Tag: Snipping Tool

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Mobile Syrup

You can un-crop screenshots captured by the Windows 11 Snipping Tool

Earlier this month, details emerged about a flaw with Pixel phones’ Markup tool for editing screenshots. Dubbed ‘aCropalypse,’ the flaw allowed malicious actors to restore some or all of a cropped or redacted image.

Now it appears Windows 11 is impacted by a similar flaw.

Developer Chris Blume uncovered that the Windows 11 Snipping Tool is vulnerable to a similar exploit as was used for aCropalypse and shared the finding with Simon Aarons, one of the reverse engineers who discovered aCropalypse, on Twitter.

Bleeping Computer verified the exploit with David Buchanan, the other reverse engineer behind aCropalypse, and found that a slightly modified version of the script Buchanan made to extract hidden info from an edited Pixel screenshot worked on the Windows 11 Snipping Tool.

As with Pixel’s Markup software, the Snipping tool doesn’t completely erase unused parts of the PNG image data, such as parts of the image that are cropped out. This data can be partially or fully recovered.

However, it’s worth noting that the problem doesn’t impact all PNG files captured with the Snipping Tool, with optimized images being among those unaffected. Moreover, JPEG files also leave behind data, but so far, the exploit isn’t known to work with that file format. Finally, images that have been saved as another file in an image editing tool should be safe as well.

Microsoft told Bleeping Computer it was “aware of these reports and [is] investigating,” and it will take necessary action to protect users.

The flaw doesn’t appear to impact the Windows 10 Snipping Tool. Moreover, Buchanan isn’t publishing the modified scripts for the Windows 11 Snipping Tool since Microsoft hasn’t had a chance to patch it.

Meanwhile, Windows 11 users will want to be careful with what they capture using the Snipping Tool and where they share images. The main concern here is that someone might capture sensitive information in a screenshot and crop it out, but a malicious actor could restore the information using the modified aCropalypse script.

It’s worth noting that Google already pushed out a patch for aCropalypse to Pixel phones, but it doesn’t fix screenshots captured before the update.

Source: Chris Blume, David Buchanan, Bleeping Computer, Via: Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 update adds Bing Chat to the taskbar

Microsoft has unveiled its next big Windows 11 update, chock full of new features and capabilities. However, the star of the show is Bing.

If it weren’t for the fact that Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat dominated tech headlines for the last two weeks, I’d be shocked that Bing would be the standout addition to Windows 11. This is the world we live in now. In a blog post about the new Windows 11 update, Panos Panay, chief product officer, outlined that the Windows 11 taskbar would now include access to the new Bing in the search bar.

Bing Chat on the Windows 11 taskbar | Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft didn’t say much more about Bing Chat in Windows 11, but it did explain that those in the Bing preview will have access after installing the new Windows 11 update. If you haven’t joined the waitlist for the Bing preview, you can learn more about how to do so here.

Beyond Bing

Phone Link for iOS | Image credit: Microsoft

Of course, Bing was one of many announcements. Microsoft also shared that Windows 11 would get a preview of Phone Link for iOS. Phone Link, for those unfamiliar, is a Windows feature for linking various smartphone features, such as access to messaging, apps on your phone, sharing photos and videos, and more. The iOS version of Phone Link will allow sending and receiving iMessages, as reported by The Verge.

So far, Phone Link has only really worked with Android, and Samsung phones getting the most feature support. It’s great to see Phone Link expanding to include iPhone. I suspect this was sped along by competition from the launch of Intel Unison, a similar phone-to-PC connection software that does support iPhones. Those interested in trying the Phone Link for iOS preview can learn more here.

Revamped touch taskbar | Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft also highlighted recent Phone Link improvements for Android users, specifically mentioning the ability to activate your Samsung phone’s hotspot with a click from your PC, or the ‘Recent Websites’ feature that can transfer your browsing sessions from your Samsung phone to your Windows PC.

Microsoft says it updated Windows Studio Effects to make it easier to access the features from the taskbar. Along with that, Microsoft revamped the ‘Chat’ feature of the Windows 11 taskbar with a video preview to help streamline the process of jumping into a video call.

Snipping Tool will let you record your screen

Snipping Tool with screen recording capabilities | Image credit: Microsoft

Moreover, Microsoft added a revamped ‘Quick Assist’ app that should make it easier for the tech-savvy among you to help troubleshoot friends’ and family members’ Windows woes. Quick Assist includes the ability to switch between screen sharing and full control during a session, as well as a new “laser pointer” people can use to highlight icons, menus and more.

Perhaps one of the other exciting additions — at least for me — is that the Snipping Tool will now be able to record an area of the screen. This is a huge bonus as someone who often wants to record part of my screen to make a GIF for a story I’m working on.

Windows 11 Energy recommendations | Image credit: Microsoft

Windows 11 is getting new energy-saving features too. In the Settings menu under System > Power & Battery, there’s an ‘Energy recommendations’ screen that suggests different settings people can tweak to improve energy use.

Wrapping things up, Microsoft expanded Windows 11’s Widgets system with new options from Phone Link, Xbox Game Pass and partners like Meta and Spotify, there’s an improved touchscreen mode with a minimized taskbar, Notepad now has tabs, and there are new accessibility options in the Windows 11 update.

You can check out everything new in Windows 11 here.

Update 2023/02/28 at 9:04am ET: Added a sentence about Phone Link for iOS supporting iMessage.

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft testing new screen recording tool for Windows 11

Microsoft will finally add a screen recording tool to Windows 11.

As reported by The Verge, Windows 11’s ‘Snipping Tool’ will soon get the ability to capture screen recordings as well as screenshots. That means Windows 11 users won’t need to use the Xbox Game Bar or third-party tools to accomplish the same goal. Beyond that, the Snipping Tool screen recorder should offer more features than the Game Bar.

That includes the ability to select a specific area of the screen to record (or just record the whole screen), whereas Xbox Game Bar lets users record specific apps. While helpful, the Game Bar approach gives users less control over what gets recorded.

Image credit: Microsoft (via The Verge)

The Verge notes that Microsoft is only just starting to test the updated Snipping Tool with Windows 11 testers in the Dev Channel. That means it could be a few weeks or months before the update makes its way to stable Windows 11. Regardless, that the feature is in the works is good news.

This update to the Snipping Tool comes roughly four years after Microsoft broke the ‘Screen Sketch‘ feature bundled with Windows Ink in Windows 10 out into a separate app for taking screenshots. It’s a surprisingly useful screenshot tool that you can access by pressing ‘Windows + Shift + S’ on your keyboard (you can also rebind the printscreen key to activate Snipping Tool).

Source: The Verge