For those unaware, Windows 3.0 was a major release of Microsoft's operating system and was launched in 1990. And although the internet technology had been invented prior to its release, it didn't become publicly available through mainstream channels until 1993, when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) placed the World Wide Web software in the public domain.

Knowing this timeline of events is important for the context of this article because Windows 3.0 shipped version 1.0 of the WinHelp software. It contained documentation for "online help files," which will appear strange at first glance since Windows 3.0 technically predated the availability of the internet to the public.

Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has shed some light on this topic by clarifying that "online" during the early 1990s referred to something readily available on a computer, regardless of internet connectivity. For example, in the context of storage, online files are the ones which were immediately accessible, while offline files are items that have been archived to a tape. It would take time and effort to make them available "online". As such, WinHelp offered online files since they were readily available on Windows 3.0 computers.

Conversely, a computer that was actually connected to the network was referred to as "up", and "available offline". The second term may appear confusing at first, but it describes the computer's state with regard to other systems on the network, indicating that it was available for connection requests from other PCs.

So, all in all, Windows 3.0 contained online help files through WinHelp, even though it was not connected to the internet. This is in stark contrast to today's terminology, where online help (such as websites) is generally not considered available offline.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 12:32 pm AEST (my time).

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This version ships with Linux 6.14, which brings better performance, especially when it comes to gaming, thanks to the new ntsync subsystem, which helps emulate Windows NT synchronization for games running through Proton. It also provides reduced power consumption for certain AMD and Intel chipsets.

The kernel also adds support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC and introduces a new AMDXDNA accelerator driver for Ryzen AI NPUs, adds support for more gamepads, and brings in new security features.

The installer has been updated to address accessibility after some dedicated testing. The "Before Installing", "Try or Install", "Choose a Disk," and "Encryption" views all have improved labels for screen readers. The screen reader now picks up on things like password quality feedback. The development team also fixed some instances where the screen reader would announce text styling markup. A few crash-prevention checks were added for custom installations with complex partition layouts.

Moving on to the default apps, Music has a handful of new features, including much better queue management and improved performance when dealing with large playlists. You can now search by track name, which is a feature people have wanted for a while.

The app now saves your queue and the last played track when you close it. Small quality-of-life additions include using the "+" shortcut to add new files and having album art properly show up in system media controls.

The Terminal app saw bug fixes like a persistent problem where keyboard focus was not inside the first tab when you opened a new window. Another fix addresses an issue where pasting or dropping text containing a "#" character would get cut off. You should not see incorrect line breaks when pasting text while a process is running, and the app will properly clear the "process finished" icon when you select a tab.

Other small changes include properly marking the main menus in Camera and Videos so they can be opened with the F10 keyboard shortcut. The Calculator app's "Del" button was replaced with an icon, and the action for opening a new window now shows an icon in settings.

A crash that happened with very tall screenshots has been fixed, and an issue that prevented screenshots from being saved to custom locations has been resolved.

You can learn more from the official announcement blog post.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 12:31 pm AEST (my time).

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Once the latest extension version is reverted, users will no longer be able to install it. If automatic updates are enabled, the web browser will also automatically revert the extension to the previous version within 24 hours for users who have installed the buggy version.

"If developing a revised version and obtaining a review won't address the issue quickly enough, you can roll back to an earlier version of your extension. Users then update to the rolled back version when their browser next checks for extension updates, which, by default, means within 24 hours," Mozilla says.

"To address this issue, you can roll back your extension by republishing a previous version with a new version number and pushing this version to users through the Developer Hub or the Add-on Submission API."

Version rollbacks are now available for any extension with at least two approved versions, enabling developers to roll back to the approved version released before the current one for versions distributed on addons.mozilla.org. However, if they're self-distributed, Firefox extension developers can revert to any approved version.

To roll back to a previously approved version via the Developer Hub, developers must use the "Rollback to a previous version" option, located next to "Upload a New Version" on the Status & Versions page.

In June, Mozilla introduced another security feature for its add-on portal to block malicious extensions that drain users' cryptocurrency wallets.

Andreas Wagner, the head of the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) review and content security team, said at the time that Mozilla had discovered and removed hundreds of such extensions over the last few years, including many scam crypto wallets.

Since then, two malicious campaigns have flooded Mozilla's official Firefox add-ons store in July and August with almost 200 extensions impersonating popular cryptocurrency wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Phantom, Exodus, OKX, Keplr, and MyMonero.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 4:18 am AEST (my time).

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The stable VLC client is finally gaining official support for Windows 11 on Arm PCs, after it first went into testing in nightly builds well over a year ago. The popular media player now has a new release candidate build to test, version 3.0.22 RC1, which includes native Arm64 support among other improvements and fixes.

Notably, the update also fixes support for Windows XP Service Pack 3, which the few who are still using that platform will appreciate. The new release candidate build was spotted by linuxiax.com, who say this is the first release candidate build of VLC in a year.

You can check out the release candidate changelog below.

• Add option to use dark palette (Qt)
• Add compilation support for Qt6 and newer versions of Qt5
• Add Windows ARM64 builds
• Fix support for Windows XP SP3
• Allow renaming/moving/deleting of playing file on Windows
• Restrict SystemParametersInfo calls to Windows XP
• Fix Opus channel mapping
• Fix hardware decoding with VideoToolbox of XVID MPEG-4 video
• Add dav1d-all-layers option
• Fix DVD CEA-608 captions parsing
• Fix ProRes 4:4:4:4
• Disable decoding using libdca, libmpeg2 and liba52 by default in favor of libavcodec
• Handle mkv-use-chapter-codec option
• Add A_ATRAC/AT1 support in matroska
• Prevent FLAC seeking logic get stuck
• Handle pictures in FLAC
• Fix VOB/AOB LPCM/MLP detection failing occasionally
• Cut QNap title on first invalid character
• Fix display of certain JPEG files
• Fix playback of very short ASF files (duration less than 1s)
• Fix crashes in multiple demuxers (reported by rub.de, oss-fuzz and others)
• Fix SFTP seeking for large files on 32-bit OS
• UPnP: remove SAT>IP channel list fallback -
• Use a better stretch mode in wingdi
• Fetch missing device information when running in UWP
• Add AMD GPU Frame Rate Doubler (Direct3D11)

As version 3.0.22 RC1 is currently in Release Candidate phase, it's not easily available to download. You can compile it yourself via the VLC GitHub, otherwise you'll have to wait for it to be released officially before you can install or update to it like a normal app.

VLC is one of many Windows apps in recent times to get updated with support for Windows on Arm. Microsoft just celebrated the progress the platform has made in just over a year, with users spending 90% of their time on an Arm-based PC running native apps on Windows 11.

That's a huge improvement over how things were just a few years ago, where most app developers ignored the platform. Now, pretty much all mainstream apps, including VLC, now support Windows on Arm natively.

The changes this week are fairly spread out across various kernel subsystems. Many of the changes are on the driver side, specifically for GPU, networking, and sound. Other fixes were described as being fairly random, and included selftests, architecture fixes (mostly KVM-related), filesystems (most SMB), and core kernel, memory management, and networking code.

Several fixes address KVM issues across different architectures, including ARM64, s390, and LoongArch. Among the changes were multiple reverts, including two by Hugh Dickins concerning the memory management subsystem and one by Andrea Righi related to sched_ext.

There were also fixes for various hardware drivers too, such as for Intel, AMD, and Realtek sound drivers, as well as DRM graphics drivers for AMD and Intel. There were fixes for specific hardware too for Lenovo Thinkbook laptops (Lenovo Thinkbook 13x Gen 5, Gen4) and OneXPlayer handhelds, indicating ongoing efforts to improve device support.

Torvalds has encouraged developers to continue testing the release candidate over the next week. The focus on this release candidate was on stability, which is important for a smooth final release, now expected next week. If issues do pop up at the last minute, Linux 6.17 could be delayed by another week, but we should then get it.

Average Linux users are not advised to try to update to the new kernel when it's released on their own. You should wait until your preferred Linux distribution publishes it as an update through the update manager as it will then be designed to work properly with your operating system thanks to the application of any necessary tweaks.

Source: LKML

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 4:13 am AEST (my time).

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The company it seems is working on just that and ISO images for the same have since been uploaded to its delivery servers. A Reddit user -TekkieBoy- spotted these and extracted the download links for Windows 11 25H2 for x64 and Arm64.

Microsoft already confirmed that Windows 11 25H2 will not be a full OS swap, unlike 24H2. Instead, the move from version 24H2 to 25H2 will be more like what happened on 23H2 when users upgraded from Windows 11 22H2. Version 25H2 will be delivered as an enablement package (eKB).

According to Microsoft, 25H2 and 24H2 "share the same core operating system and identical system files." So the latest monthly quality update for 24H2 will have 25H2’s new features, but they will simply remain dormant until activated, which can be done via the eKB, a small, quick-to-install update that acts as a "master switch". Thus the eKB essentially enables the new dormant features. Once applied, it upgrades 24H2 to 25H2 with a single restart thus reducing system downtime.

Thus you can download the necessary eKB (KB5054156) if you are already on the latest 24H2 cumulative update, to in-place upgrade to 25H2 without downloading the entire ISO:

• x64 eKB: https://catalog.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/fa84cc49-18b2-4c26-b389-90c96e6ae0d2/public/windows11.0-kb5054156-x64_a0c1638cbcf4cf33dbe9a5bef69db374b4786974.msu
• Arm64 eKB: https://catalog.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/78b265e5-83a8-4e0a-9060-efbe0bac5bde/public/windows11.0-kb5054156-arm64_3d5c91aaeb08a87e0717f263ad4a61186746e465.msu
• x64 ISO: https://software-static.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/888969d5-f34g-4e03-ac9d-1f9786c66749/26200.6584.250915-1905.25h2_ge_release_svc_refresh_CLIENT_CONSUMER_x64FRE_en-us.iso
• Arm64 ISO: https://software-static.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/888969d5-f34g-4e03-ac9d-1f9786c66749/26200.6584.250915-1905.25h2_ge_release_svc_refresh_CLIENT_CONSUMER_A64FRE_en-us.iso

Keep in mind though that Microsoft has not yet announced the release of these and thus these are not intended to be downloaded in its current state, there could be issues.

Thanks for the tip, Aryeh!!

Source: -TekkieBoy- (Reddit)

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Posted Monday 22 September 2025 at 4:55 pm AEST (my time).

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Chromium-based browsers are known for being RAM-hungry sometimes. If you have a device with 8GB of memory or even less, memory consumption quickly becomes a serious issue, especially when you consider that a lot of modern work happens in the browser. Additionally, many popular apps are just web wrappers, such as WhatsApp, which recently ditched a native app in favor of a PWA.

While Microsoft Edge's built-in memory limit will not magically give you an extra 8GB of memory, it can help keep the browser in its lane, especially if you need to allocate memory to other apps. The feature is pretty simple, and using it is as easy as switching a bunch of toggles in settings. What I also like about it is that you can select when the limit applies—always or when you play a game. This is particularly handy when playing memory-taxing titles, and the feature takes care of memory management for you, with no need to manually toggle it on whenever you want to play.

Reduce memory consumption in Microsoft Edge.

Before you start, make sure you run the most recent Microsoft Edge version. You can check it by going to edge://settings/help. By the time this article is published, the most recent Stable version is Edge 140. The ability to limit how much memory Edge consumes has been present since Edge 125.

1. Click the three-dot button in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Settings in the menu.
2. Go to System and Performance > Performance. Alternatively, type edge://settings/system/managePerformance in the address bar.

   

3. Flick the "Enable resource controls" toggle. After that, you will see a bunch of additional elements.
4. Now, set the maximum amount of memory the browser can use. Microsoft lets you select from 1GB to as much as your computer has. For example, my PC has 32GB of RAM, and I can allow Edge to use all 32GB if necessary.

   

5. Once the limit is set, select when it should be applied. Available options include "While PC gaming" or "Always." If you do not want Edge to exceed the specified limit all the time, select the second option.

   

Keep in mind that the less memory you allocate to Edge, the slower it runs. Also, you are more likely to experience tab refreshes and temporary data loss. For the best results, use the Sleeping Tabs feature, which offloads idling tabs for more optimal memory consumption. You can turn on Sleeping Tabs on the same page using the "Save resources with sleeping tabs" toggle. Also, you can try several limits to find one that works best for your device.

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Posted Monday 22 September 2025 at 2:17 am AEST (my time).

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There is also some good news as safeguard hold has also been removed. Compatibilty blocks are essentially placed by the tech giant as a way to safeguard against widespread issues once problems are detected. Microsoft recently lifted a compatibility block regarding Dirac audio and the software is finally playing well with Windows 11 24H2.

However, Neowin forum member BritBronco noted in the comments of the article that were still not able to download and install version 24H2. In less than two weeks, Microsoft has now removed another compatibility block, one that was imposed as a result of a buggy Camera app that was also affecting other apps that were reliant on it. So this means those who have been held back can finally get the update. The safeguard ID for this issue was 53340062. Such safeguard IDs are used by IT admins and sysadmins to keep track of current known blocks.

About this bug, Microsoft wrote:

"After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, certain devices might experience problems using the integrated camera in scenarios where object or face detection features are enabled. This can include using the Camera app, using facial recognition sign-in options with Windows Hello, and other applications that use the integrated camera."

While the upgrade block is being no longer enforced, the company does ask to keep in mind that it can still take up to 48 hours or two days for the 24H2 feature update to become available for download and install.

You can find the issue here on Microsoft's official health dashboard website.

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Posted Sunday 21 September 2025 at 3:30 am AEST (my time).

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In Plasma 6.5, there's now a tool that works similarly to xprop, called kwindowprop. If you're not aware, xprop is a command-line tool that displays window properties for the old X11 windowing system. You run the command, and it lets you inspect a window's information when you click on it.

The global search in KRunner will also no longer get stuck on comma-based group separators when you perform calculations, so asking it to compute "5,200 * 12,873" works just fine now.

Other things that were introduced include support for text insertion point tracking within the Zoom effect on Wayland.

The dev team says that window activation is now better on Wayland, making the experience of switching between applications a bit more reliable. This has been a long-standing annoyance for many, so any improvement is good news. Another nice quality of life change is that now, when you right-click on many System Tray widgets, you can access their actions directly from a context menu.

Moving on to the bug fixes, Plasma 6.4.6, scheduled for release in November, addresses problems with printer ink levels being shown when not needed and fixes an issue preventing the Breeze GTK style from being activated by default.

As for Plasma 6.5, the team has been squashing a lot of bugs. For instance, drag-and-drop now functions correctly with a stylus on Wayland, and input methods for older X11 applications should work properly again.

The team also fixed a problem that could cause some Flatpak apps to show the wrong icons on the permissions page in System Settings. Another issue that was addressed was one where, when you click on a disabled zoom button on the Night Color map, it would move the location marker.

You can learn more from the KDE blog.

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Posted Sunday 21 September 2025 at 3:29 am AEST (my time).

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I can already hear the groans. But yes, I use AI and I use AI to help me try and learn about things I don't know about. This harks back to the early days of Copilot, the artist formerly known as Bing Chat.

The conversational nature of using an AI chatbot over a regular web search has always resonated with me. If I just want to find one specific thing, a web search is fine, but if I want to do some actual research, learn about something, then being able to ask questions, revisit topics easily, is something I enjoy. It feels closer to the experience of speaking to a teacher back in school, having a back and forth, and that's how I learn best.

Learning about PowerShell has been on my to-do list for quite some time. Not for any reason other than curiosity. So I finally decided to start, deploying various AI tools in my quest. I've tried reading books, but I don't learn best by just reading. I learn best by asking questions, trying things, breaking things, and then figuring them out.

What's become apparent to me, almost immediately, though, is that AI is no match, at least right now, for human experts. It's no magic fix, and without someone who knows what they're doing (which is very much not me) then it's going to break things. A lot.

To be clear, I'm also not necessarily advocating this as the 'right' way to go about this. I'm merely documenting my experience.

Starting small, working through a project

Have enough Copilot buttons in your life? No you don’t — have another one! This one pops up in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview when mousing over an open app in your taskbar; it lets you share the contents with Copilot Vision.

Want to know who is celebrating in that dogpile on the mound, or dig a little deeper on that sculpture you took a photo of? Just click that “Share with Copilot” button that pops up in the window preview. Copilot Vision scans what’s on your screen, analyzes it, and lets you discuss the contents of the window with Microsoft’s AI chatbot to get more context, including offering tutorials.

Share with Copilot button in a Microsoft Edge window preview.

Image: Microsoft

Of course, it doesn’t exactly seem like Windows users are clamoring for more Copilot in their lives. There’s already buttons popping up in Microsoft Paint, Notepad, in the taskbar, on your keyboard, and right on the front of some PCs. There’s even another, more useful Copilot feature in the same Windows 11 preview that translates on-screen text. Microsoft does say it’s just “trying out this taskbar capability”, so don’t be shocked if it gets axed in an upcoming build before it actually ships to regular users.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 6:36 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has confirmed that certain Digital TV and Blu‑ray/DVD applications are failing to play protected content following the release of the August 2025 C-release update for Windows (KB5064081).

According to the company, the problem affects applications that rely on the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) with High‑bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) enforcement or Digital Rights Management (DRM) for digital audio. Users may encounter copyright protection errors, repeated playback interruptions, freezing, or black screens. Interestingly, Microsoft notes that the issue does not extend to streaming services, which continue to function normally.

The impact is likely somewhat limited given that physical media playback is a niche use case nowadays, yet for users who rely on Blu‑ray or broadcast TV applications, the update effectively blocks access to legally purchased or licensed content.

It writes:

"Some Digital TV and BluRay/DVD applications might experience problems playing protected content after installing the August 29, 2025 Windows non-security preview update (KB5064081), or later updates. Applications using Enhanced Video Renderer with HDCP enforcement or Digital Rights Management (DRM) for digital audio might experience copyright protection errors, frequent playback interruptions, freezing or black screens. This issue does not impact streaming services."

For those wondering, EVR is a legacy Windows feature (currently superseded by Simple Video Renderer or SVR) that helps in handling protected playback by working with Microsoft’s Media Foundation and DirectShow pipelines to render video securely. When applications enforce High‑bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) or Digital Rights Management (DRM), EVR is what ensures that protected frames are composited and presented only through trusted Direct3D surfaces, thus preventing unauthorized copying. This integration essentially allows Windows to meet licensing requirements for Blu‑ray, broadcast TV, and other protected media formats.

For now, Microsoft has not suggested a workaround beyond delaying installation and awating a fix. You can find the issue here on Microsoft's official Windows health dashboard website.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 6:35 pm AEST (my time).

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With this build Microsoft is testing an improved Account management from inside the Settings app. Aside from that, the company is also testing multiple Copilot-related features including for translation and Vision.

The build also fixes multiple bugs including the 0x80070002 Windows Update error, a File Explorer crashing issue, and more. Microsoft has also added several new items to the known issues section after acknowledging such bugs. The full changelog is given below:

Here are the changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*:

[Click to Do (Preview)]

The following changes and improvements are rolling out for Click to Do on Copilot+ PCs:

• Translation powered by Microsoft Copilot: We are introducing the ability to do translation with Microsoft Copilot with Click to Do, making it easier for you to translate on-screen text with just a few clicks. When you select text that is in a different language from your Windows display language or preferred language settings, a translation suggestion will appear. The selected text is sent to the Copilot app, which provides the translation seamlessly within the experience. This feature currently works if you have the new Copilot prompt box in Click to Do that began rolling out in the previous flight. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China.

  

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Just like being able to share a window to Microsoft Teams when mousing over an opened app on your taskbar, we’re trying out this taskbar capability with Microsoft Copilot. When mousing over an opened app window on the taskbar, you will see an option to share with Copilot where you will be able to quickly start a new conversation with Copilot and use Copilot Vision to scan, analyze, and offer insights on what is shown on your screen from that app at that time.

[Desktop Spotlight]

• We are trying out a change that adds “Learn more about this background” and “Next desktop background” to the context menu when you click on your desktop if you have Windows Spotlight chosen as your desktop background under Settings > Personalization > Background.

[Settings]

• We’ve refreshed the experience to make it easier to add or manage all your accounts in one place under Settings > Accounts. As part of this update, the “Email & accounts” section is now called “Your accounts,” reflecting a more unified and streamlined way to stay connected across Windows and your apps.

Here are the fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*:

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where File Explorer may become unresponsive if a UNC server name was directly typed into address bar.

[Windows Update]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders recently to find that installing the latest builds failed with error 0x80070002.

[Audio]

• If you were having issues with audio not working after the latest updates, that should be resolved now. Audio issues can have multiple root causes, though, so if you continue experiencing issues, please file feedback under Devices and Drivers > Audio and Sound in the Feedback Hub, if possible, including a trace by using the “Capture the issue” option in Step #4 of the problem report.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where Settings > System > Optional Features > Add an optional feature may not load when Administrator Protection was enabled.

Finally the known issues are:

[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]

• We’re investigating an issue in this build where the media controls may not be displayed on the lock screen.

[Taskbar]

• [NEW] 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.
• [NEW] We have a few issues that need ironing out with the changes in the previous flight when “automatically hide the taskbar” is enabled, including that the system tray may unexpectedly peek up – thanks Insiders that have shared feedback about it. We’re working on it.

[Search]

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

[Windows Studio Effects]

• For some classes of external webcams, turning on “Use Windows Studio Effects” in the advanced camera setting may result in a camera preview failure. This is due to a compatibility issue with the camera firmware and is being addressed with a future update. In the meantime, if you are impacted by this issue, turn off Windows Studio Effects inside the camera settings.

[For developers]

• PIX on Windows is unable to play back GPU captures on this OS version. This will be addressed by a new PIX release, estimated to arrive by the end of September. In the meantime, if you are impacted, you can use the “Send Feedback” button in PIX or contact us on the DirectX Discord server and we can help provide private builds.

[Settings]

• The placeholder text in the Settings search box may appear vertically misaligned.
• [NEW] Settings may crash when accessing drive information under Settings > System > Storage. This also impacts accessing the drive information from the properties when you right click a drive in File Explorer.

[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 official blog post here (Dev/Beta) on Microsoft's website.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 6:33 pm AEST (my time).

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Here is the changelog:

• [General]
  • This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.
• [Settings]
  • Advanced Settings will revert to the previous “For Developers” experience after updating to this build. This change will come back soon.
• [General]
  • Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to experience a rollback attempting to install the latest build with either an 0xC1900101-0x20017 error or 0xC1900101-0x30017 error.
• [Taskbar and System Tray]
  • Fixed an issue which could cause the app preview windows in the taskbar to become misaligned (away from the app icon you’d clicked / hovered over) after a display resolution change.
• [File Explorer]
  • Fixed an issue where interacting with the context menu in File Explorer could lead to the body of File Explorer becoming unresponsive to clicks.
  • Fixed an issue which could lead to certain apps hanging when launching the Open or Save Dialog.
  • Fixed an issue where with certain apps installed, when you right clicked you may see the context menu unexpectedly switch back and forth with each right click between the normal initial view and “Show more options”.
• [Graphics]
  • Fixed an which was causing some Insiders to experience screen flickers when using the browser (and potentially other scenarios) in the latest Canary builds.
• [Audio]
  • If you were having issues with audio not working after the latest updates, that should be resolved now. Audio issues can have multiple root causes, though, so if you continue experiencing issues, please file feedback under Devices and Drivers > Audio and Sound in the Feedback Hub, if possible including a trace by using the “Capture the issue” option in Step #4 of the problem report.
• [Dynamic Lighting]
  • Fixed an issue in Dynamic Lighting where the Dynamic Lighting Background Controller would occasionally consume excessive CPU after unlocking the machine.
• [Other]
  • We’ve done some underlying work to help improve performance when gaming with game bar or other overlays on top of your game. This may particularly help those with multiple monitors which have different refresh rates. As always, if you’re experiencing game performance issues, please file feedback including a trace of the issue, following these steps. Thanks Windows Insiders who’ve shared feedback so far!

Known issues only include two bugs:

• [General]
  • We’re working on the fix for 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.
• [For developers]
  • PIX on Windows is unable to play back GPU captures on this OS version. This will be addressed by a new PIX release, estimated to arrive by the end of September. In the meantime, if you are impacted, you can use the “Send Feedback” button in PIX or contact us on the DirectX Discord server and we can help provide private builds.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 6:32 pm AEST (my time).

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You get some AI, and you get some AI, EVERYBODY GETS SOME AI!

That's very much the theme of the latest update to the Google Chrome web browser, at least, if you use it, and you're based in the United States.

Google's self-proclaimed "biggest upgrade to Chrome in its history" is all about new AI features, as if it would be anything else. Not all of the features are available immediately, but with the integration of Gemini into Chrome, the foundations are being laid.

Gemini being natively added to the Chrome browser allows users to use it to interact directly with their web content from the toolbar.

Gemini will also be able to work across multiple tabs, interact with your browsing history to "recall" past activity, as well as let you interface with other Google suite apps, such as the calendar, or YouTube, without leaving your current tab.

Google's also setting Gemini up to be an "agentic browser" to complete those "tedious tasks" on your behalf. Examples given are booking a haircut or ordering your groceries, neither of which I think I'd trust my web browser to do for me.

I rarely know what I want to eat day to day, how am I supposed to trust my web browser to handle the shopping?!

Version 143.0.1 is now available for download, and its sole purpose is to fix a tab-crashing issue that some users experience due to DLL injection, particularly with Trend Micro's tmmon64.dll. Here is what the changelog says:

Fixed a tab crash experienced by some users caused by DLL injection. (Bug 1872261)

And that is pretty much everything you need to know about Firefox 143.0.1. You can update your Firefox copy by navigating to Menu > Help > About Firefox. Alternatively, get the browser from the official website, or the Microsoft Store (if you are on Windows 10 or Windows 11).

In case you missed it, Firefox 143 was released on September 16. In the update, Mozilla introduced the ability to pin websites to the taskbar and run them as apps in UI-less windows. Also, it is now easier to pin apps by just dragging them, Copilot can now run in a sidebar, and Firefox can auto-delete files downloaded in Private Mode.

All those changes are available on supported Windows and macOS versions, while those still using outdated operating systems can stick with Firefox 115, which will remain supported for a little longer. Mozilla recently revealed its plans to expand Firefox 115 ESR support on Windows 7/8/8.1 and certain macOS versions, giving users a few more months of security updates. As for Windows 10, which will soon be out of support, it is too early to talk about mainstream browsing leaving the slowly sinking ship.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 3:15 am AEST (my time).

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First of all, there is a new module called KNightTime, which centralizes control over your desktop's light and dark modes. This project handles color temperature adjustment, as well as the automatic scheduling of the entire appearance of the desktop, switching not just the global theme but also the wallpaper from day to night.

In this beta, you'll finally be able to test out the long-awaited rounded bottom window corners for borderless windows. For years, the default Breeze theme has had this weird inconsistency where top corners were rounded, but the bottom ones were a sharp 90-degree corner at the bottom. This change, which you can turn off if you hate it, fixes that without needing any third-party scripts.

The clipboard manager has been updated, at last fulfilling a 22-year-old (!) feature request. You can now finally star entries to keep important items from disappearing from your history.

Other things to look out for include Wayland Picture-in-Picture support, which leverages an experimental version of the Wayland PiP protocol that applications like Firefox can also use. The update also brings the "Pointer Warp" Wayland protocol, which is necessary for certain games and remote desktop applications that need to control the cursor's position. For hardware, KWin now supports "overlay planes", a technical feature that will help reduce GPU and power usage for full-screen content like videos or games.

For digital artists, Plasma 6.5 adds configuration support for tablet dials and touch rings directly in the system settings. On the system side, the Discover software center can now install hardware drivers, and a new settings page lets you manage permissions for portal-based applications, not just Flatpaks.

You'll also get notifications for low printer ink levels. The global search feature KRunner gets fuzzy matching for applications, so your typos might not matter as much anymore.

The full changelog, consisting of over 2000 changes, is available here.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 3:14 am AEST (my time).

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The Linux Mint team is encouraging users to try out the LMDE 7 beta on a spare device or virtual machine and report any bugs they encounter on GitHub. If you do find anything wrong, the Linux Mint team asks that you be as accurate as possible and include all information that helps developers reproduce the issue, mentioning whether the bug happens always or sometimes.

The developers won’t have time to respond to every report, and some issues may not be fixed, but the beta phase is designed to be a bug-squashing rush so that developers will be extremely busy.

Next month will see the end of Windows 10 support, and if you’re running a computer incapable of running Windows 11, then running Linux is one option you can take. If you’re interested in LMDE 7, you may like the fact that LMDE 7 maintains modest system requirements to run. According to the Mint team, you need a minimum of 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended), 20GB of disk space (100GB recommended, and a 1024x768 resolution display.

If you do decide to try out the beta, you won’t have to do a clean install of the final stable release; just apply any updates that are available, and you’ll be considered to be on the stable version once it’s out.

Judging by the community’s responses in the announcement blog post, users seem to be excited for the upcoming release, with one calling LMDE the best Mint version available. Another user said they’ve installed it on four computers and haven’t experienced any problems so far, meaning it could be quite stable already.

LMDE 7 is based on Debian 13, which will receive extended support until 30 June 2030, so it should be supported until this date too. You can download it here now.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 3:11 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has published a new blog post detailing the progress that has been made when it comes to app developers supporting Windows 11 on Arm with natively compiled apps. Today, the company claims that 90% of the time on Arm-based PCs are now spent within natively compiled apps, a huge improvement over how things were just a few short years ago.

"The Arm app ecosystem continues to expand, with native Arm versions available for apps representing 90% of total user minutes, thus providing efficient, high-performance experiences across the scenarios that matter most to our customers" says Microsoft corporate vice president of customer experience engineering, Mike Adams.

Microsoft essentially rebooted Windows on Arm with the launch of Copilot+ PCs and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X range of PC chips in May last year. All the major OEMs were onboard to ship new Arm-based PCs with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chips, with the promise that performance and efficiency was finally there and capable of competing with Apple Silicon.

That attempt to reboot Windows on Arm has seemingly been successful, as app developers across the ecosystem have finally taken the time to recompile their apps for the Arm architecture. Everything from small to major app developers have jumped on-board the Windows on Arm train, improving performance and efficiency of their apps for these Arm-based PCs.

Microsoft highlights several different categories of apps where developers have ported over to Arm, including VPN, productivity, creative, social, entertainment, and even endpoint protection and management tools.

The beta is expected to run for several weeks until October 9 and includes significant, potentially disruptive changes, such as the adoption of Rust-based core utilities. As a beta, things might be unstable so it shouldn’t be used on production machines.

As Ubuntu is now using the uutil Rust implementation of coreutils to replace the GNU version, this upcoming version of Lubuntu does too. The goal is to provide better memory safety and more robust code, however, Lubuntu says this isn’t without risk and warns that users could see core utilities behave differently. The findutils and diffutils are explicitly noted as not yet having been replaced with their Rust equivalents.

A second key package, sudo, has also been replaced with a Rust rewrite called sudo-rs. Unlike rust-coreutils, sudo-rs is not a fully drop-in replacement for the original sudo. The new version omits features that are largely unused or legacy. A specific breaking change is the -E option, which passes the current environment to the executed application, but is ignored by sudo-rs , which can cause scripts or applications to misbehave.

There are also some known issues in this update, for example, apt can exhibit odd behavior when resolving packages leading to unexpected dependencies like KWallet and Alactritty being installed by default. Some disk management packages like cryptsetup and btrfs-tools are no longer pre-installed either.

The notes also say that manual partitioning on BIOS systems may result in an unbootable system unless a specific workaround is performed. Finally, the Finish OEM preparation icon on OEM installs does nothing due to a missing kdialog package.

Hopefully, these issues can be sorted out by the time of release next month, however, realistically, some will probably remain. It's not all bad news though, several major pieces of software are on new versions: LXQt 2.2.0, Qt 6.8.3, Mozilla Firefox 142, LibreOffice 25.8, VLC 3.0.21, Featherpad 1.6.2, and Discover Software Center 6.4.5.

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Posted Friday 19 September 2025 at 6:17 pm AEST (my time).

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Windows 10 is ending support soon next month and , right to repair activist groups are starting to raise their voices regarding concerns about the upcoming change. It can render an estimated 400 million PCs worldwide unprotected, as those devices cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 officially.

Zorin Group pitches its Zorin OS as the “alternative to Windows and macOS designed to make your computer faster, more powerful, secure, and privacy‑respecting,” and wants those who cannot upgrade to consider switching to Zorin OS. It is built on Ubuntu Linux’s Long‑Term Support (LTS) base and, as mentioned above, promises a better experience than what Windows currently offers.

The platform targets home users, schools, and businesses seeking a familiar interface without the hardware demands or telemetry of mainstream operating systems. The Zorin Group claims that its OS is optimized to run on PCs up to 15 years old, with minimum requirements of a 1 GHz dual‑core processor, 2 GB RAM, and 15 GB storage. This optimization is essentially what should lead to the snappier overall experience.

First released in 2009, Zorin OS is currently at version 17.3 (released this March), and offers Core, Education, Lite, and Pro editions. Core and Education are free; Pro is priced at $47.99 and adds six premium desktop layouts, among other goodies. Lite, based on the XFCE desktop, is tuned for very low‑spec hardware, and Core and Pro are based on the GNOME Shell.

Speaking of the desktop, the OS ships with the Zorin Appearance app, enabling quick switching between layouts resembling Windows 11, Windows Classic, macOS, ChromeOS, GNOME 2, or Ubuntu.

If you are wondering about app compatibility, Windows apps can be installed through integrated Wine and Bottles compatibility layers. Zorin says that most EXE and MSI Windows Installer based software should work, but there is also a dedicated Windows App Support layer, which essentially packages Wine and PlayOnLinux.

Zorin Group says upcoming releases will further optimize performance, expand hardware compatibility, and enhance cross‑device integration. On its official X handle, the company just teased its upcoming Zorin OS 18's release date.

Stick around on Neowin to read about what this latest major release will bring.

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Posted Friday 19 September 2025 at 12:15 pm AEST (my time).

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Google is adding multiple new AI features to Chrome, the most popular browser in the world. The most visible change is a new button in Chrome that launches the Gemini chatbot, but there are also new tools for searching, researching, and answering questions with AI. Google has additional cursor-controlling “agentic” tools in the pipeline for Chrome as well.

The Gemini in Chrome mode for the web browser uses generative AI to answer questions about content on a page and synthesize information across multiple open tabs. Gemini in Chrome first rolled out to Google’s paying subscribers in May. The AI-focused features are now available to all desktop users in the US browsing in English; they'll show up in a browser update.

On mobile devices, Android users can already use aspects of Gemini within the Chrome app, and Google is expected to launch an update for iOS users of Chrome in the near future.

When I wrote about web browsers starting to add more generative AI tools back in 2023, it was primarily something that served as an alternative to the norm. The software was built by misfits and change-makers who were experimenting with new tools, or hunting for a break-out feature to grow their small user bases. All of this activity was dwarfed by the commanding number of users who preferred Chrome.

Two years later, while Google’s browser remains the market leader, the internet overall is completely seeped in AI tools, many of them also made by Google. Still, today marks the moment when the concept of an “AI browser” truly went mainstream with the weaving of Gemini so closely into the Chrome browser.

The Gemini strategy at Google has already been to leverage as many of its in-house integrations as possible, from Gmail to Google Docs. So, the decision to AI-ify the Chrome browser for a wider set of users does not come as a shock.

Even so, the larger roll out will likely be met with ire by some users who are either exhausted by the onslaught of AI-focused features in 2025 or want to abstain from using generative AI, whether for environmental reasons or because they don't want their activity to be used to train an algorithm. Users who don’t want to see the Gemini option will be able to click on the Gemini sparkle icon and unpin it from the top right corner of the Chrome browser.

Before the end of September, Google also plans to incorporate its chatbot-style search feature, AI Mode, into Chrome’s address bar, which Google calls the Omnibox. This means users will have an AI Mode button and keyboard shortcut that uses Gemini and suggests prompts based on what’s shown on the web page.

This feature is optional and won’t replace a user’s ability to just run a regular Google search by typing a query into the address bar. Though generative AI’s looming presence does feel inescapable—you'll probably bump into an AI Overview at the top of those results anyways.

While they're not rolling out yet, Chrome users can expect to see agentic features come to the browser in the next few months. This basically means that a user could ask Gemini to complete a web-based task, like adding items to an Instacart order. Then, the generative AI tool will run in the background, attempt to choose groceries by clicking around, and then show you the results before you make the final purchasing decision. Aspects of this are similar to what Google has previously demoed with its Project Mariner experiment.

When I tried out a comparable agent feature released by OpenAI earlier this year, previously called Operator, the results were messy and fairly slow. The agentic experience felt akin to letting a sloppy ghost loose to haunt my browser. Based on my past tests of similar features, I’m skeptical these agent features for Chrome will feel like more than a parlor trick at release.

Year of the AI Browser

Throughout 2025, every major software release has had some kind of generative AI angle. Browsers are no different. Picture me doing my best Oprah impression: Your browser gets AI features! And your browser gets AI features! Yours too!

For example, a startup called The Browser Company had previously dabbled in AI browser tools for a couple of years with Arc. In June, the company released its rebranded browser, now called Dia, with a bevy of new AI integrations. Another rising startup, Perplexity, has focused extensively this year on launching a new browser named Comet that heavily incorporates aspects of its generative AI-powered search engine. It’s rumored that OpenAI also could eventually release its own version of an AI browser.

At the same time as the rollout of these new features for Chrome, the Gemini app for smartphones is at the top of the free download charts for iOS, right above ChatGPT, the previous leader. The app rose in popularity after the release of Google’s latest version of its image generator, called Nano Banana.

While early adopters who enjoy experimenting with new tools have probably already downloaded an alternative browser out of curiosity, Google putting Gemini inside of Chrome will likely be the first time millions of users have encountered AI-focused features like this in their browser. You can definitely expect to receive a call from your relatives in the next few weeks asking what the hell Gemini is.

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Posted Friday 19 September 2025 at 5:01 am AEST (my time).

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Valve has announced that as of January 1, 2026, Steam for 32-bit based versions of Windows will no longer be supported. Currently, the only version of Windows 32-bit that Valve actively supports is Windows 10, but that will no longer be the case as of next year.

Interestingly, Valve says that there are only 0.01% of Steam users that are still using a 32-bit version of Windows 10, and so this end of support date won't impact most people. Additionally, although the Steam client will no longer be supported with new features or fixes, it will likely continue to work on 32-bit Windows for the foreseeable future.

"As of January 1 2026, Steam will stop supporting systems running 32-bit versions of Windows," says a Steam support FAQ. "Windows 10 32-bit is the only 32-bit version that is currently supported by Steam and is only in use on 0.01% of systems reported through the Steam Hardware Survey. Windows 10 64-bit will still be supported and 32-bit games will still run. Existing Steam Client installations will continue to function for the near term on Windows 10 32-bit but will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates."

It's important to stress that Valve is not ending support for Steam on Windows 10 for most users. A majority of Windows 10 PCs are 64-bit based, and Steam will continue to be fully supported on that platform, even though its end of support date is looming. Valve has not announced an end of support date for Steam on Windows 10 64-bit.

Valve says ending support for 32-bit versions of Windows is required as core features in Steam rely on system drivers and libraries that are no longer supported in 32-bit versions of Windows. That also means that all future versions of Steam will be 64-bit only, which might be a problem for retro gamers using older PCs.

It's also worth noting that while Microsoft still supports 32-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 11 is only available in 64-bit flavor. So it makes sense for Valve to slowly move over to only supporting 64-bit going forward, especially considering there are so few users left that are still using a 32-bit powered system.

via Neowin

I'm no psychic, but it feels a bit late for Microsoft to reconsider its decision to cut support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, when complaints of unsupported PCs were heard months ago. As early as 2023, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) petitioned the tech giant to reconsider its decision, citing that it could lead to the single biggest jump in 'junked' computers ever.

While Microsoft seemingly turned a deaf ear to some of these complaints, it at least unveiled its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 users who aren't able to upgrade to Windows 11 after support for the operating system ends.

Recently, and perhaps in a last-ditch effort to persuade Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10 beyond its cutoff date, Consumer Reports sent a letter to CEO Satya Nadella warning that the move will “strand millions of consumers” who cannot upgrade to Windows 11 due to the company’s strict minimum system requirements (via The Verge). The PIRG estimates that around 400 million PCs are unable to upgrade to Windows 11.

Microsoft's ESU program isn't enough

According to reports on GitHub, installing PowerToys 0.94 sometimes gets stuck with the following bootstrapper error: Failed to load SilentFilesInUseBAFunction.dll (0x8007007e). This behavior was observed when installing PowerToys from any source (GitHub, winget, or the Microsoft Store) with or without elevated privileges. Luckily, Microsoft fixed the problem relatively quickly with version 0.94.1, which is now available for download. Here is its modest changelog:

• Installer: Resolved the installer setup problem, enabling successful installation from GitHub, winget, and Microsoft Store by fixing the “Failed to load SilentFilesInUseBAFunction.dll (0x8007007e)” bootstrapper error.

In case you missed it, PowerToys 0.94 was released earlier this month with a couple of much-needed improvements. The app now has a dedicated search bar, allowing you to quickly find necessary settings and modules. PowerToys now has a shortcut conflict detector in case you have a bunch of actions assigned to a single shortcut, plus a new gliding cursor mode for Mouse Pointer Crosshairs, which offers improved accessibility.

PowerToys 0.94 was not the biggest feature update, but in version 0.95, developers promise to introduce several major changes. For one, look out for a new module that will take care of automatic theme switching in Windows 11 based on your schedule, plus a fully revamped Keyboard Manager user interface.

You can download PowerToys 0.94.1 from GitHub or the Microsoft Store. Additionally, you can run Windows Terminal and type winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget.

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Posted Friday 19 September 2025 at 4:53 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of August): 4,048

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