Articles about Windows 10

Three-hundred-and-seventy-nine 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 announced this week that it is pausing non-security updates for Windows starting in May 2020. Security updates released on Patch Tuesday will still be produced on schedule.

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The past few Windows 10 Insider builds haven’t been very exciting -- mostly just featuring a number of fixes and minor improvements -- although that’s hardly surprising thanks to the impact of COVID-19.

Build 19592, released today to those on the Fast ring, does include a new (but familiar to some) tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs, although it’s rolling out slowly.

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Microsoft has released KB4052623, an update that addresses an issue with Windows Defender that was preventing scans from running properly.

While a workaround had been suggested by some, now there is an official fix available which should banish the "Windows Defender skipped an item due to exclusions or network protection settings" error message.

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If you've used any version of Window before Windows 10, you'll definitely be familiar with the Control Panel. It's still present in Windows 10, but with various updates to the operating system Microsoft has been gradually encouraging people to use only the Settings app.

With just about every update to Windows 10, the prominence of the Control Panel has been reduced to the point that it's a bit of a chore to get to. According to references found in Windows 10 insider Build 19587, Microsoft could be on the verge of hiding or removing the Control Panel completely, or at least elements of it.

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Microsoft is putting Windows 10 into coronavirus lockdown. The company has announced that from May it will only be releasing security updates for the operating system, as it puts all optional updates on pause.

New versions of Edge have already been put on hold and it is little surprise that, in light of coronavirus, Microsoft is choosing to focus its energy on the updates that matter the most. The decision means that no more so-called "optional C and D releases" will be release from May.

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Yesterday we wrote about a bug in Windows Defender, seemingly introduced by a recent update. Only affecting Windows 10, the bug causes some virus scans to fail, and in others a somewhat unhelpful message informs users that there were unspecified "items skipped during scan".

The error message goes on to make reference to scanning exclusions as well as network scanning settings, and it is here that a simple solution has been found.

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Microsoft has warned that all versions of Windows feature critical unpatched RCE vulnerabilities. The security problems stem from the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library, and relates to the parsing of fonts.

The company is working on a fix which will be released when the next Patch Tuesday rolls around -- but for Windows 7 users, despite the critical nature of the bugs, it is only those who have paid for an ESU licence that will get the security update. There is a bit of good news, however. While the vulnerability is yet to be patched, there is a workaround available that will do the job for the time being.

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Microsoft's run of problematic updates for Windows 10 continues. This time an update is causing an issue that could have serious security implications for users -- it has broken Windows Defender.

While the Windows Defender security tool is included in Windows 7 and 8 the problem only affects Windows 10. Many people are finding that when they perform a virus scan, an error message is displayed that reads: "Items skipped during scan. The Windows Defender Antivirus scan skipped an item due to an exclusion or network scanning settings". For others, scans simply fail after a few moments.

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Three-hundred-and-seventy-eight 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 is installed on 1 billion devices, finally. In other news, Microsoft is pushing its services more aggressively via nag screens and Microsoft Edge (Chromium) users may now review and rate extensions in the official Store.

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Microsoft recently announced that Windows 10 had hit the milestone of running on a billion devices. To mark this, the operating system team created a celebratory video. What's interesting about this video is the fact that it gives us a glimpse of new features coming to Windows 10, as well as changes to the UI.

We've already had a hint of the direction Microsoft is going in aesthetically with the roll-out of new icons, but this new video also shows off the redesigned Start menu, wider adoption of Fluid UI, and an updated version of File Explorer

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The coronavirus pandemic is having all manner of consequences around the world, both predicted and unforeseen. With Google having announced that Chrome and Chrome OS will only be receiving security updates as a result of a revised development schedule, Microsoft has now announced that it is extending the end of service date for Windows 10 version 1709.

End of service for the Fall Creators Update was due on April 14 this year, but in light of the current public health situation the company now says that the date has been extended by six months to October 13. But the extension does not apply to all editions of Windows 10 version 1709.

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The past few Windows 10 Insider builds haven’t been hugely exciting, but that’s probably no surprise given the state of the world at the moment and the number of people switching to working from home.

Today’s new Insider release for those on the Fast ring, Build 19587, is no exception, but it does come with a number of improvements and fixes.

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Microsoft is no stranger to using nag screens to annoy Windows 10 users, and now the company is back to its old tricks again. After installing the latest batch of update for the operating system, users are being confronted with a full-screen "Get even more out of Windows" message.

The nag screen encourages users to investigate other Microsoft products such as Your Phone, Windows Hello, Office 365 and OneDrive. It's part of what Microsoft describes as "post-upgrade setup".

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When Microsoft was preparing to launch Windows 10 back in 2015 it famously stated that it expected over 1 billion devices to be running the new OS within 2-3 years. For a variety of reasons -- most notably the dismal failure of its mobile aspirations -- that never happened.

But the OS has been gaining share at a steady rate, and today the software giant announces that Windows 10 has, five years later, finally hit the coveted 1 billion milestone.

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Microsoft has announced that not only is Windows Subsystem for Linux -- or WSL 2 as it's also known -- soon going to be generally available in Windows 10 version 2004, but also that the Linux kernel will be updated though Windows Update.

The new approach comes as Microsoft removes the Linux kernel from the Windows OS image. The change in update delivery will enable Microsoft to push out updates faster than before, and eliminates the need to user interaction.

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