• Overwatch 2 (DX12) may experience an application crash while launching the game with High or Ultra graphics quality settings.

Known bugs in the drive include the following:

• Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:
  • Fortnite may experience an application crash when “Performance - Lower Graphical Fidelity” is selected as Rendering Mode. Recommendation is to use default Rendering Mode – DX12.
  • Visual corruptions may appear in certain scenarios with multiple application interactions.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit flickering corruption in certain scenes during gameplay.
  • Returnal (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay with Ray-Tracing settings turned on.
  • Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruptions on water areas in certain scenarios.
  • SPECapc for Maya 2024 may experience intermittent application freeze during benchmark.
  • PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience an application crash while running the benchmark.
  • HWiNFO may incorrectly report number of Xe Cores for certain Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products.
• Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:
  • Returnal (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay with Ray-Tracing settings turned on.
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (DX12) may experience an application crash with Ray-Tracing and XeSS enabled.
  • PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience an application crash while running the benchmark.
• Intel Core Ultra Series 1 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:
  • Adobe Premiere Pro may fail to import video. Mitigation is to use Intel NPU Driver version 32.0.100.3717 or lower.
  • PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended.
• Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:
  • Valorant (DX11) may fail to enumerate supported resolutions in game settings.
  • Adobe Premiere Pro may experience an intermittent application crash.
  • Adobe Premiere Pro may fail to import video. Mitigation is to use Intel® NPU Driver version 32.0.100.3717 or lower.
  • PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended.

You can install Intel 32.0.101.6881 WHQL driver on PCs with 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11 with the following graphics products from Intel:

You can download the driver from the official website here. Full release notes are available here (PDF).

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The updated macOS design is all over the place, including the Dock, sidebars, and toolbars, which have been refined to focus more on the user's content. Apple continued its annual tradition and introduced new wallpapers custom-made for macOS 26 Tahoe to go along with the new design language.

These macOS Tahoe 26 wallpapers are available in light and dark theme options, complementing the transparent menu bar, which makes the display feel bigger. To download the wallpapers to your device, click on the image to open it, then right-click on the wallpaper and select "Save Image As."

 

 

Apple said during the announcement that "the new design also unlocks more personalization on the Mac. App icons come to life in light or dark appearances, colorful new light and dark tints, as well as an elegant new clear look."

Apple's Liquid Design-inspired default wallpapers are also available for iOS 26 in light and dark options. The company has utilised Liquid Design extensively when upgrading the wallpaper experience on iPhones.

 

 

Lock Screen wallpapers on iPhone create a 3D effect when the device is moved around, giving the illusion that the objects in the image are popping out of the screen. The time displayed on the lock screen fluidly adapts to the available space in an image for a more dynamic feel.

Not just the design, Apple has further bridged the gap between iPhone and Mac by adding new Continuity features to macOS 26 on these supported Mac models. This includes the new Phone app that lets you relay phone calls from your iPhone nearby. Just like widgets, macOS 26 can populate Live Activities from a nearby iPhone, enabling you to track your Uber ride, live sports scores, or incoming dinner orders.

Source: Apple via 9to5Mac [1,2]

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The new Start menu features several changes that make it easier to launch your favorite app. It no longer uses a two-page view, focusing on a single scrollable view instead. At the top, you have your pins, then the Recommended section (you can now turn it off completely), and a list of all apps presented as a grid or categories.

Also, the Start menu is now more adaptive, which means users with bigger displays will have a larger Start menu to display more apps (up to eight columns of pinned apps, six recommendations, and four category columns). Finally, it has a new button that lets you expand or collapse the Phone Link pane.

By the way, you can check out this article if you want to take a look at other Start menu variants that Microsoft considered when working on the new Start menu.

Other changes in build 26200.5641 include the ability to select what widgets appear on the lock screen and the so-called Screen Curtain for Narrator. The latter blacks out the display, keeping the content of the screen available only to those using the Narrator. You can turn on or off the Screen curtain by pressing Caps Lock + Ctrl + C. Also, Narrator now has a new welcome experience that guides users through its features and recent changes.

The Settings page is getting two sections fused into one: Searching in Windows and Search Permissions are now just Search in the Privacy & Security section. The gamepad keyboard now has improved navigation and improved focus handling for child keys, flyout menus, word suggestions, language switching, settings, etc. It also works on the lock screen when you have to enter your PIN.

Here are other fixes that Microsoft is rolling out gradually to Windows Insiders:

[General]

• This build should fix an underlying issue in the previous flight which was causing input to not work for some Insiders, including when typing into Search, and with the Chinese pinyin IME candidate window, clipboard history, and the emoji panel.

[Recall (Preview)]

• The following fixes are rolling out for Recall on Copilot+ PCs:
• Fixed an issue causing Recall to crash for some Insiders in the last couple flights.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where in some cases taskbar icons might appear small even though the setting to show smaller taskbar buttons was configured as “never”.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where restoring a File Explorer search result from Recall would open File Explorer but not show your search string.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue where ALT + Tabbing out of a full screen game could lead to other windows freezing (like Windows Terminal).

[Login and lock]

• Fixed an issue causing the lock screen to crash for some Insiders in the previous flight.

[Graphics]

• Fixed an issue causing some displays to be unexpectedly green after the latest flights.

[Settings]

• Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to the Settings window hanging and no longer responding to input or resizing unless you closed and reopened it.
• Fixed an issue in System > Display, where if UAC was set to Always Notify and you tried to click the button to do color calibration for your display and cancelled, it would crash Settings.
• Fixed an issue in System > Display, where a chevron might display for Brightness even if there were no additional settings to display.
• Fixed an issue where if you changed to a custom mouse cursor in Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch, it could make Settings crash.

There is also a single fix that is rolling out to everyone right here, right now:

[General]

• We fixed the issue where you might see severe discoloration when connecting your PC to some older Dolby Vision displays.

Here are the known bugs in both Dev and Beta Channels:

• After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

• [NEW] 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 the next flight.

   

[Start menu]

• The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new Start menu:
• [NEW] Using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture.
• [NEW] Drag and drop capabilities are limited from “All” to “Pinned.”
• [NEW] In some cases, duplicate entries may appear in folders on the Start menu.

[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.

[Improved Windows Search]

[REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows.

[File Explorer]

The following are known issues for AI actions in File Explorer:

• Narrator scan mode may not work properly in the action result canvas window for the Summarize AI action for Microsoft 365 files when reading bulleted lists. As a workaround, you can use Caps + Right key to navigate.

[Widgets]

• Until we complete support for pinning in the new widgets board experience, pinning reverts you back to the previous experience

Note that the Dev build has two more known issues:

• The option to reset your PC under Settings > System > Recovery will not work on this build.
• We’re investigating an issue causing a small number of Insiders to experience repeated bugchecks with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE after upgrading to most current Dev Channel builds.

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

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Like with iOS and iPadOS, Apple is dropping a few Macs with the release of macOS 26. You will be able to update to the new operating system if you own one of the following Apple computers.

• MacBook Air M1 and newer
• MacBook Pro M1 and newer
• MacBook Pro 13-inch 2020 (four Thunderbolt 3 ports) and newer
• MacBook Pro 16-inch 2019
• iMac 2020 and newer
• Mac mini 2020 and newer
• Mac Studio 2022 and newer
• Mac Pro 2019 and newer

Note that although Apple still supports Intel-based Macs, not all features will be available on systems that do not have Apple Silicon chips. Now-unsupported Macs that cannot upgrade from macOS Sequoia to macOS Tahoe are the following computers with Intel processors:

• Intel-based iMac 2019
• Intel-based Mac mini 2018
• iMac Pro
• Intel-based MacBook Air 2020
• Intel-based MacBook Pro 2018

macOS 26 Tahoe is now available for developers to try in the beta program. Apple plans to launch the first public beta in July, alongside the release of public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and other operating systems that the company announced earlier today.

You can find all the new features in macOS 26 Tahoe on the official Apple website.

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Let's talk about this new design, because it is the first thing you will notice. Apple is taking the translucent, layered look from its visionOS and bringing it everywhere. It is a fundamental change to how macOS looks and feels, which some Neowin readers are definitely not a fan of. Sidebars, toolbars, and menus all have this frosted glass effect, where their color and texture shift based on the window or wallpaper behind them. The menu bar is now completely transparent, and Apple is also adding more customization. You can now change the color of folders, which is a feature people have wanted for nearly forever, and add little symbols or emojis to them.

The bigger story for day-to-day use might be how much tighter the Mac and iPhone are becoming. Last year, macOS Sequoia saw the release of apps like the dedicated Passwords app, and this year, with Tahoe, we get a full-blown Phone app on the Mac. It is not just for getting call notifications anymore. You can see your recent calls, check your voicemail, and access your contacts list just like you would on your iPhone. New features like Call Screening, which can figure out who is calling before you answer, are also included. Live Activities from your iPhone, like the status of an Uber ride or a food delivery, will now show up right in your Mac's menu bar.

Spotlight search is also getting a massive update. For years, Spotlight has been a simple tool for finding files and launching apps. Now, Apple is trying to turn it into an action center. You will be able to perform tasks directly from the search results, like creating a new note or sending an email, without ever opening the corresponding application. The search results themselves are supposed to be smarter and are no longer separated into rigid categories. Everything just shows up in one big list, ranked by what the system thinks is most relevant to you.

Despite Apple's ongoing AI challenges, Apple Intelligence is getting new abilities. The AI features introduced last year are being expanded. A new Live Translation feature can translate text in Messages or audio during a phone call or FaceTime, all on the device, to maintain privacy. The Shortcuts app is also getting more powerful. You can now build automations that tap directly into Apple's AI models to do more complex tasks, like summarizing an audio recording of a lecture and comparing it to your typed notes.

And yes, Apple is still trying to make gaming on the Mac a serious thing. A new dedicated app called Apple Games is being introduced. It acts as a central library for all your games, similar to launchers you might see on a PC. It also includes a new Game Overlay, which lets you mess with system settings or chat with friends without leaving your game. Apple announced that titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Crimson Desert, and Lies of P: Overture are on their way to the platform.

Other mainstays are getting refreshed as well. Safari has a redesigned tab layout, Messages is getting polls, and the Journal app is finally making its way from the iPhone to the Mac.

The first developer beta for macOS Tahoe is available today, June 9, 2025. A public beta is expected to follow next month, with the final version being released for free to everyone with a compatible Mac this fall.

You can check out all the details in Apple's official macOS announcement on the Newsroom.

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After installing Windows 11, many users usually start using the system without checking important default settings. While the operating system works out of the box, skipping some of the initial configurations can lead to performance issues, privacy concerns, or even trouble recovering your device if something goes wrong later.

Some of the most overlooked settings include enabling System Restore, understanding BitLocker recovery keys, adjusting some basic power and privacy preferences, checking if device drivers are installed correctly, and setting up regular backups.

Although they only seem like good tweaks, they're actually essential steps that can help you protect your data, maintain stability, and make sure your computer operates the way you expect.

In this how-to guide, I'll share several configurations that are often ignored but should be part of the initial setup of Windows 11.

Essential configurations many users miss after installing Windows 11

These are the configurations you should make a habit of checking after setting up Windows 11 to avoid potential issues and ensure a smoother experience.

1. System Restore

System Restore is a feature that allows you to revert your computer's system files, installed apps, Registry, and system settings to a previous point in time using restore points.

It's designed as a troubleshooting tool to help you recover from problems caused by recent software installations, driver updates, or system configuration changes without affecting your data.

Notepad is one of those classic apps that stayed virtually unchanged for decades. For years, Microsoft shipped only minor tweaks and small improvements, with little attention to its development.

The real transformation began with the release of Windows 11 when the company finally started upgrading the Notepad interface. The app received a visual overhaul that introduced acrylic effects, rounded corners, and dark mode, along with functional enhancements like auto-save and a tabbed interface.

However, lately, Notepad has been shifting away from its original simplicity. What started as a simple note-taking app is now turning into a more capable tool, with spelling and AI features (like text rewriting and content generation) built right in. Microsoft is even testing light formatting capabilities through Markdown support.

While these additions aim to enhance usability, many users still prefer the clean, distraction-free experience that made Notepad a favorite in the first place.

The good news is that the software giant is not forgetting those who like simplicity. For most of these new features, Microsoft is providing options to turn them off, allowing users to restore the classic experience.

In this how-to guide, I'll outline the steps to turn off key features to make Notepad a simpler app on Windows 11.

Bring back the classic experience of Notepad to Windows 11

To remove the AI and the other extra features in Notepad, use these steps:

Apple announced a new version of macOS during its WWDC 2025 keynote presentation. The new update, expected later this year, is called macOS 26 Tahoe. Upon release this fall, Tahoe will be available for M-series Mac Pros, Mac Studios, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs, with early access to a beta test starting next month.

While Apple is sticking with California-themed names in Tahoe, this marks the first time Apple is numbering macOS to align with its yearly update schedule — with 26 replacing last year’s macOS 15. The year is of course 2025 right now, but most of macOS 26’s time in the limelight will be during 2026. (Think of it like the model year of cars, which never gets confusing.)

The big new change for macOS 26 Tahoe is an overhauled design, following Apple’s new Liquid Glass aesthetic it also announced at WWDC 25. The glass-like style encompasses the Dock, tooldbars, app icons, widgets, and colors.

Last year’s macOS 15 Sequoia was also first announced at WWDC, and it gave Mac users new features like iPhone mirroring, proper window tiling, and access to Apple Intelligence.

Developing… you can follow our WWDC 2025 live blog for all the latest news.

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Apple is introducing a new Liquid Glass design across its software platforms today. It’s all about adding transparency and glass shine effects to Apple’s in-app interfaces across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26.

“[It’s] our broadest design update, ever,” says Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of human interface. “For the first time we’re introducing a universal design across our platforms.” The new design adds glass-like elements throughout iOS, including to the dock and the lockscreen, and it’s designed to mimic the optical qualities of glass.

A lot of glass-like effects and animations are coming to iOS 26.

Image: Apple

Liquid Glass is inspired by Apple’s visionOS software, and can adapt to light and dark environments. When you swipe up on the iOS 26 lock screen there’s a glass edge, and elements throughout the OS have glass edges to them. Even the camera app has the glass feel, with menus that are transparent and features that overlay on top of the camera feed.

Liquid Glass uses real-time rendering and will dynamically reacts to movement. Apple is using it on buttons, switches, sliders, text, media controls, and even lager surfaces like tab bars and sidebars. Apple has redesigned its controls, toolbars, and navigation within apps to fit this new Liquid Glass design.

macOS Tahoe 26 has lots of Liquid Glass elements, too.

Image: Apple

Apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Podcasts have all been updated for Liquid Glass. Apple is also using Liquid Glass in macOS Tahoe 26, with the dock, sidebars, and toolbars all getting a touch of the glass design. The menu bar is also now completely transparent in macOS Tahoe 26, a change that’s designed to make display feels bigger.

Apple is publishing an updated set of APIs to allow developers to start updating their apps, ahead of this new design update that’s launching later this year.

Apple’s shift away from skeuomorphism in iOS 7 in 2013 has left its mobile OS looking very similar for more than 10 years, with the iOS 7 design style still influencing the most recent versions of iOS. Liquid Glass looks a lot different, and it’s going to force app developers to really adjust their apps in the coming months.

Apple has used glass themes in the past, most notably with the introduction of Aqua, which first appeared in iMovie 2 in 2000 before rolling out more broadly in Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001. macOS 11 Big Sur also introduced a big redesign to the macOS UI, with more rounded corners, greater use of transparent and translucent layers, and a slew of new icons.

Microsoft has also been using transparency effects in its Windows operating system since it launched Windows Vista in 2007, complete with its own Aero Glass theme. The current version of Windows 11 now uses Microsoft’s Fluent Design language, which increasingly has more of a focus on 3D, colorful, and playful elements.

Developing… you can follow our WWDC 2025 live blog for all the latest news.

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Apple has announced a sweeping change to how it names — or, rather, numbers — its operating systems. Instead of being numbered by how many versions each has had, they are now named based on the year. Well, next year, to be exact.

So we have iOS 26 coming to this year’s iPhones, and macOS Tahoe 26 for Apple’s computers. iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26 complete the set. In future years, the numbers will tick up together, making it easy to figure out if any Apple device is running the latest version of its software or not.

The new numbering is a clear simplification of Apple’s prior system, which included iOS 18 at the same time as watchOS 11 and visionOS 2. Apple announced the change during the keynote address at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which runs throughout the week. It doesn’t come entirely as a surprise; Bloomberg reported in late May that Apple was planning the change.

Developing… you can follow our WWDC 2025 live blog for all the latest news.

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A special in-person event will also take place at Apple Park on June 9, at which 1,000 developers and students will attend. Things will kick off on June 9 at 10 AM PDT with Apple Keynote, where viewers will witness the launch of new operating systems: iOS 19, iPadOS 19, WatchOS 12, macOS 16, and visionOS 3.

The keynote can be viewed live on Apple's official website, the Apple TV app, and Apple's YouTube channel (below). Later today, at 1 PM PDT, Apple will stream the "Platforms State of the Union" session. In this, developers will learn about the new tools and features available across Apple operating systems.

Apple has planned over 100 technical sessions over the week of the event, which will also be accessible online. Apple experts will discuss everything from app development to machine learning to game design. Interested developers can schedule one-to-one sessions and online Labs with Apple experts for guidance.

For the second year in a row, Apple will also highlight young talent through the Swift Student Challenge, where 50 standout students will get a chance to visit Apple Park for a three-day experience.

Apple is expected to introduce a slew of Apple Intelligence features, such as intelligent battery management and a virtual health assistant. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the upcoming visionOS 3 update is also speculated to be significant.

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Currently, there are two separate pages where you can manage how Search works in Windows 11. The first one lets you customize the Search Permissions which includes Safe Search, Cloud Content Search, Search History.

The other page, which is called Searching Windows, is used to configure how searching for files works, folders to be excluded from enhanced search, and even has options to control the power settings for indexing. The thing is, while both pages fall under the Privacy and security category, it's kind of confusing.

When you type search and click on show all results, this is what you get. That is messy. Not everyone may know that multiple pages exist for search settings, which in turn could mean that they are unaware of several options that they would have liked to tweak. Control Panel's replacement should do better than this, right?

Phantomofearth, who has a stellar record when it comes to reporting about Windows features, says that Microsoft is changing the search experience, by simply merging the pages. Placing all search related settings on one page could make things a lot user-friendlier. So you can manage the search history, search highlights, search indexing, web search, etc. It just makes sense to have all these together under an easy-to-understand word, Search, it's intuitive, and the more accessible such options are, the more control the user has over them, and that is always welcome.

Microsoft is currently testing the new Search settings page in the Windows Insider Program, it is available in Windows 11 Build 26200.5622 and Build 26120.4230. It is unclear when these changes would be added to the stable channel.

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Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has now provided us with new details about Apple’s new UI. The new interface is called Liquid Glass and has “sheen and see-through visuals of a glassy surface.” The name represents Apple’s approach to designing the new interface.

The new UI also brings “transparency and shine effects in all of Apple’s tool bars, in-app interfaces and controls.” However, Gurman notes that the Liquid Glass interface will lay the groundwork for Apple’s future products, especially the 20th anniversary iPhone.

It was already reported that Apple plans to unveil at least two new devices in 2027, which coincides with the iPhone’s 20th anniversary. The first model would be the long-awaited foldable iPhone. However, the second model, the 20th anniversary iPhone, is a glass-centric model that aligns with Apple’s new UI concept.

According to Gurman, the 20th anniversary iPhone has curved glass sides and edges. It also features “extraordinarily slim bezels” and “no cutout section in the screen.” The phone is reportedly called “Glasswing,” which refers to the type of butterfly with transparent wings.

“That 20th anniversary iPhone will expand on the glass concept. It will have curved glass sides around the entire phone, even at the edges. There will be extraordinarily slim bezels and no cutout section on the screen. Inside Apple, the 2027 iPhone is called the “Glasswing,” which refers to the type of butterfly with transparent wings.”

Apple’s upcoming iOS 26 is the biggest overhaul to iPhone UI since the launch of iOS 7 in 2013. The new UI also hits iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26. As a side note, the new “26” on the name of Apple’s operating system represents the year 2026.

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Over the next two months, we will get seven or eight release candidates where developers will stabilize new and existing features. This means that the stable version of Linux 6.16 will arrive around the end of July.

Torvalds said that the merge window seemed pretty normal this time, but did say he had a feeling that there were more “late straggler” pull requests than is typical. Despite this, everything seems to be fine and the schedule will be going forward as planned.

Key areas of development

Torvalds explained that around half of the changes in the first release candidate were driver updates, with the bulk of those being made up with by GPU and networking drivers. For end users these are the most important changes because when your favorite distribution of Linux ships a new release with this kernel, it will support more graphics cards and networking equipment like Wi-Fi cards.

The non-driver updates in this version are split between architecture-specific updates, documentation and tooling (perf tool and selftests), and core changes to filesystems, core kernel, memory management, and networking. Torvalds said the core changes include some of the “most important” changes, though they’re not necessarily major changes. Fixes to the core ensure a more stable Linux kernel for end users, plus better performance.

The merge window saw developers submit thousands of non-merge commits and merges. The non-merge commits were around 13,000 while the merge commits nearly reached 1,000. There were 1,783 unique authors submitting code during this window.

Next steps

Over the coming weeks, Linux developers, including individuals or representatives of companies, will submit bug fixes for new and existing features. This release candidate cycle will run until around the end of July and then the final version will become available.

End users shouldn’t go out and download Linux 6.16 when it’s released, instead just wait for your Linux distribution to update to it, as distribution-specific changes get made. Neowin will be following these releases and reporting on any interested changes that are noted.

Source: LKML

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ExplainingComputers (1.11M subscribers)

June 8, 2025

Video length: 18m 49s

ReactOS is FOSS that can natively run Windows applications and drivers. The latest version, 0.4.15, was released in March 2025. So I thought we’d take a closer look . . .

00:00 Titles & Intro 

00:48 Getting ReactOS 

03:56 Live CD Boot 

07:31 VirtualBox Install 

13:54 Windows Applications 

17:37 Wrap

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The new feature will arrive in Linux Mint 22.2, powered by Fingwit, a brand new XApp built by the Mint developers. It handles detecting your fingerprint reader and recording your prints. Once configured, you can use your fingerprint for the login screen, the screensaver, authenticating sudo commands, and any other administrative actions that pop up a password dialog (pkexec).

What makes this particularly interesting is how it deals with situations where a fingerprint just will not work. Fingwit uses fprintd for the backend work, but the Mint devs say its custom authentication module is clever enough to detect tricky cases. For instance, if your home directory is encrypted, you absolutely need your password to decrypt it at login. Just using a fingerprint would lead to a crashed session. Fingwit sees this coming and dynamically prompts for your password instead. The Mint team says Fingwit will be able to run "in any desktop environment and on any Linux distribution."

A significant driver for this development has been the team's ongoing work with Framework. Testing the company's hardware has pushed the Mint team to better support the features packed into modern laptops. This partnership is also the reason Mint 22.1 got power profiles and why Mint 22.2 will ship with a newer HWE (hardware enablement) kernel.

The team also announced a slew of other changes for the upcoming release. As part of this work, core applications like gnome-calendar, simple-scan (the document scanner), and baobab (the disk usage analyzer) will be upgraded to their newer libAdwaita versions. To solve the long-standing frustration of libAdwaita apps ignoring system themes, the developers have patched the library. Taking it a step further, they have forked it entirely into a new project called libAdapta.

On a final, critical note, the team also had a serious warning for users of older versions. The Linux Mint 20.x series, which includes versions 20, 20.1, 20.2, and 20.3, officially reached its End of Life in April 2024. Your system will continue to function, but it will no longer receive any security updates from the official repositories, leaving it vulnerable. The team laid out two options. The recommended path is a fresh installation of a newer release (22.1), which provides support until 2029 and is the cleanest way forward. Alternatively, you can attempt a long and complicated in-place upgrade, which is a multi-step process from 20.x to 21.3.

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For those wondering what it is, device metadata, as the name suggests, is the collection of additional, user-facing information that an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) provides about a hardware device. The feature was introduced with Windows 7 and can include stuff like icons, logos, descriptive texts, among other things, that help the Windows UI display details about such devices in places like Task Manager or Device Manager.

This was a huge deal back in the day when Windows 7 debuted. The company called the feature "Device Stage" and Microsoft described it as a "new visual interface" that essentially worked like a "multi-function version of Autoplay where it displays all the applications, services, and information related to your device." It is often considered synonymous with the Windows "Devices and Printers" Control Panel applet.

Neowin did an in-depth overview of the feature when it first launched which you can find in its dedicated article here.

The Windows OS was able to obtain the device experience metadata from the WMIS, but now that the feature is being deprecated, Microsoft has begun removing information about Device Stage from its official support documents.

Neowin noticed while browsing that a support article regarding automatic Windows hardware drivers was updated for Windows 11 and 10 sometime last year after the release of Windows 11 24H2.

Previously, this article was geared for Windows 7 and was much longer. It also contained information about Device Stage, which, as mentioned above, was a headlining feature on Windows 7.

In the said article, the section "If Windows can't find information about your device in Device Stage" has been deleted. You can find the archived version of the support page here.

Aside from shortening the amount of information on the page, Microsoft has also added some more details on it. The company has now tried to define what the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter is, how updating drivers through Device Manager works, as well as a thorough and detailed troubleshooting section for common hardware driver errors on Windows, including one for USB-C.

You can find all the new details on the updated support page here on Microsoft's website.

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If you were trying to pick between the two, Microsoft is trying to make it easy for you to decide. In a recent blog post titled "Microsoft Edge browser: The fast, smart alternative to Chrome," the tech giant has laid out all the reasons you should pick its browser over Google Chrome.

As pointed out in our first paragraph, performance is something these companies often try to brag about, and for good reasons, because people do want to get a snappier experience. This could explain why Mozilla's Firefox has been left behind over time in terms of market share, as it has not been able to keep up with Chromium-based browsers in the performance department.

Microsoft says that Edge is better for your Windows PC than Google's Chrome, as it is a "Microsoft product" that "integrates closely with Microsoft Windows," which helps with "performance benefits."

Besides that, the Redmond company also points out other "speed and efficiency" features of Edge, like sleeping tabs that helped save 'over 7 trillion megabytes of memory' in 2024. And Edge is also said to "help with smooth performance so that add-ons like Microsoft Translator, ad blockers, and password managers work efficiently."

Microsoft adds how the "optimized architecture of Edge helps with lower CPU load and overall resource consumption, providing a smooth experience, particularly on low-spec devices" and also how its "efficient resource allocation helps minimize slowdowns."

Aside from performance, productivity is another area where Microsoft says Edge excels. That is thanks to Microsoft 365 integration and other AI tools. In the end of the blog post, Microsoft suggests that this is the right time to switch to Edge from Google Chrome. You can find the post here on Microsoft's official website.

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The logic behind the "26" in the new macOS version is that Apple aims to align its naming schedule with its 2025-2026 release cycle. The same version number will also appear across iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. While skipping multiple software versions raises many questions, it might help maintain consistency in the Apple ecosystem.

With just two days away from the WWDC kick-off, many Mac owners might wonder if the upcoming macOS 26 is compatible with their devices. Here's the rumored list of compatible Mac devices with the macOS 26:

• MacBook Air (M1 and later)
• MacBook Pro (2019 and later)
• iMac (2020 and later)
• Mac Mini (M1 and later)
• Mac Studio (all models)
• Mac Pro (2019 and later)

This report comes from MacRumors, which cites a private account on X as the source. However, the interesting thing about this list is that, according to the leaker, Apple might end software support for the MacBook Pro 13-inch (2020 model, two Thunderbolt 3 ports). For now, we should take this claim with a pinch of salt.

The 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch launched with both Intel and Apple Silicon M1 processors. It also comes with two port configurations. Apple is expected to end support for more Intel-based Mac devices this year, and this specific MacBook Pro variant might also be on Apple's kill list.

WWDC 2025 kicks off on June 9, and Apple will unveil the latest version of its operating systems with an overhauled UI and a slew of AI-related features. So far, we know what Apple Watch models might get watchOS 26. Apple will announce the compatibility list of various devices at Monday's event.

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For starters, Microsoft Edge is getting a media control center. This feature is intended to let you control multiple media sources from any website in a single place. The media control center button will show up on the toolbar (a button with a note icon), allowing you to launch picture-in-picture, cast media to other devices, control music or video, and more.

Next is an AI upgrade for the History section. It now uses artificial intelligence to find relevant websites in your history. From now on, you do not need to remember the exact name of the website or a word from the page's name. You can find what you need using synonyms, phrases, or words with typos. Microsoft says this feature uses an on-device model that is trained on your data and does not send any information to Microsoft. AI-powered history search is rolling out gradually to Edge Beta insiders.

Another interesting change is the dynamic Settings menu. If the browser slows down, a notification from Performance and Extensions Detector will show up in the menu to help users learn about the built-in methods to improve performance. Like AI-powered history search, this feature is rolling out gradually.

Other changes in Microsoft Edge 138 Beta include the following:

• Microsoft Edge can now use your primary work profile by default when opening external links instead of the last used profile (rolling out gradually).
• Autofill received a new toggle that lets users consent to Microsoft Edge collecting web form field labels to improve suggestion accuracy. Note that this feature does not send user-entered data; it only sends field labels.
• Enterprise users can now view sensitivity labels in MIP-protected PDFs.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Summarization is now available in the context menu (gradual rollout).

As usual, each major browser release delivers policy updates. You can find the complete list of policy changes in the release notes.

Microsoft Edge Beta 138 is now available for download. You can get it on the official Edge Insider website. Version 138 will be available in the Stable Channel on the week of June 26, 2025.

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The team has pushed a number of UI refinements for the upcoming version. On the System Settings page for Wi-Fi, the network list can now be fully navigated with a keyboard. KDE also disabled the ability to drag and drop displays on top of one another in the monitor settings. This was done because it could create unsupported arrangements that triggered a cascade of strange bugs throughout the system.

Waking up a sleeping computer by pressing the power button no longer causes the bizarre logout screen to appear after you unlock it, which is a relief. Alignment issues in the settings page for the Digital Clock widget were also resolved.

The list of bug fixes for 6.4 is extensive. The development team has fixed the most common crash affecting the System Monitor and squashed another one related to a divide-by-zero error. For users with multiple monitors, a long-awaited fix has landed that prevents windows from disappearing when the screen they are on gets disconnected.

Even the humble Sticky Notes widget received attention; it will no longer freeze the Plasma shell if you place it on a very thick panel. Discover, the software center, also had a bug patched that caused it to crash if closed too quickly after launch. Here's the full list of improvements:

• Putting a Sticky Note widget on a very thick panel can no longer cause Plasma to freeze; now, you can use a thick panel with a sticky note on it as a notes sidebar.
• Fixed the most common System Monitor crash.
• Fixed another crash in System Monitor, this time a divide-by-zero.
• Fixed a case where xdg-desktop-portal-kde could crash after you choose a video source to start streaming.
• Fixed a bug that caused Discover to crash if you close it immediately after it launched.
• Fixed multiple subtle bugs with the screen chooser widget and OSD that caused it to do the wrong thing on rotated screens or when mirroring screens.
• Fixed a bug that caused the System Settings’ search field not to be focused properly when pressing Ctrl+F while any UI elements in a settings page already had focus.
• Fixed the root cause of multiple issues involving windows disappearing when you disconnect the screen they’re on.
• Clicking a button on a desktop widget that opens a menu no longer inappropriately makes the widget enter Widget Edit Mode.
• Files with a # or ? character in their name or full path are no longer unexpectedly missing from the history lists in Kicker/Kickoff/etc launchers.
• Fixed a bug that caused the screen chooser window to sometimes not appear as expected when OBS was launched.
• Fixed a bug that caused tiled windows on a multi-screen setup to lose their tiling settings when the system went to sleep and woke up again.
• The "Move window to [activity]" feature now works properly when invoked from the Task Manager widget.
• Fixed a bug in the Kicker Application Menu that caused keyboard navigation not to work if the popup opened with an item under the pointer.
• In the Overview effect’s grid view, dragging windows tiled on one virtual desktop over to a different virtual desktop now keeps them tiled as expected.

The focus may be on the imminent 6.4 release, but work on what comes next never really stops. Looking ahead, development on Plasma 6.5 is already well underway. Just last week, the KDE team brought several performance improvements to Plasma 6.5.0.

This week, the team fixed a nagging bug that sometimes caused the Networks widget to think a hotspot was still enabled after disconnecting from Wi-Fi. On the features side, the System Settings' Fonts page now prevents you from breaking your system entirely by setting fonts below 4pt.

In addition to that, switching time spans in the Info Center’s energy page now features smooth graph animations.

Performance-wise, kwriteconfig should also be faster, allowing changes you made to the keyboard layout using the tool to reflect immediately.

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The Microsoft Store has another wave of changes on the way that will help you find relevant apps. The updated store will feature a personalized homepage, faster search, and integrate with Copilot to help you learn about apps.

The Microsoft Store will also integrate with Windows, allowing you to search for apps through Windows search and find relevant applications.

Microsoft itself, from time to time, urges users to upgrade to its newest OS. Back in February 2024, Microsoft released an advert highlighting the best things about Windows 11 over Windows 10. Later, in June in the same year, the tech giant busted "myths and misconceptions" surrounding a Windows 11 upgrade. And towards the end of 2024, in December, Microsoft put up a blog post outlining the gaming features a user enjoys on 11 if they were to upgrade from Windows 10.

While technically there is nothing wrong with a company promoting its own product, sometimes these campaigns make little sense and they fall flat. For example, in January earlier this year, Microsoft shared a blog post headlined "Free Upgrade to Windows 11 (For a Limited Time Only)" which did not make sense as it offered little information about it being a "free upgrade," and it was rightfully, later taken down.

The company is back again with a new commercial about Windows 11. This time it is aimed mainly at IT professionals and enterprises as the advert talks about upgrading to Windows 11 Pro from Windows 10. This landed a few days after Microsoft released a new backup tool for organizations for such a purpose.

What is interesting is that the company is promoting Intel's vPro processors and there is no mention of AMD's Ryzen PRO parts.

The commercial is posted on the Windows official YouTube channel and has been titled "Right side of risk | Windows 11 Pro and Intel". The video description says, "Windows 10 support ends October 14. Stay on the right side of risk—upgrade now to the power of Windows 11 Pro PCs with Intel vPro®."

AMD does have a support article about the subject headlined "Support Your Customers’ Move to Windows 11, With AMD Ryzen™ PRO Processors" and you can find it here.

This is not the first time Microsoft has promoted Intel CPUs over AMD ones. Back in 2021, the company also put up a full page explaining how users should "look for the Intel EVO badge" on a new device before making a purchase decision because such PCs are "verified wonderful" which was a bit of an odd language.

Like the limited upgrade time article, the page above was taken down after we reported on it (can be viewed via the archive) and replaced with something else.

The new commercial was published about a couple of days ago, and it is possible that Microsoft may have a dedicated AMD advert too in the pipeline scheduled for a later release, and that would only be fair if both companies get a similar treatment.

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The feature, which was first spotted by Windows Latest, was described in a recent blog post on the Windows Insider blog.

Microsoft terms it User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management, it is an OS-level enhancement that helps reduce power consumption. When Windows detects that your PC is idle, i.e., there is no keyboard or mouse or touch-input activity, the operating system will conserve power by automatically applying efficient power management policies. In layman's terms, it may be activated like how a screensaver kicks in. The amount of power saved will depend on various factors such as the power mode, battery state (plugged in or on battery), and the manufacturer-defined Processor Power Management (PPM) settings

Windows already has Power Saving features, but the upcoming change will reportedly be different. The report says that Windows will lower the clock speeds or voltages to drop to a lower performance state, and activate a sleep-like mode similar to a C-State. Windows will probably detect when you are gaming or when a video is playing, for example, in full-screen, while you watch a movie or video, and prevent the User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management settings from being applied in such scenarios.

Microsoft's article says that the feature will not affect the performance of apps and games, as Windows 11 will restore, i.e. stop throttling the CPU, when it detects input from the user, via the keyboard or mouse, or touch. While it sounds useful, it remains to be seen how it actually works, and whether users will be able to disable the feature or make changes to it according to their needs.

Windows Latest says that since Microsoft is testing the new power-saving feature in Windows 11 Build 26200.5603, it is expected to come to Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.

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Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on Monday with the company's standard keynote presentation—a combination of PR about how great Apple and its existing products are and a first look at the next-generation versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and the company's other operating systems.

Reporting before the keynote rarely captures everything that Apple has planned at its presentations, but the reliable information we've seen so far is that Apple will keep the focus on its software this year rather than using the keynote to demo splashy new hardware like the Vision Pro and Apple Silicon Mac Pro, which the company introduced at WWDC a couple years back.

If you haven't been keeping track, here are a few of the things that are most likely to happen when the pre-recorded announcement videos start rolling next week.

Redesign time

Reliable reports from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have been saying for months that Apple's operating systems are getting a design overhaul at WWDC.

The company apparently plans to use the design of the Vision Pro's visionOS software as a jumping-off point for the new designs, introducing more transparency and UI elements that appear to be floating on the surface of your screen. Apple's overarching goal, according to Gurman, is to "simplify the way users navigate and control their devices" by "updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons."

Any good software redesign needs to walk a tightrope between freshening up an old look and solving old problems without changing peoples' devices so much that they become unrecognizable and unfamiliar. The number of people who have complained to me about the iOS 18-era redesign of the Photos app suggests to me that Apple doesn't always strike the right balance. But a new look can also generate excitement and encourage upgrades more readily than some of the low-profile or under-the-hood improvements that these updates normally focus on.

The redesigned UI should be released simultaneously for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The Mac last received a significant facelift back in 2020 with macOS 11 Big Sur, though this was overshadowed at the time by the much more significant shift from Intel's chips to Apple Silicon. The current iOS and iPadOS design has its roots in 2013's iOS 7, though with over a decade's worth of gradual evolution on top.

An OS by any other name

With the new design will apparently come a new naming scheme, shifting from the current version numbers to new numbers based on the year. So we allegedly won't be seeing iOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, or visionOS 3—instead, we'll get iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.

The new numbers might be a little confusing at first, especially for the period of overlap where Apple is actively supporting (say) macOS 14, macOS 15, and macOS 26. But in the long run, the consistency should make it easier to tell roughly how old your software is and will also make it easier to tell whether your device is running current software without having to remember the number for each of your individual devices.

It also unifies the approach to any new operating system variants Apple might announce—tvOS starts at version 9 and iPadOS starts at version 13, for example, because they were linked to the then-current iOS release. But visionOS and watchOS both started over from 1.0, and the macOS version is based on the year that Apple arbitrarily decided to end the 20-year-old "macOS X" branding and jump up to 11.

Note that those numbers will use the upcoming year rather than the current year—iOS 26 will be Apple's latest and greatest OS for about three months in 2025, assuming the normal September-ish launch, but it will be the main OS for nine months in 2026. Apple usually also waits until later in the fall or winter to start forcing people onto the new OS, issuing at least a handful of security-only updates for the outgoing OS for people who don't want to be guinea pigs for a possibly buggy new release.

Seriously, don’t get your hopes up about hardware

Gurman has reported that Apple had "no major new devices ready to ship" this year.

Apple generally concentrates its hardware launches to the spring and fall, with quieter and lower-profile launches in the spring and bigger launches in the fall, anchored by the tentpole that is the iPhone. But WWDC has occasionally been a launching point for new Macs (because Macs are the only systems that run Xcode, Apple's development environment) and occasionally brand-new platforms (because getting developers on board with new platforms is one way to increase their chances of success). But the best available information suggests that neither of those things is happening this time around.

There are possibilities, though. Apple has apparently been at work behind the scenes on expanding its smart home footprint, and the eternally neglected Mac Pro is still using an M2 Ultra when an M3 Ultra already exists. But especially with a new redesign to play up, we'd expect Apple to keep the spotlight on its software this time around.

The fate of Intel Macs

It's been five years since Apple started moving from Intel's chips to its own custom silicon in Macs and two years since Apple sold its last Intel Macs. And since the very start of the transition, Apple has resisted providing a firm answer to the question of when Intel Macs will stop getting new macOS updates.

Our analysis of years of support data suggests two likely possibilities: that Apple releases one more new version of macOS for Intel Macs before shifting to a couple years of security-only updates or that Apple pulls the plug and shifts to security-only updates this year.

Rumors suggest that current betas still run on the last couple rounds of Intel Macs, dropping support for some older or slower models introduced between 2018 and 2020. If that's true, there's a pretty good chance it's the last new macOS version to officially support Intel CPUs. Regardless, we'll know more when the first betas drop after the keynote.

Even if the new version of macOS supports some Intel Macs, expect the list of features that require Apple Silicon to keep getting longer.

iPad multitasking? Again?

The perennial complaint about high-end iPads is that the hardware is a lot more capable than the software allows it to be. And every couple of years, Apple takes another crack at making the iPad a viable laptop replacement by improving the state of multitasking on the platform. This will allegedly be another one of those years.

We don't know much about what form these multitasking improvements will take—whether they're a further refinement of existing features like Stage Manager or something entirely new. The changes have been described as "more like macOS," but that could mean pretty much anything.

Playing games

People play plenty of games on Apple's devices, but they still aren't really a "destination" for gaming in the same way that a dedicated console or Windows PC is. The company is apparently hoping to change that with a new unified app for games. Like Valve's Steam, the app will reportedly serve as a storefront, launcher, and achievement tracker, and will also facilitate communication between friends playing the same game.

Apple took a similar stab at this idea in the early days of the iPhone with Game Center, which still exists as a service in the background on modern Apple devices but was discontinued as a standalone app quite a few years ago.

Apple has been trying for a few years now to make its operating systems more hospitable to gaming, especially in macOS. The company has added a low-latency Game Mode to macOS and comprehensive support for modern wireless gamepads from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. The company's Game Porting Toolkit stops short of being a consumer-friendly way to run Windows games on macOS, but it does give developers of Windows games an easier on-ramp for testing and porting their games to Apple's platforms. We'll see whether a unified app can help any of these other gaming features gel into something that feels cohesive.

Going home

One of Apple's long-simmering behind-the-scenes hardware projects is apparently a new kind of smart home device that weds the HomePod's current capabilities with a vaguely Apple TV-like touchscreen interface. In theory, this device would compete with the likes of Amazon's Echo Show devices.

Part of those plans involve a "new" operating system to replace what is known to the public as "HomePod Software" (and internally as audioOS). This so-called "homeOS" has been rumored for a bit, and some circumstantial evidence points to some possible pre-WWDC trademark activity around that name. Like the current HomePod software—and just about every other OS Apple maintains—homeOS would likely be a specialized offshoot of iOS. But even if it doesn't come with new hardware right away, new branding could suggest that Apple is getting ready to expand its smart home ambitions.

What about AI?

Finally, it wouldn't be a mid-2020s tech keynote without some kind of pronouncements about AI. Last year's WWDC was the big public unveiling of Apple Intelligence, and (nearly) every one of Apple's product announcements since then has made a point of highlighting the hardware's AI capabilities.

We'd definitely expect Apple to devote some time to Apple Intelligence, but the company may be more hesitant to announce big new features in advance, following a news cycle where even normally sympathetic Apple boosters like Daring Fireball's John Gruber excoriated the company for promising AI features that it was nowhere near ready to launch—or even to demo to the public. The executives handling Apple's AI efforts were reshuffled following that news cycle; whether it was due to Gruber's piece or the underlying problems outlined in the article is anyone's guess.

Apple will probably try to find a middle road, torn between not wanting to overpromise and underdeliver and not wanting to seem "behind" on the tech industry's biggest craze. There's a decent chance that the new "more personalized" version of Siri will finally make a public appearance. But I'd guess that Apple will focus more on iterations of existing Apple Intelligence features like summaries or Writing Tools rather than big swings.

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