Wayne Williams

Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18334, gives Insiders the chance to play State of Decay for free

State of decay

Insider builds for the next feature update of Windows 10 are rolling out on a weekly basis, and while much of the emphasis is on usability and bug squashing, Microsoft is still adding functionality to the OS.

In Build 18334, released today, the focus is on gaming improvements, and Insiders get the chance to play State of Decay for free. There is a catch though.

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Use this sneaky trick to get access to Windows 10 19H2 Skip Ahead builds

Thumbs up

Most Windows Insiders choose to be on the Fast ring, as they get to test new features when they arrive. The more cautious Insiders might choose to be on the Slow or Release Preview rings.

For those who want to be on the bleeding edge, however, there’s the Skip Ahead ring, which lets Insiders go from the current preview (in this case 19H1 -- the April 2018 Update) to the next one (19H2 -- the October 2019 Update). Microsoft reopened the Skip Ahead ring a week ago, but as always there were limited places for it, and it closed a few days later. However, with a simple registry tweak you can ensure you receive Skip Ahead builds.

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Flickr extends deadline, gives free users longer to download their photos

Windows relief

Under Yahoo, Flickr gave free users a whopping 1TB of storage for their photos, but new owner SmugMug was never going to be as generous. Three months ago the site announced its free plan would be changing, and non-paying users would be limited to storing a maximum of 1,000 photos online.

The cutoff for users to download their images or risk losing them forever was yesterday, February 5, but there’s some good news for anyone who failed to take action prior to then, as well as those who found themselves struggling to complete the export by the deadline as a result of Flickr only allowing 500 images to be saved at a time. 

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Get 'Mastering Linux Security and Hardening' ($23 value) FREE for a limited time

Linux Security

Mastering Linux Security and Hardening is a comprehensive guide to preventing your Linux system from getting compromised.

This book from Packt Publishing has extensive coverage of techniques that will help prevent attackers from breaching your system, by building a much more secure Linux environment.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18329 with new 'Top apps' Search feature

Top apps

Another week, another new Windows 10 build rolls out to Insiders on the Fast ring (although not for users in certain parts of the world -- more on this later).

Although we’re edging closer to 19H1’s official release, Build 18329 sill manages to introduce a couple of new features.

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Windows 10 consolidates its lead over Windows 7

Happy user

While other analyst firms, such as StatCounter, had Windows 10 overtaking Windows 7 sometime ago, it took until the end of December 2018 for NetMarketShare to show the new OS overtaking its predecessor.

With NetMarketShare’s figures, which show usage share, there was always the danger that Windows 7 might regain the lead (albeit temporarily) in January, but that never happened and Windows 10 is now comfortably ahead.

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Most people are still avoiding the Windows 10 October 2018 Update

Saying no

Even the staunchest Microsoft supporter has to admit that the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, aka Windows 10 1809, was something of a disaster. It caused multiple problems for users, including deleting personal data, and even after Microsoft pulled the update and fixed some problems, more issues surfaced once it was re-released.

It took until the middle of January for the update to start its phased rollout, three months after its initial release, so it should come as no surprise to hear that comparatively few Windows 10 users are running it.

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Kodi 18 'Leia' is officially available -- download it NOW!

Kodi 18

The Kodi Foundation pushed out the fifth and final Release Candidate of Kodi 18 two weeks ago, and after some minor bug fixes and improvements, the hugely popular cross-platform home theater software is finally judged ready for prime time.

If you’ve been waiting patiently for the official stable release of the new Kodi, the great news is you can download it now.

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Feast your eyes on how Apple's iOS 13 should look

iOS13

With iOS 12, much of Apple’s focus was on performance, but there were also updates to Siri, key apps, ARKit 2, Animoji, Memoji and much more. We won’t get our first official look at its successor, iOS 13, for a few months yet, but if you’d like to see how it should look, we’ve got this stunning video to wow you.

It takes everything we like about iOS 12, but improves on it.

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Get WinX DVD Ripper Platinum (worth $67.95) FREE for a limited time

winx dvd

If you want to rip and copy any DVD disc, ISO image, or DVD folders to hard drive, computer, mobile device or digital formats, then WinX DVD Ripper Platinum v8.9.0 is the perfect tool for the job.

It usually retails for $67.95, but for a limited time BetaNews readers can get it entirely free.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18323 with Light Theme improvements

Windows-10 key

This week’s new Windows 10 19H1 build was slightly delayed due to an outage in Microsoft’s build publishing system which meant it took a few hours to begin rolling out to Insiders on the Fast ring.

Build 18323 includes improved RAW image format support and a better Light Theme, as well as a large number of fixes.

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Microsoft Office 365 arrives in the Mac App Store for the first time

Office-365-now-available-on-mac-app-store-01242019

Although there are lots of office suites to choose from, including plenty of free offerings, Microsoft Office remains the most popular choice.

For Mac users, previously the only way to get Microsoft Office was by going to Microsoft's website and downloading it from there. Now though, Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps are available to download directly from the Mac App Store.

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This is the redesigned File Explorer that Windows 10 should have

File Explorer hero

Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but it’s not exactly attractive. Microsoft is attempting to spice things up a little with its Fluent Design language, but it’s never going to deliver the "Wow" factor.

File Explorer is one of the blander elements of Windows 10, but a brand new concept shows us what it could look like.

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Windows 10 users can now get Fedora Remix for WSL

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Indie open-source startup Whitewater Foundry debuted WLinux for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) four months ago. This new, open source Linux distribution, based on Debian stable, was specially optimized for WSL.

Now the company is back with a 'remix' of the popular Fedora Linux distribution for WSL that can be installed directly from the Microsoft Store.

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Microsoft announces seven new low-cost Windows 10 devices for education, and a new Classroom Pen

18_Notebook_300E_Hero_Watch

Chromebooks have found a welcoming home in the education section, muscling in on what has traditionally been Windows territory. Naturally, Microsoft is fighting back, and at this year’s annual BETT conference in London, it announced that 1 million Windows 10 devices are being used by students in K-12 and higher education every month.

The software giant also took the opportunity to introduce a raft of new Windows 10 devices aimed at students, including two brand new 2-in1 devices from Acer and Lenovo that are priced from under $300.

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