Improving Windows 10 Field Guide

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As you may know, my latest e-book, Windows 10 Field Guide, is now available on Leanpub. And while it’s already pretty comprehensive, we’d like to make it even better throughout 2016. So we’re asking for your help.

While the book can stand on its own, I did mention when it was first published in 1.0 form back in mid-November, that there is always room for improvement. And our goal—I wrote the book with Rafael Rivera and Martin McClean—has always been to improve the book over time.

These improvements take two basic forms.

First, we plan to clean up the formatting of the book, which is about the presentation, not the content. This is the first time we’ve ever used Leanpub, and while we’re very happy with the service overall, we don’t have the same level of control over formatting—fonts, image placement/sizing, and so on—that we did when we created the PDFs and ePub/MOBI files ourselves manually. We’re figuring out how to get around that, and I’ve been cleaning up the images—which should make the book smaller from a page count perspective—in recent weeks. When that’s done, I’ll try to figure out how to fix the fonts too.

Second is the book content. Some chapters—Cortana, Groove Music, and so on—contain fewer tasks than I’d like, and I’ll be bulking those up as we move forward. But we’re also very interested in expanding the content, particularly into more technical/difficult/power user-type tasks. And it is here that we’re asking for your help.

Simply put, what would you like to see in the book? What topics are missing, or need to be expanded on? Hyper-V? Storage Spaces? We’re open to anything that makes sense.

So if you can, please let me know where the book falls short, either here in the comments, or using the Contact Paul link at the top of the page.

Going forward, the book will be updated regularly, as required, and on the rough schedule outlined in Windows 10 Field Guide: How You Get Updates. I’ve spent the past few weeks cleaning up about half of the book from an image sizing perspective, and just published an update this morning. And I’ll try to finish the rest of that quickly so we can move on to more content updates.

Microsoft Finds Another Way to Force Windows 10 Upgrade on Businesses

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As part of an announcement about Windows 10’s support for new hardware,Microsoft revealed some not-so-subtle changes to how it will support Windows 7 and 8.1 going forward. Long story short, it is using hardware support as yet another means of forcing customers to upgrade to Windows 10 faster than they might otherwise wish to.

As I’ve noted many times in the past, this behavior is mostly hard to justify, and is a far more serious issue, than the non-existent Windows 10 privacy issues that others carp about. For both consumers and now, increasingly, business users, Microsoft is making Windows 10 an offer you can’t refuse.

So what is Microsoft doing this week? No less than altering how it supports Windows 7 and 8.1 going forward, mid-stream, so that it can force more businesses to upgrade to Windows 10.

How are they doing that, you ask?

“Compared to Windows 7 PC’s, [Intels’ latest generation processor, chipset,] Skylake when combined with Windows 10, enables up to 30x better graphics and 3x the battery life – with the unmatched security of Credential Guard utilizing silicon supported virtualization,” Microsoft explains.

Which is fine: That’s a perfectly fine selling point for Windows 10.

But then we get to this.

“Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago [and] before any x86/x64 SOCs existed,” the explanation continues. “For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states- which is challenging for WiFi [sic], graphics, security, and more. As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing.”

So Microsoft is altering its support policy, not just for one or two Windows versions, but for Windows in general. And I am reasonably sure this has never happened before.

Here are the changes Microsoft is announcing.

Going forward, new hardware generations will require the latest version of Windows. “As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support,” Microsoft says. “This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon. For example, Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming “Kaby Lake” silicon, Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996” silicon, and AMD’s upcoming “Bristol Ridge” silicon.

Only devices on the Skylake support list will be supported on Windows 7 and 8.1. And even then only through July 17, 2017. “During this new 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends,” Microsoft says. “After July 2017, the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices.”

But here’s what this means in the real world: Microsoft is not actually supporting Skylake generation hardware for Windows 7 and 8.1 at all. And that’s because there isn’t a business on earth that would go to the trouble of deploying on Skylake hardware now only to have to upgrade to Windows 10 in the near future. The net result is that only Windows 10 is really supported on Skylake, e.g. on new hardware.

Put another way, this isn’t Microsoft building Windows 7/8.1 “support” for Skylake. This is Microsoft building a guaranteed upgrade for Windows 10. In other words, this is more of the same: Microsoft pushing customers to Windows 10 by any means necessary.

Windows 10 Tip: Just Say No to “Get Windows 10” on Windows 7/8.1

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Windows 10 is the most modern and full-featured version of Windows yet. But Microsoft’s overly-aggressive tactics in coercing customers to upgrade are a mistake I believe. So here’s how the Windows 7 or 8.1 user can “just say no” and get rid of that annoying “Get Windows 10” advertisement for good.

Well. Hopefully for good. The issues here are many, and nuanced, but they boil down to this: Previous attempts at removing “Get Windows 10” have been thwarted by subsequent Windows Updates that bypass known workarounds as they come up. So in this case, we just have to hope that the people doing God’s work here can keep up with Microsoft’s attempts to undermine them.

So. Before we proceed, let me set a bit of context.

I love Windows 10. I believe that most people reading this will benefit from the many advances in this version of Windows, that the improvements Microsoft made benefit both desktop- and mobile/touch-focused users equally, and that the compatibility issues that often dog Windows upgrades are largely not present in Windows 10. Long story short, I think Windows 10 is great.

But I also believe that Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 a bit too aggressively, and while it is doing so unashamedly and for its own good reasons, I don’t understand why the “Get Windows 10” advertisement doesn’t include “Don’t ever bother me with this again” or “Don’t bother me for xx days/weeks/months” options.

Put even more succinctly, I’m here for you, not Microsoft. The greater good isn’t generally what’s good for Microsoft, though these things do sometimes intersect, it’s what’s good for Microsoft’s users. And in this case, Microsoft’s interests are getting in the way of what I think is best for the people who use Microsoft’s products. Not all of them. But some of them. The people using Windows 7 or 8.1 who, for whatever reason—and there are good reasons—simply want to eke out as much value from that investment as they can. They just want to be left alone.

On that note, people have been trying to figure out ways to destroy “Get Windows 10” since this insidious system tray-based advertisement has appeared. I’ve avoided writing about these things for the most part because all of the methods to date—keeping track of and then hiding or uninstalling certain Windows Updates, frigging with the registry, or whatever—have all been temporary. A new Patch Tuesday comes around and, wham, you get that freaking “Get Windows 10” advertisement again.

So here’s one method that seems to have staying power. Yes, Microsoft could subvert this solution as it has in the past, but I have much more hope in an application that can be easily distributed only and updated as needed than I do in complicated blog post explanations that have to be updated every time Microsoft changes something, forcing the users who want to do this to re-research the same topic again and again.

Let’s stop the madness.

Thanks to a free third-party application called GWX Control Panel, you can shut down “Get Windows 10.” It’s been around since last August, and it’s been updated regularly to address Microsoft’s changes, and that’s why I’m recommending it now.

As noted by the app’s authors, GWX Control Panel does the following:

Removes “Get Windows 10” from your notification area. No more nagging.

Restores Windows Update so that it stops advertising the Windows 10 upgrade. No more hijacking of this most crucial system tool.

Prevents the Windows 10 upgrade from automatically downloading in the background. Saving bandwidth and sanity.

If you want to remove “Get Windows 10” from your Windows 7 or 8.1 PC please download GWX Control Panel now. You needthis. And, seriously, considering donating to the app authors. We need to support those people who do the right thing.

And, Microsoft. I get where you’re coming from, I really do. But you need to give users a way to opt out of this, if only for set time periods. It’s just too much.

The Top 10 Deals in the Countdown to 2016 in the Windows Store

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Last week we announced a new round of deals in the Windows Store called Countdown to 2016 for our Windows 10 fans. Over the past week, we’ve been offering deals up to 50% off on everything from purchasing blockbuster movies like Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, to 30% off 17 of The Beatles’ albums, to top apps and games, like KVAD Photo+ PRO and Minecraft: Story Mode.

Today we’ve rounded up a list of the top 10 deals in the Windows Store that are a part of our Countdown to 2016 promotion. These offers are valid through tomorrow 12/31.

MUSIC

The Beatles – stream for free or purchase the albums at 30% off

The Fab Four are here! You can now stream for free 17 of The Beatles’ albums on Microsoft Groove**. All 17 albums are also available to purchase from the Windows Store at 30% off until 1/15/16***.

MOVIES

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – buy the movie at 50% off

With his organization shut down, agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team race against time to stop a dangerous network of rogue operatives turned traitors. To defeat them, he joins forces with an elusive agent as he faces his most impossible mission yet. Get the movie today for 50% off.

Mad Max Fury Road – buy the movie at 50% off

From director George Miller comes the fourth adventure in the Mad Max series, once again set in a post-apocalyptic world. As Max (Tom Hardy) flees across the wasteland, he teams up with a mysterious woman, Furiousa (Charlize Theron), to try to survive. Now 50% off.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended – buy the trilogy at 22% off

This critically acclaimed, epic trilogy follows the quest undertaken by hobbit Frodo Baggins and his companions to save Middle Earth by destroying the One Ring and defeating the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron. In this edition, now 22% off, extended scenes have been carefully added back into the film.

GAMES

Minecraft: Story Mode – 25% off a season pass for episodes 2-5

Everyone loves a good story, and this game puts you in the middle of an epic one. Set out on a quest to find the Order of the Stone, and in the process – if you’re skillful and lucky – save your world from oblivion. And right now, enjoy a 25% off season pass for episodes 2-5.

Lara Croft GO – buy the game for just $1.99

She’s raided tombs and dangerous caves around the world, and now the adventures of one of the bravest explorers we know is just $1.99, regularly $4.99. Help her navigate jungles and ruins through recently added puzzles, discover cool mechanics and sparkling gems to collect, too.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – 50% off

This is the story of Carl Johnson and his return to Los Santos, San Andreas, after a 5-year absence. You’re behind the wheel as he flees the cops who frame him for murder – all amid personal tragedy and a city spinning out of control. And it’s all 50% off for one more day — $3.49, regularly $6.99.

APPS

KVAD Photo+ PRO – 50% off

Photographers of any level can utilize the powerful, all-in-one image processing capabilities of this app for a range of retouching needs, and for a very limited time it’s 50% off. KVAD Photo+ includes a wide variety of effects, filters, color and text tools, enhancement feature and more to turn your photos into mini-masterpieces.

Earth 3D – 50% off

With all that’s going on in the world today – from natural disasters to trouble in geo-political hotspots – this interactive, 3D app is a great way to make sense of it all. With physical and political maps, weather maps and lots of fascinating facts and useful details, you can discover the kinds of relevant knowledge.

Drawboard PDF – 50% off

For reading, annotating and marking up your PDFs, it’s hard to beat this handy app, which is $4.99 (regularly $9.99) until 2016. Open existing PDFs or create a new one, then annotate using an extensive array of tools. When you’re done, save it as a compatible PDF once again. With an intuitive experience and stylus/touch input separation, it’s perfect for the design industries, students, teachers and travelers.

Don’t wait to get in on this last call for these great deals in the Windows Store, deals are available through tomorrow 12/31.

Best Ways to Free up Hard Disk Space on Windows 10

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Hard disks represent an essential area of computing systems- they store anything and everything from necessary documents, videos to junk files and apps which we seldom use. Hard disks have been getting bigger by the day, yet they seem to fill up faster than before. A filled up hard disk becomes the centerpiece of our troubles as we become devoid of necessary space to perform any activities or download files on our machine.

Windows 10 specially invites the use of many apps which have known to be space hungry- they use up almost all the space available and encroach on territories not marked for their use. Some best possible methods which have been used by many to successfully free up hard disk space on windows 10 have been listed below:

1. Analysis of Disk Space

The most priority should have given to determine which component is using up the most space and their location. There is one simple logic behind this move: getting rid of large items will clean the drive quicker.

Another great way of assessing the unused items is the Disk Analyzer. It will sniff out the files which meant something years back, but have lost their shine with time.

Tools for hard drive visualization such as WizTree or Windows Directory Statistics (better known as WinDirStat) can be used to scan your system, and organize the folders, as well as show which ones are taking up the most space.

2. Use of Disk Cleanup to Clear Temporary Files

Windows 10 has one inbuilt feature, the Disk Cleanup, which takes care of temporary files. Since most of these files are deposited during software installations, it’s pretty safe to delete them, without the fear of breaking into demanding procedures.

To start Disk Cleanup, Open Run command by using Windows + R. Then write “cleanmgr” and hit enter. Now select the drive and disk cleanup for that particular drive should open up. Select all the unnecessary files and click ok.

On top of these, every browser too generates their sharing of temporary files, which can be cleared by Browser Cleaner.

3. Clear out Files which has been Duplicated

Many a times, we tend to keep more than one copy of a file to either keep a backup or because we have saved it a couple of times unknowingly. These gobble up valuable space, if they are especially large files.

Deleting these files do not cause any amount of damage as these are duplicates. Apps like DupeGuru can effectively manage and delete these sorts of files.

4. Removal of Space Hungry Apps

The Size column from Programs and Features Control panel can effectively show, which app is using up how much of disk space. If installation of apps which does not create much of a stir, or games which are not used are performed, it will lead to a considerable opening up of disk space.

5. Check Space used by Unused Features

System features like Windows Restore and Hibernate require hard disk space to operate. For example, the Hibernate feature may require up to 6 gigabytes of space to function. These features are best removed if they haven’t been used since time unmemorable, as this will cause a lot of hard disk space to open up.

6. Use the Cloud Storage facilities

The concept of cloud storage allows the storage of important files to be uploaded to a server and stored safely. As an example, Dropbox cloud storage allows a significant amount of your data to be stored safely, thus effectively freeing up your hard disk space.

7. Managing Optional Features

Many optional items can be installed on a system without even knowing about it. It is better to regularly check for such unwanted optional features, and clean them off. 

8. Use of Offline Services

Offline services like Offline maps aid in navigation without internet connectivity. However, these are required to be downloaded on a system, which ends up in using up of hard disk space. Deleting such features after they have been used effectively saves a lot of this space. This step is useful for Windows 10 tablets and mobiles. 

9. Planned use of One Drive

Windows offer its own cloud services, popularly known as the One Drive. This works similar to Dropbox, with one added characteristic: it has the capability to save files offline. If you are saving every file using One Drive, there is a good chance you are wasting your precious hard disk space.

Follow these simple measures, and use your hard disk efficiently, without any need to worry about space shortage. These were some of the best Ways to Free up Hard Disk Space on Windows 10 and we will be sharing more such tips in future so don’t forget to like us on facebook and follow on twitter. 

3 Best Free Compression Software or Tools for Windows 10

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What actually is a compression software? The software that helps you in compressing the size of a big file, so that you can share it via emails or other sharing options is termed as a compression software or tool. For Windows users, there are many freeware file compression software’s available online. The most popular among these available software’s are WinRAR and WinZip. But in addition to these there are a few more tools that are effective enough in compressing large files. Let’s discuss about 3 such freeware compression software’s available online for Windows 10/8/7.

1. 7-Zip

This is a free and open source file archiver or file manager and more. The basic format on which this compression software operates is the 7z format, but in addition to this, it can also read and write other format options, making it one of the best available freeware compression utility. 7-Zip is loaded with many useful features and the list of supported formats just goes on.

Another useful feature of this file compression software is that it reads most of the archiving formats. It supports the following file formats – 7z, RAR, GZIP, WIM, CramFS, DMG, ISO, MSI, XY, ZIP, GZIP, UDF, Z, MBR, XAR, NTFS, DEB, FAT and many more.

2. IZArc

Using this free software utility, you can create, extract and repair any archive. IZArc supports almost every important file format and the features provided by it will enhance your experience of file compression. It provides with a drag and drop feature, which simplifies your compression task.

Other important and useful features added in IZArc are – virus scan feature, repair broken archives, create a self-extracting archive and many more. It supports the following file formats – 7-ZIP, ACE, PAK, TAZ, TZ, Z, CDI, BIN, B64, RAR, YZ1, IMG, ZOO, ISO, LIB, MDF, PK3, CPIO, BH, A, LHA, TGZ and many more.

3. PeaZip

This free and open source file managing and compressing tool or software is available for both Windows and Linux Operating Systems. The best way in which you can make use of this software is in the compression of large files. PeaZip uses and runs on its own format; the PEA archive. But the appreciating part is that it also supports other popular file formats. The user interface offered by this application is quite interesting and easy to navigate through.

Other important features offered by PeaZip are – file splitting and joining, byte-to-byte file comparison, system benchmarking, keyfiles generation, secure file deletion, archive conversion, archive encryption, hash files, find duplicate files and much more. It supports about 130 file formats including – ARJ, LHA, ZIPX, RAR, CAB, ACE, DMG, UDF, ISO and more.

The above mentioned best Windows 10 file compression tools are useful in compressing almost every file of various formats. So, as far as the features offered by these file compression software’s are considered, it is proved that they are nothing less that the widely used ones. Hope that these compression tools available online for free are helpful in compressing the size of your large files.

10 Best Video Players for Windows 10

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A powerful video player is an absolute must for all those who are fond of watching movies. With Windows 10 becoming more and more popular with millions of downloads, people are on the search for video players which will allow them to play a wide range of media formats and let’s face it, Windows media Player is just not enough for us when it comes to videos.So, here is the list of Top 10 Best Video Players for Windows 10:

1. VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is one of the best video players present for your Windows 10 device which supports almost all kinds of video as well as audio formats. It is easy to install and available for free with a very easy user interface and doesn’t require any kind of signing up.

2. KMPlayer

When it comes to playing video formats which are not common, KMPlayer tops the list of video players present for Windows 10. With the help of internal codec it helps in playing 3D, 2K, UHD and 4D file formats. The player comes absolutely free of cost and runs smoothly even on low configuration computers. It also adjusts playback screens.

3. GOM Media Player

GOM Media Player is one of those super cool video players for Windows 10 which offers the users with multiple customization options. It comes with various advanced features which help in playback of the videos, supports a wide array of media formats including MKV and FLV files and the best part is it comes for free.

4. MPC-HC

If you are looking for a lightweight video player for your Windows 10 player that will allow you to playback almost all kinds of video formats out there, then try out Media Player Classic or MPC-HC. This software comes for free and is composed of internal codec which allows you to playback various file formats which are not common.

5. Potplayer

Potplayer is a Windows 10 video player which has the ability to utilize the limited hardware of your system due to its hardware acceleration facility. It supports 3D output and has some amazing 3D playback features which are a delight for the users. It also has some additional features like screen snapshot, scene bookmarking and the liberty to choose soundcards.

6. DivX Player

DivX Player is perfect for you if you are looking for a Windows 10 video player which will allow you to play high definition movies smoothly. It supports formats such as MKV, FLV, UHD, DIVX as well as MP4, providing you with an all-round video experience. It has a playlist for better organization of video contents.

7. RealPlayer

RealPlayer is an awesome video player for all Windows 10 devices which allows you to share the video over cloud server if need be. It is available in both free and premium options so that you can choose whichever fits your needs. The software allows movie sharing with big screens like HD TV and offers a online storage space of 65 GB.

8. UMPlayer

UMPlayer or Universal Media Player allows you to choose the source of media from which you are going to stream the video on your Windows 10 device. It is equipped with internal codec which allows you to play files such as MP4, XVID, VOB and Matroska quite easily on your device and it is available for free.

9. Plex

Plex is not just another video player for your Windows 10 device, but it also allows you to use it as a media server. You can store your videos online for accessing them later at your convenience. It is available for free and in a premium version which you can choose from and has some pretty cool features available.

10. SMPlayer

Simple UI and some great features to choose from are what bring SMPlayer to our list of the best video players for Windows 10. This open source as well as a free video player allows you to play videos directly from YouTube if need be and gives you the liberty to choose from the numerous numbers of skins available online.