What's New

Microsoft runs a Windows Store refund test right now for select participants of the Windows 10 and Xbox Insider programs.

The system is known as self-serve refund currently, and what it allows testers to do basically is to claim refunds for digital products bought through the Windows Store.

The refund system matches that of the digital platform Steam for the most part. Eligible items bought on the Store may be refunded provided that certain criteria are met.

Microsoft moved even more Control Panel features to the Settings application in the Windows 10 Creators Update.

While administrators and users still have to juggle between the Control Panel and the Settings application in the latest version of Windows 10, it is only a matter of years at the current migration speed until the Control Panel is put to rest for good.

Mozilla just released the first build of the Servo browser engine Developer Preview for Microsoft's Windows operating system.

The organization released builds of Servo for Linux and Mac in July 2016, and has added Windows to the list just now in April 2017.

Windows users may head over to the official Servo download page to grab the installer. All that is required then is to run the installer to install the Servo preview -- called Servo Tech Demo -- on a Windows machine.

Bing Wallpaper is a free program for Microsoft Windows devices that sets Bing's wallpaper of the day automatically as the desktop background.

Microsoft displays a different high resolution photo each day on the Bing homepage (sometimes moving images are displayed instead). Users who visit Bing on the day may download the image for free to their devices. Use is restricted for use as a desktop wallpaper.

System Font Size Changer is a free program for Windows designed to restore font changing functionality on the Windows 10 Creators Update machines.

The Windows 10 Creators Update shipped with a large number of new and changed features. If you dig a little deeper, you may have noticed already that some functionality was removed as well.

One of the features that got removed in the Windows 10 Creators Update is the ability to change system fonts.

While the functionality remains available in the Registry, controls to modify system fonts were removed in the update.

Window Detective is a free program for Microsoft Windows that you may use to detect Window properties and styles, and set them.

One basic example of how you can use Windows Detective is to use it to force program windows to open in custom dimensions and a custom location on the screen each time the program is loaded.

Other, easy to use options include setting a window to be always on top, or invisible whenever the program is launched.

Yesterday was the April 2017 Patch Day, and it marked the end not only of Windows Vista support, but also of the Security Bulletins system.

It was also the month where Microsoft's blocking of updates on devices running 7th generation silicon on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is up in full swing.

Microsoft released security updates, and non security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Windows and other company products today.

The April 2017 Patch Tuesday is special. First, because it marks the end of Windows Vista's extended support phase. Microsoft won't release security updates for Windows Vista officially anymore.

You may save Gigabytes of hard disk space after upgrading a Windows PC to the Windows 10 Creators Update by running the Disk Cleanup Tool.

Veteran Windows users know that previous versions of Windows installed on a computer are kept on disk when the operating system is upgraded to a new version.

These upgrades can be from an older version of Windows, say Windows 7, to a newer one, say Windows 10, or from an older version of Windows 10 to a newer version.

Mozilla plans to add a Performance section to the Settings page of the Firefox web browser that allows users to modify some performance related parameters in the UI.

The roll-out of Firefox's multi-process architecture was a big step in the right direction for Mozilla. The architecture separates the browser's core from sites and applications.

RebootBlocker is a free program for Windows 10 that prevents automatic reboots after the installation of updates on Windows 10 systems.

Windows may restart the PC automatically after the installation of updates. This can be highly problematic, especially if the PC is still used at the time.

Think of rendering a video, using it during a presentation, or while work has not been saved yet.

If you check the list of installed programs on a Windows PC that you have used for some time, you may notice that it has several, often a lot, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installation listings.

The PC that I use to write this article for instance has three Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable, eight Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, two Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable, three Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable, and two Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable installations listed on that page.

Microsoft published new Windows 10 Enterprise Creators Update ISO images -- Windows 10 version 1703-- for evaluation purposes.

Custom Resolution Utility is a free portable program for Microsoft Windows devices that enables you to add custom display resolutions.

The program is a specialized tool, and it is likely that most Windows users have no need for it. But there are a couple of applications for it that some may find worth exploring.

Mozilla plans to release a theme refresh of its Firefox web browser when the browser hits version 57 in November 2017. The refresh is code-named Photon, and it is the first major design refresh of Firefox since the launch of Australis back when Firefox 29 was released. Australis was a highly controversial change, not only because of the design elements that it introduced, but also the things that it removed or blocked from customization.