Here are my seven favorite features, many of them new or greatly improved since Windows 10's debut in 2015.

| Topic: Windows 10?

A few weeks ago, I shared my list of Seven Windows 10 annoyances (and how to fix them).

Are you looking for Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.

Learn more about Windows 10 versions at Microsoft.

When I'm shopping for a new PC, one feature is on the must-have list.

My main laptop, a Dell Latitude 7400, has a built-in infrared camera that supports Windows Hello facial recognition, as does my Surface Book 2.

Microsoft made a big mistake in the early days of Windows 10 by tying the functionality of its built-in search box to the gimmicky Cortana feature.

Now that Cortana has been moved out of Windows and into Microsoft 365, the search box can do its job without having to display a sassy personality.

Instead, tap the Windows key and start typing.

Meanwhile, I keep secondary apps on the laptop display: Slack and Teams windows, for example, so I can keep track of conversations with colleagues out of the corner of my eye.

Five years ago, Windows was extremely awkward when it came to managing transitions between displays with different scaling factors.

In the past few years, though, virtually all of those issues have vanished in Windows 10, and I almost never see weird scaling issues, when dragging windows between two displays with different resolutions.

Miracast technology has been around since 2014, when it was a signature feature of Windows 8.1.

That feature isn't necessary for YouTube, which has its own built-in app on all of my connected devices.

I use OneDrive because it's included with my Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) subscriptions, one for business, one for personal use.

Each subscription includes a terabyte of storage (and with the $100-a-year Microsoft 365 Family account, five additional family members each get their own terabyte of storage).

But the real advantage is the integration with Windows 10, where you'll find a top-level node for OneDrive in the navigation pane and, crucially, support for a feature called Files On-Demand, which allows you to browse through that terabyte of cloud-based storage without having to actually download all those files.

Double-clicking a file downloads it and opens it for editing, as the feature name suggests.

This feature works so well and integrates so smoothly that it's almost possible to forget that it was missing in action for the first two years of Windows 10's existence and didn't return until 2017.

The single best reason to pay for an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro is to gain access to the built-in Hyper-V virtualization software, which lets you run Windows or Linux in a virtual machine, isolated from your physical PC.

Those features are great for developers, but the latest addition to the Hyper-V feature set is useful for just about anybody?

PWAs appear in the Windows 10 Start menu, and you can pin them to Start or to the taskbar.

| Topic: Windows 10.

Buying a Windows laptop.

Seven Windows 10 annoyances (and how to fix them).

Buying a Windows laptop

Microsoft is working on making Window 10 feature update blockers clearer and more detailed

Microsoft is working on making blocking issues for Windows 10 feature updates more customized and actionable, according to sources

Microsoft: Windows 10 now lets you access Linux file systems in WSL 2

Microsoft also says it's investigating user reports of the latest Windows 10 2004 security patch breaking WSL 2

Windows 10 2004 Patch Tuesday problem: Update breaks WSL 2, say users

Windows 10 2004 users say the September security patch prevents Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 from launching

Yubico releases the world’s first security key to feature dual USB-C and NFC connections and support for multiple authentication protocols

Microsoft is readying a smaller, Intel Core i5-based laptop: Report

Microsoft: Here's why you can't uninstall our Edge browser

Microsoft lets Windows 10 users know why they can't uninstall the Microsoft Edge browser, again

Microsoft: We're ending support for Adobe Flash, here's how

But Microsoft also explains how to keep using Flash on Windows - if you really must