Category: Windows Client

Windows 10 breaking hard drives?

Looks like the weirdness of 2020 will continue into this new year.  Case in point: lets say in 2019 I were to come across an article such as the one I came across right here stating that by merely looking at a desktop icon on my Windows 10 PC can cause my hard drive to become corrupted, I would have lost whatever remains of the little bits of hair that remain on my head.

BUT…this is post 2020 so nothing is off the table, including the use of sight, hovering of the mouse cursor over an icon, etc that would cause your hard drive to fail.

Apparently this only affects those drives that are NTFS formatted but nevertheless, what a heck of a development!

Windows 10 version 200nineerrum…20H2 is here!

So…who can tell me which screenshot is real or fake?  Who know what the long term vision is for Microsoft when it comes to the naming conventions of their Windows 10 operating systems but what we do know is that the latest version of the flagship OS is ready for downloading and installation…that is of course, you’re feeling a bit daring at this moment.  Good luck and let us know how the install went… 🙂

Windows 10 Version 2009* coming soon!

Ok so I know I’m not being 100% accurate with the title of this post; it’s definitely intended to poke fun at Microsoft’s newest naming scheme for their famed Windows operating system.  Being that this is the third change in five years, one can only hope that this will be the last one to happen for some time.

As with all of the latest Windows 10 version updates, we can only hope that the necessary testing done will result in a smooth rollout with minimal issues…hey, even if it hasn’t happened in any other previous release that’s besides the point! LOL!  Always do your best to view the glass as half full!

For more details about the latest and greatest version of Windows 10, check out Kurt Mackie’s article here…enjoy!

Windows 10 Version 2004 is here!

At last, the latest version of Windows 10 is available to the masses.  And despite extensive testing of the operating system dating back to last December, many driver related problems are present.  From Bluetooth, GPU, sound cards, and other peripherals, it seems that no type of device is spared from it.

Hey, at least there haven’t been any reports of files mysteriously vanishing so that’s a start! HAHA!  Anyways, check out a more detailed article here from ZDNet.com to get the full scoop.

And if you do decide to bite the bullet and upgrade, let me know how it goes and if its worth the time…

Windows 10 bug affects remote work

According to ZDNet.com, Microsoft has acknowledged that a bug within their Windows 10 operating system is affecting Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook…three major aspects necessary in order to be effective working from home.

They hope to have a fix in place by the beginning of next month if not sooner; hopefully this doesn’t have too much of an effect on remote users which is pretty much everyone at this point!

Check out the full post here for more!

Windows 10 version 1709 EOL delayed

As a result of the Coronavirus epidemic grasping the world at this time, Microsoft has announced via blog post that its decided to continue supporting version 1709 of Windows 10 (Enterprise/Education editions only) for an additional six months, extending its life until October 13 of this year.

A important note is that the following month, version 1803 will reach end of life on November 10 which makes you wonder if Microsoft will push back all of the other versions for an additional amount of time.  Also, I wonder if this epidemic will sway Microsoft to even consider supporting Windows 7 and Server 2008/2008 R2 which hit EOL on January 14th.  Just a thought…

Devices running Windows 10 hits one billion

A tidbit worth mentioning…after almost five years of being available to the masses, Microsoft has claimed that its Windows 10 operating system is actively running on one billion devices during any given month.

This is different from when Microsoft claimed a year or so back that it was installed on one billion total devices.

Check out Microsoft’s press release here for more info!

A closer look at the Modern Desktop

The latest buzz throughout the IT industry is about the ever changing landscape of its future, namely the shifting of all things towards cloud computing.

As more resources get redirected to the cloud, what does that mean for the average end user?  On the surface, you may think “mot much” but when you take a deep dive into the topic at hand, it is quickly realized that the expectations for productivity can increased being that whatever devices that are assigned to them can be managed and monitored at all times.

For a more detailed explanation, Paul Schnackenburg did a masterful job here in breaking down this shift towards what is now called the “Modern Desktop” along with its pros and cons on how it can and will affect us going forward…

Taskbar searching in Windows 10 not working

While no one will dispute the fact that Microsoft releases lots of updates on a monthly basis, (sometimes even every week depending on how disastrous that month’s patches are) it’s safe to say that they officially update certain features/products within their OS without warning.

Case in point: the random Windows 10 search bar issue hitting users machines.  Kudos to those that pointed out how the build number within the search bar changed and verified that Microsoft indeed performs secret “updates” that are designed to fly under the radar.

Additional kudos goes to Woody Leonard for providing us with great insight and analysis into this issue and explains it in a way that is easy for the casual user to understand.  Check out his Askwoody post/ Computerworld article here for the 411…

More info on Windows ESUs

Is it just me or does Microsoft continue to confuse the masses of exactly how the “extended security update” program works.  Perhaps the confusion is a vital part in that they want you to have upgraded to Windows 10 four to five years ago.

However, there are many institutions that need to keep their legacy Windows 7 / Server 2008 (R2) machines up to date.  For details on how to keep the update coming, Kurt Mackie gives a thorough breakdown here of what needs to be done as well as what is required to accomplish this task.