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In January we launched Microsoft’s carbon initiative, setting new goals for our company to become carbon negative by the end of this decade. While COVID-19 has upended daily life for almost all of us since then, sustainability issues have become no less urgent or important. That’s why today we’re announcing the second step in our sustainability efforts for 2020, focusing on preserving and protecting the biodiversity and health of the world’s ecosystems. Nature and the benefits that it provides to people are the foundation of our global economy, our culture, and the overall human experience. We depend on clean air, water, food, medicine, energy, and building materials that nature provides, but these very ecosystems are threatened or already in decline. Maintaining nature for the benefit of current and future generations is one of humanity’s greatest challenges. Deploying technology to support this global effort is one of ours. Microsoft’s new biodiversity initiative is multi-faceted. Perhaps most importantly, it aims to put data and digital technology to work, including through an ambitious program to aggregate environmental data from around the world and put it to work in a new “Planetary Computer.” We will combine this with new work to enable partners and customers to use the resulting output to enhance environmental decision-making in their organizational activities. We’ll also use it to speak out on ecosystem-related public policy issues and take responsibility for Microsoft’s own land footprint. Biodiversity and ecosystems in decline As with the carbon issues we addressed in January, we believe that our work on biodiversity should be science-led and data-driven. One of the most important steps in this field has come from the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which is responsible for monitoring the health of the planet, and which last year issued its first Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The news was grim. A quarter of the planet’s species are threatened with extinction. Wetlands that purify and store water and provide habitats for thousands of species have been reduced by 87 percent. Coral reefs that provide aquatic habitats, food, natural flood barriers, medicine and millions of tourism jobs have declined by 50 percent in the modern era. Mammals, birds, and other wildlife populations are down almost 60 percent in the last 40 years, and the number of species threatened with extinction continues to rise rapidly. When an animal dies off, the ecosystem it called home begins to unravel and the implications can be catastrophic. Take one example, the impact of insects on our health and economic prosperity. Insects are a group whose diversity and abundance has fallen dramatically over the past few decades. Insects are the base of the food chain, consumed by birds, fish, and small animals. Insect pollinators, including bees, are essential to the production of more than 75 percent of the world’s food crops. Without insects there is no food and without food, people can’t survive. A principled approach to guide our work Whenever we take on a new and complex societal issue, we strive first to learn and then to define a principled approach to guide our efforts. This has been fundamental to our work around the protection of privacy, the ethical development of artificial intelligence, our aggressive carbon goals, and our approach to biodiversity and ecosystems as well. Today we’re adopting four principles to guide our work in helping achieve global biodiversity goals. These are: Put data and digital technology to work. We can’t solve a problem that we don’t fully understand. That’s why we will aggregate environmental data from around the world and put it to work through computing and machine learning in a new Planetary Computer. Empower partners and customers around the world. We will use the Planetary Computer to develop and deploy the digital technology that helps our partners and customers with environmental decision-making in their organizational activities. Use our voice on ecosystem-related public policy issues. We will support and advocate for public policy initiatives that measure and manage ecosystems at the national and global scale. Take responsibility for our land footprint. We will take responsibility for the ecosystem impacts of our direct operations by protecting more land than we use by 2025. Putting data and digital technology to work: The Planetary Computer We do not know enough about species, biodiversity and ecosystems that are vital to our health and prosperity. Simply understanding where the world’s forest, fields and waterways are remains a daunting task of environmental accounting. Understanding what species call those ecosystems home or why they thrive or decline is largely unknown. We simply can’t solve a problem we don’t fully understand. The world’s first such assessment was launched by the United Nations Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES, in 2000, and took nearly five years and more than 1,300 experts from around the world to complete. IPBES’ more recent assessment, designed to close the gap between simple scientific insight and more effective policy implementation, was 1,700 pages, cited more than 15,000 scientific sources, and wasn’t published until 15 years after the first. These are years that we can’t afford as our environmental challenges intensify. It is abundantly clear that the world needs greater access to environmental data to assess, diagnose and treat the natural systems that society depends on. This is why data powered by machine learning will be a game changer. Assessing the planet’s health must become a more sustained, integrated practice that allows us to understand exactly what is happening in time to enable smart decision-making. Fortunately, there is massive potential for technology to revolutionize our environmental assessment practices, so they are faster, cheaper, and – for the first time – operate at a truly global scale. It should be as easy for anyone in the world to search the state of the planet as it is to search the internet for driving directions or dining options. We must use the architecture of the information age – data, compute, algorithms, application programming interfaces and end-user applications – to accelerate a more environmentally sustainable future. Two-and-a-half years ago, we took our first step in this direction by launching Microsoft’s AI for Earth program to put artificial intelligence technology into the hands of the world’s leading ecologists and conservation technologists, and organizations around the world that are working to protect our planet. So far, we’ve worked to empower nearly 500 organizations in 81 countries around the world working on game-changing environmental innovations. Yet for all the great work of our AI for Earth community, we have also learned that they need more. They need much greater access to data, more intuitive access to machine learning tools, and a greater ability to share their work and build on the work of others than our program currently provides. Our community needs a new kind of computing platform – a Planetary Computer, a platform that would provide access to trillions of data points collected by people and by machines in space, in the sky, in and on the ground and in the water. One that would allow users to search by geographic location instead of keyword. Where users could seamlessly go from asking a question about what environments are in their area of interest, to asking where a particular environment exists around the world. A platform that would allow users to provide new kinds of answers to new kinds of questions by providing access to state-of-the-art machine learning tools and the ability to publish new results and predictions as services available to the global community. This Planetary Computer would provide insights into critical questions that scientists, conservation organizations and businesses already ask every day, often with no easy way to obtain a locally relevant answer. For example: Understanding tree density, land use and size of forests has implications for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. Organizations often conduct expensive on-the-ground surveys or build customized solutions to understand local forests. The Planetary Computer will provide satellite imagery, state-of-the-art machine learning tools, and user-contributed data about forest boundaries from which forest managers will have an integrated view of forest health. Urban planners and farmers depend on forecasts of water availability and flood risks to make educated guesses about land management. The Planetary Computer will provide satellite data, local measurements of streams and groundwater, and predictive algorithms that will empower land planners and farmers to make data-driven decisions about water resources. Wildlife conservation organizations depend on their own local surveys, global views of wildlife populations, and suitable habitats for wildlife. The Planetary Computer will combine information about terrain types and ecosystems with the best available data about where species live, enabling a global community of wildlife biologists to benefit from each other’s data. Combating climate changes requires organizations to measure and manage natural resources that sequester carbon, like trees, grasslands, and soil. The Planetary Computer will combine satellite imagery with AI to provide up-to-date information about ecosystems, and provide a platform for leveraging predictive models to estimate global carbon stocks and inform decisions about land use that impact our ability to address climate change. That’s why we are announcing today that we are entering the next phase of our AI for Earth program, dedicated to building this Planetary Computer platform through dedicated investments in infrastructure development. We will provide our AI for Earth community – more than 500 grants in 81 countries – access to the world’s critical environmental datasets, and a computing platform to analyze those datasets on. We will also further invest in specific environmental solution areas like species identification, land cover mapping, and land use optimization. We’re starting with a new AI for Earth collaboration with the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network. This $1 million AI for Earth grant will support projects that strengthen efforts to monitor Earth’s biodiversity and create useful measurements required for the study, reporting, and management of biodiversity change that inform conservation decisions across the globe. This Planetary Computer is incredibly complex, and we cannot build it alone. We must continue to learn from the work and demands of our grantees, while partnering with the organizations best suited to advance global environmental goals. That is why we are deepening our partnership with Esri, a company that is a market leader in geographical information system software with years of experience building environmental monitoring solutions. We began our partnership with Esri at the launch of AI for Earth through shared technology granting programs. Microsoft and Esri share the goals of making geospatial data and analysis – meaning the gathering, display and manipulation of information about Earth systems – available to every sustainability researcher and practitioner around the world, and ensuring that every conservation organization can contribute its local data back to that global repository. Through hands-on collaboration and grants, Esri has helped conservation organizations all over the world – working on endangered species conservation, land protection, and the basic science that lets us understand the natural world – transform their operations to leverage digital spatial information. From mapping forest loss to combating elephant poaching, organizations depend on Esri’s tools and expertise to understand and protect the ecosystems in which they operate. We are deepening our partnership around the development of the machine learning-based geospatial solutions that are the foundation of the Planetary Computer. We are building on work we started with the launch of AI for Earth: Jointly supporting key partners like the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Half-Earth Project and NatureServe’s Map of Biodiversity Importance. We are making key geospatial datasets available on Azure and accessible through Esri tools later this year. And we will continue to partner to provide grants that ensure conservation organizations have access to the datasets, compute and other resources. Empowering customers We also believe it’s vital to help our customers with technology solutions to biodiversity conservation challenges. We are building the tools and services to help customers around the world understand the ecosystem around them today as it exists, monitor and model changes from climate or human behavior, and manage these in a way that protects biodiversity, their community’s well-being and way of life and the planet. For instance, we are already helping the Department of Primary Industry and Resources (DPIR) in Australia’s Northern Territory use AI to monitor and manage marine health by rapidly analyzing underwater video captured around Darwin Harbour. The solution is now available to anyone on GitHub, built using Azure Machine Learning Service to automate the labor-intensive process of counting local fish stocks by progressively learning to identify different varieties of fish. Monitoring is an important first step; ecosystem protection requires on-the-ground action as well. That is why we will continue to work closely with organizations like Wildlife Protection Solutions and Peace Parks, which depend on remote cameras to detect and respond to poaching threat. Both organizations are leveraging Azure and Microsoft AI to efficiently process images, so they can allocate scarce anti-poaching resources in protected areas all over the world. We’re also accelerating our investments in precision agriculture, including how digital technologies like AI can help boost crop yield while reducing the impact of farming on lands and other natural resources. Companies like Ag-Analytics and AVR are using the Internet of Things, AI and machine learning on Azure to collect precision data at the field level so farmers can make decisions that balance yield, resource consumption and soil health. These insights can help grow food in less conventional places as well. For example, Priva uses Dynamics 365 and M365 to digitally transform its operations, and Azure to add innovative data services to its product range, dramatically reducing water consumption and increasing yields for customers growing food in greenhouses, vertical farms, or even in underground tunnels. Using our voice on ecosystems policies Governments play a unique and important role in measuring and managing ecosystems and biodiversity as they collect and make publicly available massive amounts of data critical to environmental science. They also own billions of acres of public land that they can use to protect, manage and restore critical ecosystems. And, they establish and implement policies governing the use and management of natural resources and ecosystems. We will use our voice to speak out on four public policy issues that we think can advance the world’s efforts to protect and restore ecosystems: National ecosystem assessments. National ecosystem assessments allow governments to understand what is happening in a country’s natural environment and what actions are needed to safeguard critical ecosystem services. National assessments – involving scientists and policymakers from across federal and regional agencies, universities and NGOs –examine how a nation’s water, land and other ecosystems have changed, what are the likely future scenarios and what are the potential economic, social and political impacts from such scenarios. These assessments enable governments to develop data-driven policies about how best to provide ecosystem services and manage their natural resources. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and China, have undertaken national ecosystem assessments. European Union (EU) member states have been conducting national ecosystem assessments and the European Commission plans to release its new biodiversity strategy later this year with new commitments to address the main causes of biodiversity loss in the EU. Infrastructure to accelerate measuring and monitoring of ecosystems. Governments play an important role in expanding digital infrastructure to monitor ecosystems and ensure the data is available to the public. By using digital tools and advanced computing capabilities, governments can collect, integrate and make publicly available data from on the ground sensors, satellites and atmospheric monitor stations to give us more accurate and real-time insight into the health of our ecosystems. In addition, governments can help expand broadband connectivity to rural and remote areas so that farmers, fisherman, foresters and key environment stakeholders can utilize and leverage data and digital tools to better manage natural resources. Public land and water conservation. A primary mechanism for conservation is the allocation of government funding for the acquisition and maintenance of public land and water for conservation, recreational and natural preservation. Governments purchase land to establish national parks, protect environmental sensitive ecosystems and wetlands, create wildlife refuges and preserve cultural heritage sites. For example, the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Fund was created in 1964 to purchase land for these purposes. There is a bipartisan legislative proposal in the U.S. Congress that would permanently guarantee $900 million a year for this conservation fund and finance the backlog of maintenance at national parks. Public-private partnerships. Governments can also help encourage and facilitate investments by nongovernmental organizations or individuals and the private sector to protect and restore critical ecosystems. Governments can remove administrative barriers, provide matching grants, identify critical areas to protect, and create voluntary markets for eco-credits. The EU is proposing a new public-private partnership effort supporting data-driven research to stop the loss of biodiversity. An example of this type of work is BiodivERsA, which is doing critically important programming and funding of pan-European research on biodiversity. Governments around the world are developing public-private partnerships to support the U.N. Environment Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization in their Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. For example, the World Economic Forum recently launched a public-private initiative to reforest and regenerate 1 trillion trees by 2030. It’s critical that countries also work collectively to protect biodiversity and manage ecosystems. We have seen progress since countries first came together to address this issue at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and launched the Convention on Biological Diversity. Working through the U.N., governments have established IPBES as the scientific body that studies ecosystems, conducted the first global ecosystem assessment and proposed global ecosystem targets. We hope countries will approve these targets at the next meeting of the parties later this year. Taking responsibility for our land footprint As part of our focus on biodiversity and ecosystems, we are taking responsibility for our own relatively small land footprint. Microsoft operates on 11,000 acres of land globally. That’s equal to about three-fourths the size of Manhattan in New York City. You can see in this visualization where we operate by ecoregion and by biome. Today we are also committing to protect more land than we use by 2025, using approaches like land acquisition, conservation easement, national park creation, and community or indigenous-led conservation. We’ll protect and restore land in partnership with The Nature Conservancy globally and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in the United States. We will use a data-driven approach to identify ecosystems most at risk, using The Nature Conservancy’s newly launched last chance ecosystem framework and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s national landscape conservation framework. As we are doing with our carbon initiative, we will capitalize on the energy and intellect of our employees by inviting them to participate in volunteering and giving efforts focused on biodiversity and ecosystems. In addition to our annual OneWeek Hackathon, where over a hundred projects focused on environmental sustainability in 2019, employees can become citizen scientists in a new iNaturalist bioblitz with the goal of adding 100,000 new observations to iNaturalist in the ecosystems where Microsoft operates, or in Zooniverse people-powered research projects with the goal of adding 100,000 annotations to support conservation science projects around the world. Our collective challenge The clock is ticking on our ability to measure and manage the planet’s natural resources. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes that the health of people, animals and our shared natural environment are closely connected. As we have seen with the wildlife origins of the coronavirus, including SARS and MERS, this link cannot be ignored. We must work together to determine how we maximize the benefits that nature provides to people while minimizing the environmental harm of our activities. It won’t be easy, but it is possible if we put the pieces together. It is time to accelerate our work. The post A healthy society requires a healthy planet appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19608 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here, including a list of all the new features and updates released in builds so far. Not seeing any of the features in this build? Check your Windows Insider Settings to make sure you’re on the Fast ring. Submit feedback here to let us know if things weren’t working the way you expected. If you want a complete look at what build is in which Insider ring, head over to Flight Hub. Please note, there will be a slight delay between when a build is flighted and when Flight Hub is updated. What’s new in Build 19608 Improving your default apps experience Over the years, we’ve made a number of improvements to Settings based on your feedback, and we’re happy to share the next one is starting to roll out. We’re adding the ability to search the lists of file types, protocols, and apps when setting a default. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/bc885b7c284ce0a6d23eb6a909890cdd.png This change is currently available for 50% of Insiders in the Fast ring as we evaluate the quality. We’ll let you know when that rollout increases. Please give it a try once it’s available on your device, and let us know what improvements you’d like to see next! Other updates for Insiders Your Phone app updates Seamlessly Drag and Drop files between your devices with the Your Phone app Continuing our partnership with Samsung, we’re excited to bring you an early preview into the newest feature for the Your Phone app—file drag and drop. This feature allows any Samsung smartphone that supports phone screen to wirelessly drag and drop files from their phone to their PC and vice versa without having to dig for cables. Give it a try and let us know what you think! https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/d8d57678835eb1dee99d1e40487739ad.png Drag and Drop feature requirements PC must be running Windows 10 October 2018 Update or later. However, we always recommend updating to the latest version available. Your phone must support phone screen. Check out the full list of supported devices. Known issues Drag and drop of folders is currently not supported in either direction. Transferring files from the My Files folder on your phone to PC on devices other than the S20 series and the Z flip requires an update to the My Files app, which Samsung is gradually rolling out this month. Dragging images from the Gallery app on your phone to PC is supported on all phone screen capable devices. If you drag a file too quickly from the phone, it may result in transfer failure. Minimizing the Your Phone app during transfer will cancel the transfer in progress. Feature requires Your Phone app to be open during the entire transfer. Maximum number of files per transfer is limited to 100. Only one transfer at a time is allowed. This feature is gradually rolling out, so it may take few days to show up in the Your Phone app (YP version 1.20032.104). Cross-device Copy & Paste feature now available on additional Samsung Galaxy devices The Cross-device Copy and Paste feature, which allows you to seamlessly copy text and images between devices, is now rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S10e/S10/S10+, Note 10, and Fold devices. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/2fae80ac81a045b8dd95359b8dda2de9.png Messages node Compose new messages, within the Messages node, is getting a brand-new rounded user interface (UI). Check it out and let us know what you think! https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/0ff74999b8fc1003bc8bfc0c432df03e.png UI updates We recently introduced a number of UI changes to improve the overall look and feel of the Your Phone app. Updates include: The option to match your app’s background with your phone’s wallpaper. This not only complements the look and feel of the app, but it makes it more personal. The app background color in dark mode is now lighter tone of gray. Typography of headers is more modern and prominent. Improvements to app-wide padding and responsiveness to work better for different sizes of the app window as you navigate across nodes. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/586019c44703fc7d6bc475e72a7938d2.png These features are gradually rolling out to the public, so they may take few days to show up in the Your Phone app. We value your feedback, so give these features a try and let us know what you think! You can give us feedback in the Your Phone app under Settings > Send Feedback or directly in the Feedback Hub. Fixes We fixed an issue where Sticky Notes windows couldn’t be moved. We fixed an issue resulting in language packs failing to install on the previous build. Anyone impacted by this may have noticed some parts of the UI weren’t displaying in your preferred language. We fixed an issue resulting in Task Manager showing an incorrect icon for Microsoft Edge Canary. We fixed an issue resulting in the Snip & Sketch App launching in the background instead of foreground (on top of all windows) when the app was invoked via pen click. We fixed an issue where using the arrow keys in the taskbar volume flyout was unexpectedly backwards in Arabic, inconsistent from the direction it went in other slider controls. We’ve done some work to improve the performance when loading the Windows Update history page. Known issues We’re aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge. We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build. The Documents and Downloads sections under Privacy show a broken icon next to their page name (just a rectangle). We’re investigating reports that app icons in the taskbar are having rendering issues, including defaulting to the .exe icon. We’re investigating reports that the battery icon on the lock screen always shows close to empty, regardless of actual battery levels. We’re investigating reports of IIS configuration being set to default after taking a new build. You will need to back up your IIS configuration and restore it after the new build is installed successfully. Quickly switching between WSL distros using the File Explorer integration could cause a transient access error. We’ve identified the cause of this issue and are releasing a fix soon. Virtual Garden Tours on Bing With Spring comes beautiful gardens, and Bing wants to help you experience them, even while at home. Check out the Garden virtual tours featured on Bing! We’re highlighting beautiful gardens from France, Hawaii, and more. Every garden is unique, and you can witness this today! If you want to be among the first to learn about these Bing features, join our Bing Insiders Program. Thanks, BLB The post Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19608 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing 20H1 Build 19041.207 (KB4550936) to Windows Insiders in the Slow ring. This Cumulative Update includes quality improvements. Key changes include: We fixed an issue that causes the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service (rpcss.exe) to close unexpectedly and the device stops working. Then you must restart the device. We fixed an issue that causes the Device Enrollment Status Page (ESP) on managed devices to stop responding if a policy that requires a restart is installed on the device. We fixed an issue that might prevent the rear camera flash from functioning as expected on devices that have a rear camera. It also includes the latest security updates to the Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows Kernel, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows Media, Windows Shell, Windows Management, Windows Cloud Infrastructure, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Authentication, Windows Virtualization, Windows Core Networking, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Update Stack, and the Microsoft JET Database Engine. For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Security Update Guide. Known issues We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3that resolves the known issue with Edge. Thanks, BLB The post Releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19041.207 to the Slow ring appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/5ce0292ea822a8e9ff4dc0183d868b7e-1024x578.jpg Gears fans can now watch the launch trailer for Gears Tactics, featuring all-new gameplay from the fast-paced, turn-based strategy title coming April 28. While you wait for the launch, you can now pre-load Gears Tactics for Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta), Windows 10 PC and Steam. (The Xbox One version is in development and will arrive later this year.) Pre-order Gears Tactics or play with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) before May 4 to receive the Thrashball Cole Character Pack, which includes Augustus Cole as a recruit and the Thrashball Armor Set, complete with rare abilities. Head over to Xbox Wire to watch the trailer and find out more. The post Launch trailer debuts for Gears Tactics, coming April 28 and now available for pre-load on PC appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing 20H1 Build 19041.173 (KB4552455) to Windows Insiders in the Slow ring. This Cumulative Update includes the same fix previously noted in Build 19041.172 plus these additional fixes: We fixed an issue that prevents older versions of certain apps from opening by directing users to install the latest version of these apps. We have fixed an issue that fails to allocate resources during device initialization, which causes certain USB mass storage devices to stop working. We have fixed an issue that prevents the mute button from working on certain devices with the Your Phone app. We have fixed an issue that causes a fault in the input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) and a DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION (e6) error. This issue occurs after resuming from hibernate on systems that have Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) Protection and Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement (DRTM) enabled. We have updated the Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) to increase the coverage for automatic cellular provisioning on devices with mobile broadband. Known issues We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3that resolves the known issue with Edge. Thanks, BLB The post Releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19041.173 to the Slow ring appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/cc939bf82f9d016bd0328cc5334b4418.jpg Trisha Hershberger first fell into technology as a result of her gaming habits. At that time her parents didn’t think this was a hobby for girls, because in the ’80s video games were primarily marketed towards boys. But fortunately, her parents eventually gave in. Her dad brought home an old, used Commodore 64 from a guy he knew at work. That was her first foray into gaming. Zork and Ultima were some of her favorites, followed by classic PC games such as King’s Quest, Monkey Island and the Myst series. Eventually she got a Nintendo Entertainment System – at the same time her friends were moving onto Super Nintendo. But that’s when her parents finally blocked her, thinking that at 9 years old, she was a little too into video games. She wasn’t allowed to have any more consoles in the house. But they needed a PC in the house for school. She quickly taught herself how to upgrade and modify the home PC to play the games she wanted it to play. “Over the years I found a lot of pride and strength in that. And I like that if I’m going to spend a lot of money on my personal electronics, that I then have the control to customize them, to upgrade them, and to tinker with them as I see fit. There’s a lot of power in that,” Hershberger says. “As an adult I’m someone who has probably way too many devices, to be perfectly honest. But technology is a huge part of my everyday life. And I think it is for most people now. Whether you’re into gaming, or whether you use technology for your professional career, many of us have multiple devices, and it’s lovely to see them sync together and to be there for whatever use case you may have.” Now Hershberger is a well-known face in gaming and streaming as a host and producer on channels such as MTV, IGN, Disney XD, Smosh and Nerdist. She enjoys and helping other self-taught DIYers. She posts many videos online, walking folks through simple problem solving techniques. She’s also followed for her entertaining and informative commentary on a streaming variety show called “The Twitch Gong Show,” which showcases indie games in their beta, alpha and early access states. The audience can vote real-time in chat via emote and give feedback to the indie devs. Read more about Hershberger at Microsoft Stories. The post Find out how DIYer and TV host Trisha Hershberger’s journey through PC gaming keeps evolving appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19603 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here, including a list of all the new features and updates released in builds so far. Not seeing any of the features in this build? Check your Windows Insider Settings to make sure you’re on the Fast ring. Submit feedback here to let us know if things weren’t working the way you expected. If you want a complete look at what build is in which Insider ring, head over to Flight Hub. Please note, there will be a slight delay between when a build is flighted and when Flight Hub is updated. What’s new in Build 19603 File Explorer Integration in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) If you have WSL installed and open up File Explorer, you’ll see a familiar face! https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/a115bf3a1a66ef9a9a76190839835e4c.png We’ve had the ability to access your Linux files since Windows 1903, but now you can easily get to them from your left-hand navigation pane in File Explorer. Selecting the Linux icon will show you a view of all your distros, and selecting those will place you in the Linux root file system for that distro. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/834929eb91b182277df7061b7ce9333a.jpg User cleanup recommendations in Storage Settings Free up disk space with this Storage Settings feature that gathers unused files and apps so you can digitally cleanse your device. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/a061c6428b4ed25b7ecba3738744a6ae.png Windows cannot predict whether you want to delete personal files, uninstall apps, or remove local copies of files synced to the cloud. With this tool, all the content is gathered in one page and removable by you with a few clicks. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/c74dc6e055fe56a9832899f6ca8e6995.png Other updates for Insiders Introducing Microsoft News Bar (Beta) We would love to get your early feedback from Insiders on a new news consumption app for Windows 10. This News Bar brings you the latest news from the Microsoft News network of over 4,500 publishers across the globe. It’s there to keep you up to date when you need it, how you need it, and where you need it. You can customize the experience to make it just right for you. If you need to focus, minimize it with a click, and bring it back when you’re ready. A few cool things about this app: Stories are continuously updated throughout the day. Hover for quick access or select to get the full story. Provides News and Stocks today, with Weather and Sports coming in the future. Highly configurable, allowing you to place it on the side you want it, change the background color, change the appearance of what is shown, and which country you want the news from. Supports dark and light themes in Windows 10. Supports Multiple Monitors. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/204d40ad173885ed39d27907467ecca1.png https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/37ac5169bf85a88cb504ac250528c208.png https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/74b3fd88317a27126e8bfed3f4e396c7.png https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/bfbb6187c9b14bf3044e119e05725bce.png The News Bar is only available for your Windows 10 PC. Get the News Bar here. Give it a try and let us know how we can make it better! Raw Image Extension now supports Canon CR3 format Support for Canon’s latest CR3 raw format has been a popular request ever since the Raw Image Extension was announced and then released to the store in 2019. If you’ve been waiting for this feature, we have good news for you. The latest version of the extension (1.0.307610.0) that’s now flighting to Windows Insiders includes support for Canon CR3 files, increased camera support, and several bug fixes. Check out this libraw.org documentation for a complete list of supported cameras. Please note that GoPro raw camera format (.GPR) is still not supported. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/f0f277957171a1294d327a4a377076d5.png Here is how to try this out: If you have a previous version of the extension installed on your device, first you should confirm if your current installation has been automatically updated to the latest version (version 1.0.307610.0). Use these steps: Go to Settings > Apps. Search for and select Raw Image Extension. Select Advanced options from under the name of the extension. If the displayed version number on the Advanced options page is 1.0.307610.0 or later, then you are up to date. [*]Otherwise, search for Raw Image Extension from the Store app to go the app page. [*]If you’d previously installed the app on your device, the update should start automatically. [*]If not, select the Update button or if the app wasn’t already installed on the device, select Get, followed by the Install Note: This version is currently only available to Windows Insiders. We would love to get your feedback. Please send your feedback through Feedback Hub under the Devices and Drivers > Video Playback category. General changes & improvements Going forward, services that are implemented by binaries residing in the user profiles will be persisted on upgrades. Narrator will no longer automatically enable scan mode when interacting with the Ideas pane in Excel. In the new Microsoft Edge, Narrator now automatically enables scan mode and starts reading webpages. Fixes We are removing the known issue for incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. If you run into issues playing games that use BattlEye anti-cheat software, please submit feedback on these issues to us via Feedback Hub. We fixed an issue causing webcams to not function correctly when attempting to make a video call in Microsoft Teams. We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a green screen citing an error with mssecflt.sys when starting safe mode on recent builds. We fixed an issue resulting in the WIN + PrtScn keyboard shortcut no longer saving a picture to file. We fixed several reported stability issues with Narrator, including a fix where it will no longer crash when selecting text in scan mode with new Edge when remote operations are off. We fixed an issue leading to the Narrator Quick Start guide crashing while traversing it with Narrator. We fixed an issue where the EXE property information was incomplete in Task Manager for EoAExperiences.exe. We fixed an issue resulting in some devices experiencing a bugcheck (GSOD) during the reboot to install an update. We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a sporadic bugcheck (GSOD) with the error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. We fixed a bugcheck with error KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED some Insiders were experiencing when trying to sign out from the current user. We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders receiving driver compatibility warnings when trying to update to a newer build in certain virtual environments. We fixed an issue that led to inaccurate size estimates for disk cleanup when the option to clean up old Windows installation files was included. We fixed an issue where Storage settings would say the option to clean old Windows installation files wasn’t available, because it had been automatically removed after a certain number of days, when actually you had manually selected to remove it. We fixed an issue that could result in Settings crashing when navigating to Network & Internet for some Insiders. We fixed an issue where you would see a notification from the Shared Experiences page saying your account needed fixing, however the Fix Now option on the page wouldn’t work. We fixed an issue where if the Cortana icon was turned off on the taskbar, it might still partially display on secondary monitors. We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to drag and drop files into the root of a network share folder. We fixed an issue where the IME context menu wouldn’t appear when pressing Shift+F10 if the display language was something other than English. We fixed an issue that could result in IMEs created for Amharic and Sinhala to not input text until rebooting your PC. We fixed a crash some Insiders were encountering when switching window focus while an IME candidate pane was open. Known issues We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge. We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build. The Documents section under Privacy has a broken icon (just a rectangle). Sticky Notes windows can’t be moved on the desktop. As a workaround, when you set focus to Sticky Notes, press Alt + Space. This will bring up a menu that contains a Move option. Select it, then use either the arrow keys or the mouse to move the window. We’re investigating reports that app icons in the taskbar are having rendering issues, including defaulting to the .exe icon. We’re investigating reports that the battery icon on the lock screen always shows close to empty, regardless of actual battery levels. We’re investigating reports of IIS configuration being set to default after taking a new build. You will need to back up your IIS configuration and restore it after the new build is installed successfully. Language packs may fail to install on this build. This is most impactful for anyone who chooses to reset their PC – the language packs you have prior to upgrading will persist. Anyone impact by this may notice some parts of the UI don’t display in your preferred language. Listen to episode 29 of the podcast now Listen to our latest mini-episode of the Windows Insider Podcast and join us as we take a deeper dive into the Windows Hassles program, how it works, and what they’re currently working on with its leader, Amy Kruzick. Listen via your favorite podcast app or on our website. How to make cloth face masks Bing has all the resources you need to make your own cloth face masks! In our cloth face mask feature, we highlight step-by-step directions, informative articles, and related quotes emphasizing the importance of wearing face masks during the Coronavirus pandemic. Let’s learn and stay safe together! If you want to be among the first to learn about these Bing features, join our Bing Insiders Program. Thanks, BLB The post Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19603 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/prod/prod/2020/04/idea3-JPG.jpg At Microsoft, we’re embracing the “new normal” for how we work and live as the world comes together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The health and safety of our employees, interns, and their families is our highest priority, which means shifting in-person experiences online and working together to find creative solutions to new challenges. For more than 30 years, Microsoft has hosted students from around the world as part of our summer internship program. This year, more than 4,000 students had plans to join us — the largest and most diverse class in our history — taking on roles spanning all our functions. And while we’re incredibly disappointed that we won’t be with them on our campuses, we’re committed to creating a meaningful and fun virtual internship experience for each one of them, and remain eager to absorb their energy and learn from them as we always do. As we prepare to welcome our incoming interns, we’re working to set them up for a remote experience that will provide a rewarding professional development opportunity as well as meaningful connections. We’re fortunate to have the infrastructure and support needed to deliver a world-class remote internship program through onboarding tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365, and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams. We also recognize that some individuals may be unable to participate in the virtual internship, so we’re providing an opportunity to defer their internship to next year, if needed. In short order, the program team will begin hosting remote events that focus on building connections, fostering learning, and empowering interns to achieve their goals and uncover their passions. Participants in the program will connect with one another, build community within their teams, and engage with senior leaders across the company through a variety of virtual events. And we’ll empower our interns to co-create their summer experience with us. In the past, they’ve done everything from hosting their own volunteer projects and sharing TED-style talks to creating a musical. While this experience is not what anyone expected, we’re embracing this opportunity together with our interns to learn from one another and grow. After all, the power of a growth mindset is that every obstacle is an opportunity to succeed. Adversity often creates some of the biggest leaps in innovation, and I predict that this year’s intern class will not only help us shape our virtual experience, they will have a lasting influence on our program for years to come. Welcome to our upcoming class of 2020 interns, and thank you in advance for your hard work, creative thinking, and won’t-be-stopped attitude. The post Welcome 2020 Microsoft interns – announcing our virtual intern program appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

The newest “Simply Windows” video is , focusing on Microsoft Quick Assist, an app in Windows 10 that enables two people to share a computer over a remote connection so that one can solve problems on the other’s computer. If you’re new to Windows 10 or want to learn more about how to get the most out of it, this video series can help you get up to speed on using it. In this “work from home edition!” of the series, writer Doug Thomas walks through Quick Assist, showing how to launch it and then within it, how to use features such as chat, annotations and adjusting how the screen looks. Find out more about “Simply Windows” and check out a playlist of previous shows. And if you like this, check out other Windows 10 Tips. The post Latest ‘Simply Windows’ video: A work from home episode shows how to use Quick Assist appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/da786c3babb602e351534408e668847e.jpg Gamers, content creators and entertainment enthusiasts will soon be able to check out the next evolution of the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop, loaded with Windows 10, an up to an 8-core 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX Super graphics and a 300Hz display, all packed into a compact, signature matte black chassis. Upgrades include a refreshed keyboard, improved I/O, new Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (Gig+) wireless, capable of up to 2.4Gbps network speeds and increased storage options. The Blade 15 is the first 8-core processor in any Razer Blade, which helps achieve even greater levels of performance over the last generation with up to 5.1GHz clock speeds and up to 16MB of Intel Smart Cache. The increased core count paired with Turbo Boost speed means faster compiling, lower render times and overall higher framerates. Built for pros on the go, the Blade 15 features a 15.6-inch Full-HD display with up to a 300Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals and razor-sharp text. The display is flanked by ultra-thin bezels, leaving plenty of room to play and topped-off with a matte finish for reduced glare. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/040dc0ac7283295a1f2bc5e7dc630ec1-scaled.jpg The Blade 15 is also available with a 4K OLED display, which covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space and is available in both a touch and non-touch variant. Each panel comes custom calibrated for color accuracy, creating a rich and immersive experience whether practicing on the road for the next big game or bingeing streams and chilling. The integrated storage has been increased up to a 1TB NVMe SSD (and is now upgradable to 4TB), so gamers don’t have to worry about next-gen titles devouring storage space. A new UHS-III SD card reader has been integrated into the advanced models for users needing to quickly move their work from one device to another. The all-new Blade 15 redefines the game by combining power, portability and functionality. Available in April at Razer.com and through select retailers in the U.S. and Canada, pricing will start at $1,599.99. It’s also expected in Europe, China, Asia Pacific and the Middle East through the same outlets. For more information, please visit Razer. The post New Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop packs even more performance and new hardware innovations in a compact package appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Acer has announced its new Predator Triton 500 and Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebooks. Alongside significant developments in thermal performance, both devices come with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors and newly announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER and GTX GPUs. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/9ac5128ee846cbb8da858b4028a51917-1024x675.jpg Acer Predator Triton 500 The latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors for high performance notebooks and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER or 2070 SUPER GPUs with Max-Q Design powers the Predator Triton 500, a powerful gaming notebook that works well for those who stream, or need to edit and render videos while on the go. It also has up to 7.5 hours of battery life [1], and a 300 Hz IPS panel with a 3 ms overdrive response time displays all the action in smooth and vivid detail, covering 100% of the sRGB color gamut while supporting wide-angle views. NVIDIA G-SYNC technology eliminates tearing and minimizes lag. This device also features Acer’s Vortex Flow technology, a new design involving three custom engineered fans strategically placed in the chassis, working in tandem to increase airflow while also reducing noise. Gamers can monitor the device’s temperature and adjust the fan speed through the PredatorSense UI. The Predator Triton 500 gaming notebooks will be available in May in North America starting at $2,199.99; in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, starting at 1,899 euros; and in China, starting at RMB 14,999. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/04/7a3777c1b024bb8cc2d24dee11bee707-1024x976.jpg Acer Nitro 5 The Acer Nitro 5 is a budget-friendly gaming notebook, and is packed with the power players need when they’re gaming. It comes with up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and graphics options of a GeForce RTX 2060 or the latest GeForce GTX 1650Ti or 1650 GPUs. It also comes with up to two M.2 PCle SSDs and a 1 TB HDD [2] for storage, and up to 32 GB of DD4R4 RAM in two user-upgradeable DIMM slots. Available with a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display, the 2020 model delivers significantly improved visuals that gamers will appreciate. Several innovative thermal solutions maximize cooling efficiency even under heavy loads. The notebook features a dual-fan cooling system that takes advantage of strategically placed intake/exhaust ports and four heat vents to achieve an overall 25% improvement in thermal performance over the 2019 model. CoolBoost technology is capable of increasing fan speed by 10% and CPU/GPU cooling by 9%. New to this year’s model, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (802.11ax) and Killer Ethernet E2600 increase network stability and performance, enabling gamers to take full advantage of these thermal improvements. The Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebooks will be available in May in North America starting at $749.99; in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, starting at 899 euros; and in China in April, starting at RMB 6,499. [1] Listed battery life is based on MobileMark 2014 productivity mode testing with wireless on. Details of MobileMark 2014 testing are available at www.bapco.com. Battery life rating is for comparison purposes only. Actual battery life varies by model, configuration, application, power management settings, operating conditions and features used. A battery’s maximum capacity decreases with time and use. [2] Specifications may vary depending on model and/or region. All models subject to availability. The post Acer’s new gaming notebooks powered by latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders! Thank you for continuing to follow Windows Admin Center as it grows and develops! This release contains updates to the platform’s accessibility and numerous bug fixes. In addition, we’ve evaluated user feedback and have implemented some highly requested features. What’s new Cut, copy, and paste in the Files tool https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/ebddac8f5d11dbb73a4d6641f9d7e702.png When you select a folder or file in the Files tool, users have the option to cut or copy the file or folder. After the file or folder is cut or copied, the paste option will become available, and a user can paste the file or folder into a different path. Service restart https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/5bb1f3037dca86050aa501ded14cf1a9.png When managing machines using the Services tool, there is now an option to restart a service. There is no longer a need to start and stop a service in order to restart it. Other major additions Cluster quick update – On the cluster dashboard, updates for connected nodes will appear under the “Alerts” section File upload – when a large file upload fails, you are now able to retry the file upload Virtual machine filters – When viewing a list of VMs with multiple filters applied, the VMs no longer disappear after some time Azure Update Management login – Users no longer receive a logon error when they try to setup Azure update management after setting up Azure monitoring Active Directory account creation – We’ve fixed an error in Active Directory Domain Services where accounts could be created with passwords that didn’t meet the complexity requirements In addition to the new features and fixes above, we are continuing to improve usability issues, focusing on making improvements to keyboard navigation and narrator support. We’ve also addressed reported bugs around CredSSP authentication. Partner extensions The Windows Admin Center ecosystem continues to expand with the release of new partner extensions and improvements on existing extensions. Azure Security Center is now generally available The Azure Security Center extension is no longer in preview and is now generally available! This extension brings hybrid cloud security capabilities to the WAC-managed servers and allows them to be protected by ASC through a one-click setup. Users of this extension will also see security recommendations and alerts in an embedded view in Windows Admin Center. This integration is part of a larger WAC movement of bringing hybrid Azure services capabilities to on-premises environments. This extends on premise environments into Azure, allowing them to benefit from cutting edge cloud technologies on their on-premises workload, and is an important step as part of a lift and shift motion. HPE WAC extension is now generally available The HPE WAC extension combines the functionality of the HPE Server extension and the HPE Azure Stack HCI extension into a single extension for easier management. This extension utilizes HPE’ iLO technology to give users direct visibility into server inventory and diagnostics to manage and monitor HPE server infrastructure. Using this extension, users can: See the health of their servers and remediation options (if necessary) View the properties of server components (processor, memory, etc.) and BIOS settings Surface and highlight cluster health and node inconsistencies QCT Management Suite update The QCT Management Suite is designed to help users manage and monitor their Windows Server hyper-converged infrastructure and QCT system configuration information on a single dashboard. With the upgrade to version 2.0.0, fixes and additions include: Bug and typo fixes throughout the tool Support for HCI mode on the Overview, Disk, Firmware, and Settings tab Additional tooltips Addition of dialog panels and drop-down lists in HCI mode BMC account settings for Redfish support An updated project site URL Known issues Virtual Machines tool performance line charts are styled incorrectly. This will be fixed in the next Release Candidate build. Azure Monitor onboarding – If you’re managing a server or a cluster using “manage as” credentials, the onboarding may fail. Network – If you have configured an Azure Network Adapter, the value under Microsoft Azure Virtual Network Gateway Address will be formatted as a hyperlink but leads to an invalid address. Chrome users may see 403 Forbidden response from WAC after upgrading. The workaround is to close *all* open chrome tabs (make sure there are no chrome.exe processes running). After restarting chrome, everything will function normally. We have an error message that makes this clear, but chrome users with multiple windows admin center tabs open during upgrade will not see the message. Performance Monitor has trouble loading certain v2 perf counter instances. Performance Monitor can slow down less powerful machines (especially client computers). Schedule restart tool in “Updates” restarts immediately How to download Registered Insiders may download Windows Admin Center Preview 1910.2 directly from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see Getting Started with Windows Server on the Windows Insiders for Business portal. We value your feedback! The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Send us feedback via UserVoice. We also encourage you to visit the Windows Admin Center space on the Microsoft Tech Communities forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts. Terms of Use All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program is governed by the Insider Terms of Use. Thanks, BLB The post Announcing Windows Admin Center Preview 1910.2 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/8ef48fe5c0702b7de0e5b5d0884e377e-1024x575.jpg Gears 5 – Operation 3: Gridiron is now available for all players across Xbox One, Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass and Steam. The latest free quarterly, multiplayer update introduces Gridiron – a new, single-life mode that pits two teams of five against each other in an effort to capture the flag and take it to the endzone. To find out how the new mode works and check out what’s new with maps, characters and more, head over to the Xbox Wire post. The post Now available for free, Gears 5 – Operation 3: Gridiron introduces new capture-the-flag mode, 4 new characters and more appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/454580226700b1d10a4aef3e102b9263-1024x578.jpg The Minecraft team announced Tuesday that Minecraft Dungeons – a new action-adventure, dungeon crawler-style game – will be available May 26 on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass. Pre-orders begin now for the game. “As you all know, we initially planned to release Minecraft Dungeons by the end of April,” the Minecraft team writes in its blog post. “However, due to the current state of the world, this was no longer possible, as we wanted to guarantee the health and safety of our teams, and empower them to deliver the best possible experience to you, our players. We hope you’ll find it was worth the wait.” Head over to the Minecraft blog post to find out what’s in the two editions of the game, how to pre-order it and more. The post Pre-orders begin ahead of May 26 launch of Minecraft Dungeons appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

New features provide peace of mind, help you stay in the flow and connect to the information you want The last few weeks have been unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. As a working mom I’m certainly used to having a full schedule, getting pulled in different directions, balancing the needs of my family with those of my job, and generally feeling stretched. But these last several weeks have taken my everyday reality to a whole new level. And I suspect I’m not alone. I’ve found myself at home jumping from Teams call to Teams call while trying to keep things moving forward at work (recognizing I’m lucky in this regard) while also now homeschooling my kids. It feels like the volume of everything has been turned up significantly. There’s more email, more information and news, more screaming (as I write this, my kids are fighting right outside my room), more video chats, more anxiety and frankly, I’ve found it hard to make sense of it all. One of the things I’ve noticed is that the browser – a thing I might not think too much about if it weren’t for the work I do every day – is an even more indispensable tool than ever before. Whether it’s reading the latest COVID-19 news, using Teams online for meetings, collaborating on Word documents with my team online, researching lesson plans for my kids, or shopping for toilet paper – I’m turning to the browser all day long. It’s a tool we all rely on and have for years. My browser habits have not changed, but the world has, and at an incredible rate. These days we worry about what information online can be trusted. We worry about the safety of our personal data, our identity and the safety of our children online. At Microsoft, we are starting to question the browser status quo. Perhaps it’s time to expect more from the web. Last year, we started our re-imagining of the web by rebuilding our Microsoft Edge browser from the ground up based on the Chromium engine. This ensured we could deliver world class speed, performance and website compatibility with the sites and extensions you use every day. But we believe that’s not enough. It’s time to expect more from our browsers – more control over our data and our family’s online information, new ways to organize our online research and more value back as we browse. Today, we announce a set of new consumer services from Microsoft including new consumer features in Microsoft Edge that help you stay organized and save time, protect your online data and identity, and give you value back. If you haven’t tried the new Microsoft Edge yet, now is a great time to check it out. Here are a few of my favorite new features in the new Microsoft Edge. 1. Organize your research with Collections https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/51e69ea55fb6bff960af333237b74d15-1024x576.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. If you’re having to suddenly design your child’s academic curriculum, or maybe spending more time at home has you rediscovering your inner chef, Collections can be a big help. Collections allows you to easily collect information from different websites, organize it, export it into various files or just come back to your research at a later time and pick up right where you left off. Today it can be difficult to do this – especially across a large number of different websites and multiple devices. Just click on the Collections button and a pane on the right of your browser opens, where you can easily drag and drop webpages, text, or images into a group – without having to open another page or application. You can then send your collection to Word or Excel. I use Collections to help me create lesson plans for my kids. I search the web for all kinds of cool ideas, then drag them over to the Collections pane on the right, and when I’m done, with one press it exports the collection to a beautiful Word doc that I can print out for the kids. You can also share your collection by copying and pasting into Outlook or another email service. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/87bdff5ef1652397b8c3bbc68051f60a.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. Today we announced that Collections will also be coming to mobile later this spring making it easy to create, access and sync your Collections across all your devices. Collections for desktop is in the Insider channels now and will be coming to the Stable channel soon. 2. Work efficiently with vertical tabs https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/c7faa9b49157f371ed946a189e67f2f3-1024x576.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. If you are like me when you research online, you find yourself with dozens of tabs open at any given time. When that happens, there’s less space for me to see which tab is which. I find myself losing track or I’ll accidentally close a tab as a result. Utterly frustrating as that is usually exactly the one page I needed. Today we announced vertical tabs, a feature that helps you easily find and manage many open tabs at once. Microsoft Edge is the only browser that allows you to manage your tabs on the side with a single click. Vertical tabs is expected in the Insider channels in the next few months. 3. Save time with smart copy https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/8c3d60adde7053edda25728f144596f4-1024x576.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. My favorite technology features are always the ones that seem the simplest and where I find myself asking, “how did I live without this before?” How often do you cut and paste content from the web into documents only to see the beautiful web content reformatted into an ugly mess of text that you then need to clean up? Smart copy makes it easier to select, copy and paste the exact content you want from the web and preserve the rich web format. You can use your cursor to select any area or type of content. When you paste it will retain the formatting, including any images or links. It’s something that sounds so simple, but believe me, it’s a life-changer. Smart copy is expected in the Insider channels next month. 4. Take back control with tracking prevention https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/6257858b2bcc3bc8edf7deed325678a6-1024x576.jpg I’ll be honest, I love to shop. So yes, I sometimes do find personalized ads helpful. I’ve found various new products online this way that I may not have otherwise. But for many others and particularly for my kids, personalized ads that follow you around the web can sometimes feel intrusive, if not even creepy. The tracking prevention feature in Microsoft Edge is designed to protect you from being tracked by websites that you aren’t accessing directly, giving you more control over what you see and what you don’t. Whether on mobile or desktop, you can select one of three settings that’s right for you – Basic, Balanced or Strict. Depending on which setting you choose, Microsoft Edge will adjust the types of third-party trackers blocked. When I browse, I like to use Balanced mode which is the default setting. But I set my kids’ browsers to Strict mode. Tracking prevention makes understanding who’s tracking you online easier to see and easy to manage, and it’s available now. 5. Know if your passwords have been compromised on the dark web with Password Monitor https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/a99579aaf03fddeb888593293b71ee7d-1024x576.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. Each year, millions of online personal credentials are exposed in data breaches and end up for sale on the dark web. Today, we’re announcing Password Monitor in Microsoft Edge to help keep your online accounts safe from hackers. When enabled, Password Monitor is a feature that notifies you if the credentials you’ve saved to autofill have been detected on the dark web. If Microsoft Edge uncovers a match with any of your saved username + passwords, you will receive a notification from within the browser prompting you to take action. Through a dashboard in Settings, you can view a list of all leaked credentials and get routed to their respective websites to change your password. Once the password has been changed, save the new credential to autofill and continue browsing with peace of mind knowing that Microsoft Edge and Password Monitor have your back. Again, such a simple, easy solution that makes me feel SO much better about browsing the web. One less thing to worry about. Password Monitor is expected in the Insider channels in the next few months. 6. Maintain truly private browsing and search with enhancements to InPrivate mode https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/c549b574efb9346137daa91fc769f78e.jpg Click to see an animated GIF of how this feature works. Sometimes you want extra online privacy. If I’m sharing a device with other members of my family, for example, I may not want them to see the gift I’m researching for their birthday because I want to keep it a surprise! It’s for times like those that I like to use InPrivate because it automatically deletes my history, cookies and site data when I finish a web browsing session. In addition, Microsoft Edge is the only desktop browser that offers built-in InPrivate search with Bing. So, when I’m browsing in InPrivate mode, my searches aren’t tied to me or my account. InPrivate browsing is available now. The addition of InPrivate search in Bing is available in the Insider channels now and is coming to the Stable channel soon. 7. Immersive Reader enables everyone to learn and benefit from the web https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/5b83ce97165d6060e92a797d029f5555-1024x576.jpg Immersive Reader, built into Microsoft Edge, makes reading online easier and more accessible for everyone. Reading is one of the most common activities on the web but it can be difficult to do if you have dyslexia or other reading disabilities. Clicking on the Immersive Reader icon removes distractions on the screen and creates a simplified environment that helps you focus. You can also access a variety of tools that help personalize the experience that works best for you, like the ability to hear the article read aloud or to adjust the text. Immersive Reader is available now with more features like line focus coming soon. 8. Microsoft Edge delivers the best immersive viewing experience in 4K and Dolby Audio https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/b189bf81cbfff2c4dddfd1a8d69fc87e-1024x576.jpg These days, many of us are watching a lot more Netflix than before. Our goal is to provide the best high definition entertainment experience when viewing content on the web. Microsoft Edge is the only browser on Windows 10 that lets you watch 4K on Netflix. It’s also the only browser that supports Dolby Audio and Dolby Vision on Windows 10. Through our partnership with Netflix, you and your friends can stream your favorite movies and shows like “Spenser Confidential,” “Locke and Key” and “Night on Earth” in 4K from anywhere on your Windows 10 PC. There are hundreds of 4K Netflix titles to choose from. This feature is available now. 9. Make a difference: Give with Bing https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/8580dc37d36692f1d58645375187a911-1024x576.jpg With everything that’s happening these days, one thing that I am trying to keep in mind and model for my kids is how small things can make a big difference. Whether that’s self-care or looking out for others. Today, we are introducing Give with Bing and the Give Mode feature in Bing, a new way to help you to support the causes you care about. It’s a simple thing but it has the potential for real impact. If you choose to search in Bing you can earn reward points for those searches as part of the Microsoft Rewards program. By turning on the new Give Mode feature within your rewards settings, you can donate your reward points to the cause of your choice. There is no cost to you, just search with Bing. With more than 1 million nonprofits to choose from, you can support a cause that you really care about – including the CDC Foundation and others that are supporting the COVID response. In fact, through the end of June, Microsoft Rewards will match all donations to help make an even bigger impact. Try it. Join Microsoft Rewards, and switch on Give Mode and give with Bing. Give Mode is available now. 10. Microsoft Edge is ready for you (and it’s easy to switch) The new Microsoft Edge is ready for anyone to download today by visiting Microsoft.com/Edge. It’s available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. If you’re a Windows 10 customer and don’t have the new Microsoft Edge yet, you can download it today or look for it to come to your PC starting next month as we continue the roll-out. And whether you download it yourself or wait for it to come to your PC, it’s super easy to switch with your favorites, passwords, form fill information and basic settings carrying over to the new Microsoft Edge with just a single click. If you’ve never used Microsoft Edge before, we’re excited to have you give it a try. We will continue to be quality driven as we release new features. That means that all features will be tested in the Insider channels, starting in Canary and progressing to Stable only when we are satisfied with the level of stability and quality. If you downloaded the new Edge, all you have to do is wait. We’ll update your browser when the features are ready. If you want to use them today, you can join the Microsoft Edge Insiders. We’ve worked hard to address the evolving needs of today’s savvy web surfers. With the new Microsoft Edge, we hope you’ll see great performance, more control over your data and better ways to connect to and make sense of information. Because it’s time to expect more from the web. The post The top 10 reasons to switch to the new Microsoft Edge appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/3078feb13858c0bfc177d1558261cb7a.jpg Now more than ever, as so many work and learn remotely, “it’s never been more important to stay connected and on top of the things that matter,” writes Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for Modern Life, Search & Devices at Microsoft, on the Microsoft 365 Blog. Microsoft has a powerful set of familiar applications and services used by more than a half billion people that help you create, share, connect and collaborate with your friends and family across the web and on your devices. And now, they’re free. Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive apps enable you to co-author, video chat, organize and come together. On April 21, Office 365 will become Microsoft 365, which builds on the foundation of Office by infusing new AI, rich content and templates and cloud-powered experiences to empower better writing, presenting, designing and more. These experiences start rolling out now and will reach over 38 million Office 365 subscribers over the next few months. Microsoft also unveiled two new Microsoft 365 experiences that will roll out in preview in the coming months — a new Microsoft Family Safety app designed to keep families safe across the digital and physical worlds, and new features in Microsoft Teams that bring friends and family closer together to more deeply connect and collaborate. Finally, the new Microsoft Edge browser takes another step forward with new features to protect you on the web with Password Monitor and to simplify research with Collections. Learn more from Mehdi on the Microsoft 365 Blog. The post Working remotely? Check out new Microsoft 365 personal and family subscriptions appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/ed2e07eafd003d3aafb673158849088d.jpg Gears Tactics, the latest chapter in the Gears of War saga, arrives on Windows 10 PC, Steam and with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) on April 28. Jeff Rubenstein of the Xbox team got his (well-sanitized) hands on it for a few hours, and gives his full report in a new post on Xbox Wire. We encourage you to read his post, but whether you do or not, you can pre-order Gears Tactics now or play with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) before May 4 to receive the Thrashball Cole Character Pack, which includes Augustus Cole as a recruit and the Thrashball Armor Set, complete with rare abilities. Check it out. The post Hands-on with the upcoming strategy game Gears Tactics, coming to PC April 28 and now available for pre-order appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/0c6c2a5931c9e9354ddfcaefd989bd32.jpg Sarah Kimmel at home, fixing a laptop. (Photo by Amy Roskelley) When consultant Sarah Kimmel sees families struggling to organize busy schedules – especially now, when across the world people are juggling work and school while at home – she can tell them to relax; it’s one of many problems she’s particularly well-qualified to solve. Her solution for this common scenario: digitizing appointments, setting up different calendars for each child and color coding them. Then everyone can pull up those calendars on their phones and other devices, so they always know exactly what’s going on with each family member. In these uncommon times, she also recommends parents create additional calendars for children’s new “routines” so they can see when they’re supposed to be doing school work, and what time parents should get their kids outdoors for “recess.” “I try and help parents understand technology better by introducing them to things that they didn’t really even know existed,” Kimmel says. “They don’t really know how good it can be.” When she talks to families about technology, such as work from home set-ups, she does so as a mom of two kids who use a lot of devices in their home and as someone who has 16 years of IT experience. She also runs a blog focused on families and tech (Family Tech Zone). “The role I enjoy the most is public speaking about technology,” says Kimmel, who’s based in Utah. “I love trying to get my message to as many people as possible that technology doesn’t have to be scary, and it can actually help you accomplish your goals.” Find out more about her at Microsoft Stories. The post If you’re working from home, family-focused tech consultant Sarah Kimmel has advice for you appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing 20H1 Build 19041.172 (KB4552455) to Windows Insiders in the Slow ring. This Cumulative Update includes quality improvements. Key changes include: We fixed an issue that prevents the Windows logo key + J keyboard shortcut from giving focus to certain Windows tips. Known issues We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3that resolves the known issue with Edge. Thanks, BLB The post Releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19041.172 to the Slow ring appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

The next (fifth) generation of wireless networks, or “5G,” will enable a host of new opportunities for businesses and society, including autonomous vehicles, smart cities, virtual reality and a range of other smart industry use cases and services. These next-generation networks will create new capabilities, new markets and help advance local economies. As we’ve seen with other technology transformations, we believe that software can play an important role in helping advance 5G and deliver new network solutions that offer step-change advancements in speed, cost and security. There is a significant opportunity for both incumbents and new players across the industry to innovate, collaborate and create new markets, serving the networking and edge computing needs of our mutual customers. At Microsoft, we intend to empower the telecommunications industry as it continues its move to 5G and support both network equipment manufacturers and operators in their efforts to find solutions that are faster, easier and cost effective. Today, I am pleased to announce that we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks. Affirmed Networks’ fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network solutions enable operators to simplify network operations, reduce costs and rapidly create and launch new revenue-generating services. This acquisition will allow us to evolve our work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud. Previous generations of wireless networks have been based on purpose-built hardware. We believe that with innovation in software and by making use of broadly available cloud computing platforms like Microsoft Azure, operators can deploy and maintain 5G networks and services more efficiently, more cost effectively, more rapidly and more securely. We look forward to building on the great work by Affirmed Networks with its leadership in virtualized mobile networks. Bringing this technology and team of experts into Microsoft allows us to extend our cloud offering to operators everywhere as they increasingly look to run their networks in a hybrid environment. We’re excited about our future together where carriers will be able to better leverage Microsoft’s cloud to improve overall profitability and create new revenue streams. As we continue to extend cloud-based software defined networking into the world of 5G connectivity, we recognize the importance of deep and strong partnerships and interoperability. To ensure the success of our customers, we will work closely with existing suppliers, emerging innovators and other stakeholders around the world including in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and other markets to help make this vision a reality. The post Microsoft announces agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks to deliver new opportunities for a global 5G ecosystem appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19592.1001 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here, including a list of all the new features and updates released in builds so far. Not seeing any of the features in this build? Check your Windows Insider Settings to make sure you’re on the Fast ring. Submit feedback here to let us know if things weren’t working the way you expected. If you want a complete look at what build is in which Insider ring, head over to Flight Hub. Please note, there will be a slight delay between when a build is flighted and when Flight Hub is updated. Meet the new lead of the Windows Insider Program In case you missed the news earlier this week, Panos Panay announced Amanda Langowski is the new lead for the Windows Insider Program. Be sure to check out Panos’ blog post. What’s new in Build 19592 Tablet posture improvements for 2-in-1 convertible PCs We are beginning to roll out (again*) the new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs as a preview to some Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. This experience is separate from the Tablet Mode experience that you will still be able to use. This new experience allows users entering tablet posture to stay in the familiar desktop experience without interruption with a few key touch improvements: Taskbar icons are spaced out Search box on taskbar is collapsed into icon-only mode Touch keyboard auto invokes when you tap a text field File explorer elements will have a little more padding, to make them comfortable to interact with using touch You’ll also notice we’ve updated some of the related Tablet settings under Settings > System, so as to give you control over the experience. In order to help ensure quality, the feature will be rolling out slowly, starting with a portion of the Insiders that have never detached their keyboard before, or have their tablet mode settings set to Don’t ask me and don’t switch. We’d love to hear your feedback about the experience: Use your convertible PC with apps as you normally would. When you’re ready to pick it up and go or simply lean back on the couch, you can fold back the keyboard or remove it altogether. Use your device as a tablet with touch, without going into Tablet Mode. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/068d5e0abaf805d92a03526f7e208e88.jpg *Note: This feature was previously rolled out as an experiment to Windows Insiders in 20H1 Build 18970 and ended in Build 19013. After some refinement, we’re reintroducing it to Windows Insiders in this build and plan to deliver this experience to customers in a future Windows 10 update. General changes & improvements The Windows Search Platform (Indexer) has been updated with improved logic to help find better times to perform indexing of your files and avoiding heavily indexing while you are using your machine. An improvement was also made to significantly limit the amount of times the service indexes your files for content that doesn’t have an impact on search experiences, and gives you a better experience on Windows. Fixes We’ve fixed the issue causing ARM devices to receive a bugcheck and have removed the block with this build. We fixed an issue that could result in the Optional Features page in Settings appearing blank. We’ve fixed an issue where, when running corruption repair (DISM), the process stopped at 84.9%. We fixed an issue where, after successfully completing installation of an update and rebooting the device, the Start menu Shutdown button still showed Update and Shutdown and Update and Restart. We fixed an issue that could result in Windows updates failing with error 0x80070003. We fixed an issue that could sometimes result in Settings crashing when pausing updates or the Windows Update settings page not loading. We fixed an issue from the previous flight that was resulting in extra lines appearing in the taskbar jumplist. We fixed in an issue resulting in a black window, with only a mouse being visible to others, when sharing a single app over Microsoft Teams. Known issues BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details. We are aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge. We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build. Some devices may experience a bugcheck (GSOD) during the reboot to install this update. If this happens, log in, schedule a time for the update to install, and then log off all user profiles before the scheduled install time. The install will then proceed as expected. The Documents section under Privacy has a broken icon (just a rectangle). When trying to use Win + PrtScn to capture a screenshot, the image is not saved to the Screenshots directory. For now, you’ll need to use one of the other options for taking screenshots, such as WIN + Shift + S. Sticky Notes windows can’t be moved. As a workaround, when you set focus to Sticky Notes, press Alt + Space. This will bring up a menu that contains a Move option. Select it, then use either the arrow keys or the mouse to move the window. We’re looking into reports of some Insiders receiving driver compatibility warnings when attempting to update to a newer build in certain virtual environments. Thanks, BLB The post Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19592 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/f22a2f684f90ffe26bca425a54893f50.jpg To help keep young minds sharp and stimulated while kids are now out of school, Minecraft Marketplace has launched favorite lessons from Minecraft: Education Edition in a brand new Education category. These educational worlds can be played on your own, with your kids, parents or friends. From the comfort of your home, you can tour the International Space Station, discover the wonders of ancient Greece, or explore the inside of a human eye. Also included: 10 worlds from the Marketplace creator community that explore renewable energy, marine biology, Greek history and more. They include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges and tricky puzzles. All of these worlds are launching now and are free to download through June 30. Find out more at Minecraft. The post Venture into the digital worlds of Minecraft Marketplace’s free educational content appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/8cbefe0e9003d7224e54f1f17869bee5.jpg Bleeding Edge – a unique 4v4 online brawler that showcases combo-based action combat and strategic objective-based gameplay – is now available worldwide with Xbox Game Pass and on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam. “Best experienced with friends or open communication with other players, Bleeding Edge redefines the meaning of squad goals and really puts the team in teamwork,” writes Ninja Theory Product Manager Fran Mead on Xbox Wire. “At launch, Bleeding Edge features a diverse roster of 11 larger-than-life fighters hailing from the edges of society, five vibrant sprawling cyberpunk arenas and two fast-paced game modes: Objective Control and Power Collection.” As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, Bleeding Edge is fully cross play and cross save between both Xbox One and Windows 10 and also with Steam – so if you played during the game’s Closed Beta, all your progress will be saved for launch. To find out what’s new, what’s coming later and more, head over to the Xbox Wire post. The post Bleeding Edge now available with Xbox Game Pass and on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Five years ago, we invited our most passionate and opinionated customers to help us shape the future of Windows. Since then the Windows Insider Program has grown to a community of 18 million people whose enthusiasm for Windows has a profound impact on the products and features we build. In my first 30 days as the Windows leader, as I’ve been spending time listening, learning, and working with the team to build a vision for the next era of Windows, I’ve been in awe of the Insiders group and the level of dedication and depth of knowledge they have. We often say that products are a reflection of the people who make them. I truly believe this and believe that you can see the passion and drive of the Windows Insiders reflected in more than a billion Windows users around the world. To keep this momentum going and continue to grow and innovate in Windows, it’s clear we need the right person to lead this powerful community into the next era, which is why I’m excited to announce Amanda Langowski as the new lead for the Windows Insider Program. https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2020/03/6be4f522d7eb038ffbc16b134f87c760.jpg Amanda’s passion for Windows is evident in her 20-year career at Microsoft, which began with coordinating beta programs for Windows. Since then, she’s been an extraordinary and dedicated product maker for the company. In meeting Amanda, one thing that is immediately apparent is her passion for customer feedback and the positive impact it can have on our products. This can be seen in her work leading the Flighting Platform Team not only coordinating the release of each new build that goes to Insiders, but also in managing our Insider settings capabilities, ultimately enabling one of the most powerful streams of customer feedback we have. More inspiring than the work she has done though is her vision for the future and her desire to help connect our engineers with customers, providing clarity on how their feedback transforms the way we build experiences for all our Windows 10 customers. All while driving the Windows Insider Program forward by enhancing our communication with legacy Insiders and growing the diversity of our community to ensure more customers are reflected in the products we’re building together. Not only do I truly believe in the power of this program, but I’m also looking forward to working hand in hand with Amanda to realize this vision for the future of the Windows Insider Program. Panos The post Announcing the new lead for the Windows Insider Program appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

In a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not only important to deliver medical care but to also provide information to help people make decisions and prevent health systems from being overwhelmed. Microsoft is helping with this challenge by offering its Healthcare Bot service powered by Microsoft Azure to organizations on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response to help screen patients for potential infection and care. For example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released a COVID-19 assessment bot that can quickly assess the symptoms and risk factors for people worried about infection, provide information and suggest a next course of action such as contacting a medical provider or, for those who do not need in-person medical care, managing the illness safely at home. The bot, which utilizes Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service, will initially be available on the CDC website. Public health organizations, hospitals and others on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response need to be able to respond to inquiries, provide the public with up-to-date outbreak information, track exposure, quickly triage new cases and guide next steps. Many have expressed great concern about the overwhelming demand COVID-19 is creating on resources such as urgent, emergency and nursing care. In particular, the need to screen patients with any number of cold or flu-like symptoms — to determine who has high enough risk factors to need access to limited medical resources and which people may more safely care for themselves at home — is a bottleneck that threatens to overwhelm health systems coping with the crisis. Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service is one solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help the CDC and other frontline organizations respond to these inquiries, freeing up doctors, nurses, administrators and other healthcare professionals to provide critical care to those who need it. The Healthcare Bot service is a scalable Azure-based public cloud service that allows organizations to quickly build and deploy an AI-powered bot for websites or applications that can offer patients or the general public personalized access to health-related information through a natural conversation experience. It can be easily customized to suit an organization’s own scenarios and protocols. To assist customers in the rapid deployment of their COVID-19 bots, Microsoft is making available a set of COVID-19 response templates that customers can use and modify: COVID-19 risk assessment based on CDC guidelines COVID-19 clinical triage based on CDC protocols COVID-19 up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions COVID-19 worldwide metrics https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/prod/2020/03/CDC_bot_3_pane-1024x556.jpg Screenshots from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 assessment bot. Providence, one of the largest health systems in the U.S. headquartered near Seattle and serving seven Western states, had previously used Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service running on Azure to create a healthcare chatbot named Grace that could help answer patient’s questions online. Using CDC guidelines and its own clinical protocols, Providence was able to build a similar Coronavirus Assessment Tool in just three days to help people in the communities it serves know whether they should seek medical attention for their respiratory symptoms. The tool, which launched in early March, can bring a prospective patient directly into a telehealth session with a clinician to get immediate care. It also aims to prevent healthy people or those with mild symptoms from showing up at clinics and emergency departments, which helps to limit community infection and save hospital beds and equipment for those who need it. Other providers who are now using Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service to respond to COVID-19 inquiries include: Virginia Mason Health System, based in Seattle and serving the Pacific Northwest region, has created a patient assessment Healthcare Bot to help its patients understand whether care is needed. The instance is live and has thousands of daily users. Novant Health, a healthcare provider in four states in the Southeast with one of the largest medical groups in the country, has created a Healthcare bot for COVID-19 information that went live on its website within a few days, with thousands of daily users since its launch. Across all users, customized instances of Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service are now fielding more than 1 million messages per day from members of the public who are concerned about COVID-19 infections — a number we expect to escalate quickly to meet growing needs. We hope the answers it can provide will curb anxiety that the “worried well” may experience without clear guidance and save lives by speeding the path to care for those who need it most. The post Delivering information and eliminating bottlenecks with CDC’s COVID-19 assessment bot appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...