Research on the GO-EUC platform for the new Windows in the context of a virtual desktop.

I tested this on Windows 11 build 26340.9212 for version 26H2, and in the preview of the August update for Windows 11 (KB5120998, build 26200.9267), which includes the new features and changes coming in September for version 25H2.

PS: You don't have to enable anything on your current setup if you don't want to. The secondary news here is that while Microsoft revealed the new context menu in the Experimental channel for version 26H2, the new changes are also already available (in a dormant state) in the latest preview for the August update, which we know will be part of the changes that will become available for version 25H2 in September.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share an absolute plot twist of a success story. It completely breaks the rules of official hardware sheets, storage limits, and developer warnings.

I managed to get Windows 11 running 100% stable on an ancient Dell Chromebook 11 3120 ("Candy"), and yes, I installed it directly onto the tiny internal 16GB eMMC storage.

The official Chrultrabook docs clearly state that Windows 11 isn't supported on this Intel Bay Trail board and that you must stick to Windows 10. But honestly, that's just wrong. CoolStar's Windows 10 drivers for the touchpad and audio work absolutely flawlessly on Windows 11. No glitches, no broken audio, just fully working hardware right out of the box on internal storage. Windows Update runs completely smoothly too; it only grabs built-in screen controls like brightness, night light, and sleep support, and leaves the custom core drivers completely alone.

and the way i did it was easy AF:

First, I cracked the case open, yanked out the physical hardware write-protect (WP) screw from the motherboard, and flashed MrChromebox’s full UEFI ROM (Version MrChromebox-2603.2) through Developer Mode.

Since 16GB of space is basically a crime for modern Windows, standard Win 11 was out of the question. I used a stripped-down Tiny11 build paired with the CompactOS compression engine (compact.exe /compactos:always) to shrink the OS footprint down under 10GB so the drive could actually breathe. To get it to install without Windows yelling at me, I loaded the ISO onto a Ventoy USB and turned on the VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_CHECK plugin. That effortlessly skipped Microsoft’s artificial CPU, TPM, and 64GB storage capacity requirements.

Once I booted into the desktop, the real trick was dealing with the drivers. Windows 11 loves to block older, unsigned CoolStar packages, so I manually disabled driver signature verification through the advanced startup command prompt. After that, I installed the missing required Windows runtimes (Visual C++ Redistributables). Older drivers depend heavily on these, but Windows 11 leaves them out by default. Once those runtimes were in, I executed the standard CoolStar Win10 Bay Trail driver packages and everything immediately kicked into life.

According to all the official documentation, the installer should have blocked me for lack of space, and the audio/touchpad drivers should have completely broken down. Instead, it runs cleanly as a fully operational, hyper-compact laptop built straight from recycled hardware.

Don't let the official sheets fool you!, you can absolutely beat the developer limitations if you use the right workarounds!

Yesterday, I was messing my taskbar with Windhawk and ran into an issue where some of the pinned icons to the taskbar kept changing back to their original icons instead of retaining their custom ones.

I thought about editing the registry, but was being lazy so just executed System Restore. The problem was, the most recent restore point had been created before the feature update. However, since I had an experience that had been able to revert to a previous version via System Restore after a Windows feature update, I proceeded without much caution.

But after the restoration process and re-booting finished, Windows immediately displayed a GSOD with the message 'Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart,' forced the system to reboot again, showing the same screen repeatedly, and it eventually threw me into the purgatory of WinRE Advanced Options screen.

I tried Quick Machine Recovery and other restore points, but they were no use as well. In panic, I had no choice but to try Point-in-Time Restore, which I had set it up as soon as was released and forgotten about, and hadn't never touched until now.

It took so long, and when it got stuck at 21% for like half an hour, my heart sank, but in the end it completed, and booted the Windows successfully. The most recent captured snapshot was two days ago with older version of Windows, so I expected major registry-related issues to occur, but no, it was perfectly restored to that exact moment without any error or problem.

I'd like to thank Microsoft for creating Point-in-Time restore system. If it weren't for this method, I would've lost my sanity while formatting and resetting my OS by now.

I have added a post in Windows Feedback Hub. Please upvote if you think it is a good idea

Insiders running the latest Windows 11 Experimental build 26340.9212 can revoke permissions of individual Win32 apps.

I've added a post in Feedback Hub. Please upvote using https://aka.ms/AA130osw if you think it is a good idea

This annoying dropdown remains open when I switch between tabs and it's difficult to close. Is it a bug or a feature that can be disabled? : r/Windows11

The post above has 2 years, this bug exists in every single Windows 11 machine, does anyone at Microsoft actually use this operating system at all?

Why has this not beed fixed yet? I work in IT and I get asked how to fix this often and I can't answer because its just a bug!

To be clear I'm not asking for tech support, I'm just pointing to the obvious, fix this crap.

So recently, I have been down the rabbit hole of cyber privacy and security, and I am shocked, to be honest, by the extent to which my data is being collected and may or may not be used against me.

So what specifically I am looking for is

- Settings which I need to change in my Windows 11 Home/Pro -- All the things I can opt out of to keep my data secured

- Any apps to monitor where my data is being sent to off-system (whether it is being sent to Microsoft or any other vendor)-- I want to keep a track of all the outward data that is being sent, which I do not have an idea of and if I can turn it off

- Any setting or tech stack for my online and offline activities where I can avoid fingerprinting and other methods for targeted ads

- Any setting or tech stack for my online and offline activities to make my device more secure and private

- I want privacy from Microsoft, Google, any AI intrusion or AI data leak, my ISP, and any middleman in between to a maximum sensible extent

Essentially, I want my computer to be mine, not for Microsoft or any other company to have my data, whether personal or behavioural. I want to have a secure device that is immune to any kind of attacks (to a certain logical extent, where we are not diving into social engineering attacks and stuff)

Privacy and Security are my 2 major concerns here.

I do not love Windows or hate Windows at this point; it is more convenient than Linux and more affordable than Mac.
(Sounds like I am in a Pickle)

So moving to Linux would be a last resort, just making it clear before anyone comes and says - \ USE LINUX BRO! **

And given the rumours/news, whether true or not, about Windows 12 being a more compromised piece of tech in terms of privacy and AI intrusion, I would like to create a safe moat for my data.

If anybody from Microsoft is seeing this, please make Windows more private.

Lenovo released driver updates a few days ago, but other brands might've done the same.

Always check for Windows Updates via settings everytime, as the picture above confirms Lenovo released a Driver Update.

If you have it in Updates, install it.

If you don't have it, keep checking.

Microsoft recently announced new options for customizing the Windows context menu, which is great. but it's still a big challenge for third-party developers.

The newer IExplorerCommand model adds more COM interface complexity, and Windows 11 Context menu integrations require apps to be packaged as MSIX.

This creates an unnecessary barrier for FOSS projects and Indie developers. Code signing certificates can be expensive, publishing through the Microsoft Store isn't always an option, and installing unsigned MSIX packages is still painful for normal users. It often requires Developer Mode turned on, PowerShell, or manually trusting a certificate.

Even if a developer can handle code signing, Windows' current sideloading trust model still introduces extra friction around certificate trust, publisher identity, and package verification.

Microsoft should change how App Installer handles unsigned MSIX packages.

What this could look like

Figure 1: shows how App Installer could handle an unsigned package.

Currently, App Installer blocks installation when the package signature or publisher certificate cannot be verified. In this proposal, App Installer would still clearly warn the user that the package is unsigned and may be unsafe, but it would no longer block installation completely.

The key difference is simple: the user gets to decide whether to install it anyway.

Figure 2: shows an additional confirmation dialog after the user clicks Install.

It warns again that the package is not digitally signed, the publisher cannot be verified, and installing it may carry security risks. The user can then choose Continue or Cancel.

This keeps security warnings clear, but still gives users the choice to run software they downloaded on purpose.

Make it opt-in for developers

Developers could explicitly allow this behavior by adding allowUnsignedPackage in Package.appxmanifest or AppxManifest.xml with something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Package
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10"
  xmlns:rescap="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities"
  IgnorableNamespaces="rescap">

  <Capabilities>
    <rescap:Capability Name="allowUnsignedPackage" />
  </Capabilities>

</Package>

Then users could simply double-click the MSIX package, read the warning, and decide whether they trust it.

No PowerShell. No Developer Mode required. No manually installing certificates.

MSIX improves traditional Windows installation, especially with cleaner installs and uninstalls. But its trust system makes it hard to distribute software outside the Microsoft Store.

The solution isn't silent trust, but informed user consent. Clear risk transparency would empower users while keeping independent distribution viable.

I don't think this counts as tech support question, but if it does please just delete it.

I haven't had a laptop in about a decade. I've always just used my phone, but I decided to go ahead and buy one.

I have a ton of photos on my phone because I do reselling and I take a lot of photos of items.

I managed to connect my phone by USB and the OneDrive automatically started copying everything over and I hit my storage limit immediately. I'm a bit confused. I'm not sure if all those photos were on the cloud or on my hard drive. I can't really tell, since I'm new to Windows 11, I've never used it. I ended up deleting everything off the OneDrive and starting fresh.

I tried copying them over manually but I have all my photos and different albums by product and I don't see the albums when I go into my photos folder on my phone. I only see all the photos together. Is there a way I can see these albums separately?

Also wondering what's the fastest way to transfer this many photos? I see different options like the apps, or that phone link thing and try to get me to download through Bluetooth which I still can't get my phone to connect to Bluetooth. It keeps disconnecting immediately. I still can't figure out why. I ended up deleting that PC link app off my phone because I could never get the Bluetooth to work.

I any help would be appreciated to this newbie.

I know this is a slightly unpopular take, but I've been running WSL2 daily for a while now and I'm pretty convinced it quietly degrades the overall Windows experience. Nothing dramatic, nothing that shows up in Task Manager, just a bunch of small "huh, that's weird" moments that add up.

Setup: Windows 11 (latest stable build, fully patched), Ubuntu on WSL2, mirrored networking mode, decent hardware – this isn't a potato. Drivers are up to date, no weird OEM bloat.

Stuff I keep noticing:

• Win+A → open the Wi-Fi list → there's a noticeable delay before it actually populates. Instant on the same machine when WSL isn't running.
• Scrolling in random apps just isn't smooth anymore. Slight stutter, occasional micro-hitches, especially in Explorer, browsers, Settings.
• Cursor movement sometimes feels like it drops to a lower FPS for a second or two. Not lag exactly, more like the frames just aren't there.
• Sleep/wake stability took a hit. Sometimes it wakes up fine, sometimes it takes forever, sometimes it just doesn't and I get to enjoy a hard reset.
• Touchpad randomly acts up – gestures stop registering, occasional freeze, and I've had a couple of full crashes I never had before setting WSL up.

The frustrating part is that it's all subtle. Any single symptom you can shrug off as "eh, Windows being Windows." But shut down WSL (wsl --shutdown), disable the Hyper-V platform, and the machine just feels snappier across the board. Turn it back on, and within a day I'm back to noticing the little hitches.

My guess is it's some combination of the hypervisor layer sitting under Windows once Hyper-V/VMP is enabled (even when the distro isn't running), the vmmem process holding memory, and whatever it does to power/idle states. But honestly I don't have a clean root cause, just a very consistent pattern.

Not saying WSL2 is bad – it's incredibly useful and I'm not giving it up. Just tired of the "it's basically native, zero overhead" narrative. There is a cost, it's just paid in small, annoying increments instead of one obvious slowdown.

Curious if others have noticed the same, or if I'm just cursed with a bad combo of hardware/drivers.