Articles about Windows 11

The death of the Control Panel has been anything but quick and painless. The gradual migration to the Settings app has seen the Control Panel lingering on in a software hospice as Microsoft slowly chips away at it.

This legacy component of Windows remains home to various system settings that cannot be changed elsewhere, but hints have been spotted in builds of Windows Server that the end is drawing closer.

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The words 'known issues' in relation to updates for Windows are enough to strike fear into even the most hardened computer users. Microsoft is certainly no stranger to releasing updates that have problems -- or, if you want to be kind, unintended consequences. The latest SNAFU, however, is likely to please a lot of people.

With the release of the KB5053598 update for Windows 11 a few days ago, Microsoft has acknowledged that for some people it kills off Copilot. While the company refers to this as the app being "unintentionally uninstalled", this is a mistake that could have many fans.

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If you’re thinking of leaving Windows 10 or 11 but aren’t quite sure if you’re ready to jump ship permanently, the good news is you can try some excellent alternative operating systems without commitment, using tools like VMware Player. One of our top recommendations is the stunning Oreon 10.

We declared it had "arrived to replace Microsoft Windows" when it launched last December, but since then the OS has received a number of improvements, and a new build has just been released that makes Oreon 10 an even more compelling alternative.

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Six-hundred-thirty-eight 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 announced the end of the Remote Desktop app for Windows this week. The app, which is available as a Microsoft Store download, is being replaced by the Windows App for Windows. The change appears a bit hurried, as some features are not supported by the new app yet, but there are workarounds.

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If your printer has been spontaneously printing at random, you’re not alone – and you can almost certainly blame a wonky Windows update from Microsoft.

The company has acknowledged a strange print issue affecting some users of Windows 10 and Windows 11 who installed recent updates for the operating systems. The peculiar behavior affects USB connected dual-mode printers that support both USB Print and IPP Over USB protocols and Microsoft has been forced to resort to a Known Issue Rollback (KIR).

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Few people would argue that Windows 11 is perfect; in fact, for many people the operating system has many flaws and failings. A lot of the weaknesses of Windows have been addressed by the developers of PowerToys, but this is far from being the only suite of utilities out there.

Stardock is a company with a history of producing handy tools for Windows, and Fences is a productivity, organization and workflow enhancing tool that can make Windows 11 work for you. To coincide with the release of the latest beta version of the utility, the company is giving 10 percent off Fences 6. Here’s what this incredible tool has to offer.

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The developers behind AcreetionOS have a few questions for you. “Have you been wanting to switch away from Windows? Are you looking for something that just works?” If the answer to both of those is yes, their brand new operating system might be just what you’re after.

We’ve been using the Arch Linux based AcreetionOS for a few days now, and while the user interface could use a bit of polish (it’s still very new, so that’s understandable), it’s a solid OS that’s easy to use and, yes, it really does just work.

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CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver 25 for macOS and Linux, and it’s packed with some seriously awesome improvements. Thanks to Wine 10.0 bringing over 5,000 changes, this update should make running both Windows games and apps on non-Windows systems smoother than ever. Could this finally convince gamers to dump Microsoft's OS?

Let’s be honest, Windows 11 hasn’t exactly won over everyone. Between forced updates, hardware restrictions, and Microsoft’s annoying obsession with AI features (that most people don’t even want), it has left many gamers looking for alternatives. That’s where CrossOver 25 comes in.

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Six-hundred-thirty-seven 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 released a new version of its Copilot app on Windows to the Microsoft Store for Insiders. This one, finally, is a native application and no longer a progressive web app. May take some time before it lands on stable though.

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With Windows 11, Microsoft tried to make the new OS look different from Windows 10, mainly by centering the taskbar and Start menu. This wasn’t the most popular change for a lot of people.

As we’ve covered before, there are a good number of third-party tools that you can use to put the Start menu and taskbar back to how they were, as well as tweak other areas of the newest operating system, including improving icons and updating File Explorer.

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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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