Microsoft’s recent move to switch out browser engines from their own EdgeHTML to the open source Chromium, while a bold move, has if nothing else made life a bit more difficult for tech pundits. Now, there’s Edge, the currently shipping proprietary browser, and Edge, the new open source browser of the future, but they both exist and journalists need a way to talk about them both. Here at OnMSFT.com, we’re using “Edge Insider,” but others have suggested “Edgium” or “Chredge” or even (shudder) “Chredgium“.

Apart from being a bit of a first world problem, this “Edge vs Edge” dilemma should be short lived, however. After a session at Build last week, a few attendees gathered around CVP for Edge Chuck Friedman, who explained that the problem will soon just go away.

Friedman explained that once Edge Insider ships, it will replace current Edge on all versions of Windows 10 (once users actually update their machines, something they’ve been historically slow to do), including replacing the current various versions of the Web View control built in to Windows with a new single and updateable (via the new Edge app) one, so that (in theory) all versions of Windows 10 will be running the same browser and Web View controls at the same time.

And while the new Edge will indeed be an “app,” updateable via the web apart from Windows Update, it will most definitely not be removable, if only for the nightmare scenario that if you uninstall Edge you wouldn’t be able to access the internet, even to download and install Chrome, for example.

So when will this new Edge be ready? “When it’s great,” Friedman told us. Microsoft isn’t announcing a timeline for the new Edge, and don’t seem to be in any rush to make the change. But once Edge Insider ships, it will become once again just Edge. You’ll no longer be able to run Edge/Chromium and Edge/EdgeHTML side by side, as old Edge will be replaced by new Edge (that is, unless you opt out of updating, furthering the problem that this move is supposed to help fix.)

Xbox Insiders on the Preview Omega ring can now download the next system update for the Xbox One. For those unfamiliar, the Preview Omega ring is the equivalent of the Release Preview ring for Windows 10 updates, so the Xbox One 1905 update hitting the Omega ring yesterday means that the public release is likely imminent.

The next Xbox One system update is a pretty minor one, and we counted five new features overall:

• With Message Requests, Xbox Live messages sent by your friends will now be separated from other messages sent by strangers.
• Your Friend List will now display different icons to show when your Xbox Live friends are playing on console, PC or mobile.
• In recent preview builds, Microsoft also added Voice channels in Xbox Live Messaging.
• Microsoft has improved sorting options in the My Games & Apps section. Articles such as “a,” “an” and “the” are no longer being used to sort titles when using the “Sort A-Z” and “Group by letter” views, and the Xbox team also added more options to sort games and apps by date.
• For Xbox Game Pass members, a new a “Play Later” feature will make it easy to add any games in the catalog to a special list that will also be available from the Xbox Game Pass mobile app

It’s not clear yet if we’ll get another minor system update in June, but has already working on the next major Xbox One update to be released in October. For now, Xbox One 1810 builds are only available for Preview Alpha Skip Ahead Insiders, and there are no significant new features so far.

Just as the future of Microsoft’s note-taking platform comes into view, one of its champion executives and high-profiled Technical Fellow is stepping aside and handing the project over to a new crop of stewards.

Vice president and Microsoft Technical Fellow Laura Butler announced via her Twitter account that she would no longer be shepherding what appears to be the unification of the company’s previously disparate note-taking experiences.

Hi tweeps. I have some news. As of today I have stepped down from running @msonenote @stickynotes and @MicrosoftToDo and they are moving to @ShilpaRan.

1/

— Laura????Butler (@LauraCatPJs) May 9, 2019

Arguably the face of the modern development of OneNote and her lean-in on using the color of OneNote as identifier online, Butler became associated with the purple color scheme as much as her tendency to tease the internet with her baked goods.

Here's an example for @MicrosoftToDo pic.twitter.com/8LZB2JKkbq

— Laura????Butler (@LauraCatPJs) April 4, 2019

The distinguished engineer has not mentioned what lies beyond her transition away from OneNote, Sticky Notes, and Microsoft To Do daily activities. Many of her fans and Windows developers have voiced their support of her staying within the company, over the past 24 hours.

Butler has since responded to her initial post with “I’ll tweet whatever happens,” and while that doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll be part of Microsoft in the future, it doesn’t hamper her chances of being “president of Mars in 50 years,” either.

From OnMSFT to Laura Butler, thank you, for all your hard work.

Despite not occupying the same smartphone lane they used to, Microsoft and HERE maps are still a thing.

Leveraging their location-based data HERE will now provide its Location Platform Services to developers using Microsoft Azure tools.

According to a press release from HERE, “HERE Maps & Location Services allows developers to fast-track the development of location-centric applications, by leveraging HERE’s global map data and curated location content in combination with the readily available location services including rendering, search, routing, transit, and positioning.”

More specifically, Azure-based developers in 193 countries around the world will have the chance to play around with:

• Geocoding – High-precision mapping of geo-coordinates and addresses
• Positioning – Device tracking and positioning for indoors and outdoors, online or offline
• Fleet Telematics – Advanced algorithms for optimal truck routing and planning with a deep set of data including truck attributes (maximum height and weight clearance), toll costs, and environmental zones
• Routing – Precise instructions to a destination using various transport modes (car, truck, public transit, bicycle) and leveraging matrix and isoline algorithms
• Places – Extensive set of Points of Interest with rich attribution for 400+ categories providing real-world context and relevance for a variety of use cases
• Map Tiles – Pre-rendered map tiles with different display types, such as regular map, satellite imagery, and terrain
• Map Image – Pre-rendered map images already optimized for both desktop & mobile devices

For developers looking to build more precise and engaging data experiences while reducing their server cost overhead, the addition of HERE Map’s Location Platform Services is a great tool to onboard.

In addition to utilizing HERE Maps & Location Platform Services, developers will also get a free start of 250,000 location transactions as they manage WebApp backends, real-time data streams, fleet management, and location search to name a few.

Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference was pretty special this year. The company had three big keynotes on day 1, starting with an introducing “Vision keynote” featuring CEO Satya Nadella. This one was followed by an Azure keynote and a Microsoft 365 keynote that ran simultaneously, though this year we didn’t see Joe Belfiore on stage talking about Fluent Design, or some news about the next major Windows 10 update.

Build remains a developer conference more than anything else, so we weren’t really expecting some big Windows 10 consumers news during the introducing keynote. Instead, what we got was updates about Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, as well as Microsoft Edge, but we also saw a pretty cool live HoloLens 2 demo as well as a Cortana video showing the digital assistant being able to engage in a multi-prompt conversation.

In case you missed the keynote, Microsoft published the following five minutes summary which includes all the highlights (the full keynote can be seen here).

Microsoft held more than 500 different sessions at its developer conference this week, and you can now watch video replays for most of them on the dedicated Build website. And yes, even though it’s easy to think that UWP apps are on the way out, there were actually several sessions about this topic and Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo made it clear this week that both UWP apps and the Windows 10 Microsoft Store are here to stay.

Minecraft, the widely popular sandbox video game, is celebrating its tenth anniversary and Microsoft has discounted its price on the Microsoft Store by $10 for the occasion.

The game allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally generated world, requiring creativity from players. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat.

As part of its anniversary celebrations, earlier this week, the company released Minecraft Classic available to play for free on the web.

At Build 2019, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, the company teased an upcoming augmented reality version of Minecraft that will be announced later this month.

Developed by Mojang, a Swedish game developer in Stockholm, Minecraft became one of the best-selling video games of all time and the company was acquired by Microsoft Studios (now known as Xbox Game Studios) in November 2014. Incidentally, this was the first multi-billion dollar acquisition by Microsoft under the leadership of current CEO Satya Nadella.

You can download Minecraft for Windows 10 from the Microsoft Store. In the US, for example, the game is available at a 37% discount from its original price of $26.99.

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Minecraft for Windows

Developer:
Microsoft Studios

Price:
Free

The video game, For The King, is now available to play on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles and the title has also been added to the Xbox Game Pass library for subscribers to play for free.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

For The King is a strategic RPG that blends tabletop and roguelike elements in a challenging adventure that spans the realms. Set off on a single player experience or play cooperatively both online and locally. None before you have returned from their journey. Will you put an end to the Chaos?

For The King is a challenging blend of strategy, turn-based combat, and roguelike elements. Each playthrough is unique with procedural maps, quests, and events. Explore Fahrul in either single player, local, or online co-op. Just remember adventurer, you do this not for riches or fame but for your village, for your realm, For The King!

For The King follows several other titles that were also added to Xbox Game Pass this month. Tacoma, Surviving Mars, and Black Desert were added to the library of available games yesterday while Descenders was added just two days earlier. Earlier this month, Wolfenstein II and Wargroove were also made fully-available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers to play in full.

Are you an Xbox Game Pass subscriber? Let us know what titles you’re playing right now in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

The app was not found in the store. ?

Go to store
bp2bw45wz45z+windowsstore”>Google websearch

The Hitman HD Pack is now playable on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles after gaining backwards compatibility functionality earlier today.

This Xbox 360 title contains HD remasters of both Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Contracts, each with all of the content from their original releases.

Here’s the original game descriptions for each game:

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Enter the realm of a retired assassin, forced back into action by treason. You may be a hired killer but you still have a sense of loyalty and justice. Visit the dark recesses of a world corrupted by crime, greed, degradation and dishonor. And a past that catches up with you. Trust no one – if the price is right, the finger of your most trusted ally will be on the trigger. Your targets may hide in the most remote areas of the planet, but their destruction is never prevented – only postponed.

Learn your trade – master your tools – overcome your obstacles – outsmart your enemies – eliminate your targets. Remember: rash decisions bleed consequences. Know when to strike instantly, know when to take your time. Chance favors the prepared. Failure is not an option.

Hitman: Contracts

Enter the world of a HITMAN – a world of crime, sin and greed. Delve into the mind of Agent 47 and encounter his greatest adversaries, completing the work that made him so brutally efficient and shaped him as an assassin. Eliminate your targets by any means necessary.

There are no rules… only the contract, signed in blood.

Something worth keeping in mind with Hitman HD Pack is that the included Hitman 2: Silent Assassin game isn’t the same game as the Xbox One’s Hitman 2. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is the second game in the Hitman video game franchise while Hitman 2 is the seventh.

The series had a soft reset with its titles with the current generation of consoles so the sixth game in the series was called simply Hitman. Its follow-up, the seventh game, was thus called Hitman 2. It’s definitely confusing but then the Xbox One is the third Xbox console and not the first.

Are you a Hitman fan and are you looking forward to playing the HD Pack on your Xbox One? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

The app was not found in the store. ?

Go to store
c4tx3x5k111k+windowsstore”>Google websearch

Build 76.0.152.0 has now rolled out to all Edge Insiders on the Dev channel. This latest build is the first Chromium 76 build launched on the Dev channel and features a large number of new improvements and fixes such as the enabling of spellcheck, new colors and layouts for various sections of the UI, new history filter options, and tooltip improvements.

Here’s the full release notes:

Improvements and new functionality

• Spellcheck is now enabled by default for everyone.
• Downloads, Extensions, Favorites, History, and Settings all have refreshed colors and layout.
• Read Aloud will now select one of the new cloud-powered voices by default.
• The logic for quick links on the New Tab Page has been updated. Any site you add manually or edit will remain in the list unless you delete it, while other sites will continue to update based on your browsing history.
• Added support for Dolby AC3/E-AC3 audio decoding for some media playback sources.
• You can now sort favorites by name from the manage favorites page by right-clicking on the page background and choosing “Sort by name”.
• Favorites in the favorites bar can now be reordered using ALT+SHIFT+LEFT/ALT+SHIFT+RIGHT.
• When viewing history, you can now filter by time range and then search within the filtered results.
• While viewing history, CTRL+A will now select all items in the current list.
• The “Add a profile” flyout now uses dark colors in dark theme.
• The default profile icon now has a gray background instead of a white background in dark theme.
• Tooltip improvements for tabs: new tooltip for tab close button, keyboard shortcuts added to tooltips, and special tooltip notes when a tab is in an error state.
• The title of an InPrivate window now contains “[InPrivate]”.

Bug fixes

• The escape key now cancels profile creation.
• When the window width is small, the “Profiles” and “Appearance” items in the Settings nav bar no longer overlap.
• Installed sites now show the “Customize and control” menu button in the title bar.
• Fixed a case where a page would scroll the wrong amount when using the keyboard to scroll in high DPI modes.
• The first item in a context menu is no longer showing a hover effect when the menu is opened.
• Fixed a bug which could cause updates to stop if you upgrade to the next Windows 10 release.
• We fixed some problems with keyboard navigation through the toolbar and favorites.
• Fixed an issue where Netflix sometimes temporarily stopped playing video after seeking.
• Fixed an issue where Read Aloud would stop reading if it encountered certain characters.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the list of pages in “On startup” settings to render incompletely.
• When creating or editing a profile, the profile icon choices now appear in two tidy rows as expected.
• Removed an extra vertical separator that was incorrectly appearing between an active tab and its neighbor tabs.
• Fixed an intermittent crash in the send feedback dialog.
• Site permissions for USB devices are now shown properly in Settings.
• When a web page is using your microphone, a microphone icon now shows instead of a camera icon.
• Fixed some dark text on dark background in the profile flyout in dark mode.
• In dark theme, disabled toolbar buttons are now much easier to see.

Edge Insiders are a group of users who opt-in to test early versions of the new Microsoft Edge browser. There are three main channels for testing the different software builds. The Canary channel is updated daily with all of the latest changes as they’re made while the Dev channel updates weekly and receives more testing from Microsoft team members for a more stable experience.

The Beta channel will be the most-stable channel out of the three and will get its updates every six weeks once it launches in the near future.

Are you an Edge Insider? Share your thoughts on the experience and this latest update with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft news.

Microsoft is adding another nifty new feature to its Photos app for Windows 10 devices. The company is adding a “Search for similar images in Bing” option in the right-click context menu that can be accessed from the selected image screen.

According to MSPoweruser, the update should be live to all users of the Photos app on Windows 10. However, only some of our machines have picked up the update so far, one of which is running the Photos Preview program.

To begin a similar search and share the image with Bing, you’ll have to agree to allow the company to process the file online, as well as potentially use it to improve its search engine image processing services. The company has been big on privacy settings lately, so rest assured you won’t have to worry about prying eyes looking at your private photos without your consent.

From our brief experience, the feature seems to still be broken, as sharing an image brings a blank white browser screen with no results. If this is the case for all users, it’s doubtful that Microsoft has pushed it to anyone except potentially a small handful of people to see what they think before they release it to everyone.

In addition to the new search powered by Bing, Microsoft has also improved the video editor with new animated text styles—Simple, Quiet, Cinema, and Bold— as well as a Duplicate Project option if you’d like to keep an extra copy.

If you’re interested, you can go ahead and download the latest update of the Photos app and let us know in the comments if you’re able to see the new menu option. Please keep in mind that right-clicking an image after you selected from your gallery will bring up the context menu with Similar Search with Bing as the last selection.

In addition, Microsoft is also working to bring automatic People tags and other quick editing tools to the Microsoft photos app to help put it closer to par with Google Photos and iCloud.

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QR-Code

Microsoft Photos

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

Microsoft’s Xbox One S All Digital edition has only been available for purchase for a couple of days now. However, that hasn’t stopped HBO from partnering with Microsoft to produce the two different special Game of Thrones edition disk-less consoles in celebration of the series’ final season. Of course, as always, these special edition consoles are not available for sale, instead they are available as a prize to those who win it in one of the contests.

As described on the Xbox Wire blog post, the House Targaryen console features the Targaryen crest, which sits on top of the casing which resemble leather dragon scales. Those who would like to take a shot at potentially winning one of these must follow the official Xbox Twitter account, and retreat the reveal post using the #GamerThrones and #Sweepstakes hashtags.

Dracarys.

RT for a chance to win a Targaryen Xbox One S All-Digital Edition console. Head to Facebook for a shot at the Night King edition: https://t.co/HplIM8awY9

Catch the final episodes of #GoT on @HBO NOW. Pre-order Season 8 on Xbox. #GamerThrones #Sweepstakes pic.twitter.com/WxkmzK5Ydy

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 8, 2019

The Night King console features a “weathered tin metal” which is intended to resemble his armor as seen in the series. Similarly to the House Targaryen console, the system can be won by liking the reveal post on Facebook.

The contests will begin starting today, and the last chance to participate will land on May 22^nd. Only one of each consoles are available, so if you’re a big Game of Thrones fan, you hate disks, and you love ultra-rare items, then it’s definitely something for you to check out.

Of course, even if you don’t win one of these, Microsoft still has other Game of Thrones giveaways. If you pre-order the season 8 on Xbox through the Microsoft Movies and TV app, you can receive a free exclusive Iron Throne avatar for your Xbox Live account. Additionally, you can also choose to bundle the entire eight-season collection altogether and get two additional free avatars.

Despite there being little to no Build news on the Windows 10 operating system front, Windows OEM partners are still pumping out devices that leverage the OS in combination with ever-evolving user request features that make using Windows that much more desired.

One of Microsoft’s premier partners in Lenovo just announced the launch of upgrades to a handful of devices from its ThinkPad line of laptops.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T495, T495s, and X395 represent the company’s medium-range flagship productivity offerings for businesses.

The retooled T and X lineup will include 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 Pro Mobile processors with integrated AMD Vega graphics for better battery management when flying through macro-enabled Excel workbooks and multi-media heavy PowerPoint presentations.

Lenovo has previously offered AMD SKU’s for its more entry-level ThinkPad lines in the A and E series but as of today, its more mid-range devices are getting the switch which could represent an acknowledgment in software evolution or a loosening of the stranglehold Intel has had on its hardware.

Now, these are different SKU’s with different processors which mean different hardware support for the motherboards are in order and owners of the AMD versions of the T495, T495s and X395 will have to forego Thunderbolt 3 support, QHD panel options, and slightly less battery output. In exchange of missing Thunderbolt support, the new laptops will come with support for the newer HDMI v2.0 port protocol and users will be able to use existing T490 and X390 docking stations with the new laptops.

Lenovo expects to ship the ThinkPad T495 for $939.00 in late May, the T495s for $1089 in May as well and the X395 for $1089.00 sometime in June.

Tacoma, Black Desert, and Surviving Mars are the latest Xbox One video games to come to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. As of today, all three titles are available to play in full for subscribers.

Tacoma launched on the Xbox One in 2017 and is a futuristic story-based video game with a variety of puzzles to solve and plotlines to uncover. Here’s its official description and trailer:

The Venturis Corporation wants their AI back. That’s where you come in. Tacoma is a narrative adventure set aboard a high-tech space station in the year 2088. As you go about your mission, you’ll explore every detail of how the station’s crew lived and worked, finding the clues that add up to a gripping story of trust, fear, and resolve in the face of disaster.

At the heart of Tacoma is the facility’s digital surveillance system, which has captured 3D recordings of pivotal moments in the crew’s life on the station. As you explore, echoes of these captured moments surround you. You’ll use your ability to rewind, fast-forward, and move through the physical space of these complex, interwoven scenes to examine events from every angle, reconstructing the multi-layered narrative as you explore. Tacoma is the next game from the creators of Gone Home, and carries on that tradition of detailed, immersive, and powerful storytelling, while pulling players deeper into the narrative than ever before.

Black Desert is an online roleplaying game that supports worlds with up to 100,000 players. It launched on Xbox One back in March of this year and supports 4K Ultra HD when played on an Xbox One X console.

Black Desert is a living-world MMORPG. Experience fast-paced, action-packed combat, hunt monsters and huge bosses, fight with friends in a guild to siege nodes and region castles, train your life skills such as fishing, trading, crafting, cooking, and much more!
Players will enjoy jaw-dropping graphics, intuitive skill-based combat, and an immersive story encased in our expansive world that’s just waiting to be explored.

Accompanied by a Black Spirit, a companion whose destiny is intertwined with their own, players will discover the secret of the Black Stones and the history of their corrupting effects. In a medieval fantasy setting, the game chronicles a conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia. With a battle based on achievements and personal qualifications, Black Desert gives full control to players that can directly aim, escape and make numerous different skill combinations.

Surviving Mars debuted on the Xbox One in 2018 and is a Sci-Fi city building game set on, as its title suggests, the planet Mars. It also features 4K Ultra HD when played on an Xbox One X. Here’s its official game description:

Colonize Mars and discover her secrets, with minimal casualties. Welcome Home! The time has come to stake your claim on the Red Planet and build the first functioning human colonies on Mars! All you need are supplies, oxygen, decades of training, experience with sandstorms, and a can-do attitude to discover the purpose of those weird black cubes that appeared out of nowhere. With a bit of sprucing up, this place is going to be awesome!

Surviving Mars is a sci-fi city builder all about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. Choose a space agency for resources and financial support before determining a location for your colony. Build domes and infrastructure, research new possibilities and utilize drones to unlock more elaborate ways to shape and expand your settlement. Cultivate your own food, mine minerals or just relax by the bar after a hard day’s work. Most important of all, though, is keeping your colonists alive. Not an easy task on a strange new planet. There will be challenges to overcome. Execute your strategy and improve your colony’s chances of survival while unlocking the mysteries of this alien world. Are you ready? Mars is waiting for you.

May has been a pretty good month for new Xbox Game Pass titles. Other titles added to the library this month include Descenders, Wolfenstein II, and Wargroove.

Do you use Xbox Game Pass? Let us know which titles you’ll be playing this month in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Xbox gaming news.

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Tacoma

Developer:
Fullbright

Price:
$19.99

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QR-Code

Black Desert

Developer:
Pearl Abyss

Price:
Free

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Surviving Mars

Developer:
Paradox Interactive

Price:
$29.99

Microsoft has just announced the release of Windows 10 20H1 build 18894 for Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring. After lots of 20H1 builds with no significant new features, the new bits finally bring something new to test with a new File Explorer search experience.

Select Insiders will see after installing this new build that the File explorer search box can now show content from OneDrive, and the search results will also be actionable. This new search experience is powered by Windows Search, and Microsoft says that only a small percentage of Insiders will see it at first.

If the File Explorer improvements are the main highlight in this build, Microsoft is also bringing some Narrator and Windows Mangnifier improvements. You can learn more details in the full release notes below:

File Explorer improvements

We’ve heard your feedback asking for increased consistency, and to make it easier to find your files. Over the next few days we’ll be starting to roll out a new File Explorer search experience – now powered by Windows Search. This change will help integrate your OneDrive content online with the traditional indexed results. This rollout will start with a small percent, and then we’ll increase the rollout to more Insiders as we validate the quality of the experience.

What does that mean for you? Once you have the new experience, as you type in File Explorer’s search box, you’ll now see a dropdown populated with suggested files at your fingertips that you can pick from.

These improved results can be launched directly by clicking the entry in the new suggestions box, or if you want to open the file location, just right-click the entry and there’ll be an option to do so. If you need to use commands or dig deeper into non-indexed locations, you can still press enter and populate the view with the traditional search results.

We’ve also updated the design, so now as soon as you click the search box in File Explorer (or press CTRL+E to set focus to it), you’ll see the dropdown list with your search history.

If you encounter any issues, or have any feedback, file them under “Files, Folders, and Online Storage” > “File Explorer” in the Feedback Hub.

NOTES: You may notice in the screenshot, we’ve made the File Explorer search box wider so the suggestions dropdown has a bit more room to show results – that’s not a new option, but we figured you might want to know how to do it: just move your mouse to the starting border of the search box, and your mouse should turn into a resizing double arrow cursor. Just click down and drag the search box to be a bit wider.

Accessibility improvements

• Narrator table reading improvements: Narrator is now more efficient when reading tables. Only the deltas are read when navigating. Entering and exiting tables is also less verbose.
• Narrator web page summary: There’s a new command in Narrator to give a webpage summary! (Narrator + S). Currently this command will give information about hyperlinks, landmarks and headings.
• Magnifier text cursor setting: Windows Magnifier has a new ability to keep the text cursor in the center of the screen making it easier and smoother to type. Centered on the screen is on by default and can be changed in the Magnifier settings.

As usual, this new 20H1 build also brings several bug fixes and general improvements, and you can learn more in our separate post. Don’t forget to tune it to the Windows Insider webcast at 11:30AM PST as the Windows Insider team may well have more interesting news for us today.

Microsoft’s Build 2019 developer conference is still ongoing in Seattle and there will be a new Windows Insider webcast will be recorded live from the event. As usual, the show will be streamed live on Mixer and it will kick off at 11:30AM PDT this morning.

Mark your calendars for the May webcast! We'll be live from the #WindowsInsider booth on the #MicrosoftBuild2019 show floor! Tune in to https://t.co/52l6owHDjS on May 8th starting at 11:30am PDT / 6:30pm UTC! pic.twitter.com/6Kp8YOBjx0

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) May 2, 2019

Hopefully, we got some new information about Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser this week, the event has been pretty light on Windows 10 news so far. We didn’t hear any details about the upcoming 19H2 update for Windows 10, and Microsoft has also yet to announce when the May 2019 update will start rolling out to Windows 10 users.

We’re not sure what to expect from today’s webcast, but the Windows Insider team did mention a new PWA version of the Windows Insider website (not to be confused with the Feedback Hub).

Our upcoming Insider PWA app codenamed "Project Catnip". #InsiderUp #MSBuild pic.twitter.com/DmVWF3Qdh4

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) May 6, 2019

There could be more surprises for Insiders during the webcast, including a new 20H1 build, so make sure to tune in this morning at 11:30AM PDT.

Microsoft’s Windows Hello will officially become a FIDO2-certified authenticator service in the next release of Windows 10. This means that going forward, all Windows 10 devices with Windows Hello biometics will be FIDO2-certified out of the box as long as long as they are running the Windows 10 May 2019 update or later.

For those unfamiliar, FIDO2 project is an effort between the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium with the purpose of creating a simpler yet strong authentication service for web applications. FIDO2-compliant services use cryptographic security that is “far superior to passwords” according to the organization, which it promises will further protect users from phishing and password theft.

Microsoft has been pushing Windows Hello and passwordless login of MSA accounts to greatly boost security and convenience for its consumers. Back in November, the company added support for FIDO2 security keys as a way to authenticate one’s Microsoft account. With Windows Hello now following the same standards, customers should be able to feel more at rest about the security of their private data.

Microsoft is also bringing passwordless login via Windows Hello to the Mozilla Firefox web browser starting in the Windows 10 May 2019 update. The company expects the same functionality to eventually make its way to Chromium-based web browsers, including the new Microsoft Edge that is still under development.

The tech giant also recommends those to use the Microsoft Authenticator app, which it says is “built on secure technology similar to Windows Hello.” While it’s expected to take time for Windows Hello and Microsoft Authenticator to totally replace passwords altogether, the company recommends developers to look into supporting FIDO2 authentication in their web applications as soon as today.