After 343 Industries shipped the first Halo: Reach Insider flight on PC a month ago, we were wondering when Halo Insiders on Xbox One would be able to test the remastered version of Halo: Reach. Unfortunately, the first Xbox flight has been delayed as 343 Industries is currently working on memory issues affecting the Xbox One version of Halo: MCC.

In the latest MCC Development update published on Halo Waypoint yesterday, 343 Industries explained that the work being done with Unreal Engine 4 to create new character customization options as well as the new progression system is really pushing the Xbox One to its limits. As a result, flighting on Xbox will be delayed until the developers manage to solve some unexpected memory issues.

You can read the team’s detailed explanation below:

As has been stated previously, making any game is hard, let alone where you’re dealing with 11 game engines and 7 complete games under the roof of one title sharing the same hardware resources.

One key goal that has been a part of bringing Halo: Reach into MCC is that for Xbox One, the team has been attempting to bring UE4 online for new character customization options on Xbox. You can read more about the progression system in the May and June development updates. This however has proved to be quite challenging as MCC was already close to memory limits running on the original Xbox One consoles. Bringing the entire progression and customization system into MCC also requires memory to be used to run the additional UE4 engine. Currently, a lot of progress has been made in getting it up and running, but the title still is not within memory constraints to properly run on the Xbox One. In order to flight on Xbox One, we need to be within these limits, otherwise instability will be an issue.

Until the team has an adequate solve for this unique issue, flighting on the Xbox One will continue to be delayed. That being said, the team is pushing hard on a solution as they want to flight the Xbox One build as soon as possible. Until then though flighting will continue to remain solely on the PC build.

As we’re nearing the end of this console generation, the Xbox One hardware is definitely starting to show its age. To be fair, Halo: MCC is quite an exception as it bundles together seven Halo games using different engines, and the Xbox One anthology has been plagued by issues since launch. Expectations about the PC version of Halo: MCC are also very high, and 343 Industries is now readying the next PC flight which will include the game’s campaign. There’s still no ETA for the next PC Insider build, but the team promised to share more details soon.

From now until September 9th, at least 60 new video game titles will launch on Microsoft’s Xbox One console.

To build hype for all of these new Xbox One games, Microsoft has announced a special Summer Spotlight promotional campaign which will last for the entire release window.

The main two aspects of the Summer Spotlight promotion are:

• Xbox One owners will earn 4,000 bonus Microsoft Rewards points if they spend over $40 on new games.
• Participants will have the chance to win bundles containing new Xbox One S consoles, controllers, and all 60 titles.

The 4,000 Microsoft Rewards points will be calculated all automatically, however, to win one of the Xbox bundles, interested parties will need to enter via a specific form on this webpage here.

Currently, not all 60 games have been announced yet but they will be gradually revealed on the Summer Spotlight website here. The games currently revealed are Pawarumi, Hoggy2, Furwind, Mighty Switch Force! Collection, Tetsumo Party, The Blackout Club, Super Wiloo Demake, The Tower of Beatrice, Solo: Islands of the Heart, The Church in the Darkness, Meow Motors, Metal Wolf Chaos XD, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Wreckfest, and Blair Witch.

Several of these are already available on Xbox One after launching earlier this week while others are due out over the coming days or weeks.

Are you excited to learn more about these 60 new games? Let us know what ones interest you the most in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Build 77.0.230.2 is now available for Edge Insiders on the Dev channel. This latest build adds ink functionality to the test browser’s screenshots, prevents banned Chrome extensions from being installed, and also added a feature that can import settings from the current Edge browser.

Here’s the full release notes with all of the changes and improvements:

New features and behavior:

• Added the ability to mark up screenshots with ink.
• Prevented extensions that are banned from the Chrome extensions store from being installed.
• Added messaging to better help users for some cases when Internet Explorer mode fails to start.
• Added the ability to import settings from the original version of Edge.
• Added additional text to identify when a window is InPrivate or Guest.

Fixes for improved reliability and stability:

• Fixed a crash when pressing Tab.
• Fixed a crash when pressing F6.
• Fixed an issue where the Downloads page sometimes didn’t render.
• Fixed an issue where Netflix was slow when playing 4K video.
• Fixed a crash when installing extensions.
• Fixed a hang when playing certain types of videos.
• Fixed some hangs when opening Application Guard windows.
• Fixed an issue where the popup blocker would sometimes fail to work in Internet Explorer mode.
• Fixed an issue where Read Aloud sometimes fails to start properly.
• Fixed some issues where opening certain PDF files sometimes failed.

Fixes for improved behavior:

• Fixed an issue where SafeSearch couldn’t be turned on.
• Fixed an issue where selecting all text in a PDF didn’t work.
• Fixed an issue where the Apps page occasionally shows duplicate entries.
• Fixed an issue where languages were getting added to edge://settings/languages when they shouldn’t have been.
• Fixed an issue where PDF form fields sometimes don’t appear properly.
• Fixed an issue where tab icons are occasionally the wrong color.
• Fixed an issue where address bar icons are occasionally the wrong color.
• Fixed an issue where certain icons weren’t displaying correctly in certain countries.
• Fixed an issue where the correct start page wasn’t appearing in some countries.
• Fixed an issue where Application Guard windows sometimes didn’t display in the proper language.

As always, thanks for being an insider, and keep sending us all of your valuable feedback and suggestions!

The Dev channel updates on a weekly basis with new builds of Microsoft’s upcoming revamped Edge browser for Edge Insiders to test. Recent builds added a data privacy feature and a dark mode.

Are you excited for the new Edge browser? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

Microsoft has just released the Windows 10 20H1 build 18950 for Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring, which brings improvements for the new Japanese IME and the Snip & Sketch app. This new build is a minor update overall, but the most interesting bit from the release notes is that Microsoft confirmed that it will soon be possible to reinstall Windows 10 from the cloud, though the feature isn’t live yet in the build 18950

In case you missed it, this Cloud download feature was first mentioned by Twitter user WalkingCat a couple of days ago:

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/1155811201604915200

Being able to download Windows 10 from the cloud should make it much easier to reinstall the OS, and it’s worth noting that this is a feature Apple already implemented in recent versions of macOS. The Windows Insider team said today that it will soon announce when Windows Insiders can try this new feature, and we’ll let you know as soon as we get more details. In the meantime, here are the full release notes for the build 18950:

What’s new in Build 18950

Japanese IME Improvements

Thank you everyone who’s shared feedback so far about the new Japanese IME. The development team has been working on improving the quality based on your feedback. Here are some improvements that you can try out in this build:

• Prediction Candidate window key navigation: We fixed an issue where the focus inside prediction candidate window wouldn’t move when using the Up Arrow key.

• Key customization: We’ve improved the discoverability of key assignment settings. Also, based on feedback, we’ve updated the default assigned value of Ctrl + Space to be “None”. Ctrl + Space can still be used for toggling IME-on/off by changing the value through its setting.

Please don’t hesitate to continue sharing your thoughts with us about typing in Windows – our ears are open and we’d love to hear from you.

Other Updates for Insiders

Snip & Sketch improvements headed your way

Thanks everyone who’s shared feedback so far for our updated snipping experience! We really appreciate it and are starting to roll out some more improvements based on what you’ve told us:

• Single window mode: Do you tend to retake snips multiple times in order to get the perfect screenshot? We’re updating the New button to now open new snips in your current app window, so you don’t end up with a ton of open snips (that you then need to close.) If you’d rather keep all snips open in separate windows. the option is now a toggle in settings, so you can decide which mode you prefer.

 

• Zoom: Need we say more? You can now zoom in on your screenshots if they’re a bit too small for you to annotate on (and yes, CTRL+Plus, CTRL+Minus and Ctrl+Mouse wheel are supported!). We’ll also zoom out to make sure the whole snip fits in the Snip & Sketch window. If you want to see the snip at its original size, click the Zoom button and then “Actual Size”.

• Improving WIN+Shift+S discoverability: You mentioned you loved learning about using WIN+Shift+S to take new snips any time and we thought others would too! If you haven’t taken a snip yet, we’ll now use the canvas space in Snip & Sketch to help you learn how to start a snip without needing to open the app first.

These changes are currently available for a portion of Insiders in the Fast ring as we evaluate the quality before continuing the rollout. Note the rollout for each change mentioned above is being handled separately, with separate random populations in the initial rollout, so seeing one of the changes with app version 10.1907.2064.0 doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see all three.

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• Insiders may notice some references to “Cloud download” relating to PC reset or refresh. This feature isn’t available and working quite yet. We’ll let you know once it is, so you can try it out!
• We fixed an issue where ctfmon.exe might crash if clicking the input mode indicator in the taskbar to switch the Japanese IME between modes.
• We fixed an issue where pasting from clipboard history (WIN+V) wouldn’t work when using the Bopomofo IME.
• We fixed an issue resulting in hanja conversion not working for the updated Korean IME when typing in certain apps.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the OneNote app intermittently acting as if the Ctrl key was pressed when it wasn’t.

Known Issues

• There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. We are working with partners on getting their software updated with a fix, and most games have released patches to prevent PCs from experiencing this issue. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. We are also working with anti-cheat and game developers to resolve similar issues that may arise with the 20H1 Insider Preview builds and will work to minimize the likelihood of these issues in the future.
• Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.
• Tamper Protection may be turned off in Windows Security after updating to this build. You can turn it back on. In August, Tamper Protection will return to being on by default for all Insiders.
• Occasionally, the candidate selection in prediction candidate window for the Japanese IME doesn’t match with the composition string. We are investigating the issue.

The Windows Insider webcast will also make a comeback on Mixer tomorrow at 2PM PDT, and this episode will have special guests from the FX Amplify team. This should be a good opportunity to learn more about the state of the 19H2 and 20H1 updates, especially since the 20H1 update still seems to get more attention from the Windows Insider team these days.

As Microsoft is now gearing up for the Project xCloud public beta coming in October, Microsoft watcher WalkingCat spotted an xCloud Test Game for Xbox One on the Microsoft Store today. The store listing has no description and a placeholder image, but the fact that this is targeting the Xbox One is quite surprising.

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/1156491354832113664

Back at E3 2019, Microsoft made it pretty clear that it was initially focusing on smartphones with Project xCloud, and all the public demos we’ve seen so far were done on smartphones. Google will be exploring a different road with its own Stadia game streaming service, which will be available on TVs with a Chromecast Ultra, PCs with Google’s Chrome web browser, and select Google Pixel smartphones.

We don’t yet if the full-fledged Project xCloud service will eventually be available on Xbox One consoles, but Microsoft announced at E3 that it was working on a separate console streaming feature that will allow Xbox One owners to stream Xbox games they own to mobile devices. This feature is expected to launch later this year, and it has yet to make its way to Xbox Insider builds.

We hope to get more details about Project xCloud at gamescom next month, as the event will be the first time Microsoft lets the general public go hands on with the game streaming service. With pre-orders for the Google Stadia Founders Edition already opened, Microsoft shouldn’t wait too long before revealing the business model for Project xCloud and other important details to help gamers choose between the two services later this Fall.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it was open sourcing the Windows Calculator app, opening the doors for some new community-built features. Well, this is already giving some interesting results as a new Always on top mode will soon be implemented in the app, allowing users to pin Calculator on top of other windows.

Dave Grochocki, Senior Program Manager working on Notepad and Windows Calculator at Microsoft, shared a GIF showing the new Always on Top mode yesterday (via Thurrott.com). “This is our second-highest customer feedback request in Feedback Hub with some users reporting their only alternative is to pay for an app which is sticky,” Grochocki wrote on the project’s GitHub page.

One of our top requested #WindowsCalculator features is the ability to keep Calculator on top of other windows as you work—you'll soon be able to do just that! ???? Also, tiny calculator!! https://t.co/AEqu4nkhb4 #BuildTogether pic.twitter.com/TJpkXrRIL4

— Dave Grochocki (@dgrochocki) July 30, 2019

As you can see in the GIF, pinning the Calculator window initiates a new compact view that hides some advanced features, but keeps basic Calculator functionality. It’s not clear when this new Always on Top mode will be generally available, but it will likely come to Windows Insiders first. Now that Windows Calculator has been open sourced, it will be interesting to see if the app will continue to get new features inspired by user feedback.

The official Microsoft Outlook app updated to Version 3.34.0 on Apple’s iOS devices this morning. This latest update finally adds the ability for events within the Calendar portion of the app to be searchable when doing a search.

Previously, a search within the iOS Microsoft Outlook app would just display emails.

Here’s the short, full release notes:

Looking for an event? Your calendar events will now appear as part of your search results so it’s easier to keep track of your busy life.

Feel free to send us any comments or questions through our in-app support in Settings – we’d love to hear from you.

While just a small update, this new feature has been a long time coming and should prove popular with those who use the Outlook app for planning meetings and events. Previous Outlook app updates on iOS added support for Apple’s iCloud Drive and Office 365’s category colors.

Are you happy to have events finally being searchable? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

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For developers who need a little bit more guidance than others, Microsoft is consolidating its code samples into a more streamlined experience.

The Microsoft’s docs team took to Twitter to announce the new docs.Microsoft.com experience which is being hailed as the “unified, company-wide code sample browser “for interested developers.

???? Today, we are happy to announce a new experience on docs – all code samples from @Microsoft, in one place.

We are just getting started!https://t.co/EhjZK4VP9D pic.twitter.com/15aThYvK4Q

— docs.microsoft.com (@docsmsft) July 29, 2019

According to the company’s blog post, starting today, this new location will be the place to find the most up-to-date code samples provided by Microsoft for various workflows.

The new experience will incorporate trusted search and filters options that support GitHub hostings as well as a reciprocal contribution method. Newer features of the docs.Microsoft.com experience include One-click Azure deployment, downloadable ZIP functionality, Browse Code search tool, keyword, and in-page search options are all present as of today.

Microsoft plans to keep this location a living and breathing repository of samples and plans to add more in the coming days and months.

Microsoft is looking to reduce the carbon footprint its data centers present with significant investments in solar power and its center in Arizona is becoming its showcase example.

With a relatively aggressive goal of having its data centers using up to 70% of renewable energy sources by 2023, Microsoft’s sustainability project with its Arizona data center has been a focal point of the company.

We intend to develop our new datacenter campuses in El Mirage and Goodyear, Arizona to be among the most sustainably designed and operated in the world – powered with 100% renewable energy. Arizona has been increasingly embracing the technology industry with a pool of growing talent, an affordable quality of life for employees, and as many 200 as sunny days a year making it an ideal location for investing in solar power.

More specifically, Microsoft is partnering with the Arizona-based solar energy company First Solar and collaborating on the Sun Stream 2 photovoltaic (PV) solar plant. Ideally, Microsoft would leverage the 150-megawatt plant to carry the load of each of the company’s new data centers in the area. In turn, First Solar gets first dibs on Microsoft cloud services and technologies such as Azure IoT Hub and SQL Data Warehouse, to run its various business interests.

First Solar joins a growing list of Microsoft partners committed to providing the latest and very best renewable energy sources around. Microsoft’s renewable energy partnerships have brought in 1.5-gigawatts of energy to-date.

Microsoft is also looking beyond its solar plant partnership in Arizona to address the conservation and replenishing of water in the state.

The effort is intended to increase Arizona’s water resiliency and help the state meet its Drought Contingency Plan Commitments. Microsoft’s investment in this project has also generated a one-to-one cash match from the Water Funder Initiative that will support the state’s efforts and further expand project impact. The project will benefit the Colorado River Indian Tribes, ultimately resulting in more water in Lake Mead and more efficient water infrastructure.

Microsoft says that eventually, it would like all its data centers to be running on 100% renewable energy and its pitching a lot of money into Arizona to supercharge that timetable, to the tune of more than $800,000, just last year alone.

With the company continuously expanding its data center footprint as it provides more people and businesses cloud services it’s nice to see Microsoft taking into account the environmental toll cloud computing actually presents.

Following the release of Windows 10 Insider build 18945 last week, Microsoft is making available a Windows Server vNext build today, as well as a new preview build of the Windows 10 SDK. For Windows Server Insider, the preview build 18945 of the server OS introduces the ability to authenticate to hybrid environments using FIDO2 security keys.

For app developers, Windows 10 SDK preview build 18945 brings the ability to sign apps with Device Guard Signing, a feature available in Microsoft Store for Business and Education. There are also many API changes in this release, and we invite you to check the full lit of changes on the blog post.

As usual, the new Windows Server build can be downloaded from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you’re looking for the latest Windows 10 SDK, you can get it from the developer section of Microsoft’s Windows Insider website.

There’s no question about it, Windows Phone is dead. Change is hard for everyone and I admit it took me some time to finally give up on Windows Phone. I went from a Lumia 950 to a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. The last Android phone I used before Windows Phone was the HTC EVO 4G, so the switch back to Android went relatively smooth. After the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, I moved on to my current phone, the Google Pixel 3 XL. Besides the Pixel 3 XL battery life, I don’t have much to complain about using a Pixel.

On Android, Microsoft Launcher is a highly-rated launcher has over 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store. Microsoft Launcher integrates with Android well, offering a user-friendly experience with easy access to plenty of other Microsoft apps and services available on Android. Microsoft Launcher allows you to use your Microsoft account, which makes switching between your phone and Windows 10 PC even easier. The launcher allows you to see all your calendar events, Outlook emails, and use Continue on PC to continue being productive.

On the other hand, there is iOS, which offers secure messaging with iMessage, easy backup and storage with iCloud, and the Apple Store offers plenty of apps that allow ease of use with everything. Facetime and the ability to interact with family members through video chat is another big upside. If you are wary of Google always listening to what you are browsing, listening to, and talking about, iOS would be the most secure alternative. One major downside with iOS is choice. Apple is the only company that makes the iPhone and if you want to phone appearance and customization is kept to a bare minimum.

I could talk ad nauseam about all the Windows Phone features I miss and what device was the best, but the platform is dead, it’s time to move on. Now that there are only two choices for smartphone OSes, Android and iOS, I wonder which platform did most recovering Windows Phone users switch to and why. So sound off in the comments, or take our poll:

Life after Windows Phone: are you using Android or iOS?

— OnMSFT.com (@onmsft) July 30, 2019

What phone do you use now and what do you like most about the operating system? (Bonus question: what do you miss most about Windows Phone?)

The August 2019 Games with Gold have just been revealed by Xbox’s Major Nelson, and they include the first-party titles Gears of War 4 and Forza Motorsport 6. Gears of War 4 will be free to grab on August 1 along with the Xbox 360 game Torchlight, and this is a well-timed promotion as Gears 5 will be released on Xbox One on September 10. 

As for Forza Motorsport 6, it will be available on August 16 with the Xbox 360 game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. We expect the 2015 racing game to reach end of support later this Fall. Forza games usually disappear from the Microsoft Store after four years, and that’s what happened last year with Forza Horizon 2 which was one of the Games with gold for August 2018.

Overall, these four games represent 6200 in gamerscore and $95 in value, which is more than what we had with July’s Games with Gold. As a reminder, you have until tomorrow, July 31 to grab Inside and Meet the Robinsons for free with your Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Bethesda has released the Doom trilogy to Xbox One this week. The classic first person shooters titles, Doom, Doom II (Classic), and Doom 3, have all been ported over not just to Xbox One consoles for users to purchase now, but also PS4 as well as the Nintendo Switch.

The releases come not too long after the original game launched in December of 1993, making it more than 25 years old. Those who might have grown up playing the games can re-experience them for just $4.99 each for the first two titles, and $9.99 for Doom 3.

Of course, while the games might have been officially released for the Xbox and its two competitors just recently, some Xbox players have been playing them even longer thanks to the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility implementations. However, now that the games have been officially released for the Xbox One hardware, users will get to experience the best performance.

Also worth mentioning, as per the initial release of the games, a Bethesda account is required in order to play the first two games as noted in the product descriptions on the Microsoft Store. Bethesda admitted the mistake on their part, saying that they “are working on changing the requirement to optional now.”

If you’re interested, you can download the games using the link below. Also, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment area further down.

Download
QR-Code

DOOM (1993)

Developer:
Bethesda Softworks

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

DOOM 3

Developer:
Bethesda Softworks

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

DOOM II (Classic)

Developer:
Bethesda Softworks

Price:
Free

The official Surface app for Microsoft’s Windows 10 Surface devices updated to Version 39.600.139 (via MSPU) this week. This latest update adds support for 11 new languages, the latest Pen firmware, and more descriptive names.

Here’s the official release notes:

• Descriptive names for the Surface template name on the Surface tab
• Pen firmware version in the Accessories tab
• Support for 11 new languages (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovenian, Slovak)
• Bug fixes on window sizing and text alignment issues

While most people don’t use the Surface app, it can be a convenient way for finding out information about a Surface computer or tablet such as its model number and warranty expiry date. It can also be used to manage Microsoft-branded accessories and adjust Surface Pen settings.

Do you use the Surface app? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

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The mega-popular Marvel movie, Avengers: Endgame, is now available to watch digitally via the Microsoft Store on Xbox One consoles, Xbox 360 consoles, Windows 10 PCs, and other Windows devices.

Unfortunately, the digital release of Endgame has been marred by a glitch that has affected numerous film releases on the Microsoft Store in the past, one that Microsoft should have fixed by now.

The glitch involves the pre-ordering of the digital versions of films from the Microsoft Store on the web, Windows 10 app, or the Xbox One’s digital storefront.

The whole situation is very confusing but basically when one pre-orders a film before its release, they’re usually promised the feature film and one or two short (as in two to five minutes long each) bonus extras. On the day of the film’s home release, those who pre-ordered gain access to the film with the one or two extras while a second version, that has a completely identical title in the Microsoft Store listings, suddenly appears and features all of the bonus content from the Blu-Ray release, including an audio commentary track.

For whatever reason, the proper version with all of the features doesn’t replace the pre-order placeholder version and everyone who pre-ordered gets screwed.

This has happened with other Marvel movies such as Black Panther and also happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I personally spoke with around eight different Microsoft customer support personnel in different regions after being affected by this after the release of The Last Jedi. Some were confused, some didn’t understand what the problem was, but most were aware of the issue and confirmed that they had received numerous calls and emails from other customers who were frustrated by the missing extra features on their pre-orders.

Yet, this glitch hasn’t been fixed.

The best thing to do now is to not pre-order movies from the Microsoft Store and purchase them on or after their release date instead. It’s also incredibly important to take a close look at the store’s listings before hitting that Buy button as, even after the release date, the pre-order version with limited extras still remains within the store and is buyable.

For example, there are now two films called Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame + Bonus in the Microsoft Store. Only by looking at their full description can you see which one has all of the content. You can see the pre-order version here (which you shouldn’t buy) and the proper release with all of the bonus content here (which you should buy).

Have you noticed this problem with the Microsoft Store movie pre-orders before? Did you end up buying the wrong version of Avengers: Endgame? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more geek content.

Earlier this year, Microsoft made some significant headway in bringing its Azure cloud solutions to regions in South Africa.

In March, Cape Town and Johannesburg became two South African locations newly imbued with Azure datacenters and the potential to host 112,000 new jobs over the next fours year, in large part due to that investment.

Just a mere five months later, Microsoft is already leveraging its presence in South Africa to provide another one of its cloud-based services in Office 365.

Office 365, delivered from local datacenters in South Africa, helps our customers enable the modern workplace and empower their employees with real-time collaboration and cloud-powered intelligence while maintaining security, compliance, and in-country customer data residency. The addition of South Africa as a new geography for Office 365 increases the options for secure, cloud productivity services combined with customer data residency in 16 geographies across the globe along with three additional geographies also announced.

To comply with regulatory requirements and avoid another lengthy court proceeding such as the Microsoft-Ireland case, the company plans to keep core customer data “store only in their data center geography (Geo)- in this case, the cloud datacenters within South Africa.”

Microsoft has also invested in its first African Development Center (ADC) in both Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. The ADC is tasked with being the hotbed of world-class African talent creating solutions on a local and global scale.