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Hello Windows Insiders! Today, we are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17063 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring and for those who opted in to Skip Ahead. What’s new in Build 17063 Introducing Timeline Timeline is here! We know that it can be difficult to get back to stuff you were working on in the past. If you’re like us, you might sometimes forget which site or app you were using or where you saved a file. Now you can finally close apps without worrying—with Timeline, you can get right back to where you left off. Timeline introduces a new way to resume past activities you started on this PC, other Windows PCs, and iOS/Android devices. Timeline enhances Task View, allowing you to switch between currently running apps and past activities. The default view of Timeline shows snapshots of the most relevant activities from earlier in the day or a specific past date. A new annotated scrollbar makes it easy to get back to past activities. Figure 1. Task view has been enhanced to include a Timeline of past activities. There’s also a way to see all the activities that happened in a single day—just select See all next to the date header. Your activities will be organized into groups by hour to help you find tasks you know you worked on that morning, or whenever. Figure 2. Browse all your activities for a single day. And if you can’t find the activity you’re looking for in the default view, search for it. Figure 3. Search Timeline to find exactly what you are looking for. Activities In Timeline, a user activity is the combination of a specific app and a specific piece of content you were working on at a specific time. Each activity links right back to a webpage, document, article, playlist, or task, saving you time when you want to resume that activity later. App developers are working hard to enhance their apps by creating high-quality activity cards to appear in Timeline. In this Preview release, you can see and resume web-browsing activities in Microsoft Edge, files you opened in apps like Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and updated UWP versions of Maps, News, Money, Sports, and Weather. We encourage app developers to update their apps to support timeline. The new activity history settings page allows you to control which accounts appear in Timeline. This is most relevant for users with multiple accounts, such as a personal Microsoft account, and a work or school account. Settings here also let you disable activity collection and clear your activity history. Figure 4. The activity history settings page lets you choose which accounts you want to appear in your timeline. Cortana In addition to resuming past activities through Timeline, your personal digital assistant Cortana will suggest activities you might want to resume to help you stay productive as you switch between your phone, laptop, and other Cortana-enabled devices. This experience is powered by the same activities that appear in Timeline. Figure 5. Cortana helps you resume activities when switching between devices. Getting started Use your PC normally. After a while, select the new Task view icon in the task bar. (You can also open Task view by pressing Windows logo key + Tab.) Below your running apps, you’ll see past activities in Timeline. Figure 6. The Task view icon has been updated to reflect new timeline capabilities. If you have more than one PC, try using Timeline on all of them—you’ll see the same activities no matter which PC you’re using. And if an activity from one PC used a modern app that you don’t have installed on another PC, Windows will help you install that app. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please press the feedback button in the upper-right corner of Timeline if you have any problems or suggestions. Microsoft Edge Improvements Fluent updates in Microsoft Edge: Microsoft Edge now supports an updated Dark theme, with darker blacks, and much better contrast with all colors, text, and icons. This addresses many accessibility contrast issues, making the Microsoft Edge UI easy to navigate and more visually pleasing. As well, Microsoft Edge now supports Reveal on our navigation buttons, action buttons, buttons in the tab bar, as well as on lists throughout Microsoft Edge (such as in the HUB: Favorites, Reading, History, Downloads), making navigating Edge UI even easier. We’ve heard your feedback and have also updated the Acrylic in the tab bar and in-active tabs, allowing more color to show through. Bookmark button and flyout become one: With this build, Microsoft Edge has also simplified adding and managing bookmarks for EPUB and PDF books. Based on your feedback we now allow you to add bookmarks and manage your list of bookmarks from the same location. This provides a very consistent experience across the different book formats and makes it really easy for users to manage their bookmarks from one location. Offline web sites and push notifications: Microsoft Edge now supports Service Workers and the Push and Cache APIs. These new web standards allow web pages to send push notifications to your Action Center or refresh data in the background, even when the browser is closed. In addition, certain web pages can now work offline or improve performance, by using locally cached data when the cache is up to date, or when your device has a poor connection. You can learn more about these features in our post Service Workers: Going beyond the page. These features lay the technical foundation for Progressive Web Apps on Windows 10 – we’ll have lots more to share about this topic soon on the Microsoft Edge Dev Blog! Web Media Extensions Package: This build installs the Web Media Extensions package for Microsoft Edge, which extends Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 to support open-source formats (OGG Vorbis and Theora) commonly found on the web. Try out your favorite OGG content (such as Wikipedia videos or audio)! We will be monitoring feedback from this feature in Insider flights to eventually expand to broader availability to Microsoft Edge customers in the Current Branch. Gesture Improvements for Precision Touch Pads: This build introduces a new gesture experience for Precision Touch Pads (found on Surface and other modern Windows 10 devices). You can now use gestures like pinch and zoom, or two-finger panning, to achieve the same interactions on web sites that you can do with a touch screen today. For example, you can now pinch-to-zoom on a map in Bing Maps to zoom in the map without zooming the entire page. Developers can learn more about how this change is implemented and how to make sure your sites are ready for modern input experiences over at our blog post, Building a great touchpad experience for the web with Pointer Events. Sets A few weeks ago, we announced a new Windows 10 feature called “Sets” (we may end up calling it something else by the time it ships) which would be coming to Windows Insiders as a controlled study. The concept behind Sets is to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files and applications, is connected and available to you in one click. Office (starting with Mail & Calendar and OneNote), Windows, and Edge become more integrated to create a seamless experience, so you can get back to what’s important and be productive, recapturing that moment, saving time – we believe that’s the true value of Sets. Starting with today’s build, Sets will be available to Insiders however because it is being introduced as a controlled study, not all Insiders will see Sets. For more on this – see my blog post here. Cortana Improvements Cortana’s Notebook has a new look: Notebook has undergone a UX transformation to be more responsive to Cortana’s evolving capabilities and allow users to easily complete their tasks. Your content has a new home called Organizer that lets you access your lists and reminders with ease. And all Skills are together, so you can easily configure Cortana to suit your needs. Configuration experience has also been significantly simplified. Tabbed view to cleanly segregate your content and configuration and single page to manage Cortana’s Skills and easy way to discover more. Simplified configuration experience page with easy interest management. This is a server side change currently rolling out for those using English (United States) and will be rolled out to other markets with time. Account entry point in the navigation menu: To improve discoverability and consistency, we’re moving the account entry point out of Cortana’s Notebook and into the navigation menu (that’s the side bar that contains elements like Home, Notebook, and Collections). Lists and Collections – better together! Cortana Collections have been merged with Lists, so you get personalized suggestions and help with List creation – all in a rich, attractive interface. Cortana helps you track your To-Do’s and manage Grocery lists. She also suggests items of interest – restaurants to try out, recipes to make, books to read, movies & shows to watch, things to shop for – and makes it easy to add them to your lists. See and use your Lists and suggestions in the List home: You can access it from Notebook: For now, this feature is only available for Insiders using English (United States), who are logged into both Windows and Cortana with their Microsoft Account. A note about Collections: We’ve made an underlying breaking change to how Cortana’s Collection works – if you’ve been using this feature in previous builds we need to migrate your data to our new collection APIs. Because of this, once you upgrade to this build you’ll notice all of your existing saved list items have moved under suggestions. If you want to keep these suggestions, please drag and drop them back into the list. Thank you everyone who’s given us feedback so far about the Collections experience – please continue doing so! Cortana loves music: You can now use Cortana to control music playback on more of your favorite music apps (EN-US only). Starting with this build, we are enabling natural language compatibility for Spotify just like the Harman Kardon Invoke! This will work on both, above the lock screen (PC is locked) as well as below! You can try queries like… Play Christmas music on Spotify Play my discover weekly playlist on Spotify Play <Artist/Track/Title/Genre/Mood> on <AppName> Play some Drake Play focus music Play rock music Play my tracks Once music is playing you can ask Cortana what’s playing like this: Hey Cortana, what’s playing? Cortana will keep you posted on your tracks. To start rocking to your favorite tracks just get the latest app update and sign into Spotify in the notebook under the music section. NOTE: For the above to work, you need to have a Spotify account (free or premium). Windows Shell Improvements Bring on the Fluent! Today, Start and Action Center support acrylic to align with Fluent design principles. And now we’re bringing the next wave of Shell UI to the party by applying acrylic to the taskbar, Share UI, Clock & Calendar flyout, Network flyout, Volume flyout, and Input flyout. Try it out and let us know what you think! Note: The acrylic background is disabled if you enter battery saver mode. We’re also investigating an issue where if you have scaling > 100% the blurred background may appear distorted. Save notification drafts: Notifications are inherently transient – one thing we’ve heard from you is how it can be frustrating to have started writing a response into a notification (such as one from Skype), only to have the response disappear if you didn’t submit it before the notification went away. Well, no more! If a toast gets dismissed with unsubmitted text, we will now save the draft; open the action center and your text will now be saved with the notification. Simplified letter grouping in Start for East Asian languages: One of the top feedback items from our users is that it’s too hard and takes too long to find apps in the all apps list because of the way the apps are grouped when using East Asian languages. We hear you, and we’re happy to announce that with this build we’ve simplified the grouping of apps in the all apps list for Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Korean. This change is most noticeable for Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese, where we’ve reduced the number of groups by 29 and 36, respectively. If you use Windows in these languages, please take a moment to check it out once you get the build and let us know how it feels. Chinese (Simplified) previous and new all apps list sections Japanese previous and new all apps list sections Cloud states for the Navigation Pane: In an effort to further keep you informed about the state of your OneDrive files and folders on demand, we’re looking at adding a state icon to use in File Explorer’s Navigation Pane. If you’d like to turn this off, there’s an option in the File Explorer ribbon View tab – click the Options button, then in the dialog that appears go to the Navigation Pane section of the View tab and uncheck “Always show availability status”. A consistent Network flyout on the login screen: Continuing our work to modernize all the elements of Windows 10, we’ve now updated the network flyout on the login screen to use the same familiar network flyout you’ve grown to love in the taskbar. Improving your update experience: In an effort to keep you informed about the state of your PC, if Windows Update Settings shows a warning or alert, we will now echo that via a new Windows Update system tray icon. If you right click the icon, you will see options relevant to the current state, such as restart, schedule the restart, or go to Windows Update settings. If visible, this icon can be turned off from within Taskbar Settings. An improved My People experience Based on your feedback we’ve been working on evolving the My People experience and taking it to the next level. This build brings with it a number of requested features, improvements and changes including: Drag and drop rearrange: Checking off one of our top feedback requests – you can now drag and drop contacts to rearrange them in the taskbar! You can also drop contacts into and out of the People flyout. Note: as part of this feature change, when you upgrade, if you have multiple contacts pinned to taskbar you will notice that their order will reverse direction on the taskbar You decide how many contacts to show in the taskbar: With the Fall Creators Update you could have a maximum of 3 people pinned to the taskbar, with any additional pins appearing in the People flyout. We’ve heard your feedback and today’s build brings a new setting so you can decide how many you’d like to show – from one to ten, or you can choose to show them all in the overflow. You can find the setting with the other People settings under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. Animations for people in overflow: To improve discoverability you’ll now see an animation across the People icon to let you know when someone is pinned to the overflow list in the flyout. In addition, previously you could only receive emotive notifications from contacts that were directly on your taskbar – with today’s flight this experience is now available for people pinned within the People flyout as well! Here’s a glimpse of how it looks (showcased using our favorite “windows10” Skype emoji). Want to try it? Get one of your pinned contacts to send you a “(poke)”, or add, pin, and ping our emoji bot. Fluent in the flyout: As part of our larger ongoing effort to reach our Fluent Design goals, you’ll notice that the People flyout now makes use of acrylic, reveal, and light effects. Improving app discoverability: As developers work to integrate My People support into their apps, we’ll now suggest apps that you might be interested in. There’s an option to turn this on or off in the People settings under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. Add a new dimension to what you capture in Snipping tool This build brings a new “edit in Paint 3D” button to the Snipping Tool so you can take your snip to the next level via Paint 3D. Move (or remove) objects with Magic select, augment and annotate with a variety of options, bring in 3D objects from Remix 3D, and more! Windows Settings Improvements Settings gets a new look: You’ve already seen we say “bring on the Fluent!” in other areas of Shell, and Settings is no different. With today’s build you’ll find not only have we refreshed the Settings UI leveraging Fluent Design principles, but we’ve also taken a look at the Settings homepage and redesigned it with an eye for visual acuity. As you explore the plethora of new and improved settings below, take a moment to get a feel for the updated design as a whole and let us know what you think. Security questions for local accounts: With the Fall Creators Update, we started working on self help solutions for password recovery from the Lock screen. Today, we’re adding this functionality to local accounts as well, through the newly available use of security questions for local accounts. If you already have a local account, you can add security questions by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options > “Update your security questions”. If you’re installing a new PC using a local account, setup will walk you through adding these questions and answers right there in the workflow. Once your security questions are set up, if you find yourself unable to remember your password on the lock screen, you will see a link to reset your password, whereupon clicking you’ll be prompted to enter the answers to your security questions. View your display info in one convenient location: Beginning with Build 17060, you can now view detailed information about your display by visiting the new “Advanced display settings” page linked at the bottom of Settings > System > Display. Most of the information should be self-explanatory, but here are a couple of pieces that you might want more detail on: Desktop resolution vs active signal resolution. Typically, your desktop resolution and your active signal resolution will be identical. To provide a smoother experience, Windows prefers to keep your display running at its native signal resolution. If you change your display resolution under Settings > System > Display > Scale and layout > Resolution, you may see a difference between your desktop resolution and your active signal resolution. The mysterious 59 Hz refresh rate. Display enthusiasts may remember this conversation from the Windows 7 days. You may see 59 Hz listed as your refresh rate even though you have set it to 60 Hz, but rest assured that this is by design for monitors and TVs that report only 59.94 Hz but not 60 Hz. Learn more about it here. Stay tuned for more improvements to display settings! Your feedback is important to us – if there are new features you would like to see in display settings in the coming releases, please let us know through the Feedback Hub. Search for and upvote your favorite features, or file your suggestion under the Desktop Environment > Settings. Improving your scaling experience: In this flight we’ve made it easier for you to fix apps that become blurry if you dock/undock, RDP, or change display settings. Some desktop apps can become blurry in these scenarios. When this happens, you have to log out and back in to Windows to have these apps render properly. In this flight, you can turn on a feature that will enable these apps to be fixed simply by re-launching them. There are three components to this feature: A new setting in the Display Settings page: Under Settings > System > Display > Advanced scaling, you’ll find a new section called “Fix scaling for apps” where you can enable a setting to let Windows try and fix apps so they’re not blurry. A toast that pops up when we detect that you might have blurry apps on your main display. A per-app override of the global setting. By right clicking on the exe for a desktop apps and choosing properties, you can select “Change High DPI Settings”, then “Override System DPI”, then configure the behavior. NOTE: This won’t work for all desktop apps and it only improves blurry desktop apps while they’re on the main display. If you’re using multiple displays with different scale factors and running in “Extend” display mode, these apps might still be blurry on secondary displays. A new Keyboard Settings page: We’re introducing a new Keyboard Settings experience on PC! Now found under the Time & Language Settings, you’ll be able to easily add new keyboard layouts, switch between Japanese 106/109 and English 101/102 keyboard layouts, turn on and off settings like key sounds and autocorrect, and other advanced keyboard-related settings. Additionally you can now change the default keyboard independently of the display language, for example using the French display language and having English as the default keyboard (this option was previously available in Control Panel, but has now been moved to Settings). Duplicate settings from Control Panel have been removed. A new and improved Region & Language Settings page: As part of our ongoing effort to converge Settings and Control Panel, as well as improve Settings usability, you’ll find with today’s build that we have reimagined the Region & Language Settings. We’ve added icons to each language entry to indicate when language support is installed for display language, text-to-speech, speech recognition, and/or handwriting. We’ve also added an entirely new language selection experience – enabling you to quickly identify available language features per language. This also marks the initial integration of Local Experience Packs, native AppX packages, that with Microsoft Store to enable us to regularly update language resources with translation improvements collected from Windows Insiders and other feedback channels. We’re still fine-tuning the UI, so expect some small changes over the next few flights. Set data settings to prefer cellular usage: In Cellular Settings you can now choose to use cellular instead of Wi-Fi always or when Wi-Fi is poor. This updated Windows feature allows people with fast LTE connections and large/unlimited data plans to favor cellular whenever available and avoid being stuck on poor Wi-Fi connections. NOTE: The Cellular Settings page will only be visible for people using PCs with cellular connections. Improved Data Usage Management: You can now configure data limits and/or place background data restrictions to Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, in addition to cellular connections, in the Data usage page. The updated settings page aims to support a diverse set of devices and users. Whether you have a PC with cellular connectivity or a metered ethernet network connection, tailor your data usage to your budget and needs. Want to see your data usage at a glance? Right click on the Data usage tab in Settings and pin it to the Start menu to see a data usage live tile. Reset your Game Mode Settings: Under Settings > Gaming > Game Mode there is a new option called ”Reset Game Mode Settings” that allows you to restore Game Mode settings for their PC back to the default values for the feature. Improved Per-app Settings: When we added a new context menu option to go straight from the app in Start to the per-app settings in Settings, we mentioned turning this page into a one stop shop for settings related to each app. In today’s build you’ll notice that we now bubble up any permissions the app has asked for, along with an easy option for you to toggle them. We’ve also added links to check background usage, lock screen notifications, and defaults, and options to terminate and/or uninstall the app. Windows Defender Improvements Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) update: You spoke, and we listened. Microsoft is bringing Windows Defender Application Guard to Windows 10 Professional in the next feature update of Windows 10. Now, like Windows 10 Enterprise users, Windows 10 Pro Users can navigate the Internet in Application Guard knowing their systems are protected from event the most sophisticated browser attacks. Windows Defender Application Guard provides unprecedented protection against targeted threats using Microsoft’s industry leading Hyper-V virtualization technology. Check out this recent RSA talk on Window Defender Application Guard if you’d like to understand this feature in some more detail. It is available now to our awesome Windows Insider community to give it a try and we would like to hear your feedback. For more details please see our tech community page. Quick access from the context menu: You can now right-click on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area and get an updated context menu that lets you quickly do a quick scan, update your Defender definitions, change the notifications and open Windows Defender Security Center. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) WSL can run background tasks: Processes that set themselves up to run in the background such as sshd, tmux/screen, etc. will now continue running after the last console window has been closed. Read this blog for more information and a demo. Elevated and non-elevated WSL instances can run simultaneously: Previously WSL instances all had to all run as elevated or all unelevated. Now you can run some elevated and some non-elevated instances. You can also use Scheduled Tasks to run WSL. WSL runs in remote connections: WSL is now supported when connected via OpenSSH, VPN, Enter-PSSession, and/or other similar Windows remoting tools. Previously this would only work in cases where the user logged in interactively and started a WSL instance before connecting remotely. to the remote host and then launch WSL. With background processes you can background sshd in WSL so it persists in the background without having any open windows. Tool to convert Linux paths to Windows-friendly paths: Wslpath is a tool that allows you to convert Linux paths to their Windows equivalent. Here is a quick reference for how you can use the wslpath tool: -a force result to absolute path format -u translate from a Windows path to a WSL path (default) -w translate from a WSL path to a Windows path -m translate from a WSL path to a Windows path, with ‘/’ instead of ‘\\’ New tools available to developers on Windows Windows Command line Toolchain includes bsdtar (tar) and curl. bsdtar and curl, two popular command line tools from the Unix shell, are now available in Windows and Windows Server. bsdtar provides handy extraction/creation of compressed files and curl offers data transfer capabilities so you can download files from a remote location. Read this blog to learn more about the addition of these two new tools and see how they’re shaping the developer experience on Windows. Unix style sockets (AF_UNIX) are available on Windows AF_UNIX is an address family which has enabled inter-process communication on Unix for countless years. The windows equivalent is named pipes, which offers similar facilities. Based on user feedback, we heard that you’d like an easier path when porting tools relying on AF_UNIX to Windows. As a result, two Win32 processes can now use the AF_UNIX address family over Winsock API to communicate with each other. Read this blog for more details. Control Windows legacy apps access to your camera Camera privacy settings under Settings > Privacy > Camera give you fine control over the apps that have access to your camera. Prior to this update, the toggle marked ‘Let apps use my camera hardware’ only applied to apps installed from the Windows Store (think Skype from Store). This meant that you could have the toggle set to off, but still have legacy apps use the camera (think Skype for Desktop). With this update, we are changing the toggle’s behavior to include all legacy apps. Note that each legacy app will not appear individually in the list today like Store apps do, but they will respect the toggle. Another related change that is also part of this update will include the Windows Camera app in the list of apps that can use your camera; it was previously exempt from this list. If your legacy camera application stops working after taking this update, please check your camera privacy settings and ensure that the toggle is enabled. Please try the new camera privacy features & remember to file all feedback via the Feedback Hub. Input Improvements Personalize the handwriting panel: In this release you can now change the font that your handwriting converts to in the handwriting panel! Go to Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink > “Change the font of the handwriting experience”, select your preferred font from the dropdown, then write in the handwriting panel to see your chosen font. You can now use the Emoji Panel in more languages! Based on your feedback, we’ve been working diligently on more added support for more languages and as of today’s build you can now use the emoji over 190 locals – 152 of which have tooltip support when you hover over each emoji. This includes English (Great Britain), French (France), German (Germany), Spanish (Spain), and more! You can open the Emoji Panel by pressing Windows logo key + period(.). Currently you can only browse and use mouse/touch/keyboard to pick an emoji in these languages, however we’re working on adding search. Stay tuned! Single or multiple emoji at a time – you choose: With the previous flight we added support for inputting multiple emoji at a time. Today we’re adding a setting so that you can decide which behavior is best for you. Simply check or uncheck the new “Don’t close panel automatically after an emoji has been entered” setting under Settings > Time & Language > Keyboard > Advanced Keyboard Settings. Emoji data update: Last flight we shared our initial emoji data update across multiple languages for this release – as promised with today’s flight we have the second bulk of the payload. We’ve added a number of additional words you can use to find the emoji you’re looking for in your language – use the touch keyboard and search for things like hedgehog, vampire, and pretzel. Hardware keyboard suggestions update: Since our first flight with this new feature, we have two updates to share with you: Firstly: We now support dark theme! Use Color Settings to switch between light and dark and see how your text suggestions will now follow suit. Secondly: We’ve moved the settings for how to enable this feature, you can now find it under Keyboard Settings > English (United States) > Options > Hardware keyboard > “Show text suggestions as I type” Split layout comes to the touch keyboard: As many of you know we redesigned the touch keyboard to be XAML-based for the Fall Creators Update. We’ve been hard at work addressing your feedback, and are happy to announce that with this build the touch keyboard now supports the split layout – an ergonomic layout designed to be used with both hands, one on each side of your tablet. Note: Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese languages aren’t yet supported for this layout, but we’re working on it. The standard touch keyboard layout for Japanese, Korean, Quick and ChangJie for Traditional Chinese: Now the standard keyboard layout for East Asian languages are available except Simplified Chinese and Bopomofo for Traditional Chinese (which we’re still working on). Japanese Kana layout is also supported. If you want to switch between wide, one-handed, and the standard touch keyboard layouts, just tap the button in the top left of the keyboard. New features for IT Pros in Delivery Optimization We’ve added multiple policies in this release (both Group Policies and MDM Policies) that provide Admins with means to throttle bandwidth at certain times of day (for both foreground and background traffic), restrict peer selection to the same subnet, automatically join devices into peer groups by using a DHCP server’s User option or the connection’s DNS suffix as well as the ability to increase the usage of peers by delaying the use of the HTTP source. To view the list of new configs, open the GP Editor and checkout the new policies under Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Delivery Optimization: These features were added based on feedback from IT Pros who rely on Delivery Optimization to reduce the bandwidth consumption on their network. The throttling policies can be useful to you if you are looking to throttle Internet bandwidth during critical business hours while allowing update traffic to flow faster at other times. The new peer selection policies address feedback we’ve received from customers who are using AAD and Modern Management (Intune, WUfB) and needed more options to automatically group peers in each site they manage. Registry Process In recent Insider Preview builds, you may have noticed a new process labelled “Registry” in Task Manager. The purpose of this process is similar to that of the memory compression store process in that it is a minimal process whose address space is used to hold data on behalf of the kernel. However, while the memory compression process is used to hold compressed pages, the registry process is used to hold registry hive data (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER). Storing registry hive data in the registry process gives the registry access to more powerful memory management capabilities which will allow us to reduce the registry’s memory usage in the future. Today’s Insider Preview build is the first to store hive data in the registry process and this is visible in Task Manager as increased memory usage by that process. Since this data was previously in kernel paged pool there is also a corresponding decrease in paged pool usage so overall there is no net change in hive data memory usage. Figure 1: Example increase in Registry process memory usage (before/after). Figure 2: Example decrease in Paged Pool (before/after). Other notable changes A note about HomeGroup: Easily connecting to and sharing the important pieces of your digital life with those who matter most has never been easier with today’s Modern PCs and the cloud. Whether it’s connecting PCs and printers on your home network via the Share functionality in Windows or using OneDrive to share a photo album of your last vacation, Windows 10 makes connecting multiple devices and sharing content streamlined and simple. And it’s because of that evolution that with today’s build you’ll start to see us retire the HomeGroup service. HomeGroup was terrific for the pre-cloud and pre-mobile era, but today this functionality is built right into Windows 10 and apps. Starting with this build, the HomeGroup service is no longer operational in Windows 10. The user profile used for sharing and the file/folder/printer shares will continue to work. Here are recommended alternatives to HomeGroup for you to get the best file-sharing experience in Windows 10 going forward: File Storage: OneDrive is a cloud-first, cross-device storage and collaboration platform for all of the pieces of data that matter most in your life – like your files, your photos, your videos, and more. OneDrive Files On-Demand takes cloud file storage a step further, allowing you to access all your files in the cloud without having to download them and use storage space on your device. [*]Share Functionality: For those who prefer not to use the Cloud to connect their devices, the Share functionality for folders and printers allows you to see the available devices and connect them to and from other PCs on your home network. [*]Easier Connection: No more remembering cryptic HomeGroup passwords in order to connect to another PC. You can now simply connect through your Microsoft Account email address across devices. General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC We fixed an issue where all types of dynamic volumes listed here wouldn’t mount properly or be accessible from Windows (the data remained intact but inaccessible on the volume on impacted builds). We fixed an issue where after opening and closing the People flyout notification toasts might stop appearing until the computer had been rebooted. We fixed an issue where Cortana’s notification settings were unexpectedly missing in Settings after upgrading to recent builds. We fixed an issue where when there was a problem with Cortana’s speech resources not being available, she could end up blocking Start. We fixed an issue resulting in potentially not receiving all of your notifications from Cortana in the last first flights. We fixed an issue where when using Windows in Hebrew no search results were shown in Search until a space was entered. We fixed an issue such that Recycle Bin will now show up in the search results when typing in Cortana. This was a server-side change so you will see it outside the bounds of this flight. We fixed an issue where opening the Action Center while there was a notification toast visible could result in the Action Center unexpectedly animating in from the bottom corner rather than the side. We fixed an issue where if you reinstalled or reset your PC without internet in the last few flights the default tiles in Start could get stuck as downward arrows. We fixed an issue where if the system was low on memory context menus might display in a narrow width missing all text. We fixed an issue with the File Picker dialog from recent builds where saving file names that included an additional period in the name (like A.ver2.exe) would result in the file extension not being included with the saved file (A.ver2). We fixed an issue where certain videos when watching in Microsoft Edge would stop playing and become unresponsive upon altering play speed to 4x or 8x. We fixed an issue resulting the expected tooltip not appearing when hovering the mouse over images on certain sites in Microsoft Edge. We fixed an issue where no search suggestions were displayed while typing in the Microsoft Edge address bar if the PC was set to a region not currently supported by Cortana. We fixed an issue that could result in an error message saying “device does not respond” when attempting to use Near Share. We fixed an issue where nearby devices that had near share enabled might not be listed in Share. We fixed an issue resulting in cursor lags on some devices when night light was transitioning. When you use the split gesture to add more space between two words in the handwriting panel (a caret, as showcased here) that space will now close back up after a pause. We’ve added a top level link to Storage Settings to “free up space” now, so you can get at it faster if you need it, rather than having to open Storage Sense first. We’ve made some small tweaks to the design of the Windows Update Settings page and subpages. To improve discoverability, when you have an update pending reboot in Windows Update Settings, beside the restart now button you will now also see a button for selecting other restart options. We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders finding that Outlook 2016 crashed frequently on the previous flight. We fixed an issue where the group policy to set a custom lock screen image wouldn’t work if you had also set a policy that disabled the image on the login screen. We fixed an issue resulting in docker not working in the last few flights. We fixed an issue from recently flights where the Emoji Panel’s most frequently used page wasn’t updating. We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard showed a very small size on large monitors. We’ve updated the touch keyboard to now have an animation when invoking and dismissing. We fixed an issue where keys on the full touch keyboard might become stuck in a visually pressed state. We’ve updated the wide touch keyboard such that if you double tap the Shift key to turn on caps lock the key will now stay in a visual pressed state so you can see that caps lock is engaged. We’ve updated the full touch keyboard so that you can now use keyboard shortcuts that contain 3 keys (for example, WIN + Alt + D). We’ve made some small design changes to the dictation UI that appears when you press WIN+H. We fixed an issue where the Chinese (Simplified) Pinyin IME might hang when typing quickly into Cortana. We fixed the issue where VPNs that used custom pop-up windows during connection were failing with error 720 when attempting to connect. We fixed the issue causing users that have enabled the legacy console to be unable to launch any command line application. Known issues Popular Tencent games like League of Legends and NBA2k Online may cause 64-bit PCs to bugcheck (GSOD). [DEVELOPERS] Deploying an x86 app to a x64 PC remotely result in “FileNotFound” deployment failures if the target PC is running Build 17040. Deploying an x64 app to a x64 PC remotely or a x86 app to a x86 PC will work fine. Microsoft Edge may not receive Push Notifications from websites in this flight, due to an issue saving permissions on a per-site basis. We expect this issue to be resolved in the next preview build. Launching an immersive 360 degree video from the Movies and TV app within Windows Mixed Reality will result in the video facing the wrong way. Subsequent launches of 360 degree videos will work correctly. When users try to create a Microsoft Edge InPrivate window from inside a Mixed Reality headset, a regular window will get created instead. Users won’t be able to use InPrivate inside Mixed Reality in this build. InPrivate on desktop is not affected. We’re preparing for the inclusion of OpenSSH Server as a deployment mechanism in Developer Mode. However the UI code got checked in ahead of the components, and so while there is a “Use OpenSSH (Beta) for remote deployment” switch in the UI under Settings, it won’t work, and turning it on will break remote deployment to that device until the switch is turned off. If you’re using any EUDC fonts Microsoft Edge, Cortana, and other apps that use a webview won’t launch. You can resolve this issue by deleting the HKCU\EUDC key in Registry Editor. Note, if you do this, you won’t be able to see EUDC characters. We recommend you export this regkey before deleting it, so it’s easy to reapply the key in a future flight once the issue has been fixed. After upgrading to this build you may find touch and pen to not work on the non-primary display. Related to this, mouse, touch, and pen input might not happen in the right place after an orientation change or if you’re using a non-native aspect ratio. We’re working on a fix. Update about symbols for debugging With the cadence that we make Windows Insider Preview builds available, the Windows debugging symbol we publish via an installer on the Microsoft Download Center for Slow flights is quickly made out of date. We have made significant improvements to the online Microsoft Symbols Server by moving this to be an Azure-based symbol store and now include symbols for ALL Windows Insider flights to the Fast and Slow rings. You can find more about this in this MSDN blog entry. Going forward we will no longer publish the offline symbol installer for Insider Slow flights and would love to hear your feedback on how we can make developer debugging experience even better! Giving feedback on Office products We know that there is a large proportion of our Windows Insiders who are also Office Insiders as well. And if you’re not – sign-up to be an Office Insider here! Within the Feedback Hub, you can provide feedback on the Office suite of products as well. This is a great place to capture feedback, share ideas, or just tell us about your experiences and feed them directly back to the Office engineering teams. Simply tell us which app you are using from the drop down menu, tell us about the issue or idea, and click submit. It’s that easy to send feedback to the team to influence product development and new features and functionality that we roll out. No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service, Dona <3 The post Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17063 for PC appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Still scrambling to find those final few gifts? Microsoft Store has the perfect last-minute gifts with major savings on the season’s hottest products like Surface, Xbox, Windows Mixed Reality headsets and PC bundles, accessories and more to get you through the final shopping push. You can still get your gifts in time for the holidays by picking up your online purchase at your local Microsoft Store open through Dec. 24. Keep reading for the final holiday deals of the season from Microsoft Store kicking off today! Last-minute deals at the best price for those left on your list: Xbox and Gaming: Save up to $80 on select Xbox One S 500GB bundles, now starting at $199, plus a free select game (through Jan. 6, 2018) ** Get PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) for a limited time with an Xbox One X purchase (through Jan. 6, 2018) Save up to $100 on select Xbox One S 1TB bundles, now for $299 (through Jan. 6, 2018) Save $20 on select Xbox Wireless Controllers including the Minecraft Creeper and Minecraft Pig editions with purchase of the Minecraft Explorers Pack (through Dec. 30) Get $10 off Super Lucky’s Tale, Disneyland Adventures, Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection or Pixar’s Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure Get $20 off Halo Wars 2, Gears of War 4, Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Horizon 3 Plus! Get a Limited-Edition Xbox Holiday Ornament with any purchase at your local Microsoft Store. For terms and conditions click here. Surface: Save $200 on select Surface Pro and Laptop i5 devices, starting at $799 (through Dec. 31) Buy a select Surface device and get the new Harman Kardon Invoke speaker, $199 value (through Dec. 24) *** Windows Mixed Reality: Save up to $650 on Windows Mixed Reality headsets and select gaming PC bundles (through Dec. 31) Windows 10 PCs: Save up to $500 on select PCs, starting at $329 (through Jan. 2, 2018) Hot accessories: Save up to $50 on select Fitbit devices (through Dec. 24) Save $10 on the Bose SoundLink Micro Speaker (through Dec. 30) Save $60 on Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones (through Dec. 26) Save $50 on select EERO home WiFi products (through Dec. 24) Save $30 on select JBL Speakers (through Dec. 30) Save $20 on Circle Media with Disney (through Dec. 24) Countdown to 2018 sale kicks off Dec. 22 Here’s a sneak peek into digital deals starting on Dec. 22 through Jan. 4, including this year’s hottest games, movies and TV. For those who are truly hard to shop for, let them choose their perfect gift with a digital gift card to Microsoft Store online, on Windows 10, and on Xbox. Limitations apply. Xbox Digital Games: Save up to 65 percent on Middle Earth: Shadow of War and Forza Motorsport 7 and more. Plus, Xbox Live Gold members save up to 10 percent more. PC Games: Save up to 50 percent on popular PC games, including Cuphead, World of Warships and Books: Save up to 80 percent on Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Objective, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff, Etiquette and Espionage and others. Movies & TV: Save up to 60 percent on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Spider-Man: Homecoming and others. Apps: Save up to 75 percent on Affinity Photo, Dolby Access, djay Pro, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018, Drawboard PDF and others. Don’t forget to share your most inspiring wish through the Microsoft Wish Machine at any Microsoft Store across the U.S., Canada and Sydney, Australia. Wishes are already being granted so get yours in today through Dec. 31! For official rules, including prize descriptions, click here. For more information on Xbox deals at Microsoft Store and other participating retailers head to Xbox Wire. Happy shopping! *Offer valid while supplies last. Promo period varies for each deal. Deal availability varies in select markets. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or coupon code(s). May not be combinable with other offers. Refunds will take into account the discount. Price discount does not include taxes, shipping or other fees Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Other exclusions and limits may apply. **Offer valid from 9:00 PM PST on November 16, 2017 to 11:59 PM PST on December 31, 2017, while supplies last. Available only in Microsoft retail and online store in the United States (including Puerto Rico). Offer valid only on select Xbox One S consoles. Excludes Xbox One X, refurbished and pre-order consoles. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or promo code(s). May not be combinable with other offers. Refunds will take into account the discount. Price discount does not include taxes, shipping or other fees. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Limit of 3 offers per customer. Other exclusions and limits may apply. ***Offer valid from December 2, 2017 to December 24, 2017, while supplies last. Available only in Microsoft retail and online store in United States. Offer valid only on select Surface i7 laptop, Surface i7 Pro, Surface Studio, and Harmon Kardon Invoke when purchased together in same transaction. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or promo code(s). May not be combinable with other offers. Refunds will take into account the discount. Price discount does not include taxes, shipping or other fees. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Limit of 1 offer per customer. Other exclusions and limits may apply. The post Last Chance holiday savings at Microsoft Store begin today appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Did you know with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can now easily reset your pin or password, right from your device’s lock screen? Here’s how to get started: On your PC’s lock screen, click I forgot my password and sign in with your MSA account. From there, you’ll be asked to prove you’re not a robot by typing the code shown on the screen – once that’s done, click next. Select a recovery email address or phone from the drop-down menu where you want the code to recover your password to be sent. Fill out the hidden part of the email address or phone number and click Send code. Log into the account you chose for recovery from a phone or another device, fill in the code you were sent on the screen, enter a new password – and you’re done! You can also reset your pin from the lock screen using these same steps. Visit this blog post to learn more about what’s new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and if you don’t have the Fall Creators Update yet you can visit this post to learn how to get it. Windows 10 Tip: How to recover your pin and password from the lock screen Tweet This Have a great week! The post Windows 10 Tip: How to recover your pin and password from the lock screen appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Maybe you’re thinking about purchasing a new gaming laptop this holiday but are overwhelmed by the variety of options to choose from. When shopping for new hardware, gamers often look for devices and specifications that fit their specific needs, and no two devices are the same. Whether you’re an experienced gamer or someone looking to dive into gaming for the first time, Windows 10 PCs offer something for all gamers this holiday. This has been an exciting year for PC gaming, with new game features in the Windows 10 Creators Update and Windows 10 Fall Creators Update that support gaming for all creators alike. Not to mention acclaimed, recently released titles such as Forza Motorsport 7 and Cuphead with even more to come in 2018 like Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Sea of Thieves. With its built-for-gaming features, Windows 10 is the best version of Windows for gaming. Simple, built-in Mixer streaming provides exclusive near real-time, interactive moments for viewers and streamers to watch or interact with other gamers–no extra hardware required, while Xbox Play Anywhere enables you to buy a game once and play it on both your Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, including cloud save and resume. Game Mode enables gamers to dedicate more system resources to games, delivering a more performant gaming experience on Windows 10. Let’s take a look at some Windows 10 gaming PCs from our partners that will light up gaming for everyone this holiday. For the casual gamer looking for a PC they can not only game on, but also feel productive with Windows 10 features that may include Windows Hello, Cortana, and more, take a look at these casual gaming PCs under $1,000: ASUS VivoBook S510UA 15.6-inch ASUS VivoBook S510UA 15.6-inch Acer Aspire E5-575T-3678 Acer Aspire E5-575T-3678 Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Dell Inspiron 15 7000 HP OMEN Laptop – 17t HP OMEN Laptop – 17t Looking for something with a little more power? A PC with faster computing and graphical expertise, maybe even a device light enough to take with you anywhere? Check out the below premium PCs: ASUS ROG Strix GL503 ASUS ROG Strix GL503 Origin EON17-SLX 17 Origin EON17-SLX 17 Lenovo Legion Y720 Laptop Lenovo Legion Y720 Laptop Acer Nitro 5 Spin Acer Nitro 5 Spin For hardcore gamers who seek superior specs like 4K displays, powerful CPUs, high-end graphics cards, and more, we’ve got you covered! Here are a few top-of-the-line gaming rig suggestions to consider: ASUS ROG Zephyrus ASUS ROG Zephyrus HP Omen X HP Omen X Dell Alienware 17 R4 Dell Alienware 17 R4 Razer Blade Pro [attach=full]119[/attach] Razer Blade Pro Acer Predator 21X Acer Predator 21X We’re excited about the innovation each partner brings to the Windows ecosystem, and these beautifully designed, feature-rich devices truly bring gaming to life. This holiday, experience the best Windows 10 has to offer with these powerful Windows 10 gaming PCs from our partners. Calling all gamers: Here’s your go-to buying guide for gaming PCs this holiday Tweet This The post Calling all gamers: Here’s your go-to buying guide for gaming PCs this holiday appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! You can visit this blog post to learn more about Always Connected PCs, visit this post to learn more about Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android, and read more about the artists bringing their visions to life in mixed reality. You can check out our Windows 10 Tip on what’s new in Skype for Windows 10 PCs – or, keep reading for more of this week’s news! In case you missed it: New Mixer app available now Exciting news from the Mixer Blog today! Just months ago, Mixer announced they we were rebuilding the Mixer app for Android and iOS. Since then and with the help of the community, they’ve built the best version of the app to-date, and are excited to announce it’s available for download today on Android and in the coming days on iOS. To learn more about this news from Mixer, head over to their blog. Samsung announces new Notebook 9 and Notebook 9 Pen with Windows 10 This week, Samsung announced the new Samsung Notebook 9 Pen and three new versions of the Samsung Notebook 9 (2018), offering a mobile computing experience that matches how people are using their PCs: whether at work, on the go and everything in between. Samsung Notebook 9 Pen: Superb flexibility, portability with S Pen and convertible hinge The Notebook 9 Pen brings a thoughtfully refined design to the 2-in-1 PC. Its full metal chassis with a premium magnesium aluminum alloy called Metal12 provides durability while keeping it super light at 2.2 pounds. The 360-degree hinge provides flexibility to convert to a tablet from a laptop with ease by rotating the keyboard behind the screen for convenience. The Notebook 9 Pen has a built-in, refined S Pen that gives you the freedom to doodle, write, sketch, paint and more with Windows Ink. The S Pen is battery-free, built into the device and designed for immediate use. Samsung Notebook 9 (2018): Powerful design, yet lightweight and thin With three different versions offering a 13.3” to a 15” screen and enhanced graphics capabilities, the Notebook 9 (2018) weighs up to only 2.84 pounds and measures 15.4mm. The bezel around the screen measures 6.2mm providing a more immersive experience. This means great portability without sacrificing screen size, as well as a stronger, more durable metal body featuring Metal12. The device also provides always-on power thanks to the 75Wh Hexacell battery. Availability: The Samsung Notebook 9 Pen and Notebook 9 (2018) will be available in select countries starting in December 2017 in Korea, and in the first quarter of 2018 in the U.S. Both the Notebook 9 Pen and Notebook 9 (2018) will be displayed at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, NV. To learn more visit Samsung’s newsroom. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds now available on Xbox One PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available now as a console launch exclusive on Xbox One! Since we first announced PUBG would be coming to Xbox at E3 2017, it’s been amazing to see the excitement and anticipation fans have shared and on behalf of everyone at PUBG Corp., we want to thank you for your support. PUBG is a battle royale-style game which puts up to 100 players on the remote island of Erangel for a winner-takes-all showdown. Each game starts the same – you jump out of an airplane over an island, look for a safe (or dangerous) place to land, scramble for armor, weapons and health kits, and try to stay alive as the safe zone becomes smaller and smaller, forcing players to keep moving to survive. We chose to bring PUBG to console on Xbox One in the Xbox Game Preview program, as it’s the only console platform that gives us the opportunity to partner with the community and build the game together, much like we did with the PC version. The experience you have in PUBG on Xbox One today will be somewhat similar to what we shipped back in March on PC, but with a few updates. In addition, to support for third-person solo, duo, and squad gameplay on the current Erangel map, PUBG on Xbox One will also feature vaulting at its launch into the Xbox Game Preview program. On Xbox One X, the game will be enhanced to include HDR support and 4K resolution, with more details to come. While in the Xbox Game Preview program, PUBG on Xbox One will continue to receive new content updates including the new desert map, “Miramar,” optimizations and more. Our goal is to unify the feature set and product roadmap of the PC and Xbox versions of the game as soon as possible. Read more about the news over at Xbox Wire! Here’s what’s new in Microsoft Store this week: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 Sale We take more pictures today than ever before, which means we need an efficient, easy way to organize, find and share them. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 ($69.99 Sale Price, $99.99 Regular Price) is here to help. Now on sale for 30% off through Jan. 6, Adobe PSE 2018 makes photo and video organization, editing, creating, and sharing as simple as it gets. Dunkirk Trapped on the beach and surrounded by enemy forces, 400,000 Allied soldiers face impossible odds in Christopher Nolan’s epic masterpiece Dunkirk ($29.99 HD). Don’t miss one of the best-reviewed films of the year, available in the Movies & TV section of the Microsoft Store one week before it comes to Blu-ray. Plus, for a limited time, purchase Dunkirk and get a free game add-on for World of Tanks! For full details, visit: aka.ms/Dunkirk. Have a great week! The post This Week on Windows: News from Samsung, Mixer and more appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

It’s December…time for the annual holiday photo! If you’re like most people, you have a very large collection of photos to choose from. Good news because with the help of artificial intelligence features, in the reimagined Photos application, available with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, we’re making it easier to find that perfect photo or video and make the most of your memories, just in time for the holidays! Search all your photos or videos with AI With the help of AI, we’ve also introduced an easy way to search by person, place, or thing. Simply click on the search bar and images of people* from your collection appear, making it easy to click on the person you’re looking for. You’ll also see places and things that are already in your collection. If you know what you’re looking for, a photo from the playground, a video captured at Disneyland, or last year’s picture with Santa, just type those things into the search box and the automatically tagged photos will come up in your search. That’s right, the best part is, it’s all done for you through automatic intelligent tagging, no work needed on your end. AI-powered video creation Ready to take your photo up a notch and turn it into a video creation? With the video creation tools in the new Photos app, we’ve got you covered, no video editing skills required! Using AI, the Photos app will automatically bring together your memories into a video for great storytelling complete with soundtracks, themes, and transitions Keep the automatically generated video to enjoy and share, or easily remix it with just the click of a button for an all-new look and feel of the video, complete with a new soundtrack and transitions. AI enables the app to understand what music and transitions align best with your photos or videos. You can even ink on and add 3D effects to moving objects in your videos. Just draw and pin an arrow, circle, or another doodle, and it stays with the object while the video plays. Share your photos with family and friends Once you get your creation just right, you can easily export the file into the right format to share it with family and friends in a variety of ways including via email, online to your favorite social sites or tailor it for the big screen in a larger upload. To start creating your own personal story, for any occasion, check out the new Photos app – included with Windows 10 – or head over here to read more about what’s new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update – and for more on how AI is infused into other Microsoft experiences, check out the blog post from our event in San Francisco where we showcased a number of advances that use artificial intelligence to help people get more nuanced information and assist with more complex needs. *Face detection and recognition can be turned off via settings in the Photos app. The post AI in Photos makes it easy to find and create the perfect holiday photo or video appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

I’ll never forget the first time I experienced mixed reality. It was a pre-production version of Microsoft HoloLens, and I tried a demo that had fish swimming around the room, seaweed on the floor and bubbles floating around me. Eventually, the demo team had to gently suggest I leave, because I was mesmerized. The fish were bouncing off the walls. The bubbles were popping on the ceiling. I could see everything in the room and the people in it, and I could see more – things that felt just as real. I couldn’t get enough. Part of me is still in that moment because it’s what has motivated me to work as hard as I can with teams across Microsoft to build the devices, platforms, experiences and services that will enable infinite mixed reality experiences. Everyone working in mixed reality today is a pioneer as they push forward, defining boundaries of technology, design and user experience while reinventing industries, education and communication. Today, I want to talk about one group of pioneers who are using mixed reality to change the way we see the world: artists. Since the early days of HoloLens, we have had the chance to see what happens when artists use their unique ability to see the potential of a new medium or technology. I have always been passionate about paying attention to what artists are doing with new technology platforms. Artists, whether visual artists, media, sculpture, dance, theater or others, have both courage and the ability to see things differently. It has been amazing to see what has been created. Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Exhibit at Art Basel Last week we kicked off a partnership with Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) at Art Basel in Miami. Their exhibit, “Sandu Darie: An Immersive Experience,” aims to make important Cuban works of art accessible beyond the constraints of their physical location. The experience makes available public works of art that are permanently located in Cuba and brings them to life using Mixed Reality Viewer, Windows Mixed Reality headsets and HoloLens. For the first time outside of Cuba, visitors could view large-scale works of art in their real world through these two immersive experiences. A photographer captures images of Cuban artist Sandu Darie’s El Día y La Noche (1982) in Havana that were used to digitally recreate the sculptural mural as a hologram Case Western Reserve University mixed reality dance shared experience Case Western Reserve University has truly been a pioneer in mixed reality. From the building of anatomy class experiences, to expanding to physics classes, and more recently exploring the arts with the British Museum and others, the team at Case has been leading from the edge. I recently had the opportunity to have another once-in-a-lifetime experience: the first-ever, large-scale shared mixed reality dance performance. Eighty people all wore HoloLens to see dancers and holograms in the same performance, for the first time. The team had no idea how to pull this off when it was conceived by the Creative Director, but that’s why we’re in this space: to bring things that seem impossible into focus, and then to just figure out how to do them. Take a look at their blog post and video to learn more about how the vision ultimately came to life. Cornish College of the Arts I spent two years in early HoloLens development saying, “Imagine when you go to the first holographic art gallery opening. There will be wine and cheese, maybe some light music, but no art. You walk in and see empty walls, empty stands. But then you put on HoloLens and the gallery is full of rich art.” I would marvel over this with other people. Well, this has happened, and much earlier than I expected. Cornish College of the Arts pioneered the first exhibit in 2016, called “Through the HoloLens,” which allows students to bring to life their artistic expression in new ways through painting, dance, performance and other forms. I was fortunate to experience this firsthand with the students of Cornish, a moment I will never forget. Gallery goers check out students’ holographic works at the Cornish College of the Arts 2016 BFA show Artsy at the Armory Earlier this year we partnered with online art platform Artsy and Amsterdam-based Studio Drift to create a mixed reality art installation at The Armory Show in New York. The project was called “Concrete Storm” and was our first collaboration in a commercial art context. It blended physical structures with holograms, which changed perspective depending on where you stood within the exhibit, allowing visitors to experience art in an entirely new way. It was fascinating to watch the typically jaded New York art crowd’s expressions the first time they put the device on; lighting up as they walked through the concrete pillars and reaching out to touch something that wasn’t really there. Proof that mixed reality can make art more accessible and interactive when it comes alive, up close and personal. Studio Drift founders Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta view their original HoloLens work, Concrete Storm (2017), at The Armory Show in New York I’d like to thank all working artists for your commitment to your craft and work. And for those of you who are deeply engaged with technology, thank you again. Your work is so very important. As we get ready for the year ahead I am eager to see what comes next. Lorraine The post Watching in awe as artists bring their visions to life in mixed reality appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Americans know the importance of Dec. 7, 1941, when a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the deaths of 2,400 Americans. Another Dec. 7 event is worth remembering, one that isn’t known by nearly as many people, yet is “connected in an interesting way to the events that were unleashed on Dec. 7, 1941,” writes Brad Smith, Microsoft president, and Carol Ann Browne, Microsoft director of executive communications, in a new post in the “Today in Technology” series on LinkedIn. On Dec. 7, 1932, Americans opened their newspapers to read about a controversial decision by the U.S. to grant a visa to a foreigner named Albert Einstein. Granting such a visa was opposed by some Americans, who suspected the world-famous physicist of many things, including being a Communist, with concerns that he would hurt the U.S. The opposite was the case, as we all know now. Einstein would play a role in bringing World War II to an end by urging President Roosevelt to launch what would become the Manhattan Project to create the world’s first atomic weapon. “None of this means that every person who wants to enter the country should be permitted to do so,” Smith and Browne write. “Immigration remains complicated, in the United States and every other country. But Einstein’s story reminds us of the enormous upside of attracting the best talent in the world – and the fact that the fullness of this talent and its potential contributions only emerge over time. At a time when Congress (hopefully) will soon be turning its attention to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and a new generation of Dreamers, and at a time when high-skilled talent from some countries confront a bureaucratic green card backlog, immigration remains an opportunity not just for immigrants, but for all of us who were born in the United States that can benefit from their presence.” Dec. 7, Smith and Browne write, is a date for remembering “the terrible forces that can divide us. As well as the more hopeful steps that can bring us together.” Read the full post on LinkedIn. The post Why Dec. 7 represents the forces that both divide and bring us together appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

Today, the new features we announced last month for the latest version of Skype for Windows 10 are beginning to roll out! Let’s take a look at what’s new. Grab a cup of coffee and catch up on what you’ve missed by clicking the bell icon to access your notification panel. From this central place, you’ll see reactions to your messages, @mentions in group conversations, or if someone quoted you. Jump to the conversation by clicking the message in the notification panel. Looking for that link someone sent you a few weeks ago? Quickly find shared content in the chat gallery. Just click Gallery to see media, links, and files. You can also now search for text in individual and group conversations. If you’d like to get someone’s attention in a group chat, type the @ symbol followed by their name to send them a notification so that they can easily respond to the message. Status updates are back, too, so you can let your colleagues, friends, and family know when you are and aren’t available to chat by changing your presence – or, set a mood message to share what’s going on. Share your mixed reality world If you have a compatible Windows 10 PC and a Windows Mixed Reality headset, you can now share your mixed reality world with Skype. As soon as you answer a Skype call via video, the view the other person sees will be your mixed reality world. They’ll see the game you’re playing, or the ruins you’re exploring in HoloTour, or the movie you’re watching in 3D. If you want to switch back to a traditional video call where the person sees you, you can go to settings in the Skype app and change the device to your PC’s camera. To learn more about what’s new in Skype for Windows 10 PCs, visit the Skype Blog! The post Windows 10 Tip: What’s new in Skype for Windows 10 PCs appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/b19f3a6c84bd91bc61724328cd9385ae.jpg Created by Nicole McDonald and JauntVR, the full immersive app experience Free the Night is now available on Windows Mixed Reality. Read on to learn how its award-winning director made her childhood dream into a reality. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicole McDonald, creator of Windows Mixed Reality immersive app experience Free the Night. But while some might bill the app as an interactive film, it would be an understatement to call Nicole simply a filmmaker. In the 15 years since she began creating in multimedia, Nicole has worn many hats – from that of game designer, to NASA collaborator, to marketing campaign manager for the world’s biggest names, including American Idol, Cirque Du Soleil, and Toyota. Now, Nicole is channeling her wealth of creative energy towards a new endeavor: the art of storytelling in mixed reality. The latest in a list of interactive films she’s created – many of which have been featured in festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, and SXSW – Free the Night is a collaboration between Nicole and cinematic VR producer Jaunt Studios. Designed exclusively for Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets, the experience enables audiences to place stars back into the sky and watch them glitter and swirl as they reclaim the night. In celebration of Free the Night’s full release last month, I sat down with Nicole to learn more about the initial spark behind her creation. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/fd7ab8674cc202904274aad547f58160.jpg Nicole McDonald, director and creator of interactive film Free the Night. What inspired you to create Free the Night? Nicole: In general, I am deeply inspired by my memories of being a child and childhood. Free the Night was inspired by the most vivid of these: staring up into the night sky with my family. My father loved the sky and his enthusiasm and wonder of it pulled us all in. He would point out the constellations, and we’d discuss what could be out “there.” We grew up in a teeny tiny town and the sky was magnificent: there were thousands of stars, hints of the milky way, and we once saw a little bit of the aurora. But sadly, one year, a huge mall was constructed nearby and it washed out almost everything. The amber glow of the parking lot made it impossible to view from our front lawn. It was heartbreaking. I didn’t understand how, or why, someone could do that. Fast forward to a few years ago, when I was watching a fireworks display and thought how amazing it would be to have the same sky that my father introduced to me as the backdrop. I wanted to “blow” out all the lights out around me and… voilà, Free the Night was born. You come from a background in advertising, filmmaking, and gaming. What led you to mixed reality as the medium for this story? Nicole: I’ve always been interested in the marriage of narrative and technology, in understanding how innovative tools can enhance traditional storytelling. Mixed reality, to me, is placing the audience physically in the narrative, where they can participate and be moved emotionally by a story. It’s such a wonderful time of exploration, and we now have an audience that is curious, if not craving, these new media and experiences. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/9f9aa8ac3b593eec7c681830d73e43c2.jpg The setting of Free the Night, inspired by the creator’s hometown. What can audiences expect from Free the Night when they put on their headsets? Nicole: In Free the Night, we become giants in a mountainous landscape, tasked with liberating the stars into the night sky. We need to be able to get low enough to the ground to extinguish the manmade lights of the city and reach high enough to place the stars back into the sky. This requires us to interact with the entire 360-degree virtual space, a range of freedom only afforded in mixed reality. With Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets, our audience has the seamless tracking and full “six degrees of freedom” to actively engage in the narrative and explore all around them. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/1741900189847f9106593cf847043378.png The story begins with the silhouette of a girl releasing lights back into the night sky. You mentioned that Free the Night encourages us to use our full 360-degree space with “six degrees of freedom” (6DOF). Can you tell me more about 6DOF for those of us who may be unfamiliar with it, and why you chose to incorporate it in your design? Nicole: 6DOF is the freedom of movement in 3D space. Six axes of movement allow us interact with objects that are as low as the ground and as high as we can lift our hands – left and right, back and forth… all around us. With immersive mixed reality, there’s something so delightful about playing with scale and exploring a narrative in 3D space. It challenges us to have new perspective and see and play in ways we haven’t before. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/4609bf22f5a819575f8156db4e7f3199.jpg Using motion controllers, audiences can swirl and play with the embers, freeing them into the night sky. Free the Night has been tagged as both “cinematic” and “interactive” – two qualities that, in conjunction, set the experience apart from your typical film or game. What inspired you to experiment with mixing the two media? Nicole: Honestly, it started when I was nine years old, in a basic computer coding class. We all worked on monochromatic monitors – the instructor explained that computers would someday show us more colors. Of course, he was describing monitors that would have RGB color profiles, but, at the time, I naively thought he meant that computers would allow us to see more colors than are in our current rainbow. My mind went wild. I made up stories of who and what lived in these unseen colors… What could they do that we couldn’t? Ever since, I’ve been captivated by using technology as a creative tool. I always ask myself if my concepts allow my audience to see more “colors,” more worlds that we’d never see without the innovations of today. I love exploring how we might profit from experiencing and interacting with these kinds of stories and, most importantly, how can we add joy and wonder to our audience’s lives. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/6b5809fb1ee838be268cff03a30157f5.jpg Once freed, the stars sparkle and burst in impressive displays. Did you have an ideal audience in mind when you decided to create this experience? Nicole: Ideally, Free the Night is for everyone. It’s a universal story for human beings, and because it’s for all, I especially wanted it to be an invitation to those who haven’t necessarily found their space, or connection with content, in mixed reality. People sometimes think that mixed reality is just for gaming or 360-degree passive experiences, but I want my projects to be all-embracing interactive experiences – experiences in which everyone is enticed to participate in, rather than be intimidated by, the medium. What, for you, was most intimidating about creating Free the Night? Nicole: One of the best and hardest parts of working on interactive experiences is the ice-cream headache you get when you have to find a solution but there is no playbook available. There are so many limitations and unknowns; as creators in this nascent space, we have to be a bit like MacGyver. For Free the Night, it was how to create the magic of extinguishing light embers in mixed reality. Traditionally, you can only have a small amount of particles on screen at any given time in VR. But we needed thousands, which would have personality and be responsive when we interacted with them. My dev team, led by long-time collaborator KC Austin, figured out how to write a system with compute buffers that allowed the experience to sing. More generally, the biggest challenge in creating with mixed reality is disrupting our preconceived notions of the medium. People are so often intimidated by the experience they’re about to enter, or nervous that they’re going to do something wrong. We’re so conditioned to approaching this medium as a game, rather than something more. My challenge is getting people to settle in the narrative instead of trying to get the highest score. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/509ec020c921e6089e68d41cbc1a6e92.jpg Future of StoryTelling attendees were among the first to demo the experience in October. Free the Night recently debuted as a demo at the annual Future of StoryTelling Summit in New York. (Congratulations!) After months of working round-the-clock, what was it like finally seeing your demo premiere? Nicole: It was pinch-worthy. We had had our heads down working for a few months, so to see the general public instilled with the awe for which I’d hoped was a dream come true. My favorite response was that of a peer who tried Free the Night for the first time at the Summit. As she took off the headset, her eyes welled with tears. She told me how she had been transported to her own childhood and was filled with the same wonder I’d been way back when. It’s because of reactions like this that I can’t wait for everyone to experience the full project this month. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/df36d9ac85f3467c23386d5cb3cac421.jpg A woman reaches for the stars at The Future of StoryTelling demo. If there’s one idea or impression you hope audiences take away from the full version of Free the Night, what would it be? My hope is that people feel more connected to the world when their headsets comes off – that by experiencing Free the Night, they are enticed to look up a little bit more often – and that they truly understand that we are the magic and Earth is Eden. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/47ad4f0453b4c2950a810092c0a93268.jpg One of many flower-shaped constellations awaiting audiences in the experience. We’ve talked a lot about your journey in making this childhood dream into a reality. Looking back, what advice do you have for someone aspiring to create an immersive experience as aesthetic and emotionally inspiring as Free the Night? Nicole: Oh, my… Well, first, for those who want to create in the space, it’s extremely difficult and thus can be extremely fortifying. Before you begin, ask yourself what you want your audience to feel or take away from the experience. Try to understand how the idea will blossom in the medium; take advantage of what you can do inside mixed reality that you can’t do in traditional linear 2D displays. Don’t be afraid of limitations; you can execute the essence of ideas in many ways. Always, always storyboard, create animatics, and test and play. For those new to MR, please, don’t be intimidated. There is no right or wrong way to create an interactive experience. Get comfortable; look around at your environment before trying to rush through it. Approach everything with the wonderment you had as a child. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/7324d4aec9948adba5e6ec468f9cee8b.jpg Free the Night promises 360 degrees of breathtaking scenes like the one above. One last question, Nicole, before I let you go… Now that Free the Night is officially on Windows Mixed Reality, what’s next? Nicole: Surfing and yoga… haha. But really, I’ll be working on the full experience for HUE, an interactive film about a man named Hue who has lost his ability to see color. In this touch-based tale, he is reactive to our presence and touch like a living breathing being. We help Hue find his “full spectrum” by aiding him to see the everyday joy around him and his own potential to be wonderful. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/2bfe8909fe38536ac6512e2650b8e2da.jpg Concept art for Nicole’s next interactive film, “HUE.” Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story, Nicole, and congratulations, again, on creating such a breathtaking experience. I can’t wait to try “Free the Night” again this week! Free the Night is available from the Microsoft Store. Download it for free on your PC and plug in your headset to experience the magic of Windows Mixed Reality… and stay tuned for our next installment of Making mixed reality. The post Making mixed reality: Meet the mind behind interactive film Free the Night appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! Head over here to learn more about Always Connected PCs, check out Microsoft Store’s annual 12 days of deals, catch up on our Windows 10 Tips on getting started with Continue on PC in the Microsoft Edge mobile app and bringing your stories to life with the reimagined Photos app – or, keep reading for more of this week’s news! In case you missed it: Here’s what’s new in Microsoft Store this week: Forza Motorsport 7 – Doritos Car Pack From classic racers to rough-and-tumble SUVs ready to tackle any conditions you throw at them, the Doritos Car Pack for Forza Motorsport 7 features seven vehicles from six different decades. Learn more on the Forza Motorsport blog. Affinity Photo https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/dccdfe206c1591718f93cc8c1f0cd988.png Affinity delivers two serious tools, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, for creative professionals at a Microsoft-exclusive 25% discount through Dec. 11. Faster, smoother and more powerful than ever, Affinity Photo ($37.49 through Dec 11; regularly $49.99) continues to push the boundaries for professional photo editing software. Packing a huge toolset specifically engineered for creative and photography professionals, it’s a leader in power and performance. Have a great weekend! The post This Week on Windows: Microsoft Store’s 12 Days of Deals, Always Connected PCs and more appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

We’ve been on a journey at Microsoft to empower every student to create the world of tomorrow through delivering technology that offers limitless learning. In classrooms around the world, we have seen the empowerment that comes with increased reading and language skills when students have personalized tools for learning. We’ve seen imaginative problem-solving skills come to life through coding and STEM. And, we’ve seen how new worlds can open up for students when their creativity is sparked with immersive 3D and mixed reality experiences. Teachers are some of our greatest heroes and we’re on a mission to save them time with integrated planning tools, a digital hub for collaboration for easily finding and distributing content, and rich data and analytics tools to measure each student’s progress and help them stay on track. Of course, this technology can best serve our schools when delivered on the best devices. We believe these devices should offer innovative capabilities, while also helping schools make the most of class time with security and reliability they can trust. We’ve worked hard to offer more affordable, easy-to-manage devices so schools can stretch their budgets and set up a classroom in under an hour. Today, Futuresource’s quarterly report validated the feedback we’ve been hearing from the education community in the last year. We’re excited to see the worldwide education market’s 15 percent growth year-over-year. It’s fantastic that more students than ever are able to learn with the latest technology. We’re also particularly proud to see more and more schools choosing Windows. In K-12 schools in the US in the last year, Windows device share grew 4.3 percent on devices under $300 and 8.2 percent on devices over $300, as more and more schools are choosing Windows over competitive offerings. Globally, we also saw large sales increases in markets like India and Argentina, where hundreds of thousands of students will soon be unlocking limitless learning potential on new Windows devices. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/ca48999c5344be297036b31d6c6f43a0.jpg On Windows PCs*, schools can get important features that help students learn like touch, inking, and 3D, on devices built to run Office – the productivity software most frequently used in today’s workplace with skills required on more than 80 percent of current job listings. This combination of affordability and functionality – on a platform students will never outgrow – makes Windows the most complete and powerful ecosystem for schools. And schools have more amazing choices than ever before, with affordable Windows 10 PCs like the Lenovo N22 and HP Stream 11 offering industry-leading security, management, and creativity tools, without the compromises of our competitors. I love seeing how schools like Eltham High School in Australia are using Windows 10 devices and Office 365 to build students’ digital literacy skills and teach new ways to work. We are seeing schools choose other Microsoft Education services to help their students succeed, including: On Windows, students can use software for the classroom like Minecraft: Education Edition which just reached more than 2 million licensees and in partnership with Hour of Code, has taught nearly 70 million people around the world the basics of coding. In just a few months since the new school year began, nearly 10 million new student notebooks have been created in OneNote and Teams for the classroom is helping more classrooms go paperless and give even the quietest students in the classroom a voice. For the majority of classrooms around the world who have students with learning differences, Learning Tools is built into our software for no additional charge, and we are seeing test scores increase by 10 percent in some early studies. We are also seeing educators use our software to build critical social and emotional skills for students – skills that will continue to grow in importance as future jobs require more collaboration and social savvy. Last week I joined our annual Skype-a-Thon and saw firsthand what 91 percent of teachers already know – that Skype is a powerful tool to teach compassion and empathy by connecting classrooms around the world to learn from one another. With the recently released Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and the release of affordable Windows Mixed Reality Headsets, we’re enabling all new ways for students and teachers to learn and teach. With Windows 10 and more immersive mixed reality experiences on a PC or headset, students can explore the surface of Mars or dissect the human body without ever leaving the classroom. The potential for mixed reality in education is endless, and we can’t wait to see what innovative educators like Doug Bergman will do next. We are energized by the number of students who are embracing Microsoft Education technologies for limitless learning. Ultimately, our greatest goal is to empower students to reach their full potential. At Microsoft, it’s our greatest opportunity to help move our world forward and we are committed to delivering innovation for all students, everywhere. *PC references are non-desktop form factors only. The post Windows PCs see strong growth in EDU, gaining share worldwide and in the US appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/b9e71ae5b5a17b7b3f6b2789795ae3dc.jpg Holiday shopping is well underway and, for those that haven’t found that perfect gift, Microsoft Store has you covered with its annual 12 Days of Deals unwrapped daily at midnight ET through Dec. 17 – featuring an exciting deal every day on the hottest products from Surface to Xbox to Windows Mixed Reality – from Microsoft and its partners. Check out today’s Day 1 Surface Pro bundle deal and get a sneak peek into tomorrow’s Day 2 savings on select Xbox games available at your local Microsoft Store or Microsoft.com where you can track all the deals. Plus, take advantage of picking up a purchase in store made online and free shipping and returns on every item, every day. Here’s a look at the first two deals – stay tuned for more! Day 1 (Dec. 6): Save $329 on Surface Pro i5 128GB bundled with a black type cover, plus get a free select sleeve, now for $799. Day 2 (Dec. 7): Save up to 50 percent on select Xbox games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Receive a Limited-Edition Xbox Holiday Ornament https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/203616b1a91e0fae21dc3736e9a1d271.jpg While you’re shopping this weekend, Dec. 8 through Dec. 10, visit your local Microsoft Store to receive a Limited-Edition Xbox Holiday Ornament with a purchase of an Xbox One S or Xbox One X. Starting Dec. 15 through Dec. 17, you can get the exclusive ornament with any in-store gaming purchase of $50 or more. If you want to skip the holiday lines, get select Xbox digital games, downloadable game content, and subscriptions as the perfect gift that anyone can download instantly right from Microsoft Store on the Xbox One family of devices, Windows 10, or on Microsoft.com. Limitations apply. See Terms and Conditions. Give back this holiday season with the Microsoft Wish Machine https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/fa0d67a5443ba1bf2414e0432401eebf.jpg Give back this holiday season by turning a wish into action that impact’s someone’s life when you visit the Microsoft Wish Machine at any Microsoft Store across the U.S., Canada and Sydney, Australia.*** Share your most inspiring wish – big or small – for a chance to have yours granted and inspire friends, family and your community to do the same. Happy shopping! ### *12 Days of Deals – Each offer valid for 24 hours (until the next deal goes live), while supplies last. Promo period: Dec. 6 – Dec. 17. Deals on Microsoft.com will be available starting 9 p.m. PT/12 a.m. ET, and during local Microsoft Store hours of operation. Deal availability varies in select markets. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or coupon code(s). May not be combinable with other offers. Refunds will take into account the discount. Price discount does not include taxes, shipping or other fees Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Other exclusions and limits may apply. **Limited-Edition Holiday Xbox Ornament – Offer valid from Dec. 8-10, Dec. 15-17 or while supplies last. Available at physical Microsoft Store locations. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or promo code(s). May not be combinable with other offers. Refunds will take into account the discount. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Limit of 1 offer per customer. Other exclusions and limits may apply. See store associate for details. ***Microsoft Wish Machine – NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to 50 U.S. (D.C.), PR, Canada and Australia 13 years and older. Visit local Microsoft Store to enter by 12/31/17. Void where prohibited. For Official Rules, including prize descriptions, for U.S. click here, Canada click here and Australia click here. The post Hot holiday savings are here during Microsoft Store’s annual 12 Days of Deals appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Throughout the history of personal computing, a steady wave of progress has changed how we interact with technology in both our work and personal lives. Microsoft and our partners have led many of these shifts in technology like enabling the original mobile computer – the laptop, navigating with touch, signing in with your face, detaching screens from keyboards, exploring mixed reality, and storing your files in the cloud. We are again at the beginning of another major technology shift: the ability to be connected anytime, anywhere with Always Connected PCs that are instantly on, always connected with incredible battery life. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/ade5047f85457f8760e1efe626ca2bbc.jpg Terry Myerson, Windows and Devices Group Executive Vice President, shares his personal experience with Always Connected PCs at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit. New Always Connected PCs unveiled Last year at this time, I was with many of our hardware partners at the WinHEC event in Shenzhen, China, where we painted a new vision for connected computing with built-in LTE connectivity, devices that are instantly on and battery life that went beyond hours into days and weeks. We also set a goal for us to begin delivering on this promise within one year. Today, at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit, I stood with Cristiano Amon, President of Qualcomm Chips, and we delivered on the promise that we made then. Along with our hardware partners HP and ASUS, we showed the world the first full-featured Always Connected PCs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset running Windows 10 and a new, optimized version of Office 365. ASUS and HP have worked hand in hand with us to deliver on pushing the boundaries of what a PC can do, and we continue to work closely with Lenovo as they build their own Always Connected PC. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/431a9e8ace79500b7b6fafcab5f12ed2.jpg ASUS NovaGo is the world’s first Gigabit LTE laptop, with superfast download speeds allowing users to download a 2-hour movie in just 10 seconds. Powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragonhttps://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/5bd43a924c5b3d172451d898bf8c4b99.png 835 Mobile PC platform with X16 LTE, the NovaGo is always on, always connected with a battery supporting 30 days of standby and 22 hours of active use. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/ea38f98a34be463d24e251de138d14b1.jpg The HP ENVY x2, an Always Connected PC, combines the best of a smartphone experience with the best of a Windows PC. Impossibly thin and incredibly durable, the HP ENVY x2 offers lightning-fast 4G LTE2 and Wi-Fi. With up to 20 hours of active use battery life, the detachable PC provides flexibility and connectivity to perform daily tasks while on the go. Instantly on, Always Connected, and a week of battery life is liberating One of the favorite parts of my job is trying out new products. Seeing the innovation, understanding how all the components work together, how it looks and feels, and ultimately how the customer will experience the product. For the last few months, I have been using an Always Connected PC, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform. In the last week, I watched the movie Moana with my daughter, worked in PowerPoint, browsed the web every day, reviewed budgets in Excel, checked email while waiting to pick up my son from soccer, marked up a few PDFs with Ink, played some games on the plane – all of this without plugging in my power cord all week. The PC is fast and responsive when I am using it and quickly goes into standby being incredibly battery efficient when I’m not using it. This new Always Connected PC is ultrathin, beautifully designed, running Windows 10 and a new, optimized version of Office 365. But beyond the full experiences you’d expect in a PC, this new Always Connected PC has fundamentally transformed how I work, because of three significant advantages over my other PCs. The screen is instantly on whenever I pick up the device. I never have to wait for it to wake up, it’s just on. Being always connected wherever I am whether I am in the car, airport or coffee shop, always being connected just feels like the most natural, safe and secure way to work with teams and be creative. Lastly, the battery life is just awesome! I am finding myself charging it once a week. When I was using a wearable that needed to charge every day, I didn’t really rely on it. Once I moved to a Fitbit that only needed charging once a week that was game changing for me. Not carrying around power cords is liberating. Once you start using this new category of PCs that are instantly on, always connected with a week of battery life and the full Windows 10 experience, you can really feel what a big shift this will be for consumers. Always Connected PCs enable a new culture of work with better security at a lower cost Always Connected PCs also have three huge benefits for organizations: New culture of work: IT is always thinking about the culture of work they enable through the technology they choose: how a given device enables teams to collaborate and be productive. The Always Connected PC is a cultural shift, enabling teams to work effectively, whether they are on a corporate campus, visiting customers or on the bus commuting, freeing a real constraint on the creativity of employees today. Better security: IT also must manage increasing security threats and is responsible for protecting an organization’s information. Security has been a huge focus for Windows 10. But there are still these public Wi-Fi hotspots out there, which every day unknowing users connect to and could put hackers in control of the data coming and going to their device, potentially enabling hackers to steal corporate data and invade user privacy. The Always Connected PC is real security progress enabling safe connectivity everywhere, bypassing untrusted networks. Lower costs: Today IT organizations are spending millions of dollars installing, updating and maintaining Wi-Fi antennas and repeaters throughout their buildings, and upgrading those every few years to make them even faster. At the same time, mobile operators have invested billions in building fast 4G networks. The United States alone is now 98% covered by 4G. And mobile operators have now embarked on even faster 5G network build-outs that will be even faster. Just like IT is now leveraging the massive investments in cloud compute and storage in data centers like Microsoft Azure, moving networking to the cloud will lower IT costs. Today’s global mobile operators are professionally maintaining, managing and updating their networks with massive investments in speed and security. Always Connected PCs are key for IT leaders to unlock the benefits of this global networking and provide employees with a modern workplace they want at a lower cost. With the introduction of the Always Connected PC, IT now must ask themselves: how can they leverage the public networks of Sprint, AT&T, Orange, and others – and reduce their investment in their private antennas – to give employees faster connectivity at a lower cost than they enjoy today? For IT, the Always Connected PC enables a new culture of work, a real step forward in security and an opportunity for massive cost savings, as the local network moves to the cloud. More on this shift is detailed in Accelerating the Move to the Cloud with Always Connected Computing. Always Connected PCs are modern Windows 10 devices with Windows Hello, touch, pen and Ink, with thin, light, elegant designs that are more secure, instantly on, always connected with a week of battery life. When I think about organizations and whether they are going to leverage the massive networks of mobile operators and adopt these new PCs – the answer is simple: It is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when and how fast all mobile PCs become Always Connected PCs. Terry LinkedIn | Twitter The post Always Connected PCs enable a new culture of work appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders! Today we are releasing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17046 to Windows Server Insiders. This build is the second preview build of the next Semi-Annual Channel release of Windows Server. For more information on the Semi-Annual channel, please see the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel overview Available Content Server Insiders have the choice of Server Core Edition in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed – no need to enter a key during setup. Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. As before, matching Windows Server container images will be available via Docker Hub. For more information about Windows Server containers and Insider builds, click here. This Server Insider pre-release build will expire on July 2nd, 2018. For the best experience, the Windows Server team recommends a clean install. What’s New in Build 17046 for Windows Server There are no new features to announce for this build. How to Download To obtain the Insider software downloads, registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal. It’s all about 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. Use your registered Windows Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. Please indicate what build number you are providing feedback on. Known issues with Windows Server build 17046 [NEW] Dynamic disks fail I/O with STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST, resulting in failures to mount or format a volume. The contents of an affected volume will be available after updating to a build that fixes this issue, so reformatting and restoring data from backup is not necessary. Upgrading to recent pre-release builds of Windows Server is not currently an option. However, upgrading will be supported in the future. The Health Attestation CSP fails with error message 500 when attempting to get a certificate. Data corruption may occur on some NVM Express (NVMe) solid-state drives (SSD) if scatter-gather list (SGL) functionality is enabled. The base filtering engine (BFE) service may fail to start, which prevents the Windows Defender firewall (MpsSvc service) from starting. A system crash may occur because of a kernel security check failure (bug check 0x139) from a corrupt list entry in a deferred free pool. Hyper-V isolated containers will fail to start with an error of “The description string for parameter reference (%1) could not be found. (0x3ab6)”. Users can work around this by temporarily disabling our cloning optimization by creating a registry key and rebooting or restarting the vmcompute service. reg ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\Containers” /v TemplateVmCount /t REG_DWORD /d 0 Although installation will continue successfully, the product key will not activate. Terms of Use All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use, which takes precedence over any license agreement that may be in the product. No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service, Dona <3 The post Announcing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17046 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

As we continue to grow and plan for the future, Microsoft is modernizing our workplaces in all regions where we do business. In Silicon Valley, we are creating our smartest, greenest office yet. Our new Silicon Valley Campus, a 643,000-square-foot modernization of our 32-acre Mountain View location, recently broke ground. This project represents a significant investment in our more than 2,000 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and our commitment to creating the best employee experience in the industry. We estimate it will take two years to complete and be ready for occupancy in December 2019. Our goal is to design a campus that benefits and restores the natural area. California continues to face increased demand for limited water and energy resources. We took these challenges into account when we began our design plans. We started with the biggest challenge for the region — water. Our campus is designed to achieve net zero non-potable water certification under the Living Building Challenge. Microsoft will be the first tech company to achieve this certification. Our campus will have an integrated water management system that operates under the guiding principle of putting non-potable water into service more than once. This includes harvesting rainwater and installing an onsite wastewater plant for treatment. This innovative approach helps us reduce potable water consumption by more than 5 percent, which is good for our business and the local community, and couldn’t have been considered without the support and input of the City of Mountain View. But water is just the beginning. The buildings are designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification. We will continue our leadership role in using solar panels to derive energy. The 4-acre living roof will reintroduce native ecology to the campus to promote species diversification in the area adjacent to the Stevens Creek habitat. We understand what a privilege it is to have our campus next to Stevens Creek, and we are committed to building a campus that can be net positive on the health of this local area. We’ve also considered not just how we build, but also the impact of the materials we choose in the design. We will use sustainably sourced Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and exposed finishes throughout the campus, thereby reducing the materials needed to complete construction. The modern workspaces throughout the campus will promote collaboration and productivity, providing areas that help generate creativity and allow for focused concentration. The neighborhood and courtyard concept makes it easy for our employees to move from outdoor to indoor spaces. Employees will have access to natural light through a glass exterior from anywhere on campus. The renovated dining facilities will provide healthy meal options as part of our commitment to the WELL Building standard. The campus will also feature athletic fields and a new onsite fitness facility for our employees. Finally, the new conference center, theater and Microsoft Technology Center will create space for us to demonstrate how our technology and services are empowering everyone on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft has been a core part of the Silicon Valley tech economy for more than 36 years, contributing to the incredible innovation and partnering with the local community to have a positive impact. The new Silicon Valley Campus will build on our legacy in the area and demonstrate our commitment to empower employees, the community and our natural resources. The post Building a sustainable campus in Silicon Valley appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

You know those websites, searches and articles that you pull up on your iPhone or Android phone? With the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can now forward them to instantly open on your PC, so you can continue what you’re doing – researching that project, shopping for those shoes, finishing that article – with all the benefits of the bigger screen. Here’s how to get started: Head to Settings, click on Phone and Add a phone. You’ll need to sign in with your Microsoft Account, if you haven’t already. Type your phone number, and click send. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/12e5a1201dc72a731ac6ad973b1b1f98.gif Once you click send, you’ll receive a text with a link to the app store to download and install an app. Now, for a seamless browsing experience across your phone and PC, you can download the Microsoft Edge mobile app for free and try out the Continue on PC feature this way! If you’re looking at a website in the app that you want to continue looking at on your PC, simply find the Continue on PC icon on your iPhone or Android phone. Sign in with the same Microsoft Account you’re using on your PC. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/0bfd80d01522a21eee92f93da9dcd519.gif Next it will ask you if you want to “Continue now” or “Continue later.” If you choose “Continue now,” the website will open on the linked PC. If you choose “Continue later,” the website will show up under Action Center for you to get to later when you’re ready. Head over here for more on what’s new in the Fall Creators Update, and have a great week! The post Windows 10 Tip: Get started with Continue on PC in the Microsoft Edge mobile app appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! Head over here to read more about Microsoft Edge, now available for iOS and Android; check out our Windows 10 Tip on how to choose your performance and battery balance – or, keep reading for more of this week’s news! What’s new in Microsoft Store: Kingsman: The Golden Circle https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/6d9348e33ae5a85516cda248d634c32e.jpg The heroes of Kingsman must band together with an allied spy organization as they attempt to defeat a common enemy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle ($19.99 HD/SD). Watch this action-packed adventure now, available in the Movies & TV section of the Microsoft Store two weeks before it comes to Blu-ray. Have a great weekend! The post This Week on Windows: Tips for traveling with your device and more appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

In October, we introduced Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android in preview, in response to your request to make Microsoft Edge work well with your phones. A special THANK YOU goes out to each of you—hundreds of thousands of you—who downloaded, test-drove, and sent feedback on the preview apps. Your ideas and passion have contributed to an even better app experience. We are pleased to announce that we’re removing the “preview” label from our Android and iOS app. Starting today, Microsoft Edge is available for iOS (Apple Store) and Android (Google Play Store) as a free download. Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android brings familiar features like your Favorites, Reading List, New Tab Page, Reading View, and Roaming Passwords across your PC and phone, so, no matter the device, your browsing goes with you. But what makes Microsoft Edge really stand out is the ability to continue on your PC, which enables you to immediately open the page you’re looking at right on your PC—or save it to work on later. And thanks to your feedback, we’ve added some new and popular features since launching the preview mobile app: Roaming Passwords – Save a new password on your phone, and it follows you to your PC. Get to what you need, regardless of where you are or what device you are currently working on. Dark theme – You can now enjoy this popular theme on your phone, in addition to your PC. On market and language availability, Microsoft Edge for iOS is available in the United States (English), China (Simplified-Chinese), France (French) and the UK (English). Microsoft Edge for Android is available in the United States (English), Australia (English) Canada (English and French), China (Simplified-Chinese), France (French), India (English) and the UK (English). We look forward to bringing MS Edge for iOS and Android to additional markets and languages over time! https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/d71dc6808e5020c2c46087ad306ddd16.jpg We are committed to empowering people and organizations to achieve more. And Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android is another step in that journey. While we’re excited to remove the preview label along with the download restrictions, we are more excited about all that’s ahead. We have a long list of new features to build and improvements to make. We hope you will try the app alongside your Windows 10 PCs and provide your ideas on what can make it even better. As has been our approach with Windows 10, we’ll continue to try new things, learn and build the best experiences possible. The post Microsoft Edge now available for iOS and Android appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

According to new data published this year in the Lancet Global Health journal, there are around 252.6 million people affected by blindness and moderate-to-severe visual impairment worldwide. * At Novartis, we are committed to helping people with challenging healthcare issues. As one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, we are harnessing the power of technology to discover and reimagine how it can improve and, in some cases, extend people’s lives. Today, I am excited to announce that Novartis is making available a new app called ViaOpta Hello powered by Microsoft Cognitive Services and the Windows 10 Universal App Platform. The app – which is the latest installment in the suite of ViaOpta apps – is aimed to empower people who are blind or have a severe visual impairment to experience the world. The Windows 10 PC app is available to download for free today** from the Microsoft Store, and the app is also available on Android and iOS platforms for smartphones. We developed ViaOpta Hello to empower people with severe vision loss with the opportunity to engage with the world in new ways. Accessible via a Windows 10 PC and Android or iOS mobile device, it can be used to recognize an individual from a list of people who have given permission to be identified by the app, and to identify objects around the user. During the initial start of facial recognition set up, the app will send a request to use your smartphone camera. After set up, you can ask friends, co-workers, and family to upload their pictures, so the app can identify them later. With Microsoft Cognitive Services on the backend and use of a smartphone camera, you can take a photo of an individual or an object, and the phone will identify the person or object. On the desktop application, you can browse the photos from your phone or shared by friends to determine who or what is in the picture. ViaOpta Hello is an early app, and we’re excited to hear what you think of it. So far, we’ve heard great feedback from our ViaOpta Hello test pilot. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/011f66377a8dccac20cdd221b06fcda2.jpg Accessible via a Windows 10 PC and Android or iOS mobile device, ViaOpta Hello can be used to recognize an object, scenery or an individual from a list of people who have given permission to be identified by the app. The journey of this app began five years ago at our headquarters in Switzerland. To develop solutions patients need, we work with organizations that advocate for patients around the world. ViaOpta Hello was developed in close partnership with advocacy group Retina International. In 2015, Christina Fasser, President of Retina International, expressed the need for more accessible and affordable technology that could help people who are blind or have severe visual impairment navigate everyday situations. We wanted to help and got to work on our own homegrown mobile app. It was originally developed on a single mobile platform on iOS but the functionality was limited to identifying objects only. We needed an app that was simple, user-friendly and powered by intelligent technology that could identify people and objects with more confidence. At Microsoft Build 2015, Microsoft announced Microsoft Cognitive Services preview, which enables organizations to add intelligence to their applications, so they can see, hear, understand and interpret needs using natural methods of communication. With more than 500 million active devices running Windows 10 and many built-in accessibility features in Windows 10, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Cognitive Services, we saw in Microsoft a partner that could not only help reimagine the app but also empower and inform its Windows 10 users too. Our previous version of the app only worked on mobile, but Microsoft and Novartis understood that in order to meet the day-to-day needs of its users, we needed an app that could work across mobile and desktop, no matter where people are or what device they are using. We are excited to launch the ViaOpta Hello app that will enable greater accessibility, confidence, and independence to people who are blind or have a severe visual impairment. If we can create a connection that empowers more experiences with technology, then we have lived our mission. For more information and to stay up to speed on accessibility efforts at Microsoft, visit microsoft.com/accessibility. *Source : Bourne R, et al. Magnitude, temporal trends, and projections of the global prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis; The Lancet Global Health, August 2017. **ViaOpta Hello is currently available in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, East Africa and South Africa, Italy, Nordics, Spain, Australia, Turkey, China, and Ireland. The post Novartis unveils a new app to empower people with blindness and/or severe visual impairment appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

In 1882, by dint of hard work and partnership, electricity reached the Appleton Paper and Pulp Company in Appleton, Wisconsin, nine years before electricity would light up the nation’s White House. Company executive Henry J. Rogers and his colleagues had managed the seemingly impossible, using technology and innovation to harness the Fox River’s turbulent waters, turning the Northeast Wisconsin night into day. “As in Rogers’ day, it takes a few pioneers with vision to show the way,” writes Brad Smith, Microsoft president, and Carol Ann Browne, Microsoft director of executive communications, in a new post in the “Today in Technology” series on LinkedIn. Over the past decade, no one has done more to highlight the opportunity for a new generation of innovation in the Midwest than Steve Case, the founder of America Online (AOL), Smith and Browne write. Case has used his “Rise of the Rest” bus trips to highlight opportunities for entrepreneurs in cities and towns across the center of the country, supporting his words with financial backing from his Revolution LLC investment fund. “Increasingly Case’s message is reaching a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs working across Middle America,” Smith and Browne write. “They include the exciting work of two individuals, Joe Kirgues and Troy Vosseller, the co-founders of gener8tor, a nationally ranked accelerator based in Wisconsin that invests in high-growth startups, including in Appleton, Green Bay, and the rest of the Fox River Valley. Microsoft has had the opportunity to serve as a sponsor of gener8tor’s gBETA free accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots in Northeast Wisconsin.” Case’s and gener8tor’s work is “part of what has inspired us to focus on what Microsoft can do to better support opportunities for technology innovation in every corner of the country,” they write. “As we’ve rolled up our sleeves and engaged with local communities, we’re starting to learn more about what’s needed to bring innovation back to smaller cities and towns in the United States. And this has directed some of our work in new directions.” That work includes Microsoft’s recently launched Airband initiative to bring broadband coverage to at least 2 million new Americans over the next five years and, more importantly, to encourage policymakers across the country to take the additional steps needed to eliminate the rural broadband gap entirely by 2022; Microsoft’s TechSpark program, which is partnering with six communities outside the countries’ large cities to invest in and learn more about how technology can better support economic growth in these parts of the country; and the creation of Titletown Tech. The latter was announced last month in conjunction with the Green Bay Packers NFL franchise in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It will be part of a new building that the Packers will open in Titletown next year, and not only include an accelerator for technology-focused start-ups, but also “a lab that will give traditional companies, including from the local paper industry, the opportunity for employees to work with mentors to develop new digital solutions to transform and grow their businesses,” Smith and Browne write. “The Packers and Microsoft are each putting $5 million over the next five years into the effort, and equally important, it will be supported by the volunteer efforts of Microsoft employees who will serve as mentors.” Read the full post on LinkedIn. The post Innovation often comes from the heart of America appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

At a time when space is at a premium and many companies are looking for room to grow, we recognize that our 500-acre campus in Redmond, Washington, is a unique asset. Neighboring a vibrant urban core, suburban towns, lakes, mountains and miles of forest, it’s one of Microsoft’s crown jewels. And as we continue to grow and look to create the best workplace in the tech sector, Microsoft will invest right here in Redmond, our home for more than 30 years. Next fall, we will break ground on a multi-year campus refresh project that will include 18 new buildings, 6.7 million square feet of renovated workspace, $150 million in transportation infrastructure improvements, public spaces, sports fields and green space. Today Microsoft has 125 buildings on our Redmond campus. When this project is complete, our main campus will be comprised of 131 buildings — including the equivalent of 180 football fields of new and renovated space — of modern workspace for the 47,000 employees who work here every day, plus room to expand operations and add up to 8,000 more people. This project represents a significant investment by the company, will involve roughly 2,500 construction and development jobs, and will take five to seven years to complete. It’s an investment that’s good for our employees, good for the Puget Sound community, and makes good sense for our shareholders. We are not only creating a world-class work environment to help retain and attract the best and brightest global talent, but also building a campus that our neighbors can enjoy, and that we can build in a fiscally smart way with low environmental impact. As our employees create the tools and services of the future workspace for our customers, it’s important they have a campus that reflects that future for themselves. We will create that workplace in part by applying our learnings from our other recent campus redevelopment projects in Redmond, Vancouver B.C. and the Paddington office in London, and how they have enabled teams to collaborate, showcase our workspace and related technologies for customers and, most importantly, enhance the experience for employees. Our new campus will be more open and less formal, divided into a series of “team neighborhoods” while capturing more natural light and fostering the type of creativity that will lead to ongoing innovation to advance the industry and benefit our customers. And while we transform our workspace inside, we will renovate the exterior to create more opportunities to exercise, play and connect with nature for the people who work at Microsoft and those who live nearby. Our plans include a 2-acre open plaza that will fit up to 12,000 people, running and walking trails, facilities for soccer and cricket, and retail space. Our new buildings will focus on inclusive design and accessible technology to empower all of our employees. The campus will be built for pedestrians and bikes with all cars moved to an underground parking facility. We will also build off the region’s smart investments in transportation by constructing a foot- and cyclist-only bridge across WA-520 that will connect both sides of our campus and tie into the future Redmond Technology Transit Station where Link Light Rail will arrive in 2023. Redmond has been Microsoft’s home since 1986, and we are proud to be an active part of the Puget Sound community. Microsoft is committed to remaining a good neighbor and ensuring that our operations are run in a sustainable way. We prize our relationship with the City of Redmond and will work closely with officials on the approval for campus and building architectural designs, engineering, building permit review and land use code compliance. As a Zero Waste Certified campus we will continue to focus further on waste-reduction initiatives. We’ll also continue to fully fund transit options for employees, including ORCA transit cards, carpool and vanpool, and Microsoft-run employee Connector buses and other vehicles to supplement existing options. And we will continue to be Energy Smart, using Azure for building system monitoring to optimize our energy usage and reduce our carbon footprint. As Microsoft continues to create the tools and services that are shaping the future of work, we can’t think of a better time to modernize our campus into a model of ingenuity and innovation. As our plans and work on this exciting project progress, we look forward to keeping you updated on our journey. The post Investing to grow right here at home appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

Microsoft believes that advances in technology will solve many of the problems created in the industrial era and help make society safer, more sustainable, efficient and inclusive. For example, as enterprises harness the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect their physical assets to the cloud, they are dramatically reducing energy usage and consuming fewer natural resources. While the breakthrough insights IoT solutions can provide are significant, they can be even more powerful when combined with location–based insights. Today at AutoMobility LA, Microsoft announced the public preview of Azure Location Based Services, a new Azure cloud offering to power the “Location of Things.” This includes geographical data that can better connect smart cities, infrastructure and IoT solutions, and empower industrial transformation, from manufacturing to retail to automotive – and everything in between. Available in early December, Azure Location Based Services provides an enterprise-ready location service for customers to build mobility, asset tracking and other geospatial applications that provide useful insights through one dashboard, one subscription and one bill. Azure Location Based Services also provides enterprises with the privacy, data sovereignty, compliance, scale and simplicity they have come to expect from Azure services. As IoT continues to transform businesses by providing breakthrough insights and optimizations for connected assets, location becomes even more important. For instance, a department of transportation can now use Azure Location Based Services to analyze and improve traffic in congested cities, freight companies can provide improved fleet management and logistics, and businesses can track the location of assets and be notified when their location changes. Customers and partners harness the cloud to create mobility solutions Joining us as our first official partner on the platform is TomTom. Mapmaking is in TomTom’s DNA. The company created one of the first digital maps in the world by harnessing the power of community. We believe that TomTom’s API, which builds on top of Microsoft’s cloud, is the glue between smart cities, smart infrastructure and smart vehicles, rather than Automotive on its own. Esri, an enterprise mapping and geographic information system (GIS) technology leader, also intends to join Azure Location Based Services to provide business customers with a complete set of location data management, digital mapping and geographic analytics, provided through Esri’s ArcGIS suite and developer APIs. Several service providers in the mobility space have been testing Azure Location Based Services in private preview. Cubic Telecom, an Ireland-based global telecommunications service provider in the IoT and automotive sectors, has built a proof of concept that uses the services to rank the effectiveness of their charging station placements and suggest new charging locations based on network hotspots using their aggregated (and anonymous) connectivity data. Fathym, a U.S.-based IoT solutions company, is using the services to help cities and government agencies and commercial trucking companies visualize road weather conditions on maps and data visualizations and optimize for other routes if weather conditions are unsafe. Microsoft’s Azure cloud is also the preferred cloud of a number of automotive makers. ICONIQ, a Chinese electric-vehicle maker, has selected the Microsoft Azure cloud to provide predictive maintenance, vehicle diagnostics and analytics, and a voice assistant in its cars. This is a key partnership for Microsoft in the vast and growing Chinese vehicle market. Microsoft is building digital infrastructure on its cloud with hundreds of thousands of partners from the automotive, smart city and location industries. In addition to TomTom, Cubic Telecom, Fathym and ICONIQ, here’s a rundown of the other Microsoft partner companies that are joining us in our booth at Automobility this week: BrightBox: provides a connected car platform called Remoto that links drivers to their cars, and the vehicles to car manufacturers, dealerships and third-party service providers. Cubic Transportation: NextCityTM is Cubic’s coordinated framework for building a smarter tomorrow in the world’s urban centers, where increasing populations are resulting in greater traffic congestion, frustrated travelers and less productivity. NextCity integrates all travel information, payment and other customer experience, as well as operations and analytics in a given region for all modes of transportation. Delphi: building autonomous driving solutions by integrating safer, greener and more connected solutions for the automotive and transportation sectors. Otonomo: building the world’s first connected vehicle data marketplace platform for the safe and simple access, acquisition and integration of vehicle data. Otonomo facilitates a win-win situation for auto OEMs, mobility service providers and drivers. The Future of Urban Mobility and Beyond Microsoft’s commitment to improving urban mobility through technology goes beyond product announcements and partnerships. Earlier this month, we announced an expansion to an open-source research project called AirSim that tests the safety of artificial intelligence systems. AirSim provides realistic environments, vehicle dynamics and sensing for how autonomous vehicles that use AI can operate safely in the open world. And through the Vision Zero project Microsoft is working with companies such as Open Data Nation (ODN) to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries. Microsoft has also invested in technologies that can help create inclusiveness between governments and citizens, and in collaboration with G3ict and World Enabled, we recently launched the Smart Cities for All Toolkit. With the worldwide population expected to triple by 2050, it’s hard to overstate how important IoT-based solutions, including location-based services, and greater digital connectivity will be in achieving our vision for safer, more sustainable and equitable societies. Please join us at booth #138 at Automobility to see how together with customers and partners we’ll make connected societies even more possible. The post Microsoft builds and integrates Azure Location Based Services directly into the cloud appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. Continue reading...

Hello Windows Insiders, Check your inboxes! An email was sent out today to all Windows Insiders from Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, to talk about what’s coming for Insiders in upcoming flights. First off – we will be bringing the feature Timeline to Insiders with the next flight. We demoed Timeline earlier this year at Build and it has been hotly anticipated by Insiders. Timeline is integrated directly into Task View and allows you to jump back in time to easily find the files, apps, and websites you’re looking for as if you never left. We’re really looking forward to hearing what Insiders think as they start using Timeline. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/aeb53207ed568cbb9dcadeba61d3a7b1.jpg Timeline as shown at Build 2017 Second – we’re going to start doing controlled studies with some of new features for Windows 10 we’re working on. We’ve been doing this on a smaller scale – like trying out different Hub icons in Microsoft Edge to see which one people like more. Now we’re going to start doing these with entire features. This means that a smaller percentage of you will initially get certain new features in builds and others may not get these new features for a while, as we compare the usage and satisfaction of these features versus people who don’t. Eventually everyone will get these features—but it just could be awhile. With this approach, it also means that we will make these features broadly available when they are ready, not necessarily tied to the next major feature update of Windows 10. In the coming weeks, one of the first features to take this new approach will be a feature we’re calling “Sets” (we may end up calling it something else by the time it ships). We will of course continue to ship a ton of new features and updates to the entire Windows Insider community as we build the future of Windows. For more, check out Terry’s email in your inbox. You can also read his email here from the Windows Insider website. I also have a few more things to share with you as well. We want to make sure you are aware that we recently re-launched our website and have shifted our focus to provide content that YOU have asked for, namely Insider Corner (showcase on the Community) and Articles (information about the program that you have been asking for such as Made By You articles, Behind-The-Scenes and more). You will continue to see new content being published to the website every month including your highly requested piece on “How to convince your boss to upgrade your business to Windows 10”! As you know, we on the Insider team are deeply passionate about creating technology but also creating WITH technology. We believe that everyone in the world should have the opportunity to at least be exposed to Computer Science education. We believe that ANYONE can learn and it is NEVER too late. If you have not attempted any sort of coding, we invite you to join us for Computer Science Education week next week as we together as a team complete the Minecraft: Hero’s Journey one hour game. We will then go into classrooms and teach this course within our own communities like this Windows Insider has done, not just for kids but the adults who love them. If you do complete this Hour of Code game (seeing that 5 year old’s can do this easily, we know you can too!), please do tweet us a screenshot of your completed certificate and we will share a mural of them in an upcoming website post! For those of you who want to go further, I HIGHLY recommend this C# course on Microsoft Virtual Academy. Over the next few months, you will see us create content and host events not only for our Insiders who are consumers and IT folks, but also Insiders who are developers and creators. This will include people who build UWP apps, but ALSO people who build anything using Windows: game developers, Mixed Reality artists, sound engineers, graphic designers, Azure-backed web apps, etc. If you’ve ever been even a little “code curious”, this is the time to learn! In addition to Microsoft Virtual Academy, we have fallen in love with the amazing, diverse learning content on LinkedIn Learning. We highly recommend that over the holiday, Insiders use the one-month free trial and take a course that interests them. I personally am taking this negotiation course to continue to refine my hustle! Lastly, if you want to engage with us around any kind of professional or career development, please follow me on LinkedIn where I share content daily. Note: that is NOT the channel to discuss or get information about Windows features. No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service, Dona <3 The post Coming soon to a flight near you! appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...

The new Performance/Power slider* lets you set the right balance between battery-life longevity and system performance and responsiveness. Optimize for battery life on a long flight; go with performance when you’re gaming or photo editing at home.* https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/19e82bdfba35dfe5ec4cdedb4a3668d5.gif Simply click on the battery icon in the taskbar, and use the slider to choose your performance and battery balance. Have a great week! *Available on most Intel and AMD devices with battery. The post Windows 10 Tip: Choose your performance and battery balance appeared first on Windows Experience Blog. Continue reading...