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Posts tagged "admits"

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Microsoft admits that HP isn’t to blame for a weird Windows 11 bug that messes with printers
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Some Windows 11 (and 10) users are experiencing buggy behavior relating to their printer, and Microsoft has just acknowledged this issue, elaborating on it further.

You may recall that we previously reported on the bug and how it’s causing the HP Smart app to be installed on PCs without an HP printer – or indeed with no printer at all in some instances, causing much scratching of heads.

Actually, the issue is somewhat broader than the stealthy and unwanted installation of this HP app (from the Microsoft Store), because in some cases, Windows 11 is renaming connected printers as a specific HP model (LaserJet M101-M106) and changing icons. Furthermore, if you click on such a renamed printer, you may get an error as follows: “No tasks are available for this page.”

So, this is a bit of a thorny one to unpick, but at least Microsoft has given us information on what’s happening here (as Windows Latest noticed).

The software giant advises: “Our investigations indicate that this issue is not caused by an HP update. In most cases, it should be possible to use the [affected] printer as expected, including queueing printing jobs, as well as other features such as copy, scan, or fax.

“Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations. However, this issue might affect associations with other manufacturer-supplied printer apps used to extend basic printer capabilities. If this is the case, some or all of those extended functions might not work.”

To sum up, then, this glitch shouldn’t affect the general operation of any errantly-renamed printer, but it could interfere with functionality beyond the basics, perhaps.

Microsoft tells us a further investigation is underway and that it’ll update us when new info is available.

Analysis: Metadata mix-up?

What’s going on here? Well, the problem isn’t HP’s fault, so it must be Microsoft’s issue and therefore a wrinkle in Windows 11 (and Windows 10).

Windows Latest puts forward a theory that seems reasonable, namely that a recent Windows update used incorrect metadata relating to printers which is wrongly identifying a connected printer as a specific HP model (LaserJet M101-M106). After that has happened, Windows is then pulling the HP Smart app from the Microsoft Store automatically as it thinks an HP printer is now on the system.

What about the HP Smart app being installed on PCs where a printer isn’t even connected? As Windows Latest points out, on one of their computers, the Microsoft Print to PDF icon (present on all systems) was renamed as the aforementioned LaserJet, and hence the app was downloaded. Presumably this is happening to some other folks without a printer, too.

Note that this is all theorizing, and we need to wait for Microsoft to comment before we can be sure that’s what’s going on. The good news is that if this is the case, presumably the fix won’t be too difficult to implement.

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That mind-blowing Gemini AI demo was staged, Google admits
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Earlier this week, Google unveiled its new Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model, and it’s safe to say the tool absolutely wowed the tech world. That was in part due to an impressive “hands on” video demo (below) that Google shared, yet it’s now emerged that all was not as it seemed.

According to Bloomberg, Google modified interactions with Gemini in numerous ways in order to create the demonstration. It raises questions over the chatbot’s abilities, as well as how much Google has been able to catch up with rival OpenAI and its own ChatGPT product.

For instance, the video’s YouTube description explains that “for the purposes of this demo, latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity.” In other words, it probably takes a lot longer for Gemini to respond to queries than the demo suggested.

And even those queries have come under scrutiny. It turns out that the demo “wasn’t carried out in real time or in voice,” says the Bloomberg report. Instead, the real demo was constructed from “still image frames from the footage, and prompting via text.” 

This means that Gemini wasn’t responding to real-world prompts quickly in real time – it was simply identifying what was being shown in still images. To portray it as a smooth, flowing conversation (as Google did) feels a little misleading.

A long way to go

That’s not all. Google claimed that Gemini could outdo the rival GPT-4 model in almost every test the two tools took. Yet looking at the numbers, Gemini is only ahead by a few percentage points in many benchmarks – despite GPT-4 being out for almost a year. That suggests Gemini has only just caught up to OpenAI’s product, and things might look very different next year or when GPT-5 ultimately comes out.

It doesn’t take much to find other signs of discontent with Gemini Pro, which is the version currently powering Google Bard. Users on X (formerly Twitter) have shown that it is prone to many of the familiar “hallucinations” that other chatbots have experienced. For instance, one user asked Gemini to tell them a six-letter word in French. Instead, Gemini confidently produced a five-letter word, somewhat confirming the rumors from before Gemini launched that Google’s AI struggled with non-English languages.

Other users have expressed frustration with Gemini’s inability to create accurate code and its reluctance to summarise sensitive news topics. Even simple tasks – such as naming the most recent Oscar winners – resulted in flat-out wrong responses.

This all suggests that, for now, Gemini may fall short of the lofty expectations created by Google’s slick demo, and is a timely reminder not to trust everything you see in a demo video. It also implies that Google still has a long way to go to catch up with OpenAI, despite the enormous resources at the company’s disposal.

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Microsoft admits Windows 11’s default apps system needs work – and changes are coming
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Windows 11 is getting some fine-tuning around how default app selections are handled and how apps are pinned on the desktop, making these systems work better and with more overall consistency.

XDA Developers spotted that Microsoft wrote a blog post on its new ‘principled approach’ to these app behaviors, with the incoming changes set to arrive in testing (Dev channel) in the “coming months,” we’re told.

The first measure to be implemented is with app defaults. Windows 11 will get a new Settings deep link URI (uniform resource identifier), allowing developers to take users directly to the correct place in Settings whenever any given app flags itself up as wanting to be the default.

The default app is the software which is opened automatically for a specific file format, so for example, your default browser is the one used when you click a link in, say, an email.

Secondly, Microsoft is changing the way that pinning apps – putting icons permanently on the Start menu or taskbar – works, by introducing a new notification. In the case that an app wants to request being pinned, this notification will pop up explaining just that, allowing the user to either click Accept or Decline.

Crucially, the software giant wants consistency with these interface tweaks, so all third-party software, and Microsoft’s own core apps for Windows 11, work the same way and abide by these rules. That’s the plan, anyway, although whether things work out this neatly, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Windows 11 Pinning Prompt

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: Defending against dodginess, and making up for past mistakes

As made clear in its blog post, part of Microsoft’s aim with this tweaking of app behavior is defending against “unrequested modifications” from dodgy developers. In other words, things happening in the background unbeknownst to the user, and the likes of adware or other rogue software managing to infiltrate into the system.

It’s also designed, no doubt, to reassure Windows 11 users that Microsoft is putting the past well and truly behind it regarding the firm’s own policies on default apps, which have been a source of criticism previously.

You might remember that when Windows 11 first launched, Microsoft made it an unnecessarily clunky process to change browser defaults away from its own Edge product (you had to go through every file type and change the preference individually, such as HTML, PDF and so on – a ridiculous state of affairs, really).

That nonsense was canned a year ago now, but it still lives on in the memories of some folks (likely because of the many other ways Microsoft has tried to push Edge within Windows 11).

Indeed, Microsoft even mentions its browser specifically in the post, noting that: “We are committing that Microsoft Edge will release an update that adopts the new Settings deep link URI for defaults and public pinning APIs as they become available.”

At any rate, this is a welcome move, although in all honesty, app defaults should never have appeared in the state they were when Windows 11 was launched in the first place. Mind you, the same could be said about a number of things in the Windows 11 interface upon its release, with the OS having very much been a work in progress as Microsoft has gone along.

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Microsoft slowly but surely admits it was wrong about the Windows 11 taskbar
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Windows 11 just got its first preview build in the new Canary channel – the earliest test versions of the OS going forward, possibly representing the foundations of Windows 12 – and while nothing much of note was introduced on the face of it, a hidden gem has been unearthed.

Twitter-based leaker @PhantomOfEarth pointed out @XenoPanther’s discovery of a bunch of strings tucked away under the hood in build 25314 referring to taskbar grouping.

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What does this mean? Well, it’s a tantalizing hint that as previously rumored, Microsoft is going to bring back the ‘never combine’ option when it comes to grouping apps on the taskbar.

In other words, rather than having multiple instances of the same app automatically grouped together on the taskbar (stacked vertically), you can have each of them separated into individual entries (horizontally) on the bar.

Elsewhere in build 25314, there are some minor tweaks, the most significant of those being a change to File Explorer, namely the addition of Access Keys. These are single keystroke shortcuts labeled by a single letter in the context menu of File Explorer – simply hit the relevant key to swiftly execute the command in question.

Furthermore, those using Azure Active Directory will now see recommendations for files they might find useful or relevant at the top of File Explorer Home.

Analysis: It seems like Microsoft is finally listening on the taskbar

When cooking up Windows 11, Microsoft made some mystifying decisions with the interface, leaving out some core bits of functionality seen in Windows 10, most notably with the taskbar. The ability to never combine (stack up) running instances of the same app was one of those features that got dropped.

To see a glimmer of hope that it might be inbound for the future, then, is certainly welcome. Although we still question exactly why it has taken so long for Microsoft to look at implementing this. And we must remember, this is only tinkering in the background in early testing for now – eventually it’s possible nothing could come of it, though we’re trying not to entertain that possibility, frankly. The lack of this feature is a deal-breaker for us, personally, in Windows 11.

As for the other notable taskbar omissions Microsoft made with Windows 11, drag-and-drop support was returned to the bar not so long ago. And in the future, we may also see the resurrection of the ability to move the taskbar from the bottom of the screen to the sides or top. (Currently, it’s locked down at the foot of the screen for Windows 11 users, whereas those on Windows 10 can move it around, of course).

So, it seems that Microsoft is slowly rethinking and reversing course on its taskbar philosophy with Windows 11, and frankly, it’s about time. Especially given all the feedback and voices shouting about these bits of functionality being stripped away for no good reason – not that we can think of, anyway. And don’t give us any excuses about streamlining or simplifying the UI, these can be options in Settings that no one who’s bothered about this sort of thing ever has to look at.

In short, Microsoft, please keep going along this path of reversal, because, you know, we’d like to get back to a Windows 10 level of functionality with the taskbar, if that’s okay?

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Microsoft admits it won’t be fixing Windows 11’s taskbar for a while
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When it launched, Windows 11 came with some major changes – and it looks like one of the most unpopular tweaks is here to stay, with Microsoft admitting that adding missing features to the taskbar simply isn’t a priority.

As Windows Latest reports, Microsoft has revealed that some of the biggest requests from users won’t be appearing any time soon.

The taskbar, which usually runs along the bottom of your screen, has been an important part of Windows since Windows 95, and with Windows 11, Microsoft decided to radically redesign it, including rebuilding it from scratch.

This left the Windows 11 taskbar missing some big, useful, features that people have been using for decades. One of the most noticeable features missing in action was the ability to drag and drop files or applications to the taskbar, either to pin them there for easy access, or to open them in an app already pinned to the taskbar.

This seemingly little feature was actually really useful, so many people were upset to find it missing in Windows 11. Microsoft has stated that drag and drop is coming to Windows 11 with the 22H2 major update later this year.

However, in a Windows Insider video, which you can view below, the Windows 11 development team revealed that other features won’t be coming any time soon.

Restricted movement

Another big complaint about Windows 11’s taskbar is the fact that you can’t reposition it. Many people liked to move the taskbar in previous versions of Windows to the side of the screen, or even to the top. With Windows 11, it’s stuck at the bottom, and that’s not going to change for a while, at least.

This is because, according to the Windows 11 development team, the animation flow of the Start menu in Windows 11, can’t handle a different taskbar position just yet. “Think about having the taskbar on the right, all of a sudden the reflow and the work all of the apps or Start menu have to do,” the team admitted.

Because the taskbar has been rebuilt from scratch, Microsoft is prioritizing adding features such as drag and drop, which involves extensive testing from volunteers. Sadly, it seems like the company doesn’t think moving the taskbar is as important.

Analysis: unfinished business

Man upset using a laptop

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

While it’s understandable that Microsoft has more important features to add to Windows 11, the fact that it launched with a taskbar missing so many features is pretty remarkable. Being able to move the taskbar gives people a greater level of freedom when configuring Windows to behave the way they prefer.

So, by not including this feature, there will be a large number of people who are annoyed and frustrated by Windows 11, and it gives the feeling that the operating system launched in an unfinished state, which is something our Windows 11 review pointed out.

It’s no surprise, then, that Windows 11 is struggling to get people to upgrade as fast as Windows 10 had managed.

If Windows 11 had been open source, like Linux, then we’d wager someone would have already added the ability – one of the benefits of being open source. Thankfully, there are also tools such as Start11 from Stardock which adds extra functionality to both the Start menu and taskbar – including the ability to change the taskbar’s position – which Microsoft is seemingly struggling with.

This isn’t the first time teams like Stardock have stepped in to fix unpopular changes to Windows – we saw a plethora of third-party apps that brought the Start menu back to Windows 8 after Microsoft unwisely dropped it.

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Microsoft admits it won’t be fixing Windows 11’s taskbar for a while
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When it launched, Windows 11 came with some major changes – and it looks like one of the most unpopular tweaks is here to stay, with Microsoft admitting that adding missing features to the taskbar simply isn’t a priority.

As Windows Latest reports, Microsoft has revealed that some of the biggest requests from users won’t be appearing any time soon.

The taskbar, which usually runs along the bottom of your screen, has been an important part of Windows since Windows 95, and with Windows 11, Microsoft decided to radically redesign it, including rebuilding it from scratch.

This left the Windows 11 taskbar missing some big, useful, features that people have been using for decades. One of the most noticeable features missing in action was the ability to drag and drop files or applications to the taskbar, either to pin them there for easy access, or to open them in an app already pinned to the taskbar.

This seemingly little feature was actually really useful, so many people were upset to find it missing in Windows 11. Microsoft has stated that drag and drop is coming to Windows 11 with the 22H2 major update later this year.

However, in a Windows Insider video, which you can view below, the Windows 11 development team revealed that other features won’t be coming any time soon.

Restricted movement

Another big complaint about Windows 11’s taskbar is the fact that you can’t reposition it. Many people liked to move the taskbar in previous versions of Windows to the side of the screen, or even to the top. With Windows 11, it’s stuck at the bottom, and that’s not going to change for a while, at least.

This is because, according to the Windows 11 development team, the animation flow of the Start menu in Windows 11, can’t handle a different taskbar position just yet. “Think about having the taskbar on the right, all of a sudden the reflow and the work all of the apps or Start menu have to do,” the team admitted.

Because the taskbar has been rebuilt from scratch, Microsoft is prioritizing adding features such as drag and drop, which involves extensive testing from volunteers. Sadly, it seems like the company doesn’t think moving the taskbar is as important.

Analysis: unfinished business

Man upset using a laptop

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

While it’s understandable that Microsoft has more important features to add to Windows 11, the fact that it launched with a taskbar missing so many features is pretty remarkable. Being able to move the taskbar gives people a greater level of freedom when configuring Windows to behave the way they prefer.

So, by not including this feature, there will be a large number of people who are annoyed and frustrated by Windows 11, and it gives the feeling that the operating system launched in an unfinished state, which is something our Windows 11 review pointed out.

It’s no surprise, then, that Windows 11 is struggling to get people to upgrade as fast as Windows 10 had managed.

If Windows 11 had been open source, like Linux, then we’d wager someone would have already added the ability – one of the benefits of being open source. Thankfully, there are also tools such as Start11 from Stardock which adds extra functionality to both the Start menu and taskbar – including the ability to change the taskbar’s position – which Microsoft is seemingly struggling with.

This isn’t the first time teams like Stardock have stepped in to fix unpopular changes to Windows – we saw a plethora of third-party apps that brought the Start menu back to Windows 8 after Microsoft unwisely dropped it.

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Torvalds admits he’s a bit worried about the next Linux build
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The speed at which Linux developers are working on version 5.17 of the popular kernel has gotten the OS’ boss a bit worried.

In the weekly State of the kernel post, Linux creator (and the biggest developer)  Linus Torvalds, said he believed the progress (or lack thereof) wasn’t caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or “whatever crazy things are going on in the world”, as these things “don't seem to have affected the kernel much.”

However, the number of known regressions that Torvalds is claiming have been out there since late January have affected the development cycle. Although these “don't seem all that big and scary”, Torvalds did stress that some of them were reported right after the rc1 release, meaning they’re getting somewhat stale. 

Linux “looks fine”

“I'd hate to have to delay 5.17 just because of them, and I'm starting to be a bit worried here. I think all the affected maintainers know who they are,” he concluded, before urging subsystem maintainers to make these regressions a priority. 

Torvalds also seems to be extra careful not to cause any panic, saying “but on the whole, things look fine. Just a few remaining warts is all. But the more testing to verify, the better.”

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 > Linux is 30: How a student’s hobby became a key component in the business IT stack

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> This Linux backdoor went undetected for 10 years

Linux, an operating system that, in its early days, couldn’t stand next to the likes of Windows, or macOS, has grown immensely popular with the proliferation of mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). An open-source Unix-like operating system, based on the Linux kernel, the OS now powers Android, the world’s biggest and most popular mobile operating system.

Furthermore, many IoT manufacturers have deployed Linux on their devices, as well.

However, some manufacturers are also moving away from Linux. Google, for example, is developing an entirely new operating system for some of its IoT and smart home devices, called Fuchsia OS. This new OS, which is still in early development phase, is based on a new kernel named Zircon.

Via: The Register 

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