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Microsoft cuts another feature from Windows 11 in ongoing drive to declutter the OS
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Windows 11 is slowly but surely getting more streamlined, with Microsoft cutting and pruning away some of the bloat in the OS.

The most recent move, as highlighted by Windows Latest, is that the Steps Recorder app is getting its marching orders.

What’s that? We wouldn’t blame you if that was your first thought, because it was ours, as we’d forgotten about the existence of this app, which was brought in with Windows 7.

Steps Recorder, as the name suggests, allows you to record something happening on your screen, and the steps you take when running into a problem – so you can send it to an expert (or support team) who can see exactly where you’re going wrong (hopefully).

This app has just been added to the deprecated features list for Windows 11, on top of a bunch of other functionality that was recently marked for axing (most notably the Tips app).

As Microsoft notes, Steps Recorder won’t be updated any longer and will be “removed in a future release of Windows.”

The reason is that it’s pretty much redundant now with other options present in Windows 11 for screen recording duties. Microsoft points to the Snipping Tool, Xbox Game Bar, and Microsoft Clipchamp as alternatives, though some will miss the lightweight nature of Steps Recorder perhaps.

Analysis: Getting serious about streamlining

As mentioned, this is just the latest move to declutter Windows 11 somewhat, including getting rid of the Tips app as recently announced.

Also of late we’ve seen Microsoft removing the Windows Maps and Movies & TV apps in preview versions of Windows 11, as well as adding in the ability to uninstall more default apps (like Photos, Camera, the ones that all come preinstalled) in testing. Indeed, the latter ability has now progressed from the Canary channel in preview to Dev channel (so is heading for release, by the looks of things).

On top of that, we have other supplementary debloating moves afoot in Windows 11, such as the introduction of the RGB hub to avoid the need to install separate apps to control your peripherals with fancy RGB lighting. That feature is now live in Windows 11 and came in with the update at the end of September.

Considering there appears to be some momentum building around this cleaning up of the operating system, we can likely expect more pruning of Windows 11 from Microsoft going forwards, which can only be a good thing in our books.

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Windows 11’s Photos app is getting another nifty new feature
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Those who use the Photos application in Windows 11 will be pleased to learn that another useful new feature is inbound for the tool.

It’ll allow you to strip away, or replace, the background in a photo, and it comes in the latest version of the Photos app in testing.

Microsoft has made the process dead simple – if you want to remove the background, you just click on a button, and it’s gone. You can then copy the foreground object that you’ve preserved to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere, or you can opt to just save the pic as is.

Alternatively, you can hit the replace button to take out the background and put in a solid color for a background instead. The color you want can be selected via a simple palette.

As Microsoft tells us in a blog post, as well as this capability, the Photos app now lets you easily share a photo that’s backed up on OneDrive. Simply right-clicking on the photo facilitates sending a link via an email (or you can copy that link to the clipboard for pasting wherever necessary).

Microsoft also notes that it has applied “various performance and stability updates to improve the Slideshow feature, navigation between tabs, and opening images.”

All of these changes and a few other tweaks are wrapped up in version number 2023.11110.8002.0 (or better) of the Photos app, with the update currently rolling out to testers (that’s all channels, from Canary testers onwards).

Windows Photos App Background Replacement

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: Steady progress with Photos

Microsoft already brought a background blur feature to the Photos app (it entered testing a couple of months back), so this is another useful introduction into the mix. It’s good to see this core application (which is part of Windows 11 by default – though you’ll be able to ditch it soon enough) being developed further.

Not everyone wants a fancy image editor, and some are quite happy using the (relatively) basic apps Microsoft provides with Windows 11, doubtless because they’re pretty straightforward. So, adding an easy-to-use way to remove or swap out backgrounds, in just a few clicks, is definitely a nifty touch for those kind of everyday users (as is the convenient background blur option, too).

Via SamMobile

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Gamers, brace yourselves: AI development could lead to another GPU shortage
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The rise in AI tools and chatbots may be exciting for many, but gamers and enthusiasts could soon be getting cryptomining flashbacks. A few years ago the crypto-mining craze gobbled up gaming GPUs, and it looks like history could be (sort of) repeating as businesses begin buying up consumer GPUs to manufacture their artificial intelligence tools.

According to Tom’s Hardware, people are taking to social media to complain about cloud-based GPU resources (essentially using GPUs, like Nvidia GeForce, in a ‘service farm’) being fully booked and hardware supplies being entirely reserved for the rest of the year.

Of course, gamers are going to be more than a little worried about the news, given the recent impact of that crypto-ming rush. And there are good reasons to believe that Nvidia's AI dominance, based on its development of the tensor core, could ultimately be worse for gamers than crypto.

So… is it time to panic? 

Entrepreneur George Holtz provides some insight into the issue via a tweet (below). Hotz is currently assisting a business called Comma AI, and speaks about buying up boxes and boxes of AMD gaming GPUs.

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The boxes in the photo clearly read ‘AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX’, a brilliant graphics card that scored five stars in our review and earned our Editors Choice award. This is clearly a GPU that many PC gamers would want to buy – and it would be frustrating to see them mainly used for non-gaming purposes.

The rise of AI could widely be considered a net positive in a lot of ways – from boosting our productivity to giving us new creative tools like Adobe Firefly. But we can expect the intense demand for AI products to place a lot of pressure on compute-focused GPUs. 

The greater demand for the GPUs could potentially lead to a drop in stock, making it harder for gamers to actually buy a new GPU and probably inflate prices. It may be a matter of time before we see the demand seep into the world of gaming GPUs, so brace yourselves.

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Another 2-year wait is almost over for Windows 11 users, this time for Paint’s dark mode
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Windows 11 users are finally getting a Paint app with dark mode, as first promised way back by Microsoft – albeit this feature is still progressing through testing for the moment.

Microsoft let us know that an updated Paint app – version 11.2304.26.0 – is now rolling out to testers in the Beta channel, as The Verge spotted. It carries the dark mode among other features.

The Beta channel is the step just before the Release Preview channel in Windows 11 testing, meaning that the dark mode is now coming close to release.

As well as the dark mode – which will automatically be employed if you’ve turned on dark mode in Settings for Windows 11 – the new version of Paint will have an improved zoom feature. The latter allows for finer zoom adjustments, and custom zoom values (alongside the existing preset levels of zoom). Furthermore, there’s a capability that fits the image to the size of the screen (and its resolution) with a click. Nifty.

Analysis: Some swift progress (finally)

The pretty swift progression of the dark mode for Paint in testing, going from the Canary channel at the start of June – which represents the very earliest test builds of Windows 11 – through the Dev channel, and to Beta now, gives us hope that the app will get this feature soon enough.

It’s been a long wait, though – a very long one – because Microsoft actually promised this feature before Windows 11 even arrived on the scene. Since then, there has been lots of clamor to get dark mode added for Paint, but it really has taken some time. At least it looks like Microsoft is sprinting as it nears the finish line.

This isn’t the only instance of a feature taking forever to arrive in Windows 11, of course. Just this week, 3D-style emoji arrived in testing (Canary channel), another feature that was promised for the launch of Windows 11. So, these are both capabilities we’ve had to wait the best part of two years for.

Paint fans should check out some of the mods which have been floating around for the app of late, too – they’re pretty nifty indeed.

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Microsoft’s on a roll with another change that’ll make Windows 11 better
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In the future Windows 11 will offer users the ability to ditch the Microsoft News feed from the widgets panel.

Currently, the widgets panel – accessed via the taskbar in Windows 11 – contains a mix of widgets (as you might expect) alongside MSN news stories highlighted by Microsoft.

Windows Central reports that Microsoft has made the decision to give users the choice to drop said news feed. You’ll be able to choose from different layouts for the widgets panel, in fact, some of which will have the MSN news feed in them – and one will be widgets-only.

This is yet another step forward Microsoft has taken with Windows 11’s widgets board in recent times.

Notably, the software giant is currently experimenting with a larger widgets panel, one that’s an extra column wide (three instead of two), giving you plenty of real-estate to view your widget-related stuff. And that’ll be even truer when you can get rid of MSN, and have a large panel entirely dedicated to all your widgets – if you have a lot of them.

Widget fans will also be pleased at rumors – quite strong ones – Microsoft is going to allow them to be dragged onto and pinned to the desktop. Plus we’re also seeing some extra touches like animated icons for widgets coming in, and new widgets from the likes of major players like Facebook. Microsoft is driving hard with this area of the OS, for sure.

Analysis: On the right track

For us, this is another change to Windows 11 which isn’t that hard to implement, and just makes the OS better. More choice is always good, and Microsoft appears to have taken that message to heart with some of its most recent changes from the Build conference this week.

You’ll now be able to choose whether you want to see MSN news in the widgets panel (some regard it as unnecessary bloat, but if you don’t, you can still have those news headline highlights). You’ll also be able to choose whether you want to ‘never combine’ apps on the taskbar (finally). Those right there are two key choices – at least for us – that can tailor the OS to work the way you want.

Now, Microsoft, how about giving us a big old hefty, really important, choice: to turn off any prompts or help – the stuff like badging in the Windows 11 interface, or suggestions that pop up under the Ribbon when you’re using Office, prompts to take a tour of features (that seasoned users really don’t need), anything like that – in one fell swoop, system-wide. A no nag switch, if you will, that also ditches things like messaging to tell you to upgrade to the next incarnation of Windows. Quiet mode, we could call it…

That won’t happen, of course, but hey, we can always hope for something along those lines. Whatever the case, Microsoft is clearly heading in the right direction by giving users more options to turn off stuff they don’t want, or reinstate settings from Windows 10 that were sorely missed by some users. In short, keep up the good work, Microsoft, and give us more of this sort of thing – choice.

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Microsoft’s AI gamble with Windows Copilot could be another Clippy
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At Microsoft’s Build 2023 event, the company unveiled its vision for the future of Windows 11: Windows Copilot, making it, as Microsoft claims, the “first PC platform to announce centralized AI assistance for customers.”

From what we know so far, it looks like Microsoft will further integrate its Bing Chat tool into Windows 11. Bing Chat is an artificial intelligence chatbot based on the popular ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s use of it in its Bing search engine has been praised for offering a user-friendly way of using artificial intelligence.

It got people interested in Bing, something Microsoft has struggled to do in the past, so it’s not too surprising that the company is doubling down and further integrating Bing Chat into Windows 11.

According to Microsoft, Windows Copilot will give you a new way to use and configure Windows – so you can ask it to open up a particular app or setting, and you can do this by chatting to Bing Chat as you would a human using a messaging app.

Let’s be honest: the current implementation of search in Windows 11 isn’t great, so anything that improves it is fine by us.

Screenshot of Windows Copilot in use

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Aways there

In other words, it looks like Windows Copilot can detect what apps you’re using and how you’re using them, and offer you advice and information based on that.

That sounds a little creepy, but it could have its uses – for example, if you’re writing up an essay on a subject, Windows Copilot can give you facts and information to help you. Of course, as we’ve seen in the past, AI chatbots like Bing Chat aren’t infallible and can offer wrong information, so always double-check.

Windows Copilot can also be docked to the side of the screen so it can, according to Microsoft, “provide assistance no matter what [a user is] doing – getting inspired, planning, communicating, creating.”

If Microsoft wants us to keep it pinned to the side of our screens, it’ll need to make sure Windows Copilot is genuinely useful and doesn’t get in the way of what you’re doing. We don’t want another Clippy situation, after all.

Clippy was an assistant that Microsoft added to its Office suite of programs. It was supposed to intelligently determine what you were working on, and offer help and inspiration – which sounds a lot like Windows Copilot.

The only problem was, Clippy quickly became disliked by many people, as it would often interrupt while you were working on something – and, even worse, it often gave you suggestions that had nothing to do with what you were doing.

To avoid Windows Copilot turning into another Clippy, Microsoft needs to ensure that it doesn't become too intrusive. That means it shouldn't show pop-ups or take over the screen.

It also needs to be useful – so if it is watching what you're doing, it needs to give context-appropriate help and suggestions. Microsoft has a lot riding on this, so I hope it gets it right.

Microsoft will begin rolling out Windows Copilot in June to people signed up to test out new Windows features.

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Google adds another AI dollop to Workspace to catch up with Microsoft
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With human prompt-driven generative AI having taken the zeitgeist by storm in products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, it was only a matter of time before Google entered the fray.

“Developers and businesses can now try new APIs and products that make it easy, safe and scalable to start building with Google’s best AI models through Google Cloud and a new prototyping environment called MakerSuite,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in a blog post.

He also said that new generative AI features in Google Workspace would help users better create and collaborate on content. 

Google’s AI investments

While Microsoft opted to invest in OpenAI (twice, even) to bring ChatGPT to its Bing search engine, Google has developed its own solutions for Google Cloud and Google Workspace customers.

Google Docs already auto-generates summaries for documents, and Smart Compose in Gmail already predicts recipient names and other words. 

However, the biggest development for businesses is that the apps are being dragged in line with ChatGPT’s own feature set, being able to take prompts like “Job post for a regional sales rep” or “Vegetarian pasta recipe” and turn them into text.

Only “select” developers can access the Google Cloud tools in private preview right now, although it promises that a waitlist will be opening soon. It’s a similar case for Google Workspace’s new generative AI features, which will only be available to “a limited number of trusted testers” in the next few weeks.

And perhaps it’s good that Google seems to be taking its time getting its AI implementation for Workspace right, given that Bing’s implementation of ChatGPT was threatening users until Microsoft stepped in.

So, despite that “code red” in December 2022, it’s not quite the case that Google Cloud, a subsidiary of the tech giant with an annual run rate (ARR) of around $ 29 billion, is chasing the tail of a trend or caught in an arms race with its main competitors.

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Kurian did announce in February 2023 (notably after Microsoft’s own announcement of its partnership with OpenAI) that Google was investing over $ 300 million into Anthropic – an AI startup composed of several former OpenAI senior executives but claims that the similar investments had been happening “for years.”

Its ultimate aim, with that investment, is to power Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, with Google Cloud infrastructure.

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Brave, DuckDuckGo just gave you another way to flip Google the middle finger
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Brave has announced that its web browser will now allow users to bypass AMP pages hosted by Google, which it claims are harmful to both privacy and the state of the web.

The new De-AMP feature will instead funnel web users to content hosted directly on the publisher’s website, minimizing the opportunity for additional tracking and meddling to take place.

Not to be outdone, rival privacy software company DuckDuckGo rushed to Twitter to reveal that its apps and extensions now offer similar functionality, but the specifics of the implementation are not yet clear.

Google’s AMP troubles

Rolled out in 2015, AMP (short for accelerated mobile pages) is a system whereby stripped-back versions of trending web pages are preloaded and served up via Google servers.

When AMP was first announced, Google said it beleived the system would help ensure rich web content such as video and animation would load rapidly and behave consistently across all platforms, thereby improving the web experience.

However, the scheme has come under criticism from publishers and privacy advocates alike, who say AMP gives Google yet more signals to gobble up in support of its digital advertising business, creates confusion as to the source of information and forces publishers to build their websites to Google’s desired spec.

“AMP harms users’ privacy, security and internet experience, and just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the web,” wrote Brave, in a blog post.

And in a Twitter thread, DuckDuckGo presented a similar justification for its decision to move against the initiative.

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“AMP technology is bad for privacy because it enables Google to track users even more,” said the firm. “And Google uses AMP to further entrench its monopoly, forcing the technology on publishers by prioritizing AMP links in search and favoring Google ads on AMP pages.”

Since the launch of AMP, a number of publishers (including Future plc., parent to TechRadar Pro) have abandoned the system. And now, browser vendors like Brave and DuckDuckGo are coming out with their own tools to help web users bypass AMP altogether.

“Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether,” explained Brave. “And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed.”

Brave’s De-AMP feature is now available in both Nightly and Beta versions of its browser and will be enabled by default in the next full public release. TechRadar Pro is awaiting further specifics about DuckDuckGo’s efforts.

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Brave, DuckDuckGo just gave you another way to flip Google the middle finger
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Brave has announced that its web browser will now allow users to bypass AMP pages hosted by Google, which it claims are harmful to both privacy and the state of the web.

The new De-AMP feature will instead funnel web users to content hosted directly on the publisher’s website, minimizing the opportunity for additional tracking and meddling to take place.

Not to be outdone, rival privacy software company DuckDuckGo rushed to Twitter to reveal that its apps and extensions now offer similar functionality, but the specifics of the implementation are not yet clear.

Google’s AMP troubles

Rolled out in 2015, AMP (short for accelerated mobile pages) is a system whereby stripped-back versions of trending web pages are preloaded and served up via Google servers.

When AMP was first announced, Google said it beleived the system would help ensure rich web content such as video and animation would load rapidly and behave consistently across all platforms, thereby improving the web experience.

However, the scheme has come under criticism from publishers and privacy advocates alike, who say AMP gives Google yet more signals to gobble up in support of its digital advertising business, creates confusion as to the source of information and forces publishers to build their websites to Google’s desired spec.

“AMP harms users’ privacy, security and internet experience, and just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the web,” wrote Brave, in a blog post.

And in a Twitter thread, DuckDuckGo presented a similar justification for its decision to move against the initiative.

Read more

> The inside story of the browser wars, told by a veteran

> Meet the challenger search engine trying to break the monopoly

> The story of the fight to archive the internet

“AMP technology is bad for privacy because it enables Google to track users even more,” said the firm. “And Google uses AMP to further entrench its monopoly, forcing the technology on publishers by prioritizing AMP links in search and favoring Google ads on AMP pages.”

Since the launch of AMP, a number of publishers (including Future plc., parent to TechRadar Pro) have abandoned the system. And now, browser vendors like Brave and DuckDuckGo are coming out with their own tools to help web users bypass AMP altogether.

“Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether,” explained Brave. “And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed.”

Brave’s De-AMP feature is now available in both Nightly and Beta versions of its browser and will be enabled by default in the next full public release. TechRadar Pro is awaiting further specifics about DuckDuckGo’s efforts.

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Google unveils another step in its much-needed privacy boost
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Google has announced that its Privacy Sandbox proposal is one step closer to becoming reality as the company is preparing its next stage of trials which will focus on ads relevance and measurement.

For those unfamiliar, the search giant first unveiled its Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) plan to replace third-party browser cookies before announcing Google Topics as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative as a replacement following backlash on the move. 

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As the name suggests, Google Topics splits the web into different topics and divides users into groupings depending on their interests. Meanwhile, FLEDGE is dedicated to facilitating remarketing or showing ads on websites based on a user’s previous browsing history.

Now though, Google is moving ahead with testing its Privacy Sandbox and developers will be able to begin testing the Topics, FLEDGE and Attribution Reporting APIs in Chrome Canary.

Privacy Sandbox testing

Google plans to begin testing Topics and Fledge with a limited number of Chrome Beta users before making API testing available in the stable version of Chrome once things are working smoothly in Beta according to a new blog post.

The company also plans to begin testing its updated Privacy Sandbox settings and controls that will allow users to see and manage the interests associated with them or turn off the trials altogether.

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Product director for Privacy Sandbox, Vinay Goel also provided some sample images of the settings the search giant plans to test in his blog post. In the Privacy Sandbox Beta menu, users will be able to toggle the trials on or off as well as customize their choices for Browser-based ad personalization, Ad measurement and Spam & fraud reduction. Here they’ll be able to remove interests from Topics and edit the list of sites that Privacy Sandbox users to infer their interests.

While Chrome users in the US will be opted in to the latest Privacy Sandbox trials, those in the EU will have to opt in by changing the position of the toggle in settings. This is due to GDPR and other data protection laws that apply to Europeans.

We’ll likely hear more from Google once its initial trials are complete and the company expands them to the stable version of Chrome.

Via TechCrunch

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