Articles about Microsoft 365

Microsoft is launching Windows Autopatch to keep enterprise Windows 10 and Windows 11 installations updated

Microsoft logo

Later this year, Microsoft will launch a new service called Windows Autopatch which will help users update their software.

The free service will help enterprise customers obtain Windows 10 and Windows 11 quality and feature updates, drivers, firmware, and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise updates. Microsoft is due to launch Windows Autopatch in July, and the company had provided information about how it will work.

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Get 'Microsoft 365 Word Tips and Tricks' ($29.99 value) FREE for a limited time

Microsoft Word, or MS Word, is a word processor developed by Microsoft. Although Word is one of the office productivity applications included in the Microsoft Office suite, it can also be purchased as a standalone product.

MS Word enables you to create, edit, and save professional documents, among other helpful features. Anyone who wants to get better at working with Word will be able to put their MS Word knowledge to use with this practical guide.

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Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub includes free Azure credits and is now available to everyone, regardless of funding

Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub

Microsoft is increasing the support it offers to startups by reducing the eligibility criteria for the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub as the platform is made generally available. With the move, the company is looking to eliminate the boundaries that stand in the way of getting ideas off the ground.

Now billed as being "open to anyone with an idea", the Founders Hub is a startup ecosystem can be used by innovators regardless of whether they have funding or not. The platform gives users access to up to $150,000 in free Azure credits, free access to GitHub and Microsoft 365 as well as potential for mentorship and guidance from experts. There is also $1,000 of credit and more available with OpenAI.

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Microsoft is tempting G Suite legacy free edition users to Microsoft 365 with a special deal

Microsoft building logo

When Google announced the death of G Suite legacy free edition in the hope of getting users to pay for Google Workspace, there was understandable annoyance. The company later launched the fee-free Workspace Essentials Starter Edition to appease disgruntled G Suite users but for many the damage was already done.

Microsoft is taking full advantage of the irritated Google userbase. The company has revealed a special offer that it hopes will entice small businesses that have been using Google legacy G Suite into using Microsoft 365. The incentive? A hefty 60 percent discount.

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Almost half of organizations don't use all of Microsoft 365's features

The thing about integrated office suites is that inevitably you don't need all of the features they provide, or at least you use some of them less than others.

New research from managed services provider Ensono shows that 83 percent of enterprises say Microsoft 365 is an invaluable part of their business operations. However, almost half aren't using all of the features available.

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Get 'Microsoft 365 Portable Genius' ($12.00 value) FREE for a limited time

Do you want to make your Microsoft 365 account a productivity behemoth? Do you want to squeeze every last bit of awesome from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and learn a little more about Outlook, too? Microsoft 365 Portable Genius has you covered.

A seasoned tech expert and trainer, author Lisa A. Bucki shows you how to build Word documents, Excel workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations the right way, as well as how to use high-impact design techniques to make your documents pop.

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Running a pirated copy of Office could earn you a discount on a Microsoft 365 subscription

Microsoft Office icons

For fairly obvious reasons, Microsoft -- like other companies -- would much rather people did not pirate its software. The major concern for any software producer is the loss of income, and Microsoft has come up with a solution for people running pirated versions of Office.

Citing various benefits, including avoiding the risk of security issues, Microsoft is urging pirates to take out a Microsoft 365 subscription. To sweeten the deal, the company is offering a discount on the usual price.

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Starting today, Microsoft 365 usage analytics is anonymized by default

Anonymous woman

As of September 1, 2021, Microsoft is making an important privacy change for Microsoft 365 usage analytics -- pseudonymization of user-level information by default.

Microsoft says that this change will help companies to more easily comply with local privacy laws, but it is something that is likely to be welcomed for various other reasons.

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Windows 365 lets you stream Windows 10 and Windows 11 from the cloud to any device -- including Mac, iPad, Android and Linux

When Windows 10 was announced back in 2014, Microsoft caused alarm bells to ring when it said the new operating system would be free "for the first year", and referring to it "as a service". That led to speculation that the software giant would start charging a monthly fee for Windows 10, much as it does for Office with Microsoft 365.

That never came to pass, but today at its Inspire 2021 conference Microsoft takes the wraps off Windows 365, a cloud-based Windows subscription service.

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Microsoft Office 2021 is coming to Windows 10 and macOS, but only a fool would buy it

Microsoft Office is the best software in the world. If I was running a company, I would choose it over any other solution. While free alternatives like LibreOffice are pretty good, they are all inferior to Microsoft's class-leading office suite. Any spreadsheet power user, for instance, knows nothing compares to Excel. These are indisputable facts.

Today, Microsoft announces that Office 2021 is coming to both Windows 10 and macOS later in the year. And yet, I am not excited about that, nor would I recommend anyone buy it. Why? Because Microsoft 365 exists.

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Microsoft Viva is a new people-powered workplace inside Teams

A few days ago, we reported that Microsoft was going to be revealing what's next for Microsoft 365 and Teams.

Today, it's been as good as its word, taking the wraps off Microsoft Viva, a new Microsoft 365-powered platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights -- from anywhere you work.

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Microsoft to reveal what's next for Microsoft 365 and Teams [Update]

COVID-19 has changed the world for many of us, and led to unprecedented numbers of people working from home. Quite what the future will hold for businesses once the pandemic is over remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say that not everyone will be headed back to the office.

Microsoft 365 and Teams has made it a lot easier, and more practical, for people to work and learn from home, and on Thursday, Feb 4 the software giant will be revealing what’s next for those two important tools.

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Microsoft makes changes to Productivity Score over privacy concerns

Colorful Microsoft logo

Microsoft has announced that it is committed to privacy as the company introduces changes to its Productivity Score tool that raised concerns recently.

The tool is part of Microsoft 365 and was designed to help employers analyze the performance of teams working on projects. But privacy advocates said that the ability to monitor employees on an individual basis amounted to it being a "full-fledged workplace surveillance tool". With the newly announced changes, Microsoft is hoping to allay such fears.

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Microsoft 365's 'Productivity Score' raises serious privacy concerns

Microsoft building in California

Microsoft has attracted the attention of privacy campaigners over the Productivity Score feature of Microsoft 365. The tool uses telemetry to enable employers to track the activities and performance of workers.

The analytics tool has been criticized for being a serious invasion of privacy, as it gives employers the ability to closely monitor individuals. One data privacy researcher describes it as "turn[ing] Microsoft 365 into a full-fledged workplace surveillance tool".

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Microsoft resolves issue that wiped out many of its services

Microsoft sign on glass building

Numerous Microsoft 365 services were knocked offline for several hours, leaving users unable to log into accounts and use various tools. Affected services included Office.com, Outlook.com and Teams, and the problem hit users around the world.

The company scrambled to determine the root cause of the issues, eventually homing in on a "recent change" which needed to be rolled back. This, however, did not ultimately solve the problem, so Microsoft was forced to put other mitigations in place.

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