Windows 10

Two-hundred-and-sixty-seven 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.

The Fall Creators Update is now installed on nearly 75 percent of all Windows 10 PCs according to AdDuplex data.

The Windows 10 Creators Update rollout was a bit of a mess. Shortly after it launched, Microsoft warned people not to install it, and a quarter of Windows 10 users still didn’t have it by the time its successor, the Fall Creators Update, arrived last October.

Microsoft has definitely learned its lessons this time around however, as the Fall Creators Update is being installed at a much faster rate. According to AdDuplex, last month (a mere two months after it launched), the Fall Creators Update was already on half of all Windows 10 PCs in use, and in January, that figure has increased to nearly three quarters.

Chuwi has managed to attract quite a bit of attention with its laptops and tablets. The LapBook 14.1 that I reviewed early last year was great, thanks to a nice mix of features and performance. But now there's a new kid on the block, which looks even more impressive.

It's called the LapBook Air 14.1 and it supersedes the LapBook 14.1 in the company's lineup. Compared to the old model, it adds a metal build, more RAM and more storage, but a higher price tag too. On paper, it looks like a killer combination, but what's it actually like to use? I've tested it to find out.

Windows Insiders have got used to Fast ring releases arriving at a slower pace lately, but it looks as if Microsoft might be stepping on the gas once more, as Build 17083 arrives a mere fortnight after 17074.

The latest build comes with lots of new features and improvements, including the additional privacy options announced earlier.

When Microsoft first launched Windows 10 back in 2015, one of the big complaints people had about the new operating system was that it spied on users. Really spied on them.

Following the inevitable backlash, the software giant has reigned in this snooping with each new feature update, and the next big release -- codenamed Redstone 4 -- will take things further when it arrives in a few months' time.

Two-hundred-and-sixty-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 plans to move Font management to the Settings application in the next feature update of Windows 10 (out March/April 2018). Users may download fonts from the Store.

A week ago, Microsoft released a new Preview Build of Windows 10 -- 17074. It was chock-full of new features and fixes, making it a wise upgrade for anyone in the Insiders program.

Sadly, it was discovered that Build 17074 had a huge bug -- it made some AMD systems unbootable. Yikes! Apparently, this was related to fixes for Spectre and Meltdown. True, this is pre-release software, so bugs should be expected, but losing the ability to boot can really ruin a user's day. Today, that bug is fixed, as Microsoft pushes out Build 17074.1002. It also fixes an issue where some computers would hang.

Depending on which analyst firm you believe, Windows 10 will either finally overtake Windows 7 this month, or it won’t. Either way, the newest OS is narrowing the gap.

However, according to the Firefox Hardware Report, a public weekly survey of the hardware and software used by everyone running the release channel desktop build of Mozilla's web browser, Windows 10 still has a long way to go until it catches up to Windows 7.

Two-hundred-and-sixty-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.

The Microsoft Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Windows 10 version 1709, is available to all now.

Windows 10 Insiders on the Fast ring have got used to weekly new builds from Microsoft, but just lately we’ve been having to go a lot longer between releases. There have been just two new builds in the past seven weeks, although both have been jam packed with new features and improvements, so it's easy to understand the reason for the delay.

Build 17074, the latest release for the Fast ring (and Skip Ahead), has a lot to offer users and shows the direction the OS is taking these days. Here’s what’s new.

Microsoft rolls out two Windows 10 feature updates a year. The Creators Update arrived last April, followed by the Fall Creators Update in October. In order to limit the number of issues that users experience, Microsoft staggers the rollout.

There is a problem with this approach, however. While it means -- hopefully -- fewer headaches for people updating to the latest incarnation, it also means that the update can take forever to reach all users. In fact, in the case of the Creators Update, a quarter of users still didn’t have it by the time its successor arrived.

The number of decent apps available in the Microsoft Store pales in comparison to those in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Big names drop out almost as quickly as new ones arrive, which doesn’t help.

In yet another bid to woo developers to the platform, Microsoft is introducing subscription add-ons for Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, and later.

Amazon and Microsoft said that Alexa and Cortana would be able to talk to each other by the end of the 2017, but the two personal assistants have yet to receive this functionality until today. However, even without Cortana's help, Alexa is making a big leap forward in the Windows space.

Amazon has teamed up with leading PC manufacturers Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and HP to include its personal assistant on new Windows 10 devices that will arrive in 2018.

Although Microsoft officially ended the free Windows 10 upgrade offer last year, it is still possible to get the new operating system completely free of charge by using a simple trick.

The software giant provides Windows 10 for free to anyone using assistive technologies, and doesn’t require you to prove you have any kind of disability in order to make use of this upgrade offer. However, all good things must come to an end, and Microsoft is set to close this free upgrade route.

Two-hundred-and-sixty-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 ended the streaming functionality of Groove Music some days ago and removed the Music entry from the Store entirely.