Catch up with the latest stories from the world of Microsoft in this week’s Microsoft Weekly news recap.
In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at Recall finally arriving for testing in the Insider program, new Windows 11 updates with many changes and features, a lot of Ignite news, misfired gaming launches, and more.
Table of contents:
Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft’s latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.
Let us start with new non-security updates for Windows 10 and 11. This month’s C-updates are the final in 2024, as Microsoft is skipping December non-security updates due to the holiday season.
Windows 11 version 24H2 received KB5046740 with new features for jump lists, taskbar, File Explorer, Settings app, and more. Windows 11 version 2 3H2 also got a fair share of updates for the Start menu, File Explorer, etc, in KB5046732. As for Windows 10, it received KB5046714 with fixes for activation issues and a few more bugs.
Also, Microsoft released new dynamic updates for Windows 10 (beware of the Recovery Partition bug) and the first hotpatch for Windows 11 version 24H2 LTSC.
Hands down, the biggest announcement from this week is the return of Recall. Microsoft finally opened the gates to its controversial AI feature, allowing Windows Insiders to test Recall on eligible hardware. Just keep in mind that the initial version has some limitations, including Recall ignoring filtered-out websites in certain scenarios.
Microsoft also launched Click to Do, a new AI-powered feature to complement Recall. Click to Do provides various quick actions for snapshots so that you can continue using separate applications.
All these goodies are only available in the latest Windows 11 Dev build on Copilot+ PCs. If you want to buy one, there are some solid deals on existing models. However, Qualcomm plans to announce new Snapdragon X chips for even more affordable Windows computers. They will have fewer CPU cores, but the NPU will be the same across the lineup, ensuring each device is eligible for AI features.
If you do not care about Recall and all the AI stuff, you might like this change coming soon to Windows 11: its Game Bar now has a dedicated browser that lets you browse the web while playing without alt-tabbing from the game. Called Microsoft Edge Game Assist, the feature is now available in preview for those with Edge 132 Beta, which was released this week.
Moving on, we have a few known issues in the latest Windows 10 and 11 updates. If you are on Windows 11 version 24H2, you might have problems with adjusting certain time/date settings through the Settings app (there is a workaround), and on top of that, the OS might blast you with a 100% speaker volume in certain scenarios.
There’s is more. The update to Windows 11 version 24H2 is now blocked on some systems due to compatibility issues with USB network modems, printers, scanners, and even certain Ubisoft games. Microsoft is investigating the problem and promises to release fixes soon.
Also, Microsoft took down some of Windows 11’s widgets to improve the experience. As a result, you can no longer use Calendar, To Do, Photos, Microsoft 365 Feed, and Family widgets.
On Windows 10, where users are currently bombarded with new full-screen ads promoting Windows 11, Microsoft acknowledged a problem with updating packaged apps. Luckily, this one was quickly fixed.
Windows Insider Program
Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:
Users also discovered that build 22635.4515 contains some much-needed improvements for File Explorer. At last, you can turn off OneDrive backup notifications in the address bar and make File Explorer open links in a new tab instead of a new window.
