Articles about Windows 10

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, Microsoft today rolls out a new Windows 10 preview build for those Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Build 21286 is being offered to all Dev Channel testers and brings with it a major change to the Windows taskbar -- the addition of a 'news and interests' feed.

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There are many reasons for wanting to grab text from an image files, and there are numerous tools that let you do just that. But if you're looking for a quick and easy way to convert an image into editable text, you might be surprised to find that Windows 10 offers a way to do it without the need for additional software.

More than just images, the operating system includes a great, secret way to grab any text you can see on your screen and convert it into an editable format. Here's what you need to know about optical character recognition (OCR) in Windows 10.

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Windows 10 has been with us for quite some time now, and while Microsoft has introduced various visual tweaks over the years, there has been nothing dramatic. But this could be about to change.

Rumors have been circulating about a planned visual refresh to the operating system which has the codename Sun Valley. Now Microsoft is planning to introduce a "sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows experiences" over the coming months.

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Just days ago, Microsoft pushed out PowerToys v0.29 as the last release of 2020 -- now it's time for the first release of 2021.

Skipping over versions 0.29.1 and 0.29.2, the company has unleashed PowerToys v0.29.3. So, what is there to look forward to in this first release of the new year?

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When Microsoft first released Windows 10, the company made a big deal about the fact that the operating system was available as a free upgrade for a limited time.

The free upgrade period -- supposedly -- came to an end some time ago, but actually it is still possible to jump from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 for free in 2021. Here's what you need to know about getting a free upgrade to Windows 10.

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

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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People often claim that Microsoft operating systems follow a pattern, with good and bad versions alternating -- Windows 95 (bad), Windows 98 (good), Windows Me (bad), Windows XP (good), Windows Vista (bad), Windows 7 (good), Windows 8.x (bad), and Windows 10 (mostly good).

It’s largely true, although if Windows Vista had been given the same length of life that Windows 10 has enjoyed, there’s a fair chance a good portion of Windows users would still be running it today. Vista wasn’t bad as such, just very unfinished. If the aging OS had a modern makeover, could it win over Windows 10 users? I suspect so. Feast your eyes on the Windows Vista Remastered Edition and make up your own mind.

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

More than 84 percent of all Windows 10 users use Windows Hello to sign-in to the system according to Microsoft. What about you? Do you use Windows Hello?

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

Future versions of Windows 10 will feature additional options in the Settings including options to manage Cameras in the Devices section.

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Microsoft took a big gamble with Windows 8. Back in 2012 the tech giant believed that touchscreens were the way we’d all be interacting with our devices, and so overhauled Windows to give it a touch-first design and a Start screen in place of the traditional Start menu -- which didn’t go down at all well with the Windows faithful.

Although the company relented and eventually added a Start menu and made various other user-requested tweaks, Windows 8 is viewed by many as one of the worst versions of Windows, which is a little unfair as it had much to recommend it.

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Microsoft has made some very dramatic changes to the look and feel of Windows 10 over the years, and this is not a trend that's set to change any time soon. Continuing its plan to kill off the legacy Control Panel, the company is introducing big changes to Windows 10's Settings app.

The changes will be important to anyone who is keen on customizing or taking control of Windows, giving them two important new options that are sure to be welcomed by power users -- especially those who want to kill off the Task View button.

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Last week, Microsoft released two different Windows 10 builds to the Dev Channel, giving Insiders a chance to choose if they wanted to stay on the FE_RELEASE branch or switch to the more experimental RS_PRERELEASE branch.

For those who stuck with the FE_RELEASE branch, Microsoft now has another new build to try out (those on RS_PRERELEASE won’t get this).

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

Windows 10 version 1903 reached end of support this week.

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From now, Windows 10 Insiders on the Dev Channel currently have the choice of installing preview builds from the FE_RELEASE or RS_PRERELEASE branches. By default, Insiders will get flights like new Build 20277 from the FE_RELEASE branch, but you can switch to RS_PRERELEASE if you’re feeling more adventurous.

To get the alternative download, Build 21277, you will have to actively choose to download it via Windows Update. Be warned though, once you’ve switched to RS_PRERELEASE you won’t be able to download FE_RELEASE builds any more.

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We're used to Microsoft rolling out a new Windows 10 Dev Channel build on a weekly basis, but this time around it has something different for us -- two Dev Channel builds, from different branches. It’s like a choose your own adventure.

The first of the new flights, Build 20277, comes from the usual FE_RELEASE branch and sports a handful of fixes and known issues.

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