Tech Advisor February 2022

Microsoft didn’t completely kill off Windows 10 on Arm in a recent announcement, but it dealt a serious blow to Windows on Arm users who don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11. The company has decided that that ‘x64’ application support for Arm CPUs – which would let Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered laptops run software made for traditional 64-bit x86 PC processors – will not be allowed on Windows 10, according to an update Microsoft published to a 2020 Windows blog post where the company first announced the feature (see fave.co/3G2W0HE). “For those interested in experiencing this, a PC running Windows 11 on Arm is required,” Microsoft said, even though x64 app emulation has been tested by Windows Insider preview testers on Windows 10 for roughly 11 months. Arm-based Windows 10 laptops…

Microsoft didn’t completely kill off Windows 10 on Arm in a recent announcement, but it dealt a serious blow to Windows on Arm users who don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11. The company has decided that that ‘x64’ application support for Arm CPUs – which would let Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered laptops run software made for traditional 64-bit x86 PC processors – will not be allowed on Windows 10, according to an update Microsoft published to a 2020 Windows blog post where the company first announced the feature (see fave.co/3G2W0HE). “For those interested in experiencing this, a PC running Windows 11 on Arm is required,” Microsoft said, even though x64 app emulation has been tested by Windows Insider preview testers on Windows 10 for roughly 11 months. Arm-based Windows 10 laptops can…

Microsoft will begin phasing out the Groove Music app in favour of a new version of the venerable Windows Media Player, the company has announced. Long-time users of Windows have probably used the Media Player app to play video and audio files from yesteryear. While the classic Windows Media Player will live on inside the Windows Tools folder inside of Windows 11, the new app will begin rolling out to those testing new Windows 11 builds as part of the Windows Insider Dev Channel. The new Media Player will be used to play back both audio and video files, Microsoft said in a blog post (see fave.co/3D6qJlc). As a consequence, the Groove Music app will be finally retired. (Microsoft killed the Groove Music Pass service in 2017, but left the…

The infamous Blue Screen of Death is a rite of passage among PC users, the tell-tale sign that something bad is happening. But the BSOD in Windows 11 is all-black instead of using the historically standard blue. Apparently someone at Microsoft was feeling nostalgic: a forthcoming update will change it back to the blue hue. The all-blue error message after an operating system crash has been a part of Windows since pre-release versions of 1.0 in the 1980s, though it’s become more useful with error codes and QR codes that (at least sometimes) lead to online help. Some late cosmetic changes to Windows 11 shifted the BSOD to a black background last summer, though the background of the QR codes oddly remained blue. Ars Technica spotted the change back to…

Microsoft will begin phasing out the Groove Music app in favour of a new version of the venerable Windows Media Player, the company has announced. Long-time users of Windows have probably used the Media Player app to play video and audio files from yesteryear. While the classic Windows Media Player will live on inside the Windows Tools folder inside of Windows 11, the new app will begin rolling out to those testing new Windows 11 builds as part of the Windows Insider Dev Channel. The new Media Player will be used to play back both audio and video files, Microsoft said in a blog post (see fave.co/3D6qJlc). As a consequence, the Groove Music app will be finally retired. (Microsoft killed the Groove Music Pass service in 2017, but left the app…

The infamous Blue Screen of Death is a rite of passage among PC users, the tell-tale sign that something bad is happening. But the BSOD in Windows 11 is all-black instead of using the historically standard blue. Apparently someone at Microsoft was feeling nostalgic: a forthcoming update will change it back to the blue hue. The all-blue error message after an operating system crash has been a part of Windows since pre-release versions of 1.0 in the 1980s, though it’s become more useful with error codes and QR codes that (at least sometimes) lead to online help. Some late cosmetic changes to Windows 11 shifted the BSOD to a black background last summer, though the background of the QR codes oddly remained blue. Ars Technica spotted the change back to classic blue…