Microsoft 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’s SwiftKey Keyboard adds support for Dark Mode on Android phones and tablets

SwiftKey on Android has received a new update that has brought Dark Mode for both phones and tablets, The Settings screen has also received a new design.

Ex-Microsoft engineer faces up to 20 years in prison for defrauding company of $10 million

One of Microsoft’s ex-engineers is facing up to 20 years imprisonment for defrauding the company of $10 million. Following a 5-day trial, the ex-engineer was found guilty of 18 federal felonies.

Xbox Series X will support audio ray tracing and resuming games after a reboot

New information surrounding Microsoft’s next gaming console, the Xbox Series X, has been announced. Of note is the console’s ability to resume a game after rebooting the console.

Microsoft updates Q3 FY20 guidance as coronavirus outbreak to impact Windows OEM and Surface revenues

As the Coronavirus continues its course across an increasing number of countries, Microsoft has updated its Q3 FY20 guidance to make note of the impact that coronavirus could have on its financial performance. Notably, Microsoft expects it to impact Windows OEM and Surface revenue.

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

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.

Cortana to lose consumer skills in Windows 10 20H1 update, but Alexa integration is here to stay

Microsoft looks to be massively scaling back Cortana as it has started work on removing a number of consumer skills, including music, connected home and third-party skills, as well as ending support for Cortana on unsupported versions of Windows 10, including Windows 10 Mobile.

New Instagram PWA is now available in the Windows 10 Microsoft Store

Instagram is rolling out a new app for Windows 10 to the Microsoft Store. This time, it is a Progressive Web App (PWA). Along with it comes the ability to use Direct Messages via the desktop. For Windows 10 users, hopefully it ends the issue of long delays between updates compared to other platforms.

Windows 10 Start Menu may lose its Live Tiles according to new report

According to a new report, Windows 10’s Start Menu could lose its Live Tiles functionality. The report states that Microsoft could replace Live Tiles with icons.

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

Microsoft’s may launch its first dual-screen device a bit sooner than expected according to a new report from Windows Central. The Surface Duo, the company’s first Android device may, start shipping as soon as this summer, with Microsoft possibly confirming the news during a Spring Surface event where Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2 could also appear.

“I’m told that Microsoft is hoping to have all the software done by early April, and that Surface Duo could start shipping in limited quantities in time for the summer if everything goes according to plan,” wrote Windows Central’s Zac Bowden. “I expect that this initial launch will be aimed primarily at developers and enthusiasts, with its availability announced in the spring alongside the Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3.”

Sources also told Windows Central that Surface Duo will come with a Snapdragon 855 SoC, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, though there will be different configurations with more RAM and storage. However, Surface Duo using Qualcomm’s flagship processor for 2019 means that it won’t support 5G.

Bowden also has a theory about some of the Surface Duo’s surprising design choices such as the pretty big bezels (for today’s standards), as well as the lack of multiple cameras. This may be because the hardware has been ready for quite some time, before Microsoft decided against using Windows Core OS on Surface Duo in favor of Android:

Surface Duo has had a long, hard journey internally. Microsoft started working on it back in 2016 under the codename Andromeda, and the plan was for Surface Duo to be one of the first products to ship with Windows Core OS. Under those plans, the product was supposed to launch in 2018, but that changed when Microsoft dumped Windows for Android instead.

Because of this, the hardware has essentially been ready to go for two years, with only iterative changes being made to the device since. This might explain why Surface Duo doesn’t have slim bezels or multiple camera sensors. These were only just starting to be a thing on smartphones launching in 2018. In 2020, thin bezels, 5G, and multiple cameras are pretty much the norm.

As of this writing, the Surface Duo page on Microsoft’s website still indicates that the device is “coming holiday 2020.” However, we were wondering earlier this week if a leaked promotional Surface Duo video where the date on the device’s display is 06/18/2020 may actually be teasing the Surface Duo’s launch date. Technically, June 18 is just 3 days ahead of summer, but a June launch doesn’t sound that crazy especially after we’ve seen a video a Surface Duo out in the wild.

The games, Just Cause 4 and Dragon Ball Fighter Z, are now free to play on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles as part of this week’s Free Play Weekend campaign.

Both games join the previously announced The Division 2 as Xbox One games that can be played in full by anyone with an active Xbox Live Gold subscription from now until the end of Sunday with all game progress being saved to their accounts.

Here’s the official trailers for each game along with their online store links at the bottom of the page.

In addition to being free to play this weekend, all three titles have also had their prices slashed with discounts ranging from 65% to 95% now being activated. The Standard Edition of The Division 2 is now just $2.99 which is kind of insane.

Let us know what games you’ll be playing this weekend and then follow us on Pinterest and Twitter for more Xbox gaming news.

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Just Cause 4

Developer:
Square Enix

Price:
Free

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DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ(Xbox One)

Developer:
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.

Price:
Free

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Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2

Developer:
UBISOFT

Price:
Free

If being able to get Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 for just $2.99 (that’s 95 percent off) wasn’t enough to get you to give it a shot, Ubisoft has something else for you. Starting today until March 2, the game is available for free to those on both Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

On the Xbox One, you’ll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play the game. Additionally, if you enjoyed the game when it was free to play last October for Xbox One, all of your previous saved data will carry over to this renewed trial.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2

Developer:
UBISOFT

Price:
Free

PC owners will be able to access the free-to-play access of the game though either Uplay or the Epic Store. Playstation 4 owners also won’t require a Playstation Plus membership, unlike that of the Xbox One console.

With the sale and the free-to-play trial both going on, it could be the best time for players to get into the action. Especially as the older Tom Clancy’s The Division was recently removed from the Game Pass catalog.

Will you be participating in the free-to-play weekend of the game? Let us know what you think about it in the comments area below.

Yesterday, the markets took a dive as fears of a spreading coronavirus shook investor confidence in international business. As the spread of the virus makes its way into parts of central Asia and Europe, more areas are being quarantined and as a result, businesses are beginning to feel the impact of a reduced chain of supply.

Among the many businesses with international interests and investments is Microsoft, which issued an update to its Q3 FY20 guidance.

At the end of January, Microsoft prepared investors on an earnings call for a quarter where its More Personal Computing division would pull in a reasonable $10 to $11 billion in revenue. During that call, Microsoft explained the projections were taking into account growing concerns about the relatively nascent COVID-19.

Now it seems things have gotten a bit dire with regards to its supply chain and the company is alerting investors that its projection will like slip for the quarter.

Microsoft declined to pinpoint a number in their press release about the updated guidance and instead offer this statement,

Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call. As a result, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, we do not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated. All other components of our Q3 guidance remain unchanged.

As expected, Microsoft plans to continue to conduct business in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines as well as “ensure the health and safety of our employees.”

The world continues to grapple with the expediency in which COVID-19 is spreading and its direct and indirect effects on global business. We should expect to see many more of these types of adjustments in the coming days.

Microsoft recently announced that it’s leveraging a new “global strategic partnership” with Telefonica to jointly develop “go-to-market plans” for regions the company does business.

Last year during Mobile World Congress 2019, Microsoft took the veil off its newfound relationship with the international telecommunications giant, Telefonica.

Highlighted during this year’s announcement was Microsoft’s opening of a new datacenter region in Spain. Microsoft’s new data center comes at a time where the company looks to help expedite Spain’s “digital transformation.”

With a data center in Spain, Microsoft will no be able to more reliably deploy its Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Power Platform apps to businesses in the region.

To help jumpstart the proliferation of Microsoft’s cloud service provisions in the area, Telefonica S.A. will start leveraging Microsoft technologies internally, according to a joint press release from the companies.

As part of Telefónica’s digital transformation, the company will use the Microsoft cloud for its own internal operations, pursuing efficiency, flexibility and scalability improvements, optimization of operations and cost reductions. Telefónica has also deployed Microsoft 365 to its global employee base to enable more seamless communication and collaboration across the 14 countries in which it operates. As a strategic partner for its multi-cloud strategy, Microsoft will train hundreds of Telefónica employees on Microsoft Cloud services.

Beyond the high minded rhetoric and internal dogfooding is a plan from both Microsoft and Telefonica to address the evolution of “critical sectors such as government, health, education, travel, manufacturing, retail, finance, insurance and more,” in Spain, while also addressing the social and economic transformation that is currently taking place.

More concretely, Microsoft and Telefonica customers will be empowered with low latency security and bandwidth support of 5G, edge computing and Industry 4.0 technologies once the rollouts begin.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is in India for a three-day visit as the company hosted its Future Decoded summit in two legs in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

On day one in Mumbai, at the CEO Summit, Satya addressed a gathering of over 150 industry leaders. He also met with leaders from Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance and manufacturing industries on the sidelines of the summit. On day two in Bengaluru, at the Tech Summit, Satya addressed a gathering of over 700 technologists, developers, and industry leaders.

The event was live-streamed across 7 tech campuses and 21 satellite campuses for over 35,000 campus attendees and was streamed online and via a leading television broadcaster for an estimated 700,000 viewers.

On the third day, Satya met a gathering of over 250 students and educators at the Young Innovators Summit organized by Microsoft India in Delhi. In a conversation with Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, Satya spoke about the role that technology will play in transforming the education ecosystem over the next decade and outlined the opportunity students have today to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems with technology.

While in Delhi, Satya Nadella also met Ravishankar Prasad, the Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India as well as Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce & Industry.

Tech Capability

In his keynote, Satya mentioned that Microsoft was committed not only to expand access to technology but also to help organizations of all sizes build their own digital capability. This would help every organization create more independence – not dependence on Microsoft – as their own tech company and with their own tech capability.

“Whenever I speak to CEOs in other industries, I always say you will never be cool by association. Just because you do a press release with us you are not going to be cool. You have to build your own tech capability and solutions that are inclusive.”

– Satya Nadella

Laying out his vision for tech intensity as a driver for economic growth, he urged the gathering of India’s top business leaders to ensure everyone benefits from this growth.

Digital India

Before Satya Nadella’s keynote in Mumbai, Anant Maheshwari kicked off the event and shared some numbers about the tremendous opportunity for India.

India’s IT industry is growing at $180 billion annually and is home to the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. Microsoft, of course, wants to participate at both ends of the spectrum. In India, Microsoft has built a robust ecosystem with more than 300,000 enterprises as customers serviced by about 9,700 partners.

Maheshwari added that India has 4.2 million developers in the country and some 650 million people who are less than 25 years of age.

Trust & Security

“Technology must drive more inclusive economic growth. To do this you need core trust in technology, whether it is privacy, ethics around AI, cyber–that’s going to be huge,” Satya said in Mumbai. In an interview with the Economic Times, Nadella spoke in support of regulation for the use of artificial intelligence and data localization. “As technology becomes much more pervasive, just like we have regulation in food safety like we have the Federal Aviation Authority for air traffic and so on, we will always have regulation for things that are very mission-critical in our lives and society,” he said.

“There needs to be trust in technology that you all create, whether you are a retailer or a healthcare company. Trust comes down to four attributes: privacy, responsible AI, digital safety and security. It is trust in privacy, trust in AI that you apply. Trust has to be human right. AI has to be ethical.”

– Satya Nadella

Security is a crucial part of Microsoft’s tech stack, which includes endpoint security, security services from the cloud, security intelligence, and threat protection.

Nadella called the economic losses due to cybercrime as “one of the most stunning issues of our times.” He stated how the company is focused on its operational security posture in real-time apart from building the security products.

Nadella gave the example of an incident in north India where 11,000 users were targeted for bitcoin mining. “Our operational security posture gives us that early warning signal and then we go inoculate these 11,000 users, using, in this case, Microsoft Defender. That ability to see in real-time, as an attack happens and then to remediate it—is that combination of both the security product and the operational security posture–both coming together,” he said.

In conversation with Asia’s richest person

At the Mumbai CEO Summit, Satya Nadella was in a fireside chat with the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value. Ambani is the richest man in Asia.

Nadella also spoke about how Microsoft was looking to empower small businesses in India in their cloud journey with Jio. Jio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is the leading telecommunications service provider in the country. Microsoft and Reliance had announced a 10-year technology partnership last year to accelerate India’s digital transformation. The strategic effort aims to enhance the adoption of data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises.

Ambani termed the nascent partnership between the two companies as the “defining partnership of the decade”. Between Jio and Microsoft, Ambani aimed to deliver the full stack of services to propel India forward in the coming decade. Due to the scale of the two companies, the partnership can make a deep sectoral impact and prove to be disruptive for competitive businesses.

India, Ambani said, has all the components in place to “grow and march forward” and become the world’s third-largest economy and a “premier digital society” within the next decade. India became the fifth-largest economy last year according to the International Monetary Fund.

Gaming in India

During his conversation with Ambani, Satya Nadella touched upon gaming, almost unexpectedly. Ambani said that while it isn’t very big in India at the moment, there is a huge potential and it can become bigger than music, movies, and television shows put together. “Akash is very interested in this,” Ambani said referring to his son Akash Ambani who is the Chief of Strategy for the Jio business.

The conversation subtly moved towards Microsoft’s Project XCloud and Jio’s broadband readiness and may have just given a glimpse into Jio’s next bet – online gaming. Could there be a partnership brewing?

Microsoft also made a couple of announcements on the sidelines of the Future Decoded summit.

The company launched the 100X100X100 program for B2B SaaS startups in India. The initiative will bring together 100 committed companies and 100 early and growth startups that have enterprise-ready solutions to offer. These participating companies will commit to spending $100K over a course of 18 months on solutions provided by the SaaS startups.

Microsoft India also announced a collaboration with SBI Foundation to create opportunities for youth living with disabilities in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sector. Launched in 2015, SBI Foundation is the CSR arm of State Bank of India, India’s leading public sector bank.

Over the past few months, I’ve written about Microsoft Teams extensively for our Office 365 coverage here at OnMSFT. With its popularity on the rise, I’ve even compared Teams to Slack side-by-side in more ways than one. There’s no doubt, I am a big defender of Teams, and there’s a lot that I really like about the collaboration service, but there is also a lot that I don’t like.

Yes, Microsoft has plenty of cool stuff planned for Teams in the future, but as someone who uses both Slack and Teams on a daily basis across two different jobs, there’s a lot that Microsoft could learn from when looking at Slack. Here’s a look at what Teams needs that Slack already has.

A Microsoft Store and MacOS App Store version of the app

Many months ago, Microsoft experimented with a version of Teams that was downloadable through the Microsoft Store on Windows 10. However, it was only available on Windows 10S devices, and since then, the app has been pulled. That means the only current way to download and use Teams on Windows is to run the executable file on Windows or use it through the web.

This is a big difference from Slack and is the primary area where I think Teams needs a big improvement. Currently, Slack can not only be found in the Microsoft Store, but it’s also available on Apple’s MacOS App Store. That means it’s much easier to download the app and get up and running with it when you boot up or buy a new device. Updates are also much easier to manage, too, as you can update Slack right alongside the other apps in your respected OS. Granted that Windows is a Microsoft product, it’s quite a shame that there is no native Windows 10 app for Teams.

Integration with Windows 10’s Notification Center

I’ve said before that notifications in Microsoft Teams are much cleaner when compared to Slack. You have one “Activity” area that shows you your replies to messages, likes on messages, mentions, and even your own activity. However, there is one problem, as that is just the in-app notifications. Currently, notifications outside of Teams are a huge mess.

Other apps in Windows 10, such as Slack, integrate with Toast Tiles and the Windows 10 Notification and Action Center. If you get a reply to a message or any other action in Slack, you’ll get a notification that appears in the corner of your screen, and then right inside Action Center, even if you missed its momentary in-app pop-up. Currently, this is something that Teams does not do. It has its own way of showing notifications, in the bottom corner of the screen. It bypasses the Windows notifications system in favor of its own, and that’s a huge shame. Again, Teams is a Microsoft product, and it doesn’t even play nice with Windows 10’s own features.

Support for signing in and switching between multiple accounts

Even though Slack and Teams are used by millions of people on a daily basis, some of those people use collaboration services from multiple and different accounts. For instance, you could be signed into Slack for one job, and then switch it over for another job,  without having to sign out. This is one of the most controversial areas of the Slack vs Teams debate, and it’s where Teams desperately needs to learn from Slack.

Currently, with Slack, you can easily sign out and switch between workspaces with a sidebar that appears to the side of the app. This is something that isn’t at all possible in Teams. In fact, it has been requested by many users since 2017, and Microsoft has yet to put it to action. That means someone who has multiple jobs that use Teams will have to keep each separate. Typically, that means signing into one instance of Teams on the web, and another through the app. It’s quite a shame that this has to be used as a workaround and you can’t switch between accounts with the touch of a button.

More emoji reactions, and custom emoji reactions

These days, emojis are everywhere, even in the workplace. You use them as simple ways of reacting to messages to send a quick and efficient point. Personally, I love the thumbs up emoji (just ask my editor,) and I was quite happy when Teams expanded its emoji reactions to six. Sure, you can use a wide range of emoji in a message, but in Teams there are only six available for quick reactions; “thumbs up,” “love,” “sad,” “angry,” “surprised,” and “angry.”  These emojis do get the job done, but when compared to Slack, it’s really behind.

On Slack, you have an endless way of reacting to messages. You’re able to click an “add reaction” button and choose from a library of emojis. There’s even a search box that lets you find the one that’s just right for your situation or thought. And, if admins allow it, you even can upload and create your own custom emoji. At my other job, we have an emoji with our company logo. A copy editor on the team even tells us to reply with our own emoji of choice, so he knows when an important message has been seen. Emojis are great, and its yet another place where Teams needs improvements.

The ability to chat with yourself

Finally, there’s the ability to chat with yourself. This is something that I use constantly with Slack. It lets me have my own in-app space to make notes, leave images and lists. I find it an excellent way to transfer files between my devices too, such as screenshots or images I use for my stories. It’s a feature that isn’t available in Teams, and I have no idea why. Perhaps Microsoft wants users to go with OneDrive, Outlook, and its other products instead, but having s apace to chat with yourself is quite convenient, and I do hope one day it comes to Teams too.

…And so much more!

These are just a few features that I think Microsoft Teams desperately needs that Slack already has. As Teams becomes more popular, Microsoft really needs to listen to feedback from the community and build a better app. Features like private channels, multi-window capability, more integrations with Outlook and Teams, are all on the way soon. However, to make Teams the perfect solution, Microsoft might as well need to focus on the basics first.

Microsoft’s Surface Duo is potentially one of the most exciting new devices coming out this year, not only because it’s an entry into the new foldables market, but because it’ll be the company’s first attempt back into the mobile phone market since it discontinued Windows 10 Mobile in January. And as more teasers are leaked, we’re always learning more about the device coming later this year.

A new video of one of the devices new features was leaked by WalkingCat on Twitter, which allows users to get a “peek” of their notifications and the time by simply opening the device slightly. A user could also see a glance of an incoming call in this fashion, and then fully open the device to accept or reject it.

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/1232666325580832768

Interestingly, the date on the device displays 06/18/2020, which could be a hint of the planned date of an official showing later this spring. Even so, many of Microsoft Surface renders on the company’s website show June 18 as the date on the product’s displays, so it’s still unlikely.

Are you excited for the Surface Duo folding Android device? Let us know what you think so far in the comments area below.

Live Tiles used to be one of the distinctive features of Windows Phone, but Microsoft bringing them to Windows 8 and later Windows 10 didn’t really have the same kind of impact. The Windows 10 Start Menu still allows users to customize it with Live Tiles that can display useful pieces of information such as recent emails or calendar appointments, but Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10X OS won’t support Live Tiles at all.

As you may recall, Microsoft accidentally shipped last year a Windows 10 preview build that came with a redesigned Start Menu with no Live Tiles. We haven’t seen this new UI in recent Windows 10 preview builds since then, but Live Tiles may be on the chopping block if we believe a new report from Windows Latest.

“People familiar with the development told us that Microsoft is planning to replace live tiles with icons in a future update after Windows 10’s 20H2 release,” the report says. “We’re expecting Windows 10’s live tiles to go away at some point in 2020/2021, possibly with Windows 10’s 2021 update since 20H2 is said to be a minor release and hints could drop in the preview builds later this year.”

Live Tiles have been around on the desktop since 2012 and the release of the Windows 8, and after all this time this would still be surprising to see them disappear on Windows 10. While it may not be a complete dismissal of this recent report, Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Insider team expressed some doubts on Twitter yesterday about Live Tiles going away on Windows 10.

It is? Hmm. ????

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) February 25, 2020

Do you think it’s time for Microsoft to move away from Live Tiles, or do you think they still have a purpose on Windows 10? Sound off in the comments below.

Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser launched last month as an optional download, but the company is now moving to the next stage of rolling it out to a wider audience. Indeed, Microsoft has just announced that it is now rolling out the new Microsoft Edge automatically to Windows Insiders enrolled in the Release Preview ring.

Heads-up #WindowsInsiders, we have begun rolling out the new #MicrosoftEdge to the Release Preview ring. See this blog post from @kylealden with more info on Windows Update rollout plans: https://t.co/lLOKhUtnPE

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) February 25, 2020

As a reminder, this move is part of Microsoft’s “measured roll-out” approach to bringing Edge to Windows 10 users. The company originally explained this in a January blog post, where it said that this is best for those who prefer not to install Microsoft Edge manually. It also said that, eventually, the browser will roll out to all Windows 10 users via Windows Update a future update to Windows 10. As a result, this small rollout to Release Preview Insiders should be a good test for Microsoft’s internal systems.

Keep in mind that once the new Microsoft Edge rolls out to you, you will be able to keep your passwords, favorites, and basic settings from the legacy version of Microsoft Edge. This automatic rollout will also keep your default browser in place if it is set to something other than Microsoft Edge.

Unlike the legacy Microsoft Edge, though, this new browser is not linked to featured Windows 10 updates. This means it is not only much faster, but you will get updates every six weeks. You can keep on top of all the Microsoft Edge news by checking out our news hub here.

As February is coming to a close, Microsoft has released new optional updates for Windows 10 versions 1809 and older today. If you’re still running version 1809 of the OS (or the October 2018 Update), you can install the build 17763.1075 which brings improvements for Windows Hello, battery life improvements when your PC is in Modern Standby mode, and more. You can check out the highlights of this optional update below:

• Updates an issue that prevents the speech application from opening for several minutes in a high noise environment.
• Improves the accuracy of Windows Hello face authentication.
• Updates an issue that might prevent ActiveX content from loading.
• Improves the battery performance during Modern Standby mode.
• Updates an issue that prevents you from taking a screenshot of a window.
• Updates an issue that adds an unwanted keyboard layout as the default after an upgrade even if you have already removed it.
• Updates an issue that prevents users from reactivating their copy of Windows using the product key stored in their Managed Service Account (MSA).
• Updates an issue that prevents some applications from printing to network printers.

Keep in mind that all these fixes for Windows 10 version 1809 will be included in next month’s Patch Tuesday update. It’s also worth reminding that this version of Windows 10 will reach end of support for Home and Pro users in May, and if you have yet to upgrade to a newer version of the OS Microsoft will soon automatically initiate the update process on your PC. New optional updates are also available for Windows 10 versions 1803, 1709, and 1607 today, though these patches are only available for Enterprise and Education users.

Microsoft is giving away tickets for its Ori and the Will of the Wisps launch event on March 5. The company will give away 80 tickets among 40 winners, with each one getting an extra ticket to accommodate a guest.

The Los Angeles event will have plenty to offer, including hands-on with the game before its release, digital art, game soundtrack music from a live pianist, as well as the chance to meet the game’s developers and co-founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol.

Microsoft will pick winners at random, you’ll need to enter before the deadline on February 28. Additionally, you’ll need to be at least 21 to enter and be able to cover your own travel expenses and accommodations, as the contest will only award two tickets per winner.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the successor to the critically-acclaimed Ori and the Blind Forest released back in 2015 on Xbox One and Windows. It’s set to be available for Xbox One and Windows 10 on March 11, and will be available for free on Xbox Game Pass for both consoles and PC from day one.

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Developer:
Xbox Game Studios

Price:
Free

Will you be entering the contest for the event on March 5? Have you pre-ordered the game? Let us know in the comments area below.

Yesterday, Microsoft made headlines by sharing new details about its Xbox Series X console. Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed that the next-gen Xbox will deliver 12 teraflops of computing power, support hardware-accelerated ray tracing and other groundbreaking features including a patented form of Variable Rate Shading.

The head of Xbox also unveiled a new “Smart Delivery” feature that will allow game developers to provide free Xbox Series X upgrades for existing and upcoming Xbox games. “This technology empowers you to buy a game once and know that – whether you are playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X – you are getting the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you’re playing on,” explained Spencer.

Microsoft is committed to supporting Smart Delivery for all of its first-party games, and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red also confirmed to be on board yesterday. Microsoft’s initial announcement for Smart Delivery didn’t really specify if the feature would only be supported for digital games purchased on the Xbox Store, but a Microsoft spokesperson has since told Polygon that “Physical discs of Xbox games can  support Smart Delivery if the developer or publisher decides to  implement the technology.”

This is great news for Xbox gamers who still prefer purchasing physical games, and we’re looking forward to seeing how support for Smart Delivery will be explained on video game packaging. However, there’s still some uncertainty regarding PC versions of Xbox Play Anywhere games that will support Smart Delivery. Will the digital licence also provide access to the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when the Xbox Play Anywhere game is played on the next-gen Xbox? “We look forward to sharing more specifics in the future,” the Microsoft spokesperson said to Polygon.

As February nears its end, Microsoft has announced March’s Games with Gold, with all four games being exclusively to those subscribed to Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate. Just as the company always does with its Games with Gold promotion, it’s giving away access to two Xbox One titles, and will additionally give away two Xbox 360 games that ware backward compatible with the newer generation consoles.

Beginning in March, Batman: The Enemy Within complete collection for Xbox One will be available for free until the end of the month. And for the first half of the month, the Xbox 360 game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 will be free for the first half of the month.

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Batman: The Enemy Within – The Complete Season (Episodes 1-5)

Developer:
Telltale

Price:
$14.99

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Developer:
Konami Digital Entertainment

Price:
$9.99

Beginning March 16 until April 15, the Xbox One game Shantae: Half-Genie Hero will be freely available for user to download. Sonic Generations for Xbox 360 will also be available for free starting March 16 until the end of the month.

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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Developer:
WayForward

Price:
$19.99

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Sonic Generations

Developer:
SEGA

Price:
$19.99

In addition to next month’s Games with Gold, this week’s Deals with Gold has also been announced. A few notable titles include four DOOM titles each for for 70% off, and Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe Edition for just $49.99 (normally $99.99).

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Borderlands 3: Super Deluxe Edition

Developer:
2K

Price:
$19.99

If you haven’t done so already, you should check out this month’s Games with Gold deals before they’re gone. Right now, you can still grab TT Isle of Man, Call of Cthulhu, and Star Wars Battlefront before next month’s freebies are available.

Which games are you most excited for? Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments area below.

Embedding is the way of the internet. You can do it with Tweets, YouTube videos, links, and so much more. But did you know you also can embed an Office 365 document on a website or blog too? In this guide, we’ll show you how you can do just that.

To get started, you’ll first need to put your Office 365 document on OneDrive. You can do this by logging in and visiting OneDrive.com, and clicking the Upload button at the top of the screen. Once done, you’ll want to right-click the icon for the file and look for the option that says Embed. You’ll want to click on the blue Generate button. You also can look for the Embed option at the top of the bar under the OneDrive header, it will be the second icon from the left, next to Version History.

Keep in mind, that by embedding, anyone who visits your blog or website will be able to view it, regardless if they have an Office 365 or OneDrive account. After you click that blue Generate button, you will receive a message in a sidebar on the right of the screen, as seen above. You’ll see a preview of the document, along with a box that has the HTML code that will let you embed the document.

To end, you’ll want to copy that code, and then head to where you want to embed it. In our case, we’re embedding the document in a WordPress blog post. You can do that by clicking “Text” and then pasting in the code. You’ve now got an Office document right on your blog! Once your blog post or website is live, you should see the document appear in a widget in a similar matter to a print preview. We’ve got a sample above, for your viewing pleasure. You’ll have controls to bring the document full-screen, change the zoom level, or additional options to download, save as PDF, and more.

Embedding Office documents like this is not only a time-saver, but it is quite convenient. Your readers won’t need to click a separate link to see the file on OneDrive, or won’t have to have Office installed on their computers. The Office 365 document will be right there, in full-context and without the need to download, right on your website. Do you think this will be useful for you? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft will include a dedicated “Garage facility” for employees at its One Microsoft Court building in Dublin, Ireland, which is currently being renovated.

The company is continuing its motto of being for “doers, not talkers”, as the space will be used for employees to collaborate on various experiments. The facility will include two core areas, including a hub for conversations, hackathons, workshops for employees to explore and create innovations. A makerspace will additionally serve as an equipment zone for employees to explore their creative projects and learn along the way.

Microsoft Garage is home to a growing number of projects, including a sketching app for Windows 10, a vocabulary builder for Android, and others. Some of the company’s more focused apps, including Microsoft Launcher, actually started out as Garage projects.

What do you think about the new space? Feel free to leave a comment below.

The propagation of the Windows 10 November 2019 Update is continuing at a steady rate according to AdDuplex’s latest data. The company’s new survey of more than 90,000 Windows 10 PCs shows that the November 2019 Update now has a 22.6% usage share, up from 15.2% last month.

Interestingly, the pattern of the last update cycle seems to be repeating — the bulk of the growth comes from people upgrading from an OS that was one release behind (October 2018 Update) and not the last release,” AdDuplex explained.

Last month, Microsoft announced that the November 2019 Update was now available for all Windows 10 users who manually check for updates. The company has also started to automatically upgrade users still on the October 2018 Update to the latest Windows release, as the October 2018 Update will reach end of support in May 2020 for Home and Pro users.

The November 2019 Update will likely become the most popular version of Windows 10 by the time Microsoft releases its successor later this spring. Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1) will likely be released in April or May, but you can already install it by joining the Windows Insider Slow Ring.

The latest Mega Man Legacy Collection release, Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, is now available to play on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles.

This new collection features six classic Mega Man video games from Mega Man Zero 1 through to Mega Man ZX Advent in their original presentation but fully playable on Xbox One with Xbox Achievements, a new save feature, and bonus features for long-time fans of the Mega Man franchise.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection brings together six classic titles in one game: Mega Man Zero 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent.

In addition to the original games, this package includes an artwork gallery, music player, special filters, and much more. Casual Scenario Mode and a Save-Assist feature are available for those who would like to enjoy the story at their own pace. Players can also try their hand at the new leaderboard-based Z Chaser Mode, an exclusive new mode created just for this set of games.

Capcom has been re-releasing all of the classic Mega Man games on modern consoles such as the Xbox One since 2015 with the release of the Mega Man Legacy Collection 1. That bundle was followed up with the second Legacy Collection in 2017 and then the Mega Man X Legacy Collection later that same year.

Are you a Mega Man fan and have you been buying these re-releases? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest and Twitter for more Xbox gaming news.

Download
QR-Code

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

Developer:
CAPCOM Co., Ltd.

Price:
$29.99

The transition to the next generation of consoles should be quite different from what we experienced in the past, with both Sony and Microsoft committed to support backward compatibility on their next-gen consoles. Because the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will both use the same x86 architecture as the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, supporting backwards compatibility should now be much easier than before.

In a blog post on Xbox Wire this morning, Xbox head Phil Spencer shared more details about Microsoft’s plans for Xbox Series X backwards compatibility, as well as cross-gen experiences for games that will ship on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X. First of all, Spencer reiterated today that Xbox Series X will support four generations of games.

Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you.

We already know that Xbox Series X should be able to run all existing Xbox One games, with better framerates and other minor improvements. This shouldn’t be much different from existing Xbox One backwards compatibility, with Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games running better on Xbox One consoles, with some titles even supporting 4K graphics on Xbox One X. As you can see in the video below, the Xbox 360 version of Halo 3 enhanced for the Xbox One X looks quite beautiful in 4K, but it’s still not as good as the Xbox One remaster included in Halo: MCC, which runs at at 60 FPS with better detailed 4K graphics.

Following the release of the Xbox One X in 2017, we’ve also seen game devs release Xbox One X enhanced versions of their existing and new Xbox One games. With a new console generation incoming, it’s still not exactly clear if we’re gonna see game devs enhance their existing games for the new consoles free of charges, or if we’re going to see another wave of paid remasters.  Things should also get more complex for new cross-gen games that will ship on both 8th gen and 9th gen consoles, but that’s exactly where Microsoft’s new Smart Delivery technology for Xbox Series X comes into play. Spencer explained:

This technology empowers you to buy a game once and know that – whether you are playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X – you are getting the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you’re playing on. We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on. This technology is available for all developers and publishers, and they can choose to use it for titles that will be release on Xbox One first and come to the Xbox Series X later.

With Smart Delivery, Microsoft will allow game developers to release Xbox Series X upgrades for their games that will be free of charge for consumers. So, if you buy Halo Infinite on your Xbox One later this year and decide to upgrade to Xbox Series X later on, you’ll be able to play the Xbox Series X version for free.

It’s important to note that Xbox Series X upgrades for Xbox One games should be much different than playing the the Xbox One version on Xbox Series X. With Xbox Series X upgrades, game developers will be able to leverage new features like Variable Rate Shading, higher framerates, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, Quick Resume, and more. In other words, we should go from minor improvements through backwards compatibility to a true next-gen experience.

Today, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red announced that the much-anticipated game that will ship on current-gen consoles later this year will get a free Xbox Series X upgrade at some point. This is very good news for console gamers, especially since 8th gen consoles are really starting to show their age in 2020.

Gamers should never be forced to purchase the same game twice or pay for upgrades. Owners of #Cyberpunk2077 for Xbox One will receive the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when available. https://t.co/nfkfFLj85w

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2020

4K was probably the wrong target for this console generation, as there are still way too many games that are still capped at 30 FPS: late gen high-profile games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, Metro: Exodus, Control, or even Microsoft games like Sea of Thieves or Crackdown (not the most photorealistic games out there) are all locked to 30FPS, and it would be really surprising if Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t come with a 30FPS cap either. Some games do offer a much more comfortable 1080p/60FPS option on Xbox One, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Truth be told, it’s just much better to play these games on PCs with unlocked frame rates.

Fortunately, the just-announced Xbox Series X upgrade should unlock faster framerates for games running on Xbox Series X, also allowing them to leverage all the aforementioned features such as VRS, ray tracing, and more. Again, this should be much different than playing Xbox One games on Xbox Series X.

Microsoft made it pretty clear today that it will be up to developers to support Smart Delivery for the digital versions of their games. If they do, this could be the end of console generations as we know it, with consumers no longer needing to repurchase their old games for newer consoles. However, we really doubt that lucrative remasters are going away.

Microsoft is willing to promote a forward-thinking approach with its upcoming first-party games, starting with Halo: Infinite later this year. The launch title for Xbox Series X will also ship on Xbox One, but Xbox fans will only need to buy it once or play it for free on Day 1 with Xbox Game Pass. Overall, Microsoft’s message today is that gamers should be confident to purchase digital games on the Xbox Store as these games will all run better on Xbox Series X, either via “simple” backward compatibility or via a much more significant Xbox Series X upgrade that will be free of charge. Compared to Microsoft’s confused messaging ahead of the Xbox One launch seven years ago, this is definitely a welcome change.