The issue with Windows 11 KB5083769 causing problems with various backup software is exposing something else that is concerning to me. Something in the monthly patching processes is performing an aggressive disk clean-up process of Windows update files. As a result, many of you – too many, frankly – are reporting that you don’t see […]

ISSUE 23.17 • 2026-04-27 Look for our BONUS issue on May 4, 2026!! WINDOWS 11 By Lance Whitney A virtual machine provides the freedom and flexibility to work with different versions of Windows and play with new or untested apps and features. As a technology writer and journalist, I often have to test and review […]

WINDOWS 11 By Martin Brinkmann Here’s a surprising speed boost for everyday, heavy-duty tasks. It works on many Windows setups and costs nothing. When Microsoft rolled out Dev Drive for Windows 11 back in 2023, it slapped a massive “For Developers Only” sign on the feature. The pitch was that enterprise programmers compiling millions of […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Is Microsoft finally listening? We’ve been through this rodeo before. We’ve seen vendors make changes and then pull back, only to make changes once again. So which vendor has decided to do a mea culpa and perhaps bend a bit to its customer base? Microsoft. In the recent Windows Insider […]

WINDOWS 11 By Will Fastie Unaccountably, Microsoft has lost its UI mojo. It’s not surprising that the Windows Start menu gets a lot of attention whenever it changes. It’s a highly visible feature of Windows’ overall user interface. No one can escape the need to use Start from time to time, even when some of […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Businesses will be happy to learn that the March updates include no new zero-day bugs. A zero day is a security issue that is under active attack as of Patch Tuesday. This means that unpatched systems are potentially vulnerable. However, you know from my past patch-risk analyses that zero days […]

ISSUE 23.10 • 2026-03-09 WINDOWS 11 By Mary Branscombe Bring a little beauty into your day with new, high-quality photos for your background — and choose whether that includes trivia or AI images. Windows Spotlight is a mix of fun facts, often-stunning photographs, and annoying adverts for things such as the ever-growing deluge of Copilot […]

WINDOWS 11 By Chris Hoffman The Files app delivers a modernized alternative to File Explorer — for better and for worse. Windows 11’s File Explorer still needs a lot of polish. I’ve run into regular crashes, slowdowns, and other problems over the past few years. It’s just not the reliable file manager it was in […]

One of the things my dad requested is a much easier way to shut down the computer. Clicking the Windows Start button to find the shutdown button isn’t obvious. So, I built him one. It’s quite easy to build a shortcut, change the icon so it’s obvious, and then copy it to the task bar. […]

ISSUE 23.08 • 2026-02-23 WINDOWS 11 By Martin Brinkmann After ten years in the making, Microsoft is finally attempting to finish the job by making Windows’ dark-mode feature truly system-wide. The “flashbang” era is officially ending — mostly. When Microsoft first dimmed the lights with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, nobody expected it to be […]

WINDOWS 11 By Mary Branscombe If your computer keeps turning on when you aren’t using it, here’s how to find out what’s waking it up — and then put it to bed. Recently, I looked at my September article Control power to your display, which described how to keep your PC from going to sleep […]

Now that Dad is using a laptop on a nearly daily basis, I applied some customization options to fix “What is this stupid thing doing?” problems. Disable widgets.   Search for Taskbar settings. This will open the Settings app and take you straight to the taskbar customization options. From there go into Taskbar items. You will see […]

ISSUE 23.03 • 2026-01-19 WINDOWS 11 By Chris Hoffman It’s a lot like when Windows became a 64-bit operating system. Capable Arm laptops running Windows 11 have been around for more than a year. Even though application compatibility was impressive at launch, it had some blind spots. Going into 2026, Windows on Arm is a […]

WINDOWS 11 By Lance Whitney Need to set up your Microsoft 365 or Office files, settings, and customizations on a brand-new computer? Here are the steps I had to take. I recently bought a new Windows laptop to replace my old one. Though I like the boost in speed and power of the new PC, […]

WINDOWS 11 By Mary Branscombe You can quickly reset Windows settings and defaults without reinstalling or losing data — but here’s what you need to do first. If you’re thinking of starting off the new year by spring-cleaning your PC — or maybe sorting out some long-term annoyances with your setup — there are several […]

Stuff just keeps showing up in Windows with little or no warning, so I missed an interesting change. Microsoft added keyboard shortcuts for endash (Win+-) and emdash (Win+Shift+-). That may not be a big deal for you, but it is for me. Our senior copy editor, Roberta Scholz, is a strict grammarian. I, on the other […]

ISSUE 22.51 • 2025-12-22 TAME YOUR TECH By Susan Bradley Lately, I’ve seen several posts and questions about setting up a new system, as well as lingering concerns about Windows 10 ESUs. Some of these questions make me wonder about not only the quality of resources provided by vendors, but also the quality of results […]

WINDOWS 11 By Chris Hoffman On modern Windows PCs, you rarely need to download a software installer from a website. Windows has traditionally required you to download software installers — EXE files, MSI packages, and other formats — to install applications. But Windows is quietly shifting away from that. On a modern Windows PC, you […]

Reader Randy Hollenbeck shares a recent finding with KB5072033: Several users reported that these systems freeze after installing the update. Initial speculation pointed to Intel Arc graphics drivers. Further investigation by users revealed that a BIOS setting caused the issue. They found that disabling the “Enable adaptive c-States for discrete graphics” option under Advanced Setup […]

WINDOWS By Mary Branscombe Windows treats some folders as “special,” and has started putting them where it wants, not where you would prefer. They are called “shell folders” and are usually associated with your user profile. They include such folders as Documents, Music, Photos, Downloads, and the folder used for files you save to your […]