Jun 25

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25145

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25145 to the Dev Channel.

LAPS (Local Amin Password Solution) is now part of Windows 11, with new GPO’s no longer need to install the Laps agent

All smooth upgrades here, Happy upgrading!

What’s new in Build 25145

Narrator Braille Driver Solution

Braille devices will continue working while switching between Narrator and third-party screen readers as narrator will automatically change Braille drivers.

Prerequisites:

You must remove Narrator’s current braille support if it is already installed by following the steps below:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Apps > Optional features > Installed features.
  3. Search for Accessibility – Braille support.
  4. Expand Accessibility – Braille support and uninstall the feature.

Install new narrator braille support:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Narrator > Braille.
  2. Select the more button.
  3. Download braille from this new window by selecting the Download and install braille button.
  4. After braille is installed, then return to Settings > Accessibility > Narrator > Braille.
  5. Select the braille display driver used by your third-party screen reader from the “Braille display driver” option. This only needs to be done once.

Refer to the detailed documentation to learn more about the braille driver solution.

Additional Resources:
Please refer to the Narrator User Guide for additional information on supported braille displays and braille functionality in Narrator.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Narrator.

Bringing OneDrive storage alert and subscription management in Settings 

In March, we enhanced the Microsoft 365 subscription management experience in Windows 11 Settings and added the ability to view your payment method on your Microsoft 365 subscription in Accounts within Settings.

The OneDrive Standalone 100GB subscription management experience is live on Accounts page in Settings.
The OneDrive Standalone 100GB subscription management experience is live on Accounts page in Settings.

Starting with today’s build, we have begun enabling OneDrive Standalone 100GB subscriptions in the Accounts page within Settings, similar to the Microsoft 365 subscriptions. This will allow you to view your recurring billing, payment method, and OneDrive storage usage within Windows 11. Additionally, if you are close to or above your OneDrive storage limit, you will be informed on the same page.

Banner shown on Account settings page alerting you about your storage usage.
Banner shown on Account settings page alerting you about your storage usage.

[We are beginning to roll those features out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Settings > Settings Homepage.

Local Administrator Password Solution

The legacy Local Administrator Password Solution product (aka “LAPS”) is now a native part of Windows and includes many new features:

Easily manage the new LAPS group policy settings via Group Policy Editor.
Easily manage the new LAPS group policy settings via Group Policy Editor.

Feature documentation is not yet available, however if you have used the legacy LAPS product then many of the features in this new version will be familiar to you. Here is a short how-to to help you get started on the basic Active Directory domain-joined client scenario:

  1. Extend your Active Directory schema by running the Update-LapsADSchema cmdlet in the new LAPS PowerShell module.
  2. Add the necessary permissions on your computer’s OU by running the Set-LapsADComputerSelfPermission cmdlet.
  3. Add a new LAPS Group Policy object and enable the “Configure password backup directory” setting and configure it to backup the password to “Active Directory”.
  4. The domain-joined client will process the policy at the next GPO refresh interval. Run “gpupdate /target:computer /force” to avoid waiting. (The Invoke-LapsPolicyProcessing cmdlet may be used for this same purpose.)
  5. Once the domain-joined client has backed up a new password (look for the 10018 event in the event log – see below screenshot), run the Get-LapsADPassword cmdlet to retrieve the newly stored password (by default you must be running as a domain administrator).

To get to this new Group Policy, open the Group Policy editor and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > LAPS.

You can retrieve detailed status via the new built in event logging:

Easily track the outcome of all LAPS operations in the event log.
Easily track the outcome of all LAPS operations in the event log.

Note: the feature is fully functional for Active Directory domain-joined clients, but Azure Active Directory support is limited for now to a small set of Insiders. We will make an announcement once Azure Active Directory support is more broadly available.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > Attack Surface Reduction.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • Every Microsoft customer should be able to use our products knowing we will protect their privacy and give them the information and tools needed to easily make privacy decisions with confidence. The new App usage history features, which began rolling out to Insiders with Build 25140, gives users a 7-day history of resource access for Location, Camera, Microphone, Phone Calls, Messaging, Contacts, Pictures, Videos, Music library, Screenshots and apps through the Settings experience. You can find this new information under Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions (simply click on one of the app permissions categories such as microphone and look at “Recent activity”).

[Suggested Actions]

  • Suggested Actions, which began rolling out with Build 25115, is now available to all Windows Insiders in the in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

[File Explorer]

  • Middle clicking a folder in the body of File Explorer will now open it in a new tab.

Fixes

[General]

  • Fixed an issue causing Windows Insiders on Surface Pro X devices to hit a black screen when attempting to resume from hibernate.
  • Fixed a bugcheck that some Insiders were experiencing with SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED related to USBs.
  • Fixed a bugcheck with error 0x1CA SYNTHETIC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT that could happen sporadically on some PCs after left idling for some time. This could happen when a laptop lid was closed, making it appear that the laptop had rebooted while sleeping.
  • Fixed an issue from the last two builds that was leading to InventorySvc consuming an unexpectedly high volume of memory the longer it was running.

[File Explorer]

  • The row of tabs should now be included in the keyboard focus cycle when pressing Tab or F6. Once focus is in the tab row, you can use left or right arrow keys to navigate through them.
  • Fixed an issue where the tab order when using CTRL + Tab would be wrong if you’d rearranged the tabs in File Explorer.

[Start]

  • Narrator will now read the dialog that opens when uninstalling an app from its context menu in Start and those options correctly.
  • The animation when selecting the More button in Start’s Recommended section in right-to-left (RTL) languages should now appear correctly.

[Taskbar]

  • When dismissing notification center using your keyboard, its closing animation will now show correctly.

[Settings]

  • Typing a number in the Settings search box when using an Arabic display language should no longer show boxes.
  • Fixed an issue causing Settings to crash when going to Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners in the last few builds.
  • Fixed a couple crashes that some Insiders were experiencing in the last few builds when opening the Wi-Fi section of Quick Settings, or after connecting or disconnecting from networks in the Wi-Fi section in Quick Settings.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Wi-Fi option in Quick Settings and the Wi-Fi section in Settings to sometimes take a few seconds to appear.
  • Using touch to rearrange the items in Quick Settings when in edit mode should no longer lead to Quick Settings unexpectedly dismissing sometimes.

[Input]

  • Added the SOM currency sign (U+20C0) to the Courier New font family.

[Task Manager]

  • Pressing CTRL + Page Up and CTRL + Page Down should work again now to navigate through pages in Task Manager.

[Other]

  • Fixed a rare issue that could lead to certain apps to sporadically crash on launch.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • We are investigating reports that the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect is not rendering correct in OS surfaces like the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas.
  • We’re investigating reports that shutting down via the Start menu isn’t working for some Insiders and is unexpectedly rebooting instead.
  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[File Explorer]

  • The up arrow is misaligned in File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.
  • We’re investigating reports that launching File Explorer in certain ways when using dark mode (for example, from the command line) is showing the body of File Explorer unexpectedly in light mode.

[Widgets]

  • We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly get reset to default.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

source: Windows Blogs

Jun 21

Retrieve Oem bios Windows License key (uefi)

Did a clean install on a device & Windows did not pick up the bios activation key? no 3rd party tools required, these commands will retrieve the key for you

Run this in PowerShell (Elevated) to retrieve the key

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

Retrieve & install: (run in elevated prompt)

@echo off
FOR /F "skip=1" %%A IN ('wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey') DO  (
SET "ProductKey=%%A"
goto InstallKey
)

:InstallKey
IF [%ProductKey%]==[] (
echo No key present
) ELSE (
echo Installing %ProductKey%
changepk.exe /ProductKey %ProductKey%
)

Jun 19

Windows 11 Release Health Videos

The Windows 11 release health page found here: Windows 11 Updates

Has this great new feature, every month the Patch-Tuesday update changes are neatly bundled with a video explaining what’s fixed & what’s new in this month’s updates and even some tips!

Making them easier to understand even for less tech savvy end-users.

Here’s the June 2022 one: > Play Video <

These videos are very useful to get yourself up2speed and as material to refer you r end-users to

If you have any feedback for the release notes team, let them know in this survey here

Jun 18

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25140

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25140 to the Dev Channel.

A quick & smooth update on all devices here,

WinRAR context menu’s that were re-enabled for Windows 11 with the build 6.10 are not working on this build, as a workaround enabling the legacy context menu option under settings / integration does restore them under the ‘show more options’ (thanks to Amir Dream for pointing out the issue https://twitter.com/keepingtdream) (FeedBackHub: https://aka.ms/AAh9tpz)

WinRAR settings screenshot

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • Euphemia typeface covers most languages that use the Canadian Syllabic script including various Cree orthographies, Inuktitut, and the Carrier/Dakelh script (dulkw’ahke). In the latest Insider builds, we’ve updated this font to improve the legibility and screen rendering of over 200 characters at various sizes. We’ve also added new glyphs to support Unicode 14 characters for the Nattilik language of the Canadian arctic.
Example of some of the new glyphs in the Euphemia typeface.
Example of some of the new glyphs in the Euphemia typeface.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed an issue which was leading some people to unexpectedly see error 0x80070026 when copying files from network drives.
  • Fixed an issue where the active tab color didn’t match the command bar below it.
  • Fixed an issue where dragging to rearrange tabs wasn’t working sometimes.
  • Fixed an issue which could cause artifacts in the windows thumbnail preview in the taskbar if File Explorer was maximized and you used WIN + M to minimize it.

[Settings]

  • If you go to rename a drive label in System > Storage > Disks & Volumes, the current drive name will now be prepopulated in the dialog.

[Input]

  • Fixed an issue where selecting English (New Zealand) in OOBE was unexpectedly leading to the Arabic (101) keyboard getting selected.
  • Setting language bar hotkeys for switching input directly to specific non-IME input method should work now.
  • Some languages don’t support the speech recognition FOD. When an admin user tried to install one of those languages using the new Install-Language CopyToSettings command, some settings such as new user account locale, Input (Keyboard), and UPLL (User Preferred Language List) were not getting updated. This issue has now been fixed.
  • Fixed an issue causing Batang, BatangChe, Gungsuh, and GungsuhChe fonts to not render Korean correctly when using Office online apps when these fonts were not locally present on your PC.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed a crash that could happen when switching modes in pages other than the Processes page.
  • We made a small adjustment to the intensity of the colors used in the heatmap on the Processes page.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue where calls to CopyAcceleratorTable and CreateAcceleratorTable would fail if the LPACCEL parameter was the address of an odd numbered index into an array of ACCEL structs.
  • Fixed an issue with x64 emulation on ARM64 which could result in certain apps crashing on launch with error code 0xc0000409.
  • Fixed an issue causing audio to stop playing in certain apps after a minute.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • Windows Insiders on Surface Pro X devices will hit a black screen attempting to resume from hibernate on this build. You will need to power cycle (long power button shutdown) to get back into the device. It is recommended Insiders on these devices pause flighting until we release a build with this fix.
  • We are investigating reports that the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect is not rendering correct in OS surfaces like the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas.
  • We’re investigating reports that shutting down via the Start menu isn’t working for some Insiders and is unexpectedly rebooting instead.
  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[File Explorer]

  • The up arrow is misaligned in File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.
  • [NEW] We’re investigating reports that launching File Explorer in certain ways when using dark mode (for example, from the command line) is showing the body of File Explorer unexpectedly in light mode.

[Widgets]

  • [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly reset to default.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

source: Windows Blogs

Jun 13

Windows Update: Get me up to date

This new option in Windows 11 called ‘Get me up to date’ is located in the settings app, under Windows Update / Advanced options

Advanced options

Once turned on, Windows Updates will get your device updated as fast as possible restart as needed even if you’re in active hours, a great option to use when going out for lunch or a meeting. It will still prompt you for rebooting to give you time to close app & plug in your device if needed.

The perfect catch up with updates now option!

Jun 13

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.160

Hi all, Today Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.160 (KB5014770) to the Beta Channel.

Also possibly enabling the explorer tabs for you… if you’re one of the lucky early deploy testers

What’s new

File Explorer Tabs & Navigation Updates

To help you work across multiple locations at the same time, the title bar of File Explorer now has tabs. We’d love your feedback on which tabs features you’d like to see next.

File Explorer with tabs and navigation updates.
File Explorer with tabs and navigation updates.

File Explorer is also introducing a refreshed layout of the left navigation pane which makes it easy for you to navigate to folders that matter to you. The updated organization provides easy access to your pinned and frequently used folders (Quick access) and your OneDrive cloud profiles added to Windows. OneDrive cloud profiles reflect the user’s name associated with the account. Known Windows folders which are available by default in the navigation pane are no longer displayed under This PC to keep that view focused for your PC’s drives. When you navigate to folders syncing to OneDrive such as Documents, Pictures, etc., the address bar displays the correct path to help bring clarity when your folders are on the cloud vs when they are local to you.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders in the Beta Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

Known issues

[File Explorer]

  • The up arrow is misaligned in File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.

source: Windows Blogs

Jun 13

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25136

Hi all, Last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25136 to the Dev Channel.

Sorry for the delay on the blog, was visiting the Microsoft campus, invited by the WCCP team, now that the jetlag is over…

The tabbed explorer looks great, however it’s rolling out gradually to insider so you might not have it right away.

What’s new in Build 25136

File Explorer Tabs & Navigation Updates

To help you work across multiple locations at the same time, the title bar of File Explorer now has tabs. We’d love your feedback on which tabs features you’d like to see next.

File Explorer with tabs and navigation updates.
File Explorer with tabs and navigation updates.

File Explorer is also introducing a refreshed layout of the left navigation pane which makes it easy for you to navigate to folders that matter to you. The updated organization provides easy access to your pinned and frequently used folders (Quick access) and your OneDrive cloud profiles added to Windows. OneDrive cloud profiles reflect the user’s name associated with the account. Known Windows folders which are available by default in the navigation pane are no longer displayed under This PC to keep that view focused for your PC’s drives. When you navigate to folders syncing to OneDrive such as Documents, Pictures, etc., the address bar displays the correct path to help bring clarity when your folders are on the cloud vs when they are local to you.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

Dynamic Widgets content on the taskbar

We’re trying out some changes to bring more dynamic Widgets content to your taskbar. In addition to seeing live content from the weather widget, you’ll also start to see live updates from the sports and finance widgets, along with breaking news alerts.

Finance content from Widgets shown on the taskbar.
Finance content from Widgets shown on the taskbar.

This should make it easier for you to know when something important happens related to these widgets and keep you informed of breaking news.

The content is meant to be quick and glanceable with the ability to see more inside the widgets board if you click on it. However, if you don’t interact with the content update the taskbar will return to showing you the weather.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

Changes and Improvements

[Input]

  • We are beginning to roll out the ability for Insiders to report animated gifs they feel are inappropriate from the emoji panel (WIN + .)

Fixes

[General]

  • Addressed an issue which was leading to some PCs being erroneously detected as tablets. When this happened, compact mode and the option to hide checkboxes in File Explorer wouldn’t take effect.
  • Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to experience a SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION bugcheck in recent Dev Channel builds.

[Taskbar]

  • Fixed an issue that was sometimes causing taskbar apps to overflow with the system tray icons.
  • When you hover on an app in the system tray, its notification will no longer flash.

[Start]

  • Fixed an issue that could cause Start to only show one column of recommended items.
  • If you’re pinning a large number of apps to Start, it should now refresh to show them more reliably.

[Settings]

  • Fixed an issue from the previous flight where Disks & Volumes section of System > Storage wasn’t displaying any disks or volumes.

[Windowing]

  • We made a fix to help with a rare issue which was causing title bars to sometimes go transparent or missing sometimes in certain apps.

[Windows Update]    

  • Fixed an issue where Windows Update might unexpectedly show error 0x00000000 when there wasn’t anything wrong.
  • Fixed an issue which was leading to some devices bugchecking with HYPERVISOR_ERROR when trying to upgrade to a new build.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed an issue which was causing Task Manager to crash on launch sometimes after switching between light and dark mode or changing accent color.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue which could lead to increased latency or stutter in games when v-sync was used.
  • Fixed an issue which could cause some PCs to freeze after running the wsl –shutdown command.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • Windows Insiders on Surface Pro X devices will hit a black screen attempting to resume from hibernate on this build. You will need to power cycle (long power button shutdown) to get back into the device. It is recommended Insiders on these devices pause flighting until we release a build with this fix.
  • [NEW] We are investigating reports that the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect is not rendering correct in OS surfaces like the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas.
  • We’re investigating reports that shutting down via the Start menu isn’t working for some Insiders and is unexpectedly rebooting instead.
  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[File Explorer]

  • [NEW] The up arrow is misaligned in File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

source: Windows Blogs

Jun 04

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25131

Hi all, last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25131 to the Dev Channel.

The new store app pop-up experience is great!

clicking ‘get in store app’ now opens up a mini store interface

Happy Upgrades!

Fixes

[General]

  • Fixed an issue causing some Insider PCs with certain AMD processors to bugcheck and roll back when attempting to upgrade to last week’s flight. This issue is also believed to be the cause of some Insiders experiencing a bugcheck after enabling SVM in the bios on their PCs in the last build.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing some Insiders with secondary accounts on their PC to not be able to upgrade to the latest builds.

[File Explorer]

  • The new folder icon used in the command bar should be consistent with the one used in the context menu now.
  • Fixed an issue which could lead to File Explorer hanging when browsing folders with lots of .mkv files.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing searching from Home to not return any results sometimes from the Open or Save dialog (when doing it from File Explorer returned results).

[Search]

  • Searching for something like %appdata% should now show a proper folder icon and not just a blank square.
  • When selecting “Open file location” for a search result, it should now select the file in the folder again now, and not just open the folder.

[Settings]

  • Searching for “default” will now return the default apps Settings page as the first result, and not require you to click “show all results” in order to see it.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Listen to this device” audio option would stop working after a reboot until being unchecked and rechecked.
  • Narrator will now read out the position of the radio buttons in the Settings > Accessibility > Color filters page to make it easier to navigate.

[Other]       

  • Hovering over “Do you like what you see?” when using Windows Spotlight on the lock screen should no longer display a shadow which extends to the bottom of the screen.
  • Fixed an issue which was leading to certain frame rate monitoring applications impacting game performance.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause rounded corners to unexpectedly become pixelated at certain scale factors.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • [NEW] Windows Insiders on Surface Pro X devices will hit a black screen attempting to resume from hibernate on this build. You will need to power cycle (long power button shutdown) to get back into the device. It is recommended Insiders on these devices pause flighting until we release a build with this fix.
  • [NEW] We’re investigating reports that shutting down via the Start menu isn’t working for some Insiders and is unexpectedly rebooting instead.
  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

Microsoft Store Update (Version 22205.1401.3.0)

We are beginning to roll out a Microsoft Store update to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel with the following changes and improvements:

Native Arm64 support: We’ve improved the Microsoft Store app experience on ARM64 devices. You’ll see faster and better performance when you use the app.

Improved app updates: We improved updates when clicking Update buttons in the Microsoft Store. We’ll skip over apps that you have open, so you don’t lose any important work. You can manually update the apps later.

Improved Android apps support for the pop-up store experience: When you’re browsing the web, you might discover a new app. If it’s available in the Microsoft Store, we’ll show you a pop-up experience to help you install it. This experience now supports free Android apps (depending on device compatibility and age rating).

Faster navigation: We have improved the browsing experience.

Faster navigation in the Microsoft Store.
Faster navigation in the Microsoft Store.

Improved viewing options UX for movies and TV shows: Ready for a new show but not sure how to watch it? Once you’ve selected a TV show or movie, you can see all your viewing options in a single list.

Improved media purchase options in the Microsoft Store.
Improved media purchase options in the Microsoft Store.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

source: Windows Blogs

May 29

Have you really turned it off and on again?

Yes it’s the all time classic answer calling Helpdesk, but things have changed since Windows has Fast Startup enabled by default.

This happened with the release of Windows 8.x, before then a simple restart was equal to turning it of and on again.

Users will tell you they already restarted the device & the issue is still there… quite possible if it is present in the system session

Newer versions of Windows react differently, selecting shutdown will log off the user & hibernate the operating system for faster starting, this means when you just shut down your machine any problem in the user session will be ‘reset/fixed’, any problem that resides in the non-user part will be hibernated & resumed as it was, not fixing anything…

to check if the option is on, open powercfg.cpl & select ‘Choose what the power button does’ – the option ‘turn on fast startup’ is greyed out & on

Command line: powercfg /a
if Fast Startup is listed as available, it’s on

Lot’s of websites show how to disable fast startup to avoid this behavior, losing the benefit of the feature .

There’s no need to turn it off, if you want to do a ‘clean’ startup the easiest way is to press and hold the SHIFT key while selecting shutdown, this triggers Windows to ‘really’ shut down.

SHIFT + Shutdown = Full Shutdown
SHIFT + Restart = Full Shutdown & boot to WinRE

If you use the shutdown command in a command box, run / CMD / WT / PowerShell running ‘shutdown /s’ will also trigger a full shutdown (adding /hybrid would prepare for fast start)

Shutdown.exe /s – Full Shutdown
Shutdown.exe /r = Full Shutdown + restart

May 28

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25126

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25126 to the Dev Channel.

After the upgrade Edge Canary kept crashing opening any page, this was persistent after a normal reboot, but fixed after a Shift + Shutdown (Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/AAh1eob)

Happy Upgrades!

What’s new in Build 25126

Account settings page improvements

In October, we introduced subscription management in Settings > Accounts, which enabled you to view your Microsoft 365 subscriptions in Windows 11. With this build, we’re making it easier for you to view all supported Office perpetual products such as Office 2021 or Office 2019 associated with your account within Settings > Accounts.

All supported Microsoft 365 Office products licensed to your account shown under Account settings.
All supported Microsoft 365 Office products licensed to your account shown under Account settings.

This update will allow you to view all supported Microsoft 365 Office products licensed to your account and you can view details about your product or install Office by clicking the “View Details” button. This information is shown on the Microsoft account management page and you will now be able to view these datils in Windows 11 via Settings > Accounts as shown in the above screenshot, starting with this build.

[We are beginning to roll this feature out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Settings > User Profile Account Settings.

Fixes

[General]

  • We fixed the issue causing some Insiders to experience a bugcheck with error DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in pci.sys causing a rollback trying to install the latest builds in the Dev Channel.
  • We did work to mitigate the issue causing the Program Compatibility Assistant Service to use an unexpectedly large amount of CPU for some Insiders after upgrading to the latest Insider Preview builds in the Dev Channel.

[Start menu]

  • If the touch keyboard is docked it should no longer unexpectedly dismiss when trying to edit the name of a folder in Start.

[Search]

  • Fixed a high hitting explorer.exe crash that could happen when using Search.

[Settings]

  • The preview image under Personalization > Lock Screen should no longer be backwards when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.

[Task Manager]

  • If explorer.exe has hung, that should no longer hang Task Manager.
  • Fixed an issue where the context menus weren’t following the same mode (light or dark) as Task Manager itself for some Insiders.
  • Fixed a typo in the “Minimize on use” tooltip.
  • If you’ve hidden the graphs on the side of the Performance page, the color of the circles used instead should now match the graph in the summary view.
  • Addressed an issue where the Not Responding status for certain apps wasn’t being reflected on the Processes page.

[Windows Sandbox]

  • Removed the Lock option in Start menu as it didn’t work.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue where using “Open All Active Printers” from the printer icon in the system tray would unexpectedly open File Explorer when there were no active queues.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

source: Windows Blogs