Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft has released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18885 (or Windows 10 20H1, if you prefer) to the Fast Ring. The big addition in this latest build is Android notification mirroring in Windows via the Your Phone app.

If you have an Android 7.0 handset, you can (probably, barring handset-specific compatibility issues) take advantage of the ability to see phone notifications in Windows 10. The range of phones that can use the "phone screen" screen mirroring option has been expanded as well. With Build 18885, Microsoft has also addressed the problem that was preventing people from installing updates when they had a USB drive or SD card connected.

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With the release of the May 2019 Update, Windows 10 is becoming more space-hungry than ever. For both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 10 version 1903, Microsoft has increased the minimum storage requirements to 32GB.

For 32-bit users the new requirement is double what it used to be, while for 64-bit users there is a 12GB increase from the previous minimum of 20GB.

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In new draft security baseline documentation, Microsoft has scrapped the policy that requires users to change their passwords on a regular basis.

The new security settings apply to Windows 10 version 1903 and Windows Server version 1903, and the change sees Microsoft conceding that its policy of forcing periodic password changes is "an ancient and obsolete mitigation of very low value". The company has a series of suggestions for how to better improve password security.

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If you have external storage attached to your computer, you may well find that you're unable to install the Windows 10 May 2019 Update when it is released next month.

Out of an apparent abundance of precaution, Microsoft is opting to block the installation of the update if a computer has an external USB drive or SD card plugged in. The block is being introduced because of fears that drive letters might be inappropriately reassigned during the installation.

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The original Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X are great video game consoles. Hell, they really aren't even just gaming machines, but full media devices, designed to be the focal point of your media consumption. They don't only play games, but movies, TV shows, music, and more. With the exception of the puzzling "All-Digital" variant, they all play Blu-ray discs too.

With all of that said, gaming is the primary function of any Xbox, and these days, that largely means playing multiplayer titles online. Don't get me wrong, offline play has its place, but it is far more fun to compete against other humans. One of the most fun aspects of online multiplayer is using a headset to speak with either teammates or opponents.

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For all of its simplicity and limitations, there are still a lot of people who -- for some reason best known to themselves -- love Microsoft Paint.

As such, when it was announced a while back that Microsoft intended to strip the utility from Windows 10 and replace it with Paint 3D -- an altogether different beast -- there was a collective wailing and gnashing of teeth. But now it seems that Paint has been given a stay of execution.

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Windows 7 users have started to report the appearance of a pop-up message from Microsoft informing them that support for the operating system is coming to an end.

While this will not come as a surprise to everyone, not all Windows 7 users will be aware that Microsoft is on the verge of dropping the ageing OS. We have already seen pop-ups encouraging users to update to Windows 10 but now Microsoft is turning up the pressure, telling Windows 7 users: "After 10 years, support for Windows 7 is nearing the end".

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In what will come as something of a disappointment to many, Microsoft seems to have decided to abandon the Sets feature of Windows 10. This highly-anticipated feature was to bring tabs to apps, making it easier to work with multiple instances of the same program.

In the middle of last year, though, Microsoft removed Sets from Insider builds of Windows 10,  promising that the feature would return in a future build. But a tweet from senior program manager Rich Turner suggests that Sets is no more... although that might not mean that app tabs are completely off the agenda.

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The new Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge has generated a good deal of attention, and an intriguing feature of the browser has been noticed that makes it all the more interesting.

It has been noted that Edge switches between user agents depending on the sites visited, effectively pretending to be a different web browser. This enables Edge to take advantage of web sites features designed for a specific browser.

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If you're thinking of learning a programming language, there are certainly plenty to choose from -- and Microsoft has just added a new one for you to consider. Inspired partly by TypeScript and partly by Node.js, Bosque is an open source language which tries to keep things simple.

Microsoft says that one of the main aims with Bosque is to create code that is simple for both humans and machines to read, eliminating "accidental complexity".

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A few days ago, a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer came to light. A flaw in the handling of certain files can be exploited by hackers to steal files from users, and -- most worrying -- it doesn't matter whether the victim is an Internet Explorer user or not.

Microsoft is yet to create a fix for the vulnerability, so someone else has stepped up to the plate. Specialists from ACROS Security have create a micropatch for Windows 10 that addresses the issue, once again beating Microsoft in securing people's computers.

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As well as revealing the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition yesterday, Microsoft also has another treat in store for gamers -- the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Just as there had been rumors about the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition ahead of the announcement, there had also been talk about this new combined subscription. Due to launch at an undisclosed time later this year after beta testing, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate combines the existing Game Pass with Xbox Live Gold, all for $14.99 per month.

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After a wave of apparently unexpected complaints, Microsoft has announced that it is to restore the TechNet and MSDN blogs it recently started to retire.

The company warns that this is not something that's going to happen overnight -- there is a lot of content to re-activate -- but the announcement is great news for anyone who has found the blogs to be invaluable sources of information.

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Download-only gaming for home consoles is certainly the future. It is definitely not the present, however. I can envision all next-generation game consoles being produced without any optical drive or card slot, but to do that with a current-gen system would be asinine. And so, Microsoft has done it.

Yes, the worst kept secret in the video game community is officially announced today. As the leaks suggested, Microsoft unveiled the "Xbox One S All-Digital Edition." What does "all-digital" mean? Well, apparently, the Windows-maker thought optical discs were analog, as this branding simply means the Blu-ray drive has been removed. Yeah, the name sort of makes no sense. In other words, Microsoft hopes you will be crazy enough to buy download-only games at the tail end of the Xbox One's life. You won't fall for that trickery, will you?

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A zero-day exploit found in Internet Explorer means hackers could steal files from Windows users. What's particularly interesting about this security flaw is that you don't even need to be an Internet Explorer user to be vulnerable.

A security researcher has revealed details of an unpatched exploit in the way IE handles MHT files, and the problem affects Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2. It leaves users vulnerable not only to having their files stolen by hackers, but also means they could be spied upon.

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