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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This new version introduces some major breaking changes to Bases, so you'll want to pay attention here. The developers have overhauled the formula syntax and the .base file format itself. If you're using Obsidian Sync or sharing your vault across multiple devices, the team strongly recommends upgrading all your devices at the same time to dodge any annoying sync issues with files using different syntaxes.

The new formula syntax in Bases is designed to be more flexible and easier to use, and it should feel familiar if you code in JavaScript. For instance, functions are now object-oriented; instead of writing contains(file.name, "Books"), you would now use file.name.contains("Books"). You can also chain functions together, like property.split(' ').sort()[0].lower(). Other highlights include:

• Property names are no longer wrapped in backticks (`). Instead, to reference properties with spaces or special characters, the syntax is note["Property Name"]
• There is a new type system which provides greater control when writing formulas.
• New functions, such as link, date and list for converting a value to a different type.
• New file properties: file.path, file.links (a list of all internal links in this file), and file.tags (a list of all tags in this file, including frontmatter).
• Some functions have been replaced by comparison operators. For example, dateBefore(date1, date2) is now date1 .
• Date modifications are now much simpler. Instead of dateModify(date, string), you can use date + string, for example, date("01/01/2025") + "1 year"

For those wondering, the Bases feature was introduced back in Obsidian 1.9.0 as a way to turn notes into structured databases. You can learn more about the updated syntax here.

Alongside these syntax changes, the .base file format has been updated for better extensibility, including a new properties section for configurations like displayName.

There are some smaller improvements too, like Bases now showing the number of results in the current view and the operator dropdown for filters becoming searchable. Outside of Bases, the update brings fixes for the following:

• Tags view: Fixed "Show nested tags" showing the full tag name (e.g. #parent/child)
• File explorer: Fixed "Move folder to..." menu item not showing in context menu.
• Bases: Fixed view not closing after deleting the file.
• Bases: Fixed codeblock not rendering when "Indent with tabs" is enabled.

On a related note, the creator of Markdown, John Gruber, recently shared his thoughts on rumors about Apple Notes potentially adding Markdown export. While he had reservations about Apple Notes becoming a full-blown Markdown editor, he seemed to think an export option would be useful. If the rumors are true, users will be able to easily export notes from Apple Notes and edit them in editors like Obsidian.

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Interestingly, Google is not the only one to make such claims in recent times. Microsoft also highlighted recently how Edge was getting significantly faster. Both Microsoft and Google have cited the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark to test.

We recently measured browsing performance during our T-Force DDR5-7200 RAM review, also using Speedometer 3.0.

In its blog post, Google says that the development team made significant improvements to memory management and caching. This includes some redesigning effort of the memory layouts for many internal data structures used in components such as DOM, CSS, layout, and painting.

Google says that Blink, the rendering engine in Chromium, now "avoids a lot of useless churn" so as to make better use of the CPU caches. In the areas where memory handling previously relied on garbage collection in Oilpan, like the DOM (document object model), the team has expanded that by shifting from using malloc (memory allocation function) to Oilpan entirely.

For those wondering, Olipan is the garbage collector in Blink.

Some of the memory management and caching improvements Google made are fundamental to good code optimization. If you recall, recently, a senior Microsoft engineer also pointed out many of these issues in apps that slow Windows down.

There are also improvements in handling strings within the renderer; the hashing method was updated to rapidhash, which is said to improve performance. For when rendering tasks become inherently expensive, such as computing CSS styles for various elements, Google adds that caching techniques have been enhanced to achieve higher cache hits and fewer misses.

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Windows 10 reaches its end of support in October 2025. As that cutoff date approaches, you can expect to see an even bigger push from Microsoft to get people to upgrade systems to Windows 11 or to purchase a new PC.

A new ad featured on the official Windows YouTube channel tells people to be on the "right side of risk" by upgrading to Windows 11. Specifically, the video suggests getting a Windows 11 PC powered by an Intel chip.

It is accurate that Windows 11 will be more secure than an unsupported Windows 10, but some feel the ad is too aggressive.

"Using the end of support for your old operating system as a selling point for your new one is actually insane," said YouTube user @LanceUzminski in the comment section of the ad.

Others dispute the security claims made by Microsoft or claim Linux is a better option than Windows 11.

Windows 11 has been out for almost 5 years and the end of support for Windows 10 has been known for about a decade. However, Microsoft's strict TPM requirement for Windows 11 has drawn criticism.

Since upgrading to Windows 11 requires specific hardware, many PCs are unable to move from Windows 10. Microsoft has an extended support program for Windows 10, but it is a costly option.

Microsoft wants to display basic device information right on the Home page of the Settings app. The latest preview builds from the Dev and Beta Channels introduced a new "Your device info" card for the Settings' Home page. It displays specs like processor name and speed, graphics card and the amount of video memory, storage, and RAM. The card also has a link to the "About" section, where you will find more information about your computer, its Windows edition, product ID, and the recently introduced FAQ section that answers common hardware-related questions.

The "Your device info" card joins the existing cards on the Settings app's home page. While the section offers useful information like quick access to Bluetooth devices, Wi-Fi, personalization, and recommended settings, users received it with mixed reactions, as many considered it another way for Microsoft to promote its services and subscriptions like Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and Game Pass (seriously, who thinks about Game Pass when opening Settings?).

Now, the Settings' Home page is a bit more useful, as it saves you a few clicks when checking your computer's specs. If you want to test the new "Your device info" card, update your PC to build 26200.5622 or newer (Dev Channel). Just keep in mind that Microsoft is rolling it out gradually, and it requires signing in with a Microsoft Account in the United States.

Other changes in build 26200.5622 include a new Settings section for Quick Machine Recovery, widget improvements, more app recommendations in the "Open with" dialog, and more. Check out the full release notes here.

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Windows 11 offers a comprehensive list of accessibility features designed to improve usability for all users, regardless of their abilities. However, these tools not only support individuals with specific needs, but they can also help improve anyone's overall experience.

For example, you can use the mouse settings to change the pointer's style, and you can even enable the indicator to make it easier to find the pointer on the screen. Also, it's possible to customize the appearance of the text cursor to improve usability.

You will also find features such as Live Captions to show captions on the screen from any voice or video content. Voice Access allows you to control your computer with only your voice. Similarly, the Voice Typing feature can help you type a document using your voice and more.

In this how-to guide, I'll share seven accessibility features that everyone should be using on Windows 11.

Best accessibility for anyone using Windows 11

These are some accessibility features that can help anyone boost the overall navigation experience on Windows 11.

1. Customise mouse appearance

Microsoft categorizes the mouse settings as accessibility features, but anyone can use them to make the pointer a little more personal and fun.

To change the mouse pointer appearance, use these steps:

Microsoft is blurring the lines between those updates that I consider mandatory and those that some administrators might need for their networks.

For many years, I’ve urged folks to immediately install Microsoft’s out-of-band updates to protect us from whatever was occurring in the attack. But now, Microsoft is not communicating well. It’s hard to know whether these updates are needed.

Therefore, I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2. Put updates on pause, and don’t install the out-of-band updates from May. Mea culpa: I realize that we lowered the level just a week ago, but these updates arrived after that, giving me too little time to figure them out. As I say, poor communication from Microsoft.

Windows 10 received not one but two out-of-band updates during the month of May. The first, KB5061768 on May 19, specifically fixes this issue:

A known issue on devices with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) enabled on 10th generation or later Intel vPro processors. On these systems, installing the May 13, 2025, Windows security update (KB5058379) might cause the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process to terminate unexpectedly, triggering an Automatic Repair prompting for the BitLocker recovery key to continue.

If you have a 10th-gen Intel vPro processor on your Windows 10 computer and BitLocker is not enabled, you do not need this out-of-band update.

The second, KB5061979 for Windows 10, includes the fix above and then includes an additional fix:

An issue in the direct send path for a guest physical address (GPA). This issue caused confidential virtual machines running on Hyper-V with Windows Server 2022 to intermittently stop responding or restart unexpectedly. As a result, service availability was affected, and manual intervention was required. This problem primarily impacted Azure confidential VMs.

This would impact only hosted machines, not physical Windows 10 computers.

Windows 11 24H2 received a similar out-of-band update, KB5061977, fixing the Hyper-V platform:

An issue in the direct send path for a guest physical address (GPA) where confidential virtual machines running on Hyper-V with Windows Server 2025 might intermittently stop responding or restart unexpectedly, affecting service availability and requiring manual intervention. This issue primarily affects Azure confidential VMs.

Windows 11 23H2 got its share with KB5062170:

This update addresses an issue where some customers encountered a recovery error with error code 0xc0000098 while installing the May 2025 Windows security update (KB5058405) on Windows 11, version 22H2 and 23H2 devices. This update will not install on systems that successfully applied KB5058405.

Consumers

The good news for consumers is that none of these updates will automatically install. You must go to the Microsoft catalog and manually download the update in order to obtain them. I don’t see consumers impacted by these issues. I do recommend that you place updating on hold as we get ready to receive the June updates and start testing them.

Businesses

Businesses can also decide to skip these updates and pause deploying updates until June’s updates come out. Unless you are specifically impacted, I recommend not installing these out-of-band updates at this time.

For both businesses and consumers, it’s time to pause — don’t install any out-of-band updates.

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As part of my job as a tech writer, and as part of my ongoing efforts to get organized at some point, I’ve tested a whole pile of note-taking apps through the years: the simple, the sophisticated, the quirky, the AI-powered, and on it goes. It’s a popular app category, and there’s no shortage of options.

Amid all these different choices, one of the apps that I find myself regularly coming back to is Google Keep. It’s fast and easy to get around, it works on just about any device, and once you dig a little deeper into its colorful sticky note interface, there are plenty of useful features to take advantage of.

Whether you’re a current Google Keep user looking to do more with the app or you’re wondering whether Google Keep has enough to tempt you away from whatever note-taking system you’re using at the moment, these are some of its most appealing features.

Get your notes looking exactly the way you want.

Right from the start, the colorful Post-it note look of Google Keep gives you a neat way of arranging your notes: yellow for to-dos and blue for shopping lists, for example, or whatever suits you.

There are 11 different pastel colors to pick from besides the default white, and on top of that, you’ve got nine background pictures you can use instead, covering themes like celebration, places, recipes, and music.

These backgrounds can be swapped around at any time by clicking on the paint palette icon at the bottom of every note.

Google Keep borrows a trick from Gmail with labels: individual notes can have multiple labels, so something can be tagged with “family” and “urgent” or “ideas” and “vacation.” It’s a handy way of bringing order to your notes, even as their numbers grow into the dozens or hundreds.

Labels can help you with searches as well. As you would expect from a Google product, Google Keep has a search function that’s fast and accurate: click inside the search box at the top of the web interface, and you can limit your query to notes that match a certain label (or category or color).

On the web, your labels are listed to the left for easy access. To apply a label on an open note, click the three dots at the bottom of the note, then Add label (or Change labels).

You can now format your text in both the Android and web versions of Keep. You can make it bold, italicized, underlined, or crossed out; you can also change the size to an H1 or H2 heading. Look for the icon with an underlined A at the bottom of the note. (Unfortunately, this isn’t yet available in the iOS version.)

If you want to be able to check off items in a list, it’s easy: in an open note, click the three dots (or the plus icon in the mobile app) at the bottom of the note and select Show checkboxes. (If you decide you don’t want them, you can go back and select Hide checkboxes.)

You can easily collaborate on notes with other people.

Google Keep lets you collaborate on notes with other people, too, without the feature ever getting overly complicated. Click the collaborator icon on an open note (the figure with a plus next to it), then enter the email addresses of the contacts you want to share it with. (On the mobile app, you’ll find the icon by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of the screen.)

You don’t get to see who makes which edits like you do in Google Docs, but you do get updates when someone makes changes to a note, and you can see at the bottom of each note who your collaborators are.

As with collaboration, reminders are a genuinely useful feature implemented in a straightforward way. You can get notifications from the Google Keep app at a specific time or even when you reach a specific place (if you’ve got the mobile app installed). Reminders can be set to repeat, so you could set up a household chore list that gives you a nudge at the same time every week.

To set a reminder on the web version, just click on the little Remind me icon at the bottom of each note (which looks like a small bell), then set the options as needed. On the mobile version, the icon is at the top of the screen.

Sometimes, you create a note that you want to be able to find immediately. In that case, you can pin the note to the top of your list by tapping the pin icon at the top of the note. However, be careful about overusing this; I sometimes find that if I pin too many notes, they become just as difficult to find as if I didn’t pin them at all.

You can not only add images to notes using the image icon at the bottom of the note but you can also extract the text from them as well. In the web version, just click the three dots, then Grab image text. In the mobile version, tap the image, then the three dots in the upper right and Grab image text. As long as the letters in the photo or in your drawing are legible enough, you get a copy of them printed underneath — something that can be very handy if you are, for example, taking a photo of a business card.

You can add hand-drawn scribbles. In the web version, click the three dots and then Add drawing; in the mobile version, click the plus icon and Drawing.

Notes can be quickly converted into documents in Google Docs by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of a note and choosing Copy to Google Docs. (In the mobile app, click the three dots and select Send > Copy to Google Docs.)

There are a couple of additional features that are available in Keep’s mobile apps for Android and iOS.

• You can record voice notes by tapping on the plus icon at the bottom of the screen and then Audio (Android) or tapping the plus icon and then Recording (iOS). The created note will have both the audio file as an embed and the transcript of the audio as the accompanying text. This can be especially useful if you need to quickly record a thought for later use; if you have the Keep Quick capture widget on your homescreen, you can tap it or say “Google, take a note” to record your new note.

Voice notes include both audio and a transcription.

 

• You can also add a photo to an open note by tapping the plus icon and then Take photo. If you want to start a new note with a photo, just tap the plus icon at the bottom of the screen, tap Image, and select either Take photo (for a new photo) or Choose image (to select one from your photo gallery).

Update June 5th, 2025: This article was originally published on October 16th, 2019, and has been updated to account for changes in the OS and to add additional features.

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The consumer space-targeted RX 9060 XT graphics card comes in 8GB and 16GB flavors starting at $300 and $350 price points, respectively. Check out our launch coverage for this RDNA 4 GPU for more details here.

At the same time, the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 comes in for handling professional workloads with a whopping 32GB of VRAM. While support for this card has already arrived with the latest driver, AMD is expecting to ship the product sometime in July 2025.

The driver has also added official support for Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny Remaster as well, the Capcom-developed action game from last month.

As for fixes, AMD has said that it has resolved reversed Quality and Performance selections in the Radeon Boost UI, as well as Le Mans Ultimate performance issues on RX 9070 series GPUs.

There are quite a few known issues AMD is still working on:

• Stutter and lower than expected performance may be observed when using alt-tab and streaming to Discord with multiple monitors.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Marvel Spiderman 2 with Ray Tracing enabled on Radeon™ RX 9060 XT.
• Intermittent application crash may be observed when first launching The Last of Us Part 1 on Radeon™ RX 9060 XT graphics products.
• Stutter may be observed while playing games with some VR headsets at 80Hz or 90Hz refresh rate on some AMD Radeon™ Graphics Products such as the Radeon™ RX 7000 series. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to change the refresh rate as a temporary workaround.
• Intermittent system or application crash may be observed while playing Cyberpunk 2077 on some AMD Radeon™ Graphics Products such as the Radeon™ RX 7000 series.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Monster Hunter Wilds with Radeon™ Anti-Lag and Instant Replay enabled.
• Artifacts or corruption may appear while playing Battlefield™ V on Radeon™ RX 7000 series graphics products.
• Stutter may be observed while playing Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Season 03 ‘Verdansk’ map on some AMD Graphics Products.
• Stutter and lower than expected performance may be observed while playing 4K resolution YouTube videos in Chromium. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to play videos in full screen as a temporary workaround.
• Texture flickering or corruption may appear while playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered with AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution enabled on Radeon™ RX 9070 XT. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to disable AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution as a temporary workaround.

As for FSR 4, these games are now supported by the popular upscaling tech for gaining more frames:

The complete list of games with FSR 4 support, as well as upcoming implementations, can be found on AMD's support page here.

The WHQL-certified AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.6.1 driver can now be downloaded from the AMD Software app as well as the changelog page on its official website here.

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This version brings solid user interface improvements for a smoother experience, involving internal tweaks that contribute to a more polished feel. Much work went into global accessibility, adding new Korean and Georgian translations. Updates also cover Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, and many others. Naturally, a good number of bugs got squashed, including a fix for tricky long filename issues on Windows and an issue with the Escape key in the options popup.

Changes specific to operating systems are also clear. Windows users get an installer using Inno Setup. Its program files, installer, and uninstaller are now signed for better Windows security. For macOS, .app file naming in .dmg packages is fixed, and building the software is more reliable. Linux users can now hide system drives from the destination list, a great way to prevent accidentally wiping your main computer drives. The Linux AppImage also disables Wayland support by default.

The full list of changes is outlined below:

• Fixed minor errors in Simplified Chinese translation
• Updated translations for German, Catalan, Spanish, Slovak, Portuguese, Hebrew, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Korean, and Georgian
• Explicitly added --tree to lsblk to hide partitions from the top-level output
• CMake now displays the version as v1.9.1
• Added support for quiet uninstallation on Windows
• Applied regex to match SSH public keys during OS customization
• Updated dependencies:
  • libarchive (3.7.4 → 3.7.7 → 3.8.0)
  • zlib (removed preconfigured header → updated to 1.4.1.1)
  • cURL (8.8 → 8.11.0 → 8.13.0)
  • nghttp2 (updated to 1.65.0)
  • zstd (updated to 1.5.7)
  • xz/liblzma (updated to 5.8.1)
• Windows-specific updates:
  • Switched to Inno Setup for the installer
  • Added code signing for binaries, installer, and uninstaller
  • Enabled administrator privileges and NSIS removal support
  • Fixed a bug causing incorrect saving of long filenames
• macOS-specific updates:
  • Fixed .app naming in .dmg packages
  • Improved build reliability and copyright
• Linux-specific updates:
  • System drives are now hidden in destination popup
  • Wayland support disabled in AppImage
• General UI/UX improvements:
  • Fixed OptionsPopup not handling the Esc key
  • Improved QML code structure, accessibility, and linting
  • Made options popup modal
  • Split main UI into component files
  • Added a Style singleton and ImCloseButton component
• Internationalization (i18n):
  • Made "Recommended" OS string translatable
  • Made "gigabytes" translatable
• Packaging improvements:
  • Custom AppImage build script with Qt detection
  • Custom Qt build script with unprivileged mode
  • Qt 6.9.0 included
  • Dependencies migrated to FetchContent system
• Build system:
  • CMake version bumped to 3.22
  • Various improvements and hardening applied
• Removed "Show password" checkbox in OS customization settings
• Reverted unneeded changes in long filename size calculation
• Internal refactoring and performance improvements in download and extract operations
• Added support for more archive formats via libarchive

Lastly, it's worth noting that the system requirements have changed since version 1.9.0: macOS users will need version 11 or later; Windows users, Windows 10 or newer; Ubuntu users, version 22.04 or newer; and Debian users, Bookworm or later.

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During a live stream today targeted toward business users, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT can now connect to more external services to pull in real-time context and provide more useful responses for users.

The following are some of the external connectors available in ChatGPT Deep Research for Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Dropbox
• Box
• Google Drive
• Gmail
• Liner

In addition to the above, IT admins in organizations can now build custom ChatGPT connectors using the popular Model Context Protocol (MCP). These custom connectors will allow organizations to make use of the data available inside their proprietary systems and other apps within ChatGPT, alongside pre-built connectors.

Today, the ChatGPT team also announced a new feature called record mode for ChatGPT Team users on macOS. The record mode feature will allow users to capture meeting audio and get meeting transcriptions, meeting action items, summaries, etc. ChatGPT record mode will also be available to Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users in the future.

Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer at OpenAI, tweeted the following regarding today’s launch:

"These launch first to our B2B customers and to everyone else ASAP. The Deep Research connectors are additionally rolling out to Plus and Pro users starting today, and MCP support will be available to Pro users. Can't wait to hear what you think!"

While ChatGPT's new connectors and features mark significant progress, it faces a formidable challenge in the enterprise market against Microsoft 365 Copilot, which enjoys native integration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

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With build 27871, IT administrators can now control the energy savings on PCs in Microsoft Intune. Policies can be managed using the Local Group Policy Editor or the Microsoft Intune Admin Center. When enabled, energy saver limits background activity and reduces screen brightness, ensuring that devices consume less power while maintaining optimal performance.

Phone Link integration in the Start menu received the same changes that Microsoft introduced earlier this week in the Dev and Beta Channels. Notifications are now appearing grouped on the Phone Link pane in the Start menu, Android users can enable screen mirroring with one click, and iPhone photo memories are now supported.

Finally, Microsoft adjusted the "needy state pill" under apps that require your attention. Those pills are now larger and more visible.

Fixes in build 27871 include the following:

[General]

 

• We have mitigated the issue where if Virtualization Based Security is enabled, applications dependent on virtualization, such as VMware Workstation, would lose the ability to run unless the “Windows Hypervisor Platform” Windows optional component is installed on the system.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue where if you had disconnected network drives when doing a search from Home it might prevent searches from executing and you’d remain on Home.
• Fixed an issue where tapping the View button in File Explorer with touch would crash File Explorer.

 

[Taskbar]

 

• Fixed an issue where WIN + CTRL + Number wasn’t working anymore for switching windows in the taskbar.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing keyboard focus to get set to widgets in the taskbar on login, which could make widgets unexpectedly invoke.
• Fixed an issue when using Tab and Shift + Tab to move keyboard focus around the taskbar, where if keyboard focus went backwards at least once you could get keyboard focus stuck on the taskbar frame, causing some screen readers to just say “pane”.

 

[Settings]

 

• Fixed an issue where hovering over the cards at the top of Settings > System > About wasn’t showing the correct corner radius.
• Fixed an issue where the storage card in Settings > System > About showed a garbage character instead of the proper disk size.

 

[Administrator Protection]

 

• Fixed an issue where when using Administrator Protection, some apps might not follow your preference if it was set to dark mode.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• Fixed the issue causing search and other options such as filtering in Task Manager to not work.

 

[Audio]

 

• Fixed an issue in the last few Canary flights where audio devices with high sampling (like 192Hz) and multiple channels weren’t producing sound.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the startup sound not to play, though it was enabled.

 

[Input]

 

• Fixed an issue where voice typing wouldn’t start from the touch keyboard when using the Chinese (Simplified) narrow layout.
• Fixed an issue where when using the Symbols section of the touch keyboard, pressing the key to change pages might unexpectedly insert a character into password fields.

 

[Graphics]

 

• Fixed an issue which could cause unexpected scaling and window position changes after sleep/resume for some devices.

 

[Voice access]

 

• Fixed an issue which could voice access to freeze with error “working on it” when dictating.

 

[Other]

 

• Fixed an issue causing an Administrative Templates error message when opening Group Policy Editor.
• Fixed an issue where some of the commands when using xml to setup were unexpectedly not being run.
• Fixed an issue when installing Windows from installation media, where if you changed your keyboard layout from the default, it may still use the default when entering the product key.
• Fixed an issue when installing Windows from installation media, where certain partitions may show an extremely large erroneous size.

And here are the 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”.
• We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue where the taskbar is unexpectedly not showing acrylic material after upgrading to the latest Canary builds. This is impacting a few other scenarios, leading to unexpected black or white in some UI.

You can find the announcement post on the official Windows Blogs website.

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• FBC: Firebreak
• Rematch
• Stellar Blade
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X

There is also a single bug fixed in today's release:

• Intermittent visual artifacts may appear in certain usage scenarios.

Known issues remain the same as in the latest WHQL release, except for a new bug that causes audio glitches on handheld devices:

• Certain handheld devices may experience audio glitches and lower-than-expected performance while audio is playing.

You can mitigate the problem by following a guide that Intel published on the official forum. It requires reinstalling the graphics and NPU drivers on the affected systems. A proper fix will be available in a future driver update.

You can install Intel 32.0.101.6876 non-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). Keep in mind that this is a non-WHQL driver, which means it could be less stable than certified WHQL drivers.

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The first hotfix was released in early March with version 572.65 that resolved black screen bootups. This was followed by another, version 572.75, that addressed clocking issues. After that, version 576.15 helped fix Windows Sleep and Modern Standby-related temperature monitoring bugs.

With the latest hotfix driver update, 576.66, Nvidia says that it has resolved a video playback bug in web browsers that can lead to red-green flashing and similar corruption of that nature. Aside from that, the driver also fixes multiple game crashes including EA Sports FC 25, and more.

Nvidia notes that the new hotfix driver is based on its latest GameReady driver 576.52. As a refresher, that driver added support for Nvidia's new RTX 5060.

The full changelog for the new hotfix driver 576.66 is given below:

• Dune: Awakening may crash during gameplay [5273568]

• EA Sports FC 25 may crash during gameplay [5251937]

• [RTX 50 series] Dragons Dogma 2 displays shadow flicker [5252205]

• [RTX 50 series] Video playback in a web browser may show brief red/green flash corruption [5241341]

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may crash [5283401]

   

If you are encountering problems like the ones described above on Windows 11 or 10, you should definitely try updating the driver to the hotfix version here. In order to download the update, head over to Nvidia's official website on this page where you can also view the driver's release notes.

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Earlier this year, during Microsoft's 50th birthday celebration, we seemingly got a front-row seat to Copilot AI's evolution into a companion and real friend, fully equipped with memory and a virtual body as part of Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman's, future plans for the AI-powered chatbot.

But perhaps more interestingly, we also got a free nostalgic trip down memory lane, courtesy of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who took the stage at the special Copilot event for his Developers! Developers! Developers! chant.

The viral chant can be traced back to a Microsoft developer conference in the early 2000s, which was often associated with Ballmer. Around the same time, the executive had just assumed his new role as Microsoft CEO, after Bill Gates stepped down from the helm.

During an episode of the Acquired podcast, Ballmer recently revealed that there's much more to the chant than just hype. He indicated that he used the viral chant as a call to action for Microsoft (via Business Insider). At the time, the company had doubled down on developing Windows, Windows Server, and ActiveX.

However, the tech giant wasn't as enthusiastic and proactive in getting third-party developers to build on top of these platforms. Ballmer saw this as a threat, facing fierce competition from the likes of Linux.

Steve Ballmer also revealed that he was frustrated with Microsoft's culture in the early 2000s, predominantly viewing it as "just a platform company."

As such, Ballmer's infamous chant was a call to action for Microsoft to take a proactive approach in encouraging developers to build on its platforms. "You have to be able to communicate that you really care about developers who are not your own," Ballmer added. "We just had to tell people, 'We want you, we want you, we want you.'"

Microsoft's controversial new Outlook app has a major update. If you're on the latest version of the app, you'll be able to access Copilot Pro or use AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. The app now supports email coaching with Copilot and several new features as well.

The June 2025 update for the new Outlook adds support for replying and forwarding emails in a .pst file, moving emails between accounts, and searching for folders while offline.

Microsoft also added the ability to add shared folders to Favorites within the new Outlook.

If you're not a fan of Copilot in Outlook, you can disable the tool through Outlook's Copilot control page.

All of the changes to Outlook are improvements, but I doubt they'll be enough to convert those who dislike the web-based app.

Below is the full change log from Microsoft.

What's new in new Outlook for Windows

Sharing Copilot in Outlook

When logged into Outlook with an account that has access to Copilot Pro or AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, Copilot features will be available for all connected email accounts. This includes Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com, MSN.com, and third-party providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud, as long as they are logged into Outlook on the same device. Learn more by visiting Sharing Copilot in Outlook.

The classic app received a major Shared Calendar-related upgrade recently, with many " long-awaited improvements" as well as "small changes in form and function." As the name suggests, the Outlook Shared Calendar essentially allows multiple people to interact with and manage the calendar.

With Shared Calendar improvements enabled, users will see the following changes:

• Instant sync and view of shared calendars

• Editing series end date does not reset the past

• Accepting meeting without having to send a response

• Last Modified By no longer shown in the meeting item

• Adding same calendar multiple times can't be done

• Duplicate calendars simultaneously selection

• Attachments addition not possible when responding to a meeting invitation

• Event drafts auto-save changes

• The "Download shared folders" setting is ignored

   

Unfortunately, as with any major feature upgrade, there are bugs, and Microsoft has confirmed this is no different. The tech giant has shared official guidance for it so that users can work around the problems. According to the company, "Shared Calendar improvements are now enabled by default in the most recent versions of Outlook, in all update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps," and thus, the bugs are likely to affect many.

Here are some of the bugs Microsoft is investigating, as well as their workarounds:

Aside from these, Microsoft has also fixed several other bugs, which you can find in the official support article here on the company's website.

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