Articles about Microsoft

Earlier this week, a number of Windows 10 users were surprised to be offered a free upgrade to Windows 11 despite the fact that their hardware did not meet the minimum system requirements set out by Microsoft.

Upon trying to take advantage of the upgrade offer -- which even appeared in virtual machines running Windows 10 -- users were unable to complete the installation. Microsoft has now acknowledged the issue, but has neither apologized nor offered an explanation.

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Five-hundred-and-thirty-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

The next Moments update for Windows 11 is just around the corner. It is expected to be released in March 2023, and to include new features such as Energy Recommendations, a touch-optimized taskbar mode, and visual changes.

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It always sounds dire. "After five years of mainstream support, and five years of Extended Support, Office 2013 will reach the End of Extended Support on April 11, 2023," warns Microsoft. "Per the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, after this date security updates for Office 2013 will no longer be available."

At the end of support, the official statement continues, "Microsoft won’t provide any new security updates, and the continued use of Office 2013 after April 2023 may increase your organization’s exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations." And dire it can be.

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The next significant update to Windows 11 -- known as Moment 2 -- is due for release next month, but if you're eager to try things out, you can do so.

All you need to do is get yourself on the Release Preview Channel of the Windows Insider program. Microsoft has just released Windows 11 Build 22621.1343 (also known as the KB5022913 update) to this channel, and it includes everything from the upcoming Moment 2 release. And there really is quite a lot to this update.

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Microsoft isn’t wasting any time in rolling out and expanding its new AI-powered version of Bing. Yesterday, the company explained how it was beginning to relax some of the limitations it introduced after its AI went rogue and started insulting and gaslighting users, and also revealed future plans which included allowing users to choose the tone of AI chats in Bing.

Today, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, announces that the launch of the new AI-powered Bing and Edge mobile apps, which arrive with bonus new features, such as voice input.

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Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was introducing an enhanced version of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and Edge browser and opened it up for testing.

Things didn’t go quite as smoothly however, and in testing it was found that the AI could go off the rails during long and intricate chats. As a result, Microsoft introduced some limits -- restricting users to five chat turns per session and a total of 50 per day. However, that limitation is set to soon be raised, and that’s not the only change that’s coming.

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Windows 11 Moment 3 is rumored to hit general availability towards the end of the first half of this year -- possibly in May. But before this next significant update to Windows 11 is released to the general public, it will first need to undergo beta testing -- and this could be happening very soon indeed.

Although Microsoft is yet to say anything about the release date for Moment 3, reliable leaker PhantomOfEarth has not only revealed that the beta is due for release soon, but also shared details of what it is likely to include.

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Users of Microsoft's Outlook.com have been flooded with spam and phishing emails over a period of 12 hours. It seems that the message filters for the email service suffered an outage, resulting inboxes being overwhelmed with junk mail.

While Microsoft says that the issue has now been addressed, the company has provided very little in the way of explanation for what happened.

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The Insider builds of Windows 11 almost always have interesting new features and options to explore, but sometimes the tastiest morsels are hidden from sight as Microsoft is still working on them. The latest release -- Build 25300 -- is a good example, as it includes an experimental version of File Explorer.

This test version of Explorer is based on WASDK (Windows App SDK), and it includes a new image gallery feature that is sure to win itself a lot of fans.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central holds the key to unlocking efficiency and productivity in the workplace. With improved processes at the forefront of business objectives, Dynamics 365 Business Central is the necessary solution for automating and streamlining operations.

Digitization has taken hold of our day-to-day lives and businesses. The technologies we now have access to allow us to flourish like never before -- when understood and used properly. While this may be overwhelming at times, it should be looked at in a positive light.

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Twitter has received a lot of attention of late, with one of the most recent controversies relating to the decision to charge for access to the Twitter API, all but getting rid of the free tier. Now Microsoft is up to much the same trick, announcing this week huge increases that are coming for developers who want to use the Bing Search APIs.

New pricing for access to Bing Search APIs kicks in at the beginning of May, and the rise is significant. There are various access tiers available, and the cost of some is due to increase tenfold.

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While Microsoft would very much prefer that you run Windows 11 on a PC, the company recognizes -- albeit rather reluctantly -- that some people favor Macs. Licensing restrictions have meant that, until now, users have not been permitted to run Windows on Apple Silicon.

Microsoft has published an article that officially permits the use of Parallels Desktop 18 to run Windows 11 on ARM-based Macs. This means that Macs with M1 or M2 chips can be used to run either Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Enterprise. There are, however, numerous caveats.

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Microsoft has released a preview version of the KB5022905 update for Windows 11 which not only fixes a host of bugs, but also adds important new facial recognition functionality.

For now, the update is only available to users running Windows 11 Release Preview, and the KB5022905 update which takes Windows 11 up to build 22000.1639. While there are no security fixes in this update, it addresses a lengthy list of issues.

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Starting at the end of March, Microsoft is going to deliver its first UUP on premises updates to Windows 11 devices.

Available for systems running Windows 11 22H2, UUP (Unified Update Platform) on premises works in conjunction with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Microsoft Configuration Manager. Ultimately, it means smaller updates for clients and faster update delivery, but there will be a hefty download to kick things off.

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Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev Channel today get a new build to play around with. Build 25300 comes with the usual collection of fixes for known issues, as well as some interesting changes and improvements.

Live captions are now available in several more languages, including Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish and other English dialects.

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