Items tagged with Windows 10
Microsoft has started pushing out a new preview build of Windows 10 (build 18317) to Windows Insiders who are subscribed to the Fast ring, and with it comes a pretty big change. The latest preview build separates Search and Cortana in the taskbar so they can be developed independently. "Some Insiders have had this update for a few weeks now, and we appreciate all the feedback we’ve received about it so far! For those new to this update, when it rolls out to you, you’ll find clicking the search box in the taskbar now launches our experience focused on giving you the best in house search...
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If you've been putting off installing the Windows 10 October 2018 Update -- for obvious reasons -- avoiding it will soon become a lot harder in the coming weeks. Microsoft announced yesterday that it is now pushing out the October 2018 Update to all but a select few systems. If you recall, back in December, Microsoft began making the major OS update available to what it called "advanced" users who manually clicked the "Check for Updates" button in Windows Update. However, the company is now pushing its first wave of the update to all remaining users who have otherwise avoided upgrading....
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Could Microsoft be preparing for an influx of mobile devices with dual or folding displays running Windows 10? That appears to be the case according to a new report issued Tuesday morning. According to sources within Microsoft that spoke with The Verge, the company is committing a lot of resources not only into supporting future devices that will incorporate innovative display form-factors, but also will be producing its own first-party Surface hardware that will include some of the same design trends. Microsoft has long been rumored to be developing a dual-screen device...
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Are you tired of manually deleting files to make way for a Windows 10 update? A solution is on its way! Microsoft will now reserve at least 7GB of your device’s storage to help facilitate smooth Windows 10 updates. Windows currently does not check to see whether a user has enough space on their device before beginning an update. Users who currently do not have enough storage space usually receive an error message and must delete some of their files. Windows 10 19H1, also known as version 1903, will save at least 7GB of a device’s storage to guarantee that there is room for any...
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Back in the old days, Windows users simply allowed the operating system to update as needed at times when the PC wasn't in use (to avoid obvious conflicts with your workflow). That certainly hasn't been the case of late with Microsoft's Windows 10 updates bringing a slew of bugs and issues for users to contend with. PC users on Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise have the option of pausing Windows updates for up to 35 days. However, there is the caveat that after your 35-day pause is over, you can only pause updates again after installing the most recent updates. Even with that caveat,...
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The October 2018 Update for Windows 10 may have gotten off to a rocky start, but that has not deterred Microsoft from forging ahead with its next major update, which is due out sometime in the first half of this year. As work progresses on its next major update, Microsoft has made available a new test build to Windows Insiders who are subscribed to the Fast ring, and with it comes a few interesting changes. For one, Microsoft has disabled Cortana's voice-over instructions during the installation phase, based on user feedback. This default setting applies to Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education...
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AMD's Threadripper 2990WX is a beastly slice of silicon, there's no doubt about it. The chip is armed with 32 cores and 64 threads clocked at 3.0GHz to 4.2GHz, supplemented with 64MB of L3 cache and 16MB of L2 cache. It also provides access to 64 PCI Express Gen3 lanes. Oddly enough, however, it under performs in some situations in Windows. What gives? To be clear, the Threadripper 2990WX is not a gaming processor, though you can certainly build a gaming PC around it. Early on, there were some performance quirks when paired with an NVIDIA graphics card, which were later fixed through driver updates...
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During its Build conference last year, Microsoft bragged that Windows 10 had reached over 700 million active devices, an impressive milestone though still short of the elusive (so far) 1 billion devices goal. At the time, Windows 10 still trailed Windows 7 in terms of market share. Well, not anymore, if the latest data from an outside source is to believed. Microsoft is not in the habit of sharing monthly market share figures on its OSes, past and present, but Net Applications is, through its Net Market Share website. According to the latest tally, Windows 10 is on top with a 39.22 percent share...
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Google is starting to see the light (darkness?) in offering users a dark mode option for some of its products and services, such as Android and YouTube. Some people find dark themes to simply be less straining on the eyes. If you're one of them and you own a Windows 10 PC, we have good news—a dark mode option is being added to Google's Chrome browser. Confirmation of this comes from Chrome developer Peter Kasting, who in May of last year submitted a bug report related to having a dark mode. "Windows 10 allows users to set their apps to 'light' or 'dark' mode. Chrome should respect this. The...
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We are now in the middle of December and fast approaching a brand new year, and at long last the October 2018 Update for Windows 10 is finally widely available to the public. There is a catch, however. Only "advanced users" who have not already updated are likely to see the update, as it must be manually retrieved. "Windows 10, version 1809, is now fully available for advanced users who manually select 'Check for updates' via Windows Update," Microsoft said. That means it is still not being doled out on an automatic basis, but at least it's available for anyone who wants to take the initiative....
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Over the last few years, many consumers have complained that Microsoft has focused primarily on businesses. The company abandoned products like the Windows Phone and Microsoft Band Fitness Trackers, and has instead labored on its business applications, data, and AI. Microsoft recently stated that it would be working harder to attract consumers. A few recent job listings have hinted that the company plans to fulfill that promise, and Microsoft will likely release a 365 Consumer Subscription. Microsoft has posted job listings for a Microsoft 365 Consumer Subscription product manager and senior product...
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In a new post on its Windows Blog, Microsoft details its Windows Update mechanism, allowing us to peer inside the company process to see how those precious updates are rolled out. While some Windows updates have clearly not gone according to plan, the vast majority do, and given the complexity and reach of these updates, it's actually surprising we don't see even more issues than we do. According to Microsoft, it delivers updates to about one thousand devices per second, ultimately topping one billion devices per month. That's not only Windows 10, but every version if Windows that Microsoft...
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Microsoft is looking to clear the air regarding a Windows 10 "feature" that was widely reported yesterday. Activity History is a feature that allows you to view a log of tasks that you have performed on all of your logged-in devices, and was first introduced with the Windows 10 April 2018 Update earlier this year. However, users were finding that even with Activity History disabled on their systems, app history could still be pulled up via the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard website (account.microsoft.com). Needless to say, many people were up in arms about this discovery, and Microsoft says that...
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Updated 12/13/2018: Microsoft has issued a response to its handling of Activity History in Windows 10, which you can read here. Microsoft is catching some heat for what appears on the surface to be a privacy violation in Windows 10, though what's actually happening might just be poor wording on the company's part. The issue at hand is a setting in Windows 10 to disable the OS from sending a user's activity history to the mother ship. At first glance, it seems Microsoft collects this data even when the setting is disabled. This was brought to attention by a user on Reddit who wondered why "some...
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