Latest news with #WindowsLatest
Forbes
3 days ago
- Forbes
Windows 11 Latest Update Is ‘Most Reliable' Ever, Microsoft Claims
Have you updated your Windows 11 PC to version 24H2? If so, it's the 'most reliable Windows yet,' it's claimed. And the claim comes from Microsoft itself, in a blog post this week titled 'Resilience in action for Windows devices.' Windows 11 SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The company says it has two major advancements, which we'll come to in a moment, but it's the claim of being the most reliable that has drawn attention. Forbes Microsoft Just Released A Major Android App Upgrade For Windows 11 PCs By David Phelan Windows Latest calls it a 'tall claim,' and restricts its superlatives to saying 'it's not entirely bad,' as it puts it. 'Windows 11 24H2 has been a mess for many of us. It caused Blue Screen of Death errors, slow performance, cursor issues, drops in FPS, and broke drivers. But Microsoft says it was still more stable than the previous releases. As per the tech giant, Windows 11 24H2 had fewer failure rates and unexpected restarts. The numbers dropped by 24%,' the report goes on. The changes to the Blue Screen of Death referred to make up one of the two advancements. Microsoft says that unexpected restarts have a better interface that's 'more than just a color change,' which refers to the fact that that infamous blue screen is now black. It has a simpler interface and, 'instead presents a short, readable message with the stop code and faulty driver information,' as part of a move to reduce downtime and improve recovery. The second advancement is that the time spent on the newly black screen is now reduced from 40 seconds to 2 seconds for most consumer devices, the company claims. 'We wonder if those 2 seconds are enough to read the stop code, especially for those who don't have experience with Event Viewer or reading logs,' Windows Latest asks. Others have been more critical, reporting compatibility issues with drivers or legacy applications. YouTuber BrenTech says the 24H2 release has been plagued with issues since its release last October and asks if Microsoft is out of touch with its user base. Still, the new blog also announced general availability of quick machine recovery, which 'automatically detects, diagnoses, and resolves widespread critical boot issues using a secure, always-available Windows Recovery Environment,' it says. As Windows Latest explains, 'if machines encounter a crash or startup loop (occasionally or indefinitely), the logs reach Microsoft, and they can start working on a fix. Don't expect the patch to arrive soon, especially for isolated or small-scale issues, but at least the logs would go to the OS maintenance team,' which seems like a good move. But the most reliable yet? Some users seem to disagree. Forbes Apple's Surprise Free Offer To iPhone 13 Users Is Now Live For iPhones And More By David Phelan
Indian Express
7 days ago
- Indian Express
WhatsApp for Windows is going away: Here's what's Meta is replacing it with
WhatsApp, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, has dedicated apps for various platforms, including Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, wearOS and Windows. These apps not only make messaging much easier but also come with numerous under-the-hood optimisations that make it much more useful than the web version. However, a new report by Windows Latest suggests that Meta is now dropping the native Windows app in favour of a web wrapper. The change comes with the latest version of WhatsApp beta for Windows, which looks significantly different from the current version of the app available for download on the Microsoft Store. To give you a quick recap, the desktop version of WhatsApp was launched back in 2021 and eliminated the need for users to use the browser version of the instant messaging app. While the reason behind the move is still unclear, it appears that the shift to a web wrapper may make it easier for WhatsApp developers to add new features, as maintaining a single code base that extends across various platforms is far easier than working on different versions. This may sound like a good decision at first, but many users have flagged that the web version of WhatsApp consumes more RAM and resources compared to the native version that's currently available on Windows. The publication said that in its testing, the new version of WhatsApp used approximately 30 per cent more RAM than the native app. However, the biggest downside is that Meta itself said that the web version of WhatsApp is slower than the currently available native Windows app. Also, the web wrapper looks out of place on Windows as it misses out on the Fluent Design System, which, like Google's Material 3 Expressive and Apple's Liquid Glass, is a set of guidelines for designs and interactions for Windows 10 and Windows 11 apps. And since the new WhatsApp for Windows app is a web wrapper, notifications will also work differently from the native version. But since the web version of WhatsApp has some extra features, they will most likely be available on Windows as well.
Hans India
7 days ago
- Hans India
WhatsApp Windows App Demote: Native Version Dropped for Web Wrapper
WhatsApp users on Windows are in for a surprise — and not necessarily a pleasant one. Meta has decided to phase out its native Windows app in favour of a web-based version, wrapped into a desktop app using Microsoft's Edge WebView2 technology. The shift was revealed in the latest WhatsApp beta for Windows, which confirms big changes ahead for the messaging platform's desktop experience. Meta states it has 'updated how WhatsApp beta looks and works.' But behind the scenes, this is more than just a design refresh — it's a complete transition from a native Windows and WinUI app to essentially a browser-based version. This means the app's notifications will behave differently, and the settings menu now appears noticeably more basic. On the plus side, the beta also introduces WhatsApp Channels and adds 'more functionality' to the Status and Communities features. According to Windows Latest, Meta's move is all about streamlining development. By relying on a web wrapper, the company can maintain a single code base for WhatsApp's desktop version instead of managing a separate native app for Windows. While this simplifies things for Meta, it's likely to frustrate many Windows users. The new version uses more RAM, looks less integrated with Windows 11, and loses the sleek feel that a native app offered. Ironically, WhatsApp has previously highlighted that its native Windows and Mac apps 'provide increased performance and reliability, more ways to collaborate, and features to improve your productivity.' Now, daily users may find themselves settling for an experience that feels like a step backwards. WhatsApp first launched its native Windows app just a few years ago, making it possible to run without constant phone syncing — a feature many will now miss.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Time of India
WhatsApp is dropping its native Windows app that Microsoft exec called 'exemplary modern Windows app'
Meta has quietly rolled back WhatsApp's native Windows 11 application, replacing it with a Chromium-based web wrapper that sacrifices performance for development convenience. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The change, currently available in beta, marks a disappointing retreat from the company's previous commitment to platform-specific optimization. The new version essentially packages into a desktop container using Microsoft's WebView2 technology , creating multiple subprocesses that consume approximately 30% more RAM than the original native app. Windows Latest first identified the transition by examining Task Manager, which now shows several WebView2 helper processes handling graphics, networking, and storage operations. Why WhatsApp is changing its app on Windows The shift represents a stark departure from WhatsApp's previous UWP/WinUI implementation, which operated as a lightweight, single-process application using Windows' native UI toolkit. The original app was celebrated by Microsoft executives, including former Windows chief Panos Panay, as an exemplary modern Windows application. Meta's own support documentation ironically contradicts this decision, stating that native apps "provide increased performance and reliability" along with superior notification experiences, calling capabilities, and screen sharing functionality. The web-based replacement offers a more basic settings interface and altered notification behavior that feels disconnected from Windows 11's design language. What's new with the WhatsApp web wrapper app on Windows 11 The beta version include some advantage over the previous app, bringing WhatsApp Channels and enhanced Status and Communities features that were previously available only through the web interface. However, these additions come at the cost of the streamlined, integrated experience that made the native Windows app distinctive. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The transition also allows Meta to maintain a single codebase across all platforms rather than developing platform-specific applications. Meta has not announced when the web-based version will replace the current native app for all users.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Yahoo
A Windows 11 update failing to install is nothing new, but Microsoft has spectacularly dropped the ball with the latest patch for June
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Windows 11's June update is failing to install for some people It's complicated because Microsoft released an initial update this month – which was paused – and then a revised patch that replaced it This revised patch is also causing unfortunate bugs according to some reports Windows 11's latest update is proving problematic for some folks who can't even install it, and others are running into trouble with bugs in the patch – or the fact that it doesn't resolve the issues that it's supposed to. We need to rewind a bit here for context, and remember that Microsoft got off to a bad start with Windows 11 24H2's update for June. The initial patch (codenamed KB5060842) was paused after Microsoft discovered that it was clashing with an anti-cheat tool, meaning games using that system would crash. To resolve this, Microsoft released a second update (patch KB5063060) that replaced the first patch in Windows Update, but as Windows Latest reports, people are running into installation failures with that upgrade. Some users are encountering the usual nonsensical and unhelpful error messages (bearing meaningless error codes like '0x800f0922'), while others say that the revised update gets stuck downloading and never actually finishes. This is based on complaints from Microsoft's Feedback Hub, readers contacting Windows Latest directly, and posts on Reddit like this one, which describes a worrying boot loop (of three to four reboots) before the user got back into Windows 11 to discover the update installation hadn't worked. There are people also saying they've run into bugs with KB5063060. Those include reports of the taskbar freezing when the PC wakes up from sleep, and issues with external monitors going wrong and Bluetooth devices being forgotten (so you must rediscover them every time Windows 11 is restarted). There are some more worrying reports of PCs ending up freezing full-stop, so they need to be rebooted. And there are a few complaints (again on Reddit) that even after installing this second patch – which is supposed to work fine with games that use Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) – some games are still problematic. 'I still get the same problem playing Star Citizen," wrote one gamer. "Game freezing randomly and the Windows event log viewer showing the EAC error.' There are further reports of Fortnite and efootball25 (which used to be PES) still crashing, so it seems that not all the wrinkles have been ironed out. Analysis: a disappointingly messy rollout for June Installation failures are a long-running problem with Windows 11 (and Windows 10 for that matter). It's therefore no surprise that, given the misfire with the initial update, more issues are now cropping up. As Windows Latest points out, because there were two updates this time round, there may be issues with PCs that already grabbed KB5060842 and are now getting the second KB5063060 update, due to having a game with EAC installed that's affected by the anti-cheat compatibility bug in the first one. In such scenarios, it's possible that Windows 11 trying to overwrite the first patch with the second is causing Windows Update to fall over. Those in this situation should be limited in numbers, though, as Microsoft pulled the first patch quite swiftly (so it didn't get through to many PCs with games that use EAC, at least in theory anyway). That's just speculation, but whichever way you slice it, this has been a messy rollout of an update (well, a pair of updates technically). What can you do if you're stuck unable to install the revised June update? One approach is to download the update manually and install it directly, which you can do by grabbing the file from Microsoft's site (the x64 version, as the Arm-based one is for Snapdragon PCs). That should install successfully, but I'd be rather wary of taking this approach if you're not a reasonably confident computer user. Alternatively, you can simply wait until Microsoft hopefully sorts out any issue(s) behind the scenes on its side, and the update might just succeed under its own steam later this week. There's no guarantee of that, though, and you're very much in a less-than-ideal situation. Those who can install the revised update, but are still experiencing crashing with games (or elsewhere) can't do much except wait and pray any issues are resolved. The only other possible route is to uninstall the patch, but that's not recommended due to it leaving your PC without the latest round of security fixes provided with every cumulative update for Windows 11. (You also won't get the newest features either, some of which are nifty additions). You might also like... Windows 11's hidden PC migration feature proves Microsoft isn't messing around when it comes to killing off Windows 10 macOS Tahoe 26 is official - here's everything you need to know about all the new features Can't upgrade to Windows 11? This Linux project wants to save your old PC from the scrapheap when Windows 10 support ends
