Windows

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 10 22H2 Build 19045.5435 (KB5050081) to the Release Preview Channel for Insiders who are on Windows 10, version 22H2. This update includes the following features and improvements (items bolded in brackets indicate the area of the change being documented): [Calendar] New! Stay informed and informed with the new calendar. See the weather forecast and learn about the holidays and events that are coming up. [Mail] New! You now have the new Outlook for Windows app as the free default mail app. A new app icon appears on the Start menu. If you have pinned the former mail app to the taskbar, the new icon replaces the pinned app icon. [GB18030-2022] This update adds support for this amendment. [Virtual memory] Fixed: An issue depletes virtual memory, which might cause some apps to fail. [Chinese Pinyin input method editor (IME)] Bing will stop giving automatic suggestions in the search box for search engine sites, like Baidu. To get manual suggestions, use Ctrl + Tab or the chevron button (>). [Near Field Communication (NFC) readers] Fixed: At times, they fail to read card Universal Unique Identifiers (UUID). This occurs after many point-of-sale (POS) app scans. [USB Print and IPP Over USB] Fixed: An installed printer fails when the spooler initializes. [Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file (DriverSiPolicy.p7b)] This update adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks. [Screen capture] Fixed: The Capture Service and Snipping Tool stop responding. This occurs when you press Windows logo key + Shift + S several times while Narrator is on. Thanks, The Windows Insider Program TeamView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774 to the Canary Channel. We are releasing ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded here. We are also not planning to release SDKs for 27xxx series builds for the time being. Changes and Improvements [General] This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs. [Windows Setup] When installing Windows from installation media, you will now see a confirmation dialog when formatting or deleting partitions. [Administrator protection] Administrator protection can now be enabled from Windows Security settings under the Account Protection tab. This allows users to enable this feature without requiring help from IT admins. It also allows Windows home users to enable Administrator protection via Windows Security settings. Changing this setting requires a Windows reboot. [caption id="attachment_177520" align="alignnone" width="621"] Administrator protection in Windows Security highlighted in a red box.[/caption] With administrator protection enabled, the prompt requesting the user’s authorization for elevating untrusted and unsigned applications now comes with expanded color-coded regions which will now extend down over the app description. [caption id="attachment_177521" align="alignnone" width="335"] Windows Security credential dialog example showing expanded color over app description.[/caption] Fixes [General] Fixed an underlying issue causing accent colored window borders to not be not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations to show even though the setting to show animations is turned off in the latest Canary builds. [Other] Fixed an underlying issue which was causing the Xbox app to fail to launch with a “Please try again” error sometimes in the last two Canary builds. Known issues [General] [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. We’re working on the fix for an issue where SFC /scannow is showing errors every time it’s run. [File Explorer] If you open a File Explorer window and minimize it in this build, it may not render correctly when you restore it. [Remote Desktop] [NEW] Using MTSC.exe for Remote Desktop may fail on this build with error 0x80080005. As a workaround, please launch as admin. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder - Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements. The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

As we reflect on the incredible innovations showcased at CES 2025, it's evident that the future of Windows 11 will enable new possibilities and experiences for our customers. Throughout the last year and this week at CES, our partners continue to advance the Windows ecosystem with cutting-edge technology and new devices, reaffirming our commitment to delivering the most performant, intelligent and secure PCs. As we shared ahead of the event, CES not only marked an exciting start to 2025 but also set the stage for the year ahead, which we anticipate to be one of the most significant Windows 11 PC refresh cycles our industry has experienced. The event showcased how we, along with our partners, will continue to drive the PC category forward, pushing technological boundaries and enhancing customer experiences in new, meaningful ways. From best-in-class performance and battery life to cutting-edge AI experiences such as Recall (Preview)1, Click to Do (Preview)1 and Improved Search1, to stunning new hardware designs, the innovation is inspiring and will pave the road ahead for a more efficient digital future. "As a leading omnichannel tech retailer, we make upgrading to Copilot+ PCs easy. Customers can order online or visit our stores to try out this new tech and get help from our experts in moving to Windows 11. They can also get at least £5 off their purchase when they bring in any unwanted tech." Ed Connolly, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Currys Advancing power and performance in Windows 11 PCs Building on our Copilot+ PC launch from last May, the announcements this week demonstrate our commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on a Windows 11 PC. With new silicon technology designed to handle the most demanding tasks with ease and powerful new devices that enable new experiences, customers now have access to an unrivaled selection of responsive and performant Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs offering choice and value for all customers. AMD announced new Ryzen AI products to power an expanded Copilot+ PC portfolio for customers and businesses. Designed for gamers, creators and everyday users, the Ryzen AI Max Series revolutionizes what’s possible and delivers workstation-level performance and up to 50 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of AI processing ability2 in ultra-portable form factors, while Ryzen AI Max PRO Series processors are designed for thin and light workstations. New additions to the Ryzen AI 300 and Ryzen AI 300 PRO Series enable premium AI experiences across notebooks and deliver the same trusted performance and security that customers have come to expect. Intel announced new Core Ultra processors (Series 2), designed to revolutionize mobile computing for businesses, creators and enthusiast gamers. Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors with vPro3 deliver a robust platform for modern workplaces, offering significant performance gains, enhanced efficiency, and robust security and manageability. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors unlock next-gen AI productivity, all while delivering long-lasting battery life. Intel Core Ultra 200HX and 200H series cater to creators and gaming enthusiasts, offering industry-leading performance, an integrated NPU (neural processing unit) for AI acceleration and optional Arc graphics4, alongside reduced power consumption. NVIDIA introduced NIM Microservices for RTX AI PCs which are pre-packaged containers with all the key components for running AI on PCs; leveraging Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for AI development on Windows 11 PCs and accelerated by new GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, making it easier for developers to deploy and run AI models. NVIDIA unveiled enhancements to AI Foundation models that utilize RTX GPUs to perform advanced AI tasks like natural language processing and computer vision, making AI capabilities more accessible to users and bringing more performance to everyday computing devices. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc announced Snapdragon X, the 4th platform to join the Snapdragon X Series. Snapdragon X delivers the latest advancements in AI-powered computing to Copilot+ PCs, providing multi-day battery life5 and robust performance at an affordable price point for everyday computing. With an 8-core CPU and a 45 TOPS NPU, it’s a great choice for students and budget-conscious customers. Additionally, Lenovo announced the first mini desktop PC powered by Snapdragon X Series, making available a design for everyone who values portability and NPU-powered AI experiences. Innovative Windows 11 PCs for everyone Acer announced the Swift Go 16 AI and Swift Go 14 AI. These new Copilot+ PCs deliver the latest AI capabilities powered by new AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series (Ryzen 7 350 or Ryzen 7 340) processors that deliver improved streaming, editing and more while providing long battery life – up to 24.9 hours for the Swift 14 AI and up to 18 hours for the Swift 16 AI. The 16-inch or 14-inch displays (respectively) come in three display options: 3K OLED, 2K OLED or 2K IPS touch. ASUS announced the Zenbook A14 which redefines lightweight laptops, addressing traditional challenges like durability, performance, cooling, battery life, limited ports and cost. Its all-Ceraluminum chassis is ultra-light at under 980g, durable and low-maintenance, designed for everyday use. Snapdragon X Series processors deliver outstanding power efficiency and performance with multi-working-day battery life6 and the dual-fan thermal system ensures optimal cooling and boosts CPU TDP up to 45W with minimal noise. As a Copilot+ PC, it enhances productivity and creativity with advanced AI capabilities. Dell announced the Dell Pro 13/14 Premium. This Copilot+ PC is a sleek, timeless and lightweight yet powerful laptop for professionals who value performance and portability on the go. Available in 13- and 14-inch display sizes, it’s the slimmest and lightest of Dell’s Pro portfolio, starting at only 2.36 pounds7. With a Tandem OLED display (on the 14-inch), up to 21.2 hours of battery life8 and an 8MP camera with HDR, workers can collaborate effectively no matter the location. HP announced the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i 14-inch Notebook Next-Gen AI PC. This next-gen Copilot+ PC is designed for dynamic, on-the-go leaders. With up to 48 TOPS of NPU performance, it accelerates workflows and boosts personalized productivity through features like HP AI Companion, which generates real-time insights for faster decision-making. Its versatile design seamlessly transitions between laptop, tablet and tent modes, making it perfect for creative and business tasks alike. Lenovo announced Yoga Slim 9i (14”, 10). The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14”, 10) is a Windows 11 Copilot+ PC that features a world’s first 98% screen-to-body ratio PureSight Pro 4K OLED display courtesy of the camera-under-display technology that removes the camera notch and shrinks bezels to near nothing. Powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, the device’s Lenovo AI Core utilizes the 48 TOPS NPU to supercharge creative apps and dynamically adjust settings with real-time adaptive power management. The display cover is protected by an impact-resistant glass engineered to endure pressure, drops and scratches while keeping the laptop safe and beautiful with its cat-eye-like 3D sheen. Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro and Galaxy Book5 360. Boost your productivity and creativity with new AI-powered and cross-device experiences. The Galaxy Book5 series enhances the AI PC experience at blazingly fast speeds while intelligently bridging on-device and cloud-based processing. For those with high-demand workflows, these thin and light AI PCs deliver the strong performance needed in an ultra-portable, premium design. The Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) have an advanced NPU capable of up to 47 TOPs9, meaning users can easily complete AI-intensive tasks at incredible speed. Up to 25-hour battery life10 on the Galaxy Book5 Pro 16” keeps you connected wherever you are, resulting in far fewer interruptions. Even when you do need to charge it’s super-fast, up to 35% in just 30 minutes11. Moving forward with Windows 11 As we move into 2025, there has never been a better time to upgrade or buy a new PC. Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs are designed to meet the needs of our customers – whether for work or play. And, with the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025, choosing a new PC that offers unparalleled security and performance, battery life and innovative AI experiences is a smart choice. “We help our customers discover the latest tech and all that it can unlock in their everyday lives. Whether they want to explore the newly announced Windows 11 devices at home or stop by a Best Buy store to get a hands-on demo, we’re excited to bring the latest Copilot+ PCs and its innovative technology to life.” Patrick McGinnis, Chief Merchandising Officer, Best Buy Our global retail partners, such as Best Buy, Boulanger, Costco, Currys, Elkjøp, Fnac, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, MediaMarkt & SATURN, Officeworks, Sharaf DG and Walmart, are ready to help you choose with great options in-store and online, supported by PC recycling programs or trade-in credits for a brand-new Windows 11 PC. With Windows Backup and a seamless file and settings transfer process, moving to Windows is easier than ever before. We encourage our customers to consider purchasing a new PC soon, as device availability may become limited. Additionally, our business customers can benefit from programs available through resellers such as Bechtle, CDW, ComputaCenter, Connection, SHI and more. “CDW provides full stack IT solutions to customers of all sizes. With AI such a focus for our customers, we’re excited about Copilot+ PCs as they offer breakthrough new capability to run AI at the edge. And with Windows 10 End of Support, we’re seeing customers move to refresh, improve their security posture and roll out new Copilot+ PCs to improve their competitive advantage.” Mark Chong, Senior Vice President, Product & Partner Management, CDW The future of Windows is incredibly exciting, with new innovation planned throughout the year. Windows 11 continues to be the best platform for security, productivity and creativity. And our Copilot+ PCs are the most performant devices we've ever built, designed to enhance your digital life in ways you never thought possible. Let's move forward together with Windows 11 and embrace the future of computing. Learn more about Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs or visit our Help me choose tool to discover the perfect PC for you. 1 Only available on Copilot+ PCs. On some devices, some Copilot+ PC experiences require free updates continuing to roll out through early 2025. Timing varies by device and region. See aka.ms/copilotpluspcs. 2 Trillions of Operations per Second (TOPS) for an AMD Ryzen processor is the maximum number of operations per second that can be executed in an optimal scenario and may not be typical. TOPS may vary based on several factors, including the specific system configuration, AI model and software version. GD-243. 3 All versions of the Intel vPro platform require an eligible Intel processor, a supported operating system, Intel LAN and/or WLAN silicon, firmware enhancements, and other hardware and software necessary to deliver the manageability use cases, security features, system performance and stability that define the platform. See intel.com/performance-vpro for details. 4 Intel Arc GPUs only available on select H-series Intel Core Ultra processor-powered systems with required configurations. OEM enablement required; check with OEM or retailer for system configuration details. 5 Battery life varies significantly based on device, settings, usage and other factors. Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Snapdragon is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. 6 Up to 32 hours of battery life. Battery tests conducted by ASUS in November 2024 using the 1080p Video Playback scenario. Test configuration: ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407), FHD OLED panel, Snapdragon X processor, 1 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, 70Wh battery. Test settings: WiFi disabled, Keyboard backlight disabled, Windows Power Mode set to Balance mode, display brightness set to 150 cd/m2 with headset, default earbud volume. Actual battery life may vary depending on product configuration, usage, operational conditions and power management settings. Battery life will decrease over the lifetime of the battery. 7 Based on Dell internal test, November 2024. 8 Refers to the Dell Pro 14 Premium. Based on testing using the Mobile Mark 2025 battery life benchmark test in December 2024. For more information about this benchmark test, visit www.bapco.com. Actual battery life may be significantly less than the test results and varies depending on product configuration and use, software, usage, operating conditions, power management settings and other factors. Maximum battery life will decrease with time. 9 NPU performance varies by process. Intel Core Ultra 5 and Intel Core Ultra 7 support 40 TOPS and 47 TOPS respectively. 10 Up to 31-hours video playback on the Galaxy Book5 360 and 21-hours video playback on the Galaxy Book5 Pro 14”. Actual battery life may vary depending on model, network environment, usage patterns and other factors. 11 Device charges up to 41% in 30 minutes on the Galaxy Book5 Pro 14” and up to 39% in 30 minutes on the Galaxy Book5 360. Based on internal laboratory test results. Battery capacity and amount of charge after a 30-minute charge may vary by configuration.View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27768 to the Canary Channel. We are also not planning to release SDKs for 27xxx series builds for the time being. Changes and Improvements [General] This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs. [File Explorer] We’ve added a New Folder option in the context menu when right-clicking locations in the navigation pane. [Settings] The ability to change time zones is available again under Settings > Time & Language > Date & Time for standard (non-admin) users. Fixes [File Explorer] Fixed an issue where the date/time properties of files were unexpectedly updated in some cases after copying them. Fixed an issue where File Explorer may sometimes lose focus on the search box while typing. Fixed an issue where when you did a search it may unexpectedly trigger the search happening repeatedly. Fixed an issue where the Details Pane icons weren’t responding correctly to theme changes, making it hard to see if you switched from dark to light or vice versa. Fixed a black flash in File Explorer that appeared when duplicating a tab. [Input] Fixed an issue which could lead to the mouse cursor unexpectedly stuttering when you moved it around sometimes. [Graphics] Fixed an underlying issue which could result in some games appearing oversaturated when using Auto HDR. [Other] Fixed an issue causing some Insiders in Canary to experience bugchecks with error PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. Known issues [General] [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue causing accent colored window borders to not be not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations to show even though the setting to show animations is turned off. [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue where SFC /scannow is showing errors every time it’s run. [File Explorer] [NEW] If you open a File Explorer window and minimize it in this build, it may not render correctly when you restore it. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder - Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements. The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Microsoft is pleased to join the Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers, a new initiative launched by the Linux Foundation, which will help drive collaboration, technological advancement, and sustainability within the Chromium open-source projects. The Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers initiative aligns with our commitment to the web platform through meaningful community engagements, engineering collaborations, and code contributions to achieve the best outcome for everyone using the web. Six years ago, Microsoft announced that we would adopt the Chromium open-source project for our Edge browser. Today, our open-source principles remain unchanged and we continue to directly contribute to Chromium, bringing our expertise to the project, on behalf of web developers, to improve Edge and other Chromium-based browsers. By joining the Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers, we're furthering our commitment to the project and to the web platform and believe that this initiative will help in the following ways: Increase the diversity in Chromium contributions by acting as a neutral channel for third-party organizations. Provide clear and open governance that directs funds towards community-driven needs. We are excited to join Google, Meta, Opera, and Brave and to work together with the broader open-source community to advance the web platform on behalf of developers and users' needs.View the full article

In our previous blog post, Enhancing the security of Microsoft Edge extensions with the new Publish API, we introduced the new Publish API, which brings key security enhancements to Microsoft Edge extension developers. As mentioned in the Publish API documentation, support for the previous version of the API was planned to end on December 31, 2024. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the next steps and what extension developers need to do to ensure your extensions continue to function smoothly. Extended deprecation period Based on your feedback, we have extended the deprecation period. Support for the previous version of the Publish API will now end on January 10, 2025. Starting on January 10, version 1 of the Publish API will be deprecated. Developers who have not yet transitioned to the new Publish API may experience disruptions in their continuous integration or delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, leading to updates not being published. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to enhancing the security of the publishing process and protecting your extensions. What to do if you haven't migrated to the new API yet If you have not migrated your CI/CD code to use the new Publish API yet, your already published extensions will still function, but you won't be able to publish new versions. Start using the new Publish API as soon as possible as it is a significant step towards enhancing the security of your Microsoft Edge extensions. To learn how to start using the new Publish API, please check out the updated documentation. In summary: Opt-in to the new API key management experience in Partner Center. Generate your Client ID and API key in Partner Center. The API key is valid for 72 days, compared to the previous 2-year expiration period. You will receive email notifications before your API key expires. In your CI/CD publishing code, instead of using the token that version 1 of the Publish API generated from credentials, use the Client ID and API key. Deprecate any old CI/CD pipelines that may be using the previous version of the API. Share your feedback We encourage you to share your feedback and questions on our GitHub developer community. Your input is invaluable in helping us improve the security and functionality of Microsoft Edge extensions.View the full article

As we reflect on the innovation and advancements of 2024, we are optimistic about the future and the potential that lies ahead in 2025 and beyond for computing and the Windows PC. 2024 will be remembered as a transformative year when many experienced the unique benefits of AI in practical application, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on a Windows PC at work, at school and at home. Whether it’s quick access to Copilot direct from your keyboard with the Copilot key, summarizing a meeting with Copilot in Teams, creating a document with just a few words with Copilot in Microsoft 365, or simplifying search with Improved Windows Search1, AI is revolutionizing how we use PCs today and in the future. And the best, most secure and most performant way to realize the benefits of AI today, and into the future, is with a new Windows 11 PC. Building on Windows 11, our most secure version of Windows, we introduced a new category of PCs – the Copilot+ PC. These PCs are the fastest, most intelligent and most secure Windows PCs ever built. With this introduction, we marked a significant milestone in our journey, extending the power of AI from the cloud to your PC, delivering exciting innovation for our customers and the industry. This AI-enabled PC milestone has been met with customer enthusiasm and is expected to continue in 2025. Our collaborative efforts with the biggest names in computing are instrumental in driving this momentum and forward progress, reimagining how we create, produce and reduce our task load. These highly performant and secure Windows 11 PCs have set new benchmarks for speed, intelligence and security, all with incredible battery life that exceeds what is on the market today. In fact, Copilot+ PCs are up to five times faster than the most popular 5-year-old Windows PCs still in use today and top models are up to 58% faster than a MacBook Air with M32. “Microsoft and Qualcomm Technologies share the same vision of empowering users with powerful, seamless AI experiences, marking a significant step forward in the PC industry. The advancement of Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon® X Series processors set a new standard in performance and security, providing customers with unparalleled experiences and capabilities." Don McGuire, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. The growth of the new PC category began with the introduction of Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon and, as announced at IFA, expanded to include AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra processors this holiday, offering choice for our customers, and pushing the bounds of what’s possible with performance and battery life. We are excited about the continued innovation in the Copilot+ PC category today and in the coming months. As AI-enabled technology continues to evolve and enhance experiences and productivity, one thing remains constant – the need for a secure and performant Windows 11 PC to fully experience all that AI enables. With an ever-growing set of features now available first in preview for our Windows Insider Community, we are mindful of the responsibility we have to protect our customers and their data. Security is at the heart of everything we do at Microsoft. From the Secured-core PCs, which provide reinforced protection against firmware attacks, to the Pluton security processor, which offers a unique level of chip-to-cloud security, and with Windows 11, Copilot+ PCs are the most secure PCs available today. And they ship with a growing list of security features that are enabled by default, designed to significantly reduce the potential of sophisticated cyber-attacks, protecting your data at all times. Ensuring security from silicon to the cloud, we are committed to providing a seamless and secure experience for all our users. “At AMD, we’re excited to lead the way in this transformative era of computing, partnering with Microsoft to bring AI to every person, at home and at work. With Windows 11 and the new Copilot+ PC category, we’re delivering unmatched performance, security and responsible AI. Together, we’re empowering customers and partners to achieve more while ensuring the highest standards for privacy, compliance and enterprise security. The future is full of opportunity, and we’re just getting started.” Jack Huynh, SVP & GM, Computing and Graphics Business Group, AMD Move forward with Windows 11 All of the innovation arriving on new Windows 11 PCs is coming at an important time. We recently confirmed that after providing 10 years of updates and support, Windows 10 will reach the end of its lifecycle on Oct. 14, 2025. After this date, Windows 10 PCs will no longer receive security or feature updates, and our focus is on helping customers stay protected by moving to modern new PCs running Windows 11. Whether the current PC needs a refresh, or it has security vulnerabilities that require the latest hardware-backed protection, now is the time to move forward with a new Windows 11 PC. “By integrating NVIDIA's advanced GeForce RTX GPU technologies with the power of the Windows 11 platform, we are enhancing graphics, AI capabilities and overall performance. Collaborations like these let us bring the latest technologies and cutting-edge experiences to our customers. We look forward to sharing the next wave of innovations in accelerated computing through the course of CES, starting with today’s keynote." Jeff Fisher, Senior Vice President of GeForce at NVIDIA According to IDC, nearly 80% of businesses are planning to refresh their PC portfolio by the end of 2025, and 70% of consumers will refresh their PCs in the next two years3, emphasizing the increasing demand for secure, advanced AI-enabled hardware that Windows 11 PCs provide. And, with new apps added every day, developers are harnessing the power of AI to bring innovative experiences to Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs, such as ChatGPT and our native Copilot app. Windows 11 app experiences will continue to evolve, providing even greater functionality and clear benefits for our customers. "Intel is excited to partner with Microsoft to continue to advance AI-driven innovation, enhanced security and superior performance into 2025. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V processors deliver on all these fronts, creating a compelling upgrade for consumers and businesses." Jim Johnson, Senior Vice President, Interim General Manager, Client Computing Group, Intel Continued ecosystem innovation There's no better way to kick off 2025 and the excitement for the Windows 11 PC than at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), starting tomorrow in Las Vegas. Building on the rich portfolio of PCs available today from partners like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, ASUS, Samsung and Surface, you can expect to see some exciting announcements coming this week at CES, and in the months to come. Alongside our ecosystem partners, we will demonstrate how, together, we are continuing to advance the category and the industry, making AI accessible and more secure to everyone. And, as the world moves with us to Windows 11, we will welcome them with new features, enhanced security, improved functionality, and the familiar Windows experience they know and love. Our silicon partners will deliver increased performance, capability and battery life. Our OEM partners will offer incredible devices with breakthrough features at a price for everyone. And our global retailers will offer incredible selection, value and PC recycling programs to assist you in trading in your old device and selecting a new one. Once you have purchased your new PC, Microsoft provides a one-stop solution to make it easier to transfer your files, themes, apps and settings, ensuring a fast, secure and seamless transition. We believe that Windows 11 is available at a time when the world needs it most – providing advanced AI capabilities and modern security benefits that customers expect in 2025 and beyond, highlighting that the forefront of AI innovation will be realized on Windows. As CES 2025 begins, showcasing the latest innovations in technology, we are excited for the advancements our industry will offer to people around the globe. The momentum and innovation across the Windows ecosystem will make 2025 a new year of possibility for our customers. And we believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11. Learn more about Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs. 1 Coming soon to our Windows Insider community before rolling out more broadly 2 Based on Cinebench 2024 Multi-core benchmark. See aka.ms/cpclaims 3 June 2024 IDC Report Device Refresh Cycles and the Emergence of AI PCs are Forecast to Drive Modest PC Growth in 2024, According to IDCView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4660 (KB5048808) to the Beta Channel. Changes in Beta Channel builds and updates are documented in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available (via Settings > Windows Update*) and then new features, improvements, and fixes rolling out to everyone in the Beta Channel. For more information, see the Reminders section at the bottom of this blog post. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] To make it easier to use the File Explorer context menu, labels have been added to previously unlabeled actions such as cut, copy, paste, rename, share, and delete. [caption id="attachment_176878" align="alignnone" width="300"] Labels added to previously unlabeled actions in the File Explorer context menu.[/caption] [Magnifier] In addition to the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + Minus to quickly toggle between the current zoom and 1X zoom introduced with Build 22635.4515, we have also added buttons in Magnifier to reset zoom to fit to screen and reset zoom to your last/preferred magnification. [caption id="attachment_177513" align="alignnone" width="492"] New buttons in Magnifier to reset zoom to fit to screen and reset zoom to your last or preferred magnification highlighted in a red box.[/caption] [Other] Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are now deprecated. With this build, we're beginning to disable the feature. Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] Fixed a few issues impacting File Explorer performance and reliability. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 23H2 via an enablement package (Build 22635.xxxx). Many features in the Beta Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27766 to the Canary Channel. We are also not planning to release SDKs for 27xxx series builds for the time being. Changes and Improvements [General] This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs. Fixes [General] We fixed the issue where if you roll back from Build 27764 to an earlier build (including if the upgrade failed), you would see an “Your organization used App Control for Business to block this app” dialog when attempting to use or install certain third-party apps on your PC due to an incorrect policy being enforced. As of the latest Insider Preview builds in the Canary Channel, the main issues causing Insiders to experience an increase in rollbacks (with error code 0xc190010) when attempting to upgrade have been addressed. As a reminder, 0xc190010 is a generic error code that has multiple root causes, so if you’re continuing to experience issues, please file feedback (WIN + F) to investigate. [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed an underlying issue which was causing some Insiders in Canary to experience frequent explorer.exe crashes after they clean installed or reset their PC. Known issues [General] [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue causing accent colored window borders to not be not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations to show even though the setting to show animations is turned off. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder - Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements. The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

When Mats Steen was a little boy, he loved a small ceramic fox. In his native Norway, a fox is a “reven.” His mother, Trude, says he carried everywhere. Back then, he could still walk on his own. He was 7 years old when a wheelchair arrived at his house. His parents anticipated he would need it soon, as his muscles weakened due to a rare condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He hated the wheelchair, so it stayed in the hallway. Even though he was stumbling and falling, he didn’t want to use it. Eventually, he had to. [caption id="attachment_179309" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A World of Warcraft avatar carrying a Reven Pack, an in-game charity fundraiser. (Screenshot courtesy of Blizzard)[/caption] As an adult he was given a miniature fox as a birthday gift, something that was dear to him and that he saw every day on his living room shelf. When Mats passed away in 2014 at the age of 25, the Steens designed a gravestone with a fox carving. A virtual version of that gravestone appears in World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that was a big part of their son’s last eight years of life. What they didn’t know until after he died was how big of an impact he made on others while he was there. Read on at the Source channel.View the full article

As the end of the year approaches, we’re excited to share with you our 2024 Year-in-Review to not only look back on our year together but also to help you get ready to tackle your goals for next year. Let’s face it, we are all managing endless to-do lists and responsibilities amidst an ever-growing amount of information and content. While all that information might seem helpful in the context of growing to-do lists, it can also feel overwhelming. At Microsoft Edge we’re on a mission to give you a smarter, AI-powered browser that helps you get through what you need to do faster, and navigate the wealth of information available easier, so you can spend your time doing more of what you love. Here are just some of the ways that you have all used Edge this year to help you do so much more: You unlocked the power of AI, accessing Copilot right within the Edge browser window and engaging in over 10 billion AI-powered chats this year. You made the web work for you by auto-translating over 38 trillion characters to consume content in your preferred language. And because web life doesn’t happen on just one device, you shared 46 million messages and files across devices with Drop. Powering through to-do lists and saving time is great but, so is saving money. On average, you all were shown over $400 per year in savings using Edge shopping features. In 2024, you also stayed informed and inspired everyday with over 800 million articles, stories and updates viewed on MSN. You satisfied your curiosity and continued expanding your knowledge as Bing reached over 140M daily active users. Above all, you took advantage of Edge’s fast, efficient performance tools and browsed with confidence: You saved over 7 trillion megabytes of precious PC memory by using sleeping tabs. You stayed safer on-the-go with over 1.8 trillion trackers prevented on the Edge mobile app. You kept your personal information safer with over 7.3 billion passwords protected each month with Password Monitor. You browsed with confidence as Edge helped block over 1.4 billion phishing, malware and scam attacks with its built-in security features. We always enjoy looking back at how you used Edge, but we are even more excited to start another brand-new year together. Whether your 2025 goals include travel, getting organized, learning something new, saving money or improving your health habits, this is the perfect time to start fresh and discover Edge’s AI-powered tools to help you achieve more than you thought possible. Be sure to check out our 2025 Planning Tool for ideas and inspiration. We look forward to being part of your journey. Remember, if you’re running a Windows PC, you already have Microsoft Edge installed, so check it out and see why Microsoft Edge is the smarter way to browse. For those who want to try Microsoft Edge and are on a macOS, mobile or Linux device, download it and let us know what you think!1 1 You can share your feedback from the browser window by going to … menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback.View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2705 (KB5050636) to the Dev Channel. With this update, we are previewing real-time translation in live captions for AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs. We also have an improvement for real-time translation on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs as well. Beyond these two changes, this update is the same as the update released to the Dev Channel last week. New experiences for AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs Please install all the latest driver updates available from Windows Update to ensure the following experience work correctly on your AMD or Intel®-powered Copilot+ PC. To ensure you have the latest drivers for your Copilot+ PC, make sure the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle is on under Settings > Windows Update. Just click the “Check for updates” button and install any new drivers that Windows Update delivers to you. If you’d like to test the latest driver versions available directly from our partners before they get to Windows Update, you can download them directly here: Latest AMD graphics driver for Ryzen™ chipset. Latest Intel NPU driver for the Intel® Core™ Ultra 200V Series processor. Live captions and real-time translation We are enhancing communication on AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs with live captions and real-time translation. We’re beginning to roll out the ability in live captions to translate more than 44 languages into English, including speakers in real-time video calls, recordings and streamed content. Real-time translation is rolling out AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs with English as the primary language in use. Be sure to check the known issues for real-time translation in live captions documented below in this blog post. [caption id="attachment_177495" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Real-time translation with Live captions while watching a video in Microsoft Edge.[/caption] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Live captions. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [Live captions] On Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, we’re beginning to roll out the ability to do real-time translation to Chinese (Simplified). Supported languages include Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech Danish, German, Greek English Spanish, English, Estonian, Finnish, France, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, and Swedish. Known issues [General] After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates which will resolve this issue. [Recall] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Recall can be enabled or disabled from “Turn Windows features on or off”. We are caching the Recall binaries on disk while we test add/remove. In a future update we will completely remove the binaries. Some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots”, while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue. Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents. [Click to Do] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Sometimes additional context is given when using more intelligent text actions powered by Phi Silica. The intelligent text actions leverage the power of Microsoft’s secure cloud to improve your text results by ensuring prompts and responses are safe and appropriate. This data is automatically deleted. Local moderation to ensure the safety of prompts and responses will be added in the future, replacing this cloud endpoint. Sometimes Click to Do doesn’t highlight any info on screen if there is no content on a connected external monitor in extended mode. [Live captions & real-time translation] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Some Insiders may see a crash on first launch of live captions. Restart live captions if you encounter this issue and you will not see it again. If audio is playing or the microphone is enabled, switching languages will crash live captions. Stop audio when changing languages to resume captions or translations. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel receive updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 via an enablement package (Build 26120.xxxx). Updates delivered to the Dev Channel are in a format that offers a preview of enhancements to servicing technology on Windows 11, version 24H2. To learn more, see https://aka.ms/CheckpointCumulativeUpdates. Many features in the Dev Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Please note that some accessibility features may not work with features like Recall and Click to Do while in preview with Windows Insiders. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

The holidays are here, and so are incredible new games that you can play on Windows 11 with PC Game Pass, including Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle™. In addition to an unparalleled library of supported games, accessories and hardware, Windows 11 also offers players an exciting array of gaming features that can help enhance your fun on the latest titles, as well as the games you’re already playing. Here’s a quick recap of a few of those features, many of which are exclusive to Windows 11: Auto HDR: Breathing new life into your games High Dynamic Range (HDR) revolutionized visual experiences by offering a wider range of colors and brightness levels. Windows 11 brings Auto HDR, a feature that automatically upgrades Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) games to HDR. The result is richer colors, deeper contrasts and a more immersive gaming environment that brings your favorite titles to life. [caption id="attachment_179301" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Gears 5: Hivebusters: Luminance enhancements from AutoHDR closely match that of native HDR.[/caption] DirectStorage: Lightning-fast load times Say goodbye to long loading screens. DirectStorage is a feature that leverages the speed of NVMe solid-state drives to reduce load times dramatically for cutting-edge game titles in select supported titles. By optimizing how game data is loaded and processed, DirectStorage allows games to render expansive worlds with intricate details almost instantaneously. This not only enhances gameplay but also reduces central processing unit (CPU) overhead, freeing up resources for other tasks and ensuring a smoother gaming experience. [caption id="attachment_179302" align="alignnone" width="936"] Forspoken | SQUARE ENIX demonstrates performance advantages of DirectStorage.[/caption] Game Bar Compact Mode: Easy access to your games and Game Bar widgets We recently announced Compact Mode for Game Bar, making it easier to navigate on Windows handhelds, small screens and when playing with a controller. This feature demonstrates our commitment to providing a streamlined Windows 11 experience, especially for players who use handheld devices and prefer a minimalist interface. Compact Mode provides a controller-friendly interface that gives you quick access to your recently played games and game launchers, as well as your Game Bar widgets, allowing you to add overlays that show performance, audio adjustment and more! Whether you’re gaming on the go or at home, Compact Mode ensures you have all the essential tools at your fingertips. To use Compact Mode, open Game Bar by pressing Win-G, go to Settings > General and enable the Compact Mode toggle. When you open Game Bar, a single-widget view will be presented where you can access your Xbox gaming activities in one place. It's a small addition that makes a big difference in usability, especially for those who prefer using a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse. Dynamic Lighting: Unified RGB control Customization is key for many players, and Dynamic Lighting in Windows 11 offers an integrated solution for controlling RGB lighting across different devices. With Dynamic Lighting, you can synchronize lighting effects, adjust brightness and apply custom effects directly from Windows Settings. This creates a cohesive aesthetic for your gaming setup, enhancing personalization. Optimizations for Windowed Games: Exclusive performance boost Optimizations for Windowed Games improves latency for thousands of games when played in windowed and borderless windowed gaming modes. This feature also brings VRR (Variable Rate Refresh) to many windowed games, helping to reduce screen tearing and stuttering by synchronizing the refresh rate of the display with the frame rate of the game. Best of all, using this feature requires no extra work from either gamers or game developers. Just fire up your game and enjoy the reduced latency as part of your gaming experience! Bonus features In addition to the above standout features, Windows 11 also offers the following enhancements that contribute to a great gaming experience: HDR Calibration app (Exclusive to Windows 11): Fine-tune your display's HDR settings to achieve the perfect visual balance, ensuring that games look the way their developers intended. Advanced Hybrid (CASO)/UMA: Optimize performance on hybrid laptops with integrated and discrete graphics processing units (GPUs). This technology reduces latency and improves frames per second (FPS) without the need for specialized hardware solutions. Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 support: Experience faster speeds and lower latency with Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 compatibility, making online gaming and streaming smoother. The expanded 6 GHz band reduces interference and congestion, providing a more stable connection. Color filters for colorblind players: Color filters applies a filter for colorblind players to better differentiate colors on their device. This feature is now applied in the GPU, allowing for faster frame rates in full screen mode when the device has color filters enabled. Players also have control over the intensity and color boost of the filter. Automatic Super Resolution for Arm Copilot+ PCs: Elevate your gaming visuals effortlessly with AutoSR, which uses machine learning and the neural processing unit (NPU) on Copilot+ PCs to upscale lower-resolution content in real-time. Enjoy crisper images and enhanced detail across a wide range of games without the need for developer integration or specialized hardware. Xbox app on Windows PC: The Xbox app on Windows PC allows people to manage and play PC gaming content, whether you’re a Game Pass member or you purchased titles from the Microsoft Store. Discover and download new PC games with Game Pass, play console games on your Windows PC with cloud gaming, and chat with friends across PC, mobile and console. So gear up and unlock gaming with Windows 11! Note: Some of these features will require the latest versions of Windows 11, the latest drivers and/or required hardware.View the full article

We are thrilled to announce the 2024 Microsoft Store App Awards, a testament to our continued commitment to honor and celebrate developers for their exceptional quality, creativity and originality of Windows apps and games. Whether you're a developer or a fan of a fantastic app, we invite you to submit your nomination. If you don’t have your app on Microsoft Store yet, it’s not too late! Publish your app by Sept. 15, 2024, and participate in the awards to compete for incredible prizes, like Surface Pro Limited Edition Copilot+ PCs*. The Microsoft Store offers developers a unique opportunity to reach a vast audience of over a billion Windows users. By distributing your apps through the Microsoft Store, you can benefit from increased visibility, trust and security, and flexible revenue sharing options. We invite you to participate and showcase your apps and games that exemplify excellence in design, functionality and innovation, including the ones that harness the power of AI to offer unique and original experiences. Key Dates: Nomination end date: Sept. 15, 2024 Award announcement: October 2024 Link to nomination form: 2024 Microsoft Store App Awards: Nomination Form Evaluation criteria: Apps will be judged on User Experience, Innovation, Uniqueness, and Integration with the latest hardware and technologies. Eligibility: To qualify, apps must be publicly listed in the Microsoft Store and cannot be owned by Microsoft employees. Open nominations: We encourage everyone to participate in the nomination process. Whether you're a developer, or a fan of a fantastic app, your voice matters. It's an opportunity open for all to shine and be recognized for their contributions to the Windows ecosystem. Our editors will also bring in some hidden gems they discover to the process. Rising Star recognition: We're introducing a special category for new developers who publish their app during the awards nomination period. Don’t forget to fill in the nomination form after publishing your app to participate. Exciting rewards for winners: In addition to the prestige of being recognized as a leader in Windows PC app development, winners will receive extraordinary rewards. We will be giving away Surface Pro Limited Edition Copilot+ PCs to our winners, providing them with the latest in cutting-edge technology to continue their development journey. Winners will also receive an exclusive badge on their product page for one year and likely be featured on the Microsoft Store homepage. A call to innovate and celebrate: You have an innovative or interesting app for Windows users? Publish it in the Microsoft Store and be part of a vibrant community that values creativity and innovation in addition to nominating your favorite app or game! Let's celebrate the ingenuity and excellence that thrives within the Microsoft Store on Windows community. *No purchase necessary. To nominate an app, you must be 18+. Game ends Sep. 15. For a full description of what apps and games qualify as well, see the Global Official Rules. View the full article View full article

AI is transforming the way we interact with technology, enabling new and improved experiences across a variety of scenarios. DirectML empowers developers to bring their AI innovations to Windows and utilize local hardware acceleration to scale across the breadth of Windows devices. Today, we are excited to share how DirectML continues to expand platform support for NPUs on Copilot+ PCs and WebNN. DirectML now supports Copilot+ PCs, powered by Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform We are thrilled to announce that DirectML now supports Copilot+ PCs, powered by Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. Copilot+ PCs bring exceptional performance and energy efficiency, enabling amazing AI experiences on Windows. With DirectML, the foundational component for the Windows Copilot Runtime, developers can now target these machines to scale AI across Windows. Upendra Kulkarni, Vice President - Compute Software Product Management at Qualcomm echoes Microsoft’s sentiment, “With Snapdragon X Elite, we introduced industry-leading NPU with 45 TOPS of AI performance at incredible power efficiency. DirectML is a developer friendly ML programming interface that uses familiar DirectX API structure. By supporting DirectML on our NPU, developers are now able to easily access its phenomenal capability easily and can port their models from GPU to NPU with minimal effort. We collaborated extensively with Microsoft to optimize DirectML for NPU to maximize hardware performance. We are excited to be co-announcing this developer preview program.” Getting started with DirectML on Copilot+ PCs System Requirements Ensure you have the correct versions of DirectML, ONNX Runtime (ORT), Windows and the minimum versioned Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU driver. DirectML minimum version of 1.15.4 or greater (ARM64)  ONNX Runtime minimum version of 1.18 (ARM64)  Windows 11, version 24H2 or newer Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU Driver minimum version 1.0.0.10 Developer-Environment Set-up on Your Copilot+ PC Let’s walk through how you can utilize DirectML and ONNX Runtime to leverage a set of models on the Copilot+ PC powered by Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU. First, you need to ensure you have the latest Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU driver package. Setting up a Qualcomm dev account is your very first step: Create an account at https://qpm.qualcomm.com/ Now, log in with your account credentials and click the following link: Qualcomm Package Manager 3 and download the latest driver available. Then, follow the steps below to download the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU Driver Package for Windows: Change OS from "Windows" to "Windows (ARM64)" Click Download (latest driver version available) Extract QHND.Core.1.0.0.10.Windows-ARM64.zip (or latest driver available zipped file) Run PreAlpha_QCHexagon_NPU_Driver installer Verify that "Neural processors > Snapdragon® X Elite … NPU" has the latest driver version as specified in the release notes included in the ZIP file. With the driver package installed and the minimum versions of DirectML, ORT and Windows enabled, try this ESRGAN super-resolution model sample to build a C++ application that runs on the new Copilot+ PCs! Developers who used DirectML on their Surface device from Aug. 29 through the latest Windows Surface Hardware Update in September 2024 If you downloaded the Alpha NPU Driver Package V0.0.0.9 to test DirectML on your Copilot+ PC, recent Windows Updates may have affected the NPU functionality. To maintain DirectML functionality and NPU operational stability, please install the latest driver package V1.0.0.10 as instructed above. Although we recommend installing the latest driver package to resolve this issue, you may choose to uninstall v0.0.0.9 Alpha Driver Package instead: Navigate to Settings/Apps/Installed apps Search for “Pre-Alpha Qualcomm Hexagon (NPU) Driver” Select the “...” and click on Uninstall. Follow the steps to remove the driver Current capabilities and limitations DirectML is rapidly expanding, and we are simplifying how developers can utilize the various local accelerators, hardware variations, and frameworks across Windows. There are constraints with what is available today and they are highlighted below: C++ Developers need to depend on DirectML 1.15. as a redistributable package within their app (reference the sample above) NPU selection through the Python API for ONNX Runtime is not available currently but is coming soon! Functionality has been verified on Surface Copilot+ PCs and limited other OEMs There are specific models that DirectML guarantees will work on Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU. Please leverage these exact ONNX versions during model sampling. Developers will experience error code DXGI_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED (0x887A0004) stating “The specified device interface or feature level is not support on this system.” when attempting to use models outside of supported models. For testing any models outside of our supported list, developers may enable windows developer mode (settings/systems/for developers). Models that are run in this mode may have undefined behavior. We are excited for this initial release and the continued expansion of DirectML on Copilot+ PCs. Stay tuned for more capabilities and announcements as we continue our investment in this space. Please visit aka.ms/DirectML with our latest support documentation. DirectML unlocks NPUs for web-based machine learning with WebNN NPU Developer Preview At Build, we launched the WebNN Developer Preview across Windows GPUs, and showcased initial support for NPUs, powered by DirectML. We are excited to announce that web developers can now leverage the power of NPUs on Windows devices with the latest release of DirectML and WebNN Developer Preview. This release enables support for an initial set of models on Intel® Core™ Ultra processors with Intel® AI Boost and the Copilot+ PC, powered by Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPUs that you can try out today on the WebNN Developer Preview website. WebNN is an emerging web standard that defines how to run machine learning models in the browser and offers new possibilities for bringing AI innovations to the web. It defines how to interface with hardware acceleration APIs such as DirectML, enabling web sites to leverage the GPU or NPU on a user’s PC to run AI locally. DirectML, a key foundational component of the Windows Copilot Runtime, uniquely simplifies how developers can scale their AI innovations, through a single, cross-hardware DirectX API that provides a secure, consistent, performant experience across different hardware architectures. WebNN also supports integration with machine learning frameworks, like ONNX Runtime Web (ORT Web), which is part of the ONNX Runtime project. ORT Web is a JavaScript library that enables you to run ONNX models in the web browser and extends the Execution Provider (EP) framework to include WebNN as an EP. Enabling DirectML across NPUs with WebNN is only possible with the support and close collaboration of hardware partners like Intel. Intel Fellow, Moh Haghighat, remarked: “Intel is excited that WebNN and DirectML can now provide countless web developers the ability to harness the power and efficiency of Intel’s NPU for creating and executing innovative machine learning features in web applications on AI PCs. We eagerly look forward to the new possibilities that WebNN and DirectML bring to web developers and the web users around the world who will benefit from faster, smarter, and more engaging web applications.” This is just the beginning of our journey to enable AI on the web with WebNN and DirectML. Stay tuned for upcoming releases that will include more functionality and broader model coverage, including generative AI models. Get started with the WebNN Developer Preview With the WebNN Developer Preview, powered by DirectML and ORT Web, you can run ONNX models in the browser with hardware acceleration and minimal code changes. To get started with WebNN on DirectML compatible devices you will need: Window 11, version 24H2 or newer Insider version of Edge (exact instructions provided below) The latest driver from our WebNN NPU Partners: Intel® Core™ Ultra NPU Driver for Windows Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU Driver Package V1.0.0.10 (See instruction set above) Now that you have the latest NPU driver installed, here are the exact steps required to sample models with the WebNN framework. Enabling Insider version of Edge for WebNN Dev Preview Microsoft Edge Canary or Dev Channel with WebNN flag enabled in about:flags Download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/download/insider Run installer Navigate to about://flags Search for "Enables WebNN API" and change it to "Enabled" Exit browser Download DirectML redistributable: Download DirectML from https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AI.DirectML Rename microsoft.ai.directml.1.15.<X>.nupkg to microsoft.ai.directml.1.15.<X>.nupkg.zip and extract it Note that the minimum version of DML 1.15.4 is recommended for WebNN Dev Preview Copy microsoft.ai.directml.1.15..nupkg.zip\bin\-win\directml.dll to the appropriate directory (replace with x64 on Intel devices and arm64 on Qualcomm devices) Edge Dev: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Dev\Application\129.0.2779.0\” When the dialog asks for Administrator permission, choose “Continue" Edge Canary: “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge SxS\Application\129.0.2779.0\” Note the following on copying Directml.dll to Edge directory: The version-specific directory (129.0.2779.0) may differ on your machine New versions of Edge may require directml.dll to be recopied to the directory Launch Edge insider: Open terminal and change your working directory to the Edge Insider build: If using Edge Dev: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Dev\Application” If using Edge Canary: “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge SxS\Application” .\msedge.exe -use-redist-dml -disable_webnn_for_npu=0 -disable-gpu-sandbox Now, you can run samples with the WebNN Framework by navigating to aka.ms/webnn in the canary browser and choosing either Image Classification or Whisper Base samples (and don’t forget to click the 'npu' button) or by directly linking here: MobilNetV2 NPU Selected / ResNet50 NPU Selected / EfficientNetV4 NPU Selected / Whisper Base NPU Selected Note, model start up times may be >1 minute; NPUs are in a rapid optimization stage so compile times will improve as we move WebNN to production trials. For more instructions and information about supported models and operators, please visit our documentation. Additional links To find out more information, we encourage you to visit these sites below: aka.ms/directml DirectML GitHub WebNN Developer Preview samples WebNN Developer Preview documentation WebNN API aka.ms/windowscopilotruntime Looking ahead DirectML is excited to continue to expand support across Copliot+ PCs and frameworks like WebNN and the ONNX Runtime. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we continue to innovate and bring cutting-edge AI capabilities that allow you to scale your AI innovations across Windows. As always, we appreciate your feedback and would like to learn from your experiences with NPU support in DirectML. To provide feedback and report issues, use the GitHub issues on the DirectML repository or provide general feedback at aka.ms/directml feedback hub. Make sure to include the details of your device, your Windows build, your DirectML application and your machine learning model when reporting an issue and/or feedback! Editor’s note – Aug. 29, 2024 – The post above was updated to correct the name of the package to download from the Qualcomm Package Manager site. Editor's note -- Sept. 23, 2024: The post above was updated with new directions (in italics, except for testimonials) to ensure DML and NPU driver compatibility on Surface devices. Editor's note -- Oct. 28, 2024: This content was updated with new directions to access the latest Qualcomm driver, which enables DirectML on Dell and Surface Window Copilot+ PCs, powered by Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. View the full article View full article

We are proud to announce that version 1.6 of the Windows App SDK is now available! Whether you’re looking for the incredible performance boost and footprint reduction of Native AOT support, enhancements for deploying your package, or quality of life improvements for controls like PipsPager and RatingControl, WinAppSDK 1.6 offers a raft of new features, performance boosts and structural changes that enable you to make your native Windows apps better than ever before. The Windows App SDK provides a rich set of APIs and tools to help you build beautiful and fast Windows desktop apps, including any C++ Win32 or C# .NET app. You can harness the modern controls and polish of WinUI 3, which ships as part of the WinAppSDK, or if you have an existing app that uses Win32 such as WPF, you can take advantage of only the parts of the SDK that you need. The WinAppSDK also stays up to date with frequent and OS-independent releases so your app can always access the latest innovations. Get started with the Windows App SDK Check out the Windows App SDK overview page to learn more about it and see how to get started. Then, if you’re ready to dive into Visual Studio and begin with your first WinUI 3 app, see our setup instructions to start developing Windows apps. New features and improvements Native AOT support With 1.6, the Windows App SDK now supports native Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation! When publishing your app as a Native AOT app, you produce an app which has been compiled ahead of time to native code for faster startup time and a smaller memory footprint. We’re very excited to bring the powerful capabilities of Native AOT to developers through the Windows App SDK! In our sample Contoso Camera app, we measured a 50% reduction in start time, an ~8x reduction in package size when using a framework package and a ~2x reduction in package size when using Windows App SDK in self-contained mode. While your results might vary, we encourage you to give Native AOT a try if it’s right for your app! For more information about Native AOT, see Native AOT deployment. To get started with Native AOT in your Windows App SDK app, see our release notes for 1.6 for what you need to know and how to set it up. Decoupled WebView2 versioning Instead of embedding a hard-coded version of the Edge WebView2 SDK into the Windows App SDK, we now consume the Edge WebView2 SDK as a NuGet reference in 1.6. If your app uses WebView2 to display content, you can now choose a newer version of the Microsoft.Web.WebView2 package if you need to instead of the version that came with the Windows App SDK. Additionally, you can now reference NuGet packages which also reference the Edge WebView2 SDK, streamlining your dependencies. With these updates, we’ve decoupled the WinAppSDK from the Edge WebView2 API surface and brought NuGet’s sophisticated package management capabilities to the WebView2 space. Your WebView2-powered app experiences are now more versatile than ever and can tap into the newest WebView2 offerings at any time! New Package Deployment APIs Flexible and robust package management has been a mainstay of the Windows App SDK since its inception, and with the release of 1.6 we’re only making it better. We’ve improved package management APIs with new enhancements and quality-of-life updates including package removal, provisioning and detection of pending registration and locally available updates, easy feature availability detection for light-up scenarios and more. If your app uses MSIX packaging, these enhancements are tailored to make your life easier! For more details, you can peruse the pull request here or take a peek at the full spec here. Improved TabView tab tear-out The WinUI 3 TabView control has received a substantial update to the tab tear-out experience in 1.6 in the form of a new CanTearOutTabs mode, overhauling how a user drags tabs out of your app in a major way. In the new mode, dragging a tab out of your app’s TabView is very similar to the tab drag experience in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome where a new window is immediately created during the drag. This allows users to visually see feedback of their action right away and it lets them drag the new window to the edge of the screen to maximize or snap it in one continuous motion. If you enable the new CanTearOutTabs mode in your TabView, you won’t have to worry about any drag-and-drop API limitations because it doesn’t use them. And, you won’t have to worry about whether tearing tabs out of your app will work if the app is run as an Administrator, because that’s supported. The developer and user experiences are seamless and smooth. If your app uses TabView, you should take the new tear-out mode for a spin! Other control updates While smaller in scale, in 1.6 we’ve added some polish and updates to a few other controls in WinUI 3 as well. PipsPager now supports a new mode that wraps between the first and last items: And RatingControl is now more customizable since we moved some previously hard-coded properties to the theme resources. Now, you can override these values in your app to handcraft RatingControl’s appearance. We’ve also unsealed ItemsWrapGrid, which is a backwards-compatible change. Additional updates And finally, we’ve added a few other new APIs and features to round things out for 1.6. We filled a gap from UWP with a new ColorHelper.ToDisplayName() API, and we added a new Microsoft.Windows.Globalization.ApplicationLanguages class in MRTCore that includes a new PrimaryLanguageOverride feature for fine-tuning your app’s display language. Staying in the loop You can stay up to date with the team on the Windows App SDK GitHub repo and the WinUI GitHub repo, and through our quarterly WinUI Community Calls where we share roadmap updates and other exciting news, as well as demo new features. You can also connect with us on X using #WindowsAppSDK and @WindowsUI. We look forward to seeing the beautiful apps you create with WinAppSDK 1.6 & WinUI 3! Happy coding! Windows App SDK team View the full article View full article

Passkeys on Windows just got easier! As part of Microsoft’s vision for a passwordless future we are working to make passkeys on Windows simple and intuitive. Passkeys are safer and easier to use than passwords, which are vulnerable to phishing and data breaches. That is why, in support of a passwordless future, we partnered in the FIDO alliance with other platforms in supporting passkeys. As part of our cross-industry commitment, we launched new native support for cross-device authentication and an updated experience to help users along the journey from website to platform. Continuing that journey at Authenticate 2024 we are introducing the following, which will be available in our Windows Insider channels in the coming months: A plug-in model for third-party passkey providers Enhanced native UX for passkeys A Microsoft synced passkey provider First, we’re excited to announce API support for third-party passkey providers to plug into the Windows 11 platform! Microsoft is partnering closely with 1Password, Bitwarden and others on integrating this capability to provide users with seamless third-party passkey provider integration into Windows 11. You will be able to use the same passkey on Windows 11 that you’ve created on your mobile device, and together we can raise the bar on login security with passkeys. To learn more join us at the Windows Security sessions at Authenticate Oct. 14-16! Next, when creating and using passkeys, Windows 11 now has a redesigned Windows Hello experience. As a user, you can navigate to a website that supports passkeys and get prompted to select how you want to save your passkeys. Draft UX showing GitHub page open on Edge browser with a pop-up prompting the user to choose how to save their passkeys, protected with Windows Hello, with ‘Save to your Microsoft account’ and ‘Save another way’ as options. You will be asked to complete a one-time setup with your Microsoft account, and you will be prompted to save a recovery key that will be used to verify your identity and protect your passkeys through end-to-end encryption. You can then seamlessly authenticate using your preferred sign-in method (facial recognition, fingerprint or PIN), and save your passkey with Windows Hello . Draft UX showing GitHub page open on Edge browser with a Windows Security pop-up and Windows Hello searching for Face ID to authenticate and save the passkey. Once you have created a new passkey you can choose to save it with Windows Hello and sync it so that you can also use it on another Windows device! Just login to another Windows 11 device with your Microsoft account, complete a one-time setup, and use your synced passkeys across your Windows 11 PCs. You get a simple, seamless, login experience—all you need to do is authenticate with Windows Hello. Your passkeys are secured by end-to-end encryption and protected with the device’s TPM (Trusted Platform Module). Microsoft is committed to making passkeys more readily available wherever you need them, with the experience, flexibility and durability that you expect when using Windows. We are excited to have you try out these new features soon! Join us as we continue paving the way towards a passwordless future with Windows 11. Explore the new Windows 11 security features At Microsoft, we truly believe that security is a team sport. By partnering with OEMs, app developers and other partners in the ecosystem, and by helping people be better at protecting themselves—we are continuing to make Windows more secure by design and more secure by default. The Windows Security Book is available to help you learn more about what makes it easy to stay secure with Windows 11. To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website, bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters, and follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. View the full article View full article

In this article Prerequisites Set up a Service Provider in Terminal Chat Examples for using Terminal Chat Terminal Chat is a new experimental feature that enables you to integrate Windows Terminal Canary with your preferred AI service. Once Terminal Chat is connected to your AI service provider (GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, or OpenAI), you can ask questions specific to the shell you are using (PowerShell, CMD, WSL Ubuntu, Azure Cloud Shell, etc) while staying in the context of your terminal. Terminal Chat can: Provide command syntax and descriptions Explain command line error messages Send code suggestions to command-line text editors Terminal Chat does not ship with its own large-language model. For now, this experimental feature is only available in Windows Terminal Canary and only supports GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI Service, and OpenAI. Terminal Chat only communicates with your selected AI service when you enter a message in the chat. The chat history and name of the user’s active shell is also appended to the message that is sent to the AI service. The chat history is not saved by Windows Terminal after the terminal session is over. Prerequisites This experimental feature is only available in Windows Terminal Canary. An AI service provider subscription is required. GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, and OpenAI are currently supported. Set up a Service Provider in Terminal Chat To use Terminal Chat, you will need to connect GitHub Copilot or add an Azure OpenAI or OpenAI endpoint to your Terminal Chat settings. Open Windows Terminal and select Settings from the drop-down menu on the far-right of the top menu bar. Select the Terminal Chat (Experimental) tab to display the service provider configuration settings. Select a Service Provider. A subscription to one of the following AI service providers is required to use Terminal Chat. You will need to set up and authenticate the AI service in the service provider settings. See below for the steps to activate your preferred AI service provider. AI Service Providers GitHub Copilot: Under Service Providers, select GitHub Copilot and Authenticate via GitHub to sign in to GitHub. Check Set as active provider to set GitHub Copilot as your active Service Provider. To connect GitHub Copilot with Terminal Chat, you must have an active subscription for GitHub Copilot in your personal account, or you need to be assigned a seat by your organization. You can sign up for a GitHub Copilot free trial in your personal account to evaluate GitHub Copilot. Note If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot if your organization owner has disabled GitHub Copilot in the CLI. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization." For more information on how to use GitHub Copilot responsibly with Windows Terminal, see "Responsible use of GitHub Copilot in Windows Terminal". Azure OpenAI: Under Service Providers, select Azure OpenAI, enter an endpoint URL and key, select Store and Save. To get an Azure OpenAI Service endpoint and key, you will need to create and deploy an Azure OpenAI Service resource. Create and deploy an Azure OpenAI Service resource You will need to use a gpt-35-turbo model and ensure that the jailbreak content filter is enabled for your deployment. After creating a resource and deploying a model, you can find your Endpoint and API key by navigating to the Chat playground in Azure OpenAI Studio and selecting View code in the Chat session section. The pop-up dialog will provide an endpoint URL and key that you can use in the Terminal Chat Service Provider settings. OpenAI: Under Service Providers, select OpenAI, enter an endpoint URL and key, select Store and Save. To get an OpenAI endpoint and key, you will need to refer to the OpenAI documentation. Developer quickstart: Create and export an API key OpenAI is provided by a third-party and not Microsoft. When you send a message in Terminal Chat, your Terminal Chat history per session and the name of your active shell profile is sent to the third-party AI service for use by OpenAI. Your use of OpenAI is governed by the relevant third-party terms, conditions, and privacy statement. Examples for using Terminal Chat The following examples demonstrate a few ways that you might consider using Terminal Chat. Command suggestions: Ask for a command that you would like to use. Terminal Chat also adds the name of the active shell to the prompt after it is sent, so if you are using PowerShell and ask "How do I make a new directory?", the response may be md, but if you are using an Ubuntu (Linux) command line with WSL, the response may be mkdir. Clicking on the suggestion will copy it to the input line of the terminal. This will not run the suggestion for the user automatically. Translate commands: Terminal Chat can also be used to "translate" commands. For example, you can ask "What's touch in PowerShell?" or "How do I touch in PowerShell?" to get the suggestion of New-Item, a PowerShell command that is equivalent to the Linux / Unix-based touch command for creating a new file. Explain an error: If you've received an unfamiliar error response in your command line, copy and paste it into the Terminal Chat and ask for an explanation of the error code and how to fix it. For example, "How do I fix Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND?" Send code suggestions to command-line text editors: If you're using a command-line text editor in WSL (like nano or vi), you can ask Terminal Chat to generate code and send the code suggestion to the editor by clicking the "Copy" button. Find and describe PowerShell cmdlets: A cmdlet (pronounced command-let) is a lightweight script command used to perform a specific function in PowerShell. Terminal Chat can help you to find cmdlets that may be useful and can explain what task they accomplish. For example, "Find a cmdlet to show a list of active processes" would result in Get-Process. Or "Explain the Get-ChildItem cmdlet" would describe that the cmdlet is used to retrieve a list of items within a specified location. Terminal-specific context Terminal Chat takes the name of the active shell and sends that name as additional context to the AI service to get suggestions that are more tailored towards the active shell. This means that Terminal Chat can identify whether a user's active shell is Command Prompt or PowerShell for example. Assigning a keybinding to Terminal Chat Terminal Chat can be set as a keybinding in the Actions tab of Windows Terminal Settings. Add a new keybinding by selecting + Add new and then selecting Toggle Terminal Chat from the dropdown to add a new keybinding Action for the Terminal Chat feature. The new keybinding will also be reflected in the dropdown menu after these changes are saved. Group Policy Language Models and AI Services used by Terminal Chat can be disabled through the Enabled Language Models/AI Providers policy. The Terminal Chat feature can also be disabled with the same policy. To learn more, see the Group Policies page. View the full article View full article

Windows is an open platform that enables all categories of applications to thrive. From individual developers to distributed projects, open-source initiatives and large companies, the vibrant developer community is building innovative, engaging and practical apps for Windows users around the world. And the best place for users to discover that content is through the Microsoft Store on Windows. You can find more information on our commitment to developers, and how to onboard into the Microsoft Store. We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Microsoft Store Awards! This year, we invited nominations from our developer community and selected winners across 14 categories. It is absolutely energizing for us to see our community flourishing, and that is reflected in overwhelming number of nominations we received. Please join us in congratulating the following winners... AI category Winner : dJay Pro Algoriddim by Algoriddim djay Pro offers flawless beat matching and an intuitive interface, ensuring a seamless experience for users. Its wide range of features and compatibility with various streaming services make it a versatile tool for any DJ. One of the standout features of djay Pro is its NeuralMix technology, which leverages the extra processing power of the Snapdragon X Elite NPU. This allows the AI model to be twice as large and more complex than those used on other platforms, resulting in better sound quality and cleaner music stem separation. Performance benchmarks have shown that djay Pro performs significantly faster on an NPU compared to traditional CPUs. Lifestyle category Winner: Diarium Journal & Diary by T. Partl Diarium Journal & Diary offers an easy-to-use and visually stunning interface, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to keep a digital journal. Users have praised its flexibility and the wide range of features it provides, including customizable templates, password protection and media integration. Lastly, users love Diarium’s cross-platform functionality and seamless cloud sync, making it the journal that follows you everywhere! Personal Finance category Winner: TradingView by TradingView, Inc. TradingView combines powerful charting tools, real-time data and a user-friendly interface, making it easy for both beginners and experienced investors to track their portfolios, analyze markets and make informed trading decisions. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, customizable watchlists and social networking for users interested in learning from others. Users have praised TradingView for its reliability, accuracy and extensive range of indicators and drawing tools, which allow them to tailor their experience to their specific needs. Business category Winner: Gamma by Gamma Gamma stands out for its ability to offer users AI-powered content creation, a user-friendly interface and versatile formats. Its intuitive design, real-time collaboration features and interactive elements make it a favorite among businesses. By automating design and formatting tasks, Gamma saves valuable time, allowing users to focus on what truly matters. Education category Winner: Typing Land by higopage Typing Land has redefined learning through its engaging approach to mastering typing skills. With interactive lessons, fun exercises and a user-friendly interface, it’s perfect for learners of all ages. The app stands out for its innovative curriculum, making typing practice enjoyable and learning effectiveness. Productivity category Winner: Todoist: To-Do List & Planner by Doist Inc. Todoist offers a beautiful user experience for managing workflows, with plentiful and versatile templates. Users love its ease of use, high performance and cross-platform compatibility, making it the best to-do list app. It's the perfect planner for school or work, loved for its functionality and sleek design. Music category Winner: Apple Music by Apple Inc. Apple Music has received user accolades for great performance, pricing, sound quality and tailored music recommendations. It has helped users on Windows stream their favorite songs and discover new ones. Users love the app for its user-friendly interface and lossless audio quality, making it a favorite for streaming music. Health & Fitness category Winner: F.lux by F.lux Software LLC F.lux offers unparalleled flexibility and smooth transitioning between blue light filter states, ensuring a comfortable and healthy viewing experience. Users have praised its well-built UI and the extensive range of customizable features, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to improve their digital well-being. F.lux provides beautiful visualizations that keep users engaged and informed about the impact on their health. Medical category Winner: Complete Anatomy 2024 by 3D4Medical Complete Anatomy 2024 has garnered appreciation from our users for its detailed and precise references, convenient user interface and easy-to-understand tools. It has proven to be an invaluable resource for studying anatomy and is particularly valuable for medical professionals when explaining structural skeletal imbalances to patients. Medical students find it of great value, and it stands out as a cost-effective alternative for learning. Developer Tools category Winner: oh-my posh by jandedobbeleer Whether someone is a tech enthusiast or a developer, Oh My Posh serves as a versatile prompt theme engine for Windows Terminal and other shells. It merges style with functionality, boosting productivity by offering clear directory information at a glance while maintaining a visually appealing interface. With an extensive array of themes and customization options, it ensures users feel comfortable and efficient in their terminal environment. Social category Winner: Pinterest by Pinterest Inc. Pinterest has become an essential tool for users seeking inspiration and ideas for various aspects of their lives. Its user-friendly interface, vast array of pins, and the ability to create and share boards make it a go-to platform for discovering new ideas, planning projects and finding inspiration for everything from home decor to fashion. Creativity category Winner: Adobe Express by Adobe Adobe Express is a design tool that's offers users many free templates and logo designs –suitable for the novice or expert creator! The app is praised for being intuitive, easy to use and plentiful with its offerings. Lastly, users can generate extraordinary effects and images powered by Adobe Firefly. Game category Winner: Asphalt Legends Unite by Gameloft Asphalt Legends Unite sets a benchmark with its high-quality graphics and engaging gameplay. Asphalt Legends Unite offers stunning graphics and a thrilling racing experience with a variety of cars and tracks, making it a favorite among gamers. Asphalt Legends Unite also showcases a cross-device experience, utilizing Xbox services for identity and continuity. Rising Star category – new to Microsoft Store Winner: Endel Music : Focus, Sleep, Relax by Endel Sound Endel stands out for its personalized, real-time soundscapes that enhance focus, relaxation and sleep. Leveraging scientific principles and AI technology, it crafts sound environments tailored to individual preferences. Compatible with various devices, Endel utilizes data such as weather, time of day and heart rate to generate customized soundscapes for specific tasks. Additionally, collaborations with renowned artists bring unique and diverse sound experiences to users. Congratulations to all the winners! All winners will be designated in the Microsoft Store on Windows via a Store Award Winner badge. The above list is subject to final confirmation by the winners. Editor's note – Dec. 3, 2024 – The spelling of the developer of Diarium Journal & Diary was corrected. View the full article View full article

Client apps are often the first interaction users have with your services, whether those are cloud native intelligent apps, web-hosted backends or business data. They set the tone for user experience and can offer personalized interactions right from the start. With over 1.5 billion Windows devices worldwide, you have an opportunity to build beautiful, responsive and engaging user experiences that target these devices. Regardless of whether you are a web developer or a native app developer, you likely want to reach the most client devices possible with great user experiences in the most efficient way possible. Developing great client apps helps you connect with users, scale your services and keep users coming back. To help you achieve these goals, Microsoft invests in a wide variety of client application frameworks and technologies for developers to build custom client experiences. Microsoft is actively investing across all these areas for client development, which includes multiple technologies for building Windows native, Cross-platform, Hybrid and Web client apps. This post outlines the native client application frameworks for Windows that we are investing in and features some of the incredible work we’ve been doing in those areas. WinUI WinUI, along with the two WinUI-based cross platform frameworks React Native for Desktop and .NET MAUI, are the three technologies we recommend for developing new applications that truly align with the Windows native experience. WinUI enables developers to create fast and polished apps with the same rich set of modern UI controls and styles that powers key experiences in Windows. Its powerful toolkit has been refined in the most recent Windows App SDK 1.6 release, offering developers new performance improvements and control updates. In WinAppSDK 1.6, WinUI adds Native Ahead-of-Time compilation support, one of the major new features in .NET development that results in apps with significantly reduced startup times and memory footprints. Side-by-side comparison of Contoso Camera app launching with and without Native AOT[/caption] In addition, the TabView control now features a new tab tear-out mode that lets users drag tabs out of a WinUI app just like they do in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, creating a new window and enabling snapping or maximizing in one smooth motion as they drag. The PipsPager control also received a new wrapping mode, and RatingControl is now more customizable through theme resources. A mouse cursor tearing out a tab from a multi-tabbed window and forming a new window from the tab[/caption] To learn more about Windows App SDK 1.6, including WinUI and other features, check out our blog post. You can also try the always up-to-date WinUI Gallery app that showcases all the controls and styles available to make a WinUI 3 app with the Windows App SDK (source code available on GitHub at https://github.com/microsoft/WinUI-Gallery). The WinUI 3 Gallery app showcased in dark mode[/caption] As a sneak peek for what’s coming to WinUI in the upcoming Windows App SDK 1.7-experimental1 release, developers can look forward to the reintroduction of the highly anticipated TitleBar control with a fresh set of community-driven feedback improvements, as well as windowing enhancements and convenience APIs for controlling window size, remembering position and more. React Native for Desktop React Native lets you use your React and JavaScript skills and tools to create native applications that target iOS, Android, Windows (via WinAppSDK and WinUI), macOS, TVs and more. Over the last several years, Meta has been working towards enabling the “new architecture” which includes new capabilities such as synchronous layout and effects, the concurrent renderer and better JS to native interfacing. At Microsoft, we’ve partnered with Meta to bring the new architecture to Windows and macOS. In React Native for Desktop version 0.76 (Fall 2024), new apps can optionally opt into the new architecture preview when creating new apps from the CLI. On Windows, the new architecture unlocks new capabilities like deep integration with the Windows App SDK (including the Scene Graph and Windows Copilot Library), as well as support for Win32-based applications. v0.76 also provides a template for library authors to write modules that simultaneously target both the old and new architectures. Although the new architecture is still in preview, several of our key apps are validating the updated React Native for Desktop platform and are beginning to flight experiences on top of the new architecture. If you’re interested in seeing the capabilities of React Native for Desktop, you can download the React Native Gallery from the Microsoft Store. The React Native Gallery app includes samples of React Native components and modules that you can use in React Native for Windows apps.[/caption] If you’re curious about how you can use your React and JavaScript skills to build native apps for desktop, you can learn more at https://aka.ms/reactnative. Finally, if you want to try out the preview version of the new architecture, please visit https://aka.ms/rnw-new-arch. .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) .NET MAUI continues to push the boundaries of cross-platform development for .NET developers, offering a unified framework for building native applications. With a single C# codebase and .NET project system you can build apps that run on Windows (via WinUI3), Mac (via MacCatalyst), iOS and Android. The latest release for .NET 9 contains many quality improvements as well as new features and enhancements. New features that may be of interest to Windows developers are the addition of the TitleBar control, enhancements to Multi-window to bring a window to the forefront with ActivateWindow, and supporting Unpackaged Windows apps by default to help developers with quicker debug and deploy times. There are many other features that benefit all device platforms like the addition of the HybridWebView control that enables hosting arbitrary HTML/JS/CSS content in a web view and communicate between the JavaScript code in the web view and the C# code in the .NET MAUI app. There are also many other control enhancements, new solution templates to help you also target the web, Visual Studio and VS Code tooling updates, inner-loop performance increases and a whole lot more in .NET 9. In addition to the .NET MAUI built-in controls, the team is collaborating with Syncfusion who released the Syncfusion Toolkit for .NET MAUI containing 14 of their popular .NET MAUI controls as free and open source. They also announced their dedication to the .NET MAUI project. Syncfusion is investing their expertise as control builders into .NET MAUI by openly contributing on issues and submitting PRs in the dotnet/maui repository on GitHub to increase the velocity of .NET MAUI development. The .NET MAUI team is very excited to showcase all of the amazing work they have done with the community (including a few surprises) at .NET Conf on Nov. 12-14. Be sure to tune in! The new project template for .NET MAUI showcases best practices and new open-source controls from Syncfusion to create a full-featured ToDo app that runs on desktop and mobile devices.[/caption] WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) Modern Apps As part of the ongoing modernization of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), applications built on WPF and running on Windows 10 or later can now take advantage of cutting-edge design elements and behaviors. Key enhancements include: Support for light and dark themes Rounded corners for controls Compliance with Windows 11 design guidelines Accent color support for controls The introduction of the new Fluent theme delivers a fresh, modern Windows 11 aesthetic to WPF applications. With integrated Light/Dark mode and system accent color support, this update is set to enhance user engagement by giving WPF applications a contemporary, polished appearance. First showcased at Build 2024, the Fluent theme is now generally available as part of the official .NET 9 release for Windows 10, Windows 11 and also Windows Server 2019. WPF Gallery App is a sample tool that demonstrates WPF controls and styles to a WPF application in .NET 9 and onwards. The source code for this app is available on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/WPF-Samples. WPF Gallery app showcased in Light mode[/caption] WPF Gallery app showcased in Dark mode Hyphen based ligature support in WPF Based on valuable feedback from the WPF community (Issue#109), we’ve addressed a longstanding issue with hyphen-based ligatures not working in WPF. This improvement is aimed at enhancing the developer experience by ensuring better text rendering and more polished typography in WPF applications. WinForms (Windows Forms) Windows Forms has long been a favorite technology for lightweight desktop applications built on Win32 APIs, particularly within the enterprise Line of Business space. Beloved for the ease of use, now the latest updates to WinForms allow developers to start leveraging modern technology in their existing applications. Over the course of .NET 9, WinForms has modernized thousands of lines of code to leverage modern C# capabilities. In response to operating system enhancements WinForms has added multi-select support for the FolderBrowserDialog, click-through capabilities to the ToolStrip control, and more than 100 new and updated System.Drawing APIs to leverage more GDI+ capabilities than before. In response to overwhelming demand, WinForms also added a Dark Mode detection feature (in experimental mode)! For the first time, with .NET 9, developers are able to quickly and easily leverage the async capabilities of Windows and .NET. In this release, WinForms has introduced Control.InvokeAsync. This new API allows WinForms applications to more easily leverage Web APIs, Semantic Kernel, AI and more! These enhancements ensure that WinForms remains a powerful and versatile tool for modern desktop application development, bridging the gap between legacy systems and the cutting-edge technology of today. What’s next? Tune in at .NET Conf (Nov. 12-14) and then at Ignite (Nov. 19-22) to learn more about these technologies via the following sessions. You can check the full agenda for .NET Conf and for Ignite. For more guidance and documentation about how to develop apps for Windows using those technologies, head to https://aka.ms/windev. Sessions at .NET Conf Session title Date What's New in .NET MAUI in .NET 9 Nov 12, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM PST Build hybrid apps with .NET MAUI Nov 12, 3:15 PM - 3:45 PM PST .NET MAUI Performance Optimizations with NativeAOT and Trimming Nov 13, 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM PST What's new in WinUI and Windows App SDK 1.6 Nov 13, 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM PST Modern WinForms Development with .NET 9 Nov 13, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Empowering WPF Developers: A Journey Through .NET 9 and the Road Ahead Nov 14, 4:00 AM - 4:30 AM PST Cross-Platform Magic: Transforming WPF Apps with Avalonia XPF Nov 14, 4:30 AM - 5:00 AM PST Community Toolkit Roundup Nov 14, 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST Announcing Uno Platform Studio and Hot Design Our friends at Uno Platform* had a special announcement for .NET Conf! If you’d like to be among the first to receive the beta invite, join their waitlist. Nov 14, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST "Intelligenize" your WinForms Apps for an amazing new customer experience! Nov 15, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM PST Boosting WPF Performance - Upcoming Improvements Nov 15, 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM PST Create great MIDI 2.0 apps using Windows MIDI Services and C# Nov 15, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM PST Infuse AI in your Windows apps with .NET Nov 15, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST MVVM Building Blocks for WinUI and WPF Development Nov 15, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Session at Ignite Session title Date Modernize your apps by learning how Office leverages Windows App SDK Nov 21, 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM PST *For those new to Uno Platform – it enables the creation of pixel-perfect, single-source C# and XAML apps that run natively on Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and the web via WebAssembly. Uno Platform offers Figma integration for design-to-development handoff, along with a set of extensions to bootstrap your projects. It’s free, open-source (Apache 2.0) and available on GitHub. Editor’s note – Nov. 21, 2024 – The list of .NET Conf sessions has been updated with links to the recordings of those sessions. Editor’s note – Nov. 12, 2024 – The images showing the WPF Gallery app showcased in Light and Dark mode were updated. View the full article View full article

October was an exciting month of amazing showcases and announcements for applications leveraging the power of the NPU on the new Copilot+ PCs to deploy their AI innovations on Windows. Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem empowers developers with a range of options at their fingertips to develop and deploy AI. From client to web apps, DirectML, foundational to Windows Copilot Runtime, aims to uniquely simplify how developers can scale their AI innovations across Windows. Through a single, cross-hardware DirectX API, DirectML works across different hardware architectures, local device accelerators and machine learning frameworks, supporting an open platform for AI on Windows. Let’s see some of the amazing AI innovations leveraging DirectML on Copilot+ PC NPUs. Adobe® Premiere® Pro is the first Adobe app to leverage NPU on Copilot+ PCs, powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra and DirectML Adobe is at the forefront of machine learning (ML) for creatives by providing a variety of hardware-accelerated features throughout their product suite. Now, Adobe Premiere Pro has enabled the machine learning efficiency of the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, opening up even more platform possibilities for Adobe customers. Through collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, Adobe enabled Audio Category Tagger to optionally utilize Intel’s latest generation NPU using DirectML as a beta capability in Premiere Pro. This feature automatically tags audio, classifying clips as sound effects, music, dialog or ambience, which makes it easy for creatives to just get started editing their audio files right away. Each clip is marked with an Essential Sound Badge, and clicking on that badge opens the Essential Sound Panel to give access to parameters needed for that sound category. Audio Category Tagger labeling A. Music B. SFX C. Dialogue D. Ambience[/caption] We are excited to partner with an AI innovator like Adobe to deliver on the promise of DirectML. Adobe’s extensive portfolio of applications and AI-driven scenarios offers a unique proving ground for DirectML and we’ll continue our partnership across GPU- and NPU-accelerated applications. Capture One to bring NPU-enhanced Match Look and AI Crop features to Copilot+ PCs Capture One is an imaging software commercial studio photographers use in the fashion and e-commerce industries. It helps professionals quickly edit many images while maintaining complete control over the creative expression and artistry behind every shot. At Snapdragon Summit, Capture One showcased two advanced AI-powered features on Copilot+ PCs powered by the Qualcomm NPU. The Match Look feature being applied to an image in Capture One[/caption] Match Look is a brand new tool that lets you instantly match the style or edits of a reference image — whether from a previous project, a film still or a mood board. It uses AI selection to dynamically adjust multiple editing sliders, giving you a strong starting point for editing and color grading. The AI Crop feature in use in Capture One[/caption] AI Crop allows you to make instant and consistent crops. Avoid errors and reduce manual effort. Set a crop reference on a single photo and automatically create consistent crops for all other images, even while shooting. Capture One continues to utilize AI innovation in a way that maintains the creative artistry their photographers required and DirectML is excited to partner with them to bring their vision to life. Affinity Photo 2 accelerates Object and Subject Selection capabilities with NPU Affinity Photo 2 is a popular image-editing app that is used by millions of digital creators worldwide. Human creativity is the heart of Affinity products, so it’s no surprise that the first AI enhanced tools they announced are focused on optimizing artist workflows — eliminating tedious tasks and friction between creator and canvas. Affinity Photo 2 will scale these features to their creator base by using DirectML on Copilot+ PCs. Like stated during the Snapdragon Summit, they have already achieved the optimized workflow of these AI experiences with DirectML, powered by the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. Object Selection is a newly announced feature that eliminates the grunt work of manually creating layer masks, by using ML to quickly isolate and segment objects within an image. Automating this process gives artists a shortcut to the ‘real’ creative work — applying visual adjustments and effects to targeted areas within an image. Using the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform, Object Selection tasks will increase overall efficiency and productivity for creators. Object Selection being applied within Affinity Photo 2[/caption] Affinity is at the forefront of identifying ML innovations that deliver to their promise of incredible speed, power and precision image editing software and DirectML looks forward to scaling this promise across Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem. What’s next? The DirectML team is always excited to see the creative and amazing ways developers are innovating with AI to enhance the experience for their customers across Windows. Stay tuned for more DirectML features coming soon, as we continue to invest in features to support an open platform for AI on Windows! To learn more about DirectML and to get started today, visit aka.ms/directml or check us out at various sessions at Microsoft Ignite. View the full article View full article

Your feedback matters – each week, we get thousands of feedback submissions that we triage, categorize and prioritize. We love the enthusiasm our customers and developers show daily for the Store and all its apps and games – and as product makers, we take that energy forward every day into our craft. Our ultimate goal is to build the best product for you. Today, we’re excited to recap some important quality updates to the Microsoft Store on Windows that we’ve rolled out over the last few months. Upping the ante on performance We have some meaningful improvements to share from our recent work on performance. Overall Store launch time has been reduced by 25%, and we've reduced the number of download hanging issues by 50%1. To make sure you see the latest improvements, ensure you have the latest Windows update. We are continually striving for improvements in this space because we know how influential it is to your Store experience. New download and install progress indicator – We’ve rebuilt the way we’re communicating download and install progress to you when you’re getting content from a Product Page. This is especially important when you’re downloading larger apps. You also can cancel an operation right from a Product Page if you’ve accidentally clicked download. Improved browse and Product Page experiences We’ve revamped a few places where we know customers go to find and acquire content. Apps and games categories – We’ve introduced new categorizations of apps and games to help you narrow down what you’re looking for. From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, puzzle and simulation. For Apps, we are experimenting with different categories so please keep an eye out for the experience and give us feedback! Immersive Product Pages – We’re introducing a new feature for Product Pages that adds an immersive experience to the top of the page. For apps and games that provide a trailer, you’ll be able to enjoy it as you navigate to their various pages. Meanwhile, products without trailers will use beautiful hero images provided by the developers. There’s also an option in the Store settings page to toggle video autoplay on or off. New Library, Updates and downloads pages We know this one’s a crowd favorite – we’ve introduced two new pages, Library, and Updates and downloads, to help you find and manage all your content. Redesigned Library page – We made two big changes here. First, we changed the default filters to show all the products you own, not just products that are installed (you can still toggle this filter if you wish). Second, we’ve added a search bar that will help you find the name or the publisher of products you’re looking for. New Updates and downloads page – We are also moving the list of updates and downloads from the top section of the Library to its own dedicated page. This new page displays your list of active downloads or pending updates, and it shows the list of recent installs or updates. Version notes will also be displayed for a pending update or active download. But wait…there’s more! There’s a long list of other improvements we’ve quietly rolled out, such as Win32 apps support for our Store Web Installer on web, design updates, search recommendations, and easier ways to update Win32 apps from the Downloads and Product pages (this last feature is accessible via Windows Insiders starting Dec. 4). Lastly, our catalog continues to grow – we recently welcomed ChatGPT, Fantastical, Battle.net, World of Warcraft, Arc and more! We also recently announced our 2024 Store Awards, and encourage you to check out the winning apps and games to find new AI experiences, gaming content, productivity tools and more! We hope these improvements spark a bit more joy as you’re using the Store on Windows. Please submit your product feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. And we are always publishing new updates, so leverage the “What’s New” page to keep track of the latest. We have a lot more fun in store for you in 2025 – stay tuned! 1 Data based on internal testing and subject to factors such as device, location, Windows and Store app versions. View the full article View full article

The Game Awards caps off the year with a celebration of gaming excellence. This year, the ceremony included special guests Harrison Ford and Snoop Dogg. Xbox Game Studios received several nominations and two winners. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 won for Best Performance (Melina Juergens) and Best Audio Design, and “Fallout” took home Best Adaptation. Head over to Xbox Wire to find out more.View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2702 (KB5048761) to the Dev Channel. Changes in Dev Channel builds and updates are documented in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available (via Settings > Windows Update*) and then new features, improvements, and fixes rolling out to everyone in the Dev Channel. For more information, see the Reminders section at the bottom of this blog post. New features gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* Windows Camera Advanced Configurations We are beginning to roll out a new advanced camera options page. Just navigate to a camera under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras and click the edit button for advanced camera options . New advanced camera configurations page in Settings. This new advanced camera options page will provide you with the following two configurations for your camera: Multi-app camera: Allows multiple applications to access the camera stream simultaneously, developed with the Hard-of-Hearing community to enable video streaming to both a sign language interpreter and the end audience at the same time. Basic camera: Enables basic camera functionality for improved debugging, recommended as a last resort when your camera is not functioning correctly. This feature was developed in collaboration with Microsoft support agents. Coming in a future build, we plan to introduce a third option here for selecting a media type. This feature will let you choose different media types like resolution and frame rate, with the default setting being “Let Windows Choose” for optimal experience. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Device Camera or Webcams. Passwordless Improvements As part of Microsoft’s commitment to a passwordless future, on Windows, we are launching API support for third-party passkey providers. Microsoft has been engaging with passkey manager partners on developing this capability. We are committed to bringing a passwordless future to all customers – together with third-party credential providers, we will raise the bar on login security with passkeys for all users on Windows. WebAuthn Plugin Authenticator APIs We are releasing updates to WebAuthn APIs to support a plugin authentication model for passkeys. In the coming months, Windows customers will be able to choose a third-party provider as an additional choice alongside the native Windows passkey provider while maintaining the Windows Hello user experience. Messages in WebAuthn flows will be forwarded to the plugin and responses are returned to the WebAuthn client applications. This enables plugins to create and authenticate with passkeys when requested by the customer. This model allows plugins to use Windows Hello as a user verification mechanism to enable a seamless passkey experience. You will notice additional user experience updates to the passkey flows and Settings alongside the new capabilities. If you are a developer for third-party passkeys, we invite you to integrate with Windows 11 to support customers in their passkey journey. To find out more about implementation detail, go to https://aka.ms/3P-Plugin-API. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > Passkey. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [Start menu] We are improving the filtering for recommended websites on the Start menu based on feedback from Windows Insiders so that we show the highest quality sites based on your own browsing history. Please continue to give us feedback if you see a website recommended you feel shouldn't be. [Settings] The ability to change time zones is available again under Settings > Time & Language > Date & Time for standard (non-admin) users. Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [Input] Fixed an issue where if pointer trails were enabled, the mouse cursor may become invisible with a black box behind it. Mitigated an issue where the ALT or Shift key on the keyboard may get stuck down in the latest flights after the Windows Hello prompt appeared for some Insiders. Fixed an issue which could lead to the mouse cursor unexpectedly stuttering when you moved it around sometimes. [Graphics] Fixed an underlying issue which could result in some games appearing oversaturated when using Auto HDR. Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel [Rollback] We fixed the issue where if you roll back from Build 26120.2510 to an earlier build, you would see an “Your organization used App Control for Business to block this app” dialog when attempting to use or install certain third-party apps on your PC due to an incorrect policy being enforced. Known issues [General] [NEW] After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not impact you from getting future Dev Channel updates which will resolve this issue. [Recall] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Recall can be enabled or disabled from “Turn Windows features on or off”. We are caching the Recall binaries on disk while we test add/remove. In a future update we will completely remove the binaries. Some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots”, while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue. Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents. [Click to Do] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Sometimes additional context is given when using more intelligent text actions powered by Phi Silica. The intelligent text actions leverage the power of Microsoft’s secure cloud to improve your text results by ensuring prompts and responses are safe and appropriate. This data is automatically deleted. Local moderation to ensure the safety of prompts and responses will be added in the future, replacing this cloud endpoint. Sometimes Click to Do doesn’t highlight any info on screen if there is no content on a connected external monitor in extended mode. Microsoft Edge Game Assist (Preview) We invite Windows Insiders to try out Microsoft Edge Game Assist (Preview)! The Microsoft Edge Game Assist experience in Game Bar. Game Assist is the first in-game browser that delivers a rich gaming-centric browsing experience—including access to your browser data from your PC and mobile devices. Game Assist is a special version of Microsoft Edge that’s optimized for PC gaming and can appear on top of your game in Game Bar. It’s game-aware and will suggest tips and guides for what you’re playing. It also shares the same browser data with Edge on your PC so the information you care about is always accessible while you play, including your favorites, history, cookies, form fills, and more. Check out this blog post for more details and how to get started using Game Assist! Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel receive updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 via an enablement package (Build 26120.xxxx). Updates delivered to the Dev Channel are in a format that offers a preview of enhancements to servicing technology on Windows 11, version 24H2. To learn more, see https://aka.ms/CheckpointCumulativeUpdates. Many features in the Dev Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Please note that some accessibility features may not work with features like Recall and Click to Do while in preview with Windows Insiders. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & Brandon View the full article