Category: Software

How to switch to Microsoft 365 Family Classic (without Copilot)

If you’re reading this, you have probably noticed that Microsoft Copilot is now included in Microsoft Office (or whatever Word, Excel, etc. are called now).

This seems to have first started in October 2024 in a few countries and has now been rolled out globally in what ZDNET called “a total disaster“.

This inclusion of AI also came with a considerable price increase (from 99€ to 129€/year in my case).

YouTuber Atomic Shrimp made a video that expresses my feelings quite well:

Microsoft’s Sneaky Forced-Upsell to 365 Users; If You Don’t Need/Want Copilot, Don’t Pay for It

However, there’s an easier method to “downgrade” back to your previous Microsoft 365 plan than the one he presented:

1. Go to your Microsoft account dashboard.
This is where you manage your Microsoft account and your subscriptions.

2. Select “subscriptions” in the menu.
Your existing Microsoft 365 subsciption should appear.

3. Ensure that “recurring billing” is on.
It appears that this is required for the next step to work.

4. Click on “Cancel subscription”.

Microsoft 365 Family account management

This will bring up a page that lets you switch to a “Classic” subscription without AI (you know, the kind of page you’d expect to find under “Switch plan”):

Lower cost without AI

5. Confirm the plan change and payment method.
From the way the confirmation is worded, it seems I will get to “enjoy” Copilot until my current subscription period ends, but at least I won’t have to pay for it.

Workaround: DaVinci Control Panels App crashing

Under DaVinci Resolve 19.0, not only does the DaVinci Resolve Control Panels app crash immediately when I try to start it, but Resolve itself also refuses to start as long as the app is installed. In both cases, the Windows Event Viewer displays exception code 0xc0000409:

Windows Event Viewer entry

Fortunately, uninstalling just the Control Panels app allowed me to work with Resolve again. However, whenever there’s an update available for my Speed Editor, I need to find a workaround. Previously, I installed the Control Panels app on a different computer, but this time it was even more frustrating, as it also crashed on that second machine.

What eventually worked for me was temporarily disabling all other startup applications. A simple way to do this is by pressing the Windows key + R, typing “msconfig,” and then selecting “Selective startup,” leaving only system services checked (unchecking “Load startup items”):

msconfig

After restarting with this selection, DaVinci Resolve Panels ran just fine and updated my Speed Editor:

Once done, I set the selection back to “Normal startup”. I did not have the patience and time to go through the startup apps and disable them one by one to find which one was causing the conflict. You could do this in the “Startup” section of the Windows Task Manager or with other applications like Autoruns.

Solution: Can’t find Bluetooth devices on Win 11?

If the Bluetooth device you want to connect to does not appear on Windows 11, try the following.

Go to Bluetooth and other device settings:

Bluetooth and other devices settings in Windows 11

Click on View more devices or Devices:

Scroll down to the Device settings section and set Bluetooth devices discovery to “Advanced”:

Bluetooth devices discovery: Default and Advanced

If you now try to add a Bluetooth device again, you should see all available devices.

Explanation

Discovery involves scanning for devices that are broadcasting their availability to pair. The “Default” mode uses predefined filters to reduce the devices the system displays to common ones, such as keyboards, mice, and headsets. Presumably this was done to reduce clutter.

When “Advanced” is selected, this filter is removed, allowing the system to list all devices that are discoverable in the vicinity.

While I wasn’t able to find a comprehensive list of devices that Microsoft considers to be uncommon, the following ones only showed up after I changed the setting:

Improvements in Windows 11 version 24H2

It looks like the upcoming version will offer to “show all devices” when Bluetooth devices have been detected but filtered out.

Note for Windows 10 Users

The setting discussed here is specific to Windows 11 and does not exist on Windows 10. This can make it look as if Windows 10 had better Bluetooth discovery capabilities, when the actual cause is the filter in Windows 11.

How to Display Full Query Results in phpMyAdmin

In phpMyAdmin, the results of some queries can be truncated, as shown below:

phpMyAdmin: truncated text

This isn’t due to the size of the browser window or any error on your part; phpMyAdmin simply truncates the text.

The solutions is very simple:

  1. Click on the + Options link above the results.
  2. In the options menu, select Full texts.
  3. Click on Go to re-execute your query.
phpMyAdmin: Full texts option

Once you’ve done this, phpMyAdmin will display the complete results of your query:

phpMyAdmin: Full text displayed

How to Capture Screenshots Without Shadows in Windows 11

The Problem: Large Shadows in Windows 11

Window shadows are much larger under Windows 11 than under Windows 10. This can be an issue if you need to take screenshots, but don’t want to waste so much space on shadows. Simply cropping the screenshots is not a very aesthetically pleasing solution.

Solution 1: Use Alt+PrintSc

To quickly capture a screenshot of your active window without the shadows, press and hold the ‘Alt’ key, then hit the ‘PrtScr’ (or ‘PrtSc’) key. This will immediately capture a shadow-free screenshot of the window and copy it to your clipboard.

Solution 2: Temporarily disable shadows under windows

The simple solution above does not work for more complex scenarios, such as multiple windows in a single screenshot, or when you want to include tooltips.

For these cases, you can disable shadows under windows temporarily.

  1. In the start menu, start typing “view advanced system settings” and then click on the best match:
Windows start menu: view advanced system settings

  1. Click on Settings under Performance (in the Advanced tab):
Advanced System Properties Dialogue
  1. Uncheck “show shadows under windows”.

If you’re looking to disable shadows for a brief period, click Apply. This will disable the shadows but keep the dialog box open for you to easily revert to the original settings:

Performance options dialog with "show shadows under windows" unchecked

If you want to keep the shadows disabled for a longer time, click OK.

You can now use PrintSc or Windows+Shift+S to capture a screenshot.