Albacore (@thebookisclosed) recently uncovered a pack of new features and improvements coming soon to Windows 11 preview builds. Microsoft is working on improving the Settings app with a new Sustainability section, better Focus, and enhancements for notifications management.
Category: Windows 11
Windows 11 is getting improved Focus, notification, and Sustainability Settings
Microsoft is getting ready to ship new Windows 11 preview builds to Windows insiders to test new features and enhancements. Albacore (@thebookisclosed) managed to uncover several improvements that are coming soon to the Settings app in Windows 11. Those are not available for public testing yet, but they might arrive in future Windows 11 preview builds.
Microsoft has disabled MSIX ms-appinstaller protocol for better security.
Microsoft has disabled the ms-appinstaller protocol to prevent malware from spreading. It is used by Microsoft App Installer in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The reason behind this move is active abusing of the protocol by attackers to distribute malware such as Emotet and BazarLoader. Actually, Microsoft disabled the protocol last year, but issued the official statement about it only now.
How to Delete Downloaded Pending Updates in Windows 11
You may want to delete downloaded updates in Windows 11 which are pending to install on your computer. This can be useful if a cumulative update is known for having bugs, or you have some other reason to avoid it. Also, Windows 11 may keep corrupted update packages and never remove them.
The new Media Player for Windows 11 is now available in the Beta channel
In November 2021, Microsoft announced a revamped media player for Windows 11. The new app replaces Groove Music and Movies & TV. After a few months of extensive testing, Microsoft is ready to make the new Media Player for Windows 11 available for more insiders in the Beta channel.
Windows 11 Insider Program has been updated with new options and capabilities
Microsoft has announced major changes to the Windows Insider program that will affect the Dev and Beta channels. Both channels will soon receive more experimental and new features, but they will be used to test different features for Windows 11.
How to Disable Firewall in Windows 11
In certain situations you may need to disable firewall in Windows 11, e.g. to troubleshoot a network connectivity for some local or remote service or app. For that task, the operating system offers a number of options,including the GUI and a few console commands. There's also the ability to disable firewall with Group Policy.
Unpin Teams from taskbar in Windows 11 to save RAM
Every fresh Windows 11 installation comes with a few new icons pinned to the taskbar by default: Task View, Windows Search, Windows Widgets, and Microsoft Teams. As it turned out, Windows Widgets and Microsoft Teams consume noticeable amounts of RAM, even if you do not use them. A solution? Just unpin them.
Microsoft may force Edge users to watch YouTube videos embedded in Bing
Microsoft Edge gets major feature updates every four weeks. These updates usually bring helpful features and quality improvements, but they often annoy users by resetting settings and changing search engines. Moreover, users recently accused Microsoft of messing with third-party browsers after a Windows update changed the default search engine in Chrome from Google to Bing.
PowerToys 0.55 brings three new tools and various fixes
Microsoft released another PowerToys update with three new tools and many improvements. Version 0.55 also contains various under-the-hood optimizations in preparations to make PowerToys ARM64-ready. Here is what is new in PowerToys 0.55.
