Microsoft

Microsoft has entered into a five-year partnership with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. As part of this agreement, the company will provide a grant of $5 million -- an unprecedented level of support from a private-sector organization.

The partnership goes beyond simply supporting the work of the UN Human Rights Office with money, however.

Apple's macOS Sierra is a solid operating system. It is very mature and beautiful, not to mention, it is chock-full of user-focused features. Quite frankly, from a user experience perspective, it is probably the best OS by far. Still, there are other quality operating systems too, including Microsoft's excellent and always-improving Windows 10.

As great as macOS Sierra is, it is not perfect, meaning Apple is constantly looking to make it better. Today, the company releases the newest such version, 10.12.5. While not a revolutionary update by any means, it offers some important bug fixes and enhancements. The most interesting aspect of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 is improved Windows 10 Creators Update support for Boot Camp.

If the WannaCrypt ransomware attack of the last few days has taught us anything it should be the importance of patching systems to guard against attack.

Yet a study released today suggests the message isn't getting through. The latest US country report from Flexera Software reveals the percentage of US PC users with unpatched Windows operating systems was 9.8 percent in Q1, 2017, up from 7.5 percent last quarter and 6.5 percent in Q1, 2016.

I’ve certainly been highly critical of Microsoft in the past, particularly last year when the company began forcing Windows 10 on to users.

But in the past couple of days I have to admit that I’ve been impressed by the software giant’s response to the global WannaCrypt/WannaCry crisis, and not just in patching Windows XP.

The "WannaCrypt" ransomware has proven to be a disaster globally. This malware will encrypt a user's files and then demand some Bitcoin ransom to decrypt them. While the amount being demanded is relatively low at $300 or $600, the scam can be modified for even larger amounts. Heck, even after the ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that the bad guys will follow through with the decryption, making it quite the gamble. As the ransomware has disrupted government agencies, medical services, and other critical computers, the ransom is being paid by some, as it can literally be the the difference between life and death -- surgeries and other procedures have been delayed.

While there are many directions in which you can point the finger of blame, Microsoft should absolutely not shoulder any of the responsibility. After all, the vulnerability that led to the disaster was patched back in March. It never even affected the most recent version of the operating system, Windows 10. The company has even since patched the archaic Windows XP! So who is to blame? Users and administrators that failed to keep their systems up to date are partially at fault. The biggest blame belongs to an unlikely party -- the US Government! You see, an agency of our own government -- the NSA -- knew about the exploit, and rather than alert Microsoft, it chose to stockpile it for intelligence purposes. Sadly, the exploit itself got leaked, and as a result, it landed into the hands of evildoers.

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP back in 2014, but today it releases one more security update for the ancient OS.

The software giant is taking this "highly unusual" step to fight back against the WannaCrypt ransomware cyber attacks that have so far hit nearly 100 countries around the world. And XP is not the only unsupported system receiving this patch.

When Windows 10 arrived on the scene, much was made of the Metro (or Modern) look of the apps. This was Microsoft's design language of the time and now it's time to throw out the old and usher in the new. We've heard a bit about Project NEON in recent months, and this has now evolved in to the Fluent Design System.

This is the new design language for Windows, and it will be making an appearance in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update -- although you can already see glimpses of it in the Redstone 3 builds if you are a Windows Insider. Microsoft describes it as "an eloquent design system for a complex world," and introduces five main building blocks: Light, Depth, Motion, Material and Scale. But just what is it going to mean for the future of Windows 10?

Two-hundred-and-thirty 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 revealed during the keynote speech at the Build 2017 developer conference that Windows 10 is installed on 500 million active devices, and that iTunes will make an appearance in the Windows Store later this year.

It’s been another very busy day for Microsoft today. At Build, the software giant announced that the next big update of its new operating system will be called Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and now we have a new build of that for Windows Insiders.

Build 16193 introduces some of the new features that Terry Myerson announced on stage at Build, including the new Story Remix app and Power Throttling.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Today at Build Microsoft announces that iTunes is going to appear in the Windows Store by the end of the year. Apple and Microsoft playing ball together like this is a pretty rare occurrence.

With the recently announced Windows 10 S, the timing is interesting, and in embracing the iPhone, Microsoft is sending out yet another message that Windows Phone is dead -- it's iPhone and Android smartphones that matter.

Microsoft has been working on its vision of mixed reality for a while. It first showed off its HoloLens headset two years ago, and then debuted a developer edition last August, but sales weren’t great, not least because it came with a $3,000 price tag.

Microsoft said at the time that the best, and cheapest, HoloLens VR headsets would not be made by itself, but by third-party hardware developers, and today at Build it announced the first of these headsets, as well as Windows mixed reality motion controllers -- no markers required. If you’ve been excited to try Microsoft's implementation of augmented reality for yourself, the wait is nearly over.

Windows 10 is an absolute success -- it can not be disputed any longer. After all, the operating system is running on over 500 million active devices! Think about that, folks. A half billion devices running an OS in under two years. The latest version of Windows 10 in particular -- the Creators Update -- has proven to be very refined and chock full of useful features.

Today, Microsoft announces that is is taking "creation" a step further with the next version of Windows 10. This time, it is called the "Fall Creators Update." Why is it called this? For two reasons. For one, it is a continuation on the current Creators Update, with a focus on creation. Secondly, it will be released in the Fall.

We first learned of Microsoft's plans to bring Visual Studio to the Mac last year in November, but it is not until Build 2017 that the software giant announced the general availability of the much-awaited version of its IDE. That's right macOS users, Visual Studio 2017 for Mac is finally here.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac arrives two months after Microsoft released the Windows version and the fourth beta of the macOS IDE, and brings with it a number of new features related to things like .NET Core, web tooling and Xamarin.

Microsoft’s Build developer conference got under way yesterday, revealing interesting information, such as Windows 10 is now on 500 million active devices, and the software giant has developed a wearable for Parkinson’s disease suffers.

Today’s keynote will be exiting for anyone interested in Windows, as Terry Myerson, Microsoft EVP of the Windows and Devices Group, will be taking to the stage.

Today at Build 2017, Microsoft unveiled many cool new technologies, but there was one particular announcement that truly touched the hearts of many in attendance. Called "Emma," it is a wrist wearable that can help people suffering with Parkinson's disease.

The device is named after the Parkinson's sufferer that helped Haiyan Zhang, Innovation Director at Microsoft Research, create the device. What exactly does it do? Well, the incurable disease causes body tremors in those inflicted, and as a result, Emma has very shaky hands. This disease makes it impossible for her to draw straight lines or write legibly. With the wearable on her wrist, however, normal writing and drawing is possible. Remarkably, how it works isn't 100 percent known.