IDC’s latest preliminary data on the smartphone market suggests Apple’s traditionally weakest smartphone quarter might be a little weaker than usual this year as political tension gnaws away at the company.

If IDC is correct, this unravelling has lopped a few more hairs from Apple’s Big Tech scalp, with Q1 iPhone sales down as much as 9.6%. That means Samsung is once again the temporary King of the Hill, even as China’s Xiaomi also makes gains. Comparative market share only tells part of the story, of course: Apple still allegedly sold 50 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2024, according to IDC. 

Morgan Stanley has a more optimistic view. In a client note received by Computerworld, analyst Erik Woodring wrote: “Contrary to market expectations, our Greater China Tech Hardware colleagues just raised their June quarter iPhone builds.”

Specifically, Woodring tells us analysts bumped up their “iPhone build expectations by 5%, or 2 [million] units, to 39 [million] units (-5% Y/Y) citing checks with Hon Hai and reflecting strength of legacy iPhone models in emerging markets, and relative stability elsewhere.”

Apple’s weakest quarter is weak, says IDC

When it comes to the overall market, IDC has a slightly rosy outlook. “The smartphone market is emerging from the turbulence of the last two years both stronger and changed,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team. 

The big trend is that global political realignment is evidencing itself in a new wave of smartphone competitors. “There is a shift in power among the Top 5 companies, which will likely continue as market players adjust their strategies in a post-recovery world,” said Popal.

It is inevitable US business will be affected by international political polarization. Indeed, as things continue to unravel, it is tempting to believe the architects of division on all sides will not rest until ordinary humans are once again reduced to speaking to each other using tin cans and string.

Hopefully we can avoid that outcome.

What can Apple do?

It’s never good to see an almost 10% decline in sales of a company’s most important product, but there are other reasons for provide optimism. Not only is Apple now actively engaged in developing new business plans for a more regulated industry, it’s also practicing its next pivot to pirouette around the twin themes of AR and AI. 

Claims Apple AI will run directly on the device should translate into an accelerant for iPhone sales, particularly among privacy/security conscious consumers and enterprise professionals. But there are other people who will welcome incredibly productive smartphones capable of handling complex tasks.

The value of new markets

Accurate recognition of the true value of growing markets remains a challenge for analysts looking to enumerate potential sales data in terms of specific company achievements. There is a possibility that Apple’s continued moves to build bigger business in India and elsewhere might not yet have been accurately baked into expectations. 

However, even if the IDC data is accurate, it’s worth reflecting that Apple’s move to make iPhones in India has been met by strong gains in local share — and there may be longer legs to find. Apple’s anticipated plan for more powerful iPhones with on-device edge AI will appeal to customers in growing markets, some of whom may have almost entirely skipped personal ownership of computers. These smart devices might yet turn out to be all the computer an even greater number of consumers need. They should be capable of replacing PCs for even more tasks.

Bicycle or hype cycle?

Indeed, while there’s plenty of excitement around AI/Generative AI (genAI) across mature markets (evidenced if by nothing else by the vast number of “Get Rich Quick” scams festooned across Twitter/X), it’s plausible to think that the true liberation of human potential will come from the democratization of access to computing these things represent. This, of course, is central to Apple’s core DNA, which has always described computers as “bicycles of the mind.”

The company won’t be alone, of course. Every tech firm is running to climb aboard the AI hype machine, in part to build big market slices in advance of inevitable regulation. But for Apple, if you also factor in second user and refurbished devices and think about actual devices in use, that means hundreds of millions will gain access to these new tools in a few months for no extra cost.

In fact, as consumers choose to use their handsets longer, the only thing that really matters when it comes to smartphone sales this year is the extent to which Apple’s forthcoming AI iOS upgrade is backwards compatible. Because today’s happy customers will become repeat customers in tomorrow’s upgrade cycle. That’s how this river flows.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grilland Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

While generative artificial intelligence (genAI) models are expected to shrink down in size to fit more defined needs and corporate budgets, a large number of service providers are still plotting their revenue course based on delivering AI cloud services.

In his annual letter to shareholders last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company will focus less on building consumer-facing genAI applications and more on delivering AI models it can sell via web services to enterprise customers.

“Sometimes, people ask us, ‘What’s your next pillar? You have Marketplace, Prime, and AWS, what’s next?,’” Jassy wrote. “If you asked me today, I’d lead with generative AI. We’re optimistic that much of this world-changing AI will be built on top of AWS.”

Jassy’s expectations for revenue streams from AI services are not misplaced. Organizations plan to invest 10% to 15% more on AI initiatives over the next year and a half compared to calendar year 2022, according to an IDC survey of more than 2,000 IT and line-of-business decision makers.

Last fall, Amazon launched Bedrock, which delivers a variety of large language models (LLMs) via the AWS cloud through which organizations can build genAI applications. The company also recently launched Amazon Q, a cloud-based AI-assisted software coding assistant.

Amazon’s Bedrock offers AI “foundational models” from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral AI, Stability AI, along with Amazon’s own LLM via a single API.

Amazon’s list of AI cloud clients now includes ADP, Delta Air Lines, GoDaddy, Intuit, Pfizer, and Siemens.

Currently, cloud computing leads all other methods for delivering genAI applications to enterprises; that’s because of the high cost of building out proprietary infrastructure. Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle have invested billions of dollars in AI cloud offerings since OpenAI set off a firestorm of adoption with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

“No one but the hyperscalers and mega large companies can afford to train and operate the very large LLMs and foundation models,” said Avivah Litan, Gartner distinguished vice president analyst. “The costs are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

By “large” Litan was referring to models with hundreds of billions of parameters, as opposed, to say, those with fewer than 100 billion parameters. The costs to use LLMs supplied over cloud services, however, “are relatively manageable by enterprises and for now are also subsidized by the hyperscalers,” Litan said.

However, as enterprises continue to grow their pilots of genAI applications, the cost of cloud services can become a limiting factor. Instead, many organizations are looking to deploy smaller, on-premises LLMs aimed at handling specific tasks.

Smaller domain-specific models trained on more data will eventually challenge the dominance of today’s leading LLMs, including OpenAI’s GPT 4, Meta AI’s LLaMA 2, and Google’s PaLM 2. Smaller models would also be easier to train for specific use cases, according to Dan Diasio, Ernst & Young’s Global Artificial Intelligence Consulting Leader.

Through 2025, 30% of genAI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept (POC) due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs, or unclear business value, according to Gartner Research. And by 2028, more than half of enterprises that have built their own LLMs from scratch will abandon their efforts due to costs, complexity and technical debt in their deployments.

Current vendor pricing models that pass on the high cost of innovation and developing, training and running LLMs could also mean enterprises won’t see ROI for their AI projects, according to a recent report by Gartner. Even when pricing is subsidized by vendors hoping to gain early market share, it’s often not enough to produce a quick payback, Gartner said. Instead, organizations should take the long approach to productivity gains and ROI from genAI.

Lee Sustar, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said AI services via cloud will continue to grow as products such as AWS Bedrock, Azure AI and Google Cloud Vertex lower the barrier to entry.

“Given the data gravity in the cloud, it is often the easiest place to start with training data. However, there will be a lot of use cases for smaller LLMs and AI inferencing at the edge. Also, cloud providers will continue to offer build-your-own AI platform options via Kubernetes platforms, which have been used by data scientist for years now,” Sustar said. “Some of these implementations will take place in the data center on platforms such as Red Hat OpenShift AI. Meanwhile, new GPU-oriented clouds like Coreweave will offer a third option. This is early days, but managed AI services from cloud providers will remain central to the AI ecosystem.”

And while smaller LLMs are on the horizon, enterprises will still use major companies’ AI cloud services for when they need access to very large LLMs, according to Litan. Even so, more organizations will eventually be using small LLMs that run on much smaller hardware, “even as small as a common laptop.

“And we will see the rise of services companies that support that configuration along with the privacy, security and risk management services that will be required,” Litan said. “There will be plenty of room for both models — the very large foundation model cloud service delivery and the small foundation model private cloud service delivery on your GPU/CPU of choice.”

One of Amazon’s earliest AI-cloud services was Sagemaker, an integrated development environment (IDE) for developers and engineers to build, train, and deploy machine learning and AI models.

“Bedrock is off to a very strong start with tens of thousands of active customers after just a few months,” Jassy wrote. “Unlike the mass modernization of on-premises infrastructure to the cloud…, this genAI revolution will be built from the start on top of the cloud.”

Microsoft released 149 updates in this month’s Patch Tuesday release, though there were no reports of public disclosures or other zero-days for the Microsoft ecosystem (Windows, Office, .NET). This update is very large, complex and will require some testing time, especially for the OLE, ODBC and SQL focused updates and their impact on complex applications. 

Microsoft also moved to make it easier to understand security-related CVE entries much easier by adopting the new CWE vulnerability reporting standard. The team at Application Readiness has provided this infographic detailing the risks associated with the April updates. 

Known issues 

Each month, Microsoft publishes a list of known issues that relate to the operating system and platforms included in the latest update cycle, including these two reported minor issues:

• After you install KB5034203 or later updates, some Windows devices that use the DHCP Option 235 to discover Microsoft Connected Cache (MCC) nodes in their network might be unable to use those nodes. Microsoft is actively working on this issue, and so we should expect an update soon.

• Some users of Windows Server 2008 will see messages that say, “Failure to configure Windows updates. Reverting Changes. Do not turn off your computer,” when attempting to update legacy devices. This may be a result of an improperly configured ESU configuration. Microsoft has recently updated its guidelines on acquiring and configuring ESU keys, which may help those still struggling.

Major revisions 

This month, Microsoft published these revisions to past updates:

• CVE-2022-0001: Branch History Injection. Reason for revision: Corrected one or more links in the FAQ. This is an informational change only. No further action required.
• CVE-2023-24932: Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability: Updated FAQs to include information on how to be protected from this vulnerability for customers running Windows 11 23H2 or Windows Server 2022, 23H2 Edition. No further action required.
• CVE-2013-3900: WinVerifyTrust Signature Validation Vulnerability.

Microsoft has updated the FAQ documentation to inform customers that EnableCertPaddingCheck is data type REG_SZ (a string value) and not data type dword. When you specify ‘EnableCertPaddingCheck” as in “DataItemName1″=”DataType1:DataValue1” do not include the date type value or colon. This will mitigate the impact of this vulnerability.

There was a significant update to the Kerberos security system within Windows, too, with a change to an existing patch (CVE-2024-21427). Microsoft has removed all supported versions of Windows 11 as they are no longer affected by the vulnerability. (Looks like another reason to upgrade to the latest Windows desktop.)

Mitigations and workarounds

Microsoft released the following vulnerability-related mitigation:

• CVE-2024-26232: Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Microsoft helpfully notes that the MSMQ feature is rarely needed and can be disabled, reducing exposure to this vulnerability. Yep.

Each month, the Readiness team analyzes the latest updates and provides detailed, actionable testing guidance; the recommendations are based on a large application portfolio and detailed analysis of the patches and their potential impact on Windows and apps.

For this release cycle, we grouped the critical updates and required testing efforts into functional area including:

File management

• Test scenarios involving tar.exe or the native support of archives in Windows.
• Test end-to-end scenarios involving File Management Tasks and Storage Reports Management.

Crypto (local security mechanisms)

• Test scenarios that utilize Crypto APIs. Please pay special attention to any operation that relies on CryptDecodeObject or CryptDecodeObjectEx. 
• Test your cryptographic operations and key generation, particularly in VTL1 environments.
• Test out variations of replications on different types and sizes of files and folders. 

Networking (DHCP and DNS)

• Test functional scenarios where Client DUID is a required parameter. 
• Send Message with VendorOption of DomainName. 
• Check whether the client UID is provided to the RPC API.
• Test DNS virtual instance and zone management scenarios.

Remote desktop and connections

• Test out point-to-point connections and RRAS servers using the MPRAPI protocols. 
• Test your VPN connections with a connect/disconnect, delete and repeat test cycle.

Automated testing will help with these scenarios (especially a testing platform that offers a “delta” for comparison between builds). However, for your line-of-business apps getting the application owner (doing UAT) to test and approve the results is absolutely essential. 

There have been a large number (24 of this month’s total of 164) of updates to Microsoft SQL components in Windows and to how OLE operates with other Windows features. Applications that require these kinds of “cooperative” interactions are generally complex line-of-business applications. Trouble-shooting these update scenarios requires specialist application expertise and can be very time consuming. 

To prevent downtime, expensive faults and potentially damaging compliance issues, we fully recommend an audit of your application portfolio, identifying SQLOLE, OLEDB, and ODBC dependencies with an assessment and testing plan before general deployment of this month’s patches.

Windows lifecycle update 

This section contains important changes to servicing (and most security updates) to Windows desktop and server platforms.

• Windows 10 21H2 (E) ends in June 2024.
• Microsoft .NET 7.0.18 (support ends this month).
• Microsoft Visual Studio (2022 – 17.4 LTSC) support ends this month.
• PowerShell 7.3 main support ends May 8, 2024.

Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families (as defined by Microsoft) with the following basic groupings: 

• Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge);
• Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server);
• Microsoft Office;
• Microsoft SQL Server (not Exchange Server);
• Microsoft Development platforms (ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Chakra Core);
• Adobe (if you get this far).

Browsers

Microsoft released just five updates to its Chromium-based browser, all rated important. Note that the next release for this browser platform is the week of April 18. Chromium releases are now out of sync with Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates. Add these updates to your standard patch release schedule. 

Windows

For this (mammoth) release to the Windows platform, the following broad areas have been updated.

• Windows RAS, ICS, RRAS.
• Windows Message Queuing.
• Windows Cryptographic Services, BitLocker, Kerberos and LSASS.
• Windows Distributed File System (DFS).
• Windows DHCP Server.
• Microsoft WDAC OLE DB provider for SQL.
• Windows Telephony Server.

This month we do not see any reports of publicly reported vulnerabilities or exploits in the wild and if you are on a modern platform (Windows 10/11) all these reported security vulnerabilities are difficult to exploit. Please add this update to your standard Windows release schedule. 

Microsoft Office

Microsoft released only two patches (CVE-2024-26251 and CVE-2024-26257) for the Microsoft Office suite affecting Excel and SharePoint. Both updates are rated important by Microsoft and should be included in your standard Office update schedule.

Microsoft SQL Server (not Exchange Server)

In place (and instead) of Microsoft Exchange Server, we have a special guest this month: Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft released 38 patches for its database platform, making it one of the largest, most complex and technically challenging updates in memory. 

The important thing to note here is that these updates affect how OLE (object linking and embedding), ODBC and SQL Server operate. As a critical middle layer for most business applications, this update will require significant attention from your in-house development, testing and deployment teams. It is not just a big update. It’s the multiplicative, interdependent nature of multiple cooperating systems that are being updated. Really, really. 

Microsoft development platforms 

Microsoft released 11 updates to the development platform, with 10 focused on Microsoft SQL ODBC issues within Microsoft Visual Studio and the other update impacting Microsoft .NET (CVE-2024-21409). This month’s .NET vulnerability has remote in the name, but it requires a local account (and permissions) and so can be added to your standard developer release schedule. The other 10 affecting SQL and ODBC? Your in-house development team will have to have an in-depth look at these updates. It could be really messy, so take your time.

Adobe Reader (if you get this far) 

No Adobe updates from Microsoft this month. And (lucky us) there are no other updates to third-party tools or platforms included in this update cycle.

The UK’s antitrust regulator has put tech giants on notice after expressing concern that developments in the AI market could stifle innovation.

Sarah Cardell, CEO of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), delivered a speech on the regulation of artificial intelligence in Washington DC on Thursday, highlighting new AI-specific elements of a previously announced investigation into cloud service providers.

The CMA will also investigate how Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI might be affecting competition in the wider AI ecosystem. Another strand of the probe will look into the competitive landscape in AI accelerator chips, a market segment where Nvidia holds sway.

While praising the rapid pace of development in AI and numerous recent innovations, Cardell expressed concerns that existing tech giant are exerting undue control.

“We believe the growing presence across the foundation models value chain of a small number of incumbent technology firms, which already hold positions of market power in many of today’s most important digital markets, could profoundly shape these new markets to the detriment of fair, open and effective competition,” Cardell said in a speech to the Antitrust Law Spring Meeting conference.

Vendor lock-in fears

Anti-competitive tying or bundling of products and services is making life harder for new entrants. Partnerships and investments — including in the supply of critical inputs such as data, compute power and technical expertise — also pose a competitive threat, according to Cardell.

She criticised the “winner-take-all dynamics” that have resulted in the domination of a “small number of powerful platforms” in the emerging market for AI-based technologies and services.

“We have seen instances of those incumbent firms leveraging their core market power to obstruct new entrants and smaller players from competing effectively, stymying the innovation and growth that free and open markets can deliver for our societies and our economies,” she said.

The UK’s pending Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, alongside the CMA’s existing powers, could give the authority the ability to promote diversity and choice in the AI market.

Amazon and Nvidia declined to comment on Cardell’s speech while the other vendors name-checked in the speech —Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI — did not immediately reply.

Dan Shellard, a partner at European venture capital firm Breega and a former Google employee, said the CMA was right to be concerned about how the AI market was developing.

“Owing to the large amounts of compute, talent, data, and ultimately capital needed to build foundational models, by its nature AI centralises to big tech,” Shellard said.

“Of course, we’ve seen a few European players successfully raise the capital needed to compete, including Mistral, but the reality is that the underlying models powering AI technologies remain owned by an exclusive group.”

The recently voted EU AI Act and the potential for US regulation in the AI marketplace make for a shifting picture, where the CMA is just one actor in a growing movement. The implications of regulation and oversight on AI tooling by entities such as the CMA are significant, according to industry experts.

“Future regulations may impose stricter rules around the ‘key inputs’ in the development, use, and sale of AI components such as data, expertise and compute resources,” said Jeff Watkins, chief product and technology officer at xDesign, a UK-based digital design consultancy.

Risk mitigation

It remains to be seen how regulation to prevent market power concentration will influence the existing concentrations — of code and of data — around AI.

James Poulter, CEO of AI tools developer Vixen Labs, suggested that businesses looking to develop their own AI tools should look to utilise open source technologies in order to minimise risks.

“If the CMA and other regulatory bodies begin to impose restrictions on how foundation models are trained — and more importantly, hold the creators liable for the output of such models — we may see an increase in companies looking to take an open-source approach to limit their liability,” Poulter said.

While financial service firms, retailers, and others should take time to assess the models they choose to deploy as part of an AI strategy, regulators are “usually predisposed to holding the companies who create such models to account — more than clamping down on users,” he said.

Data privacy is more of an issue for businesses looking to deploy AI, according to Poulter.

Poulter concluded: “We need to see a regulatory model which encourages users of AI tools to take personal responsibility for how they use them — including what data they provide to model creators, as well as ensuring foundation model providers take an ethical approach to model training and development.”

Developing AI market regulations might introduce stricter data governance practices, creating additional compliance headaches.

“Companies using AI for tasks like customer profiling or sentiment analysis could face audits to ensure user consent is obtained for data collection and that responsible data usage principles are followed,” Mayur Upadhyaya, CEO of APIContext said. “Additionally, stricter API security and authorisation standards could be implemented.”

Dr Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy, Domino Data Lab, said “Generative AI increases data privacy risks because it makes it easier for customers and employees to engage directly with AI models, for example via enhanced chatbots, which in turn makes it easy for people to divulge sensitive information, which an organisation is then on the hook to protect. Unfortunately, traditional mechanisms for data governance do not help when it comes to minimising the risk of falling afoul of GDPR when using AI because they are disconnected from the AI model lifecycle.”

APIContext’s Upadhyaya suggested integrating user consent mechanisms directly into interactions with AI chatbots and the like offers an approach to mitigate risks of falling out of compliance with regulations such as GDPR.

Far from shrinking, the scale of mercenary surveillance companies paid by governments to spy on journalists, human rights campaigners, and other members of the civil state is growing.

Today Apple warned iPhone users in an astonishing 92 nations that attacks against them have taken place. (The company sends out these notifications several times each year.) Without opposition, governments and other entities will not quit this unconstrained descent into becoming a surveillance society.

You are a surveillance target

According to TechCrunch, Apple wrote users: “Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID. This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously.” 

The latest rash of warnings means Apple has now identified 150 nations in which such attacks have taken place. There are 196 nations on the planet.

“Since 2021, we have sent Apple threat notifications multiple times a year as we have detected these attacks, and to date we have notified users in over 150 countries in total,” Apple said.

Though it may not be aware of every attack, its security teams work around the clock to protect customers against what it has until recently described as “state sponsored mercenary surveillance.” Many of the firms engaged in selling snooping software are, like NSO Group, Israel-based. 

What to do if you receive a warning 

If you have received a threat notification, you should act immediately. Amnesty International’s Security Lab tells us that an Apple threat notification should be seen as a very strong indication that you are being attacked. 

Amnesty’s own forensic tests with individual devices that have received such notifications confirm they should be taken seriously, and if you have received one, you should take immediate steps to remediate and secure your digital existence. 

Apple advises that you secure expert help, such as the rapid-response emergency security assistance provided by the Digital Security Helpline at the non-profit Access Now. Amnesty International and other Security Lab civil society partners are also equipped to provide support to individuals who received the Apple notifications. 

Are these attacks proliferating?

Reuters also notes that Apple has changed how it describes the attacks. The company now tells people that they may have been victims of “mercenary spyware attack,” rather than framing the assault as being “state-sponsored” as it did before. 

While this is described as a reaction to government reluctance to be linked with such attacks, it is also plausible to believe that it reflects continued growth in the surveillance business. As I’ve warned before, today’s expensive state-sponsored attacks become tomorrow’s $100 bargain deal on the dark web. These offensive technologies are utterly insidious and rot the center of democracy.

Apple also updated its Apple Support article concerning mercenary spyware and the threat notifications it has shared. “Mercenary spyware attacks cost millions of dollars and often have a short shelf life, making them much harder to detect and prevent,” the company said. “The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.”

Ivan Krstić, head of Apple security engineering and architecture, has previously promised to keep fighting back: “Apple runs one of the most sophisticated security engineering operations in the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect our users from abusive state-sponsored actors like NSO Group.”

That said, a report today from Interpres Security seems to confirm the growing magnitude of these threats.

Security advice

In an increasingly challenging security environment, everyone online should protect themselves:

• Update devices with latest software.
• Use complex passcodes.
• Use two-factor authentication.
• Protect their Apple ID with a strong password.
• Install apps only from trusted sources, such as the App Store.
• Use strong and unique passwords.
• Never click on links or attachments from people you do not know.

Finally, if you think you may be a target, use Lockdown Mode.

Apple developed this mode in response to a wave of sophisticated attacks (Pegasus, Devils Tongue and Hermit). Lockdown Mode provides a great deal of protection at the cost of some utility; Apple is expected to continue to invest in securing its platforms, even against the designed in weaknesses it is being forced to adopt in reaction to some regulations, particularly in Europe and the UK.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Spreadsheets can be vast, often containing thousands of rows of repetitive data that makes them impossible to parse at a glance. Fortunately, Excel offers two powerful features — PivotTables and PivotCharts — for summarizing data sets and presenting them visually.

What is a PivotTable?

A PivotTable allows you to take an extensive data set with multiple columns and rows and summarize that data in a compact, easy-to-read table. You can create multiple PivotTables from the same data set, each highlighting different aspects of the data. And PivotTables are interactive — you can easily manipulate them to filter or rearrange the data shown in one.

What is a PivotChart?

A PivotChart is a chart visualization based on the summarized information in a PivotTable. You can choose from a wide variety of chart types to best display a PivotTable’s data. The combinations you can create using these tools are countless.

In this tutorial, we will give you step-by-step instructions on how to get started with PivotTables and PivotCharts, and you can apply these steps to any data set you work with in Excel. We’ll demonstrate in Excel for Windows under a Microsoft 365 subscription; if you’re using a different version of Excel, your interface might look a little different and the steps might vary slightly, but things work more or less the same way.

How to create a PivotTable in Excel

We will use the data set shown below as our starting point:

To get started, select any cell in the data set, then go to the Ribbon toolbar at the top of the spreadsheet and select Insert. At the far left of the toolbar, select the PivotTable button.

A pop-up appears that lets you select the range of data you want to analyze and where to place the PivotTable. Make sure the whole data set is selected and that the PivotTable will be placed in a new worksheet, then click OK.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

Now we are brought to the starting page for creating a PivotTable. From here, we can begin constructing our first data summary.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

First, we will look at the total quantity of each ordered product. To do this, let’s check the checkbox next to Quantity in the PivotTable Fields sidebar on the right. This will move Quantity into the Values area at the bottom right of the sidebar. Next, drag Product_# into the Rows area to sort by Product_#. The screenshot below shows the result.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

Here we see a summary of the quantity of products sold by product number and the total quantity of all products sold. You can do this sort of simple analysis with any two variables, but you can also do more fine-grained summaries.

Next, we will add another layer to our analysis by displaying quantity of products by product number and categorizing them by order category. To do this, drag Order_Category into the Rows section of the sidebar and make sure that Order_Category is on top. (You can reorder the items in any area of the sidebar by dragging and dropping them.)

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

It’s important to understand that you can manipulate how information is shown in the table by the order in which you place the items in any section of the PivotTable. Since we put Order_Category on top of the Rows area, the PivotTable is summarized by that first and then by Product_# inside. To show the opposite sorting, move Product_# to the top in the Rows section and see the result.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

So far, we have only used the Rows section of the PivotTable builder, but we can show even more information using the Rows and Columns sections together. To demonstrate, we will display the total quantity of products sold at different unit prices. To do this, uncheck the Order_Category checkbox at the top of the sidebar, keep Product_# in the Rows section, and then drag Unit_Price into the Columns section.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

We have created a summary showing the amount of each product sold at a particular unit price. Now, let’s say we don’t want to view all of the products at the same time. We can limit the products shown using the filtering tools built into PivotTables.

First, let’s filter our results by Products 1, 2, and 3. Click the downward triangle icon next to Row Labels. In the filtering pop-up that appears, select Products 1, 2, and 3. The PivotTable will change to show only those three products.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

Once you are done, select the Clear Filter button in the pop-up, and the full PivotTable reappears.

Next, let’s filter by unit price using the Column Labels filter option. Select that filter and select the $4.00, $5.00, & $7.00 options to change your PivotTable.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

You can also use the pop-up to sort the items in the PivotTable by various fields, and to filter using conditions such as “Greater Than” or “Contains.” It’s worth spending a little time playing with the options to see what happens; just remember to click Clear Filter when you’re done.

Before we move on to PivotCharts, let’s discuss the Filters area of the sidebar. This can be used to filter out specific items from the PivotTable, but you may find it simpler to remove the field altogether or use the filtering and sorting options that we discussed earlier for more granular control. However, you can see how this box functions by moving the “Product_#” field to the Filters area.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

How to create a PivotChart in Excel

Now, let’s move on to how to create data visualizations using PivotCharts. To add a PivotChart to the main data set, go back to the worksheet that contains the main data set, place your cursor in a cell that contains data, and select Insert>  PivotChart in the Ribbon.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

Hit OK on the dialog box that pops up, and the familiar PivotTable builder interface appears, with an additional placeholder for a PivotChart.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

We will summarize the quantity of items sold by order category and unit price. In the sidebar, check Quantity to add it to the Values area, then drag Order_Category and Unit_Price to the Axis (Categories) area, with Order_Category on top. This will create a PivotTable and a column chart displaying the information we have selected.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

But you’re not limited to column charts; there are multiple types of charts to choose from. Right-click the column chart, select Change Chart Type, and select Pie > 3-D Pie to see a different chart example.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

The result will look like the screenshot below.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

You can filter or sort the data in the PivotTable that a PivotChart is based on, and those changes will be reflected in the PivotChart. To see what this looks like, click the minus sign to the left of Large Order in the PivotTable to the left of the chart. The Large Order section of the PivotTable collapses and shows only the large order total, without breaking it down by unit price. The same thing happens in the PivotChart to the right.

Shimon Brathwaite / IDG

Now you see how using PivotTables and PivotCharts lets you create data summaries and visualizations to display specific data quickly and easily. These options can be used on data sets of almost any size and easily customized to show only very specific information. The combinations that you can create using PivotTables and PivotCharts are almost endless, and we encourage you to test them out on any data sets that you work with in Excel.

The one thing that seems about as certain as death and taxes is that, over time, your Windows 10 PC seems to slow down. There are a variety of reasons this can happen, from accumulated apps and background processes that run amok to registry problems and outdated drivers.

How to speed up your computer

Want your Windows 10 PC to run faster? We’re here to help. By tweaking some of the operating settings, your machine will be zippier and less prone to performance and system issues.

And if you’re already running Windows 11, we’ve got you covered there. Check out our top ways to keep Windows 11 devices chugging along smoothly.

Here’s our list of tips for Windows 10.

The top ways to speed up Windows 10

• Change your power settings

• Disable programs that run on startup

• Go to a previous restore point

• Use ReadyBoost to speed up disk caching

• Shut off Windows tips and tricks

• Stop OneDrive from syncing

• Use OneDrive files on-Demand

• Turn off search indexing

• Clean out your hard disk

• Clean out your Registry

• Disable shadows, animations and visual effects

• Disable transparency

• Update your device drivers

• Turn on automated Windows maintenance

• Kill bloatware

• Defrag your hard disk

• Disable Game Mode

• Shut down and restart Windows

You may notice that that last tip is the most tried-and-true way of (hopefully) smoothing out any problems in Windows 10. There’s a reason it’s effectively an internet meme.

1. Change your power settings

If you’re using Windows 10’s “Power saver” plan, you’re slowing down your PC. That plan reduces your PC’s performance in order to save energy. (Even desktop PCs typically have a “Power saver” plan.) Changing your power plan from “Power saver” to “High performance” or “Balanced” will give you an instant performance boost.

To do it, launch the Control Panel app, then select Hardware and Sound > Power Options. You’ll typically see two options: Balanced (recommended) and Power saver. (Depending on your make and model, you might see other plans here as well, including some branded by the manufacturer.) To see the High performance setting, click the down arrow by Show additional plans.

To change your power setting, simply choose the one you want, then exit Control Panel. “High performance” gives you the most oomph, but uses the most power; “Balanced” finds a happy medium between power use and better performance; and “Power saver” does everything it can to give you as much battery life as possible. Desktop users have no reason to choose “Power saver,” and even laptop users should consider the “Balanced” option when unplugged — and “High performance” when connected to a power source.

2. Disable programs that run on startup

One reason your Windows 10 PC may feel sluggish is that you’ve got too many programs running in the background — programs that you rarely or never use. Stop them from running, and your PC will run more smoothly.

Start by launching the Task Manager: Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc, right-click the lower-right corner of your screen and select Task Manager, or type task manager into the Windows 10 search box and press Enter. If the Task Manager launches as a compact app with no tabs, click More details at the bottom of your screen. The Task Manager will then appear in its full-tabbed glory. There’s plenty you can do with it, but we’re going to focus only on killing unnecessary programs that run at startup.

Click the Startup tab. You’ll see a list of the programs and services that launch when you start Windows. Included on the list is each program’s name as well as its publisher, whether it’s enabled to run on startup, and its “Startup impact,” which is how much it slows down Windows 10 when the system starts up.

To stop a program or service from launching at startup, right-click it and select Disable. This doesn’t disable the program entirely; it only prevents it from launching at startup — you can always run the application after launch. Also, if you later decide you want it to launch at startup, you can just return to this area of the Task Manager, right-click the application and select Enable.

Many of the programs and services that run on startup may be familiar to you, like OneDrive or Evernote Clipper. But you may not recognize many of them. (Anyone who immediately knows what “bzbui.exe” is, please raise your hand. No fair Googling it first.)

The Task Manager helps you get information about unfamiliar programs. Right-click an item and select Properties for more information about it, including its location on your hard disk, whether it has a digital signature, and other information such as the version number, the file size and the last time it was modified.

You can also right-click the item and select Open file location. That opens File Explorer and takes it to the folder where the file is located, which may give you another clue about the program’s purpose.

Finally, and most helpfully, you can select Search online after you right-click. Bing will then launch with links to sites with information about the program or service.

If you’re really nervous about one of the listed applications, you can go to a site run by Reason Software called Should I Block It? and search for the file name. You’ll usually find very solid information about the program or service.

Now that you’ve selected all the programs that you want to disable at startup, the next time you restart your computer, the system will be a lot less concerned with unnecessary programs.

3. Go to a previous restore point

As you use Windows 10, it automatically creates restore points that are essentially snapshots of your system at specific moments in time, including installed software, drivers, and updates. Restore points are a kind of safety net so if something goes wrong, you can always restore your PC to a previous state.

They can also be used to speed up your PC if you notice — for no reason you can fathom — it’s started to slow down. Recently installed problematic drivers, software, or updates could be to blame, so going back to a previous restore point could speed things up again because the system will be returned to the state it was in before the problems started. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll only be able to restore your system to the state it was in during the last seven to 10 days. (Restore points don’t affect your files, so you won’t lose any files by going to a restore point.)

To go to a previous restore point:

1. Save any open files and close all your programs.
2. In the search box type advanced system and then click View advanced system settings. You’ll be sent to the Advanced tab of System Properties in the Control Panel.
3. Click the System Protection tab.
4. In the System Restore area, click System Restore.
5. On the screen that pops up, the “Recommended restore” option will be chosen for you. Click Next if you want to go that restore point. To see others, click Choose a different restore point. Highlight the one you want to use and click Next.
6. Click Finish from the screen that appears.
7. Your system will restore to the restore point you chose and shut down. Restart your PC.

Note: there’s a chance System Restore isn’t turned on, meaning you won’t be able to use this tip. If that’s the case, you should turn it on to solve any future problems. To do so:

1. In the search box, type create a restore point, then click Create a restore point.
2. On the System Protection tab, select Configure.
3. Select Turn on system protection. Leave the other settings on the page as they are.
4. Click OK. From now on, your PC will automatically create restore points.

4. Use ReadyBoost to speed up disk caching

Windows 10 regularly stores cached data on your hard disk, and then when it needs the data, fetches it from there. The time it takes to fetch cached data depends on the speed of your hard disk. If you have a traditional hard disk instead of an SSD, there’s a trick that can help speed up your cache: use Windows’ ReadyBoost feature. It tells Windows to cache data to a USB flash drive, which is faster than a hard disk. Fetching data from that speedier cache should speed up Windows.

First, plug a USB flash drive into one of your PC’s USB ports. The flash drive needs to support at least USB 2.0, and preferably USB 3 or faster. The faster your flash drive, the more of a speed boost you should see. Also, look for a flash drive that is at least double the size of your PC’s RAM for maximum performance.

After you plug in in the drive, open File Explorer and click This PC. Look for the flash drive. It may have an odd name, like UDISK 28X, or something even less obvious. Right-click it, choose Properties, and click the ReadyBoost tab.

You’ll come to a screen that asks whether you want to use the flash drive as a cache and recommends a cache size. Leave the cache size as is or change it if you like. Then select Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost and click Apply and then OK.

(Note that if you see the message, “This device cannot be used for ReadyBoost” when you click the ReadyBoost tab, it means your flash drive doesn’t meet ReadyBoost’s minimum performance standards, so you’ll have to insert a new one.)

As you use your computer, ReadyBoost will start filling the cache with files, so you may notice an increase in disk activity. Depending on how much you use your PC, it can take a few days for your cache to fill and offer maximum improved performance. If you don’t see an increase in performance, try a flash disk with more capacity.

Note: If you have an SSD, you won’t get any extra speed from ReadyBoost, and it might even hurt performance. So don’t use this on a system with an SSD.

5. Shut off Windows tips and tricks

As you use your Windows 10 PC, Windows keeps an eye on what you’re doing and offers tips about things you might want to do with the operating system. In my experience, I’ve rarely if ever found these “tips” helpful. I also don’t like the privacy implications of Windows constantly taking a virtual look over my shoulder.

Windows watching what you’re doing and offering advice can also make your PC run more sluggishly. So if you want to speed things up, tell Windows to stop giving you advice. To do so, click the Start button, select the Settings icon and then go to System > Notifications & actions. Scroll down to the Notifications section and uncheck the box marked “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.”

That’ll do the trick.

6. Stop OneDrive from syncing

Microsoft’s cloud-based OneDrive file storage, built into Windows 10, keeps files synced and up to date on all of your PCs. It’s also a useful backup tool so that if your PC or its hard disk dies, you still have all your files intact, waiting for you to restore them.

It does this by constantly syncing files between your PC and cloud storage — something that can also slow down your PC. That’s why one way to speed up your PC is to stop the syncing. Before you turn it off permanently, though, you’ll want to check whether it is actually slowing down your PC.

To do so, right-click the OneDrive icon (it looks like a cloud) in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar. (Note: In order to see the OneDrive icon, you may need to click an upward facing arrow.) From the pop-up screen that appears, click Pause syncing and select either 2 hours, 8 hours, or 24 hours, depending upon how long you want it paused. During that time, gauge whether you’re seeing a noticeable speed boost.

If so, and you decide you do indeed want to turn off syncing, right-click the OneDrive icon, and from the pop-up, select Settings > Account. Click Unlink this PC, and then from the screen that appears, click Unlink account. When you do that, you’ll still be able to save your files to your local OneDrive folder, but it won’t sync with the cloud.

If you find that OneDrive slows down your PC but prefer to keep using it, you can try to troubleshoot OneDrive problems. For info on how to do that, check out Microsoft’s “Fix OneDrive sync problems” page.

7. Use OneDrive Files On-Demand

Some users may not want to stop OneDrive from syncing; doing so defeats its purpose of making sure you have the latest files on whatever device you use. And it would also mean you won’t be able to use OneDrive as a way to safely back up files.

But there’s a way to get the best of both worlds: You can keep syncing to an absolute minimum and only do it when absolutely necessary. You’ll speed up performance, and still get the best of what OneDrive has to offer.

To do this, you use Windows’ OneDrive Files On-Demand feature. With it, you can choose to keep only certain files on your PC, but still have access to all your other OneDrive files in the cloud. When you want to use one of those online files, you open it directly from the cloud. With fewer files on your PC syncing, you should see a performance boost.

Right-click the OneDrive icon on the right side of the Taskbar and select Settings. Click Advanced settings and scroll down to the Files On-Demand section. Click Free up disk space and select Continue. When you do that, all the files on your PC will be set to online-only, which means they’re only available from OneDrive in the cloud not on your PC. From now on, the first time you want to open one of your files, you’ll have to be online – that is, unless you use the following instructions to make some files available on your PC as well as in the cloud, while you leave others available only in the cloud.

After you click the Continue button, you’ll see OneDrive in a File Explorer window.  For every folder whose files you want kept on your PC, right-click the folder and select Always keep on this device. You can do the same thing for subfolders and individual files.

Later, if you want to have folders, subfolders, or files stored only in OneDrive in the cloud, right-click it in File Explorer, and uncheck the box next to Always keep on this device. You can change the status of folders, subfolders, and files like this whenever you like.

If you change your mind and want all your files stored locally and kept in sync via OneDrive, go back to the “Advanced settings” section of OneDrive settings page, scroll down to the Files On-Demand section and click Download all files.

Note that OneDrive Files On-Demand is available only on Windows 10 version 1709 and higher.

8. Turn off search indexing

Windows 10 indexes your hard disk in the background, allowing you — in theory — to search your PC more quickly than if no indexing were being done. But slower PCs that use indexing can see a performance hit, and you can give them a speed boost by turning off indexing. Even if you have an SSD disk, turning off indexing can improve your speed, because the constant writing to disk that indexing does can eventually slow down SSDs.

To get the maximum benefit in Windows 10, you need to turn indexing off completely. To do so, type services.msc in the Windows search box and press Enter. The Services app appears. Scroll down to either Indexing Service or Windows Search in the list of services. Double-click it, and from the screen that appears, click Stop. Then reboot your machine. Your searches may be slightly slower, although you may not notice the difference. But you should get an overall performance boost.

If you’d like, you can turn off indexing only for files in certain locations. To do this, type index in the Windows search box and click the Indexing Options result that appears. The Indexing Options page of the Control Panel appears. Click the Modify button, and you’ll see a list of locations that are being indexed, including Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer History, and your hard drive or drives. Uncheck the box next to any location, and it will no longer be indexed. If you’d like to customize what gets indexed and what doesn’t on individual drives, click the down arrow next to any drive and check the box next to what you want indexed and uncheck the box of what you don’t.

9. Clean out your hard disk

If you’ve got a bloated hard disk filled with files you don’t need, you could be slowing down your PC. Cleaning it out can give you a speed boost. Windows 10 has a surprisingly useful built-in tool for doing this called Storage Sense. Go to Settings > System > Storage and at the top of the screen, move the toggle from Off to On. When you do this, Windows constantly monitors your PC and deletes old junk files you no longer need — temporary files, files in the Downloads folder that haven’t been changed in a month, and old Recycle Bin files.

You can customize how Storage Sense works and also use it to free up even more space than it normally would. Underneath Storage Sense, click Configure Storage Sense or run it now. From the screen that appears, you can change how often Storage Sense deletes files (every day, every week, every month or when your storage space gets low).

You can also tell Storage Sense to delete files in your Download folder, depending on how long they’ve been there, and set how long to wait to delete files in the Recycle Bin automatically. You can also have Storage Sense move files from your PC to the cloud in Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage if they’re not opened for a certain amount of time (every day, or every 14 days, 30 days, or 60 days).

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10. Clean out your Registry

Under the Windows hood, the Registry tracks and controls just about everything about the way Windows works and looks. That includes information about where your programs are stored, which DLLs they use and share, what file types should be opened by which program, and just about everything else.

But the Registry is a very messy thing. When you uninstall a program, for example, that program’s settings don’t always get cleaned up in the Registry. So over time, it can get filled with countless outdated settings of all types. And that can lead to system slowdowns.

Don’t even think of trying to clean any of this out yourself. It’s impossible. To do it, you need a Registry Cleaner. There are plenty available, some free and some paid. But there’s really no need to outright buy one, because the free Auslogics Registry Cleaner does a solid job.

Before using Auslogics or any other Registry cleaner, you should back up your Registry so you can restore it if anything goes wrong. (Auslogics Registry Cleaner does this for you as well, but it can’t hurt to have it backed up twice.) To do your own Registry backup, type regedit.exe in the search box, then press Enter. That runs the Registry editor. From the File menu, select Export. From the screen that appears, make sure to choose the All option in the “Export range” section at the bottom of the screen. Then choose a file location and file name and click Save. To restore the Registry, open the Registry editor, select Import from the File menu, then open the file you saved.

Now download, install, and run Auslogics Registry Cleaner. On the left-hand side of the screen you can select the kinds of Registry issues you want to clean up — for example, File Associations, Internet, or Fonts. I generally select them all.

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Next, tell it to scan the Registry for problems. To do that, click Scan Now, and from the drop-down menu that appears, select Scan. That lets you first examine the Registry problems it finds. If you instead choose Scan and Resolve, it makes the fixes without you checking them.

It now scans your Registry for errors, then shows you what it found. Uncheck the boxes next to any you don’t want it to fix.  Click Resolve when you’ve made your decision, and make sure that Back Up Changes is checked, so you can restore the Registry easily if something goes wrong. If you want to see details about what it’s done, click View detailed report at the bottom of the screen.

11. Disable shadows, animations, and visual effects

Windows 10 has some nice eye candy — shadows, animations, and visual effects. On fast, newer PCs, these don’t usually affect system performance. But on slower and older PCs, they can exact a performance hit.

It’s easy to turn them off. In the Windows 10 search box, type sysdm.cpl and press Enter. That launches the System Properties dialog box. Click the Advanced tab and click Settings in the Performance section. That brings you to the Performance Options dialog box. You’ll see a varied list of animations and special effects.

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If you have time on your hands and love to tweak, you can turn individual options on and off. These are the animations and special effects you’ll probably want to turn off, because they have the greatest effect on system performance:

• Animate controls and elements inside windows
• Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
• Animations in the taskbar
• Fade or slide menus into view
• Fade or slide ToolTips into view
• Fade out menu items after clicking
• Show shadows under windows

However, it’s probably a lot easier to just select Adjust for best performance at the top of the screen and then click OK. Windows 10 will then turn off the effects that slow down your system.

12. Disable transparency

In addition to turning off shadows, animations, and visual effects, you should also disable the transparency effects that Windows 10 uses for the Start menu, the Taskbar, and the Action Center. It takes a surprising amount of work for Windows to create these transparency effects, and turning them off can make a difference in system performance.

To do it, from Settings, choose Personalization > Colors, scroll down to “Transparency effects” and move the slider to Off.

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13. Update your device drivers

Windows 10 can take a big performance hit if it’s using outdated drivers. Installing the latest ones can go a long way towards speeding it up. Particularly problematic are graphics drivers, so those are the ones you should make sure to update. To do it:

1. Type devmgmt.msc into the Search box and click the Device Manager icon that appears in the right pane.
2. Scroll to the Display Adapters entry and click the side-facing arrow to expand it.
3. Right-click the driver that appears.
4. From the context menu that appears, select Update driver.
5. You’ll be asked whether to have Windows search for an updated driver or if you want to find one and install it manually. Your best bet is to let Windows do the work. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver.

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You can do this to update all your drivers, not just graphics-related ones. It can take a while to do that one by one using the Device Manager, so you might want to use Windows Update to do it for you instead.

1. Launch the Settings app and select Update & Security > Windows Update.
2. Select Advanced Options > View optional updates > Driver updates. A list of all driver updates that Windows has found but hasn’t installed appears.
3. Select any of the drivers you want to install and click Download & Install.

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14. Turn on automated Windows maintenance

Every day, behind the scenes, Windows 10 performs maintenance on your PC. It does things like security scanning and performing system diagnostics to make sure everything is up to snuff — and automatically fixes problems if it finds them. That makes sure your PC runs at peak performance. By default, this automatic maintenance runs every day at 2:00 a.m., as long as your device is plugged into a power source and is asleep.

There’s a chance, though, that the feature has been accidentally turned off or you haven’t had your PC plugged in for a while, so the maintenance hasn’t been done. You can make sure it’s turned on and runs every day, and run it manually if you’d like.

Run the Control Panel app and select System and Security > Security and Maintenance. In the Maintenance section, under Automatic Maintenance, click “Start maintenance” if you want it to run now. To make sure that it runs every day, click “Change maintenance settings,” and from the screen that appears, select the time you’d like maintenance to run, and check the box next to “Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time.” Then click OK.

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15. Kill bloatware

Sometimes the biggest factor slowing down your PC isn’t Windows 10 itself, but bloatware or adware that takes up CPU and system resources. Adware and bloatware are particularly insidious because they may have been installed by your computer’s manufacturer. You’d be amazed at how much more quickly your Windows 10 PC can run if you get rid of it.

First, run a system scan to find adware and malware. If you’ve already installed a security suite such as Norton Security or McAfee LiveSafe, you can use that. You can also use Windows 10’s built in anti-malware app — just type windows security in the search box, press Enter, and then select Virus & threat protection > Quick Scan. Windows Defender will look for malware and remove any it finds.

It’s a good idea to get a second opinion, though, so consider a free tool like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The free version scans for malware and removes what it finds; the paid version offers always-on protection to stop infections in the first place.

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Now you can check for bloatware and get rid of it. A good program to do that is PC Decrapifier. And Should I Remove It? is a website that offers advice on what files may be malware or bloatware.

For more details about removing bloatware, check out Computerworld’s article “Bloatware: What it is and how to get rid of it.”

16. Defrag your hard disk

The more you use your hard disk, the more it can become fragmented, which can slow down your PC. When a disk gets fragmented, it stores files willy-nilly across it, and it takes a while for Windows to put them together before running them.

Windows 10, though, has a built-in defragmenter you can use to defragment your hard disk. You can even tell it to run automatically so it stays constantly defragmented.

To do it, type defrag into the search box and press Enter. From the screen that appears, select the drive you want you want to defragment. Click the Optimize button to defragment it. Select multiple disks by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each one you want to defragment.

If you want to have your disk or disks defragmented automatically, click the Change settings button, then check the box next to Run on a schedule. Now select the frequency at which you want the disk(s) defragmented by clicking the drop-down next to Frequency and selecting Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. (Weekly will be your best bet.) From this screen you can also choose multiple drives to defragment.

Note: If you have an SSD, defragging won’t offer any noticeable performance boost, and it could cause wear on the disk. So it’s not worth your while to defrag SSDs.

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17. Disable Game Mode

If you’re a serious gamer, you probably know all about Game Mode, which optimizes your PC for playing games. That’s great for when you’re doing just that, but it can slow down your system when you’re not playing because it keeps some system resources in reserve in case you start playing a game and has occasionally been linked to stability issues. So turning off Game Mode can give your PC a quick boost. (You can always turn it back on again when you want to play a game.)

Game Mode is turned on by default, so even if you’ve never played a game on your PC, it’s probably enabled. To turn it off, go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode and move the Game Mode slider to Off.

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18. Shut down and restart Windows

Here’s one of IT’s not-quite-secret weapons for troubleshooting and speeding up a PC: Shut it down and restart it. Doing that clears out any excess use of RAM that otherwise can’t be cleared. It also kills processes that you might have set in motion and are no longer needed, but that continue running and slow your system. If your Windows 10 PC has turned sluggish over time for no apparent reason, you may be surprised at how much more quickly it will run when you do this.

Try just some of these tricks, and you’ll find that you’ve got a faster Windows 10 PC — and one that is less likely to have any reliability problems.

This article was originally published in February 2016 and most recently updated in December 2023.

Google has rolled out a premium tier for Chrome Enterprise, offering additional security features for the popular web browser.

Google launched Chrome Enterprise in 2017 as a business-focused edition of its Chrome browser with built-in management features for IT admins and security teams. On Tuesday, Google unveiled Chrome Enterprise Premium, promising enhanced security with features not available in the core version. 

This includes malware deep scanning, data loss prevention, the ability to filter URLs based on website category, and “context-aware access controls” that help enforce zero-trust access to cloud applications. There are also additional controls that enable admins to enforce enterprise policies and manage software updates, Google said. 

The growth in remote work has created new challenges around endpoint security, Parisa Tabriz, Google’s vice president for Chrome, said in a blog post, with businesses forced to contend with variety of employee devices outside of an organization’s managed fleet. “As these trends continue to accelerate and converge, it’s clear that the browser is a natural enforcement point for endpoint security in the modern enterprise,” she said. 

Indeed, with many business apps running in the cloud, the browser is becoming the entire endpoint environment for many end users, said Phil Hochmuth, research vice president for endpoint management and enterprise mobility for IDC. The new features will allow IT and security teams to manage browsers “like a PC endpoint,” he said, “allowing for granular access control, data protection and usage polices to be applied to the Enterprise Chrome browser environment separately from the underlying hardware device.”

When managed-device-level security can be enforced at the browser level, he said, it’s possible to extend corporate apps and data access to more types of users, including  remote or contract workers with BYOD endpoints. “It can help workers become more productive with a more flexible, but secure and managed, computing environment,” said Hochmuth.

Chrome Enterprise Premium is generally available now, with prices starting at $6 per user, per month.