Articles about Microsoft

Using Microsoft's latest operating system and looking for cloud storage? There isn't a shortage of options out there and you can use whichever appeals to you. However, if you're looking for a dedicated app for Windows 10 then Box could be the direction you want to head in.

The service is announcing its app for Windows 10. It has been a partner of Microsoft for a while and claims that it sees things headed in the right direction under the new management.

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Windows 10 users have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Threshold 2, or the November Update to give it its official name, for a while. Well, today that wait is over. Windows Insiders on the Fast and Slow rings received the update previously in the form of Build 10586, but now it's automatically being pushed to everyone.

This is a huge update, packed with new features, improvements and of course bug fixes. If updates weren't already mandatory I'd be telling you to go update your copy of Windows 10 right now (you can of course hurry things along by going to Settings > Update & Security and clicking/tapping on Check for updates.) With so much to cover, I'll keep the intro here to a minimum and crack on with talking about all the cool new stuff.

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Microsoft has partnered up with Brooklyn-based blockchain start-up ConsenSys to bring the technology to financial institutions.

Blockchain is the technology that underpins Bitcoin. It is essentially a vast, decentralized ledger that registers every transaction anonymously, and because the ledger is public, it makes blockchain tamper-proof and ideal for financial clients.

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There’s no question that Microsoft’s new Surface Book laptop/tablet hybrid has divided opinion. Some people love it, while others remain unconvinced, especially with regard to the high price and unconventional hinge. It’s very much designed as a rival to the MacBook Pro, and during its launch Microsoft made this clear by declaring its new device to be twice as fast as Apple’s offering.

So is Apple worried about the competition? Not so much. The company’s CEO Tim Cook took a swipe at the device earlier today while talking to students at Trinity College, in Dublin.

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The arms of the NSA may be long, but there are some parts of the world in which it holds no sway. Conscious of European concerns about US government web surveillance, Microsoft today announces German datacenter options for Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.

Starting in the second half of 2016, customers in Europe will be able to opt to have their data stored in Germany. The datacenters will be controlled by German data trustee, Deutsche Telekom who will oversee all access to customer data. With Microsoft’s "mobile first, cloud-first" philosophy, this is a move to try to rebuild trust in cloud services which the company clearly feels has been lost.

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Anyone still desperately clinging to Windows XP only has another six months of updates for Chrome. Google has decided that the time has finally come to sever ties with the ancient operating system, and the same applies to Vista and OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8.

Just as Microsoft has stopped issuing updates for Windows XP, so too has Google set a cut-off point of April 2016 for Chrome support on older OSes. These versions of Windows and OS X have been dropped by Microsoft and Apple, so it makes sense that other companies will move on as well. But as well as not getting new versions of Chrome, there will also be no more security updates.

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At the Future Decoded event, which kicked off today at London’s ExCel Center, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took to the stage to talk about his firm’s mobile first, cloud first strategy.

During his speech he announced that Microsoft plans to offer commercial cloud services from the UK. Azure and Office 365 will be available from local data centers in late 2016, followed by Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online shortly afterwards.

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The major Threshold 2 update for Windows 10 was released to Fast ring Insiders last week, and moved on to the Slow ring yesterday in preparation for pushing to all users of the new OS in a couple of days' time.

With that branch of development done and dusted, Microsoft has switched its attention to the next big update, codenamed Redstone. This will bring some much needed improvements to Windows 10 -- including extensions in Microsoft Edge -- when it arrives sometime in 2016.

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Threshold 2 is now available to Windows Insiders on the Slow Ring. Users on the Fast Ring received Windows 10 Build 10586 last week and now more cautious fans of the preview get to try out the November Update, Fall Update, Threshold 2, Windows 10 Build 10586 -- call it what you will.

With the official rollout of Windows 10's biggest update since launch is widely expected to take place tomorrow, 10 November, Slow Ring users may not be given much of a head start, but it does still -- just about -- qualify as an early glimpse.

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The one thing people have been clamoring for since the Xbox One was released is backwards compatibility to allow playing of all those collected games from the 360 era. Microsoft is granting that wish, though it will be gradual.

Today the company is publishing a list of the initial games that will be available. In all, it entails 104 titles and includes some big names. Among those in this release are Assassin's Creed II, Bejeweled 2, Gears of War versions 1, 2 and 3, Halo: Spartan Assault, Mass Effect, Plants vs Zombies and many more.

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Windows Insiders working with the preview builds of Windows 10 are used to the odd quirk here and there. Windows 10 Build 10586, released yesterday, is no different.

This latest build is widely believed to be the Threshold 2 release that is expected to roll out later this month. While it fixes numerous issues and adds new features when compared to the RTM build, it can also remove the Insider Hub. Here's how to get it back.

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Microsoft is preparing a huge update to Windows 10, codenamed Threshold 2. We don’t know exactly when it will be made available, only that it’s coming this month.

In advance of that update, Microsoft is in the process of rolling out a new Insider Preview build which has all the hallmarks of being a test run of Threshold 2, or the Fall Update, as it’s likely to be known.

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As we've seen with IBM's announcement earlier today, APIs are flavor of the development month at the moment.

Now the The Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, is announcing the launch of an Open API Initiative to promote and facilitate the adoption and use of an open API standard.

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Cortana was originally only available on Windows Phone, but Microsoft’s personal assistant has since become an integral part of Windows 10, and is currently available in public beta form on Android too.

Cortana is set to arrive on iOS at some point in the future, but don’t expect to be able to download the app any time soon -- there’s still quite a lot of development to go. However, that said, Microsoft is currently looking for testers to try out an early version of the iOS app and you can express your interest by filling in a short survey.

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Microsoft Azure is set to become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider as part of a new partnership announced today.

The tie up between Microsoft and the leading open source provider means Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be offered as the preferred choice for enterprise Linux workloads on Azure.

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