Microsoft

Microsoft has faced a lot of criticism regarding privacy in Windows 10, and rightfully so. Look, even if the company has good intentions for its use of telemetry, users are wise to question how their data is being used. Make no mistake, it is the user's data that is being transmitted to Microsoft's servers.

Today, however, at the 2017 Build developer conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella makes a shocking statement -- he is fearful of technology taking humanity down a dangerous path. He even mentions George Orwell's classic novel 1984 where "big brother" is always watching.

During the Build developer conference keynote in 2015, Microsoft said that it expected over 1 billion Windows 10 devices to be in consumers hands within 2-3 years.

Two years have passed since then, and at this year’s Build conference Microsoft announced that Windows 10 is now on 500 million Windows 10 devices, active monthly. That’s an impressive number, even if it’s only half of the original projection.

Microsoft is kicking off its annual Build developer conference in Seattle today, starting with its opening keynote this morning (a second keynote is happening tomorrow).

As it’s a developer conference we’re not expecting to see any new hardware this year, but we will likely have more details on the newly announced Windows 10 S, Cortana skills, mixed reality, and more.

Windows 10 S, Microsoft’s new education-focused operating system, has a lot of restrictions in place. The main one, of course, being that it only allows you to install apps from the Windows Store. If you want to install programs from outside its ecosystem, you’ll need to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.

Edge is the default browser in Windows 10 S, and Bing the default search engine, and unlike in Windows 10 itself, you can’t change these. That might be something of a deal breaker for any browser-makers interested in bringing their product to Windows 10 S, but that’s not the only issue they’ll face.

While we've heard about the HomeHub feature of Windows 10 before, we've not seen what it might look like in practice. Now, thanks to a series of leaked images, that all changes, and it shows that Microsoft is ready to take on Google Home and Amazon Echo with its own devices.

Like the Amazon Echo Show, the leaked images depict a device with a screen. It's running Windows 10, supports voice-activated Cortana commands, and it's something that Microsoft clearly wants to be at the center of future smart homes.

Windows 10 has changed quite a lot since its original release in July 2015. Microsoft has rolled out three major updates to its new OS since then -- the November Update, the Anniversary Update, and most recently, the Creators Update. All three introduced new features and major changes, making it a much better and more rounded OS.

But the problem with having different versions of what is essentially the same operating system is that supporting multiple branches isn’t feasible.

Over the weekend, two of Google’s Project Zero security researchers announced that they had discovered a "crazy bad" Windows exploit, describing it as the "worst in recent memory."

Project Zero gives firms 90 days to fix such discoveries, but Microsoft swiftly jumped on this problem, and just two days later has come up with a fix.

Google’s Project Zero identifies bugs and security flaws in commonly used software, and gives firms 90 days to patch them before going public. This is an approach which doesn’t always go down well -- a case in point being when Google recently released details of a Windows bug after Microsoft failed to patch it in time.

Now two Project Zero security researchers claim to have found a new critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Windows which they describe as the "worst in recent memory" and "crazy bad".

Anyone using Microsoft Edge to "print to PDF" is advised to double-check their files after a strange bug was detected. The problem is reminiscent of a bug that afflicted Xerox photocopiers a couple of years ago, and sees the browser displaying one set of numbers and printing another.

Microsoft has confirmed the existence of the bug which has the potential to cause serious issues with mission-critical data. The person who originally reported the problem cites an example in which Windows 10's default web browser "displays 123456 in PDF but prints 114447."

Apple is rumored to be working on a Siri-powered alternative to Amazon Echo/Google Home, and Microsoft isn’t planning on being left out either.

Harman Kardon’s Cortana-powered speaker, called Invoke, is set to launch in the Fall. A product page for it did prematurely appear on the web before being pulled, but now Microsoft has made the announcement official.

Microsoft has made much of its UWP (Universal Windows Platform) so it should come as little surprise that there's a UWP version of File Explorer. What is a little surprising, however, is that the app is hidden and can only be unlocked using a specially-crafted shortcut.

You need to be running Windows 10 Creators Update and you can try out the app which is somewhat reminiscent of the Windows 10 Mobile version of File Explorer. It's not clear how close to the final version of the app this is, but it's interesting to try out, and certainly something to keep an eye on.

A new patent from Microsoft could enable the company to not only identify and block pirate material from being shared via cloud services, but also to identify repeat offenders and take action against them.

The patent specifically refers to the ability to identify and block the sharing of "prohibited content," and this could be used to mean copyrighted material, or files that a company simply does not want to be shared. The technology relies on a fingerprinting technique which makes it possible to identify files rather than having to worry about trying to track down and delete files to prevent further sharing.

Augmented reality is an impressive technology with a big future. While there are many demos surrounding AR and mixed reality, and despite some limited real-world use, it is still largely a promise at this point. In other words, the maturing technology is hardly in the mainstream, and many of its current uses are arguably inconsequential.

Today, however, augmented reality is being shown to potentially have a significant impact on the medical community. You see, a company called "Scopis" has developed a surgery solution that leverages Microsoft HoloLens. By wearing the mixed reality glasses, the surgeon sees an overlay, allowing him/her to achieve better accuracy. This, in turn, can improve the success rate of certain surgical procedures. In this case, the focus is largely on the spine, but it could be made to work with any type of surgery.

Microsoft this week introduced a new version of Windows 10 aimed primarily at users in education, and designed as an alternative to Google’s Chrome OS.

The main difference between Windows 10 S, and Windows 10 Home/Pro is it only runs apps from the Windows Store. You can’t install programs from elsewhere, and this includes Chrome. This mean users can only install Microsoft-verified software which, the software giant says, will result in better security and superior performance. You don’t need to buy or install Windows 10 S to get this feature though, you can simply lock down an existing version of Windows 10.

Earlier this week, Microsoft made huge news by announcing both a new operating system (Windows 10 S) and computer (Surface Laptop) for education. Next week, the company will hold its annual Build 2017 developer conference. Surely the company will relax a bit for the rest of the month, right?

Nope. Today, Microsoft shocks the technology community by unveiling yet another event for the month of May. Not only is the timing a surprise, but so too is the location. You see, the company will be making a big Surface announcement in Shanghai! Microsoft says it will "show the world what's next."