Microsoft announced this week that the new Outlook on the web is now ready to roll out to all Office 365 customers. The new web app has been available as an opt-in experience since last year, but Microsoft says that it used this testing experience to make “many improvements throughout the product.”

Outlook on the web looks a lot like the new Outlook.com, as it shares the same UI including the new dark mode. However, there are some specific features for Office 365 customers, especially in the calendar section. IT’s now easier to create meetings with your coworkers, and a new drop down menu has been added to create online meetings with Skype or Teams. from the event peek, it’s also possible to join an online meeting in just one click.

The tasks section has also been replaced with the Microsoft To-Do web app, which can shows flagged emails as well as Planner tasks that have been assigned to you. To-Do is also available right from the Mail and Calendar sections of Outlook on the web, allowing users to drag and drop items and transform mail and calendar items into tasks.

If your organization has blocked the opt-in toggle for the new Outlook on the web organization, you’ll have to wait a bit to get the new experience. For Targeted Release customers, the opt-in toggle will be removed in late July and the new experience will be on by default. Other Office 365 customers will have to wait until their organization has been upgraded to the new Outlook on the web.

The official iOS and Android Xbox apps updated today with some rather significant new features that will change the way gamers communicate with each other.

The updates, which took the app to Version 1906.0627.0045 on Android and Version 1906.625.1605 on iOS, have added some functionality to the Xbox messaging service that most would associate with dedicated chat apps such as Facebook Messenger or Line; animated gifs and clickable weblinks.

After installing the update, users will be able to liven up their conversations with gifs, which should be fun, but the real game-changer is the addition of web links which will let everyone share links to their Twitch or Mixer profiles, product pages on online stores such as Amazon, social media accounts, or any other web page directly within the app.

Here’s the full release notes:

Hi Xbox app users! In this release, we’ve continued to improve the new messaging experience. Download the latest update to get:

• ‘View’ support for images and GIFs in messaging
• Clickable weblinks. You can now send and click link in messaging. Hooray!
• Performance and bug fixes

Thank you for continuing to use the Xbox mobile app.

Are you surprised by this update and will you use these two new features? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Download
QR-Code

‎Xbox

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

Xbox

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

Following up on yesterday’s retro Windows 1.0 social media posts, Microsoft has posted a new old-school ad promoting the launch of the operating system complete with 80s synth and graphics. You can watch it below.

https://twitter.com/Windows/status/1146456110917914624

While unconfirmed, these ads are likely a cross-promotion for the Netflix series, Stranger Things 3, which debuted today. This third season of the popular show is set in the year 1985 and Windows 1.0 came out in that same year. With the launch of this fictional version of Windows 1.0 and the Stranger Things 3 season happening on the same day, it would be a really crazy coincidence if Microsoft is promoting something else entirely.

Are you excited for the new season of Stranger Things and have you been enjoying these retro Microsoft ads? Let us know with a comment down below, follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news, and have a fantastic Fourth of July.

Arguably when US-based companies move production out of the US, it’s a cost-based measure allowing them to maximize profits by dispersing production procedures over a myriad of regions where labor and technologies are cheaper. It just so happens that China became a place where many of those cost-saving benefits coalesced for many tech companies, however, due to recent international trade disputes, businesses such as Microsoft and Apple are having to reevaluate where their production will now commence.

According to a Nikkei staff writer out of Taipei, in addition to Chinese officials implementing production cost increases, US imposed tariffs on items such as game consoles, smart speakers and data center components have companies such as HP and Dell considering shifting their production outside of China to avoid continued profit losses.

“The industry consensus is to move an average of some 30% of production out of China depending on how important the U.S. market is… Everyone needs to come up with a plan,” a supply chain executive familiar with the plans said. “Apple is really the very last and the slowest to start formulating plans, while everyone else out there is much more aggressive.”

Despite a vaguely articulated truce agreed upon by U.S. president Donald Trump and China president Xi Jinping at last weeks G20 summit, tech companies are still evaluating production operations outside of China due to the financial uncertainty between the two nations.

Microsoft recently joined a collation of other tech companies in voicing their distress over the continued tariff war and its effects on the gaming industry. Now it seems, the company will be doing a bit more than simply complaining about the effects of the tariff war by joining other companies who are considering moving up to 30% of its current production out of China moving it potentially to Thailand or Indonesia, according to sources.

If Microsoft, HP, Dell, Apple, and others were to eventually move their production out of China, the country’s long-standing electronics export business which tops $1.35 trillion could be in serious danger. Effects of the continued trade war are already forcing China-based companies who rely heavily on U.S. technology products, to find greener pastures outside of the region such as Foxconn Technology who have moved production efforts to Mexico and the Czech Republic.

In preparation for what many believed was an August deadline for trade negotiations between China and the US, US-based tech companies had begun reducing production forecast for the remainder of 2019 which is already showing signs of impact in China as its reputation as a dominant production hub is now being challenged by other more palatable countries.

While alternatives are being explored, there seems to be a general consensus that most companies would like to remain in China as a cost-saving measure and hope that both China and the US can come to some more permanent agreement soon.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF,) an international non-profit digital rights group, recently took their agenda to the New York Times, writing an op-ed warning the general public about Slack’s data retention policies.

In what some might consider a scathing article, the EFF detailed that Slack stores all of its users’ messages and everything else shared on the platform by default, unless admins configure optional settings under a paid plan. EFF also detailed that Slack’s data is not end-to-end encrypted, and can be intercepted or read by both hackers and authorities.

Considering that Slack is in use by millions of businesses and individuals across the world, there is a lot to worry about with these revelations. All Slack users simply don’t have fair enough control of their data.

However, we here at OnMSFT are a Microsoft-centric news website. Given the natural comparisons that come with Microsoft Teams and Slack, we also wondered how do Microsoft’s policies compare to Slack? And what happens with your data shared in Teams? We did some digging, and here’s more on what we found.

Microsoft Teams Admins can configure their own retention policies

Slack’s policies state that under all plans, paid or free, it will keep all data by default as long as a workplace exists (unless configured otherwise with a paid plan.) Microsoft’s policies part from that a bit and put admins in more control of data. According to this documentation, all Microsoft Teams conversations are persistent and can be retained forever by default. However, Teams admins do have the choice of configuring custom retention policies.

This can be achieved via the Office 365 Security and Compliance Center. When configured, and when data is deleted, it will be removed from all permanent data storage locations on Teams, with the following three conditions.

• Preservation: Keep Teams data for a specified duration and then do nothing
• Preservation and then delete: Keep Teams data for a specified duration and then delete
• Deletion: Delete Teams data after a specified duration

We created a free Microsoft Teams account using a standard @live.com Microsoft Account and email to see if we would have access to the Security and Compliance Center, but we couldn’t access it. So, it looks as though only if a Teams subscription is covered under Office 365 can admins go on and configure retention policies to delete data. That’s somewhat similar to Slack, as it retains all messages forever by default with free plans.

Microsoft, though, explains that advanced retention policies do not yet apply to Teams chat and Teams channel message locations. Retention policies also can’t go on less than 30 days. That means it would appear as though admins cannot yet set up to delete Teams data on a nightly basis (as you can on paid Slack plans.) Separate retention policies can’t be configured for Teams private chats, and channel messages.

A separate document also explains that Microsoft Teams chats are stored in a hidden folder in the Exchange mailbox of each user included in a chat, and Teams channel messages are stored in a similar hidden folder in the group mailbox. It’s also explained that teams is a Microsoft Azure-powered chat service that will store all data by default forever. Microsoft recommends that admins use Teams location to retail and delete data.

Microsoft Teams has the same encryption as Slack

While companies like WhatsApp or Telegram have come on board with end-to-end encryption, Microsoft joins Slack by using the lesser secure type of encryption policy. According to this support page, Microsoft Teams data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Files in Teams are shared through SharePoint and are backed by SharePoint encryption, and Notes are stored in OneNote and are backed by OneNote encryption.

That brings us back to the second argument from the EFF. Like Microsoft, Slack does not use end-to-end encryption, but rather only in transit and at rest. This means the data is only protected as it moves across the network, and then as it gets stored on a server. Unlike with end-to-end encryption, the data is not encrypted on a sender’s system or device, and not only the recipient is able to decrypt it. Best put by Business Insider, in transit and at rest. “keeps data safer from hackers, but also means that Slack can hand over plain text data over to law enforcement.”

While in transit and at rest is secure, Microsoft and Slack are on the same page with encryption, and could both be putting user data at risk. There have been several user voice requests for Microsoft to use end-to-end encryption in Teams, but we haven’t seen official responses from the company on forums.

Data retention is a problem for everyone, not just Microsoft and Slack

In the world where every device is coming online, and we’re becoming ever so more connected, putting users in control of their data is a big issue. The EFF has a valid point, and the retention of customer data is this is a problem not just for Microsoft or Slack, but for other companies too. A recent report from CNET indicates that Amazon keeps all Alexa transcripts and voice recordings, and will only remove it at the request of a user. Amazon also revealed it shares Alexa requests that involve a transaction. While Microsoft and Slack offer up options to delete user data, be it paid, or free, it’s time we step up for user privacy.

Yesterday, Slow Ring Insiders got some love with the first 19H2 build, but if you’re in the Fast Ring, there’s no reason to feel left out. Microsoft today pushed out build 18932 to the Fast Ring, and along with a number of new features and improvements, there are a number of changes and fixes with the new build.

Top of the list among these is news about some changes coming to the way settings in Windows 10 are synced among your devices. Microsoft is “in the process of converging settings sync engines to reduce complexity and improve reliability of sync,” and to accommodate those changes, it’s turning off the older sync engine in 20H1 builds starting with this one. Until work is complete with the new version, some settings will stop being synced. Settings impacted include “taskbar orientation, wallpaper, theming, and others.” You may see your settings sync one time after a PC reset or upgrade, but the sync will stop after that. You can find a full reference of settings sync listing all current settings coming to 20H1 in this Microsoft Docs file, and if you have feedback on which settings should be prioritized, be sure to let Microsoft know.

There are a number of other changes and fixes, as well, here’s the full list:

• We’re in the process of converging settings sync engines to reduce complexity and improve reliability of sync. As of today, the older settings sync engine will be turned off for 20H1 builds and changes made to settings that have not yet been migrated to the new settings sync engine will stop being sent and received until that work is complete. Some settings may not be migrated. The full list of settings that have been supported for sync are available here, but the list is subject to change during 20H1. Synced settings that are impacted by this change include settings pertaining to taskbar orientation, wallpaper, theming, and others. If there’s a setting you’d like to particularly be prioritized as we work on this, please let us know. Please note, you may notice a one-time receival of synced settings changes after you upgrade or reset your PC, but after that it will stop.
• We’ve updated our indexing behavior to exclude common developer folders, such as .git, .hg, .svn, .Nuget, and more by default. This will improve system performance while compiling and syncing large code bases in the default indexed locations such as user libraries.
• We fixed an issue where the update might have failed the first time you tried to download it with a 0xc0000409 error code.
• We fixed an issue where recent updates might have failed with a 0x80070005 error code.
• We fixed an issue for Home editions where some devices couldn’t see the “download progress %” change on the Windows Update page.
• We fixed a race condition resulting in some Insiders seeing a large number of explorer.exe crashes in recent builds. This is also believed to be the root cause for some Insiders finding that Control Panel wasn’t launching – please let us know if you continue seeing issues after upgrading to this build.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders finding that their File Explorer search box was rendering in an unexpectedly small space and crashed when clicked.
• We fixed an issue where Settings would crash if you tried to add a language on the previous build.
• In Word, after showing a “flash message” on a braille display, Narrator is now correctly showing just the current heading.
• We made a small backend change to the updated Windows Ink Workspace to help improve the launch time.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Task Manager unexpectedly showing 0% CPU usage in the Performance tab.
• We fixed an issue that could cause certain apps to crash when you input Asian characters.
• We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to use touch to open context menus on websites in Microsoft Edge after using pinch to zoom in and back out.
• Narrator search mode will now reset scoping to all elements each time it is opened.
• The data looks good, so we’re now rolling out the fix for taskbar unexpectedly dismissing when invoking Start if set to autohide to all Insiders in Fast.
• We fixed an issue where the Bluetooth Hands-Free audio driver (bthhfaud.sys) could get stuck when making or breaking a synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) link to the headset. This would cause all audio on the system to stop working until the system was rebooted.

The list of known issues should be familiar if you’ve been following along, with the usual anti-cheat and Realtek SD card caveats. If you’re having trouble installing games via the Xbox app, try again, or you may have to roll back to build 18922. Here’s the full list of known issues:

• If you’re seeing failures installing games via the Xbox app, you can retry the install. If it continues failing, you may want to roll back to Build 18922.
• 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.

So for now, check your sync settings and get to downloading the latest Windows 10 Insider build 18932.

Microsoft wants to promote team bonding, and what better place to do so than with its own Teams app? Except, perhaps not the way you might think. The company announced its new Icebreaker bot, an app that pairs two random people to each other, kind of like Chatroulette for those of you who might have been breathing the internet back in the day.

Still, it’s a very interesting concept. Microsoft notes an importance of culture of one of the defining factors of any team, and the simple little bot is one way of sharing them among other team members who might not work from the same locations as one another.

It’s really easy to use, too. Admins can create a new team and invite individuals “who are open to trying something new and meeting new people”, then install the bot within the team. After that, the bot will randomly pair two people up every Monday at 10 AM, and can even suggest times that are free for both parties to get to know each other.

The idea actually comes from another bot created by an early engineer of Microsoft Teams, who created something called “Meetuply”, which also paired two members within an organization for coffee. It was created to answer the “Who are these new people and what are they working on?” question that might have run across the minds of many other team members.

If you’re interested in incorporating something like this into your own teams, the Icebreaker App Template is available for free on GitHub. It’s open source, too, so you’re free to modify it to better suit your needs.

And of course, if keeping your team members away from each other is something that you’re in need up, that integration is going to be build straight into Teams soon, no bot required. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Every year, the month of July is when a new fiscal year kicks off for Microsoft, and this is usually an opportunity for the company to do some house cleaning. According to the usually well-informed Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet, a recent reorg of the Microsoft 365 organization has led to the creation of a new “M365 Foundations” team that will be in charge of marketing Microsoft 365 as a unified product.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft 365 is a subscription bundle including Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Prior to the recent internal reorg, Microsoft used to have three separate marketing teams overseeing these three products, according to Foley. That’s reportedly changing with a new single marketing team that will try to better market a set of different products for enterprise users.

As part of this M365 marketing reorg, there’s now a new “M365 Foundations” team being run by Rob Howard. The idea here is to bring together Windows, Office Management and the M365 Developer Platform into a common org.

Howard spoke to me at Build 2019 (before this reorg) about what Microsoft considers this “M365 Developer Platform” to include. The short answer: Microsoft’s identity platform (Azure Active Directory and Active Directory); the unified Microsoft Graph API; the “knowledge substrate”; and the coming Fluid Framework for faster coauthoring and building web-based distributed apps.

Microsoft officially announced Microsoft 365 two years ago at its Inspire conference, and it’s safe to say that the new brand isn’t as well known and understood as Office 365 for now. This new unified marketing team will have a lot of work to do to infuse some meaning into this brand and make it more relevant in the enterprise world. Microsoft is also expected to be working on a consumer version of Microsoft 365 which is currently supervised by the company’s Modern Life & Devices team.

The Xbox team has just announced that eight new games are coming to Xbox Game Pass in July, and following the launch of Xbox Game Pass for PC last month Microsoft will be adding three games just for PC gamers. Four games will be available on both Xbox One and PC, starting with Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and My Time at Portia on July 4, followed ny Dead Rising 4 and Blazing Chrome on July 11.

It’s worth noting that Middle-Earth: shadow of War is an Xbox Play Anywhere title that also supports cloud saves between Xbox One and PC. The game is a sequel to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which is already available with Xbox Game Pass for Console.

On July 11, LEGO City Undercover will also join Xbox Game Pass for Console, while Timespinner, Unavowed, and Undertale will be added to Xbox Game Pass for PC (and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes both Xbox Game Pass for console and Xbox Game Pass for PC). Overall, that’s five new games for Xbox gamers and seven new games for PC gamers, which is pretty fair. Xbox Game Pass for console recently crossed more than 200 games, while the catalog of Xbox Game Pass for PC games is just above 100 titles.

Every month, some games also leave Microsoft’s gaming subscription service, and 10 games will leave the catalog in July: These are Aftercharge (July 9), Warhammer Vermintide 2 (July 10), LEGO Movie: The Videogame (July 16), followed by Dandara, Dead Rising 2, Hitman Season 1, Metal Slug XX, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Hexic 2, and Iron Brigade on July 31.

If you haven’t done it yet, we remind you that you can still upgrade from Xbox Game Pass to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1, and get Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass for console and Xbox Game Pass for PC in a single subscription. Even better, Microsoft will apply any prepaid time you have on Xbox Live Gold and/or Xbox Game Pass toward Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, up to a maximum of 36 months.

It seems like almost every day a new framework or tool is released in the quest to help developers be more productive. While diversity is never a bad thing, a lot of times it feels we are trying hard to reinvent the wheel by solving problems that don’t really exist anymore. While that might be the case with many of the tools and utilities out in the market today, when it comes to Microsoft Store app development the Windows Template Studio extension is king!

What exactly is this magical tool you ask? Well I am about to tell you! As Microsoft continues their quest to lure developers to the now not so new Universal Windows Platform, they ingeniously devised a way for developers of pretty much any skill and experience level to hit the ground running when developing a Universal Windows application. And when I say hit the ground running, I am not kidding! Let’s drive right in!

The first thing you are going to need is Visual Studio 2017 or newer installed. Once we have gotten that out of the way head over to the Visual Studio marketplace and download the Windows Template Studio extension and install it. You can grab that by following this link.

Creating a project using the tool is straight forward.

Open Visual Studio, Click on File -> New -> Project…

That will launch the Create a new project dialog. From here type “Windows Template Studio” in the search box and select the first option if you are going to use C# or second option for Visual Basic if that is still your thing…

On this next dialog you are asked to select the project name, location, solution name. After doing so comes the fun stuff!

Modern Windows application development is demanding. Users expect these applications to support things like notifications, live tiles and deep linking all while remaining very efficient and available. What do I mean by available? Well they expect their application experience to be consistent and available across devices.

The Universal Windows Platform delivers just that, and now with the Windows Template Studio you don’t have to worry about properly implementing these concepts on your own, it does all the heavy lifting for you and generates well-formed, very readable code which follows Microsoft and industry best practices and design patterns.

I am going to take you through some of the available options in the tool as you begin configuring your application.

The first step is to choose a project type. In this context that basically means navigation type. We will select “navigation pane”, many of you may know this simply as a “hamburger menu”.

The next decision is probably one of the most important, I am partial to MVVM Basic, but Code Behind continues to be a very popular approach. These decisions are not going to necessarily limit what you can do with the application, but they will, depending on your skill level, add an element of difficulty to your implementations.

The next section is where you add pages to the application. There are a lot of common pages Windows Template Studio takes care of for you. These include pages for settings, data grids, media players and more! Creating blank pages is a great way to make place holders for content you expect to add later on, it adds it to the navigation menu and gives you an idea of how to do that later yourself in code.

The final step is to add features. If you thought this tool was great already, your mind is about to be blown away! The features section allows you to, with the click of a button add functionality like deep linking, live tiles, toast notifications and integration with the Windows Timeline.

That was it! The last thing we need to do now is hit “Create”.

The result is a buildable, runnable application which can be deployed across any device which supports Universal Windows Platform applications.

At this point you can begin to modify and mold this application to fit your needs. The possibilities are endless. While most of the functionality this tool deploys for you was never particularly difficult to implement, the fact remains they were time consuming. This tool eliminates that initial and tedious implementation and deployment of your application framework. Not only that but the resultant code follows industry standards and patterns while providing developers of all skill levels with an extremely robust and extensible foundation for their applications.

Now that you have the foundation to a great Microsoft Store App, what story will you tell with it?

For more information on the Windows Template Studio extension for Visual Studio visit the official extension page.

NBA 2K20 is now available to pre-order and pre-download on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles ahead of its September 6th release date.

This latest version in the NBA video game series is said to feature improved graphics and gameplay, new game modes, more customization than previous entries, and an open-world neighbourhood to explore.

NBA 2K20 will be available in three versions, each with a plethora of additional digital bonus content. Here’s what comes with each version in addition to the base game:

NBA 2K20

• 5,000 Virtual Currency
• 5,000 MyTEAM Points
• 5 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• 10 MyTEAM League packs (delivered one a week)
• 5 Heat Check packs (delivered one a week beginning at the start of the NBA season)

NBA 2K20 Digital Deluxe

• 35,000 Virtual Currency
• 10,000 MyTEAM Points
• 10 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• 10 MyTEAM League Packs (delivered one a week)
• 10 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs (delivered one a week beginning at the start of the NBA season)
• 1 Sapphire MyTEAM Cover Athlete Card

NBA 2K20 Legend Edition

• 100,000 Virtual Currency
• 50,000 MyTEAM Points
• 20 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• MyPLAYER Apparel Collection
• ‘Pick 10’ MyPLAYER Shoe Collection (10 shoes, user choice)
• 20 MyTEAM League Packs (delivered one a week)
• 20 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs (delivered one a week beginning at the start of the NBA season)
• 5 MyTEAM Themed Packs (one per theme release across the first five releases)
• 2 Sapphire MyTEAM Cover Athlete Cards

Are you interested in NBA 2K20? Let us know which version you’re going to pre-order in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Download
QR-Code

NBA 2K20 Pre-Order

Developer:
2K

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

NBA 2K20 Digital Deluxe Pre-Order

Developer:
2K

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

NBA 2K20 Legend Edition Pre-Order

Developer:
2K

Price:
Free

Microsoft’s new survey solution, Microsoft Forms Pro, has finally launched in proper after several months of public preview testing.

The tool is available as part of a Dynamics 365 Enterprise license but can also be accessed by other Office 365 users who can sign up for it via the official website.

Microsoft Forms Pro is a tool for both collecting information for users and for analysing the result data. Each survey can be heavily customized visually and in how it flows with options for advanced branching, skip logic, individualized survey links, and multilingual capabilities being made readily available for developers.

The tool can also be integrated into existing Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform projects.

The rollout of Microsoft Forms Pro has be surprisingly fast for a Microsoft as it was announced back in February of this year, just four or so months ago.

Are you interested in using Microsoft Forms Pro? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

Microsoft’s official Windows social media accounts have been having a bit of fun today by “introducing” the new Windows 1.0 operating system to their followers.

The fun started with a post on their Instagram and Twitter accounts with a short teaser video for the “all-new Windows 1.0, with MS-Dos Executive, Clock, and more!!” which was soon followed by subsequent posts about Windows 1.0 software such as “Excel, Chart, and even Flight Simulator” and a Twitter poll quizzing people on how much memory would be required to run the OS.

https://twitter.com/Windows/status/1145731141695168512

The Twitter account has even updated its profile photo and banner to reflect the launch of this retro OS.

While the first two posts had people wondering if Microsoft was planning some sort of retro/nostalgia product release, the text in the Twitter poll tweet referencing 1985 pretty much gave the true aim of these posts away.

They’re just a clever promotion for the new season of Strange Things.

Running Windows 1.0 in 1985 required at least how much memory?

— Windows (@Windows) July 2, 2019

Strange Things Season 3 is set to debut on Netflix over the next 24 hours and this latest season will be set in the year 1985, the same year that Windows 1.0 actually launched. Microsoft products have appeared in a variety of Netflix TV shows over the years so it’s incredibly likely we’ll see some in Stranger Things as well. Hell, showcasing old-school computer software would actually be a perfect fit for Stranger Things with its heavy emphasis on geek culture nostalgia.

What do you think? Are these posts a Stranger Things tie-in or something else entirely? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

Following the launch of the Windows Insider Program in late 2014, Microsoft has been pursuing a wide “insidering” effort across the company, with new Insider programs for Office, Skype, Xbox, and more. This actually happened so fast that it’s actually hard to keep up with all the various Insider programs that the company created over the years.

Fortunately, the software giant has now put all information about its various Insider programs on a single web page, which was shared on Twitter today by Microsoft Partner Program Manager Scott Hanselman.

One stop shopping for ALL Microsoft Insiders programs! Free to join https://t.co/Cb3hyyZPUB

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) July 2, 2019

This may have passed under your radar, but Microsoft has launched Insider programs for Bing as well as Visual Studio Code in recent years. The last Insider program Microsoft launched is for the new version of Microsoft Edge, which is now based on the open-source Chromium project. Since its official launch in April, the Edge Insider Program has become pretty active with the Canary and Dev channels giving us new builds at a regular pace.

On the Windows Insider side, the program has now crossed more than 16.5 million members this year, but it looks like some changes are incoming. For the first time ever, Microsoft recently made Fast Ring Insiders skip the next Windows 10 update (19H2) to test the first feature update coming in 2020. As for the 19H2 update, the first preview build shipped to Slow Ring Insiders yesterday, and Microsoft explained that this minor update will install just like a regular cumulative update when it’s released later this Fall.

The Windows Insider program isn’t the only one that went through some changes in recent years, as the Xbox Insider program went from an invite-only structure to a more complex organization with five different Insider rings. It’s nice that all information about Microsoft’s Insider programs can be found in one single place, but all programs keep their specificities and it certainly take some time to figure out how to use them best.