Articles about Windows 11

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

One option for Windows 10 users who do not want to pay Microsoft for extended support is to switch to Linux once Microsoft's operating system runs out of support. Linux veteran Brian suggests to try a dual boot or VM instead at the beginning, to test the waters.

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It's that time of the month when Microsoft releases preview versions of next month’s updates for Windows. For the eager -- and brave -- they provide a way to get early access to new features and options as well as fixes for problems.

Windows 11 users now have the KB5052093 update to download and install if they want to jump in ahead of Patch Tuesday, and this is a nice little update that not only patches a bunch of bugs, but adds a tasty selection of new bits and pieces. A highlight is the ability to use a single webcam in multiple apps.

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Every so often, we hear rumors about Microsoft’s next operating system, widely expected to be called Windows 12. The tech giant has been keeping quiet about its future plans, preferring instead to continue to update Windows 11, adding more AI features, and deprecating functionality it thinks we no longer need.

Although plenty of people still prefer Windows 10 to its successor, Windows 11 will be the only game in town in a matter of months when the older OS comes to its end of life later this year. Windows 11 isn’t bad -- far from it -- but it could be better, as evidenced by Windows 11 2025 Edition.

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For a lot of people, the biggest, most noticeable difference between Windows 10 and 11 is the centered taskbar and Start menu that Microsoft introduced to its latest operating system.

The software giant made the change to give Windows 11 a fresh, modern look and set it apart from its predecessor, but Windows has had a left-aligned taskbar and menu since Windows 95, and as the company proved when it gave us a tiled Start screen in Windows 8, change isn't always good -- or welcome.

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Over the years, I have suggested leaving Windows for Linux many times, with some readers saying I sound like a broken record. In hindsight, however, that was arguably a foolish thing to suggest (in some cases, at least). No, that doesn’t mean I have soured on Linux -- quite the contrary. Actually, I am as enthusiastic as ever!

So, have I changed my tune? Well… not entirely. I still think people should install Linux, but instead of replacing Windows, I would suggest dual-booting instead. This way, you get the best of both worlds -- Linux and Windows on one machine. I suppose if you find you don’t ever use Windows, you could get rid of it down the line. But even if you don’t use Windows, why bother getting rid of it? You might find having a Windows installation handy one day. Hey… you never know.

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

Microsoft is working on a new app. Currently in development, Migration App is designed to help users smoothly transfer files from one Windows PC to another.

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Snipping Tool is one of the most useful apps to be found in Windows 11, making light work of grabbing on-screen content. Primarily concerned with taking screenshots, it has developed over the years to include a handy OCR component for extracting text.

And now this feature is in line for an upgrade. Microsoft is improving the text extraction capabilities of Snipping Tool so that text can be grabbed without the need to take a screenshot first.

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I appreciate calling Windows XP “Microsoft’s greatest OS” will elicit snorts of derision from a good number of you. That honor probably belongs to Windows 7, or maybe even Windows 10 (once Microsoft ironed out the many problems that plagued it from the start). But certainly, Windows XP was a classic, and a huge step up from the operating systems that preceded it.

If you miss XP but aren’t crazy enough to run an OS that (mostly) hasn’t had security updates in over a decade, FreeXP might be just what you’re looking for. It’s not XP, and it’s not from Microsoft, but it looks and feels just like it.

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The last round of security updates saw Microsoft release the KB5051987 update for Windows 11. As this patch addresses a number of security issues with the operating system, it is a mandatory update that will be automatically installed for most people.

As we’ve seen time and time again, the automatic installation of security updates is a good thing... until it isn’t. And with the KB5051987 update, there are numerous problems that raise the question of whether it is advisable to have Microsoft pushing out obligatory patches that can wreak havoc.

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You can tell that people aren’t overjoyed with Windows 11 by the number of great third-party tools that have been developed to fix the OS. The most recent of these is Talon, which can debloat Windows 11 in just two mouse clicks, removing all the bundled junk that Microsoft has shoehorned into its OS, including Microsoft Edge, OneDrive, Copilot, and Clipchamp.

Winhance is another such tool, but it works differently and can be used to debloat and optimize Windows 11 -- and, perhaps just as importantly, keep it that way. Although it’s been designed for Windows 11, it will work just as well on a fully updated version of Windows 10 22H2.

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The integration of Fedora into Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is on the brink of completion, and the Fedora crew is rallying the community for assistance. A testing event is pegged for Monday, February 17, 2025, offering enthusiasts an opportunity to experiment with Fedora under WSL prior to its formal release. If you’re equipped with either Windows 10 or 11 and have some free time, here’s your moment to make a contribution.

This Fedora testing event is essentially a community-organized quest for bugs. It welcomes all -- whether you’re a die-hard Fedora supporter or simply intrigued by the idea of Linux within Windows. Requirements include an x86 or AArch64 setup with virtualization capabilities, a readiness to adhere to guidelines, and the capacity to handle downloading large test images.

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

Microsoft is pushing the new Outlook for Windows to Windows 10 systems automatically with this month's security updates for the operating system.

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The biggest problem with saying goodbye to Windows 10 or 11 is knowing what to use instead. macOS is a great choice, but you’ll probably need to buy a Mac to run it, so that makes it an expensive option.

There’s no shortage of Linux distros you can use, including the big ones like Ubuntu and Mint, but they aren’t for everyone. One relatively new choice is the stunning Oreon 10 which we declared had "arrived to replace Microsoft Windows" when it launched last December. That OS has just received a big update, but it’s what’s coming next that has us most excited.

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If you’ve had enough of Windows 11, or are considering moving away from Microsoft when the tech giant pulls the plug on Windows 10 later this year, there are plenty of options available to you, ranging from the likes of Nitrux Linux to the just-updated, gorgeous EndeavourOS 'Mercury'.

The successor to EndeavourOS 'Neo' has been in development for quite some time, but it's a great update and not only fixes loads of problems but also introduces some great new features.

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

Windows 10 is reaching its end of support date later this year and millions of devices can't be upgraded to Windows 11 officially because of stricter system requirements. Bypasses are available that work on most incompatible systems. Microsoft did offer instructions on its website about those, but has removed reference recently.

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