Articles about Microsoft

Windows 10 is a work in progress. Each new feature update adds additional functionality to the operating system, but it also often removes features for one reason or another.

I’ve previously covered the list of features being removed or deprecated in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, but Insiders testing the new operating system release can add one more major casualty to the lineup -- Windows Media Player.

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Joe Belfiore has finally admitted what we have all known for some time: The Windows Phone dream is dead. Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Windows used Twitter to make it clear that Windows 10 Mobile will receive "bug fixes, security updates, etc," but adds that "building new features/hw aren't the focus."

Asked by Twitter users whether it is time for people to abandon Windows mobile devices once and for all, Belfiore said that while support will remain in place for those who decide to hang around, he himself has already moved on.

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We all know that Microsoft’s focus is on Windows 10. The software giant wants users to upgrade to its new operating system, and has regularly spoken about how that OS keeps users safe.

However, according to Google Project Zero researcher Mateusz Jurczyk, by focusing on patching Windows 10, and not applying the same fixes to Windows 7 and 8.x, Microsoft is actually putting users of those two older operating systems at risk.

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Two-hundred-and-fifty-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft released the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update RTM to Insiders this week in preparation of a global release on October 17th, 2017. The company released, or plans to release, Edge for iOS and Android as well.

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It is difficult to imagine what the PC market would look like today had Microsoft not introduced the Surface RT and Surface Pro back in 2012. The software giant created a category, set the benchmark for high-end productivity-oriented tablets, and pushed rivals, like Apple, to compete in this space.

Despite this, Canalys CEO Steve Brazier and Lenovo COO Gianfranco Lanci believe that the Surface line will be put out to pasture by 2019. Why? The Surface business is not a huge money-maker for Microsoft, making it harder and harder to justify the cost to produce new devices and the low margins involved.

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At a Windows Mixed Reality event in New York City, Microsoft and Samsung joined forces to reveal the latest addition to the range of Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Samsung's offering seems to be rather more impressive than others that have been announced.

The Samsung HMD Odyssey offers a slightly higher resolution and wider field of view than other headsets. It also features integrated headphones and can be adjusted to suit varying eye gaps. Microsoft also announced that it has acquired virtual reality startup AltspaceVR.

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Thousands of Microsoft professionals took over Orlando, Florida recently to attend Microsoft Ignite -- the Comic Con for those making a living in the IT sector. While the event is a fantastic networking and relationship-building opportunity for those working with Microsoft technology, it is also an excellent platform for important announcements and new product launches from the software giant itself. This year was no exception.

Here we have compiled some of the most interesting announcements from the event, including some fascinating insights into the future of cloud services; both the technology soon to become available, and the people who are set to use it.

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With just a couple of weeks to go until the official launch of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft is hard at work squashing the main bugs and polishing the release.

Insiders on the Fast ring have had access to all of the new features and changes in the Fall Creators Update for a while, and it won’t now be long until non-Insiders finally get their hands on the full thing.

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Microsoft has announced plans to close down its Groove Music Pass subscription service. The company is also going to kill off the ability to purchase music from the Windows Store.

Microsoft is partnering with Spotify, and offering a seamless migration from Groove Music to its former competitor. The cull is coming on December 31, and after this date the Groove Music app will no longer offer the option to stream, purchase, and download music.

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Visual Studio Code is an amazing cross-platform code editor which has managed to attract a significant following in recent years, not least because of its support for extensions. In just a couple of clicks, users can add various languages, like Python, Ruby and Java, and create new software.

For example, if you want to write Java code, there is a pretty nifty extension made by Red Hat, called Language Support for Java(TM) by Red Hat, that features things such as IntelliSense and basic Eclipse and Grade project support. And, now, Microsoft is building upon it by adding a debugger to the mix.

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Each month, NetMarketShare reports on the state of the desktop operating system market. Its numbers are often interesting, and occasionally initially wrong (this month, for example, they showed a sizeable growth for Linux, before being corrected).

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is due to begin rolling out this month (even though over a third of users still don’t have the Creators Update), and Microsoft will be hoping this big new feature release will give its operating system a major boost. But how is Windows 10 doing at the moment, and when will it finally overtake Windows 7?  Read on to find out.

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Skype is an important communication service thanks to its cross-compatibility. There are clients for Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and even desktop Linux. It may not offer the best user experience, but it is passable, making it a solid choice for those that need to keep in touch across long distances.

Today, Microsoft releases a refreshed preview of Skype for Linux. There are both DEB and RPM packages available, making it easy to install on, say, Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora. In fact, I successfully installed it on Pop!_OS earlier today. Believe it or not, the new interface is quite nice, making it something I could possibly enjoy using on my Linux machine.

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A bug has been uncovered in Internet Explorer which makes it possible for websites to view anything that is typed in to the address bar. This means that web addresses and search terms could be accessed by a hacker or malicious website.

The vulnerability was discovered in the very latest version of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft is yet to release a patch for it. Discovered by security researcher Manuel Caballero, the attack can be made completely invisible to a victim.

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With new preview builds for the Fall Creators Update focusing purely on fixing stability and performance issues as Microsoft rushes towards its release, it’s the Redstone 4 branch (aka Skip Ahead) where you’ll find new additions beginning to appear.

The latest release for this branch introduces a sizeable number of improvements, as well as a big leap forward in build numbers, jumping from 16362 to 17004.

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Speaking at the Ignite 2017 conference, Microsoft said that the LTE version of the Surface Pro will be available to purchase on December 1. This is not the first time we have heard about the cellular-enabled Surface Pro, but now we have a date to look forward to.

While the on-sale date is just over two months away, we may well learn more about the Surface Pro LTE at Future Decoded in London next month. Leaks from an online retailer have revealed what specifications will be available.

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