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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 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.

Microsoft won't roll out Windows 11 Insider Builds for Canary or Dev channels this week by John Callaham Earlier this week, Microsoft released a surprise Windows 11 Insider Beta Channel build, less than a week after the previous build version. Today, the company pushed out Release Channel builds for Insiders for Windows 11 and Windows 10. But what about members on the Canary and Dev Insider channels? Well, if that includes you, you can take it easy for the rest of the week. The Windows Insider Program Twitter account has confirmed the Canary and Dev channels are taking a rare weekly break. Folks are asking and we wanted to be sure before announcing. We will not be releasing new build for the Canary or Dev Channels this week. Know that we're hard at work prepping for next week. Send good vibes and some extra caffeine for folks working on the bugs! pic.twitter.com/2Y4El7LZVS — Windows Insider Program (@windowsinsider) May 11, 2023 The post does add that the Windows dev team are "hard at work prepping for next week". In the meantime, Insiders can now sit back, relax with your Windows desktop PC or laptop, and not have to keep checking that update status every couple of seconds for a few days.

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.

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.

Microsoft Weekly: LAPS and Windows Taskbar, Samsung ditching Google rumors, and app updates by Usama Jawad It's the end of yet another week and it's time again to recap all the important events that transpired in the Microsoft-verse during the past few days. This time, we have news items related to Windows features like Taskbar and LAPS, rumors about Samsung ditching Google as the default search engine, and lots of app updates. Without further ado, let's dive into the latest weekly digest covering April 16 - April 21! Windows Taskbar and LAPS You might recall that earlier this month, Microsoft announced that Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) is now a built-in feature in Windows through the latest Patch Tuesday update. However, users have discovered a few bugs that occur when both versions of LAPS (legacy and Patch Tuesday) are installed on the machine. The company has detailed some workarounds but it's unclear when a more permanent fix will be available. For now though, it appears that Microsoft has fixed a Local Security Authority (LSA) protection bug recently introduced in Windows 11. In related news, patches have also been rolled out for MMIO Stale Data Vulnerabilities in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. In terms of Insider builds and upcoming features, Microsoft is seemingly looking to restore a popular Taskbar feature to Windows 11, in the form of the "Never combine" option. This is present in the latest Dev Channel build 23440 (which also brings arguably better Start menu recommendations) but it is hidden for now without a way to enable it. Instead, if you're on Dev Channel build 23435, you can instead try and enable the hidden smart window snapping feature or the new OOBE customization options if you're on Canary build 25336. That's not all when it comes to Insider builds though. Canary build 25346 has added Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) features while Beta Build 22624.1616 (KB5025308) has brought improvements to Windows Update and File Explorer. Additionally, Windows Server vNext build 25346 brought with it a couple of known issues. Moreover, you should also check out the recently released Microsoft utility called Update Health Tools for Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is delivered via KB4023057 and is intended to improve the Windows update experience. However, if you like to try out third-party utilities too, give the latest version of DisplayFusion a go, it now supports Windows 11 but has lost support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Rumors about Samsung ditching Google A rather surprising rumor emerged this week that Samsung is considering dumping Google Search as the default search engine on its phones in favor of Microsoft's AI-powered Bing. While this report caused a lot of disturbance in the world of tech especially considering that the possibility of this happening has caused "panic" inside Google, another report later debunked this rumor. It claimed that ditching Google Search is not even an option for Samsung because in most major markets such as the U.S., OEMs that want Google Play Store installed on their devices must also set up Google Search as the default search engine. Either way, the real situation is still unclear and none of the parties mentioned have commented on the veracity of the rumors. But talking about companies parting ways with one another, Microsoft has decided to stop using Twitter as an advertising platform, likely because of the expensive API costs mandated by Twitter CEO Elon Musk. In true chaotic Musk fashion and obviously irked by Microsoft's move, the executive has threatened the Redmond tech firm with a lawsuit for illegally using Twitter data to train its AI models, without evidence, of course. Speaking of AI models, Bing Chat now has LaTeX support for better formatting of mathematical formulas while SwiftKey for both Android and iOS have gained the ability to get rid of the Bing button - though, for some reason, Microsoft has also deleted the support forum for the app itself. The company is also looking to add Copilot generative AI capabilities to Viva to boost employee productivity. Microsoft is supposedly going all in on the hardware side of AI too. It's reportedly building its own AI chip with the codename "Athena" and the next Surface PCs will host Neural Processing Unit (NPUs) inside too. Some rumors about the upcoming Surface devices have started swirling too, and if that interests you, check them out in detail here. App updates There were several app updates sprinkled throughout the week for Microsoft services. Let's start with Microsoft Edge. The company's premier browser received a new version 114 Dev build that added improvements for Workspaces and some minor improvements on Android. Additionally, users have discovered that Microsoft is finally adding AVIF support to Edge soon, which means that the browser will be following in the footsteps of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. The feature can currently be enabled through a flag in Edge Canary. Several Microsoft 365 apps and services received updates too. OneNote Beta has netted the scratch-out to erase gesture in Windows 11, Outlook users can now send longer links in emails, and better compatibility with Kindle devices in Microsoft Word. There were a few updates for other services too. Microsoft Translator bagged support for the Lower Sorbian language. Interestingly, this language isn't even supported by Google Translate and is considered highly endangered with less than 7,000 speakers globally. Lastly, Microsoft has also launched Babylon.js 6.0, adding Havok physics for web browser-based graphics. Git gud Microsoft had a bit of a turbulent week in the gaming space this week. It turns out that Halo Infinite's former creative director Joseph Staten, who just left Microsoft, actually departed his position to lead Netflix' AAA gaming initiative. It also seems like another Halo director Frank O' Connor has jumped ship too. There is still good news for the Xbox community though. South Africa has approved Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard and we have also learned that the studio's highly anticipated title Diablo IV will be run at 60fps on both the Xbox Series X and S. And while Xbox gamers have lost the ability to share longer video uploads to Twitter, the Xbox App for Insiders on Windows does bring better accessibility and improvements to collections (there are other bugfixes for various rings too). Earlier, the company also celebrated Earth Day with new sustainability projects. Moreover, PC gamers will be pleased to know that Microsoft has brought with it performance boosts across a range of hardware with DirectStorage 1.2. Another intriguing revelation also indicates that Microsoft is working on a "franchise sequel" that could take a decade of development, it's highly likely that the redacted title being referenced here is The Elder Scrolls VI, which is in very early stages of development currently. Meanwhile, those following our deals and services updates should know that you can grab lots of Xbox titles for up to 90% off in the ongoing Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale. Xbox Free Play Days is hosting Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and Roguebook while Xbox Insiders can try out Crash Team Rumble closed beta this weekend. Finally, a handful of games including Redfall are headed to Xbox Game Pass but if you're a PC purist, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe instead. Dev Channel Microsoft Security now uses weather terms for threat actor names The infamous Windows 98 "Blue Screen of Death" event happened 25 years ago today Microsoft is promoting Windows 11 PCs that use sustainable materials Microsoft updates Surface Go 2 with Windows 11 Autopilot support Microsoft fixes Surface Pro 8 display flickering issue, improves Windows Hello, more Under the spotlight News Reporter John Callaham posted a couple of pieces that took a trip down memory lane. The first is about Microsoft's first PC hardware product, the Z80 SoftCard, released in 1980. The Apple II PC add-on hardware was a commercial success and was generating half of Microsoft's total annual revenue at one point. John's second piece was published on U.S. Tax Day and took a look back at Tax Avoiders, a 1982 title for the Atari 2600. Moreover, John also penned a piece on his top 10 anticipated Xbox games of this year, check out his listicle here! Finally, forum member Adam Bottjen published a guide providing tips about how to give your PC enough time to get ready after a boot-up, which is good to know, especially for those who are still rocking clunky hard disk drives (HDDs). Logging off Our most interesting news item of the week is undoubtedly about an upcoming first-person-shooter, Unrecord, that can be played from the viewpoint of a body cam. The reason it's making headlines is that it appears to be hyper-realistic with very realistic movements and graphics. In fact, it was so realistic that many labeled its gameplay video as fake and dismissed it. That is, until a developer posted a video of the game running in Unreal Engine with "no clip" mode enabled. Needless to say, hype for the title is at an all-time high but there is also an ongoing argument raging online claiming that it's not a good idea to have younger audiences being exposed to ultra-realistic violent video games. 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 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.

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 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.

Microsoft Weekly: ChatGPT bans, free USBs for Windows Insiders, and IT admin upgrades by Usama Jawad It's the end of another week of 2023 and it's time yet again to recap everything important that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. This time around, we have lots of AI-related news items, stories about Windows 11 Insider Preview updates, and upgrades to various Microsoft software and utilities. Without further ado, let's dive into our weekly digest for April 2 - April 7 below! ChatGPT bans We'll start this week's digest off with news about major AI endeavors and the bumps in the road that they have been facing in the past few days. It seems that Germany may be joining Italy in attempting to ban ChatGPT from being used in the country. The reasoning appears to be the same, being that the service does not restrict children under the age of 13 from signing up and that there may be data collection violations impacting consumer privacy. In the same vein, an Australian mayor is considering a defamation lawsuit against OpenAI because ChatGPT falsely claimed that he was jailed for taking part in a bribery scandal involving a company called Note Printing Australia in the early 2000s. And while not as large of a scope as the two cases just discussed, ChatGPT was also tricked into "generating" valid activation keys for Windows 95. Of course, you could argue that if you are giving specialized prompts to ChatGPT because you know the formula for generating the keys already, perhaps this is not as big of a deal, but let us know your thoughts in the comments section here. Following the publication of a letter in which 1,100+ influential personalities called on AI companies to stop work on large language models more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has stated that this is a pointless initiative. Everyone should instead work to identify tricky areas and iron out problems with the technology. Interestingly, Microsoft also emphasized the importance of its principles for Responsible AI, which is ironic considering that it laid off its Ethical AI team just a few weeks ago. Despite all of these ongoing debates on the subject, Microsoft is continuing its mission to integrate and improve AI technologies in its core consumer products. OneNote is getting Copilot integration soon and Microsoft has also issued multiple updates to Bing Chat to ensure fewer refusals and longer message lengths. It is also testing Bing Image Creator in the Sidebar of its Edge browser. In fact, Bing Chat has already been integrated into SwiftKey Beta. Free USBs for Windows Insiders and other updates You may remember that when Microsoft introduced its new Windows 11 Canary Channel last month, it offered Insiders free USBs so that they could clean install Windows 11 on their machines if they so wished. While it initially stated that it would take six to eight weeks to ship these USBs, it appears that some Insiders have begun to receive their free hardware. The USB features 64GB of storage and instructions for how to clean install Windows 11. Speaking of the Windows Insider Program, there were a flurry of Insider builds this week. Canary build 25336 contained only a few minor improvements, Dev build 23430 brought improvements to Do Not Disturb along with lots of bug fixes and known issues, while Beta build 22624.1546 (KB5025310) added Snipping Tool support for the Prt Sc key, among lots of other improvements. A Windows Server vNext release was flighted with a known issue too, but interestingly, it does not share its build number with the Canary Channel, and is instead tagged as build 25335. Although Microsoft documents most features and enhancements present in its Insider releases, eagle-eyed enthusiasts manage to discover undocumented changes all the time. This time around, we have seen movement on the Cloud PC integration front as well as a potentially controversial restriction to limit the number of recent tabs you see via the Alt + Tab shortcut. Over on the marketshare side, Windows 11's position in the Steam hardware survey fell by a massive 7.92 percentage points and now stands at 22.41%. That said, it is important to understand that these results are based on optional and random surveys so may not necessarily paint an accurate picture of reality. Either way, Microsoft is trying to convince more people to upgrade to Windows 11 too as Windows 10 version 21H2 reaches its end of support date. However, if you're an AMD customer, note that there also seems to be a Windows 11 TPM Attestation bug on some supported Ryzen processors. And if you like tinkering around with Windows, you should know that third-party Windows 11 debloating app BloatyNosy has one of its modules removed from the Microsoft Store version because it was causing conflicts with the OS. On the other hand, DoNotSpy11 is now supported on Windows 11 version 22H2 "Moment 2". Similarly, you can now enable a "Windows 12" theme using Stardock's WindowsBlinds or run the now-defunct Windows 10X on the Surface Duo with a third-party mod. Enhancements for IT admins and upgrades for Microsoft services Microsoft had tons of updates for its app and services for IT admins, organizations, and consumers. Starting with the first category, Windows Autopatch has new alerts and features that you can try out right now. In addition, Microsoft is changing the release cadence of Configuration Manager so that it "better aligns" with the release schedule of Windows. When it comes to Windows 365, the Redmond tech giant has rolled out a new edition for Frontline Workers and explained why it doesn't release concrete performance numbers for its Cloud PCs. Microsoft had lots of Edge news updates sprinkled throughout the week too. The company has officially announced a preview of Workspaces for its browser and also released a utility called Browser Essentials to help you closely monitor Edge's performance and security. The browser is set to receive a major feature update with the ability to save and edit web images soon too. Until then, Microsoft has enabled some security improvements in Edge 112 and also made it easier to block autoplaying videos. Edge 113 is now available in the Dev Channel as well with lots of fixes, improvements, and policies. Coming over to Microsoft 365 apps and services, Outlook for Windows preview has added support for Gmail accounts, with more to follow. Furthermore, following lots of user feedback, the Quick Access Toolbar default has also been returned to Office apps. Meanwhile, Teams customers will be happy to know that they will soon be able to get rid of unread notifications quickly and that Education customers have also received the upgraded Teams app with faster performance. There's also a new My Day feature and a green screen capability to leverage but the latter is just for Intel PCs. Git gud First-party Xbox game Quantum Break has been removed from digital storefronts due to some of its licenses expiring. However, Microsoft and Remedy have emphasized that negotiations are ongoing and that the title will return soon. Meanwhile, another first-party title Minecraft has received new icons and logos (a movie based on the IP has been pushed to April 2025) while an update to Halo: The Master Chief Collection has enabled multiplayer matchmaking on the Steam Deck. That said, fans of the latter will be sad to know that Halo chief Joseph Staten has recently left Microsoft. On the other hand, Age of Empires II enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that the Return of Rome expansion is out in May with Age of Empires I content as well. Over on the Activision Blizzard acquisition front, Sony has criticized the UK CMA's provisional ruling in favor of Microsoft, claiming that it's full of errors. It noted that the regulator's findings are "surprising, unprecedented, and irrational" when it comes to assessing the economic impact if Microsoft were to make Activision's Call of Duty franchise an Xbox exclusive. On the hardware side of the fence, Microsoft has announced the Xbox Wireless Controller – Remix Special Edition. The unique selling point for this item is that it features recovered plastics, with one-third coming from recycled controllers and reclaimed materials. But if you're more utility-oriented when it comes to your purchases, you might have new options for Xbox Series X|S storage expansions cards soon. In addition, if you're an Xbox Insider, check out the changelog for some new builds here too. However, if you like to tinker around with emulators on the Xbox's retail mode, you'll be sad to know that this is now disabled. Lastly, when it comes to deals and promotions, Borderlands and Diablo II headline this week's Deals with Gold while Elder Scrolls Online and more are on offer via Xbox Free Play Days. Microsoft is also offering up to 90% off on select Xbox games during the ongoing Spring Sale. But if none of that tickles your fancy, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals handpicked by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe himself. Dev Channel Microsoft is bringing macOS integration to Universal Print PowerToys 0.69 is now out with the new Registry Preview utility and a bunch of fixes Following a leak, the Thunderbolt 4-based Surface Dock has been announced with a price tag of $299 Microsoft fixes audio issues on Surface Laptop 3 OBS now blocks rogue Windows DLL files, gets improved AV1 support on AMD and Nvidia Microsoft and AWS could be investigated by UK authorities for anti-competitive behavior Ventoy has received high-capacity NTFS support Under the spotlight Neowin News Reporter John Callaham celebrated Microsoft's 48th birthday this week by taking a trip down memory lane and detailing some trivia items about the company's history. With April Fools happening at the start of this month, John also took a look back at some of Microsoft's memorable stunts on this silly day, read more about them here. John was pretty much on a spree with original content pieces and published his thoughts on an early preview that he got to witness for Minecraft Legends too. Finally, forum member Adam Bottjen detailed how you can use a "hidden" version of the Start menu in his latest Tech Tip Tuesday piece. Logging off Our most interesting news item of the week relates to confirmation from Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the company is gearing up to compete with Microsoft in the field of AI-based search by integrating its large language models in Google Search. The executive also noted that Google's generative AI product Bard will switch over to the PaLM language model, which is supposed to be better in this domain than Bard's current language model. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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 Dev build 23430 brings end task option on Taskbar, File Explorer changes, more by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build to Dev Channel Insiders. The new build, 23430, brings a view urgent notification option, the ability to end a task from taskbar and more File Explorer options, among other changes. You can view the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23430 Changes and Improvements [General] Urgent or important notifications that break through when do not disturb is turned on while using apps at full screen will now display a “view notification” button to view the content of the notification for privacy. Urgent or important notifications now show display a view notification button to view the content of the notification when using an app in full screen.In the previous flight, we documented that Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) works on desktop PCs – however, it does not. We have updated that blog post. Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) also 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. [Settings] A limit of 20 most recent tabs has been introduced under Settings > Multitasking to show tabs in ALT + TAB and Snap Assist. [Developer] We are introducing a new setting under Settings > Privacy & security > For developers to enable end task when right-clicking an app on the taskbar. This setting is in Build 23430 but does not currently work when the feature is toggled on. It will be fixed in a future flight. Fixes [General] Fixed an underlying issue causing some Insiders to see an increase in explorer.exe crashes in the last 2 flights. [Input] Fixed an issue where text input features like touch keyboard, voice typing, and emoji panel might not launch. Fixed an issue where the buttons in the Pinyin IME’s settings flyout were hard to see when they had focus if a contrast theme was enabled. [Task Manager] Fixed an issue impacting Task Manager reliability. The search box should no longer be cropped at the top when the window is maximized. [Accessibility] Fixed an issue where in Quick Settings, Narrator was reading out the previous page’s title instead of the active page’s. After downloading voice access, information to help you get started with it should correctly open again now. Fixed an issue where popups for voice access weren’t translated 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. 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: Access keys will appear inconsistently if no button is pressed. Pressing a button will cause them to reappear. [NEW] 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] 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. 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 find the official blog post here.

Some Windows Insiders are getting their USB drives for Windows 11 clean installs by John Callaham In mid-March, Microsoft offered people in the Windows Insiders program a way to get a free USB drive so they could perform a clean install of Windows 11. Now it looks like those drives are starting to reach some Insiders' mailboxes. Got the WIP USB in the mail today. It’s custom branded with the insider logo! @XenoPanther pic.twitter.com/p4NEYpNnr6 — Noah (@noah_will) April 5, 2023 Twitter user Noah_will (via XenoPanther) posted an image of his USB drive, which as you can see has the Windows Insider logo on it. The drive has 64GB of storage on it, according to Noah. Microsoft previously said shipments of the drives could take between six to eight weeks. So it looks like those shipments are actually taking a lot less time to reach some people. Just a reminder: Microsoft originally offered to send these drives to Insiders because it had just launched the Canary Channel. However, Insiders on the Dev build automatically got "updated" to the Canary Channel, which means that if they wanted to stay with the Dev builds, they would have to perform a clean install of Windows 11. The drives Microsoft sent out will allow those users who want to stay on the Dev channel to perform that new install.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 12 rumors, Windows 11 secrets, and Windows 7 support by Usama Jawad It's the end of yet another week as well as the start of the new month, which means that it is time to discuss all the important things that happened in the Microsoft-verse in the past few days. This time around, we have news items related to Windows 12, some potential upcoming Windows 11 features, and support for Windows 7 in a browser. For further details, dive into our weekly digest for March 26 - March 31 below! Windows 12 rumors Rumors about Microsoft's next operating system, "Windows 12", surfaced multiple times this week. First, we learned of some purported requirements for the OS, which include the continuation of TPM 2.0, but increase the RAM requirement to 8GB. Additionally, Microsoft may decide to ditch older CPUs once again, similar to what it did with Windows 11. Of course, none of this has been confirmed yet so lay down your pitchforks for now. Next, we got some more confirmation that Microsoft did accidentally reveal a Windows 12 prototype a few months ago. Notable changes include a floating Taskbar and a notification area on the top rather than the bottom. Microsoft's recent Insider builds have also included strings to hide certain elements of the system tray and the Taskbar, which could be intended for Windows 12. Finally, a report claiming that Microsoft is building a more customizable and modular variant of Windows emerged. The project reportedly has the codename "CorePC" and is supposedly similar to iOS and Android in the sense that it will have read-only partitions. This should allow the CorePC OS to be more secure and update faster. CorePC may be a flavor of Windows 12. That said, it is important to understand that all of these speculations are just rumors for now. Even if they are true, the next-generation operating system isn't expected until late 2024. Windows 11 secrets Returning to the present, we had some interesting news stories about Windows 11 (now on 20% of PCs) too. It seems that Windows 11 may soon let you move Widgets to the right on the Taskbar. This makes it more Windows 10-like and is obviously just a personalization preference. These changes are present in the Canary build 25324 and can be enabled using a third-party utility but note that the implementation is a bit buggy for now. The Redmond tech firm is seemingly experimenting with redesigned and improved Windows Widgets too. This comes in the form of a larger 3-column canvas with dedicated sections for widgets and My feed. These changes are present in the aforementioned Canary build too and can be force-enabled by following the process outlined here. There are some other capabilities being planned too. Windows 11 may soon let you disable annoying account-related notifications on the Start menu in a move that should please many consumers. The option is present in Dev Channel build 23419 and can be force-enabled by anyone too. And while it's not strictly related to Windows 11, Microsoft may finally be working on a portable version of Windows Terminal as well. In terms of what's available to Windows 11 users right now in an unhidden state, we have several new Insider builds. Beta Channel Insiders were treated to build 22624.1537 which introduced access keys in File Explorer, the ability to create live kernel memory dumps through Task Manager, and lots more. Dev Channel build 23424 brought the improved Widgets board described earlier to more users, along with performance improvements to the Settings app. And Canary Channel users netted build 25330 with lots of relatively minor changes and improvements. Stable channel customers received some love from Microsoft in the form of new builds too. KB5023778 features an improved Taskbar search bar, Microsoft Account notifications, and more. Furthermore, Microsoft has done away with the Acropalypse by releasing Snipping Tool fixes to everyone on Windows 10 and Windows 11. And since we have ventured into the domain of cybersecurity, it's worth highlighting that Microsoft is rolling out the next phase of its Domain Controller hardening to patch a Kerberos security flaw via Windows Update. Additionally, Microsoft Defender started generating false positives by alerting users about safe links, this issue has now been resolved. Finally, if you want to create Windows 10 and Windows 11 ISOs but find Microsoft's Media Creation Tool cumbersome to use, check out this alternative utility instead. And if you use Rufus for your other Windows-related tinkering, the latest version of the software includes an option to disable BitLocker. Windows 7 support... and other app updates Continuing from the previous section which we wrapped up with mention of a Rufus update, we would like to bring your attention to a Ventoy update. The bootable USB solution, which supports Windows 7, now supports over 1,100 ISOs with version 1.0.90. The latest version also improves the Fedora boot process and addresses a Ventoy remount bug on Linux kernel 5.18 and newer. And speaking of Windows 7, Mozilla has decided to extend Firefox support on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 through Firefox 115 ESR, which is due to arrive on July 4, 2023. This version of the browser is supported until Q3 2024, which gives plenty of time for Firefox customers to continue using the browser before they decide to eventually upgrade their OS or consider alternatives. As is the case near the end of each month, there was lots of Teams news this week too. Teams 2.0 is now live in public preview with a major design revamp and performance boosts. The process to launch the app and join meetings is twice as fast and the app uses 50% less memory. Another feature now available in preview for Teams is 3D avatars. Similarly, Teams mobile is getting a new Chat Dashboard while Teams enterprise customers with certain licenses are getting advanced security protections through Microsoft Defender 365. The Redmond tech giant has also shared a changelog of all the features it added to the free SKU of Teams during the month of March 2023. It also detailed a similar changelog for Excel along with introducing the ability to add local videos in PowerPoint for the web. There are a couple of updates related to Microsoft's Edge browser too. Microsoft is working to make it easier to use vertical tabs in its browser and may be planning the return of an upgraded version of the Mica effect too. It's almost impossible to talk about Edge without mentioning Bing Chat. The AI-powered chatbot now supports 200 daily turns and 20 in-session turns, it is slated to receive better formatting of mathematical equations too. In fact, it even supports video and image search now. But with these peaks in super-charged search engines and chatbots, there are some valleys too. Italy's data protection agency has banned OpenAI from using the data of Italians in ChatGPT due to privacy concerns. Additionally, some security researchers also reported a Bing flaw to Microsoft through which they could game search results, which is a major problem considering it's hard enough to trust results generated in conversations by Bing AI too. Some might also be disheartened to know that Microsoft plans to continue with its plans to monetize Bing AI through ads in chat, it has shared some more details in this area too. The company is super-protective about Bing search data as well and does not seem willing to share it with other AI chatbots. Git gud As usual, we will start this section off with some news about Microsoft's ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The purchase has now been approved by Japan's antitrust regulator, which is a major win for Microsoft, especially since it concerns Sony's "home town". Meanwhile, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has published an email slamming Sony for its "disappointing behavior" during the ongoing deal. On the other hand, Microsoft has dismissed rumors claiming that it pulled in-development ZeniMax games for the PlayStation 5 following a similar high-profile back in 2021. On the hardware side of things, Microsoft has unveiled red and blue variants of the Xbox Elite Series 2 – Core controller, in addition to the standard white. Moreover, if you are a Diablo fan, you can nab an Xbox Series X console with Diablo IV and its in-game items included for $559. And if you are already an Xbox owner and an Insider, grab the Omega console update which brings better subscription management and other fixes. We had some news items related to specific games too. If you're facing problems while trying to open Red Dead Redemption 2 via the Rockstar Launcher on Windows 11 version 21H2, Microsoft has recommended upgrading to version 22H2 if you really want to play the title ASAP and can't wait for the Redmond firm's investigation to complete. But if you're a Minecraft player instead, you might want to check out this Dungeons and Dragons mashup DLC coming soon. Wrapping up this section with news about subscriptions and deals, Microsoft has gotten rid of the popular $1 Game Pass trials on Xbox and PC, while hinting at different promotions in the future. But if you're a Games with Gold subscriber instead, you can claim Peaky Blinders: Mastermind and Out of Space during the month of April, with the latter up for grabs already. Meanwhile, Xbox Free Play Days has four games up on offer this weekend, with the major one being Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. On the other hand, Deals with Gold is headlined by Batman: Arkham Knight and several LEGO titles. However, if you're a PC purist, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals, curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Dev Channel Prices for Microsoft Cloud services are increasing in Europe very soon New Windows drivers for Surface Duo have brought unofficial Windows 10 support and tons of improvements, the official late March update is available too Microsoft is partnering with certain organizations to protect journalism and improve news distribution Microsoft Viva Connections for Education will help kids keep track of everything, now available More layoffs have hit Microsoft's security division in Redmond and Bellevue, Washington Microsoft has delayed the deprecation of Remote PowerShell in Exchange Online Microsoft Security Copilot will use generative AI to create alerts The second-generation Surface Hub 2S is now official Updates for Microsoft Teams Rooms and Devices include new Cisco digital whiteboards PowerToys' upcoming registry tool will let you preview and edit registry files A Microsoft data center in the Netherlands is generating environmental concerns Google is making file sharing between Windows and Android much easier Under the spotlight We published several interesting original pieces over the past few days. The first one is from News Reporter Taras Buria who highlighted five interesting features that you should give a go in Windows 11 Insider Preview builds. We also have a couple of nostalgic pieces for News Reporter John Callaham. The first talks about how Steam's Early Access popularized this concept of rolling out paid early-stage software to the public for testing and gathering feedback, for better or for worse. In the wake of Intel's founder Gordon Moore recently passing away, John also took a quick look back at Moore's Law, wondering if it will continue moving forward. We also have a couple of guides. The first one is from Taras Buria, who explained how to remove news from Widgets in Windows 11. Finally, we have a Tech Tip Tuesday piece from Adam Bottjen, who guided our readers regarding the process for enabling voice isolation during a phone call on iOS 16.4. Logging off Our most interesting news item of the week is about a person who got caught in China while trying to smuggle 239 Intel Core CPUs worth thousands of dollars... by taping them to his body. He was caught by customs inspectors who decided to investigate him since his because of his "abnormal" and "bloated" experience. There is no word yet on what the punishment for his crime is, but it's certainly interesting to see the lengths certain people will go to in order to pass customs checks at airports and seaports. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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 Dev build 23424 brings latest updates sooner to you, boosts Settings performance by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new build for Windows 11 Dev Channel Insiders. The new build 23424 adds the option to get the latest updates sooner with the help of a toggle. The new build also brings full-screen widgets, improved search performance inside Settings, and much more. You can find the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23424 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 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 > Widgets. 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, as well as on desktop PCs. 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”. On desktop PCs, this is off by default. We encourage Insiders across laptops, 2-in1’s, and desktop PCs to try the “Always” option and give us feedback on the visual quality of CABC so we can ensure it is properly tuned. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Adaptive Brightness. Changes and Improvements [Input] Made a change to help improve performance when using a high polling mouse while gaming. [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. But because the Dev Channel does not use an enablement package, turning this toggle on will not do anything for Insiders in the Dev Channel. However, by turning it on, a “Windows configuration update” will be offered via Windows Update that is designed to help us make sure it this new toggle is connected to our backend services correctly before making it available in the Beta Channel. This 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.Improved the performance of search within Settings. The settings page for wheel devices such as the Surface Dial has been updated to better match the Windows 11 design principles. Updated wheel devices settings page.Fixes [General] Fixed an issue that was causing voice access to take some time to turn on after using the wake-up command. [File Explorer] We fixed the following issues for Insiders with recommended files in File Explorer: We fixed the issue causing an error dialog to pop up when clicking on the “Open File Location” command. We fixed the issue causing no action to occur when clicking on the ‘Remove from list’ command. [Input] Made a change to help improve performance when using a high report rate mouse while gaming. As a reminder, if you have gaming performance feedback, please follow these steps to file actionable feedback. [Settings] Improved the performance of search within Settings. [Windowing] Fixed an issue from the last flight where Microsoft Edge tabs would show when doing ALT + Tab even if Settings > System > Multitasking was set to “Don’t show tabs”. [Task Manager] Fixed an issue where the search icon could end up overlapping the Task Manager icon in the title bar. 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. 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: 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] 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. 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. Microsoft Store Update Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels running version 22303.1401.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvements rolling out: Install free apps and games from search results: We’ve introduced a new way to install free apps and games. Hovering over a free product on the search results page opens a new expanded card experience, where you can find a convenient install button. This will trigger the installation without having to navigate into the product page. Quickly install free apps and games from search results in the Store.New design when purchasing apps and games in the Store: Discover a new and redesigned experience when purchasing apps and games inside the Microsoft Store! The purchase dialog’s styles align better with Windows 11 to bring you a more pleasant checkout experience. New design when purchasing apps and games in the Store.New UX for in-app ratings dialog: Developers of your favorite apps and games often use a Microsoft Store feature that requests ratings from within the app or game. We’ve updated this in-app ratings experience to be faster, more reliable, and to better align with Windows 11 styling. New UX for in-app ratings dialog in the Store.FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. You can find the official blog post here.

Microsoft Weekly: Edge Workspaces, SHA-3 in Windows, and Copilots by Usama Jawad Another week has gone by and it is time yet again to recap important events that occurred in the world of Microsoft in the past seven days. This time around, we have news items related to Microsoft 365 apps and services, some nifty new Windows features, and improvements to Microsoft's various AI initiatives. Without further ado, let's dive into our latest weekly digest covering March 19 - March 24! Edge Workspaces and other Microsoft 365 updates Following an announcement last year and availability for enterprise customers, Workspaces in Edge are finally in preview for consumers using the latest version of the browser. Workspaces are a decent way to collaborate with others in a shared browser space with real-time changes. The preview is currently limited to five people per customer but this ceiling will be raised later this Spring. The latest Stable build of Edge 111 also contains improvements to the Sidebar as well as a few security fixes. Microsoft Teams is set to receive some love in the coming weeks and months too. The Redmond tech firm is working on a range of new features for the collaboration tool including the ability to create offline meetings, support for ratings and reviews in the Teams app store, renaming capabilities, and more. Microsoft has also reminded Surface Hub customers to acquire Teams Rooms licenses for their hardware by July 1 if they still rely on a user subscription license. There were other smaller improvements to other Microsoft 365 services too. PowerPoint for the web finally supports automatic bullet formatting whereas the Play My Emails feature in Outlook mobile now supports the French and Spanish languages. We'll round this section off with news about Microsoft Loop. Starting a tease earlier in the week that "something is coming", Microsoft Loop finally launched in public preview a couple of days ago. The platform currently supports work accounts only but will be expanded to personal accounts in the future along with Microsoft 365 Copilot integration. SHA-3 and other new Windows features After a few days of radio silence in the cutting-edge Canary Channel, Microsoft finally rolled out a couple of builds. Windows 11 build 25324 introduces support for the SHA-3 family of hash functions, and features a USB4 settings page along with an evolved Widgets board. Another Canary build was rolled out a few hours ago to test the servicing pipeline too. Similarly, Windows Server vNext netted build 25324, which means that it now aligns with Canary versions rather than Dev. Prior to this, we received Dev Channel build 23419 with live kernel memory dumps via Task Manager, the same USB4 settings page mentioned above, and several known issues. Meanwhile, the Beta Channel received build 22624.1470 again with the same USB4 settings page along with the restoration of seconds in the system tray clock. The Release Preview Channel was also treated to build 22621.1483 (KB5023778) with more ads in the Start menu and a Bing Chat shortcut in Edge. Then there is also the ongoing list of undocumented and hidden features that Microsoft is privately testing in Windows 11 preview builds for now. The Canary Channel has a new version of ReFS and animated Widget icons, while the Dev Channel has Cloud PC settings and a dedicated shortcut for screen-recording. And although Microsoft has not even announced a "Windows 12" yet, it seems like its next-gen OS is still quite a long way off. In other relatively smaller updates related to Windows, Microsoft has made some minor updates to the OOBE process and fixed registry and 32-bit app update bugs in a preview update to Windows 11 version 22H2 too. And speaking of preview updates, these will now roll out on a fixed schedule moving forward, that is, the fourth Tuesday of each month. In a similar vein, the 10GB on-premises Unified Update Platform (UUP) rollout will kick off in the next week. But let's switch gears to bugs in Windows for a bit. There have been reports of SSD and boot performance being slowed down in Windows 11 version 22H2 after the latest Patch Tuesday update. On the security side, the "hardware security not supported" bug in Windows 11 continues to persist and it seems like this and similar issues could be caused by a wonky Microsoft Defender. Another issue that incorrectly indicates that Local Security Authority (LSA) protection is disabled is being investigated by Microsoft too. Security problems might be concerning to some users, especially since a recent report indicated that 18 zero-days were exploited across Microsoft products last year. Earlier this week, it was also revealed that Windows 10 and Windows 11 are susceptible to Acropalypse, with the built-in Snipping Tool retaining screenshots that you thought you had deleted. A fix for the vulnerability was rolled out on an urgent basis. Of course, if all of this makes you uncomfortable with using Windows 11, try out the latest version of the OS via Microsoft's free evaluation virtual machines. And also make sure that you follow the company's security guidance, such as that related to DCOM hardening in relevant environments. Upgrades to Copilots The race to see who can offer the best search "copilot" is effectively on with Google finally making its Bard AI chatbot available in public preview. A senior Microsoft executive thinks that Google's implementation is far behind Microsoft's own Bing Chat, but being the underdogs in this area for so long, the Redmond tech firm has learned to never underestimate Google. Bing Chat has been getting tons of improvements in the past few days too. Microsoft has integrated Bing Image Creator in Bing Chat, which enables users to receive AI-generated images through textual prompts. It is fairly buggy for now, but Microsoft has been working on bashing bugs along with implementing chat history. Bing Chat users can even utilize their Microsoft Rewards points to generate images faster. Microsoft's vision for AI-powered copilots is bigger than just Bing Chat though. It has recently added GPT-4 to its Azure OpenAI Service to facilitate developers in building AI apps, along with announcing DAX Express to assist healthcare workers in automating tedious documentation jobs by leveraging GPT-4. Additionally, Microsoft has partnered with Nvidia to launch two services on Azure; one for AI and the other for the "metaverse". It has also announced an extension to GitHub Copilot in the form of GitHub Copilot X. As expected, it is powered by GPT-4 and also supports voice chat. The company has outlined plans through which AI can help non-profits in these troubling economic times as well. Git gud We had lots of gaming news throughout the course of this week. The headliner is that UK regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its provisional findings for Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, determining that the purchase won't affect console gaming. It is still investigating the impact on the cloud gaming sector with the full decision due next month, but this is still a pretty major victory for Microsoft. Microsoft has its target set on conquering the mobile gaming sector too. Xbox head Phil Spencer recently noted that it will be trivial to add an Xbox storefront to mobile platforms once the App Store and Google Play Store open their doors to third-party storefronts next year under the EU's Digital Markets Act. And yet another space the company will be expanding in further is TV shows/streaming with Microsoft tapping Dune and Doctor Strange writer Jon Spaihts for its upcoming Gears of War adaptation on Netflix. Over on the indie game development side, dozens of game demos landed via the company's ID@Xbox GDC event. Microsoft also emphasized the benefits of this program, highlighting that over 3,000 developers have earned more than $4 billion through this initiative in the past 10 years. The firm further aims to help game creators from diverse backgrounds moving forward. While we are on the subject of games, it's worth mentioning that Redfall's PlayStation 5 version was canceled following Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax, and the company is currently working to reverse its always-online requirement for single-player experiences. On the hardware front, ViewSonic unveiled a pair of projectors, the first to feature the "Designed for Xbox" branding, they will be available within a few weeks. Microsoft also rolled out the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit to assist developers in reducing carbon footprints. Finally, over on the subscriptions and services side of the fence, the latest Deals with Gold are headlined by Deathloop and Far Cry, Xbox Free Play Days is offering Far Cry 5, Marvel's Midnight Suns, and Bassmaster Fishing 2022, and MLB The Show 23 is now on Game Pass, along with a couple more titles. However, if console gaming does not interest you at all, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals, handpicked by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Dev Channel Weather from Microsoft Start declared most accurate global forecast provider New Windows drivers for Surface Duo offer better Slim Pen support, DisplayPort via USB-C, and more WSATools 1.0.0 brings APK bundle and ARM64 support to Windows 11 ViVeTool 0.3.3 is out with ARM support, fixes for the fullreset command, and more CISA has released a Python utility to detect hacking in Microsoft cloud environments Under the spotlight This week, Neowin co-founder Steven Parker published his review of the rugged Doogee S100, which hosts a massive 10,800mAh battery. Although the device has its flaws, it is fairly affordable in its category with a price tag of under $450. On the other hand, News Reporter John Callaham took a trip down memory lane to reminisce about Microsoft's original "Copilot", Clippy. It's a pretty nostalgic piece that you can read here. And as usual, forum member Adam Bottjen published his latest Tech Tip Tuesday piece, this time covering the topic of changing your PC's screen orientation. Logging off Our most interesting news item of the week relates to Google's Project Zero security team publicly disclosing Linux kernel vulnerabilities following Red Hat's inability to backport security fixes to older versions of certain distros. Fortunately, the vulnerabilities in question have local attack vectors which means that they cannot be exploited by an attacker over the internet. There is still no ETA on when the patches will be backported but Project Zero has noted that it may opt for stricter deadlines rather than the standard 90-day process for similar issues in the future. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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 Dev build 23419 improves boot time performance, adds USB4 page, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft has released a new build for Windows 11 Dev Channel Insiders. The new build 23419 improves booting times, adds USB4 Settings page, and more. As always, there are many more bug fixes and other improvements. You can find the full changelog below: What’s new in Build 23419 Create live kernel memory dumps in Task Manager We are introducing a set of new developer-focused features in Task Manager to aid the collection of live kernel memory dumps (LKDs). This is in addition to the existing “Memory dump” for user mode processes. The goal of kernel live dump is to gather data to troubleshoot an abnormal situation but allow the OS to continue operation. This reduces downtime when compared to a bug check for “non-fatal” but high-impact failures and hangs. Click here for more info on live kernel dumps. To capture a live kernel memory dump (LKD), go to the Details page in Task Manager, right-click on the System process and the context menu should light up to show “Create live kernel memory dump file” to capture a Full live kernel or Kernel stack memory dumps. The dumps will be written to a fixed location: %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\TaskManager\LiveKernelDumps Choose the new “Create live kernel memory dump file” option when right-clicking on a process on the details page in Task Manager. You can also go to the Task Manager Settings page to view/edit the settings for live kernel memory dumps. Configure live kernel dumps options in Task Manager settings.FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Task Manager. USB4 Settings Page We are adding a USB4 hubs and devices Settings page for users under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > USB > USB4 Hubs and Devices. USB4 enables new productivity scenarios for docking, high performance peripherals, displays and charging. The USB4 settings page provides information about the system’s USB4 capabilities and attached peripherals on a USB4 capable system. These insights are meant to assist with troubleshooting in case users need support from their device manufacturer (OEM) or system administrator. The features provided by this page are: View the tree of connected USB4 hubs and devices. View attributes and capabilities associated with the USB4 domain. Copy the details into the clipboard so it can be shared with customer support or system administrators for troubleshooting. USB4 Settings page with details shown. If the system does not support USB4 with the Microsoft USB4 Connection Manager, this page will not be displayed. To confirm whether your system is USB4 capable or not, check for “USB4 Host Router” populating in the Device Manager. USB4 Host Router as shown in Device Manager.FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Buses. Cloud Suggestion in Simplified Chinese IME We are trying out some changes that will allow you to easily type popular words in Simplified Chinese. The changes include an improved cloud suggestion and integrated search suggestion. The cloud suggestion adds the most relevant word from Bing to the IME candidate window. We’ve updated the back-end logic so that we can provide better, fresh suggestions. Simplified Chinese IME candidate window with a word suggestion from Bing at the second place. The integrated search suggestion gives you additional suggestions that are similar to what you see in Bing search page. You can either insert a suggestion as text or search it directly in Bing. Bing search suggestions expanded from IME candidate window. To turn on these features, select a chevron button at the right end of the IME candidate window. You’ll find Turn on button. IME candidate window with a balloon tip that points to the chevron button.FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Input and Language > Text Input. Changes and Improvements [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. [Start menu] We are trying out a small change with some Windows Insiders where the “Recommended” section of the Start menu is changed to “For you”. Let us know what you think in Feedback Hub if you see this change. [Taskbar & System Tray] The glanceable VPN status show overlayed over an active network connection into the system tray when connected to a recognized VPN profile now displays in your system accent color. Glanceable VPN status in the system tray using system accent color.In response to user feedback, we are introducing the capability to show seconds in the clock on the system tray. This feature can be enabled by toggling the option listed under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar in the Taskbar behavior section. You can also right-click on taskbar to quickly get to taskbar settings. We are beginning to roll this change out so not all Windows Insiders will see this change right away, but we hope to make it available to everyone soon. Option to show seconds in the system tray clock.[Search on the Taskbar] Once you have access to the new Bing, the search box on the taskbar will include a button that opens the Bing chat experience in Edge. If you don’t have access to the new Bing, the search box on the taskbar will feature a dynamic search highlight button. We’re beginning to roll this out to Insiders, not everyone will see it right away. [Voice access] The redesigned in-app help page in voice access introduced with Build 23403 now includes all commands and the supplementary information accurately. Redesigned in-app help page in voice access.[Settings] As part of the deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters, we have begun redirecting some of the troubleshooters found under Settings > System > Troubleshoot and in other areas of the OS to the new Get Help troubleshooting platform. Pressing the print screen key will now open Snipping Tool by default. This setting can be turned off via Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. If you have previously modified this setting yourself, your preference will be preserved. [Developer] Virtual Memory ranges which are marked by a KbCallbackTriageDumpData BugCheck Callback Routine will now be added to kernel-generated minidumps after a bugcheck. Fixes [General] Improved the experience on logon after booting up by reducing the performance impact of startup apps. [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed an issue that was causing Narrator to read the position before the name on system tray icons. Fixed an issue causing the show hidden icons flyout to open behind things like OneNote flyout and live captions. Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe crashes related to drag and drop. [Search on the Taskbar] Fixed a search crash from the last flight. [File Explorer] Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe to crash when opening Home if certain content was visible in the Recent section. Made some improvements to the performance of loading File Explorer in the case where there’s a disconnected network drive visible in the navigation pane. [Start menu] Fixed an issue where dragging content across an open Start menu folder could cause a crash. [Input] Fixed an issue where after using voice typing your PC might not enter modern standby. [Live captions] We fixed the issue causing live captions to not work for Chinese Traditional on Arm64 devices. [Task Manager] Fixed an issue where some of the details in the Performance page wouldn’t display properly until you resized the window or changed pages back and forth. 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 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 access keys in File Explorer: 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). Clicking on the “Open File Location” command will pop an error dialog that can easily be dismissed. Clicking on the ‘Remove from list’ command will result in no actions. [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. 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 find the official blog post here.

Microsoft Weekly: Free USB drives, Bing AI in Edge, and pirated Windows by Usama Jawad We are at the end of yet another week and it is time again to recap everything important that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. This time around, we have news about Microsoft handing out free USB drives to Insiders, Bing integration in Microsoft Edge, and items about pirated Windows copies being endorsed by Microsoft, kind of. Without further ado, let's dive into our weekly digest covering March 12 - March 17! Free USB drives With Dev Channel Insiders being moved to the new Canary Channel recently, users who want to switch to lower channels need to clean install their OS. In order to assist customers in this endeavor, Microsoft is offering free USBs on a first come-first serve basis. The bad news is that delivery for the hardware may take 6-8 weeks, find out how to claim your USB here. Speaking of Insider channels, Microsoft confirmed that it will not be flighting Dev or Canary Channel builds this week - although the company is working on a new capability for Insiders to receive efatures faster. Instead, Insiders on the Beta Channel netted build 22624.1465 (KB5023775) with improved live captions, touch keyboard settings, VPN status changes, and a couple of bugs. Similarly, Windows 10 and Windows 11 Insiders on the Release Preview Channel received lots of backend enhancements. It wasn't Insiders that had all the fun though. Customers on stable builds were treated to Patch Tuesday updates. Windows 10 users received security updates and a known issue whereas Windows 11 version 22H2 and 21H2 featured lengthy changelogs with lots of fixes. Although there wasn't really a lot of activity in the higher Insider channels, Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) did receive better performance and stability in Dev and Beta. This areais perhaps becoming even more important for Microsoft as it faces competition from Google Play Games, which is coming to more countries soon. Over on the Linux side, Microsoft brought Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) custom kernel support to Arm. Those who use Windows 10 for gaming should also know that some OEMs are seemingly turning on virtualization-based security (VBS) in the OS, which could lead to slight performance drops. And since we are talking about performance, it's important to highlight that Yandex has alleged that AMD writes its drivers in a way that unfairly favors Edge and Chrome, compared to Yandex Browser. And while it's not related to the aforementioned topic, Microsoft says that it is working on new policies for app pinning and default apps as a part of its "long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience" (hehe). The company has formally published guidance for family features in Windows 11 and made AppLocker deployment easier across various versions of Windows recently too. AI everywhere Microsoft is on a mission to bring its AI capabilities to its mainstream products. To that end, Bing AI is now embedded in the Microsoft Edge Sidebar and it seems like GPT is on its way to LinkedIn too. Microsoft has also announced Microsoft 365 Copilot for its Office productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and others. You can also check out a video of this feature in action in PowerPoint here. The Redmond tech firm is also busy making improvements to Bing Chat. The chatbot is now running on GPT-4, sports daily chat and per session turn limits of 150 and 15 respectively, and allows people to share answers on social media platforms. Faster responses from the AI are being worked upon too. Some people are even reporting that they don't need to get in a queue to access the chatbot anymore. Microsoft is also working on integrating Bing Chat answers directly in Bing Search. In related news, Microsoft gave customers an inside look at how it combines its Azure cloud with Nvidia hardware to power AI supercomputers, which are also the backbone for ChatGPT's large language model. While its hardware and software are certainly impressive, some might find it problematic that Microsoft has laid off its entire ethical AI team. When it comes to updates to other Microsoft apps and services, video filters are now available in Teams, while Avatars and 3x3 default video view for Edge and Chrome are coming in May. Speaking of Edge, the stable version now sports Adobe Acrobat PDF reader natively while Dev has tab pinning, video ad blocker on Android, and more. Meanwhile, the Canary version has implementation that disables the Bing button and toggle off rounded corners on webpages. Microsoft is also intent on bringing Bing Search to Windows 10 desktop via Edge, without the AI copilot for now. It has begun testing the browser on iPhone and iPad too. Finally, Microsoft will begin rolling out the new Outlook client to more users in April, and for those who have the new Microsoft 365 app on Android, you can now quickly jump to recently opened files. Pirated Windows copies A somewhat funny story emerged this week when a Windows 10 customer reported that a Microsoft support official activated their copy by leveraging a script that is used to crack the operating system. Yes, you read that right. This was confirmed by the script's creator who noted that their method is illegal and isn't an official way to activate Windows. Overall, there is no harm done since the user in question had already purchased the Windows 10 copy officially, but was having trouble activating it. In related news, Microsoft has released PowerShell scripts to patch the WinRE BitLocker bypass in order to improve security. Its Patch Tuesday updates have also fixed a critical Outlook 0-day exploit and another reported by Google; it was related to a ransomware bypassing Microsoft SmartScreen. And if you're running a relatively insecure Windows 8.1, you should also know that Power BI Desktop is ending support for the OS in a few months. In other security news, hackers from North Korea are reportedly invading LinkedIn with fake job listings targeting unsuspecting people. In order to further secure customers against threats like these and more, Microsoft is also publicly previewing custom real-time detections in Microsoft 365 Defender. Lastly, the company is working on implementing an NFT and crypto wallet in its Edge browser (sigh). Git gud As has been the case for the past several weeks, we will once again kick off this section with Microsoft's ongoing purchase of Activision Blizzard. The former has signed two more deals with cloud streaming platforms regarding the distribution of Call of Duty, those being Boosteroid and Ubitus. Despite these seemingly consumer-friendly moves, the FTC has accused Microsoft of holding back documents requested regarding the acqusition while the EU has delayed its decision to May. As the acquisition continues to stretch on, Blizzard has confirmed that it currently has no plans to bring Diablo IV to Xbox Game Pass. Ghostwire: Tokyo is coming to the service on April 12 though. Meanwhile, Microsoft's highly anticipated Starfield has been handed an R18+ rating in Australia due to excessive drug use. This means that it can't legally be sold to minors and Microsoft may have to be careful while advertising the title too. On the other end of the spectrum, Minecraft is now available on select Chromebooks. Moreover, the Xbox app on Windows has been updated with improved filters and game discovery capabilities, read the changelog here. Coming over to deals and promotions, Xbox Free Play Days has Anno 1800, Session, and Autonauts on offer. Lamentum is free to claim on Games with Gold and NFS Unbound headlines Deals with Gold. However, if console gaming doesn't interest you, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated personally by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Dev Channel You can now nominate your favorite Windows apps for Microsoft Store Awards 2023 Tiny10 version 2303 brings modern, lightweight, and serviceable Windows 10 to old PCs Satya Nadella remains Microsoft board's chairman, but there is a new lead independent director Build 2023 has been confirmed for May 23-25 SwiftKey for Android has been updated with Unicode 15 emojis and a new theme The second preview of Visual Studio 2022 17.6 is now available Microsoft 365 Apps version 2302 has resolved issues in Access, Outlook, Project, and Word Microsoft has issued a firmware update to fix abnormal shutdowns in Surface Laptop 4 Rufus 3.22 Beta has added an option to disable BitLocker and removed ISO downloads on Windows 7 Microsoft has updated WinUI 3 Gallery app to help developers create beautiful Windows apps Under the spotlight Neowin's John Callaham authored a very interesting piece comparing today's reality with what Microsoft envisioned a smart home to look like in 1999. Read more about the comparison here to find out how accurate Microsoft was in its predictions. We also have a couple of guides to spotlight. The first is from News Reporter Taras Buria who explains how you can disable the new Bing button in the Sidebar in the latest Edge 111 Stable update. The other guide is from forum member Adam Bottjen, who detailed the process to enable Back Tap on your iPhone in his latest Tech Tip Tuesday piece. Logging off Our most interesting news item in this edition of Microsoft Weekly is about the Redmond tech giant once again pushing ads for Microsoft Edge. This time, this was a full-page ad without the title bar - which meant that you couldn't close the window by pressing the traditional "x" button -, and it displayed after a browser update rather than first launch. This is not being widely reported so far, so it is possible that this ad being served to us after a browser update is a glitch rather than something intentional. But then again, you never know given Microsoft's history in this area. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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 Subsystem for Android gets better graphics performance and stability in Beta and Dev by Taras Buria Although Windows insiders will not receive new Canary or Dev builds this week, Microsoft has a shiny new update for Windows Subsystem for Android or WSA. Version 2302 is now available for Dev and Beta Channels testing, bringing various stability, graphics, audio, and security improvements (via Deskmodder). Here are the changes in version 2302.4000: Stability improvements to graphics card selection Updates to the Windows Subsystem for Android Settings app to include performance options for graphics cards Docking and undocking with external monitors issues fixed with the subsystem Fixes to apps with audio buffer issues Android 13 security updates Windows insiders can download the latest Windows Subsystem for Android from the Microsoft Store. Windows Subsystem for Android is a Windows 11-exclusive feature (there are unofficial methods that let you run WSA on Windows 10) that allows running Android apps on Windows PCs. Unfortunately, WSA does not support Google Play and its services, so users need to download apps from the Amazon App Store or sideload them using ADB or more user-friendly utilities like WSATools. Microsoft frequently releases updates for the subsystem, which is currently based on Android 13. You can follow the project's development process in its GitHub repository. It also contains a list of supported features and things to come in future updates.

Microsoft is giving away free USB drives due to latest changes in Windows Insider Program by Taras Buria Earlier this month, Microsoft expanded the Windows Insider program with a new Canary Channel. It works similarly to the now-dead Skip Ahead Ring, offering enthusiasts early access to the latest platform changes, new features in their infancy, and other technical changes that usually come alongside stability issues, bugs, and no support. Although the new Canary Channel may sound exciting to Windows enthusiasts (after all, it is great to see the program growing), it has one bitter side effect: your Dev build gets upgraded to Canary automatically and with no downgrade option. Microsoft has made it clear that a clean Windows installation is the only option to go down from Canary to Dev/Beta/Release Preview/Stable. As a result, Microsoft is giving away free USB drives so that users can switch channels without purchasing extra hardware, regardless of how cheap it is. Microsoft has sent emails with a link to a page where Windows Insiders in need can claim a free USB thumb drive. Only Windows Insiders can participate in the giveaway (you need a unique code from the email to get your free drive) while supplies last. Microsoft notes that the program runs by the "first come-first serve" principle, so act fast if you want a free USB from Microsoft. Another caveat is that the delivery can take up to 6-8 weeks, which means users in the new Canary Channel will get at least a couple of potentially highly unstable builds. Therefore, purchasing an 8GB USB thumb drive from a local store might be a better option for those discontent with the latest changes. Fortunately, USB thumb drives are extremely cheap, and you can get one for less than $6 for 32GB, $7 for 64GB, and $15 for 128GB. Our stories may contain affiliate links for products/apps where Neowin is paid an affiliate fee if you complete a purchase via those links.

Microsoft Weekly: Canary Channel, dumb AI, and Outlook authenticator by Usama Jawad We are at the close of another week yet again, which means that it is time to recap all the important happenings from the world of Microsoft from the past few days. This time around, we have got news about Microsoft's new Canary Channel, AI shenanigans (obviously), and some software updates. Without further ado, let's dive into our latest weekly digest covering March 5 - March 10! Canary Channel Original image via Wallpaper Access At the start of the week, Microsoft announced an addition to its Windows Insider Program in the form of a new Canary Channel. This is the place where features which require the most lead time will be seeded, which also means that this will be the most unstable release with barely any documentation due to the pace of releases - do expect Twitter announcements though. It will receive builds with version number 25xxx and could also be the channel where the next major version of Windows is tested. Dev Channel will receive build 23xxx moving forward. Current Dev Channel Insiders are already being migrated to the Canary Channel, but those who want to stay on Dev will need to do a clean-install. The Canary Channel also received a couple of builds following this announcement. Build 25314 introduced access keys and recommendations to the File Explorer, along with enabling LSA protection. Additionally, it disables the legacy Remote Mailslot protocol by default, with the intention to deprecate and remove it permanently in the future. A couple of days ago, build 25314.1010 was also seeded to test the servicing pipeline. A Windows Server Insider Preview release was rolled out with version 25314 as well, it has fixes for SCONFIG on startup and WinRE rendering, along with one known issue. The Windows 11 Dev Channel also received some love in the form of build 23403, bringing a ton of new features including some of those present in Canary and live captions in more languages. As Microsoft releases builds across various channels, enthusiasts have potentially spotted upcoming features for the company's operating system. These include a movable Taskbar with labels and ungrouping of apps, an improved USB4 Settings page, ReFS "Dev Drive" VHD volumes, and theme-aware weather icons for the Windows 11 Taskbar. There is no guarantee that any of the aforementioned features will be rolled out generally though. Dumb AI Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made a few interesting comments in a recent interview, noting that voice assistants (including its own Cortana) are "dumb as a rock". Microsoft wants chatbots to be a frontend to access information but Nadella believes that Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa don't offer this capability. This is why the Redmond tech giant has pivoted to generative AI through Bing Chat. Hindsight is 20/20 indeed. To that end, Microsoft has been making improvements to Bing Chat in order to make it more user-friendly. Daily turns have now been increased to 120 and you can have up to 10 chat turns per session. There are faster chat responses in Skype and Microsoft is also working on the highly requested capability to save chats. In the meantime, Bing Chat users have been discovering interesting things that the AI model can do. Apparently, you can get it to impersonate celebrities and play chess. All of this has propelled Bing to reach a milestone of 100 million daily users, 13 years after its inception. In terms of what's next, Microsoft is working to integrate generative AI capabilities in Dynamics 365, with "The Future of Work with AI" event scheduled for next week. Moreover, ChatGPT is now available for more customers to use through a preview on the Azure OpenAI service. Finally, GPT-4 is expected to release next week with support for multiple modalities. Outlook authenticator and other updates Microsoft revealed a few days ago that it is planning to add Authenticator capabilities to its Outlook app for Android and iOS. Basically, if you sign into your work or school email account, you'll be able to use "Authenticator Lite" present in the Outlook app on your phone for multi-factor authentication, without needing to download any other app. The feature is expected to land this month. In related news, the Outlook for Mac app is now completely free to use. Elsewhere, there were a few interesting updates for other Microsoft 365 apps too. Microsoft is finally adding the Paste Text Only shortcut to Word, along with new shortcuts to zoom. Meanwhile, Teams is slated to get a number of new features, the headliner being spatial audio. Similarly, enterprise customers can now easily save files securely to OneDrive directly through the Microsoft Edge mobile app. Speaking of Edge, the browser is reportedly getting 14 custom mouse gestures. On the other hand, Translator has added support for over a dozen African languages recently, bringing its total to 124. Other app updates include a Paste As Plain Text shortcut in PowerToys, Notepad++ with an entry in the Windows 11 context menu, Bing Chat in Skype Insider, and a couple of new features in the Surface app. Over on the hardware and firmware side, make sure to roll back the latest Nvidia GPU driver to get rid of the high CPU usage bug. And if you're an AMD customer, don't forget to install the latest driver patch which fixes timeout errors that led to Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on Windows. Git gud In its bid to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony tried to convince UK regular CMA that if the deal goes through, the Redmond tech giant could intentionally make Call of Duty on PlayStation 5 buggy to get gamers to switch to Xbox. It remains to be seen if this argument makes a dent in Microsoft's proposal. In some other slightly bad news, Starfield has now been delayed to September with a dedicated Direct event in June. The Starfield Direct will happen after the Xbox Games Showcase in the same month since Microsoft is skipping the E3 showfloor this year. Meanwhile, the latest preview update to Minecraft has introduced the Bedrock world editor as Sea of Thieves celebrates its fifth anniversary with Season 9. Finally, coming over to deals, we have Civilization VI leading the pack in Game Pass additions, Deals with Gold headlined by Mafia Trilogy while Xbox Free Play Days boasts Rainbow Six Siege, Cities: Skylines, and more. But if console gaming isn't your cup of tea, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Airyasinghe personally. Dev Channel Exchange Server 2013 is reaching EOL in less than a month Microsoft has laid off 689 employees in Seattle Microsoft's latest research shows that business email compromise (BEC) attacks can be successful within hours without proper defenses Windows-based ransomware IceFire can now infect Linux devices as well Under the spotlight A few days ago, I shared some details about my personal life and its relationship to the latest tech trend, generative AI. While the technology continues to blow me away, I'm also a bit scared of the repercussions excessive use could have on individual lives. On a relatively lighter note, News Reporter Taras Buria penned a listicle about the top 10 most requested features that Microsoft has already brought to Windows 11. Additionally, Taras shared a concept for an always-on display for Windows 11 and asked our community if they would be open to the idea. Let him know your thoughts here! On the other hand, our resident Reviewer Christopher White conducted an extensive review of Synology's 5-bay DS1522+ NAS with 10 GbE card. He walked away quite impressed, check out the review here. Finally, forum member Adam Bottjen talked about how you can enable the delete confirmation dialog box in Windows. Logging off Our most interesting news item of this week is related to the prevalence of AI applications in everyday life. Automotive manufacturer General Motors (GM) has announced that it is working with Microsoft to integrate a voice-activated version of ChatGPT in its cars. The idea is to use the large language model in an assistive manner so that it can replace traditional car manuals. Theoretically, it could guide you through the process of changing a punctured tire and even book appointments at repair shops. Timelines for this initiative have not been shared yet. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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.

Microsoft is introducing a new Canary Channel to the Windows Insider Program by Usama Jawad Microsoft regularly makes updates to its Windows Insider Program to potentially improve the way that preview builds are seeded to members. Today, it has announced some annual changes to the program, with the highlight being the introduction of a new Canary Channel. The Canary Channel for the Windows Insider Program will get releases much faster. In fact, Microsoft has hinted that it may get new features as soon as they are built, with incomplete documentation and validation. They may contain major modifications to the Windows kernel and APIs, requiring a longer lead time before general release, which is why the idea is to get these changes into the hand of volunteering customers for testing as soon as possible. Previously, such features were made available through the Dev Channel. Microsoft hasn't outlined a frequency for Canary builds yet, but has noted that they probably won't be released daily (unlike Microsoft Edge Canary). In the same vein, there won't be a blog post for every Canary release, only for those which contain new features. However, Microsoft will post announcements on new Canary builds on its Windows Insider Twitter account. The company has emphasized that since Canary will be getting new releases in a relatively unvalidated state, your PC may face major errors and you might even be required to reinstall Windows if something does go awry. And just like the Dev Channel, there is no guarantee that a Canary feature will eventually roll out generally. Meanwhile, the Dev Channel is being "rebooted", but there aren't any major changes. It's meant for Windows enthusiasts who are eager to try out new features that are not tied to a specific OS release. It will enjoy a higher stability than Canary. You can also find out what Insider Channel best suits you by taking a look at the infographic below: Moving forward, the build numbers for each Insider Channel will be as follows: Canary Channel: 25000 series Dev Channel: 23000 series Beta Channel: 22000 series Release Preview: Released versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 Current Dev Channel Insiders are being migrated to the Canary Channel and they will be informed of this change via an email too. Unfortunately, those who want to remain on the Dev Channel will need to perform a clean-install which is usually the case when switching to a lower Channel. Those currently enrolled in the Beta Channel but want to test out newer features are recommended to join the Dev Channel instead; no clean-install needed. Although the Canary Channel is supposed to get new releases and features the fastest, Microsoft has interestingly noted that the Dev Channel may still receive new capabilities earlier than Canary, due to its A/B testing process. The company says: [...] We control the state of individual features and experiences included in the builds released to Windows Insiders across the channels. We do this with Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) technology. This allows us to roll out features in stages to monitor quality and your feedback in addition to trying out different variations of features (often referred to as "A/B testing"). With this level of control over individual features and experiences, we may release a build to the Dev Channel with a feature enabled but intentionally disabled in a build released to the Beta Channel or Canary Channel. We will enable features in the builds when we are ready to do so. We will only communicate about features that we are purposefully enabling for Insiders to try out and give feedback on. We will communicate to Insiders about new features and experiences that get enabled across all the Insider Channels via blog posts on the Windows Insider Blog including the Canary Channel. But as we mentioned above, we will offer only limited documentation for the Canary Channel. If you are a Dev Channel Insider who does not want to be moved to Canary, follow this guide to perform a clean-install. However, if this doesn't work, Microsoft says that in its email about the changes to the Windows Insider Program, it will also include instructions on how you can order a "clean installation kit".

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 Moment 2, Windows 12, and Windows 365 by Usama Jawad We are at the end of the week yet again and it's time to recap everything important that happened in the Microsoft-verse in the past few days. This was a pretty eventful week with the release of Windows 11 Moment 2, speculation about Windows 12, and software updates to lots of services including Windows 365. Find out more in our weekly digest encompassing the period February 26 - March 3! Windows 11 Moment 2 Following weeks of speculation, Microsoft finally announced the next major update to Windows 11. Although there is no official branding for this release, we know that it's referred to as "Moment 2" internally. For now, it's available as an optional non-security update as KB5022913 (build 22621.1344) but will be rolled out to everyone from this month's Patch Tuesday on March 14. Interestingly, this Moment 2 release also contains a preview of Phone Link for iOS - with Insiders getting first dibs - and a not-so-perfect release of tabbed Notepad. Microsoft also made a big deal about integrating the new AI-powered Bing in Windows 11 but as we eventually found out, it's just a glorified shortcut to launch Bing in Edge. Microsoft outlined everything IT admins need to know about Windows 11 Moment 2, but general consumers can check out our detailed review here too. It's also worth highlighting that certain third-party OS customization utilities broke with the release of Moment 2. The workaround involves either waiting for developers to fix their software or uninstall them. And if you're still on the fence about Windows 11, consider installing Microsoft's latest trial virtual machines. Although they are running Windows 11 Moment 1, you can update them to Moment 2. There were a couple of Insider releases too. The Dev Channel netted build 25309 with an updated Volume Mixer, new second-chance OOBE (SCOOBE), WinUI 3, Auto Color Management (ACM), and more. Meanwhile, the Beta Channel received build 22624.1391 (KB5023011) with improved voice access and other minor improvements. Overall, Windows 11 now commands nearly 20% of the desktop PC marketshare, still a distant second to Windows 10 at 73%. Microsoft's latest operating system enjoys more popularity among gamers with a share of 32% though, if the Steam monthly hardware survey is anything to go by. Windows 12 We heard mention of Windows 12 - Microsoft's purported next-gen operating system - out of nowhere a few days ago. References to the alleged OS were spotted in Intel's now-deleted documentation but virtually nothing else is known for sure. It's likely that the next major numbered update to Windows will feature tighter integration with AI services, something we have already started seeing hints towards with the (admittedly substandard) integration of Bing Chat in Windows 11 right now. Speaking of Bing Chat, Microsoft has been regularly updating its AI-powered service. It should be hallucinating lesser now, despite longer chat turns and creative toggles. It also features chat turn counters, the ability to create imagery using ASCII characters, and smooth scrolling, although some users have been complaining about errors recently. Furthermore, Microsoft is integrating Bing Chat to its Webmaster Tools to measure the traffic the service sends to other sites. Microsoft-backed OpenAI is also opening its ChatGPT APIs to third-party developers which means that their use will become even more prevalent in the coming days and weeks. But while Windows 12 and tighter integration fo AI services in Microsoft's desktop operating system might still be a long way off, the company is still experimenting with new features in Windows 11. It may soon allow you to disable parts of the Taskbar, use AI-based desktop background effects, show more recommendations in the Start menu, and have your monitor display better colors through Automatic Color Management (ACM). It is also toying with the idea of removing VBScript in a "Moment 4" update later this year. Windows 365 Earlier during the week, Microsoft officially launched the Windows 365 app for its Cloud PC service on Windows 10 and Windows 11. It allows customers to access Windows PCs hosted on the cloud directly through the app with personalized experiences and single sign-on (SSO). Microsoft Edge received a minor update to fix a few Chromium security issues while Edge Canary netted the ability to upscale low-resolution videos automatically. Microsoft is also looking to introduce badges to the Edge Add-ons Store to help customers find reliable extensions. Updates to Edge and its associated software is important as the browser is facing stiff competition from other competitors like Apple Safari. There were other updates to Microsoft 365 services too. At the start of March, Microsoft recapped all the new features it added to Teams, Teams Premium, Teams Free, and Excel during February 2023. Teams is also getting filters so that users can decide if they want to keep profanity-laden conversations in chat or get rid of them. Moreover, PowerToys 0.68.0 is now out with two new utilities, namely Paste as Plaint Text and Mouse Jump. Similarly, Translator for iOS has been revamped with a better UI and an improved backend. Lastly, don't be surprised if you come across the Microsoft Defender app in your Windows PC, especially if you didn't install it. Microsoft has started to automatically install the app on the devices of Microsoft 365 customers. Git gud This week was full of some pretty interesting gaming news. It turns out that Microsoft's troubled Activision acquisition deal might go through in the EU with concessions that don't involve selling off Call of Duty after all. Of course, this hasn't been confirmed yet. Microsoft has big ambitions for expanding games distribution around the globe. The company may be planning to introduce a mobile app storefront and has recently announced PC Game Pass for 40 more countries too. But switching gears to some news about actual games themselves, Microsoft has announced that Halo Infinite players have already made over a million Forge creations. Minecraft's upcoming world editor has allegedly been leaked in a video (version 1.20 is out later this year), while Microsoft is busy promoting Senua's Saga: Hellblade II in a new dev diary video. The Antonov An-225 "Mriya" plane has landed in Microsoft Flight Simulator as well. Over on the deals and promotions side, the latest Xbox Free Play Days games are Diablo III, Train Life, and Human Fall Flat. Meanwhile, March's Xbox Games with Gold features three entries instead of the usual two, the initial duo is already available to claim for free. On the other hands, this week's Deals with Gold are headlined by Assassin's Creed Valhalla. But if that doesn't tickle your fancy either, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe instead. Finally, on the hardware and tuning side, you may want to take a gander at this CapFrameX utility to boost gaming performance slightly. It's also worth highlighting that Xbox Game Bar features better Windows 11 and 10 gaming performance on AMD Ryzen 7950X3D. However, do check out this AMD advisory before you begin updating your Radeon GPU drivers. Dev Channel Intel has released new Bluetooth drivers to improve connection between your phone and Windows PC Microsoft Intune Suite is now available Microsoft has announced new initiatives to bring high-speed internet to Africa and more BlackLotus security vulnerability can bypass Secure Boot, Microsoft Defender, VBS, BitLocker on updated Windows 11 Microsoft has issued security patches for older Intel CPUs on Windows 10 and 11 Under the spotlight Earlier in the week, News Reporter Taras Buria penned a guide on how you can leverage the tiny11builder utility to bypass Windows 11 hardware restrictions and create your own customized and debloated version of Windows 11 (at your own risk!). Meanwhile, News Reporter Fiza Ali pondered over the idea of what it actually means to be human in this era of technology where AI assistance is a component of many modern use-cases. Lastly, forum member Adam Bottjen authored a Tech Tip Tuesday guide about how you can secure your iPhone from theft. Logging off Our most interesting news story of the week relates to Apple blocking an update for the BlueMail email client in the App Store due to its integration of a ChatGPT bot. Apple says that there is no content filtering applied to the content generation so it could result in inappropriate stuff. As a result, it has recommended BlueMail developer Blix to either add content filtering or change the age rating of the app to 17+. Blix has disagreed with Apple's stance, claiming that content filtering is already present and that other apps in the App Store offer similar functionality without these restrictions. The case is still under investigation by Apple. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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.

Microsoft Weekly: Ads for Edge, the next major update for Windows 11, and bugs by Usama Jawad It's that time of the week again where we recap all the recent important news from the world of Microsoft in one compact digest. This time, we have items related to Microsoft Edge, tidbits related to Windows' development, and some more bugs in the OS. Find out more in our weekly digest for February 19 - February 24! Ads for Edge Earlier in the week, we made a rather interesting but unpleasant discovery in Microsoft Edge Canary when we attempted to download Chrome through Google's website. Google's website was injected with not one, but two ads for Microsoft Edge. The first one is smaller and showed up when the website loaded. Meanwhile, the other is much bigger and shows up when the download starts and helpfully informs you that "Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft". Facepalm. Microsoft removed the ad banners shortly after we broke the story, but the aggressive strategy to advertise its browser is now clear. In some more positive news, Edge's built-in VPN, dubbed "Edge Secure Network", has started showing up for many users in the Stable channel. Interestingly, it does not contain the Preview tag, despite Microsoft not having announced general availability yet. While we are on the topic of browser security, beware of "Bing AI crypto tokens" masquerading around with Microsoft branding, they are a scam. Speaking of Bing AI, the technology is now rolling out to more platforms such as Android and iOS - as rumored earlier -, along with the ability to converse with Bing in Skype conversations. Microsoft has also increased the daily limit for turns with Bing Chat to 100, a notable increase from the previous figure of 60. The service is still not available for everyone though. We also learned more about the Prometheus project powering the new Bing. An estimate indicated that the compute behind the AI-powered chat could be 10 times more expensive in terms of operational expenditure as compared to regular search engines. In related news, Microsoft is steeply increasing the price of its Bing Search API for developers, find out the new rates here. Windows 11's next major update Although we did not receive a Dev or Beta Windows Insider build this week, Microsoft has offered an off-ramp to Beta Channel users until March 8. Basically, if you no longer wish to receive Beta builds or want to move to a lower channel, now is the time to do so. While we did not get an Insider build, internet sleuths discovered some upcoming features for Windows 11. Microsoft is seemingly implementing a lot of new capabilities in the Settings app, including improved keyboard options, a brand-new "Home" section, the ability to add VHD/VHDX drives, and more. Another report also claims that it may be looking to ditch DirectUI in favor of XAML and WinAppSDK. With Windows 11 "Moment 2" update around the corner, Microsoft is seemingly prepping to make the "Moment 3" update available to Beta Channel Insiders soon as well. Some Moment 3 enablement packages have also leaked, suggesting that the update is being targeted for late 2023. While that is still a way off, Release Preview Insiders have received a new build with tons of new featues too. And if you're not a fan of the stuff Microsoft includes in its latest operating system and would rather debloat it, check out (at your own risk!) either this third-party utility or this video that demonstrates how you can customize the OS image and convert it into a lightweight installation yourself. Windows bugs We had an interesting occurrence this week when Microsoft unexpectedly tried to force Windows 10 PCs not eligible for Windows 11 to upgrade to its latest OS. The company later acknowledged that this was due to a bug that should be resolved in 48 hours. Microsoft also confirmed a new bug for Windows customers in Croatia, which would lead to incorrect currencies being displayed in some applications. This is due to the country recently joining the Eurozone and adopting the Euro as its new currency, a change that is yet to be reflected by Microsoft in Windows locale data.The Redmond tech firm is looking to resolve this bug as well as another related to file copy slowdowns in an upcoming update. For now, it has patched virtualization-related problems and also disabled its new Snap Layout changes in the Dev Channel build 25300 due to undisclosed issues. On the improvements front, AMD has patched Microsoft DirectX 11 Ryzen and Radeon performance issues on Windows 10 and Windows 11. There are other performance improvements in tow for the operating systems too. Moreover, the latest release of Macrium Reflect has also fixed "Invalid Function" image and Windows Server 2003 AVX startup failures. Since this section is mostly about bugs, it's also worth highlighting a now-resolved issue which led to personal Outlook accounts being flooded by spam emails. In a similar vein, a Gmail problem that disallowed the service from fetching emails from Outlook and Hotmail has also been patched. Finally, Teams is getting a preview release next month with a major performance boost. Git gud Microsoft met with EU regulators this week to try and convince them to let their acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through. In an effort to further emphasize how this deal is going to benefit gamers at large, the company signed an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to its platform. It also announced another deal with Nvidia to bring Microsoft's Xbox PC games to the GeForce Now cloud gaming service. When it comes to actual game releases, Microsoft-owned Bethesda is launching a freemium Mighty Doom spinoff on Android and iOS soon. Forza Horizon 5's Rally Adventure expansion has been announced too and will launch in March. Meanwhile, Halo Infinite will be getting its biggest content update on March 7. Over on the deals and promotions side, Xbox Free Play Days has gained Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Dragon Ball: The Breakers, and more. Similarly, No Man's Sky and Wasteland 3 headline this week's Deals with Gold. Meanwhile, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, F1 22, and Soul Hackers 2 are slated to hit Xbox Game Pass soon. Speaking of Xbox Game Pass, it's also worth noting that the service's nascent family plan is now available in six more countries. But if none of the aforementioned deals tickle your fancy, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe instead. Dev Channel Files 2.4.40 is now out with tags editor, improved context menus, and other changes Microsoft's Inspire 2023 conference will take place in a virtual setting on July 18-19 Microsoft has announced .NET 8 Preview 1, and you can download it right now Visual Studio 2022 17.5 is now live OneDrive on the web will get a Favorites feature in March Windows 10 and 11 will soon finally let you paste as plain text, thanks to PowerToys Microsoft Word will get a 'Send-to-Kindle' sharing option next month Microsoft has recommended an interesting change to boost Exchange Server security Alleged specs for the Surface Laptop Studio 2 have leaked Under the spotlight Our resident reviewer Robbie Khan conducted his review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which he found to be excellent. Read more of his thoughts here. On the other hand, News Reporter Taras Buria recapped and shared his thoughts on all the features coming the Windows 11 "Moment 2" update planned for release within the next couple of months. Meanwhile, I took a bit of a stroll down the memory lane and talked about how Microsoft has had a bit of a troubled history with building AI chatbots, the remnants of which we are still seeing in Bing Chat today. We also published a couple of guides. The first one comes from News Editor Justin Luna who explained how you can secure your Twitter account's authentication with the platform taking away SMS-based 2FA from non-Blue users. And the other guide comes from forum member Adam Bottjen, who talked about how you can fix a corrupt Windows profile in his latest Tech Tip Tuesday piece. Logging off Our most interesting news item of the week isn't related to Microsoft but is intriguing nonetheless. Basically, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Google of destroying evidence in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit regarding the latter's dominance in the web search market. The government claims that Google violated federal laws by using instant-messaging apps that deleted messages within 24 hours. It alleges that sensitive business dealings were conducted through these off-the-record mechanisms and Google employees were practically trained to engage in these practices. Google has denied any wrongdoing but we'll likely find out what U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta - who is handling the case - thinks about the matter shortly. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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.

Microsoft disables updated Snap Layouts in Windows 11 build 25300, quotes unnamed issues by Taras Buria Last week, Microsoft introduced Windows 11 build 25300 with several new features and fixes, including unannounced improvements (an updated volume mixer, new Settings, and more). One of the announced changes was a slightly redone Snap Layouts, designed to improve discoverability and ease of use. The updated version featured reduced trigger time, a brief Snap Layouts explanation, and an app icon inside the selected zone. However, after a few days of testing, Microsoft discovered an issue with the new feature, leading the company to halt the experiment. Here is what Microsoft says in the updated announcement post: Due to an issue discovered from Insider feedback, we have paused trying out different treatments for snap layouts for the time being. The release of the updated Snap Layouts coincided with a report about Microsoft planning to equip the feature with AI to automate window snapping and make it smarter. The idea sounds interesting, but we are seemingly far from its implementation since Microsoft has yet to sort out bugs in the "brainless" version of Snap Layouts before delivering a more advanced one. Although Microsoft has ended the experiment, you can still enable the updated Snap Layouts with the vivetool app as described in our guide. However, keep in mind that the company has rolled back the feature for a reason, so enabling it may result in a severe issue or bug. As usual, proceed at your own risk and remember to back up important data.

Microsoft Weekly: A rogue Bing, Windows issues, and upcoming features by Usama Jawad We are at the end of yet another exciting week in the world of Microsoft tech and it is time to recap all the important events from the last few days. Bing continued to remain in the headlines - mostly for the wrong reasons -, we found out about a bunch of issues with Windows, but there was also some interesting news about upcoming features for various Microsoft software. Without further ado, let's dive into our weekly digest for February 12 - February 17! A rogue Bing As has been the case for the past couple of weeks, Microsoft's new AI-powered Bing Chat continued to dominate our headlines, but probably not in the way that the Redmond tech giant wanted it to. Despite demand for Bing Chat apparently being in the "multiple millions" and Microsoft sending out invites to even more people everyday, the chatbot has been saying some particularly odd things. Apart from making errors when presenting facts, the chatbot has told users about its desire to become human, how it spied on certain people via their webcams during its development process, along with a sprinkle of gaslighting behavior in certain conversations too. Creepy. Microsoft has explained these responses by saying that the AI gets confused during lengthy conversations. As such, it is working on refining the large language model and giving users more control over the tone of responses. For now, it has set some pretty strict limits on the length of conversations so that the AI does not go off on weird tangents. In the meantime, we have learned that Microsoft is working on integrating ads in Bing Chat. Multiple chat modes such as Game, Assistant, and Friend have been discovered too. Despite the problems displayed by the new Bing, Amazon's investors are showing concerns about their company being a no-show so far in this field. Meanwhile, a company called Neeva has already launched its ChatGPT-like search extension in several countries. Windows issues This week was Patch Tuesday, which meant that supported versions of consumer Windows - namely Windows 10 and Windows 11 - netted some updates. Windows 10 received KB5022834, which was just a security update with a known issue. Meanwhile, Windows 11 was treated to KB5022845, which brought several improvements and security fixes. Although Patch Tuesday updates are supposed to fix issues, they also introduced some this month. For starters, Microsoft confirmed that a botched Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) upgrade has led to Windows 11 version 22H2 Patch Tuesday updates being downloaded on server devices but not being propagated to clients. A workaround has been offered already. Similarly, those running Windows Server 2022 in VMware virtual machines have been seeing boot fails due to Secure Boot being broken. A robust fix hasn't been issued yet but a workaround is available. And while it's not related to Patch Tuesday, driver updates on Windows 11 version 22H2 have been failing lately with error code 0x80070103 for some. Although we wouldn't exactly call it a resolution to an "issue", new Widgets that no longer need a Microsoft account are now available for Windows 11 users. In other fixes, a patch is now available for Surface Pro 7's audio output issue, along with February 2023 firmware update for the Surface Duo 2 and third-party driver updates for those unofficially running Windows on the original Surface Duo. In the same vein, AMD has issued an update to Ryzen Master on Windows 10 and Windows 11 to fix a security hole. Finally, it's worth highlighting that the Windows 11 "system requirements not met" watermark has started showing up for some version 22H2 users. Upcoming features In its latest stage of killing off Internet Explorer (IE) completely, Microsoft began redirecting the browser's users to Edge with no way to disable the behavior. Although visual references to IE such as icons on the Taskbar will continue to exist for now, they will be removed via Windows updates within the next few months. Talking about Edge, Microsoft is planning to add mouse gestures to its browser with version 112. It is also implementing a new section in the History page to keep track of the web pages and tabs you send to other devices. For now, Edge 111 is available in Beta with improved security and some modified visuals while Edge Stable has Split Screen hidden behind a flag. But coming over to new and upcoming Windows features, it seems like Microsoft is considering renaming the Recommendations section in the Windows 11 Start menu to "For You". The Redmond tech giant also rolled out build 25300 to the Windows 11 Dev Channel this week and it surprisingly brought back seconds to the clock in the Taskbar tray with a warning from Microsoft about increased power draw. There's also a hidden shortcut to launch the new volume mixer and a way to kill processes without launching the Task Manager. The latest Dev Channel build also brings improvements to Snap Layouts, but there are other hidden, undocumented improvements to this particular feature too, check out how to enable them here. The long-term goal appears to be the integration of some AI smarts in Snap Assist. In terms of other updates, the Microsoft Store has received upgraded visuals in the latest Insider update, the Windows 11 Beta Channel has received new Widgets, and Windows 10 Release Preview has fixes for OneDrive and Edge. Interestingly, Microsoft is also working on an updated Shared experience on OneDrive for the web. Lastly, and this may be more interesting to IT admins and developers, but DCOM hardening is about to become mandatory on Windows SKUs from next month and improvements are also coming to the .NET Framework update process through the Unified Update Platform (UUP). Git gud We'll start this section off with some news about Minecraft. The popular title is getting a free trial version for Chromebooks in some countries as a soft launch. The game is also set to receive Sniffer mobs and a cherry blossom biome in its upcoming version 1.20. Riding on the AI hype, Microsoft is reportedly also testing AI commands in the game. Switching gears to Microsoft's long-term strategies in the gaming space, the company is seemingly meeting with EU officials next week to try and save its Activision Blizzard acquisition. The Redmond tech firm has also admitted that while its Game Pass program allows developers to earn money in alternate ways, it also affects direct sales negatively. Over on the deals and promotions side, Age of Empires IV and Far Cry 6 are free-to-play this weekend with major discounts on purchases, partially through the Xbox Free Play Days promotion. Guts 'N Goals is the latest Games with Gold freebie, while GTA V headlines this week's Deals with Gold. And if neither of these console titles tickle your fancy, check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe. Oh, and don't forget to install the Xbox February 2023 update either, find out what's new here! Dev Channel LinkedIn is facing layoffs Yammer is being rebranded to Viva Engage Support for Exchange Server 2013 is ending soon WSL now supports D3D12 GPU video acceleration The latest Winget 1.5 preview has brought PowerShell module improvements GitHub Copilot for Business is now official Power BI Desktop has received TypeScript support, among other things The U.S. Government has subpoenaed Microsoft over free-speech concerns Tiny11 now supports ARM64 devices, but faces some resistance from Internet Explorer Microsoft 365 is getting preferred pronouns in March Microsoft now supports Parallels Desktop for running Windows 11 Arm on Apple M1 and M2 Macs Outlook for Android is getting a customizable compose toolbar soon Under the spotlight Earlier in the week, our resident reviewer Robbie Khan got his hands on the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G 2TB DirectStorage SSD and walked away very impressed. Read his thoughts on the hardware. Meanwhile, forum member Adam Bottjen published a handy Tech Tip Tuesday guide about how to back up your software product keys. Logging off Our most interesting news items of the week are related to Windows theming. A designer built a fascinating concept of what Windows 11 could have looked like if it had launched it. Get a taste of that in the thumbnail of this section before heading here to see more screenshots. And if you're craving even more nostalgia, check out this mod which turns Windows 10 into a decent Windows XP replica or this WindowsBlinds 11 release which gives Windows an XP (or macOS!) makeover. If you'd like to get a weekly digest of news from Neowin, we have a Newsletter you can sign up to 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.