Long before Microsoft added Snip & Sketch to Windows 10, before the Win+Print Screen feature was added, there was the Snipping tool. It’s been a part of Windows for a long time though, with the arrival of Snip & Sketch, it’s days are numbered. The tool is still present on Windows 10 1903 but each time you open it, it tells you that it’s nearing its end of life. That said, the tool is still there for now and lacking a quick way to open it. Here’s how you can use the Snipping tool with keyboard shortcuts.
Snipping tool keyboard shortcuts
In order to run the Snipping tool, you normally have to run its EXE from your Windows drive, or you can use Windows Search to open it. There’s no quick way to open it. SnipKey is a free, open source app that lets you run the tool with a keyboard shortcut.
The keyboard shortcuts allow you to define what sort of screenshot you want to take i.e., full screen, active window, or select area. SnipKey is basically an AutoHotKey script packaged as an app. Download and run it.
It’s shortcuts are;
Win+\: Select area
Win+Shift+\: Fullscreen snip
Win+Ctrl+\: Active window
The app doesn’t offer any customization options which means there’s no way to change the keyboard shortcut however, if you go to the app’s Github page, you can download the AutoHotKey script that it uses, and modify the shortcuts in it. You will then have to run the script and it will work the same as the app.
VirusTotal Scan
We should mention that this app was detected as malicious by six anti-virus apps when run through VirusTotal. It may have to do with the fact that the app is basically a script packaged as an app. While this isn’t malicious in itself, it’s enough to raise a few alarms. If you’re apprehensive about using this app, you can download the script and use it instead. You can also examine it to make sure it isn’t doing anything it shouldn’t.
SnipKey will work as long as the Snipping Tool is still part of Windows 10. When it is eventually removed from the OS, and Microsoft doesn’t offer any way to get it back, SnipKey will no longer be of any use. It’s not clear just when the app will be removed but it’s unlikely to make it to 2021. The Snip & Sketch tool is already there to take its place and it is more capable than the Snipping tool.
Icons don’t get the credit they deserve until you’re stuck looking at a particularly ugly one that tells you nothing about the item it belongs to. When made well, an icon is the simplest way to identify an item without even having to read its name. It stands to reason that most apps pay a great deal of attention to their icons but scripts get the short end of the stick. They’re all stuck with the default icon for the app that created them, or the icon that’s reserved for that particular type of file. That said, if you need to differentiate a whole bunch of scripts on your Mac, you can change the icon for an AppleScript fairly easily. Here’s how.
Create ICNS file
Icons on macOS are in the ICNS file format. The simplest way to create an icon is to find a suitable PNG image, and convert it to this format. There are lots of apps that can convert an ordinary image to ICNS format but we recommend using Image2icon. It’s free.
Drag & drop the image you want to use onto the app, and select the ICNS format to convert it. Name the converted file “applet.icns”.
Save script as Application
Now that you have your icon, you need to convert the script into an application. You can do this with Script Editor. Open the script in the app and go to File. Hold down the Option key and you will see a Save As option in the File menu. Select it, and then save the script as an application.
Changing icons
Once you have the script in application form, it’s time to change the icon. We will do this in two steps. The first step will change the icon that the notification generated by the application will show. To change it, right-click the application and select Show Package Contents from the context menu.
In the folder that opens, go to Contents>Resources. Here, you will find a file named “applet.icns”. Copy the icon file you created earlier to this same folder. You will be asked if you want to replace the file of the same name. Go ahead and replace it.
Next, right-click the application and select ‘Get Info’. You will see a window that shows you information about the app. The first section shows the icon that’s used by this application. Drag & drop the icon you created earlier on to the icon in this window. The application will now use this icon in Finder.
As strange as this may sound, not everyone has a reliable internet connection in 2019. There are many reasons for this. Perhaps the most common reason for lack of internet access is that internet service providers often neglect rural areas (especially in America). Another reason is that in much of the world, the internet is a luxury, and many people can’t afford to get a private connection at home.
If you’re one of the millions of people in the world that still don’t have a reliable internet connection at home, but have access to a computer running Linux, you’re in luck! As it turns out, it is possible to view thousands of websites offline, anywhere in the world without an internet connection, thanks to the Kiwix offline web browser! Here’s how to set it up.
Note: Kiwix can also be installed on Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. For information on how to get it for these other platforms, visit the official website.
Install Kiwix on Linux
Kiwix for Linux is distributed in two ways: a downloadable AppImage file which can run on every Linux OS without the need to install libraries and packages from any software repositories, and as a Flatpak package from the Flathub application store.
For the most part, the safest way to go about getting Kiwix is via the Flatpak release, as the program is sandboxed, locked down, and much more secure. However, the AppImage version is also an excellent way to go. To start the installation process, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the command-line instructions that match the Linux OS you use.
Flatpak
The first step in installing Kiwix from the Flathub app store is to enable the Flatpak runtime. To enable the runtime, install the “flatpak” package from the place you typically install software on your Linux PC.
Note: need help setting up the Flatpak runtime on your Linux system? Check out our in-depth guide on how to set up Flatpak here.
With the Flatpak runtime up and running, use the following commands below in a terminal window to download and install the Kiwix package to your Linux computer.
Getting the Kiwix AppImage release working on a Linux computer starts by creating a folder known as “AppImages” in the home directory (~), to keep the AppImage file. Using the mkdir command, create it.
mkdir -p AppImages
After making the new “AppImages” folder in the home directory, use the wget command to download the Kiwix AppImage file to it.
Update the permissions of the AppImage file using the chmod command.
chmod +x kiwix-desktop_x86_64.appimage
With the permissions up to date, you can run the app for the first time with:
./kiwix-desktop_x86_64.appimage
View online content offline
Viewing content offline with the Kiwix application means that users need to download websites ahead of time over the internet. Downloading is done through the library function of Kiwix, and loads of sites are available for instant download.
To download content through Kiwix, start by opening up the browser on the desktop. Once the application is open and ready to use, you’ll see a blank tab. On this empty tab, there are a few items. These items are “Local Files,” “All Files,” “Browse By Language,” Browse By Category,” as well as a search box, and a few other things.
All free, downloadable content available to the public via Kiwix is located in the “All Files” section. We’ll focus on this section in the tutorial only. However, it’s possible to add your content to Kiwix too.
Select the “All Files” button on the top-left section of the new tab screen to be taken to the vast list of downloadable content available. After that, scroll through the massive list of content until you find something you’d like to view offline and click the blue “Download” button to start the downloading process.
Once a file from “Local Files” is downloaded, you’ll be able to access it anywhere online or offline, by clicking the “Open” button. Downloads will stay in “All Files” forever unless deleted.
Download by size
A lot of the available websites in Kiwix are massive. Some go as far as 10 GB! For this reason, you may want to know how to sort big downloads and small ones.
To sort files by smallest for download, make your way to “All Files.” Then, find the “Size” column and click it. Selecting this should automatically place the smallest file downloads first, and largest ones at the bottom.
A while back, Intel released special drivers for their newer CPU models. These modern drivers came with their own problems; they wouldn’t install on systems with supported CPUs. Users were able to force install the driver but Intel discouraged it to the point they removed the file that was used in the work-around. It has since changed a few things. There is a new version of the driver out that should, on principle, install on supported systems. It still doesn’t work all the time but you can now manually install Intel Graphics Windows 10 DCH Drivers. The file is freely available from Intel and the process isn’t complicated.
Intel Graphics Windows 10 DCH Drivers
Download the Intel Graphics Windows 10 DCH Drivers from here. We strongly encourage you to try the EXE file first. The page also features a list of supported CPUs and if yours is on the list, the EXE should be your first choice.
In the event the installation fails, download the zip file from the exact same page as above and we’ll walk you through the installation process. Extract the zipped file, and then open Device Manager. Look for the Display Adapters group of devices and expand it. You will see an Intel device listed there. Right-click it, and select Update driver.
In the window that opens, select ‘Browse my computer for driver software’.
In the next window, select ‘Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer’.
This will open yet another window. Click ‘Have Disk’, and then the ‘Browse’ button and navigate to the extracted folder. Select the Graphics folder, and then click Open. Click, Ok, and then Next. The Device Manager will take care of the rest. If you need to, select the newly listed driver from the list, and then click Next.
Allow the driver to install, and then restart your system.
This method will work where the EXE fails. You can check the driver version from device manager. This latest version of the driver at the time of writing is 26.20.100.7000.
It is possible that Intel updates the driver again. The original, problematic version is the one that still shows up when you look for these drivers and the page has to redirect users to the correct one. If there’s another update to the driver, it may appear on the same page or on a new page that Intel will likely link to. In that case, go with the newer version and start with the EXE before you go with the ZIP file.
Website load times have improved over the years. This is in part due to how websites are now built but also because there are now more sophisticated tools that help make the content ‘lighter’, or to optimize it for better viewing and load times. One such tool is a progressive JPEG. It’s basically a JPEG file that fades in instead of loading slowly, pixel by pixel, like an ordinary JPEG. It’s really easy to create a progressive JPEG. Here are three easy ways to make one.
ImageMagick
ImageMagick is a popular, open source tool for converting and optimizing images. It is a command-line tool though which is why many people may be averse to using it. That said, using it to create a progressive JPEG is easy if you know the command.
To make this simple, it’s a good idea to move any and all images that you want to convert into a single folder. Go ahead and install ImageMagick and make sure that you add it to your path during installation. This will make it infinitely easier to use the tool.
Once installed, open Command Prompt and use the cd command to move it to the folder with the image(s) that you want to convert.
Syntax
cd 'path-to-folder'
Example
cd "C:\Users\fatiw\Desktop\Progressive JPEGs"
Use the following command to turn a single image into a progressive JPEG.
To convert them en masse, use the following command.
Syntax
magick mogrify -interlace plane *.jpg
Irfanview
If you’re not a fan of the command line and want something with a proper GUI, that’s free, and doesn’t compromise on image quality, Irfanview is the tool for you. It’s a free image viewer and editor that is feature rich. It can also convert images to several different formats.
Install it, and open an image with Irfanview. Click the save icon, and select the JPEG format to save the image to. A ‘Save Options’ window will open with a ‘Save as progressive JPG’ option. Select it, and then save the image.
Web apps: Jpeg.io
There are loads of web apps that can convert a regular JPEG image into a progressive JPEG. Jpeg.io is a good one. All you have to do is drag & drop an image onto the app, and it will convert it for you. There are no options to navigate. The app does what it does with little input needed from the user.
Spotlight knows where all your files are. It’s what allows the feature to work as well as it does. When a new file is saved to your system, Spotlight indexes it. This is a process that occurs in the background when it’s just a few files. It doesn’t take long however, if you add lots of new files to your system you might see the ‘Indexing’ bar in Spotlight. This bar should go away when the indexing is complete however sometimes it gets stuck and the feature tends to slow down. Here’s how you can fix Spotlight stuck at indexing.
Fix Spotlight stuck at indexing
Open System Preferences and select the Spotlight preference. It has two tabs; select the Privacy tab. Click the plus button under the list of locations that are not to be indexed by Spotlight.
Select your Mac’s hard drive or SSD, whichever you have. Do not select any of its sub-folders. Select the entire drive and then click Choose. Confirm that you want to add the drive to the no-index list for Spotlight.
Once it’s been added, give it a few minutes so that Spotlight can purge the files from its index. It’s a good idea to restart your system at this point as well. Additionally, if you plan on moving a lot of files to your Mac, now’s a good time to add them.
After you boot back to your system, open the System Preferences app again and go to the Spotlight preference. Return to the Privacy tab, select your hard drive (or SSD) and click the minus button at the bottom to remove it from the exclusion list.
Once you’ve done that Spotlight will start to index all your files again. This will take time and the ‘Indexing’ bar will appear when you open Spotlight but it will eventually go away after a while when indexing is complete.
Spotlight is not immune to problems even though it is one of the better search features you will find on a desktop operating system. It does fail to index files sometimes and is unable to find anything, or it might not learn which apps to show you as the top hit. The feature is not without problems but you will find they’re easy to fix in most cases. Rarely do users have to resort to anything drastic such as resetting a Mac completely. Often, a macOS update will fix the problem so you might only have to wait for one to be available and it can fix a lot that’s wrong with your system.
Flock is a team communication application for Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile platforms. It’s very similar to a lot of other collaborative chat tools on the market today, such as Slack, HipChat, Rocketchat, Mattermost, and others. It claims to be a much cheaper alternative to Slack while offering up competitive features.
Recently, the Flock desktop application has hit beta for Linux, via the Snap store. If you’re a Linux fan and rely on Flock to communicate with your coworkers, here’s how to get it working.
Snap package installation
If you’re trying to get Flock installed on Linux, the developers only provide a Snap package. The reason for going with Snap, rather than dealing with Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE and the myriad of other Linux operating systems is understandable. However, it does limit the audience of Flock to only Linux users that have access to the Snapd runtime.
Snapd is supported out of the box by Ubuntu Linux. Also, it’s possible to set up the runtime on Arch Linux, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Gentoo Linux, Linux Mint, and many others. For more information on how to enable the Snapd runtime service on your Linux PC, head over to our official guide on the subject. It’s very in-depth and will walk you through how to install the necessary packages, how to install programs from it and update with it too.
Once you’ve gotten the Snapd background service up and running on your Linux operating system, installation of Flock can begin by opening up a terminal window. With the terminal window open, run the snap install command to load the program up on your system.
Experience Flock’s robust, fast, and easy-to-use app, shown here on the desktop, and also available in mobile format. (PRNewsFoto/Flock)
sudo snap install flock-chat
Another way to install the Flock chat application via Snap is with the Snap store. To do this, ensure the Ubuntu Snap App Store is installed on your Linux PC. Then, head over to the Flock page on Snapcraft, and click the green “Install” button to reveal installation instructions, and click the “View in Desktop store” button.
After clicking the “View in Desktop store” button, the Snap App Store will launch. From there, click the “Install” button, and enter your password to get Flock.
Alternative ways to use Flock on Linux
Though the Snap release of the Flock team chat is the way the developers plan to get Linux users to use their application, it isn’t the only way to use it. In this section of the guide, we’ll go over a few unofficial ways to get Flock working on the Linux desktop.
Chrome app installation
The Flock chat app can come as a Google Chrome extension. This method of installation is perfect for Linux users unable to install Snap packages (due to lack of support, or dislike of Snaps).
Setting up the Flock Chrome extension starts by installing the Google Chrome web browser. To do this, head over to Google.com/chrome, and download the installation package for Chrome (RPM or DEB).
Once the package file is done downloading, double-click on the package file, and it’ll open in the package installer on your Linux PC. From there, go through the process of installing Chrome. Or, if Chrome isn’t supported on your Linux OS, follow our guide to learn how to set up Chromium instead, as it can also use the Flock extension.
With Chrome (or Chromium) installed on your Linux PC, launch it. Then, when it’s open and ready to go, click here to go to the Flock extension page on the Chrome web store, and click the “Install” button.
After installing the Flock extension to Chrome or Chromium, you’ll see a green chat icon. Click it to load the Flock team chat in the browser instantly.
Web app installation
If you don’t want to use the Chrome extension, but still want a desktop application for Flock like the Snap release, a web app is the best way to go about it. To create a new web app, start by installing the Nativefier application by following this guide here.
After installing Nativefier, download the Flock app logo using wget.
wget https://i.imgur.com/YXmiLAj.png -O icon.png
Move the file into the “/tmp” folder with the CD command.
cd /tmp
Create a new build folder for the app using mkdir.
mkdir -p flock-build
Move the icon file into the build folder.
mv ~/icon.png /tmp/flock-build
Using the Nativefier application, run a build of the Flock chat page.
nativefier -p linux -a x64 -i /tmp/flock-build/icon.png --disable-context-menu --disable-dev-tools --single-instance https://web.flock.com
REFInd is a UEFI bootloader. It’s much more aesthetically pleasing than the default Grub bootloader on Linux. It is highly customizable, and can be configured to boot just about any operating system alongside Linux with ease! Better yet, it can allow users to more easily manage multiple operating systems for dual-boot purposes. It even works well on Macs! The process of setting up he rEFInd bootloader on Linux isn’t overly complicated. It starts by simply installing the app from the terminal on your Linux system.
Note: the rEFInd bootloader only works with systems that support UEFI. BIOS mode will not work, and is not supported!
Ubuntu instructions
Ubuntu Linux has excellent support for the rEFInd bootloader. Getting it working is very easy, as the console does virtually everything for you. To start the installation of the rEFInd bootloader on Ubuntu, open up a terminal window. A terminal window can be opened by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard.
Once a terminal window is open and ready to use, use the Apt package manager to install the rEFInd bootloader package from the “Universe” software repository.
Note: if you do not have “Universe” already enabled, turn it on with sudo add-apt-repository universe in the command line.
sudo apt install refind
As you enter the installation command, your Ubuntu PC will go through the process of collecting several different dependencies required to run the bootloader on the system. Be patient as it installs, and don’t take your attention away from the terminal window.
Following the installation of the program, a text-based graphical user interface will appear on the screen. In this screen, you’ll see a message asking you if you’d like to automatically install rEFInd to the ESP (UEFI boot partition). Allow it to install. If everything is successful, rEFInd will be ready to use on Ubuntu.
Debian instructions
The rEFInd bootloader is available to Debian Linux users via the “Main” software package repository. However, Debian is a slow-moving Linux distribution, so we highly recommend avoiding that package in favor of the one the developer makes available on the desktop. Furthermore, the DEB package includes the “refind-install” script, which can be used to install the bootloader easily.
To get your hands on the latest DEB release of the rEFInd bootloader, you’ll need to visit the project’s SourceForge page. Click here, locate “Files,” and download the item with the label of “refind_0.11.4-1_amd64.deb”. Alternatively, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard, and run the wget download command to grab it directly from the internet.
When the rEFInd DEB package is done downloading to your Debian Linux system, it’s time to install the package — using the dpkg package installation command.
dpkg -i refind_0.11.4-1_amd64.deb
After loading up the package, you may run into some dependency errors. To correct this, run the apt install -f command. Or, for more help, check out our article on how to correct dependency issues on Debian.
sudo apt install -f
You can then install the rEFInd bootloader on Debian in place of the Grub bootloader by running the included refind-install script.
sudo -s refind-install
Arch Linux instructions
On Arch Linux, installing the rEFInd bootloader doesn’t involve downloading a package from the developer’s SourceForge page. Instead, you must install the official Arch Linux package. Open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Then, with the terminal window open and ready to use installation can begin. Using the Pacman command, set up the rEFInd package.
sudo pacman -S refind-efi
Upon installing the rEFInd package on Arch Linux, the root user account needs to be logged in to. To log into root on Arch, use the su command. Or, if you have the root account locked, make a transition to it with sudo -s.
su -
Or
sudo -s
Now that the terminal session is root, the rEFInd bootloader can quickly be set up with the included refind-install script.
refind-install
Running rEFInd on Arch Linux should work flawlessly, thanks to the included installation script. However, if you run into some problems setting it up, the Arch Linux Wiki has a great breakdown of how the software works. To access the Arch Wiki page on rEFInd, click here.
Fedora instructions
The rEFInd bootloader sadly isn’t carried by the Fedora Linux project. Thankfully though, the developer provides an easy to install RPM package for use on RPM-based Linux distributions, so it’s still possible to install it on Fedora systems.
To get your hands on the RPM release of rEFInd for Fedora, head over to the project’s SourceForge. Once there, download the RPM package. Or, run the following wget command to grab it directly from the internet.
Installing the rEFInd RPM package on Fedora Linux is done with the Dnf tool. Set it up on your system with the command below.
sudo dnf install refind-0.11.4-1.x86_64.rpm
Following the installation process, the bootloader can easily be activated on Fedora Linux much like a lot of the other operating systems in this guide: with an installation script.
sudo refind-install
OpenSUSE instructions
Much like Fedora Linux, there is no support for rEFInd in the official OpenSUSE software repositories. So, those looking to use this bootloader on OpenSUSE will need to download the RPM from the developer. To get it, click here and download “refind-0.11.4-1.x86_64.rpm”. Alternatively, run wget and download it directly from the terminal.
Glances is a powerful system monitor application that is accessible via a web browser over the network, or on the local machine. It can monitor everything from CPU usage, available system Memory, Load, Disk Input/Output, Filesystem capacity, and much more. The app is free, and the source code is available on Github.
In this guide, we’ll go over how to set up the Glances system monitor on Linux. However, Linux is not the only operating system that it can run on. If you run a Windows server or even Mac OS, it works there too, as it is cross-platform.
Install Glances
The Glances app is available for installation to Linux users in several ways, such as a self-installing Bash script, an installable module from Python Pip, and installation packages on several popular Linux operating systems ( Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora,etc.).
To start the installation of Glances on your Linux operating system, launch a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Then, follow the command-line instructions outlined below for the OS you use.
Ubuntu
The Glances application is readily available for installation on Ubuntu Linux, via the “Universe” software repository. To install the program on your system, use the Apt command below.
sudo apt install glances
Debian
On Debian Linux, the Glances system monitoring program is installable via the “Main” software repository. To get it installed on Debian, use the following Apt-get command in a terminal window.
sudo apt-get install glances
Arch Linux
Glances is installable on Arch Linux through the “Community” software repository. To enable “Community” on Arch Linux, open up the Pacman configuration file in Nano with the command below.
sudo nano -w /etc/pacman.conf
Scroll through the configuration file with the Down Arrow on the keyboard, and locate “Community.” From there, remove the # symbol from in front of it, along with all of the lines directly below it.
After editing the “Community” software repository in the Pacman configuration file, save the edits by pressing Ctrl + O, and exit the editor with Ctrl + X.
When the editing of the Pacman configuration file is complete, resync Arch Linux with the official servers.
sudo pacman -Syy
With everything synced, you’ll be able to install the Glances app on Arch Linux with the command below.
sudo pacman -S glances
Fedora
If you want to get Glances on Fedora Linux, there’s no need to enable RPMFusion, or any other third-party software repository. Instead, the app is readily available in the primary Fedora software repositories. To set it up, run the following dnf command below.
sudo dnf install glances
OpenSUSE
On OpenSUSE Linux, Glances is available for installation via the “OSS All” software repository. To start the installation, use the following Zypper command in a terminal window.
sudo zypper install glances
Snap package
Glances is up on the Snap store. So, if you’re having trouble getting the Glances system monitoring application installed on your distribution of choice, but can install Snaps, this installation method is the way to go.
To install Glances via the Snap store, start by enabling the Snapd runtime. Once the runtime is enabled, use the snap install command below to get the app working.
sudo snap install glances
Access Glances
The Glances application is accessible to monitor your system in console mode by running in a terminal window, and by way of a web browser. In this guide, we’ll show you how to access and use Glances in both ways.
Terminal
Although Glances focuses heavily on the web interface, it is entirely possible to take a look at the system monitoring application from the terminal window that the software is run on. To access it, launch a terminal with Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Alt + T. Then, once the command-line is open, run the command below to access Glances.
glances
From here you’ll be able to monitor many aspects to your Linux server or workstation. The monitoring dashboard can quickly be closed by pressing Ctrl + C on the keyboard.
Web browser
The Glances system monitor has a stellar system monitoring tool for the web. It runs as a simple web server on port 61208 and is accessible to anyone with a web browser connected to the same network.
To start up Glances in web browser mode, launch a terminal window with the keyboard combination Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. From there, use the pip install command to load up the “bottle” module.
Note: you must install pip to use bottle
sudo pip install bottle
Following the installation of bottle, run Glances in web browser mode. Be sure to add the “&” symbol at the end, as it is required or it will not be possible to send the software to the background.
glances -w &
Disown the process and send it to the background using disown.
disown
From here, you’ll be able to access the Glances monitoring interface from any browser connected to the same network with:
Minecraft was originally a Java based game until Microsoft bought it. The company has left Minecraft mostly untuoched in that the team continues to develop it to the same standard before with one exception. There is a Minecraft UWP version of the game. The Java version is still alive and in active development but since Minecraft is a popular game title, having it as a UWP app is a good way to promote these types of apps.
Minecraft Windows 10 vs Java version
The two versions are a lot alike as far as features are concerned and by features, we mean the various items, mobs, and biomes that appear in the game, as well as its general mechanics. That said, there are differences between the game as well and they impact game play to a great extent.
Bugs, bugs, and bugs
Games, particularly those as complex as Minecraft will have bugs in them. The Java version has its own glitches and the Windows 10 version has its own bugs but the Java version has been around for a good ten years and the Windows 10 version has not.
As such, the bugs in the UWP version of the app are far worse than those in the Java version. You may notice that mob spawn rates, as well as biome diversity has suffered somewhat in both versions of the app but on the UWP version, it’s particularly bad. The spawn rate is poor enough to make the game’s objective far more difficult to reach.
The point is, while both versions have bugs, the UWP version has bugs that impact game play.
Resources and modifications
Minecraft for Windows 10 supports almost all the modifications that the Java version does however, not as many resources for it have been developed. You’ll find plenty of texture packs and shaders for the Java version, and only a handful of them for the Windows 1o version. If you plan to mod the game quite a bit, the Java version is the way to go.
System resource consumption
The Java version of Minecraft is far more resource hungry than the Windows 10 version. This is more a Java problem than a Minecraft problem but there’s been little improvement on that front. If you do not intend to mod the game much, using the Windows 10 version is a better idea. That said, with modifications, the Windows 10 version of the app does run heavy on the system.
Active development
As mentioned earlier, the Java version of Minecraft is still being actively developed and there are no indications that it will be abandoned. If your only reason for switching to the Windows 10 version is you’re worried that the Java one will be discontinued, you should know that Microsoft tends to keep it alive.
Community
Minecaft, as a game, has a large user base that uses the Java version with only a small portion using the Windows 10 version. As such, the creative community builds most things for the Java version. Many in-game mechanics will work the same on both versions but any time it comes to things like texture packs, or adding other external resources/additions to the app, you will find the Windows 10 version will be left behind.
Cross platform multi-player
Minecraft is a desktop game but other versions of it do exist for other gaming platforms. There are even dedicated mobile versions of the game. Both the Java version and the Windows 10 version allows you to play with other players via servers etc., however with the Windows 10 version, the players can be from any platform; mobile, desktop, or console. The Java version does not have this option and there’s no way to force it.
Controller support
This is one of the bigger difference between the Java and Windows 10 versions of the app and it may, or may not matter depending how you want to play the game.
As of writing, the Java version does not support controllers out of the box. There are hacks to get them working but they’re hacks. The Windows 10 version supports controllers out of the box without any problems or complications.
Servers
Servers for both Java and Windows 10 versions are available however, due to the age of the Java version and it having more players overall, the Java servers far outnumber the Windows 10 ones and they are much better in most aspects.
Functional differences
While similar, Minecraft Windows 10 and the Java version are not identical. There’s a list of exclusive features that the Windows 10 version has that you can check out. If you see anything you’d like no matter what, consider going with the UWP version of the game.
Summary
The Minecraft Java version is more stable, has a larger community, and supports better maps, servers, and modifications that the Windows 10 version does not even come close to matching.
The Minecraft Windows 10 version has some exclusive features, controller support, and allows you to play with other players who are playing from different platforms.
Most people are of the opinion that if you like to play by yourself, focus on the core of the game, or just have fun in creative mode, the Windows 10 version is for you. If you want to play on servers, heavily mod the game so that it practically looks like Skyrim, the Java version is for you.
Next Generation Portal Hi-tech, android, iOS, Mac OS, linux, windows, games, security
