Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft plans to introduce a new feature to its Outlook on the Web service that provides users with the option to use email aliases when sending messages.

The company added the new feature to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and lists it as 'under development' currently.

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Apple has a reputation for producing stylish and elegantly designed hardware and software products. Microsoft, well, not so much.

Windows 10 under Microsoft’s control isn’t a bad looking operating system, but even after all these years it still doesn’t feel quite finished, with elements of the old design cropping up in various places. If you’ve ever wondered what Windows 10 would look like if Apple was developing it, we have the answer.

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Three-hundred-and-sixty-six 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 plans to introduce functionality in upcoming versions of Windows 10 to improve the installation of optional drivers. Windows Update will highlight optional updates, including drivers, going forward.

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The Windows 10 Insider program has a few requirements but the most important ones are that users need to use a Microsoft Account to receive Insider builds and that data collecting needs to be set to full on the device.

Offline Insider Enroll is a command line script that enrolls Windows 10 devices in the Insider program even if no Microsoft Account is used. The requirement to set Telemetry to full is not changed, however.

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Microsoft seems to have big things in store for Windows 10 in 2020, but it's not exactly clear what at the moment. A few people have recently noticed that after updating to Windows 10 version 19536 that there is a reference to something called Windows Feature Experience Pack under in the About section of System Settings.

But things get more intriguing. A dummy app from Microsoft called Windows Feature Experience Pack has been spotted in the Microsoft Store, leading to speculation that the company could start to deliver some Windows 10 updates via an app, keeping them separate from more major updates to the operating system.

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It's now mere weeks until Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft. When January 14, 2020 rolls around, the end date for support will have been reached, and Microsoft is keen for people to upgrade to Windows 10 to avoid having insecure computers that don't receive updates.

But not all security updates are being dropped. Having previously said that Microsoft Security Essentials would no longer receive updates when Windows 7 support ends, the company has indicated that updates will in fact continue to be released.

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Three-hundred-and-sixty-six 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 the first build from its new development branch this week to the Fast Ring. Fast Ring insiders will always receive the freshest builds from this point on (since Skip Ahead was retired) but features that are introduced are no longer linked to a particular release.

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SiriusXM, the satellite radio juggernaut (and now-owner of Pandora), has millions of daily listeners. These days, the company doesn't only provide its popular satellite radio channels in automobiles, but essentially everywhere thanks to its mobile apps for Android and iPhone. Hell, you can listen to SiriusXM though Alexa and Google Assistant hardware these days too. Evert morning, I listen to Howard Stern on my Nest Mini by simply saying "Hey Google, Play Sirius 100." It is quite remarkable.

Obviously, such a large company has lots of employees working around the world. Enabling all these workers to easily communicate  and collaborate is essential. And so, SiriusXM chose Microsoft Teams for this, right? Actually, no. As a huge blow to Microsoft, SiriusXM instead chose Slack.

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Microsoft released a new developer build of the company's upcoming Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser on Tuesday. The new build increases the version of the browser to 80.0.361.5; existing installations may be upgraded, new users can find downloads on the official Microsoft Edge Insiders download page.

The new release is the final Microsoft Edge Dev build of 2019 and Microsoft decided to end the year with a bang. The Chromium-based browser is now also available for ARM devices. Microsoft is making available ARM64 DEV channel builds starting with this release which means that users who run ARM devices like the Surface Pro X, may install the Dev version of the web browser on these devices.

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Adverts in Windows 10 are not a new thing. Microsoft has a history of sneaking them into any spare real estate in its operating system and included apps. In the past we’ve seen them crop up in the Start menu, in the taskbar, in the Action Center, in File Explorer, in the Ink Workspace, on the Lock Screen, in the Share tool, and in the Windows Store. It’s even currently running full screen ads for Windows 10 inside Windows 7 as the aging operating system reaches its end of life.

Microsoft prefers to call the ads it dots around its OS "suggestions" but that doesn’t make them any less annoying for users. And now the company has added a new ad to the Windows Mail and Calendar apps, and made them impossible to remove.

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Now that Microsoft is nearly finished with the next big feature update of Windows 10 (2004), due out next year, Insiders on the Fast ring are starting to receive new builds from the active RS_PRERELEASE development branch.

In a bid to make things less confusing, Microsoft has dropped the Skip Ahead ring, and Fast ring insiders will now receive the freshest builds, with features not linked to a specific Windows 10 release.

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Bing is a godawful search engine. I try to avoid it as much as possible, but on the few occasions when I do use it -- when writing about the new Chromium version of Edge for example -- I find the results it returns are rubbish. In a blind usage test I can instantly spot the difference between it and Google just by the quality -- or lack of -- of the results.

In what it describes as a bid to bring "convenient, fast web results directly to the search bar in Windows" Microsoft has baked (yet more) Bing searches into Windows 10, including a brand new visual search.

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Aesthetics are an important part of app design and branding, and change is not something that is undertaken lightly -- particularly when it comes to big names. Following on from revealing a new-look icon for its Chromium-based Edge browser, Microsoft has now taken the wraps off more than 100 redesigned icons.

This is not a minor undertaking. Here Microsoft is introducing new colors, materials and finishes as the company goes all-in with its Fluent design language.

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Microsoft has added a much called-for feature to its Your Phone app -- the ability to make phone calls from Windows.

Working with a phone and PC at the same time can be a pain, and this was part of the reason Microsoft developed the Your Phone app. The feature had been available to insiders testing preview version of the software, and now the company is making the feature available to everyone.

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Three-hundred-and-sixty-five 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 two new Windows 10 version 2004 builds this week: build 19037 made PowerShell ISE a feature on demand, and build 19041.1 for the Fast and Slow rings made polishing fixes to the next feature update. Microsoft enabled the new Quick Search feature globally on Windows 10 as well. Previously, Quick Search was only available to devices set to EN-US.

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