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PSA: Microsoft is pushing the web based Outlook to Windows users without giving the option to decline syncing email to their servers and keep using the existing clients. Hopefully the way around this (source) is to delete settings.json from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Migration without agreeing to sync contents when The New Outlook first launches. I have been happily using the built-in Mail application since Windows 8, when they added support for Email, Contacts and Calendar syncing with Google accounts, and have been doing my best to avoid The New Outlook like the plague it is. Not only Microsoft's replacement mail app is a ###### Electron wrapper for the online version, it comes with ads AND to work it requires everything to be synced to "The Microsoft Cloud", so instead of just Google reading through my email to advertise, I'd have to allow Microsoft to do so too. Up until now, this meant living with a new toggle in the toolbar and dismissing messages inviting me to to turn it on, but today was different: I got a message saying that on the next start of the Mail app I'd be moved to The New Outlook and I'd be able to toggle back afterwards, no option to refuse. At that point, I checked my installed apps and The New Outlook was there again (I had removed it once already when it first popped up). I then closed the Mail app, waited a bit, and tried to reopen it. Sure enough, the app closed itself immediately and launched The New Outlook, which is where things get interesting: on launch, the only thing displayed is a wizard asking to enable syncing content in the Gmail account to "The Microsoft Cloud", with no option to refuse except by creating a new Outlook.com account. The rest of the window is empty, with no toggle to go back to the old Mail app (I assume it only shows up in the main UI after the wizard is complete) After poking around a bit, I closed the app, without clicking the Continue button in the content sync dialog. Further attempts to launch Mail would repeat the same behaviour, basically locking me out of checking my own email. It was only by finding this support article that I found a way to have the old Mail app launch again - by deleting settings.json from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Migration At this point my worry is: did I actually prevent the syncing of my data to Microsoft's servers? Is there any way to check? If someone has gone through these steps, does the syncing need to be approved via Google's Oauth2 flow or does Microsoft just reuse the original authorization Windows gets when adding a Gmail account?

Start11 v2 released with rounded taskbar for Windows 11 and more by Steven Parker Stardock released Start11 v2, the most advanced Start menu alternative for Windows 11 and 11. This program allows users to fully customize their Start menu experience with unique features and designs and restore classic functionality from previous versions of Windows. New with Start11 v2 are three Start menu styles that seamlessly blend with Windows 10 and 11. Each new style is fully customizable from top to bottom, focusing on a different theme: Apps, Professional, and Launcher. Start11 v2 is also enhancing the taskbar with new functionality that makes it faster to access your files and folders. You can pin any folder to the taskbar and access its contents without opening File Explorer. And new today, you can round the corners of the taskbar to give it a modern design that makes your desktop look like the next version of Windows. "This is a significant update and ships with more than two dozen new features," said Brad Sams, General Manager of Stardock Software. "And we are also introducing new enterprise features as well, including the ability to load a Start menu configuration on login, kiosk functionality that lets you lock components of the Start menu, and improved tooling for advanced deployments." Also new with Start11 v2 is an updated search experience with native integration with the Everything search engine. Additionally, Start11 v2 introduces the ability to backup and restore your settings from a file, improved animations when navigating within the Start menus, going for a unified icon experience, options for removing folders from the 'all apps list,' and many more. Start11 v2 is available today for $6.99 and is also included in the award-winning Object Desktop suite. For more information, visit the Start11 v2 website here. You can also download the entire Object Desktop package. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start11, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes, and Multiplicity. Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock Gallery: Start11 v2

In trying to use Microsoft’s Updated Windows 11 ISOs, I have come to discover what may be a piece of very bitter news for many of us who are trying to run Windows 11 on unsupported CPUs. It appears from my testing that Microsoft has implemented a much more stringent approach to blocking installation on devices with unsupported CPUs. When you try installing the OS on unsupported hardware using the recently released Win11_22H2_v2 ISO, of course, you still get your usual setup blocker error messages, with the infamous prompt: But now if you circumvent that block (either through registry hacks or by replacing certain win11 setup files with the Windows 10’s setup’s counterparts, you are also going to get an uninvited visit from an old friend: the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). When you bypass the blocks and proceed with the installation, setup will at first appear to continue without a hitch—that is until you reboot. Immediately following your first reboot, you are greeted by the following: Windows 11 BSOD with an error stating “UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR” Here are answers to some of the most common questions I expect people will have. Question: Did you boot from ISO (for a clean install)? Answer: Yes, I booted from the ISO. After bypassing the initial blocks, I selected my partitions and started to install them. Once the installer rebooted, I would get the blue screen, resulting in an infinite boot loop with the same BSOD. What happens when you try to do an in-place upgrade? I tried doing an in-place upgrade on the RTM release of Win11 22H2, which I installed using the original 22H2 ISOs—which by the way proves that it’s the ISO, and not the OS, as I can still install Win11 22H2 RTM using old ISO and get it up to date to Moment 3 via cumulative updates! After bypassing the blocks, the setup continues as normal. After the first reboot, you are quickly greeted by the same BSOD stating “UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR”. Fortunately, Alhamdulillah (Praise God), windows rolls back the upgrade attempt and you are returned to the desktop, thus, you are NOT left with a bricked PC, like you are when clean installing. Were you able to install it using the old ISO? Yes, as stated in the previous answer, using the RTM ISO of 22H2 still works, Alhamdulillah—if you can manage to get a hold of it! You should then be able to update to Moment 3 using Windows Update or by manually installing the KB package, Insha’Allah (God Willing)! Did you try creating your own up-to-date ISO using UUPDump? Yes, I did, but the problem persists. regardless of which method you use. Did you try placing the new ISO’s Install.wim/esd file on a Win10 installation media, essentially having Win10 setup install Win11 for you? Yup, and the problem is still there. BSOD right after the first boot. Did you modify the appraiserres.dll file to remove the requirements? Yes, I did, Alhamdulillah, but still no luck. BSOD issue persists. What processor are you using? 4th gen Intel Core i5. Have been running the latest insider builds of Win11 on it for about two years without any issues, Alhamdulillah! What about Insider preview builds? Now this one is REALLY surprising to me: I can, still, install insider builds, including the latest Canary build without any issues, as of yet. *** I’m still doing additional tests; if there are other findings worth noting, I intend to amend them via replies to this thread, Insha’Allah (God Willing). Did you have any additional questions? If this has already been reported, my since apologies. I’m eager to find what, if any, solutions the community has come up with, Insha’Allah (God Willing)! Thanks for reading, and may Allah (S.W.T.) guide you to Islam and bestow upon you His Blessings; Ameen. ~~~ *Please note: if you would like to discuss with me matters not related to the topic of this thread, please message me directory, and I am happy to discuss with you anything you would like to talk about, Insha'Allah.

Hello everyone, Is there a codec pack that once installed on my media server will provide better decoding for streaming to the nVidia shields we have all over the house? Would K-Lite be sufficient or so these packs mess everything up?

How to create a shortcut to open Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 11 by Adam Bottjen It was recently discovered that you can still open Internet Explorer in Windows 11 by opening up Internet Options. Now that I knew IE 11 was alive and well in Windows 11, I wanted to figure out a way to create a shortcut to also open it up. So, I launched Process Monitor and Internet Explorer 11 from Internet Options. Then, I filtered the data to just show me iexplore.exe. Turns out, the command line that was being issued was "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -Embedding, as can be seen in the screenshot below: By pasting that in the run box, iexplore.exe did show up in task manager, but that was about it, no GUI appeared. So I thought, “what if I put something in front of the -embedding?” So I tried iexplore yahoo -embedding That successfully launched Internet Explorer and brought me to a Bing search page for Yahoo. No matter what I put in front of -embedding I couldn't actually get it to load into a webpage on launch other than a page not found or a Bing search. Using what we now know, we can create a shortcut using "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" yahoo -embedding You can put whatever you want before the -embedding. You now have a shortcut again for Internet Explorer! For how long, nobody knows. I hope it should go without saying that you really shouldn't use this for your day-to-day browser, but it was a fun challenge.

Start11 Release Candidate 1 restores the ability to move Windows 11 taskbar by Steven Parker As noted last week, Stardock has released a Release Candidate update to Start11, a program that allows users to customize the Windows Start menu and taskbar. As with previous editions of StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appear as it does in previous versions of Windows, as well as customize and enhance its functionality. "We put the first beta out quickly in order to regain some of the lost functionality from the Windows 11 Start menu," said Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO. "For this release, we've added several new Start menu layouts to choose from, restored context menu functionality, enabled repositioning of the taskbar, plus one of our users' favorite features: Fences® integration." As a reminder of what you get with Start11, here's a few of its highlights: Returning the Start menu to the appearance of previous versions of Windows Enhancing Windows 10 and Windows 11 menus with new functionality Repositioning the taskbar to the top of the desktop for Windows 11 Windows 10 style taskbar context menu for Windows 11 Improving the classic and modern search experiences Start11 is designed for Windows 11 and Windows 10 and comes loaded with features intended to make Windows more productive and personal. Start11 supports moving the Start button to the middle or to the left, adjusting the taskbar size, re-ordering quick access shortcut lists, options for adjusting grid spacing, enhanced classic and modern search experiences, and much more. For users who want to personalize their Start menu, Start11 offers robust customization options ranging from aesthetic to functional. The software enables enhanced Windows 10 and Windows 11 style Start menus, a compact Windows 7 design, optional Windows 11 style for classic menus, and many additional settings that let you configure your personalized Start menu. "The new UI has been designed to support additional Start menu enhancements," said Wardell. "Start8® and Start10® focused on restoring previous versions of the Start menu. Start11 extends this to support a host of new Start menu ideas such as the concept of pages, minimalism, and features for our enterprise customers." Start11 is currently available for $4.99. There is an upgrade option for users of Start8 and Start10. For more information, visit www.stardock.com. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start10, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes, and Multiplicity. Update: The v0.90 Release Candidate should be available by 11AM ET today, October 7. We have also been made aware that the 1.0 version is tentatively scheduled for next week. Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock