Category: Software

Microsoft announced a dedicated Copilot key for Windows recently. Yusuf Mehdi himself announced the “year of AI” and the introduction of the Copilot key for Windows 11 PCs. Microsoft and several OEMs will ship upcoming devices with the key on the keyboard.

Information about the key is scarce at the moment. While Microsoft did publish a blog post on its Windows Experience blog about the key, it revealed little about its functionality.

Mehdi revealed on Twitter that the key would “enable one-click access to Copilot” and Microsoft’s rather lengthy post does not provide any additional information on the functionality it provides besides that.

Microsoft does compare it to the Windows-key, which it introduced almost 30 years ago. This key, also controversial at the time, introduced a number of new shortcuts on Windows.

Microsoft’s own Surface devices and devices by OEMs such as Dell will feature the new Copilot key.

The Copilot key: what we know

A short clip of the key that Mehdi posted reveals its location next to the right Alt key and the cursor keys on a keyboard for a mobile device. What Mehdi failed to mention is that it sits in the place of the right Ctrl-key on the keyboard.

Tom Warren posted a screenshot of a Dell keyboard with the key. It too replaced the Ctrl-key on the keyboard. It appears that Menu functionality is still available as well, albeit not directly when pressing the key.

The removal of the right Ctrl-key introduces a problem for users who use it. There does not seem to be a replacement option and it is unclear if users may map Ctrl again to the Copilot key to restore the current functionality.

Functionality-wise, all that Microsoft revealed was that you get access to Copilot when you activate the key.

Obviously, Copilot itself needs to rise to the occasion as well. It is severely lacking at the moment. It takes to long to process input and anything that you write is submitted over the Internet to a Microsoft server.

Is there more to it?

If the entire functionality of the key is to launch the Windows Copilot interface, then it is quite the redundant feature. The existing shortcut Windows-C opens the Copilot interface already. Users may also click on the Copilot icon to launch it.

What happens to the key when users deactivate Copilot? It is a dead key then? Will Windows 11 map it to Ctrl automatically? Or will it reactivate Copilot even?

It is certainly possible that the key adds just the launch option, which would demonstrate Microsoft’s dedication to AI. It may be great for the stock price and initial usage of Copilot, but it would be lacking functionality-wise.

If that is indeed all there is to the dedicated key, it is a missed opportunity. If Microsoft uses it as another key for shortcuts, it might interest more users.

From launching dedicated AI tools, such as image generation, to creating summaries of open documents or webpages with a simple shortcut.

If Microsoft wants to please everyone, it would even introduce a setting to remap the key to Ctrl.

Closing Words

The coming days and weeks will provide us with additional information about the key and its uses. While many OEM keyboards will include the key, it is uncertain if the majority of standalone keyboards will support it.

Now You: what is your take on the key?

When Microsoft launched Windows 11 in late 2021, it did not only block millions of Windows PC owners from updating to the operating system, it also made the use of Microsoft Edge mandatory for certain operations.

Want to open support articles? Edge is required. Web search results? Edge is required. Links to articles and other content in Widgets? Edge is required.

Setting another browser to the system default did not change any this.

Then came MSEdgeRedirect. An open source tool that promises to redirect hardcoded content for Edge to another browser. While Microsoft did try to make the tool unusable, it did survive.

A new version of MSEdgeRedirect is now available. It comes just a week after the integration of Europe Mode. Europe Mode enables everyone to set the geographic location of the operating system to one of several European countries.

Along with the change come abilities to remove Microsoft Edge and Bing Search, and gain control over other areas as well.

The newest update as another redirect option to the application: the ability to redirect MSN Discover content to another browser.

MSEdgeRedirect: modes explained

The application supports a wide range of redirect options. Before you get access to these, you need to select the mode of operation. There are three main options to choose from:

• Europe Mode — This mode makes native changes to the system to set the region to a country in the European Economic Area. It gives you more control over Windows and includes the option to remove Microsoft Edge for good.
• Service Mode — The application runs in the background to pick up any Edge link and redirect it to the desired target. Quite taxing for the system (developer says 1-10% CPU usage while running).
• Active Mode — Runs the app instead of Microsoft Edge when links specific for Edge are opened.

If you picked Service or Active Mode, you may configure redirects on the next screen.

All Redirects

The application supports all variants of Microsoft Edge — Stable, Beta, Dev and Canary — and may do its magic regardless of which variant is installed.

Here is the list of available redirects:

• Bing Discover — content that “Bing” believes is of interest.
• Bing Search — web searches using Windows Search.
• MSN News (Alpha) — news content displayed as a widget in Windows Widgets.
• MSN Weather — weather content displayed on the taskbar and as a widget.
• Bing Images — images provided by Bing.
• PDF Viewer — change from Edge to another PDF viewer on the system.
• Bing Chat — option to redirect Bing Chat.
• Disable Windows CoPilot — turn the feature off.
• Redirect Windows Store ‘Apps’ — don’t open them in the Microsoft Store.

You may configure all of these individually. Note that replacements vary depending on the type of content. Usually, you get multiple options to choose from, including a custom option.

Verdict

MSEdgeRedirect is an open source tool that gives users control over certain functionality that Microsoft decided to restrict. There aren’t any technical limitations for these restrictions. It appears to be an attempt by Microsoft to push its services over others, even at the expense of user control and choice.

Apart from not using these services, which works really well, you might give MSEdgeRedirect a try if you use some of them.

The latest version is available on the project’s GitHub repository. Note that you may get a SmartScreen security warning when you run the program on Windows. It is safe to use, so don’t worry about that.

Now You: do you use Windows 11?

Upcoming versions of Windows will include a new repair feature that Microsoft calls Fix problems using Windows Update. The feature, which was first spotted in January 2023, uses the capabilities of Windows Update to reinstall Windows.

Since it adds another repair option to Windows, you may wonder how it differs from existing options. In this article, we will take a look at the feature and highlight the differences to existing solutions.

First the basics. The option is located under System > Recovery on Windows 11 devices. You find the option to “fix problems without resetting your PC” there. This option attempts to troubleshoot and fix issues directly without any reinstallation or resetting.

There is also “Reset this PC”, which reinstalls Windows and allows you to keep personal files, and “go back”, which tries to uninstall the most recent Windows update.

Fix problems using Windows Update explained

Fix problems using Windows Update is the new addition on the page. When you select the option, Windows will download files from Windows Update to reinstall itself.

A core difference to Reset this PC is that you get to keep personal files, installed applications and settings. In other words, it stays away from any user files and customizations and focuses on restoring the operating system itself.

Microsoft confirmed this when it announced the feature back in July 2023 on its Windows Insider blog.

The description of Fix problems using Windows Update reads: “Reinstall your current version of Windows (your apps, files and settings will be preserved)”.

Microsoft explains: “This operation reinstalls the OS that you have and will not remove any files, settings, or apps. The repair content is displayed on the Windows Update Settings page with the title appended with “(repair version)”.”

The main purpose of the feature is for “keeping the device secure and up to date” according to Microsoft. The company admits however that the new feature can be useful in multiple scenarios besides that.

The option may be useful in the following scenarios (among others):

• When updates fail to install over and over again using Windows Update.
• When part of the system is damaged, e.g., after a malware attack.
• When other issues are experienced related to Windows features.
• If you delete core apps that you somehow can’t restore any other way.

Closing Words

Microsoft has not yet announced when the new feature will land in Stable versions of Windows. Potential targets are the next Moment update, which rumors say launches in February 2024, or the next feature update, which will come later in 2024.

The new feature is an option. It does not take away any existing options but adds a new one that some users may find useful. Whether it will be indeed useful in many different scenarios remains to be seen.

Now You: which reset/reinstall option do you use when things are broken?

UCheck is a software updates checker for Windows. It is a freemium product, which means that it is available as a free, limited version, and a commercial version. The price of the commercial version starts at $12 per year.

Earlier this week, I reviewed WingetUI, an open source program to install, uninstall and update software programs on Windows. UCheck promises similar functionality, but the free version is limited to updating and uninstalling software on the system.

The Premium version, available for $12 per year, adds the installation of software, scheduled scans, email support and Enterprise use to the mix. There is also a Technician’s version, which adds scripting, portable configs and license.

The free version of UCheck was used for this review.

UCheck Free overview

The program is available as a portable and setup version. The interface displays the three main sections, updates, installed, and download, on start. Free version users see several “upgrade” links and offers there as well.

You may want to visit the program settings before you run a scan. The General section reveals that Telemetry data is send by default and that the program is configured to run on startup. You may disable both options there. There is also an option to scan apps that start on Windows automatically, which is an interesting feature.

The settings are also home to exclusions, which accepts folders and files, and custom locations, which can be used to include portable software programs in the scanning.

Activate the Scan button in the main interface to find out which installed (and portable) programs have updates.

The program lists the number of programs with updates, as well as the number of installed programs after the scan.

Select “pending updates” to take a look at the list of outdated programs UCheck discovered during its scan.

Programs are listed with their name, company / developer, location on the local system, and the current and latest version. Filters and a search are supported to display only some results.

The Action menu lists options to update individual programs, to skip this update, and to add them to the list of exclusions. The free version supports batch updates, but you need to start UCheck Free with elevated rights for that. There is a button in the interface that does that.

You may now check one or multiple programs and activate the “update selected” button to download and install updates for the selected applications in one operation. Note that there is no “select all” checkbox, which would make things comfortable.

It is unclear where the downloads come from, as this is not revealed by the application. The database is community powered, which explains why it is large and well maintained.

Comparison to winget and WingetUI

When you compare UCheck to winget, you will notice that UCheck supports more programs than the default winget database. Winget detected about 20 programs with updates on a test system while UCheck over 140.

One reason for that is that UCheck includes the Downloads folder of Windows by default. Depending on use, it may store a large number of applications.

WingetUI is easier to use, there is no doubt about that. It suffers from the same lack of a larger software database though. Another difference is that both “wingets” support the installation of portable programs, which is reserved to paid versions of UCheck.

UCheck does include information about available Windows Updates though.

Closing Words

The end of SUMO, probably the best software updates monitor for Windows, has left a hole. UCheck comes close to what SUMO offered, but you may need the commercial version to really take advantage of some of its features.

The program could use a few usability features, such as an option to check all / uncheck all programs in the updates listing. Nothing major, but these would improve usability for some users.

All in all, UCheck is a well designed program that delivers exactly what it promises. The Premium version is worth a subscription, as it adds scheduled scans and some other features to the app.

Now You: do you use software updaters?

This is a review of WingetUI, an open source program for Windows that many users will find useful.

I wrote an article on the package manager winget for Windows yesterday on Ghacks. It is an integrated command line tool in newer versions of Windows to uninstall, install or update programs.

WingetUI takes the capabilities of winget and puts a shiny user interface around them. If you prefer to use a graphical user interface, WingetUI is a great option.

First the basics. WingetUI is an open source application for Windows. You can download the latest version from its GitHub respository and install it or run a portable version.

WingetUI supports winget but also other package manager and tools. These include Scoop, Chocolatey, Pip, Npm and PowerShell Gallery. Advanced users may configure the client to do their bidding exactly, but it works well without any advanced configuring.

WingetUI: core functionality

The main WingetUI interface is divided into three tabs: discover packages, software updates, and installed packages.

• Discover packages — This tab features a search to find programs and options to install one or multiple apps at once.
• Software updates — This tab checks for updates of installed programs. You may update all or some programs using it.
• Installed packages — The tab lists the installed programs of the system.

Discover Packages

Use this to find applications to install. Just type an application name or part of it in the search field and wait for the results to show up.

The program lists package names and IDs, the available version and the source. Note that you may change sources in the preferences. If you just want to use winget, you need to disable all other sources. Some sources, for instance Scoop, are disabled by default.

A double-click on a file display additional information about it. This may include a list of features, a short description and tags.

WingetUI lists package parameters as well, which may be used to change installation parameters.

Check one or multiple programs and select “install selected packages” to download and install them on the system. Several options are available at the top:

• Install selected packages with administrative rights.
• Skip the hash check when installing the selected packages.
• Do an interactive install for the selected packages.

Unless you activate the interactive install option, you may notice that most installations happen silently in the background for the most part.

Software Updates in WingetUI

The Software Updater lists all installed applications that are not up to date. It lists names and IDs, as well as the installed version and the latest version.

You may use it to update all out of date apps in one swift operation. Just activate the “update selected packages” button to download and install updates for the selected Windows programs.

It is a quick and easy process. Note that you may still get UAC prompts to allow updates, but it is definitely quicker than updating programs manually.

A right-click displays some options. You may ignore certain updates using the right-click menu. This is important if you don’t want a program to install a certain update. One reason for that is that the update may introduce bugs or changes that you want to avoid.

The package details offer information, including links to the official websites.

Installed Packages

Installed packages offers an overview of all programs installed on the system. WingetUI displays names, versions and the installation source, which is useful information.

You may use the information to check the source, e.g., if it was installed locally, from the Microsoft Store or using a package manager.

While you may barely use native Windows apps or Microsoft Store apps, others may appreciate the functionality.

Closing Words

WingetUI is a powerful frontend for winget and some other package managers. It is a useful tool to find outdated programs on a Windows system and get these updated in batch mode.

While it may not pick up all oudated programs, as it does not support portable apps installed from other sources, it does a great job at taking care of the rest.

Running it from time to time is a good way of keeping a system’s software up to date.