The state of OneNote in 2023

ONENOTE

By Mary Branscombe

Progress on the unified Windows version of OneNote has delivered only a handful of new features this year, but the foundations might finally be finished.

2024 will mark five years since Microsoft restarted work on the desktop Windows client and three years since it decided to cherry-pick some favorite OneNote features for Windows 10 before it reaches end of life in October 2025. Software development always takes longer than expected, especially with the impact of a global pandemic, so I want to look back at the progress OneNote has made in 2023 and then see where Microsoft has been focusing its investments.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.52.0, 2023-12-26).

2024 — The free software I’m taking with me

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen

As yet another year passes without being able to fly to work like George Jetson, I’m listing the 2023 freebies I’ll keep using in 2024.

I test a lot of software, so I install a lot of software. Unfortunately, unless it’s something I can use often and that has become part of my routine, I must uninstall a lot of software as well. Gotta keep things neat and tidy.

As we kick the backside of 2023 out the door and hit it with a snowball for good measure, let’s take a look at ten free apps I found in 2023 that I’m keeping in 2024.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.52.0, 2023-12-26).

The patching year in review — for consumers

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

We’re closing another patching year for consumers and home users (aka the “unmanaged crowd”).

Will and I have an ongoing, two-year struggle with a phrase I commonly use, “consumer and home users.” Will thinks it cumbersome and that there is no meaningful difference.

I define consumers as anyone running Windows Home or Professional editions but not configured in a domain or not using patching tools favored by businesses. Consumers don’t have an IT department (assuming you don’t call the teenager next door an IT department) and don’t use a managed service provider. Consumers usually have a peer-to-peer network (because who doesn’t have multiple devices connected to their Internet service these days?) and may use it to connect to shared devices such as printers. Consumers tend to blur the lines of technology and will use Apple iPads or Android phones right alongside Windows machines.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.52.0, 2023-12-26).

Just a reminder – our Holiday schedule

Just a reminder that we are taking a break and not emailing the newsletter to Plus members until Tuesday due to the Holiday schedule. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. I’m working on a present I bought myself, or rather a present bought for myself that I’m going to use in the weeks ahead for the site: A brand spanking new HP laptop with Windows 11 Home with the intent to fully kick the tires, report on setting it up. and in particular keep an eye on the impact of patches specifically on an “Unmanaged” Home version of Windows 11.

So I’m purposely going to see the impact on a Windows 11 Home version and when features and changes are going to be offered up to that particular version. Stay tuned.

As an aside, just so you know, it shipped with Windows 11 22H2, you still can install it without a Microsoft account with the no@thankyou.com email address trick, the center menu along with the cartoons in the search box are still jarring to me.  The Edge setup process is a LOT of confusing questions.  I’ve confirmed already that in this configuration, Device encryption is set to “on”, the C drive reports that Bitlocker is enabled, even though it really isn’t and certainly I know I do not have the password for drive encryption backed up. I’ll have more on this in an upcoming article. So while I’m kicking the tires of the computer, I’m also watching old movies on TCM and right now “Desk Set” is on with Hepburn and Tracy. The opening credits acknowledged the cooperation and assistance of the International Business Machines Corporation as well as featured green bar computer paper that I haven’t seen in YEARS.

And what’s the topic of the film?  Why AI in a way. “ In the midst of the general enthusiasm that characterized popular coverage of the computer in this period crept hints of unease about the possibility of electronic brains displacing humans in domains previously thought to have been free from the threat of mechanization.”

Hmmm.  Things haven’t changed, have they?

The year that was — scoring 2023

LEGAL BRIEF

By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

It didn’t take a crystal ball.

If, on January 1, 2023, I had made predictions about what would happen in the coming year, I would not have received high marks for boldness. In a way, that’s reassuring — there were no paradigm-shifting catastrophes that struck technology consumers.

I would have predicted the following.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

The best news of the year

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

The year 2023 revealed many poor decisions made by Internet giants. Almost every big company seemed to make at least one techno no-no.

The good news is that the year also saw several positive developments — or, at least, an incremental change that might lead to something better.

I’ll update you today on some of the most significant news. These situations were first described in stories that I originally covered in an AskWoody column this year.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

Continuing trends in computing — and your choices

BEN’S WORKSHOP

By Ben Myers

Let Windows 11 and other major trends be your guide to greater productivity, reliability, and security.

Computer hardware and software continue their relentless advances — mostly progress, sometimes a hiccup. Paying attention to the various changes in our world of computing can save you time and money — and, after all, time is money. These trends may influence your near-term buying decisions, as our annual two-month Black Friday buying spree morphs into the January White Sale of unsold gear.

These trends are the distillation of my experience based upon hundreds of computers making a stop in Ben’s Workshop along their way — whether from a factory or an auction house, as a trade-in, or simply for repair — and then into the hands of people using them or off to my convenient e-cycler.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

Closing the year on patching

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

We need a little Copilot, now.

I have a favorite Christmas song called “We Need a Little Christmas” (now). That comes to my mind because for those of you who want to partake in the artificial intelligence experiment know as Windows Copilot, you may end up humming the slightly modified song “I Need a Little Copilot” (now).

The December updates start to bring Copilot into Windows 10. I say “start” because, like many things in Microsoftland, features and changes are no longer released en masse to everyone in the form of a service pack. Instead, the changes are dribbled out or limited to certain geographical areas.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).