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Hands On In its publicity for Windows 11, Microsoft has focused on the "simplified design and user experience" of the operating system along with a few headline features: a centered Start menu that looks more like a dock from other OSes, Android apps in the Microsoft Store, Teams Chat in the taskbar, Widgets, and more.

Android software support aside, these are relatively superficial features, and Microsoft will not dare to introduce changes that might break application compatibility with Windows 10. The IT titan already sparked a backlash by stating that 7th-generation Intel Core processors will not be sufficient to run the new Windows, though there are signs the company is open to "adjustments we should make to our minimum system requirements," subject to feedback from its Insider's preview scheme.

El Reg living on the Edge in a Windows 11 desktop ... Click to enlarge

We have been running the latest insider preview of Windows 11 (21H2 Pro, OS build 22000.71) together with the refreshed Office insider build, and while it is generally not unpleasant, there are small changes which we think could prove annoying though note that everything here is subject to change as this is just a preview build. A full official release is due to land by the end of this year.

For example, it is second nature for some to right-click the taskbar to summon the Task Manager, perhaps in the hope of discovering why a supposedly fast PC is acting like it's wading through glue. But the equivalent pop-up menu in Windows 11 has just two entries, Adjust date and time, and Notification Settings. Task Manager? We may need to get used to typing Windows + X, which brings up what is sometimes called the Power Menu, with quick access to a bunch of apps and settings including Task Manager.

Right-click the taskbar and this puny menu is all you get

We have not yet discovered though how to access one of our favorite settings, which is "Always show all icons in the notification area." The notification area is the bottom right corner of the screen, where background applications often show an icon with a right-click menu.

Showing these icons gives insight into what is running; but the default is to hide them behind a pop-up menu. In Windows 11, this area seems to be renamed the "taskbar corner," and the pop-up menu the "taskbar corner overflow," and while you can still select which icons appear, there is no option we can see to show them all by default.

Options for the 'taskbar corner overflow'

If the centered Start menu and taskbar icons aren't to your liking, you can shove them to the left, as on Windows 10, in Windows 11's personalization settings.

The curious can find the official list of removed and deprecated features here. Removed features include Quick Status on the lockscreen, S Mode (except in Home edition), Tablet Mode, and the ability to align the taskbar other than to the bottom of the screen.

Tablet Mode is a sad story. Although Windows 8 failed to convince users for all sorts of reasons, it was cleverly designed for touch users, more so than any version of Windows before or since (excepting perhaps Windows Phone). Tablet Mode was meant to restore a touch-friendly experience in Windows 10, but never worked right and caused confusion.

That said, Redmond appears to have a replacement in the form of "new functionality and capability for keyboard attach and detach," as this Microsoft representative notes. These include spaced-out icons and new gestures, and possibly a new touch keyboard. Microsoft will have optimizing this in mind for its new and recent Surface devices.

The Windows 11 Start menu is not necessarily an improvement. The Start menu was brilliant in Windows 95, brutally transformed in Windows 8, and reinvented in Windows 10 as an application menu with an optional resizable and customizable panel on one side, to retain some compatibility with Windows 8 Live Tiles.

Out of the box, the Windows 10 Start panel is an annoyance, but with a bit of effort can be made into a useful application launcher, with named groups and icons that in some cases come in four sizes: small, medium, wide or large. The Photo app is an example, which can not only be set large but will also cycle through recently added photos and images.

In Windows 11, Live Tiles, named groups, and resizable panels have been swept away. The new Start menu has little to customize, though users can still pin apps to a fixed space in its top half, which scrolls when full (a grid of 6 x 3 icons on our system). Plenty of room is given to a "Recommended" panel of doubtful value. There is also a small "All apps" button, which is similar to the classic pop-up Start menu of yore, and "Type here to search," which searches across applications, documents, web, settings and more, giving the user a perplexity of results.

One thing at least is better in Windows 11. The design is much cleaner, for those parts of the software that use the modern user interface, such as the system's Settings application; it makes Windows 10 look homemade by comparison.

The Settings applet looks much better in Windows 11 than on Windows 10

This Settings applet is supposed to be more friendly than the classic Control Panel, which on Windows 11 looks almost identical to the Windows 10 Control Panel, save for a few icon changes that are neither better nor worse. For some network settings, it is still necessary to go to the Control Panel's "Network connections," though the Windows 11 modern Settings applet provides some network configuration options not found in the Windows 10 Settings, including adapter options like DHCP, DNS, interface enable and disable, and more.

Even Windows backup is still there in Control Panel, under the mysterious label "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)." This is the same as on Windows 10, though worth mentioning here, since unlike the strongly promoted File History in the Settings applet, this old-style backup actually is a full backup of the system that can be saved to a drive and taken offline just the thing in these days of ransomware. Note that searching for backup in the Settings applet finds only "Back up and Sync your settings," at least on our Windows 11 Pro setup. In order to find the full backup feature, users have to locate Control Panel, then search for backup. Alternatively, one could type sdclt at the command prompt.

This is the kind of anomaly that keeps Microsoft partners in business. Note also that although this type of full backup is deprecated, users who install the presumably hot and current Azure Backup software will find that it looks remarkably similar, though it targets Azure storage instead of a local drive.

Another thing to mention is the Snap navigator. Hover the mouse over a window's maximize button, and a Snap window appears, which lets users resize and reposition the window in one of several positions. Useful? Some may love it though we did not find much value in this. For those who work with a huge display, it could be handy.

Hover over a maximize button and this Snap navigator appears

Windows File Explorer has been redesigned in Windows 11. This is where some users spend a lot of time while others hardly know what it is. It packs in a lot of functions: file management (copy, paste and move), file security, document preview, document search, and more.

This horrible cascading menu is a feature of the new File Explorer

The new design no longer has a ribbon menu, and at first glance seems less functional: there are just a few icons across the top. That said, several of the buttons have drop down menus, such as for sorting and grouping, layout, and selection.

It seems that everything is still there; the ribbon is no longer in fashion, and rather than go back to old-style drop-down menus, Microsofties have chosen a hybrid in which the menus drop down from buttons. Improvement? One can see that the designers are aiming for a simple, clean appearance; but what is lost is discoverability, something the ribbon design was good at surfacing. The new File Explorer is not altogether a success.

Will Windows 11 always be a free upgrade from Windows 10? According to an official document available from some OEMs, and declaring itself "CELA [Corporate External and Legal Affairs] approved," the "free upgrade offer does not have a specific end date for eligible systems. However, Microsoft reserves the right to eventually end support for the free offer. This end date will be no sooner than one year from general availability."

The document also states that: "You do not have to upgrade to Windows 11. We will continue to support Windows 10 until October 14, 2025." To grab a copy of a preview build, follow these instructions.

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Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far - The Register

Roundup We at The Register are constantly on the lookout for important technology and science news to bring you, our smart, funny and data-hungry readers, because we know you need to be kept up to date.

However, we know you also like to know about daft people doing strange, absurd or unusual things for no obvious reason, so here's a roundup of some of that.

An unidentified resident of Fort Worth, Texas, became involved in a four-hour armed standoff with police on Friday over the state of his lawn.

According to local news outlet Fox 4 KDFW, under the Fort Worth city code, grass on residents' lawns has to be kept shorter than 12 inches (30cm).

This particular homeowner had received seven citations for his overgrown lawn in only two years so police arrived at 8:30am with representatives from a city-appointed gardening company to enforce the statute and cut the grass.

Youtube Video

Police knocked on the door a number of times but got no response so the mowers started mowing. At this point the homeowner opened fire on the assembled police and landscapers, fortunately without hitting anyone.

"We heard like around five to six shots," said witness Melissa Sandoval, who lives nearby. "And that's whenever I actually screamed because I never heard that before."

"Nobody was struck by gunfire, but it appears that some of the code compliance vehicles were struck by bullets," added Fort Worth Officer Jimmy Pollozani.

Everyone involved then took cover, the police were reinforced with a SWAT team and a standoff developed, during which the homeowner opened fire at least twice more. The stalemate lasted for nearly four hours, before police deployed tear gas and forced the man out of his house, allowing him to be detained.

When he was arrested, police said he was armed and wearing a hazmat suit of uncertain origin.

"This is the first I've ever heard of it in my 15-year career," Officer Pollozani said. "Being shot at trying to make the community look better? That just proves the dangers of this job."

The lawn was later successfully reduced in height by suitably wary gardeners.

A woman in COVID quarantine in a hotel on Australia's Gold Coast may have become the first person to ever violate the terms of her stay due to the intervention of a drone.

On 11 June a drone was spotted by a hotel staff member delivering a packet of cigarettes to the balcony of her room, according to Australia's 9 News.

The hotel notified police, who interviewed the recipient of the unconventional drop-off. She was later fined AU$1,300 (697, US$955) for breaching her quarantine conditions.

If he is identified, the drone pilot could also face prosecution for unsafe flying by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

It is not known whether it was a smoking or non-smoking room.

Norwegian artist Morten Traavik has collaborated with an unlikely group of musicians to release a truly unique recording.

Take On Us! Pyongyang Gold Stars Play Great Popular Hits Vol. 1 is a rerecording of the 1985 album Hunting High and Low by Norwegian pop sensations A-ha, performed by a quintet of accordionists from the Pyongyang Music School No.1 in North Korea.

Traavik told NK News that the album came about as part of a cultural collaboration with the DPRK, and evolved from a video of the school's students performing a chipper version of A-ha's global hit "Take On Me" that went viral on YouTube in 2012.

Youtube Video

"The impact of that clip inspired me to return to DPRK some time later and record the full A-ha debut album Hunting High and Low," he said. "I dare say that the Kum Song Music School didn't disappoint this time around either."

The music on the album was originally recorded in 2013, but Traavik feels it is unlikely a follow-up will be recorded anytime soon due to the worsening political climate in the isolated nation.

"The internal political climate in the DPRK has regrettably become far less permissive and liberal if one can use such a word since the Seventh Workers Party Congress in 2016," he said. "Culture and the public space is now more tightly controlled than in a long time."

The album was released earlier this month on the Ship to Shore PhonoCo. label.

Finally, after US president Joe Biden managed to survive a presidential decapitation attempt by a terrifying monster insect swarm of Brood X cicadas, Russia has decided to prove to the world that it is the equal of the United States in all things by revealing its own hexapod apocalypse: a tornado of mosquitos.

Youtube Video

While reporting on the phenomenon, the New York Post quoted a worryingly unbothered Russian entomologist called Lyudmila Lobkova, who said: "These are male mosquitoes swarming around one of several females in order to mate there is nothing wrong with this."

Not to you, maybe.

This is how it is now. Horny mosquitoes form terrifying Biblical weather phenomena and boffins shrug and say "there is nothing wrong with this."

If, like me, your 2021 news bingo card is now full, please join me in murmuring an apprehensive "House?" from under the table.

It's not even August yet.

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Lawn care SWAT team subdues trigger-happy Texan... and other stories - The Register

Text and bitmapped images are two different kinds of animals. Text can be typed, edited, copied, pasted, deleted, and processed. Images, however, are a bunch of pixels in a grid that combine in the right way to convey some sort of information: they resemble a photo, an illustration, or rendered text. So where can the two meet?

Optical-character recognition (OCR) was the name we gave to extracting text from images. But the term has gone out of favor as software increasingly and automatically tries to identify text in an image and make it searchable and, often, available for copying.

If you are trying to access text in images you have, whether documents, photos, or forms, you have many options available. These types also include PDFs with scanned images that have no text layer already inserted or extracted. You may already have a free account or paid subscription to one of the services below or own the software.

Here are several ways to extract text and a few that also allow searching. For a quick test, I compared the same legible typeset magazine copy from a 1920sPopular Mechanicsarticle about comic-strip production and found vastly different results. You can see the figures below with each app or service noted. PDFpen and macOS Montereys Live Text performed extremely accurately. OneNote, once Microsoft had performed its delayed recognition, was quite close to those two as well. Evernote shows matches within the text as you type and appeared to rival Monterey and PDFpen. All four were overwhelmingly better than Acrobat and Google Docs, which had embarrassingly poor results.

In the upcoming release of macOS 12 Monterey (as well as in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15), Safari automatically recognizes text in images on a web page and in the Photos app when youre viewing an image. You can select and copy that text. The feature requires Apples neural engine, available in M1 Apple silicon Macs and mobiles with anA12 Bionic chipor later, which appeared starting in some iPhones in 2018 and some iPads in 2019. You can test this outusing the public beta. It does an excellent job.

Opening a PDF within Acrobat Pro DC typically automatically starts text recognition. When complete, you can select any ranges of text to copy. OCR within Acrobat is part of a full Creative Cloud subscription ($52.59 to $79.49 per month), and Adobe offers Acrobat-specific plans as well (from $14.99 to $24.99 per month). The results, however, arent good.

Evernote performs OCR on any image or PDF with embedded images imported into the service or captured via a mobile devices camera. This makes the text fully searchable, but it bafflinglydoesnt let you copy recognized text. (An exported PDF will require the text layer added, however.) The free tier allows searching text in images; the paid tier ($7.99 per month) is required for searching with PDFs, whether they include text or the text is extracted by OCR.

Available at free tiers and paid ones, you upload the PDF or image to Google Drive, either via Google Drive on your desktop or in a web browser. Then open the file in Google Docs. This action imports the image or PDF and pastes the extracted text with some formatted below. As you can see, the service didnt perform well at all.

OneNote automatically checks any image pasted into a OneNote page for text. Control-click the image and select Copy Text from Picture. However,Microsoft notes, The OCR Text recognition process is a very complex one that uses Microsoft online services and therefore can take a few minutes for simple pictures and up to hours for complex ones before the Copy Text from Picture command is available when you Control-click the picture. Given that Apple, Google, and third-party apps can perform OCR instantly, perhaps OneNote is lagging, though the results are very good. OneNote is part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

PDFpen is an excellent app for working with PDFs. To covert text in PDFpen, chooseEdit > OCR Pageor hold down Option and chooseEdit > OCR Document. If there are existing OCR text layers, you have to clear them first viaEdit > Clear OCR Layer in Page/Document. PDFpen comes in regular ($79.95) and Pro ($129.95) versions. The job it did on my test was impressive.

Weve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently, along with answers and links to columns:read our super FAQto see if your question is covered. If not, were always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours tomac911@macworld.com, including screen captures as appropriate and whether you want your full name used. Not every question will be answered, we dont reply to email, and we cannot provide direct troubleshooting advice.

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Live Text in macOS Monterey destroys these paid text extraction apps - Macworld

Youll probably want to consider couple different VPNs before committing to one. In order to make your search easier, weve compared HotSpot Shield with two of its competitors, ProtonVPN and CyberGhost.

HotSpot is by far the most expensive option, but it does come with some features that could potentially make it worth it, depending on what your priorities are. Hotspot Shield comes with a password manager and a spam blocker as part of its plan. This includes a platform to manage your passwords, generate unique ones and notifications when your account or passwords have been compromised. The spam blocker will block calls that are spam but also allow you to look up numbers to verify whether or not they are spam. If these two tools are ones you plan to use, or are already paying for, it may factor into the total cost of the service.

Hotspot Shield also offers a free version, which many VPN services do not offer. The free version allows you to connect one device and has limited data of up to 500 MB per day. However, if you havent used a VPN before, or want to get a sense of Hotspot Shields user interface, it could be a good option to start with.

Hotspot Shield allows you to connect up to five devices for its standard paid plan. With the premium family planwhich costs $11.99 per month or $143.88 annuallyyoull be able to share the VPN with up to five members, and each member will be able to use up to five devices. The company outshines the competition with its money-back guarantee policy of 45 days, while the industry standard is 30 days or less.

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Hotspot Shield VPN Review: A Pricey But Reliable VPN With Added Security Features - Forbes

Review OnePlus has been under fire in recent weeks over benchmark tests that appeared to throttle real-world performance of the OnePlus 9 series, dividing fans who think a fullbore Snapdragon 888 might be overegging the pudding for most use cases and others who like to run a hotter handset.

Throughout its lifetime, OnePlus has tried to figure out where it stands within the increasingly crowded mobile market. The company first targeted the burgeoning enthusiast segment, which was otherwise ignored amid a sea of mass-market blowers. Since then, it would be fair to say that it has swung between aspirational and affordable mid-rangers.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is an example of the former. It doesn't exactly push any boundaries, and sacrifices novelty on the altar of sophistication, but it's not damaged by it. Benchmark disputes notwithstanding, it's a well-rounded phone, delivering on performance, screen quality, and imaging.

The display measures 6.7 inches and uses an AMOLED panel, with a QHD (1,440x3,216) resolution. Colour fidelity was top-notch, and the OnePlus 9 Pro delivered a welcome degree of realism, particularly when it comes to the darker hues that can appear washed out on cheaper panels. Brightness was above par, with the company claiming the device can hit 1,300 nits at its peak. In practice, this means content is easily readable, even in the sunniest of outdoor conditions.

Speaking of running hot, while the display can run at up to 120Hz, in practice you may want to crank that down to a more reasonable 90Hz to conserve battery, while also getting the benefit of judder-free animations and scrolling.

Underneath the hardy Gorilla Glass 5 lurks a highly responsive fingerprint reader, and although The Reg typically prefers a physical rear-mounted one, this works OK.

On the RAM front, the OnePlus 9 Pro is offered in both 8GB and 12GB variations. Storage comes in two flavours: 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1. OnePlus provided The Register with the 12GB/256GB model, which retails at a cool 929. The base 8GB/128GB model is 100 cheaper, but those with a tendency to hoard apps and content should probably pay the difference as there's no MicroSD slot to be found.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, with support for 5G baked in. This gives a fluid experience, with zero lag to be found when opening apps, and webpages rendering almost immediately. More challenging tasks, like a few sessions of PUBG Mobile, were similarly smooth.

Moving on to the battery, you get a 4,500mAh cell, which delivers a full day's worth of life with moderate use. In practice, that means cranking the refresh rate to 90Hz, using Wi-Fi over 5G, and limiting your consumption of games and video.

There is support for 65W wired USB-C charging, and 50W wireless charging. OnePlus claims this can fully replenish the battery from empty in just 29 minutes and 43 minutes respectively, and its estimates were not far from the mark.

As you'd expect, the OnePlus 9 Pro comes with the latest (for now) Android 11, which comes skinned in the company's own OxygenOS. This reviewer generally has a bit of trepidation when it comes to custom experiences, but OxygenOS was conservative and intuitive, building on the best bits of stock Android.

Photography has been OnePlus's weakness, allowing rival manufacturers, notably Samsung and Huawei, to overtake it.

This time around, the company has partnered with optics outfit Hasselblad. While partnerships of this flavour aren't a guarantee of quality (as is the case with Nokia's long-standing engagement with Zeiss), it's hard to fault the snaps produced on the OnePlus 9 Pro.

It comes with four cameras. The primary one uses a 48MP sensor, attached to a wide-angle lens. This delivered great shots, with faithful colour reproduction and oodles of detail. The inclusion of optical image stabilisation (OIS) minimises blur when capturing photos in environments where you are liable to be jolted and nudged, such as when on a busy street, and its autofocus was extremely fast.

Another nice touch although expected given the price is the inclusion of a telephoto lens. Although this doesn't have the longest range we've ever seen (3.3x) and is attached to an 8MP sensor, it nonetheless produces sharp and vibrant images.

There's also a 50MP ultra-wide and a 2MP monochrome lurking within the bulbous camera module. Meanwhile, on the front of the device, you'll spot a 16MP wide-angle selfie camera, which lends itself to video calling with multiple participants in the frame.

The first OnePlus phone was introduced in 2013. Since then, the Android market has changed dramatically, with those fighting in the middle tiers increasingly squeezed. By contrast, the higher end of the market feels comparatively sparse, with the only real competitor Samsung (particularly given the decline of Huawei).

In recent years, OnePlus has reoriented itself to this tier, culminating in the OnePlus 9 Pro.

As for this model, the camera is exceptional. Performance is solid, although that 12GB of RAM is overkill. While it may be a touch too big for some people, the display is gorgeous. This reviewer falls in the camp that likes the revamped OxygenOS - although some have criticised recent iterations for bloatware - and we're reassured by OnePlus's recent commitment to provide three OS updates and four years of security updates.

It's probably not the best value when compared to other mid-rangers we've seen recently, like the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra. And it is attached to a steep asking price: it retails for 899.00 or 829 for the 8GB version (999and 929 for 12GB) and across the pond, $1,069.

For a touch over 800, it does feel like a genuine flagship. But while it has many of the finer touches and is a worthy successor to the OnePlus 8T, which we reviewed last year, you can't help but wonder if it can muster a flagship target market with deep pockets where the buyers of cut-price Android on steroids once were.

Did we mention the benchmarks?

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We clock what you're trying to do here: El Reg strokes a claw across the OnePlus 9 Pro - The Register