Newsletter Archives

• Revisiting Windows 11’s File Explorer

  Posted on March 24, 2025 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Will Fastie

  Have there been any recent improvements?

  In a word, no. The new File Explorer is not getting any love and continues to suffer from major problems.

  This is highlighted by my ongoing study of macOS. I will eventually write about the two world views of file management, comparing Microsoft’s File Explorer with Apple’s Finder.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.12.0, 2025-03-24).

  Windows 11 File Explorer, Newsletters, OneDrive, Performance, Software Quality, User Interface

• User interface annoyances

  Posted on September 9, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Will Fastie

  The user interface for Windows 11 is changing almost monthly, and sometimes even more quickly.

  It’s not clear why, nor are the benefits of the changes explained. Many of the changes arrive silently and are noticed only when something doesn’t work as expected.

  Here are a few of my personal aggravations.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.37.0, 2024-09-09).

  Windows 11 Excel, File Explorer, Newsletters, Office 365, OneNote, Outlook, User Interface, Windows 11, Windows Lock Screen, Word

• DefenderUI — Windows Defender is great, when turned on fully

  Posted on July 29, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Microsoft’s first attempt at antivirus software was Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), released in 2009 to Windows XP and later to Windows Vista and Windows 7.

  Then it was replaced by Windows Defender.

  MSE was not great. It updated just three times a day. Although its 2009 certification from AV-TEST was a big win for Microsoft, the certification was lost in 2012. That’s probably because it tagged Google Chrome as a virus in 2011, a memorable day at our computer shop. To make things even worse, in 2013 it received the lowest score possible for an antivirus product. It wasn’t until 2018 that MSE was able to win a top score, with an 80% detection rate from AV-TEST.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.31.0, 2024-07-29).

  Freeware Spotlight DefenderUI, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows Defender

• Sizer — When a window must be an exact size

  Posted on May 20, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you must drag the edges of windows to resize them over and over while working, you are wasting minutes of your life that you can never get back.

  Sizer by brianapps.net is one heck of a free program I recently stumbled across that can resize any window (program or explorer window) instantly. I’m pretty excited to share this one, so grab a copy of Sizer from OlderGeeks.com, and let’s get started! It works on all versions of Windows from XP to 11, so unless you are stuck in the 90s, it should work for you.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.21.0, 2024-05-20).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, Sizer, UI, User Interface

• More fun with File Explorer

  Posted on April 8, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Will Fastie

  Windows File Explorer is getting a major overhaul in Windows 11. The most significant change is a new tabbed user interface, a feature much requested.

  I say “is getting” because File Explorer is a perfect example of Susan Bradley’s “dribble” theory, which states that features are being incorporated into Windows in a constant trickle rather than in discrete chunks. Worse, some of these features are being installed silently — we don’t know what we’re getting until after the fact.

  Trying to review such a moving target is challenging.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.15.0, 2024-04-08).

  Windows 11 File Explorer, Newsletters, Power Users, Tabs, Usability, User Interface

• The state of OneNote in 2023

  Posted on December 26, 2023 at 02:44 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  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).

  OneNote Copilot, Fluid, Loop components, Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote 2016, OneNote 365, OneNote for Windows, User Interface

• Why I leave Windows 11 alone

  Posted on October 9, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Will Fastie

  It’s not that I think Windows 11 is perfect. It’s just that I don’t let it bother me. Too much, that is.

  Don’t get me wrong — I am not suggesting that using third-party apps such as Start11 or StartAllBack to enhance Windows is a bad idea, or even that you shouldn’t bother. We’ve come to look at Windows as highly customizable over the decades of its existence, and it is thus quite natural to want to continue working in the same manner without having to adapt ourselves to a new paradigm we didn’t ask for.

  I don’t do that. Here’s why, along with a few things I think Microsoft got wrong.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.41.0, 2023-10-09).

  Windows 11 File Explorer, Newsletters, Start menu, Touch, UI, User Interface, Windows, Windows 11

• MORE of your worst Windows 11 irritations solved

  Posted on September 4, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ll all eventually be forced to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Microsoft says it’ll end security updates for Win10 on October 1, 2025, as I wrote in Part 1 of this two-part column.

  In today’s Part 2, I describe the two options we face: Hang on to our Win10 installations until the last possible moment, or take the time now to adopt Win11 and cure some of the worst bugs and stupidities that Redmond sent out the door with it.

  I invited my readers to send me fixes they’ve found for Win11’s problems. We’ll get into those workarounds in a minute. But before you go any further, please take a look at the first half of this two-part column and then review my previous exposés of Win11 that you may have missed.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.36.0, 2023-09-04).

  Public Defender File Explorer, Newsletters, Photo app, Photo Viewer, Taskbar, User Interface, Windows 11
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