Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft has teamed up with Byowave to produce a highly customizable, modular controller designed for those who find traditional gamepad-style controllers difficult or impossible to use.

The announcement coincides with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which falls on the third Thursday of May each year. Comprising cube-like modules and interchangeable faceplates that allow for dozens of configurations, the Proteus Controller lets users create a completely personalized gaming experience.

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Microsoft has released its monthly patches for Windows 11 in the form of the KB5037771 update. There are lots of fixes in this release including for problems with domain controllers, VPNs, and SMB clients.

There are a number of security fixes, but also more controversial changes -- including ads in the Start menu (or app recommendations as Microsoft calls them). Other changes include improvements to Widgets and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2).

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It seems that Microsoft’s attempts to sidestep anticompetition legal action over its Teams software has failed. Although Teams has been -- begrudgingly -- unbundled from Office, the European Commission is believed to be forging ahead with antitrust charges.

Many rivals to Teams, including the likes of Slack, have expressed concern about what they believe to be anticompetitive behavior by Microsoft. Despite Microsoft decoupling Teams from Office and other software, EU officials are of the opinion that the company has not gone far enough to level the playing field.

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Next month, the Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10 version 21H2 will reach end of servicing. Microsoft stopped supporting the consumer editions in June 2023 already.

Enterprise, Education and IoT editions of Windows 10 version 21H2 reach end of support on June 11, 2024. Only Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 continue to receive support until January 12, 2027.

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Microsoft has released Windows Terminal Preview 1.21 and, despite the small version number increase, it is home to a large number of changes.

Possibly the most interesting -- and useful -- addition is Buffer Restore which will load the windows from the previous session if you want. There are new font options, rendering changes, new settings, and new support for Custom Action by JSON Fragment Extensions.

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Microsoft has made a lot of controversial decisions when it comes to the Start menu in Windows 11, not least of which is the plan to introduce ads. In the latest beta build of Windows 11. However, there are some interesting changes afoot -- notably Start Menu Companions.

While not yet fully operational, Companions are essentially plugins or extensions for the Start menu. The display information -- such as weather or stock prices in a floating panel to the side of the Start menu, will blend the ideas of Live Tiles and Widgets into something new.

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The world has gone crazy for AI, and Microsoft has jumped feet-first into the technology. Copilot is just one of the company’s tools in this field, but not everyone is completely in love with this digital assistant.

For anyone who is of the opinion that things are moving too fast when it comes to Copilot, there is some good news. With the release of the latest beta build of Windows 11, Microsoft says that it is slowing down the rollout of new Copilot experiences.

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In what will come as something of a disappointment to Microsoft, the latest figures from Statcounter shows that Windows 11 is becoming less popular.

While Windows 11’s market share is in decline, there is an almost mirrored increase in Windows 10’s market share. It appears that there remains a preference for the significantly older version of Windows.

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If your VPN has stopped working in Windows 10 or Windows 11, you can take some comfort in the fact that you're not alone. The April update for the operating system, or the preview version, is causing VPN connection failures.

It is not clear quite how widespread the problem is, nor just how many VPN tools are affected. However, Microsoft is aware of the issue but is offering little in the way of help at the moment.

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Beneath the seemingly endless rows and columns of cells, the latest version of Microsoft Excel boasts an astonishing variety of features and capabilities. But how do you go about tapping into some of that power without spending all of your days becoming a spreadsheet guru?

It’s easy. You grab a copy of the newest edition of Microsoft Excel Dashboards & Reports For Dummies and get ready to blow the pants off your next presentation audience!

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Having already taken steps to decrease the size of updates for Windows 11, Microsoft is doing the same for Windows 10.

The company describes this by suggesting that "Windows 10 is becoming more like Windows 11", although this is something of a stretch. What it means in practice is that Microsoft has used various techniques, including removing reverse differentials from the cumulative update package, to shrink update sizes quite considerably.

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Microsoft, in partnership with IBM, has released the source code of MS-DOS 4.00 under the open-source MIT license. This release comes a decade after Microsoft first made the source code for MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 available to the public through the Computer History Museum.

The decision to release the MS-DOS 4.00 source code was inspired by the discovery of early, unreleased beta binaries by researcher Connor “Starfrost” Hyde. Hyde’s discovery stemmed from a conversation with former Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie, who unearthed the binaries among floppies sent to him during his tenure at Lotus. Intrigued by the software’s historical value, Hyde approached the Microsoft Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) to explore the possibility of making these resources publicly available.

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Windows 11's Start menu will soon advertise applications in the recommended section.

Microsoft released a new optional preview update for Windows 11 this week that introduces the feature. The changes it includes will roll out to all Windows 11 devices as part of the May 2024 cumulative security update.

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Microsoft has evolved its approach to warning users about the end of life (EOL) of its Windows operating systems over the years. The methods and techniques used, from Windows XP onwards, have varied, ranging from the polite to the downright aggressive (we're looking at you, Windows 7).

This journey, revealed in a new video, highlights how Microsoft's strategy has shifted to ensure users are aware of when their operating system will no longer receive support, emphasizing the importance of security and system updates and, in some cases, upgrading you against your will without warning (we're still looking at you, Windows 7).

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A new report reveals a year-on-year increase of nearly 60 percent in global phishing attacks, fueled in part by the proliferation of generative AI-driven schemes such as voice phishing (vishing) and deepfake phishing.

The report from Zscaler ThreatLabz shows that in 2023 the US (55.9 percent), UK (5.6 percent) and India (3.9 percent) are the top countries targeted by phishing scams. The high level of phishing in the US is attributable to its advanced digital infrastructure, large population of internet-connected users and extensive use of online financial transactions.

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