Windows 11

In what feels like something of a case of history repeating itself – Cortana, anyone? – Microsoft is furnishing Windows users with voice activated access to the operating system’s digital assistant.

While being able to call up the AI powers of Copilot by uttering Hey Copilot to your computer may not seem revolutionary, Microsoft has a different idea. The company says that it sees a “shift to conversational input [being] as transformative as the mouse and keyboard in terms of unlocking new capabilities on the PC for the broadest set of people.

Want to know a secret? If you don’t like Windows 11, you don’t actually have to use it. With Windows 10 support officially ending today, millions of PCs are being left behind. For users who want to keep their existing desktop or laptop, Linux offers another way forward, and Zorin OS 18 arrives just in time as one of the best Windows replacements available.

Zorin OS 18 is one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions around and introduces a new design, updated features, and improved compatibility with more of the tools people rely on every day.

Windows 10 meets its end of life tomorrow, and from then anyone still using the hugely popular OS will have to accept that -- unless they pay Microsoft for extended support -- they will no longer receive security updates, putting their computers and data at risk.

Microsoft would like Windows 10 users to switch to Windows 11, but for many older laptops and desktops, Windows 11 is simply not an option. This is where Winux comes in. Winux 11.25.10 “W10EOL” is the latest version of the Windows-style Linux distribution that offers a familiar environment and runs much faster on aging machines.

The day on which Windows 10 is no longer supported is finally upon us, and there is no shortage of advice about what the best course of action is. Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11, Windows 10 users want Microsoft to provide updates for longer.

Fans of Linux are using the death of Windows 10 to push for more people to adopt their favorite distros, but we’ve not heard a great deal from Apple. When asked, though, the company is happy to suggest that Windows 10 users being abandoned by Microsoft should consider switching allegiances and embracing macOS. And Apple has reasons.

Tomorrow, October 14, is the day on which Microsoft ends mainstream support for Windows 10. As such, there is a lot of interest – perhaps not quite as much as Microsoft might like – in switching to Windows 11 and potentially using the Windows 11 media creation tool.

So, the news from the company that the “Windows 11 media creation tool might not work as expected on Windows 10” could not really have come at a worse time. Microsoft has some advice and help for anyone affected by the malfunction, however.

Windows 10 reaches its end of life in a couple of days, on October 14, 2025. Users who haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 11, perhaps due to compatibility issues with older hardware or a general dislike of Microsoft’s new OS, now face a choice between running an unsupported system without ongoing security updates or moving to a new operating system.

Alternatives include Linux distributions like the recently updated Ubuntu and Linux Mint, both of which are popular choices and for good reason. We’re big fans of Oreon 10, a Linux distribution designed for Windows users, and it has just rolled out a new feature update, Build 2510, in time for Windows 10’s end of life.

Constantly digging through folders, menus, and dialog boxes to find files or launch programs is a serious pain and can slow down even the speediest of Windows users. Quick Access Popup 12 has arrived, offering a faster way to launch folders, documents, apps, and websites from anywhere in Windows.

The utility, which builds on the original Folders Popup tool, lets users open commonly used locations or run commands with a middle click or a simple Win+W shortcut.

Having already given Windows Insiders signed up to the Dev and Beta channels a new Windows 11 Start menu experience, Microsoft is doing the same for those on Canary builds.

The new look sees the Start menu being made scrollable for easier access to shortcuts, but there are various other changes too. With the new Start menu landing in the Canary channel, it could be that we are due to see even more changes being introduced as Microsoft experiments. But the new Start menu is not all that the company has added here.

Microsoft’s development of Copilot on Windows 11 continues, and the company has just released significant updates to Insiders which are likely to win it more fans. New connection cap abilities mean that it is possible to use Copilot in conjunction with various online services including Google Calendar and Outlook.

More than this, however, Microsoft has also added new document creation capabilities. Users are now able to quickly create a variety of documents from within their Copilot sessions, including Word, Excel, and PDF.

It’s been a long time coming, but Windows 10 is now only days away from reaching the end of its lifecycle, marking the end of updates and security support for one of Microsoft’s most widely used operating systems.

For millions of users still running the OS, this change raises an important question: what’s next? While upgrading to Windows 11 seems like the natural path forward, not every PC meets Microsoft’s stringent system requirements.

With just a week to go until Windows 10 reaches the end of mainstream support, attention is increasingly turning to Windows 11. And with the release of the latest Dev build of the operating system, Microsoft is making changes to the OOBE.

The Out Of Box Experience is what Microsoft calls what most people refer to as the installation and setup process. With the latest changes, Microsoft is closing loopholes used to create local accounts, thereby forcing the use of a Microsoft Account.

We have known that the day was coming, and now it has arrived. Smack in the middle of H2, Microsoft has finally made Windows 11 25H2 available – for what it is worth.

While preview builds of Windows 11 25H2 have been available to Windows Insiders for a while, and to seekers more recently. But now the rollout to everyone and anyone is underway. What can you expect from this most recent “feature update” to Windows 11? Not – as even Microsoft admits – very much, really.

Microsoft has been forced to release an unscheduled update for Windows 11. The newly unleashed KB5068221 update addresses issues with Microsoft Office running in virtualized environments.

For those who have been experiencing the issue, the fact that this update fixes things is reason enough to install it. But Microsoft has also used this update release to share details of a workaround for a SMBv1 share problem.

Microsoft is taking a step back in time with Windows 11, introducing a feature not seen since the days of Vista. If you are sick of a static desktop background, you will be pleased to learn that you will soon be able to use a video as your backdrop instead.

This is something Microsoft was first playing with nearly two decades ago, before scrapping it as a bad idea. Now – for reasons unknown – the company feels the time is right to revive the DreamScene feature of Windows Vista in Windows 11.

Want to know a secret? If you don’t like Windows 11, you don’t actually have to use it! I know, shocker right? With Windows 10 support ending on 14 October 2025, millions of PCs will soon be left behind. For users who want to keep their existing desktop or laptop, Linux offers another way forward, and Zorin OS is one of the best Windows alternatives around.

Zorin OS 18 has now entered beta, giving Windows 10 users a chance to try a modern desktop that feels familiar without demanding new hardware or chucking you in at the deep end.