Microsoft’s By The Numbers website is designed to highlight the company’s top statistics, what sets it apart from the rest and show off its successes. Since its inception, it hasn’t really been kept up to date, but now the company has decided to reinvigorate life into the website, adding a number of new statistics, as well as improving the user experience with new animations (via Neowin).

Let’s dive straight into the statistics enlisted on the website, which Microsoft is proud to show off:

• With a sound level of -20.6dB, Microsoft’s anechoic chamber holds the Guinness Record for “World’s Quietest Place.”
• Beyond a small amount of drinking water, Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus consumes zero water from municipal water supplies.
• Last year, Microsoft donated over $1.4 billion in software and services, helping nonprofit organizations around the world access essential technology and skills.
• 1.5 billion Windows-powered PCs are used around the world.
• Microsoft used a branch of artificial intelligence called reinforcement learning to master the Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man and get a maximum score of 999,990.
• Microsoft runs several labs around the world that specialize in the fabrication of quantum devices. Cryogenics are used to keep certain quantum components 200 times colder than the farthest reaches of outer space.
• Microsoft has made 137 “AI for Earth” grants to individuals and organizations in 47 countries, helping them use artificial intelligence to protect the planet in the areas of agriculture, biodiversity, climate change and water.
• Microsoft’s Rural Airband Initiative invests in partnerships with telecommunications companies with the goal of bringing broadband connectivity to 2 million unserved people in rural America by 2022.
• Every day, Microsoft analyzes over 6.5 trillion signals in order to identify emerging threats and protect customers.
• Since 2012, Microsoft has operated 100 percent carbon neutral around the world.
• Microsoft’s Seeing AI app, which helps people who are blind or have low vision to better navigate the world around them, has assisted people with more than 10 million tasks.
• Cortana, Microsoft’s intelligent assistant, has been asked 18 billion questions since launch.
• 189 million pounds of food, packaging and dining-related items from Microsoft’s Puget Sound campus go somewhere other than a landfill every six months.

There’s a lot of stats to climb through. As you’ve probably noticed, a large number of them are environment-related, such as operating carbon neutral around the world since 2012. There are, however, some product-related stats in there, including that 1.5 billion devices are powered by Windows 10, and that Cortana has been asked 18 billion questions by users around the world.

What are your thoughts on the stats? Let us know in the comments!

Well, it seems like it was only a matter of time before we got public confirmation that Microsoft was encouraging its new LinkedIn employees to move from using Google Services to the company’s own Office 365 solutions.

Today journalist Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet is reporting on a Microsoft IT Showcase study that identifies how the company quietly pushed 14,000 LinkedIn employees from using Google Services into its parent company’s Office 365 ecosystem.

The case study that goes by “Linking in LinkedIn: How Microsoft onboarded a social networking giant,” details how Microsoft, at least in this specific instance, is rethinking its approach based on the realities of integration.

“To elicit a positive response, we needed to gain a deep understanding of differences in our organizational cultures and develop an approach that complemented the strengths of both organizations. We decided that was the logical starting point for helping LinkedIn employees access and use Microsoft assets in a way that best supported — or even improved — LinkedIn’s business.”

Even though the goal was to have all LinkedIn employees eventually using Outlook, Teams and Outlook Calendar by the end of December 2016, the company had to stage its integration mandate to best accommodate employee workflow with previous Google alternatives, leaving its integration roadmap ‘still in progress’.

Over the past few years, Gmail and Outlook have incorporated several interoperability functions into their software that make moving from to the other relatively painless.

Calendar functions, however, proved to be a sticking point of sorts for LinkedIn employees.

“For example, with Google Calendar, LinkedIn users could easily book multiple rooms in multiple buildings at the same time. That task wasn’t as simple to do in our implementation of Outlook. To ensure a consistent user experience, the LinkedIn migration team used the available APIs to create a new Outlook tool that employees can use to book multiple conference rooms.”

Microsoft was forced again to come out of its comfort zone, so to speak, to help LinkedIn employees accustomed to Google Docs streamlined collaboration tools, begin using Office 365 in a similar fashion.

While Microsoft has seemingly worked tirelessly to add collaboration function parity, there are still gaps in the productivity suites efficiency and user flow. According to Foley’s report, to mitigate the employee frustration and boost adoption, Microsoft implemented a “training and migration plan that included tracking user adoption and utilization to see where any paint points were.”

Presumably, Microsoft will take this telemetry and is work on digital walk-through of its collaboration tools and create new material for its partners to use when selling Office 365 commercial seats.

One would also think that a move from Google Hangouts to Microsoft new productivity chat tool, Teams would seem to be a hard task as well.

However, the company reported that LinkedIn employees moving from Hangouts to Teams, did so, at a high rate of adoption, leaving Microsoft to characterize the integration process as a “success.”

Aside from a servicing as a nice little pat on the back, Microsoft’s case study also highlights the company can start to use its recent acquisitions as hands-on learning experiences that then trickle out improvements to its Office 365 offerings and customers as well as better understand its seller’s market.

Rather than simply pitch its products, Microsoft is learning first hand the ups and downs of moving companies from one productivity tool to another.

After the EU approved Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub last week, Nat Friedman, CEO of GitHub announced today that the company is now officially owned by Microsoft. The Redmond giant spent $7.5 billion in stock to acquire the web-based hosting service earlier this year, but just like LinkedIn, GitHub will continue to operate independently as a company.

“We will start by focusing on the daily experience of using GitHub and will double down on our paper cuts project,” Friedman wrote today. “We will improve core scenarios like search, notifications, issues/projects, and our mobile experience. And of course we are excited to make GitHub Actions broadly available,” he continued.

Back in June, the initial acquisition announcement was met with some hostility from developers, but that apparently didn’t impact GitHub’s business. As spotted by Geekwire, GitHub actually gained 3 million developers since June, and has now crossed 31 million users overall.

“Our vision is to serve every developer on the planet, by being the best place to build software,” said Friedman. “This is a dream opportunity for all of us at GitHub, and we couldn’t be more excited to roll up our sleeves and start this next chapter.”

If you’re planning to get a new Xbox One console during the holiday season, Microsoft has just launched its new Xbox All Access financing plan in the US. Xbox All Access includes an Xbox One S or Xbox One X console plus 24 months of Xbox Games Pass and Xbox Live Gold, all with no upfront cost and one low monthly price over a 24 months period.

With Xbox All Access, get an Xbox One and 100 great games with no upfront cost and one low monthly price. Now available online for a limited time (US)^ https://t.co/ObB2h3r3Vx pic.twitter.com/4JXfBz8ZK7

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) October 25, 2018

We made the math before and Xbox All Access is a pretty good deal, and it’s actually cheaper than buying everything separately. The financing plan starts at $21.99/month if you choose an Xbox One S console, and the Xbox One X is available for $34.99/month. The program is powered by Dell Preferred Account, and all consumers can take advantage of 0% APR for 24 months. Once the bundle is fully paid, consumers also get to keep the console.

Xbox All Access is currently US-only and it will be available for a limited time in the country. It really seems to be a really affordable way to get an Xbox One console, and the inclusion of Xbox Games Pass means that consumers get a catalog of over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games right out of the box. Sound off in the comments if you’re planning to take advantage of this limited-time offer.

The former head of Windows, Terry Myerson took to the stage last year during the WinHEC conference to unveil the company’s new always-connected initiative.

Always Connected PCs that are instantly on, always connected with incredible battery life.

This year at Microsoft’s WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) 2018 Events in Taipei and Shenzhen, OEM Partners showed of made a pitch for their second round of always-connected devices, many of which were ARM and Intel Mobile architectures with LTE cellular connectivity that rely on the use of a SIM Card or eSIM like today’s mobile phones (via All About Microsoft).

On the heels of several new PC reviews and releases recently, Microsoft is looking to go back to its old role as an alley-oop assisting Center, by providing a bit of digital billboard space with a new section on its Microsoft Store website to help OEM’s peddle their wares powered by Windows.

For some, the new marketing move may feel like a throwback to 2012, when Microsoft started helping OEM market Windows 8 PC’s. With a half a billion dollars dedicated to marketing its new hybrid touch operating system, some observers saw Microsoft’s stewardship of the industry’s marketing direction as a desperate move by a company flailing to make Windows 8 a success, others saw it as the company having a more direct hand in helping partners educate the market on the benefits of new computing paradigms. What both perspective observers agreed upon, was that the days of such public facing co-marketing were behind Microsoft, however, it would appear that strategy continues today with the company’s new highlighted Always Connected PC purchase page on the Microsoft Store Online portal.

While it seems Microsoft is doing some of the digital promotion of the new ACPC lines on its new page, its the OEM’s that are placing substantial financial bets on PCs running a Snapdragon 850 chip such as Lenovo with the Yoga C630 or Samsung as they ditch Intel for the released its Galaxy Book 2 and use Qualcomm technology  which improves LTE speeds by 20 percent.

The drive last year when OEM’s partners showed off there first Windows 10 ARM devices indicated that the Always-Connected PC would be in its own category, but the sub-category is quickly proving to be the future bet many companies are making with their product lines. Erin Chapple, Corporate Vice President said;

“A ‘modern device,’ now, to us, is an Always Connected PC”

Chapple also said,

Built-in LTE networking will allow them to shift to “network as a service” rather than setting up and run their own custom networks.

Once again, Microsoft finds itself in the educator’s seat as the new page explains what eSims are, the convenience afforded by them and where customers can go to purchase them for their new devices.

As interesting as the concept of eSim and Always Connected PCs may appeal to an average person who operates a smartphone, Microsoft’s true push into forging this new PC category is arguably one that targets enterprise. With the release of the Surface Go with LTE support, Microsoft is quietly laying the foundation for its Point-of-Sale marketing benefits of ACPC’s, and it seems on the back of those efforts, OEM partners benefit.

While not as daunting as trying to convince customers to buy into a chunky PC tablet or a hybrid PC/mobile operating experience from overpriced laptops with seemingly unnecessary touch panels bolted on, the industry shift to Always Connected PCs will undoubtedly feel like another semi-Herculean task placed the shoulders of Microsoft and its partners this shopping season.

More details about which devices currently have LTE here

Back in November 2017, we reported that Remedy’s Alan Wake was being removed from the Xbox and Steam stores due to an issue with the music licensing. To drive new sales before the game’s removal, Remedy offered 90% off the game in a final sale on Steam.

Nearly a year later, Remedy has now announced that Alan Wake will be returning to the Xbox Store “very soon”, according to Remedy’s Communications Director, Thomas Puha:

Yes, we don’t know exactly when but should be very soon.

— Thomas Puha (@RiotRMD) October 25, 2018

As noted, there’s no firm date as to when, but fans of the game should expect the game to back in the store in the near future. It’s good to see that Microsoft and Remedy have seemingly resolved the long-standing music licensing issue that prevented the game from being sold.

Microsoft announced its FY2019 Q1 results yesterday, and it was a new record for the company’s first quarter filings with significant Surface, Office 365 and Azure gains. Microsoft’s cloud and productivity solutions are definitely getting traction in the enterprise world, and the company took the time yesterday to emphasize how it’s innovating like never before.

In a document that summarizes Microsoft’s quarterly highlights and product releases, the company posted a long list of examples showing how it’s “accelerating innovation across our businesses while expanding our market opportunities.” From Microsoft 365 to cloud-driven innovations like Project xCloud, it’s hard not to be impressed by the company’s forward-thinking approach. Perhaps, it was the company’s forward thinking planning that enabled it to beat analyst’s expectations yesterday.

We won’t go through the entire list, but it unsurprisingly kicks off with Microsoft 365, the company’s new enterprise bundle that is set to become a core offering for Redmond. This past quarter, Microsoft announced Microsoft Managed Desktop, a new subscription service which will help companies maximize their business by having Microsoft manage their Windows 10 devices. On the security front, Microsoft also announced password-free sign-in for thousands of apps, Modern Compliance enhancements and much more.

Office 365 also remains very important for Microsoft, and the company is currently improving its core productivity apps with AI-powered features such as LinkedIn integration and collaboration enhancements. It has also been a great year for Microsoft Teams, which has now reached feature-parity with Skype for Business. The communication hub for Office 365 users now has a free tier to compete with Slack, and Microsoft is competing aggressively with intelligent communication features and deep integration with Office 365 apps.

Azure remains one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing business, as well as a huge area of innovation for the company. In recent months, Microsoft introduced new Azure Machine Learning capabilities for data scientists and developers, as well as new Azure IoT products such as Azure Sphere. Microsoft is also making good progress on Quantum Computing, which will be a future Azure capability.

While most of these topics are enterprise-focused, there are other areas where the frontiers between the consumer and business worlds start to blur. As an example, Microsoft’s new 10-inch Surface Go is the most affordable Surface ever, which is obviously great news for consumers. However, the 10-inch form factor could also be very interesting for first line workers and point of sale (PoS) systems, and with Microsoft’s new Surface All Access financing plan, consumers and SMBs can both get a Surface Go for just $25 a month.

On Windows 10, the new Your Phone that syncs texts and photos from Android phones is becoming a great productivity tool. Upcoming features like Android app mirroring could also open up a whole new world of possibilities on Windows 10 PCs. It has been great to see Microsoft embracing iOS and Android devices in its app development roadmap, and expanding the reach of Cortana through interoperability with Alexa is pretty exciting.

“Across our businesses, we are accelerating innovation… picking the right secular trends and investing in large growing markets – many of which are still in their infancy. Additionally, every one of our solutions is reinforcing our core intelligent cloud and intelligent edge platform,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the company’s First Quarter Earnings conference call yesterday. The CEO’s strategy has delivered great results thus far, and the rest of the company’s fiscal year 2019 appears set to be another very exciting year with new products like Project xCloud and HoloLens 2 in the pipeline.

In addition to the Xbox One X offered by in a Taco Bell giveaway, Microsoft is offering another Xbox One S giveaway in London. In a partnership with Foot Locker, Microsoft is offering a chance to win a special edition Xbox One S console. As noted in post by Microsoft News Centre UK, the giveaway is taking place in Great Britain as well as German and France. Here’s a look at the Foot Locker-branded Xbox One S.

Over the next three weeks, Foot Locker is giving away thousands of Xbox prizes every minute in its retail stores across Europe. Lucky shoppers can take home the Foot Locker Xbox One S, valued at £249.99, Xbox Design Lab controllers, Xbox Game Pass 12-month subscriptions, and much more! To be eligible to win an Xbox prize, Foot Locker shoppers must spend £50 or more in thirty-six Foot Locker locations in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Qualified shoppers will be given scratchcards at checkout that will offer a chance to win any one of the Xbox prizes being offered. The Xbox giveaway starts now and runs until November 11, 2018. This year’s Foot Locker Xbox giveaway is similar to last year’s October 2017 event where Foot Locker shoppers played Forza Motorsport 7 for a chance to win an Xbox One X and footwear.

It’s surprising that Foot Locker is not including copies of Forza Horizon 4, given the Xbox One game title takes place in locations across the UK. If you want to enter the Xbox One S giveaway, visit your local Foot Locker. Sorry, offer is only valid for residents of the UK, Germany, and France.

Yet again, Microsoft has had to confirm another issue regarding its Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

According to M. Hammer, a Microsoft Agent and Community Moderator, “If you copy files from a .ZIP file without extracting them, they might not be copied or moved correctly, even though it looks like they have been.”

There appears to be another known issue with the October 2018 Update the consent prompt for placing unzipped files is missing and results in either misplaced content or no placement at all despite the operation appearing to be complete.

This failure can occur in the following scenarios:

• Copying from a compressed (.zip) folder to a regular folder.
• Moving from a compressed folder to a regular folder.
• Copying from a compressed folder to a protected folder.

There is a silver lining in all this mess, according to Hammer, despite the normal inclination to redo the process, users shouldn’t worry about duplicating or overwritten content as the process just silently fails with the supposedly moved file simly being removed or deleted.

With that being said, Hammer warns users not to try and Cut and Paste items from a compressed (.zip) folder, doing so might inadvertenly make the files unrecoverable.

Thus far, the best solution is to fully extract the zip folder before copying any filed to a new destination. For anyone, who has already suffered content loss or misplacement, Hammer offers this workaround to recovery:

Restore files from the Recycle Bin

• Open the Recycle Bin
• Locate item
• Right-click and select Restore.

Restore files from Temporary File Directory

• Open the Run command box by simultaneously pressing Windows logo + R keys.
• Type %temp% and then click OK to open the Temp folder containing temporary files.
• Locate the file or folder. On the ribbon, select Move to and choose a location or folder to move the file into.

That latest Windows 10 October 2018 Update issue futher highlights the seemingly prolematic quality testing that went into this release as Redmond Magazine points out that that .zip exctract problem may have been a known bug for sometime.

With roughly a week left in the month of October, it seems increasingly unlikely Microsoft will re-release the October 2018 Update on schedule to the general consumer, especially since a fix for .zip extract isn’t estimated until early November.

Digital pre-orders for World of Final Fantasy Maxima are now live on Xbox One consoles ahead of its November 6th release.

World of Final Fantasy Maxima is a re-release of the original World of Final Fantasy video game that came out a couple of years ago which features improved visuals and a new feature that allows the main characters to appear as classic Final Fantasy video game heroes.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

Expanding the horizons of FINAL FANTASY. A tale of many encounters and the birth of a new world.

Originally released in October 2016, WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY is now available on Xbox One as the powered-up FINAL FANTASY Maxima! Beloved characters from FF lore (Champions) and a multitude of capturable monsters (Mirages) appear in this fun and exciting adventure. This new and enhanced version of WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY also features the Avatar Change system, which allows the protagonists, Reynn and Lann, to fight as Champions. Fight your way through exhilarating battles as legendary FINAL FANTASY heroes!

The Xbox One console is expected to get an increasing number of Final Fantasy video game re-releases over the coming year with Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster, and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age all confirmed for launches in 2019.

Are you a Final Fantasy fan? Let us know which games you’re looking forward to playing on the Xbox One in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more gaming content.

Download
QR-Code

WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY MAXIMA

Developer:
SQUARE ENIX

Price:
$39.99

The Twitter progressive web app (PWA) updated this week with a host of performance improvements and the ability to tag up to 10 accounts in an attached image (see above image).

This update also moved the analytics icon in tweets in the Windows 10 app and began showing the notifications icon in a web browser tab when accessing the Twitter website in a browser.

Here’s the full release notes:

• We added the ability to tag up to 10 people in a Tweet with photos.
• Made a lot of performance improvements. More detail from one of our engineers in this Tweet!
• On the widescreen experience we moved the analytics icon in the same line as the rest of Tweet actions to give you easier access to the feature.
• We’ve added a whole set of improvements to the experience while viewing events on the Twitter website.
• On desktop web, you’ll now be able to see the number of notifications you have on the browser tab.
• You can now view your most recent searches from the search box.

The Twitter PWA is available to use on Windows 10 devices and Windows 10 Mobile Windows phones. It’s still not as fully-featured as its counterparts on iOS and Android but more features have begun to be added on an almost monthly basis.

Do you use the Twitter PWA on your Windows 10 device or do you prefer another option? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter and Pinterest for more Windows news.

Download
QR-Code

Twitter

Developer:
Twitter Inc.

Price:
Free

It’s now been a week since Microsoft last released a new Windows 10 Insider build, and the successor to the 19H1 build 18262 is here today. The preview build 18267 has just started rolling out to Fast and Skip Ahead Insiders (both rings have merged this month), and it brings Input and Accessibility improvements as well as a new Enhanced mode for Search Indexer.

This new build also fixes many issues related to the Settings App, Action Center, and inbox apps failing to launch. You can more details about general fixes and known issues below:

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing when invoking actions on certain places, including under Windows Security.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insider experiencing green screens with IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in the previous flight.
• We fixed an issue where the Action Center might suddenly appear on the opposite side of the screen before appearing on the correct side.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the Action Center icon sometimes showing a number of unread notifications, however when you opened Action Center it would be blank.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashes on launch for a small number of users.
• We fixed an issue resulting in recently opened items sometimes showing in jump lists even though “Show recently opened items in jump lists” was disabled in Settings.
• We fixed an issue where the Built-in Phrases Setting page for the Pinyin IME would hang for a time if you clicked any phase in the list.
• We fixed an issue where Uninstall would still be shown as an option when right-clicking apps in Start if the group policy “Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start” was enabled.
• We fixed an issue where if you had an inbox app with a version number longer than 20 characters it wouldn’t be returned as a result if you searched for it.
• We fixed an issue resulting in switching audio endpoints from the volume flyout in the taskbar not working in the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some users having issues launching inbox apps after updating to the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue where if word wrap was enabled when using Notepad with a screen reader some words might unexpectedly be read out as two half words rather than one.

Known issues

• Task View fails to show the + button under New Desktop after creating 2 Virtual Desktops.
• Some users will notice the update status cycling between Getting Things Ready, Downloading, and Installing. This is often accompanied with error 0x8024200d caused by a failed express package download.
• If you change Task Manager settings, the next time Task Manager is opened it will revert to default.
• If you have a have a large number of OTF fonts, or OTF fonts that support the extended East Asian character set, you may experience some unexpectedly missing text across the system. We’re working on a fix. If you encounter this issue, navigating to the Fonts folder (c:windowsfonts) may resolve it.

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.

Interestingly, Microsoft chose to release a new build today right when it also announced its FY19 Q1 earnings report. Microsofts starts its new fiscal year with significant Surface, Office 365, Azure and Xbox gains, and you can lear more on our dedicated post.

Once again, it seems Microsoft’s bet on the cloud has positioned the company for positive 2019 financial forecast. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella when commenting on the company’s performance for FY19 Q1, “we are off to a great start in fiscal 2019, a result of our innovation and the trust customers are placing in us to power their digital transformations.”

Indeed, Microsoft’s FY19 Q1 earnings report shows a company with several wins in its revenue growth year over year including positive marks in operating income, net income, commercial cloud growth, and hardware.

By the numbers

During its Q1 earnings, Microsoft saw a year over year 19%, 24% and 15% growth in its Productivity & Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing divisions, respectively.

Consumer stuff

Aside from being a record first quarter for the company, Microsoft can point to specific instances of growth that include its Surface line of hardware contributing $1.037 billion to its revenue bottom line. While the recently announced Surface refreshes (the Pro 6, Laptop 2 and Studio 2) are not counted in this quarters revenue numbers, keeping the same industrial design probably eased the R&D pocketbooks, and boosted the revenue gains of older hardware.

Other more consumer-friendly offerings that helped this quarter were gains in Microsoft’s gaming division. Despite the haggard headlines of how the Xbox appears to be doing in the market compared to Sony’s generational mega-hit PS4, Microsoft has managed to continue to squeeze water from a stone. For Q1, Microsoft’s gaming division saw a revenue bump of 44% and a total of 57 million users who have signed up for the company’s digital subscription service, Xbox Live.

Office and the cloud

In less glamorous news, Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Process raised $9.8 billion in revenue this quarter, leading to an 18% growth year over year for the division. In the P&BP bucket is Microsoft’s expanded Office 365 platform that saw its subscriber numbers top 155 million resulting in a 35% growth in revenue YoY for Microsoft. Even though Microsoft has remained rather hands off on its LinkedIn acquisition, it did count the social networks revenue growth as increasing year over year to the tune of 33%.

Microsoft’s pride and joy Intelligent Cloud division continues to beat expectations and produce increased revenue numbers. For FY19 Q1, Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud saw a 75% revenue hike for its Azure cloud, and the company’s Server products/cloud services also grew by about 28%.

Windows & Search

Lastly, Microsoft’s red-headed stepchild, Windows, was also superstar during this earnings period as its OEM Pro revenue grew a modest 8% in an overall industry stagnating quarter. The one blemish on this quarter could be Microsoft’s non-pro Windows OEM numbers, which were in decline of about 5% year over year as the consumer PC market saw serious competition in the low-end, no doubt driven by the recent US adoption of Chromebooks and other PC alternatives such as larger phones for everyday computing.

Microsoft’s Search advertising saw another quarter of growth of 17%, despite being a distant alternative to Google’s offering.

At the end of the day, Microsoft’s expanded and diverse portfolio is paying dividends for the company and its investors more specifically. On the back of this record quarter alone, Microsoft was able to return $6.1 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share purchases, which is, in itself an increase of 27% when compared to last year. While most companies are bipedal in their core revenue concentrations such as Google with Android & Search, Apple with the iPhone and Mac or Amazon and online shopping and AWS, Microsoft appears to be slowly building out multiple sustainable multibillion-dollar businesses year over year.

Microsoft’s Sticky Notes app for Windows 10 is getting another fresh coat of paint today. The new version 3.1, which has started rolling out to Skip Ahead Insiders brings what the team calls a “full-on Dark Mode.” When you choose that mode, the app will now use a dark grey background color in the home hub for your notes, similar to the new dark colour that recently appeared in the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps.

???????? #WindowsInsiders, Sticky Notes 3.1 is heading to Skip Ahead ????
* We tested the waters with Charcoal Note and you all seemed keen to go even darker. Introducing full-on Dark Mode!
* Sync is even faster now, including to your phone via iOS and Android #OneNote, rolling out now! pic.twitter.com/66BxOnxwh4

— Sticky Notes (@stickynotes) October 24, 2018

While the new dark theme looks nice at first sight, there is definitely a problem with the blue colour that the app uses when you enable “Insights” in settings. This makes urls and dates actionable in the app, but it’s quite a big problem when simple words like “today” or “tomorrow” become almost unreadable because of a dark blue color. Turning off Insights immediately solves the problem, but you can see why the problem in the feature image above.

In addition to the new Dark Mode, Sticky Notes 3.1 also syncs your notes in the cloud even faster, and this should also apply to the new syncing feature with the OneNote app on iOS and Android. That’s pretty nice, but we hope Microsoft will fix the new Dark Mode before rolling out to all Windows 10 users.

Update: The team said today that’s it’s aware of the issue with blue links in Dark mode, and a fix will be released before the public rollout of Sticky Notes 3.1

Thank you for reporting this issue. We are aware of it and will fix before the final release of 3.1.

— Reza Jooyandeh, PhD and stuff (@RezaJooyandeh) October 24, 2018

A new vulnerability was recently discovered in Windows 10 (via BleepingComputer) involving the Microsoft Data Sharing Service. The exploit was discovered by the pseudonymous SandboxEscaper, a former vulnerability researcher, and allows system library files to be deleted, forcing Windows to attempt to search for new libraries. This potentially puts a hacker in a spot to push fake malicious libraries in place of real ones. A successful exploit was also performed by Will Dormann, who shows the vulnerability is only in Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 system, not Windows 8.1 or any older iteration of Windows.

Confirmed as well on Win10 1803, fully-patched as of October.
It's perhaps worth noting that the service used by the PoC, Data Sharing Service (dssvc.dll), does not seem to be present on Windows 8.1 and earlier systems. https://t.co/W8cNNC4xYO

— Will Dormann (@wdormann) October 23, 2018

Th vulnerability is present in both older and newer releases of Windows 10, including Microsoft’s recently pulled October 2018 Update, as well as Windows Server 2016 and 2019 operating systems. Luckily though, the exploit is difficult for hackers to take advantage of, according to SandboxEscaper and the risk is of “low quality,” although a successful hack can make the system completely unbootable.

Fortunately, the folks of 0patch have implemented their own fix for the issue which can be patched through their application, which available for download on their website. The application also provides patches for other system vulnerabilities, not just the one mentioned here. Microsoft regularly patches Windows, as well, and it may be best to just wait for the next official patch.

At Microsoft Ignite 2018, Microsoft announced Microsoft Search in Bing, and since then have had an overwhelming interest from companies who are interested in the search offering.  Microsoft has now shared how to enable the product so that more companies can use it and get familiar with how it works.

Microsoft Search gives you organizational results in a simple and familiar experience, including bookmarks, Q&A’s, site files, groups, people conversations, locations and embedding powerapps. This could become the first place anyone goes to get information.

The idea is that Search is used not just in the browser but across other devices like Windows 10 and on your mobile phone when you are logged in with your work credentials. Watch the video below to see how you enable it for your company. More information and FAQ’s here

Have you tried Microsoft Search? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft has quietly pushed out an update to the Photos app for Windows 10. As spotted by the Microsofters, the new update includes visual improvements, mainly concerning those related to the UI consistency. Previously when selecting an image in Photos, the background would change from white to black. However now with the latest update, the app stays white most of the time.

On the other hand, the background is still always black when editing a photo, possibly so that users can distinguish between whether they are viewing the photo or making (potentially unwanted) changes to it. However, the reasoning of this potential decision would ultimately be defeated if the consumers was using dark mode in Windows 10. Microsoft has been working to improve the not-quite-complete dark mode in Windows 10, including updating File Explorer to support the theme, so more improvements are likely to follow.

Those looking to see the new UI changes can update the app now by going to the Windows Store, hitting the ellipsis icon at the top-right, then hitting Download and updates. Clicking or tapping the blue Get updates button will enable the Store check and automatically download updates to all out-of-date apps.

Do you find these new UI updates to the Photos app more visually appealing? What do you think Microsoft can do to make its app better? Let us know in the comment section below.

In what is likely to be one of the year’s most-depressing gaming-related stories, a man has traded the location of the body of a woman he murdered for an Xbox console and access to the prison’s correction programs.

The woman in question was Venus Stewart, his 32 year old wife who he murdered back in August of 2010. While charged with first-degree murder the following year and now serving a life sentence, the location of her body had remained a mystery until this week.

It’s unclear which Xbox console the man was given but here’s hoping it wasn’t an Xbox One X, Microsoft’s latest Xbox model.

Xbox 360 video games, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Tropico 4, are now both playable on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles after being given backwards compatibility functionality earlier today.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was the second LEGO video game made based on the popular Star Wars franchise and features characters and locations from Star Wars Episode IV through VI. Gameplay is very similar to modern LEGO video game titles however there is no voice acting beyond the occasional alien scream or droid beep.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy reunites the fun and endless creativity of LEGO with the epic story, heroic characters, and exciting action of the Star Wars universe. In this highly anticipated follow-up game, follow the tongue-in-cheek, brick-based action through all three epic films of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Tropico 4, on the other hand, is a simulator video game that tasks the player with running their own island nation. The game deals with politics and social management and includes a single-player campaign that spans across 10 maps.

The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times – geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers — and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges. If you are to triumph over your naysayers you will need to gain as much support from your people as possible. Your decisions will shape the future of your nation, and more importantly, the size of your off-shore bank account.

The Xbox One’s library of playable Xbox 360 and OG Xbox video games continues to expand on a fairly regular basis. Just earlier this month, Metal Gear Solid HD 2 and 3 were also given backwards compatibility.

Let us know what your favorite backwards compatible video game is on Xbox One in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox content.

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LEGO Star Wars II

Developer:
Disney Interactive Studios

Price:
$14.99

Download
QR-Code

Tropico 4

Developer:
Kalypso Media

Price:
$9.99