Tag: windows 10

Just a few days ago, Microsoft released the cumulative security updates for Windows 10 and 11 to the public. The company did not confirm any new issues at the time, but that has changed now.

A new issue has been confirmed that is affecting all supported client versions of Windows.

The details:

• Windows 10, version 22H2 and Windows 11, versions 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 are affected.
• The bug uninstalls the Copilot app from the operating systems.
• The Copilot icon is removed from the taskbar in the process as well.

Microsoft confirms furthermore that only the native Copilot app for Windows is affected. In other words, Microsoft 365 Copilot remains unaffected by the issue and won’t be uninstalled.

Microsoft writes:

We’re aware of an issue with the Microsoft Copilot app affecting some devices. The app is unintentionally uninstalled and unpinned from the taskbar.

Note: This issue has not been observed with the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

It is unclear how widespread the issue is.

Workaround: affected users are asked to reinstall the Microsoft Copilot application from the Microsoft Store and pin it manually to the taskbar to restore the functionality.

Here are the links to the support articles and the KB IDs.

• Windows 11, version 24H2 — KB5053598
• Windows 11, version 23H2 / 22H2 — KB5053602
• Windows 10, version 22H2 — KB5053606

Not all Windows users may be unhappy about this new bug. Granted, it is easy enough to remove Copilot from the system or hide it at least.

If you do not want to do it manually, you could give helper apps like O&O AppBuster or NoBloatBox a try.

Now it is your turn. Have you tried any of the Copilot apps on Windows ever since it was pushed onto systems by Microsoft?

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system does not support the HEIC image format natively. The same is true for Windows 11. You can check out my guide on adding HEIC and HEVC support to Windows 11, if you run that operating system.

Microsoft is offering a paid extension to add support, but there is a way to add support for free. This guide explains how to do that.

Note that this still installs an official Microsoft extension and does not rely on third-party codec packs at all.

Here is how you go about it:

1. Open the Adguard website in a web browser.
2. Set the first field to ProductID.
3. Paste the following string into the second field: 9n4wgh0z6vhq
4. Keep the third field at RP.
5. Click on the checkmark icon on the right.
6. Wait for the results.
7. Right-click on “Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension_2.2.33.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle” in the results and select the save option of the browser.
8. Pick a directory.
9. Double-click on the file after it has been downloaded to install the extension.
10. Click on the install button to install it.

Note: Some browsers may refuse to download the file as it is delivered via a regular (insecure) HTTP connection and not HTTPS. You may need to open the download manager of the browser and select the “Keep” option or something similar.

This depends largely on the browser, but if no file is downloaded after you have selected the save option, then this is your best bet to get the file downloaded.

Once installed, many programs are capable of opening HEIF and HEVC media files. This is true for all built-in image viewers, e.g., Photos or the preview of File Explorer, but also third-party apps such as Paint.net or Adobe Photoshop.

Even careful Windows users may accumulate a good number of software programs over the years. Some of these are used daily or weekly, while others may sit idly on the hard drive for months or years without any use.

It is certainly possible to use a program just once every six months or once a year, but some of these may not be needed anymore. The old web browser that you no longer use, a program that you tried and forgot to remove, or a game that you no longer play.

While you can go through the list of programs manually, you may also use the “last used” metric to find these programs easily.

Windows 11’s own list in the Settings app under Apps > Installed apps shows the install date, but not last used date. For that, you need to look elsewhere.

Using Last-Used to find old installed programs

Wise Program Uninstaller is a free program for Windows that is a popular option when it comes to the removal of applications on Windows systems. It is compatible with Windows 11 and also older versions of Windows, down to Windows XP.

It needs a moment on first run to display the installed programs. Each ist listed with its name, size and installation date. Next to that is the last used metric.

Wise Program Uninstaller may display date ranges, such as “within 1 week”, “7 month(s) ago”, or “1 year ago” there.

A click on the last used column header sorts the data accordingly. One click displays the programs that were not used for a long time at the top. Note that the information may be missing from some apps. This is the case, for instance, when they were never run.

All that is left now is to select one or multiple apps for removal. Hit the uninstall button in the program interface afterwards and keep the settings. A System Restore Point is created in that case and a leftover scan is run after the actual removal of the applications from the Windows PC.

Note: Wise Program Uninstaller uses the default uninstaller of the selected applications. You may need to interact with them to commence the removal. You may want to save all open work before you start using the app, as automatic restarts may happen, depending on the software that you remove.

Most unused programs are not problematic, apart from them using disk space. Removing them may still be beneficial, especially if your system is low on free disk space or will be in the future.

Do you keep a keen eye on the list of installed programs on your systems? What is the program that you have not used in a long time that is still on your PC’s hard drive? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Microsoft’s Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi published a story yesterday on the Windows Experience Blog in which he revealed what Microsoft believes is going to happen in regards to Windows 11 in 2025.

For Microsoft, it is the year that hundreds of millions of Windows 10 users will upgrade their devices to Windows 11, or purchase new devices.

He gives a few reasons for why that is the case:

• Windows 11 is the most secure version of Windows.
• There is this awesome new AI-powered PC, which Microsoft calls Copilot+ PCs.
• Copilot+ PCs are “up to five times faster than the most popular 5-year old Windows PCs still in use”.
• Windows 10 is reaching end of servicing in October 2025.
• 80% of businesses plan to refresh their PC portfolio by the end of 2025 (IDC study).
• 70% of consumers “will refresh their PCs in the next two years” (IDC study).

The expectations make a whole lot of sense from Microsoft’s perspective. Windows 10 is installed on hundreds of million of devices. It is the most popular Windows operating system. It will run out of support at the end of the year.

Windows customers have little choice therefore, according to Microsoft.

Mehdi forgets to mention a few key points. These tell quite the different story. One of a company that willfully made decisions that throw millions of customers under the bus.

Windows 11: the upgrade problem

The Windows operating system used to be one that offered continuous upgrades. If you bought a PC with Windows XP, you knew you could upgrade to the next version. Similarly, PCs running Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 could be upgraded to the next version of Windows when Microsoft ended support.

Customers who bought Windows 10 probably thought the same thing. Upgrade to Windows 10 or buy a PC with Windows 10, and you could continue using it after support ends, as Microsoft would certainly allow upgrades to the next version of Windows.

Then came Windows 11, and everything changed. Microsoft introduced new minimum requirements for certain hardware components. Any PC that did not meet those could not be upgraded easily.

Windows Update does not offer the upgrade at all, and attempts to upgrade manually are also met with incompatibility errors.

While there are ways around that for most systems, Microsoft made sure to make these as uncomfortable as possible. If that was not enough, the company explicitly stated that it would not guarantee anything. In other words, customers who install Windows 11 on incompatible systems are on their own.

Estimates suggests that the incompatible PC count is in the hundreds of million. Many of these PCs work perfectly fine and it would be wasteful to put them on dumps just because they cannot run Windows 11.

Microsoft hopes that these customers buy new PCs with Windows 11 and it has done its fair share make other options look less attractive or disable them entirely.

The extended security updates injustice

Windows 10 customers may extend support for the operating system. This is called Extended Security Updates. They are limited to security updates, but since Windows 10 is not getting lots of new features either anymore, it ensures that the system remains secure for as long as the updates are provided.

Consumers and business customers alike may subscribe. The extension is available for the first time for consumers. When Microsoft offered the extension on Windows 7, it made them available only to organizations.

Consumers may extend support for a year. This costs $30 and guarantees security updates until October 2026.

The injustice becomes apparent when you compare the one year period to the offer for organizations. Organizations may extend support by up to three years.

Microsoft never revealed why.

A three-year extension would give consumers two additional years. Considering that Microsoft did already pledge three years of additional support for organizations, it would probably not be that much of a hassle to offer the same extension period to consumers as well.

AI is not there yet

2024 was not the year of AI, at least not on Windows. Microsoft did introduce an AI chat in Windows, but it offers the same functionality as AI chat apps and AI websites. The plan to introduce Windows-specific features that would be useful appears to have been cancelled, as Microsoft removed the few options that Windows users had in an update.

Copilot+ PCs were introduced in 2024 as the best computers for AI. But owners of these systems are still waiting for killer features.

Recall was a fiasco for Microsoft. The company had to pull it after security and privacy issues came to light. The recently relaunched version did receive a fair share of criticism already as well, and it is unclear whether Recall will ever be introduced to customer PCs, as it is only available on test systems at the time of writing.

Copilot+ PCs may indeed be faster than five year old PCs, but so are most PCs that are sold in 2025. It is not a key characteristic of this special type of PCs.

Without meaningful AI features, Copilot+ PCs become modern PCs. They do have advantages when it comes to AI operations, which may appeal to users who run AI apps or services on their devices.

Most computer users probably won’t in 2025, unless Microsoft releases a product that is useful and makes use of the AI capabilities of the processors.

Closing Words

There is a discrepancy between Microsoft’s public statements and reality. AI is not there yet, and that is the key feature of Copilot+ PCs. Security would benefit from a three-year extension of support offer for consumers. It might even please some of the company’s home users for a change.

Windows 10 users who do not want to pay Microsoft for an extension and cannot upgrade their devices to Windows 11 have little options.

The free option is Linux. Switching to Linux is not as daunting of a task than it was ten or twenty years ago, but there are downsides that users need to be aware of.

Still, Linux is free and support is guaranteed for a long, long time.

Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. This means that the company won’t release security updates anymore for the operating system for free.

Media outlets will pick this up and some will create sensationalist headlines, for the clicks.

If you run Windows 10 systems, should you be worried about the end of support? The short answer: no you should not.

Here is why: as long as you have a contingency plan, you are good. Any of the following means that you do not really have to worry about end of support:

• You plan to upgrade to Windows 11 before support ends.
• You plan to stay on Windows 10 and pay Microsoft for one/three years of extended security updates.
• You plan to stay on Windows 10 and plan to pay 0Patch for security updates until at least 2030.
• You plan to make the switch to Linux.
• You plan to install ESU security updates without paying Microsoft.
• Your Windows 10 PC has no Internet connection and there is no local danger either.

What may not be such a good idea is to keep on running Windows 10 in an unsupported state.

Yes, there are plenty of good practices to keep a system malware-free, but even if you follow all of them, you risk infections.

In case you wonder, here is a list of these practices:

• Run a good content blocker.
• Keep essential programs such as web browsers up to date.
• Run a good security software.
• Avoid untrustworthy links and file downloads / attachments.

All of these reduce the chance of successful attacks against the system. Still, even with all of that in place, there is a chance that attacks may succeed. Rogue software or browser extension updates are one possibility, but there ise more.

Closing Words

Here is my suggestion: if you need more time, you could subscribe to Microsoft or 0Patch for a year to buy twelve months of extra security updates. You could extend that until at least 2030, as 0Patch promised to support Windows 10 until then at the very least.

The best option for a PC is either Windows 11, if you need Windows, or Linux. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Windows 11:

• + Supports all apps and games that Windows 10 supports.
• + Easy upgrade, if the PC meets the minimum system requirements.
• + No extra costs for most users.
• – Problematic, if the Windows 10 PC does not meet the system requirements.
• – May not like the direction Windows is heading (regarding ads, AI, and functionality).

Linux:

• + Free and continued support is ensured.
• + Support for apps, games, and hardware is much better than it was five or ten years ago.
• + Privacy and security is much improved.
• – Migration is tricky.
• – It takes time to get used to Linux, even though that is much better than a decade ago.
• – Some apps or games do not work under Linux.

Have anything to add to the list? Feel free to do so in the comments below.

Windows supports hundreds of different keyboard shortcuts. Some of them basic, like pressing the Windows-key to open the Start menu. Others more advanced, like pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager.

Not all shortcuts are equally useful. While usefulness depends somewhat on how you use Windows, some shortcuts are certainly more useful than others.

The following shortcuts are the ones that I use most often. They save me a lot of time on my day to day work.

The timesavers

Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V

The shortcut pair copies and pastes your selections. This works in Explorer with files and folders, but also for text and anything else that you may select.

• Ctrl-C — Copies the selection to the Clipboard.
• Ctrl-V — Pastes the Clipboard entry into the active application.

Windows-I

The shortcut opens the Settings on Windows 10 or 11 machines directly.

Windows-X

The “secret” menu opens when you use the shortcut. It displays a number of links to admin tools such as the Device Manager, Network settings, and more.

Windows-[left or right]-arrow

The shortcut snaps the active window to the left or the right side of the screen. Useful to display two apps or windows side-by-side in a matter of seconds.

Ctrl-S

To quickly save content. Most programs that support save operations support this. You can use it in an image or text editor to quickly save content, and in many other apps as well.

Ctrl-P

To print a document, image, or other content quickly. The shortcut opens the print dialog right away.

The superfluous shortcuts

The next two shortcuts are not really that useful, as you can use quicker actions for the same effect.

Ctrl-Esc

The keyboard shortcut opens the Start menu on Windows. There is not really a need for this shortcut, as you can also press the Windows-key, which is faster.

Windows-S

This particular shortcut opens the search interface. It is not really needed either, as you can also search when you open the Start menu. So, pressing Windows and starting to type the search term should be sufficient for most users and most cases.

Now You: do you have shortcuts that you use regularly? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

DISM-GUI is a free app for Windows 10 and 11 that gives you access to various commands to check and repair Windows.

Good to know: DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management. It is a command line tool that, among other features, may be used to find and repair Windows issues related to missing or changed operating system files.

The free app makes the functionality more accessible. You still need to know the basics, as the program lacks documentation. The program interface consists of buttons that run the selected commands in a command prompt window.

It includes all popular options, including cleanup, which frees up storage space by removing overhead from the component store, and restore, which attempts to repair the Windows system.

Tip: check out Super God Mode as well. It creates shortcuts to more than a thousand admin tools and settings on Windows.

Here is a quick overview:

• Check (CheckHealth) – The command checks for corruptions inside the Windows image.
• Scan (ScanHealth) – The command runs a more thorough scan.
• Restore (RestoreHealth) – Searches for errors and attempts to repair them.
  • Online – check using the local image.
  • Wim – use an ISO image or an unpacked ISO image for the repair.
  • ESD – use an ESD image.
• Analyze ( AnalyzeComponentStore) – Checks the component store for overhead.
• Cleanup (StartComponentCleanup) – Cleans up the component store to free up disk space.

DISM-GUI supports several non-DISM commands next to that:

• SFC Scan — Runs the command sfc /scannow.
• CAB Install — Install a CAB update on the system.
• ESD > WIM — Convert an ESD file to a WIM file.
• Get State — Returns the state of Reserved Storage.
• Enable / Disable — Enable or disable Reserved Storage.

Note: Windows reserves storage on the primary partition for “proper performance” and updates.

Commands are executed in a command prompt window in the background.

You can download DISM-Gui over at Deskmodder.

Verdict

DISM-Gui is a useful helper app for Windows 10 and 11. It is especially useful for admins who use the commands regularly and for inexperienced users who need to run the commands.

All in all, it is a useful free app for Windows administrators.

Almost a decade ago, Microsoft said that the Settings app of the then-new operating system Windows 10 would replace the classic Control Panel of the operating system.

While Microsoft did move some options from the Control Panel to the Settings app over the years, it has, to this day, failed to migrate them all.

On the System configuration tools in Windows help page, Microsoft is now confirming what everyone knew for a long time: the classic Control Panel is deprecated.

Microsoft writes:

The Control Panel is a feature that’s been part of Windows for a long time. It provides a centralized location to view and manipulate system settings and controls. Through a series of applets, you can adjust various options ranging from system time and date to hardware settings, network configurations, and more. The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience.

While the support page is new, it has not really been a secret that Microsoft has plans to kill the Control Panel.

Now, it is official. But that does not really answer any other questions that users may have:

• When is Microsoft removing the Control Panel from Windows?
• Will there be Control Panel features that won’t be ported to the Settings app?

It is quite possible that it will take years, maybe another decade, before the Control Panel is finally removed. Microsoft engineers are busy adding AI features and redesigning Recall. Moving options from Control to Settings is probably very low on the priority list at Microsoft.

Still, some of you may still live when Microsoft is pulling the plug and giving Windows what it deserves: a single app to control options and settings.

Did you know? You can still open the existing Control Panel applets directly.

Do you still use the Control Panel in Windows? Or do you prefer the Settings app, or even a third-party solution? Feel free to write a comment down below. (via Neowin)