Microsoft forges ahead with adding new features to Windows 10 as the OS gets another Windows 11 capability

Remember when Microsoft said Windows 10 wouldn’t get any more features, and was effectively on ice, with the exception of minor tweaks? Well, the reversal of that policy is clear enough now, as another inbound feature for Windows 11 is also coming to its predecessor OS.

Namely a ‘richer weather experience’ – including dynamic, interactive weather updates – on the lock screen.

This is something that’s already been spotted in testing for Windows 11, and is now in the latest preview build for Windows 10 (version 19045.3992).

It means that when you hover over the weather on the lock screen, further info is revealed. On top of that, if you click the weather card, you get the MSN website weather forecast popping up (in Microsoft’s Edge browser, as you might guess).

This will be the default setup for the lock screen if its status is set to ‘none’ Microsoft explains, but you will be able to turn it off if you wish.


Analysis: Thawing the feature freeze

Okay, so this is no big deal as a feature, but nonetheless it is a new piece of functionality, and not a minor tweak. Of course, the other addition since Microsoft announced that feature freeze for Windows 10 was the introduction of Copilot – and you couldn’t get a more major move than that.

As Windows Central (Zac Bowden), which spotted this latest development, points out, late last year, when Copilot was announced for Windows 10, Microsoft did say it was revisiting its decision to halt features for the older OS, and planned to make ‘additional investments’ in the operating system. It appears that this is happening, then, and we can likely expect further features to be bolted on to Windows 10 as 2024 rolls onwards.

Furthermore, Bowden has heard on the grapevine that Microsoft will be reopening the Windows 10 Beta channel for testers, which is a clear suggestion that more features will be on the way for the operating system – as they’ll need to go through a full testing process.

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ChatGPT may be plotting to replace Google Assistant on your Android phone, ahead of its landmark bot store launch

We can't say for sure whether or not AI is secretly plotting world domination – but it does appear that ChatGPT developer OpenAI has designs on replacing Google Assistant as the default helper tool on Android devices.

Some digging by the team at Android Authority has revealed hidden code in the latest version of the ChatGPT app for Android: code that triggers a small pop-up prompt at the bottom of the screen, just like Google Assistant (or Siri on the iPhone).

The thinking is that you wouldn't have to launch ChatGPT for Android to get answers from the AI bot – you could just hold down a shortcut button, or even say “hey ChatGPT”. There also seems to be a new tile in the works for the Quick Settings panel on Android, giving users another way of getting to ChatGPT.

This wouldn't exactly be a hostile coup – Android already allows the default digital assistant app to be switched, to something like Alexa or Bixby – but it's interesting that OpenAI wants to expand the reach of ChatGPT. As always though, plans can change, so it's not certain that we'll see this functionality appear.

Store opening

In other ChatGPT news, the GPT Store that OpenAI promised last year is now scheduled to launch next week, after a delay – as per emails sent out to people signed up to a paid ChatGPT plan. It means users can create their own bespoke versions of ChatGPT and sell them on to other people and businesses.

These GPTs – or generative pre-trained transformers – are built on the same well of training data as ChatGPT, but they can be tweaked to take on specific personalities or accomplish particular tasks. Some rather obvious examples would be a bot that helps with tech support questions, or one that comes up with recipes.

Custom bots can also be loaded up with knowledge from outside OpenAI's vaults – so if you've written a hundred scientific papers on dinosaur fossils, for example, you're able to plug all of this data into a GPT and ask questions about the research. Right now, you need a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise account to build a bot.

OpenAI is no doubt trying to foster the same kind of innovation and growth that we've seen in smartphone apps, ever since Apple opened the iPhone App Store in 2008. However, at the moment we're still waiting on a lot of details, including how users can get verified, and how sales revenue will be split.

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Microsoft looks like it’s going ahead with this unpopular Windows 11 move

Windows 11 could be about to get a watermark on the desktop when installed on a PC which doesn’t meet the official system requirements for the OS.

You may recall that the watermark, which appears above the system tray, bottom-right on the desktop, was previously spotted in limited testing with certain Windows preview builds, but the change has now made its way to beta and release preview builds (version 22000.588) that Windows Insiders use.

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This was highlighted by @XenoPanther, a keen Windows tester on Twitter, and as the move is reportedly now widely deployed to Release Preview, it’s likely only a matter of time before the change debuts on the full version of Windows 11.

This would mean that anyone who has installed Microsoft’s latest OS on a machine that isn’t officially supported by the software will see the warning message. It informs these users: “System requirements not met. Go to Settings to learn more.”


Analysis: Get ready for more restrictions on unsupported PCs

This is no major surprise, as Microsoft has always said that people shouldn’t be running Windows 11 on a machine that isn’t up to the required hardware spec, and has even observed that doing so could ‘damage’ your PC.

A one-line warning watermark is quite annoying and intrusively placed on the desktop, but on the bright side, it could have been worse – meaning that Microsoft isn’t placing major restrictions on Windows 11 with unsupported devices, such as not allowing apps to run, or removing the facility to get vital security updates.

That said, Microsoft has always said that unsupported PCs won’t be able to get updates – even though they still can – but it seems clear enough that eventually, updates will likely get cut off for these devices.

If you have hardware that doesn’t meet the requirements, the idea of allowing Windows 11 to be installed at all is just to give you a flavor of how the OS works – not to let you keep running it permanently. And then if you like it, the theory is that you’ll perform whatever hardware upgrades are necessary (like, for example, a TPM module) to support Windows 11, or at least that’s the impression we’ve always been given.

So, in short, this watermark is likely only the first step towards clamping down on folks who are permanently keeping Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

Via Windows Latest

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