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Posts tagged "change"

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Windows 11 change proves so unpopular that Microsoft reverses course
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Microsoft has reversed a decision it made to change File Explorer in Windows 11 following complaints from testers.

This happened in the freshly introduced build 23486 in the Dev channel, and as Microsoft announced in the blog post to go with that preview version: “Thank you to all the Windows Insiders who gave us feedback on the Folder Options changes in File Explorer that removed a handful of old settings in Build 23481.

“We’ve rolled back this change. As is normal for the Dev Channel, we will often try things out and get feedback and adjust based on the feedback we receive.”

If you missed it, the change (brought in just over a week ago) was removing what Microsoft felt were outdated options for the folders that sit on your desktop.

That includes the setting to ‘Show drive letters’ and ‘Hide protected OS files’ among a number of other options (nine of them in total).

Build 23486 also brings in some work on the passwordless front, with Microsoft enhancing the passkey experience in Windows 11, allowing users to go to any supporting website or app and use passkeys via Windows Hello. (Speaking of the latter, you may get a head-scratching pop-up related to Windows Hello, as we reported yesterday).

Analysis: Registry workaround was not well-received

We should note that Microsoft did leave a route to still access those folder options in the build where they were dropped, namely editing the Registry. But that’s obviously a pretty clunky way of doing things, so it’s no wonder folks weren’t happy with being thrown that ‘bone’ as a consolation of sorts.

To be fair to Microsoft, as the company makes clear in its statement, this is what test builds are for. Someone has an idea – in this case, for streamlining the interface – so they try it out and see whether it works okay, and what the reaction is to the change.

In this case, there was quite a good deal of feedback from users – power users in the main – not happy about having these folder options stripped away in Windows 11, because they still find many (or at least some) of them useful. After they made their feelings known, Microsoft dropped the idea.

It’s good to see the software giant is listening and taking the feedback from testers seriously (as it should, of course: this, and finding bugs, is the entire point of the Windows Insider scheme). There are those out there, mind, who can’t understand why Microsoft would even think about ditching some of these choices.

We may find that in the future, when a broader redesign happens – and a big File Explorer revamp is indeed in the pipeline – that Microsoft might again try to shed some of these options in the name of tidying up the interface. (Hopefully, they can be left in and tucked away in an ‘Advanced’ panel somewhere, though).

Via Neowin

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Meta’s new music AI could change how you craft soundtracks and tunes
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The hills are alive with the sound of AI-generated music as Meta launches its new language learning model (LLM): the aptly named MusicGen.

Developed by the company’s internal Audiocraft team, MusicGen is like a musical version of ChatGPT. You enter a brief text description of the type of music you want to hear, click Generate, and in a short amount of time, the AI creates a 12-second long track according to your instructions. For example, someone can tell MusicGen to generate a “lofi slow BPM electro chill [song] with organic samples” and sure enough, the audio sounds like something you’d hear on YouTube’s Lofi Girl radio. 

It is possible to “steer” MusicGen by uploading your own song so the AI has a better sense of structure. One of the developers for the LLM, Felix Kreuk, posted some samples of what this sounds like on his Twitter profile. As an example, MusicGen can take Sebastian Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor then add some drum beats and synths straight out of the 1980s to produce a more upbeat version of the piece.

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Availability

MusicGen is currently available to the public on Meta’s Hugging Face website for everybody to try out. Do be aware that, unlike Google's own AI music generator MusicLM, Meta's model can't do vocals, only instrumentals. This is probably for the best as MusicLM vocals sound a lot like Simlish. No one will be able to understand a single thing.

To the musicians out there, you don’t have to worry about losing your careers. The AI is decent at making simple, short melodies, but not much else. In our opinion, the quality isn’t on the same level as something made with human ingenuity. Some of the songs can get pretty repetitive as MusicGen cycles through the same progressions multiple times. This tool can be useful for creating plain background audio for videos or presentations, but nothing truly engaging. The next pop hit won’t be AI-generated – at least not yet. 

Act fast

If you are interested in trying out MusicGen, we recommend acting fast. First of all, the Hugging Face website is unstable. We had a ton of AI-generated songs ready to share. However, the web page crashed while working on this piece severing our connection to the tracks. We suspect the dead links were caused by sudden high user traffic. Hopefully, by the time you read this, Hugging Face is working properly.

The second reason is a more litigious one. On the official GitHub page, Meta states its team used 10,000 “high-quality [licensed] music tracks” plus royalty-free songs from Shutterstock and Pond5. Ever since the generative AI craze took off earlier this year, artists have begun to sue developers and platforms alike over “illegal use of copyrighted works.” Meta might soon find itself in the crosshairs of some crossed musicians. Even if it doesn’t get sued over using licensed music to train the LLM, record companies aren’t afraid to flex their industry muscle to shut down this type of content. 

If you're looking for details on how to use AI to generate images, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best AI art generators for 2023. 

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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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WhatsApp is working on a new feature that could change how you use it
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WhatsApp has been in a real groove lately, consistently pumping out new feature after new feature since March. This time, the platform is rumored to be working on adding usernames to its Android app.

This information comes from WABetaInfo, which dug into the files of the latest Android beta where it discovered the update will be in the settings menu under an account’s Profile page. It appears you will be able to give yourself a unique moniker by tapping the pencil icon and then entering a name. Pretty simple stuff. WABetaInfo was also able to confirm “conversations initiated through usernames will still be protected by end-to-end encryption.” 

Beyond the few confirmations, very little is unknown about the feature. It is still in development although WABetaInfo does posit it could be used as “another layer of privacy”. Instead of having a phone number for all the world to see, you can hide it with a username. Plus, they can make it easier to identify and locate other people. No need to remember a phone number. This could be very useful in a WhatsApp Community which can be a verifiable sea of numbers since they can house over 1,000 members.

But, it's speculation at this point. We’ll just have to wait until Meta releases a more stable beta version of the feature to get some answers. Either way, this is definitely something to look forward to once it officially launches. 

Privacy focused

The latest beta is available for download from the Google Play Beta Program. While you won’t be able to create a unique username, you can check out the new group settings menu. The interface has been redesigned to be clearer and more intuitive. We don’t know if WhatsApp usernames will make their way to the iOS app. However, Meta is pretty good at making sure both sides of the mobile spectrum get the same update  –  even if it does take a while.

Privacy updates have been a major focus for WhatsApp this past month. Back at the beginning of May, Meta announced it was partnering up with Truecaller to stop spam calls from reaching users on its communications platform. For more personal control, the company also recently launched Chat Lock to keep your conversations away from prying eyes.

If you want to take your privacy protection to the next level, you may want to invest in a brand-new phone instead of just solely relying on software. Be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best secure phones for May 2023 for some recommendations.

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Windows 11 widget change could give you flashbacks to Windows Vista – but don’t panic
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Windows 11 might be getting the ability to pin widgets to the desktop, and maybe sooner rather than later, as we’ve heard another nugget from the rumor mill to this effect.

Windows Latest tells us that it has seen documents that indicate Windows 11 will ‘soon’ introduce this feature, and that the ability will be present for third-party widgets (as well as Microsoft’s own efforts).

At the moment, Windows 11’s widgets are confined to their own panel (off the taskbar). With this feature, you’ll be able to stick your favorite widgets on the desktop, enabling you to see them and get at-a-glance info all the time, rather than having to dive into the widget panel.

This change has been rumored in the past via Zac Bowden, a respected source of Microsoft-related leaks, who has been claiming widgets will get a new home on the desktop – if you want to put them there – for quite some time now.

The most recent rumor from Bowden held that his sources within Microsoft have confirmed that it’s the software giant’s intention, at least currently, to eventually allow Windows 11 users to be able to pin widgets to the desktop.

Analysis: This isn’t invasion of the widgets

When the topic of widgets on the desktop comes up, you’ll likely be reminded of the gadgets that Windows 7 had – and indeed Windows Vista, going back much further in time. That gives the impression that Microsoft is really turning back the clock with this change, and that’s true to some extent – just remember that having widgets on the desktop isn’t compulsory.

The widget panel will remain in Windows 11, and if you want to use widgets only with that, just don’t move any of them onto the desktop. It’s as simple as that, so it’s not like with this change – if it happens – widgets will suddenly be invading the desktop.

Whether or not the functionality to pin widgets to the desktop is actually inbound is another question. However, it does seem more likely now we’re getting something of a rush of rumors from different sources. That indicates this is a change that might be in the pipeline soon, as Windows Latest asserts.

It also seems more likely to be a move in the cards because Microsoft has been doing a lot of work with widgets recently, making various tweaks, and expanding the size of the panel (in testing). Furthermore, Microsoft has been giving a lot of encouragement to software developers to make their own third-party widgets and bolster the overall ecosystem.

So, it appears to be an area the company is focusing on, trying to make it something bigger that plays more of a part in Windows 11 – a goal that would be furthered by the ability to have widgets on the desktop. With the puzzle pieces fitting together fairly neatly in this respect, we’d be surprised at this point if this wasn’t something that turns up in Windows 11 preview builds in the near future.

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Unpopular Windows 11 Start menu change could be back in the cards
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Windows 11 speculation has once again turned to the topic of personalized recommendations within the Start menu, and it seems that a feature which Microsoft discarded may be back on the drawing board.

The feature in question is recommended websites, which could pop up alongside other existing recommendations at the bottom of the Start menu (commonly used apps, suggested files and so forth).

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You may recall that recommendations for websites to visit was an idea Microsoft was toying with in past preview builds from November 2022 onwards, but the idea was subsequently abandoned in build 25272, which landed in January 2023.

As PhantomOfEarth pointed out on Twitter, though, there’s evidence that recommended websites are making a return in test builds of Windows 11.

The feature is hidden – and was only unearthed using ViVeTool, a Windows configuration utility – but it’s certainly interesting to see it could potentially be making a comeback. Especially given that a fair few Windows 11 users were happy to see the back of this concept when Microsoft seemingly ditched it at the start of the year.

Analysis: Drawing the line with recommendations

What folks are concerned about with recommended websites is that Microsoft will use this as a vehicle for pushing third-party sites (effectively advertising).

It’s one thing to recommend files or existing apps on your PC that you might want to conveniently and quickly open, but it’s entirely another to start suggesting ‘useful’ websites. (Sites that’ll no doubt be opened in Edge if past Microsoft form is anything to go by – the software giant won’t likely pass up an opportunity to promote its browser).

What’s also noteworthy here is that this ties up with another hidden piece of the puzzle that was discovered in the latest preview version of Windows 11. Namely the ‘Recommended’ part of the Start menu panel being renamed as the ‘For you’ section, which as we mulled previously seems to suggest that further personalization of this element of the interface might be incoming – possibly including recommended website content? Maybe, just maybe…

Yes, we are treading deeper into speculative territory here, but with AI increasingly being pushed by Microsoft, it’s not difficult to believe that suggestions and recommendations are going to be in evidence across Windows 11 before too long.

The worrying bit is exactly where the line will be drawn regarding helping users and helping advertisers, certainly in the case of recommended websites. Fingers crossed that if recommended sites are again inbound, or about to be tested, that Microsoft can strike a well-considered balance.

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Fed up with the Bing AI chatbot’s attitude? Now you can change its personality
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Microsoft’s Bing chatbot is now offering a choice of personalities for all users, with the rollout of the Bing Chat Mode selector having been completed.

This news was shared on Twitter by Mikhail Parakhin, head of Microsoft’s Advertising and Web Services division, as spotted by MS Power User.

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As you can see, at the time of the tweet, 90% of Bing chatbot users had the tri-toggle chat selector that lets you switch between three different personalities for the AI (Precise, Balanced, or Creative).

The remaining control group (10%) then had the selector rolled out to them across the course of yesterday, so everyone should have it by now. That’s good news for those who want more options when it comes to the chatbot’s responses to their queries.

Earlier this week, we saw other work on the AI to reduce what are called ‘hallucinations’ (where the chatbot gives inaccurate info, or plain makes a mistake). There was also tinkering to ensure that instances where Bing simply fails to respond to a query happen less often.

While that’s all good, it seems on the latter count, there’s a fresh stumbling block that has been introduced with the latest version of the chatbot which has the personality selector – namely a ‘something went wrong’ error message when querying the ChatGPT-powered AI.

In the above Twitter thread, there are a few complaints along these lines, so hopefully this is something Microsoft is already investigating.

Analysis: Creative for the win? Maybe for now…

Doubtless there will be plenty of experimentation with the chat modes to determine exactly how these three personalities are different.

Thus far, the ‘Creative’ setting seems to be getting the most positive feedback, and this is likely the one many Bing users are plumping for. Simply because this is where the AI has the most free rein, and so will seem more human-like – rather than ‘Precise’ mode which is more like a straight answer to a search query. (Arguably somewhat defeating the point of having an AI carrying out your searches, anyway).

‘Balanced’ is a middle road between the two, so that may tempt fans of compromise, naturally.

Initial feedback indicates that in Creative mode Bing gives more detailed answers, not just adding a more personal touch, but seemingly fleshing out replies to a greater depth. That’s going to be useful, and likely to lead to this being the more popular choice. Especially as this setting is where you’re going to get the more interesting – or perhaps occasionally eccentric, or even outlandish – responses.

Microsoft may need to look at working on the Balanced setting to be a more compelling choice, particularly if it sees that traffic is heavily skewed towards the Creative option.

That said, the latter being popular is likely to be partly tied in with how new the AI is, attracting people who are curious and just want to mess around with the chatbot to see what they can get Bing to say. Those kind of users will doubtless get bored of toying with the AI before too long, giving a different picture of personality usage when the dust settles a bit more.

At any rate, tweaking Bing’s personalities is something that’ll doubtless happen on an ongoing basis, and we may even get more options aside from these initial three eventually. Come on, Microsoft, we all want to see ‘Angry’ Bing in action, or maybe a ‘Disillusioned’ chatbot (or how about an ‘Apocalypse Survivor’ setting?). No?

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Sudden WordPress pricing change sparks confusion and outrage
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WordPress.com has introduced major price changes without warning, replacing all of its paid plans with a single ‘Pro’ plan.

The Automattic-owned website builder has also reduced the storage on its free plan significantly, from 3GB to 500MB.

In a WordPress forum thread, some users of the platform expressed their frustration with the new Pro plan, which costs $ 180 a year with no option to spread costs out monthly, a facility previously available with the old plans. 

Website builder price change

WordPress.com price plan change screenshot

WordPress.com now just offers two plans (Image credit: WordPress.com)

In response to complaints made on the WordPress forum, a spokesperson for the company said the goal with these pricing changes is to make the benefits of WordPress.com available to more people, describing the old plans as “overcomplicated” and “confusing”.

“This presently does not affect free sites prior to the new plan updates. We’ve slashed the price of our older Business plan from $ 25/mo to just $ 15/mo (paid annually),” they added.

However, despite the fact that WordPress says the changes to storage space would only affect new websites created on or after March 31, some WordPress users complained that their old sites have had the media storage space slashed to 500 MB.

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> Many critical WordPress security flaws never get patched 

The previous Business plan referenced by the spokesperson used to come with up to 200GB of storage, while the new Pro plan caps storage space at 50GB.

After a weekend of users complaining of the changes, WordPress set up a thread to collect feedback and provide clarity on new pricing changes. In the FAQ section, it acknowledged that the gap between a free plan and a $ 15 a month plan was large, and the company is therefore working on more “flexible à la carte options”.

TechRadar Pro reached out to WordPress.com for a comment on the changes and the rationale behind removing the option to pay monthly for services, but the company has not yet returned a response. 

 Via WPTavern 

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Sudden WordPress pricing change sparks confusion and outrage
  • No Comments

WordPress.com has introduced major price changes without warning, replacing all of its paid plans with a single ‘Pro’ plan.

The Automattic-owned website builder has also reduced the storage on its free plan significantly, from 3GB to 500MB.

In a WordPress forum thread, some users of the platform expressed their frustration with the new Pro plan, which costs $ 180 a year with no option to spread costs out monthly, a facility previously available with the old plans. 

Website builder price change

WordPress.com price plan change screenshot

WordPress.com now just offers two plans (Image credit: WordPress.com)

In response to complaints made on the WordPress forum, a spokesperson for the company said the goal with these pricing changes is to make the benefits of WordPress.com available to more people, describing the old plans as “overcomplicated” and “confusing”.

“This presently does not affect free sites prior to the new plan updates. We’ve slashed the price of our older Business plan from $ 25/mo to just $ 15/mo (paid annually),” they added.

However, despite the fact that WordPress says the changes to storage space would only affect new websites created on or after March 31, some WordPress users complained that their old sites have had the media storage space slashed to 500 MB.

READ MORE

> WordPress membership websites vs closed membership platforms: Which is better?

> Cybercriminals are targeting outdated WordPress sites to run phishing ads

> Many critical WordPress security flaws never get patched 

The previous Business plan referenced by the spokesperson used to come with up to 200GB of storage, while the new Pro plan caps storage space at 50GB.

After a weekend of users complaining of the changes, WordPress set up a thread to collect feedback and provide clarity on new pricing changes. In the FAQ section, it acknowledged that the gap between a free plan and a $ 15 a month plan was large, and the company is therefore working on more “flexible à la carte options”.

TechRadar Pro reached out to WordPress.com for a comment on the changes and the rationale behind removing the option to pay monthly for services, but the company has not yet returned a response. 

 Via WPTavern 

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Google Chrome 100 won’t break the internet – but could change how you search it
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Searching for a query in Google Chrome could soon get much easier, thanks to an upcoming feature that adds a sidebar as you browse the web.

With Google's Chrome web browser approaching version 100, we're already seeing some features that can help change the way you use the browser, such as improvements to closing tabs in Android, and it's likely that we may see other features appear as we approach the big release.

If you have multiple tabs open at once, this could be a great feature for searching as you browse. However, it looks like the sidebar will only show in one tab – it won't stay in the same place as you switch between different tabs.

However, this is still a feature in testing, so the sidebar could change before it appears in a final version of Google Chrome.

How do you enable the side search bar?

Google Chrome Canary showing how to enable Side Search

(Image credit: TechRadar)

As it stands, the sidebar isn't available in Google Chrome 99, but it is in the test version of Chrome, called Canary.

Go to chrome://flags when running Google Chrome Canary version 100, and you'll be brought to the flag page, where you can enable many features in testing.

In the search bar, type in 'Sidebar' and you'll be greeted with three options. Enable all of these, then close and open up the browser.

Search for a query and select the first result. A 'G' icon will appear alongside the address bar. Click on this, which will make the sidebar appear. You can then use this to search for anything else while you browse in the main window.

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