Tag: Windows 10

Microsoft has released a new cumulative update to the upcoming Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1). The update is available for Windows 10 Insiders in the Slow ring.

Named as the Windows 10 April 2020 Update, it remains unclear if the company will go ahead with the public release in the coming weeks or delay the launch due to the ongoing health crisis that has pushed hundreds of millions of people to work from home without the regular admin support. Microsoft has already informed its team that the company probably won’t be releasing its much-awaited Windows 10X powered foldable devices this year.

Windows 10 v2004 KB4552455 changelog

Today’s Windows 10 version 2004 Build 19041.173 (KB4552455) brings all the fixes delivered through Build 19041.172 along with some additional bug fixes. These include:

We are mitigating app compatibility issues where older versions of certain apps won’t launch by directing users to go and install the latest version of these apps.

We have fixed an issue that fails to allocate resources during device initialization, which causes certain USB mass storage devices to stop working.

We have fixed an issue that prevents the mute button from working on certain devices with the Your Phone app.

We have fixed an issue that causes a fault in the input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) and a DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION (e6) error. This issue occurs after resuming from hibernate on systems that have Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) Protection and Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement (DRTM) enabled.

We have updated the Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) to increase the coverage for automatic cellular provisioning on devices with mobile broadband.

Build 19041.173: Known issue

We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge.

As noted previously, you can now clean install Windows 10 version 2004 if you want to get an early experience of the upcoming April 2020 Update.

Windows Updates have a dreadful track record of late, with almost every single update causing users some serious problems. There are multiple reports on Microsoft’s forums, our comment section, and Feedback Hub from people complaining about a range of issues after applying Windows 10 KB4541335.

Windows 10 KB4541335 is an optional update that you might want to skip for now. Over the weekend, many users have documented problems with this patch. Some have said that the update broke their computer, others are seeing Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and many experiencing performance issues.

Other users are having even bigger problems. One person said their computer doesn’t work after the update.

“My machine bricked all night and I had to unplug and roll back. Finally, after about 30 minutes it uninstalled and I could go to Settings and pause updates for a month. This is happening way too often,” one user wrote.

“This KB Update also slowed my PC,” another user said. As per one user, the update also causes Ethernet problems and some apps are failing to access the internet.

“Just after rebooting the desktop and check the Task Manager and found that the CPU above 50%, Memory 95% & HDD 100% utilizing,” another Windows 10 customer documented the problem.

Another user also told us that the KB4541335 update crashes the system and later causes 100% disk/CPU usage. “[My PC] has become highly unstable after the update,” one of the affected customers told us.

Microsoft states it is not aware of any issues with this update.

It’s not clear how widespread these problems are, but the number of reports has increased significantly over the past few days as more people have deployed the update. It’s also important to note that this is an optional update, so you can safely skip it, at least for now.

If you’ve installed the update and your PC is experiencing performance issues, then your best bet is to uninstall it:

Go to the Start Menu and click the Settings gear.

Look for ‘Update & Security’ and press the Windows Update tab on the left side.

Click the View update history option and click the Uninstall updates link.

In Control Panel page, choose the KB4541335 update to uninstall it.

During the process, your PC will restart for one time and the update will be removed. If your PC is still bugging out after uninstalling the patch, then your best bet is to reset the device from Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

Microsoft’s next Windows 10 feature update is almost here. Known only as version 2004 right now (but will likely be called the April 2020 or May 2020 update when released), this new version of Windows 10 is all about fit and finish. There’s not a whole lot new here in regards to features, but there are plenty of changes and enhancements to features that have already been part of the OS for some time. In this review, we’ll be taking a look at all the notable new changes and improvements, good and bad.

This release will be delivered as a full OS update, and not as a cumulative update like Windows 10 version 1909. This is because the changes at release are a little more substantial, even if that may not seem like the case on the surface. So without further ado, let’s dive into Windows 10 version 2004.

Windows 10’s new Cortana

Cortana, believe it or not, is the one area that has seen the most significant changes in Windows 10 version 2004. It’s now a system app that can be updated independently from the operating system via the Microsoft Store, just like other in-box apps like Mail and Calculator. This means Microsoft can keep Cortana updated with new features and changes without having to wait for a new version of Windows 10 to roll around first.

The new Cortana has a new UI that puts typing at the forefront of its experience. Since Windows 10 is used mostly on devices with a keyboard attached, the move makes sense. Not everyone is comfortable with talking to their PCs, especially at school or work, where one might be working in close proximity with other people. So being able to type out your queries is a much appreciated new addition to Cortana. You can still use your voice if you’d prefer, too.

As typing is the focus of the new Cortana, the UI emphasizes threaded conversation. Just like a text chat between you and a friend, the conversation you have with Cortana will be displayed via text bubbles in a scrolling list that you can refer back to later if needed. The UI is clean and straightforward, offering text suggestions along the bottom for getting tasks started with Cortana. It also supports both light and dark modes, which is always a welcome sight.

Because Cortana is now an app, it can be treated as one by the user. When you first open Cortana, you’ll be asked to sign-in and agree to the usual terms and conditions, and it’ll popup where the old Cortana used to be. But from there, you can resize it, move it around, and even full-screen it if you’d like, as it’s just an app and, as such, can be manipulated like one. This is mostly an improvement, but I’d also prefer the option to have it docked to the Taskbar like the old Cortana was.

The only noticeable problem I’ve seen comes when you close Cortana, where it doesn’t actually kill the app, as it needs to be listening for the “Hey Cortana” command. Windows minimizes it, but it’s still visible in Task View. Clicking the close button inside Task View doesn’t do anything either. It’s a small issue, but an annoying user experience problem that I feel Microsoft needs to address.

And that’s just the start of the dark side of the new Cortana experience. The new UI is excellent, and the ability to move it around like an app is also a nice touch, but this new Cortana doesn’t come without compromise. If you’re a heavy Cortana user, you’re going to notice a regression in feature-set with this new version. The ability to use skills and connected home commands are gone, as is the Cortana Notebook.

Microsoft has been working to reposition Cortana as a digital assistant that enhances your work life. Inexplicably, Microsoft has therefore removed most functionality that could be of assistance at home, such as turning on and off your lights or appliances and playing music. It’s now solely about schedules, calendar events, reminders, emailing, and other work-related stuff. All the connected home and skill-based commands are no longer supported.

It’s almost like Microsoft forgot that people aren’t always about work. People have personal lives, with homes and families, and things they want to do outside of Microsoft 365 using their computer. The app even recommends the user sign-in with their work or school account if they are using Cortana with a personal Microsoft account.

Being able to control your smart home appliances or music on your computer using Cortana would be very handy, but Microsoft has deemed this unnecessary for Cortana on Windows 10. Going forward, it’ll be great at handling meetings and opening recent Office documents, and you can still ask it about the weather or how tall Mount Everest is, but you won’t be able to control your lights or other skill-based commands. Perhaps we’ll see those consumer-facing features make a return in the future. But for now, it’s a productivity-exclusive assistant, and to be honest, it does that pretty well.

Windows 10’s updated Virtual Desktops

Virtual Desktops are one of those features that you either use, or don’t. I often forget the feature exists, if only because it’s not something I’ve been able to fit into my workflow successfully. That doesn’t mean the feature isn’t useful however, as being able to create multiple desktops for different work environments is a massive deal for many power users. And with this update, the Virtual Desktops have gotten a little bit of love.

These aren’t huge changes, mind you, but the changes that are here I think will be appreciated by those who do use them. You can now rename them, and have them save state across reboots. You surprisingly couldn’t do this before, so if you needed to restart for an update to complete, you’d lose all workspaces.

Windows 10’s improved Settings

Microsoft is continuing its crusade to port old Control Panel settings over to the modern Settings app, and this release welcomes new additions such as cursor speed control as well as updates to existing settings already under the modern Settings app. We won’t go through everything added or updated here, but there are a few highlights to mention.

To begin, there’s a new option in the Accounts area that disables your Microsoft account password as a login method on the lock screen if you have Windows Hello set up. Microsoft says doing this is more secure, as your Microsoft account password is universal across all of your Windows PCs and is, therefore, a weak point if your password is compromised. Windows Hello is specific to each device you set it up on, and isn’t something that can be “learned” by an attacker. On previous versions of Windows 10, if someone did get access to your Microsoft account password and PC, they could log in and get access to your data.

Also new with this release is the ability to download Windows 10 from the cloud if you need to factory reset your PC. This is handy if your install becomes corrupt for whatever reason, and the reset system can’t use the preinstalled image to factory reset your device. Now, you can just download a new image via the recovery environment.

Other areas that have been updated include the Network & Internet status area, which has an updated design with at-a-glance data usage and quick access to network properties. There’s also an improved Optional Features area that is now searchable and easier to use, and the Languages & Region area has been improved with a cleaner UI for adding and configuring languages on your PC.

Windows 10’s streamlined Swift Pair

Microsoft has made some nice streamlining changes to the Swift Pair feature that was first introduced with Windows 10 version 1903 last year. Swift Pair lets you easily pair a supported Bluetooth peripheral with a single click, but the process itself was a little more involved than it needed to be. The user would hit connect on the popup, then the Settings app would open, and then the user would have to hit OK on another popup to confirm that pairing was successful.

With Windows 10 version 2004, this process has been streamlined to just the initial popup asking the user to connect to the device. Once the user hits that, the notification will remain until pairing is complete, and that’s it. The user won’t be forced into the Settings app or asked to confirm once pairing is successful. This is a much better experience, but the problem with Swift Pair now is that it only supported a minimal set of Bluetooth devices.

If you’re using a Microsoft-made Bluetooth device, chances are it’ll work with Swift Pair. You’ll know because the system will automatically ask you to connect to it via a notification when you begin the pairing process on your Bluetooth peripheral. If that notification doesn’t pop, then it doesn’t support Swift Pair, and you’ll have to jump into Settings and manually pair it through the old method. Not a big deal, but I’d like to see more devices support Swift Pair in the future.

Windows 10’s Task Manager

Task Manager is another area in Windows 10 version 2004 that has seen a couple of notable new additions, one of which power users will find very useful. You can now see your GPU temperature in the performance tab when clicking on your GPU. This only works with dedicated GPUs that support WWDM 2.4 or higher, so if you don’t see your temperature inside Task Manager, that’s why.

The other notable change inside Task Manager is the ability to see what disk types you are using inside your PC. Underneath each listed disk will now be an “SSD” or “HDD” indicator telling you whether the drive you’re using is mechanical, solid-state, or removable storage. This is handy for those who might not know what’s inside their PC, and for whatever reason, needs to find that information out without looking up model numbers or opening the PC itself.

Windows 10’s new Search

These changes aren’t technically exclusive to Windows 10 version 2004. As far as I know, Microsoft has since backported these changes to older versions of Windows 10 as well. But they were introduced first during the development of version 2004, so I’ll highlight them here just in case you missed it. Microsoft has added a few quick searches along the bottom of the Windows Search interface for instant access to frequent web-based searches such as the weather and latest news.

There’s also a new Bing image search button that lets you quickly take a screenshot and search Bing for more information. This is good if you’ve seen an image that you’d like to know more about, but don’t know what exactly to search for. Just take a screenshot and have Bing analyze it and provide more information.

Along the top of the search UI is quick access to your Microsoft Rewards points. You can see at a glance how many points you currently have, and clicking it will take you to the Rewards website to redeem any points you may have. This is super cool if you’re an avid user of Microsoft Rewards like I am, as it’s an easy avenue for free Xbox Live Gold or Microsoft Store credit.

Conclusion

That’s all of the most significant and noteworthy changes coming with Windows 10 version 2004. Overall, it’s a nice update for the most part, but there’s not a lot to it outside of improvements and polish, which is something that Windows 10 definitely needs these days. The new Cortana feels like it’s taken one step forward and one step back. It has a great new UI, but a regression in consumer features renders it unhelpful for a lot of people.

I do like a lot of the fit and finish improvements Microsoft is making with this release. For example, the Action Center’s blur effects no longer pop in and out when you open and close it. It’s a small improvement, but it’s the small UI improvements which I appreciate above all else.

For developers, there’s plenty of improvements here for you too, including the new Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. We didn’t dive into that here because that’s a little out of range for this consumer-focused review, but you can read more about it here if you’re interested.

Last week Microsoft confirmed that some Windows 10 devices were experiencing internet connectivity issues when using manual or auto-configured proxy, especially with a virtual private network (VPN). The problem, stemming from an earlier cumulative update, couldn’t have come at a worse time as millions of people have been forced to work from home without the regular enterprise support system.

The Windows maker had promised it will release an out-of-band Windows 10 update to address the issue. The company has today delivered on that promise, releasing an optional Windows 10 update for those who are experiencing this internet connectivity issue.

Out-of-band optional Windows 10 update is only available through Microsoft Update Catalog

“An out-of-band optional update is now available on the Microsoft Update Catalog to address a known issue whereby devices using a proxy, especially those using a virtual private network (VPN), might show limited or no internet connection status,” Microsoft said.

Addresses an issue that might display a limited or no internet connection status in the notification area on devices that use a manual or auto-configured proxy, especially with a virtual private network (VPN). Additionally, this issue might prevent some devices from connecting to the internet using applications that use WinHTTP or WinINet.

Note that this update is NOT available through Windows Update. You will have to head over to Microsoft Update Catalog to download and install the fix.

The update is available for Windows 10 November 2019 Update, version 1909 (KB4554364), May 2019 Update, version 1903 (KB4554364), October 2018 Update, version 1809 (KB4554354), April 2018 Update, version 1803 (KB4554349), and the Fall Creators Update, version 1709 (KB4554342). The latest optional update will only install the new fixes if you had already installed all the earlier updates.

Microsoft released the January cumulative update KB4528760 for Windows 10 users a couple of days ago. The update introduced a few important security fixes alongside other improvements. However, as is the case with the most Windows 10 Cumulative updates, KB4528760 is not without flaw.

A number of users are now reporting installation issues while trying to install Microsoft’s latest cumulative update, KB4528760. At the time of writing, PCs running Windows 10 May 2019 Update and Windows 10 November 2019 Update are affected. In other words, the installation issue is limited to users running the Windows 10 May 2019 Update or Windows 10 November 2019 Update.

“Can’t update, getting an “We could not complete the install because an update service was shutting down” error,” a user wrote on Reddit.

“There were problems installing some updates, but we’ll try again later. 2020-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1909 for x64-based Systems (KB4528760) – Error 0x800f0988. Troubleshooter, sfc, dism don’t fix error,” another user said.

A few Twitter users also corroborated the same story. “Ah, apparently KB4528760 is having issues with downloading, so I wouldn’t bother with it for right now. It failed on my PC as well,” a user wrote on Twitter.

However, this is not an officially recognized bug, which means Microsoft is yet to confirm whether it is a bug. Now since it’s not an officially recognized bug, there is no official way of mitigating the issue. On the brighter side, however, except for the installation issues, no other issues have been reported. Also, the issue appears to be limited to a few users only.

How many of you installed the latest cumulative update KB4528760 on your Windows 10 PC? Are you facing any issue after installing the cumulative update? Do sound off in the comments section below.

Less than a day after Microsoft disclosed one of the most critical Windows vulnerabilities ever, a security researcher has demonstrated how attackers can exploit it to cryptographically impersonate any website or server on the Internet.

Researcher Saleem Rashid on Wednesday tweeted images of the video “Never Gonna Give You Up,” by 1980s heartthrob Rick Astley, playing on Github.com and NSA.gov. The digital sleight of hand is known as Rickrolling and is often used as a humorous and benign way to demonstrate serious security flaws. In this case, Rashid’s exploit causes both the Edge and Chrome browsers to spoof the HTTPS verified websites of Github and the National Security Agency. Brave and other Chrome derivatives, as well as Internet Explorer, are also likely to fall to the same trick. (There’s no indication Firefox is affected.)

Rashid’s simulated attack exploits CVE-2020-0601, the critical vulnerability that Microsoft patched on Tuesday after receiving a private tipoff from the NSA. As Ars reported, the flaw can completely break certificate validation for websites, software updates, VPNs, and other security-critical computer uses. It affects Windows 10 systems, including server versions Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019. Other versions of Windows are unaffected.

Rashid told me his exploit uses about 100 lines of code but that he could compress it down to 10 lines if he wanted to remove a “few useful tricks” his attack has. While there are constraints and several potentially difficult requirements in getting the exploit to work in real-world, adversarial conditions (more about that later), Wednesday’s proof-of-concept attack demonstrates why the NSA assesses the vulnerability as “severe” and said sophisticated hackers could understand how to exploit it “quickly.”

“Fairly terrifying”

Other researchers shared the NSA’s sense of urgency.

“What Saleem just demonstrated is: with [a short] script you can generate a cert for any website, and it’s fully trusted on IE and Edge with just the default settings for Windows,” Kenn White, a researcher and security principal at MongoDB, said. That’s fairly horrifying. It affects VPN gateways, VoIP, basically anything that uses network communications.” (I spoke with White before Rashid had demonstrated the attack against Chrome.)

The flaw involves the way the new versions of Windows check the validity of certificates that use elliptic-curve cryptography. While the vulnerable Windows versions check three ECC parameters, they fail to verify a fourth, crucial one, which is known as a base point generator and is often represented in algorithms as G’. This failure is a result of Microsoft’s implementation of ECC rather than any flaw or weakness in the ECC algorithms themselves.

Attackers can exploit the flaw by extracting the public key of a root certificate that ships by default in Windows. These certificates are described as root because they belong to big certificate authorities that either issue their own TLS certificates or validate intermediate certificate authorities that sell certificates on the root CA’s behalf. Any root certificate will work, as long as it’s signed with an ECC algorithm. Rashid’s attack started with a root certificate from Sectigo, the Internet’s biggest CA, which previously used the name Comodo. The researcher later modified his attack to use a GlobalSign root certificate. His code made the switch automatic.

The attacker examines the specific ECC algorithm used to generate the root-certificate public key and proceeds to craft a private key that copies all of the certificate parameters for that algorithm except for the point generator. Because vulnerable Windows versions fail to check that parameter, they accept the private key as valid. With that, the attacker has spoofed a Windows-trusted root certificate that can be used to mint any individual certificate used for authentication of websites, software, and other sensitive properties.

The behavior is tantamount to a law enforcement officer who checks someone’s ID to make sure it properly describes the person’s height, address, birthday, and face but fails to notice that the weight is listed as 250 pounds when the person clearly weighs less than half that.

“It’s such a strange bug, because it’s like they’re only halfway checking something that is at the root of the entire trust system,” White said. “It’s a core part of the whole chain of trust.”

For more detailed technical explanations of the bug, see posts here and here, and the Twitter thread here.

The caveats

As noted earlier, there are several requirements and constraints that significantly raise the bar for Rashid’s attack to work in real-world uses by an adversary. The first is that it most likely requires an active man-in-the-middle attack. These types of attacks, which modify data as it passes through networks, may be difficult to carry out. An alternative to an active MitM is to convince a target to click on a fake URL. This method is much easier, but it also requires some targeting. (It wouldn’t apply to attacks against websites or other servers that require a certificate from the connecting client.)

The exploit also requires that the target has recently visited a site with a transport layer security certificate that’s chained to an ECC-signed root certificate. That’s because the root certificate must already be cached by the targeted system. In the event a targeted system doesn’t have the root certificate cached, Rashid said, an attacker could still pull off an exploit by adding JavaScript that accesses a site chained to the root certificate.

Another constraint: Chrome uses a mechanism known as certificate pinning for google.com and a variety of other sensitive websites. Pinning requires that the certificate authenticating a website contain a specific cryptographic hash, even if the certificate offered is otherwise valid. This measure would prevent exploits from working when they spoofed protected sites.

While installing Tuesday’s patch by Microsoft is by far the only reasonable way to prevent attacks, a Google representative said Chrome developers have already distributed a fix in a beta version and will fold the fix into stable versions soon. A word of caution: even with this fix, users of vulnerable Windows versions will still face considerable risk from other attack scenarios.

A matter of time

Despite the requirements and limitations, the vulnerability is serious. As NSA officials put it in the above-linked advisory:

The vulnerability places Windows endpoints at risk to a broad range of exploitation vectors. NSA assesses the vulnerability to be severe and that sophisticated cyber actors will understand the underlying flaw very quickly and, if exploited, would render the previously mentioned platforms as fundamentally vulnerable. The consequences of not patching the vulnerability are severe and widespread. Remote exploitation tools will likely be made quickly and widely available. Rapid adoption of the patch is the only known mitigation at this time and should be the primary focus for all network owners.

The vulnerability may not pose as extreme a threat as those caused by the Heartbleed flaw in 2014 that allowed attackers to steal private keys, passwords, and other highly sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of vulnerable sites. But because of the breadth of security measures foiled by the Microsoft vulnerability, it’s worse even than Apple’s critical goto fail flaw, which prevented iOS and macOS systems from detecting invalid TLS certificates served by websites. That makes CVE-2020-0601 one of the most severe vulnerabilities in recent memory.

Windows’ automatic update mechanism is likely to have patched vulnerable systems already. For anyone else, fixes for various vulnerable version are available here. Readers who haven’t patched yet should do so immediately.

Nearly a billion computers around the world run Windows 10. Critics have praised it. Some users love it while others hate it. Some experts estimate that Windows 10 dominates nearly 40% of the desktop OS market, handily surpassing the popularity of Windows 7.

Speaking of, are you still using Windows 7? Microsoft is ending support for the 10-year-old operating system in January. Tap or click to learn how to bring your PC up to date before it’s too late.

Using the slogan “upgrade your world,” Microsoft has described Windows 10 as the “final” version. Instead of replacing the operating system every few years, Windows 10 users have been able to download free updates. With the return of the Start menu and advent of Microsoft Edge, Windows 10 is arguably the best version ever produced.

But Windows 10 isn’t perfect. The last several updates introduced very pretty serious bugs and flaws that broke essential features and left users with the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death.” Tap or click to get the scoop on one of the worst Windows updates and make sure you have the fix.

The operating system also has some quirks that may have sounded great at company meetings, but the vast majority of folks find these choices odd, annoying, and inconvenient. Luckily, you can change many settings to suit your taste.

How can you make your Windows 10 experience even better? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Take control of updates and reboots

Windows is good at installing updates. This process is straightforward and automatic. The bad news is, you usually have to reboot your computer, and you have no idea when a new update will suddenly start downloading.

Be careful. Did you get an email reminding you to update Windows? It’s a scam! Tap or click to learn how cybercriminals are tricking users into a dangerous ransomware trap.

To prevent these unscheduled interruptions, go to your settings menu, and set time parameters. This way, your computer will stop itself from updating during “active hours.”

You can also pause updates altogether, halting them for up to 35 days.

This might impact your security, so you don’t want to go too long. But if you want a short reprieve, go to your Settings menu, choose the Windows Updates field and find Advanced Options. From there, you can toggle the Pause Updates option and switch it to On.

2. Limit Cortana’s interactions

Like other virtual assistants, Cortana is always listening for the wake command. Unfortunately, a flaw in the programming may allow hackers to break into a Windows 10 computer using Cortana’s voice commands, even while it’s locked. Anyone can issue voice commands to Cortana and force it into downloading malicious malware.

You can stop Cortana from putting your data at risk by removing Cortana from your lock screen and teach it to respond only to your voice alone.

Go to the Talk to Cortana option found in your Settings menu.

Under Hey, Cortana, turn the Let Cortana Respond to Hey, Cortana Switch to On.

Next, click the link labeled Learn How I Say Hey Cortana. This will allow you to go through the voice recognition training.

From here, click on the Cortana start button and repeat the six provided phrases. This will get Cortana familiar with your voice.

After the training is complete, you can go back to Cortana in the Settings menu and enable the Try to Respond Only to Me option.

Get better search results:12 expert tips to search Google better, faster, more strategically

3. Change search from Bing to Google (or your preferred search engine)

Bing is set as the default search engine for Microsoft Edge, but that may not sit well with you. Tap or click here for search engines that don’t track you.

So, here’s how you can change things up a bit.

Start by searching Google.com.

Click on the three dots at the top right corner to go to Settings.

Scroll to the bottom and choose View Advanced Settings.

Go down the list until you find the search in the address bar option. Click it and select Add New.

Click on Google and chose Add as Default. Done.

4. Use a PIN as your login

You can lock your computer with a long, convoluted password, or you can reset it to a simple PIN. Your PIN is only four digits long and doesn’t require any complicated parameters such as special characters or mixed case letters. It’s less secure, of course, but a PIN makes unlocking easier.

Setting up your PIN is pretty simple. Go to Settings > Accounts > Sign In Options. From there, click the Add button under PIN. Enter in any PIN of your choice and restart to give it a try.

5. Resize your Start menu like a pro

The start menu acts as the central hub for everything you do on Windows 10. Because of that, its default appearance can seem a little bland. Users have often complained about the size of the start menu, never realizing that this can also be customized.

To fix it, do the Windows drag. Click on the Start menu and move your cursor to the top edge of the icon until it shows as a two-sided arrow. Click, hold, and drag to resize the menu to your preferred size and let go.

You can easily resize your desktop icons, too. Tap or click here for a step-by-step guide.

6. Play DVDs the easy and free way

By now, you’ve probably noticed that Windows 10 won’t play DVDs, and Windows Media Player has been removed. While Microsoft offers an official DVD playback option, this feature costs $15 and seems to have persistent problems.

Fortunately, there’s a better option available that can have you watching DVDs quickly and free of charge: VLC video player. Tap or click here to download it.

Be sure to download the desktop app instead of the Windows Store version, which won’t support DVDs or Blu-Ray discs.

7. Silence all the annoying announcements

Depending on your settings, Windows may start announcing everything you touch with an actual voice. Windows will also record and recite any text that you type into the Cortana Search Box, which may feel excessive.

You may have inadvertently turned on the Narrator feature, which is used by visually impaired users to better navigate the system without having to type.

To turn the Narrator off, you can either repeat the keyboard combination, CTRL + Windows Key + Enter or go to the Narrator settings app and tap Exit. To keep the Narrator from accidentally coming on again, go back to the Settings > General and uncheck the Enable the shortcut to launch Narrator box. Problem solved.

Anew Windows 10 SDK preview became available this week. Developers can grab SDK preview build 19041 through the Windows Insider website. This SDK build is quite a few builds away from the most recent Fast Ring build of 19536.

The release notes for 19028 are mostly the same as they have been for several previous builds we’ve seen. Here’s a quick recap.

Tools updates

Message Compiler (mc.exe)

Now detects the Unicode byte order mark (BOM) in .mc files. If the If the .mc file starts with a UTF-8 BOM, it will be read as a UTF-8 file. Otherwise, if it starts with a UTF-16LE BOM, it will be read as a UTF-16LE file. If the -u parameter was specified, it will be read as a UTF-16LE file. Otherwise, it will be read using the current code page (CP_ACP).

Now avoids one-definition-rule (ODR) problems in MC-generated C/C++ ETW helpers caused by conflicting configuration macros (e.g. when two .cpp files with conflicting definitions of MCGEN_EVENTWRITETRANSFER are linked into the same binary, the MC-generated ETW helpers will now respect the definition of MCGEN_EVENTWRITETRANSFER in each .cpp file instead of arbitrarily picking one or the other).

Windows Trace Preprocessor (tracewpp.exe)

Now supports Unicode input (.ini, .tpl, and source code) files. Input files starting with a UTF-8 or UTF-16 byte order mark (BOM) will be read as Unicode. Input files that do not start with a BOM will be read using the current code page (CP_ACP). For backwards-compatibility, if the -UnicodeIgnore command-line parameter is specified, files starting with a UTF-16 BOM will be treated as empty.

Now supports Unicode output (.tmh) files. By default, output files will be encoded using the current code page (CP_ACP). Use command-line parameters -cp:UTF-8 or -cp:UTF-16 to generate Unicode output files.

Behavior change: tracewpp now converts all input text to Unicode, performs processing in Unicode, and converts output text to the specified output encoding. Earlier versions of tracewpp avoided Unicode conversions and performed text processing assuming a single-byte character set. This may lead to behavior changes in cases where the input files do not conform to the current code page. In cases where this is a problem, consider converting the input files to UTF-8 (with BOM) and/or using the -cp:UTF-8 command-line parameter to avoid encoding ambiguity.

TraceLoggingProvider.h

Now avoids one-definition-rule (ODR) problems caused by conflicting configuration macros (e.g. when two .cpp files with conflicting definitions of TLG_EVENT_WRITE_TRANSFER are linked into the same binary, the TraceLoggingProvider.h helpers will now respect the definition of TLG_EVENT_WRITE_TRANSFER in each .cpp file instead of arbitrarily picking one or the other).

In C++ code, the TraceLoggingWrite macro has been updated to enable better code sharing between similar events using variadic templates.

Signing your apps with Device Guard Signing

We are making it easier for you to sign your app. Device Guard signing is a Device Guard feature that is available in Microsoft Store for Business and Education. Signing allows enterprises to guarantee every app comes from a trusted source. Our goal is to make signing your MSIX package easier.

Breaking changes

Removal of api-ms-win-net-isolation-l1-1-0.lib: In this release api-ms-win-net-isolation-l1-1-0.lib has been removed from the Windows SDK. Apps that were linking against api-ms-win-net-isolation-l1-1-0.lib can switch to OneCoreUAP.lib as a replacement.

Removal of IRPROPS.LIB: In this release irprops.lib has been removed from the Windows SDK. Apps that were linking against irprops.lib can switch to bthprops.lib as a drop-in replacement.

Removal of WUAPICommon.H and WUAPICommon.IDL In this release we have moved ENUM tagServerSelection from WUAPICommon.H to wupai.h and removed the header. If you would like to use the ENUM tagServerSelection, you will need to include wuapi.h or wuapi.idl.

In addition to updating the build number, this release includes several API updates and tweaks. You can check out the full release notes on Microsoft’s blog post. Developers should note that this release can also be installed alongside previous SDK versions in Visual Studio.