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Microsoft's forthcoming Creators Update offers a mixed bag of fixes for Win10's biggest knocks Windows 10 will get better in the forthcoming Creators Update. That isn’t a hollow promise or more marketing drivel. It’s a straightforward observation, comparing the most egregious parts of the current version, Win10 1607 Anniversary Update, with near-final betas of the next version, 1703. While it’s too early to gauge 1703’s stability, the feature improvements are very real. Windows 10 beta build 15031, which appeared on Feb. 8, was the first Win10 build in the rs2_release branch. That’s the point where a fork in the Win10...

Microsoft has taken the next step in pushing advertising on customers of its Windows 10 operating system, with users reporting an advertisement for Microsoft OneDrive now appearing in their File Explorer. Windows 10 has been repeatedly reprimanded by technology journalists over the past year for the increasing amounts of advertising that are baked into the system. Advertisements in various forms have appeared in the Start menu, the lock screen, the taskbar, in the Windows Store, and various other areas. This seems to be the first time that users are noticing them in the File Explorer, the application that allows users...

The Windows 10 Creators Update is set for release shortly, and comes with significant improvements to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, also known as Bash on Windows or Ubuntu on Windows.Just to remind you, this is not done via emulation, nor by running a virtual machine, but rather by redirecting system calls. Does Microsoft really love Linux? While that is hard to answer definitively, the company does see a lot of Linux in its future, and is smart enough not to resist it.Around a third of VMs on Azure run Linux; SQL Server for Linux is coming; the next-generation .NET...

Microsoft roadmap lays out second big update for 2017 Microsoft has confirmed it is planning a second major update for Windows 10, which is to be piloted this year, and is seriously considering releasing it before 2018.This is according to word out of Microsoft's Ignite partner conference in Australia, where the Redmond software giant revealed its map for upcoming operating system updates in a session.Software engineer Rafael Rivera posted online screenshots of the operating system's roadmap, which shows that following the Creators Update release – due spring 2017 – a second, unnamed major Windows 10 update is slated to arrive...

Multitaskers who need to watch video while crunching numbers in a spreadsheet will be delighted to know Windows 10 soon will be able to accommodate miniature video players better. A test version of Windows 10 released Wednesday comes with a feature called "compact overlay window" that will always float atop your other windows. That could be handy for holding Skype video chats, keeping an eye on political hearings and yes, watching Netflix or the big game when you're supposed to be at work.

Hey everyone. Just in case you've been wondering . . . Well, I bought a brand new computer at a good price. But it is so blasted different from anything I'm used to that it's running me nuts. First I couldn't figure out how to hook the thing up (being unused to these contemporary power cords) and wound up taking the thing back to the store the very day I bought it. Okay--that's one hurdle. Then I had trouble turning it on. Then I couldn't increase the text size in my browser without increasing the size of the tab as...

Overall, the game might feel a little bit backwards considering Fallout 4's "Vault-Tec" add-on pack tasked players with creating their own vaults. But unlike that, Fallout Shelter -- out February 7th -- will be available for free and its load speeds will almost assuredly be faster than booting Fallout 4 proper. Best of luck guarding against super mutants, Overseer.

Windows Cloud: That name has appeared in system files deep within some of the most recent Windows 10 Insider builds. While a few experts guess it could be a new version of Windows, what it actually is remains a mystery. As far as evidence goes, it’s pretty slim pickings. Two names, “Windows Cloud” and “Windows Cloud N,” appear in a list of Windows versions as early as the recent Windows 10 Insider Build 15002, as originally reported by the Walking Cat Twitter account. (The “N” designation likely refers to a version specifically designed for European countries.) ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley,...

Microsoft has been keen on making doing a Creators Update to improve the Xbox's gaming abilities. The latest information reveals that the company plans to bring the same quality of gaming to Xbox and PC gamers. Xbox insiders who had the first dibs on the latest update already saw the changes brought about by the new update. Xbox UI Changes Microsoft received a lot of complaints on how complicated it is to navigate the Xbox home screen and the company already addressed this issue in their Creators Update. The main goal of this update is to bring Windows features to...

The bugs could crash some popular games, but from Microsoft's perspective, it's all part of the beta-testing journey. The gaming-focused Windows 10 Insider build that Microsoft promised earlier this week, with Game Mode, Beam livestreaming and other features, is rolling out—but with some game-breaking bugs, unfortunately. What’s officially known as Build 15019 for the Insider Fast Ring also includes a number of more general improvements, including a version of Edge that will read your ebooks aloud and a better out-of-box experience, complete with voice actors to guide you through the process. If you’re hoping to try out the new PC-centric...

The fate of Windows 10 lies in the hands of users that are still deeply in love with Windows 7. This year's CES saw plenty of shiny new Windows 10 devices on display, from the acrobat Lenovo Yoga through to HP's all-in-one Sprout Pro. Hardware like this will certainly boost the fortunes of Windows 10. Sleek new designs and form factors, and the rise of two-in-one devices like the Surface Pro that can function both as a PC and a tablet, are giving consumers and businesses a reason to invest in Microsoft's latest operating system. And Windows 10 has made...

I have set my default browser as Firefox (I know, I know) but when I click on a link from my Outlook 2010 (I know, I know) it opens up with a notice on which browser I want to use. I click on "always use this browser, hit OK". But, if I click on it again it will come up with the same notice. How can I get rid of this notice?

No pressure, peeps: Techies are awaiting a fix from their Redmond coworkers A bug in Windows 10 is undermining Microsoft's efforts to roll out an IPv6-only network at its Seattle headquarters. According to Redmond's principal network engineer Marcus Keane, the software giant is struggling to move over to the decade-old networking technology due to a DHCPv6 bug in Windows 10, which made it "impossible" to expand its planned corporate network. "We have reported it to the product group, and they are duly working on a fix," he revealed today. The horrible irony of Microsoft waiting on its own team to...

There’s some good news for privacy-minded individuals who haven’t been fond of Microsoft’s data collection policy with Windows 10. When the upcoming Creators Update drops this spring, it will overhaul Microsoft’s data collection policies. Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, has published a blog post with a list of the changes Microsoft will be making.First, Microsoft has launched a new web-based privacy dashboard with the goal of giving people an easy, one-stop location for controlling how much data Microsoft collects. Your privacy dashboard has sections for Browse, Search, Location, and Cortana’s Notebook, each covering a different...

Microsoft security boffins throw fresh CVEs at unpatched OS, emerge smiling Microsoft says its Windows 10 Anniversary Update squashes more exploit delivery chains than ever. The August updates brought in a series of operating system security improvements including boosts to Windows Defender and use of AppContainer, designed to raise the difficulty of having zero day exploits execute on patched systems. Redmond's security team tested its exploit mitigations against two kernel-level then zero-day exploits (CVE-2016-7255, CVE-2016-7256) used by active hacking groups that offer privilege escalation. They find, in a technical analysis designed to stress test the resilience of Windows 10, that...

It’s no huge secret that we don’t hold Microsoft’s methods of selling products in high regard. Updategate was a complete shower, and with that over, we appear to have moved into the scaremongering phase of the operation based on comments from the company’s German operation. In a blog post on Technet, we’re warned that Windows 7 “only” has three years of updates left, and even then it can’t hold a candle to Windows 10 in terms of enterprise features and security. Tell that to the 40+ percent of enterprises still using it. […] Although it would be a foolhardy business...

Microsoft is working on a new Windows 10 feature that will automatically lock and secure a PC when the operating system detects someone has moved away from the machine. The feature is labelled as Dynamic Lock in recent test builds of Windows 10, and Windows Central reports that Microsoft refers to this as “Windows Goodbye” internally. Microsoft currently uses special Windows Hello cameras to let Windows 10 users log into a PC with just their face. Big corporations teach employees to use the winkey+L combination to lock machines when they’re idle, but this new feature will make it an automatic...

Turn your PC into a green-eyed monster Redmond has released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15002 – one of the biggest updates to its cloudy operating system – ahead of the release of the Creators Update later this year. There's a whole host of upgrades and additions in the new build, but one that will be immediately noticeable to developers is the axing of the traditional Blue Screen of Death whenever the operating system throws its toys out of the playpen. Now it will be green. "In an effort to more easily distinguish Windows Insider reports vs the reports of...

It's not quite the clear-cut win for consumers that Microsoft is portraying, but at least it's transparent with its decision. Microsoft said Tuesday that it plans to simplify the privacy options in the upcoming Creators’ Update, though some may see one component as limiting user choice as well. Microsoft plans to revamp how privacy is managed in the upcoming Creators Update to Windows 10, both as part of the initial setup as well as the amount of data it collects in day-to-day diagnostics. That amount will actually decrease, if a user so chooses. But Microsoft has also eliminated an intermediary...

Because it’s not complicated enough already, Windows 10’s Start menu will support folders in a forthcoming release. The Windows 10 Redstone 2 release, also dubbed the “Creators Update”, will allow apps to be nested, much as with Windows Phone 8, and the mobile edition of Windows 10. The update is expected around April, and aggregates work since the Anniversary Update in early August. Around a dozen builds have been released via the Insider Preview program since the official announcement in October. The folders appear in an unofficial leaked build (14997) and MS Power User blog has a nice GIF of...