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When the education-focused Windows 10 S was announced, many people were dubious that it could be a success. Limiting the operating system to apps from the Windows Store seems like a recipe for disaster. That opinion is understandable, as we have sort of been down this road before with Windows RT -- which failed. The concept can confuse users.

I was sort of hopeful for Windows 10 S when Microsoft made a shocking announcement at Build 2017 that it is bringing Linux distributions to the Windows Store. This gave the impression that students using the S variant of the OS would be able to tinker with Linux. Unfortunately, this is not the case as Microsoft will be blocking Linux on the new OS. In other words, not all apps in the store will be available for Windows 10 S.

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The WannaCry ransomware has made a huge mess across the globe, affecting hundreds of thousands of PCs, including critical devices in the healthcare sector. It is so dangerous that Microsoft released a public patch for Windows XP, after it dropped support three years ago.

Of course, the patch did not stop Windows XP users from getting infected, but, thankfully, a decryption tool, called WannaKey, is now available and should help recover your locked files. And the good news is that it works on other operating systems too, including Windows 7 (the x86 version, anyway) and Windows Server 2008!

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The number of digital assistants installed is on track to exceed 7.5 billion by 2012, which is more than the world population.

According to technology research company Ovum, Google Assistant will dominate the voice AI–capable device market with 23.3 percent market share, followed by Samsung's Bixby (14.5 percent), Apple's Siri (13.1 percent), Amazon's Alexa (3.9 percent), and Microsoft's Cortana (2.3 percent).

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PDF Anti-Copy is a free tool which protects PDF content by preventing users selecting or copying its text. There are similar programs available, but they typically work by applying the standard PDF security restrictions. This can easily removed with the right software.

PDF Anti-Copy takes a more unusual approach, using GhostScript and its -dNoOutputFonts switch to essentially replace the text with vector graphics. The page looks the same, but the text selection options stop working because the text has gone.

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The Facebook Messenger app for iOS and Android is an utter mess of ideas at the moment. The confused interface is all over the place and decidedly user unfriendly. All that is set to change, though, thanks to an update that rolls out this week.

The update brings a slightly updated look which makes navigation a little easier. Tabs help to keep things better organized so you can jump to where you want to be more easily. The changes do not go as far as letting you kill the endlessly irritating Messenger Day/Stories feature, but it does go some way to improving things.

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Last week's WannaCrypt attack infected over 200,000 devices and is estimated to have made its perpetrators $72,000.

Increasingly scammers and criminals are seeing the internet as a means of making financial returns. Cyber crime has become a serious business and no business or information is safe from attack.

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Panos Panay may have said that the Surface Pro 5 does not exist, but that certainly does not mean there's not a Surface Pro 4 successor. Microsoft has an event scheduled for Monday in Shanghai, and Panay himself has already indicated that it is Surface-related.

Ahead of the event, writer and serial leaker Evan Blass has revealed a number of images of the upcoming device which drops the numbering and is to be known simply as the Surface Pro.

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Both augmented and virtual reality show no sign of slowing down -- these are certainly technologies to keep an eye on over the next several years. Microsoft and Google have been very public with their projects, while there are rumors that Apple is secretly working on both AR and VR too.

Google's Tango is one of the most ambitious such projects, bringing augmented reality capabilities to Android devices. Earlier today at Google I/O, ASUS announced that the upcoming ZenFone AR smartphone -- compatible with both Tango and Daydream -- will be a Verizon exclusive.

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While some people may feel that their office job is stressful -- and maybe it is -- there are workers in the world that do physically hard work that is much more strenuous. They may work in dangerous and dirty conditions where not only is their health at risk, but so too is their computer. For instance, they may work in a location with tremendous dust, risk of flooding, and falling debris. For these jobs, an extremely rugged laptop or tablet could be needed.

When it comes to rugged computers, Panasonic's legendary Toughbook laptops are always a wise choice. These computers have a reputation for surviving really rough conditions. Today, the company announces its latest bad-ass notebook -- the Toughbook 33. Not only is it a laptop, but a detachable tablet too.

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There is no doubt that public clouds like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google constitute rapidly growing and attractive alternatives to traditional on premise IT operations leading many organizations to conclude that they are "not IT companies" and/or "do not want to be in the IT business."

But few companies can escape the mandate to be present online, to conduct business online, and to deal with partners, suppliers, customers, and employees online. This mandate is causing companies to embark upon initiatives to "digitize" their businesses, which means to implement these crucial business functions in software.

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Enterprise communications are set to see a major overhaul within the next five years, according to a new report. Research from Fuze found that almost six in ten (59 percent) of companies have prioritized adopting new communication technology.

Based on a survey of 900 IT leaders, the report says 64 percent are looking to cut the number of communications apps to remove complexity. Two thirds (64 percent) are also looking to move their communications completely into the cloud. Sixty-three percent will have adopted a unified communications system by 2022, and 62 percent think video will replace voice-based comms by 2022.

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More than four fifths (84 percent) of small business owners in the UK, and almost half (43 percent) of senior executives in large companies have no idea what GDPR is and that it’s coming.

That's according to Shred-it’s Security Tracker research, which also found that roughly one in seven (14 percent) of small business owners, and 31 percent of senior executives know what the fines of not complying with the GDPR are.

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From the words, to how the form looks, and on to interactivity, Designing UX: Forms will show you how to design a web form that works beautifully on mobiles, laptops and desktops.

It’s filled with practical and engaging insights, and plenty of real-world examples, both good and bad.

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When Microsoft purchased LinkedIn back in December 2016, many predicted the eventual integration of Dynamics with the world’s primary professional social network. As well as being a valuable business networking tool, LinkedIn is just as useful for cold sales leads and recruitment prospects as it is for connecting people.

With Dynamics 365 designed to combine the company’s CRM and ERP services into a single cloud-based platform, the prospect of having access to nearly 500 million LinkedIn users could be more than enough to sway a new customer towards Microsoft. Dynamics 365 now has a clear advantage, but what impact will this have on the CRM software market when pitted against its competitors?

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Everyone thinks autonomous, self-driving cars are the next big opportunity in the automobile industry -- but it is the connected car that will drive the next major transformation in car owners’ driving experience. Previously, low-bandwidth cellular network connectivity and immature, cobbled-together proprietary technologies prevented automobile manufacturers from fully realizing the potential of the connected car.

However, with the arrival of standards-based, broadband-enabled turnkey connected car platforms, automobile manufacturers can finally make cars an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT) and offer drivers mobility, preventive maintenance, infotainment and other connected car services that deliver a significantly better driving experience. In addition, the rise of the connected car will be a powerful force driving the development of the technology and infrastructure required to build a real path to a self-driving car future.

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