Windows 11 Update: Smoother, Smarter, Safer! 

With its latest update, Windows 11 is evolving to meet the needs of today’s users—whether you’re working from home, in the office, or gaming after hours. By updating to the latest version (version 24H2), you can enjoy a smoother, faster, and more secure operating system. 

Originally launched back in 2021, Windows 11 offers a refreshed design, faster performance, and improved security. It includes many notable upgrades from Windows 10, most importantly with stronger security, built-in protection against malware, encryption, and hardware-based isolation. 

It also includes helpful features like  Snap Layouts  for easier multitasking and enhanced gaming performance with DirectStorage

Windows 11 Snap Layouts in action

See here Snap Layouts in action, W11 

What’s New in the Latest Windows 11 Update? 

The new update, version 24H2, brings a range of features to improve productivity, enhance user experience, and tighten security. Whether you’re a casual user or a professional, here’s what you can expect from this latest update: 

1. Enhanced AI Capabilities with Microsoft Copilot 

Windows 11 now integrates with Copilot, an AI-powered assistant designed to help users accomplish tasks faster and more efficiently. From summarising documents to generating responses and managing your calendar, Copilot is embedded across apps, giving you an intuitive, AI-enhanced work experience. 

Interested in learning more about Copilot? To book a call with us today contact us via our Client Portal, 01271 375999 or Web enquiry.

2. Streamlined Design and Widgets 

Microsoft has continued to refine the look and feel of Windows 11. The latest update introduces more customisation options for the Start Menu and Taskbar, with improved widget support. Now, you can easily drag and drop widgets and enjoy a smoother interface that feels more personalised to your workflow. 

3. Native Support for RAR and 7-Zip 

Good news for users handling compressed files: Windows 11 now natively supports RAR and 7-Zip files. No need for third-party apps—this makes it easier to open and extract a wider range of compressed file formats directly in File Explorer. 

4. Improved File Explorer 

File Explorer has received a significant upgrade, with a modernised design and better organisation tools. It now supports a Gallery View for easier photo management and offers a more intuitive way to manage and navigate files. The update also brings enhanced cloud integration, making it seamless to access files stored in OneDrive. 

5. Better Accessibility Features 

With inclusivity in mind, Windows 11 has introduced new accessibility options, including enhanced voice access features and better live captions for media. These updates ensure that Windows 11 is usable by people of all abilities, further reinforcing Microsoft’s commitment to making technology accessible to everyone. 

6. Expanded Gaming Features 

Gamers are in for a treat as Windows 11 continues to focus on delivering a premium gaming experience. The update optimises DirectStorage, reducing game load times and enhancing performance while also supporting a growing list of Auto HDR titles for richer, more immersive gameplay. 

7. Tighter Security 

Security remains a top priority in this update. Enhanced multi-factor authentication, better encryption protocols, and advanced malware protection ensure that users’ data is safer than ever. The update also brings Pluton Security Processor integration, providing an additional hardware-level security feature for supported devices. 

Windows 11 version 24H2 is currently being actioned as a staged rollout, but Windows users can prioritise their access to the update by adjusting Windows ‘update’ settings. 

Windows 10 Support is Ending Soon – Time to Upgrade to Windows 11 

The end of support for Windows 10 is just around the corner, with Microsoft officially stopping updates on 14 October 2025. This means no more security updates or support, leaving your devices vulnerable to attacks. If your organisation is still using Windows 10 devices, now is the time to think about upgrading to Windows 11. At Lineal, we strongly recommend businesses plan for this change. As Windows 10 reaches its end, systems will become much more vulnerable without security updates, putting your business and data at serious risk. Upgrading to Windows 11 ensures you stay secure and get access to new features that help your team work smarter. 

Need help with the upgrade?  

Lineal is here to support businesses through the transition, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum security. Get in touch with us today to make sure your business is ready for the future! 


Windows 10 Enters Home Stretch

Microsoft Windows 10 has entered its final eighteen months of mainstream support, and will be declared End of Life in October 2025.

Originally launched in 2015 to both widespread acclaim and commercial success, Windows 10 has blazed a trail of computing success over the past decade. Yet all good things must come to an end – and with the end of mainstream support for Windows 10, users face crucial decisions regarding their digital ecosystems.

In particular – for users of an estimated 200 million PCs worldwide, the end of Windows 10 means no more security patching, bux fixes or other crucial updates – leaving Windows 10 machines exposed to potential security threars and malware attacks if not upgraded.

Windows 11 has been available since 2021, and promises enhanced security features, improved performance, with a sleek, modern interface. No new version of Windows is expected this year, with all PC users advised to upgrade to Windows 11 if they device hardware supports it. For those that don’t – because of old processors, TPM version, or a lack of RAM – users have few options but to plan for a hardware refresh.

 

Windows 10 Tracking

Windows 10 launched in 2015 with a radical modern redesign for the 64-bit world.

 

Yet this transition isn’t always seamless, as it may demand hardware upgrades to meet Windows 11’s stringent requirements. For the countless individuals and businesses still relying on Windows 10 or holding aged machines that are ineligible – that presents a challenge.

Users can opt to continue using Windows 10 beyond its end of support date, albeit at their own risk. While this may seem like a viable short-term solution, it leaves a major question mark hanging over cyber security risk. Alternatively, some organisations may look to purchase extended support up to 2028, although this is a costly choice – with the price confirmed to double for each successive year.

Another possible avenue would be to look at alternative operating systems – Apple macOS or ChromeOS remain popular in some sectors, although given the sheer number of PCs still running Windows 10, it seems unlikely all will make an outright switch in time.

For many, it’s time to bid farewell to not just Windows 10, but longstanding devices that have far outlived their predecessors – in favour of Windows 11 devices expected to be supported into the 2030s.

 

For support moving to Windows 11, take a look at our guide.


Copilot is Here

Microsoft Copilot will release to users worldwide from 26th September 2023.

The flagship natural language AI tool that previewed back in March of this year brings ChatGPT functions to a whole range of Microsoft productions including your favourite Microsoft 365 apps, Azure, Bing and into Windows itself.

At a colourful launch event in New York, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella debuted the official release of Copilot and demonstrated ways AI can revolutionise everyday tasks – whether that be writing emails, interpreting or generating images, transcribing handwriting into maths, or intelligently answering questions.

 

Copilot assistance aims to make Microsoft 365 apps including Teams, Word, Excel and more increasingly powerful – with users able to simply request complex data handling tasks rather than manipulating the data manually themselves. For more creative work, Copilot can also generate visual results within longstanding Microsoft apps like Paint.

This presents some fascinating opportunities for companies using the Microsoft 365 suite – common tasks such as ‘Re-write this email more professionally’, ‘Summarise this meeting’ and ‘Make me a set of PowerPoint slides based on this document’ would all be achievable within a few seconds.

Features from the Bing public preview have also made it into the release version – with users able to choose ‘More Creative’ ‘More Balanced’ and ‘More Precise’ language options to give the AI’s output a different tone, and draw on the wider web-based dataset that is previously unknown to the user.

For example, in another impressive example of Copilot using web and user data intelligently, an American user uploads a photo of a UK plug adaptor and asks ‘Will this work in London?’ Copilot is not only able to check based on an understanding of the image, but understands what the user means by ‘work’ and is able to confirm that the plug is the correct choice.

Some interesting guard rails have also been rolled in – Microsoft have previously stated that a firebreak exists between user data and the web dataset used to train the AI, but Copilot can use both to respond to prompts. Images created using the next version of DALL.E will also be crytographically signed as ‘Created by AI’, effectively signing the content as AI-generated.

 

Copilot will soon begin appearing to most users on the Windows toolbar – coinciding with the new upgrade of Windows 11 that is due on 26th September. Within Microsoft 365, Copilot Chat functions will begin appearing in app updates for Enterprise licence customers from 1st November 2023.

 

For Microsoft expertise and support, please contact our team today.


Farewell WordPad

Microsoft have announced the end of WordPad – declaring that the word-processing app will be removed from future versions of Windows.

The difficult middle-child of Microsoft’s three main word-processing apps was originally released for Windows 95, and always sat a little uncomfortably between Microsoft Word (which has remained a heavyweight of the word processing scene) and Notepad (a stripped back, plain-text editor.)

Able to edit rich text for free, but with many features missing, WordPad was beloved by students, techies and other irregular writers who either didn’t have, or couldn’t afford, a licence for Microsoft Word.

The app was offered for free with each new release of Windows as a kind of ‘teaser’ for Word itself – but didn’t support many important features such as footnotes, subscript, tables, numbered lists, indentation and other typesetting options needed for more formal work. For more than decade, it remained many people’s only way to open a Word document, and gave digital access on millions of lower-specification machines across the developing world.

But WordPad itself has not been updated since the ill-fated Windows 8, way back in 2012, and still looks somewhat reminiscent of Office 2007 a decade later. There are also more alternatives in 2023 – with Microsoft Word more affordable than ever as part of Microsoft 365 (both on the web and on the desktop), Google Docs chasing the education market, and free alternatives like Libre Office and Open Office winning over casual users.

Farewell WordPad!


New Security Features in Windows 11

Microsoft have announced a raft of new security features for Windows 11 – aimed squarely at the new trend of hybrid working.

With millions of users working remotely post-Covid, the enhancements largely focus on hardware security and identity protection, as end-user devices access ever more cloud-resources from a broader range of working environments.

 

Microsoft Pluton

‘Microsoft Pluton’ is the name of a new security processor integrated into CPUs on devices shipping with the new operating system – an App Control feature designed to prevent untrusted apps from running, block the theft of user credentials, and counter dangers from outdated drivers.

As we’ve noted before, Pluton (like Windows 11 itself) also relies upon Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology to fire up a PC securely – but some TPM chips remain vulnerable to encryption keys being intercepted between components. Pluton devices are expected to close off that weakness, preventing this kind of hardware attack.

 

Smart App Control

As many predicted, Application Management begins taking centre-stage in 2022, as bigger organisations seek to prevent users introducing rogue software into their IT infrastructure (or worse, introducing it back into the company network themselves.)

Smart App Control blocks unsigned or suspicious apps at the OS level, and will receive regular updates daily.

However – it’s worth noting this core feature only applies to newly shipped devices – so even those who adopted Windows 11 early would have to complete a full operating system reinstall to ensure Smart App is live.

 

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen

SmartScreen helps protect identity by alerting the user if they’ve begun interacting with a known malicious application, fake or hacked website – with the added advantage that the safeguard is pre-installed for all users.

Microsoft are keen to demonstrate SmartScreen’s record of success elsewhere – blocking nearly 26 billion brute force attacks on Microsoft Azure Active Directory, and nearly 36 billion phishing emails that were intercepted by Microsoft 365, last year alone.

 

Credential Guard

Another ‘by default’ upgrade – Credential Guard isolates really important system secrets in a way that is designed to stop ‘pass the hash’ style attacks where a hacker is able to use the encrypted version of a password to gain entry, and (Microsoft claim) can even prevent malicious applications that have somehow obtained Admin-user privileges on their device from accessing those secrets.

 

You can discover the full list of the security enhancements coming to Windows 11 here.


How to prepare for Windows 11

Windows 11 is due to be released officially on 5th October 2021 – the first major version upgrade since Windows 10 was released in 2015.

As with Windows 10, PC users will be able to begin downloading the new version from this date, and new PCs will begin shipping with Windows 11 pre-installed.

If the thought of your PC changing fills you with dread – never fear! Here’s how you prepare:

 

See a preview

The first thing most users will notice is the visual improvement – Windows 11 features a ‘new design’ which forms the backbone of the update in an effort to make PC screens feel more user-friendly, calming and interact better with natural light.

 

Check Minimum Specifications

The following list summarises the published minimum specifications required to install and operate the new upcoming version:

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
RAM: 4 gigabyte (GB)
Storage: 64 GB or larger storage device
System firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot capable
TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver
Display: High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per colour channel
Internet connection and Microsoft accounts: Windows 11 Home edition requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft account to complete device setup on first use.

Switching a device out of Windows 11 Home in S mode also requires internet connectivity. For all Windows 11 editions, internet access is required to perform updates and to download and take advantage of some features. A Microsoft account is required for some features.

Microsoft’s full specifications for Windows 11 can be found here.

 

Things to Expect

The following Windows 10 features are all due to disappear on the new version, in some cases being disabled, replaced by newer apps or available only via manual re-download from the Windows store on new installs:

– Internet Explorer
– Windows S Mode (Home Edition Only)
– Skype (Personal), 3D Viewer, Paint 3D and ‘OneNote for Windows 10’
– Start Menu Groups
– Taskbar Moving
– Tablet Mode
– Timeline

Cortana will also be relegated to the Start Menu – no longer used during setup and not automatically pinned to the taskbar.

 

Make a Backup / Create a Recovery Drive

Major (or even minor) Windows version upgrades are not without pitfalls as we’ve seen in recent years, so it’s worth checking that you have a full backup of your device prior to leaping into the unknown.

Synchronised copies of files in Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox are always a plus, although for rapid restoration it’s also helpful to make a manual, local backup to a portable hard-drive that will be more quickly restorable if your subsequent upgrade doesn’t go to plan.

For the extra precaution of a route ‘back’ to Windows 10 if you discover a major compatibility issue, it’s important to make a recovery drive using a USB device.

 

Test the Beta

For power users, a beta version (Preview Build 22000.160) is available to test for those who register with the Microsoft Insider program.

 

For IT Support & Technical Expertise, please contact our team today.


Windows 11: everything you need to know about Microsoft’s latest OS

Windows’ latest operating system offering was unveiled today at their virtual event, boasting the arrival of the “next generation of Windows”.

The announcement comes somewhat of a shock to the tech world who were told that Windows 10 would be the final version of the Windows OS with over 1.3 billion user devices.

However due to the rapidly changing, hybrid working environment emerging from the pandemic and the announcement that Windows 10 would no longer receive extended support past 2025, it appears that Microsoft are updating the OS platform to incorporate the working from home demands from its users.

Microsoft CEO Natya Sadella agreed saying “We need to be empowered to choose the applications we run, the content we consume, the people we connect to, and even how we allocate our own attention”. He further stated that “operating systems and devices should mould to our needs, not the other way around.”

New centralised task bar interface layout in night mode

These demands are being met with features such as tighter integration with Microsoft Teams directly into the centralised task bar (a significant shift away from the attachments to Skype) and the blending of the Xbox Series X’s Auto HDR graphical enhancements along with Xbox Games Pass; both come pre-installed.

The focus of Windows 11 revolves around the simplification of the standard Windows user interface whilst increasing performance and multitasking functionality. Microsoft executive, Panos Panay revealed that Windows 11 Updates are 40% smaller that its OS predecessors and gone are the days of work being interrupted by Windows Updates as they now are downloaded and installed without the need for system shutdown.

Snap Layouts for compartmentalisation of multiple screens

Additionally, the new ‘Snap Layouts’ promote easier movement of apps to defined compartments of the screen for easier multitasking and the OS will remember collections of apps open on external monitors when the PC/Laptop is unplugged thanks to ‘Snap Groups’ – mirroring certain characteristics of the cancelled, dual screen Windows 10X project.

A further major change comes as part of the Microsoft Store which, through Microsoft’s partnership with Intel and Amazon, now allows developers to distribute their apps through the Microsoft Store without sharing revenue and Windows systems will be able to support Android apps using the Amazon AppStore. Developers can even use their own payment systems within the Microsoft Store.

Before today’s virtual launch, a first build of the OS was leaked allowing for a quick glimpse of the evolved ‘Sun Valley’ interface – with a Start Menu in the centre of the main task bar with a return of Windows Widgets in the form of an AI-powered personalised feed. Widget types include a news feed, maps and weather. This evolution of Widgets signals the quiet removal of the controversial Live Tiles introduced with Windows 8.

Windows 11 will be available as a free update to existing Windows 10 users requiring 64 GBs of storage and 4GBs of RAM, but only for ‘eligible PCs’ – those with two or more cores and a clock speed of 1GHz or higher.

A preview early test version of the new system will be released for app developers as part of the Windows Insider beta testing programme in the beginning of July 2021. A public access version is expected to be made available in October 2021 without new hardware speculated to be released alongside.