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    • Microsoft
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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
    • Windows
      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.
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    • Windows
      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 
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