Windows 10

Windows 10 is a great operating system, but it’s not without its problems from time to time. That said, it’s still a huge leap forward from past Microsoft offerings, like Windows 95 and 98.

If you’ve ever wondered what Windows 10 would be like if it had been released at the end of the last century, then take a look at Windows 10 -- 1990s Edition. Who needs Cortana when you can have Clippy helping you out?

Three-hundred-and-six 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 is still working on getting the next feature update for Windows 10 ready for wider distribution. The company had to pull the upgrade days after initial release because of data loss issues.

Microsoft is still busy fixing the many problems that have blighted the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, but that hasn’t stopped development on the follow up, due out next spring.

Build 18267 for Insiders on the Fast ring, introduces -- among other things -- the ability for the OS to index all of your folders and drives, to make finding files on your PC much easier.

As you know by now, Microsoft was forced to put the Windows 10 October 2018 Update on ice following reports that it was deleting user files. What made the problem even worse was Insiders had reported that issue to Microsoft months ago, but the software giant failed to address it.

While the feature update is back in testing, non-Insiders have been discovering additional problems with it. First up, if you use the built-in zip tool to extract a file to a folder where a version of that file already exists (even if it has different data), nothing will actually happen.

While many people use Windows 10 every day, I sometimes wonder how many actually enjoy doing so. Look, Microsoft's operating system is very popular, but that could be largely out of habit. The interface is very inconsistent, and with aggressive telemetry, it can feel like you are being spied on too. Computers running Microsoft's OS are prone to malware, and even worse, users could find their important files deleted! Hell, even the Surface hardware feels uninspired these days. Once people start looking at alternatives, such as the excellent Linux-based Chromebooks, they may wonder why they need Windows 10 at all.

For education in particular, many schools find Chromebooks safer and easier to manage. Not to mention, they can be quite cost effective too. So it should come as no surprise that a major country has chosen Chromebooks over Windows 10 devices for education. What is the country of which I speak? New Zealand. You see, all public schools there now have access to Chrome Education licenses.

Three-hundred-and-five 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 is readying the Windows 10 October 2018 Update for re-release after it stopped the distribution of the new feature update for Windows 10 a matter of days after release because of a data loss bug.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.