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New look and feel. Easy ways to search and stay organised. Windows 11 has been built to work for you and with you. Many Windows 10 PCs will be capable of running Windows And good news—the upgrade is free! New beginnings. New features. Windows 11 brings a new look and feel Experience a new look and feel with Windows 11 features. Refresh your perspective New look and feel. Productivity never felt so good 4.

Microsoft Teams video People connecting through Microsoft Teams. Windows 11 gaming Halo character with light shooting up in the background. Expression made effortless. Ready for Windows 11? Shop for a Windows 11 compatible PC. It is also the primary platform for Microsoft Office and most non-console computer games. The widespread use of Microsoft's operating system has benefited from not being tied to the success of one hardware manufacturer and from Microsoft's willingness to license the operating system to manufacturers.

This is in contrast with Apple Computer, which does not license Mac OS X to other manufacturers, and Sun Microsystems, which did not license Solaris before it was made free and open-source. However, the wide spectrum of possible hardware permutations with Microsoft Windows is also a major source of computer problems because of hardware-software incompatibilities for consumers.

In the past, companies who wanted to be in the computer business had to create their own operating systems such as the Amiga, BBC Micro or ZX Spectrum or choose another OS; even an exclusive license with one vendor was significantly cheaper than developing and supporting a new operating system and software base.

Due to Microsoft's extensive licensing agreements with many computer vendors, Windows presently comes pre-installed on most computers as a bundled OEM version, making it the default or only choice for most of the market.

For some consumers, Windows is the only valid option for a computing environment, or it is mandated by their workplace; additionally, an unfamiliarity with other operating systems results in a lack of desire to switch to other operating systems. A significant percentage of computer users simply lack the technical knowledge needed to install an operating system. Finally, the large base of software available exclusively for the Windows family of operating systems has become the single largest self-perpetuating reason for the popularity of Windows.

In recent years, many companies have been started with the sole intention of releasing Windows software; the fact that there is already a large customer base in place is reason enough for such companies to spend their resources solely on Windows software development.

As a result, the fact that many companies are supporting Windows exclusively is a self-reinforcing reason for customers to choose Windows.

Maintaining compatibility in a new release of Windows with this large collection of software designed to run on older flavors of Windows consumes a large part of the resources of the Windows development team. Security has been a major weakness of Windows for many years, and even Microsoft itself has been the victim of cracks and hacks.

Due to the widespread usage of Windows on personal computers, many crackers also known as black hat hackers have targeted Windows rather than the lesser-used operating systems such as Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. Windows was originally designed for ease-of-use on a single-user PC without a network connection and did not have security features built-in from the outset. Combined with occasionally flawed code such as buffer overflows , Windows is a continuous target of worms and virus writers.

Furthermore, until Service Pack 2 of Windows XP most versions of Windows were shipped with important security features disabled by default, and vulnerable albeit useful system services enabled by default. In June , Bruce Schneier's Counterpane Internet Security reported that it had seen over 1, new viruses and worms in the previous six months.

Microsoft publicly admitted their ongoing security problems shortly after the turn of the century and now claims to regard security as their number one priority. Microsoft releases security patches through its Windows Update service approximately once a month usually the second Tuesday of the month , although critical updates are made available at shorter intervals when necessary. In Windows Service Pack 3 and later , Windows Me, and Windows XP, updates can be automatically downloaded and installed if the user selects to do so.

As another step in their focus on security, Microsoft has released Windows Defender formerly Windows AntiSpyware and Giant AntiSpyware a free program designed to protect against spyware and other unwanted software. A study conducted by Kevin Mitnick and marketing communications firm Avantgarde found that an unprotected and unpatched Windows XP system lasted only 4 minutes on the Internet before it was compromised.

Much documentation is available describing how to increase the security of Microsoft Windows products. Typical suggestions include deploying Microsoft Windows behind a hardware or software firewall, running anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and installing patches as they become available through Windows Update. Microsoft Wiki Explore.

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