Windows 10 Mobile Support

Microsoft is Ending Windows 10 Mobile Support on December 10th, 2019

JOSH HENDRICKSON  @canterrain 

Windows 10 Mobile support is coming to an end in December. Microsoft stopped developing features for the Mobile OS in 2017, but with this news, all updates come to an end, marking a final death to a once-promising mobile OS.

Windows 7 Security Patches

Windows 7 Only Has One Year of Security Patches Left

CHRIS HOFFMAN  @chrisbhoffman 

Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7 with security updates on January 14, 2020. It’s like Windows XP all over again—but much worse. Many more people are sticking with Windows 7 than stuck with XP.

Prevent PP from Auto Resizing

How to Prevent PowerPoint from Automatically Resizing Text

AMELIA GRIGGS 

In PowerPoint, when you type, you may notice that if you enter more text than can fit inside a text placeholder, the text is automatically resized to a smaller size. This is called AutoFit. In some cases, that might be helpful; in other cases, it might not. Here’s how to turn that off.

Microsoft's HoloLens

Toyota is using Microsoft's HoloLens to build cars faster

By Rachel Met

San Francisco (CNN Business)In the nearly four years since Microsoft introduced its HoloLens augmented-reality headset, consumers have largely forgotten about it. But now it's gaining traction among an unlikely audience: car makers.

Leaving Room

How to Print in Word to Leave Room for a Hole Punch

HAYLEY MILLIMAN 

Hole punches are great for inserting your printed documents into a binder neatly. Hole punches are not, unfortunately, so great when they accidentally cut off different words throughout your work. You can easily adjust your Word document’s margins to make room when using a hole punch or printing to pre-punched paper.

Open a Port

How Do I Open a Port on Windows Firewall?

BRADY GAVIN 

Firewalls are there to protect you from threats on the internet (both traffic from the internet and from local applications trying to gain access when they shouldn’t). Sometimes, though, you’ll want to allow otherwise restricted traffic through your firewall. To do so, you’ll have to open a port.

W10’s Next Release

Windows 10’s Next Release Includes a Light Theme

CHRIS HOFFMAN 

Windows 10 already has a dark theme, but now it’s getting a real light theme. Interface elements like the taskbar, Start menu, and print dialog are turning light, and Microsoft even created a new desktop background for it.

This feature is arriving in Windows 10’s next update, codenamed 19H1 and expected for release around April 2019. It’s available today to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring as part of Insider build 18282. This release of Windows will make your PC faster.

Now, when you enable the light theme, everything will be light. This new light theme even extends to Windows 10’s notifications, and it looks great.

Don’t worry, though—the old behavior with a dark taskbar, dark Start menu, and light application windows is still the default after upgrading. Microsoft won’t suddenly change your desktop theme.

The Settings app now has separate options for “Default Windows mode” and “Default app mode.” With Windows set to dark and app mode set to light, you’ll use the old default theme. With both set to light or dark, you’ll use a pure light or dark theme.

Microsoft has also added a new default wallpaper. You can enable it on the Insider builds by heading to Settings > Personalization > Themes and selecting “Windows Light.”

And, to match everything else, the print dialog for Store apps also has a new light theme. Previously, it was always dark.

Microsoft has also made a few other changes. For Windows 10 Professional users, the “Pause Updates” feature is available right on the Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update page, making it a bit easier to find and pause updates.

Windows can now automatically set your Active Hours to avoid rebooting for updates during the hours when you’re usually using your PC. You no longer have to set them manually if you enable this feature.

The new modern screenshot clipping tool added in the October 2018 Update gets a few improvements, too. It can now take timed screenshots and screenshots of specific windows.

Microsoft has also fixed the file association problem we reported, and you should now be able to set any app as your default once again. This fix should trickle out to stable versions of Windows 10 in the next few weeks.

Transfer WMP

How to Transfer a Windows Media Player Playlist to a Different Computer

BRADY GAVIN  @bradyjgavin 

Great music playlists take a long time to curate, and when you change computers, you don’t want your playlists getting left behind (or maybe you just want to share your work with a friend). If you’ve got playlists in Windows Media Player, here’s how to transfer them to a different computer.

Perform a Clean Boot

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows

BRADY GAVIN 

Modern computers come loaded with hundreds of processes and services designed to make the operating system run smoothly. Sometimes when you install a program or service, they may interfere with crucial services, resulting in unexpected program crashes, error messages popping up, or slowing down your computer.

Advanced Power Settings

What Are All Those Advanced Power Settings in Windows?

CHRIS HOFFMAN 

Windows has many “advanced power settings” you can adjust. These options let you choose between performance and battery life, control what Windows does when you have a critical battery level, and tweak what pressing the power button and closing the lid does.

PowerPoint

All the Best Microsoft PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

by Amelia Griggs 

Even if you’re familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint, you might be surprised by the number and variety of keyboard shortcuts you can use to speed up your work and generally make things more convenient.

Microsoft Stops Support

What It Means When Microsoft Stops Supporting Your Version of Windows

CHRIS HOFFMAN  @chrisbhoffman 

Microsoft only supports each version of Windows for so long. For example, Windows 7 is currently in “extended support” until January 14, 2020, after which Microsoft will no longer support it. Here’s what that means.

Ultra Secure Sandbox Mode

Windows Defender Now Offers Ultra Secure Sandbox Mode, Here’s How To Turn It On

CHRIS HOFFMAN  @chrisbhoffman 

Windows 10’s built-in antivirus can now run in a sandbox. Even if an attacker compromises the antivirus engine, they wouldn’t have access to the rest of the system. As Google’s Tavis Ormandy puts it, “this is game changing.”

Next Version of Windows 10

The Next Version of Windows 10 Will Finally Fix Start Menu File Search

CHRIS HOFFMAN  @chrisbhoffman \

Today, Windows 10’s Start menu only searches for files in your libraries and on your desktop. In the next version of Windows, it will search everywhere on your PC. This uses the existing Windows search index.

Conversation Clean Up Tool

How to Use the Conversation Clean Up Tool in Outlook

ROB WOODGATE  @agiledoc 

Some people like to keep their Outlook folders perfectly controlled, with emails neatly categorized and stored in a logical, minimal folder structure. Most of us aren’t like that, so Microsoft has provided tools to help. One of these tools is the little-known Conversation Cleanup tool, which deletes or moves redundant emails from a conversation. Here’s how it works.

Windows Registry Demystified

Windows Registry Demystified: What You Can Do With It

CHRIS HOFFMAN  @chrisbhoffman 

The Windows Registry is a database where Windows and many programs store their configuration settings. You can edit the registry yourself to enable hidden features and tweak specific options. These tweaks are often called “registry hacks.”

Manage App Permissions

How to Manage App Permissions on Windows 10

CHRIS HOFFMAN 

Modern Windows 10 apps have permissions you can control, just like modern iPhone, iPad, and Android apps. You can control access to resources like your location, camera, microphone, and photos.

Microsoft Cofounder Dies

Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen Dies At 65

By Noah Kirsch


Paul Allen at the 2015 Carnegie Medal Of Philanthropy award ceremony. 2015 STEVE MACK

Paul Allen, the billionaire philanthropist and cofounder of Microsoft, died on Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 65 years old.

Embed Fonts

How to Embed Fonts in a Microsoft Word Document

HAYLEY MILLIMAN 

If you use a custom font (anything other than Word’s built-in fonts) in your document, embedding those fonts ensures that whoever views the document sees it the way you intended.

Microsoft Account Password

How To Recover Your Forgotten Microsoft Account Password

by Brady Gavin 

If you don’t use a password manager, those complex passwords can be hard to remember. If you’ve forgotten the password for your Microsoft account—which might be an account at outlook.com, live.com, hotmail.com, or even skype.com—you can’t really recover that same password, but it’s easy enough to recover your account by resetting your password to something new.