Microsoft has -- for the moment at least -- stopped updating its official Windows market share page, which means if you want to see how well the various flavors of Windows are doing, you have three options. StatCounter’s latest update shows Windows 10 closing in on Windows 7, while NetMarketShare’s figures have the new OS still a long way off reaching that milestone.

The third option is Steam’s monthly user survey, which shows the state of things from the gamers’ perspective. Usually Windows 10 is by far the most popular OS but in October its share tumbled, while Windows 7’s shot up. A mistake surely? But no, it seems to be correct.

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Two-hundred-and-fifty-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 announced this week that it will end the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 for customers who use assistive technologies this year.

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Each month, we report NetMarketShare’s figures on the state of the desktop operating system market. Although the numbers occasionally go a little haywire (last month, for example, they briefly showed a sizeable -- and unrealistic -- growth for Linux, before being corrected), they are usually pretty consistent.

NetMarketShare isn’t the only firm that monitors operating system share however. StatCounter also keeps a close eye on the state of things, and its figures paint a very different, and much rosier picture for Windows 10.

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The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update began its rollout last month, and according to AdDuplex it’s already on over 5 percent of systems running the new OS.

Windows 10’s growth has generally been quite slow since Microsoft pulled the plug on the official free upgrade path, and the latest figures from NetMarketShare show no change here. In fact, in October, Windows 10 saw its slowest growth in months.

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Microsoft officially pulled the plug on the free Windows 10 upgrade offer last year, but the truth is you can still get the new operating system free of charge if you know how.

There are two main methods. You can either simply upgrade using a Windows 7 or 8.x key, or you can go through the assistive technologies page. The latter option lets anyone who claims to use assistive technologies to upgrade for free, and works on an honor system. You don’t need to actually prove you have any kind of disability to make use of it.

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Windows 10 Mobile is now officially dead, and Microsoft has switched its attention to Android and iPhone, releasing a growing number of apps for those operating systems.

You can now also link your Android device or iPhone to any PC running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which will allow you to start a task on your phone, and then continue it on your PC. Here’s what you need to do.

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Two-hundred-and-fifty-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.

The Fall Creators Update is out. Check out Wayne's guide on rolling back to a previous version of Windows 10, and Mark's guide on fixing missing applications after installation.

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Microsoft rolls out two feature updates a year for Windows 10. In April the software giant released the Creators Update, and then a week ago, the Fall Creators Update made its debut.

Spaced six months apart, the idea is that by the time the second feature update is released, most people will have upgraded to the first. But while that’s the theory, it’s certainly not the case with the Creators Update.

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The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update rollout only began last week, but Microsoft is already working on the next big feature update. We’ve had a few releases from the Redstone 4 branch already, and today we get another.

New builds this early on tend not to offer too much in the way of new features, but there’s a few differences this time around that Insiders might enjoy.

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Ransomware is one of the most concerning, and the most prevalent, forms of malware around at the moment. While there are numerous security tools out there that you can install to keep yourself protected, if you have upgraded to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update you have a built-in tool at your disposal.

Called Controlled Folder Access, the feature locks down files and folders to protect them against unwanted changes -- including encryption by ransomware. It's not enabled by default, so here's what you need to do.

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When I was a kid, one of my favorite meals was meatloaf -- yeah, I am a stereotypical red-blooded American. My mom would make this dinner regularly, but she had a secret ingredient -- carrots! Yeah, she would mix mushed carrots into the ground beef loaf. Guess what? I couldn't tell the difference, and so, I was eating vegetables. Hiding healthy foods in other ones has become quite popular in recent years -- there are even cookbooks that teach it.

Unfortunately, some children can be just as averse to learning as they are to eating vegetables. Sure, some kids are avid learners and eaters of healthy food, but if they aren't, some parents can be in for quite the struggle. Today, Microsoft showcases a new way to teach children coding by tricking them into thinking they are playing Minecraft. You know what? That is rather brilliant!

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Microsoft rolls out two Windows 10 feature updates a year. In April, the Creators Update arrived, followed by the Fall Creators Update this month. In order to reduce the number of problems big updates like this can cause users, Microsoft staggers the rollout.

Fans and early adopters get it first, then comes the initial phase, where the update is made available for newer systems, followed by full availability. This, in theory, is a smart move. Microsoft can monitor the rollout, and if things are going smoothly, make the update available to more users. The problem is, with the Creators Update the rollout took forever.

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After months of beta testing through the Windows Insider program, Windows 10 Fall Creators Update has finally been released. While the update brings a number of changes and additions to Microsoft's operating system, it has also brought problems for some people.

Among these issues is the apparent disappearance of various apps. This is not down to apps being removed from Windows, but Windows 10 Fall Creators Update has rendered some apps completely inaccessible. If you've experienced this problem, here's how to fix it.

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The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is rolling out to users. If you install it and encounter major problems, as some users have (especially owners of Razer laptops), you might want to go back to your previous version, and wait until the update is a bit less buggy.

If you been using Windows 10 for a while, you’ll probably know how to do this, although the process may be slightly different to what you're used to.

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Two-hundred-and-fifty-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 Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 this week. Read Wayne's guide on delaying the update if you don't want to install it right away.

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