Wayne Williams

Last week's new Windows 11 flight for Insiders in the Dev Channel -- Build 25145 -- introduced a number of new features, including a OneDrive storage alert, subscription management in Settings, and a Local Administrator Password Solution ("LAPS").

Build 25151, released today, is much less exciting but does offer a set of fixes designed to improve the overall experience for users.

Continue reading →

Microsoft took a huge gamble with Windows 8, betting big that touch screens would replace the mouse as the primary way of interacting with the operating system. The company replaced the Start menu with a Start screen, which a LOT of people hated. It was one of the main reasons Microsoft's attempt at reinventing Windows flopped so badly.

With Windows 8.1, the software giant reintroduced the Start menu, and made a number of other changes that made it more acceptable to users, but even so, few people will list that OS among their all-time favorites.

Continue reading →

Leading from the Middle: A Playbook for Managers to Influence Up, Down, and Across the Organization delivers an insightful and practical guide for the backbone of an organization: those who have a boss and are a boss and must lead from the messy middle.

Accomplished author and former P&G executive Scott Mautz walks readers through the unique challenges facing these managers, and the mindset and skillset necessary for managing up and down and influencing what happens across the organization.

Continue reading →

Sometimes new Windows 11 builds released to the Dev Channel introduce new features, and other times the focus is just on fixing problems. Today’s new Insider release, Build 25145, comes with both a selection of new features and also some important fixes.

In particular, this release comes with a fix for an annoying problem that caused Surface Pro X devices to hit a black screen when attempting to resume from hibernation.

Continue reading →

Who doesn’t like to get something for free, especially in these challenging times? There are always bargains to be had if you shop around, but why save money when you can avoid paying out anything at all!

Remote access company AnyViewer is giving away a year’s worth of its AnyViewer Professional software for free, a saving of $118.80, but it has also persuaded 15 other software firms to be equally generous. The result is a giveaway which makes it possible to download the likes of AOMEI Backupper Pro, Advanced SystemCare 15 Pro, Ashampoo Home Design 7 and VideoProc Converter for free.

Continue reading →

The great free lunch of "performance taking care of itself" is over.

Until recently, programs got faster by themselves as CPUs were upgraded, but that doesn't happen anymore. The clock frequency of new processors has almost peaked, and while new architectures provide small improvements to existing programs, this only helps slightly. To write efficient software, you now have to know how to program by making good use of the available computing resources, and this book will teach you how to do that.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has been working on a new security tool for a while now to help protect you and your family’s data and devices against online threats, such as malware and phishing attacks.

Three months ago it made a preview build of Microsoft Defender available for Windows Insiders to try out, and today it announces the tool's official availability for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.

Continue reading →

Gateway is as well known for its cow-spotted boxes as it is for its computer products. First started way back in 1985, the company is launching a new lineup of affordable Ultra Slim notebooks powered by 12th Gen Intel Core processors.

The new notebooks, available in a variety of screen sizes and colors, sport a modern, lightweight chassis and a hinge keyboard that can be elevated for comfort. They all come with Windows 11 pre-installed.

Continue reading →

Wednesday isn't typically the most exciting day of the week, unless you happen to be a Windows Insider in the Dev Channel, as that’s when -- provided everything goes according to plan -- Microsoft rolls out a new Windows 11 build.

Today’s release, Build 25140, comes with another good set of fixes designed to improve the overall Windows 11 experience. There are also ISOs available for this flight, which can downloaded here, that can be used for a clean install.

Continue reading →

Internet Explorer was once the dominant web browser, boasting a 95 percent market share in 2004. The arrival of better and faster browsers like Firefox and Chrome, along with the rise of smartphones, slowly destroyed its ubiquity and from today it is now officially retired and out of support.

While few people will mourn its passing, the browser is still used by many businesses and individuals who simply haven’t bothered to switch from what they know. For those users, Microsoft’s solution will be a predictable one.

Continue reading →

Excel 2019 All-In-One For Dummies offers eight books in one! It is completely updated to reflect the major changes Microsoft made to Office with the 2019 release.

From basic Excel functions, such as creating and editing worksheets, to sharing and reviewing worksheets, to editing macros with Visual Basic, it provides you with a broad scope of the most common Excel applications and functions -- including formatting worksheets, setting up formulas, protecting worksheets, importing data, charting data, and performing statistical functions.

Continue reading →

Earlier today, Microsoft launched new updates for two Windows 11 apps -- Notepad and Media Centre -- for Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Following that, the company announces a new Windows 11 Insider build which, along with the usual raft of fixes, brings tabs to File Explorer and updates to the Widgets feature.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has been steadily updating its apps for Windows 11, and today the software giant announces major updates for both Notepad and Windows Media Player.

Both updated apps benefit from improved performance, but there’s more to the new releases than just that.

Continue reading →

Airbnb. Uber. Spotify. To join the big fish in the disruptive digital shark tank you need to get beyond siloed sales and marketing approaches. You have to move ahead fast -- with input from your whole organization -- or die.

Since the early 2010s, growth hacking culture has developed as the way to achieve this, pulling together multiple talents -- product managers, data analysts, programmers, creatives, and yes, marketers -- to build a lean, mean, iterative machine that delivers the swift sustainable growth you need to stay alive and beat the competition.

Continue reading →

At today’s developer conference, Apple took the wraps off iPadOS 16, and it’s a huge update, with loads of exciting new features.

There’s a new multitasking experience with Stage Manager that allows multiple overlapping windows, full external display support, Messages improvements and big updates to Mail and Safari.

Continue reading →