Articles about Microsoft

Last week, Microsoft changed how future Windows 10 builds are served up to Insiders, with the Slow ring becoming the Beta Channel, and the Fast ring turning into the Dev Channel.

Today, the software giant releases its second flight to the Dev Channel. Build 20152 doesn’t come with any new features, but rather focuses on making general improvements.

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Windows 10 has been around for five years now, and although Microsoft has introduced a number of big changes over the years, the Start menu doesn't look hugely different from how it was when the OS debuted back in 2015.

That’s all about to change though. Microsoft is planning to overhaul the menu, and it’s released a number of new images to give us a clearer idea of how it will look.

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The June update released for Windows 10 this last Patch Tuesday is causing problems for some people who have installed it.

Users who are affected by the issue after installing KB4557957 or KB4560960 see an error message with the status code c0000008, and Windows then forces them to restart their computer. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix, but in the meantime, you'll have to make do with a workaround.

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Microsoft is increasingly showing love to Linux, with the most obvious example of this being the inclusion of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10.

Today, the software giant announces the general availability of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for Linux systems.

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An update from last month seems to have introduced a bug into the Mail app which is causing problems with Gmail accounts.

The bug causes sent emails to be deleted, meaning there is no way to check past correspondence. While numerous people have used Microsoft Answers to report the issue, Microsoft is yet to acknowledge the problem. There are, however, a couple of workarounds you can try if you are affected.

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Microsoft has a lot of successes, but also, the company has countless failures. With that said, failing in a business venture isn't entirely a bad thing -- it means you at least tried something. A company like Microsoft needs to take risks, but damn, sometimes it just feels like the company flushes cash down the toilet.

Case in point, back in 2016, Microsoft bought a game-streaming service (a Twitch clone) called "Beam." In 2017, the Windows-maker renamed that service to what it is known as today -- "Mixer." The company even paid millions of dollars to popular video game players to get them to stream elusively on the service. Hell, it was less than a year ago that Microsoft signed popular player  "Ninja" for more than $20 million! And now, in 2020, Microsoft has killed Mixer, essentially burning many millions of dollars. Yup, the company announces that it will shutter Mixer on July 22 and then move all of its users to the Facebook Gaming platform.

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Having already started to push the Chromium-based version of Edge to Windows 10 users, Microsoft is now doing the same for older versions of Windows.

With the KB4567409 update, Microsoft is bringing the new version of Edge not only to people who are still using Windows 8.1, but also those who are still on Windows 7 -- which is interesting because Windows 7 is no longer supported.

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It's only a month since Microsoft released the first completed version of Windows Terminal and just a week since the company published its roadmap for Terminal 2.0. Starting the journey towards version 2, a preview version Windows Terminal 1.1 is now available.

While this is only a x.1 version increase, Microsoft has actually added quite a lot to the utility with this update. In keeping with Microsoft's release schedule, assuming no problems crop up, all of the features found in this preview release will migrate to the main release version next month. So what is there to look forward to? Highlights include the ability to rename tabs, and support for a new batch of command line arguments.

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Two recent updates for Windows 10 introduced printer problems for some users. After investigating the issues caused by KB4560960 and KB4557957, the company issued an out-of-band update for some versions of Windows 10.

Now the company has issued another update for the problem, this time for people who have Windows 10 version 2004 -- or Window 10 May 2020 Update. While this patch may fix printing problems, Microsoft warns that it may introduce problems of its own.

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Yesterday, Microsoft released the first build from the Windows 10 20H2 branch to the Beta Channel -- what was previously the Slow ring.

Today, the software giant rolls out Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20150 to the Dev Channel -- that’s what used to the Fast ring. This build comes with a number of changes, but the headline additions are to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

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If you thought the problems associated with upgrading to Windows 10 May 2020 Update were over, think again. Microsoft has acknowledged an issue with some Storage Spaces configurations with Windows 10 and Windows Server version 2004 installed.

Microsoft says that some users may experience problems accessing Storage Spaces, and warns that partitions may show up in Disk Manager in RAW format. There is an important warning for anyone affected by the issue, as well as some advice about what steps to take.

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As we reported a few days ago, two recent Windows 10 updates started to cause problems with printing for many users. Following an investigation into the KB4560960 and KB4557957 updates, Microsoft has now released an out-of-band update to address the issues.

For now, Microsoft has published patches for versions 1909, 1903, 1809 and 1803 of Windows 10 with the promise that "other affected versions of Windows will have updates released in the coming days".

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Change is coming to the Windows Insider Program. Yesterday Microsoft announced that it would be replacing its current ring system with channels, and today it rolls out the first build for the next big feature update of Windows 10, which it is officially calling 20H2.

Build 19042.330 (20H2) is arriving in the Beta Channel -- that’s what used to be the Slow ring -- but it won't be delivered to you automatically.

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Although it’s causing a bit of a trail of destruction in its wake for some users, the latest Windows 10 feature update -- version 2004, or the May 2020 Update -- is currently rolling out to compatible machines, and Microsoft is turning its attention to the follow up.

Windows 10, version 20H2 -- the next feature update’s official name -- will be released in the second half of this year, and Microsoft says it will be "delivered in an optimized way for anyone running the Windows 10 May 2020 Update". In other words, the next version will install like a monthly update for those on 2004.

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Windows 10 has always had a number of recovery options for when the time comes to reinstall the operating system. One of these is called Fresh Start, which gives you the option of reinstalling Windows 10 while retaining files and some settings and apps.

In Windows 10 May 2020 Update (Windows 10 version 2004), this handy recovery tool seems to have vanished. In fact, Microsoft has even updated its support pages to indicate that Fresh Start is only available in Windows 10 version 1909 and earlier. But the functionality of Fresh Start is still available -- you just need to know where to look.

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