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Windows 11 build 23471 gets File Explorer tab merging, a redesigned network lock, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23471, adds more features to the tabbed File Explorer and fixes bugs in it as well. It has a new Add Phone photos option in Gallery, a new redesigned Network flyout lock, and more. The full changelog is given below: What’s new in Build 23471 Add Phone Photos in File Explorer Gallery Accessing your phone’s camera roll from your PC is an important everyday task that is now easier with File Explorer Gallery. There is a new button in the Command Bar titled “Add Phone Photos” that will help with setting up your PC to be ready to show these photos in Gallery. Clicking this button today will open a URL with a QR code that you can scan with your phone to get started. Add Phone Photos option on the command bar in File Explorer.NOTE: Users may need to opt into OneDrive’s Insider Program to get a version of the OneDrive sync client that handles the protocol invoked when clicking this button. To join the OneDrive Insider Program, open OneDrive settings by bringing up the OneDrive flyout from the system tray; from there, navigate to the About page and turn on the toggle for the OneDrive Insider Program. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer. Narrator natural voices in Spanish (Spain and Mexico) We are introducing new natural voices in Spanish (Spain and Mexico) that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection. To use one of the natural voices, add it to your PC by following these steps: Open Narrator Settings by pressing the WIN + Ctrl + N hotkey. Under Narrator’s voice, select the Add button next to Add natural voices. Select the voice you want to install. You can install all voices, but you must install them separately. The new Spanish (Spain) voices are Microsoft Alvaro and Microsoft Elvira. The new Spanish (Mexico) voices are Microsoft Jorge and Microsoft Dalia. To start the download of the selected voice, select Install. The new voice will download and be ready for use in a few minutes, depending on your internet download speed. When the new voice has downloaded, in Narrator settings select your preferred voice from the drop-down menu in Narrator’s voice > Choose a voice. Note: If your display language is not set to Spanish , then in step 3 you will first need to select “Choose a different language” and then select the appropriate language followed by the specific voice. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator. Changes and Improvements [Lock screen] We have updated the network flyout on the Lock screen to align with Windows 11 design principles. Network flyout on Lock screen now aligns to the Windows 11 design principles.[File Explorer] We are beginning to roll out the ability to tear out and merge tabs in File Explorer. This feature is beginning to roll out, so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away. Gallery in File Explorer, which began rolling out with Build 23435, is now available for all Insiders in the Dev Channel. [Settings] It is easier to control whether to use cellular when Wi-Fi is available but poor, using a new toggle which has been added to Settings > Network & Internet > Cellular. Fixes [File Explorer] Fixed an issue where pressing Shift + F10 wasn’t opening the context menu in File Explorer. Fixed an issue where access keys appeared inconsistently if no button was pressed. We fixed the following issues for Insiders previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer Fixed an issue that was causing explorer.exe to crash when opening the context menu for some Insiders. This same issue is believed to be the cause of some Insiders seeing an older design instead of the updated one. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with Gallery in File Explorer: Fixed an explorer.exe crash in the last flight related to loading/interacting with the scrollbar in Gallery. Fixed an issue where Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load. Fixed an issue where minimizing and reopening File Explorer would lose your scroll position in Gallery. Hovering your mouse over pictures in Gallery should now show a tooltip with information about the picture. Live updates (including filtering) are now enabled and no longer require using the Refresh button manually. Fixed an issue where some file types (e.g., .heic) were not rendered correctly or performantly. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized details pane in File Explorer: Made the background for thumbnails a little lighter in light mode so it doesn’t stand out as much. If you have Narrator running when you open the details pane, it should now announce the file name. If the setting to show file name extensions has been enabled, that will now be reflected in the details pane too. [Taskbar] Fixed an issue that was causing the taskbar to get cut off when switching to and from the tablet-optimized taskbar. [Search on the Taskbar] We have fixed the issue causing Insiders to see an empty tooltip displayed momentarily in certain cases including while the gleam is hovered if the new hover behavior for the search box and search highlight gleam is enabled. [Other] Fixed an issue where Narrator with Braille support wasn’t reading numbered lists correctly in Microsoft 365 apps. NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11. Known issues [Dev Drive] On a reboot, additional filters beyond AV might be attached to your Dev Drive. To check what filters are attached, please run ‘fsutil devdrv query :’ in Windows PowerShell. If you are seeing more than your AV filters, you can run ‘fsutil volume dismount :’ and then ‘fsutil devdrv query :’. After those steps, you should only see your AV filters. There might be variable performance on different hardware. If you notice slower performance on your machine, please file feedback! [Search on the Taskbar] [NEW] Navigating the search flyout on the taskbar with the keyboard arrow keys will not work as expected. Narrator customers may not be able to navigate down the left side panel of the search flyout. Text scaling may not work in the search flyout. [File Explorer] Insiders may experience a File Explorer crash when dragging the scroll bar or attempting to close the window during an extended file-loading process. Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues: Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool. Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer: Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive). [Taskbar & System Tray] The taskbar may not show the correct apps if you’re using multiple desktops. [Notifications] The copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts (first introduced in Build 23403) is currently not working in this build. A fix is coming in a future flight. [Backup and Restore] Backups of a PC that was set up using a restore may not show up in subsequent restores. Restore of solid color desktop backgrounds are not yet supported. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta Channel (KB5026440) fixes issues with SMB, memory leak, audio, NTFS, LSASS by Sayan Sen Today, Microsoft has released builds 22621.1825 and 22631.1825 (KB5026440) to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 Insiders. The company writes in its blog post: Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1825 and Build 22631.1825 (KB 5026440) to the Beta Channel. Build 22631.1825 = New features rolling out. Build 22621.1825 = New features off by default. The new builds have several bug fixes, like those related to the Server Message Block (SMB), a memory leak, Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS), NTFS, an audio issue, and more. Aside from these, OneDrive capacity display in Settings has been fixed as well. The full changelog is given below: Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1825 & Build 22631.1825 New! This update provides the full amount of storage capacity of all your OneDrive subscriptions. It also displays the total storage on the Accounts page in the Settings app. This update addresses an issue that affects dot sourcing. It fails files that contain class definition in Windows PowerShell. This update addresses an issue that affects exe. It stops working after you sign out. This issue occurs after you upgrade your machine to Windows 11 Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and sign in to that machine. This update addresses an issue that affects Server Message Block (SMB). You cannot access the SMB shared folder. The errors are, “Not enough memory resources” or “Insufficient system resources.” This update addresses a memory leak. It occurs every time you print a rich text document. This update addresses an issue that affects audio playback. It fails on devices that have certain processors. This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). It stops working. This occurs when you use Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). This update addresses an issue that affects the touch keyboard. Sometimes, it does not show the correct layout based on the current input scope. This update addresses a multi-function label printer issue. It affects the installation of some of them. This update addresses an issue that might affect a large reparse point. You might get a stop error when you use NTFS to access it. This issue occurs after a canceled FSCTL Set operation changes the reparse tag. This update addresses an issue that affects Narrator. It now announces text attributes correctly for words, such as “misspelled,” “deletion change,” and “comment.” This update addresses an issue that affects a computer when it renders a halftone bitmap. The computer stops working. This update addresses an issue that affects devices that have multiple, discreet GPUs. You cannot choose the high-performance GPUs from the default graphics settings page. This update changes the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) ranges for certain mobile providers. This update addresses an Event Viewer issue. It affects the rendering of a forwarded event log. This update addresses an issue that affects the Chinese and Japanese Input Method Editor (IME). When you search within the Emoji Panel (Windows key + period (.)), search might fail for some of you. This update addresses an issue that affects the Chinese and Japanese Handwriting Panel. It does not show text prediction candidates or stops responding. This occurs when you select a word from the candidate list of the Handwriting Panel. This update addresses an issue that stops your device from working when it resumes from Modern Standby. The error is 0x13A KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION. This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Firewall. The firewall drops all connections to the IP address of a captive portal. This occurs when you choose the Captive Portal Addresses option. This update addresses an issue that affects devices that are joined to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). The Windows Firewall cannot apply the correct domain and profile for them. This update addresses an issue that affects the runas It stops working. The device behaves as if you did not sign in to your account. This update changes the support phone number for Microsoft India for Windows activation. This update addresses an issue that affects applications that perform certain actions in a callback. The applications might stop working. These actions include closing a Window (WM_CLOSE). This update addresses an issue that affects the use of the Event Viewer. The issue limits the number of event sources that users who are not administrators can access. This update addresses an issue that affects the Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) cluster. It might not come online. This occurs after a periodic password rollover. The error code is 1326. This update addresses an issue that affects access to Tab settings for IE mode sites. The update addresses an issue that sends unexpected password expiration notices to users. This occurs when you set up an account to use “Smart Card is Required for Interactive Logon” and set “Enable rolling of expiring NTLM secrets.” This update addresses an issue that affects the touch keyboard. It shows the wrong layout for the French-Canadian language. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 23466 brings new Backup and Restore via OOBE app, Dev Drive, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23466, brings improvements to backing up data with a new Backup and Restore app. Dev Drive also makes a debut, that was introduced at Build 2023 yesterday, and more. Of course, there are plenty of known issues and bugs as well. You can check the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23466 Dev Drive Dev Drive is a new form of storage volume available to improve performance for key developer workloads. Dev Drive is built upon Resilient File System (ReFS) technology and includes file system optimizations and features that enable developers to better manage their performance and security profile. It has been designed to meet a developer’s needs to host project source code, working folders, and package caches. It is not designed for general consumer workloads such as document libraries, installing packaged applications or non-developer tools. To setup a Dev Drive, you can create one in free space on an existing drive or create a VHD/VHDX. This is done via Settings app under System > Storage > Advanced Storage Settings > Disks & Volumes, or via the command-line. A Dev Drive must be at least 50GB or higher in size and we recommend having 8GB or higher RAM on your device. Performance mode, a new capability of Microsoft Defender Antivirus, is designed for Dev Drive to minimize impact on developer workloads. More details on Dev Drive, see this documentation on MS Learn. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Developer Platform > Dev Drive. Backup and Restore improvements Building on the app restore feature we announced last year, we are introducing additional backup and restore capabilities in this build to make moving to a new PC easier than ever and to help app developers retain users across this new PC transition. The goal of these changes is to land users on a desktop that feels familiar to them and get them back to productivity within minutes on their new PC. The Windows Backup app.Windows Backup app – we’re introducing this new app to quickly get your current PC backed up and ready to move to a new PC. App pins – your Store apps from your prior PC will be pinned where you left them, both on taskbar and in the Start menu. Settings – Settings from your previous device will restore to your new PC to help you get back into the flow as quickly as possible. Welcome back screen showing PC restoring from backup. Once you’re backed up either via the new Windows Backup app or by visiting Accounts/Windows Backup in settings, you can try out the new restore during the out-of-box- experience (OOBE) when setting up a new PC or by resetting an existing PC with this build. NOTE: An easy way for Insiders to try this experience out is by running the Windows Backup app on a PC running this build and then setting up a new VM using the ISO for this build provided here (or clean installation of this build on another PC) and going through OOBE for the new restore experience. For developers, review the developer best practices to learn more about how to provide the best restore experience for your app. Note that in this build, not all settings and app types are supported, including desktop apps in the Store and Android apps. Backing up a Work or School account is also not supported. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Install and Update > Backup and Restore. New text authoring experiences in voice access We have added two new experiences to make text authoring easy with voice access. Users can now use “correction” commands to correct words that are misrecognized by voice access. You can say “correct [text]” or “correct that” to correct a specific piece of text or last dictated text. The correction window appears with a list of options labelled with numbers. You can say “click [number]” to select any option from the list. If you choose an alternate word from the window , the selected text will be replaced by the word. You can also say “spell that” to dictate the correct spelling of the text. A word document showing corrections window with candidates for the text “cereals”. Users can directly use the “spell that” or “spell out” command to dictate the right spelling of non-standard words such as usernames, topics, etc. A spelling window appears where you can dictate letters, numbers, symbols, phonetic alphabet, etc. You get suggestions as you spell out the text. You can say “click 1” to enter the text you spelled out or say “click [number]” to pick a suggestion (if any). All words and phrases dictated using spelling experience are added to Windows dictionary and show up as suggestions when you try to spell the text next time. Spelling window is floating on top of the Word application. Spelling window showing suggestions as few characters are dictated.To do this Say this Correct a specific word or text “correct [text]”, e.g., “correct site” Correct selected text or last dictated text “correct that” Spell a word letter by letter. , “spell that” [We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Voice Access. Narrator natural voices in Chinese We are introducing new natural voices in Chinese that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection. To use one of the natural voices, add it to your PC by following these steps: Open Narrator Settings by pressing the WIN + Ctrl + N hotkey. Under Narrator’s voice, select the Add button next to Add natural voices. Select the voice you want to install. You can install all voices, but you must install them separately. The new Chinese voices are Microsoft Xiaoxiao and Microsoft Yunxi. To start the download of the selected voice, select Install. The new voice will download and be ready for use in a few minutes, depending on your internet download speed. When the new voice has downloaded, in Narrator settings select your preferred voice from the drop-down menu in Narrator’s voice > Choose a voice. New natural voices in Chinese in Narrator. Note: If your display language is not set to Chinese, then in step 3 you will first need to select “Choose a different language” and then select the Chinese language followed by the specific voice. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator. Changes and Improvements [General] To minimize distractions from notification toasts, we now detect if the user is interacting with toasts or not and provide a suggestion to turn the toast banners off for such apps. This will only stop the banners from appearing, and you can still find the toasts in the notification center. This feature is beginning to roll out, so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away. Suggestions to turn the toast banners.[Start menu] We are trying out a different model for ranking the most recently used files in the Start menu’s Recommended section that considers when the file was last used, the file extension, and more. This means you may not see files purely in reverse chronological order of when they were last used. [Taskbar & System Tray] We’re excited to bring you an early version of one of our most requested features for Windows 11, never combined mode. In never combined mode, you’ll be able to see each window of your applications on the taskbar individually, as well as their corresponding labels. You can find this feature by navigating to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors. This feature is beginning to roll out, so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away. Taskbar in never combined mode.[Search on the Taskbar] We are beginning to re-roll out the exploration of a new hover behavior for the search box and search highlight gleam. This originally began rolling out with Build 23440 but was disabled to address a bug. The proposed interaction model aims to create a more engaging search experience by invoking the search flyout when you hover over the search box gleam. This behavior can be adjusted by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing “Taskbar settings” and adjusting your preferred search box experience. [File Explorer] The Windows App SDK version of File Explorer is now fully rolled out to Insiders in the Dev Channel and as a result, we are removing the “pizza” icon on the command bar. [Emoji] We have seen your feedback and are updating a few emoji in our current set. Everything from making the eye more recognizable to changing our alien to be out of this world. We know there are a few bugs in this release which will be resolved in future flights. Examples of updated emoji in our current set.[Windows Security] We have updated the Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs that match the Windows 11 visuals. Updated Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs.[Networking] Added support for bridging adapters via command line via netsh. Passpoint Wi-Fi networks will now support enhanced connection performance and will display a URL in Quick Settings to provide information to users about the venue or event. We added WPA3 support to the Phone Link instant hotspot feature for more secure connections to a phone’s hotspot. Also made fixes to respect metered connection settings, reduce duplicate profiles, and show the phone’s display name in the network list. [Settings] We have added links to advanced properties for network adapters and internet properties under Settings > Network & internet > Advanced network settings. Link to advanced properties for network adapters in Settings.We have added a way to view Wi-Fi passwords for your known networks via Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi and “Manage known networks”. View Wi-Fi passwords for known wireless networks in Settings.We added the ability to join Bluetooth Personal Area networks under the Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Devices This option will appear for paired devices like Phones that are sharing internet over Bluetooth. Based on your feedback, we have added additional options to the Data Usage page that allows for daily and weekly data limits. The page will also now show how far a data limit has been exceeded. Updated the design of the lists displayed under Settings > Apps > Startup Apps and Settings > Apps > Advanced App Settings > App Execution Alias pages to be more consistent with other Settings pages. Updated Settings > Apps > Startup to make it easier to access more information about the apps listed. [For Developers] We are moving the “For Developers” settings page from Settings > Privacy & security to now be under Settings > System. Fixes [File Explorer] We fixed the following issues for Insiders previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer Fixed an issue which could cause File Explorer or the Control Panel to become unresponsive to clicks after invoking the context menu. Fixed an issue where File Explorer and taskbar weren’t responding to light and dark mode changes (until explorer.exe was restarted) if you had this version. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with Gallery in File Explorer: Added icons for the entries in the Collection dropdown in Gallery. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized details pane in File Explorer: Fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t saying anything when opening and closing the details pane. [Taskbar] Fixed an issue where the taskbar in multi-monitor setups would show the indicator for an app window having focus on your screen when it actually didn’t. [Search on the Taskbar] We fixed the issue causing some users to see content flicker before the content finishes loading when the search flyout is opened. We fixed an issue causing search to crash on launch for some Insiders in the previous build. [Notifications] Fixed an issue which was making the Notification Center and Notification page in Settings crash when switching do not disturb status for some Insiders in the last few flights. [Task Manager] The search icon should be easier to see now when using a contrast theme. Pressing enter when keyboard focus is on one of the sections (like Memory) in the Performance page should now actually switch sections. Made the navigation pane a bit narrower. As part of this change, when necessary, the text will be wrapped now. The creation of live kernel memory dump file submenu has access keys now. Resizing Task Manager from the top of the window should work now. [Settings] Fixed an issue which was causing Settings to crash randomly sometimes when navigating away from certain pages. [Windows Spotlight] Fixed an issue which was causing explorer.exe to crash when selecting “learn more about this picture” in the previous flight. NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11. Known issues [Dev Drive] [NEW] On a reboot, additional filters beyond AV might be attached to your Dev Drive. To check what filters are attached, please run ‘fsutil devdrv query :’ in Windows PowerShell. If you are seeing more than your AV filters, you can run ‘fsutil volume dismount :’ and then ‘fsutil devdrv query :’. After those steps, you should only see your AV filters. [NEW] There might be variable performance on different hardware. If you notice slower performance on your machine, please file feedback! [Search on the Taskbar] [NEW] Insiders who have the new hover behavior for the search box and search highlight gleam will see an empty tooltip displayed momentarily while the gleam is hovered. This might also occur for Insiders who don’t have the new hover behavior – the empty tooltip may be displayed when the gleam is hovered. Narrator customers may not be able to navigate down the left side panel of the search flyout. Text scaling may not work in the search flyout. [File Explorer] [NEW] Insiders may experience a File Explorer crash when dragging the scroll bar or attempting to close the window during an extended file-loading process. Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues: Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load. Live updates (including filtering) are currently disabled and require using the Refresh button as a workaround. Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool. Photos from OneDrive for Business currently must be hydrated to work properly. Some file types (e.g., HEIC) might not be rendered correctly or performantly. Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer will see the following issues: Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear. Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer: Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive). [Taskbar & System Tray] [NEW] If you drag and drop a window in Task View to a different Desktop, the icon for that app may not appear in the taskbar. [Notifications] [NEW] The copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts (first introduced in Build 23403) is currently not working in this build. A fix is coming in a future flight. [Backup and Restore] [NEW] Backups of a PC that was set up using a restore may not show up in subsequent restores. [NEW] Restore of solid color desktop backgrounds are not yet supported. You can find the offficial blog post here.

Windows 11 Canary build 25370 adds vTPM, WPA3 Wi-Fi encryption and performance boost by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released the latest Windows 11 build for Insiders on the Canary channel today. The new build 25370 adds support for virtual TPM (vTPM) in Hyper-V on Windows on Arm. There are also improvements to the networking, like WPA3 encryption for Wi-Fi as well as a performance boost. The full changelog is given below: What’s new in Build 25370 Support for vTPM in Hyper-V on Windows on Arm (Arm64) builds After upgrading your host OS to the latest flighted build (Build 25370 and higher), you will now be able to upgrade guest Windows on Arm VM’s to Windows 11 Insider Preview builds as it will detect the TPM 2.0 requirement. Changes and Improvements [Networking] Added support for bridging adapters via command line via netsh. Passpoint Wi-Fi networks will now support enhanced connection performance and will display a URL in Quick Settings to provide information to users about the venue or event. We added WPA3 support to the Phone Link instant hotspot feature for more secure connections to a phone’s hotspot. Also made fixes to respect metered connection settings, reduce duplicate profiles, and show the phone’s display name in the network list. [Settings] We have added links to advanced properties for network adapters and internet properties under Settings > Network & internet > Advanced network settings. Link to advanced properties for network adapters in Settings. You can find the official blog post here.

How to enable features from Windows 11 Moment 3 update by Taras Buria The Windows 11 Moment 3 update is now on its final stretch to public release. Microsoft has started rolling out the update to insiders in the Release Preview Channel, and it will soon become available to all Windows 11 users. Still, even after downloading the latest build (22621.1776), you might not have access to the new features as Microsoft is gradually rolling out the update to test the waters. Those unhappy with such a questionable approach can fix the situation by doing the following: Open Settings and go to Windows Update. Toggle on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" option. Note that the feature is not available on managed computers. Download and install available to your device updates. Toggling on the "fast lane" switch should be enough to enable Moment 3's features on your computer. But if that did not work, try force-enabling the update using the ViVeTool app (credits for the ID goes to @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter): Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the archive in a convenient and easy-to-find folder. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin). Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive. Type vivetool /enable /id:41655236 and press Enter. Restart your computer. The Windows 11 Moment 3 update has an extensive list of new features and improvements. You can check out what is new in our dedicated coverage, plus we will soon publish a close look at the changes the update will introduce soon.

Microsoft delivers on its promise, Rust has arrived in the Windows 11 kernel by Sayan Sen Microsoft's David Weston, BlueHat IL 2023 Last month, David Weston, Vice President of Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, presented at the BlueHat IL 2023 conference. Although the event covered several interesting things, one of the topics that grabbed the headlines was the inclusion of Rust inside the Windows kernel. Microsoft claimed that it shouldn't be too long before we see Rust in Windows, just a few weeks or months. Highligted by Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, it looks like David Weston was not exaggerating, as tidbits of Rust code are already here inside Windows 11 Insider builds as the Win32k.sys kernel mode (KM) driver files have been ported to Rust. Win32k.sys is responsible for handling the graphics device interface (GDI) and window management on Windows. If you're on the Win11 Insider ring, you're getting the first taste of Rust in the Windows kernel! pic.twitter.com/uyZkK2vRLY — Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) May 10, 2023 At the presentation, Microsoft stated that there were no significant performance anomalies or regressions noted with Rust in its internal test scenarios. The Win32k's GDI port to Rust was able to pass all tests when booting on Windows. Weston explained the many reasons why Microsoft was keen on Rust inside Windows and one of those happened to be memory security. Speaking of memory security, Microsoft released a new memory integrity/HVCI compatibility checker tool recently which you can find details about here.

Windows 11 unofficial third-party tool now lets you Never Combine Taskbar by Sayan Sen Never combine taskbar buttons on Windows 11 is probably one of the most coveted features that Windows 11 fans, enthusiasts, and users wished they had. The feature is one of the top searches on Google indicating people are definitely looking for ways to do it. People have been getting around using third-party apps like StartAllBack, ExplorerPatcher, among others, for restoring some of the classic Start menu items. Close to the end of last year in November, we got the first hints of that in a Server preview build in the form of a forcibly disabled feature. Much more recently though, just two months ago, more glaring evidence has been uncovered in the first Canary build that Microsoft put out, 25314. There were a bunch of new strings related to Taskbar and some of those suggested that the ability to ungroup apps and show labels was in Microsoft's mind. Windows enthusiast and Twitter user Albacore has developed a new utility which brings some of these abilities to life. The app is called Shell Frosting and its maiden release was published earlier today. The tool allows users to play around with a few options which include: Always combine, hide labels Combine when taskbar is full Never combine The UI is pretty simple to interact with as you can see in the images below on Dev build 23451. There is an option for multiple displays as well: As mentioned above, this is the first release of the Shell Frosting utility and the dev has cautioned that it is quite unstable. However, if you want to try it out on a VM or something, you can head over to GitHub and download it. It works on the Dev channel only at the moment. Source: Albacore (Twitter)

Windows 11 is about to start showing more ads, this time in Settings [Update] by Steve Bennett It’s no secret that Microsoft has been looking to increase advertising for its products within Windows 11, and investigation by Twitter user Albacore into recent Insider builds has found that the Settings Home page will soon start to present adverts for Microsoft 365 products in the near future. A banner asking users who aren’t subscribed to the platform to “Try Microsoft 365” shows at the top of the Home tab in Settings in the screenshot below. Below the advertisement there is a section that will show the current storage status for a user’s OneDrive account, and then a security tips section for users to secure their account. This isn’t the only version of the Home tab that has been seen, with another version having the storage information listed first and the Microsoft 365 prompt to Sign In listed below. The final update that has been seen during this investigation into the Settings tab on this Insider build is a small prompt on the Accounts tab, which shows information about products that are installed to the users system that have reached end of support, such as Office 2013 which is shown in the image below. This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has been incorporating adverts into its operating system, with Start Menu ads being seen in the Start Menu of Windows 11 since November 2022. Microsoft is keen to drive more subscriptions to the 365 platform through these adverts and its apparently intrusive approach to advertising, such as the full screen upgrade ads presented to users in February. Albacore hasn't stated which build number these were found in, but we have reached out to confirm this. Update: Albacore has confirmed in a tweet the build information below, which is the recent Dev channel build 23451: This page has been hidden in builds for a few weeks and it's slowly getting more cards added to it These screenshots are from 23451 — Albacore (@thebookisclosed) May 8, 2023

Microsoft Weekly: more Edge problems, Windows concepts, broken features, and updates by Taras Buria Here is your weekly recap of Microsoft news published on Neowin between April 30 and May 6, 2023. We had a lot of interesting stories, controversies, neat Windows concepts, app updates, and fresh insider builds for Windows and Xbox Insiders. Edge goes down. The biggest story of this week is Statcounter's latest browser report. According to the company, Microsoft Edge is no longer world's second desktop browser. In April 2023, Edge lost its place to Safari, the only non-cross-platform mainstream browser. Some users may say the decline is well-deserved since Microsoft continues pushing user-hostile practices. Numerous reports indicate that the latest cumulative updates for Windows 10 and 11 are forcing customers to switch to Edge. Also, Outlook and Teams will soon open all links in Microsoft Edge, regardless of your default browser. Yikes! Windows 11 goes up, but not without problems. Unlike Edge, Windows 11 shows no signs of stopping or declining—both Statcounter and Steam say Windows 11 continues its steady rise. 23% of all Windows PCs already run Microsoft's latest OS; on the gaming side, about 33% of Steam users have upgraded from Windows 10 to 11. However, every rose has its thorn—some Windows 11-related news this week was not-so-positive. For starters, a popular app for debloating the OS got kicked out of the Microsoft Store allegedly due to an invalid certificate. The developer said the app has everything it needs to remain in the Microsoft Store and called the latter "a tragedy." Another head-scratching story last week involved Windows 11's hopelessly broken "game-changing" feature. Many users noticed that the Spotify integration Panos Panay hyped so much in 2021 no longer works and returns a blank login screen whenever you try to connect to Spotify. Microsoft has confirmed that it is working on resolving the problem, but the service remains inoperable for almost three months. Microsoft also confirmed a new known issue in Windows 11 22H2. The company says users may experience issues with speech recognition when using specific languages. Fortunately, the problem affects only two languages, and it will get a fix soon. On a slightly puzzling side, Microsoft allegedly reduced Windows 11's OOBE quality—it now plays at 30FPS instead of 60FPS, and no one knows why. Mouth-watering concepts. Feast your eyes on these two fantastic Windows concepts. One imagines Windows "12" with a highly-customizable taskbar to please everyone and another imagines what could Windows 11 Mobile look like had Microsoft not abandoned its mobile OS in 2017. Dev Channel Let's get to app updates, fresh Windows and Xbox Insider builds, and more. Windows Insiders received a build in almost every channel this week: 25357 in Canary, 23451 in Dev, and 22621/4.1690 in Beta. In addition to features and changes mentioned in the official release notes (you might not like some of them), those builds have several hidden improvements you can enable with our favorite ViVeTool app: Notable improvements for tab management in File Explorer An iOS-like widget picker A much-better virtual desktop experience with restored animations and desktop indicators Speaking of widgets, a new report emerged last week, spilling the beans on Microsoft's plans to finally let Windows 11 users place widgets on the desktop. It is the most-requested widget-related change, and Microsoft is finally on track to deliver it. Here are app updates from the last week: Edge 113 in the Stable Channel UUP Media Converter now lets you download Canary builds New virtual backgrounds for Microsoft Teams Windows Photos app received a feature Microsoft removed earlier (and more) Xbox app for Windows with several game library improvements A major update for Microsoft Lists with UX optimizations and double the speed A revamped Microsoft OneDrive for Work and School Finally, last week, Microsoft launched community voting for the best Microsoft Store apps in 2023. The voting is now over, so stand by for the results. On the Xbox side of Microsoft's Insider program, gamers received new fixes and improvements in Beta, Delta, and Omega Rings. Besides, Microsoft released a refined home experience for Alpha, Alpha Skip-Ahead insiders, and it features a simplified layout with more emphasis on users' backgrounds. Games Kicking off the gaming section, check out John Callaham's look back at Wolfenstein 3D, which turned 31 years old. Hogwarts Legacy arrived on the previous-gen consoles with a dedicated Arachnophobia Mode, and a Phil Spencer interview reveals details about the disappointing Redfall (as some say Redfell) launch. This week also offered plenty of freebies for gamers: Four games in the weekly Free Play Days program on Xbox A 7-day trail for non-Prime members on Amazon Lune (now runs Fortnite) Massive Deals with Gold discounts on Bioshock, Guardians of the Galaxy, and other games Other notable gaming news includes a new referral trial program that lets you give your friends a 14-day Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass trial. After accepting an invitation, they will be able to play hundreds of games, plus several titles coming later this month. Finally, Microsoft announced a new custom controller in partnership with the OPI nail brand, and Xbox Game Showcase and Starfield Direct dates. Windows Security During the last seven days, Microsoft released many security updates. A new anti-malware package for Windows images is now available, allowing configuring WIM and VHD formats with the latest security definitions. Also, Microsoft published new Defender guides to help clients enable key security features on their systems. Another notable change for IT admins this week is email notifications about known Windows issues. Administrators can now receive an email whenever Microsoft details a new known problem in its operating system and apply necessary changes or mitigations much faster. Reviews This week, Steven Parker published a review of the GEEKOM Mini IT12, a mini PC powered by Intel's 12th gen processors. It turned out to be a solid, well-built, and powerful device with a few small nuances. Be sure to check out the review via this link. Trivia As usual, during this week, we had several editorials and trivia articles. An article by Usama Jawad detailed why Windows 10 will turn into Windows 7 in terms of market share and users' unwillingness to move on. John Callaham's "look back" article revives the memories of the first Microsoft Mouse released nearly 40 years ago (great read in light of the news about Microsoft stopping its mice and keyboard production). Also, check out Aditya Tiwari's brief history of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn as it turned 20 years old. And that is it for this week's recap—plenty of Microsoft news both good and not-so-much. And with the annual Microsoft Build conference upon us, I am looking forward to what this month will soon bring us. If you think I missed some interesting stories, share them in the comments section. Also, you can always find more Microsoft news under the "Microsoft" tag here on Neowin. If you like weekly recaps like this, be sure to subscribe to Neowin Newsletter. It will deliver the most interesting news directly to your inbox. Previous Microsoft Weekly roundups are available via this link.

UUP Media Converter app now lets you download Canary Channel ISO files by Taras Buria UUP Media Creator (UUPMC) is a command line-based tool for downloading Universal Update Platform files directly from Microsoft and converting them into ISO files (or for other purposes). The project's latest version has received several fixes and improvements, plus the ability to download UUP from the recently launched Canary Channel. Here is what is new in UUP Media Creator 3.1.5.0: Fixes #129 #150 - Issues preventing the usage on Linux and MacOS, both of those should now be working again Addresses an issue where making media using the LZMS compression would result in a broken image Allows downloading Server drops (AzureHci) using UUPDownload Document how to download canarychannel builds in the readme.md file Add CanaryChannel support for the get-builds parameter [NEW] UUPMediaConverter now requires the installation of libfuse2 on Linux machines Bumped a few dependencies Updated forked Dism/Wim library wrappers Unlike other utilities for downloading ISO files like Rufus, MCT, or OCT, UUP Media Creator is slightly more complicated as it is entirely command-line based. If you want to learn how to use UUP Media Creator, check out the Usage section on the project's GitHub repository. Alternatively, download a UWP front-end from the Microsoft Store. The app gives UUPMC a user-friendly and straightforward UI that makes downloading files much easier. However, it has yet to receive support for version 3.1.5.0, which means you cannot use it for downloading Canary files. UUP Media Creator is an open-source project, and you can track its development on GitHub and in the developer's Telegram channel and Twitter account. It is maintained by the same mastermind responsible for letting us run Windows 11, 10X, and 10 on the Surface Duo, Lumia smartphones (remember those?), and more.

Microsoft brings back a controversial Start menu change it removed earlier from Windows 11 by Taras Buria Last year, Microsoft tried recommending random websites to customers through Windows 11's Start menu. Users did not like the idea, and the company soon removed the feature from preview builds. After spending several months at the drawing board, Microsoft is back with website recommendations in the Start menu. This time, it is available in a more appealing form one may actually find useful. Starting with build 23451, Windows 11 recommends various web pages based on your browsing history from Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge instead of randomly selected popular websites (if you have opted into sharing your browsing data with Microsoft and enabled Continuous Import). Those not interested in the offered website can remove it from recommendations by right-clicking it. And if you want to turn off Start menu recommendations altogether, go to Settings > Personalization > Start and toggle off the "Show recommendations" option. Sadly, this will not remove the Recommended section to give you more space for your pins, but you can do that with a third-party app we recently recommended in our "Top 10 apps to fix Windows 11's inconveniences" article. Microsoft is gradually rolling out the updated website recommendations to insiders running the latest Windows 11 Dev build. Therefore, you may not have access to the feature after upgrading to build 23451. But if you do, share your feedback with Microsoft to help the company decide if it should ship this questionable feature to all users.

Windows 11 Dev build 23451 brings many File Explorer and Start menu changes by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23451, brings modern details pane in File Explorer, more recommended content in the Start menu, new Facebook widget, and more, Find the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23451 Modernized Details Pane in File Explorer We are introducing a modernized details pane in File Explorer (ALT + Shift + P) designed to help you easily access related content, stay up to date with file activity, and collaborate without even opening a file. New modernized details pane in File Explorer. When a user selects a file in File Explorer and enables the pane, a modern pane will display contextual information about the file including file thumbnail, share status and button, file activity, related files and e-mails, and other information. To enable the pane, choose ‘Details pane’ in View menu and then toggle the pane with an easy-access button located on right side of the command bar. The View menu/toggle button in the command bar can similarly be used for accessing the preview pane. This modernized pane will replace the legacy details pane in File Explorer. [We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer. Improving Windows Spotlight Starting with this build, we are trying out two different treatments for how Windows Spotlight looks. Both treatments will continue to share existing core Windows Spotlight features such as hovering over the icon on the desktop, right-clicking on the icon on the desktop, and double-clicking on the icon on the desktop. One treatment will include a richer UI, full screen, and minimized experience. Both treatments will include 4K portrait images and the ability to learn more about each desktop image. Insiders in the Dev Channel will see different treatments across their PCs so not everyone will see the same thing and the treatments will be shown in English only. One of the multiple treatments for Windows Spotlight with richer UI showing in the full-screen experience. Clicking anyway on the desktop dismisses the full-screen experience. To enable Windows Spotlight on your PC today, right-click on your desktop and choose “Personalize” and then choose the new Spotlight theme. Alternatively, you can directly enable Windows Spotlight by going to Settings > Personalization > Background and choosing the option under the “Personalize your background” dropdown. [We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Windows Spotlight. Narrator enhances interaction with Excel Narrator now provides a more succinct and efficient reading experience while working in Microsoft Excel. Announcements are prioritized based on the information you need to skim a workbook and are customizable using convenient keyboard shortcuts. Review the Enhanced Narrator support in Excel documentation for further information. To enable the enhanced announcements, you need to be on the latest Windows Insider and Office Insiders builds and start Narrator using the keyboard shortcut Control + Windows + Enter. The updated experience will be available through the Microsoft Store, so it may take a few minutes to be available on your PC. We look forward to you trying out our new changes and would love to hear your feedback and suggestions. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator. New Widget: Facebook Facebook is rolling out a preview version of their widget. To give it a try, download the Facebook app from the Microsoft Store or update to the latest version of the app. Then open the widgets board and navigate to the widgets picker by clicking the “+” button at the top-right of the board to pin your widget. The Facebook widget. As you give this and other new widgets a try, please let us know what you think through the Widgets feedback link in the widgets picker. You should expect to see additional new widgets as more developers create and release widgets for their apps. If you’re a Windows developer and interested in creating a widget, watch our tutorial video here. For an overview of the Windows widgets experience and design guidance for creating your own widgets, see Windows widgets. For more information on creating a Win32 widget provider, see Widget service providers. For information on PWA widget providers, see Build PWA-driven widgets. Changes and Improvements [Start menu] We’re beginning to expand the roll out of notification badging for Microsoft accounts on the Start menu. A Microsoft account is what connects Windows to your Microsoft apps, backs up all of your data, helps you manage subscriptions, and where you can add extra security steps so you’re never locked out of your account. With this feature, we’re giving customers quick access to important account-related notifications. These notifications can be managed by going to Settings > Personalization > Start. Example of a notification badge on the Start menu.We continue to work on adding more valuable content to the Recommended section in the Start menu by re-introducing websites after trying this out with Insiders last fall. One improvement we’ve made is to recommend more useful and personal websites based on your browsing history instead of generally popular websites. Insiders can right-click on a website and choose to remove a website individually at any given time. Only some Insiders will see this experience and, if you do, please share your feedback. This feature will apply to users who have opted into sharing browsing data with Microsoft and have visited enough websites in Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome (with Continuous Import enabled). As a reminder, the settings for what is recommended on Start can be adjusted via Settings > Personalization > Start. Commercial customers can manage this experience via policy. Recommended websites based on your browsing history on the Start menu.[File Explorer] For Windows Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer (which began rolling out with Build 23435), we have updated the icon for Gallery. Updated Gallery icon in File Explorer.[Widgets] We are beginning to roll out a new widget picker experience with an image that gives a visual preview of the widget before pinning, a deep linking ability that allows users to jump directly to the picker from the provider app/service as well as a link to the widgets Store collection page where users can discover more apps with widgets. Updated widgets picker.We are beginning to roll out animated icons for Widgets on the taskbar. The animation triggers when you hover or click on the Widgets taskbar entry-point or when a new widget announcement is displayed on your taskbar. Currently, only a few weather and finance icons are supported. Example of animated icons for Widgets on the taskbar.[Live captions] Languages support has been expanded to include Danish, English (Ireland), French (Canada), Korean, Portuguese (Portugal). [Developer] Enabling end task by right-clicking on an app on the taskbar under Settings > Privacy & security > For developers now works in this build. The setting for this first showed up with Build 23430 but the feature was not working. Fixes [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed an explorer.exe crash impacting taskbar reliability. Fixed an issue that was causing Quick Settings and its project options to sometimes not respond when using ALT + F4 to close them. [Start menu] Fixed an issue that was causing the Recommended section in Start to be blank the first time it was opened. [File Explorer] We fixed the following issues for Insiders previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer We fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of explorer.exe crashing when opening the context menu in the previous flight for some Insiders. If you use an Arabic or Hebrew display language, the tabs should be displaying correctly now. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with Gallery in File Explorer: Fixed an issue where the scrollbar for Gallery was displaying on the wrong side for Insiders with an Arabic or Hebrew display language. If you have the Item Check Boxes setting enabled, the Gallery will now show check boxes on images. [Search] Did some work to fix an underlying issue which could cause Search to get stuck and not open. When this happened, you might also see a delay opening the Start menu. [Input] Fixed an issue where the Pinyin IME’s insert text button wasn’t displaying correctly in some cases. Fixed an underlying crash impacting the ability to launch the touch keyboard / PIN entry on the login screen. [Notifications] Fixed another 2FA code pattern which wasn’t being recognized. If you see any others, please file feedback! [Live captions] Fixed an issue where caption characters shown in the second line of the default height window were getting clipped on top. Features have been added to the enhanced speech recognition language files to improve performance and provide out-of-language filtering meant to limit the incorrect captions for speech not in the caption language. [Accessibility] Fixed an issue where using the down key while navigating by landmark with Narrator in Edge wasn’t jumping to the first line of the landmark correctly. NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] There is an issue where some people may not see the search box on the taskbar and/or the settings to adjust the search box experience on the taskbar after updating to Build 23403. We are aware of the issue, and we are working on a fix. [NEW] When you open the search flyout you may see the content flicker before the content finishes loading. [NEW] Narrator customers may not be able to navigate down the left side panel of the search flyout. [NEW] Text scaling may not work in the search flyout. [File Explorer] Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues: Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load. Live updates (including filtering) are currently disabled and require using the Refresh button as a workaround. Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool. Photos from OneDrive for Business currently must be hydrated to work properly. Some file types (e.g., HEIC) might not be rendered correctly or performantly. Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer will see the following issues: Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear. Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer: Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive). You can find the official blog post here.

New Windows Photo app update for Canary and Dev Insiders adds a slideshow feature and more by John Callaham Microsoft has made a surprise update to its Windows Photos app. The update is for people who are in the Canary or Dev Insider channels. It includes a number of new features, along with some other improvements and bug fixes. Here is the changelog: New Slideshow Experience This was a top feature request we received from the community since launching the new Photos app in Windows 11 last Fall. You can now relive your memories and view photos in a slideshow format, complete with transitions, animations, and 25 original music soundtracks to choose from. Click on any photo to start the slideshow or choose multiple photos to watch them together. Timeline Scrollbar This was another top feature request. We are re-introducing the timeline scrollbar to the All Photos, OneDrive, and iCloud Photos gallery views which groups photos by year and month. With the scrollbar, you can now easily jump to any point in time and find the photos you want. Spot Fix Use the Spot Fix feature to remove blemishes or unwanted areas in your photo Other Fixes and Improvements Auto Enhance is now available for use without having to install the 93MB add-on. When importing photos from external devices, you can now drag and drop to choose the photos you want and use the quick toggle to confirm the files that have been selected. Hidden iCloud Photos will no longer display in the gallery. Fixed an issue where audio on video files is muted by default. The app now plays the audio by default and persists user settings across videos. Copying and pasting a photo from the Photos app into Outlook and Teams now inserts the image inline by default instead of adding an attachment. Multi-select photos: hold down the SHIFT key while selecting photos in the gallery now selects multiple consecutive photos in a row; holding down the CTRL key selects multiple non-consecutive photos. Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels can now update their Photos app to version number 2023.11050.2013.0 or higher to get the new version.

Microsoft is finally improving virtual desktops in Windows 11, here is how to test them by Taras Buria Virtual Desktops are a powerful productivity tool (and one of my favorite Windows features) Microsoft introduced in Windows 10. Sadly, Microsoft never paid enough attention to this feature, leaving it without significant changes for almost nine years. To add insult to injury, Windows 11 removed the transition animation when changing between desktops (due to bugs), crippling the experience even more. Fortunately, it seems Microsoft is finally improving virtual desktops in its operating system. As spotted by @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter, Windows 11 build 23440 and 25346 have several enhancements for the virtual desktop experience. The discovered feature IDs enable the previously abandoned transition animation and even add a neat indicator that shows the name of your current desktop after switching. The restored animations are a bit jarring and raw, but you should not give Microsoft a hard time for that. After all, those improvements are hidden inside the operating system and not ready for public use. If you want to try the changes before Microsoft starts rolling them out officially, here is how to do that using the ViveTool app. The new virtual desktop indicator showing your current desktop's name. Those unwilling to risk installing preview builds and tinkering with undercooked features can download one of the two virtual desktop-enhancing apps we recently mentioned in our "Top 10 apps to fix Windows 11's inconveniences" article. Caution: Unannounced features are often raw, unstable, or borderline unusable. Back up important data before enabling them. Remember that using stable Windows 11 builds is the best way to ensure your system remains as bug-free as possible. How to enable the updated virtual desktops experience in Windows 11 build 23440 or 25346? Note: The following IDs do not work in the latest Canary update, build 25352. Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin). Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive. Type vivetool /enable /id:42354458,34508225,40459297 and press Enter. Restart your computer. Feature IDs responsible for the virtual desktop indicator seem related to the Cloud PC feature as implied by their names: CloudPCSwitch and CloudPCFastSwitchDiscovery. However, you do not need access to Windows 365 to benefit from the convenient indicator and the improved virtual desktop experience. Finally, did you know Windows 11 has a similar privacy indicator that can show when you turn on or off your camera? Check out our guide describing how to enable it.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows security, Edge leakage, and the end of Windows 10 by Usama Jawad It's Saturday, which means that it's time yet again to recap all the important news of the past few days from the world of Microsoft. This was an absolutely jampacked news week as you'll soon find out with items about Windows security, Microsoft Edge, and the end of Windows 10. Find out more in our latest digest covering April 23 - April 28! Windows security Windows security was a hot topic in our news coverage this week. Microsoft released various PowerShell scripts to help IT admins identify if recent patches have mitigated security flaws in their Windows 10 and 11 environments. It also shared a timeline covering the next few months of Windows hardening for various protocols including Netlogon and Kerberos. However, the firm continues struggling with existing security issues in its operating systems. It confirmed yesterday that the latest Patch Tuesday update has broken Local Account log-in on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, a workaround has been issued. It has also cautioned about interop issues in its Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) but has recently fixed most, if not all of them, too. IT admins can also leverage an unofficial third-party GUI tool to manage both versions of LAPS, at their own risk. Another problem related to Local Security Authority (LSA) protection in Windows Defender has been patched too. Additionally, Microsoft revealed more details about the security features present in its revamped Teams desktop app. It might interest some of you to know that the firm is considering unbundling Teams from its Office suite of apps to appease EU regulators and also empower Teams users on Android to disable automatic firmware updates. And if you like to mess around with Windows installations, you might want to check out AtlasOS, which is a third-party, lightweight version of Windows 10 that's supposedly better for gaming. It received updates during this week and is set to get back Windows Defender soon too, with the developer making a seemingly tall claim that AtlasOS will be even more secure than the official Windows 10. But if you'd rather mess with your existing installation at a smaller scale, you can check out Wintoys for Windows 11 instead. Edge leakage Edge and Microsoft's other browser-related efforts found themselves in the news a lot throughout this week, for both good reasons and bad. For starters, someone made a rather startling discovery that Edge is apparently leaking all the websites you visit in the browser to the Bing API, even if you don't use Bing. Microsoft is still investigating this claim and has promised swift action once its findings are complete. Brave has also decided to stop using the Bing API to serve search results and its search index is now 100% independent. We also learned that Microsoft has started to insert ads for the new AI-powered Bing in the search bar if you visit Google Bard through Microsoft Edge. Bing Chat itself received a few updates this week to further decrease the disengagement rate and improve answers for traveling and cooking questions. Talking more about browsers, Windows 11's Mica effect is slated to arrive in Chrome soon. Moreover, the latest Edge Dev 114 update has added several fixes and a shortcut for toggling Sidebar. A recent Canary build is also making it easier to tweak Windows 11-style rounded corners in Edge. In fact, Microsoft has announced that Edge users will soon be able to disable some unnecessary features as well. There were other items to cover in the Microsoft 365 sector too. All Microsoft 365 apps and services will begin using the more neutral "cloud.microsoft" domain soon. Microsoft has also been improving its Microsoft 365 apps and services themselves in recent days. It has detailed all the improvements it made to Excel in April, added the Accessibility ribbon to Outlook for Windows, integrated the Today tab in the latest Skype Insider build, and is implementing a way to make it easier for Outlook mobile users to reply to emails on time. Meanwhile, Microsoft Loop can now be tested via personal accounts on iOS and Android while Microsoft Designer is now available in full via a public preview. Something that will displease Windows Weather app customers though is that Microsoft has decided to infest it with MSN news content, which is ludicrous, to say the least. The end of Windows 10 Microsoft announced earlier this week that version 22H2 is the last version of Windows 10. What this means is that while customers using the OS will continue receiving minor improvements and security updates until October 14, 2025 (and beyond if you're an LTSC customer), there will be no more feature updates. In addition, Microsoft has also announced that the LTSC version of Windows 11 will arrive in the latter half of next year. Windows 10 recently received April's non-security preview update with lots of improvements too. Another thing being discontinued is Microsoft-branded mice, keyboards, webcams. The remaining accessories will only be sold until current supplies last, after which Microsoft will focus only on Surface-branded accessories. In more end-of-support news, the Steam client has started "End of Life" alerts for some users as it will be dropping support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 on January 1, 2024. Roughly 2% of Valve's user base utilizes these three operating systems, which means that the vast majority won't be affected. Windows 11 continued to be Microsoft's focus of attention when it came to operating system releases this week. Apart from the expected April non-security preview updates for Windows 11 version 21H2 and 22H2, there were a few Insider releases too. Windows 11 Beta build (KB5025303) fixed LAPS and ReFS issues, and added new Widgets. Meanwhile, Canary build 25352 brought a new widget picker experience. Some may also find it interesting that Microsoft is looking to make Rust a part of the Windows 11 kernel due to the numerous advantages it offers in writing safer and more optimized code. But in terms of what's available generally right now, we have Phone Link for iOS and guidance for how to get Windows 11 updates faster. And if you're still on the fence about giving Windows 11, make sure to try out the Redmond tech firm's latest evaluation virtual machines for the OS. Git gud Microsoft faced probably its biggest roadblock yet in its bid to purchase Activision Blizzard when the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided to block its deal, citing potentially reduced competition in the cloud gaming space. As Activision stock tanks, Microsoft has decided to appeal the decision, with president Brad Smith calling this initial outcome "bad for Britain". Although another report claimed that Microsoft may close the deal without the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) approval, that rumor was based on the UK CMA giving its blessing in the first place. Now that this hasn't happened, it's unlikely that the purchase will close anytime soon. For now, Microsoft's acquisition has been approved in Ukraine and the firm has signed yet another 10-year cloud gaming deal with a European firm too (Nvidia GeForce Now will continue to get Xbox games despite this setback too). Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick fully expects the CMA's decision to be reversed following the appeal. In other gaming news, there have been a few Xbox Insider builds to fix game art issues and other bugs. And if you're eagerly awaiting Redfall, you can build themed Xbox controllers based on the game through Xbox Design Lab. Similarly, if you reside in London or NYC, you might want to check out the dedicated gaming zones that Microsoft has built with Samsung. Coming over to game updates, Flight Simulator World Update XIII is now available, it targets Oceania and Antarctica. Quantum Break fans will also be pleased to know that the title is back on digital storefronts and is available on PC Game Pass for the first time too. Meanwhile, Grounded players can tackle wasps as a new foe, with the game also being Steam Deck verified now. And in a major win for accessibility, Turn 10 Studios has announced that it is working on tons of accessibility options for the next Forza Motorsport, allowing blind players to enjoy the game as well. Finally, talking about the deals and promotions currently going on, Xbox Free Play Days is offering four games, namely Crusader Kings III, Hell Let Loose, Don’t Starve Together, and Leap. May's Games with Gold have also been announced and they are Hoa and Star Wars Episode I Racer. And if you're on the lookout for games on the cheap, check out the latest Xbox Deals with Gold and this Weekend's PC Game Deals, curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Dev Channel Microsoft's Q3 2023 results show growth but Windows, Xbox, and Devices numbers continue to decline Rufus 4 is out with improvements and a default 64-bit executable Rufus alternative WinToUSB has received "Windows 11 Lite" support Latest WingetUI has a new UI, faster loading performance, and lots more Microsoft has decided to continue working with private Russian companies not under sanctions Fluent Emoji Gallery app is now available with access to Microsoft's three emoji styles Apple Music Preview for Windows has finally netted media keys and lyrics support Microsoft-backed BSA has called for federal rules and guidelines on AI You can now create Power BI reports directly in Jupyter Notebooks Under the spotlight News Reporter John Callaham took a look back at Windows Server 2003, which launched 20 years ago this week. It was the server version of Windows XP and is reportedly still being used in some enterprise environments. Read more about its interesting, but brief, history here. John took another trip down memory lane this week as he reminisced about Microsoft's first PC game, simply called Microsoft Adventure. Meanwhile, News Reporter Taras Buria penned a guide about how you can use a Windows laptop or a tablet as a secondary monitor. Finally, forum member Adam Bottjen published his latest Tech Tip Tuesday guide explaining how you can quickly fill an online form with ease. Logging off Our most interesting news item for this week involves someone building a ChatGPT client in Java that is capable of running on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11. It's called JavaGPT and weighs in at just 6MB. While it's doubtful that it has any real-world use considering that you can just access the service from a browser, it's interesting to see experiments like these from time to time. Find out more details about the open-source Java utility here. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up for either via the 'Get our newsletter' widget in the sidebar, or through this link. Missed any of the previous columns? Check them all out at this link.

Windows 11 Beta build (KB5025303) fixes LAPS, ReFS issue, gets new Firewall and Widgets by Sayan Sen Today, Microsoft has released builds 22624.1680 and 22621.1680 (KB5025303) to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 Insiders. The company writes in its blog post: Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1680 and Build 22624.1680 (KB5025303) to the Beta Channel. Build 22624.1616 = New features rolling out. Build 22621.1616 = New features off by default. The latest build brings the evolved widgets board, new Firewall settings, fixes the LAPS issue and an ReFS issue, and more. The full changelog is given below: What’s new in Build 22621.1680 & Build 22624.1680 Evolved Widgets Board We are beginning to preview a revamp of the widgets board experience with a larger canvas (3-columns if supported by the device) and new zones to provide users quick access to glanceable widgets from their apps and services as well as enable users to take a high-value break with their personalized feed. Example of updated widgets board with larger canvas and dedicated sections for widgets and feed content.[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Beta Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets. Changes and Improvements in Build 22621.1680 & Build 22624.1680 [General] The new features for app defaults in Windows 11 as mentioned here in this blog post are included in this build. The features for app pinning are coming in a future flight. [Widgets] We are beginning to roll out animated icons for Widgets on the taskbar. The animation triggers when you hover or click on the Widgets taskbar entry-point or when a new widget announcement is displayed on your taskbar. Currently, only a few weather and finance icons are supported. Example of animated icons for Widgets on the taskbar.Fixes in Build 22624.1680 [File Explorer] We fixed the following issues for Insiders with access keys in File Explorer: Shift + Right clicking on a file or folder should open “Show more options” again now. Adjusted how Narrator was reading out the access keys after pressing the menu key, to make it clearer. [Input] Fixed an issue where the touch keyboard and PIN entry wasn’t appearing on the login screen for touch capable PCs in the previous flight due to an underlying crash. [Live captions] Fixed an issue which was causing clipping in live captions text for non-English languages. Fixed an issue in Language & region settings that caused language feature installation progress to be hidden. Adding enhanced language recognition support in Language & region settings will now install the right files on ARM64 devices. You will no longer need to restart live captions after switching between caption languages installed from Language & region settings. However, you will need to uninstall any “speech pack” entries in Settings > Apps > Installed apps which were installed before the Language & region settings fix and re-install from Language & region settings. [Notifications] Fixed an issue where 2FA codes weren’t being recognized if they were in parentheses. [Task Manager] Fixed an issue where if you searched for service host in the Processes section, it wasn’t returning any results. Improved the performance of the expand all / collapse all View options on the Processes page. Fixed an issue where the search icon could end up overlapping the Task Manager icon in the title bar. The search box should no longer be cropped at the top when the window is maximized. Fixed an issue impacting Task Manager reliability. Double clicking Task Manager’s title bar to maximize the window should work again now. Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1680 & Build 22624.1680 New! This update changes firewall settings. You can now configure application group rules. This update addresses an issue that affects the legacy Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) and the new Windows LAPS feature. They fail to manage the configured local account password. This occurs when you install the legacy LAPS .msi file after you have installed the April 11, 2023, Windows update on machines that have a legacy LAPS policy. This update affects the Islamic Republic of Iran. The update supports the government’s daylight saving time change order from 2022. This update addresses an issue that affects apps that use DirectX on older Intel graphics drivers. You might receive an error from apphelp.dll. This update addresses an issue that affects the Resilient File System (ReFS). A stop error occurs that stops the OS from starting up correctly. This update addresses an issue that affects protected content. When you minimize a window that has protected content, the content displays when it should not. This occurs when you are using Taskbar Thumbnail Live Preview. This update addresses an issue that affects the Unified Write Filter (UWF). When you turn it off by using a call to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), your device might stop responding. This update addresses an issue that affects the Chinese input method. You cannot see all of the first suggested item. This update addresses an issue that affects SMB Direct. Endpoints might not be available on systems that use multi-byte character sets. This update addresses an issue that affects mobile device management (MDM) customers. The issue stops you from printing. This occurs because of an exception. This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process. It might stop responding. Because of this, the machine restarts. The error is 0xc0000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION). This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge IE mode. The Tab Window Manager stops responding. This update addresses an issue that affects signed Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies. They are not applied to the Secure Kernel. This occurs when you enable Secure Boot. This update changes the app icons for certain mobile providers. This update addresses an issue that affects MySQL commands. The commands fail on Windows Xenon containers. This update addresses an issue that displays Task View in the wrong area. This occurs when you close a full screen game by pressing Win + Tab. This update addresses an issue that occurs when you use a PIN to sign in to Windows Hello for Business. Signing in to Remote Desktop Services might fail. The error message is, “The request is not supported”. This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge IE mode. Pop-up windows open in the background instead of in the foreground. This update addresses an issue that affects Administrator Account Lockout policies. GPResult and Resultant Set of Policy did not report them. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] If you have the Bing button in the search box on the taskbar and you restart your computer, you may see the daily rotating search highlight for some time before getting the Bing button back. [Widgets] [NEW] When you launch the widgets board for the first time, you may see momentarily placeholders of the widgets/feed cards of the old 2-column layout even if your device supports 3-columns. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta build (KB5025308) brings Windows Configuration Update, fixes File Explorer by Sayan Sen Today, Microsoft has released builds 22624.1616 and 22621.1616 (KB5025308) to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 Insiders. The company writes in its blog post: Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1616 and Build 22624.1616 (KB5025308) to the Beta Channel. Build 22624.1616 = New features rolling out. Build 22621.1616 = New features off by default. The new build addresses File Explorer crashes, adds a new "Windows configuration update” option inside Windows Update, and more. The full changelog is given below: Changes and Improvements in Build 22624.1616 [Live captions] Languages support has been expanded to include Danish, English (Ireland), French (Canada), Korean, Portuguese (Portugal). Fixes in Build 22624.1616 [General] Turning on the new toggle under Settings > Windows Update for “getting the latest updates as soon as they are available” introduced in the previous build should now offer a “Windows configuration update” offered via Windows Update for Insiders on Build 22624. This update is designed to help us make sure this new toggle is connected to our backend services correctly. A Update Stack Package update (version 413.2122.0) is required. Fixed an underlying issue which was causing a noticeable increase in explorer.exe crashes in the last flight for some Insiders. [Input] Fixed an issue where the touch keyboard didn’t correctly recognize a hardware keyboard was available in some cases. Updated the TextInput/EnableTouchKeyboardAutoInvokeInDesktopMode MDM policy to allow “2” as a valid value to enforce showing the touch keyboard on tapping an edit control even when the hardware keyboard is attached. [Live captions] Fixed an issue that was causing live captions to crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. Fixed an issue causing live captions’ Add a language menu icon and label to overlap. Features have been added to the enhanced speech recognition language files to improve performance and provide out-of-language filtering meant to limit the incorrect captions for speech not in the caption language. [Accessibility] Fixed an issue that was leaving voice access’s window empty after opening. Fixed an issue where voice access was crashing when using the command to go to the start of a document. Fixed an issue where if you turn off the profanity filter in voice access, it wouldn’t work. Fixed an issue where Narrator’s CTRL + Narrator + Home and Ctrl + Narrator + End commands to move to the beginning and end of text weren’t working correctly in Edge. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] If you have the Bing button in the search box on the taskbar and you restart your computer, you may see the daily rotating search highlight for some time before getting the Bing button back. [File Explorer] Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer: Shift + Right click on a file or folder is not opening “Show more options”. [Live captions] On ARM64 devices, enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page will require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu. When adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, language feature installation progress may become hidden, and you may not see install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” (required by Live Captions). (You can use the language’s “Language options” to monitor progress.) If this happens, there may be an unexpected delay before the live caption setup experience detects this and lets you continue. Find the official blog post here.

Microsoft is restoring one of the most requested taskbar features, here is a quick look by Taras Buria The "Never combine" taskbar option is one of those "legacy" features that did not make it to the modernized (one may say "crippled") taskbar in Windows 11. The option allows ungrouping apps and enabling labels, giving the taskbar a more old-school, pre-Windows 7-era look. Many Windows 11 users miss the ability to ungroup apps, so Microsoft is finally working on restoring the much-requested feature. Here is a quick look at an early version of Windows 11's "Never combine" taskbar option unearthed in the latest Dev build by Albacore (via @thebookisclosed on Twitter): Taskbar item labels (as well as ungrouped items) are indeed on their way to Windows 11 ✨ Here's a demo of the current state of the feature, definitely further along than last time we looked at it Fiddled with a few settings in the video so you can see how it reacts pic.twitter.com/7A7H0MWpJV — Albacore (@thebookisclosed) April 19, 2023 If you want to enable the upgraded taskbar on your machine running Windows 11 Dev builds, bad news for you: Albacore states there is "no way to do it yet." Therefore, we must sit tight and wait for an announcement from Microsoft or a newer build with a dedicated feature ID. You can also opt for third-party customization tools that replace the stock taskbar and Start menu with upgraded alternatives and features missing in unmodified Windows 11 builds.

Windows 11 Insider Canary build 25346 adds Content Adaptive Brightness Control features by John Callaham Microsoft has released a new build for Windows 11 Canary Channel Insiders today. The new build 25346 includes a new feature that supports Content Adaptive Brightness Control on plugged in PCs, along with some more improvements. You can get this build with the standard automatic update or you can download ISOs for the new build. Here is the full changelog: What’s new in Build 2534 Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) on plugged in devices including desktop PCs Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) is already a feature that users are familiar with. This feature in Windows 11 will dim or brighten areas of a display or monitor based on the content being displayed with the goal of striking a balance between reduced power consumption with visual experience to save battery life. Starting with this build, we are allowing this feature to run on devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s that are plugged into a charger. For most users, this change won’t be noticeable and should reduce energy consumption. Content Adaptive Brightness Control options in Settings.This feature can be adjusted via Settings > System > Display under “Brightness & color” and through a drop-down menu with 3 options: Off, Always, and “On Battery Only”. For battery powered devices such as laptops and 2-in-1’s, the default is “On Battery Only”. We encourage Insiders across laptops, 2-in1’s, to try the “Always” option and give us feedback on the visual quality of CABC so we can ensure it is properly tuned. Please note: Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) needs to be enabled by the OEM (the manufacturer of the device). As a result, this feature is not available on all laptop or 2-in-1 devices. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Adaptive Brightness. Changes and Improvements [Remote Desktop] Redesigned the connection bar for remote desktop sessions to a new refreshed light / dark mode design that aligns with our Windows 11 design principles. Redesigned the connection bar for remote desktop sessions. When sharing a local file in File Explorer to Outlook contacts – you will now see the option to quickly email the file to yourself. In addition, we’ve made improvements in loading your contacts from Outlook. This capability is not available for files stored in OneDrive folders as OneDrive has its own share experience. [Settings] We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. App developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here. New presence sensor privacy settings under Settings if your device supports it. [Windows Security] After fixing some issues based off Insider feedback, we are re-introducing the updated Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs that match the Windows 11 visuals. Updated Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs. [Narrator] Narrator users who interact with Traditional Chinese characters are now able to do this with confidence while using Narrator and the IME candidate window in Windows. This was accomplished by creating a Traditional Chinese dictionary for detail reading. Narrator now consumes the dictionary to disambiguate each Traditional Chinese word. Users should be aware that Narrator detailed reading is only supported for the Taiwan language pack. The Hong-Kong language pack is not supported with Narrator. [Graphics] It’s now easier to configure the state of HDR when running on battery! Simply go to Settings > System > Display > HDR and choose whether you want HDR (or HDR video streaming) to remain turned on when your PC is running on battery. Configurable state of HDR when running on battery. Configurable state of HDR video streaming when running on battery.For developers You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk. SDK NuGet packages are now also flighting at NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which include: .NET TFM packages for use in .NET apps as described at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk C++ packages for Win32 headers and libs per architecture BuildTools package when you just need tools like MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integration in CI/CD pipelines. SDK flights are now published for both the Canary and Dev Channels, so be sure to choose the right version for your Insider Channel. Remember to use adaptive code when targeting new APIs to make sure your app runs on all customer machines, particularly when building against the Dev Channel SDK. Feature detection is recommended over OS version checks, as OS version checks are unreliable and will not work as expected in all cases. You can find the full blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev build 23440 brings Start menu recommendations and these seem helpful by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23440, brings Start menu recommendations with quick access for Windows 11 build release notes. A new diagnose network problems feature has also been added to the Taskbar system tray. There are many more additions, changes and bug fixes that you can read in the changelog below: Changes and Improvements [Start menu] We are trying out a recommendation in the Start menu to quickly access the release notes for Windows Insider Preview builds. Insiders can click the recommendation in Start where it will open this blog post for Build 23440 to learn about all the changes and improvements included in the build. Let us know what you think of this experience. As a reminder, the settings for what is recommended on Start can be adjusted via Settings > Personalization > Start. Recommendation in the Start menu for the flight blog post for Build 23440.[Taskbar & System Tray] You can now hide the time and date in the system tray. You can turn this on by right-clicking on the system tray clock and choosing “Adjust date and time”. When right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray, we’ve added the option to diagnose network problems. Option to diagnose network problems added when you right-click on network icon in the system tray.[Search on the Taskbar] We are exploring a new hover behavior for the search box and search highlight gleam. The proposed interaction model aims to create a more engaging search experience by invoking the search flyout when you hover over the search box gleam. This behavior can be adjusted by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing “Taskbar settings” and adjusting your preferred search box experience. [Windows Spotlight] We have updated the icon that shows on the desktop for Windows Spotlight. You can turn Windows Spotlight by right-clicking on your desktop, choosing “Personalize”, and then choosing the Windows Spotlight theme. Updated Windows Spotlight icon on the desktop when Spotlight is turned on.Fixes [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed a few explorer.exe crashes that were impacting taskbar reliability. [Widgets] Updated the Widgets invocation logic, so that if you brush your mouse quickly across the Widgets icon in the taskbar while travelling somewhere else, it should be less likely to accidentally open Widgets. As a reminder, if you’d prefer that Widgets doesn’t launch on hover, there is an option for that in the Widgets settings. [File Explorer] We fixed the following issues for Insiders previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer Fixed an issue where the context menu was opening far away from where your mouse had right-clicked sometimes. Fixed an issue which was causing some of the icons in File Explorer and the context menu to be blurry after DPI changes. Fixed an issue where the New button in the command bar might not show anything in the dropdown. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with Gallery in File Explorer: CTRL + Mouse wheel scrolling should now resize the thumbnails. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with recommended files in File Explorer: Made some improvements to how Narrator reads out the recommended files. We fixed the following issues for Insiders with access keys in File Explorer: Shift + Right click on a file or folder should open “Show more options” again now. Adjusted how Narrator was reading out the access keys after pressing the menu key, to make it clearer. [Search] Fixed an issue where the cursor wasn’t displaying correctly in the search box when using an Arabic display language. [Input] Fixed an issue where the touch keyboard didn’t correctly recognize a hardware keyboard was available in some cases. [Windowing] Fixed a shellexperiencehost.exe crash when disconnecting from another monitor using WIN + P. [Notifications] Fixed an issue where 2FA codes weren’t being recognized if they were in parentheses. [Live captions] Fixed an issue that was causing live captions to crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. Adding enhanced language recognition support in Language & region settings will now install the right files on ARM64 devices. You will no longer need to restart live captions after switching between caption languages installed from Language & region settings. However, you will need to uninstall any “speech pack” entries in Settings > Apps > Installed apps which were installed before the Language & region settings fix and re-install from Language & region settings. Fixed an issue in Language & region settings that caused language feature installation progress to be hidden. Fixed an issue causing live captions’ Add a language menu icon and label to overlap. [Task Manager] Double clicking Task Manager’s title bar to maximize the window should work again now. Fixed a Task Manager crash which was impacting Insiders in the last couple flights. [Accessibility] Fixed an issue that was leaving voice access’s window empty after opening. Fixed an issue where voice access was crashing when using the command to go to the start of a document. Fixed an issue where Narrator’s CTRL + Narrator + Home and Ctrl + Narrator + End commands to move to the beginning and end of text weren’t working correctly in Edge. NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] There is an issue where some people may not see the search box on the taskbar and/or the settings to adjust the search box experience on the taskbar after updating to Build 23403. We are aware of the issue, and we are working on a fix. [File Explorer] Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues: Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load. Live updates (including filtering) are currently disabled and require using the Refresh button as a workaround. Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool. Photos from OneDrive for Business currently must be hydrated to work properly. Some file types (e.g., HEIC) might not be rendered correctly or performantly. Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer will see the following issues: Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear. Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer: Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive). [Live captions] Certain languages shown on the Language & Region settings page will indicate speech recognition support (e.g., Korean) but don’t yet have support for live captions. Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages which means that incorrect captions will be shown for speech not in the caption language. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 build 23435 has a hidden smart window snapping feature, here is how to enable it by Taras Buria In February 2023, a new report revealed Microsoft's plans to upgrade Windows 11's Snap Layouts with AI magic. According to the leak, Windows 11 (or its successor) would use machine learning to predict what apps and in what order the user wants to arrange. Although Microsoft has not announced the AI-powered Snap Layouts yet, the latest Windows 11 build from the Dev Channel lets you test a new smart window snapping, giving you a glimpse of what is to come. Enabling two hidden features in Windows 11 build 23435 (credits for the find go to ever-giving @PhantomOfEarth) allows the operating system to generate snapping presets, thus providing the ability to arrange open apps with a single click. These sets appear below the current Snap Layouts, so you still have more freedom over windows positioning. Here is a quick look at the new smart snapping: As of now, "snap predictions" only work when you hover the cursor over the "Maximize" button. Snap Assist, a panel at the top of the screen that appears when you move a window across the screen, does not currently support predictions. Another limitation is that you cannot select what apps appear in the suggestions, and Windows seemingly does not consider the context of your current workflow. Important: Always back up your data before enabling experimental features with the ViVeTool app or similar utilities. Digging out unannounced changes frequently results in instabilities, crashes, and bugs, so beware. How to enable the upgraded Snap Layouts in Windows 11 build 23435? Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin). Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive. Type vivetool /enable /id:41863571,42589465 and press Enter. Restart your computer. What do you think about the upgraded Snap Layouts? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows bugs, GPT integrations, and taking screenshots by Usama Jawad This year is going by fast, we are already in the middle of April. With the end of yet another week comes a new edition of Microsoft Weekly where we discuss everything important that happened in the world of Microsoft within the past few days. This time around, we have news items related to a few Windows bugs, upcoming features for the OS, and GPT integrations. Without further ado, let's dive into our latest digest! Windows bugs Microsoft had a lot of updates regarding bugs and their respective fixes, where available, during this week. We will start off with a bug related to Task Manager handles in Windows 11 Canary build 25336. In a nutshell, the software fails to terminate handles, resulting in them accumulating and causing severe system slowdowns and crashes. The good news is that Microsoft has identified the root cause of the issue and is working on a fix. The Redmond tech firm has also shared a fix for an out-of-box-experience (OOBE) BitLocker problem in Windows 10 and Windows 11, where the encryption feature does not automatically resume even after it hits its reboot count parameter. And speaking of OOBE, Microsoft has rolled out an update for Windows 11 22H2 and 21H2, as well as for all supported versions of Windows 10 to improve compatibility with unsupported use of the registry. As it is fixing bugs across the OS, Microsoft has seemingly pushed a buggy SecureBoot update (again) alongside this month's Patch Tuesday. It contains issues that the company is still investigating according to its health dashboard it has published some guidance for the BlackLotus security vulnerability though. Another update to ensure domain controller (DC) hardening against a Kerberos security flaw has now been pushed back to June, later than the initially planned date of April 11. There are two Windows Insider releases that can be lumped into this section as well. The latest Release Preview build 22000.1879 is out for the original Windows 11, it contains lots of bug fixes. On the other hand, there is also Dev Channel build 23435 that's out with a new "Gallery" view in File Explorer, but it's quite buggy. Moreover, Mozilla has resolved a 5-year-old Windows Defender bug in Firefox which was causing high CPU usage in Windows Defender and its Antimalware Service Executable (MsMpEng.exe) real-time protection service when using the browser. On a related note, Microsoft has also released Defender updates for Windows install images. While the final two items we mention next aren't really bugs, they might appear as issues to many due to their behavior and nature. Some Microsoft 365 users have been unable to send or receive emails following a recent policy change from Microsoft that meant that your 5GB OneDrive storage now includes Outlook usage. And lastly, there's a new capability in Edge Canary that allows you to detach your Sidebar and have it docked as a vertical Taskbar to the side of your screen. Some might consider it annoying, especially since there appear to be some limitations, but the good news is that it is optional. GPT integrations As has been the case for the past couple of months, Microsoft's AI endeavors once again accounted for a lot of headlines on Neowin in the past week. A major update in this section is that Microsoft announced lots of new and improved integrations of Bing Chat with its other services. These include SwiftKey, Skype, and Microsoft Start. A Redmond executive also hinted that third-party plugin support for Bing Chat is in the works and it seems that so is a Compact View for Bing. That's not all though. The latest Edge 114 release in the Dev Channel features tighter integration with Bing Chat in the side pane while Edge 113 Beta sports better security and a new updater for macOS. Edge isn't the only Microsoft app getting even more supercharged with AI either. The Premium version of Microsoft Teams is getting AI-generated intelligent meeting recaps sometime later this month. It is also scheduled to receive controls to restrict profanities in live captions, along with Speaker View, over 20 Snapchat Lenses, and animated backgrounds to play around with during informal meetings. With all of this goodness arriving on Teams soon, it is also worthwhile to mention that Teams Free (Classic) has shut down. The Redmond firm has recommended customers transition to the new Microsoft Teams (Free) but none of their existing data and chats will be carried over. Finally, even PowerToys - which received a minor update this week - is netting integration with ChatGPT (along with a built-in Launcher). This implementation is currently in progress but it's early days so there's no concrete release date as of yet. New ways to take screenshots in Windows and other features Microsoft is gearing up to change the standard way of taking screenshots. When you press the Print Screen key on your keyboard, rather than silently taking a screenshot, the system will launch Snipping Tool. It is important to note that this behavior was present in a disabled state in Windows 10 but has become enabled by default in the latest Windows 11 Beta build 22624.1546, which means that it will be rolled out generally to everyone else sooner rather than later too. And while it's not directly related, the updated Microsoft Surface app also features a new way to take screenshots. But circling back to Insider releases, the Windows 11 Beta Channel also netted build 22624.1610 to resolve a registry compatibility issue, among other things. The Dev Channel build 23435 mentioned in the first section also contains a hidden and disabled behavior for Windows 11 Search and if you are intrigued, you can find out how to enable it here. In the same vein, Windows 10 Release Preview build 19045.2908 restored the search box in the Taskbar while Windows 11 Release Preview build 22621.1631 added animations to the Widgets in the Taskbar. Lastly, the Windows 11 Canary Channel bagged build 25336.1010, but it's just a dummy release to test the servicing pipeline. There were other non-Insider releases too, thanks to Patch Tuesday. Windows 10's latest KB5025221 release brought security fixes and a known issue while Windows 11's rollouts for version 21H2 and 22H2 introduced lots of new improvements that you can read more about here. These Patch Tuesday updates also made Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) a built-in implementation for select SKUs of Windows. A new version of Windows Subsystem for Android was also made available, it brings support for Picture-in-Picture mode for Android apps. Finally, if you like to mess around with Windows installations and ISOs, Tiny11's developer has created a bootable Windows 11 live DVD, dubbed "live11". In a similar vein, third-party utility EverythingToolbar has also received an update with some fixes and new features. Git gud Perhaps the headliner of the Microsoft gaming news this week was that the company is reportedly working on a "Handheld Mode" for Windows 11 running on handheld consoles/PCs, like the Steam Deck. This leaked UX aims to resolve issues related to poor controls in non-Steam games, lack of display and UI optimizations, and more. There are several Xbox OS updates to talk about too. The latest Alpha Skip Ahead release packs tons of new features, including improvements to captures. The recent Beta update also sports some of the same capabilities as well as improvements to Discord Voice. Meanwhile, the April update, now generally available, features a revamped search interface and a new adjustable active hours option. Interestingly, Microsoft has halted Insider testing of the upcoming and revamped Xbox Home experience, saying that the feedback so far hasn't been positive. Over on the games side, Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming platform exclusive from Arkane, Redfall, won't feature a 60FPS mode at launch on Xbox, to the disappointment of many - you can still have a go at nabbing a Redfall-themed Xbox Series X from Microsoft if this doesn't bother you though. And if you're into purchasing merchandise from a more peaceful game, Minecraft now has an official cookbook with over 40 recipes. Speaking of hardware, you can also purchase new colors for a custom Elite Series 2 Controller from Xbox Design Lab. Lastly, we will round up news items related to subscription services and deals. Ubisoft+ has landed on Xbox consoles while 40 more countries now have access to PC Game Pass. Additionally, Games with Gold subscribers can now grab Peaky Blinders: Mastermind and Deals with Gold customers can save lots on As Dusk Falls, Forza Horizon, and more. People who look forward to the Xbox Free Play Days promotion can net major discounts on two popular titles while PC purists can peruse the latest Weekend PC Game Deals, curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Dev Channel Microsoft is testing custom amounts for gift card redemptions in Rewards Support for SharePoint Server 2013 has ended Microsoft has signed a 10-year Xbox PC cloud gaming deal with the UK's EE Surface Laptop Go has received graphics performance improvements in the latest firmware update Microsoft Azure CLX program adds Data and AI skills courses with certificates Excel Labs is a new Microsoft Garage add-in that adds OpenAI-based generative AI to Excel Power BI Desktop is now supported on Windows 365, and gets new features LinkedIn users can now enable verified work credentials through Microsoft Entra Outlook Lite will soon let you send SMS HoloLens 2 has received the Windows 11 update Microsoft has added email profiles to Outlook for Mac users Microsoft has warned the public about accounting and tax return firms of a new phishing attack ahead of U.S. Tax Day Under the spotlight We published several original pieces during the week. The first was by News Reporter John Callaham who took a trip down memory lane to talk about the history of the Start menu and his personal experiences with it. On a related note, News Reporter Taras Buria published a guide on how to remove the controversial Recommended section from the Start menu. Taras also went ahead and compiled a list of the top 10 apps that solve what he calls Windows 11's "inconveniences". See here if you share his viewpoint and find the listed apps useful. Meanwhile, I also published an editorial theorizing what Windows 12 could look like and if it's going to be an incremental update to Windows 11 versus something major. Lastly, forum member Adam Bottjen published a handy guide for Windows beginners, detailing the process of creating a folder. Logging off Our most intriguing news item of the week is about a smart device called LipIO that uses our tongues to control various connected devices and engage in virtual hands-free activities. It can detect lots of input gestures such as the sliding of the tongue, pressing both lips against each other, and touching the lip with your tongue at a particular point. While this may have a use-case for the disabled community, researchers behind the project have emphasized utilities like a lip-based guitar tuner, the ability to open your smart door while your hands are occupied, and even gaming. Read more about the wacky tech here. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up for either via the 'Get our newsletter' widget in the sidebar, or through this link. Missed any of the previous columns? Check them all out at this link.

Windows 11 may soon let you open Search on hover by Taras Buria The latest Windows 11 build from the Dev Channel has an interesting search-related change. The taskbar personalization section now features a dedicated area where you can change what Windows Search looks like on your taskbar, plus toggle on or off a new setting that will surely spark some heat among Windows 11 customers. As spotted by @PhantomOfEarth on Twitter, Windows 11 build 23435 contains a hidden (disabled by default) option that lets you make the operating system open search on hover. That means you are no longer required to click the search box or button to trigger Windows Search—it will pop up whenever you move the cursor over, just like Edge opens Bing when you hover the cursor over the new Bing button (here is how to disable it). Microsoft has yet to announce the new setting for Windows Search, so things might change multiple times in future updates. Meanwhile, you can try the new “Open search on hover” option by enabling it with the Vivetool app. Important: Back up your data before experimenting with hidden features and the Vivetool app. How to enable new Search settings in Windows 11 build 25435 Download ViveTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder. Press Win + X and select Terminal (Admin). Switch Windows Terminal to the Command Prompt profile with the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut or by clicking the arrow-down button at the top of the window. Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViveTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive. Type vivetool /enable /id:43572857 and press Enter. Type vivetool /enable /id:43572692 and press Enter. Restart your computer. As usual, it is worth reminding you that not everything Microsoft tests in Windows Insider builds will make it to the general public. The company often throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks, resulting in some changes getting trashed during testing due to negative feedback or other reasons.

Windows 11 Dev build 23435 brings new File Explorer "Gallery" but it's quite buggy by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23435, brings a new "Gallery" feature inside File Explorer, though it has many bugs since it is a new feature. There are other improvements and bug fixes as well. You can view the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23435 Gallery in File Explorer We are introducing Gallery, a new feature in File Explorer designed to make it easy to access your photo collection. The set of content shown in Gallery is the same as what you’ll see in the All Photos view in the Photos app. Gallery in File Explorer. Gallery is optimized for accessing your most recently taken photos. If you have OneDrive Camera Roll Backup set up on your phone, photos you take will show up automatically at the top of the view. You can choose which folders are shown in Gallery through the Collection dropdown. You can also add subfolders of existing sources to filter to a subset of your content, such as desktop backgrounds and SD card/camera imports. Gallery also works from the file picking dialog, bringing that same ease of use to situations such as inserting attachments, building a PowerPoint deck, or crafting social media posts. Gallery in the file picking dialog.[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer. Changes and Improvements [General] We are continuing the exploration of badging on the Start menu with several new treatments for users logging in with local user accounts to highlight the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA). If you see one of these treatments, give us feedback on what you think. As a reminder, it is normal for us to try out different concepts in the Dev Channel to get feedback. Different treatments of badging on the Start menu highlighting the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account for users logged in with a local user account.[File Explorer] Windows Insiders will begin noticing a “pizza” icon on the command bar in File Explorer. This icon denotes that an Insider is previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer. Functionality in File Explorer remains unchanged, it just switches from using WinUI 2 to using WinUI 3. Pizza icon in File Explorer’s command bar to denote previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer.[Narrator] Narrator users who interact with Traditional Chinese characters are now able to do this with confidence while using Narrator and the IME candidate window in Windows. This was accomplished by creating a Traditional Chinese dictionary for detail reading. Narrator now consumes the dictionary to disambiguate each Traditional Chinese word. Users should be aware that Narrator detailed reading is only supported for the Taiwan language pack. The Hong-Kong language pack is not supported with Narrator. [Settings] We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. App developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here. New presence sensor privacy settings under Settings if your device supports it.Fixes [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed a few explorer.exe crashes that were impacting taskbar reliability. [Input] Updated the TextInput/EnableTouchKeyboardAutoInvokeInDesktopMode MDM policy to allow “2” as a valid value to enforce showing the touch keyboard on tapping an edit control even when the hardware keyboard is attached. [Settings] Fixed an issue which was causing Settings crashes when navigating to various Windows Update related pages in the last couple flights. [Live captions] Fixed the issue that caused enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page to require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu on Arm64 devices. Fixed the issue where you may not see install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” (required by Live Captions) when adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, and language feature installation progress may become hidden. [Task Manager] Improved the performance of the expand all / collapse all View options on the Processes page. [Accessibility] Updated Narrator’s default for “Context level for buttons and controls” to “3 – Immediate content name and type.” NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] There is an issue where some people may not see the search box on the taskbar and/or the settings to adjust the search box experience on the taskbar after updating to Build 23403. We are aware of the issue, and we are working on a fix. [File Explorer] Insiders who have Gallery in File Explorer will see the following issues: [NEW] Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load. [NEW] Live updates (including filtering) are currently disabled and require using the Refresh button as a workaround. [NEW] Thumbnail loading performance for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for “Indexing Options” and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool. [NEW] Photos from OneDrive for Business currently must be hydrated to work properly. [NEW] Some file types (e.g., HEIC) might not be rendered correctly or performantly. Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer will see the following issues: Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear. Shift + Right click on a file or folder is not opening “Show more options”. Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer: Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive). [Live captions] [NEW] Live captions will crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. A new fix is expected very soon. Certain languages shown on the Language & Region settings page will indicate speech recognition support (e.g., Korean) but don’t yet have support for live captions. Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages which means that incorrect captions will be shown for speech not in the caption language. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Beta build 22624.1610 (KB5025299) fixes registry compatibility issue, and more by Sayan Sen Today, Microsoft has released builds 22624.1610 and 22621.1610 (KB5025299) to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 Insiders. The company writes in its blog post: Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1610 and Build 22624.1610 (KB5025299) to the Beta Channel. Build 22624.1610 = New features rolling out. Build 22621.1610 = New features off by default. The new release contains a few small improvements and bug fixes, along with a list of current known issues. You can check out the entire changelog below: Changes and Improvements in Build 22624.1610 [Settings] We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. App developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here. New presence sensor privacy settings under Settings if your device supports it.Changes and Improvements in BOTH Build 22621.1610 & Build 22624.1610 [Settings] Windows Insiders can help us preview a new experience we’re working on. Insiders will begin to see a new toggle under Settings > Windows Update for “getting the latest updates as soon as they are available”. This new toggle is meant to be used in the Beta Channel to allow Insiders to switch more seamlessly to the enablement package. Insiders in the Beta Channel who are on Build 22621 and toggle this on will get updated to Build 22624 via the enablement package. Insiders in the Beta Channel already on Build 22624 and toggle this on will see a “Windows configuration update” offered via Windows Update that is designed to help us make sure this new toggle is connected to our backend services correctly. This configuration update introduces nothing new for Insiders. New toggle on the Windows Update settings page for getting the latest updates as soon as they are available.Fixes in Build 22624.1610 [General] Fixed an underlying issue which was causing a noticeable increase in explorer.exe crashes in the last flight for some Insiders. Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1610 & Build 22624.1610 This update addresses a compatibility issue. The issue occurs because of unsupported use of the registry. Known issues [Search on the Taskbar] If you have the Bing button in the search box on the taskbar and you restart your computer, you may see the daily rotating search highlight for some time before getting the Bing button back. [File Explorer] Insiders who have access keys in File Explorer: Shift + Right click on a file or folder is not opening “Show more options”. [Live captions] On ARM64 devices, enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page will require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu. [NEW] Live captions will crash on first launch due to an issue impacting registry data retrieval. A new fix is expected very soon. Certain languages shown on the Language & Region settings page will indicate speech recognition support (e.g., Korean) but don’t yet have support for live captions. When adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, language feature installation progress may become hidden, and you may not see install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” (required by Live Captions). (You can use the language’s “Language options” to monitor progress.) If this happens, there may be an unexpected delay before the live caption setup experience detects this and lets you continue. Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages which means that incorrect captions will be shown for speech not in the caption language. You can view the official blog post here.