productivity tools

Microsoft’s short, teasing post — “Your hands are about to get some PTO. Time to rest those fingers…something big is coming Thursday.” — may be the clearest signal yet that Windows 11 is poised to push voice and conversational AI from an accessible add‑on into a mainstream, system‑level...

PowerToys' new 0.95 release finally delivers one of Windows 11’s most-requested conveniences: an automated light/dark theme scheduler called Light Switch, along with a slate of performance and usability fixes that make PowerToys feel more like a polished power-user toolkit than a collection of...

The Microsoft Store is an underrated shortcut to a better Windows 11 experience — install a handful of free, well-designed utilities and you can fix long-standing friction points (audio control, file preview, PDF handling), and even give the desktop a fresh look. The six no-cost Store apps I...

Microsoft’s MAI‑Image‑1 lands as the company’s first fully in‑house text‑to‑image generator, and it does so with a clear brief: deliver fast, photorealistic images that are useful inside productivity flows (Copilot, Bing Image Creator, Designer) rather than chase benchmark glamour or a...

Microsoft’s MAI‑Image‑1 lands not as a research curiosity but as a product‑grade move: an in‑house text‑to‑image generator built to deliver photorealism, speed, and tighter product integration across Copilot, Bing Image Creator, and other Microsoft creative surfaces. The announcement — and the...

Microsoft’s Copilot is inching out of novelty mode and into practical utility, and the latest set of roadmap notes and Insider previews show real, work‑oriented features arriving that could make Copilot genuinely useful for busy knowledge workers — if organizations and users manage the...

Microsoft has announced MAI-Image-1, its first fully in-house text-to-image model, and begun public testing on benchmarking platforms while preparing integrations into Copilot and Bing Image Creator—an important step in Microsoft’s move from relying primarily on third‑party models to building...

Windows has a reputation for backward compatibility and an enormous third‑party ecosystem, but when a single Microsoft‑maintained GitHub project — PowerToys — houses a set of small, polished utilities that tens of millions of users rely on daily, it’s fair to ask: why aren’t these eight features...

If you run Windows and haven't explored the thriving world of open‑source utilities, you're missing an enormous productivity — and privacy — dividend; this feature walks through ten free, open‑source Windows apps that replace common proprietary tools, explains why they matter, and gives...

The era of free, feature-stable web browsers is ending — not because browsing itself is suddenly expensive, but because browsers have become the primary surface for generative AI assistants that cost real money to run, maintain, and secure. Over the last year the industry has shifted from “AI...

Windows 11 is smoother and more capable the moment you add a handful of focused utilities from the Microsoft Store — small, free apps that fix persistent friction points, unlock useful features Microsoft hasn’t prioritized, and keep your system fast and tidy. The MakeUseOf roundup highlights...

Microsoft’s Copilot for Windows has taken a significant step toward deeper integration with personal productivity workflows: a new Insider build introduces Copilot Connectors that let the app reach into third‑party accounts, and a document creation and export capability that can generate Word...

Microsoft’s consumer-facing post “Unlock productivity with AI automation” frames Copilot as an everyday, approachable assistant designed to remove friction from routine tasks and fold generative AI directly into how people plan, write, and organize their lives. The company positions Copilot as...

Microsoft and the Outlook team quietly shipped a feature-packed September 2025 update to the new Outlook for Windows that finally addresses several long-standing parity gaps with classic Outlook — and in practical testing the update delivered four immediately useful features: custom notification...

Open‑source software gives Windows users a fast, private, and flexible path away from closed ecosystems — and ZDNet’s compact list of “10 open‑source apps I always recommend Windows users try — and they’re free” is a practical starter kit for anyone ready to swap proprietary defaults for...

ChatGPT’s Windows app has jolted the desktop AI landscape: in practical day‑to‑day tasks it outpaces Microsoft’s Copilot in accessibility, file handling, and a snappier user experience, while Copilot still holds important advantages in deep Office integration and tenant‑aware security—making the...

Google’s Gemini is positioning itself as more than a chatbot — it’s being packaged, integrated, and promoted as a daily workhorse that can replace single-purpose assistants and win user loyalty through consistent utility rather than flash. Recent coverage and first‑hand user testimonials point...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider flight quietly folds generative and assistive AI into three of the operating system’s oldest — and most widely used — utilities: Notepad, Paint and the Snipping Tool. The changes are modest on the surface but signal a broader, deliberate push to make AI part...

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...

Starting this fall, the U.S. House of Representatives will begin a controlled pilot giving thousands of House staffers access to Microsoft Copilot — a marked reversal from a 2024 prohibition — as leadership frames the move as a pragmatic modernization push that must be matched by strict...