Skip to main content

You’ll soon be able to easily find that ‘shrug’ kaomoji in Windows 10

windows 10 october update
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Microsoft introduced an emoji picker with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, but it is about to get a lot more useful for beta testers. The latest Windows Insider fast ring build, 18305, is bringing the ability to choose from a selection of kaomoji, the popular group of emoticons and symbols that originated in Japan.

The kaomoji selector (image via Microsoft) Image used with permission by copyright holder

Though still unstable and buggy, the newest beta build can be downloaded and installed by enrolling in the Windows Insider Program. Once that is accomplished, all that needs to be done to summon the kaomoji picker is to press the Windows key and period key whenever in a text box. You’ll no longer have to manually type out characters, and will be presented with the ability to choose the kaomoji tab, where you’ll find selections like (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ (flipping the table) or ¯‍∖‍_‍(‍ツ‍)‍_‍/‍¯ (shrug.) As an alternative, you also can press the Windows key and semicolon key to go straight to the kaomoji selection tab.

Recommended Videos

Outside of the kaomoji, this beta release also introduces the ability to choose more selections for punctuation, currency, geometric, math, Latin, and other language symbols. Windows 10 will even recognize kaomoji, emoji, and symbols as you use them, and will populate tabs as you go along to help make them easier to select the next time around.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

This same preview build also brings several other new features to the Windows experience. It introduces a new Sandbox Mode, which is a desktop environment for running applications in isolation from the rest of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise. Building on the existing ability to run Microsoft Edge tabs in virtual machines, it promises to ensure that untrusted software can run without leaving an impact on a given PC.

“Any software installed in Windows Sandbox stays only in the sandbox and cannot affect your host. Once Windows Sandbox is closed, all the software with all of its files and state are permanently deleted,” explains Microsoft.

Aside from the kaomoji feature, there is a simplified Start layout, with fewer tiles and apps pinned by default after clean installing Windows 10. The ability to sign into Windows with a password-less Microsoft account, new recommended troubleshooting options, and an updated settings homepage with more system information wrap up the biggest changes introduced in this release.

These features are currently in beta testing with Windows Insiders, so there is no exact date for when standard non-beta testers can expect these features on their PCs. Microsoft typically depends on the feedback before pushing it out to everyone else. The next major Windows update is currently code-named 19H1, and given prior Windows 10 releases, it could likely be pushed out sometime around April. Microsoft recently missed the time frame for its October 2018 Update after encountering a set of bugs and glitches.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
There’s a scary new way to undo Windows security patches
Windows 11 logo on a laptop.

Security patches for Windows are essential for keeping your PC safe from developing threats. But downgrade attacks are a way of sidestepping Microsoft's patches, and a security researcher set out to show just how fatal these can be.

SafeBreach security researcher Alon Leviev mentioned in a company blog post that they'd created something called the Windows Downdate tool as a proof-of concept. The tool crafts persistent and irreversible downgrades on Windows Server systems and Windows 10 and 11 components.

Read more
Microsoft backs off on pressuring Windows 10 users to upgrade
Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating system logos are displayed on laptop screens.

Microsoft has announced that it will ease up the aggressive add tactic to get Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 after receiving negative backlash from users, as Windows Latest reports. There is no official word on whether stopping the full-screen multipage popups is permanent, but a plan to “share a new timeline in the coming months” was mentioned.

Windows 10 Home users saw these ads, but some Pro and Business users also saw them after rebooting their computers. Regardless of who saw them, the ads’ pause comes as the Windows 10 end-of-life date, October 14, 2025, approaches.

Read more
You definitely want to install these 90 Windows security patches
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 rear view showing lid and logo.

Microsoft has issued security updates to address 90 vulnerabilities, some of which hackers are actively exploiting, in a blog post yesterday. These flaws allow hackers to bypass security features and gain unauthorized access to your PC's system, highlighting the need to keep your Windows computer updated.

Nine are rated Critical, 80 of the flaws are rated Important, and only one is rated Moderate in severity. In addition, the software giant has patched 36 vulnerabilities in its Edge browser in the past month to avoid issues with its browser. Users will be happy to know that the patches are for six actively exploited zero-days, including CVE-2024-38213. This lets attackers bypass SmartScreen protections but requires the user to open a malicious file. TrendMicro's Peter Girnus, who discovered and reported the flaw, proposed it could be a workaround for CVE-2023-36025 or CVE-2024-21412 that DarkGate malware operators misused.

Read more