Windows 10

If the Surface Duo turned out to be an expensive disappointment, it seems that Microsoft's next big products will be carrying on that trend. Although the larger dual-screen Surface Neo isn't expected until 2022 at the earliest, the operating system that is supposed to run on it may debut much earlier. In fact, Windows 10X could be ready to ship to manufacturers by the end of the year but it might give everyone a case of deja vu in the way it will handle "legacy" win32 software.

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Internet Explorer is a web browser living on borrowed time. Microsoft initiated plans to move users from the old internet access point in favor of the newer app Microsoft Edge. The latest version of the web browser Edge 87 showed Microsoft's latest push for movement from IE to the latest web browser: blocking the biggest websites.

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Aside from a brief period with Nokia-branded phones and its now troubled Surface Duo, Microsoft's presence on Android has mostly been on the software side. It has, however, tried to bridge the gap between mobile and desktop, primarily through exclusive features born out of its partnership with Samsung. Samsung isn't the only Android phone maker, though, and Microsoft can't risk alienating everyone else for too long. It might slowly be opening up some of those exclusive features to other Android phones, provided they're using Microsoft apps, of course.

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The Acer ConceptD 7 and ConceptD 7 Pro notebooks joined the Concept D 300 desktop this morning for a big creative reveal. These machines are part of the "creator" aimed line of Acer products, designed to look good and provide processing power aplenty. Because they're so high-end, they carry price tags the likes of which you won't really see elsewhere in the Acer product lineup revealed today.

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Acer revealed new TravelMate laptops, a Chrome Spin, and a Chromebox machine all ready to roll for business in 2020. Three new TravelMate notebooks were revealed with with 11th Gen Intel Core processors, 4G LTE, and MIL-STD 810G military durability standards made with "commercial users" in mind. The Chromebook Spin 513 and the Chromebox CXI4 were revealed with both standard and Enterprise editions.

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We're practically two months away from closing this rather accursed year, which means it's time to tempt fate with a new major update to Windows 10. Now simply dubbed 20H2 to denote which half of the year it launches instead of the month, this new version is low-key on big features and full of polish and refinement, or at least that's how it's supposed to be. Windows 10 20H2 still does bring a handful of notable changes, including one that has ruffled a few feathers given Microsoft's not-so-subtle push to get its Edge browser into every PC.

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Parallels is bringing Windows apps to Chromebooks with its new Parallels Desktop product. The Chromebook Enterprise software enables Chromebook enterprise customers to run Windows apps directly on the Chrome OS machines, bringing software like Microsoft Office and other software that businesses often rely on. Among other things, the Windows apps and Chrome OS apps can be run at the same time.

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A set of relatively major issues appeared with the latest Windows 10 update this week. Over the past several days, Windows 10 users reported issues with the latest set of updates, ranging from failure to download all the way to the Blue Screen of Death. Update release codes included KB4579311 and KB4577671, and you might want to go ahead and pause updates until it's all sorted out.

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Today we're taking a peek at the latest way to pause Windows updates with Windows 10. This system worked as of October 20, 2020, and will likely work pretty far into the future. Before you go any further, remember that pausing updates from Microsoft could result in less-than-stellar issues if you do not stay up-to-date with security fixes. If you pause updates, it should (probably) only be for a limited time.

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Microsoft has been known to be rather aggressive and unsubtle when pushing its products to people's consciousness. That was true back when it was pushing people to upgrade to Windows 10 and it's true now as it uses Windows' Start Menu as a home for advertising its own apps. Things seem to be coming to a head again as Windows users, both Insiders and regular users, start seeing what they thought were Office web apps automatically installed without their permission. It turns out, it's partly intentional and partly a bug.

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Windows 10 users are expressing frustration about the most recent software update that caught many users by surprise, shutting down their system with little warning (assuming they didn't have it set to do otherwise) and installing unwanted apps. The update has been a point of contention between users, with some stating that Microsoft is overstepping its bounds and others pointing toward users as the real issue.

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Fast refresh rates are all the fad in smartphones these days but computer monitors have sported 120Hz and even 144Hz far longer than their mobile cousins. That doesn't mean, of course, that everything will be smooth and fluid magically and it still depends on the software taking advantage of that capability. Windows 10 finally lets you do so, at least in the latest Insider Preview, with a simple new feature in the Settings app.

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