Wayne Williams

Windows 10 has a number of things that users find annoying about it, not least that it forces you to use other Microsoft products. Type a web query into the Windows search box, or ask Cortana something, and the results you receive will come from Bing.

Microsoft has recently replaced its old Edge browser with a Chromium version, and while this is a big improvement, the software giant has forced it onto users and made it hard (but thankfully not impossible) to remove.

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Microsoft has been teasing users with images of its refreshed Windows 10 Start menu for a while now, and you can finally try it out for yourself.

But that’s not all the software giant is changing in Windows 10. In addition to a much nicer looking Start menu, it’s introducing a personalized taskbar, an improved notification experience, and also adding extra features to Alt+Tab.

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Commodore’s VIC-20, the family-targeted successor to the PET, was announced in 1980 and became the first computer to sell over one million units.

If you grew up in the 1980s, it’s possible you owned one of these, and then maybe moved on to its follow-up, the Commodore 64. If you miss this "wonder computer", the good news is you can now buy a modern version of it, and unlike many other similar retro revivals this one is full size.

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The coronavirus pandemic has hit many traditional companies hard, and when things finally get back to normal -- whatever the new normal will look like -- we may be without various big name firms.

Microsoft, like Apple, has had physical retail stores for years, albeit on a smaller, less successful scale. If you want to try a product first hand, you can visit one of these locations, try the hardware out, and buy and leave with it, if you’re happy with your experience. But that’s all about to change as Microsoft is closing its physical retail stores globally, and focusing instead on online sales.

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Last week, Microsoft changed how future Windows 10 builds are served up to Insiders, with the Slow ring becoming the Beta Channel, and the Fast ring turning into the Dev Channel.

Today, the software giant releases its second flight to the Dev Channel. Build 20152 doesn’t come with any new features, but rather focuses on making general improvements.

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Windows 10 has been around for five years now, and although Microsoft has introduced a number of big changes over the years, the Start menu doesn't look hugely different from how it was when the OS debuted back in 2015.

That’s all about to change though. Microsoft is planning to overhaul the menu, and it’s released a number of new images to give us a clearer idea of how it will look.

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Microsoft is increasingly showing love to Linux, with the most obvious example of this being the inclusion of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10.

Today, the software giant announces the general availability of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for Linux systems.

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Yesterday, Microsoft released the first build from the Windows 10 20H2 branch to the Beta Channel -- what was previously the Slow ring.

Today, the software giant rolls out Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20150 to the Dev Channel -- that’s what used to the Fast ring. This build comes with a number of changes, but the headline additions are to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

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Change is coming to the Windows Insider Program. Yesterday Microsoft announced that it would be replacing its current ring system with channels, and today it rolls out the first build for the next big feature update of Windows 10, which it is officially calling 20H2.

Build 19042.330 (20H2) is arriving in the Beta Channel -- that’s what used to be the Slow ring -- but it won't be delivered to you automatically.

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Although it’s causing a bit of a trail of destruction in its wake for some users, the latest Windows 10 feature update -- version 2004, or the May 2020 Update -- is currently rolling out to compatible machines, and Microsoft is turning its attention to the follow up.

Windows 10, version 20H2 -- the next feature update’s official name -- will be released in the second half of this year, and Microsoft says it will be "delivered in an optimized way for anyone running the Windows 10 May 2020 Update". In other words, the next version will install like a monthly update for those on 2004.

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Windows Insiders currently have a choice of three test rings -- Fast, Slow, and Release Preview. The Fast ring sees the most releases -- typically one new build a week -- and these tend to be the least stable. Slow ring flights come out much less often, and are more reliable and less buggy. Release Preview is for those who want early access to servicing updates on released versions of Windows 10.

That’s how it’s been for years, but now Microsoft is gearing up to make a big change that focuses on the quality angle of builds and better supports parallel coding efforts.

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Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 7 five months ago, giving users a pretty stark choice -- switch to Windows 10, or stick with an aging operating system that the software giant is no longer supporting.

While the more sensible choice would be to upgrade to Windows 10, there are plenty of people who have avoided doing so for various reasons, not least that they just prefer how Windows 7 does things -- no Cortana, no forced Bing integration, no invasive telemetry…

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Who can forget the bad old days when Microsoft decided it knew best and forced Windows 10 upgrades on users without their consent? Windows 7 owners who left their systems alone for any length of time often returned to find they’d been 'upgraded' to Windows 10.

Thankfully those days are behind us, and now when Microsoft rolls out a Windows 10 feature update that’s compatible with your system, you can choose when to install it. Except, that is, when Windows 10 goes rogue and installs the latest update without warning.

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Although Windows 10 doesn’t spy on its users in the way it did when first launched, and people now have much greater control over their privacy settings, the truth is many users would prefer to tighten their control over the operating system further than Microsoft allows.

There are a number of great free third-party tools which let you boost your privacy and make various changes to the software, including removing annoying bundled software. That’s fine right? Not according to a lawsuit in which Microsoft says this is a breach of its license.

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Three months ago, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, the Internet Archive created a National Emergency Library with over 1.4 million books that you could borrow immediately.

By suspending waitlists for books in its lending library, the Internet Archive hoped to best serve the nation’s displaced learners. The plan at the time was to offer this Emergency Library "through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later".

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