Valve announced today that Steam will require Windows 10 or later on January 1, 2024. The reason? Google Chrome. PC Gamer reports: "The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows," Valve's typically curt announcement reads. "In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above." January 1, 2024 is the day of doom for Steam on the old Windows versions. "After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows."

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Windows Central reports: According to my sources who are familiar with Microsoft's plans, the company is once again hard at work on a new project internally that's designed to modernize the Windows platform with many of the same innovations it was working on for Windows Core OS, but with a focus on native compatibility for legacy Win32 applications on devices where it makes sense. The project is codenamed CorePC and is designed to be a modular and customizable variant of Windows for Microsoft to leverage different form factors with. Not all Windows PCs need the full breadth of legacy Win32 app support, and CorePC will allow Microsoft to configure "editions" of Windows with varying levels of feature and app compatibility. The big change with CorePC versus the current shipping version of Windows is that CorePC is state separated, just like Windows Core OS. State separation enables faster updates and a more secure platform via read-only partitions that are inaccessible to the user and third-party apps, just like on iPadOS or Android. [...] CorePC splits up the OS into multiple partitions, which is key to enabling faster OS updates. State separation also enables faster and more reliable system reset functionality, which is important for Chromebook compete devices in the education sector. [...] My sources tell me CorePC will allow Microsoft to finally deliver a version of Windows that truly competes with Chromebooks in OS footprint, performance, and capabilities. [...] Microsoft is also working on a version of CorePC that meet the current feature set and capabilities of Windows desktop, but with state separation enabled for those faster OS updates and improved security benefits. The company is working on a compatibility layer codenamed Neon for legacy apps that require a shared state OS to function, too. Lastly, I hear that Microsoft is experimenting with a version of CorePC that's "silicon-optimized," designed to reduce legacy overhead, focus on AI capabilities, and vertically optimize hardware and software experiences in a way similar to that of Apple Silicon. Unsurprisingly, AI experiences are a key focus for Windows going into 2024.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: One of the enduring legacies of the '90s browser wars has been an outsize attention to how Microsoft handles default app settings in Windows, especially browser settings. The company plans to make it more straightforward to change your app defaults in future versions of Windows 11, according to a new blog post that outlines a "principled approach to app pinning and app defaults in Windows." The company's principled approach is a combination of broad, vague platitudes ("we will ensure people who use Windows are in control of changes to their pins and their defaults") and new developer features. A future version of Windows 11 will offer a consistent "deep link URI" for apps so they can send users to the right place in the Settings app for changing app defaults. Microsoft will also add a pop-up notification that should be used when newly installed apps want to pin themselves to your Taskbar, rather than either pinning themselves by default or getting lost somewhere in your Start menu. These new features will be added to Windows "in the coming months," starting in the Dev channel Windows Insider Preview builds. Though Microsoft frames these changes as a way to make changing default apps easier and more consistent, they also serve as a gentle rebuke to developers who handle things differently.

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Microsoft is starting to test a system called File Recommendations in File Explorer, which does exactly what the name suggests -- when you visit the home tab, it shows specific files that you may want to open at the top. The Verge reports: In a blog post, the company says the current version is only available to some Insiders in its Dev Channel who have installed the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23403 update and will only work if you're logged in with an Azure Active Directory account (meaning that currently, this feature feels squarely aimed at business users). For those that do have it, it'll suggest cloud files that you own or that have been shared with you. Microsoft says it plans to "monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone," so it seems as if it's aware that the feature could be controversial. Part of that may be just down to the fact that not everybody will want unexpected results in their file browser -- though based on the screenshot, you will be able to collapse the Recommended section.

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Microsoft "is adding iPhone support to its Phone Link app on Windows 11," reports MacRumors. "The app allows iPhone users to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and view an iPhone's notifications directly on a PC." Notably, the app brings limited iMessage functionality to Windows. After pairing an iPhone with a PC via Bluetooth and granting some permissions on the iPhone, users can send and receive iMessages and SMS text messages in Phone Link, but there is no support for group chats or sending photos and videos. The Verge notes you won't see the full message history in conversations, "as only messages that have been sent or received using Phone Link will be displayed." Microsoft isn't using blue or green bubbles in Phone Link either, as the company isn't able to differentiate between a standard text message and one sent via iMessage. The Phone Link integration for iOS is basic compared to what's available for Android, but Microsoft has never supported messaging or calls for iPhone users before, so this is a step in the right direction.... This new Phone Link support arrives alongside a big new Windows 11 update that includes AI-powered Bing on the taskbar, a screen recording feature, better touch optimizations, and more. If you're interested in testing this new Phone Link support for iOS, it will be available for Windows Insiders in the Dev, Beta, and Release Preview channels, but Microsoft is kicking off testing with a "small percentage" of testers this week. Thanks to ttyler (Slashdot reader #20,687) for sharing the news.

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Microsoft is now force-installing the Microsoft Defender for Individuals application when installing or updating the Microsoft 365 apps. BleepingComputer reports: It was first unveiled for Windows 11 Insiders in March 2022 and has been available for customers with Personal or Family subscriptions since June 2022. However, starting earlier this month, it will also be automatically installed when first running the Microsoft 365 installer or after the next update, as spotted by WindowsLatest. "Starting in late February of 2023, the Microsoft Defender app will be included in the Microsoft 365 installer," the company says in a support document updated last week. "That means that when you install the Microsoft 365 apps on your Windows device, the Microsoft Defender app will automatically be installed for you along with the other apps. If you have an active Microsoft 365 subscription and have already installed the Microsoft 365 apps, then the Microsoft Defender app will be automatically installed for you with the next update."

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Did you force your PC to install Windows 11 despite it not meeting the official requirements? Microsoft might start nagging you for doing that -- or at least reminding you that what you've done is against the intended use of its operating system. The January 2023 Windows 11 update is pestering folks who forced the update on their PCs with a persistent watermark on the desktop warning that system requirements haven't been met. The story is circulating among Windows blogs, though I found a couple of instances of folks complaining about the watermark on the official Microsoft support forums. The watermark says "system requirements not met" and is emblazoned on the desktop's lower right hand corner if the operating system notices that it's running on hardware that doesn't meet the minimum requirements. It's possible the culprit is the dedicated security processor, or TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) chip, used by services like BitLocker and Windows Hello. Microsoft requires this module before upgrading. It's why many PCs were rendered un-upgradeable when Windows 11 was announced. Most new CPUs and motherboards have capability for it built into them, but the feature wasn't a guaranteed inclusion prior to the Windows 11 launch.

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Slashdot reader John Smith 2294 is an IT consultant and system administrator "who started in the days of DEC VAX/VMS," now maintaining networks for small to medium businesses and non-profits. And they're sharing a concern with Slashdot. "I object to Windows 11 insisting on an outlook.com / Microsoft Account OS login." Sure there are workarounds, but user action or updates can undo them. So I will not be using Windows 11 for science or business any more.... I will be using Win10 refurbs for as long as they are available, and then Mac Mini refurbs and Linux. My first Linux Mint user has been working happily for two months now and I have not heard a word from them. So, as an IT Admin responsible for business or education networks of 20 users or more, will you be using Windows 11 on your networks or, like me, is this the end of the road for Windows for you too? I'd thought their concern would be about Windows is sending user data to third parties. But are these really big enough reasons for system adminstrators to be avoiding Windows 11 altogether? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. Should production networks avoid Windows 11?

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Microsoft is working to bring native support for RGB PC gaming accessories to Windows 11. The Verge reports: The Windows lighting experience will include the ability for PC gamers to configure accessories with RGB lighting without having to install third-party software. Twitter user Albacore has spotted early work for integrating this new lighting experience into Windows 11 in the latest public test builds of the operating system. Options for controlling brightness, lighting effects, speed, and colors can all be found in the settings interface of Windows 11. There's even a feature that will match your accessories to the Windows accent color.

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An anonymous reader shares a report from Tom's Hardware: According to the PC Security Channel (via TechSpot), Microsoft's Windows 11 sends data not only to the Redmond, Washington-based software giant, but also to multiple third parties. To analyze DNS traffic generated by a freshly installed copy of Windows 11 on a brand-new notebook, the PC Security Channel used the Wireshark network protocol analyzer that reveals precisely what is happening on a network. The results were astounding enough for the YouTube channel to call Microsoft's Windows 11 "spyware." As it turned out, an all-new Windows 11 PC that was never used to browse the Internet contacted not only Windows Update, MSN and Bing servers, but also Steam, McAfee, geo.prod.do, and Comscore ScorecardResearch.com. Apparently, the latest operating system from Microsoft collected and sent telemetry data to various market research companies, advertising services, and the like. When Tom's Hardware contacted Microsoft, their spokesperson argued that flowing data is common in modern operating systems "to help them remain secure, up to date, and keep the system working as anticipated." "We are committed to transparency and regularly publish information about the data we collect to empower customers to be more informed about their privacy."

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The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results are now available, showing a significant milestone for Microsoft's operating system. From a report: According to Valve, Windows 11 crossed a 30% share on Steam in January 2023. Windows 11's growth on Steam is directly related to Windows 10's decline. The latter remains the most popular OS among the gaming audience, but its market share lost 1.96 points in January 2023. Windows 10 holds approximately 63.46% of all Steam customers. Windows 11, on the other hand, gained 1.91% points. This allowed the operating system to cross the 30% mark and reach its all-time high of 30.33%. Despite being out of support since 2020 (no paid security updates since January 2023), Windows 7 still has 1.6% of all Steam users. In January 2023, its 64-bit version lost 0.06 points. Overall, 96.02% of all Steam customers use Windows (0.13). macOS is second with 2.61% (+0.13), and Linux is third with 1.38% (no changes last month).

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system has been available on the retail market for over seven years and was superseded by Windows 11 in October 2021. However, despite its age, Windows 10 remains the most popular version of Windows, with a global market share of 67.95% in December 2022 compared to 16.97% for Windows 11, according to StatCounter. But it now looks like Microsoft is ready to put the brakes on issuing new Windows 10 licenses to everyday consumers. Microsoft's official product pages for Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro now include the following disclaimer: "January 31, 2023 will be the last day this Windows 10 download is offered for sale. Windows 10 will remain supported with security updates that help protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and other malware until October 14, 2025."

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"Windows 8.1 receives one more batch of security patches on the coming Tuesday," reports Ghacks, "before Microsoft lays the operating system to rest." Windows 8.1 does not get the same Extended Security Updates treatment that Windows 7 received for the past three years. Once the last patch has been released, it is game over for the operating system. Windows 8.1 users may continue using it, but the system's security issues will no longer be fixed by Microsoft or anyone else. Browsers and other programs will stop getting updates, and some websites will refuse to work as new technologies are no longer supported by the browsers. Windows 7, which receives the last ESU patches on Tuesday as well, looks to be in a similar situation on first glance. Microsoft won't release updates for it anymore, even though there is still demand for that. The article does note that 0patch, a third-party security platform from the Slovenia-based digital security lab ACROS Security, "will support Windows 7 with at least two additional years of critical security updates." (The cost: around $25 per year.)

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Michael Larabel writes via Phoronix: While Mesa's development has been very vibrant this year, the X.Org Server development pace has continued pulling back greatly from its late 00's and early 10's highs. This year saw just 156 commits to the xserver Git master branch, down from 331 last year and well off the highs of 2,114 as the most ever back in 2008. This jives with the downward pace over the past decade of the number of new commits continuing to slide. But it's not just on a commit basis but in overall code churn, 2022 was another low for the X.Org Server. With the 156 commits this year, there were just 3,618 lines of new code added and 888 lines removed.... Compared to last year with its 331 commits seeing 31.4k new lines and 179k lines removed. The X.Org Server development this year on a commit basis hasn't been as low since 2003 when there were just 125 commits under their old development model and even back then meant there was +865k lines /680k lines removed across that span of commits. There hasn't been so little code churn to the X Server since 2002. [...] This year saw commits from just 32 different email addresses, down from 48 in prior years and that number of different authors hasn't been so low since 2003 when there were just 10 recorded. Olivier Fourdan of Red Hat was the most prolific committer to the X.Org Server this year with nearly a quarter of the commits. Following Olivier was Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia, Peter Hutterer, Michel DÃnzer, Alan Coopersmith, and Sultan Alsawaf. This year's X.Org Server development metrics can be found here.

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An anonymous reader writes: Recently, I had to set up a Windows 10 computer for one specific application in a semi-embedded use case. Anything else that Windows does or comes with is unnecessary for this. While there are plenty of internet scripts and apps for de-bloating Windows, I have found the easiest (and little known) way to debloat Windows without running any internet scripts is as follows: 1. Open Powershell. 2. Type Get-AppxPackage | Remove-AppxPackage. 3. Ignore any error messages about packages that can't be removed, it's fine. Will this work for everyone? No, of course not, but it's a great one-line, easily memorable tool for cleaning up a PC quickly for an industrial use case without any security risks.

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It's still possible to learn a lot of interesting things about old operating systems. Sometimes those things were documented, or at least hinted at, in blog posts that miraculously still exist. One such quirk showed up recently when someone noticed how Microsoft made sure that SimCity and other popular apps worked on Windows 95. From a report: A recent tweet by @Kalyoshika highlights an excerpt from a blog post by Fog Creek Software co-founder, Stack Overflow co-creator, and longtime software blogger Joel Spolsky. The larger post is about chicken-and-egg OS/software appeal and demand. The part that caught the eye of a Hardcore Gaming 101 podcast co-host is how the Windows 3.1 version of SimCity worked on the Windows 95 system. Windows 95 merged MS-DOS and Windows apps, upgraded APIs from 16 to 32-bit, and was hyper-marketed. A popular app like SimCity, which sold more than 5 million copies, needed to work without a hitch. Spolsky's post summarizes how SimCity became Windows 95-ready, as he heard it, without input from Maxis or user workarounds. Jon Ross, who wrote the original version of SimCity for Windows 3.x, told me that he accidentally left a bug in SimCity where he read memory that he had just freed. Yep. It worked fine on Windows 3.x, because the memory never went anywhere. Here's the amazing part: On beta versions of Windows 95, SimCity wasn't working in testing. Microsoft tracked down the bug and added specific code to Windows 95 that looks for SimCity. If it finds SimCity running, it runs the memory allocator in a special mode that doesn't free memory right away. That's the kind of obsession with backward compatibility that made people willing to upgrade to Windows 95. Spolsky (in 2000) considers this a credit to Microsoft and an example of how to break the chicken-and-egg problem: "provide a backwards compatibility mode which either delivers a truckload of chickens, or a truckload of eggs, depending on how you look at it, and sit back and rake in the bucks."

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"A Microsoft employee appears to have accidentally announced that Windows 11's Notepad app is getting a tabs feature," reports the Verge: The employee, a senior product manager at Microsoft, posted a photo of a version of Notepad with tabs, enthusiastically announcing "Notepad in Windows 11 now has tabs!" with a loudspeaker emoji. The tweet was deleted minutes later, but not before Windows Central and several Windows enthusiast Twitter accounts had spotted the mistake. The Notepad screenshot includes a Microsoft internal warning: "Confidential Don't discuss features or take screenshots...." The addition of tabs in Notepad could signal a shift towards tabs appearing in more built-in Windows apps.

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Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser was an improvement over the initial version of Edge in many ways, including its support for Windows 7 and Windows 8. But the end of the road is coming: Microsoft has announced that Edge will end support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 in mid-January of 2023, shortly after those operating systems stop getting regular security updates. From a report: Support will also end for Microsoft Edge Webview2, which can use Edge's rendering engine to embed webpages in non-Edge apps. The end-of-support date for Edge coincides with the end of security update support for both Windows 7 and Windows 8 on January 10, and the end of Google Chrome support for Windows 7 and 8 in version 110. Because the underlying Chromium engine in both Chrome and Edge is open source, Microsoft could continue supporting Edge in older Windows versions if it wanted, but the company is using both end-of-support dates to justify a clean break for Edge.

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Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to nudge laggards toward Windows 11 amid a migration pace that company executives would undoubtedly prefer is rather faster. From a report: The software giant is offering an option of upgrading to Windows 11 as an out of box experience to its Windows 10 22H2 installed base, the main aim being to smooth their path forward to the latest operating system. "On November 30, 2022, an out-of-band update was released to improve the Windows 10, version 2004, 20H2, 21H1, 21H2, and 22H2 out-of-box experience (OOBE). It provides eligible devices with the option to upgrade to Windows 11 as part of the OOBE process. This update will be available only when an OOBE update is installed." The update, KB5020683, applies only to Windows 10 Home and Professional versions 2004, 20H2, 21H1, 22H2. There are some pre-requisites that Microsoft has listed here before users can make the move to Windows 11. The operating system was released on October 5 last year but shifting stubborn consumers onto this software has proved challenging for top brass at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. According to Statcounter, a web analytics service that has tracking code installed on 1.5 million websites and records a page view for each, some 16.12 percent of Windows users had installed Windows 11 in November, higher than the 15.44 percent in the prior month, but likely still not close to the figures that Microsoft was hoping for.

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Mark Hachman, writing for PCWorld: Windows 8 stunk. It might have helped cost chief executive Steve Ballmer his job. Windows 8.1 was a bit better -- but if you love it, you have only a month or so left to enjoy it. Microsoft will kill off Windows 8.1 support on January 10, 2023. There's no out: Microsoft will not be offering an extended support package for Windows 8.1. At that point, you'll have a choice: buy a new Windows PC, or officially pay to upgrade to either Windows 10 or Windows 11. What does the end of support mean? Until January 10, Microsoft will offer security patches and other fixes for any security issues that crop up. Afterwards, you're on your own. If any exploit or malware surfaces, you'll have to depend on any antivirus software you have running -- Microsoft won't be issuing any more patches after Jan. 10, and your PC will absolutely be at risk.

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