The upcoming fall will probably be a really, very busy season for Microsoft, because the software giant is gearing up for several major announcements.

On one hand, it's the debut of Windows 11 version 22H2. Like a major Windows 11 update, this is actually the biggest operating system discharge of the year, and users obviously can't wait to get their on the job it.

Microsoft has selected the RTM build, but so far, the organization hasn't said a single thing about if this intends to kick off the rollout to non-insider devices.

Hello, new Surface models!

And also to software new, Microsoft is also on the point of share some pretty exciting hardware announcements.

According to a report in the Verge, the Redmond-based software giant will require the wraps off new Surface models in the fall too, possibly just in front of the Ignite conference in mid-October.

The timing makes sense.

Microsoft will celebrate the 10th anniversary from the Surface in October, and many likely, the company is preparing some pretty big news on the hardware front. A brand new Surface Book, possibly having a major redesign, can also be expected, though this really is obviously just a rumor to date.

Microsoft launched the original Surface RT with much fanfare in October 2012, and while the first device ended up becoming a significant flop, mostly due to the limitations of Windows RT, the long-term resolve for the unit eventually turned it into a major hit.

At this time, the Surface lineup is usually pioneering the Windows experience, as it includes high-end hardware specifically to allow users to make the the majority of the company's latest operating systems. Most likely, the upcoming Surface models will come with Windows 11 version 22H2 pre-loaded, pretty much for that very same reason.

Microsoft's newest Windows 11 cumulative update, that is available today like a preview via a manual download from Windows Update, includes a new option which makes it simpler to upgrade to the new edition from the operating system straight from the OOBE screen.

Quite simply, when you install Windows 11 on a new device, when the version that you deploy isn't the most recent one, the operating system can automatically check for updates and download the update from the out-of-box experience.

This means you can get to the latest version of Windows 11 inside a a lot more straightforward manner, without needing to sign in to the desktop, setup the account after which checking for updates.

The update "provides the choice for eligible devices to update to a newer Windows 11 version during the out-of-box experience (OOBE) when you first register. If you opt to update to a newer version, the update process will begin soon after the update is installed on the device," Microsoft explains in the official changelog of cumulative update KB5015882.

More improvements in the latest cumulative update

The most recent cumulative update preview includes Windows Autopilot improvements.

"Restores functionality for Windows Autopilot deployment scenarios which are impacted by the security mitigation for hardware reuse. This update removes the one-time use restriction for self-deploying mode (SDM) and pre-provisioning (PP). This update also re-enables any User Principal Name (UPN) display in user-driven mode (UDM) deployments for approved manufacturers," Microsoft explains.

Both improvements are projected to become available for all devices running Windows 11 included in the next Patch Tuesday cycle when the cumulative updates that will be released to computers will be offered as automatic updates through Windows Update.

At this time, anyone on Windows 11 can download the most recent update by manually checking for updates in Windows Update.

Microsoft has just released a brand new Windows 11 cumulative update, obviously using the concentrate on security improvements. KB5015814 is therefore readily available for download at this time, and Microsoft recommends users to download and install it right away.

According to the official changelog, this update includes one major change:

"Addresses an issue that redirects the PowerShell command output so that transcript logs do not contain any content. Transcript logs might contain decrypted passwords should you turn PowerShell logging on. Consequently, the transcript logs lose the decrypted passwords," the company explains.

But in addition, this update also comes with exactly what was included in KB5014668, the not compulsory cumulative update that was released on June 23 as a preview.

The largest change is therefore the debut of search highlights, available too on Windows 10.

The search highlights debut

With search highlights, Windows now displays additional information in the actual search UI, including anniversaries, holidays, and so forth, all tailored to each user.

"Search highlights will show notable and fascinating moments of what's special about each day?alike holidays, anniversaries, and other educational moments over time both globally as well as in your region. To see search highlights, click or tap around the search icon in your taskbar. For enterprise customers, search highlights will even feature the latest updates out of your organization and suggest people, files, and more," Microsoft says.

Worthwhile to learn, however, is that the search highlights rollout takes place in stages, as Microsoft says it's trying to figure out if any issues occur in the first phases. However, all users will be able to check out search highlights within the coming months, the company promises.

"Search highlights will roll out to Windows 11 customers over the next several weeks. We're going for a phased and measured approach. Broad availability will exist in the coming months," the software giant explains in the official announcement.

Microsoft announced Autopatch earlier this year, and many individuals believed the company was get yourself ready for no more Patch Tuesday.

At some level, this wasn't necessarily surprising, especially because the wording used by a company executive suggested this could indeed be.

"For organizations who select this method, the second Tuesday of every month will be ??just another Tuesday,'" the announcement read, therefore suggesting that the old idea of Patch Tuesday is going away.

The software giant has already clarified Patch Tuesday and Autopatch are two separate things, and in a graph published now, the company's Jeremy Chapman provides more information on how exactly Autopatch is supposed to work.

As per Neowin, Microsoft already offered more information on Autopatch, so in essence, the chart is really a summary of a longer post.

"Windows Autopatch is really a new service that automates the process of managing and rolling out updates for Windows and Microsoft 365 apps. If you missed the announcement, beginning in early July 2022, this service is going to be generally available if you have a Windows Enterprise E3 license or greater. The takeaway if you are an IT admin? You can keep while using tools and procedures you're accustomed to for managing and deploying updates?aor you are able to take a hands-off approach and let Windows Autopatch do it for you," Microsoft previously explained.

Autopatch can be obtained totally free for Windows Enterprise E3 and above license holders and works with Windows 10 and Windows 11.

"The General Availability Channel is the source for Windows updates through Windows Autopatch. Polices for quality and have updates can be set independently to satisfy your needs. Admins will be able to see what updates have been applied through the Windows Autopatch message center in Endpoint Manager and can find out about what updates to anticipate. The familiar cadence of monthly Windows security and quality updates, also called "B" releases, continues and out-of-band updates is going to be applied as needed," Microsoft said.

Microsoft just announced a new Windows 11 preview build for the Dev channel, using the company focusing mostly on bug fixes and additional polishing.

Windows 11 build 25151 thus remains live right now for users in the Dev channel from the Windows Insider program, and in addition with a File Explorer fixes, including for any scaling issue that could make the tabs too big, there's also important fixes for the Start menu power controls along with other crashes.

"We believe an underlying fix in Build 25145 addressed the recent issue where closing via the Start menu wasn't working for some Insiders (unexpectedly rebooting instead), and as such are removing this in the known issues list. If you're continuing to come across this issue with the latest updates, please report it within the Feedback Hub," Microsoft explains within the official release notes of this new build.

"Fixed a high hitting Windows Security app crash. Updated the Exclusions page in the Windows Security app so that file paths now make smarter utilisation of the available space instead of truncating when space is still available," the company further notes.

Several known issues

Obviously, there are also several known issues, including one that might cause the operating system hitting a BSOD after updating to this build.

However, Microsoft says the glitch has been available since build 25145, but a fix is not yet been released.

"We are working on the fix to deal with reports that the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect is not rendering correct in OS surfaces such as the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas," Microsoft says. "We're investigating reports that some Insiders are experiencing bugchecks with error message KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED in NetAdapterCx.sys starting with Build 25145."

Microsoft's most recent Windows 11 cumulative update, which is available today for seekers, posseses an important fix that resolves the bug causing some devices to be unable to connect to the Internet having a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The organization originally acknowledged the issue earlier this month, explaining that it was caused by another cumulative update, this time around KB5014697.

"After installing KB5014697, Windows devices may be unable to use the Wi-Fi hotspot feature. When attempting to use the hotspot feature, the host device might lose the connection to the internet after a client device connects," Microsoft said at that time.

It's understandable it was a significant glitch, but fortunately, Microsoft also provided a workaround to deal with the event until a complete fix was ready.

Microsoft said the only method to restore the web access to an impacted device ended up being to disable the Wi-Fi hotspot feature. It's understandable this wasn't necessarily probably the most convenient solution, so quite a few users available considered the ultimate workaround, which will come down to taking out the cumulative update resulting in the whole thing altogether.

Full fix now available

The good news is that Microsoft has resolved everything with the release of cumulative update KB5014668. This update is only on Windows 11 and offered as optional, and that means you must manually check out Windows Update and appearance for updates to upload it.

However, updates to solve exactly the same glitch should go live at some point for those Windows versions affected by the bug, including here Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and many Windows Server versions.

Most likely, the fix will become readily available for each one of these versions of Windows included in the next Patch Tuesday happening in July - at that time, all updates is going to be shipped as automatic releases to Windows users.

Say what you want about Windows on Arm, however the concept is yet to fully take off, despite Microsoft trying to convince partners to purchase new devices.

On paper, Windows on Arm seems to be a brilliant idea, but the insufficient devices to prove exactly what the platform is capable of has more or less limited its audience so far.

Xiaomi is the latest big name to become listed on the club of companies dedicated to Windows 11 on Arm, because the Chinese tech behemoth has recently announced the Book S.

The device is essentially a tablet, but it can become an authentic 2-in-1 with the help of a keyboard. The Xiaomi Smart Pen stylus can also be supported, though it's for sale separately.

Coming with a 12.4-inch display and Gorilla Glass 3 protection, the Xiaomi Book S is run by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 processor. In theory, this really is pretty much among the best choices in terms of Arm power right now, therefore if you're considering getting the best Windows on Arm experience, Xiaomi's new device is a significant solid option.

The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM, and also the device also includes 256GB of SSD storage.

When it comes to connectivity, you receive Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, one USB-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack, along with a sd card reader.

As it's the situation with the other Windows on Arm devices, battery is playing an essential role, and also the Xiaomi Book S guarantees you wouldn't be disappointed. The unit should really provide a more 13.5 hours of video playback.

And if this isn't enough for you, the unit also ships having a 65W charger offering 38W charging.

Starting at 699 Euros in Europe, the device lacks LTE support, and combined with a previous-generation processor, it'll be interesting to see if it ends up selling enough units.

Microsoft has recently brought Windows 11 search highlights closer to the official launch, as the feature made its way to the discharge Preview channel within the Windows Insider program.

Search highlights is really a new feature that is supposed to enhance the search experience in Windows 11 with a lot more content highly relevant to each user, including such things as holidays and anniversaries.

"Search highlights will show notable and fascinating moments of what's special about each day-like holidays, anniversaries, and other educational moments over time both globally and in your region. To determine search highlights, click or tap on the search icon in your taskbar. For enterprise customers, search highlights will also feature the most recent updates out of your organization and suggest people, files, and more," the organization explained.

Announced in Windows 11 preview builds for that Dev and Beta channels captured, the feature is now moving one step closer to the state launch by going live in the Release preview channel.

Rolling taking place in stages

However, the rollout will take place in stages, as Microsoft really wants to make sure everything is working exactly as expected. Quite simply, this method gives Microsoft more control over the rollout, so if the bug is discovered searching highlights, the company can suspend the procedure before more devices are impacted.

The organization says the rollout will start within the coming weeks, however, it will require up to many months before all devices running Windows 11 can get it.

"Search highlights will unveil to Windows 11 customers over the next weeks. We are going for a phased and measured approach. Broad availability will exist in the approaching months. For group configuration information, see Group configuration: search highlights in Windows," Microsoft explains without providing a more specific ETA as to when the first production products are designed to get search highlights.

Microsoft just released new Windows 11 ISO images, but necessary for know is they are only at insiders.

In other words, should you download the Windows 11 build 25140 ISO images, you will simply operate a preview version of the operating system that's currently available for the Dev channel in the Windows Insider program.

The new ISO images, however, prove useful to users who want to start from scratch in the Windows Insider program as a result of critical bug within the operating-system but additionally to those who want to see what's new within the latest release inside a virtual machine.

Windows 11 build 25140 includes several notable changes, and in relation to input.

Fixed an issue where selecting English (Nz) in OOBE was unexpectedly leading to the Arabic (101) keyboard getting selected.
Setting language bar hotkeys for switching input straight to specific non-IME input method should work now.
Some languages don't support the speech recognition FOD. When an admin user tried to install among those languages while using new Install-Language CopyToSettings command, some settings for example new user account locale, Input (Keyboard), and UPLL (User Preferred Language List) were not getting updated. This issue has been fixed.
Fixed a problem causing Batang, BatangChe, Gungsuh, and GungsuhChe fonts to not render Korean correctly when utilizing Office online apps when these fonts were not locally present on your computer.

All these improvements are exclusively targeted at the Dev channel, and whenever you're wondering when they are designed to go love production devices, there's no ETA on this front. Microsoft reminds users that the tests that it's running in the Windows Insider Dev channel don't have a specific release date in your mind, plus some of the features which go live for testing could end up being ditched entirely.

Notepad has gotten plenty of goodies lately, now, Microsoft took the wraps off a lot of new improvements that are available for insiders.

Quite simply, if you're part of the Windows Insider program and running Windows 11 preview builds on your device, a new version of Notepad can be tested with a lot of refinements.

One of the highlights is the native ARM64 support, with Microsoft explaining that Notepad should now feel faster and more responsive when running with an ARM device.

"We've improved the Notepad experience on ARM64 devices on versions 11.2204 and better available in all channels. You'll see faster and performance when you use the app," the company explains within an announcement today.

No ETA for that launch to non-insider devices

Furthermore, Notepad now comes with improved performance on all devices, but also with updated accessibility capabilities, with the app to now feel at home on most screen readers.

"In accessory for the raised performance on ARM64 devices, you'll notice additional performance improvements-especially when scrolling very large files or replacing large amount of text-across all devices in version 11.2205 and better obtainable in the Dev channel," Microsoft explains. "Improved support for screen readers, text scaling, access keys, and other assistive technology is available starting in version 11.2204 and better in most channels, with a lot more improvements in version 11.2205 and better available in the Dev channel."

As said, the new features are only readily available for insiders at this point, and Microsoft hasn't provided an ETA as to when they may go live for production devices too.

However, given these are app updates that aren't directly tied to the operating system, the rollout could start once the tests are complete, and Microsoft makes sure that everything is running not surprisingly for those Windows 11 users available.