Articles about Windows 11

Updates to Windows can be important, but they can also be a huge inconvenience. We’re not just talking about the number of times things go wrong with updates, but the downtime associated with installing them and restarting systems.

With the arrival of hotpatching in Windows 11, however, some of this frustration is eliminated. Microsoft has enabled the (mostly) restart-free update method for organizations running Windows 11 Enterprise.

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If you’ve ever thought that Windows 11 is a little lacking in visual polish, you’re not alone. Microsoft’s decision to center the Start menu and taskbar was meant to modernize the look of the OS and reduce mouse travel -- especially for users with ultra-wide or high-resolution displays -- but it’s not exactly what you’d call inspiring.

If you think Windows 11 looks like it’s straight out of 2011, we have a free solution to that problem: Quantum Start Menu.

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Microsoft has been gradually shutting down the various ways people found to install and use Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account. The company has made it all but impossible to install the operating system without creating or signing into an account.

With the most recent preview build of Windows 11, Microsoft nixed a script that could be used to sidestep the requirement -- although it can still be manually applied via the registry. But there is still an easy way to avoid having to use a Microsoft Account.

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When talking about AI in general -- including Copilot -- the focus tends to be on the impressive time-saving capabilities and futuristic features. What is often overlooked is the potential for artificial intelligence to improve accessibility.

But this is exactly what Microsoft is doing with the features it has for Copilot+ PCs. And now the company has made many of the Copilot+ experiences available to a wider range of processors, so systems with AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, Intel Core Ultra 200V and Snapdragon X Series chips can feel the benefits. There are huge advances in accessibility to be explored.

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Windows 11 offers a familiar environment for users, but it’s not without its share of frustrations, particularly regarding performance issues and resource consumption on older hardware. Microsoft's updates frequently add new problems while fixing old ones, which is another annoyance.

If you’ve been considering a switch from Windows 11, Nitrux is the perfect alternative. The Debian-based distribution, known for its focus on simplicity and performance, has just been updated to version 3.9.1, codenamed “mk.” This release includes new features and a series of updates and fixes aimed at improving the overall experience for both new and existing users.

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When things go wrong with a Windows 11 device, downtime is not only frustrating but also expensive. In a bid to reduce the time lost to computer issues, Microsoft has launched Quick Machine Recovery, a new automated tool for addressing problems.

The tool is undergoing testing with Windows Insiders on the Beta Channel at the moment, so it probably won’t be long before it is promoted for general availability. Billed as a tool that “automatically detects, diagnoses, and resolves critical issues on your device”, Microsoft is looking to save users and sysadmins from having to delve into the Windows Recovery Environment.

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Six-hundred-forty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft has fixed a Windows update bug that caused some printers to print random text and data. The issue, affecting USB dual-mode printers, began in January 2025. A proper fix arrived in March via preview updates KB5053643 and KB5053657.

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Billed as a way of increasing transparency, Microsoft has launched a new Windows Roadmap hub which is home to everything you could ever want to know about the new and upcoming features of Windows 11.

The page is designed with different types of Windows 11 users in mind. For anyone signed up for a Windows Insider channel, it’s a handy way to keep track of the rollout and availability of new features. For others, it provides a relatively reliable way to monitor what Microsoft is working on. And for Microsoft, it is a way to gather feedback.

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Recent updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11 had the peculiar side effect of causing printers to spew out random printouts. The culprits were the updates released back in January, although it took Microsoft a while to concede that there was a problem.

Having acknowledged the issue, Microsoft has finally produced a fix some two months after the problems emerged.

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No operating system is ever really finished, and this is certainly true of Windows 11. As well as the (very welcome) security fixes, Microsoft continues to make endless tweaks, changes and additions to the OS; now the company has just moved to the next big stage of development.

It may seem as though the most recent major update, Windows 11 24H2, has only just been released, but the company is already working away on Windows 11 25H2. What’s more, it’s available to try right now.

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The folks behind Serpent OS have completed their rebrand, and the result is something you must check out. Now called “AerynOS,” this Linux distribution just dropped a new ISO (AerynOS 2025.03) and it might soon be time to forget all about Windows 11. Seriously.

This isn’t some clunky science project or a quirky Linux offshoot that breaks every other week. AerynOS is shaping up to be a serious daily driver.

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Microsoft Photos is something of an unsung hero of the Windows app family. It is an astonishingly useful and powerful tool that Microsoft keeps quietly updating on an irregular basis. The latest update has just landed, and it’s a biggie.

We’ve already seen the addition of OCR capabilities to Microsoft Photos so in-image text can be easily copied; this has now been extended to include the option to search the web with text that has been extracted. But this is far from being the only change in the latest update.

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Windows 10 and Windows 11 are functional but a bit unexciting, with limited customization options. If you’ve ever wished you could make Windows look and work better, the good news is that Seelen UI has you covered.

This free tool reimagines what a Windows desktop can be, giving users the power to break free from Microsoft’s frustrating limitations -- and it’s just been updated to offer even more features and improvements.

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Just as you can get versions of Android that are free from Google, including LineageOS and /e/OS, so there are also alternative Windows operating systems not developed by Microsoft.

One of the most best examples of this is ReactOS, an open-source project that aims to provide a free and compatible replacement for Windows, removing all the things you don’t want in Microsoft’s OS, such as spying/telemetry, adverts, and so on.

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For most people, the first thing that jumps out about Windows 11 is the centered taskbar and Start menu. It’s one of the most obvious changes Microsoft made to the new OS to differentiate it from Windows 10.

A change like that can be difficult to adjust to at first -- if you’ve been using Windows for years you’ll be used to everything being on the left. Windows 25 puts everything back where it belongs, and you can install it now.

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