At Build 2016 earlier this month, Microsoft talked about Project Centennial and the Desktop App Converter. Part of the company's app drive, the tool has been designed to make it easier for developers to convert legacy apps into Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps for Windows 10.

This is Microsoft's attempt to get more apps into the Store, making things as easy as possible for devs. Designed to run on the Enterprise and Pro versions of Windows 10 Anniversary Update build 14316 and newer (Redstone), Desktop App Converter is a free tool that can be used to quickly create apps that will run not only on Windows 10 desktops, laptops and tablet, but also phones, HoloLens and Xbox One, taking full advantage of features such as Live Tiles.

Outlook is without a doubt one of the most powerful email apps available on Android and iOS. It supports all the major email providers, works with popular cloud storage services, gives you access to contacts, and integrates your calendars. On top of all this, Outlook is also optimized for use in the enterprise, so it can be a great app for work too.

Microsoft is now making Outlook even better as it launches Calendar Apps. This is a new feature that is designed to give you access to more calendar sources, with Evernote, Facebook and Wunderlist being the first available services.

Microsoft continues to bring out apps for rival mobile operating systems that aren’t available for Windows Phone.

Its Hub Keyboard, which was first released for Android back in February, is now available for iOS and makes it easy to access content from other apps. It also offers Office 365 integration.

While learning a second language is probably very rewarding -- I wouldn't know -- it is becoming less necessary. Thanks to technology, people can easily translate languages while on the go with a smartphone or tablet. The problem? Many translator apps require an internet connection. This is a problem, as many people need these apps when traveling abroad, where they may not have a data connection.

Today, Microsoft updates its Translator app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch making it infinitely more useful for those traveling without data. In addition, the app is getting a new Safari extension, so users can easily translate webpages when needed.

Flash is not as integral to the web as it once was, but it’s still required for some content, despite being a huge security nightmare.

Microsoft, like Google and Mozilla, wants to hasten the transition away from Flash to a more modern, standards based web, and so plans to make a big change to Edge in the forthcoming Anniversary Update to Windows 10.

Windows 10 Insider Preview builds -- well those on the Fast ring at least -- tend to fall into two camps. There are the exciting releases, like Build 14291, which delivered extensions to Microsoft Edge as well as various other new features, and the duller ones, like Build 14295, which mostly fix bugs and shore up things.

The latest new build for the Fast ring, Build 14316, falls very much into the former camp, with Microsoft introducing lots of new features for Insiders to try, in addition to plenty of welcome improvements across the whole of the OS. Here’s what new.

Back in September of last year we reported that Microsoft had announced its purchase of cloud security firm Adallom to help its customers protect their cloud-based data and applications.

In February it teased that a new Cloud App Security offering based on Adallom's technology would be released in April. Well, today the wait is over and the product becomes generally available as a cloud-delivered service to help IT and security teams gain visibility and control over cloud apps.

Outlook.com offers all the right features that most consumers expect in an email service these days. But, if you are power users, Microsoft believes you may be looking for more, which is why the software giant is now trialling a Premium subscription.

Costing $3.99 a month, this is not the first and only Outlook.com subscription. There already is an Ad-free plan for users who want to get rid of advertisements, that goes for $19.95 a year, however the Premium tier is meant to unlock more extra, pro-level features.

After months of testing, Microsoft has started the process of rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to a selection of Windows Phone 8.1 handsets. Users who have been part of the Insider program will know what to expect, but for others the changes may come as something of a surprise.

In fact, it's entirely possible that you'll upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile and not like what you see. The good news is that Microsoft will allow you to roll back to Windows Phone 8.1, and there's no time limit on doing so.

Microsoft has joined forces with a collective of more than 40 financial institutions to help push the development of blockchain technology. Working with the R3 consortium, Microsoft wants to develop and test new technologies to replace and streamline old systems used in banking and enterprise industries.

The announcement comes as the company launches the first Microsoft Envision event with the aims of bringing together business leaders to pool ideas for the digital age. Using Microsoft Azure, the company wants its partners to expand the use of Blockchain-as-a-Service and bring about change faster.

Windows Insiders will soon be able to try out a new Start Menu when preview builds of Windows 10 Anniversary Update begin to roll out. We already know some of what to expect from this big update to Windows 10 -- such as badge notifications in the taskbar for UWP apps -- and now we can see what the updated Start menu looks like too.

The same Microsoft software engineer who shared details of badge notifications -- Jen Gentleman -- has posted an animated GIF to Twitter that shows the Start Menu in action. There are a few notable changes in the updated version, including a nested hamburger menu.

The idea of badges is a very familiar concept on mobile phones. A little numerical overlay on app icons provides at-a-glance info about the number of notifications there are to look at for different apps and services. Now Microsoft has revealed that the same feature is coming to the desktop.

Among the changes in Windows 10 Anniversary Update are taskbar badge notification for Universal Windows Platform apps. This new style of notification joins improved toast notifications and changes to the Action Center. Developers will be able to try out the feature soon, and we've got a sneaky glimpse of how things will look.

NetMarketShare today released its latest desktop OS usage figures, and they reveal a steady increase for Windows 10. According to the web analytics firm, the new OS currently has 14.15 percent usage share. However, Microsoft has updated its own market share figures and they paint a very different picture, showing the OS to be a much, much bigger hit.

According to the recently updated Windows and Store trends page, as of February, Windows 10 is on 24 percent of PC and tablet devices running Windows, growing at a pace of around 2 percent a month. And not only that, the new OS is also a huge hit with gamers, with Microsoft claiming Windows 10 is on 35 percent of their devices. So how come Microsoft’s figures differ so significantly from NetMarketShare’s? There are a couple of reasons.

The Notification Center in Windows 10 is a great idea but, many would argue, one that is both limited and poorly implemented. For anyone with a Windows 10 Mobile phone it is marginally more useful thanks to notification sharing, and this feature is due to expand to Android users as well.

At Build, Microsoft revealed that the Notification Center is in line for a major overhaul that will not only bring Cortana-power notification mirroring to Android users, but will also bring a richer, more image-heavy notification experience. The news isn’t so great for iPhone users as the more tightly controlled nature of iOS means Microsoft has a harder task on its hands.

A week ago, Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build for PC and Mobile. While Build 14295 isn’t the most exciting of releases, it does include a lot of notable bug fixes and Microsoft deems it stable enough for the Slow ring which is welcome news for any Insiders not on the cutting edge.

There’s also good news for anyone struggling to update their existing Insider Preview build through Windows Update (or for anyone wanting to do a fresh install or try out the new build in a virtualized environment) as Microsoft has just made Build 14295 available for download in ISO format.