The Windows Mixed Reality Portal has hardware requirement checks, causing some grief amongst developers. Here's a quick tip on how to get around those checks.

If you own an Android smartphone, you can use Cortana to read, reply to, and send text messages from your Windows 10 PC.

If you're running Windows 10 version 1703 (Creators Update) or newer, here's a nice surprise: You can unlock a hidden UWP version of File Explorer!

Even those Windows 10 users who are never going to purchase movies or TV shows from Microsoft's online store should check out the Movies & TV app, which gets a nice refresh with the Creators Update.

Like other modern web browsers, Microsoft Edge supports extensions that can be used to add functionality beyond that provided by its maker.

With the Creators Update, Microsoft is providing a hidden gift for gamers on Windows 10: A new feature called Game Mode that ensures the best possible performance while gaming.

Like other web browsers, Edge lets you download files from the web in a fairly straightforward way and then manage them right from the browser.

While Microsoft Edge does not let you pin frequently-accessed websites to the Windows 10 taskbar, you can at least pin them within the browser so they are always available.

In the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft Edge lets you share a single tab, or a group of tabs, with others using a new Share interface.

With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft Edge picks up a new "Set these tabs aside" capability that helps you declutter the browser by managing open tabs.

With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft Edge improves its support for tab previews, which provide thumbnails of each open web page for quicker navigation.

Windows Insiders who would like to opt out of the program can now do so without danger. It's what I call the "magic window," and it only happens once or twice a year.

After I noted on a recent podcast that the Windows Store app doesn't provide an obvious way to discover the hyperlink for that item, a reader pointed out a workaround.

I just discovered another advertising vector in Windows 10, via the new Share pane that debuts in the Creators Update. Fortunately, you can turn this one off too.

Microsoft Edge now offers very basic support for website notifications, including integration with the Action Center in Windows 10.

While Microsoft Edge is obviously a traditional web browser in many ways, it is evolving to become more of a general purpose reading app with the Creators Update as well.