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.

Windows 11 may soon use your voice for speech output

Posted on February 24, 2024February 24, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft is working on a new accessibility feature in Windows 11 that it calls Speak for Me. Here is what it does: the main idea behind the accessibility tool is to have text that you type spoken aloud using either integrated voices or your own.

Twitter user Phantom spotted the integrated feature in Windows 11 build 26063. It is not enabled by default in the build, but interested users may enable it using ViVeTool.

Here are the required steps to unlock it:

Download the latest ViVeTool release from GitHub.
Extract the archive to the local system.
Open an elevated command prompt, e.g., by opening Start, typing CMD and selecting “run as administrator”.
Navigate to the ViVeTool directory.
Run the command vivetool /enable /id:44950080,47123936,47405131,47976395,48002155,48339425,48624087,48812316,48900033
Restart the system.

Speak for Me should now be accessible via Settings > Speak for Me.

Speak for Me

Toggle the Speak for Me preference to On to enable the feature. The keyboard shortcut Windows-Ctrl-T turns the assistive speech feature on and off then.

Windows 11 gives you two voice options: pick a natural voice that is provided by the operating system or use your own voice. Using your own voice requires giving Microsoft permission to record the voice.

Note all Windows 11 users may like the idea. Those who do not, may want to pick natural voice instead. Once you have given Microsoft permission, you need to read phases and sentences aloud. This takes some time, but progress is saved.

Microsoft uses your voice data then to create a personal voice. This takes about 2 hours according to Microsoft. The company promises that it will inform users once the voice is ready for use.

Use the keyboard shortcut to display the interface. It opens a text field. Anything you enter there may be read aloud using the selected voice.

Closing Words

The option to create a personal voice is interesting. Microsoft has not revealed plans to extend the feature, but it is just a small step to integrating a user’s recorded voice as one of the available voices on Windows.

This would allow Windows 11 users to use the voice in Narrator and other areas of the operating system.

Speak for Me is an interesting feature, but it is limited at this point. Microsoft has not said anything about the target release for the feature. Windows 11 version 24H2, or Windows 11 2024 Update, is the most likely target at this point

NVIDIA App: new unified app for NVIDIA graphics cards

Posted on February 23, 2024February 23, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

NVIDIA unveiled the NVIDIA App yesterday. The new application is available as a beta release at the time of writing. It promises to unify functionality that NVIDIA’s current generation of programs offer.

The company plans to replace these programs, notably GeForce Experience, NVIDIA Control Panel, and RTX Experience, with this one in the future.

The public beta of the NVIDA app is available already. It does not include all features yet. NVIDIA notes in the announcement that it does include “many of the top features” from the existing apps already.

NVIDIA App system requirements

The beta application is compatible with Windows 10 and 11 operating systems only at the time. It requires 600 MB of disk space, 2 GB of RAM, and the GeForce 551.52 or later driver.

The app has the following CPU and GPU requirements:

GPU:

GeForce RTX 20, 30, and 40 Series GPUs
GeForce GTX 800, 900, 1000, 1600 Series GPUs
GeForce MX100, MX200, MX300, 800M, and 900M GPUs

CPU:

Intel Pentium G Series, Core i3, i5, i7, or higher
AMD FX, Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 9, Threadripper or higher

The NVIDIA App: functionality

One of the core features of the app is the discovery and installation of drivers and related NVIDIA software. It allows users to install the latest graphics card driver on their devices and also other NVIDIA software, including GeForce NOW or NVIDIA Broadcast.

Driver releases provide summaries of new features and fixed issues. These help users find out more about a release without having to read the full documentation.

All driver related articles are accessible from a single entry point in the NVIDIA app.

The NVIDIA App introduces a new game overlay, which provides access to “gameplay recording tools, performance monitoring overlays, and game enhancing filters”. Filters include new filters powered by AI, but these are limited to GeForce RTX users and about 1200 games at the time.

Filters like RTX Dynamic Vibrance or RTX HDR promise to improve the visual quality of games using AI.

Microsoft is also working on integrating AI into Windows to improve graphics. Called Super Resolution, it promises to improve performance and visuals of games on Windows devices.

Gamers get a new performance overlay, which they may customize. They may add or hide certain performance metrics in the new software.

There is also the new GPU Control Center. This allows users to tune games and driver settings from a single location. Customizations support making global changes and also specific changes to specific applications or games.

Other options include signing-in to redeem bundles and rewards. NVIDIA says that this is optional.

The future

NVIDIA is working on integrating features of the NVIDIA Control Panel that are not yet available in the NVIDIA App. The new app will also get features from GeForce Experience and RTX Experience. These include GPU overclocking and driver rollback options.

The classic NVIDIA programs remain available throughout the beta period. NVDIA appears to have plans to drop support for these apps eventually, but has not yet announced an end of support date.

Some features won’t make the cut. NVIDIA lists Broadcast to Twitch and YouTube, Share Images and Video to Facebook and YouTube, and Photo Mode 360 & Stereo captures specifically.

Closing Words

The new application promises to unify NVIDIA’s offerings for Windows. It is too early to say how good it really is at this point. It should be clear that it will include Telemetry as well. NVIDIA will likely continue to release standalone drivers for its graphics cards.

How to download age-restricted YouTube videos without account

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

YouTube publishers and YouTube may use age restrictions to limit a video’s accessibility on the website. Users get a “sign in to confirm your age” message when they try to open such a video on YouTube.

The most recent Xbox Developer Direct video is age restricted.

Age-restricted content does not violate YouTube’s community guidelines, but it may be “incompatible with YouTube’s terms of service or not appropriate for viewers under 18” according to Google.

Google gives a few examples of types of videos that may be age-restricted. This includes videos with violent or graphic content, nudity or sexually suggesting content, vulgar language, or videos with harmful or dangerous activities.

If you are an adult and have a Google account, you may sign-in to watch the video on YouTube. Not everyone has a Google account on the other hand or wants to sign-in to watch certain videos.

You find a tutorial on bypassing YouTube’s sign in to confirm your age prompt to watch the video in a browser. Another option that is available is to download the age restricted video to the local system to watch it in a local player instead.

Problem is, most download options do not work without a YouTube account. If you search for options to download YouTube videos that are age restricted, you find most tutorials still require that you sign-in to an account.

In this guide, I show you one option to download these YouTube videos. Note that this method is also limited, but it does not require an account.

Disclaimer: there are numerous ways to bypass YouTube’s age restricted prompt. Children should not use any of the methods to bypass them. With that said, the prompt won’t keep anyone from watching videos as it is not checking the “real age” of users accessing the content.

Download age-restricted YouTube videos without account

I tried several YouTube video downloaders and most do not support the downloading of age restricted content without YouTube or Google account.

Any Video Converter Free is the exception. It can download these videos, and any other video, from YouTube.

Note: the free version has one limitation. It limits downloads to a maximum quality of 720p. A paid version is available that lifts the restriction.

Here are the steps required to download these videos from YouTube:

Install Any Video Converter Free on your Windows PC.
Run the program after installation.
Select Video Download on the startpage.
Paste the video URL into the field that opens. You may add multiple videos.
Click on the analyse button.
Click on Start to being the download of the video. You may modify output settings here, but the best video quality that is available in the free version is already selected.

You may now play the downloaded video in any compatible video player.

One effect of the downloading is that you do not have to worry about ads on YouTube.

How to hide the new permanent sidebar button in Microsoft Edge

Posted on February 20, 2024February 27, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

A recent Microsoft Edge update changes the browser’s sidebar functionality to the worse. Up until now, Edge users could disable the Copilot button that triggers the sidebar entirely. Now, when Edge users disable Copilot’s icon and thus the sidebar icon in the Edge toolbar, they get another button.

This one, a generic sidebar button, cannot be removed anymore. There is no option in the preferences to hide the button. Whether that is a case of “introduce a feature and add an option to customize it later on” remains to be seen.

Edge users may also notice that the Copilot button activates the AI chat interface now on hover. This behavior cannot be turned off either.

The official release notes do not reveal these changes.

Note that there is a workaround which requires making a change to the Windows Registry.

Update: Microsoft added a new preference in Edge 122 that allows you to disable the sidebar button. Load edge://settings/sidebar to get there and toggle “show sidebar button” to off to remove it from the toolbar of the browser.

The new Edge sidebar button

If you disable Copilot in Microsoft Edge, you get the new Edge sidebar button instead. The fastest way to disable Copilot in Edge is to load edge://settings/sidebar in the browser’s address bar to load the Customize Sidebar preferences.

Select Copilot on the page to display the preferences for the AI. There you find the “Show Copilot” option to turn it on or off.

Good news is that the generic sidebar button does not open on hover. Bad news is, that there is no switch in the preferences to disable it.

How to hide the new Edge sidebar button

If you do not use Copilot nor the sidebar in Microsoft Edge, then you may follow the steps below to turn off the generic sidebar button in Edge after you have disabled Copilot.

First, to disable Startup Boost:

Open Microsoft Edge.
Select Menu > Settings > System and Performance.
Turn off Startup Boost.
Close Microsoft Edge.

Then, add a new value to the Registry to turn off the sidebar icon:

Open the Start Menu on the Windows system.
Type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor result.
Confirm the UAC prompt by selecting “yes”.
Use the hierarchical structure on the left side to go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
- If a key does not exist along the way, create it with a right-click on the previous key and the selection of New > Key from the context menu.
Right-click on Edge and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
Name it HubsSidebarEnabled.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the system.

Note: you can also kill the explorer.exe process and restart it in the Task Manager.

There is no sidebar icon anymore in Microsoft Edge on the next start of the web browser.

How to remove an entire site from your browser’s history

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

This guide explains how to remove all history entries of a specific websites from the browser’s Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox. It should work in most other browsers as well.

All web browsers record the websites that you visit while using them. The browsing history serves two main purposes: to highlight previously visited sites when you type in the address bar, and as a record for the user to look up previously visited sites.

Sometimes, you may want to remove sites from the browsing history. Maybe because you do not need a record of the site anymore or want it to disappear completely from the browsing history.

All desktop browsers include functionality to do that. Problem is, it is not clear exactly how it is done. Opening the browsing history displays all visited sites, but there is no option to remove a specific site from the browsing history.

Clearing the entire history works, but it results in a loss of all records.

Delete a site from Google Chrome’s history (and other Chromium-based browsers)

Remove site from browsing history in Chrome

The general method of removing a site’s records from the Chrome browsing history works also in all other Chromium-based browsers. It works in Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and all other desktop versions of these browsers.

Here are the required steps:

Select Menu and then History > History in the browser. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-H to open the history, or load chrome://history/ directly.
Use the search history field at the top to find all entries of the website that you want to delete. The best option is to type its domain name, e.g., chipp.in.
Scroll all the way down to the end. Chrome lists only some of the entries by default. You may also repeat the operation multiple times if there are too many records.
Now check the box of the last entry on the page.
Scroll all the way to the top.
Hold down the Shift-key and click the box of the first history entry. All entries are now checked.
Select the Delete option.
Confirm the deletion.

Here is how this looks in other Chromium-based browsers:

The process should work in all Chromium-based browsers. Most redirect chrome://history to “their” internal page protocol, e.g., vivaldi://history or edge://history/all.

How to clear a site from Firefox’s browsing history

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser supports a similar feature. It works differently, as it is not based on Chromium.

Here are the steps in Firefox:

Select Menu > History > Manage History.
Use the search field to find all records of the website.
Switch from the “Today” filter to “History” to see all records of that site.
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-A to select all entries.
Right-click on the selection and select “Delete pages”. Note that there is no confirmation.

What about other records?

Deleting a site from the browsing history removes records of visits only from this database. Other databases may still store information about the site. There is the downloads history, which may have records if you downloaded files from the site.

Sites may also place content on the computer, e.g., as cookies or site data. These do not get cleared when you delete the browsing history.

How to delete other site records in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers

It is relatively easy to delete site data and cookies in Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.

Select Menu > Settings in the web browser.
Open Privacy and Security.
Select Site settings on the page that opens.
Click on “View permissions and data stored across sites”.
Use the search at the top to find a site.
Click on the trashcan icon next to it to remove it.
Confirm the operation with a click on the delete button.

Note: this removes offline data and logs you out of the site.

Do the following to remove the downloads history in the browser:

Load chrome://downloads/ in the browser’s address bar.
Use the search at the top to find all records of a site.
Activate the x-icon next to each to remove the records.

Deleting site records in Mozilla Firefox

You may also remove cookies and site data records in Mozilla Firefox.

Load about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar. This opens the Privacy preferences.
Scroll down to the Cookies and Site Data section.
Activate the “Manage Data…” button there,
Use the search field at the top to find a specific website.
Click “remove all shown”. Firefox deletes the entry immediately without confirmation.

Here are the steps to clear all downloads from a specific site:

Select Menu > Downloads or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-J to open the Downloads interface.
Use the search at the top to find downloads from a specific site.
Use Ctlr-A to select all downloads.
Press the Delete key to remove all entries from Firefox’s history.

How to zoom in on any video in Windows

Posted on February 17, 2024February 19, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Windows users have several options when it comes to zooming in on any video. This guide lists two of the best options to zoom videos on Windows. The first works for any local video file, the second for any video that you play on Windows.

Zoom is a useful feature to enlarge an entire video or part of it. It is ideal for looking closer at details in a video among other things.

It may come as a surprise, but many video players do not support zoom at all, or only in a way that is not very useful.

The new Media Player in Windows does not support zoom. The classic Media Player does, but it is only a matter of time before it gets removed. Popular apps like VLC Media Player support zoom functionality, but it too is lacking.

There is one video player on the other hand, that supports zoom in a user friendly way. All you have to do is hold down a key to draw a rectangle around the area that you want to zoom in. Or, and that is another option, you may tap on a key on the keyboard to zoom in or out at any time. Very convenient.

Zoom in on any video using PotPlayer

PotPlayer is a free media player for Windows. You can download it from the developer website or the Microsoft Store.

The media player is powerful; it offers lots of features and options. While that is great, it may also discourage some users.

PotPlayer supports major video formats out of the box. Just install the app on your device and make it the default media player to get started.

Videos play in windowed mode by default, but you may change that if you want. You can use zoom in and out functionality right away by pressing 9 or 1 on the numerical keypad.

A tap on 9 zooms in on the entire video. You may press 5 at any time to reset the zoom level.

To get the rectangle zoom option, do the following:

Select PotPlayer in the top left corner and then Preferences from the menu. You may also press F5 directly to open the options.
Switch to the Mouse tab in the Preferences.
Check “Activate Alt, Ctrl, Shift + Mouse Drag to Pan, Zoom and Stretch the image”.
Select OK to complete the process.

Once done, hold down one of the modifier keys, e.g., Ctrl, before drawing a rectangle on the video to zoom in that specific area.

You may then hold down the Ctrl-key while using the Numpad keys 2,4,6, and 8 to move around on the screen. Note that the zoom level is extreme, and that you may get better results using the Numpad to zoom in on a video.

Using the built-in Magnifier tool to zoom in on videos

Magnifier is a built-in accessibility tool that you may run with the keyboard shortcut Windows-+ (Windows-key and Plus-key). It opens the Magnifier interface, which you may use to change the zoom level and make some other changes.

You may want to open Start > Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier first to customize the zoom level. It defaults to 100% steps, which may be a bit much. You may change the steps on the page and make some other adjustments as you see fit.

Note: To exit Magnifier in Windows, press the Windows-key and the Esc-key at the same time,

Magnifier zooms in anywhere on the screen. This makes it a good tool for zooming in on videos. Just play a video in a browser or locally, and use Magnifier to zoom in or out while the video plays or is paused.

Now You: do you use zoom functionality on your systems?

Uninstalr review: powerful Windows software uninstaller

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

Uninstalr is a free Windows software uninstaller. You may download a portable version or installer from the developer website. It runs on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows.

The application supports several features that are often only found in commercial uninstallers: monitor software installations, deep cleaning, batch removals of apps and support for a variety of software stores and distribution platforms.

Uninstalr: the basics

The Windows software uninstaller scans the system on start. This may take a moment, depending on the number of installed programs and the system’s performance.

The list includes installed programs but also leftovers from apps that were previously installed on the device.

Tip: open the program preferences first and uncheck the automatic system restart option after software uninstallations.

Each program is listed with its name, developer, size on disk and type. Filters at the top give you options to create custom lists. You may display only leftovers or only programs from Steam, among other options. Microsoft apps are hidden by default, but you may enable these as well.

Removing programs is easy. Select one or multiple of the listed apps with a left-click and activate the uninstall button afterwards. You may also select “show data” first. Show data lists all found locations, files, folders, and Registry, of the selected apps.

The program lists the information when you active the uninstall option. The removal deletes the programs entirely from the system. It is recommended to restart the Windows PC afterwards.

Core features of the Windows software uninstaller

Uninstalr’s core feature is the removal of one or multiple programs from Windows PCs. Additionally, it supports monitoring software installations for easier cleaning in the future.

Using the program is simple. Run it, wait for the scan to complete, and select apps to remove. This process worked well during tests.

I still recommended that you create a system backup of the main partition for safety reasons.

Besides cleaning leftovers from the Windows PC, you can also use it to find and uninstall large programs. Note that the sort options appear bugged at the time. The sort by size option did not work correctly during tests. It allows you to sort apps by size.

Select “New Software Monitoring” in the interface to monitor a software installation. The Windows software uninstaller monitors installs automatically at this point.

It lists the program when you run its installer. Note that this does not work for portable apps. Some installations were not detected by the application either while running. Still, you do benefit from the leftover scan option in any event.

Should you use Uninstalr immediately?

Should you use Uninstalr immediately to remove Windows programs, or the default Windows uninstaller first?

This depends. If you used uninstaller to monitor software installs, then you may use the program immediately for the removal. if you did not, use the Windows tool first and then Uninstalr to take care of leftovers.

You should not run into any issues removing apps with Uninstalr directly either.

Comparison to WinGetUI

WinGetUI is a user interface for winget. It allows you to install and uninstall Windows software. A core difference between the two apps is that WinGetUI does not scan for leftovers.

It is still useful, for instance for installing programs on Windows or removing bulk programs. After using it to remove apps, you may want to run Uninstalr to benefit from its leftover removal functionality.

Closing Words

Uninstalr is a powerful software uninstaller for Windows. The program is ideal for removing leftover files and Registry entries from already removed software installations or portable app installations.

Evernote makes 14 premium features available to free users, but there is a catch

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

Long-standing note taking service Evernote announced today that it is giving free users access to 14 premium features. These features were only available to personal or professional subscribers previously. Now, they are available to all Evernote users.

Note that personal subscribers benefit from this change as well. Six of the features were limited to professional subscribers.

Evernote

Evernote’s premium features that are now free

Here is the list of features that are now free:

Note history and restore — option to view and restore old versions of notes.
Offline notes and notebooks — access notes while offline. Updates are synced the moment Internet connectivity is restored.
PDF annotation and export — annotate PDF documents, e.g., use highlight, reactions or anonymize content, and export notes or entire notebooks as PDF documents.
Business card scanning — scan business cards to add the information to notes.
Spreadsheet preview — view spreadsheets added to notes in Evernote.
Boolean, geographic, document & image search — use new search options to find content. This includes finding text in PDF and Word documents, images or scanned documents.
Email notes and share notes via email — options to use email to add notes to Evernote and to share notes via email.
Customize global shortcut keys and the create button on mobile.
Create custom templates.

The elephant in the room

While it is great to see that Evernote is pushing previously paid features to free and personal users, there is still one issue: free users are limited to one notebook and fifty notes. Evernote imposed the restriction at end of 2023.

While 50 notes may be sufficient for some users of the service, many may run into the limit quickly, if they use Evernote regularly. One option to deal with it is to delete old notes regularly. May work for some users, but one of the great features of note taking services is that you can keep a history of notes, if you want to.

Considering that Evernote charges $14.99 per month for its cheapest plan, many users may prefer to use an unrestricted service. I mentioned alternatives in the linked article above. If you want a recommendation, try the open source Joplin app. You can import Evernote notes into it and never look back.

This was not the first time that Evernote reduced functionality for free users of the service. Back in 2016, Evernote restricted free user access to 2 devices from unlimited.

It is also interesting to note that the cheapest plan cost $29.99 per year back then, a sharp contrast to the current pricing.

Closing Words

Note taking apps are useful, there is no doubt about it. While the good old system of using paper notes won’t die anytime soon, digital notes offer several advantages. Search, the option to look up previous versions, and the ability to store thousands of notes need to be mentioned.

Now You: do you use a note taking app?

Google says it has optimized Safe Browsing in Chrome

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

Safe Browsing is a core security feature of Google’s Chrome web browser. The technology is also used by other browsers, often indirectly to improve privacy.

Google revealed in a new post on the Chromium blog that it has optimized Safe Browsing checks in the Chrome web browser.

The changes bring a performance boost to Safe Browsing checks thanks to the use of asynchronous checks. Some checks are also reduced to reduce their impact on the page loading time.

Safe Browsing: Asynchronous checks

Safe Browsing checks block pages from loading. This is a security precaution to ensure that malicious content is blocked before it can be loaded by the Chrome browser.

This is usually not a problem for local checks according to Google. Checks on Internet websites, on the other hand, add latency to the loading of the page.

Google Chrome 122 enables asynchronous Safe Browsing checks. This allows sites to load content during checks. Google says that this will reduce page load times in Chrome and improve the overall user experience.

Chrome continues to show a warning page if Safe Browsing determines that a page or one of its resources is problematic.

There is also potential for improving new artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms “to detect and block more phishing and social engineering attacks” according to Google. These experiments could affect the page loading time further in the past.

Risks associated with the change

Since pages may load while Safe Browsing checks take place, there is a chance of attacks.

Google says that it has evaluated two common attack types and concluded that sufficient mitigations are in place:

Phishing and social engineering attacks — Phishing sites may load while checks are still ongoing. Google believes that it is unlikely that users will have the time to interact with the site in a way that would impact security. Selecting a password field and typing the password, for instance, should take longer than the Safe Browsing check.
Browser exploits — Chrome has a local list of sites that attack using browser exploits. Checks continue to be made asynchronously and Google recommends keeping Chrome up to date to block most attacks from being effective.

Sub-resource and PDF checks

Two additional checks are listed by Google that are impacted by the optimizations.

Sub-resource checks — attacks using sub-resources are declining, according to Google. New protections, including intelligence gathering, threat detection, and Safe Browsing APIs, protect users in real-time without specifically needing to check sub-resources. As a consequence, Google Chrome will no “longer check the URLs of sub-resources with Safe Browsing”.
PDF download checks — Google reduced the frequency of PDF download checks. PDF documents were used for attacks in the past, but widespread attacks are rare thanks to improvements to Chrome’s PDF viewer. Google notes that most PDF files use links for attacks. These link may open in Chrome, which gives Safe Browsing a chance to block the attack.

Closing Words

Google benefits from the reduction in changes. PDF checks alone reduce Safe Browsing checks “billions of times” each week. The removal of checks may push certain forms of attacks again. Sub-resource attacks may see a revival as malicious actors find new ways to exploit the change.

Chrome users may check the browser’s Safe Browsing preferences under chrome://settings/security. There they find the two main options — standard and enhanced protection — as well as an option to turn off the security feature entirely.

Super Resolution promises better game graphics on Windows 11

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

Automatic Super Resolution is a new Windows graphics feature that is currently in development. The main idea behind it is to use artificial intelligence to “play games more smoothly with enhanced details” according to Microsoft.

Modern PC games may tax a system’s hardware. If the system is older, users may notice slowdowns or reduced graphics details. One way of dealing with this is to reduce the resolution of the game or its graphics details.

While that may improve frames per seconds, it also reduces the visual quality of the game.

Super Resolution

Automatic Super Resolution is a new feature that is in testing right now. The experimental feature was spotted by Twitter user PhantomOcean3.

The support page returns a 404 error at the moment, which is why we know little about the actual functionality of the feature. What we know is that Windows may use AI to improve the performance and visual quality of games.

It is unclear if this is marketing-speak for upscaling, a technology that has been around for a long time.

A second screenshot shows some of the available options. Besides on and off toggles, Super Resolution supports enabling the feature while keeping the display resolution and configuring the feature for individual games and apps.

Super Resolutions everywhere

Several companies announced similar features in the past. Qualcomm announced Game Super Resolution back in April 2023, which, as Qualcomm put it, promises “increased battery life, higher resolutions and improved frame rates on mobile devices”.

Qualcomm’s solution uses upscaling to achieve this; the company avoided the term AI entirely during the announcement.

NVIDIA’s RTX Super Resolution technology is designed specifically for videos. It upscales videos up to 4K, but requires modern NVIDIA video cards for that.

Microsoft introduced Turing Image Super Resolution back in 2022 in Microsoft Edge. The company cut the “Turing Image” part of the name later that year. It too promises to upscale low resolution images to higher resolutions.

Closing Words

Playing games smoothly at higher resolutions is something that most gamers will be interested in. The main question is how effective Microsoft’s solution is. Another, if it requires certain hardware features to work.

While it is not possible to upscale games beyond the supported resolution of the monitor, Super Resolution could help gamers on older devices especially. If, and that is a big if, the feature does not require specific hardware.

The functionality may also be of interest for classic computer games. Older games may support resolutions of 800×600 or even lower only. These do not look good on modern displays with 1080p or 4k resolutions, usually.

If Microsoft gets this right, it could give certain older PC games a much needed visual boost.

As for when Super Resolution lands. The most likely target is the 2024 feature update for Windows 11.

Now You: would you use the feature to play games on your devices?