Newsletter Archives

• MORE of your worst Windows 11 irritations solved

  Posted on September 4, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ll all eventually be forced to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Microsoft says it’ll end security updates for Win10 on October 1, 2025, as I wrote in Part 1 of this two-part column.

  In today’s Part 2, I describe the two options we face: Hang on to our Win10 installations until the last possible moment, or take the time now to adopt Win11 and cure some of the worst bugs and stupidities that Redmond sent out the door with it.

  I invited my readers to send me fixes they’ve found for Win11’s problems. We’ll get into those workarounds in a minute. But before you go any further, please take a look at the first half of this two-part column and then review my previous exposés of Win11 that you may have missed.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.36.0, 2023-09-04).

  Public Defender File Explorer, Newsletters, Photo app, Photo Viewer, Taskbar, User Interface, Windows 11

• Temp_Cleaner GUI — Just what I was looking for

  Posted on March 27, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  When I go looking for a piece of free software for a particular need, I usually have a checklist in my mind.

  In this case, I was looking for a program that we could put on customers’ computers after a tune-up to help them in two ways. First is having a way to keep things cleaned out. Second is discouraging the client from downloading bundleware contained in other cleanup programs.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.13.0, 2023-03-27).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows GUI

• Making Windows 11 on Arm less obnoxious

  Posted on March 20, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.12 • 2023-03-20

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  If you’re running Windows on Arm, you really want to be running Windows 11 rather than Windows 10.

  Not only is it the only way to get Windows 11–specific features such as running Android apps or tabs in Notepad, but — crucially for Arm devices — it’s the only way to get 64-bit emulation or the native ARM64 .NET Framework. 64-bit emulation was previewed in an Insider build of Win10, but it shipped only in Win11.

  If you want to run apps such as the most recent version of Photoshop or Signal on your Arm PC, you need Windows 11 to do it. That’s annoying if you find the new Windows 11 user interface as frustrating as I do.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.12.0, 2023-03-20).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 ARM, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows 11, Windows on ARM

• Biniware Run — All your eggs in one basket

  Posted on March 13, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  We all have that set of things we do every time we sit down at our computers. Open this, open that, read that webpage, check that stock price, etc. Why not put it all in one place?

  Dicu Alexandru is a Romanian developer whose software portfolio includes the wildly popular Windows Firewall Control, which was purchased — along with his website — in 2018 by Malwarebytes (lucky dog!). Having many more ideas in his head, Dicu has continued to develop free software for the world to enjoy. I would just be sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere if Malwarebytes had bought my business — but you go, Dicu!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.11.0, 2023-03-13).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Desktop tools, Menus, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows

• What’s a “dynamic island?”

  Posted on September 19, 2022 at 02:41 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  APPLE NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Clever. That’s what it is.

  In the very limited coverage we give to Apple and its products, our focus has been on the evolution of Apple silicon and its application to Mac desktops and laptops. iPhones? Almost never.

  But with iPhone 14, Apple has done something I consider remarkably clever.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).

  Apple, AskWoody Plus Newsletter Apple News, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, iPhone, User Interface