Articles about Microsoft

Today at the Red Hat Summit, Microsoft announced the launch of .NET Core 1.0. Continuing the company's embrace of other platforms, the latest version of the open source .NET runtime platform supports Windows, OS X, iOS, Android and -- of course -- Linux.

At the summit, Red Hat said that .NET Core 1.0 will be fully supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With Microsoft's partnership with Red Hat late last year, and the company's on-going expansion into the cross-platform cloud, Linux support is not entirely surprising. Also announced today was ASP.NET Core 1.0 and Entity Framework 1.0 for developers to get to work with.

Continue reading →

The owner of a California-based travel agency has received a $10,000 settlement from Microsoft after a forced Windows 10 upgrade rendered her computer unusable. Teri Goldstein found that her work computer downloaded and started to install Windows 10 without her permission, but the installation failed.

The installation not only failed, Goldstein says, but also slowed down her computer, leading to days of lost business. After failing to get help from Microsoft's customer support, she took the company to court.

Continue reading →

If you're in the market for a Surface 3, now is the time to buy one. Microsoft says that production of the Surface 3 will come to an end in December this year, and warns that stocks are already starting to run low.

It's not yet clear whether the end of production for the cheapest Surface device signals the end of Microsoft's Atom-based devices. But it certainly seems as though the company is keen to focus its attention on the Pro range as well as the Surface Book.

Continue reading →

NetMarketShare is set to release its monthly desktop operating system usage share figures for June in one week’s time, and given how aggressively Microsoft has been pushing Windows 10 in the run up to the launch of the Anniversary Update, and the end of the free promotion period, it should make for interesting reading.

Microsoft has just updated its own Windows market share figures, covering April 2016, and as you might expect they show Windows 10 making big gains. Huge gains, in fact.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 Insider Preview builds are coming thick and fast now in preparation for the Anniversary Update on 29 July.

We had a new build on Tuesday (Build 14371), and today Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar has pushed the button on another new release -- Build 14372 for PC and Mobile. That’s just one build newer, but includes fixes designed to improve overall performance and reliability. But that’s not all.

Continue reading →

Samsung is probably best known for its Android smartphones and tablets nowadays, but the company is so much more. It makes amazing televisions, plus appliances like refrigerators and washing machines. Samsung even makes Windows laptops and tablets, such as the 2-in-1 TabPro S.

Today, Samsung unveils the all-new 'Notebook 7 spin' laptop. This convertible Windows 10 computer can double as a tablet -- the touch screen can rotate and sit flush on the rear. It even has a backlit keyboard by default -- nice. Best of all, the pricing is rather competitive.

Continue reading →

As we’ve reported numerous times before, and with increasing levels of frustration, Microsoft won’t ever seem to take no for an answer when it comes to Windows 10. When the Get Windows 10 app appears to users of Windows 7 or 8.1 they might reasonably expect to have the choice of saying "yes" or "no" to the free upgrade offer. Except while "yes" means "yes", "no" apparently means "yes, but you’ll need to trick me into installing it".

It’s not just Microsoft which pulls this kind of stunt either. This is a recent experience I had when installing Auslogics Disk Defrag.

Continue reading →

The other day, Microsoft made some bold claims about the power consumption of Edge. The company claimed that its latest web browser is the most battery-friendly when compared to Chrome, Opera and Firefox. Having been beaten into third place behind Chrome, but ahead of Firefox, Opera has hit back.

The company says that its own tests show -- surprise, surprise -- that it is Opera which is the most efficient battery sipper. Opera says that its own battery saving feature boosts battery life by up to 50 percent when compared to Chrome. The company criticizes Microsoft for failing to reveal its methodology, accusing it of a lack of transparency. But Opera is guilty of being disingenuous, as it fails to compare like with like.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is rolling out new Windows 10 Insider builds on a very regular basis in preparation for the big Anniversary Update at the end of July. Last week we had not one, but two new PC builds gracing the Fast ring, and today we get yet another -- Build 14371.

As you might expect there are lots of improvements and bug fixes in this new build, but there are also some new additions too.

Continue reading →

As businesses rely more on mobile and cloud systems, greater emphasis is placed on protecting their information while retaining the productivity benefits.

Microsoft is launching a new service to help businesses guard their data as it travels between devices and servers. Azure Information Protection builds on both the existing Microsoft Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) and the company's acquisition last year of information protection business Secure Islands.

Continue reading →

Apple has done it; Google has done it. Microsoft may be a little late to the party, but it's getting involved in the mobile payment game. Today the company releases Microsoft Wallet to Windows Insiders using Windows 10 Mobile build 14360 or higher.

Microsoft has teamed with MasterCard and Visa to provide a contactless payment solution that is -- for now -- available to Lumia 950, 950 XL and 650 users in the US. As well as making contactless payments, the app can also be used to store reward cards to reduce the amount of plastic you have to cart around with you.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 is a good operating system, but it can be a little buggy at times. Hopefully the forthcoming Anniversary Update will fix a lot of these issues, although it’s equally possible it may introduce more bugs along with the raft of new features.

If you’ve been having problems with the Start menu in Windows 10 the good news is Microsoft has released a new troubleshooting tool which can identify and fix many issues automatically.

Continue reading →

Huawei is a very popular brand in China, but hardly a household name in the USA. Quite frankly, outside of in-the-know Android fans, you'd be hard pressed to find many Americans that know the name.

The company is looking to change this, however, in a very big way. Its MateBook 2-in-1 is finally coming to the USA. This elegant Windows 10 tablet/laptop hybrid has a very affordable starting price, and you can pre-order it starting today.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 is a great operating system, offering a solid user interface and advanced security. The default browser, however, is not so great. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft Edge has a lot of potential, but Chrome is arguably the superior browser for now.

Google's browser is not perfect on Windows 10, apparently, as according to Microsoft, it is a battery vampire. In other words, Chrome -- as well as Firefox and Opera -- will drain your battery faster than the default browser. Using Microsoft Edge is like garlic to these vampires, as it can help you reclaim precious battery life.

Continue reading →

With the unstoppable growth of chat apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and the like, emoji have become an incredible phenomenon. The Unicode Consortium is due to publish the Unicode 9.0 spec tomorrow, and it seems that objections from Apple and Microsoft means we're not going to see a rifle emoji included.

The intervention is slightly surprising, yet not entirely unexpected. With the large number of high-profile mass-shootings such as in Orlando, debate about guns has come to the fore once again and the censorship of emoji is perhaps not completely unexpected. But at the same time, there is already a pistol emoji and there are not -- yet -- calls for it to be removed.

Continue reading →