No blog post but Build Canary Build 25387 has been released to the Canary Channel.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23475

What's new in Build 23475

Modernized File Explorer Home and Address Bar
Now that File Explorer is powered by Windows App SDK, we are introducing a modernized File Explorer Home powered by WinUI. Recommended files for users signed into Windows with an Azure Active Directory (AAD) account will be displayed as a carousel and support file thumbnails which is coming soon. Quick Access folders (available by default for users signed into Windows with a Microsoft account), Favorites, and Recent also bring in an updated experience with WinUI.

We are also introducing a modernized address bar and search box to File Explorer. The new address bar intelligently recognizes local vs. cloud folders with built-in status. For OneDrive users, you'll notice the address bar now contains your OneDrive sync status and quota flyout.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn't available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

Dynamic Lighting
Dynamic Lighting provides Windows users and developers with native control of Lighting Devices implementing the open HID LampArray standard. By adopting an open standard, and by working with our OEM and ODM partners,  Microsoft seeks to improve the RGB device and software ecosystem for users by increasing interoperability of devices and apps. Included are APIs for Windows apps to control devices from the background and foreground, as well as a page in Windows Settings for users to customize how their devices behave.

Several device manufacturers including Acer, ASUS, HP, HyperX, Logitech, Razer, and Twinkly have partnered with Microsoft on Dynamic Lighting.

As of the publication of this post, a list of current, in-market compatible devices is below. Review the Dynamic Lighting Hardware MS Learn page for a more current list of compatible in-market devices. The latest firmware should be used with these devices. We are aware of several issues with wireless device connections so please use a wired connection with a compatible device to a PC, if possible, for the time being. And check out the known issues below in this post for other issues that may impact this experience.

Note: Many of the devices listed below have not yet been verified for compatibility by Microsoft. In case of issues, contact the device manufacturer.

Keyboards:

• Coming soon: ASUS ROG Scope II Wireless 96 Gaming Keyboard
• Razer BlackWidow V3
• Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro
• Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini
• Razer BlackWidow V3 Tenkeyless
• Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro
• Razer DeathStalker V2
• Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro
• Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro TKL
• Razer Huntsman Mini
• Razer Huntsman Mini Analog
• Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition
• Razer Huntsman V2
• Razer Huntsman V2 Analog
• Razer Huntsman V2 Tenkeyless
• Razer Ornata V2
• Razer Ornata V3
• Razer Ornata V3 TKL
• Razer Turret Keyboard Xbox One Edition

Mice:

• Coming soon: ASUS ROG Harpe Ace AimLab Edition Gaming Mouse
• Microsoft Pro IntelliMouse
• Razer Turret Mouse Xbox One
• Razer DeathAdder V2
• Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro
• Razer Naga Left-Handed
• Razer Naga Pro

To control and configure a HID LampArray device at both the per-device and all-device level, navigate to the new Dynamic Lighting page in Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Lighting.

Changes and Improvements
[General]

• The feature where we now detect if the user is interacting with toasts or not and provide a suggestion to turn the toast banners off for such apps that began rolling out with Build 23466 is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.
  

[Emoji]

• The Unicode Emoji 15 is beginning to roll out to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Users will now be able to see, search for and insert new emoji from the emoji panel. Here are a few of our Emoji 15 designs which include more hearts, animals and one new smiley face.
  

Fixes
[Taskbar & System Tray][/B]

• Fixed an issue where the taskbar may not have shown the correct apps when using multiple desktops.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Fixed the issue where Narrator customers were unable to navigate down the left side panel of the search flyout.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue where when using a Japanese display language, sometimes apps with names written in kanji would all show at the bottom of the all apps list, rather than displayed alongside hiragana and katakana app names.

[Notifications]

• Fixed an issue where certain notifications were leading to an explorer.exe crash.

[Input]

• We're rolling out the fix for an issue where Korean touch keyboard sometimes finalizes characters unexpectedly in the search flyout on the taskbar.

[Backup and Restore]

• Backups of a PC that was set up using a restore will now show up in subsequent restores.
• Restore of solid color desktop backgrounds are now supported.

[Other]

• Fixed issues that were causing voice access commands for moving settings sliders and selecting things on the taskbar to fail.

Adobe has released an update with new features for Acrobat and Acrobat Reader with some of the features being rolled out incrementally.

New Features

The update includes a lot of new features.  Below are a few of the new features introduced in this release. See the Release Notes to know more about all of the new features.

• Enhancements in new Acrobat Note
• Enhancements in Request e-signatures experience
• New export option in page thumbnails context menu
• Preference to enable Microsoft® Purview Information Protection
• Promoting collaborative review through online file sharing
• Recognize text from the context menu
• Preference to set PDF/UA compliance in PDFMaker
• Request signature prompt after print failure

Adobe Acrobat and Reader were updated to version 23.003.20201 for Windows.  Updates should become available via the internal updater or checks can be manually activated by choosing Help/Check for Updates. 

Reader DC and other versions are available here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Note: UNcheck any pre-checked additional options presented with the update. They are not part of the software update and are completely optional.

Update to Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381:

Cumulative Update Build 25381.1200 (KB5027849) is starting to roll out. This update does not include anything new and is designed to test the servicing pipeline for builds in the Canary Channel.

Mozilla sent Firefox Version 114.0 to the release channel. The update includes four security updates of which three (3) are rated high and one (1) rated moderate.

Firefox ESR was updated to Version 102.12.

Update: To get the update now, select "Help" from the Firefox menu, then pick "About Firefox." Mac users need to select "About Firefox" from the Firefox menu. If you do not use the English language version, Fully Localized Versions are available for download.

References

• Security Updates
  
• Release Notes
  

Malwarebytes 4.5.29.268 component package 4.5.30.269 component package 1.0.2037.

From Malwarebytes 4.5

Features and improvements

• Automatic Quarantine enhancements: Automatic unquarantine option for false positive events. This is a fail safe feature to help mitigate future false positives. We are working on a thorough write-up for this, more details coming soon.
  
• Support for notification improvements

Issues fixed

• Notification fixes
• Anti-exploit component bug

The last supported version for the affected operating systems will be Firefox version 115, which is planned for the beginning of July 2023.

For a short time, an ESR (Extended Support Release) or LTS (Long-term Support) version will be available for these users before support finally ends in 2024.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/1940069/mozilla-ends-firefox-support-for-windows-7-8-old-macs.html?

 

SpywareBlaster database update 6/2/2023


9 NEW items (IE/ActiveX)

11 NEW items (Edge/Scripts)

for a total of 18,978 items in database

After updating, be sure to manually enable all protection.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381

What's new in Build 25381

SMB signing requirement changes
Beginning with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381 Enterprise editions, SMB signing is now required by default for all connections. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows 10 and 11 required SMB signing by default only when connecting to shares named SYSVOL and NETLOGON and where Active Directory domain controllers required SMB signing when any client connected to them. This is part of a campaign to improve the security of Windows and Windows Server for the modern landscape.

All versions of Windows and Windows Server support SMB signing. But a third-party might disable or not support it. If you attempt to connect to a remote share on a third-party SMB server that that does not allow SMB signing, you may receive the one of following error messages:

• 0xc000a000
• -1073700864
• STATUS_INVALID_SIGNATURE
• The cryptographic signature is invalid.

To resolve this issue, configure your third-party SMB server to support SMB signing. This is Microsoft's official recommended guidance. Do not disable SMB signing in Windows or use SMB1 to work around this behavior (SMB1 supports signing but does not enforce it). An SMB device that does not support signing allows interception and relay attacks from malicious parties.

SMB signing can reduce the performance of SMB copy operations. You can mitigate this with more physical CPU cores or virtual CPUs as well as newer, faster CPUs.

To see the current SMB signing settings, run the following PowerShell commands:
Get-SmbServerConfiguration | fl requiresecuritysignature
Get-SmbClientConfiguration | fl requiresecuritysignature

To disable the requirement for SMB signing in client (outbound to other device) connections, run the following PowerShell command as an elevated administrator: Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

To disable the requirement for SMB signing in server (on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381 and higher with Enterprise edition devices), run the following PowerShell command as an elevated administrator:
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

See the blog post for developer information.

No reboot is required but existing SMB connections will still use signing until they are closed.

For more information on this change, visit https://aka.ms/SMBSigningOBD.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• If a camera streaming issue is detected such as a camera failing to start or a closed camera shutter, a pop-up dialog will appear with the recommendation to launch the automated Get Help troubleshooter to resolve the issue.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23471

What's new in Build 23471

Add Phone Photos in File Explorer Gallery
Accessing your phone's camera roll from your PC is an important everyday task that is now easier with File Explorer Gallery. There is a new button in the Command Bar titled "Add Phone Photos" that will help with setting up your PC to be ready to show these photos in Gallery. Clicking this button today will open a URL with a QR code that you can scan with your phone to get started.

NOTE: Users may need to opt into OneDrive's Insider Program to get a version of the OneDrive sync client that handles the protocol invoked when clicking this button. To join the OneDrive Insider Program, open OneDrive settings by bringing up the OneDrive flyout from the system tray; from there, navigate to the About page and turn on the toggle for the OneDrive Insider Program.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

Narrator natural voices in Spanish (Spain and Mexico)
We are introducing new natural voices in Spanish (Spain and Mexico) that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection.

To use one of the natural voices, add it to your PC by following these steps:

• Open Narrator Settings by pressing the WIN + Ctrl + N hotkey.
• Under Narrator's voice, select the Add button next to Add natural voices.
• Select the voice you want to install. You can install all voices, but you must install them separately.

• The new Spanish (Spain) voices are Microsoft Alvaro and Microsoft Elvira.
  
• The new Spanish (Mexico) voices are Microsoft Jorge and Microsoft Dalia.
  

• To start the download of the selected voice, select Install. The new voice will download and be ready for use in a few minutes, depending on your internet download speed.
• When the new voice has downloaded, in Narrator settings select your preferred voice from the drop-down menu in Narrator's voice > Choose a voice.

Note: If your display language is not set to Spanish , then in step 3 you will first need to select "Choose a different language" and then select the appropriate language followed by the specific voice.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Accessibility > Narrator.

Changes and Improvements

[Lock screen]

• We have updated the network flyout on the Lock screen to align with Windows 11 design principles.

[File Explorer]

• We are beginning to roll out the ability to tear out and merge tabs in File Explorer. This feature is beginning to roll out, so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away.
• Gallery in File Explorer, which began rolling out with Build 23435, is now available for all Insiders in the Dev Channel.
  

[Settings]

• It is easier to control whether to use cellular when Wi-Fi is available but poor, using a new toggle which has been added to Settings > Network & Internet > Cellular.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where pressing Shift + F10 wasn't opening the context menu in File Explorer.
• Fixed an issue where access keys appeared inconsistently if no button was pressed.

We fixed the following issues for Insiders previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer

• Fixed an issue that was causing explorer.exe to crash when opening the context menu for some Insiders. This same issue is believed to be the cause of some Insiders seeing an older design instead of the updated one.

We fixed the following issues for Insiders with Gallery in File Explorer:

• Fixed an explorer.exe crash in the last flight related to loading/interacting with the scrollbar in Gallery.
• Fixed an issue where Gallery may require clicking twice on the node in the navigation pane for initial load.
• Fixed an issue where minimizing and reopening File Explorer would lose your scroll position in Gallery.
• Hovering your mouse over pictures in Gallery should now show a tooltip with information about the picture.
• Live updates (including filtering) are now enabled and no longer require using the Refresh button manually.
• Fixed an issue where some file types (e.g., .heic) were not rendered correctly or performantly.

We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized details pane in File Explorer:

• Made the background for thumbnails a little lighter in light mode so it doesn't stand out as much.
• If you have Narrator running when you open the details pane, it should now announce the file name.
• If the setting to show file name extensions has been enabled, that will now be reflected in the details pane too.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue that was causing the taskbar to get cut off when switching to and from the tablet-optimized taskbar.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• We have fixed the issue causing Insiders to see an empty tooltip displayed momentarily in certain cases including while the gleam is hovered if the new hover behavior for the search box and search highlight gleam is enabled.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue where Narrator with Braille support wasn't reading numbered lists correctly in Microsoft 365 apps.