Short Takes Daily: What went on in the world of Microsoft on Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Today in the news: Here's how Cortana will be quietly eavesdropping on you, how to take command of Windows 10 via your mastery of shell commands, and why Windows 10 users need "genuinely activated systems."

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Intel's New Wake-on-Voice Technology Elicits Cortana to Wake Your PC — The new audio processing technology allows the PC to stay in constant "listening" mode without draining battery. And best of all, it uses Cortana.

Q: What is an excellent and reasonable antivirus program for businesses to use? — On Wednesdays, we'll be featuring an abridged Q&A from Fred Langa's LANGALIST, a feature available exclusively to paid subscribers of the Windows Secrets newsletter. Today's Q&A: Can you recommend a decent antivirus software package for people who clean computers for a living?

Windows 10 Insider Program only available on genuinely activated systems — According to Vice President of the Windows Devices Group Engineering System team Gabe Aul, “Windows 10 Insider Preview is intended to be installed on genuine Windows 10 devices – before upgrading to Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds or reinstalling Windows 10 please ensure your device is activated.”

How To: Open Windows 10 Settings Using Shell Commands — Here's a list of commands recognized by the Windows 10 shell that will open directly to specific Windows 10 settings pages.

How To: Open Windows 10 Apps Using Shell Commands — Here are some additional capabilities through shell commands that will allow you to open specific Windows 10 apps.

How To: Add a Web Shortcut to the Windows 10 Start Screen — Sometimes, apps aren't as good as their website origins. Here's how to pin a web page shortcut to the Start Screen instead.

Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 Docks on sale at Amazon — Docking stations may be what turn tablet computers into our one-size-fits-all computer for all occasions. So see which ones are available for the Surface Pro.

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From other sites …

It's a good day for productivity geeks as Microsoft pushes out an update to Mail and Calendar for Windows 10, the collaboration tool Slack unrolled an app for the Windows Phone in beta form, and Wunderlist unrolled a Windows 10 beta version of their to-do app.