Productivity
The latest Productivity coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Microsoft Cracks Down on Internal Speech, Terminates Protesters in RTO Mandate Rollout
Microsoft has fired employees who participated in a campus sit-in and will now require most workers to be in the office three days a week, marking a dramatic shift in workplace culture as the company...
Stardock’s Start11 and WindowBlinds Bring Windows 7’s Look to Windows 11 — But It’s No Perfect Clone
A hands-on experiment by MakeUseOf’s Pankil Shah confirms that a carefully assembled toolkit can drape Windows 11 in the glassy, familiar skin of Windows 7 — and the result is more than a...
Microsoft Draws 50-Mile Line: Redmond Staff Must Return by February 2026 as Global RTO Begins
Microsoft employees in Redmond have until the end of February 2026 to settle into a three-day in-office routine, a deadline that marks the first wave of a global return-to-office mandate Chief People...
Copilot Brings One-Click Bulk Proofreading to Word for the Web
Microsoft has flipped the switch on a long-awaited Copilot feature in Word for the web: users can now fix every spelling and grammar mistake in a highlighted passage with a single click. The new "Fix...
UK Government Copilot Trials: User Satisfaction Soars, But Productivity Gains Remain Unproven
The UK government’s largest-ever test of Microsoft 365 Copilot has delivered a striking paradox: staff overwhelmingly love the AI assistant, reporting an average of 26 minutes saved per day, yet...
Why Windows 11 Power Users Still Rely on a 15-Year-Old 'God Mode' Trick
Windows 11’s settings experience remains a tale of two interfaces, and for power users weary of hunting for advanced options, a community trick called God Mode is the most practical shortcut to...
Windows 11 Canary Build 27938 Introduces AI-Powered Image Editing in File Explorer Context Menu
Right-click a photo in Windows 11’s newest Canary build, and a new “AI actions” submenu appears—offering one-click background removal, object erasure, background blur, and Bing Visual Search...
6 Free Windows Apps That Break the Built-In App Bottleneck
Microsoft ships Windows 11 with a respectable suite of default apps—Snipping Tool, Clipboard History, Photos, Edge’s PDF handler, Windows Search, and Media Player—but for anyone who pushes past...
Windows 11’s Default Apps Are Slowing You Down: Here Are 6 Free Replacements to Supercharge Your Workflow
The Snipping Tool, Photos app, and Windows Search are familiar faces on any Windows 11 PC—but familiarity doesn’t mean efficiency. While these built-ins handle the basics, they often stumble when...
Microsoft Tests AI Image Editing in Windows 11 File Explorer—Privacy Questions Remain
Windows Insiders on the bleeding-edge Canary channel are discovering a new context menu that puts generative AI image edits—including background removal, object erasing, and Bing Visual...
Satya Nadella’s 5 Daily Copilot Prompts: A Governance Playbook for Enterprise AI
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent X thread sharing five daily prompts for GPT‑5‑powered Copilot is more than a productivity hack—it’s a real‑world demonstration of how enterprise AI...
Inside the Windows 12.2 fan concept: Instant Aero theming, floating widgets, and a desktop that adapts to you
A new fan-made concept video for an imagined Windows 12.2 has reignited conversation about what users actually want from the operating system, showcasing instant theme switching, floating widgets,...