Welcome to the Microsoft Windows category of Ghacks.net. This section of the website lists all Windows-related articles that we have published. The main focus of our site are software reviews, but we also feature operating system related news, tips and tricks or tutorials that help you get the most out of your PC.
You may especially be interested in some of our overview articles and guides that help you understand and use core Windows features and concepts such as Windows Update, software to backup Windows or our latest Windows software reviews
Windows XP was the state of the art operating system when we launched our website and we have followed development of the operating system closely thereafter. This means that you will find articles covering Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 here on the site as well as coverage of server versions of the Windows operating system.
We make sure that our software reviews always highlight compatibility with versions of Windows so that you know if applications are compatible with your version of the OS or not.
I suggest you check out our Windows tips section, our software reviews or the list of portable programs that we have reviewed in the past.
Development of the next feature update of Windows 10, the Fall Creators Update, is slowly coming to an end as Microsoft shifted development from adding features in builds to fixing issues and giving the new version a bit of polishing before release. Windows 10 Insider Preview build 16251 is not overly spectacular when it comes […]
Things were quite easy to understand from a support perspective in the pre-Windows 10 age. If you installed Windows on a PC or bought a PC with Windows pre-installed, you could be certain that you could run it until Microsoft ended support for the operating system. Upgrades to newer versions of Windows were possible as […]
Microsoft plans to remove Microsoft Paint from the Windows 10 operating system and make the app available through Windows Store instead. Microsoft revealed removed and deprecated features of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version of the operating system recently. The long standing default image editor of Windows, Microsoft Paint, was listed under deprecated. […]
Windows 10 was released in 2015 with much fanfare as the next and last version of the Windows operating system. While Windows 10 was designed for the ground up to work on any device type, its interface was flexible enough to provide desktop users with a different experience than users on mobile devices (the few […]
The most recent Insider Build of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update comes with extended web search functionality that makes it a tad more useful than it is right now in stable versions of Windows 10. Microsoft integrated web search capabilities into the default search functionality on Windows 10. This means that Windows 10 […]
Microsoft plans to release the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the next feature update for Windows 10 in a couple of months. The Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 will introduce new functionality but also remove some that was available in previous versions of the operating system. Microsoft published a Support article that highlights removed […]
Microsoft plans to roll out a change in the coming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update that aims to reduce the time the computer is installing the update. The new feature shifts some processes which are currently processed during installation of the update. Microsoft separates Windows 10 updates into online and offline phases. The process begins […]
When you delete huge folders in Windows, you will notice that the process takes quite a bit of time to complete. I keep backup folders of Ghacks locally on a platter-based drive, and these folders come close to 30 Gigabytes in size with more than 140,000 files and 350 folders. When I need to delete […]
Windows 10 is no longer supported on this PC is an error message that Windows 10 may throw during the update to a newer version of the operating system. Microsoft moved away from the classic service pack / new version of Windows update scheme of the past to Windows as a Service with the company's […]
Microsoft and LinkedIn announced today the release of the new LinkedIn application for Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system. The app, which will be rolled out gradually until the end of the month to the Windows 10 population is LinkedIn's first application for Windows 10. The company announced earlier that it made the decision to retire […]
Microsoft Windows ships with a set of so-called optional features that users may enable or disable using the "turn Windows features on or off" control panel applet. This works well for the most part, but requires that you open the Control Panel on the operating system unless you load the Features window directly by typing […]
Microsoft published a new build of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update today to the Fast Ring Insider channel. While users should not expect major features being integrated into the new version of Windows 10 at this stage in development, new builds do feature gradual improvements over previous ones. The last build featured for […]
Windows creates the folder Windows.old on a PC running Windows when you upgrade the PC to a new version of the operating system. The Windows.old folder contains files and folders of the old installation of Windows, and the main reason it is there is that it is used to restore the old system if the […]
Microsoft 365 is a new subscription-based service by Microsoft that includes Windows,Office 365 and Windows Mobility in a single package. Announced officially on July 10, 2017 by Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office team on the official Office blog, Microsoft 365 is the next step in Microsoft's transformation to a company that moves […]
Microsoft added a new feature to the Windows Update functionality of the most recent Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Insider build that allows you to limit the Windows Update bandwidth. Microsoft did not mention the new feature in the Windows 10 Insider Preview build 16237 post on the official Microsoft website. Note: This is a […]
Microsoft added new entries to the File Explorer context menu in Windows 10 that some users of the operating system may like, and others may call bloat. If you right-click on files in the most recent release build of Windows 10, the Creators Update, you get up to three additional context menu items. You may […]
Microsoft has pushed out another build of its upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update feature update to the Windows 10 Insider Fast Ring channel. Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 brings new features to Microsoft Edge, the default browser of Windows 10, and improvements to Windows Shell, Input, gaming, Task Manager, Hyper-V, and a truckload […]
Data usage is a handy feature of the Windows 10 operating system that reveals the data transfer totals from the last 30 days. Besides displaying the total amount of data that was transferred in the last 30 days, it may also highlight data for different connection types -- e.g. Ethernet and Wireless -- and list […]
