Woody Leonhard

Author Archives: Woody Leonhard

Top 30 free apps for Windows 10

Top 30 free apps for Windows 10Image by IDGWith Windows 10 adoption ramping up, many folks are looking for ways to further improve the Win10 experience. So why not make the most of your transition by reconsidering your old app habits and getting Win10 tools that will help you work smarter, faster, and more productively?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Windows 10 Creators Update is worth waiting for

Windows 10 Creators Update is coming for you, and it will get you sooner or later. The question is whether to embrace Creators Update immediately or to wait a few months until the bugs get worked out—because, as we learned with Anniversary Update, there will be bugs.Many who rushed to Anniversary Update paid the price with inexplicable freezes, broken antivirus utilities, stalled or disabled apps, disappearing volumes and drives, changed settings, and a legion of installation problems. No doubt many of those users wished they had waited the four months for Anniversary Update to reach Current Branch for Business status—Microsoft’s designation for builds that are finally stable enough for enterprise deployment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 fatal flaws that dog the new Windows 10

Windows 10 will get better in the forthcoming Creators Update. That isn’t a hollow promise or more marketing drivel. It’s a straightforward observation, comparing the most egregious parts of the current version, Win10 1607 Anniversary Update, with near-final betas of the next version, 1703. While it’s too early to gauge 1703’s stability, the feature improvements are very real.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How to hang on to Windows 7 for the long run

If Windows 7 represents peak Windows for you, you’re not alone. Twice as many people use Win7 as use Win10, even after 18 months of Microsoft pressure to get you to give up Win7 and jump to the shiny new version as your operating system of choice.Your reasons for staying with Win7 may range from mere convenience to mental inertia to an abject fear of the Win10 info borg. Whatever your reasons for remaining with Win7, there are steps you can take right now to ensure Win7 keeps working -- at least until Microsoft pulls the plug on security patches, on Jan. 14, 2020. (Yep, that’s a Patch Tuesday.)[ Give yourself a technology career advantage with InfoWorld's Deep Dive technology reports and Computerworld's career trends reports. GET A 15% DISCOUNT through Jan.15, 2017: Use code 8TIISZ4Z. | The essentials for Windows 10 installation: Download the Windows 10 Installation Superguide today. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows Report newsletter. ] The key, as you might expect, is to stow away a solid “ground zero” full backup. From that point, you should patch judiciously, use incremental backups scrupulously, and tend to the maintenance jobs Continue reading

20 ways to hate Windows 10 less

Windows 10 -- your wayNo matter who you are and where you stand on the raging Windows 10 issues, I bet there are some things you love about your new operating system, along with other things you wish were better, had stayed the same, or simply went away.In this slideshow, I take you through the parts of Win10 that irk me the most, giving you quick tips on how to set things right ... or at least, right-er. Your opinion will vary, of course, and if you have other beefs (and solutions!) post them in the comments below or over on AskWoody.com.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to speed up Windows 7 Update scans—forever

Microsoft has changed the way it deploys patches, adding a new twist to an old problem. For many folks, Windows 7 Update scans still take hours—even days. How do you knock your Win7 machine upside the head, so it will find new patches in less than glacial time? We have a new Microsoft-sanctioned approach that only needs to be tempered a little.Note that, in the new patching paradigm, even those who manually download monthly security patches (“Group B”) still need to use Windows Update, if only for .Net patches, Office patches (for those who don’t have Office Click-to-Run), and other patches that don’t arrive as part of the Security-only Update. See, for example, this month’s KB 3200006 and KB 3199375, for Internet Explorer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to prepare for the Windows 7/8.1 ‘patchocalypse’

October marks a watershed in Microsoft patching practices for Windows 7 and 8.1, and confusion reigns supreme. With the majority of organizations still holding off upgrading their fleets to Window 10, this “patchocalpyse” may have significant impact if you’re not prepared for the sticky details.The upshot: Windows 7 and 8.1 will no longer receive individual patches. These will give way to two separate kinds of monthly updates: a security-only strain and a full collection of updates. The security strain isn’t cumulative; the full bundle is. Each has its own deployment method. KBs have been KO’d. Sounds simple, right?[ The essentials for Windows 10 installation: Download the Windows 10 Installation Superguide today. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows Report newsletter. ] The devil, however, is in the details, and for many organizations, it may be quite a devil indeed. Here we break down what you need to know about Win7/8.1 updates going forward, in hopes of helping you avoid your own “patchocalypse.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top 10 free troubleshooting tools for Windows 10

Top 10 free troubleshooting tools for Windows 10Into every Windows 10 user's life a little rain must fall. Sometimes it comes down in buckets.Windows itself has many built-in troubleshooting tools, but they can be tricky to find and even trickier to harness in ways that'll help you solve a problem -- instead of simply sitting there looking pretty and/or perplexed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Still searching for a killer app in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

A couple of days ago, as I was finishing the InfoWorld review of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a good friend (and astute editor) asked me a very simple question: Where is the killer app in Windows 10? After all, if folks are going to go through the pain and bother of upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Win10 -- and of climbing the learning curve once again -- there has to be a good reason for the effort, right?[ Your one-stop shop for Microsoft knowledge: Everything you need to know about Windows 10, in a handy PDF. Download it today! | Survive and thrive with the new OS: The ultimate Windows 10 survivor kit. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows newsletter. ] I racked my brain. It's a very pertinent question, especially now that the days of free upgrades are drawing to a close.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Windows 10 Anniversary Update fails to excite

One year after the initial, faltering release of Windows 10 “RTM” (build 10240) and almost nine months after the arrival of Win 10 Fall Update (version 1511), we finally have a new tenant at the apex of the Windows 10 “as a service” heap. Windows 10 Anniversary Update, aka Redstone 1, aka version 1607, is available to Windows Insiders. The update should start rolling out to Windows 10 version 1511 users on August 2.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

20 fixes for a Windows 10 update meltdown

If you’re having problems with Windows 10’s forced updates, you’re not alone. Thankfully, with 11 cumulative updates behind us, we’ve accumulated some coping experience.Each cumulative update is different, but there’s a handful of tricks that can help jolt your system back into consciousness when a troubling cumulative update strikes. If you’re having problems, the following solutions are worth a try. If you can’t get back on course, follow the instructions at the end to find more personalized help -- and the hope to live to fight another day.[ Your one-stop shop for Microsoft knowledge: Everything you need to know about Windows 10, in a handy PDF. Download it today! | Survive and thrive with the new OS: The ultimate Windows 10 survivor kit. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows newsletter. ] I’ve avoided recommendations that seem old-in-the-tooth nowadays. As best I can tell, few recent cumulative update problems are solved by creating a new user account (although there are exceptions). Nor have I hit any mass resets of file associations, which is a problem that plagued earlier cumulative updates. I’m also stepping lightly over Windows Mobile -- sorry, it’s a very different Continue reading

First look: Windows 10 preview for smartphones is off to a slow start

Last Thursday, Microsoft released its long-anticipated Windows 10 Technical Preview for smartphones. This first public release of Windows 10 for smartphones improves on many Windows Phone 8.1 features, but it offers few compelling new capabilities. Also, while Win10 TP for smartphones is supposed to run universal-style apps (the latest incarnation of what have been called Metro, Modern, and Windows Store apps), there's still little congruence between the new universal smartphone apps and their big-screen universal namesakes.Note that Microsoft limited the beta bits to Lumia 630, 635, 636, 638, 730, and 830 smartphones. The advanced Windows Phone fan base, which has been migrating to the Lumia 930 (Icon), 1000, 1300, and 1500 series, got snubbed. Microsoft explained that it didn't bring this first beta to the 930 or the 1520 because of conflicts with "a feature that will be coming soon called partition stitching."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here