Windows 10

Three-hundred-and-twenty-one 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.

The next version of Windows 10 will feature a Top Apps listing in search that highlights the most used programs and apps to the user.

If you're experiencing problems downloading updates from Windows Update, don't worry -- it's not just you.

Windows 10 users started to complain about problems with Windows Update last week after their computers displayed the message "We couldn't connect to the update service". While it initially appeared to be an ISP-related DNS issue, the problem was later determined to be with Microsoft. Despite an apparent fix, many people are still unable to download updates.

Another week, another new Windows 10 build rolls out to Insiders on the Fast ring (although not for users in certain parts of the world -- more on this later).

Although we’re edging closer to 19H1’s official release, Build 18329 sill manages to introduce a couple of new features.

While other analyst firms, such as StatCounter, had Windows 10 overtaking Windows 7 sometime ago, it took until the end of December 2018 for NetMarketShare to show the new OS overtaking its predecessor.

With NetMarketShare’s figures, which show usage share, there was always the danger that Windows 7 might regain the lead (albeit temporarily) in January, but that never happened and Windows 10 is now comfortably ahead.

Three-hundred-and-twenty 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.

Most Windows 10 devices have not been upgraded to the October 2018 Update yet; considering that the next feature upgrade is just about two months away, it seems as if many administrators plan to skip version 1809 entirely.

The Windows 10 19H1 update may not yet have been released to the masses, but Microsoft is already hard at work on the update that will follow it, predictably codenamed Windows 10 19H2.

If you're an eager beaver, you probably want to get your hands on this update as soon as possible, and Microsoft is giving you a way to do so. The company has opened up the Skip Ahead ring for Windows Insiders, and by signing up for this you can be among the first to try out Windows 10 19H2.

Even the staunchest Microsoft supporter has to admit that the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, aka Windows 10 1809, was something of a disaster. It caused multiple problems for users, including deleting personal data, and even after Microsoft pulled the update and fixed some problems, more issues surfaced once it was re-released.

It took until the middle of January for the update to start its phased rollout, three months after its initial release, so it should come as no surprise to hear that comparatively few Windows 10 users are running it.

Windows 7 is still a great operating system -- one that millions of people use every day. Understandably, Microsoft cannot support the OS forever, so it will stop doing so in less than a year. While I would urge many Windows 7 users to switch to a Linux-based operating system, Microsoft would rather these folks upgrade to Windows 10 instead. The problem? Many Windows 7 users purposely avoided the newest version of Windows due to overall bugginess and a perception of spying due to aggressive telemetry. Embarrassingly, Windows 10 -- initially released in 2015 as a free upgrade -- only recently overtook Windows 7 in marketshare. Yikes!

The right thing to do at this point, is to allow Windows 7 to function as it has until support runs out, right? I mean, why add stress to the lives of existing Windows 7 users? Sadly, Microsoft has a different idea. You see, the company has decided to purposely cripple both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center on Windows 7, and Windows Media Center on 8.x. Microsoft will stop supplying metadata for media through these much-used programs. As you can guess, Windows Media Player on Windows 10 will continue to offer this capability. Hmm, I wonder why that is...

Three-hundred-and-nineteen 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.

Work on the next feature update for Windows 10 continues. Windows 10 version 1903 will be released in March/April of this year.

This week’s new Windows 10 19H1 build was slightly delayed due to an outage in Microsoft’s build publishing system which meant it took a few hours to begin rolling out to Insiders on the Fast ring.

Build 18323 includes improved RAW image format support and a better Light Theme, as well as a large number of fixes.

Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but it’s not exactly attractive. Microsoft is attempting to spice things up a little with its Fluent Design language, but it’s never going to deliver the "Wow" factor.

File Explorer is one of the blander elements of Windows 10, but a brand new concept shows us what it could look like.

Chromebooks have found a welcoming home in the education section, muscling in on what has traditionally been Windows territory. Naturally, Microsoft is fighting back, and at this year’s annual BETT conference in London, it announced that 1 million Windows 10 devices are being used by students in K-12 and higher education every month.

The software giant also took the opportunity to introduce a raft of new Windows 10 devices aimed at students, including two brand new 2-in1 devices from Acer and Lenovo that are priced from under $300.

Three-hundred-and-eighteen 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.

The October 2018 Update is finally being rolled out again; check out Wayne's blocking instructions if you don't want it installed on your devices right now.

The Windows 10 October 2018 update, aka Windows 10 version 1809, aka the botched update that deleted user files, caused default app issues, broke Apple iCloud, Edge, and Windows Store apps, and introduced a bunch of other problems, is finally rolling out to all -- well most -- users.

The update was first released at the start of last October, but then pulled a few days later when the scale of its problems become noticed. It was re-released in November, with a bunch of new problems. Microsoft has been working to fix these, and last month made 1809 available to 'advanced users' -- that is users who know how to manually check for updates.

You have probably used your laptop in all sorts of places. As well as at home and in the office, you may well have used it in hotels, coffee shops and other locations that offer Wi-Fi access.

As such, you've almost certainly got a large number of Wi-Fi passwords saved on your computer, passwords that are seemingly inaccessible. But these saved passwords are accessible -- if you know where to look, that is. This is handy if you need the password to get your phone online, or another laptop. Here's how to recover saved Wi-Fi passwords.