Author Archives: Website Admin

Windows Tip of the week: How to turn hibernation on and off

How to turn hibernation on and off:

When your PC goes to sleep, it enters a low-power state, ready to spring back into action when Windows detects a tap on the keyboard or determines that it’s time to run a scheduled task. If you’re planning to be away from the PC for a while, you might prefer to save the current state so that you can restore it quickly, without the chance that the computer will wake up on its own.

There’s an option that lets you save the contents of memory to a hibernation file and then shuts down the PC, so it uses no power at all. When you restart, Windows restores the system state from the hibernation file.

To enable or disable hibernation, open a Command Prompt window and enter the powercfg command with the -h switch. Type powercfg -h on to enable hibernation; substitute the word off to disable it.

Normally, the Hibernate option is hidden from the Shutdown menu. To make it visible, open Power Options in Control Panel and then click Choose What The Power Buttons Do. Under the Shutdown Settings heading, select the Hibernate checkbox to display it in the Power menu.

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What did Microsoft get right in 2016?

2016 was a very good year for Microsoft in terms of decision making. Here is a list of five things the company got right.

Since its inception way back in the ancient epoch known as the 1970s, Microsoft has often been ridiculed for making mistakes. Whether it was for bad business strategies, poor products, or unscrupulous practices, Microsoft seemed to bring out the passionate ire in many people.

But what often gets overlooked is what Microsoft does right each year. And by just about any measurement, 2016 was a remarkable year for the company. Under the leadership of Satya Nadella, Microsoft has changed its business strategy to reflect what it describes as a mobile-first, cloud-first business world. And in 2016, that strategy began show results.

Here, in no particular order, are five things Microsoft got right in 2016.

1. Windows 10 Anniversary Update

To mark the one-year anniversary of Windows 10, Microsoft released a large patch it dubbed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Okay, so Microsoft is not very clever in naming things. But the patch itself was well received. It included new security measures, new program features, Microsoft Edge browser extensions, and advanced support for digital pens, among many other enhancements. If you were already using Windows 10, the Anniversary Update was a must.

2. Surface Studio

While not its primary business, Microsoft has been developing some noteworthy pieces of hardware the past few years and in 2016, the company generated a large amount of buzz with the release of the Surface Studio. This elegant computer combines the best of the desktop, laptop, and tablet to create a unique and innovative platform perfect for artists, designers, and other creative people. With data visualization becoming ever more important, Microsoft may have invented the perfect tool for the big data generation.

3. Microsoft Office 365

I have been wondering aloud if it is a bit too much, but there can be no doubt that with the dozens of program and feature updates released in 2016, Microsoft Office 365 is the alpha and omega of productivity software. Rather than trying to name all of the new features, it would be best to concentrate on the underlying theme: collaboration. Whether it is Yammer, Skype for Business, or the intelligent cloud, Microsoft is concentrating on features necessary for success in a collaborative environment.

4. LinkedIn

In 2016, Microsoft made several acquisitions of both companies and their technologies. Perhaps the most high-profile of these acquisitions was LinkedIn. Despite all of its efforts to create a collaboration platform with Office 365, the one thing Microsoft needed was a social networking component. LinkedIn gives the company a jump start toward establishing a social networking presence that can compete with the likes of Twitter and Facebook. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with this acquisition.

5. IoT, AI, and machine learning

While we may live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world right now, the future may very well revolve around the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and machine learning. To its credit, Microsoft sees the potential of these technologies and has taken steps to get ahead of the curve. In terms of recent history, getting ahead of the curve is not something Microsoft has done very well, so it is difficult to know where the research will lead, but it should prove to be worth watching closely.

Despite what some people may tell you, Microsoft does do some things right. In fact, for the most part, the company does more things right than it does wrong. In 2016, Microsoft did many things right and consumers and businesses have been the beneficiaries. Let’s hope Microsoft can continue the trend in 2017.

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Windows Tip of the week: How to wipe a disk clean

Wipe a disk clean:

If you’re planning to dispose of a PC by giving it away, selling it, or discarding it, your top priority should be making sure that no personal information is left on the device. The same is true if you’re recycling a hard disk drive or USB flash drive.

The first step with a PC is to reinstall Windows, using the option to delete the existing partitions on the device and then do a clean install. For a secondary disk, you can use the Format command to erase any existing content. But that still leaves the possibility that some data will still be available in the erased space, where a determined spy could recover it using a disk utility.

The solution? Encrypt the disk before formatting it. Without a recovery key, any recovered data will be unreadable. The easiest way to accomplish this on the system drive is to open an elevated command prompt and run the following command:

cipher /w:c:

If you’re working with a secondary disk, substitute the drive letter for that drive.

The /w switch stands for wipe, and the result is the effective obliteration of every bit of data in unused disk space, leaving existing files untouched.

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Windows 10 Anniversary Update: Ready for business

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available under the Current Branch for Business servicing option.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available for widespread enterprise deployments.

The Anniversary release, version 1607, has been designated as available to Windows 10 machines that receive updates under the Current Branch for Business (CBB) servicing option.

Apart from the Home version of Windows 10, most other flavors of the OS can be set to receive updates under the CBB. A PC on the CBB path will be updated about four months after the Home version of Windows 10, allowing additional time to validate an update’s quality and application compatibility.

This delay to allow bugs to be fixed would seem to be particularly important in the case of the Anniversary Update, which triggered complaints about frozen systems and broken web cams among home users. A group of Windows 10 Home users have previously petitioned Microsoft to allow them to delay updates.

Describing the Anniversary Update’s availability under the CBB, Michael Niehaus, director of product marketing at Microsoft, said in a blog post: “This is an important milestone and signifies that this version has been validated by customers, OEMs and partners giving organizations the confidence to further accelerate deployments at scale.”

The release addresses 1,000 items of feedback from home users and enterprises performing pilot deployments.

The Anniversary Update can be downloaded to PCs on the CBB and will be available to CBB machines via Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in January. Unlike machines that use Windows Update, computers that are managed using WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager, will require IT admins to choose when to apply the update.

The other version of Windows 10 designated as a supported CBB release is 1511, released in November last year. The launch version of Windows 10, 1507, won’t be patched or updated after March next year.

Niehaus says there has been a 3x increase in deployments of Windows 10 by enterprise over the past six months, but doesn’t reveal the size of these deployments or the number. Businesses rolling out Windows 10 include the Australian Department of Human Services, Hendrick Motorsports and Crystal Group of Companies.

However, some third-party figures on Windows 10 roll-outs have been less rosy, with an audit of more than 400,000 business PCs in North America finding that 99 percent of had not been upgraded to Windows 10.

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Here’s how Microsoft will integrate LinkedIn into its products

Microsoft’s massive $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn finally closed, and CEO Satya Nadella explained how the companies will begin working together.

Microsoft’s $26.2 billion purchase of professional networking site LinkedIn officially came to a close on Thursday, after the deal was approved by regulators. Following the close, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella penned a blog post on LinkedIn detailing how the website would begin integrating with Microsoft’s products.

For starters, LinkedIn identity and network capabilities will be coming to Microsoft Outlook, and to the Office suite in general, the post stated. Additionally, LinkedIn notifications will be available to users in the Windows action center as well.

Since LinkedIn is known as a digital CV of sorts, Microsoft will enable LinkedIn members who draft a résumé in Word to directly update their LinkedIn profile page, and more easily search for and apply to relevant job postings, the post said.

One of the potentially troubling integrations is “extending the reach of Sponsored Content across Microsoft properties,” as Nadella wrote on his blog. Whether that means that users will begin seeing ads in their Office apps remains to be seen, but it sets the stage for a potentially tricky user experience.

Enterprise LinkedIn Lookup will soon be powered by Active Directory and Office 365, which could make it easier for employees to connect with one another. Nadella’s blog post also noted that LinkedIn Learning will be made available across the Office 365 and Windows ecosystem, giving Microsoft shops access to new forms of training and continued learning that could prove valuable to their employees.

Additionally, Nadella wrote that the two companies would begin developing a business news desk across their existing ecosystem of content, and for MSN.com. Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365 will also be integrated in hopes of improving social selling capabilities.

Since the acquisition was first announced, it’s been fairly clear that data was the driving force behind the deal. The two companies had non-overlapping, complementary data graphs, and these integrations show just the first steps that Microsoft is taking to leverage LinkedIn’s data, along with its own, to build out a more holistic ecosystem of business technologies and services.

Current LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner will continue to lead the company after the acquisition, and theNew York Times reported that roughly 10,000 LinkedIn employees will join Microsoft.

The 3 big takeaways for readers

Microsoft closed its $26.2 billion acquisition of social networking site LinkedIn on Thursday, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlining how the two companies will merge.
LinkedIn features and services will be coming to Outlook, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and even MSN.com, with LinkedIn search getting a boost from Active Directory.
The deal has always been about data, and the integrations are just the start of how the two companies will merge their individual data graphs.

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Windows 10: The top 10 features headed your way in 2017

A look at the most significant changes due to hit Microsoft’s evolving OS in the coming year.

Microsoft has made many promises about what Windows 10 will do, and while some have materialized, others still remain ambitions.

As a perpetual work-in-progress, Windows 10 continues to accrue new features, as Windows catches up with Microsoft’s vision of it being an OS that runs anywhere, syncs with the cloud and has an intelligent assistant at its core.

While Windows 10 will be buffed up by the arrival of the Windows 10 Creators Update early next year, 2017 as a whole will see the OS undergo significant changes, some of which are long-awaited. Here’s what to look out for.

Windows 10 phones edge closer to replacing desktop PCs

Microsoft has long pushed the idea that Windows 10 on phones will be so powerful, it’ll be akin to carrying a full PC in your pocket, courtesy of the OS’ Continuum feature.

“With Continuum for phones, we believe that any screen can be your PC,” Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate VP of the operating systems group, told the Microsoft Build Developer Conference in 2015, going on to add:

“Imagine the effect this could have on mobile first countries, where individuals could be as effective with the phone that they’re buying.”

Today the reality of using Continuum on Windows 10 falls somewhat short of Belfiore’s future-gazing. While a select Windows 10 phones, such as the Lumia 950, can be hooked up to mouse, keyboard and monitor and used as a Windows desktop there are significant limitations. Only one fullscreen app can be used at a time, legacy Windows apps won’t run on existing handsets and even Universal Windows Platform apps need to explicitly support Continuum.

However, in addition to the possibility of legacy apps running on smartphones, see below, various improvements to Continuum are due to land with the Creators Update in early 2017.

These include support for more PC features, such as running multiple Windows side-by-side on the desktop, pinning apps to the Taskbar and hitting the Windows button to bring up the search box. Other improvements include the ability to keep your phone in your pocket and have it connect wirelessly to a docking station and to independently customize the Windows Start screen on the phone display and on a PC monitor.

Running classic Windows software on your phone

This one’s a rumor but based on solid foundations, and with the potential to transform Windows 10’s appeal on mobile if correct.

The big fly in the ointment when it comes to using Windows 10’s Continuum feature to run a phone as a PC is that Windows 10 phones only run Universal Windows Platform apps. This incompatibility means that widely-used Windows apps from desktop PCs can’t be used on handsets.

However, by sniffing around inside Windows 10’s code, users have uncovered signs that Microsoft is working on bringing these apps to Windows phones.

The code in question suggests that Microsoft is building an emulator that would allow desktop x86 apps to work on the ARM64-based handsets.

As reported by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley last month, Twitter user WalkingCat found a reference to what he termed “Windows’s hybrid x86-on-ARM64 tech” in Windows’ codebase, which also referenced the term, “CHPE.”

The clue chimed with Foley, who said her sources had told her that Windows 10 will gain this x86 on ARM64 emulation capability, but not until Fall 2017.

Foley guesses that C stands for Cobalt, the codename for x86 emulation on ARM, and that HP relates to the tech giant HP, which has been working with Microsoft on its the HP Elite x3 Windows Phone, a Windows 10 handset that can serve as a desktop PC via Continuum.

Microsoft certainly has good reasons for wanting such emulation to work. If Windows 10 phones could run as Windows desktops with full support for legacy apps, without having to resort to remote desktop software, Windows 10 phones could suddenly be far more appealing to business.

Return of OneDrive placeholders

Since the launch of Windows 10, many users have been petitioning Microsoft to reintroduce placeholders to the OS’ built-in OneDrive cloud storage service.

In Windows 8.1, placeholders, also called smart files, let users see all of their files stored on OneDrive, whether those files were stored on the device or not.

This feature was removed from Windows 10 but is now due to be bought back in Windows 10 File Explorer when browsing OneDrive. The returning feature will work in a similar fashion to Windows 8.1’s placeholders, showing users files both stored locally and on OneDrive, allowing them to download files and folders to the device and keep them in sync with OneDrive.

Orchestrate Windows apps using Linux tools

Microsoft recently updated Windows 10 to let users run a range of Linux tools from inside the OSand seems committed to continuing to improve support for Linux command-line software in Windows.

In Windows 10, Ubuntu/Linux software runs on top of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Users run Linux software and issue commands at the command line via the Bash shell.

Microsoft is working to increase the range of commands that can be run via the shell but perhaps the most significant change on the horizon is increased interoperability between the Bash and Windows environments. Effectively this will let developers call Windows applications from within Bash — allowing them to write a Bash script to automate a complex build that includes Windows applications — and to invoke Bash applications from Windows PowerShell.

These changes will be generally available in Windows 10 after the Creators Update early next year.

Easy communication with friends and family

Next year’s Creators Update will boost Windows 10’s social credentials, with a series of changes to make it simpler to stay in touch and share content with friends and family.

The Windows MyPeople feature will allow users to pin their favorite contacts to the right-hand side of Windows taskbar. Clicking on a pinned contact’s face brings up email or Skype messages from only that person and files can be dragged files to that person’s face for quick sharing. Informal check-ins also become easier, with the Shoulder Taps feature allowing pinned contacts to send friends animated emojis and other clipart, which pop up above that contact’s face on the taskbar.

Focusing Windows around virtual and augmented reality

Microsoft plans to put 3D and virtual reality at the heart of Windows 10, as it bets on the success of low-cost headsets due out next year.

Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo will release virtual reality head-mounted displays, with prices starting from $299.

Some of these headsets will be released in March, to coincide with the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, which will include various tools to simplify the creation and sharing of 3D content, including a new version of Microsoft Paint.

In a demo earlier this year, Microsoft showed how Windows 10 could work on virtual reality headsets, demonstrating a mock-up of a virtual space with a large TV screen and virtual shelves stocked with apps and 3D models, and with the Edge browser appearing as a large window in the wearer’s view.

Another demo, this time using the far more expensive Microsoft HoloLens, showed Microsoft’s Edge browser as a window in the user’s vision, from which the demoer dropped actual-sized 3D models of stools from the furniture site Houzz around the room, in order to see what they looked like in real life.

Allowing Windows to function in this way is Windows Holographic, a variant of the Microsoft OS that provides a platform for virtual and augmented reality headsets to run Universal Windows Platform apps.

More detail on Microsoft’s VR and AR plans are expected this week at the WinHEC conference in China.

Better battery life

Windows 10 PCs and tablets should have better battery life after the Creators Update lands in March, thanks to changes to how the OS is patched.

The steady stream of updates isn’t going to slow down but they are going to suck up less bandwidth and reduce strain on phone and laptop batteries.

Download sizes for major updates will be cut by about 35 percent and battery life of Windows 10 mobile devices will improve, due to each device spending less time checking for updates.

The improvements will stem from Windows 10’s new Unified Update Platform, already used for Windows 10 on phones, which only updates each device with the files it needs, rather than delivering all updates to date, and doesn’t rely so heavily on the user’s device to process update data.

Windows Defender Application Guard

Coming to Windows 10 Enterprise users early next year, Windows Defender Application Guard is designed to help protect firms against online threats.

The new safeguard will add container-based isolation to Windows 10’s Edge browser.

Application Guard will ensure that when Edge accesses a website not designated as trusted, the browser will be launched inside a container, a virtualized environment isolated from the rest of the Windows OS.

If the site tries to download and run malicious code on the device, that code remains within the container, unable to permanently compromise the Windows device or the wider network, and disappears when the browser session shuts down.

Unlike the software-based sandboxes that are offered by other browsers, Microsoft says that Application Guard provides a hardware-based container that offers greater protection to the device.

Other enterprise-focused changes in the forthcoming Creators Update include improvements to Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection’s ability to detect and respond to network attacks, an upgrade to the Windows Analytics dashboard to display additional information about the composition of IT estates, a new tool for in-place UEFI conversion, and a mobile application management feature for protecting data on employees’ personal devices.

Home Hub

Rather than building hardware to challenge voice-controlled virtual assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, it seems as if Microsoft is working on transforming Windows 10 into what it calls a Home Hub.

Evidence of this shift comes from a Windows Central interview with unnamed sources. These sources claim that Home Hub will turn Windows into a shared computing environment for the home, allowing family members to more easily share calendars, apps and services.

A future-gazing Microsoft video from 2013, dug out by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, shows how this system might eventually work. In it, family members share access to photos, apps and calendars on a screen attached to a wall and interact with computers around the home, for example scanning carrots to find appropriate recipes. Adding credence to the Home Hub rumor are references to Home Hub being a shared family account in Windows 10, as discovered by Twitter user WalkingCat.

ZDNet’s Foley also references a recent Microsoft job posting for a software engineer in the Windows and Devices Group, which is seeking someone to expand Windows’ “family” credentials.

According to the ad, this engineer will play a critical role in helping families to “share pictures, videos, applications, games, and other purchases easily” and to “communicate freely and stay in touch” using Windows 10.

Blue light reduction

One more unconfirmed new feature appears to be aimed at helping Windows 10 users get a good night’s sleep.

Being exposed to blue light from computer screens late at night can supposedly disrupt the body’s sleep cycle.

To counter this disturbance, Windows 10 already has f.lux software that reduces blue light emitted by screens close to bedtime.

But it seems that Microsoft may be working on its own feature to address the issue.

Twitter user Core has discovered references to “BlueLightReduction” hidden within early builds of the OS being tested under the Windows Insider Program, a setting which appears as if would be toggled from Windows 10’s Action Center.

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How to take control of your privacy in Windows 10

Where do you draw the line on personal privacy? The right options are different for everyone. This guide shows the privacy settings that will help you to create the right balance of privacy and convenience in Windows 10.

windows-10-privacy-blinds

Over the past year, We’ve read countless “privacy guides” for Windows 10. Most are well-intentioned, but they invariably take a simplistic approach to privacy: Just turn off every switch in the Privacy section of the Settings app.

If you do that, you’re not understanding the privacy landscape, which encompasses far more than just those settings. You’re also missing some important additional steps.

Windows 10 is a mix of software and services. With every session, a Windows 10 device exchanges a great deal of information with Microsoft’s servers. That’s neither unusual nor alarming. Microsoft’s chief rivals, Google and Apple, are also blending services into their software, with the goal of making your life easier and making that software more reliable.

So are other tech companies that you don’t think of as software companies: Amazon, with the Echo. Tesla, with its self-updating, software-driven cars. Your thermostat and your home security system.

There’s something profoundly satisfying about a service that anticipates your every move, reminding you when to leave for an appointment to arrive on time, or to pick up flowers for your anniversary tomorrow. Your digital personal assistant, whether it’s Siri or Cortana or Alexa or Google, needs to be able to see your calendar and contacts to make that magic happen.

But when that sort of personal attention goes too far, it “crosses the creepy line,” to use a phrase that Eric Schmidt probably regrets uttering when he was Google’s CEO.

The thing about that line is that it’s drawn in a different place for everyone. There are people who are thrilled at the idea that their PC or mobile device is so familiar with their actions that it can anticipate what they’ll do next. I know others who would like to build a virtual Faraday cage around their computing hardware so that none of their personal details can escape.

Both of those viewpoints, and everything in between, are perfectly valid. That’s why the software and services we use are loaded with switches and dials designed to help you take control of their potential privacy impact.

In this post, We’ll walk you through the big privacy questions for Windows 10, with enough context to help you decide which settings are right for you.

Note that this guide assumes you are using Windows 10 on a personal PC or one in your small business. If you are in an enterprise setting, or if you are in a regulated industry, you should seek professional assistance to ensure that you’re meeting proper standards.

Let’s start with the part of your PC that has the biggest impact on your personal privacy.

THE NETWORK

No one knows more about your online identity than your Internet service provider. Every packet you send or receive from anywhere online goes through their servers. When you travel and connect to Wi-Fi networks that are under the control of others, the owners of those networks can see every connection you make and can intercept their contents.

Regardless of the platform you use, that’s why it’s important you use encrypted connections for any kind of sensitive communications. Using a virtual private network whenever possible is an excellent best practice.

Windows 10 does offer one obscure option that can help protect third parties from tracking your movements based on your connections to Wi-Fi networks. (Note that this feature requires support from your Wi-Fi adapter, so if you don’t see this option, the most likely explanation is that your hardware doesn’t support it.) Under Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi, turn the Use random hardware addresses setting to On.

windowsprivacy02

That step keeps third parties from matching your Wi-Fi adapter’s hardware address with your personal information, making it more difficult to track your location.

THE BROWSER

Countless third-party ad networks and analytics companies use cookies and other tracking technology to record your movements around the web and to correlate your online activities with your offline identity.

The result is a digital fingerprint that can be extraordinarily detailed and, unfortunately, outside of your ability to change.

To limit the amount of information that those ad and analytics companies know about you from your web browsing, consider third-party anti-tracking software such as Abine’s Blur, which is available for every web browser except Microsoft Edge. (That lack of solid support for add-ons is one reason I can’t yet recommend Edge as a full-time browser for most Windows 10 users.)

Another privacy product worth considering is Ghostery, although some are suspicious of this browser extension because of its uncomfortably close ties to the online advertising industry.

Ad-blocking software can also provide some privacy protection as a side-effect of performing its basic function. Here, too, watch out for close ties between some ad-blocking add-ins and the third-party trackers they supposedly protect you from.

Note that none of these steps is unique to Windows 10. Anti-tracking software is typically a browser add-in and works with most popular browsers.

THE OPERATING SYSTEM

With those two big, platform-independent factors out of the way, we can now turn to Windows 10 itself. When you use a Windows 10 device, it is capable of sharing the following types of information with Microsoft’s servers:

Your location

Windows 10 can determine your location to help with actions like automatically setting your current time zone. It can also record a location history on a per-device basis. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location to control the following:

Location on/off?Use the master switch at the top of this page to disable all location features for all users of the current device.
Location service on/off?If location is on for Windows, you can still turn it off for your user account here.
General location?This allows you to set a city, zip code, or region so that apps can deliver relevant content.
Default location?Click Set default to open the Maps app and specify the location you want Windows to use when a more precise location is not available.
Location history?Click Clear to erase the saved history for a Windows 10 device.

If location is on, a list at the bottom of the Settings > Privacy > Location page allows you to disable access to that data on a per-app basis.

Your input

If you enable Cortana, Windows 10 uploads some info from your devices, such as your calendar, contacts, and location and browsing history, so that Cortana can make personalized recommendations. If you don’t want any accounts on your PC to use Cortana, follow the steps in this article to disable the feature completely: Turn off Cortana completely.

Windows 10 uses some feedback from the way you type, write, and speak to improve performance for you and as a way to improve the overall platform. This isn’t keystroke logging; rather, the operating system uses a very small amount of information. A separate feature uses your speech and writing history to make better suggestions in Windows and Cortana.

You can control this collection with two sets of controls:

Under Settings > Privacy > General, click Info about how I write and turn it off so that your typos aren’t used to improve things like the built-in spell checker.

Under Settings > Privacy > Speech, inking, & typing, under the Getting to know you heading, click Stop getting to know me to turn off personalization.

To clear previously saved information associated with your Microsoft account, click the first link under the Manage cloud info heading. That takes you to this Bing Personalization page, which includes this prominent button:

windows-privacy01

Click Clear to remove that saved information from the cloud.

Files and settings

When you sign in with a Microsoft account, you have the option to save files to the cloud using OneDrive. Windows 10 also syncs some settings to OneDrive, allowing you to have the same desktop background, saved passwords, and other personalized settings when you sign in with that account on multiple PCs.

If you use a local account, of course, none of your settings are synced. If you use a Microsoft account, you can turn off syncing completely or remove certain settings from the sync list by going to Settings > Accounts > Sync Your Settings.

OneDrive is an opt-in service. If you don’t sign in, it does nothing. You can’t save files to OneDrive accidentally, and no files are uploaded without your explicit permission, which you can revoke any time. To disable OneDrive for all users on your PC, follow these instructions: Shut down OneDrive completely.

Telemetry

Microsoft, like all modern software companies, uses feedback from its installed base to identify problems and improve performance. In Windows 10, this feedback mechanism produces diagnostics data (aka telemetry) that is uploaded to Microsoft at regular intervals. The data is anonymized and is not used to create a profile of you.

The default telemetry setting for all consumer and small business versions of Windows 10 is Full, which means that the uploaded data also includes details (also anonymized) about app usage. If you are concerned about possible inadvertent leakage of personal information, I recommend that you go to Settings > Privacy > Feedback & diagnostics and change the Diagnostic and usage data setting to Basic.

THE APPS

Although the number of subcategories under the Privacy heading in Settings seems daunting, most of them govern access to your information by Windows Store apps. That set of apps includes those that are preinstalled (Mail, Calendar, Groove Music, Photos, and so on) as well as those you acquire from the Store.

Most of the categories offer a single on-off switch at the top, which you can use to disable all access to that feature by all apps. If you leave the feature enabled, you can use a list of apps at the bottom of the page to enable or disable access on a per-app basis.

This capability works the same with the following categories: Camera, Microphone, Notifications, Account Info, Call History, and Radios. The Other Devices category lets apps automatically share and sync info with wireless devices that aren’t explicitly paired with your PC. Use the Background Apps category to specify which apps are allowed to work in the background.

If Location is enabled, you have the option to disable location access on a per-app basis and to disable Geofencing.

The Contacts, Calendar, Email, and Messaging categories allow you to control which apps can have access to these features. If you want to share content from an app using email or messaging, this option has to be on for that app. Note that Mail and Calendar, People, and Phone always have access to your contacts; Mail and Calendar are always allowed to access and send email and always have access to your calendar.

Finally, one horribly misunderstood setting is available under Settings > Privacy > General. Advertising ID controls whether Microsoft serves personalized ads to ad-supported apps. If you turn this option off, you still get ads, but they’re not personalized. In any case, your information is not shared with advertisers.

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Windows Tip of the week: How to keep your desktop clutter-free

Clean up your desktop:

There’s nothing wrong with a messy desktop, but at some point you might need to impose a little order on the chaos. Cleaning the piles of paper and junk from your real-life office might take a weekend of labor. Fortunately, cleaning up the Windows desktop is considerably simpler.

If you like the convenience of using the Desktop folder as a temporary storage place, you can hide the clutter in seconds: Right-click any empty space on the desktop, click View, and then click to remove the checkmark from Show Desktop Icons.

All your desktop shortcuts and files are still there, but they’re no longer covering up your carefully chosen background image. To get to those files, open File Explorer and type Desktop in the address bar. Even quicker: Pin a Desktop shortcut to Start.

Other options on the desktop’s View menu allow you to change icon size (warning: The Large Icons setting is really large) and to align those icons to a grid so they snap neatly into position.

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10 pieces of obsolete technology still in use today

Dial-up internet

Modem

The tech world moves fast, but not always as fast as you think. Obsolete technology has a tendency to hang on, and hang on strong. Here’s a list of 10 pieces of obsolete technology that are still alive and kicking, starting with a surprising one: dial-up internet.

Everyone remembers that screeching sound, followed by “You’ve got mail.”

The days of connecting to the internet with a 56K modem are over for most of us, but approximately three percent of Americans are holding out–that’s about 9.5 million people. Who are they–and do they know they could get online faster?

Image: iStock/Alexey Vedernikov

Dot matrix printers

Dot matrix printer

The use of dot matrix printers goes hand in hand with carbon-free, triplicate, continuous-feed paper. Both still have a use in the business world, which is why both have survived well past their point of obsolescence.

Image: iStock/sewer11

Fax machines

Fax machine

Find me a person who likes using a fax machine and I’ll show you someone who’s at least a bit insane.

Why the world still relies on paper faxes when digital scans are available is beyond my understanding. They aren’t more secure, they aren’t tamper-proof, and they’re just a waste of paper. Down with the fax!

Image: iStock/HSNPhotography

CRT screens

Several old video monitors

Encountering a CRT screen in the wild is kind of surprising, but it happens. They’re becoming harder and harder to find, and it’s nearly impossible to uncover a new one on the internet.

Maybe the next generation of youths will begin a CRT renaissance. After all, who doesn’t love vintage tech? For now, however, CRTs are just holding on in the dark corners of the world, silently (or buzzingly?) waiting for death.

Image: iStock/Sidney de Almeida

Floppy disks

Old diskettes

When it came out in May of this year that the Pentagon is still using floppy disks in computers that control nuclear ICBMs people laughed. When we then learned they were eight-inch floppy disks people were shocked.

If anyone would be using computer technology from the 1970s in 2016 it’s the government, right? What’s worse is that they spend billions a year operating and maintaining those systems. Let’s hope for a modern replacement before the outbreak of nuclear war.

Image: iStock/hroe

Cash registers

Old vintage cash register

The modern cash register is a bit more advanced than its early 20th century predecessor, but not by a lot. With the advent of iPads as POSes the cash register is facing extinction.

Some of the hippest, newest businesses are only armed with an iPad and a cash drawer, and those new systems are working great. Maybe in the next few years cash registers will be relegated to the same corners of the world where you now find CRTs.

Image: iStock/ivansmuk

Telegrams

Antique telegraph isolated.

You can still send a telegram in 2016. It’s not cheap, either: $18.95 gets you 100 words that will be hand delivered within three to five business days.

Telegrams may have been advanced in 1844, but in 2016 it’s hard to see a practical use for them. Sure, it’s more personal for a stranger to hand deliver a letter than it is to send a faceless email, but with the speed of the modern postal service you can just send a handwritten letter in the same amount of time.

Image: iStock/Larasoul

Beepers

Pager is communication old.

I know a few doctors, and some of them still carry beepers. Cell phones replaced beepers for most of us, but the medical community is still hanging on. An estimated 85 percent of hospitals still using the old black boxes, and they have their reasons.

Pager signals are stronger than cellular, the batteries last for weeks, and satellites beam pages to multiple towers, guaranteeing doctors get notified in emergency situations. Beepers will probably go away someday, but not until we figure out how to improve cellular reception.

Image: iStock/koyjira

Magnetic tapes

Close up of vintage audio tape cassette, isolated on white

Believe it or not, the sale of audio cassettes is actually increasing. I don’t see a reason to use a cassette in the age of digital media, but apparently lots of people do.

In the business world the debate still rages over the relevancy of tape backups. Cheap cloud storage is raising the question of tape practicality, but it will likely be awhile before they’re gone completely.

Image: iStock/BigJoker

COBOL

tech10

The COmmon Business-Oriented Language was invented in 1959, and it has been in use ever since. More efficient programming languages have come and gone since COBOL entered the world, yet it is the one performing over 70 percent of global business transactions in 2016.

Image: National Museum of American History

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99% of business machines have not upgraded to Windows 10, according to study

According to a new study released by Softchoice, less than 1% of business machines have upgraded to Windows 10, opting instead for Windows 7.

Windows10controversy

Windows 10 has been one of the more controversial OS releases of recent memory, bringing privacy concerns, bugs that disable certain hardware, and other nasty surprises. And the enterprise, it seems, is avoiding it altogether.

According to a recent study by IT services firm Softchoice, less than 1% of Windows machines were actually running Windows 10. That means that, one year after the release of the latest Microsoft OS, more than 99% of machines haven’t yet made the switch.

The study was performed as part of a TechCheck analysis by Softchoice, which looked at more than 402,814 Windows devices operating among 169 organizations. So, what were these firms choosing instead of Windows 10? Overwhelmingly, they were running Windows 7.

“It appears businesses are hesitant to take advantage of the various Windows 10 upgrades and, at least for now, are satisfied with Windows 7,” Softchoice’s David Brisbois wrote in a press release. “Historically, OS upgrades have been viewed as major time and resource-consuming undertakings, and this may be influencing the decision today to hold off on Windows 10.”

The Softchoice looked at these Windows machines in both US and Canadian firms from January 1, 2016 through May 31, 2016. At the time, only 2,999 devices were running Windows 10, which accounted for a grand total of 0.75% of the whole.

In terms of business break down, 42 of the 169 businesses (25%) had no trace of Windows 10 in their environment. Additionally, 73 of the 169 (43%) had fewer than 10 devices running Windows 10 present in their environment.

In contrast, 91% of the machines were operating with Windows 7, which marked an 18% increase over the same period of time in 2015. The next largest group were the Windows XP holdouts, which counted for 5% of the devices. Devices running Windows 8 were at 4%, which is double from the 2% measured the year prior.

“It seems businesses don’t see an urgent need to move operating systems, so long as their cloud-based applications are still running fine on Windows 7,” Softchoice’s Microsoft director Craig McQueen wrote in a press release. “In addition to the security benefits, I think once organizations grasp the user benefits—such as touch and Cortana—we will start to see a boost in adoption.”

Although, some of those features may not be enough to sway some users. Cortana, for example, has proven very difficult to get rid of, and other updates have led to frozen machines. The most recent Windows 10 Anniversary Update actually broke some third-party webcams, without a workaround or fix until September. That’s bad news for a business that relies heavily on video conferencing.

Still, there are a host of new features and tools that could make it easier to get work done.

The 3 big takeaways for Readers

1. A recent study by Softchoice has shown that less than 1% of enterprise organizations have upgraded their Windows devices to Windows 10, even a full year after the OS was released.
2. Most business were still running Windows 7, according to the study, as Windows 8 also saw poor adoption rates after its release.
3. A plethora of concerns over privacy and functionality, combined with the effort it takes to upgrade a whole organization, likely led to the low adoption numbers for Windows 10.

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Dial-up internet

Dot matrix printers

Fax machines

CRT screens

Floppy disks

Cash registers

Telegrams

Beepers

Magnetic tapes

COBOL

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The 3 big takeaways for Readers

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