The Plasma Virtual Keyboard, as it is called, has come a long way since then with better Wayland support, upgraded Qt and Frameworks dependencies, improved internationalization, and more. The KDE team has shared the most notable changes and wants your ideas and feedback on them.

First of all, you can now configure the width of the keyboard, so it can be centered instead of covering the entire screen. The keyboard's dimension calculations have also seen an overhaul. It can be set to take up a percentage of the screen height, defaulting to 30%, and horizontal margins get applied automatically if the width exceeds six times the height.

Number keys have finally been added to the top key row, so you won't have to switch to the symbols layout just to type a digit. There's also now sound and haptic feedback for key presses, and you can import layouts from Qt VirtualKeyboard to make changes for different locales.

A lot of bug fixes have been made, including fixing issues with overlapping text in some situations. The developers have also squashed bugs related to the keyboard's visible state, like when it failed to open or reopen correctly, and fixed incorrect capitalization after every word.

As for what's planned in the future, the KDE team says it is working on keyboard emulation. This will add support for modifier keys such as Tab, Meta, Esc, and Ctrl, along with the ability to emulate events such as Ctrl + C (copy).

A floating display mode, as seen in popular virtual keyboards like Gboard, is also in the works. This lets you detach the keyboard and move it anywhere.

Plasma Bigscreen users will find optimized settings for TVs, which also add options for selecting languages and toggling sound and vibration. Another planned feature is cursor navigation: holding the spacebar and then moving left or right will move the cursor in the text field.

As previously said, the KDE team wants your feedback and ideas on this; you can share them in this Discourse thread.

If you're in Berlin, you can drop by Akademy 2025, the 22nd edition of KDE's annual summit. It's free to attend and runs from September 6 to 11, giving you the chance to discuss your ideas in person with the developers.

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Posted Tuesday 26 August 2025 at 5:53 am AEST (my time).

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While the release is a bit larger than usual, Torvalds said that it was “well within the normal parameters” and not “outrageously so.” Overall, this release is proceeding normally, which means it’s more likely it’ll be out after the seventh release candidate.

The diffstat, which shows the changes in this update, is described by Torvalds as “fairly normal” this week. Approximately half of the changes are in drivers, spread across various components, with the Mellanox mfx5 driver being a standout area. Other notable changes include a new “chunk” of added selftests and more Rust support. There are also a random collection of fixes present in architecture code, filesystems, VM, and core networking.

The Linux kernel development cycle sees a two week merge window where new features are added and then seven to eight weeks of release candidates where the new features a made more stable. Some of the fixes we got this week include fixes for memory leaks in pidfs and iommufd, updates the scsi subsystem, including support for Intel Wildcat Lake, security-related fixes in lib/crypto and ipv6, additions of Rust support in mm (memory management), and fixes for various hardware, such as USB and DRM drivers.

Linus Torvalds ended his announcement by stating that “things seem fairly normal for this phase of the release cycle” and that “nothing stands out.” He has called on the community to keep testing to ensure that everything is working properly by the time of the stable release in a little over one month from now.

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Posted Monday 25 August 2025 at 1:21 pm AEST (my time).

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A relatively basic, but notable change this time around is that the executable file has been renamed to flyo.exe. In addition, the developer has introduced a new helper tool in the form of spot.exe. This is based on the developer's own annoyances with trying to find the right tools during Windows 11's setup. Spot works around this by automatically surfacing helpful tools and locations, and can be triggered by clicking the search icon on the top-right corner.

Importantly, Flyoobe has also added support for enrollment of Windows 10 extended security updates (ESU) for consumers. This can be done with or without a Microsoft account through an integration with another bypass script specifically designed to get consumer ESUs. This is very useful for customers who want to stick with Windows 10, with the end-of-life (EoL) deadline looming. Lastly, the UI has received some improvements and the OOBE views have refactored so that they are cleaner and easier to maintain.

For those interested in this stream, keep in mind that Flyoobe is an evolution of Flyby11, a tool that was initially designed for unsupported PCs to bypass Windows 11's system requirements. Flyoobe has a renewed focus on improving the Windows 11 OOBE, enabling customers to "debloat" the OS by only installing software that they want.

Although Flyby11 is still available as a separate release via GitHub, the developer plans to merge both tools in a single project and then refactor it. For the time being, you can download Flyoobe through our dedicated Software section here if you trust the developer. Do keep in mind that modifying a Windows image carries its own set of risks, so only use the utility if you accept those risks.

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Posted Monday 25 August 2025 at 5:58 am AEST (my time).

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About two months ago, we told you about KDE Initial System Setup (KISS), a KDE project that creates a first-run setup wizard for the user. This out-of-the-box experience (OOBE) is similar to how Windows and macOS guide you through creating an account and picking settings.

The project actually began in 2020, but it went dormant sometime around mid-2022. Thankfully, it was revived this March, and then developer Kristen McWilliam took over the project and pushed it forward. The KDE team says KISS is now production-ready and will land in Plasma 6.5.

Here is KISS in action:

Plasma 6.5 is also bringing several UI improvements like newly scrollable Plasma panels. When they get too crowded with app icons, they will now scroll instead of just compressing icons forever. The update adds more relevant info about your game controllers in System Settings, like joystick type and actual button names.

In System Settings, the Drawing Tablet page will now hide itself if you do not have a tablet connected, but you can still force it to appear for troubleshooting. Other changes include a better tone mapping curve for displaying HDR content and improved accessibility on the Shortcuts page.

We're less than three weeks away from the release of Plasma 6.4.5, and the developers have added a bunch of bug fixes that will land with the release. For example, if you clone a panel that has a System Tray widget, its settings will now be cloned correctly. The team also fixed a layout issue with the Audio Volume widget that caused an application's recording stream to be indented incorrectly.

Those with AMD GPUs will be pleased to hear that a workaround has been implemented for a driver issue on some cards like the RX 7900 XTX. This problem caused the screen to flicker on HDR-capable displays when changing GAMMA_LUT values, which happens frequently when you adjust brightness.

As for 6.5, the bug fixes it brings include preventing desktop icons from shifting around, particularly after switching folder layouts. The team also tackled a performance issue by switching to a more lightweight timer for KWin's render loop.

Profiling showed that the old QTimer was a resource hog, so the developers ported the code to a lighter QBasicTimer.

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Posted Sunday 24 August 2025 at 5:54 am AEST (my time).

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At this point, you must have heard about Apple's struggles to ship its ambitious update to Siri, which uses generative AI. The updated assistant was originally set for a spring release but was postponed by a year due to persistent engineering problems.

The core issue has been the incredible difficulty of merging Siri's ancient, clunky codebase with modern large language models. It certainly does not help that the company has lost several key AI talents like Ruoming Pang, the chief architect of its AI models team, who jumped ship to Meta for a reported $200 million package (thanks, Mark Zuckerberg!).

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, this custom model could be trained to run on Apple servers for added privacy.

In the case of a Siri partnership, third-party models would run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, which use Mac chips for remote AI processing. That means the external Siri models wouldn’t run on devices themselves.

Inside Apple, the company is currently split between using a partner and developing it in-house, so the company decided to just build two versions of the assistant to see what sticks.

Internally, the in-house version is code-named Linwood, while the one based on potentially outsourced models from a partner is called Glenwood. This internal "bake-off" allows Apple to directly compare its own progress against what a competitor can offer.

Before speaking with Google, Apple was reportedly in discussions with Anthropic and OpenAI to license their Claude or ChatGPT models. Apple executives apparently favored Anthropic's Claude model after internal testing, but the talks stalled over money. The AI startup wanted a multi-billion-dollar annual fee that would only get bigger each year, a price Apple was not willing to pay.

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Posted Saturday 23 August 2025 at 11:55 am AEST (my time).

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For starters, the OOBE has been revamped to allow users to set the default browser right after installation. Something that will also be appreciated by customers is the ability to download third-party browsers, which opens up a lot of doors. Similarly, the personalization OOBE view also includes more options, such as aligning the Windows taskbar to the left or the center.

In addition, the UI has been enhanced, DPI handling has been improved, bugs have been squashed, and the header pane has been redesigned a bit to clearly indicate which OOBE view is currently active. In the same vein, the Setup / Finalization extension view has also been "optimized and extended at its core", but details are scarce.

Finally, it's worth highlighting that while the classic Flyby11 tool is still available as a separate release, the developer plans to merge both Flyby11 and Flyoobe into a single project that will later be refactored. The final source code will be released once the merge effort has reached completion.

In the meantime, you can download Flyoobe through our dedicated Software section here if you trust the developer. Do keep in mind that modifying a Windows image carries its own set of risks, so only use the utility if you accept those risks.

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Posted Saturday 23 August 2025 at 5:43 am AEST (my time).

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Interestingly in the comments of the article, one of Neowin's long-time forum members Jaybonaut, pointed out that OBS streaming via NDI also broke following the KB5063878 update.

Now, Microsoft has confirmed the issue when using Network Device Interface (NDI) for streaming or transferring audio and video feeds between PCs. According to the company, users may experience "severe stuttering, lag, and choppy playback, even under low-bandwidth conditions." The problem has been observed in popular streaming apps such as Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and NDI Tools, with the impact most noticeable when the “Display Capture” feature is enabled.

For those not familiar, NDI is a widely used protocol for transmitting high-quality, low-latency video and audio over standard networks, making it a staple in live production, remote collaboration, and professional streaming setups. Any disruption to its performance can have significant consequences for broadcasters, content creators like streamers, and production teams who rely on real-time feeds.

The company has explained that the problem appears to be linked to the default NDI Receive Mode, which uses Reliable User Datagram Protocol (RUDP) for data transport.

So, as an interim measure, Microsoft recommends manually changing the NDI Receive Mode to use either Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or standard User Datagram Protocol (UDP) instead of RUDP. The tech giant has pointed to a newly published advisory on the official NDI website that shows detailed steps on how to proceed:

1. Download and install the free NDI Tools pack.

    

2. Launch the NDI Access Manager app.

    

3. Go to the Advanced tab.

    

4. Change Receive Mode to Single TCP or UDP, then press OK.

    

5. Repeat on any other affected computers.

Microsoft has stated that it is actively investigating the cause of the problem and will provide further information when available. You can find the issue here on Microsoft's official Windows health dashboard website.

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Posted Saturday 23 August 2025 at 5:41 am AEST (my time).

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This whole PWA thing has quite the rocky history in Firefox. Back in the olden days of Firefox 73 (Nightly), there was an experimental implementation of PWAs called Site-Specific Browsers (SSB), though it was never fully developed and was removed by Mozilla in January 2021. At the time, Mozilla's Dave Townsend justified the removal, stating the feature had "multiple known bugs" and that keeping it around was costing the Firefox team time in bug triage.

This March, Mozilla released Firefox Nightly version 141, which re-added the functionality under a new name, "Taskbar Tabs". David Rubino, a product manager for Firefox, explained that this new implementation is different by design. Web apps will retain the main Firefox toolbar, which includes the address bar, extensions, and bookmarks, to ensure users still feel like they are in the browser.

Before you enable the experimental feature, first make sure your Firefox installation is not an MSIX/Windows Store build. If you want, you can grab the proper build from our Software Stories page. Now that that is out of the way, follow these steps:

1. In Firefox, type about:preferences#experimental into the address bar. This will take you to Labs.
2. Once you are on the Labs page, check the box next to "Add sites to your taskbar" to turn it on.
3. Open a new tab, and look for the "Add to taskbar" icon to the right of the address bar.

   

4. Once you are prompted to pin a site to your taskbar, select "Yes."

   

5. Launch that site in a "streamlined" window with all of Firefox’s protections.

If you are on 142 and cannot find the Labs option in your settings, you probably opted out of sending technical and interaction data to Mozilla, or disabled the "Install and run studies" feature. You'll have to head to Privacy & Security, scroll to Firefox Data Collection and Use, and turn on both options.

If you are not comfortable with sending that data to Mozilla, you can try these steps instead:

1. Navigate to the about:config page.
2. Search for the preference browser.taskbarTabs.enabled.
3. Double-click the preference to set its value to true.

Keep in mind that private browsing is not supported for this feature at the moment.

In case you missed it, Firefox recently gained WebGPU support, another feature that browsers like Chrome have had for years. This API allows web developers to tap directly into your computer's graphics card for high-performance games and 3D applications.

The feature landed with the release of Firefox 141 for Windows, with support for other OSes expected to follow in the coming months.

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Posted Saturday 23 August 2025 at 5:39 am AEST (my time).

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Essentially, Microsoft is now testing the "ability to seamlessly resume using your favorite apps from your Android phone on your Windows 11 PC" and is another major step up for this feature which has been receving some big improvements recently. In the blog post, Microsoft explains:

To start with, you will be able to resume or continue listening to your favorite Spotify tracks and episodes right from where you left off on the Spotify app on your Android phone.

 

First, start listening to one of your favorite songs or episodes in the Spotify app on your Android phone. On your PC (running the latest Insider Preview builds in the Dev or Beta Channels) a ‘Resume alert’ will appear on your taskbar. When you click on that alert, Spotify’s desktop app will open and the same track will now continue playing on your PC.

 

If the Spotify app is not installed on your PC, when you click on the alert it will initiate a 1-click installation from the Microsoft Store and will automatically download and open the app for you. You will then be prompted to sign into your Spotify account.

Please note that you will need to use the same Spotify account on both your Android phone and your PC.

 

Here is how you can get set up to try this feature out:

 

1. Turn on access to your phone.
   1. On your PC, go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices.
   2. Switch “Allow this PC to access your mobile devices” to On.
   3. Click the “Manage devices” button and follow the steps to connect your Android phone.
2. Set up the Link to Windows app on your phone.
   1. On your Android phone, open the Link to Windows app.
   2. Make sure you allow the app to run in the background (this keeps the Resume feature working reliably).
3. Try the feature.
   1. Open Spotify on your phone and play a track or episode.
   2. You should see a Resume alert on your PC’s taskbar.

 

After everything is all set up – just open Spotify on your phone and play a track to receive the resume alert on your PC’s taskbar.

 

As mentioned above – this feature is gradually rolling out so if you do not see it after completing these steps, please be patient and once the feature is rolled out to you, you will see this experience light up for you on your PC.

Aside from that, there are plenty of other improvements too, including a new "improved" battery icon, new keyboard shortcuts, gaming performance improvements when using game bar, updates to the Automatic Super Resolution feature on Copilot+ PCs and more. The rest of the changelog is given below:

First we have the new battery icones. Microsoft writes: "Our new and improved battery icons have been designed to communicate the battery status of your PC with just a quick glance – and we’re bringing them to the lock screen."

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

[Click to Do (Preview)]

• By pressing and holding two fingers anywhere on your screen (on your Copilot+ PC with a touch screen), you can simultaneously launch Click to Do, select the entity under your finger and see relevant actions. This new invocation method provides the ability to use touch with an accelerated entry point into Click to Do, like Win + Click when using a mouse or touchpad today.

[Agent in Settings]

• We now provide a direct navigation link to the corresponding settings page from the agent search results.

[Automatic Super Resolution]

• We have simplified the settings controls and added streamlined ways to configure Auto SR directly from toast notifications.

Next we have the updates that are coming to all systems:

[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]

• In the last few Dev and Beta flights, we have begun trying out the ability to pin your favorite apps in the Windows share window.

Up next we have the fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev and Beta Channels with toggle on:

[Settings]

• Did some work to help improve performance of loading the apps list on the Apps > Installed apps page.
• Fixed an issue which was causing the new “Copy current user settings to the welcome screen and system accounts” under Time & Language > Language & Region option to crash Settings for some Insiders.

[Windows Hello]

• Did some work to address an issue where Windows Hello might recognize your face on the login screen, however it would still fail and then prompt you to enter your pin. If you continue experiencing issues, you may need to go to the Facial Recognition section under Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and select Improve recognition.

[Other]

• Did 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!

Finally we have the known issues that Microsoft is working on:

[Recall]

• Windows Insiders in the EEA may hit in issue where Recall is not working correctly on their PCs after the most recent Dev and Beta Channel flights. To get back into a working state – please go to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots > Advanced settings > Reset Recall and click “Reset Recall”.

[File Explorer]

• For some users, the Shared section in File Explorer Home may be visible even if there is no content to display.

[Settings]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files is to get stuck when scanning files. This issue is also related to the previous Windows Installations section not showing on this page when it should.

[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”.

There is also a Snipping Tool update with the Beta build which adds a window mode screen recording. Microsoft writes:

"We are rolling out an update for Snipping Tool (version 11.2507.14.0 and higher) to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels. In this update, we’re introducing window mode screen recording in Snipping Tool—an easy way to capture activity within a specific app window. To get started, toggle over to the Record option in the capture toolbar and click on the dropdown menu for Recording area to select window mode.

When you select window mode, Snipping Tool will automatically size the recording region to tightly match the app window you choose, making setup quick and precise. Once recording begins, however, the region remains fixed—so if the app moves or gets covered by another window, the recording won’t follow it. This gives you a simple, focused way to record what’s happening in a defined space on your screen, without needing to crop or adjust later."

You can find the official blog post here (Dev, Beta) on Microsoft's official website.

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Posted Saturday 23 August 2025 at 5:33 am AEST (my time).

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To this end, Microsoft's next move beyond Windows 11 remains slim at best, though rumours have emerged suggesting that Windows 12 could be in development. The tech giant has remained tight-lipped on this front.

Microsoft CVP and Windows lead Pavan Davuluri recently broke the ice, giving subtle hints of what the future Windows could look like. Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden reported this 'Windows 12' of sorts is poised to be "a truly ambient and multi-modal experience made possible by AI that will redefine our usage of computers."

This potentially indicates that the tech giant is set to double down on integrating AI-powered experience in its next operating system, on top of the already existing next-gen features in Windows 11 like Windows Recall, Live Captions, and Windows Studio Effects.

While we wait for Microsoft to release more details about its next operating system, concept designer Abdi (AR 4789 on YouTube) dared to dream big, sharing his vision for the next evolution of Windows, Windows 12.2 (via Beta News).

Microsoft has received backlash and applause, arguably in equal measure, for its Windows strategy. Multiple users seemingly detest Windows 11's Start menu, though it recently got a significant overhaul, combining the pinned apps and the apps list into one interface. It even lets users turn off the Recommended section for a better user experience.

While Windows 12.2 is simply a concept, I can help it admire the Fluent design across the apps and elements in the operating system with a wide range of customization and personalization options. It's like breathing fresh air and new life into Windows 11.

And if you still have that nostalgic bug, the concept designer conveniently included a Windows 7 theme to help users bring back that classic look to their modern operating system. Even Windows 10 is in the loop, which seems like a neat addition considering its imminent death.

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The Chris Titus Tech Utility is pretty amazing... it has almost everything a person could want to take control of their system... BUT its not perfect. Let's take a look at it! - https://christitus.com/windows-tool/

August 22, 2025

Video length: 22m 31s

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Posted Friday 22 August 2025 at 2:17 pm AEST (my time).

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The Copilot app for Windows 11 is a new “home experience,” according to an August 20^th blog post from Microsoft. Indeed, I have the update on one of my PCs, but it’s a slow rollout as my others, including the best AI laptops, have yet to receive it.

Version 1.25082.132.0 (and higher) should have a new, punchier layout that not only looks better, but also has some useful features that make it feel more entwined with the OS.

Upon launching, gone is the austere purple/blue background, and in place is a bokeh-rich photo with some daisies, clouds, and a blue sky, offering a welcome calming effect without being distracting.

But it’s the new “modules” that add value to the update. I count five of them, including recent files, Copilot Pages, a recent apps launcher, and current Copilot conversations. Below is the usual start new conversation window, along with suggested functions above it if you’re at a loss for giving Copilot some chores. Let’s break some of these down, and I'll also share some other new forthcoming features, and a tip on how to get Copilot's memory working.

New Copilot features explained

For starters, Microsoft SQL Server 2025 on Linux Release Candidate 0 (RC0) now supports Ubuntu 24.04. This means that developers using the operating system can leverage the Enterprise Evaluation Edition of SQL Server 2025 to test their architectures in dev and test environments. Microsoft does not recommend doing the same in production environments, and encourages developers to use SQL Server 2022 on Ubuntu 22.04 or RHEL 9 in this case.

Microsoft has a quickstart installation guide for installing SQL Server 2025 preview in Ubuntu 24.04 here, and also has some guidance for deploying the software in the operating system running on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) here.

Next, it is important to note that SQL Server 2025 preview RC0 has Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 enabled by default. This should offer better security, and you can read more about it here.

SQL Server 2025 is an important release for many reasons. It packs native support for vector embeddings, which makes it ideal for AI workloads. The associated .NET and JDBC drivers have received the same support too, leading to up to 50x faster reads, 3.3x faster writes, and a 19x boost to bulk copy operations. In addition, it packs an AI-integrated database engine, native JSON support, Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), and a new Optimized Locking mechanism that reduces lock memory consumption and minimizes blocking for concurrent transactions through Transaction ID (TID) Locking and Lock After Qualification (LAQ). SQL Server 2025's exact release date isn't known yet, but you can expect it to land, well, in 2025.

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Posted Friday 22 August 2025 at 2:05 pm AEST (my time).

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The feature will be enabled via a new tab named My Apps that will appear inside the Xbox app's library. Microsoft says the page will let users "locate, view, and download third-party applications and most commonly used storefronts."

While it did not name any specifics, the attached image in the announcement blog post shows Battle.net and GOG Galaxy as supported game store launchers, as well as Microsoft Edge as a browser. We imagine that other options like Steam, EA Play, Ubisoft Connect, and Epic Games Store will be supported too, at least when the My Apps page is ready for launch.

At first, Xbox Insiders who will be testing the feature will have a "tailored selection of apps," per the company, for viewing and downloading them easily without needing to reach the desktop. Support for more applications will be coming later.

"My apps enables players on an ROG Xbox Ally or other Windows 11 handhelds to more easily navigate between applications from the Xbox full screen experience, a new feature optimized specifically for handheld gaming," says the company. "With new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay."

Anyone interested in testing out the new update and its 'My Apps' centralization feature can use the Xbox Insider app on PC to enroll in the ongoing Insider Previews.

Don't forget that Microsoft also announced a new Handheld Compatibility Program for gamers to find what games will work well on their favorite Windows 11 handhelds.

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Posted Friday 22 August 2025 at 2:04 pm AEST (my time).

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There are three ways in which Microsoft is making sure that distractions caused by Copilot are reduced while coding in Visual Studio. The first is particularly useful as it adds a "debounce" buffer to the time after your keystrokes so that code completions do not immediately appear on each keystroke. Having code appear and disappear on each keystroke was too distracting, so Microsoft is giving developers the option to restrict this behavior through Tools -> Options -> IntelliCode -> Advanced -> wait for pauses in typing before showing whole line completions.

If you want even more control over code completions, you can request them explicitly through the Alt + , combo or the Alt + . keyboard shortcut, which will display a hint bar as Copilot "thinks" about potential code completions. If it returns multiple suggestions, you can cycle through them through the same shortcut mentioned above and press Tab whenever you want to accept a suggestion. You can enable this behavior through Tools -> Options -> IntelliCode -> General -> uncheck Automatically generate code completions in the Editor.

Lastly, you can hide next edit suggestions (NES) through Tools -> Options -> GitHub -> Copilot -> Copilot Completions -> check Collapse Next Edit Suggestions. This will ensure that NES will only be shown when you press Tab or the margin indicator that will appear in the gutter space. You can then accept the NES by pressing Tab or dismiss it by pressing Esc.

And another way Microsoft is making GitHub Copilot more useful during your development experience is by allowing partial code completions, enabling you to accept one word at a time through the Ctrl + Right arrow shortcut and one line through the Ctrl + Down arrow shortcut. You can toggle off this behavior through Tools -> Options -> IntelliCode -> Advanced -> Whole-line completions. All of these improvements are present in the August 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022, present in version 17.14.13.

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Posted Friday 22 August 2025 at 2:03 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft told BleepingComputer on Wednesday that it is aware of reports that installing the KB5063878 security update is causing SSD and HDD data corruption and failure issues.

In a service alert seen by BleepingComputer, the company added that it couldn't reproduce the issue on up-to-date Windows 11 24H2 systems and is now attempting to collect user reports with additional information from those affected.

"We are actively working with our storage device partners to try to reproduce the issue. At the time of this publication, neither internal testing nor telemetry have identified an increase in disk failure or file corruption," the company said.

"In addition, Microsoft customer support teams haven't received reports of customers experiencing this issue. If you are experiencing this issue, please contact Support for Business or use the Feedback Hub to file a report.

The company is also investigating if this issue is Microsoft's fault and has promised to provide an update when more details are available.

Reportedly impacts multiple SSD and HDD models

This issue was first reported last week by a Japanese PC builder who saw SSDs disappear from the OS during heavy write operations (like writing large files or many files at once) to drives that were over 60% full on devices with the KB5062660 preview update or this month's Windows 11 24H2 security update installed.

Other users have encountered the same issue on systems with Corsair Force MP600, Maxio SSD, SanDisk Extreme Pro, Kioxia Exceria Plus G4, Kioxia M.2, and various other drives with Phison and InnoGrit controllers.

A spokesperson for NAND controller maker Phison also shared a statement with BleepingComputer on Wednesday, saying that the company is "working with Microsoft to resolve the issue."

"Phison has recently been made aware of the industry-wide effects of the 'KB5063878' and 'KB5062660' updates on Windows 11 that potentially impacted several storage devices, including some supported by Phison," a Phison spokesperson told BleepingComputer.

"We understand the disruption this may have caused and promptly engaged industry stakeholders. [..] At this time, the controllers that may have been affected are under review and we are working with partners."

Until the issue is addressed, Windows users should avoid writing large files (tens of gigabytes) and extract large compressed files with many items (e.g., 200 files of 200 MB each) in several steps rather than all at once.

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Posted Friday 22 August 2025 at 3:30 am AEST (my time).

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Although Windows 10 last received a major feature update (version 22H2) in October 2022, Microsoft has continued to add new features and improvements through regular cumulative updates. These updates introduced changes that could have been part of another, more minor feature update for the decade-old operating system that many people still prefer to use even after support ends.

Recent updates brought a redesigned "About" page with more technical details, enhancements to the Taskbar calendar, improvements to the Windows Backup app, and additional options in the File Explorer context menu.

In Europe, Microsoft also made adjustments to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), including changes to default apps, search integration, and system behavior.

In this guide, I'll highlight some of the new features and tweaks that are now part of Windows 10.

Windows 10 recently added new features and changes

These are some of the new features and changes that Microsoft has been adding to Windows 10 that you probably overlooked, because they were introduced after the release of version 22H2.

1. Key tech specs on the About page

In the Settings app, the "About" page has been completely revamped with a header that shows the key technical specifications of the computer, including information for memory, processor, graphics card, and storage.

Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs may fail to reset or recover due to a bug. Microsoft confirmed the problem earlier this week and has since issued an out-of-band update to address it.

If you've tried to reset or recover your PC only to see the process fail, you should install update KB5066189.

The issue first appeared with the release of the August 2025 Windows security update (KB5063875) that shipped on August 12. The issue occurs when a user attempts to use the "Reset my PC" feature or the "Fix problems using Windows Update" feature. The RemoteWipe configuration service provider can also run into the same issue.

The following versions of Windows are affected by the issue:

• Client: Windows 11, version 23H2
• Windows 11, version 22H2
• Windows 10, version 22H2
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019

The KB5066189 update, which brings operating systems to Build 22621.5771 or 22631.5771, is a cumulative update, meaning you do not need to install previous updates to install it. You do need to restart your device to install the out-of-band update.

Microsoft recommends that you install the KB5066189 update instead of the KB5063875 update if you have not already installed the August 2025 Windows security update.

What is "Reset my PC" on Windows 11 and Windows 10?

Here is the changelog:

• [General]
  • The updated battery iconography we began rolling out in the Canary Channel with Build 27802 is disabled in this build. This is only temporary, and we will re-enable this in a future Canary Channel flight.
• [Settings] We’re moving more time and language settings from Control Panel to Settings:
  • You can now add additional clocks from Settings > Time & language > Date & time under the collapsed section which can be expanded for “Show time and date in the system tray”. For those unfamiliar with the feature, these additional clocks display in Notification Center, as well as the tooltip when hovering over the clock in the taskbar.
  • You can now change your time server from Settings > Time & language > Date & time, under “Additional settings”.
  • The formatting settings for date and time have moved from Settings > Time & language > Language & region to Settings > Time & language > Date & time, and you can now change your AM/PM symbol from here as well (along with other existing formatting settings).
  • You can now change number and currency format from Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under the “Region” section.
  • If you’d like to enable Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support, there is now a toggle for this under Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under the “Language” section.
  • If needed, you can now copy current user language and region settings to welcome screen and system account, as well as new user accounts, from Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under “Additional settings”.

Here is what was fixed:

• [General]
  • Fixed an underlying issue with dao360.dll in the latest builds which could result in some apps crashing.
• [Click to Do (Preview)]
  • Fixed the issue causing text and image actions in Click to Do to not work correctly and Click to Do to crash.
• [File Explorer]
  • Fixed an issue where File Explorer preview windows might appear when hovering over unrelated app icons in the taskbar.
  • Fixed an issue where if you tried to use the unblock open in Properties for a file, it still shows as blocked when you open Properties the next time.
• [Taskbar]
  • Fixed an issue where If you accidentally clicked down and slid your mouse on the taskbar preview thumbnail, clicking it would stop working.
• [Input]
  • Fixed an underlying issue related to textinputframework.dll could result in certain apps like Sticky Notes and Notepad crashing.
  • Fixed an issue where if you attempted to type Chinese with an IME after copying something with CTRL + C, it could result in the first character getting dropped.
• [Login and Lock screen]
  • Did some work to address underlying cases which could lead to you seeing a blank white screen, or a screen saying, “just a moment”, for a few minutes when logging in to your PC.
  • Did some work to address an underlying issue which could lead to the taskbar being slow to load when unlocking your PC after coming out of sleep. This issue could also have led to the password field and other login screen contents not rendering when transitioning from lock screen to login screen after sleep. If you continue experiencing issues, please report them in the Feedback Hub under Install and Update > Logon hangs.
• [Live captions]
  • Fixed an issue where if you changed the opacity of live captions in Settings > Accessibility > Captions > Caption Style, it had no effect.
• [Settings]
  • Fixed an issue where Settings might crash if you attempt to add a security key under Settings > Account > Sign-in options.
• [Other]
  • Fixed an issue in the previous build where you might see multiple error pop ups about unexpected elements when opening Group Policy Editor.

And here is the list of known bugs:

• [General]
  • We’re investigating reports that Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files is getting stuck when scanning files. We are also investigating previous Windows Installations also not showing.
  • [NEW] Launching cmd non-elevated from the Run dialog may open in Windows Console Host rather than Windows Terminal, even if Windows Terminal is your default terminal app. If you’re experiencing this, you can type wt into Run to launch Windows Terminal directly.
• [Windowing]
  • [NEW] You may experience an increase in DWM crashes in this build (which could lead to you seeing a black flash).
• [File Explorer]
  • In dark mode, the red color used for a low space drive in This PC may be unexpectedly light colored in this build. Some of the other colors may also be incorrect, including that black is used for space remaining instead of a more visible color.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 1:36 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft says that it wants to invest all its efforts in the more capable OneNote on Windows app, which is why it believes that it is time to end support for the legacy Windows 10 app as the operating system reaches end of life (EoL) on the same day too. After this deadline, OneNote for Windows 10 will become read-only, you won't be able to modify or sync content to the cloud, and any security patches or quality of life (QoL) updates won't make their way to the app.

Consumers have been encouraged to migrate to the newer OneNote on Windows app as soon as possible. First, they should sync all their notebooks by right-clicking each notebook and selecting the relevant option. Then, they should leverage the in-app migration banner that will take them to the OneNote on Windows listing in the Microsoft Store. This app should be downloaded and installed, and once you open it, login with your credentials to sync your content. Meanwhile, IT admins in the Education and Enterprise sectors have been asked to follow dedicated migration guides linked inline.

Microsoft has touted new features, faster sync, faster performance, and better security in OneNote on Windows. It has also teased Copilot-powered notes generation in the future as a way to entice customers to adopt its newer note-taking app. The Redmond tech firm has urged customers to initiate the migration as soon as possible to avoid potential disruptions down the line.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 1:34 pm AEST (my time).

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Starting with search, users with Copilot+ PCs can find files by simply describing them in simple words without knowing the exact file names. For example, you can ask Copilot to "find my CV," "find pictures with red cars," or "find that file with chicken tostada recipe." Not all users will be comfortable with giving Copilot access to files, so Microsoft allows adjusting permission for what Copilot can access, read, or retrieve in Settings > Permissions.

Next is a redesigned homepage. The new variant showcases your recent conversations with Copilot, apps, and files. This lets you quickly start a Vision session with one of your recent apps so that it can help you do something you are not familiar with. Also, you can click a recent file to upload it to Copilot and perform actions with it, such as summarize a document, identify an object in a photo, or just ask something about the file.

For now, file upload to Copilot supports the following file types: .png, .jpeg, .svg, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .csv, .json, and .txt. Incompatible apps will not appear in the recent files pane.

As for privacy, Microsoft adds that Copilot pulls your recent files from the standard "Recent" folder in Windows, which also lets you access recent files in apps like Word or Excel. The app does not upload your recent files to Microsoft, and all the processing happens on your device locally.

The new Copilot features are now rolling out to Windows Insiders in all channels. The rollout is gradual, which means these features may show up on your device a little later.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 1:32 pm AEST (my time).

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Microsoft is readying its next big feature drop for Windows 11 users, which is expected to be made generally available in September. Thanks to the Windows Insider Program and the latest Release Preview build of Windows 11, we now have a pretty good idea as to what features will begin rolling out to users in the next handful of weeks, so let's dig in!

The next Windows 11 feature drop is expected to include a number of improvements to all parts of the system, including Copilot+ features like Recall and Click To Do, as well as non-Copilot+ features like the Taskbar, Windows Search, and the Lockscreen.

Let's start with the non-Copilot+ features first, as these will be available to all Windows 11 users. With the next feature drop, Microsoft is adding improvements to Windows Search that will better display photos in search results when you search for them. Now, images will show in a handy grid view.

Search will also now tell the user when files are still being indexed, giving you a heads up that results may not be entirely accurate while this process takes place.

However, this program is not just about new features. Insiders receive plenty of additional updates of various types, and for an unprepared user, things might look a bit overwhelming, especially if you like to keep an eye on everything that Windows Update does. To make the situation clearer, Microsoft has published a support document that explained what updates it rolls out to Windows Insiders.

Here is every update type that Microsoft ships:

• Feature updates: These updates bring new features and capabilities to the operating system. Examples of recently introduced new features include the reworked Start menu, Recall, and more. Besides new features, these updates could improve existing capabilities.
• Quality updates: These improve general stability and performance by fixing bugs, issues, and other problems.
• Driver updates: These updates ensure all parts of your computer work well with the latest Windows versions and get you the maximum performance possible. Driver updates include chipset, graphics, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, touchpad, and more.
• Security updates: These updates fix security vulnerabilities, making the operating system more resilient to hacker attacks, malware, and other kinds of digital nastiness.
• Servicing updates: These updates bring changes and improvements to the servicing stack, the backbone of Windows Update. The servicing stack manages how Windows installs and maintains its updates.

Speaking of updates and features, did you know that Microsoft recently launched a dedicated Windows Roadmap page where users can track everything that Microsoft is preparing and see the current rollout status? If you are interested, you can access the Windows Roadmap on the official website.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:49 am AEST (my time).

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This issue was first reported on Friday by a Japanese PC building enthusiast who saw drives with Phison NAND controllers disappearing from the OS during heavy write operations (like writing large files or many files at once) after installing the KB5063878 security update and the KB5062660 preview update.

While some of the impacted drives were restored after restarting the system, the rest remained inaccessible even after a reboot.

The user who first reported this bug also speculated that it could be caused by a drive cache issue resulting from a memory leak in the OS-buffered region.

"Our tests show that symptoms appear on SSDs with over 60% usage after approximately 50GB of continuous writing. Reports indicate similar symptoms on HDDs as well," they said.

"Our tests suggest that Phison NAND controllers are relatively prone to issues, with DRAM-less models from the same company tending to exhibit issues at lower write volumes."

Other reportedly affected users have encountered this issue on systems with SanDisk Extreme Pro, Corsair Force MP600, Maxio SSD, KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G4, KIOXIA M.2 SSD, and other drives with Phison PS5012-E12 and InnoGrit controllers.

Microsoft reportedly working on a fix

While Redmond has yet to officially acknowledge this issue, Phison confirmed in a statement shared with BleepingComputer that it's working with Microsoft to resolve the issue.

"Phison has recently been made aware of the industry-wide effects of the 'KB5063878' and 'KB5062660' updates on Windows 11 that potentially impacted several storage devices, including some supported by Phison," a spokesperson also told BleepingComputer.

"We understand the disruption this may have caused and promptly engaged industry stakeholders. [..] At this time, the controllers that may have been affected are under review and we are working with partners."

BleepingComputer has also reached out to Microsoft with questions about this issue, but a response was not immediately available.

Until this issue is officially confirmed and addressed, Windows users should avoid writing large files (tens of gigabytes) or multiple large files in quick succession, and instead write them in smaller batches over time.

Also, when extracting large compressed files with many items (e.g., 200 files of 200 MB each), do so in several steps rather than all at once.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:48 am AEST (my time).

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Starting with the UI, there is a revamped Welcome/What's New dialog that gives you direct access to the UI picker and appearance options. Over in Writer (LibreOffice's Word), a dialog now lets you copy the content of a field even from a read-only document.

There's also now support for exporting PDF 2.0, a feature that's unavailable in Office, which still sticks to older standards. This update also introduces "modern" AES-256 encryption, which is a requirement for the PDF 2.0 standard, and improves how it handles PDF signatures to make them compatible with Adobe Reader.

Writer also saw several rules related to hyphenation get a complete overhaul, like better handling of how words are split across pages to match documents created in recent versions of Microsoft Office. It includes a new option to move the last line of a page to the next one to avoid awkward word splits.

In Calc, the following functions were added:

• CHOOSECOLS
• CHOOSEROWS
• DROP
• EXPAND
• HSTACK
• TAKE
• TEXTAFTER
• TEXTBEFORE
• TEXTSPLIT
• TOCOL
• TOROW
• VSTACK
• WRAPCOLS
• WRAPROWS

Apart from the new functions, The Document Foundation says that Calc opens complex XLSX files up to 30% faster and that a bunch of other operations got quicker, including things like row height calculation when you switch sheets, spellchecking in spreadsheets with multiple languages, and even chart rendering.

In Impress, the team improved how the application can handle PPTX files as support for embedded fonts has been added. In addition to that, the team says it developed a better algorithm to figure out if a font is actually used and needs to be embedded when you export to Microsoft's format.

Other changes include dropping support for older operating systems; LibreOffice 25.8 will not run on Windows 7 or 8. It is also the final version that will support macOS 10.15, and 32-bit Windows builds are now officially on the way out.

For its vector graphics tool, Draw, page margin boundaries are now visible by default. The entire suite has improved its display of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean DOCX documents for better accuracy and can now import encrypted hybrid PDFs. A new application-wide "Viewer mode" lets you open all files in a read-only state, while OLE objects like charts can finally be resized proportionally.

You can learn more in the full changelog.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:44 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of July): 3,458

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