Newsletter Archives
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A strong Microsoft
MICROSOFT NEWS
By Will Fastie
Microsoft’s FY24 Q1 numbers are excellent and will please investors, but results in certain sectors may spell future trouble.
These days, decoding financial statements can be very difficult, much more so than during my time as a securities analyst in the ’90s. Complicating matters today are strained economies, inflation, political uncertainty, post-pandemic recoveries, supply-chain disruption, and currency fluctuations.
Despite all that, Microsoft’s first-quarter financial results justify optimism.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.44.0, 2023-10-30).
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Why I leave Windows 11 alone
WINDOWS 11
By Will Fastie
It’s not that I think Windows 11 is perfect. It’s just that I don’t let it bother me. Too much, that is.
Don’t get me wrong — I am not suggesting that using third-party apps such as Start11 or StartAllBack to enhance Windows is a bad idea, or even that you shouldn’t bother. We’ve come to look at Windows as highly customizable over the decades of its existence, and it is thus quite natural to want to continue working in the same manner without having to adapt ourselves to a new paradigm we didn’t ask for.
I don’t do that. Here’s why, along with a few things I think Microsoft got wrong.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.41.0, 2023-10-09).
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Why File Explorer keeps me on Windows
WINDOWS
By Josh Hendrickson
I own both a fairly powerful Windows PC and a Mac Studio.
Technically, the Mac Studio, with its M1 processor, far outstrips my desktop PC. And yet my PC continues to be my daily driver. Why?
File Explorer.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.39.0, 2023-09-25).
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Working with USB 3 and 4 in Windows
HARDWARE
By Ed Tittel
The Universal Serial Bus, most commonly known as USB, has been a basic staple of computing since it first arrived on the scene in 1996.
It’s a widely used computing-industry bus standard that’s overseen by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an industry consortium that publishes and maintains standards for USB4, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, USB ports, cables, connectors, and more. I haven’t seen a PC that didn’t include multiple USB ports since the early 2000s.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.34.0, 2023-08-21).
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Can I install that on that?
SOFTWARE
By Susan Bradley
I’m going to see how well the applications and tools I regularly use work on vastly different platforms.
Can we install a contemporary Linux distribution and still run our favorite Windows applications? What about Windows applications on a Mac? Do you think we can?
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.34.0, 2023-08-21).
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More Microsoft Rewards tips and tricks
MICROSOFT
By Mary Branscombe
You can earn points by playing games on Xbox — even if you don’t have a Game Pass subscription — or even by learning about new games!
Last week, I looked at all the ways you can earn daily and weekly Microsoft Rewards points by using the Bing search engine and the Edge browser. But if you have access to an Xbox, you can earn significantly more points, even if you’re not a regular gamer.
The number of apps involved depends on where you live and how much you travel, because the Rewards program has become attractive enough to exploit.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.33.0, 2023-08-14).
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Folder Size Analyzer — What’s using up your hard drive?
FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT
By Deanna McElveen
You know what hardware-focused people don’t do? They don’t keep their computer’s software cleaned up. My husband is no exception. I’m going to show him where that hard-drive space is going.
Folder Size Analyzer by TweakNow is a great tool for finding out where the huge files and folders are hiding on your computer. As I use it on Hubby’s computer, you can follow along to find out where your own large files are.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.33.0, 2023-08-14).
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Make the most of Microsoft Rewards
ISSUE 20.32 • 2023-08-07 MICROSOFT
By Mary Branscombe
Microsoft will give you points for using Bing, and more!
Welcome to this first of a two-part series on how to earn rewards points, where to spend or donate them, and how to maximize your earnings.
You can view the Rewards program as a bit of a bribe to use Microsoft’s search engine and browser, or you can see it as getting your share of the advertising money Microsoft earns on Bing and MSN. Every search engine makes money, but only Microsoft shares it with users through what’s now called Microsoft Rewards.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.32.0, 2023-08-07).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
HiBit System Information — Meet your computer
ISSUE 20.31 • 2023-07-31 FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT
By Deanna McElveen
A modern Windows PC has hundreds of hardware components and even more software programs to control it all. You don’t need to use a screwdriver to find out what you have.
HiBit System Information is a free and portable utility that gives you everything you ever wanted to know about your computer in a neat, easy-to-navigate, tabbed interface. Because it’s portable, you can put it on a flash drive and go around snooping in everyone’s computers. With permission, of course.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.31.0, 2023-07-31).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
BitLocker, Windows 11 security, and you
BEN’S WORKSHOP
By Ben Myers
BitLocker, a major part of a more secure Windows 11, is treated differently by the Windows Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) setup than by an install and setup using the standard Windows 11 installation image downloaded directly from the Microsoft website.
This is a significant difference, so let’s explore these two ways to install Windows 11, adding useful background and facts plus analysis of what Microsoft keeps close to the vest. (OOBE is an abbreviation coined by Microsoft.)
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.31.0, 2023-07-31).
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MS-DEFCON 4: Got 22H2?
ISSUE 20.30.1 • 2023-07-25 By Susan Bradley
If you haven’t updated to Windows 10/11 22H2, now is a good time because I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.
This month’s updates have now settled down to the point that I don’t anticipate any issues for the vast majority of readers, nor have I seen any surprises in my testing on Windows 10 or Windows 11.
22H2 is now my recommended version of Windows for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 for all editions and all types of users — with the single exception of gamers.
Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (20.30.1, 2023-07-25).
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Another AI you didn’t ask for: Windows Copilot
ISSUE 20.30 • 2023-07-24 WINDOWS 11
By Josh Hendrickson
Microsoft’s new AI for Windows has me asking the same question over and over: Who is this even for?
I’ll get to why in a moment, but it’s not a good first impression for Copilot, the new AI Microsoft intends to build into Windows. It’s out in preview right now for anyone on the Windows Insider DEV build, and naturally I had to give it a go.
First impressions are everything, and Copilot starts off … well, strange.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.30.0, 2023-07-24).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.