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Windows 11 Moment 3 is coming to all PCs next month, whether you like it or not
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Windows 11’s feature update known as Moment 3 arrived last month, didn’t it? Well technically, yes, but the update hasn’t been piped to everyone, only some users; it’ll fully roll out next month.

So, what exactly is going on here? As Windows Latest points out, the folks who have already got Moment 3 features as part of June’s cumulative update (released 10 days ago) are those who have turned on the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ option (under Windows Update settings).

What seems to be happening, going by other reports and user feedback we’ve seen online (on top of Windows Latest’s findings), is that this is a gradual (phased) rollout, with those who have flicked that particular setting on being prioritized. Others are getting the June update but without Moment 3 features enabled.

However, come next month, everyone is going to get Moment 3 features fully enabled on their Windows 11 PC, with the July cumulative update (due on July 11, ‘Patch Tuesday’).

Windows Latest observes: “We have also spotted references to Patch Tuesday of July 2023 having the Moment 3 improvements turned on by default.”

Indeed, the same is true for the optional update for June, which is about to turn up. That’s the July patch in test (preview) form, so it’s the same content, but with the proviso that it might come with some bugs (as with any early release).

Analysis: many Moments so far…

If you’ve been reading about Moment 3 and its raft of new features – and some of them are pretty cool, including our five favorites we picked out here – you might also be wondering why you hadn’t got these yet.

Well, now you know, and it’s not long before this phased rollout will be opened up to everyone running Windows 11. You’ll have Moment 3 features by mid-July at the latest.

Since Microsoft introduced the idea of Moments – which are feature updates outside of the big annual feature drop, and are necessary since the two major feature updates per year cadence (H1, H2) was reduced to one (H2) – the company has been pushing them out at some pace. We only had Moment 2 in February, so it was just four months afterwards that the Moment 3 rollout kicked off.

Of course, all attention will now be turning towards 23H2 – the major annual update for this year – which should bring in all sorts of goodies. Including, we hope, ‘never combine’ for the taskbar, and maybe Microsoft’s Copilot AI, which is certainly rumored for inclusion (though we have our doubts – that’ll likely depend on how well testing goes, which should start later this month).

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New Windows 11 users might be confused by this full-screen pop-up
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Windows 11 and Windows 10 users might be faced with a rather odd-seeming full-screen pop-up after they’ve upgraded, pertaining to Windows Hello logins using facial recognition or a fingerprint.

Neowin spotted a Microsoft support document explaining that after June 13 – the day the most recent cumulative update was released for Windows 11 (and 10) – you might see the aforementioned pop-up panel if you’ve recently updated to a later version of Windows.

And it can also appear if you haven’t signed into your Windows device using Windows Hello in over a year, and you’ve just installed an update.

The prompt reads, “Choose if you want to keep signing in with your face or fingerprint,” then poses the question: “Do you want to keep storing your face or fingerprint data on this PC?”

If you choose ‘yes’ then nothing more needs to be done. If you decide you don’t want to use these biometric login methods any longer, when you click ‘no’ Windows will take you to the Settings app, where you can change your sign-in method.

Analysis: Permission to be confused, Captain

This is a strange one because we’re not told why Microsoft has decided this prompt is necessary. Has the software giant just spontaneously decided to check if users still want to continue with Windows Hello?

Well, if they haven’t used their biometric login for over a year, that seems like a fair enough helpful check to implement. However, that’s clearly not the full story, as folks who’ve used Windows Hello recently and regularly are seeing this panel too, if they’ve recently upgraded to a newer version of Windows 11 or 10. So why quiz them on the matter?

We’re not told, and that’s a bit confusing – it’d be nice to be given a reason. Could it be something to do with issues around login data permissions? Well, we’re just guessing here.

Whatever the case, it would really make sense to clarify the reason on the actual pop-up screen in Windows, or at least provide a link to that clarification for the curious. Just so people aren’t potentially confused about why they’re seeing the prompt on their PC.

Granted, plenty of folks may not care, and in the bigger picture, this is a very minor inconvenience, but still, the whole episode just seems a bit odd to us – the support document is all well and good, but doesn’t tell the full story.

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Windows 11 preview is good news for gamers – but bad news for everyone else
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Windows 11 has a new preview build, this time in the Release Preview channel, which introduces a whole bunch of changes – both good and bad.

Most of this stuff has already been seen in earlier test builds (Canary, Dev, or Beta channels), and Windows 11 build 22621.1926 (KB5027303) represents all these features progressing towards release.

Now that they’re in Release Preview, this is the final step before these various features turn up in the full version of Windows 11 at some point in the near(ish) future.

So, let’s get the bad news out of the way first, namely that Microsoft has announced in the blog post for this preview build that adverts (which the company calls ‘badging’ – we’ll come back to that) on the Start menu are moving towards a broader rollout.

Microsoft explains: “This update expands the roll out of notification badging for Microsoft accounts on the Start menu. A Microsoft account is what connects Windows to your Microsoft apps. The account backs up all your data and helps you to manage your subscriptions.”

The company adds: “This feature gives you quick access to important account-related notifications.”

With that out of the way, the better news that caught our eye for gamers is that improved mouse performance is on the way.

Microsoft tells us that when using a mouse with a high polling rate – so any of the contenders for best gaming mouse in other words, designed for accurate and precise mousing – you’ll now get better performance. This is thanks to any stuttering being reduced for these kinds of mice, so that’s a big thumbs-up there.

Another interesting point to note with this preview build is a broad assertion that: “This update affects the reliability of Windows. It improves after you update the OS.”

Anything that ushers in better stability must be a good thing too, naturally.

Analysis: an ominous sign

It’s great to see the improvement for high polling rate gaming mice, which will help not just for shooters – where you might typically think accuracy is crucial, and of course, it is – but also for, say, real-time strategy games.

The ability to smoothly mouse around and quickly and precisely select units, for example, can’t be underestimated. Whatever game you play, smoother and more accurate mouse movement is a major plus point.

What’s bugging us here is the continued push with badging in the Start menu. Badging is a term Microsoft employs which basically translates to light-touch advertising. Yes, the company might argue these are simply nudges to help you sort out various elements of your computing life related to Windows, but really, they’re thinly veiled ads to use Microsoft products and services.

In this case, the cajoling is to push you towards signing up for a Microsoft Account, with Windows 11 telling you about the security (and other) benefits of doing so in these notifications which appear in the Start menu.

The expanded rollout of this badging previously happened in the Dev channel, but the fact that it has carried forward to the final preview stage before the release version of Windows 11 is rather ominous.

This further progression of the rollout in testing suggests that this is something Microsoft is determined to forge ahead with. If that does indeed play out, we can only hope that Microsoft gives users an option to disable this kind of ‘help’ feature (but we aren’t holding our breath on that score).

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Windows 11 has a hidden ‘emergency restart’ feature you probably don’t know about
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Windows 11 has an ‘emergency restart’ feature that’s tucked away, and you’ve likely never seen it, but the function could come in handy if your PC freezes up.

Indeed, this option has been hidden deep in the restart machinery of Microsoft’s OS since Windows Vista, apparently (so yes, it’s in Windows 10 as well as 11, and all the other outdated incarnations of Windows going back to the big ‘V’).

What exactly does this feature do? It reboots your PC when all has gone awry, with the warning: “Click OK to immediately restart. Any unsaved data will be lost. Use this only as a last resort.”

Can’t you just reboot your PC anyway, using the Start menu (Power button)? Indeed you can, and that’s the way to go normally, but the emergency restart option is for situations where the interface has partly fallen over when your system has frozen, and the Start menu is unresponsive (or a crashed app is interfering with the reboot process, stalling it).

In such cases, as Betanews discovered, you can press CTRL+ALT+DELETE together, and here’s the clever bit, hold down the CTRL key and click on the Power button at the bottom-right of the screen (the icon that’s a little circle with a line at 12 o’clock).

That will put you into the Emergency Restart screen, with the message mentioned above, so you can then click OK and an emergency reboot will be performed.

Analysis: A useful extra escape route – but not without risks

This is a pretty cool ability to have, because if you can’t action a normal reboot (via the Start menu) for whatever reason – including a crashed application messing that option up, as mentioned – you can (hopefully) access this emergency restart.

Now, Microsoft only advises it as a last resort (and this is maybe why the feature isn’t documented, too) because it’s a short and sharp reboot that doesn’t bother with any of the pleasantries that a normal restart executes. Meaning all that housekeeping stuff that really should be done before shutting down the system. It quickly kills everything and turns off the system without safeguards, but that comes with some risks (data corruption is the most obvious potential peril that springs to mind).

However, and this is the key bit, it’s still a (somewhat) safer option than physically powering off your PC when it has locked up (by pressing the reset button, if your computer has one, or holding down the power button – or simply yanking out the plug, which is the real last resort).

So, if you can’t reboot any other way, this is a useful last-ditch method to know about. Of course, if your PC has frozen to the extent that even CTRL+ALT+DELETE doesn’t do anything, then you’ll have no choice but to turn to the power switch (or plug).

While we’re on the subject of cool Windows 11 shortcuts you might not know about, here’s another one we were reminded of on Twitter this morning. As Jen Gentlemen, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, points out, any time you want live captions to appear in a game or when watching a video (if the source content doesn’t have its own captions), just press the Windows key + CTRL + L together to swiftly turn them on.

Via PC Gamer, PC World

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Don’t ask ChatGPT or Google Bard for a Windows 11 key – here’s why
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There’s been a flurry of reports of ChatGPT and Google Bard providing users with serial keys for Windows 11 (or Windows 10), but as you might guess, these don’t appear to be fully functional (and neither is it a good idea to seek out this method of getting an OS up and running – we’ll come back to why later on).

Neowin reported on some of these incidents, as flagged up on Twitter by Sid, who posted about Windows 10 Pro keys being provided by both ChatGPT (which powers Bing AI) and Google’s Bard chatbot.

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Sid also posted about successfully getting an upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro using the same method (which we also witnessed nabbing Windows 7 keys previously, last week – as discovered by Enderman).

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Indeed, we’ve seen a post on Reddit that a code requested for Windows 7 Ultimate actually worked for Windows 11 Pro (add seasoning with all these claims, of course – it’s not hard to find further reports along such lines across various online forums).

Analysis: Don’t be tempted…

So, what’s going on here? For starters, as you can see if you sift through these various threads, a large number of these keys don’t work anyway. However, some folks are having success with at least a small number of the provided serial keys, and they’re getting Windows 10 or 11 to install (or firing up an upgrade to Pro).

The advice given to those who can’t get one to work is simply to keep trying, but even if you do stumble upon one that’s good for starting the installation of the OS, that isn’t the end of the story.

The thing is these appear to be generic installation keys, meaning they allow for installation of a given Windows version, but crucially, not activation. These generic keys are freely available and designed for anyone who wants to, for example, try out an OS on their machine to make sure it works, or get a flavor of it.

In other words, going ahead with the installation (or upgrade process, in some cases) with one of these keys that seems to work at first glance might well end in heartache when you realize it can’t be activated – and you'll eventually have to revert your PC back to how it was. In short, you’ll be going through a lot of hassle for nothing.

What the chatbot is seemingly doing is pulling generic keys off a website somewhere (these aren’t hard to find, all you need to do is a simple web search). As Neowin informs us, when it tried the same stunt, Bard even pointed out that the key was from an old PC (and, amusingly, ChatGPT said that keys were for “personal use only and should not be used for any illegal activities”).

Even if, somehow, one of these keys does work and turns out to be valid for activation – which admittedly there are reports of too (here, have the salt shaker) – we still think that at some point, you’ll inevitably pay the price for circumventing paying for a product, which after all is piracy. Blaming it on a chatbot giving you the code is not going to be a credible defense – you’ve still gone ahead and knowingly done something illegal.

To sum up, then, you’re best off ignoring these whisperings of free serial keys, and we’d be surprised if you got one that works for actual validation (and continues to work going forward – because there are no guarantees with a key obtained via dodgy means). Is it worth living under the shadow of the potential of your OS installation going defunct at some stage down the line thanks to that key? In our book, no, it isn’t – and as we’ve already said, this is illegal, anyway. Steer well clear…

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Microsoft makes Bing’s AI chatbot easier to talk to in Windows 11
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Microsoft’s Bing AI just got a smart new feature, namely the ability to accept voice input on desktop PCs.

Voice input was already supported on mobiles, but now you can engage with the Bing chatbot asking queries via a microphone attached to your desktop PC. What’s more, the chatbot can reply with its own voice response (as Windows Central reports).

There are only a limited number of languages supported for voice input, mind you, at this stage. Those are as follows: English, French, German, Japanese and Mandarin.

We can doubtless expect more languages to be covered in the future, as Microsoft builds out this feature.

To use voice input, simply click the microphone icon in the Bing Chat box, and say your piece, then wait for the AI’s digitized voice response. The experience remains the same otherwise, as you might guess.

Analysis: Voice of the future

This is an important feature for the Bing AI, as it means that sessions with the chatbot feel like a more natural exchange – you’re talking, and the AI is replying with its voice. In other words, it’s more like a conversation than a search engine-like experience, which is Microsoft’s overall goal.

With the facility being on mobile already, it was only a matter of time before it was ported over for desktop users. More broadly, voice has been an area Microsoft has focused on considerably – witness the swift progress with Voice Access in Windows 11 in recent times (and in-line dictation in Microsoft Word, for that matter).

When Copilot lands in Windows 11 (supposedly testing will begin later in June), it’s easy to envisage that this infusion of AI will come with more voice-based controls, too.

However, the next big move for the Bing chatbot will be its introduction to other browsers besides Edge (with official support for Chrome and other major browsers inbound, as opposed to third-party plug-ins which are the only option currently).

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Windows 10 update is reportedly causing havoc for some users
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Windows 10’s latest patch is causing some problems with slow installations, or even complete failures to install, among other more worrying sounding bugs.

This is patch KB5027215, which doesn’t do anything except fix some security issues (remember, Windows 10 is not getting any new features from now on, save for maybe minor tweaks here and there, it’ll all be security work).

As Neowin spotted, there are complaints on Reddit that KB5027215 installs very slowly. One Redditor reports: “Only unusual thing that I noticed which others might have experienced is the long ‘cleaning up’ process post-update/pre-login on the reboot. That happens if you reboot for the cumulative update and the NET update at the same time.”

There are some other reports in that thread regarding the cumulative update for June completely failing to install (with the usual garbage error messages that mean nothing). Those instances are backed up by other users on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub.

There are also a couple of reports (from Redditors) that KB5027215 is causing more serious trouble, and in one case, it bricked the PC, and in another, Windows Update got stuck in a loop checking for updates.

Analysis: Be careful drawing conclusions

We must be careful about how much we read into reports of bricking devices, of course, when they are scattered findings. To illustrate this, in the above linked Reddit thread, there’s a complaint of a Windows 10 laptop going wonky post-update, with its charger no longer recognized, but it turns out that the cumulative update wasn’t to blame in this case.

In actual fact, it was a Dell firmware update pushed alongside patch KB5027215 which messed up the notebook’s charging functionality. So, while the initial reaction was to rage at the update – unsurprisingly – after investigation, KB5027215 was innocent here.

That said, the blame for pushing the new firmware directly to the laptop can be laid at the feet of Windows Update, which really shouldn’t be running that kind of firmware update automatically, in the background, without the user knowing. (It was not an update piped directly from Dell). So, this is still an issue Microsoft (indirectly) caused.

At any rate, the hints of serious trouble around KB5027215 may lead the cautious to pause this update for the time being, and that could be a wise decision. Hopefully Microsoft will investigate the issues flagged here, and any necessary fixes can be applied in a timely manner. The downside being that you’ll be left without those security measures brought in by KB5027215, of course.

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Windows 11 just got a huge new feature for the stylus, finally catching up with Apple’s iPad
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Windows 11 has implemented a major change for those who use a stylus, allowing for writing directly in the operating system’s interface and menus – though this is still in testing right now.

The move comes in preview build 23481 in the Dev Channel, where Windows Ink has been bolstered to allow for writing with a pen directly into, say, the search box in Windows 11.

The eventual goal, Microsoft notes in its blog post introducing the preview build, is to make it so you can write anywhere in Windows 11 with your pen. A further change has been applied to increase the accuracy of handwriting recognition, and also to bring in a ‘scratch out’ gesture to allow you to quickly edit (delete) text.

The catch is that so far this feature only supports English (US), but Microsoft assures us more languages are in the pipeline.

On top of this, build 23481 tweaks File Explorer to remove a bunch of outdated folder options. This is part of cleaning up this section of the interface ahead of a major revamp which is inbound for File Explorer, as you may have seen.

Finally, Microsoft has introduced a new Focus Session widget which allows users to quickly trigger (or halt) a session from the widget panel. And naturally, there’s the usual raft of minor tweaks, fixes, and known issues with this preview build as detailed in the full blog post.

Analysis: Playing catchup with Apple

The ability to write directly in the interface throughout Windows 11 is obviously going to be a major boon, but it’s a feature that is very much playing catchup with Apple. You may recall that Apple brought in its similar Scribble functionality with the Apple Pencil in iPadOS 14, which was released three years ago – so Microsoft has been slow to come to parity in this respect.

Not every Windows 11 tester will see the new Windows Ink capability either, as it’s a limited rollout to begin with, as Microsoft gauges early feedback. There are a number of known issues with the feature right now. (If you want to turn it on, you’ll find it in Settings > Bluetooth and devices > Pen and Windows Ink, where there’s a ‘Shell Handwriting’ option – though not for everyone yet, as noted).

Speaking of phased feature rollouts, preview build 23481 witnesses the completion of a few of these. That includes ‘never combined’ mode for the taskbar, and the ability to tear out (or merge) File Explorer tabs, both of which are now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev channel.

For us it’s great to see ‘never combined’ making good progress in testing, so surely that’ll be in the mix for the release version of Windows 11 later this year (and there’s every chance the same will be true for the new Windows Ink feature).

Via XDA Developers

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Windows 11’s latest update proves disastrous for some Chrome users
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The latest update for Windows 11 has totally broken Google’s Chrome browser for users of a popular antivirus app.

For Malwarebytes users, patch KB5027231 for Windows 11 22H2 causes Chrome to fail to work – the browser window simply doesn’t appear, even though there is a running Chrome instance in Task Manager.

Neowin spotted that Malwarebytes staff members have posted several times on the issue, to let affected folks know that the company is investigating and working on an update to fix the issue. Users also note that there’s no issue with Windows 10 and Chrome.

A Malwarebytes employee going by the forum name Msherwood posted to say: “We’re currently experiencing issues with Malwarebytes Exploit Protection and Chrome in Windows 11 where you’ll see Chrome crash. We suspect this is happening due to a Windows Update (KB5027231) that was released on June 13, 2023.

“We’re actively troubleshooting this and we’ll be back with more info as soon as possible.”

A further update to that post notes that there is a fix now in the beta of Malwarebytes 4.

Analysis: There is a fudged workaround, too

The good news is that if you don’t want to switch to the beta of Malwarebytes – and let’s face it, most folks won’t (beta software may well have problems of its own) – there is a workaround which has been successfully applied according to numerous reports.

Some people have simply turned off Malwarebytes Exploit Protection, but that leaves you vulnerable as you might imagine, and there’s a more targeted fudge as provided by another staff member at the company, Arthi.

That is to turn off Chrome as a protected app in Malwarebytes. To do this, go to Settings, and the Security tab, and under Exploit Protection, click the ‘Manage Protected Applications’ button. Then find Google Chrome in the list of apps and turn off the protection slider.

Obviously that still isn’t ideal, as Malwarebytes will no longer be protecting Chrome against exploits. If that makes you uncomfortable, the only other path is to uninstall the Windows update (KB5027231) and live without it until the security company provides a full fix. That should be soon enough, given that the cure is already in beta as mentioned.

There is one other workaround suggested by Arthi, and this is to set Chrome as your default browser in Windows 11 (if it isn’t already, obviously). However, a couple of reports in the customer support thread suggest that this didn’t make any difference.

It’s worth a shot, though, seeing as this is a workaround which won’t hinder your level of security with Chrome (turning off exploit protection certainly does).

Interestingly, there’s a claim that Malwarebytes isn’t the only antivirus vendor affected, and an ESET user reckons they have encountered it – and that the problem is caused by having any other Chromium browser set as your default (such as Microsoft Edge).  Take that with lots and lots of salt, though it makes some sense in that one of the suggestions from Malwarebytes is to change Chrome to be your default browser.

We’ll keep an eye on the situation as it develops to ascertain whether or not other antivirus apps are also hit by this gremlin.

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This Windows 10 version is officially dead – and Microsoft is now forcing upgrades
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Windows 10 version 21H2 is no longer officially supported by Microsoft, so those still running that incarnation of the operating system need to act now.

As of yesterday, the last security update was released for Windows 10 21H2, namely the June cumulative update.

That’s the final bunch of fixes for vulnerabilities that’ll be provided to users still on 21H2, hence the need to upgrade in the next few weeks, before July’s round of patching happens (and you miss out if still on 21H2).

In a release health update, Microsoft informed us: “On June 13, 2023, Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations editions of Windows 10, version 21H2 will reach end of servicing. The upcoming June 2023 security update, to be released on June 13, 2023, will be the last update available for this version.”

At this point, PCs still running Windows 10 21H2 will have a forced update initiated before too long.

Microsoft explained: “Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of reaching end of servicing.”

Analysis: Enforced upgrades are a necessary evil

That forced update will push users to Windows 10 version 22H2, but of course, that has to happen. When the rug is pulled for support on an older version of Windows, and security updates are no longer provided, you shouldn’t keep the OS on your PC (unless you’re not going to connect to the internet at all).

Staying online with vulnerabilities present on your system (which is bound to happen in time, as new security flaws are discovered and not patched) is a foolish thing to do.

So, your choice is an upgrade to 22H2, or as Microsoft would prefer, you could make the leap to Windows 11. If, of course, your PC is capable of running Windows 11, which it may not be (if you have an older CPU, or your computer lacks TPM support – there may be ways around these problems, but such hardware upgrades can be fiddly, naturally).

As you may be aware, Windows 10 will not get any new features going forward – Microsoft is only supplying security updates now (and maybe the odd very minor feature tweak here and there, but nothing of any substance). All of this is part of Microsoft’s not-so-subtle pushing to get you to upgrade to Windows 11, an OS which has struggled with its pace of adoption compared to Windows 10.

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