August 31 Tech news roundup: AMD’s Performance Patch impresses gamers, Control Panel may be around for longer,

AMD’s Performance patch is now available for Windows 11 23H2

Windows 11 24H2, which is the upcoming feature update, is scheduled to be released this Fall. It adds a number of new features, and also includes a very important patch for AMD computers powered by Zen 3, Zen 4 and Zen 5 series CPUs. The patch improves the performance of the processors by quite a bit, which is important for heavy tasks such as gaming. Reports from testers and experts indicate that some processors saw a massive improvement in terms of performance, by up to 10% or 11% on average.

Now, you don’t have to wait for the AMD performance patch to roll out with 24H2. AMD has backported the patch, i.e., brought over the changes to Windows 11 23H2. The patch is available as part of an optional Windows 11 Update called KB5041587, which you can download and install right away and gain the improvements, to make your PC run faster.

Vivaldi browser adds support for renaming Tabs and Tab Stacks

The latest version of Vivaldi browser comes with features that allow you to organize your tabs in a more efficient manner. The Vivaldi 6.9 update adds support for Tab Renaming, i.e. you can customize the name of a tab’s title to anything you want. Similarly, you can also rename Tab Stacks, aka tab groups to make it easier to organize your tabs by usage or type.

Vivaldi now lets you move files directly from the Downloads Panel, so you can just drag and drop the files that have been downloaded, to any folder of your choice. For example, you can move them to your desktop, or add them to your email. Another cool improvement that the update brings is the ability to access Synced Tabs from the Windows Panel, it lists all tabs that are open across your devices under a separate category that is labeled Synced Tabs.

Microsoft may not retire the Control Panel

A week ago, Microsoft had made a change to a support document that mentioned that the Control Panel would soon be deprecated in Windows 11. The Redmond company has long made it known that it wants the Settings app to be the replacement for Control Panel. But, after an uproar from users who were enraged by the planned change, Microsoft updated the wording on the page, which now says that many of the Control Panel settings are being migrated to the Settings app. That seems to suggest that the legacy app could be around for longer.

This is a good thing because the Settings app still lacks many options, and its design has been criticized by many users, who dislike having to navigate through several menus to get to the option that they wanted to customize.

Firefox brings automatic Picture-in-Picture mode for videos

Mozilla has added an interesting feature to Firefox, which will allow the browser to open videos in a floating window, aka Picture-in-Picture mode, without having to manually click on the button. The option is available as a toggle under the browser’s Settings in Firefox Nightly. When enabled, the browser will automatically play videos in Picture-in-Picture mode. For example, you could visit YouTube and click on a video, and it will automatically switch to a PiP window.

This can be handy for users who prefer to watch videos while they multitask with other apps, or while browsing.

Microsoft may start displaying ads in Windows 10 Start Menu

Windows 10 users may have to put up with an annoying change. Microsoft is changing the design of some parts of the Start Menu, specifically, the profile icon. The button to click your profile will be moved to the lower part of the interface, close to the Power button. While that is not particularly intrusive, Microsoft has rather sneakily hidden away the sign out button that normally appears when the profile button is clicked. It is now tucked away under the three-dot menu button that appears in the pop-up. The bad news is that the pop-up seems to be focusing on displaying information related to your Microsoft 365 subscription, and the amount of storage that you have on OneDrive.

That’s basically an ad for Microsoft 365, right in the Windows 10 Start Menu.

Google Essentials app may come pre-installed on PCs

HP PCs will soon come with an additional app pre-installed, thanks to a partnership with Google. The search giant has reached an agreement with the OEM, to bundle an app called Google Essentials, on the computers. The app is designed to assist users to discover and install Google products such as Google Play Games, Google Photos, and Google Messages. Google is also enticing users with a two-month free trial for Google One that includes 100 GB of space on Drive.

Users will be able to access the app from the Windows Start Menu. Google Essentials will be bundled on HP Pavilion, Victus, Spectre, and Envy brands of laptops and PCs. The app could be considered as bloatware by many users, but the good news is that it can be easily uninstalled at any time.

It seems that Windows Recall can be uninstalled

Microsoft plans to introduce Windows Recall in October. The controversial feature, which takes snapshots of your screen every five minutes, is designed to gather the data on the screen and store it in a database, and converts them into searchable things. You can interact with it by typing a query using natural language, and obtain the relevant information from it.

Experts criticized the plans due to potential privacy and security risks, which forced Microsoft to withdraw the app when Copilot+ PCs were launched. But Windows Recall is set to return soon, and it will be an opt-in feature. That means it is not enabled by default, which is definitely good news. There’s more, users will be able to uninstall Windows Recall completely, if they don’t want the feature.

Apple wants to replace Siri with a human-like AI personality

Apple has big plans for its AI, and its just related to software. The company is working on creating a robot that will assist users in their day-to-day tasks. The device is said to be a tabletop robot, that has a display similar to the iPad, along with cameras and a base for a robotic actuator.

Existing devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch have Siri as the digital assistant. But, Apple wants to design a generative AI that has a human-like personality, which will be used in its robotic devices. The Cupertino company unveiled Apple Intelligence, which is its in-house generation AI, that is deeply integrated in iOS, macOS and iPadOS. Apple has also partnered with OpenAI to access ChatGPT via Siri, and is also said to be in talks with Google to feature its AI, Gemini, across its devices.