Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows 10 on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.
We're back with another exciting episode of the Windows Central Podcast, and this week, Microsoft has appointed a new leader for the Windows Insider Program, and CEO Satya Nadella says their hardware supply chain is 'getting back on rails'. Slack is working on calling integration with Microsoft Teams, and there are also new updates to the Bing COVID-19 tracker.
Microsoft has today announced that it is bringing its rich set of family safety tools to Android and iOS, extending support beyond Windows 10 and Xbox. Microsoft's Family Safety features have been part of Windows 10 and Xbox for a while, and are managed using Microsoft's online family safety website. Now that these tools are coming to iOS and Android, users will be able to manage family...
Microsoft has today announced that Microsoft Teams, a service in use by over 44 million people for work, will soon be getting new consumer-focused features designed for keeping families and friends connected. These new features will be coming to the existing Microsoft Teams client, and will show up in preview first on iOS and Android in the coming months.
A new Password Monitor, vertical tabs, and smart copy feature is coming soon to Microsoft Edge. The new Microsoft Edge will also begin rolling out on Windows Update starting next month, with Collections coming soon to stable as well as Android and iOS.
Microsoft Editor enables users to be better writers by underlining words and phrases with suggestions that could enhance their writing. The Editor will analyze your writing and check for plagiarism, protecting you from any issues and helping you be more original in your writing. It'll also help you correctly cite content if necessary, great for students writing reports and papers. Now...
Microsoft has announced a new subscription aimed at consumers who are looking to keep their life organized between home, work, and family. The new subscription is largely a rebrand of Microsoft Office 365, but with several new benefits and features that extend outside of the traditional suite of Office applications. Such benefits include new cloud-powered experiences that enhance your writing and presenting skills, financing, and online safety.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has rendered many schools across the world closed, meaning children are at home on their PCs much more than usual. Home is the safest place to be right now, but as our children spend more time on their PCs, online safety is going to be more important than ever. That's where Microsoft's family safety tools can help; built into every Windows 10 PC and Xbox...
The latest Windows Insider builds of Windows 10 have feature IDs that make reference to hiding the about page in Control Panel and making sure other areas that link to it are also removed. These feature IDs suggest that Microsoft is testing this change internally, and that the company is almost ready to have the modern Settings app as the only about area for users to access.
We're back with another exciting episode of the Windows Central Podcast, and this week, Windows 10 has surpassed 1 billion devices and Teams has reached 44 million daily users. Zac and Daniel also discuss Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 as more details have been announced for both consoles. Also in the gaming realm, Daniel has been enjoying Doom Eternal. All that, and more.
Microsoft’s Your Phone app for Windows 10 now supports cross-device copy and paste, a feature that previously only worked across Windows 10 PCs. Starting with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy S20 series (and future Samsung devices running OneUI 2.1 or above,) users can now copy and paste text and images across their PC and phone. Here’s how it works.
The Windows Insider Program has finally found its new leader. Amanda Langowski, previously in charge of the flighting system for the Windows Insider Program, and also coordinated several beta programs for Windows back in the day. Langowski is now in charge of the entire Windows Insider Program, replacing Dona Sarkar who left the role in October 2019.
Microsoft's Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay, has today shared a video celebrating one billion users on Windows 10 that gives us an interesting look into what Microsoft is thinking about when it comes to UI design on Windows 10. Panos Panay recently took charge of the Windows user experience, and in this video, we see a number of new user interface designs that may hint at where...
Microsoft is holding a virtual press event on March 30, where it is expected to announce a new productivity-focused subscription for consumers. The event won’t be livestreamed publicly, but members of the press will be blogging the news as it happens on the day. We’re expecting the event to be entirely about software and services, and not about new Surface products that the company is...
Inside Windows 10X is a brand new emoji panel that has several new features and enhancements, including better animations and a redesigned user interface. It also has new content options that enrich the emoji panel experience and, in my opinion, makes it more useful too. Let’s dive in and take a closer look.
We're back with another exciting episode of the Windows Central Podcast, and this week, Microsoft Build 2020 has been canceled and reborn as a digital event due to coronavirus, but Microsoft still has plenty of announcements planned for the year. An online Surface event could possibly happen in April. All that, and more.
Microsoft has today announced that Windows 10 is now in use on over one billion devices across the globe, finally hitting a milestone that it has been striving to achieve ever since Windows 10 first launched back in 2015. Initially, the company wanted to reach a billion devices by 2017, but the death of Windows Phone and the fact that many Windows 7 users didn't take the free upgrade to...
Windows 10X build 19578 is here, and in it is a number of minor enhancements such as a complete dark theme for the Control Center, along with a new File Explorer beta app and a (semi) working out of box experience. We go hands-on with all the new changes in our video, which you can watch via the embed above.
Microsoft’s first dual-screen PC is launching later this year under the name Surface Neo, and it’ll also be Microsoft’s first device to ship with Windows 10X. It’s a new form factor, which means there’s a lot of exciting potential for Microsoft and customers to take advantage of this new device. We still don’t know a lot about Surface Neo, so here are a few things we’re hoping to see part of the product at launch.
One of Windows 10X’s more interesting design choices is one that forces all apps to run full screen, just like Windows 8. If you’ve tried the public build released to developers, you’ll know that you cannot make an app run in a normal window. The button to restore a window down has been outright removed from the title bar. It’s just the close and minimize buttons on Windows 10X.
Microsoft is finally developing a new modern File Explorer, and it will be preloaded on Windows 10X when it launches later this year. This new File Explorer is a simplified, lightweight explorer for browsing your OneDrive storage, and syncing files back and forth between the cloud and your local machine. It's a very early build of the new File Explorer, so hopefully, there's more to...