Articles about Windows 11

For some strange reason, Microsoft made Windows 11 less useful in various ways. One such backwards step was removing some of the settings relating to mouse controls, specifically the option to reverse scroll wheel direction, and enhance pointer precision.

Quite why it was deemed sensible to remove the options from Settings is anyone's guess, particularly as it remained possible to tweak the registry to implement them. Now Microsoft has seen the error of its ways and is placing control back in the hands of Windows 11 users.

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Six-hundred-five 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 confirmed a new issue this week that affects Windows 10 and 11 PCs that have the July security updates installed. These may boot into BitLocker Recovery where the BitLocker Recovery Key needs to be provided to proceed.

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For many people a new version of Windows is about little more than a slightly updated look and feel. With the average user hardly scratching the surface of the operating system's features, looks can be one of the most important things.

You may be one of the many people who see little reason to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11, or it may be that hardware requirements make it impossible. Whatever your reason for continuing to use Windows 10, you can treat your eyes to some of the Windows 11 aesthetics using a neat trick.

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Six months ago, we showed you how it was possible to transform Windows 10 or 11 into Windows 7 or Vista with a single command, an article which -- it has to be said -- proved rather divisive.

Now YouTube channel Come on Windows has released a video showing Windows 10 being fully transformed into Windows 7, and has provided links to the software you need should you wish to try this idea out for yourself.

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Outbyte has launched a new app designed to improve energy efficiency for systems running Windows 10 and 11. The free application optimizes CPU performance, reducing power consumption by up to 34 percent and decreasing carbon emissions to support environmental sustainability.

The Camomile app works by adjusting CPU voltage and frequency to prevent unnecessary spikes in power usage, which are common with default chipset configurations. These spikes often cause CPUs to overheat and fans to work harder, increasing noise and decreasing system efficiency. By keeping CPU operations within manufacturer-recommended speeds, Camomile reportedly helps mitigate these issues, extending battery life, and improving the overall user experience.

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Six-hundred-four 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.

Windows 11 version 23H2 is now broadly available according to Microsoft. This means that everyone with an eligible device should get it when searching for the update under Windows Update in Settings. Non-managed devices with Windows 11 version 22H2 will be updated automatically in the coming months.

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Last month, Microsoft acknowledged an issue with the Photos app that is included with Windows 11. Anyone installing updates for the app from June 4 onwards may have found themselves unable to launch Photos.

Having already announced that it was working on producing a fix, Microsoft has now provided details of a temporary workaround.

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Six-hundred-three 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 started to push out the new Copilot app to Windows 10 devices as part of the July 2024 cumulative update for the operating system. It removes the Copilot button and integration, and replaces it with a Microsoft Store app. The same Copilot experience is also launching on Windows 11 devices.

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Microsoft has issued a reminder to anyone using older editions of Windows 11 that their operating system is about to reach end of servicing.

Windows 11 versions 21H2 and 22H2 will no longer receive security updates as of October. To avoid the problem of leaving people with an insecure and unsupported operating system, Microsoft has a solution: forced upgrades.

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This month’s update for Windows 11 is pretty impressive. There are the typical bug fixes that you would expect, but there are also lots of additions and improvements to the operating system.

Like Windows 10, Windows 11 Copilot now offers a more app-like experience, and there is the very welcome return of the Show Desktop button on the taskbar. Other improvements mean that it is now possible to create 7-Zip and Tape Archive (TAR) files using the context menu, and there is newly added support for Emoji 15.1. But that’s just for starters.

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Check Point Research (CPR) has identified a critical zero-day spoofing attack exploiting Microsoft Internet Explorer on modern Windows 10/11 systems, despite the browser's retirement.

Identified as CVE-2024-38112, this vulnerability allows attackers to execute remote code by tricking users into opening malicious Internet Shortcut (.url) files. This attack method has been active for over a year and could potentially impact millions.

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Four months ago, we reported that Microsoft was testing adding long overdue features like spell checking and autocorrect to its Notepad app. You may have been wondering when, or indeed if, this functionality was ever going to come non-Insiders, but the updated Notepad is now quietly rolling out to all users and you likely already have it installed.

Notepad has been a popular tool since its arrival in 1983, acting as a simple, free alternative to the likes of Word, and these new capabilities will be a welcome addition for its fans, especially after Microsoft took the controversial decision to kill off the more capable WordPad recently.

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Six-hundred-two 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.

Proton has launched a privacy-first document editing feature that is attached to its Proton Drive service.

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There are lots of ways that you can speed up Windows without performing pricey hardware upgrades, including disabling running processes and features. Windows comes with a handy, lesser-known feature which can boost your system performance by killing off annoying resource hogs you didn’t even know were running.

If you install a lot of software, you’re probably aware that many apps will automatically set themselves to run at login. This may be useful to you, but equally it could be a pain, and consume system resources without your permission, or even your knowledge. You can check to see what’s running using task manager, but there’s a way of being alerted automatically without having to lift a finger.

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Six-hundred-one 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.

Good news for Windows 10 users. Micro-patching service 0Patch will support the operating system at least until 2030 with security updates.

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