Daily Archives: April 4, 2022
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5 free utilities to help you get more out of Windows 11
ISSUE 19.14 • 2022-04-04 WINDOWS 11
By Lance Whitney
You can squeeze more features and flexibility out of Windows 11 with the right utility programs.
You’ve just upgraded to Windows 11. And maybe you like certain aspects of it but wish the new OS offered more capabilities. In many ways, Windows 11 is a minor upgrade to Windows 10, with visual changes and some new or redesigned features. But otherwise, it’s still the same old Windows with the same limitations and constraints.
One way to make Windows 11 more robust and flexible is through a good utility program. An array of utilities is available that will enhance or improve the OS in both significant and subtle ways. Among the vast number of utilities out there, I’ve come up with five free ones: Microsoft PowerToys, ThisIsWin11, Files, BeWidgets, and Winaero Tweaker. Let’s check them out.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Tying up loose ends
LANGALIST
By Fred Langa
The last few months have been unusually busy; this column has featured several deep-dive, multi-part installments covering Windows 11, Remote Desktop, and other major topics — along with some truly excellent reader mail spawned by those topics.
But new information keeps pouring in, especially on Windows 11. So here’s a nonstandard, “catching-up” column that fleshes out and adds to some previous topics — tying up some of the loose ends and opening some new areas to explore!
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).
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Secret Photoshop feature won’t open images with certain filenames
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
An undocumented feature of Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and related programs makes the applications open but fail to load an image — and the apps then close abruptly — if you launch the apps using a filename with specific characters, according to numerous licensed users.
This weird behavior, which is either an inadvertent bug or a deliberate Easter egg programmed in by some Adobe developer, can be seen on releases of the software all the way back to Photoshop version 5 (1998) and through Photoshop 23.2.2.325, which is the current version in Adobe’s Creative Cloud 2022.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).
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Why can’t search just search?
PATCH WATCH
By Susan Bradley
Microsoft introduces “search highlights,” another feature we probably don’t want and didn’t ask for.
In the April cumulative updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11, Microsoft will be bringing some changes to Windows’ desktop search. Unfortunately, it won’t fix what we really want fixed. Instead, it will be adding another feature we don’t want. The feature, called “search highlights,” began to roll out on March 22 to Windows 10 users who had installed the March 2022 preview update (KB5011543).
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).