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Windows 11’s next big update could arrive in February 2024, packing some nifty features – but it might miss some tricks too
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Windows 11 could be getting its next feature drop early in 2024, courtesy of what will be the fifth ‘Moment’ update for the operating system.

As you’re likely aware by now, a Moment is the name given to smaller feature updates that arrive outside of the big annual upgrade Microsoft pushes out for Windows 11 (which was 23H2 this year).

And we just heard from Windows Central (Zac Bowden) that Moment 5 should arrive in February (indeed its alternative name is the ‘February 2024 Moment’).

That said, the catch is that this will be the initial preview release, late in the month, so the full version of the Moment 5 update won’t actually arrive until March. On the second Tuesday of the month if the typical release cadence of Microsoft’s cumulative updates is adhered to – which would make the date to mark in your diary March 12.

What will this update pack in the way of new features? Well, don’t get your hopes up for anything too exciting, as we’re told this will be a more minor release compared to some of the previous Moments.

Even so, there will be a healthy dollop of tweaks and additions, and one smart piece of functionality is targeted at stylus users – namely the ability to write directly into text fields with their pen (something Microsoft has promised will eventually be an OS-wide capability in Windows).

Voice Access is also receiving some laudable attention, including support for multiple monitors, and powerful new voice shortcuts. The latter are customizable commands allowing for the opening of files, folders, or pasting a section of boilerplate text, for example (and they can be chained together for multiple steps).

Microsoft is set to make a bunch of minor tweaks – some of which are useful, like giving Notepad a character count, and being able to rename devices with the Nearby Share feature, to make them more easily identifiable at a glance (‘Darren’s PC’ for example) – but some of the work elsewhere is purely about complying with European regulations.

Specifically, these changes are bound up in compliance, and destined for the European Economic Area (EEA). They include the choice to uninstall the Edge browser from Windows 11, as well as the ability to strip Bing out of the taskbar search box (and instead have web results piped through from an alternative, like Google).

Enabling HDR in Windows 11

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: March of progress

Unfortunately, Windows 11 users outside of the EEA won’t get those latter options, but they will benefit from another move to let the user uninstall a larger number of default apps – like Photos, for example.

Furthermore, Microsoft is introducing an option to specify that the widgets panel contains just widgets, with users being able to remove the news feed. Interestingly, we’re also told that Microsoft will make it possible for other third-party services to be integrated into the panel – so you could infuse the widget board with Google news, if you wanted to.

These widget-related possibilities are coming for everyone, fortunately, not just the EEA – and we can keep our fingers crossed that the other mentioned Europe-bound changes will be rolled out more widely, too. Plenty of folks would like the ability to declutter Windows 11 a bit more by getting rid of Edge, no doubt.

Of course, we must bear in mind that these changes are all rumors, though we’ve seen all the mentioned features going through testing of late, so all of this makes sense. The release date of February (for preview) and March is the nugget of info that needs more salt applied, but Bowden is one of the more reliable sources out there for info from Microsoft. It’s always possible that an intended timeframe might slip a bit, mind.

From what we’ve heard, this could be the last Moment update before the next-gen version of Windows is launched later in 2024. Whether that will be Windows 12, or something else (Windows AI?), or if Microsoft might stick with Windows 11 (making the upgrade version 24H2), we don’t yet know, but the theory is this might be the last Moment before that next big move arrives.

As per another of Bowden’s recent rumors, Microsoft is supposedly set to switch away from Moments, releasing fewer of these updates going forward, and making more changes and feature additions in the big annual upgrade. (And yes – in short, this is returning more to the way things used to be).

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Windows 10 support ending could be an environmental disaster that puts 240 million PCs on the scrapheap
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Windows 10 running out of road for support is going to be something of an environmental disaster in terms of old PCs going into landfills, an analyst firm has warned.

Canalys wrote an article on the state of the PC market and Windows 10’s end-of-support date, which rolls around in October 2025 – still some way off, of course, but getting closer all the time.

The core issue here is not just support coming to an end for Windows 10 in just under two years, but that the hardware requirements for Windows 11 – ruling out PCs with older CPUs, and machines that lack Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 security functionality – mean that those computers likely won’t be recycled either.

As Canalys puts it: “Despite the channel’s growing capabilities to support circularity, partners will not be able to refurbish and resell PCs unsupported by Windows 11.”

The end result will be an estimated 240 million PCs becoming e-waste, which is around a fifth of all Windows 10 devices. Canalys underlines this by saying: “If these were all folded laptops, stacked one on top of another, they would make a pile 600km taller than the moon.”

It’s a stark, bleak image, though Canalys also observes that Microsoft does offer ways to extend support for Windows 10 – at a cost, naturally. You’ll be able to pay for updates to continue to be piped through, as was the case with Windows 7 when its support expired. In fact, you’ll be able to keep on going for another three years this way.

The trouble is that with Windows 7, Microsoft cranked up the costs of this scheme considerably with every additional year. Given that, Canalys argues that it likely won’t be a cost-effective way for most businesses and individual users to proceed – and upgrading to a Windows 11 system will be the sensible path to take from a cost perspective.

This will be good news for PC manufacturers, but not so great news for the environment. Indeed, Canalys expects the PC market to grow again next year – by 8% in 2024, in fact – in contrast to this year, during which a sales slump hit vendors hard (Apple in particular struggled with Mac sales).

Analysis: Growing pressure on Microsoft

This isn’t the first warning of this nature about how Windows 11’s system requirements are bad news.

In October, PIRG, the Public Interest Research Group in the US, made an even gloomier forecast of 400 million Windows 10 PCs ending up on the scrapheap, and that the end of support for the old OS could usher in the biggest rise ever seen with junked computers.

Of course, you could argue that Windows 10 has been around since 2015, and in 2025, that’ll be a full decade of its existence – and you can’t expect an operating system to last forever. We’d agree with that, but the catch is, as mentioned, that Windows 11’s requirements (in particular the need for TPM 2.0) are a concrete wall blocking upgrades for many users or businesses – something that has not been the case before.

After several high-profile calls for action on this front, how will Microsoft respond? Maybe we can hope that the pricing for extended support for Windows 10 is reined in, compared to what was charged for Windows 7 (with an escalating scale as time went on, going up a lot in the final year).

We shall see, but a lot of noise is now being made about dire e-waste concerns here, and this is a topic Microsoft has been keen to be proactive with of late (in terms of more sustainable and easily repaired hardware, for example).

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Microsoft swiftly fixes a Wi-Fi bug that caused havoc for some Windows 11 users
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Microsoft has fixed a Windows 11 bug that was causing havoc for students across the globe.

The software giant confirmed that the problem – which meant that university Wi-Fi networks (and those at other educational establishments) failed to work for some students – was caused by patches KB5032288 and KB5033375.

The latter is the cumulative update for December in Windows 11, and the former is the preview version of that upgrade (unsurprisingly, as they are essentially the same thing).

The good news is that the solution came alongside the confirmation of the bug.

Microsoft got in touch with us directly to point out the fix, with the company also announcing on its release health status dashboard: “This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your Windows device might help the resolution apply to your device faster.”

Analysis: A swiftly delivered save

It’s great to see Microsoft move quickly with the fix here, as this was a pretty nasty issue for those students affected. It seems that it was mainly universities, businesses, and public Wi-Fi networks where this gremlin struck, with Microsoft telling us that it’s “not likely to occur on home networks” (though that doesn’t rule out the possibility completely).

At any rate, you don’t have to do anything to cure these Wi-Fi blues. The Known Issue Rollback means that Microsoft is rolling back the problematic part of the update, while leaving the rest of it in place (to redeploy that faulty bit at a later date, when it’s fixed up and no longer causing Wi-Fi woes).

The catch is that the issue rollback takes a bit of time to filter through to everyone, up to 24 hours as noted. However, that announcement was made late in the day yesterday, and all affected users should have the fix in around the next five hours or so, all being well. If you’re getting impatient, as Microsoft advises, you can try a reboot to surface the fix.

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Microsoft Store update brings a useful way to more easily find Windows 11 apps and games you’ll enjoy
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Windows 11 users are getting a rejig for the Microsoft Store to make it easier to find apps or games that might be relevant or interesting.

As posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Rudy Huyn, Principal Architect for the Microsoft Store, there’s a holiday update inbound for testers.

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This means that the store will no longer show apps and games installed on your device – or at least, it won’t show nearly as many – and will instead favor new apps and games that you might enjoy based on your past download history.

Hopefully, this adjustment won’t take long to arrive with a broader rollout to Windows 11 users who aren’t testers.

Note that the Microsoft Store did already show apps you might want to grab, it’s just that the balance has shifted more towards displaying these, rather than installed software.

Analysis: Another (small) step forward

This is another useful move for the Microsoft Store, as it’s not much help to show the user what they’ve already got installed on their PC. While we’re not keen on Microsoft’s ‘suggestions’ throughout Windows, in the case of an app store, recommendations can be more useful to glance at than a list of what you already know about.

That said, this change alone is obviously not going to do much in terms of persuading folks to use the Microsoft Store if they don’t bother with it. The move is hardly a major selling point in itself.

Still, Microsoft has been doing a lot of work on the store of late, and those improvements are building momentum. The store now loads up way faster, and we’ve seen meatier chunks of work, too. Most notably the introduction of AI (it’s getting everywhere) in the form of a dedicated hub for AI software – and also AI-generated review summaries.

The latter could be pretty handy indeed, as wading through a bunch of reviews isn’t much fun, so it’s a useful task where AI can do the proverbial grunt work.

Via Windows Central

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Microsoft has cured this Windows 11 printer nightmare – but the fix might surprise you
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Windows 11 users (as well as those on Windows 10) have been experiencing weirdness around a frustrating bug with printers, but the good news is that there’s now a fix.

The bad news is that it’s not quite a straightforward solution, as rather unusually, Microsoft requires the installation of a standalone troubleshooting utility in order to facilitate repairs.

As we’ve previously reported, the problem is that PCs are getting the HP Smart app installed when they haven’t got an HP printer connected – or even a printer at all, in some cases – and printers are being renamed as a specific HP LaserJet (whatever their model).

As a result of this, some functionality is failing to work with affected printers, and there’s been quite a lot of head scratching going on (especially for those who don’t have a printer at all, who are apparently suffering at the hands of the Microsoft Print to PDF icon being renamed).

At any rate, the fix is here as noted, but you’ll have to download the aforementioned troubleshooting tool from Microsoft and run it.

This will reverse any printer renaming which has taken place, and reinstate the correct icons for printers, and uninstall the HP Smart app if it shouldn’t have been installed.

You can check out Microsoft’s support page for the full instructions on how to use the tool here.

Analysis: Metadata issue confirmed

The theory behind this bug was that the printer weirdness was happening because of incorrect metadata supplied in a Windows update, which led to printers being wrongly identified as an HP LaserJet.

It seems that idea was bang on as the tool which brings in the fix is called the ‘Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter.’

Normally, we’d expect the fix to be piped through via Windows Update, so as noted, it’s rather unusual to have to go through a separate download. It’s a slightly clunky process, in short, but at least it is a fix, which was much-needed for some folks, because in some cases, this bug could prevent functions beyond basic printing from working.

Via Tom's Hardware

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Students take note: Windows 11 update reportedly has a bug that’s taking down Wi-Fi at universities
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Windows 11 just received a new cumulative update, but apparently Microsoft’s round of patching for December introduces a big problem for some students.

Windows Latest highlights reports from a number of students who are readers of the tech site – and universities themselves – about patch KB5033375 breaking Wi-Fi networks on campus.

Apparently, this isn’t happening to everyone by any means, but it is a serious glitch for some of those running Windows 11 who aren’t getting internet on their own laptop. As Brunel University London (UK), one of the affected unis, informs us, this isn’t happening with official university hardware, but BYOD notebooks (possibly because admins have already side-stepped the issue, perhaps?).

One theory from a system admin at a university, as Windows Latest points out, is that there may be a compatibility issue at play here (involving the Qualcomm QCA61x4a wireless adapter, and maybe others).

Another establishment to warn its students about the December update is the University of New Haven (Connecticut, US), which advises: “A recent Windows update released on 12/12/2023 has caused users to not be able to connect to the wireless networks. This update is known as KB5033375.”

Other reports are present on Reddit, with students in European countries being affected, and the issue seemingly pertaining to other Qualcomm wireless adapters.

Analysis: Update removal seems to be the only way forward, for now

In fairness to the December update, it does contain some useful fixes, including the solution to a longstanding problem with File Explorer randomly popping up on the desktop.

However, if you’re at university, any potential plus points here are likely to be outweighed by the danger of not being able to get on Wi-Fi, which is a nasty problem indeed.

A commonality here seems to be Qualcomm components, and the above mentioned Qualcomm QCA61x4a wireless adapter is a commonly used piece of hardware seen in notebooks such as the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, Lenovo Yoga models, and many other laptops besides.

This problem also affects some business users, but for students, the only realistic way of resolving the bug is to uninstall the update, as the universities in question are recommending. (To do this, go to Windows Update in Settings, and click to view the Update History – that shows all the updates installed, and you can remove KB5033375 from here).

Hopefully Microsoft is looking into this one, and we’ve contacted the software giant to check if there’s an investigation underway. We’ll update this article if we hear anything back as to what’s going on here.

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Windows 11 bug that made some users wrongly suspect they’d been hacked has finally been fixed – but it took Microsoft over a year
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Microsoft has fixed a bug in Windows 11 that has been hanging around forever, pretty much – or for over a year anyway.

In fact, as Windows Latest observes, it took Microsoft fifteen months to fix the problem with File Explorer whereby it would simply pop into the foreground with no warning.

In other words, you might be busy working away at some task or other and File Explorer suddenly appears on top of all your other windows, for absolutely no reason.

An odd problem indeed, but we’re told that the cure is packaged up in the latest update for Windows 11. That’s the recently released cumulative update for December, also known as patch KB5033375.

Microsoft notes: “This update addresses an issue that affects File Explorer windows. When you do not expect them, they appear in the foreground.”

The bug seems to happen randomly on affected PCs, and worse still, Windows Latest says that it can occur on a roughly hourly basis in some scenarios, which is way too regularly for our liking.

Analysis: False hacking suspicions

The thing about this bug is that it isn’t just a distraction or annoyance, but more than this, it may make some Windows 11 users wrongly suspect that they’ve been hacked. After all, your PC doing things of its own accord, when you’re not touching the keyboard or the mouse perhaps, is a sign of potential compromise – and certainly a freaky thing to experience if nothing else.

In this respect, the File Explorer bug may have caused some undue worry on the part of those experiencing it, who may have been running virus scans and all sorts of other carry-on, imagining that there could be a potential breach of security on their system somewhere.

It’s good that this is fixed, but it should never take more than a year for a problem to be banished from Windows 11. There have certainly been some relieved users we’ve seen on the likes of Reddit rejoicing that this gremlin in the works has finally been dealt with, while scratching their heads at just how long it took Microsoft to untangle this one.

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Hidden feature in Windows 11 suggests we could get the ability to uninstall AI components – and maybe even Copilot eventually?
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Windows 11 often has incoming changes hidden away behind the scenes of the operating system, and another of these has just been spotted – and it’s a big one pertaining to AI.

Windows Central stumbled upon a tweet by regular leaker PhantomOfEarth on X, who has been digging around in Windows 11 preview build 26016 (in the Canary channel).

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PhantomOfEarth discovered a Settings page for AI Components which, as mentioned, is hidden, but can be turned on using a Windows configuration tool (ViVeTool).

This lists system components related to AI functionality, although it doesn’t do anything when enabled (unsurprisingly, it’s tucked away in the background for a reason – namely it doesn’t work yet).

The leaker also found strings related to the page, with one of those being: “View and remove AI components that are installed on Windows.”

So, it seems that this panel in Settings (under System) will allow you not only to view any AI-related system components, but also uninstall them if you wish.

Analysis: A necessary choice?

The AI components listed in the screenshot provided by PhantomOfEarth include Windows Security, the Microsoft Store, Phone Link and Xbox Game Bar – suggesting maybe that these will be furnished with AI extras at some point? Or they could just be placeholders, which is probably a more likely story – though we can certainly see the Microsoft Store, for example, getting augmented with AI (that suggests apps you might like based on the usage of your PC, or past downloads).

The latter brings up a point that may worry some Windows 11 users, namely privacy and exactly what AI might be doing in terms of profiling you, and building up a more in-depth picture of your likes, dislikes and so on, extrapolating from that. We should note at this point that this discussion is entirely theoretical, of course, but the general point is that some folks won’t want AI in their operating system – either for privacy reasons, or because they don’t trust it, perhaps.

It makes sense, then, that Microsoft will cater for those who want to remove AI abilities and provide these uninstallation options. Not that the presence of this Settings page in testing means anything yet – it could be scrapped in preview. Indeed, it isn’t even present in preview builds yet, it’s hidden in the background.

That brings us to another point – it’s very early work on this feature. The likelihood is that a wider swathe of AI functionality – and these options – won’t fully debut until next-gen Windows is released. (That’ll be next year, in theory, although we’re still not sure whether this will be Windows 12 – though whatever the case, big plans are afoot for AI, going by the latest rumors).

An interesting observation Windows Central makes here is that we don’t know how far AI uninstallation capabilities will reach – and whether that might include getting rid of Copilot? Yes, Copilot is in the cloud right now (so not on your PC anyway, or at least its ‘brain’ isn’t, only the interface), but Microsoft seemingly has plans to make the AI local – and if so, it’s possible that it could be made removable.

We doubt it, mind you, seeing as Copilot is such a central aspect of the OS – but at least some components relating to AI should be viable for uninstallation if this new finding is anything to go by.

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Windows 11 is getting a voice-powered ability many users have been longing for, as Microsoft kills off Windows Speech Recognition for the far superior Voice Access tech
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Windows 11 has a new preview build which further improves Voice Access, an area Microsoft has been putting a lot of effort into of late.

Preview build 22635.2915 (KB5033456) has just been rolled out to the Beta channel, and one of the additions is the ability to make customized voice shortcuts.

Using this feature, you can specify a trigger phrase for the command, and then the command itself.

Microsoft gives an example of an ‘insert work address’ command which when given automatically pastes in the specified address of your workplace. Anytime you need that putting into a document you’re working on, you just say the command – which is quite the timesaver.

Language support for Voice Access has also been extended, and now the following are included (on top of the existing languages): French (France), French (Canada), German, Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Mexico).

Finally for voice features, multiple monitors are now supported, meaning that when you summon a grid overlay – for directing mouse clicks to certain areas of the desktop – you can do so on any of the screens connected to your PC. (Before now, the grid overlay could only be used on the primary display).

You can switch your focus to another monitor simply by using a letter (A, B, C and so on) or its phonetic equivalent (Alpha, Bravo, etc).

Microsoft further notes that there’s a drag and drop feature to move files or shortcuts from one display to another.

Elsewhere in build 22635, screen casting in Windows 11 has been improved, with a help option now in the Cast flyout from Quick Settings. This can be clicked if you’re having trouble piping your desktop to another screen and want some troubleshooting advice.

Users are also getting the ability to rename their device for the Nearby Sharing feature to help identify it more easily.

For the full list of changes and fixes in this Beta build, peruse Microsoft’s blog post.

Voice Access shortcuts

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: Custom capers

This is some useful work with Voice Access, and those with multiple monitors who use the feature will of course be very pleased, no doubt. Voice shortcuts is a powerful addition into the mix for voice functionality, too, and with this, there are a good deal of options.

Not just pasting a section of text as we mention in the example above, but also tasks can be triggered such as opening specified URLs in a browser, or opening a file or folder. You can combine multiple actions too, along with functions like mouse clicks or key presses. This is a feature we’ve been wanting for some time, so it’s great to see it arrive.

It’s also worth noting that Windows Speech Recognition has been removed from Windows 11 in this build, and when you open that old app, you’ll now get a message informing you of its deprecation, and recommending the far superior Voice Access capability instead.

We’re hoping that in the future, Voice Access is going to become an even more central part of the Windows 11 interface, and it seems a great candidate to be driven forward with AI – and maybe incorporated into Copilot.

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Microsoft introduces Copilot AI to Windows 10 – but there are reasons you might not get it
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Windows 10 has now got the Copilot AI with the latest patch for the release version of the OS – or at least some users have.

The cumulative update for December, which just arrived (patch KB5033372), debuts Copilot (in preview) on the desktop, as well as applying the usual security fixes, and a few extra features besides.

Copilot’s icon is positioned on the taskbar, at the far right in the system tray. However, if you don’t see the AI assistant on your taskbar after installing KB5033372, that could be due to a slight complication for Windows 10 users regarding the interface, which we’ll come back to shortly.

Or it might be simply because this is a limited rollout of the AI to begin with. As Microsoft notes: “[Copilot] is available to a small audience initially and deploys more broadly in the months that follow.”

If you do see the Copilot icon, and don’t want the AI on your desktop, the good news is that you can right-click to disable it, as Windows Latest reports.

The December update for Windows 10 also gives the News & Interests panel more screen real-estate, and it introduces another feature from Windows 11 aside from Copilot.

That’s the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they are available’ option, which as the name suggests, is a way to offer up your PC to get updates as soon as possible – with the catch that you may experience wonkiness as an early adopter. But more choice is always good in our book.

Analysis: Sidestepping Copilot

Copilot is the major move here, of course, but what about that mentioned interface issue? Well, there’s a problem for those who’ve moved their taskbar away from the bottom of the screen, and to the side, in Windows 10. Admittedly, that’s a niche set of users who are seriously into their desktop customization, but still, there are people who will likely be annoyed by this.

Microsoft informs us: “Copilot in Windows (in preview) is not currently supported when your taskbar is located vertically on the right or left of your screen.”

The obvious workaround, as Microsoft points out, is to move your taskbar back to the bottom of the screen (or the top). If you’re a hardcore customizer, though, relocating your taskbar from its preferred vertical position at the sides will probably mess with your mojo and workflow in a meaningful way.

At any rate, Microsoft tells us that it’s working on resolving this hiccup with the UI, and will keep us updated as to the progress on that fix.

The reason this isn’t a problem in Windows 11, by the way, is that you can’t move the taskbar away from the bottom of the desktop (much to the chagrin of those mentioned keen desktop tinkerers).

At the moment, Copilot is only on a limited rollout anyway, and it could take months to arrive on any given Windows 10 PC – but at least the process has now kicked off.

You’re not missing that much, mind, given the AI’s current condition, where it’s basically just a glorified version of the Bing chatbot (now renamed Copilot itself). It can manipulate some Windows settings, but not many to begin with – that functionality will be ramped up as the months pass, though.

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