Wednesday Newsbytes: Microsoft to Change the PrtScn Key; Windows 11 to Get a MacOs feature; 5-Year-Old Windows Defender Bug Fixed; Two Exciting Features Coming to Bing Chat; Death by Soy Sauce… 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!
Microsoft is changing the Print Screen key to open its Snipping Tool on Windows 11
It’s the first big change to the Print Screen button in decades.
Microsoft is getting ready to change how the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key works in Windows 11. For the first time in decades the default behavior will now open Microsoft’s own Snipping Tool instead of capturing an image of your entire screen and copying it to the Clipboard. Microsoft has started testing this change in recent beta builds of Windows 11.
While Windows 11 already has a setting to allow you to change Print Screen to open the Snipping Tool, Microsoft will set this as the default behavior in the upcoming KB5025310 update. If you have previously modified the option in Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard then Windows 11 will keep the setting you chose, but for many this will be switched over.
Print Screen has always been in need of an overhaul though, especially if you’re using a multi-monitor setup as it captures all screens unless you hold ALT + Print Screen to grab the active window instead. Many third-party apps have also attempted to intercept and use the button over the years. Microsoft’s own OneDrive tries to save screenshots made using Print Screen, Dropbox attempts to do the same thing, and apps like ShareX also default to using Print Screen to capture screenshots.
Microsoft’s choice to default Print Screen to its own Snipping Tool may surprise or anger some Windows 11 users…
Windows 11 might be getting a feature that macOS has had for ages
Windows 11 may soon let you force quit an app from the taskbar
Finally, Windows 11 may soon allow users to force quit frozen apps from the taskbar.
If you use a Windows laptop or desktop PC regularly, you are probably already familiar with the pains of having to go through hoops of force quitting an app that’s stopped working. That’s because unlike on macOS, Windows simply doesn’t have that option when you right-click an app on the taskbar.
That may soon change according to a report by Tom’s Hardware. It looks like Microsoft is currently working on adding an ‘End Task’ option on the menu when you right-click on an app on the taskbar.
In Build 23430, the latest Windows 11 Insider build, you can enable it by going into Settings > Privacy & Security > For developers. It doesn’t actually work just yet. According to the same report, it doesn’t appear when you enable it in this version and also reverts back to off when you close the Settings window. Apparently, it does show up on the right-click menu when using the ViveTool GUI utility app, but it also doesn’t do anything when you click on it.
What’s also curious is that in its current state, the ‘End Task’ option is disabled by default and found on the developers’ menu, which might deter regular folks for fear of doing something to their system they wouldn’t know how to fix.
Still, this find points to Microsoft possibly making the force quit option easily accessible for all users, and I think it’s going to be a welcome update.
Force quitting an app on Windows is a pain
Currently, to end a program on Windows that’s essentially frozen – and therefore cannot be shut down by tapping the X button, clicking on the ‘Close window’…
Microsoft Edge now has an integrated image generator. How to use it
Microsoft launched its own AI image generator last week, powered by the most advanced version of OpenAI’s DALL-E. On Thursday, Microsoft announced that Bing’s Image Creator will be integrated into Edge.
While browsing Edge, you will be able to access Bing’s Image Creator simply by clicking on an icon on the sidebar.
Now if you want an AI-generated image while browsing Edge, you won’t even have to leave the page.
There you can type in your prompt and get your image generated within seconds, without even having to leave the page you were on.
This feature could be especially useful if you are working on a PowerPoint or social media post that could benefit from an AI-generated image.
In March, Microsoft added Bing Chat to the sidebar, meaning that when browsing on Edge you will be able to conveniently access both your AI text and image-generating needs in one place, saving you time and hassle.
The new Drop-in Microsoft makes sharing files across devices easier. The Drop icon will be located in the sidebar, allowing users to just drag and drop content to then open it on their other devices.
Microsoft says Drop is available on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android as long as you are signed into your Microsoft account in Edge….
5-Year-Old Windows Defender Bug That Caused CPU Spikes on Firefox Finally Fixed
The fix reduces CPU usage from Microsoft’s MsMpEng.exe by as much as 75% while using the Firefox browser, according to a Mozilla engineer.
It took over five years, but Microsoft has finally fixed a bug that caused Windows Defender to drain CPU resources when Mozilla’s Firefox browser is active.
In 2018, Mozilla staff reported that Windows 10’s built-in malware-detection program caused CPU consumption to top 30%. “This is considerably slowing me down and makes Firefox feel really slow,” Firefox designer Markus Jaritz said at the time.
According to Mozilla’s bug report(Opens in a new window), the company’s engineers reported the problem to Microsoft in June 2018, noting the slowdown issues seemed to involve a program called “MsMpEng.exe,” the malware protection engine for Defender. But it looks like Microsoft’s effort to fix the problem fizzled out—possibly because it needed more information on the bug—which resulted in no major update on the problem for years…
At least two exciting new features look to be on the way to Bing Chat
Strap in because it looks like it’s going to get some serious new powers.
Everyone using Bing Chat has their own wish list of features they’d like to see but it looks like a couple are already in the works. One of these being teased has recently been announced for ChatGPT, so naturally, it’s pricking up our ears.
It all comes from Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin, the guru for all things Bing Chat (among other things), responding to questions from the community on social media. It all started in response to another interesting sounding ChatGPT-based app that is being built to have long-term memory.
It looks like something similar is already planned for Bing Chat…
What does this actually mean? Well, right now Bing Chat will remember the contents of a thread, but that’s about it. When you create a new chat, the contents of anything prior will be wiped. It appears that soon Bing Chat will be able to remember some things, though as indicated, it will be initially restricted.
Having a memory seems like a logical step forward, but it does need to be carefully implemented. And there will need to be an easy way to remove things from memory, too.
The other interesting news is that ChatGPT-style plugins are also very much on the roadmap for Bing Chat…
How ChatGPT and similar AI will disrupt education
Teachers are concerned about cheating and inaccurate information
“We need to talk,” Brett Vogelsinger said. A student had just asked for feedback on an essay. One paragraph stood out. Vogelsinger, a ninth grade English teacher in Doylestown, Pa., realized that the student hadn’t written the piece himself. He had used ChatGPT.
The artificial intelligence tool, made available for free late last year by the company OpenAI, can reply to simple prompts and generate essays and stories. It can also write code.
Within a week, it had more than a million users. As of early 2023, Microsoft planned to invest $10 billion into OpenAI, and OpenAI’s value had been put at $29 billion, more than double what it was in 2021.
It’s no wonder other tech companies have been racing to put out competing tools. Anthropic, an AI company founded by former OpenAI employees, is testing a new chatbot called Claude. Google launched Bard in early February, and the Chinese search company Baidu released Ernie Bot in March.
A lot of people have been using ChatGPT out of curiosity or for entertainment. I asked it to invent a silly excuse for not doing homework in the style of a medieval proclamation. In less than a second, it offered me: “Hark! Thy servant was beset by a horde of mischievous leprechauns, who didst steal mine quill and parchment, rendering me unable to complete mine homework.”
But students can also use it to cheat. ChatGPT marks the beginning of a new wave of AI, a wave that’s poised to disrupt education…
Can You Really Die From Too Much Soy Sauce? Yes, And It’s Surprisingly Easy To Do
It’s even used as a method of suicide in some places.
We’ve all heard of death by chocolate, but how would you feel about dying from too much soy sauce? It may sound like a bizarre fate – but in fact, it’s not just possible, but surprisingly easy.
When it comes to versatile foods, there’s not much that can come close to the humble soybean. Without this diminutive legume, we wouldn’t have tofu or soy milk; we’d be out miso, natto, and tempeh; we would have neither half the vegetarian and vegan options that line our supermarket shelves nor half the non-vegetarian options; and, of course, we wouldn’t be able to eat the soybeans themselves.
We’d also have to forego soy sauce, the deliciously salty and umami condiment that was first invented more than two millennia ago and has since conquered just about the entire world. Like the beans it gave its name to, this sauce is crazy versatile: it can be added directly to recipes as an ingredient; added on top of rice, noodles, or sushi; in some places, it’s even an ice cream flavor.
But if none of that appeals, you can always just drink it neat and put yourself straight into a coma.
And that’s if you’re lucky. Soy sauce is surprisingly deadly…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
