ocr

After decades of promises that never quite fixed Windows Search, Microsoft has finally shipped a working semantic search layer to Windows 11 — but it’s arriving in a very specific way: behind the Copilot+ hardware gate, previewed to Insiders, and baked into both the system search surfaces and...

Microsoft’s Click To Do is the kind of small change that can quietly rearrange how you work: a system-level overlay that turns whatever is on your screen—text, images, even tables—into actionable items you can edit, summarize, or hand off to Copilot, all without leaving the context of your...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider builds are shipping a new, full-screen renewal prompt aimed at lapsed Microsoft 365 subscriptions — an eye-catching SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) screen that insiders and early reports describe as a full‑screen nag to renew rather than a...

Windows 11’s built‑in Search is useful — until it isn’t: slow responses for non‑indexed folders, a cluttered home panel, and inconsistent results have driven many users to lightweight launchers and desktop search tools that return answers in milliseconds. This piece examines six of the fastest...

Google's new Windows experiment drops a summonable Google search bar onto the desktop — press Alt + Space, highlight anything on screen with Google Lens, and get web, Drive and local-file results without opening a browser. Background For more than two decades Google Search has been primarily a...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

Microsoft Edge is quietly experimenting with a new Visual Search shortcut inside its floating desktop search box on Windows 11, letting users drop images onto a small camera-enabled UI and get Bing-powered image results — all without opening a full browser window first. Background Microsoft’s...

The moment you switch a daily driver from Windows to Ubuntu, certain expectations—system-level conveniences you didn’t notice until they vanished—quickly become obvious. A recent first‑person piece catalogued four Windows conveniences the author missed after moving to Ubuntu: a one‑click system...

Windows 11 gives you more ways to capture your screen than most users realize — from the classic Print Screen key to a modern Snipping Tool with OCR and video capture — and the short, practical guide in the AOL piece distills seven quick methods for everyday use while also surfacing a few recent...

Screenshots are one of those tiny productivity tools that repay learning a hundredfold: capture an error message, save a receipt, illustrate a how‑to, or document a configuration in seconds. On HP laptops running Windows 11, you have multiple ways to capture the screen — from the simple Print...

Microsoft PowerToys is no longer a niche tweak for obsessive tinkerers — it’s a practical, polished productivity suite that many Windows users now install the moment they set up a new PC. A recent roundup that highlights “8 PowerToys you’ll use every day” captures why: the suite bundles small...

Microsoft’s PowerToys has quietly matured from a grab-bag of power‑user tricks into a polished, first‑party productivity toolkit — and the latest updates finally deliver several long‑requested conveniences that matter to everyday workflows and IT deployments alike. Background PowerToys began as...

Windows provides a surprising number of ways to capture your screen, from the quick-and-dirty Print Screen key to a full-featured Snipping Tool that now includes OCR and video recording — this guide explains each native option, shows when to reach for third‑party tools, and evaluates risks and...

Microsoft’s glossy marketing often highlights the big, headline features of Windows 11, but a recent explainer that rounds up “13 features you probably didn’t know about” is a useful reminder: the OS is full of practical, time‑saving tools that rarely make the launch‑pad demo. The original list...

Windows PowerToys is one of those quietly powerful Windows add‑ons: a free, modular toolkit that can shave minutes off everyday tasks for heavy desktop users, but it’s deliberately optional — and for many casual users it’s a luxury rather than a necessity. Background / Overview Windows PowerToys...

Microsoft 365 Copilot can now tap enterprise file shares without forcing a wholesale migration to the cloud: NetApp’s new connector brings on‑prem and cloud NetApp data into Copilot while preserving item‑level security, offering containerized deployment options, and promising high performance...

Windows PowerToys has quietly become one of the most useful free downloads for serious Windows 10 and Windows 11 users, bundling dozens of small, well-crafted utilities that smooth the rough edges of everyday computing and unlock customization that Microsoft doesn’t expose by default. If you’ve...

Microsoft has begun rolling out a staged Windows Insider preview that adds two tightly linked AI features to the Copilot app: semantic file search for locating documents and images with natural‑language queries, and a redesigned Copilot home that surfaces recent files, apps and Vision‑driven...

Microsoft has postponed the rollout of the much‑anticipated Copilot feature that would let Microsoft 365 Copilot “see” and analyze what’s being shared on a Teams meeting screen — the Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry for the feature was updated to push the release into August 2026, and Microsoft says...

You probably use Windows every day without realizing it already comes with dozens of tiny productivity and security features that feel like magic once you know they exist—features such as dictation that types your words for you, OCR that pulls text straight out of images, a cloud-backed...