Windows profanity filter finally gets a ******* off switch
- Reference: 1745850071
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/28/windows_profanity_voice_typing/
- Source link:
The operating system has included voice typing as a feature for a while. However, it was a bit of a prude when it came to swearing, masking the offending words with asterisks.
The latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build to hit the Beta Channel – [1]build 26120.3941 – adds a toggle to allow more colorful language to be transcribed. No longer will a set of asterisks hide users' reactions if they accidentally spill a beverage while speaking. Instead, the OS will reflect the true feelings of its customers. Assuming, of course, that voice typing is enabled and the profanity filter is turned off.
[2]
"We're excited to address the top customer feedback for voice typing by starting to roll out a new setting that lets you control the profanity filter," Microsoft said.
[3]
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Jen Gentleman, a Principal Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, highlighted the change in a [5]post on Bluesky and [6]noted that she had previously worked on testing profanity filtering with dictation on Windows Phone.
While Gentleman is more likely to be found dispensing Windows keyboard shortcut tips on social media these days, we can imagine the challenge:
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"Where are all the ******* apps in the ******* app store?"
"****, this ******* phone is a ******* piece of ****."
And, of course, "Steve Jobs is a ******* ****."
[8]Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction
[9]Microsoft pitches pay-to-patch reboot reduction subscription for Windows Server 2025
[10]Oh, cool. Microsoft melts bug that froze Server 2025 Remote Desktop sessions
[11]Microsoft mystery folder fix might need a fix of its own
The option to put the profanity back into text might prove useful – or not – considering how Microsoft's patches and updates have gone recently.
The rest of the new features in the update were predictably Copilot+ PC-heavy, with updates to the Click to Do preview to allow users to configure the shortcut button on supported pens. Microsoft also fixed an issue that caused images used with Click to Do image actions to be stuck in the PC's temp folder.
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Also on Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has tweaked "Improved Windows Search" so that it only shows keyword matches within the text of cloud files (rather than photos) for users signed into OneDrive with a work or school account.
Insiders wanting the new features first will need to ensure they have the toggle to get them turned on in Windows Update, and, as ever, there's no guarantee that what is in the beta channel will make it to production.
Which, in the case of the profanity filter toggle, would be a ******* shame. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/04/25/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26120-3941-beta-channel/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aA-mLFs9Y8CBTdjUR5g1IQAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aA-mLFs9Y8CBTdjUR5g1IQAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aA-mLFs9Y8CBTdjUR5g1IQAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://bsky.app/profile/jenmsft.bsky.social/post/3lnnuav6vak2t
[6] https://bsky.app/profile/jenmsft.bsky.social/post/3lnnudke5as2t
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aA-mLFs9Y8CBTdjUR5g1IQAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/28/windows_opinion/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/28/windows_server_2025_hotpatching_subscription/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/25/microsoft_fixes_windows_flaw/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/24/microsoft_mystery_folder_fix/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aA-mLFs9Y8CBTdjUR5g1IQAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
It probably makes it harder to train LLMs on transcribed Outlook emails, too!
"Instead, the OS will reflect the true feelings of its customers."....
The feeling that MS can **** off and die or go **** themselves with a rusty rake ?
"hello, I'm clippy ... I can see I want to do some swearing - can I help you?"
Now there's a self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one...
Does this mean MS now accepts that Scunthorpe is a place and not a swearword?
Okay, it's Scunthorpe: It's both, but still, people live there. Apparently.
I am reminded of Eudora
Many, many years ago I used Eudora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_(email_client) for my email needs on Mac and Windows. Eudora did many things very well, notably POP mail. It did NOT do some things at all, or very badly indeed, notably IMAP mail. (Yes, I know, Wiki says that it did IMAP. I was there, and no, it didn't.) The guys behind Eudora at the time (Qualcomm) got lots of feedback on this; it was one of the more common points raised about Eudora on numerous sites, not least at least two mailing lists dedicated to Eudora, one of them run (briefly) by Qualcomm. Instead of fixing the known problems, especially including the extremely broken IMAP implementation, Qualcomm elected to change the way that Eudora was supported and also debuted 'peppers'. If you paid up for an upgrade, all upgrades for a year would be free. Strangely, major upgrades started to appear at 13 to 14 month intervals. Funny, that. Worse were the 'peppers'. Eudora would 'evaluate' your email and put up little chili pepper icons if the post was 'too hot', the max being three peppers. I was then on a history mailing list (I have a history degree...) and we were then talking about one Guillaume dux Normandie, possibly better known as William the Bastard. (Denizens of an obscure island off the coast of France may also know him as William the Conqueror, but that's a minority title.) Many of the members of the list used Eudora. You would not believe the number of peppers the typical post generated. Several members of the list started a competition to see who could accumulate the most peppers in the shortest time. There was also an adware version; you could have free, but crippled, email, you could have full-featured but expensive, email, or you could have full-featured email with a honking great ad in the corner, an ad which detected if something was in front of it and screamed bloody murder; at the time, there were certain popular Mac add-ons which put small floating things up on screen, one of which was normally exactly where Eudora put its ads, giving the users the choice of a useful add-on and a crippled Eudora, or a working Eudora but no add-on. I picked no Eudora and went with an email client which understood IMAP and didn't try to feed me ads and peppers.
Hmm. Gee. MS is trying to feed its users ads and censorship. Hmm.
Microsoft...
****!
The ****ing ******'s ****ing ****!
Co-pilot
So when is the option to uninstall the above pile of **** coming - I reckon that maybe number 1, and number 2 to remove from office and revert licenses
Mostly off-topic, but how do you get Android (on Samsun) to transcribe and swipe fuck, shit, damn, bitch, and other such words from my vocabulary.
Could Latinise the Anglo-Saxon profanities instead of asterisks
"this ******* phone is a ******* piece of ****" might translate as
"This fornicating phone a fornicating piece of faeces."
Which would not require a a fornicating LLM with a trillion sanguinary weights.
Much more sanguinary genteel. No?
The other four letter Anglo-Saxon obscenity (no not "work") is not sufficiently dissimilar in Latin unless one presses "vulva" into service. I daresay I could have phrased that better but English (people and language) when dealing with the prurient and prudish can be a right vulva at times and sanguineously irritating,
I recall Eudora (fortunately confined to the "special" people using (classic) Macs) and having to run qpopper alongside imapd just to keep the peace. At the time everyone else telneted to a Unix host from a Win9x box and ran Pine. A lot less need for naughty step asterisks in those innocent days but a lot less provocation too.
I suppose a profanity filter leads to indexing problems by not distinguishing between ****** and ****** which are obviously two completely different words.