Articles about Windows 11

Five-hundred-and-sixty-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.

The fourth Moment update for Windows 11 will be released alongside the non-security updates preview. This is not the Windows 11 version 23H2 feature update, which will be released later this year according to Microsoft.

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Over the years, the Start menu has evolved from a handy place to house shortcuts to apps and system settings into the slightly chaotic mess users are now presented with in Windows 11. The Windows 11 Start menu is still home to shortcuts -- and more -- but Microsoft has taken a different approach when compared to previous versions of the operating system.

One of the more controversial aspects is the Recommended section. This is used for various things, from highlighting recently installed apps to, more divisively, advertising apps Microsoft would like you to install. And now the company is experimenting with adding even more recommended content.

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Microsoft today announced its upcoming huge update to Windows 11, with 150 new features, including -- naturally! -- Copilot, its AI assistant, which is going to be everywhere this fall.

Not everyone wants AI invading their operating system, however. Some people would just be happy with a version of Windows 11 that works and offers a decent selection of powerful features. Those people, would prefer Windows 11.2.

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Although today's big Microsoft event was mostly supposed to focus on new Surface devices, the company devoted a lot of time to AI, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.

Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered companion, is coming to pretty much everywhere, including Windows 11, Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. For Windows 11 users, that is huge news, and the feature is set to arrive from next week.

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Tiling window managers (WM) provide Linux users with a way to customize a desktop environment to suit their personal preferences. Windows can be arranged to avoid overlapping and altered on the fly simply by typing in keyboard commands.

Inspired by the likes of i3 (a Linux window manager aimed at power users and developers) and Polybar (a fast and easy-to-use tool for creating status bars), GlazeWM brings this functionality to Windows, and the tool has just undergone a massive update. Version 2.0 fixes a number of problems and introduces a wealth of new features.

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Toast notifications in Windows 10 and 11 provide handy real-time updates and alerts. These notifications pop up from the bottom right corner of the system tray, and display brief, timely information about specific events or actions. They can include text, images, and buttons that allow the user to interact with the notification directly.

Users can choose which apps can send toast notifications, and adjust their priority levels to manage their visibility. They can also set quiet hours, during which notifications will not disturb them. But what if you want to customize things further and choose where these notifications pop up from? We have the answer.

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Microsoft's love for Linux shows no signs of waning, with the company releasing an update-packed pre-release build of WSL 2.0.0.

There are many changes in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.0.0, and as this is a pre-release version it’s perhaps to be expected that many of the new additions are described as "experimental". One of the biggest new features is experimental.autoMemoryReclaim which shrinks the WSL VM in memory by reclaiming cached memory.

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Far from abandoning Paint after nearly four decades, Microsoft is actively developing the app. Having already updated the longstanding image editor with a powerful background removal feature, the company is continuing to equip Paint lovers with new tools.

The latest additions to the beloved app are support for layers and transparency. This is yet another example of Microsoft elevating Paint above being a basic bitmap editor, and there is more on the way. There are also hints in the code of the app that generative AI is under development, meaning that Paint will be able to create images using the DALL-E-powered Cocreator.

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Five-hundred-and-sixty 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.

Classic Windows troubleshooting tools will be retired in the coming years. Microsoft plans to replace some of them with the Get Help tool, which acts as a go-to app for troubleshooting tasks on Windows.

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As ever, the Dev and Canary channels of the Windows 11 Insider Program are exciting places to be, bringing updates for not only the operating system itself, but also the bundled apps.

The latest builds of the OS include significant changes and new features for the Snipping Tool, Windows Photos and Phone Link apps. Perhaps the most important addition is Text Actions which brings OCR functionality to Snipping Tool.

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It's the time of the month when Microsoft releases its regular security updates, and this September is no different. As the KB5030219 update is a security update, it is rolling out automatically to all Windows 11 users.

As well as numerous security fixes, the KB5030219 update removes a blank item from the Sticky Keys menu, a problem introduced by the previously released KB5029351 update.

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Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would be retiring legacy troubleshooters in Windows 11. These built-in tools have helped users diagnose and fix common Windows problems since their arrival in Windows 7 back in 2009.

Now, the company has started the process of removing these troubleshooters.

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Microsoft Paint has been the subject of ridicule for as long as it has existed, but much of the mockery is ill-placed these days. While it may not be the most advanced image editor in the world, there is a lot more to the app than it is generally given credit for.

Microsoft is not done with development of the app, updates rolled out to the latest Insider builds of Windows 11 show that the company is on the verge of bringing a Photoshop-level tool to Paint: background removal.

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The vast majority of software bugs are, almost by definition, a problem. A bug can cause unexpected behavior, reduce performance, and cause endless other issues. But there is a bug in Windows 11's File Explorer that actually makes it better.

If you've ever thought that File Explorer would benefit from a speed boost, there's some good news. A strange bug can be exploited to noticeably improve performance in a split second.

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You know, it's often hard to get people to leave their comfort zones. But, sometimes, staying where you're comfortable is the biggest impediment to progress. This is especially true when it comes to operating systems. While Windows 11 has been generating buzz with its new features and revamped UI, let's not forget the other contenders that are pushing boundaries. Linux Lite 6.6 is one such alternative, and dare I say, it's one of the most inviting Linux distributions out there for those looking to make a switch.

The Linux Lite team has really outdone themselves this time around. The 6.6 release is one of their largest since they launched back in 2012. They've added thousands of lines of new code, predominantly to support a vast range of languages. From Afrikaans to Ukrainian, Linux Lite 6.6 now supports a whopping 22 languages, covering areas such as Main Menu, Right Click Menu, Folder Names, and even Desktop Icons. This is an incredible leap toward making Linux Lite a truly global OS.

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