A very long time ago in the year 2000, Microsoft took a prototype of the original Xbox on a tour of the world to help developers become interested in the new console. Almost jokingly so, it was unlike anything else seen at the time since it was literally a giant “X” shaped device. Well, that very prototype is now living on and has a special place at the Microsoft Visitor Center in Redmond (via Eurogamer.)

The original Xbox prototype from Bill Gates’s GDC 2000 keynote is on display at the new Microsoft Visitor Centre.

Absolute unit. Love it. pic.twitter.com/KMxOPNmTTJ

— Graeme Boyd (@AceyBongos) June 30, 2018

The prototype device reportedly cost $18,000 to make and was composed of a solid block of Aluminum. It frequently appeared at trade shows, and other gaming-related events, and was apparently a working unit, per Seamus Blackley, the father of Xbox. Seamus even added that the Xbox team would literally carry this prototype device around in penguin cases, by pulling them up and down stairs.

This was the showcase unit to show partners and press. It worked.

[There were actually several, and they travelled the world. I lugged these damn things over every continent literally.]

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) June 30, 2018

In another Tweet, Seamus revealed that Microsoft once took the prototype Xbox to PlayStation headquarters when they were in Tokyo. They actually placed the Xbox unit on top of the Sony sign as a prank, which someone else joked might be the closest we’ll ever get to seeing Xbox and PlayStation cross-play.

A moment of youthful indescretion. Sorry @PlayStation I really do ❤️ you. But we still had to do this. pic.twitter.com/LOia7C4aFE

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) July 1, 2018

This isn’t the first time that the prototype has surfaced. It was roughly two years ago that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg revealed the device on the Xbox Snapchat. Anyway, when the Xbox actually launched, the design was much more conventional, but Microsoft obviously had fun with this prototype device.

State of Decay 2 released to a mixed bag of reviews, with many gamers citing bugs, glitches, and a repetitive gameplay as negatives for the blended RPG/Sim game.

Seemingly in an effort to address critics’ complaints, the game studio Dead Labs recently released a 20GB patch for SoD2 that resolved a majority of core game mechanic shortcomings and probably helped push the total number of players cross the 3 million mark, two months since release.

Now Dead Labs is set to give those 3 million players some additional content to consume over the 4th of July holiday in the US.

In advance of the 4th of July holiday, we are celebrating that the State of Decay 2 community now exceeds three million players. This, along with the recent news that fans made State of Decay 2 the best-selling game of May, puts us in a festive mood. To celebrate, we are revealing our first post-launch content, the Independence Pack. This pack gives you the opportunity to take on the zombie horde with style, grace and most importantly, colorful gunpowder. Available today on both Xbox One and Windows 10, the pack unlocks an array of fiery new versions of vehicles, weapons and gear for your community. State of Decay 2 wants you to show off with explosive awesomeness to the three million player strong community. Heck, even the zeds are dressed for the occasion in this pack, and there are few things as satisfying as taking out a Revolutionary War-themed zombie during a supply run. It’s like history that you can blow up…with fireworks!

The Independence Pack is an over-the-top visually themed extravaganza that includes, souped-up vehicles with attached flamethrowers, sparklers, and custom caging to support more vehicular zombie killing as well as new handheld and over the shoulder fireworks cannons for close quarter combat.

The new tools can be crafted using the new Fireworks Crafting Station facility mod to customize more creative uses of fireworks to weapons, or gamers could just buy new explosives from a “traditional fireworks sales.”

Unfortunately, for some, the Independence Pack isn’t free but will run at a moderate price of $4.99. For gamers who purchased the more expensive SoD2 Ultimate Edition upfront, the expansion pack will be free.

The Independence Pack isn’t the only new thing coming to SoD2 as Dead Labs also packed 20 new free missions, 10 new weapons, and a “Rare Books” trader for new skills in its giant 2.0 update released a few weeks ago.

SoD2 Ultimate Edition owners will also be getting a new mod following the Independence Pack, that offers new gameplay as a well equipped Red Talon soldier on a mission to hunt zombies in the Daybreak Pack coming out sometime in September.

That all-new content lets you take the fight to the zombies, featuring an exciting new mode where you play as a well-equipped Red Talon soldier. You’ll work to complete a challenging objective while protecting your fortified position against waves of zombies and freaks to earn new rewards and weapons. The Daybreak Pack is also included in State of Decay 2’s Ultimate Edition.

While SoD2 has been criticized for what seemed like a mixed marketing message of AAA backed studio quality for an indie game release, Dead Labs along with Microsoft’s support looks to be giving gamers every cent worth of gameplay possible at varying price points. With the upcoming DLCs and overall patchwork, SoD2 is becoming every bit of the indie phenomenon it was originally billed as, as well working its way towards impressive AAA gameplay. 

In an interesting move, Google could be ready to make a big move into the gaming industry. While the company has a strong gaming presence via YouTube and YouTube Gaming, new reports, backed by multiple independent sources, suggest Google will be going a bit further (via Kotaku).

The company looks to be planning to create its own game streaming service, in which users wouldn’t necessarily need to download the entire game to play. This comes after Microsoft announced at E3 that it too was working on its own game streaming service, for Xbox.

Separately, reports say that Google is planning on launching its own gaming console. It could be that the console acts as a connector to the game streaming service, or it could contain its own dedicated graphics, directly competing with those who have been in the industry for decades, such as Microsoft and Sony.

Of course, with any game streaming service or console, it also requires games, which requires strong relationships with game developers and publishers alike, which both Microsoft and Sony have strong partnerships and acquisitions in. Google, on the other hand, has slimmer pickings. The company looks like it is ready to recruit new expertise in this area, or announce major acquisitions.

Whatever Google’s plans, it marks a strong industry for the company to move into, and it could put it in direct competition in yet another industry with Microsoft and Sony.

After a couple weeks of testing with select Insiders, the Xbox One 1806 update is now available to download for everyone who joined the Xbox Insider program. Yesterday, the latest Xbox One system update (1806.180626-1359) started rolling out to Beta, Delta, and Omega insiders, and we’re now really close to the public release.

The Xbox One 1806 update (likely to be named “June update”) brings a couple of new features including the ability to group your Games and Apps, improved Search Functionality, as well as additional Accessibility options. Microsoft also recently started testing the new Xbox Live Avatars as well as a Microsoft Rewards Beta app, but the most interesting new feature may be Fast Start, which is leveraging machine learning to speed up the installation of your Xbox games.

It’s still not clear if the 1806 update will be generally available before the end of June, especially since the latest Insider build still has some known issues affecting Groups, Profile Color, and Networking. Anyway, we really like the Xbox team iterating fast on the Xbox One OS, as we’ve now seen new featured updates for three months in a row.

Dell has announced the launch of a new range of Inspiron All-in-Ones (AIO) desktops in India. The highlight of the new range of Inspiron AIOs – Inspiron 22 3000 AIO and Inspiron 24 3000 AIO – is the virtually borderless display and slimmer profile.

Powered by 7th Generation Intel and AMD processors with multiple GPU options, the AIO portfolio is equipped with signature Dell innovations like Dell Cinema. Dell CinemaStream packs in SmartByte technology that allows users to experience lower buffering, fewer drops, and better resolution while streaming video and making web calls. Dell CinemaSound offers in-built Waves MaxxAudio Pro technology to provide professional-grade control for music and videos.

The Inspiron 22 3000 AIO sports a sleek design and features a Full HD IPS Anti-Glare narrow border LED display and weighs around 4.27 Kgs while the Inspiron 24 3000 AIO weighs over 4.62 Kgs.

The new AIOs come with a wireless mouse and keyboard option for a complete one-cord experience.

Available in black and white color options, the new Dell Inspiron 22 3000 AIO with AMD A6-9225 processor is priced at ₹29,990 ($438) and the Dell Inspiron 22 & 24 3000 AIO with Intel processor variants starts at ₹34,590 ($505). The AIOs are available for purchase in India on dell.co.in and across the country at Dell exclusive stores, multi-brand outlets, including Croma.

Next Up Hero launched on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles this week and it’s the latest game to support crossplay with Nintendo’s rival console, the Nintendo Switch.

The game also support crossplay with PC players though, as usual, PlayStation 4 consoles aren’t part of the party due to Sony’s strict stance on crossplay with other video game consoles. Other recent Xbox One games that have allowed crossplay with the Nintendo Switch are Minecraft and Fortnite.

Next Up Hero is a game that allows players to create their own unique dungeon for other players to fight their way through. If they beat your dungeon, they get a reward but if they don’t, you get it. Here’s the full game description and trailer. Buy it here.

Fight. Die. Win! (And probably die some more.) Next Up Hero is a dungeon crawler featuring hand-drawn heroes that hack, slash, bongo-drum, boomerang, and jet their way through Ventures. Choose your Hero and start rolling dungeons, gearing out, and maxing your stats. If you’re feeling especially heroic, invite a friend for co-op. You’re going to need all the help you can get.

• Dungeon Maker Mode: Craft a savage dungeon and challenge the community to beat it. If they beat the dungeon, they get to keep a rare piece of loot. If they fail, the treasure is yours.
• Perma-Permadeath: Death is so permanent in Next Up Hero that your “echo” remains for the next player to raise. People die a lot in Next Up Hero, so you can resurrect up to 20 AI followers!
• Mixer Interactive Enabled: It’s Hero vs. Dirge powered by Mixer Interactive. Spectators can control the echo army, helping the hero survive the floor, or buff the Dirge enemies, slowing and freezing the player.

Do you want more crossplay in video games or do you think gamers should only play with those on the same console? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then make sure to like us on Facebook for more video game news.

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Next Up Hero

Developer:
Aspyr

Price:
$19.99

Microsoft announced today that their Microsoft Teams collaboration tool will begin rolling out to Government Community Cloud (GCC) customers starting July 17th. The company says that Microsoft Teams for Government is designed to meet the government strict security standards, and will allow government users to transform the way they communicate and collaborate.

Microsoft Teams for Government and the consumer-facing version of Microsoft Teams are somewhat different from each other. Features like Call and Meeting Recording, Apps, Email Notifications, are all either disabled or unsupported in Microsoft Teams for Government. “New features for Microsoft Teams will arrive to GCC after release to commercial customers due to increased audit requirements and activities to meet the needs of the GCC environment,” Microsoft also explained.

GCC customers with Office 365 for US Government G1, G3, G5, F1 and Microsoft 365 for US Government G3, G5, F1 plans are expected to get access to Teams by the end of August 2018. Administrators will not need to take action, and Microsoft Teams will be enabled by default under these plans. As for other government users, Microsoft detailed that they are working to expand availability to other US government clouds soon.

Windows 10 was a massive undertaking for Microsoft and came at a time when the company was seemingly reeling from several public initiatives that were poorly received. Between the company’s declining smartphone market share, the disaster that was the Windows 8 release and the fumble of the Xbox One announcement, Microsoft needed a win and Windows 10 was arguably it for the time being.

In a little less than four years, Microsoft has almost entirely pivoted its fortunes from being tied to Windows to now relying on a new platform prospect in Azure, or “The Microsoft Cloud.” Sure, Windows licensing is still a large business for the company, but Microsoft is already seeing sunnier days ahead with Azure and investors are handsomely rewarding the prospects.

A new rating from Atlantic Equities investment firm has further solidified the notion that Microsoft is more a cloud company than it is software packing giant. Equities analyst James Cordwell told its clients that Microsoft’s recent re-org was a clear indicator of the direction the company was going and how that would affect the businesses future financial pursuits.

“Azure has replaced Windows as the platform underpinning Microsoft’s enterprise offering, and we forecast it exceeding $100 billion revenue over the next decade,” Cordwell wrote. “With Office 365, Microsoft has already established a strong position in the software as a service market and there remains robust growth potential as the greater accessibility of the cloud delivery model continues to drive expansion in the user base and customers steadily upgrade from basic packages.”

Cordwell is so bullish on Microsoft’s future that he has set a 24 percent increase in price target for investors that brings the total to $125. Cordwell’s confidence is backed by Microsoft’s recent 3 percent jump in market share from 10 to 13 that results in a direct erosion in Amazon’s leading market share.

Realistically speaking, many investors see the market unfolding similar to the maturing days of the smartphone and PC markets as they settled into a dual provider landscape with Amazon raking in $185 billion and Microsoft racking up $115 billion in revenue in roughly 10 years, for a combined 70 percent market share.

Tweeten, the third-party Windows 10 Twitter app, has received a rather significant update this week. In addition to a new dark theme and a completely revamped login/signup page, the Tweeten app now allows users to download images from DMs and has also reorganized its settings screen.

Here’s the official release notes for all of the details.

• Say hello to Tweeten Black: A beautiful new dark theme that is full of deep blacks, offering a super sexy tweeting experience that you won’t get anywhere else. Now on Tweeten. For free.
• A new onboarding experience: Completely rebuilt from the ground up, the login and start-up experience for the app has been revamped with a vibrant new design.
• Settings: A re-organized settings app, with sub-sections, make it much quicker to find the exact customization options you’re looking for.
• Direct Messages: You can now download private images on DMs. Privacy features such as the ability to blur messages and hide other info on the DM column are once again available.
• Patching: Tweeten can now automatically update itself to apply patches when there’s a breaking TweetDeck bug, meaning you no longer have to manually download updates from the site. Oh, and, when something is broken and we are aware of the issue, you will be notified on the splash screen of the app so you can rest assured and don’t bug us about the broken things while we are busy focusing on fixing it.
• Tweeten is now a single instance application by default, but you can enable multiple instances from settings if you’d like.
• Design tweaks for the dark and light themes, plus a lot of minor UI fixes throughout the app.

Do you use Tweeten on your Windows 10 device and would you recommend it over the official Twitter app? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and make sure to follow us on Twitter, in whichever Twitter app you prefer, for more Windows 10 news.

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Tweeten

Developer:
Mehedi Hassan

Price:
Free

The official Plex for Xbox One app has updated today with a variety of fixes for bugs and improves the display mode switching algorithm. Here’s the full release notes.

• Fixed an issue where focus would disappear after selecting a different news clip from the play queue
• Fixed missing jump bars when viewing Artists and Albums from Quick Links
• Don’t show ‘Browse by Folder’ option when not applicable
• Fixed missing shuffle button from collections preplay
• Improve display mode switching algorithm

Plex for Xbox One is an all-in-one media consumption app that allows users to stream their own media library, record live TV, and view news broadcasts from over 190 providers. Plex is also available on Windows 10 Mobile and PC.

Do you use Plex on your Xbox One console? Let us know what you use it for in the comments below and then head on over to our Twitter account and make sure to follow us for more Xbox news.

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Plex

Developer:
Plex

Price:
Free

Today’s new Windows 10 Insider build brings tons of new enhancements and some tweaks across Windows 10, but it also marks the end of the testing for one of the most anticipated Windows features. Indeed, Microsoft says it is now taking Sets offline, in a decision to “continue making the feature great.”

Microsoft did work on the experience over the past few Insider builds and recently opened it up to new Windows Insiders. Sadly, head of Windows Insider program, Dona Sarkar, had this message for Windows 10 testers in a blog post today:

Thank you for your continued support of testing Sets. We continue to receive valuable feedback from you as we develop this feature helping to ensure we deliver the best possible experience once it’s ready for release. Starting with this build, we’re taking Sets offline to continue making it great. Based on your feedback, some of the things we’re focusing on include improvements to the visual design and continuing to better integrate Office and Microsoft Edge into Sets to enhance workflow. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it as of today’s build, however, Sets will return in a future WIP flight. Thanks again for your feedback.

Though many were looking forward to Sets coming in the final Redstone 5 release, it never really had a solid release date. In fact, at Build 2018 Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said that the feature would become available “when we think it is great. For now, Windows Insiders will have to wait for the feature to make its triumphant return in a future release. Still, there is plenty to play with in the latest Redstone 5 builds, including a dark mode in File Explorer, Swiftkey, and Cloud Clipboard.

Microsoft has just announced the release of Windows 10 Insider build 17704 to Fast and Skip Ahead Insiders, and this one is a pretty major release with lots of new features and improvements. It’s been two weeks since the last flight, and fortunately it was well wort the wait: in addition to new features for Microsoft Edge and a big update for the Skype UWP app, this latest build comes with improvements for Windows Security, Task Manager and much more. 

Among highlights, you’ll find a new viewing mode when you’re watching videos outside. Microsoft says that this feature uses your PC’s light sensor to automatically adjust your video accordingly, and you can turn it on in the Settings app. Additionally, you’ll see that the Task Manager app now has 2 new columns in the “Processes” tab called “Power usage” and Power usage trend.” Microsoft says that these columns should help Windows 10 users better understand what apps and services are the most power hungry on their PC

Last but not least, some Insiders may see a new post-update experience after installing this build. This actually came with previous Insider builds, but Microsoft says that Insiders who haven’t seen this page until now have a very good chance to see it after installing the new bits. You can learn more about all the new features included in Windows 10 Insider build 17704 below:

New Diagnostic Data Viewer features to improve your Privacy Experience

To showcase improvements in our privacy tools made in our next release of Windows, we are providing Windows Insiders early access to new improved features coming to the Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer. At Microsoft, we understand that your data is your data. That’s why we are committed to providing full transparency on what diagnostic data Windows collects, when it is collected, and how you can control what you share. We care about your privacy and helping you build trust and confidence in our products.

Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer

We first introduced the Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer on Data Privacy Day earlier this year. The Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer helps you understand exactly what diagnostic data is received from your Windows device.  Available to anyone through the Microsoft Store, the tool provides you full transparency when it comes to diagnostic data.

Through the viewer, you can see the different categories of diagnostic data which includes:

• Common Data like the OS name, version, device ID, Device Class, and diagnostic level selection
• Device Connectivity and Configuration such as device properties, preferences, settings, and network information
• Product and Service Performance such as device health, performance and reliability, and device file queries (this is not meant to capture user patterns or habits)
• Browsing History such as frequently visited sites
• Product and Service Usage data like applications and services used
• Software Setup and Inventory such as installed apps and device update information.

Each of these categories are important so that we can diagnose performance issues and ensure your device is secure. The viewer provides you full insights into exactly what we collect so that you are aware of what’s happening on your device. Through this tool, you can do things like search by keyword, filter data by category, export the data to a separate file, and provide feedback about the tool or a specific data point.

New to the Diagnostic Data Viewer

We are excited to say that users can now directly view Problem Reports that have or will be sent to Microsoft. Problem Reports help us identify crashes and other disruptions on your device so that we can improve your Windows experience. On the Diagnostic Data Viewer, users can view specific details about each report collected such as when it was sent and what application or component caused the report to be created.

Along with the ability to see Problem Reports, the Diagnostic Data Viewer comes with new changes to the UI as well. For example, the filter feature to view data points by category is now directly to the right of the search bar, and the export data feature now exists at the top right of the tool.

How to get it

Whether you’re new to Windows, or If you’ve just updated your OS to the new build, you’ll want to check out these steps.

You can get the Diagnostic Data Viewer on your Windows device through the Microsoft Store. Once you install the tool, open the app through the Start menu.

If you see “No events found”, go to “Open diagnostics and feedback menu in settings panel” on the bottom left of the tool (the middle icon). On this page, double check that “Diagnostic Data Viewer” is enabled. Once it is enabled, it will take some time for the tool to show events.

You can hit the blue refresh button to the right of the search bar to see if any events have been found.

Our Commitment

Windows Insiders get an exclusive look at this new feature releasing to Diagnostic Data Viewer, and we couldn’t be more excited to see the amazing feedback to come.

Our promise to upholding the highest standards of privacy will continue to be a top concern. When you use our products and services, we want you to feel confident that having great experiences and features does not mean sacrificing your privacy. It’s your device. You deserve to know what’s happening on it.

In making Windows 10 better and more secure, we will continue to make your privacy our top concern. This means providing you with the all the right tools to empower you to take control of your data. From prioritizing full transparency of diagnostic data to helping you take action about what you share, we are here to provide you with the power to know what’s on your device and who you share it with.

We cannot wait to hear more from you about making privacy stronger on Windows 10. We welcome you to submit feedback related to the Diagnostic Data Viewer through feedback hub. You can also submit feedback regarding our approach to privacy here.

See Your Videos Better Outside

There’s a new viewing mode for you to try out, designed to improve the visibility of your video when you are in a very bright environment. This feature uses the light sensor on your device to detect your ambient light, and automatically adjusts your video accordingly. To turn it on, navigate to Settings > Apps > Video playback, and turn on “Adjust video based on lighting”.

We’d love feedback as we work to refine this feature for the next Windows release! Please use the Feedback Hub and file feedback under Category: “Devices and Drivers”, Subcategory: “Video Playback”. Hit “Recreate my problem” and start the capture of the video playback you would like to give feedback on!

A couple notes:

• In order for this feature to work, your device must have a light sensor. There are a couple different ways you can check:
  • Go to “Display Settings” in the Settings app. If you have the option to turn on Auto-brightness, you most likely have a light sensor
  • Go to Device Manager. If you have something that sounds like “Light Sensor” under Sensors, you likely have a light sensor.
• Currently, not all devices have light sensors that are well-calibrated. If you are on a device where video looks really, really bad with this setting on, please let us know via the Feedback Hub!

Typing Insights

Windows now shows you insights about how its AI has been helping you type with efficiency. If you use the software keyboard on Windows, there are many features built into the typing experience that leverage AI and ML to help you be more efficient. Some examples include autocorrecting your spelling mistakes, prediction of the next word you would type, word suggestions as you start typing so you don’t have to type the full word and the number of words you’ve typed by swiping over the letters on the software keyboard (yes, you can do that, try it out if you have not yet).

Windows now shows you stats about each of these features. Go to Settings > Devices > Typing and click on “View typing insights” link to see them.

Currently these stats cover the typing insights for software keyboard usage and hardware keyboard prediction features. If you like to see additional insights in the future releases, head over to the Feedback Hub and share your thoughts.

Font installation for non-admin users

Have you ever wanted to use your own fonts from your account on a shared school or work PC, but couldn’t because you didn’t have the administrator privileges required to install the fonts? Well, we’ve heard your frustration about this and have made some changes.

In the past, fonts in Windows have always been installed for all users. Because that is a system-wide change, it always required admin privilege. The need for an admin was reflected in the user interface. For example, if you browse in File Explorer to a folder containing a font file and right-clicked on the file to bring up the context menu, then the “Install” option would appear with the security badge, which means that it requires an admin.

If you tried to install a font but didn’t have admin privileges, then you would be presented with a User Account Control dialog, so that an admin could approve the change. If you’re a non-admin user and often need to install (or uninstall) fonts, then that could be a big hassle.

In the Windows 10 1803 feature update, we introduced fonts in the Microsoft Store. To enable that capability, we needed to make changes deep in Windows to allow a font to be installed for a specific user rather than system-wide. That’s why no admin action is needed when fonts acquired in the Store are installed.

Now we’ve extended this further to include font files that you obtain from other sources and want to install. Now when you right-click on a font file in File Explorer, you’ll see two options. “Install for all users” provides the past, system-wide install capability and requires an admin. But now there is another option: “Install” allows any user, including non-admin users, to install a font for their own use.

Often font files come within a compressed folder (that is, a .zip file). The “Install” context-menu option isn’t available in File Explorer when you view the contents of a compressed folder, but you can double-click the font file within the compressed folder to open it in the font previewer, and that provides an “Install” button. In the past, the button in the font previewer had the security badge, and it would do a system-wide install, requiring an admin. Now the security badge is gone, and the “Install” button in the font previewer performs a single-user font install, which can be done by non-admins.

Let us know what you think of this no-admin-required, single-user capability for installing fonts!

Contextual Commanding Improvements to Text Controls

Our inbox text controls are now taking advantage of the new CommandBarFlyout control. This allows a number of exciting improvements including:

• The ability to quickly cut, copy, and paste in textboxes with touch
• New icons for common actions
• The ability to bold, italicize, etc. in our rich text surfaces
• New animations, acrylic treatment, and depth support

This change will apply to any XAML based text boxes on this build.

Windows Security Improvements

We’ve continued to work on the Current threats area on the Virus & threat protectionsection, which now displays all threats that need action. You can quickly take action on threats straight from this screen.

You can enable a new protection setting, Block suspicious behaviors, which brings our Windows Defender Exploit Guard attack surface reduction technology to all users. To enable this setting, go to the Virus & threat protection section and click Manage settingsunder the Virus & threat protection settings heading, as shown in the following screenshot:

With Controlled folder access you can help prevent ransomware and other destructive malware from changing your personal files. In some cases, apps that you normally use might be blocked from making changes to common folders like Documents and Pictures. We’ve made it easier for you to add apps that were recently blocked so you can keep using your device without turning off the feature altogether.

When an app is blocked, it will appear in a recently blocked apps list, which you can get to by opening the Virus & threat protection section, clicking Manage settings under the Ransomware protection heading, and then Allow an app through Controlled folder access. After the prompt, click the plus button and choose Recently blocked apps. Select any of the apps to add them to the allowed list. You can also browse for an app from this page as well.

In the Device performance & health section, we’ve added a new assessment for the Windows time service. If we detect that your device’s time is not properly synced with our time servers and the time-syncing service is disabled, we’ll provide the option for you to turn it back on.

We’re continuing to work on how other security apps you’ve installed show up in the Windows Security app. There’s a new page called Security providers that you can find in the Settings section of the app. Click Manage providers to see a list of all the other security providers (including antivirus, firewall, and web protection) that are running on your device. Here you can easily open the providers’ apps, or get more information on how to resolve any issue that they have reported to you through the Windows Security app.

This also means you’ll see more links to other security apps within the Windows Security app. For example, if you open the Firewall & network protection section, you’ll see the firewall apps that are running on your device under each firewall type (domain, private, and public networks).

Task Manager Improvements

Task Manager now includes 2 new columns in the “Processes” tab to show energy impact of the running process on their system. This should help our customers to understand which apps/services are using the maximum power vs. the least power-hungry apps. The metric takes CPU, GPU & Disk into evaluation when calculating power usage.

• Power usage: This column will provide an instantaneous view of apps/services using power.
• Power usage trend: This column provides a power usage trend over 2 mins for each running apps/services. This column will be blank when you start an app but will populate based on the power usage every 2 mins.

Ease of Access and Narrator improvements

Narrator Quickstart: When Narrator launches, a new Quickstart tutorial experience will be available. The Narrator Quickstart will help you get up and running quickly with Narrator. It teaches the basics of using Narrator, such as learning the keys on your keyboard, navigation, the most used commands etc. At the end of the Quickstart there is a link to the User Guide where you can continue learning about Narrator.

When the Narrator Quickstart launches, Scan Mode may not reliably be on by default. We recommend going through the Quickstart with Scan Mode on. To verify that Scan Mode is on, press Caps Lock + Space.

Narrator New Standard Keyboard improvements: We have added the scan mode secondary action command (Narrator + F1) and Spell current selection command. Please refer to Intro to New Narrator Keyboard Layout doc for more information.

Updated Ease of Access > Display Settings UI: We’ve made some tweaks to the Make text bigger section under Settings > Ease of Access > Display Setting to make it a bit clearer.

A note about Snipping Tool

As we mentioned with Build 17661, we’re in the process of consolidating and modernizing our snipping experiences in Windows. When you upgrade to today’s build you’ll see a note about this in the Snipping Tool. Currently, we are not planning to remove the Snipping Tool in the next update to Windows 10 and the consolidation work underway will be a feedback and data-driven decision. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to try out the Screen Sketch app and let us know how it’s working for you. Screen Sketch gives you all of the functionality of the Snipping Tool with additional improvements. You can launch the app directly and start a snip from there, or just press WIN + Shift + S, click the back of your pen, or press the Print Screen key (the later two you will need to turn on in Settings – details here).

Windows Container Improvements

New Windows Image: We’re adding a new base image to the Windows Server container collection. In addition to nanoserver and windowsservercore container images, the new windows image is now available. This image carries even more components than its nanoserver and servercore siblings, meaning it can support applications that have additional API dependencies. Go to https://aka.ms/windowscontainer to learn more and get started.

Group managed service account reliability: We’ve improved the scalability and reliability of containers that use group managed service accounts (gMSA) to access network resources. You should see fewer authentication errors when using a single gMSA with multiple container instances. Additionally, you no longer need to set the container hostname to be the same as the gMSA. We also fixed a bug that prevented you from using gMSAs with Hyper-V isolated containers.

Windows Mixed Reality Improvements

Introducing Quick Actions: While using an Immersive Application, Quick Actions allow users to easily Go Home, view the time, or launch Mixed Reality Capture tools (Photo, Video, and more). To launch Immersive Application Quick Actions, simply press the Windows key or use the Bloom gesture.

New post-update experience

We wanted to take a moment to remind you that you may see a screen that looks like the image shown below after upgrading. Don’t worry – all your stuff is still there! We know some of you bought and setup your devices a long time ago – the features available in Windows have changed since then, so we’re giving you an opportunity to go through the setup questions you may have missed to ensure your device has the best setup possible. Click “Let’s Go” to go through those setup questions or click “Skip for now” if you want to go straight to your desktop.

The conditions for showing this page are cloud programmable and may change over time – if you haven’t seen this page on previous upgrades it’s very likely that you will see it with today’s build.

Microsoft Font Maker app

Have you tried it out yet? With the Microsoft Font Maker app you can use your pen to create a custom font based on the nuances of your own handwriting – currently available via the Microsoft Store and we’d love to hear your feedback! Install the fonts you create to add a personal touch to everything you do!

Note: Currently you can use the app to create a basic English font – interested in support for more characters and languages? Let us know!

As a reminder, Microsoft has also kicked off the RS5 bug bash today, which will be running from June 22nd 12am PDT – July 1st 11:59pm PDT. On this occasion, all Windows Insiders are invited to report all bugs found in Windows 10 Insider build 17704, and those who participate can win a trip to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond.

During the Windows Insider webcast today, Microsoft launched Windows 10 Insider build 17704. This build is significant since it comes with big changes to Edge and Skype. There’s a lot that is new in this build, so here’s what you need to know before you install on your PC.

Microsoft Edge Improvements:

• New Microsoft Edge Beta logo: We’re introducing a new Edge “BETA” icon to help users visually differentiate between officially released versions of Microsoft Edge and preview builds where Microsoft Edge is in ongoing development. This logo only will be seen on Insider preview builds.
• New PDF icon: Windows 10 now has a new icon for PDFs in File Explorer when Microsoft Edge is your default PDF handler.
• New design improvements: As we continue to evolve how Microsoft Edge leverages the Fluent Design System for a more natural and usable experience, you may notice some subtle tweaks to the look of the tab bar in Microsoft Edge. In this build, we’re adding a new depth effect to the tab bar to help emphasize the active tab.
• Redesigned “…” menu and Settings: We’ve heard your feedback that the Microsoft Edge settings were getting a little complex for a single page. In this release, we’re overhauling the Microsoft Edge settings to make it easier to navigate, put commonly-used actions front and center, and allow more customization than ever.
• When you click “…” in the Microsoft Edge toolbar, you’ll find a refined menu that puts common commands like “New tab” and “New window” front and center. We’ve also added the much-requested ability to customize which icons appear in the Microsoft Edge toolbar – you can remove them all for a tidier look or add as many as you like to bring your favorite functionality to your fingertips!
• This build breaks Settings out into subpages by category, with better-organized options and less clutter on each page. The new Settings experience is designed to match the experience in the Microsoft Edge hub, for a quicker and more familiar experience.

Autoplay in Microsoft Edge:

• It’s really here! In this build, we’ve added a new setting in Microsoft Edge to allow you to control whether sites can autoplay media. You can find this setting under “Advanced Settings” > “Media autoplay,” with options to customize the behavior according to your preferences.
• “Allow” is the default and will continue to play videos when a tab is first viewed in the foreground, at the site’s discretion.
• “Limit“ will restrict autoplay to only work when videos are muted, so you‘re never surprised by sound. Once you click anywhere on the page, autoplay is re-enabled, and will continue to be allowed within that domain in that tab.
• “Block” will prevent autoplay on all sites until you interact with the media content. Note that this may break some sites due to the strict enforcement – you may need to click multiple times for some video or audio to play correctly. Some sites may not work at all – in those cases, you can enable or block autoplay on a case-by-case bases from the website permissions pane (click the icon next to the address in the Address Bar).
• If you encounter sites that do not work as expected in the “Limit” or “Block” settings, please file feedback in the Feedback Hub app and let us know which site you were using, so we can work with developers and continue to refine the feature.

Skype Improvements:

• Best in class calling experience – We’ve added several new calling features to make Skype’s calling experience even better than before.
• Flexible group call canvas – Customize your group call experience and decide who appears in the main call canvas.  Simply drag and drop people between the call canvas and the overflow ribbon to select who you want to focus on.
• Take snapshots – Use snapshots to capture images of important moments within a call. Snapshots makes sure you never forget important memories like your grandkid’s funny antics or crucial information like the content that’s been screenshared during a meeting.
• Easily start screensharing – We’ve made sharing your screen during calls even easier. Look for the ability to share your screen with the top level call controls.
• New layout – Based on your feedback, we’ve made your contacts easier to access and view
• Customizable themes – Choose a color and theme for your Skype client through your application settings.
• And much more – Improvements to our media gallery, notifications panel, @mentions experience and more!

There’s definitely a lot to look forward to in this build, so get downloading now! We’ll have more on what else is new later, so be sure to keep tuned. And, once you’ve updated, feel free to let us know how the experience is going for you by dropping us a comment in the section below.

Microsoft today announced the addition of Levantine Arabic as a new speech translation language in Microsoft Translator. With the support, users can expect to further cross the language barrier and better complete their business, education, travel, and more.

Levantine Arabic is rarely written down and is primarily spoken by 32 million people in many Muslim countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. You can now expect to see Levantine Arabic being supported as a speech translation language in the Microsoft Translator app, Presentation Translator for PowerPoint, and the Skype Translator feature in Skype for Windows 10.

The addition of Levantine now brings the total number of supported Microsoft Translator speech languages up to 11. Other Microsoft products including the unified Speech translation service, an Azure Cognitive Service will also now support Levantine.

You can learn more about Microsoft Translator by checking here. Previous languages added to Microsoft Translator include Vietnamese and Tamil.

Nine new games will join the Xbox Games Pass catalog in July, Microsoft has just announced this morning. Following the addition of Fallout 4 earlier this month, two more classic Bethesda games will be available on July 1, Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. These two Xbox 360 games will be joined by five Xbox One games: DiRT 4, Zombie Army Trilogy, ABZU, Shadow Complex Remastered and Human Fall Flat.

That’s not all the new titles that Xbox Games Pass subscribers will get access to next month, as two more games will be available in the catalog the same day as their global release. These include the strategy simulation game Bomber Crew and the action-adventure title Warhammer Vermintide: 2. The latter was released on Windows earlier in March, and it’s nice to see such a quality game join the Games Pass catalog on launch day.

This looks to be a pretty nice mix of quality games overall, but the Xbox team is teasing another “exciting addition” to be announced in July. To know what it’s about, you’ll have to tune in to the Inside Xbox webcast on July 10.

The Windows Insider team will kick off the Windows 10 RS5 bug bash with a new webcast this morning at 10 AM PST. Since it’s been almost two weeks since we last saw a new Windows 10 Insider build, we expect a fresh one today to go with this new bug bash.

As usual, the webcast will be streamed on the Windows Insider Mixer channel, which allows some degree of interaction with Insiders. If you have some questions for the team, make sure to ask them on Mixer live chat later this morning.

#WindowsInsiders: Don't forget the RS5 #BugBash tomorrow at 10am PST (5pm UTC)! Join @NorthFaceHiker @brandonleblanc @jenmsft @donasarkar and others for a bit of fun as we stream via @WatchMixer! Tune-in using the following link: https://t.co/WUEQi1oJeW pic.twitter.com/eUJfv1m10j

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) June 27, 2018

The latest Windows 10 Redstone 5 builds have focused on Windows Sets, Fluent Design changes and other minor improvements, but we’re still waiting to test major new features such as Cloud Clipboard or the upcoming Your Phone app. Microsoft previously said that all these capabilities will ship when they’re ready, and there’s no guarantee that we’ll see them with the Redstone 5 update later this year. Anyway, we hope to learn more about Microsoft’s roadmap during the webcast later this morning.

Microsoft yesterday announced the next steps in their longtime goal of accelerating healthcare innovation through artificial intelligence and cloud computing, The company has hired two prominent figures to a new Microsoft Healthcare team, with the ultimate goal of helping drive strategic partnerships and driving Microsoft’s strategy for healthcare and life sciences.

Joining the Microsoft Healthcare team are two industry veterans—Jim Weinstein, and Joshua Mandel. Weinstein will take on a Vice President role and is being dubbed the Head of Innovation and Health Equity. Mandel, meanwhile, is taking on a Cheif Architect role and will be responsible for laying the groundwork for an open cloud architecture for the entire health ecosystem.

In his new role at Microsoft Healthcare, Jim Weinstein will be responsible for working with healthcare organizations and ensuring that they take care as they move to the cloud. He will also build the strategic vision of Microsoft Healthcare and provide leadership, supporting Peter Lee, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Healthcare.

Jim Weinstein is best known for once being the CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System. He also is known as the co-founder and inaugural executive director of the national High Value Healthcare Collaborative, which is a home for the nation’s tops healthcare systems to share data, and create better outcomes.

In his most recent role, Joshua Mandel worked on the health IT ecosystem at Verily. He too has extensive knowledge of healthcare and is a member of the research faculty at the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program.

Microsoft is laying out a blueprint for Microsoft Healthcare, so feel free to check it out and learn more. The two seem like an excellent match for this new team, as noted by Peter Lee, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Healthcare. “Jim and Josh join us at an exciting time, as healthcare processes undergo a digital transformation. This transformation has created a wealth of healthcare data that has potential to help identify diseases earlier, create and improve treatments and improve the lives of patients across the globe.”

Parallels, the company behind Parallels Desktop for Mac and the Parallels Toolbox suite of productivity tools is launching today Parallels Toolbox Packs, which are new tailored suites of tools available at a lower price. This should be handy for customers who don’t have use for the 30+ tools available in the all-in-one Parallels Toolbox app for Windows and Mac.

Three Parallels Toolbox Packs are available today, and the customized packages are categorized by key use. First of all, the Parallels Toolbox Presentation Pack comes with Presentation mode, which will hide all files on your desktop, block all notifications, prevent sleep mode and automatically optimize display settings when you need to give a presentation.  This pack also includes many other Parallels Toolbox tools including the Launch tool for opening multiple files with just one click.

Next, the Parallels Toolbox Screen and Video Pack is targeting users who often need to record audio or videos from their screen, and it comes with various tools including Record Screen, Convert Video, Download Video, and more. Unfortunately, Parallel’s Make GIF tool is still only available on macOS.

Lastly, the Parallels Toolbox Disk and System Pack can help you free up disk space and optimize performance on your PC: the highlight is the Clean Drive tool which can scan, detect, and let you choose what to delete on your PC, but there is also a Free Memory tool for Mac users needing to reclaim RAM memory.

You can download free trials of Parallels Toolbox Presentation Pack, Parallels Toolbox Screen and Video Pack, and Parallels Toolbox Disk and System Pack on Parallels’ website. Each Parallels Toolbox Pack is available for $9.99 a year, which is slightly cheaper than the $19.99/year subscription for the complete Parallels Toolbox suite of tools.

Microsoft has started testing a new Dark theme option for its To-Do app on Windows 10. For now, the Dark theme is only available for select Insiders, and we’ve noticed it today on the version 1.34.1806.26001 of the app (we saw the update on a PC enrolled in the Skip Ahead ring).

You can turn on this Dark theme option in the settings, and you’ll notice that it looks more like a dark grey, unlike the deep black color we currently see in other Windows 10 apps such as Groove or Settings. Still, this Dark Grey color is much easier on the eyes compared to the Light theme, which can be really hard to look at at night.

The team told us today that they plan to bring this new Dark theme option to all platforms where To-Do is available, though there is no ETA yet. In the meantime, non-Insiders can expect to see it in the Windows 10 app over the coming weeks.