may need to clear local widget data before it starts working properly again.

On the File Explorer side, the title bar is once again available on Windows 11 22H2 and newer, while a bug that caused folder lists to scroll to the top after WM_SETTINGCHANGE has been resolved. Menanwhile on Windows 11 24H2, shrinking the address bar no longer breaks graphics, and toolbar button sizing has been corrected when Microsoft’s Servicing_CFDNavButtonsTheming flag is active.

In terms of compatibility fixes with other customization apps, Start11 users on Windows 11 24H2 will see the Recommended section properly hidden again. Start10 has also received attention as animation patching is restored on x64 build 27938+ and ARM64 build 27881+, while a bug preventing the Windows 10 Start menu from opening when Windows 11 feature flags were enabled has been resolved.

In terms of Taskbar fixes, on Windows 11 22H2 and newer, ExplorerPatcher’s taskbar (ep_taskbar) is now the default. You can find the full list of changes for the release in the changelog given below:

• ep_weather: Fixed "Unable to load weather information" due to changes in Google's side.
• Start11: Fixed hiding of Recommended Section on recent builds of 24H2.
• GUI: File Explorer > Title bar is now available again on >= 22H2.
• Reduced the occurrences of the Windows 11 bug in Explorer windows where WM_SETTINGCHANGE would scroll the folder items list to the top.
• Changed hooking library to SlimDetours. On ARM64, fixes incompatibilities with certain Windhawk mods that hook CreateWindowExW such as Taskbar Volume Control. Also on ARM64, fixes a very slim chance bug where hooked functions would cause a crash when called until a reboot.
• ep_taskbar: Now statically links to private functions it uses.
• Taskbar10: Fixed folder toolbar menus and Toolbars > New toolbar not working on builds with TrayThreadBSTA feature flag turned on, such as 26100.5074+.
• GUI: Windows 8 Network flyout is now no longer an option on builds >= 25346 as van.dll was removed.
• On Windows 11 22H2+, Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) taskbar a.k.a. ep_taskbar is now used by default.
• Fixed weather button not having an icon. You may need to perform "Clear weather widget local data" in EP properties > Weather.
• File Explorer: Fixed "Shrink address bar height" resulting in broken graphics on recent 24H2 builds.
• Start10: Fixed open/close animation patching on x64 27938+ and ARM64 27881+. (201a7e5, 79f8dd3, f873888, 465117e, 4434d10)
• Start10: Fixed Windows 10 Start menu refusing to open when the new Windows 11 Start menu feature flag(s) are enabled.
• Fixed Windows 10 Alt+Tab and Windows 10 taskbar Win+X functionality on ARM64 226x1 and 27686+. - File Explorer: Corrected shrunk address bar toolbar button size when Servicing_CFDNavButtonsTheming (NI: 56845961, GE: 52061322) is enabled.

You can download the new ExplorerPatcher update, version 26100.4946.69.4, from its official GitHub repo here, though do note that this is a pre-release version.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Saturday 4 October 2025 at 3:16 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Microsoft has updated the official documentation for Windows 11 version 25H2, clarifying that notification and taskbar improvements are now available in KB5065789. With these updates, multi-monitor users can finally open the notification center on the secondary display. Previously, clicking the date and time would bring nothing, forcing users to go to the main display instead. This odd omission (Windows 10 has the same behavior, by the way) has finally been addressed.

Additionally, Microsoft finally brought back the calendar clock in the notification center. You can now open the calendar flyout and see a larger clock with seconds above it. Windows 10 users loved this feature, and it is finally available. By the way, if you would like to add a few more features to the taskbar clock, say, make it show CPU and GPU load, you can use this handy mod that opens vast customization for the tray area.

The calendar flyout clock is turned off by default. If you want to enable it, go to Settings > Time & Language > Date & Time and toggle on the "Show time Notification Center" option.

All these new features are currently available in a non-security update for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. To get them, you need to toggle on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they are available" toggle and then download and install KB5065789.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Saturday 4 October 2025 at 3:14 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

If you recall, Microsoft shared details about it earlier in the year in April. With this, Microsoft promises better "performance, accessibility, and compatibility," and new "exclusive enterprise features" that were previously lacking. The company notes the rollout will be phased and will happen over the next several months.

Microsoft adds: "Admins can manage the experience using the NewPDFReaderEnabled policy which controls the default viewer in Edge for Windows or the NewPDFReaderWebView2List policy which controls viewer behavior in WebView2 apps."

The new Edge update is also introducing a security change that will restrict or block a website’s ability to send requests to servers on your local network. While the feature is inactive with this release, the company says that Edge version 143 will make it the default state. In the release notes, it explains:

"When a website tries to connect, Microsoft Edge shows a prompt asking you to grant or deny permission. This protects privacy and security while maintaining compatibility with modern web standards. The ability of a website to request this permission from users is restricted to secure contexts."

Besides those there is an interesting change regarding users' browsing data. Previously Edge offered the option to delete passwords and autofill form data in the "Clear browsing data on close" setting. However, this has been updated and those options have been removed. Although manual deletion of passwords and autofill is still possible.

Microsoft has also revealed the system requirements to use one of Edge's new features: Real-time video translation. However, it is not available to everyone as the company explains: "With real-time video translation in Edge, you can watch videos in a different language with translated audio dub. Feature availability and functionality may vary by device type, hardware configuration (minimum 12 GB RAM and 4-core CPU), region, and platform. Availability is limited to select markets."

You can find the full changelog for the new Edge stable version 141.0.3537.57 on this page on Microsoft's official website. You can also download it from there at this link.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Saturday 4 October 2025 at 3:13 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

We had been expecting the launch of Windows 11 version 25H2, or what Microsoft refers to as Windows 11 2025 Update, for a while as the official ISO images for the release were already found on official Microsoft servers around a week before they eventually formally landed.

Rufus, the highly popular utility for the creation of bootable USB media, had earlier confirmed support for the new feature update. Although it was a beta at that time, the app was released as a stable version just a couple of days after the ISOs from Microsoft began leaking early.

The new Windows 11 25H2 feature update is said to be really easy to install as Microsoft pointed out that users only needed to have the eKB5054156, though it also noted the need to exercise caution and plan ahead in case of enterprise and office PCs.

Despite the early support some users noticed that the latest Windows feature update installation was failing to bootable USB with the new Windows UEFI CA 2023 certificates, even though Rufus should have worked.

The developer of the app determined they could replicate the issue and the latest update has fixed the problem. They wrote:

... I can replicate the issue.

 

You can avoid this by also selecting the first bypass on the WUE dialog (which won't do anything on systems where TPM and Secure Boot are available, since it's just a bypass, not "disable").

 

Aside from fixing the bug itself, the new Rufus update also has a modified WUE (Windows User Experience) text to help users. On that note, the update also refreshes Linux SBAT and Microsoft Secure Boot (SVN) revocation values, ensuring compatibility with the newest trusted boot requirements.

Aside from those, there are several other improvements. There is now a shortcut to toggle between the recently gained Dark mode and the light theme, and more. The full changelog is given below:

• Add a cheat mode (Ctrl-Alt-D) to toggle between Light and Dark mode
• Improve WUE option text relating to the CA 2023 option
• Update Linux SBAT / Microsoft SVN Secure Boot revocation values to latest
• Fix some GRUB/Syslinux download dialogs showing only the 'Close' button
• Fix an assert being triggered when using the WUE CA 2023 option on its own
• Fix an application crash on systems that have a failed dynamic disk

To download the new Rufus update, version 4.11, head over to its GitHub repo or its official website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 3 October 2025 at 5:23 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Start11 v2.55 is now available for download with some useful upgrades, such as the ability to auto-hide the taskbar when a window overlaps it. This lets you have the taskbar and its indicator visible and only hidden when you need every pixel of your screen for your apps. Additionally, Start11 improves on the vertical taskbar (something that we still do not have in stock Windows 11), allowing you to scroll through apps with a mouse wheel when the taskbar is full.

App support has also been improved, and Start11 can now display Remote Desktop when searching RDP, and apps like Spotify or WhatsApp properly display their badges on multi-monitor setups. Additionally, you can now execute commands by typing two en dashes in search.

Besides new features, Start11 2.55 packs various quality-of-life improvements for existing features, plenty of fixes, performance enhancements, and better translations. You can find the complete changelog on the official website.

If you already have a Start11 license, you can download version 2.55 for free. If not, a perpetual Start11 v2 license will set you back $9.99, but right now, you can save 25% and get the app for just $7.50 ($15 for five installs). Start11 is also available on Steam, where it is also currently discounted as part of Steam's annual Autumn sale.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 3 October 2025 at 5:14 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Microsoft has highlighted that the architecture of an NPU is designed to process machine learning calculations at a far higher speed than a general-purpose CPU or GPU, while consuming less battery. This has enabled the company to offer "sophisticated" AI experiences (like Recall?) on hardware that costs a few hundred dollars rather than dedicated expensive hardware. This is why Microsoft believes that NPUs will be critical when more advanced AI capabilities become available.

Although NPUs are capable of running smaller models locally, they can also work with cloud-powered services to run larger models that offer even better features. Microsoft has credited the development of Copilot+ PCs with NPUs to the Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera, which performed AI tasks locally very efficiently. The company then shared its learnings with hardware partners like AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel, which then developed AI chips for PCs.

Steven Bathiche, Microsoft's corporate vice president and technical fellow who established the Applied Sciences team responsible for developing AI features in Windows, noted that:

AI features available on Windows create novel experiences, and we developed the hardware needed to support those experiences. [...] If you think about it, for the past 60 years, how we used a computer really hasn’t changed. [...] Agents are really the north star. They’re now the new unit of interaction for people and of programming for developers.

Since Windows is powering agentic experiences through cloud services and NPUs, it emphasizes that the future is ripe for an OS that requires less clicking. A prominent example of this is the dedicated agent available in Settings, but Microsoft has teased even more complex tasks being automated in the future.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 3 October 2025 at 5:12 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Aside from the lite version, Microsoft is also very determined to move on from Classic Outlook and tries various ways to get users onto the New Outlook for Windows app. For example, last month it revealed how it will "automatically and seamlessly set up users’ classic Outlook accounts and settings in the new Outlook for Windows" as the company confirmed this was its way to not "force" users to use the new app.

Besides such moves, the tech giant has also been quite verbal about its admiration of the new app and has explained more than once why users should switch to New Outlook already.

With all the push for the new app, it seems Microsoft may be losing focus on development and QA testing of the classic app as clearly it is not a priority any more. Over the last several months, there have been several confirmed bugs in Classic Outlook.

For example, in April, users found that downloading the app was broken, and later in June, after a major Calendar feature upgrade, the classic app got hit with several different bugs, which took months to fix; and once again in the same month, the ability to send emails, which is the basic functionality of a mail app, was impacted too, due to yet another underlying issue.

A new bug has now hit classic Outlook as Microsoft confirmed that the application won't open with an error message that says "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The attempt to log on to Microsoft Exchange has failed."

In the issue description, Microsoft has added more details about it and also how admins and users can confirm the bug with the help of Fiddler trace. If you are not familiar, a Fiddler trace helps to inspect and monitor traffic for the purpose of debugging a web issue. The company explains:

This error message can occur for different reasons. Not every instance of this error is the same issue but recent support cases around this have been for user mailboxes.

 

To confirm if this issue applies, capture a Fiddler trace when you reproduce the problem and then search the trace for this error:

 

Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.ServerTooBusyException: Client is being backed off
---> Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.ClientBackoffException: ErrorCode: ClientBackoff, LID: 49586 - Authentication concurrency limit is reached.
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---

Microsoft says that it is investigating this problem trying to get to the root of it although right now the company notes that there is no way to fix it, and that "the only way to address this issue is to open a support case from the Microsoft 365 Admin portal" to "mitigate" it.

Thankfully there is a workaround and according to Microsoft it is very simple; you can use the New Outlook for Windows app or the Outlook Web Access (OWA). You can find the issue on this support article here on Microsoft's official website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 3 October 2025 at 5:10 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of September): 4,533

RIP Matrix

Microsoft looks to be building a brand-new dedicated OneDrive app for Windows 11, complete with a modern interface that prioritizes photo and video viewing alongside file management and editing.

The new app first leaked from Microsoft's own servers, and is hidden as a separate executable named OneDrive.app.exe within the app's program files. When launched, the new OneDrive icon appears on the Taskbar, and an app window that brings you to your OneDrive photo library appears.

This app is web based and is using a unique design language that merges Fluent Design with the web. It features lots of rounded menu bars and drop down menus, which are complete with Acrylic blur effects to give it that Windows 11 aesthetic.