Software & Apps News - Page 1

Microsoft has removed another piece of functionality from the Control Panel in Windows 11, redirecting folks heading to the Fonts section to its equivalent in the Settings app.

The old-style Control Panel still lurks in the background of Windows 11, making for an untidy contrast to the new Settings app - the problem being that there are so many settings in Windows that a bunch of legacy stuff is still yet to be migrated to the latter.

That process is happening, very slowly, but surely, and as Windows Latest spotted, the latest move is that when going to the Fonts page in the Control Panel, you'll be redirected to the revamped version of Fonts in the Settings app (which is already in place). Windows Search will also push you to Settings instead (whereas it currently highlights the old Control Panel when you search for Fonts).

Microsoft is charging full steam ahead with a Windows 11 update that will put advertisements for apps within the Start menu's "Recommended" section.

Microsoft began testing this new feature within its Insider program early this month, and now it appears as the latest optional update for Windows 11 version 22H2 and version 23H2. For those that don't know, Microsoft's latest move will introduce new applications to Windows 11 users within the "Recommended" section of the Start menu. According to Microsoft these apps will come from a "small set of curated developers" that will meet Microsoft's quality standards.

Many users aren't complaining about the Recommended apps themselves, but for the decision by Microsoft to put any advertisement within the Start menu at all. Luckily, previous reports that cite Insiders testing Windows 11 preview builds, users will be able to turn off advertisements within the Start menu by following these steps: Settings > Personalization > Start. Then switching "off" for "Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more."

The latest build of Windows 11 has reduced the total number of CPUs that Microsoft's latest operating system can run.

According to reports, the latest version of Windows 11 will not boot on PCs that have a CPU that doesn't support the SSE4.2 instruction set, which is a way for Microsoft to reduce the number of ancient PCs using old hardware from running the latest Windows operating system. Notably, the SSE4.2 instruction set arrived in the first generation of Core i5 and i7 processors, which was more than 15 years ago.

Microsoft's Windows 11 hardware requirements list does reveal a long list of supported CPUs, but this move has made that list smaller. Why does Microsoft do this? There are several reasons, some hardware may have limited security capabilities that don't meet Microsoft's current security standards for its latest operating system, while another reason could be an architectural limitation of the microchip itself, as Windows 11 may require a more advanced architecture to precisely draw resources from.

Windows 11 is getting a new feature called AI Explorer - or at least, AI PCs running the OS will be - and some fresh clues have been spotted that give us a hint of what it might do.

As you can see in the above and below tweets, a couple of regular leakers on X (formerly Twitter) have pointed out a few strings and hidden bits of code pertaining to AI Explorer that they've dug up in recent Windows 11 preview builds.

PhantomofEarth highlights some strings relating to 'screen understanding' being either on or off, and the following dialog: "Screen understanding is paused. Models are not available and need to be downloaded."

Windows 11 just had its latest update pushed out in preview form, and the bad news is that this is carrying additional adverts.

Yes, Microsoft has been more broadly experimenting with ads here and there in Windows 11 of late - as you may have noticed - and the preview update for April (KB5036980), which will be the Patch Tuesday release for May, comes with fresh adverts in the Start menu.

What kind of ads and where? Microsoft explains: "The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps. These apps come from a small set of curated developers. This will help you to discover some of the great apps that are available."

The beginning of the end of TikTok in the United States is here as the Senate has passed a bill that bans the ByteDance-owned app from the app store as it's considered to be a piece of software that is controlled by an adversary nation, China.

The bill was recently passed in the House with 350-58 votes and has now passed in the Senate with 79 votes to 18. Notably, the act was bundled into HR 815, a law that included authorized military funding to support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. TikTok has been suspected as a surveillance application that is harvesting the data of millions of Americans, which doesn't sit well with many lawmakers, security experts, and the US government, especially considering TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.

The new legislation deems TikTok a national security risk as the app can scrape the personal data of 170 million Americans, which could then be shared with China's government. The app also has the potential to be used to spread misinformation in the US. However, the legislation gives TikTok one way of staying available in the US - ByteDance sells its share of TikTok to an entity the US government is satisfied with.

Australia's government recently declared a video that was making the rounds on social media platforms a "terrorist attack," which has resulted in Australia's eSafety Commissioner asking social platforms to remove the content in question.

Australia demanded social platforms respect its laws that prohibit social platforms from hosting any content that depicts a terrorist attack, with the eSafety Commissioner asking Elon Musk's X to remove the content of an Australian man attacking bishop Mari Emmanuel in Sydney, Australia. Australia's government defined the incident as a terrorist attack due to it involving religious or ideological violence.

Elon Musk's X responded by blocking the content for Australian users, but Christopher Tran, the barrister for the eSafety commissioner, argued this decision doesn't represent the removal of the posts, which violates Australian law. The eSafety Commissioner demanded that X remove global access to the content to abide by its laws, which Musk promptly responded to by vowing to challenge the requirement.

The banning of TikTok has been talked about since the Trump administration but recently caught wind again last month when the House of Representatives passed a bill that would require TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to either sell the app or face a ban from regulators.

The first bill that was passed in the House last month didn't attract much attention from the Senate, meaning the app wasn't forced to be sold. However, efforts to get rid of TikTok have increased again with another bill that has already been passed in the House. This new bill expands the timeframe ByteDance has to sell the app, increasing the window from six months to nine months, along with the addition of a presidential ability to grant a further 90-day extension.

The bill was passed in the House 360-58 and was included in a larger package that featured foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. TechCrunch reports that the inclusion of TikTok within this larger bill was a way for House Speaker Mike Johnson to "attract more conservative support". It's expected the Senate will vote on this bill within the next couple of weeks, with President Joe Biden saying that it has already earned his support and that he will sign it if it passes.

The former White House cyber policy director has said Microsoft has a stunning amount of control over the US federal government and is not afraid to use it.

In a recent interview with The Register, ex-White House cyber policy director AJ Grotto explained that Microsoft has a surprising amount of control within the US federal government and that the company's recent security failings are an illustration of how Microsoft is a national security threat to the US.

Grotto explains that Microsoft accounts for 85% of the federal government productivity software services, and a result of that market dominance is Microsoft gaining an "awful lot" of leverage over the government, as it simply cannot walk away from such an engrained vendor. Microsoft's recent hacking by a Russian-linked group that resulted in corporate email accounts being compromised is one example of Microsoft's failings, which the company hasn't shown any significant response to.

Microsoft has been preparing the release of new AI features for Windows 11 for quite some time now, and it appears at least one of those features will be hardware restricted.

Beta testers have already gotten their hands on these new AI features that are expected to be officially unveiled at the Microsoft event scheduled to take place on May 20. At the event, Microsoft is expected to unveil how AI will be integrated into Windows 11 and new Arm-powered Surface hardware. One of these beta testers has taken to X to share the requirements for a feature called "AI Explorer," which turns everything you do on your computer into a searchable memory through the use of natural language.

AI Explorer will be able to navigate to conversations you have had with people across various applications, locate documents, specific web pages, images, files, and even have the capabilities of understanding context and tasks that are on-screen. @thebookisclosed posted a screenshot of the requirements for AI Explorer, which appear to be an ARM64 CPU, 16GB RAM, 225GB storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite NPU. If these requirements are correct, AI Explorer appears to be exclusive to ARM-based PCs, cutting out any AI PCs built with AMD and Intel NPUs.