Articles about Windows 10

Windows 7 support comes to an end six months from now, although businesses will be able to pay for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) for a further three years -- at a ratcheted cost. Windows Enterprise customers can expect to pay $25 per device for the updates, rising to $100 in the third year. For Windows 7 Professional, the starting figure is $50 per device, rising to $200.

Aware that time is running out, many enterprises have already moved to Windows 10, but a large number remain significantly behind in completing the migration process, according to new findings from endpoint management and security company 1E.

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Three-hundred-and-forty-four in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Windows 10 version 1903 had some upgrade blocks lifted this week paving the way for additional upgrades but Microsoft had to add new blocks in place, one even for the company's own Surface Book 2 device.

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Windows Insiders like to be on the cutting edge, trying out new Windows 10 features well before regular users do. For that reason, most Insiders opt to be in the Fast ring, rather than the Slow or Release Preview rings.

It does mean they are more at risk from potential problems of course, but that’s often a risk worth taking. Often, but not always.

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Windows Insiders on the Fast ring have been receiving weekly Windows 10 builds from the 20H1 branch -- the feature update due out a year from now.

There is another update coming later this year though, and Insiders on the Slow ring are receiving these 19H2 builds as cumulative updates.

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The German state of Hesse has banned schools from using Microsoft Office 365 because it fears the software opens up student and teachers' private information to the risk of "potential access by US authorities".

The Hesse Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI) believes that Office 365 is in contravention of GDPR legislation, and also expressed concerns about the collection of telemetry data by Windows 10.

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Having just removed some of the blocks that were preventing people from installing Windows 10 May 2019 Update (Windows 10 version 1903), the company has now introduced a couple more obstacles -- including for its own devices.

One of the new blocks prevents Surface Book 2 owners from installing the update, while another affects systems with Intel 4 series chipset integrated GPUs.

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Installation rates for Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) remain low, and this is at least in part because Microsoft has blocked updates for many people because of a series of problems with hardware and software compatibility.

Now installation numbers may start to increase as Microsoft has removed some of these blocks -- although the company warns that it could take a little while for the update to  appear to those who were previously unable to install it.

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Three-hundred-and-forty-three in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft released a preview of Desktop Analytics designed to assist administrators with Windows 10 update readiness checks.

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Even though the next major feature update for Windows 10 isn’t due for a year, Microsoft is rolling out weekly new builds for it.

Windows 10 20H1 Build 18936 offers a number of new features, including the ability to go passwordless on your device, and create calendar events directly from the taskbar.

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Microsoft has released a public preview of cloud-connected service Desktop Analytics.

Designed to help system administrators to keep Windows 10 devices up to date, Desktop Analytics integrates with System Center Configuration Manager. It allows for the quick and easy creation of app inventories to make compatibility checks simpler.

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Three-hundred-and-forty-two in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft revealed that the next "feature update" for Windows 10, Windows 10 19H2, will be delivered like any other cumulative update for the operating system.

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Some Mac users -- who, thanks to Boot Camp, are running Windows 10 on their Apple machine -- are encountering a problem upgrading to Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903).

A compatibility issue with the Mac HAL Driver (machaldriver.sys) is blocking the installation. The problem remains more than two months after the May 2019 Update was released, and Microsoft is still working away on a solution.

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When it’s not crowing about the cutting edge abilities of Windows 1.0, Microsoft is busy working on the next big feature update for Windows 10, due out next year.

Today it rolls out Build 18932 which introduces some eye control improvements, and refined notification settings, among other changes.

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It is looking as though the next "feature update" for Windows 10 -- known as 19H2 to Insiders -- will be a little light on, er, features. In really, it seems as though Microsoft is treating the next big update very much like a service pack release.

The news comes from Microsoft as the company sets out its plans for "evolving Windows 10 servicing and quality". In short, if you were looking forward to exciting new things to try out later this year, it might be a good idea to recalibrate your expectations.

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Towards the latter end of last year, it was noticed that Windows 10 was no longer creating backups of the registry. It was assumed to be a bug as the scheduled task that was used to create the backup still existed, and it was also indicated that the task had been a success.

This was a lie. No registry backup was created, meaning potentially millions of users were left without a reliable way of rolling back the registry to an earlier time. Now Microsoft has explained what's going on, and says that the lack of registry backups is intentional.

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