Wayne Williams

When Microsoft announced Windows 10 back in 2014, it confused people in a couple of ways. Firstly, everyone was expecting it to be called Windows 9, and, secondly, when Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of Operating Systems said the OS would be free for the "first year", which left pretty much everyone wondering what that actually meant.

Talk of "Windows as a service" had people thinking that Windows 10 might follow the same yearly subscription model as Office 365, but as we now know, that wasn’t the case. Windows 10 is currently a free upgrade to users of Windows 7 and 8.1, but that offer is drawing to a close.

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Microsoft has gone on record as saying it wants to get Windows 10 on a billion devices in 2-3 years. It’s made good headway so far, helped by making the new OS a free upgrade for users on Windows 7 and 8.1, and also by labeling it as a 'recommended' update so it automatically installs on some systems. Whether the user wants it or not.

A lot has been written about Microsoft’s aggressive promotional tactics, but they certainly seem to be paying off, as even though adoption has slowed lately, Windows 10 has found its way on to a lot of systems.

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Microsoft has made a change to an update for Windows 7 that can prevent certain systems from booting. While you might expect me to say, "good news, the software giant has fixed the problem", in fact what Microsoft has done is switch the update from "optional", to "recommended". So, on some systems, it will now install, and break Windows 7 automatically.

There is good news though, and that’s you can solve the problem and get your computer working again by (can you guess?) upgrading to Windows 10. Hooray!

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Last week a Windows 10 forced upgrade did its best to ruin a weather forecast on live television, and this week the new operating system started an update right in the middle of a gaming session being streamed live on Twitch.

During the stream of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, full-time pro-gamer Erik "fl0m" Flom was rudely interrupted as Windows 10 decided that mid-game -- in front of 130,000 or so followers -- would be the best time to start an update.

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I love my iPhone 6s, but the battery life often isn’t as good as I would like. On most days I can make it through to the late evening before the device requires charging, but occasionally it needs a bit of a boost before then. The Low Power mode built into iOS 9 comes in handy, but like most people I’d rather just have longer battery life.

While carrying around a power pack saves the day when I’m out and about and away from a charging point, it’s a bit of pain having to lug it around. This is where ThinCharge comes in handy -- it’s a battery pack built into a thin case.

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Microsoft Edge, the default web browser in Windows 10, has potential, but there’s still a long way to go until it can rival the likes of Firefox or Chrome.

Microsoft is working hard on improving the browser however, and recently introduced support for extensions, although there aren’t many to choose from at the moment. There are plans for an Adblock Plus extension in the future, but if you want to block ads in the browser now, there is a way of doing this.

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Last year, Microsoft announced plans to drop the free OneDrive storage amount from 15GB down to 5GB, and also discontinue the 15GB camera roll bonus.

Earlier this week we learned that the software giant will be putting this plan into action from July, which means if you’re currently using more than 5GB of storage you will either have to remove some files to get under the new limit, or upgrade to a paid plan. But hold on a minute. Before you do either, there is a third option which you can use to keep your free storage at 15GB.

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Ever since Microsoft made Windows 10 a recommended update there have been numerous reports of the new operating system installing itself without user consent, and without much warning.

Microsoft has always played down this behavior, but an example of how the OS pushes upgrades on unsuspecting users was earlier today shown live on TV during a weather forecast.

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The past two Windows 10 Insider Preview releases -- Builds 14316 and 14328 -- have been packed with new features and notable changes.

The very latest Fast ring release, Build 14332, marks the start of the Bug Bash, in which Windows Insiders will be set quests to help Microsoft eradicate problems and fix flaws in the OS in preparation for the big Anniversary Update out in July. However, the new build is not only about fixes, there are some new features and improvements too.

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Apple users will be familiar with Handoff. This feature lets you start working on one Apple device -- be it a Mac, iPad or iPhone -- and then pick up where you left off on another, provided the devices are within Bluetooth range of each other.

At Build 2016, Microsoft talked about its plans to introduce a Handoff-style feature to Windows 10, codename Project Rome, and the first glimpse of this has appeared in the latest build for Windows Insiders.

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In November last year, Microsoft announced that it would be cutting back on the amount of free storage offered to OneDrive users, taking the base storage figure from 15GB to 5GB, and discontinuing the 15GB camera roll storage bonus. Office 365 Home, Personal, and University users were also informed that they would no longer get unlimited storage, and some paid tiers were to be removed too.

After an outcry from outraged OneDrive users, Microsoft backtracked and permitted users with 15GB of OneDrive space to keep their base storage quota and camera roll bonus, even after the changes rolled out, but only provided they acted before January 31 2016. If you didn’t take action before then, you’ve probably been wondering exactly when you were going to lose your storage. Well, now we know.

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The Raspberry Pi itself has been refreshed several times since it first launched in 2012, but the 5-megapixel camera module has remained unchanged since it was introduced three years ago.

That changes today however, as everyone’s favorite Pi add-on finally gets a long overdue update.

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One of the big changes Microsoft introduced in Windows 10 was mandatory updates. It’s easy to see why the software giant believed this was a good idea -- reducing the number of unpatched systems is great news for everyone -- but it does mean when a bad update is released by Microsoft, everyone installs it.

Case in point is two new updates released this month that have created problems for some users.

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It’s been a couple of weeks since Windows Insiders on the Fast ring got a new build of Windows 10 for PC. A PCI bug prevented a promising build from being released sooner, but the problem has been fixed, and so today Build 14328 arrives for both PC and Mobile.

The past few Windows 10 Fast ring releases have debuted some great new features, and Build 14328 is no different, introducing, among other features, Windows Ink, a wealth of Cortana improvements, and a new Start experience.

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I don’t use the Windows Calculator very often, but occasionally I need to work something out and so fire it up. Today, upon opening the calculator, I was presented with a message asking me to rate the app in the Windows Store. If I was enjoying it. Which of course I wasn’t. It is a calculator after all, and the only time I’ve ever enjoyed using one of those was as a teenager when I typed in "5318008" and turned it upside down. Even the enjoyment of doing that was very short lived.

Now, the Windows 10 calculator begging for user ratings in the Windows Store isn’t a new phenomenon. A thread on Reddit discussed this some months ago, but this is the first time I’ve experienced it for myself, and obviously three months after it was first flagged as a nuisance, it’s still going on. Seriously who at Microsoft thought this was a good idea?

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