News
Operating Systems
Some Windows users are seeing a fullscreen notification, “Choose if you want to keep signing in with your face or fingerprint”, now. Windows displays these to Windows Hello users when the user either has not signed-in using the technology for at least 365 days or when the device has been updated to a newer version of Windows 10 or 11.
Microsoft improved support for passkeys in the latest Windows 11 Insider Build for the Dev channel. Users who run the development version may now create and store passkeys on the Windows device, and use them to sign-on. They may also use passkeys stored on their mobile devices to sign-in to services.
The June 2023 Preview update for Windows 11 includes the Moments 3 update. It will become available for all users on July 11, 2023 as part of the cumulative security update of the month.
Mobile
Press got their hands on the Google Pixel Fold, and results seem to be mixed. It starts at $1799 for the 256 GB model. Ron Amadeo over at Arstechnica reported that he managed to kill the display after just four days of working with the device.
Browser
Search engine DuckDuckGo released a public beta of its web browser for Windows. The browser is designed to protect user privacy and includes features such as tracker blocking, HTTP to HTTPS upgrades, cookie consent automation or a privacy-friendly YouTube video player.
The overall player works well, but it is fairly limited. It does not support extensions and offers just a few customization options to its users. It remains to be seen if the final version will introduce more options in this regard.
Tor Browser 12.5 was released this week. It improves accessibility for the most part, for instance with a new Circuit window that displays connection details.
Google released a new point update for Chrome that addresses four security issues. None appear to be exploited in the wild.
Privacy and Security
1Password, maker of the password management service, plans to introduce Telemetry to its applications. The company reassures users that it will happen in a privacy-friendly way. Means: users will see a prompt before any Telemetry is collected. They may decline the collecting then and there.
Mozilla plans to launch Firefox Monitor Premium in the near future. It is a subscription-based service that helps users remove personal data from data broker sites and search engines. Will launch in the U.S. only.
Microsoft’s Outlook application opens links by default in Microsoft Edge now on Windows for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions. Microsoft claims that it offers a better experience, as the links will open in Edge’s sidebar right next to the email message in Outlook.
Outlook users may follow this guide to disable the feature:
Open Microsoft Edge
Select Menu > Settings > Sidebar
Expand Outlook under Apps and notification settings.
Toggle “Automatically open Outlook email context in the side pane”.
Proton has released Proton Pass, its password management service. It is available as a free and commercial version. The free version supports unlimited devices, logins and notes, the paid version adds multiple vaults, 2fa token generating, unlimited email aliases and more to the service.
Software Releases and Updates
The maker of Ventoy, a multi-boot tool that uses disk images of operating systems, has released iVentoy, a tool to deploy operating systems on networks.
Gaming and Entertainment
YouTube is rolling out a new feature that allows video publishers and creators to dub languages using AI. The feature is limited at this point, it supports just a handful of languages, but Google has big plans for it and will expand support in the coming years.
Speaking of which, YouTube may soon introduce Playables to the site. Playables introduces ready-to-play games to YouTube in an effort to further growth of the platform.
Netflix may remove the Basic plan in the near future. The company removed it in Canada already and it appears that the plan is being removed from the service in the near future. This leaves users with three plans: Standard and Premium, and Standard with ads.
The Password Game is a simple web-based game in which you are tasked to set a password. As you may imagine, it is not as easy as typing TEST, as you need to follow all the rules that the game reveals whenever a password is typed or edited.
The first rules are simple enough, e.g., the password needs to be at least 5 characters long or include a number, but it gets complicated soon thereafter. How about adding digits that add up to 25 or that a month of the year needs to be included.
It is not really helpful for learning how to create strong passwords, but may be fun nevertheless.
Valve Software has hired another open source Linux graphics driver developer, according to a Phoronix report.
Other
Article(s)
Cloud Windows PCs are coming for Home users, the question is when
Virtually everything is moving to the cloud these days it seems. The latest service that is rumored to become available as a cloud service is Microsoft’s Windows operating system for Home users.
Windows 365 is limited to commercial customers at the moment. It enables them to stream Windows to devices, which offers several advantages to them, but also disadvantages.
Microsoft is working on improving Windows 365 through a feature that it calls Windows 365 Boot. This allows users who run Windows 11 devices to boot directly into an instance that is stored in the cloud.
As far as advantages go, there are a few. First, that a specific setup or setups become available everywhere. Windows syncing functionality is fairly limited right now, but cloud instances ensure that users can use the same setup whenever they connect to the cloud instance.
There is also the ability to create different instances for different tasks and make use of different hardware configurations. Need a faster processor and more RAM for taxing tasks? A new configuration is just a few clicks away.
Windows cloud PCs can be streamed to different operating systems, not only Windows 11. Microsoft notes that Windows 10, macOS, iOS and Android are supported, as well as “most modern devices with an Internet connection”.
Connections happen either using Microsoft Remote Desktop app software or an HTML5-capable web browser.
Last but not least, the user’s device does not need to be very powerful, as most of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud.
As for downsides, there are several, especially for Home users. Besides the requirement to be online to connect to Cloud PCs, it is also a subscription-based service, at least currently.
There is a good chance that Microsoft would make the Home version subscription-based as well, which would mean that customers would have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to use the functionality.
Some users may be worried about privacy, as Microsoft does not address many concerns on the official website or in the FAQ.
Clearly, Windows 365 is not something that all Home users will find attractive. Much will depend on the available options and price.
Still, it seems that it is only a matter of time before Windows 365 will become available for Home users.
RunInSandbox makes it easier to run files in Windows’ Safe Environment
The Windows Sandbox is included in the Windows 10 and 11 operating systems, but it is not enabled by default. In fact, it is quite neglected and overlooked, even though it can be a quite useful asset in a user’s arsenal of tools.
The sandbox allows users to run files in a protected environment. Anything that happens in the sandbox stays in the sandbox. This makes it ideal for several use cases:, but one major one: running suspicious files, especially applications or popular file types that are often used in attacks.
Security solutions, such as Microsoft Defender, offer limited protection. New strains of malware or attacks are created all the time and it takes time before security software protects against these.
Windows Sandbox comes to the rescue for any file that you might consider suspicious. That PDF that you received in an email, the executable file that you downloaded from a site that you don’t trust fully, a file downloaded via P2P, images, videos and anything else that you don’t trust 100%.
Microsoft explains here how to set up Windows Sandbox. In short: it requires that virtualization is enabled on the device and the manual installation of Windows Sandbox on the user’s device.
Windows Sandbox may then be started via the Start menu and files can be pasted into the Windows Sandbox window to execute them there.
It is not overly comfortable, but that is where RunInSandbox comes into play. The main idea behind it is to run certain files directly from File Explorer in Windows Sandbox. Once set up, a right-click on supported files displays the option to run it in Windows Sandbox.
Here is a short GIF that demonstrates the functionality:
Installation is straightfoward. It requires downloading the latest version of the PowerShell script from the developer’s website and running .\Add_Structure.ps1 -NoSilent from an elevated Terminal prompt. This displays a configuration window to select the capabilities of the script. It is also possible to run the PowerShell script directly from File Explorer, which adds the context menu items automatically.
In short: RunInSandbox may not be needed to make use of the feature, but it makes things easier, at least for the file types that it supports.
Regardless of whether RunInSandbox is used or not, Windows Sandbox is a good tool to run suspicious files without running the risk of damage to the underlying system.
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