Articles about Microsoft

Using a package manager to install software is something that will be familiar to Linux users, but it's not something that has been an option for anyone running Windows. But now this has changed since Microsoft released a preview of its Windows Package Manager utility.

You can think of using the winget command as an alternative to using the Microsoft Store to install app, or using traditional executable installers. But it's not just and alternative -- it also has the potential to be more flexible and powerful. Here's how to use Windows Package Manager and how to script it to automate the installation of several programs.

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Microsoft Solitaire is often remembered both fondly and with anger -- depending on the person. For many consumers, the game came pre-loaded on their computer and provided hours of fun. Unfortunately for some employers, the game had a negative impact on productivity over the years, as workers sometimes played the card game rather than do their jobs. Whether you love or hate Microsoft Solitaire, there is certainly one thing on which everyone can agree -- the game is iconic.

And that brings us to today, where Microsoft Solitaire is celebrating a huge milestone in 2020 -- a 30th Birthday! Yes, the digital card game has now been with us for three decades. To celebrate, the Windows-maker is asking everyone to play the free game today as a show of love for it.

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Hyper-V is Windows’ built-in virtualization technology, hard-wired into Windows 10 Professional to allow you to easily run multiple operating systems on a single PC. You can use it to resurrect old programs and hardware no longer compatible with Windows 10, explore alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu or use it as a test environment.

"But I can do all this for free with VirtualBox!" you’ll say. And you’d be correct -- to a degree. There’s one critical reason why Hyper-V is a better option than VirtualBox, and that’s raw performance. VirtualBox is a software emulator, which means that it sits on top of Windows and can never match native performance, whatever tweaks you perform.

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Microsoft has had a busy week at Build. Among the many announcements were new versions of Terminal and PowerToys, a Windows Package Manager, and support for graphical apps in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Today the software giant rolls out a new Windows 10 build for Insiders on the Fast ring.

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Last week, security researchers Alex Ionescu and Yarden Shafir published an analysis of a new Windows vulnerability that they named PrintDemon. The analysis included a proof-of-concept demonstration that worked on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows.

PrintDemon, in a nutshell, is an elevation of privilege vulnerability that "allows arbitrary writing to the file system" upon successful exploitation.

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The Linux-supporting capabilities of Windows 10 are going to develop even further as Microsoft continues to improve Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Later this month, with the release of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft is launching WSL2 which sees the arrival of a full Linux kernel and more.

Talking at Build yesterday, Microsoft revealed the impending arrival of not only GPU hardware acceleration in WSL2, but also GUI app support.

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Microsoft may be hosting its Build developer conference virtually this year, but this doesn't mean there's anything less than normal being unveiled. Among the announcement and launches is the first preview of the Windows Package Manager.

The open source tool has been created to make it easier to install software, automating and speeding up the process. If you've used a package manager in a Linux distro, the idea is very similar, and Microsoft acknowledge that it is something Windows devs have been asking for for some time.

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It's around a year since Microsoft decided to revive the popular PowerToys utilities for Windows 10, and in the intervening months there have been numerous updates and new tools to play with. With the newly release PowerToys v0.18.0 the company has added a handy keyboard remapping tool.

There's also something that will appeal to anyone who has been looking for a macOS-style Spotlight tool. The new Run launcher serves as a powerful upgrade to Windows + R and provides a flexible way to access apps, files and more.

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At its Build developer conference last year, Microsoft took the wraps off its Linux-inspired Windows Terminal. This lets users access the Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) in the one place.

Since then, Microsoft has been adding additional features, such as multiple panes and tab re-ordering, across a number of preview versions. Most recently the software giant added mouse support and duplicate panes. Today, at the virtual Build 2020, the company announces that Terminal has hit the 1.0 milestone.

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Microsoft and Sony Semiconductor Solutions have announced details of a new partnership that will see the two companies working on AI-powered smart cameras and video analytics together.

The partnership means that Microsoft Azure AI capabilities will be embedded on Sony’s intelligent vision sensor IMX500. Additionally, Sony will create an enterprise-focused smart camera managed app that will be powered by Azure IoT and Cognitive Services.

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With Windows 10 having been with us for a number of years, you would think that all of its secrets had been discovered by now. Of course, Microsoft has released numerous updates to the operating system but it's hard to imagine anything included in these going unnoticed, right?

Maybe not. You may not be aware that with Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Microsoft added a network packet sniffer, Packet Monitor or Pktmon. No one seemed to notice... until now.

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Three-hundred-and-eighty-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.

The next Windows 10 feature update has been released to developers and OEMs already; Microsoft plans to release it to the public at the end of May 2020. OEMs are no longer allowed to install 32-bit versions of Windows 10 on devices starting with Windows 10 version 2004.

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As we wrote about yesterday, with build 19628 Microsoft has added support for DNS over HTTPS to Windows 10. DoH is a great way to increase privacy and security online, and its arrival in Windows 10 has been widely welcomed.

At the moment the feature is only available to Windows Insiders, but it won't be long before it rolls out to everyone. But when you have it up and running, how do you know if DNS over HTTPS is working? Here's how to find out.

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While preview builds of Windows 10 do have a tendency to be a little on the buggy side, they offer an opportunity to try out new features and options way before the official release. For anyone concerned about privacy and security an exciting addition to the latest Insider build is DNS over HTTPS (DoH).

The feature keeps web traffic more private by performing DNS lookups over an encrypted HTTPS connection so they are far less susceptible to interception. If you've been keen to try this out, now you can. Here's what you need to do.

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A growing number of Linux distributions no longer offer 32-bit versions, and that’s a trend that’s very much set to continue.

If you’re a Windows user running older hardware, then you’ll be pleased that Microsoft has yet to follow suit, but starting with the next version of Windows 10, the May 2020 Update (or 2004 if you prefer), the software developer is finally beginning the process of killing off support for non-64-bit systems.

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