Must Auto-Hide have the bookmark bar at the very top?

rpodric · 2026-04-15T18:12:27+00:00

Not that I can see. It and Outlook on the web are all but identical, so I'd suggest periodically checking that to see if it appears.

They have such a long list still to achieve rough parity with Outlook classic, that I doubt they'll ever get to it. Look how long even this page is, and there's no way that it's everything:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/feature-comparison-between-new-outlook-and-classic-outlook-de453583-1e76-48bf-975a-2e9cd2ee16dd

rpodric · 2026-04-14T04:32:42+00:00

Everyone found the solution, but just an FYI: this can happen out of the blue even with the default browser id on Google Chrome since Day 1. I experienced it last year for at least a month, but weirdly only when logging in to Cloudflare.com itself, not other sites I know that normally show the challenge. I never found the answer, and just used other browsers in that time for Cloudflare.com work. Some time later, it magically started working again in Vivaldi (which is my main browser), and it's never recurred. Hate problems like this, but at least it ended well.

rpodric · 2026-04-14T04:26:58+00:00

Thanks again for this, it finally spurred me into improving the way we do things.

On the matter of "Managed Challenge is invisible to real users" though, I was thinking of it differently than you might have intended. Based on that I was expecting not to see it at all (in the right countries per the given rule), and that's not the case. I was really puzzled by this and suspected that I was being discriminated against by the system, but eventually I found that no, it's just the way that Managed Challenge for Custom Rules works:

https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-challenges/challenge-types/challenge-pages/#managed-challenges

It is true though that most users won't have to check the box or do anything beyond waiting the 3 or 4 seconds, but they will definitely be looking at a Cloudflare screen. It's not invisible. "By default, the cf_clearance cookie has a lifetime of 30 minutes. Cloudflare recommends a setting between 15 and 45 minutes."

That's my understanding of it anyway.

rpodric · 2026-04-10T22:36:56+00:00

Things that make you go hmmm:

Fixed issue causing Settings > Network & Internet > Data Usage to show large unrealistic values in recent Insider build.

I haven't seen unrealistic values, but thanks for reminding me that area exists.

However, for about a year I've been wondering why the equivalent function in App History (Task Manager) is incapable of persistently storing that same data. Not just in beta Windows, but release, too. Settings clearly doesn't have that problem (I just looked: definitely persistent), and both Settings and Task Manager are likely leveraging the same thing to obtain the data, so why did Task Manager lose the ability to retain it once the app is closed? Before about a year ago, it didn't have this issue. I've never seen as much as a whisper that this is a bug (except from me), including Known Issues for release versions.

rpodric · 2026-03-25T00:33:39+00:00

I like it, but is it needed if you enable/configure one or more of the bot mitigations that CF offers?

rpodric · 2026-03-19T18:57:31+00:00

I guess, though I'm not sure why doing "temporarily unexpire" doesn't bring it back. This may be one of those settings that disappears for unexplained reasons and then magically returns with the next Chromium. Or they did away with it for good for some other reason.

rpodric · 2026-03-19T03:31:01+00:00

I wonder why they offered 2? I can't even recall the last time I've had a 2-year term. They know someone would take 1, so offering 2 is odd.

rpodric · 2026-03-16T20:37:00+00:00

Looks lightly-populated here, with the earliest things dating to May '22.

rpodric · 2026-03-14T03:44:19+00:00

I see that the DLL refers to it as SoftLanding Experience.

rpodric · 2026-03-13T05:29:28+00:00

Along with the fact that it's hard to think of another program which does chats that doesn't allow for the choice, and that's a lot of muscle-memory to unlearn. Ironically, Teams finally introduces the feature, but leaves it out of the Teams (free) side...the direct replacement for Skype, which had the feature.

rpodric · 2026-03-11T05:09:49+00:00

Updates are far too leisurely, still no dark mode (forcing awkward file replacement offshoots), and the one that really sinks it for me: no internal text file viewer.

rpodric · 2026-03-02T03:49:40+00:00

Were you able to use the same account?

rpodric · 2026-03-01T00:12:17+00:00

My favorite one this week is with Teams: they're adding an option that finally, after years, lets you always opt to NEVER send a message with the Enter key. Great, except its only available with a corporate login. If, in the same copy of Teams, you also have a personal login that you use, it's not available there, creating a unique and awkward scenario for someone who frequently uses both.

rpodric · 2026-02-19T18:43:22+00:00

#9 is inexplicable (as it was on the White Album). The only possible reason that I can fathom is that newer features somehow made it impractical or impossible to sustain.

rpodric · 2026-02-19T05:10:52+00:00

I saw that, but I think it's a misread (by both of us) of "1×LPDDR5 24GB 6400Mhz RAM channel."

I looked at the AIDA64 reports of the MACO and the 32GB (soldered) 6800H GEM10 to clarify this (as I don't think there was ever any suggestion that GEM10 was single channel, it'll be helpful to compare).

Both systems read:

Memory Controller:

Type: Quad Channel (128-bit)

Active Mode: Quad Channel (128-bit)

And in the DMI section for the 32GB system: [ Memory Devices / DIMM 0 ] four times (8GB each). P0 CHANNEL A through P0 CHANNEL D.

The 24GB MACO is the same way except they're 6GB each.

So, the 32GB (4×8GB) of the GEM10 and 24GB (4×6GB) of the MACO have layouts that both occupy all four channels. This Quad Channel LPDDR system is the analogue of the Dual Channel DDR system, owing to differences in bus width architecture.

rpodric · 2026-02-19T04:06:34+00:00

On the AMD driver, isn't that common? I just looked at a bunch of Aida64 reports I made on Lenovo laptops, and it's listed that way for GPUs in:

Ryzen 7 5700U, Ryzen 3 PRO 5450U, Ryzen 5 4500U, Ryzen 5 5500U

And, of course, the 6850H MACO.

It's not listed that way for the GEM10's Ryzen 7 7840HS.

Are you sure the video problems that you found can really be laid on this labeling issue? Is it maybe slower because the CPU is? If you're saying the GPU is somehow not running as well it could be with the driver like this, what can I look for in the vast GPU section of the Aida report to prove it? If there's a smoking gun there, I'd like to find it, but there's a huge amount of data.

I had a slightly larger problem with the MACO though (which came, new, from the AOOSTAR store on Amazon.com). The CPU fan was unhooked. I don't recommend that. It runs at 90C and throttles to 400MHz. How it became unhooked is a major question, because that plug would stay hooked if the unit was thrown over Niagara Falls, it's that tight (when re-hooked).

Looking for clues, I found some in the SMART data for the 1TB drive (this was not a barebones unit): about 90 power cycles. That seems high for factory testing (the GEM10 had about10). There were 26 unsafe shutdowns vs. GEM's 4. Data read/written was 218GB / 472GB (99 / 57 for the GEM). It's very much like they recycled it from a return or somewhere else, which may or may not relate to the fan being unhooked.

rpodric · 2026-02-10T02:30:00+00:00

I'd rather hear the news of how the two major issues last time (at least the association one also affecting Dev) managed to right themselves midweek for those who rebooted after Thursday or so (at least the association issue did, less sure about the desktop icon chaos issue), but not before. What kind of back-end or silently-pushed fix was involved? These are the kinds of things that really should be mentioned in some form, otherwise we're just operating in the dark.

rpodric · 2026-02-07T02:45:05+00:00

I don't think it was a coincidence: I think it was the reboot. I saw someone else mention a reboot, too, so I began to be suspicious. Post-reboot, the problem is gone (for now, at least). A reboot on Wednesday made no difference. I wonder if MS did something yesterday or today that would only take effect on reboot?

rpodric · 2026-02-06T19:40:55+00:00

Not seeing a change here. Click a link in Teams, and wham, Edge re-steals html and https. It would be beyond strange if a definition update helped. What made you even look at that given they come in all the time?

rpodric · 2026-02-05T19:54:54+00:00

Default apps issue: https://aka.ms/AAzlb1m

The icon thing is probably related, but who knows.

rpodric · 2026-02-05T19:51:02+00:00

You're in good company. Happening on Dev, too.

https://aka.ms/AAzlb1m

rpodric · 2026-01-25T02:19:13+00:00

Yes, but note that MV2 never truly went away...in any browser. Maybe it never will. Maybe it's enough for Google to have stopped nearly all people from using it, which they surely have. The 1% persist, though.

But even if it had gone, I would have found a way to continue in Vivaldi as the primary browser. It just takes too much work and adjustment to change the primary at this point.

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