Software Archives - Page 26 of 31 - Chipp.in Tech News and Reviews

Firefox 122 for Android launches with secret local add-on install option

Posted on January 29, 2024January 29, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla released Firefox 122 for the desktop and for Android a few days ago. The desktop release was a light release. The highlight was a new -.deb package release for Linux users.

The Firefox 122 for Android release, on the other hand, introduced several improvements that are noteworthy. The official release notes list just a few of them.

The new mobile version of Firefox is already available. Mozilla lists just three of the improvements on its website:

The option to set Firefox as the default PDF reader on Android.
Support for Global Privacy Control. This is off in regular browsing mode by default, but users may enable the feature under Settings > Enhanced Tracking Protection > Tell websites not to share & sell data.
Firefox reports Android 10 as the operating system to reduce “user fingerprinting information” and “website compatibility issues.

Global Privacy Control may require an explanation. This relatively new initiative aims to move user consent from websites and services to the browser. It informs website operators that the user does not give it the right to sell or share personal information.

How to enable local add-on installations in Firefox 122 for Android

Mozilla changed its mind in regards to add-ons support. For some time, Firefox Stable for Android supported only a few dozen extensions. While these were some of the most popular add-ons for Firefox, it limited users significantly.

This changed last year when Mozilla unlocked full extensions support. Over 700 extensions are now available for Firefox.

Tip: check out these tips for extensions use in Firefox for Android.

A new change is the ability to install local extensions. It is a great option for developers and to integrate extensions that are not available officially yet.

It is necessary to unlock the Debug menu first. This is done by opening Menu > Settings > About Firefox. Tap five times on the Firefox logo on the page that opens to enable the Debug menu.

A new “Install add-on from file” option is added to the browser’s main settings page afterwards.

Select the option to display a file browser. Use it to pick the add-on that you want to install. Note that it needs to be stored locally already before you use the functionality.

Other improvements in Firefox 122 for Android

Sören Hentzschel published a list of additional features that Mozilla did not mention in the release notes. These are:

Cookie Banner Blocking supports Consent Management Provider (CPMs). This adds support for several widely used solutions to display cookie banners.
Audio Sandbox is now also active in Firefox for Android.
Firefox users may report add-ons to Mozilla now.

Closing Words

Firefox 122 for Android improves support for extensions further. The option to install add-ons from file in the stable version improves development and gives users of the browser additional options.

Not everyone needs these, as the list of add-ons grows significantly each week currently.

Now You: do you use Firefox on Android or another browser?

Vividl: download videos from hundreds of sites on Windows

Posted on January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Vividl – Video Downloader is an open source tool for Microsoft Windows devices to download videos from hundreds of websites. The app uses the popular downloader youtube-dl / yt-dlp in the background. It supports downloads of video or audio files from hundreds of sites.

Most video streaming sites do not want you to download videos. Prime reason for this is monetization as offline videos cannot be monetized. Some services support video downloads, but often only as premium features. Google’s YouTube, for example, supports downloads, but restricts them to YouTube Premium subscribers.

There are quite a few reasons why you may want to download videos. Here is a short list:

To watch the video (later) when there is no Internet connection or no reliable Internet connection.
To watch a higher quality version of the video, which the Internet connection is incapable of streaming.
To watch videos without ads. Tip: you may bypass YouTube video ads without adblockers.
To listen to the audio of a video only.
For backup purposes.

Vividl: the basics

You may download the latest version of the video downloader fr om its GitHub project website. The app runs on Windows 7 and newer versions of the operating system.

The developer lists two dependencies: .NET Framework 4.8 or higher, and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. Downloads for both are linked on the project website, if needed.

Windows may throw a SmartScreen error when you try to install it. The app checked out fine on Virustotal, which suggests that this is thrown only because it is a new version.

The main program interface looks basic, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Add a video by pasting its URL into the interface or through drag & drop. An auto import from Clipboard option is provided.

Vividl picks it up and displays information about it after a brief moment.

The main interface acts as the download queue but also download list. There is no option to separate these, which would help manage larger lists of videos.

Downloading videos

All videos added to the video downloader are listed in the queue by default. Several download-related options are displayed there.

The default output format is mp4 video and a default quality is selected. Both options are customizable. Vividl supports webm, avi and mkv formats on the video site next to mp4.

A click on the tool icon, which is adjacent to the format button, displays all available video and audio qualities. Here you may select the desired output format and quality manually. You may need to scroll to find specific options, as the lists are not necessarily sorted by size or resolution.

There are options to download video and audio files separately, or just one of the two formats.

The downloading happens in the background. Vividl downloads three files simultaneously by default. You can change this in the program settings.

The settings list several interesting options, some of which automate the experience. Here is a short list of important options:

Change the default video resolution and video format. The defaults are mp4 and 1080p.
Always download the best quality.
Enable GPU acceleration for video encoding, if supported.
Instead of overwriting existing media, skip it or rename it.

Verdict

Vividl is a straightforward video downloader for Windows. It supports hundreds of video sites and works really well. Both manual and automatic options work reliable.

To conclude, if you need a well-designed video downloader, this is a program that you may want to test. I still prefer Internet Download Manager, but this is a commercial program that supports video downloads and also other file downloads.

Glow: open source Windows system analysis software

Posted on January 27, 2024January 27, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Glow is an open source program for Microsoft Windows devices that displays a wealth of information about the system it is run on.

What are the features that it offers and how does it compare to popular alternatives such as Speccy? Read on to find out.

Glow: a system analyzer

Windows displays some information about a system’s hardware and software. The information is scattered all over the place. Even the System Information tool lacks some information that third-party tools offer.

Glow is a free portable app hosted on GitHub. You may run it right after extracting the ZIP archive on the local system. The developer says that it is compatible with Windows 10 and 11 only. The app does require the .NET Framework 4.8.1, which should be installed on most devices.

The left pane of the program lists the various sections, the right pane the information. Operating system information displays important information about the Windows system. This ranges from the operating system build and architecture to the user account, Windows edition and lots more. Scroll down to find information about the system’s uptime, last shutdown time and date, or the system and boot partitions.

Select another section on the left, e.g., motherboard, processor or graphics card, and Glow displays information about immediately.

To name just a few important bits of information: motherboard model and BIOS version, whether a TPM chip is available, the model of the graphics card and the driver date, the RAM type and amount, number of RAM slots, and information about all connected hard drives.

There is a lot to explore, especially for users new to these kind of tools. The sections function as entry points. There is no search, which might help find information quickly.

Glow supports exporting information to txt or html files. The tools section lists a few options:

Other Tools

SFC and DISM Automation Tool — this uses built-in Windows tools to find and repair corrupt system files. Microsoft plans to introduce a Windows Update repair feature in future versions of Windows.
Cache Cleanup Tool — clean several memory caches to free up RAM.
TRIM Audit Tool — this tool checks the TRIM status, on or off, and allows users to enable TRIM if off. TRIM is used to free blocks on Solid State Drives, which opens them up for writing.
System Software Tool — links to 10 system tools, including Autoruns, Display Driver Uninstaller, and graphics cards driver download repositories.

How Glow compares to Speccy

The free version of Speccy displays information about the system. There is a professional version, which includes automatic updates and priority support.

Speccy needs to be installed before it is ready for use. There used to be an official portable version, but it has been removed by the developer.

Speccy displays information about the computer’s hardware on launch. This includes key information, but some is missing. As an example; while Speccy lists the operating system and edition, it does not list the build number. The tool focuses on hardware and devices only. Glow, on the other hand, displays installed drivers. Temperature readings are supported by Speccy, but not by Glow.

In closing, both programs offer features that the other does not support. Speaking of support, the developer of Glow announced that Glow is feature complete. There won’t be any future updates of the app anymore. It is possible that the project gets forked, as it is open source, but it is unclear at this point.

Verdict

Glow is a powerful system information tool for Windows. It is excellent for looking up information, e.g., to find out if you can put more RAM into the system or can replace the existing graphics card with a new one.

Summing up, there is little not to like about the tool. The missing temperature information is probably the main feature missing from it. Consequently, it is an excellent program for Windows users to look up system information. Nevertheless, the end of development announcement may cause issues in the future.

Now You: do you use system information tools?

KB5034203 prepares Windows 10 for the EU’s Digital Markets Act

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

Microsoft published KB5034203 on January 23, 2024. The preview update for Windows 10 is an optional update. All of its changes will be included in the February 2024 cumulative update for the operating system.

Most Windows 10 users may not want to install the update, as it should be considered beta. The update addresses several issues that users may experience. This includes a bug that causes Windows to recognize some “single-function printers” as scanners. Another issue may bring back the Internet Explorer shortcut from the dead.

Digital Markets Act changes in Windows 10

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system is a core platform service of a gatekeeper according to the European Union. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) defines gatekeepers as companies that “provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services”.

In other words, services that give companies control and an unfair advantage.

Microsoft revealed in November 2023 that it would implement certain changes in its Windows operating system to “comply with the Digital Markets Act in the European Economic Area”.

These changes included the ability to remove “all apps in Windows”, remove Web Search from Microsoft Bing, and feeds in the Windows Widgets Board.

It is important to understand that the changes are in response to the DMA, but not coordinated with the EU. It is possible that Microsoft may need to introduce other changes to Windows in the coming months.

KB5034203 for Windows 10

The changelog includes the following paragraph that confirms these changes for Windows 10 version 22H2.

Microsoft has been working to ensure compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Economic Area (EEA). To learn more, see Previewing changes in Windows to comply with the Digital Markets Act in the European Economic Area. These changes will gradually roll out to Windows 10, version 22H2 PCs in the EEA to be compliant by March 6, 2024.

The update introduces the changes in Windows 10 version 22H2, but it does not enable them at this point. Microsoft plans enable the functionality in the coming weeks using staged rollouts.

Windows 10 users who are not on Windows 10 version 22H2 won’t benefit from these changes. Updates to Windows 10 version 22H2 are available.

Closing Words

The changes that Microsoft rolls out are welcome ones. The ability to uninstall Edge or Bing Search will give users more choice. Most may not remove the browser or Bing Search, but users who want to do so, may do so after the change lands.

Whether the changes are enough to get EU approval remains to be seen. It is certainly possible that the EU is asking Microsoft to make additional changes to its operating system.-

Other companies identified as gatekeepers have also announced changes. Google is blocking data sharing between some of its services by default, and Meta announced changes to Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. All these changes are only available to users from the EEA, the European Economic Area.

Grayjay: follow video creators on multiple platforms

Posted on January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Grayjay is a new application for Google Android devices to follow video creators on multiple platforms.

Depending on how active you are when it comes to streaming media, you may know that many video creators publish content to different platforms. A basic example is a Twitch streamer who also publishes some footage on YouTube.

Keeping up with just a single creator may require following them on different platforms. Follow more and add more platforms and it can get complicated quickly.

Grayjay set out to fix this. It supports a good number of platforms already. Besides YouTube and Twitch, Grayjay supports PeerTube, Odysee, Kick, Patreon, Rumble, Nebula and SoundCloud. Support for Subscribestar is under development already and there is a good chance that more platforms are added in the future.

The app does not require an account. Since it supports the downloading of videos, it is not available on Google Play. You may download it for Android from the developer website.

One effect of using Grayjay is that you can watch videos without ads. While you can block ads on YouTube and other platforms, it is another benefit of using the app.

Using Grayjay

YouTube is the only source by default. You may change that with a click on Sources and the selection of one or multiple sources. All of these are shown in the main interface. The developer notes that adding more sources may impact loading times, as videos from different platforms need to be loaded.

Tap on any video to play it right then and there in Grayjay. This is useful already, especially since Grayjay supports a queue, custom playlists and watch later functionality. The option to download any video is also provided. The downloads menu lists options to change the quality of the video before downloading it.

The main feature of Grayjay is its follow option. You may subscribe (follow) on any video page or by selecting the channel name. Options to enable notifications and follow only streams or videos are provided.

You need to subscribe to sources individually. There is no option at the moment to select a creator and follow them on all platforms that they publish or stream on.

Still, this is one time process to follow creators on multiple platforms. You may create groups for subscriptions to improve organization. Options include creating groups for individual creators or themed groups based on interests.

The app supports imports and exports of data. This allows you to share subscriptions across multiple devices or migrate subscriptions to new devices.

Verdict

Grayjay appears to be free to use at the moment. The app is open source and you may access the source on Gitlab. There is a “buy” link under “more” in the app that is asking for a payment of €9.99 plus tax. Several developers work fulltime on the app according to the page. The developers hope that enough users find their app useful to pay for it and make it sustainable.

Grayjay works well already. It would benefit from additional features, including the ability to follow a creator on all platforms with just a tap. While that may be difficult to automate, it could maintain a database of developer accounts on various platforms and use crowdsourcing to maintain it.

All in all, it is an interesting app that shows a lot of promise.

Microsoft Edge for Android’s new Copilot Toolbar

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

Microsoft has renamed its browser for Android recently to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser. The browser is getting an infusion of Copilot and AI features. One of the latest is the Copilot Toolbar.

Available in Microsoft Edge Canary only at the time of writing, it is designed to give users even quicker access to Copilot.

Copilot is the main term that Microsoft uses for AI in its products. There is Windows Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and a large number of other Copilots. There is even a standalone Microsoft Copilot app for Android.

The mobile Edge browser supports Copilot already. Since it is the “AI browser”, it ships with Copilot included. This base version works similarly to Copilot on the web, but there are a few differences.

A tap on the prominent Copilot button opens the interface. You may use it to get a summary of the active webpage or communicate with the AI using text or voice input.

The Copilot Toolbar in Microsoft Edge: AI Browser

The Copilot Toolbar shows up at the bottom of webpages. It is placed on top of the main Edge toolbar.

It features two options currently: summarize and “ask me about this page”. Both open the main Copilot interface on selection. The first summarizes the webpage, the second offers information about the content on the page.

The toolbar feels a bit out of place. A tap on the Copilot button opens the interface of the AI as well. There you may also tap on the summary option to get it.

The toolbar saves you a single click. It is not overly useful. Microsoft, on the other hand, gets more eyes on Copilot.

The Copilot Toolbar offers some options. Tap on the three-dots next to it to get them. You may disable the toolbar “once”, “on this site” or “globally” using the menu.

Enable the Copilot Toolbar in Edge

The new toolbar is only available in Microsoft Edge Canary for Android. You need to enable it, as it is provided as an experimental flag only at this time:

Make sure Microsoft Edge Canary is up to date.
Load edge://flags in the browser’s address bar.
Search for Copilot Toolbar.
Set the status of the feature to Enabled.
Restart Microsoft Edge.

The toolbar shows up automatically on webpages and when PDF documents are loaded.

Closing Words

Microsoft pushes AI into all of its products. Some of the integrations feel like tests, to see what works and what does not. Copilot Toolbar is one of these. It does not offer much in terms of functionality.

The summary function is supported already. Considering that it takes a few seconds or sometimes more to get the AI to generate the summary, it may sometimes be faster to read the article by yourself.

This may not be true for very long articles, but it is necessary to verify the information the AI provides anyway.

How to back up Windows user profiles

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

Each Windows user has a user profile that holds customizations and personal files. Users may install software, download files or change the look and feel of Windows.

Backing up user profiles may not be something that most users are familiar with. There are full system backups after all, which include user profile data.

User backups may come in handy in some cases, however. Here are the two main cases:

To migrate a user profile from one Windows device or installation to another.
To back up a user profile for safekeeping.

Windows users who use a Microsoft account may have some of their customizations and files synced between devices. Not all data is synced on the other hand, including Win32 software installations or customizations of installed programs.

A backup of the user profile and the restoration of it on another device takes care of that.

Note that there are also specialized programs for copying settings. Appcopier is a free tool that does that. Note that Windows Backup backs up user data as well, but not much more.

Super Grate: back up Windows user profiles

Super Grate is a free open source tool for Windows to back up Windows user profiles and to restore the backups. Its main purpose is migrations from one device to another. It runs on Windows 7 to Windows 11 devices.

The program requires no installation. Just run the program after download to get started. Windows may throw a SmartScreen error, which you can skip. The application is safe to use. Note that Super Grate requires elevation.

The interface looks simple enough, but there is a roadblock for users who never worked with computer names and domains.

Backing up profiles

To back up a profile, it is necessary to enter the name, and optional domain, of the computer. Open Settings > System to get the name of the computer. It is listed at the top of the page.

Type the name of the computer into the source computer field and activate the “list source” button. The program will return all user-created profiles but no standard profiles.

The name, creation date and last modification date of each profile is listed by the app.

Select one or multiple profiles and activate the start button to back up these profiles. It may take some time to back up profiles. Much of it depends on the size of the profile. There is a progress bar that reveals the progress of the entire process.

Restoring profiles

Restoring a Windows user profile works similar to the backup process. Type the computer name into the destination computer field and hit the “list store” button afterwards. To restore on the same computer, type the computer name again.

Super Grate should return all backed up profiles. Select the profile that you want to restore and then Start to restore the user profile on the device.

Tip: you may rename a Windows user profile by right-clicking on it and selecting the “set destination user name” option from the context menu.

Full migrations

To migrate a user profile from one computer to another, it is necessary to fill out both the source and destination computer fields. These need to be different and connected to the same network.

Consult the official documentation for additional guidance. It includes information about using Active Directory, deleting profiles and more.

Verdict

Creating a backup of a Windows user profile is a simple task with Super Grate. It is a useful when you want to migrate the profile from one device to another, or for back up purposes.

User profiles may become corrupt, for instance after a virus attack or accidental deletions of important files.

How to properly extract Zip files on Windows 11

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

Zip archives are widely used on today’s Internet and on desktop computer systems. The Zip archive format is popular and used for distributing files, programs or saving space.

Archives contain one or more files. A Zip archive needs to be extracted, which is called unzipping.

Windows 11 supports the Zip archive format by default. It can extract contents of archives on the system. A third-party tool, like WinZip, WinRar or 7-Zip, is not required anymore for that purpose.

While it is a useful feature, it is far from perfect. Current versions of Windows 11 may be used to create and extract Zip archives. Windows 11 supports extracting other archive types, including Rar.

Last year, I ran benchmarks to find out how well the native functionality compared to that of popular archive apps. While it works, its performance is much slower than that of the tested third-party tools.

How to unzip files in Windows 11?

You may use the File Explorer context menu to extract archives. The option is available for all supported archive formats, including zip and rar.

Step 1: Open File Explorer on the system and navigate to the folder that contains the Zip archive. It may be in the Downloads folder if you have downloaded it from the Internet.

Step 2: Right-click on the Zip file and select the Extract all option from the menu that opens.

Step 3: A window opens. You may change the location the files will be extracted to. The default is a folder that matches the archive file’s name in the same location as the archive.

The option “show extracted files when complete” opens that folder. It is enabled by default, but can be unchecked.

Select Extract to unzip the archive to the selected folder. The process may take a while to complete.

How to view the contents of Zip archives

You may also open archives on Windows 11 before you extract them. This is useful if you want to see the files of the archive or access some of the files.

Double-click on the Zip archive in File Explorer to display its contents. File Explorer lists all folders and files that it contains.

You may browse them or use the built-in search feature to find specific files.

Your Options:

Double-click on any file to open it. This works only for files like .txt or .png that have a viewer on the system.
Right-click on a file or a selection to get options to copy, cut or delete it. Copy may be used to extract only the selected files. Cut is like copy, but it removes the file from the archive. Delete removes the file from the archive.
Select the “extract all” button in the toolbar to extract all files. This works similarly to extracting archives using the context menu.

Tip: You may edit the path in File Explorer to view any archive directly. Just add the archive’s name and file extension to it, e.g. C:\Users\Martin\Downloads\Test\iview466_plugins_x64.zip

Use of third-party tools to unzip files

Third-party archive apps offer several advantages over the native functionality of Windows 11. Apart from the already mentioned speed, which translates to minutes or hours saved when extracting and creating archives, third-party apps support advanced features.

Advantages include support for additional archive formats, better archive creation support and more.

Extracting archives works identical once the third-party app is installed on a Windows 11 device.

Right-click on the archive and select the extract option. If you have installed WinRAR, you select WinRAR > Extract Files.

Command line and PowerShell options

Most Windows users do not need to extract Zip archives from the command line or PowerShell. The process is not faster. In fact, most users may find it complicated, as it requires parameters.

Still, some may find the information useful.

Command Prompt

Open a Command Prompt window in the location of the archive file. If you are in File Explorer, replace the location path with CMD and press the Enter-key. This launches a Command Prompt window in the location.

Now run the command tar -xf ARCHIVENAME, e.g. tar -xf iview466_plugins_x64.zip.

This extracts the archive to the current directory.

PowerShell

You may open a PowerShell prompt from Start. Just open Start, type PowerShell and select the result.

Navigate to the folder of the Zip archive using the CD command.

Once there run the command Expand-Archive ARCHIVENAME to extract it, e.g. Expand-Archive iview466_plugins_x64.zip.

Closing Words

Third-party software offers several advantages over the built-in Zip extraction capabilities of Windows 11. In fact, the only advantage Windows 11’s native functionality has is that it is available immediately.

If you extract archives regularly or need advanced options, then you may want to use third-party tools for that.

Now You: do you use archive apps?

How to customize colors in Windows 11

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

Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system supports a wide range of color settings. Users may customize the color for window borders and title bars, the Start button and the taskbar.

Microsoft distinguishes between color modes, which refers to dark, light and custom modes, and individual color settings of each mode. This has not changed in the recently released Windows 11 version 23H2 update.

The very first choice that users of Windows 11 have to make is whether to enable light, dark or custom mode.

Here is how they differ:

Light Mode — designed to work well during daylight hours and in bright environments. This mode supports accent colors for window title bars and borders.
Dark Mode — designed for low-light environments, e.g., at night. Changes the colors of the Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Center, supports changing colors for windows borders and title bars.
Custom Mode — custom settings that may mix Dark and Light mode settings.

Changing Color Modes on Windows 11 devices

Follow these step to set the color mode on a Windows 11 system:

Open Start and select Settings. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Windows-I to open the Settings app this way.
Select Personalization in the sidebar menu and then Colors on the page that opens.
Activate the menu next to “choose your mode” and pick one of the available options. These are light, dark and custom.

Changing Light Mode colors

Select Light under “choose your mode” to enable light mode. If the mode was set to custom or dark, you should notice a return to lighter colors immediately.

Scroll down to Accent color. You may set it to manual or automatic. Set it to manual to pick one of the listed “recent colors” or “Windows colors”, or select “View colors” beneath the options to pick a color from the entire color range.

The selected color is set automatically. Note that the option to show the accent color on Start or the taskbar is disabled in light mode.

You may enable or disable “show accent color on title bars and windows borders” to show the selected color there.

If you set the color to automatic, Windows picks the color based on the wallpaper or open applications. Some users may find this confusing, as the color changes regularly when automatic is selected.

Changing Dark Mode colors

Dark mode supports a wider range of color options than light mode. It is unclear why Microsoft decided to restrict light mode in this regard.

After you have selected Dark as the preferred color mode on the system, you may also set the accent color to manual or automatic. The same color options are provided in this regard.

The accent color is shown on the title bars and windows borders by default. You may also enable “show accent color on Start and taskbar” to show it there as well.

Custom Color Mode

This mode gives you the option to set light or dark color modes for Windows and apps individually. You may set Windows to dark mode and apps to light mode, or vice versa.

How to configure less distracting color settings

Depending on how you configure colors on Windows, you may get a colorful system or one that is not as distracting. If you work on Windows 11, you may want to tone down colors on the system.

You may do so in all three color modes. The main recommendation is to disable all other features that Windows supports.

These are:

Transparency effects — these make Windows and surfaces translucent.
Show accent color on Start and taskbar — to show the taskbar and Start in a single color that uses the selected color mode as its base.
Show accent color on title bars and windows borders — to hide accent colors on windows.

It does not really matter which accent color you select, or if you set it to automatic or manual, if you disable all other settings on the page.

Now You: what is your preferred color mode?

Microsoft forgets one important aspect when adding AI to everything

Posted on January 10, 2024January 10, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Barely a week goes by without another AI announcement from Microsoft. It all began with the integration of ChatGPT into Bing Search. Called Bing Chat, it allows Bing users to communicate with a custom version of ChatGPT directly from the Bing website.

Exactly a year later, AI has found its way into a wide range of Microsoft products. From Windows Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot to integration in Microsoft Paint and Office. Soon, AI will also have its place in Notepad and many other company products.

Microsoft even started to rename products, Microsoft Edge for mobile to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser, to highlight its commitment and maybe benefit from the hype surrounding AI as well. Heck, there will even be a dedicated Copilot key on upcoming keyboards.

Microsoft seems hellbent to introduce AI into all of its products. Some products certainly benefit from an integration, especially if it is optional. It is up to each Bing user to use Bing Chat or ignore it.

The same can not be said for all products, especially if the integration can not be ignored easily or turned off. Microsoft is forgetting an important aspect in its rush to integrate AI into all of its products: does it benefit the user?

Lack of use cases

The progress that AI has made in the past year is astonishing. It is important that companies create products and tinker around with things. Find out what works and what does not.

When you look at Microsoft, you may notice repeating patterns. The integrations of an AI image creator in Paint or the integration of an AI rewrite tool in Notepad are two examples.

These tools exist already. Bing Chat can be used to create images. The integration in Paint makes it comfortable to access for users of the app, but it does not add anything beyond that to the tool.

Similarly, Cowriter in Notepad exists already in Microsoft Edge. Even worse, the Edge tool is more powerful. Cowriter is still in development, but it is unclear if Microsoft is going to add functionality to it before releasing it to the public.

These integrations benefit a small number of users only, at the very best. While they may introduce others to AI tools made by Microsoft, they annoy others at the same time.

Do we really need rewriters in all text processors or image generators in all image editors? The question exaggerates the issue, clearly, but there is a chance that Microsoft is pushing AI too much. If more and more users get annoyed, it could certainly backfire.

Windows Copilot: the perfect example

Windows Copilot, for instance, is just a version of Bing Chat at the moment. Microsoft announced the integration into Windows and Windows-specific tools and options,, but there are just a handful at the moment. Yes, this could be turned into a personal helper for all things Windows, but it is not at this point.

So, almost everyone gets Windows Copilot who runs a modern Windows system. It is difficult to turn off, one can only hide it using built-in options, and it does not work too well at the moment.

It requires an Internet connection and getting answers takes a couple of seconds usually. It is slow and not very helpful. Again, this may change in the future, and it hopefully does, but it feels pressed into Windows at the moment.

Closing Words

Microsoft’s enthusiasm when it comes to AI is understandable. It is a huge business already and will only grow in the future. The company is at the forefront, thanks to its partnership with Open AI.

Microsoft executives do have to make sure that they are not carried away though. It is one thing to launch great AI products that benefit users, another to plaster AI on everything.

Now You: what is your take on AI and AI products?