Gamers can be a demanding bunch, and in many regards Windows 10 has been something of a disappointment as a gaming platform. While Microsoft has used Windows 10 to merge the worlds of PC and Xbox One gaming, Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games have been somewhat crippled by crappy frame rates.

Today this changes. Microsoft is pushing out an update that allows developers to take advantage of unlocked frame rates in UWP titles just as they can with Win32 games. In addition to ramping up frame rates, the update means that developers will also be able to take advantage of AMD's FreeSync and NVIDIA's G-Sync technologies.

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There’s a big Anniversary Update coming to Windows 10 in July and, in preparation for that, Windows Insiders have been receiving regular new builds packed with new features and improvements.

If you aren’t part of the Insider Preview program, and you’re running the standard version of Windows, there’s a cumulative update available today that will update your OS build to 10586.318. Unfortunately, some people are reporting it’s causing serious slowdowns.

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Both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are starting to ask the questions that Android users have been asking for years: why do updates and upgrades take so long to roll out?

If you're in possession of a flagship or recent handset, the chances are you're in line to receive timely updates for the foreseeable future. But Android's fragmentation means that older handsets quickly drop off the radar, get forgotten and remain unpatched. The FCC and the FTC both want to know why security patches are slow to hit phones, and the agencies have launched separate, but parallel, investigations.

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It was reported on Friday morning that Microsoft has invested in Pivotal, a San Francisco-based cloud-computing company. Besides Microsoft, Ford was also announced as a major investor.

The media reported that Pivotal’s Series C funding round hit $253 million, with Ford contributing with $182.2 million. It is not known exactly how much money Microsoft poured into the company. We do know, however, that the company’s value now sits at $2.8 billion.

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Extensions, or the lack thereof, have been stumbling block for many would-be Microsoft Edge users. Support for add-ons has finally arrived, bringing with it the potential for something people have been asking for since Edge first appeared -- the ability to block ads.

It had previously been thought that Edge might feature native ad blocking, but this turned out to be a matter of poor communication from Microsoft. We've already shown you a slightly bodged-together way of blocking ads in Edge, but now Adblock Plus and AdBlock extensions have been officially released to the Windows Store.

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The free ride is coming to an end. Windows 10 was always going to be free for the first year after release, and this year is up on 29 July. There are, of course, still ways to get your hands on Windows 10 for free beyond this date.

One way is to buy a new PC with Windows 10 installed, although not many people would regard this as a free upgrade. But Microsoft has also confirmed that people with accessibility needs will still be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free after the deadline.

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When it comes to sports teams, marketing is everything. You have to sell tickets, merchandise and get the deals for TV coverage, though the latter is usually covered by a deal with the league. Now the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers is teaming up with Microsoft in an effort to obtain the data it needs to increase its revenue.

To accomplish that goal the team is turning big data and the power of the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft's digital assistant.

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My knowledge of horses doesn't extend much past watching Mr. Ed on "Nick at Nite" (Hello, Wilbur) as a kid. Equestrian activities are often reserved for the wealthy and gamblers -- two things I am not. I did go to OTB (Off-track betting) a couple of years ago to bet on a horse named after Tony Danza, but I digress.

One of the most popular horse racing events is the Kentucky Derby. Microsoft's Bing is now focusing its predictability-powers on it. Bing Predicts has been quite succesful in the past -- could this help folks win some money?

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LG today announced that the US government has certified its G5 and V10 flagship Android smartphones for enterprise and military use. The testing was conducted by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), which verifies the compliance of products with the "Common Criteria" international security standard, which is said to be recognized by 25 countries.

Although LG is only boasting about the two aforementioned handsets, NIAP's test results show that G4, its flagship from last year, is also fit for use in enterprise and military sectors, when running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. NIAP's stamp of approval was received on April 14.

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Microsoft has just announced that it has acquired the IoT service Solair -- based out of Italy -- though the financial details surrounding the transaction have yet to be released.

The company was founded in 2011 and it uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to deliver its services. This will allow Solair to easily be integrated into the Azure IoT suite.

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Microsoft today stated that the free upgrade period for Windows 10 will end on July 29 and after that if you want the new OS, your options are to buy a new PC running it, or to purchase a copy for $119.

If you have no interest in Windows 10, and are happy to stay with Windows 7, or 8.1, the good news is the end of the free period will also mean no more nagging to upgrade to the new OS. Or it will reduce at least, as the software giant will be removing the 'Get Windows 10' app from systems.

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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 castrated some of the capabilities of Windows 10 Pro admins looking to lock down the computers they manage. The company is removing the ability to block access to the Windows Store using Group Policy Editor.

The option will still be available to those running Education or Enterprise versions of Windows 10. It means that businesses who have come to rely on this option as part of their security regime will have to consider upgrading to a different version of Windows 10.

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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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