Microsoft Bing

Microsoft working on next step to make AI centerpiece of Bing Search

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

In some years from today, search engines will likely look completely different. The traditional way of showing links to websites that match the search query best, at lest according to the search engine that you are using, is being phased-out.

The replacement comes in form of AI generations. AI takes the user’s query, generates a response and returns it to the user.

Microsoft revealed a new experiment that it runs on Bing currently that is shifting towards this.

When a user runs a search, Bing will use an AI-generated response for the search results page. It is the first thing that the user sees. While there are regular web links attached afterwards, most searches tend to focus what happens above the fold.

So, AI generates a result and Bing shows it to the searcher first. This includes links to sources and Microsoft says that this will drive more traffic to sites than regular search pages. The claim is not backed up, though.

AI generated results do not work equally well on all types of user searches. Search for something new or unique, and you may not get an answer that you find sufficient.

Search for common knowledge, and you may get an answer that you find useful. AI may still hallucinate and display answers that are factually incorrect.

The future of search

For sources to be included in the answers of AIs, they need to allow them to be crawled. Any source that does not, either for exclusive deals with certain companies or for other reasons, won’t have their pages linked by the AI.

While Microsoft says otherwise, it seems clear that this new type of search format benefits larger websites more than smaller ones. Lesser known sites will be pushed further down still, which will likely reduce traffic further to them.

Google, Microsoft, and other search companies are interested in keeping searches on their properties. Direct answers, integrated tools, and other services are added constantly to search engines to keep searchers, and their eyes on ads, on the search engine’s site.

Plenty of smaller publishers have given up in the past already. Remember Freeware Genius? An excellent site for freeware recommendations. The site was heavily punished by Google Search for unknown reasons and died because of that.

Samer, the creator of the site, never found out why his site tanked in first place.

The trend will continue. Bing, Google, and others will use AI to keep searchers longer on their sites.

What about you? Do you find AI results useful?

AMD Frame Latency Meter

AMD released a new open source tool that works on Windows PCs, even those with NVIDIA cards

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

AMD has released the first version of Frame Latency Meter, an open source tool for Microsoft Windows devices that is measuring the latency of the mouse.

Technically, Frame Latency Meter helps getting insights into a system’s performance by measuring the mouse’s response time from the moment it is moved to the moment the frame is displayed on the screen.

Who is the target for the tool? This is an advanced tool that aims at game developers, but also power gamers who like to squeeze as many FPS as possible out of their rigs.

Here are the details:

  • Frame Latency Meter is compatible with devices running Windows 10 or 11.
  • It works on AMD, Intel, or Nvidia devices.
  • Data can be exported to CSV files.
  • Hotkeys are available and configurable.
  • Screen capture region can be customized.

The main advantage of AMD’s tool is that it does not require any special equipment.

AMD has a quick start guide on the project’s GitHub repository. While you can simply run the program after download, it does not need to be installed, you end up with the default configuration.

AMD suggests the following steps:

  1. Configure the primary monitor to run the game on — Set to free sync or a manual refresh rate. AMD suggests to start with 60Hz first.
  2. Run the application.
  3. Press the right Alt-key to set the capture region bounding box. (only shows if the game is running in windowed mode).
  4. Run the game.
  5. Use the shortcut Alt-T to enable and disable the capturing.

In theory, you could use the tool to optimize gaming performance on any Windows system that meets the requirements.

Most gamers won’t, but it is nevertheless an interesting tool, especially for game developers who want to make sure their games run fine. Game developers who used high speed camera setups in the past may want to give this a go to see how it stacks up. It is a much cheaper option, after all.

Gamers who want to optimize their systems may run game-specific benchmarks to do so. This is a good way of adjusting game settings to improve performance.

What about you? Do you play computer games on your Windows systems? Feel free to leave a comment down below to let us know.

Windows 11: Microsoft bundling controls for recommendations and offers

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

One of the main points of criticism in regards to the ever increasing number of recommendations and offers in Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system is that they cannot be managed from a central location.

If you want to turn them all off elegantly, you either have to go through various sections, or use a third-party application like WinAero Tweaker, or O&O’s ShutUp10++, or one of the many other tools that help users do that.

Recommendations & offers in Windows 11 Settings

Windows 11 Recommendations & Offers Setting
New group of Settings to control ads and promotions in Windows 11. Image source: Phantom of Earth

Microsoft is working on introducing a central location for recommendations and offers. While it is doubtful that this will cover all promotions that Microsoft throws at users nowadays, it at least merges related settings from various locations into a single group in the Settings app.

Discovered by Phantom of Earth and published on X, Recommendations & offers provides the following options at the time of writing:

  • Personalized offers — Get personalized tips, ads, and recommendations based on Windows activity.
  • Allow websites to access my language list.
  • Improve Start and search results — By tracking which apps get opened.
  • Show notifications in Settings.
  • Recommendations and offers in Settings — Allow Windows to show product recommendations and offers in Settings.
  • Advertising ID.

The new group is found under Settings > Privacy & Security. You do need to run the latest Beta of Windows 11 and may need to enable it by running the command .\vivetool /enable /id:49666228,48433719 from an elevated PowerShell prompt.

Closing Words

Clearly, this new group of Settings is still inferior to what tweaking apps offer. It may still expose more of these settings to users who do not use the tweakers or configure their systems using Registry tweaks or policies.

What is your take on this new group of settings? Move in the right direction? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Ice

This free Windows app promises to make your PC run cooler

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Heat is a major problem for electronic devices, especially in the Summer months. Overheating may lead to a whole range of issues, including crashes or reduced performance.

To combat this, PC users have discovered thousands of solutions. From pointing a fan at the PC during the hottest hours to liquid cooling systems or reducing the voltage and frequency of core components such as the processor.

Camomile is a free app that promises to do the latter. It reduces voltage and frequency of the processor to bring down its temperature. I took the app for a test and it surely dropped the temp from 43 degrees Celsius to 36 degrees Celsius in a matter of minutes.

The app displays the current temperature in its interface. I ran several other temperature apps beside it to check the accuracy, and it was good.

Camomile App for Windows interface
App drops temperature of the processor when run

This comes with a bit of a trade-off, as it works similarly to energy-saving techniques. In short, performance may drop slightly when the app is doing its work.

Still, if you are in a dire situation, with CPU temps reaching much higher degrees than I experienced, then you may not mind as much.

Lowering has additional positive effects, including:

  • It may extend battery life.
  • It may reduce the fan noise.

Wayne mentioned the app over on Betanews. Some users reported that Malwarebytes was flagging it as a PUP. Similarly, Dr.Web and CrowdStrike Falcon are flagging the software as well. I did not notice any issues during installation of afterwards.

It does not offer much in terms of functionality. You can enable cooling mode and disable it. Other than that, it displays a temperature graph and temperature information for other components.

Closing Words

There are numerous ways to cool down PC components, especially in the Summer months. Sometimes, all that is needed is to get rid of the pesky dust to get the fans operating at full capacity again.

At other times, you could consider installing more fans or fans that are more powerful than what you have currently. While water-based cooling solutions are cool, they also require a level of expertise that many PC users shy away from.

An app like Camomile may also be sufficient. Surely, you may also use different tools for the same purpose. With that said, Camomile is easy to use and it certainly does reduce the temperature of the processor by a few degrees when run.

What about you? How do you fight heat in Summer to keep your PCs and devices going?

Microsoft continues to abuse Windows for advertising

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you’d ask a 100 Windows users whether they wanted ads displayed to them on a regular basis, chance is that the vast majority would answer with “no”.

This is not keeping Microsoft from pushing the boundaries and introduces more ads in Windows. While Microsoft uses terms such as recommendations, many of them are at their core still ads.

Up until now, most recommend to use Microsoft services, including Game Pass, OneDrive, or Microsoft 365. These are all subscription-based services. While they offer value, it is clearly not for everyone.

Microsoft is already pushing OneDrive via the recently introduced Windows Backup feature. This is not a full backup solution, as it limits backups to a few folders and some data.

While free to use, apart from the Microsoft account requirement, Microsoft is pushing two services with its recommendations:

  • Microsoft accounts, as these are required to make use of the OneDrive backup feature.
  • Microsoft 365 and OneDrive subscriptions, to increase the default 5 gigabytes of storage.

The first is obvious. You need a Microsoft account to use it. Microsoft has not made it a secret that it prefers this account type over local accounts. Among the reasons are better customer retention and that it gathers more data about customers.

The default 5 gigabyte limit is shared across several services, with backup being one of them. It is relatively easy to get near the limit, considering that Pictures, Music, and Video folders can be backed up.

Add the fact that backups will run automatically starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, and you end up with lots of customers who need more storage for the backup solution. This in term brings in revenue for Microsoft, as subscriptions increase.

Backup ads in the Notification area

Reports suggest that Microsoft is pushing a rather scary sounding notification to user systems. It states “Your PC is not fully backed up” and shows a yellow exclamation-mark image.

It is interesting to note that Windows Backup will never fully back up the system. Microsoft’s notification may lull some users into a sense of security when they activate the “back up now” button.

These backups won’t help if Windows fails to boot, for instance after a botched security or Windows update.

You need a full backup solution for that, and that is something that Microsoft does not offer.

While you can dismiss the notification, it will reemerge eventually. There does not seem to be an option to turn it off entirely, at least not in the Windows Settings or in the Backup app.

Closing Words

The recommendations seem to generate enough revenue or other positive effects for Microsoft to ignore the criticism surrounding them. Whether there will be a breaking point remains to be seen.

For now, expect more recommendations / ads in Windows going forward.

Do you mind this on your systems, or are you unaffected?

Android

Android: Google plans to remove substandard apps from Google Play

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google is updating the Android spam and minimum functionality policy to weed out low-quality apps in the Google Play store.

Here are the details:

  • Starting September 1, 2024, existing substandard apps will be removed from the Google Play Store.
  • New apps that Google determines as low-quality will not be allowed in the Google Play Store from that day forward.

Google lists several examples of app types that it considers substandard:

  • Static apps, for example apps that display text only. (new)
  • Apps with “very little” content, for instance “single wallpaper apps”. (new)
  • Apps that have no function or do nothing.
  • Apps that do not install.
  • Apps that do install, but do not load.
  • Apps that load, but are not responsive.

In other words: Google is expanding the classification of substandard Android apps to include static apps and apps that do little or nothing.

The company reasons that these types of apps are “not consistent with a functional and engaging user experience” and therefore “are not allowed on Google Play”.

Expect these apps to be removed from Google Play in the coming months.

Closing Words

It is understandable that apps that do not load or crash offer a bad user experience. Clearly, the developers of such apps need to get back to the drawing board to sort out these major issues before offering them in the Play Store.

While apps that do very little are not harmful, they may be used to swarm the Store with similar types of apps.

Imagine a single wallpaper app that is copied thousands of times to show a different wallpaper in each of the apps. The developer could target different keywords with each of the apps, thus flooding the Store.

Still, this could have been dealt with in other ways probably.

What is your take on this? Do you download and install Android apps frequently? Have you encountered substandard apps in the past? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Speedcheck on mobile phone

How to turn your Android device into an Internet hotspot

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Lately, we have been having some problems with our local Internet provider. Internet goes down unannounced at times or it is barely usable.

That is a big issue if you need the Internet to make a living. For some time now, I have been using Android’s mobile hotspot feature to regain access to the Internet.

Good news is, it is really easy to set up and use. Before we look at that, I’d like to list where a mobile hotspot may be useful.

  • When the local Internet connection is down or unstable.
  • To avoid public Wi-Fi.
  • To replace the local Internet connection entirely.
  • In locations without Internet, but mobile connectivity.

Word of warning: Using the Android device as a mobile hotspot uses-up your monthly data. Not a problem if you are on an unlimited plan, but very much so a problem if your monthly data allocation is rather low.

Using your Android phone for Internet

Android configuring mobile hotspots on a Samsung Galaxy A55

The main idea is to turn the Android device into a mobile hotspot. Other devices may then use Wi-Fi to connect to the Android device in question.

This requires a few things:

  • Both devices need to be in range.
  • The Internet quality is determined by the mobile connection of the Android device.
  • I’m using a Samsung Galaxy A55 for the guide, but the experience should be very similar on other Android devices.

Here is a step-by-step guide to set this up:

  1. Swipe down twice to display the full Quick Settings panel.
  2. Locate Mobile Hotspot and tap on the feature.
  3. If Wi-Fi is turned on, you get a prompt to turn it off. Select the Turn off option to continue.

The mobile hotspot is now enabled and you should see the Android device when you check for wireless access points.

To check name and password, it is necessary to do the following:

  1. Swipe down twice again to bring up all Quick Settings.
  2. Tap and hold the mobile hotspot icon until the configuration menu opens.

There you find the name, password, and band information, which you can change here by tapping on the information.

  • Change the wireless access spot’s name.
  • Change the password that you need to type to connect to the Android device’s hotspot.
  • Switch the band from 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz, or vice versa.
  • Make changes to the security (WPA).

You can furthermore make plenty of other configuration options. This includes enabling Wi-Fi 6 support, setting up a one-time password for guests, or change auto-turn off preferences.

Closing Words

Mobile hotspots provided by your Android device (Apple has a similar feature) are helpful in many situations. They may improve security and get you over periods where the regular Internet connection may not be available at all or unstable.

Have you tried the mobile hotspot feature of your mobile device? When do you use it, or when would you use it? Feel free to leave a comment below.

7-Eleven

Adding the number 7 to your password might make it stronger

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Most computer users should know by now that unique and stronger passwords are better. But what exactly means stronger? Most say that adding a mix of characters, including upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters will do the trick. Combine that with a decent length, say 16 or more characters, and your password should be hard to crack.

ProxyScrape, a service for scraping websites using proxies, says that using the number 7 in your password makes it stronger than any other number that you may pick.

Here is why: while many pick 7 as their preferred one-digit number, most computer users pick other numbers when they set passwords.

This is not a problem for users who use password generators, but those who pick passwords manually tend to prefer 0, 1, and 2 over other numbers.

Password Generator of KeePass
Password generation in the KeePass password manager

It happens that 7 is the last choice when it comes to numbers, according to ProxyScrape CEP Thibeau Maerevoet (via Betanews).

So, if you pick 7, or if your password generator picks it for you, then you throw a wrench into the tires of the brute forcing machine.

This is especially true for dictionary attacks. These use preset words and sometimes words with characters added to them. It is, for instance, common, to test words, and then the same array of words but with the character 1 added to them.

Similarly, dictionary attacks may replace the character I with 1, or E with 3.

Tip: find out if yo should save passwords in browsers.

This does not really affect users who use very strong auto-generated passwords. It does not really matter if a 20 character password that is randomly generated has a 7 in it or not. But passwords that users pick, like dallascowboys1, may have a better chance at surviving the first wave of attacks when you replace that 1 with a 7. Even better, put the 7 somewhere in the middle, say dall7ascowboys.

What is your take on the observation? Will you start adding 7s to your passwords in the future?

How to use Windows’ emergency restart feature

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you are a Windows user, you may have encountered situations where the system appears to be stuck. Programs do not open at all anymore or very slowly, or you see a dreaded loading animation on the screen that does not go away, no matter how long you wait.

The good old “have you tried turning it off and on again” fixes these kinds of issues often.

The IT Crowd: Have you tried turning it off and on again

Sometimes however, turning off the computer or restarting it is not as easy as it may sound. What if clicking on the Start icon does nothing? While there are numerous ways of turning off the PC, not all are equal.

Note: if nothing works, pressing and holding the power button of the PC will restart the computer eventually.

Emergency Restart in Windows

One of the ways that users tackle an unresponsive PC is by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del. This keyboard combination displays several actions in a fullscreen window.

The main actions are lock, switch user, sign out, and cancel. There is also a power button in the lower right corner, which you may use to restart or shut down the PC.

The Ctrl-Alt-Del window of the Windows operating system

What many may not know is that there is also an emergency restart option hidden on the screen. All you have to do to activate it is to hold down the Ctrl-key on the keyboard before clicking on the power button.

Instead of displaying the restart and shut down options, Windows shows the emergency restart screen.

The Emergency restart option of the Windows operating system

Here, you simply click on the ok button to restart the PC immediately.

Windows informs you that any work that has not been saved may be lost during the process. It even warns, rather dramatically, that this should only be used as the last resort.

Closing Words

So, if you run into a situation where the usual options to restart the Windows PC may not work, you could give this emergency restart option a try, provided that you can still get into the Ctrl-Alt-Del interface.

What is your preferred way of restarting or shutting down Windows when things do not work anymore?

Amazon

5 tips to survive Prime Day without going bankrupt

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Amazon’s Prime Day is a major shopping event. Even if you are not an Amazon customer, you may notice that another Prime Day is about to happen when all of your favorite sites suddenly start to list deals.

While it may be tempting to shop at Amazon during Prime Day, it is usually better to play it cool and not fall into the trap of overspending on items that you may not even need or are not the best choice.

Here are five tips.

Tip 1: Prime Day does not mean you get the best price

While news outlets and sites try to paint Prime Day in the best light possible, it is always a good idea to compare the price on Amazon with other marketplaces.

Sites like Idealo or Google Shopping help finding the best price for most products. Other options include searching for the product name using your favorite search engine or searching for items on marketplaces like eBay.

Tip 2: Make a list of what you need before Prime Day

Visiting the Amazon website or app on Prime Day is like being a kid in a candy store. Products with discounts are shown left and right, and it is easy enough to get distracted and add items to the shopping cart because they are discounted, and not because you may need them.

It is a good idea to create a list of items that you need or want to buy prior to big shopping events. I have a list of about 15 items that I would buy during Prime Day, Black Friday, or other shopping events, provided that the price is right.

Yes, that sounds like a lot of stuff, but many are replacements for items that need replacing in the coming months or the next year.

Tip 3: Do not overspend

Regardless of whether you have created a list of articles or not, it is a good idea to set a budget for Prime Day. It is quite easy to overspend during major shopping events.

Before, during, and after you add items to your shopping cart, you will see promotions or other items. It is often just a click or two to add these to the cart as well.

Even if you stick to the plan, you may overspend. Either, because you did not compare prices, or because you opted for something more expensive. Why not buy the phone with more storage, the slightly larger TV, or the video card that promises more frames? Because you may overspend in that case.

Tip 4: Do not rush yourself

Many offers may be limited. Amazon may not have endless stock of an item, and when it is gone, it is gone. While that speaks for rushing and buying immediately, rushing also means that you may not compare prices or may buy items that you do not really need, but fear missing out on.

Even if an item sells out quickly, you may still be able to purchase it at a later point in time. Black Friday is just around the corner, and so are the dozen or so other “sales” that happen regularly online.

Tip 5: Do not browse randomly

It can be tempting to check out a few categories. If you like to play Switch or PlayStation games, you may be tempted to browse deals in those categories.

Browsing may lead to buying items that you did not have any intention of buying. This may lead to overspending and you ending up with items that you may not have researched properly before buying them.

What about you? Do you buy items regularly on major shopping events such as Prime Day or Black Friday?