In the annals of technological history, few narratives are as enthralling as the creation and rise of Microsoft. This powerhouse has been instrumental in shaping our interaction with technology today and owes its inception to two young, passionate, and ambitious individuals: Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

In 1975, Gates and Allen, childhood friends hailing from Seattle, were captivated by the introduction of the MITS Altair 8800, a microcomputer that set their imaginations alight. They envisioned transforming this piece of technology into something more user-friendly and accessible to the everyday person. Their innovative idea was to design a programming language that would simplify interaction with the computer.

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A few months back, we learned of Microsoft's new Windows Backup app. At the time it was only made available to users of Windows 11 signed up as Insiders on the Dev channel.

Now this handy utility is making its way to Windows 10 as well. For now, it is included in the build pushed to the Release Preview Channel last week, but this means it won't be long until Window 10 users have access to an official backup tool from Microsoft which is about more than just safeguarding files.

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Five-hundred-and-fifty-five in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Soon, Windows 11 users will be able to uninstall the Cortana application. Microsoft announced the deprecation of the app, in favor of Windows Copilot and other AI-integrations, this week.

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With the latest Canary build of Windows 11, Microsoft is at it again, hiding new features for anyone who knows where to look. In Windows 11 build 25926, it is a new section in the Settings app that has been secreted away.

Added with no announcement, and no mention in the release notes, a hidden System Components section in Settings can be enabled with the likes of ViVeTool or Microsoft’s own StagingTool. It provides a list of Windows 11's built-in apps and tools, and allows many to be uninstalled.

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Yesterday, Microsoft rolled a new flight to Windows 11 Insiders in the Canary Channel. Today the company has a new build for those on the Dev Channel.

Build 23521 introduces a number of changes and improvements, as well as fixes for known problems.

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Microsoft has announced the availability of the public preview of Windows 365 Switch. The utility makes it easy for Windows 11 users to jump between a Windows 365 Cloud PC and the local desktop.

The company highlights the benefits of the feature to BYOD scenarios, pointing to a seamless experience from within Windows 11 via the Task view feature. Using Windows 365 Switch, switching between a Cloud PC and a local desktop can be achieved with keyboard commands, as well as a mouse-click or a swipe gesture.

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Microsoft today releases a new Windows 11 flight for those Windows Insiders who like to live on the cutting edge.

Canary build 25926 comes with new features from the Dev Channel, such as improvements for Windows Ink, advanced screen casting, and local file sharing tweaks, as well as a number of other changes and improvements.

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Microsoft has released a large new cumulative update for Windows 11 in the form of the KB5029263 update.

As this release fixes a series of security issues in the operating system, everyone running Windows 11 22H2 should install it as soon as possible. KB5029263 is a mandatory update so it will be installed automatically -- eventually -- but it is important enough to justify taking manual action to ensure you have it immediately.

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Microsoft is steadily working to improve Windows 11 and, if the rumors are true, it's already developing the successor to that operating system, Windows 12.

Although we don't know too much about that forthcoming OS yet -- Microsoft hasn't even officially announced it -- it's widely expected to be built around the AI-powered Windows Copilot.

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With few people having just one email address nowadays, the problem of searching for email across two or more accounts is one that affects many users. Just last month, Microsoft announced an upcoming feature for its Outlook email client -- the ability to search across multiple email accounts simultaneously.

Now the company has had a change of heart, updating its plans to indicate that the handy option is now "postponed indefinitely".

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It's always fun to try and run old games and apps on modern versions of Windows, if only to see if you can, and how they'll look.

If that's not challenging enough, you could consider trying to run a really old version of Windows on hardware it was never intended for, such as a MacBook Air.

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It is not unknown for Microsoft to change the system requirements for its software, and this is something that applies to Windows 11.

Back in June, the company updated the list of processors from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. Now another update to Windows 11 system requirements means that large numbers of Intel CPUs are no longer supported -- 44 models in total.

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Cortana may have been Microsoft's response to Siri, but while Apple's digital assistant prevails, the Windows maker's offering has slipped into insignificance. Never much-loved by users, Microsoft's Cortana has been in its death throes for a while and now the company is finally moving on.

With the release of Windows 11 Build 25921 a few days ago, Microsoft has introduced the option to uninstall the Cortana app, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The company had already announced plans to stop supporting Cortana in Windows as a standalone app, and that time has now come. A Microsoft Store update is also being used to forcibly deprecate the tool.

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Earlier in the week, Microsoft rolled out a new Insider build for testers in the Dev Channel. Today, arriving just in time for the weekend, it delivers a new flight for those on the Canary Channel.

Windows 11 Build 25921 brings some interesting new features including HDR background support and rich thumbnail previews for cloud files on Start. It also lets users uninstall Cortana.

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Five-hundred-and-fifty-four in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft leaked its internal staging tool for a brief period this week. It works similarly to the open source tool ViVeTool, in that it gives administrators the option to enable or disable Windows features that are not enabled for all users at the time.

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