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Posts tagged "Microsoft’s"

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Fed up with Microsoft’s default apps bloating Windows 11? We’ve got some good news
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Windows 11 is set to give you the option to remove more of its default apps if you wish to streamline the operating system a bit.

The ability to uninstall more of these so-called ‘inbox apps’ (or core applications) is present in the latest preview build (25931) which has been released in the Canary channel (Microsoft’s earliest test builds).

As of that build, you can now uninstall the default Photos app, People app, and Remote Desktop (MSTSC) client, as well as the Camera app (which you could already remove since preview builds in March, as The Verge, which spotted this, observes).

Furthermore, Cortana can now be dropped from Windows 11 following the official deprecation of the digital assistant, as we recently reported.

Cortana being swept away is part of preparing the ground for the arrival of the Windows Copilot AI – possibly later this year with the Windows 11 23H2 update – so that case is a little bit different.

Analysis: Expect more of this going forward

It’s useful to have the ability to trim away these default apps. Even though they aren’t huge in size, if you never use them, you can save a bit of storage space, and streamline your system in general. Also, you won’t have to look at pointless programs when scrolling through your lists of apps in Windows 11 menus.

It’s likely Microsoft will give users the choice to uninstall more of these core apps going forward, and you can already remove a fair few. Anything that isn’t system-critical should be fair game to be given the elbow in our book.

Build 25931 doesn’t do a huge amount elsewhere – it’s mainly about porting over features from the Dev channel – but there are some interesting tweaks, such as a change to Dynamic Lighting to allow you to match your Windows accent color with the RGB lights on the devices attached to your PC. Nifty.

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Microsoft’s Bing Chat is coming to a mobile device near you
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Earlier in 2023, it was revealed that Microsoft was testing out Bing Chat on third-party browsers like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. Now the tech giant announced that it would not only be bringing Bing Chat to these browsers but to mobile devices as well.

With this move, Microsoft intends to compete with other AI services and built-in browser tools like Google’s generative AI search features found in both the browser and mobile app, according to TechCrunch. 

In Microsoft’s official Bing blog post, it stated that “This next step in the journey allows Bing to showcase the incredible value of summarized answers, image creation, and more, to a broader array of people. You’ll get most of the great benefits of Bing and we’ll continue to optimize along the way to meet your needs across different browsers.”

The tech giant also warned that though you’ll be able to use your preferred platform for Bing Chat, the best service would be provided on Bing. For instance, users and Windows Latest noticed that Chrome’s Bing supports five messages per conversation versus the 30 in Microsoft Edge. Bing in Chrome has a character limit of 2,000, while Edge supports 4,000.

Microsoft’s blog post somewhat mentioned said limitations. “With Edge, you'll unlock longer conversations, chat history, and more Bing features built right into the browser. To experience the best browser for Bing, and get the full breadth of features, simply open the Microsoft Edge browser…”

Can Microsoft pull this off? 

It’s an interesting strategy for Microsoft to put its own service on mobile devices and other browsers. Mobile especially, as it’s one of the most popular ways to access websites, services, and applications, and not having a dedicated mobile version of Bing Chat is missing out on a crucial audience.

And it’s an understandable direction too, since the end goal is to increase Bing’s market share. Getting users, who would otherwise never use Bing, to try out Bing Chat on their preferred browser and then slowly convincing them to use it on Edge is pretty crafty. But limiting the access of Bing Chat in the hopes of pulling users to Bing is a risky move as well.

Instead of getting more Bing users, there’s the very real threat of turning off these users and having them switch back to whatever other AI chat they had been using before. Switching browsers is a huge deal and it’s difficult to get a dedicated Chrome or Firefox user to go to a completely new browser just for a service they can get elsewhere. And losing mobile users would be an especially hard blow, as they make up such a huge market.

Maybe Bing can gain more users if Microsoft continues to upgrade the experience on mobile and other browsers, like getting dark mode, voice input, and other interface improvements such as what iPhone users received. Not to mention equalizing the experience between other platforms and Bing browser.

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Desperate for dark mode with Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot? It’s now here
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Microsoft’s Bing chatbot and Bing search on desktop have just got dark mode, a feature that many folks have been keenly awaiting for some time.

Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s CVP, Head of Engineering and Product for Bing, made the announcement on Twitter.

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As you can see, dark mode is rolling out over the next few days, so everyone should have it before the weekend.

Indeed, going by feedback to the tweet, many people are already using dark mode when chatting to the Bing AI (or using the Bing search website) on their desktop PC.

If you’re not sure whether you have the ability to turn on dark mode, just go to the Bing site, click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines, top-right), and go to Appearance, where you’ll find light and dark modes (if available). There’s also an option to automatically use whatever system-wide choice you’ve made for the light or dark theme.

Analysis: Folks are over the dark side of the moon

This has happened earlier than expected, which is always good. Last week, we were told that dark mode was inbound for Bing AI (and search), but we were informed it would be here in a couple of weeks. It only took one week to appear, then, so Microsoft moved a bit faster than anticipated.

As you may recall, Bing AI also got the full rollout of Visual Search last week, so everyone now has that, too. This feature allows you to fling an image at the chatbot, and then get a reply imparting info on the pic (for example, if you have a picture of a historical building, Bing will tell you what – and where – it is).

You can combine that function with the chatbot’s image creation capabilities, too, and ask it to compose a similar image. (Say you’ve got a picture of a wolf in daylight, you could ask Bing to create something just like it, but at night with a full moon).

There’s an increasing amount of neat tricks that Bing AI can perform, though Google is speeding up its progress on Bard, too. The chatbot arms race is in full swing, for sure.

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Microsoft’s Windows 11 Start menu tweak could be a real timesaver
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Windows 11 might get a new piece of functionality for the Start menu that could be a very useful addition to this part of the interface.

As highlighted by PhantomOfEarth on Twitter, recent preview builds of Windows 11 (in the Dev channel) have introduced file previews for the Recommended section of the Start menu (the bottom panel).

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This is pretty nifty, as it means that when you hover over any recommended file – one Windows thinks you might want to use – a preview panel pops up showing relevant details.

As Windows Latest, which also spotted this change in testing, reports, in the case of an image file, to take an example, this will produce a small thumbnail of the photo being hovered over. That way, you can see if it’s the image you want before actually going to the trouble of opening it (and getting annoyed if it’s not the one you thought it was, wasting time as it fires up in your image editor).

Other details imparted with a quick hover include the file’s location on your drive, and the last time it was edited (with Microsoft set to add more info, no doubt).

Analysis: Still early days

Remember that this is just a rough version of the feature in Windows 11 right now. Microsoft hasn’t announced it, and these file previews are actually hidden in the OS currently. They’re not fully finished yet, and were only enabled by these leakers using a Windows configuration tool to dig around in the background of the operating system.

In short, it’s still very early days for this functionality, and as ever with features in testing, we may not ever see this in the release version of Windows 11. That said, this seems a likely pick for something Microsoft will push to fruition, given that it’s a pretty neat extra to have for the Start menu (or at least we think so).

Another change to the Start menu recently spotted in testing is Microsoft labeling its default Windows 11 apps, so the user can clearly see which are the applications that come preinstalled with the OS (such as Calculator, the Settings app, and so on).

Again, this is a move we reckon is almost certainly inbound for the final release version of Windows 11, as it’s a further useful addition into the mix for the Start menu (and not a difficult one to implement, of course).

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Windows 11 gets a fix for one of Microsoft’s most embarrassing bugs ever
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Windows 11 has finally got a fix for an annoying bug that has been hanging around since March, with Microsoft previously pushing out a resolution for the glitch that failed to work.

This time, though, we’re told the issue has definitely been resolved.

To briefly recap, this bug appeared with the March 2023 cumulative update for Windows 11 22H2, causing an error to pop up telling the user that Local Security Authority (LSA) protection was switched off (and that their device may be vulnerable as a result).

In actual fact, LSA isn’t turned off, the bug simply produces the error message (which, ironically, is the error in itself).

The problem being that this warning keeps on appearing, and it sounds like a nasty deficiency in the defenses of Windows 11, meaning folks were unnecessarily worried about it.

As mentioned, a fix was rolled out in May which didn’t work, and actually caused some weird driver-related problems (messing with some PC games). So Microsoft ended up pulling that patch (KB5007651) and went back to the drawing board to work on a new solution.

Well, that rejigged version of KB5007651 has now arrived, as Windows Latest spotted. You can grab it by checking for updates under Windows Update, as per usual.

Microsoft let us know on its release health dashboard that: “This issue was resolved in an update for Windows Security platform antimalware platform KB5007651 (Version 1.0.2306.10002).”

Analysis: An episode Microsoft will want to forget

Hopefully this fix will do the trick (considering that, as noted, the previous patch failed to do so). From what we can see, there are no early reports that something is amiss this time – and a few positive comments that the gremlin has been dealt with. Of course, you’d hope Microsoft would take extreme care over this second attempt at KB5007651.

All in all, this has been one of the more embarrassing episodes in the history of Windows 11 bugs (and there’s some competition on that front).

The bug presenting panic inducing messages about vulnerability, complete with yellow triangle warnings – and doing so repeatedly – was obviously a far from ideal situation. Less tech-savvy users in particular were likely concerned that their PC was broken in some truly worrying way.

Microsoft told us that the error messages could be safely ignored, but that’s easier said than done, and them popping up repeatedly was doubtless pretty annoying if nothing else. Not everyone will have seen Microsoft’s advice on this bug, either.

At least we finally have a resolution now, and a solid one that works properly, by the looks of it.

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Microsoft’s cloud ambitions for Windows could kill off desktop PCs – and sooner than we expected
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The rumor mill believes Windows 365 is coming in consumer flavors, one of which will be a ‘family’ bundle, and we’ve also heard some chatter on potential pricing for this subscription.

Windows 365 is a cloud-based installation of Windows 11, meaning it’s streamed to you, rather than being installed on your local PC, and it’s currently available to businesses in three different plans (and there are separate products for the enterprise world, too, all with Office apps bundled).

So the rumor, as Windows Latest has heard from its sources, is that there will be Windows 365 consumer plans aimed at everyday users, with the theory proposed that one will be an individual subscription, and the other a family bundle (for multiple users which will work out cheaper than the single-person plan, naturally).

There’s nothing firm on pricing yet, unsurprisingly, but the rumored internal chatter is that Microsoft has been mulling charging at least $ 10 per month for the cheapest Windows 365 consumer product, or perhaps more like $ 20 for that entry-level subscription.

Take all of this, and especially that nugget on pricing, with a whole heap of salt. We’re told that pricing is very much up in the air at this stage, anyway, but we can expect that consumer plans will likely be cheaper than business subscriptions (and we’d hope that’d be the case).

What timeline are we looking at for the launch of consumer Windows 365? Windows Latest reckons that the cloudy spin on Windows 11 will arrive in the fall, so in theory, it could be just a few short months away.

Analysis: The inevitably cloudy future for consumers

We’re not sure that a release is that near on the horizon, in all honesty – we’re pretty skeptical Microsoft is going to move quite that quickly here.

That said, this route definitely seems to be in the cards, as evidenced by materials that have come to light recently due to the FTC vs Microsoft hearing, which make the software giant’s cloud ambitions very clear.

Namely that Microsoft very much sees the future of the consumer space as shifting Windows 11 to the cloud, and an installation of the OS being managed on a remote server, and streamed to any device, anywhere, rather than sitting on your local PC. And these fresh rumors are certainly a weighty hint that this could happen more quickly than we anticipated.

However, before going all-in with the cloud PC, and ruling out local installations completely, Microsoft might first visit some sort of compromise on Windows 11 users, involving a dual-boot system that can either be used locally or as a cloud PC.

The best of both worlds, if you will, and a slightly easier pill to swallow for those who have concerns about going fully to the cloud with their PC. (Worries that may be numerous around security and data privacy, to pick a couple of obvious issues with Microsoft having all your apps and data on its servers).

Indeed, there’s already work underway in testing with Windows 365 Boot for Windows 11, which allows for logging into either a cloud PC instance or the local installation of Windows on the desktop PC in front of you.

We really don’t know exactly how Microsoft will approach the idea of the cloud PC in the consumer space, but we’ve got a feeling it’s going to have to be pretty cautious and tentative, because this is such a big change. What we do know is the cloud PC concept is almost definitely coming to consumers at some point, and expect to hear more on the rumor mill before too long, no doubt.

Another idea Microsoft may be exploring is the idea of cheap subscription-based and cloud-connected PCs subsidized by adverts.

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Microsoft’s new AI shopping tools will create a buying guide just for you
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Online shopping can be difficult as you’ll have to sift through a ton of information before finding the right product for you. Microsoft aims to take some of that busy work out by introducing some, naturally, AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge.

In total, there are three. First, you have Buying Guides, which as you can probably guess from the name, has Bing write up a literal buying guide telling you what to look for according to a certain category. The AI will show “specifications of multiple, similar items next to each other” on a table so you can easily compare your options without having to jump around a thousand different websites. It’ll even make some suggestions on what you should purchase. 

Microsoft claims Buying Guides are already available on Bing Chat in the United States, however, when we checked, it wasn't as widespread as we had hoped. It was able to create a guide for college supplies like in the video above, but when we asked the AI to make something for gaming headphones, nothing new came up. It was still the old version of Bing where you have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. It appears the update is releasing in waves.

Later on in the year, Microsoft plans on launching the tool internationally. As for Edge, its rendition of Buying Guides is “starting to roll out worldwide”. Be sure to keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives. 

Price tracking

Next is Review Summaries to help you decide between two products you’re interested in. What it does is grab information from reviews to then “briefly summarize what people are saying about it online” through Bing's chatbot. Microsoft states the tool will “provide a quick look at top insights and popular opinions about [a] product”, all in an effort to save you a ton of time. The feature is currently rolling out to all global regions.

The final tool is Price Match, which will monitor an item’s price tag over time and then help you request a retailer match the new number “if it drops.” To make this helpful tool possible, the company partnered up with US retailers that already have price match policies in place. We don’t know the companies honoring the feature apart from Microsoft itself. Interestingly enough, there are plans to have more retailers honor the policy down the line. 

Microsoft says Price Match will soon launch exclusively in the United States. It’s unknown if there are plans to expand this tool internationally. We reached out to Microsoft for more information regarding a global rollout plus if it can tell us the retailers honoring Price Match. We’ll update this story at a later time.

As good as these shopping tools may seem, be sure to stay vigilant when dealing with generative AIs. They can’t totally be trusted as chatbots are “prone to spewing out misinformation”. We're not saying Bing's Buying Guides tool will lie or make up information, but the chance does exist. Developers like OpenAI are working on ways to stop hallucinations from appearing in their tech. However, sometimes, you just can’t beat the human touch.

Use these tools as a backup to guides written by real people. Speaking of which, check out TechRadar’s recently updated list of the best PCs you can buy for 2023.  

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Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing AI just got a really useful new feature
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Microsoft is in the process of adding a new feature to its Bing chatbot that will considerably increase the utility value of the AI, namely image recognition.

Bing Vision is being tested with a small number of chatbot users at present, as Neowin reports, and it lets those folks upload an image for a query. In other words, instead of typing text, you can sling the AI a picture, and it’ll identify it and provide information on the image.

Neowin flags up some of the people on Twitter who’ve got to play with Bing Vision, and their results include the chatbot identifying an Egyptian temple from a photo, which is a good example of how you might be able to use the facility.

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In another instance, a scan of a maths equation was fed to the chatbot which correctly identified it as the ‘Schrodinger equation’, and there’s a further example where a humorous cartoon is analyzed and explained by the AI.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to get Bing AI to flex its image recognition muscles, that’s because only a niche set of users are getting the feature right now, as mentioned at the outset. We’re told by Microsoft’s head of advertising and web services, Mikhail Parakhin, that it’s currently just over 10% of the user base.

Analysis: Bing Vision is coming to everyone soon

You’re pretty lucky if you’ve got this image recognition system enabled, then, as not many folks have at this point. Do note that it is only available on desktop PCs, by the way, as Bing Vision isn’t yet being offered on mobile devices.

Clearly, this is a useful extra string to the bow of the AI that can help in all sorts of potential ways for image-based queries, as we can see from those who’ve already tried it out on Twitter.

See a picture of a beautiful beach, lake, mountain, or town, and wonder where it is? Chuck that image at Bing and it should hopefully be able to tell you not just the location, but further details, say, on how you might plan a trip there.

The feature should be much more broadly rolled out in a few weeks, Parakhin tells us, and that will include mobile users too – in fact, it should arrive for everyone by then. Good stuff.

Microsoft is working at a pretty fast pace to expand the capabilities of Bing AI, which isn’t surprising given that AI is the talk of the town right now. Microsoft just ushered in voice input for desktop PCs (previously this was mobile-only), as well as improving this feature for mobiles (and adding an iOS widget for Bing Chat, to boot).

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Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot spotted in Safari and Chrome with new features
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Microsoft’s Bing AI is about to appear in all major web browsers according to a new report.

This comes from Windows Latest, which tells us that according to sources, the Bing chatbot will no longer be exclusive to Edge, but will be available in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox – all the main browsers – at some point this week (in a few days apparently).

Take that with a pinch of seasoning, naturally, but we already heard from Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s head of Advertising and Web Services, last week, who informed us that “hopefully” the first experiments in enabling third-party browsers would be happening soon.

So, it seems that hope is now a reality, or is about to become one, with Windows Latest further reporting that Microsoft actually tested Bing AI in Apple’s Safari browser over the past weekend.

If you blinked, you’d have missed this, though, as the test was a brief one.

Windows Latest also received an email through, apparently sent to some Bing AI mobile users, which mentions new features inbound for the AI. That includes the idea of “characters with personalities in Bing AI”, meaning a more in-depth choice than the simple creative, precise, or balanced personalities that currently grace the chatbot.

Microsoft is also planning to lift some restrictions, we’re told, so that could mean longer chat sessions with Bing AI are on the way, perhaps.

Analysis: Sarcastic mode? Oh yes, that’s real likely, we’re sure…

Windows Latest actually got to use Bing AI in the Safari test, and reports that it’s much the same experience as using the chatbot in Microsoft’s Edge browser. That’s pretty much what we’d expect, of course – there’s no reason it would be meaningfully different.

As we’ve discussed previously, it makes more sense for Microsoft to focus on driving usage of the Bing chatbot, than it does to use the bot as a lure to get people to switch to the Edge browser.

Yes, Edge is doubtless very important to Microsoft, but having its AI outgun Google’s Bard is surely a far more important consideration. And so having Bing AI in all the big browsers will help to that end, though we weren’t expecting this to happen quite as soon as this week. That would clearly indicate this is a real priority for Microsoft.

As for the idea of more varied personalities, this was something hinted at before in the very early days of Bing AI. Windows Latest points to leaked personalities that include ‘friendly’ and ‘sarcastic’ modes, though in the latter case, we’re skeptical as to whether this might be in the works.

Granted, sarcastic mode would be entertaining, certainly. But when folks have tried to get entertainment out of Bing AI in the past, pushing its buttons and boundaries, Microsoft has done its best to limit the chatbot’s more off-the-wall responses, and we’re not sure we see that changing anytime soon.

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Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 mishap causes havoc with AMD graphics cards
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Windows 11 is causing trouble for some users with AMD graphics cards, thanks to antics involving installing an outdated driver for Team Red’s GPUs.

What’s happening here is that Windows Update is going ahead with an automatic driver ‘update’ that actually installs an older graphics driver.

Windows Latest explains that it has received reports from readers, and via its forums, complaining about the issue, and also there’s a post on Reddit with some affected Windows 11 users making their feelings known, too.

Those hit by the glitch get an error message from AMD’s Adrenalin software informing them: “Windows Update may have automatically replaced your AMD Graphics driver. Hence, the version of AMD Software you have launched is not compatible with your currently installed AMD Graphics driver.”

In other words, Windows 11 has installed a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) driver, but this is an old version and incompatible with the AMD Adrenalin suite.

The good news is that it’s easy enough to fix this problem, as we’ll discuss next.

Analysis: A fairly easy fix – but don’t forget the extra step

The cure, fortunately, is relatively simple. You need to download the latest AMD Adrenalin driver for starters – then uninstall the current driver, and reinstall the new AMD driver. (Some also advise disconnecting from the internet while uninstalling and reinstalling the graphics driver in this way).

The next and very important step to take is to turn off Windows Update’s automatic graphics driver updates, to avoid this happening again. To do that, in the search box (taskbar), type ‘Device installation settings’ and click on this when it pops up in the panel above.

You’ll be presented with a question asking if you want to use automatic downloads for hardware manufacturers’ apps, to which you should reply ‘no’ (even though it says your device may not work as expected – don’t worry about that). Then click ‘Save Changes’ and the automatic graphics driver update will no longer happen. (If you don’t do this, you might find that Windows 11 changes the driver again, even after you’ve reverted it – and so on, ad nauseum, until Microsoft sorts out whatever the issue is here.)

Why is this happening? Good question, it’s a bit of an odd one. There’s clearly been a mistake somewhere at Microsoft, or maybe something has gone awry with the driver supplied by AMD. Hopefully, the situation will be rectified soon enough, but at least you can cure the problem manually as described above.

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