News: Software News

Google launches Gemini Drops and a web page to highlight new stuff

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 07:18:44 +0000

Another day, and a new Gemini announcement from Google has arrived. The search giant said it's starting a new series, called Gemini Drops, to showcase monthly updates and tips on how to get the most out of its AI chatbot.

Google has also set up the Gemini Drops Hub, a new web page where it populates the latest updates and features related to the Gemini app. "Gemini is constantly evolving, but Gemini Drops makes it easier to keep up with what’s being released," the web page reads.

These updates are similar to the other "Drops" Google has in place for its products. Pixel Feature Drops are software updates typically released once every quarter for Google's lineup of Pixel-branded smartphones, smartwatches, and earbuds.

Android Feature Drops is a more marketable name for Android QPR (Quarterly Platform Releases), which Google pushes for non-Pixel smartphones and other devices. Similarly, the company has Workspace Drops to discuss new features coming to its work apps, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more.

That said, Gemini Drops appear to be more of a roundup of all the updates pushed throughout the month instead of an update package. For July, Google highlighted how the Gemini app can convert photos to videos using the Veo 3 model. You can use the feature to create eight-second video clips complete with sound.

Gemini is now available for Wear OS 4+ watches, allowing you to interact with the AI chatbot without needing to take your phone out of your pocket. Google also introduced Scheduled Actions to automate tasks, such as providing a summary of your calendar and unread emails every morning.

Gemini Live has added support for captions to read along during conversations with the AI chatbot. The Gemini 2.5 Pro model improved in coding, science, reasoning, and multimodal benchmarks.

The search giant is turning every stone to make its AI models and features reach a wider audience. It helped recreate a classic movie from 1939 and started a new initiative to fund short films exploring the relationship between humanity and AI.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 5:18 pm AEST (my time).

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Top 6 new features that landed on the Windows 11 Insider Program during the first half of July 2025

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:41:14 +0000

The most important improvements that Microsoft is testing for version 25H2 and 24H2 are during the first half of the month.

During the first half of July 2025, thus far, Microsoft has released at least six preview builds for Windows 11, four of which belong to the Canary and Beta Channels of the version 24H2 development. The company has also made available two preview builds in the Dev Channel as part of the version 25H2 development.

In the Canary Channel, we've seen:

27891
27898

In the Dev Channel:

26200.5670
26200.5702

In the Beta Channel:

26120.4520
26120.4733

In these previews, the software giant introduced a number of new features and visual improvements for Windows 11 version 25H2. However, this time around, devices in the Canary Channel received several overdue changes.

As part of the version 25H2 development, we've seen the company adding support for third-party providers for passkeys. In addition, as part of the builds for this version, Microsoft also added the Administrator protection security feature and a new Click to Do action to generate image descriptions.

In this guide, I'll highlight the most significant features and changes available in the Windows Insider Program during the first half of July 2025.

Top improvements from the Windows 11 Insider Program in July 2025

In addition to the slew of minor improvements in the last six preview builds, Microsoft has been working on these changes.

1. Quick Machine Recovery

On Windows 11 build 27898, Microsoft introduced the Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) feature that aims to reduce downtime during boot failures.

The recovery feature works by detecting and resolving boot problems through the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and the Windows Update system.

In practice, if an issue occurs during the boot process due to a buggy update or another problem, the computer can connect to the internet and upload diagnostic logs, allowing Microsoft to download and apply targeted fixes.

QMR will come enabled by default on Windows 11 Home, but it can be configured manually on Windows 11 Pro.

To configure this feature, navigate to Settings > System > Recovery > Quick Machine Recovery.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

On this new page, you can turn the feature on or off, and more importantly, you can manage the intervals the computer checks and restart the device to receive targeted fixes.

You can always confirm that the fix has been applied from the Settings > Windows Update > Update history.

Although this feature is new in the Canary Channel, Quick Machine Recovery has been available through the different Insider channels for some time.

Also, the company is expected to roll out this new recovery feature in the next Patch Tuesday update.

2. Adaptive Energy Saver

Microsoft is also working on a new "Adaptive" option for the Energy Saver mode.

The option uses the Optimized Experiences and Windows Health background services, and the basics of the new feature are to monitor the system telemetry and then turn on "Energy Saver" automatically as needed.

To turn on this feature, navigate to Settings > System > Power & battery, click on "Energy Saver," and select the "Adaptive" option.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Adaptive Energy Saver is available on laptops and desktop computers with a battery backup starting with build 27898. However, this feature has also been available in the Dev and Beta Channels for some time.

3. App permission dialog

In the operating system, Microsoft is also adding visual changes to the modal dialog that appears on the screen when an app requires special permissions, such as access to location, microphone, and camera.

As part of this redesign, the dialog will now appear at the center of the screen while dimming the rest of the background to bring more attention to the required action, similar to when an app requires elevation.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

This change first arrived with the release of build 27898 in the Canary Channel, but it is also now available through Dev and Beta Channels.

4. Administrator Protection

On Windows 11, Administrator Protection is a new security feature that adds yet another layer of security that generates an authorization dialog when an unsigned or untrusted application requires elevation.

This feature may seem similar to the User Account Control (UAC) feature, but they both work differently. On the one hand, UAC aims to prevent unwanted system changes by generating a consent dialog whenever an action requires administrative privileges.

As part of the process, the User Account Control creates two tokens when the user logs in. One standard user token and another administrator token. When performing an action that requires elevation, the system will use the administrator token for the elevation.

The problem is that both of these tokens have access to the user's profile, which can be bypassed, posing a potential security vulnerability.

On the other hand, Administrator Protection is a more advanced approach that creates a separate, hidden system-managed account to create the isolated admin token.

Once you're prompted to consent to the elevation, the system will create a separate user account on demand, and then it'll get discarded after the action is complete.

You can enable this security feature from Windows Security > Administrator Protection by turning on the toggle switch and restarting the computer.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Administrator Protection has been in the Windows Insider Program for some time, but it was recently rolled out to build 26200.5702 in the Dev Channel.

5. Passkeys with external providers

Windows 11 now supports third-party passkey providers. Starting with build 26200.5670 in the Dev Channel, Microsoft announced a partnership with 1Password to integrate its passkey solution with the operating system.

This means that you can now create, save, and use passkeys in 1Password and use them with Windows Hello on Windows 11.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

If you want to use this integration, you first have to install the latest version of 1Password (Beta), and then, on Settings > Accounts > Passkeys > Advanced options, you can enable the "1Password" plugin.

Once you complete the steps, you can use your saved passkeys from 1Password, or you can save new ones to the service.

When it comes to the time to authenticate, the prompt will let you choose the 1Password integration to continue.

6. Click to Do image description

If you have a Copilot+ PC, starting with build 26200.5702, the development team is updating Click to Do with a new action to describe images, charts, or graphs on a snapshot using AI.

If you're using the feature for the first time, the system will have to download an additional AI model to process the information on-device without the need for an internet connection.

You can try this feature by opening Click to Do on a screen with content, right-clicking the image, and selecting the "Describe Image" option.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Currently, this feature is available for Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs, but the company is expected to bring support for Intel and AMD in a future update.

These are the top features and changes that Microsoft has been working on since my last Windows Insider Program roundup. However, the company has also been pushing a number of smaller fixes and other features that were previously available in other channels.

Finally, even though the Dev Channel belongs to version 25H2 development, and the Beta Channel to version 24H2, the preview in these channels is virtually the same.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:39 am AEST (my time).

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4 features on Windows 11 exclusive to Europe that Microsoft should make global

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:39:24 +0000

Some features on Windows 11 are exclusive to Europe, but they shouldn't be. Here's why Microsoft should open them up.

Microsoft has been rolling out new Windows 11 features to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), but many of these improvements (such as uninstalling Edge, replacing Bing, or exporting Recall data) are only available to users in Europe. These aren't small tweaks. They are major changes that give you more control over your device.

Instead of limiting these updates by region, Microsoft should make these features available globally. However, I must say that the company might not want to roll out these changes to everyone, due to concerns about users quickly switching to other alternatives.

What's the Digital Markets Act?

The Digital Markets Act is a framework that the European Union enforces on large digital platforms (also known as "gatekeepers") in its territories to promote fair competition and offer greater user choice in the digital market.

Basically, gatekeepers have an obligation not to prefer their products and services on their platforms, allowing you, the user, for example, to remove default apps and be able to switch messaging systems with ease.

In this guide, I'll highlight four Europe-only Windows 11 features that Microsoft can and should implement across regions.

Windows 11 changes in Europe that everyone should get

Some of the features, such as the ability to hide the news feed from the Widgets dashboard and uninstall more default applications, have already expanded more broadly.

But, the core changes, such as the ability to remove Edge, change Bing for search, improvements to set a default browser, and others, are still limited to users in Europe. Microsoft should bring these improvements to all users to ensure consistency and to improve the experience for everyone.

1. Microsoft Edge uninstall option

Although Microsoft Edge is a suitable browser, many users have different preferences for accessing the internet, and even though it's possible to install other browsers, the operating system doesn't have an option to remove the default web application.

However, if you're a user from the European Economic Area, that's a different story, since those users can now uninstall Microsoft Edge easily from their computer from Settings > Apps > Installed apps, like any other app.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

The same is true with the Microsoft Store app. If you're in Europe, you'll also find an option to uninstall the Microsoft Store app while leaving updates installed on your computer. However, in the rest of the supported markets, the company is blocking consumers from removing this application.

Another important point about Edge's behavior in Europe. In a previous announcement, the company noted that it would no longer send frequent notifications to users in Europe to encourage them to set the browser as the system default. I believe that everyone would prefer this change as well.

2. Recall export feature

Microsoft is also working on a feature that will allow you to export and share snapshots from the Windows Recall feature with third-party apps and websites. However, again, this is only available for European users.

When you configure Windows Recall for the first time, the feature will generate a code that you'll have to use to export your data. However, this feature isn't meant to download the snapshots. Instead, it's an option to give third-party apps and websites access to your activities.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Additionally, due to this change, Microsoft is updating the Windows Recall settings with a new "Advanced settings" page, which will enable you to choose how you want to decrypt and grant other services access to your data.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

For example, the "Export past snapshots" option allows you to export previously encrypted snapshots that were saved on your computer. On the other hand, the "Export snapshots from now on" option will only share snapshots to apps or websites from the moment you turn on the feature.

If you are reading this from one of the regions in the European Economic Area, remember that the export code will only be shown once while setting up the AI feature, and Microsoft doesn't store this information. As a result, if you lose the code, the only way to generate another one is by resetting the AI feature, which deletes all your previous snapshots and settings.

3. Default browser settings

The company should also make improvements to set a web browser as the system default available for everyone. Currently, for all regions, when configuring a new browser, the "Set default" button makes changes to how the system handles "http," "https," "htm," and "html."

(Image credit: Microsoft)

However, the software giant has been working on changes to make even more file types the default, including "ftp," "read," "mht," "svg," "xhtml," and more, when European users click the button to make their browser of choice the default.

Also, by default, the system will pin the new default browser to the Taskbar and Start menu. Furthermore, if the browser also supports PDF documents, users in the European Economic Area will find an option to set that browser as the default handler for PDFs.

4. Search engine control

Finally, one thing that many users have long wanted to do is change the default web search provider within Windows 11. In the past, we have seen third-party apps redirect search to different search engines, and now, Microsoft is adding the capability to manage web results in the operating system, but it's limited to European users.

For example, in the version of Windows 11 for Europe, users can change Bing to another search provider from Settings > Privacy & security > Search permissions and using the "Let search apps show results" toggle switch.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Furthermore, it's even possible to uninstall the "Microsoft Bing" integration like a normal app from Settings > Apps > Installed apps.

Although Microsoft has been implementing changes to Windows 11 to comply with the Digital Markets Act (some of which are rolling out globally and not just in Europe), these four improvements should also be available to everyone.

Some of these features, such as the Recall export code, are still in preview but are expected to be rolled out in a future update.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:38 am AEST (my time).

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New Windows 11 builds add slowdown logging, new accessibility features, and more

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:38:05 +0000

Microsoft has two new Windows 11 preview builds for Windows Insiders this Friday. In the Dev Channel, the company is shipping build 26200.5710 (KB5062676), and in the Beta Channel, users can download build 26200.5710 (KB5062676). Both updates share the same changelog with the same new accessibility features on Copilot+ PCs, a new slowdown logging system, and more.

Starting today, Windows Insiders with Intel and AMD-based Copilot+ PCs can try AI-powered image descriptions in Click to Do. Windows 11 uses on-device processing to generate image descriptions for a quick overview of the visual content. In addition to people with visual disabilities, this change helps other users in generating alt text, summarizing graphs and charts, etc.

A similar feature is now available in Narrator on AMD and Intel-based Copilot+ PCs. Narrator now uses AI to provide users with rich image descriptions. Here is an example: "The image is a graph showing the stock prices of Microsoft Corporation, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Computer indexes. The graph shows a steady increase in Microsoft’s stock price over the period from June 18th to June 23rd." You can regenerate, like/dislike, and copy the generated description.

Another important change in today's updates is the new slowdown logging system. Windows 11 preview builds now log your PC's performance dips, and Feedback Hub automatically attaches them when you report system sluggishness in Feedback Hub. Here is how Microsoft describes it:

As part of our commitment to improving Windows performance, logs are now collected when your PC has experienced any slow or sluggish performance. Windows Insiders are encouraged to provide feedback when experiencing PC issues related to slow or sluggish performance, allowing Feedback Hub to automatically collect these logs, which will help us root cause issues faster. Use the Desktop > System Sluggishness category when filing feedback to allow Feedback Hub to automatically pick up these logs. These logs are stored locally (%systemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc folder) and only sent to Microsoft via Feedback Hub when feedback is submitted.

Here is the rest of the changelog with all the improvements and fixes:

[Click to Do (Preview)] The following changes and improvements are rolling out for Click to Do on Copilot+ PCs:
- We are trying out a change that removes the search box in the top bar of Click to Do.
[Lock screen]
- We’re updating lock screen widgets experience for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel, with widget suggestions to help you easily discover more widgets. This feature can be enabled or disabled with the “Discover widgets” toggle under Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Please note this experience is still being refined and will change in future flights.
[Settings]
- You can now visit the Settings > Privacy & security > Text and image generation to see which third-party applications recently used generative AI models provided by Windows. This page gives you visibility into the specific apps leveraging local Windows provided generative AI models and allows you to control which apps are permitted to use them—putting you in charge of your device’s AI experience. The UI is present in this flight today, however the functionality will light up in a upcoming flight.
- Text and image generation settings page with recent activity highlighted in a red box for seeing which apps use generative AI models provided by Windows.
- Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on*
[Notification Center]
- Fixed an issue where if you’d enabled the clock in Notification Center it might result in the Notification Center content getting clipped.
[Other]
- Fixed an underlying issue with dbgcore.dll, which could lead to explorer.exe and some other apps crashing recently.

And 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.
- You may see multiple error pop ups about unexpected elements when opening Group Policy Editor.
[Start menu]
- The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new Start menu:
- Using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture.
- Drag and drop capabilities are limited from “All” to “Pinned.”
[Live Captions]
- [NEW] 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”.
[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.
[Input]
- The Microsoft Changjie Input method doesn’t work properly in this build – not able to select words. Reverting to the previous version of the IME in Settings should mitigate the issue while we work on a fix.

You can find the announcement post for the Dev build here and for the Beta build here.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:37 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft reveals one of the ways it's making Windows 11 25H2 drivers better

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:36:27 +0000

Aside from the mostly subtle UX and UI changes and improvements, every new version of Windows generally comes with several under-the-hood upgrades, and drivers are one of those. For example, with Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft introduced WDDM version 3.2 and with it came new features like improved AV1 support and better driver crash management.

Meanwhile, the company has also decided to drop some of the legacy features like Device Stage, something that was really big back in the day of Windows 7.

Although Microsoft has not yet disclosed the driver-related feature set that will land on Windows 11 25H2, the company this week announced an update to its driver testing specifically for Windows 11 25H2.

The company has updated the static analysis requirements for Windows driver certification for the "upcoming Windows release."

For those who may not be familiar, the Windows Hardware Certification Program (WHCP) has two basic verification tests for hardware drivers. Static tests the driver code, code path, and the like, without executing the driver, while Dynamic testing does the same, except when it is running on the system.

Microsoft says that Windows 11 25H2 third-party drivers must pass the Static Tools Logo Test that runs them through CodeQL before driver deployment in order to comply with WHCP. GitHub's CodeQL is a static analysis engine used by developers to perform security inspections on code outside of a live environment.

The move is a part of Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative, and increased usage of CodeQL was one of the things on its agenda list; thus, Microsoft now requires kernel-mode driver submissions to pass the Static Tools Logo Test before WHCP certification. In the blog post, Microsoft has listed the prerequisites that the test needs to meet:

Before running the updated static analysis tests, ensure the following components are in place:

CodeQL CLI v 2.22.1 or greater

Microsoft Windows Drivers CodeQL Query Pack version 1.6.0 or greater

Driver source code

You can find more information in the blog post here on Microsoft's official Tech Community website.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:35 am AEST (my time).

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How to create lightweight Windows 11 for unsupported PCs

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:34:43 +0000

The PC market is about to experience a global-scale event later this year. Microsoft is on track to end Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, and even though it is no longer the most popular operating system in the world, hundreds of millions of PC continue running it every day. The affected users have several options to choose from, one of which is updating to Windows 11.

However, not every PC supports Windows 11. As such, those who want to upgrade but cannot purchase new hardware can use unofficial methods to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. While we already have a guide about updating unsupported PCs to Windows 11, in this article, we focus on creating a lightweight and debloated image, which should work better on lower-end systems with lower resource strain. Of course, if you have a beefier PC, you can also try this method for more efficient work.

Important: You have to accept the potential risks of running altered Windows copies, especially when using third-party tools. If you are not comfortable doing that or you do not trust the maker of the script, you can try installing Windows 11 on unsupported PCs using unmodified images or enroll your system in the Extended Security Update program to remain supported for one more year.

In this guide, we will modify a Windows 11 image using a popular tool called Tiny11Maker. It strips Windows images off the official requirements and removes unnecessary components and "bloat" for a cleaner experience, allowing you to install Windows 11 on PCs without TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot and with processors older than the minimum required (the second-gen AMD Ryzen or the eighth-gen Intel Core).

Note: Some very old PC with certain processors cannot physically run recent Windows 11 versions, even with hardware requirements removed. Check out this article to learn more.

Creating a debloated Windows 11 image for unsupported PCs

Obtain a Windows 11 image for your computer with the necessary edition and language. You can get it from the official Windows 11 website or with the Media Creation Tool.
Mount the downloaded image by double-clicking it.
Download Tiny11 Maker from its GitHub repository and extract it into any folder you like.
Run the tiny11maker script. The folder also has the tiny11Coremaker script, which makes ultra-stripped images with a lot of important stuff removed. If you plan to use modified Windows 11 on your main machine for daily work, stick to the tiny11maker script, since it does not alter critical components like Windows Update, Windows Recovery, or Windows Security.
Run Windows Terminal as Administrator and type Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted to allow PowerShell scripts.
Drag the tiny11maker file onto the Windows Terminal window and press Enter.
Specify the drive letter with the previously downloaded image and press Enter.
Select the necessary edition, such as Home, Professional, Professional N, or whichever you need and press Enter.

Important: Keep in mind that Tiny11maker is not a piracy tool, and it will not activate the system for you. You still need a valid Windows 10 or 11 key to activate the installation. Make sure you select the SKU that matches your license key.
After converting the image, PowerShell will prompt you to select the image index. Select the one matching your Windows edition.
Wait for Tiny11maker to do its job.
In the end, you will have a ready-for-use ISO file that you can write to any USB drive using apps like Rufus as described in this guide (do not select any mods on Step 11). You will find the image in the same folder as the Tiny11maker files.

Done! Now you have a stripped-down Windows 11 image that works on unsupported PCs and consumes fewer resources than the "vanilla" version.

Opening image by INESby on Pixabay.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:33 am AEST (my time).

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Exhausted man defeats AI model in world coding championship

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:32:16 +0000

"Humanity has prevailed (for now!)," writes winner after 10-hour coding marathon against OpenAI.

A Polish programmer running on fumes recently accomplished what may soon become impossible: beating an advanced AI model from OpenAI in a head-to-head coding competition. The 10-hour marathon left him "completely exhausted."

On Wednesday, programmer Przemysław Dębiak (known as "Psyho"), a former OpenAI employee, narrowly defeated the custom AI model in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 Heuristic contest in Tokyo. AtCoder, a Japanese platform that hosts competitive programming contests and maintains global rankings, held what may be the first contest where an AI model competed directly against top human programmers in a major onsite world championship. During the event, the maker of ChatGPT participated as a sponsor and entered an AI model in a special exhibition match titled "Humans vs AI." Despite the tireless nature of silicon, the company walked away with second place.

"Humanity has prevailed (for now!)," wrote Dębiak on X, noting he had little sleep while competing in several competitions across three days. "I'm completely exhausted. ... I'm barely alive."

The competition required contestants to solve a single complex optimization problem over 600 minutes. The contest echoes the American folk tale of John Henry, the steel-driving man who raced against a steam-powered drilling machine in the 1870s. Like Henry's legendary battle against industrial automation, Dębiak's victory represents a human expert pushing themselves to their physical limits to prove that human skill still matters in an age of advancing AI.

Both stories feature exhausting endurance contests—Henry drove steel spikes for hours until his heart gave out, while Dębiak coded for 10 hours on minimal sleep. The parallel extends to the bittersweet nature of both victories: Henry won his race but died from the effort, symbolizing the inevitable march of automation, while Dębiak's acknowledgment that humanity prevailed "for now" suggests he recognizes this may be a temporary triumph against increasingly capable machines.

While Dębiak won 500,000 yen and survived his ordeal better than the legendary steel driver, the AtCoder World Tour Finals pushes humans and AI models to their limits through complex optimization challenges that have no perfect solution—only incrementally better ones.

Coding marathon tests human endurance against AI efficiency

The AtCoder World Tour Finals represents one of competitive programming's most exclusive events, inviting only the top 12 programmers worldwide based on their performance throughout the previous year. The Heuristic division focuses on "NP-hard" optimization problems. In programming, heuristics are problem-solving techniques that find good-enough solutions through shortcuts and educated guesses when perfect answers would take too long to calculate.

All competitors, including OpenAI, were limited to identical hardware provided by AtCoder, ensuring a level playing field between human and AI contestants. According to the contest rules, participants could use any programming language available on AtCoder, with no penalty for resubmission but a mandatory five-minute wait between submissions.

Final leaderboard results for the 2025 AtCoder World Finals Heuristic Contest, showing Dębiak (as "Psyho") on top.

Credit: AtCoder

The final contest results showed Psyho finishing with a score of 1,812,272,558,909 points, while OpenAI's model (listed as "OpenAIAHC") scored 1,654,675,725,406 points—a margin of roughly 9.5 percent. OpenAI's artificial entrant, a custom simulated reasoning model similar to o3, placed second overall, ahead of 10 other human programmers who had qualified through year-long rankings.

OpenAI characterized the second-place finish as a milestone for AI models in competitive programming. "Models like o3 rank among the top-100 in coding/math contests, but as far as we know, this is the first top-3 placement in a premier coding/math contest," a company spokesperson said in an email to Ars Technica. "Events like AtCoder give us a way to test how well our models can reason strategically, plan over long time horizons, and improve solutions through trial and error—just like a human would."

AI coding on the rise

While OpenAI's assessment of the implications of the contest results may sound optimistically broad, there is no doubt that many AI models have dramatically improved at completing coding tasks over the past few years. For example, Stanford University's 2025 AI Index Report showed that on SWE-bench, a benchmark designed to measure coding ability, "AI systems could solve just 4.4% of coding problems in 2023—a figure that jumped to 71.7% in 2024."

Coding is one of the most frequent uses of chatbots from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta, and tools such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor have become standard tools for many professional developers, with a 2024 GitHub survey showing that over 90 percent of developers now use AI coding tools in their workflow, although a recent study suggested that AI assistance might not save developers as much time as they think they do.

Even so, as AI models continue to grow more capable at tasks like coding, Dębiak's victory feels less like a permanent triumph and more like a notable data point in a longer trajectory. Unlike Henry's fatal victory, this programmer lived to code another day, though he may find himself racing against an even faster machine next time.

"Honestly, the hype feels kind of bizarre," Dębiak said on X. "Never expected so many people would be interested in programming contests."

For now, that human ability to find unexpected approaches remains unique. But as OpenAI and other companies continue refining their models, future AtCoder contestants may find themselves competing less against AI and more alongside it—or not at all.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:31 am AEST (my time).

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LibreOffice calls out Microsoft for using "complex" file formats to lock in Office users

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:31:22 +0000

LibreOffice has been on the offensive lately, taking the time to call out Microsoft and its practices whenever it can. Now, it is at it again, accusing Microsoft of "intentionally" using "unnecessarily complex" file formats to achieve user lock-in with its Microsoft 365 (Office) documents.

For those who don't know, XML is a markup language that programs like Microsoft 365 and LibreOffice use to structure and define documents. As LibreOffice puts it:

An XML schema comprises the structure, data types and rules of an XML document and is described in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file. This tells the PC what to expect and checks that the data follows the rules. In theory, XML and XSD together form the basis of the concept of interoperability.

The two office suites take very different paths here. LibreOffice uses the OpenDocument Format (ODF), an open standard meant to be controlled by no single company. This format gives us files like .odt for text and .ods for spreadsheets.

Microsoft, on the other hand, created its own Office Open XML (OOXML) to support every feature in its own software, giving us the familiar .docx and .xlsx. What's interesting is that both formats are really just ZIP archives. The easiest way to verify this is to take a .docx file, rename it to .zip, and decompress it. This will show you the guts of a Microsoft 365 document.

As LibreOffice notes, XML is supposed to function as "a bridge," but Microsoft is weaponizing its own schema by making it so "complex that it becomes a barrier rather than a bridge." LibreOffice compares it to a railway system where the tracks are public, but one company's control system is so convoluted that no one else can build a compatible train, making it almost impossible for others to compete. Passengers don't realise they are being held hostage by these technical hurdles.

An example of such complexity includes a deeply nested structure with non-intuitive naming conventions, and so many optional elements that implementing the format becomes a nightmare for any developer not working at Microsoft. Even a simple sentence becomes a maze of nested tags that is almost impossible for an outsider to parse correctly, despite the on-screen result looking identical.

LibreOffice sees this same lock-in logic at play elsewhere. It connects the complex file format directly to the push for Windows 11, arguing that Microsoft has no good technical reason to force the switch on users, and that the move seems designed only to keep customers tied down. Because of this, it is urging Windows/Office users to ditch the OS/Suite and switch to Linux/LibreOffice.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:30 am AEST (my time).

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GNOME devs say sysadmin "smeared the project" with Evolution Mail privacy report

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:30:17 +0000

Last week, Mike Cardwell, a sysadmin, wrote about his experience reporting a privacy issue in the Evolution email client. If you missed that, here's a quick summary: he found out that Evolution leaks user activity through a feature called DNS prefetching. When he reported it, the GNOME developers referred him to a bug in an upstream library, WebKit, and closed his ticket.

An email can include a link HTML tag with the rel attribute set to dns-prefetch and a cross-origin domain in the href attribute. This tells the browser or email client to resolve the domain’s IP address ahead of time.

Normally, for any remote content, WebKitGTK (the web rendering engine Evolution uses) is supposed to emit a signal called WebPage::send-request. This lets Evolution's code decide whether to block the connection based on the "Load Remote Content" setting, which when disabled is supposed to stop trackers and other nasties from phoning home.

The bug here is that for these prefetch requests, WebKit just goes ahead and makes the DNS query without sending that signal.

This bypasses Evolution's privacy defenses completely. So a sender can see if you opened their email, when you opened it, and the IP of your DNS resolver without you ever consenting.

As Michael Catanzaro, a WebKit developer, noted in the bug thread, the enable-dns-prefetching setting Evolution uses to disable this has been deprecated since version 2.48, thus no longer respected by the engine.

This is where things get interesting. The developers' position was that since the bug is in a library they use, it is not their problem to fix inside Evolution. Milan Crha, an Evolution developer, took the time to explain that "applications use libraries, applications have their dependencies", and that a fix has to happen in the right place.

But Cardwell got annoyed, seeing this as a refusal to take responsibility for their own product. He claimed it was the responsibility of the GNOME devs to protect their users, and provided a list of actions the team could take while waiting for an upstream fix:

Warn people about the problem, either in the UI or on the download page.
Push the upstream project to fix the library.
Fork the library and fix it themselves.
Switch to a different library.

The back and forth got ugly after Cardwell discovered an even worse flaw using a link tag with rel set to preconnect, which leaks a user's actual IP address, not just their DNS server's. He notified the developers that he added it to Email Privacy Tester, a tool he created to find exactly these kinds of issues.

But the GNOME developers did not appreciate his "passive-aggressive" attitude or his public posts. One developer accused him of "smearing of the project" with the posts on his blog, called him "entitled", and said his reporting was "counterproductive and frankly demotivating."

If you want to have a positive impact on this project, please send patches to WebKitGTK. Complaints, especially in the wrong place in the stack, achieve nothing but irritating overextended developers and putting them on the defensive, especially when they already calmly explained to you in multiple ways where the problem needs to be properly fixed.

This story has found an end (for now), as the developers have locked the thread, with Cardwell claiming it was because he "hurt their feelings". The bug in WebKit, first reported in August 2023, remains open.

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Posted Saturday 19 July 2025 at 6:27 am AEST (my time).

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Windows 11 gets graphics and Firewall fixes in build 26100.4767

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 01:57:45 +0000

Following the new Windows 11 Canary build released for Windows Insiders earlier today, Microsoft pushed a small update for those testing preview builds in the Release Preview Channel. Build 26100.4767 (KB5062663) is out with a few additional fixes for build 26100.4762, which arrived one week ago.

Here is what Microsoft fixed in today's update:

[Graphics] Fixed: An issue where external graphics cards connected through Thunderbolt weren’t always recognized in some cases.
[Input (know issue)]
- Fixed: An issue when using the Microsoft Changjie IME (input method editor) for Traditional Chinese might cause problems such as not being able to form or select words, an unresponsive spacebar or blank key, incorrect word output, or a broken candidate window display. This can occur after installing KB5062553.
- Fixed: This update addresses an issue that affects Phonetic input methods, including the Hindi Phonetic Input keyboard and the Marathi Phonetic keyboard, which might not work correctly after installing KB5062553.
[Group Policy Editor] Fixed: This update addresses an issue where the Group Policy Editor shows error messages like “No element was expected but found” or “Encountered an unknown error” when opened.
[Windows Firewall] Fixed: This update addresses an issue found in Event Viewer as Event 2042 for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. The event appears as “Config Read Failed” with the message “More data is available.” For more information about this issue, see “Error events are logged for Windows Firewall” in the Windows Health Dashboard.

You can find the updated announcement post on the official Windows Blog website. All these changes are expected later this month as part of the July 2025 non-security update for Windows 11.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 11:57 am AEST (my time).

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This mindblowing project lets you run Windows XP on the web

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 01:56:58 +0000

Just yesterday, I was reminiscing the time when one of the most exciting components of my Windows installation to me was the preinstalled games like Pinball 3D - Space Cadet, Solitaire, Minesweeper. It seems like the universe heard my lament because the internet has surfaced a fascinating project that allows you to run Windows XP on the web, complete with the boot-up/loading screen.

Over on Reddit's r/windows forum, someone has showcased their effort to get Windows XP running in the browser. This includes a full-fledged file system, executable programs, third-party applications, legacy dialog boxes, and more. It is important to note that this is obviously not an actual operating system being emulated in a browser (nor is it a concept video like Windows Classic Remastered), it's a simulated version built using web technologies. However, it's pretty impressive and you'd be forgiven for believing that it's the real thing.

I played around with it a bit and found it to be a surprisingly accurate recreation of the classic operating system. There are a few inconsistencies here and there, but they are pretty minor. It's also important to highlight that not all components of this recreation are functional; pressing some buttons just won't do anything. But for now, I'm just giddy with joy at the fact that my nostalgic self can relive my memories of using Paint, the My Computer interface, Minesweeper, and more.

Even IE elements load with artifical lag, hehe

The talented developer behind this project is u/ducbao414, and the official name of the project is Win32.run. It is very easy to launch the project on the web as you can access it via the Win32.run URL. The creator says that they made this project a few years back when learning Svelte (it also leverages Tailwindcss), but the initiative has now been abandoned because breaking changes in SvelteKit releases made it difficult to expand on the existing capabilities. Following this discontinuation of Win32.run, the developer moved to NextJS, but the project is still accessible in its current state and can also be located on GitHub.

Of course, Win32.run does not offer any real-world benefit except providing a nostalgic walk down the memory lane for those of us craving it. It's unfortunate the project has been discontinued, but it's certainly fascinating what you can accomplish with a creative mind, a talent for coding, and some time.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 11:56 am AEST (my time).

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The next batch of emoji includes Bigfoot

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:02:17 +0000

Bigfoot is (a) real (emoji).

Today is World Emoji Day, and the Unicode Consortium is sharing a preview of some of the new emoji that should hit your devices early next year as part of Unicode 17.0. If you ask me, it’s a promising batch, especially the Bigfoot emoji — sorry, “hairy creature.”

The list includes these emoji, according to the Consortium:

Apple core
Ballet dancers
Distorted Face
Fight cloud
Hairy creature
Orca
Treasure chest
Trombone

Image: Unicode Consortium

I can think of some great uses of all of them – I feel like this is going to be a popular set. They’ll “likely” show up on devices in the spring of 2026, Unicode’s Erik Thompson says in an email. Yes, that’s a long ways away, but the process of making an emoji is actually pretty involved, as I’ve written about.

As part of World Emoji Day, Apple has also launched a new emoji word game that’s available with an Apple News Plus subscription. And Emojipedia has relaunched the EmojiTracker.com website to track real-time emoji use.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 4:59 am AEST (my time).

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Windows 11 gets File Explorer fixes and other improvements in build 27902

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:58:45 +0000

Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows 11 preview build in the Canary Channel. Windows Insiders can download build 27902, which offers only a few fixes for File Explorer, Camera, and general improvements (the Vista startup sound remains unaddressed). Sadly, no new features in this one. Here is the changelog:

[General]
- This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.
[File Explorer]
- Fixed an issue in the previous build where File Explorer might fail to persist any view changes. This also impacted desktop icons, which could unexpectedly move or change size back to the default. Jen is happy this bug is fixed.
[Camera]
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Camera app to get stuck on some PCs in the last couple of builds after switching between the front and back camera.

And here is the list of known bugs:

[General]
- [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”.
- [NEW] There’s an issue starting with the previous build, causing a small number of Insiders to experience repeated bugchecks with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE after upgrading. This may occur when connecting to a VPN.
- This Canary Channel flight comes with a delightful blast from the past and will play the Windows Vista boot sound instead of the Windows 11 boot sound. The fix should be coming in a future Canary Channel flight soon.
[Settings]
- We’re investigating an issue in this build that could cause Settings to crash when interacting with the options under Settings > System > Power & Battery.
- [NEW] We’re investigating an issue where some of the apostrophes across text in Settings and settings-related dialogs are not displaying correctly and are showing random characters.
[Remote Desktop]
- You may see extreme graphical distortion and rendering issues using Remote Desktop on Arm64 PCs in this build.

You can find the announcement post here.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 4:58 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft delays New Windows Outlook feature that lets you use Calendar without internet

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:56:46 +0000

Earlier this week, Microsoft made a major update regarding support for Office 365 apps on Windows 10. The company decided against the simultaneous ending of support for Microsoft 365 (M365) apps alongside that of Windows 10.

This is a commendable move from Microsoft considering that the company wants as many users as it can to move on from Windows 10 and the classic Outlook app on to Windows 11 and the New Outlook. In fact, Microsoft recently published a detailed post explaining how the new application is actually much better than dislikers and detesters may feel.

It highlighted the performance benefits and other upgrades, including some features you have never seen on the classic app. The blog post drew attention to several different recent additions to the new app like offline support, PST features (a whole bunch of them in fact) and more.

Speaking of offline features, Microsoft had announced back in May earlier this year that it was adding support for some Calendar features such that they would work without an active internet connection. The company revealed it via a M365 roadmap entry and here's how it described the new feature:

Outlook: Offline Support for Calendar - Create, Edit and Delete Event support

We are adding more offline functionality in the new Outlook for Windows. You will now be able to create, edit, and delete events in your calendar when not connected to the internet.

Initially, the company wanted to begin rolling the feature out last month (June 2025), however, Microsoft has missed the mark and thus the company has a new release date for the same. It writes: "Rollout will begin in mid-August 2025 and is expected to complete by mid-September 2025."

Those who have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center dashboard will be able to view this message under ID MC1101906.

To be fair to Microsoft, a little bit of delay is not such a bad idea. If you recall, the classic Outlook almost broke in half when a big Shared Calendar feature upgrade was injected into that app.

And Microsoft is already learning it seems as the company has also delayed another feature Office feature wherein a performance boosting option has now been improved significantly following a delay.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 4:55 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft almost released an annoying Windows Office "performance boost" feature

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:55:26 +0000

Back in March earlier this year, Neowin reported on a new Office feature that was meant to make Office apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and others load faster. Called "Startup Boost", the feature essentially loads up the Microsoft Office applications in the background as soon as Windows 11 or 10 starts, ie, right at startup.

The idea is that once a user clicks on such an app, initially Word, it should load very fast since they are essentially waiting in the background to spring into action. However, Microsoft also said that the feature would not be offered to everyone.

The company noted: "Startup Boost is only available when your PC has enough resources to run without impacting system performance. This includes having at least 8 GB of available RAM, and at least 5 GB of available disk space. Additionally, Startup Boost will be disabled when Energy Saver mode is active."

Although this would be a feature that was going to be enabled by default, Microsoft added that it was optional to keep it on and thus users would still be able to disable it, with the only potential downside being that the apps "may take longer to load". It wrote: "To disable the feature, use the in-app setting, e.g., Word > Options > General > Startup Boost (under Start up Options)."

However, there was a big caveat here as pointed out correctly by one of our Neowin readers, rseiler. While the Startup Boost could be disabled, Microsoft at the time had expressed that the "Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update," and this could lead to massive annoyance as Office receives updates several times, even within a single month, and especially for users and enterprises who are looking to permanently disable it so as to not use the feature.

The feature description previously stated: "You can disable this Startup Boost task like any other scheduled task. Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update."

The option was initially supposed to start releasing in May, but Microsoft updated the schedule and pushed it back for a June-September 2025 General Availability rollout, wherein the Startup Boost feature has now begun rolling out to users and should complete the process in a couple of more months.

In the meantime, before a wider rollout, the company also realized the issue with task scheduler reset on every app update, and has now made some changes to the implementation of the feature. The company has confirmed that IT and sysadmins will be able to apply a Group Policy to keep Startup Boost disabled permanently.

Thus, here is what the updated M365 message says:

You can disable this Startup Boost task like any other scheduled task. Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update. Admins can disable this feature via Group Policy without needing to do so after each Office update.

Besides the Group Policy addition, Microsoft has also made another couple of big changes since the initial feature announcement. The tech giant notes that now "Startup Boost only runs if you have launched Word recently, and if you have not launched Word recently it will automatically disable itself", and secondly when the feature is active "the scheduled task will not run immediately at login to avoid slowing down your PC — it will wait 10 minutes to ensure the system is in a steady idle state."

This is a good improvement over the initial implementation considering a user may not use Office apps on their system and thus something like this would be taking away system resources from other applications that may be more important to that user.

Interestingly, Neowin colleague Steven Parker found that the Office 365 Startup Boost feature is already "Disabled" by default, instead of being on the "Ready" state, on their Windows 11 24H2 PC that has the latest version of Office 365. He confirmed that he had loaded up Word the previous day and we also noted that the Energy Saver was disabled.

Thus, this may be an anomaly, or perhaps Microsoft decided against default-enabling the feature for all users at the moment.

If you want to disable the Office Startup Boost scheduled task, you can do so by:

Right-clicking the Start button, or Run "compmgmt.msc"
Open the Computer Management console
Go to the Task Scheduler drop-down menu under System Tools
Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Office
Right click on Office Start Up Boost task > hit Disable
Right click on Office Start Up Boost Logon > hit Disable

If you have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal, you can find the message under ID MC1041470.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 4:51 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

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Google Workspace smart features are rolling to Gmail users

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:43:11 +0000

Google is rolling out Smart features for Gmail. These settings are also related to Drive, Gemini, Calendar, etc.

Google first announced these options in January 2025, but this pop-up only appeared for me randomly today in the web app. It showed two options: Smart features in Google Workspace, and Smart features in other Google products. Smart features in Google Workspace, when enabled, will display events from Gmail in your calendar. E.g. Your flight details, invitations. It also controls personalized search based on your usage, including file suggestions in Google Drive, Meet, Chat. When the option is enabled, it allows Gemini to access your data and use it to summarize content, create drafts, find information, across Google apps.

The other set of options, Smart features in other Google products, controls use of your data/activity to offer a personalized experience in Google apps. For example, it may display restaurant reservations and takeaway orders in Maps, answers and reminders in Google Assistant, suggestions and answers in Gemini. It will also suggest tickets, loyalty cards and other passes in Wallet, which sounds similar to what Apple did with its own app, and deservedly got criticized for it.

The second option was enabled by default, at least for me (it said turn off). That's why I wrote this article, to show you how to turn it off. In case you accidentally turned it on, or want to know whether it is enabled or disabled, go to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/general. Scroll down the page until you see a section called Google Workspace smart features. Click on "Manage Workspace smart feature settings". This will display a pop-up like the one you see here.

Note: You can also get to the page from Gmail > Settings (Cog) > General.

There are two toggles here, just like the ones I mentioned earlier. Notice that the toggles look a little different compared to the automatic pop-up, the button is on the right-hand side here. Hit the Save button to save the changes.

Click on the buttons to turn the features off. If you wish to learn more about Google Workspace Smart Features, check the official support page.

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Posted Friday 18 July 2025 at 4:42 am AEST (my time).

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People keep seeing Windows 11 allowing them to eject their GPU — don't worry about it, but you also shouldn't need to do it

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:42:57 +0000

It's been cropping up recently that Windows 11 will allow them to eject their GPU from their system, and you probably shouldn't do it. But also don't be alarmed.

It's been popping up recently, especially through user forums such as Reddit, that Windows 11 is allowing people the opportunity to eject their GPU from their system.

It's curious, possibly alarming, but equally nothing to worry about. That's not to say you should do it, no matter how curious you may be.

We'll start with one of the recent threads, seen here on Reddit, explaining what's happening.

I think part of the concern, and it's valid, is that this message is appearing in such a way that you would see devices such as USB flash drives and could be accidentally ejected. Seeing an option to eject your GPU from the taskbar could easily be alarming.

A reply on the thread posted above links to a previous thread from four years ago highlighting the same. So it's been around for long enough, but as is often the case, such things will find their way back into the public eye.

It also means that whatever the root cause of this is either hasn't been fixed, or some kind of bug keeps reappearing. One suggested way to prevent it is to disable PCIe hotplug/hotswap in your PCs BIOS, if it's an option.

There also appears to be a registry hack (as is often the case) that can disable this.

It's not something to be too concerned about, though. I don't recommend doing it, especially on a desktop, since in most cases the GPU would be the only display output.

On a laptop, or a desktop with a CPU that has integrated graphics, you have a secondary GPU that can take over. On a desktop, you would have to connect your display to the motherboard's display output, since the GPU would have been ejected from the system.

Laptops will always have two GPUs that will be switched between automatically, you wouldn't ever be required to eject the discrete GPU manually.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

On a laptop, you wouldn't likely notice anything. Laptops are designed to make use of both integrated and discrete graphics, in part for efficiency. When you're on battery, for example, you don't need a more power hungry NVIDIA GPU just to operate your display.

So, the discrete GPU would be disabled, and could also explain why this option exists. But equally, the PC would do this on its own, you wouldn't be required to do it manually.

Rebooting the PC should re-enable the discrete GPU in any case. But it's still not the best course of action to go around ejecting it, after all, there's no real reason you would need to.

If you're replacing it with a new one, you can just pop it out, you can use a tool like DDU to remove the drivers and then install fresh ones. At no point in that process would you need to forcibly eject the GPU from your system.

So, the short version is, don't worry about it. I see why there may be some concern, especially over doing it accidentally. Perhaps there is a reason this needs to exist, perhaps it's a simple bug that keeps reappearing.

You shouldn't actively go doing this, but if it happens accidentally, things should be OK.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:40 am AEST (my time).

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Half of Windows PCs are still yet to upgrade to Windows 11 — and are running out of time, says study

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:40:16 +0000

A study from ControlUp says that about 50% of PCs are now running Windows 11, with the other 50% still on Windows 10. End of support is fast approaching.

A new readiness study from ControlUp has revealed fascinating data about the current state of the Windows market, including how many PCs on average are still yet to upgrade to Windows 11, and how many can't.

According to the study, about 60% of PCs in the enterprise have made the switch to Windows 11, with the other 40% still running Windows 10, which will reach end of life on October 14 this year.

ControlUp also claims that around 50% of PCs in the consumer space are yet to upgrade to Windows 11. This data tracks with Stat Counters recent milestone, where Windows 11 finally overtook Windows 10 to become the most used version of Windows on the market currently.

The good news is that according to ControlUp, 87% of the PCs that are yet to be upgraded are ready to do so, with those PCs being fully compatible with Windows 11, making the update process simple without the need to buy a new PC first.

The study also breaks down the different sectors within the commercial space. Markets like healthcare are the furthest behind, with around 60% of devices still running Windows 10 or older, followed by finance and government with 55% and 39% respectively.

ControlUp says that around 25% of consumer PCs and 24% of business PCs still running Windows 10 will likely need to be replaced to avoid Windows 10's end of support. These PCs are in-eligible for Windows 11 and will need to be replaced to upgrade.

Curiously, the study also reveals upgrade behavior by region. In North America, 57% of PCs still need to upgrade to Windows 11, whereas that number is only 30% in Europe, meaning European markets are ahead with their migration from Windows 10.

Microsoft has announced that commercial customers will be able to pay for extended security updates on Windows 10 beyond October 2025 for devices that are in-eligible for Windows 11.

The extended security updates program will run three years from October 2025 to October 2028, and will cost $61 per device, which will double for every year the device remains enrolled in the extended security updates program.

For consumers, that price is significantly cheaper. It's just $30 or free if you sign in with a Microsoft Account, but consumers only get one year of extended security updates. After October 2026, they'll have no choice but to upgrade to Windows 11 or move to something else to remain secure.

Ultimately, it's evident that millions of PCs will still be running Windows 10 when it reaches end of life this October. It's uncear how many of those PCs will choose to pay for security updates, or run the risk of staying on the platform without security patches.

While it won't happen right away, apps and drivers will slowly stop supporting Windows 10 over time once end of support hits. Microsoft has already confirmed that it will stop delivering new features to Office on Windows 10 starting next year.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the Windows market? Are you looking forward to switching to Windows 11 if you haven't already?

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:39 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

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I miss the days when Windows came to play

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:39:08 +0000

Windows 10 is nearing its end of life, and while I contemplate whether I should just move to Windows 11 as my sole daily driver or stick around with my existing operating system for a little while longer, I'm also reminiscing about my time with Windows 10 and other versions of the OS before it. A brief phase of nostalgic reminiscence just now also reminded me that I kind of miss when Windows used to have lots of preinstalled games.

Earlier installations of Windows, especially Windows 95 and later, typically included multiple games bundled in the OS. Some popular examples include Solitaire, Minesweeper, FreeCell, Hearts, and the iconic 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet. This trend continued well into 2012, before Microsoft abruptly decided to get rid of all bundled games with the launch of Windows 8.

This wasn't some consumer-friendly decision to remove bloatware from the OS from the goodness of Microsoft's heart. Rather, it was a way to encourage customers to use the brand-new Microsoft Store (known as Windows Store at that time) to download apps and games. As we know, this move didn't pan out particularly well, thanks in part to the negative critical reception to Windows 8 itself (although some of our staff at that time did like it).

As such, Microsoft moved back to bundling games in Windows 10 and Windows 11, but this effort has been scaled back quite a lot. You get your Solitaire Collection in the OS itself, as well as Surf in Microsoft Edge, but that's about it. Earlier installations of Windows 10 also included Candy Crush Saga, but now the game is seemingly just promoted via Windows Search.

I am personally not in favor of bloatware, but the kid in me does miss the era of enjoying casual games on Windows. I remember spending countless hours on 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet, trying to beat my dad's and brother's high scores. I remember trying to figure out the rules to Minesweeper, failing every time, and then just randomly clicking on cells, hoping that I would somehow win the game. I remember watching my dad play Solitaire and then hypnotically watching stacks of cards fall one by one after he had won the game. I remember going to my grandparents' house in another city, knowing that I won't have decent internet there, but at least I can play 3D Pinball on their PC.

While Windows 10 and 11 still do contain games, it's clear that this initiative is on the way out. A big reason for this is that the internet has become much more accessible to everyone, and if you want to download games, you can do so in a matter of minutes. You don't need to sleuth for websites that offer free games, wait for the webpage to painfully load piece by piece on a dial-up connection, then wait a couple of hours for the handful of megabytes to download onto your PC, while praying that the internet connection stays stable. Those days are long gone.

And I do get it, preinstalled games are bloatware after all, and you don't really need them in this fast-paced digital age. I am not urging Microsoft to reconsider its strategy and just give me 3D Pinball, I'm just reminiscing days gone. If I still had those dozen or so games preinstalled on my current PC, I doubt I would ever consider opening them, but as I consider switching my OS, I'm just reminded of the unbounded excitement I used to have for playing preinstalled games on Windows.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:38 am AEST (my time).

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How to get one more year of Windows 10 updates for free

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:35:47 +0000

Windows 10 is three months away from the end of support. In October 2025, the operating system will receive its final cumulative update, concluding its ten-year lifecycle. However, Microsoft is allowing users to stick to Windows 10 for a while. The Extended Security Update program grants one more year of critical updates for regular consumers and three years for enterprise consumers.

The end of support does not mean your Windows 10 PC will explode overnight. It will continue working as before, but it won't receive any updates, which, in modern days, is a very risky business. If you cannot leave Windows 10 behind, you have to enroll your computer in the Extended Security Update program, which is available for free. Here is how to do it.

Note: As of July 16, the enrollment wizard is available in Windows 10 preview builds (Release Preview Channel), but it is coming to all users later this month and in August.

There are three ways to get extended security updates for Windows 10:

Enroll for free by signing in with a Microsoft account and backing up your settings.
Pay 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.
Pay $30 (price may vary depending on your region and currency).

In this guide, we will focus on the first option, describing how to get Windows 10 security updates for free.

Go to Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update.
Download and install all available updates.
Return to the Settings app and find the "Windows 10 support ends in October 2025" banner.
Click "Enroll Now."
Windows 10 will open the ESU wizard. Click Next.
If you are using a local account, Windows will prompt you to sign in with a Microsoft Account.
Once logged in, you will be presented with three available options: back up settings and get updates for free, pay Microsoft 1,000 reward points, or pay $30. Select the first option.

Alternatively, before enrolling, you can go to Settings > Accounts > Windows Backup and enable "Remember my preferences" with all of its toggles.

Another option is to launch the Windows Backup app from the Start menu, click "Back up this PC," and wait for Windows 10 to save your data in the cloud.
If you have already backed up your settings, Windows will tell you that you are eligible for free updates. If no, you will be prompted to do a backup.
Click "Enroll" and wait for the wizard to sign you up.

Done, your system is now enrolled in the Extended Securiуty Update program, which grants you one year of security updates until October 13, 2026. After that, you are on your own.

If you are on Windows 10, what is your plan? Are you going to enroll in the ESU program or move to Windows 11?

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:34 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft scraps Windows 11's simplified Taskbar system tray layout after negative feedback from testers — but I don't understand why

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:34:35 +0000

A year since it was first put into testing, Microsoft still hasn't delivered its new simplified date and time layout for the System Tray on the Taskbar for Windows 11. Turns out, that's because of negative feedback from users.

Last year, Microsoft began testing a new change to the System Tray on the Taskbar on Windows 11 that aimed to clean up the area with a more simplified date and time layout. The new layout removed the AM/PM indicator, as well as the year from the date, leaving just the time, day, and month.

"We are trying out a more simplified system tray to highlight the date/time in a shortened form and to show the notifications bell icon based on DND status" said the Microsoft changelog when this feature was first put into testing back in 2024.

This new layout was far cleaner, still displaying the same vital information but without the unnecessary fluff around it. Most people don't need reminding what year it is, or whether it's before noon or afternoon. The time and day/month are more than enough, or so I thought.

Earlier this year, Microsoft pulled the testing of this new simplified System Tray layout. At the time, the company said they were pausing the rollout to address some issues, implying that it would return in a future update. Microsoft said "the more simplified system tray with shortened form date/time is being temporarily disabled to address a few issues" at the time.

However, it's now been half a year since the feature was pulled, and we've seen no sign of it since. Now, Microsoft Principal Product Manager, Brandon LeBlanc has confirmed on X that due to negative feedback, the simplified System Tray hasn't returned. LeBlanc doesn't explain what negative feedback influenced this decision, or whether the feature might return in the future.

The scrapped simplified date and time layout was much cleaner.

(Image credit: Windows Central)

I don't understand why such a change would warrant negative feedback from users though. Cleaning up the System Tray is a good thing, especially if it's something that makes that area of the Taskbar take up less space. Removing the AM/PM indicator and the year shouldn't be a big deal.

I suspect that some of the feedback Microsoft received was from Windows users that don't like change and prefer having as much information on screen as possible. It could have also been influenced by the education sector, where children likely do need reminding of that information more often.

With that said, this information isn't always on display on your phone or tablet, and in most regions the AM/PM indicator is already not displayed on Windows as many parts of the world use military time instead.

For whatever reason, Microsoft received enough negative feedback that was ultimately forced pulled this new simplified System Tray layout. That's a real shame, as I was personally looking forward to being able to make that part of the Taskbar a little smaller, as I don't need reminding of the year or whether it's past noon.

Of course, one way to make both parties happy would be to make it so the simplified layout was an option for users to enable in Settings. In fact, the preview feature did have the option to turn it off if you didn't like it. That makes outright removing it from the OS even more baffling. It could have been an optional layout for users who prefer a more streamlined Taskbar, plus having more customization options is never a bad thing.

For now, users can outright turn off the date and time on the Taskbar if they do want some extra space, but that's going a little too far, I think. I just want the AM/PM indicator and year hidden, not the whole thing.

What are your thoughts on Microsoft scrapping this simplified System Tray layout? Is this something you were looking forward to or do you agree with Microsoft's decision to remove it? Let us know in the comments.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:33 am AEST (my time).

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People hated this Windows 11 feature so Microsoft removed it

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:32:28 +0000

One year ago, Microsoft released a Windows 11 preview build with an interesting taskbar change: a simplified tray area with a shorter date and time and no notification button. Fans of simplistic user interfaces, including me, welcomed this addition. Sadly, it was short-lived. Microsoft turned off the simplified tray area, quoting the need to address unknown issues. Now, exactly one year later, we have more information on why the feature was removed.

Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Insider team recently replied on X that user feedback about this feature "was not pleasant," and Microsoft decided to remove it:

Such a radical approach to customer feedback is surely odd. These days, when Microsoft introduces new features, especially for the taskbar or the Start menu, it gives users more flexibility by allowing them to turn on or off certain additions. For example, the upcoming notification clock is customizable, and if you do not want to see it, just go to Settings and turn it off. Some argue that Microsoft should have kept the simplified tray area as an optional feature, disabled by default. Still, Brandon's reply to that shows that probably few people actually wanted it.

It is hard to say what part of the simplified tray area infuriated Windows insiders to the point of Microsoft removing it, but there you go. Now, if you want a simpler taskbar, you can try enabling the one Microsoft uses on touchscreen devices (it works on desktops as well), but that variant is quite extreme with its minimalism.

Interestingly, the option to hide the notification bell button is still available in Windows 11, so if you want to keep the tray a bit cleaner, go to Settings > System > Notifications and toggle off the "Show notification bell icon" option.

Who among you hated the simplified tray area in Windows 11? Make your confessions in the comments.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:29 am AEST (my time).

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Better late than never: Firefox is finally getting a feature Chrome users have had for years

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:28:54 +0000

The launch of Chrome 113 back in 2023 officially brought WebGPU support to the mainstream, allowing developers to finally have a direct line to a machine's GPU for running some seriously intensive graphics in games or complex 3D apps right in the browser. But if you were using Firefox, at least on the stable channel, you got absolutely nothing.

Now, years later, the Mozilla GFX team has published an update, announcing that WebGPU will finally be supported in Firefox 141 when it launches on July 22nd. This initial rollout focuses only on Windows, and Mac, Linux, and Android are on the roadmap for the coming months.

The implementation rests on the WGPU crate, a Rust-based interface that translates web requests into native commands for Direct3D 12, Metal, or Vulkan, depending on the system.

For a while now, forums have been filled with users wondering why Mozilla has typically been slower when it comes to adopting these new web standards. We have seen comments on Reddit claiming this pattern was the main thing preventing them from dumping Chrome and switching to Firefox.

One Reddit user cynically claimed that the reason Firefox is slow to adopt web standards is because Mozilla "puts about 90% of income into the CEO's salary alone instead of paying more developers." In reality, though, implementing a secure and stable graphics API is undoubtedly very complicated, which is why it took so long for the browser to catch up.

The Mozilla team notes there's still work remaining. For instance, there is a bug related to inter-process communication overhead that will be patched in Firefox 142. They are also working on a more efficient way to track GPU task completion to reduce latency. In addition to that, the ability to directly use decoded video frames with importExternalTexture is not yet implemented.

At the time of writing, there's a handful of other popular features missing in Firefox, like built-in support for PWAs, View Transitions API, which allows for smoother page transitions, and WebUSB, among others.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:27 am AEST (my time).

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Popular tool for skipping Windows 11 requirements updated with important new feature

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:27:39 +0000

There are plenty of apps that can help you work around Windows 11's strict hardware requirements that are not going anywhere. And with Windows 10 being less than three months away from the end of life, the question of updating unsupported PCs becomes more relevant than before. If you think of updating your unsupported Windows 10 PC to Windows 11, say to try its recently introduced features or some of the upcoming ones, Flyby11 is one app that can help you do that. And with its latest update, it received some important fixes and a new way to download Windows 11 images.

Flyby11 is a simple tool that is available on GitHub. It can patch Windows images and perform in-place upgrades using the Windows Server method, which skips most hardware requirements. It can bypass TPM 2.0, SecureBoot, and processor checks, giving your old PC a new life. If you already have a Windows image, you can drag and drop it to Flyby11 to patch it. If not, the app can download the necessary image for you. With version 3.0, it uses the Media Creation Tool as a source, which matches your Windows 10 edition and language. Other download options include the official Microsoft website and Fido.

Other improvements in the Flyby11 app include improved ISO mounting with PowerShell for more reliable drive detection, improved bypass parameter handling for /Compat IgnoreWarning /MigrateDrivers All, Hungarian language support, and some fixes and improvements for the Japanese localization.

You can download Flyby11 from its GitHub repository for free. Since it is a third-party patching tool, you should consider the risks of altering your Windows image. If using a third-party app is not an option, you can consider using a method described in our "How to install Windows 11 24H2 on unsupported hardware" guide.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:25 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft begins testing Copilot Vision on Windows

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:24:41 +0000

Copilot Vision on Windows is rolling out to Windows Insiders. Well, we can't have enough AI, that's probably their motto at Redmond.

You may have heard about Copilot Vision on Microsoft Edge, which lets you browse with an AI. Well, Copilot Vision on Windows is similar. You can share your whole desktop with the AI, and it can see everything on the screen and talk to you about it. Microsoft says that this real-time conversation will help users analyze content, provide insights, answers, and even coach you.

This isn't like Recall, as in it won't be looking at your screen all the time. You will need to manually invoke Copilot Vision from the Copilot app. To do this, you have to click on the glasses icon. A floating toolbar with Copilot Voice, Vision controls will appear, and a greeting will play. That is not unlike how the Hey Copilot wake word behaves when activated.

Hit the X button, or Stop, to end the desktop sharing process. It's similar to sharing your desktop screen. Users can also talk with the AI using their voice. This is fairly similar to what Google Gemini Live does.

Microsoft says that Copilot Vision can be used with any app (limited to 2 apps at a time), and it can assist users with various tasks like "making improvements to your creative project, help with improving your resume, or guidance while navigating a new game". Copilot Vision on Windows is rolling to users who have opted into the Windows Insider Channel, it is available in Copilot app version 1.25071.125 and higher. Here's the official support page for the feature. It says that only Copilot's responses are logged for monitoring of unsafe interactions and outputs. Microsoft says that it does not collect user inputs, images, page content, these are not logged or stored. The data is deleted after the "Voice Session" ends.

On a similar topic, Microsoft is testing a new Click To Do action called Describe Image, that lets you ask the AI to describe the contents in a photo.

Windows is looking less appealing with each AI-related announcement.

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Posted Thursday 17 July 2025 at 5:24 am AEST (my time).

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