Articles about Microsoft

Is Bing a bad search engine? Actually, no. Believe it or not, Microsoft's search offering is actually quite good. There's just one big problem -- it isn't Google. It is unfortunate for Bing, but there's no reason for anyone to choose the second best search engine. Bottom line, Google is great, Bing is good, and no one wants to use the latter. It is the same with the Chromium-based Edge -- it's not bad, but people want real Google Chrome rather than a bastardization.

And that's why people were upset when Microsoft announced an asinine plan to force Bing on Office 365 ProPlus users through a browser extension. Not only would this anger and annoy end users, but it would lead to huge headaches for IT departments as employees start complaining about Bing showing up over Google. The thing is, even if Bing was better than Google (which it definitely isn't), nobody likes to have things forced upon them. Google, for instance, became dominant organically because people liked its results. If Microsoft thinks it can gain Bing users by forcing it on people, then the company just hasn't been paying attention.

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Windows 10X is the upcoming operating system from Microsoft, designed for dual-screen devices such as the Surface Duo and Neo. If you thought you would have to wait ages, or spend a fortune on a new device to try it out... think again.

Today, Microsoft releases a Windows 10X emulator, giving anyone who wants a glimpse of the future the chance to take the OS for a test drive. In reality, the Windows 10X emulator is designed with developers in mind, but there's nothing to stop anyone who is curious from trying it out.

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Predictive email defense company Vade Secure has released a new report ranking the top 25 brands most impersonated in phishing attacks.

The report covering the final quarter of 2019 shows PayPal is the top brand impersonated by cybercriminals for the second quarter in a row, with Facebook taking the number two spot and Microsoft coming in third.

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There are lots of tools available that let you customize Windows in a number of ways. See this Windows 98 themed version of Windows 10 for just one example of what’s possible.

Stardock produces some excellent, very affordable customization applications and today the company announces the next-generation version of its Windows sound scheme manager, SoundPackager 10.

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Microsoft Windows has evolved a lot over the years, and while there are still plenty of people who prefer Windows 7 over Windows 10, I can’t imagine there’s many users out there who truly hanker for the days of Windows 95 or 98.

But there are people who enjoy customizing Microsoft’s operating system, and a Redditor by the name of WunJZ has given his copy of Windows 10 an impressive Windows 98 makeover.

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Windows 10 users have had a tough time of it lately, with updates causing all manner of problems, as well as the search function stopping working for many people.

If you’re thinking now might be the time to look into an alternative operating system -- perhaps one based on Linux -- but you’re not quite ready to jump ship from Windows, then Windows 12 Lite, discovered by a redditor at their local computer fair, could be the OS you’re looking for.

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Wireless is always better than wired, right? Whoa. Slow down there. While wireless products are sometimes more convenient, the truth is, many people prefer wired products, such as mice and keyboards. While having wires on your desk may look unsightly, wired products have the benefit of not needing to be charged. Not to mention, for some businesses, it is against company policy to use wireless keyboards and headsets for fear of communications being intercepted. And so, regardless of what the user wants, wired is all that will be permitted.

Logitech's Zone Wireless Headset, for instance, seems like a great product. If you are someone that wears a headset all day, there is no wire to get tangled in while moving about your desk. Not to mention, it looks quite comfortable. If you like the design, but don't want (or aren't allowed) to use a wireless headset, I have great news. There is finally a cabled variant of the headset, simply called "Zone Wired Headset."

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Just after Windows 7 reached the end of support on January 14, a bug emerged that turned desktops black. Having initially said that only people paying for support would get a fix, Microsoft relented and gave everyone a patch. Now another bug has reared its head, preventing Windows 7 users from shutting down or rebooting their computers.

It's not clear what is causing the bug, but affected users see a message that reads "You don't have permission to shut down this computer" when they attempt to shut down or reboot. There's no fix available just yet, but there are workarounds.

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Microsoft recently released the Chromium-based version of its Edge browser, and now the company seems to be on an all-out offensive to promote it.

Ads have started to appear in Windows 10's Start menu suggesting that Firefox users should try Microsoft Edge instead. This is not the first time the Start menu has been used by Microsoft to promote software, and it's a move that is likely to win the company a few enemies.

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With its "last" update for Windows 7, Microsoft managed to introduce a strange bug that left some users staring at a black desktop rather than their preferred background image.

With Windows 7 now at the end of its life, Microsoft initially said that only those who were paying for extended support would get a fix for the bug, but ultimately it relented and said everyone could have it. Now the patch has been released as KB4539602.

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This is not so much news, more of an FYI. Some of you will no doubt roll your eyes and mutter "d'oh, yeah" at the screen, but for anyone who has been looking for a quick and easy way to edit PDF files we have a tip. You may not know that the software you need to edit PDFs could already be sitting on your hard drive.

The humble PDF has become so ubiquitous that there are endless ways to create them from just about any app, and an increasing number of programs support the option to save document in the PDF format. You're probably aware that Microsoft Word can be used to create PDFs, but did you know it can also function as a PDF editor?

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Microsoft's PowerToys utilities have always proved popular, and the arrival of a Windows 10 version was met with huge excitement. New utilities have been released over the last few months, and now there is news of a new addition: Keyboard Shortcut Manager.

Despite the name, Keyboard Shortcut Manager does much more than give you control over keyboard shortcuts. On top of this, the PowerToy can be used to remap keys -- something that will be welcomed by power users, developers and people switching from macOS or Linux to Windows.

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Three-hundred-and-seventy-two 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 will make some classic applications, Notepad, Paint and WordPad in particular, optional in the coming versions of Windows 10. Means: you can uninstall them easily if you want.

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The last few Insider builds of Windows 10 haven’t been too exciting, with the focus primarily on fixing problems and making minor changes.

Build 19559.1000 for Windows Insiders in the Fast ring is no different, but it does address a number of stability issues.

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If you’ve tried to search for something in Windows 10 this morning you’ll likely have been greeted by an empty search window.

Type something in, and you’ll get no results. Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue, but the problem seems to be caused by Bing’s new integration.

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