developer tips

Two of the world's largest tech brands skipped the obvious ordinal, jumped a number, and left millions asking the same question: why was there no Windows 9 and why was there no iPhone 9? What looks like a quirky coincidence on the surface actually sits at the intersection of legacy technical...

Microsoft has quietly begun remapping the Xbox controller’s central Guide button in recent Windows 11 Insider builds so that a short tap still opens the Game Bar, a long press now opens Task View, and a sustained hold continues to power the controller off — a small input-change that signals a...

Windows 11’s New Android App Resume: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters Introduction: A small banner with big implications On August 22, 2025, Microsoft began rolling out a deceptively simple capability to Windows Insiders that could reshape how we move between phone and PC. When...

Microsoft’s move to carve a dedicated, controller-first path through Windows 11 has finally surfaced in a hands-on preview: a new Handheld Gaming Mode (sometimes referred to as a gamepad‑optimized UI) is being shown in early footage running on the ASUS‑branded Xbox Ally family, and the changes...

Microsoft's recent announcement of a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD has sparked considerable speculation about the future direction of the Xbox console. This collaboration hints at a potential paradigm shift: the integration of the Windows operating system into the next-generation...

The ongoing debate about the perceived decline in Windows PC performance over time continues to spark controversy among users, IT professionals, and engineers alike. As the tech ecosystem accelerates toward requiring new hardware—especially with Microsoft's push for adoption of Copilot+ PCs and...

You might want to take a seat and cling onto your closest desktop, because if you’re reading this on an aging Windows 10 PC, the digital hourglass is tumbling dangerously low. Microsoft, in a move that has left users gasping more than Clippy at a cybersecurity conference, has urged—nay...

Microsoft Ends Location History API in Windows 11: What This Means for Your Privacy Microsoft’s ongoing push for a leaner, privacy-focused Windows 11 experience has taken another decisive step. With the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update (build 26100.712), Microsoft will retire the location history...

Link Removed The TimeTrigger class is extremely useful when your Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app has background tasks you want to run periodically. For instance, if you are writing a mail app, you will want to regularly poll for new messages in the background with a time trigger. If you...

Did you ever want to write a game with Silverlight for Windows Phone 7? Ryan Plemons, Sr Developer with Terralever, shares his journey in optimizing the Silverlight based Zero Gravity game to work on Windows Phone 7. Ryan shares how he built the application using Isolated Storage, how he applied...

Dmitry Lyalin, my co-host on the Link Removed, recently developed a Windows Phone 7 application for Leo Laporte’s This Week In Tech (TWiT) network. The application recently reached as high as #2 on the Top Rated Apps list in the marketplace! Dmitry spoke at the January 2011 meeting of the New...