Tag: windows 11

One of the first things that I disable on Windows 11 PCs is the integrated web search. Microsoft merged local and web search in Windows some years ago mostly for its own benefit.

Web search results generate clicks and revenue for Microsoft. For users, they serve little purpose. Often, they tend to get in the way.

In best case, search returns a matching result that the user can click on. The same can be achieved in any web browser with the added benefit of having extensions and access to numerous search engines.

Microsoft may split local and web search

It seems that Microsoft could soon split the two searches in Windows 11.

https://twitter.com/alex290292/status/1866954297369563644

The feature appears to be in testing right now in development builds. With it activated, Windows moves web-based searches into a separate tab in the search interface.

This works similarly to how Windows Search separates different types of search data already. You can switch to content-specific tabs, such as Apps or Documents, to get them returned only.

The change is helpful, as it moves web-based results out of the way and restores the focus on local results.

Deskmodder has tested the feature and published several screenshots of how it looks like.

It should help users who do not know how to modify the settings to disable web search, if it bothers them. Experienced users may still want to turn off web search, provided that they have no use for it.

In case you want to give it a try, do the following:

• Download and unpack the latest version of ViVeTool in a development build of Windows 11.
• Run the command from an elevated Terminal prompt: .\vivetool /enable /id:54865932
• Restart the PC.

Note that you need to run it from the ViVeTool directory. Bing Search / App need to be enabled for the change to become visible on the system.

Do you use Windows Search to search the web? Or do you ignore or disable the feature?

Microsoft introduced the new dedicated Copilot-key for Windows keyboards less than a year ago. Now, the company suggests to remap the key to another function, but only on managed PCs.

Here is a quick refresher: Microsoft announced the Copilot key in January to “kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs”. The company even went so far to say that it might have the same impact as the introduction of the Windows key 30 years ago.

A tap on the key opens Copilot. Microsoft did add options to remap the key in Windows 11.

A new blog post on Microsoft’s Windows IT Pro Blog suggests that organizations remap the Copilot key for their users. Instead of launching Copilot, Microsoft suggests to launch the Microsoft 365 app instead, as it gives easier access “to Copilot experiences designed for work and education”.

New PCs and newly provisioned PCs will enable the new mapping of the key automatically. When a user presses the key, Copilot within the Microsoft 365 app opens.

The behavior is different for existing PCs. Microsoft says that the original mapping remains on these devices. In other words, it will open the Copilot app when pressed. This is the default for users who sign in with a Microsoft account. Users who sign in with an Entra account will be redirected to the Microsoft Copilot experience on the web instead.

Microsoft recommends that Enterprise customers configure policies to remap the Copilot key to launch the Microsoft 365 app. The app is preinstalled on all Windows 11 PCs according to Microsoft.

Microsoft even recommends uninstalling the Copilot app to “avoid confusion for employees”.

Closing Words

How useful is the Copilot key? Compared to the Windows-key, it offers little use. Press it and Copilot opens. You can achieve the same with a click on the Copilot icon.

Now, Microsoft is already suggesting to the Enterprise to remap it. It is doubtful that the Copilot key will be a smash hit going forward, unless Microsoft starts to add more features to it.

Now it is your turn. Copilot key yay or nay? Is it useful, at least for users who use Copilot regularly on Windows? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Remember suggested actions? Microsoft introduced the feature in mid-2022 in Insider builds of Windows 11 and rolled it out to stable systems later on.

The core idea behind the feature was simple: highlight certain text in Windows and the operating system suggests actions based on the highlighted string. Highlight a phone number and you get a call option. Select date or time, and you get an option to add an event to a calendar.

That is all there was to it and Microsoft did not improve the feature since its introduction. Microsoft never added support for additional types of data. No email or physical addresses to write to or look up, no chat names, or anything else that might come to mind.

Suggested actions are out

Today, Microsoft added suggested actions to the list of deprecated features. The company writes:

Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are deprecated and will be removed in a future Windows 11 update.

Deprecated features remain in Windows for the time being but will be removed eventually. Features that are put on the list do not receive major updates anymore and it is very rare for a feature to be taken off the list.

In other words: expect suggested actions to be removed in a future update for Windows 11.

Is it a big loss? I disabled the feature on all systems and do not know anyone who found it useful. Yes, chance is that some users found it useful.

Considering that it saves you a few clicks at most, provided that the programs that you use to call or plan events are supported, it is probably a minority of users that will miss it.

Tip: you can check out this guide on Ghacks to find out how to turn off suggested actions in Windows.

Closing Words

When Microsoft announced suggested actions, I did not really see a big use case for it. Phone names and date / time strings support limited it from the get-go and it saved users just a few clicks in the best case. Usage must have been low, as Microsoft never improved the original feature.

Now it is your turn. Did you use suggested actions? Or did you disable it or never even realize that it was there in first place?

Windows 11 PCs with certain Ubisoft games installed won’t receive the upgrade offer to Windows 11, version 24H2 anymore at the time of writing.

Related content:

Windows 11 24H2: Firmware update addresses crash issue for Western Digital and Sandisk SSD

Microsoft confirmed the new issue and has put a compatibility hold in place that prevent Windows Update from offering the upgrade on affected machines.

Here is the list of affected games:

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Assassin’s Creed Origins
• Assassin’s Creed Odyseey
• Star Wars Outlaws
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Microsoft says that players may experience issues with these games on devices running the latest version of Windows.

In particular, Microsoft mentions the following symptoms:

• Games may become unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay.
• Users may see a black screen.

Games may need to be ended through the Task Manager in some cases. This is Microsoft’s workaround if the issue is encountered.

1. Open Task Manager. This can be accomplished by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Start button and select Task Manager from the menu.
2. In the Task Manager window, look for your game in the Processes tab. It might be listed under the name of the game or the game launcher.
3. Click on the game’s name to highlight it. Then, click the End Task button at the bottom right of the window. This will close the game.

Note about compatibility holds: Microsoft uses these to block updates via some update management systems. These won’t prevent direct upgrades, for instance by using Windows 11 installation media. They also do not protect against changes that occur after the affected version of Windows is installed.

Plenty of Windows 11, 24H2 issues

Microsoft confirmed another four issues this month alone. Two of these have been resolved, one mitigated at the time of writing.

The last issue standing affects standalone USB scanners that support the eScanner Communication Language (eSCL) scan protocol. These may not be discovered correctly by the Windows system.

Microsoft has not published a workaround for the issue at the time.

Do you run Windows 11, or Windows 11, version 24H2? Did you run into any issues? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Microsoft has announced Administrator protection for Windows 11. The new security feature aims to improve security on Windows 11 devices by changing certain actions that require elevation are carried out and handled.

For users, it means that they need to authorize elevated actions using Windows Hello. Depending on how that is set up, it may require entering the device PIN, using biometric authentication, or other means available on the device.

The core changes happen in the background. When a user signs in to Windows, that user is assigned what Microsoft calls a deprivileged user token. When admin privileges are needed, for instance when installing software, Windows will request authorization from the user using Windows Hello.

When the user does so, Windows “uses a hidden, system-generated, profile-separated user account to create an isolated admin token”. This token is “issued to the requesting process and is destroyed once the process ends”.

In other words, the admin privileges do not persist on the system, but end with the execution of the task that requested them.

The following illustration visualizes the process.

Microsoft lists the following benefits of Administrator protection:

• Improved security by requiring explicit authorization for “every administrative task”.
• Users may manage admin rights by granting or restricting “access granularly to individual apps”.
• Malware that is designed to acquire administrative privileges silently is blocked.

Managing Administrator protection

It appears that Administrator protection is disabled by default. Microsoft explains how administrators may enable the new protection.

It is located under Windows Security > Account protection. There, administrators may toggle Administrator protection to turn the feature on (or off). A restart of the device is required.

There is also a new policy under Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

• Double-click on User Account Control: Configure type of Admin Approval Mode.
• Change the Local Security Setting to “Admin Approval Mode with Administrator protection”. This enables the feature.

Closing Words

Administrator protection is an optional feature it appears. This means that it won’t be enabled on most home systems any time soon.

The feature improves security against certain types of malware, but it makes certain operations cumbersome. It remains to be seen how well the Windows 11 community will react to the feature.

Would you enable Administrator protection, if it would be available on your system? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Windows supports hundreds of different keyboard shortcuts. Some of them basic, like pressing the Windows-key to open the Start menu. Others more advanced, like pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager.

Not all shortcuts are equally useful. While usefulness depends somewhat on how you use Windows, some shortcuts are certainly more useful than others.

The following shortcuts are the ones that I use most often. They save me a lot of time on my day to day work.

The timesavers

Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V

The shortcut pair copies and pastes your selections. This works in Explorer with files and folders, but also for text and anything else that you may select.

• Ctrl-C — Copies the selection to the Clipboard.
• Ctrl-V — Pastes the Clipboard entry into the active application.

Windows-I

The shortcut opens the Settings on Windows 10 or 11 machines directly.

Windows-X

The “secret” menu opens when you use the shortcut. It displays a number of links to admin tools such as the Device Manager, Network settings, and more.

Windows-[left or right]-arrow

The shortcut snaps the active window to the left or the right side of the screen. Useful to display two apps or windows side-by-side in a matter of seconds.

Ctrl-S

To quickly save content. Most programs that support save operations support this. You can use it in an image or text editor to quickly save content, and in many other apps as well.

Ctrl-P

To print a document, image, or other content quickly. The shortcut opens the print dialog right away.

The superfluous shortcuts

The next two shortcuts are not really that useful, as you can use quicker actions for the same effect.

Ctrl-Esc

The keyboard shortcut opens the Start menu on Windows. There is not really a need for this shortcut, as you can also press the Windows-key, which is faster.

Windows-S

This particular shortcut opens the search interface. It is not really needed either, as you can also search when you open the Start menu. So, pressing Windows and starting to type the search term should be sufficient for most users and most cases.

Now You: do you have shortcuts that you use regularly? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

Microsoft introduced a new File Explorer context menu in Windows 11. This streamlined menu replaced the classic menu by default, but users can still open it from the new context menu or by holding down the Shift-key before they right-click.

Windows 11 has been around for a few years now, and some Windows 11 users may have noticed that the new context menu has grown in size since then. This is understandable to a degree. Third-party app developers learned how to add entries to the new menu so that links to their apps were shown directly to users.

Good to know:

Fixing OneDrive’s “Creating shareable link…” error loop that never ends

Microsoft did add a fair share of items to the context menu as well. You may notice a OneDrive folder, a Share with Skype option, an Edit with Notepad option for any file type and more there now.

Chance is, you may not need all of them. This guide explains how to remove the OneDrive entry.

Tip: you can remove the apps, if you do not use them, to get rid of the context menu items. If you do use them, you may follow the guide to remove them while leaving the apps untouched.

Remove OneDrive from Windows 11’s context menu

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key
3. Select Yes to continue.
4. Paste HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked into the Path at the top and press the Enter-key.
5. Right-click on Blocked.
6. Select New > String value.
7. Name it {1FA0E654-C9F2-4A1F-9800-B9A75D744B00}.
8. Double-click on the value.
9. Set its name to OneDrive.

The change takes effect on the next restart. You may also log off and then on again, or restart the explorer.exe process.

The OneDrive listing should no longer be visible in the context menu afterwards. Note that this does not impact any other OneDrive functionality on the device. Also note that this applies only to the user account under which the change was made.

Now You: how do you handle context menu entries that you do not need? Do you remove them to streamline the context menu or keep and ignore them? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Windows 11 and previous versions use the mouse feature Enhance Pointer Precision by default. This guide helps you understand what the feature does and why, in some cases, it may be better turned off.

What is Enhance Pointer Precision? Put simply, it is designed to improve the accuracy of slow mouse moves.

Maybe you have tried to target a very specific pixel on the screen. Say, a smaller than usual scrollbar, a button or link that is tiny, or anything else that needs precise movements.

Enhance Pointer Precision makes “the pointer work more accurately when you’re moving the mouse slowly” according to Microsoft.

While that may be useful in some cases, it can introduce problems in certain apps or games. Take first-person shooter games as an example. You need to be precise in them, but mouse movement is often rapid.

If you do not want Windows 11 to apply its pointer precision algorithm in those cases, you may turn it off.

Turning off Enhance Pointer Precision

You may toggle the mouse preference in the Settings app. Here is how that is done:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Launch the Settings app from it.
   • Tip: you may use the shortcut Windows-I to launch the Settings app.
3. Go to Bluetooth & devices > Mouse.
4. Set Enhance Pointer Precision to Off to disable the feature.

Chance is, you may not see a difference right away. It depends on several factors, including the mouse and its movement.

Tip: you may want to test the change. If you ran into issues with the mouse in certain apps or games, launch those and start tests.

You can undo the change at any time by setting the preference to On again.

Registry offers more control

You may also modify the relevant settings in the Windows Registry. While most users may not need to do so, it is offering more options.

Here is an overview of the available keys:

• MouseThreshold1 — If mouse movement exceeds this value, cursor speed is doubled.
• MouseThreshold2 – If mouse movement exceeds this value, cursor speed is quadrupled.
• MouseSpeed — The speed of the mouse cursor.

The two threshold values need to be higher than the value of MouseSpeed.

Here is how you change those values

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key.
3. Confirm the security prompt by selecting Yes.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse.
5. Double-click on MouseSpeed, MouseThreshold1, and MouseThreshold2 respectively to change the values.
6. To turn Enhance Pointer Precision off, set all values to 0.
   • To enable the feature again, set the values to 1, 6, and 10.

Tip: you can experiment with different values to see if the adjusted parameters work for your use cases.

News about BlueScreen crashes on Western Digital or Sandisk SSD systems broke shortly after Microsoft’s release of Windows 11, version 24H2.

Affected user systems crashed regularly after the upgrade to the new version of Windows 11. Users started to collect information about the issue and even suggested a fix that involved making an edit to the Registry.

Microsoft, in the meantime, added an upgrade block for systems with affected hardware. This block prevents the upgrade to Windows 11, version 24H2 via Windows Update.

The block did not help users who upgraded already. Some downgraded their systems to resolve the issue, others applied the Registry fix.

Firmware Update

Western Digital and SanDisk have released a firmware update for affected storage devices that resolves the issue.

A page on the official SanDisk support website provides the details.

Note: it is recommended to back up important data before you apply firmware updates to storage devices. A BlueScreen crash during the process could corrupt the device and make the data unreadable.

In a nutshell:

1. Download the Wester Digital Dashboard software using the provided links on the website.
2. Run the downloaded application.
3. Select the install button to install the application on the device.
4. Keep “launch dashboard” checked and activate the finish button.
5. Select the Tools section.
6. Click on Update Firmware and then on proceed.
7. Activate shutdown now at the end of the process.
8. Power the computer on again.

The new firmware is now installed on the device and the crashes should be a thing of the past.

Affected Western Digital and SanDisk devices

The following Solid State Drives are affected by the issue:

Name	Model Number Starting With	Updated Firmware Version
WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 2TB	WDBBDL0020BNC, WDS200T3X0E	731130WD
WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD 2TB	WDBDNH0020BBK, WDS200T3X0G	731130WD
WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD 2TB	WDBWMY0020BBL, WDS200T3B0E	281050WD
WD Blue SN5000 NVMe SSD 2TB	WDBS3F0020BNC, WDS200T4B0E	291020WD
SanDisk Extreme M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB	SDSSDX3N-2T00