The Microsoft Band joined the pantheon of extinguished company efforts back in 2016. The fitness-focused smart band had a relatively short shelf life of three years before Microsoft gave the product line the boot but could rival most smartphone watch efforts with the tech the company packed into it.

However, it now seems Microsoft may not be quite finished with measuring health metrics via a wearable device. A newly granted Microsoft patent has surfaced which details a conceptual successor to the Microsoft Band 2, which is titled, “Wearable Pulse Pressure Wave Sending Device.”

Unimaginative marketing name aside, Microsoft’s new patent aims to address a consumer lack of blood pressure measuring solutions. The WPPWSD is less like the previous smart cuff idea Microsoft used and more a patch with an array of pressure sensors that lay across a specific area (presumably near an artery). The kicker to the patent is that the device will seek out and alert users as to where the best place is to place it for the most accurate reading. Ideally, Microsoft’s artery monitoring system will reduce the number of false-positive reads and inform the users with the most accurate reads on a daily basis.

However, Microsoft does leave room for enough of a display for its new patent to double as a smartwatch if necessary.

A wrist-band takes the form of a so-called  ‘smartwatch’ with all its attendant computing, display and communication capabilities. It is noted that given the user interface capabilities of a smartwatch, the wearable sensing implementations can be configured via conventional means to display information to the wearer. For example, instructions for operating the wrist-band implementations can be displayed to the user, as well as the computed cardiovascular metrics.

Microsoft patent is intended to periodically measure pulse pressure along an artery to help individuals with hypertension or high blood pressure, track their levels.

The general design of the patented device isn’t in the list of images available at the moment, but it seems Microsoft may look to leap past the traditional swiss army knife approach of current smartphone fitness offerings and provide a highly focused health monitor in the near future.

While first introduced in 2014, the Microsoft Band didn’t really hit its fitness-first stride until 2015 when the company dropped the Band 2. The Microsoft Band 2 included early industry iterations of optical heart rate monitoring, galvanic skin response sensors, skin temperature sensor, capacitive sensor, and improved sleep tracking software among other features.

Now it seems, that Microsoft’s new patent could help to revive Microsoft’s interest in wearables once again and with a more focused strategy of health monitoring vs. the endless sea of do-everything smartwatches currently out.

It remains to be seen, what the device could ultimately look like, what OS it would run, and whether or not Microsoft is set to bring this idea to a consumer space or reserve it for medical only applications if the company decides to act on the patent at all.

It’s official, Microsoft will hold its first-party games showcase on July 23. The company has just announced the upcoming event simply named “Xbox Games Showcase,” which will kick off at 9AM PT following a pre-show at 8AM PT with Summer Games Fest host Geoff Keighley.

???? Xbox Games Showcase
???? July 23rd
⏰ 9am PT@SummerGameFest Pre-Show at 8am PT with @GeoffKeighley on @YouTubeGaming#XboxGamesShowcase pic.twitter.com/zGr5AnFwic

— Xbox (@Xbox) July 6, 2020

After Microsoft admitted it set wrong expectations for its May Inside Xbox episode, the company has no choice but to bring out the big guns for its next digital event. This is especially true after Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal event got a lot of good buzz last month, with 12 million views on YouTube as of this writing.

Microsoft chose to first put the spotlight on third-party games in May, but first-party exclusive games are really what Xbox enthusiasts care about. Halo: Infinite: Hellblade 2, Flight Simulator, and a new Forza game are expected to make an appearance at the show. There are also been rumors about a new Fable game developed by Forza Horizon 4 developer Playground Games, and Rare’s Perfect Dark series may also get a reboot.

We also hope that Microsoft learned a lesson after teasing “gameplay” for its May event, when what we got was a fast-paced series of cinematic trailers with very few gameplay sequences. We hope to see the company truly showcase its next-gen games and highlight next-gen features like ray-tracing and ultra-fast loading times.

Do you expect Microsoft to blow the minds of Xbox fans on July 23? Let us know what you’d like to see during the show in the comments below.

Welcome back to our Windows 10 news recap, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Xbox Game Bar for Windows 10 gets new widgets, including from 3rd parties

Windows 10’s Xbox Game Bar has gained some new widgets, but not just from Microsoft, also from 3rd parties, including XSplit’s Game Bar HUD widget.

Microsoft’s new Windows File Recovery app helps recover deleted data

If you’ve accidentally deleted or lost some files on your Windows 10 PC, it may now be easier to try and recover the files. Microsoft has released a Windows File Recovery app that uses the command line to make it easier to recover files.

Microsoft starts rolling out its new Edge browser to Windows 10 Education and Enterprise devices

The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser is now rolling out to users of Windows 10 Education and Enterprise.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Windows 10 news.

Microsoft Teams is getting a new contextual search feature that will help users find information faster in the app. The Microsoft 365 roadmap indicates that the feature would hit general availability in June, and Microsoft MVP Linus Cansby noticed that it has now started rolling out on the desktop app.

With contextual search, you can now search for content in a specific Teams channel or chat by using CTRL+F (CMD+F on Mac). At the moment, your search results will only contain chat messages/posts found in the selected chat or channel, and you will still need to use the regular search function if you want to search for files. Here’s a look at how you can use the new contextual feature in Teams.

How to search in channels

If you want to search something in a specific channel, simply press the CTRL + F buttons simultaneously. You will instantly get the command /find <ChannelName> prefilled in the Search and Command box located at the top of your Teams window. Then, search results from that channel will appear in the left column, and you will be able to click on one of the results to see the conversation in the main window on the right side of your screen.

How to search in chats

Similarly, the contextual search feature also works for chats in Microsoft Teams. Open the chat window, press the CTRL + F buttons simultaneously, type something to search for a specific message, and the Results pane on the left will show your search results. It’s a great way to get the messages from someone who shared some important details in a chat months ago and eliminates the need to manually scroll through the chat history.

How to search directly in a channel/chat

Finally, there is also the ability to search directly from the Search and Command box in Microsoft Teams. To do this, type /find, type or select the name of a channel or chat, then type something you want to search for, and finally press the enter button. However, keep in mind that it is not possible to search chat messages/posts in a General channel while searching in this manner and not directly from that channel.

Overall, the feature makes it a lot easier for you to do more within less time and find things like a specific message your colleague left you. If you find the contextual search helpful, feel free to check out our dedicated post on top tips and secrets of the search function in Microsoft Teams.

It was quite a long wait, but Microsoft has finally released a new Windows 10 Insider build with some new features and noticeable changes today. Even the Windows Insider website is getting a new look, though it’s currently only available in en-us English for now.

So, the Windows 10 Insider build 20161 is now available to download in the Dev channel, and it includes several important changes. However, the Windows Insider team said that only a subset of Insiders will see the new features for now so the team can “quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability.”

Anyway, the first big change in this build is that the Start Menu is getting Theme-aware tiles, which will replace the solid color backplates that didn’t always look good depending on your accent color. “This refined Start design looks great in both dark and light theme, but if you’re looking for a splash of color, first make sure to turn on Windows dark theme and then toggle “Show accent color on the following surfaces” for “Start, taskbar, and action center” under Settings > Personalization > Color to elegantly apply your accent color to the Start frame and tiles,” the team explained.

The second big change in this build is that the Alt + Tab experience will now include all tabs open in Edge. You can turn this off in Settings > System > Multitasking if you prefer the classic experience, or you can choose to only show your last three or five tabs when you hit Alt + Tab. This feature will also require a Canary or Dev build of Microsoft Edge (version 83.0.475.0 or higher), Microsoft said today.

Starting with this build, Microsoft is also introducing a Programmable taskbar during the out-of-box experience. The idea is to offer a more personalized Taskbar for new users with linked Android phones, or those with Xbox Live accounts on gaming PCs, so the taskbar will add useful shortcuts to Your Phone or the Xbox app when they boot up their new PC.

“Please note that this experience is limited to new account creation or first logon scenarios. We will not use Programmable Taskbar to alter the Taskbar layout on existing accounts,” the Windows Insider team clarified. You can see some examples of this Programmable Taskbar below.

Microsoft has also changed how notifications look like in this new build, with a new app logo at the top showing which app has sent you the notification. Moreover, Microsoft has also turned off the Focus Assist notification and summary toast you usually see after Focus Assist has been automatically turned on. However, Insiders will still be able to revert to the previous behaviour if they prefer seeing these notifications.

The Settings app is also getting more information from the Legacy Control Panel in this build, though the Windows Insider team said that this is still a work in progress. Moreover, it will now be possible to copy your device specifications, and Microsoft has also streamlined information about Windows Security in the Settings app.

The last big change in this build is related to the tablet experience for 2-in-1 devices: The new tablet posture experience that debuted in the May 2020 Update will now be the default when you detach the keyboard on a 2-in-1 device, and users will no longer see the notification asking them if they want to switch into tablet mode. Again, Insiders will be able to change this setting in System > Tablet if they prefer the old experience.

There are two other important things to note about the tablet experience for 2-in-1 devices in this build: Microsoft has removed the tablet mode quick action on non-touch devices to prevent any confusion, and tablet users will also boot into the appropriate mode depending on the presence of the keyboard, or the last mode they were using.

That’s a lot of changes for a single build, but keep in mind that these are all experimental features that may not end up in a future Windows 10 Update. The build 20161 also comes with several fixes and known issues, and you can find the full list below:

Fixes

• We fixed an issue resulting in Insiders experiencing bug checks when connecting and interacting with an Xbox controller.
• We’ve fixed an issue causing some games and applications to crash at launch or fail to install.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Edge not navigating to websites when WDAG was enabled on the last 2 flights.
• We fixed an issue which was increasing log off time in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue with the Chinese Pinyin IME where after setting your preferred IME toolbar orientation, you may not be able to change it again after rebooting your PC.
• We fixed an issue causing Reset this PC to always show the error “There was a problem resetting this PC” when launched from Settings in the last few builds.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Bluetooth devices no longer showing their battery level in Settings in the last few builds.
• We fixed an issue where Settings would crash if you went to Settings > Privacy > Microphone while a win32 app was recording audio.
• We fixed an issue where if Sound Settings showed “no input devices found” in the input dropdown and you clicked it, then Settings would crash.
• We fixed an issue where when adding a printer, the dialog might crash if you navigated through to the “Add a printer driver” dialog in recent builds.
• We fixed a graphics related issue resulting in some users experiencing bugchecks.

Known issues

• We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some systems to crash with a HYPERVISOR_ERROR bugcheck.
• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• We’re aware of an issue where Notepad might fail to reopen files which were automatically saved during a PC restart (if that option is enabled in Settings). Documents can be recovered from %localappdata%Notepad.We’re investigating reports of the screen becoming dimmer after upgrading to the previous build.
• We’re aware of an issue where Task Manager reports 0.00 GHz CPU usage in the Performance tab.
• We’re investigating reports that when you press space while using the Korean IME in certain apps, the last character is deleted.
• We’re working to fine tune the tile animations in Start to avoid flashes of color.

It’s nice to finally get new features to play with, even though we remind you that only a subset of Insiders who install this build will see them at first. If you’re not an Insider, the Windows Insider team also announced today that the new Windows Calculator graphing mode feature that was released to Insiders in January is now rolling out to the public. We’re getting some existing Insider news a little bit later in the day than usual this week, but we hope the team will soon be back with more new features later this month.

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar for Windows 10 is becoming more versatile this year thanks to third-party widgets. The new Widget store launched for all Windows 10 users in beta last month, but it’s getting an official launch today along with some important widgets updates.

First of all, the version 1.0 XSplit’s Game Bar HUD widget is available from the Game Bar Widget Store today, and it brings support for XSplit’s Broadcaster video mixing software, as well as new Gamecaster controls for the XSplit Gamecaster desktop app. Overall, this widget is a great replacement for the built-in Mixer feature that Microsoft removed from the Game Bar recently, when we still didn’t know Mixer would shut down in July.

The Xbox Game Bar Widget Store has also welcomed Corsair’s iCUE Widgets for customizing lighting effects on the company’s iCUE devices (the iCUE desktop app version 3.30 is required), as well Razer’s Chroma RGB for Twitch Streamers and THX Spatial Audio widgets. Other new additions include the Intel Graphics Command Center, as well as a third-party YouTube Gamer Overlay for watching videos when you’re playing games.

To access the new Widget Store, you’ll need to click on the Widget Menu on the left side of the Game Bar. Microsoft the Game Bar SDK developer hub to help developers brings more widgets to the Xbox Game Bar, and we hope to see more new additions soon.

More information is starting to pour in about Lockhart, the second next-gen Xbox console that Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch along with the Xbox Series X later this year. Microsoft is reportedly planning to unveil the cheaper next-gen SKU in August, and while we already know some details about Lockhart’s specs, the design remains a mystery so far.

You have probably already seen Lockhart/Xbox Series S mockups inspired by the Series X design, with a white discless console that would be roughly half the size of the Series X. However, Brad Sams from Thurrott.com hinted yesterday that the console could actually look more like the existing Xbox One X.

According to Sams, Microsoft employees that need to travel with Lockhart/Xbox Series S prototypes have been asked to hide them in cases that look like existing Xbox One consoles. On the other hand, Xbox Series X reportedly need to be hidden by employees in larger cases, such as PC towers:

One thing that Microsoft mandates is when they let employees/third-parties travel with the hardware, they ask them to disguise the product. This is a standard practice in the industry but for the Anaconda, Microsoft recommended employees put the hardware in a PC tower, subwoofer, or something else that is quite large. For Lockhart, Microsoft has said that the hardware should be disguised by using Durango or Scorpio covers which means the device is not the same shape as the series X.

Sams also emphasized that using the split motherboard design from the Xbox Series X on the cheaper Lockhart SKU doesn’t make a lot of sense, as the two motherboards on the Series X are more complex and expensive to manufacture. “To make a split motherboard and to make it smaller than the series X to achieve the smaller design, would increase cost, not reduce it,” argued Sams.

It could make more sense for Microsoft to just re-purpose its existing Xbox One X manufacturing capabilities for Lockhart consoles, which could feature a similar design though with the omission of a disc drive to cut costs. The Xbox One X design is still pretty great in 2020, and it’s actually the smallest Xbox console ever created by Microsoft. And it still looks good next to the Xbox Series X, as we’ve seen in the different side-by-side pictures from Digital Foundry.

If you’ve been worried about Lockhart being underpowered next to the Xbox Series X, the PlayStation 5, or even the Xbox One X, it looks like this won’t be the case. Even if the console comes with a 4 teraflops GPU that doesn’t support 4K, this GPU will reportedly support ray-tracing and probably other next-gen features. Moreover, the console’s CPU will apparently be the same as the one in the Xbox Series X.

to the “Lockhart will hold back next-gen” crowd:

• Lockhart CPU is faster than PS5
• Lockhart supports raytracing
• Game developers have been building PC titles for multiple GPUs for… decades

????????

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) June 29, 2020

We did a poll on Twitter yesterday to ask our readers if they preferred Sony’s approach with 2 almost identical PlayStation 5 consoles, with one model just lacking a disc drive, or Microsoft’s approach with two consoles with quite different specs. As of this writing, 73.9% of respondents gave a thumbs up to Microsoft’s approach, even though launching two different next-gen consoles later this fall appears a bit risky next to Sony’s easier to understand PlayStation 5 lineup.

Microsoft has been emphasizing for months that it will have the most powerful console on the market with the Xbox Series X, and Lockhart/Xbox Series S could well dilute Microsoft’s messaging. Moreover, Microsoft also unveiled an official “Optimized for Xbox Series X” badge that should appear on game packaging as well as the digital Xbox Store, so the question remains about games optimized for Lockhart/Xbox Series S.

Could Microsoft use another “Optimized for Xbox Series S” badge that may well cause confusion among gamers, or will the company need to explain that games optimized for the Xbox Series X will also be optimized for Lockhart/Xbox Series S, though to a lesser degree? The whole thing sounds like a marketing nightmare, and a problem that Sony won’t have with its simpler PlayStation 5 lineup. I wrote before that the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition was the perfect answer to Microsoft’s Lockhart/Xbox Series S, and I still think that a discless Xbox Series X would have been better for consumers and developers than Lockhart.

However, if Microsoft manages to clearly explains to gamers what Lockhart is, and price it lower than the PS5 Digital Edition, then maybe this cheaper SKU could make sense. Maybe Microsoft can market Lockhart/Xbox Series S as the next-gen console for people who have yet to buy a 4K TV or monitor, and that’s certainly a big market. But again, maybe Microsoft will struggle to explain why it needs another next-gen console after praising the Xbox Series X’s superior specs for so many months.

Last month, Microsoft started the automatic rollout of its Chromium-based Microsoft Edge for some Windows 10 devices, with the new browser replacing the legacy version to become the default browser on these PCs. However, the automatic rollout was only happening on PCs running Windows 10 Home and Pro so far, and now Microsoft is all set to expand its availability to Business and Education versions of the OS in the coming weeks after July 30.

“Beginning no earlier than July 30, 2020, Microsoft will update Microsoft Edge Legacy to the new Microsoft Edge browser by Windows Update on Windows 10 devices in education and business,” Microsoft explained in a blog post this week. “This update will not impact devices in education and business updated by Windows Update for Business (WUfB) or by Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Updates will target education devices first to accommodate back-to-school timing. We will share a business timeline at a later date.”

According to Microsoft, “no action is required” at users’ end to get the automatic update. However, the company has provided some additional instructions to help K-12 educational institutions configure their devices to receive the update, as well as a blocker toolkit to block it for those who don’t want to update. In addition, Microsoft noted in the blog post that these devices can continue to run Internet Explorer 11 when the new Edge is installed, and the browser “will respect your previously established default browser choice”.

Microsoft has already confirmed that the upcoming feature update (Windows 10 20H2), to be available later this year, will be the first Windows 10 version to ship with the new Chromium-based Edge. Have you already received the new Microsoft Edge via Windows Update on your PC? Let us know in the comments down below.