Author: Martin Brinkmann

When I was young, I studied German, History and English at Essen University in Germany. I worked in computer support for several years at the time to help other computer users when they ran into issues. Writing started out as a passion project, as I wanted to help more users and not just the ones that I handled in support. This lead to the founding of Ghacks Technology News in 2005. First, as a side-project, but shortly thereafter as a full-time project as the site's popularity exploded. I sold Ghacks to Softonic some years ago, but stayed on as Editor. You can still read my articles on the site. I do publish on Betanews as well. In recent years, I started to write and publish technology books, including my latest book "Windows 11 From Beginner to Advanced", which is available on Amazon. I'm also a freelance writer for the German publisher Gamestar. Chipp.in is my newest project. I want to use it to talk about my book projects, sell my books directly, and write about technology, as this is what interests me.

Cui Bono? Microsoft hides Sign Out button in Windows 11 Beta

Posted on April 21, 2024April 21, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft released a new build to the Windows 11 Beta Insider Channel this week. One of the changes rolls out the new account manager of the Start Menu.

You may remember that Microsoft launched account related events already in the Start Menu of Windows 10 and 11. This feature advertises the benefits of using a Microsoft account to local users.

Users signed in with a Microsoft account get backup reminders. The backup feature uses Microsoft’s OneDrive feature.

Clearly, this feature is designed to drive Microsoft account conversions and also Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Backups require space and some users may need more than the free quota that Microsoft gives free Microsoft account users.

The new Windows 11 Start Menu account manager

Windows 11 new account manager Start Menu

Now comes the new Microsoft account manager. It replaces the current menu that opens when you click on the profile icon in the Start Menu.

Microsoft writes:

This update starts the roll out of the new account manager on Start menu. When you sign in with a Microsoft account, the new design gives you a quick glanceable view of your account benefits and makes it easy to manage account settings.

The new design displays information about the Microsoft account. In particular, it lists subscriptions and information about cloud storage.

There is also the obligatory reminder of “something” that the user needs to be aware of. It is possible that this is used for promotions, e.g., when a user is not subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Microsoft 365 yet. The text shown reminds the user to create recovery keys.

Something is missing: Microsoft does not mention it in its announcement, but the sign-out and account switching buttons are nowhere to be seen.

A click on the profile icon of the Start Menu shows options to sign out, switch to another user account, lock the device, or open the account settings.

Here is a screenshot of how this looks in Windows 11 Stable:

Microsoft moved the options behind the three-dots menu, at least for users signed-in to a Microsoft account.

The problem: this adds another click to the sign out, locking, and user switching process. Some users may also have problems locating the options once the change lands.

Closing Words

Call me disillusioned, but all of these changes do not sound particularly useful. Subscription information is already in the Settings app. There you also get banners in the new Homepage, which offers little for users, but another advertising space for Microsoft.

This change is not the only one that is currently in testing. Microsoft is also testing promoting apps in the recommended section of the Windows start menu.

There is also talk about a new taskbar button, which might also be used for recommendations, whatever that means in that context.

Are these changes beneficial to customers who use Windows? Or do they help Microsoft sell more subscriptions and increase the revenue of the Windows division?

What do you think about these changes?

Surprise: Edge’s Windows 11 Search Bar is not Bing-locked

Posted on April 20, 2024April 20, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Search Bar adds a standalone search field to the Windows 11 desktop when enabled. It allows you to run searches from it. The main benefit is that you do not need to open a browser first to run searches.

Microsoft announced this week that the Search Bar is now available on Windows 11. You need Microsoft Edge for it and enable it before it becomes available on the desktop,

From here, it works exactly as you would imagine a desktop search tool to work. Type something, hit enter or click on the go button, and wait for the results to appear in the Edge browser.

Yes, since this is an Edge feature, it requires the browser.

Surprise: search is not locked down to Bing. If you have set a different default search provider in Edge, it is used.

Setting up Microsoft Edge’s Search Bar

Here are the steps to launch the Search Bar on Windows 11 systems:

Start Microsoft Edge.
Select Menu > More Tools > Launch search bar.

If you do not see the option under More Tools, check for updates under Menu > Help and feedback > About Microsoft Edge.

Tip: you may hide the permanent sidebar button in Microsoft Edge, if you do not need it.

Using the new search option on Windows 11’s desktop

The search widget appears on the desktop once you enable it in Edge. You can move it around freely on the desktop.

Type a phrase and you get suggestions from Microsoft Edge’s default search engine. Select any of them or submit the search phrase to launch the results page in Edge.

A click on the menu icon displays a few options. You may switch to guest mode here, which does not associate searches with a Microsoft account.

The desktop widget starts with Windows 11 by default. You may stop this from the menu as well.

Select the close option of the menu to exit.

It may surprise you that Microsoft has not locked down the search provider. Any provider set in Edge powers the searches.

Closing Words

Whether Search Bar is something that is useful to you is up to you. Windows 11 already has a search feature enabled that may run web searches. These are limited to Bing and Edge.

Good news is that it is not locked down and that it is not enabled by default. It is still limited to returning search results in Microsoft Edge. Whether MSEdgeRedirect takes care of that remains to be seen.

It is doubtful that this feature will convince non-Edge users to switch browsers. Those who use Edge and do not have Edge open all the time anyway may find it useful.

Windows 11 is changing the display brightness constantly? Here is how you turn that off

Posted on April 19, 2024April 19, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system supports a feature that changes the brightness of the display automatically. Depending on the environment or content displayed, it may lower or increase brightness on the device.

While that sounds like a useful feature, it comes with its own set of problems. Probably the biggest issue is that it may make unnecessary changes. Another issue that you may encounter is that it may change the brightness too frequently.

It may also react to manual brightness changes, making this a frustrating experience.

Technical information

How Windows 11 manages the automatic changing of brightness depends on the device. Some devices include light sensors that may react to environmental light information.

Launching Windows 11 in a bright room may cause an increase in brightness to counter this. In a darker room, it may tone down the brightness instead.

Microsoft launched Content Adaptive Brightness Control in Windows 11. The feature “provides ideal brightness and contrast levels” according to Microsoft while “saving power and providing longer battery life”.

Not all devices support the feature. The following chapters explain how to find out if it is supported on a Windows 11 device and how to manage it.

Configure brightness settings on Windows 11

Do the following to manage or disable the automatic Brightness feature on Windows 11 devices:

Open the Start Menu and select Settings. You may also use the shortcut Windows-I to open Settings.
Go to System > Display.
Expand the Brightness section at the top.

Here, you find the following options:

Change the brightness of the display.
Enable or disable “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes”.
Change brightness based on content.

The last two options define whether automatic brightness changes are enabled on the system.

Change brightness automatically when lighting changes

This feature is only available on devices that have light sensors. The device analyzes the information of the sensors to adjust the brightness based on the information.

Uncheck the box to turn the feature off.

Change brightness based on content

This feature is available on all devices. Windows analyzes the content displayed to make changes to the brightness and contrast.

Available settings are:

Off — The feature is disabled. Windows 11 won’t change the brightness based on the content that is viewed automatically.
Always — The feature is enabled. Windows 11 will change the brightness on battery and when plugged in.
On Battery Only — The feature is enabled. Windows 11 will change the brightness only on battery power.

Another setting that may cause automatic brightness changes

WIndows 11 lower brightness on battery saver

Windows 11 maintains another setting that may change the brightness on devices automatically. This one lowers the screen brightness only when battery saver is enabled.

Here is how you configure that option (or turn it off):

Select Start and then Settings to open the Settings app.
Navigate to System > Power & Battery.
Expand Battery Saver on the page that opens.

The following options are revealed:

Battery saver — Enable or disable Battery Saver manually.
Turn battery saver on automatically at — When Windows 11 will turn the battery saver feature on by itself. Options include Never, Always and a battery value between 10% and 50%.
Lower screen brightness when using battery saver — may lower the brightness of the screen when battery saver is turned on.

Uncheck the last option to prevent Windows from making changes to the brightness.

Closing Words

If you want to block Windows 11 from making automatic changes to the brightness or contrast, turn off both options.

Uncheck “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes” and set “Change brightness based on content” to off.

The changes take effect immediately. Note that disabling the feature may cause increased power usage.

AI File Explorer may have these requirements

Posted on April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

AI File Explorer is one of the tools that Microsoft is rumored to integrated into the next version of Windows. These tools are designed for AI PCs specifically.

Everything is a bit murky right now, as Microsoft is keeping is not revealing much about:

what defines an AI PC.
the features that make AI PCs.
the requirements of AI PCs.

While that is keeping the suspense, it is also confusing. Should you wait buying a new PC or laptop to make sure that it matches Microsoft’s definition and gets all AI features?

A few tidbits leaked on the Internet. AI PCs do need a neural processing unit and need to have a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard. AI PCs may also need at least 16GB of RAM.

None of this has been confirmed officially by Microsoft at this point. Maybe Build 2024 will shed some light into the darkness.

AI File Explorer requirements

Windows detective Albacore found information about AI PCs recently. In build 26100, which may be Windows 11 24H2 RTM, Albacore found the following information:

ARM64 CPU
16GB of RAM.
225GB System Drive.
Snapdragon X Elite NPU

The 16GB requirement leaked earlier. It seems unlikely that AI File Explorer will only be available on ARM64 Windows devices.

My guess: The requirements are for ARM PCs that run Windows. Intel and AMD PCs will also get the functionality, provided that they meet certain processor requirements. The 16GB requirement is likely universal across all AI PCs though.

It is almost certain that some AI PC features require a NPU, a neural processing unit. Still, Microsoft has not revealed much about these features. It is not even clear what AI File Explorer will bring to the table.

One possible feature that it could add would be natural language processing. You could ask it to show photos from the last vacation, videos that show a beach scene, a specific document, or a list of recently created executables.

This could be interesting to some users.

Closing Words

Microsoft will lift the curtain on AI PCs, their features and requirements, in the coming months. If you are interested in the functionality, you may want to postpone any purchases planned regarding Windows devices.

What about you? Would you use AI PC functionality? What would you like to see?

Microsoft says installation of Copilot app was a bug

Posted on April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft confirmed that Edge updates may install the Copilot app on Windows devices. The company calls the app “Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows”.

Microsoft added a new known issue on the Windows 11 version 23H2 dashboard. It confirms an issue that was first observed in March 2023.

Some Windows users noticed that Microsoft was installing a Copilot app on their devices. This app appeared after Microsoft Edge updates, including the update to Microsoft Edge 123 at the end of March 2024.

While sporting the Copilot name, it did not power the Copilot feature of the Windows operating system.

How to check if the app is installed: Select Start > Settings > Apps >Installed Apps, and search for Copilot.

Microsoft confirms the bug

Today, Microsoft confirmed that the installation of the application is a bug. The company writes:

Updates to Edge browser version 123.0.2420.65, released on March 28, 2024 and later, might incorrectly install a new package (MSIX) called ‘Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows’ on Windows devices. Resulting from this, the Microsoft Copilot app might appear in the Installed apps in Settings menu.

Microsoft says that the app “does not execute any code or process” and that it “does not acquire, analyze, or transmit device or environment data in any capacity”.

What it does: Microsoft explains that the app is “intended to prepare some Windows devices for future Windows Copilot enablement” and that it is not intended for all devices.

Microsoft plans to remove the Microsoft Copilot app from Windows devices it is not intended for.

The company does not define “devices that it is intended for”, which makes it difficult to figure out if it was installed by error on a particular device. The only hint Microsoft provides is that it is not intended for most Windows Server devices.

How Microsoft plans to rectify the issue: Microsoft plans to release an update for Microsoft Edge to resolve the issue.

This is not the first Edge bug in recent time. Back in January, Microsoft Edge started to import tabs from Chrome automatically on user devices.

Have you used Copilot?

Firefox 125 skipped – Firefox 125.0.1 released

Posted on April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla’s original plan was to release Firefox 125.0. Stable today. This did not happen and Mozilla revealed that it had to postpone the release.

Now it appears that Firefox 125.0.1 has been released, on the same day. The new version of Firefox is already in distribution. Most Firefox desktop installations get updated automatically eventually.

Users who do not want to wait for that to happen may follow the top below to run a manual check for updates.

Tip: you can check your Firefox version by selecting Menu > Help > About Firefox on desktop. On mobile, you select Menu > Settings > About Firefox.

Security information: Firefox 125.0.1 addresses several security issues in the browser. The aggregate security rating is “high” and there appear to be no attacks in the wild. You can check out the security updates here.

Firefox 125.0.1: major changes

Firefox 125.0.1 is a security and feature release. As far as features are concerned, here are the major changes:

Better media streaming — support for AV1 codec for Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) added. Means that video providers may use this codec to deliver streams to Firefox.
Firefox PDF Viewer — supports text highlighting now. The feature is rolled out gradually.
Firefox View — displays pinned tabs in the “open tabs” section.
Addresses — save and autofill addresses, but only in the U.S. and Canada.
Downloads — Firefox blocks more downloads that it considers potentially untrustworthy.
Address Bar — clipboard URLs are now shown as suggestions at the top (but only if the site is not open already).
Web Proxy Auto Discovery — option to enable the feature when using system proxy settings.

Closing Words

While it is still unclear why the release of Firefox 125.0. had to be cancelled, the same day release of Firefox 125.0.1 is commendable. Mozilla seems to have fixed whatever caused the retraction of Firefox 125.

Firefox 125.0.1 makes the same changes and most users probably do not even notice the release change.

What is your take on this new release? Any feature you like?

Opera: 63% increase in new monthly users in Europe

Posted on April 15, 2024April 15, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Opera Software announced that on April 10, 2025 that it saw an increase in monthly new users by 63% on iOS one month after the Digital Market Acts came into force in Europe.

Apple, much like Google on Android, is required to display a browser choice screen to users. The aim here is to level the playing field and limit Apple’s and Google’s ability to prioritize their own browsers over others.

Apple iOS users may still select Safari as the default browser. The browser choice screen allows them to pick another browser.

Opera Software claims furthermore that it is also seeing growth in regards to being selected as the default browser on iOS. This metric increased by 39% from March 3rd to April 4th, 2024.

The countries with the largest jump in monthly new users are:

France with 146%.
Germany with 57%.
Spain with 50%.
Poland with 45%.
Italy with 20%.

Opera Software does not reveal usage numbers. In 2023, Opera Software said that it had about 350 million users across all supported platforms. Back in 2020, Opera announced that it had reached 300 million users, 232 million on mobile alone.

If the numbers are correct, Opera is seeing significant growth on iOS in Europe.

Other browser makers are also seeing upticks in usage. Brave Software, for example, saw a huge jump in daily installs after the browser choice screen rolled out on iOS.

Mozilla too reported that it saw a jump in users in select European countries. The organization said that its German users increased by 50% and the users in France by 30% in the time.

Closing Words

Even if you do not use any of the browsers, it is good to see efforts to level the playing field. Apple having to allow other browsing engines on iOS is another milestone. While Apple seems to fight this in different ways, it is probably only a matter of time before pure Chromium and Firefox browsers are launching on iOS.

Which browser do you prefer on mobile?

YT Channel Downloader review

Posted on April 14, 2024April 14, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

YT Channel Downloader is an open source downloader for YouTube videos. It supports downloading individual videos and also entire channels or playlists. You can download it from its GitHub repository. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS devices.

The program is based on yt-dlp, scrapetube, and pytube, but much easier to use.

The main interface is almost barebones. It features an URL field at the top. Paste YouTube URLs into the field and hit Fetch afterwards to get a list of found videos returned. Fetching may take a few seconds to complete.

Videos are listed with their name and link only. Other information, such as playtime or maximum resolution, are not shown.

From here, it takes two additional clicks to download all videos to the local system. Activate the “select all” button to check all videos, and hit the download button next to start the process.

You may also select individual videos to download only them, or enable audio conversions in the settings.

Before you start using the program, you may want to open File > Settings. Here you find just a few options:

Change the local download folder.
Enable conversion to audio files.
Set the preferred video format and quality.
Set the preferred audio format and quality.

Once set, the program runs almost on autopilot. It is a great way of quickly downloading videos for offline viewing. Ideal before you make a long trip, but also for safekeeping.

Tip: here is a method to download age-restricted YouTube videos without account.

Closing Words

YT Channel Download is an easy to use program. It makes the downloading of videos from YouTube channels or playlists almost effortlessly.

While that is great for getting things done quickly, it lacks options that other downloaders may support. There is no option to download subtitles or process videos in any way after download (other than converting them to audio).

Not everyone needs these options. If you just want a reliable mass downloader that is easy to use, this may be it.

The program worked reliably during tests. Fetching may take a while. It seems to depend on the channel or playlist that you want analyzed.

Vivaldi testing new Privacy Guard feature in browser

Posted on April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Privacy Guard is a new feature of the Vivaldi web browser. It is free at the moment and only available in development builds of the browser.

Broken down to its core, it is protecting user privacy through a technology called Multi-Hop Relay. To better understand it, it is necessary to understand how regular connections work in the browser.

When the browser loads a domain, a direct connection to each resource of a webpage is loaded. This means that the server the site is hosted on as well as any third-party resource loaded communicates directly with the IP address of the user’s device.

Multi-Hop Relay changes this by putting servers in-between. In other words, instead of directly connecting to resources, the browser connects through other servers first. This is done to separate the identity of the user’s device from the requested resource.

Vivaldi’s Privacy Guard technology uses two servers for this. The first is operated by INVISV, the startup that developed the Multi-Hop technology. The second is operated by Fastly.

Vivaldi says that INVISV has been founded by Paul Schmitt, University of Hawaii, and Barath Raghavan, University of Southern California. The startup has advisers, including Bruce Schneier and Jon Callas.

The feature in Vivaldi

You need a development version of Vivaldi to use the feature at this time. Another limitation is that Privacy Guard requires a Vivaldi account. Creating an account is free.

A click on the Privacy Guard toggle enables the feature. A public IP address is assigned to the browser. Vivaldi displays the location of the server as well, so that you know about the country you are connected to.

The fastest server is selected by default, which means that you will connect to a server closest to your location usually. You can switch this to random instead, which may further improve privacy.

Websites may be added to the list of exceptions. Direct connections are used for any of these sites.

Initial tests were promising. All tested websites and services, including YouTube, Twitch, online game websites, blogs, and others worked as before. Some sites may display captchas, but this is also the case when other anonymization services are used.

Privacy Guard vs. Tor Browser vs. Multi-Hop VPNs

How does the privacy feature compare to similar technologies?

Privacy Guard — uses two hops. Hops are operated by different companies.
Tor Browser — uses three hops. Hops are (usually) operated by different companies and organizations.
Multi-Hop VPN — uses another hop. Operated by the VPN provider.

Closing Words

The technology is free to try at the moment and Vivaldi says that it uses the current implementation for testing and to find out if this is something that Vivaldi users are interested in. A release in Vivaldi Stable would require a subscription. Details have not been revealed at this point.

Some Vivaldi users will certainly find the option appealing. The main appeal it has over VPNs is that its servers are not operated by the same company. It is also easier to use, but it lacks advanced features that VPN services do offer.

Would you use Privacy Guard? How much would you pay for it?

VPN by Google One is shutting down

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google is informing customers currently that it is shutting down VPN by Google One “later this year”.

I reviewed VPN by Google One in March 2023 and concluded that it was “the most basic VPN that you can get”. Subscribers would get access to the VPN if they paid Google at least $1.99 per month.

While that sounded like a good deal on paper, the VPN itself was severely limiting and only available to customers in 22 countries. The real downside was that it lacked core functionality. You basically got the option to connect to the VPN, use its kill switch and configure bypass options for apps.

One of the main downsides was that you could not use it to connect to select servers, only to servers that Google picked. This meant that you could not use it to quickly connect to a server in another country to get an IP associated with that country.

Other features found in clients of popular VPN servers, such as NordVPN or SurfShark, were missing as well. No protocol selection, no advanced servers or security features, or to set a custom DNS server.

It still helped protected the connection, especially when connected to public wireless access points, but that was it.

Google informs subscribers and Pixel owners

All Pixel owners and Google One members are informed about the change. The news that VPN by Google One is shutting down at the end of the year may be overlooked easily.

Google writes:

Phasing out two benefits: With a focus on providing the most in-demand features and benefits, we’re discontinuing free shipping for select print orders from Google Photos (in Canada, the UK, US, and EU) starting on May 15 and VPN by Google One later this year. As a Pixel user, you’ll continue to enjoy being able to access VPN from Google through Pixel settings if you have Pixel 7 or newer models.

In other words, the VPN service is removed from Google One. Pixel owners may still connect to Google’s VPN.

The official Google One website does not list VPN by Google One anymore already.

Closing Words

Another one bites the dust. I know quite a few users who do not commit to Google products anymore, because there is a good chance that the company will tear them apart in the future.

While there are better VPN services out there, it is still disheartening to add it as another discontinued product to Google’s Graveyard of products.