Articles about Microsoft

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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Windows 10 was not a surprise, nor was the fact that support was ending for Windows 7. Both home and Enterprise users were well informed of Windows 7's impending doom and given ample time to upgrade or buy new machines. Guess what happened? Smart people left Windows 7 before support ended while stupid people did not.

Look, I hate name-calling, but anyone still on Windows 7 is, in fact, stupid. OK, I suppose they could instead be lazy or indifferent, but ultimately, it is stupid behavior to run an unsupported operating system -- especially for a business. And that's why it is very disappointing to learn Google is extending Chrome support for Windows 7.

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Although Insiders in the Dev Channel do occasionally get to try out upcoming features in Windows 10, more often than not the new builds Microsoft rolls out focus on fixing problems and tweaking settings.

That’s certainly been the case with the previous two flights, and today’s new release, Build 20262 (FE_RELEASE) is no different.

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Microsoft Office 365 offers the same productivity power as past versions of Microsoft Office along with tools designed to boost collaboration in the workplace and instant access to the latest Office updates without buying a whole new software package. It’s an ideal solution for both the office and home use.

The author of the bestselling Microsoft Office All-in-One For Dummies shares his advice on how to navigate the nuts and bolts of getting things done with Office 365. Look inside for step-by-step instructions on Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Access, and OneNote, along with a dive into the cloud services that come with Office 365.

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Microsoft has announced that it will not be releasing any preview releases in December as the company winds down for the end of the year.

The Windows maker cites the "minimal operations during the holidays and the upcoming Western new year" as the reason for scaling things back. Microsoft adds that things will return to normal in January.

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The latest update for Windows 10 that is proving to be problematic for people is the recently released KB4586781. While not causing quite as many issues as other updates, it is still causing plenty of problems.

KB4586781 is a cumulative update for people running Windows 10 May 2020 Update and Windows 10 October 2020 Update. Among the issues being reported by users are error codes 0x8007000d and 0x800f0831.

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Insiders in the Dev Channel can look forward to test driving exciting new features in Windows 10 before anyone else. However, not every new build that gets rolled out can be a show stopper.

Sometimes, instead of exciting additions, what you get from a new flight is a bunch of fixes, which is the case in new Build 20257.

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2020 has been an awful year for most people. The coronavirus has torn through our lives, we’ve experienced lockdowns and job losses, the United States is more divided than ever, and let’s not even mention the ongoing shitshow that is the presidential election.

Although it’s not likely to be much better to begin with, 2021 really can’t come soon enough. A redesigned Windows 10 isn’t going to be at the top of most people’s wishlists for the upcoming year, but Windows 21 has got our attention.

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Last month, security researchers at Google's Project Zero released details of a zero-day vulnerability in Windows that was being actively exploited.

Hacklers were taking advantage of a Windows Kernel Cryptography Driver security flaw (CVE-2020-117087) to gain elevated privileges in Windows 7, 8, and 10, as well as Windows Server 2008 and higher. As part of yesterday's Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft has now issued a fix for the vulnerability.

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It is only a month until Windows 10 version 1903 reaches end of service. When December 8 rolls around, any systems running this version of the operating system will no longer receive security updates.

But Microsoft has a solution to ensure that there are not millions of unsecured computers out there -- forcibly upgrading them to a newer, supported version of Windows 10.

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We have written about the micropatching outfit 0patch several times here on BetaNews. Offering "security patching simplified to the extreme" 0patch has previously offered security fixes for problem with Internet Explorer and Windows 7 either before Microsoft has been able to do so, or after the company has stopped offering support for a particular product.

Now 0patch has done it again, announcing that it has "security adopted" Office 2010. This version of Microsoft's iconic office suite is -- as of October -- no longer officially supported, but 0patch says that it will help keep users secured against vulnerabilities with its micropatches.

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If you're running Windows 10 version 20H2 or Windows 10 version 2004, you may well be experiencing problems if you're using a Thunderbolt NVMe SSD. There are also update compatibility holds in place for people trying to upgrade to these versions of Windows 10.

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue that causes such Solid State Disks to generate blue screens in recent versions of Windows 10. People affected by the issue will see an error that reads "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION (e6) An illegal DMA operation was attempted by a driver being verified"; Microsoft says a fix is being worked on.

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Today is just a typical boring Wednesday, with nothing of any note going on in the world, and certainly not in America.

Thankfully then, Microsoft has a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build on hand to brighten the days of those in the Dev Channel.

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Security issues are frequently exposed by Google's Project Zero; just days ago, security researchers revealed details of an actively exploited Windows Kernel Cryptography Driver security flaw.

Now Project Zero has released details of a serious security flaw in another Microsoft venture -- GitHub. The bug relates to GitHub Actions' workflow commands and is described as being high severity. It was discovered back in July but, as per the standard 90-day disclosure period, details are only just now being made public.

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We know that Microsoft is planning to give Windows 10 a makeover in the future, but it’s unlikely that the software giant will really go to town on the design, with the focus of its UI revamp -- codenamed Sun Valley -- being more on tweaking things and expanding on the Fluent Design language currently in use.

While some people are more than happy with how Windows 10 looks, it’s pretty bland when compared to macOS. But what if Apple and Microsoft joined forces to produce a Windows/macOS hybrid?

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