Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft releases Windows 10 Build 20215 with dark theme search results

It’s that time of the week again when Microsoft rolls out a new Windows 10 build to Insiders on the Dev Channel.

Build 20215 introduces dark theme search results for insiders who have the system theme set to dark.

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Microsoft is forcing the new Edge on users with KB4576754 update for Windows 10

Chrome / Edge fade

Since adopting the Chromium engine for Edge, Microsoft has been eager for people to move away from the legacy version of its web browser.

To help ensure compliance with its wishes, the company has released the KB4576754 update which forces the installation of the new Microsoft Edge and removes the old version. With the update being mandatory, anyone wanting to avoid Edge will have to take action.

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Microsoft launches public preview of Defender Application Guard for Office

Microsoft Office is one of the most popular pieces of software in the world, and the fact that it is so widely used means that it is often targeted for malicious reasons. Just as viruses tend to target Windows rather than macOS or Linux simply because of the sheer number of people using the operating systems, so Office's popularity means that it can often be attacked by malicious files as well.

But Microsoft has a way to offer protection. In addition to the Windows Defender anti-malware tool that is built into Windows, the company has now just released a public preview of Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office.

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TikTok says no to Microsoft, but what about Oracle? [Update]

TikTok with pink background

In a brief statement issued late last night, Microsoft revealed that it was out of the running to buy TikTok’s US operations.

US President Donald Trump claims that TikTok (and other Chinese apps) pose a threat to national security and his administration has set a September 15 deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to either sell US operations or shut them down.

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Best Windows 10 apps this week

Four-hundred-and-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 released new Intel microcode updates this week to address certain flaws in Intel processors.

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Windows 10 Build 20211 lets you access Linux filesystems in Windows and WSL 2

Dev Channel Insiders are in for a treat this week. Windows 10 Build 20211 introduces a number of new features, including adding Search to the Default Apps pages in Settings.

There’s a big new change for users of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2) too -- you can now attach and mount a physical disk inside of a WSL 2 distro.

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Windows 10 KB4571756 update is causing 'Element not found' errors in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Colorful Microsoft logo

Another month, another Patch Tuesday. Earlier this week Microsoft released a series of updates for Windows 10, including KB4571756, a cumulative update designed to fix a range of security issues.

But many people installing KB4571756 have found that the update breaks Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. Microsoft is yet to acknowledge this as a known issue, but many people are experiencing "Element not found" errors in WSL 2 as well as seeing the message "Process exited with code 4294967295".

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Get 'Microsoft Excel 2019 Bible' ($35.99 value) FREE for a limited time

Whether you are just starting out or an Excel novice, the Microsoft Excel 2019 Bible is your comprehensive, go-to guide for all your Excel 2019 needs. Whether you use Excel at work or at home, you will be guided through the powerful new features and capabilities to take full advantage of what the updated version offers.

Learn to incorporate templates, implement formulas, create pivot tables, analyze data, and much more.

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If you don't want to be Microsoft's guinea pig, pause Windows Updates

Two guinea pigs

We have written a lot about Windows 10 here on BetaNews, and many of these articles have been about problems introduced by new updates. For some time now it has felt as though the updates and patches that are released have not been fully tested, and users of the operating system are being used as guinea pigs when Patch Tuesday rolls around each month.

There is, of course, the argument that Microsoft has an impossible task when it comes to ensuring that patches and updates do not cause problems for people with near unlimited combinations of hardware and software. But that's little consolation if it's your system that gets borked by a patch.

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Windows 7 2020 Edition could be the perfect Microsoft operating system

Windows 10 is a good operating system, for the most part, but it’s not without its problems -- I covered just some of these here on the eve of its 5th birthday at the end of July. It seems every new update Microsoft rolls out these days introduces fresh annoyances. No wonder millions of people are still sticking with Windows 7, even though that OS is no longer supported.

For many people, Windows 10 is the operating system they have to use, but not the one they want to. With that in mind, it's not hard to see the appeal of this remastered Windows 7 2020 Edition.

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Microsoft releases KB4497165 and KB4558130 microcode updates for Windows 10 to fix Intel security flaws

New Intel logo

Earlier in the year, Intel announced that it had completed software validations on fixes for a series of security flaws affecting many of its processors discovered a couple of years ago. Now Microsoft, in conjunction with the chip-maker, released microcode updates for Windows 10 to fix these issues.

The four problems are connected to the now-infamous Spectre and Meltdown flaws from 2018. They relate to problems with the speculative execution function of many chips, and could allow for sensitive data to leak.

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Microsoft launches Expressive Pixels app to help you create animations

Microsoft has launched a new open source app for Windows 10 which has been designed to help users create and share animated content. The company says that the primary target for these animations is small, third-party LED panels but Microsoft Expressive Pixels can also be used to turn creations into animated GIFs which can be used in a variety of ways online.

While animations can be as simple or as complex as you like, the tools you're presented with in the app serve to make the entire creation process as easy as possible. It does not really matter if you have never used an animation tool previously, as Microsoft Expressive Pixels works very much like a standard image editing tool, albeit it one that lets you easily build up a series of frames into a looping  animation.

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Microsoft releases KB4571744 update to fix lots of Windows 10 problems

Microsoft building in California

Microsoft has released a new non-security update for Windows 10 version 2004. KB4571744 for Windows 10 May 2020 Update was previously delayed, and it is designed for testing purposes; it will be included in a future cumulative update.

But what is notable about the KB4571744 update is the sheer number of issues it fixes. Among the problems the update addresses are issues with blurry screens, problems with Windows Update itself, and it also fixes an issues that resulted in SSDs being defragmented too frequently.

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Best Windows 10 apps this week

Four-hundred-and-two 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 announced this week that it is bringing the Direct Storage API to Windows 10 to boost game loading times significantly on devices with supported NVMe storage solutions.

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Microsoft releases two new PowerToys builds and adds new 'Video conference global mute' utility

PowerToys

It seems like it has been a little while since Microsoft made any significant changes to PowerToys for Windows 10, but now the company has pushed out a pair of new releases.

For people who want to stick with the more stable releases, there is PowerToys v0.21.1 which is largely about bug fixes and addressing stability issues. For anyone looking for new PowerToys utilities, however, there is the "experimental" version 0.22.0 which features a new 'Video conference global mute' tool.

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