How to keep your apps up to date in Windows 10 and 11 

Take a look at a normal Windows screen. Whether it has Windows 10 or Windows 11, it probably has at least a couple of dozen Windows apps (.exe files) and at least four dozen Microsoft Store apps open. On the 10 PCs in my local fleet, the number of applications ranges from 24 to 120, and the number of Store apps goes from 49 to 81. If what I've read online is right, these amounts are pretty typical.

Check: www.aka.ms.yourpc

In general, keeping apps and programs up-to-date is a good way to keep them safe. Why? Because many updates include security patches and fixes that stop possible attacks and stop unauthorized and unwanted access to apps and their data (and sometimes the host OS and PCs they run on). In this article, I'll talk about some tools you can use to make this process easier, as well as how to use them to keep your apps and apps safe and up-to-date.

Taking stock of what you have

First, it's good to know how many apps you have on your phone. For Windows 10 and 11, there are two ways to find out how many applications are on a PC. This includes both.exe and Store apps. The first way is to press Windows key + R to open the Windows Run box, then type ms-settings:appsfeatures into the box. This starts the "Apps & features" pane in the Settings app. This shows how many executables are on the target PC.

Figure 1 shows the output from my work desktop, which is full of apps and programs (201 in total):