We are at the end of the week and it’s time yet again to break down everything important that happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. Unlike the previous edition, we have lots of ground to cover this week ranging from Patch Tuesday updates to Insider builds and app improvements. Without further ado, let’s dive into our weekly digest for September 10 – September 16!
Windows Patches
This week hosted the second Tuesday of the month, which means that we received a Patch Tuesday updates for all supported versions of Windows.
Windows 7 bagged KB5017361, which contains security updates and minor improvements to the OS. There are two known issues that you should be aware of as well. Meanwhile, Windows 8.1 received KB5017367, again with unspecified improvements and security updates. It also shares one of its known issues with the Windows 7 patch, namely the Daylight Saving Time (DST) problem detected earlier this month.
Windows 10 netted KB5017308 for Windows Server 20H2, and Windows 10 for the latest versions, 21H1, 21H2, bumping the builds to 19042.2006, 19043.2006, and 19044.2006 respectively. There are some security fixes but there are a bunch of known issues too. Patches were also rolled out to older versions of Windows 10 LTSC, so do check out all the details here. Those on a non-LTSC version of Windows 10 version 21H1 should remember that this specific OS is reaching end of life after three months.
Finally, Windows 11 got KB5017328, which includes a fix for a web dialog not appearing when signing in and out of your Microsoft account, an issue that has been present since KB5016691. There are two known issues in this latest build 22000.978 too. While it’s not related to this specific Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft has also fixed a voice typing issue plaguing the OS and references to a new LTSC version of Windows 11 have also been spotted in the wild.
And in a bit of surprising news, it appears that some brand-new PCs are already shipping with Windows 11’s first feature update, version 22H2. One particular Dell PC with build 22621.521 has already been reported online. For now though, Microsoft has not publicly disclosed a release date for its first major update to Windows 11.
Those who care about synthetic benchmarks and scores may also be interested to know that Windows 11 is facing a bit of a tough time on paper when it comes to performance comparisons with Ubuntu on AMD hardware.
Insider builds galore
At the start of this, we uncovered a way to enable a Windows 10-style taskbar search functionality in Windows 11 build 25197. It’s currently hidden by default but you can make it visible by using a simple ViveTool command.
Shortly after, Microsoft published build 22622.598 to the Beta Channel. Notably, it removes the ability to repair or uninstall Win32 apps with inter-dependencies through the Settings > Apps > Installed apps section. It also contains some fixes for File Explorer and a known issue related to the network icon on the lockscreen.
Microsoft rolled out build 25201 of Windows 11 to the Dev Channel. Its headlining features include full-screen Widgets, improvements to the Game Pass Widget, and more. There are several known issues in this build too, which is expected that this is the most unstable public ring in the Insider Program.
Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 received new builds in the Release Preview Channel with massive …….