Microsoft news recap: Band owners continue to experience problems, Kaspersky drops antitrust complaint and more

Microsoft (MSFT) news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!

Microsoft is giving away 500 Rewards points for free to apologize for the system being slow to grant rewards

In response to Microsoft Rewards being slow at granting rewards upon redemption, the company is offering 500 Rewards points for free, as an act of apology.

Some Microsoft Band owners are still experiencing sync problems, and Microsoft is still working to fix it

For about a week now, Microsoft Band owners have been complaining of problems with synchronisation. The company has said they’re investigating and are working on a fix for the issue.

yes, we know about this and are investigating.

— Dona Sarkar at #MBAS #a11y (@donasarkar) August 10, 2017

Microsoft introduces Coco Framework, makes blockchain networks enterprise ready

As Microsoft pushes further into blockchain, the company has introduced a framework called the Coco Framework. It aims to deliver performance and processing power that enterprises need for blockchain networks, and is open source.

“We have listened to the needs of our customers and the blockchain community and are bringing foundational functionality with the Coco Framework. Through an innovative combination of advanced algorithms and trusted execution environments (TEEs), like Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) or Windows Virtual Secure Mode (VSM), we believe this takes the next step toward making blockchain ready for business.”

Kaspersky drops its antitrust complaint after Microsofts agrees to cooperate with AV vendors

After a months-long fight, Kaspersky Labs has dropped an antitrust complaint it lodged against Microsoft, after the company has reportedly agreed to cooperate with vendors of anti-virus software in Windows 10, with the following key points:

• We will work more closely with AV vendors to help them with compatibility reviews in advance of each feature update becoming available to customers. This means customers can expect we will have worked through compatibility issues with AV providers before offering the update to customers running that AV.
• We will give AV partners better visibility and certainty around release schedules for feature updates. This includes increasing the amount of time AV partners will have to review final builds before the next Windows 10 feature update is rolled out to customers.
• We will enable AV providers to use their own alerts and notifications to renew antivirus products before and after they have expired.
• We have modified how Windows will inform users when their antivirus application has expired and is no longer protecting them. Instead of providing an initial toast notification that users could ignore, the new notification will persist on the screen until the user either elects to renew the existing solution or chooses to rely on Windows Defender or another solution provider.

That’s it for this week, we’ll be back next week with more Microsoft news.