Accessibility
The latest Accessibility coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Chrome Canary Introduces Selective Overlay Scrollbar Flashing to Curb Distractions
Chrome Canary has quietly rolled out a new experimental flag that promises to end one of the most persistent annoyances for users of overlay scrollbars: the flickering, strobing chaos that erupts...
Prompt Engineering for Good: How NetHope and Microsoft Are Training Nonprofits on Copilot in 90 Minutes
Nonprofits can now access free, CPD-certified training in Microsoft Copilot and generative AI through a new program designed to fit into a single afternoon. NetHope, with support from Microsoft, has...
Microsoft Copilot Lands on Samsung 2025 TVs with Animated Avatar, Voice AI, and Visual Cards
Microsoft and Samsung have officially launched Copilot on select 2025 Samsung TVs and Smart Monitors, bringing a voice-powered AI companion with an animated, lip-synced avatar directly to the biggest...
Windows 11 Phone Link Sends Texts to Microsoft Cloud for AI Replies by Default
Microsoft has begun rolling out a new AI-powered suggested replies feature in the Phone Link app for Windows 11, and it comes with a significant privacy trade-off: by default, recent text messages...
Microsoft Puts Copilot to Work: Web Actions, System Control, and a $20 Pro Tier Now Live on Windows 11
Microsoft is turning its Copilot AI assistant from a conversational sidekick into an autonomous doer for Windows 11. The latest update introduces third‑party extensions that let Copilot complete...
Windows 11 LE Audio Update Delivers Super-Wideband Stereo for Clearer Calls and Game Chat
Microsoft has finally addressed the muffled voice quality that has plagued Windows Bluetooth headsets for decades, with a new update introducing support for Bluetooth LE Audio and its super-wideband...
Gaming Copilot Lands on Windows 11 Game Bar: The Accessibility Boon and the Privacy Minefield
Microsoft’s on-stage demo at Build 2024, where Copilot narrated how to craft a sword in Minecraft, was shorthand for a much larger push: a multi‑modal, voice‑enabled AI assistant is now rolling...
Unleash Windows 11 Productivity: The Complete Guide to PowerToys' Best Features
Microsoft PowerToys has evolved from a nostalgic Windows 95 experiment into an essential, open-source productivity toolkit that reshapes how millions interact with Windows 11 daily. With a renewed...
Windows Terminal Preview 1.23 Rewrites Windowing Architecture, Expands Settings UI, and Tightens Clipboard Security
The Windows Terminal Preview 1.23 release marks the most ambitious engineering overhaul in the application's history, replacing its entire multi-window coordination model with a unified system...
Windows Terminal’s New Windowing Engine Overhauls Reliability, Adds Oklab Color Scheme and Enterprise Controls
Microsoft has shipped what may be the most consequential update to Windows Terminal since its inception, replacing the core windowing architecture that has quietly frustrated power users for years....
FFmpeg 8.0 'Huffman' Lands with Vulkan Compute Codecs, AV1 Encoding, and Whisper AI Transcription
FFmpeg 8.0, codenamed "Huffman", is one of the largest releases in the project's history, introducing Vulkan compute-based codecs, a native AV1 Vulkan encoder, an integrated OpenAI Whisper filter for...
Recall Security Disaster and Voice Control Friction: Microsoft’s Windows AI Vision Hits Reality
The June 2024 rollout of Microsoft’s Recall feature on Copilot+ PCs triggered an immediate security firestorm. Cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont discovered that Recall—an AI tool that captures...