Short Takes Weekly: What went on in the world of Microsoft for the week of August 17-21, 2015

Today in the news: The way online services insinuate themselves into your IT organization, what to be wary of with installing firmware updates, how far Windows 10 has spread already.

*

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? — We feature 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.

How To: Change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 — Here's how to shake loose from Bing while still taking advantage of the new Microsoft Edge browser.

How To: Create Shortcuts to Shell Folders on the Windows 10 Desktop — Using a special Shell command and a folder name, you can access most any part of the Windows 10 system. And now, we're going to show you how to create shortcuts to different folders with it.

How To: Change Between the Different Onscreen Keyboard Options in Windows 10 — There are different keyboarding styles to choose from, should you need to improve your typing experience on a touchscreen or a tablet.

Windows 10 New Keyboard Options Available After Cumulative Update 3 — There are a number of new settings that let you do anything from adding periods to automagically capitalizing the first letter of each sentence.

POLL RESULTS: Successful Windows 10 Upgrades — The good news is, slightly more than half of you had successful installations. But what happened to the rest of you?

Review: The Moto G offers solid performance at a bargain — If you want a solid performing Android phone without all the needless junk software jammed in, then you’ll love the Moto G. 

Review: Jackery Air 6 Battery Charger and External Battery Pack — Sure this claims to be for the Apple iPhone and iPad, but this works well with any device that utilizes a USB connection for charging.

News flash: tech companies collect anonymous data from you and your devices — This shouldn't be a problem so long as the companies are up front about what they're collecting and how the data is used.

Having Fun with the Windows 10 Desktop — The Windows 10 desktop is basically a folder you can monkey with, just by putting together a few keyboard keys.

How To: Automatically Save Screenshots to OneDrive — Follow these directions to ensure that screen captures will not only auto-save to the Cloud, but also notify you when it happens as both a toast notification and an Action Center report.

How To: Improve Windows 10's Onscreen Keyboard for Desktop Apps — Here's how you can alter the settings in order to get the onscreen keyboard to pop-up automatically consistently when in desktop mode.

How To: Use the Windows 10 Shell Command to Open Hidden Folders — Windows 10 exposes all the user accessible folders on the hard drive to allow you to manipulate your files and folders. But, did you know there are "other" folders in the OS that you probably can't see? You just have to run a special "Shell" command and include the Windows-specific folder name.

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.

Windows 10 is 10% of total Windows traffic according to GoSquared — While we wait to hear from Microsoft with updated numbers on the progress of Windows 10 adoption, today GoSquared shared that users on Windows 10, since its release on 29 July, now accounts for 10% of the overall Windows traffic the company is tracking across thousands of its customer sites.

First one's free: How services colonize workgroups — The age-old technique of offering the first taste for free still works. If the product is good, it'll spread before you know it. And that's why you may have entire workgroups in your company using a free service without you even knowing it.

PSA: Applying the Latest Surface Pro 3 Firmware Update for Multiple Monitor Setups — Just a word of warning: remove the Surface Pro 3 from the dock before applying this latest update, particularly if you have multiple monitors attached.

TaylorMade's myRoundPro Makes Its Debut — The golf service includes new stats to be made available in the Microsoft Health dashboard, including mapped shot locations and fairways hit.