According to Apple, 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. Later that day, 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 one 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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Speaking of Windows 11, users are reporting installation failures with the Windows 11 May 2025 Patch Tuesday update KB5058411 as well. Affected users say that these are failing with various error codes like 0x800f0991, 0x800f0991, 0x800f0838, 0x800736b3, and 0x800f081f.

User Shukang Liang on the Microsoft support forums writes: "Problem with windows update KB5058411 Installation fails and error code 0x800f0991 comes up." The query has been upvoted by 33 other users at the time of writing.

Another user PaulK671 notes 0x800736b3 and 0x800f081f errors as they write:

Error 0x800736b3 and 0x800f0838 when installing KB5058411 (Windows 11 24H2 x64 update)

 

Hello community,

 

I’m experiencing a persistent issue when trying to install the KB5058411 cumulative update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 (x64), released on May 13, 2025 (OS Build 26100.4061).

 

Initial symptoms:

 

• Windows Update stalls at 6% download.
• Then returns error 0x800f081f.
• After manually downloading and executing the .msu file from the Microsoft Update Catalog, I get error 0x800f0838.
• The CBS logs and Event Viewer also show error 0x800736b3.

The thread has been upvoted by 19 people at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, user Jenny-XS says they came across the 0x800f081f error code when trying to install the May '25 Patch Tuesday.

Microsoft recently published a support article with a long list of Windows 11 and 10 hex error codes that lead to installation failures. Unfortunately, though, none of the codes reported by users match with the ones Microsoft has provided workarounds for.

Thus, it looks like Microsoft will have to update its list sooner rather than later as clearly many hex error codes are still pending and are due for addition to its support documentation.

Interestingly, one of the commenters on the 0x800f0991 error thread, ScotBirch, added that they were able to resolve the issue using the "Fix problems using Windows Update" option. Microsoft had detailed what that is and how it works back in December 2024. You can read the linked article to find out more and see if perhaps it fixes your issues too.

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A highlight of the event is the Google Keynote live stream, which typically marks the official start of the conference every year. Google Keynote for I/O 2025 is scheduled for May 20, starting at 10 am PT / 1 am ET / 5 pm GMT / 6 pm BST / 10:30 pm IST.

If you're wondering where to watch the Google I/O 2025 keynote event, it will be available on the official Google YouTube channel and the Google I/O website. A version of the keynote in American Sign Language will also be available to stream on YouTube.

Google will host the Developer Keynote at 1:30 pm PT on May 20 to talk more about the technical aspects of the announcements made during the main keynote. It will be streamed live on the Google I/O website and Google for Developers YouTube channel.

In addition, several other sessions on Android, web, artificial intelligence, and cloud technologies will be live-streamed on the Google for Developers channel and the official website. Google has planned sessions to discuss Gemini in-car experiences, photorealistic 3D Maps, Android XR, new features in Google Play and Chrome, and other topics.

Google announced its developer conference for 2025 earlier this year and published a schedule of the events and sessions it will host during the two days of the conference. While Google officially released an upgraded Gemini 2.5 Pro model before the event, it accidentally leaked the Material 3 Expressive design language through a blog post.

One thing that's different about this year's Google I/O is that the company made some Android announcements in a separate online event earlier this month, where it introduced several security features for Android devices and the leaked Material 3 Expressive. Google is bringing Gemini to more platforms like smartwatches, cars, TVs, and XR headsets.

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Those testing Windows 11 in the Dev Channel can download build 26200.5603 (KB5058488), and for Beta Channel users, Microsoft released build 26120.4151 (KB5058486). These updates contain many new features, including AI actions in File Explorer, redesigned Windows Widgets, the new Advanced page in the Settings app, and more.

One of the biggest changes in today's builds is AI actions in File Explorer (announced at Build 2025). Now, you can right-click a file, select AI actions, and pick one of the available options on your device, like Bing Visual Search, background blur, object erase, background removal, and more. For now, AI actions are only available for image files (JPG, JPEG, and PNG), but soon, Microsoft will bring AI actions support to Microsoft 365 files, allowing you to summarize files, create FAQs, and more.

Next is the Advanced page in the Settings app, which replaces the old For Developers and brings some of the features previously available in the discontinued Dev Home app. You can learn more about it here. In the latest builds, the new page adds the ability to remove folder path limitations, enable virtual environments, and control various File Explorer features, such as GitHub integration.

Windows Widgets are also getting some love with today's updates. Microsoft is experimenting with a redesigned experience that offers a more organized, personalized, and engaging feed, including stories curated by Copilot. Just keep in mind that some of the existing features, like widget pinning and the ability to turn off the feed, are not yet available in the redesigned variant. If you do not like the new variant, you can easily go back to the old one.

Another important change in builds 26200.5603 and 26120.4151 is the so-called "User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management." This OS-level change aims to reduce power consumption and improve battery life. Windows can detect user inactivity and apply various power-management policies to ensure it uses as little power as possible when idling. Once you are back at your PC, Windows will be able to spin everything back up.

Finally, the Share UI, which recently received a built-in image editor, can now let you select the compression level for images when sharing them (0-100).

New Windows 11 Dev and Beta builds are not only about new features. They pack some useful fixes as well (gradual rollout):

• [General]
  • Fixed an issue where core Windows surfaces were not able to load in safe mode (File Explorer, Start menu, and others) after latest flights.
• [Start menu]
  • Fixed an issue causing Start menu to be blank for some Insiders in the previous flight.
• [File Explorer]
  • Fixed an issue where if File Explorer was maximized and you clicked the new tab button it would unmaximize the window.
• [Settings]
  • Fixed an issue related to loading Bluetooth information which could lead to Settings and Quick Settings crashes.
  • Fixed an issue where you couldn’t switch active hours from manually to automatic in Settings > Windows Update.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing Settings > Personalization > Lock screen to crash for some Insiders.

And here is the list of known issues and bugs:

• [General]
  • After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.
  • The option to reset your PC under Settings > System > Recovery will not work on this build.
• [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.
• [Start menu]
  • We’re investigating reports that clicking your profile picture isn’t opening the Account Manager for some Insiders after the last couple of flights.
• [File Explorer]
  • [NEW] 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.
  • [NEW] When your Windows display language is configured with a right-to-left language, the action result canvas displays text from left to right for AI actions for Microsoft 365 files.
• [Task Manager]
  • After adding the new CPU Utility column, you may notice that System Idle Process always shows as 0.
  • The CPU graphs in the Performance page are still using the old CPU utility calculations.
• [Narrator]
  • We are investigating an issue where the richer image descriptions on your Copilot+ PC with Narrator do not work.
• [Voice Access]
  • We are investigating an issue where support for more descriptive and flexible language on Copilot+ PCs does not work as expected.
• [Widgets]
  • [NEW] Until we complete support for pinning in the new widgets board experience, pinning reverts you back to the previous experience.

You can find the complete changelog in a post on the official Windows Blogs website.

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Following last weeks PowerToys update, Microsoft has released patch release v0.91.1 to fix issues in v0.91 they deemed important for stability based on incoming rates. The previous release did not add any new features, but Command Pallete continues to receive improvements, some installer upgrades, a reworked UI for Keyboard Manager, and bug fixes.

The fixes in v0.91.1 are as follows:

• #39494 - Command Palette: Fixed regression where it ran as admin instead of the current user when PowerToys was elevated; also resolved extension launch failures occurring only in admin mode.
• #39433 - Workspaces: Fixed regression where command-line options support was expected but missing when launching classic Win32 apps (e.g. Edge, Chrome).
• #39563 - Quick Accent: Fixed regression requiring activation key to be held simultaneously with the key during the "Input delays" period for accent selection; instead, only the key needs to be held after activation.

You can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store's PowerToys page. You must be using the new Microsoft Store which is available for both Windows 11 and Windows 10; on Github, or via WinGet
Download PowerToys from WinGet. Updating PowerToys via winget will respect current PowerToys

Run the following command from the command line / PowerShell:

User scope installer [default]
winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

Machine-wide scope installer
winget install --scope machine Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

You can download PowerToys 0.91.1 from GitHub or the Microsoft Store. If the app is already installed on your system, go to Settings > General and click "Check for updates."

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Nvidia says the new desktop GPU is available today starting at $300, with cards coming from board partners like ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, Galaxy, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, MSI, Palit, PNY, and ZOTAC. Using its DLSS 4 frame generation tech, the company says that the RTX 5060 8GB will have double the performance of the RTX 4060.

Here are the gaming and general bug fixes included in this release:

• Fixed Gaming Bugs
• FIXED [F1 23/F1 24] Game crashes at the end of a race [5240429]
• FIXED [Diablo II Resurrected] Game displays black screen corruption when using DLSS [5264112]
• FIXED [SCUM] Game may crash after updating to R575 drivers [5257319]
• FIXED Shader disk cache will not be created with certain games if OS username contains unicode characters [5274587]
• Fixed General Bugs
• FIXED [Lumion 12] Missing certain UI components [5213228]
• FIXED [Varjo XR3] Varjo XR3 HMD is not working on RTX 50 series GPUs [5173753]
• FIXED [Notebook] GeForce RTX 50 series TGP limit may be clipped earlier [5170771]

The problems Nvidia engineers are still working on solving are these:

• Flickering/corruption around light sources in Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut [5138067]
• Cyberpunk 2077 will crash when using Photo Mode to take a screenshot with path tracing enabled [5076545]
• EA Sports FC 25 may crash during gameplay [5251937]
• [Forza Horizon 5] Game may crash after extended gameplay [5131160]
• [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]
• Wuthering Waves may randomly crash during gameplay after updating to R575 drivers [5259963]
• [RTX 50 series] Enshrouded crashes after launching game [5279848]
• [NVIDIA App] Adding an unsupported app to NVIDIA App and enabling Smooth Motion forces it globally to other apps [5243686]
• [RTX 50 series][Battlefeld 2042] Random square artifacts may appear around lights during gameplay [5284105]
• Changing a setting in the "NVIDIA Control Panel" -> "Manage 3D Settings" may trigger shader disk cache rebuild [5282396]
• [Gray Zone Warfare] Game may crash on startup [5284518]

The Nvidia 576.52 driver is now available for download in the Nvidia app and GeForce Experience. Standalone download links can be found here, and here are the official release notes (PDF).

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Build 26100.4188 packs quite a lot of new stuff. Microsoft is now rolling out more Click to Do features to Copilot+ PC users with Intel and AMD-powered processors. You can now use Win + Q to select a portion of text and then pick actions like Summarize, Create a bulleted list, or Rewrite. You can also highlight a text or image and ask Copilot something about it. Plus, Click to Do now supports text actions in Spanish and French.

Other Copilot additions include the ability to invoke Copilot with the Win + C shortcut and pick what happens when you press it or the Copilot key. Also, Release Preview users can now try Press to Talk by holding the Copilot / Win + C keys. Finally, you can now type a setting you want to change into the search bar in the Settings app using natural voice, like "change my theme" or "about my PC" with no need to remember the exact setting name.

For non-Copilot+ PC users, Microsoft is rolling out improved HDR settings and the ability to stream HDR even if HDR is turned off. Plus, you can toggle Dolby Vision independently of HDR. More mouse settings made their way from the Control Panel to the Settings app, and Voice Typing now lets you turn on or off the profanity filter. Speaking of Settings, there is a new FAQ section with answers on common hardware and performance questions.

Finally, the Windows Share UI now has a built-in image editor, and you can share a local file from File Explorer with a new tray that appears at the top of the screen when you drag a file.

Fixes in build 26100.4188 include the following:

• [Audio] Fixed: The startup sound may not play on boot, although it is enabled.
• [MMC] Fixed: Improved the colors used in MMC when items are selected, both generally, and when contrast modes are enabled.
• [USB] Fixed: Certain USB devices may become disconnected after sleep, until you reboot your PC.
• [Input]
  • Fixed: Voice typing won’t start from the touch keyboard when using the Chinese (Simplified) narrow layout.
  • Fixed: When using the Symbols section of the touch keyboard, pressing the key to change pages may unexpectedly insert a character into password fields.
  • Fixed: Typing in some apps may stop working after disconnecting from a remote desktop session.
• [JPG] Fixed: When using CopyPixels the pixels may be unexpectedly inverted in certain cases.
• [Bluetooth] Fixed: Settings may crash when loading information about Bluetooth devices.
• [Display] Fixed: Unexpected scaling and window position changes may occur after sleep/resume for some devices.
• [Print] Fixed: Non-admin users can’t uninstall printers that they’ve added.
• [Windows Hello] Fixed: When using Windows Hello for Business facial recognition, the camera may unexpectedly fail after waking the PC from sleep, blocking login using this method.
• [Camera] Fixed: Settings may crash when interacting with content under Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Cameras.
• [File Explorer] Fixed: If you have disconnected network drives when doing a search from Home it may prevent searches from executing and you remain on Home.
• [UHF Tuning] Fixed: Tuning scan for UHF channels doesn’t work, and only VHF channels are returned.

Note that everything above is rolling out gradually to Windows Insiders, so the system might take some time to receive all the changes. Here is what is available right here and right now:

• [BitLocker] Fixed: This update addresses an issue where devices with BitLocker on removable drives could encounter a blue screen error after resuming from sleep or hybrid-booting.
• [Boot menu screens] Fixed: This update addresses the issue where early boot screens, such as BitLocker PIN, BitLocker Recovery key, and boot menu screens, render slowly.
• [Graphics kernel] Fixed: An issue where some game titles become unresponsive after upgrading to Windows 11, version 24H2.
• [Memory leak] Fixed: This update addresses an issue in the Input Service that causes increased memory usage, potentially impacting performance in multi-user, multi-lingual, and remote desktop usage.
• [Multimedia] Fixed: If you turn on multi-app mode or basic camera mode in advanced camera settings, the Windows Hello Face Enrollment might not work and show a bad camera preview.
• [Network] Fixed: This update addresses an issue where Windows Server 2025 always shows the network as “public” on new domain controllers. It now checks for a domain controller name before using loopback addresses to ensure proper Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) binding.

You can find the official announcement with the complete changelog here.

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Starting with WinGet, Microsoft will soon let you set up and replicate a developer environment with a single WinGet Configuration command. This feature captures the current state of your system, including apps, packages, and tools, into a single config file, allowing you to quickly set up the same environment on another system. WinGet Configuration will also support Microsoft Desired State Configuration V3, which means apps that support DSC V3 will have their settings included in the configuration file.

Next, we have Advanced Windows Settings, a new section in the Settings app, which replaces the old "For Developers" page and the now-discontinued Dev Home app. Advanced Windows Settings allows developers and users to control more aspects of their Windows experience and have faster access to developer-related settings, including GitHub integration in File Explorer, and more. We have already seen the new page in action in recent Windows preview builds, and it is finally official. Microsoft says it will be available for public testing in the near future.

The recently introduced Command Palette from PowerToys also got a shout-out at Build 2025. In case you are not familiar, Command Palette is a reworked PowerToys Run launcher that provides a faster and easier way to access commands, apps, workflows, files, and more in one place. It is useful not just for developers but for regular users as well, and with Windows Search still being in a rather miserable state, Command Palette is a must-have tool for everyone, and it is now generally available.

Finally, Microsoft announced a new command-line text editor for Windows called Edit. It will allow developers to edit files directly in the command line without switching to another app. Edit is coming soon to Windows 11 preview builds, and its source code will be available in the official GitHub repo.

In addition to new developer tools, Microsoft announced a lot of changes in the Microsoft Store that make it easier to create a developer account, track apps' health metrics, promote programs in the store, and more. You can learn more about that here.

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There’s a lot to look at, watch, and listen to on the web. Fully utilizing the bookmarks feature in Google Chrome can be a real help in staying on top of everything.

Chrome is the browser I use most often, and I’ve got a huge number of bookmarked sites inside it: long reads I want to get back to once work is done, news updates to write up for work, gift ideas, apps I’d like to check out, important Slack channels, and content systems for my job... the list goes on. All synced between devices and available everywhere.

If you haven’t done a deep dive into Chrome’s bookmarks feature then you might not be aware of everything you can do with it, how it can save you time, and how you can bring some kind of order to your web browsing.

You can edit bookmarks as soon as you’ve saved them.

Screenshot: Google

The star icon to the right of the address bar in Chrome on the desktop is for saving new bookmarks. Click it and the current page gets saved to the most recently used bookmarks folder. You can also press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (macOS), which is even easier. On mobile, tap the three dots at the top then the star icon (Android), or the three dots at the bottom then Add to bookmarks (iOS) to save the current page as a new bookmark.

As soon as a bookmark is saved, a small dialog pops up. You can use it to change the bookmark name and folder if you need to, or just click Done to move on.

More options can be found on the desktop by clicking the three dots (top right) then Bookmarks and lists. You’re able to add bookmarks from this menu, too, and there’s also a Bookmark all tabs option, which saves every open tab (which, like tab groups, is handy if you need to do something else but want to be able to get back to where you are).

On the same Bookmarks and lists menu you can toggle the bookmarks bar on and off. The bookmarks bar sits just below the address bar, and gives you another way to add bookmarks: drag the URL of the site you’re viewing down from the address bar to the bookmarks bar.

You can find your saved links in the bookmark manager.

Screenshot: Google

Bookmarks become a lot more useful when they’re well organized. On the desktop you can launch the full bookmarks manager by clicking Bookmarks on the bookmarks bar, or by clicking the three dots (top right) and then Bookmarks and Lists > Bookmark Manager. You can search through your bookmarks here, and create new folders: Click the three dots (top right), then Add new folder — and yes, you can put folders inside other folders. (This is also where you’ll find the Export feature, and it’s a good idea to export your bookmarks occasionally as a backup.)

Folders are a key part of keeping your bookmarks organized, and they’re all accessible on the left of the bookmarks manager page. Click and drag bookmarks to change their order, or to move them into different folders. Right-click on a folder to rename or delete it, or drag it on top of another folder to put it inside that folder.

You can double-click any bookmark to open it. To edit it, click the three dots to the right: You’re able to rename your bookmarks and change their URLs, as well as put them in different folders. If you right-click on a bookmarks folder, you get the option to open all the links it contains in separate tabs — which may not do your computer much good if there are dozens or hundreds of bookmarks in the folder.

The bookmark manager can be accessed on mobile too, though you don’t get quite as many options to play around with. Tap the three dots at the top (Android) or bottom (iOS) of the interface, then choose Bookmarks to see the list. As long as you’re signed in with your Google account, bookmarks will sync between your devices.

With some tweaks, you can get your bookmarks bar looking much more compact.

Screenshot: Google

There are other ways to work with your bookmarks in Chrome.

• Here’s a clever trick for your desktop bookmarks bar: right-click on each bookmark in turn, remove the text in the Name field completely each time, and click Save. You’ll then have a compact row of bookmark icons showing only the favicons for each site (such as a purple V for The Verge). It’s a neat way to put more bookmarks within each reach, and you can still tell what each one is.
• Something else you might want to try is to search through your bookmarks directly from the address bar. You may see some bookmark results suggested underneath as you type out your search query, and you can also force a bookmarks search by preceding your query with “@bookmarks” and a space.
• If you want to keep bookmarks visible at all times, that’s possible too. Click the three dots in Chrome for the desktop, then choose Bookmarks and lists > Show all bookmarks. A side panel appears displaying all your bookmarks: You can search through them, create new folders, and edit your bookmarks from here (click the three dots to the side).
• The icons in the top right corner, from left to right, let you change the order of the bookmark lists, switch between compact and visual views, and edit multiple bookmarks at once. You can shut down the panel with the X button, but if you click the pin button just next to it before you do, you get a dedicated bookmarks panel icon that stays permanently available on the Chrome toolbar, and will let you open it back up again.

This has hopefully given you some idea of what you can do with bookmarks in Google Chrome. And there’s more, so it might be worth it to take some time and look around. It’s not the most sophisticated of systems, but it does give you plenty of flexibility in terms of how you can use it and what’s possible, so you can get your folders and shortcuts set up in the ways that work best for you.

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Every individual developer will soon be able to register a developer account for free. Right now, Microsoft requires a one-time $19 registration fee, but that payment is going away starting next month. However, this only applies to individual accounts—fees for corporate accounts remain in place.

In addition to free entry for every developer, the Microsoft Store is getting other much-needed improvements. For one, the store will finally display when the app was last updated. This is one of the most-requested features from users and the developer community, and Microsoft is finally delivering it 13 years after the launch of the Microsoft Store. Better late than never.

Microsoft is also improving Health Report insights for app makers, giving them more metrics like crash rate, hang rate, and affected device counts. This data will help developers prioritize bug fixes and address critical issues faster. Partner Center will also send notifications about unusual spikes in failures and allow developers to compare data across different app versions, architectures, and devices.

Another big change that is useful for both developers and users is direct Win32 app updates. The Microsoft Store can host Win32 apps with developer-provided update channels, but once an MSI or EXE is submitted, Microsoft leaves no way for users to update to the latest version from the Microsoft Store. This requires launching the app and using its update mechanisms. Soon, you will be able to download the most recent version of a Win32 app directly from the Microsoft Store so that you can start using it with no need to install additional updates.

Finally, Microsoft is launching app campaigns, which will allow developers to promote their Windows apps in the Microsoft Store and other Microsoft products via the Microsoft Advertising Platform, and the Microsoft Store FastTrack, a new program for qualified companies for faster Win32 app submissions.

Microsoft says the Microsoft Store has about 250 million monthly active users. The list of popular apps available in the store has greatly improved with the launch of ChatGPT, Day One, Docker, Fantastical, and other popular applications. Notion, another popular productivity app, is also coming soon to the Microsoft Store.

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At BUILD 2025 today, the company announced that it is integrating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) into Windows Insiders Build 27852 and above, as well as in SymCrypt-OpenSSL 1.9.0 and higher. It said that this will give customers the first opportunities to begin experimenting with PQC within their own environments.

Specifically, Microsoft has made module-lattice based key encapsulation mechanism (ML-KEM) and digital signature algorithm (ML-DSA) available to Windows Insiders through updates to the Cryptography API “Next-Generation (CNG) libraries and Certificate and Cryptographic messaging functions”.

Linux users can also use the SymCrypt algorithm implementations through the OpenSSL API surface provided by the SymCrypt-OpenSSL (SCOSSL) library. The ML-KEM and ML-DSA are some of the first quantum-safe crypto algorithms approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In December, Microsoft added them to its SymCrypt cryptographic library.

Microsoft hopes that by introducing these algorithms now, rather than waiting until later, it can mitigate the amount of “harvest now, decrypt later” threats where attackers take classically encrypted data and then in the years to come use quantum computers to break the encryption.

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SQL Server 2025 now has AI directly integrated into the database engine for improved search. Thanks to built-in vector search capabilities, developers can perform semantic searches over their data to find matches based on similarity, alongside full-text search and filtering. SQL Server 2025 also comes with improved AI model management through model definitions built into T-SQL to AI services, including Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Ollama, and more.

Developers can access these models through REST APIs, and they are isolated from the SQL Server engine. SQL Server 2025 also supports DiskANN, text chunking, embedding generation, and integration with AI frameworks like LangChain, Semantic Kernel, and Entity Framework Core.

Apart from the AI capabilities, SQL Server 2025 also comes with significant developer improvements. This latest release will offer native JSON support, allowing developers to easily validate and manipulate their datasets with external data sources. Change Event Streaming will help developers consume transaction log changes as events directly from SQL Server to Microsoft Azure Event Hubs. Microsoft also announced the public preview of the new open-source Python driver for SQL Server, which is a fully open-source Python solution for connecting to SQL Server. Microsoft also announced the integration of the MSSQL Extension for Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot for better code suggestions.

SQL Server 2025 comes with several improvements to security, performance, and availability. For example, the new Optimized Locking reduces lock memory consumption and minimizes blocking for concurrent transactions through Transaction ID (TID) Locking and Lock After Qualification (LAQ).

Finally, Microsoft is announcing a new SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer edition in addition to the existing Developer edition, which has all Enterprise features. This will allow developers to build and test against the Standard edition without any licensing fees.

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However, the company is massively amping up this capability. At Build 2025 today, Microsoft has announced that the translation feature can now translate an entire document "with just a few clicks" and the feature will work across over 70 languages. Here's how it will work according to Microsoft: "With just a few clicks, users will be able to open a PDF in Edge, click the Translate icon in the Edge address bar and quickly create a new document fully translated into the language of choice."

Currently, the feature is in testing in the Canary channel but Microsoft hopes it will be generally available next month, in case no breaking bug is detected by then during beta testing.

Another improvement related to documents is an upcoming Edge for Business feature that will help with summarization. With the help of Copilot Chat in Edge, found on the Edge for Business sidebar, Microsoft's browser will soon be able to summarize Microsoft 365 Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

Document summarization aside, Microsoft 365 Copilot is bringing Agents to Edge for Business such that commercial users will be able to automate tasks that feel are repetitive.

Microsoft uses the example of a "Sales Assistant Agent" to explain how it will work: "Sales Assistant Agent will generate leads, track customer interactions and offer sales insights. Agents will be available in early June through Copilot Chat in the Microsoft Edge for Business sidebar and will enable users to access them without leaving the page and breaking their flow."

Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents will be available next month in June while the summarization feature is currently in preview.

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Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux has become an important tool for developers and power users since it was introduced in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update back in 2016, giving them access to a built-in Linux command line and Linux applications from within Windows.

The company has steadily improved WSL since then, improving performance, making it easier to install and use, and adding features like GPU and audio support. But today as part of its Build developer conference, Microsoft announced that it would be making almost all of WSL open source, closing the very first issue that the then-new WSL project attracted on Github in 2016.

"WSL could never have been what it is today without its community," writes Microsoft Senior Software Engineer Pierre Boulay in the company's blog post. "We’ve seen how much the community has contributed to WSL without access to the source code, and we can’t wait to see how WSL will evolve now that the community can make direct code contributions to the project."

Only two elements of WSL remain closed-source for now: an lxcore.sys kernel driver used for WSL 1 (the initial version of WSL that is still supported, though new installs default to 2019's WSL 2); and the p9rdr.sys and p9np.dll files that handle filesystem redirection from Windows to Linux (in other words, making it so that Windows can easily access the Linux filesystem). Microsoft didn't close the door to open-sourcing those components but also didn't say if or when it planned to make them open source.

Though WSL uses some of the same technologies as virtual machines, WSL's speed, low resource usage, and integration with Windows makes it much more seamless to install and use than traditional virtual machines that maintain more separation between the host and guest operating system. Around the release of Windows 11 in 2021, Microsoft made WSL something that was installed and updated via the Microsoft Store rather than something built into the operating system, making it easier to add new features without requiring the potential disruption of a full Windows update (and also possibly making it easier to open source the code without posting source code for other parts of Windows).

This isn't the only major improvement Microsoft has helped to release for WSL recently. Earlier this month, the company announced that Fedora is now an officially supported WSL distribution, joining Ubuntu (still the default) and a number of other distributions. Arch Linux also became an officially supported distribution back in April; both Fedora and Arch are taking advantage of changes Microsoft announced last year to make it easier to build new WSL distributions.

Windows users can install WSL by choosing a distribution from the Microsoft Store or by opening a command-line window and typing wsl --install. Users can install multiple distributions at once and switch between them based on what they're running or testing; typing wsl --list --online at the command line will also show you all of the distributions that Microsoft officially supports if you don't want to use Ubuntu.

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Vivaldi 7.4 is here! A thoughtful update that focuses on what truly matters to users: control and a smoother browsing experience. In a digital world dominated by cookie-cutter browsers and profit-first thinking, Vivaldi remains proudly independent, delivering a browser that puts people, not profit, first.

With Vivaldi 7.4, users can now customize keyboard shortcuts on a per-website basis, allowing them to prioritize Vivaldi shortcuts over the website shortcuts or vice versa. This ensures your custom shortcuts work wherever and whenever you need them. To adjust this setting, find the "Prioritize Website Shortcuts" in the "Privacy and Security" section (this works globally or per-website).

Next is the address bar. It received restructured settings for better clarity and various bug fixes and optimizations to speed things up. You can select what items appear in the address bar's drop-down menu, and the menu itself can now display up to 42 results.

Other changes in Vivaldi 7.4 include a new profile picker on startup. If you have multiple profiles in Vivaldi, the browser will prompt you to select a profile upon launch. However, if you do not like this behavior, you can tick off the "Show on startup" option. Also, the Windows and History panels received a visual refresh for a cleaner experience.

Finally, as usual, Vivaldi 7.4 brought stability and performance upgrades under the hood to make the browser faster, more reliable, and with "fewer hiccups." You can download Vivaldi from the official website.

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He said that the situation has been handled pretty well and has been contained this time, so this increases the likelihood that we won’t be getting rc8. Aside from the CPU stuff, Torvalds highlighted notable fixes for the DRM Xe graphics driver as well as a significant patch for sched-ext, the extended scheduler.

Torvald’s announcement ends with many fixes and updates to the kernel, suggesting plenty of on-going activity. Several contributors were also from organizations such as Google and IBM - both companies rely heavily on Linux, so it’s nice to see them funding employees to work on kernel issues. The top contributors this week, in terms of the number of patches submitted were Pawan Gupta (11), Shuai Xue (9), and Kent Overstreet (8).

In terms of new hardware support, the NEC Lavie X1475JAS laptop has gained Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) support; proper support for the ADATA XPG alpha wireless mouse has been added; better support for Audioengine D1, Microdia JP001, and StarFive JH7110 is included; and there are fixes and improvements for Intel Xe and AMD Radeon graphics.

Concluding, Torvalds has said that unless anything happens over the next week, 6.15 will be with us next Sunday. He said that he wished there wasn’t so much excitement over the last week, but things look pretty “solid” now with 6.15 very likely to drop next week.

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Reddit user u/Thunder_Ruler0 posted their creation on the r/Windows11. Of course, these icons are not from Microsoft, and they are not pixel-perfect. According to the poster, they were made by cleaning up the "leaked icons," downscaling them, upscaling, and re-generating with DALLE-3. In total, the pack took about two hours to make, and the author claims they are not going to spend more time on that.

Overall, the project is for the impatient users who cannot wait for Microsoft to drop the new icon pack. However, since there has been no announcement from Microsoft yet, chances are that we will never see it rolling out to all users. Alternatively, Microsoft might ship it in a slightly or fully reworked variant. Therefore, this unofficial icon pack could be a unique piece of customization.

It is also worth noting that the pack has the Outlook icon yellow, a tribute to the original Microsoft Outlook icon, which, with time, evolved into a blue envelope. Many users in the comments agree that the yellow variant suits Outlook better than the blue one.

You can download the entire pack using this Google Drive link. Note that you will have to convert PNG to ICO in order to set those logos as app icons.

What do you think about the new Office icons? Would you like to see Microsoft shipping them to all users? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Now, a new Virtual Machine Manager is in the works for KDE Plasma. The project, named Karton, has roots dating back to Aaron Rainbolt's original effort to build a QEMU frontend using its command line interface. Later, KDE developer Harald Sitter took over and developed it as a Google Summer of Code project.

Currently, Karton is actively developed by Derek Lin, a University of Waterloo student participating in Google Summer of Code 2025. His primary aim is to deliver a virtual machine manager that truly belongs in the KDE ecosystem.

To feel right at home in KDE, Karton is being built with Qt Quick and Kirigami. It uses the libvirt API to handle virtual machines and could eventually work across different platforms.

Right now, development is focused on getting the core parts in place. Lin is working on a new domain installer that ditches direct virt-install calls in favor of libosinfo, which helps detect OS images and generate the right libvirt XML for setting up virtual machines more precisely. He's still refining device configuration and working on broader hypervisor support. Another key part of the work is building a custom SPICE viewer using Qt Quick from scratch:

If you're curious, here's the list of specific deliverables Lin included in his GSoC proposal, though he notes the proposal itself is a bit outdated:

• Install and configure virtual machines through libvirt’s XML format instead of virt-install CLI

  • Add ability to configure commonly used options in UI

  • Allows for more fine-tuned control of virtual machine options

     

• Implement a custom SPICE viewer to allow users to interact with and view the active virtual machine (instead of virt-viewer

• Virtual machine snapshots to restore/backup previous states

• Intuitive UI for displaying virtual machines

  • Making a user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing GUI by addressing community feedback

  • Referencing MacOS UTM list layout and a preview of the VM

  • Making UI convergent (mobile-friendly)

     

• Retrieving virtual machine status updates using the libvirt API virEventRegisterImpl function instead of using the default built-in event loop.

  • Allows it to be integrated with custom Qt event loops

  • Reduces current latency with loading virtual machine list page

     

• Adding a browse tool which lists commonly installed operating systems

• GPU/memory usage graph as done in virt-manager

• Feature to switch between connecting to QEMU hypervisor with session (user) and system (root).

  • GNOME Boxes seems to only support “session”, however adding support for “system” could be useful for non-KVM/Linux backends like bhyve (FreeBSD) or Hyper-V

     

For those interested in the timeline, Lin's GSoC proposal says the official GSoC coding starts June 2, 2025. The goal is to have a working app ready by the midterm evaluation around July 14, 2025, with the final submission due September 1, 2025.

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First a bit of background, official details about the wallpaper are hard to come by, but according to the Windows Wallpaper Wiki (not affiliated with Microsoft) the setup background features a collage of images comprised of just two colors (blue and black) with a gradient map applied over it. The images are a circuit board, keyboard, mouse, cables, and CDs.

It is believed to have been produced in-house (along with the photos), but it is unknown who designed it. What is known, is that the keyboard was owned by Kevin Kennedy, who lent it to the designer, Kennedy claimed that the group "in the next office" actually created the image. The image itself is just 320x400 (boot screen), but stretches out to 640x400 on setup, stretching even more to fill the monitor size when drivers for the hardware are loaded during setup.

Gallery: Windows 95 Setup wallpaper assets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've included a full copy of the images that you can download (Neowin obtained permission from the creator to repost). The full assets are available on OneDrive, along with the ~1985MBmb Photoshop document (PSD). The original on which it is based is also included.

Having worked in desktop support back in the 90's, the image certainly brings back some memories of the countless PCs I installed Windows 95 on for clients. In any case we think the effortis pretty cool and worthy of a thumbs up.

Were you around in the Windows 95 days? What are your memories of the OS, let us know in the comments below.

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Updates can be pretty troublesome as they introduce all sorts of bugs, and sometimes, these take Microsoft many months to resolve. Well, what's worse than a buggy update? It turns out that an update itself can become a nuisance even before it has managed to install.

The guidance article aims to help users resolve or at least work around such problems. As mentioned above, the post itself is not new, but Microsoft has added several new pointers.

First and foremost, Microsoft has recommended that users run the native Windows Update Troubleshooter tool in case an update fails to download and/or install.

1. Select Start > Settings > Update & Security.
2. From the left-hand menu, select Troubleshoot, then click on Additional troubleshooters.
3. Under the Get up and running section and select Windows Update and click Run the troubleshooter.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

Another interesting new point is about clearing the Windows Update cache. Microsoft says that corrupt Update cache files can cause such problems, and thus, clearing them could help. It writes:

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
2. Locate the Windows Update service, right-click it, and select Stop.
3. Navigate to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.
4. Delete all files and folders inside this directory.
5. Go back to the Services window, right-click Windows Update, and select Start.

Besides those, Microsoft has also listed the common Update-related error codes and steps on how to fix them. The company has also provided small descriptions of what those error codes mean.

Here are the ones for Windows 10 and 11:

• 0x800705b4: Update took too long to install or was interrupted

• 0x80240034: Update process is stuck due to an incomplete update or connection issue

• 0x800f0922 or 0x8007000E: Unable to install the update due to insufficient disk space

• 0x800F081F, 0x80073712 or 0x80246007: Corrupted or missing system files or incomplete download

• 0x80246007: Missing download or required update files are unavailable

• 0x80070002, 0x80070003 or 0x80070057: Update failed to install

• 0x80070422: Windows update service is disabled or stopped

• 0x80070020: Another program or process is blocking the Windows update process

• Windows Update stuck at 0% or 100%

• Windows Update got to 51-99% and wont complete installation

• Unable to locate my files after the Windows update

   

And here are the ones that are only for Windows 11:

• 0x8007000d: Issue with Windows Update files or corruption in the update cache

• 0x80070057 or 0x80080005: Corrupted files or incorrect system configurations

• 0xC1900101: Incompatible driver is causing the update to fail

• 0x80248014: Windows Update database problem or update service not running

• 0x80070005: Access Denied error or insufficient permissions to install updates

   

You can find this helpful support article here on Microsoft's official website.

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Dynamic updates bring improvements to the Windows Recovery in the form of Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates, also called Safe OS updates, as well as to the Setup binaries in the form of Setup updates.

First up, we have the dynamic updates for Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025, and this is one of the rare times where an actual release note has been listed instead of the generic one. Microsoft says that the latest WinRE Safe OS update fixes a VBS (Virtualization-based Security) or Memory Integrity-related bug that prevented Windows 11 24H2 upgrades. VBS is meant to ensure Code Integrity on Windows systems.

It writes:

KB5059442: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11 version 24H2 and Server 2025: May 13, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. This update addresses the following issue:

 

• [Code Integrity] Fixed: An issue with upgrading to Windows 11, version 24H2.

...

 

KB5059806: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025: May 13, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025.

Up next, we have the sole dynamic update for Windows 10 in the form of a Safe OS WinRE update. Microsoft notes:

KB5059607: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: May 13, 2025

 

Summary

 

This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE) in Windows 10, version 21H2 and Windows 10, version 22H2.

For those who may not be aware, these Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. These packages include fixes to Setup.exe binaries, SafeOS updates for Windows Recovery Environment, and more. Dynamic Updates also help preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. VBScript, for example, is currently an FOD on Windows 11 24H2.

If you are having issues installing the update, Microsoft has shared a detailed guide on how to troubleshoot update-related problems. You can find it in full in its dedicated article here.

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The last time we reported on Plasma was back in February, with the release of Plasma 6.3.0, which delivered significant enhancements like improved color accuracy and fractional scaling. It is also worth noting that FreeBSD 14.3 Beta 3 recently shipped with KDE Plasma 6 right on the installation media, simplifying setup for users of that operating system. Now, Plasma 6.4 aims to build on this momentum, particularly with visual and audio refinements, and a keen eye on widget behavior.

There is now a brand new HDR calibration wizard, which should make configuring high dynamic range displays much more straightforward for users.

Alongside this, KWin, Plasma's window manager, gains the ability to enable "Extended Dynamic Range" on compatible displays, simulating HDR by intelligently adjusting the backlight. There will also be an option to limit the maximum color depth on screens that support such a feature, giving users more control over their display output.

Switching to Plasma widgets, the Audio Volume widget is getting a useful tweak; it will now feature small textual headers for audio input and output device sections, making it clearer to distinguish between microphones and speakers.

The Comics widget has also received significant attention, with improvements to its configuration dialog and how it communicates its status, especially when unconfigured or encountering errors.

Even seemingly small details are being addressed, such as Trash widgets now displaying a busy spinner during the emptying process, providing visual feedback for a potentially lengthy operation. A bug affecting large Notifications widgets on the desktop or in very wide panels, which prevented notifications from appearing, has also been fixed.

Plasma 6.4 also refines how it handles system resources and information. System Monitor's Overview page will now include more relevant monitors by default, such as GPU usage and individual disk capacities.

The built-in free space notifier has also received a significant update, as KDE developer Niccolò Venerandi detailed its improvements:

Plasma’s built-in free space notifier now warns you about low free space on any partition, not just / and /home. It has some intelligence to ignore partitions that are read-only or were mounted in an already mostly-full state, to avoid annoying you into wanting to throw your computer out the window. You can now also configure the percentage at which it starts to warn you.

Beyond Plasma itself, KDE Frameworks 6.15 is set to deliver some useful improvements. One standout tweak involves how executable files are handled: the dialog now presents the "don’t ask again" option much more clearly.

A performance fix will tackle excessive disk I/O from folder thumbnails in applications like Dolphin, and right-to-left language users will benefit from correctly laid out search and password fields.

Plasma 6.4 is set to release around next month.

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From its preliminary investigation, Microsoft learned that a conflict with Intel TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) is the root of the issue, though, at that time, a detailed explanation was not provided. However, it led to a simple workaround for the BitLocker recovery and reboot issue by going into the BIOS of affected Intel-based PCs and disabling the TXT feature there.

For those not familiar, Intel TXT is a security feature built into Intel processors and chipsets. It helps protect computers from software attacks by ensuring that applications run in a safe, isolated space. TXT uses hardware-based security to keep data secure and incorporates features like Intel PTT (or commonly called TPM) and Secure Boot.

After further investigation, as promised, Microsoft has published a new entry on its Windows Health Dashboard website. The company says that a conflict between Intel's TXT feature and its latest KB5058379 Windows 10 Patch is leading to the lsass.exe process termination and that is essentially what is triggering the Automatic Repair of such affected systems.

That's because the Local Security Authority Server Service (LSASS) process helps validate and authenticate users for local and remote sign-ins by enforcing local security policies. This helps explain why systems are going into a BitLocker recovery frenzy as Intel TXT and LSASS are not playing well with one another.

When this happens, Microsoft has explained that affected devices react in one of two ways. On the brighter side, the system could make several attempts to install update KB5058379 before Startup Repair manages to successfully roll it back to the previous (stable) update; but on the flip side when it fails, it creates a reboot loop.

Aside from these, Microsoft has also listed a couple of other symptoms:

• Event ID 20 might appear in the Windows Event Viewer in the System event log, with the following text: "Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x800F0845: 2025-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5058379)."
• Event ID 1074 might appear in the System event log, with the text: "The system process 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe' terminated unexpectedly with status code -1073740791."

The company says it is working on a fix for this bug on an urgent basis, and thus, an out-of-band update, similar to the one for Windows 11 24H2, will be released soon. You can find the issue entry here on Microsoft's official Windows Health Dashboard website.

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Most recently, Microsoft announced the deprecation of Bing Search APIs and another Edge feature in favor of something more standard and secure. The company also confirmed some major changes to Windows hardware drivers as it announced the deprecation of Windows Device metadata and the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS). Meanwhile, an Excel feature is also going away as the company feels it's not worth the effort and cost to maintain support for it.

Likewise, VBScript removal has also been on Microsoft's radar for a while. The company first expressed the desire to remove it back in May 2023. Later that year, in October, Microsoft officially deprecated it.

However, if you are not familiar, a deprecation announcement does not automatically mean that the feature goes away overnight. Instead, the feature is marked for removal and enters its "deprecation phase." This phase, as Microsoft explained before, is meant to help organisations reliant on such a feature move on.

As such, Microsoft had provided a timeline of events in May 2024 and divided the deprecation phase into three parts. The first phase is ongoing as VBScript is still enabled by default as a feature on demand (FOD).

This is where things get tricky, though. Microsoft had previously mentioned in its timeline that VBScript FOD would be disabled by around 2027, and that would coincide with future Windows updates in 2026 and 2027.

Microsoft's latest guidance post, published today, about VBScript removal suggests that the FOD accessibility may be removed early in version 24H2 itself or perhaps in 25H2 (there are already traces of version 25H2). The company writes:

At the current deprecation phase of VBScript, it's available as a feature on demand (FOD) and is enabled by default in Windows 11, version 24H2. Before VBScript is disabled by default on these and future OS versions, it's critical that you to identify where and how vbscript.dll is still being used within your enterprise environment.

Thus, the wording seems to suggest that VBScript might go away early as a default FOD, and this may also be why the company has shared this new guidance to help companies move on faster. Regardless, it is now time to "proactively disable VBScript on Windows 11," says the tech giant.

In this guide, Microsoft has highlighted four mechanisms that can help an enterprise detect the usage of VBScript in their workflow so that they can take the next necessary steps to remove all dynamic link libraries (.dll files) based on VBScript.

The company has recommended using its official SysMon (System Monitor) utility to trace and track down VBScript DLLs and review VBScript dependencies like those related Group Policy and PowerShell scripts for logon, logoff, startup, shutdown, scheduled tasks, as well as those for invoking VBScript.

To help, Microsoft has also provided a PowerShell script to scan for VBScript files across the system:

$pathsToScan = @("C:\Users", "C:\ProgramData", "C:\Scripts")
$logPath = "C:\VBSScriptScan\VbsFiles_$(hostname).csv"
$results = foreach ($path in $pathsToScan) {
   if (Test-Path $path) {
       Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Filter *.vbs -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
           Select-Object FullName, LastWriteTime, Length
   }
}

Speaking of PowerShell scripts, Microsoft has also provided another sample script for detecting the presence of embedded VBScript in Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\MSIRepo" -Recurse -Filter *.msi | ForEach-Object {
    $msiPath = $_.FullName
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM CustomAction"
    $installer = New-Object -ComObject WindowsInstaller.Installer
    $database = $installer.GetType().InvokeMember("OpenDatabase", "InvokeMethod", $null, $installer, @($msiPath, 0))
    $view = $database.OpenView($sql)
    $view.Execute()
    $record = $view.Fetch()
    while ($record -ne $null) {
        $actionName = $record.StringData(1)
        $actionType = [int]$record.StringData(2)
        if ($actionType -eq 6 -or $actionType -eq 38 -or $actionType -eq 50) {
            Write-Output "⚠ VBScript Custom Action: $actionName in $msiPath"
        }
        $record = $view.Fetch()
    }

As mentioned above, Microsoft recommends proactively disabling VBScript on Windows 11 from now on. The company has explained how to do so once an enterprise has detected VBScript usage in its systems:

Use the following Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) command to do so: Dism /Online /Remove-Capability /CapabilityName:VBSCRIPT~~~~

 

Use Microsoft Intune, GPO Startup Scripts, or Microsoft Configuration Manager to deploy this command across your fleet.

Upon running the above DISM command, Microsoft says that VBScript will be disabled. Thus, all processes attempting to use VBScript will be blocked and will either "fail silently or with errors." You can read the blog post here on Microsoft's official Tech Community website.

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Following earlier beta builds in May, such as 14.3 Beta 1, which kicked off the testing cycle with installer enhancements and various fixes, and Beta 2, which addressed Wi-Fi bugs, added support for chpasswd to the nuageinit service, and more, this third beta introduces a notable convenience for desktop enthusiasts.

The most significant update for many users testing Beta 3 will be the inclusion of KDE Plasma 6 packages directly on the DVD installation images. This is a welcome change, simplifying the setup of a modern desktop environment on FreeBSD considerably, as users can get KDE up and running with fewer post-installation steps. The FreeBSD project detailed the other key changes implemented since the previous Beta 2:

• DVD images now contain KDE packages, and no longer contain kernel modules compiled on FreeBSD 14.2.
• PATH is set correctly in the post-install shell from bsdinstall.
• A bug causing boot failures on powerpc64le has been fixed.
• 802.11 AUTH frames are no longer sent if BSS changes.

The FreeBSD team also continues to remind users that for SD card images designed for ARM devices, default "freebsd" and "root" user credentials remain for initial SSH access; these must be changed immediately upon first login to secure the system. With Beta 3 now available, the 14.3 release cycle is progressing steadily towards its anticipated final FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE, which is targeted for sometime around early June 2025. Installation images for various architectures and detailed instructions can be found on the official FreeBSD website.

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