Tech News Weekly: Issue 22
News
Operating Systems
Microsoft released the second feature drop for Windows 11 yesterday for “seekers”. It is a Beta update.
Note: Microsoft confirmed a startup issue that affects devices with user interface customization apps. Microsoft mentions StartAllBack and ExplorerPatcher specifically.
The update will be part of the March 2023 Patch Tuesday update for the operating system, which means that all home Windows 11 users will get the changes when they install the cumulative update.
It is a big feature drop, and it does include Ai-powered Bing search. This is not enticing to users who disable Windows Search, but it may give the web-based search feature a boost in numbers, as others may find it more attractive now.
Here is the list of the other features:
Phone Link for iOS Preview
Improved Phone Link capabilities for supported Android devices, including transfer of browser sessions from smartphone to Windows, and easier activation of the personal hotspot feature.
Windows Studio Effects enhanced by AI, which adds options to customize audio and video, e.g. to blur backgrounds.
Windows Chat improved with easier video previews, straight into call jumping and “faster, easier access” to all conversations.
Redesigned Quick Assist app.
Expansion of Widgets: Phone Link, Xbox Game Pass, Meta and Spotify widgets.
Improved touch options.
Snipping Tool with screen recording capabilities.
Notepad now features tabs.
Several Braille improvements.
Energy Recommendations in Settings.
AI-powered Start Menu personalization for Windows 11 Pro and higher devices that are Azure Active Directory joined. Mostly personal recommendations in Start.
New Windows 365 app generally available to access Cloud PC.
New Windows 11 VM images are now also available.
Microsoft 365 customers will soon find the Microsoft Defender app installed on their Windows devices. Microsoft announced the automatic installation of the app on Windows devices this week.
Microsoft Defender adds a management dashboard to manage multiple devices with Defender and more.
And here is a quick helper article in case you run into profile issues on Windows 11.
Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, the second point release, is now available. It includes the security updates, bug fixes and software updates released since the previous point release.
Mobile
Google announced this week that it plans to improve firmware security on Android going forward.
It seems that Microsoft is considering creating a mobile app store. In an interview with The Times, head of Microsoft Xbox Phil Spencer mentioned that Microsoft wants to create a mobile app store to compete with Apple and Google. The company’s initial focus will be on games.
Xiaomi demoed 300W phone sharing in Barcelona at the MWC. Engadget provides the details. According to the report, the phone reached 20% battery in “just a little over one minute”, the 50% mark at 2 minutes 12 seconds, and the 100% mark in under 5 minutes.
Browser
Mozilla released Firefox 110.0.1 Stable yesterday. It is a security update with several bug fixes.
Google and Microsoft released security updates for their Chromium-based browsers this week.
Brave Browser will soon prevent many “open in app” prompts when browsing websites in the browser. Many sites and services try to get visitors to use their dedicated apps instead of a browser. One reason for doing so is greater control, less options to turn off advertising and better data gathering options.
Privacy and Security
LastPass published its final analysis of the 2022 hacks. The extensive information provide a look back at the events, LastPass’ reaction to the breach, and it offers details on the customer data that the attacker managed to obtain during the hack.
Both Apple’s App store and Google’s Play Store host, or have hosted, fake authenticator apps. The last app that security researchers discovered had over 500,000 downloads on Google Play.
Android users may check out the open source Aegis Authenticator app, or check out Ashwin’s list of the best authenticator apps for iOS and Android.
Bitwarden published the results of two security audits conducted by third-party security firm Cure53 in 2022. No critical issues were found, two issues, rated high, were patched quickly, and the remaining few issues had a low or informational rating.
Software Updates
ffmpeg 6.0 has been released. Changelog is available here.
NVIDIA released the long awaited GeForce driver update with RTX Super Video Resolution support. Release notes are available here.
The monthly “What’s new in Excel” article lists new features and improvements that were integrated into Excel in February.
Here is the quick overview:
Web Excel: PivotTables: Manual sort (drag) of rows and column values
Windows Excel: Automatic Recalculation Optimization (Insiders) and Block untrusted XLL Add-Ins (Insiders)
Mac Excel: Power Query Editor and Import Data from Additional Sources / SQL Server Databases (Insiders), and Automatic Recalculation Optimization (Insiders)
Gaming
Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree announced. If you like From Software titles, especially Elden Ring, you are probably looking forward to the expansion.
Other
Articles
WizFile is a fast search tool for Windows
WizFile is a blazing fast third-party search tool for Windows by Antibody Software, known for tools such as the excellent Bulk Image Downloader and WizTree.
WizFile is a file search tool, similarly to Everything and others of its kind. It is free for personal use and available as a portable version or installed version.
The app opens quickly on Windows. The interface is clean; there is a search field at the top and several filters. These may be used to filter results by type, size or time.
One interesting of WizFile is the ability to edit filters or add new ones. It takes just a few clicks to add other file extensions to the file types filter, or even add a completely new file type filter based on custom preferences.
WizFile returns results immediately. The table structure supports sorting, and each individual file or folder that is returned is listed with its name, path, size and other information.
A double-click opens the file in the default viewer or the folder in File Explorer; a right-click displays the Windows context menu for the file type or folder.#
WizFile lacks some of the advanced options of Everything, including the ability to find files based on their contents. It is still an interesting option, especially for Windows users who don’t need to find files based on their contents.