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Sticking with Windows 11 22H2? If you can dodge forced upgrades, you’ll still get new features… for a little while
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Windows 11 users holding out on version 22H2, rather than upgrading to 23H2 which was released late last year, just got a reprieve that means if they stick with the older incarnation of Microsoft’s OS they’ll still get feature updates – at least for a time.

Previously, Microsoft had stated that as of February 27, only monthly security updates would be provided for Windows 11 22H2 – meaning feature updates (non-security efforts) wouldn’t be piped through.

However, Neowin noticed that Microsoft just updated the release info for the February patch for Windows 11 22H2 to change the dates for those feature updates ceasing to be applied for 22H2.

What this means is Windows 11 Home and Pro users will now continue to get these non-security updates going forward, but the deadline has only been extended slightly – to June 26, 2024. (Although enterprise users will get these updates until June 24, 2025).

Analysis: Listening to feedback

So, in other words, Windows 11 Home and Pro will get non-security updates for March, April, May and June (when they weren’t going to previously). After that, though, it’s just security updates only, going forward.

This is an interesting move by Microsoft as the company isn’t in the habit of making such extensions to support deadlines. It does happen, but not often, and not usually in this kind of last-minute fashion.

What’s revealing is that in the blurb announcing the new end date, Microsoft says the change was made based on user feedback. Which would seem to suggest that Microsoft had some unhappy punters on their hands with the end date as it was.

Whatever the case, all updates will be halted by October 8, 2024, including security patches, as that’s when support ends for version 22H2.

However, very few people should be left on the OS at that point, as Microsoft is already forcing upgrades to Windows 11 23H2 (using an AI-powered automated process that started just last week).

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Intel upgrades Bluetooth for Windows 11 – and it’s great news for people with the PS5 DualSense controller
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Intel has just released a new Wireless Bluetooth driver for Windows 11 (and Windows 10), and it looks like it could make DualSense, the official controller for the PlayStation 5, work even better with PCs.

As Neowin reports, the Intel Wireless Bluetooth 23.30.0 driver is available to download from the official Intel website for Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.

According to the release notes, this driver includes “Improved connectivity to a second gaming controller (Dual Sense)”, as well as several new functional updates. Devices that have gone into hibernation or sleep modes will also be more stable when they wake up.

If you have a laptop or PC that comes with Intel processors, its built-in Bluetooth connectivity is likely based on Intel hardware, so you’ll probably be able to benefit from these new drivers.

Making perfect (Dual)Sense

While Bluetooth driver updates are often hardly the most exciting news, I am glad that support for the DualSense is getting improved for Windows 11 PCs.

The innovative DualSense controller, which has lots of clever haptic feedback tricks that make playing games more immersive, is one of the best things about the PS5 – and because it can be hooked up to a gaming laptop or gaming PC, it’s also one of the best PC controllers you can buy.

This is because not only is it a solidly built controller that is comfortable to hold, but you can also make use of its advanced haptic features – including triggers that change resistance depending on what you’re doing in-game.

DualSense controllers

(Image credit: Sony)

However, while you can connect a DualSense controller wirelessly to a PC via Bluetooth, to make use of the more advanced features, you still have to use a USB cable.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem like this driver update changes that – though I would love to see those features enabled for wirelessly-connected DualSense controllers. Instead, going by the release notes, it will allow people to connect two DualSense controllers to a single PC or laptop.

This is still a welcome development, as it will enable people to play local multiplayer and cooperative games on PC. To be honest, if these improvements keep coming, it’s making me less likely to buy a PS5 and just stick with my trusted gaming PC.

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Windows 11 users rejoice – the case of the disappearing taskbar has been solved
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Earlier this month, some Windows 11 users noticed that their taskbar was behaving strangely and disappearing following a recent update – and it looks like Microsoft has now released a fix for the annoying bug.

A new preview build has been released in the Beta Channel of the Windows Insider Program this week that looks like it’s bringing fixes for multiple reported issues, including the taskbar problem, which saw it appearing as a blank space for some users, before slowly reloading. 

The Windows Insider Program is a Microsoft-run community for professionals and Windows enthusiasts who would like the most up-to-date information about new developments, and the ability to try new features and versions of Windows in order to provide feedback ahead of their release to the wider user base. 

BetaNews also writes of another taskbar-related error that’s apparently been plaguing users for weeks: whenever they would load Windows 11, it would take several seconds for the taskbar to appear. 

These sorts of task-bar related issues are annoying for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is that it becomes a lot harder to start and run applications, and limits the user’s ability to actually engage with the OS, since the Windows 11 taskbar is such an essential part of the operating system’s user interface. 

A woman sitting at a computer and smiling

(Image credit: Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock)

The nature of the Beta Channel update

The newly-created fix is only available in the Beta, Dev, and Canary Channels of the Windows Insider Program for now. This means that Microsoft is still testing and collecting feedback about the build, and it will probably take a couple of weeks before it makes its way to the Stable Channel (through which most users get updates that are in their final iteration and deemed ready for release by Microsoft). BetaNews speculates that this release could fall on March’s Patch Day which is March 12, 2024.

At the moment, the build that’s currently available in the Beta Channel doesn't introduce any major new features, and the focus of this update is specifically the fixes for the reported issues above. Other updates in the preview build, according to an official Windows Insider Blog post, include a new badge for Widget notifications to notify users when there are unread Widget notifications, and higher quality Widget icon images that should appear sharper. 

While Windows 11’s taskbar problems did take a little while to be addressed by Microsoft, and seems the vocal backlash finally got the company to spring into action, it’s good that the problems seemed to have been finally fixed. If you absolutely cannot stand the faulty taskbar behavior, you can join the Windows Insider Program (which is free), and then join the Beta Channel.

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You might be waiting a while yet for Wi-Fi 7 support in Windows 11 – but Microsoft is on the case
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Windows 11 is now adding support for Wi-Fi 7, those who want to use the much-improved wireless standard will doubtless be pleased to learn – but it’s only in testing currently.

That’s despite the fact that there are already Wi-Fi 7 routers out there, and the standard has been officially finalized by the Wi-Fi Alliance (the Wi-Fi Certified 7 program was announced at the start of January 2024, in fact).

As you might guess, it’ll be some time before official Wi-Fi 7 support comes through to the release version of Windows 11, as it’ll need to progress through testing channels first.

Right now, it’s only in the Canary (earliest) test channel with build 26063, a preview release that flew under our radar somewhat, but an important one in this respect. However, it’s also been added for Dev channel testers, Microsoft informed us in the usual blog post on build 26063 (as flagged up by XDA Developers).

WiFi 7 in Windows 11

(Image credit: Microsoft)

As the software giant also pointed out, Wi-Fi 7 (aka 802.11be) is in the order of 4x faster than Wi-Fi 6 and more like 6x quicker than Wi-Fi 5.

If you want to know more about how this new wireless standard takes some big strides forward – and it isn’t just about raw speed, though that is, of course, very important – check out our guide to the ins-and-outs of Wi-Fi 7.

Analysis: Wireless party

In fairness to Microsoft, while it appears to be pretty late to the wireless party, and Wi-Fi 7 may have officially kicked off (at least in some countries, the US, Australia, and UK included), it's still early days for the standard.

The standard may be effectively set in stone now, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be tweaks going forward. There will inevitably be firmware updates for existing Wi-Fi 7 routers to fix or modify things going forward as needed, although all the big cogs in terms of features are now in place.

Windows 11 is one of the final pieces of the puzzle to be added for Wi-Fi 7 support, then, for laptops which sport Wi-Fi 7. And of course as mentioned, you’ll need a Wi-Fi 7 router to benefit from faster wireless speeds. (Those devices are expensive right now, too, it should be noted – though that’s generally true of any cutting-edge tech).

With Wi-Fi 7 we’re getting performance which makes wireless online gaming a reality in terms of it being close to wired (Ethernet) performance, and certainly much better than other fudges for PCs that aren’t plugged directly into the router (such as powerline adapters, which can be notoriously flaky in some scenarios).

What about Windows 10 support for Wi-Fi 7? We’re still not sure on that score, although the last we heard was that it is inbound – but there’s no sign of that yet.

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Windows 11 could soon deliver updates that don’t need a reboot
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Windows 11 could soon run updates without rebooting, if the rumor mill is right – and there’s already evidence this is the path Microsoft is taking in a preview build.

This comes from a regular source of Microsoft-related leaks, namely Zac Bowden of Windows Central, who first of all spotted that Windows 11 preview build 26058 (in the Canary and Dev channels) was recently updated with an interesting change.

Microsoft is pushing out updates to testers that do nothing and are merely “designed to test our servicing pipeline for Windows 11, version 24H2.” The the key part is we’re informed that those who have VBS (Virtualization Based Security) turned on “may not experience a restart upon installing the update.”

Running an update without requiring a reboot is known as “hot patching” and this method of delivery – which is obviously far more convenient for the user – could be realized in the next major update for Windows 11 later this year (24H2), Bowden asserts.

The leaker has tapped sources for further details, and observes that we’re talking about hot patching for the monthly cumulative updates for Windows 11 here. So the bigger upgrades (the likes of 24H2) wouldn’t be hot-patched in, as clearly there’s too much work going on under the hood for that to happen.

Indeed, not every cumulative update would be applied without a reboot, Bowden further explains. This is because hot patching uses a baseline update, one that can be patched on top of, but that baseline model needs to be refreshed every few months.

Add seasoning with all this info, naturally, but it looks like Microsoft is up to something here based on the testing going on, which specifically mentions 24H2, as well.

Analysis: How would this work exactly?

What does this mean for the future of Windows 11? Well, possibly nothing. After all, this is mostly chatter from the grapevine, and what’s apparently happening in early testing could simply be abandoned if it doesn’t work out.

However, hot patching is something that is already employed with Windows Server, and the Xbox console as well, so it makes sense that Microsoft would want to use the tech to benefit Windows 11 users. It’s certainly a very convenient touch, though as noted, not every cumulative update would be hot-patched.

Bowden believes the likely scenario would be quarterly cumulative updates that need a reboot, followed by hot patches in between. In other words, we’d get a reboot-laden update in January, say, followed by two hot-patched cumulative updates in February and March that could be completed quickly with no reboot needed. Then, April’s cumulative update would need a reboot, but May and June wouldn’t, and so on.

As mentioned, annual updates certainly wouldn’t be hot-patched, and neither would out-of-band security fixes for example (as the reboot-less updates rely on that baseline patch, and such a fix wouldn’t be based on that, of course).

This would be a pretty cool feature for Windows 11 users, because dropping the need to reboot – to be forced to restart in some cases – is obviously a major benefit. Is it enough to tempt upgrades from Windows 10? Well, maybe not, but it is another boon to add to the pile for those holding out on Microsoft’s older operating system. (Assuming they can upgrade to Windows 11 at all, of course, which is a stumbling block for some due to PC requirements like TPM).

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Microsoft brings one of the Google Pixel’s best features to Windows 11
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The Google Pixel series has given us some of the best phones on the market, and one thing that sets it apart from other phones is the suite of built-in generative AI features, like Best Photo and Magic Eraser. Now, thanks to an upcoming tool coming to the Windows Photos App, you won’t need to buy a whole new phone just to get your hands on these types of features. 

Microsoft has announced in a blog post that the ‘Spot fix’ tool in the desktop Photos app will be getting an AI boost, and will now be known as ‘Generative erase’. 

Generative erase will allow you to remove imperfections from your photos in a more natural-looking way, like removing random people in the background and replacing them with an AI-generated backdrop – basically, the exact same way that Magic Eraser works on a Pixel phone. Microsoft notes in the blog post that “Generative erase creates a more seamless and realistic result after objects are erased from the photo, even when erasing large areas”. 

Windows Photos App

The before-and-after is quite impressive – the AI alterations are barely noticeable at first glance. (Image credit: Windows)

Keep it coming!

The example ‘before and after’ image in the blog post shows a very cute dog on the beach, wearing a collar, with some people in the background. After using Generative erase, the new photo looks entirely organic, with the dog collar free and no people in the background. Even when you zoom into the photo to where the collar and people originally were, you can’t see any obviously visible evidence that the image was altered at all. 

It’s an incredibly impressive editing job – considering that it takes very little time and zero effort – and I’m very excited to see it in action when it does make its way over to Windows. It won’t just be Windows 11 users who get to enjoy the new feature, either; Microsoft will be adding the full suite of Photos AI features to Windows 10 too, proving that the older OS isn’t dead just yet.

Currently, the tool is reserved for Windows Insiders, the community of Windows enthusiasts and developers who get early access to potential new features. However, the fact that Microsoft is publicly discussing the feature is a good sign that we will see it sooner rather than later. Alongside Generative erase, the blog notes very briefly that we could also see background blurring and removal features join the Photos app in the same upcoming update. 

The company recently announced that Microsoft Paint was getting another string of new AI features as well, so we may be seeing the beginning of a Windows-wide revamp when it comes to creative AI tools. It seems like Microsoft is putting a lot of time and effort into implementing useful generative features into its apps, which is good news for Windows users who want to experiment with artificial intelligence – without having to make a million accounts on different platforms to do so. 

Via The Verge.

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Microsoft is giving Windows Copilot an upgrade with Power Automate, promising to banish boring tasks thanks to AI
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Microsoft has revealed a new plug-in for Copilot, its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, named Power Automate that will enable users to (as the name suggests) automate repetitive and tedious tasks, such as creating and manipulating entries in Excel, handling PDFs, and file management. 

This development is part of a bigger Copilot update package that will see several new capabilities being added to the digital AI assistant.

Microsoft gives the following examples of tasks this new Copilot plug-in could automate: 

  • Write an email to my team wishing everyone a happy weekend.
  • List the top 5 highest mountains in the world in an Excel file.
  • Rename all PDF files in a folder to add the word final at the end.
  • Move all word documents to another folder.
  • I need to split a PDF by the first page. Can you help?

Who can get the Power Automate plug-in and how

As of now, it seems like this plug-in is only available to some users with access to Windows 11 Preview Build 26058, available to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels of the Windows Insider Program. The Windows Insider Program is a Microsoft-run community for Windows enthusiasts and professionals where users can get early access to upcoming versions of Windows, features, and more, and provide feedback to Microsoft developers to improve these before a wider rollout.

Hopefully, the Power Automate plug-in for Copilot will prove a hit with testers – and if it is, we should hopefully see it rolled out to all Windows 11 users soon.

As per the blog post announcing the Copilot update, this is the first release of the plug-in, which is part of Microsoft’s Power Platform, a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help users make their workflows more efficient and versatile – including Power Automate. To be able to use this plug-in, you’ll need to download Power Automate for Desktop from the Microsoft Store (or make sure you have the latest version of Power Automate). 

There are multiple options for using Power Automate:  the free plan, suitable for personal use or smaller projects, and there are premium plans that offer packages with more advanced features. From what we can tell, the ability to enable the Power Automate plug-in for Copilot will be available for all users, free and premium, but Microsoft might change this.

Once you’ve made sure you have the latest version of Power Automate downloaded, you’ll also need to be signed into Copilot for Windows with a Microsoft Account. Then you’ll need to add the plug-in to Copilot To do this, you’ll have to go to the Plug in section in the Copilot app for Windows, and turn on the Power Automate plug-in which should now be visible. Once enabled, you should be able to ask it to perform a task like one of the above examples and see how Copilot copes for yourself.

Once you try the plug-in for yourself, if you have any thoughts about it, you can share them with Microsoft directly at po**************@*******ft.com. 

Copilot in Windows

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Hopefully, a sign of more to come

The language Microsoft is using about the plug-in implies that it will see improvements in the future to enable it and, therefore, Copilot to carry out more tasks. Upgrades like this are steps in the right direction if they’re as effective as they sound. 

This could address one of the biggest complaints people have about Copilot since it was launched. Microsoft presented it as a Swiss Army Knife-like digital assistant with all kinds of AI capabilities, and, at least for now, it’s not anywhere near that. While we admire Microsoft’s AI ambitions, the company did make big promises, and many users are growing impatient. 

I guess we’ll have to just continue to watch whether Copilot will live up to Microsoft’s messaging, or if it’ll go the way of Microsoft’s other digital assistants like Cortana and Clippy.

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Haven’t got round to installing Windows 11 23H2 yet? You’ll soon be forced to get the latest update
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The 23H2 update is coming, whether you're ready or not, for those holdouts who have yet to upgrade their Windows 11 installation from 22H2 (or indeed 21H2).

Tom’s Hardware noticed that Microsoft updated its Windows 11 23H2 status document to let users know what’s happening, and that eligible Windows 11 devices will be automatically upgraded to version 23H2.

That means you’ll have no choice in the matter, of course. Updating to Windows 11 23H2 is mandatory at this point, with the caveat that this automatic upgrade process may not come to your PC all that soon.

Microsoft uses AI to “safely roll out this new Windows version in phases to deliver a smooth update experience,” and therefore some PC configurations may find it’s still a while before they have 23H2 foisted on them.

Alternatively, you may find the upgrade is piped to your machine imminently. It’s a roll of the hardware (and software) configuration dice, in short.

Analysis: Staying safe

Automatic upgrades being forced on Windows users is nothing new, of course. This happens whenever an update has been around for a good deal of time, and Microsoft feels everyone who is running an older version of Windows 11 (or Windows 10) needs to step up and move away from it (because it’s running out of road for support, or indeed has run out).

Regarding Windows 21H2 users (the original version of the OS), you may be thinking – didn’t they already get forced to upgrade to 22H2? Yes, they did. So why are some folks still on 21H2 then? Well, there may be a small niche of users remaining on 21H2 as anomalies, basically (we spotted a couple on Reddit), and they will be transferred direct to 23H2 instead. (Hopefully, anyway – though it’s possible that not having been offered an upgrade at all so far could be the result of a bug).

Microsoft needs to push upgrades like this for security reasons. If a Windows 11 user remains on an unsupported version, they won’t get monthly security updates, which is bad news of course – their PC could be vulnerable to exploits. Hence the big updates become mandatory eventually.

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Microsoft finally teaches Copilot AI some new tricks – but is this enough to stop Windows 11 users getting impatient?
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Windows 11 just received improvements in testing to make its Copilot AI more useful with implementing changes in the actual OS environment – in other words, the features that we’re all waiting for.

Copilot has a pretty limited repertoire in terms of what the AI can do for manipulating Windows settings (as opposed to its standard tricks in terms of replying to queries, image creation and so forth).

However, the bag of settings tricks just got considerably heavier, with a raft of additions having just been made to preview build 26058 of Windows 11 (in the Canary and Dev testing channels).

That build was actually released a week ago, but Microsoft just ushered in these extra improvements as Neowin noticed.

So, what can Copilot do for you now? There are a number of important accessibility changes, so for example the AI can be instructed to turn on Narrator or Live Captions, or voice functionality (Voice Access or typing).

And you can get Copilot to take out the trash (empty the Recycle Bin), turn on battery saver mode, or even tell you the IP address of your device.

Here’s the full list of the new capabilities of Copilot when it comes to engaging with Windows settings:

  • Ask for available wireless networks
  • Ask for system or device information
  • Ask for battery information
  • Ask to clean storage
  • Ask to empty Recycle Bin
  • Ask to toggle Battery Saver
  • Ask to show startup apps
  • Ask for your IP address
  • Ask for system, device, or storage information

And the new accessibility features are as follows:

  • Ask to turn on Narrator
  • Ask to open Voice Access
  • Ask to turn on Magnifier
  • Ask to change text size
  • Ask to start Live Captions
  • Ask to turn on high-contrast
  • Ask to start voice typing

This expands on Copilot’s existing powers to tweaks settings, which already includes taking a screenshot, or changing between the dark and light themes, for example.

Analysis: Expansion pack

There are 16 new abilities introduced in testing here, which should be coming through to the finished version of Windows 11 soon enough. That more than doubles the existing abilities of Copilot at the moment – there are just 12 ways to operate Windows 11 settings via the AI right now – so it’s a welcome expansion.

At the same time, progress on this front feels rather sluggish, given that Copilot and more broadly AI is such a major focus for Microsoft, ever since Bing Chat burst onto the scene about a year ago.

Windows 11 users were sold Copilot partly on its features related to operating various settings and modes easily and conveniently, rather than having to dive into a search deep in the Settings app (or hunting elsewhere in the interface). And thus far, not a lot of capabilities have been added, really.

We’re hoping Microsoft will get its foot to the floor on this side of the Copilot experience later this year, with the Windows 11 24H2 update, but for now, a doubling of numbers is at least a sign of some decent forward momentum.

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Windows 11 with no taskbar? A crucial part of Microsoft’s OS has gone missing for some thanks to new update
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Windows 11’s latest cumulative update comes with an odd bug, it seems, one that reportedly causes the taskbar to disappear – or rather, to become blank space.

The February patch (KB5034765) for Windows 11 23H2 (and 22H2) has seen a number of complaints from users who have witnessed their desktop being affected by this apparent glitch, which as you can imagine is pretty frustrating.

As Neowin flagged up, there are reports on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub and the Reddit mega-thread on said patch from folks who have been hit by this problem.

One Redditor wrote: “Yay, both my Win11 23h2 workstations have no taskbar after updates and a reboot… have to kill explorer and relaunch.”

Somebody replied to that: “This is happening to me as well I thought something broke, but removing KB5034765 resolved it for me. I don’t even see explorer.exe in my running tasks when that happened, though.”

There are a number of other reports, as mentioned, with those affected not able to launch their taskbar pinned apps (as the icons aren’t there, of course), or see the system tray, access Quick Settings and so on. The basic ability to see your running apps and switch between them on the bar is obviously missing in action, too.

Analysis: Have a little patience?

We should note that in the interest of balance, a lot of folks on that Reddit thread are saying they had no issues with KB5034765. It’s not clear how widespread the vanishing taskbar gremlin might be, and Microsoft has not acknowledged the problem yet in its known issues – but we get the feeling it has a limited impact, looking at the overall feedback on this patch.

As noted above, the only solution seems to be uninstalling the February cumulative update, which certainly works to return the taskbar to its normal state.

The slight twist here is that this problem has been seen before, and another Redditor offers up a theory as follows: “The taskbar missing thing is part of the EU policy updates. Taskbar is not showing for up to 10 minutes, it’s normal and has been in the Release Preview Channel for 2-3 months.”

This makes some sense, as there’s some heavy duty work on the taskbar going on with those EU regulation-related changes, like unhooking Bing from the search box on the bar.

So, in theory the taskbar may reappear soon after applying the update – maybe. But we presume given the number of affected folks, with no one else observing said reappearance that we can see, there could be more to this issue than merely this. Unless everyone hitting the snag is uninstalling KB5034765 pretty sharpish, which seems unlikely across the board.

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