Software & Apps News - Page 1

In a world where too many people continue to use a single username and password combination across multiple devices, services, and accounts, it's good to see that the passkey revolution continues to gather pace. We've already seen various companies and services offer passkeys as a new way of biometric-secured authentication with Apple, WhatsApp, and PlayStation among others all on side. But now one of the really big names has also thrown its hat into the ring.

In a post on its security blog, Microsoft has confirmed that it is now rolling out passkey support for Microsoft accounts, making it easier, quicker, and more secure to sign into those accounts. Creating a passkey is easy with users given the option to switch from their previous username and password via the sign-in process.

When it comes to signing into a Microsoft account using a passkey, the new sign-in option will be offered with support for signing in using a fingerprint, a face recognition solution like Face ID, a PIN, or a security key. Microsoft says that, starting today, users can sign into Microsoft apps and websites including Microsoft 365 and Copilot using both desktop and mobile web browsers.

It's hardly unusual for a Windows update to introduce a bug, but most of the time, Microsoft provides a solution in a reasonable timeframe - not always, mind, and not ever in this more recent case.

Yes, this is a bit of an odd one, and it concerns the unlucky Windows 10 users who, when installing an update back in January 2024, encountered a Windows Recovery Environment error.

That installation failure error (stop code: 0x80070643) is related to the recovery partition not being large enough for the mentioned January security update (KB5034441).

If emojis and gifs aren't enough for you to convey what you want to say, soon you will be able to send audio emojis to really drive your point home.

Google has begun rolling out to the beta version of the Phone by Google app that adds six sound effects to that can be played during a phone call. The sounds correspond to an existing emoji and are very similar to a soundboard that is played during dead air on a radio show or podcast. The feature is expected to be rolled out to the public sometime soon, but how popular it will be remains a mystery, given how generic the sounds are.

Interested in getting the new audio emojis? Here's what you will need to do. Download the beta version of the Phone by Google app, sign-up here. Once that is complete, open the Play Store app, navigate to your profile photo at the top-right corner of the screen, and press Manage Apps & devices and Updates available. Download the latest update for the Phone by Google app. In the event this doesn't work on your device, wait a few minutes it should eventually appear.

Microsoft has confirmed with an update on its Windows health dashboard that a recent Windows security update has resulted in many VPN connections failing.

The company explains its April 2024 Windows security update and its April 2024 non-security preview update, which was pushed out to multiple versions of Windows, breaks VPN connections across client and server platforms. Microsoft writes it launched an investigation into the matter following user reports and that it will provide more information in "the coming days".

Versions of Windows affected by the connection severance are Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2008 and later. Currently Microsoft hasn't revealed the root cause of this issue, and has advised affected users and businesses to contact its respective Help lines. Home users are instructed to use the Windows Get Help app, and enterprise customers are directed to the "Support for Business" portal.

It's a new month, and we have another set of Windows adoption stats to look at - figures that Microsoft won't enjoy perusing.

The latest from analyst outfit Statcounter is that Windows 11 is again going backwards with its market share among Windows versions - and Windows 10 is ticking up.

In April 2024, Statcounter observes (via Neowin) that Windows 11 dropped the best part of a percentage point to end up on 25.65%, while Windows 10 put on a percent (almost) to go over 70%.

Arc, a Chromium-based browser previously on the Mac (and iOS), is now available to download for Windows 11.

So, those Windows 11 users who've been searching for a streamlined web browser - one of the bits of ad blurb for Arc is that it's a "clean and calm" app - can now give this Chromium client a whirl, rather than Chrome or Edge. (There are other alternatives, of course - but those are the big two for Chromium).

As Neowin, which spotted this, points out, the Arc browser was in beta previously (since December 2023), but this represents its first public launch for Microsoft's OS.

Microsoft has made installing apps from the Microsoft Store easier by implementing a new feature - the ability to download and run executables/installers directly from apps.microsoft.com. Microsoft's Rudy Huyn took to X to outline the update and its reasoning in great detail.

The website for Microsoft apps has been around for a while. To install an app using the site, you click on a link, confirm that you'll need to switch to the dedicated store app, and then select and go through the install process on the app. Rudy Huyn said, "Feedback indicated that the install flow involved too many clicks."

The reason installation directly from the site wasn't available was security, which is beneficial to users and partners releasing apps through the Microsoft Store. That said, switching to a two-click system for a select group of developers "led to a 12% increase in installations and a 54% increase in the number of applications launched after installation."

Microsoft's OneDrive is getting a mode that allows you to work with your files in the storage locker when you don't have an internet connection.

The catch we mentioned in the headline? This is that the feature is rolling out to begin with only to OneDrive work and school users (across the globe), but surely a broader deployment to consumers will follow soon enough.

How does offline mode work with OneDrive? You can continue to interact with the following views: Home, My files, Shared, Favorites, People, and Meeting.

Windows 11 has a couple of fresh changes which are hidden in preview builds, which a leaker has uncovered using ViVeTool.

As anyone who follows Windows leaks will doubtless be unsurprised to learn, this is PhantomOfEarth (who accounts for a lot of spillage around the OS, as well as Albacore on X).

The first change which has been dug up using ViVeTool (the Windows configuration utility) is an improvement for File Explorer tabs which you can see in the above tweet.

Windows 11 is showing a bulked-up set of nag screens, and this is part of a push underway to get more folks using Microsoft's Edge browser, it seems.

Those are the findings of tech site Windows Latest, which observed being confronted by a multi-screen post-setup marathon of seven panels to be clicked through.

Typically, this is what you'll see after installing Windows 11, but as you've doubtless noticed, these multi-screen affairs also pop up sometimes after simply installing the latest monthly cumulative update for the OS.