Electronic Punk aka Patrick

Microsoft have released what is effectively their latest weekly snapshot of their Windows 11 playground for features that may or may not make it into future releases as they gradually refresh all parts of Windows 11 from the frankly unfinished operating system that made its debut a year ago.

A smaller release this week, buit certainly larger than the beta releases which has largely remained quiet for the last month with the only update being A/B testing on a tabbed File Explorer that I haven't seen anyone become officially a part of, so we are hopefully due for some love their as similar builds are in the release preview channel now so general availability is not far away, but here is what is new in this release:


As usual users in the developer channel can check for updates, new testers will need to sign up within the Windows Update settings.

NVIDIA have released new drivers for their Geforce powered cards adding official game ready support for F1 2022, Loopmancer and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.


Additionally, there’s support for 5 new GeForce Experience Optimal Playable Settings profiles, and for the new GeForce GTX 1630. It also fixes the following bugs:


I have been advised that Destiny 2 players should basically avoid 516 releases at this point.

Software 64bit NVIDIA 516.59 desktop drivers or NVIDIA drivers page
View       Release Highlights | Release Notes

NVIDIA have released new drivers for their Geforce powered cards adding official game ready support for the new Microsoft Flight simulator due for release later, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Total War, World of Warcraft and wait, what year is this?

It also supports a number of newly validated G-Sync Monitors, some new game profiles and fixes the following bugs:


Thanks to Tom Warren for the heads up!

Software 64bit NVIDIA 452.06 desktop drivers or NVIDIA drivers page
View       Release Highlights | Release Notes

Quite a fast moving and bizarre day in the world of Fortnite which started with Epic enabling a new payment method in their latest update that allows users to pay for 20% cheaper microtransactions by bypassing the devices official app stores thus denying them their 30% cut of the profits.

Great news for users (who still seem to be paying 10% more than Epic would have received), bad news for Google and Apple who have responded by preventing new downloads and updates via their respective stores.

Tim Sweeney, the Epic CEO, has often weighed in his thoughts of gated stores, so frustrated with Steam that Epic of course launched their own Epic store, but that isn't something that is possible on Apple devices. I think ultimately he did have positive things to say about Microsoft's Windows 10 store although of course on a PC there are many places to get applications.

An Apple statement said:

Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result their Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services.

Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem - including its tools, testing, and distribution that Apple provides to all developers. Epic agreed to the App Store terms and guidelines freely and we’re glad they’ve built such a successful business on the App Store. The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users. We will make every effort to work with Epic to resolve these violations so they can return Fortnite to the App Store.

Click to expand...

Clearly Epic was ready for the response from Apple, as soon as it was pulled they not only filed a lawsuit - https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf - but also uploaded a parody of Apple's own 1984 advert:


It wasn't long after that Google also removed Fortnite (as it gradually disappears), citing a violation of Play store policy but hoped there would be positive discussions.

With the EU Already in the midst of an antitrust investigation with Apple and the recent news around Microsoft's XCloud being locked out of the platform, things are likely to get very interesting!

Source    Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store | The Verge

I think I missed a build, but Microsoft have once again released a new Wednesday build of their latest development work on Windows 10.

Highlights this week include a post-update experience that didn't pop up for me so I guess I have it turned off.
There are also some new options for graphics cards to pick the one that is used in performance situations (gaming) or on an app-by-app basis, useful for someone I guess.
There are of course a number of other fixes and changes, although now limited to this development environment as features will now seep back into the beta and then production builds.

Source    Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20190 | Windows Insider Program