First, you don’t have to sign up for Windows Insiders Program to try these improvements or features. Microsoft releases updates like KB5027305 to test future updates for Windows 11 production builds, such as version 22H2 and the upcoming version 23H2, which is why you do not have to join the Insider’s program.

The flagship feature in the KB5027305 update is support for Narrator’s natural voices in Chinese & Spanish. The existing Narrator’s natural voices feature now works with Chinese and Spanish (Spain and Mexico), so you can browse the web and read/write content.

You can try out the feature by heading to Narrator Settings, looking for Narrator’s voice section, select the Add button next to Add natural voices. Finally, Choose the language and use it for Natural Voices.

Another new feature is a toggle that lets you switch between cellular and Wi-Fi when the wireless is poor but available. This feature can also be turned on via Settings. Head to Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Cellular to turn it on.

For those in the beta channel, remember that Microsoft uses enablement packages to turn on the features mentioned above, which means some of you may notice any difference between the production and beta builds. If you can access the secret enablement package, you will see build 22631 in the system settings.

The next feature update arrives in the fall

Microsoft is preparing Windows 11 23H2 update for the fall release. This would be the second big feature of the operating system, and it is not expected to change dramatically.

Still, it will introduce new features, such as a new File Explorer, taskbar ungrouping, etc.

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Microsoft started testing Update Stack Package with Build 22478 or newer and will begin pushing the feature to everyone later this year. Microsoft has now released another version, “Update Stack Package 1201.2305.30021.0”, with an unknown number of fixes or improvements as a changelog is unavailable.

“The Update Stack Package will help ensure that your PC has the highest likelihood of successfully installing new updates with the best and least disruptive experience available,” Microsoft officials noted in one of the blog posts published earlier this year.

Today’s Update Stack Package 1201.2305.30021.0 is rolling out to users in the Dev and Canary channels. If everything goes according to the plan, Update Stack Packages will appear in the production channel following or around the release of Windows 11;s next feature update.

We don’t know how exactly Update Stack Packages will improve the Windows Update experience. Still, Microsoft officials previously explained that the packages would be deployed to improve stability when a monthly or feature update is around the corner.

In other words, update stack packages are smaller updates delivered before cumulative updates to reduce reported issues post or during the installation. For example, you can expect fewer installation errors if you install the stack package before the main cumulative update.

For now, Microsoft is testing this update within the preview builds and is restricted to Dev Channel / Canary channel only with only a small set of unknown shipping improvements. This will likely begin rolling out to Windows 11 version 22H2 devices if it proves successful.

Microsoft prepares Windows 11’s second feature

Microsoft is also planning to release Windows 11 version 23H2 later this year. This would be the second official feature update for the operating system, but it is expected to ship with a few features and quality improvements only, likely via Windows 11 Moment 4.

That’s because Windows 11 23H2 is based on version 22H2, and it’s essentially an enablement package that turns on hidden features. For example, installing this update will bring the new File Explorer experience, the ability to ungroup taskbar icons and more.

This also means Windows 11 23H2 will be smaller than version 22H2, and it should finish installing in a matter of minutes.

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File Explorer’s refresh comes with a new “Home”, which integrates Fluent Design System for a consistent, accessible, and interactive experience. A carousel of recommended files will be displayed if you’re signed into Windows 11 with an Azure Active Directory (AAD) account.

These recommended files are cloud files owned by or shared with the user, making the most relevant content readily available.WinUI, a native user experience framework for Windows applications, modernizes Quick Access folders, Favorites, and Recent in File Explorer.

The upgrade also introduces a modernized address bar and search box to File Explorer. The new address bar can intelligently distinguish between local and cloud folders, even highlighting OneDrive sync status and quota flyout for OneDrive users.

This update is being rolled out to select insiders in the Dev Channel. Microsoft plans to gather feedback and assess user reactions before making it available.

Alongside the File Explorer redesign, Microsoft is also introducing Dynamic Lighting, providing native control of Lighting Devices by implementing the open HID LampArray standard. It aims to enhance the RGB device and software ecosystem for users by improving the interoperability of devices and apps.

The Dynamic Lighting settings page has been included, allowing users to customize their devices. Several manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS, HP, HyperX, Logitech, Razer, and Twinkly, have partnered with Microsoft on Dynamic Lighting, with several keyboards and mice from these manufacturers compatible.

Users can navigate to the new Dynamic Lighting page in Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting to control and configure their HID LampArray device at both the per-device and all-device levels.

Microsoft encourages users to provide feedback on these updates via the Feedback Hub.

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So what exactly is Chrome Refresh 2023? Chrome is changing, says Google. However, Google developers and internal flags refer to the new design using the word “refresh” as it’s not a significant redesign of Chrome. The interface remains unchanged, so your favourite features aren’t moving to a new space.

Chrome’s refresh updates all existing design elements to align with Google’s Material design. You do not have to fear Chrome’s UI changes; the browser is still the same, and nothing changes dramatically. Google has retained the familiar interface, but you will notice larger right-click menus, more colours and a subtle dark theme.

And yes, there are rounded corners almost everywhere. Right-click anywhere in the browser, and you will notice the context menus have been refreshed with rounded corners and increased padding to support touch-screen devices.

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Chrome’s visual effects are now more noticeable than ever, especially when you hover over tabs. Speaking of visual effects, the toolbar is finally getting some icons.

It’s pretty clear the search engine giant is looking to make the browser more colourful, so these changes, combined with Chrome’s new customization colours, should result in a more visually appealing experience.

Google officials confirmed users could test different colours, themes and settings in real time.

Google is optimizing the browser for touch screens, and the address bar is now thicker. The profile menu is now more colourful too.

Chrome refresh also brings back icons to the main menu, and you will notice icons next to all options, such as a new tab, new window, new password manager, extensions, settings, and more.

How to enable Chrome 2023 design refresh

Chrome Refresh is now available via Google Labs, so you can install Chrome Canary and click the Labs icon. Finally, turn on the toggle and restart the browser to see the new look.

If you do not see it under Labs and still want to try these changes yourself, follow these steps:

1. In Chrome Canary, open chrome://flags (experimental flags menu).
2. Search “refresh 2023” and enable two flags – #chrome-refresh-2023 and #chrome-webui-refresh-2023. It is worth noting that chrome://flags/#chrome-webui-refresh-2023 needs to be enabled manually, even if you have access to Labs.

   

3. Restart the browser.

You can now access refreshed Chrome experience if you follow the steps correctly.

Google is also experimenting with other design tweaks for Chrome’s address bar, but it’s unclear when those changes will be tested.

As for the release date, we don’t know when Google plans to roll out the changes to everyone, but it should happen in the coming months.

The post Google Chrome is getting a major design refresh on Windows 11; how to enable it appeared first on Windows Latest

While it’s already possible to unpin Chat from the taskbar, you cannot remove it from the OS. It is important to understand that unpinning Chat from the taskbar does not remove the feature, as it still lives inside the taskbar and settings but is hidden.

Microsoft will soon let you remove the feature entirely, including from the settings. This is based on the references found in the preview builds. Another reference suggests the ability to remove Chat could be linked to a new geographical API – could this mean Microsoft may unbundle Teams in select regions? We don’t know yet.

Windows 11 has a Chat app, a new way to chat with friends and family via Microsoft Teams platforms. Chat was announced with much hype at Windows 11’s October 2021 event. This feature is integrated into Windows 11 Shell/taskbar and offers a user-friendly experience, allowing anyone to connect with friends and family outside of work for free.

Teams isn’t popular in the consumer space as people prefer Meta products like WhatsApp and Facebook to communicate with friends or families. Chat, which failed to gain traction in the consumer market, was part of a broader effort by Microsoft to remain relevant with consumers.

Instead of rebranding Teams, Microsoft changed the Teams app and added features for people looking to chat. The company also added “Chat” to Windows 11 taskbar, yet another effort to reposition the existing Microsoft Teams app to appeal to people looking for new ways to chat.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the Chat app is seamlessly integrated into the Windows 11 Shell/taskbar and requires an installation of Microsoft Teams from the Store. It lets you create and schedule meetings with friends or families and make group video and audio calls.

Microsoft appears to be testing a new feature or option to remove Chat from the operating system. We have spotted references to “RemoveChat” hidden in Windows 11 preview builds rolled out in May.

When activated, it completely removes the Chat app and its mention from Windows 11.

Microsoft currently allows users to remove the Chat shortcut pinned to the taskbar simply; the ‘RemoveChat’ seems to go a step further. It will entirely remove the feature from the operating system. Could this mean Microsoft may soon unbundle the feature from select regions? We don’t know yet.

This seems to be an attempt to avoid potential antitrust scrutiny from the European Union regulators and may soon be implemented in the production version.

Interestingly, ‘RemoveChat’ is linked to some geographical API, confirming our speculation that Microsoft may remove the feature by default or permit users to do so in certain regions (Europe?).

Our speculation finds additional confirmation in a previous Financial Times report which suggested that Microsoft might stop bundling Teams with Office software to stave off the EU investigation.

For those unaware, companies like Slack, a direct competitor to Microsoft Teams, have voiced concerns and protested against Microsoft’s alleged anti-competitive practices. Slack alleged that Teams being bundled with several Microsoft products provides a competitive edge to Microsoft’s offering.

Reports have previously suggested Microsoft may unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 or Office 365 for businesses, and it looks like Windows 11 is next.

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Microsoft Edge dropped support for mouse gestures when it moved to Chromium, but this will soon change. The company is reintroducing mouse gestures to its Edge browser, enabling users to perform various browser actions through simple mouse movements.

There are as many as 16 mouse gestures in Microsoft Edge 114, but the feature is hidden and requires a little work to make it work. Edge 114 is available in the stable change with the Workspaces feature and other improvements. You can enable the hidden mouse gestures feature by following these steps:

1. Right-click the Microsoft Edge shortcut.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click the Target field in the Properties window.
4. Paste the following command:

5. --enable-features=msEdgeMouseGestureDefaultEnabled,msEdgeMouseGestureSupported

6. Remember to paste the above command after one space in the target field.
7. Click OK and relaunch Edge to see the settings.

Hands-on with Microsoft Edge 114’s secret feature – Mouse gestures

Once done, you can turn on mouse gestures by going to the settings of Edge. After turning on the feature, swiping to the left with the right click will let you go back to a previous page, mirroring the functionality of the ‘Back’ button. A right swipe, on the other hand, takes you forward.

Microsoft is also experimenting with vertical gestures. For example, you can swipe upwards to scroll up on the webpage. Similarly, swiping downwards triggers a scroll down.

But that’s not all, as Microsoft has added advanced gestures support too. For example, a downward swipe followed by a rightward movement will close the current tab. You can also open a closed tab by swiping leftward followed by an upward motion.

You can manage tabs in Edge using mouse gestures too. To open a new tab, you can swipe right and then up. On the other hand, a rightward swipe followed by a downward movement refreshes the current tab.

A swipe up followed by a leftward movement switches to the tab on the left, while an upward and rightward movement shifts to the tab on the right.

The gestures also extend to page loading and closing commands. Down then left stops loading a page, while a leftward and downward movement closes all open tabs.

Additional gestures facilitate navigation within the page, such as scrolling to the bottom (up then down) and scrolling to the top (down then up). A leftward then rightward swipe closes the current tab, while a rightward and leftward movement reopens a closed tab.

You can enable “Show Mouse Track” to visualize the path of the mouse movement and “Show Action Hint”, which provides cues for gesture-based actions.

If you have better ideas, you can customize these gestures and constantly reset them to default settings.

In addition to mouse gestures, Microsoft is experimenting with Bing AI in the browser’s context menu (right-click menu) and PDF reader.

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This new feature is part of Windows 11’s personalization settings called “Lighting”. It looks like the new lighting home in Windows 11 won’t be just exclusive to RGB controls, as it may let you play with other features in future. The toggle says it can be turned on to use dynamic lighting on all devices.

Windows does have plenty of third-party and open-source tools to manage RGB, which stands for Red, Green, and Blue. These are the primary colours used to create different hues of light and “add energy and emotion to your PC experience”, according to Microsoft officials.

The third-party tools are highly buggy, and it may be complex to manage RGB for all of your devices. With a native setting for dynamic lighting, you can personalize your computing experience when playing games, watching moves, or just using Windows in a matter of minutes.

You can customize the RGB light directly from settings. All supported accessories will be highlighted on the settings page.

While most of the devices should be compatible with the native controls, Microsoft still expects developers and hardware partners to experiment with the integration and roll out updated drivers to support native control better.

Microsoft is also planning to add profiles for RGB controls, so you can customize the experience, save it in a profile and use it later or switch between the profiles as you prefer.

This feature may arrive later in the future.

Other features coming to Windows, Microsoft Store and Settings

In addition to RGB lighting, Microsoft also announced Windows Copilot and tons of other features for Windows 11.

For example, Microsoft is integrating AI into the Store to automatically curate the best apps list, highlight better results in the search bar, optimize app discovery, and generate review summaries. The Store can automatically summarize all positive, negative or helpful reviews to save time.

Another new addition to Windows 11 Settings is “Backup and Restore”. As the name suggests, Windows 11’s new backup settings let you retain your apps when you switch between devices. You can enable the feature to restore apps from a backup of another device automatically.

Thanks to backup and restore, developers can now retain customers when they switch devices.

This feature should begin rolling out in the coming weeks.

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For those unaware, Apple names its new macOS on mountains. With macOS Sonoma, Apple has maintained the tradition of naming its macOS based on mountains.

In this case, Sonoma is a county in California, United States. macOS 14’s default wallpaper is of mountains, similar to the well-recognized Windows XP wallpaper, famously known as “Bliss.” The new wallpaper, set against the backdrop of Sonoma County’s captivating natural beauty, emulates the aesthetics of Bliss.

Of course, Apple did not discuss Sonoma County and how the new wallpaper resembles Windows XP Bliss. While the similarity can be ignored, the geographical proximity between Sonoma and Napa County, where the original Bliss photograph was taken, adds an intriguing angle to this design choice.

macOS 14’s new default wallpaper is an animated image of a mountainous environment with green valleys and a colourful sky. On the other hand, Windows XP Bliss, captured by the celebrated photographer Charles O’Rear in Napa Valley, depicts rolling green hills under a sun-dappled blue sky.

This has long been a symbol of the Microsoft Windows lineup, particularly for Windows XP users around the globe.

Windows Vista-like desktop gadgets on macOS

While the widgets feature isn’t particularly new to Apple’s ecosystem, Apple’s decision to bring interactive Widgets to the desktop or home of macOS reminds us of Windows Vista or Windows 7-era Gadgets.

Widgets have been on iOS and iPad for a while now, and Apple is looking to improve the experience with interactive and dynamic content.

macOS Sonoma has a new feature called “desktop widgets”, reminiscent of Windows Vista’s gadgets functionality. The Vista gadgets, unveiled in 2007, were compact, standalone apps offering quick access to information and tools. Windows 11 has widgets, but unlike gadgets, they are locked to a board or panel.

Windows Vista gadgets included simple functions like clocks, calendars, weather updates, news feeds, and more complex tools like system monitors and slide shows. Unlike Windows 11 Widgets, gadgets appear directly on the Windows Vista desktop, making the desktop more valuable and interactive.

Apple’s Widgets work similarly and can be pinned to the desktop/home screen of macOS. The interactive widgets can help you navigate some apps or features without opening the apps. For example, you can interact with Map or Weather apps and perform specific actions without opening the apps.

According to our sources familiar with the development, Windows 11 is getting desktop widgets support later this year with third-party support. These desktop widgets will be similar to Windows Vista gadgets, and Microsoft plans to use the existing web technology for desktop widgets.

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The redesigned Paint app is available for Windows 11 and is rolling out to the testers in the Windows Insider Program of Dev and Canary channel. If your device is in the production channel, you won’t see the updated Paint app when you check for updates in the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft is looking for feedback from testers to improve the Paint app. If you can’t wait, you can follow the steps highlighted below to manually replace the old Paint with a new version that has a dark mode and better zoom controls:

• If you’re in the Dev or Canary channel, head to the Microsoft Store and grab the update.
• On older versions of Windows 11 or the production channel, you can download Paint version 11.2304.17.0 from our cloud storage.
• Right-cl on the .msixbundle (make sure the file extension is .msixbundle) and install the app.
• Click on the update or install button when asked.

  

• Open Paint, and you will have dark mode irrespective of the Windows 11 version installed on the system.

By default, Paint will adapt to the system theme preference, but you can modify the theme by opening Paint’s new settings page. Currently, the settings page in Paint lets you toggle between light, dark or “respect system” theme preferences.

Microsoft is also working on new zoom controls for Paint. This makes the editing experience in Paint more flexible, so you can easily control the view of the content in the app. You can always access the classic presets, but the new zoom in and out experience should offer greater precision. You can even set a custom zoom value.

Another new option, “fit to screen”, optimizes the canvas to fit the screen or window size.

Microsoft is also rolling out a new design and dark mode support for “Image Properties” dialogs. The updated dialogs should match the style of the latest Windows 11 design and maintain the familiar experience. You will notice more modern controls and touch-friendly buttons throughout the app.

This is part of the company’s efforts to improve accessibility and usability. As a result, keyboard shortcut support has been improved, and the access key now works better.

As mentioned at the outset, Microsoft’s redesigned Paint app is currently being tested by Windows Insiders. It will likely roll out to the general audience in the coming weeks, but you can always manually install the app from msixbundle.

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Our reporting was based on internal documents I saw and references in Windows 11 preview builds. While Microsoft never confirmed it was working on a new File Explorer experience, the tech giant suggested a big ‘refresh’ is coming in a Windows Insider webcast where the company said it is moving File Explorer to WinAppSDK to unlock new APIs.

At Build 2023 developer conference, Microsoft finally teased the all-new modern File Explorer refresh. It’s unclear when the update is coming out, but we have accessed an early and unreleased version of the new File Explorer that mirrors what was teased at the conference.

Before we take a closer look at the new File Explorer, here’s the expected changelog of the update:

• A new header with modern controls, a modern search bar and a home button.
• The search bar is now faster than ever.
• Microsoft 365 is integrated into File Explorer, and you will see 365 content in File Explorer.
• The sidebar has been updated with a new details pane.
• A new Gallery View for an enhanced Microsoft Photos app-like experience.
• WinUI 3 and more web controls via XAML.

New details pane, header design

File Explorer is not changing dramatically, but many new interfaces are worth checking out.

For instance, the details pane has been updated with a modern interface that matches the Windows 11 aesthetic. It displays recent activity and provides quick sharing options, enhancing usability.

However, the properties dialog remains starkly white, awaiting a dark mode update.

The File Explorer interface now resembles a web browser more closely, echoing the design from the Windows XP and Vista days. The top of the interface features the address bar, back and forward buttons, an ‘up’ button, a refresh button, and a search box.

The File Explorer commands are below the address bar, reversing the previous layout change introduced with Windows 11 Moment 2. This repositioning is part of a broader effort to align File Explorer’s interface more closely with the Windows 11 design ethos.

The navigation bar on the left and the settings page are due for substantial updates. The updated File Explorer incorporates modern Mica blur effects and drop-down menus for seamless directory navigation.

An exciting upcoming feature is the ability to drag and drop tabs outside and inside the File Explorer window. For example, you can select and drag a tap into its own window and drag it back into the primary window.

New Gallery View

A new Gallery feature is coming to Windows 11, showing content from directories like Pictures. This is similar to the Microsoft Photos app’s Gallery, optimized for most recently taken photos.

You can also view photos directly from your mobile device, thanks to a new button in the Command Bar that lets you add photo photos.

The redesigned File Explorer in Windows 11 promises a more intuitive, streamlined, and aesthetically pleasing user experience. It should begin rolling out to the general public with Windows 11 23H2, which is set to arrive in the fall of 2023.

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