Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 10 build 19030 for devices within the Fast ring of the Windows Insider Program. This is the preview number 45 releasing as part of the 20H1 (Vibranium) development, and it's a little update with several fixes.

Windows 10 build 19030, based on the company, removes the watermark from the lower-right corner signaling the new version is nearly complete, and all sorts of features planned for this release already are integrated.

Also, this flight fixes a sign-in issue when resetting the PIN from the logon screen, night light settings, and memory problem viewing long HECV videos.

Microsoft is listing the entire set of improvements, fixes, and known issues for Windows 10 Insider Preview build 19030 in the Windows Blog.

Download Windows 10 build 19030

However, there are no ISO files for Windows 10 build 19030, the update can be obtained immediately with the Fast ring. This preview build will download and install automatically on your device, but you can invariably force the update from Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and clicking the Check for updates button.

How come Microsoft want the Windows 10 Your Phone app? Since it preserves the most crucial functions of a phone: access for your photos, messages, notifications, calls, and even your phone's home screen-without the need to remove your phone out of your pocket.

That might sound ridiculous, but think again: Once you pull your phone from your pocket, you're instantly lost in messages, email, Instagram-all of those distracting from your focus and flow while caring for your PC. Theoretically, you can refuse to open Outlook on your PC and use your phone instead. But you don't, right? Since the PC is a lot more convenient-and, in a few instances, having fun with your phone is also quite rude.

Your Phone's functionality is essentially complete, however the landing's been a little rough. You'll have to combine the best PC and phone hardware to obtain the most of Your Phone, but the best basic features already are available to the planet at large. We are able to also show you how exactly what the final vision appears like, and just what (if anything!) you'll want to get there. Your Phone is surprisingly simple and effective, and it's much further along than during our start looking at the Your Phone experience.

Setup: What you'll need

Due to the "walled garden" approach Apple takes with iOS, Your Phone is essentially associated with Android. (Though Your Phone technically supports iPhones, Microsoft has stopped listing them among supported phones.) Even so, its not all phone supports every Your Phone function at this time. You'll get the best experience at this time with a Samsung Galaxy or OnePlus phone.

Any recent Android phone should be able to connect to Your Phone and receive Your Phone's basic functions: photos, SMS texts, and notifications. The newer, more complex functions-placing calls and interacting with the phone's home screen-are restricted to a smaller subset of devices (Galaxy Phones and up to date OnePlus phones, basically). Unfortunately, Your Phone can link simply to just one phone right now.

Here's a more detailed list of the hardware and software requirements for every Your Phone function, at the moment:

Photos, messages, and notifications:

A Windows 10 PC running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update or later, and an Android phone running Android 7.0 or later.

Telephone calls (Calls) out of your PC:

A Windows 10 PC with build 18362.356 or newer, as well as an Android phone running Android 7.0 or later.

Getting together with your phone's screen (Phone screen) from your PC:

A Windows 10 Insider PC supporting Low Energy Peripheral Mode, including Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 4-6, Surface Book 1-2, and Surface Go. A list of supported phones is here, with many Samsung Galaxy and recent OnePlus devices supported.

Generally, I've had the very best luck with Calls and make contact with Screen while running the most recent Windows 10 Insider Fast Ring previews, which are optimized for that latest iteration of the Phone. But the basic functions (texts, photos, and notifications) should work fine having a regularly-updated Windows 10 PC. Remember, this should all open up to some wider subset of devices over time.

How to set up Your Phone in your smartphone

While the Your Phone app should be pre-loaded or automatically downloaded on most PCs, you'll need to download the companion app for your phone, known as the Your Phone Companion. The Your Phone Companion for Android can either be downloaded via the link, or enter your phone number in to the Your Phone app on Windows. Microsoft will send a text for your phone with the download link within it.

Observe that you'll need to setup Your Phone Companion on the telephone as well as Your Phone on the PC at basically the same time, ensuring your phone and PC are up to date, activating Bluetooth on both devices, and launching both apps. You'll quickly move through a short number of steps that will enable your phone as well as your PC for connecting.

Setup needs a decent amount of backwards and forwards, and that there can be some fiddling that needs to be done. Setup will probably make sure that Bluetooth is on on both devices, although not always. The setup process will also probably pair both devices for you, however when I switched test phones I needed to perform these steps manually. Make certain both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network for easier communication. And when it's finally ready to go, you'll probably need to approve separate Your Phone Companion permissions for texting, then calls, then notifications, and so forth; It's a hassle, but the permissions are there to make sure apps don't abuse your privacy.

Don't be switched off through the apparent complexity. We've detailed a lot of the steps that Windows must take proper care of behind the scenes, and some of this is just stepping through the normal privacy approvals.

How to use Your Phone

Once setup is completed, it's time to actually make use of your Phone. Here's quick tips towards the particulars of each one of the apps.

One potential gotcha is due to your smartphone's onscreen keyboard. Your Phone is made to allow you to access your phone out of your PC, using your physical keyboard for connecting to it and react to messages. I had been shocked to discover that when I acquired my phone (by habit) to reply to a text, the onscreen keyboard had disappeared. In the event that happens, try searching for the "keyboard" in the Android Settings menu in your phone, after which be sure that there's a choice to enable the on-screen keyboard even when your computer is doing the typing. That will allow you the freedom to apply your phone as you'd like, even if it's connected to the PC.

Remember to check the Your Phone app's Settings gear at the bottom left-hand corner, where there are options, for instance, to permit SMS texts although not MMS pictures.

Photos

Your Phone's Photos tab is similar to the Photos app within Windows: if you take a photograph with your phone, Your Phone's Photos causes it to be open to you for sharing or editing. You'll visit a matrix of up to 25 photos and screenshots inside the Your Phone Photos tab, which you'll copy, share, or save from inside the tab. Frustratingly, you can't directly edit them using Photos if you don't save them to your hard drive, then edit all of them with Photos.

Messages

In this context, "Messages" is just shorthand for SMS/MMS text messages, not any specific app on Android or anywhere else. As a result, it's a bare-bones summary of the text messages you and your contacts have exchanged, nothing more. Most messaging apps, including Skype, provide a "call" option, and usually a video-chat option as well. Messages does neither, even though you could argue again the bare-bones approach is necessary to keep flow.

The Settings choice to download images sent via MMS texts automatically needs some clarity. For one, when I specifically toggled it on, an evaluation photo delivered to me via text didn't save to my PC-though my phone isn't configured to automatically save photos delivered to my phone. (The photo appeared inline like a text message, though, because it should have.) It might also be useful to know exactly where MMS images are saved, and when they're automatically backed up to OneDrive. This is why people use Snapchat, after all.

Unfortunately, Messages still shows any message threads that you've archived on your phone, including automated texts of one-time passwords that a web service may give back for two-factor authentication. (Remember that it's safer to use an authenticator app for 2FA instead.)

Notifications

Likewise, Notifications represent nothing more than the Android notifications that apps already send to the home screen of your phone. There's very little to complete here, even though you do have the option of filtering those notifications to ensure that merely a subset gets passed along for your PC.

Like notifications of new email, those slide in from the bottom right and reside in your Action Center. That's reason enough to think about the filtering options, as at this time you can observe one notification slide in for a brand new email on your phone, and the other in the Mail or Outlook app on your PC.

Phone screen

This is one of the more interesting value-added features of Your Phone: the opportunity to access your phone's home screen, and by proxy, access any Android apps which may be on it. Overall it might be more convenient just to simply haul out your phone. However, if doing this could be rude, Your Phone is really a convenient way to access it surreptitiously.

Because you're interacting with your phone on the Bluetooth connection, you'll notice some lag. (Like a test, I attempted a couple of games over the Your Phone connection; something like Angry Birds is playable, but an action game is not.) Keep in mind that you can't easily decrease your phone's volume without physically getting together with it, so you'll need to dive into the phone's settings menu to adjust it.

If there's an Android app you need to access surreptitiously, without any Windows or web counterpart available, the telephone screen feature can be handy.

Calls

Using the recently announced Calls, Your Phone finally becomes...a telephone. Ensure that you enable your phone to talk about its contact list with Windows. Calls doesn't seem to access the Windows 10 People app or Outlook, which is where Windows would store that contact details.

Calls enables you to make use of your laptop's speaker and mic to speak to callers, which obviously is anything but discreet. However, if you're your private office, you don't need to unearth your phone to answer or place a phone call.

Assuming you've never used Skype before, it may be rather fun to put and react to a phone call out of your PC. I did watch a little bit of an echo or "tunnel" effect when answering callers, though which may be patched out over time.

Same with Your Phone ultimately useful? It may be, meaning that the Android watch or Apple Watch enables you to surreptitiously glance at your wrist-or in this instance, your screen-to see what your phone is reporting. A wearable does much more-but that's one more tool and one more cost.

Fortunately, the standard functions are probably the best: the ability to see and respond to texts and notifications, in addition to grab a photo out of your phone and employ it quickly within a Windows application. Those Your Phone features are available now, using a broad range of phones and PCs. They're worth trying out.

Microsoft has become while re-building its Microsoft Edge browser based on the Chromium engine, the same platform that powers other browsers, including here Google Chrome and Vivaldi.

Microsoft Edge is rapidly approaching the stable channel, so users can already download preview builds as part of the Canary, Dev, and Beta builds.

However, as some discovered in the last couple of months, installing Microsoft Edge fails with errors that aren't necessarily straightforward, meaning resolving the reason for the issue isn't always the simplest move to make.

Today, I'll share the steps that you need to follow in order to fix a mistake that doesn't say a lot at first glance:

"There was a problem installing."

As you can see, this error message doesn't even have an error code or perhaps an indication of the items went wrong, therefore the only thing it says would be that the browser failed to install and that's pretty much it.

Most often than not, this error message is caused due to a thing that everybody does: running the installer from another browser.

In other words, if you downloaded the Microsoft Edge installer using Google Chrome and then clicked it from Google's browser, there's a strong possibility that you encountered this error.

If you're fortunate enough, the workaround doesn't require lots of seconds from your time. The one thing you need to do would be to head over to the Downloads folder fitted device (or to the folder where your downloads are stored if you configured a custom location) and launch the installer manually. The Microsoft Edge installer is known as:

MicrosoftEdgeSetup.exe

For most users, this really is enough to obtain the browser up and running. But there's also the unlucky fellows who can't locate the Microsoft Edge installer due to the fact it's not there. In this instance, additional steps are needed.

First and foremost, you need to launch the Registry Editor by pressing Windows key + R and typing regedit. Next, navigate to the following locations according to your Windows 10 version:

32-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients\F3C4FE00-EFD5-403B-9569-398A20F1BA4A
64-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients\F3C4FE00-EFD5-403B-9569-398A20F1BA4A

Once you locate these registry keys, simply delete them in the device.

The next thing is downloading and reinstalling Microsoft Edge. A method reboot shouldn't normally be expected after removing the aforementioned registry key, however i do recommend you to definitely do one, simply to make sure that the registry is reinitialized and all the changes are applied.

When you do this, Microsoft Edge should install and run correctly whatever the browser that you employ to download the installer.

Bear in mind, however, that Microsoft Edge is still a work-in-progress at this time, and difficulties with the installer or when using the browser aren't necessarily very surprising. The objective of these preview builds would be to allow you to try out the applying before the public launch, send feedback to Microsoft, and help it resolve the bugs in anticipation of the stable build release.

According to people familiar with the problem, the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge ought to be finalized early in the year of 2020 and then included because the new default browser in Windows 10 20H1. As per Microsoft's release schedule, the 20H1 feature update is supposed to be pushed to production devices in April or May, making this as soon as once the new Edge should get the go-ahead for production devices too.

Meanwhile, you are able to download preview builds from the new Microsoft Edge for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and macOS.

Microsoft announced the Surface Earbuds in the company's hardware event on October 2, by having an estimated shipping date looking for late 2019.

But as it turns out, the company must further polish the earbuds before making them available to buy, so Panos Panay, chief of Microsoft's hardware unit, announced a brand new date once the method is supposed to hit the shelves.

Microsoft Surface Earbuds are now projected to go reside in before summer 2020, of course unless additional time is required to make sure the best experience.

"Product-making is about the relentless mission for get every detail right, which takes time…sometimes more than we planned on. To make sure we deliver the most effective experience for you personally, our fans & customers, Surface Earbuds will now launch worldwide in Spring 2020," Panay said.

AirPods alternative

Surface Earbuds are considered one of the most advanced rivals to Apple's AirPods, but as when compared with this product, they use both Android and iOS devices.

Because they rely on a typical Bluetooth connection, Surface Earbuds can pair with Windows 10, Android 4.4 and newer, iPhone 5 and iOS 9 or newer devices.

Of course, similar to the other earbuds available on the market, Microsoft's model includes all kinds of gimmicks, together with a charging case that tips the scales at just 40 grams, two microphones per earbud, and a total battery life of Twenty four hours using the case. It supports several gestures, including touch, tap, swipe, and voice input. Surface Earbuds support a multitude of digital assistants, including not just Microsoft's own Cortana, but additionally Siri around the iPhone and Google Assistant on Android devices.

Surface Earbuds will be available for $249 when they continue sale the coming year, but the pricing will be a little bit different with respect to the market and the local taxes.

You've labored on your spreadsheet and you need to make sure anyone you share it with doesn't inadvertently change cells that really should not be changed. Thankfully, Microsoft Excel 2016 and earlier versions let you lock cells to safeguard them from being modified on Windows 10. You can lock all of the cells inside a worksheet or specific cells, allowing some parts from the spreadsheet to be changed. Here's how to lock cells in Excel.

Editor's Note: This tutorial was written for Excel 2016, but still applies to modern versions of Excel.

How you can Lock All of the Cells within an Excel Worksheet

By default, when you protect a sheet or workbook, all the cells is going to be locked. This means they cannot be reformatted or deleted, and also the content inside them can't be edited. Automatically, the locked cells can be selected, however, you can change that within the protection options.

1. Navigate to the Review tab.

2. Click Protect Sheet. In the Protect Sheet window, enter your password that is required to unprotect the sheet (optional) and then any from the actions you need to allow users.

3. Click OK to protect the sheet.

Whenever you or other people attempts to edit any of the locked cells, this message will come up.

Cells can only be unlocked once the sheet is unprotected (by going to the Review tab again, choosing "Unprotect Sheet," and entering the password, if required).

How to Lock Specific Cells within an Excel Worksheet

There can be times when you want to lock certain cells from being changed but nonetheless allow users to adjust other cells in a worksheet. In our example, within an inventory list you may allow unit prices and stock quantities to be updated, but not the product IDs, names, or descriptions. As stated before, all cells are locked by default when you protect the sheet. However, you are able to specify whether a cell should be locked or unlocked within the cell's format properties.

1. Select all of the cells you don't want to be locked. These would be the cells that may be edited despite the sheet remains safe and secure.

2. Right-click on your selection, select Format Cells, and then click the Protection tab. (Alternatively, underneath the Home tab, click the expansion icon next to Alignment, and in the Format Cells window visit the Protection tab.)

3. Uncheck "Locked" (which is checked by default) and click OK.

4. Go to Review > Protect Sheet and hit Alright to protect the sheet. Any cells you didn't unlock under the Format Cells option (step 3 above) will be locked, while the unlocked cells will be editable.

Note that cell locking (or unlocking) won't take effect until you do step 4, protecting the sheet.

Protip: If you want to quickly lock or unlock cells that aren't alongside each other, you can use a keyboard shortcut. After selecting a cell or number of cells, use the Format Cells dialog as above to lock or unlock it. Then select your next cell(s) striking F4 to repeat your last action.

Windows 8 users who had been awaiting a much better consumer experience do not have to wait any more. Microsoft's Windows 8.1 can be obtained as a free upgrade for just about any PC running Windows 8. With just a few simple steps, you will get important new features, including the ability to see multiple windows in Modern UI, a Start Button and a search function that returns results both on the internet as well as your hard disk. Here's how to change your Windows 8 PC to Windows 8.1.

1. Make certain your computer has all recent Windows updates. If you have been using Windows 8 steadily you are probably up to date, but if it's been a few days because you last logged directly into your computer, adopt these measures to check on.

1a. Click settings around the Charms menu.

1b. Click Change PC settings.

1c. Select Windows Update.

1d. Click on the Check for updates now button to ascertain if you will find any new files.

1e. Force any updates to set up immediately by hitting the "We'll install . . . automatically" link then Intall.

2. Open the Windows Store app.

3. Click the Update to Windows 8.1 button. If you don't check this out button on the screen, look for updates again, close and reopen the Windows Store or reboot your machine.

4. Click the Download button to verify.

You may have to wait 30 minutes or more for the install to download, however, you can keep making use of your computer during this period.

5. Click Restart Now when prompted.

Your computer will then take several minutes installing Windows 8.1, complete with at least one reboot. You can walk away from your computer and do something else for five minutes or more because your input won't be necessary for a while.

6.Click "I Accept" when given the License terms.

7. Click Use Express Settings at the bottom from the screen. You may also choose custom settings, but we find the Express settings work well for many users.

8. Register to Windows as you normally would.

9. Allow Windows to send a burglar code to your phone whether it prompts you. You are able to skip this step, but may not be able to sync your account across PCs without performing it later.

10. Go into the code you received in your phone at the prompt.

11. Click Next around the Skydrive screen.

You will then have to wait a couple of minutes while Windows finishes the install process. You'll see some messages on screen that say it is setting up and installing apps.

One of the most important areas of an extensive backup is creating a copy of the address book. If at some point you lose access for your Outlook account, you'll be glad that you simply exported its contents, retaining the means with which to make contact with your pals, family and business connections.

Downloading your contacts also enables you to switch to another email client inside a more seamless manner, therefore if Outlook is becoming too bulky for your taste, you will not have to rebuild your address book from scratch. Listed here are step-by-step instructions for downloading and importing your Outlook address book.

How to Download Your Address Book in Outlook 2016 and Prior

1. Click File.

2. Select Options in the side menu.

3. Click Advanced from the side menu.

4. Select Export under Export.

5. Select Export to some file and click on Next.

6. Click Next. Here i am importing a Comma Separated Values File so we could import the address book to some program of our choice. If you are sure you need to stick with Outlook, choose the Outlook Computer file option.

7. Select Contacts and click Next.

8. Name your address book backup and click Next.

9. Click Finish.

Your address book continues to be downloaded!

How to Import Your Address Book to Outlook 2016 and Prior

1. Click File.

2. Select Open & Export.

3. Select Import/Export.

4. Select "Import from another program or file" and click on Next.

5. Choose the type of Address Book file kind you're importing and click on Next. Here i am importing a Comma Separated Values File.

6. Click Browse.

7. Select the file you're importing and click OK.

8. Click Next.

9. Select Contacts and click on Next.

10. Click Finish.

Your Outlook contacts have been imported!

As laptops get smaller, storage space gets more valuable. While many of us supplement physical storage with cloud-based alternatives, there's no replacement for storage on-demand, even if you're not attached to the internet. And for most Windows users, the quantity of storage wasted on temp files and the Recycle Bin would free up a fair little bit of space on our hard disk if perhaps we're able to we're able to remember to eliminate it.

A new feature in Windows 10's Creators Update has your back.

1. Right click the Windows icon at the end right of the screen and open the System menu.

2. Select Storage in the sidebar at the left.

3. Toggle Storage Sense to the on position.

4. If you'd like to determine what Storage sense deletes (either files in the Trash can or temp files -- or both), click the Change how we free up space link below the toggle.

5. Toggle on, or from the desired settings.

Windows uses a system folder called WinSxS to store files that are needed for the Windows installation, in addition to backups or updates to people files. It's a space hog, however, taking up several gigabytes of space and growing with each Windows Update you perform. Use the steps below to wash up unnecessary files for the reason that WinSxS folder and reclaim valuable hard drive space.

You cannot just delete everything in the WinSxS folder, because some of the people files are essential for Windows to operate increase reliably. However, with Windows 7 and above you should use the built-in Disk Cleanup tool to delete older versions of Windows updates you no longer need. With Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, you should use the Command Prompt to wash up the WinSxS folder as well.

Use Disk Cleanup to Delete Old Updates In the SxS Folder

1. Open the Disk Cleanup tool. This can be done by typing "disk cleanup" within the taskbar and clicking "Disk Cleanup"

2. Click the "Cleanup system files" button.

3. Look into the box next to "Windows Update Cleanup."

4. Click OK.

Observe that if you do not see the Windows Update Cleanup option in Disk Cleanup, that means there aren't any files that can be safely deleted.

Use the Command Prompt to wash Up the SxS Folder

If you want a more thorough look at how much space the SxS folder is taking up and the option to cleanup unneeded files, make use of the Command Prompt.

1. Launch the command prompt with admin priviledges. This can be done by right-clicking around the Windows icon within the taskbar and click "Command Prompt (Admin)."

2. Enter the command: Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

It might take a couple of minutes for the DISM tool to investigate the folder. When it is done, you'll see size details of the components within the WinSxS folder and, at the end, a recommendation to clean it up or not.

3. If recommended, clean up the folder by using this command within the Command Prompt: Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

There's another command will uninstall Windows updates and repair packs, which saves extra space, but we do not recommend you do that, because you won't be able to uninstall any current service updates or service packs after performing this. The command is Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

The cleanup usually takes some time, based on the body and how much you're deleting, but that extra room is going to be worth it.

Multiple desktops in Windows allow you to separate program windows into different groups. You might have all of your files associated with one project open in a single desktop, for example, and programs and files associated with a different project in another desktop. Microsoft added virtual desktops to Windows 10 for this multi-tasking organization. Here's how you can arrange it.

1. Click on the Task View icon within the taskbar. It appears as though two overlapping windows. Alternatively, use the Windows+Tab keyboard shortcut to enter Task View.

2. Click on the New desktop button in the Task View.

Windows can create an additional virtual desktop you are able to change to using the Windows+Tab keyboard shortcut.

Once your additional desktop is created, you can open new program windows in it. You can also drag a window in one desktop to another, and change to another desktop with the Windows+Tab keyboard shortcut.

Other shortcuts that will make using multiple virtual desktops easier:

WIN + CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT: Switch to the prior or next desktop
WIN + CTRL + D: Create a new desktop
WIN + CTRL + F4: Close the present desktop

It is a great way to organize and group files and programs according to how and when you should utilize them.