Microsoft Insiders can look forward to a new install if you’re in the dev channel for Windows 11, build 23506. Some new security features. Also, ISO’s are available for this build for easy installation if you choose that route.

With Windows Hello for Business (WHFB), Windows provides organizations with a strong, phish-resistant credential, helping customers move to a passwordless future. Enterprise customers can now set the EnablePasswordlessExperience policy that promotes a user experience on AAD joined machines for core authentication scenarios without requiring a password. This new experience hides passwords from certain Windows authentication scenarios and leverages passwordless recovery mechanisms, such as WHFB PIN reset, if necessary.

Microsoft is rebranding some of it’s Azure services, including Azure AD (Active Directory). Azure AD is now going to be referred to as Microsoft Entra ID. Nothing functional will change, only the name and branding. The name change should be completed by the end of 2023 in all Microsoft documentation and portals.

To simplify our product naming and unify our product family, we’re changing the name of Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID. Capabilities and licensing plans, sign-in URLs, and APIs remain unchanged, and all existing deployments, configurations, and integrations will continue to work as before. Starting today, you’ll see notifications in the administrator portal, on our websites, in documentation, and in other places where you may interact with Azure AD. We’ll complete the name change from Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID by the end of 2023. No action is needed from you.

Licensing names have changed, but their functionality is exactly the same as they were previously. Nothing has been lost or gained in the transition.

There’s been mixed reactions from some admins across Reddit and Lemmy, from ‘meh’ to ‘not another name change?!’. Microsoft has been pretty notorious in changing the names of it’s services over the years including Skydrive to Onedrive, multiple ‘Threat Protection’ to Defender, and several others, with little explanation other than marketing.

For those that are studying for an exam, there will be a period where things may get confusing, with some documentation saying one thing and the official Microsoft documentation, portals, etc. saying something different. Just keep in mind that Microsoft Entra ID used to be the simple Microsoft Azure AD.

A new Windows 11 build has been released to Windows Insiders to the Beta channel. Some good fixes in there for issues I’ve seen posted about.

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.746 and Build 22623.746 (KB5018490) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22623.746 = New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.746 = New features off by default.

REMINDER: Insiders who were previously on Build 22622 will automatically get moved to Build 22623 via an enablement package. The enablement package artificially increments the build number for the update with new features getting rolled out and turned on to make it easier to differentiate from devices with the update with features off by default. This approach is being used for the Beta Channel only and is not indicative of any changes or plans for final feature rollouts.

Insiders who landed in the group with new features turned off by default (Build 22621.xxxx) can check for updates and choose to install the update that will have features rolling out (Build 22623.xxx).

Microsoft has held their Surface Event, bringing several new upgrades to the Surface lineup, including the Surface Pro 9 and the Surface Laptop 5. I’ve owned several Surface devices, with the Surface Pro 2, 3, and 4. I’m looking at an upgrade with the Surface Laptop 5 this coming year. I would love to see more available options for upgrading the hardware (RAM and hard drive), but in a form factor so small (similar to the Apple Macbook Air), it’s understandable.

The Surface Pro lineup has a few options, with a power efficient Microsoft processor powering one of the models.

Today is October’s Patch Tuesday, which brings in a fix for a active exploit as well as fixes for other issues. Notably, the recent Exchange zero-days were not given patches this time. BleepingComputer has more details on the CVE’s and what’s being patched.

• 39 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities

• 2 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities

• 20 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities

• 11 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities

• 8 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities

• 4 Spoofing Vulnerabilities

Microsoft has released the latest build to the Fast Ring for the Insider program. This time, we’re taking it up to 19582. As usual, check the known issues for anything that may prevent you from wanting to install this build. A few new things added (to the Your Phone app) and some other good fixes.

General changes & improvements

• In an effort to consolidate information, we’re removing the Windows Security status details from the About Settings. This information is still available under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security.
• We’re working on giving you control over whether apps can disable the screen capture border. The page isn’t finished being wired up yet, but you’ll see it listed under Privacy Settings.
• We’ve updated the “set time zone automatically” toggle in Time & Date settings to now be greyed out if location has been disabled.
• Based on feedback, we’re updating the Scottish Gaelic keyboard in two ways:
  • Pressing AltGR + 7 will now input ⁊ (U+204A TIRONIAN SIGN ET). 
  • Pressing ‘ will now directly insert that character (right single quote).
  • Pressing AltGr + ‘ will now act as a dead key to combine an acute accent with a subsequent letter. 

Fixes

• We fixed an issue for Chinese Insiders where Windows setup (for example, if you reset your PC) would get stuck after inputting your Microsoft Account details.

• We fixed an issue where, when you upgraded with certain languages like Japanese, the Installing Windows X% page wasn’t rendering the text correctly (only boxes were displayed).

• We fixed an issue resulting in notifications sometimes having the wrong actions associated with them (for example, an unexpected reply box).

• We fixed an issue causing some attempts to update to a newer build to result in error 0x8007042b.

• We resolved the issue preventing the cloud recovery option for Reset this PC from working.

• We fixed an issue that could result in a green screen with Win32kbase.sys crash at session shutdown.

• We fixed an issue resulting in not being about to navigate between the Xbox Game Bar options using an Xbox Controller.

• We fixed an issue where the “set time zone automatically” toggle in Time & Date settings wouldn’t stay enabled.

• We fixed an issue that could result in the Open With dialog not accepting the selection when opening PDFs.

• We fixed an issue resulting in Task Manager showing “Unavailable” DPI Awareness for all processes.

Microsoft has released a new build for the Fast ring of Windows 10, build 19577. Make sure to check out the known issues before updating.

Known issues

• BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details.

• We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge.

• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.

• We’re investigating reports that some Insiders are unable to update to newer builds with error 0x8007042b.

• The Documents section under Privacy has a broken icon (just a rectangle).

• When you upgrade with certain languages, like Japanese, the “Installing Windows X%” page isn’t rendering the text correctly (only boxes are displayed).

• The cloud recovery option for Reset this PC isn’t working on this build. Please use the local reinstall option when performing Reset this PC.

• When trying to use Win + PrtScn to capture a screenshot, the image is not saved to the Screenshots directory. For now, you’ll need to use one of the other options for taking screenshots, such as WIN + Shift + S.

• We’re looking into reports where, when running corruption repair (DISM), the process will stop at 84.9%.

• Notifications sometimes have the wrong actions associated with them (for example, a reply box or various buttons).

Microsoft Windows 7 is still seeing around a 23% install base, and upgrades from the now unsupported OS to Windows 10 have slowed down significantly. Amy Hood, CFO for Microsoft, has indicated that China’s health situation and a chip shortage could be contributing factors.

I think, in general, these cycles tend to look similar. But what I would say is this one is certainly more complicated by a number of things that I’ll talk about in a second. What is different about this is there still remains quite a bit of opportunity more than we saw at this point in the prior cycle. A lot of that exists where you would expect it to exist, which is small and medium business segment. Not unusual, but it means that we do have some room to continue to grow and likely means that the curve will look different than last time in terms of its shape.

Now, then you add to it two complicating factors, one of which you brought up, which have been chip supply, which has impacted some of the growth rates over the past bit. And then, the second one which is the supply chain currently in China in terms of bindings and productions. And so those will — and as we’ve talked about, will impact the quarterly results. And so I’m not sure it’ll look like the exact same curve in terms of the prior cycle, not just because we have a little bit more left to go than we have had in prior cycles, but also because it’s been a bit more volatile due to those two issues as we work through them.

Microsoft has announced a new Microsoft 365 feature – Universal Print. This allows your printers to be added to Microsoft 365 cloud, removing the need for on-premise print servers. As this is a new service, it’s going to be missing some key features that on-premise servers would have vs. this model.

Universal Print moves key Windows Server print functionality to the Microsoft 365 cloud, so organizations no longer need on-premises print servers and do not need to install printer drivers on devices. In addition, Universal Print adds key functionality like security groups for printer access, location-based printer discovery, and a rich administrator experience.

For those Insiders in the Fast Ring, build 18965 has been released. An updated feature that allows you to have your apps restart when you reboot your PC. Now, it’s easy to get back to work where you left off by having Windows auto-start your applications you were working on.

Be sure to check out the known issues for anything that may stop you or if you come up with one of these issues know that it’s already known and being addressed:

Known issues

• Insiders may notice a new “Cloud download” option in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) under “Reset this PC.” This feature is not working quite yet. We’ll let you know once it is, so you can try it out!

• There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. We are working with partners on getting their software updated with a fix, and most games have released patches to prevent PCs from experiencing this issue. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. We are also working with anti-cheat and game developers to resolve similar issues that may arise with the 20H1 Insider Preview builds and will work to minimize the likelihood of these issues in the future.

• Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.

• We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in the minimize, maximize, and close title bar buttons not working for certain apps. If you’re using an impacted app, Alt+F4 should work as expected to close the app if needed.

• Some WSL distros will not load (Issue #4371).

• We’re investigating reports that DWM is using unexpectedly high system resources for some Insiders.

• There’s an issue impacting a small number of Insiders which started on the previous flight, involving a lsass.exe crash and resulting in a message saying, “Windows ran into a problem and needs to restart.” We’re working on a fix and appreciate your patience.