Hidden Windows apps you need to try

Plus: New Google Chrome features!  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [Windows Intelligence](#) [Windows Intelligence](#) Brought to you by: ​ Hello again! This week, I want to highlight some easy-to-miss but incredibly useful PC applications from Microsoft. But first, I have a favor to ask: Could you fill out [this short reader survey]( for me? It would be a huge help to us, but it will just take you a minute or two of your time. And, as a thank you, we'll enter you in a drawing for a chance to win one of two $50 gift certificates to either Amazon or Best Buy — your choice! So, if you'd like to help us out, please fill out [this quick survey](. Your responses will help us understand who's reading our newsletters. With that information, we can find the right advertisers to support what we're doing — and ensure those ads are more interesting and relevant to all our readers. We take your privacy very seriously. We ask for your email address during the survey so we can enter you into the gift card drawing and contact you if you win. But we will never associate your email address with any of the answers you provide. (And, if you just want to help us out but aren't interested in the gift card prize, you don't have to provide your email address at all!) [START THE SURVEY ➜]( Thank you for your help! Now, let's get to the good stuff. [Chris Hoffman, AUthor] Chris Today's read: ⌚ 3 Things to Know: 2 minuets ⌚ 3 Things to Try: 1 minute 30 seconds ⌚ Top Thurrott Thoughts: 30 seconds ⌚ Just for Fun: 20 seconds ​ [] [3 Things to Know This Week] ​ 1. Computers will upgrade web videos to better quality ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Web videos are getting better — but not because of the filming process. No, those videos you watch online will look better thanks to fancy upscaling performed by your PC's hardware. 🔎 KNOW MORE: If your PC has recent NVIDIA or AMD graphics hardware, it can "upscale" videos you watch in your browser, making them look higher-resolution. And this feature won't require high-end graphics hardware in the future. - If your PC has NVIDIA RTX graphics hardware, it can now upgrade non-HDR videos to HDR. This works in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. - That's just one a new feature — on systems with modern NVIDIA or AMD graphics hardware, your computer may already be able to AI-upscale 1080p web videos to look like they're in 4K. The popular VLC player app can use that grahpics hardware to do this, too — it's not just for browsers! - While this requires a beefy GPU at the moment, word is that the big "AI release" of Windows coming up will include a "Super Resolution" feature — AI-powered upscaling that uses those new neural processing units (NPUs), giving the average new laptop a power-efficient way to do this that doesn't require heavy hardware. 📌 READ MORE: Learn more about [NVIDIA's new HDR upgrading feature](, check out [the news about AMD's video upscaling support](=) — which [just launched](=)! --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Windows will integrate with Android phone screenshots ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Windows 11 will soon pop up an instant notification when you take a photo or a screenshot, letting you click that notification to see, edit, or share the image on your PC. 🔎 KNOW MORE: This is part of the "Phone Link" experience that links your phone with your PC, which also lets you access text messages, take calls, and see your phone's photo library on your PC. - The notification will streamline the process of getting an image from your phone onto your PC so you can work with it. - This change is part of an Insider build of Windows 11 for now, so it's unclear exactly when it will reach stable Windows 11 PCs. - As usual, this new feature requires an Android phone. Apple doesn't provide a way for Windows to integrate this closely with an iPhone. 📌 READ MORE: Microsoft [announced this in a Windows Insider post](=). --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Google Chrome is getting generative AI features, too ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Google is eager to push its own generative AI features. Of course, they're coming to Google Chrome browsers. 🔎 KNOW MORE: These three new generative AI features are currently experimental, and you have to go out of your way to enable them from an "Experimental AI" page. - The "Organize Tabs" feature will automatically organize your tabs into related groups for you, even choosing names for them, when you activate it. - Chrome will let you create a browser theme with a text-to-image model — just like you can create wallpapers with generative AI on Android. - Coming next month, Chrome is getting a "Help Me Write" tool that will help you write messages online. No more pulling up ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Bard — it'll be integrated in your browser. 📌 READ MORE: Google's blog post [outlines Chrome's new AI features](). SPONSORED MESSAGE Transform your struggles into strengths 💪 Ready to make 2024 a landmark year for personal success? [BetterHelp]() is your partner in turning aspirations into achievements. [Two phones, one showing a text conversation with therapist and one showing a video appointment ]()​ Confront life's challenges with confidence, supported via text, phone, or video call by BetterHelp’s network of 30,000 professional therapists who are dedicated to your personal development, offering insights and strategies tailored to you. Join the global community benefiting from professional ~online~ therapy. With their New Year's offer, you save 25%, opening the door to a journey filled with growth, emotional wellness, and self-improvement. ➜ [Begin today with a special 25% off on your journey of self-discovery.]()​ [​EMBRACE CHANGE AND SAVE 25% ➜]() ​ ​ [] [3 Things to Try This Week] 1. Troubleshoot PCs remotely with Quick Assist Trying to troubleshoot a PC without seeing its screen is difficult Sometimes, you need to see what's going on to provide troubleshooting help or other advice. Microsoft has a super-simple tool for remote screen-sharing over the internet. You can use it to see someone's screen and give input — or they can give you full control over their PC so you can remotely poke around and fix problems. ➜ It's called Quick Assist. This app is no longer built into Windows 11, but you can install it from the Store. It's a free, quick, and easy way to remotely access a PC. ⌚ This will take you 30 seconds or so to get started with. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. 📌 Learn [how to set up and use Quick Assist](=) in my latest guide. [The Quick Assist window on Windows 11.] --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Take notes with Microsoft's Sticky Notes app Microsoft is now teasing an update to its Sticky Notes app. I'm a big fan of Microsoft's OneNote app for taking notes, but OneNote is packed with features and can be complicated. Sticky Notes provides a much more streamlined experience for taking quick notes, much like Google Keep does on the web. ➜ Your Sticky Notes sync between your PCs with your Microsoft account, and you can even access them directly in the OneNote application, too. ⌚ It will take you about 20 seconds to get started with Sticky Notes. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. To try it out, [install the Microsoft Sticky Notes app]( from the Store. Launch the app, pin it to your taskbar, and you'll get a super-simple stack of sticky notes that syncs with your Microsoft account across all your PCs. (Use Microsoft's OneNote application for Android or iPhone to find them on your phone.) [The Sticky Notes app on Windows 11.] --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Focus with the built-in Pomodoro timer The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time-management method: Basically, you set a timer for 25 minutes, work until it's over, take a five minute break, repeat three more times until you take a longer 15-30 minute break. ➜ If this sounds interesting to you, you don't need any third-party software — Windows has a built-in feature for this. ⌚ You can get started in as little as 10 seconds. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. To get started, launch the "Clock" app from your Start menu. Select "Focus Sessions" in the sidebar. You can start a 25-minute focus session (Pomodoro-style,) or a longer one. Windows also has some related features here — you can link your Spotify account to start playing something during the session, or see tasks you want to accomplish from your Microsoft To Do application. When you start your focus session, Windows will also pause most notifications to minimize distractions. Windows will play a sound and let you know when the session is up, but you can customize this all in the Clock app's Settings. [The Focus Sessions feature in Windows 11's Clock app.] ​ [] [Top Thurrott Thoughts] Some standout links and expert analysis from our friends at Thurrott, who have been covering Windows since 1994: - ​[Arc Browser for Windows Review](​ - This new browser is all the rage. - ​[iOS 17.4 Will Open Up the App Store, Other iPhone Features for EU Users in March]( - Huge news! - ​[Surprise! Microsoft Copilot Pro is Magical (Premium)]( - Paul Thurrott is a big fan of Microsoft's new AI subscription. - ​[Google Pixel 8 Pro Review: Finally, the Perfect Pixel]() - It really is great hardware. - ​[Brave is Simplifying Its Fingerprinting Protections]( - Some changes for the privacy-focused browser. - ​[Apple Reportedly Sold Up to 180,000 Vision Pro Headsets Over the Weekend](=) - That's a lot for a $3499 headset. - ​[What (If Anything) Can We Do To Prevent Tracking Online? (Premium)](=) - Paul talks online privacy. ​ [And Just for Funsies...] These days, Microsoft loves Linux. It's a developer tool, and Microsoft runs it on cloud servers. While Linux-based operating systems like Valve's SteamOS, ChromeOS, and even Android are having more success than ever, Microsoft isn't afraid of desktop Linux taking over the desktop PC market any time soon. But there was a time, decades ago, when things were different. One of the artifacts from that combative era was [this 2003 spoof of The Matrix](=), featuring Steve Ballmer as Neo and a Linux user as Agent Smith, complete with a buggy Linux laptop. [[video preview]​](=) It's definitely an artifact of a time — and a Microsoft — that's long gone. ​ One last thing Hey: If you haven't filled out the survey I mentioned earlier, could you [take a minute or two and answer it](? We'll enter you in a chance to win one of those $50 gift cards if you do, and it would be a huge help to us. Thanks for reading! See you next week. * Using product-specific links in this newsletter helps support our small-scale independent journalism efforts, as The Intelligence receives a small commission from any purchases made via these offers. ​ 🤚 Wait! Before you go: What'd you think of this issue? [Thumbs Up](=) [Thumbs Down]( Hit the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to cast your vote and let me know. Want less email? 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