This week on Pureinfotech, Microsoft held its latest Surface hardware event where the company introduced a number of updates for its family of devices, including the new Surface Pro 9 with Intel’s 12th Gen and ARM processors, the Surface Laptop 5 with updated internals and new sage color, and the questionable refresh of the Surface Studio 2+.
The software giant has also announced that after more than 30 years, the “Microsoft Office” brand will change and become “Microsoft 365.” The rebrand will start rolling out in November.
An official video from the Ignite conference briefly revealed that Microsoft is planning to update the desktop experience in the next version of Windows with a floating Taskbar similar to the interface found on macOS, Linux, and mobile operating systems.
The software giant also announced that its DirectStorage version 1.1 is expected soon to become available for game developers with GPU compression, which should help to speed game loading times.
Also, the company unveiled that the next version of the Photos app will include iCloud integration to allow iPhone or iPad users to manage their pictures and videos more easily on Windows 11.
As part of the October Path Tuesday update, the official releases of Windows 11 22H2 and 21H2 received the update KB5018427 with various fixes and improvements. In addition, Windows 10 received the update KB5018410 for Windows 10 21H2, 21H1, and 20H2 to address several problems.
Windows 11 22H2 received builds 22621.746 and 22623.746 (KB5018490) in the Beta Channel with the new Taskbar for touch-enabled devices and various fixes. Also, Windows 11 build 22621.675 (KB5019509) was released for version 22H2 in the Release Preview Channel, enabling new features, including File Explore tabs, Suggested Actions, and other features.
Finally, Oracle finally made available a new version of VirtualBox that officially brings support for TPM and Secure Boot to support Windows 11.
Tech tips roundup
This week, you also learn a bunch of tips to get the most out of Windows, including the steps to connect the Photos app to the iCloud service.
We looked into the steps to create a VirtualBox virtual machine with support for Windows 11.
You now know the steps to uninstall problematic updates on Windows 11 through the Settings app, Command Prompt, PowerShell, WinRE, and even Safe Mode.
Finally, if your device hasn’t received version 22H2, it could be because of an upgrade block. If you know the device is compatible, you can bypass the block with these instructions.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows expert and the Editor-in-Chief who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He's also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 12 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows, software, and related technologies, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ & Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, and LinkedIn.