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Windows 11 is getting two new features that’ll save you time in spades
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The latest preview build for Windows 11 shows off a new Settings homepage, complete with fresh backup capabilities for the OS.

This is build 22631 in the Beta channel, and the Settings homepage is a major move that’s been in the works for a while (it was previously seen in earlier test channels).

The homepage shows some status details along the top – the name of the PC, internet connection status, and when Windows Update last checked for updates – and a bunch of panels with various bits of info underneath.

Those panels (Microsoft calls them ‘cards’) include cloud storage details (OneDrive) – and how full it is – and a personalization panel that offers the ability to quickly change the Windows theme or color mode.

Another important card offers up recommended settings, providing access to recently used settings, or ones that you use a lot based on your past history of tweaking Windows 11.

Microsoft has also implemented panels for Xbox (with details like your Game Pass subscription, if you have one), and a card for Bluetooth devices to give you quick access to all the peripherals you might hook up wirelessly with.

Windows 11 Settings Homepage

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The other big introduction here is a revamped backup system for restoring your Windows 11 environment to a new PC (or your existing one, should the OS somehow crash and burn irrevocably).

The Windows Backup app is on hand for beta testers to back up their PC. When restoring Windows 11, the app will pull in all your settings and customization, as well as your pins on the taskbar and Start menu, and Microsoft Store apps. (Third-party apps from elsewhere will still get their pins kept on, but you’ll be directed to download the relevant installer from the web when you first fire them up).

Elsewhere in build 22631, there’s been a change to Dynamic Lighting whereby the Windows 11 accent color can be synced with your RGB peripherals, a neat little touch.

As expected, there are a bunch of bug fixes and other minor features, all of which are summarized in Microsoft’s blog post about the preview build.

Windows 11 Backup App

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: Time is of the essence

The theme here is timesaving. The new Settings homepage lets you easily adjust customization elements, and change commonly used settings in a single click, all in one place (rather than having to hunt in different Settings submenus, and let’s face it, these can be a bit of a maze to navigate at times, perhaps requiring Googling to find things).

Another major timesaver is the ability to have all your bits and pieces where you left them when restoring your PC from the Backup app. Having to redo all your customization and pinned elements is a real drag – a potentially lengthy process, and you may even forget stuff – so this is very helpful.

With these features progressing to the Beta channel, they’re coming close to arrival now. The next step is the Release Preview channel, and from there, it’s a short hop to what’ll surely be inclusion in the Windows 11 23H2 update due later this year.

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Not upgraded to Windows 11 yet? You could miss out on faster Wi-Fi as a result
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A leaked Intel document has seemingly confirmed that users on Windows 10 and older operating systems won’t be able to enjoy Wi-Fi 7 when it launches next year.

The document, posted on Twitter by leaker @g01d3nm4ng0, lists Windows 11, Linux, and ChromeOS as supported platforms for the new Wi-Fi standard. While it isn’t explicitly stated that Windows 10 won’t be supported, it’s not an unreasonable extrapolation to make. 

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Wi-Fi 7 is expected to provide some seriously advanced data transmission techniques to offer speeds potentially close to five times faster than Wi-Fi 6, along with superior reliability, range, and power efficiency. Intel has been leading the charge to implement the new technology as early as 2024, so it’s unsurprising that’s where this leak originated from.

That being said, it likely isn’t Intel’s fault that Windows 10 (and presumably older versions of Windows) won’t support the new Wi-Fi standard. Microsoft has had a hard time pushing Windows 11 to users, and this is just another factor the tech giant can point to and say ‘look, you’re missing out on this!’

The death knell of Windows 10

Let’s face it: we’re going to have to let go of Windows 10 eventually. With Windows 12 just peeking over the horizon, it was inevitable that some new features wouldn’t make the cut for our beloved 10.

Still, it’s a shame to see Microsoft so aggressively pushing forward – especially when it’s arguably ahead of the curve when it comes to its operating system. Windows Copilot and the general slew of AI-powered updates for the OS show that Microsoft doesn’t even need version 12 to innovate in Windows, so why keep pushing ahead with major version releases like this?

Frustrations have been fairly widespread with regard to Windows 11, hampering adoption in a big way despite Microsoft offering free upgrades for existing Windows users. Part of the problem is the strict hardware requirements for Win11, which entirely prevent some users from upgrading past Windows 10 (the TPM 2.0 requirement is a particular sticking point here). Early leaks have suggested that Windows 12 will also come with new minimum system requirements, locking out even more people on outdated builds.

Still, if you can upgrade to Windows 11 and have simply been putting it off out of laziness or distrust of the new OS, now might be the time to start considering it. Wi-Fi 7 devices and routers aren’t available yet, but when they do arrive, you won’t want to find yourself stuck with slower wireless internet speeds just because you didn’t upgrade!

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Windows 11 update crashes and burns on some PCs due to ‘unsupported CPU’ error
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Windows 11 has a new spanner in the works with the latest update for the operating system, a worrying one that crashes the PC with an ‘unsupported processor’ error.

The Verge reports that they – and other folks on Reddit – have experienced this error, and that it happened after installing the KB5029351 update for Windows 11 22H2. Note that this is a preview update, so it’s optional and doesn’t have to be installed (it won’t be downloaded unless you manually check for updates and choose to do so).

In affected cases, after installing the update, a Blue Screen of Death appears with the mentioned error message about the CPU not being supported by Windows 11, and the PC then reboots.

The good news is that the system apparently recovers and rolls back the patch, according to reports (and The Verge says this is what happened to them).

Microsoft has acknowledged the problem, and advises: “KB5029351 might automatically uninstall to allow Windows to start up as expected.”

The common factor among those who have encountered this bug is that they have an MSI motherboard (with an Intel CPU) that has been updated to the most recent BIOS release.

Microsoft informs us: “We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft. We will provide an update when more information is available.”

Analysis: Prevention measures in place – but there’s still scope for concern

While we’re all likely aware that Windows 11 brought in some much stricter requirements for supported CPUs compared to Windows 10, being told that their processor was unsupported probably caused a few folks to almost fall out of their chairs.

As reported, the error should allow the PC to reboot and uninstall the update to go back to normal, but Microsoft’s use of the term ‘might’ automatically uninstall in its advisory does leave some room for concern. What if it doesn’t? That could be a nasty problem indeed.

The good news is that Microsoft has now instigated measures to prevent the Windows 11 update in question from being delivered to PCs that will be affected (those with Intel chipset-toting MSI motherboards on that most recent BIOS). So, at this point, you don’t have to worry – if you do fall into this group of PC owners, the patch will be pulled, and you won’t be offered it under Windows Update.

The remaining concern, then, is that this optional preview patch becomes the full (mandatory) update for Windows 11 22H2 in September. So Microsoft will have to make very sure this bug is fully squashed by that time – or that MSI addresses it with a new BIOS update that happens in a swift manner, if it isn’t a glitch in the Windows matrix.

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New Tiny10 – the streamlined Windows 10 OS – could be your best bet for bringing an old PC back to life
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Tiny10 came out with a new version back in June, and now it’s been considerably improved by the developer, so those looking for a lightweight spin on Windows 10 to put on an old PC might be more tempted to take the plunge.

You may recall that the improved version of Tiny10 released a couple of months back was the 64-bit (x64) variant, which offers numerous advantages in terms of better security and performance over the old 32-bit incarnation. (This means you should run it, providing you have a 64-bit CPU, which is most likely the case – we cover this in more detail here).

That was the first release of Tiny10 x64 and now the developer, NTDEV, has pushed out a major refresh (the 23H2 version) which applies a lot of fixing work and more besides (as Neowin spotted).

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We’re told that Tiny10 x64 23H2 fixes “lots of nagging issues” and the rebuild of the OS ensures that it has full compatibility with “most” Windows components, meaning you can add bits and pieces back in post-installation, if critical parts of Windows 10 that you really want are missing.

Analysis: Sizeable improvements to a Tiny OS

While Tiny10 is all about streamlining Windows 10 and cutting everything right back so it’ll run on very old hardware, it’s good to have the ability to, say, reintroduce Windows Media Player into the mix if you want to. (Previously, the app didn’t work with Tiny10 x64).

This refresh of Tiny10 has also stripped back the Windows 10 installation provided even more, removing some little-used features such as, for example, OCR (optical character recognition).

The end result should be a smoother-running OS, and a slightly more compact one, albeit you do have more scope for reintroducing key Windows components should you want to.

In theory, Tiny10 can work on an ancient PC with as little as 1GB of RAM (although the official requirement is 2GB) and 16GB of storage space. The caveat with the OS (and Tiny11, the equivalent streamlined spin on Windows 11) is that you are using a modified Windows installation (ISO) file, and you cannot be exactly sure of the contents of that file.

You may want to be cautious in that regard, then, but both Tiny operating systems have been used quite considerably at this point with no complaints. Still, as ever with software downloads from the wild, you proceed at your own risk.

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Microsoft could be planning to infuse Windows 11 with AI in every corner
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Windows 11 could get AI enhancements for a bunch of its core apps in the future, according to a well-known source of leaks on all things Microsoft.

Zac Bowden (of Windows Central) informs us Microsoft is considering bolstering a ‘handful’ of the default apps in Windows 11 with AI functionality, and that includes Photos, Snipping Tool, Paint, and the Camera app.

The idea for Photos is that with images containing people or objects, the AI could identify these and give the user the ability to order them to be cut out and pasted to another image (or document, or wherever).

With Paint, the idea might be to usher in generative AI, meaning you could ask the app to create something specific (in the same vein that the Bing chatbot can knock up a composition of an image when given a brief).

For the Snipping Tool, the idea is to introduce OCR (optical character recognition) which could allow the tool to pick up on text in screenshots, facilitating the extraction of those words to the clipboard. The Camera app may also get a similar OCR trick to pull out text from photos.

Bowden underlines that these ideas are still at the experimental stage, and it’s not clear when they might come to Windows 11.

Analysis: Windows 11 or Windows AI?

The fact that these capabilities are experimental suggests that they may not be coming to Windows 11 in the near future (if they ever do – this is just speculation, after all). Who knows, though – Microsoft could have a lot of the groundwork in place (for example, the image creation functionality already in Bing AI), and it could happen faster than we think.

Certainly, these are going to be very handy features if they do arrive in Windows 11. They’ll cut corners in impressively swift ways – pulling text out of photos more or less instantly, for example, and cutting out a person from an image in the blink of an eye (a painstaking task when performed manually, of course).

So, what’s the catch? Well, apart from the rumored nature of these AI features, Bowden does observe that they may have hardware requirements in some cases. That could include the presence of a VPU or vision processing unit, for example (a capability set to be built into Intel’s next-gen Meteor Lake CPUs, which speeds up AI-based tasks).

All of the above-mentioned features sound realistic inclusions for Windows 11 at some point, beefing up the operating system’s core apps considerably, and fitting neatly alongside Windows Copilot in making the OS a more AI-driven experience all-round.

If this rumor makes one thing clearer, it’s Microsoft’s ambition to infuse Windows 11 with AI in every corner – or maybe next-gen Windows, which as Bowden observes, will incorporate AI more ‘significantly.’ Perhaps that’ll be Windows 12, as rumored, or maybe the next incarnation of the OS could called Windows AI, even?

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Microsoft’s latest trick for Edge could be the closest Windows 10 users get to Copilot AI
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Microsoft’s Edge browser has a new version which brings in some fresh features including the ability to detach the sidebar and move it onto the desktop for Windows 10 users.

This ability has been introduced with version 116 of Edge, as spotted by Ghacks, and it comes alongside the usual bug fixes and smoothing out of performance issues.

The Edge sidebar normally nestles on the right-hand side of the browser, but now, those on Windows 10 can pop it out of the browser window, and place it on their desktop.

The idea is to facilitate a “side-by-side experience” with the sidebar and any Windows 10 app, with the feature remaining present on the desktop, even if the Edge browser itself is closed.

So, this is kind of like having two taskbars on your desktop, if you will, with one of them being Edge-specific.

The Edge sidebar offers quick access to various bits of functionality, such as pinned websites, and Microsoft’s tools like Bing AI.

Analysis: Substitute Copilot – at least in a small way

This is a useful option that’s opt-in as Microsoft makes clear, so if you’re not interested in having the Edge sidebar on your Windows 10 desktop, you’ll never need to bother with it. For those who do want access to its features independently of the browser window, it’s clearly a handy choice to have.

Indeed, when you remember that Microsoft’s Copilot AI is only coming to Windows 11, this is actually a way of getting something a little like this on Windows 10. We’ve already seen that Microsoft plans to incorporate Copilot into the Edge sidebar, after all, so you’ll be able to deploy this on the desktop, in the same vein as Windows Copilot.

Granted, the functionality of Copilot for Edge will be nowhere near as useful as the full version of Copilot – which theoretically will be able to change all manner of Windows settings in the blink of an eye – but it’s something.

And Microsoft is going to work on adding “additional features and options” to the sidebar with future incarnations of Edge, as you might imagine. The sidebar isn’t going away, in short, for Windows 10 or 11 users, and is seemingly a key part of Microsoft’s ambition to make Edge one of the best web browsers out there.

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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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Windows 11 update install failures are reportedly happening again – and it’s breaking the built-in antivirus
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Windows 11 has reportedly run into problems with its latest cumulative update, with the upgrade failing to install for some folks, and breaking Microsoft Defender in other cases.

Windows Latest has rounded up the latest batch of complaints regarding a cumulative update for Windows 11, in this case KB5029263, which is the mandatory upgrade for August.

As mentioned, some users are reporting installation failures with KB5029263, and the other annoyance here is that the failed update keeps offering itself over and over, constantly lurking as a red dot (update pending warning) on the taskbar (system tray).

Readers of Windows Latest have complained directly to the tech site about this, and there are affected Windows 11 users venting on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub.

On the Feedback Hub there are also scattered complaints of some more serious gremlins in the works with this August update. That includes the update getting stuck before it completes (and getting stuck again on subsequent installation attempts), and also File Explorer failing to work (meaning you can’t explore folders on the desktop).

KB5029263 is apparently also messing with Microsoft Defender, Windows 11’s built-in security app – which now ranks pretty highly among the best free antivirus – in some cases. Some users are seeing the following error when opening the app: ‘Unable to log into Microsoft Defender.’

Analysis: Defender fix is inbound, apparently

On the last point, Windows Latest reckons that this error could be the result of a clash between the security fixes in the August update, and a separate new update for Microsoft Defender.

While Microsoft hasn’t officially acknowledged any of the above problems, including the apparent cases of Defender coming off the rails, Windows Latest claims it talked to a support engineer at the company. That Microsoft employee confirmed the issue and said it will be fixed by an update soon. (An update to either Defender, or one applied to the OS via Windows Update, but one way or another, a cure is seemingly in the pipeline).

The mentioned installation failures are nothing new, and it seems to be depressingly commonplace these days that some Windows 11 PCs will fail to successfully run the update process. This may be a small minority affected, but it’s a frustrating situation to be caught in – as you are, of course, left without all the latest security fixes. Those are important to say the least.

The other vital element provided by KB5029263, at least for those who have been affected by the issue, is the fix for a bug causing huge slowdowns with some SSDs (or at least this cures the majority of cases, it seems). You might own one of the fastest, best SSDs out there, but with its performance levels cut in half (potentially), it won’t look so clever. And if you can’t install the August patch to (hopefully) smooth over the issue, that’s going to be pretty irritating.

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Windows 10 gets some love from Microsoft with updated Photos app
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Despite concentrating on its latest version of Windows, it seems Microsoft is still keen to bring new features to the ageing Windows 10, with a revamped Photos app apparently coming soon.

After bringing the Windows Backup app to Windows 10, after initially only offering it to Windows 11 users, there's been a further indication that Microsoft will continue making features and apps that were originally thought to be only for Windows 11 also available for Windows 10.

The next such app to join the Windows Backup app is the modernized Photos app, as reported by Neowin and X (formerly Twitter) user @techosausrex. The early preview version of the app is now supported in Windows 10, giving a pretty solid nod that it will be released in a future Windows 10 update.

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The new Photos app for Windows 10

It has also apparently been somewhat confirmed by Microsoft as the current version of the Windows 10 Photos app now states that “a new update for the Photos app is coming soon with exciting enhancements,” as evidenced by Neowin.

What users can expect in the new Photos app is a more sophisticated interface, improvements to photo library management, better integration with OneDrive, a refined “Memories” feature, a multi-window capability and multi-screen usability, and upgraded abilities to import from external sources.  Another anticipated development is that the built-in video editor will be swapped out for Microsoft’s web-based video editor, Clipchamp. 

How to install the new Photos app

If you’d like to try the new Photos app for Windows app before it’s available in a future update, you can do so by following these steps: 

First, you need to go to https://store.rg-adguard.net. 

This will allow you to generate a direct link for the new Photos app from the Microsoft store. 

Second, make sure the first drop-down menu shows “URL (link)” and paste this link into the long middle URL box: 

https://www.microsoft.com/store/productid/9WZDNCRFJBH4 

Third, in the smaller drop-down box next to the URL box, select “Fast” and click the checkmark button directly next to it. 

Then, you may have to scroll down a bit (if you can’t see the long list of available links) which should show up in a table. You want to find the link that looks exactly like this: 

Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2023.11080.4003.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle

Next, you have to right-click this link and from the menu that appears, select Save link as. Allow for your device to download the file. 

Finally, you’ll want to open the file you just downloaded and click Update. This will prompt Windows 10 to update the app and allow you to open it. 

Woman using free video editing software on laptop

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Things for users to consider

It’s worth noting that the Windows 10 Photos updated app won’t work exactly like the Windows 11 version, at least for now. For instance, the Windows 11 Photos app allows for iCloud integration as the Windows 10 version doesn’t. Also, if you install the updated Photos app and find that you don’t like it as much as the older app, there’s an easy way to downgrade to the previous version. You can go to Settings in the Photos app and click the Get Photos Legacy button, and this should revert your Photos app.

I appreciate Microsoft’s approach to enable users to adjust their Windows experience to their liking, no matter what version they are using. If you like the older version of the operating system, you can get most apps and features in Windows 10 that you’d find in Windows 11. 

Microsoft’s continued support for Windows 10 by bringing new apps and features to the older operating system, despite the existence of Windows 11 (which the company clearly wants its users to upgrade to), is good to see, and hopefully will put pressure on other companies (especially Apple and Google) to continue to bring new features that are compatible with older operating systems.

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Microsoft seems to have fixed Windows 11’s horrible SSD slowdown bug – kind of
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Windows 11’s latest update has fixed a persistent bug with SSD slowdown for many users, according to a new report – though sadly, the gremlin is still hampering the drives of some folks.

Windows Latest has the story on this one, claiming to have heard from multiple readers that the August cumulative update for Windows 11 has done the trick, and that it believes the SSD bug has been ‘largely resolved.’

As we’ve seen, this bug has been hanging around for some time. It first made its presence known back in March 2023 (courtesy of the cumulative update for that month), and in every update for Windows 11 since then, we’ve seen further reports of the problem (or complaints that it still hasn’t been cured).

As Windows Latest notes, they observed that SSD performance improved with the optional (preview) update for Windows 11 in July, and that this has now been released as the full cumulative update for August.

And now, readers of the tech site have been saying that the SSD bug is resolved for them.

One reader wrote: “In the world of DevOps, I/O performance is king. After the March update, it was like driving a sports car with a clogged fuel filter. This recent August update has fixed NVMe SSD problems for us, but it has also shed light on the need for Microsoft to improve its quality assurance processes.”

Another commented: “I manage a fleet of systems, and the sluggish SSD issue from the March update was a glaring anomaly. Had to provisionally look for third-party solutions just to keep things moving. With the August update now deployed across the board, I see consistent disk performance across our devices. Grateful for the fix, but it’s a reminder of how crucial thorough testing is before rolling out any software updates.”

However, as mentioned, not every user has the cure provided with the August update, and some are still lamenting slower than normal SSD speeds.

For example, this Redditor tells us: “For me it isn’t fixed yet, but the most frustrating thing is that Microsoft never [acknowledged] if this issue even exists or not. So we never know if they fixed it or not. But if it doesn’t exist then many of us wouldn’t have the issue right? What I am noticing is that less people are complaining about it in the recent updates so maybe it’s fixed for some.”

Analysis: Microsoft must do better

This bug has been a seriously annoying one, and as we’ve seen recently, there’s been an outpouring of complaints about the fact that it has persisted since March, and Microsoft – while acknowledging bug reports relating to the issue – has not said anything publicly about a solution.

That latter part has definitely compounded frustrations here, as if it wasn’t bad enough that even the best SSDs have been reduced to something more akin to a snail’s pace with this glitch, Microsoft’s lack of communication has been inexcusable, really.

So, the good news here is that the bug is apparently mostly fixed. The bad news, on the other hand, is that some folks are still affected, and Microsoft still hasn’t filled us in with any comment regarding what’s going on here.

We can but hope that the remaining users still suffering at the hands of this bug find their SSDs are once again up to speed with September’s update, but who knows. It’d definitely be nice to hear from Microsoft about why this bug has been such a problem (evidently), and that it’ll finally be put to bed in the immediate future.

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