Articles about Windows 10

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update was a real mess for Microsoft, not to mention for those users who installed it and lost their data. That feature update is back with Windows Insiders for further testing, and it likely won’t be long until it’s re-released.

In the meantime, Microsoft is busy working on the next feature update, due out next Spring (the Spring 2019 Update, perhaps?), and today the software giant releases a new build to Insiders on the Fast and Skip Ahead rings.

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The problems with the recent Windows 10 October 2018 Update have been well documented. If it wasn’t deleting your files, then it was stopping Edge working, and not playing nicely with display drivers.

Microsoft responded to the negative feedback by "pausing" the update after a matter of days, and went to work on addressing the problems, rolling out a new test version to Windows Insiders last week.

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Microsoft has had a tough time of it lately. The Windows 10 October 2018 Update deleted files for some users, introduced display audio problems, and broke Edge and Windows Store apps. It was so awful, that Microsoft was forced to pause the update, and send it back for testing.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, an Intel audio driver was incorrectly pushed to devices via Windows Update late last week, which unfortunately killed the audio for those who received it.

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

Microsoft fixed the file deletion issue of the October 2018 Update of Windows 10 and is testing the fix in Insider builds currently.

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You'd be forgiven for not having noticed, but Microsoft has quietly -- virtually silently, in fact -- increased the price of Windows 10 Home.

Previously available for $119.99, the operating system will now set you back $139 -- a $19.01 increase. While it's fair to say that the price increase of close to $20 won't affect too many people -- there are just a handful who don't either opt for an upgrade, or buy it pre-installed -- Microsoft did a great job of introducing the new price by stealth.

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Yesterday was supposed to be the day when the Windows 10 October 2018 Update started to properly roll out to users, but due to a number of well publicized problems, most notably with the OS deleting user data, Microsoft was forced to change its plans.

It "paused" the update last week in order to investigate the problems, and now has an updated version of Windows 10 1809 ready for Windows Insiders to test and provide feedback on.

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The purpose of the Windows Insider program is to let users test out pre-release versions of Windows 10 months in advance, so they can try out new features, and report problems.

In theory, this means when a new Windows 10 feature update rolls out to the public, all of the major bugs should have been squashed. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case, and occasionally really bad bugs -- like user personal data getting deleted by the update -- make it through the testing process. When something like this happens, it’s easy to think the issue simply failed to get picked up by Insiders, but actually that’s not the case.

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Following the footsteps of Microsoft Edge and Chrome, Firefox is -- at long last -- going to offer support for the delivery of notifications through Windows 10's Action Center.

The move will please many Firefox users as this is a highly-requested feature, and it brings Mozilla's web browser in line with its rivals. While there is no release date for the finished version of Firefox 64, Action Center notification support has already made its way into the nightly builds.

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Microsoft made its latest Windows 10 feature update available to download on Tuesday, and shortly afterwards the problems started. It didn’t play nicely with some Intel CPUs, Edge and Windows Store apps didn’t work for some users and, most damningly, the update was found to be deleting personal files.

In the face of so many problems, Microsoft had to do something, and it has. The update has been pulled.

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Every time Microsoft rolls out a new Windows 10 feature update we hear of problems being encountered by early adopters, even though the update undergoes serious testing through the Windows Insider program.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update only became officially available on Tuesday, and already it’s had to be blocked on certain Intel CPUs and, most damningly, it’s been found to be deleting user data (thankfully there’s a way to get the content back). Now it seems the new update is also causing problems with Microsoft Edge for some users.

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If you’ve recently updated your copy of Windows 10 to the very latest version -- the October 2018 Update -- you might have found that it wiped your documents, photos and other personal files.

If you’ve got a backup stored safely away, then the loss of your content won’t be so devastating, but if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world -- you might be able to recover the files removed by the upgrade.

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

Microsoft released the Windows 10 October 2018 Update on October 2 to the public. The update is not available for all systems yet -- it is blocked for certain Intel CPUs --and it has been reported that it causes data loss on some systems.

As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email.

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Windows 10 feature updates rarely roll out without some issues, but the Windows 10 October 2018 Update seems to be having more than its fair share. While some users are complaining the update has deleted their personal files, others are finding the upgrade has been blocked due to an incompatibility with systems running 6th generation (Skylake) or newer Intel processors.

The problem relates to Intel Display Audio device drivers and according to Microsoft, installing the latest feature update can result in "excessive power demand and reduced battery life."

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Although Windows 10 feature updates undergo a lot of testing via the Windows Insider program, it’s only once a new update gets released that any major unresolved problems come to light.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update is set to begin rolling out officially next week, but anyone can install it now via Windows Update, and of those who have, a growing number have reported that the upgrade has wiped their personal files.

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Five years ago, I wrote a story about how Windows 8.1's Calculator app summed up what was wrong with Microsoft's new OS. Windows 8.x was designed as a one-size-fits-all operating system, and apps were designed with little thought given to the different screen sizes they'd be viewed on.

The problem was, on a desktop PC with a large screen, the Windows Calculator was massive. Or, as I put it at the time, "bloody huge -- filling my screen with buttons the size of business cards." Fast forward to 2018, and Microsoft is at it again, this time in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

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