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MICROSOFT HAS HAD A MIXED MONTH in terms of market share, as we dive into the murky world of Netmarketshare's figures for September. Windows 10 is the big winner (as you'd hope). In terms of desktop/laptop users, it's now comfortably over the halfway line, with 52.38 per cent of the market (+1.39). With less than four months until it reaches end of life, Windows 7 still remains a major force, though it continues to drop. It now stands at 28.17 (-2.17). Lesser versions of Windows continue to chug along - Windows 8.x now stands at 4.1 per cent (-0.73) of...

Windows 10 could be better if only Microsoft got rid of its layers of made-men, according to a former Microsoft distinguished engineer. Tired of boring, buggy Windows 10 updates? You can blame them on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's failure to eliminate the company's legacy of appointing "made-men".

Microsoft appears to have been really struggling to get updates for Windows 10 users right of late. What with advising Windows 10 users to install a critical update before any others to avoid potential problems, and then confirming the Windows Update Assistant itself had a security vulnerability. However, just days after the latest Windows 10 update, KB4520062, was released, Microsoft is advising that some users, "should not install this update," as it can break the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service. So, what’s gone wrong this time and who needs to avoid this latest Windows 10 update? What is...

Here's the 'problem': I inherited at work a Windows 10 computer to use from another worker who has gone on to better job somewhere else. The problem is the Outlook Email still has HIS contacts list, both work and personal, and I cannot get rid of any of them. I go to the 'PEOPLE' section and go through the right clicks on the OLD CONTACTS, but the 'DELETE' function is grayed out and will not do anything. It won't let me edit any either. Anyone else have this problem? And if so, how do you fix it?............................ Thanks in advance,...

Users find PCs silenced while Microsoft looks into search fix Microsoft seems unable to catch a break with its Windows 10 updates. No sooner than it acknowledged that its CPU usage fix borked desktop search for some, users complained that the patch has also caused audio issues.Released on 10 September for Windows 10 1903 (aka the May 2019 Update), KB4515384 is a security update that included a fix for Cortana's CPU-munching habit. Alas, it turned out that the fix left desktop search a tad broken for some users.While the support page for the update resolutely states (at time of writing)...

One step forward, er, one step back. Nobody gets too far like that Microsoft's build 18362.356 (KB4515384​​​​​) for its Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) rolled out on Tuesday with security improvements for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, networking tech and input devices – and a CPU usage fix that, for some, has broken desktop search.The security tweaks address a variety of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities known as microarchitecture data sampling (MDS) for 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. Intel dealt with the CVEs at issue – CVE-2019-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 – in May.The update, released concurrently with Build 17763.737 for...

Help! I have a three week old HP laptop that was working beautifully until the Microsoft update on 27 August 2019. Since then my browser tabs have been crashing repeatedly throughout every session, and periodically, the computer crashes too. I'm a simple user with just enough savvy to post here and build simple websites. I don't have the skills to sort this out, and need some help, please. I've already tried doing a system restore to an earlier date, but the computer keeps crashing before it completes. I've run CCleaner and Malwarebytes too many times to count. I've sent countless...

Some Insiders are more equal than others (sorry, Release Preview) Microsoft has attempted to clear the murky waters of its Windows Insider programme by stowing its virtual coin toss for those on the Slow Ring.Build 18362.10019 of Windows 10 went out last night to those keen to get their mitts on 19H2, the version expected to drop at some point this month.Unlike previous releases, Microsoft has turned on the new features for all Insiders.The previous arrangement had some users running build 18362.10014 with the new toys turned off while all the good little Insiders on build 18362.10015 had their stockings...

Microsoft has just shipped Windows 10 KB4512941 to anyone who hits the ‘Check for updates’ button in Windows Update and click on the new ‘Download and install now’ option, which has been made available for optional updates or feature updates. Windows 10 KB4512941 fixes the broken Windows Sandbox, black screen issue hitting Remote Desktop connections and several other bugs. However, some users have run into serious problems after installing the latest update that advances PCs to Build 18362.329. According to various reports on forums (1, 2) and Feedback Hub, a number of devices may startup with a high CPU usage...

What's Wrong Drawing inspiration from the other world-famous Washingtonian product, the Boeing 737 MAX airplane, Microsoft introduced Windows 10 1903 with a boatload of insufficiently-documented under-the-hood changes. Some of these changes affect Deferred Procedure Call (DPC) tick-rate, causing spikes in DPC latency, affecting the audio pipeline. Focusrite beautifully summarized DPC affecting audio: DPC (Deferred Procedure Call) is the operation that Windows uses to assign a priority to processes/drivers that run simultaneously in the same system. If processes that are involved in streaming audio aren't assigned high enough priority then various issues can occur since the audio will not be streamed...

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($98.90 @ OutletPC) [with built-in Radeon Vega 8 graphics, pre-thermal-pasted, and includes heatsink & fan] Motherboard : MSI B450-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard ($84.89 @ OutletPC) [ATXform Factor] Memory : Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($59.99 @ Amazon) Storage : Team GX2 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($29.99 @ Newegg) Power Supply EVGA 400 W ATX Power Supply ($32.89 @ OutletPC) Case Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case $44.99 Walmart Wireless Network Adapter : TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter...

Yesterday I decided to let Microsoft update my version of Windows 10. Big mistake. I had three games I really liked that I think originally came with Windows XP. I liked them well enough to move them from my old machines to my new one each time I upgraded my computer. After the update, I went to play a game of FreeCell, but it was gone from the desktop, as were Mahjong and Hearts. I looked in the directory where I installed then and they were gone. I started checking online and found that Microsoft removes any of its "free...

Mysteriously missing update finally arrives in preview form. World shrugs The next version of Windows 10, aka 19H2, finally arrived in the hands of testers last night to a collective "meh".With the UK sweltering in a heatwave, even Microsoft could no longer pretend summer had not arrived and so emitted build 18362.10000 of Windows 10 to the Slow Ring of its volunteer testers ahead of a full release later this year. As if to emphasise that this is very much a step away from the previous big bang releases (and calling last October's effort a "bang" would be an understatement...

Windows 10 is finally receiving the upgrade everyone wanted and desperately needed. Or is it? Because now the details are being dug into, it is not what hundreds of millions of users will have expected. Microsoft recently promised Windows 10 users "control, quality and transparency" for both minor updates and major upgrades with the release of Windows 10 1903. But the reality is actually far more complicated and it is Windows 10 Home users (who account for the lion’s share of the OSes 800M-strong userbase) who are hit hardest. CNet breaks down the new rules, and Windows 10 Home users...

Popular admin tool shifts to .Net Core 3.0 amid talk of future features Microsoft on Thursday released a preview version of PowerShell 7, its command-line shell and scripting language for administrators. The software was once was limited to Windows but opened up to Linux (including arm64) and macOS three years ago.Steve Lee, principal software engineering manager, announced the software's availability in conjunction with a roadmap of future features. He said the next preview release will follow in accordance with the established monthly release cadence; preview 2 is expected mid-July.The full list of changes has been posted on GitHub, a recently...

“Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL),” explains Microsoft program manager Jack Hammons. “The kernel itself will initially be based on version 4.19, the latest long-term stable release of Linux. The kernel will be rebased at the designation of new long-term stable releases to ensure that the WSL kernel always has the latest Linux goodness.” Microsoft’s integration of Linux in Windows 10 will interface with a userspace installed via the Windows Store. It’s a big shift for Microsoft, and marks...

Windows 10 is getting a new terminal for command-line users, Microsoft announced at its Build developer conference today.The new so-called “Windows Terminal” will launch in mid-June and promises to be a major update of the existing Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell experience. Indeed, it seems like the Terminal will essentially become the default environment for PowerShell, Command Prompt and Windows Subsystem for Linux users going forward.The new terminal will feature faster GPU-accelerated text rending and “emoji-rich” fonts, because everything these days needs to support emojis, and those will sure help lighten up the command-line user experience. More importantly, though, the...

Microsoft is unveiling a number of new features for its upcoming Edge Chromium browser today. The first big addition is a new “IE Mode” for Edge that will allow businesses to load old sites directly in the new Edge Chromium browser, using the Internet Explorer rendering engine. Microsoft is building IE directly into Edge for this purpose, so businesses aren’t forced to directly use IE for ancient internal sites. “What we’re going to do is make this totally seamless,” explains Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, in an interview with The Verge. Currently, the existing version of Edge will open Internet Explorer 11...

Microsoft has surprised many in the Linux developer community in recent years. Surprises have included bringing things like adding the Bash shell to Windows, or native OpenSSH in Windows 10, and even including Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora all in the Windows Store. Microsoft is now going even further, with plans to ship a full Linux kernel directly in Windows 10.“Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL),” explains Microsoft program manager Jack Hammons. “The kernel itself will initially be based...

Chromium base should ease porting pains substantially Microsoft may be closer to its first Mac browser in 14 years."We also expect this work to enable us to bring Microsoft Edge to other platforms like macOS," Joe Belfiore said last December, when he announced the move to a Chromium-based engine for the Edge browser. "Improving the web-platform experience for both end users and developers requires that the web platform and the browser be consistently available to as many devices as possible."Dialogue boxes touting support for macOS ("10.12 and above") have been spotted. The company has also invited interest in ports of...