Articles about Microsoft

Earlier in the week, Microsoft rolled out a new Windows 10 build for Insiders on the Dev Channel, introducing quick access to tabs on pinned sites, the ability to reset UWP apps via PowerShell, and more.

Today, the software giant delivers a new build to those on the Beta Channel (what used to be the Slow ring), with the main new change affecting the Start menu, but there's a lot more than just that.

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Three-hundred-and-ninety-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Some Windows 10 users noticed after the installation of a recent update for Windows 10 that certain applications, Notepad and Paint in particular, were no longer available on their system. Mark explains how these can be restored here.

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Windows 10 comes with a large number of bundled apps, some of which you may find useful, but most of which you’ll never use and which just consume disk space unnecessarily.

There are a number of ways to remove these -- you may be able to do so through the Windows uninstaller, or using a third-party tool. But you usually need to know what the bundled apps are, and then have to go through the process of removing them one at a time, meaning you’ll probably miss a few. Thankfully there’s an easy way to batch-remove all of this unwanted bloat.

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Last week, Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 Insider Build 20170 to the Dev Channel with sound and search improvements, but unfortunately the test build wasn’t available to those running PCs with AMD processors due to a bug affecting overall usability.

Today the software giant releases Build 20175 with a number of new features, and the good news is it’s available to everyone, including those on AMD systems.

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Microsoft has given us a sneaky glimpse into the future, showing off some of the design changes that are coming to its Office apps. The company has revealed the updated UX that Microsoft 365 users can expect to see.

In addition to introducing a more muted color palette and fully embracing the Fluent Design language, Microsoft is also making some key changes to the ribbon. Part of this involves incorporating AI into the software so that a more flexible ribbon can contextually adapt to what you are doing.

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Since adopting the Chromium engine, Microsoft Edge has been making great progress and gained a batch of new features that place it head and shoulders above its predecessor. Now in an update addressing the feedback received from people on the Edge Insider program, Microsoft has revealed some of the new features that are coming to the browser.

The company has also reiterated that Edge is coming to Linux, but it's the new additions that are of more interest at the moment. Setting out the timetable of features currently being worked on, Microsoft reveals that the option to synchronize browsing history between devices is on the horizon.

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Microsoft has released a couple of updates that address range of problems in Windows 10 caused by previous updates.

Having already acknowledged that the KB4556799 update led to LTE connectivity issues for some people, the company has now released KB4559004 to fix this and other problems. This update also addresses issues with Magnifier and File Explorer, while another update, KB4559003, fixes a large number of other problems.

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Some people who have upgraded to Windows 10 version 2004 (or Windows 10 May 2020 Update) are experiencing a strange issue with their internet connections.

A problem has cropped up with the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) that sits in the taskbar. Affected users complain that the icon indicate that there is no internet connection available, and Microsoft is at a loss to explain what is going on.

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Numerous people who have upgraded to Windows 10 May 2020 Update are seeing ESENT warnings, as well as suffering problems with reduced performance.

Users looking at the Event Viewer see multiple ESENT warnings with the event ID 642. In addition to seeing these warnings, some people are complaining of reduce game performance in titles such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Call of Duty: Warzone.

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Historically, Microsoft was an enemy of the open source community. In more recent years, however, the Windows-maker has become an ally. In fact, under the leadership of Satya Nadella, it can be said that Microsoft is now an open source champion! Crazy, right?

If you want proof, look no further than Windows Subsystem for Linux. I mean, Linux is pretty much inside of Windows now. Not to mention, Microsoft is a huge contributor to open source projects. Hell, the Windows-maker even bought GitHub! And now, the company takes things even further. You see, Microsoft has ported the Windows Procmon tool to Linux.

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It's only a couple of weeks since Microsoft released PowerToys v0.19.0, and the company has now pushed out its second bug-fixing update to the collection of utilities.

Just last week, v0.19.1 addressed a range of issues with the Windows 10 tool collection, and now v0.19.2 has landed. Among the changes are fixes for PowerToys Run and FancyZone, and it also addresses an issue that caused high CPU usage.

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Microsoft's track record with updates for Windows has been a little wobbly of late, with many updates introducing problems, or creating more issues than they fix. But it seems that it is not just the famous operating system that is jinxed -- Outlook is too.

Following reports from users that the Outlook desktop app was crashing with a 0xc0000005 error, Microsoft launched an investigation. While the company is now in the processing of pushing out a fix, a workaround has been shared online for those affected.

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Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out a new Windows 10 Build to the Beta Channel (what used to be the Slow ring) and today the software giant follows that up with a new flight on the Dev Channel (previously the Fast ring).

Build 20170 introduces a couple of new features, but won’t be offered to Insiders running PCs with AMD processors due to a bug affecting overall usability.

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These days it is hardly uncommon to find that an update for Windows 10 ends up breaking something, but the latest problematic update is causing a strange issue by removing components of Windows itself.

Yesterday, Microsoft released KB4565503 to fix various bugs, including problems introduced by previous updates to the operating system. After installing this update, some users are reporting that the Notepad and Paint apps have been removed from their computers.

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On Patch Tuesday last month, Microsoft kept up its track record of problematic updates. Users who installed KB4557957 or KB4560960 found they were plagued by problems with the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) and forced restarts.

Now the company has pushed out a new update, KB4565503, to address these issues and more.

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