MakeUseOf - Windows Tips

After this update, your Windows PC will demand a 48-digit key, and most people can't produce one

Tashreef Shareef — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 22:00:13 GMT

Windows PCs have supported automatic device encryption for a couple of years now. For this to happen, though, your PC had to meet strict hardware requirements, and you needed to sign in with a Microsoft account so the encryption key was backed up to the cloud.

The reason Windows 11 requires a Microsoft account is actually pretty boring

Afam Onyimadu — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 22:00:13 GMT

It's common knowledge that Windows 11 steers you towards a Microsoft account. Most people explain this as data collection or lock-in, and that explanation feels tidy. But what happens when you give in or keep refusing to sign in doesn't always match this narrative. More importantly, you should be asking why Microsoft made the account so central in the first place. The explanation isn't as dramatic as you may expect, but it's also more practical than the conspiracy versions.

There's only one Control Panel dialog left that Windows Settings hasn't replaced

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 18:30:13 GMT

Windows 11 has gotten surprisingly good at steering me away from Control Panel. If I right-click This PC and choose Properties, I end up in Settings. If I open the old System page in Control Panel, Windows redirects me there too. But if I start looking for environment variables, pagefile controls, or crash dump settings, Windows still sends me back to System Properties, with its cramped buttons, crowded tabs, and unmistakably old-school Windows design.

These 4 free tools made my old Windows laptop useful again

Digvijay Kumar — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 14:00:13 GMT

Years of Windows updates and software installs slowly turned my old Asus Vivobook into a sluggish mess, where even opening a few browser tabs makes the cooling fan scream. The hardware is still fine, with a great keyboard and a clean screen, so a replacement is hard to justify given how expensive new laptops have become lately.

Your PC isn’t too old — Windows 11’s default settings are slowing it down

Oluwaseun Bamisile — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 18:00:13 GMT

If you've read through some of my previous articles, I've mentioned several times that I use a five-year-old Dell Latitude laptop. Not that I don't want to replace it after all these years, but I honestly don't need to. The work I do — writing, researching, and editing — doesn't require me to have a juicy laptop, and I'm not dropping $1,000 on a laptop just to spend my days on Google Chrome.

Windows 11 has had 5 years to fix these 5 features, but it still hasn’t

Pankil Shah — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:00:13 GMT

I’ve been using Windows 11 since the day it launched, and five years is enough time for Microsoft to fix the stuff that annoyed everyone. Microsoft has improved its apps and slapped AI onto pretty much everything, but somehow, the important stuff has been overlooked. And it’s high time Microsoft did something about it.

Your Windows security is hiding 11% of your gaming performance — here's why you shouldn't claim it

Shaheer Khan — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 19:30:13 GMT

I've scoured Windows for almost every setting that could improve performance or make the OS feel a little better. While Windows' default settings work against performance for the most part, some essential settings are in place for your own good, even if they come at a cost to performance.

3 perfectly reasonable things Windows 11 still refuses to let you do

Afam Onyimadu — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 22:00:13 GMT

I've used Windows long enough to understand how much it's evolved. But because I use several other OSes, I'm reminded every once in a while that Windows 11 still doesn't let me do a few perfectly normal things.

6 Windows 11 quality-of-life features you’ll wish you found sooner

Pankil Shah — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:00:14 GMT

I’ve been using Windows 11 almost daily since launch, and I still sometimes find features I had no idea existed. And I’m not talking about anything that needs a registry hack to unlock. These are features that are either buried in menus or simply easy to miss. None of these are big enough to make a headline, but they can change the way you use your PC, or make the boring stuff a little less boring.

3 things your USB ports can still do when your PC is turned off

Afam Onyimadu — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:00:14 GMT

Did you know that a USB port may still be electrically alive even though your PC looks totally dead — the screen is black, the fans have stopped, and Windows is gone? That remaining power can enable things you may not have considered, like charging a phone after shutdown or, on supported hardware, allowing a keyboard to wake the PC.