Articles about Windows 10

Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but it isn’t what you’d call exciting to look at. The recent Start menu update, with a translucent background, and new Fluent Design icons, is definitely a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough.

If there’s one thing that Windows 10 really needs, it’s a visual overhaul, and making good use of Microsoft’s Fluent Design system, with blur effects, transforms a slightly bland looking operating system into something amazing.

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With Windows 10, Microsoft is understandably keen to promote its own products, and this is something that has been noticeable in the Start menu. Search results from Bing have long-featured there, and this is not something everyone is happy with.

For a while it was possible to disable the BingSearchEnabled key in the Registry to turn this off, but this option was removed in Windows 10 version 2004 (or Windows 10 May 2020 Update). So, if you want to disable Bing, there is now a new method you have to use -- and there is the happy side effect that it also disables Start menu ads.

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The development of PowerToys for Windows 10 has been impressive, with Microsoft continuing to add new utilities all the time. Now the company is looking for feedback from users to help decide just what it should focus on next.

Specifically, the development team says that while it currently has ideas for three new PowerToys, it only has time to work on two of them next year. Rather than making the decision itself, power users are being asked to vote, choosing between a Gif/Video screen recorder, the ability to adjust font rendering, and a tool called "Mouse without borders".

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Here on BetaNews, some of our most constantly popular posts relate to Windows 10's 'secret' screen recorder that is part of the Game Bar tool.  Seemingly aware that people are keen to be able to create video of on-screen activity, Microsoft is now working on a dedicated screening recording app.

Currently known as Video GIF Capture, the tool is being created by the PowerToys developers and it promises to give people the ability to record what is happening on their screen and save it as an animated GIF or video file.

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Four-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 Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Go on October 1, 2020, a more affordable version of the Surface Laptop. The cheapest version offers 4 Gigabytes of RAM and 64 Gigabytes of storage, and is available for $549.99.

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Updates to Windows 10 have become renown for introducing just as many problems as they aim to fix. Recent updates led to problems with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) displaying an "Element not found" error, and there were also various problems with internet connectivity.

To address these issues, Microsoft has now released the "non-security update" KB4577063. The patch also fixes a number of other problems Windows 10 users have been experiencing.

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Thanks to the global pandemic, more and more people are working from home than ever before, and there’s an increased demand for new laptops and tablets. However, with uncertainty surrounding job security not everyone wants to spend top dollar on a new computer.

Today, Microsoft expands its Surface family of devices with a new, much more affordable Surface Laptop Go but hopefully you won't want to use it to install many apps or hold many files.

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It's been around a month since Microsoft last updated PowerToys for Windows 10, so it's nice to be able to report that a new version has finally been pushed out.

PowerToys v0.23.0 is a release that focuses on "stability, localization and quality of life improvements", and there are numerous fixes to the various the utilities that make up the suite. Unfortunately, there are no new tools in this version, but Microsoft has given an update about the upcoming Video Conference utility.

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Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel have a new Windows 10 build to try out today.

Build 20226 comes with a number of changes and improvements, the biggest of which is storage health monitoring to protect user data.

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Do laptops need to keep getting thinner and lighter? Oh, hell yeah. True, we are starting to get to the point where they really can't get any more svelte, but as engineers continue to show, they will keep working to push boundaries. For instance, today, Lenovo officially unveils an impossibly thin and light laptop that is sure to delight road warriors. Called "ThinkPad X1 Nano," it weighs less than two pounds and is just 0.55 inches thick.

The ThinkPad X1 Nano comes with some bleeding-edge technology such as Wi-Fi 6, optional 5G, and Thunderbolt 4 (two ports). It is powered by up to an 11th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, and it can be configured with up to 16GB RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. The 13-inch 2K display comes in both touch and non-touch options, and Lenovo promises up to 17.3 hours of battery life. And yes, the HD camera is compatible with Windows Hello.

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Four-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 Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

The next feature update for Windows 10, Windows 10 20H2, will be released soon. An upcoming feature update for Windows 10 will include a new native videoconferencing feature that is called Meet Now currently and available as a preview.

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Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out a patch to what will be the Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2). This is available to those Insiders on the Beta and Release Preview Channels.

Insiders on the Dev Channel shouldn’t feel left out however, as today they can install Build 20221, and this comes with Skype's Meet Now feature.

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Four days ago, Microsoft started to roll out what it thought would be the final release for Windows 10 20H2 (October 2020 Update as it’s also known) to Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels -- Build 19042.508 (KB4571756).

Today it updates that 'final' build to 19042.541, fixing a massive list of issues.

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If you have installed KB4568831 for Windows 10 on your Lenovo ThinkPad, you may well have encountered the crashing issues caused by the update. Those affected by the problem have been hit by SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED error messages, and 0xc0000005 Access Denied messages in log files and memory dumps.

Microsoft has now acknowledged that there is an issue and has offered details of a workaround -- although you may want to think about whether you really want to follow the mitigation advice because of the security implications.

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It won’t come as any surprise to most of you to hear that the next big feature update for Windows 10 is very nearly ready for release.

Microsoft believes that Build 19042.508 (KB4571756) is the final release for Windows 10 20H2 (October 2020 Update as it’s also known) and is going to begin rolling it out to those users on the Release Preview Channel from today.

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