Windows 11 is about to fix two of its most frustrating flaws

We're always keeping an eye on the early preview versions of Windows 11 to see what's coming down the pipe, and so we're pleased to see two small but useful fixes on the way that should be rolling out to everyone soon.

First up, at long last it looks as though Microsoft will add the option to hide the news feed from the widgets box. This has been enabled in build 26058 (via XDA Developers), so you can check up on the weather or sports scores without being bombarded by the latest headlines from across the web.

The new view is simply called My Widgets, and the thinking is that it may have been introduced in part to appease EU regulators – regulators who are keen to give users as much flexibility as possible. Based on the Dev and Canary channels of Windows 11 though, this tweak will be available worldwide.

You can access widgets by clicking the widgets icon on the taskbar. It should be to the left of the other icons, and might already be showing some dynamic information (like the weather or a traffic alert) – otherwise it's a white rectangle next to a blue rectangle.

Clearer cutting, copying, and pasting

A laptop screen on a pink background showing a new crosshair cursor in Windows 11

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Second, and sticking with Build 26058 (via MSPowerUser), Windows 11 is adding text labels to the cut, copy, and paste icons that appear when you right-click in File Explorer. If you've ever squinted at this pop-up menu to try and figure out exactly where to click, you'll know how useful these labels will be.

Of course, you can still use the familiar keyboard shortcuts if you prefer, but for those of us going through the context menus in File Explorer, this should make a significant difference – and avoid files being moved or copied to the wrong place.

For more details, you can check out Microsoft's blog post on the latest update. Other features to look out for include a new crosshairs mode for the cursor (see above), which is intended to help low vision users select items more accurately.

As always, Microsoft's plans can change, and features that appear in preview versions of Windows don't always make it out to everyone. However, these fixes seem to have a good chance of making it so we're looking forward to seeing them appear.

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New Windows 11 update fixes a seriously frustrating bug that messed with AMD GPUs

A bug that’s been frustrating Windows 11 users with AMD graphics cards (and CPUs to an extent) has been fixed in the latest update for Microsoft’s OS – or mostly fixed, anyway, going by reports.

This glitch was brought in with the Moment 4 update (it was first seen in the preview of that upgrade), and it messed with AMD profile settings. Every time affected users restarted their PC, those GPU settings (and reportedly CPU settings too, in some instances, like overclocking) went back to their defaults.

The good news is that the Windows 11 update for November (which began rolling out last week) cured this issue, albeit with some caveats.

As Windows Latest reports, the bug has been squashed according to its own testing. The tech site has also been talking to a selection of users hit by the bug and the majority said that this new patch from Microsoft fixed things – however, a few observed that their profile was still being reset.

It appears there are still minor gremlins kicking about, perhaps, though it should be noted that for the fix to work, as well as the November update for Windows 11, you also need to be running AMD’s Adrenalin graphics driver version 23.10.2.

Another slight caveat, too: the November update that resolves this issue has some vexing problems itself.


Analysis: A thornier problem for some?

This is a nasty bug. Having your settings reset and having to redo any customization from scratch after every single PC restart is going to get very annoying, very quickly. Especially if you’ve done a lot of tweaking on your AMD system.

Seeing the fix arrive is great news, although there’s the slight catch of apparently not everyone getting the benefit. Windows Latest doesn’t make it clear if those who found the bug still present after the latest Windows 11 update were using the mentioned version of AMD’s GPU driver (v23.10.2), but presumably they were, as the site would’ve surely clarified that if not.

The tech site suggests that those continuing to be affected may be suffering a profile reset from another cause other than Windows 11 updates.

Whatever wrinkles are left in the solution, if any, Microsoft will hopefully iron them out quickly – although the software giant hasn’t actually confirmed the presence of this fix in the new update.

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