Earlier today, Microsoft pushed out a new update for Windows 10. Since updates are mandatory in the new OS, it’s likely you already have it installed.

So what does it do? Microsoft isn’t saying. There’s no detailed information on its purpose, and the vague descriptions that do exist are conflicting.

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The US government has lost its bid to overturn a previous ruling which stated it could not force companies to hand over customer data that is stored on servers outside the US.

The government's appeal stems from a ruling back in July when it lost a case in which it was trying to obtain customer data from Microsoft. It was seen as a win for privacy at the time, but the government thought the ruling could stand in the way of law enforcement. A vote by the second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan means that an appeal will not be heard.

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Microsoft is no stranger to pissing people off, particularly when it comes to Windows 10. There have been endless cries about forced updates, complaints about ads, moaning about privacy, and now the CEO of Vivaldi has lashed out at the company for its anti-competitive practices with Microsoft Edge.

Jon von Tetzchner says that Microsoft has forgotten about the "actual real-life people that use technology in their daily lives." He takes particular umbrage at Windows 10's continued insistence of resetting the default browser to Edge.

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While there is a lot to love about Surface Pro 4, the price tag can be a little off-putting to would-be buyers. Microsoft has clearly heard the complaints about pricing and has introduced a cheaper option.

For the first time, it is now possible to buy a Surface Pro 4 without a pen, shaving a not-insignificant $100 off the usual price. Somewhat strangely only one model is available without the pen, but this is something that could change further down the line. Even if you want a pen, buying without actually works out cheaper!

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When extolling the virtues of Windows 10, Microsoft is keen to stress how much safer the new OS is.

The problem, of course, is that the weakest link in any security chain is pretty much always the user. Microsoft is introducing a new feature to Windows 10 that will make the OS more secure, and help users make better decisions.

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Over time your hard drive can get clogged up with leftover junk, including temporary files, cookies, cached internet data and file fragments. You can remove this clutter manually, use a tool like CCleaner, or make use of the built-in Windows Disk Clean-up tool.

In the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft is introducing a new feature called Storage Sense which can automatically free up disk space. You don’t need to wait for the Creators Update to try it though.

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Microsoft is aiming for April for the Windows 10 Creators Update, so is rushing out new builds for Insiders to try. Last week we got not one but two new releases on the Fast ring -- Build 15002, which introduced a wealth of changes and new features, and Build 15007, which also introduced a fair amount of new functionality.

The latest release, Build 15014 fixes a ton of issues from the previous two builds, but also introduces some exciting new features.

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At the end of last week, Microsoft Germany published a post waving an early goodbye to Windows 7, and stating that the aging OS can "no longer keep up with the increased security requirements", and sticking with it could prove costly for users and businesses.

The software giant’s solution for Windows 7 users worried about security was, naturally, to switch to Windows 10. But, having faced an inevitable backlash from Windows 7 users and security experts, the company has pulled the post.

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If you’re a Windows 10 user, you’ll be no stranger to Microsoft’s adverts which appear all throughout the operating system, including on the Start menu, and the Lock screen. As I wrote a week ago, Microsoft is planning on introducing even more adverts in the Creators Update.

The latest ad to appear is for one of Microsoft’s Chrome extensions, and it arrives -- appropriately enough -- above the Chrome icon on the taskbar. The browser doesn’t need to be open at the time.

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As part of its new "3D for Everyone" strategy, Microsoft has announced that it will acquire the 3D optimization vendor Simplygon.

The company's corporate vice president of Next Gen Experiences Kudo Tsunoda revealed the acquisition intended to help boost its own 3D efforts. The Swedish company Simplygon will play a large role in allowing Microsoft to simplify the process of allowing its users to capture, create and share in 3D.

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Microsoft and Linux used to be like oil and water. In more recent years, however, the Windows-maker has embraced that kernel and other open source technologies too.

Today, Microsoft announces the addition of Intel's Clear Linux OS to Azure Marketplace. In other words, users of the company's cloud platform can set up a virtual machine using this distribution in addition to existing Linux-based operating systems.

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Google has one, Apple has one, Amazon has one, so Microsoft seems to feel that it should have one too. We're talking ebook stores, and a leaked version of Windows Mobile reveals that this is something that is due to be added to the Windows Store.

While Microsoft has been slowly but surely building up its store ecosystem, the focus has been mainly on apps so far, with music and video thrown in for good measure. With the company having fairly recently added EPUB support to Microsoft Edge, the arrival of ebooks is perhaps not entirely surprising, but Microsoft is very late to the party.

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Linux and Windows living happily side-by-side is not something many people would have predicted, but Windows 10 Anniversary Update saw the arrival of Bash on Ubuntu thanks to the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Not everyone was happy with Microsoft's choice of Ubuntu, with many preferring a different flavour of Linux.

Senior Product Manager for SUSE Linux Enterprise, Hannes Kühnemund, is -- unsurprisingly -- one of those whose taste buds were not tantalized by Ubuntu. He would rather you ran SUSE on Windows 10. In fact he doesn't just want this to happen, he tells you how to do it -- specifically with openSUSE Leap 42.2 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 -- so you too can run Linux binaries natively on Windows.

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Last week was a bumper week for Windows 10 Insiders on the Fast ring. First Microsoft rolled out Build 15002, which introduced a wealth of changes and new features, and then a few days later it followed it up with Build 15007.

While 15007, for PC and Mobile, didn’t leave us quite as shaken and stirred as the previous build, it still had some interesting new additions -- and more than we originally knew. It also included some rather major problems which are only just now being acknowledged.

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Now that Windows 10 build 15007 is available for Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring, we're really starting to get a proper look at where Microsoft is going with the impending Creators Update release. We've already seen how the company is pushing 3D and augmented reality, but it has not forgotten about gamers.

Proclaiming that "2017 is going to be a monumental year for gaming at Microsoft", the Windows maker has taken the wraps off Game Mode. The promise that this special mode will increase the performance of PC games is something that will be welcomed by gamers the world over. But there's more to look forward to as well.

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