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Posts tagged "Windows"

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Bring an old PC back to life with Windows 10 thanks to the new bloat-free Tiny10
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A new release of Tiny10 is out, a version of Windows 10 that strips away all the bloat so it’s a lean, mean, multitasking machine (hopefully).

Neowin spotted that Tiny10 x64 is now available, slotting in alongside the existing Tiny10 x86 installation (and of course, Tiny11 – the similarly lightweight take on Windows 11).

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What’s the difference between x64 and x86? Well, the latter is 32-bit Windows 10, whereas the former and fresh version of Tiny10 is a 64-bit incarnation. This means it can run 64-bit software and is more performant in general, plus it’s more secure, too (though note that your PC must have a 64-bit CPU – which it should do, unless it’s really old).

In short, the new x64 version is the one you want unless your PC is incapable of running it (due to the processor not being 64-bit).

As the developer points out, the key element here is the inclusion of the component store (also in the x86 version), which allows for Tiny10 to receive Windows updates. That is, of course, vital to maintain the security of the OS.

Note that Tiny10 x64 is labeled version 23H1 purely because it has been released now – in the first half of 2023 – and this does not refer to the version of Windows 10 it’s based on (which, in fact, is Windows 10 LTSC 21H2, build 19044.3031).

Analysis: One tiny step for Windows 10

Tiny10 is designed to be installed on an old PC, as with its seriously streamlined and debloated nature, it’ll run fast enough even on pretty ancient hardware. And as mentioned, this x64 take has advantages for better performance and security over the previous x86 release of Tiny10.

You can run Tiny10 on a PC that only has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of drive space, that’s how lean it is – and it’s likely to work okay with less system memory than that (maybe much less, as previous experiments have shown). Indeed, 1GB should be enough.

While Tiny10 is a useful option to get some additional life out of an ailing potato PC, there are caveats to bear in mind. We can’t be sure of the exact contents of any modified Windows installation (ISO file), so if you download and install Tiny10, you do so at your own risk (grab it here if you’re happy to proceed). That said, the developer has been around for some time, with no complaints from users yet.

Also, this is still a Windows 10 installation – just a heavily tinkered with and stripped-back one – so you will still need a valid license key to run it (though a Windows 7 or 8 license should do fine, too).

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Windows 11 has a nifty new feature – but enabling it is a hassle
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Windows 11 now has widgets to let you monitor how your system is running, albeit the way of getting them going is rather clunky.

The catch is they come as part of a new app being introduced for Windows 11, which is currently in preview, called Dev Home. As the name suggests, this is for developers (to help make them more productive and streamline their workflow for creating software), but it has an interesting extra option.

As Ghacks reports, Dev Home allows you to add widgets for monitoring system resources, meaning you can see at a glance on the widgets board how your CPU, GPU, system memory, or network are performing currently.

This is the same info available in Task Manager – in the Performance tab – but having it right there on the widgets panel, if you want, makes it far more convenient to check what’s going on if, say, your PC appears to be hit with a bout of slowdown.

As you may realize, going into Task Manager is a slightly convoluted process (though there is a handy keyboard shortcut to get there quickly – by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Escape keys together).

The system monitoring widgets also provide some useful extra touches. For example, the CPU performance widget displays the top three active processes and a button to end them (in other words, to kill the task right there and then, if it is causing problems or has become unresponsive – an option coming to the taskbar in Windows 11, too).

Analysis: Hopefully these widgets will become more broadly available

Obviously this app is specifically for developers, so consumers aren’t going to want to use it as such. However, there’s certainly nothing to stop the average user from installing the Dev Home preview app (from the Microsoft Store) to get this ability.

Is it worth doing that? For some who are really keen to see system resource readouts on the widgets board, it’s at least good to have the option. Although in all honesty, it’s maybe a step too far for many folks, who aren’t going to want to install developer software (that takes up space, of course).

Do note, though, that you don’t ever have to run Dev Home, or do anything beyond installing it. Once set up, you can use the widgets without ever going near the Dev Home app again (but you must leave it installed).

What we’re hoping is that if Microsoft sees this as a reasonably popular option – assuming it is, naturally, and we can imagine it’ll get some traction among widget fans – then maybe the company will consider making these system-monitoring widgets more broadly available. In other words, have them accessible to everyone without the need to install Dev Home.

Note that currently, we’re told that the updating of these widgets in real-time doesn’t appear to be working properly, which is presumably a bug. That’s the other thing to remember for now – this app is still in preview, so it may be wonky while Microsoft irons out various issues that are doubtless present.

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Windows 11 23H2 update is real, we’re told – but it could disappoint
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Windows 11’s big update for later this year, known as 23H2, is reportedly real and inbound for PCs – though how much impact it’ll make is another question (that we’ll come back to shortly).

Windows Latest has been doing some digging and tells us that it has spotted references to ‘23H2’ in a couple of documents, as well as Windows preview builds.

Furthermore, those references have also been seen in Windows 11 itself, in Settings, and Winver, a command that displays the current version of Windows (and labels a test build as 23H2, presumably).

Windows Latest underlines something else in its report, namely that the 23H2 update will be triggered via an enablement package, something we’ve already heard from the rumor mill in recent times.

This means that in theory – we need to take all of this with a fair old sprinkling of salt – Microsoft will preload the 23H2 update before it comes around to release. So Windows 11 users will only need to download a small update – the trigger, or enablement package – to receive the preloaded features.

This also suggests that the update will be a more minor affair, as generally this is the approach Microsoft takes with upgrades that are, shall we say, a little less ambitious in their scope – they are effectively quick and easy updates (relatively speaking).

Analysis: Making way for Windows 12?

This also marries with what we’ve seen thus far in preview builds, namely that there aren’t any huge Windows 11 features appearing in the pipeline thus far. Don’t get us wrong, there’s definitely some solid stuff present in the preview – some key interface changes, and the revamp of File Explorer (complete with a new photo gallery feature) – but the meaty changes appear to be somewhat thin on the ground.

Now, that could change, as there’s still some time before the release of 23H2 – perhaps as much as five months even. But the reality is the upgrade will probably arrive before November, and given the time taken to test larger bits of functionality, there isn’t much breathing room left to get that kind of testing in.

It also makes sense that Microsoft hasn’t officially said anything about 23H2 yet, simply because there’s not all that much to shout about, perhaps.

In reality, as Windows Latest points out, bigger moves are at this point probably being reserved for Windows 12. After all, Microsoft needs to make a splash with a new incarnation of Windows – something in all honesty it failed to do with Windows 11, which initially felt like more of a reskin of Windows 10 than anything else. (Albeit with some good changes on the design front, no doubt – but also frustrations).

So, Microsoft will likely be saving much of the juicier stuff for Windows 12 – or whatever next-gen Windows is called – and that’s quite possibly going to turn up later in 2024, so Windows Latest suggests. And that’s a believable prospect, given that Windows 10 will be pushed out of support in 2025, plus it also aligns with other chatter from the rumor mill, too.

If true, this means that next year’s annual update for Windows 11 (24H2) will likely also be a more minor affair – given that Microsoft will have shifted its attention to Windows 12. Then it’ll only be a matter of time before Microsoft ceases any meaningful feature updates for Windows 11, which is what just happened with Windows 10.

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Microsoft gets defensive and reminds users how great Windows 11 is
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Microsoft recently released a feature update for Windows 11 called Moment 3, which was full of useful upgrades and performance enhancements, that could even win over many Windows 10 users in the battle to get them to upgrade to Windows 11. 

Soon after the release of Moment 3, Microsoft released a list of enhancements that the company has made throughout the year to “more than a billion users worldwide” via a blog post. The list is basically a rundown of every change made in the past year on Insider channels that are now present in the Moment 3 update.

According to Neowin, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Panos Panay had reminded people that the newest iteration of Windows is focused on quality, and that Windows 11 is the “most reliable version of Windows ever.”

The official blog post from Microsoft with the rather unsubtle title ‘Delivering Delightful Performance for More Than One Billion Users Worldwide’ dives into all the major changes made thus far that Windows users should be grateful for.

There’s been no shortage of negative news stories, crashes and bugs crawling around Windows 11 and subsequent updates and fixes this year, so the blog post comes across like doubling-down from the tech giant. While the Moment 3 update was definitely welcomed with open, almost desperate arms, it does seem a little strange for Microsoft to put out a blog post detailing every ‘good’ change it’s made so far.

The improvements boasted by the tech giant are listed in full in the post, with some notable mentions like making PCs more sustainable, Microsoft Edge starting up faster and increasing users productivity by speeding up how long it takes to get to the desktop.

Microsoft still needs to entice more people to move over to Windows 11, and the recent string of bad headlines definitely hasn’t helped with the migration, but the new blog post could be persuasive.  If you’re apprehensive about upgrading to Windows 11, having every major change listed out could help settle any concerns and aid your decision to upgrade or stay put. That being said, some of the listed upgrades are a little vague, perhaps purposely so.

The Moment 3 update is definitely a step in the right direction and does show that Windows has moved pretty far away from the dark days of Windows Vista. Giving users a whole blog post on all the changes you’ve been making is a straightforward step towards enticing people to upgrade, and we will have to see just how persuaded users are. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Windows XP activation has been cracked – for those desperate enough to still use it
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The activation algorithm for Windows XP has been cracked, so those stuck not being able to get the ancient operating system working can now do so – and yes, there are folks who still use this OS.

Granted, it’s a seriously slim – vanishingly so – niche of Windows users, and we’ll come back to that. For most of us, though, this is just a curiosity.

As The Register reports, the encryption algorithm for Windows XP product activation has been cracked and reimplemented, with the details provided via a tinyapps blog post.

This means anyone can now generate a valid product key to install and activate Windows XP offline.

Microsoft turned off the servers required to activate Windows XP long ago, so you can’t use a genuine old product key to activate the OS. Well, not online anyway, though from what we can see on Reddit, Microsoft still facilitated a product activation on the phone back in 2020 – and The Register reckons this way still works.

Analysis: Desperate times, desperate measures…

So, if you don’t want to get on the phone and try to persuade Microsoft to activate your Windows XP when you have a genuine product key that can’t be validated online anymore, you can simply do-it-yourself at home (or in the office) with no fuss.

Why would you ever want to use Windows XP, though? Yes, it was a much-loved operating system without a doubt, for many reasons – mainly that it was such a big step forward for performance, and the quality of the interface, over its predecessor – but it’s obviously ridiculously outdated at this point in time.

However, some people must remain on Windows XP due to legacy software or hardware that won’t work with any more modern Microsoft operating system. These are most likely businesses, who might, say, have eye-wateringly expensive machines that only work with software that runs on XP and hasn’t been updated in forever.

In those cases, this crack could prove very useful, but clearly, anyone running Windows XP is exposing themselves to a whole lot of potential pain in terms of the vulnerabilities present in the OS. Which is why if you are in this boat, whatever you do, keep that Windows XP installation offline for obvious reasons.

Are you now wondering how many Windows XP users are still out there? According to the latest from analytics firm Statcounter, XP amounts to a 0.35% userbase out of all Windows versions (not all that far behind Windows 8, Microsoft’s most recently defunct OS which is on 1.28% as of April 2023).

Cracking rusty old Microsoft operating systems appears to be quite the trend at the moment. You may recall that Windows 95’s (relatively flimsy) activation was recently hacked, with a twist – ChatGPT was fooled into generating keys that worked with the OS (in a small number of cases).

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Windows 11 Moment 3 update is packed with cool features – here are 5
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Microsoft’s latest feature update for Windows 11 is now rolling out and is full of big changes. Dubbed “Moment 3”, the release brings long-requested features and quality-of-life improvements that make it an update worth installing straight away.

Seeing as Moment 2 was released late in February, it’s quite a pleasant surprise to see how quickly the next release has arrived. These Moment updates are part of Microsoft’s approach to improving Windows 11 – instead of dropping a huge update every year, the company has shifted to putting out new features as part of more frequent cumulative updates. So, without further ado, here’s our pick of the five coolest features coming our way with Moment 3.

1. Taskbar and Notification Improvements

Windows veterans will be happy to find a few improvements to the taskbar, like a network icon that will indicate an active VPN connection with a small lock icon – helpful if you’re one of those people who often forget whether or not you’ve got your VPN turned on. Keep in mind, though, that the icon will only appear when you use ‘native’ VPN connections set up in the settings app, and won’t pop up if you’re using third-party VPN applications. So that’s a bit of a bummer.

Most people might find the updated taskbar clock to be the best change in the Moment 3 update, as the clock can now display seconds! It’s about time (pun intended).

The most helpful change to notifications is the ability to copy two-factor authentication codes from desktop push notifications with one click. This feature is already present on Android and iOS, so it’s good to see Microsoft finally bringing it to the desktop operating system – so no more opening emails just to copy a few numbers!

2. An improved widget board

The updates to Windows Widgets in Moment 3 are a little sparse, but what we do is get a redesigned widget picker so you can preview a widget before pinning it to the board. This is a bonus for those of us who are a little particular about how our widget boards look, so at least now you can properly plan the layout of your board instead of finding out after the widget is in place that it messes up your widget feng shui.

Again, it’s not a huge update, but it does give you a little more creative freedom when laying out your space, and could possibly leave room for bigger changes to Windows Widgets in the future as more updates roll out.

3. This new Task Manager feature

Task manager will now support live kernel memory dump, a feature for gathering data to troubleshoot issues in the background while the operating system keeps running. This may not mean a lot to the average user, but if you’re a developer that needs to investigate unresponsive applications or weed out the source of other issues, it’s a pretty useful addition.

Once you have the update installed, you can create a live kernel memory dump by heading to the Task Manager and right-clicking the System Process, where you’ll find the ‘create live kernel memory dump file’ option.

4. A better Settings menu

There are quite a few changes and improvements to Windows Settings with Moment 3, but we’ll just go into the more interesting ones for now.

Tab hoarders and multitaskers rejoice, Snap Assist has now been bulked up to help with your numerous open tabs! Normally you can press Alt + Tab or trigger Snap Assist by dragging your window to the top of the screen, and you can split the screen into a maximum of four tabs. But with Moment 3, you can now head over to a new section of the Settings menu and choose between three, five, and 20 tabs. You have been heard, and your many tabs are valid.

The Settings app also has a dedicated new section for all of your OneDrive subscriptions and a better breakdown of the stored content on each one. This will no doubt come in handy for cloud storage users when keeping tabs on your files, helping you get a proper breakdown of what exactly is eating up your cloud capacity.

5. Bonus Wallpapers!

Of course, we can’t talk about the Moment 3 update without mentioning the snazzy new wallpapers! The iconic Windows 11, uh… swirly pattern now comes in wonderful shades of pink, magenta, and purple, which stand out even more in the darker versions of the new wallpaper. 

Hopefully, these new wallpapers signify a fresh new era for Windows 11 that’ll be packed with more aesthetic positives. The cheerful wallpaper tones really are the cherry on top of a solid, well-thought-out feature update. 

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Microsoft’s on a roll with another change that’ll make Windows 11 better
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In the future Windows 11 will offer users the ability to ditch the Microsoft News feed from the widgets panel.

Currently, the widgets panel – accessed via the taskbar in Windows 11 – contains a mix of widgets (as you might expect) alongside MSN news stories highlighted by Microsoft.

Windows Central reports that Microsoft has made the decision to give users the choice to drop said news feed. You’ll be able to choose from different layouts for the widgets panel, in fact, some of which will have the MSN news feed in them – and one will be widgets-only.

This is yet another step forward Microsoft has taken with Windows 11’s widgets board in recent times.

Notably, the software giant is currently experimenting with a larger widgets panel, one that’s an extra column wide (three instead of two), giving you plenty of real-estate to view your widget-related stuff. And that’ll be even truer when you can get rid of MSN, and have a large panel entirely dedicated to all your widgets – if you have a lot of them.

Widget fans will also be pleased at rumors – quite strong ones – Microsoft is going to allow them to be dragged onto and pinned to the desktop. Plus we’re also seeing some extra touches like animated icons for widgets coming in, and new widgets from the likes of major players like Facebook. Microsoft is driving hard with this area of the OS, for sure.

Analysis: On the right track

For us, this is another change to Windows 11 which isn’t that hard to implement, and just makes the OS better. More choice is always good, and Microsoft appears to have taken that message to heart with some of its most recent changes from the Build conference this week.

You’ll now be able to choose whether you want to see MSN news in the widgets panel (some regard it as unnecessary bloat, but if you don’t, you can still have those news headline highlights). You’ll also be able to choose whether you want to ‘never combine’ apps on the taskbar (finally). Those right there are two key choices – at least for us – that can tailor the OS to work the way you want.

Now, Microsoft, how about giving us a big old hefty, really important, choice: to turn off any prompts or help – the stuff like badging in the Windows 11 interface, or suggestions that pop up under the Ribbon when you’re using Office, prompts to take a tour of features (that seasoned users really don’t need), anything like that – in one fell swoop, system-wide. A no nag switch, if you will, that also ditches things like messaging to tell you to upgrade to the next incarnation of Windows. Quiet mode, we could call it…

That won’t happen, of course, but hey, we can always hope for something along those lines. Whatever the case, Microsoft is clearly heading in the right direction by giving users more options to turn off stuff they don’t want, or reinstate settings from Windows 10 that were sorely missed by some users. In short, keep up the good work, Microsoft, and give us more of this sort of thing – choice.

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Microsoft is finally introducing the feature that’ll make me upgrade to Windows 11
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Windows 11 is finally getting a feature I’ve been keenly awaiting since the OS was released – yes, a ‘never combine’ option is coming to the taskbar. Oh, a joyous and rapturous day indeed (ahem).

This is one of many changes brought forth with a new preview build (23466) in the Dev channel, and it has been previously speculated about in a number of leaks.

Turning on 'never combine' mode for the taskbar means that apps are always kept as individual entries on the bar, even when multiple copies of the same application are open at the same time.

With multiple instances of apps, by default Windows 11 stacks them up – combines them, so to speak – into one entry on the taskbar. Never combined, as the name suggests, means this doesn’t happen, and they all stay separate – and you can see the labels on those individual instances (telling you which web page is currently active, for example, in a browser window).

Not all testers will see this straightaway, Microsoft informs us, as it’s a gradual rollout. So even if you’re a Windows Insider hanging out in the Dev channel, it may still be some time before you receive the option.

Happiness is a non-combining taskbar

The introduction of the never combined option for the taskbar is a big one for me, as the lack of this feature is pretty much the biggest reason why I’ve not upgraded to Windows 11 yet. (There are other niggles, too, but let’s not stray off-topic).

That probably sounds a bit overblown, but seriously, stacking up apps on the taskbar is a deal-breaker as far as I’m concerned. I hate this way of working – it truly bugs me – so I was pretty mystified when Windows 11 turned up without never combine (as it’s known in Windows 10 – I’m not sure why it’s now ‘combined’ in Windows 11, but it doesn’t really matter).

It’s never a good idea to remove choice as far as I’m concerned, but Microsoft didn’t do this out of some arbitrary desire, we were told. The chatter from the usual insider sources suggested that adding what seems like a simple bit of functionality on the face of it was actually a pretty complex issue around how the interface of the latest OS was built from the ground up.

I’m not sure how far I buy into that, but I can accept the basic premise. I just can’t understand why it has taken so very long for Microsoft to introduce this for Windows 11 – clearly, it was pretty far down whatever interface priority lists were drawn up internally. 

But hey, it’s here now, if only in testing. Hopefully, Microsoft will manage to push this change through in the big update at the end of the year (23H2). After all, the groundwork should’ve been the hard bit here, so honing the feature shouldn’t be that much of a task. I hope.

Then I can fire up that Windows 11 upgrade, finally, and get with the OS times. This feels a bit more like a pressing need following the announcement that Windows 10 won’t get any more features at all (save minor tweaks – there’ll be no 23H2 update for the older operating system, as you may recall).

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Windows 11 gets a nifty tweak to kill frozen apps, catching up with macOS
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Windows 11 is getting the ability to kill an unresponsive app, known as ‘force closing’ (or force quitting) right from the taskbar in what’ll be a very useful tweak for the OS.

This functionality was previously spotted hidden in test builds of Windows 11, and caused a fair bit of excitement at the time, so it’s good to see Microsoft confirm it is indeed inbound.

The move represents a far more convenient and easy way to deal with a misfiring app than the current scheme of things in Windows 11, where you have to head into the Task Manager and hunt around a bit to accomplish the same feat.

The Verge reports that Microsoft let us know that the ability is coming to Windows 11 at its Build conference for developers.

Quite a bit of stuff has been announced at Build, in fact, and a bunch of minor but important changes along similar lines – like native support for dealing with RAR or 7-Zip files in Windows 11 (instead of having to download and install a third-party utility).

And of course there’s a huge change that has been announced, one we’re viewing with a little trepidation – namely the introduction of AI into Windows 11 in the form of Microsoft’s Copilot.

Analysis: Mirroring the Mac – finally

So, what’s the big deal here? When apps go rogue and freeze up, they can simply hang around, slowing down your system’s performance (perhaps) and generally being annoying.

To force close such an unresponsive app right now in Windows 11, you have to open Task Manager, which is a bit of a faff in itself, unless you know the keyboard shortcut (press Control+Shift+Escape together). Then you must scroll through the list of running processes to find the rogue app, select it, and click the ‘End Task’ button.

With the new option, all you have to do is right-click on the app in the taskbar, and select ‘End Task’ from the context menu – a far easier and quicker way of taming the application that’s gone awry.

As Mac users will realize, this exact ability is something present in macOS, so Windows 11 is catching up to Apple’s desktop operating system in that respect – and it’s about time, to be honest.

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