Microsoft has acknowledged OneDrive connectivity problems on some devices that have been upgraded to Windows 10 May 2020 Update (Windows 10 version 2004).

An error message reading "OneDrive cannot connect to Windows" informs affected users that Files On-Demand require an internet connection to function. The problem means that people are unable to access some of their files -- at least until they apply a workaround.

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Three-hundred-and-ninety-three in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft launched a redesigned Start Menu in the latest Insider build that it released this week. The main changes make the tile backgrounds semi-transparent and introduce support for accent colors.

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If you want to store your data externally, you can always go with a mechanical hard disk drive. That makes sense, as HDDs are typically a more cost effective option when compared to solid state drives. With that said, SSDs have dropped in price a lot lately, and are getting larger storage capacities all the time. For instance, both Sabrent and Samsung recently showed off 8TB SSDs. Not to mention, solid state drives are faster and have no moving parts, making them worth the premium for some consumers.

Lexar recently announced a new portable SSD that uses USB-C for connectivity, and it is rather affordable. Called "SL200," it appears to use a SATA drive internally, so it isn't the fastest option on the market. With that said, it is still significantly faster than a USB hard disk drive. Your PC doesn't have USB-C? Don't worry. The attractive drive comes with both a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box.

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Microsoft's cloud storage and Google Drive rival, OneDrive, is in line to receive a number of new features, the company has revealed. Personal and business customers are due to gain access to features that will make life easier, including a new Add to OneDrive option for easy file and folder sharing.

Add to OneDrive is a business-centric feature that will be a big help for collaborative work, but home users have a lot to look forward to as well. Key new features include the ability upload files of up to 100 GB in size, and the arrival of a dark mode option for the web-based version of OneDrive, bringing it in line with the mobile apps.

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People are starting to care more about privacy these days, and rightfully so. It feels like we are constantly hearing about data breaches and software vulnerabilities that can lead to spying. While Windows 10 is a great operating system, it does have some intense telemetry that can pass your activity to Microsoft's servers. That is part of the reason so many people are switching to Linux these days.

If you are switching to Linux for privacy reasons, you have to check out Purism. That company sells computers running a Debian-based Linux distro called "PureOS". These machines have hardware kill-switches for the webcam, microphone, and wireless radios. Today, the company announces the 14-inch Librem 14 Linux laptop. It has a 1080p display and is powered by the hexacore Intel Core i7-10710U processor. It can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM.

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New research into global patent registrations and information on the economic value of patents in the AI sector reveals that Samsung, IBM and Tencent dominate with the highest number of patents filed.

But the study from specialist in the law and economics of IP, OxFirst,  also shows fierce competition between the US and China which overshadows other countries, including those in Europe.

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Microsoft has been teasing users with images of its refreshed Windows 10 Start menu for a while now, and you can finally try it out for yourself.

But that’s not all the software giant is changing in Windows 10. In addition to a much nicer looking Start menu, it’s introducing a personalized taskbar, an improved notification experience, and also adding extra features to Alt+Tab.

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Facebook has sneakily used a blog post purportedly about "protecting people's data" to reveal that it has failed to do precisely that. In a post in its almost ironically titled Privacy Matters series, Facebook admits that it shared private user data with thousands of app developers when it should not have. Two years ago, Facebook implemented a privacy policy that stopped apps that had not been used for 90 days from sharing data with developers, but it turns out that data was in fact still shared.

The social media giant shamelessly tries to save face in saying that while the way in which this user data was shared ran counter to its own privacy policy, the "issues" didn't result in the sharing of personal information which people had not previously given permission to be shared. This is either deliberately missing the point, or treating users with a callous off-handedness, sharing little in the way of meaningful information about the incident.

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Mageia isn't one of the most popular Linux-based operating systems, but it has its share of fans. The operating system is primarily a KDE affair, although GNOME and Xfce are available desktop environments too. It is a quality distro that you should check out if interested.

The last major release of Mageia was version 7, which came out nearly a year ago. Today, Mageia 8 Alpha 1 becomes available for download. Despite many Linux distributions stopping development of 32-bit variants, Mageia is apparently not giving up -- you can download a special 32-bit ISO that uses the Xfce desktop environment.

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Intel's diminutive NUC bare-bones computers are quite a bit of fun. Not only are they cute and tiny, but once you add RAM and storage, they can run both Windows 10 and Linux brilliantly. Hell, I am currently running macOS on one as a "Hackintosh" (Shh! Don't tell Apple). The only knock on the NUC is that you can't really upgrade the GPU. Unless your NUC has Thunderbolt 3 and you add a pricey eGPU, you are essentially stuck with Intel's ho-hum onboard graphics.

With the unveiling of the "Ghost Canyon" Intel NUC 9, however, this changed. While obviously bigger than earlier NUC models, this unit can accommodate a proper gaming card from AMD or NVIDIA (if you choose to add one). You can even eventually upgrade the CPU with what Intel calls replaceable "compute elements." And now, if you have some money to spare, you can finally buy the top model of Ghost Canyon -- the drool-worthy Intel NUC 9 Extreme is available today!

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Microsoft has released two off-schedule patches for serious vulnerabilities in the Windows Codecs Library affecting Windows 10 and Windows Server.

With the updates, which have been released through the Microsoft Store, the company is addressing the "critical" CVE-2020-1425 and the "serious" CVE-2020-1457. Both are Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities, and both have been addressed with little fanfare from Microsoft.

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New research from security management platform Exabeam reveals that 88 percent of UK security practitioners have accelerated their move to the cloud, driven by the need to support a remote workforce.

Significantly, almost half of respondents (44 percent) are now using cloud-based security products to protect their corporate financial information. This is a sharp increase compared to Exabeam's earlier study where just 12 percent were protecting corporate financial information in this way.

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In the first quarter of this year, DDoS attacks rose more than 278 percent compared to Q1 2019 and more than 542 percent compared to the previous quarter.

This is among the findings of the Nexusguard Q1 2020 Threat Report. Researchers attribute the sharp rise in incidents to malicious efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing DDoS attacks to interrupt service for large companies and individuals alike.

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Increasingly customers expect personalized experiences that are relevant to their unique situations and needs. However, with the increased reliance on technology needed to provide this, the human angle can go by the board.

We spoke to Jon Perera, CMO at sales and marketing software specialist Highspot to learn more about how people, processes and technology can be aligned to offer optimum customer experience.

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Microsoft has been making incredible progress with the return of the much-loved PowerToys utilities for Windows 10. Over a series of releases, the company has given tweakers and power users all manner of useful toys to play with.

Now PowerToys v0.19.0 is here, and Microsoft has gone on a bug-fixing rampage, fixing more than 100 issues. This release also sees improvements to the annoying installer.

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