When it comes to encouraging people to take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft has not been shy about pushing things -- some would say a little too much. But now the clock really is ticking. The deadline for free upgrades of July 29 is fast approaching, and Microsoft has one final bit of nagging up its sleeve.

With just nine days to go, an update has been pushed out to GWX which drives home the fact that time is running out. To add a bit of an incentive -- you could call it fearmongering -- there's a great big countdown clock to prod Windows 7 and 8.x users into action.

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We know that Windows 10 is on upwards of 350 million systems now, because Microsoft told us three weeks ago.

The last time Microsoft released any numbers before that, was two months previous when the new OS was on 300 million devices. The problem with how Microsoft announces these new milestones, isn’t just that it’s infrequent, but also that it refers to devices, not users -- and includes PCs, tablets, and mobile phones not yet sold. That’s useful when you’re aiming for a particular target -- 1 billion devices -- but not so useful when that target becomes unrealistic and it looks like you’re failing.

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Microsoft has announced a new video service called Stream that will enable businesses of all sizes to securely manage and share videos.

From today on, any user with a business email address will be able to sign up for the preview of the new service in seconds. With Stream they can then begin to upload, share and tag videos from their organization. It will also be simple to discover relevant videos since the company will employ machine learning to help users find trending videos and will also give them the ability to search by hashtag, most liked videos or other key search terms.

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The High Court of Paris has ruled that Google and Bing do not have to have automatic filters in place to scrub torrent-related results from searches. The battle against piracy is something that search engines have found themselves pulled into, but this latest ruling turns the debate on its head.

French music industry group SNEP went to court on behalf of a trio of artists, requesting that Microsoft and Google automatically filter out links to pirated material. The group had called for a complete block on searches that include the word 'torrent' as well as blocking sites whose name includes the word.

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Windows 10 Insider builds really are coming thick and fast now. Build 14390 came out just three days ago, and now we have Build 14393 following it on to the Fast ring.

This pattern will continue for a while yet as Microsoft squashes as many bugs as possible as it enters the home stretch for the big Anniversary Update out on August 2.

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Microsoft has been shouting about Edge a lot as of late. Not happy with claiming that it is the most battery-friendly of the main web browsers, the company has also made much of Edge's 1080p support for Netflix.

In the latest twist, Microsoft switches tack, instead using pop up messages in Windows 10 to badmouth Chrome and promote Edge. The pop up rams home the idea that Chrome is a battery hog and suggests switching to Microsoft Edge to increase longevity.

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It has been a few weeks since we learned about the slimmer Xbox One S, and now we know when eager gamers can get their hands on the new console. August 2 is the big date which also sees the launch of Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

As well as being smaller, the Xbox One S also features a built-in power supply (bye bye, power brick!), up to 2TB of storage, and support for 4K Ultra HD with High Dynamic Range (HDR). The newly announced launch date is not just the date the console hits retail stores in many regions, it is the date those who have pre-ordered should receive their Xbox One S. In all, three versions of the console are available.

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Microsoft famously declared that Windows 10 would be running on 1 billion devices in two to three years’ time -- meaning by late summer 2018.

It was a bold claim, but given the OS was free, and available for PCs, tablets, and smartphones, eminently possible. But despite Microsoft’s efforts -- pulling every dirty trick in the book, and then some, to con users into upgrading -- it seems as if the new OS is going to take a while longer to hit that milestone, and blame is being laid squarely at Windows 10 Mobile’s dreadful performance.

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Microsoft has announced that its Azure Stack offering won’t be released before mid-2017. What’s more, it will come in appliance form, with just a few vendors -- so far only Dell, HPE and Lenovo -- being mentioned.

Announcing the news in a blog post, corporate vice president for Enterprise Cloud, Mike Neil, says the decision has been made following months of feedback gathering.

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The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is due on August 2, and Microsoft is hard at work getting it ready for release.

The software giant has pushed out two new builds to Fast ring insiders in quick succession already, and today we get yet another one -- the third in a week. Microsoft may be sprinting to the finish line now, but there is still work to be done.

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Security researchers from Vectra Networks discovered a serious vulnerability in Windows which allows hackers to take control over complete computer networks through vulnerable printers.

The report didn’t say which versions of the operating system are affected, but the patch is already issued and you can find it here and here. Everyone who has a printer attached to their system is strongly advised to patch ASAP.

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Microsoft just released the second firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 this month, announcing a significant number of improvements. Two days ago the software giant introduced a driver update to improve the stability of Windows Hello after the upcoming Anniversary Update for Windows 10 is installed.

The new firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, dated July 14, share the same changes, though Microsoft lists different driver versions for certain components. Here is what you should expect.

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Facebook has signed a deal with Microsoft to use some of the software giant’s cloud-based productivity tools.

Facebook’s 13,000 employees will use some of Microsoft's Office 365 services, such as email and calendar, while other services, like Skype for Business or Yammer, will not be used as directly compete with Facebook’s own.

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If you weren't on the ball a few months ago, your OneDrive storage space is about to be slashed. Having previously announced its plans to reduce cloud storage for all OneDrive users, Microsoft relented and said those that already had this amount of storage could keep it... but only if they asked for it.

Anyone who failed to do so will be ruing the day. Today is the day that Microsoft cuts free OneDrive storage from 15GB to just 5GB -- even less than when the cloud service first launched. In addition to this, the 15GB camera roll bonus has been discontinued. So what can you do?

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PCs can go wrong in all sorts of ways, and the problems can manifest themselves in the form of slowdowns, freezes, or worse. Occasionally, you might encounter a blue screen of death (BSOD), accompanied by a usually pretty cryptic message outlining the cause of the crash.

In the soon-to-be released Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft has given the blue screen a makeover, introducing QR codes to make it easier for anyone to troubleshoot the problems they encounter. It’s a helpful change, but Panda Security warns it could actually be a godsend to cybercriminals, and result in users having personal details stolen, and smartphones getting infected with drive-by malware.

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