Microsoft

Thu
05
Nov
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 1809 to Lose Security Support

Microsoft has warned users who haven't updated Windows 10 for a couple of years that they will soon face increased security risks. It's about to withdraw support for Windows 10 version 1809, having extended it during the initial stages of the ... COVID-19 pandemic. Version 1809 was the second major update of the year in late 2018. It was also known as the "Windows 10 October 2018 Update." Work-From-Home Changed Plans For those of you who find it easier to track Windows 10 Feature Updates by their signature bugs, version 1809 was the update that deleted some personal files during the upgrade, as ... (view more)

Wed
04
Nov
John Lister's picture

Microsoft Warns of Major Windows Update Bug

Microsoft has warned users not to install the latest major update by anything other than the automated process. Methods such as downloading the update onto USB drives or DVDs could cause significant problems thanks to a bug. The issue affects the ... Windows 10 October 2020 Update, also known as 20H2 (version 2009, and build 19042). This is officially the second major update this year. It's currently available automatically through Windows Update, though is being gradually released to different people at different times rather than sent out to everyone at once. Officially that's to avoid ... (view more)

Tue
27
Oct
John Lister's picture

Microsoft Reroutes Internet Explorer to Edge

Microsoft is doing its level best to kill off Internet Explorer. Users of the browser will soon find many key websites automatically open in the Edge browser instead. There hasn't been a new edition of Internet Explorer since 2013 and it's ... understandable many people would think it had died out altogether with Microsoft putting all its efforts into Edge instead. However, Statcounter estimates that more than 2.5 percent of desktop and laptop computers are running Internet Explorer. It's harder to estimate the total number of computers, but it's plausible the number of people using Internet ... (view more)

Tue
20
Oct
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 Brings MS Office Start Menu Surprise

Microsoft has added links to Office web apps on Windows 10 computers without asking permission. It's more of an irritation than a damaging problem, but it's certainly safe to say some folks are irritated. The links appear to have been added by an ... automatic update, with some users reporting their computer restarted without warning and they lost some work that hadn't been saved. (Users can set Windows 10 to only restart automatically at set times such as during the night to stop this happening.) The links appear in the Start Menu alongside other apps as a single tile that contains several small ... (view more)

Mon
19
Oct
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Windows 10 Start Up Process To Change

Microsoft is to warn Windows 10 users when an app will start up automatically when they start their computer. The move is designed to prevent the start up process being slowed down against the user's wishes. Users already have the ability to ... manually decide whether an app starts up automatically when they switch on their computer. The change is to the way apps are set when they are originally installed. Which apps should start up automatically is a balancing act. With some it's important to start up automatically for functionality purposes, such as having anti-malware software running right ... (view more)

Thu
08
Oct
John Lister's picture

How to Disable Bing Results in Windows Search

Windows 10 users can once again disable Bing Internet results from showing up in the Windows search taskbar. Unfortunately, it involves editing the Registry rather than changing a settings menu. One of the "improvements" of Windows 10 is a combined ... search function. Users who type in a search through the Start menu will not only see results from the computer itself (for example, matching filenames) but also website results retrieved from Microsoft's Bing search engine. While theoretically this could be useful in some cases, some users find it frustrating or intrusive, particularly with the ... (view more)

Thu
24
Sep
John Lister's picture

Office 2019 Won't Be Last Of Its Kind

Microsoft is releasing a new "buy it once" version of Office. It's a surprise follow-up to Office 2019 and is an alternative to the ongoing subscription of Office 365. Right now very little is known about the new product as it's only come to light ... through a single line in a blog post that's otherwise about business tools Microsoft Exchange. That line reads: "Microsoft Office will also see a new perpetual release for both Windows and Mac, in the second half of 2021." (Source: microsoft.com ) A perpetual release is another way of saying that users only have to pay once to purchase the software ... (view more)

Wed
02
Sep
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 Bug Could Strain Hard Drives

Microsoft is testing a fix for a bug that could theoretically shorten the lifespan of some hard drives. The bug means Windows 10 was mistakenly running the defrag tool more frequently than designed. Defragging has long been available as a way to ... make hard drives run more efficiently. It deals with the problem that when a computer deletes a file, it leaves empty physical space behind on the drive. The next time it writes a new file it will look for the first available suitable sized space. Over time this can lead to wasted gaps on the physical drive. In turn, this means traditional hard drives ... (view more)

Tue
01
Sep
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 Update Schedule Could Change

Microsoft is reportedly planning to only have one major update to Windows 10 next year. It could be a permanent switch and appears inspired by requests to have Microsoft spend more time testing updates before releasing it to the public. The idea ... with Windows 10, sometimes dubbed 'Software as a Service', was to ditch the old model of releasing a totally new version of Windows every few years. Instead, Microsoft has based updates around a mix of security updates (either monthly or as needed for the most serious problems), monthly tweaks and fixes, and then two major updates each year. New ... (view more)

Tue
11
Aug
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 Cut and Paste to Get Overhaul

Users who regularly cut and paste in Windows may appreciate a forthcoming improvement. Windows 10 is getting an enhanced clipboard that makes it easier to find items other than text. The clipboard feature isn't widely publicized, but is already ... useful before the update. While pressing CTRL + V pastes text, pressing the Windows key + V opens the clipboard. This lets users quickly access the last 25 things they pasted, something that's particularly useful when working on multiple documents or heavily editing. However, the clipboard only stores items once the user switches on permission for it ... (view more)

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