The new Edge is here, promising more extensions and a far better search engine, based on Chromium, the same engine powering Google's Chrome browser. This makes it more compatible with websites other, less popular browsers have problems with. 

This also means that after granting Edge permission, it can use Chrome extensions from the Google Playstore, which has far more than Microsoft's. 

Downloading and installing are explained in the linked article, above. You don't have to uninstall the old Edge which is based on MS's engine. 

Over the next weeks and months, MS will be pushing the new Edge. You can wait, and it might even be better to do so as just now it probably still has bugs, but if you like being on the bleeding edge, so to speak, go for it!

New Chromium based Edge download link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

W7 ran its course from 2009 to 2020.

MS has notified that there will be no more support for W7, meaning its kernel will become vulnerable to attack:

"Security updates are essential to staying safe online, and Windows 10 is getting them while Windows 7 isn’t. Many flaws found in Windows 10 will also apply to Windows 7. Attackers will hear about them and can start attacking those vulnerable Windows 7 systems. As more time goes by, more unpatched, known flaws will exist in Windows 7 for exploiting. Hardware manufacturers are also supporting Windows 10 instead of Windows 7. This will only get truer after the end-of-support date. Even software companies will one day stop releasing new versions of their web browsers and other software for Windows 7." - How to Geek

Needless to say, drivers compatible to W7 will also not be updated by the various hardware and software companies.

Many aren't updating because their machines might be old. This is another error. W10 will run faster than W7 if the W10 requirements are met, and which aren't so different than the demands of W7.

True, the huge updates are a minus, but, they go hand in hand with security updates as well. Also, the updates have been getting smaller, perhaps because they involve enabling features present in prior downloads which sit quietly on your system until enough testing (supposedly) allows MS to "unmask" them.

The security, or lack thereof in W7, is well explained here: https://www.neowin.net/news/gchq-its-time-to-ditch-windows-7-if-you-want-to-stay-safe-online. GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom.

There's still a way to update to W10 for free: https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

All in all, W7 is now an OS with a major liability, and you should migrate.

gHacks has a good take on W7's end of life: https://www.ghacks.net/2020/01/14/windows-7-support-ends-today-here-are-your-options/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e2414%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e2iur

Remember how useful God mode was?

I haven't seen how to create it in W10...until good old Tech Republic (link above) mentioned it in a simple "how to".

Just make sure you're the Administrator, right click on your desktop and create a new file. Name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

 and press "Enter".

This is what you should see when you double click on the blue file:

Mine is dark mode enabled from my prior article (https://forums.wincustomize.com/498171/page/1/#3767484)

Happy administrating, and if the name of the file bothers any sensibilities, you can rename it anything you wish.

TouchTasks, Stardock's newest productivity app was reviewed by Martin Brinkmann at gHacks yesterday.

In his closing comments, he wrote:

"TouchTasks is a handy software for Windows 10 touch devices like the Surface Pro to improve productivity. It is quite flexible when it comes to the actions that you can assign to zones; the default actions are handy for the most part and the ability to launch any application from a zone is great as well especially when using fullscreen applications.

TouchTasks is available for €11.99 regularly and for an introductory price of €5.99 currently. A free 30-day trial is provided. Note that your email verification is required before the program can be used."

If you have a touchscreen device running Windows, you can improve your efficiency by adding this app. 

Key Features

• Quick access to frequently used tasks and apps
• Zones are conveniently located on the edge of the screen
• Customizable application launcher panel
• Functional in both portrait and landscape modes
• Task display panel customization
• Compatible with Windows 10 touch screens and devices

System Requirements

• Touch screen monitor or touch screen device.
• Windows 10

You can read more about TouchTasks here: https://www.stardock.com/products/touchtasks/ 

and Frogboy's forum post here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/497327/page/1/#3762664

A free 30-day trial is provided. Your email verification is required before the program can be used.

You can download here: https://www.stardock.com/products/touchtasks/download

Windows Defender is an excellent antivirus and antispyware. On my machine, I use it and Malwarebytes Premium. I also try to use common sense as to where I visit, and what I open.

Advanced Threat Detection was added to Defender (MS) as a voluntary service. It was originally part of Enterprise solutions. I opted to add it to my system. I've had to remove it, since I didn't want to roll back the update and wait hopefully for a bug fix which would break something else.

"Microsoft Defender ATP uses the following combination of technology built into Windows 10 and Microsoft's robust cloud service:

• Endpoint behavioral sensors: Embedded in Windows 10, these sensors collect and process behavioral signals from the operating system and sends this sensor data to your private, isolated, cloud instance of Microsoft Defender ATP.

• Cloud security analytics: Leveraging big-data, machine-learning, and unique Microsoft optics across the Windows ecosystem, enterprise cloud products (such as Office 365), and online assets, behavioral signals are translated into insights, detections, and recommended responses to advanced threats.

• Threat intelligence: Generated by Microsoft hunters, security teams, and augmented by threat intelligence provided by partners, threat intelligence enables Microsoft Defender ATP to identify attacker tools, techniques, and procedures, and generate alerts when these are observed in collected sensor data." - MS.

On 10/15/19, KB450062 was issued. It has, unfortunately, a new bug. This bug disables ATP, hence the title of this article. Also, this comes as an update for you in the seemingly unending series of MS's buggy updates.

"Microsoft added the issue to the list of known issues on the support page of the update:

After installing this update, the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service might stop running and might fail to send reporting data. You might also receive a 0xc0000409 error in Event Viewer in MsSense.exe.

The company suggests that the update should not be installed on devices which rely on Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection functionality.

At this time, we suggest that devices in an affected environment do not install this update.

Microsoft hopes that it will have a solution for the issue ready in mid-November, likely in time for the November 2019 Patch Day on November 12, 2019. Microsoft releases security updates for all supported versions of Windows on the second Tuesday of any month." - gHacks

Anyway, it was a nice five, threat free days.

You might want to review the list of bugs with 1809 and its updates which you can find here.

If you have a request for a specific topic, or one which I haven't covered recently such as software, please let me know by pm.

Lots of exciting things happening this year.  

Stardock is actively hiring software developers to begin revamping all of Object Desktop.  You will begin to see the changes starting in mid November as new and old things alike start being added.

A few things on our plate include:

1. Updating SoundPackager.  The sounds in Windows 10 are a bit annoying.  Stardock has a lot of audio talent here that we plan to use to revamp the sound packages that it includes as well as put dev resources into updating it.
2. Updating Keyboard LaunchPad.  This is mostly about updating the UX and feature set to support modern apps as well as changing the defaults short-cuts.  Sorry WinAmp fans!
3. DeskScapes 10.1.  We are going to be integrating in-app Dream creation (not just DreamMaker but a full on mini app for creating really cool effects and dreams!).
4. NEW APP.  I can't talk about this yet but it should show up within the next month or so.  It's the biggest new customization app we've put out in years.

And that's just by end of this year!

Stay tuned!

DeskScapes is an application for Windows 10/8/7 that lets you apply animated wallpapers to your desktop. It also gives you the ability to customize and manage static wallpapers by adding effects or recoloring your existing wallpapers. 

Try DeskScapes for free!
To purchase DeskScapes, click here.

Quick Overview
The screenshot below shows the DeskScapes user interface. The left side of the window shows all of your animated and static wallpapers.  Choose which folders to display and add or remove folders from the "Settings" option.

Tip! Get more animated wallpapers from WinCustomize.com

Tip! Animated wallpapers have a small filmstrip icon on their thumbnail preview so you can see which are animated and which are static wallpapers. 

Selecting a wallpaper will bring up a preview which is displayed on the right side of the window. If it's an animated wallpaper, it will display an animated preview so you can see what the animation is. 

Settings and Effects
Depending on what type of wallpaper you're using, there may be additional settings available. For instance, the "Expanding Shapes" animated wallpaper is dynamic, so it can be customized further. There are additional options to adjust the size of the shapes, how many shapes are used, and how fast the animation should be. 

Tip! The cool Expanding Shapes dynamic wallpaper is included with DeskScapes

Clicking the "Effects" tab will bring up a large list of available effects.  These will work on both animated/static wallpapers, along with your images/videos.  Examples include; Grayscale, Motion Blur, Textured, and my favorite, Snow.  Selecting each filter will bring up a preview of the effect on your chosen wallpaper for a quick preview.  DeskScapes also allows you to combine effects so you can create a custom look of your own.

Tip! The Snow effect adds animated falling snow over your wallpaper for a very cool effect.

Applying Wallpapers
After you've selected a wallpaper to use, simply click "Apply" on the bottom right corner of DeskScapes and your selected wallpaper will apply to your desktop. If you use multiple monitors you will also have the option to "Apply to all monitors", or select which monitor to apply the wallpapers to.

Tip! DeskScapes lets you apply a different wallpaper to each monitor also!

Learn more about DeskScapes here.

DeskScapes is available individually for your Windows PC, but you can get that and more with a low-cost membership to Object Desktop. While you're a member, you'll get free updates, access to all betas, and any new apps for one year. You’ll also get access to other great programs like Groupy, Start10, Fences, WindowBlinds, Multiplicity, and more!

Visit the Object Desktop site for more information.

We've previously talked about Folder Portals, a really cool feature that makes finding what you need quick and easy. This week, I thought we’d take a look at another new feature: Pages.  This is great for people who have a lot of icons on their desktop, or like to keep them super-organized with multiple Fences. 

With the Pages feature, you can create a virtual desktop of sorts with your icons and Fences that can be switched by pulling on the edge of your screen.  A quick animation is really the best way to show it:

Alternatively, you can configure the pages to switch using the middle mouse button drag, keyboard combos, and a few other methods.  To access all of these settings just open up the Fences configuration and select Desktop Pages.

Learn more about Fences here.

Fences is available individually for your Windows PC, but you can get that and more with a low-cost membership to Object Desktop. While you're a member, you'll get free updates, access to all betas, and any new apps for one year. You’ll also get access to other great programs like Groupy, Start10, DeskScapes, WindowBlinds, Multiplicity, and more!

Visit the Object Desktop site for more information.

We had some questions come in asking about some of the additional features of WindowBlinds regarding textures and backgrounds, so I wanted to write a post going into more detail about it.  These are all features that aren’t really difficult to use, but if you are a new user you just might not be familiar with where everything is and how they work.

If you are completely new to WindowBlinds, let me recommend you also take a read through the WindowBlinds 10 Walkthrough: Changing your Desktop Theme.

Get WindowBlinds here.

Colors, Textures, and Fonts
On most WindowBlinds skins, you’ll see an option to 'modify skin' on the right of the WindowBlinds interface. Clicking that will bring up the options for Color, Transparency, Texture, and Fonts. Clicking one of those expands the section with all the available options for that particular feature. We’ll start out with selecting Color, and that will bring up the coloring options in WindowBlinds. Using this option you can change the color of a WindowBlinds skin by selecting a color and using the sliders to adjust it even further. You can just the brightness and saturation, and there’s also options to adjust the range and primary skin colors. Of course you can also stick with WindowBlinds smart recoloring which will give you excellent results. Note that some skins will accept color changes better than others depending on their design.

The last option in the Color tab is for fonts.  Here you can override the font that is defined in the skin, and you also have the option to adjust the size of the fonts.

Transparency
Next we have the Transparency option which gives you the ability to change the transparency of the start menu, task bar, window frames, and context menus. Just adjust the sliders to the amount of transparency you want, and apply the changes to see them in use. 

Textures
Textures is another feature available in WindowBlinds that gives users the ability to add textures to a WindowBlinds skin.  When adding a texture, it can dramatically change the way a skin looks depending on what type of texture image is used.  There are a bunch of textures included, and it’s fairly simple to create and add your own so you can customize a skin to your personal liking.

We even have a WindowBlinds Texture gallery on WinCustomize.com where people can download textures other people have made and shared.

WindowBlinds is available individually for your Windows PC, but you can get that and more with a low-cost membership to Object Desktop. While you're a member, you'll get free updates, access to all betas, and any new apps for one year. You’ll also get access to other great programs like Groupy, Start10, DeskScapes, Fences, Multiplicity, and more!

Visit the Object Desktop site for more information.

Fences is one of our most popular apps, and one of the coolest features is the ability to create folder portals.

This allows you to take a folder and create a Fence on the desktop with the contents of that folder. This is so convenient and useful for so many reasons, but being able to directly interact with a folder as a fence is just cool.  Not all folders need or can be placed on the desktop, so this gives you the opportunity to work with them regardless of where they reside on your drive.

Get Fences here.

There’s several ways to get a folder portal going:

Right-click and drag on your desktop like you would for a normal fence. You will now have an option for a Folder Portal here.

Right-click a folder and create the Folder Portal from there.

Hold the Alt key while dragging/dropping a folder to your desktop.

Learn more about Fences here.

Fences is available individually for your Windows PC, but you can get that and more with a low-cost membership to Object Desktop. While you're a member, you'll get free updates, access to all betas, and any new apps for one year. You’ll also get access to other great programs like Groupy, Start10, DeskScapes, WindowBlinds, Multiplicity, and more!

Visit the Object Desktop site for more information.