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Following Windows 11 RAR support, Microsoft Winget gets ZIP install, native PowerShell by Sayan Sen Microsoft recently turned a lot of heads when it announced support for opening RAR files on Windows 11. WinRAR, which has often been a staple on people's PCs for such archive file formats seems to have mixed feelings about the matter as it also appreciates what Microsoft has done. In related news, Microsoft has now added support for installing ZIP files on its Windows Package Manager CLI or winget with the latest version. Aside from that, it has also received native PowerShell support, and many more changes and bugfixes. These two major features were requested back in 2020. The full changelog is given below: Features Support installing .zip files #140 Add Native PowerShell Support #221 Support --no-upgrade option for install flow #2655 Bugs Fix issue that only 1 dependency package is installed #2761 Crash in list command #2273 Add SYSTEM to explicit ACLs #2370 What's Changed Add refreshed Store source certs by @yao-msft in #3149 Block msix provisioning api calls where known OS bugs exist by @yao-msft in #2855 Add rest interface 1.4 to supported list by @yao-msft in #2853 Return localization independent string for help links by @AmelBawa-msft in #2786 Don't treat the COM subcommands as distinct for telemetry by @JohnMcPMS in #2792 Update PowerShell Module Dependency Docs by @ryfu-msft in #2797 Adjust spacing and punctuation for manifest validation messages by @Trenly in #2805 Apply latest localized strings patch by @ryfu-msft in #2816 UpdateBinVer script support for updating build version only by @yao-msft in #2818 Stop using m_summary in the global globals for telemetry by @florelis in #2820 Enable long aliases by @Trenly in #2107 Check symlink target before removal by @ryfu-msft in #2242 Bump version to 1.4 by @ryfu-msft in #2263 Apply latest localization patch by @ryfu-msft in #2264 Feat: Show package tags by @Trenly in #2235 Add support for UnsupportedArguments by @ryfu-msft in #2216 Validate manifest installers (MSIX) by @AmelBawa-msft in #2215 Improve index dependency consistency check by @yao-msft in #2247 Fix spacing in 1.2 singleton schema by @ryfu-msft in #2276 Fix unsupported args unit tests by @ryfu-msft in #2277 Mitigate crash that can occur when installed version is null by @JohnMcPMS in #2278 Create WinGetUtil functionality for running installed package correlation by @JohnMcPMS in #2221 Addition of Initial 1.3 Schema by @ryfu-msft in #2189 Add extra compilation flags for debug info by @florelis in #2281 Migrate FabricBot Tasks to Config-as-Code by @msftbot in #2285 Update fabricbot.json by @vedantmgoyal2009 in #2293 Fix WinGetUtil WinGetCreateManifest result by @yao-msft in #2296 Add alternate name to Usage String by @Trenly in #2268 Prevent null characters from getting into SQLite by @JohnMcPMS in #2289 Schema additions for Zip support by @ryfu-msft in #2288 Feat: Wait upon command completion by @Trenly in #2236 Move Release Notes to new line and indent by @Trenly in #2312 Remove /Zi compilation flag by @florelis in #2325 Update VCLibs file hash in correlation test script by @florelis in #2326 Add UndockedRegFreeWinRT by @jontab in #2333 Implementation for Zip Install (Non-Portable) by @ryfu-msft in #2320 Don't fail fast by @JohnMcPMS in #2335 Fix WinGetUtil index operations for manifest dependencies without min version by @yao-msft in #2337 Explicit ACLs by @JohnMcPMS in #2324 Prevent access to parent directories from relativeFilePath for archive install by @ryfu-msft in #2342 Make zip install an experimental feature by @ryfu-msft in #2351 Add InstallationMetadata to manifests for future deep installation detection by @yao-msft in #2350 Expand WinMD discovery by @jontab in #2348 Move to using sqlite3_errmsg to extract a contextual error for SQLite failures by @JohnMcPMS in #2352 Add in-process and out-of-process E2E tests by @AmelBawa-msft in #2315 Implement FolderFileWatcher by @msftrubengu in #2336 Update CsWinRTWindowsMetadata value by @AmelBawa-msft in #2357 Remove correlation blocker for remote->local in some cases by @JohnMcPMS in #2362 Update documentation with 1.3 settings by @ryfu-msft in #2363 Add Microsoft.WinGet.Client PowerShell Module files by @jontab in #2314 Fix file overwrite warning displayed on clean first install by @ryfu-msft in #2375 Logging improvements by @JohnMcPMS in #2378 Add SYSTEM to explicit ACLs by @JohnMcPMS in #2370 Remove tests that no longer serve a purpose by @JohnMcPMS in #2379 Check for symlink creation privilege for portable install by @ryfu-msft in #2369 Server certificate pinning for Store source by @JohnMcPMS in #2347 Remove scope filter from being applied to portables by @ryfu-msft in #2383 Validate SignatureSha256 for MSIX packages during the manifest validation by @AmelBawa-msft in #2384 Enable MSI testing in CI/CD pipeline by @JohnMcPMS in #2386 Standardize 'Show' labels to manifest fields by @Trenly in #2311 fix ms-windows-store link not rendered in md by @iamCristYe in #2403 Add command aliases by @Trenly in #2390 Add support for RequireExplicitUpgrade manifest element by @florelis in #1795 Add the ability to specify "scope or unknown" via COM by @JohnMcPMS in #2402 Collect scope in installer metadata by @JohnMcPMS in #2415 Copy winget unpackaged logs in E2E tests by @florelis in #2441 Ensure default values are passed to nested installers within zip by @ryfu-msft in #2413 Add prompts when installer aborts terminal or needs install location by @florelis in #1814 Update Labels from Hash Command by @Trenly in #2431 Add DisplayName to InstallationMetadata installed files by @yao-msft in #2442 Use UpgradeCode for matching MSI apps by @florelis in #2418 Add support for installing portables without developer mode and running as admin by @ryfu-msft in #2401 Increase manifest schema version to 1.4 by @yao-msft in #2451 Update Documentation for schema 1.2 by @Trenly in #2429 Increase PackageIdentifier segments to max 8 by @yao-msft in #2461 Use check-spelling/check-spelling@v0.0.20 by @jsoref in #2467 ZIP support spec by @ryfu-msft in #2270 Show PurchaseUrl if present in manifest by @Trenly in #2416 Add PortableIndex for tracking portable files by @ryfu-msft in #2459 Add $schema to cgmanifest.json by @JamieMagee in #2487 Update README link to VS Installer Project extension by @bsivanov in #2488 Removed en-US in links by @ImJoakim in #2494 Add logo to README.md by @vedantmgoyal2009 in #2507 Return error codes for dependencies failure by @hackean-msft in #2410 Add ExpectedReturnCode::ReturnResponse for PackageInUseByApplication by @Trenly in #2492 Suppress reboot by default on msiexec based installers by @gerardog in #2499 Fix installer metadata collection by @yao-msft in #2517 Add Aliases to allow for quick upgrade of all and unknown by @Trenly in #2518 Expose deeper installation detection through Com by @yao-msft in #2420 Add PureLib subtree by @ryfu-msft in #2511 Suppress reboot by default on Inno Setup based installers by @SpecterShell in #2536 Add client support for parsing rest schema v1.4 by @yao-msft in #2473 Add experimental argument to open logs folder by @Trenly in #2510 Add support for installing portables from a zip by @ryfu-msft in #2500 Map operation return code for msstore type installation failure as well by @yao-msft in #2540 Fix installer renaming failure from encoded url by @yao-msft in #2555 Add Pure to component governance manifest by @ryfu-msft in #2556 Added WinGetUtil E2E tests by @AmelBawa-msft in #2542 Add space before path when files remain on uninstall by @Trenly in #2560 Additional logging when validating portable file fails by @Trenly in #2562 Make Symlink Target Canonical by @Trenly in #2563 Implement archive malware scan for local manifests by @ryfu-msft in #2566 Improve installer selection during upgrade by @yao-msft in #2570 Add zip installation to experimental features section of Settings.md by @infinitepower18 in #2584 Make Install flow aware of package installed status by @yao-msft in #2539 Enable mechanism for some control over correlation by @JohnMcPMS in #2577 Mini spec on upcoming install and upgrade flow improvements by @yao-msft in #2535 Download MSIX installer during manifest validation (if necessary) by @AmelBawa-msft in #2587 Always fall back on msix streaming failure by @yao-msft in #2590 Remove MSIX installers after validation is done by @AmelBawa-msft in #2591 Fix error when everything fails by @JohnMcPMS in #2593 Fix PowerShell module for release configuration by @ryfu-msft in #2599 Treat little numbers as big numbers by @JohnMcPMS in #2606 Fix compliance issues by setting Newtonsoft.Json to recommended version by @yao-msft in #2609 Fix internal build by @yao-msft in #2610 Added info about reinstalling App Installer to troubleshooting README.md by @AdmiralSnyder in #2616 Update protocols max items to 64 by @ryfu-msft in #2620 Print command aliases added on portable install by @Trenly in #2621 Add Expected Return Code for InvalidParameter by @Trenly in #2635 Add an issue option to guide users to winget-pkgs for package issues by @SpecterShell in #2658 Get arguments when using archive type package by @Trenly in #2660 Revert "Get arguments when using archive type package" by @Trenly in #2663 Disable toast notification for silent mode for MSStore type installation by @yao-msft in #2652 Support --no-upgrade option for install flow by @yao-msft in #2655 Group policy control for BypassCertificatePinningForMicrosoftStore by @AmelBawa-msft in #2637 Update localized strings by @ryfu-msft in #2684 Manifest (Msix) installer validation - Try parsing package version by @AmelBawa-msft in #2692 Update NuGet Packages by @Trenly in #2690 Don't enable/disable admin settings if group policy prevents it by @AmelBawa-msft in #2683 Add spectre configuration for PureLib by @ryfu-msft in #2704 Fix renaming issue with invalid file character url by @yao-msft in #2708 Remove and Add UndockedRegFreeWinRT library by @ryfu-msft in #2713 Clean build from winget-cli by @msftrubengu in #2698 Upgrade check-spelling to v0.0.21 by @jsoref in #2728 Add source ls alias for source list by @florelis in #2736 Standardize how arguments are used in resource strings by @florelis in #2737 Support for PowerShell cmdlets in admin mode by @ryfu-msft in #2642 Add PowerShell cmdlet help text and examples by @ryfu-msft in #2732 Miscellaneous project cleanup by @yao-msft in #2738 spelling: installation by @jsoref in #2739 Update powershell module target framework to 4.8 by @ryfu-msft in #2741 Allow upgrade for unknown version packages by @ryfu-msft in #2747 Add ARM and ARM64 build configuration for powershell module by @ryfu-msft in #2744 Bump Newtonsoft.Json from 13.0.1 to 13.0.2 in /src/AppInstallerCLIE2ETests by @dependabot in #2754 Bump Newtonsoft.Json from 13.0.1 to 13.0.2 in /src/WinGetUtilInterop.UnitTests by @dependabot in #2753 Infra changes for Microsoft.WinGet.Client and AppInstallerCLIE2ETests by @msftrubengu in #2746 Remove nuget config file by @ryfu-msft in #2756 Add empty pin command by @florelis in #2733 Update DesktopAppInstaller.adml by @AmelBawa-msft in #2759 Fix issue that only 1 dependency package is installed by @yao-msft in #2761 Export command for winget settings. by @msftrubengu in #2719 Suppress warnings for CA1416 in PowerShell module by @ryfu-msft in #2762 Restore nuget.config file for public dependencies by @ryfu-msft in #2763 Separate Archive Scan argument related to security from --force by @Trenly in #2622 Fix winget after a call to winget settings export by @msftrubengu in #2767 Add additional admin setting to match security related group policies by @yao-msft in #2772 Prepare PowerShell Module for Release Build by @ryfu-msft in #2768 More localization friendly source strings and context commenting by @AmelBawa-msft in #2454 Make zip feature stable by @ryfu-msft in #2774 Add scope support to more commands and add provisioning support for msix and msstore types by @yao-msft in #2766 Split tests in Workflow.cpp into multiple files by @florelis in #2773 Update localized strings by @ryfu-msft in #2783 Suppress CA1416 warning #2 by @ryfu-msft in #2784 You can head over to GitHub to download the latest Winget version 1.4.11071.

Mouse gestures are now available for testing in Microsoft Edge by Taras Buria Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed that it plans to add mouse gestures support to the Edge web browser, allowing users to perform quick actions and access various features faster. Later, a screenshot revealed that Edge would let you customize more than 14 different gestures. If you have been waiting for this feature, good news: mouse gestures are now available for testing in preview versions of Microsoft Edge. Microsoft has not announced mouse gestures yet, and enabling them requires adding a command to the browser's shortcut. However, the feature is available for everyone to try, unlike the other changes Microsoft frequently rolls out in waves (controlled feature rollout). Note that mouse gestures are available in Microsoft Edge 114 (and newer), which is coming to the Stable Channel this week. For now, mouse gestures are only available in Edge Beta, Dev, and Canary. Here is how to enable them (via Deskmodder). Enable mouse gestures in Microsoft Edge Go to edge://settings/help and ensure you have Edge 114 or newer. Right-click your Microsoft Edge shortcut and select Properties. You can also right-click Microsoft Edge on the taskbar, then right-click Microsoft Edge in the jump list, and then press Properties. Click the Target field in the Properties window and place one space after the path, then paste the following command: --enable-features=msEdgeMouseGestureDefaultEnabled,msEdgeMouseGestureSupported Click Ok to save the changes. Launch Microsoft Edge using the modified shortcut. Now you can use mouse gestures to perform various actions by moving the mouse while holding the right-click button. Microsoft Edge will highlight your mouse track and show a hint indicating what action the gesture will trigger. You can customize gestures by navigating to edge://settings/mouseGesture or Menu > Settings > Appearance > Mouse Gesture. Unfortunately, the feature does not support custom shortcuts, so there is room for improvement. Still, it is great to see Microsoft implementing a much-requested feature, especially after rejecting it for many months.

Statcounter: Windows 11's climb slowed down in May 2023 by Taras Buria Several days ago, when detailing performance improvements in the latest Windows 11 update, Microsoft revealed that over one billion computers run its operating system. Unfortunately, the company did not provide extra details, such as how many devices have upgraded to Windows 11. Still, developers and customers are not in the complete dark—Statcounter's monthly reports provide regular insights into how many users each Windows version and other operating systems. Click here to learn more about Statcounter's methodology. Remember that data from third parties is never 100% accurate. According to the May 2023 report from Statcounter, Windows 10 remains the dominant operating system among Windows users. Approximately 71.9% (+0.54 points) of all customers continue using it for their daily computing needs. Windows 11, which soon turns two, slowed down a bit: 22.95%, with a slight dip compared with the previous month (-0.16 points). It will be interesting to see how the just-released "Moment 3" update will affect Windows 11's market share and if the announced at the Build conference features are tempting enough for Windows 10 customers to pull the trigger and update. Together, Windows 10 and 11 hold 94.85% of the entire market. As expected, Windows 7 took a significant nosedive when Microsoft ended the Extended Security Update program in January 2023. Still, a considerable number of users continue operating Windows 7 for all sorts of tasks. Statcounter claims the OS has a 3.61% market share (-0.17 points). Those not planning to upgrade from Windows 7 soon will be glad to learn that Mozilla is ready to continue supporting the now-dead OS for more than one extra year. Even though Windows 7 no longer receives updates, it still has a mainstream browser with regular patches and security fixes. Windows 10: 71.9% (+0.54 points) Windows 11: 22.95% (-0.16 points) Windows 7: 3.61% (-0.17 points) Windows 8.1: 0.72% (-0.13 points) Windows 8: 0.37% (-0.06 points) The honorable mention goes to Windows XP, which will soon mark ten years since the end of its extended support. Per Statcounter's findings, about 0.32% of Windows users are still rocking XP and using it to access the internet. A decade in no-update mode is nothing for a true fan! You can find more information about the Statcounter May 2023 report on the official website. A similar report covering the latest browser stats is available here.

Rufus 4.1 restores some missing features, adds improved compatibility by Taras Buria Pete Batard, developer of the popular third-party tool Rufus, has released a new update with several improvements. Version 4.1 is now available for download from GitHub with improved compatibility with the Windows Dev Kit 2023 platform and some previously missing features, such as MS-DOS drive creation using binaries from Microsoft. Here are the release notes for Rufus 4.1: Add timeouts on enumeration queries that may stall on some systems Restore MS-DOS drive creation through the download of binaries from Microsoft Update the log button icon Fix UEFI:NTFS incompatibility with Windows Dev Kit 2023 platform (pbatard/uefi-ntfs#37) Fix more GRUB out of range pointer errors with Ubuntu/Fedora when booting in BIOS mode You can download Rufus 4.1 from Neowin, the official website, GitHub, or the Microsoft Store. Rufus is fully open-source, so enthusiasts with the necessary skills can contribute to the project's development on GitHub. For those unfamiliar, Rufus is a small app that lets you create bootable USB drives with Windows, Linux, and other operating systems. In addition to its primary feature, the program allows downloading ISO files directly from Microsoft, which makes Rufus your all-in-one program for clean-installing and servicing operating systems on various PCs. It also has a few extra aces up its sleeve, such as removing system requirements for Windows 11 (TPM, SecureBoot, UEFI, 4GB of RAM, etc.), creating a local account, disabling BitLocker, flashing BIOS or other firmware from DOS, and more. You can use Rufus on any PC running Windows 8 and newer (installable, portable, x86, x64, and ARM64). Windows 7, unfortunately, is no longer supported—the OS was dropped in version 4.0, released in late April 2023. However, Rufus can still make Windows 7-based bootable USB drives, assuming the app runs on a more modern Windows version. Check out our guide showing how to create bootable USB drives using Rufus.

Tiny10 x64 23H1 is here for those needing a debloated and lightweight Windows 10 by Taras Buria Earlier this year, NTDEV (@NTDEV_ on Twitter) released tiny10 2303 for those needing a lightweight and modern Windows 10 edition with a small disk footprint and the latest updates. The initial release was only available in the x86 or 32-bit flavor, aiming at customers with low-end hardware incapable of running the stock Windows 10 or 11. Fast forward a few months, and now tiny10 2303 or "23H1" is available in the x64 format with all the benefits of its "smaller" sibling. After months of requests, tiny10 23H1 x64 is finally here, and just like tiny10 x86 and tiny11, it brings back a very important feature: the component store! This means that now you can add new languages and features, while still being a lightweight and dependable image. pic.twitter.com/mRLBPC2udR — NTDEV (@NTDEV_) May 31, 2023 Like tiny10 2303 x86, version 23H1 is based on the same Windows 10 LTSC 21H2 (build number 19044.3031). Its main highlight is the component store support that ensures you can download monthly updates while retaining the installation's low profile and small disk footprint (Remote Desktop is also there). According to the project's developer, tiny10 23H1 is for those wanting the core Windows experience with the necessary features and security measures. Another noteworthy aspect of the new tiny10 version is the ability to perform an in-place upgrade. In other words, you can update to tiny10 23H1 from older tiny10 releases with no need for a clean install. It is worth noting that "23H1" is just a "naming convention" that indicates a release from the first half of 2023. Microsoft's official Windows 10 release is version 22H2, and the company has made it clear that users should not expect a newer release or any significant feature updates. 22H2 should be the last Windows 10 version, with the end of support scheduled for October 2025. You can download tiny10 23H2 from the Internet Archive. As usual, remember that fan-made projects like this still require activation with a genuine Windows key (7, 8, 8.1, and 10 should work) from the matching SKU. You can try using it without a license, but the installation will eventually start nagging you with activation prompts, dark desktop backgrounds, and other inconveniences. In other words, all the good stuff from the stock Windows 10. At least it no longer requires more than 20GB of space on your drive and a minimum of 2GB of RAM. If you want a more modern lightweight Windows release, check out tiny11, which offers the best of Windows 11 without unnecessary components or bloat. If you do not trust third-party Windows modifications, see this guide showing how to DIY a debloated Windows ISO for your personal needs and preferences.

Microsoft Weekly: new Windows 11 features, cracked XP, Build news, and more by Taras Buria Here is your weekly Microsoft news recap, bringing the most interesting and exciting stories from the last seven days. And with Microsoft's annual developer conference now over, there are a lot of things to review: new Windows 11 features and updates, AI everywhere, new tools for app developers, and many more. This time, we have quick links, so you can jump to the section that interests you the most: Build Announcements Windows 11 Microsoft Store Edge More Updates! Windows Insider Program Gaming Trivia Windows 11, AI-powered tools and features, and more During the Build 2023 conference (you can check out our complete Build coverage here), Microsoft unveiled many new features for developers and regular Windows 11 users. Many of them harness the power of artificial intelligence to deliver a better experience and previously unavailable features. Windows 11 The biggest Windows 11-related announcement during Build was Windows Copilot—a feature to make "every user a power user." Windows Copilot is a new AI-powered assistant on your Windows 11 PC that will help you get things done, control various settings, get answers to complex questions, and more (consider it Cortana 2.0, but actually good, supposedly). Windows Copilot will be available for testing next month, and you can sign up for updates here. Microsoft also announced a batch of smaller but necessary changes. Windows 11 will soon get taskbar labels and "never combine" mode (both features are already available for testing in the Windows Insider program), native RGB controls, support for more archive formats, such as RAR, 7-zip, GZ, TAR, and more. The latter is a significant change, especially for developers, but the WinRAR team says it is honored and a bit concerned with Microsoft's decision. And yes, there was a teaser of the upcoming File Explorer redesign. Another long-anticipated change is the ability to remove news from Windows Widgets. Microsoft announced it would soon allow Windows 11 customers to switch between three modes: mixed, widgets-only, and news-only. Developers will be happy to learn about the new Dev Home app tailored for app-makers. It is a storage volume with a file system focused on performance and security. Based on ReFS, it delivers up to 30% performance uplifts in various tasks. In addition, Dev Home features integrations with WinGet, GitHub, and more. Microsoft Store Let's kick off the Microsoft Store section with the Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 winners. It features winners selected by the community vote and honorable mentions picked by editors. Moving on to the new features, the Microsoft Store will soon use AI to analyze reviews and generate summaries to help you learn what other customers think about the app or game without scrolling hundreds or thousands of reviews. The store will also get a dedicated AI hub to recognize apps that use artificial intelligence. And if you are a Windows app developer, Microsoft Partner Center will help you reach more people with AI-picked keywords for your project. That is not all Microsoft announced for its app marketplace. Developers will soon be able to promote their applications in the Bing search results, and the store will feature a new ad spot. In addition, the recently launched Microsoft Store Ads program is expanding to more countries and regions. And finally, Microsoft has prepared new features for progressive web apps and opened Android app submissions to all developers, allowing them to expand their audiences with Windows 11 customers. Microsoft Edge Microsoft did not forget to treat its browser with a few upgrades. The browser will soon be redesigned with Mica and rounded corners, the Workspaces feature, and a dedicated mode for businesses and organizations. Other news from the Build conference: Improvements for Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator Improvements for Windows on ARM Microsoft Fabric—a new unified end-to-end analytics solution Public Preview of GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps Updates—lots of them! As usual, this week, we received many software updates for apps, games, operating systems, firmware, and more. Microsoft announced the "Moment 3" update and later shipped it to those willing to get new Windows features as soon as they become available (make sure your PC meets the requirements). Check out our full review if you want to know what is new in the release. Here are the smaller Windows updates Microsoft released this week: KB5026436 for Windows 11 with fixes for SMB, LSASS, printers, and more KB5026435 for Windows 10 with notification and search box improvements Updated ISO files for Windows 11 and 10 Surface Firmware Updates: Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro 9 Surface Book 3 and Surface Laptop Go 2 Another noteworthy release this week is Microsoft's updated Windows 11 virtual machines. They are available for free during the evaluation period and provide access to various developer tools for making Windows apps. The VMs are available in four "flavors" for different virtualization software. As usual, this week, we reported a few notable changes in Microsoft Edge's Canary Channel, where the company tests the waters for new features before shipping them to the general public. Users noticed a new gaming mode and the built-in VPN with an increased monthly data limit. In addition, an upcoming Edge update will introduce a taskbar-like sidebar you can permanently fix on the desktop. App updates: A big update for PowerToys with a new tool that lets you control several PCs with one mouse Changes in Google Chrome Canary that disable the recently introduced Mica material SwiftKe and Bing for Android with the latest Bing Chat features Authenticator Lite support in Outlook for iOS and Android Not all updates were good: some users reported various issues with the latest cumulative updates for Windows 10, such as blue screens of death with the PROCESS1 INITIALIZATION FAILED error code. Check out Microsoft's recommendations on how to resolve the issue on affected systems. Also, Microsoft confirmed problems with copy/save on Windows 11 and bugs with 32-bit apps on Windows 10. Insider builds and hidden features Microsoft treated insiders with many updates after a disappointing no_build week. Here are the latest Windows 11 builds to test: Canary: 25370 with TPM improvements, WPA3 support for Phone Link, and more. Canary: 25375 with Microsoft Endpoint DLP on WoA. Dev: 23466 with new features announced at Build 2023. Beta: KB5026440 with various fixes. New and exciting features in the latest Windows 11 builds are rolling out gradually. If you do not want to wait to get them, check out our recent guides: How to enable taskbar labels and "never combine" mode How to enable Windows 11's new method to close apps and terminate processes Gaming This week, we updated our list of the most anticipated games coming soon to the Xbox consoles in 2023, such as Mortal Kombat1, Layers of Fear, and others. Also, John Callaham published a look back at the original Xbox One unveiled ten years ago and its initial lukewarm reception. It is an interesting story showing how bad decisions and wrong priorities almost sunk Microsoft's ambitious project. Microsoft continues making its games more cloud-friendly. This week, the company announced several titles for the Ukrainian-based cloud streaming service called Boosteroid. The initial list of supported games is a bit slim, but Microsoft promises to add more soon. And to back its promise, Microsoft released three more Xbox titles on NVIDIA's GeForce Now. Cloud gaming is one reason the UK's CMA denied the approval of the Microsoft-ABK deal. To deal with the issue, Microsoft filed an appeal against the ruling. In addition to releasing new games, Microsoft is constantly working on ensuring the platform is safe and friendly for all. The latest Xbox Transparency Report highlights Microsoft's proactive measures and moderation tools that prevent all sorts of nastiness from ruining the fun for gamers. Deals: Deals with Gold this week let you save up to 90% on RIDE, Dying Light, WWE 2K23, and more. Trivia This week, I tested Microsoft's claim that enabling seconds on the system clock will make your computer consume more power. Check out this article for our findings. Another noteworthy piece is the story about the cracked Windows XP activation algorithm. The OS released more than 21 years ago still generates a lot of interest from the community and leads to all sorts of interesting headlines. And there goes another week in the world of Microsoft and everything around it. As usual, you can check out more news here and sign up for the Neowin Newsletter to get the latest stories regularly delivered directly to your inbox.

Microsoft: File copy/save on Windows 11, Windows 10 32-bit apps failing, Office affected too by Sayan Sen Microsoft has warned IT and system admins that a file copying, saving, and attaching issue is affecting applications on Windows 11 as well as Windows 10. Thankfully, File Explorer is unaffected, however, 32-bit applications are. Microsoft says that 32-bit apps that are large address aware and use the CopyFile API are affected. This API essentially helps copy a new file to an existing file and keeps track of the progress. Hence, with this functionality broken at the moment, copying and saving have become a major issue at the moment for affected applications. Microsoft has also added that 32-bit versions of Office apps like Word and Excel are affected as well, and users may receive a "Document not saved" error. Microsoft explained the issue in detail on its Windows health support page: You might have intermittent issues saving, or copying, or attaching files using 32-bit apps which are large address aware and using the CopyFile API. Windows devices are more likely to be affected by this issue when using some commercial/enterprise security software which uses extended file attributes. We are not receiving reports that copying files using File Explorer is affected, but CopyFile API used within apps might be affected. Microsoft Office apps such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel are only affected when using 32-bit versions and you might receive the error, "Document not saved." This issue is unlikely to be experienced by consumers using Windows devices in their home or on non-managed comercial device. Note: Apps are not affected by this issue if they are 64-bit or 32-bit and NOT large address aware. There is a positive though. Microsoft says the issue is intermittent which means redoing the same action could likely work out. The company lists this as a potential workaround: Workaround: To mitigate the issue, you can attempt to save or copy again. Since the issue is intermittent, it is likely to succeed on a subsequent try. The above workaround is only for Windows 11 22H2 though. For other versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10, Microsoft recommends doing a known issue rollback (KIR): Workaround: To mitigate the issue, you can attempt to save or copy again. Since the issue is intermittent, it is likely to succeed on a subsequent try. Important: If the resolution below does not resolve intermittent save or copy issues in your environment, then you might be experiencing a different issue with similar symptoms. Resolution: This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Enterprise-managed devices that have installed an affected update and have encountered this issue can resolve it by installing and configuring a special Group Policy. The special Group Policy can be found in Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> . Group Policy downloads with Group Policy name: Download for Windows 11, version 21H2 - KB5023774 230222_032017 Known Issue Rollback Download for Windows 10, version 22H2; Windows 10, version 21H2 - KB5023773 230222_032013 Known Issue Rollback Important: You will need to install and configure the Group Policy for your version of Windows to resolve this issue. In somewhat related news, Microsoft recently resolved a SMB file copy issue on Windows 11 21H2 with the KB5026436 preview update.

Microsoft releasing new updated ISOs for Windows 11 22H2 and Windows 10 22H2 by Sayan Sen Update: The download links are now live. Microsoft is releasing new updated ISO files today for Windows 11 version 22H2. The new disc images bring the Moment 2 and Moment 1 feature updates to the general public. The ISOs are based on the month's Patch Tuesday (KB5026372, build 22621.1702) which was released last week. This Patch Tuesday release, among other things, fixed a critical Secure Boot bootkit vulnerability, tracked under CVE-2023-24932. Microsoft also later published a separate guidance piece which explains how one can create secure Windows boot managers. However, although undocumented, there are apparently plenty of issues in the latest Patch Tuesday (KB5026372). For starters, some users are outright unable to install the update. They seem to be experiencing failure error codes: "0x800f081f" and "80070002". Aside from these, there are also problems related to the VPN. And some people claim older issues like one related to SSD speeds are still unfixed with this update. The updated Windows 11 22H2 ISOs coming soon™️ should include build 22621.1702 (KB5026372, May Patch Tuesday). Features from Moment 1 and Moment 2 as well as the new WU toggle will now be available on a clean install without you needing to update it 🥳 https://t.co/Fdsu6xLJxs pic.twitter.com/QsIjGZPMP2 — PhantomOcean3 💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) May 15, 2023 You can get the updated Windows 11 22H2 ISOs from Microsoft's official website via the Media Creation Tool. The filename should be "Win11_22H2_English_x64v2.iso". Aside from Windows 11, Microsoft is also rolling out updated ISOs for Windows 10 as well. You can download it from the official website through the Media Creation Tool option. Like Windows 11, it will contain the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5026361) for Windows 10. Microsoft recently re-reminded users about the impending end of support for Windows 10 21H2. The tech giant confirmed it will soon start pushing version 22H2 feature update out to such users.

After Bing search bar, Microsoft now bringing Edge sidebar to Windows desktops very soon by Sayan Sen It is probably not unfair to say that Microsoft really wants people to use its Edge web browser. The company has often adopted somewhat desperate means to coax more users into trying Edge and choosing it as their default browser, or at least just getting more people to use it, as well as Bing. Just considering the Windows 11 era, the company first came under fire due to the way it set up the default app options as it was seemingly quite tedious to go through the process. There have been aggressive ads and promotions as well, like the time Microsoft called Google Chrome "so 2008" and suggested that Edge was more secure than Chrome. And of course, from time to time Edge also wants you to choose it as the default browser. More recently, via Patch Tuesday, Microsoft made a weird change that was bringing up the Default Settings page every time a user opened Google Chrome. Aside from those, Microsoft is also simultaneously adding more and more Edge elements to Windows desktop gradually. The company added a desktop search, first in the Windows 11 Dev Channel; and then just a couple of months ago in March, an Edge update brought the desktop search to Windows 10 as well via an option in the Settings. Soon, Microsoft Edge will also gain the ability to attach the sidebar to the Windows desktop. There will be a "popout" icon at the base of the sidebar which will allow for this. The feature is already present in one of the recent Edge Canary builds​. Edge sidebar on Windows desktop A new entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap under feature ID 124911 provides more details on it and reveals Microsoft's intentions behind the change: Microsoft Edge: Option to attach the Edge sidebar to the Windows desktop Users of the Microsoft Edge sidebar will soon have the option to access their apps and sites directly from their Windows desktop. As an opt-in experience, users can attach the sidebar to their Windows desktop by clicking a "popout" icon near the base of the sidebar in the browser. This enables a side-by-side experience that works with any Windows app—including Microsoft Edge itself. Users enjoy streamlined access to the same set of powerful AI tools and web-based services, including Bing Chat, without launching a browser window, enhancing productivity regardless of where they are in Windows. Administrators can control the availability using the StandaloneHubsSidebarEnabled. As per the roadmap, Microsoft is expecting the feature to be generally available (GA) from next month, i.e., June 2023.

Microsoft improves Windows 11 21H2 May OOBE with a new update by Sayan Sen Microsoft, earlier today, released non-security preview updates for both Windows 11 21H2 and Windows 10 22H2 that fix a whole bunch of issues. Alongside those, the Redmond giant has also released new OOBE (Out of Box Experience) updates for Windows 11 21H2. Microsoft frequently releases such updates to improve the OOBE. Generally it is done once a month. For example, the March OOBE update added a Shim to improve compatibility with Component Object Model (COM) objects. Meanwhile, the April OOBE update also addressed compatibility issues, but this time it was related to the registry. Microsoft says that updates are installed automatically during the OOBE process if the internet connection is available. A device restart is required to complete the installation. With this month's OOBE update release, Microsoft hasn't gone into any detail about what the new update brings as it has only mentioned that this is meant to improve the Windows 21H2 Out of box experience. The full release note for the update is given below: Summary This update improves the Windows 11, version 21H2 out-of-box experience (OOBE). This update applies only to the Windows 11 OOBE process and is available only when OOBE updates are installed. How to get this update Windows OOBE This update is installed during the Windows OOBE process if an Internet connection is available. Prerequisites There are no prerequisites for installing this update. The official support document of the OOBE update (under KB5026910) goes into more details regarding the files this release delivers.

StopUpdates10 4.5.2023.0523 by Razvan Serea StopUpdates10 makes it easy for you to allow or block Windows 11/10/8/7 updates anytime. It stops Windows updates and upgrades by one-click, even the forced ones. Also StopUpdates10 disables annoying "end-of-service" notifications. StopUpdates10 does not delete files on your system, does not change permissions of Windows registry keys or files. It is easy to restore Windows updates by one-click. Command line options are supported. Features at a glance: Stops Windows updates. Stops forced upgrades. Stops annoying upgrade notifications. Restore updates with one-click. Pauses updates. Disables Windows 7-8 'End of support' and 'End of Service' notifications. Benefits: Easy to disable and re-enable Windows updates. StopUpdates10 does not delete files, does not change file rights or another destructive actions. StopUpdates10 is lightweight. StopUpdates10 is free of charge. StopUpdates10 v4.5.2023.0523 changelog: Added blocking services: PushToInstall, Bits, DoSvc. The PushToInstall service automatically restores the Windows Update service after installing update KB5026372. Fixed bugs with user-defined services in the Updates Guard service. Download: StopUpdates10 v4.5.2023.0523 | 2.3 MB (Free, paid version available) View: StopUpdates10 Home Page Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

Microsoft releases KB5026435 (OS Build 19045.3031) Preview for Windows 10 22H2 by Paul Hill Microsoft has released KB5026435 (OS Build 19045.3031) Preview for users running Windows 10 22H2. The update comes with several new features including an improved search box experience and many other smaller improvements. Here are the full release notes of all the new features in this update: Highlights New! This update brings back an improved search box experience on the Windows 10 taskbar. If you have a top, bottom, regular, or small icons taskbar, you will see the search box appear. You can use it to easily access apps, files, settings, and more from Windows and the web. You will also have access to the latest search updates, such as search highlights. If you want to restore your previous search experience, you can do that easily. To do that, use the taskbar context menu or respond to a dialog that appears when you use search. New! This update now displays up to three high priority toast notifications at the same time. This feature affects apps that use Windows OS notifications to send notices for calls, reminders, or alarms. Up to four toast notifications might appear at the same time. This means that there can be three high priority notifications and one normal priority notification. This update addresses an issue that affects access to Tab settings for IE mode sites. This update addresses a multi-function label printer issue. It affects the installation of some of them. This update addresses an issue that affects the touch keyboard. Sometimes, it does not show the correct layout based on the current input scope. This update addresses an issue that sometimes fails to open the touch keyboard. Improvements This update addresses an issue that affects App Installer. Sometimes, MSIX apps fail to update. This update addresses an issue that affects Server Message Block (SMB). You cannot access the SMB shared folder. The errors are, “Not enough memory resources” or “Insufficient system resources”. This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). It stops working. This occurs when you use Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). The update addresses an issue that affects scheduled tasks. The tasks fail when they use stored local user account credentials. This occurs when you enable Credential Guard. The error message is "2147943726 : ERROR_LOGON_FAILURE (The user name or password is incorrect).” This update addresses an issue that affects the Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) cluster. It might not come online. This occurs after a periodic password rollover. The error code is 1326. This update addresses an issue that affects dot sourcing. It fails files that contain class definition in Windows PowerShell. This update changes the support phone number for Microsoft India for Windows activation. This update addresses an issue that affects the PublishDfsRoots policy. It does not apply correctly to a targeted client that has mobile device management (MDM). One example of MDM is Microsoft Intune. This update changes the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) ranges for certain mobile providers. This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Firewall. The firewall drops all connections to the IP address of a captive portal. This occurs when you choose the Captive Portal Addresses option. This update addresses an issue that affects devices that are joined to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). The Windows Firewall cannot apply the correct domain and profile for them. This update addresses an issue that affects signed Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies. They are not applied to the Secure Kernel. This occurs when you enable Secure Boot. This update addresses an issue that might affect a large reparse point. You might get a stop error when you use NTFS to access it. This issue occurs after a canceled FSCTL Set operation changes the reparse tag. This update addresses a known issue that might affect some speech recognition apps. They might have sporadic speech recognition, expressive input, and handwriting issues. This occurs when the display language is Chinese or Japanese. The apps might not recognize certain words. They might not receive any input from speech recognition or affected input types. This issue is more likely to occur when the apps use offline speech recognition. For app developers,this issue only affects speech recognition that uses Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) in Windows.Media.SpeechRecognition. This issue does not affect other types of speech recognition. Known issues in this update Symptoms Devices with Windows installations created from custom offline media or custom ISO image might have Microsoft Edge Legacy removed by this update, but not automatically replaced by the new Microsoft Edge. This issue is only encountered when custom offline media or ISO images are created by slipstreaming this update into the image without having first installed the standalone servicing stack update (SSU) released March 29, 2021 or later. Note Devices that connect directly to Windows Update to receive updates are not affected. This includes devices using Windows Update for Business. Any device connecting to Windows Update should always receive the latest versions of the SSU and latest cumulative update (LCU) without any extra steps. Workaround To avoid this issue, be sure to first slipstream the SSU released March 29, 2021 or later into the custom offline media or ISO image before slipstreaming the LCU. To do this with the combined SSU and LCU packages now used for Windows 10, version 20H2 and Windows 10, version 2004, you will need to extract the SSU from the combined package. Use the following steps to extract the SSU: Extract the cab from the msu via this command line (using the package for KB5000842 as an example): expand Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.msu /f:Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.cab Extract the SSU from the previously extracted cab via this command line: expand Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.cab /f:* You will then have the SSU cab, in this example named SSU-19041.903-x64.cab. Slipstream this file into your offline image first, then the LCU. If you have already encountered this issue by installing the OS using affected custom media, you can mitigate it by directly installing the new Microsoft Edge. If you need to broadly deploy the new Microsoft Edge for business, see Download and deploy Microsoft Edge for business. To get this update as a standalone package, download the appropriate package from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Here are the Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 winners by Taras Buria During its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft unveiled the winners of its now-regular Microsoft Store App Awards contest. The event celebrates the best Windows 10 and 11 applications that "inspire others to build beautiful and useful apps" and provide excellent user experience, regular updates, and more. In March 2023, Microsoft opened nominations, allowing users and developers to submit their favorite projects for participation. The community voting kicked in on May 1, 2023, and the results are now ready. Behold the winners of the Microsoft Store App Awards 2023. Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 Winners - Community Choice The community has voted the following apps as the best in their categories: Utilities and Tools: Torrex These apps are designed to make your life easier by performing a variety of tasks that you may need on a daily basis. This can include managing your PC, simplifying tasks of a workflow, and much more. Which one of these tools do you find the most helpful? Torrex is a Universal Windows App for downloading files using the BitTorrent distribution system. Light, customizable, and adaptable, Torrex brings torrent downloads to all your devices, including PC, tablets, Xbox, and even HoloLens. Productivity: Mozilla Firefox These apps are designed to help you stay focused and get things done. They can include to-do lists, note-taking apps, time-management tools, and much more. Which one of these apps do you rely on the most to help you stay productive? Firefox needs no introduction. This privacy-focused browser is the go-to solution for those who need to reclaim their data and take a break from the flood of Chromium-based mainstream browsers. Audio/Video: VLC These apps are designed to help you manage your audio and video content, whether you're creating it yourself or simply organizing media files that you've downloaded or purchased. This can include media players, libraries, file converters, and much more. Which one of these apps do you find the most helpful for managing your audio and video files? The VLC media player (previously known as VideoLAN Client) is a free and open-source media software for local and streaming playback. Creativity: Sketchable These apps are designed to help you unleash your creativity and bring your ideas to life. They can include graphic design tools, modeling software, animation programs, and much more. Which one of these apps do you find the most helpful in expressing your creative ideas? Sketchable Plus is a powerful app designed for digital artists. It features a carefully crafted and clean user interface, support for up to 32 layers, masks, customizable brushes, stencils, GPU accelerations, support for PSD documents, ARM64 compatibility, and more. Personalization: Lively Wallpaper These apps are designed to help you personalize and customize your PC to better suit your needs. This can include changing the appearance and behavior of the UI, enabling more features, creating custom hotkeys and shortcuts, and much more. Which app do you use the most to make your PC feel truly yours? Lively Wallpaper brings animated wallpapers to your Windows desktop. The app can use GIFs, videos, and even wallpapers as your desktop background or screensaver. Lively Wallpaper is free and open-source. Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 Winners - Editors' Choice This year, in addition to the community voting picks, Microsoft highlighted excellent Windows apps recognized by its editors. Here are the winners: Creativity: Descript Entertainment: Amazon Prime Video Productivity: Concepts Best Integration with Windows: WhatsApp Special Recognition: Ava Accessibility You find more information about the Microsoft Store App Awards event in the official Windows blog. Also, check out the last year's winners here. Need more great Windows apps? Check out our recent articles covering the top 11 apps for every Windows user and 10 great programs to fix Windows 11's shortcomings. Be sure to catch up with the rest of Build 2023 announcements here.

Microsoft improving Windows on Arm support for Visual Studio with MAUI, LLVM, Node, Unity by Sayan Sen At its Build 2023 event today, Microsoft has shared some of the developments and headways it has been making in terms of Windows on Arm development. In the list of applications that are getting upgrades are Visual Studio, Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), Node.JS, WiX Installer, Luminar Neo, and Unity Player. Visual Studio is now shipping with Arm support thanks to .NET Multi-platform App User Interface (MAUI). MAUI is a cross-platform framework that helps to create native desktop and mobile apps with C# and XAML. Meanwhile, LLVM is getting native compile support for Arm. Speaking of native support, Node.js is also getting native Arm support with latest version 20.0.0 that contains new binaries. Additionally, it has also received Arm64 tier 2 support. Moving on, Windows Installer XML (WiX) version 4.0 has received support for Arm64 in the core toolset, extensions, and Burn. On the creator side, apps like Luminar Neo: Skylum, which is an AI photo editing software, have also gained native support for Arm. The Unity Player is also getting native Arm support and will be generally available (GA) in June. The full highlights regarding Windows on Arm progress are given below: Visual Studio: Visual Studio 17.6 will ship with MAUI support for Arm. Visual Studio 17.71 Preview 1 now ships with support for Linux development with C++. LLVM v12.0 and onwards for cross compile and native compile options for Arm Node 20.0.0 with native Arm support. WiX installer v4.0 is available to create native installers for Arm. Luminar Neo: Skylum is releasing its native Arm version of photo editing AI software, Luminar Neo, which can be installed from the Microsoft Store on Windows. In addition, Unity Player will become generally available in early June for Windows on Arm natively. Developers using the middleware engine can easily target Windows on Arm devices to get native performance on current and future titles. You may find more details on the official blog post on Microsoft's website. In case you want to read more, you can find the rest of the Build 2023 coverage here.

Microsoft Store gets AI-generated review summaries, keywords and a dedicated AI Hub by Taras Buria Microsoft continues adding new AI-powered features and capabilities to its apps and services. This year, Microsoft supercharged Bing, SwiftKey, Edge, and Skype with AI, and now it is time for the Microsoft Store to get a taste of artificial intelligence. During its annual developer conference, the software giant announced several new Microsoft Store AI-based features. Microsoft says its Windows 10 and 11 app store is no longer just a place to download an app or game—it should serve as a "resource to educate customers about how they can be more productive, achieve their tasks, and discover new content." To achieve this noble goal, Microsoft has prepared a dedicated AI Hub and AI-powered features, such as review summaries and automatic keyword generation. Microsoft Store AI Hub with the best AI-powered Windows apps Microsoft Store AI Hub is a new curated store section where Microsoft highlights "the best AI experiences build by the developer community and Microsoft." In other words, customers will be able to discover AI-powered applications and their capabilities, such as Luminar Neo and Lensa, Descript, Krisp, Podcastle, Gamma, Copy.ai, Tripnotes, and more. If you are a Windows app developer and want your project featured in the AI Hub, submit your application using the official form. AI-generated review summaries AI-generated review summaries will help Microsoft Store visitors better understand what others think about a specific app or game without scrolling through hundreds of reviews. The store will summarize reviews in short, concise highlights containing the topline details. Here is an example: Review summary based on 344 reviews Reviews suggest that Phone Link is a must-have app for increasing productivity and multitasking. Users appreciate the convenience of being able to view and respond to texts from their PC in real time, use iMessage from Windows 11, manage photos. and send messages from a PC. The app is easy to use and provides helpful design features for making calls and messaging. AI-generated keywords for better discoverability AI-generated keywords are a new tool that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to help developers generate appropriate and precise keywords for their store listings. Microsoft will analyze and process metadata and other signals to improve discoverability in the search results. In addition, the software giant will allow developers to select multiple categories per program, giving app makers another tool to reach more customers. The new AI-powered features for the Microsoft Store will soon be available for public preview by regular customers and app developers. You can learn more about the announcements in a post on the official blog. Be sure to catch up with the rest of Build 2023 news here.

Windows 10 May 2023 Patch Tuesday update is causing various issues for users by Mehrotra A Earlier this month, Microsoft released the KB5026361 update for those running Windows 10. The update, which was released as a part of Patch Tuesday, fixed a bunch of security issues. However, it looks like the update also introduced some unintentional bugs to the operating system. According to posts on Reddit and Microsoft Feedback Hub, users are experiencing a variety of issues after upgrading their Windows 10 machines to the latest update. A majority of the reports involve Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) errors for Windows 10 users with the error code "PROCESS1 INITIALIZATION FAILED". A quick glance on an outdated Microsoft article about the error code reveals that it has something to do with the Bootcat file. This issue occurs because the Bootcat.cache file is corrupted or because the size of the Bootcat.cache file is changed since the last successful start. Microsoft recommends using a Windows installation disk to boot in and delete the bootcat.cache file to fix the issue. However, the article was originally intended for Windows 7 so it is hard to tell if the fix will work on Windows 10. That said, someone on the Feedback Hub mentioned using Windows 10 installation media to start AMD RAID drivers manually via command prompt to fix the issue. I fixed the problem using Windows 10 installation image from USB flash by manually starting AMD RAID drivers via command prompt and then performing boot repair. I am curious that Windows 10 (and Windows 11 also) still don't support AMD RAID natively and there is a need to install the drivers manually. Furthermore, users noted that they are getting error code 0x800f0922 when trying to install the update on their machine. There are also reports of users getting random restarts, a string of error messages, update failures and crashes after installing the update. Microsoft is yet to acknowledge these reports, so we don't know the exact reason or the extent of the impact. More recently, Microsoft confirmed a problem that is impacting VPN performance on Windows 11. This was followed by the company acknowledging a SATA bug that had impacted all the recent iterations of Windows, including Windows 11. Seeing Microsoft's recent track record of update failures, it is safe to say that the Redmond giant needs to look into the root cause and address it for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users. We here at Neowin recommend enabling System Restore on the Windows install disk (usually C:\) and doing a System Restore Point before installing Patch Tuesday updates, but also before installing 3rd party software on your system.

Microsoft: Windows 11 also haunted by this SATA BIOS bug just like Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 by Sayan Sen Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11, too, is affected by an age-old bug related to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA). The bug is related to the firmware wherein an internal SATA drive, be it a slower, mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) or a faster NAND flash-based Solid-state drive (SSD), is misread as removable media in the Windows taskbar. This issue is really ancient (by technology standards) as Microsoft says it affects anything newer than Windows Vista, ie, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and finally Windows 11. On a newly updated support document regarding the issue, Microsoft writes: Symptoms Internal SATA devices (HDDs or SSDs) may show as removable media in your task bar. Cause Whether or not a device is considered removable is determined by your system’s BIOS and how it marks the various SATA ports on the motherboard. The inbox driver directly inspects SATA ports and considers devices connected to those ports marked “external” as removable devices. Not all storage drivers do this, which can be a potential cause for corruption or data loss. Microsoft has also provided a way to fix this issue using elevated Command Prompt CLI. This solution also works on Windows 8, 8.1, and Windows 10: Resolution First, check for and install available BIOS updates from your PC manufacturer. If none are available, you can follow these steps to override the way the inbox driver surfaces devices on certain ports: Open a command prompt with administrator privileges. In the command prompt window, type the following command in hit Enter: devmgmt.msc Under Disk Drives, identify the SATA device you would like the inbox driver to consider internal and open properties for this device by right-clicking and selecting Properties. Note the bus number from the properties overview (“1” in the below example). For Windows 8 and later: Type the following command in the previously opened command prompt and hit Enter: reg.exe add “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\Parameters\Device” /f /v TreatAsInternalPort /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d x Where x corresponds to the Bus Number you noted in step 4. You may find more details in the support article on Microsoft's website.

Microsoft: We haven't yet been able to fix Start, UWP, Office issues on Windows 11 and 10 by Sayan Sen Microsoft announced that it managed to mitigate a major issue that affects the Windows Shell on all versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11. The bug, confirmed back in January, is related to the Windows Shell and Office APIs. On the Windows health website, Microsoft notes that the Start menu, Windows search bar, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps may fail to open or have issues. Essentially it becomes un-clickable or non-interactive. The tech giant further notes that affected PCs can exhibit damaged registry keys or data that can affect applications based on the Microsoft Office APIs, that are integrated with Windows, Office, Outlook or Outlook Calendar. The workaround is to uninstall such apps, which is hardly awe-inspiring considering it has been four months since the issue was first opened. It writes: The Start menu, Windows search, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps might not work as expected or might have issues opening. Affected Windows devices might have damaged registry keys or data which might affect apps using Microsoft Office APIs to integrate with Windows, Microsoft Office, or Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Calendar. An example of an app affected by this issue is ClickShare. The underlying Issue is not caused by the installation of an update to Windows and might be exposed by an update to an affected app. Workaround: To mitigate this issue, you can uninstall apps which integrate with Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Calendar. Updates to affected apps or guidance from the developer of the app might also be available. If you are using ClickShare by Barco, please see Symptom: Start Menu and other shell components fail when Apps including Barco's ClickShare access Office APIs and Unresponsive Windows taskbar or user shell folder permissions issues with ClickShare App Calendar integration. You may find more details on Microsoft's Windows health website here.

Samsung builds new Kiosk for businesses that runs Windows by Paul Hill Samsung has unveiled the KMC-W, a new version of the Samsung Kiosk that runs Windows. The South Korean company said that the 24-inch display device will bring expanded software compatibility to self-service display technology used in the food and beverage, retail, travel, and healthcare sectors. The KMC-W is running the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise operating system. Samsung says it has full compatibility with major ordering, point-of-sale, and property management system software. Customers will be able to choose various CPU options including the Intel Celeron 6305E, Core i3, or Core i5 processors. It will also come with 8 GB DRAM memory and 256 GB SSD for adequate storage space and good performance. “The retail landscape is changing based on consumer behaviors and rising demand for contactless and non-cash payment methods,” said Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “As this trend accelerates not just in retail but also in the food and beverage, healthcare, travel and other sectors, the Samsung Kiosk is the future-ready solution industries need to respond to global demand.” With the KMC-W running Windows, businesses should now have access to a greater library of software to facilitate bill payments, drive-thru, self-ordering, smart cafes, and unmanned fitting rooms. The company also said that the display also includes UL-certified antimicrobial coating and shatterproof film. These things should make it more resilient and hygienic to use. Businesses can learn more about the Kiosk on Samsung’s website.

Microsoft removes ads and news from the Weather app, adds a useful widget instead by Taras Buria Last month, Microsoft released a redesigned Weather app for Windows 10 and 11. The new version introduced a redesigned home screen with a few questionable changes, such as MSN News integration and ad banners. Windows users, already annoyed by the influx of ads, recommended content, and other unfriendly changes in the OS, did not like the new app. As a result, a wave of criticism forced Microsoft to remove the controversial parts of the new Weather app. As spotted by Deskmodder, the latest MSN Weather app update replaced banners with a widget for sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset. Integration with MSN News is also gone—the only thing you see when scrolling down to the bottom of the home page is a set of recommended weather maps, such as 3D Earth View, 3D Cloud View, 3D Rain View, temperature, winds, and more. Interestingly, this is not the first time Microsoft tried to earn some cash by placing ad banners in the Weather app. In the early days of Windows 10, one of the updates added a similar block for ads that were later removed. The second attempt in 2023 did not work either, so maybe this time, Microsoft will remember that displaying ads in stock apps is not something users will tolerate. You can download the MSN Weather app from the Microsoft Store.

Vivaldi is now available for download from the Microsoft Store by Taras Buria Vivaldi, a Chromium-based browser and spiritual successor to the original Opera, is now available for download from the Microsoft Store. Vivaldi Technologies has announced the release on its official Twitter account, giving customers another method to download Vivaldi on Windows 10 and 11. What's this? 🤩 We've seen the requests, and now the Vivaldi Browser is available on the #MicrosoftStore. We're happy to see the increased #Availability for our users.#Microsoft #Windows #Browserhttps://t.co/SNxVGC3VRY — Vivaldi (@vivaldibrowser) May 15, 2023 For those unfamiliar, Vivaldi is a privacy-focused, feature-packed browser powered by Chromium. It offers many unique features and options to boost your browsing experience, such as tab tiling, tab stacks, workspaces, sidebars, built-in privacy tools, cross-platform sync, powerful customization, Mail and Calendar, RSS Reader, and more. You can also speed up the interaction with the browser using mouse gestures, macros, and shortcuts. Vivaldi frequently gets feature updates and improvements that introduce new capabilities and enhance existing ones. For example, version 6.0, the latest Vivaldi release, has brought Workspaces and a new customization tool for personalizing the UI with custom icons and themes. Vivaldi works on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. The browser is available on the official website, but now Windows users can get it from the Microsoft Store.

Surface Duo gets new Windows drivers with improved sensors, Surface app support, and more by Taras Buria DuoWOA, an unofficial project for porting Windows 11/10 to the original and second-gen Surface Duo, ironically gets more frequent updates than devices' original firmware. Gustave Monce, the creator of DuoWOA, has released another set of drivers aiming to improve the Windows experience on Microsoft's dual-screen smartphones (the previous version arrived only one week ago). Version 2305.45 (Umbreon) is now available for download from GitHub. The update introduces support for Surface Integration System Service and Drivers, allowing you to download the Surface App from the Microsoft Store. There is also improved compatibility with temperature sensors, such as those in the device's batteries. Here is the complete changelog: New! Surface Integration System Service and Drivers are now functional under Windows. Expect more soon with these. (You can already download the Surface App from the store) New! Enables More temperature sensors to be accessible from Windows, including the ones in both battery packs New! Reworked Audio Topology to enable Cellular audio channels New! Improved stability regarding Lid Angle sensor events when the device is closed Fix! Addresses an issue impacting Surface Thunderbolt(TM) 4 Dock functionality with Surface Duo first Generation devices Fix! Addresses an issue where touch would stop working after a few minutes of inactivity Fix! Addresses an issue where device internal topology was incorrect leading to issues with displays Fix! Addresses an issue where auto rotation stopped working in the past two releases Fix! Addresses an issue where fold/flip/posture sensors stopped working in the past two releases Soon! More work going on with Audio/Camera/Battery, still nothing to share It is worth reminding that the DuoWOA remains an experimental project, unable to give you a complete experience. Many parts of the smartphone are highly unstable or broken (charging, audio, cameras), so consider DuoWOA a fun experiment for a spare device, not an alternative operating system for your primary device. You can find the list of known issues and everything you need to know to install version 2305.45 on GitHub. Note that the release does not support the Surface Duo 2.

Microsoft will soon force-push Windows 10 22H2 on 21H2 PCs, reminds all about Windows 11 by Sayan Sen Microsoft today has issued a re-reminder about the impending end of support (EOS) date for Windows 10 version 21H2. The feature update was released back in 2021 on November 16th and it's reaching end of servicing exactly a month from now on June 13. This means Windows 10 21H2 will no longer receive quality updates or critical security updates like Patch Tuesday. Microsoft will now force-push Windows 10 version 22H2 feature update on Windows 10 21H2 systems. The company has also reminded users about upgrading to Windows 11 if your system is eligible. On its Windows Message Center dashboard, the company writes: On June 13, 2023, Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations editions of Windows 10, version 21H2 will reach end of servicing. The upcoming June 2023 security update, to be released on June 13, 2023, will be the last update available for these versions. After this date, devices running these version will no longer receive monthly security and preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats. To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of, reaching end of servicing. [..] As always, we recommend that you update your devices to the latest version of Windows 10, or upgrade eligible devices to Windows 11. Microsoft recently announced that Windows 10 22H2 is the last version of Windows 10 and it reaches EOS in October 2025.

Winaero Tweaker 1.52 [Update] by Razvan Serea Winaero Tweaker is an an all-in-one customization utility that helps you to tweak Windows in just a few simple clicks. The program includes tweaks for every version of operating system from Windows 7 to Windows 11. Winaero Tweaker automatically detects the version of Windows OS you’re running and shows tweaks and customization options accordingly. The software can be installed as a portable app so you can take it with you as you move from one computer to another. Here's a partial features list: Information - View information about your PC hardware and OS. Aero Colors - Change all Windows Aero settings including those which can't be changed with Control Panel. Aero Lite - Activate the hidden Aero Lite theme. Alt+Tab Appearance - Change hidden secret options of the Alt+Tab dialog. Colored Title Bars - Enable colors for window title bars in Windows 10. Dark Color Scheme - Here you can enable the dark color scheme for Windows 10 system settings and apps. Inactive Title Bars Color - Change the color of inactive title bars in Windows 10. Disable Aero Shake - Disable or enable the Aero Shake feature. Disable Driver Updates - Turn off driver updates in Windows Update. Disable Web Search - Disable Web Search in taskbar and Cortana in Windows 10. Disable Action Center - Disable or enable the Action Center feature in Windows 10. Disable Live Tiles - Disable Live Tiles all at once for Universal(Metro) apps. Activate Windows Photo Viewer - Activate Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10. Auto-update Store apps - Disable or enable auto-update of Store apps in Windows 10. Disable Cortana - Disable Cortana in Windows 10. Disable Windows Defender - Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10. Microsoft Edge Download Folder - Change the default download folder in Microsoft Edge. Stop Unwanted Apps - Stop unwanted apps Windows installs automatically. Windows Defender Tray Icon - Show or hide Windows Defender tray icon. App Switcher Hover Timeout - Change the App Switcher hover timeout delay. Charms Bar Hover Timeout - Change the Charms Bar hover timeout delay. Modern App Closing Options - Speed up closing time of Metro apps for mouse and touch. Start Screen Power Button - Show or hide the Power button on the Start screen. Disable Telemetry - Prevent Windows 10 from spying on you. ... and many more. Changes in Winaero Tweaker 1.50: The "Customize This PC folders" option now supports Windows 11. Several tweaks for Microsoft Edge. The ability to add classic System Properties to the This PC context menu. And more See the release notes. Version 1.51 Fixed a crash in "Edge" options. Added the "Select all/none/invert" options to the "Available Shell Locations" dialog. Version 1.52 I found out that the "Disable Edge Updates" option in Winaero Tweaker is not effective in most consumer scenarios. So I have created an alternative implementation, which should work for everyone. Download: Winaero Tweaker 1.52 | 2.4 MB (Freeware) View: Winaero Tweaker Home Page Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

Windows 10 Insider Release Preview Build 19045.3030 includes improved search box experience by John Callaham Microsoft has released a new Windows 10 build for the Release Preview channel. This is for the users of Windows 10 22H2, with the build number 19045.3030 (KB5026435). It has a number of improvements, including a revamped search box experience on the Windows 10 taskbar. Here is the changelog New! This update brings back an improved search box experience on the Windows 10 taskbar. If you have a top, bottom, regular, or small icons taskbar, you will see the search box appear. You can use it to easily access apps, files, settings, and more from Windows and the web. You will also have access to the latest search updates, such as search highlights. If you want to restore your previous search experience, you can do that easily. To do that, use the taskbar context menu or respond to a dialog that appears when you use search. New! This update now displays up to three high priority toast notifications at the same time. This feature affects apps that use Windows OS notifications to send notices for calls, reminders, or alarms. Up to four toast notifications might appear at the same time. This means that there can be three high priority notifications and one normal priority notification. This update addresses an issue that affects App Installer. Sometimes, MSIX apps fail to update. This update addresses an issue that affects Server Message Block (SMB). You cannot access the SMB shared folder. The errors are, “Not enough memory resources” or “Insufficient system resources”. This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). It stops working. This occurs when you use Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). The update addresses an issue that affects scheduled tasks. The tasks fail when they use stored local user account credentials. This occurs when you enable Credential Guard. The error message is “2147943726 : ERROR_LOGON_FAILURE (The username or password is incorrect).” This update addresses an issue that affects the Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) cluster. It might not come online. This occurs after a periodic password rollover. The error code is 1326. This update addresses an issue that affects access to Tab settings for IE mode sites. This update addresses an issue that affects dot sourcing. It fails files that contain class definition in Windows PowerShell. This update changes the support phone number for Microsoft India for Windows activation. This update addresses an issue that affects the PublishDfsRoots policy. It does not apply correctly to a targeted client that has mobile device management (MDM). One example of MDM is Microsoft Intune. This update changes the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) ranges for certain mobile providers. This update addresses an issue that affects the Windows Firewall. The firewall drops all connections to the IP address of a captive portal. This occurs when you choose the Captive Portal Addresses option. This update addresses a multi-function label printer issue. It affects the installation of some of them. This update addresses an issue that affects devices that are joined to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). The Windows Firewall cannot apply the correct domain and profile for them. This update addresses an issue that affects signed Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies. They are not applied to the Secure Kernel. This occurs when you enable Secure Boot. This update addresses an issue that affects the touch keyboard. Sometimes, it does not show the correct layout based on the current input scope. This update addresses an issue that sometimes fails to open the touch keyboard. This update addresses an issue that might affect a large reparse point. You might get a stop error when you use NTFS to access it. This issue occurs after a canceled FSCTL Set operation changes the reparse tag. You can get the full blog post here: