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Microsoft is testing one of the most user-friendly Windows Update changes in years, and the target is not updates themselves but the moment Windows chooses to install them. In a new Windows Insider rollout, Windows 11 is gaining a redesigned update experience that can let testers pause updates in 35-day increments and then extend that pause again without a stated cap. The same update experience also separates ordinary power actions from update actions, meaning Restart and Shut down can...

Windows 11 has a built-in privacy switch that many users still overlook: DNS over HTTPS, the operating system-level feature that encrypts the domain lookups your PC makes before it loads websites, updates apps, checks mail, or contacts cloud services. The renewed attention around this setting is useful because DNS remains one of the most revealing parts of everyday internet use, even when browsers show the familiar HTTPS padlock. For Windows users, the fix is not a paid VPN, a browser...

Use Android and Windows Together With These 4 Practical Tools Android and Windows may come from different ecosystems, but they are no longer isolated islands. If you use an Android phone and a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, you can reply to messages from your desktop, view phone notifications, move photos, mirror your screen, run Android apps, test mobile software, or even boot a full Android-style environment in a virtual machine. The trick is choosing the right method. Some options connect...

Windows 11 has become far better at updating itself than at updating the everyday desktop apps people actually use, and that gap is exactly where Winget-AutoUpdate makes its case. The community tool, recently highlighted by Windows Central, turns Microsoft’s command-line Windows Package Manager into something closer to a background maintenance service for traditional desktop software. Instead of remembering to run winget upgrade --all, users can schedule updates, receive notifications, keep...

This old-school Windows terminal still does a few things better than Microsoft Windows Terminal is one of the rare Microsoft apps that I can recommend without a list of caveats. It has tabs, split panes, a clean settings UI, proper profile management, Quake mode, good Unicode handling, GPU-accelerated rendering, command palette support, and enough customization to satisfy most people without forcing everyone into a JSON file. For most Windows users, that is the correct answer. If you need...

Windows 11 has become the default Windows experience for millions of users after Windows 10’s support cutoff, but that does not mean everyone is happy with what Microsoft ships out of the box. A new wave of utilities, scripts, and modified Windows setups has turned debloating Windows 11 from a niche power-user ritual into a mainstream complaint about control, performance, privacy, and trust. The larger story is not merely that users want fewer preinstalled apps; it is that many now believe...

The setup screen that arrives after setup is already done Windows has always asked users to make a few decisions during first boot. That is expected. A new PC needs an account, privacy choices, region, keyboard layout, network connection, and sometimes enterprise enrollment. Users understand that bargain: spend a few minutes answering setup questions once, then get to work. The problem begins when Windows decides setup is not a moment but a recurring marketing channel. On Windows 11, some...

Microsoft’s reported Windows K2 initiative is the clearest sign yet that Redmond understands Windows 11 has a trust problem, not merely a feature backlog. According to Windows Central, K2 is not a single Windows release, but an internal push to rebuild the operating system around performance, craft, reliability, and a renewed sense of community. If Microsoft follows through, the next two years could determine whether Windows 11 becomes the confident default for PCs again or remains an...

Microsoft’s Copilot push has crossed an important threshold: the assistant is no longer being positioned merely as a clever chat box, but as an agentic productivity system that can plan, act, revise, and coordinate work across Microsoft 365. The latest wave of Copilot features brings multi-step execution into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, and the emerging Agent 365 control layer. For Windows users, IT admins, and business leaders, the significance is clear...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 update-policy overhaul is not just another Settings-page tweak; it is a direct concession to one of the longest-running complaints in modern PC computing. The company is now testing a model that lets users repeatedly pause updates in 35-day blocks, choose ordinary Restart and Shut down commands even when patches are pending, and skip updates during first-run setup. For Windows users who have spent years planning meetings, exams, gaming sessions, lab work...

Microsoft’s Copilot story has moved decisively beyond chatbot convenience and into the more ambitious territory of agentic productivity, where AI systems do not merely answer questions but plan, coordinate, and execute work across business applications. The latest wave of Copilot capabilities, including Researcher, Analyst, Copilot Studio agents, Agent Registry, and the Frontier-stage Copilot Cowork experience, signals a major shift in how Microsoft wants knowledge work to operate. For...

Microsoft is taking a fresh swing at one of Windows 11’s longest-running pain points: update interruptions. In preview builds now rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Experimental channels, the company is testing a redesigned Windows Update experience that makes pausing updates more flexible and restarts far less intrusive. The changes are small on paper, but they speak to a much bigger shift in how Microsoft wants Windows to behave: less surprise, more user choice, and fewer...

Microsoft’s overhaul of the Windows Insider Program is more than a cosmetic reshuffle. It is a deliberate attempt to fix a problem that has dogged the program for years: too many channels, too much ambiguity, and not enough control for the people volunteering to test Windows before everyone else. The new structure, now rolling out in phases, centers the program around Beta and Experimental, with Microsoft also adding Feature flags so testers can turn specific experiences on or off in the...

Microsoft is quietly doing something that looks small on the surface but says a lot about where Windows 11’s AI story is headed: it is stripping the Copilot label out of some first-party apps while keeping the underlying AI features in place. In Notepad, the old Copilot branding is being replaced with Writing tools, and in Snipping Tool the Copilot button is disappearing altogether. That makes this less a retreat from AI than a repackaging of it, with Microsoft trying to make the features...

The first hour with a Windows gaming handheld is still too confusing, and that is exactly why the Steam Deck continues to matter. Even as Windows-based handhelds deliver better raw compatibility for certain PC games, the out-of-box experience still feels fragmented in ways that make simple things feel harder than they should. By contrast, Valve’s handheld succeeds because it removes friction before the player even realizes friction exists. That difference is not cosmetic; it is the defining...

Global PC shipments rose in the first quarter of 2026, but that does not mean the market is healthy. Counterpoint Research’s data points to a 3.2% year-over-year increase to about 63.3 million units, yet the underlying drivers are exactly the kind of forces that usually precede a squeeze: Windows 10 migration urgency, panic buying, and component inflation tied to the AI-fueled memory crunch. The result is a PC market that is growing on paper while becoming harder to profit from in practice...

Microsoft is reportedly preparing a new Windows 11 display accessibility feature called Screen Tint, and if it ships the way preview-build sleuths describe it, it could become one of the most practical eye-comfort additions Windows has seen in years. Unlike the current Night Light setting, which mainly shifts the display toward warmer tones, Screen Tint appears to offer multiple presets, a custom tint option, and an intensity slider. That would put Windows closer to a more flexible...

Microsoft spent this week tightening its grip on the Windows and Xbox ecosystems, but the story is bigger than a routine batch of patches and feature tweaks. On the Windows side, the company continued refining Windows Update, preview builds, recovery behavior, and Insider channel changes while also shipping a string of smaller quality-of-life improvements that matter more than they may first appear. On the gaming side, Microsoft reset the economics of Xbox Game Pass in a way that looks...

Windows 11’s power-saving behavior is one of those features that feels helpful right up until it gets in the way of work. The operating system can quietly reduce CPU priority for background tasks through Power Throttling, while Efficiency Mode in Task Manager exposes a similar idea at the process level. For users running renders, downloads, sync jobs, or compiles, that can translate into mysteriously slower background work even on desktops that are plugged in and perfectly capable of doing...

The original PC version of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag is suddenly at the center of a familiar but still frustrating modern-gaming problem: a back-catalog favorite appears to be failing on Windows 11 while the publisher’s attention shifts to a new remake. Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is due on July 9, 2026, and that remake is being positioned as a rebuilt, modernized version of the pirate adventure for current hardware. At the same time, the original...