Productivity
The latest Productivity coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
How Linux Unleashed the GEEKOM IT15 Mini PC's Full Potential, Exposing AI Limits
When ZDNET’s hardware reviewer swapped Windows 11 for Ubuntu Budgie on the GEEKOM IT15, the compact desktop transformed from a sluggish experience into a snappy daily driver. The $899 mini PC,...
Microsoft 365 Companions Auto-Install on Windows 11: What IT Must Do Before the Rollout Hits
Microsoft has begun rolling out a trio of taskbar-integrated apps called Microsoft 365 companions for Windows 11 enterprise users, and they will install automatically on eligible devices unless IT...
Windows 11 to Automatically Install Microsoft 365 Companions in October — Here’s What IT Admins Need to Know
Microsoft will begin automatically installing three new Microsoft 365 companion mini-apps directly into the Windows 11 taskbar starting in late October 2025. The People, Files, and Calendar...
Microsoft Begins Silent Rollout of 365 Companion Apps to Windows 11 Taskbars
Starting in late October 2025, Microsoft began automatically installing three new companion apps onto the Windows 11 taskbar for devices that already have Microsoft 365 Apps. Dubbed Calendar, File...
Windows 11 Taskbar Gains Microsoft 365 Companions This Month — Enterprise Readiness Guide
Microsoft is quietly rolling out a trio of lightweight Microsoft 365 companion apps directly into the Windows 11 taskbar, starting this month for business users. The People, File Search, and Calendar...
OneNote Insider Finally Delivers Ctrl+Shift+V Plain Text Paste After 20+ Years
It’s a feature that most modern text editors have had for years, yet it took Microsoft more than two decades to bring it to OneNote: the ability to paste plain text with a simple keyboard shortcut....
Microsoft PowerToys Could Soon Flash a Green Halo on Your Screen Every Time You Copy Text
Copying text from a terminal window on Windows can be a gamble—you press Ctrl+C or right-click, but sometimes nothing lands on the clipboard, leaving you to paste stale or empty content into your...
Windows 11 25H2: You Can Finally Kill the Recommended Feed, and File Explorer Gets an AI Brain
After years of user requests, Microsoft is finally letting Windows 11 users eliminate the much-maligned Recommended feed from the Start menu, all while packing the operating system with AI-powered...
The Five Windows 11 Tricks That Secretly Save Power Users Hours Every Week
Five deceptively simple features baked into Windows 11 can shave hours off a user’s weekly workload—and most of them require nothing more than a few keystrokes to activate. These aren’t obscure...
Microsoft’s 200,000 Copilot Chat Analysis: Translators, Writers Top AI Threat List at 49%
Interpreters and translators face a 49% AI applicability score, according to Microsoft’s unprecedented analysis of 200,000 anonymized Copilot conversations—a finding that catapults knowledge...
Five Free Windows Apps That Instantly Boost Productivity on a New PC
Five free utilities can transform a fresh Windows PC into a productivity powerhouse in less than an hour, according to a practical checklist from ZDNET that targets the most common friction points in...
Stop Wasting Time: How Windows 11’s Focus Sessions, Snap Layouts, and Voice Typing Actually Work
Press Win+Shift+S right now. That single keystroke is your gateway to a screenshot tool that most Windows 11 users underutilize. But it's just one of several built-in features—from Focus Sessions...