KB5003214 brings News and Interests to the Windows 10 taskbar

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Key notes

  • KB5003214 addresses known issues for versions 21H1, 20H2, and 2004 of Windows 10.
  • This update also introduces the News and Interests feature to the Windows 10 taskbar.
  • The issue that prevents users from opening phone apps that are pinned to the taskbar is fixed.
  • Microsoft also fixed the issue that displays items on the desktop after you have deleted them.
KB5003214 Windows 10 update

It’s that time of the month when Microsoft releases a new cumulative update for Windows 10 and this one seems to be pretty substantial.

No surprise there, considering that KB5003214 addresses more than one Windows 10 version, such as 21H1, 20H2, and 2004.

Important changes and fixes brought by KB5003214 

One of the more notable changes brought forth by KB5003214 is the integration of the News and Interests feature to the Windows 10 taskbar,

Developers look at this new idea as the fastest way to stay up to date on your Windows 10 PC, according to the presentation of this feature, from the Windows blog.

As people spend more time on their Windows PCs, working, learning, connecting and creating, we’re making it easier to access personalized content that is available at a glance and updated throughout the day.  News and interests on the Windows taskbar will begin rolling out to customers over the next several weeks.

Also, the Open on hover option (checked by default) has been added to the News and interests menu. To access it, just right-click a blank space on the Windows taskbar and open the News and interests menu.

KB5003214 also addresses an issue that might prevent users from opening phone apps that are pinned to the taskbar, as well as the one that might display items on the desktop after you have deleted them from the desktop.

Other highlights for this patch include:

  • News and interests on the taskbar is now available to anyone who installs this update!
  • Improves the hover experience by adding the Open on hover option (checked by default) on the News and interests submenu that appears when you right-click the Windows taskbar.
  • Updates an issue that might prevent users from opening phone apps that are pinned to the taskbar. This issue occurs after they update to Windows 10, version 2004 and then use the Your Phone app.
  • Updates an issue that prevents a touch device from working as a serial mouse in multiple monitor situations.
  • Updates an issue that might display items on the desktop after you have deleted them from the desktop.
  • Updates an error that might cause video playback to fail when you switch from an external high-dynamic-range (HDR) display to a built-in non-HDR display.
  • Updates an issue that fails to apply the spatial audio effect to sounds when you enable spatial audio.
  • Updates an issue with noise when you enable spatial audio and use Bluetooth USB headphones.
  • Updates an issue that prevents users from receiving geographic location information.

Windows 10 version 2004 receives the most fixes with KB5003214 

The largest number of fixes that are implemented are, by farm to the 2004 version of the operating system. Good news, considering that some of these issues were long overdue for some tweaking.

The key changes that Microsoft brought forth include:

  • Addresses an issue with the just-in-time (JIT) behavior of jscript9.dll.
  • Addresses an issue that might prevent users from opening phone apps that are pinned to the taskbar. This issue occurs after they update to Windows 10, version 2004 and then use the Your Phone app.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents certain Win32 apps from opening when using the runas command.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents certain Win32 apps from opening when the “BlockNonAdminUserInstall” Group Policy is turned on.
  • Addresses an issue that displays progressive web application (PWA) icons as blank when you pin them to the taskbar.
  • Addresses an issue that fails to properly manage memory for touch input before a session ends.
  • Addresses a memory leak in ctfmon.exe that occurs when you refresh an application that has an editable box.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents a touch device from working as a serial mouse in multiple monitor situations.
  • Addresses an issue that unexpectedly displays the Settings page text “Let’s finish setting up your device” at startup.
  • Addresses an issue that might display items on the desktop after you have deleted them from the desktop.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents users from viewing the Mouse settings page after the Settings Page Visibility Group Policy is set to “showonly:easeofaccess-mousepointer”.
  • Addresses an issue in Safe Mode that prevents users from signing in if Web Sign-in is enabled.
  • Addresses an issue in Active Directory (AD) Admin Center that displays an error when it lists many organizational units (OU) or container objects and PowerShell Transcription is enabled. The error message is, “Collection was modified after the enumerator was instantiated”.
  • Addresses an issue that causes Screen Readers to report the wrong UI information. This issue occurs because UI Automation reports inaccurate property information for some controls, such as IsDialog and IsControl.
  • Addresses an issue that fails to apply BitLocker encryption automatically using a Group Policy. This issue occurs on external drives that have a master boot record (MBR) active boot partition.
  • Addresses a memory leak issue in PKU2U that causes cluster nodes to run out of memory.
  • Addresses an issue with the Autopilot Reset command taking too long to process after it has been sent.
  • Addresses an issue that might prevent the Windows Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server from offering a lease to a DHCPv6 client after the client moves to a different virtual LAN (VLAN).
  • Addresses an issue that prevents a task from working correctly when you set the condition “Start only if the following network connection is available” for the task.
  • Addresses an issue that might display the “Device Removed” error when Direct3D developers use the SetStablePowerState() API in Windows Developer Mode.
  • Addresses an error that might cause video playback to fail when you switch from an external high-dynamic-range (HDR) display to a built-in non-HDR display.
  • Addresses an issue that fails to apply the spatial audio effect to sounds when you enable spatial audio.
  • Addresses an issue with noise when you enable spatial audio and use Bluetooth USB headphones.
  • Addresses a metadata encoding issue that causes Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) music files to become unplayable if you change their title, artist, or other metadata. For more information, see FLAC encoded music file is corrupted when metadata is edited in Windows Explorer.
  • Adds support for the .hif file extension for High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) images.
  • Addresses an issue that might cause a system to stop working when using Remote Desktop for USB redirection of an Xbox One controller.
  • Addresses an issue that might cause a RemoteApp window to flicker or move to another area of the screen when using touch or pen input.
  • Addresses an issue with the PerfMon API that might cause handle leaks, which slow performance.
  • Addresses an issue that might cause endless replication when you promote a new domain controller and the Active Directory Recycle Bin feature is enabled.
  • Addresses an issue that sporadically prevents the Resource Host Subsystem (RHS) from registering network name resources in the Domain Name System (DNS). As a result, Event ID 1196 appears.
  • Addresses an issue with devices that were configured using mobile device management (MDM) RestrictedGroups, LocalUsersAndGroups, or UserRights policies. These devices incorrectly continue to receive the policy after you use MDM to remove the configuration profile that has the policy. As a result, users of the affected devices might have incorrect group memberships and UserRights assignments or other symptoms. This issue occurs after installing Windows updates from October 29, 2020 and later.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents users from receiving geographic location information even when all the geolocation UI settings are enabled correctly, and the device contains a location sensor.
  • Addresses an issue that fails to register a DNS update to an A record and a PTR when Azure virtual machines update against corporate DNS zones.
  • Addresses a timing issue that might cause a RemoteApp to intermittently duplicate characters that were entered on the local keyboard or pasted from the Windows clipboard.
  • Addresses an issue with the Magnifier that causes the mouse pointer to jump around the screen when you move the mouse.

Remember that you can either download this update manually or you can do it through the Windows Update feature in the Settings menu, where it will show up as an optional update.

In order to get the standalone package for the latest SSU, you can search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog.

As usual, this is an optional update, but all the changes here will be rolled into next month’s Patch Tuesday, which is mandatory.

What version of Windows 10 are you using? Let us know all about it in the comments section below.

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