Articles about Windows 10

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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Four-hundred-and-four 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 new Microsoft Edge browser that is based on Chromium, is now pushed to further Windows devices via Windows Update. Check out Mark's article for more information.

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It’s that time of the week again when Microsoft rolls out a new Windows 10 build to Insiders on the Dev Channel.

Build 20215 introduces dark theme search results for insiders who have the system theme set to dark.

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Since adopting the Chromium engine for Edge, Microsoft has been eager for people to move away from the legacy version of its web browser.

To help ensure compliance with its wishes, the company has released the KB4576754 update which forces the installation of the new Microsoft Edge and removes the old version. With the update being mandatory, anyone wanting to avoid Edge will have to take action.

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Four-hundred-and-three 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 released new Intel microcode updates this week to address certain flaws in Intel processors.

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Dev Channel Insiders are in for a treat this week. Windows 10 Build 20211 introduces a number of new features, including adding Search to the Default Apps pages in Settings.

There’s a big new change for users of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2) too -- you can now attach and mount a physical disk inside of a WSL 2 distro.

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Another month, another Patch Tuesday. Earlier this week Microsoft released a series of updates for Windows 10, including KB4571756, a cumulative update designed to fix a range of security issues.

But many people installing KB4571756 have found that the update breaks Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. Microsoft is yet to acknowledge this as a known issue, but many people are experiencing "Element not found" errors in WSL 2 as well as seeing the message "Process exited with code 4294967295".

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People like to be individuals, and in the computing arena one way to be a little different is to change the look of Windows by using themes. But a security researcher has warned of a technique that could be exploited by hackers to trick users into divulging their Windows login details when applying a theme.

Malicious theme packs can be used to execute a "pass-the-hash" attack which sends passwords to a remote server. The specially designed themes are easy to create, andthe way the credential stealing attack works will fool many people -- but there are protective measures that can be put in place.

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So, here we are in September, six months removed from the release of Zorin OS 15.2. A lot has happened since March -- a pandemic, civil unrest, and out-of-control wildfires are just a few of the things that have made this year quite stressful. Not all is bad, however, as we have football starting up this week -- a great distraction to life's stresses.

Today we also get some big news on the Linux front --  Zorin OS 15.3 is finally here. True, it is just a point release, but once again, it should be the best version of Zorin yet. While great for Linux experts, I highly recommend it to those looking to switch from the buggy and much-maligned Windows 10. Zorin OS is a stable and well-designed operating system that is reminiscent of Windows. And so, its familiarity is a great way for Windows users to comfortably experience Linux. Version 15.3 comes with LibreOffice 6.4.6, which is a great alternative to Microsoft Office.

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We have written a lot about Windows 10 here on BetaNews, and many of these articles have been about problems introduced by new updates. For some time now it has felt as though the updates and patches that are released have not been fully tested, and users of the operating system are being used as guinea pigs when Patch Tuesday rolls around each month.

There is, of course, the argument that Microsoft has an impossible task when it comes to ensuring that patches and updates do not cause problems for people with near unlimited combinations of hardware and software. But that's little consolation if it's your system that gets borked by a patch.

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Windows 10 is a good operating system, for the most part, but it’s not without its problems -- I covered just some of these here on the eve of its 5th birthday at the end of July. It seems every new update Microsoft rolls out these days introduces fresh annoyances. No wonder millions of people are still sticking with Windows 7, even though that OS is no longer supported.

For many people, Windows 10 is the operating system they have to use, but not the one they want to. With that in mind, it's not hard to see the appeal of this remastered Windows 7 2020 Edition.

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Earlier in the year, Intel announced that it had completed software validations on fixes for a series of security flaws affecting many of its processors discovered a couple of years ago. Now Microsoft, in conjunction with the chip-maker, released microcode updates for Windows 10 to fix these issues.

The four problems are connected to the now-infamous Spectre and Meltdown flaws from 2018. They relate to problems with the speculative execution function of many chips, and could allow for sensitive data to leak.

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Microsoft has launched a new open source app for Windows 10 which has been designed to help users create and share animated content. The company says that the primary target for these animations is small, third-party LED panels but Microsoft Expressive Pixels can also be used to turn creations into animated GIFs which can be used in a variety of ways online.

While animations can be as simple or as complex as you like, the tools you're presented with in the app serve to make the entire creation process as easy as possible. It does not really matter if you have never used an animation tool previously, as Microsoft Expressive Pixels works very much like a standard image editing tool, albeit it one that lets you easily build up a series of frames into a looping  animation.

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Microsoft has released a new non-security update for Windows 10 version 2004. KB4571744 for Windows 10 May 2020 Update was previously delayed, and it is designed for testing purposes; it will be included in a future cumulative update.

But what is notable about the KB4571744 update is the sheer number of issues it fixes. Among the problems the update addresses are issues with blurry screens, problems with Windows Update itself, and it also fixes an issues that resulted in SSDs being defragmented too frequently.

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