Wednesday Newsbytes: Google Chrome Will Stop Working On Windows 7, Windows 11 is Not Faster, Windows Updates End Soon for Windows 7/8, Windows Product Keys…and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Google Chrome will stop working properly on millions of Windows PCs next week
Business owners and employees still using Google’s Chrome browser on an older version of Windows will need to upgrade pronto.
That’s because Google is set to stop technical and security support for the browser running on Windows 7 next week.
Google initially had plans to halt support on July 15, 2021, but due to Covid-19, it pushed the deadline back first to January 15, 2022 and then to January 10, 2023.
‘Chrome 109 is the last version of Chrome that will support Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. Chrome 110 (tentatively scheduled for release on February 7th, 2023) is the first version of Chrome that requires Windows 10 or later,’ explains Google’s Chrome Support Manager.
‘You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases.’
Windows 7 may be old, but it’s still used by millions of PCs around the world. According to statistics from NetMarketShare.com, 14 per cent of global Windows devices were still running Windows 7 in December 2021…
Windows 11 is still not really faster than Windows 10 despite what Microsoft suggested
Back at its Architecture Day 2021 event, when Intel shared the core design details of its Alder Lake CPU architecture, the firm stated that Windows 11 was optimized in a way to best take advantage of the Alder Lake’s Performance Hybrid architecture and the new Thread Director technology that helps Windows 11 task scheduling.
Aside from that, Microsoft also claimed on a separate occasion that Windows 11 was designed to get the best out of the hardware available to it, and explained how it did so. Although it wasn’t the case initially, Microsoft’s claims certainly started to be proved somewhat right as Windows 11 was seen catching up to and keeping up with Windows 10, at least in the case of certain workloads.
Getting back to the Intel hybrid CPU discussion, PCWorld tested a Raptor Lake-S Core i9-13900K on Windows 11 22H2 and compared it against Windows 10 22H2. Raptor Lake succeeds Alder Lake and is built on top of the same Performance Hybrid architecture.
While there certainly were instances where Windows 11 was better, there were also many scenarios where it was not. And Windows 10 also came out ahead on quite a few occasions. Here are the benchmark figures…
Looking ahead: What’s next for Windows 11 in 2023
The year ahead for Windows 11 and moments
2022 was a mostly uneventful year for Windows 11. It saw the launch of the Windows 11 2022 Update, which brought a handful of new features and enhancements designed to polish up the OS from its initial 2021 launch version. Now, as 2022 comes to a close, it’s time to look to the year ahead and share what I’m hearing from sources regarding update schedules and new features.
With Windows 11 version 22H2, Microsoft has kicked off a new engineering effort internally called “Moments” which aims to deliver ‘continuous innovation’ to Windows 11 users throughout the lifecycle of the product. Instead of waiting for the annual Windows feature update in the fall, Microsoft is now planning to ship new features every few months in a series of feature drops, the first of which already shipped in October and included tabs in File Explorer.
Windows 11 Moment 2
The next Windows 11 moment update is expected to ship in the February or March timeframe and will include more features and updates for Windows 11 users. Here’s the rundown of the top new features expected to ship in the Moment 2 update for Windows 11:
Tablet-mode Taskbar
System Tray updates
More search bar options
Energy recommendations in Settings
Search in Task Manager
Full-screen widgets panel
Studio Effects in Quick Settings
Voice Access enhancementsSome of these features are significant…
Windows 7 and Windows 8 will stop getting critical security updates in one week
Microsoft’s cutting off Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 from security updates and technical support on January 10th. That’s just one week from today and also marks the launch of Microsoft Edge 109 — the last version to support the aged operating systems.
But Edge isn’t the only major browser ditching Windows 7 and 8.1. In October, Google announced that Chrome will end support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on February 7th. Although both browsers will continue to work on these devices, they won’t receive any critical security updates or new features. Support for WebView2, the tool that allows developers to embed web-based content into their apps, is going away on January 10th, too.
Next week’s deadline leaves little time for the owners of machines still running Windows 7 — estimated at around 100 million as recently as 2021 — to upgrade their devices or else face the security risks that come along with using an outdated operating system and browser. A Lansweeper survey of 27 million Windows devices performed last October found more PCs running either XP, 7, or 8 than the number running Windows 11.
Microsoft gave users plenty of notice, though, and first announced the end of support for Windows 7 in 2020. The only users still receiving updates are those who paid for an extra three years of extended security patches.
Here Is Everything You Need to Know About Windows Product Keys
Getting a product key for your copy of Windows is a great idea, but what are they, and what do they do?
Almost all of us have run into websites selling Windows activation keys at dirt-cheap rates at one point or another. But, although they are common, many people don’t know what Windows activation keys are and what they do.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about Windows activation keys.
What Is a Windows Product Key?
Windows activation keys (also called Windows product keys) are a form of license used to activate Windows. A Windows product key is a string of 25 characters that you can use to authenticate your copy of Windows. Windows product keys are unique, and no two product keys are the same.
While, with Windows 10 and 11, Microsoft can automatically verify the legitimacy of your copy, sometimes users do need to activate using product keys that they have purchased or the ones that came with the machine.
There are three types of Windows activation keys:
Retail keys
OEM keys
Volume keys
Man wrongly jailed by facial recognition, lawyer claims
Suspected purse snatcher snatched ‘in error’
A US man was arrested and thrown in jail for nearly a week due to an alleged false facial recognition match.
Randall Reid, 28, was pulled over by cops as he was driving along a highway in Georgia on November 25. There was a warrant out for Reid’s arrest as he was suspected of stealing designer purses from a shop in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana.
He was cuffed and jailed until December 1. Reid’s attorney, Tommy Calegero, claimed the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office had used facial recognition software to identify the fashion thief, and Reid was wrongly matched by the technology. In effect, we’re told, Reid was innocent, and was incorrectly identified by the cops, presumably from surveillance footage.
Calegero told The Register detectives didn’t directly admit to using the technology but “tacitly acknowledged the only connection between [Reid] and the perpetrator was the face, and I believe a driver’s license.” That is to say, the suspect’s face matched with Reid’s photo ID on record.
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and/or helpful. Happy New Year! Darcy & TC
