Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft has been rumored to be working on an Azure-powered Cloud PC service for a while now, but it seems that we might be seeing the results of its labor as soon as June or early July this year.

The Cloud PC service, codenamed Project Deschutes, will let users access a Windows desktop remotely and run software such as Microsoft Office. This could be useful if you want to access the same desktop from multiple locations, and it would also allow Windows 10X users to run Win32 apps.

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Developers waiting for news about the next installment of Visual Studio need wait no longer. Microsoft has announced that Visual Studio 2022 will be released later this summer as a public preview.

The company has also revealed that the software is going 64-bit, overcoming the limitations of the 32-bit edition. Microsoft says that the user experience will feel cleaner, more intelligent and action oriented, and that there is an increased cloud focus thanks to improved GitHub integration.

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Anyone testing out the very latest versions of Windows 10 has a new bug-fixing patch to install. With the release of the KB5001391 update, fixes and changes introduced to the Dev channel now make their way to the Beta and Release Preview channels.

This latest patch sees Microsoft taking Windows 10 20H2 up to build 19042.962 and Windows 10 21H1 up to build 19043.962. It includes a large number of bug fixes, and addresses problems with a profile-related Group Policy, and fixes an issue that caused soaring memory usage by the lsass.exe process, as well as high CPU usage that led to system lockups.

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In the middle of January, we reported about a vulnerability in Windows 10 that could be used to corrupt the contents of an NTFS formatted drive. A specially crafted folder name was all that was needed to cause a volume to be marked as dirty, and then require a fix with the Chkdsk utility.

But Chkdsk did not always do the trick, leaving victims with unbootable systems. A couple of months ago, Microsoft started testing a fix with Windows Insiders and now the patch is being made available to everyone. It addresses the problems which was being tracked as CVE-2021-28312 (Windows NTFS Denial of Service Vulnerability).

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It is only a few days since Microsoft released the KB5001330 and KB5001337 updates for Windows 10 which kills off the legacy version of Edge. Having wondered aloud what problems might be caused by the latest batch of updates, we didn't have to wait long for the first issues to rear their heads.

But problems with gaming performance, boot loops and screen flicker are not, it would seem, the end of the story. Users are also reporting problems with DNS resolution and issues with shared folder following the installation of the KB5001330 update.

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While there have been new PowerToys builds released over the last few months, it has been a while since a new tool was added. Now, with the launch of PowerToys Experimental v0.36.0, this changes.

The latest release of the much-loved Windows 10 utility collection now features the Video Conference Mute tool, giving users the ability to quickly mute their microphone and turn off their camera with a keyboard shortcut.

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Earlier this week we asked -- slightly tongue-in-cheek -- what problems would be caused by this month's Patch Tuesday updates. As the weekend crests the horizon, we have our answer, and this time around it is the Edge-killing KB5001330 update that is proving problematic.

And the problems appear to be not only plentiful, but also fairly significant. Among the reported issues are a drop in the performance of games, error messages, screen flicker and more.

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Yesterday, Microsoft released two new updates for Windows 10 that, among other things, killed off the legacy Edge browser. There’s no question that the Chromium-based successor to that browser is a huge improvement, and today the software giant makes it even more useful for families.

The new Microsoft Edge Kids Mode gives parents more peace of mind when their offspring are browsing the web, which is great news as children are online more than ever these days.

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After a period of testing, Microsoft has now launched the stable version of Windows Terminal 1.7. There are various notable changes in this release, particularly the arrival of a proper UI for editing settings.

The idea behind the introduction of a settings user interface in Windows Terminal v1.7.1033.0 is that it makes life a great deal easier for anyone who is not familiar or comfortable with JSON file tinkering. Significant as this is, it is not the only change to be found in this new stable release.

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With the release of the latest insider preview of Windows 10, Microsoft has made a key change to the way the Timeline feature works. The idea behind Timeline was to not only provide a web browser-style history option for general computing activities, but to synchronize this history across devices via the cloud.

Now Microsoft has decided that the cross-device synchronization side of things is not needed, and the company is getting rid of what was arguably the most useful feature of Timeline. While currently only deprecated in the Windows 10 Build 21359 preview, this is a change that will ultimately roll out to all Windows 10 users.

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It’s Wednesday, so that usually means a new Windows 10 build for Insiders on the Dev Channel, and this week is no exception.

There aren’t any major new features in Build 21359, but there are quite a few changes and improvements to report.

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The writing has been on the wall for legacy Edge in Windows 10 for quite some time. Now, with the release of this month's updates for the operating system, Microsoft has finally pulled the trigger.

With the release of the KB5001330 and KB5001337 update for Windows 10, Microsoft has forcibly removed the old version of Edge and replaced it with the newer Chromium-based version of the browser.

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Another Patch Tuesday has rolled around, and this month sees Microsoft releasing a bumper crop of update for Windows 10. In all, April's updates address a total of 108 flaws, 19 of which are considered Critical.

Four of the critical flaws are Exchange vulnerabilities discovered by the NSA, and there are also fixes for no fewer than five zero days. The patches also include fixes for an incredible 89 Important issues.

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If you’re in the market for a new Windows 10 laptop, then Microsoft’s latest hardware release could be of interest.

The new Surface Laptop 4 comes with either a 13.5" or 15" PixelSense touchscreen display, and for the first time you can choose between Intel 11th Gen Intel Core processors or AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics.

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For power users looking to customize, personalize, optimize and control Windows 10, there are lots of tools available in the operating system. The problem is that they are spread out across multiple locations which can mean a lot of traveling back and forth.

Microsoft is changing this with the introduction of a new Windows Tools folder which brings together elements of the Control Panel, Administrative Tools and more.

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