Chuwi SurBook

Chuwi unveils Surface Pro 4-like SurBook

After unveiling an affordable alternative to the Surface Book in the form of the Hi13, Chuwi is now setting its sights on Microsoft's other hybrid device, the Surface Pro 4, as it just unveiled the SurBook.

The SurBook offers similar specs to the Surface Pro 4, but it will likely be offered at a fraction of the cost. It comes with some pretty interesting hardware, but the 12.3-inch 3:2 display with a resolution of 2,736 by 1,834 is probably the most impressive thing about it.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
win defender thumb

How to get the classic Windows Defender back on Windows 10 Creators Update

Change can be good, but not always. While Windows 10 is a great operating system, many people would prefer to stay with Windows 7. Stick with what they know and like.

Microsoft now views Windows as a service, which means Windows 10 gets updated and changed a couple of times a year. In the latest iteration of the new operating system, Microsoft replaced the old Windows Defender with a new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app version. But if you don’t like this change, the good news is it’s easy to restore the classic version of Windows Defender.

By Wayne Williams -
microsoft-cloud

Leaked specs: Windows 10 Cloud is ready to take on Chromebook

Microsoft is due to hold an event in NYC on May 2, and it's widely expected that the company will unveil Windows 10 Cloud -- although it may not be until Build slightly later in the month. On paper, Windows 10 Cloud sounds very much like Microsoft's answer to Google's Chromebook, and leaks suggest this is precisely the market that Microsoft is targeting.

As the May event has an education focus, it's apparent that any low-cost Chromebook-like Windows devices will be aimed at the education sector -- but that's not to say that there won’t be interest from other people looking for cheap hardware. And thanks to the latest leak, we know the recommended minimum hardware spec to run Windows 10 Cloud.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Scared_Man_Laptop

Microsoft improves Gmail experience for Windows 10 Insiders, but there are privacy concerns

Microsoft's mobile Outlook app for iOS and Android is a really great email experience. It serves as a centralized place to aggregate your email accounts and calendar entries. The problem? It is a privacy nightmare. It stores your emails on Microsoft's servers, even when the email provider isn't Microsoft, such as Gmail or Yahoo. In other words, users must trade their privacy for convenience -- a bad deal if you ask me.

Today, Microsoft announces a new Gmail experience for Windows 10. While only available for Windows Insiders as of today, it uses the same concept as the Outlook mobile app, but for the Mail & Calendar apps. Microsoft will provide you with an arguably improved experience as long as you are OK with storing all of your Gmail messages in Microsoft's cloud -- yikes. What types of features will the new experience offer? Things such as tracking packages, getting updated on your favorite sports teams, and a focused inbox.

By Brian Fagioli -
image

Best Windows 10 apps this week

Two-hundred-and-twenty-eight 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 has set its sights on September 2017 for the next Windows 10 feature update.

By Martin Brinkmann -
windows-10-redstone

Redstone 3 will launch in September as Microsoft commits to twice-yearly feature releases for Windows 10

We're already seeing preview builds of Windows 10 Redstone 3 creeping out after the launch of Windows 10 Creators Update, and we now know that the final release date is scheduled for September.

The revelation comes as Microsoft announces plans to align its feature releases of Windows and Office, primarily to make things easier for enterprise users. Releases will come in March and September, and the next big update for Windows 10 (i.e. Redstone 3) "will be targeted for September 2017."

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Headphones

Microsoft launches new Windows 10 Insider podcast, listen here

In addition to rolling out new Windows 10 Insider Preview builds for both PC and Mobile, Microsoft has also launched a new audio podcast.

Explaining the move, Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar says: "Many of you have been asking for our team to share more about our future plans about the overall Windows Insider community. We want to be inclusive of all consumption styles, so we thought we would experiment with an audio podcast."

By Wayne Williams -
Windows-10 key

Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 3 Build 16179 to the Fast ring, plus Build 15205 for Mobile

It’s only been five days since Microsoft rolled out a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build to the Fast ring, but hot on the heels of Build 16176 comes Build 16179, the third release for the new Redstone 3 branch.

That’s not the only new build however, as there’s also a new one for Window 10 Mobile, Build 15205.

By Wayne Williams -
windows-10-dvd

Need a product key for Windows 10 Creators Update? Just use an old one!

Much was made of Microsoft's decision to offer Windows 10 as a free upgrade, and then withdrawing the free upgrade. If you've been holding off jumping from Windows 7 or Windows 8.x to Windows 10 because you find the cost off-putting, there's some good news.

If you download yourself a copy of Windows 10 Creators Update from Microsoft, you should find that when you are prompted for a product key the license code from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 works just fine to activate your copy of the new operating system.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Throttle speed

Microsoft introducing 'Power Throttling' to the next version of Windows 10

The Windows 10 Creators Update is rolling out to users now, but Microsoft is working hard on the next big update to its operating system, and has already pushed out two new builds for Redstone 3 to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring.

The latest of these builds, 16176, includes a feature that Microsoft is calling "Power Throttling" (working name), which is designed to run "background work in a power-efficient manner", improving battery life significantly.

By Wayne Williams -
Yes success

How to bypass Microsoft's next-gen processor update block on Windows 7 and 8.1

As you probably know by now, Microsoft is blocking Windows Updates on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems powered by next-generation processors like Kaby Lake and Ryzen.

It’s yet another of Microsoft’s desperate efforts to get users to switch to Windows 10, and one that -- understandably -- hasn’t gone down well with users who don’t want to upgrade to the new operating system. Thankfully, there is now a workaround.

By Wayne Williams -
microsoft-edge-full-screen

How to access Microsoft Edge's secret full screen mode

If you're looking for distraction-free web browsing, it makes sense to switch to full screen mode. This is something that is very easy to achieve in the likes of Chrome, Opera and Firefox, but Windows 10 users who have opted to stick with Microsoft Edge don’t seem to have such a good deal.

But this is just a matter of appearances. Edge does have a secret full screen mode that you can access very easily. Quite why Microsoft chose not to advertise the feature is anyone's guess, but there you go!

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Windows-10 key

Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 3 Build 16176 to the Fast ring

The Creators Update is still rolling out to users globally, but Microsoft is hard at work on the next big update to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 3.

Today it rolls out the second PC build to Insiders on the Fast ring, which includes some changes to OneCore, the core that Windows 10 shares across devices. But that's not all.

By Wayne Williams -
Question

The Windows 10 update conundrum [Q&A]

Windows 10's growth seems to have stalled for the moment, despite the software giant's best (and worst) efforts to get consumers and businesses to upgrade.

I spoke to Charles Cho, senior Microsoft architect at PCM, Inc., about why this is, and why Microsoft is so desperate to get users to upgrade. He had some interesting insights on the update conundrum.

By Wayne Williams -
Angry man

The desperate tricks Microsoft employs to force customers to upgrade to Windows 10

When Microsoft introduced Windows 7 back in 2009, the software giant didn’t need to persuade customers to upgrade -- they leapt at the chance. Back then, upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Windows was a no brainer.

Fast forward to today, and Microsoft is in a very different position. Windows 10 is a huge improvement over its predecessor, Windows 8.x, and yet it’s struggling to gain market share. Figures from NetMarketShare, and Microsoft itself show adoption of the new OS has stalled. That’s got to be hugely frustrating for Microsoft, especially when you consider the number of tricks it has pulled to force users to upgrade.

By Wayne Williams -
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