windows

Windows is the invisible workhorse in millions of workflows — but beneath the familiar desktop lies a toolkit that can turn a good user into a true power user. This feature walks through ten practical, tested hacks that accelerate common tasks, reduce friction, and give you more control over how...

The moment you finish the out-of-box setup on a fresh Windows PC, there’s a small toolkit I install before I ever open Edge: a compact set of free, focused utilities that close gaps in Windows’ defaults and get the machine productive fast. That checklist — highlighted recently in a How‑To‑Geek...

Environment: - Windows Server 2022 - IIS 10.0 Issue Summary: I regularly collect IIS performance metrics using Windows Performance Counters. Initially, the IIS-related counter sets were all available: - Web Service - Web Service Cache - APP_POOL_WAS - WAS_W3WP - W3SVC_W3WP After a few days...

Linux taught me how to think about an operating system as a toolbox, and those lessons have quietly reshaped the way I use Windows every day. The small but powerful shifts — adopting package managers, trusting the terminal, treating customization as a productivity affordance, taking security and...

Minimizing clicks and navigation overhead can shave minutes — even hours — off a busy workday, and a handful of free utilities built for Windows can transform file handling from a repetitive chore into a near‑invisible part of your workflow. Four lightweight, freely available tools — Quick...

Windows IT pros now have a sharpened, easy-to-digest path to learn the latest Windows and AI tools: Microsoft’s refreshed Windows skilling snacks library curates short learning journeys—each designed to be completed in under two hours—covering device and update management, security...

You no longer have to trust random .exe downloads and hope the installer you clicked isn’t a trojan in disguise — modern Windows package managers give you a repeatable, auditable, and substantially safer way to install and update software. Background Package managers centralize and automate...

Windows and Linux no longer have to be stove‑piped ecosystems, and that practical fusion is the through‑line of the How‑To Geek piece “7 Reasons Windows Subsystem for Linux Works For Me.” The author’s list—being able to jump on coding ideas instantly, running a Linux toolchain beside mainstream...

Windows still ships with a cluster of preinstalled apps that many users don’t need — and removing the right ones can free storage, reduce background resource use, and tighten privacy — but the which, how, and when matter more than the headline “uninstall these 12 apps.” Background Windows has...

Microsoft appears to be quietly testing a major change in how Xbox legacy titles are delivered: internal chatter and storefront anomalies suggest Microsoft is working to bring original Xbox and Xbox 360 games to Windows — including Windows handhelds such as ASUS’ ROG Xbox Ally — by extending...

GlazeWM lands on Windows as a compact, keyboard-first tiling window manager that automatically arranges new windows, bringing an i3-like workflow to the platform and filling a long‑standing gap between Windows’ Snap Assist and the full tiling experience Linux users have enjoyed for years...

Forty years after the first Windows shell rolled out of Redmond, the operating system that reshaped personal computing is both an institution and a lightning rod — an evolving platform whose technical legacy, market dominance, and latest pivot toward agentic AI are provoking fresh debates about...

Microsoft’s Copilot is now being pitched as a practical, time‑saving assistant for one of work’s least‑loved rituals: the year‑end performance review. The company’s Microsoft 365 Insider post and follow‑on coverage show Copilot can generate negotiation scripts, assemble polished self‑evaluations...

Microsoft has recorded a local elevation-of-privilege bug in the Brokering File System (BFS) under the identifier CVE-2025-62569, a use‑after‑free (UAF) condition that Microsoft and multiple vulnerability trackers classify as a high‑severity, local-only threat requiring a low‑privilege starting...

Microsoft has published a new high‑severity local Elevation‑of‑Privilege advisory: CVE‑2025‑62464, a buffer over‑read in the Windows Projected File System (ProjFS) that can allow an authorized local attacker to escalate to higher privileges on affected hosts. Public trackers assign a CVSS v3.1...

Microsoft’s security tracker has recorded CVE‑2025‑64658, a newly assigned elevation‑of‑privilege vulnerability tied to Windows File Explorer / the Windows Shell; the public details describe a race condition (CWE‑362) in the Shell that can allow an authorized local user to escalate privileges...

Netstat is the simplest, fastest way to see what your Windows PC is doing on the network: active TCP and UDP sessions, which ports are listening, and which processes own those sockets — all from a single Command Prompt window. This guide explains exactly how to run Netstat on Windows, how to...

Joplin’s rise from a competent open‑source note app to what many Windows users now call their “ride‑or‑die” notes tool speaks to a rare alignment of features: true cross‑platform support, a local‑first design, powerful Markdown editing, and—crucially—privacy controls that don’t demand a...

Windows’ built‑in media apps are “good enough” for casual use, but if you want speed, control, or a distinctly different experience you can do a lot better — and a recent roundup identified five lesser‑known media players worth trying this weekend. The list highlights MPC‑BE, PotPlayer...

TweetDeck’s long-running power-user dashboard has been reborn as X Pro, and—critically for Windows users and social managers alike—it’s now gated behind the platform’s paid subscription tier, X Premium, which changes both how multi-account workflows are managed and what features are available...