Water Cooler
Gather round the virtual water cooler and kick back and relax with other Extreme Tech Support members. Any topic is allowed. Just keep the tech topics in the tech forums. Please don't use this forum to troll of flame anyone. You can do that here.
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Growing up in a rural village in India, was expected to follow the example of the women before her: stay close, get married and have children. She defied her community’s expectations to forge her own path. She learned how to use a mobile phone and access online maps, which made her confident when traveling by herself. And she quickly picked up on how search engines could help her find other answers. “I no longer feel any fear with so much direct access to knowledge,” she says. Now she works full-time educating teachers – more than 300 so far – using technology to help them be more effective in class. [caption id=attachment_175446" align="aligncenter" width="1024]https:…
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I’m excited that you’re here to learn about what we’ve been doing to further improve Microsoft Edge and Bing! In my last post we announced our new sleeping tabs feature and I’m happy to share initial findings from our latest Beta build that a sleeping tab increases battery life by using 26% less CPU on average compared to a non-sleeping tab, and also reduces memory usage by 16% on average. This is great news for all you gamers and tab-hoarders out there! More exciting things are in the works for you later this year. Last month we also announced beautiful new themes for Microsoft Edge and I love to hear that Halo, Satin Stacks and Wandering Fields are the top fan favorites…
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In Max Brooks’ first Minecraft book, “The Island,” readers follow the inner thoughts of Guy, a man who wakes up and finds himself having to survive in a weird world of blocks. Now, in the sequel, “The Mountain,” Guy strikes out across the sea to see what else the world holds, and he lands on a frozen taiga coast. There, he encounters another person, Summer. Now Guy is going to learn how to survive with someone else. If you enjoy the audiobook versions of stories like this, you’ll hear familiar voices on both: Jack Black and Sean Astin, who both went to high school with Brooks. Explore Summer’s mountain base in a free adventure map, available now. Get Minecraft for Windows…
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In Operation 6, the latest update to Gears 5, you’ll meet new characters, such as Colonel Victor Hoffman, and find a new map of a pre-Locust-war district. You’ll also see a new Horde event to kick it off: Escape from Kadar. Find out more at Gears 5. Continue reading...
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We all have moments when we realize the world got smaller and our imagination got bigger. I remember the first time I travelled internationally. I got on a plane in Cherry Point, North Carolina, fell asleep and woke up in Rota, Spain. The sense of age and time for the city, the food, the culture – it was something I’d never experienced before, and my perspective changed all at once. The flight had been a portal to a completely new world. When I got my first cellphone, I went outside during lunch and called one of my friends from the car. “Guess where I’m calling from?” I said, not realizing how transformational that invention would become, that I could be present for s…
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On Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite, the company announced that Power Automate Desktop is now available at no additional cost, allowing Windows 10 users to harness the power of low-code robotic process automation (RPA). The technology is available as a download and will be included in Windows Insider Preview builds in the coming weeks. This user-friendly, low-code application empowers coders and non-coders alike to optimize personal and professional workflows by automating repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks in Windows 10. Since RPA in Power Automate was introduced in 2019, the Microsoft Power Automate team has seen tremendous growth, with hundreds of thousands of organ…
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Windows is the heartbeat of modern work: consistent, reliable, familiar, intuitive – quietly supporting the apps and experiences in Microsoft 365 that empower people to do more, achieve more. Enabling IT to manage and secure devices regardless of how, when and how frequently they connect. We believe that the work of the future will be powered by the cloud. As the world’s workforce begins a hybrid working style where files, apps and data need to be accessible from both home and the office – and everywhere in between – it’s up us to make sure that they can work from any device, access whatever they need, print from anywhere, and keep everything secure at all times. The need…
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https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/2021/03/JPG-MSC19_singaporeDigiGirlz_004-1-scaled.jpg I started to realize my journey to empowerment at age 17, standing inside Mumbai airport for the first time in my life and getting ready to fly 8,000 miles away from home. I had received a Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship to study in the United States for my senior year of high school. After going through exit immigration, I turn around and could see my parents waving with tear-filled eyes. As I left, I reflected on how much of a leap of faith they had made. Although it was almost inconceivable that a young Indian woman would leave her parents’ home so early to…
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The latest Minecraft Dungeons DLC, Flames of the Nether, is now available alongside a substantial free update, on Windows PC or Xbox One. Over at Minecraft.net, you can find out more, including resources that may help before you jump into the game. Continue reading...
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Over the past year, we have experienced dramatic disruption around the world. Companies in every industry have turned to digital technologies for the resilience and agility necessary to survive. The urgency for entire industries to transform at scale has never been greater. In response, we have accelerated our efforts to support and co-innovate with customers and partners — both now and long term — with industry-specific cloud offerings that can provide a launchpad for further innovations. Today, we’re announcing another milestone in those efforts with three new industry-specific cloud offerings: Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, Microsoft Cloud for Manufactur…
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Last week the Microsoft Flight Simulator team released World Update 3, giving “simmers” a dazzling flight experience throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. “Take flight into a region rich with tradition, culture and heritage — not to mention a fair share of myth and legend,” writes Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann in a post on Xbox Wire. “From seats of royalty to centers of finance, bustling metropolitan hubs to sprawling farmsteads and cliffside villages, the splendor of the United Kingdom and Ireland is on full display with dramatic upgrades and visual enhancements.” Microsoft Flight Simulator is available on Xbox Game Pass for PC, Windows 10 and Stea…
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The “accept cookies” pop-up is a familiar sight as we browse the internet. How do you know which are safe? And are they even necessary? The Windows Resource Center has broken cookies down into their main ingredients so you can make the best call. A new blog posts summarizes why cookies can be a good thing, helping your favorite websites get to know you so they can offer what you want and make browsing and shopping experiences smooth. It also shows how cookies can be bad, and points you to tools to help keep your private information private as you navigate sites that use cookies. Head on over to the blog post, and safe surfing to you! Continue reading...
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Lenovo’s latest additions to its ThinkPad portfolio include a completely redesigned X13 and X13 Yoga with 16:10 aspect ratio displays and updated T and L series. The company also introduced a new premium display and refreshed ThinkPad mobile workstations with flexible processor options, discrete graphics and improved displays. You can tailor the new ThinkPad laptops to your needs, with options that include 11th Gen Intel Core vPro processors and the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors. [caption id=attachment_175397" align="aligncenter" width="955]https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2021/02/01_Thinkvision_P40w_Hardware_Partition_In_Pbp-1024…
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Minecraft: Education Edition's Lessons in Good Trouble includes many famous activists throughout history and the world – such as Malala Yousafzai, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst – and learning zones that take learners of any age to many places, including Selma, Alabama, India, Pakistan, the U.K. and South Africa. The latest two lessons are on the Black Lives Matter and the U.S. civil rights movements (focused on the march across Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-Ins and Rosa Parks’ protest against public segregation). There will be 10 lessons in all, releasing over the course of spring. They all reinforce how “good tr…
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At Microsoft we’ve been focused on learning about effective allyship in the workplace. Part of the mindset necessary for allyship is about accepting what we don’t know, being willing to be wrong, and even taking some risks to drive meaningful change. On March 17, we’re going to try something we’ve never done before: Microsoft will host Include 2021, a free, global, digital event open to all and focused on diversity and inclusion. Include 2021 will feature global experts in academia, social change, and diversity and inclusion leading in-depth conversations about how we spark and support lasting culture change. Anyone can register for this public event and learn more abo…
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Today, we are introducing the next feature update to Windows 10, version 21H1. As people continue to rely on Windows more than ever to work, learn and have fun, we understand the importance of providing the best possible update experience to help people and organizations stay protected and productive. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly and why for the first time an H1 (first half of the calendar year) feature update release will be delivered in an optimized way using servicing technology, while continuing our semi-annual feature update cadence. In today’s blog I will cover details on how we plan to service the release, its scope, and next steps. Fast and focus…
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Forza Street players who want to know about the latest Showdown and what’s coming next can turn to the Forza Developer Blog to find out about the introduction of the 2017 Mercedes-AMG GT R. The blog also teases a bit about the next Showdown, which will have an ‘80s theme. The Forza team has also introduced a new speedometer and are working to improve the user experience as Forza Street’s one year anniversary rapidly approaches. Find out more over on their blog. Continue reading...
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https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/2021/02/Cropped_Rik-van-der-Kooi-at-march.jpg Rik van der Kooi at the Seattle Children’s March, June 13, 2020. Numerous devastating, disturbing and very public situations of racial injustice over the past year have compelled me – a straight, white man – to examine the role I play in perpetuating social inequities and the opportunity I have to help eradicate them. How do I use my privilege, my access to opportunities without barriers, to eliminate acts of hate and violence on communities of color? The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the Black community? The starkly different response from law enforcement to…
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Today we’re excited to announce that Microsoft’s presence in Georgia is growing. We will complete our new office space in Atlantic Yards this year, and we’ll be adding even more space for our future. This includes plans for a new datacenter region with a presence in Douglas and Fulton counties, and the purchase of a 90-acre parcel of land to house a future campus at Quarry Yards and Quarry Hills. These are all significant investments and put Atlanta on the path toward becoming one of Microsoft’s largest hubs in the United States in the coming decade, after Puget Sound and Silicon Valley. When we open the doors to our offices in Atlantic Yards this summer, we will be ab…
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The Microsoft partner ecosystem is extensive, diverse and powerful. For decades it has been and continues to be at the center of how Microsoft delivers technology, services and cloud-to-edge solutions that enable business transformation for customers around the world. In fact, partners influence more than 95% of Microsoft’s commercial revenue, either directly, or in partnership with Microsoft. Given the COVID-19, economic and geo-political challenges everyone has experienced in the last year, and the many ways that partners across our ecosystem have helped customers build resiliency, adapt to change and overcome challenges, today’s updates and perspective as to how par…
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This week marks the beginning of Lunar New Year, celebrated around the world by more than 2 billion people, who this year will ring in the Year of the Ox. The last time the Ox made an appearance was in 2009 – the year of the very first version of Minecraft. Get festive with free skins in the Marketplace and Character Creator. Find out more at Minecraft.net. Continue reading...
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The Minecraft Dungeons community has crossed a major milestone: reaching 10 million players across all supported platforms, since its launch in May. To celebrate reaching this monumental point, players will see a new cape and a pet. Find out more at Minecraft.net. Continue reading...
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For the first time, the Forza franchise is headed to Steam, on March 9, with the award-winning Forza Horizon 4. Put the game on your Steam wishlist and you’ll be notified when the game is available to buy. Steam players will soon join millions of monthly Forza Horizon 4 players as they race across historic Britain in the open-world automotive adventure and join a creative community that celebrates automotive culture. With cross-play, Steam players drive alongside their friends and rivals who are racing on Xbox devices, Windows 10 PCs and cloud gaming with Game Pass Ultimate on Android mobile devices. Find out more on Xbox Wire. Continue reading...
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In honor of Black History Month, Undead Labs has commissioned Black artist Ty Ferrell to create a limited edition T-shirt, which is available from the official Xbox Gear shop. In-game, a free cosmetic version of the T-shirt, will be available to State of Decay 2 players. “At Undead Labs, we make games about surviving together. The heart and strength of the community lie at the foundation of the State of Decay games, and this is by design. We believe this is also true in the real world, and that we do our best work when we come together,” writes Wonder Russell, comms director at Undead Labs. Profits from the T-shirt sales will go to the National Association for the Advance…
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If you play Minecraft Dungeons, Feb. 24 is a day you’re going to look forward to, as it’s when you can embark on six new missions thanks to the Flames of the Nether downloadable content. Players can collect new artifacts, weapons and gear. There’s also a free update releasing that day that includes a major new feature called Ancient Hunts, which are procedurally generated end-game missions that weave in and out of the Nether. Find out more over at Minecraft.net. Continue reading...
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