Articles about Windows 11

There have been complaints recently about Microsoft using the Start menu to promote its own OneDrive service as well as suggesting websites, but another upcoming addition to Windows 11 is likely be rather better received.

Hidden among the numerous new features of Windows 11 build 25247, is an update to the network connectivity icon that appears in the notification area of the taskbar. It provides at-a-glance information about whether your VPN is active.

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Around two months after acknowledging an issue with some printer drivers and Windows 11 2022 Update, Microsoft has addressed the problem and lifted the safeguard hold it had put in place.

The safeguard hold meant that people with printers using Microsoft IPP Class Driver or Universal Print Class Driver were blocked from upgrading to Windows 11 22H2. But in removing the block, Microsoft has opened up the latest version of Windows 11 to more people.

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It’s nearly the weekend and in celebration of that Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build for Insiders in the Dev Channel.

It’s later in the week than usual, but worth the wait as Windows 11 Build 25247 comes with several new features including Energy Recommendations, improvements for Task Manager, and tweaks to the Account settings page. You can also now access Windows Studio Effects from Quick Settings.

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Five-hundred-and-seventeen in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft confirmed performance problems on Windows 11 this week. The issue affects certain games and apps that enable GPU debugging, which they should not do as it is a development-only feature.

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Microsoft has been increasing its focus on Linux for some years now, including introducing the ability to run a GNU/Linux environment inside Windows 10 and Windows 11 via the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This includes most command-line tools, utilities, and applications.

12 days ago, Microsoft released version 0.70.8 of the tool, which fixed plenty of issues and added some extra features. Now, the company announces it is removing the Preview label and making WSL in the Microsoft Store "generally available".

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Insider versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 come with a watermark on the bottom right-hand side of the desktop that shows the version of Windows you’re running and the current build number. This makes it easy to see which build you’re on, so you’ll know whether or not you’re up to date.

This watermark gets removed from stable Windows 10 and 11 updates (and from Insider builds rolled out close to the release date), but you can easily add it back, so you can see at a glance which version of Windows you’re on.

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Whether for reasons of aesthetics, or to be a little kinder to the eyes, the introduction of a dark mode option to Windows was real blessing. But there are times when dark mode is not appropriate, and it is a surprisingly lengthy process to temporarily disable it. Thankfully, Microsoft is working on a solution.

The company has been spotted experimenting with a dark mode toggle that reduces switching between light and dark mode to a couple of clicks.

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After November's Patch Tuesday releases, and ahead of the latest batch of updates for 2022, Microsoft has released a preview of the KB5019157 update.

The company draws attention to three particular highlights of this update including fixing an issue that saw Microsoft Store Update failing. Also highlighted are fixes for daylight savings problems as well as an issue with pinned apps in the Start menu.

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For many people cloud storage is now pretty much essential. There's no shortage of services to choose from, but Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive are among the most popular. For users of Microsoft's cloud storage, there is some bad news -- and we're not talking about unwanted ads for OneDrive in the Windows 11 Start menu.

The company has announced that, as of next year, it is consolidating cloud storage across Microsoft 365 apps. What this means in practice is that users of Outlook.com will effectively end up with less storage space for personal files as email attachments will count soon eat into OneDrive quotas.

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The uptake of Windows 11 may have been far lower than Microsoft would have hoped, but upgrades to the Windows 11 2022 Update are even smaller in number. While some people have been eager to jump on the 22H2 update, for many users it is not advisable or simply not possible.

There are numerous compatibility holds in place that block automatic upgrading to Windows 11 2022 Update. The latest issue sees Microsoft confirming poor game performance under Windows 11 22H2, with the company putting a block in place to help eliminate disappointment.

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Five-hundred-and-sixteen in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft revealed that disabling a particular security setting of Windows 11 might boost gaming performance. While it is not a good idea to turn off security features in most cases, it may be worth the risk in some. Check out Sofia's article on the matter here.

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It is the time of the month when Microsoft publishes its Patch Tuesday updates, and as part of this, the company has just released two significant security updates for Windows 11 -- KB5019961 and KB5019980.

Available for Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 respectively, the KB5019961 and KB5019980 updates not only address key security issues, but also add new features and options, as well as fixing non-security related bugs.

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Back in the day, it was common for laptops to have a dedicated video output port, such as VGA or HDMI. These days? Not so much. Instead, computer makers rely heavily on USB-C, hoping you will invest in dongles for your video needs. And so, a USB-C to HDMI adapter, for instance, is a pretty common accessory.

What is not typical, however, is a USB-C dongle that offers four HDMI ports. The all-new Plugable Quad HDMI Adapter is exactly that. This dongle plugs into the USB-C port on your Windows or Mac computer and turns it into four HDMI outputs. And yes, the adapter is fully compatible with M1 and M2 Mac computers -- with the help of included software. If your computer doesn't have USB-C, there is no need to worry; a USB-A dongle is included.

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For Windows users of a certain age, the name PowerToys summons to mind utilities such as TweakUI. In the age of Windows 11, Microsoft saw fit to resurrect and update the much-loved utility collection, and the suite of tools goes from strength to strength as it is developed and updated.

The have been a number of incredible utilities added to PowerToys in recent months, as well as some handy new settings, and you may well have spent some considerable time setting things up to your liking. To save having to do all of that hard work again, here's how to backup and restore your PowerToys settings, and how to transfer settings to another PC.

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If you're someone who has previously been irritated by Microsoft displaying ads in Windows, prepare to roll your eyes, gnash your teeth and howl in anguish. Windows 11 users are finding that the company is now showing advertisements in the Start menu.

As has been the case in the past, Microsoft is using Start menu ads to promote its own products and services -- specifically OneDrive and Microsoft accounts. Unsurprisingly, the reaction from users who have seen the ads has been less than positive.

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