Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14257

As I mentioned last week, we’re at the beginning of a new development cycle for our next feature update to Windows 10. Teams are still early in their new feature work and changes in this build are mostly about laying the foundation for those features to start coming into builds. So you won’t see many visible changes quite yet. Also, the increased pace of the Fast ring (You’ll note that this build is only 6 revs newer than the last build we sent to the Fast ring) means that there will be fewer big changes between builds as opposed to this time last year when builds were about 30 days apart. There is a ton of coding work going on, but I want to set your expectations on how it will show up for you at our increased Fast ring pace.

We are seeing lots of bug fixes coming in from teams, including some which were reported by Insiders:

• The issue of periodic app crashes or other memory related app errors due to a memory management change has been resolved. If you were having issues launching the Git client for Windows, you should now be able to launch it in this build.
• The Connect button now shows up again in Action Center.
• F12 Developer Tools will now load correctly Microsoft Edge.
• We fixed an issue where suggested apps were being shown on the Start menu even though “Occasionally show suggestions in Start” was turned off under Settings > Personalization > Start.
• We fixed an issue where if you try to change the Lock screen picture with “Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen” turned on it will revert back to the default.
• We fixed an issue where the positions of desktop icons get jumbled up after switching DPI settings from 100% to 150% or 175%.
• We also fixed an issue where pasting files into a new .zip file (compressed folder) in File Explorer by either right-clicking or Control-V would not work. You should be able to paste tiles into new .zip files just fine now.

Known issues:

• If you choose “Reset This PC” under Settings > Update & Security > Recovery – your PC will be in an unusable state. There is no workaround if your PC gets into this state and you will need to reinstall Windows. This issue will be fixed in the next build. You can still rollback to the previous build if for some reason this build doesn’t work out for you. This bug also existed in Build 14251 so please avoid resetting your PC on these builds.
• You might see a WSClient.dll error dialog after logging in. We’re working on a fix for this but as a workaround, you can run the following in Command Prompt with administrative rights: schtasks /delete /TN “\Microsoft\Windows\WS\WSRefreshBannedAppsListTask” /F. This issue will be fixed in the next build.
• The front-facing camera is unusable on PCs with Intel RealSense resulting in being unable to use Windows Hello or any other apps that utilize the front-facing camera.
• After logging in to your PC, you may hit a UI issue in which Airplane Mode will incorrectly show as “on” even though your PC’s Wi-Fi is powered on. This is due to a timing issue between how the UI communicates and waits for the underlying platform to respond. The UI for Airplane Mode essentially does not wait long enough for the device’s physical radios to power on before reporting the current state. You can toggle the Airplane Mode on and off to get Airplane Mode back to showing the correct state.

As always – thank you for being Windows Insiders and make sure to send us feedback on any issues you run into with this build in the Windows Feedback app.

We know a lot of Windows Insiders will be celebrating the Lunar New Year this coming weekend. Building off our Ninja Cat heritage, we wanted to provide a fun new set of images to celebrate the Year of the Monkey – you can click here to download. Happy Year of the Monkey from the Windows Insider Program!

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14257

10:08 AM Windows

Download Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 ISO

Microsoft today released Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 to Windows Insiders. While you can upgrade to this build using Windows Update from your Windows 10 device, you can also download the ISO and upgrade your PC. While Microsoft didn’t share the official ISOs for this build, you can download it from the below file sharing websites.

Below links are for en-us language alone,

• Windows 10 RTM build 10240 x64 ESD(Mediafire)
• Windows 10 RTM build 10240 x64 ISO (Alternative 1, Alternative 2, Alternative 3)
• Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 x64 ISO Openload
• Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 x64 ISO Torrent
• Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 x86 ISO Torrent

Key: W269N-WFGWX-YVC9B-4J6C9-T83GX

Update:

Windows 10 RTM build 10240 x64 ISO was created from the ESD file downloaded through Windows Update. You can download with confidence.

Download Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 ISO

6:32 PM News, Windows

Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows

Windows 10 will be the last major release of Microsoft’s venerable operating system, according to a development executive at the firm.

Once the new version is released this summer, future updates will come in an “ongoing manner”, the company confirmed.

Speaking at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Chicago, developer evangelist Jerry Nixon said: “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.”

The future will be one of “Windows as a service”, with the final release of Windows 10 being updated as necessary, rather than holding features back for the next major paid-for update.

“Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service, bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers,” the company told the Verge in a statement.

In the future, Windows could be updated more like Mac OS X, with small, free updates periodically, or even like Google’s Chrome browser, which updates almost weekly with barely any user intervention.

But large feature additions will still come, even if the operating system name doesn’t change when they do. One of the flagship features of Windows 10 will be total unification between desktop and mobile operating systems, but – at least at launch – only desktop devices will actually be supported. Windows 10 on mobile devices, to say nothing of other supported platforms such as Xbox and HoloLens, will come some time later, the company says.

Source : theguardian.com

Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows

11:48 PM News, Windows

Download Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO- Build 10074

Microsoft released official Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO - Build 10074 which is introduce us the final Windows 10. 

What is new?
General UX improvements
Even more improvements to Continuum
Multi-tasking improvements
New default Windows sounds
Visual refresh for Cortana
New experiences in Cortana
Updates for the Music and Video Preview apps
Xbox app April 2015 update
Windows Store Beta improvements
Discovering features and apps in Windows 10

ISO download link & installation key

Key: 6P99N-YF42M-TPGBG-9VMJP-YKHCF

ISO: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

Source: Window Blog

Download Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO- Build 10074

9:18 AM News, Windows

Windows phone can turn into a full PC

During its Build 2015 keynote, Microsoft just unveiled a new Windows 10 feature it's calling Continuum for Phones. It allows smartphones running Microsoft's latest OS to transform into desktop PCs — or at least an experience that's very close — when connected to larger screens. We've already seen Continuum help ease the transition for users switching between tablet and PC modes, and this is an even better example of what's possible when developers go along with Microsoft's universal apps plan.

The company is giving developers the tools to create software that runs across PCs, tablets, convertibles, smartphones, and Xbox. Apps can automatically adapt to the screen size they're running on, and Continuum for Phones is a showcase of that unity. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore demonstrated apps like Excel and Photos running in a traditional desktop view with the Windows 10 smartphone hooked up to a monitor. He also showed that content can be copied from phone-centric apps like Messaging and pasted into desktop apps.

Everything basically looks like the full version of Windows 10, but the phone is powering everything. "What we're trying to show here today, is our unique vision for phones and enabling them to scale up to a full PC-like experience," said Joe Belfiore. Continuum for Phones won't be something you'll find on existing Windows Phone devices. Belfiore was quick to note that the feature will require new devices capable of driving this dual-screen feature. Microsoft plans to share more on that soon.

Source: The Verge

Windows phone can turn into a full PC

2:13 PM Windows, Windows Phone

Lumia 1320 & 625 getting Denim update in India

Microsoft has kept the word and started the roll out of the much awaited Denim update. The Lumia 1320 and Lumia 625 owners in India can now check their phones for the new Denim update.

As per the Microsoft’s Windows Phone support page, the Lumia 625 and Lumia 1320 have received the WP 8.10.14234.375 Denim update. This new update brings plethora of features and improvements such as the new Lumia camera app, Cortana voice activation, Glance Screen, and better imaging experience.

The Lumia Denim update rollout had commenced since mid-January this year but the Indian users have been getting the update only post mid-February. Better late than never though. Now only Lumia 638 and Lumia 730 owners need to wait for their turn to try out the new Denim update.

Lumia 1320 & 625 getting Denim update in India

9:47 PM Windows

Download Windows 10 Free Technical Preview

We know that Microsoft's upcoming OS Windows 10 is under development and testing and a free Technical Preview build is available for download to public:

Download Windows 10 Free Technical Preview

This Preview build can be installed and used as a primary operating system but you may face bugs and issues as its a testing build.

Microsoft is regularly releasing updates to Windows 10 OS which bring new features, fixes and improvements. These new updates can be downloaded and installed using PC Settings -> Update and recovery -> Preview builds page as mentioned in following article:

New Update Build of Windows 10 Technical Preview Available for Download

But there is a big issue with this process. The update builds are very big in size because these builds are basically full setup ISOs of Windows 10 and users need to wait for many hours to complete the upgrade process.

Also if a user wants to install these new Windows 10 updates in more than one computer, he'll need to download the updates separately in all computers. It causes waste of Internet connection bandwidth as well as users time.

Many Windows 10 testers were complaining about this issue since the release of Windows 10 update builds and now Microsoft has listened to their requests.

Microsoft has released offline ISO files of Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9926 to public. The ISO files are available in both 32-bit (x86) as well as 64-bit (x64) editions. ISO files are available in following languages: English (United States), English (United Kingdom), Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazilian), German, French, French (Canada), Russian, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Polish, Turkish, Swedish, Czech, Arabic, Korean, Chinese (Traditional), Finnish and Thai.

You can download the ISO files of Windows 10 build 9926 from following link:

Download Windows 10 Build 9926 Offline ISO Files

After downloading the ISO file, you can burn it to a DVD using disc burning software or create abootable USB drive to install Windows 10 in your computer. If asked, you'll need to use following product key at the time of installation:

NKJFK-GPHP7-G8C3J-P6JXR-HQRJR

The system requirements for Windows 10 is same as Windows 8/8.1 system requirements. If your computer can run Windows 8/8.1, it'll also be able to run Windows 10.

Download Windows 10 Free Technical Preview

9:57 AM Windows

How to make Windows 7 genuine

Windows 7 includes a Windows Genuine Advantage checker which verifies that your copy of Windows is legally licensed. However, sometimes there is an error which causes Windows to forget it is registered – but there is an easy fix.

The first step is to look at the side of your computer, or on the bottom for a Windows Authenticity Label. This label will show your Windows 7 serial number. Write down the serial number.

Once the serial number is written down, click the Start button and in the search box type: Activate Windows

In this window you can enter in your product key and proceed with activation. You may need to click the Change product key button and type in the product key again. Once activated, you should receive the below message and will no longer be prompted that your copy is not genuine.

Hope this helps!

How to make Windows 7 genuine

2:33 AM Windows

Windows 7 Math Input Panel

Here’s another one of those didn’t-know-it-existed-until-I-clicked-it-by-accident tools in Windows 7.

It’s called the Math Input Panel.

To access it, simply click Start, and in the Search Box that appears above, type in Math Input Panel.

The Window should look like this:

Now, I’m not a math whiz, so I’ll let the fine folks at Microsoft explain what it’s used for.

“Math Input Panel uses the math recognizer that’s built into Windows 7 to recognize handwritten math expressions. You can then insert the recognized math into a word-processing or computational program. “

Hmm…sounds useful!

Windows 7 Math Input Panel

2:28 AM Windows

Command Prompt Colors

Here’s a trick from back in the day for all of you long time computer users. It may not seem too useful, but I still think it’s fun! Depending on which version of Windows you use, you’re going to want to open a command prompt. Windows XP users will go Start>Run, type Command and hit OK. Windows Vista and 7 users will just typeCommand into theirSearch Bar and press Enter. This will open the command prompt.

Now, in that window type:

color /?

This will bring up instructions on how to change your command window colors. Just type color and a combination of two values to change your command prompt colors around!

Want things back to the boring old way? Type color again and hit Enter. There, you’re all back to normal!

Command Prompt Colors

2:27 AM Windows

Windows 7 Resource Monitor

Windows 7 Resource Monitor
You know how when you’re in the Windows Task Manager and you can check under the performance tab to see what kind of load your computer is under? You know, the screen that looks like this?

Well what about a few more details, huh? What if you want to monitor every available resource your computer is using right now and you won’t take “no” for an answer?

Sounds to me like the Windows 7 Resource Monitor is what you’re lookin’ for! Just type in RESMON in the Search Box(located above the Start button), hit Enter and you’re in business!

Now you can track CPU usage, Memory usage, HDD usage and Network activity! Should you want to alter/stop a process, just put a check in the box and right click – now select your option from the menu and you’re good to go!

Windows 7 Resource Monitor

12:38 AM Windows