Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft releases Windows 10 October 2018 Update Build 17760 to the Fast ring, with no known issues

Microsoft is in the final stages of polishing up the next feature update for Windows 10. Insiders who were annoyed that the operating system interfered with the installation of Chrome and Firefox no longer need to worry as Microsoft has turned off this particular annoyance.

If you play Tencent games, you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft now says the October 2018 Update will be fully compatible with them.

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Microsoft quietly stops interfering with Chrome and Firefox installations on Windows 10

Yesterday I revealed how Microsoft was interrupting attempts to install Firefox or Chrome on Insider builds of Windows 10 with an advert for its own browser, Edge.

This boneheaded move, designed to get people to try Edge for more than just downloading another browser, was rightly met with fury here and across the internet, and Microsoft has now pulled the "advert", claiming it was just a test. But a test for what? To see how far it can push users?

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Cold boot attack leaves Apple and Microsoft systems vulnerable to data theft

hacker laptop

Researchers at cyber security company F-Secure have discovered a weakness in modern computers' firmware that attackers can use to steal encryption keys and other sensitive information.

Physical access to the computer is needed to exploit the weakness, but once an attacker has gained this they can successfully perform the attack in around five minutes.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18237

Microsoft is busy polishing up the next big feature update of Windows 10, the October 2018 Update (aka Redstone 5), but is also working hard on the following update, codenamed 19H1.

This update, out next spring, isn’t hugely different from the current October 2018 Update release, but the latest build does add acrylic to the Windows sign-in screen.

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WTF? Microsoft now interrupting Chrome and Firefox installations to promote Edge in Windows 10

Microsoft wants you to use its Edge browser in Windows 10. I mean, really, really wants you to use it. If you open Edge and search for "Chrome" or "Firefox" using Bing, Edge’s default search engine, you’ll be presented with a massive banner informing you that "Microsoft Edge is the faster, safer browser on Windows 10 and is already installed on your PC". Four boxes below then show you how Edge lets you browse longer, and faster, offers built-in protection and built-in assistance.

If that doesn’t stop you, then Microsoft has a new, much nastier trick up its sleeve -- when you go to install Firefox or Chrome it intercepts the action and pops up a window promoting Edge with the same line about how its browser is faster and safer. It then gives you a blue button to click to open Edge, or a grey one you can click to install the browser you actually want to use. Oh, and this window will keep appearing, unless you go into Settings and stop Windows 10 from offering you app "recommendations".

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 October 2018 Update Build 17758, with one known issue

Windows Insiders testing the next big feature update of Windows 10 -- the October 2018 Update, aka Redstone 5 -- are used to just seeing builds with a long list of fixes and improvements now.

Build 17758, released today on the Fast ring, is no different.

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Microsoft publishes Security Servicing Criteria for Windows, revealing how it classifies and tackles bugs

Microsoft glass building logo

Microsoft has published documentation that reveals how is classifies the severity of vulnerabilities in Windows, as well as detailing how it decides whether problems should be addressed with a security patch or in the next version of Windows.

The first batch of documentation shows for the first time how Microsoft defines "the criteria around security boundaries, features and mitigations in Windows". In releasing details of its severity classifications -- something known as the bug bar -- the company says that it is offering a "new level of transparency with the research community and our customers".

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Azure Pipelines CI/CD service arrives in the GitHub Marketplace

Microsoft Azure and GitHub

Microsoft today announced the successor to Visual Studio Team Services, Azure DevOps, as well as Azure DevOps Server, replacing Team Foundation Server. As part of this, the company also launched a new CI/CD service called Azure Pipelines which gives developers the chance to build, test and deploy to any platform.

Azure Pipelines has been launched in the GitHub Marketplace, and it is completely free for open source repositories.

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Microsoft's Your Phone app can now view, send, and receive SMS messages from Android, on your PC

Microsoft’s new Your Phone app lets you sync content directly from a phone to a Windows 10 PC. The original release, which was first available just for Windows 10 Insiders, then -- accidentally -- for all, and then for Insiders once more, only allowed Android users to access their phone’s photos on Windows 10, but it’s now been updated to make it much more useful.

Released as part of the new Fast ring Insider Build 17755, the updated app lets you do much more, and there is finally some love for iOS users too.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 October 2018 Update Build 17755 to the Fast ring

We’re getting ever close to the end game for the next big feature update for Windows 10. Redstone 5, or the October 2018 Update to give it its official name, is nearly done and the Insider updates still rolling out now are mostly focused on fixing problems.

Build 17755 corrects some issues with the OS, but also makes big improvements to the Your Phone app.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18234 to Skip Ahead

While work is continuing apace to polish up the Windows 10 October 2018 Update prior to its release next month, Microsoft is also hard at work on the following feature update due next spring.

Today the software giant releases Build 18234 for that update to Insiders in the Skip Ahead ring, and it offers a large number of new features and improvements.

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Microsoft extends Windows 7 support for businesses, but will punish them for taking too long to upgrade to Windows 10

The end of extended support is looming for Windows 7. Microsoft is set to stop supporting the aging OS on January 14, 2020, but is aware that many businesses may take longer than that to make the switch to Windows 10.

As a result, the company has today announced that it will offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through to January 2023. These will be available for all Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise customers in Volume Licensing, and there will also be a discount available to those with Windows software assurance, Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Education subscriptions. There is a catch, however.

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Malware writers exploit recent Windows Task Scheduler 0-day vulnerability

It's a little over a week since a vulnerability in the Windows Task Scheduler was revealed. A patch for the 0-day has been released by third party security firm 0patch, but there's bad news for anyone who hasn't secure their system against the security threat -- malware writers are already taking advantage of the flaw.

The exploit was partly facilitated by the fact that the source code for a proof-of-concept exploit for the ALPC LPE vulnerability -- as well as a binary -- was published on GitHub. Now a group that has been named PowerPool has been spotted using the code in a malware campaign.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 October 2018 Update Build 17754 with a ton of fixes

The next big feature update for Windows 10, Redstone 5, or the October 2018 Update, as it's now officially known, is getting ever closer to being finished.

Microsoft is rolling out builds to Fast ring Insiders on a regular basis, and today’s new release, Build 17754, fixes lots of problems with the OS update.

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New update from Microsoft means you can now record Skype calls

There's been a lot of Skype activity from Microsoft recently, starting off with the news (disappointing and frustrating for many) that Skype classic was to be killed off -- although this decision was later postponed. The company had also announced that call recording was coming to Skype 8.0, and now this is a reality.

There will be obvious privacy concerns about the arrival of this new feature, but Microsoft believes that it has a solution that will help keep people happy and informed.

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