Even though Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella finally admitted that Cortana won’t compete head-to-head with Alexa and Google Assistant, the company’s digital assistant is apparently still getting new features. As reported by Windows Central, the “Connected Home” section of the Cortana notebook quietly gained two new sections, “Rules” and “Scenes.”

It’s not clear yet if these two sections are live for all Cortana users, but we’ve seen them on a Windows 10 PC running the latest Insider build (18317), as well as the latest version of the Cortana app on iOS. Cortana already lets you add and control several appliances from Ecobee, Philips Hue or Nest, and the new Rules and Scenes features are intended to help you do more with your connected Home.

With Rules, you can create commands with conditions of your choice such as time of day, duration, temperature, and more. Scenes are a slightly more complex feature, letting you create specific commands combining different smart appliances. As an example, you could create a “Good Morning” Scene that turns on your lights, raise the temperature on your smart thermostat, and more. While we haven’t been to experiment with Scenes, the possibilities seem to be quite extensive.

Microsoft has yet to communicate about these new Connected Home features in Cortana, but it’s great to see the company throw a bone to owners of smart appliances. Now that Microsoft wants Cortana to become a “skill” for Alexa and Google Assistant, we didn’t really expect the company to add more “consumer” features to its digital assistant, so that’s definitely a pleasant surprise. Let us know in the comments if you’ve been able to put these new Rules and Scenes Cortana feature into action.

Despite all the recent talk about Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), Microsoft and its own in-house development teams appear to maintain a healthy interest in continuing their support of the UWP XAML communities.

A new app from the Microsoft Garage Project studios emerged in the Store recently called XAML Studio which was released to help “rapidly prototype UWP XAML” projects and copied for further development using Visual Studio.

XAML Studio lets you preview your XAML code in real-time and interact with the result just like it was running in your own app!

This instant response lets you quickly iterate on ideas visually, copy in examples from docs to explore, and test the final behavior all at the same time in one app easily downloaded from the store. You can even download it and get started prototyping while installing Visual Studio!

• Rapidly Prototype UWP XAML UIs with Live Edit and Interaction
• Binding Debugger
• Data Context Editor
• Auto-save and restore Documents
• IntelliSense
• Documentation Toolbox
• Alignment Guides
• Namespace Helpers

In addition to the streamlined Copy/Paste nature of XAML Studio, developers will also find tools in the app that should help with Data Context for UI decision based on either static test date or live date from JSON REST API. XAML Studio will also allow developers to use a new binding debugging tool that will give insight into the back-end and front end UI usage as well as real-time error-spotting.

Visit the Microsoft Store to give this Microsoft Garage Project a shot, if you’re a UWP XAML developer or tester.

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XAML Studio

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

With Windows apps being updated through the Microsoft Store almost independently from the major operating system updates, it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint when and what new features have been implemented versus usual developer maintenance. Being a Windows Insider infinitely complicates feature tracking as some app updates become release triggered.

Now that I’ve applied a qualifying excuse to my overlooked reporting, I can say with moderate embarrassment, “hey guys, have you tried the new darker reading mode in the Windows 10 Mail app?”

I was tipped to its appearance via the Italian website Aggiornamenti Lumia where a gif was posted of the new toggle feature.

Mail UWP is getting more and more interesting. New useful toogle incoming ???? https://t.co/yzFWRM59h1

— Aggiornamenti Lumia (@ALumia_Italia) January 17, 2019

Sure enough, the new toggle is available on my version of the Windows 10 Mail app running on the latest Fast Ring build 18317, despite there being little to no fanfare about it in the developer release notes. I’m not sure when it first appeared but users have been vocal about its implementation for over two years.

The dark preview pane may seem like a trivial addition, but its small details such as these that help bring cohesion to the platform and may help some users pivot from using Chrome or the big box version of Outlook, to the default mail experience in Windows 10. I know, I’m a fan of the app!

If you happen to know when exactly this toggled showed up, please feel free to drop that knowledge in the comment section for inquriing readers.

After being hinted at yesterday, We Happy Few and The LEGO Movie Videogame are now both available to play for free as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

The LEGO Movie Videogame will look familiar to anyone who’s played any of the other LEGO video games on Xbox One. This one is based on the LEGO Movie storyline and features a diverse selection of over 90 characters to unlock.

Join Emmet and an unlikely group of resistance fighters in their heroic quest to thwart Lord Business’ evil plans—a mission that Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously unprepared for.  It’s a wild ride with a surprising mix of over 90 playable characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Green Ninja, Gandalf, Shakespeare, Cleopatra and more.

We Happy Few is a more mature video game with a strong emphasis on story. The game has been rather well-received by critics and gamers though may be too intense for young players.

We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial in the city of Wellington Wells. In this alternative 1960s England, conformity is key. You’ll have to fight or blend in with the drug-addled inhabitants, most of whom don’t take kindly to people who won’t abide by their not-so-normal rules.

Discover the retrofuturistic city’s dark history as you play through the intertwined narratives of three quietly rebellious citizens of Wellington Wells. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses as they face their pasts, prepare for the future, and engage in activities that aren’t exactly status quo in the artificially enthused society.

In addition to confirming We Happy Few and The LEGO Movie Videogame’s addition to Xbox Game Pass today, Microsoft also officially announced that Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Saints Row: The Third would be coming to the service on January 24th.

Are you an Xbox Game Pass subscriber and are you hyped to play these games? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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The LEGO Movie Videogame

Developer:
Warner Bros. Games

Price:
$19.99

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We Happy Few

Developer:
Gearbox Publishing

Price:
Free

The Xbox 360 video game, Ace Combat 6, is set to get Xbox One backwards compatibility sometime today. Ace Combat 6’s new Xbox One product page is currently live in the Microsoft Store, however, the game itself doesn’t appear to be available just yet at the time of this writing.

Ace Combat 6 is a military action-strategy game that originally launched back in 2007. It features a strong focus on flying military aircraft but also contains other aspects of such as naval combat as well.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

Witness high definition graphics rendering the world around you into super realistic war zones, made possible only by next generation processing power. Lead not only aerial combat units but also naval and ground combat units to victory. Massive conflicts unfold on a “living battlefield” integrated by the “Dynamic Operation System” where up to six independent aerial, ground, and naval battles can break out at once as allies and enemies clash in real-time.

Ace Combat 6’s sequel, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, is set to launch on the Xbox One family of consoles tomorrow and will be available in both a Deluxe and regular version. Digital pre-orders for both are now live.

Are you a fan of the Ace Combat video games? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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ACE COMBAT 6: Fires of Liberation

Developer:
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.

Price:
Free

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ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN Launch Edition

Developer:
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.

Price:
Free

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ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN Deluxe Launch Edition

Developer:
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.

Price:
Free

It’s been quite some time since we last saw something interesting in Xbox Insider builds, but the latest 1904 flight for Preview Alpha Skip Ahead & Alpha Ring members is a welcome change. Indeed, this new build introduces a floating keyboard that should automatically position itself around text boxes.

While the Xbox team didn’t provide an image of the mini keyboard in the release notes, you can see how it looks in the tweet below:

I just took this on my console, this? pic.twitter.com/yH6ffhxJjZ

— Rhys ????️‍???? (@RhysWX) January 16, 2019

This latest 1904 build also addresses some issues causing blank tabs in the dashboard, as well as Home crashes when system sounds played. Going forward, all new 1904 preview builds will ship to both Skip Ahead and Preview Alpha Insiders, but Microsoft is also testing the Xbox 1902 update with Preview Beta and Delta Insiders.

To be clear, the Xbox 1902 update is expected to ship in February, and the 1904 update will likely follow in April. So far, 1902 preview builds only brought under the hood changes, including framework changes to the mouse feature set for future work, but no new features. It’s pretty much the same story so far with 1904 builds, except for this new virtual mini keyboard. We hope the team will start testing new features with Insiders in the coming weeks.

Perhaps, priming the pump of journalism around the Microsoft 2019 news cycle, CEO Satya Nadella spoke with journalists at in invitational editors meeting about the company’s ambitious gaming endeavors.

While various company executives throughout the past couple of years have waxed poetic about how much gaming means to Microsoft; it’s only in rare instances and normally in front of a developer crowd, that Nadella has addressed the degree to which developments in gaming will play out in the company’s grander scheme.

Business Insider is reporting on the company’s CEO speaking with journalists the other day, Nadella offered some candid information about Microsoft’s secret game streaming project, Project xCloud.

“We describe it as, shorthand, ‘Netflix for games.”

As has been reported, the premise is that Microsoft’s push into cloud computing will aid in propelling a high fidelity, low latency gaming experience run mostly, if not entirely from the cloud, thus shifting the gaming landscape from a dependency on peridocial console releases. An additional benefit of unclasping the gaming experience from the traditional big box console is that it would free developers to market their experiences on newer, non-traditional gaming devices such as phones, Smart TV’s or ‘streaming sticks’.

The idea of game streaming isn’t new nor is it exclusive to Microsoft’s brand. Microsoft is in good company with both gaming studios and major tech companies such as Sony, Electronic Arts, Google, Apple, Amazon, Activision, and others when it comes to creating a streaming alternative.

However, the devil is in the details, like most attempts at a high-quality game streaming service all run into logistical quagmires attempting to solve the low latency issue combined with reliable enough internet access for gaming.

To that, Nadella believes that, while not fully resolved at this moment, Microsoft is in a better position than others to tackle the aforementioned issues with game streaming.

“We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else.”We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else,”

He also made reference to Microsoft’s dual pillar enterprise and gaming businesses that allows the company to leverage several advantages that singularly focused companies are not afforded.

For instance, “We have a huge back catalog, which is we have our own games,” which is something Apple, Google and Amazon lack at the moment when attempting to court the more affluent hardcore gaming crowd, and they also possess a massive cloud infrastructure to push beyond console limits that its major competitor in Sony, does not yet have established.

“We have a structural position in that we have both a console business as well as a PC business, which happens to be bigger than the console business when it comes to gaming.”

Linking Microsoft’s current despot efforts is its Xbox Live and its related services such as Play Anywhere library and Game Pass which will undoubtedly play larger roles in the company’s streaming future.

Nadella’s discussion with journalists earlier this week is yet another formalization of the concept laid forth by company VP of gaming Phil Spencer, wherein, console-quality gaming should be accessible by all and Microsoft is going to be among, if not, the company to deliver those experiences.

Another Windows 10 Insider preview build is up for release to Fast Ring testers. The new Windows 10 preview release today is 18317 and comes with the standard list of General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC as with most releases.

Hello #WindowsInsiders we released 19H1 Build 18317 to the Fast ring! https://t.co/voWdr1RU8n

— Dona Sarkar at #AbilitySummit (@donasarkar) January 16, 2019

Here is a list of what’s been fixed and what testers need to be on the look out when using this build.

• We fixed an issue resulting in File Explorer unexpectedly having a lock on USBs when trying to safely eject them.
• We fixed an issue resulting in frequent bugchecks (GSODs) in the last two flights, citing an error with bindflt.sys.
• We fixed an issue resulting in frequent bugchecks (GSODs) in the last flight, citing error KERNEL_LOCK_ENTRY_LEAKED_ON_THREAD_TERMINATION.
• We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to connect to VMs using Hyper-V console after upgrading to recent flights. This issue also impeded the ability to connect to VMs with Enhanced Sessions enabled.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some full screen games showing a black screen in recent flights even though they worked in windowed mode.
• We fixed an issue resulting in CDP User Service periodically unexpectedly using a high amount of CPU in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue causing text in the Windows Security app to be incorrect or potentially missing altogether.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where clicking the network button on the sign-in screen didn’t work.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain devices not being able to wake from hibernation recently. There were two possible symptoms on wake if you were impacted – one was a black screen, one was a screen that continued to say “hibernating…”.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Display Settings crashing in recent builds. If you were impacted, this would have also had the symptom that clicking System or Ease of Access from the main Settings page may crash Settings.
• We fixed an issue with certain touch keyboard languages where pressing AltGr + [any key] on the full layout would dismiss the touch keyboard.
  We fixed an issue where Windows Sandbox wouldn’t launch on PCs with multiple GPUs.
• When Scan Mode is on and Narrator is on a slider, the left and right arrows will decrease and increase the slider. Up and down arrows will continue to navigate to the previous or next paragraph or item. Home and End will move the slider to the beginning or the end.
• The Narrator list of headings command now works as expected in Chrome.
• We improved Narrator support for Microsoft Teams.
  For cursor and pointer, fixed returning to the right mouse pointers when changing back to the original size and colors.
• We fixed an issue where some devices would fail to install an update with error code If you are updating from 18309 or newer this issue will be fixed for this update, if you are updating from a build prior to 18309 it will be fixed for the next update.

And here are the Known Issues that the Windows team are highlighting in this build.

• The Windows Security app may show an unknown status for the Virus & threat protection area, or not refresh properly. This may occur after upgrade, restart, or settings changes.
• Launching games that use anti-cheat software may trigger a bugcheck (GSOD).
• Clicking your account in Cortana Permissions doesn’t bringing up the UI to sign out from Cortana (if you were already signed in) for some users in this build.
• Creative X-Fi sound cards are not functioning properly. We are partnering with Creative to resolve this issue.
• When attempting to update this build some S Mode devices will download and restart but fail the update.
• Night light functionality is impacted by a bug in this build. We’re working on a fix, and it will be included in an upcoming build.
• When you open Action Center the quick actions section may be missing.
• Windows feature update may fail but show up as a successful update in Windows Update history page. If this happens you will see more than one successful install for the same update in the history page.
• When performing Reset this PC and selecting Keep my files on a device that has Reserved Storage enabled the user will need to initiate an extra reboot to ensure Reserved Storage is working again properly.
• There is an issue impacting a small number of users enrolled in Microsoft Intune where they may not receive policies. Those policies are not applied and left in a “pending“ state on the server. The workaround is to go to Settings/Accounts/Access work or school and “Disconnect” your Azure AD account and then re-enroll.
• Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.
• Update Orchestrator Service stops working periodically. A fix will be included in an upcoming build. As a result of this issue, you may see an error on Windows Update Settings saying that the update failed to restart. If you see this, restarting using the power menu in Start (“Update and restart”) should work, although there’s a chance that it won’t.
• Closing the lid to a laptop and re-opening can cause icons in the task bar to appear blank. To fix this open task manager and restart explorer.exe or reboot.
• If you download a theme from Microsoft Store, it won’t appear in Themes Settings.

Known issues for Developers

• If you install any of the recent builds from the Fast ring and switch to the Slow ring – optional content such as enabling developer mode will fail. You will have to remain in the Fast ring to add/install/enable optional content. This is because optional content will only install on builds approved for specific rings.

n addition to growing list of known issues and fixes, there are other new items for Insiders to be on the lookout for such as Bing Insider stuff, Bug Bash reminders, Windows Console Updates, and more.

If you’re an Insider, build 18317 is definitely a release worth checking out this week.

Microsoft is rolling out today the Windows 10 19H1 build 18317 to Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring. After some testing with select Insiders in recent weeks, this new build finally separates Cortana from Windows Search in the task bar. “This will enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases,” the Windows Insider team explained today.

This new build brings other significant updates, including some background changes to make the Start Menu more reliable than before. The Windows 10 Settings app has also been updated with A Better Font management experience and a revamped Windows Insider Settings page. You can find more details about all these changes below:

Separating Search and Cortana

Going forward, we’ll be decoupling Search and Cortana in the taskbar. This will enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases. Some Insiders have had this update for a few weeks now, and we appreciate all the feedback we’ve received about it so far! For those new to this update, when it rolls out to you, you’ll find clicking the search box in the taskbar now launches our experience focused on giving you the best in house search experience and clicking the Cortana icon will launch you straight into our voice-first digital assistant experience.

Other available Search and Cortana settings have also now been split between the two, along with the familiar group policies.

This change is one of several we’ve made throughout this release to improve your experience in this space, including updating the search landing page design, enhancing your search results, and integrating Microsoft To-Do with Cortana. If you have any further feedback, please don’t hesitate to share it with us here.

Note: Cortana is currently only available in supported markets.

The next step in improving Start reliability

As some of you may already know, up until now Start in Windows 10 has been hosted by something called ShellExperienceHost.exe. In order to provide you the best possible Start experience, we’re separating it into its own process, called StartMenuExperienceHost.exe. This has a number of benefits, including simplifying debugging and insulating Start from potential issues impacting other surfaces. This has been running as an experiment for a few weeks now and we’ve seen measurable improvements in the reliability amongst those that have the change, so we’re rolling it out to everyone.

We’re also making a change so that Start no longer suspends, which improves launch time.

A Better Font management experience in Settings

Insiders today can now drag and drop font files from File Explorer into the modern Settings > Fonts page to install them. After installation, click on the font in the Font page, to view the different font faces associated with the font and all the details of the font. You can also uninstall the font from this font details page. Drag and drop font installation by default is installed as a per-user font which does not require elevation, hence it will not be available for other users. To install the font for all users in the device, use the “Install for all Users” option by right clicking the font on file explorer.

A simpler Windows Insider Program Settings page

We are introducing a simplified Windows Insider Program Settings page via Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program with Build 18317. The goal is to make the end-to-end experience of signing up for the Windows Insider Program and setting up your PC to take new builds much easier by simplifying the experience and removing some of the clutter. You’ll find that all the same functionality is still there.

Under “Pick your Insider settings” is where you can change your Insider ring on your PC.

Windows Console Updates

We’ve made several fixes & improvements in Windows Console in and leading up to build 18317, including:

• Fixed spurious text artifacts being displayed when running cscope in a Linux VM via ssh
• Fixed GitHub issue 296 where the incorrect mouse button ID was being reported when a mouse button was released, resulting in an “unexpected mouse-drag behavior” regression
• Fixed GitHub Issue 313, enabling colors above index #15 to be set via VT OSC 4
  • Colors <= 99 fixed in this build
  • Colors > 99 fixed in up-coming build
• Corrected sizing issues for Linux alt-buffer apps (e.g. vim, emacs, etc.) resulting in more reliable resizing
• Fixed some issues with Consoles growing in height if scroll-forward is disabled
• Fixed ConPTY, enabling underline VT sequences to now pass correctly, allowing ConPTY-enabled apps (e.g. VSCode’s integrated terminal) to correctly receive and display underlined text
• Made ConPTY flush its output buffer before terminating ensuring apps receive all input and display correct output
• When running Tmux, correctly restore state after Win + D, resulting in Tmux’s last line of text rendering correctly
• Fixed Console to preserve a Console window’s currently colored text when executing Cmd.exe
• If using raster fonts, Console now correctly preserves the user’s font after running .NET Core code (which defaults to UTF-8 codepage 65001)
• Correct how Console scrolls text region, fixing how text is rendered in Linux’ `screen`
• Significantly improved performance of ConPTY – perf now very close to “raw pipe”

Overall, Cortana being separated from Windows Search is pretty big news, and this should give more room to other digital assistants like Alexa (now available as a Microsoft Store app). Cortana has been a part of Windows Search since the launch of Windows 10, but the company seems to have come to the conclusion that this wasn’t such a good idea. In the preview build 18309 released earlier this month, Microsoft also removed the Cortana voice-over when you clean install Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions of Windows. Cortana will still have its place in the Windows 10 task bar going forward, but it no longer seems to be a core functionality of Windows 10.

As usual, the preview build 18317 also fixes a long list of bugs, and it also includes the three issues that were fixed in the cumulative update build 18312.1007 released yesterday. You can learn more about the general fixes and known issues in the build 18317 in our separate post.

Square Enix is releasing The Nightmare DLC for Xbox One next week. The expansion will deliver seven new missions, which the developers are calling “Paths” for Lara Croft to explore. Each path will offer its own set of missions, and Lara can earn new outfits, weapons, and skills with each one. Here’s a list of what’s new in the DLC:

Survive and Thrive: Master the jungle to survive. Explore underwater environments filled with crevasses and deep tunnel systems.

Become One With the Jungle: Lara must use the jungle to her advantage to strike suddenly and disappear like a jaguar, instilling fear in her enemies.

Discover Brutal Tombs: Terrifying tombs, filled with deadly puzzles, require advanced traversal techniques to be accessed.

Uncover Living History: Discover a hidden city and explore the biggest Tomb Raider hub ever.

Journey through “The Nightmare” on January 22nd as Lara Croft faces off against familiar enemies and fallen friends. ???? pic.twitter.com/ouRPCGv538

— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) January 15, 2019

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest installment of the Tomb Raider series, taking off from the Rise of the Tomb Raider hit that saw its way to the Xbox One. The Nightmare is the third DLC to become available for the game.

The content will be available for those who whish to purchase this Tuesday, January 22. If you’ve never played before, the developers are offering a free seven-day trial for anyone on Xbox One, Windows 10, and PS4. So now might be a good time to jump on the bandwagon and try the game out.

Microsoft will be investing in yet another Indian company. The company’s venture fund, M12, will invest in various startups, with Innovaccer being among the first of recent companies to receive funding from the tech giant. According to Microsoft, Innovaccer is a startup that aims to solve problems with data interoperability in health care, and improve outcomes for health systems. In the words of the company’s global head of M12, Nagraj Kashyap:

“We are thrilled to broaden M12’s reach to include India. India is a market rich with entrepreneurs creating world-class startups that are poised for success on a global scale. In working with these innovative startups, we believe together we will help disrupt enterprises and industries ripe for digital transformation.“

The company’s M12 startup has already made investments to other prior startups, as well. Microsoft explains that these range from “cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to business SaaS and industrial drones.” For those unfamiliar, M12, formerly known as Microsoft Ventures, is a cooperate venture fund which invests in startups, which Microsoft serving as a strategic partner as the companies grow.

Investments to an Indian startup like this is not surprising. The company cites the country’s business-to-business increased equity funding up to $3.08 billion in 2018, a 28% increase from the previous year. Microsoft’s own CEO Satya Nadella is a fellow Indian American himself, so it seems only logical for his company to have familiarity with those businesses.

Since Microsoft announced that Windows 10 Mobile will no longer be supported after December 2019, some adventurous hackers have been trying to breathe new life into Windows phones. The most interesting experiments revolve around installing Windows 10 on ARM on these devices to replace Windows 10 Mobile, and get access to the huge library of legacy Windows apps.

Of course, running full Windows 10 on such small-screened devices isn’t really a great experience, and in addition to various driver issues, you’ll also lose phone capabilities as Windows 10 doesn’t have a phone stack. Still, that hasn’t stop hackers from continuing to experiment with Windows 10 on ARM on old Windows phones. Yesterday, Reddit user Wall_SoGB posted a video of a Lumia 950XL with Windows 10 on ARM running the original Fallout PC game from 1997. While this is a very old game, it actually runs through emulation on Windows 10 on ARM which causes quite a bit of lag, even on a device with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 SoC.

In the Reddit thread, Wall_SoGB shared that he tried running other PC games like Duke Nukem 3D which ran at 15 FPS, while the more recent Fallout 3 ran at a sad 1 FPS. “Weirdly cpu usage is low, often below 50%, maybe because of the way emulation works,” the hacker noted.

This is still an impressive demo, and it’s hard not to think about all the possibilities Windows 10 on ARM could offer on pocketable devices like Microsoft’s rumored Andromeda project. However, the company’s new game streaming technology codenamed Project xCloud could well be a much better alternative to Win32 app emulation on mobile processors. If you can stream modern games on your iOS or Android phone (in addition to millions of mobile apps and games), maybe having full Windows on a pocketable device won’t seem so exciting for the majority of consumers.

With 2019 being the last full year of support for the Windows 7 operating system, many companies are running out of time to upgrade to Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 operating system. However, one of the main reasons many people and businesses continue to use the older versions is because of the fear of an application no longer being able to run on the upgraded computer.

Microsoft is confident that the vast, vast majority of software should run fine, however they do acknowledge the fact that sometimes API changes can break things. While the company works hard to best insure these issues don’t arise, sometimes that isn’t quite enough for businesses to bite. To help combat this, the company is rolling out their new Desktop App Assure service, which will help in the unlikely event the application does fail to run after the upgrade.

According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, users will be able to file a support ticket with Microsoft’s FastTrack program, after which an engineer will work with them until all compatibility issues are resolved. The service is free for anyone deploying Windows 10 and Office ProPlus with an eligible Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education subscription. The company is able to offer the service without charge because, according to their statistics, engineers evaluated 7,000 out of 41,000 applications, with only 49 of which required work to fix. The company is providing the following assistance to make sure the following Windows 7 apps will work for Windows 10:

• Customer-developed apps targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
• Third-party independent software vendor (ISV) apps targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
• Office 365 ProPlus targeting a supported version of Windows 10, including macros and add-ins.
• Microsoft products and services targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
• Windows 10 desktop and web apps.

However, the company will now offer assistance to test compatibility for those apps to insure they work. Other services not offered by the program include:

• App inventory and testing to determine what does and doesn’t work on Windows 10. For more information, see Customer Request for Modern Desktop Assessment.
• Researching third-party ISV apps for Windows 10 compatibility and support statements. For more information, see Ready for Windows.
• App packaging-only services. However, the Desktop App Assure team packages apps that we have remediated for Windows 10 to ensure they can be deployed in the customer’s environment.

As it stands, Microsoft is readying its discontinuration of Windows 10 which, which will occur on January 14, 2020. With Windows 10 being pegged as the last version of Windows, developers only need to upgrade once and will never have to worry about upgrading again in the future.

Microsoft has started testing a new Quick Access Menu in its Skype Insider app. In the preview version 8.37.76.92 that is now available on all platforms, you can access this Quick Access Menu by clicking on your Avatar in the top left corner of the app.

The Quick Access menu replaces the much bigger pop up window that previously showed up when you clicked on your Avatar, though the core functionality isn’t that different. “With the Quick access menu, your profile, associated Microsoft Account, Skype number and Settings are just a click away. From the Quick access menu you can review your Skype credits & subscriptions as well as update your profile picture and mood message,” the Skype team explained.

After announcing that the “Away” status would be coming back to this new cross-platform Skype app, the team is apparently not done polishing the UI of the new client. This apparently doesn’t go very well with some users, as the first comments on the post announcing the new Quick Access Menu are pretty negative. “No new features should be worked on for Skype until you bring the laundry list of old features back or let us use Skype Classic again,” said one user.

If you want to check out this new Quick Access Menu, the easiest way to access this latest preview build is the new web app available on preview.web.skype.com. Otherwise, you can download the standalone desktop app on this page.

The Windows 10 Slack app updated to Version 3.3.4 earlier this week with a host of bug fixes for a variety of problems.

According to the patch notes, the bugs fixed include one that was showing users the same message twice when logging in (amusingly mentioned twice in the notes), another that made it hard to highlight text, and another that listed the incorrect keyboard shortcut for going full screen.

Here’s the full release notes:

• Users signing in with Single Sign-On would see the same message twice when logging in.
• Users signing in with Single Sign-On would see the same message twice when logging in. This will not happen any more.
• When trying to select a portion of a code-formatted block of text (text formatted with ` or “` at either end), some characters were proving slippery and hard to select. You can now copy and paste to your heart’s content.
• Several random, rare crashes — on launch and at other times — have been eliminated. More random and rare crashes inevitably exist, of course, and as soon as we know what they are, we’ll eliminate those too.
• The full screen shortcut was mistakenly listed as ‘Ctrl+F’ instead of ‘Ctrl+Shift+F’ in the “View” menu. We both apologize for this and hope that, because of it, someone out there discovered ‘Ctrl+F’ as a useful shortcut for searching the channel that you’re in. Always look on the bright side of bugs.

Slack is a popular team messaging app that allows users to communicate with each other and send files to team members. It used to be king of this particular app niche, however, it’s recently encountered stiff competition from Microsoft Teams.

Do you still use Slack or have you made the switch to Teams? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more app content.

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Slack

Developer:
Slack Technologies Inc.

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Free

The official Xbox Game Pass Twitter account shared a preview of several new video games that are set to join the subscription service before the end of the month.

While pixelated, it seems as if the upcoming games are We Happy Few, The LEGO Movie: The Video Game, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Saint’s Row: The Third. Some contact information was also censored in the tweet but it’s probably best not to try and work out what that is.

We thought you might find this mildly interesting pic.twitter.com/tSOcRzebqX

— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) January 14, 2019

We Happy Few isn’t too much of a surprise given that Microsoft purchased the studio behind it, Compulsion Games, last year. The LEGO Movie: The Video Game’s addition is probably a smart marketing move to get people hooked on this game before its sequel comes out later next month while Shadow of Mordor should please people who were disappointed by the recent removal of several Lord of the Rings games from the Microsoft Store. Saint’s Row: The Third was incredibly popular when it launched so it’s generally just a positive thing to see major titles such as this come to the Xbox Game Pass program.

Are you an Xbox Game Pass subscriber and are you happy to see these games be added to the library? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Update: it’s official, We Happy Few and The Lego Movie Videogame will join the Xbox Game Pass catalog on January 17, while Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Saints Row: The Third will be added on January 24.

More titles coming to @XboxGamePass in January. Check out this post for more details and timing https://t.co/cB588lZGd0 pic.twitter.com/bRlqGmOlgt

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) January 16, 2019

Rocket League is now available for cross-platform play on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PS4. Psyonix made the announcement yesterday in a post on the Rocket League blog. Sony allowed Rocket League to play with other platforms via the Playstation Cross-Play Beta program. Here are the instructions as noted in the blog post:

“Players on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam can now randomly matchmake with or against each other in all Online match types (i.e. Casual, Competitive, and Extra Modes). To make sure that Cross-Platform play is enabled (it is by default), head to the “Main Menu,” select “Options” and then make sure the “Cross-Platform Play” box is checked in the “Gameplay” tab. And that’s all there is to it. You are now ready to play against gamers on other platforms across the world!”

Coming soon, Psyonix will release an update to Rocket League, introducing their cross-play platform party system to allow players to team up with their friends on any supported platform. For now, you can still play with your friends by creating or joining a private match in Rocket League. Psyonix hopes to give Rocket League players full cross-platform support by adding more platforms in the future.

Microsoft continues to bolster its retail partnerships as the company headed to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show to showcase its intelligent cloud services at the largest retail conference anywhere.

With an arsenal of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT support, and hybrid server solutions, Microsoft CVP of Retail and Consumer Goods Industries Shelly Bransten have never been better equipped to deliver the company’s promise of ‘Intelligent Retail,” to businesses and customers.

“From using AI to create transformative customer and employee experiences, to embracing IoT to leverage their supply chains for maximum customer impact, to using cloud-based business applications to manage everything from the customer journey to operations. In an industry experiencing accelerating change, Microsoft and its partners are creating the solutions to help our customers keep up.”

Announced just ahead of the conference were some new capabilities of Microsoft’s holistic intelligent retail package that included a newly customizable mobile Teams experience, Teams API connects supporting workforce management systems, and a new Praise Tool to help encourage a positive work culture and teamwork. Microsoft held a significant presence with its 20 solution demos, as well as Bransten’s Big Ideas session and company colleagues Alysa Taylor, CVP for Business Applications and Industry Marketing and CMO Chris Capossela leading other sessions.

The new Teams additions along with the Praise Tool should be rolling out to the general public over the next few weeks with big-name retail partners such as Kroger, Starbucks, craft store chain Michaels, Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona (GCNA), Stefano Ricci, BevMo!, and Polarn O Pyret undoubtedly testing some if not all of the features now.

The Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Walgreen’s global “pharmacy led health and well-being enterprise,” has partnered with Microsoft to provide the pharmaceutical company access to the tech giant’s Azure cloud computing software, which will help them “develop new health care delivery models, technology and retail innovations to advance and improve the future of health care,” according to Microsoft. Additionally, the deal will give the pharmacy company’s 380,000 employees access to Microsoft 365’s suite which includes Windows 10, Office 365, and the Enterprise Mobility + Security software.

The companies will also commit to a multiyear investment to research and build health care solutions and help reduce costs for the services. The investment includes funding, tools, and healthcare experts, although no financial details have been shared. Additionally, Walgreens will open its “digital health corners” in 12 stores, which will focus on selling merchandise and health care related equipment and devices. In a statement, WBA’s CEO and executive vice chairman, Stefano Pessina, stated that:

“Our strategic partnership with Microsoft demonstrates our strong commitment to creating integrated, next-generation, digitally enabled health care delivery solutions for our customers, transforming our stores into modern neighborhood health destinations and expanding customer offerings. WBA will work with Microsoft to harness the information that exists between payors and health care providers to leverage, in the interest of patients and with their consent, our extraordinary network of accessible and convenient locations to deliver new innovations, greater value and better health outcomes in health care systems across the world.”

The deal marks the second major deal Microsoft had made with a retailer in the first month of the new year. The company also made a deal with Kroger, giving the supermarket access to Azure services and build tools to improve customer experience.

A fan concept for Microsoft’s upcoming follow-up to the Xbox One console was uploaded to Reddit earlier today (see above image) and it didn’t exactly get the positive response the poster was likely expecting.

Designed by Darpan Bajaj, this design for the new console, named here the Xbox 2, features a base that’s dramatically slimmer than all previous Xbox consoles and a controller that abandons physical buttons for, what looks like, a programmable touchscreen.

Reddit commenters were quick to mention that casual and pro gamers both prefer physical buttons when playing games and that very few people enjoy using virtual touchscreen controls which are frequently used on smartphone and tablet games.

The console itself also has its faults as most early Xbox loyalists would likely prefer a smaller size for the next Xbox console that takes up less real estate around the TV while this one looks as wide as the original Xbox One despite its thinness. Other issues raised were its breakability, the number of lights, and complete lack of USB slots.

“None of it is practical,” Reddit user, Congragumumlations, wrote, summing up his thoughts on the design. “The creator should have taken into consideration making it practical first and foremost. There is no good ideas coming out of this thing to be honest. I’m sorry but this is a no-go.”

What do you think about this concept for the next Xbox console? Would you buy it? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox content.

DiRT Rally 2.0 is now available to digitally pre-order on Xbox One ahead of its February 26th release date.

DiRT Rally 2.0 is the sequel to the original DiRT Rally racing video game and supports online matches with up to eight players and features HDR10 and 4K Ultra HD when played on Microsoft’s Xbox One X console.

The game is available in two version; a regular version and a Digital Deluxe Edition that comes with the base game, early access (from February 22nd), and a variety of in-game downloadable content such as cars, upgrades, and tracks.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

DiRT Rally 2.0 dares you to carve your way through a selection of iconic rally locations from Argentina to new Zealand, in some of the most iconic off-road vehicles ever made, knowing that the smallest mistake could end your stage. You will need to rely on your instincts with the most immersive and truly focused off-road experience yet, including a new authentic handling model, tyre choice and surface degragation. Power your rally car through real-life off-road environments in New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and the USA, with only your co-driver and instincts to guide you.

Race on eight official circuits from the FIA World Rallycross championship, complete with licensed Supercars and support series. Develop your team and cars around race strategies, and progress through a varied selection of Events and Championships in both a single player Career Campaign and a competitive online environment. The Porsche 911 RGT Rally Spec can be used at all rally locations.

Are you a fan of DiRT Rally or do you prefer other Xbox One racing games such as WRC 6? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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DiRT Rally 2.0 Digital Pre-Order Edition

Developer:
Codemasters

Price:
Free

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DiRT Rally 2.0 Digital Deluxe Edition

Developer:
Codemasters

Price:
Free

The video games, Far Cry 2 and WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship, are now both free to download and play on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles as part of January’s Games With Gold promotion for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Far Cry 2 originally came out on the Xbox 360 back in 2010 and is now playable on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One due to its new backwards compatibility. The game takes, what has since become, the popular video game franchise to Africa and boasts the large open-world play area that fans have come to expect.

WRC 6 FIA World Rally launched on the Xbox One in 2017 and is a racing game that supports local and online matches for up to eight players.

New games are made available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers to claim at the beginning and around the middle of each month. The 2D platformer, Celeste, is also currently available to grab until January 31st. Both Far Cry 2 and WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship will remain listed until mid-February.

Are you excited to play Far Cry 2 and WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship? Let us know which one you’ll be playing this month in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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Far Cry® 2

Developer:
UbiSoft

Price:
$19.99

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WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship

Developer:
Bigben Interactive

Price:
$14.99