While most are familiar with Visual Studio Code due to the fact that it's a lightweight but powerful code editor, it is actually Visual Studio, which is Microsoft's flagship integrated development environment (IDE). Although Visual Studio 2022 is the latest edition of the popular IDE, Microsoft still supports other versions, including Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019.

On October 14, 2025, Microsoft is ending extended support for Visual Studio 2015. This version was released on July 20, 2015, and remained in mainstream support until October 13, 2020. After that, it entered extended support, which will end on the aforementioned 2025 date.

In terms of what end of support means, Visual Studio 2015 and its associated components, runtimes, and products will no longer receive security updates. This includes Visual Studio 2015 Community, Enterprise, Professional, Shell, SDK, Team Foundation Server (TFS), MSVC Tools v140, and more.

Microsoft has recommended upgrading to a supported version of Visual Studio as soon as possible. As a reminder, Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 will receive security updates only under extended support, which lasts till April 13, 2027. Meanwhile, Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11 will receive extended security updates through April 10, 2029. And finally, Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4 is currently in mainstream support but will enjoy extended support starting on January 12, 2027, and ending on January 13, 2032.

Of course, Microsoft has insisted that customers transition to Visual Studio 2022 as it includes Copilot integration, built-in support for Git, and .NET enhancements.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 4:21 pm AEST (my time).

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Let's start with the improvements Bases got. For formula writers, autocomplete now includes formula properties like file.links and the newly added file.backlinks. The developers also added new file() and Link.asFile() functions, which permit you to access properties directly from a file reference.

On the visual side, the Cards view can display images from text properties that contain an image path, and Base code blocks get proper YAML syntax highlighting. Performance for rendering large images inside a Base has been improved, and the toolbar organization has been simplified for a cleaner look. The main Markdown parser also got a performance lift for files heavy with underscores.

Moving on to bug fixes, the team squashed an issue where creating a new formula would generate an extra "Untitled" formula. They also fixed date comparisons between two datetime values and resolved a problem where the last column in a base could not be resized. Another fix stops card properties from sometimes rendering empty properties as "â€.".

Outside of Bases, the update fixed an issue where page previews for Mermaid links did not work and another where clicking "x" on a list property item would immediately hide the preview. There was also a fix for the "Download attachments for current file" command, which was incorrectly replacing links.

This update also fixes a significant synchronization issue where syncing a vault to an older 1.8.10 installation could cause Bases to be deleted.

Both the issue with the "Download attachments for current file" command and another where new Canvas nodes could be accidentally created when editing an embedded Base file have been fixed. Finally, global search now stops after finding 100,000 results to prevent performance issues.

As previously mentioned, this update is currently available to users with a Catalyst license. Even though Obsidian is a free app for personal use, programs like the optional Catalyst license allow the devs to keep the lights on. Supporters get perks like early access to beta builds, but these features eventually trickle down to the main public release for everyone once they are stable.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 4:20 pm AEST (my time).

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In this small guide, you can learn how to reinstall Microsoft Edge after deleting it in Windows 10 or 11. This guide will also help those who try to install Edge on a computer without any browser installed.

Method 1: Install Microsoft Edge via the Microsoft Store

You can install Microsoft Edge on your PC via the Microsoft Store. Open the store app and type Edge into the search bar. You can also type any other browser, and Microsoft will kindly show you a shortcut to Edge. Alternatively, just click this link.

Open the browser's store listing and click install. You will see a User Account Control prompt, and after confirming, the installer will run. Done.

Method 2: Install Microsoft Edge on a PC without any browser

If you use a "debloated" Windows installation with nearly everything removed, including the Microsoft Store and Edge, you can install the latter without any other browser or the store app. Press Win + R and type "wt" to run Windows Terminal (you can launch it using any other method). Type winget install XPFFTQ037JWMHS and press Enter.

Windows Terminal will prompt you to accept the license: Press Y and hit Enter, then wait for Windows to download Microsoft Edge. Done.

Method 3: Download Microsoft Edge from the official website

Typing "Download Microsoft Edge" in Google gets you to the browser's official website, and if you access it from Windows, it will tell you that Edge is already installed on your PC (lies, deception!). You can find the real download button by scrolling all the way to the bottom. Click "Download for your device."

Microsoft will once again try to gaslight you, claiming that Edge is already installed. Just click "Continue to download Edge."

Click "Download for Windows 11 / 10." Windows 7 and 8/8.1 are no longer supported, but the latest supported version is still available for download. To do so, click the arrow-down button and select Windows 8.1 / 8 / 7. After that, run the installer.

That is it, now you have Edge running once again, and Microsoft could not be happier about it.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 4:18 pm AEST (my time).

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To start with, Dr Konqi, the crash handler, received some important corrections that make it a bit more reliable. The application now prevents its CoreImage component from becoming invalid, and it also prefers using API errors from Bugzilla over generic HTTP errors.

The Discover software center also got patched up. KDE developers corrected a loop initialization for remote insertion ordering and fixed a bug where Discover would incorrectly show messages for outdated beta Flatpaks even for applications that were not beta versions.

In KWin, there are a number of changes to address issues like color management and plugin stability. The scene renderer now uses the correct rendering intent for the color pipeline, and the DRM backend will not use the default colorimetry of an EDID, improving color accuracy. For plugins, the Magnifier no longer crashes if allocating a framebuffer object fails, and the Screencast plugin will only offer explicit sync if the DRM device actually supports that feature.

A workaround for a QtQuick crash affecting Tabbox was also included. For accessibility, the a11ykeyboardmanager now correctly sends a second modifier press to screen readers, and on the X11 side of things, the backend now properly filters out disconnected outputs.

And next, Plasma Workspace got a bunch of attention alongside Plasma Desktop. Developers fixed the drag-and-drop behavior when the desktop is scrollable and addressed a long-standing issue where renaming symbolic links on the desktop would fail.

The hitboxes for desktop items now align correctly with their visuals, so you will not accidentally select empty space around an icon. Notifications marked as low-priority or triggered during Do Not Disturb mode now correctly appear in the history.

Inside System Settings, the Colors page will not forward output from its edit dialog process, and the pen tab in the tablet settings is now properly scrollable.

You can check out the full changelog on the official KDE website. The next bugfix release, 6.4.5, is scheduled to drop on the 9th of next month.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 4:17 pm AEST (my time).

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Apple released a new developer beta build of macOS 26 Tahoe today, and it came with another big update for a familiar icon. The old Macintosh HD hard drive icon, for years represented by a facsimile of an old spinning hard drive, has been replaced with something clearly intended to resemble a solid-state drive (the SSD in your Mac actually looks like a handful of chips soldered to a circuit board, but we'll forgive the creative license).

The Macintosh HD icon became less visible a few years back, when new macOS installs stopped showing your internal disk on the desktop by default. It has also been many years since Apple shifted to SSDs as the primary boot media for new Macs. It's not clear why the icon is being replaced now, instead of years ago—maybe the icon had started clicking, and Apple just wanted to replace it before it suffered from catastrophic icon failure—but regardless, the switch is logical (this is a computer storage pun).

An iconic life

The original hard drive icon dates back to 2000, when Apple introduced the new look-and-feel of Mac OS X to the public through the third of four public developer betas (scroll down far enough in our original coverage, and you can spot the hard drive icon in some of the screenshots).

That icon went mostly untouched for over a decade, though it got a Retina resolution upgrade in 2012 along with the rest of the operating system, and it got a small facelift in Mac OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) in 2014. This version stuck with the same basic design, but gave it a somewhat softer and less metallic look—those of you with long enough memories may recall that Yosemite was the Mac's first facelift of the iOS 7 era, and getting rid of pseudo-realistic textures was a major design goal.

That version of the icon persisted through the Apple Silicon-era Big Sur redesign and was still with us in the first public beta build for macOS 26 Tahoe that Apple released last week. The new beta also updates the icons for external drives (orange, with a USB-C connector on top), network shares (blue, with a globe on top), and removable disk images (white, with an arrow on top).

Other icons that reused or riffed on the old hard drive icon have also been changed. Disk Utility now looks like a wrench tightening an Apple-branded white bolt, for some reason, and drive icons within Disk Utility also have the new SSD-esque icon. Installer apps use the new icon instead of the old one. Navigate to the /System/Library/CoreServices folder where many of the built-in operating system icons live, and you can see a bunch of others that exchange the old HDD icon for the new SSD.

Apple first offered a Mac with an SSD in 2008, when the original MacBook Air came out. By the time "Retina" Macs began arriving in the early 2010s, SSDs had become the primary boot disk for most of them; laptops tended to be all-SSD, while desktops could be configured with an SSD or a hybrid Fusion Drive that used an SSD as boot media and an HDD for mass storage. Apple stopped shipping spinning hard drives entirely when the last of the Intel iMacs went away.

This doesn't actually matter much. The old icon didn't look much like the SSD in your Mac, and the new one doesn't really look like the SSD in your Mac either. But we didn't want to let the old icon's passing go unremarked. So, thanks for the memories, Macintosh HD hard drive icon! Keep on spinning, wherever you are.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 4:16 pm AEST (my time).

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Starting with the Nvidia bug, users reported that on Linux systems with older drivers, such as 560.35.03, an instant crash on startup occurs (bug 1978911). This issue does not affect Windows users. Next, the update fixed a web compatibility issue that was causing problems with canvas objects (bug 1978673). The third fix resolves Web Developer Tools crashes when inspecting pages with iframe elements (bug 1975277).

Here is the full changelog from the official documentation.

• Fixed a startup crash experienced by some Linux users with outdated NVIDIA drivers.
• Fixed a regression that caused canvas objects to be draggable, causing web compatibility issues.
• Fixed a crash in the Web Developer Tools panel that could occur when inspecting pages with iframe elements.

Firefox 141.0.2 is currently available from Mozilla's FTP only. It will start rolling out to existing users in a couple of hours. You will be able to get the update by heading to Menu > Help > About Firefox or by downloading an installer from the official website. On Windows, Firefox is also available in the Microsoft Store via this link.

In case you missed it, Firefox 141 arrived a few weeks ago with a couple of new features, including AI-powered tab groups, vertical tab improvements, memory optimizations for Linux users, WebGPU support on Windows, and more features for the address bar. You can find full release notes for the update in our dedicated article.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 2:32 am AEST (my time).

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Starting with the Properties dialog, it now features a "Signatures" tab where you can view digital signatures associated with the file and their properties, such as version, issuer, expiry date, and more. You can also click the "Details" button to open Windows' native dialog.

The dual-pane feature has been tweaked for a more intuitive experience. The "Add pane" command is now "Split pane." There is a new quick action for toggling dual-pane mode on or off, and settings now have a dedicated section for dual-pane mode.

Finally, columns in the Columns View are now resizable, and search results now have a header with your current query.

In addition to releasing the update, developers said the following regarding performance complaints from users:

"We understand that performance is a major concern, and for some users, a deal breaker. We hear that feedback loud and clear. While WinAppSDK offers a modern and flexible UI framework, it currently falls short in terms of performance. While there is only so much we can do until the platform itself improves, we'll continue working on optimizations, and we invite the open-source community to get involved as well. Our goal is to steadily improve the experience with every update, and with your help, we can keep pushing forward."

Files Preview is available in the Microsoft Store. You can purchase it there to support developers. Alternatively, you can get the app for free from the official website, and if you want to help developers with contributions or ideas, check out their Discord and GitHub.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 2:29 am AEST (my time).

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The update, was first reported by OMGUbuntu. This happens to be the first major update for the utility in three years, i.e. since 2022.

You may remember that I reviewed Flameshot in 2019.  The app's new version displays the image dimensions directly in the capture window, i.e. when you capture a screenshot. You can hold down the Shift key to resize images symmetrically, or hold down Ctrl to preserve the aspect ratio.

You can enable a grid from the sidebar (while capturing a screenshot), you can also adjust the size of the dots, annotations can be snapped to the grid. The quality of JPEG images can be controlled from the Configuration Settings >General page. Flameshot uses a new date format of %d-%m-%Y. Want to cancel a screenshot? Hit Ctrl and Backspace. Speaking of canceled screenshots, the app now has an option to disable "Screenshot Aborted" notifications. Right-click on the tray menu to Open Save Path of screenshots.

There are a couple of privacy-focused changes in Flameshot 13. The app no longer has an option to upload images to Imgur. The feature has been disabled at compile time, so it won't be available unless you compile the source manually. According to the release notes, the option was removed to prevent users from accidentally uploading sensitive data to the cloud. ShareX should take note of this, the Windows-only utility uploads screenshots to Imgur by default, despite several requests from users to disable the option.

Anyway, back to Flameshot, the pixelation feature which is handy to obscure sensitive information in images, now uses a new "secure" implementation that only uses pixels outside of the area to redact data.

Windows users can save screenshots in the WebP format, the app now has a dark mode interface and supports command line options. The macOS version Flameshot no longer runs in Rosetta, it's now a native AARCH64 app. Also, the Mac app's clipboard now supports JPEG.

Users who want to try Flameshot 13.0 can download the binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows from the project's GitHub page. Flameshot's Flathub version is now verified on Linux Mint's Software Manager. However, this package is still on the older version.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 2:27 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft has published a new video that appears to be the first in an upcoming series of videos dubbed "Windows 2030 Vision," where the company outlines its vision for the future of Windows over the next five years. It curiously makes references to some potentially major changes on the horizon, in the wake of AI.

This first episode features David Weston, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Enterprise & Security, who opens the video by saying "the world of mousing and keyboarding around will feel as alien as it does to Gen Z [using] MS-DOS."

Right out of the gate, it sounds like he's teasing the potential for a radical new desktop UX made possible by agentic AI. Weston later continues, "I truly believe the future version of Windows and other Microsoft operating systems will interact in a multimodal way. The computer will be able to see what we see, hear what we hear, and we can talk to it and ask it to do much more sophisticated things."

Unfortunately, Weston doesn't elaborate further on these possible UX paradigm shifts, but it sounds like he's teasing a future where agentic AI is a primary orchestrator for the Windows OS, utilizing natural language and input from the user as a method of interacting with your computer and apps.

Microsoft has teased this as a possible future for Windows in the past. Back in 2023, the company outlined three ways it foresaw AI being integrated into software. It detailed how AI would ultimately be integrated inside of apps, beside apps, and outside of apps. The talk was presented by Microsoft technical fellow, Steven Bathiche at Build 2023.

We're yet to see AI implemented outside of apps in the real world. So far, every AI product is a feature or service that exists inside another app, or as a standalone app. We're yet to see a platform built from the ground up with AI woven through the OS as an agentic assistant that can orchestrate apps and workflows on your behalf.

It sounds an awful lot like this is where Microsoft is headed with future versions of Windows, which makes sense as agentic AI becomes more capable. The recent wave of "AI-powered" web browsers gives us our first look at what this may be like, orchestrating workflows across multiple tabs and browsing sessions on the users behalf.

You describe what you want, from a personal blog to a fitness tracker, and Kineto builds the thing for you. It handles the user interface, the backend logic, and even the database without you needing to know the difference between Java and JavaScript. JetBrains claims that no one's been able to create a tool like Kineto before:

As of yet, nobody has been able to develop technology capable of doing this: website constructors increase web development speeds, but they still require your input to actually build a website, and while there are generative AI-generative platforms, these still need you to do some (vibe) coding. At this moment in time, there is no platform that allows people with no coding experience to build a ready-to-use app and actually enjoy the process of building it.

Kineto works by translating your prompt into a full application, but the real magic is in its so-called "Meta Layer" that lets you fine-tune the app's rules and functionality without starting over. This special mode allows you to directly verify and modify things like user roles and specific behaviors.

You, according to JetBrains, "don’t need to explain every single button or provide extensive references," as Kineto intuits the necessary components for you. It just asks for some basic design choices like a template, font, and color scheme to get started on a solid foundation.

After you submit your prompt, the platform gets to work on a fully functional prototype, which takes about 20 minutes. You can then tweak the results to add new features, change the design, or embed AI-generated illustrations directly through its chat-like interface. When you're happy with the application, you can publish it straight from the platform.

If you're interested, JetBrains invites you to join the waitlist here. Access will be available to a select group of users following a review of their applications. The company says it will give priority to people who already have a clear idea of what they want to build and will offer them full support from its team to polish the final app.

JetBrains has been going hard on AI lately. The company recently open-sourced Mellum, a specialized 4B parameter code completion model that's used in its other products.

If you use its AI Assistant, there's also good news, as it is now available as an extension in VS Code and has been since May.

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Posted Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 2:23 am AEST (my time).

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What will the future of Windows look like? Like it or not, AI will undoubtedly have a major role to play.

In a new video, Microsoft CVP for Enterprise and OS Security David Weston was asked to predict what Windows might look like by 2030, with a focus on an enterprise and security landscape.

Like it or not, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other AI technologies are upending the world. Microsoft itself is thought to have laid off thousands on the pyre of its AI initiatives this year, and other CEOs are ringing alarm bells over what AI might mean for employment and society at large.

Weston echoed these concerns a bit. In the interview, he notes how AI agents will potentially reduce robotic "toil work" employees have to engage with today, freeing them up to do more "creative" and human tasks. Future "security experts" you hire might actually simply be AI agents, that talk, behave, and interact as a human employee would.

"In 5 years I strongly believe you'll be able to hire a security expert, but actually under the hood, it's an AI agent. The way you interact will be a lot like you do with humans today. You'll talk to them in Microsoft Teams, they'll join meetings, you'll send them emails and assign them tasks," Weston continued. "So in your daily work life, that will set folks up to do less of what we call the "toil work," the work we don't love today, and allow you to focus on what humans are good at. Ideation, creativity, vision, connecting with humans on what products are necessary. These agents will be net amplifiers, and will enable us to do things we could only dream of just a few years ago.

David Weston thinks that future versions of Windows, maybe even Windows 12 itself, will radically change our perceptions of interaction and inputs. Weston says that today's world of "mousing around and typing" will feel as alien to future generations as MS-DOS does to Gen-Z.

"I think we will do less with our eyes and more talking to our computers," Weston explains. "And I truly believe that a future version of Windows, and other Microsoft operating systems, will interact in a multi-modal way. The computer will be able to see what we see, hear what we hear, and we can talk to it and ask it to do much more sophisticated things. I think it will be a much more natural form of communication. The world of mousing around and typing, will feel as alien as it does to Gen-Z to use MS-DOS."

Here are the update highlights:

Fixed issues and bugs include the following:

• Stutter and lower than expected performance may be observed while playing 4K resolution YouTube videos in Chrome.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Monster Hunter Wilds with Radeon Anti-Lag and Instant Replay enabled.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing Battlefield 2042.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard on Radeon RX 9000 series graphics products.
• Stutter improved while playing Call of Duty: Warzone Season 03 ‘Verdansk’ map on some AMD Graphics Products
  • NOTE: Stutter has been reduced with 25.8.1, and AMD is working with the developer toward a full solution.
• Texture issues may be observed while using Oculus Rift S on RX 5000 and 6000 series graphics products.

And here is the list of known bugs:

• Corruption may appear while playing Mafia: The Old Country on Radeon RX 6600 series graphics products.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing The Last of Us Part II on Radeon RX 7900 series graphics products.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Radeon RX 9000 series graphics products.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Wuchang: Fallen Feathers with FSR 4 enabled on Radeon™ RX 9000 series graphics products.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing FBC: Firebreak on some AMD Ryzen processors such as the Ryzen AI 300 series and the Ryzen 7000 series.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed while playing NBA 2K26 in MyCareer mode on Radeon RX 9070 series graphics products.

AMD Radeon Software 25.8.1 is available on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 systems with supported Radeon graphics cards. You can download it from the official support website. Full release details are available on the same page.

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Posted Tuesday 5 August 2025 at 6:06 pm AEST (my time).

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While it may not matter for everyone as there are several third-party utilities like MSI Afterburner (RivaTuner), as well as ones from AMD or Nvidia, the Game Bar is an absolutely vital component for some of the fastest AMD Ryzen CPUs out there.

And according to a new report by PC Games Hardware (PCGH), Microsoft may be quietly disabling the it on Windows 10 systems, at least in the case of Pro and Enterprise editions which could potentially hamstring several CPUs.

If you recall, AMD first introduced its X3D processor in the form of the 5800X3D which comprised a single CCD (core compute die) which meant that the 3D vertical cache (V-cache) was able to feed all the cores on the CPU without any trouble and did not require any special optimization for Windows for task and workloads scheduling across the CPU threads of the 5800X3D.

Later, AMD debuted 3D V-cache to 12 and 16 core Ryzen parts as well with AM5 as the Ryzen 7000X3D (Zen 4-based) chips feature the extra L3 cache. However, since these were dual CCD parts (each CCD houses up to eight Zen cores), only one of the CCDs was equipped with this faster cache while the other was more optimized for higher clocks.

On Windows 10 and 11, the Xbox Game Bar app carries the necessary optimization for handling this task scheduling job such that gaming workloads would be correctly passed on to the CCD with the 3D cache. This is done via the 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver that is delivered through the AMD chipset driver package. All a user needed to do was assign a particular title or game by checking the "Remember this is a game" option inside Xbox Game Bar settings.

PCGH notes that they were unable to make the Xbox Game Bar feature work properly, even after reinstalling Windows 10, as all attempts apparently proved futile.

After reading the report, I also updated the Xbox Game Bar app on my Windows 10 system to try and replicate the problem. Interestingly, unlike the previous version, the Xbox Game Settings would crash when clicked on it and so selecting the "Remember this is a game option" was no longer possible on my side.

Bizarrely and perhaps coincidentally, the Xbox Game bar support article regarding that option is also gone as it is no longer available. While this issue is unlikely to affect someone like me who runs an octa-core Ryzen 7 5700G APU, Ryzen 7000X3D and 9000X3D owners could be losing out big.

Even if it is just a temporary bug, Microsoft should definitely be more cautious about the app considering AMD Ryzen X3D chips are heavily reliant on them for their performance.

Source: PCGH

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Posted Tuesday 5 August 2025 at 4:03 am AEST (my time).

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In the recently released Windows 11 Dev build, Microsoft changed SCOOBE to a single-screen experience with a list of optional features you can enable with simple toggles. As such, Windows 11 no longer forces you to go through several screens of Microsoft's upsells.

Another useful change in the new SCOOBE is the updated buttons. You can accept or decline all offers with a single click. Just press "Accept all" or "Keep the current settings." In a typical Microsoft fashion, the latter is less apparent, but at least it is there, not like when Microsoft prompted users to upgrade to Windows 11 with a banner containing "yes" buttons.

Here is what Microsoft says about the new SCOOBE experience:

Some Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels will see a refreshed SCOOBE screen (Second Chance Out of Box Experience) for reviewing recommended settings on your PC. This redesigned screen is meant to be more intuitive and streamlined, allowing you to choose the recommended settings you want for your PC without having to navigate through multiple setup screens. If you see this screen, let us know if you have any feedback via Feedback Hub.

Windows 11's second-chance out-of-box experience most often appears on systems with local accounts and those using the outgoing oobe\bypassnro command. However, it can also show up on devices with Microsoft accounts. If you do not want to see it, toggle it off in Settings > System > Notifications > Additional Settings and toggle off all three.

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Posted Tuesday 5 August 2025 at 3:52 am AEST (my time).

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Here's how it works: Say you double-click a PDF file in your file manager. The file manager first asks the Wayland compositor for a special, single-use "activation token". This request is tied directly to your click, proving a human wanted this to happen.

The file manager then launches your PDF viewer and hands it the token. The PDF viewer, upon starting, shows this token to the compositor and asks to be activated. The compositor checks if the token is legit and, if so, gives the PDF viewer focus.

If the token is missing, old, or otherwise invalid, the compositor says no. The viewer window will not get focus, and instead, its icon in the taskbar will start flashing to grab your attention.

Kai-Uwe Broulik, a KDE developer, recently wrote about the plan to "switch on KWin’s focus stealing on Wayland at a low level". This means KWin, the window manager for KDE Plasma, will begin enforcing this properly.

Under X11, new or dialog windows can only grab focus if their application was most recently active, a check often based on a timestamp called _NET_WM_USER_TIME. It was a flimsy system at best. For example, Kai cited how the prevention logic on X11 would sometimes stop the Adobe Flash Player fullscreen window from showing on top of a YouTube video. On X11, an application could just call XSetInputFocus on another app's window, and while KWin would try to undo it, focus did flicker for a moment.

Over on Wayland, things are much better with XDG Activation, but some apps still violate the protocol through improper usage. In situations like that, KWin would, by default, just focus any new window that opened. This is changing.

A new "Extreme" setting for "Focus Stealing Prevention" in the Window Management settings will force KWin to activate a window if and only if it requests activation with a valid token.

Using this stricter mode, developers Xaver Hugl and Kai-Uwe Broulik have already fixed a ton of issues, introducing several key changes:

• Dolphin no longer discards its activation token when launching a new instance.
• KRunner, Kickoff, and other Plasmoid popups now correctly request activation.
• LayerShell-Qt now requests activation on show and properly reads the XDG_ACTIVATION_TOKEN from the environment.
• Allowing privileged clients like Plasma to request tokens correctly.
• Ignoring modifier key presses for focus prevention logic, since they are often part of a global shortcut.

The work extends to the backend as well, with the DBusRunner specification now gaining a SetActivationToken method that is called just before an action runs. Baloo, the desktop search runner, now uses this to ensure that opening files in an existing application window works correctly.

You can learn more on Kai's blog post.

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Posted Tuesday 5 August 2025 at 3:50 am AEST (my time).

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Aside from that, we also noticed that Microsoft also published another useful upgrade-related support article. This one, though, deals with issues a system may encounter while trying to run an upgrade from, say, Windows 10 to 11.

Microsoft says that in such cases typically a "What needs your attention" banner or pop-up message may be displayed. The company says there are several reasons why an upgrade may be blocked. This banner message is probably pushed as part of the KB5001716 update that Microsoft quietly installs on Windows PCs at regular intervals. The most recent one was released at the end of June and this time there is some change in the way it functions as it no longer tries to force-push a newer feature update.

Microsoft writes:

The notification: What needs your attention might appear when attempting a Windows upgrade. This notification message might be an indication that the Windows device has a compatibility issue with the newer version of Windows. The compatibility issue might be with one of the following components:

 

• Driver.
• Hardware.
• App.
• Windows feature.

 

These compatibility issues can lead to an unexpected experience. For this reason, the Windows upgrade isn't offered.

It is good to see Microsoft has published a support article regarding the safeguard holds that had been put in place, especially considering the huge list of issues that have led the company to refrain from offering Windows 11 24H2 on affected systems. For example, it has been nearly a year since 24H2 was announced to the general public, and still, there are certain compatibility blocks in place with the most recent one finally getting a resolution this July.

The company has also shared some ways in which users may be able to resolve the issue. You can find the guide in this article here on Microsoft's website.

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Posted Monday 4 August 2025 at 12:19 pm AEST (my time).

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If you are not familiar with what that is, a Copilot+ PC is essentially a system that meets a certain threshold of AI processing performance, 40 NPU TOPS, so that they can be labelled as such. While a user does not strictly need a Copilot+ PC, Windows 11 24H2 and most of the new app features are drenched with Copilot and AI bits (even relatively minor changes are getting quite the focus).

Microsoft has in fact updated the official CPU guidance on its support documentation to reflect this change so that users are aware of the differences between what qualifies as Copilot+ (AI) PC and what does not.

Thus, per Microsoft's advice, if you were to go and get a new piece of hardware like the processor, which was perhaps no longer supported, or buy an entirely new PC, you could be wondering what happens to Windows 11 eligibility and support if you make this change.

Microsoft understands this and as such, sometime earlier this year, the company put up a new support article about the topic. Neowin noticed it while browsing.

The article covers in detail how users can proceed with checking Windows 11 upgrade eligibility after moving to a new PC. The company says that users can check the availability of Windows 11 via the PC Health Check app to see if the OS recognizes and green-flags their newly upgraded hardware.

Microsoft also notes that users may need to be patient as it can "take up to 24 hours for Windows Update to refresh eligibility info" as it is "based on intelligence models that consider hardware eligibility, reliability metrics, device age, and other factors."

In case however the Windows 11 eligibility assessment is not automatically refreshing, or you wish for the upgrade to be offered sooner, Microsoft has also provided steps to toggle the Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser (assesses device compatibility for receiving upgrades) manually. The company has explained how to proceed with it via the Task Scheduler, a native Windows tool that allows users (mainly developers) to automatically run routine tasks. There is also another way to do it via the Command Prompt.

However, they require elevated privileges and if you are not all too familiar with such instruments, you are probably better off handing it to someone more tech-savvy (like someone who reads Neowin!).

You can read the support article in full here on Microsoft's official website.

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Posted Monday 4 August 2025 at 4:07 am AEST (my time).

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ExplainingComputers (1.12M subscribers)

August 3, 2025

Video length: 19m 26s

Which Linux distro should you choose? This video highlights some key things for beginners to consider, and includes a comparison of Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Ubuntu, Debian, MX Linux and Pop!_OS.

00:00 Titles & Intro 

01:30 Linux & Distros 

03:24 Look, Feel & Learning Curve 

13:50 FOSS Philosophy 

15:35 Distro Team 

18:06 And Many More!

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Posted Monday 4 August 2025 at 4:02 am AEST (my time).

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Notable fixes in the updates include patches for Terminal crashing when closing multiple panes, pasting issues, and more. Here is the changelog for Windows Terminal 1.22.12111.0:

• When you have multiple profiles with the same name, we will now save/restore the right one during session restoration
• We've resolved an issue where pasting with Ctrl held down would result in a corrupt first character (and I then forgot to put this into the preview build)
• Closing multiple panes at once should no longer send Terminal into outer space, never to return
• More TSF IMEs that request bad color combinations will be properly handled
• "Clear Buffer" now makes a better attempt at preserving the row your cursor is on
• Icons can once again refer to http URLs, while we work out a proper solution in #19143
• All of the DLLs, EXEs and a few more files that come with Terminal now have proper version info resources including names and locales

Here is the changelog for Windows Terminal Preview 1.23.12102.0:

• When you have multiple profiles with the same name, we will now save/restore the right one during session restoration
• Closing multiple panes at once should no longer send Terminal into outer space, never to return
• Scrollbar marks will now appear without you having to scroll or resize
• Using cooked read (cmd.exe, for example) in the alternate screen buffer will no longer cause a crash
• We will no longer duplicate variable names we add to WSLENV
• More TSF IMEs that request bad color combinations will be properly handled
• Terminal once again understands that it is not supposed to share between two users on the same desktop
• When Terminal is set as your default console host, it will receive incoming console applications much more reliably (and not crash just for the fun of it)
• "Clear Buffer" now makes a better attempt at preserving the row your cursor is on
• Icons can once again refer to http URLs, while we work out a proper solution in #19143
• All of the DLLs, EXEs and a few more files that come with Terminal now have proper version info resources including names and locales

You can update Windows Terminal through the Microsoft Store here and here (preview). The app is also available on GitHub.

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

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Microsoft says that open-sourcing WinUI cannot be done with a switch flip due to its complexity and connections. Windows 11's user interface taps into many proprietary layers of the operating system that cannot be published as is. As such, Microsoft needs to separate what could be shared with the community and what cannot.

Many of you have asked about truly open sourcing the repo. While we’re not ready to commit to a specific end date for completing all milestones, we are actively working toward it. This isn’t a flip-the-switch moment, it’s a deliberate process.

Additionally, the team needs to prioritize other things, which include security, stability, and support for existing products.

Microsoft plans to open WinUI's GitHub repository in phases:

• Phase 1: Increased Mirror Frequency. After the WASDK 1.8 release (end of August), we’ll begin more frequent mirroring of internal commits to GitHub to increase transparency and show progress.
• Phase 2: 3rd Party Devs Build Locally. External developers will be able to clone and build the repo locally, with documentation to guide setup and dependencies.
• Phase 3: 3rd Party Devs Contribute & Run Tests. Contributors will be able to submit PRs and run tests locally. We’re working to untangle private dependencies and make test infrastructure publicly accessible.
• Phase 4: GitHub as Center of Gravity. GitHub becomes the primary place for development, issue tracking, and community engagement. Internal mirrors will be phased out.

Making WinUI more open will be an incremental process, and you can track it on this board on GitHub. Meanwhile, developers can contribute by sharing their feedback, filing clear and well-written issues, and upvoting existing feedback.

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Posted Sunday 3 August 2025 at 3:48 am AEST (my time).

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Speaking of Microsoft 365, the company is also working on a UI (user interface) revision related to the Teams and Outlook apps, according to a couple of new entries on its Microsoft 365 Roadmap website.

This "updated UI" is for the Copilot Chat navigation pane on Outlook and Teams, and the company says that the change is meant to "offer a more intuitive layout" for users while also "ensuring continuity in user experience" (UX). Microsoft says that it has been able to achieve this simply by repositioning the navigation pane from the right to the left, but there is probably more than that.

For those who need a refresher, Microsoft began rolling out the feature back in January, early this year, after announcing the full details a week prior.

Aside from that, some new features are also coming to Copilot Chat. Microsoft in its roadmap entry describes the feature in some detail, although currently you can only sort of visualize in your mind how the updated UI will look.

In the entry, the tech giant writes:

Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365): Updated UI for Copilot Chat Navigation Pane in Outlook/Teams

 

The navigation pane has been repositioned from the right side to the left, offering a more intuitive layout. Despite the shift, it continues to host agents and conversation history, ensuring continuity in user experience. This redesign introduces new features, including access to the "All Conversations" page, which provides a comprehensive view of chat history. The change aims to enhance usability and streamline navigation within Copilot Chat.

You can find the M365 roadmap entries for Outlook and Teams at the following links on Microsoft's website: 499149, 499148.

Although this UI update is something that will probably prove to be helpful for many users, especially those who regularly use AI in their workflow, many others would probably be left wanting more in terms of UI and UX changes, also considering how some of the functionality improvements are getting delayed too.

This also shows how a lot of Microsoft's development focus now is going towards Copilot and other AI feature additions, as nearly every single app or feature is getting filled to the brim with AI features and functionalities. The company seems quite pedantic with Copilot, as even small improvements like these are getting a lot of attention and focus from the dev team.

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Posted Sunday 3 August 2025 at 3:47 am AEST (my time).

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Valve's Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for July 2025 show that currently, 59.9% of all PC users on Steam are running Windows 11. The gap between Windows 11 and 10 is increasing, but the latter is still doing pretty well, with a 35.19% market share.

Despite a pretty large number of Windows 10 users on Steam, the operating system's share is expected to decline. Nvidia has already revealed its plans to end driver support in about one year, leaving gamers no other choice than to move to Windows 11 if they want to use the latest hardware and receive optimizations for new games. As for Steam itself, there is currently no information on how long Valve plans to support its store on Windows 10.

Overall, 95.53% (-0.44 points) of all survey participants reported using a Windows PC. Linux is installed on 2.89% (+0.32 points), and macOS is on 1.88% (+0.12 points).

Now, to the hardware part. The most popular graphics card on Steam is the two-generation-old desktop RTX 3060 (4.62%). Nvidia holds the overwhelming majority, with 73.94% of all participants running a "green" card in their rig. AMD has 17.83%, Intel has 7.86%, and the rest is some obscure stuff.

Other hardware picks remain unchanged. The most popular configuration still has a six-core processor, 16GB of memory, and a 1080p display. You can find more details about Valve's latest findings on the official survey page.

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Posted Saturday 2 August 2025 at 5:14 pm AEST (my time).

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Starting off with Plasma 6.5, this upcoming version is finally getting automatic day/night theme switching, something the KDE team says people have been wanting "for a long time." You can now have Plasma automatically switch to a different Global Theme at night.

Still on wallpapers, 6.5 will also get an update that lets you manage theme switching from the Quick Setting page.

Another UI improvement 6.5 is getting is the ability to choose how your dynamic wallpaper coloration works. You can now base it on the active color scheme, the time of day, or just force it to always be light or dark.

Other UI improvements 6.5 will bring include:

• Files opened from KRunner will now properly raise the window of an already running application on Wayland.
• The Orca screen reader now correctly announces Caps Lock state changes on Wayland.
• You can now hibernate your system directly from the SDDM login screen if you have it configured.
• The desktop icon configuration window options have been rephrased to make it clearer what they do.

And as for bug fixes, the developers fixed two bugs that could cause Plasma to crash when using the Activities feature. This was due to some unstable code handling background tasks, which has now been swapped out for a more reliable implementation.

The free space checker will also no longer try to mount network shares defined in /etc/fstab, preventing system hangs when you are offline, and finally, a visual glitch affecting RTL languages on the Region & Language page has been corrected.

Moving on to Plasma 6.4.4, this point release builds on top of Plasma 6.4 with a collection of important fixes. If you're experiencing an issue where Discover could not correctly identify unstable or outdated Flatpak versions from multiple remotes, that should be resolved.

Problems with drag and drop inside desktop folders have been fixed, the Colors page in System Settings now shows copied color schemes immediately after you create them, and a situation where you could not rename desktop files that were symlinks has also been fixed.

You can learn more from the official KDE blog post.

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Posted Saturday 2 August 2025 at 5:12 pm AEST (my time).

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Windows 11 build 27913, which arrived in the Canary Channel this week, quietly brought back the ability to enable mouse crosshair in accessibility settings. You can turn it on and customize the color of the crosshair so that you can always see where the cursor is. Microsoft has not mentioned that in the release notes, and the change was only spotted by the sharp-eyed Windows insider @phantomofearth on X.

If you are running Windows 11 build 27913, you can turn on the mouse crosshair by heading to Settings > Accessibility > Mouse Pointer and Touch > Pointer Indicator. Note that the feature is available to all insiders, and it does not require toggling on any feature IDs. However, it has yet to make its way to the public Windows 11 version.

The mouse crosshair is a part of Microsoft's PowerToys utility set. Some of them have already made it to Windows 11, and Microsoft should consider doing the same for more tools. Recently, I published a story about five useful PowerToys utilities that Microsoft should make standard in Windows 11.

Other changes in build 27913 include the centered search box for the Settings app, wallpaper fixes, and more. Notably, the update also removed the Windows Vista startup sound, which oddly made its way to the Canary Channel after being fixed in the Dev and Beta. You can find the full changelog for build 27913 in our dedicated article here.

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Posted Saturday 2 August 2025 at 4:19 am AEST (my time).

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Here is the changelog:

[File Explorer]

• For Windows Insiders signed in with a work or school account (Entra ID), File Explorer will begin showing people icons under the “Activity” column on File Explorer Home and on “Recommended” at the top of File Explorer Home. When you hover or click over a people icon, it will display the Live Persona Card for that person from Microsoft 365.

[Settings]

• We are removing the “Manage or clear your Bing search history” entry from Settings > Privacy & security > Search under Search history. You can manage your Bing search history directly through the Privacy dashboard, accessible via the Privacy resources link under Related settings on that settings page.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue which was causing the Start menu to crash for some Insiders in the last couple builds.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue where If you accidentally clicked down and slid your mouse on the taskbar preview thumbnail, clicking it would stop working.

[Lock screen]

• Fixed an underlying crash which could result in widgets on the lock screen not displaying in the last couple builds – you also couldn’t add new ones.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue in the previous flight which was leading to multi-finger touchpad gestures not working in the previous flight.

Here is the list of known bugs:

[General]

• Some Windows Insiders may experience a rollback trying to install this update with a 0x80070005 in Windows Update. We’re working on a fix for Windows Insiders impacted. If you are impacted, using Settings > System > Recovery > “Fix issues using Windows update” may resolve the issue.
• [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue with dao360.dll resulting in some apps crashing after the previous flight.

[Start menu]

• [NEW] For Insiders with the new Start menu, you may unexpectedly see a category generated for every letter of the alphabet with blank icons, when opening the Start menu in the “All” section after updating to this build. Switching to a different view and then switching back should resolve the issue.

[File Explorer]

• [NEW] 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.

[Click to Do (Preview)] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders:

• Windows Insiders on AMD or Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs may experience long wait times on the first attempt to perform intelligent text actions in Click to Do after a new build or model update.

[Live Captions]

• Live captions may crash when attempting to use live translation on a Copilot+ PC.

[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 announcements here and here.

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Posted Saturday 2 August 2025 at 4:17 am AEST (my time).

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